Now, let me direct your attention
to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 1. 2 Timothy, chapter 1. I am beginning on a series of
messages on the subject of salvation. Last Sunday morning, I entitled
the message, Salvation, and today it's the same. This is part 2
of that message. And what I'm trying to do in
these messages is go back to the basics that I think sometimes
we as believers take for granted and just assume that these are
givens and people know these things. And then also, I want
to remind us that we need to be reminded of these glorious
truths of salvation, not only just to hear them again, but
so that we might have the assurance of salvation that God has for
his people in Christ. Assurance is not just for the
super-Christian or the most mature of people. It's the issue, I
believe, of the gospel of salvation, and we'll see that. And then,
for some of the new folks, it's good to go back to these basics
to understand what this salvation is. This term, you know, salvation
in the Bible is a big, big word. It really is. And so many people,
when they hear the term salvation, they think of so many different
things. Most people would think of talking about how does a sinner
get saved? You know, I don't really like
that term. How do you get saved? Because it's just been thrown
around so much, and it sort of indicates there that salvation
is the work of the sinner rather than the work of God. And that's
certainly not true. But there are issues here that
you need to think about. What is salvation? What does
the Bible call salvation? How are sinners saved? How do I know if I'm among those
who are described as saved in the Scripture? How do we stay
saved? How does this issue of salvation
culminating. That's what I'm going to do.
So this is part two of salvation, and then next week I'm going
to branch out from that on various aspects of the scripture concerning
this issue. I do have several requests that
are not different. They're all one and the same,
based upon last week's message, and that is to slow down. And
I do realize, you know, that sometimes I have so much material
that, you know, and I want to get through it in a particular
time span, and so sometimes I might sound like an auctioneer up here
trying to preach the gospel, but I don't mean to do that.
So I don't mind slowing down, believe me. It's a little hard
for me, but that's OK. And then I have some Scripture
I want you to turn to. But what I'm going to do, I'm
using 2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 8 through 12 as sort of a basis
for these messages. Let's read through them, verse
8 of 2 Timothy. Chapter 1 verse 8 be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord the Word of God Paul specifically
means the gospel of salvation there the Word of salvation the
Word of Christ Nor of me his prisoner. He was in prison when
he wrote this letter to Timothy. He was in Rome in prison But
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel the good news according
to the power of God who hath saved us from and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began." That's an amazing thing, isn't it? Before
the world began. That's before I was born. I believe you, too, huh? but is now made manifest, that's
made known and apparent in experience in time by the appearing of our
Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel, whereunto
I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the
Gentiles, for which cause I also suffer these things." In other
words, I'm suffering this persecution because of the gospel that I
preach. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. That pretty much spans
what I believe the Bible teaches in so many different ways and
so many different passages, the whole of salvation. I mentioned this last week. I
had three points in last week's message, if you didn't get them.
If I did go too fast, here they are. Number one, salvation is
of the Lord. It's not of man. It didn't originate with man.
It originated with God. That's expressed in this passage
here, 2 Timothy 1, 8 and 9, at the end of the Verse 8, he talks
about the power of God. In verse 9, he says, God who
has saved us. If you're going to be saved,
it's going to be God who's going to do the saving. You cannot
save yourself. I cannot save myself. There's
nothing that we do that can save us. That's right. We're not saved by our works.
I'll get to that in just a moment. But salvation is of the Lord. by his power, his goodness, and
it's by his sovereign will. That's what he said to Moses,
and that's what he said to us. He repeated it in Romans chapter
9. He said, I'll have mercy upon
whom I will, and I'll be gracious to whom I will. So then it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. So if you're going to understand
biblical salvation now, Biblical salvation not just denominational
salvation because there's so many different kinds out there
I mean, it's like a Supermarket, isn't it? You just go down with
your cart and take the brand that you make you feel best But
you're going to understand biblical salvation you're going to have
to start right here salvations of the Lord But here's the second
thing And that's this that salvation that is of the Lord is in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ In fact, we could say it this way very
simply, not just trying to skirt an issue, but just saying it
all, is that Christ is my salvation. Christ and him crucified, buried,
and risen again. Christ seated at the right hand
of the Father in heaven, ever living, to make intercession
for us. You see, his death, burial, and resurrection was to complete
an act. of satisfying the justice of
God in paying the debt of sin for his people, his sheep. He
said, I laid down my life for the sheep. Who are the sheep?
