True Gospel - Pt6 - Acceptance in the Beloved — Paul Washer

Father, we come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, and our hearts are full of thanksgiving, our hearts are full of praise. What more could we ask of you, Lord, that you have not already done for us?

We praise you and we worship you and we honor you, we bless you. We are so feeble, Lord, and so small and so tired. You are such a great God, such a merciful Savior, such a blessed Redeemer, Giver of life.

Oh, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. There is none like Him in the heavens or the earth or under the earth. To Him be all the glory, honor, and praise forever and ever. In Jesus' name. Lord, I ask for wisdom.

Ask for wisdom. And that you would pour forth your Spirit on your people. Oh, God, fulfill the promises, Lord. Pour forth your Spirit on your people. In greater and greater measure, Lord, in greater and greater measure.

Oh, Lord, you've made some hearts tender. Pour forth your Spirit upon them. Get glory for yourself, Lord. Bring to fruition, Lord, the fruit you have ordained before the foundation of the world. Oh, God, for your own glory, for the honor of your Son, and for the joy of your people.

Testing Profession by Persevering Faith

In Jesus' name. Amen. I am so wonderfully happy in the Lord today for all His kindness that He has shown to us in so many ways. You know that the past several days I have been preaching very hard certain truths that cut to the core.

They are quite necessary. We are filled in this day with a multitude of men and women and young people that attend, that enter into ecclesiastical buildings, but do not know the Lord. They do not know the Lord.

And I have been speaking to people who profess Christ and who have been led by men who do not know the truth to believe that if they just prayed a magic prayer, then they were sign sealed and delivered for heaven and that they were going to heaven and that nothing could take away from that and that no one could cast doubt upon their profession.

And I've tried to demonstrate that that is not true. That salvation is purely a work of the grace of God that we are saved by faith alone, but that salvation is a supernatural work of God. And it will always bear fruit.

Always bear fruit. And that our assurance of salvation does not come from the fact that we wrote our name in the back of our Bibles on the day that we prayed a prayer. Our assurance of salvation is an ongoing thing.

As the Lord works in our lives and manifests Himself and produces fruit, and as we grow from glory to glory and from holiness to greater holiness, but also His salvation and the fact of our eternal life is manifested that when we do stumble and we do fall, it is against our nature.

It breaks our hearts. It wounds our heads. And the Lord in His everlasting love, with this strong ancient love with which He has loved us, always will come and retrieve us back. He is a zealous God. And He does not come to His children in wrath.

He comes to His children in love and in hope. But He will come. And that is the line that differentiates the love of God from even His hatred. Let me give you an example. In the Bible He says, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.

Now if you look at the life of Esau, God blessed him. God poured out many blessings, fulfilled many promises with regard to His person. And yet in Scripture we hear one of the most devastating statements.

It says that Esau I hated. Esau was so wealthy, so blessed by God, that when Jacob came back into the promised land, Esau needed nothing from him. His bags were full. So how is it that God loved Jacob and hated Esau?

Well it is very clear. And this will help you again to determine whether or not you truly know Him. And He truly knows you. If you look at Jacob's life, he could not escape God. Do you realize that? Do you see all the things he did?

How conniving he was. How fleshly he was. How many decisions he made that were against the will of God. How many things he did that were so wrong. But in every one of those God captured him. God would not let him go.

God disciplined him. Yes, God even beat him. To the point when he came back into the promised land, he came back literally a cripple. From the working of God in his life, we find no such thing in the life of Esau.

Have you ever wondered why the wicked prosper? Because they do not belong to God. They are not His children. He lets them run like a wild dog in the yard. But if you know Him, if He knows you, if you are His child, He will not tolerate such things with you.

Not a toleration of hatred, not a intoleration of wrath, but an intoleration of love. He will come after you. What would you think of a man who had a 13 year old daughter that he allowed to wander the streets all night and come in every morning at 6 in the morning, drunken and beaten and having lived a night of sin?

What would you think of a man who would allow his daughter to do that? His tiny daughter every day. You would call him a derelict father. You would call him a beast. You would call him a devil. Dear friend, never make the same accusation against God.

