Number 46. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. ? The triumphs of his grace ?
My gracious master and my God ? Assist me to proclaim ? To
spread through all the earth of God ? The honors of thy name
the honors of my name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's
ears, tis life and health and peace. His life and health and
peace. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus
clean, His blood availed for me. His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise
ye dumb, Your lucent tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your
Savior come, And weep, ye lame, for joy. ? And leaping aim for
joy ? Glory to God and praise and love ? Be ever, ever given
? By saints below and saints above ? The church in earth and
heaven ? The church in earth and heaven ? Be seated, we'll
sing hymn number 318. 318. I need Thee every hour, Most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine, I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations loose their grip. and Thou art mine. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide. For life is vain I need Thee,
oh, I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior
I come to Thee I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One. O make me Thine indeed, How blessed
Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, ? Every hour I need Thee ? O bless
me now my Savior ? I come to Thee Can we turn to 1 Kings chapter
3? First Kings chapter three, and
Solomon made affinity with the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took
Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until
he had made an end of building his own house and the house of
the Lord and the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people
sacrificed in high places because there was no house built unto
the name of the Lord until those days. And Solomon loved the Lord,
walking in the statutes of David his father, only sacrificed and
burnt incense in high places. And the king went to Gibeon to
sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. A thousand
burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon, the
Lord appeared unto Solomon in a dream by night. And God asked,
what shall I give thee? And Solomon said, thou hast showed
unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he
has walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness
of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for him this great
kindness that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne.
as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou
hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am
but of a little child. I know not how to go out or come
in, and thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou
hast chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted
for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern
between good and bad, for who is able to judge this, thy so
great a people?" And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon
had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because
thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life, neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast
thou asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself
understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according
to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise
and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before
thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And
I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches
and honor, so that there shall be not any among the kings like
unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways
to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk,
then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and behold,
it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and
stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and offered up burnt
offerings and offered peace offerings and made a feast unto all his
servants. Then came there two women that were harlots unto
the king and stood before him. And the one woman said, O my
Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and I was delivered
of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third
day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also.
And we were together. There was no stranger with us
in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child
died in the night because she overlaid it. And she arose at
midnight and took my son from beside me while the handmaid
slept and laid it in her bosom and laid her dead child in my
bosom. And when I arose in the morning
to give my child suck, behold, it was dead. But when I considered
it in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did bear.
And the other woman said, nay, but the living is my son, and
the dead is thy son. And this said, no, but the dead
is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before
the king. Then said the king, the one saith
this is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead. And the
other say, nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.
And the king said, bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. And the king said, divide the living child in two,
and give half to the one and half to the other. Then spake
the woman who the living child was unto the king. For her bowels
yearned upon her son. And she said, oh, my lord. Give
her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other
said, let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. The
king answered and said, give her the living child, and in
no wise slay it. She is the mother thereof. And
all Israel heard of the judgment of which the king had judged.
And they feared the king, for they saw the wisdom of God was
in him to do judgment. Almighty God in heaven, we come
to you and we thank you Lord for your mercy to us. We thank
you for your son who judges right Lord. Who knows all? Who does just exactly what's
right? We thank you for him Lord. We
ask that you be merciful to us Lord mercy to us glory to you
and mercy mercy for us Lord. Lord, we thank you for this place
that you've given us. We ask you if you would to be
and pitiful to the sick of the congregation, Lord. Help them
if you will, Lord. We pray for them and we miss
them. Lord, we ask that you'd be with our families that don't
know you. Lord, please give them a need for you. Please, cause
them to need you. The only thing they really need
and they have no idea. Lord, we ask your mercy for the
pastor and we thank you for him. We pray that you'd give him Wisdom
to speak and us ears to hear, Lord, we thank you. And we ask
all these things in your son's name, amen. The love of God, page 34 in our
course books. 34 in our course books. The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell The guilty pair bowed down with
care God gave his son to him. His erring child he reconciled
and pardoned from his sin. Oh, love of God, how rich and
pure, how measureless. It shall forevermore endure the
saints' and angels' song. ? When gory times shall pass away
? And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall ? When men who hear refuse
to pray ? On rocks and hills and mountains call ? God's love
so sure shall still endure all measureless and strong. It came in grace to Adam's race,
the saints' and angels' song. O love of God, how rich and pure,
how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the
saints' and angels' song. Could we with ink the oceans
fill? Could we with ink the oceans fill? Were the skies, were the
