Alright, now here in Romans 16,
25, Paul says, now to Him. Now who is Paul writing about? Look down at verse 27. To God
only wise. That's who we're talking about.
Now to Him. To God only wise through Jesus
Christ. And he says here in verse 25,
now to Him, that is of power to establish you. Now what I
want you to see in this message is this. God only wise is the
power to establish you. He is the power to establish
you. First of all, sinners need to
be established. We need to be established. Ever
since Adam And that corrupt seed that we were conceived in, we've
been like Reuben, like Jacob's son. We've been unstable as water.
And we need somebody to establish us. We need to have our hearts
established. Paul prayed that for the Thessalonians.
We need to have his word established unto us. He needs to establish
us in every good word and work. We need to be established and
kept from the evil. Those are things that Paul prayed
about, about us being established. Now, the Gospel message is, God
only wise is of power to establish you. Now look at the verse. He
says, Romans 16, 25, Now to him that is of power to establish
you according to my gospel. The subject matter of Paul's
gospel, the subject matter of the gospel we preach, is God
only wise has the power to establish you. That's the whole purpose
of the subject matter, the substance of what we preach. Paul said
we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us. Now that's the message
we preach. He said I came to you not with
excellency of speech, not with declaring unto you the testimony
of God. It doesn't mean that You can't use proper language
or it doesn't mean you can't have your thoughts together.
Excellency of speech and wisdom of men is, is trying to say the
gospel in a way to where it puts some power in man's hand instead
of having it all in God's. Trying to craft the word of God
so that it comes across so that if somebody out here believes
they're saved by their free will, And somebody out here believes
you say, by God's sovereign will, crafted in just such a way, so
both of you leave here thinking, yep, that's what I said. That's
speaking with wisdom of word. Paul said, I didn't come to you
that way. He said, I came to you, my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. Power. That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I heard
a funny story recently. Somebody will hear that about,
you know, in spirit, demonstration of the Spirit and power, and
I know some of my Primitive Baptist friends will get up and get to
going, and they'll get to really going, and it's a certain cadence
they start preaching in, you know, and this is supposed to
be a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And I know some
friends I have, you know, who'll get up and they'll get to preaching
and they'll get excited and they'll get to pounding and yelling and
getting loud and they think, boy, that's liberty, that's power. Brother Henry Mahan said, a fly
can interrupt your liberty. And I've had that happen. You
really think you got everybody's attention and you really got
some liberty and demonstration of the Spirit and power according
to that understanding of it? And all it takes is a little
fly to go buzzing around and everybody just They're looking
at that, they're not even looking at you. You preach this Word,
if it's the truth and it's according to this Word, the demonstration
of the Spirit and of the power is how God blesses it to the
heart of the people. How He's blessed your heart with
it and He blesses the heart of the people. It has nothing to
do with how we deliver it, how we deliver it. That can be interrupted
like that. Have no effect on anybody. But
this is what He says. This was the subject matter of
His Gospel. to him that is of power to establish
you according to my God, according to what I preach to you. Now
that's my gospel to you now. That's what I'm telling you right
now. The gospel is not a message that glorifies your ability to
get any sinner to do something. It's not the gospel message that
talks about you as a church trying to get somebody to do something.
