Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. The last time that we were in
Romans, we looked at verses 1 to 5. And the focus of that message
was Paul's great heaviness and continual sorrow over his brethren
and his kinsmen, his family and his friends, his acquaintances,
the people of his nation, not knowing Christ. And all of God's people can enter
into that. True, true heartache. True heartache and sorrow over
men and women not knowing Christ. People all over the place go
to church, but they don't know Christ. There's
a difference. There's a great difference. And
Paul, it just crushed him, the thought of his brethren. being lost in the world without
Christ. And it breaks my heart too. It
makes me want to, I was just thinking about this as our brother
was praying, let's not all go to church today. Let's not do
that. Let's worship God. Let's learn something about God
from His Word. Let's get into the truth of the
matter, not just the show and not just the redundancy. Let's get into the heart of the
truth of the God with whom we have to do. And it is It is so crushing to
think of men and women going through this life, oblivious
to the truth of Christ and the truth of the gospel, just headed
straight every day and every step is one step closer to eternity
and judgment, and they have no idea what they're going out to
meet. No idea. So Paul said, it's just great
heaviness and it's continual sorrow. In verse four, he said,
they are religious. That's what he was saying. They
know the commandments. They hold a Bible, go to church, hold a
Bible. But he said, they're lost to
the point of being cursed. And this is what he said. And
it's an incredible statement. He said, I could wish. that I was cursed in their place
so that they wouldn't have to be. I could wish that I would be
eternally damned so that all the rest of them wouldn't have
to be. But Paul knew that he could not
be that for them. He said, I could wish that. And
I can't enter into that with Paul. I can't say that. Even
knowing I can't be that, I can't say that. But he said, I could
wish that, but he knew he couldn't be that. And the reason is because
Paul knew that he was a sinner. Paul wrote the majority of the
New Testament. And that's what he said over
and over and over. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. And men worship
these apostles. They make saints out of them.
Saint Paul and Saint everybody. And all of God's true preachers
and apostles cried, I'm just a sinner. I'm a sinner. That's what Paul would have rather
been called sinner Paul, because that's what he was. And that's
what I am. And he knew that he could not be a substitute for
another. He said, I could wish that I
was their substitute, but one sinner cannot be the substitute
of another sinner. Cannot be. It takes a sinless
substitute to stand in the place of another, to take his guilt
and to take his judgment so that the other can stand in his sinlessness. If I trade places with you and
I'm a sinner and you're a sinner, I'm going to stand in your sin
and you're going to stand in my sin and we're both going to
go before God with sin on us. So it takes a sinless substitute
to take our guilt, take our punishment, take our judgment so that we
can stand in his innocence and take his freedom. That's what
it takes. It takes a sinless substitute. And that's the gospel that we
saw in this passage when we were just there last week. Even though
Paul could not wish himself to be cursed for his brethren, Christ
could and He did. He did. Look with me at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. If we want to get to the heart
of the gospel in one verse of scripture, If we want to hold
one verse of Scripture to go meet God with and hold on to
for an eternal hope, this is the truth. 2 Corinthians 5 verse
21, it says, for He, that's God, God the Father, hath made Him,
that's Christ, to be sin for us. What that means is our sin, the
sin of His people. Who knew no sin, that means He
was sinless. He was spotless. Whoever trades
places with Him is trading places into sinlessness. All right,
so it says, He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You think about how perfect and
holy and spotless the Lord Jesus Christ is. And you think about
how wicked and vile and awful we are, our minds are. And then
think about what it means to trade places with him. After a sinner trades places
with him, that sinner becomes, if he becomes what I am, then
that sinner becomes the righteousness of God. Amazing. That's just
amazing. Turn with me to Galatians 3. If we stand before God today,
if he comes back or if he takes us today, You know, there's a
very highly publicized shocking death that recently happened.
And if that happens to one of us, we all know it can happen
at any moment. If you find yourself, what'll happen is you'll be transported,
you'll be catapulted to the throne of God. You'll stand before the
throne of God. And if the question is asked
to you, I mean you as a soul and as a person, if the question
is asked to you, what hope do you have of not being punished
eternally for your sin? Right here, hold on to this verse
right here. Claim this verse right here.
Galatians 3 verse 13, it says, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Let's none of us mention one
thing we've done, not one work we've done, not I tried to be
a good person, none of that. Mention Christ took my place. God made him to be cursed in
my place because that's what I was and that's what I deserved. God made him to be cursed. He
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. That's the beauty of the gospel.
