The Salvation of Man

Review and Transition to Salvation

0:00 Our study in the Word of God today is the seventh in a series that I have entitled, Here We Stand. Primarily for the benefit of the visitors among us, I shall attempt to capsulize in a few moments the main thrust of the preceding six studies. The substance of this series, Here We Stand, is basically that of a confession and declaration of what we believe as an assembly of God's people to be the heart of the biblical message. It's not enough to say, well, I simply believe the Bible. All forms of, I call them non-Christian cults, which simply take

0:47 the dress or name of Christianity, claim to believe the Bible. The question is, what do you believe the Bible to teach. And therefore, this series is meant to be a confession and declaration of what we understand the Word of God to teach. The purpose of this series is to confirm those who have been with us for some time by reviewing these fundamental issues, that group we've called the old-timers, to confirm the old-timers, to initiate those who are new among us, those who are recently converted, recently added to the assembly, that they might have some acquaintance with the broad outlines of biblical teaching, and then thirdly, to inform those who are looking on, as it were,

1:33 wondering just what do we believe, perhaps contemplating casting your lot in among us. Well, we have nothing to hide. Here we stand. This is what we confess to be our understanding of the Word of God. The method followed is that of a topical or series of topical studies focusing upon five major categories of biblical truth. It is not my effort to be exhaustive and to say here we stand with reference to all we believe the Word of God to teach, but to focus upon those pivotal issues, those major categories of biblical truth, giving particular emphasis to those which are under peculiar attack in our own day.

2:18 It was Luther who said that a man is not confessing Christ, no matter how loudly he may profess Christ, if he confesses only those truths upon which all are agreed. And paraphrasing now, and Luther said in essence, it is confession of that particular truth which the world, the flesh, and the devil are at that particular time attacking that is the test of our loyalty to Christ. And therefore, this series is governed not only by the design of giving a broad overview of the main peaks of biblical truth, but by putting the spotlight upon those aspects of truth which are under peculiar attack in our own day. Thus far, we've covered two of the five categories.

3:03 Category one, the book we believe and obey. And that book is the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments, that we believe in the language of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3.16 to be breathed out of God Himself. Or in the language of Peter, 2 Peter 1.21, holy men spake as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

3:27 And since God is the author, we believe that book to be inerrant, without error, authoritative, sufficient as a rule of faith and practice, and clear to all who will heed its teaching. And then secondly, the second major category we've considered is the God whom we worship and confess. For the great theme of this book is not man or even man's salvation, it is God Himself. He is the central figure, and we confess Him to be the one true and living God who is set before us in the Scriptures as the God of absolute perfection, perfect in Himself, His attributes, His works, and His ways.

4:10 The God of unrivaled sovereignty, sovereign in creation in providence and grace. The God of infinite goodness, manifesting His goodness also in creation, providence and grace. And then He is the God of inscrutable tribe personality. The God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

4:31 Three in one, one in three. The great mystery of all being that there is but one God. And yet within this one Godhead there is this one called the Father, this one called the Son, this one called the Spirit, and yet there are not three gods but one. So much for that brief capsulization of what we've covered in the previous six studies.

4:56 Now this morning we come to the third major category of concern, namely the salvation we receive and proclaim. Having looked at the book we believe and obey, having considered all too briefly the God whom we worship and confess, we now move to this third category, the salvation we receive and proclaim. Now, why do we move to this particular area at this point in our study? Well, as certainly as even a quick reading of the Scriptures sets forth the fact that God is the central personage, so likewise even a quick reading of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation

5:45 reveals that there is a particular aspect of God's work that stands above all other of His works. and it is that work of rescuing, delivering, and restoring sinners. To use an illustration, if all of the many works of God recorded in Scripture are like a forest with trees numberless, the work of salvation is that one tree which stands above all others, so that whenever you look at that particular forest, you not only see the numberless aggregate of the many trees, you cannot look upon that forest without seeing that one tree

6:30 that points upward, towering above all others. When we turn to the Bible then, this one true and living God, who is absolutely perfect, who is unrivaled in His sovereignty, who is infinite in His goodness, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we see many of His works. They are numberless. But reading through the Scriptures, we are not only confronted with His numberless works, we cannot read the Scriptures without seeing that one work points upward and stands towering above all other works, and that is the great work of salvation.

7:10 In fact, all of history, according to the Scriptures, is centered in this one work. Galatians 4.4 says, When the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth His Son to redeem. In other words, all of history is being plotted with reference to the sending of a Redeemer.

7:35 That is the work of salvation. All of history now has significance essentially and primarily because of this purpose of salvation. Therefore, we read in 2 Peter 3 and verse 15, account that the long-suffering of God is salvation. Why does not God send His Son?