It's the message that declares the person of Christ Jesus, the
fullness of the Godhead in the body, and it's speaking of His
works. What He's able to accomplish,
what He does, it's the Spirit that quickens. The flesh, mine,
yours, everybody else, it's not going to profit anything. It's
not going to profit anything. The Gospel is about the works
of the triune God of glory. The God who is of power to establish
you, to fulfill His own law by Himself. God who is of power
to make His own Son sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It's about the God who bore the
wrath of God. God satisfying God. God coming
and putting away the penalty of His people in the person of
Jesus Christ the Lord. It's about Him and how He satisfied
His own justice. It's about how that He is declared
just and the justifier of all who believe. It's about how He's
ascended. And this prophet, priest, and
king is now able to send forth His Word in power. and to accomplish
the breaking of the stony hearts of hard-hearted sinners and creating
them anew and giving them a new heart and a new spirit and drawing
them to His feet that they might come to God wholly accepted in
the Beloved. This is the gospel. This is what
the works are concerning. That's my gospel. I'm not trying
to direct you to mind earthly things. I don't want to do that. I'm not trying to get you to
put any confidence in your flesh or in anybody else's. I'm not
trying to get you to glory in what you have persuaded somebody
else to do. I'm not trying to do that at
all. I want your mind to be attracted to and set on Christ Jesus, the
Lord of glory, seated in the heavens. That's where I want
you to be looking. That's where I want you to look. Turn over
to Philippians 3. Hold your place there just a
moment and look with me to Philippians 3. You know this scripture You know
this scripture, we've looked at this chapter before, and you
know what Paul was dealing with here. He was talking about telling
them to beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
concision, those who would put you, have you to have some confidence
in the flesh, those who would have you to not be rejoicing
in the Spirit, those who would have you to not be glorying in
Christ alone, but to be mixing something with it, to be adding
something to it. And he says, I was that way,
but God saved me from that, and He drew me from that. And he
said, now I don't count that as anything. That's what his
mind was on before. And he said, now that's not what
my mind is on. He says in verse 14, he says,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. That's where I'm headed. That's
what I'm looking to. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect,
many as be matured in this gospel, grown in the grace of God, called
of God, be thus minded. That's how we're minded. And
if in anything ye be otherwise minded, watch this now, God shall
reveal even this unto you. I can't even, if you're otherwise
minded, I can't do anything about that. God will have to reveal
that to you. See that? That's how we're minded.
This is of God. And He says here, wherever you've
attained to, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same
thing. Brethren, be followers together
of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell
you even weeping, they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who..." What
does he say there? whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things." He said, now, walk as you have us,
for example, for our conversation, our citizenship, our governor,
our government, our constitution, everything about our city, where
we're ministered from, is in heaven. It's not from the earth.
And he says, from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the end He's going to change our vile bodies, that
it's made like to His incorruptible bodies, but by that same power,
right now, He's able to subdue all things unto Himself. That's
why Paul said, if you're otherwise minded, God will reveal even
this to you. Trust Him. Trust Him to do it.
Stand fast in the Lord. You know what? Let me show you. He says as many as walk according
to this rule. Turn over to Galatians 6 chapter
14. He says here, he's talking about
these fellows whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame,
and who mind earthly things. What's he talking about? Verse
13. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh." The shame is these men trying
to make you do something, trying to get you to do something. But
God forbid, look what Paul said, that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. The world's crucified unto me.
I could really care less about it. And you know what? The world
could care less about me. That's true. That's true. Crucified
unto the world and the world unto me. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything. That is, well, you
decided you'd get up this morning and you'd start fasting all day.
So, doesn't really matter. And somebody else here says,
well, I would never do that. So, it doesn't really matter.
What matters? A new creature. A new creature. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of
God. This is the rule we walk by. new creatures in Christ Jesus. Not judging according to the
flesh, not glorying in our shame, not trying to feed the lust of
our flesh, the lust of our belly. This power is powers of God. That's the gospel, that's the
substance of this gospel that we preach. Now, there's the third
thing. God works His power and establishes
His children through the preaching of the gospel. Look at the next,
look at that verse again, Romans 16, 25. Now to Him that is of power to
establish you, God only can do that, according to my gospel,
that's what the substance of my message is, and here's how
He does it, in the preaching of Jesus Christ. This is how
He does it. The means the God of all power
has chosen to call out and to establish His people is through
this act. This foolish act right here of
one earthen vessel standing up and declaring, proclaiming to
other earthen vessels these unsearchable riches of Christ. Look with me
over at 1 Corinthians 1. Look there at chapter 1 verse
18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us what you say, Now
He said to him, that's of power to establish you according to
My message, My gospel, through this preaching of the gospel,
unto us which are saved. What is this? What is this preaching
of the gospel? It's the power of God. It's the
power of God. Look down at verse 22. For the
Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom. You know what
the Jews are? Don't just think of folks over
in that national land called Israel. Jews are anybody who
requires you give them some evidence, some outward sign to let them
know you're righteous. That's a Jew. A legal, free will,
will-worshiping Jew. That's what he is. That's what
he is. And the Greeks, Gnostics, those who love intellectualism,
they seek after wisdom. Those fellows who like to memorize
the doctrine of grace and memorize the theology and memorize the
scriptures and then sit down and go back and forth and see
who can outwit the other one. battering back and forth this
word, those kind of fellows, those kind of fellows. But we
preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them what you call,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ. Look at that word, the power
of God and the wisdom of God. Now that's what we're talking
about here, this power and wisdom of God. And here's why God chose
to do it this way. Because this is, it's a stumbling
block to the Jew to tell him that we're not looking at you.
