Let's read verses 11 and 12 again. Romans 1, verses 11 and 12. Paul says to these people at
Rome, I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift. To the end, you may be established. That is, that I may be comforted
together with or in you by the mutual faith, both of you and
me. The title of this message is
Mutual Comfort Through Mutual Faith. Paul says, I want to establish
you, I want to impart some gift to you spiritual gift, not money. Paul, silver and gold, he didn't
have any. But he said, I want to impart
some spiritual gift such as I have. I give unto you, Peter said,
to the end you may be established. That's the one thing Paul wanted
more than anything for his hearers, that they might be grounded and
settled in the truth, established on this firm hope. That is, he
said, that is. That I may be comforted. I want
to see you, he says, that you can comfort me. In another place,
he said, see, I get comfort the same place you get comfort. As
I attempt to comfort you, I, in turn, get comfort by you through
this mutual faith. So we comfort one another. That's
what he said in the Thessalonians. Comfort one another with these
words. You're not speaking, and I'm sure glad you're here. You're
sitting here, and that comforts me. That helps me. Sunday morning, we had several
visitors, which I'm glad. I do want people to hear this
gospel. I really do. I wish we have,
oh, you know, just a house full of visitors every service. I wish they were here tonight.
They don't usually come on Wednesday. However, I made this statement
before and I still stick by it. That I have mixed feelings when
it comes to preaching to visitors. Because Paul said in one place,
he said, Thanks be unto God who always
causes us to triumph in Christ, always. Makes manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place. He said, but to one it's
a savor of life, to another it's a savor of death. Now, men are
going to be held accountable for what they hear and what they
reject. And I have mixed emotions about
this. I really do. And a man comes
and hears the gospel and rejects it. He's added to his condemnation. Do you understand what I'm saying? But I want so badly for those
new faces, those new people to hear it and believe it. I'm just
thrilled to see them, and I want so badly for them to believe.
And it places on me, when I see a new face or new faces, I can't
describe to you the emotions I go through sitting up there. I feel comfortable in front of
you folks, all these, this family. I enjoy, I really enjoy at times
preaching. I do. At times I enjoy this. I don't enjoy standing up here
and all that goes with public speaking, the nerves and being
in the limelight. I don't enjoy that. But I do
enjoy looking at the Word of God with you and us studying
it together and looking at things together. I do enjoy that. And when the Lord blesses to
preach, I enjoy my time with you. the weighty responsibility that
comes on me when I see new faces come here. And a heavy burden. And I sit there and I think about
my notes. I think about what all I've got
written down to say. I pour over it again in my mind.
And I think, woe is unto me if I don't preach the gospel. And
this person comes in here and they don't hear it plainly. I want to make it clear to someone
who's never heard it before, especially. And I don't want
to take it for granted or presume that everyone in here tonight
has heard this gospel and believes it. I had very much confidence in
most. But I still say, woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. But when visitors come, I want
to make it so clear, I may have one opportunity. There were two visitors, a man
and his wife, that came the Sunday before last, and the message
was from Luke 10, Psalm 27, and Proverbs. And I went home afterward,
and they greeted me at the door, and they were real enthusiastic
about the message. Which I have mixed emotions about
that, too. I really do. I think, wait a
minute. Either they didn't hear what
I said, or they believe it and know it. Where'd they know it?
