Romans chapter 10. And the title of my message this
evening is, The Heart of the Gospel and the Means of Grace. The Heart of the Gospel. The Apostle says here in verse
1, Brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. the heart of the gospel and the
means of grace. Now the Apostle Paul, having
fully expounded the truth concerning God's sovereign election in chapter
9, here in chapter 10, he expresses two things. He expresses the
heart of the gospel. The heart and soul of every believer,
the heart and center of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ, And he
expresses the means by which the elect are called. He expresses the means by which
the elect are called. Namely, preaching. The preaching
of the Gospel. Now in chapter 9, the Apostle,
you remember, he answered three distinct objections to the election
of God. The first question is in regards
to the effect of God's Word. If God chose Israel and promised
to save Israel, then why did Israel not believe in Christ? Why did they crucify Him? And
the answer was, because not all Israel, nationally, are of the
true Israel, spiritually. And he proved that, of course,
through Abraham's children, Ishmael and Isaac, and especially Jacob
and Esau, when he said, the children not yet being born, neither having
done good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand, as it is written, the elder shall serve the younger.
For Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. God loved one and
hated the other, not based on any works of theirs, before they
were born, not having done good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election. So Israel is chosen, how? By
election, by sovereign election. Spiritual Israel. So that leads
to the second objection. Is God unrighteous or unjust
to choose one and hate the other before their birth, before they
had done good or evil? No. God forbid, Paul says. He
says, God's already told you I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
And so then, he says of Pharaoh, he says, Pharaoh, I've raised
him up for the one purpose, to show my power in him. No, God's
not unjust to do that. God's not unrighteous to do that.
Mercy. He has mercy on whom He will,
and whom He will, He hardens. Then comes the objection of sovereignty
and responsibility. Well, in verse 19, this is the
objection here. He says, Thou wilt say unto me,
Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will? And,
you know, the answer to that is, who are you? That's the answer
to that. Who are you to bring God under
your bar of judgment? Hath not the potter powered the
clay to make one vessel to honor and another dishonor? You see,
he took of the same lump, didn't he? He took of the same fallen
race. He didn't do anything to man
by taking man and shaping him and molding him as he pleases.
And God made one to vessel of honor. He made another to vessel
of dishonor. So who are you to say anything
to God? Regardless of what men think and how men reason, listen,
God cannot sin. You can't charge God with sin.
God cannot sin and will not sin. Now man, by nature, is guilty
of sin against God. And I want you to understand
this. We preach without hesitation. God is absolutely, completely
sovereign. And man is absolutely responsible. And I don't have to justify it.
One thing, I don't justify God. God justifies Himself. God is
God and we're not. This is the conclusion that Paul
comes with. And so then, Paul says the distinction
in verse 23 of chapter 9, he gives, I'm sorry, 24 of chapter
9, he gives us the distinction between the vessels of mercy
and the vessels of wrath. What is that? Even us whom he
hath called. The calling and quickening of
God's grace is the distinction made. God makes the distinction
between those who are His vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath
by this one way, calling and faith in Jesus Christ. There's
the distinction. Since all men are born of Adam's
race and no man by nature will come to Christ or can come to
Christ, God must in grace call His elect to both life and faith. Otherwise, we would have never
come ourselves. Isn't that right? You who are
the elect of God, we recognize this. We would have never come
had He not called us. Had He not called us, we would
have never come. Now this evening, I want to ask
you a very important question before I continue. Are you called? Are you called of God? Are you quickened by the Holy
Spirit to life, spiritual life and faith in the Son of God?
This is the distinction here, the only distinction. Now you're
not going to look at me and look at the lost and see any distinction
at any point. We're both the sons of Adam's
race. The distinction is this, life and faith, which is done
by the calling of the Holy Ghost. Have you seen your sin and guilt? Do you see the holiness and judgment
of God upon the wicked? Have you seen the beauty of Christ? Do you see beauty when you see
Christ? Do you see the beauty of His
person, His God and man? Do you see that? His uniqueness? How He is the only God-man mediator? Have you seen His holy, perfect
work of righteousness and redemption? You see that? Not only do you
see it, do you believe it? Do you trust it with all your
soul? Have you, in faith, called upon the Son of God? That's what
we're going to get to. Whosoever calls on the name of
the Lord shall be saved. If you believe, then listen,
you are the elect, without doubt, without a doubt. You are the
sons of God. I know modern religion says that
faith is the cause of election, that God somehow looked down
at portals of time and saw what man would do and then made his
choice on that, but we know that's not true. We know faith is not
the cause of our election. Faith is the evidence of our
election. It's the evidence of our election. and then the apostle in verses
uh... twenty five through the end of the chapter of chapter
nine he validates his doctrine given several examples of old
testament prophecies but my favorite one that sums them all up i believe
is in twenty nine he said isaiah said before except the lord of
sabbath had left us a seed we'd all been a sodom and like a name
or If there was no election, there would be no salvation.
