Good morning. Okay, once again,
we're gonna continue in our study on the Book of Romans. We're in chapter one. We're going
through verses one, well, actually, chapter one, verses 18 through
32. We'll start with prayer, and
then we'll open up the Word. Father, we thank you for this
day. Lord, we ask that you would open our eyes and ears to hear
your truth. Father, we know that you are
the one who creates the seeing eye and the hearing ear. We ask
these things in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so
going back to the book of Romans, open up your Bible, Romans chapter
one, verses 18 through 32. I don't know if I'm gonna get
through all of the verses. There's a lot of ground to cover.
It's kind of a light study, I would say. So with that, let's go forward. All right, I'm using the King
James Version I like to read from. So we'll start off in verse
18. goes on to say, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath
showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
things. Wherefore, God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause
God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust one toward another, men with men, working that which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meat. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who,
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things
are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure
in them that do them." So that's the reading from the scripture
today, Romans 1, verses 18-32. So going back on this study,
I want to recap. the entire study, and I'm going
to do that every single time. That way, it's not that it's
going to make it longer and longer, but just that we always have
a base to start with. In the beginning I talked about
the gospel and what is the gospel. The gospel is the good news of
the message of Christ, of an atonement that was Purchased
for his people and his people alone at the cross as well as
before the foundation of the world Now this happened this
good news came because man fell in the garden And that's called
original sin when Adam and Eve fell we know that Eve took of
the fruit But Adam also took of it, and if you go to Romans
chapter 5 verse 14 it says nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses
and even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him that was to
come." So Adam was the first man, right? And then there's
a second Adam the scripture talks about, which is Christ. So as
a result of original sin imputed to all of mankind, there's none
good, no not one, all have sinned and felt short of the glory of
God. That's in Romans chapter 3. Man needed needed an answer. I mean, they needed help. They
were helpless. So God had came down in the form of the Son of
God, God the Son, to die for his people as a substitute and
a surety to give us a new status. Because we're still, even though
we're saved, we're still sinners. And it's nothing but the grace
of God that causes us to differ. So we have the fall. And I'm going to read those verses.
That's in Genesis chapter 2. And then chapter 2 verse 17 and
chapter 3 verse 6. So chapter 2 verse 17 says, God had given Adam and Eve a
command and he told them, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For on the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." And we know
that they didn't die immediately, like drop dead die, like Ananias
and Sapphira when they lied to God, the Holy Ghost, in Acts,
in the book of Acts. But they died spiritually. So,
I mean, this is what the fall is. It's original sin. And if
someone tells you that, you know, I'm a good person, or mankind
is good, or you have to look for the good in people, no, I
disagree with that, because the scripture says there's none good.
No, not one. And I would rather side with
God and His Word than what I think because of sentimentality's sake
or because they're a family member or a friend. It doesn't matter.
There's none good. My kids aren't good. I'm not good. My friends
aren't good. There's none good. Only God is
good. What He does is good. So since we're recapping the
original sin and the fall, the next verse I want you to look
at is Genesis 3, 6. And it says, and this is part
of the fall, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave
also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. That's what I
said earlier, Adam ate it just as well. And in God's word, he
tells us that Adam is the father of all men. We say like the federal
head, so that he represents all men. So we have the fall. However,
we also have grace and mercy. And if you go back just a couple
chapters to Genesis 1, verse 29, grace came before the fall.
Scripture says that Christ was slain before the foundation of
the world. So before God created man and
ordained the fall, he had already had an answer to all of that
for his people. Right? So go to Genesis chapter
1 verse 29. It says, And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of
all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of
a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat.
I think I messed up on that one. Let's go to chapter 6 verse 8. Which says, This is about grace. It says,
Noah found grace in the eyes of God. So grace and mercy were
already there. Before Noah did anything, he
found grace. He didn't find grace like, say
I'm looking for my keys in the house because I misplaced them,
and then I found them. When scripture talks about Noah
finding grace in the eyes of God, it's God who is gracious
and merciful to him. Because in Exodus 33, 19, he
tells Moses, So we know that grace and mercy are only given by the Father
as a gift. And He divvies it out, He dishes
it out, He has decided from eternity. Everything, it's already settled
in the heavens, the scripture says, His word. We just see it
happen in time. So because of grace and mercy,
before the fall, I mean, the fall had to happen. Everything
had to happen. It's kind of like, I'm in construction, and when
I go to a job site, they have They have a, the general contractor
and the developers, they have a picture of the finished product.
But we don't see it like that. We come in and we're, the foundation's
already built, the iron workers are putting up the steel, and
we put up our system, which is the air system. The electricians
do their thing, carpenters, framers do their thing, everyone does
their part. It's not until the end that we see it all. And it's
the same way in the Kingdom of God. We know in part, we prophesy
in part, we see in part, You know, but when that which is
perfect comes, when Christ comes and we're with Him, then we're
going to see things a lot more clearly. We're going to see it
in its totality. As I said earlier, like a construction
project, when you get to the end, you see it, and you're like,
oh yeah! You know, like those time-lapse videos where you see Him making
everything. It's the same way. Everything that happens has ever
transpired from the first day when God created the heavens
and the earth in Genesis 1-1. That's already happened in His
mind. and in His will, and for His pleasure, and His purpose.
