Thank you, Ron. Thank you, Sherry. You did good. Romans 9. Romans chapter 9. I study in James 1, that wonderful
verse, chapter 8, verse 18. I began to read all through Scriptures,
God's will, God's will, God's will. God's will. And, of course, began to read
Romans 9, Daniel 4, all of these chapters. And I thought, you
know, Romans 9 and 10 sure would be a good place to preach from
to someone who had never heard the truth before. Maybe someone in here, I hope,
but maybe someone from Sermon Audio will hear this, but God's
people never get tired of this. And this is what you first heard.
This is the truth that gave you life. Plain declaration of who
God is, who saves, who God saves and how God saves. Plain declaration. Salvation. is by the sovereign
electing mercy and grace and righteousness of our God and
it's in and completely by Jesus Christ. All right, there it is. And this is so very clearly written
and declared. There's no mistake about it.
In fact, Paul many times says, what do you say to these things?
All the way through Romans 8 and 9, what do you say to these things? Romans 3, what shall we say to
these things? And God's people, they all say,
I'll tell you what they say, Amen. Amen. That's the way it is. Now, let
me say this from the outset, and I'll say this in closing. Just believing this doctrine
doesn't save you. Just believing these teachings
doesn't save you. Believing God's sovereign doesn't save you. Believing
God elected a people doesn't save you. Believing it's by Christ
doesn't save you. It doesn't mean you're saved
because you believe these things. I believed all these things when
I was a child. I believed all these things when I was a child.
I knew them point by point. I could argue with them. But
I didn't know God. I didn't know Christ. I knew
doctrine. But our Lord said it's the love
of the truth. It's knowing in your heart that
you're a sinner against the Holy God. And God
is indeed sovereign. He can and He does do what He
will with whom He will. And He doesn't have to save you. But it's knowing in your heart,
believing in your heart, that God in sovereign mercy and grace
sent the Word of Truth to you, sent the Gospel to you into your
dark heart and showed you yourself. And showed you your need of Christ.
And showed you that Christ is your only hope. That if you're
saved, it's going to be by Christ. And you believe. And you know
why. Not because you decided to. Because
you can't do anything else but believe, hope in Him. And then you begin to worship
God in truth. You begin to worship God for
choosing you. You begin to worship God for
calling you. You begin to thank God for raising you from the dead. You
begin to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ that salvation is
completely in Him. You're so thankful it doesn't
have anything to do with you. And you rejoice. And you have
no confidence in your flesh. This is when you're safe. That's
when you're saved. When it goes from just believing
the fact of it to where it grips your heart and you know the only
reason I'm saved. I think I am. I believe I am.
I hope I am. The only reason I am is because I believe God
chose me. And I had nothing to do with
it. Alright, I said that at the outset. And I'm going to say
it in the end. Romans 9. You know, we are accused by many
of not loving people of being exclusive. They accused my pastor of that,
you know, and he was on the radio for many, many years, on the
TV for many years. We've been on the radio for 15
or 18 years and go into all the world, go to Mexico and wherever
and preach the gospel. men, you know, sacrifice and
leave their homes and families and go to preach the gospel.
Why? Love of souls. But what it is, is people see
the mistake. See, we're not going to compromise
God's truth in order to get people in. We're not going to do that. We've got to declare the truth
whether anybody likes it or not. God's glory is number one. This
is all for His glory. We've got to declare His glory.
Now, God's people will. They'll rejoice in His glory.
And so this is what a man stands up and does. He just preaches
who God is and who Christ is and what man really is. Romans 9, Paul, the apostle,
It says in the first three verses, I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.
I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. I could wish
myself were cursed from Christ, from my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh. He's talking about his Jewish
brethren. He calls them brother. And you
know, every human being is my brother in Adam. We can call
them that, my brother in Adam. Everybody's not my brother in
Christ. And I wish I could say this more
fully like Paul. I wish I could be accursed. Moses one time said, Lord, if
you don't save my brethren, block me out of your book. You know, I do have a heaviness
and you do too. God's people have a desire in
your heart and sorrow in your heart about people that don't
believe this, whether it's your family or your neighbors or whoever
you work with that you like, even love. You want them to know the Lord,
don't you? We're not going to compromise the truth. We're not
going to take away the defense. We're not going to include everybody
in the kingdom that doesn't believe the truth. We can't do that. Chapter 10, Paul said, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Honestly. And Mindy and I left
our home, sold our house, It still is our favorite home. We
sold it. Just finished it. Just finished
remodeling. Sold it. Put a sign in the yard
and I left before it sold. Left a church family full of
young couples with children. Our daughter was four years old,
two years old. Two years old. Many friends.
