Good evening. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 252. 252. Come every soul. And He will surely give you rest
by trusting in His Word. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. will save you now. For Jesus shed his precious blood,
rich blessings to bestow. But now into the crimson blood
that washes white as snow. Only trust him, oh, He will save you, He will save
you, He will save you now. Yes, Jesus is untrue, the way
that leads you into rest. Believe in Him without delaying. Be seated, we'll sing M-number 266. Faith made each earthly joy,
Jesus is mine. Break every tether down, Jesus
is mine. Dark is the wilderness, ? Jesus shall come and bless us
? ? Jesus is my God ? ? Take not my soul to blame ? ? Jesus
is my God ? ? Here would I ever stay ? ? Wishing things of day ? ? Oh
God, for all three days ? ? Pass from my heart a flame ? ? Jesus
is mine ? ? Farewell, ye dreams of old ? Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is mine. Romans chapter 10. I'm going to start reading in
verse 30 of chapter 9 to verse 4 of chapter 10. You know, when we talk about
God's faithfulness and God's rights and God's power, last
week and Isaiah said that verse 29,
except the Lord of Sabbath left us a seed, we'd be in like Sodom
and Gomorrah. What shall we say then? What
shall we say then? That the Gentiles, God called
the Gentiles, that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness
have attained righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith. But Israel, which followed after
the Law of Righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness. Why? For wherefore did they not?
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the
works of the Law. For they stumbled at the stumbling
stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone
and a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed or be confounded. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believes. Our Lord, our God, our Savior,
our Redeemer, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord,
we look for your appearing one of these days. And Lord, until
you come, we're going to stay, and by your grace, occupied until
you come. We're going to occupy the truth,
if you'll enable us to. Occupy the ministry you gave
to us. Occupy our place in this world.
Lord, we come to bless you and praise you and thank you. That
you're so gracious to your people, so kind to your people, so merciful
to your people. And especially, Lord Jesus, we
pray that you'd meet with us tonight. God, enable me to speak,
enable me to tell what these verses say and deal with them
in a true and honest way, a way that honors you and glorifies
you and tells people the truth, the truth of their heart. I know
that believers here rejoice in the truth, find the truth to
be comforting and encouraging to them. And, Lord, they come
wanting the truth, desiring the truth, desiring to hear about
our Savior. So, Lord, bring glory to Yourself
tonight. And for those who are not with
us, through no fault of their own, but because of Your providence,
we pray for them and those that are watching and listening. Please,
Lord, meet the needs of their homes and hearts. And again,
we pray for our lost loved ones, sons. Oh, our sons. And our daughters,
oh God, they need you. And Lord, our grandchildren. Oh, our grandchildren. Have no
interest, but oh Lord, you can create an interest. And then
my great-grandchildren, just small. Lord, don't let them grow
up without Christ. Don't let them grow up without
the gospel. Don't let them grow up without a hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Please bring glory to yourself
tonight and enable us to truly worship and learn from thanks
in your precious word for Christ's sake. Amen. On Christ my Savior, weary and
low, Facing for sinners death on the cross, Gladdening my saved
dead from His cross. Precious Redeemer, Precious Redeemer,
Seems how I've seen Him on Calvary's tree. Through sin and bleeding,
For sinners' pleading, Blind as I'm bleeding, I'll have forgiven the city brain. Meanwhile, it's my blood. Redeemer, precious Redeemer,
Since now I see Thee on Calvary's tree. Who did it really for sinners'
pleading? I dare not believe dying for
me. Oh, how I loved Him, Savior and
Prince. How can my praises ever be Blessed Redeemer Precious Redeemer
Seems now I see thee On Calvary's tree Wounded and bleeding For
sinners bleeding Blind and unfeeling Let me mention this, because
we didn't have a bulletin for the 12th. Cody Henson will be
here preaching Sunday morning, and I'm going up to Danville,
Kentucky to preach for those folks that have been on the schedule
for a long time. So Cody will be here to preach
for you Sunday morning and Sunday night. And you'd already know
this if we'd had a bulletin that Sunday, and the Bible remembered
it. Let me read here in these first
four verses of chapter 10 again. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer is to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Let me tell you something about
who will be saved. He prays that they might be saved. I tell you somebody's going to
be saved. All of God's elect are going to be saved. Every
single one of them. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I shall in no wise
cast him out. Our Lord said, I came down from
heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that all that he hath
given me I should lose, not one. And you know, and God uses means
to save his elect. He brings them to repentance
and faith. by means that he's appointed.