But we see it happen in time. Why? Because He made the earth,
and then He made man out of the earth. So the earth was already
there. He's just telling us these things, and we believe them by
faith. And going on to my next point, as I recap, that's faith,
that's the gift of God. And I had Genesis 3.21 for a
faith verse, and that says, And Adam called his wife named
Eve because she was the mother of all living. But man, I'm really
out of it today. I'm messing up. But actually,
it's through verse four. through chapter four, verse five,
unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skin and clothed them. That's a picture of the righteousness
of God covering them. An animal was slain to typify
the shedding of blood, for without the shedding of blood, there's
no remission of sins. Okay, so going on to the next
verse, It says, And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is
become as one of us. If you go to that us, we know
that it's a triune God. He's not just one. He's the Father,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The
man has become as one of us, to no good and evil. You know,
like that old movie, A Few Good Men, with Jack Nicholson. He
tells Tom Cruise, You want to know the truth? You can't handle
the truth. It's the same way with people.
When you tell somebody they're doing something wrong, or they're
wrong on their views of scripture or who they believe God is. According
to scripture, how God has revealed himself. They get mad at you. Who are you to tell me I'm wrong?
But they're doing the same thing to you. I'm telling you you're
wrong, but you can't tell me I'm wrong. Go figure, that's another story.
But going on, it says, lest he put forth his hand and take also
of the tree of life and eat and live forever. So Adam wasn't
created an eternal being because the wages of sin is death, he
died. The gift of God is eternal life. He became eternal after
he was regenerated. He was born to fall. He was created
to fall. It says, Therefore the Lord God
sent a force from the garden of Eden to till the ground from
whence he was taken. So he drove out the man and placed
at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare
Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Let's see,
through verse five. And she again bare his brother
Abel, and Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller
of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the
Lord. So he brought something he believed was right. That's
what most people do. Hey, I think that if I do good
deeds, if I'm nice to people, if I help homeless people or
abuse people, that I'm a good person and God will accept me.
It's not by works of righteousness, it's by grace through faith.
And then we see Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of
his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel, to his offering. And the reason why I'm telling
you this is because Abel believed the Gospel. He had faith. Because
his parents had been given faith. And then they taught their children
faith. We see that because Abel came
correctly. And it's only by the grace of
God that he did. And Cain didn't. So... Like I said, Abel's offering
was a type of a blood sacrifice. And all through the Old Testament
we see all these sacrifices, goats. not goats, but sheep,
lambs, oxen, bullocks, rams, pigeons, doves, there's all these
different offerings, but these animals had to die, their blood
had to be shed. It was a picture, like, you see it over and over
and over again, then all of a sudden it finally clicks when you see
the Lamb of God shedding His blood for the sins, the remission
of sins, for His people, and His people only. Okay? Then to finish up the recap,
I talked about the calling and service of God, and how they
go hand in hand. So going back to Genesis chapter
three, verse four, it says, man, I'm just really messed up today. When God called Adam after he
had fell and he clothed him, Adam was a saved man. So he basically
was called to honor God to the best of his ability, but he believed
in what Christ has done for him. right? We see it in the scripture
when we rightly interpret it. So as a result of that, he's
going to serve God out of love. We love him because he first
loved us. Not out of duty, like we have to do it and if we don't
do it we're not saved. No, that's There's nothing that we do that
can negate or disqualify what Christ has done for his people.
The scripture tells us that he was made an offering for the
sins of his people, and that he would see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. He's not a failure. So as a result
of that, we have been called to serve, and we serve out of
love. And it's a blessing, really,
to serve God out of love. And I had given some scriptural
references like Genesis 3, 4, but I think that's actually wrong
when I, the more that I look at it. But we can go to Isaiah
6, chapter 8, and that one says, it says, Isaiah had already seen
the Lord, right? It says, in the year King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled
the temple. So going on to verse 8, he said, also I heard the
voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? And who will go
for us? Then said I, Here I am, send
me." Now we have to realize that it's not in a man to direct his
path. God is the first cause of all things. So he caused this
to happen with Isaiah. He spurred him on. We're not
going to do it by ourselves because scripture tells us there's none
righteous. There's none that seek him. That's what Paul said,
and Paul was steeped in the Old Testament. He knew the word. He knew it in letter, but when
he was saved, regenerated, born again, he knew the spirit of
the word. And that's where the life comes
from. Because the letter is death. It ends up being the law. People
think that they have to obey all these commandments. But scripture
also tells us that Christ is a rest for His people. Just like
God rested on the seventh day of creation, as God's born-again
people, we rest in His finished work. So this is about calling
and service. And going back to Romans, chapter
1, Paul starts off by saying he's a servant of Christ. He's called to be an apostle
so we have calling answers and it's all throughout the scripture
when you read it. So now we're going to move forward in the
recap and what I have here is as a result of the person and
work of Christ. The person and work of Christ.
