characterize the preaching of
the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, first of all,
had a zeal for the glory of God Almighty. That was first and
foremost in his preaching. And secondly, Paul had a love
and concern for the people that he preached to, a deep abiding
love and concern for the people he preached to. But first and
foremost, he desired to glorify God Almighty. He said things
like this. He said no flesh should glory
in his presence. He said to God be glory both
now and forever. He said, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of Christ. He said, we should be to the
praise of his glory. He said, every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. He said, now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory,
both now and forever. Amen. The Apostle Paul sought
more than anything to glorify God, as does every true servant
of God. First and foremost in his mind
is to glorify God. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
one. Galatians chapter one. I was concerned with the glory
of God, as is every true messenger and servant of God. Here in Galatians
1, look at verse 10. Paul said, Do I now persuade
men for God? Am I trying just to convince
people? Am I trying to just corral people and bring people into
the church and so forth? Is my preaching, am I just trying
to persuade you? You know, the last couple of
messages here from Hebrews have been in earnest pleading with
young people, with people everywhere to believe and not let these
things slip. Am I just trying to plead with
you or rather give glory to God? That's what Paul's saying there. Do I seek to please men? If I
yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. I'm not trying to persuade men
as much as or more than glorify God. God is glorified in your
salvation. If you try to please men more
than glorify God or persuade men more than glorify God, it
will change your message and it will change your methods.
You'll resort to all kinds of things, trickery and so forth,
just to convince people to bring them in. It'll change you. And
we're not in the business of trying to accommodate people.
There's some people in here that I just dearly love and people
in here just dearly love to see come to know Christ and just
be a believer and a disciple with us. Not at the expense of God's glory.
God doesn't need you or me. We sure need God. We sure need
Him. We're not in the business of
trying to accommodate men, but to glorify God. We're not in
the business of not trying to see how many we can include into
the kingdom. We're trying to extol and honor
the King. That's what this is all about.
Remember reading that there in Ezekiel 36? This whole thing's
about the glory of God. That's what it's all about. We're
not here to try to see how many people we can baptize. It gets
you to clean up your life and so forth. It gets you to make
a profession. That's not what this is all about. What this
is all about is believers, those of like faith, are met here together
to worship and exalt this great God. And I just hope, by God's
mercy and grace, you see that you have every reason to exalt
him you say. And I'm not pleading with you, begging you to accept
Jesus or to glorify God or even believe him. I'm telling you
that you better, that all men, God commands men everywhere to
repent. We speak, Paul said, not as pleasing
men but God, which tried the hearts. I have to examine my
motives for preaching every time I stand up here. What is my motive
in this? It better be for the glory of
God, no matter what I say, no matter who it may hurt or whatever. It better be for the glory of
God, or I need to step down. I'll let somebody else up here.
Any man who seems to be more concerned with men than the glory
of God is not the servant of God. Now, listen. We say this, and
I've said it. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
33. Exodus 33. I've said this before,
and you may have said it. You say, the chief glory of God,
though, is in saving sinners. No, it is not. The chief glory of God is God. It's himself. That's included
in his character or his way. Saving sinners is a chief act
of God's glory. But God's chief glory is himself,
you see. You understand what I'm saying?
God's chief glory is himself. He said, we just read it. I'm
not doing this for your sake. Does my holy name say? He said, I blot out, he said
it in other places, Isaiah, twice in Isaiah. He said, I blot out
thy transgression for my sake, mine own name's sake. He said,
for mine own sake, even for my own sake. He said, in case you
didn't hear it the first time. For my sake, yeah, for my sake,
will I do it? Because how shall my name be
polluted? And I will not give my glory
to another." That's what he said in Isaiah 48. Now, I've seen
this verse here in Exodus 33, verses 18 and 19. I've seen this
verse in a whole new light the last couple of days. I've seen
this in a whole new light. Every one of us has read this.
Look at it with me. Part of God's glory is His mercy. Part is his grace, part is his
love, but it all can be summed up in this right here. Listen
to me. This is the theme of this message.