Preachers and people today speaking of men and women and young people in churches and on Christian campuses and claiming them to be children of God, that they have a Heavenly Father that watches over them, and yet, what do you see?

They run in the streets. They do all manner of things and this Father never comes for them. But now let's look at you for a moment. Have you ever marveled at the fact that you could not escape Him? Have you ever marveled at the fact that if you wanted to get in your car, turn on the keys, and go as far away from God as you possibly could get, He was there when you got there, turning you back.

Then on the least little thing, He seems to be into your life, working. This is a manifestation of salvation. Sometimes when I preach, you might have a tendency to believe that I'm even talking about perfectionism.

I am talking about no such thing. Matter of fact, the greatest evidence that you have truly been born again, that you have truly been born again, that you are humble and contrite before God, and you tremble at His Word, and you recognize His need, your need of Him.

Tonight there are one billion things that I want to share because these are good things. I'm talking tonight to the children of God. These are good things to share. Happy, happy good news. And I know that I've started off with a very sad spirit in a sense because I know that no matter what I do, I'm not going to be able to do justice to what ought to be done.

The Humble Heart God Esteems

But that the Lord would use pitiful words to somehow encourage your heart as a believer here tonight, that you would be encouraged. Now, one of the first things that I want to do is turn to Isaiah 66 verse 2, the verse that I just quoted.

We're going to go to a lot of different places and I'm going to break a lot of preaching rules tonight, but that's okay. I am so happy in the Lord. In Isaiah 66 verse 2, my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord.

Now, what is he saying here and why is he saying it? You have to understand this by verse 1. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house that you could build for me?

We so often think, especially in Southern Baptist life and conservative Baptists and others, salvation refers to doing, doing, doing. Alright, now we're saved to serve. We're saved to do this. I don't believe any of that.

Because look what we have in verse 1. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house that you could build for me? And where is the place that I may rest? How often throughout the Scriptures God says, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you.

I own a cattle on a thousand hills. And He says God does not dwell in temples made by human hands. And He also says God is, He literally says, God is not served by human hands. You see, what you need to understand is that you've been called into something.

Yes, the Bible calls us slaves and we do not want to take away from that. But at the same time, you are not just slaves. You are sons. And you are daughters. And He did not save you so that you could do something for Him.

He saved you so that He could show how great the works would be that He would do for you. Let me share with you what you will always be. You'll never outgrow this and you'll never get better than this.

And to be honest with you, I don't want to get better than this. You will never be anything except a recipient of God's grace, of God's undeserved favor. God has orchestrated everything He has orchestrated to manifest His greatness and His power and the infinite amount of His love in saving you.

Now, here's something that's very, very special. In verse 2, He says, For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look. Now, this phrase is very, very important.

The idea, especially Old Testament, the Jewish literature, to this one I will look. This may be properly translated this one I will esteem. Now, stop for a moment. This is a strange word. Let me speak to you something for a moment about the greatness of God.

That's one of the problems in our churches today is we don't know enough about the attributes of God. One of the attributes of God is His beauty. Possibly you've never thought about that. His excellencies, His perfections.

Now, here's something that you need to understand. God is so beautiful, so perfect, and so excellent, there is never a reason for Him to take His eyes off of Himself. That is why God's never had a need.

If someone ever tells a child God created them because He was lonely, they blasphemed. That's not true. See, God is so beautiful, so holy, so excellent, so perfect, that for Him to take His eyes off of Himself to look at any other thing is condescension.

It's for example, if I was looking at, let's say there was a tour of Monet in Chicago and I went to see one of my favorites, the water lilies or Renoir or something. And I'm sitting there looking at it and you're sitting there and you walk up and say, hello, Brother Paul.

Hello. Hello. And you start drawing a stick man. And you say, Brother Paul? Yes. I've drawn something. That's nice. For me to bow my eyes from such a work to look at a stick man, it just doesn't add up in the equation.

Throughout all of eternity, God has been perfectly and completely full and satisfied by looking at Himself. His reflection in the face of His Son. Totally and perfectly content. But look at this. He says He will turn His eyes away to this one I will look.

