Amen. I take your Bibles now,
turn back with me to Romans. Romans chapter one, my text is
gonna be found in verses 14 through verse 16. And I've entitled this message,
A Preacher's Debt. And I told my mom the title this
morning and she saw that, she said, a preacher's death? No,
it's not death, debt. a preacher's debt. Paul says
this, I am a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the
barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise, so as much as in
me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it,
the gospel of Christ, is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, I would have us to be reminded,
going back from the beginning, the heart of the apostle. What
is it? The heart of this book, the motivation for this book
is the heart of a slave, Paul a slave of Jesus Christ. What
was his authority for writing this book? He said, called to
be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God, called to
be an apostle and a preacher of the gospel of God. And that
was his message, Jesus Christ and him crucified. So he lays
the foundation, his heart, his authority, and his message. And what is the effect of the
message? We saw this last time in verse 7. The effect of preaching
the gospel is always two things, grace and peace. This is a gospel
of grace. We who are saved are saved by
the grace of God. We were saved according to electing
grace. We were saved according to redeeming
grace. We were saved according to calling
grace. We are kept by the keeping grace
of God. Our salvation from beginning
to end is what? Of grace. And what's the effect
of grace? Peace. Peace. Jesus Christ made
peace by the blood of His cross and then applies this peace in
our hearts. How? By grace. You see, you can't
have peace without grace. Grace always comes first and
then peace. And it always comes from God
our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. You can't come anywhere else.
You can have my grace, you can have my peace, but that's not
much. That's not anything. That's not going to help you.
You need the grace and peace of God. Now the part I didn't
get to is that the result of this is Thanksgiving. Paul says
in verse 8, I thank my God. Isn't this the result of all
grace and peace, Thanksgiving? If we are surely fixed that our
salvation is by grace, we surely will be the most thankful people
ever. Why? Because we are sinners saved
by grace, by grace. He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ for the faith of you all. You see, then we not
only thank God, we love the brethren. Paul's fixation was to preach
this gospel and not keep it to himself. His heart was so thankful
that he desired that everyone who believes this gospel should
hear it again. Now these people in Rome had
already heard this gospel before. But Paul is now going to preach
in depth the same gospel he preached to them before, that they'd heard
before. And so then, this also instills
the desire for prayer. He said, look what he says, and
he says, for God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, in
the gospel of his Son, that without cease, and they may mention of
you always in my prayers. The effect of grace is always prayer.
Do you pray? Prayer is vital to the believer's
life. Communion with our God is necessary. I cannot go a day without communing
with Him, seeking His mercy, seeking His grace, seeking His
strength. I don't go one day without it.
I can't. I have to have His strength,
His power, His grace, His forgiveness. His mercy, daily, constantly. And I do this because prayer
is a blessing that God gave. Just a few minutes ago I was
sitting here. That little boy ran up into my
lap. You know why he ran up there?
Because he knew he could. He had no reserve. No reserve,
no nothing. He knew that that was alright. And that I was going to receive
him. Matter of fact, I had my eye on him when he walked in
the door. And he saw me, and I saw him, and he knew where
he was going. And that's exactly how we go
to God, isn't it? As a little child. My son's 21 years old,
and I tell you what, if he wants to run up here and sit in my
lap, he has every right to. That's how we come to God, as
children. Seeking grace for the day. Now that he's established this,
he also establishes his desire to be with them. He said, look,
I wanted to so often to come to you, but God wouldn't let
me. He said, you don't know how many times I want to come to
you and be with you and us rejoice over your faith in mine. You
know, your faith is the same as my faith. Your God is my God. Your Savior is my Savior. And
we comfort each other. When you are here with me, I
want you, I cannot express how much you encourage and comfort
me just by sitting there. I don't know what you're thinking.
I don't know if your mind's way off in the distance. I don't know if
you're listening to me at all or not. You may look at me and say
this, and you may not even be here. But I tell you what, I
don't care. You're here and you comfort me.