Gospel is good news, and that is the good news, that Christ
was made to be a substitute for his people. The Lord laid on
him the iniquity of all of his people. And with his stripes,
we are healed. He took what was coming to us,
so we get to take what was coming to Him. Now, go with me back
to our text, Romans 9. Verse 5 ended what we were looking
at last time, but by telling us exactly who Christ is. Christ was the one who came,
Christ was the substitute, Christ was the one who was made to be
cursed for his people, and then verse 5 ended by telling us exactly
who Christ our substitute is. In that last message though,
we didn't have time to deal with it. I read this verse and I thought,
what a glorious verse, but we were dealing with something else
and we just read over it. That's all we had time to do.
And this verse is just too glorious. It's too high and it's too holy
to just read it and move on. So for this Bible study, I just
want to declare at face value, it is all plainly, plainly stated
at face value who Christ is. And I just want us to enter into
it for a minute. All right. Verse five says, whose are the
fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came. And then
it says, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. That's worth dwelling on. That
is worth dwelling on. He is over all. God blessed forever. Amen. Now, we're just going to
break that down. Who is this one? Who is this
man who came to be our substitute? Most people see him to be a man,
a great man. Was he a man? Yes. Yes, he was. But really, who is Jesus Christ? If you ask that question, most
people know who he is, but they don't know who he is. Most people know who he is. Do
you know who Jesus Christ is? Yep. But they don't know who
he is. Now, who is he? Well, first verse
five says, he is over all. Just think about what that means. Does that sound like the description
of a person who is trying to do something as long as other
men and women will let him do it? Does that sound like someone
who is standing at another person's heart door knocking and begging
for him to open it up to him? Does that sound like a weak man? Because that's what most everybody
thinks him to be. Does that sound like a sissy
man? Got his robes on, he doesn't
get his hands dirty, he's clean. This man was a carpenter. This
man was a worker. You know what the scripture calls
him? The scripture says, the Lord is a man of war. He calls himself captain of the
host, captain of the army. Not only is he the first man
into the battle, he's the only man into the battle. He by himself fought the battle
and won. You think about that. Really?
He went in by himself. The scripture says he does whatever
he purposes in his heart to do. Think about that. No other man,
that's not said of any other man. The scripture says none
can stop him None can even question Him. The scripture says, He is the
King of heaven and the King of earth. Most people believe, well
I know He's the King of heaven, but you know, maybe one day He
will conquer earth and He'll be the, you know, we got all
these other men who are, nah, He's the King of heaven and He's
the King of earth. That's what it means to say He
is over all. He's over all. We're gonna prove
that with a few scriptures. Look with me if you would at
Psalm 47. I love this Psalm. Psalm 47. Verse one, it says, oh, clap
your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of triumph, for the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great
king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. God is gone up
with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises
to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the
earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
His holiness. The princes of the people are
gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham. For the
shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted, exalted
over all. King over all the earth. Look
with me at Psalm 83. Psalm 83 verse 17, it says, let
them be confounded and troubled forever. Yea, let them be put
to shame and perish that men may know that thou whose name
alone is Jehovah are the most high over all the earth. The most high, none higher over
all the earth. Turn over to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 verse six, it says
that you may, that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the West that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and
there is none else. I formed the light and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do
all these things. There was a time when a man named
Job and his friends were very ignorantly mouthing off before
the Lord, thinking they were wise. God said to Job, who do
you think you are? He said, where were you when
I laid the foundations of the earth? He said, what holds all of the
firmament together, the stars and the planets, everything in
perfect order? What do you think holds all that
together? He said, tell me if you think you know. Man says,
well, it's gravity. Well, where did gravity come
from? He said, Job, did you say to
the ocean, stop right there, you can't go any farther? He said, can you make your voice
thunder across the sky? He said, do you tell the lightning
exactly where to strike? Job said, after all that, he
said, I think it's time I put my hand over my mouth. He is
over all these things. He's over all these things. Turn
with me to Daniel chapter four. just after Ezekiel, Daniel chapter
4. This is the story of a king,
Nebuchadnezzar, and he was lifted up in pride and the Lord broke
him, really broke him for his rebellion. And he was just like
a wild beast off in the field. But the Lord in mercy brought
him back, brought his mind back to him and he restored him. And
verse 34, Daniel 4 verse 34, it says, at the end of the days,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine
understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever. whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. That includes me. And he doeth
according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth, And none can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? None, no person, no thing, no
thing. Our Lord was standing on the
bow of a ship one time in a great storm. And the scripture says
his disciples, he was asleep actually, and the disciples thought
they were sailors, that they knew they were gonna sink. So
this was quite a storm. And they woke him up and they
said, don't you care that we're about to die? And he walked up
to the bow of that ship and he rebuked the storm and he cried,
peace, be still. And it says immediately, I mean,
you can imagine this massive storm. It says there was a great
calm. It's not like the storm went
away. There was immediately a great calm. And every person that saw
it said, What manner of man is this that even the wind and the
sea obey him? I'll tell you what manner of
man this is. This man is over all. This man is over all. He is over
everything. People see this. We read scriptures
like this, and they see this in the Word, especially in the
Old Testament, and this is what they say. Well, yeah, but that's
talking about God. Well, who do we think Jesus Christ
is? Don't turn back, but our text
says He is over all God. Isaiah 714 says, Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. Isaiah 9-6 says, For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor the Mighty God. That little baby that was born.
