Alright, if you take your Bibles
again and turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. We're looking at verse 13 through
verse 17. Now, before our text here, the
Apostle begins this chapter with a great desire, a great desire. He says, brethren, you that believe,
listen to me, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved, that they might be saved. That's
found in verse 1. And he said, I bear in record
they got a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For
they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness
of God." The righteousness of God, that's what man needs. Man,
by nature, needs the righteousness of God in order to be saved. No one is saved apart from having
the righteousness of God. And now, he begins to describe
two ways by which righteousness comes to man according to the
Scripture. We know this, that Moses only
can describe the righteousness by the law. He said, Moses, describe
it, the righteousness, verse 5, which is of the law. Now listen,
he describes it because no man can obtain it. No man can do
it. He just has to describe it. He
said, that a man which doeth those things shall live in them. There's a righteousness which
is desired or described by the law, but it is a righteousness
that no man can obtain. We all have failed to obtain
righteousness by the law. Therefore, Paul says this, Cursed
is everyone. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. In Romans 3, Paul describes to
us our nature. He says, There is none righteous. No, not one. Therefore, Paul
says, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified plainly,
simply. Isn't that plain? Isn't that
clear? Can anyone misunderstand my speech,
misunderstand the speech of the Apostle Paul here? Those Jews,
they tried to obtain righteousness by the law. But they did it in
ignorance, not understanding that they could not obtain it.
The law only describes righteousness. The law, by our obedience, can
never obtain righteousness. It's just merely described for
us. But praise be to God, there is a means of righteousness. that we who are unrighteous may
obtain the righteousness of God, and this was by God sending His
Son. God sending His Son. Paul says,
for Christ is the end of the law, verse 4, for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. And he talks about this righteousness
in verse 6, he said, the righteousness which is of faith in, speak it
like this, don't say in your heart who's going to go up to
heaven, don't say who's going to work their way up to heaven.
And he says, who's going to send to thee? Don't talk about your
sacrifices and how much you sacrifice in order to obtain this righteousness.
What does the righteousness of faith say? It speaks on this,
the word is neither even thy mouth and not heart. The word
of faith which we preach, the gospel which we preach. If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in
thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved." God sent His Son, Jesus, to freely give all His people
a righteousness that speaks to God, that is acceptable to God. And you know what this righteousness
says to you who believe? It says this, not guilty. But I feel it don't matter. Because your righteousness is
not in you, it's in Him. It's in Him, therefore it says
not guilty. It says innocent of all charges.
That's what God says. If you have this righteousness,
you are innocent of all charges. He's not pretending. Debt is
paid in full. Justified. justified. This comes only to those who
are born again of the Spirit, who believe on Jesus Christ alone. And we know this, this faith
is not of ourselves. This faith even that by which
we receive this righteousness is a gift of God's free grace
toward sinners, toward us. It's a free gift, and this faith
does something. It manifests that we have this
righteousness. You believe on Jesus Christ as
all your salvation. This is a manifestation that
you have the righteousness of God imputed and imparted to you. So all who are in Christ, all
who are in Christ are free from the law. For in Christ and Christ
alone, all of the demands of the law are met for our souls.
All of the demands are fully accomplished. Righteousness fulfilled
by the merits of Christ and redemption fulfilled by the blood of Jesus
Christ. So then Paul says in Colossians
1 and verse 20, Christ has made peace by the blood of His cross. And then he concludes over in
chapter 2 of Colossians, he says this, Complete. In Him. Complete. When something's complete, what
is it missing? What is it missing? It's not missing anything. It's
complete. And you, believer, are complete
in Him. I want to speak to those who
are not in Him. You are not complete. You are lacking. You are not
saved by His grace, and there is no peace between you and God. In fact, your nature is this,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. Now, many have fancied themselves
and comforted themselves by saying, well, I have made my peace with
God. Preacher, I don't know what you're
talking about. I made my peace with God years ago. Now, I want
you to understand this. If you made your peace with God,
you have no peace with God. You have no peace with God. Many a man has went to his death
in full assurance, thinking all is well, and ended up in hell. He believed all was well by some
act of His will, by some religious deeds that He has done. What
is He saying? I have merited the righteousness of God by my
fulfilling this, or by my doing this. Jesus did His part, God
did His part, and I did my part, and therefore I have peace with
God. No, you have a foundation and a refuge of lies. That's
all it is. God speaks of this in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 28. God speaks
of these people in Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 15. He said, Because you have said,
and that's all they've done, they've just said. They said,
we have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are in
agreement. Everything's fine with us. And
that overflowing scourge shall pass through, and it shall not
come on us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood
have we hid ourselves. And God says when that judgment
comes, when I lay that judgment to the line in verse 17, when
I come and lay that judgment down, He said, then, shall hail
sweep over the refuge of lies, and water shall overflow the
hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled. And your agreement with hell
shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, and
you shall be trodden down from it from the time that it goeth
forth. It shall take you. Morning by morning it shall pass
over, and day and by night, and it shall be a vexation to understand."
