Once again, we are in the Book
of Romans. And sometimes we're going to take sections of Romans
and look at it in a study sense. For instance, the first four
studies have been sections of the Scripture. This morning we're
going to pick up again where we left off last week, only we're
going to spend a little time just considering some statements
here made in verse 17. But I want to read, I want to
read verses 16 with it if you would. Romans chapter 1 verse
16, Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And
that was our subject last week, the gospel of Christ. He's not
ashamed to preach it. He's not ashamed to tell it over
and over and over again. This is what God's people need.
We need to hear our Lord's word and how everything provided for
us is provided by the one who has all power in heaven and earth.
I'm not ashamed, he says, of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power, the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein,
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. I want to talk to you this morning
about what we see here in verse 17, the righteousness of God
revealed, the righteousness of Christ. How is this righteousness
revealed? Now first off, what is the righteousness
of Christ? It's the blood of the holy creator
of all that is. The righteousness of Christ is
perfect righteousness. It's not something you and I
can imagine in our own minds because we're sinful from head
to toe. Everything about us, even our
best thoughts, are filled with sin. That was not so with Christ. He knew no sin. He would never
sin. He was perfect in every way.
He was the Holy Blood of God, the Holy One of Israel. This
righteousness is revealed to us that it is His righteousness.
It's the righteousness of the perfect Creator of everything
that was. And how is this righteousness
revealed? It's revealed to us by the Father. Our Lord said
in the book of John, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father
in heaven. It's not something, folks, we
can learn by sitting down and reading the Word of God, and
I'm not saying we shouldn't. That's not what I'm saying at
all. I'm saying that you can't just sit down and read the Word
of God and be saved. God the Spirit, God the Father,
must come and reveal His Son in truth and in spirit to the
spirit of His people. It's revealed from faith to faith.
What does that mean? That means that those who have
that God-given faith, first off, that faith is always in Christ
Jesus and Him alone. We have no confidence in this
flesh. There's no confidence in this
one who stands before you. Mike and I were talking about
that just a moment ago. He says, I hate being questionable
of some. I said, brother, you better be
questionable of me all the time. He goes, oh, well, I am of you.
Good. Good. You should be. Be as the
Bereans. Check the Word of God. Look into
the Word of God to make sure the man standing before you,
I don't care if it's Don Fortner, Gene Harmon, or John Reed, make
sure that it's in God's Word and that he's speaking of God's
grace to his people. Always. Face to face. When we go about our lives. Kevin and I were talking about
this earlier this morning. You know, we do grow in grace,
but that grace comes to us through the knowledge of who our Savior
is. We grow. That means we start a little
bit and we continue to get more. We get more of His grace to us. And when we see the wonderfulness,
the magnitude of our Savior's grace to us, we can't help but
be more gracious in the way we walk. There's a line, as Mike
and I were talking about, between grace and the responsibility
of man. And nobody, as I mentioned to
him, not even Don Fortner, not Henry Mahan, none of them can
tell you where that line is. But there is a line. Faith to
faith. How is this revealed from faith
to faith? I talk to you about the faith
that I have when I'm struggling with something that is burdened
on my life. And I know I don't share all
of it with you, but I share enough with you that I have burdens
too, just like all of us do. And when you share with me your
burdens, or with one of the brothers and sisters, your burdens, the
waves that are crashing against your boat as you go through this
world, we share each other's fate. I know how you feel. I know. I know what you're going
through. You're not in the boat alone.
Some of us have gone through things similar to what you're
going through. And we put these things at the
feet of our Savior. You know, our faith is in the
fact that this, this world, this valley of the shadow of death
that we walk through is troubled. All of us have our troubles. But we know our Lord works it
all out. We know that as we go through
this world of troubles, there's going to be a day that comes
where we're going to leave this world, and we're going to go
into eternity where there shall be no more tears, there shall
be no more sorrows, where we will stand in the presence of
our Lord and Savior forever. And some of us who are closer
to that door than others, we know this, and we look forward
to it. And I'm talking about my pastor, Pastor Gene and his
wife, Judy, waiting day by day. We're just waiting for the day,
John. We're just waiting for the day. Waiting for the Lord
to take us home. Today is the same as it was yesterday.
We're just waiting for the day. It says, the just shall live
by faith. I want to talk a little bit more
about that. Turn over to John 3.16 and let's
read some very familiar words. In John 3.16, we read these words,
For God so loved the world, for my Savior, His love for His
people, throughout all of time, throughout all of the time of
the world, sent Him to be our propitiation. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting
life. How can we not perish? How can we have everlasting life?
Because our Lord and Savior sent His Son to be our substitute. He spared not His own Son, but
sent Him to die on the cross for us. And we believe because
of Him. Look at verse 17. For God sent
not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is condemnation, that light is come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God, that they
are brought. My deeds, my deeds of faith, my expressions of faith are not
wrought within John Reeves. They're wrought within my Lord
and Savior who has begun a good work in me and will complete
it till the end. We trust in God, and that is
the basis for all of our needs and all of our thoughts. Now,
that does not give us a carte blanche to go and commit sin.