Look at verse 18. Now Moses said, I beseech you,
show me your glory. Now you know Moses, you know
what he'd been through. Moses had seen the Red Sea parted,
seen water come out of the rock, pillar of fire, cloud. He'd seen
manna come down, quail. All these miracles, the plagues
of Egypt, you know what miraculous things Moses witnessed. Well,
here on this mountain, Moses said, But Lord, show me really
your glory. I want to see what you're really
all about. Okay? Now, I've read this in
a different light here. Verse 19. And God said, Okay. I will make all my goodness pass
before thee." I looked that word of goodness up, Terry. You know
what that meant? My best. I'm going to show you
my best. Oh, you've seen a few little
things. The best is yet to come. I'm going to show you my best.
And look what he says his best is. I'm going to proclaim the
name. of the Lord. That's his best. His name. What is his name? What's
Psalm 117? What is his name? Thy name holy
and reverend is thy name. Holy. His name is holy. Holy. Holy. We saw the Lord, Isaiah
said, high lifted up. His train filled the temple and
the cherubim and the angels, what they cried under this majestic
person, holy, holy, holy, thrice holy, three in one, holy. That's his glory. That's his
chief honor. That's his chief glory. That's
his majesty, his holy. And that takes in much more than
personal sinlessness or whatever. It means pure, spotless, perfect
in everything. light, life, holy, holy. And he said this, he said, I'm
the Lord, and that's my name, and my glory will I not give
to another. I am the ever-present, always will be, always have been,
the Lord, the sovereign ruler. That's my name. That's who I
am. That's my best. I am my best, my own best, my
sake. All this I did for my sake, that
ye might see who I am." See? Now, he says, and I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. But it's holy, sovereign grace.
There's a lot of people talking about grace, but they're not
talking about holy, sovereign grace. God can't be gracious
at the expense of His holiness. Some of you know what I'm talking
about. God's not going to forgive you your sin unless He pays for
it. God's not going to make you a
son of God unless He makes you absolutely holy and righteous.
He'll accept you like you are. It's holy and sovereign grace.
And He says, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
But it's holy. Sovereign mercy. Listen, turn
back to Ephesians 4 with me, Ephesians chapter 4. This generation,
this generation of false prophets are wholly concerned with mercy
and grace, but they bypass the sovereignty and holiness of God,
don't they? Let's get by this name of the
Lord and let's get to this mercy and grace, don't they? This love.
They wholly bypass the sovereign, holy character of God. Yet mercy
and grace, listen, mercy is for guilty. Mercy is for guilty people. And nobody is going to be guilty
unless they see this holy God. You're never going to be convinced
of what you are, and I'm not either, until I see God in His
holiness. The day that anybody in here,
anybody in here who has not yet come to Christ for salvation,
worship God, who's not really worshiping God, you haven't seen
God yet. There's the problem, you see.
That's where it starts, doesn't it, Terry? This is where salvation
starts. You haven't seen God yet. We
will. Every eye is going to behold
him someday. We're going to see. And the scripture
said, and everybody that doesn't It's not in Christ he's going
to cry for somebody to hide him from God. Now, if you ever see
God in his holiness, then you'll see yourself and you'll say,
whoa, it's me. And then God will point you to
Christ and say, well, you best be getting over here under the
rock like those ants. You know, you better get over
under the rock, buddy. Where is that rock? Right there, Christ
Jesus. Yeah, Christ, help me. The problem is, the reason a
man doesn't believe is because he hasn't seen God yet. Right? There's the key. And mercy is
for guilty. And you're not going to be guilty
until you see God. Mercy, and this thing about mercy
too, mercy's in the hands of the one who gives it. Mercy's
in the hands of the one who gives it. It's in God's hands. And
we can't Drum it up. We can't earn it. It's in God's
hands. He's not obligated to show it.
He's the one that's got it, and we need it. And he doesn't have
to give it. If we see that, we'll cry out
for mercy on him. And grace, grace is not a gift offered.
Will you accept my gift? No, no. Grace now is sovereign
grace. This is the difference in what
we preach and what others preach. They preach a grace that God
loves you, Christ died for you. Won't you please accept it? No! The grace we preach is sovereign
grace. That God says, now here's my
love. Take it. Thank you. This is yours. Thank you so much. Sovereign
grace. That you don't deserve this.
And you don't by even my nature want it. But I'm going to give
it to you. Whether you want it or not. And
the way he does is he makes us willing, and the day of his pay
makes us wanting. Even that's his sovereign power.