That's the summation of this. The election of God is vital
to salvation. The election in and of itself
is not salvation, but it's unto salvation. And without it, there
would be no salvation. No salvation. Now you who believe on Christ,
consider the great privilege you have. Consider your privilege, that
you have been chosen of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ according
to His great love. You are made the Son of God.
The great power of Christ has redeemed you and reconciled you. And now, in due time, the Holy
Spirit has come, raised you from the dead, given you a new life,
a new heart, made willing to come. Now listen, you don't have
to drag me to Christ, do you? Tonight, I do not have to drag
you to Christ, and neither does God. You desire to come. You want to come. Why? He hath made us willing in the
day of His power. That's the only reason that the
Scripture gives that I actually came at all. It's because of
the grace of God. The power of God. you remember
that as many as received him to them gave me the right the
privilege to be called the sons of god which were born now how
are you born not a blood nor of the will of the flesh nor
of the will of man of god that's testimony testimony of all the
elect i like when the way that uh... the way the paul puts this
He says in Galatians 4, He says, even so we, when we were children,
we were in the bondage under the elements of the world, but
when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son
made of a woman, made under the law for this purpose, to redeem
us that were under the law that we might be received the adoption
of sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth His Spirit of
His Son into your hearts. Now why did God send the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts? Why? Because you were already
sons. But now it's manifest we are
sons. How? Because we believe on the Son
of God. Now the question must then be
asked, how were we called You who believe, how were you
called to be the sons of God? What was God's chosen means by
which you were saved? How will the elect be called
to believe on the Son of God and be saved? Now make no mistake about this,
all of the elect will be called. Let all the hosts of hell try
as they may. Matter of fact, God will use
them. God will use them to call His people. He will. Now, the
objection of false freewill works religion is like this, and we
know that the means, the means is this, preaching. That's how
you were saved, isn't it? You were saved when you heard
the gospel. The gospel. Now, the objection
to this, by those who don't like the election of God, goes like
this. Well, if God's already chosen people, then why preach?
If God's going to save them no matter what, why preach? Isn't
that the objection? Now, this objection is not stated
in the book of Romans, but I know that the Holy Spirit most definitely
answers this objection in our text. He's going to answer this
objection. The lost of this world who hate
elections say to us, how can you sincerely proclaim the scripture,
come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, knowing
that not all will come but only the elect? This surely is answered in our
text that Though God has chosen and loved the people, that Christ
has died for those people, and the Holy Spirit will call only
those people, yet God has also ordained the only means by which
they shall be called, and that is preaching. So the same God
ordained us to be the elect, ordained that Christ should be
our Savior, ordained that the Spirit should call us, He has
also ordained that preaching be the means by which they are
called. Now, the church in every generation
has one single purpose in this world. And you, believer, I want
you to understand this. You have one purpose. The preaching of the gospel. We have one mission. One. This
way we don't get confused. We're not confounded. We have
one mission. Preach the word. Now, what he
told Timothy, Timothy, preach the Word. Be instant, in season,
and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering. Preach the Word. Our Lord said,
go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Do we need any other reason? No. Our Lord commanded it. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. Our Lord knew what He was going
to preach and He said, look, there's going to be people who believe
and people who don't. Didn't He just say that? He said, some's going
to believe, they're going to glory. Those who don't shall
be damned. He's already given us that in
that same passage of Scripture. So we preach the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified in every message on purpose. On purpose. Now,
I'm going to preach to you the very heart and soul of the gospel.
on purpose. And I do this every time on purpose.
I take you to Christ. Paul said, I determine not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So then we declare with boldness
and confidence and we never move from it that Jesus Christ is
the sum and substance. We preach the gospel because
it is the only chosen means by which God saves his people. Go
to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Let's
read it for ourselves, verse 17. The Apostle says, this is my
mission, he said, for Christ sent me not to baptize but to
what? Preach the gospel. How? Not with wisdom of words. Lest
the cross of Christ be made of none effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. It is the power
of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise and where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of the world? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Listen, here it is.