Many had many friends. We had brothers and sisters dear
to us. Spent time in their home and
family. Bob, my sister, and John, and Vicki Chapman, and Tom, and
Bridget, and on and on it goes. Just close fellowship. You talk
about a preacher. You talk about a church. They
took our daughter away from her family, her grandparents, her
parents. her home, her school, and left
to come here to a place, Rocky Mountain, where? At the time,
I had only been here one time in 1985, and I thought, came off of Shooting Creek, and
I said, what is this place? Well, I love it now. Why did
we do that? It was harder on her than it
was me. Why? Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Rocky Mountain that they
might be saved. That's a fact. That's a fact. How does God save sinners? With
the truth. Can these bones live? Stand up
and preach and watch. I'll bring them. I'll bring them.
So you can't be accused of not loving people. And I've talked
to every neighbor around me. And we've got some fine neighbors
down there. I mean, we love them. Nancy across the street, and
Terry beside us, and Quince down here below us, and Carrie's down
here. And we've talked to them. We're not going to compromise
the truth. And they're religious. And that's what Paul said in
Romans 10. I thought this morning, I don't need notes. Just read
these verses. And Paul said, they have a zeal
for God. Well, look at it in Romans 10,
verse 2. I bear them record, they have
a zeal of God. My neighbors are Catholics, and
two of them are, and I saw them this morning when I was sitting
at the desk looking out the window. I saw them go by me. They had
service at 830 up here, and that's where they went. May God have
mercy on their souls. They don't know Christ. They've
talked to Him. They've heard the truth. They
have. And they've rejected it. They're good people, as far as
people go. They're sincere people. They
have a zeal. They got up at 8 o'clock and
go attend that. They attend every Mass that they have. But they
don't know God. And salvation is to know God. Look at verses 4 and following,
Romans 9. There are Israelites to whom
pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving
of the law, the service of God. Verse 5, who are the fathers
of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, whose overall God
blessed forever. But it's not as though the Word
of God has taken no effect. Now, translate this into modern
language. Who are Christians? Every single so-called church
everywhere claims to be Christian. So did the Jews. This is what
Paul said. They're Jews. And they have Bibles. And they came to believe the
God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, didn't they? Jews believed in
sovereign election. Jews believed in elect. They
believed only Jews. They did not believe Gentiles.
This is why our Lord was talking to that Pharisee named Nicodemus
in John 3, and he said, God so loved the world, Nicodemus, you'd
think he just loved Jews. No, he hasn't elected people
out of the world. Out of every tribe, kindred,
nation and tongue. I said, they're Christians, they
say. We're going to see who he is. We're going to see who he is.
And they have Bibles, and they're zealous. And whose are the fathers? Verse 5, whose are the fathers
concerning the flesh? You know, we have some spiritual
fathers. We have men like Jonathan Edwards
and John Newton. You know, everybody sings Amazing
Grace, don't they? Everybody sings Amazing Grace
written by John Newton that saved a wretch like me. Amazing Grace. If you read John Newton's story,
he was just like Lazarus. He was dead. I mean, he was a
badden. And God came and helped you by
the gospel. Saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost, but now am found. I was blind. But now I see, and
many people sing that song, like John Newton. They like John Newton.
Charles Spurgeon is not a more popular preacher today. Spurgeon
said, Calvinism is the gospel, and the gospel is Calvinism.
