Morning. God bless you guys. Thanks for joining and listening.
We're gonna continue with our study on the book of Romans,
chapter one. I'll be reading verses one through
18 today. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the
son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name among whom are ye also the called of Christ To
all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints,
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. First, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout
the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing
I make mention of you always in my prayers. making requests
if by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey
by the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you that
I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established. That is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now
I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed
to come unto you, but was let hitherto, that I might have some
fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor
both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise
and to the unwise. So as much as is in me, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. The last verse is 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Let's pray for the word. Father,
we thank you for your word. Lord, we ask that you would add
a blessing to the public reading of it, and that you would help
us to rightly divide it and see Christ in all of the scriptures,
how he redeemed his people for himself, and we give you praise.
Amen. All right, so I'm gonna recap
on my first two messages that I gave. I started out in the
first message explaining what the gospel is. And as it said
in verse 16, that it's the power of God unto salvation, unto everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And in
17 it gives you a key verse because it says, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. Now, I grew up in the
Catholic Church and got involved in some other churches as I got
older. And I was always told that what
I did made the difference. But the scripture declares that
it's what God has done. That's what the righteousness
of God is. It's what Christ did, not only on the cross at Calvary,
but what he did before the foundation of the world. So, when we talk
about what the Gospel is, it's a declaration, you know, and
it's a proclamation. Back in the old days, they would
say a heralding, like a herald would run around and say things
out loud for everybody to hear. So, this is what's being told
from God to mankind. And in the process of him doing
that, his people that he has in the world, they get called
out along the way. That's why the scripture says
in Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. So what we do as God's children is just preach
and proclaim the truth to everybody. We don't try to convince them
that, hey, you need to be saved, or you need to do this, you need
to do that, because it's not about what we do. It's about what Christ
has done, what he's done for his people. It says, for example,
in Matthew 1.21, at the birth of Christ, when the angel was
talking to Mary and Joseph, that His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. So we know right
now that everything that God says is true, and His promises
are yes and amen. So in this declaration, He's
saying that, hey, I'm gonna save people. And we know that scripture
also tells us that He has people from all over the world, every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, and that's in Revelation 7-9.
So going on after I, to recap, like I said earlier, when I explained
what the gospel is, this is good news, because all of us, by nature,
are sinners. Hang on with me one second here. A little closer. This curtain's
bugging me, I keep getting my back. I feel weird, like someone's
grabbing me or something. Anyway, so, because of the fall,
that's called the fall. The original sin, which happened
in the Garden of Eden, You can read it in the beginning of the
book of Genesis in Adam and Eve. Adam was created first, Eve came
out of his side. Later on, during the narrative,
we see the serpent coming to Eve and basically lying to her
and telling her something, that she'd be a god if she ate from
the fruit of the tree that God forbid them to eat of. And they
did, and then their eyes were opened. But as a result of that, Man knew that he was, he fell. So they tried to clothe themselves
and cover up. Kind of like if you or I went somewhere, you
know, when we're kids and our friend's pants is, what do we
do? We cover up because we're embarrassed. Well, Adam and Eve
were embarrassed. They knew that they were in sin. Because God
had told them, the day that you eat of that, the fruit of that
tree, you'll surely die. And that's what happened in the
fall. So all of mankind was ruined by the fall. That's why God went
on to say in Genesis chapter six, Let's see, I'll read it
to you real quick. It says that, when it came to pass, when men
began to multiply in the face of the earth, and daughters were
born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men,
that they were fair, and they took them, wives of all which
they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit
shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. But then it
goes on to say in verse five, So, you know, like people say,
well, I wouldn't do that. Or, you know, when we hear of
whether it's a serial killer or a pedophile, You think that, oh man, that
guy's a dirtbag, you know, and I'd kill him if I saw him. But
I tell people all the time, if it weren't for the grace of God,
I'd do the same thing, and so would you. Because men are fallen,
we're all sinners. So when we understand that men
are fallen, right, the fall, God condescends to talk to us
and tells us, hey boy, there's good news. That's what the gospel
is, it's good news. And as a result of God's grace,
He's gracious to who He wants to be. We call that the sovereignty
of God. And being gracious to them, He
chooses them and He draws them to Him. For example, in Genesis
6 verse 8, I had read to you how mankind was wicked and the
imagination of his heart and thoughts of his heart was evil
continually. But then it goes on to say in verse 8, but Noah
found grace. in the eyes of the Lord. And
it wasn't anything that Noah did that caused him to find grace
in God's eyes. It's God being gracious to people.