skies of parchment made? Every stalk, were every stalk. On earth a quill, every man,
every man, a scribe by trade To write the love of God above
would drain the oceans dry Nor could the scroll contain the
whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure,
How measureless and strong! Open up to the book of Romans I told you I was going to start
preaching through Romans, and I'm going to give you the first
introduction tonight, and hopefully just hit the high spots from
chapter 1 through chapter 8. And needless to say, it's a big
undertaking for me because I know if we don't start
right, we can't end up right. But you know, the first time
the word pulpit is mentioned in the book of Ezra, and all
the children of Israel gathered around and they established a
pulpit, and Nehemiah got up and he opened the Scriptures and
he gave them the understanding of them. And I hope that's what
I can do is give you the understanding of Romans, and the reason why
we need to take a whole view of the letter, the Roman letter,
and remember this, when you read a book like this one here, the
Bible was not written in books and chapters. It was actually
a letter that was wrote out. It was actually a letter. There
wasn't no book, there wasn't no chapters, there wasn't no
numbers. And if you read it that way, then you can follow the
argument as it goes through there. You ll bring up a subject and
deal with it, and that s the way you know if we can, you know,
and you understand the scriptures more if you just understand that
you re actually reading a letter that a man wrote to a particular
group of people in a particular place. And so, and there s a
logical reason or sequence to everything that the apostle said
here in this thing. So if we just took separate verses
or small portions, we might fail to understand what the Bible
is saying about it. Now, like most of Paul's writings,
he does it in threes. He had three parts to it. First
of all, he always has his personal introduction. My there is a personal introduction
and then secondly he has the substance of the letter and that's
from chapter 1 16 through verses 15 through 13 and then he concludes
it and Then when he concludes it and he gets down to chapter
fit like almost 15 then he goes to 16 he starts dealing with
all the people and all the personal salutations and personal feelings
and relationships that he has towards people that he s known. But look at his introduction,
but I mean the church, let me show you this before we get started.
The church in Rome was mostly Gentiles, it was a Gentile congregation. He said in verse 13, chapter
1, Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes our
purpose to come to you, he wanted to go to Rome so many different
times, but was led hitherto. That means he was hindered from
getting there. And he said that I might have
some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. So this was predominantly, there
were very few Jews there. In fact, they run most of the
Jews out, but Paul wanted to go. He wanted to go, and Paul
had wanted to go to Rome several times, and he ATTENDED to go
by the will of God, but FIRST he had to go to Jerusalem. You
ll find that back in chapter 15 and also in I Corinthians.
He went to Jerusalem to gather an offering for the poor saints,
and Macedonia and other churches gathered the money together,
and he went to Jerusalem to give them money to help the poor saints. while he was there, you remember
he was taken prisoner, and they took him prisoner, and he stayed
a prisoner for way over two years, and he appealed before Agrippa
and before Felix, and finally he said, I appealed unto Rome,
I appealed to Caesar. So the only way he got to Rome
is though he WANTED to go to Rome, he INTENDED to go to Rome,
he WANTED to go to Rome, but how he got there was a different
story. You know how he got there? God
sent him as a prisoner. God had him appear before Caesar,
and I tell you what, we wanted to go on purpose, but he had
the shipwreck and all the things that happened to him before he
got to Rome. And remember when he was right
outside of Rome at the Apiaforum, and this is about eight miles
out of Rome, and all those brethren that heard about him, they run
out there to meet him, and he took heart because he saw the
brethren, took heart because he saw the brethren. So in this
epistle also, in this letter, you have the DOCTRINE OF SALVATION,
the DOCTRINE OF SALVATION by SOVEREIGN FREE GRACE. It s not, you know, the scriptures
tells us in Romans 8, Romans 9, all the way through as a matter
of fact, but it says ESPECIALLY THE CHILDREN NOT BEING YET BORN,
THAT THE PURPOSE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ELECTION MIGHT STAND, NOT
OF WORKS, BUT OF HIM THAT CALLETH, AND NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH OR
HIM THAT RUNNETH, BUT GOD THAT SHOWS MERCY. So it s a fact that
God s sovereignty is all the way through this book. God s
power, God s right. It says He s no respective persons,
so He deals with everybody on the same way, and He always deals
with everybody the same way. He deals with sinners outside
of Christ, and He deals with those in Christ. He'll show us
there's only two men that He deals with in this whole universe,
and that's Adam and Christ. So we have this wonderful things
of the doctrine of sovereign grace and the doctrine of salvation
and how God saves sinners, and the gospel, the gospel. Justification
here is by faith apart from works of the law is set forth in great,
great detail. He deals with the law and justification,
and works and justification, law, but He always brings it
back to justification by faith, not by works, not by law, not
by law. And here's another thing that
He does, and you'll notice this as we go through it, and you've
probably seen it before. He'll make an argument, and then
He'll answer all the objections to that argument. Let me give
you, for instance, He said wherever sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. He talked about grace. Well,
they automatically come to this objection. They said, Well, if
grace abounds over sin, I tell you what, let s just CONTINUE
in sin so we can get MORE grace! Paul said, God forbid, how can
we that are dead to sin? So everywhere he goes, he ll
make an argument, and somebody will OBJECT to what he s saying,
and he ll ANSWER that objection. And that s why so many people,
when you deal them with the Gospel, just like election, just like
election. You know people take John 3,
16 and base a WHOLE DOCTRINE on one verse of Scripture. World,
world, world, world, world. But hell, the world that God
s interested in is the world of His elect that He s going
to save. That s it. That s the world we re talking
about. And the apostle answers ALL the questions and objections
of these blessed truths, and he brings to light what justification
DOES in the life of a believer. When a man is justified, there's
FRUIT of that justification. There's a love for Christ, there's
a love for grace, there's a love for the truth, there's a love
for what God has to say. And when God says something,
it's SAID, and that's nothing else to say about it. So let's
look here at the first of his introduction. Like I said, he
has an introduction, he has the SUBSTANCE of the letter, and
then he has the CONCLUSION of the letter. And here s just how
he introduces himself. He introduces himself first as
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. First thing I want you to know
is I m a servant, I m a slave, I m a slave of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And look how he introduces himself,
called to be an apostle. That s where I get my authority.
