Go back to Romans 1 with me. Romans 1. Paul said in Romans 11, Behold the
goodness and severity of the Lord. God's people understand that.
That God is both holy and merciful. Mercy and truth met together. Righteousness and peace kissed
each other. We understand that now, in Christ. The world doesn't believe these
things. The title of this message, verse
7, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, to the beloved saints
of God, this is written in God's people. Over in Romans 8, we love Romans
8. And we know. We know. It's written to the
saints. Those who have been given an
understanding of who God is and what man is and what sin is and
what salvation is. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. Called according to
His purpose. For whom He did foreknow. See,
that's where the gospel started in. God set His love on. Whom
He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be His people, to be conformed
to His image. Be holy, unblame one like Him.
That's what salvation's all about. Save us from sin. Whom He did
predestinate, He called. Called by this gospel. What I'm
doing right now. And He called, He justified. How? Believe it. I believe. They'll
be justified and glorified. They've seen His glory and they're
going to be with Him in glory. Isn't that wonderful? That's
not to everybody. That's to the saints. Look at
it, verses 1 through 7. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
and I hope I am. I hope you are. Called an apostle. Separated under the gospel of
God. That's how you know the apostles. That's how you know
a preacher. He's sold out to the gospel. He does one thing.
Preacher of the gospel does what's he do? He preaches the gospel.
What's the gospel? Verse 2 and 3, he promised by
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ.
This is the gospel concerning Jesus Christ. The good news is,
let's start with the good news, shall we? Let's declare the end
from the beginning. The gospel is concerning Jesus
Christ. It's something that God gave
him to do for people who could not do it. Come save his people
from sin. They can't do it. They can't
do it. In fact, they love sin. You've got to save them from
that. He's got to do it. He's the only one who can. So
God sent his son. It's concerning him. The gospel
doesn't concern what we do with Jesus. The gospel doesn't concern
you. It's what he did concerns you,
but it's not up to you. That's what he's saying. This
gospel is concerning Jesus Christ. It's all up to him. If he did
it, God's people are saved. Did he? What'd he say? John is
preaching from John 17. And it begins, starting in the
very beginning, Christ said, I have finished the work you
gave me to do. He hadn't gone to the cross yet.
But yet he said, it's finished. And when God purposed all this,
and we did 4 and O, he predestinated, predestinated. It was as good
as done. No one can stop it. No one can
thwart Christ. He was made a man, verse 3, seed
of David according to the flesh. Why David? King. He was born
a king. But he was king before he got
here. But he's king of king. David said, here's what Christ
said. Why did David say, the Lord said
unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand? On the throne. Who's David speaking? Whose son?
What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Son of David?
Yes, but he was long before David, wasn't he? David called him Lord. Son of man? Oh, my. Long before he became a man.
Son of God. God manifested the flesh. Verse
4. I may not get past. Verse 7. It's all right. This is good news. This is the
gospel. He's declared to be the Son of God with power. How do
we know that Jesus Christ is God? How do we know? He has power.
What kind of power? Over all flesh. over devils,
they bowed down to Him. Every knee will. Every tongue
will confess that He's Lord, the glory of the Father. Lord
over the elements, Lord over the animals, Lord over men, Lord
over them all when He came here. Power over all. And read on. It says, by the Spirit of holiness,
only man without sin. He said one time, someone convince
me, convict me of one sin. Somebody find one flaw in me. Somebody. He faced Satan. Find something wrong with me. Kelly, that's our captain. That's
like David standing before Goliath. And the people said, whoever
wins, if Goliath wins, we're goners. If David wins, we're
saved. And this is our captain. He came
to take his head off. He did. Spirit of holiness. And by the resurrection from
the dead, how do we know that that man, Jesus, is God? Because he said, nobody takes
my life from me. Nobody can kill me. What if I
said that? What if I said that? Nobody can
kill me. I'd defy anybody to try to kill
me. He'd laugh at me. Patrick, he said that. Many times
they would grab him. They'd try to throw him. He'd
just pass right through. Nobody. He said, no man taketh
my life from me. He said, I lay it down. And he said, when it's time,
I'll take it up again. Hell and hope. Jesus Christ is
God. In Him is life. He said, I can
lay it down. I can take it back up. And I'll
kill you. I'll make you alive. This is
God. He's declared to be the Son of
God with power. Now that's power isn't it? Power of life and death
is only in the hands of God. That's Jesus Christ. See why
you need to look to Him? See why you need to believe Him?
He said, I am come that they might have what? He said, he
that liveth and believeth in me will never die. Do you believe
that? A man just texted me this morning
and said, I don't believe. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wait a minute. I said, wait a minute. What are you talking about? What
do you mean you don't believe? He said, do you believe that
Christ came into the world to save sinners? He said, I believe
that. I said, do you believe He did what He came to do? He
said, oh yeah, I believe that. I said, what don't you believe? Well,
I believe that I'm... Hold on a minute. He doesn't
say that. He said, he that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
that believeth Him. It ain't concerning you. Isn't that good news? Oh, I believe Him, but I believe
I'm the worst. Well, did you hear what I said?
What Paul said? This is a faithful saying. It's
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Even the chief. Paul said, I'm
a pattern. Didn't Paul say it? I'm the worst.
I was a persecutor, an injurious, a blasphemer. But I obtained
what? What is salvation? How are we
saved? Mercy. How many times does it say that,
Kelly, in Psalm 1? Come on, we're supposed to remember.
126? 26 times? Let's go on. Or do you want to
go on? You want to stay right there? In fact, verse 5, By whom we
have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among
all nations for his name. We receive grace, this gospel
of grace. The messengers are of it. Among
whom, verse six, are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. You
know who God saves. It's O.C. Fournoon, predestinated,
called by the gospel of Jesus Christ. What I just tried to
tell you in a few verses is the gospel. Christ came to save sinners. Are you a sinner? Oh, yes, I
am. There was a time you didn't think
you were. You know why the world doesn't need this gospel? They
don't need saving. Saved from what? They don't believe
there's sin. These things we're going to look
at, maybe. They don't believe those are simple. You can do
whatever you want to. God's not that way. I know it
says that here, but we don't believe that God. Right? We don't need saving. I'm okay,
you're okay, we're all good. No, no, no, that's not what this
is. It doesn't. Here's the thing. Any variation
from what we're reading is to call Jesus Christ a liar. It's
to call God a liar. It's to say, I believe man is
true, but God's a liar. What do we believe? God's true
and every man is not. The only man that's not a liar
is him that does say the law. All right, verse 7, it's all
that be in Rome. Rome, we live in Rome, don't
we? Yes, we do. Have you ever been to Washington,
D.C.? Did it strike you, the architecture of Washington, D.C.?
Have you ever been to Rome? It's identical. It's identical. They patterned that after Rome.
I didn't mean to laugh, but it's
the divine irony of God. God's not mocked. Rome. We live in modern Rome. the center of the civilized society,
the center of arts and crafts and sciences, the wise, the mighty,
the noble, the musicians, the sports, you know, Greeks, the
gods, they called them gods, you know, they worshiped, they
were idolized by everybody, kids all over Rome wanted to be a
gladiator. you know, or wrestlers, whatever.
Rome, it was the center of everything, the center of the world. It was
the center of the then known civilized world. Everybody wanted to go to Rome,
be a part of Rome. It was the most vile and wicked
place on the planet. That is America today. That's
London, England. It's Barcelona. It's Munich,
Germany. It's wherever. It's the world. Picture the world. Romans 1 is
the world, the whole world, just like it. Kids, young people,
you don't want to be a part of this world. God is not pleased with this
world. It's not like false preachers say. You know this in your head.
But if you get out there and forget God, you'll perish with
this world. This world is, God's going to
bring it down. He's angry with it. And these
are some things we see here. Verse 7, I don't want to miss
it. It says, You've been called to be a saint. You've been called to be a saint.
There's some saints in here. Anybody heard of Saint Melanie? No, I don't believe. Is she in
here? Yes, she's in here. She's sitting
right over there. How does one become a saint?
Does the Pope in Rome do that? Years ago, they sank They canonized
Martin Luther. One of those popes decided they
were going to make a saint out of Martin Luther. What do you
think Martin Luther would say about that? God makes saints sanctified by
the Spirit. We're bound to give thanks to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Holy Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto He called
you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2. He'd make God said before the
world began. Mary, are you going to say it
again, preacher? Elections, are you going to say
it again? Yes, I am. Why? It was Martin Luther that said
the very point that the world hates more than anything else,
you need to scream it from the top of the building. Yes! Blessed be God who has chosen
us in Christ before the foundation. Why? To make us saints. sanctified one, set apart, holy,
unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. Not predestinated wrath, but predestinated
to save. Who wouldn't like that? Sinners
do. Called to be saints. Called to
saints. Grace to you. You see that? Grace. Electing grace, predestinating
grace, saving grace, restraining grace, keeping grace, redeeming
grace, forgiving grace, inheriting grace, revealing grace, gathering
grace, keeping grace, sealing grace. By grace are you saved. It's not a doctrine. It's salvation. You could substitute the word
grace for Christ. It's synonymous. It means the
same. The grace of God is Jesus Christ. The gift of God is eternal
life through his son, Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. Christ. He's the gift of God.