You want to know why we preach? Here it is. It pleased God. How? By the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. God's chosen people, Christ redeemed
them, the Spirit had called them, and how will He call them? Through
preaching. Now then, I've got four points.
Go back to your text, and I've got four points in this text.
Having shown you through Romans 9, He had declared the election
of grace, now He's going to make it very practical here. He's
changing this tone into a very practical tone now. I want you to see, first of all,
the heart of every elect believer. in verse 1. Second of all, I want you to
see the heart of every man outside of Christ in verse 2 and 3. Then I want you to see the heart
of the gospel in verse 4, down through verse 13. That's
the heart of the gospel. and then lastly i want you to
see the heart and means of the church in calling that elect
which is so first of all the heart of the elect listen listen
to paul's heart he says this who's he talking to you and me
believers So right now I'm talking to you,
brethren. You who are chosen of God, you who are redeemed
of Christ, you who are called of the Holy Spirit, I want you
to hear my heart, Paul says. I want you to hear my heart so
you should know that this should be your heart. He says, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now the doctrine of election
is never intended to make us cold and indifferent, is it?
Do you suppose that's the intent? What they used to call the frozen
chosen, people just so cold and indifferent. That's not God's
people, that's not our heart. That should never be our heart!
Election should warm our hearts. It should cause us to love, seeing
we have been chosen, being so vile, and yet God in grace has
reached down His hand into the very dirt, into the worm that
we were, and He plucked us up and saved us. That should move
us to love and compassion to others. Paul had a heart, and
his heart was for the lost. What should your heart be? What
should my heart be? Knowing the election of God should
make our hearts ever more passionate concerning the lost. Paul said,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Let every one of us who are believers
in Christ, we of all people, should be most gracious and long-suffering. Let us, let this be the desire
of our hearts. I pray that be so with me. I
pray that God would give me a heart for the lost. I mean, I have
a heart for the lost, but I long for a greater desire to see others
come, don't you? I imagine if we had a greater
desire, we would spread this gospel more. May God give us
that heart, that desire for the lost. So then, let us at every opportunity
Use the means available. What's the means available? preaching
the gospel, isn't it? That's the means. We're going
to get to that, but let us use every means possible so as to
get people to hear this gospel. Call them in. Now what do I mean
by that? I mean that we should not compromise
the gospel to get people to come. That's what the world and the
church outside do. They compromise the gospel to
get the world in. That's not what we're here to
do. I'm here to tell you the gospel so that that would bring
in sinners Isn't that what the gospel calls? Sinners to come. And so we're calling sinners. We need to call their attention
to their need of Christ, right? We need to call their attention
and show them that Christ's work is sufficient for their sins. We should do this. Listen to
what Spurgeon said. If sinners be damned, at least
let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. If they perish, let them perish
with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it
be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go
unwarned and unprayed for. That's a good exhortation. Now,
you want to know practical stuff? That's practical stuff, isn't
it? That's right. That's what we need. And what
is the greatest instrument that every one of us has in our possession
at every moment of our life? Prayer. Don't you have that? Come boldly. Be instant in prayer. You have that all the time in
your possession. You say, oh, what can I do for
the Lord? Pray for them. You can pray at
any time. Come boldly before your Father's
throne." That's what he's doing, what Paul's doing. Never let us cease to pray and
use all proper means for the conversion of those who oppose
the gospel and oppose us. So then if God has an elect people
and those people will be saved, why should we pray for the lost?
Here it is. Because secret things belong
unto God. I don't know who the elect are. So why not pray for
everyone? Isn't that what Paul's doing?
Isn't that an answer right here in verse 1? He's already answering
it. Pray for everyone. Spurgeon said this. A man confronted
him. I've told you this before. He said, Sir, if God is going
to save only elect, why preach the gospel? And Spurgeon replied,
Sir, if you would kindly point out the elect to me, I will only
preach to them. Why? We don't know. Pray for everyone. The Apostle surely knew election,
didn't he? And yet, at this very moment,
he prays for all the lost of Israel. Why? He didn't know who
the elect were. So he prayed for them all. If
I pray for everyone, surely I'm going to get the elect, right?