You encourage me. You strengthen me. And when I
come here to preach the gospel to you, I know that comforts
you. We encourage one another. And
so what Paul is displaying in this is that the necessity of
public worship, of communion together. How many people, how
many believers, inflict themselves with wounds that are self-inflicted
by not assembling with the saints. Now give me one good reason why
a person would not worship in person with God's people. Name
one good reason. I hear a bunch of them. None
of them are good. Well, I'm just my family. You know, my family's
here. Okay. Let's be honest. You're
saying this. Your family is more important
than this. No, no, your family is more important than other
believers. To you, they're more important than others. Something
wrong with that. Well, my job, I work here in
this place where there is no gospel, where there are no believers. So what you're telling me is
that your job is so vital, it's more vital than the comfort and
love of the brethren. I don't sound right. Well, I'm
just too old. Really? I get all kinds of excuses. None
of them match up. I know that you love the brethren.
But how can you encourage the brethren? Doesn't John tell us
we're supposed to die for one another? How much less is it for people
to go where the believers are? That's not telling you to die
for somebody. But Paul says this, I've desired
to be with you. Now I understand there's often
times where God is, people wanted to go and they're not able. God
says no. And they're not able. Understandable. Why? God said no. God said no. But I tell you what,
as soon as he says yes, they're gone. Why? Because they need fellowship. We need it. We need
each other and we love each other. Now then, I'll get to my message.
Okay, start the clock now because that was just the beginning.
So now Paul comes to this and he says this, I am a debtor to
the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise. What does Paul mean when he says
he is a debtor, a debtor? Paul here is expressing the heart
of every preacher of the gospel. In the fact that preaching the
gospel to you is not an option, it is a necessity. We are indebted to you. We are obligated. That's what
he means. When you're in debt, you're an
obligation to somebody. You owe somebody something. And
so what is my being called to be a preacher of the gospel?
Paul says, I have an obligation. Of necessity, I have an obligation
to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel. I am a debtor to
both Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise.
So all who are called to preach the gospel of Christ are called
of God to be servants of all men in this matter of preaching
the gospel. I am a servant to all men. I
do not pick and choose who I preach to. Whoever God sends, that's
who I'm going to preach to. Paul says over in 1 Corinthians chapter
9, And verse 16, he says this, for though I preach the gospel,
I have nothing to glory of. I'm preaching the gospel. I'm
called of God. People who claim to be called
of God and walk around with their nose in the air, something's
wrong with that. I'm called of God, but there's no glory here.
There's none to glory in. Why do you preach, Paul? For
necessity is laid upon me. Why do I preach? Necessity is
laid on me. And woe is me if I preach not
the gospel. We who preach seek no glory for
ourselves. We do so not by the force of
men. nor for the glory of man, nor
for the money of man, nor for any glory for ourselves. We preach
because necessity is laid upon us to preach. God sent us to
preach his gospel. That's why we preach. I'm sent. There's no other way around it. In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul
says that preachers are a gift. They're a gift to a church. As
he ascended into heaven, he gave gifts unto his church. Some apostles. That's not me. That's not me. That was the one who wrote the
book here, the apostle, for us. Some prophets. Some evangelists. Some pastor-teachers. You know the division of that
is by some. Some apostles. That's one group. Some prophets. That's another group. Some evangelists. That's another group. Some pastors
and teachers. That's another group. Pastors
and teachers, same thing. Same thing. Not two offices. And so we were sent for this
purpose, Paul says in Ephesians 4, for the edifying of the body. I am here for the edification
and the growth of God's saints. For the calling of the dead to
life. That's what I'm here for, sinners.
Are there any sinners here? Because that's who I'm called
to preach to. I'm called to preach to sinners. Regardless of your
state, or your standing, or who you are, I'm called to preach
the gospel to you. And woe is me, listen, if I preach
not be gospel. Now listen, he didn't say, he
didn't say this. He didn't say, woe is me if I
preach not. There's a lot of preachers who
shouldn't be preaching. A lot of men shouldn't be preaching. There are many men who study
greatly. They take great preparation in
their sermons. They take great care in their
presentations. Man, some of these preachers
out there are wordsmiths. Man, they are amazing how they
put these things together. They're just, I mean, the presentation
is just astounding. Man, they're so energetic, they're
so focused, they got the jokes at the right time so you don't
doze off, and then they got pictures and all kinds of graphs and big
slideshows and everything. They spend a lot of time on their
messages. They got great crowds following
them. Many of their messages are about
good and wholesome instructions, moral duties, good attitudes, Some go through great ceremonies.