He said, my sheep hear my voice. That's the preaching of the gospel.
They come to faith in Christ. But Christ is our salvation. His name shall be called Jesus.
Matthew 121. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And incidentally,
that tells you what we need to be saved from. We need to be
saved from sin. For we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death. Yes,
we need to be saved from death. Yes, we need to be saved from
hell. But it's sin that brought in death and hell. And here in
2 Timothy 1, you remember he says here in verse 10 that Christ
hath abolished death. Now, when did he do that? He
did that on the cross, when he died. One of the first books
that Brother Mahan gave me when I started coming here and going
to the Sunday school class, Brother Don was teaching out of the book
of Romans in our Sunday school class back here. And I'll never
forget when you got to Romans 1, 16 and 17 there and talking
about that praise the righteousness of God. And that just intrigued
me. I mean, it just, the Holy Spirit just grabbed my attention
there. I hit this mule in the head with
a two before and got his attention. And I asked Brother Mahan if
he would recommend any books that I could read for my own
personal study. And one of the books he gave me was a book by
an old Puritan writer named John Owen. And it was called The Death
of Death in the Death of Christ. A little book like that. And
I read that, and it was amazing. But that's what this is talking
about, how Christ abolished death. That's the death of death in
the death of Christ. He died. So that his people will
not die now will die physically because this corruptible this
Leslie corruption Must put on incorruption, but he says here
he brought life and immortality to light through the gospel And
that's the work of Christ. He is the light. He is our life
and our light you say so salvation is all wrapped up in the person
Now, understand that, the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ. Now, go back to Romans 1 that
Brother Aaron read as our scripture reading. Let me show you what
I'm talking about. You see, our salvation hangs on who Jesus
Christ is and what Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary. What
did he accomplish? Did he come just to make you
savable? That's what most people pray.
And that's wrong. That is a lie. He came to save
his people from their sin. That's what the Scripture says.
Is he able to do that? Well, Matthew 1, 23 says, "...for
his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us." And this is what Paul is talking about in Romans 1.
He talks about the gospel of God. Verse 1, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God. with God had promised afore or
before by his prophet in the Holy Scriptures." That's Moses
and Elijah and Samuel and Isaiah and Jeremiah. That's the whole
text of it, the law and the gospel and the law and the prophet.
So it's the same gospel. In other words, it was a promise
of the coming of Christ. And it says in verse 3, "...concerning
his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh." Now, what's that talking about?
That's talking about his humanity. He is man without sin. He's the
seed of woman, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. He was born of
the Virgin Mary, Isaiah chapter 7. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit without the aid of man. He was
not born fallen, depraved, and sinful, and dead in trespasses
and sins as you and I are. He is perfect man, but he's more
than man. Look at verse 4. and declared
to be the Son of God with power." That's his deity. He wasn't made
the Son of God. The Son of God wasn't made. He's
not a created being. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. He's the Great I Am. That's who
Jesus Christ is. He's God and man in one person.
Now, he had to be both God and man in one person to accomplish
the salvation of his people. The reason is because God cannot
die. That's right. You can't kill
God. I know they used to have these signs on the road back
in the 60s that God is dead, but they were deceived. God's not dead. They are now. God's not. You can't kill God. But this person, Jesus Christ,
who is God, did die. That's to be attributed to his
humanity. Now, you explain that to me,
or I've got a better suggestion. Don't. Because you can't. But it's so. But this man, you
see, the soul that sinned must surely die. Now, he didn't sin,
but his people did. And he came under the accountability
of their sins, the sins of his sheep. He said that the chastisement
of our peace was laid upon him. He was bruised for our iniquity,
not his own, but ours. They became his by imputation. There's that term again. That
means by accounting, by charging it to him. Just like if you took
somebody else's debt on yourself, you didn't run up the debt, but
you went to the bank and said, put it on my account, I'll pay
it. That's the imputation. That's what Christ did for his
people. That's why salvation, he went, we'll say it this way,
you know, when we speak this way, but he went to the Father
and said, put their sins on my account. I'll pay for them. I'll
die for them. Without the shedding of blood,
without death, there is no forgiveness of sin. So forgiveness comes
by his blood. And in return, he accounted to
his people righteousness. Now, look here in Romans 1 and
and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to
the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."
