Alright brethren, Romans chapter
1. Paul says in verse 14, I am a
debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the
wise and to the unwise. And so as much as in me is, I'm
ready, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also. What made Paul so ready to preach
the gospel in such a large, idolatrous, infidel city like Rome? What
made him ready to go there? It was full of enemies. You just
try to picture one of our largest cities and the wickedness. And that's where he was going.
To enemies that hated him, who had the power to put him in prison.
What made him want to go there? What made him ready to go there?
Paul knew that the gospel is hated by natural man. The means
itself is foolishness to men. God using a sinner to preach
to other sinners. The means that God uses is hated
by man. The subject of the gospel is
hated by natural men. God's Son taking human flesh,
a sinless man born of a virgin, born into poverty, He hath no
form, no comeliness about Him that when we shall see Him we
shall desire Him. He's despised and rejected of men. He was then,
He still is. The message is hated by natural
man. The message that we preach is
hated. Total ruin of all men in the fall. Salvation by God
choosing whom He will and passing by whom He will. The necessity
that Christ go to a bloody cross and lay down His life on a bloody
cross? The necessity that we be born
again of the Holy Ghost and that we can't contribute anything
to it? The people God saves and uses
to preach the gospel are a shame to natural man. Christ passed
by the Sanhedrin, He passed by the school of Gamaliel, And he
went and called out uneducated fishermen. Uneducated fishermen
and sent them forth preaching the gospel. They still had fish
scales on their fingers when they went forth preaching. He passed by the pious Pharisees
that everybody was supposed to look up to and he called harlots
and publicans and used them. Send them forth to support the
gospel, to go forth. You see your calling, brethren,
how not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble are called. Paul knew the great majority
in Rome hated him and hated his gospel. The Jews, on one occasion,
this will happen later, they cried out, Men of Israel, help!
This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the
people. They said He's preaching against
the people because He declared men to pray. He's preaching against
the law because He said Christ is a fulfillment of it. He's
preaching against this place because He declared to them God
doesn't dwell in temples made with hand. Gentiles, they said,
these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. And they teach customs which
are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, because we're
Romans. They said they're a trouble to
the state by this gospel that they preach. The Roman authority, they said,
as concerning this sect, this cult, we know that everywhere
it's spoken against. It's interesting that natural
man rejects a small number who believe God's Word, calling it
a sect, a cult. But regenerated men reject the
multitude who believe man's Word. Christ said, enter ye in at the
straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction and many there be that goes in that way.
Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads
to life and few there be that find it. God's not dwelling where
the multitudes are preaching man's works. He's dwelling where
His remnant are preaching His works. Let men call His people
a cult if they want to. And all of this that they said
about Paul and about the gospel in his day is true in our day.
Men still hate the gospel in our day. because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." There's
foolishness to it. He can't understand them and
he won't understand them. The carnal mind hates God. It's not subject to the Word
of God. It can't be subject to the Word of God. So why was the
Apostle Paul so ready to go into this great city with all these
God-hating infidels and preach Christ and Him crucified? Why
was he so ready to do that? These citizens aren't going to
receive Him, naturally speaking. Well, Paul makes four statements
declaring why he was ready. Here's four statements, and this
is why I am ready. This is why I am ready. This was why Paul was ready.
Each statement begins with the word for, and they'll be our
divisions. First of all, verse 16, he says,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That's the first reason
he was ready. Secondly, he says, For the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. Thirdly, he says, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And
fourthly, he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and
unrighteousness. He said, this is why I am ready
to preach the gospel to those at Rome. Paul was ready to preach
the gospel because the preaching of Christ and Him crucified is
the only way perishing sinners shall be saved. Sinners are perishing. And this is the only way they
shall be saved is through the preaching of the gospel of Christ.
And Paul knew this and he was ready. He was ready. First of
all, he says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The Apostle Paul said
this, to embolden God's saints at Rome. To give them boldness,
both then and now. Because believers still have
a carnal, fleshly man with us. And we have all these enemies.