The person is who He is. He's God the Son. He was sent by the Father and the Spirit
of God to save his people from their sins. That's why he was
born of a virgin. You have the Immaculate Conception, is what
it's been called. But he created Mary. Then he
was born by Mary. She carried him in her womb.
And what he did, He died as a substitute and surety of His people for
their sins, so that His righteousness is given to us. We call that
imputation. It's imputed to us. Our sins
were imputed to Him. He didn't become a sinner because
He's holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He's
not a sinner. Sin cannot atone for sin. A holy God, a thrice
holy God, only accepts perfection. And Christ was impeccable. He
was sinless. So He died as a substitute for
us. So our sins were imputed to Him. His sins were imputed to us.
We don't become Christ. We receive His righteousness.
We don't have His righteousness infused to us so that we become
so holy that we don't sin anymore because, hey, look at your day.
Look at a day in your life and count all the sins you do. It's crazy. Whether you're looking
at someone, you're angry with someone, they cut you off on
the road, get mad at your wife, get mad at your kids. you know,
your co-worker. There's all kinds of sins we
commit every day that we know of, and that we don't know of,
you know. So going on, when we know who
Christ is, his person and work, and as a result of it, we have
his righteousness imputed, we're born again. Let's see if this
works out now. We're gonna go back to Genesis
chapter three, verse 21, and let's see what that says. It says, onto Adam and to his wife. Did
the Lord God make coats of skins and He clothed them? That's it.
They were justified after that. They had Christ's righteousness
imputed to them. They were clothed. Scripture
says, put on the robes of righteousness. That's Christ's righteousness,
not our righteousness. This is all as a result of the
calling of God, calling and service. So moving on, I want to really
focus right now on wrath of God. Because in modern Christianity,
all you hear about is the love of God. God loves you. Jesus
loves you. God loves you this much, all
you need to do is is take a step of faith and come down to this
altar and make a profession of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus.
The scripture does say believe on the Lord Jesus. But the thing
about that is that the scripture also says there's none that seek
Him. So how can I believe on Him who I don't know, who I don't
seek, if I'm not righteous? He has to cause me to do that.
He has to draw me by irresistible grace. He says in Jeremiah 31.3,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. He draws us, right? And the thing
about His love is that His wrath is just as real as His love.
Right? And it's just as true, and it's
just as righteous as His love, because He's sovereign. And He's
the God of all creation. He can do whatever He wants with
anything and everything, because He's God. People will tell you,
who do you think you are? You think you're God? You think
you're right? No, I'm not. But God is. So going on, the
wrath of God is upon fallen, unregenerate men. Let's go to
Malachi chapter one, verse two. Not Malachi, I'm sorry. Oh yeah,
we can go to Malachi. But it goes on to say, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. Let me go there real quick to
Malachi. Because it says some other things
in there that I'd like you to hear. I need a new Bible. It's all
tore up. All right. Oh yeah, it's the
last one before Matthew. Okay, here we go. So Malachi
chapter one. And that says, it says, the burden of the word
of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, sayeth the
Lord. Yet ye say, this is Israel, right? The prophets always went to Israel.
They didn't go to everybody out there. And it says, yet ye say,
wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
So they knew about Esau, right? It says, was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. He didn't
say he loved Esau. So let's go to one more verse,
and I hated Esau. You know, God hated Esau, and
he laid his mountains and his heritage to waste for the dragons
of the wilderness. So, the wrath of God was upon
Esau and his descendants. And his wrath is just as real
as his love, and it's on unregenerate men. We have to understand that.
I started off in Romans 1, 18, by saying that the wrath of God
is revealed. It says, the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven. against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." And what that
is, is that's a false gospel. That's a man-centered, demonic,
devilish doctrine that tells people God loves everybody. You
know, I said before in one of my earlier messages, hey, if
God was that sticker on the back of Noah's Ark, God loves you
and He has a plan for you. You know, no, it was not. God
does not love everybody. He's created vessels of mercy.
Who is he going to be merciful to? He's the potter, we're the
clay. He makes us however we want. I've heard so many songs,
gospel songs in the past, you're the potter, I'm the clay. Mold
me and shape me your way. But yet, the same people who
will say, yeah, he's the potter, but you're going to make me a
vessel of mercy. They're telling God they're going
to make them a vessel of mercy. But Scripture says the potter
has power over the clay. So he makes vessels of wrath
as well as vessels of mercy. And as a result of that, people
aren't going to be in heaven that you think are going to be
there. Only the chosen people of God, the elect of God, when
he sends his angels to the four corners of the earth, they're
gonna gather his elect. They're not gonna gather all
men. I just read to you how he loved Jacob and he hated Esau.
You know, if God hates one person, he hates workers of iniquity.