And what God's grace is, it's a decision that He makes and
that He causes to come upon a man or a woman or a child. And He
draws them to Him by that same grace. I've heard it said in
an acronym before that grace stands for God's riches at Christ's
expense. And it is. But the thing about
the grace of God is God is a triune. He's a spirit. God's a spirit.
They that worship Him worship Him in spirit and truth. And
that, I believe that's John 4, 24. But God sent His Son to the
world to save people. So when God's gracious, it's
not just God the Father, it's also God the Son and God the
Holy Spirit. All three of them are involved
in the salvation of God's people. So when, for example, in Exodus
33, 19, It says, you know, Moses was
talking to the Lord, and he asked him, he wanted to see, he wanted
to see, what's 34, 33, 19. No, Exodus, I'm in Genesis, I'm
sorry, hang on a second. A little out of it there. There
we go, 33, 19. It says, Moses asked him in verse 18, show me
thy glory. And the Lord said to him, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. So the thing about God's grace
and God's mercy is he's the one who decides. He makes that decision. That's what we call the sovereignty
of God. I had said in one of the earlier
messages that we learned a song when we were kids. He's got the
whole world in his hands, right? And as a result of that, he does
whatever he wants with it. He's the potter and we're the
clay. He makes the vessel however he wants to make it. So when
we realize that the Gospel is a declaration, and it's based
upon God's grace towards people, it's not all people, it's his
elect. And I had explained that earlier,
like in Matthew 121 and Revelation 7-9. So as a result of his grace, he calls people to him, and that's
by faith. And that's when you hear, when
he causes you to hear the word of God. And if you go to Ephesians
chapter two, verses eight through nine, he tells, Paul's telling
the church at Ephesus that he says, he says, For by grace are ye
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God. Everything, salvation in its
totality, from beginning to the end, is all by God. There's nothing
that we do that causes us to be saved. Hey, I can walk the
earth. you know, on my knees and pray,
pray till I don't have a voice and do all these good things.
But that doesn't matter. You know, it's what God does
and it's God's choice. So he tells us, by grace are
you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God. Even the faith that we have to believe in God and to
believe in the salvation of His people, because it's not a plan.
It's a done deal. You might have heard it's a plan.
No, it's not a plan. Everything that God does, it's
already done. He knows the end from the beginning,
and He declares the things that are, that are not. So He sees
everything. We're limited in our scope of
understanding and knowledge. And it's the same thing about
the Scripture. That's why I would encourage you to spend time in
the Bible. I'm not going to tell you, hey,
you have to read your Bible, because if you don't, you're
not saved. No, God knows His people. He says, nevertheless,
the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, the Lord knoweth them that
are His. So if you're His, You need to study more. I'd encourage
you to study more. And those things matter, like
I said before, but they don't count. Excuse me, get some water. So yeah, it's grace through faith,
and that's a good thing. That's good news. So going on
to recap, I went on to talk about calling and service. And these
two always go hand in hand. For example, if we go to Isaiah,
chapter six, verses eight through nine, and I really would encourage
you guys to read along with me. I know there might be some of
you that have the whole Bible memorized, so I think that's
pretty cool, but I don't, so I normally go to the books. So
in Isaiah, chapter six, verses eight through nine, 8-9 the Lord was speaking to
Isaiah because it said in verse 1 in the year King Uzziah died
I saw the Lord also I saw the Lord upon a throne high and lifted
up in his train filled the temple so Isaiah saw some stuff And
later on down the road, in that same chapter, he realized how,
I don't want to say bad, but how fallen he was. Because a
lot of times people say, well, I'm not as bad as you, or I'm
not as bad as her, or I'm not as bad as Hitler, I'm not as
bad as Jeffrey Dahmer. Whoever you want to look at in
the history, the annals of men, Attila the Hun, people are always
measuring themselves by themselves. But God tells us that there's
none good, no not one. You know, I explained it in Genesis
6, 8, that their hearts and the intents of their heart were wicked
and continuously evil. So it's not like they have brief
moments of clarity and they're good. No, man, we're fallen.