Where'd they get it from? Where'd they hear it? Somebody
else preached? Or I didn't say it clearly enough, and I didn't
do my job. You know, I would prefer to believe
that they believed what they heard and rejoiced in it and
hadn't heard it elsewhere. And we were just rejoicing and
finally getting to hear it. I wish I wish that were the case,
but they were enthusiastic and said, we'll be back, and they
were. But I told many when I went home after that first Sunday
they were here, I said. I said, you know. I didn't really preach what you'd
call a strong doctrinal message. And I worried about that. I grieved
over it. I asked the Lord, Lord, bring
them back. And they came back last Sunday. And, you know, we
went through Romans, started going through Romans 1. Well,
their response just was not as enthusiastic this time. And I
don't rejoice in that. I don't. I was hoping they would
be just as enthusiastic. And I hope they'll be back next
Sunday. I do. But the point I'm trying to make
is, I want to make the message plain. I want to preach it clearly. Plainly. Boldly. We have a visitor. I don't want
to, oh no, don't say anything that might, you know, might offend
them and they won't come back. Oh, no. No, I want to preach
in such a way that I say, I might have one shot. They've got to
hear it all. They've got to hear it all. Just as plainly as I can make
it, they've got to hear it. You know, there's a lot of preachers
so-called that do that. In other words, for fear of driving
off visitors, you know, they try to sneak things up on people.
But I want to declare the gospel plainly, clearly, boldly. There may be times when, with
you, I can make general statements that I know you know what I'm
saying, you understand what I'm saying. When I say election,
without really defining it clearly, you know what I'm talking about.
When I say grace, sovereign grace, you know what I'm talking about. But we need to define it. We
need to define. You know, defining the gospel
is really preaching. Declaring Christ is really preaching. You can say Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ, but until you declare him as the Christ in
his person, in his work, in no uncertain terms, not clearly,
boldly, you haven't preached Christ. Right? I want to use the most basic
truth, most basic language, same illustrations. I apologize, I
really do, for using the same illustrations over again. You
know, I'm telling them. I've heard them. I've heard them
more than you have, Stan. I heard my pastor tell them to
me for years. And if I still like them and
still like telling them, I think, and when I tell them,
I think, well, they still like this too. I like jokes, you know. I have just a few jokes. I don't
have many. And Mindy gets so tired of me selling some of these
jokes. But she still laughs. You know she'll still laugh?
She's laughing now. She knows the one joke is about this. There's a little boy on the side
of the road selling taters. He said, taters for sale, taters
for sale. The man stopped by and said,
now what kind of taters you got, son? He said, she's laughing
already. What kind of taters you got,
son?" And the little boy said, what? Poe taters, sir. Poe taters. So when I use the same illustration,
you still get blessed by them. I'll keep telling them. I'll keep telling them. All right? Same thing we hear over and over
again. I basically repeated the ten
o'clock Bible study at the eleven o'clock hour, Sunday morning.
And you know, I got just as much a blessing out of doing it again. I may have to preach this message
again, but I'm not even to the Burisma. I may have to preach
this again, Sunday morning. But that's all right. Paul said
to write the same thing to you. To me, it's not grievous. For
you, it's safe. If I preached every sermon from
Romans 1, verses 1 through 4, we'd hear the gospel, wouldn't
we? And I ask this question, I ask
myself this question, what are your feelings upon hearing these same things
over and over and over and over? What are your feelings? And I and I'm not saying this
braggingly, I'm just this statement of fact, I grew up under this
kind of preaching. I've heard. It probably is much
or more of this type of preaching than anybody in here. And I'm
just not tired of it yet. What are your feelings? I've
told you this illustration countless times. I know John likes it,
about the fellow playing the bass fiddle, you know, and plucking
that one string. Boom, boom, boom. And the other
fellows who thought they were really hot said, what, does that
all you know? He said, well, y'all were looking
for this note, and I found it. Isn't that right? And there's
preachers. How many times? You laughed again. Thank you.
How many times have I told that, Terry? But that's the best illustration
I can come up with as to this thing of preaching the gospel.
Now, I've heard my pastor tell that stand ten times all over
the country. That's the best thing I can come
up with as far as this thing of preaching the gospel. One
string, fiddle players. Bass, we play bass. We must have
bass ourselves, right? And we play to the key of C.
