Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 verse 17. For the scripture saith, unto
Pharaoh. Now, the scripture had not yet
been written, but the scripture saith to Pharaoh. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence. In Christ's name. That name that's
above every name. And we ask in his name that you
would be pleased to meet with us and to reveal yourself to us
through your word. Lord, give us a reverence for
your word, knowing it's your word written by you. to reveal the glory of your son. How we thank you for him and
we pray that we might be enabled to worship him in spirit and
truth. For the glory of your name, meet
with us, forgive us of our sins, be with our friends that aren't
here. Those that are traveling, we
pray for your mercy and grace upon them. We pray for your mercy
upon our country. We would remember the people
in the Ukraine. Lord, we're so glad you're on
the throne and we know that you do all things well. Be with all
your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's name we
pray, amen. You've probably heard this as
being the watchword of the Reformation. Scriptures alone, Christ alone,
grace alone, faith alone, and the glory of God alone. And it's
been called the watchword of the Reformation. In my opinion,
that debases those five statements. This is not something that came
up in the Reformation. This is eternal. Now I read that passage in Romans
chapter nine for this reason. The scripture saith to Pharaoh.
Scripture hadn't even been written. Yet the scripture saith to Pharaoh. Even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up. In Galatians chapter three, turn
with me there. Galatians chapter three. Now
this was written hundreds of years before the scripture was
written. Verse eight. And the scripture
foresee. Now do you see that? The scripture foresaw. The scripture,
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham. The scripture actually preached
the gospel. Now, what this lets us know is
that the scriptures are eternal. Scriptures alone has always been
the message. Scriptures Now, what is meant
by the scriptures? She's bad. What is meant by the scriptures? Every word in the Bible. Every word in the Bible is inspired
by God. Isn't it a wonderful thing to
have this book we're looking at that God himself wrote? All scripture, this is what the
scripture says about itself, all scripture, Old Testament,
New Testament, Genesis 1-1 through Revelation 22-21, All scripture
is given by inspiration of God. God breathed. Peter said, the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, do you have any trouble
at all believing that God created the universe? No. Really, it's the only thing that
makes sense. The invisible things of him from
the creation of the world, the scripture says are clearly seen,
clearly seen by everybody. Somebody says, I'm an atheist.
Don't believe it. Well, I really am. You don't
understand. I still don't believe it. There was at least one time
when you weren't an atheist. You might have through whatever
process of reasoning, not liking the God of the Bible, not liking
the implications of God being God, you might go, well, there
is no God. You might've done that. I realize that, but you
haven't believed that way all the time. It's clearly seen being
understood by the things that are made, the creation, even
his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Now it's easy to believe that
God wrote the Bible, inspired men to write it, and he has the
power to keep it preserved through the centuries. If you can believe
that God created the universe, you can believe that God inspired
the Bible. And what would we know of God
if we didn't have the revelation of Holy Scripture? Isaiah 820, to the law and the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, the scripture. It's because there is no light
in them. I heard David Edmondson give
this in an illustration somewhere when I was listening to him preach,
and I thought this was a very good illustration of the scripture.
There was a lady, a young woman that was reading a book that
she knew was well written, but it was boring. It was boring. She grew weary of it and closed
it and quit reading it. Well, in time, she met a man
that she fell in love with. And that man happened to be the
author of that book. And she thought, well, I'm going
to look at that book again. And she started reading that book
again, and she could not put it down. It was so interesting. Why? Because she now knew the
author. You know the author. This book
will be everything to you. David said, or whoever wrote
Psalm 138, thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now the reason, what about catechisms? What about
creeds? They're man-made. I don't care
how accurate they are, they're still man-made, and it's man's
attempt to distill this book so they can make it understandable.
Don't need that. Don't need, you know when I preach
the gospel, I preach the gospel, I don't try to make it understandable
to man. I just preach what the word says and trust God the Holy
Spirit to make it understandable. I can't make anybody understand
anything. I can't be so clear as to make anything understandable.
We trust God the Holy Spirit to do his work in the declaration
of his truth. Now when Paul said to Timothy,
Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Let me tell
you what that means. You preach the Word from the
Word that reveals the Word. You preach the Word, the message
of this book, from the written Word that reveals the living
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, there's only one message
in this book. the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the message of
this book. Now there are things we can know
about God from the light of creation. I can look out the window and
look up at the stars, the sky, the sun, the blue sky, and I
can know somebody very powerful made all of this. I can learn
that without the Bible, just looking. And nobody made him. Nobody made him. I was talking
to a man a couple of years ago, and he was arguing against the
existence of God. And I said, well, you can argue
all you want, but God is. And he made all this. And he
said, well, who made him? I said, nobody. He said, well,
I need to know who made God. He's uncreated. He's the eternal,
uncreated God of glory. Now, there's some things we can
know about God without the Word of God. But we can't know the
true character of God without this book. And here's the most
simple illustration. I can think of that. Would you ever even guess that
God is one God in three distinct persons without the scripture? What do you think God's like?