And there's a whole bunch more people that are ashamed of our
gospel than are not ashamed of our gospel. And so we're always
facing this pressure of being ashamed of the Gospel. Now I
realize Scripture says that he that believeth on our Lord Jesus
Christ shall not be ashamed. Our Lord is not going to let
His people who He's redeemed fall away in shame. He's not
going to let that happen. But brethren, this is so. Look
at 2 Timothy and I want you to hear what Paul said to Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and look at
verse 7. He says, God hath not given us the spirit
of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed of the gospel
of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God." Paul gave God
the glory for him not being ashamed. He glorified God. And look here,
he said in verse 10, he said, He says now, He's made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. He's abolished
death and He's brought life and immortality to light. There's been a revelation now
and it's through the gospel. It's through the gospel. And
he says, Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and
a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer
these things. This is why he was ready to suffer. He was appointed a preacher of
the gospel to the Gentiles. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
he said, for I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him
against that day. And so he tells Timothy, Hold
fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me,
which I preach to you in faith and in love, which is in Christ
Jesus. And that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep,
by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest. There's
been a bunch of people who turned away in shame. Oh, they which
are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phagellus and
Hermogenes. But look at this, the Lord give
mercy unto the house of Oneseros. For he oft refreshed me, and
he was not ashamed of my shame. He wasn't ashamed when I was
thrown in prison. When he was in Rome, he sought me out very
diligently, and he found me and ministered to me. He wasn't ashamed.
So Paul says, don't be ashamed of the Lord. Don't be ashamed
of suffering for His sake. Don't be ashamed of bearing reproach. And God's people are not ashamed
by the grace of God. He gives us a good hope in Christ.
And he said in Romans 5, hope makes us not ashamed. Because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given to us. This is how we are not ashamed,
by the power of God. Look over Philippians 1. I want
you to see why Paul said this. Philippians 1 and verse 19. It's
because of the power of God. This is why he made this statement
right here. Verse 19, he says, I know that
this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer. And look
at what else through. Through the supply of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ. And he says, according to my
earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed. In nothing. But that with all
boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in
my body, whether it be by life or by death. So that's why Paul
was ready to preach the gospel. God had bestowed power, His power
upon him. He'd been saved by this gospel.
He knew the power of this gospel. And he had the power of the Lord
working within him. And he said, this is my hope.
I'm not depending on myself to not fall away. I'm depending
on Him to keep me, to keep me not ashamed. And so, I'm ready,
he said. I'm ready to preach Christ. You
know what those who are not ashamed do? Number one, they believe
on Christ. Number one, they believe on Christ.
If a man's not ashamed, number two, he confesses Christ before
men. In believer's baptism, you confess
Christ before men, and also, he'll identify with God's people
in the furtherance of the gospel. That's right, because he's not
ashamed. We're not ashamed to tell sinners who are perishing
about the gospel of Christ. Have you ever felt this way?
I was talking to Will the other day about somebody he's friends
with and he said, yeah, his mother wants him to come to church with
us. And he said, but I'm afraid that if she heard what you preached
that she won't want him to come to church with us anymore. And
that's how we feel sometimes. We think, well, I just ought
not tell this to them because they're not going to believe
it. They're going to get mad. But I'll tell you something, brethren,
the only way they are going to believe it is if you tell them. They're
not going to believe it by not hearing the gospel. God give us grace not to be ashamed. Alright, look at this second
thing. Paul says, for it's the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
He says it, he's talking about the preaching of the gospel of
Christ. The preaching of the gospel of
Christ. He said, I am ready to preach
the gospel to you that are wrong. Because I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, it is the power of God. It is the power of God. Christ declared over in Isaiah
61.1, He declared why He saves through the preaching of the
gospel. He said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings, to preach the Gospel
unto the meek. Now together with preaching,
the power is the subject. Together with the means that
He is going to use, the power is the subject. Christ Himself
and Him crucified. There is the power, Christ the
power. In addition to this, the power
is the voice of God speaking into the heart. Whenever the
Lord in Isaiah 52, when He talked about how beautiful are the feet
of Him that brings the gospel, He said, then my people shall
know my name. Therefore, they shall know in
that day that I am He that does speak. Behold, it's I. Christ,
just like He was the one who God anointed to preach the gospel
when He walked this earth, He's the one God's anointed to preach
the gospel now. But because He's not present,
He's preaching it through His earthly vessels, in spirit and
in power. And when it says the gospel of
Christ is the power of God unto salvation, it's excluding all
other means to save His people. The gospel. There's only one.