And what's the means he's appointed? To please God by the foolishest
of preaching, to save them that belief. Brethren, we're bound
always to thank God for you from the beginning, because God has
chosen you unto salvation. You hear what I said? Chosen
you unto salvation. Well, what did he mean? What
means did he use? Sanctification of the Spirit, and this is his
belief of the truth. So God uses me, but He's going
to save His people. He's going to save His people.
Now, if a man's got the belief, we're ambassadors for Christ.
And if a man's got a belief that destroys a prayer for sinners,
or takes away his desire to support missionaries, and takes away
his desire to see sinners come to bow before the Lord Jesus
Christ, he needs to junk that belief. Because Paul said, I,
brethren, my heart's desire, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I go on record,
I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, 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.
For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone
that believeth." Now why did he come to this position here?
Because he was dealing with Israel. and their rejection of Israel.
And he had a great desire for Israel. You remember when he
said in chapter 9, he said, I have great heaviness and great sorrow
in my heart for Israel. I have such a great heart for
them. I want them to see them to come
to know Christ. And their rejection is due to
their seeking of righteousness. Now look back down here in verse
30 again. What are we going to talk about? What shall we say
then? Now, he's talking about the Jew and the Gentile being
saved. Now, Gentiles is people like us. Gentiles like us. God didn't give us the ceremonial
law, the rituals and all that. He didn't give that to us. That
the Gentiles, we didn't follow after righteousness. We didn't
even know what it was. We never sought it. And the Gentile
nations never sought it. And yet they have attained righteousness. How did they end up becoming
righteous? Even the righteousness which
is of faith. They preach that you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But Israel, they went after righteousness. They followed righteousness.
They wanted to be righteous. And they followed after the law
of righteousness. And they never got righteous.
They never did become righteous. Why? Because they didn't seek
it by faith. Well, how did they seek it? They
seek it by works, by the works of the law. They stumbled at
Christ. They stumbled. He was a rock
of offense to them. They hated Him. They despised
Him. But I tell you what, He said,
Whosoever believeth on Christ, He shall not be ashamed. He shall
not be brought to shame. He shall not be ashamed when
he faces God. He won't be ashamed before God
right now because he knows that his only hope is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He knows that. And that's why
Paul goes on to say, brethren, oh brethren, since these Jews
saw the righteousness by the law, oh, he said, I tell you,
I have a great heaviness for. And I'll tell you what. Paul
was not their enemy. Paul was not their enemy. And
he proves by his desire to see them saved and pray for them
to be saved that he's not their enemy. And he still prays and
hopes for their salvation and believes and prays that God may,
in his sovereign mercy, show them salvation one of these days. And the reason why he prays for
them is I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. They have a great zeal of God.
They have a great, great zeal of God. And oh my, they have
this great zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. And
he talks about their good qualities. He does. But he says, you know,
they don't have knowledge. Now I know, I do know this. that the knowledge that we have
has to be centered from the Word of God and from Christ. But these
people, they had a record that they have a zeal of God, but
it's not according to knowledge. And I tell you, the Jews, all
through century after century after century after century,
had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
Ain't that what it says in verse 10? Being ignorant of God's righteousness. Oh, my. They had a zeal. And
I tell you, there's a lot of folks that have a zeal. I got
a neighbor that all he ever talks about is, you know, I want to
get close to God, whatever God has to do to make me get close
to Him. And I keep telling him all the time, you cannot be closer
to God than in Christ. If Christ is your all in all,
what more do you need? You can't get closer to God than
in Christ. They sing that old song, Lord,
lead me to higher ground. You can't get on higher ground
than the Lord Jesus Christ. But oh my, not according to knowledge. Oh, they persisted in all yet
in this knowledge, in this zeal, but they not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. And you know, and this is their
error, they were ignorant, it says there in verse Three, they're
ignorant of God's righteousness. And a lot of things, a man can
be ignorant of a lot of things. Be ignorant of a lot of things.