There are seven things, or six things that God, the Lord hates.
Seven are an abomination, you know, feet that are quick to
shed blood, you know, lying lips. There's all these things that
God hates. And who are the people doing these things? There are
people doing these things. If he hates what a person is
doing, he more than likely hates that person. Now, here's the
thing. As a saved person, we do all
the things that a fallen, non-saved person does. Except we're covered
by the blood of Christ and we're forgiven. But going back to his
wrath, let's read in Romans 9, 18-22. That's a really good really
good section to read, and it starts off by saying, it went
back to Exodus. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. So God
hardens people's hearts. We say, the same sun that melts
the wax hardens the clay. You know, you hear that two will
be in the field, one will be taken, the other one's left.
That's God's decision. That's not the person who was taken
or the person who was left. That's not their decision. That's
God's decision to do what He wants. He's the potter or the
clay. He saves His people. He doesn't save all people. He saves His people. You know,
when it says in Matthew 21, He shall save His people from their
sins, right? It doesn't say He's going to save all people. Because
then you've got people arguing with you, well, God so loved
the world, you know, John 3, 16. The world that He loves,
you have to take it in context. They're His people, the world
that He has left. It's not, if that were the case, why are we
even preaching the gospel to people? You know? Everybody's
saved, by default, because God loves the world. then don't even
tell a person they're going to hell. But that's not the case.
And most people are very, most people are wrong, to be honest.
And God is true and all men are liars. But at the same time,
God gives his people He teaches them the truth. He gives them
pastors after his own heart. He gives them brothers and sisters
in Christ that spur them on to good deeds and good works and
teach them and exhort them with the Word of God. But the wrath
of God is real. It's just as real as anything
else. So reading on, It says, thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? The answer is yes. So he makes
vessels of honor that he's gonna save, and he makes vessels of
wrath that he's going to destroy. Now, he's long-suffering with
the vessels of wrath. He doesn't destroy them all right
away. I mean, he could, but he doesn't. And the reason why,
it says, what if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make
his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction." It's kind of basically like a
friend of mine tells me, he's given them a reprieve, you know,
a stay of execution, but they're still going to die, they're still
going to perish, they're still going to hell, the people that
aren't his. That's what his wrath demands.
It's his justice, right? And it's right, and it's good.
So going on to the... Let's see. What was that? Going on to that... Verse 22,
that's the thing. Vessels of wrath, his wrath is
real. So we have to understand that. Now I'm gonna take you
to Matthew chapter three, verse seven. Let's go there. All right, here we are. And it
says, this is talking about John the Baptist when he was baptizing
people in Jordan, they were confessing their sins. Then it says in verse
7, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come
to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Well, John's
telling the Pharisees and Sadducees, hey man, God's wrath is coming,
you know, and you're gonna be destroyed if you're not his people. So what happens is that in the
proclamation of the gospel, We call it the dragnet, the call,
right? God calls his people out from
among the rest of the human race. He knows who his people are,
we don't. So we proclaim the gospel of the finished work of
Christ, and let God save his people. I can judge a man, and
you can too, by their doctrine, by what they profess. Because
a lot of people profess a false Christ. Now, their eternal destiny,
that's in God's hands. They might be an elect person,
chosen in Christ, but haven't been saved yet, and they don't
know it, because it's the same for all of us. I mean, I was
born in sin and shaped in iniquity, the Psalm says, and I sinned
my entire life. And I still sin now, but there
was a time when I was under the preaching of the Word of God,
and the Spirit of God came upon me and saved me. And that's what it says in John chapter
3. It's like the wind. No one knows. As a matter of
fact, let's go there to John chapter 3, because Jesus is telling
Nicodemus this truth about the Spirit of God. And he tells him
in chapter 3, he said, Verse 7, we'll start with verse
7. So, yeah, His love is real, but so is His wrath. And we have
to understand that. So when you're born again, you
see that, hey, I've just been saved from the wrath of God.
Praise the Lord. Now I want to tell everybody,
hey, you know that God saves his people from their sins? You
know what I mean? He's chosen a people for himself.
And then people will ask, well, how do I know if I'm one of his
children? You believe the gospel. But you
can't believe a lie, because there's also a false gospel out
there. We see men like like T.D. Jakes or Joel Osteen, Billy Graham,
these giants supposedly of the Christian faith. And they're
telling everybody that God loves you. He loves everybody. There's
many ways to the Lord. They endorse everything and anything
under the sun. When you dig into the scripture and you rightly
divide the word, you see that they're wrong. So what does that
mean? That means they're preaching a false Christ. So the people
that are under their ministry, that promote them, they don't
know the gospel. That's the God honest truth. You have to agree with God. But
the only way you're going to agree with Him is if He causes
you to. He saves you. Because until then, it's foolishness
to you. You can't wrap your mind around
it. You don't understand it. You don't get it. And you never
will because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It cannot
understand the things of God. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you
must be born again. No man can see the Kingdom of
God unless he's born again. And if you don't, hey, hopefully
you're not under the wrath of God. Because the wrath of God
is just as real as as the love of God. Now I'm going to take
you to Nahum, chapter 1, verse 2. That's what I had gone to
earlier, but it talks about God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth. Hang on a second, I thought I
had some water. I guess not. All right. And the Lord, God
is jealous and the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies." Now you
tell me, if God loves the entire world, every single person ever
born, why would He have enemies? Why would He say He has enemies?