Man, you know, it takes time to prepare all these religious
ceremonies, don't it? Man, they've got to go through
and plan the timing of them and the sights and the sounds and
all of the emotion and the lighting, how it has to be just right,
and the music. Boy, they spend a lot of time. But God pronounces a woe on such
men if they preach not the gospel. I don't care what they do. If
they are not preaching the gospel, God pronounces a woe on them. Therefore, God, a God-called
preacher, a God-called preacher is not a debtor to entertain
you. I'm not here to entertain you. I'm not here to make you
feel good. It's not a concert. This is not
a show. I'm not here to put on a show.
I don't put on shows. But I am a servant to you, a
debtor to you, because I am an ambassador. An ambassador is one who speaks
for the king. The king gives the ambassador
the word, and woe is me if I don't tell you what he said. Simply
put, all I'm here is a mouthpiece. That is it. I am a mouthpiece
for God. That's all. I'm here to tell
you what God says, and I'm a debtor to do that. I'm of necessity. I must preach what God said. And what is the message of God?
Throughout the whole book, what is the message of God? It is
this. Listen very carefully. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's the message. That's the
message. That is God's message to you.
Now you may not want to hear it, you may not like it, you
may want to hear something else, but God hasn't given me anything
else and I'm not going to give you anything else. That's all
I've got. I'm a debtor to you to preach
the message God has. His Son and Him crucified. Who
am I to preach this to? Paul said, I am a debtor both
to the Greeks and the barbarians. That doesn't mean much to us.
When he said Greeks, he's talking about those intellectual fellows
who stood over there at Mars Hill and debated philosophy. Great thinkers, Aristotle, Socrates,
those people come to mind when you think of Greeks. They were
learned people. They spent all their time in
books. They spent all their time gaining
knowledge and experiences in life so that they could flow
out these eloquent words of their wisdom and they were learning
men. Paul said, I'm a debtor, preach the gospel to them. But
not just to them. You had those people over here
living in slums that didn't know how to read. You got people over
here that are what people would call barbarians. vile people, ruthless, cruel people, savages. The Greeks would look down their
nose and call them barbarians, unlearned, uneducated. Paul said, I am a debtor to both
of them, to the wise and to the unwise. Even so, I am a debtor to preach
the gospel regardless of your standing, your state, your age,
your education, your economic standing, whether you're poor,
whether you're wealthy, whether you're six or 96. That doesn't make any difference
to me. I am a debtor to preach the gospel of Christ to you.
Why? Because there is no difference
between you and anyone else. We like to make a difference,
don't we? We like to stand out in some way. So we dress differently. or we fix our hair differently,
or maybe we just, I don't know, maybe you want to blend in, but
whatever you want to do, it just, it's you, isn't it? It's you.
We all want some kind of, to stand distinct among others. But in truth, it doesn't matter
how educated you are or how ignorant you are. If an educated man dies
in his sin, isn't he the same as an uneducated man that dies
in his sin? So what did your education profit
you? What did your ignorance profit you? Because men want
to be something. This generation wants to be ignorant. There's
no doubt about it. They're really trying hard. They're
trying hard. But what does it matter if you
die in your sins? You got over here a religious
man, a moral man, what society calls a good guy. He's very honorable
and patriotic and he's a good, successful man. And over here
you got a loser, a guy that he just is rebellious in every way
and he lifts his hand to any authority What's the difference between
the religious man and the blasphemer if they both die in their sins? You read the book of Ecclesiastes
and figure that out. The whole book of Ecclesiastes
is about that. It's better to be wise. It's better to be industrious. You have a better life if you
do that. You have an easier way if you're industrious and you're
moral and you're right. You live a good life. That's
going to be an easier path than if you're rebellious and you
go your own way and you live in sin. That's going to be a
harder path. But what does it matter if you both die in your
sins? You see why I'm a debtor then
to preach the gospel to both is because both need life. I'm a debtor to all men because
we all need the same thing. I remember this lady, she came
to me one time and she was looking for a church, or she was leaving
for whatever reason, and she said, I hear you have a church
and we'd like to come visit. Tell me what you have for the
young people. She had some kids. Kind of taken back for a second,
young people. I told her, I said, well, I have
the same thing for your children as I have for you. I told her, they need what you
need. They need the righteousness of
God that is only found in Jesus Christ. I have a message. I am
a debtor to preach to your children as well as to you the same message
which is a message of mercy, a message of grace, a message
of life because both need life. Our Lord said this, except the
man be born again he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
You got that? That's just so. So what do you need? Educated,
uneducated, rich, poor, doesn't matter. What do we need? We need
spiritual life. We need righteousness. This was not for Paul to determine
who is saved and who is lost. I don't do that. I know that
that's in the flesh to look around and say, well, man, I know that
person's saved. I've done that. You know, when I've done that,
usually the Lord proved me wrong. I don't have any clue. Joanne, I suspect that you're
a believer in Jesus Christ. I really have great confidence
that you are. Tomorrow she may leave. I don't
know. And that's not my business to
know, is it? It's not my business. My business is simply to preach.