We're not looking at, it's a stumbling block to the man who glories
in the flesh, who has confidence in the flesh, who wants to usurp
his authority over men. It is an insult to tell him,
nobody's looking at you. Nobody wants to see, nobody cares
about what you've got to say. This message is about Christ,
it's not about you. It's not about you. It's not
about how you might think you're much, much more holy today than
you were yesterday. We don't care. We didn't come
here to talk about you. We came here to talk about Christ.
And to that man who is so wise and he's so... To just stand
up and just declare this and say, I'm not debating with you.
I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not here to try to... Well,
what do you think about superlapsarianism? I really don't care, to be honest
with you. I'm here to tell you about Christ
Jesus the Lord in whom is all salvation. I want to speak to
somebody who is just a poor, ragged sinner who got up this
morning and just feels like the world is crushing in on them.
And they just need to hear about where their refuge is. That's
who I'm talking to. The rest of them, the ones that's
wanting to sign and the ones that's wanting to to glory in
their wisdom. I'm going to be as clear as I
possibly can. I'm not talking to them. I don't have a message for them.
I just don't. Well, here's the fourth thing
I want you to see. Back in our text there, Romans
16, 25. God establishes through this gospel in power by divine
revelation. So you see now, this is a stain
on that man who likes his wisdom. Because he can't get this by
just arriving at a superior intellectual knowledge of doctrine. He got
to have it revealed in him. He can't come at this on his
own. Look at verse 25. Now to him that is of power to
establish you, only God can do that, according to my gospel,
this is the message I preach. He's going to do it in the preaching
of Jesus Christ. He's going to do it through that
act that pleases Him. According to the revelation of
the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now
is made manifest. The revelation of the mystery. The mystery of how God can be
just and save you, Ryan, a pitiful, worthless worm of a sinner. That's what we're talking about.
How he can be just and save somebody like me, who all my life has
done, I was conceived in sin, I am sin, I think sin, I work
sin, I speak sin, all I do is sin. That is all I do is sin. In this act of standing right
here trying to preach the gospel to you, there is enough sin in
me to send me to hell. It's all I am. It is all I am. How can God be just and justify
somebody like me? Well, the only way you're going
to find that out, this mystery, is through this gospel. And this
mystery is going to come when God reveals it. Look over at
Romans 1 16. Romans 1 16. Paul said, 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." It's what we talk about how God can be just and the justifier. The righteousness of God is what? It's revealed. It's revealed. The mystery is revealed from
faith, from Christ Jesus, the one in whom this righteousness
is manifest, from the faithful one, from Him, to those He gives
faith. It's written, the just, those
He's justified, shall live, and this is how they're going to
live, by faith from the faithful, as the gift of God, through which
we receive this mystery, this righteousness of God, by which
it's revealed. God ordained this mystery before
the world began. Look back over there at 1 Corinthians
2 and look at verse 7. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery. What does that mean? What does
that mean? We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Well, one,
that what we're speaking is the wisdom of God. You see, if God
would have come and He would have just allowed it somehow so that fallen
sinners could somehow come to an understanding of how God saves
sinners. You know what men would do? Exactly what men do all over
this world. Pat themselves on the back and
say, I did it. I did it. What made the ultimate
decision in your salvation? I gave my heart to Jesus. Boom. Boom. That's not what did it. Not when you find out who this
God is. He'll save you from that hope. He'll save you from that
hope. But we preach the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. Look at God ordained
before the world unto our glory. What does that mean? Look at
verse 9. As it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love Him. Now look over with me at Ephesians
1. Ephesians 1. Go to the right
there. Let's go to Ephesians 1 and see
what Paul says about the mystery there. Everything he talks about from
Ephesians 1 is when God ordained this mystery. When He blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Every spiritual blessing that He's going to reveal, that He's
blessed you with, He gave them to you in Christ Jesus before
He ever made anything. Before He ever made a thing. According as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. That means God divinely
elected His people unto salvation in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Before the foundation of the
world. That we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. Oh, oh, oh, there it is, there it is. So that one
day I'd end up sanctifying myself. No, no, no, no. No, no. All spiritual
blessings were given right then. And when He put them in Christ,
in the Beloved, He did it that when they fell in the garden
and perished and fell into sin and ruin, before Him they'd still
be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's how they've
always been in Him. Because He put them there and
blessed them with all spiritual blessings. And what else did
He do? He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will. You mean He predestinated everything? No, He predestinated us. He predestinated
all things? Yeah, but He predestinated us.