It's the gospel and it's the power of God unto salvation. That excludes all other means.
God is going to use the preaching of Christ in Him crucified. Paul
said, Christ sent me not to baptize, He sent me to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. There's
the subject. The cross of Christ. He said,
for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. You can't separate the
gospel of Christ and the living word from the way God has chosen
to deliver it. And that's through a wretched,
sinful vessel preaching it. Preaching it. And by this means,
God produces the end result that He determined from the beginning.
The salvation of His people. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. It doesn't matter if you're a
Jew or a Gentile. He sent the Gospel first to His
elect among the Jews and then He sent it to the Gentile. But
this is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Now that does not mean that a
sinner enables the Gospel to be powerful by you believing. We don't enable the gospel to
be powerful by our believing it. What it means is, through
the gospel, it is the power through which God speaks and the Holy
Spirit comes and gives you life and brings you to believe the
gospel. And the same way that we're born, we continue to be
grown, and that's by the gospel. James 1.18 says, Of His own will
begat He us. with the Word of Truth. Go to 1 Peter 1.23. 1 Peter 1.23, being born again,
not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of
God which is alive and abides forever. What is it that makes
you hear the Gospel preached and you will have heard it a
thousand times and you hear it and it's just so full of life
in you and it just rejoices your heart? Why is that? Because the
Word of God is alive. It's a living Word. the living
Word that liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass
witherth, the flower thereof falleth away. You couldn't have
been born again by our flesh because it's just grass. There's
no power in it. But look, this is how we're born
again. Verse 25, But the Word of the
Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. preached unto you. That's why
we don't just drop Bibles out of airplanes. God chose to save
through the foolishness of preaching. Why? Why did He choose that way?
Go to 1 Corinthians 1. God does two things with this.
He does two things. And this is necessary for salvation. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 18. The first thing He does is He's
going to bring to nothing our own wisdom and our own understanding. He's going to bring that to nothing.
Look here, verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. You don't have to convince a
believer of this because we've experienced it. It is the power
of God. For it's written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. That's all of us by nature. Everybody
God saved, we think we're really wise and prudent and by our seeking
we can find out God. He said, I've got to bring that
to nothing. Now, a little later He's going to say, now you see
your calling brethren. He's going to say, look around
you in the church that Christ has planted. Well, he says that
right here, and look what he says. Verse 20, Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? There are none. Not in the church
Christ is called, there are none. There's no wise men, there's
no scribes, there's no disputers of this world. Why not? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? He has to you and me who He's
called. He made us to see not to trust our wisdom, not to hold
on to anything we've ever done. Verse 21, For after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but
we preach Christ crucified. There's the wisdom of man. Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. He said, but
we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks its foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. That's why the gospel is powerful. Because through this method Christ
speaks. and He declares what He's done
in power. And He's the power and the wisdom.