I don't determine who's saved and who's lost. I don't determine
who hears and who doesn't. Why? Because I don't have any power
to give you life and faith. The righteousness I'm preaching
about, I have no power to give it to you. Listen to me. If I
could give it to anybody, I'd give it to my children. And I
can't. I can't. No power. Neither is it for the preacher
to have any power to give spiritual life or salvation, though I ask
for it. My heart is that everybody believe.
God's got to elect people. I just don't know who they are. I told you this many times, Spurgeon
asked that. That man came and said, well, God's chosen a people,
and only they're going to be saved. Then why preach? He said,
sir, if you would kindly point out the elect to me, I'll just
preach to them. We don't know. Therefore, I am a debtor to all
men to preach the gospel to every creature because I don't know
who his people are. That's not my business. So, this
is not in the power of the hearer either to give himself life.
When I preach, I have no power to give you life and you have
no power to give yourself life. Jesus says, as many as received
Him, to them gave you the right to become the sons of God. The
power, the right to become the sons of God. Well, how did they
receive Him and others don't? Which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. You were
born again. Was it because you were the son of a believer? Well,
no. Were you born again by the will,
your will? Is that what? No. Were you born
by the will of some other man? No. You were born by the will
of God. I know this. Romans, we're going
to get to this. I'm in Romans 1. We can get to
Romans 9. Lord willing, we'll get to Romans
9. In Romans 9, this is very clearly
explained. He said, Before the children
were born, having done good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election might stand. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. And Paul explains it this way.
He said, this is what he told Moses. This is what he told Moses. Now listen to these words. See
which words you catch on. Because when I read these words,
we certainly catch on to certain parts of this. God says, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now which part of that
do you catch on to? Right then, I catch on whom I
will have mercy. That's the part that everybody
gets hung up on. How about this? God says, I will have mercy. Isn't that astounding? That's
amazing. God says, I will have mercy. Now who will have mercy? On whomever
he will have mercy. Why? Because if it was based
on something you do, it's not what? It's not mercy or grace,
is it? It's not mercy. It's not grace. I will be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. It's not grace then. So I'm a debtor to preach to
you because, look, here's something that I know. God will have mercy.
On whom he'll have mercy, I don't know. But I know this, he'll
have mercy. And so then, as a preacher, the
gospel necessity is laid upon me to ask this question, do you
need mercy? I promise you God will only have
mercy on those who need mercy. God will be gracious to those
who need grace. And so I am sent to preach the
gospel to you in love and desire that you hear it. I preach to
you Listen to me, I myself am a dying man. And I'm preaching to dying men. And what I need, I know this,
you need. You need the mercy of God. You
need the mercy of God, and I'm going to tell you where it's
found. It's only found in His Son. If you have anything to give
God, you're not asking for mercy, are you? If you still have some power
left in yourself, you're not asking for mercy. You want merit. God's not going to be merciful
to somebody who wants merit. If you really need mercy, who
gave you that understanding that you need mercy? You see, if you
need mercy, listen, before you've even received it, if you know
you need it, isn't that an act of mercy? It's an act of mercy
to know that I need mercy. It's an act of mercy to know
I need righteousness that I can't provide. I'm going to stand before
God and I don't have anything to stand on. That's an act of
mercy that you know that. And I'm here to stand here before
you as a mouthpiece of God and you listen to me very carefully.
This is a faithful saint. And it's worthy of you listening
to it. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. And if you think you're too far
gone, Paul said, I was the chief of
them. You're not too far. If he's going to show mercy,
His hand will reach farther than you need. His mercy will go farther
than you've gone to get you. And so I'm a debtor to preach
this gospel of mercy to you. And secondly, we who are called
and debtors, we are ready to preach. We are ready to preach. Paul said that, inasmuch as in
me I am ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also. We are called to preach the gospel.