why I can write a letter, and it s just good, isn t it? It
has authority behind it because I m an apostle. And then he says,
Listen, as his office as an apostle separated unto the gospel of
God. God called me, I m a servant
of Him, He gave me the apostle. How did you become an apostle?
Look what he says down in verse 5, by the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was raised from the dead, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship. He said, that's how I become
an apostle, by the grace of Christ. Christ called me, Christ set
me apart. And so he introduces himself
first as Paul. I'm just a servant, I'm an apostle,
and I've separated, God separated me and sanctified me for one
thing, to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel. His gospel's
not a new thing, he said, it's an old thing. And the gospel
concerns his son. And then look what these wonderful
feelings, high expression of his feelings. Paul was a very,
very loving man, very, very, you know, we kind of picture
him a certain way, but he was a very loving, loving man. He
loved the people he preached to. And look what he says down
here in verse, Five, he says, By whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for Christ s name. And listen to here, he says now,
addressing them, Among whom also ye are the called of Christ.
He said, I was called to Christ. I got it by grace. Everything
I got, I got by grace. And you know, among you, you've
called too. God called you too. He called
you to Christ. He called you to Jesus Christ.
Then you're called by Jesus Christ. And listen to this, and he makes
no distinction in anybody that he's writing to, to all that
be in Rome, but he, distinguishes who he's talking to. All that
be in Rome that's loved of God Almighty. Oh, them that's loved of God.
I'm writing to people that God loves. God loves with an everlasting
love, an eternal love, an electing love. He said, oh, those that
are beloved of God. And look what he said, not only
are you loved of God, because you're loved of God, He called
you to be saints. The Catholic Church think they're
the only ones got saints. You gotta do something special
to become a saint. Do you know how we were saints?
God called us to be. I'm a saint, I'm Saint Donny. I see Joe sitting back there.
I see Larry. I mean, you know, that s exactly
what it s saying right here. We re saints. We re saints. And I tell you, you don t have
to act a certain way to be a saint. Just be loved of God and be called. That s all it takes. That s all
it takes. So he expresses his feelings
and then Down here in verse 11, look what he wants. I'm gonna
try to get through this thing as fast as I can. But oh my,
he says here in verse 11, you know, he longs to see them. He
said, for I long to see you. I long to see you. And he said,
I thank God for you. Your faith is spoken of. And
I long to see you. I really long to see you. What
do you want to see us for, Paul? I want to impart to you some
spiritual gift and the reason being, the goal being that you
may be established, be stable, be stable. And that is that I
may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith of both
of us. You've got faith, I've got faith,
and I pray that God brings us together and comforts us together.
I comfort you in your faith, you comfort me in my faith, that
we get together, we comfort one another. And that's what he's
talking about here. And they said, oh my, he wants
to visit them. And then he says in verse 14
and 15, he explains, he states his obligation to preach the
gospel to all men. He said, I'm a debtor, I'm a
debtor to Greeks, to barbarians, to wise, to fools, unwise. So as much as me is, I'm ready,
I'm ready to preach the gospel to you at Rome. When I get there,
I'm ready, I'm anxious to preach the gospel to you. And oh, he
states his obligation to preach the gospel. Our Lord Jesus said,
sent his disciples, said, go into all the world and preach
the gospel to all nations, all nations. And he that believeth shall be
saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. So oh my, he
states his obligation. But the whole theme of this epistle,
this letter is read in verse 16 and 17. This is the theme
of the letter. We just dealt with his introduction
and his expression of love for them, but here s the thing that
this is the theme of the whole Gospel. I m not ashamed. I m ready to preach the Gospel,
and I m not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed that
Christ took my sin in his own body on the tree. I'm not ashamed
that I was such a sinner. I'm not ashamed that I was such
a rebel. I'm not ashamed that I was in
such terrible condition that it took the son of God to bear
my sin in his own body on that tree. I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. And oh, and he said, it's the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first and Greek also. Now I want you to notice that
the gospel is the power of God. Man don't have nothing to do
with this. God's power saves men. God's power of the gospel
is what saves men. Free will don't save men. Men
don't save men. Your will don't save you. Your
obedience don't save you. The gospel is God s power to
save sinners, and I tell you when He exerts that power, that
word power, the same word as dynamo or dynamite, when God
explodes the gospel into a man s heart, something dramatic happens,
something drastic happens when God puts that gospel in a man
s heart. oh, my, and they HEAR that gospel,
and boy, it becomes good news! Oh, how it becomes good news!