And as a result of the fall, we can do nothing good. We lost
the image of God. I've heard a lot of people say
that we still have God's image, we still bear His image. No,
we're marred. Let's say you You have a car,
right? And it's a brand new car. And
it's made in a particular image. But then you get in a car wreck,
right? That car now has lost its original image and it's messed
up and it has to be fixed. Well, guess what? Mankind is
in the same condition. We are marred as a result of
the fall. So in being that way, we need
our Creator to fix us. We need God. And the thing about
it is, when He causes us, that's kind of like the beginning. When
you see the darkness of your heart and your soul and your
mind, I believe that that's God drawing a man. It could be debated, in a sense. So anyways, going back to Isaiah,
verses 8 and 9, he talked about a cherub. One of the seraphims
flew unto him, in verse 6, having a live coal in his hand, which
he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it
upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and
thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. And that's
talking about how, like we tell people when Christ atoned for
the sins of his people, this is a picture of that, of the
atonement, right? Just like when Adam and Eve fell
in the garden, they had fig leaves that they covered themselves
with. Well, God had given them a coat of skin, which meant an
animal had to be killed to take its coat off. It's not just like,
not going to give it up and take it off. They don't have two coats,
they have one. So going on in 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, this is Isaiah,
Here am I, send me. So going back to the calling
and the service, anytime a person is called by the gospel and saved
as a result of it, it's a life of service. Because now they
know something that a lot of people don't know, and then a
lot of people do They think they know it, but they don't, because
the scripture says that there's a way that seems right unto man,
but ends in death. That's in Proverbs. Paul said
that there are people that have a form of godliness, but they
deny the power thereof. And the power thereof is salvation.
Jonah 2.9, salvation's of the Lord. Hebrews, he's the author
and finisher of our faith. I think that's chapter seven,
verse nine, I think. But that means he's everything,
all of salvation from beginning to end, You know, and in the
middle, all along the way, it's all of God. And we can't take
any credit for it. It's not like, oh yeah, I stopped
using drugs, or I stopped smoking, or I stopped chewing tobacco,
you know, I stopped cussing. That's not what makes a person
saved. Now, I want to make this clear. As a child of God, yeah,
you shouldn't be doing those things. Paul's telling the Corinthian
church, there's a lot of things they're doing that shouldn't
even be named among you. But he didn't tell them they weren't
saved as a result of doing that. So we have to understand that.
It's not what we do, it's what Christ has done. And it's a finished
work. So that's why the scripture says
he's our Sabbath, he's our rest. Just as God rested on the seventh
day after creating the world and everything in it. We can
rest in the finished work of Christ. So going back to the
calling and the service, once a person is called and they're
saved, we call that regeneration. That's what being born again
is. John chapter 3 talks about that. No man can see the kingdom
of God unless he's born again. So we understand a person is
born again. Something happens when you're
born again. you have a revelation, a divine revelation from God
himself, and you were once blind like the blind man in John chapter
9, but now you see. But you see things that most
people cannot. Only God's people see these truths
for how they are, and they see these things as we're here in
this world. So it's our privilege and our honor to share these
truths with other people. And we share them in love, and
the thing is, None of us are any better than anybody. I'm
not better than you, you're not better than me. And we have to
make sure we tell people that. Because a lot of people think,
because I don't do a certain thing, I'm better than you. And
that's not the case. We all are equal in God's eyes
as far as we're all sinners. all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." That means everybody. There's no one righteous. No,
not one. That means nobody. There's none that seek God. So
people will say, hey, I've been seeking God my whole life. No.
Now you're telling me that God's a liar. But God says, God is
not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should
repent. And God is true. And he says, let God be true
and all men be liars. So knowing that When you're saved, it's
a calling. You're called to be saved. And
this is for God's people. Because He passes by some. That's why He told Moses, hey,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. gracious to who I'll
be gracious. So that's not our decision. We
can't say, hey, God's going to save you and he's not going to
save me, or God's going to save me and he's not going to save
you, or vice versa. So when we realize the calling
and the service, the rest of our life we get to share this
good news with people, and perhaps Perhaps the people we love and
we care for and we know and we work with, perhaps they're God's
children and he'll save them. We don't know who they are. We
don't know who the elect are. So we have to make sure we tell
people that. How do you know you're one of
God's elect? You believe the gospel. You believe on what God
has done through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of God
causes you to believe that. So, after these things, calling
and service, Regeneration. Representation means that Christ
represented us at the cross. He bore our sins on the tree. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. By His stripes
we're healed. And it's not like a physical
healing, although He can heal. That's His decision. But it's
talking about a spiritual healing. So you go back to Adam and Eve
when they fell, they needed the same healing that Isaiah talks
about in that chapter, verse 53. and as a result of Christ being
a substitute and a surety. We know that a substitute, especially
from sports, someone who goes in for another player, takes
his place. Well, Christ took the place of
His people, not all mankind, but His people only, and He died
on their behalf. And so what He did was imputed
to us, charged, reckoned, given to us on our behalf. So now we
have a new standing before Christ. We still have the sinful nature.
