A very appropriate song there.
It goes very well with my introduction
to the message this morning. Romans chapter 10. Verse 11, let's read this. Verse
11. The scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Now, I am very much ashamed of
myself. If you're not, you don't know
yourself. I just like Ezra the scribe who
said there in that chapter nine, I am ashamed to lift up my face to be my God. I'm ashamed to
stand behind this desk, as you well should be ashamed
to sit there and call yourself a child of God. For our iniquities are increased
over our heads. And our trespass or our guilt
keeps getting bigger all the way to the heavens, he said.
Our guilt keeps adding up, doesn't it? We ought to be ashamed of ourselves
because we're a shameful preacher, shameful, full of shame, shameful
things, sin. And sin can be summed up in the
word rebellion against God. Sin against the goodness of God.
And that's what Ezra was praying there. We've sinned against goodness
all of our lives. I say this over and over again,
don't I? All the things that our Lord has so abundantly blessed
us with, from the cradle to the grave. is abundantly good providence,
yet we continue to sin against him. Goodness of God, we sin
against the mercy of God. There's one old writer who said,
sin is despising God's mercy. In other words, God keeps showing
mercy and you say, well, I'll just keep sinning. The grace of God, and we do it
And this is the shame of it all. We do this at times, and listen
to me now and tell me if it's not so. We do it, we sin shamelessly. That's the shame of it. We sin
without really being sorry about it. Do you? All of us, the scriptures say, All of us have come short of
the glory of God. Sin of not loving thee. Sin of
not living for thee. Sin of not thanking God for everything. Everything. All things come from
the hand of God, don't they? Therefore, we're to thank him
for them. All things. Sin of not praising him. Sin of not worshiping him, sin
of not living for him. He said in Isaiah chapter one,
he says, the ox knows its owner. The ass, a dumb old donkey, knows
his master's crib. Who's that? God. God gives to
all. But he said, my people don't
even consider. There's times when we go, we
go days. Do any of us have even gone weeks
without giving God a thought? My people doth not know, he said,
they don't even consider. Unthankful. Paul describes us
in Romans chapter one, he said, no, let's talk about the homosexuals
and the unbelievers. No, he said in Romans three,
are we better than they? No. Before proof that they're
all sinners. He calls them unthankful. That's
us, we're unthankful. He calls them proud, boasters,
boastful. Men and women by nature, and
we're included. boasts of things that God gave
us. You know, pride is boasting of
things given to you. By the grace of God, you are
what you are. By the grace of God, you women, some of you,
all of you, are beautiful. And let not the pretty woman
glory in her prettiness. By the grace of God, some of
you men are strong. Let not the strong man, the mighty
man, glory in his strength. By the grace of God, some of
you have a brain, have an education. Don't glory in it. It's a gift.
It's a gift. Things freely given to us, but
we're so proud by nature, aren't we? All of us. We're all, we
all, this, I'm the worst, I'm the chief. Of all things, how
could a man be proud of a message he preaches? How in the world? We ought to
be ashamed of ourselves. That's what I'm getting at. We
ought to be ashamed of ourselves. And God ought to condemn us for
all eternity and put us to an open shame for our sin and ingratitude. God Almighty, Joe, God ought
to expose us, shouldn't He? All the time I think, or many
times anyway, I think, what if God exposes me? What if he pulls
back the curtain and shows everybody what I'm really like? I'll never
be able to show my face again. He ought to, shouldn't he? He
ought to do that for time and eternity, shouldn't he? Before
the angels, before all men, put us to shame. And many of us in here, and we ought to blush and hold our heads down
to even mention this, because it's a shame to speak of those
things which we have done in secret. But many of us in here
even have committed actual horrible, horrible sins. We ought to be ashamed. God ought
to shame us. But he won't. It's almost like everybody in
here was holding their breath. He won't. Thank God. There's only one thing, you know,
there's only one thing God will shame you for. Put you to open
shame before everybody. You know, the children of Israel
are a perfect example of us. Henry, we read all the time about
the life and times of the children of Israel, and we have it all
in a condensed book, and we think that these people just moment
after moment, hour after hour, did the things they did. No,
it was over a course of a lifetime, wasn't it? Nevertheless, they
sinned greatly, didn't they? They did some horrible things.