Well, here's what I think. I think he's one God revealed
in three. No, that would never, the only
way we know that is because God has revealed that with regard
to himself in his word. He's one God in three distinct
persons and the Bible gives us God's isness. The Bible gives
us the character of God. There's no way that you and I
can know the true character of God apart from this word. What saith the scripture? That is the issue. I love when
We read that the scripture saith to Pharaoh, don't you love that?
That shows the majesty and awesomeness and glory of God's holy word. What saith the scripture? I love
the way the Lord said to the Pharisees on numerous
occasions, have you never read? That's kind of a dig, wasn't
it? Have you never read? When the
Lord is dealing with Satan during that threefold temptation, how
did he answer? Every time, it's written. It's written. He didn't have
to say that to Satan. He could have just done whatever
he wanted to with him. But he's showing us the importance
of the word, the way he dealt with Satan. It is written. With regard to all three temptations,
it is written. Now, like I said, the Bible tells
us the isness of God. I am that I am. And I've got a Bible that has
a marginal reading with I am that I am that says what that
implies is I save in the manner which I save. God is known. in the manner in which he saves. I love that statement. I don't
know Hebrew enough to explain that. I don't know Hebrew at
all, so I can't explain how that is. But this one fella said,
the implication of I am that I am is I save in the manner
which I save. And that's true. Who God is is
seen in the manner in which he saves. Now, concerning God's
isness, Hebrews 11, 6 says, he that cometh to God must believe
that he is. Not simply that he exists, but
that he is. He is what he is. He is who he is. All of the attributes
of God are displayed in his isness. For instance, he is omnipotent
according to the scripture. Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth, Revelation 19. That means whatever he wants,
he has the power to make to come to pass. He is all-powerful. He is sovereign according to
the Bible. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay his hand. Nobody can stop him from doing
his will or saying, give an account for yourself. He giveth no account
of his matters. He is absolutely sovereign. And we know that from
the scriptures. It's God being God. He's holy. That means he's utterly unlike
me and you. He's other. Psalm 50, we considered that
a few weeks ago. Thou thoughtest thou was altogether
such a one as thyself. That's where people make their,
that's where I make my mistakes, where you make your mistakes
regarding God. We think he's like we are. He's
not. He's other, he's altogether who
he is. He's omniscient, he knows everything. He's an omnipresent, you can't
go anywhere where he's not. Now this is according to the
scripture. This is the information we get from the Bible with regard
to who he is. And aren't you thankful that
he's gracious? The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth. Aren't you glad he's
good? He's good all the time. I had a man sitting in my study
this week saying, if God's all-powerful, what about all the sin that goes
on in the world? Couldn't He prevent that if He's
all-powerful? God's good all the time, and
whatever He does is good, and I trust Him for that. That doesn't
mean I'm indifferent toward the suffering people go through.
I'm not indifferent at all. I'm not indifferent about the
suffering I go through when I go through it. The Lord delivered me from
this, but I do believe this. Whatever God does is good because
He's good. He's good all the time, and I
trust Him. I don't understand. He knows
what he's doing. I don't, but he does. And I'm fine with that.
Now, the scriptures alone give us the character of God. The scriptures alone give us
the true character of man. Turn with me to Genesis six for
a moment. You know, the whole Bible is
seen in light of this Verse 5, every one of us ought
to have this committed to memory, and we ought to remember this
describes us. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. Now, only the Bible gives us
man's true character. There's the evolutionary view,
obviously it's not in the Bible. Somehow life just sparked in
some primordial stew and somehow life just began to be, the chemicals
were just right and all of a sudden there was life. You know, talking about blind
faith, You've got to take a real leap in the dark to believe something
like that. But in this evolutionary view, man evolves. He becomes better and better
and better and better. And he'll end up being, you know,
through the process of evolution, he just keeps improving. Look
how far we've come. That's not what the Bible says.
