If you should die and stand before the
Lord God and you should say to him,
I want to get into heaven and God
were to say to you, why should I
let you in?
What would your answer be?
One of Satan's most successful areas of deception
is an area of deception that deals with
salvation.
And the title of this message is a
satanic deception regarding salvation.
If you talk to many of your friends
who are church members or many people who
are not and you should say to them,
do you believe that you'll go to heaven
when you die?
More than likely, most of them by far
would say, sure.
And if you should ask them, well, why
do you think you'll go to heaven?
More than likely, you're going to find that
they have been deceived by Satan because they're
going to give you an answer that is
oftentimes, if not most of the time, and
I believe most of the time, the answer
to people who are lost.
It is an answer that they give right
off the top of their head, because many
of them are very sincerely convinced that it
is the right answer.
Many of them are convinced that it is
a logical answer and many of them are
willing to live and die by it.
But it is an answer, which is a
satanic deception.
And the answer is, well, I haven't been
so bad or I'm a good person.
And when I think about all the good
that I've done, surely a God of love
and mercy certainly will not reject me after
the life that I've lived.
Or the other person may say, well, I
know I'm not all that ought to be.
Now I failed in lots of ways, but
I figured this way.
I've done a lot of good things and
the good things I haven't done or what
I failed to do, God would sort of
add to that.
And between what I've done and what he's
done, surely I'm going to make it.
Then there's the other group of people who
likewise are deceived.
Those who have been saved by the grace
of God and who are sincerely attempting to
work for God and to labor for him
in order to remain in God's good graces.
So they are performing in order to remain
saved, to keep their salvation, to keep in
the good graces of God or to keep
their acceptance by him as a result of
their good works.
Now, whatever category that person falls in of
those three aspects, all three of them have
been deceived.
So let me ask you a question.
Are you a church member today, sitting in
a church somewhere and as best, you know,
your idea of being saved is I'm going
to do the best I can.
That's all I can do.
And if God doesn't, if he doesn't accept
me after I've done the best I can,
then I don't want to go to heaven
anyway.
Would that happen to be your opinion?
Are you one of those persons who says,
well, I look around me and I'm, I'm
much better than most of the folks I
see.
And therefore surely, well, if I don't get
in, no one else is going to get
in.
Is that, is that your attitude?
Are you one of those persons?
And you know that you've been saved, but
deep down inside, you live under this awesome
sense of bondage that you sure hope that
somehow you are living up to God's expectation.
You feel pretty guilty most of the time,
but, but you hope that somehow you're going
to be able to live up to God's
expectation.
Is that one of your choices in life?
Let me show you my friend, how Satan
deceives us.
If you'll turn to Galatians chapter two, the
apostle Paul and St. Peter had a little
argument about something at a given occasion, Peter,
who believed in salvation by grace and Paul
who taught that on one occasion, when the
Judaizers came, Peter sort of resorted to a
little addition of the law to grace in
order to appease the Judaizers.
And so Paul confronts him and says to
him that you are guilty of mixing law
or works for the grace.
And so he causes Peter to back off.
And in the second chapter of Galatians, Paul
is dealing with this matter of mixing law
with grace, mixing good works for the grace
of God and the result of that.
And so I want us to read one
verse.
It is a powerful verse to counteract Satan's
deception concerning the real true and only basis
of salvation.
And he says it in verse 21, when
Paul says, I do not nullify, I do
not render useless and void.
I do not set aside the grace of
God by adding works or law.
For if righteousness, if salvation comes through the
law, then Christ died needlessly.
Now, what I want you to understand is
this.
I want you to understand what God says
about the only basis for our acceptance.
As I listen to people share why they
believe they're going to heaven and surely what
their concept of God is.
I want to tell you Satan is doing
a real successful job of camouflaging the truth
and deceiving people by the millions.
Now, I want us to look at this
whole, this whole concept here of identifying the
satanic deception regarding salvation.
Let's identify what that deception is.
And that deception is this.
It says that you can be saved by
being good by doing good.
And some other people may read it this
way and Satan would say it this way
to some, you can be saved by, you
know, doing the best you can.