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. Right? I'm a one-note preacher,
one gallus. I've seen pictures of Joe back
when he was a young man, head full of hair, you know. I saw
a picture of him. He had bibs on, I think. Yeah,
I believe it was, Joe. He had one gallus. You know what
a one-gallus fella is, don't you? One suspender. It was broken
or something. Well, I'm a one-gallus preacher,
if you will. One message, one note. You've heard in seven years you've
heard all that I know. You've probably heard the first
year, first month. Seven years and then here we
are back in Romans again. So I've got to start over. I'm
not taking the same sermons. I'm not doing that. Don't do
that. I don't grab them down. That'd be easy, wouldn't it?
Because you've forgotten. You've forgotten them and I could
easily do that and go golfing the rest of the time. But I don't
do that. Prepare a brand new one, all
over again. A one-note preacher. There was
a carriage driver, and this one may not be new to you, this illustration. I hope so. Back in old England,
was driving a carriage. He was a regular carriage driver
for a preacher named Law. Even the law preachers, grace
preachers. I bet he hated his last name. His name was Law. I think William Law. And he was
a grace preacher and he would travel all over and he'd take
a regular trip from London to Bath, the county Bath in England. And he had this carriage rider
that took him and one day they were on the road to Bath and
They were driving along, and the preacher spotted a big something,
a mansion or something over. He said, Mr. Driver, he said,
what might this estate be over here? And the man said, I don't
know, my dear sir, and kept driving. They drive a little further,
and he saw something else, Mr. Lawson, and he said, sir, and
what might this be over here? And the fellow said, I'm sorry,
but I just don't know. He kept driving. This happened
several times. And finally, Mr. Law said, Mr. Driver, he said, what do you
know? He said, I don't know much. But he said, I know the way to
Bath. You hired me to take you to Bath. I know the way to Bath. I don't know much about this
or much about that. But I know this road, and I know
what the power of God is unto salvation. I know what God Almighty
uses to bless His people with. I know what is the beginning
of our confidence. I know what God uses to save sinners with,
and I know it's what He uses to keep them saved, to keep blessing
them. I know the way to God. There's
only one way, and I don't may not know much about this and
that that I could study if we want to study these things, but
I have a feeling you'd rather get the bath with you. That's all right with me. You
hired me to take you to bed to preach the gospel. Paul said,
over in 1 Corinthians, he said, I'm determined not to know anything
among you. He said, Brethren, when I came
to you, I came not with excellency of speech. Y'all couldn't have
hired me for my excellent diction. You couldn't have hired me for
my oratorical abilities. People make fun of the way we
say ice and nice and right and might. Will you smile on that,
Rebecca? You're one of them that make
fun of us. At any rate, Paul said, I came
not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God, the gospel. He said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you, not to get sidetracked, not to
go into anything, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he said,
I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And
if the truth be known, I still am. Even Wednesday night, I just
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom or a show of oratory or ability, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of the power. Watch God Almighty work through
a one-gallus preacher. Watch him use the same things over and over again and use them
powerfully. That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men. but in the power of God, which
is in our text. Look at Romans one, sixteen,
the gospel. It is the power of God. See that
it is the power of God to salvation. Or how do you feel about hearing
these same things over and over again? What about for the next thirty
years? I'm not leaving. Get that out of your mind. I'm
not leaving. I'm not Henry May. I'm not Henry
Mayhead's replacement. I'm serious about that. I'm not
going anywhere. You may be, but I'm not. OK,
this is my family. This is my home. There's only
one thing that would make me leave this place, though, is
a total indifference and carelessness to this gospel. Nobody wanted
to hear it anymore. I'm going to go somewhere where
they would. But it only takes two or three, OK? If you want
to hear it. And I have to admit, I stay worried
and concerned that this sparse crowd tonight, I wonder. I can't help but wonder and worry.
I've said this before, when the weather warms up, people's hearts
generally cool down. It happens. It's a grief to me. It really is. I stay troubled
over some people who have become listless and indifferent, unmoved
by the gospel. I wonder, I worry about my own
self, my own example or lack of it. I wonder if I have set
a poor example. I wonder if I've become so familiar,
such a buddy that I'm no longer a watchman. no longer what you'd
call a spiritual leader that anybody would take seriously.