You know, the only time a man's going to understand the gospel
that is not saved is when he's in hell. This person will only
understand then. And what does he understand?
He ain't got any righteousness. The bed is shorter than a man
can stretch himself on and the covering narrower than he can
wrap himself in. There is no foundation. There
is no covering. His refuge of lies is then swept
away, swept away. God will disannul that covenant.
And you know what Mark 16 and verse 16 says? It says, He that
believeth not shall be damned. When a man is in hell, Spurgeon
said, these words should be written above the gates of hell, shall
be damned. And he spends a hundred years,
and those words are still the same, shall be damned. And he spends a thousand years
in hell, it still says, shall be damned. he that believeth
not." Why? He has no righteousness. He has
no righteousness before God. He has hid himself in lies, and
only then will it be too late and exposed. Therefore, the only
peace with God is made by Christ. It's only made by Christ. The only peace with God is made
by Christ. For he alone has satisfied the
law of God and the justice of God forever by his obedience
and by his one offering and sacrifice. So then, those who are kick against
Christ and will not believe, your refuge is a lie. Your refuge
is a lie, and your soul's foundation is quicksand. But I like that
in Isaiah 28 because right in the middle, God gives something
beautiful. He says, therefore, I have laid
in Zion a stone, Christ Jesus. A tried stone, a precious corner
stone. a sure foundation. The foundation that God has laid
that is firm and cannot be moved and that every believer in Christ
rests on is this. Christ Jesus, the rock. Christ Jesus, the stone. Christ Jesus, the one tried of
God, tried by men and found to be the righteousness of God.
This is the only resting place. Therefore, we who believe, we
don't have to run to and fro trying to find righteousness.
Scotts, you don't have to look back at your works this week
and try to find righteousness. You don't. There's no righteousness
in you to be found. There's no righteousness in me.
I'm not going to be looking this morning at my ability to preach
this gospel as any grounds for my merit to stand before God.
Why? Because all my merit is Christ.
All my merit, all my righteousness is Christ. We don't have to run
to and fro looking for peace with God. He made peace with
God. Therefore, we cry. We look back
at your text and you know, he says this, there's no difference.
Verse 12, there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
We all have the same nature. There's no difference. By nature,
we have all sinned and missed the mark. You got that? I love
the way the Bible levels every man the same. None of us have any right to
look down on anyone else. You know that? We do. Isn't that
something? We do. We try to find somebody
lower than ourselves so we can feel better about it. That's
foolishness. God levels us to the core and said there is no
difference between you and anyone else. No difference between the
Jew and the Greek. There's the same Lord over all,
but listen, He's rich unto mercy to all who call on Him. To all
who call on Him. Those that come to God by Christ. Listen to what he says in verse
13, for whosoever. Now listen, you take that as
far as you want to. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done. I don't care how much you think
of yourself or how low you think of yourself. This should fit
you. Whosoever. Isn't that something?
Whosoever shall what? Call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. What does that mean to call upon
the name of the Lord? That's to call upon Christ and
recognize by faith His authority. that He is the only God-man mediator,
that He alone is the Messiah, the only Savior, and that His
work is the only righteousness by which we may be accepted before
God, to call on Him in need of righteousness that only He can
provide. And what does He say? Whosoever
calls on Him shall be what? Saved. Did anybody misunderstand that? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Now Paul, after making this general
call, begins to explain the means by asking a series of questions. Simple questions. that if you
follow these questions, you can most surely see the logic behind
it, how God has orchestrated this great chain of events and
things that are necessary by which this salvation comes to
the sinner. And so let's look at these questions
now Paul begins to ask. He said, look, "...whose service
or call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But, listen
to this, how Then shall they call on Him in whom they have
not, what? Believed. You see, calling on
Christ is more than just using your mouth or your body. That's what most religions think.