And then what you can't do, God will
just sort of add to that.
And you're going to make it.
And the third aspect of that is even
those who are saved feel that they have
to keep saved by doing good works.
That is a threefold aspect of a satanic
deception that relates to salvation.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Can you point to the time in your
life at any time back there where you
said at this moment, you made a decision
and you said from this moment on, I
know that I'm saved.
Now I'm just going to leave that question
with you there.
And then I want us to analyze this
satanic deception, which is in essence being saved
by being good or doing or performing good
works.
And let's look at that for a moment.
Paul said, I do not nullify the grace
of God for if righteousness, if that is
salvation comes through the law or doing good
works, then Christ died needlessly.
He says two things are true.
If a person can be saved by their
good works.
Now let's look at this for a moment.
If you'll think about this salvation by good
works and doing good is universally accepted.
Every religion in the world accepts that except
the true Christian faith.
And there are multitudes of people who call
themselves Christians who really, and truly believe that
either out of ignorance because they're not been
instructed properly or because it fits their lifestyle
and fits their concept of God.
And so they have decided, you know, after
all, and they have sort of redrawn and
reshaped and remade and, and, uh, worked God
over in their minds to the point that
he is the kind of God who accepts
them on the basis of their work.
It is a universally accepted form of salvation.
You check at any other religion in the
world, all the cults and all the rest,
nothing is ever salvation by the free gift
of God's grace, but it is also performance
oriented kind of acceptance.
It caters to man's pride.
After all, I've not been too bad.
I've done the following things.
I'm a pretty good person.
And usually what you will find that person
doing is comparing their life to other people.
I'm certain not as bad as others.
God never tells us to compare ourselves with
others and the base, our acceptance by him
on the basis of how well we are
doing according to what someone else is doing.
It is a self-centered form of, of
looking at God.
And that is, I'm going to perform, I'm
going to work.
And therefore on the basis of what I
do, surely this loving God would not reject
me.
It is a self-centered type of religion.
It is a false view of God that
God will accept me on the basis of
what I do.
And I want you to notice two things
that person does not consider.
They do not consider God's very, very clear
definition and view of sin.
God hates sin because of what it does
to the sinner and because of what it
will do to a child of God.
Nor do they consider the very idea of
the holiness of God.
If you eliminate the holiness of God, do
you know what you can do to him?
If you eliminate the holiness of God, you
can shape him just about any way you
want to, to fit any type of theology
you want to fit him into, if you
will eliminate the holiness of God.
The righteousness and the holiness and the justice
of God is always eliminated in the minds
of those who are working for their salvation
or working, trying to remain saved.
Then if you will think about all the
scriptures that you know, the idea of being
saved on the basis of your work is
contrary to the scriptures from Genesis to revelation.
You cannot find any basis in the Bible
for believing that God is going to accept
you because you are better than someone else,
because you don't do the following things or
because of your lifestyle or your conduct.
It is not to be found anywhere in
the Bible.
It is a satanic deception.
And the more our society moves toward humanism,
and that is after all, man's not so
bad and all of the world and all
of life revolves around man, then what man
does becomes more and more acceptable.
And the more acceptable what you and I
do becomes to us, surely after a while,
we sort of fuzz that over into God's
ideas.
And so we mix up what God thinks,
plus what society thinks, plus what we think.
And after all, we can get very convinced
that, I mean, after all, surely we all
agree that God and his loving mercy and
goodness and kindness isn't going to send somebody
as good as I am to hell.
God surely isn't going to let, he's not
going to reject someone like me.
I mean, after all, look at me versus
look at all these folks in prison.
Look at all these folks doing all these
horrible things.
You mean God's going to reject me?
And so, you know, you say, well, you
know, after all, they are pretty good.
And before long, we fuzzed it all up.
And so we don't have a clear picture.
Now listen, it doesn't make any difference what
our society does.
There either has to be a final authority
in this world, or after a while, anybody's
and everybody's opinion goes.
That is whatever it is.
The final authority of life, death, morality, and
all the rest is to be found right
here in this book.
When you lay aside this book, you have
no final standard, no final law.
So therefore, a person can say, well, you
know, I'm not so bad.