To do what? To be adopted. to receive it. Because we were His children
by His divine choice, He predestinated us to the exact time when He
crossed this gospel with our path and He revealed in us that
because we are sons, He sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
our hearts and caused us to look up and say, Father, Father, for
the first time. He said He did that. See, it's
not about your will and your work, it's about His. This is
the mystery. This is a mystery to this world
because most people don't know this gospel. He said a remnant
shall be saved. A remnant. He said in the last
days there is going to be a giant falling away. You don't think
that means that people are going to be just become base and immoral
and just vulgar, do you? Look around you right now. We're
tolerant, more tolerant of anything in this world but the truth of
God. We're more religious than we've
ever been, and we're more ungodly than we've ever been right now.
The falling away is now, and it's coming in the form of men
who claim to be preaching the doctrine of grace. It really
is. Who are still working it. so that it's all about you. It
might cause you to mind earthly things. But He did this to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved, and in whom we have redemption through His blood.
He redeemed His people. When He died, He didn't make
redemption possible. He obtained it. It's not that
He made it possible, and now if you'll just come along and
believe Him, then everything will be sealed up. If He redeemed
you, if He obtained this for you, if God blessed you with
all spiritual blessings, if He made you holy in Christ before
the world began in His Son, if He came and shed His blood for
you, you're going to hear about it. You're going to hear about
it. That's what He's telling us. This is the mystery that
men know. You're going to hear about it one day, if He did that
for you. We have forgiveness of sins in
Him. according to the riches of His grace. It's an endless,
boundless amount of riches. It never ends. It's just a bounty,
a bounty, an endless grace upon grace upon grace. Wherein He
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. That's Paul saying,
this is how I know about this power. This is how I know that
he works this. This is how I know this gospel.
This is how I know that he does this through the preaching of
the gospel. It's because he abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Well, but Paul was taught of God. He said, I wasn't taught
by a man. God arrested him. God brought him down on the road
to Damascus, on his way to Damascus, brought him down into the dust,
revealed Christ in him, began to teach him. But you know what
the first thing he did to him was? He said, now you go to Damascus,
to that place where you was fixing to go and string up sinners,
you go there and there'll be a man that'll meet you there
and he'll tell you what to do. And that's what Paul did. That's
what Paul did. Now what did he do when he abounded
toward us in all that wisdom? Verse 9, having made known unto
us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He
hath purposed in Himself. All these things we've been talking
about. And here's what he's going to do, in the dispensation of
the fullness of times, that he might gather together in one
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth,
even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of God's glory, God the Father's glory, who is
the first one who entrusted all this work to Christ his Son."
That's exactly what that said. That's what he did when he put
his people in Christ. God the Father is going to receive
all the glory. He's going to receive the glory
for being the first one to ever trust his son. And he did. He put it all into his son's
hand. And his son came and did the work. Now that's this mystery
now. Now there's something else about
this mystery. I want you to see Colossians 1.26. Colossians 1.26. See, it's all
by revelation. God's got to reveal this. How
am I going to know about this? This is amazing right here too.