Then he says, oh, my, he shows about the gospel, and oh, see
how he progresses from his introduction and down to his appreciation
for him, and he s ready to preach the gospel, but oh, my, He said
it's God's power for salvation. Why? Because it says in verse
17, here's why the power of God has the power to everyone that
believeth, because in that gospel there's a righteousness of God.
Men didn't know anything about the righteousness of God, but
it's revealed when you preach the gospel. God s righteous character,
God s righteous nature, God s righteous in Himself, the righteousness
of God s revealed. First, it s revealed to faith,
and that believes. And I tell you what, when God
brings faith and He reveals that to faith, that you don t have
a righteousness of your own, you only get it through Christ,
you get that righteousness through Christ by faith. And it s revealed
to faith, And then you know what else it does? It CONTINUES by
faith. We believe it by faith and it
CONTINUES by faith. And that s why He says, You know
how the just live, the righteous live? They live by faith. That
s what He s talking about. But then He ALSO says, Oh my
goodness, oh, the righteousness of God is revealed in that blessed,
the righteousness as opposed to the righteousness of the law.
That's why Paul said, I had a righteousness of my own one time, but you know
what I call it now? Dung! Dung, dirt, filth, and
oh my! And God's righteousness is revealed,
and it's needed by everybody, but it's unattainable by ALL
because of God's wrath against sin. You can't attain righteousness
by anything you do, it has to be a revelation. But God s angry,
too. Look, well, not only has He revealed
His righteousness, but also He reveals His wrath in verse 18.
Who does He reveal it against? Everybody that s in sin, everybody
that don t believe Christ. The wrath of God is revealed
unto them against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. And look
who it is. He says, They hold the truth in unrighteousness.
What that means is they take the truth, they got it, they
understand it, but they hold it down. They don't want nobody
to have it. They suppress it. They hide it. Why would anybody
want to suppress the truth? Why would anybody want to do
that? A preacher told me one time, and he said, If I preach
what you preach and believe what you preach, I might get to preach
a Sunday morning, a Sunday night, maybe a Wednesday night. By the
next Sunday morning, I d be fired. That s what you call holding
down the truth of God in unrighteousness. Paul said, And God s wrath is
revealed against that. A man that would hide the truth
is the worst kind of culprit. That s a criminal act. But oh
my, but God s angry first of all with the heathen. And you
go down through here and He s talking about those who take the glory
of God change it unto corruptible man, four-footed beast, and creeping
things. And then how men and women use
the women with women, men against men, and all that, and all those
things. And God, He says they had pleasure in it, and He s
angry with them. He s angry with them. He s going
to punish them. He s going to destroy them. And He said because they
had pleasure in this, God gave them And when God gives up on
a person, mark her down. And I tell you, it's obvious
that we're living in a reprobate nation. We're living in a nation
that God has reprobated because of the, we're in Sodom and Gomorrah
right now. Sodom and Gomorrah. And God said
he's angry with them. Take God's glory. Well, let's
make us a man. Let's worship man. let s make him a statue, let
s worship a saint, let s worship an angel, let s make us a snake,
let s make us a gold calf and put it up here. And God said,
Oh, no, His wrath is revealed against that, against all that. He s angry with them. Then you
take the Jew, He goes here, and you know, and he goes down to
verse one, and he starts dealing with the Jew. He dealt with the
heathen, he dealt with the ungodly, he dealt with all these heathen
people, and God's angry with them. And then look what he says.
He said, oh my, and then the Jew, he runs up and says, boy,
I'm not like that. I'm not like that. Therefore
thou inexcusable old man, whosoever you are that judges, for wherein
thou judgest another, you condemn yourself. For thou that doest
judge, thou that doest judge, you do exactly the same thing.
You do the same things. And oh my! And then God goes
down through here and He shows now that the Jews, how that they
think that they are something, really something. But do you
know, look what He says down here in verse 17, just to give
you an idea of what it is. He said, Behold, you're called
a Jew, And you rest in the law. You make your boast of God. You
say, I know God. You make your boast of the law.