I believe that you're being, that you're saved
by being good.
Now, I want to show you the implications
and the fallacy of that kind of thinking,
which is the kind of thinking many, many
people who sit in church periods every week,
that that's their whole perspective.
Had a businessman say to me some time
ago, very outstanding man, invest his money, very
benevolent, very generous.
And here was his remark.
We were talking about salvation.
He put it in this term.
He says, I'm trying to, I'm trying to
merit.
He says, I'm trying to chalk up or
to add all the merits to my account
that I can before I get there.
He was sincere.
He was, he is an elder in his
church, working in the church, involved in the
church, but his whole perspective of salvation, man,
he's got to be at that doing it
week after week, getting it done.
Because after all, one of these days he
knows he's going to die.
And when he gets there, he wants to
be sure he's been accepted.
Let me show you a phallus in that
whole idea.
First of all, if you're one of those
persons who believes that God's going to accept
you on the basis of your works, let
me ask you a question and think very
logically about this.
How much work do you have to do?
Secondly, how long do you have to work?
And thirdly, when will you know whether you've
worked hard enough, long enough at the right
thing or not?
When would you know that?
Well, the truth is you'll never know.
So my friend, if you're one of those
persons sitting in the church pew week after
week, and you believe that your salvation is
based on how well you're doing, let me
tell you something you're going to have to
do.
Here's what you're going to have to do.
If you're going to be intellectually honest, you're
going to have to get the hymn book
and get your razor blade or a pair
of scissors, either one.
And you have to start right here in
the front of your hymn book.
And you're going to have to start looking
at some of these hymns and reading them.
And you're going to have to start cutting
out pages, just flicking, I mean, just razoring
them out, because some of these songs, you
can't sing and be and be really intellectually
honest.
Listen, if your salvation is based on your
works, you can't sing, blessed assurance, Jesus is
mine, because you're not sure that you know
that if your salvation is based on your
works, the only time you can really be
sure that you've been saved is when you
stand in the presence of God.
Because how long do you work?
How much do you work?
What do you do?
Suppose you do the wrong thing.
You see, but that is exactly where a
majority of people are.
And they don't even realize it.
Well, I mean, after all, you know, this
loving, wonderful God of ours.
And at the same time, they really believe,
really believe that they're good enough to be
made acceptable in the eyes of God.
Now, listen to what Paul said about that.
He says in verse 21, I do not
nullify, set aside the grace of God.
He says, to believe that salvation is by
works is to set aside the grace of
God.
Now let's define grace.
Grace is God's undeserved, non-purchased, non-negotiable,
undeserving love, unconditional love given to man freely.
It cannot be worked for.
It's non-purchasable.
You can't buy it.
Non-negotiable, you can't negotiate it for it.
It is unconditional.
It is undeserved.
That's what grace is.
Now, Paul said to add works to my
life, to get saved is to nullify.
He says it is to nullify the grace
of God.
Now listen to what Paul said in Galatians
in Ephesians chapter two, turn to this passage.
Now I know you know it by heart,
but I want you to look at two
passages in Ephesians chapter two.
He says in verse eight, for by what
are you saved for by grace?
Are you saved and have been saved through
what?
And that not of yourselves, even the faith
is not your faith.
It is the faith that God gives you
to believe it is.
It is the, what the gift of God,
not as a result of what works that
no one should boast.
God isn't going to give you any reason
for boasting about your salvation.
Now, if you'll turn over to Titus, turn
to Titus chapter two and chapter three, if
you can find Hebrews, just turn over, turn
back a couple of chapters, Titus chapter two,
listen to what he says in verse 11,
for the grace of God has appeared bringing
salvation to all men.
It is the grace of God that has
appeared that brings salvation chapter three in the
same little book, verse five, he saved us
not on the basis of deeds, which we
have done in righteousness, but according to his
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy spirit.
So all of these verses say to us,
you cannot be saved by doing good works.
You can't be saved by performing, by trying
to be better than someone else or by
keeping the law.
Someone says, well, I'll tell you what I
do.
I just try.
What I try to do is I try
to live up to the 10 commandments.