7:57 Why does He not consummate the work of redemption and blot out evil and bring in the new heavens and the new earth? Peter says this is a biblical philosophy of history because purposes of salvation are yet to be worked out in human history. We cannot turn to Jesus Christ, the central figure of the Christian faith, without being confronted with this central work of God. For when the angel announces his conception in the womb of the virgin, he says, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

8:33 We cannot turn to Christ himself as we behold him healing, raising the sick, preaching and teaching. He says in Luke 19.10, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. We turn to the apostolic witness and the apostle says in 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

9:01 So you see, you cannot read the Scriptures without coming to the conclusion, as certainly as God himself is the central personage, the work of this God in salvation is his central activity. And because this is so, the most full treatment of any of these five major divisions of our study is going to be this third, namely the salvation we receive and proclaim. This morning we come to the first of seven or eight subdivisions under that main heading. And it is this.

Primary Object of Salvation: Man, in Three Aspects

9:39 Who or what are the objects of this salvation? Here we stand, confessing that the work of God in salvation is the central work set forth in Scripture. Well, then the question is rightly asked, who or what is or are the objects of this salvation? And I would submit to you that the answer to that question breaks down into two headings.

10:05 There is a primary object of salvation, and there is a secondary object of salvation. The primary object is man. The secondary object is the creation. I doubt we shall have time to consider the secondary.

10:21 Let us move to a concern with the primary. The primary object of salvation is man. And I use the word object in its dictionary sense. The object is the person or thing to which action, thought, or feeling is directed.

10:40 Who is the object of this salvation? The one or ones to whom the thought of deliverance in God's heart is directed. The activity of God in this work of salvation is directed. And the answer of the word of God is man, or more definitively, a certain number of men and women whom God brings into the orbit of his sovereign love and electing purpose.

11:11 So man is the primary object. But man in what sense? Man considered how? And I give you three things this morning to engage your minds.

11:21 Man as created in the image of God, he is the object of this salvation. Man as fallen in Adam, he is the object of this salvation. Man as ruined in sin. Three things.

11:38 Man as created in the image of God. Man as fallen in Adam. Man as ruined in sin. First of all then, the object of this salvation is man as created in the image of God.

Man as Created in the Image of God

11:57 The salvation of the Bible is introduced formally in Genesis 3 and verse 15. Everyone ought to know that. If someone says, what is the first formal announcement of God's intention to rescue sinners, you ought immediately, all of you children as well as you adults, you ought immediately to think not of John 3.16.

12:18 but of Genesis 3.15. And in Genesis 3.15, we have those familiar words, God is dealing with man after the fall and says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman speaking to the serpent, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

12:44 Here's the first intimation, that God will come in sovereign and effective initiative to bruise the head of the serpent, and that in the process of doing this, the heel of the seed of the woman would be bruised. But you see, this assumes that man is in a certain condition. man whose origin and nature have already been described in the preceding chapters of Genesis. In other words, the first formal announcement of salvation in Genesis 3.15 assumes that it is announced to the specific creature described in Genesis 1 and 2. And unless we understand man as

13:33 described in Genesis 1 and 2, we will never put the proper meaning upon the salvation announced in Genesis 3. It's just that simple. And whenever you wrench the announcement of salvation in Genesis 3, from its vital connection with the nature of man in Genesis 1 and 2, you end up with a salvation other than the one announced by God himself in Genesis 3, and then worked out in history all the way through to Revelation chapter 22. Well, what is the substance or the essence of the teaching of Genesis 1 and 2 with reference to the nature of man? It is this, that man was made in the image of God, Genesis 1, 26 and 27. And God said, let us make man in our

14:18 image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Now in these simple yet profound words, the writer of Genesis makes it very evident that when God created man, he created a creature that was qualitatively different from all other creatures. Of no other creature is it said, let us make this creature

15:04 after our image and after our likeness. Now there are many similarities between man and other forms of life. And these similarities do not prove evolution. They simply demonstrate the wisdom of God. When God hooks into a good design for part of the physical structure of a creature dependent upon the earth for its sustenance, and that's common both of man and beast, why should God design a totally different gastrointestinal system? I mean, God economizes, as any good businessman does, as any good producer of any product does. When they're about to build a B bomber if they ever get around to it they not going to completely redesign the whole concept of the wing It a design concept that has been proven through billions of hours of flight and so they

16:04 will capitalize upon it. So the fact that there are many similarities between man and the beast does not prove that man came up through the lineage of beasts. No, no. And God is very careful to announce at the outset there is a qualitative difference between man and all other creatures, and that difference essentially is this. Man is made in the image of God. Now what does that mean?