You know, people talk about great acts of faith. Raising the dead and walking across water and all sorts of things. In my life as a missionary, I have seen God do many, many things. Supernatural things.

Healing people. Many things. Usually through others, but I at least got to witness it. But you know, in my opinion, what takes the greatest act of faith, what takes the greatest act of faith on the part of the believer, at least for myself, is to look in the mirror.

The mirror of God's Word. And see my stumbling. And see my failure. And see my need. And to believe His promises, the declarations about His love that He has made towards me. That He honestly and genuinely and truly and infinitely and unconditionally loves me.

From Performance to Resting in Grace

You see, I was raised in a family where if you made a 98 on a test, you should have made 100. If you scored 22 points in a basketball game, you should have scored 30. And raised under a caliber of discipline.

And when I was saved, I took that work ethic into my life with God to become another slave just to a bigger Master. That was all. And after several years in Peru, I wanted to die. But I didn't want to go to heaven and I didn't want to go to hell.

I can remember being on the third floor of this old church in Lima, Peru and crying out to God, God, if You would just create a place for someone like me where I could go and be alone with my failure and my loss and my stumbling and my sin.

I have failed You, failed You. I set out years ago to serve You as no one has ever served You before. And I have done nothing but fail and stumble. And even when I've run my best, it's been absolutely hopeless and useless.

And it was at that time with the most crushed spirit I could ever imagine. Suicidal almost. Working 18 hours a day. That all at once, the Lord showed me something that I will not give up. That He loves me.

And that everything about my life and everything about my joy and everything about my peace flows from His love towards me and not my dedication towards Him. You see, a lot of you young Christians, you know what you're struggling with and what you're going to struggle with?

Your peace and your joy. You're happy and full of peace on those days that you do your quiet time. You're happy and full of peace and full of joy and feel loved when you do things that are right, don't you?

And then when you miss one of the letters and stumble at one of the points and don't dot all the I's or cross all the T's, your peace is gone, your hope is gone, everything is gone. Do you want to know why?

You're finding your joy in your ability to deserve God's love and not finding your joy in God's unconditional love. That He loves you and that you do not have to move one quarter of an inch to the left or one quarter of an inch to the right and you don't have to be anybody.

You don't have to be a great preacher. You don't have to be a great missionary. You don't have to be a great anything when you have a great God. You just rest. You have finally come to a place where you can rest.

Where you can rest. Someone came to me a while back and said, you need to start a tape ministry and you need to do this and you need to do that and then you could have this great big ministry and do all this stuff.

And I said, but then I wouldn't have any time to go fishing. And they got really mad at me and they said, why did you say that? And I said, I didn't mean it that way, but I'm trying to prove a point. I said, I played that game.

I don't have to be big. I don't want to be big. I don't have to be important. I don't want to be important. The only thing I want to do is sit here and be loved by God and I want to obey Him, not so that He'll love me, but I want to obey Him every day as a little child because He does love me.

You don't have to climb any ladders anymore. You don't have to do anything. Now this sounds totally contradictory to everything I've said this last week, doesn't it? Do you want to know why? Because we're finally at a point now where we can sow.

You see, what you need to understand is a carnal man, a person who does not know Christ but is religious, will take news like this and they'll say, well, great. I'm saved. Let's go live like the devil.

A spiritual man, a spiritual woman, a spiritual boy and girl struggling will say, could it be that I am loved this way? Could it be that I finally pass through a door where there's no conditions? Could it be that I am completely and perfectly loved?

You know, one of the amazing things that I find about Adam and Eve is that the moment they sinned against God, they not only ran away from God, they hid from each other. And everyone has this thing about, well, they found out they were naked and all this other stuff, but I think it goes a lot deeper than that.

You see, Adam saw what he was and thought to himself, there's no way anybody would want to hold somebody like me. Eve saw what she was. She saw her filth and she said, there's no way anybody would have me anymore.

You hide. I had a very, very troubled childhood and a lot of terrible problems. And when my little boy was born, I remember God has restored unto me the years that the locusts took from me. And when my little boy was born, I just love him to death and we're always playing and I don't have time to preach or do anything anymore.