And I believe if you try to live
up to the 10 commandments, then if you're
living up to the 10 commandments, God, isn't
going to reject you.
Let me ask you this.
How many of you have lived up to
the 10 commandments?
Not a single one.
Well, let me give you another, a little
word here.
James says you can't.
And secondly, Paul says in this very book
of Galatians, that the purpose of the 10
commandments was not a, a written law by
which if I keep them, I will be
saved.
Do you know what the purpose of the
10 commandments was?
Paul says it was given to us as
a tutor.
Now it is also protection of society because
without it, we'd be in a mess.
But when it comes to salvation, it was
given to us as an instructor.
Look, if you will, in verse 24, Galatians
chapter three, verse 24 says, therefore, the law
has become our tutor, our instructor to lead
us to Christ, that we may be justified
by faith, not by keeping the law for,
he says in verse 26, for you are
all the sons of God through faith in
Christ Jesus.
Now turn back over to chapter two and
he makes it even stronger in verse 16.
He says, nevertheless, knowing that a man is
not justified or declared righteous saved by the
works of the law, by keeping the law,
doing good performing.
He says, but through faith in Christ Jesus,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that
we may be justified, declared righteous or saved
by faith in Christ and not by the
works of the law.
Since by the works of the law shall
no flesh be made acceptable before God.
There isn't anything that you and I can
do to, to make ourselves good enough to
be made acceptable before God.
He says the very purpose of the 10
commandments was not to get you to heaven,
but to show you your inadequacy.
And is it not true?
You pull out the 10 commandments and you
said, I'm going to live by these at
least at least one week.
I'm going to live by the 10 commandments.
Try it.
He says, that's not the purpose of it.
The purpose of it is to show us
it is, it is an instructor, a tutor
to show us our inadequacy apart from Christ.
Now, when Paul says in this second chapter,
I do not nullify the grace of God.
What he's saying is simply this, that if
a person can be saved by doing good
works, then that renders this, this non-purchasable
unconditional undeserved non-negotiable love of God extended
to us in the way of forgiveness and
redemption.
He says, all of that, all of God's
grace is null void, useless, senseless, and has
no purpose.
If you can be saved by doing good,
why should God grant us grace?
If we don't need it, because if I
can do well enough, I don't need the
grace of God.
That's the unconditional non-negotiable non-purchasable what
non-deserving love that God extends to us.
Now, if I can do without it, then
God should not ascend.
And so he says, I don't nullify render
useless and void the grace of God by
adding works to grace.
Now I want you to turn to Romans
chapter four for a moment, because here is
Paul's argument about the same subject from a
little different perspective.
And he is comparing it and relating Abraham
and how Abraham was saved by faith.
Listen to what he says.
Verse one of chapter four, what then shall
we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to
the flesh has found for, if Abraham was
justified or declared righteous or saved by works,
he has something to boast about.
Look what I did, but not before God.
He doesn't.
For what does the scripture say?
And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned.
That is, it was entered on his account.
That's an accounting term.
It was entered on his account to him
as righteousness.
That is that he believed God.
Now to the one who works, his wage
is not entered as a favor, but what
is due, but to the one who does
not work, but believes in him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith is accounted to him
as righteousness.
And here's what I want you to see.
Here's the whole key.
You cannot have, you cannot have grace and
works because grace and works are on opposite
ends of the pole.
They are in conflict with each other.
The grace of God is a favor, a
gift, a non-purchasable gift for which you
cannot work.
Works on the other hand is what we
do in order to be paid.
If you can do any form of work
in order to be saved or forgiven by
God, what you've done is you have indebted
God to you.
God.
Now, when you stand in the judgment, he's
not expressing love and grace, he's paying you
off.
And so for eternity, you get paid for
the work that you've done.
Let me ask you this.
Who does that glorify?
Does that glorify God?
Since he's this big heavenly employer up here
and when he chalks off your account and
he sees that, well, you've worked here and
here and here and here, therefore I'm going
to accept you on the basis of your
works.
We're not talking about works on the basis
of having been saved and works motivated by
love and devotion to Christ.
