TRANSCRIPT: The Sinner's Flight From Reality pt 3

The Sinner's Flight From Reality pt 3

Pastor L.R. Shelton, March 5, 1967, www.radiomissions.org

In the first place, let's notice some characters who reaped no benefit
from the death and resurrection of Christ. Let me call your attention
first to the SELF-RIGHTEOUS, Christ said, "I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance: the whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick." Are you a sinner? Do you see yourself as a
sinner? Then Christ came to call you to repentance. The self-righteous
know nothing of the benefits of the death and resurrection of
Christ. They have their own reward, They glory in themselves. A sinner
glories in Christ.

Then there are the WISE and PRUDENT who see no beauty in Christ,
because they are wise in their own conceit, The Word of God says, "Woe
unto them that are Wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
sight!" (Isa, 5:21). To these the mysteries of God are hid, A sinner
facing reality comes to know nothing; he sees himself as nothing. He
sees his need of a Substitute, and that all he will ever have or ever
know is tied up in Christ, To the born-again believer everything that
he knows, or ever will know, is found in Christ. To know himself is to
be driven to despair unless he knows Christ, Let me tell you
something, sinner - if God should open your heart right now, Wherever
you are, and let you see yourself as you are without hope, without
Christ, it would drive you literally to despair, and you would become
a raving maniac. That's what hell is. That's what hell will be
throughout eternity - awakened sinners with no hope! Then they face
reality with no hope. But deep down in your heart, as God opens it and
shows you the awful spiritual, bankrupt condition you are in, there is
at the bottom a hope that you will get to Christ - there is a hope
that Christ died for such a sinner as you. Conviction and repentance
are sweetened with the cross of Christ.

Then there are THOSE WHO TRUST IN AND BOAST OF THE LIGHT OF NATURE,
They are WORLDLY-WISE. They are always talking about what they can do,
what they are, what they have done, where they have been, what they
know, etc. They try to impress the world with their importance. Christ
said, speaking of this type, "If ye were blind, ye should not have
sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John
9:41), The Pharisees had never faced reality - they did not want to
face reality. When you try to be true to such an individual, and try
to get him to face reality, he'll get mad with you. He thinks that you
don't love him, that you have it in for him, Usually he is toucheous
[sic] on some one point, and when you hit that sore spot, he'll
run. It's because he is unwilling to face reality and be broken at the
feet of Christ that he might enter into the benefits of the Gospel,
Christ said, "I am sent unto the lost sheep... The Son of man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost... If our gospel be hid, it is
hid to them who are lost... blinded by the god of this world." Are you
lost? Are you a lost sinner?

There are those Who are alive under the Law while sin is dead in them
- sin has never been revived. They can sit and listen to Gospel
preaching and never be moved. Many of them love Gospel preaching - the
stronger the better, but they have never been awakened to their
danger. If the Holy Spirit moves their heart the least bit, they will
stay away from the preaching for awhile until all is settled. Christ
came to save the condemned - those under damnation, those who realize
they are condemned to die. Christ pardons only guilty sinners. Are you
guilty? The sinner must know that he is guilty, acknowledge that he is
guilty, take his place as a guilty sinner before he can be
pardoned. Such a sinner ceases to fight back. He becomes as docile as
a little lamb and he rests there with one cry, "Oh, where can I find
Him? I've got to find Christ." There's a thirst; there's a hunger;
there's a longing; he's like a man who is out on the desert dying of
thirst, he's crying, "Water! Water! Water!" That sinner's crying,
"Christ! Christ! Oh, Where is He? I've got to get to Him. I'm
condemned to die. I'm a sinner; I'm lost!" There's no fighting back in
him; his mouth is shut; he has become guilty before God. That sinner
will be saved. Yes, he will.

Now let's notice briefly THOSE WHO BENEFIT by the death and
resurrection of Christ. First, those who are dead in trespasses and
sine, but who hear His voice. "They that hear shall live" (John 5:25),
"You hath he quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and
sins" (Eph. 2:1). Yes, those who are condemned at the bar of justice,
condemned by their own conscience, those who feel the curse as a
transgressor of the Law, those who feel the weight and burden of their
sin, those who are damned as unbelievers of the Gospel. None but such
souls as these ever hunger after Christ or thirst after the
righteousness of Christ, because they alone see their own
unrighteousness, and feel and know their need of a covering. What
covering do you have for your sin, my friend? Has the Lord God ever
passed by you and said, "Live"? Have you ever felt the arrows of God
striking deep into your soul? Have you ever faced the fact that you
are condemned to die, and that justly? Have your unrighteousness and
uncleanness ever been so manifest, or revealed to your heart, until
you have cried out for the righteousness of Christ? Then has God ever
passed by you and spread His skirt over you and covered your
nakedness? Just let me probe your heart. If He has not covered you
With His righteousness, is there a deep desire in your heart that you
can't give up, you can't let go, and you don't want to let go until
God spreads His skirt of righteousness over you? Is that your
condition, my sinner friend? Then you are facing reality, and you are
walking down the way of grace.

Then those who are MEEK also enter into the benefits of the
Gospel. Christ said, "He hath sent me to preach good tidings unto the
meek" (Isa,61:1, Luke 4:18). The meek are the only ones who will hear
the good tidings or the Gospel. Only the soul that is bowed down
through grief and anguish and trouble and distress - only the soul
that is so dismayed and dejected that he cannot bear a harsh word
because his spirit is sunk so low through continual Sorrow of heart
and grief of mind - will listen to the Gospel, They want
deliverance. They want the comfort, the peace, the pardon, the
deliverance of the Gospel. Yes, those Who are broken by the cutting
convictions of God's Word - they who are broken by the cutting
conscience - they who are broken by the terrors of the Law - they who
are broken by the accusations of Satan - they who are broken by the
reproaches of those who are at ease, will know the binding up of their
broken hearts by the hand of the Lord Jesus when He pours oil and wine
of the Gospel into their wounded hearts - the oil, the grace of God
for healing; the wine, the joy of the Gospel.

My friend, do you know What it means for the Lord Jesus to stoop over
you and bind up that broken heart, pour in the oil of the grace of God
and the wine of joy, the comfort of the Gospel, and take you in His
arms and bear you on His shoulders, saying, "This is My sheep which
was lost, but now is found"? Oh, that everyone were broken at His feet
this hour and knew the benefits of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ.