The title of my message this
morning is Righteousness, Faith, and Unbelief. Righteousness,
Faith, and Unbelief. You'll find my text in Romans
chapter 4, verses 23, 24, and 25. Righteousness, Faith, and
Unbelief. When I am preparing to preach
and as I to get ready to stand up here and preach to you, I
always ask myself the question, why? Why am I preparing this
message? Why am I preaching this message? And I try to answer the question
honestly for myself. I'm bringing this message to
you for the glory of God. That is and must be the primary
goal in preaching always, the glory of God. Not what men think
of it, not the increase of the church, not the furtherance of
a denomination, not the furtherance of some doctrine, the glory of
God. If God is not honored, By what
I do here and you do here today, all that we do is vanity. Father, glorify yourself. That's my prayer. And I'm bringing
this message to you. You who are God's people. For
you. For you. For the benefit of God's
elect. For you who believe. I want you
to find comfort in the gospel of God's grace. I want you to
leave here rejoicing in God's goodness. I want to reprove our
unbelief. Correct us from our waywardness. I want to turn our hearts Godward. Oh, may God Do that for you and
for me. And I'm preaching this message
for your salvation. For you who are under the wrath
of God. For you who have no hope. For you who are dead in trespasses
and in sins. It is my prayer that God will
be pleased by his spirit through his word this hour to save you
by his grace, to give you life and faith in his dear son. And
I bring you this message because it is so needful in this day
of horrid darkness. The darkness of the religious
world in which we live. And sadly, sadly, the whole world's
religious. But it is a religion of darkness.
The spiritual darkness of this age is incredible. It is incredible. Free will, Armenian works, religion,
Never varies. It never changes. It's always
the same. But the darkness, the confusion, the madness, the insanity
of it only increases. Driving to the doctor the other
day, I usually don't pay much attention to him because I try
to watch the road and the signs are too distracting. But I couldn't
help reading the sign on this goat barn out here between here
and Bobby's house. I meant to call it a goat barn
because that's what it is. You don't believe this. You won't
believe this. I started to take a picture of
it, bring it, send it, and print it out and show it to you. You
won't believe what's sitting on the side. It's called a Baptist
church sitting out there. I hope everybody in that congregation
hears what I'm saying to you. This is what they said. Sooner
or later, I promise you, sooner or later, Preachers and religious
folks, you and me and your brothers and sisters in mind, your mom
and dad in mind, your sons and daughters in mind, your neighbors
in mind. Sooner or later, folks will put into words what they
really believe. Now you listen to this. This
is what science says. God believes in you. God believes in you. Have you been hearing what I've
been telling you all these years about the religion of Antichrist
being will worship? Man setting himself up in the
house of God demanding that he be worshiped as God. Merle Hart,
this religious world worships man as God. God believes in you. That's the biggest pile of horse
manure you'll ever find. And I'm being as polite as I
intend to be. God believes in you. Not according
to this book. Not according to this book. All
right, let's look at our text. Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter
4. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him. It was not written for his sake
alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead. Not if he believes on us, if
we believe on him who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification. Unbelief is damning. Faith in Christ is saving. Faith
in yourself is just unbelief, and it'll take you to hell. Faith
in Christ is saving. Now in this chapter, the Apostle
Paul, writing by divine inspiration, has said a great deal about Abraham
and his faith. But his purpose was not to exalt
and magnify Abraham. His purpose, the purpose of God
the Holy Spirit in telling us about Abraham was to show us
how that God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone,
in Christ alone, just as he did Abraham. just as he did all of
those saints mentioned throughout the scriptures. They were all
saved exactly as God saves sinners today by faith in Jesus Christ
the Lord. Now let's look at the three things
Paul speaks of in this passage. First, he speaks of righteousness. Now let me remind you because
it needs to be said over and over and over again. that the
righteousness of God imputed to Abraham was not the righteousness
of his faith. The righteousness of God imputed
to Abraham was not the righteousness of his faith, but rather it was
the righteousness, the everlasting righteousness, performed, established,
and brought in. by the doing and dying of Jesus
Christ, the sinner's substitute. Believing on Christ, they which
are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, we're told
in Galatians 3. We are blessed with the same
righteousness of God imputed to Abraham. The righteousness
of God given to Abraham is described in Jeremiah 32 typically as the
right of redemption. We have the right of redemption. We have the right to possess
God's promises. We have the right to be the sons
of God, the power, the authority, the right to call God our Father
through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. This right of redemption
belongs to all who believe on the Son of God. Now both faith
and righteousness are the work operation and gift of God. Faith and righteousness are the
work, the operation, the gift of God. Abraham had no more faith
than that which God gave him and wrought in him. The same
is true of you and of me and of everyone else. Christ alone
is the object of faith. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. By Him, all who believe, whether
strong in faith or weak in faith, are justified from all things.
Now, as I said before, much is said in this chapter about Abraham
and his faith, and much is said in other parts of Scripture about
Abraham and his faith, and about the fact that Abraham's faith
was imputed to him for righteousness. Sadly, sadly, Most people take
that to mean that Abraham's faith was his righteousness. Clearly,
that is not the meaning of Holy Scripture. We read in Romans
4, 3 here, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. And folks, look at that. You
believe God and that will be counted to you for righteousness.
as if your faith makes you righteous, as if your faith produces righteousness. You see this is, I went over
this again just recently with some preacher friends. They were
discussing things, not just preachers, but others as well were around.
We were chatting about folks differing on various points of
doctrine. There are many historically,
many historically, who differ from what the scriptures clearly
teach with regard to limited atonement. I'll give you a clear
example. John Calvin, J.C. Ryle, many
folks say that there's a sense in which Christ died for all
men. Now that's wrong. The scriptures
do not teach that, but that's what they taught concerning the
atonement. But they clearly taught, inconsistent as the doctrine
was, that Christ accomplished the redemption of his elect.
Now that's wrong, that's incorrect doctrine, but it's not damning.
The religion of this age, the religion of freewill worksmongers
is this. Christ, by his obedience, made
it possible for everyone to be righteous. Christ, by his atonement,
by his death, made it possible for everyone to be redeemed.
Christ, by suffering the wrath of God for sin, made it possible
for everyone's sins to be put away, for everyone to be forgiven,
for everyone to be saved. But he did not actually, he did
not effectually redeem, save, justify, or make anyone righteous,
but rather man by his faith. gives merit and efficacy to the
work of Christ for his salvation. That's damning heresy. You see
the difference? Do you understand the difference?
If what you do gives merit to the work of Christ, Christ is
meaningless and you're God. And that's the sum and substance
of freewill works religion. Scriptures do not teach that
Abraham's faith made him righteous or that his faith was imputed
to him for righteousness. To say that faith itself, his
act of believing God, was imputed to him for righteousness makes
his justification, his righteousness, a matter of works and of merit,
giving glory to the creature, not to the creator. to say that
faith itself, Abraham's act of believing God was imputed to
him for righteousness, makes righteousness, justification,
the salvation of his soul to be something conditioned upon
him, conditioned upon his choice, his decision, his will. Faith,
faith which is the gift of God, is not something created by man's
will, man's choice, man's decision, Faith has but one office. Faith
receives that which is freely given. This faith, given of God,
receives all the other blessings of grace. Abraham's faith didn't
become his righteousness. Rather, Abraham's faith received
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. The righteousness of God
performed for him by Christ Jesus. Look at our text again. The Spirit
of God declares that if shall be imputed to us also, or that
it shall be imputed to us also if we believe. What's he talking
about? Abraham believed God and it was
imputed to him for righteousness. It shall be imputed to us also
if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
What's imputed? Not Abraham's faith. If that
were the case, then this is what the text would be saying. If
you believe, Abraham's faith will be imputed to you. Hold
up. That's not it. That's not it.
What was imputed to him? The righteousness Abraham's faith
received. The righteousness Abraham's faith
embraced. By believing God, Abraham had
righteousness imputed to him. And if you believe, you shall
have righteousness imputed to you. Faith receives this great
blessedness. It doesn't accomplish it. Faith
has assurance of the blessedness of righteousness, but it doesn't
accomplish it. Faith enjoys the blessedness
of righteousness, but it doesn't accomplish it. Christ and His
justifying righteousness is that which faith receives and enjoys. The righteousness received by
faith in Christ is the righteousness of Him, what does the text say
here, verse 25, who was delivered for. I've said this to you many
times and I'll say it to you many more. The word for here
means because of. When I was going to school and
I got report cards. If I happen to manage to get
an A, do you know what I got it for? I got it for the work
I had done. He got an A for his work. That's
not saying that I got the A in order that the work should be
done. It's saying I got the A because the work was done. There's a
huge difference. And this is not suggesting that
our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered in order that our offenses be
made His. Oh, no, no, no. He was delivered
into the hands of divine justice because our offenses had become
His offenses. You see that? He was delivered
because of our offenses. And he was raised again because
of our justification. His resurrection from the dead
did not accomplish justification. Not at all. The justification
of our souls, our righteousness, our redemption, our forgiveness,
our salvation was accomplished when the Savior cried, it is
finished. And he died in our stead. He
was raised from the dead because justification was done. You see
the difference? He was raised from the dead as the justification
of the Spirit of God, raising him up, being justified in the
Spirit, declared without sin, I know that he who died at Calvary
put away our sins that were made his, because yonder he sits on
the throne of glory and he has no sin. He put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. So this righteousness, this righteousness
that we receive is the righteousness of God, the righteousness of
Christ our Savior. And now there's no guilt left
upon the conscience of sinners delivered from the curse of the
law because Christ put away our sins. Christ put away our sins. This is the imputation of righteousness. We've got this thing We've got
to think of imputation all messed up in our thinking because of
Roman tradition that's been held on to in Baptist and Protestant
churches for generations. We have the idea that imputation
is a legal work. It is not a legal work. It's
an accounting work. It's not something done in a
court of law. It's something done in ledger
books. And God, when He gives you faith in Christ, by His Spirit,
sprinkles your conscience from dead work so that now there's
no curse. No curse! God says, I have no
curse. Enoch, before he was translated,
received this testimony that it pleased God. He had a testimony
that it pleased God. Wouldn't you like to have that?
Oh, I'd sure like for you to know I please God. Oh, no, no. Enoch had testimony
from God in his soul that his sin was put away. That's the
testimony that God gives to faith. Abraham believed God and believed
in God. God said to Abraham, you're righteous. You're justified. Righteousness
is yours. And now in Christ, there's no
condemnation to them that are in him. And who shall separate
us from him? We are in Christ, Renneria, in
Christ, and nothing can separate us from Christ. Nothing can separate
us from Christ. That means nothing can separate
us from righteousness. This righteousness of God that
is ours in Christ Jesus the Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Alright, here's the second thing.
Faith. Faith. I want everyone who hears
my voice to hear this. The righteousness of God is freely
bestowed. The righteousness of God is freely
bestowed upon. Given to. imputed to every sinner
who believes on the Son of God. Believe on Christ right now,
right where you are. Believe Him. Trust Him. And you
go home justified, righteous before God. Righteous before
God. There were two men who came to
the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other
a And the Pharisee prayed thus with himself. I often paraphrase it deliberately. The Pharisee played thus with
himself. He made himself feel good by
telling God how good he was. He said, Lord, I'm thankful to
you. He wouldn't take all credit to himself. Oh no, no. Why, who would ever do such a
thing as that? Not so you could hear him, surely.
Oh no. Lord, I thank you. I do thank
you. I'm not like other men. Oh no,
no, no. By your goodness and grace, Lord,
I fast twice every week. And I pray three times every
day. And I give tithes of all that
I possess. I'm not like other men, and Lord,
I'm sure not like this publican. Oh, no. I'm not like other men. I'm not like other men. And the
publican wouldn't so much as lift his eyes toward heaven,
stood far off, and beat his heart. God, be propitious, be merciful to
me because there's never been a sinner like me. Oh God, for Christ's sake, have
mercy on me. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. And that man left that temple
that day. He came in with his conscience
crushing him. With his conscience beating him
to hell. With his conscience telling him
he's damned. With his conscience telling him
he deserved God's wrath. With his conscience telling him,
you can't come near to God. Stay far off from God. But he
went home with his conscience saying, God's pleased with you. You're righteous. They went home
justified. Justified. And the publican went
home just like he came in. God Almighty freely bestows. He freely gives. He freely imputes
righteousness. The very righteousness of God,
the very righteousness wrought out by the doing and dying of
Jesus Christ, by His obedience to God unto death as the sinner's
substitute, that righteousness God freely gives to every sinner
who believes His Son. In recent months I've been corresponding
with an elderly lady who's dying. She's been religious her whole
life long, trying to work her way into God's favor. About a
year ago, she started listening to our messages, and she's troubled. And now she's learning something
about false religion and her sin and the horrid evil of her
sin, the corruption of her heart. She's tormented with guilt. And
she keeps asking me questions. I can't tell you how many times
she's asked me these questions. How can I know I'm one of God's elect? How can I know that Christ died
for me? She said, I beg and I pray that
God will save me. How can I be saved? Can God save
a sinner so far gone as I am? And I keep telling her the same
thing I've been telling you for nearly 35 years in this pulpit.