We're talking about working to be saved, doing
good, being good, keeping the 10 commandments, living
by the sermon on the Mount, neither of
which any person can do apart from the
grace of God.
But here's what Paul's saying.
You've got to make a choice.
My friend, you may be sitting in a
church, your name may have been on three
or four or five, six church roles.
You're still just as lost as you can
be.
If you think that you're going to be
made acceptable in the eyes of God on
the basis of doing good, you can't mix
grace with works.
Now listen, if I'm going to work for
you as a favor, it's going to be
a favor.
If I'm going to work for you for
wages, then you owe me.
On the one hand, you're indebted to me.
On the other hand, you're not.
God says that we're saved by grace through
faith.
That is, God has extended love and forgiveness
and reconciliation and justification and redemption.
He has offered it as a free gift.
There is no way for me to work
up for that because it wasn't given as
a wage.
It was given as a free gift.
And any person who thinks that they're going
to work and be good and do better
and perform and have a certain kind of
conduct and therefore on the basis that get
acceptance before God, I'm going to tell you
something.
He never offered salvation on that basis.
And if he didn't offer it on that
basis, you can't be saved by trying to
mix your works with the grace of God
or by meriting or living up to or
reaching a standard.
Because first of all, what is the standard?
The standard is perfection.
That's the standard of holiness.
And you can't reach that.
That's why salvation is given as a free
act of grace and loving mercy.
Because listen, if God said, okay, you perform,
you get saved.
What is the standard?
God would have to lower his own standard
of holiness and righteousness to accept you on
the basis of your works because your works
will never be perfect.
You won't be perfect.
Your works won't be perfect.
So what you're saying is in order to
get saved by my works, I have to
recreate another God.
I have to form a God who understands,
except we rationalize it all the way and
say, well, he's brought his standard down.
God knows nobody can be perfect.
You're absolutely correct.
But there are multitudes of people who are
sitting in church peers week after week after
week, who really believe that God's going to
accept them on the basis of how well
they're doing.
And I want to tell you, you are
satanically deceived, my friend, because it's not true.
It cannot be true.
Now let me show you why it can't
be.
I want you to jot down these 10
things I'm going to give you.
So get a pencil and piece of paper,
if you will.
And some of you, you already know where
you are in your relationship to Christ and
you know how to be saved by the
grace of God, but you confront people all
the time who argue with you about it.
So I want to give you 10 reasons
why their argument will not work.
I think about all these people who are
living in bondage, terrible bondage to believe you
can be saved by the grace of God,
but in order to remain saved, in order
to remain saved, you have to perform in
a certain fashion.
I want to tell you that is bondage
that God never placed on us.
You cannot mix works with grace and have
the true biblical concept of the atoning death
of Jesus Christ.
Now, how is a person saved according to
the scriptures?
Well, it's very simple.
And that is that God, the beloved sin,
his only begotten son, his beloved son to
the cross placed upon him, all of our
sin and Christ death was the full payment
of our sin.
Therefore, those who have received the Lord Jesus
Christ personally by faith are saying, I am
accepting God's payment for my sin in the
death of his son.
And by receiving his son is my personal
savior.
I'm freed, liberated, forgiven.
I'm justified.
I'm saved.
I'm saved by what the grace of God,
the grace of God is what I receive
on the basis of what Christ did at
Calvary.
Christ paid the price and I receive as
an act of grace, a gift from God.
I can't pay for it.
The price was paid at Calvary.
We sing these songs, Jesus paid it all.
What in the world am I trying to
do to work up salvation?
You see there's so many hymns we sing.
And yet on the other hand, we live
out something entirely different.
So salvation is the act of God, whereby
he forgives us of our sins based on
the debt of penalty.
Jesus paid at the cross.
Now, here's what I want you to see.
If a person believes that you say by
doing good, being good and all the rest,
the first thing I want you to jot
down is some scriptures and I'm going to
give them to you quickly.
Listen to all these scriptures that are null
and void and are meaningless.
If you can be saved by your works
in John chapter one, verse 29, you remember
John the Baptist identified Jesus as the lamb
of God who has come to take away
the sins of the world, the lamb that
was to be slain.