Don't worry about that. Last Sunday, April 14th, Sunday
before last, this article is in the bulletin, and it bears
reading again. Listen to it. If you would ask
me the clearest evidence of a truly converted person, a saved person,
And I sat and thought about this a long time. There are many evidences,
but I believe this is foremost. I would say it would be concerning
a person's attitude toward the gospel. You see, when God Almighty
calls a person by the gospel, they fall in love with Christ,
which is, who is, the gospel. The gospel is Christ, and Christ
is the gospel, and every gospel is preached. You're just talking
about Christ. And they can't get enough of hearing him preached
from that day forward. From that day forward. Sure, we go through love. Like
marriages, you know, we'll go through things like that. But
a marriage better grow in love. It better grow in love, or you've
got trouble on down the road, real trouble. Right? Separation
may be ahead. Right? The people, the persons I've
witnessed over the years that seem to be genuine believers,
their love for the hearing of the gospel has never diminished.
They're just as enthused about it and moved by it. Not every
message, but generally. Moved by it is when they first
heard it. They don't look for excuses to miss it. They're looking
for opportunities to attend. If these are your feelings about
the gospel, gospel preaching, thank God. and the opposite is true. If
you would ask me the clearest evidence of someone who is unconverted
or a state of apostasy coming upon some person, it would be
concerning their attitude toward preaching the gospel. If it begins
to wane, I worry, I worry, I worry. I was working in the basement
the other night, working downstairs, and I put in a tape. I just grabbed a tape that was
found somewhere and put it in and preached by John Chapman,
August of ninety-five. And I didn't hand pick it, I
just grabbed it and put it in. And I've advised you often to
listen to tapes. They're such a help. And he preached
from Romans nine. And his message was sovereign
mercy. Now, I've heard sovereign mercy
preached. I heard, I heard the message. Sovereign mercy. You know who
preached that one, don't you? The message? Ralph Barnard. Anybody that's ever heard that? And on the flip side of that,
it's God's blood hound. The message. Sovereign mercy
by Ralph Barnard. And then I've heard my pastor
preach sovereign mercy many times, and I've attempted to preach
it, but I listen to John Chapman. He's a machinist, and he's a
part-time preacher. He's a full-time preacher, but
he's a machinist by trade, and I've never heard a better message
in my entire life. And I've heard everything he's
said I've heard before. He didn't come up with one new
illustration, one new anything. It's all the same things
I've heard all my life. You know, if you'd have been
around, you'd have heard me amening out loud. I was painting or something. Amen! Amen! I wanted to put my paint down
and call him up. I just did a while ago. I called
him up and said, John, I was so blessed. Sovereign mercy,
Romans 9, same old, same old. You see, this is the mutual faith. This is, verse 12, he says, and
I know it's so with some of you. I see you smiling now as I speak
of these things. With most of you, I know it's
so. Verse 12, I am comforted, he says, with you, or by you,
in you, by the mutual faith, both of you and me. The same
thing that comforts me comforts most of you. The same gospel
that we've heard over and over again. The mutual faith gives
us mutual comfort. It's the beginning of our confidence.
It's the message that God first used John to prick my Cold, dead,
stony heart. Just get a hold of him. Sovereign
mercy. As a young man. And just brought
me to his feet. Broken. In love with Christ and
the gospel. And pressing toward him. And
there have been lulls, yes. But now, even now, it's just
saying, I hear the saint, some years later, I don't know how
many years, The same message, this mutual faith, this same
gospel, the beginning of my confidence, that would save this old sinner
in the beginning. It saves this old sinner time
and time again. Like Brother James would say,
every time I hear the gospel, I get saved. Every time. He just used that phrase that
they like to use, get saved. The Lord saves me. Because we
get down and we get lost, don't we? All we like sheep, we still
go astray, don't we? But how does he bring us back?
How does he call us? How did he call you in the beginning?