And what I'll tell you today, are you listening? Are you? Hear the answer, will you? Hear
the answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Is that what God said? Is that
what God says in His Word? Believe! Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
of God hath not life. Our Lord Jesus after He was crucified
as our substitute, when He was risen from the dead gave this
word to His disciples whom He gathered around Him, all power
is given to me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Tell everybody
what I've done. In Luke's gospel, he told the
disciples, he said, you go beginning at Jerusalem and into the uttermost
parts of the earth and preach repentance and the forgiveness
of sins. What? You go give sinners the
good advice of repentance. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. You go and proclaim the good
news that I have turned sinners to God by my redemption. I have put away sin by my sacrifice. You go tell everybody it's so.
And everybody who believes me has everlasting life. Everybody
who believes me has eternal life. Now this is not written just
for Abraham's sake alone, but for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed if we believe on him. In this passage, Paul's message
to us is this. If you believe on him, who raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, like Abraham did, If you trust
Christ like Abraham did, you too shall have the righteousness
of God. You too shall have righteousness
imputed to you. God will speak peace to you. Look at chapter 5. Therefore,
since Christ has finished the work, being justified, being
justified, put the comma right there. Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God. Our faith doesn't accomplish
our justification. Our faith receives free justification,
and receiving free justification without any works. Receiving
the work of Christ, our Redeemer, His righteousness, His redemption,
receiving Him, believing Him, coming to God with nothing but Christ. You have peace with God. As long
as you keep trying to bring something else, you'll never get it. You'll
never get it. This is what God the Holy Ghost
tells us. The Jews, they came to the Lord Jesus and said, what
shall we do that we might do the works of God? You need to start serving the
Lord. Everything will be all right. Well, what should we do
that we should start serving the Lord? This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. That's it. Believe on Him whom He has sent. That's the very work of God. Rage your religious battles wherever
you want to, and you can find issues that you like to get involved
with. You can march against the abortion
clinics and get involved in politics, and you can get involved in temperance
movements, and you can get involved in moral causes, and you can
get involved in various things that take place politically.
You can get involved in all this stuff. Oh, you get excited. stirred up, and you get folks
to follow you, and you feel so good about all you do, but you
still don't have any peace. You don't have any peace. There's just one issue, just
one issue, one question, one thing that matters. Do you believe
on the Son of God? Do you believe on the Son of
God? This is what God the Holy Ghost
tells us about everything written in the book of God. Come back
to John chapter 20. John chapter 20, yeah, chapter
20. Now I realize this is specifically
a summary of John giving, a summary John is giving of his gospel.
But remember John is writing by divine inspiration. He is
summarizing for us the whole of sacred scripture. John 20
verse 31. These are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. I guess every one of you's got
a Bible. And most of our homes, I presume
all of you, even the small children, everybody's got his own Bible.
You're taught to read it and cherish it. You memorize it and
do all those things. Ricky, this is the reason God
gave it to you. reason he gave it to you. That
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing you might have life through His
name. The whole purpose of the book
of God is to call sinners to believe on Christ. Now let me
tell you five things about faith. Just five brief things about
faith. Number one, faith is God's gift. It's called the gift of God in
Ephesians 2 verse 8. It's called the operation of
God in Colossians 1 verse 12. Faith is God's gift. That means
you shut up to free grace. You can't believe. It doesn't
lie within the realm of possibility for you to believe unless God
gives you faith. Well, preacher, does that mean
that I just say, well, if God's going to
save me, he'll knock me in the head and I'll be safe? As long
as you've got that attitude, I promise you, you're not going
to get a knock in the head. Not going to happen. Not going to
happen. Oh, no. is God's gift, but faith is God's
command. God says to you, look unto me
and be you safe. That's His command, isn't it?