If you don't believe Calvinism, you don't know the gospel. That's
what Charles Spurgeon said, and there's not many people who believe
that. Did Spurgeon have a desire for
people to be saved? We can't cut the edge
off, can we? It's called the offense of the
cross, the offense of the truth. And the first thing God does
if you're religious is He offends you. Offends you. Offends your wisdom, offends
your goodness, offends your righteousness, offends all that until finally
you're smitten and dead and you know, if God saves me, it'll
just be by His mercy. Read on in Romans 9, verse 7,
"...neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Paul wrote
a book called Philippians and he said, talking about these
Hebrews and Jews, he said, are they? He said, I'm more. I'm
more a Hebrew than they are. I was Hebrew of Hebrew. He said,
a tribe of Benjamin, he said, I can trace my heritage all the
way back to the tribe of Benjamin. And I'm a Baptist, and I was
born a Baptist, and were born a Baptist, and Baptist, and probably
could trace our lineage back to John the Baptist. You reckon?
Probably. He talked about being raised
under the truth, as me, and talked about People said, I was saved
because I was baptized. Well, my brothers and I used
to, after a baptism and everybody's gone, my brothers and I used
to skinny dip, I'm going to tell it now, used to skinny dip in
the baptistery pool later on. Me and my two brothers. We were
baptized more than anybody. People would think baptism saved
you. I was baptized when I was twelve years old. I didn't know
God. You know the truth. I knew the
truth in my head, but I didn't love it. Didn't know Christ. It's not that. Verse 8, Romans
9, says, that is, that the children of the flesh are not the children
of God. You see that with me? Is everybody reading that? Verse
8 of Romans 9, they which are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God. Isn't that what false preachers
tell everybody? You're God's children. Every
man's God's children. Children. God's children. That's
not what Romans 9, verse 8 says. The Jews thought they were God's
children, didn't they? They thought they were God's
children. It plainly says they're not God's children. You're not born of blood into
the kingdom of God. You're born of His Spirit. Nothing can be plainer. Alright,
he goes on to clarify this. Talking about the Jews, they
say they're God's children. Well, Sarah, verse 9, Sarah,
that's Abraham's wife, had a son. And not only this, they had a
son named Isaac, right? Who gave them that son? They're a hundred years old. If that's not a picture of salvation,
They were a hundred years old. They were past childbearing.
It was impossible. God said, yes, it's impossible
and so is salvation with man, but not with God. And he put
the seed in there. And she had a son. It's not possible. She did. Named Isaac. But they had another son, Ishmael. All Islamic nations, Muslim nations,
Arabic nations come from Ishmael. Right? They're not God's children. Some are. Some are. Who are they? We're going to
see. It's who He reveals the truth to. Reveals Christ to. But all people are not God's
children. Any man stands up and says that, he's lying. He's lying on God. He's lying
to people. And God said, I didn't send him.
Because this is what they say. This is what we say as God's
preachers. All right? I'm just reading it
now. Verse 10, not only this, but see, Isaac had a wife named
Rebekah, and she conceived by one, by her father Isaac. Now
look at verse 11, the children. Now Rebekah had twins, Jacob
and Esau. But now, the children being not
yet born, Neither having done any good or evil. They weren't
born yet. They hadn't done any good or
evil. That the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand. Not works. Good works, bad works. Not of works, but of Him that
calleth. Do you remember reading Romans
8 with me? Who he foreknew, who he predestinated, who he called. It was said unto Rebekah, before
these children were born, the elder shall serve the younger.
That is, Esau shall serve Jacob, as it is written in Malachi 1,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now it's not saying, and here's
what false religion says. That God loved Esau less than
he did Jacob. That God loves everyone. That
everyone's God's child. And Jesus died for everybody.
This is all a lie, people. God can't love anyone less. You understand that? If God loves
you, In John 13, it says of Christ,
having loved His own, He loved them to the end. And charity
never fails. And whoever God loves, He chose
them. And he'll always love them. And
he sent Christ to die for them. And he sends the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the truth that I'm doing right now.
And they're quickened. And they believe the truth. They
don't argue. They were dead. And the amazing thing is, and
you ask Jacob, Jacob, do you see anything wrong with this?