So Paul, this is what I'm saying, this Paul here was consumed with
the glory of God, first and foremost, as seen in the face of Christ
Jesus. And Paul the Apostle loved and was concerned for those he
preached to. And a man doesn't have any business
in the pastorate. Now, he can be a traveling evangelist
or whatever, but still, he needs to love those people he preaches
to. He needs to be concerned with
their soul. As some man said, to love to
preach is one thing, but to love those to whom you preach is quite
another. And your preaching will come out accordingly, won't it?
But Paul the Apostle, nobody could doubt his love for his
people. He said in one place, Romans 9, he said, I wish I could
be a curse. He said, I wish I could, Romans
8, or Romans 9, yeah. He said, I've got a heavy heart. I've got heaviness and tenual
sorrow in my heart. I wish that I could be accursed
for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. And some
of you in here, whether you believe it or not, it's true. I've got
a heavy heart for you. And I sure wish that you knew
Christ. And I know some other people have a heavy heart for
you, too. And Paul said this in another place, he said, My
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel through my people
is that they might be saved. And there's people right now
praying for some of you. And the prayer is that you might
be saved. And right here in Ephesians 4,
this is where we're going to be, Paul is in prison. Now, I mean, this man's in a
dungeon. He's in a hell hole. He's down
in Waterankle Deep with an old crusty piece of bread with shackles
on his feet. He's in prison. This wasn't one
of these minimum security places, you know, where they had pool
tables and rec rooms. This is prison now. And he was
in dire straits and pain and suffering. But he was still taken
up with people he was writing to. You think about that. Look
at verse 1. Ephesians 4, he says, I'm the
prisoner of the Lord, but I beseech you. I'm in trouble, but not as much
as you are, he says. I beseech you that you'd walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. I implore you,
I urge you. Are you a disciple? I wish you
were. Are you a believer? Are you a
follower of Christ? I wish you were. Do you claim
that Christ is your Lord and Master? Oh, if you do, then walk
with Him. I beseech you, walk with Him.
Talk with Him. Study Him. Emulate Him. Imitate
Him. I beseech you. That's what I
did this morning. That's what I do every time I
stand up. I beseech you. Do you claim to be a believer?
A follower? A disciple? Are you walking with
Him? Are you studying Him? Are you
taking up, wholly taking up with Christ? I was talking to Mindy
about this last night. I was talking to men about it. When the Lord first started dealing
with me and other people I've known, I couldn't get enough
of the gospel. And I have to say in sincerity
now, much study is awareness to the flesh, and I do grow tired
at times, but I'm still not tired of this. There's still no place
I'd rather be. And when the Lord first started
working on me as a young man, I was consumed with it. I just
wanted to hold it, consume it. All I wanted to do was sit around
and talk about it. And I heard a man going to preach somewhere.
Where are you going? Going to drive down to Pikeville, two
hours away. Look at I go. Dad going to hold a meeting.
Where are you going? I'm going down here to Tennessee. How long
are you going to be there? Care if I tag along? And other
men. I've known others. Where are
you going? Let's go. Come early, like I was talking
about the men's gathering and the study
before church, you know, young men that God's working on, young
people. They're an hour early to get
a seat. Just sit and rub shoulders with people who love Christ.
Consumed with it. And Paul said, oh, I wish he
would. I wish he were. I wish he was walking, worthy,
or like you say, That's what he's saying here. Calling, wherewith ye are called. Oh my, vocation, wherein ye are
called. With all lowliness, verse 2,
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering for bearing
one another in love. I wish you were lowly, meek,
longsuffering for bearing one another, not proud of race, face,
or especially grace. Remembering the pit from which
you were digged, and being compassionate and kind with those who are still
in it. That's what he's saying there. Long-suffering, forbearing
one another in love, acting like a believer, acting like a brother.
Endeavoring, now look at it, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity of the Spirit. I hope the Lord will help me
here. The unity of the Spirit. What is this talking about? You
see that? It says, capital S, the Holy
Spirit, the unity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit chiefly
unites people's hearts by faith in Christ. That's what this whole
thing is all about. That's what this whole group
is all about. Faith. It's not just social.
There's a lot of Christian country clubs. Okay, so-called. This is not just a social gathering.
This is people, some people, who are gathered together in
the name of Christ to worship Him, united in faith and hearts
of love and gratitude, and to worship our great God for great
things He's done. And to talk to one another about,
what's He done for you? Oh, a lot, let me tell you that.