We're no different. In the course of sixty-some years,
my soul. All the things that they did,
all of the wicked works and the sinful acts that they got into,
we're no better, are we? We've done just as wickedly,
more so we've sinned against the light. But you know the only
one thing that kept those people out of the promised land? Only
one thing that God damned them for? What's that? Unbelief. Unbelief. They refused to believe,
trust, and follow God. They refused it. Therefore, God
put them to open shame before all of their enemies. They were
carried captive. That's what we're reading there in Ezra.
They were carried captive time and time again, weren't they?
They'd build a temple, and they'd go through their motions of religion
and play their hypocritical religion, you know, and God would send
some marauding nation in there and wipe it out and take them
captive in chains someplace. And they'd say, we deserve it.
We played, we were sincere for a while, and then we got fat
and sassy and had no need of God, and we forgot God and went
a-whoring. And God came and brought us down again. And that's you,
Joe Parks, isn't it? And He ought to put us to shame
forevermore. But the only thing He put them to open shame before
everybody for was for their unbelief. But it says here in our text,
the Scripture saith, but whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. What's he talking about? This
will be a very basic gospel message. What is he talking about? Whosoever
believeth. What does it mean to believe? Who
is he talking about? Believe on Him. Whosoever believeth
on Him shall not be ashamed. Who is he talking about believing
on? Well, he's talking about believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he's talking about.
Well, what is it to believe on him? What is it to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, look up at verse 8 here
in Romans 10. Well, what saith it? You know,
this word of faith. What is it to believe on him? What saith it? Romans 8. The
word is nigh thee. It is even in thy mouth." Now,
I want everybody in here to say this. All right? Every voice. Are you with me? Everybody. Man,
woman, and child. Everybody. Say this with me.
Lord Jesus Christ. Say it again. Lord Jesus Christ. The Word is on your tongue. It's in your mouth, the word
of faith. He said to Pilate, when Pilate
asked him, are you a king? What did Christ say? Thou sayest. He just said it. And your mouth condemns you. By a man's words, Christ said,
by thy words shalt thou be justified, by thy words shalt thou be condemned. And everybody in this room this
morning uttered the words of life. Now, that's either going to rise
up to haunt you, or it will save you. Whenever somebody, and we all
hear it, And I blush, I shudder to repeat these things, but I'm
doing it for the glory of God, to make clear the gospel. Whenever
someone takes the name of God on their lips to curse with,
they add to their condemnation. When someone says, He will. They use it for something or
somebody else, don't they? But Terry, God will turn it by
their words. They will be condemned. The Lord
will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Right? And this is a common byword in
our day. Well, Jesus Christ. They're uttering and cursing
with their only hope of eternal life. But if you take that name on
your lips in sincerity and in worship and in praise and asking
God in that name for mercy, thou shalt be saved, saved by him. The very name, the very words
that will condemn some, Barbara, are going to save your soul. Verse 9 says, "...if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus." Well, you hear people
all the time saying, well, Lordy, Lord have mercy. That's going to add to your condemnation. Unless the Lord changes your
vocabulary and makes you realize what you're saying, my soul,
that's the holy name of God, don't use it. But if God in mercy allows you
to say, Lord, have mercy, He will. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord. Let's take these three
names, OK? And believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the grave and given him a name which
is above every name. What is that name? What is it
to confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart the Lord
Jesus Christ? The word is nigh thee, it's even
in your mouth. Three words, but they're not
simple. The Lord. The Lord. That means God. Don't say Jesus is Lord unless
he's your God. Oh, religious man, don't say
Jesus is your Lord unless he's your ruler. Don't say Jesus is
Lord if you have to make him so. Right? You don't make anybody Lord.