16:31 Well, God doesn't tell us explicitly, but as we read particularly into Genesis chapter 2, we get a clear indication of some of the aspects of that image-bearing capacity. Man, unlike the beast, was made in a moral likeness to God. His character reflects the uprightness, the holiness of God. He was made a spiritual, rational, moral, and unending, or we could use the term immortal in that sense, creature.

17:08 He was created with a capacity to commune with God. It is not said of any beasts that God came in the garden to commune with him. What do you say, Pastor Martin? What in the world does this have to do with salvation?

17:22 Well, it has everything to do with salvation. Because you see, it is just this creature for whom salvation was purposed, designed, procured, and for whom salvation is applied. and only when man as created in the image of God is understood to be what he is, will sin be seen for what it is and will salvation be appreciated for what it is.

17:52 You see, when man is viewed as a creature who has evolved from lower forms of life, who is now simply the end result of the genetic accidents and genetic laws of the centuries and the millennia, then he cannot be regarded as a creature made in the image of God. There is no qualitative difference between him and the animals. There is no capacity to know God. There is no moral accountability to God.

18:24 Without this, you'll never have man the creature praying in the language of Psalm 51, And David has been indicted for his sins of adultery and murder by proxy. And when his heart is pierced with the arrows of conviction, he cries out, O God, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight. If evolution is true, David was all wet. He should have found some remnants of the primordial pool of slime and stood by the pool of slime and said, O pool of slime, thou art guilty for what I did.

19:03 I am but the accumulated mass of passions and appetites and influence traced back to thee, O pool of slime, and spit in the pool of slime.

19:14 And my friend, that's exactly what's being done in our day. When a man commits crime, he's not guilty. is simply the end product of genetic forces and social influences.

19:31 He's evolved from the beast and now he's acting like he is. You can't hold him guilty for that. Whoever held the lion guilty for taking down its prey in the plains of Africa is just acting like a lion. Why hold man guilty?

19:48 He is simply doing what the inevitable evolutionary forces are driving him to do.

19:57 This playing loose with the early chapters of Genesis by so-called evangelicals is a tragedy. It is a tragedy. For it is only a man like David who knows, look, I was made in the image of God. I was made to reflect the likeness of God in all of my thinking and acting.

20:16 that likeness that is expressed for human beings in the law of God, that law which said thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery. O God, O God, that image has been defaced. O God, I am accountable to you for my actions against thee, and thee only have I sinned. O God, I was made to know you.

20:39 Sin has intruded and broken that fellowship. Therefore, he prays, cast me not away from thy presence. It's not a salvation that has an inward look. Oh, God, help me to get reintegrated to myself.

20:54 That's your Reverend Eichism. That's your Norman Vincent Peale-ism. The concept of David is, oh, Lord, cast me not away from thy presence. That's what sin has done.

21:08 It has severed the reality and the enjoyment of communion with the living God.

21:18 So, dear people, if we do not see the object of salvation to be man, created in the image of God, there will be no guilt, there will be no sense of desperate need for biblical salvation. Furthermore, we shall make mockery of every significant redemptive act of Jesus Christ.

21:42 What demands the enfleshment of the second person of the Godhead? What demands that limitless Godhead should be compressed to a virgin's womb? Oh, the mystery of the Incarnation. If your mind ever feels dull and narrow and you want it stretched, you just meditate.

22:05 I say it reverently, you meditate upon Mary's womb.

22:09 Think of it. Think of it. Infinite Godhead, compressed in a virgin's womb.

22:18 Creator of the universe, sustained by the placenta in a virgin's womb. My friend, what would ever move God to such humanity? It's because God takes seriously what man is. And if man is made in the image of God and man has sinned, the only one who can rescue him is one who comes to the place where man the creature is.

Man as Fallen in Adam

22:47 You take the agonies of Gethsemane and the mysterious abandonment of Golgotha. And my friend, unless there's real guilt arising out of real sin from a real creature made in the real image of God and really accountable to God, my friends, you make mockery of that piercing cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We must never conceive of the objects of salvation as anything less than man created in the image of God. Well, we must hurry on to consider him secondly as man fallen in Adam.

23:29 For you see, if he was simply man made in the image of God, there'd be no need for salvation. And just as Genesis 3.15 assumes the realities of Genesis 1 and 2, it assumes the realities of the first few verses of Genesis chapter 3. And Genesis 3 contains the tragic record of the defection of our first parents.

23:49 You're all familiar with it, I trust. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field. Then he comes to Eve, and Eve is seduced. And then in turn she gives of the fruit to Adam, and Adam is not seduced, but he willfully disobeys according to the New Testament data.