Let me hear what He's done for you. That's what this is all
about. Unity of the Spirit is, unite our hearts by faith. And
he says it's done with peace, this bond of peace, a bond of
peace. This peace, first of all, is
peace with God. And how do we have peace with
God? And I'm not up here saying peace, peace to you when there
is no peace, obviously, between you and God. You need peace not
with your mom and dad, not with The church, you don't need to
just be in good standing in the church. You need to be in good
standing with God Almighty. You need peace with God because
God is angry with the wicked every day. Who's that? That's
me, that's you. We need peace. We need to be forgiven our transgressions. And that peace comes by the blood
of Christ's cross. OK? Now, Paul didn't say in here,
let's read it again, he says, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit. and the bond of peace. Is there
somebody with me? He's not saying here, do anything
for the sake of peace. That's what a lot of people are
saying. For the sake of unity, let's just do anything, do whatever
it takes to keep unity. No, that's not what... I read
to you a while ago where Paul said, do I yet seek to please
me and our God? God. Now, we're not trying to
get a big crowd in here. I wish God would bring a big
crowd in here. I don't despise a big crowd. In my soul, I wish more people
would hear this message. So many times I stand up here
and think, oh, I wish the world could hear this, or another man
preaching. I'm not despising a big crowd,
but that's not what we're in here for, to bring a big crowd
in and seek to please men. He's not saying, say, peace,
peace, when there is no peace. We need to keep it in context
here. The spirit of unity, he's talking about more, is a oneness
in faith. In faith. I hope I'm not losing
you. A oneness in faith. And this is done, this is bonded,
this bond is by the gospel of peace. Now, stay with me. He goes on to explain here. Look
at verse 4. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in this
bond of peace. to have people believe the gospel,
the gospel of God's peace by God's Holy Spirit, because there's
one body. It's just one church. There's
not many denominations. There's not many ecclesiastical
bodies. It's one church. Now, I'm not
saying that this is the only church in Franklin County, Persaud,
or Rocky Mountain. I don't know. I've never been
in the rest of them. All I'm saying, all this is saying, and
what I'm saying, is that the one church is the people who
believe the same thing. The building's not the church,
but the people are. And all the people of God are
the church of God, and the church of God have one firm conviction,
one faith. One. One congregation of believers. They may be separated. There
may be some here, there may be some in Danville, there may be
some in Asheville, there may be some in Tennessee and North Carolina,
but they're one in faith. One, he says, one body, that
is one church. The church doesn't split. Christ never loses an arm. Church
never splits. Now, sheep and goats may be separated,
but the church was never split. The church was always there,
right? They just weeded out. You know, the terriers had been
brought, took out of the wheat. Church never splits. Did you
hear of no so-and-so? They split over one. Well, some
wanted blue curtains, others wanted red curtains. That's about
the size of most of them. Church don't split over that. Church never splits. The church
is one. One body. One body. The church is one according to
the power of that spirit. That's what he just said. The
unity of the spirit. The bond of peace. This one body. The power of the spirit keeps
peace. The Holy Spirit is the peace officer. He keeps the spirit,
keeps the peace, keeps the church together. He's the constable
of the church, church constable. And he takes care of it. That's
the reason we don't have to discipline people. The Holy Spirit takes
care of his own church, his problem. God takes care of his church.
We don't have to. He does it. He keeps it together.
And he's not the author of confusion, Paul said, but oneness, singuleness. He brings God's people together.
He brings them together. He said there's one body, one
spirit. He brings them together. How? How does God's spirit bring his
church together? How? By faith in Christ. The principal job of the Holy
Spirit is to take the things of Christ and show it to God's
people. And you can pretty much count
on it to be in a church, wherever you go, if Christ is exalted
there. If they're preaching Christ and
Him crucified, wholly taken up with the glory of God in the
face of Christ Jesus. That's God's church. I know they
may have some problems here and there, but that's God's church.
And that's what the Spirit is taken up with. One Spirit. One
Spirit of God. He makes all of God's people
one by virtue of, look at verse four again, one hope of your
calling. This is the title of this message.
One. One. There's one body. One church. There's one spirit. One Holy Spirit. And this church
has this one spirit. One body. One spirit. One hope
of your calling. One hope. One hope. The spirit calls one way. The spirit calls his people one
way. The Spirit calls His people,
leads His people in one direction. Right? The Holy Spirit points
His people in one direction. Where? Christ. He points men to Christ. He leads
in one direction. Not within, but without. He leads men and points men to
Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit.