That God hates your brother? No. Jacob says, the only thing
I can't understand is why He would love me. That's what Jacob said. No, he'd
say, Stephen, Jacob would say, no, I didn't love God. I didn't
come out of the womb loving God. I spent my first 40 years not
loving God. Hating God. Running from God. Doing my own thing. That's what
Jacob would tell you. He'd tell you, my brother Esau
is just like me. We're no different. I'm just
like him. He didn't care for God. I wanted his birthright. I wanted his inheritance. And
I schemed and I connived and I tricked my brother. I swindled
my brother out of that birthright. He said, I don't want that old.
That old religion of my dad, I don't want anything to do with
that. I'm not interested. I just want something to eat.
And so I got his birthright from him. He didn't have any interest
in God, and neither did I. And here's Jacob's confession.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved me, Why would he love me? I can see why he hate Jacob,
or Esau, and why he ought to hate me, but he told me he loves
me. He didn't say that to Jacob.
And he should have said, Jacob have I hated. That's Jacob's confession. That's
my confession. That's every one of God's elect's
confession, people. This is not fair. This is what they argued in verse
14. What should we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is that unfair? Is it unfair?
Unfair? Read on, verse 15. He said to
Moses, let's go back there, Exodus 33. Maybe somebody's never seen
it. He's quoting Exodus 33. Exodus
33. Now this is, some of you, do
you remember when you first heard Exodus 33? You thought, boy, that's the
truth. That's God's glory. That's what
I heard, that's what I believe, that's how I'm saved. be with us, God before us. Is that not it, how we found
grace? That's how we'll be separated, sanctified, set apart, different
from other people that God's not with? I and thy people from
all the people that are on the face of the earth. And the Lord
said unto Moses, I will do this thing that thou hast spoken,
for thou hast found grace in my sight. And I know thee. I
know you by name. I chose you. And Moses said,
I beseech thee, show me thy glory, show me your essential glory,
show me what it is that makes you God, beside you none else,
true God, living God, God that's different from other gods. Read verse 19. He said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. So look at chapter 34. He did. Verse 5, the Lord descended in
the cloud and stood with him there. Who? That's Jesus Christ
the Lord. And proclaimed the name of the
Lord. Now read it with me. He passed by before him. God
said, My goodness. Oh, the goodness of God, salvation
of God is in Jesus Christ. And he stood there with Moses
and he says he proclaimed the Lord as Jehovah, omnipotent,
who reigneth, the Lord God, merciful. Merciful, gracious, long-suffering,
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin that will by no means
clear the guilty. And it says, Moses bowed his
head in worship. I will be merciful. I will. And here's the thing. Go back to Romans 9, verse 15,
he says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Here's
the glory of God, is that He has mercy in all. God says, I will have mercy. And if anybody thinks that everyone deserves a chance to be saved, doesn't know anything about man,
doesn't know anything about themselves, doesn't know anything about God,
and they're lost. Number one, salvation is not
by chance. It's by choice. God's choice. Salvation is not by chance. It's
by Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. And men don't deserve a chance
to be saved. What men and women and young
people deserve is damnation. And that's us. That's all of
us. Paul said there in Romans 3,
are we better than they? No wise. And somebody that says that,
doesn't know God, and God says, I will have mercy. Now that's
amazing. That ought to amaze us that God
would have mercy on anybody, let alone on us. On whom I will
have mercy. You don't know what mercy is.
Mercy is always sovereign. Let's say Stan offends me. Let's say Stan did something
Let's say He killed my only begotten child. And that's what we all did. You
understand that? And people that have no interest
in Jesus Christ, what they're saying is, I don't care if He
lived or died, that's killing Him. Let's say Stan did that. Is it up to him to come to me
and say, I've decided to let you forgive me? If I forgive him at all, wouldn't
it be great mercy? Does he deserve a chance to be
forgiven? Huh? Kill my child? Now, this is truth, folks. God
sent His only begotten Son into this world, and we did all say,
kill him. Does man deserve a chance to
be saved? And God is angry with the wicked
every day. But God, in love and in mercy, before
the world began, He had to do this. They're never going to
choose Him. They're never going to choose Him. They're dead. Chosen people. and sent his son
to die for. See, it's by grace. Mercy means
not getting what you deserve. Mercy means not getting what
you deserve. What's that? Hell. Mercy is not deserving a chance. Mercy means you don't deserve
anything. You see? And God said, well, here's the
thing. Glory to God in the highest.