Ain't no mortal man makes anybody Lord. They're that by right,
by birth, aren't they? Even in the worldly realm, we're
not going to make Prince Charles King, are we? He's it by right,
by inheritance, by birth. You don't make the Son of God
Lord, do you? God's already made him that from
the foundation of the world. He's King. And don't anybody
use the name of Lord unless it's in absolute awe and reverence,
and bowing before this holy, sovereign King. Okay? The Word is mighty. Lord. Jesus. Now, that's a blessed name. A
blessed name. And no human being should ever
take that name after it's already been held by such a one as the
name means Savior. The angels proclaimed it first.
They're the ones who first announced and named him by God's commandment. They said, call his name Jesus. Why? What does it mean? God doesn't give names. God never
gave names in the Scripture just because it sounded good, you
know. Well, I think he'll call you Israel. That has a good ring
to it. No, it had a meaning. Prince.
Well, call his name Jesus. Why? What does it mean? Savior. For he shall save his people
from their sin. Not try to. Not with man's cooperation. Not with our help. Not if we'll
take the first step. No, that's why he came. He's
taking the first step. And he'll take the middle step.
And he'll take the last step, won't he? Why? His name's Jesus. His very name means Savior. That's
why he came. That's what he did. And he went
back to heaven, having gotten the job done. Jesus, Savior. And that means only Savior. Don't
call him Jesus, don't talk about Jesus, if you can help him out.
That means your name's Jesus too, doesn't it? Huh? That's
what I say to the religious world, or I point my finger at us, or
any of you, but he's the only Savior. We can't,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, right? If I be circumcised, if I do
anything, that means Christ is not Jesus. He's not the Savior.
That means my name's Jesus, right? Call me Jesus, because I helped
out in this thing. I'm a little Savior. He's a little
Savior. I'm a little Savior. We saved
me together. Oh, no. Call His name Jesus,
for He shall save. He's the only Savior. He's your
only hope of salvation. And he's a real, sovereign, effectual,
victorious Savior. That means he's saved. He's saved. Because he came here, and Hebrews
9, 12 says, he has obtained eternal redemption. He got the job done. That's the reason his name's
called Jesus. Johnny couldn't hold that name
if he didn't get the job done, right? He'd have to go back to
heaven, and God said, I'm taking that name away from you. You
didn't do it. You didn't save everybody. There's
some people lost down there that you couldn't save. You don't
deserve that name. Oh, yeah, he does. God's given
him a name which is above every name. Jesus. And it's the name
of Jesus. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that he's Lord. The Lord Jesus. See, the name is on men's lips,
isn't it? The word of faith is on their
lips. And if they use it in vain, Use it in vain. By their words,
they'll be condemned. Right? They better name Jesus.
And they'll stand before God someday and say, well, there's
Jesus. And God will say, you're condemned by just what you say.
You uttered that name all through your whole life, and it didn't
mean a thing to you. Christ. Lord Jesus Christ. Joey's got three names, doesn't
he? Just like you. Just like me. My name's Paul
Edward Mayhem. All right? I've got three names.
If you want to rightly distinguish me and identify me, you have
to use all three names. There's some other Paul. It's
another mayhem, not in Rocky Mound, mostly Hodges in Rocky
Mound. And Guthrie's, you know. There's
too many of them. But there's only one of me. But
there's a lot of mayhems throughout the world. A lot of Pauls, a
lot of mayhems. Not very many Paul-Edward mayhems.
You're going to rightly identify me, call me by my three names,
and there'll be no mistaking who you're talking about, especially
around here. Well, if you want to talk about Him, don't just
call Him Jesus. Besides, we ain't on no first-name
basis with God, anyway, are we? You don't go up to George Bush
and say, Hey, George! Do you? Or the Queen of England. Would you stand before the Queen
of England and say, Hey, Lizzie! Me and Lizzy's good friends.