If I henpeck, usually I'm wrong, right? So don't do that. Pray
for everyone. Pray that God save everyone in
your sphere. Now then, secondly, the heart
of the lost. Look at this. This is who Paul's
praying for. He said, "...for I bear them
record, the Jews, that they have a zeal of God. But here's the
malady, not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
And here the Apostle acknowledges the zeal and sincerity of the
Jews and their religion. These men were very devout. They
were very stringent. So stringent that they would
count the leaves on their plants so as to not miss paying their
tithes. Now listen, none of us have been
that zealous. Not one of us in this room has been that zealous.
I know of no one more zealous than the Jews concerning their
obedience to that law of Moses. They were zealous. But listen,
zeal does not equate to salvation. These men, to the best of their
ability, sought to honor God and obey the law, yet zeal and
sincerity was no excuse for unbelief. It was no substitute for unbelief. For belief. So, they zealously
sought to worship God, but they did so, what? Without knowledge. In ignorance. They ignorantly
tried to worship God. They were blind in darkness and
ignorant of the righteousness of God. Now what's the evidence
of their ignorance? Now how do you know a man is
ignorant of the righteousness of God? Here it is. They go about to establish their
own righteousness. Now, if you want to know a man
that's ignorant of the righteousness of God, ask him if he's trying
to earn his salvation. If he's earning his salvation,
if he is trying to merit some portion of the salvation of God,
he is ignorant of the height of God's righteousness. He brings
God's righteousness and standard down to a bar so that he may
leap over it. Not realizing that the bar is
infinitely high, and he could never attain it. He's ignorant. And so then, no matter how zealous
a man is, he can't attain to the righteousness of God. Paul in Romans 2-3 told us this.
He said, look, there's none righteous. None that under stand it what
they're all ignorant we're all ignorant of what the righteousness
of god you may be a brain surgeon that doesn't have anything to
do with the righteousness of god by nature we are all ignorant
of the righteousness of god and we go about seeking are own to
obtain righteousness by are works therefore the righteousness of
god It cannot be merited by the works
of man. It cannot be attained. Now all who are seeking to be
made righteous, either holy or partially righteous by their
own obedience, are ignorant of the righteousness of God. Now
what is the righteousness of God? Let me give it to you plainly
simply. It is Jesus Christ. He is the
righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. They're
ignorant of Christ and His work. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world as a man so as to do this one thing. To establish
the law. To establish the law and by doing
so honor God in the stead of His elect. He came to do the
will of the Father, which was to honor and magnify the law.
Therefore, the righteousness of God was only established and
merited by Jesus Christ. And so then, all who have not
submitted wholly to Christ have not submitted to the righteousness
of God. Take a man who believes that
Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. He says, yeah, I believe
that, preacher. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins. Jesus Christ is my righteousness.
But you know, I've got to do my part. You're ignorant of the
righteousness of God. You missed it. You've missed
it. Well, I've got to sanctify myself. You've missed it. You're ignorant
of the righteousness of God. If you've got to put your hand
to the work, you're like Uzzah. You put his hand to the ark,
he was killed. You put your hand to Christ,
you're going to be killed by the justice of God. Don't put
your hand to it. Rather, submit to it. And receive
the righteousness which is merited by Christ. Now then, we come
to the heart of the Gospel. You see, in the heart of the
believer is, Oh, I pray for the lost. Who are the lost? All those
trying to obtain righteousness by their merits. And so what
must I do? I must declare to them the heart
of the gospel. What is that? Look at verse 4.
Here's the heart. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. For who? To everyone that believeth. That believeth. The heart of
the gospel. The Apostle, you remember before
in Romans chapter 7, declares something about the law. He says,
I thought the law was a means of life. But when the law came in power,
what did he find? He said, it was a means of death
to me. It slew me. It killed me. It exposed me that I was a sinner. He stated in that other place
in Romans 3 that by the law is the knowledge of sin. When law comes, it reveals and
kills all hopes and desires of the sinner to merit righteousness
before God. Isn't that what it did to you?
When that law came, didn't it just lay you out? You had no
strength, no ability, no hope. It stripped you of every ounce
of strength to try. I didn't even have any will to
try anymore to merit God's favor. It was impossible. It lays the
man low and dead before God. Law requires absolute, positive,
perfect, active obedience in every thought, word, and deed.