It didn't say, look how far we've come. It says, look how far we've
fallen. And then there's the view that just lets We don't
know where man came from, but men are born with kind of a morally
neutral, and if we have given them the right education, if
we give them the right government, and we give them the right control,
they'll end up being okay. We just gotta give them the right
education, and the right influences, and have the government to have
everything right, and we can take care of men, and they'll
be fine. Well, that's just so wrong. There's nothing true about
it. And then this view supposedly
comes from the scripture. Supposedly. Man's sinful, but
man is not totally depraved and completely wicked. His will is
still free. He can choose. the good over
the evil. He has the moral ability to accept
Christ as his personal savior and somehow that'll make things
okay for him. Now that's not what the scripture
teaches. The scripture gives truly the character of man that
I just read. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart is only evil continually. Now the Bible, I don't know how
else to put this, but the Bible has one thing, how this glorious
holy God can take an evil man, totally evil, completely evil,
and make him perfect to where he has never sinned. Now turn with me to Romans 30. Verse 19, now this is what the Bible, this
is the message of the Bible. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. That's the entire message of
scripture. all scriptures given to show how glorious God is,
that he can actually be just and justify someone like me or
you who is unjust. That is the message of scripture. Now look in Romans chapter three,
verse 19. Now we know that what thing,
soever the law saith, it saith to them which are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped. and all the world may become
guilty before God. The Bible makes no attempt to
prove the existence of God. Doesn't need to. But the Bible
does tell us our state before God. Guilty with no excuses. that every mouth may be stopped. You can't blame anybody but yourself. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. Now, is there anything
we can do to change this? Verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. No, there's nothing you
can do to change that state. If God doesn't do something for
you and me, we will remain in that state of guilt before God. Does that mean there's no hope? Verse 21, but now. The righteousness
of God. Underline this in your mind without
the law. Without my obedience, my personal
obedience without me doing something. To have this. But now. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifested. Well, how can I know this is
true? Give me something that can give me some assurance that
this is not pie in the sky. Talking about the righteousness
of God without the law. Well, here's how I know it's
true. It's witnessed by the law and prophets. This is what the
Bible has always taught. Old Testament, their righteousness,
God said, is of me. Isaiah 45, this is the name wherewith
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Genesis 23, 6,
the Lord our righteousness. This is what the Bible's always
taught. The message of the Old Testament comes from the, or
the message of the New Testament comes from the Old Testament.
And that's what he's speaking of. The Old Testament scriptures,
this is what has always been taught. The righteousness of
God Without the law as manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even, here it is, even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith, and look at that word of. It doesn't say
by faith in Jesus Christ. Every version I know of, but
the King James always calls it faith in Christ. That changes
the meaning. It's the faith of Christ. Now remember every phrase is
inspired and said by God just the way he would say it. And
when somebody says it's faith in Christ they're giving a wrong
translation of it. Really they're giving their interpretation
of it rather than giving what the Bible actually says because
this is the way it actually reads by the faith of Jesus Christ. I'm saved by the faith of Jesus
Christ. By his obedience, by his faith,
he believed God perfectly. He obeyed God perfectly. I'm
saved by the faith of Christ. Are you saying faith is not necessary? No, I'm not saying that. You
gotta believe that. You gotta believe just that, that you're
saved by the faith of Christ. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Who's this for unto all
and upon all them that believe. Everybody that believes. Faith
is the gift of God, but everybody that believes they have this
righteousness of God. Believe what? Believe what? Well,
here's what they believe. There's no difference. There's
no difference between men. One man is as good as the other,
which is not at all. All men are totally sinful. All men, you take the most moral
man, the most religious man, and the most morally debauched
man before God, there's no difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Being, here's what they believe,
being justified, freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Now only the Bible gives this,
being justified. Oh, I wish I could say this as
it ought to be said. If I'm justified, what that means
is before God, I have never sinned. It doesn't mean I have, but God
just treats me as if I haven't. If I'm justified, that means
I have never sinned. Now, every one of us are thinking,
but I have. But I have. How am I supposed to believe
that God sees me as though I've, having never sinned, when I have? Because this is what the blood
of Christ did being justified freely, you don't do anything
to get this, by His grace through the redemption, the sin-atoning,
the sin-removing work of Christ. That's how I am justified. Freely, by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, verse 25, whom God has
set forth. And that word is foreordained.
He purposed this. This was God's eternal purpose
whom God set forth to be a propitiation, a sin removing sacrifice through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness, not his mercy,
although his mercy is seen, not his grace, although his grace
is seen, but to declare his righteousness. for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this
time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. Now that is the message of scripture.
Where is boasting then? What can we take credit for?
It's excluded. By what law of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing that there's one God which should
justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through
faith. Do we make void the law through
faith? Do we say the law is just useless? No, we establish the law. The only way you honor God's
law is by looking to Christ only. You do that, you honor God's
holy law. That's the only way God's law
is honored. by looking to Christ only. Now that is the message of the
scriptures. Scriptures alone, not scriptures
and, not scriptures and man's thoughts, man's comments, man's
opinion. Scriptures alone tell us who
God is, who we are, and how he can embrace people like me and
you. Okay, now next time we're gonna
consider Christ alone.