He called you by our gospel. How does he call you again? There
you go, sinner. There you go. God says, there
you go. He's doing that again. What does
he preach to you? Sovereign mercy. Come back here. Let me hear this.
Sovereign mercy. Mutual faith. Romans 1 through
4. Can you hear it again? Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. It's
God's gospel. It's God's gospel. He's the one
that thought it. I just love the term, the word
covenant. Don't you? It's got something
solid and substantial and settled and sure and fixed and firm about
it. Covenant! Doesn't it? It sounds like something you
just can't, you cannot null and void. It's a covenant. Sealed. Don't you like that term? Sealed.
Ordered in all things and sure. What God has made with me or
concerning me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things
and sure. When did he do this? Before the
world began. God Almighty took Paul Mahan's
name. His person. Barbara Ross, he
thought about you before the world began, and thought up this
divine and glorious plan, if you will, or thing called salvation,
whereby he's going to save you, Barbara. He's going to save you.
It's God's gospel. He's the one that thought it.
Isn't it the most glorious thing? How can we grow tired of the
most glorious thing ever conceived? John Newton preached a message
one time entitled, The Character and Genius of the Gospel. The genius of the gospel. We
talk about geniuses. Why? Because they can split atoms. Big deal. I'll tell you who made
it, who made the atom. But I'll tell you something more
genius than that is to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. How that God may be just and
justify all the ungodliness. That's the genius of the gospel.
How God can punish our sins and yet declare us innocent. How
God can come and die and pay for our sins and yet live forever.
It's God's gospel. Which he promised to for by his
prophets in the Holy Scripture. Old Testament types and pictures. People, let's go back to Genesis.
What do you say? Wouldn't you like to start over?
I mean right now. We might be a while in Romans
yet, but those Old Testament types, wouldn't you love to hear
Boaz preach tomorrow? Huh? Wouldn't you love to hear
that again? Or Joseph? Or Rahab? The scarlet lion went into the
city's refuge? The brazen serpent? Huh? The Passover lamb, the scapegoat?
These beautiful types. which God had promised before
in his holy scripture by his prophet. It's an Old Testament
gospel. And these ignoramuses, they're
called preachers that say they're New Testament preachers, or that's
the old Bible they... Verse 3 says it's concerning
his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This gospel's concerning Christ,
and I'm so glad it is. Aren't you glad that the gospel
isn't what really comfort you, Vicki Patton, is that the whole
of your salvation is concerning Jesus Christ, what he did, who
he is, and where he is right now. Therefore, everything concerning
you is fixed. Why? Ordered and sure. Why? Because
he's fixed. He's a fixture at God's right
hand. Therefore, I will not be moved.
Isn't that what the psalmist said? I will not be moved when
I'm in Christ. Seated. Oh, I walk the floor. He ain't. He's 60. And maybe I ought to sit down
to. And rest. Concerning, aren't you glad is
the gospel concerning Christ? Which was made of the seat of
David, when you have to go through the son of David, that that type
of Christ again, the son of David. The first and second thing. Declared
to be the son of God. Back, Barbara, with that, you
know, tell us about Solomon. Would you? She will. He was. So he was like, I've never seen
the likes of him. It's not lawful to tell what
I've heard. I can't rightly use, there's
no illustration of the fact. The words aren't sufficient.
Right? No message has sufficiently described
the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've heard some powerful messages.
I've heard some men declare Christ. In no uncertain terms, I lift
him high, and then I thought, oh, he's so high and so sovereign
and so mighty, but the half has never been told. He's declared. Don't you love
to hear him declared? Do you ever get tired? If there's
one theme in all the scriptures that I love to hear over and
over again, it's my God exalted. You can't get him high enough.
