Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 17. Hymn number 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it ? Mount of thy redeeming love
? Here I raise my Ebenezer ? Hither by thy help I'm come ? And I
hope by thy good pleasure ? Safely to arrive at home ? Jesus sought
me a stranger wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger interposed
his precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 454. 454 Christ has for sin atonement
made, What a wonderful Savior! ? We are redeemed, the price is
paid ? What a wonderful Savior ? What a wonderful Savior is
Jesus, my Jesus ? What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus Praised Him for the cleansing
blood What a wonderful Savior! That reconciled my soul to God
What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He cleansed
my heart from all its sin What a wonderful Savior What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He gives me
overcoming grace What a wonderful Savior ? And triumph in each
trying hour ? What a wonderful Savior ? What a wonderful Savior
? Is Jesus, my Jesus ? What a wonderful Savior ? Is Jesus, my Lord To
me He's given a new heart What a wonderful Savior The world
shall never share a part What a wonderful Savior What a wonderful
Savior is Jesus, my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord Romans chapter 1. I'm going to
read what I've read the last couple of weeks because I'm just
dealing with a couple of verses, but you've got to deal with,
look at all of them to get there. First seven verses, Romans chapter
1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are you also the called of Jesus
Christ to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be
saints. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. O our God, our blessed Father
in heaven, You're our Father. You're our God. We're your people. We were not a people, now we're
the people of God. Lord, you brought the light to
us. You brought the grace of God to us. You brought salvation
to us. And Lord, we're so blessed and
so thankful that you've done that for us. And oh Lord, we
can never from the depth of our heart and souls praise you enough,
love you enough, worship you enough, acknowledge you enough,
and oh Lord, please help us to sanctify you in our hearts, set
you apart in our hearts and our understanding so that we're thoughts
are on you more than on anything else in this world. Lord, we
need you. Oh, how we need you. We got brothers
and sisters that bodies are so frail and so weak people that
are providentially hindered because you and your providence has worked
it in a way that they are not able to attend. But Lord, we
know that they're yours. We know that you're with them.
We know that you'll uphold them. We know that you'll meet their
needs. Lord, we love you, my preacher brethren. God bless
them that are standing tonight to preach. Use them to your glory,
the good of their dear saints. Use me tonight to the edifying
of these children of God that's gathered here tonight. Forgive
us of everything that's unlike you. Bless my dearest brothers
and sisters here. Save you people in this place.
We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Number 16 in the course book. Jesus has a table spread, where
the saints of God are fed. He commands His chosen people
come and dine. With His manna He doth feed,
and supplies our every need. Oh, tis sweet to sup with Jesus
all the time. Come and dine, the Master calleth,
come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table
all the time. He who fed the multitude turned
the water into wine. The disciples came to land Thus
obeying Christ's command For the Master called to them, O
come and die There they found their heart's desire Bread and
fish upon the fire Thus He satisfies the hungry every time Come and
dine, the Master calleth, come and dine You may feast at Jesus'
table all the time. He who fed the multitude turned
the water into wine. To the home, recall it now, come
and die. Soon the Lamb will take His bride,
to be ever at His side. All the host of heaven will assemble,
be. Hope to be a glorious sight,
All the saints in spotless stride, And with Jesus they will feast
eternally. Come and dine, the master call
it, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table
all the time. He who fed the multitude turned
the water into wine. To the hungry call it now, come
and dine. I want to look at two verses
this evening, verses 6 and 7. Verses 6 and 7. And the apostle, when he begins to
speak, he starts to describe the Christians at Rome, the believers
at Rome. He turns from his personal introduction,
being an apostle, the message, the gospel of God concerning
his son, And he turns his attention now to the people he's writing
to, the Roman Christians. And here he gives us four descriptions
of them, four descriptions of them. And the first thing you
notice, I want you to say is, he said in verse 7, To ALL that
be in Rome. That's the thing about it. To
everybody that's a believer in Rome, that's who he's writing
to. It made no difference to him who they were. Absolutely
made no difference to him who they were. and it's to ALL that
be in Rome, and there's lots of different people, and it's
kind of people in Rome. There were wealthy people, poor
people, and smart people and not-so-smart people, people who
were somebody and some people that was nobody's, but there's
ALL, he said, to ALL that be in Rome, to ALL that be in Rome.
