If you will, to Romans chapter
15. We're going to have two texts tonight we're going to look at.
Romans 15 and Psalm 40. We're going to look at Romans
15 first. And as my pastor always told
me, I want to help you if you'll let me. I hope that wasn't earmuffs
for a bunch of people. I want to help you if you'll
let me. I think the Lord showed me something
in this today. I've been carrying this around
for a week and a half. I had a message ready last Wednesday
in the same area. But I want to give it to you
the way I got it, and at the end it'll make sense. We're going
to start in Romans. I'm going to preach out of Psalm
40, and then we're going to touch back on Romans before we go home. Here in verse 30, Romans 15,
30. Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake,
and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with
me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from
them that do not believe in Judea, and that my service My preaching,
my message that I've got sent to do, my ministry, which I have
for Jerusalem, may be accepted of the saints." Paul said, you
pray for me. Troubled times are coming to
Paul. Paul's about to preach to some saints, and he's about
to preach to some big old high-minded giraffes up there in Jerusalem.
Boy, they know a whole lot, and they ain't believing. They're
just going to beat him up. They're going to chide him. They're
going to pick on him and wrassle him and say, let's talk about
this. Well, I just don't think this is right. They're going
to wear him out. He tells these brethren, beloved
of the Lord, he said, you pray with me. I'm praying for myself. Lord, keep me. Deliver me for
them people. Was it that Paul didn't like
preaching? Do you think that's why he dreaded going back to
those Jews that he'd known his whole life? Maybe some of them
still didn't hate him. Maybe some of them didn't call
him Saul no more. They said, well, we'll call him Paul for a little bit
and see how that works out. Why would he hate preaching to
them? He didn't hate preaching to everybody,
did he? Look down in verse 15. Romans 15, 15. Nevertheless,
brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some
sort as putting you in mind because of the grace that is given to
me of God. God gave me a great grace. Here's
what it is. That I should be the minister
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God.
Oh, Paul got a minister to the Gentiles. Now you hit the pause
button and you think about that for a good long while. Here is
this learned man. Oh, I know so much. I can quote
so much scripture. I know the law. I know Moses.
I know them first five books of the Bible like you wouldn't
believe. Gentile dogs. They ain't got
a law. They ain't got a tablet. They
ain't got a tabernacle. They ain't got nothing. And he says,
it's the grace of God. I get to go preach to the Gentiles.
He says that more than once, don't he? Why would Paul be so
happy about that? Why would he be so happy to preach
the gospel of Christ as a saver of life unto life unto those
folks that are just dirty old sinners? Didn't have no holiness
of their own, because that's what it was. It was a saver of
life unto life. Paul said something, and them
eyes perked up a little bit. A tear was shed. An arrow went
into the heart. God did it. And they said, that's
my God. What you said is true. You're
a man of God. And that's who I believe. And why would he hate
to preach to those learned, those ones that feed on the higher
doctrines, those knowledgeable ones, those Jews in Jerusalem?
The gospel is a saver of death unto death to those that already
have their own righteousness, to those that's justified themselves,
that don't need God. I do it on my own. God says that's a saver of death
unto death. They're going to hate it. Ever
learning and never able to come to the truth. What's the truth
in Scriptures? Christ. I can tell you all about Christ. I
can tell you how tall He was. I can tell you what He looked
like. I can tell you that city refuge. I can paint you a picture of
every brick on the wall. That ain't going into it. A saver
of death unto death. That's the most frightening thing
I've read in a long time. Ever learning and never coming to
Christ. Those that can tune their own ears. I know what to listen to. I'm
strong. I'm big. I decided I wanted to start listening to this. That
sounded better. That sounded more logical. I
figured this out. You didn't tune your own ears.
Savor of death unto death. What kind of gospel could Paul
preach of this service, of this message that he preached? Not
wearing a tie. He probably didn't have a haircut.
He had shaved real fresh in a certain spot. What kind of gospel could
he preach that would cut somebody down to nothing and make them
humble? And say, that's my God. Lord,
if you will, you could save me. And what's the same thing he
preached? Out of the same mouth, the same words that say, I won't
have it. You hush. You don't know nothing.
Some hillbilly down here talking to us. Some Saul, that's all
you are. What can he preach? Look here
in verse 18 and 19. Romans 15, verse 18. Through
mighty signs and wonders, but by the power of the Spirit of
God, so that from Jerusalem and round about unto Lycium, I have
fully preached the gospel of Christ. I have fully preached
the gospel of Christ. What did Paul preach that those
Gentiles just loved? They couldn't get enough of.
They was hungry and they come to mealtime. and that those Jews
absolutely could not stand. Those that had their own righteousness
could not stand. It was the full gospel of Christ. I want to ask
you something. What is it when someone fully
preaches the gospel of Christ? Were we saved under the full
gospel of Christ? Is that what we were hearing
when God saved us? If you were saved, that's what you were hearing.
Could God save somebody under a false gospel? He said, I ain't
going to do it. He said, they won't benefit my
people because I didn't send them. That ain't how He saves
a man. He saves them by the truth of preaching, the foolishness
of preaching, the full gospel of Christ. It's not another. It's not another gospel. It's
not close. So many so-called Christian soldiers,
they want people to preach. Do you preach the full gospel
down there, pastor? Notice it's not the full gospel
of Christ they ask for, is it? He preached the full gospel.
And every time someone's told me that, every time someone comes
up and says, well, now, do you know the full gospel? There's
one spoke in that wheel that they're wanting to hear. I want
to hear something about baptism. I want to hear something about
tongues, about the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit preaching. I want
to hear something about Sabbath. Oh, there's something about Sabbath.
I want to hear about Sabbath. Morality. Boy, that's a big one.
You have holy living down there? You fully live according to God's
word? I can train a dog to bark every
time it hears solas. I can train a dog to bark every
time I said one of the five points of Calvinism, couldn't I? I can
train it to bark every time I said Spurgeon. And you think that
dog knows what he's barking for, Nicky? He's just barking for
a treat, ain't he? They don't care about what word
you say. They just say, that's the word that people like. I'm
going to nod my head and shake hands. Do you and I care about the full
gospel of Christ? You listening to me? Do you know
what the full gospel of Christ is? Do we want to hear the fullness
of God's gospel preached to us? Or can you stand on something
else? Oh, I take that. That's my Christian brethren.
I don't think so. If they believe something else,
they ain't your brethren under God. What do you think the full
gospel is? I hope he's penetrating the question.
What do I think the full gospel of Christ is? What you think
and what I think don't matter. It does not matter what any one
of us think. It doesn't matter what a man thinks of God a long,
long time ago. It doesn't matter what the commentators
say, what the preacher in the last generation says. You know
what so-and-so says? It don't matter what they say.
What matters is what God says about fully preaching the gospel
of Christ, His Christ. That's the only thing that matters.
I'm going to have a verdict today. I'm preaching for a verdict.
That's what I'm preaching for. If God will enable you to stay
with me, you'll walk out of here one of two ways. You'll walk
out in that parking lot and you'll say, that's it. That is the message
of salvation. If a sinner is going to go be
with Christ and be made like Him one day, that's how it's
going to happen right there. That's it. Or you're going to walk out
of here being ignorant of God's grace. Well, I don't think he
covered all that well. Go home and check my notes. I'm
going to take some notes. God help us to listen. God bless His Word to our ears
and our hearts tonight. Let's look at what this fully
preaching the Gospel of Christ is. Turn over to Psalm 40. This
is a messianic psalm. They all are. David wrote it. These are David's words. But
David wasn't just made a king by God, he was God's prophet
too, after his own heart. There's a man after my own heart.
I would have said that twice about David. We probably ought
to pay attention to him, huh? The holy God purposed to save a people
long ago, before this earth was made. How He did it, the work
of doing that, is unimaginable to me and you. Man cannot fully
enter into how God performed all of this, and His providence,
and His power, and His purpose of saving His people. We know
it's His purpose, but we can't enter into it. The love of that
purpose, the love that motivated the purpose of God to save a
people, His work towards His elect, it's immeasurable. God
is loving. We don't know what that means.
We can't enter into it. We may have a taste of it. We
may have a glimpse of it, but we can't fully enter into it.
Look here in Psalm 40, verse 5. Many, O Lord my God, are Thy
wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which
are to usward. That's me and you. You that know the Lord. He's
thought of us. That's something. They cannot
be reckoned up in order unto Thee. They can't be counted.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can
be numbered." Some people may say of a preacher, he's not that
good, of a gospel preacher. A man that don't give poison,
he gives the bread of living life. He's not that good. He's not that thorough. He's
not easy to follow. Who can preach the fullness of
the Lord's covenant of grace towards His sheep? Can you? Can't
be numbered? Can you? Can't be reckoned? Who's sufficient for these things?
People say, well, count your blessings. You're going to be
tied up for a long while if the Holy Spirit's given you a new
heart and eyes to see Him, eyes to see Christ. You're going to
be busy. All that was done for His chosen
people and all that love toward us in His power, all of that
is not because of something in the person. It's not because
of something in the center. You choosing, you doing, you exerting
any energy whatsoever. It wasn't out of doing. The Holy
Ghost moved on us and gave us life, gave us ears to hear, eyes
to see Him. When that happens, you can say
for the first time truly that you can hear salvations of the
Lord. The Lord opens them ears up,
gives you a new heart and you hear salvations of the Lord.
That's right. 100%. What's that mean? It's all of
Him. We can talk about it for eons,
couldn't we? We will be. Verse 6. Sacrifice an offering
thou did not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. He's the one
that did it. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. We must have some sin if we've
got to give a sin offering. Well, that ain't even required
either, is it? What will the Holy God that we offended accept? What will He take? We were told
in the whole Old Testament, all of it points to the sacrifice
that was acceptable. The Lamb of God was satisfied,
satisfied with blood and truly covered our sins on that mercy
seat. Not just as a picture, but in our hearts. Not just a
ceremony, not just a type. That's what had to happen. All
those spotless lambs, everyone I'm pointing to, THE spotless
lamb, Christ our Lord. That's what the Lord accepts.
Look in verse 7. This is our Lord speaking here. This is Christ
speaking. How do we know that? Paul told us in Hebrews 10. You
can read all about it. Psalm 40, verse 7. Dan said,
I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. He came to honor the Father,
to uphold His glory and His holiness. He did. He did. He came to save His people from
their sins. He did. He came to fulfill all
the Law and the Prophets. He did. It's done. He came to
finish the will of the Father. He came to ratify His Lordship. The Crown Rights of the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And that is proven that He did
by where He is now. Seated on His throne forever.
In the Old Testament, This acceptable, bloody sacrifice, this spotless
Lamb, this Messiah, was coming. All throughout the Gospels, the
God-Man, here He is. This is Him, He's here, this
is what He did, this is what He said, this is what He preached.
The Epistles, He's coming again. He's coming two-fold again. To
His people, those putting Him before the foundation of the
world, purposed by the Father, He's coming to His people. They're
going to hear Him. They're going to follow Him.
They're going to love Him. They're going to love their brethren.
God said so. Next Sunday evening, we might
be in 1 Thessalonians 1. Am I the elect of God? Paul lays it out
pretty plain, about six or seven different things here, what one
looks like. He came, He lived, He died, He
was buried, and He rose again for His sheep, and He did it
willingly. He did it willingly. Look here in verse 8. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. The law is written within my
heart. He was a servant of the law for
his people. The profitable servant. The good
and faithful servant for every bit of the law. The moral law. The Mosaic law. The Levitical
law. The precepts. Precept upon precept. That was
Him. It was written in it for His
people. Not for everybody, for His people. And it has been fulfilled. Do you know how we know that?
Is that something new? You read the first five books of the Bible.