God says, I will show mercy. Unless somebody says, it's not
fair, God said, I've chosen a people as the stars of the sky and the
sands of the seashore for number. Not one of them deserved it,
but I'm so rich in mercy and grace that I chose. They didn't
choose me, I chose them. Grace, by grace are you saved
through faith. That's not a gift of God. It's
not an offer. Grace is not an offer of people.
It's an act of God. It's something God does for us.
Grace is not offered to us. Grace is something God does to
us and for us. Something he sent Christ to do
for us. It's a gift of life. It's what I give unto them in
eternal life. God sent the Holy Spirit through this right here,
what I'm doing, amazingly, marvelously, miraculously. He, the one He
chose in His good time, He says, give them life. Open their eyes.
And He does. All of a sudden, all of a sudden,
ah, I'm a sinner. Ah, God's holy. Ah, I need mercy. Have mercy. Never was there before. Wasn't in the power of the preacher.
Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
The wind bloweth where it lifteth, so are they that are born of
God. He said, Preach the word, and whoever my elect are. See,
that's why we preach to everybody. Whoever my elect are, in my time,
I'm going to send that word to their heart like an arrow. Seed,
germinate life, repentance, faith, need, hunger, thirst, worship,
belief, love, joy, peace. It's all of God. Verse 16 says, so it is not of
him that willeth. Doesn't it say that? It is not
of him that willeth. Free will is a lie. That's what
Satan said to our first, you know, that free will won't save
you. You know what it will do? It will damn you. That's exactly
what damned our first parent. Satan said, you're God. You're
God. You have a right to choose. That'll damn you. That'll damn
you. You know what'll save you? God's
will. Only. You'll be saved by His
will. And you'll know it. And you'll
give Him all the glory. Not my will, but Thy will. So then, it is not of him that
willeth. And you know, the only reason
someone would argue against this is that they hadn't been born
again yet. Defending someone else's, rather
than God. You know, we don't defend man,
we defend God. It's true. Not of him that willeth
or him that runneth, but it is of God that showeth mercy." And
verse 18 says, "...he hath mercy on him whom he will have mercy,
and whom he will he hardeneth." Oh, preacher, these are hard
things. Well, brothers, I didn't say it. God did. You know, all you have to do,
all God has to do to harden someone is leave them alone. You've got some ground out there,
you've got some acreage, you've got some ground, and you're going
to plant seed in it. All right, what have you got
to do? In order to plant that seed, what have you got to do?
It doesn't plant itself. And you don't go out there and
say, oh, ground, would you please receive this seed? It doesn't. You go out there and plow it,
break it up. That's what the Word of God does
like a hammer. It breaks a hard heart. Like
a fire, it burns up all your draughts, all your old religion,
all your profession. It kills your former gods and
all that. And like a plow, it opens up his heart and it takes
the seed of the truth of who God is, who Christ is, what you
are, and puts it in your heart. And the Holy Spirit comes and
waters it. We plant, we water. God has to
give it in Christ. He has to make it live. is to
make it live. Not of him that willeth. But
that seed will never germinate if you leave that ground alone.
Well, what'll happen to it? If you leave that ground alone
and never touch it for years, what's going to happen to it?
It'll get like concrete. It'll get like concrete. It'll
harden. I didn't do anything to harden
it. I just left it alone. That's the truth. Oh my Lord,
that's why we pray. People say, if I believe that,
why pray? We pray to God who saves. We don't beg men to do something
for God. We keep praying to God to do something for them. We
don't beg men to accept Jesus. We beg God to accept them and
the Beloved. We don't beg men to receive and
believe and come down the aisle and all that. We beg God to make
them believe and come down the aisle. No, not come down your
house, but come to Christ. Christ said, you will not believe
on me. You will not come unto me that
you might have life. He said, no man can come unto me, except
the Father which has sent me draw him. We pray to God. But this is what
God uses. This is all I'm saying. This
is what God uses, what I'm doing here. And you remember, many
of you remember the first time you heard this, don't you? First
time. Brother Henry and Roberta there. I'm not picking on you. I'm rejoicing with you, okay?