Does it mean that God chose the gospel to bring our wisdom and
our understanding to absolutely nothing? That's exactly what
it means. Verse 27, God's chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. He's chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
He's chosen the that base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen, and things which are not, to
bring to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory
in His presence. That's the first reason He chose
this method. And the second one is this, He
uses this means so that your faith shall not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Look at 1 Corinthians
2 verse 1. Paul said, Our brethren, when
I came to you, you came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And look at this vessel Christ used. I was with you in weakness,
in fear, in much trembling. My speech, my preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration
of the spirit of power. Why? That your faith should not
stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's why
God chose to save this way. That's why He chose to save through
this means. Through this means, He forces you and me into the
dust and we have to renounce our wisdom, our prudence, our
being a scribe and searching and seeking. We have to reject
it. We have to renounce it. Because no flesh is going to
glory in His presence. And He does it so that we are
saved through the power of God and not in the wisdom of men.
Remember what he told Zerubbabel? Not by man's work, not by man's
might, nor by man's power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. That's how we're called. You
know what that word power means back there in Romans 1? I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation. You know what the word power
means? The word is dunamis. And it's
the word from which we get the word dynamite. The Gospel is
the dynamite of God. The same power of God that it
takes to give a sinner life and quicken him and bring him to
faith in Christ is the power it took to raise Christ from
the dead. Same power. In Ephesians 1.19 He said, I
want you to know the exceeding greatness of His power to us
who believe according to the working of His mighty power which
He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. He
is saying the same power, that mighty power of God that it took
to raise Christ from the dead, it takes to raise His people
from the dead and quicken us to life. And Paul says, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto
salvation. It not only makes us willing
to believe on Christ, it makes us willing to identify ourselves
with God's people and to suffer for Christ's sake. That's why
Paul was saying I'm not ashamed of it. Go to 1 Thessalonians
2. If I'm ashamed of the gospel, I haven't been called of God. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2 verse
13. Because when He calls you, He
makes you willing, though you're going to be ridiculed and reproached
and whatever, He makes you willing to identify with His people and
suffer in addition to believing on Him. Watch this, 1 Thessalonians
2, look at verse 13. For this cause, thank we God,
without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God,
the Gospel of Christ, which you heard of us, which you heard
us preach to you, you received it not as the Word of men, but
as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh
also in you that believe. For you, brethren, became followers
of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
You became followers with us. You identified yourself with
believers because of the power of the gospel. For you also have
suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they
have of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own
prophets and have persecuted us. Brethren, doesn't this make
you encouraged? This is the encouragement to
go preach. This is the encouragement to
stand here week in and week out to try to get a message from
God. This is the encouragement for you to send me places and
for us to send our missionaries places and for us to send the
Gospel into all the world. Because God has promised that
His Word shall never return unto Him void. Ever. Ever. He's going to always accomplish
the thing where unto He sent it. Always. It's never going to return void.
So as God enables us, brethren, all we do is preach Christ and
Him crucified. That's all we do is preach Christ
and Him crucified. Do you understand this is why
God's preacher puts so much emphasis on the preaching of Christ and
Him crucified? All we need to do is preach Christ
and crucify Him and stay out of the way and God does the rest. And He has to enable us just
to preach Him and not be ashamed of Him. Alright, here's the third
thing. Look here, Paul says, For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. You see, the Gospel
is a mystery. It's hidden to the natural man.
They can't understand it. You've experienced that. Some
of you have. You have family members that
just don't believe. And you try to bear witness and you show
them in the Scriptures and they just cannot see the Gospel. They can't understand. They can't
believe it. It's hidden to them. Look at 1 Corinthians 2. It has to be revealed. 1 Corinthians
2. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the
world unto our glory. Look at verse 9. But as it is
written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered
into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them
that love him. You know what that means? That means if God
hadn't revealed anything in the heart of a man, he can't even
remotely begin to enter in and believe the gospel. They can't.
Now it's one thing to grasp doctrine. It's another thing to believe
Christ. He can't do it. He can't do it. Look at this,
verse 10. But God hath revealed these things
unto us by His Spirit. It's Revelation, verse 12. We
have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. This thing is by Revelation.
God has to reveal the Gospel. And the righteousness He reveals.