I'm ignorant of a lot of things. A lot of things I don't know
and a lot of things I don't want to know. Ain't interested in
finding out. But I do know this, that if you're
ignorant of the righteousness of God, the righteousness that
God demands, and the righteousness He provides, You're ignorant. You're ignorant, the worst kind
of ignorant. The worst kind of ignorant. And
why do we know that they were? Because they went about to establish
their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God. You know, it's like that man,
he went into the wedding. He's going to have a wedding.
And he had wedding garments furnished for everybody to get into that
wedding. Everybody had to have a certain garment to get into
that wedding. And then, you know, everybody was in this thing and
everybody was in there with their wedding garments on. And then
the man who was having the wedding and his father and all went around
looking about, seeing all the people. He saw the fellow over
there that didn't have on one of the wedding garments. And
that wedding garment represents our Lord Jesus Christ and His
right. How did you come in here? How did you get in here? What
are you doing here? You don't have on the wedding
garment. And they got him and carried him out. And that's what
the Jews was. They was always going to the
wedding, but none of them ever had a wedding garment. They wasn't
dressed right. They wasn't dressed in the righteousness
of Christ. And oh my. I tell you, that's
what he said. Oh, my. This is the thing about
Israel's condition. That's why God they rejected,
because they would not submit themselves to the righteousness
of God. And here they were. They had
three things. They were ignorant, ignorant,
ignorant. of the righteousness of God.
They had an effort, they had a zeal of God, and they worked,
worked, worked, worked to establish their own righteousness. And
yet, they failed at it. They failed at it. They was a
failure in trying to get their own righteousness. And oh my,
and then look what a blessed truth here in verse 4. We're
going to go back and go through all these things. Oh, what a blessed truth. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Not those who
go about to establish their own righteousness. Not them that
are ignorant of God's righteousness. Not to them that have a zeal.
No, no. The truth, oh my. They were entirely
inexcusable because the Lord Jesus Christ was the end of the
law for righteousness to them. You know, and there's three ways
that Christ is the end of the law. First of all, he's the object
that the law pointed to. He's the object. The law pointed
to Christ. Everything in the Bible, in the
Old Testament, pointed to Christ. I've been going through Deuteronomy,
and you wouldn't believe it. I tell you, everywhere you look,
you see the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know you had to keep
all these commandments? Well, amen, we do. And where
do we do it at? In Christ. And then he goes on
to say, I'll tell you something else that they've done. No, he
said, he's an object of the law, that the law points us to Christ. The law was a schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ. And then he's the goal of the
law. You know, the goal of the law
is perfect. It's perfection. Righteousness. The goal of the law is righteousness.
The goal of the law, you know, is righteousness. The goal of
it is Christ is the end of that law. He's the goal of it. You
know, when you get to Him, you can't go no further. And then
not only that, but beloved, it's also He terminates the law. The law ends with Him. No, we're
not under the law. We're not going under the law.
We ain't going under any kind of law. Ceremony law, commandments,
moral law. We're not going under any law
whatsoever. Christ is the end of it. When
you get to the end of something, you can't go no further. And
that's what Christ is. He's the goal. He's the one we've
got to get to. And He's the end of it. When
we get there, we ain't looking for nothing else. I ain't looking
for nothing else. Oh, my. And oh, my. I'll tell
you something. You know, the law could not bring
righteousness. The law could not bring righteousness.
But Christ did. And Christ does. He brought righteousness. And I tell you, with Christ before
us, all the righteousness we need, that God requires, He provides. And how many times have we heard
this, what God demands, He provides. He demands perfection, He gives
perfection. He demands of keeping the law? He provided us somebody that
kept the law. He demanded perfection. He demanded
righteousness. So He gives us righteousness.
What He demands, He gives to us. And He gives it all to us
in His blessed Son. Oh, I can't say that enough.
I can't say it enough. And I tell you, the Jews, and
not, you know, not submitting to Christ, They were refusing
to submit to God Almighty, and they kept saying, God is their
God, but oh my. And I'll tell you something. You've got to understand this.