Secondly, in John chapter 10, verse 15, Jesus
said, I am the good shepherd and the
shepherd has come to lay down his life
for the sheep in Matthew 20 verses 28.
He says, I've come to give my life
a ransom for many in Hebrews chapter nine,
verse 26.
He said he offered himself as a sacrifice
for our sins in Romans five, six.
He says he died.
He shed his blood for the ungodly in
Romans chapter five, verse nine.
He says he justified us.
He saved us by his blood in Romans
chapter five, verse 10.
He says, we have been reconciled, brought back
into fellowship with him by the blood of
Jesus Christ.
In Galatians one four, he says he gave
himself for our sins in Ephesians chapter one,
verse seven.
He says, we have forgiveness of our sins
through the blood of Jesus Christ.
He says in first Peter one 18, we
were not redeemed by corruptible things such as
gold and silver, but by the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ that was shed
in our behalf.
And then he says in first Peter chapter
two, verse 24, he says that Jesus Christ
bore our sins in his body on the
cross that we may be saved from our
sins.
Now listen, what purpose, what use are all
of those verses that have to deal with
the crucifixion of Christ?
What use are they?
If you can be saved apart from the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, they are meaningless verses.
The death of Jesus Christ was a horrible
act on the part of this God who
calls himself a loving father.
If you can be saved any other way
for God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal
life.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth
and the life, no man comes to the
father, but by me.
And if you can come any other way,
the crucifixion, he says here in Galatians, the
crucifixion, it was a needless, horrible act on
the part of almighty God.
That's just the first point.
Point number two, we have no need of
a gospel.
If you will look in a first Corinthians
chapter 15, Paul sort of gives us the
whole gospel capsule here.
And listen to what he says.
He says, what is it that makes up
the gospel?
Look, if you will, in verse three, for
I delivered to you as our first importance,
what I also received that Christ died for
our sins, according to the scriptures that he
was buried and that he was raised on
the third day.
According to the scriptures, that is the gospel.
Let me ask you a question.
What do we need with the gospels?
If you can be saved by being good,
there are multitudes of people, millions upon millions
of millions of people in this world who
don't have the scriptures as you and I
have it.
And they're trying to be good.
And some of them are pretty good without
the crucifixion.
How good.
And if you can be good enough to
be acceptable in the eyes of God, what
is the purpose of the crucifixion?
There's no purpose and there is no need
for a gospel unless is salvation by the
cross is absolutely essential.
Number three, Jesus said on the cross, it
is finished.
The truth is, if you can be saved
any other way, except by the cross, Christ's
work was not finished.
And secondly, Christ's work was not adequate.
If it takes my good works to get
me saved, Jesus Christ death on the cross
was not adequate.
The work was not finished.
I have to add to whatever he did.
Therefore, the crucifixion is of little value.
You and I know better than that.
Number four, the incarnation that is God, the
father, God, the son, God, the spirit, God
coming in human flesh here on earth to
live among us and Christ dying on the
cross.
What good is the incarnation?
The incarnation was a useless, meaningless event.
What's the use of Christmas?
I mean, you know, God becoming a child
born of the flesh, living among men.
What's the use of all of that?
If you can be saved apart from the
grace of God and the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ, what is the use of the cross?
Next man does not need mercy from God.
If he can be saved by his works.
Listen, when a lost person who's working up
their salvation, why should, why should they need
mercy?
Salvation is based on base.
It's based on their good works.
Grace is the result of mercy.
The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ is,
is the result of the mercy of the
mercifulness of a loving, holy, righteous God who
was willing to pay for your sin in
mind, except you see, if there is no
cross and there's no need for the cross,
then there's no need for mercy.
Why ask for the mercy of God?
Think about the covenant that you and I
have with God.
The covenant of God has no meaning.
The Bible says that Jesus established a new
covenant with us and he established it through
his blood.
He said, what, what do we need with
the covenant?
I mean, you know, God's made all these
promises.
If it's a matter of works, what am
I doing?
I'm racking up points with God.
I'm impressing God.
I'm putting God in debt to me.
And so God must pay me off as
I work and as I labor and as
I do my best.
Oh, he may subtract some things over here
when I fall and falter, but after all,
I'm not doing too bad and compared to
other people.
And surely he's going to be just enough
to compare me to everybody else.
And so I'm not going to be doing
too bad.
So after all, I don't need the cross.
I don't need grace.
It's just a matter of good works and
the covenant has no meaning.
The covenant is God's assurance to me.
It is his assurance for me that I
am forever.
He is.
Why do I need that?
When I'm working it up anyway, what is
the meaning and the purpose of the Lord's
supper?
If grace comes by works, that is if
salvation comes by work, what I need for
the Lord's supper come down here.
And you see people walk down church aisles
and they sit in church pews week after
week, month after month, year after year, depending
upon when their church has that ordinance and
they partake of the Lord's supper.
And Jesus says this blood, this blood is
a covenant.
That is, this is the blood of a
new covenant that I'm establishing with you.
This blood brings about the forgiveness of your
sin.
That blood was absolutely essential and important.
The wine that they drank symbolical of the
blood of Jesus Christ.
He says, I'm a new covenant with you.
What is the meaning of the Lord's supper?
If the cross was not necessary, it is
a meaningless act.
We ought to get rid of it because
it has no meaning.
If you can be saved other than by
the grace of God, which comes through the
crucifixion of the son of God, Jesus Christ
himself.
Think about this.
Now here is a real contradiction.
Many people who say, yes, I believe that
God's going to accept me because I'm not
doing too bad.
And I think I'm as good as a
lot of other folks.
Do you believe in Jesus?
Oh, I believe in him.
How do you think you're going to get
to heaven?
I think if I do as good as
I can, God's going to accept me.
Now, let me show you what a contradiction
this is.
My friend, you cannot, you cannot look at
Jesus Christ as a creditable person.
He is either the biggest fake, the biggest
counterfeit, the biggest sham the world has ever
known, or you will never be saved.
You cannot say, oh, I believe, I believe
in Jesus.
Do you believe that Christ's death on the
cross is absolutely essential for your salvation?
No, but I do believe in Jesus.
Now, wait a minute.
Jesus said over and over and over and
over and over again, he was it.
No man comes to the father, well, I
understand.
I understand.
That's what he said.
But you see, I believe, wait a minute.
Either Jesus Christ is a big faking counterfeit
in whom you have placed your trust, or
he's the son of God who died for
your sins.
Now you can't have both.
And this is the point.
You can't have both.
You cannot say, I believe what the Bible
says about Jesus Christ at the same time,
be working for your salvation.
Friend, you either have salvation by the grace
of God through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,
or you don't have it because you cannot
have grace and works.
And you cannot say that Jesus Christ is
a creditable person.
He's the son of God and be working
for your salvation at the same time, because
the two don't mix.
But that's where so many people are.
They don't even realize that's where they are.
And you see what they do is they
limit Jesus to a certain part in the
left.
Now he's not low.
I believe in him, but now Lordship don't,
don't get me over into that because I
don't want to get too involved in that.
I believe in God.
I believe in Jesus doing the best I
can tell me a few things, anything wrong
with me.
You tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Don't owe anybody.
Never been to prison, never shot anybody, all
these things as if any of that's going
to get them to heaven.
I want to tell you, my friend, it
is a satanic deception.
And the tragedy is that multitudes of people
are sitting right there.
And let me show you something worse than
that to believe that you can be made
acceptable in the eyes of God, other than
through his grace is to rob God of
all his glory.
And look, if you will, in Ephesians chapter
two, you see, we just piddle around with
God and we think, well, I'm, you know,
after all, oh, granddad up in heaven, he
understands.
I want to tell you, my friend, he's
not a granddaddy.
He is holy God.
And he doesn't play around and use a
bunch of terminologies to confuse people.
He's, he's rather straight.
Listen to what this says.
Verse four, but God being rich in mercy,
because of his great love of which he
loved us, even when we were dead in
our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ
by grace, you've been saved.
And he raised us up with him and
seated us with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus.
That is, he's told me what he's done
for us now.
Why did he do it in order that
in the ages to come, he might show
forth the surpassing riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
You know what he's saying?