In other words, he was declared to be what he always was, by
the resurrection. And then look over at verse 16.
Now remember what I said. Salvation is wrapped up in the
person of Christ, who he is. If he's not God, then he's not
a Savior. And if he's not man, he's not
a Savior. Because God cannot die, but this
person who is God did die. Now listen, man cannot give and
sustain life. He can't, you can't do that.
No man, the best Adam before himself could not give and sustain
life. But this person who is man does
give and sustain life. That's to be attributed to his
deity. He's both. So he's wrapped up
in who he is. If he's not God, he's not our
Savior. And if he's not God, you better not be worshiping
him. Because if you worship anyone who's less than God, that's idolatry. He's God and man in one person.
Now, it's also wrapped up in what he accomplished. Look at
verse 16 of Romans 1. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. You see,
there's that term, salvation. And it's to everyone that believes
it. That's the believing. To the Jew first, because Christ
came in the flesh, according to the seed of David, he came
to the Jews, and that's his first in time. And to the Greek. Now, the Greek back then was
just another way of referring to the whole Gentile world, not
just the people who lived in Greece. But that whole world,
because of Alexander the Great and his conquering influence,
and even when the Romans come in. The whole Gentile world and
their view of things was just referred to as Greek. So it's
to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. That's what it's
talking about. Now look at verse 17. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just, the justified shall live by faith. Now to be
saved is to be justified. To be saved is to live by faith. Why? Because of the righteousness
of God. Now, let me tell you something,
folks. If you're going to understand biblical salvation, there's not a more
important term for you to understand than right there. The righteousness
of God. What is the righteousness of
God? What is that exactly? Well, turn
to Romans chapter 3. This is what you need and I need
to be saved. The righteousness of God. The
righteousness of man will not do. It won't do. It will not save you. The righteousness
of the best man that ever lived on earth will not do. Let me
ask you a question. Who was the best man that ever
lived on earth? Adam before the fall. Adam before the fall. The best mere man. Somebody said
Christ. Well, he was the best man. Yeah,
but I'm talking about just a mere man a mere human creature The
best one that ever lived on earth was Adam before the fall What
happened to Adam? He failed You know why? Because he's a creature. He sinned
against God Now Human righteousness will not do here for salvation. That's not what you need. So
here's what the Bible teaches And this is the third point.
Salvation is all of grace. It's all of grace. I mean, listen. It's of grace in the source of
it. It's of grace in the ground of
it. I'm going to go back over this, so I'm not going too fast
now. So listen. It's of grace in the source of
it. It's of grace in the ground of it. It's of grace in the experience
of it, in the continuing of it, and in the final culmination
of it. It's all of grace. Man's righteousness will do you
no good as far as salvation is concerned and acceptance before
God at any stage, to any degree, in any way. I'm telling you the
truth. And that's why the Lord in the
Sermon on the Mount, he made this statement, startling statement.
He said, in Matthew 5 and verse 20, he said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case or no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. The righteousness
of men or man or anything will not do you any good. What you
need and what I need for salvation is the righteousness of God.
Now, what is that? Well, look at verse 19 of Romans
chapter 3. Now, you know what he's doing
here. I mean, read your Bible and read
it, not just verse here and a verse there. Paul says, he says, in
the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. From faith,
that's the preaching of the gospel, to faith, that's to those who
believe it. And then he says, the justified, who are the justified? Those who are saved by grace,
saved by Christ, those who are just before God in Christ. They'll live by faith. That means
they live by looking to Christ. That doesn't mean they live because
they believe hard enough. or sincere enough. It means they
live by looking to Christ. You see, faith in the Bible always
has its object. Saving faith always has the object
of Christ. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of my faith, Hebrews 12. If you think of faith without
looking to Christ, all you're doing is believing a lie. You
understand that? That's what the Scripture teaches.
So the just shall live by faith. And he says, for therein, in
that gospel, the righteousness of God was in. Now, why do I
need the righteousness of God? Why am I doing my best? You know what righteousness means?