24:11 And what happens? Immediately we see elements that were never present in the first two chapters.

24:19 Man, the creature made in the image of God, made to hold communion with God, made to reflect the moral likeness of God, delightfully conscious of his accountability to God. What is he filled with now? Dread of God. He runs and he tries to hide in the garden.

24:36 There's alienation between the creature and his God. There is fear. And then God comes and there is punishment and there is retribution and there is banishment.

24:49 And when we read the next chapters in this book of Genesis, what do we find? We find in the subsequent history, starting with the firstborn of this union of Adam and Eve, that they do not come into the world as Adam and Eve did. The first son becomes a murderer. Genesis 5.3 says that Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth.

25:21 And what was the image in which Adam bore him? It was not the image which he himself reflected when he came from the creative hand of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And we read these tragic words in Genesis 6.

25:39 So pervasive was the influence of that which happened in the garden that after the passing of some hundreds of years, we read in verse 5 of Genesis 6, And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented God that he made man in the earth and it grieved him in his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created. Think of it, think of it. Man made in the image of God has so descended into this attachment to sin and sin has so permeated every last cell of his being

26:27 that the imaginations of the thought of his heart is only evil continually, and then it spawns every form of violence and wickedness and immorality until God says, I'm weary with it, I'm going to destroy him from off the face of the earth. Now, how do you account for this? There's only one way to account for it.

26:50 That not only was man made in the image of God, but man who was the object of salvation fell in Adam. and what is described in vivid historical narrative in the first few chapters of Genesis. Genesis 3 to 6 is expounded in unmistakable dogmatic terminology in two pivotal passages in the New Testament and every intelligent believer ought to be aware of the teaching of these passages. Romans 5, 12-21, and 1 Corinthians 15, 20-22, and 45-49.

27:28 Romans 5, 12-21. What is described in vivid narrative in Genesis 3-5 and into 6 of this tragic defection that has polluted the whole stream of humanity is here described in dogmatic, unmistakably clear language. Romans 5, 12, Wherefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned. And the rendering in the old authorized is inaccurate.

28:09 Not all have sinned, but all sinned. And when did all sin? All sinned in the one man, Adam. This is clearly taught further on in this passage.

28:24 Verse 17, For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one. Verse 18, So then as through the one trespass, the judgment came unto all men to condemnation. Verse 19, As to the one man's disobedience, the many were made or constituted sinners. One the many, one the all.

28:54 You cannot escape the clear teaching of the Holy Spirit that when Adam sinned, he was not acting for himself alone in that first transgression. In him stood the entire human race. and in him the entire human race fell. And the precise language of 1 Corinthians 20, 15 and verse 22 again is unmistakable in its clear teaching.

29:23 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 22 For as in Adam all die.

29:32 Now sometimes we get together and we talk about our relatives. Or we may show pictures. We're going through a picture album. We say, well, that's my great-uncle twice removed by marriage and all the rest.

29:45 And there's my second cousin. And there's my great-grandfather. And we show what our ancestry is. And generally, we do it with some degree of pride.

29:55 But every one of us is a common relative.

29:59 That common relative is Adam. and the teaching of the Word of God is that we bear an organic relationship to Adam as in Adam. You say, well, wait a minute. God never came to me on a Tuesday and said, look, the ballots are open.

30:17 If you'd like to have Adam stand or fall on your behalf, vote for it. No, God didn't.

30:23 This is the way God sovereignly arranged the whole operations of humanity. God sovereignly arranged that all humanity should stand or fall in Adam. And the scripture says man fell in Adam.

30:42 You say, well, I don't like that. Well, my friend, I'm sorry. That's the way it is. And the facts are confirmed by the experience of humanity, and there is no other satisfactory explanation of the human race.

30:59 What a mixed creature man is. You look at him from some perspectives and you say, what a noble creature. Look at the productions of his mind in technology. Look at the productions of his spirit in the aesthetic areas and in artistry, whether we think of it in painting or music.

31:18 Think of the productions of this noble creature that raise him far above, infinitely above the most highly developed of the beasts. What a noble creature is man. Any creature that can produce from a technological standpoint the ability to take man the creature and put him up there on the moon. I still, every time there's a full moon, shake my head and say, I know it true I know it isn a big hoax but I still can believe it somebody been up there making footprints on that thing somebody actually made some footprints If you and I were going we see them What a creature is man who can penetrate the mysteries of God universe the law of gravity and timing down the...

32:02 What a creature is man when you think of his technological capacities. When I listen to some beautiful piece of music, and I won't say what they are because then you'll know what my musical prejudices are, But I can't help but say, what a creature is man, that that should come out of man, and it couldn't come out of him until it was in him. I mean, the music has got to be in him before it comes out of him. All who are musicians, you know that.