This is why you need Christ. Because He did what you and I
could never do. He did, in every thought, word,
and deed, honor the law of God. He honored it. He made it perfect. But not only did the law require
perfect obedience, but it also required death for sin. the soul
that sinneth it shall surely die therefore Christ offered
himself without spot and blemish to God you got that? when Christ
came to that cross he offered himself without spot and without
blemish and it was there that God made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin For what? That you might know and receive
the righteousness of God in him. That you might have the righteousness
of God. That's what he did it for. And
so then the righteousness of Christ is the end of the law. The completion of the law. The
fulfillment of the law. The end. The final completion of the law for everyone. that believeth." Is this not
the best news in the world? Is this not the greatest thing
in the world? The end of the law. The law has no more authority
to me. The law is not for the righteous,
but for the ungodly. And if I have the righteousness
of God in Christ, the law is not for me. the law has been satisfied it
looks at me as I am in Christ and says I'm satisfied with him
satisfied who shall ascend into the deep that is to bring Christ
up from the dead and so Paul then in verse five he begins
to go further he said Moses described the righteousness of the law
he said that a man that doeth those things shall live in them
by your works if you're going to go by the law you've got to
do it by sending up your sentient. What is righteous? No. You don't have to ascend
to above. Why? Christ ascended for you.
Say not in your heart, who shall ascend? Christ ascended. And
if you say that, what does that do? It brings Christ down. No.
Don't say this. Therefore, the only way a man
can be justified and righteous before God is by the perfect
obedience for your sins, you, by Jesus Christ. So Paul declares that the righteousness
of God speaking, in contrast, is to pay for your sin. Don't
say that wise, because Christ already mentioned that. He's
already been there, in contrast to the law. He's contrasting
them now. He says, say not in thine own
heart who shall ascend unto heaven, that is to bring Christ down.
The righteousness of the law demands that a person under the
law should ascend, but Christ has done both of these. So then,
to combine the works of the law with the works of Christ declares
that the righteousness and death of Christ is not sufficient.
That's what he's saying. He's saying, look, if you try
to mix Christ and the law, you're saying Christ is not sufficient. Isn't that the word of the apostate?
The word of the apostate, Hebrews 10, I'm going to read it to you,
Hebrews 10 and verse 29. Listen to what the apostate says. I'm sorry, I got the wrong passage
there. No, here it is, 29, yes. "...of
how much sore punish, suppose ye, that is thought worthy, who
hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the
blood of the covenant, wherewith he is sanctified..." Listen,
an unholy thing. An insufficient thing. That's what the apostate does.
He counts the blood of Christ as not enough. So then you must
add something. Now listen, that's not what the
righteousness of faith says. What says it? Verse 8. Here it is. The word is neither
even in thy mouth and in thine heart. That is the word of faith
which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Listen, how simple is that? You don't have
to go anywhere. You don't have to do anything.
The Word is nigh thee. Even in thy mouth and in thy
heart. I know this. The religious world
says, well, you've got to make a decision and then with the
mouth, confession is made and then it gets to the heart. That's
what they believe. If you just make that decision
with your mouth, now everybody can confess Christ with their
mouth, can't they? But it's not just the mouth, is it? It requires
what else? The heart. Now you can say it
all you want to and never get to your heart. That's why he
reverses the order in the next verse. He says, for with the
heart man believeth. See, here's the order. With the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now this is the order of operations
in the Spirit of God. Now we see the order is confession,
right? We can only see that first. But
God sees it this way. It's with the heart. He begins
with the heart. And listen, when a man is born
again of the Spirit of God, he can do nothing but confess. Isn't that right? Can you do
anything else? You who believe, can you do anything
else? I can't do anything else. I must
confess Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I
confess His perfect work and God raising Him from the dead.
I confess He is at the throne of glory right now, moving all
things after the counsel of His own will. I confess! Of course
I do, because it's so. How do I know that in my heart?
Because God has raised me from the dead to know these things,
to believe these things. This is the heart of the gospel.
The simplicity of the gospel. Not requiring anything from you. All is ready. Isn't that the
gospel? All is ready. Come. Come. Listen, if you haven't come,
you should come right now. You should come. I'm coming right
now. I'm still coming right now. All is ready. I'm so thankful
all is ready. Our God told us that he would
do this. He said, I will take you from among the heathen, gather
you from all countries. I'm going to put a new heart
in your chest. I'm going to take that old heart
out, put a new heart of flesh in you, so that you will love
my son, believe my son, and you shall inherit the land of glory. That's the promise of the covenant. Now that's the heart of the gospel,
Christ. Christ is the heart of the gospel, isn't he? Now then
lastly, what is the heart and means of God to save his elect
people. Now that's the remaining part
of this. He says this in verse 13, Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now he begins to ask a
series of questions here. He says, how then can you call
on him whom you have not believed? Friends, a man will never call
on Christ unless he believes he's able and willing to save.