If you just say it, then it's so. If you move your body, come
down to the front, say the prayer, then that's calling on the name
of the Lord. That's not calling. Anybody can do that. Many people
do that and are lost. I remember that occurring to
me as a child. When that happened, I went to
pizza parties at other churches. I went to a gospel church to
preach the gospel. But, you know, a child, I like pizza. So they'd
invite us to these pizza parties, and sure enough, there'd be a
preacher up there and say, well, you come down, you're just a bad
sinner, you come on down here, say this, and Jesus will say,
I said it a hundred times, it seemed like it, never, nothing
ever happened. Why? I was just saying it. I'm
just saying it. It's not just saying it with
your lips. But Paul says, look, he said, for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and then with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. So what is necessary then? Faith. You can't call on Him unless
you believe. How? How is that possible? Except
you believe on Christ, you will never call on Him. No man, listen, can call upon
the Lord without faith. That's what Paul's saying. Faith
is essential to this calling. But before a man can call, he
must believe. He must believe on Christ. So all who call on the
name of Jesus do so in an act of faith. trusting that He is
not, that He is both able and willing to save. So what is it
to believe? Believing is trust. To believe
is to rest completely and be perfectly persuaded that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We believe. But it's important to know what
to believe, isn't it? Rather, it's important to know
who you believe. Paul said, I know whom I have believed. It is to
believe on the Son of God. It is to call by faith for the
righteousness that is obtained by Christ and the redemption
that is accomplished by Christ. That's what faith is. Faith is
to receive Him and all He has done to secure salvation. We believe this. If you call
on Him, you know this. God's holy. And you're a sinner. That's some simple, basic stuff.
That's necessary. You must know who you are and
you must know who God is. Otherwise, you would never call
on Him and you would never believe on Christ because you would never
have a need of Him. Let's just be honest. You don't
call on Him because you don't need Him. You don't call on Him because
you don't believe Him. You don't believe what He says about you,
you don't believe what He says about God, and you don't believe
what He said about Himself. That's why you don't call. You don't see your need of mercy,
but one that calls sees this, a need of mercy. A need of mercy. Faith is to believe that Christ
Jesus' righteousness is the only righteousness God has accepted.
Faith is to see the blood of Christ that was shed has once
and forever satisfied the justice of God and accomplished redemption. Faith is to see that Christ who
died and was buried is now risen from the dead and seated on the
throne of God ever living to make intercession for those who
call on Him by faith, for us who believe on Him. And so true
faith then rests its soul upon Christ Jesus, listen to this
word, alone. You see, a lot of men have faith.
and they have faith in Christ plus their works, or faith Christ
plus their baptism, faith plus their religious... You can just fill in the blank
with any old thing. Any religious thing that you've done, you fill
in that blank. That is not true faith. True faith abandons all
of our works, and true faith embraces all of His. That's true
faith. is to rest on Christ without
any help on our part, without any merit on our part. It is
to commend your soul to God. Faith comes bearing only sin
and guilt and shame, so that we might receive, and by calling
on Him, we might receive His righteousness, His innocence,
and His grace. salvation. So faith is necessary,
isn't it, then to call? How then shall you call without
faith? In Christ, how shall you call
on Him unless you believe Him? You must believe Him, that salvation
is complete and perfect. And I'll tell you this, if you
are a sinner, call on Him. Call on Him. What does it say? Whosoever shall call on him in
what faith shall be saved. You have spent your life in rebellion
and sin. Isn't it amazing to remember
us just kicking against God? In our rebellion, before he gave
us such a grace to believe, we kicked against the things of
God. We rebelled. And you see men kicking against
the things of God to their own destruction. Listen, time is fleeting, friends. That's why the Scripture says
today. You listen to me. Today is a day of salvation. Today is a day of salvation.
Call on Him while He is what? Near. And He will answer. He will save. How does he save? Through faith.
Through faith. Let the wicked forsake his thoughts,
forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon. You know,
to call on Him, you have to abandon what you think. You have to abandon
how you feel. You have to abandon all your
thoughts of how to be righteous before God. And then to only
embrace Him, Christ, as all your righteousness. This brings us
to the next question. Look at what Paul says in this
next question. And how shall they believe on Him in whom they
have not what? Heard. How shall you believe
on Him? Listen, all who call on Christ,
they must believe on Christ, but how are you going to believe
on Christ if you haven't heard of Christ? I remember talking
to a brother. He was steeped in false doctrine,
false doctrine all of his life. And the Lord saved him late in
his life. And we were talking and he was reminiscing about
all those things that he had experienced in his old religion.