Grace to you. Peace. God who's angry with the
wicked. He's not angry with his people.
Does he become displeased? Yes. Does he frown on his people? Yes, he does. Do you? Your children? Sure, you do.
Is he ever going to cast you out? No. Is he angry with you? No. His
anger fell on Jesus Christ. His wrath. He said, fury is not
in me for my people. But it fell on Christ. And so, he says, you're a saint. Peace from God our Father through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The chastisement of our peace,
the whipping, the punishment due for our sin was laid on Christ.
God our Father now and our Lord Jesus Christ. I gave you an outline,
some of you. Let's look at this real briefly,
okay, and I promise to be not be very long, okay? There's several
things that we know. Several things we know that are
listed here of God. I could have entitled this, Of God Are All Things. And there's
several scriptures. Listen, I love this scripture. Romans 11 says, Of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. To whom be glory forever. Amen. All things are of God. Of God. Of God. Are we in Christ? Who of God
is made under wisdom, righteousness, and faith. You know this verse. Of God. So many scriptures speak
of God. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians
5, all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ, and committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, God was in Christ reconciling
the world, and He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. Have I lost you? Now we looked at the gospel of
God. That's where it started. Look at verse 2, I'm sorry, verse
17. It says in verse 16, verse 16,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of
God unto salvation. The power of God. The gospel
of God is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe
it. To the Jew first, the religious, the irreligious, the Greek. For
therein is the righteousness of God. The gospel of God is
the power of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. I'm ashamed of the fact there
was a time when I was ashamed of the gospel. There was a time. I grew up hearing the gospel
like you young people. And I decided I didn't want any
more of that. I'm just telling you what God's done for me. You've
heard it a thousand times. This is my story. This is my
song praising my Savior. There was a time when I thought,
I'm done with this. I want to be of the world. I want to be out there. I want
to get all the world I can. That's my friends. That's what
I want. Those are my people, not the
people of God. Not the saints of God. That's
what I want. And so I went after it. But God. See, I was ashamed of the gospel.
I remember being ashamed that my father was a preacher of the
gospel. What did your father do? Well, he's a preacher. And now I'm ashamed of that. And now, by God's grace, I am
not ashamed of the gospel. I'm ashamed of myself, but I'm
not ashamed of the gospel. My daughter, I don't believe,
is ashamed that I'm a preacher. You young people, if you were
to introduce me to somebody, your friends, would you be ashamed
to call me your pastor? I hope not. I'm the best friend
you could possibly have. I'm one of the few people that's
telling you the absolute truth. I'm one of the few people that
really cares about your soul. Your soul. And I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God and the
salvation. I'm here to tell you that this,
though the world calls this foolishness, what I'm doing, it is the wisdom
of God and the power of God. You're looking at living proof.
Living proof. Who was dead and trespasses in,
but God. took this gospel like an arrow. Right, Kellett? I won't believe
that. Well, aren't you glad salvation is
up in the Lord? You know, I started to say, if
I could save my wood. No, I don't want it to be up
in the But I tell you, I fire these arrows and fire these arrows
and fire these arrows and I go home and shoot. Didn't hit a
thing. Oh, now, hold on now. No flash
is going to glory in this prison. They're going to do it. I shoot over here. I don't know
how many times. Oh, boy, that Tom Canterbury, man, he needs
this bad. He needs this bad. It doesn't
affect him. It doesn't move. I hit somebody
over here. My dad didn't have a clue that
probably, he probably did. He saw it on my face. That time
when he was preaching and this wild ass is cold. It takes power
doesn't it? It takes power. Submit! I'm so glad salvation is the
Lord. Not just a doctrine, it's truth. All right? It says in verse 17, the righteousness
of God. God is righteous. God is righteous. God is holy. He can by no means
clear the guilty. He cannot. You've got to be as holy and
righteous as God to go to heaven. You know that? You know that. The world doesn't believe that. I've used this illustration before,
but you know what plunged this world into the mass of corruption
it is now? One sin. One sin. God said, do not eat that one
tree. One tree. Don't touch, don't eat that one
tree. It did one thing. And now look
at the world. A surgeon wants a sterile environment
in his operating room. One staph germ. What can one
staph germ do, Sarah? Helen, what can one staph germ
do? Karen, what can one staph germ, one little unseen germ
do? Spread through that hospital. God's sovereign over germs. So
the surgeon insists that the operating room be sterile. scrub. God said, no sin is going to
get into my heaven. Not going to be any sinners in
heaven ever, ever. No more sin. God's going to wipe
away sin completely forever. There's not going to be one trace
of sin. He's going to cast sin and death and hell and Satan
and everybody that doesn't believe Christ into a lake of fire. No
more sin. No more sin. No possibility of
heaven. And I'm glad. The righteousness
of God. Well, how then can a sinner get
into the presence of God? Well, we saw it in Romans 3. It said, the righteousness which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ were justified freely by God's
grace through the redemption of the Lord Jesus that's in Jesus
Christ, whom God sent to declare His righteousness. His righteousness
for the remission of sins. Not yours. His. Works of righteousness were saved. You're not going to get to heaven
because we did works of righteousness. We're going to get to heaven
by works of righteousness. But they're not ours. Jeanette
played that song. When I stand before the throne,
dressed in beauty, not my own. That's Christ, right? All right,
look at verse 18, the wrath of God. Talks about the wrath of
God revealed from heaven. We believe in the wrath of God,
don't we? It's clearly revealed from heaven,
isn't it? The plagues of Egypt that came down
on Egypt, all those plagues, and it was probably over a period
of time. And all those plagues, all those
pestilence and hail and so forth came down on Egypt. And nobody
in Egypt was crying for mercy. Nobody in Egypt said, God's angry
with us. The wrath of God was clearly
revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness
of men. That's what it said. Who hold
the truth in unrighteousness. What does that mean? It means
hold down the truth. They have it in their hand, but
they suppress it and corrupt it and twist it and rest it. And don't say, very few men will
stand up and say what I said in the Bible study this morning.
They're not going to do it because the world hates it. They don't
want to hear that. God forbid that. So they hold it down. But the
wrath of God, the Egyptians didn't see it, and the world doesn't
see it that way. The only ones that believe in the wrath of
God are insurance companies. You know that? Well, that's the
wrath of God. We won't pay for that. Seriously. Nobody believes in
the wrath of God. Why? Because preachers, false
preachers, have stood up for so long and said, never mind
any of this, the law and all that. God loves you. and Jesus
died for you, has a wonderful plan for your life, and everything's
just fine. Just accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. That's good enough. That's good. You can live like
you want to. It doesn't matter. He loves you
with a lucky heart. He's going to come for you, Jesus,
someday. Isn't that what it says? Is that what preachers are saying
today? That's not what this preacher's saying. That's not what this
book says. Because God is angry. Wrath. We need to save from the wrath
of God. Save from wrath. Rock of ages,
cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. With the water and the blood
from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure. Save
from wrath and make me pure. You know that, don't you? You
know what that means. Look at the next thing, the creation
of God, verse 19. That which may be known of God,
it's clear, it manifests, it showed it until, the invisible
things of Him, that is the creation of God, the creation of the world,
clearly seen, understood by the things made, His eternal power
and Godhead, they're without excuse. They suppress the truth. Science, geologists, archaeologists
and all that. So much so to the point where
God says, okay, I'm going to blind your mind. You're going
to see it right in front of you so clearly. And yet you're not
going to see it at all. A surgeon operating on this bowl
of grey jelly in your head. That's what it looks like. You
know that? It looks like a bowl of jello. And yet in this mind,
it's an incredible creation in it. what the human brain can
do. And a surgeon can look at this
and not see God. How ignorant. Blind. Blind. Look at this sky. Look
at this creation. Eternal power and Godhead are
clearly seen by the things that are made. No. See, if God's our Creator,
what does that mean? He made us exactly like He made
us. That means He owns us. If you
make something, you own it, don't you? Can anybody tell you what
to do with your creation? Huh? He said that in Romans 9.
He said, I can take one pot of one lump and make two pots. One
a vessel of honor and one of dishonor. He said, I can take
this vessel of honor and put roses in it and put it on my
shelf and look at it and just admire it and take this other
one and make it a chamber pot. Just break it. Just dash it to
pieces. You can't do that. Hold on now.
I'm the potter. You're the clay. I created it. Cannot I do with my own what
I will? Is that not what this book says
about God? Man says, I don't like that.
Too bad. That's the way it is. What do
you like? Do you like that? We believe in the creation of
God. God's a creator. God's a judge. He owns everything. He's the
judge of it. Look at the next thing, verse 23. Men have changed
the glory of God. The glory of the uncorruptible
body into an image made like what? First thing to make God
like? Man. Isn't that religion? Judgment, Isaiah 59, is so backward
that they've got God like a man and man like God. They've got
God wanting man to do something for Him and man to decide and
factor. Man got free will. God just,
He can't do what He will. The glory of God is that He is
God. The glory of God is that He's
holy. Oh, He's not that holy. The glory of God is His sovereign
power. Oh no, He's not sovereign. He's
a bystander. He didn't want that to happen.