And you say you know His will. You prove the things that are
more excellent being instructed in the law. And you are confident
that thyself are the guide of the blind, of light of them which
are in darkness. Instructor of the foolish form
of knowledge and truth in the law. And oh my, and he says,
look what he said here. Boy, he deals with, thou therefore
which teach another, teachest thou not thyself? If you're gonna
teach somebody, don't you teach yourself? If you're gonna straighten
somebody else out, what about straightening yourself out? If
you're gonna teach somebody, teach yourself first. Start with
you, start with you. And oh, thou that preachest a
man shouldn't steal, and then you turn around and steal? You
say a man should not commit adultery, but you commit adultery. You
say, oh, we can't worship idols, and yet you commit sacrilege.
You say you make your boast of the law, but break the law, you
dishonor God. And the name of God's blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you. Oh my, so His wrath is revealed
against heaven, against the ungodly and the heathen. It's revealed
even against the Jews, the Jews. who made their boast in the law,
and oh my, Gentiles, the Jews condemned the Gentiles, yet did
the same thing. And God's no respect of persons.
The Jews wouldn't escape because they were, in fact, they had
more light than anybody else. They had God's law and they broke
it. They stand condemned by their own scriptures and their own
inability of the law to justify them. Look what he said here
in Romans 3, 9. where He concludes, makes a conclusion
here. Look in Romans 3, 9, He makes
a conclusion after saying all these things about these people. HE SAID, WHAT THEN, ARE WE BETTER
THAN THEY? JEWS, TALKING ABOUT JEWS, KNOWING
NO WISE. LISTEN TO THIS, WE HAVE PROVED
BEFORE BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES THAT THEY ARE ALL UNDER SIN,
AND THEN HE QUOTES A PSALM, THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE. THAT'S WHAT HE CONCLUDES ABOUT
JEW AND GENTILE AND EVERYBODY ELSE. Hell, my! He comes down there and He deals
with these things, and He shows that everybody s a sinner. Since
all have sinned, well, how in the world are we going to be
saved? I tell you how! God provided a remedy, and that
remedy is showed down here in verse 24. Oh, a remedy for God provided
for God s righteous through faith in Jesus Christ to Jew and Gentile. to the Jew first and to the Greek.
He said in verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. So being justified freely, there's
that free grace again, through the redemption, through the payment
price, the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Listen to this
now, whom God set forth. God set him forth. Where'd he
set him forth at? He set him forth in Genesis 3.15.
set Him forth in the ark, set Him forth in the Lamb slain,
set Him forth in the Passover, set Him forth, but boy, I tell
you what, He set Him forth. Why did He set Him forth? To
be a propitiation. You know what a propitiation
is? It s a sacrifice that takes away the wrath of God. In Christ,
God set Him forth. Here s my Son! Here He is! I set him forth to do what? To
be a sacrifice for sin, to put away sin and justify God's people
freely by the grace of Christ, by the blood of Christ. And he
set him forth. And boy, through faith in his
blood, through faith in his blood that washes away sin. And what
does he do it for? To declare. What's he declaring? God's righteousness. God s righteous
because He made Him to be sin who knew no sin. And He did it
to put away sins that are past. And oh my, to declare I say at
this time that His righteousness that God may be just. How do
you see His justice putting His sins on a substitute? How do
you see His righteousness turning around, giving us the righteousness
of Christ? Oh my. and that he's a justifier. You believe on Christ, God says
you're free. You're no condemnation. You're
free. And oh my, I swear to hell, these
fellas gonna have to brag, do a little bragging now. This thing
is received by faith, received by faith. Look what happens now.
Well, where's boasting then? Oh my. Oh boy. He said, this is received
by faith, faith doesn't destroy it. And look what he says, it's
excluded. Well, if it's by works, you'd
still be boasting, but by the law of faith, by the law of faith. And then he says down here in
verse 31, and this is what you understand. And that's why we're
going through the whole thing here. Do we then make void? the
law through faith? Do we nullify all of the things
that God said up to this point? No, no, we establish the law. God forbid, but God forbid, yea,
we establish the law. How do we establish? We say it's
just and it's holy and it's good. The problem with the law is not
us, It s not him, it s us in our weakness of our own flesh.
So he uses an illustration of how a person is justified without
the law and without the works of the law. So what does he say,
who does he use? He uses Abraham down in verse
4, he uses Abraham. He said in verse 2, If Abraham
were justified by works, he d boast about it, he d be glorying in
it. But oh my, we know he can't just get glory before God. What
does the Bible say? You know how many times he uses
scriptures in here? 62 times he uses Old Testament
scriptures throughout this book. 62 times. He quotes 62 verses
from the Old Testament. And right here is one of them.