Colossians 1.26. Paul says, verse 25, I am made
a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations. You mean, you mean there's people
that for ages and generations have never heard this gospel?
Didn't know this gospel? God left them alone? There have
been folks God just left, whole nations that God just left alone.
Completely left alone. But now, it's made manifest to
His saints. To whom God would make known.
What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles? See, it's not just you. It's
not just that nation. Israel is Jew and Gentile. Which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach. Wanting every man, teaching every
man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in
Christ. Now look, he said, this hope
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he said, we preach
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now
watch this. Whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. Now here's the mystery. The mystery
of his saints that he put in Christ. The mystery of Christ
coming into our midst and making Himself one in human flesh with
us. The mystery of Christ entering
into the heart of His saints. Of Christ in you and working
mightily in you to make you realize that you are one in Christ. One in one. That's a whole lot
of stuff there, I know, but Him putting you in Christ in the
beginning, Christ coming in our midst, Christ Christ in our midst,
Christ coming into our heart after He worked this work of
redemption, and Him working mightily to make us see that we're all
together complete in Him. Inseparable like a vine and a
branch. That's right. Here's the fourth
thing. Now let's look back. Romans chapter
16. Now by the power of God's command,
Every chosen, redeemed child of God scattered in the four
corners of the earth shall be established through this gospel. Every one of them shall, not
one of them will go unestablished. Verse 25, let's read it all again
together. Now to him that is of power to
establish you. Are we seeing that God has this
power to do this? According to my gospel, this
is the gospel I'm preaching to you now, the very substance of
it. He does it through the preaching
of Jesus Christ. He does it by revelation, according
to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the
world began, but now is made manifest. And here's how he does
it. And by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
known to all nations for the obedience of faith. That too
is by the commandment of God. Let me put all this together
for you. Let me turn it over to 1 Peter 1. And I'll try to
put this together for you. It was by God's power by His
power, by His word, by His command, that His prophets bore witness
of Christ. And it was by His power, His
command, that now His messengers bear witness of Christ. And that
they preach this gospel in all nations. Now let me get there
and I will show you something. 1 Peter 1 verse 11. We're talking about the prophets
and how they... Well, let's read verse 10. "...of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently." Those that
were from Moses on. "...searched diligently, who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." He's preaching
to saints now this side of our Lord's ascension. He said, and
they were searching what, or what manner of time, look at
this now, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.
Who taught them what to say? The prophet, Christ the prophet
did. The Spirit of Christ the prophet.
He taught them what to say. Well, what was their gospel?
What were they talking about? when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow,
Christ gave them the words to speak, and the words He gave
them to speak was about Christ. That's what he's saying here.
Through the prophets, the scriptures of the prophets, by God's command
they preached Christ. By Christ, talking about Christ. And now how is this saint going
to do it in our day? He says, unto whom, unto those
prophets, it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto
us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you,
preached unto you, by them that have preached the gospel unto
you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Same Spirit,
same Lord, which things that angels desire to look into. Now,
if you see something about how marvelous this is, here's what
we need to do. Gird up the loins of your mind
and be sober and hope to the end for the grace that's to be
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Don't set your
mind on anything else. You see this power He's brought?
I want to show you another one now. Acts 3.22. Acts 3.22. Got a couple of more here and
then we'll be done. Acts 3, 22. Moses truly said unto the fathers,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
have likewise foretold of these days. He's talking about Christ
the prophet, the prophet. Ye are the children of the prophets,
and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying
unto Abraham, In thy seed, this is what he told him way back
there, shall all the kindreds of the earth He told him I'm going to create
a nation and call them Israel and they're going to be in bondage
in Egypt 430 years from now, Moses, that's what's going to
happen. And I'm going to go down there and I'm going to deliver
them. And I'm going to bring them out, and I'm going to do
all that to show you an example of what I've done for you. Show
them an example of what I've done for you. But my people are
not just going to be from among those people. I'm going to have
some among them, but my real people are going to be from every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and tribe under heaven. And I'm
going to call them out through this same gospel I've preached
unto you, Abraham. And it was by the power of his
revelation, by his establishing, by his command that God, Christ
our prophet, priest and king sent his disciples into this
world and told them, he said, all powers given to me in heaven
and earth. And he said, therefore, go and preach and tell the people
what I tell you to say. Don't mix your wisdom with it.