And He gives us and He deals with us and shows us four things
about these people, and the first one is there in verse 6, Among whom are you also the called
of Jesus Christ? And that's what it's talking
about in the last line of chapter 5, for His name, for His name
for the glory of Christ, for the sake of Christ, for the honor
of Christ, among all them that are also the called of Jesus
Christ." You know, one thing we know about the Gospel is that
God uses the Gospel to call His people, and Peter made this distinction. He says, Make your calling and
election sure. Well, how do you make your calling
and election sure? And that's why He says you're
the CALL of Jesus Christ. And how do you make your calling
sure? You keep Romans now, and look over in I Corinthians chapter
1, and let me show you something over here if I can. I haven't
used this in a long time, I don't think, but I Corinthians 1, verse
26, look what it says here. You know, how are you going to
make your calling in election sure? How? First of all, you've
got to look at your calling. You know, here s the thing, you
ve got to look at how he was called and what kind of people
were called. For you see, you re calling brethren. This is
how God called you. He didn t call many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty people. That was somebody, a
princess and all the people that s mighty and powerful and wise,
and the world looks after them. Not many noble, but God chose
the foolish things of the world. And I tell you what, how can
you tell you're called? I tell you, do you know who the
Lord Jesus Christ calls? He said, I come not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's the only people that Jesus
Christ calls to Himself. The called, if I'm called of
Christ, I was called because I was a sinner. I was called
and set apart because I was a sinner. And why does He call them? To
save them. He calls them to save them. Why
else would He call a person to Himself except to save them,
to glorify God in saving sinners, to manifest His sovereign grace? Paul says, Will it please God
who separated me from my mother's womb and CALLED me by His grace? And oh, we're CALLED of Christ
Jesus, and oh, listen, look what else it says there. You're CALLED
of Christ Jesus, not only CALLED of Christ Jesus, but CALLED to
BELONG to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Christ CALLED us, He
s the one that CALLED us, and He CALLED us to Himself. He CALLED
us to Himself, and you know that s the thing, CALLED to be Jesus,
BELONGED to Jesus Christ. Christ LOVED us and GAVE Himself
for us, and we was called to be the Lord Jesus Christ property,
belong to Him. We was given to Him in a covenant.
God gave us to Christ in a covenant before the world ever began,
and then He gave us to Him by promise. He promised us to Christ,
and Christ promised to come and pay our sin debt and save us
by His grace and die for us and put our sin away. And then He
bought us purchased us with His own precious blood. Oh, there
s a sign over there by where we lived, and they put some of
the, oh, God, they don t know Christ, it s awful. But they
said, You know, Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. What
have you done for Him? What have you done for Him? And
I thought about that. Do you know what I ve done for
Christ? I own Him to be Lord, I own Him to be the only Savior.
I own Him to be my righteousness. I worship Him, I adore Him, and
I believe Him, and I trust Him, and give Him all the glory. Now,
that's what I've done for Him, but the only reason I do that
for Him, because He called me to do that. I wouldn't do that
had He not called me to be that way. I would have not known anything
about Him had He not done this for me. Ain't that right? I'd have never praised Him if
He had not called me. Oh my, and then bought us with
His precious blood. And here's another thing, He
called us by POWER. You know the power that it took
for God to save us, to call us to Himself, the power that was
manifested in our hearts and souls? Ephesians 1 he says, The
power that raised up Jesus Christ by the dead is the power that
He saved us by. That s why Paul said, I want
to know Him and the power of His resurrection. And oh, I am
called to be the Lord Jesus Christ, and He preserves us to be His
own. You know, I tell you what, if Christ didn t preserve us,
I heard Big Elmcrest preaching this morning, and bless his heart,
oh my, God blessed him so, and that s what he was talking about,
Christ being our safeguard, Christ being our safeguard, that Christ
will protect us and guard us and preserve us, and I ll tell
you what, and here s the thing about it, we WANT to be preserved,
and because we know what we are, we NEED to be preserved by the
Lord Jesus Christ. WE CAN'T PRESERVE OURSELVES!