You know, the reason God rejected the Jews is that they fully,
fully tried, by their own efforts, by their own efforts, rather
than God's way, by faith, And I tell you, they refused, and
oh how many people do this, they refused to submit to the true
righteousness of God in Christ. Christ in the flesh, when he
was on this earth, he was God. When you've seen God, when you've
seen Christ, you've seen God. When you see Christ, in His obedience,
you see God. When you see Christ, in His works,
you see God. When you see Christ, in His words,
you see God. You hear God. Everything that
Christ, on this earth, we was the image of the invisible God.
The fullness of the God had dwelt in Him. And I tell you, they
refuse to commit to submit to the righteousness of Christ and
what He established for us on the cross. One thing that a Jew and most
people do not do, they do not need a cross. They do not need
a substitute. They do not need somebody to
hang on a cross for them to bear their sins. And that's the way
these Jews were. We don't need a cross! We've
got the law! We've got our efforts! We got
our zeal, and we do not need a cross. We don't need somebody
to stand good for us. We can do this by ourselves. And how many people in this world
today is doing the same thing? Oh, and I'll tell you, they refuse
to submit to the glory. that's in Christ and the righteousness
and the glory. Christ in glory being our righteousness. You see, man does not produce
a righteousness. He has to receive a righteousness.
Man can never produce a righteousness. God's got to give him a righteousness. It's a righteousness received.
And oh, I tell you, this is a wonderful thing. Oh, I just, you know, God's righteousness is received
by faith. And you know, and he, Paul, is
showing us here the contrast, the contrast between the righteousness
of self-effort, man trying to do it by himself, and the righteousness
of faith, the righteousness of faith. And let me give you four
things about Paul here and about people. Let me give you four
things. First of all, look at that intense
and desire and earnest prayer of a true man of God. Paul said
in verse 1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel that they might be saved. May God put it in our hearts.
You know, may God put it in our hearts that not only that we
have this intense desire intense desire in this prayer for our
families. I should pray for your family
as much as I should pray for my own. I should pray for your
children as much as I pray for my own. I should pray for your
husbands or your wives as much as I would my own. And that's
why Paul said, my heart's desire. My heart's on fire here. I got
this great desire, and I'm praying for that desire to be fulfilled. Oh, Paul, listen. And then look what else, here's
the thing, zeal without knowledge. He said there in verse 2, I bear
record to have a zeal without knowledge. You know, when you
have a zeal without knowledge, you're just, you're just, you're
just spinning your wheels, just spinning your wheels, just wasting
your time, wasting your efforts. And this is awful, this is awful.
You know, when you combine religious zeal, and I'm around folks that
have a lot of religious zeal, a lot of religious zeal. I've
been around some of them. I remember a fella come into
the, he's a youth pastor, one of these big churches here in
town, and he's a youth pastor. He come in, had on this, this
t-shirt that said, God is, God is. I said, God is, what is He? Tell me what God is to you. He
just stood there. I said the first thing I'll tell
you about God is that He's sovereign. He got all the power. Second
thing I'll tell you about Him is He's just. He never heard
of a just God. You know how many people never
heard of a just God? These Jews didn't believe in
a just God. They believed He was just to
do what He wanted to with the Gentiles. But oh no, He couldn't
do what He wanted to with them. Oh my. But you combine religious
zeal and ignorance, and ignorance of Bible truth, Bible truth,
how sad, how sad and regrettable, especially if you have If you're
ignorant, Angus Fisher, he was here last Wednesday night, he
told me this. He was in India for years and years and years.