32:28 To think that that's there in man, what a creature is man. On the other hand, we look at other aspects of man, and we say, what a beast is man. He's given over to raping and lust and murder. All we need to do is read the newspaper.

32:51 When men can take the trust of political office and use that as the occasion to pander to beastly lust at the expense of a constituency that has to pinch pennies to pay their taxes. And I tell you, that thing gets me more mad than anything. I'm not shocked when I hear that a political leader is guilty of immorality. I've read my Bible enough.

33:17 I know what's in my own heart to know that but for the grace of God, I would abuse any position of influence to pander to my flesh. What aggravates me is that having to pinch my pennies and live on a budget, my tax money goes to pay for his paramour. That's the thing that gets me upset more than anything.

33:36 But you see, that's what man is. That's what man is. And my friends, that's just the tip of the iceberg. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

33:45 But who is this creature? So noble. So filled with lofty capacities that at times we're tempted to say, He's God-like. And then we look at Him in another dimension and we say, He's like the beast.

34:00 Genesis 3, interpreted by Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 is the only satisfactory answer. As in Adam, all die. Man is a creature who fell in Adam. Man's age of accountability was reached in Adam.

34:17 You parents, I remind you, don't you think of your children as born innocent. They are not born innocent. That's the whole language and argument of the Apostle Paul in Romans 5, where he speaks of the reign of death over all humanity, even infants. And he says, wherever death is present, it's because sin is present.

34:37 Where there's no sin, there's no death. Where there's death, there's sin. Infants die because infants are involved in Adam.

34:47 Our age of accountability is already past, and so is the age of your children.

Man as Ruined in Sin: Four Categories Previewed

34:52 Man's condition was decided in Adam. Now, that's the object of the salvation of the Bible. Man as created in the image of God. man as fallen in Adam, but thirdly, man as ruined in sin.

35:09 Man as ruined in sin. And I've labored at trying to reduce the sweeping teaching of the Word of God concerning what man is as ruined in sin. And I trust it has not been an artificial reduction, but I believe the teaching of the Word of God can be reduced to four simple headings and I want all you kids to get these words and be able to explain them to your moms and dads when you go home. Here they are.

35:38 Guilt, guilt,

35:42 pollution or defilement,

35:46 bondage and impotence. Guilt,

35:53 pollution,

35:55 bondage and impotence. Who is the object of this great salvation of God? Man originally made in the image of God. With a capacity to know Him, to have communion with Him, like Him, accountable to Him.

Guilt: Liability to Punishment

36:14 It is man secondly fallen in Adam under the guilt and condemnation of a righteous God. But thirdly, man as ruined in sin And what are the specific elements of that ruin? Word number one, he is guilty. Guilt.

36:33 And what is guilt? It is just liability to punishment because of a broken law. Romans 3.19 says, Whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that all the world may be what?

36:51 Guilty. may be brought under the just judgment of God. Ephesians 2 and verse 3 says, We are by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest. Oh, dear people, the word guilt has lost so much of its biblical vigor in our day.

37:14 What's it mean to be guilty? It means that I, the creature made in the image of God, made in Adam after the likeness of God, made to know Him accountable to Him, that I have stepped over the boundaries of His holy law, that I have fallen short of the standard of His law, and that I have incurred just liability to punishment. In other words, the biblical concept of guilt is not inward, but external and outward. It has to do with God upon a throne, God in the courtroom God with the law books and me the guilty criminal standing before him with head hung filled with shame

37:59 that I have been guilty of high treason against my creator and I have thereby incurred guilt liability more technical language legal culpability and God could arrest me and arraign me and judge me. And all of the moral universe would cry, just and righteous are thy ways. Oh God, you and I are guilty with a guilt rooted in our involvement in Adam and a guilt intensified by our own personal sins. That's the creature who's the object of salvation.

Pollution: Heart, Mind, Affections, Will Defiled

38:40 A creature ruined in sin with a ruin that involves guilt. Secondly, with a ruin that involves pollution. Now what do we mean when we talk about pollution?

38:50 The air is polluted. We have a pollution problem. What do we mean? Well, we mean that a certain commodity, the air, has been invaded by other commodities, unburned hydrocarbons and other things, that have made it unfit or partially unfit for its original intended use.

39:14 There's water that has become polluted. It's unfit to drink. You've heard about the beaches that have become polluted in Long Island because of the letting loose of the sludge from those tanks that were exploded. Now, when I use the term, that's the sense in which I'm using it.