He points men to Christ. The only way. that a sinner can
be accepted with God. The only truth of the gospel
is how that Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteous of God in him. That's the truth
of the gospel. That's what the Holy Spirit teaches his people.
The only life, the only way a man can live with that holy God is
if Christ, if we're quickened together with Christ. And the
Holy Spirit does that. One hope of your calling. One
calling. Did you ever... And the Holy
Spirit does it the same to all people. He calls them the same
way. By our gospel. That's what I just summed up.
The gospel. He calls by the gospel. He does it the same way to all
people. Everywhere. God is pleased by the foolishness
of preaching. He's chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. When you heard our gospel,
the Word of Truth, you believed it. He believed it. The Holy
Spirit calls by what I'm doing this morning. And if you perk
up your ears by God's Spirit, you'll listen. You may hear His
voice. Okay? Did you ever play tag when you
were a kid? I know everybody in here did.
And when the game was all over, there was a base. There might
have been a big oak tree or whatever. And when the game was all over,
it was time to go home, what did you say? What did you call
out? Remember? Remember? All in all in free. Did you ever say that? All in
all in free. Christ says, come unto me all
ye that labor, all in all in free. In Christ, free. Won't cost you. Come unto me
all ye that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you that. Don't have
to do a thing. Just come to me. That's the call of the gospel.
OK? Forsake your works. For the sake
of your righteousness, your religion, put it down. Throw it down. Forget
it. Drop it. Reach. Come to me. Come to Christ. I'll take care
of you. That's what he said. Call one hope of your calling.
Not a hope that you have lived a good life, that you've been
moral, that you've quit your bad habits, and that now God
maybe has taken notice of that. No, no, no. That's not the hope
of your calling. is the hope of your calling.
It's that God sees him, and he accepts him, and now Christ said,
you better come to me, and I'll take you to God. That's your
hope. That's your own hope. OK? That's
your own hope. The Spirit points to one, look
at this, one Lord, verse 5. One Lord. One Lord. The Spirit first teaches God's
people that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of God the Father.
You see how it comes right back to the glory of God? He teaches
all men everywhere, or all of His people everywhere, that there's
one Lord, Jesus Christ. And we're in His hands. We're
in His. The Spirit doesn't first teach
people about sweet little Jesus. No. No, that's not what the Spirit
does. God loves you, and Christ died
for you. And this is what makes a man
see his sinfulness and his need. He teaches a man first that this
is a sovereign Lord whom he must bow to, an all-powerful Lord,
a master and a king by whom are all things, in whom are all things,
through whom are all things, under whom are all things, Lord,
Lord and master. And we don't just say it in principle. are in word you know Lordship
Jesus is Lord like oh what's the Kenneth Copeland say that
man doesn't believe that because he calls us little Lord said
your little God we're talking one Lord in the chiefest sense
of the word one person in charge you're not many chiefs one chief
whole lot of little Indians one chief And the Spirit's great
commission is to make every knee bow and every tongue confess.
And if you by God's grace have, the Holy Spirit has shown you
that. Confess that he's Lord. One Lord,
verse 5, one faith. One faith. The Spirit teaches
the one body the same things concerning this one Lord with
this one and only hope of their calling. They shall all, the
scripture says, and this is one of my favorites, John 6, verse
45, they shall all be taught of God. All of them. And every man that heard and
learned of the Father comes unto me. And Christ is quoting that
from Isaiah 54, I believe it is, where he said, all thy children
shall be taught of thee. All of them. Illustration before
but we were four kids in my family. Three boys and a girl. And we
all had the same father. Now we all basically knew my
father as he was. A cruel tyrant. No. Hope he didn't
hear that. No. In charge. First of all we all knew more
than anything his dad was dead. Dad was dad, and you best say
what dad says goes. Not what mom says, what dad says
goes. Mom, too, according to the authority
delegated to her. But dad was dad, and we knew
him as having certain characteristics. He had black hair, wore glasses,
clean shaven, was pastor of a church. We knew he had the basic, fundamental
knowledge of who God was. Now, my oldest brother didn't
know God, or didn't know My father one way, and I knew him another.
My oldest brother, according to the longer, the more he was
with him, the more he knew about him than I did. In other words,
the more you're with somebody, the more you know them. Okay?