But who needs Him? The glory of God is in His mercy
to unheld deserving sinners. Oh, we're not sinners. Then you're
not going to get mercy. The glory of God is His grace.
It's all a gift. You didn't earn it. The glory
of God is grace. No, no, no. We earned this. We worked the
righteous. We've been good boys and girls
all our lives. He's got to let us in. No, He doesn't either.
He won't let anybody in that thinks that. If anybody takes
any credit for one single thing they've ever done or thought
in this world, they're taking God's glory from them, giving
it to man. They worship and serve the creature
rather than the Creator, who's God forever, blessed forever. Amen. That's what the people
of God say. Let God be God. And true, man's
just a filthy liar. The glory of God. I knew I'd
get excited to get in on this. But why did God do anything? Why did God create the world?
Why did God save sinners? Why? One reason. His glory. And man doesn't like that. Man
wants some of that glory. He will not share his glory. And the glory of God is His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious gospel of His Son. What it took
to save sinners was God to send His Son to this cesspool, this
vile, filthy place described here in Romans 1, and not seeing
one single individual in the human race that deserves saving,
but God, rich in mercy, for His great love, wherewith He loved
some of these sinners. Not all of them. None of them
deserve that love. They're altogether filthy. But
God says, I'm going to love one of these filthy, rotten, wretched
sinners. I'm going to change them. I'm
going to have mercy on them. I'm going to give them everything
they need. My son's coming down here and I'm going to smite my
son for this wretched sinner. Oh my, what glory! What grace! What love! What mercy! And for
one single sinner that deserves to go to hell, to take one ounce
of credit for that, God is angry! And He's going to throw this
whole self-righteous religious mess into a lake of fire. And
stand before Him and say, we did this, we did that. What you
did was sin! It's what my son did. You need
to plead with me. It's too hard, preacher. We don't
know hard. This world's going to know hard
when they see God as He is. I'm telling you the truth. This
is the glory of God. They've changed the glory of
God. It says in verse 25, the truth of God. They've corrupted
the truth of God. They've changed the truth of
God. The truth is, you're a sinner. God's holy. He ought to send
you to hell. But the truth is, Christ said
this. Listen to this. Listen to this
very carefully. Religion quotes this. Christ said, I am the way. No man comes unto the Father
but by me. Nobody can get the glory of God by Jesus Christ.
Not excepting Him. It's Him doing it. I am the truth. Anything other
than Jesus Christ crucified is a lie, and you'll be damned for
believing it. I am the life. He that hath the
Son hath the life. That's dogmatic, isn't it? These
three things. I am the way. There is no other. I am the truth. There is no other.
I am the life. You'll die if you don't have
Christ. You'll die. No man comes to And
people heard that when he said that. And Pharisees heard that
when he said that. And he said, we don't like this.
We'll kill you. He said, no, you won't. But God will. And I'm going to
lay down my life for some of these Pharisees, for some of
these harlots and publicans, and they're going to understand.
They're going to realize. that I am the way, the truth,
and the life. And the last thing is verse 32,
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things
are worthy of death. And the world doesn't believe
it, all these things, doesn't believe that God gives people
over. I started to mention the reprobation
of God, God giving people over. That doesn't mean he gave up.
Oh, there's nothing I can do with him. I tried all I can do
and can't do. It means go on then. And God
could have done that with any of us. I'm through with you.
Couldn't He? Merciful, gracious, kind, and
providing for you all your days, and you're not thankful, and
you don't give Him the glory, and you don't worship Him and
all that. He ought to say, I'm done with you. And He does that
with a lot of people. Go on then. And so what do they
do? They become like beasts, worse
than beasts. Groveling and all manner of it.
It lifts up just like flesh, just filthy and foul. God said,
I'm going to wipe all this out. Wipe it out. When man says no,
God's not that holy. Man's not that sinful. And we
don't need saving. And there's no law. We didn't need Jesus to come
down here and do anything but just, you know, give us a better
job and, you know, are sugared at it. No, we didn't. You know
better. The saints, the saints know better. They know the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ and they believe. See how it all started? How we
started the gospel. Here's the good news. Who knows
the gospel? The gospel. The saints did. Called by the
gospel. OK? And it ends with the judgment
of God. And of those that don't believe
this gospel. All right. Brother John, you come.