You were in false religion, weren't you? Were you Methodist? What
were you? Baptist? Episcopalian? Papists. Okay, well you were
in false religion, weren't you? You admit it now. You had a profession
of faith in you. Okay. Were you baptized early
on? Well, one day you came here and
heard a man preach this, didn't you? This is what you heard,
wasn't it, Brother Henry? This is what you heard. You never
heard it before. You had a profession. You believed God, you thought.
You believed on Jesus, didn't you? The man said, God loves
you. Jesus died for you. You accepted him as your personal
Savior. And you're baptized. Is that exactly what happened?
They're nodding their head. They're in their eighties. They're
not lying. But God, like Saul of Tarsus, one day
showed you, you can't do anything with Jesus. But you had the wrong
God. And He didn't just change your
mind. It gave you life, didn't it? That's their story. Is that your
story? That's everybody's story. Here's
the truth. It was in false religion. Salvation is up with the Lord.
And verse, well, look at verse 19, the following says, some
will say, why does he yet find faults? Verse 19. If nobody can
resist His will, if God does what He will with whom He will,
then how can He judge people? How can He damn people? How can
He find fault with anybody if they can't do anything and His
will has been done? Then whoever's going to be saved,
going to be saved, only elect saved, then it's not our fault. It's God's fault. Isn't that
what people say? You believe man's a puppet, they
say. How does Paul answer that? Read
the next verse. Oh man, who art thou that replies
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath make his power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted, made up to destruction, that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy whom he had before prepared unto glory." What if? That's exactly what it is. I'll never forget the first time
I saw a man do this, and I did it myself. I took a lump of clay.
And here's the root of this. Here's how you can understand
it. It says, what if God of the same lump, of the same lump,
you remember when I did this, took a lump of clay, inanimate,
dead clay. You remember that? When man died, he became flesh,
dead flesh. He made him out of the dust,
didn't he? Clay. And he said, that's what you
are and that's what you go back to. Clay. Clay has no soul. Clay has no life. Clay. All of them are of the same lump. We read it in Romans 3. They're
all lumped together. What's that? Clay. But God took
some of it and fashioned it into the image of Jesus Christ for
His glory. For His glory. The potter, not
the clay. He had nothing to do with it.
The potter made the person. They had nothing to do with it.
He made them. And just like Adam, Amy, remember
when Adam was inanimate? Adam was dead. Adam was not alive.
He was made out of clay. There he was, a clay creature,
and God came and gave him life. The same thing happens. The Holy
Spirit, who is preaching the truth, gives them life, and they
live. And the rest? It's not fair. Well, that's what this book says. And all those who like Christ
say, I'm sure glad that He did this for me. In Romans 10, I
close with this. In closing Romans 10, it says,
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. That's why he's preaching. That's
why I'm preaching. I bear them record. There are
many people who have a zeal of God, but it's not according to
knowledge. They don't know God is what he's saying. And they're
ignorant of God's righteousness. People just don't know. If you just teach them, they'll
understand. They believe God. They love God.
And they're just ignorant of the truth if you teach them the
truth. No, you're not educated in the
kingdom of God. You're born in the kingdom of
God. And this being ignorant, what's the root word of ignorant?
Ignore. And 2 Peter 3 says they're willingly
ignorant. They hold the truth. Romans 1
says they hold the truth in unrighteousness. They have it. They have Romans
9. You'll read this to everybody
once. You'll read this to everybody and say, I don't like that. Why
wouldn't you like that? I hadn't been born of God. It's not just being ignorant.
It's being rebellious. Isn't it, Steve? It's not just
being ignorant against God's righteousness. You know what
God's righteousness is? God's holiness, God's justice. And it goes on to say in verse
3, they're going about to establish their own righteousness. And
I'll tell you how serious that is. Paul said, if righteousness
comes by you doing anything, by you keeping the law, if righteousness
comes because you quit this and quit that, and because, you know,
God looks at you and says, what a good little boy and girl you
are. If righteousness comes by your sincerity, by you doing
anything, Christ died in vain. That's what the Scripture said.