That's His command. God's command is that you believe
on His Son, 1 John 3, 23. But how can I obey God's command? If I cannot exercise my will
to believe, with the command, oh, if God will send His command
to you by the power of His Spirit, with the command comes the ability. It's called irresistible grace. It's called the effectual call
of the Spirit. There's a man with a withered
arm. And they brought him to the Lord Jesus. And if they had
brought him to Dr. Joe or Dr. Fred, they might have
put a patch on his arm. They might have even pulled it
out here and twisted it a little bit and made it look a little
straighter. Might have done some surgery on his arm to straighten
out a finger. Might have done that. But it'd still be a withered
arm. But the Master did something
strange. He did something strange. He said, stretch forth thy hand. And you know what he did, Merle? He stretched out his hand. He
couldn't do that. He can't if God says stretch
it out. He can't if God says stretch it out. Oh yes, it is
your responsibility to believe on the Son of God. But you can't
believe unless God speaks by His grace to you, giving you
faith in His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll tell you the
third thing about faith in Christ. Faith is believing God's testimony
concerning His Son. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ hath everlasting life. Oh, but preacher, I don't feel,
I don't feel saved. Lindsey Campbell, I rarely feel
saved. That's just fact. That's just fact. I feel sin
and I feel depravity and I feel death and I feel hard And I feel
corruption, and I feel blasphemy in my soul. I feel what I am,
but I rarely feel anything like godly. I rarely feel anything
like I believe God. Feeling? Feeling's got nothing
to do with it. Feeling's got nothing to do with
it. But I don't know whether I love
the Lord enough or not. You don't. You don't, I tell you now. I
don't know whether I've repented enough. You haven't, I promise
you. Not happened, not happened. But I'll tell you what I do know.
I believe, I believe the record God gave of his son. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God. And by his obedience as a man,
He brought in everlasting righteousness of infinite worth accepted by
God. I believe that he, by the sacrifice
of himself, has put away sin, fully satisfying the justice
of God with infinite merit. Therefore, he is able. to save to the uttermost a dead, helpless, corrupt, vile,
wretched sinner like me. Amen. Amen. That's it. Faith is believing
God, God's testimony concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus. I'll
tell you what faith is, fourth of them. Faith is resting. Faith is keeping the Sabbath
day. You remember the commandment
God gave that Sabbath day? He told folks they could only
walk so far. And they weren't allowed to even
go out and pick up sticks. to build a fire to warm themselves
or to cook breakfast. We're not allowed to go out and
pick up sticks. And do you remember what the penalty was if you did?
Killing. What? What? Would God kill a man for picking
up sticks? No. No. No. I tell you what he'll do. He'll
kill a man. for trampling his son underfoot.
He'll kill a man for spitting in the face of his son. He'll
send you to hell for despising the spirit of his grace. He'll
do that. And that's what that picking
up sticks represented. You see, the Sabbath day was
a picture of Christ's finished work and the everlasting rest
of our souls in Him who is our Redeemer. And for you to go out
on Sabbath day and pick up sticks is to say, God needs me to do
something. Christ is not enough. God needs
me to contribute something. Christ's righteousness is not
enough. God needs me to make a contribution. Christ's blood
is not enough. God needs me to do something
because Christ's intercession is not enough. For that, you'll
go to hell. For that, you'll go to hell.
What is faith? Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll give you
rest. This happens to me frequently,
as it does, I'm sure, to many of you. You go to bed at night,
dead dog tired, just dead dog tired. And after your wife goes
to sleep, you turn the lights off, all of a sudden, you get
to thinking. Some difficulty comes up. and
you gotta figure out a way to work it out. You gotta figure
out something to do, and you maneuver and manipulate, and
you, oh, I gotta do this. I wonder what's gonna happen
here. The other day, we went to bed. We went to bed at midnight. I woke up wide awake at one o'clock.
Four o'clock, I still laying there working things out. Still
working things out. Finally went off to sleep, got
a little bit of rest. But then the next night, I was
really tired. I was really tired and God gave
me a little bit of ability to trust Him concerning the difficulty
and found out it wasn't any difficulty at all anyhow. Found out it was
all just in my head. Just in my head. And I laid down
and I closed my eyes and I went to sleep. I didn't get up to
get a drink of water. I mean, slept all night long.
That's a rare thing for me. Oh, rest. Wonderful rest. What's that? You quit trying
and you quit working. You cease from labor! You rest. Rest in God's Son. Rest in Christ
Jesus the Lord. That's faith. It's resting in
Christ. And faith in Christ is the evidence
and the fruit of life. He that believeth the Son of
God hath life. Now, I can't say much about this
sinner. I can't say much about this sinner. You put anything else out there,
I couldn't meet the qualification. I can't say much about this sinner.
But I do believe on the Son of God. I do believe on the Son of God.