What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God. What happened
to him? God said, you're righteous. Well,
when did he become righteous? Well, was it before the law come? Yes, it was. Was it before circumcision
come? Yes, it was. Well, then Abraham
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, believing that he is
able to do that which he had promised, which he had promised. And oh my, and God uses Abraham
to show before the law, he received it by faith, And oh, let me hurry
up here. I don't want to take too long.
Try to get through this. You know, here we're in the body
of the letter, and we see how the gospel's the power of God. It's by faith, and everything
else is by faith. Righteousness is by faith. Justification's
by faith. And the only way we can be saved
is Christ to be our propitiation, and His blood cleanses us from
our sin. That's done freely. And oh, God
s righteousness is the power for believers, present and future,
as opposed to the powerlessness of the law. Look what he said
in Romans 5, verse 1. Therefore, no, everywhere you
see a therefore, find out what it s there for. And he just got
through dealing with Abraham. and righteousness given to Abraham
by faith. And then he talked about Christ
was delivered for our sins and our offense, but raised for our
justification. Now, justification, as I said,
is by faith, and so we re therefore being justified by faith. Who
s justification? Christ! He s our justification. We re raised for our justification,
therefore being justified By faith we believe what Christ
did and trust what Christ did. We have peace, and there s that
propitiation again, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh my, and I tell you I dealt
with this last Sunday night I believe And he goes on to say, Oh my,
that you know, everything that we have is justified by faith. Nothing shall separate us. And
he goes on to show shut nothing. When we get to the end of it,
nothing just separate us from the love of Christ. And I'll
tell you what, look what he says here. He says, and shows us how
the love of Christ and everything that was done for us is done
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said from verse 6, When we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly, for the ungodly. And then He said in verse 8,
God commendeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. That s why He s our justification.
And then He shows us that if we were enemies, in verse 10,
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
HOW MUCH MORE, BEING RECONCILED, SHALL WE BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE?
AND IT'S THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST, THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST IN VERSE
11 THAT SAVES US, THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. OH MY! THERE'S MANY, MANY, MANY RESULTS
OF THIS GREAT BLESSING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS THROUGH FAITH, AND THE GREATEST
IS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE FOUNDATION AS IS THE LAST ADAM. AND YOU
KNOW HERE'S ANOTHER THING THAT WE SEE HERE. It shows us how
we're justified by faith, but it shows us that God only deals
with two men. How we got lost in one man, here
in Romans 5. You all know it, we've been through
it so many times, but it talks about by one man's sin, we were
all made sinners. By one man's disobedience, we
all disobeyed. So there s, and then by one man
s obedience, by one man s obedience, by one man s righteousness, and
by one man s gift, we re all made righteous. By one man we
became sinners, by one man we became alive. By one man we was
dead, by one man we were made alive. God s only viewed the
human race in two people, Adam and Christ. and the ones He viewed
in Christ, He viewed in them before the foundation of the
world. And that's what He says. Death reigned from Adam to Moses.
And oh, I tell you, you know, and then He goes to show us how
that much more. He says in Romans 5, verse 19,
For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, So by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now I want
to say something about that right there. Wherever you find that
many, as many as. The many that was made sinners
is the same many that's made righteous. God's people are in
that group, the same group. And that's why he says, Law entered
that the offense might abound, but grace abound much more. grace amount much more. And here
s an objection. Here s an objection. That s what
the Jews said. Well, Paul, we re better than that. We got the
law. He says, But oh, listen, if you had the law, he said,
you want God to become a sinner to justify you? It s not going
to happen. But oh, he goes on to say here,
What shall we say then? Since where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. The law caused sin to abound.
Grace causes sin to be done away so much more. Well, I tell you
what, what are we going to do? Since grace abounds over sin,
we're going to just continue in sin. We're just going to keep
on sinning. We're going to keep on sinning. He said, God forbid. Then He shows us how we died. He said, how, in verse two, how
shall we that are dead to sin live in the holy area? Where
did we die to sin? Where in the world did death
from sin come from? How did we die to sin? Look down
in verse six. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him. Paul said, I'm crucified with
him. Crucified with Him. When you crucify, crucifixion
was death. We is crucified with Him. What
did we die to? Right there, that the body of
sin, all the sin committed in this body, all the sin that we've
done in this body and all the sin we'll ever do in this body,
that it might be destroyed. And here's the reason why, because
we're not slaves to sin anymore. And he that's dead is freed from
sin. We died to sin in Christ. We're
dead to sin. And that's why sin cannot have
dominion over us. And that's what he goes on to
say, show down here in another place here. Look what he goes
on to say. I tell you what, I ain't even
following my notes. You know, I'm so far off my notes. I'm already past that one. I'm
almost to my last one. But oh my, here's the thing. You know, we're dead to sin.