You can't, man, can't preach him high enough. And Christ successful enough,
you just go ahead and preach in such a way that people will
misconstrue and call you an antinomian. But I tell you, God's sheep,
they won't run wild. They'll just glorify God for
the fact of the matter that salvation's of the Lord 100 percent. That doesn't give them a license
to sin. They send all they want to, more than they want to. What it does is gives them a
license to praise. That's what it gives them, a
license to praise, something to praise God about. Verse 5,
he says, We have received grace and apostleship, by whom we have
received. You ever get tired of hearing
that word, Joe Park? Grace. How many times have you
told people, turn to number 236. Huh? How many times have you sung
that? Amazing grace. There's the number in the chair.
OK. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. I was blind, but now I see. was
grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.
How precious was that grace to me the hour I first believed?
Huh? And when we've been there ten
thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days
to sing about God's grace than when we first began. That's what
we're going to be singing about. It's by him. By whom? By who? By Christ. We have received all
things. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Have what I have. Know what I know. And apostleship, Paul said, for
obedience to the faith. In other words, in other words,
God said, Paul, you're my witness. That's what
he said. Paul, I've chosen you. to be
a witness to what. To me. Also, if I said that son
is a messenger in of what. I've got one message. Christ. A message on a possible of Jesus
Christ and we say a servant of Jesus Christ called to be a message.
Of what. Of Christ. Christ. In other words, every true preacher,
like the apostles, is called to do one thing. Preach the gospel. Nothing else. Not be an entertainer,
not be a socializer, but a preacher of the gospel. If he fails in
every other area, and I have, don't fail at this one thing.
Do not fail to do this one thing. Preach the gospel. If you fail
in other areas, God will take care of that. But this gospel,
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, but the faith, the
faith. That's the word. Verse eight, he says, I thank
God through Christ for you. And like 2 Thessalonians 2, 13,
we're bound to give thanks to God. He gets all the thanks for you,
doesn't he? What are you doing here, Charles
Ross? What are you doing here? Huh? How come you ain't down
here at the First Church of the Heretic? Over down here on the
corner? What are you doing here, Charles? God Almighty brought you here,
that's why. That's why you're here. God Almighty, before the
world began, said, I'm going to pluck that old boy as a bran
from the burning. He's one of mine to elect. He's
one of my sheep. He's going to hear my voice.
He's going to come where the gospel is. The gospel. There's
a bunch out there that call it not the gospel. And he brought
you here, bound to give thanks to God for you. I'm not thanking
you for being here. Right? I'm blessed by you being here.
I am. But God's not. You understand
what I'm saying? If I sin, like Job said, or I
believe it's in the book of Job, yeah, if we sin against God or
if we do righteousness, what's that add or take away from God?
Somebody's going to raise up rocks and trees to praise Him.
Bound to thank God for you, Charles Ross. We thank God for bringing
you here. Right? Thank Christ for you and
that your faith your faith is spoken of throughout the whole
world. And it is. I just talked to Brother Chapman.
I told you and he said to tell you all hello. Amen. He said, I love those people.
He said, I said, John, what you come down here? I was telling
him how much I enjoyed his message and how the Lord has blessed
him to preach and blessed me to hear him. And I said, won't
you come down here about six months? Would you? Just come
down here so I can sit and hear you preach. Help us out. And he said, I'd love to. He
said, I could do it. He said, I could live right there.
He said, those are my kind of people. They know you. People know you. your faith is
spoken of throughout the whole world. The whole world? Yes,
buddy old Bobby. Bill Clark tells you hello from
the four corners of the earth, right? Walter Gruber just got
a note from him on the computer, email. He said, I'm amazed and
humbled by it. I told him about the gift we
were about to send him. And he said, I'm amazed and humbled
by the charity and generosity of my brethren at Central Baptist
Church. I'll post it for you to read. Your faith is heard.
The faith. What faith? Same faith as all
God's elect. Same faith of all God's people.
It's a common faith. It's a faith once delivered to
the saints from God's elect. The faith. Mutual faith. What
faith? Well, it just said it. Verses
one through four. Verse 11, he says, I want to impart unto
you some spiritual gift, that ye may be established in it.