That's why we do all kinds of crazy stuff. We fight with our
spouses, fight with our kids, fight with our neighbors, fight
with people in traffic, fight with our coworkers. I mean, hey,
that's just, we're fallen still. But now, even though we're saved
at the same time, and in the end, when the Lord brings us
to Himself, whether we die and go to be with him, or he comes
back before we die, we're gonna, Paul says, mortality will put
on immortality. And we're not gonna be sick anymore,
we're not gonna be crying, we won't feel, like right now, I
feel sad for my friends and my family that God hasn't revealed
the truth to. And I pray for them, and I hope
that he does bring them to him. And that's his decision, not
mine. But I pray for them, and I plead for them on their behalf.
But as a substitute and a surety for his people, he satisfied
the wrath of God. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So all
men, because of what Adam did, the Bible says in Romans chapter
5, I believe it's verse 28. Let's see. No, it's a little earlier. It
says, nevertheless, verse 14, death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over them, that had not sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was succumbed."
So, we didn't sin the same way Adam did. But because Adam sinned,
and he's the father of all mankind, we inherited that from him. You
know, that sinful nature. But then it goes on to say, but
not as the offense so also is a free gift. The gift is eternal
life in Christ. So it says, for through the offense
of one, many be dead, much more by the grace of God and by the
gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded
unto many. So not everybody in Adam Well,
everybody in Adam is definitely dead, but something else happened
in eternity. God chose a people for himself,
right? Before the foundation of the
world, these people were chosen in Christ. So there's a difference.
We tell people all the time there's only two types of people. There's
Esau's and Jacob. There's chosen and there's people
that aren't chosen. I mean, although it is a logical
conclusion when you think about it, we think, well, that's not
fair. How can he pass by some? and choose others. Well, that's
his decision. We can't argue with God. We can't
fight with him. So my last point, I recapped
what I went over, but what I really wanted to focus on right now
is the wrath of God. And the thing about the wrath
of God is it's real. It's real, man. We tell people,
hey, we love for you to be saved and we pray for you. Why? Because
if they aren't saved, if they aren't in Christ, they're going
to hell. You know, and I was talking to a friend a while back. Plus, I was thinking on my own.
And I was thinking, why is it that everybody that you know
that dies, whether it's your uncle, your auntie, you know,
your parents, your friends, that they're in heaven? You know,
they lived like hell their whole life. They never went to a church. That's not even saying that the
church they went to was a true church, because not every church
is a true church, believe me. And yet when they die, they're
in heaven. Like I said earlier, God knows who his people are.
When he told that man in Matthew chapter 7, he said, Lord, we
did all these things in your name. And the Lord told him,
depart from me. you worker of iniquity, I do
not know you. So if God doesn't know you in Christ, and he hasn't
placed you in Christ, you're going to hell. And that's a hard
thing to swallow, because I have family members and friends that
I know that are not in heaven. We tell people we can't judge
anybody. God's the judge. But yeah, if
you don't know Christ, and He doesn't know you. He tells us
right in the Word that there are people that aren't going
to be there. And so we tell people, we base everything on the Scripture.
We don't base it on how we feel or tell people some hypothetical,
well, God can save anybody and He can save them at the last
minute. Yes, He can. But if you look throughout the scripture,
He does things. If He's mighty to save, and He's
able to save to the uttermost, why would He save somebody right
before they die? I mean, we have that on the cross
when Jesus saved one of the thieves. Yeah, but He was already chosen.
So it's called predestination. It was going to happen, right?