WE CAN'T DO THAT! AND ALWAYS CALL TO JESUS CHRIST,
CALL FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, CALL TO HIM BY HIM. AND THEN LOOK
WHAT ELSE IT SAYS ABOUT IT. TO ALL THAT BE IN ROME, IN VERSE
7, I LOVE THIS, I JUST LOVE THIS RIGHT HERE, BELOVED OF GOD, BELOVED OF GOD. OH, WARD OF SCOTT
RICHARDSON, favorite sayings always, BEFORE TIME EVER WAS. How many times do you say that?
BEFORE TIME EVER WAS! Well, I tell you what, we was
loved of God before time ever was. Before time, before us as
a people, as individuals, God loved us. Oh, my! You know, He
said He loved us with an everlasting love. And with CHORDS, CHORDS
of loving kindness, He called us. And oh my, you know, He said
this to Jeremiah. He said, Jeremiah, before I formed
you in your mother's belly, I knew you. I knew you. I knew you. And that's the same thing that
Paul said when he separated me from my mother's womb. He knew
him before he's ever existed in his mother's womb. let me
show you, look over in John 17 with me, oh my, and in time we
were separated from our mother s womb. John 17, we were just
like Jeremiah in time, we were separated from our mother s womb,
and THEN we were called, Oh, we were LOVED of God back there,
and once God starts loving you, and if God ever loves you, He
never stops loving you, and nothing about us ever caused Him to love
us. These preachers, you know, they
want to try to convince you how much God LOVES you and that how
much you NEED Him, but the fact is, beloved, they say He gave
Christ to show how much He loved us. No! He LOVED us is WHY He
gave Christ for us! He didn t do it to PROVE how
much He loved us. He loved us so much and loved
His elect so much and loved the people whom Christ was going
to die for SO MUCH that He sent His only begotten Son into this
world to DIE for them and LIVE for them and RISE AGAIN for them
to put their sins away. Oh, that Beloved of God! And
I tell you what, There s not many people in this world that
God loves. There s not many people in this
world God loves. In fact, there only was one time
that He only loved EIGHT! Only loved EIGHT! Let the rest
perish! And as far as the world s concerned
right now, that s about all that s left now, is about EIGHT! Used
to say all the time, said, you know, I know I'm one of the seven,
I know I'm at least one of the seven out of the eight, and I
said, I'm pretty sure about me, but I don't know I know about
you. We used to joke like that, but I'm telling you something.
God don't love everybody. If He loves them, if He loved
them, He loved them before they were, and He loved them while
they are, and He loves them when they're gone, because the love
of God never does stop. Oh my, I tell you he was in an
eternity of God, an eternity yet to be called the beloved
of God, to God to be beloved. You know what it says? We accept
it in the beloved. Oh, what is my beloved more than
anybody else's beloved? He asked it over there in Ecclesiastes
in the Song of Solomon. What is my beloved more than
anybody else's? I'm my Beloved's and my Beloved's
mine. Oh, God called him His Beloved.
Oh, to be Beloved. You know, we all got people that
we love. Oh, they're beloved to us. But
oh, for God to say to you and me, Beloved, you know. He just speaks in your ear, Beloved. Oh my, nothing about us induced
God, induced Him to love us. And I'll tell you something else,
nothing in this world can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
Nothing, absolutely nothing. And God gave His Son because
He loved us, sent us the gospel because He loved us. And then
look what else it says, Oh beloved of God, Listen, it was in John
17, I'm sorry, let me go to that. Look, I told you John 17, look
in verse 6, this is what I'm talking about, Beloved of God.
He said, I've manifested thy name unto the man which thou
gavest me out of the world, Oh, you gave them to me, when did
I give them to you? Before the world ever began. And look what
he says, and thou gavest them me, and I love this right here,
they kept your word. I give it to them, they keep
it. They keep it, they keep it. And look what he says down verse
23. Oh, talking about the love of Christ, the love of God, beloved
of God. He said, I'm in them, and O Lord,
God, Father, you're in me, that they may be perfect in one, and
that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and listen
to this now, and hast loved them just like you love me. Now you
talk about a master, you love them just like you love me. That's how God said it. Our Lord
said, they know that you sent me and that you love them. You love them like you love me. How you get your head around
that? And God said, this is my beloved son and who I'm well
pleased. And God said, I love you just
like I love my son. Alright, let's go back over here
in Romans and look what it says, Beloved of God, called of Jesus
Christ, called to Jesus Christ, and called to BE the Lord Jesus
Christ, people, and then called to be saints, called to be saints. Oh, my! If I could say it this way, COMMISSIONED,
commissioned, set apart to be a saint, just like Paul was set
apart to the gospel. Paul was set apart to be an apostle. We were set apart to be saints.