I said, J.D., did you know Christ in that old religion? He said,
well, I don't know, maybe. I said, how can you believe on
Christ if you've never heard of Him? And if you've never heard
of Him when they were preaching, you weren't saved at that time.
Only when you heard of Him were you able then to believe on Him. And how do we hear of Him but
by the Word of God? Here Paul declares the necessity
of the Word. The necessity of the Gospel.
This book that we hold in our hands that I'm preaching from
today is the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Again, I was talking to another
brother, and he was reading in Genesis, and he said, the Lord
spoke to Abram. He said, I just sometimes wish
God would speak. And I said, He speaks every day
to you. In His Word, He speaks to you. What more do you need? Paul said, I heard the voice
of God, but I have a more sure word of prophecy. That which
is written in the Word of God is more sure than any voice you
could ever hear. It is the infallible Word of
God. And it is only in this Word that we may learn and know of
Christ so that we can believe in Him. This Word is necessary. If a man does not believe this
is the Gospel, this book, this Word of God, then, look, you
don't believe in Christ. You don't believe in Christ.
Now, you may believe in another Christ, you may believe in another
Jesus, but if a man is to believe and call upon Christ, he must
first hear of Him, and the only place a man may hear of Him is
in this Word. And you remember that in Mark's
Gospel, Mark chapter 5, that woman with the issue of blood.
This woman, she had a constant bleeding. She was constantly
anemic, constantly bleeding out of herself. She was dying. She had an issue of blood. And
you remember what she did? She heard of doctors. She heard
of doctors. And the Scripture says she spent
all she had and grew none better but only worse. Cheryl and I
were looking up some, she was looking for some cosmetic stuff.
And we would read these reviews. Miracle, miracle cure for wrinkles. Miracle cure for this. This is
the best thing in the world for your skin. And, you know, she
read about 50 of these things and I said, well, just get it.
Obviously, it's a miracle cure for your skin. Just get it. Well,
we'll see. We ordered it. We'll see. This
woman, she heard of doctors. And when she heard of them, she
went to them. And what did she find? She grew
none better but worse. You see, she pictures the sinner
who has an issue of blood in himself. He has the blood of
his father Adam. He's a sinner. And he's dying
and he's dead. And he needs life. He needs healing.
This woman knew that. And so does a sinner when he's
convicted by God. And what does he do? He begins
to look at these doctors of religion. And what did we find in these
doctors of religion? We found that we grew none better,
but only worse. But the Scripture says in verse
27 of Mark chapter 5, it says, Listen, she heard of Jesus. She heard this man had the ability
to heal. Now if she never heard that,
could she have ever believed on Him and touched the hem of
His garment? Would she have ever thought of
coming to Him? She never would have thought
to come to Him, but she heard of Him and through the hearing,
she believed on Him and touched the hem of His garment and was
made whole. Would to God that some would
hear. of Him. I'm preaching of Him.
Have I not ceased since I began to point you to Him? Did I point
you to you or me or anyone else? Bear me witness, have I pointed
you to anyone but Christ this morning? No. I said call on Him. I said believe on Him. How are
you going to do that except you hear of Him? And what am I doing
right now but telling you of Him? According not to my own
opinion of things, but according to the Word of God. Our brother
wrote this, and I put this in the bulletin. It says it is only God's Word
that Christ is fully revealed. Scripture says, in the volume
of the book, it is written of me. Man cannot trust in an unknown,
unrevealed Christ. And the only book in the world,
the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, can make him known. That's it. How can you believe on Him in
whom you have not heard? And where should you hear from
Him? Where should you learn of Him? Where should you find Him? only as God spoke of Him. My
opinion of Him does not matter. You got that? Your, listen, your
opinion of Him does not matter. It only matters what God says
of Him and what God reveals of Him. Scriptures are clear that this
is the only book by which a man may hear of Christ And what do we say of Him? There
is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved.
All sinners need Him. You need His mercy. And if you
by faith can but touch the hem of His garment, this is His Word
now, you shall be made whole. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall you call without faith
and how shall you have faith without the Word? The gospel
of Jesus Christ. We tell you, you must hear of
Him that He is the God-man mediator, the only mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. The only one that can save you.