He went over there to preach and he was teaching in a Bible
school over there, teaching the Bible. God saved him while he was over
there. He got to preach in a free will Baptist church. I've only
been in one free will Baptist church. I didn't even know there
was such a thing. But they asked me to come preach and speak in
a free will Baptist church. So he got up and he read all
of Romans 9. He just read it. Hardly commented
on it at all. You know what the fellow said
after he got through? He said, our God here is not
like that. I'll tell you one thing, our
God's not like that God you just read about. You told the truth for one time
in your life. It's not a difference in doctrine,
it's a difference in God. And oh my, to have zeal and be
ignorant of Bible truth. Oh, how sad, how sad and regrettable. And oh, look here how How deplorable
there is a lack of discernment in these Jews and in people in
religion. Oh, my. He says, you know, they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And oh, my. And then he says, they have this,
you know, this knowledge. And the Jews were presumably
familiar with their own scriptures. But evidently they wasn't. But,
you know, our Lord says, search the scriptures. For in them,
you think in them you're going to have eternal life. For they
are those which testify on me. And then he told them another
time when they asked him a bunch of questions in Matthew 22, he
said, you do err. You're erring. You know what
you're erring about? You neither know the scriptures
nor the power of God. If you knew the scriptures, you'd
know how powerful God is. If you knew the scriptures, you'd
know how just God is. If you knew the scriptures, you'd
know how righteous God is. If you knew the scriptures, you'd
know that salvation is by grace. If you knew the scriptures, you'd
know that Christ is the only hope before God. And that's what
our Lord was telling us. And oh my, but oh my, ain't it
awful? that people can read the Bible
all the time and fail to see what it says. Miss it. Miss it. Miss it. Oh, my. And I tell you what,
and here's another thing, not only do they miss it when they
read it for themselves, but when they read something that should
apply to them, they say, well, You know, that's the way my neighbor
acts over there. Everybody but me. Everybody but
me. And then, oh my, look here at
the fourth thing. The false, false idea of righteousness. And oh, look what it says there
in verse 3. They're ignorant of God's righteousness,
going about to establish their own righteousness, not submitting
themselves to the righteousness of God. You know, they attempted
to gain righteousness by works. They thought they would end up
being righteous before God by their works. And this is one
characteristic of human nature that's common to everybody. Common
to everybody. If a man's conscience ever gets
to bother him, or he starts thinking, you know, I've got to face eternity,
first thing he's going to do is he's going to start working
out his own righteousness. That's his nature. He can't help himself.
And oh my, human nature, that's the way it is. He wants to establish
his own righteousness. You can find a drunk, and he'll
tell you that I may be a drunk, but I'm not this way. And you
know, everybody's got some kind of a righteousness they ought
to run to. no matter how bad they are, that they've done something
right. But oh my, you know, like the Pharisee, he makes broad
his phylacteries. The Chinamen and the Japanese,
they worship, they stand and flip some little old thing, worshiping
their ancestors. Worshiping their ancestors. You know, I read the other day,
there's a, you all know what a Hindu is. That's the Indians
that's got that little red dot right in the middle of the forehead. Well, they, 400 million of them
are having a pilgrimage. And what they got to do, they
got to get in the River Ganges. And they're going to go and they
got to set up all that, you know, let some come this way. But what
they do, what they actually believe on this pilgrimage, 400 million
of them are going to do it. They think if they get in that River
Ganges, that induct themselves down and brought them back up,
it washes their sins away. And all filthier rivers go wash
their sins away. Now that's their righteousness.
That's their righteousness. And now the Roman Catholic, he
counts his beads. And all my, the Baptists and
Religionists, you know, all he's interested in is All he's interested in is to
show his knowledge in his scripture. And here's the thing about it.
When a fellow has an intellectual knowledge of the Bible, that's
one of the awfulest things at all, you know. Here's what the
people are trying to establish their own righteousness. Now
listen to me. A fellow's going about establishing his own righteousness.
First of all, he trusts in his knowledge, his intellectual knowledge. He trusts in his scripture reading.
He trusts in his regular attendance at church. And he has the inherent
nature to go about to establish his own righteousness. And I'll
tell you what, every one of us here has met countless people
that will tell you when they go to church and what they do
and what it takes to get close to God. They're all going to tell you
what to do. And that's why they can't stand the gospel. The gospel
don't give me anything to do. What the gospel says is done.
It's done. It's over and done with. And
oh my, when a man, oh he goes about to establish his own rights.
I know three or four people right off the top of my head that does
that. Oh my goodness, a lot of people does that. There's a bunch
of folks that I know that all they ever talk about, the only
thing they ever talk about is going to church. They never mention
Christ. They never mention what the Bible
has to say. They never mention what the preacher
preaches. All they ever mention about is
going to church. Gotta go to church, gotta go
to church, gotta go to church. You know what they're doing?
That's my righteousness. Going and sitting on the pew.
That's my righteousness. That's my righteousness. You
know why you're here and why am I here? Because I want to
have the Bible expounded to me and I want to see what God has
to say to me. Oh my. But when a fellow comes
to realize that he can't God hymns him up and says, boy, you
ain't got no righteousness. You ain't got no righteousness.