Christ didn't need to come. But here's now what the Gospel
says. Listen to me. If you don't hear anything else,
you know why God saves anybody? It's because God sent His Son
down here to become a bloody sacrifice for them. The soul
that sinneth must surely die, be damned, be condemned for.
But God made Him to be sinned. For who? Not everybody. Nobody
deserved it. But whom He will. Whom He will,
and it's a mercy and it's grace and it's amazing love that He
do this for anybody. I wouldn't do this for anybody.
I would not send one of these girls to die for anybody. I wouldn't do it. But God. And what it took to save them
was nothing more, nothing less than what Jesus Christ did. One
hundred percent. Not them accepting what He did,
it's God accepting what He did. Do you hear what I mean? Christ coming down here into
this hell hole, and people say everybody deserves
it. No! No, they don't deserve a chance.
They don't deserve for God's Son to come down here. And Christ had to live thirty-three
years by the law, according to the law, perfectly, in thought,
word and deed. No, that's a slap in God's face
to say that you've done anything. And you say, but they're sincere.
So were the Jews. The Jews were sincere too, and
they were moral, and they were upright. And before you tell
them the truth, they were sweet, kind people. And you start telling
the truth. And Paul stood up one time. Listen
to me. Listen to me. Paul was just like
them. He said, concerning the righteousness
of the law, I was blameless, moral, upright, zealous. I was
going door to door and house to house. Believing God. Believing
on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I hated this way. And he said, I was zealous. And
if you knew Paul, you'd think, this is the best man to ever
live. Dresses right, acts right, talks right, lives right. He
says, blameless. Until he started hearing the
truth. Until he started hearing about this, your righteousness
is nothing. He heard about Peter and all
of them preaching this Jesus Christ, their righteousness,
that it's not keeping the law that saves you, it's only by
Him do it. He didn't like that. He didn't
like his way. He liked his way. But God had chosen him. Alright? And Paul went out preaching
this. And where did he go first? To the Jew. To his Pharisee brethren. He said, brethren, brethren,
listen to me. It's not by being moral. It's not by being good
people. No, he said, none good. No, not one. Do you read it?
Did you read it over? And they hated him so bad for
saving them. He said, brethren, it's not anything we've ever
done or ever will do that will save us. Nothing we ever did
or ever will do will save us. It's only by what Jesus Christ
does for us will save us. And they got mad and they said,
we keep the Ten Commandments. And they beat him and beat him
and stoned him. And you know, bless his heart,
Paul stood up after that. They shook him and stood up and
he stood up and his eyes are closed, he's bloody all over
and he's standing on the stairs and he said, Brother, listen
to me. Will you listen to me? Is this a man that loves people? But he's just telling them how
people are saved. He said, listen to me. And they wouldn't listen. And neither would he, unless
God had chose him. And he said, Christ is the end
of the... Here's the good news. He's just trying to tell them
the good news. You see, people love their righteousness more.
They love their religion more. They don't love the sound of
mercy. They don't love the sound of grace. They don't believe
this old-fashioned bloody religion. No, God loves us all. We don't
have to have blood. God says so. He said, it doesn't say when I see
your sincerity, I'll save you. He said, when I see the blood. Well, in closing, He said, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Here's the good news, amazing. That whosoever, there you are
preacher, well, God's people are willing, made
willing in a day of His power. It's God that worketh in you
both the will and do of His good pleasure, Philippians 2.13. It's
not of Him that willeth. God's people, they come, they
believe, they repent, they call and all that because God gave
them life. And Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That you're not
saved by anything you do. You'll be saved 100% by what
Jesus Christ did for you. Isn't that a good thing? And
only a sinner loves that. Only a helpless sinner loves
that. He's the end of the law. And as I began this, so I end
it. That it's not just knowing these
things in your head. But it's knowing and believing
in your heart that God has shown you what you are and who God
is. And He doesn't have to save you.
But you believe that Christ, and you need Christ, and you
hope in Him, and you come to Him. And our Lord said, Whosoever
believeth on Me hath everlasting life. He that believeth and is
baptized. Just confess Me. And that's it.
That's it. That's it. All right. That's plain truth. Ron, if you'll come up and lead
us in closing hymn.