Is He telling us, does He reveal to us that we have to go to the
law and do such and such and such a thing? No, the righteousness
He reveals is Christ our righteousness. Christ our righteousness. He's
the righteousness of God. And that's who He reveals. Christ
Himself. He reveals to us we're sinners.
This has to be established first. God has to come and He has to
make us understand we're sinners, unrighteous, unholy, and unable. That's what He's got to teach
us. We're sinners. We're unrighteous. We can't do
a thing to change it. And He's got to make us see that
God is holy, that God is holy. He will not overlook sin. God will not just let you go
and give you a free pass until His law has been executed in
every jot and tittle. He will not overlook sin. He said He will by no means clear
the guilty. He said, ìThe soul that sinneth,
it shall die.î Iím not going to be able to blame Adam for
perishing. God said, ìThe soul that sinneth,
it shall die.î This is God and He has to make
us understand this. He has to make us see that the
very last drops of the dregs of the cup of God's fury has
got to be drunk and wrung out. It's got to be satisfied. Justice has got to be satisfied. That means everybody He saves,
He's going to have to slay them in justice. This is what God is going to
have to teach us. But how can God slay us in justice
so He remains just and at the same time justify us and be a
savior to us? See, this is a mystery. It's
a mystery. I was thinking the other day,
men say that the Bible was written by Shakespeare or something like
this, you know, and I'm thinking, buddy, if Shakespeare wrote the
Bible, I'd worship him then. Because nobody ever come up with
this. No man ever come up with it.
Only a godly man can come up with it. And it's only God that
came up with it. Once He brings you to that place
where you can't figure out this mystery, You can't figure out
this dilemma. You're a sinner. You're guilty.
And God's just. And He's going to pour out wrath
on you. You're going to answer. Once He's brought you to that
place and brought you to scratch your head and say, well, how
then can God be just and kill me and yet save me? That's when
God will reveal to you. It's only by His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He sent His Son. His only begotten
Son, His sinless Son, God gave His only begotten Son to be the
propitiation for the sins of His people, to be the satisfaction
God's holy justice demanded for His people. And He reveals to
His child that God made Him to bear our sin for us. This one
who knew no sin for a bunch of rebels who were nothing but sin,
God made His Son bear our sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him by His works. This is the righteousness of
God He reveals. He reveals to us that when Christ
went to that cross and He was bearing our sin and He bore the
unmitigated fury of God, that Christ was made a curse for us
and thereby He has redeemed us from the curse. If you are redeemed
from the curse, that means that the curse of the law will never
fall on you ever again. And that's the case with everybody
for whom Christ died. The Scripture says, He was wounded
for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities, and
with His stripes, we're healed. That's so of everybody. You know,
Mason has somebody, you could read that right there, and the
height of depravity is, you would read what Christ accomplished
for His people, healed us with His stripes, and yet at the same
time, men try to come back and say, well now it's not done,
until you make it to be done. Oh no it's not, it's done. It's
done. He's going to come and what he's
going to reveal is, in our hearts is, it is done. It is done. And to make us let go of that
selfish, vain, self-exalting thought that we made his blood
effects for, he comes to show you that he did it all by himself.
