that old fella said that'll do
when the world's on fire what a blessing is that working a little more i asked your forgiveness
for my preaching generally for the content but the fact that
sometimes i get quiet when i preach because i get the I don't know,
I guess it's in a conversational mode, and I feel like me and
you sitting across the room in the living room, and I'm talking
to you. So he wired me up so you could actually hear what
I have to say, which may not be a blessing. I want to thank John for inviting
me. Always amazing. Anybody who invites
me to preach, if they invite me to preach twice, it's really
amazing. But I'm thankful to see my friends again that I haven't
seen so long. To see old Donnie, old D.B.,
old Bullethead, my friends. To see all y'all. Some of you
started out when I was preaching back then as young children and
now y'all grown up. That's a blessing. Still under
the gospel. Romans chapter five. Title of the message is Most
Surely Believed, Romans Chapter 5, we re going to read verses
1 through 11. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith. into His grace wherein
we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when
we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath to For if, when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And
not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have received the Atonement or the Reconciliation."
And these words address and proclaim the wonder of God-given faith. Many years ago, Henry Mann told
me he wrote a book on faith, took it to the publisher, and
the publisher said, It's a good book, but folks just aren't interested
in that sort of thing. They want to know about the beast
with ten horns and ten eyes, that's what they want to know
about. These words, in fact, cannot
be received apart from God-granted faith, if you are reading along
with me, and when they are truly considered, we can understand
the world s adverse reaction to true God-given faith, the
faith of God s elect, the world in its natural state, its inborn,
innate religion, THINKS THAT THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT IS UTTER
FOOLISHNESS. Now the world does not consider
ALL FAITH TO BE FOOLISH, just the faith of the elect.
The believing sinner does not desire, seek after, and does
not offer any other proof that he believes, or what he believes,
except that God said it, Thus saith the Lord, or it is written.
If it is written, faith believes it, though the believer may not
even be able to explain it, just as Donnie was saying. The Trinity,
go ahead, people write books on that. God manifests in the
flesh. The Word made flesh in dwelling
among us. THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE PREACHED
WORD IN THE SALVATION OF A MAN'S SOUL. How does that work? We get up and we talk and we
tell you what God says over and over again, and I've seen people
come and sit for a long time and leave and never see their
faces again, and others, something wondrous happens. It ain't me. I didn't do anything. I can't
do nothing. You don't want me to save you.
because then I'd have to keep you, and I can't even keep myself. God being made, or Christ being
made sin, He's right, I'm baffled, I'm blown away by that. I have
some friends who think they can explain that, but I can't. And I'm kind of convinced, that's why God give us faith.
because we can't explain nothing the believer knows that he did
not generate faith he didn't come up with the idea and was
completely amazed when he found he had it I can remember well the night
O.W.R. Cruz was preaching and I was a Calvinist preacher and
I give you a hard time when I preach I straighten you out and God calls His Word to find PURCHASE in my heart. And one second I wasn't a believer,
and the next second I was a believer. One second you couldn't convince
me of any of that stuff, And the next second you couldn t
convince me that it wasn t so! Faith is a WONDROUS thing! It s a WONDROUS thing! The world
cannot accept that faith is sovereignly disseminated
by God as a free gift. RELIGION BELIEVES FAITH TO BE
A RESPONSE TO AN OFFER OR DECISION OR PARTAKING IN AN AVAILABLE
COMMODITY WHICH BY THEIR GREAT WISDOM OF THEIR OWN CONSUMMATE
INTELLECT AND THEIR OH-SO CEREBRAL DECISION CAN EXERCISE THEIR OWN
WILL AND THAT THEIR OWN PROWESS CAN EMBRACE OR REJECT THE GOSPEL. RELIGION ASSERTS THAT THEY EXERCISED
FAITH flexed their decision-making deltoids and pumped up muscles,
and they already had those, so it didn t take much effort. Such
folks cannot accept and cannot even mentally process that a
believer did not come up with his own faith because their experience
tells them that they surely came up with theirs. And that's why even some who
have embraced the truth of the sovereign grace of God and salvation
still want to hold on to a religious experience that transpired before
they heard the truth. Old Donnie said one time, a man
will give you his wife, his house, his car, and his home, but he
won't give up that old profession. He won't give that up. SUCH HAVE NO TROUBLE DENYING
THE DOCTRINE THEY EMBRACED BEFORE THEY HEARD THE GOSPEL, BUT SUFFER
GREAT ANGST IN LETTING GO OF WHEN THEY SUPPOSEDLY BEGAN TO
BELIEVE. FALSE FAITH, listen very carefully,
FALSE FAITH, and I know this because I exercised it for a
long time, FALSE FAITH IS A TRUE EXPERIENCE, and a true experience
cannot be denied even if the experience did not result in
the believing of the truth i had a ton of experiences didn't you
yes oh man i was a i would i could write a book on the experiences
i had religious experiences tearful experiences emotional experiences
loving experiences crying experiences had all kind of experiences we
were talking last night about the about walking down an aisle,
about somebody telling somebody, was it you Becky who was telling
me about some fella who used to chase her around church and
say, you need to walk the aisle. We used to call that gang saving.