That you and I are walking living demonstrations
of the grace of God.
And he says for the ages to come,
for the ages to come, he says, you
and I will be trophies.
He says he will be showing, he will
be showing the surpassing riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, declaring
it to the angels, you and I'll be
walking trophies of the grace of God.
If you and I save ourselves by good
works, we're no trophy.
God, listen, God cannot in the ages to
come show his surpassing riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus by
saving us.
If we saved ourselves by good works, it
absolutely totally robs God of all his glory.
You cannot mix law and grace works in
grace.
You either have one another, you either in
debt, God to pay you off, or you
accept it as a child.
Now, let me give you one last one.
If you will turn to revelation chapter five,
let me show you what will happen in
heaven.
If you can be saved by works.
Now you can't be, but I want you
to listen to what won't happen in heaven.
If you can, if you can save yourself
by works.
Now let's begin in verse nine, revelation chapter
five.
And they sang a new song saying worthy
out vow to take the book and to
break it seals for thou was slain and
it's purchased for God with thy blood men
from every tribe and tongue and people and
nation.
And thou has made them to be a
kingdom and priests throughout God.
And they will reign upon the earth verse
11.
And I looked and I heard the voice
of many angels around the throne and the
living creatures and the elders and the numbers
of them were, was myriads of myriads and
thousands of thousands.
What were they saying?
Saying with a loud voice worthy is the
lamb that was slain to receive power and
riches and wisdom and might and honor and
glory and blessing and every created thing, which
is in heaven and on the earth and
under the earth and on the sea and
all things in them.
I heard saying to him who sits on
the throne and to the lamb, who is
Christ be blessing and honor and glory and
dominion forever and ever.
Amen.
Why?
Because he gave his life as they sang
up here in verse nine to purchase for
God with his own blood men from every
tribe and tongue.
I want to tell you, my friend, it
would silence the angels in heaven.
If you and I can be saved by
own good works, there is not a shred
of evidence in the word of God that
any person ever has been is or ever
shall be saved other than by the grace
of God given to us through the purchase
of his son at Calvary, his sacrificial, all
sufficient atoning, adequate death at Calvary.
And when I receive his son's death as
payment for my sin and receive his son
as my personal savior, I am saved.
That is the only way to be made
acceptable in the eyes of God.
And hallelujah.
I don't have to do anything after that
in any kind of performance or conduct to
remain in the good graces of the salvation
of almighty God.
And yet the majority of people are living
in the bondage.
They'll never know till they get there.
And I won't tell you, my friend, if
you're one of those persons who's trying to
work up your salvation, be good, be acceptable
to get it done.
Remember what he says in that somebody says,
I live with a sermon on the mountain.
Remember this verse he says in that day
of the judgment, he will say to you,
when you parade all the good things that
you've done minus the cross, he will say
to you in that day, I never knew
you as one of mine depart from me,
ye that worketh iniquity.
There's only one way to be saved.
And that is by trusting Jesus Christ and
the death of Christ on the cross as
the payment for your sin plus nothing.
Why do you think we sing that song?
Listen to this phrase just, just as I
am without one plea, but that thy blood
was shed for me without one plea, nothing
in my hands, I bring simply to the
cross.
I claim because my friend, the only thing
you have to bring is dirty, filthy self
-righteousness, unacceptable to God.
You nullify the grace of God and render
the cross, render the cross, listen, the most
horrible act in human history.
If you can be saved any other way,
except by the cross, father, thank you for
loving us.
Oh, what misunderstanding and confusion prevails, but your
grace, sweet, loving grace.
And father, I pray in Jesus name that
many people have been watching and listening.
And those who are seated right here, who
have some question about their salvation, who have
trusted in anything or anybody other than you
through your son, I pray that there might
be confession and repentance and surrender here.
And now the receiving of the Lord Jesus
Christ is personal savior.
As we sing together, father, as you invite,
as your spirit woos, let there be a
receptive heart from everyone who has never been
saved and everyone who is unsure that there
might be certainty today for you've said in
your word, these things have I written to
you that you may know that you have
eternal life.
And this is our prayer in Christ's name.
Amen.