That's Moses, right? That's the Torah. All about Moses. Picture the law. We get to the
sixth book of the Bible, Joshua. Joshua is the same name as Jesus.
He shall save his people. And you know what it says? Now
after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord came to pass,
that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister,
he served the law. He served the law saying, Moses
my servant is dead. Those that just love the law.
I hate to tell you a long time ago, that law was dead in Joshua
Christ our Savior. It was fulfilled whenever he
went into that covenant of grace before time. We honor it. We love his law. It's written
on our hearts too, isn't it? Because that's what he come to
fulfill. That's why we love it. He says, Boaz, my servant is
dead now, therefore arise, go over this Jordan. Thou and all
this people unto the land which I do give thee, even to the children
of Israel." Right there is the whole story of salvation and
the promise of God and the children of God going to glory in two
paragraphs. Ain't that something? Two sentences.
Verse 5 through 8 there, this is what happened before you and
I were born. A purpose and a covenant. Psalm 40, verse 5, Many, O LORD
my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy
thoughts which are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required? Then said
I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of
me. I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is written
within my heart." A good friend of mine, we talked last week
about preaching and teaching. There's a Bible study and preaching. We talked for a good long while
about it. And he got up Sunday and he preached about teaching
on preaching and teaching. I can't describe it. It was fabulous. What I just told you I've been
teaching. It's in my job description. That's all right. It ain't gonna
hurt nothing. I'm supposed to be here. I'm supposed to teach
you some things. What about this preaching? What about this preaching? I've told you a whole bunch of
facts right now. I could write these on a dead door and that
door is going to hold them up until it falls over. These are
truths. What about the preaching? Six
things. I've got six points and I'll
go fast. I won't keep you long. Six things and then we're going
to see the result of those six things of preaching the whole
full gospel of Christ and then we're going to see what it does
inside of a person. This is simple. It's simple. You've got a country bumpkin
in front of you telling you six simple things about the full
gospel of Christ. Don't let that offend you. Don't
let that plug your ears. Paul said, I fear, lest by any
means as the serpent beguile Eve through his subtleties, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. Well, now you've got to understand
some things. No, it's pretty simple. There's a simplicity
in Christ. Verses 9 and 10 is Christ speaking
to His Father. Telling him what he preached
on this earth and what he preached to the hearts of his children
through God the Holy Ghost. Do you want to hear the full
gospel of Christ? From Christ? Say what Kevin Thacker thinks. Say what John Gill thinks. Here's
what Christ taught to His Father, His holy communication. First
and foremost, here's the first thing, verse 9, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. What's the first thing our Lord
tells the Lord that He preached? God is holy. God is holy. All of his righteous acts are
because of the product of his holy nature. That's what righteousness
is. What he does is right. He doesn't do what's right. God
does it. It's right. An unclean thing
cannot be in his presence. He's holy. The holy, unapproachable
God is who He preached. His righteousness is what Christ
preached. Everything about Him is holy. You know it says, these
are my holy angels. His holy temple. His holy tabernacle. The holy is in the tabernacle.