That's the standard of the law. Keeping the law. And if there's
any sin, then the punishment has to be inflicted. That's righteousness,
too. Satisfaction to the justice of
God. God's law has to be satisfied.
And so that's what righteousness is all about. Well, the righteous
is a man. Here's a guy doing the best he
can. Is that good enough? Well, the
Bible says up here in Romans 3, 10, it says, as it is written,
there's none righteous, no, not one. Who's he talking to? He must be talking about somebody
else other than me, huh? Well, that's what you think.
You don't need salvation. If you're, listen, verse 10,
look at it. Romans 3, 10, as it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. Now, if that excludes you, Why
are you here? You don't need salvation The
only ones who need salvation are those who have no righteousness
If you have one you don't need salvation You say well, I've
already been saved. Well, if that's true, you still
need righteousness You still need you need it all the time
But now if you're excluded in this You say, well, that's talking
about those Pharisees. Well, it is, but it's talking
about all men and women by nature. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Look on, verse 11. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. What is the way? Christ said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. There together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Somebody says, well,
I'm a good person. Well, you may be in mama's side,
you may be in everybody else's side, but you're not in God's
side, because God has a higher standard of goodness than what
any human being can attain. And if that were not true, then
you don't need salvation. Do you understand me? That's
why we need salvation. We need to be, we're sinners.
He came to save his people from sin, from their sins. Behold
the Lamb of God, which beareth away the sin of the world," the
Scripture says. Paul says, just as a faithful
saint worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save what? Sinners, of whom I am chief.
Now, if you're excluded in Romans 3, 10-12, then you're not a sinner. You don't need salvation. And I don't believe that, because
I believe I'd be able to recognize you. I believe you'd shine out
the rest of it. Because you wouldn't be getting
old and gray and sick and all that stuff. You'd be just a plumb
picture of hell. Never die, because death is the
result of sin. You see what I'm saying? We all
need salvation. And the only way we're going
to get salvation is through the righteousness of God. Well, look at verse 19.
He says, Now we know that what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
And so he says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, that's
man's righteousness there, deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified, be declared not guilty, made righteous in God's
sight. Now, that's the one we have to
deal with here, salvations of the Lord. And so he says, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now look at verse 21.
Now, here's that phrase, the righteousness of God. That's
what we need. And if you're going to understand biblical salvation,
you need to know what this is. He says, but now the righteousness
of God, without the law, is manifested. Now what's he talking about,
without the law? In righteousness, keeping the law, satisfying,
it's without our deeds of the law. That's what he's talking
about. Go back up and read verse 20. By deeds of law shall not
no flesh be justified. This righteousness of God, the
first thing he tells us about here, it excludes our deeds.
it excludes our work. Quoted last week, Ephesians 2,
8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, that's not
of yourself, not even the faith is of us, it's of the Lord, because
salvation is of the Lord. It's not of work, lest any man
should boast, without the deeds of the law. And so he says, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets, this is what Moses
taught, this is what the prophets taught. even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ." Now, notice how
it's put there because that's a good translation of that from
the original language. It's by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now, we who are saved, we have
faith in Jesus Christ. But our faith in Jesus Christ
is not our righteousness before God. And one reason I
know that is because we don't yet have perfect faith. We have
to wrestle and struggle throughout this world, don't we? If we're
honest. What is our righteousness? It's
the faith of Jesus Christ. He had faith. Yeah. He had faith in his Father. And
it was based upon a covenant promise made before the world
began. given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began, wherein the Father promised him all preeminence
and all glory and all honor upon his finishing all the conditions
and requirements of the salvation of his people." And Christ, in
his life, in his obedience, in his death, in his burial, in
his resurrection, he was faithful to do what he agreed to do. And
what he did is the believer's righteousness before God. The
righteousness of God is the work of Jesus Christ, my friend. It's
not your work or my work. And that's what he's talking
about. Look at it, verse 22. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that
believe. It's preached unto all. It's
upon all them that believe. How do I know that I have this
righteousness? How do you know if you have this righteousness?
Do you believe in him? Because that's how you know.