Because He does. Not everybody is an elect child
of God. Jesus told the Pharisees when
he told them, before Abraham was, I am, and they said, we'd
be Abraham's seed. We weren't born of fornication.
He said, you're of your father, the devil. You don't believe me because
you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. Either
you're a sheep or you're a goat. A sheep doesn't become a goat.
A goat doesn't become a sheep. If you're a goat, you're under
the wrath of God. And I'd rather seek God and ask for mercy, and
perhaps he'd be gracious and merciful to me, like he says
in Exodus 33, 19, and I believe the gospel, then I would have
my assurance. My assurance is in Christ, not
in what I do, not in how I live, although... How I live and what
I do does matter. I was talking with a brother
the other day on the phone, and I told him, we have a saying,
and it's called, act like you know. We don't always act like
we know. That doesn't mean we don't know.
We know, we try to do what's right, we try to honor God, we
try to love our fellow man, but we fall short every day. Well,
that's where the righteousness of Christ imputed to us It covers
us. That's a blood covering. We stand
before the throne of God complete in Christ. There's no condemnation
to those that are in Christ. We don't... We're not saved by
our performance. We don't progress in our sanctification
because we're in Christ. We're complete in Him. How can
we be complete in Him and then tell others, hey, you have to
do all these things so you progress. You have to overcome your sin.
You have to stop doing this, stop doing that. What is the
standard? How do you measure how holy am
I supposed to be before I'm accepted? Who sets the standard? I'll tell
you who. God set the standard. And the
one who fulfilled it was His Son. And He did it for His people. All of those who don't have that
righteousness imputed, that sanctification, that justification, they're under
the wrath of God. And they're going to find out
the hard way. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5.9. more about the wrath of God. And here we are, it says, For
God hath not appointed us to wrath. He's talking to the church
at Thessalonica. He's not talking to the whole
world. Hey, God hasn't appointed you to wrath. He loves you. He
has a plan for you. You know, just receive Him and believe
Him. Just accept Him. No. He has to accept us. He makes
us acceptable in the Beloved, is what the scripture says. Okay,
but God hath not appointed us to wrath. His wrath is real.
Remember, His wrath is real. It says, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ secured the salvation
of his people, not only when he was slain before the foundation
of the world, but when he also died at Calvary, when they pierced
his side. Blood and water came out, and
that Roman centurion said, hey, truly this is the Son of God.
He bore witness, right? People that were alive during
his day bore witness as well. We don't see that, but we believe
it by faith. Thomas, who, I wanna say we get
the term doubting Thomas from, he didn't believe that Jesus
was alive after the resurrection. And he told the other disciples,
who became apostles later, hey, unless I see him, put my hand
in his side, and touched the nail prints in his hands, I won't
believe. But what happened? A week later, Christ came in
the midst, said, Peace be unto you, and he told Thomas, hey,
put your hand on my side, touch my hand. And he said, what did
he say? He said, my Lord and my God. Yes, he called him God. Not like,
oh my God, like these kids say, OMG, all the time. No, it was
a title of reverence. He knew that he was God, God
the Son. And he said that, you believe because you see. But
there are going to be people that believe my word through
you. So we preach the gospel of the finished work of Christ,
and God calls us people. They believe. They believe by
faith. And God gives them that faith. Men don't have faith.
And not all men have faith, the scriptures tell us. But faith
is a gift. We have already declared that. And the scripture declares
it from Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. So know that God's wrath is
real. Proverbs 16, verse 4 says, He
has created all things for His purpose, even the wicked for
the day of evil. He's going to destroy the wicked. Jesus said, fear not those who
can put your body in prison, but the one who can put your
soul in hell. So, hell is real, the wrath of God is real, the
love of God is real. We have to preach the whole counsel
of God. I can't just tell you that, oh, God is love, He loves
everybody, love, love, let's all get along. No, man, it's
not that way. We have to declare the whole
counsel of God. It's a finished work, yeah, but that finished
work isn't for everybody, it's for His people. But, the good
news about that is that, hey, He's gracious to some. And if
he is not gracious to others, that's his decision. This is
the Lord's doing and it's marvelous. We have to understand that by
faith. We can't look at it with the
human mind and think that, oh man, it's not fair for God to
let kids die. We don't know everything, but
we believe that what the scriptures testify about God, that he's
good, everything he does is good, he does whatsoever he pleases
in the armies of the heavens, and none can stay his hand. So,
his love and his wrath is real, and it's never random. Let's
go to Psalm 5, verse 5, going on about the wrath of God, as
well as the love of God. Psalm 55, and it says, The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. We know that in Matthew chapter
seven that a man comes to him and says, Lord, Lord, I did all
these things in your name. And He tells him, depart from
Me, you worker of iniquity. I do not know you. So we can't
tell people God loves everybody. So that man was a worker of iniquity.