If we are called, we are ready to preach, and we're ready to
preach in this way. We're ready to preach with plainness
of speech. If there's any hope as a preacher
of the gospel, I want to preach with clarity and plainness. I don't like ambiguous language. I don't like a highfalutin language
that confuses. To be ready to preach, I must,
if I'm a debtor to the educated and to the uneducated, I must
preach so plainly that both of them understand me. Both of them
understand me. If we're to preach the gospel
to theologians and to pagans, to academics and to children,
How are we to preach except we preach with clarity? Paul, when
he came to the Corinthian church, he said, I came not with words
of wisdom of the world. I didn't come with worldly wisdom.
Worldly wisdom is confusion. Human philosophy is confusion. Some idiot standing around and
saying, how do we know we're really here? Moron. I mean, and they think it's smart.
They think, oh, look how smart I am. Well, I tricked you. and
myself. They're confused themselves.
That's not what we do. We're not here to preach philosophy.
We're here to preach plainly, clearly. Paul said, and this
is my message, Jesus Christ in Him crucified. I don't have any
other message. I preach plainly and singularly one message over
and over and over again because, look, this is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believes it. The gospel of Jesus
Christ. That's what we preach. We preach
the same gospel message, not using the wisdom of the world,
but plainness of speech. It is in this simplicity of our
speech that the power of God is demonstrated. What we do here
is foolish. The world is foolish. What you're
doing here is absolutely a waste of time. It doesn't do anything. You're standing there listening
to a man tell you the same thing over and over again. Haven't
you got it already? You're just a fool. You obviously are retarded
or something because you can't get it. You've got to sit there
and listen to the same thing over and over again. I've already
checked that box. I've already done that. So to
them, what you do is foolishness. But in this foolishness is how
the power of God is displayed. You see, because we only do this
one thing, we get no glory. There's no glory to be had here
for me or you. If someone is saved, it has to
be the power of God. It can't be the preacher. It
can't be the hearer. It has to be God. And so by the
wisdom of God, he's made foolish the wisdom of the world. How?
By the preaching of the gospel, the simplicity of it, the singleness
of our message. You ever notice how the Lord
Jesus preached? You ever seen? His message was to farmers and
to gold herders and shepherds and people that didn't have the
education. He did preach to the Pharisees,
but most of the time he called them hypocrites and vipers and
stuff like that, but he preached mostly to common folk. You know
what he did? He used stories, simple little parables. The prodigal
son, what a parable. Father gives it to him, he goes
out, he lives like he wants to live, and there he is in the
hog pen with nothing. He's ruined his life, he's got
nothing. And he says, man, my slaves at
my dad's house live better than this. And he left the thing,
he said, maybe, maybe he'll just, he'll have mercy and make me
a servant. Comes back, and he's got a prepared speech. Father, I've sinned against thee
and against heaven. Please make me thy servant. And
before, he said, Father, I've sinned against thee and against
heaven. And before he could say anything else, the father ran,
grabbed ahold of that son and said, my son that was dead is
now alive. Kill the fatted cat. Make a sacrifice. What was he doing? In that parable,
he's preaching the gospel, wasn't he? We're the prodigal son. The fatted calf is Christ, the
Father in love, sitting there waiting for, expecting His Son
to return. What a gospel message in just
a little parable. It was just plain and simple. And so this
is how we're to preach, with simplicity. And so then, what
is the sum and substance of all of our messages? You that have heard me for over
15 years, What is the sum and substance of my message? Jesus Christ crucified for my
sin. The Son of God made sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And by God's grace, if I continue to preach, I don't
want to preach anything else. Please, God, keep me from preaching
anything else. And I want to preach it with simplicity. One
pastor said this. He was preaching in Oxford. It
was a theology school back then. Now, there's nothing there at
all. It was a theology school back then. He's preaching to
them a message, simplicity, I think has a mark. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Anyway, very simple message. Very plain. And one of the students
came up and said, brother, I thank you for the message, but you
realize we are students of Oxford. We can't handle deeper theological
things. And the pastor said, well, I
determine always to preach to a 10-year-old. Because if I can get the 10-year-old,
I got the student at Oxford. And so as we are debtors to preach
the gospel, I want to preach to you plainly. You are a sinner,
depraved, dead. unable to please God no matter
what you do. You need a righteousness you
can't provide. And it is my message that Jesus
Christ has already provided what you need. Believe on Him and
you shall be saved. You hear that? Believe on Him
and you shall be saved. And if you do, listen, I know
this, It wasn't you. It was God. It was the power
of God that took a simple message and made it effectual. Spurgeon
was getting ready for one of his messages in this big auditorium,
I think it was his new one, when the church burned down. They
had the pulpit up high because they didn't have an audio system. Anyway, so he was standing up
there and he just said, The Lamb of God! He was just testing the
acoustics, didn't have any determination. And unbeknownst to him, there
was a janitor in there. And a simple declaration broke
his heart. And he believed. Was there any power in Spurgeon? There was no power in the janitor.