The more clearly you know them. But we basically had the same
knowledge. You understand what I'm saying? We had the same daddy. We all knew him as he was. Not
to the same degree. The same goes with God's people.
Every one of God's people know God as what? Somebody say, they know God as
God, right? God is God. Pharaoh said, who
is Lord? That's not a child of God, is
it? A man that has to stop and think who's in charge, that's
not God, that's not his father, is it? If somebody come around
and say, hey, I'm your long lost brother, are you? Yeah, Henry
Mahan's my son. Describe him. He's got red hair,
he's 7'3", and weighs 400 pounds. That's not... Henry May is not
your daddy. My dad's 5'10", has black hair,
and wears glasses, and weighs about 190. Not your dad. And a man that comes up and tells
me, and I hear these people all the time, God is my father. Why
is that? Who is God? He's my co-pilot. Oh, no, that's not God. That's
not God. God is love. Hey, wait a minute. Now, that's not my God. My God's
holy, sovereign, just. God wants to. God tries. They
fuel it. That ain't God. Is it? That's not my Father. We got
one Lord. One God. One Father, he said.
One faith. We believe the same way about
the same God. All right? That simple enough?
All thy children shall be taught of God. It says, y'all, all of
them. There's no discrepancies here.
I just, I'm not going to allow for it. I don't care what anybody
says. They know God is in, it's God
doing as he will, with whom he will, how he will, when he will,
if he will. Right? Saving whom he will. Salvation in his hand. All right,
what is this faith? This faith. Let's go in a little
more deep, a little deeper here. One faith. What is this faith?
It's not so much of what, as who, as a who. Not so much a
what as a who, but when you say who, when you say our faith is
an object, faith is Christ, you've said a lot. You've said a lot
of what when you say Christ is the object of my faith. Turn
to Romans chapter one with me. Romans chapter one. I'm trying
to teach you something here. What is this faith, this one
faith of God's elect? God's people, God's children.
What is this faith? Well, principally, it's trusting,
hoping in, depending upon one person to save you. Not yourself,
anything to do with you, not get the preacher to pray you
through or whatever, but depend on Christ to save you wholly,
completely. To trust Him, trust His work,
trust His blood, His righteousness, His prayers, His relationship
with the Father, trust Him. Everything about. Now look here
Romans 1 verse 16 Paul said now I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Now listen he's going to describe the gospel. Listen to me stay
with. Because in this gospel therein in the gospel is the
righteousness of God. Revealed. From faith. To faith. You understand what
he's saying there? Talking about the righteousness
of God needs to be understood from faith to faith. If this person says he believes,
he needs to know something about the righteousness of God. This
person over here says they believe, they need to know something about
the righteousness of God. Turn around, I'll prove this to you.
Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. You may know the scripture I
want to quote Isaiah forty five we're talking about I don't expect. Everybody to be able to explain
or carefully articulate that is perfectly talk about this
righteousness. But this thing is a matter. The
gist of the matter is that they must see Christ. as being the
only one God will accept. The only one God will accept.
This is what we're talking about when we say righteousness. Now
look at this. Look at it. Isaiah 45, verse
22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all that ye deserve. I'm God. There's none else. That's
what we just got through talking about. God says, I've sworn by
myself. Look at this. I don't know if
you've ever really looked at this. I've sworn by myself the word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto
me every knee shall bow. That's Christ. Every tongue shall
swear, surely, verse 24, surely, surely shall one say, and my
margin says this, surely he shall say of me, that person who looks
to me, who comes to me, who believes me, surely that person will come
to this conclusion, will say, in the Lord have I righteousness. You see that? Surely everyone
that comes to God by Christ will have to say, and must understand
to some But the Lord Jesus Christ is your righteousness. The Lord,
your righteousness, this is the heart of the gospel. The heart
of the gospel is that you can't work your way to God, but Christ
did. And if you want to get to God,
those works have to be given to you, imputed to you, charged
to your account, this righteousness. Does that simplify it? You've
got to understand something about that. I don't deny that. Because
some men have gone to seed with it, I don't deny it. It's the
Word of God, OK? Look back at Romans 3, 3. And
I just recently read an article by a fellow. I'm not trying to
prove anything. I'm just trying to teach us.