And one day I walked into the bedroom and the moment he saw me, he turned around and just went, and God spoke to me. He did. When you say that as seldom as I say it, you can say it with authority. He said, you were once like that when you were a little boy.

You had no doubt in your mind that if you stretched open your arms, that the person you were stretching out to would run to you and pick you up. Now you were beaten and you were abused and you lost that.

But now I am here and I am your Father. There will never be a time when you stretch out your arms that I will see you dirty. There will never be a time when you stretch out your arms that I will not come running to you.

There will never be a time. It doesn't matter what you do. There will never be a time. Do you understand me? Just like this little boy, not one doubt enters into his mind that his father is going to run across the floor of that bedroom and sweep him up in his arms and do a jig across the bedroom.

He has no doubt in his mind. He knows you're going to do it. I want you to know, son, that's exactly what I'm going to do for you always and unconditionally. And what does God see as beautiful? He knows our frame.

The Infinite Love of God

Have you not read Psalms 103? Let's go there for just a second. Hold your place in Isaiah. Where do you begin on this text? Verse 11, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving kindness towards those who fear Him.

Earth cannot speak of heaven. Jesus made that quite clear. Even John the Baptist, the prophet, could not speak of heaven because the only one who had seen heaven was the one who descended from heaven and that is the Son of Man.

We are talking about a love that you will spend not the rest of your life discovering. No, my dear friend, dear child of God, look at me. We are talking about a love that you will spend the rest of eternity seeking to mark out.

And even then, after a million eternity or an eternity of eternities have passed, you will still not even come close to the foothills of God's love. Do you understand that? See, so many people think, well, I always get this question in universities, well, when I get to heaven, will I know everything?

I say, no, you'll know a lot, but you won't know everything. Because you see, what we're going to know there is God. And God is infinite. You think you're going to walk up that first day and you're going to look at God and say, wow, I've seen Him now.

Well, then what's left to do? No, you see, God is infinite. He's infinite. And what that means is this, you're going to walk into heaven and you're going to see a revelation of God that you could never...

You know, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, this revelation of the love of God manifested towards you. And you are going to fall down in such ecstasy and joy and worship and pleasure that if you had not been supernaturally strengthened, it would have killed you.

And then you go to bed. Well, not really, but that's only way I can tell this story. And then the next day you get up thinking, let's go see this great God of ours. Only that when you get there, a greater manifestation awaits you and then a greater fullness and greater ecstasy and greater joy that if even the day before you had not been strengthened, hence it would have killed you again.

And that through all eternity, the only thing you're going to be doing is just seeking out the pleasures of God sitting at His table that know no end. It's never the same meal twice. It just gets bigger and bigger and better and better and better.

It's an amazing thing. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving kindness towards those who fear Him. To those who fear Him. Fear is an awful word sometimes. Like when a little boy walks up to his dad and he doesn't know what's going to happen.

It depends what's in the heart of his dad. He walks up and his dad comes and says, hello boy, and rubs him on the head. And he breathes a sigh of relief. The next morning he walks up to his dad with a little bit of confidence because of the day before and says, hey dad.

His dad takes him and smacks him against a wall. You see, that's fear because of the inconsistent wicked heart of a man. You fear them because you don't know what they're going to do with you. So many of you have such great fear about that with God.

You almost run from Him because you just don't know can His heart be as consistent as He says? Because I'm not consistent at all. I go to Him one day. I think I've done pretty good, but even then my righteousness is not all that great.

And I've got hidden sins I don't even know about. And then I go to Him another day. Will He respond the same way? And if I don't have my quiet time and I don't do this or that or this, am I going to be able to get in through the door?

Is He going to extend His scepter towards me? Or am I going to be judged for coming into His throne room unannounced? But you see, when the Bible talks about fear, it's not a bad thing for the believer.

It's not a bad thing. The word would be awe. Beauty so great. I don't know if you can understand me, but beauty so great that it makes you afraid. Love so strong that it picks you up and takes you. It takes over your life.

It engulfs you. Compassion so sweet that at first you wish you never tasted it and you want to know why because you think this is so sweet it's got to end and when it ends it will break my heart. When it changes and goes away and I don't feel it anymore, it will kill me.