Where is that verse, John? He says it's a good thing that
the heart be established with grace. It's over in Hebrews,
I believe, isn't it? It's a good thing. Let the heart
be established with grace. Let there be one thing established
here. Let there be one thing that our
hearts are firmly fixed upon and settled upon and established
upon. And our faith is grounded upon
and settled upon and fixed upon. And that's sovereign grace. Sovereign
grace. that has sinned hath reigned
unto death, so might grace reign unto righteousness through Jesus
Christ our Lord. That's our watchword, isn't it? Romans 5.21, is that it? Established,
fixed, grounded, settled, hearing this gospel, believing it, loving
it, rejoicing in it, to the end. Fixed, holding the beginning
of our confidence to the end. to the end. Verse fourteen, he
says, and I'll draw this to a close. He said, I'm debtor, both to
the Greeks, the barbarians, wise to the unwise, so as much as
in me is, that is, as best I can do. Best I can do, he said, I'm
ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. Preach
the gospel. The barbarians, Scythian, bond-free
Greeks, barbarians, Wise, unwise, whoever comes, got one message. One message. And you know, we
get a mixed congregation here at times. We have it now. I wouldn't
embarrass some people in here, but some people are educated
in here. They got some learning. I'm not
making fun of it at all. I wish I had more of it, obviously.
But in walks a scholar, a Greek, somebody with some education,
somebody with a little station in life, so to speak, somebody
with some status, if you will. So what do I do as a preacher?
What am I to do? Seek to impress that person.
And so should I speak and attempt to speak in lofty terms? They'd
find me out right away. Try to impress them. No, what
you do, really, what you do in that case is you tell a simple
parable. You try to make it as simple
as possible. You steer away from that as far as you can. That's
what the Lord did, Joe. These lawyers and scribes and
Pharisees came to hear him. to grace his presence with their,
to come hear the preacher, you know. Catch him at his words and, you
know, try him. And they came and they sat, and
I'm sure people, you know, Dr. So-and-so's here. What does the
Lord do? He tells little stories, little
parables. And they went out of there in
a huff, you know. Didn't they? Offended, and even
the disciples were embarrassed. The disciples were embarrassed.
They said, Lord, don't you know the Pharisees were offended by
that? Right? Even they got embarrassed. They said, Lord, show them. You
know a lot. Impress them. They were offended
by these little stories. In walks a religious man. Don't
tear down people's religion. Don't do it. He might be a Methodist. Don't say anything about being
a Methodist. He might be Catholic. Don't say
anything about the Pope. Okay? No. You better say it loud
and clear. You better call that Pope a ragged,
old, worthless sinner. Because anybody that's trusting
in him or looking at him is damned as sure as they're sitting there. Do you see? They used to get
so mad at Barnard. Preachers would invite him to
a meeting, and they'd ask him beforehand, say, please, please
don't say this or don't say that. That's the very thing he'd say.
That's the very thing. If one fellow asked him to preach
anything, don't preach on election. His message was on election that
night. He said, I wasn't going to preach it, but I had to now. A friend walks in. We had two
people that were here Sunday morning that were friends of
ours. I can't call them friends. They're unbelievers. I don't
know if they've ever been in a church before. I like these people real
well. They're very likeable people,
aren't they, men? Very nice, sweet couple. Don't offend them. You want them
to come back. They're likable people. Be a
nice guy, you know. Change the message a little bit.
No. Say it loud and clear. Say it. A relative comes in. An unsaved
relative. Well, slip the truth up on them.
Slip it up on them. You don't have to. You don't
have to say election, you can say something, you know, no,
you've got to say it. Right? If a man pairs the corners, the scriptures are called a two-edged
sword. If a man takes off the edge of
the sword, if you don't say election, see
there, Jerry, the power in that word evidently is in that term. It's a shame. People get mad
at it, don't they? Don't say election. Election,
election, election! Say it! Twenty-seven times the
Scriptures does. Doesn't the Scripture says it?
That's what he says here in verse sixteen, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ. If I am, get out of the way.