Where did we die? We crucified with Christ. When
He died, we died. And the Scriptures teaches this
plainly. When He died, we died. When He
was buried, we was buried with Him. That's why we were, and
it tells us that. We were, in verse four here of
Romans 6, we were buried with Him. Buried with Him. And by baptism into death, As
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we, what do we do? We walk in newness of life. We're
not walking in that old life and course of the world we used
to. We got a new life, new heart, new creatures. We're walking
a new life. But oh my, so we died to sin. Christ being dead to sin, he
ain't gonna sin anymore. No, no, he ain't gonna be made
sin anymore. look what he says down here now,
he said this is why you're dead to sin. Look what he said in
verse 14, For sin shall not have dominion over you, it shall not
have dominion over you. Dominion means to have complete
control. Christ has dominion over the
whole world, And sin don't have dominion over us, over our mind,
our will, it doesn't do it. Why doesn't it? Because you're
not under law. You see, the law, all it can
do is condemn you. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. The law, when it comes, it convinces us of sin. Paul
said, I didn't know what sin was until the law come. And the
law said, you did this, Paul, And he says, sin revived then
in me. It stirred up in me. It caused
me to have all manner of evil occupations in me. I thought
I was righteous till the law come and condemned me and found
me guilty. Found me guilty. And that's why
he said, sin shall not have dominion, not under the law. All the law
can do is condemn us. But we're under grace. Oh, we
re under grace. We re not under the law. The
law ain t got nothing to say to us. The law don t have a thing in
the world to say to me. It don t tell me how to dress.
It don t tell me how to walk. It don t tell me how to eat.
It don t tell me how to offer sacrifices. It don t tell me
holy days to keep. It don t tell me the holy weeks.
It don t tell me new moons to keep. It don t tell me Sabbath
day to keep. It don t tell me nothing. You
know why? Because I'm under grace. And
I ain't lettin' nobody, nobody tell me what I can eat, what
I can, you can't eat pork! I'm gonna eat all the pork, I'm
gonna eat all the bacon and ham I can get my hands on. And I
tell ya, I feel sorry for a poor old Jew who can't do that. But
that's what they do. They go out and then go to the
synagogue and then they run home. Have them a big piece of ham
somewhere. That's what he, that's what Paul said when he says,
you know, he said, them Jews, they, they say they want to do
one thing and they do just the opposite. Do the opposite. Oh my. Oh, we were slaves and
this by this vital union with Christ. And look what he goes
on to say in verse 15. Since you're not under law and
you're under the law under grace, what then? And here comes one
of them objections. Shall we sin because we're not
under the law but under grace? God forbid! He said, I want to
show you something. Don't you know, do you not know
this, that to whom you yield your service to obey? If you
give yourself up as a servant to obey somebody, His servants
you are to obey. If you obey sin, it'll bring
you to death. It'll result in death. Or if
you obey righteousness and believe in righteousness, then you'll
follow righteousness. But oh, listen to what he says
now in verse 17. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine that God gave to you and delivered
to you. Listen to this now. Being then made free from law,
we became a servant to what? Righteousness. We believe righteousness. That's all we're interested in. Oh my goodness. Oh, listen. Well, what does under the law
mean? Well, let me see if I can show you here in Romans 7. He
uses marriage as an illustration, as us need not being under the
law, but being under grace. Know ye not, brethren, now listen
to me. He said, Know ye not? And I speak to them who know
the law. Hath the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives.
then he uses marriage as an illustration. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives. But if the husband's dead, she's
free, she's loose from her husband. So then if while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress,
But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that
she is no adulteress, though she be buried to another man.
And then he says, so listen to me, listen to my brethren. Wherefore,
my brethren, you are also become dead to the law, just like a
woman's husband dies and she's loosed from the law. And that's
what he says, wherefore you become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, And listen to this, that you should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God. Oh my, my, my, my. Oh, you know, the obligation
to the law is always canceled by death, by death. And oh, and
I lost a stake. We're in union with sin. But
now that old man's crucified with Christ. and O God, help
us to bring forth fruit to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then, well, let me show you this. But yet the law, God's
law is not sinful. Look what Paul, I told you that
Paul said down in verse nine, I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. But he
says this, the law is holy. Verse 12, the law is holy and
the commandment is holy and just and good. Well, if that which
is good, that law is made good death unto me. Was that which
is good made death unto me? No, it wasn't. But sin, sin,
that worked death in me. That worked death in me. That's
what it did. And the sin came exceeding sinful
because the commandment told me not to do it. But oh, and
He comes down here and He shows us. He shows us what a struggle
it is between the old man and the new man. And then He comes
down to say, when He got down there and showed what a struggle
it is, you know, that old man and new man, I know that in my
flesh dwells no good thing. He said, I delight in verse 22
in the law of God after the ember man. But he said, But I see another
law, another principle in my members, warring against the
law of my soul, bringing me into captivity. And he said, And O
wretched man that I am, O wretched man that I am. How many times
have we said that? How many times has a believer
cried out to God, O wretched man that I am? HOW COULD YOU
POSSIBLY HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ME, O WRETCHED MAN THAT
I AM? WHO SHALL DELIVER ME THEN FROM THIS? OH, AND WHEN HE TALKS
ABOUT A BODY OF DEATH, HE'S TALKING ABOUT HAVING A BODY, THAT OLD
MAN THAT WAS THERE IS AN OLD MAN STRAPPED TO HIS BODY, AND
THAT OLD MAN STARTS ROTTEN AND STARTS CORRUPTING AND STARTS
STINKING, AND HE SAID, WHO'S GONNA TAKE THIS BODY OFF OF ME?