Isn't that right? I'll give you an illustration. Two men were on the Niagara near
a falls, a river that leads to Niagara Falls. Their boat capsized
and they were helplessly going toward the falls and the people
on the shore threw a rope and one man, he grabbed the rope
and was pulled to safety. They threw the rope to the second
man and as he was about to grab the rope a log came by and he
looked to the log and the rope and he grabbed the log. And you know that man perished.
Now listen, why did the man grab the rope? Because he believed
the rope was tied to the shore. and he was right and he grabbed
so tightly to the rope with all of his soul now the man that chose the log
he believed not the rope he saw the log was bigger he saw the
log look more suitable and he too grabbed a hold with all of
his might to the log Now why did he perish? Because the log
was not tied to the shore. He believed the log was capable
when it wasn't. So it is with a man's works.
A man's works is not tied to Christ. Listen, the rope of faith is
tied to Christ. The rope of salvation is tied
to Christ. And I know this, if He's in glory
and my faith attaches me to Him, I am sure for glory. I'm sure
for glory. But if a man attaches himself
to his work, no matter how good they are, he'll fall off into
hell because they're not attached to Christ. That's what faith
is. Faith believes Christ. I believe Christ is capable,
able, powerful. His blood is sufficient. His
righteousness enough. And so I grab a hold of Him.
That's what faith is. Grabbing a hold of Him with all
my soul. And I know this, I shall be brought
to glory. And everyone who does not shall
be brought to hell. Now listen, you won't come to
Christ unless you believe Christ. Is that right? How shall a man
call on Him in whom he does not believe? And listen, here's the
next question. How shall they believe on Him
in whom they have not heard? Now is that not right? You can't
believe on somebody you've never heard of. Modern religion is
preaching Christ that doesn't exist. They're just preaching
that Christ doesn't exist. Poor Jesus is begging people
and He just can't save them except they exercise their will. I don't
know any Christ like that. I'm preaching Christ, successful
Christ. I'm preaching to you a Christ that is victorious Christ. You should grab a hold to Him.
You should hang on to Him. He's in glory, not that other
imposter. Christ is in heaven. I preach
Him, so we preach Him. Now how shall you believe on
Him? How should you hear of him without
a preacher? Isn't that right? Isn't that why preachers are
sent? So that you should hear and you should believe. John
wrote that in his book. He said, I've written these things
that you might believe. Listen, tonight I preach this
that you might believe. God sends preachers for this,
that you might believe. And preachers, listen, how are
preachers sent? How do you get a preacher? Modern
religion thinks that preachers are chosen professions. You can
go to seminary and you become a preacher. They believe churches
make preachers. No. Churches don't make preachers.
Seminaries don't make preachers. You listen. God makes preachers. How many times you read this?
Paul called of God to be an apostle. Isn't that what he said in Ephesians
chapter 4? He said, God gave gifts unto men, some apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. How
are pastors made? God makes them. God sends them.
God sends them. They're sent of God. And so what
did the church say about preachers? About true, faithful, God-sent
preachers? They said, How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Isn't that good? The greatest
gift next to salvation is God sending you a preacher. A faithful
man to declare to you the truth. That's a gift. Don't take advantage
of it. That's a gift. It's a gift of
God. And listen, we know this who
preach, as Isaiah did, who had believed our report. We know
this. Not everybody's going to believe
this gospel. But we also understand this, that faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. Martin Luther said this, he said,
it's impossible to believe on a Christ that you've not heard
of. It's impossible to hear of Him
without a preacher. It's impossible to have a preacher
except they be sent of God. It's impossible then for a man to preach except God send him.
And it's impossible for you to believe except you hear the Word
of God. It's impossible. So then we see the heart of the
believer. What is it? I pray for everyone. knowing God has
an elect. I preach to everyone knowing
God has an elect. What's the heart of the gospel?
Christ is all. The end of the law for righteousness.
The heart of man, there's trying to earn their salvation. Christ
has merited it. What then is the heart of the
church? The mission of the church? Preach the word. Preach the word. May God give us grace to be faithful
in our mission. Pray for the lost. Preach the
gospel. And I know this, God will save
his people. Who has believed our report?
The elect. They believe. Jesus said, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me I will know wise cast out. May God bless you, I pray. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.