I read an article by a fellow who was diminishing this thing
of imputed righteousness. Oh, my soul. Don't ever do that. My hope of
glory is that God Almighty imputed the righteousness of Christ in
my camp. My hope of glory is that when God sees Christ, He
sees me. That I've been made righteous. That God sees me as
holy. Not because of what I did, but
because of what Christ did. And because Christ gave that
to me. I didn't earn it, He just gave it to me. Don't diminish
that and cause a man. This is what Paul says in verse
3. But what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? Well, somebody does say something
like that. It's not necessary for you to understand imputed
righteousness of Christ. Does that make it unnecessary?
That ain't what God's word says. Look at it with me. Look down
in verse 21. Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifest. It was witnessed even by the
Law and the Prophets. Even the righteousness which
is by faith of Jesus Christ. Righteousness. He keeps talking
about righteousness five hundred times in the Scriptures. He talks about righteousness. Shall we be ignorant? We need
to know something about it, don't we? We need to see Christ as
our Lord, our righteousness. The Lord, our righteousness.
Right? That's it. That's what we need
to see. Faith of Jesus Christ, being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's
in Christ. Look down at verse 25. And God has sent him forth,
Christ, to be this bloody sacrifice. through faith in his blood. Why did he do this? To declare
his righteousness, the holiness of God, his justice against sin,
the righteousness you need. Verse 26, to declare, I say,
you best hear it, I declare it, at this time his righteousness
that he might be just and justifier of him which believeth in Christ.
Turn over Romans 10 with me. Romans Chapter 10. This is necessary
now. I don't care, like I said, if
some men have, like a broken record, keep talking about it.
You know what I'm saying? Some men make it appear that
we must be theologians to be saved. I'm not saying that at
all. Not at all. I'm just, what God's Word is
saying is that we do need to understand something about this
righteousness because we need it. We ain't going to get to
heaven without it. And we need to see who has it and why. Right? Or else the gospel doesn't mean
anything, does it? We've got to see the holiness of God. We've
got to see our sinfulness. Well, then what is Christ going
to mean to us unless we see Him as our holiness with God? Does
that make sense? If we see the holiness of God,
and that's what brings a man to faith and repentance, the
holiness of God, we see ourselves, oh, I'm a sinner. Holy God, Job
said, how can a man be just with this holy God? How's God going
to have anything to do with this filthy, sinful, wretched I am? How is God going to have... Christ. Well, how? I mean, what... He's
holy. He's righteous. God says, there's
my righteous servant. I like what... I like everything
he's done. I'm pleased with it. Well, what does that mean to
me? Get to him. What do you mean? Get in him. Hug up to him. Say, cover me
in your righteousness. Wrap that robe of righteousness.
It's all through the scriptures, isn't it? This robe. Wrap it around me. Cleft of the
rock. It's been hidden in Christ. Righteousness. Verse 3. Now Paul said, all the
way through Romans 10 here, he says, now they're ignorant of
God's righteousness. There's some people ignorant
of it. And Jeanette, he was saying so much as they're unsaved. Wasn't
it? He's not saying you have to be
a theologian, and I'm not saying that either. What I was saying
is you've got to see Christ as your only acceptance with God
Almighty. All right? I won't even use the word. You've
got to see Christ as your only hope with God. Because we're
judged in ourselves, but he'll judge us in Christ. But we better
use the word. God does. I'm not ashamed of the word.
That's what Paul says. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not
embarrassed by it. It just tells me I can't grasp
it or fathom it or understand it. It's righteousness. I love
it. Righteousness. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. And some poor ignorant fools
are going about to establish their own righteousness. Because
they're ignorant of the righteousness they need. OK? Now, faith doesn't
say this. This is faith. I'm explaining
faith here, one faith. Verse six, the righteousness
which is of faith. Are you with me? Verse six, the
righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise. Don't say
in your heart, who's going to get to heaven? Who's going to
get up there? Who's been, who quit the drinking
and smoking and cleaned up their life and all? Who's God pleased
with? That's no, no, that's to bring
Christ down from His glory. That's to say He didn't need
to die on the cross, did He? That's to say He died in vain.