For example, I was listening to a brother of mine, Scott Price,
this morning, and he said, whenever you're in doubt, there's an emergency
scripture, Romans 9-11. And it says, it talks about the
birth of Rebecca's kids, Jacob and Esau. And it says, for the children,
being not yet born, neither having done, any good or evil. So they weren't even born yet,
they hadn't done any good or evil. It says that the purpose
of God, this is what we're talking about, the purpose of God. Salvation
is the purpose of God for his people. It says the purpose of
God according to election might stand. And when you look at that
the way it's written, it doesn't mean like might, like it may
stand or it might fall, no. Look, God doesn't need anybody's
help, he can do whatever he wants. He's really saying, hey, the
purpose of God stands. It's a sure thing. That's why
he says in 2 Timothy 2, 19, nevertheless, the foundation of the Lord stand
assured. The Lord knoweth them that are his. So it's not like
it might, his purpose might not stand. No, his purpose is gonna,
even like he says his word's gonna accomplish that, what he
purposed it to do. But he goes on to say that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. So when we're talking about the
wrath of God, Paul developed that, and if you go to verse
18, because I said that's what I wanted to key on this morning,
because it says, And it's not like they have the truth and
they're not sharing it, If you know the truth and you're
of God, you're going to share the truth. But there's people
that know it like in letter, you know, because the scripture
says, a letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. They're holding
it in unrighteousness. And what that means is that they're
basing it upon something they do. And that's not the case. I said earlier, we're saved by
grace through faith, not works, lest any man boast. So you can't
tell somebody, hey, you have the power to overcome sin and
you're gonna get holier and holier along the way. No, we're gonna
sin till the day we die. We have a war going on inside
us. You know, we've seen it depicted in cartoons and TV shows where
you have a, suppose you have a good angel on one side, a bad
angel, you know, the devil on one side and an angel on one
side. You know, it's like that one guy, the devil's telling you,
yeah, do it, do it, do it. You know, and the angel's saying,
no, don't do it, little Johnny. You know, if you do it, you know,
you won't be a good person. But that's not the case, man.
We're going to do it all on our own. And as a result of those
things, the wrath of God, God's wrath, I mean, we can see it
in Noah's flood. I want to say, I've heard it
said that there was just as many people on the face of the earth
during Noah's flood as there are now. So when Noah, who was
called the preacher of righteousness for 120 years, preached the gospel,
he was telling them, hey, get an ark, get an ark. The ark is
a representation of Christ, right? And then the judgment came, the
wrath of God came on the earth, the flood, right? And the waters
lifted up, everything was killed. but the people that were in the
ark were saved. So when you're talking about the wrath of God,
you're talking about God destroying man. And they're going to send
him to hell. There's going to be more in hell
than there are in heaven. I mean, we don't know how many
are going to be in heaven. Scripture tells us it's an untold
number, because you're talking about the beginning of time to
the end of time, as we see it. But God knows it all. So that's
why there's people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue.
The thing about going on to talk more about the wrath of God is
that, let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5.9. Because this is what we're
saved for. This is what God's people are saved from. So, 1
Thessalonians 5.9. It's actually before Timothy,
I just went past it. And 1 Thessalonians 5.9 says,
For God hath not appointed us to wrath. Now the us are his
people. You hear people say, God so loved
the world, he gave his only son. No, the world he's talking about
is the world of his people, his elect. He shall save his people,
right? People from every nation, community,
tribe, and tongue. If he says, I'll have mercy, in whom I'll
have mercy, you have to look at scripture from the beginning
to the end. And you can't just, like my brother
James Tippin said this morning, you have pretext and you have
context. Now, you have to read everything in its context. You
know, like if I said something to you and somebody else heard
it, they heard the tail end of our conversation. I'm like, yeah
man, you were pretty mean to that person, or you said something
really mean. And that's not what I said because he didn't hear
the whole context. I'm like, no man, that's not the whole story. It's the
same way when it comes to scripture. God loves the world of his people,
and he's gonna save them, right? So it says, God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord. And it's not by
what we do. We're not obtaining it because it's something we
do. And you'll hear people say, yeah, my faith. My faith has
saved me. No. Faith has to have an object,
and the object of the believer's faith is Christ. That's why we
tell people, we talk about, the gospel is about the person, who
he is, and the work of Christ, and what he did. So the person
is Jesus Christ. The work that he did was, he
died. It's called, he made an atonement, a satisfactory atonement,
to justify his people. So, he took our sins upon him. He didn't become sin, but he
took them because he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and without
sin. So remember those things, you know, and as vessels of mercy,
because that's what we are. God's people are vessels of mercy.