That's laughable, isn't it? What about God? He's not a man
anymore, Terry, is He? He's seated on the throne. That
means He's what? Jesus? Yeah, but a whole lot
more. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ. God's anointed. That's
what Christ means. It means the anointed one. The
only one. Isaiah 42 says, He's my elect,
behold, my elect, my servant, my elect, my servant. He's the
only man approved of God, the only man sent by God. He's God's servant, He's God's
elect, and we are elected in Him. He's God's holy Son, the
only begotten, well beloved, most loved, that is. Son of the
Most High God. He's the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the Anointed One. And to
Him, to this Lord Jesus Christ, shall every knee bow and every
tongue will someday finally confess that He is all of these things. Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Psalm 2, the
second Psalm with me. Psalm 2. You see, God hath declared
the decree, and whatever God says, it's dictum factum. You want the meaning of that?
Go back to some tapes. Whatever God says, it's done. So it is written, so let it be
done. Right? The word of the King is
power. Whatever God says is forever.
Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven, and God hath
declared the decree. He declared it from eternity
past, and he's declaring it now, and he will declare it in the
end. And God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, be ashamed. You know what repentance means?
Be ashamed of yourself. He commands us to repent, be
ashamed of yourself, be sorry for your sins, and turn from
and bow to the sun. This is what John came preaching.
This is what Christ came preaching. This is what the prophets preached,
apostles, all of God's faithful preachers. Repentance toward
God. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Not a stolen apple
I sinned against God. and belief in the Lord Jesus
Christ, bowing to God's Son. Belief in Christ, repentance
toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
decree of God. Look at verse six. God says,
I've set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I'll declare the decree, and
Christ declared it. The Lord said unto me, thou art
my Son. This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me, and I'll give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou
shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in
pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings." You're a usurper, because there's a king of kings. O ye
little lords of the House of Parliament, You're a usurper. There's a Lord of lords. Be wise
now. Be instructed. You judges, you're
going to stand before the judge of the earth. Serve the Lord. Who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. With fear and rejoice with trembling,
kiss the Son. Not like Judah on his cheek.
You're not an equal with him. You're an inferior, right? Kiss the son, kiss his feet,
lest he be angry, and you perish from the way when his wrath is
kindled, and it'll just take a little. Oh, blessed! Oh, blessed! Blessed are all they that put
their trust, that believe, that see who He is, that bow before
Him and submit commit their souls and their very lives unto this
Sovereign One, and bow to His feet as unworthy wretches, and
kiss His feet in humble submission and repentance, and call upon
Him for mercy and grace and help in time of need. Blessed are
all they that put their trust in Him, and whosoever believeth
on this One shall not be put to shame. You'll be at His feet
some day, but not under. Adam, that's a good place to
be, at his feet. And we're never going to rise
above that. Never. He's the head. The head's always
above the body, isn't it? Isn't the head always above the
body? Of course it is. He's our head.
We'll never rise up. We're going to be like him, John,
but not to express him. We're not going to be like him
in all full glory. and magnificence. He's the head. We'll always be at his feet.
Not in humiliation, not in shame, but in adoration and in love,
kissing his feet, worshiping, sitting, listening at his feet.
But we'll not be under him, thank God. We'll be humble before the
Lord. We won't be degraded. Shame. And he saves us from this shame.
Now listen to me. The Scripture says, turn with
me to Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter 12. The Scripture says, that whosoever
believeth in him, in this Lord Jesus Christ, shall not be ashamed,
not be put to shame. All right? But what about us? I started
out this message by saying we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
We ought to be put to shame. Right now, Henry, the thought
you woke up this morning, shameful thought. You want anybody to
know what you thought this morning? Or now? How about right now? Has
your mind been on this message the whole time? If you're honest,
you'll admit it hasn't, right? It's been on everything. I'm
just pointing to you that everybody's that way. I'm that way. I don't
want you to know what I... Full of shame. Shameful creature. We have much to be shamed for,
still. You know, God can't just up and
forget that. Can He? God can't just up and
forgive and forget. Bernard used to say, God doesn't
forgive sins. What? No, God puts them away. God punishes them. Isaiah 34, 7 says, he will by
no means clear the guilty. Doesn't it? God's holy. Sin must be punished. Every sin,
Stan, every sin must receive a just recompense, right? Oh,
God wouldn't be God. We don't have much conception
of this now because our court systems, the farce isn't it,
isn't it, Vicki? I mean, a man can commit murder and be out
in seven years. They say, we'll give you a life
term. These are seven years. Well, he said, we'll give you
two lifetimes. That settles it. No, they'll give him fourteen.