You can't produce it. You know, there's three ways,
one of three ways he's going to do. When he becomes to realize
that life, he says, well, listen, I need to have a righteousness.
And so one of three ways will happen. He will try to restore
himself before God by his own righteousness. Or else he'll
come and he'll rest upon the mercy and grace of God in Christ.
Or else the third thing is, is he'll take his own works and
he'll take God and he'll mix them together. I'll do my part
and God will do his and they'll mix it together and God will
help me with my righteousness and I'll help him out by living
right. And you know, so we'll, we'll
co-op, me and God gonna cooperate. That's worse than anything in
all of my... But here's the thing. Man cannot,
cannot put away his past. Man cannot. I don't care how
many ways he tries to make himself righteous, he cannot put away
his past. He can't do it. He can't put
away his past sins. He can't do it, put away with
his present sins. The only person that can deal
with a man's sins is God, and He deals with them in a righteous
way through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, here's
the thing about it, when God, if a man wants to bet his own
efforts, face God and continue to have his own efforts, Do you
think that when he ends up, he'll have an absolute, perfect righteousness
to present before God by his character and his conduct all
the days of his life? That'd be an awful thing. That's why our Lord said, depart
from me. They start telling him all the
things they've done. Oh Lord, we've preached. We prayed. We gave. We've done all kinds of wonders
working. We've preached in your name. We've done these works
in your name. And our Lord said, oh, depart from me. Just get
away from me, you workers of iniquity. Everything that you
said you was doing for me was nothing but iniquity. Depart
from me. I never knew you. And oh my,
it's impossible for a man to be saved unless he's willing
to be saved in God's way. Submit themselves to the righteousness
of God. You know what man's problem is
and why he fell so miserably in religion and in this life?
He's unwilling to submit to God's Word. He's unwilling to submit
to God's Word. Unwilling to do it. And that's
why, beloved, when the will of man opposes the will of God,
you know what's going to happen? Disaster. Spiritual, absolute
disaster. But you know where the blessings
and power of life comes from? Lord, I believe your word, and
I'm going to bow down here before you, and I'll be saved your way. I want your righteousness. I
don't want nothing to do with myself. I want you, oh Lord. I want you. If I have any blessings
in life, God's got to give it to me. If I have any power of
grace in my life, Christ God gotta give it. Gotta give it.
Oh, we submit to God. We submit to His Word. And that's
what we do. Oh, I was born ignorant. And if God
hadn't had mercy on me, I'd have died ignorant. And I remember
for years and years, I read the Bible. I read the Bible. I read it for over almost four
years, constant, constant, before I ever bought any book besides
the Bible to read. I was scared to death to read
any book besides the Bible. And I finally bought a book,
Gleanings in Genesis, by Arthur W. Pink as the first book I bought
other than a Bible. And I read that Bible, and I
could quote it, couldn't I, Stevie? I could quote it chapters after
chapter after chapter. God had mercy on me and he took
one word, one word, one verse of scripture, and changed my
life radically and dramatically. And you know what it was? God,
that's where we've got to start, with God. God, who has saved
us. God saved us. Not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose. and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. submit to His righteousness. Our Father, oh God our Father,
Lord we read these things, we read these things, and Lord we're
so thankful, so thankful, oh how thankful we are that you
didn't leave us to ourselves, that oh Lord, You didn't leave
us in our own self-righteousness, in our own efforts, in our own
works, but You saved us from them. Saved us from them. Saved us by You, Grace. Saved
us by them. Worshipped us from their sins
in the blood of Christ. God bless these dear saints.
May the Word have a powerful effect upon us and never let
us go. Oh Lord, never leave us to ourselves. Oh, never leave us to ourselves.
Always help us to, God, we in our heart and heart of hearts,
submit to your word. Submit to your will. Submit to
the way that you save sinners. And we're so thankful that you
brought us to that place. In Christ our blessed Lord's
name, amen and amen. Boy, I don't know what to do.
I tell you what, I'm still cranked up. Well, I've prayed. I'm too wound
up, so you go home and I'll start again. This thing of righteousness,
boy, I tell you, it gets me stirred up. But I love you and appreciate
you, and Lord willing, I'll see you next Wednesday night. Cody
will be here Sunday morning, Sunday night.