39:29 Man, this creature whose inner being was once like pure sparkling mountain water. No matter where you would dip in, it was pure. There was pure love to God. There was pure love to righteousness.

39:43 There was pure love to holiness. There was pure love to his fellow man. There was pure joy in work and labor. Pure joy in the sense of accomplishment.

39:54 Every part of man's inner being, no matter where you took your ladle and scooped out, was nothing but pure sparkling water. It's now become defiled and polluted. Where guilt points us outward to the law of God, to the judgment of God, to the courtroom of God, Pollution turns us inward to what sin has made us. Now, what are the aspects of this pollution according to the Scriptures?

40:23 Well, the Scripture says that our hearts have become defiled. Jeremiah 17 and verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

40:37 Who can plumb the depths of its desperate wickedness? And the answer comes in the next verse. I, the Lord, search the heart. Think of it.

40:48 Man whose wisdom, man whose abilities can penetrate the depths of so much of God's creation right into the atom, that central building block of all of life. God says no human being can ever penetrate the depths of the foul pollution that is called the human heart. the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

41:23 In other words, no matter how big or small the ladle, when you dip into the human heart, the seat of all that man is, no matter what corner of that heart you dip into, God says you bring up that which is polluted and defiled in every part. that's the teaching of our Lord in Mark chapter 7 verses 21 through 23 he was dealing with religious people that don't like to be told that and I have no doubt there's some of you here this morning you don't like being told this you say I thought I was coming to a nice dignified religious worship service and I'm being told things that I thought went out with old ranking raving preachers in camp meetings to be told that my heart is a sink of iniquity

42:09 my friend listen He loves you the most who tells you the most truth about yourself.

42:16 It's God who says your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. That's not my notion. It's Jesus Christ who said in Mark chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, the following words, For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness. All these things proceed from within.

42:53 And what do they do? They pollute the man. They defile the man. They come out of that fountain of all human existence and experience, namely the human heart.

43:04 And in the way out into the life, They pollute everything in their course. That's the picture. The heart is defiled. But the pollution extends not only to the heart, it touches the mind.

43:18 We read in the Word of God, Ephesians 4, 18, concerning men who are not in a state of grace. Listen to the language of the Apostle in Ephesians 4, verse 18. Ephesians 4, verse 18, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardening of their heart. You see, this polluted heart is joined to a darkened and the defiled mind, darkened in the understanding.

43:54 Man whose understanding technologically can put footprints on the moon.

44:02 You cannot see the barest shape of the first letter in the alphabet of the language of God. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. 1 Corinthians 2.14 Think of the pollution, the heart which is the fountain of all evil, The mind that is darkened to the glories of Christ and his gospel.

44:33 There's no other explanation. I'm speaking to some right now who can't wait for this service to be over. You don't even have the courtesy to look me in the eye while I'm preaching. Why?

44:45 Because God and Christ and the blood of the everlasting covenant are utterly despised by you. Why? You see nothing glorious in them. Why?

44:56 Because you're a living monument to this truth. Your mind is darkened. The mind is darkened. And the Bible teaches that this pollution extends to the affections.

45:06 What we desire and what we love and what we want. The affections, if we may describe them in a non-technical way, are the conscious stirrings up of the basic longings of the heart. And what does the Scripture say about the affections? Romans 3.11, there is none that seeketh after God.

45:24 Whatever the affections are excited about, they don't get excited about God. There's none that seeketh after God, this glorious being, this one true and living God, who is absolutely perfect, unrivaled in His sovereignty, infinite in His goodness, glorious in His tri-personality, and the human heart that ought to leap at the very name of this God, the affection so perverted, there's none that seeketh after God. and then the will our chooser our wanter is utterly opposed to him Romans 8 7 the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be my friends that's a tragic picture and I confess it's painful for me

Bondage and Impotence

46:10 to preach on it but that's what you and I are the objects of salvation are men and women boys and girls taken captive by the devil. 2 Timothy 2.26 That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him unto his will. What a tragic picture.

46:36 Under guilt, in a state of pollution, in a condition of bondage. And then the capstone of the biblical description of the objects of salvation is this. That creature, guilty, polluted, in bondage, is utterly impotent to release himself. And man's impotence is eloquently testified to in such passages as Romans 5, 6.

47:04 For when we were yet weak, or as the authorized version has it, when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Ephesians 2, 1 says, and you hath He made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins. My friend, never minimize the canots of these three texts of Scripture. 1 Corinthians 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.

47:39 That points to his impotence at the level of his mind Unless God does something to this darkened mind he cannot grasp these glorious truths of his deliverance Romans 8, 7 says, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. The human will cannot be subject to God until God subdues it. And Jesus said in John 6, 44, For no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him.