He didn't know. That means he was a vessel of
wrath, fitted for destruction. I'm sure he was pretty bummed
out. Now let's go to chapter 7, verse
11. This is talking about the wrath
of God. God judgeth the righteous. Now, the righteous are those
that are in Christ. That's the only way we're righteous. We
have no righteousness of our own. It's a righteousness that
is imputed. Paul says there's none righteous.
No, not one. But in Christ, we're complete.
We have His righteousness accredited to us, imputed to us. So, chapter
7, verse 11 says, God judges the righteous, and He's angry
with the wicked every day. every day, but he's long-suffering
towards them, he bears with them. So a lot of times people think
that because they get away with stuff and don't get caught, that
they're okay, they're cool, but it's a lot like lawbreakers in
the natural. You hear of all these crooks
and these people that are doing all these things that are breaking
the law, and 10 or 20 years later they're getting caught. be sure
your sin will find you. That's what the scripture says.
Now they got these DNA tests to find out where you're from,
and they're finding people in the line of the people that are
giving these tests that are criminals, and they're catching them. But
God's wrath is real. So now let's go to chapter 11
in Psalms, verses 5 through 6, and it says, The Lord trieth
the righteous, But the wicked, and him that loveth violence,
his soul hateth." Does that sound like God loves everybody? God
so loved the world? Everything that we read when
it comes to the scripture, we have to be born again in order
to understand it. And even then, when we read it,
we have to read it correctly and in its context. Otherwise,
we take it out of context And that's pretext. Because you can,
the Psalms say, in chapter 14, verse one, the fool has said
in his heart, there is no God. You can say, hey, Bible says
there is no God. It says it right there in chapter
14, verse one of the Psalms. But read it in its context. The
fool has said there is no God, okay? So the last Psalm I wanna
go over is Psalm 147, verse four, talking about the wrath of God. And that one says, this is talking about how, what
I did with this section here, is I was talking about everything
that God does is for His purpose, and for His pleasure, and for
His will. And he doesn't do anything by random. He's specific. His love is specific. His wrath
is specific. His condemnation is specific.
His justification is specific. Sanctification, all of that stuff,
it's specific. and we learn it through the scripture
as God teaches us. All of God's children will be
taught of God. So Psalm 147, chapter 147, verse
4 says, He telleth the number of the stars, He calleth them
all by their names. God knows everything. Scripture
says He knows the number of hairs in your head. He knows when the
sparrow falls to the ground. He knows all these things. So
when He does something, it's for His purpose. Now, speaking
of a random act, let's go to 1 Kings 22, verse 34. That's
the Old Testament. If you have a hard time keeping
up, there's an index at the beginning of your Bible. You can always
go to it and find the book easier. I also just started printing
out my notes. If you like them, I guess I can
put them on a PDF or something. PM me or message me or text me
and and I'll send those to you if you like I know me personally
I like notes because then I can read along kind of you know like
watch how it's all developed so going to first Kings 22 34
It says this is talking about I want to say King Ahab when he
died He hooked up with another king in Israel, because he had
Israel and Judah. He said, hey, go disguised as
this king. He basically wanted to get the other
king killed by having him dress like him. And it didn't happen. So what did happen was, in verse
34, it says, So, and that king ended up dying. You know, Ahab
died. But that was, it's appointed
unto man to die, and after that, the judgment, right? That's Hebrews. God doesn't do anything randomly. As a matter of fact, Paul does
a good job explaining this if you go to Acts chapter 17, verse
26. This has always been a comforting
scripture for me because it tells us how, let's start off with
verse 24. Acts chapter 17, it says, God
that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands,
Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything,
seeing he give it to all, life and breath and all things. And
here's the key scripture, verse 26. And hath made of one blood,
that's Adam, and hath made of one blood all nations of men,
for to dwell on all the face of the earth. And hath determined
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us."
But we have to remember that He has to cause you to seek Him. But He determines where you are.
Just like the color of my eyes, where I was born, I didn't determine
that. I didn't determine who my parents
were. I didn't determine where I would grow up and be raised,
the schools that I went to. God's the same way. He runs the
show, so to speak, that we see. So, going back to the vessels
of wrath and that point, Adam and Eve were given a command,
and they broke that command. God told them, hey, don't eat
from those two trees, the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of
good and evil, and the knowledge of the tree of life. Because
once you do that, You're dead. You're going to die. And guess
what? They did it. They broke that command. What
happened as a result of that command was the Fall. And it
affected all mankind. We're fallen. Mankind is fallen. And it takes their Creator to
redeem them as He sees fit. That's God's justice. Let's go
back to Genesis 2, 17. And that says, here's the command.