I trust Christ. I trust Christ. I don't know
much, and I don't feel much, and I haven't done much. I don't
know much that's worth knowing, feel much that's worth feeling,
and haven't done much that's worth doing. I know a lot that
I ought not know. And I feel a lot I ought not
feel, and I do a lot I ought not do. But I tell you what I
do, I trust Christ. I believe on the Son of God.
Now what does God say then about Don Fortner? What does God say? What does God say? God says Don
Fortner has life. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. Our Lord Jesus speaks of this
faith twice. He healed folks, saved them.
He said to them, thy faith has saved thee. So I like to throw things in
to just make folks kick. I just, Brother Mahan used to
always say, you gotta throw some cans in for goats every once
in a while. Here's a can for some goats to kick at. Chew on.
Faith is saving. Faith is saving. Believe. on the Son of God. And this is
God's testimony. Thy faith hath saved thee. Thy faith hath saved thee. Oh,
and a preacher can't say that to people. You know faith is
God's gift and man can't believe and God has to work faith in.
Did I say that? Did I say that? I think I did.
And this is what the Savior said. Thy faith hath saved thee. I
know I'm saved by God's free grace. And I know that God's
given me faith. And I know that God's brought
life in me. And I know that God's spoke peace
to my soul, because I believe his son. Oh, that's done me more
good than anything's done in I don't know when, just to repeat
those words. Thy faith hath saved thee. Faith,
this is God's gift. I want you to understand this.
Unbelief is damning. This will shock a lot of folks. But it's got to be said. God
won't send you to hell for stealing. And God won't send you to hell
for murder, and God won't send you to hell for drunkenness,
and God won't send you to hell for adultery, and God won't send
you to hell for fornication. Horrible, and I mean to say as
boldly, as plainly, as forcefully, as universally as I can, these
things are horrible evils, and they ought not be named among
any human being, let alone among folks who know God. But God won't
send you to hell for those things. I can show you in this book folks
who are seated right yonder with Christ on His Father's throne who are guilty of every one of
them. No, no, God won't send you to
hell for any of those things. God won't even send you to hell
for Adam's transgression because you fell in Adam. Nope, He won't
do it. He won't do it. The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. But why does God send men, women
to hell? For unbelief. For unbelief. He that believeth
not shall be damned. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Why? Because as I hinted at a
little bit ago, unbelief makes God a liar. Unbelief tramples underfoot the
blood of the Son of God. Unbelief despises the Spirit
of grace. Unbelief says, God, get out of
my way. I'll be God's. Time for you.
believe in me. Unbelief says God doesn't exist
except in me. Unbelief says I rule all and
have the right to rule all and God doesn't have any right at
all. Unbelief despises free grace. You see, the reason works religion is
so popular among people. The reason it's so popular, you
sitting right here now, everybody in the world who hears this message
in a few hours, everybody who hears it, as long as folks hear
it, if I could just persuade you, if I could just persuade
you that, let's line this aisle here between these two sets of
pews with broken glass and hot, red hot white hot coals. But I promise you, if I could
persuade you, if I could persuade you, if you get down on all fours
and crawl across those sharp, jagged, tormenting, painful pieces
of broken glass and white hot coals, if you'll just crawl right
here, just Right here. Just right here. Just that little
space there. That ain't far. You could do
that, couldn't you? You could do that, couldn't you? If you
do so, eternal salvation's yours. Everybody here will pull their
breeches off and pull their shoes off and get on all fours and
start crawling. Why? Because pride, you're stupid. Stupid. Stupid pride. will do anything for salvation
except trust somebody else. You'll do anything except trust
a crucified substitute. Can you? Right where you are. Do you? Right where you are. Believe on the Son of God. If you do hear God speak in your
soul, you're righteous. You have complete forgiveness. Eternal salvation is yours. And go home justified, rejoicing
in Christ Jesus. Now about everywhere, we get
to this point in the service, we'll stand and sing a song that
we about always do here. And something we don't ever do
here is call for folks to come forward and make a decision and
do something so you'll feel good about it. Let's do something
different today. Let's do something different
today. Let's do nothing. And I pray now, God give you
faith in his son. Oh, spirit of God, do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. Turn our hearts to our Redeemer. Even we to whom you've given
faith in all the varied circumstances of life, We can never believe
you except you work faith in us. Oh God, work faith in me. And for these here yet dead in
trespasses and in sins, will you speak with that voice with
which you spoke to Lazarus and cause the dead to come forth
to Christ the Lord. And let us with them, believing,
see the glory of God. Amen. You're dismissed.