I had a woman tell me once, she said, �Pray for my son, brother Mahan. He�s a good boy, but he�s not saved.�
I said, �If he is good he doesn�t need to be saved.� There is no reason to save a good boy. What does a good boy need salvation for?
�Well, then, brother Mahan, pray for my husband. He�s a good man, but he�s just not saved.�
He doesn�t need to be saved. Only sinners need to be saved. People who are lost, people are who are going to hell, people who deserve to go to hell, that�s the people for whom Christ died. He said, �I came to seek and to save the lost. I didn�t come to call the righteous to repentance. They have no need of repentance.�
Now, what are you going to do? It boils down to the fact that folks don�t just believe they are sinners. And I will guarantee you this. You find you a sinner and you have found the oddest, rarest commodity on the market today. There are not many of them out there. God is going to save every sinner. Every sinner is going to be saved. And when you come to realize you are a sinner, God will save you, but not until.
So this other gospel is being preached today. It denies the seed of sin. It denies the source of sin. It denies the nature of sin. It denies what a man is by birth. And, consequently denies the new birth and the need for the new birth. And this other gospel that is being preached today says, �Pity the sinner, not blame the sinner.�
�God, you wouldn�t be right for you to send these men to hell. I don�t believe a good God will send a man to hell.� If God spared not his own son, he is not going to spare the rebels of this world. And we had better get on the side of God in this matter of sin.
How many times have you heard somebody say, �Oh, he�s a wonderful Christian? He doesn�t curse and he doesn�t swear and he doesn�t drink and he doesn�t carouse and he doesn�t do the things that the world does.�
Yes. And he doesn�t know God either.
Our Lord said, �This is eternal life.� Turn to John 17, verse two. �This is eternal life.� Verse three, John 17. �That they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.�
This other gospel preaches Jesus Christ and the fact he died on the cross and He shed his blood. But they preach His death as an EXAMPLE and not as a SUBSTITUTE. They preach his death as an example and not as a sacrifice and a sin offering. And that�s what gave birth to the general atonement. And that�s what gave birth to this statement: �Sinner, God�s done all he can do. Now it�s up to you.�
Have you ever heard that? �God�s done all he can do. God loved you. And God sent his son to Calvary to bear your sins and to die for you. And God sent his preacher to preach to you. And mother has prayed for you and daddy has prayed for you and people have witnessed to you and now it�s up to you. Now it�s up to you.�
That sounds pretty, but it�s not so. If God has done all he can do and I�m still not saved, I�m a goner. If even God can�t save me I�m in bad shape. And you are, too. If God has done all he can do...now you just think of a man using a statement like God�s done all God can do. God can do anything. Where is the limit on God�s ability? Just think that over. Think of the foolishness that comes from the pulpit: God has done all he can do. Where is the limit to God�s ability?
God created a world out of nothing. Can�t save a boy? Can�t save a man or a woman? He has done all he can do.
I want to ask you some questions. Now, will you be honest? Will you think this over? Let me ask you some questions about the death of Christ. And you think this through, now. Don�t give me this little old silly easy believism you have been listening to all your life. You answer these questions from the Word of God.
First of all, when Jesus Christ died on the cross did he die to make salvation possible or dead certain? Which? Which was it?
He said over here in John 10. �I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and neither shall any man pluck them out of mine hand.�
Now, which was it? When he died was salvation made possible or dead certain? Why, dead certain. You know that.
Secondly, when Christ died did he actually redeem me to God or did he make it possible for me to come to God and get redemption? When he died on the cross did he actually, literally, completely, redeem me to God, redeem my soul or did he just make it possible that later on when I did something I could be redeemed?
Listen to this verse in Revelation. �And they sung a new song in heaven and they said, �Thou art worthy to open the book for thou wast slain and thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.�� It doesn�t say he redeemed us to God by his blood and by our works, by his blood and by our profession, by his blood and by our church membership, by his blood and by something. JUST BY HIS BLOOD.
And Paul said in Ephesians, �WE ARE REDEEMED BY THE CROSS.�
Now, here is the next question. When Christ died on the cross did he actually take our sins in his body on the tree? Did he actually? Is that what he did? Or did he just die for sin as sin, just as a word sin? Did he actually take our sin or did he just die for sin as sin?
Turn to 1 Peter chapter two. Let�s see what the Bible says. In 1 Peter chapter two, verse 24, listen to this. �Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being now dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was laid on him and by his stripes we can be healed if we will meet certain conditions.� That�s not what it says. It never says that in the Bible. It says, �You were healed. By his stripes you were healed.�
Now, were you healed by his stripes plus your church membership, plus your baptism, plus your good works? Or were you healed by his stripes? I want to know what he did on that cross.
Now, here�s a fourth question. When he died, turn to Romans five. When he died, when Jesus Christ died on the cross did he actually reconcile us unto God? Now we were enemies, separated from God by our sin. Did he actually reconcile us to God or did he lay the groundwork for our cooperation with God at a later date?
It says in Romans five, verse 10, �When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.� If language can mean anything does it mean anything? When we were enemies we were reconciled to God. How? By the death of his Son. His death redeemed us. His death reconciled us. His death cleansed us. His death healed us.
Now, here is the next question. Does the blood of Jesus Christ actually cleanse us from sin or is it an offer to be cleansed?
Well, turn to 1 John, let�s see. 1 John. Does his blood actually cleanse us or is it just an offering? Or is it just an offering? Verse seven. �If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us.� The blood cleanseth us, not the water, the blood, not works, not the law, the blood.
Now, then. Let me ask you this question. Now you think. Are there people in hell tonight whose sins Christ bore on that cross?
You say, �Yes.�
Then what is to keep you from going to hell? You say he bore your sins.
�Yeah, but he saved me.�
But he saved them, too. He died for their sins, too. You say he died for everybody�s sins. There are people in hell, then, for whom he died. He bore their sins. He redeemed them by his blood. He cleansed them by his blood. He reconciled them to God. They still went to hell. What�s going to keep you out of hell?
�Yeah, but I�m going to keep faith.�
Are you, now? Then you�re going to heaven by your faithfulness and not by the Cross. And when you get to heaven don�t you sing, �Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,� because there�s folks down there (in hell) that can say the same thing. He loved them and he washed them from their sins in his blood...that�s what they tell me. But they didn�t make it to glory.
You see if we boil this thing down and face facts, this false gospel is heresy, damnable heresy that makes the death of Christ a farce and makes the death of Christ a miscarriage of God�s justice and makes the death of Christ insufficient to save a flea. Christ Jesus couldn�t keep a flea out of hell. That�s what you�d say.
Now, let me ask you the last question. If there are people in hell for whom he died, if Christ actually, if Christ actually was tried and found guilty numbered with the transgressors and took my sins and was executed for my sins on the cross can the justice of God still try and execute me for the same sins?
Now, you think about it. Can the justice of God drag me into court after he has tried his Son and executed his Son on the cross for my sin. He bore my sin in his body on the cross. That�s what you say. And then you tell me God is going to haul me into the judgment hall and charge me with the same sins for which Christ died? And execute me for the same offenses?
In Romans chapter eight, verse one, and here is our confidence, Romans eight, verse one. Listen to it. Here is our confidence. �There is therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ.� No CONDEMNATION!