Now, I think I've told you all this before, I'm sure I have,
that St. Thomas Aquinas, or Thomas Aquinas
was the first Catholic, that started teaching that some of
the saints had so much merit and had so much worth and had
so much merit in them that if you asked them saints and you
didn't have enough merit, you could ask them and they'd give
you some of theirs. That's why they always pray to the saints.
Oh, Saint so-and-so, I need some merit from you! But the only merit, the only
person who had merit in this whole universe was the Lord Jesus
Christ. Merit has something to do with
worth. But oh my, listen, he said, we're saints, if you got
any merit you can give me. You gonna give me some of your
worth? where neither one of us got any worth, there's nothing
else we can, what are we gonna give to one another? But that's
what they taught, and they still teach that. But oh my, it calls,
if you're called to be Jesus Christ in your heads, you're
called to be saints. And you can't be a saint without
being called. And you can't be called without
being a saint. And I said it here the other
day, everybody I'm looking to out of here this evening that's
a believer, I could call you saint. Saint Brad back yonder. Saint Judd. That don't hard sound
right, does it? But that's what God says we are.
Saint means separated one. That's all it means, separated,
sanctified, set apart. Oh, my! Listen, oh, saint, and
you know, saint means consecrated one, separated one, dedicated
one, belonging to God. Now, you know, back in religion,
back in religion, and then, of course, People do this they'd
go through the Bible and have character studies, you know,
you'd care you'd use Abraham or David or somebody in the scriptures
and use them for a character study So we need a piece of character
so that you would adapt to some of the characteristics of that
character in the Bible Don't work so good But also it means
this, and also it means, you know, that back in the day that
we thought people was, boy, I'd like to be as holy as they was.
I wish I was as dedicated as they was. I wished I could live
like they did. news for you! Oh, ain't you glad God called
us out of that darkness into His marvelous light? And oh,
my, now, saint doesn't mean that you're ESPECIALLY holy, that's
not what it means, and it doesn't apply to a spiritual condition,
that we're in. Oh, he acts so saintly, acts
so godly. You hear these people call them
reverend, right reverend, and oh my dear, but it's not has
to do with our spiritual condition. I don't feel like a saint and
I certainly don't act like a saint as what people call saintly.
But I tell you what, when God says you're a saint, I'd rather
believe what God says about me than anybody else. Wouldn't you? You know, I'm going to believe
what God says about me. I don't care what anybody else
says, but oh, listen, Satan has to do with our spiritual position. We stand before God as holy as
we're ever going to be. We stand before God as righteous
as we'll ever be. We belong to God. We're beloved
of God. We're called of Jesus Christ
to Christ, to our calling. And by His glorious and blessed
grace, we seek to honor Him who gave us such a glorious, glorious,
glorious position to be called saint, to be called saint. Oh my! And you know, and then
in Rome it says, To all that be in Rome called beloved saints. And he says those that are in
Rome, not those who are in a monastery. That's where the first place
Catholics go, to a monastery. You reckon that makes them any
better than anybody else, getting off by themselves? I used to
think that all the time, back when I was a young believer and
young preacher. I used to think all the time, I would love, I
would love to move away and go someplace where nobody knows
me at all, and start all over. And then it dawned on me, I said,
if I go, I got to go with me. And that ain't going to work. Wherever I go, I got to take
me with me. And that ain't no sense going
somewhere else, because I got to go too. And I know everybody's
thought about that sometimes. Boy, I sure would like to. I
sure would like to go someplace else where nobody knows. But
the fact is, I know me, and I got to take me with me, and also
just will stay here with everybody just like me. But all of them that be in Rome,
not in a monastery, not in seclusion, but these people were surrounded
by heathenism and paganism. And oh my, lots and lots of different
believers in Rome. They were high and low and rich
and poor. Yet all of them are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. All of them called of God, all
of them beloved of God, all of them called to be saints. Oh,
my! You know, and the believers were
blamed for everything that happened in Rome. They threw them to the
lions, they burned them at the stake, they burned them as candles,
and oh, they just mistreated them awful, awful when Nero took
over. But oh, my, and in Rome, he said,
in Rome, to all that be in Rome, oh, my, in Rome, no matter what
the troubles, no matter what the trials, no matter what the