You just tell the people what I've given you in my word to
say. And Paul said, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue
unto this day, witnessing both the small and great, none other
things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come,
that Christ should suffer, that he should be the first that should
rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people and
to the Gentiles. You see, what the prophets talked
about was Christ. And what Christ preached when
he came. He's the only man that ever walked this earth that preached
himself. And that's what he preached.
He stood up there in that synagogue that first day and he opened
up the scriptures and he began to talk to them about how he
came to open up the prison. He talked to them about total
depravity. I had to come to do something you can't do for yourself.
And he told them about his sovereign electing grace. There were many
widows. God saved one. There was many
leopards, God came to one. And he sat down, closed the book
and sat down and said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ear. And you know what the result was? They want to take
him up to a brow of a hill and throw him off of it. That's right. That's right, but this is what
he preached. And then when he sent his apostles into the world,
Paul just said, he said, all I have preached is this gospel. What all the prophets have said,
what all the scriptures have taught, that's all I have taught.
Determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him
crucified. All right, and why did he do
this? It's to bring his children to the obedience of faith. Now,
what does that mean? The obedience of faith. I bet
if you ask ten people in religion what that means, you get ten
answers. The obedience of faith. I'm going to give you three things,
real simple. The obedience of faith is Let me turn to John 6. I want
you all to see these scriptures. I know you know these scriptures,
but I want you to see what Christ, the prophet, the priest, the
king, I want you to see what he said. John 6, 28. John 6,
28. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. That's it. The obedience of faith. is believe on Christ and Christ's
obedience is your obedience. All right? That's the first thing
obedience of faith is. When you do that, you're going
to cease from all your labors. You're going to cease from your
labors. All right? Here's the second
thing obedience of faith is. Look over 2 Corinthians 10. 2
Corinthians 10. It's to bear witness of that
which you have heard and which He is born witness of in your
heart, and to just simply trust Him by His power to establish
and reveal it in His people. It's what Paul's been saying
he's doing. Look at 2 Corinthians 10.3. For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds." We got a lot of strongholds. God's children
in the beginning, when we're born in this world, we're enemies
in our mind by wicked word. We're enmity against God. When
our subject to the law of God won't bow to God, won't hear
it, won't have it, People are looking at this word
and saying, I don't care if it says it. I don't believe that. Well,
we've got to have that stronghold pulled down. But this word, cast
down imaginations, well, that's not how I think God is. Or how
you think he is and how he is, if it don't line up with what
he says in his word, you're the one that's wrong. Casting down
imaginations. And every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. What was that obedience of faith?
It brings every thought to this, to work the works of God, to
trust Christ, that His obedience is my obedience, and trust Him
to save me. It brings us to that place, to
the obedience of faith. And then what happens? In having
in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience
is fulfilled. What does that mean? Go over
to Titus 1. Oh, so we're going to take revenge
now. Well, let's see. When you're brought to this obedience
of faith, you trust Christ's obedience to be your own, you
come to this obedience of preaching this gospel and trusting God
to establish it now, you realize your weapons aren't carnal anymore.
You realize you really can't constrain anybody. All you could
best you could ever do is get them to sort of reform on the
outside, which you can't do anything about the heart. Well, what are
you going to do then? What's this readiness to revenge
all disobedience now? You know how before, when you
would hear the gospel, and somebody else come along, and they started
declaring something else, and they said, you know, well, this
is what I think is the gospel, whatever. And you just kind of
say, well, I don't want to, I don't want, they're going to get upset
with me if I say something about that. Well, look, this is what
Paul told Titus to do. Titus 1.9. Hold fast the faithful
word, as you've been taught that this is what the pastor should
do, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to
convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. Now
this is the one place where he talks about speaking, telling
it like it is. He says, whose mouths must be
stopped. He's talking about religious
folks who say there's something else other than what I'm telling
you. The preachers who go around telling folks that it's by your
will now, you can't now except ye. Now you got to do something
to sanctify yourself, make yourself holy. If you have these promises,
Paul said, come out from among them. You come out from among
them, and now what you'll do is, you'll say, these mouths
got to be stopped. They subvert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One
of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretans
are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. And this witness
is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply,
that they may be sound in the faith. He says, speak up to them. Speak up to them. Don't give
heed to Jewish fables, commandments of men that turn from the truth.