I wish I had never tasted it at first. That's not the way it is with God. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see. He says, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving kindness towards those who fear Him.

You know this word loving kindness, I know that they've done the best that they can translating this word, but it doesn't work. There's no way to really translate this word. There's just not. Loving kindness doesn't do it.

Nothing does it. Just imagine if you could take... I look at this word like a big bag. A big bag filled with all the pleasures and mercies and kindnesses of God and lavished on you all of the greatness of God's disposition, all of His forgiveness, all of His kindness, all of His compassion laid at your feet, poured over your head and running down your face.

He says, as far as the east is from the west, so far He has removed our transgressions from us. Do you believe that? I so love and appreciate King David. He was a wild man. Do you realize that? Your great sin against God is not that you have too much passion.

Your great sin against God is you don't have enough passion. He was wild and sometimes awkward and sometimes like a bull in a china shop and sometimes quite disobedient. But there's one thing he seemed to grasp that God really is powerful to forgive.

He really believed it. He believed it with all his heart. And when God would forgive him, he was forgiven. It was over. I wish that some of you could come into that truth of being just free. Of being free.

But that being free, part of that comes with the humility that God grants by grace. Oftentimes, our heart condemns us. Satan condemns us. Men condemn us. I know you, Paul Washer. You're not all that. Well, I thought that was common knowledge.

You don't deserve half the benefits he's poured out on your head. Look, if you want to talk, let's talk about something new. Tell me something I don't know. Where do you get to making these great claims?

I have a great God. What is your hope? The cross of Jesus Christ where He shed His own blood for my soul and He paid it. What you need to see when He cried out, It is finished. He said that for His people.

He said that for His people. He looked right in His people's eye and He said, It is finished! This dividing wall between me and you is gone! It is gone! Talking about being raised into the heavenlies.

Do you know what I feel like? Several years ago, there was a picture, I believe, of John F. Kennedy and his little boy. John F. Kennedy is sitting in the Oval Office at the desk and his little boy is under the desk and he's sitting there playing with some toys.

That's me. That is me. And that is you. If you would just go there. Go there. Where did you learn how to pray? I listen to some of you. You're so religious. Where did you learn that? You twist your face in all sorts of things when you pray.

You even change the inflection of your voice. From whom did you learn that? I can tell who prays much. Our most gracious Heavenly Father who art in heaven, we come before you. I don't want to make fun and please forgive me if you pray like that.

But what I'm trying to say is if you walked up to me and said, Brother Paul, how are you doing? I would really be afraid of you. I really would. You'd scare me. The thing about it is, Father, here I am.

I remember when I first became a Christian and was just going out on the streets preaching and thought I was just so holy and so many different things that I was not. And there was this girl, Campus Crusade, and she would make me so mad.

Because every more I'd see her walk out and she would look at the sun, she'd go, Way to go, Dad. And I would get so mad at that irreverent little twit. She'd make me so mad. Way to go, Dad! And then I happened to read the Bible where it says, Abba, Father.

Why did you turn that into a religious term? Can I ask you? It's not a religious term. It's a cry of a child. And that's all you'll ever be. A child that can be perfectly and completely at peace. Not because you do it right.

Not because you're the big shot in the kingdom. Live at perfect peace because you are dearly and perfectly loved. Now, that's amazing. That is amazing. As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Anyone tell me how far the East is exactly from the West? Any mathematicians here? Do you see the point He's trying to make? They're gone. They are gone. One time I was sitting there reading the book of Hebrews chapter 11.

Have you ever read Hebrews chapter 11? Talking about all these good things, about all these guys. And I'm reading this over and over and I've really got a problem reading this thing. I'm going, God, You only mention all the good things.

I mean, you're talking about these guys as though they never sinned. I think God could have responded, what? You're talking about these guys as though... What sin? Well, you know... Don't bring that up.

Well, you know... What? What? As far as the East is from the West, I have removed their sin. And to not believe that... We think so many times we're humble because we believe. Well, I don't know if God has removed my sin.