sorrows, no matter what the difficulties, the temptations of anybody in
Rome, one thing was true, they were beloved of God, they were
called, and they were saints. And they were Christ. And that's
all that's necessary in this word. Then look what he says
down here in the last part of the verse. This is one way that
Paul greeted almost everybody that he wrote to. First thing
he said, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. These
two words can sum up the gospel. These two words can sum up the
Gospel. Grace, salvation is by grace, free grace, sovereign
grace, and grace is the CAUSE of everything that's good within
us, that grace was given us in Christ before the world ever
began. And grace is the cause, and you know what the effect
is when grace comes? Peace, peace, wonderful peace
coming down from the Father above. Oh, peace. Oh, they summed up
the gospel, grace is the cause. Grace is the cause, peace is
the effect. And grace is opposed to debt. You can't be in debt and have
grace. Oh, let me show you what I mean
by that. Look over in Romans chapter 4 and verse 4. Romans
4, 4. Let me show you what I mean by
that. Oh, my! You know, if God done
grace, He said here in Romans 4, 4, Now to him that worketh
is the reward, not reckoned, of grace. If you're working,
then grace don't have a thing in the world to do with it, but
of debt. And no, grace and debt do not
go together. You can't have grace and still
be in debt. Grace took care of all of our
debts. Christ took care of all of our debts. And we don't owe,
people say, well, we owe God this, we owe God that. As far
as God's concerned, we don't owe Him anything. We really don't. Oh, no, no, no. I tell you what,
what He gave to us, did He not give it freely? Did He not freely
give His Son? Did He not love us freely? Did
He not freely not spare His own Son? And so, oh my, but I will
say this, I will say this, that we owe Him our love, we owe Him
our hearts, we owe Him our souls, we owe Him everything that we
are, and then when we give Him that, we haven't given anything
that He hasn't already given to us. And oh my, and grace as
opposed to wrath, you can't have grace and God still be angry
at you. Peace is the result of the work of grace in a person's
heart. Grace in us, grace upon us, and thank God, thank God,
when God brings grace to us, gives us His blessed grace, and
we understand what grace is, and He gives us that, and He
works grace in us, works grace upon us, grace through us, and
gives us grace for grace, what peace of mind! Oh, what peace
of mind! What peace of mind! to KNOW,
to KNOW that we have peace with God. I'll never forget, as long
as I live, as long as I'm in my right mind, when I found out
through study in the book of Romans that God, when I started
understanding what grace really was, I was always, I went for
years trying to get on the good side of God, trying to get God
to quit being mad at me, and then I found out that He wasn't,
never WAS angry with me, And that because of Christ, God's
not mad. And then I found out that God
was not angry at me anymore. That
Christ bore all the wrath of God away. Oh, peace like a river. Oh my. And then look what it
says. These blessings, the peace and
grace come from God our Father. God our Father. and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace from the Father and has
come through the Son. No mere human being could be
so closely associated with the Father that grace could be given
to us and peace be given to us except through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul is making the Lord Jesus
Christ to be equal with the Father in these blessings, showing us
that Christ and the Father are truly one, truly, truly one. Oh my, to all that be in Rome,
the called of Jesus Christ, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace and peace be unto you. Our blessed Lord, our blessed
Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, O our God and our Father, we
bless you for your Son. And O Son, we bless you that
you showed the Father to us and made the Father known to us.
And Holy Spirit, thank you for bringing the things of Christ
to us and showing them to us. O Lord, thank you for the Gospel,
thank you for the truth. I pray that this was a blessing
that it has built up the saints in the faith and was an encouragement
to them, a comfort to them. And Lord, as we go our ways this
evening, go with us, protect us, and preserve us. As I always
pray, Lord, keep us going in and coming out, coming out and
going in, getting up and getting down. Oh Lord, protect us and
preserve us for Christ's sake. Please be with our dear brother
who is so sick, his dear wife who has to take care of him. And Lord, we pray for James, Daryl, and Joyce, dear, dear
saints of God, who would be here if they were able. We thank you
for them. God bless these dear saints as
they go their way. for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Well, good night and God bless
you. Appreciate you very much.