Well, we'll give you the electric chair. Well, you might not. He'll
go on a pill and somebody will pardon him. God says the soulless
in it must surely die. Will it? Yes, it will. God will by no means clear the
guilty. He says the wages of sin is death. I wish people asked this question.
Don't you? I just wish somebody came to
that That line drawn in the sand. That's the gospel line drawn
in the sand, Henry. That's the impasse that a man
has to come to. Everybody's accepting a fire
escape. Everybody's accepting an insurance policy. Everybody's
accepting a sugar daddy, health and wealth and all that. And
nobody realizes they've got to have a perpetuatory sacrifice,
a righteousness, a substitute. They may say it, but not many
people understand what it means. How can God punish my sin and
put me to shame, yet not put me to shame, yet bring me to
say, well done, thou good and faithful servant? Oh, but I haven't
done anything but sin. Look here at Hebrews 12 too.
This is how. Just look unto Jesus. Let's look unto Jesus. Let's
accept Jesus as our personal Savior. No. We've just been talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, haven't we? And that's who he
talks about all the way through the first eleven chapters of
Hebrew. Christ is better than the law, better than Moses, better
than Aaron, better than anybody or anything. He's Lord. But he took on a bodily form
and they named him Jesus. Let's look at him now. Let's
look at him. Looking unto Jesus. He's called the author and the
finisher of our faith. Looking unto this man, whose
name was Jesus, but more than that, he's the author. Author of what? Everything. That's where we get the word
authority, right? He's the authority. He's the
author. He's the beginning. In the beginning,
who? God! Looking unto Jesus. He's God. He's the author. And He's the finisher. And we'll
say it is the last thing written in the Scriptures. Even so, come,
Lord Jesus. In the beginning and in the end,
God. When there is no anything, there'll
be God. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. And what I've said before, I've said that faith
is not us doing anything. Faith is merely receiving what
God has done. Faith's not doing anything. Christ is the water of life.
Faith is merely a glass that receives it. You don't glorify
and exalt the glass, do you? Huh? It's the water. Blessed water. And blessed Christ,
he's the one that did it all, not the glass. It's an earthen
vessel. That's going to be busted. It's
going to be broken. You know, faith is going to pass away.
People are making a big deal about faith, and it is. It's
a gift of God. I don't want to make any demeaning remarks about
faith. It's a gift of God. But, Terry,
faith is going to pass away. Now, by the faith, hope, and
love, but these shall not abide. We're going to live some day,
not by faith, but by sight, actuality, faith, hope. We're not going
to live by hope. We're going to have it, the possession of
it. But love is the principle that
God infuses and imparts. Christ, you see, he's the author
and the finisher. He's the life and he's the gift
of salvation. You with me? Christ is the life
and he's the gift of salvation. He's the liver and the giver. He's the life by the faith of
Christ. Not justified by the works of
the law, but by the faith in Christ. No, the faithfulness
of Christ. He's the life. He said, I've
come not to show you how to live, although he did. But he said,
I'm come that they might have life. You say they're dead, and
the son has to quicken them. To give life, how? By virtue
of his holy life, and imputing that life to them. He's the liver,
and he's the giver. He lived the perfect life, and
he gave it to us. All right, go on. Not just that,
he's the author and the finisher of our faith. food for the joy
that was sent before him." Boy, I like that thought. You know,
he was glad and he was happy to come down here and go through
that horrible, horrible, horrific, ignominious, unspeakable, torturous
death, even a death of the cross, for the likes of you. It made
him glad. It made him happy, the thought
of it. We get a load of that, we might
worship someday. You know, if we get a load of the reality
of that, we just might thank God someday, from the heart.