Let a man stand up that's not ashamed of it. He says it twenty-seven times.
Maybe that's what a fellow ought to do when he starts a mission.
Stand up and say, election, election, election, election, election,
election, election. Election, election, election,
election, election. Right? Predestination, predestination,
predestination, predestination. Says it four times, and I said
it four times. God's sheep love to hear it.
That's who we're looking for anyway. He said, My sheep will
hear my voice. What is that? It's his word.
Whatever he says, however he says it, they'll hear it, they'll
believe it, and they'll follow it. Election. Yeah, that's right. That's what a sheep will say.
Yes. That's right. I believe that. Say it again. Election. Election. If a man pears the corner and
tries to remove the fence, he's ashamed of the gospel. He doesn't
seek to please God, he's a man pleaser. Well, in closing, verse
16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And we need to be ashamed
of many things, don't we? Oh, my. What is that song, Sherry? Ashamed of Jesus? Yes, I may, when I have no sins
to wife or wash away and no guilt to whatever. Ashamed of him whom angels praise,
that song says, ashamed of him. I'm ashamed of myself, my pitiful
preaching, my sinful self. I'm ashamed of myself. I'm ashamed
of our generation. It's open, wicked, vile, sinful
generation that we live in. My generation is now in the presidency. That's what Brother Bell said,
or Bonnie Bell said. One of us is in the White House.
Oh, no. One of the 60s and 70s heads. God help this country, Rebecca.
Really he made maybe it's maybe too late he may be a given this
country over to reprobate my I believe you. God help us and
our children. I'm ashamed of our generation
I'm ashamed more than anything else of today's religion. Are you a Christian somebody
ask you that I'm ashamed to admit it. Why? Because today's religion
doesn't even remotely resemble. True Christianity, that's what
do you do? I'm a preacher. Preacher. Preacher. And I can't describe
to you what it's like. To have people find out your
picture, I can't describe. I walked in the hardware store
just the other day, heard somebody say behind me, there's the preacher.
They're straightened up. I wanted to straighten their
mouth up, you know, put my arm straight up their mouth. But forgive me, I'm really getting
in the flesh now. And I'm ashamed of all this clap
trap. It's called religion today in
the name of Christ. It's gospel still. It's not the
gospel. It's not the gospel. But I'm
not ashamed of this gospel. I'm not ashamed of this gospel
we preach here and believe here. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is. It is the power of God. It's the only power of God. And
that's all we're going to do here. And I believe you demand
it. I'm glad you do. And really,
it is the shepherd's voice. It really is. The gospel is called the power
of God unto salvation. Christ, the power and the wisdom
of God. The gospel. Christ is all in all. The message
of Christ is all there is. And I'm talking about a Christ
that is Christ now. But Jesus is saved now. I don't
want the gospel. It's all there is. I believe
you demand it. God sure does. He sure demands it. And we need
it. And God keep us from ever growing
tired of it. And you keep me, well, you keep
me in your thoughts and prayers that God may keep me preaching
it and not grow, you know, concerned about the hearing.
Not concerned about the numbers of the crowd. Of the effect. All right and. The but this is
the power of God is the voice of God this is what he's going
to use to save his people and bring his sheep in so God help
us to. Continue to do so all right stand
with me. Our Father, we thank You for
this whole old story, and the same things are not grievous
to us at all by Your grace and by Your mercy. And this is what
proves to us, to our hearts, that it is Your gospel and that
You have done a work in our hearts, is that we can hear this same
thing over and over and are not weary of it. That's the power
of God. And that's where we want our
faith to stand, in the power of God, not in the wisdom of
man. We have none. Christ is our wisdom. So keep
us, keep this church fixed, settled, established in the gospel of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Let it ring forth clearly from
this place, from this pulpit and wherever we work. from the
lips of your people. Let us dare not trust the sweetest
frame and holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ's name. It's in
his name we've met together and I ask you to bring us back again
together. In Christ's name, amen.