The grace of God and this free gift of the righteousness of God, doesn’t abound to anybody except through the true Christ, and the true Christ is the Christ that is revealed in the scriptures. He is the One that says ‘Unless you forsake all that you have you cannot be My disciple’ (Luke 14:33). He is the One that says ‘Why do you call Me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do the things I say?’ (Luke 6:46). He’s the One that said, ‘Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord.” And He’s going to say, “It’s not everybody that’s going to say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ that inherits or enters the Kingdom of Heaven, it’s the ones who do the will of My Father in Heaven”’ (Matthew 7:21). He’s the same One who said, ‘That you ought not to be hearers of the Word and not doers of it’ (James 1:22).
He is the One who spoke this way. He is the One who said, ‘When you have a meal don’t invite your rich friends, invite the poor’ (Luke 14:12-14). He’s the One who said, ‘Take your possessions and go sell them so that you have something to give to the poor’ (Matthew 19:21). He’s the One that said, ‘You’ll prove to be my disciples a number of different ways, by the way you treat His Word. By the fruit that you bear’ (John 15:8). He’s the One that said repeatedly, ‘Follow Me’ (Matthew 4:19). And when men didn’t follow Him, they went away and perished (John 6:66).
Jesus Christ! Is the One who all judgment is going to be committed to (John 5:22). Jesus Christ of the scriptures said hard things to men. Jesus said, ‘Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the most religious people of that day, you will not inherit the kingdom’ (Matthew 5:20). He’s the One that said not to store up treasures here, but to lay it up in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20). He’s the One that said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the mourners, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those that hunger and thirst’ (Matthew 5:3-9). Not in that order, but those… He’s the one that said that. He’s the One that said, ‘You would do such works that God would be glorified in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16). He’s the One that said you’ll pray, you’ll fast, you’ll give, and don’t do like the hypocrites (Matthew 6:1-18). He’s the One that said, ‘When you pray…, when you fast…’ (Matthew 6:5-7, 16-18). He’s the One who called us to follow Him even if it required us to hate mother and father (Luke 14:26). He’s the One who said that if you love anybody more than Him, you are not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:37). He’s the One that said if you put your hand to the plow and you look back, you’re not worthy (Luke 9:62). He’s the One that said, ‘Remember Lot’s wife?’ (Luke 17:32). He said hard things to men.
He’s the One who said to one of His chief apostles, who thought worldly thoughts, ‘Get thee behind Me Satan’ (Matthew 16:23). He said strong things. He’s the One who spoke most plainly about hell and its reality, and weeping and gnashing of teeth, and outer darkness, and many of those who thought were going to be in the kingdom being thrown into that outer darkness (Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 22:13, 25:30).
He’s the One that pressed men. That it is better to tear out eyeballs and cut off hands and cut off feet, rather than go into hell with that foot, with that hand, with that eyeball, and He wasn’t talking about bodily mutilation. He was talking about spiritual amputation and getting rid of the idols (Matthew 5:29-30, 18:8-9). He’s the One that would say to people, ‘Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you’ (John 5:14). He was the One who would go say to somebody, ‘Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and come follow Me, and you’ll have treasure in Heaven’ (Matthew 19:21). And when the people didn’t follow, He said, ‘Oh, that’s ok you’ll just be a second rate Christian.’ He didn’t say that! He said it was all or nothing. You sell out for me or you don’t. It’s either total surrender, or not. He’s the One who said, ‘You cannot serve God and serve money’ (Matthew 6:24).