If righteousness comes by the law, Christ died in vain. Now
what's that say? No, it doesn't say that. This
is the righteousness of faith, and it wears naive even in your
heart, verse 8. The word of faith which we preach
is if you confess with your mouth, look at this, and believe in
thine heart the Lord Jesus. Christ, the Lord our righteous
servant, our righteous Lord, our substitute, our representative. Does this make sense? I hope
so. One faith, one faith, one faith
we preach is that Christ is Lord, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made. Okay? Christ is Lord. And remember,
like I said, he's been talking about righteousness here. Now
back to Ephesians 4. And I'll quit. Back to Ephesians
4. And he says now, there's one
baptism. What is baptism? Well, one baptism
here of the Holy Spirit. The Charismatics and all like
to talk about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and a second
work of grace, don't they? Have you been baptized in the
Holy Spirit? All of God's people have been
baptized into Christ, put in Christ, right? Baptized in Him,
washed in His blood, covered in His righteous robe. All of
God's people have. One Spirit baptizes His people
in one person, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, the Holy
Spirit, one confession. And this is also talking, I believe,
about the actual Confession of Christ in this pool right here.
One baptism, one confession of one Lord. Unless, and some men
take me to task with this, but I don't care. That's what this
says right here. Unless you confess this Lord
that I've been preaching this morning, you have not confessed
the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? That's what some have already
done. They come up here and say, it's
not like we're re-baptizing anybody. We're finally baptizing someone
that's confessing the right one. That's not being hard. That's
just being true to God's Word. I did it. Now, God has to impress
this upon a man's heart. I'm not saying when a man's saved.
I'm not going into all that. I'm not the judge of all that.
If you heard of a sovereign Lord and bowed to him wherever it
was, good, fine. You confessed him wherever it
was. I don't know where it was. If you heard of this sovereign
Lord, and your need of him, his righteousness, his offering,
and you confess to him in the pool, good, fine, that's great,
that's before God. If you haven't, it's one baptism. You get in that pool as quick
as you can. Confess this, Lord. One baptism. One God. Not three. He had three in one. One God. And no man has seen
God at any time. But the only begotten Son is
in the bosom of the Father, he's declared. We're not, Terry, when
we get to heaven, we're not going to see the Father over here,
and the Holy Spirit over here, and the Son over here. Out. Who
are we going to see? Christ. One. We'll see one person
on that throne. Christ. God. No man has seen
God at any time. We're going to see him in Christ.
One God. And our God is Christ Jesus.
He walked this earth, and now he's seated at the right hand
of the Father, and Father of all. Did that trip you up, verse
6, one God and one Father of all, who is above all and through
all and in you all? Is that talking about everybody?
Oh, no. Look over chapter 3, verse 14,
right across the page. He said, I bow my knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named, God's people, his children. I quoted that a while ago, all
his children shall be taught of him. God is the Father of
a people, an elect people, his chosen people. One God, one Father,
so that one Holy Spirit, one Spirit who keeps his people together
in the gospel of God's peace, and he keeps the Spirit of peace
amongst them in this one church, and one calling. He calls them
all the same way. I don't care what the primitive
Baptists say, that's against God's word. You've got to hear
the gospel to be saved. All right? Right, Ed? That's what God's
scripture said. You've got to hear the gospel to be saved,
else this is useless. And that's about what they do.
They don't hear much preaching. One calling, one hope of your
calling, that is, he calls you by his gospel. One Lord, Jesus
Christ. One faith, one Lord, our righteousness.
One baptism, you confess one person. All of God's people confess
in the same Christ and believe the same way. Same way. And one God and Father of all
who is above all and through all and in all His people. There are no divisions. And I
can fellowship and associate with Anybody who preaches this
right here. You say you made it off on there,
right? Yeah, I did. God's Word just did. One! Yeah,
but there's many ways, there's many roads, you know, they're
all going, no! One. Well, there's many different conceptions, but
no, one. They shall all be tied to one
God, one people, one body, one Lord, one faith. Yeah, but this
way you see faith. No! Read Romans, the whole book
of Romans. One faith, John. One faith. I don't believe this way, and
you believe that way, and we hope we get to heaven in the morning.
One faith. One faith. Faith of Christ. Faith in Christ, the Lord our
righteous. One spirit. One hope, will you call him?
One God. One Father. All right. Let's sing a song, Jerry. It's hymn number 39, hymn number 39. And like I said, Lord willing,
Lord Terry will be preaching for you Wednesday night. And
you come out here, and I know Terry spent a lot of time, a
lot of prayer, a lot of thought, giving this message. It's a heavy
burden. don't take it lightly. And Brother
Bob Coffey will be here next Sunday, the Lord willing, to
go to Tennessee. Stand where I'm going to sing.