You need to walk down that aisle and I told her I can remember
and I walked back behind that pew and I put my hands on the
pew and I said, I can remember him saying, you stand there with
your knuckles all white and I pressed and there there's white. And
I said, time to go. And down I trotted that aisle,
they shook my hand and told me that I was saved, and told me
never to doubt it. I was 12 years old, and I didn't doubt it until
I got to the front porch, and there was a real pretty girl
standing there, and I began to wonder. I had experience. Don't doubt
a person when they say they had an experience, because they had
one. But true faith embraces the truth of the gospel. The
gospel. True faith embraces what is said
according to scripture. It is not given to a person until
he or she actually hears the truth. Scripture declares that you believed
after you heard the word of truth. After you heard the word of truth. And it doesn't even tell you
what the word of truth was. I like it when that happens.
didn't leave you hanging you believed after you heard the
word of truth the gospel the good news of what of your personal
possessive pronoun of your salvation you mean when i heard the gospel
i heard that i was saved that's what i heard I didn t hear I
had to do something. I heard some good news. What?
My salvation? That s what the gospel tells
you. It doesn t tell you to do something, or you might be something,
or give you a possibility or a probability. It tells you something. It s good news! It s a REPORT! It s a RECORD! And the record
is this when you hear it, God saved me 2,000 years ago! I didn t know nothing about Faith comes by HEARING, and hearing
by the Word, that's one of those miracles. And those who come
to Christ by faith and in faith do so because God Himself has
taught them. They shall all be taught of the
Father, and those that have learned of the Father come to Jesus Christ.
Faith is the experience of grace, and the only evidence of it of
grace and it's given in vital union with the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for, the substance of things not seen. Without faith it's
impossible to please God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on Him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? So then faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is also the beginning of
obedience to God. God has commanded men to believe
and has given the elect the faith to do that. Never think that
obedience comes from any other aspect of life of the Child of
God than the living principle of God-given faith in His life.
BY FAITH THE CHILD OF GOD UNDERSTANDS, BY FAITH THE CHILD OF GOD LOVES,
BY FAITH THE CHILD OF GOD ACTS, BY FAITH THE CHILD OF GOD OBEYS.
THE ENIGMA OF FAITH, THAT WHICH THE WORLD DOES NOT AND CANNOT,
IS MOST CLEARLY SEEN IN THE THINGS THAT THE BELIEVER IS ABSOLUTELY
SURE OF. You sure of some things this
morning, wasn't you? The fellow said to a fellow one
time, I don't believe in absolutes. And he said, are you sure? And
he said, absolutely. Peter, when all the disciples
began to leave the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, will you
leave also? He said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word
of life, and we are sure and believe, no. WE BELIEVE AND ARE
SURE THAT THOU ART THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD. First thing is the believer believes
according to verse 1 that he's been justified. Therefore being
justified by faith, being justified by faith. Now this does not need
defending and it certainly doesn't need explaining or explaining
away, this is the TRUTH, and the world will never get what
it means. Paul has not come to this place without explaining
several things because you have the word THEREFORE, you see,
and you have to look and see why it s THEREFORE. It s THERE
for the first four chapters. That s what it s THERE for. In
chapters 1 and 2, in the first 23 verses of chapter 3, Paul declares in no uncertain
terms that man is not justified by anything that he thinks or
anything he does. In chapter 1 he declares that
the gospel first of all concerns the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of David. Secondly, in verse chapter 1
he declares that the gospel is the power of God and salvation
to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
And there in that gospel, in that blessed good news, that
wondrous report that God has THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED. WHERE? FROM FAITH TO FAITH. In the latter part of that chapter,
he shows the end of the Gentiles' pagan mind, REPROBATION. That's
a wondrous passage of Scripture if you care to read it. REPROBATION. In that passage it seems to be
that it's a process that they end up being where they actually
know that God's going to judge them and they don't care anyway.