Let me tell you something. You're not being humble. You are depreciating the value of the death of His perfect Son on that tree. Heifers die for you. Goats die for you. Bulls die for you. Your conscience should be troubled.

But when the precious blood of the Son of God is spilt, it's over. Because He has redeemed you, not with coins, not with pieces of silver, not even with trinkets from glory. He has redeemed you with the blood of His own Son.

You're free. You are free! Do you see that? You are free! You are loved! Verse 13,. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame.

He is mindful that we are but dust. My dear friend, there are some of you out there tonight and you think too much of men. You do. And it's going to be a stumbling block in your life. And I beg you to repent.

Let me give you a little something that the Lord taught me years ago. If you ever tell me, oh, this guy was a great man of God, I automatically know your theology is very bad. There never has been and never will be such a thing as a great man or woman of God.

The only thing there has ever been are pitiful, little, weak, faithless, frightened, silly, foolish men and women of a great and merciful God. The attribute great belongs to no one. You can't use an attribute.

Once an attribute is given to God... Let me teach you something about theology. Once an attribute is given to God, you can't give it to anyone else. There is a way in which that attribute is exclusively His.

So if God is great, no one else is. If God is good, no one else is except that He grant them His righteousness. Do you see what I'm saying? I don't want to be a great man of God. I'll tell you what I want to be.

George Mueller and the Master’s Grace

And I praise God because it's something I can be. A man of the grace of God. Now, for some of you, especially you Bible students, I want you to listen to me right now. When I was in seminary, I prayed and fasted and witnessed more than everybody and I made sure they knew it.

So proud. And I loved the idea that when I walked into the library, all the laughter stopped because holiness has arrived. I loved when men saw me tired and thought what a great servant I was. When they saw me spent in war, when they said they'd lift me up in prayer because of the great work of service I was doing for Jesus Christ.

Then one day, as all things must fall, as God must tear down idols in His children, the Lord showed me the sickening wickedness and pride of all of that. And then the Lord allowed me to read about a dear friend, a person that's become a dear friend of mine, George Mueller.

And you know what George Mueller said? He said that he never wanted anyone to see him tired. He never wanted anyone to see him worried. He never wanted anyone to see him just totally strung out because of his great service to God.

Because he was afraid that if someone saw that, they would think that his master was cruel. He wanted people to look at him and see all his flaws, not hide anything, see everything about him, but look at him and then say, what a master this man must have.

I've searched up and down, around his life. I find nothing special. And yet, his head seems to be constantly wet with the blessings of God. The joys manifested in his life, God's protection in his life, so many things, and we can't find one reason in him for all these things.

He must have such a wonderful master. Oh, let us go and seek the Lord that we might have a master as he has. Do you remember all those tapes from Hannibal that go around? When I preached there, God did some things, and a lot of guys thought that I was the Apostle Paul.

Boy, they wanted to come to Peru. God called them to come to Peru for two months to be with the Apostle Paul. When they got off that plane, they thought I walked on water. When they got back on that plane, they were praying for my salvation.

Now, to carnal people, again, they will take that and say, well, look, brother, Paul's not perfect. We can just go live in... No. You know what I'm talking about here tonight, don't you? That God's blessing is not resting upon any man because he is some kind of special person.

God's blessing rests upon men because of His Son, Jesus Christ. You always hear this statement. I know you hear it. You know, Jesus is all you need. Let me tell you something. Jesus is all you have. He's not just all you need.

He's all you have. And that is enough. That is enough. Just as the Father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him, for He knows our frame. He is mindful that we are dust.

God takes His eyes off His own glory to look at dust. God takes His hands from stars and galaxies and holds dust to His bosom. We hear nowhere of God hugging angels. We hear no place in Scripture of God embracing stars.

But you! Now you! You're quite something else, aren't you? He calls dust to life. And things that are not, He calls them to be and then embraces them. You say, boy, one day I just hope that I grow in the Lord and that will be true with me.

Hey, you just misunderstood everything I said, didn't you? From the moment my boy was born, the doctor said I need to check him. You've checked him long enough. He's mine. We've got to take him. You're not taking him anywhere.