His kingdom is holy. This is His holy scriptures right
in front of us. The holy Bible. His holy throne
above. God is holy. He's holy. That's what it says in verse
10, isn't it? It says, He's not been hiding
thy righteousness. But up in verse 9 it says, I
have preached righteousness. God has His own holiness, His
own righteousness, but for His people. Through Christ being
made sin, that's a noun, Kevin Thacker's a noun. From him being
made me, to Christ being made sin, we are made the righteousness
of God in him. That's immeasurable. That's innumerable. Can you reckon that? Can you
tally that up? The blessings and the benefits
and the holiness of that? Can't do it, can you? And this
is not hid. That's a thank you Sunday for
preaching to me, Bob. You taught me some things and
you preached to me. If somebody, God opens their eyes up and they
say, God's holy, that ain't hid in a napkin. It's not taken by
myself. I'm going to fold it up, cover
it, I'm going to hunk over it, and I'm going to go run to the hills
and hide out until the Lord comes back. That ain't what happens. Christ said it wasn't hidden
in Him. Are we going to be made like Christ? If God made you righteousness,
you will follow Him, and it's going to come out of you. You're
going to tell people about it. You won't be able to stand it
if you're a new creature. If we're going to preach the
full gospel of Christ, we're going to tell about thy righteousness,
the Lord's righteousness, and how sinners are made righteous,
that we don't have our own. We need His. And we're going
to take a lot of preaching to cover that, isn't it? We're going
to get that done in one message. We never will cover it. Second,
what else is preached? Verse 10, I have not hid thy
righteousness within my heart, I have declared thy faithfulness. Faithfulness. God is faithful
to His people. He said, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. I am always with you. He's faithful
to comfort us, isn't He? He's faithful to come to us and
say His first thing in a big old trial, fear not, it is I. And He doesn't change. That's
how faithful He is. For I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, because He doesn't change, because of His faithfulness
and His holiness, His righteousness, therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Is that your God? It's the God of the Bible. He's
not dependent on man. He's not wishy-washy. The Hebrew writer said, Jesus
crossed the same yesterday, today, and forever. There's not an Old
Testament God and a New Testament God. He's the same forever. And the gifts He gives to His
people, His faith to them, not something they muster up, His
faith that He gives, He ain't going to take that back. Ain't
that a good thing? You ever been given something
and you think, well, this is mine now. And then somebody comes and says,
give me that back. I changed my mind. Even if I didn't like
it, I kind of like it then, don't I? I don't know if I want it,
but I want to keep it. For the gifts and calling of
God are without repentance. When the faithful God, the one
who is faithful, not me and you, that ain't us, that ain't from
us, when He gives us His faith, the faith of Christ, it is not
returned. That gift of faith is not returned.
It can't be refused. It can't be resisted. That gracious
gift of faith is given. And you're going to keep it forever.
And if you get it, ain't nobody going to be mad about it. You'll
be just fine. You'll be tickled to death. Be
thanking the Lord. It's that Walmart type of saving
faith where it's freely given to a person. And you can take
it back and have a return department if you don't like it. It came
at too dear a price. Too dear a price. The triune
God is faithful to His people, but what a blessing He is faithful
to Himself. He's righteous and He gives us
His righteousness. He is faithful and He's faithful
to us to give us faith, but He's faithful to Himself. He honored
His own holiness for His namesake. Christ was faithful to the Father.
How? By being our substitute. That
protected His namesake. By Christ dying on the cross,
God was just, and at the same time, He's the one that justifies.
He remained holy and was merciful. Something happened this week,
and I have a child that was going to receive a reward, and they
didn't do what they were supposed to do. And then they went above
and beyond to get where they were supposed to be on that level
to get what I told them. But they still ain't made it
all the way. Inside of my heart, I'm like, child, you worked hard. I want to give you what I promised
you. You've earned it. Fully, you've earned it. I want
to be merciful. You know why? There's a God that was merciful
to me. Gave me something I didn't earn,
didn't deserve. But at the same time, I live
in this world, don't I? My citizenship is in heaven.
But my body is right here. I'm still a dad, and I want my
word to be true. I told you I'm going to stand
up to what I say. If it comes out of my mouth, you can count
on it, right? Well, I'm kind of in a quandary,
ain't I? I want to show mercy, and I want
to remain just. I was walking up and down my
driveway the other day when this hit me. I about started bawling, and
I was telling my friend about this more, and I was crying again.
Out of love, I want to be merciful and I want to be just. I cannot
be both. God is. Through Christ. He is the just and the justifier.
We can't enter into that. That's innumerable. That's unmeasurable. And that's what saves sinners.
That's how we're saved. David wrote to us in Psalm 85,
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where did that happen? At the
cross of Calvary, that's where it happened. There was a substitution. That ain't possible with man.