48:15 What a tragic picture. Would to God that we would even now sit here and weep in the realization that that's a description of ourselves.

48:25 Natively, naturally, every one of us has simply looked at ourselves in the mirror. created in the image of God with the capacity to know Him, hold communion with Him, accountable to Him. We fell in Adam and we have all become defiled and polluted by our own sinfulness. We stand in a posture of guilt.

48:50 We stand in a position of pollution, bondage, and impotence. That's the object of salvation. And this is the wonder of the Gospel. every facet of God's salvation is addressed to some aspect of the tragic reality of our sin.

Every Facet of Salvation Speaks to the Malady

49:10 In other words, God takes seriously everything He has said about our state both in the procurement and application of His salvation. Have you got that? How do we know that our guilt is as bad as certain scriptures say it is? When we turn to the salvation God procures We see it must be that bad How do you explain Calvary If our guilt is not real If the law of God is not so holy And inflexible That it must be satisfied With nothing but death How do you explain Calvary my friend Explain the agony of the Son of God Exegete his groans in the garden of Gethsemane

49:59 Expound his cries upon Calvary. God says the guilt is real. Look at my son. I spare him not.

50:09 The rod of righteous judgment says, Death alone will break the rod. The rod is broken upon the holy back of the Son of God. If our pollution is not real, then you explain why nothing less than a birth of the Spirit will fit us for the kingdom. It was Jesus who said that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

50:34 Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born anew. If our pollution is not that bad and real, touching the heart, the mind, the affections, the will, pray tell, why must there be a birth of the Spirit before we can see or enter the kingdom? No, no, my friend God takes seriously Every facet of the tragic reality of human sinfulness And to deny, obscure, or distort any aspect of the malady Is ultimately to deny, obscure, and distort Some aspect of the remedy For what is salvation?

51:20 It is God's almighty and gracious work to absolve the guilty, cleanse the polluted, liberate the captive, and give life and strength to the impotent. Now don't you ever say, oh, it was just a salvation message. Oh, my friend, what a message. To know that Almighty God has come in omnipotence of grace and mercy.

51:50 To do what? To conceive a way whereby He may absolve the guilty and yet Himself be perfectly just. He may reach into the depths of human pollution and begin a work of cleansing that will not stop until every last cell in the soul of the redeemed is as pure as His own dear Son. For we shall be like Him.

52:13 Hallelujah! When we see Him as He is. He's going to set us so free that the Scripture can only describe it as the glorious liberty of the sons of God. He's going to give us such supernatural life that the Bible knows no way to describe it but a resurrection from the dead, a birth from above.

52:40 And every facet of the redemptive work of Christ is calculated to initiate and procure a remedy that speaks to that issue. Incarnation, His identification with us in baptism, His healing ministry, His dying, His rising, His ascending, the gift of the Spirit, His intercession, His reign, His coming, future judgment. What's the reason of all of this? God is saying, I take seriously the malady of the creature.

53:09 And I have sent my Son to rescue an innumerable company whom no man can name out of every kindred tribe and tongue and nation. What is the salvation we receive and proclaim? It is a salvation which has as its object man. Man made in the image of God.

Searching Application: Have You Felt the Weight?

53:30 Man fallen in Adam. man ruined in sin. I close this morning with two simple questions that I press upon the conscience of every hearer. Question number one.

53:41 Oh, listen to it. Question number one. Have you ever felt the weight of these facts in your own bosom? Simple question.

53:52 Have you, have you, man, woman, boy, girl, child, have you ever felt, notice I didn't say, have you ever admitted, have you ever admitted with your head? I didn't ask that. My question is, have you ever felt the weight of these facts in your own bosom?

54:15 The publican did. That's why he stood afar off and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, the place of God's throne. But he beat upon his breast and said, God, O God, be merciful to me. The sinner.

54:31 The sinner. As though there were no other sinner. The sinner. What happened to him?

54:37 He felt in his bosom the weight of his guilt, of his pollution. He felt in his bosom the weight of his defilement, of his bondage, of his impotence. Have you?

54:53 Now you answer honestly, my friend. Not me, but you answer the God in whose presence we meet. Have you ever felt in your bosom? the weight of these realities?

55:04 I'm not asking you, have you felt them for ten days, ten weeks, ten months? We're not setting up any kind of legalism. This is a man must be under conviction of sin. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

55:14 God can bring a man from a state of being totally indifferent to the gospel into glorious acceptance in Christ in as short a time as He made the world. He can speak and it's done.

55:26 But Jesus did not come to call any but sinners. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. So I ask you, whether suddenly, gradually, like a dawning, or like the breakthrough of the sun, after a dark and dismal thunderstorm, I care not what the diversity of means and manner was.