THE MIGHTY GOD. This is what His name will be
called. The verse goes on to say, THE EVERLASTING FATHER. What should we call that little
baby? His name is THE EVERLASTING FATHER. THE PRINCE OF PEACE. All of the Godhead is in the
body of that little infant. The whole Godhead. John 1 verse
1 says, IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD. The Word was with God. The Word was God. All things
were made by Him. Talking about Christ, the Word.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. He was the one, Genesis 1-1,
in the beginning. He was the one, Christ. He said,
before Abraham was, I am. He always is. He said, I am. The disciples said, Lord, show
us the father. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the father. Have I been so long time with you and yet
has thou not known me? In Hebrews one, the father said
to the son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. All of those
verses plainly tell us that Jesus Christ is God. But none of them
more plainly than this one, all right? Turn with me to 1 John
5. 1 John 5. First John 5, verse 20, it says, And we know
that the Son of God is come. And let me just interject this
while we're here. There's a verse in this very
chapter, verse 7, it says, There are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, which is Christ, and the Holy
Ghost. People think of the Father, Son, and Spirit vertically, just
like, you know, father, son, and offspring, but it's not. It's not even horizontally, it's
just one entity. We call our Lord the Son of God,
and that makes the mind sound like he is the Son of the Father. He's the Son of God. But it would make more sense
to us if we would call him the Son of God, and call the Father
the Father of God, and call the Spirit the Spirit of God. Because
God is three, there are three that bear record. God is three
persons. There's only one God. And you
can see all three persons in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you look at Christ, you
see the Father. There is a Father. The Father
of God. And there is a Son, the Son of
God. And there is a spirit, the spirit of God. These three are
one. So now with that being said,
verse 20 right here says, we know that the son of God is come
and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true. And we are in him that is true. Even in his son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. Now go with me back to Romans
9. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, verse 5 says, He is over
all, God, blessed forever. The Father said in Isaiah 42
verse 1 concerning Christ the Son, He said, Behold my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I've
put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. This is what the Father said,
I choose Him. I choose Him. Everybody wants to know, will
God choose me? Will God choose me? This is who the Father said
He chooses. I choose Him. The only way I can be chosen
is if I'm in Him. That's the only way. I must be
in Him. I must be chosen through Him. I must be chosen only because
of Him. Because I was found in His blood,
found in His body, in His work. And the Father chose Him. As
our Lord was coming up out of the water from being baptized,
it says the Spirit in glory and honor descended from heaven like
a dove and landed on Him. Him. And it says the Father in
glory and honor cried out for everybody to hear. This is my
beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. What he was saying is
I bless and I honor and I magnify Him. Who is blessed? Who is going to be worthy? Who's
going to be blessed forever? Him. All of God's people say,
not unto us, not unto us. It's him. It's him. I don't have time. I was going
to turn to Philippians 2, but we read this. We read that all
the time. It says, let this mind be in you that was in Christ.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. And the reason
is because he was God. But he made himself of no reputation,
and he took upon him the form of a servant, that substitution
work that we started out talking about. And being found in the
likeness of a man, he made himself obedient even unto death, the
death of the cross. And because of that, God the
Father had highly exalted him and honored him. and given Him
a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow in heaven, earth, and under the earth. And every
tongue is going to confess either in absolute glory and adoration
or in bitterness and sorrow, He is Lord. He is Lord. Every single knee will bow. The Father has highly exalted
and blessed and praised Him. In the middle of verse five right
here says, Christ came who is over all, God blessed forever,
amen. I love that word. There are some
wonderful amens in the scripture. Of Him, through Him, to Him are
all things, to whom be glory forever, amen. That's a good
one. Now unto the King, eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. That's a good one. There
are a lot of wonderful amens in the scripture. I'm going to
show you my favorite one though. We're going to close with this.
Go with me to Revelation 22. Revelation 22, verse 20, it says, He which testifieth
these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. That means so be it. That means
I want that. The response is, even so, come
Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. He's over all, God blessed
forever. That's who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.