His name is Jesus. Thou for He shall save His people
from their sins. And Adam all died, and Christ
are all made alive. By His one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." This is the Word of God. You
see, I'm not just pulling this out of thin air. Friends, this
is the Word of God. In order to believe Christ, you
must believe His Word. How can you believe this if you've
not heard the Word of God? How can you know of your sin
except God say there's none righteous, no not one? How could you see
that none will be saved by their works except God says, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight? How
should you know that? How could you know that? How
can you know salvation is not by free will except this? As
many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the
sons of God, which were born not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. How should you know that
except the Word of God tell you that? And then what you should
do with all your opinions is throw them away. Whatever you
think and believe in opposition to the Word of God must be crushed. It must be destroyed. And what
does that? Faith does that. Faith abandons
all of that and takes Christ. Why? God's Word said it. God's Word said it. So you're going to call on Him.
You're only going to call on Him when you hear of Him. And
listen, I've got something to say about Him. Do you know this? His blood satisfied the justice
of God forever. That's just an astounding thing.
Something that your death in hell could never do, He did.
in that short span on the cross. All by himself, he did that.
Extinguished the justice of God, the flames and wrath of God against
you. He extinguished it and God says,
what sin? When he looks at the believer,
he says, I say, oh, forgive me. Well, of course. I shall forgive
you. I am holy and just to forgive
you your sins because Christ already bore it away. Therefore God cannot demand twice
payment." Now isn't that something? That's the Word of God. The Scripture
says, "...Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord.
For the Lord hath received double." Her warfare is accomplished.
The Lord has received double portion for all her sins. He's never going to come back
on you. It's all been on Christ. Now the third question is this,
well, you must call on Him and you must have faith and you're
not going to have faith without the Word. How then are you going
to hear the Word without a preacher? How is that possible? Except
someone be sent of God to preach this Gospel to you, you would
never hear the Word of God. I know there are many that say,
well, what about the person out in the jungle that never heard?
If he never heard, God never saved him. Got that? If the gospel had never been
sent to that man, you can mark it down. He can live in the trees
and look at the creation and make up a God in his own mind.
That person was never saved. Everyone who God saves, He sends
a man. Think of that Ethiopian unit.
That man spent all his time traveling to Jerusalem, went through all
of that ceremony with all of those people and all of those
priests, and it wasn't until he got to the middle of the desert
on the way back, God sent him a man. And the man said, you
understand what you're reading? He said, how can I except some
man explain? God sent that man to him in the
middle of the desert. And listen, God's going to save
somebody, He's going to send a man. And what does this man do? This man
don't have any power in himself, this man is nothing. What is
a preacher? He's nothing. He's just like you. If you're
saved, I'm just like you. I'm saved by the grace of God,
just like you. I called on Him after that He
gave me faith through the hearing of His gospel, and God sent a
man to preach this gospel to me, I believed, and now God has
sent me to you to preach this same gospel. But we're nothing
different, nothing better. We're preachers. We're men saved
by the grace of God. And we're sent to do one thing. What are preachers sent to do?
I know that most churches think that preachers are, you know,
they're sent to counsel you, or they're sent to, you know,
go to your house, and they're sent to eat your food, or whatever. I don't know what they... They're
sent to do other things, to advertise, to do all... No, we have one
purpose. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. We have no other purpose. Our
brother Don Fortner spent over 40, 40 years, close to 50 years
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you were to archive
all of his sermons and all of his notes and all of his written
work, you can sum it up in this, Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Every document, every page, Every word has the one purpose of telling
you about Christ. That's it. Paul said, I was not
sent to baptize, but to preach the gospel. I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is our sole purpose, to
preach the gospel. But it is the work of God alone
to apply it. You must have a preacher. He
must be sent to preach the Word to you. And when that Word is
preached, now listen, that Word may be preached a year ago to
you. That Word may be preached ten years ago to you. And then
all of a sudden, ten years later, God bring it to your mind. And
God used that Word that was preached, didn't He? But He sent that man.
It was that first that you heard that of Him. And God uses this. And we know this. I can't do
anything for you, friends. I know it's necessary that you
have me to preach this Word to you. But I know this, I can't
apply it to anyone. It is only the power of God and
the Spirit of God that applies this. But I know this, He won't
save without it. He won't save without it. Why? It pleased God. 1 Corinthians
1. Yet please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them. That believe. That believe what? That believe our gospel. That
believe this word we are sent to preach. Therefore preachers,
listen, we do not send ourselves. This is not a career choice for
me. You at Redeemer's Grace, you
bear me witness, I did not come for the money. Is that right? I did not come for the money.