The power is of God, you believe? You believe? And this simplistic
message is all you desire to hear. And so then this gospel we preach,
as Paul said, look at this, go back to your text. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. It is the power
of God. No preacher is called, is ever
ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of this gospel. I've got things that I've written
here, and I know I'm not going to get through them. I may come
back to them on the next time, but I'm going to quickly go through
them with you. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
that declares that all men are absolutely 100% the brave. I'm not ashamed to declare this
gospel that in Adam all died. You and I were represented by
man, our father, Adam. And later, in Romans 5, the Apostle
is going to go into this. He says, Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men for all have sinned. I'm not ashamed of that. People
don't like that gospel. Well, that's not... I don't like
that matter of total depravity. It doesn't matter. I don't care.
I'm a voice. I'm an ambassador. I can't say
anything else. I'm not ashamed of it either.
This is the truth. that there is none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that understands, there's none that
seeks after God. Well, we're just going to preach
till somebody seeks after God. Listen here, let me give you
a little hint, nobody's seeking God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. I'm not ashamed to preach that,
that's the truth, isn't it? It's what God said. I talked
to a man last night and we just, I don't know, he wanted to ask
me some questions and I said, about future things and blah,
he said, don't look at that. Look at what we know. We know some things and if we're
believers we know some things. Maybe we should just dwell on
what we know instead of what we don't know. Here's what we
know. And I took him to John where
Jesus said, no man can come to me. You understand that? Anybody misunderstand that? You understand that. No man can
come to me. Now if he said period, then we'd
all be in trouble. No man can come to me except Father which sent me draw him. So we know of depravity. I'm
not ashamed of the sovereign election of God. Not ashamed
to preach it. Not ashamed at all. Why? Because the scripture
plainly declares it. God said it. I declare unto you
that God chose a people of Adam's fallen race before the foundation
of the world. God in love joined them to his
son and purposed that he be all their salvation, and he accepted
them in Christ before the world began. Not ashamed of that. Not
ashamed of that. Why? Because it says this in
1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30, but of God are you in Christ.
Who of God has made into us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption? He's our salvation, and God made him that. And so
election is by the free grace of God and not dependent upon
anything in the believer. For Jacob have I loved. Now,
when did he choose Jacob? Before he was born, not having
done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. I'm not ashamed to preach that. Thirdly, I'm not ashamed of this.
that Jesus Christ died only for those that God chose. I'm not
ashamed to say that. It's what we call, what theologians
call limited atonement. It's not limited in its efficacy. It's not limited. How broad is
the death of Christ to forgive us all our sin? It's not broad in its application. It's broad in its scope. Who
he died for is limited. He died for the elect. How did
he know that? I took that man also to this
verse, and he says, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. Doesn't that limit it? Who's
going to come to him? All that the Father gave me.
See how plain and simple that is? You understand that. There's nothing
complex about it. All the Father gave me are going
to come to me. And when they do, well, I ain't
going to cast them out. Why? Because I came down to do
the will of my Father. And this is the will of the Father,
just so you are not vague on this. This is the will of the
Father, that all He had given me, I should lose how many? How
many is He going to lose of the Father gave Him? Nothing. He
died for them. He redeemed them. He paid for
all of their sins. As their perfect representative
and surety, He died in their stead. I'm not ashamed to preach
that. And I'm not ashamed to preach
this. The effectual call of the Spirit. I'm not ashamed to preach this.
All that the Father gave Christ, he died for. He saved him. He
said, it is finished. So it is what? It's finished.