He says, unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that
are defiled and unbelieving nothing's pure. Even their mind and their
conscience is defiled. It don't matter what they get
others to do or what they do. Defiled. They profess that they
know God. Oh, I believe in total depravity.
I believe in unconditional election. I believe in particular redemption.
I believe in irresistible grace. I believe in perseverance of
the saints. Why won't you stand up on your hind legs and preach
death? But in works, when it comes to
waiting on God, to work this by His power in the heart of
somebody rather than than yoking them and binding them and all
that in works. And those kind of words, rather
than having a bridled tongue and a spirit of mercy that rejoices
in mercy rather than judgment, rather than praying to God with
a pure heart, a true heart, and asking, Lord, give me an understanding. Give them an understanding. Make us one with one another.
Teach me how to sow the fruit of righteousness and peace. They
profess they know him, but in these works right here that manifest
you really, really, really do trust Christ, God Almighty in
power to establish through this gospel, in works they deny him. In works they deny him. Being
abominable and disobedient and under every good work, reprobate. Got a lot of good works, but
in every one of them, it's reprobate. Reprobate. All right now. There's what I want you to end
with and I'm done. Everything in this book, this
is the sum and substance of what I've told you now, everything
in this book from cover to cover is testifying of the salvation
of God for chosen sinners wrought and finished and carried out
by Jesus Christ, the prophet, priest, and king of his people.
Everything in this book is about that. Everything in this book
is concerning Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Everything. His
commandments, His word. It's by His word He saves. It's
by His word that He sends this gospel in the world. It's by
this word that He sends His prophets. He sent His Son. He's raised
His Son from the dead. He sent forth the Spirit. He
raises dead sinners to life. It's by His word, His gospel. You can't separate The Word who
is God and was with God and was made flesh and dwelt among us,
full of grace and truth, He is the Gospel. He is the Living
Word. And if you have a love for Christ
in your heart, a desire to know more of Him, a desire to press
toward the mark of Him, every time He has His messenger preach
His Gospel, you want to be there because you know Christ is speaking
to me today and I want to be there. I want to be there. I want to be there. And he does
this by his power. How does he do it? Lazarus, come
forth. Well, let me think about it. When God opens your eyes, and
makes you to see you're in a tomb, dead, in grave clothes, wrapped
up in death, and says, come forth, you won't hesitate. You won't
think about it. You won't debate about it. You
know what you'll do? You'll come out of there. You'll
come out of that grave, out of that tomb, whether it's a group
of religious organization or whether it's a gutter on the
street or whether it's a backside of the desert in the middle of
the wilderness somewhere, you'll come out of there, wherever he's
preached his gospel to you. Now, let's read it again, one
more time, one more time. This is the mystery. I want you
to go home tonight and think about this, the mystery. Here it is. Now, to him that is of power,
who has the power to establish? God only wise. To him that is
of power to establish you, what's the substance of the gospel?
What does the Gospel say? God only wise is of power to
establish you. And how does He do it? He does
it through the preaching of Jesus Christ. That's the third thing.
How else does He do it? According to the revelation,
divine revelation of this mystery that's kept secret since the
world began but now is made manifest. How else does He do it? He does
it by His commandment, by His speaking forth, by the Scriptures
of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. He'll
call every one of them out, bring them to a disobedience of faith.
Now what do we say to that? What do we say to that? I wonder
if anybody here is saying this in their heart. I mean, what
do you say to that? When you hear that, what do you
say to that? The last verse. To God only wise
be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Period. Amen. Amen. All right.