Oh, that's what election does. When a man finally gets a hold
of God elect me, he won't balk and fight that, will he? Or her. Oh, you praise God. That'll be
the song, the song of the ages. Why me? Who for the joy set before him
to save God's chosen people, even to the point of enduring
the cross. Now, this is so far from our
thoughts and our. It's so far from us being able
to enter into this because we've never seen it. It's hard to really
identify with or to enter into the cross, Sammy, because we've
never seen anybody killed in this way. We saw that man on
TV. How many of you saw that man
on TV being beaten by all those people in Los Angeles? Not just
the man, but the other man. Bricks thrown at him and all
that. Did anybody see that on TV? Kind of horrible. It was
no fun. That's nothing. That's nothing
compared to the cross. That's nothing. The cross. That was the most torturous,
painful, shameful... I have no adjective to describe
it. These Romans were... experts
at torture. They had refined the art of torture
and death. They enjoyed it. And they had
come up with all manner of things to do to a man to inflict pain
and torture on him until he finally expired from the pain itself.
And that was the cross, and this was the pinnacle of their methods,
the cross. It was reserved for the worst
of criminals, the cross. And I'm not going to go into
a graphic description of the cross just to say this, though,
that Christ endured it for the likes of you. And he did it gladly. Will you
go and be spit on and kicked and beaten and have your beard
plucked out and be crumpled to a bloody mass and be whipped
within an inch of your life and have your hands and your feet
nailed to a cross and have thorns jammed on your head until the
blood gets in your eyes and your mouth and go so thirsty that
you can't even speak? Will you do that for an old Ed
Berry, an old worthless dog? Will you do that? Gladly. with great joy. Can anybody get
a hold of that? What about the shame? Now, here's
what I'm getting at. Despising the shame. Now, there's nothing that anybody
in here would There's nothing a human being
can go through to totally demoralize and degrade and bring down and
make you want to die more than shame. I remember growing up and I was
never put to shame, but my parents Sometimes my dad would say this
to me and all manner of things would run through my, the blood
would run out of my head and my heart would drop. My knees
would get weak. When I got caught doing something,
he said, aren't you ashamed of yourself? I remember one time, I don't
have time to go into it, I did something and The whole school,
everybody found out about it, and I was brought before the
principal, and I had to go through this horrible penance of going
before the people I did it to and to apologize. Oh, shame. Anything but that. Well, I'll
walk, I'll crawl, I'll run up the peaks of Otter ten times. Don't put me to shame. It's just Christ thought nothing
about it. That's what despise. You know what that despise means?
It means thought nothing of it. How many of you would you like
to be stripped naked and paraded in front of this church right
here today? Oh, the shame. You place blushes
to think about it, doesn't it? Christ thought nothing about
it. Hung him on a cross naked before men, women, and children.
They mocked him. Mocked him. It says they stuck
out their tongues. The scriptures through the psalms
says, all they that pass by me wag their tongues. They got to,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at him, Junior. Look at
the man. Naked. Says Christ didn't think anything
about it. You getting the whole reality
of this scene now? Why? Because that's what I deserve. I deserve charity to stand before
God Almighty someday naked, exposed before the world, before the
angels, before God. You're not what you said you
were, are you?" No, I'm not. They called him a liar. Who was
truth? Why? And he didn't open his mouth,
Barbara. Why? Because I'm a liar. I said, in my haste, all men
are liars. They called him a blasphemer,
a hypocrite, didn't they? Why? And he didn't open his mouth. A blasphemer, the Son of God?
Oh, no, he always did those things which pleased his heavenly Father.
For the good. Why? Because that's me, John. That's you, a hypocrite. And we deserve to stand before
God, don't we, someday, and for God to say, you're a hypocrite.
You know that, and now everybody else knows it. Right? But no, Christ did it for me. And now I don't have to. They spit on him. And there's
nothing, you know, the final blow, the final most shameful
thing you can do to a human being. You know, you spit on the sidewalk.