55:51 But my question is this. Have you ever felt in your bosom the reality of your guilt? the reality of your pollution, the reality of your bondage and your impotence. If not, my friend, I'm not surprised that you treat lightly the death of Christ, the gift of the Spirit, the virtue of His blood.

56:13 I'm not surprised. There's only one kind of people who feel desperately their need of the blood of Christ and the virtue of His intercession and the gift of His Spirit. It's publicans who say, God, be merciful to me. My second question and final question is this.

56:35 If having once felt the weight of these facts, do you seek to maintain the sense and remembrance of them in your bosom? Do you seek to maintain the sense and the remembrance of them in your bosom? I am not asking, do you become morbidly introspective so that Christ is blurred by the sight of your own pollution. No.

56:58 But I'm asking, do you maintain sufficient sense and remembrance of your state by nature so that Christ is presently precious?

57:11 The Apostle Paul could say, this is the faithful saying, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom not I was chief, but of whom I am chief. 1 Timothy 1.50 In other words, he says, When I think of Paul and I think of Christ, I think of two things. Glorious Savior in the presence of a wicked, wretched sinner.

57:39 That's what he's talking about.

57:45 I know, he says, that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. You see, the Christian virtues of humility, godly shame, awe in the presence of God, love to the Redeemer, they're only found when there is a profound sense of sin maintained in the presence of a vigorous faith in the Redeemer. Now, my friends, that's not just preacher's words that sound nice. Listen, get hold of what I've just said.

58:11 Get hold of it. Get hold of it. The virtues of humility, godly shame, and awe, And those are Christian virtues. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

58:24 Blessed are they who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Away with this deification of the so-called virtues of carnival-like boldness and fitful activity carried on in the name of Christ and a return to the biblical emphasis upon the virtues of poverty of spirit and humility and godly shame. I say those virtues are maintained only, only when a profound sense of sin is maintained in the presence of a vigorous faith in the Redeemer.

59:00 If all you have is a profound sense of sin with no vigorous faith in the Redeemer, you're wallowing in an unbelieving introspection that is dishonoring to God and crippling to your own soul. And some of you can say aloud amen to that. but if you try to maintain a vigorous faith in the Redeemer while bypassing the present awareness of your sinfulness you're fighting a losing battle or you're striving to attain an unattainable end I leave you with that dear people of God and surely you can see the connection as we come to the Lord's table tonight what is true preparation for the Lord's table contemplation of the glory of Christ in His redemptive work on our behalf, surely.

59:47 Intense meditation upon the agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary and the abandonment of God, surely, surely, surely. Oh, my friend, mingle with it. Some meditation upon the extent of your guilt. How many hells God could have justly created just for you.

60:05 Think of the extent of the pollution that was a stench in His nostrils coming up out of your heart for all the years of your unregeneracy. Think of how great was your bondage and how pervasive your impotence. Be filled afresh with shame. Say with the psalmist or with the prophet, I am ashamed and I blush and I cannot look up.

60:27 But maintain in the midst of that a vigorous faith in the Redeemer. And Christ will become more and more exceedingly precious. Sin more and more exceedingly odious. and it's in that complex of the odiousness of sin and the preciousness of the Redeemer that we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Son of God.

60:50 My friend,

60:53 would to God this morning the Holy Ghost would show you that that's what you are. For if God is ever to make you an object of His grace, the first indications on your part will be you start to take seriously how bad he says you are.

Closing Word and Prayer

61:12 He never whispers sweet things of forgiveness and peace, but what he has first of all said hard things about sin and guilt and pollution and impotence. Oh, do not resist his hard words. They are the harbinger of his gentle words of peace and pardon. Here we stand.

61:35 The salvation we receive and confess has as its primary object man, created in the image of God, fallen in Adam, ruined by sin. But man, wonder of wonders, who is redeemable.

61:56 Blessed be God for such a salvation. Let us pray.

62:05 Our Father, we would know something of the shame that ought to fill the hearts of such creatures who dare to take upon their lips the name of so holy a God.

62:27 O God, how we praise You for Your mercy to guilty, polluted, bound and impotent sinners. We thank you that many of us in this building are monuments of your gracious work in pardoning our guilt in cleansing the pollution breaking our bondage and bringing us out of a state of death into life. And the great yearning of our hearts is that you will use today's study to bring others to that same knowledge. O Lord, help all of us who have had in the past something of the arrows of conviction sticking fast in our hearts.

63:12 Give us a renewed sense of our sin and renewed actings of faith in Jesus Christ. O Lord, seal your word to our prophet and to your praise. Through our Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

63:32 Thank you.