There it is, right there. And what happened? People say
Adam was created perfect. No, he wasn't. He was peccable. They say Christ was peccable?
No, Christ was impeccable while He was a man here on earth. Why
a person would say that He's peccable, I don't know. They're
not convinced of the truth, that God is holy, that Christ is holy. He can't even look upon sin.
Yeah, He was tempted, but all those things were written. It
had to be fulfilled. So Adam and Eve were given a
command and they broke it. And that fall of Adam brought death
to all men, which is God's righteous justice. And I just gave you
that verse, Genesis 2, verse 17. Let's go to Ezekiel 18, chapter
20. That verse says, the soul that
sinned, it shall die. It shall surely die, I want to
say. Let's go there right now and look at it. 1820, all right. 1820 says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity
of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity
of the son. So we're all accountable for our own sins as individually. As a result of the fall, sin
was imputed to all mankind, all right? And that's God's righteous
judgment. And we're gonna go to Romans
chapter three, verse 23. I wanna say a lot of people,
I remember memorizing that verse years ago. And it says, verse
23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So
what is sin? Missing the mark, right? As a
result of sinning, we die. We die naturally. all of us die,
our bodies are decaying. I look at pictures of me all
the time when I was young, and I was like, wow, I was young, and now
I'm old. But I'm grateful for that. But
the aging of the body, the decaying of the body, the decaying of
the earth, that's all as a result of the curse. And that happened
at the Fall. So, at the same time as we talk
about the wrath of God, There also is the mercy of God,
and that's what I'm saying. God's wrath is real, His love is real,
and His mercy is real too. So, this is what the people of
God escape from. They escape from the wrath of
God. They flee from the wrath of God. God takes them and saves them. He gathers his sheep. He brings them into the fold.
So now they're safe from the wrath of God. They're no longer
under condemnation. Nothing that we do in this life,
if we sin until we die, we're going to be chastised of our
God's people, but we cannot lose what God has purchased for us.
It's a done deal. He who has begun a good work
in you will perform it until Christ, the day of Christ Jesus.
Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present
you faultless." How can He keep us from falling and present us
faultless if we sin every day? It's our standing before God. We stand as righteous as His
Son as a result of what His Son did on our behalf, as our surety,
as our substitute, as our sin-bearer. That's why it's our state now
before God. It's not our state and who we
really are because we'll never attain to the measure of Christ. We don't measure ourselves by
men. We measure ourselves by Christ. And what do we see? We
see that we fall short. Oh man, I'm fighting with my
wife. Christ wouldn't do that. I'm yelling at my kids. Christ
wouldn't do that. You know, we fall short, but
we're covered by His blood, and it doesn't change our standing
before God. Now, we should, like I said earlier,
we should act like we know, we should aspire to live holy, and
do everything, but we can't. So don't think that just because
you, you know, I was listening to a guy this morning saying
that, you know, whoever commits sin is a son of sin, and it's
like, we all sin! You know, everybody sins, from
the least to the greatest, greatest to the least. It only matters
if you're outside of Christ. But if you're in Christ, you're
covered. Our sins, blessed is man whose sins are not imputed
to him. Who's covered by that blood,
right? So, talking about the wrath of
God and how real it is, the thing about it is that it always leads
to the two contrasts. You have the love of God, the
wrath of God, the wrath of God, the grace of God. They always
contrast each other. The wrath is just as real. And
we wanna make sure people know about that. But I ended this
sermon with that Adam, however, Adam, he received grace as a
vessel of mercy. And let's go back to Genesis
chapter three, verse 21. And it says, and unto Adam also and
to his wife, Did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothe
them? And that's mercy. I mean, some people might call
it righteousness, they call it other things, but it's still
God being merciful. He covered them. You know, like...
Like in the movies, you know, when detectives are helping each
other and they're in a gunfight, the one says, hey, I'm going
to go over there. I want you to cover me. So what does he do? He covers
for them, right? He protects them. That's what God does to
his people. He covers us. He protects us. We're covered
with his blood. Just like the Exodus, when the
children of Israel came out of Egypt and the angel of death
came and slew all the firstborn, you know, from the greatest to
the least, Israelites had put that blood over the lintels of
their doorposts and on the sides. So, passed them by. The angel
of death passed them by. They were covered by the blood.
It's the same way now. Either you're covered by the
blood or you're not. And if you're not covered by the blood, you're
a vessel of mercy. You're a vessel of wrath, I mean,
is what I'm saying. Adam received grace, and he received
grace as a vessel of mercy because he was in Christ. Let's go to
Romans 9.23. I had spoke earlier about the
wrath of God, and I was in Romans, and I ended at verse 22. And
going on in that same chapter and in the context, it tells
us that, verse 22 says, what if God, willing to show his wrath,
and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." Wicked people have healthy families,
they're wealthy. I know people that aren't believers
and they're living high on the hog. Two or three houses, cars,
live in the same town they work, they don't commute, they've got
boats and RVs and all kinds of stuff. And I'm like, man, I barely
pay my bills. So it goes on to say, What if
God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction? That's what God is doing. When I realize that,
I'm like, man, what profit a man to gain the world and lose his
soul? I pray for people that I know, whether it's friends
and family, that seem to have the goods of this world, but
they don't have Christ. And that's what's most important.