Do you rest in him for all righteousness, life, and glory? Or are you looking
somewhere else? Are you looking to an experience
you had when you were a kid? I've had people, I've had a lot,
a lot of people tell you, I know I'm saved because I walked an
aisle when I was 12 and I got baptized. Well, that's not, if
that, listen, if that's your salvation, you're not looking
to Christ. I'm sorry. I don't want to offend
people, but that's just it. I joined the church when I was
this, that, or other. I had a dream, and it was real. I told my Sunday school class,
Morrison, I'm just sick of hearing stuff like that. It may have
been real, and I'm not questioning the reality of it, but let me
tell you something. The reality of a thing does not mean salvation,
and I'll tell you how I know that. Hell is real. Isn't it? I want to go there. And it may be a marvelous experience.
That's okay. But here's what I'm concerned
with about myself and about you and salvation. Are you looking
to Christ today? Are you resting in his blood
for all the forgiveness of your sins? Past, present, and future. Are you resting in him for all
righteousness, all justification, Your whole right standing before
a holy God. That's the issue. Not what happened
to you back then. That's the past. That's the past. Are you looking to Christ today?
He says in verse 22, he said, it's upon all them that believe,
but there's no difference for all sin and come short of the
glory of God. But verse 24, being justified, being made righteous,
being not guilty freely. That word freely means literally
without a cause. It means unconditionally. What
that means is that if God has justified you, if God has saved
you, there was nothing in you or of you or from you to call
God to do that or motivate God to do it. Isn't that amazing? You say, well, why did he do
it? Here's your answer. I don't know. And you don't either. I can tell
you this. Here's the only answer the Bible
gives. It was to the praise of the glory of his grace. Isn't that right? To the praise of the glory of
his grace in Christ Jesus. You say, well, I figured he did
it because I did this, or I did my part, or I walked an aisle,
or I got baptized. No, no. He justified freely,
verse 24, by his grace. And here's the ground of it.
Now, look here, verse 24. Here's the ground of it. Through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That means because Christ
Jesus met all the conditions, fulfilled all the requirements,
and paid all the price. You see that? That's why it's
my grace. You say, well, I gave up a lot. Not really. But if you feel that you did,
if you think that's the redemption price, then you're denying Christ.
You see, the price of forgiveness is not anything we do. It's the
blood of Christ. There's the price. You want to
see the cost of salvation, the cost of redemption, the cost
of forgiveness? It's the precious blood of Christ.
You were redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious
blood of Christ. His blood is my righteousness.
That's the righteousness of God, his blood, his death, his satisfaction
to justice. Look at verse 25 of Romans 3.
Whom God hath set forth, that means foreordained, if you'll
look at it in your concordance there, that's literally what
it means, foreordained. What does that mean? That means
it was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. To be
a propitiation. Now that term, propitiation,
that means a satisfaction to God's justice by sacrifice. That's what a propitiation is.
Satisfaction to God's justice by sacrifice. OK? Not your sacrifice, not my sacrifice,
but the Lamb of God. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."
1 John 4, 10, herein is love, not that we love God. In other
words, his love was not conditioned on my love for him. Not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Satisfaction. And it says, "...through
faith in his blood." In other words, my faith is in Christ,
crucified, his death, his blood, for the forgiveness of all my
sins. I'm not looking to anyone or anything. I'm not looking
to anything inside myself or in you or anything I've done
or anything I've experienced for the forgiveness of my sins,
for the satisfaction of God's justice to me. I'm looking to
his blood alone. And he says, to declare his righteousness,
the righteousness of his righteousness, not mine, not yours, but his. The righteousness of God for
the remission of sins that are past, that's talking about, I
believe, the Old Testament saints. They were saved by the blood,
just like we are. Through the forbearance of God, verse 26,
to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that God might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
In Christ, God is both a righteous judge who judges all my sins
and punishes all my sins, because he's holy and just, as well as
a loving, merciful, gracious Father who saves me from those
sins. Now, what is the ground? Where
is the point where all of God's attributes can come together
and work consistently together in their glory? In the cross
of Christ. That's the righteousness of God.
Look over Romans 5 and look at verse 20. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is all in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is and what he
accomplishes. Salvation is all of grace. Look at verse 20. Somebody says,
well, if we cannot be saved by our law-keeping, Then why did
the Lord give us the law? Why did he give Israel the law?