What a state of mind to know that God's going to judge me
but I'm going to do what I want to do anyway. But there's other
parts of Scripture that seem to indicate that reprobation
is ordained. Some men are appointed to it,
ordained with this old condemnation. You say, well you believe in
double predestination. No I don't, I believe in one. And one is
enough. If God does it, In chapter 2 he shows the end
of the religious mind, the Jewish mind, self-righteousness by the
law, excusing and accusing one another or accusing one another.
In the first 23 verses of chapter 3 he concludes everybody Jew
and Gentile alike under sin and reveals the utter depravity of
man and his condemnation by the law from which he cannot escape. The latter part of chapter 3
makes it plain that man is justified freely, that is, without a cause,
in himself by the grace of God through the substitutionary work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that part of that work was the
giving of faith to trust in His blood. Faith in His blood, 324. He who performed it through faith
in His blood. He concludes that a man is justified
by faith without the deeds of the law, and that senses by faith
that there is no place for boasting. And in chapter 4, Paul declares
that Abraham, the father of the faithful, was counted righteous
by ceasing from his works. Quit working, you re righteous
and trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ alone. CHAPTER FOUR FURTHER EXPANDS
THE FACT THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS NOT COMPUTED TO ABRAHAM BY
THE LAW OR CIRCUMCISION BECAUSE HE WAS DECLARED RIGHTEOUS BEFORE
HE WAS CIRCUMCISED. WHEN WAS HE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS?
WHEN HE OFFERED UP ABEL? NOT WHEN HE OFFERED UP ISAAC?
NO. WHEN HE LEFT THE EARTH CALDES? WHEN WAS HE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS?
GOD TOOK HIM OUT AND SAID LOOK AT THIS STAR. Count them, I can't do that.
He said your seed's gonna be like that, your seed. And he
believed God concerning the seed. And it was accounted to him for
righteousness. Galatians makes that clear. He
didn't say seeds, Paul said, he said the seed, which is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to say that when
Christ rose from the dead, all for whom He died were justified.
So we are justified by faith, and now we are justified by the
Resurrection. He was raised for our justification, chapter 4,
verse 25. He then begins chapter 5 with
the Declaration of Assurance. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. Some might say things like, Well,
it is by grace. by resurrection? Yes! By blood? Yes! Some might even say it has
an eternal application. Yes! Here's a lesson for you, it's
free, it won't cost you a penny. The Gospel is a pie! It's not
a pie chart! It's not! Don't go taking this
a little bit and saying this is what the gospel is, that's
just part of the gospel, just part of the gospel. People say,
I don't believe in eternal justification. Okay, you won't get mad about
it. If you don't believe it, that's
all right. But let me tell you if you don't believe in eternal
justification, that it absolutely has nothing to do with what happened
2,000 years ago, your belief in eternal justification or not. Christ accomplished salvation
2,000 years ago, and your little petty idea and my little petty
idea of theology don't count for a hoot. The message is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul is simply saying, Therefore
we are justified by faith. He is saying to the believers
simply this, I believe that I am justified by the work of Christ.
That's what faith believes. That's what it means when you
heard the good news of the gospel. Your faith said, I was justified. I was justified. Faith is the
experience of salvation, the experience of knowing that you've
been where you could not have been. Knowing that you have done what
you could not do and never have done. Knowing that you have died
when you did not die. KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE LIVED PERFECTLY
BEFORE GOD, BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW IT, IS THE
EXPERIENCE OF HAVING NEVER SINNED, WHEN YOU KNOW THAT ALL YOU DO
IS SIN. THE BELIEVER SEES THAT CHRIST'S
WORK IN ELECTION AND SUBSTITUTION, REDEMPTION, CALLING, JUSTIFICATION
ARE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY IN ITS OWN CASE, AND FULLY ACCOMPLISHED
FOR HIM BY JESUS CHRIST. before he ever knew anything
about it, and he believes it. The believer is sure that he
has peace with God, that's what it says. Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace with God, that's no small thing. Through Christ, that is to say
by His blood and righteousness, by His justice-satisfying sacrifice,
the believer has peace with God. THERE IS NO ADVERSARIAL RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN GOD AND HIS CHILDREN. THE BELIEVER DOES NOT HAVE A
SLAVISH SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR THAT GOD IS WAITING AROUND THE CORNER
TO THUMP HIM ON THE NOGGIN. WHEN HE DOES SOMETHING BAD, HE
IS ALWAYS DOING SOMETHING BAD. He sees God as his dear, gracious
Father who delights to dandle him upon his knee, who delights
in him and welcomes him into his presence It says, with exceeding
joy and singing, and all manner of concupiscence
is set aside. When all else around him falls
apart, when nations war against nations, and crime and hatred
and bitterness fill the air, the child of God has peace. down
deep in his soul. Peace with the Holy God all day,
every day. The believer does not fear judgment
because as God's Son is, so are we in the world, it says. We
don't fear the judgment. Why would we? We've been judged.