Salvation's done. Tied up in a bow, wrapped neatly,
and waiting to be given to his elect. And at the appointed time,
the Spirit of God is going to come to every elect sinner, and
he's going to convince them of one thing, they're sinners. He's going to show them their
need. He's going to show them all that they need to stand before
God, and He's going to show them they have nothing that they need. But in grace, He's going then
to present His gift of grace, and He's going to say, here is
all you need. He gives you then life and faith
to receive it. This is the effectual call of
the Spirit. This is the new birth. He gives
faith and repentance. What do we repent from? You repent
from sin. But really, what is our sin? Our sin is our thoughts of God.
What we thought of God, I have to repent of what I thought of
God. I repent of my good works as
well as my sin. Because it's all sin. Everything
I've done is sin. All my good works are just as
evil as my evil works. And so I repent from them. I
don't trust in them. And I lean totally on Jesus Christ. Is that you? Do you lean totally
on Jesus Christ? That is the effectual power of
the Spirit. It's not some overwhelming feeling.
It's not a lightning bolt from heaven and some experience. I've
met men that tell me about these great experiences and most of
them just go away eventually. Why are they leaning on the experience? Most of the time it's that still,
small voice. And all of a sudden, you can't
help but believe. You can't help it. Believe. Where'd that come
from? That's the effectual power of
the Spirit of God. And I'm not ashamed to preach
the perseverance and preservation of these elect. that everyone
God chose, everyone Christ died for, they will be called to faith
in Christ. When you listen, they will always
maintain their faith in Christ until they die. Look back at
your text real fast. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believeth. To everyone that believeth. Salvation is to everyone that
believeth. It is the power of God to keep
us in the faith. For the righteousness of God
is revealed from heaven. Listen, from faith to faith. Now, I'm going to have to, like
I said, I'm going to have to go back over this because there's a lot here.
From faith to faith. What does that mean? Well, he
explains it. As it is written, the just shall
live how? How are the just going to live through this life? What
is your rule of life as you go through this world? From faith to faith. I started
this by faith, how am I gonna finish this? By law? It's not
from faith to law, it's from faith to faith. From faith to
faith, from faith to faith, from faith to faith, until faith is
lost in sight. That's how we live. And I'm not
ashamed to say that. We are no longer under the law
in any part, any measure whatsoever. Pick one law in the Old Testament
we're still under. Name it. Then you're under the
curse. If you pick one, you're under the curse. I'm not under
that law. My law is what? That just shall
live by faith. From faith to faith, from faith
to faith, from faith to faith until we die. That's how I live
daily. Daily trusting that my salvation
is totally, absolutely, 100% dependent upon the success of
Jesus Christ. And I don't add anything to it.
All my good works. And we do. We have good works.
We seek to do good. But do we add any of that to
his? No. No. The moment I pat myself on
the back, it no longer is a good work. It's pride, isn't it? We ruined
it. Most good work we do, we don't
even know we're doing. We don't even know we're doing it. Why? Because we get no glory in this.
And so then, as Paul, listen, I'm a debtor. That's necessities
laid upon me to preach this gospel. Preach it to who? Anybody wants
to hear. How am I going to preach it? With simplicity. I'm ready
to do it. Anytime, anywhere, I'm ready. And I'm not ashamed of it. I
don't care who you are. If the Pope called me to preach
the gospel to him, I would, without shame, preach the same gospel
to him as I preach to you. Without shame. Why? Because this is the means
God chose to save sinners. No other means. Well, I don't
like that. I like to be, well, I'm sorry.
I don't have anything for you. If you want something else, you
have to go somewhere else. All I got is Christ, because this
is the means, only the means, the only means God chose to save
sinners, preaching. Noah, why do you think it's necessary
to be here? Why do you think I instill the
fact in my children that this is the place to be? Whether they
follow that or not when they're old, I don't know. But I know
this, they've been taught that because this is the power of
God under salvation. Only to one group of people,
to everyone that believes. You believe? What is this gospel
to you? You ashamed of it? Not in the
least. This is my hope. This is my life. Regardless of what happens in
this world, this is my life. This is my hope. Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's my hope. That's my message. Let's stand and do this ministry
prayer. Oh, Holy Father, thank you for
the grace and mercy you give us. Oh, that you'd remove all the
draws from our minds and hearts. That you'd be gracious to pour in the gospel, the oil of
that spirit, the gospel of that grace. Let us Think on these
things, the things of Christ, the things of God. Give us grace
to believe in Christ, hold to Christ. I beg you to do this
in Jesus' name.