Well, look at verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. Now, what is the offense? That
means we've offended God. Now, how do we know? You take
the best person that ever lived on earth. That person has offended
God. How do you know that? Because
there's an x-ray machine, or we might say an MRI machine.
It's called the law. And it requires perfect satisfaction
to all its precepts. Because to be guilty of one,
James said, is to be guilty of all. You've sinned against God.
I've sinned against God. How do I know I deserve damnation?
How do I know that based on my best efforts to keep the law,
I deserve damnation? And based upon my best efforts
to keep the law, I cannot earn salvation? Because the law of
God exposes me for what I am, a sinner who deserves damnation.
But look here, verse 20. But where sin abounded, literally
that means overflowed me like a flood, grace did much more
abound. God's grace. Well, look at verse
21. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, all sin deserves death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness. That's how grace reigns through
righteousness. In other words, God, in order
to save a sinner by grace, doesn't set aside his righteousness.
He doesn't ignore his righteousness. He doesn't deny his righteousness. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. How? And by whom? By Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Not by you. Not by me. But by
Christ. There's the righteousness of
God. If you don't have it, you don't have salvation. Show you
one more. Turn to Romans 9. This is the good news of the
gospel, my friends. We don't have righteousness in
ourselves, and we can't work it with our work, but there is
one provided. There is one that is freely given
to anybody who wants it now. The problem is, by nature, we
don't want it. We want ours. We want to say,
well, I've done something that sets me apart from other sinners. Whether it's the exercise of
a mythical free will or the walking of an aisle or being baptized
or whatever, we want to use something as a pedestal upon which to boast
of something that we've done in order to appropriate salvation. That's us by nature. That's the
works of the flesh. But freely given? You know, it's
interesting. In 1 Corinthians 2, don't turn
there, we don't have time. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14
talks about the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for neither can he know them, they are spiritually the
same. The natural man, that's the unbelieving
person, that's all of us by nature. Well, up in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians
2, it tells you exactly what he cannot receive. The things
of the Spirit of God. that are freely given salvation
freely given by grace you know you give people something to
do in order to earn that salvation you watch them get busy boy they'll
dive in head first i told you all that if i could read a verse
here it says now if you all will line up and walk around this
building 400 times you'd be out there right now in order to be
saved. But just salvation free, free,
free. We don't want that by nature. You know why? Because that doesn't
exalt Old Bill. That doesn't separate me from
the rest of these folks who need salvation. That doesn't feed
my self-righteousness, my ego, my pride. That's the problem. Look at Romans 9, verse 30. What shall we say, then, that
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness... Now,
what he means by that in the context is they didn't have the
law of Moses. It doesn't mean that there weren't
some Gentiles who were moral and religious. They were. And
there were Gentiles who were immoral and irreligious, just
like Jews. But they didn't have the law of Moses, so they didn't
follow after righteousness. And he says they have attained
a righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith." Now, there
is a righteousness which is of faith. Okay? What is that? It's talking about
the righteousness of God. And we receive it by faith in
the preaching of the gospel. And he talks about believing
Gentiles here. They've attained righteousness.
But it's not a righteousness that they work for. It's a righteousness
that they believe in. And he says in verse 31, But
Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. Now he's not talking about all
Israelites there, because the man who wrote this book by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit wasn't Israelite, Paul. He's talking about unbelieving
Israelites. And he says, They hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, or why? Why didn't
they make it? Because they sought it not by
faith. But as it were, by the works of law. You see, if you
believe God will save you by your work, that's exactly what
you're doing. You're trying to attain righteousness
by works of the law. But he says, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. Now, that's a reference to the
Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 8 and Isaiah chapter 28. He says
in verse 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling
stone, a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him. The
stumbling stone is a hymn, it's a person. And whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. Look at verse 1 of chapter 10.
Rather in my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is,
that they might be saved. He desires their salvation. For
I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. They're religious,
they're moral, they're trying to keep the law, but not according
to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Now look at verse 4. Here's the righteousness of God
right here. "...For Christ is the end," or the fulfillment,
or the completion, or the finishing, of the law, or righteousness,
to every one that believeth." You say, well, I want the righteousness
which is our faith.