This is the Christ of the scriptures. He didn’t play games with anybody. He laid it on the line. He always said, ‘You need to count the cost’ (Luke 14:28). It’s free, but it will cost…, it will take everything. He’s the One that said, ‘Strive to enter in’ (Luke 13:24). He’s the One that said, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, by violence’ (Matthew 11:12). He’s the One that said, ‘Strive to enter in because many will seek to get therein,’ and they’ll not be able (Luke 13:24). He’s the One that said that on judgment day, if you did not give your life to feeding, and clothing, and giving to drink, and serving the needy, you will be told to depart, and you’ll be on the left hand (Matthew 25:31-46). He’s the One that told men to follow Him, and no matter the cost, He’s the One that said that you need to love Him more than you love your own life. And if you love your own life more than Him, than you are not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:39). He’s the One that said, ‘Better to die, better to lay down your life, better to give it all, and have Him’ (John 12:25). He’s the One that told the parables. He’s the One that warned. He’s the One that said, here is a man, he went and sold all that he had, that he can have this treasure who is Christ (Matthew 13:44). He went and sold all that he can have this pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46). To have Christ. He told about people who would gladly receive, but not be able to endure suffering and persecution and fall away (Matthew 13:20-21). He warned about those who would become so twisted up with cares of this world, that they would become fruitless (Mark 4:18-19). He warned about those who were fruitless, that they were like trees ready to be chopped down and thrown into the fire, or vines (John 15:6). He said abide in Him (John 15:4-5).
He was not, as C.S. Lewis said, ‘He was not a tame lion.’ He came, the Lion of the tribe Judah (Revelation 5:5). And when he walked among men, He said, ‘Learn of Me, I am meek and lowly’ (Matthew 11:29). And at the same time He spoke with such boldness, and power, and lion likeness, and He didn’t mince His words. And this is the Christ. This is the One! This is the One, there is no other! You can, listen, you can call Him Christ, but if you make Him out to be less than what I just described. He is not the Christ of the scriptures, he is another man, he is a figment of your imagination, and he does not save.
Oh Brethren! Folks, ladies, gentlemen, friends, visitors. This is a salvation that is without comprehension. It is not to be compared. This is a salvation that Jesus offers, whereby He comes in and He forgives all your sin. Not just a little bit of it, all of it. And He doesn’t just forgive the things that you just accidentally did and didn’t realize you did, like with the old testament. You remember how it was, as long as the sin was not something that you did high-handedly. As long as it was something unintentional, that you found out about it later, that there was a sacrifice for it. He forgives those things that you did in the most high-handed, rebellious fashion. And He doesn’t just forgive what you’ve already done, He forgives what you’re going to do tomorrow, and the rest of your life. All of it, all of your sin, it says, ‘As far as the east is from the west’ (Psalm 103:12). The time you can measure how far the east is away from the west, that you can measure how far He puts all your sin away. Not just some of it. This is no catholicism here, where it’s just past and now you gotta make penance and do all your stuff for the future. They can have that, that is not the salvation of the Bible.
Jesus Christ offers you full at
onement. Full atonement, can it be? Yes! It is, for all your sin, for everything. You say, ‘What if I’ve murdered?’ Heaven has murderers. ‘What if I’ve raped, what if I’ve committed all sorts of horrible sexual things, what if I’ve had bitterness and covetousness, what about sexual immorality and all sorts of impurity, and what if I was a thief, and what I’ve done these horrible wicked things, and dishonored, what if I’ve torn up Bibles before, what if I’ve hated God’s people, and I’ve done the most wicked and foul, and abominable things?’ Listen, Jesus Christ when He left Heaven, He came down here to seek and save sinners (Luke 19:10). And if you’re a sinner, He came to seek people just like you. Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, we read earlier in chapter 5 (Romans 5:6). You say, ‘that suits me, I’m ungodly.’ Well, that’s who He came to save. And look, if He came and said, ‘There’s no hell, you can stay here forever.’ That would be glorious, that would be unspeakable, that would be undeserved, that would be mercy and grace which would be incomprehensible. But that’s not what He does. He comes along and He says, ‘I will forgive all your sins, and I will take you to be with Me in the paradise of God, and I will seat you on My Father’s throne with Me, and you will reign with Me, and you will be My wife. I will make you My bride, and I will take you to Myself, to be with Me forevermore, and you will come into the family of God, you will be a son of the Most High. He will be My God and He will be your God’ (Revelation 21:3, 7). He will take us into such glory and not only that, He will transform us into the same image as Himself (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is the kind of salvation that He offers. But only through this One man (Acts 4:12).