It is with God. There in verse 10, I have not
hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy
faithfulness. Christ preached. The apostles
preached. Prophets preached. God preaches
in this day through His preachers that God is faithful. He's holy
and He's faithful. Not man's doing, not our strong
faith. It's God who's faithful. He's the object of our faith.
Now thirdly, it says in verse 10, I have not hid thy righteousness
in my heart, I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.
Salvation is the workmanship of God in His people, for His
people, and for His glory. Jonah learned this, didn't he?
I have no interest in being put inside the belly of a whale.
But if you come out of that whale knowing salvations of the Lord,
you'll be real thankful for that whale. You won't want to go back
in it, but you'll be thankful for that whale. We read so often,
for whom he did foreknow, he also did did predestinate. That's why we got to quit having
these smorgasbords and start taking smaller bites. It'll do us good.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of the Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate. Did. Then he also called. In whom he called. They're already
called. Then he also justified. In whom
he justified. He says he'll justify, folks.
He justified them. and justified, to them be also
glorified." If that God is for you, ain't nobody can be against
you. And if that God ain't for you, ain't nobody can help you.
From the conception of this thought of salvation, when the Lord said,
I'm going to make a covenant with my son, I'm going to make
a whole mess of people just like him. From the ordering of all
things for that to happen, to the saving of them, to the preserving
of them, and to the culmination of us actually going home to
glory. Salvation is of the Lord. It is by salvation. I ain't got a dog in this fight.
I'm just the benefactor. This world has things backwards,
don't it? You need to do something for
God and He will save you. That's a false gospel. That is
wrong. God needs to do something for
you, and then you're saved. Alright, fourthly, verse 10.
Christ preached thy righteousness within his heart. I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness. If the Holy Spirit has given
you life, you will be moved by this. The lovingkindness in the
Father's purpose of saving a people. If that don't melt you, nothing
will. If He shows you you're a sinner, not that you got some
bad stuff. I mean it's your sin. God defied
the purpose to love you before time, save you. Boy, that'll
make your knees weak. He loved His people. That love in the Son's person
and work. His attitude of love walking this earth. His accomplishment
of laying down His life for His friends. That's true love, isn't
it? What love? The loving kindness
of the Holy Ghost. Coming to us. Showing us what
we are. Convicting us. We're sin. What about that righteousness? Christ is the righteousness.
I got to do something else? It's done. Judgment's accomplished. There's therefore now no condemnation. Right now. I'm fully equipped
from the second we are given life to there's Christ. You can
die right then and you're going to be in glory forever. You are
fully qualified to enter the presence of a holy God. The Holy Spirit came and told
me about that. He abounded toward me. He formed and tackled me
in His heart and did a work in me. It's just like a can of soda. Shake it up. It's going to come
out if you open it. Let me open my mouth. I'm going to tell you
about it if I can. And the love we now have from
this new birth, we possess. Possess it right now. My Lord
ain't here for me to hug. The closest thing I have to Christ
on this earth is my brethren. Him dwelling in you. I love my
brethren. I appreciate my brethren. I like
to be around my brethren. My Lord dwells in me. That's
Christ. Christ in you. Somebody don't
want to be around their brethren. They probably don't like Him. Love and kindness. It'll touch
you. I'm declaring to you what the full gospel is. The full
good news. of Christ, the full gospel of
Christ. What does that culminate in? What's the climax of that?
Fifthly, verse 9, I have preached the righteousness of the great
congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou
knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.
I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great
congregation. I am the way and the what? The truth and the life. And no man come to follow except
by Him. The fullness of the gospel of
Christ is the fullness of the Godhead in a body. It's in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Explain that. I believe it. I believe it. It's the person and work of Christ. That is simple. God wanted to
make a whole mass of people just like His Son. And in perfect
holiness, He was faithful to save them to the uttermost. Remaining
holy and just the whole time ever been. That's a perfect act
of love. And it's all Christ. That's where
it all took place. All hinges on Him. That's how
we are preserved too. Did you know that? That needs
preached, don't it? This ain't just something written
on a wall somewhere. We go take a picture of it and we see it,
but we don't enter into it. We are preserved forever through
Him that sanctified us. Look here, 6th verse 11. Withhold thou, not thou, thy
tender mercies from me, O Lord. There's prayer. You're going
to start praying. The Lord will come to Ananias
and say, hey, you go down there to Saul of Tarsus and you go
preach to him. I've called him. He said, I know about him. He's
infamous. I don't want to go down there.