This is the righteousness He revealed. When He reveals this
to you, it makes you see that God has nothing else to say to
you in justice and wrath anymore. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, to them who are the called, who
walk after the Spirit rather than the flesh. Let me tell you
something. If you're sitting here now and God has called you
for the first time and given you a heart of faith to believe
on Him, Confess Him. Confess Him. Come out and say, I believe Him,
I'm not ashamed of this Gospel, and I'll tell you what you're
going to find. You're going to find the greatest peace you have
ever known. When you have peace with God,
and know that everything is settled between you and God, and God
receives you, and God will never cast you out. and will provide
everything you need in this life and in the life to come. You
have the peace that you just can't explain it. It passes knowledge. It passes understanding. It's
peace we have with God in Christ. Well, how is this revealed to
us? Go back to Romans 1. He says, verse 17, Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. From faith to faith. Go to Romans 3 and I will show
you what I am convinced this means. From faith to faith. Romans 3.21. Now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ." Now watch this, "...unto all
and upon all them that believe." From faith, from the faith of
Christ, who is the righteousness, to the faith in that child that
God has given faith. That's how His righteousness
is revealed. And that's so that you know that
it's opposed to our works. It's not going to be by something
we do where God's going to reveal the righteousness of God to us. No. It's by God-given faith that
Christ the faithful comes and through faith makes you to receive
His righteousness and bow and rejoice that you're made righteous
by Him and not by your works. is from the faith of Christ unto
all and upon all, robing us who believe, who have faith, from
faith to faith. Has God given you faith in Christ?
Has He given you faith to believe God, to believe the record of
God, to believe every word God is declaring here and His Word
is so? And to trust His Son? If He has, you won't be ashamed
to confess Him before men in believers' baptism. You won't
be ashamed to identify with His church. You won't be ashamed
to suffer for His cause. Why? Because just like Paul experienced
his power and it made him say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
it will make you say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
I've experienced the power. I've had the righteous Christ.
My righteousness has revealed Himself in me through God-given
faith. Look at the last thing there.
As it is written, this is written by the prophet Habakkuk, the
just shall live by faith. What does that mean? The just
shall live by faith. All who Christ justified, all
who Christ justified, the just, it says the just shall live by
faith. All who Christ justified by His
own blood shall live by the faith of Christ through faith in Christ. And I mean by that, When He comes
and He's given you life and He's given you faith, and Christ,
from the faith of Christ through that faith He's given you, He
reveals He's your righteousness. From that hour to the last hour,
you live the rest of your days by faith in Him. It's from the
faith of Christ making you see He justified you so that for
the rest of your days the just shall live by faith. Let's see
if I can make good on it. Galatians 2.16. Paul says, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, by
Christ's faithfulness, by His fidelity, by the faith of Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Do you
see what Paul is saying? He is saying by the faith of
Christ we know that a man is not justified by the works of
the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ. And so we believe in
Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.
Well how do you live? Galatians 2 verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, the just shall
live by faith. The life I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. I'm living by the faith of Christ,
believing in Christ. Now listen to me carefully. We
don't live unto our faith. We don't live unto our faith.
And what I mean by that is we're not looking to our faith. We're
not looking to our faith. A lot of preachers are like ophthalmologists. Ophthalmologist you come into
his office, and he's tested your eyes And he's prescribed some
glasses and so you come in for the day you won't be fitted for
your glasses It comes in and he puts the glasses on you And
he wants you to look through those glasses now so that you
can you can read the letters and you can use To try to look
at those glasses and your vision in those glasses and see the
quality of your vision now and the whole time what you're doing
is you're focusing on those glasses and But a faith is like a man
that's got 20-20 vision. When you're looking at some beautiful
object, you don't even think about the fact that you can see.
You rejoice in an object you see. And that's God's people. When He gives you faith, you're
not looking at your faith, concentrating on your faith and the quality
of your faith. When you see Christ... You're just rejoicing to behold
Him and you don't even remember you've got faith. You just believe
Him. You're not concentrating on your
faith, on Him. And another thing, I'm not living
under Moses. I'm not living under the law.
I'm not trying to do something to be righteous and holy by legal
restraints and get God to accept me and try to get a better reward
and glory. I'm not doing that. Look back
at Galatians 2.19. Who do we live unto then? I through
the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. Isn't
that good? Sometimes that comes down on
me. You know, the Lord, He blesses
that to my heart and I get it. I get what He's talking about.
It's so hard to... I wish I could get you to get
it. He's taken the law completely out of the way for His people.