Many will say, John, you're opening the door for those to just go
about and sin willy-nilly, any way they want. I'm telling you,
God's people know that is not so. Our faith is a faith that is
received of God to trust Him through all of our good times
and troubled times. His promises are true and sure.
Yes, He has promised good to us, yet He also promises rough
times, times of trouble, times of trials. And Christ is the
victor over all of our trials. Death cannot take us. He has
conquered death by dying in our stead. Is that not what His Word
tells us? Henry Mahan wrote these words.
He says, here is the test. Everyone that loves and practices
evil hates the light, the truth of God, neither cometh to the
light. Why? Lest their deeds would be
shown and error and sin should be revealed and judged in them.
We were looking at the book of Mark on Friday night. And for
those of you who were able to join us, you'll recall the Lord
brought a parable. about a vineyard that he had
planted. And the day came when he left
the vineyard to some husbandmen, and then while he was away, he
sent some of his servants to go and collect the fruit of that
vineyard, and they beat him, and they sent him away. And several
times they beat others and threw rocks, and they actually killed
some. So finally the Lord sent the master, the head of the vineyard,
he sent back his son, his only begotten son, and they killed
him. Now, these Self-righteous, very religious people heard the
parable and they knew the Lord was speaking of them and what
they had done to the prophets. They knew that the Lord was speaking
of them. They were the ones who had all
of the oracles of God. God didn't send his oracles out
to the Gentiles until after Christ had come and been crucified. These men knew that God was talking
about them and what was their reaction to it? They wanted to
kill him. They wanted to hush him up. All
they could see was their accuser. That's what this is talking about,
what Henry Mann is talking about here. And sin should be revealed
and judged. That's what they were considering.
Christ was standing there judging their sin. This is why men, goes
on Henry, in the religious worldly, refuse the scriptures as they
are. God's Word condemns us. God's
Word convicts us. God's Word shuts us up to the
mercy of God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then on
the other hand, He that doeth truth, it says, which describes
what is the characteristic of every believer, they cometh to
the light. Henry says, note the present
tense. He comes again and again and again to the Word of God.
That's what we do as children of God. That's why we like to
come together on Sunday mornings. That's why we have such a joy
coming together on Friday nights and joining others on Wednesday
nights on the wonderful technology that God has given us. We love
to come to God over and over and over again to see His grace
in our lives, to learn of God and of Himself and His blessed
Redeemer. The believer finds his comfort,
his strength, his help, his directions and hope in exceeding great and
precious promises of the Word of God. Turn over to that 119th
Psalm, Psalms number 119. We're gonna look at several verses
in that to confirm what Henry just wrote. And I've gone through
this time and checked them. I apologize that I did not do
that the last time. I may have wrote down the wrong
verse on it. It might have been my fault.
But look at Psalms number 119. I'm going to look at several
sections of verse in the 119th Psalm. Beginning at verse 9. Psalms 119, beginning at verse
9. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought
thee, O Lord. O let me not wander from thy
commandments. And then verse 11, thy word have
I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. Now, this
is the child of God who reads the word of God and has been
given the faith of God to understand and believe God. We see the mercy
of God in his word, and it says, thy word have I hid in mine heart
that I might not sin against thee. See? We don't have a car block to
go out and send. Now, look over it, same thing, Psalms number
119, verses 17 and 18. Deal bountiful with thy servant
that I may live and do well. Keep thy word, that's our desire. What is our responsibility? I
can't tell you where that line is, but I can tell you the Lord
teaches it in every part of his scriptures. Deal bountifully with thy servant,
that I may live and keep thy word. That word keep means to
obey. Verse 18, open thou mine eyes,
that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Isn't that interesting,
Brother Mike, that we were talking about that this morning? And
here in this God's Word, we're looking right at these things,
aren't we? Look over it, Psalms number 119,
verse 49 and 50. Remember the word unto thy servant
upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort and
my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. One more, if you
would, over verse 103 to 105. Verse 103 to 105. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through thy precepts,
through thy teachings, I get understanding, therefore I hate
every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. and a light unto my path. Now, one more if you would, and
we'll come to a close. Turn over to Galatians chapter
2. Galatians chapter 2. Look with me if you would, verse
20. Paul, writing under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. Let's begin at verse 19. For I through the law am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. And then here in verse
20 we read these words. I am crucified with Christ, Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. The just shall live by faith. It's pretty hard to picture ourselves
as the just, isn't it? But I know that deep down in
every child of God, we know that that is true because that's what
God's Word says. If I look at the mirror, I see
a very unjust, very sinful man. But when I stop looking at the
mirror and I look to my Savior, I remember what He has told me.
All of my iniquity, He has taken upon Himself, buried it with
Himself when He went to the cross and was buried. And now He has
arisen, sitting on His throne, victor even over my faith. Amen.