He said, he's mine. You'll know it's him. He's praying.
Now we'll start praying out to the God, not a God, the God. Withhold not thou thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually Preserve me. The love of God in Christ is
what eternally reserves sinners saved by grace. Not us, Him. His loving kindness, His love,
and His truth, Himself. Back in Romans 15, you ain't
got to turn there, but Paul's saying that he fully preached
the gospel of Christ. That's what he told them. This
is what he's talking about. Exactly what Christ preached.
Christ came to this earth and he preached Christ. The Gentiles,
those filthy people. Harlots. That sounds like it
would come out of a Disney movie nowadays, don't it? That's a
bad word. Prostitutes. Fishermen. People that smell
bad. Thieves. Murderers. Bad folks. He preached this to them. And
you know what? That was good news. That was glad tidings to
some poor old Gentile. To a sinner. You'd find one of
them. There's a whole mess of people
who know a lot about sin, and they ain't a sinner. God's got to
come to them. I can shoot barbed arrows into
a dead man all day long and he won't flinch. A tear won't come
out of his eye, he's dead. God has to come to them and give
them life. Then there'll be some tears flowing.
The reprobate don't care. Just them Gentiles, just them
poor old sinners. Oh, they love it. Paul said,
oh, what grace the Lord gave me to go preach to Gentiles.
Keep me out of it. I don't want to go over there.
I don't want to go there either. If I got an opportunity to go preach
at a prison or up at one of them big theological seminaries or
something like that, I don't want to go to prison every day
of the week. How does a child of God respond
to this preaching? Not teaching, the preaching of
Christ and Him crucified, of His righteousness, His faithfulness,
His salvation, His love, His love, and it's all wrapped up
in Christ. He's ever been. How do they respond?
What happens when this is declared in the heart I talked to my brother
John Reeves this morning. I texted him. I said, if you
get time, I need to preach something to you. And so I preached every
bit of this in 15 minutes to him, as fast as I could talk.
And I said, now here's where I started. I've got to show them
where I started. This is where the goal came to me. How am I
going to wrap this up? And I was so focused on the preaching,
and he just said, Kevin's right there in the next verses. It's almost like I needed my
brethren. Look here at verse 12. Here's the result of this
preaching. The fully preaching Christ and
Him crucified. Verse 12. For innumerable evils
have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken a
hold upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more
than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth.
There's going to be a conviction of sin. Not pretend. It's going to be
real. And then there's going to be
a crying and begging for mercy. Verse 13, Be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me, O Lord. Thou make haste to help me. What's he saying? That's just
like that one leopard did, isn't it? Lord, if thou wilt, you're
holy. It's up to you. You're the one
that's faithful. You're the one that's able. You're
the one that salvation is. If you're willing, if it pleases
you, Lord, you can make me whole. if thou wilt." Do we bow to the
person of Christ? Him preaching Christ in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit. Do we bow to that? Or do we find
something else to do? Can we feed on that and feed
on something else? Or do we have to have Him and
Him alone? Do we fully need Christ? Or we... I need some help. Do you need
saved or do you need help? Like Paul, let's both pray that
I be delivered from the troublesome people that buy, and devour,
and divide, and nag, and carry on, and want to debate, and everything
else. I pray I don't have to put up with that. You pray with
me. And pray that I can preach the
full gospel of Christ unwaveringly. Not just read something out of
a piece of paper. Like it's just dead words laying
on a page. But to tell it to men and women
faithfully. Keep me faithful. And that will
be a blessing to the saints. Bless his saints. I hope it's
a blessing to you. Let's pray together.