It's already taken care of. God fired the bullets, but Christ
stood between us and the gun. The result of that wonderful
transaction is that the believer is declared righteous, declared
righteous, even made to be so. For of God are you in Jesus Christ,
who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. I m not sure how many times it says we re
righteous, but it does say we re righteousness! That s kind
of an essential thing, isn t it? WONDER OF WONDERS! I believe that! FAITH BELIEVES
THAT! BELIEVES THAT! THE BELIEVER IS
SURE THAT THERE IS NOTHING BETWEEN
HIM AND GOD BUT MERCY AND GRACE AND KINDNESS AND SWEETHEART LOVE! The believer is sure that by
Jesus Christ and through Him, he has a perfect standing with
God in the grace wherein he stands. This assures him that he may
come there ALWAYS and find sufficient grace for whatever his need might
be. The sovereign grace of God, the
sovereign, loving, irresistible, effectual grace of God meets
every need. Everywhere in this world, in
every circumstance, in every second of every day the believer
has access into the grace wherein he stands. And what does that
mean? You not only have the grace of God, you can walk around in
it. The believer is sure that in
the worst of times the greatest tribulations result in him having
the greatest hope and glory. That makes no sense, but that's what it says. And
not only so, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations
work with patience. Patience, experience, and experience
hope. This flies in the face of human
reason, but it's one of the cornerstones of God-given faith. When the
believer goes through a great trial, he may feel that the burden
is too great, the pain is awful, and we've been through trials
like that, unbearable! But he finds that the grace to
sustain him is always there, and when he's finished, you know
what he does? He says, thank you, Lord, for that. I needed
that. The believer is sure that the
hope he has will never result in shame or confusion. This hope
will never bring you to shame. This hope is a sure expectation. It's not a wish or a pipe dream
or a presumption that can be demolished by circumstance, or
that can be deceived or disappointed it's a confident expectation
the believer is sure that this hope is based on the fact that
God loves him what a wonderful thought and that love is proved
by the indwelling of God's Spirit I can't prove that's true I can't I say I'm a spiritual man you
just want to slap me if I said that Would you? We don't say things like that,
but we know God loves us because He's given us His Spirit. And
we can't define that, explain it, or show it to anybody else.
And if you've got it, you know it. I don't know if you've got
it, but you know if you've got it. What a thing. That language is
sweet and poetic. The love of God is shed abroad
in the believer's heart. Shed abroad. REACHING THE DEEPEST
RECESS, ENWRAPPING AND ENVELOPING AND CONSUMING AND ESTABLISHING
THE HEART. THE BELIEVER KNOWS THIS BECAUSE
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GIVEN TO HIM. NO MAN KNOWS NOR CAN LAY CLAIM
TO THE LOVE OF GOD UNLESS THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN HIM.
LET THE FAITHLESS WORLD RELIGION SPEAK OF THE UNIVERSAL LOVE OF
GOD. THEY WONT DO. THEY BOAST OF THAT
WHICH IS A MERE FIGMENT OF THEIR DEPRAVED IMAGINATION. THERE IS
NO GENERAL LOVE OF GOD, THERE IS NO GENERAL LOVE EVER ANYWHERE! Donnie tells Shirley, I love
you, sweetheart, and all the other women in the world. And as soon as his eyes stop
swelling, he'll be able to see her clearly. The believer is sure that God
loves him because God has given him His Spirit. And where the
Spirit of God dwells, The love of God dwells. And where the
Spirit of God does not dwell, the love of God does not dwell. Where the Spirit of God indwells
the child of God, it's shed abroad in his heart. The very love of
God. He has hope. He has peace. It's a wonderful thing to be
loved. It's a wonderful thing. THE BELIEVER IS SURE THAT THERE
IS NOTHING ABOUT HIM OR IN HIM THAT COULD RECOMMEND HIM TO GOD.