Look at the number of YouTube people that are watching, and
I did not come for fame, did I? No. And I don't care if one
or a million are watching, or whatever God sends, it's fine.
I didn't come for those things. I came to preach the Word. I
was sent. We're sent of God. How shall
they preach except they what? Be sent. This is not a career choice.
It is a calling that God calls. And what makes a difference between
a true preacher and a false one? How do you know the difference?
The message. The message. And what have I spent the last
minutes here doing for you? Have I not spent them all pointing
to Christ? That's how you tell a true preacher from a false
one. How many times have I mentioned the blood and righteousness of
Christ to you? Message without the blood and righteousness of
Christ is no message at all. It can't save you. It can't save
you. True preachers preach only Christ and Him crucified. We
don't preach dreams and vision. We preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ and we will not mix it with the world. We will
not compromise this gospel. Salvation is by the grace of
God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. According to the Word
of God alone, without my opinion and without my merit, Jesus Christ
alone saves sinners. This is our message. through
preachers or sin of God to do this. And those who believe our
message, what does it say? Whoso shall call upon the name
of the Lord, what? Shall be saved. When they hear our message and
they believe our message, God causes them to call on Him and
then, you see the chain? You see the links together? I
preach, God applies it, you believe it, you call on Him and you're
saved. And what do people say about
preachers? I know what the world says about
preachers, they're useless. Somebody asked, what does your
pastor do for a living? They think I should be doing
something else because this is just too easy and they don't see any
value in a preacher. But God's people do. God's people
see value in a preacher. The scriptures have said, look
at your text, as it is written, verse 15, how
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. What are we here to do
but preach glad tidings of good things? Prince, to believe on Christ
is the most wonderful thing there is. It's the most wonderful gift. If God took everything else away
from you in the world, but gave you faith, He gave you the greatest
gift. The greatest gift to believe on His Son. And we say that we
have believed. I am so thankful for those men
that God sent to me. Aren't you thankful? Can you
not say how beautiful and how sweet were their feet that brought
me? that God caused them to come
my way so I could hear the Gospel. How many people were rejected
to hear the Gospel and yet God sent that Gospel to me? And not
only sent it to me, how many people around me heard the same
Gospel that did not believe it? And I believe it. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? And what hast thou thus not received?
So we thank God for these men. We give them double honor. Scripture
says they're worthy of double honor, not because of themselves,
but because of the office they hold and the gospel they preach
and the Christ they exalt. And so what is the conclusion?
Look at verse 17, so then. Here it is. Faith. In order to
have righteousness, one must believe on the Son of God. This
is how righteousness is brought to the center. Righteousness
is already obtained. It's already done. for his people and God
sends a man to preach the gospel they believe that gospel and
by faith they call on him now then listen you that believe
by the hearing of faith of the word of God do you not still need it? I still need it I swear I need it more right
now than I have in my whole life. I need to hear that sweet blood
that was shed in my stead. I need to hear it again that
I am robed in His righteousness, that I'm covered, that God accepts
me, and that my sins are gone. And it's by this we are strengthened
and encouraged to hear this over and over and over and over again. You know what heaven's going
to be? It's going to be continually preaching the gospel. That's
it. Christ himself stands in person witnessing the gospel
of himself. This is what heaven is made of.
Isn't heaven always remembering the blood of the lamb when it
was shed? What Revelation tells us, they sang a new song. Worthy
is the what? Lamb that was slain. To receive
glory and honor and wisdom and power and dominion forever and
ever. Amen. Verse 1 and verse 1,000,000 sing. Worthy is the Lamb. And to be
content with saying that over and over. Worthy is the Lamb.
Worthy is the Lamb. And ever coming to an understanding
of worthy is the Lamb. What a glorious place heaven
is. What a fitting place for someone who has called on Him,
believed on Him through the preaching of His Word. What a wonderful
place God has prepared for us through the blood and righteousness
of Jesus. And if you don't know Him, why
don't you call on Him? Why do you rebel? Oh, what a sad thing a sinner
is. when simply the call on His name
will save you. Isn't that amazing that He would
listen? That He would hear such a cry from such a sinner? But
He does. How do you know? I've got it right here. I've
got His Word. He exalted above His name. I pray God will bless this to
you.