Because in the next verse 23, when I'm talking about Adam found
grace, and that he might make known the riches of his glory,
on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory."
That's glorious! God is merciful to people, to
whom He chooses. The fact that He's merciful is
a good thing, because all of us deserve the wrath of God,
and the condemnation of God, as a result of Adam, right? But
Adam found grace, but he found grace in Christ, and if you're
in Christ, that grace is for you as well. Now let's go to
Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Verse 12 through 19, Romans 5,
Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world. Who is
that one man? Adam. Adam, and death by sin. So as a result
of sin, the fall, all men die. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Then we have another scripture
here in verse 13, which is in italics. It says, for until the
law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed when there
is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even
over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's
transgression, who was a figure of him that was to come. But
not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For through the
offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and
by the gift, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus
Christ, hath abounded unto many." you see how God elected some
people out of a fallen race. It says, verse 16, "...and not
as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment
was by one to condemnation." That's Adam's sin, right? But
the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. So when Christ
died for his people, they're the ones that are justified.
By one man's offense, death reigned by one, that's Adam. Much more,
they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. So you see the difference.
Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation. That's Adam. Even so, by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life. And not all men, all the men
that are in him. Not all men, because you can't
reconcile that with the fact that people dying are going to
hell. So remember, keep it all in context. And, for as by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. So, Adam escaped the wrath of
God, which is real. And I'm going to end this with
the promise of God. All of God's promises are yes
and amen. And His promises are based upon His grace towards
His people and the love of God. And let's go to Genesis. Let's
go back to Genesis, chapter 2, verse 8. And it says, And the Lord God
planted a garden eastward in Eden. There He put the man whom
He formed. The garden is the type of His
church. When He saved Adam, He put him
in the body. That's part of the body of Christ.
The fold, right? That's His promise. And He does
the same thing. He says, I have other sheep that
are not of this fold. I go to get them. He's the good shepherd. He knows his sheep. So he goes
to find them. That's why he says the angels
in heaven rejoice over one sheep that's lost and was found. And that's based upon his the
eternal covenant of grace, His love. That's why it says in Jeremiah
31.3, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with
loving kindness have I drawn thee. That's the promise, man. He's gonna save His people. Matthew
1.21, He shall save His people from their sins. I mean, it's
even written way before, in Genesis 3.15, He told Adam and Eve, I'll
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. That's what Christ came to do,
came to save his people. And it's written all throughout
scripture. This scripture from Genesis to Revelation is about
the redemption of God's people by Christ. We just hear it in
different forms, you know, from different men, but it's all God
breathed, it's inspired, it's infallible, it's without error.
And it's the only thing that's true that we have. I mean, I
might write things and other men might write things and women
and people, but we're fallible still. But if we stick to the
Word of God and rightly divide His Word as the Spirit of God
helps us and is upon us and is merciful to us, His hand is on
us, we can rightly say, hey, thus saith the Lord. This is
what the Word of God says, right? And then the last verse I'm going
to go to regarding the promise and the grace of God is Romans
9.23. And it says, "...that He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had
aforeprepared unto glory." So God's going to save His people
and know that I also want to say that if I'm wrong in anything
that I say and teach, I have no problem being corrected. I'm
not perfect. I'm fallible. I make errors. We all, as God's
children, are learning. We grow in the knowledge and
grace of God. We should be careful how we handle
the Word. And it's a scary thing to stand before people and proclaim
it, knowing that, hey, if I'm It's not me that's right. God's
word is always true. It's always correct. But if I
misinterpret it, people's souls are at stake. And the sad truth
is that in America, I would say the entire country
is fooled. They think Christianity is hooting
and hollering and shouting and jumping around and falling out. They call it the ordinances,
not the sacraments. They think it's in communion
or baptism or confirmation or in tithing. When tithing is no
longer a New Testament It's no longer in the New Testament
as far as giving a tenth of everything. You give willingly and cheerfully,
right? But it's not what people think
it is, and the gospel is offensive. And when we tell people these
things, they get mad at you and they accuse you of all these
things. But as I said earlier, if I'm wrong, I have no problem
being corrected. I'm here to serve you and to
serve this city and to proclaim the good news of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. So with that in mind, let's pray.
Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We ask that you would
help us. And bless us that we might be given light of your
word and to know you Because you said in your word that this
is eternal life that that might know you the one true God and
your son Jesus Christ whom you have sent and we know Christ
is God as well and so is the Spirit of God who helps us to
know these things and we give you praise Lord we pray for our
families and our friends and That you would keep us safe throughout
the day and we give you praise in Jesus name we pray amen All
right, next Sunday, same time, 11 o'clock. God bless you guys,
have a great week.