HE'S SURE OF THAT. HE KNOWS THAT. HE SAYS IN VERSE
6, AND WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU
HAD SOME STRENGTH, YOU DIDN'T HAVE NONE. WHO DOESN'T HAVE NO
STRENGTH? DEAD PEOPLE. THEY DON'T HAVE
NO STRENGTH. WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH,
IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. FOR THE UNGODLY. THE BELIEVER IS SURE OF THAT.
sure of that nothing about him could cause God to love him or
to send his son to die in his room instead nothing about it
he even sort of explains that in verse 6 he says in verse 7
he says for scarcity for a righteous man one might one wouldn't die
scarcely now we know some righteous people people it's always right
we don't like those people we don't want to be around those
people And I'm not going to die for
one, but somebody might. That's what he said. And for
a good man, someone might perventure to do it. We know some good people.
People that don't know Christ. We know that as far as the world
is concerned, natural people, people that help us out, people
that are generous, people are philanthropic. We know that.
And some, because they're good people, somebody might actually
give their life for them. There's that wonderful little
conjunction. There was an interpreter at the U.N. who was listening
to one of his enemies speak, and it was a government person,
and he was talking to the interpreter, and the interpreter, he said
to the interpreter, Don't bother with what this guy says. But
when he says the word, but, tell me what he said just before that
and just after that, because those are opposite things. scarcely
will one die for a righteous man, perventure some would die
for a good man but the opposite this is true God commendeth his
love toward us that while we were yet sinners Christ died
for us my soul when Christ died for
him he was without strength dead in trespasses and sin he was
ungodly God-hater And the believer is absolutely sure that he does
not meet any qualification that might cause anyone, much less
the Son of the Most High, to give his life for Him. It's a
wonder! It's a wonder! God's love is
the love of grace, and the grace of love, because when Christ
died, He died for sinners. You can't merit God's love. In fact, God gives it because
you don't merit it. That doesn't make any sense either,
does it? But faith believes it. The believer
is sure that he shall be saved from the wrath to come because
Christ's blood justified him before God. It says that in verse
9, Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall
be saved from the wrath to come. We are justified. We are justified. No wrath is due the guiltless.
No, no judgment is due the innocent, no vengeance is due the righteous,
and the believer is sure that he's not the friend of God. He was not the friend of God
when God reconciled him. I wasn't a friend of God. That's
what it says. For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. Reconciled to God by the death
of His Son. That's what it says in Colossians
1, 2. He made peace through the blood of His cross and reconciled
us to God. God doesn't need to be reconciled
to us. He ain't done nothing wrong, but we need to be reconciled
to Him. Well, that was accomplished on
the cross of Calvary. This is assurance. Before faith,
before birth, and before the new birth, the elect were reconciled
to God by Christ. I was born in this world, I didn't
know it, and I'm just crazy enough to believe it. Before I was born
in this world, I was already reconciled to God. And while
I walked this earth as an enemy of God, as an ungodly man, as
one who's dead in trespasses and sin, I was reconciled to
God. I had no idea. fella stood up on his hind legs,
and he told me the good news. And one thing I found out, I
was reconciled to God! There's not a problem between
God and I! No problems! What a wonderful thing! What
a wonderful thing! The gospel which the believer
believes reveals to the sinner that all is well between him
and his God because of what Christ accomplished on the The gospel
reveals what God has wrought since we are reconciled to God
by the death of Christ, as we most assuredly be saved by His
life, His resurrection, and His ascension, and His intercession,
ever-living to make intercession for us. Jesus Christ's life was
wonderful before His death. It was an unbelievable life.
He knew no sin. He thought no evil thought. He
did everything He did for somebody, a totally selfless creature.
He was totally selfless, he did what he did for the praise of
God and for the good of his people. He didn't do anything for himself.
Twice in scripture he said he pleased not himself. He pleased not himself. But let me tell you, that life
as precious and as beautiful and as immaculate as it was did
not save you. that made him the perfect sacrifice. So we're not saved by his life
and his death, we're saved by his death and his life. He died
in our room instead and paid the debt we owed God, the debt
that Shakespeare said we all owe God one death. And he paid
that debt for us, and when he rose from the grave, we were
justified. The believer knows that he enjoys
a true relationship of love and grace with the God of glory.
That s what it says in verse 11, And not only so, but we also
have joy in God, joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have received this reconciliation, or this atonement, or atonement
as one man said. What I m talking about this morning
is the experience of this miracle and i think it's a miracle it
is miraculous to me this miracle called faith god-given faith
that'll make people like you believe the most unbelievable
things god bless you