So that there's nothing that God's going to allow to sever
us from the love of God in Christ ever again. So now, because we're
so righteous, so perfectly righteous in Christ, and that new man that
has communion with God, Christ dwells in him and he's holy,
so now God can receive us. We can have communion with God. Whereas before we couldn't, because
we were sinners and God's righteous and can't have a thing to do
with you. to be made holy and righteous. Now, we can have communion
with God, we can have fellowship with God, and we can live unto
God. And that's what we're doing.
Christ died for all His people that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them
and rose again. How do you do that? How do we
live unto Him? I'm going to put it as simply
as I know how to put it. We live unto Him, according to Scriptures,
doing everything that we do to the glory of God. Everything
we do, do it as unto the Lord. That's living unto Him. And you
do it not bringing reproach on His name. He said, He sanctified
you, colored you out of darkness into light so that you might
shine in the middle of this perverse generation. We shine by not bringing
attention to ourselves. By not bringing reproach on Christ
by something we've done. And we do all this as we're sending
forth this gospel. And that's the whole key. Remember
Titus? He said, don't bring any reproach on the gospel of Christ.
Because we want sinners to hear it. We want them to be called
out. We don't want them to reject it because of us. That's the
thing. That's the thing. That's living
under him. Here's the last thing. Paul said,
because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
He goes on to tell us there that men can know God's eternal power
and Godhead from creation. So that it leaves all men without
excuse for not believing in God. But the only way you are going
to have the righteousness of God, Christ our righteousness
revealed to you is through the preaching of Christ and crucified.
And so what Paul is saying is there's perishing sinners who
are perishing under the wrath of God. And I can look at the
cross and I can see the wrath of God against sin. And I can
tell you, I don't want to see anybody perish under the wrath
of God. Even those right now that hate
me because of the gospel I preach, I don't want to see them perish
under sin. I'm going to keep declaring the gospel to them.
And they can keep hating me because of it. I'm going to keep declaring
it to them because that's the only way God is going to save
them. And Paul is saying, for this reason, brethren, sinners
are perishing. You just imagine. Paul said,
I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor to
sinners, to preach this Gospel to them. You imagine if you lived
in the middle of a desert. Nothing around you. No water
around you whatsoever. And somebody came along and they
said, ìI got a piece of ground thatís got a fresh well on it
and itís producing water like nobodyís business.î And he gave
it to you. And there you got all these neighbors
that are thirsty and are dying of thirst out there and have
no way of getting any water. Would you not feel indebted to
give them some water? Would you not feel indebted to
give them some water? Somebody came along and gave
you this water. I'm not going to just cover the
well up and say, no, y'all can't have any. I want to give you
the water. That's what Paul is saying. God
has come and given me the water of life and I'm indebted to give
it to these starving, thirsting, perishing sinners. I'm indebted
to it. And so for that reason, Paul
said, I'm ready to preach the gospel. Are you ready? I'm ready
to preach the Gospel. I'm tired of fooling around.
I'm ready to preach the Gospel. I want to see sinners saved. I'm a debtor to it. Let's stand
together. Father, thank You for this Word.
Make us true servants. Transform us by the renewing
of our minds and make us not be formed to this earth. Make us not live for ourselves
and our belly and our homes and our yards and our cars and our
children and our pigs and our donkeys and our chickens and
whatever. Make us live for You, Lord. Make
us live for You by sending forth Your Gospel with urgency, redeeming
the time. Let the married be as though
they were not married. And let us go forth and preach
the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord. Make us a light in this
dark place. Make us a well in this dry place. Lord, make us Your servants. And as you do, Lord, make us
do nothing to bring reproach on the gospel. Save us from ourselves. Lord, to your name, Christ Jesus,
our righteousness, be all the glory and all the praise. Send
us forth now, Lord, and give us unction this week to speak
to somebody. Give us unction to be a witness
to say, come see, we found him, come see. Make us witnesses to
you. Let us bring somebody to hear
the gospel preached. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right. Brother Art.