You spit in the dirt. to bring up the dregs of these
mouths that are open sepulchers and spit in somebody's face. They did it to the Son of God.
Why? Because I deserve it. Because you deserve it. And they
stripped him naked and they hung him on a pole and he became a
laughing stock and a gazing stock to all the world. He was put
to an open shame. and ridicule, because that's
what we desire. But he that believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. Never put to shame. Never. We sung that song. Did anybody
sing it from your heart? Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned he stood, but he sealed my pardon with
his blood." Hallelujah! What a Savior! Turn over with me to Mark chapter
eight, and I'll quit. I'll wrap this thing up. Mark chapter eight. You know,
there's a text I can't rightly recall exactly in Jeremiah, where
he says, Is it nothing to you? All you that pass by. You know, you make it when every
time you hear the gospel, unbelievers certainly have made a decision. Unbelievers, people don't come. People don't believe the gospel
have made an open statement to say that doesn't mean a thing.
Maybe Christ died, but it doesn't mean a thing. And you know, to
come, we come, I'm guilty, we're all guilty. It's the reason we're
such shameful creatures. We come and listen to such a
story as this without a tear, without an ounce of emotion,
without a care. And that passage says, is it
nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold,
and see if there any sorrow like unto my sorrow." And he did it. If you claim to be a child of
God, for you. Put to shame. Well, this is what
Christ says for those who say, finally, there's nothing to me.
That's nothing. Verse 38, Whosoever therefore
shall be ashamed of me. And my words, in this adulterous
and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be
ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the
Holy Angel." You know, there's a passage of
Scripture, you see, God is rich. We have every reason to be ashamed,
and we still are ashamed of Him at times. but he that believeth
in him." Here's the glory of it. We still do this very thing
even. Here's the glory of the gospel.
He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed, not be put to
shame, and not be finally ashamed of him. But God is so rich in
mercy and all manner of sin and iniquity. It's forgiven us sin
to the uttermost, the gutter most, somebody said. Down to
the lowest, all that come to God by him. It even says this,
there's a passage, I didn't write it down, Hebrews 11, I believe. It says, it says, God's not ashamed to
be called their God. God is not ashamed. You know,
when I was growing up. I've told you my story, you've
heard everything about me, just about. But, you know, the prediction,
the prophecy on me, it was opposite of Timothy, Joe. Paul said Timothy's
going to be a man of God, and he was. The prophecy on me was
I'd be in prison. One man's preacher said, if the
Lord doesn't save him, he'll be in prison. A low-down, worthless, prodigal
son. It was said of me, son, you ain't
going to amount to nothing. And I didn't. But the Heavenly Father, the
Heavenly Father takes prodigals like that and calls them son.
Not a shame. That's not your boy down there,
is it? Is that a son of God? That one? That's not your boy,
that low down, no good word. Him? God says, yeah, that's my
boy. Oh, my soul. God's not ashamed to be called
their God. In Hebrews 2, 11, it says that Christ is not ashamed
to call them brethren. It says, he that sanctified,
I better, I better Read it, quote it exactly. Hebrews chapter 2,
he says this, verse 11, in closing, both he that sanctifies, and
that's Christ who made us pure and holy and righteous before
God, and they who are sanctified are one. I'm a son of God through
the Son of God, because of the Son of God, because of what he
did, not because of what I did. For which cause? For whose cause?
For the cause of Christ, for Jonathan's sake, for Christ's
sake, by the merits and the virtue and the blood and the righteousness
of Christ. For this cause, for which cause, he is not ashamed
to call us brethren." And Henry's sword, bless God, buddy, you
and I walk in to heaven. The Son of God, the Holy Spotless
Son of God, greet us at the door and say, Hello, brothers. Hello,
Brother Henry. Come on in. Well done. And you and I look at each other
as we go in at the same time and say, Isn't that a shame to
call us brethren? Well, I'll praise Him through
eternity. Not in the ring. unto him, unto him. Ah, boy,
this gospel's too good to be true, isn't it? But it is, it's true. All right,
stand with me.