So we have to tell other people that, hey, there's mercy out
there. God is merciful, and if He's merciful to you, that's
a wonderful thing. We can share these truths with
people and tell them, because fallen, unregenerate man is on
his way to hell. Years ago, I used to watch Jay
Leno late at night, and he made a quote about going to hell in
a handbasket, and he said it was TWA Airlines. I thought it
was funny at the time. I think TWA is not around anymore. But anyways, that's what's going
to happen in the end. Many are chosen, but few are
called. And I know many are called, but
few are chosen. I'm sorry, I got that backwards.
And that's the thing. We don't know who the called
are. We don't know who the elect are. But we share this news in
the hopes of God saving these people. And we know that if they're
His, He will. So we escape the wrath of God. God's wrath is His justice. And
we know that Scripture says the wages of sin is death. And if
we're all sinners, that means we all should die, we should
all perish. And that's a righteous judgment by God. But because
of his love for his people that he chose in Christ, Christ stepped
in as their substitute. Like in the Old Testament book
of Genesis, when Benjamin was taken, when Joseph was in Egypt,
one of his brothers said, hey, I'll be surety for the lad. And
that's what Christ is for His people. He's a sure thing to
save His people. And He stands in place of His
people. Not all men, His people. And
as a result of that, they escape the wrath of God. So, to finish
off, you know, God has made all things for His purpose. Scripture
says, even the wicked for the day of evil. That's Proverbs
16, 4. So we know that there's wicked people. God's angry with
the wicked every day. they're gonna go to hell. I mean,
that's what the Bible says. That doesn't mean that God is
wrong in doing that, or that everybody's going to heaven.
God has chosen his people already. If he chose you in Christ before
the foundation of the world, what part of that do we have
in it? Is it because of something that I do or I say? Is it because
I raised my hand, walked down an aisle, and said a sinner's
prayer? No. It's because God chose me in Christ. And that's
good news. And we don't know if that person
who is doing these things and believing that, we don't know
if they're elect. I mean, they might be. But if they are, God
will pull them out. He'll pull them out. He'll bring
them to Himself. And He'll teach them, because
they'll all be taught of God. We'll know these truths. And
by God's grace, we can be a part of a church, a real gospel church,
where we can learn the truth, and we can hear the word rightly
divided, not corrupted and destroyed and with the edge cut off. I know that I have six older
sisters and my mom, and I've always heard it said that you
don't want to tell a woman she doesn't look good. So if she
tells you, hey, how do I look in distress? and you kind of
stumble over your words, and you don't say, oh, you look great,
baby. You take a little bit too long, you're going to get mad
at her. But as far as the truth of the
Word of God is, we have to tell people the truth. It's our duty
to tell the truth. And if we love them, we tell
them the truth. It says in 1 Corinthians that
love, chapter 13, love doesn't delight in evil. but it rejoices
in the truth. So we have to understand that.
When we tell people the truth, that's our only duty. Tell them
the truth. Speak the truth in love. We shouldn't be harsh.
We should try to be gentle to men. Sometimes we get excited
and get upset and things get heated, so to speak. My friends
always tell me, I don't like talking about politics and religion.
I'm like, I don't talk about politics. Because I don't know
nothing about politics, or very little. But when it comes to
religion, I know a little bit about true religion. And that's
why I'm sharing it with you guys, live. You know, my friends and
family. With the hopes that in doing so, God will save his people
that are out there. And also for this town that I
live in, the city of Los Baños, that he would save his people,
man. I was driving over 100 miles one way each time I had to go
to church. And that's a long way to drive.
And we should have a city of refuge where we live, or at least
one kind of close by. Because the most important thing
in life is knowing God, and Him knowing you, and being taught
the truth of God. Because we're not going to be
here forever, and death is eternal. Life after death is eternal.
Either it's eternal life in Christ, or death. It's in hell and you
don't want to be there. So with that in mind, that's
what I wanted to touch on today. You have the gospel, God's grace,
God's faith, calling and service, and the wrath of God. And the
good news is that there are people who are going to escape the wrath
of God as a result of what Christ did on their behalf. All right?
So that'll be it for today. Let's close in prayer. Father,
we thank you for your word. Lord, we ask that you would bless
it and cause it to bear fruit in your people and to bring them
to you, that we might rejoice in one sinner who was lost, being
found. As you draw your sheep to you
and to your fold, let me give you praise, Lord. In Jesus' name,
we pray. All right, see you guys next Sunday, 11 o'clock. God
bless you, bye.