Who s going to take this old corrupt sinning body off of me? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. And then he goes on to say THERE.
I had all that trouble, but listen
to what I m going to tell you now. There s therefore now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And there s
a difference in them There's people who walk after the flesh,
but we don't, we walk after the spirit. We walk after the spirit. Oh my, for the law, the principle
of the spirit of life in Christ, hath made me free from the law
of sin and the consequences of sin, which is death. Now here's
the problem. Nothing wrong with the law. What
the law could not do, It's what He couldn't do, and that it was
weak through the flesh. What did God do for us? He sent
His Son, and every time we get to the root of it, it always
ends up with Christ making everything right. Look what He said, God
sent His Son, OWNed Son, not just His Son, His OWNed Son,
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sacrifice for sin, judged
sin in the flesh, And listen to this now, that the righteousness
of God's law is fulfilled in us who don't walk after our own
nature, but walk after the Holy Spirit of God. Oh my, mm-mm-mm. We've been delivered from the
dominion of the flesh and the life and the Spirit, and the
Spirit Himself shows us. Look down in verse 14, I'll wind
this up, I know I'm taking too long. He said, For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, look what He says, they are the
sons of God. Where does the Spirit of God
always lead a soul? Always leads them to Christ.
Leads them away from self, leads them to Christ. For ye have not
received again the Spirit of bondage," going back under the
Law. But oh, you've received the Spirit of adoption, you become
God's child, He puts His nature in you. And listen to this, how
we know we're God's children then? The Spirit itself bears
witness with our spirit that we're children of God. And if
we're children, we're heirs, we're heirs. We're heirs. And then, oh my, let me close
with this. Look what happens down here in
verse, and then we have this predestination going down through
here. You know, we've dealt with this,
whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate. But oh, I
love this. In verse 31, when we get down
to the end of this thing, what shall we say then to these things?
If God be for us, Who can be against us? Who shall lay ANYTHING
to the charge of God's elect? Is God to justify them? Who's who going to condemn us?
Christ died for us. Christ is risen again for us.
Christ is right now at the right hand of God. Christ is making
intercession for us. So he comes to this conclusion.
Who? shall separate us from the love
of God in Christ." And then he goes on and said, Nothing, absolutely
nothing, shall separate us. Nothing, not life, not death,
not angels, not principalities, not powers, nothing, height,
depth, any other creature, things present or things to come, shall
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. Everything
always comes, he answers his objections, we always end up
with Christ. Now, let me tell you something. Now, next Wednesday
night, I'm going to finish up my introduction. That was an
introduction to chapters 1 through 8. I hope I hit the high spots
right. Now, we're going to go to our
preservation and deal with Romans 8 through 15. And I hope I won't
take near as long as I did this time. I hope this will be a blessing
to us. I told Shirley, I've been so stressed out about this, this
week, starting on this. I have really, really, I have. I just, I've been, you all can't
tell it, but I get to be a nervous wreck over this stuff. To tell
you a secret, I really get tensed up over this kind of stuff. You know, if we don't, if I teach
something wrong and you can't be followed logically in the
scriptures and in the sequence that it's supposed to be, then
we'll all be wrong. So we got this great burden that
we come, we deal with these things honestly and truly. And I do
want to do that. I do want to do that. Our Father, oh, our blessed Savior,
Thank you for giving us another day. Oh, another day of worship,
another day of your precious word, another day of being with
the saints of God and the children of God. Lord, thank you for having mercy
on me and having mercy on this congregation as we deal with
this great, great, great epistle. This epistle got so much truth,
so much honesty, so much reality in it. God, thank you for meeting
with us. God, bless my dear brothers and
sisters. Lord, as they go their way, go
home, go to their beds, give them a good night's sleep. Give
them a strength to go through their week and uphold them by
your blessed grace. Those who are weakest in their
body, we pray for your great and abundant mercies toward them.
Oh, Lord God, may we bring glory to yourself. Thank you for meeting
with us tonight. We bless your holy name. Amen. Every moment and in every way,
every turn and every way, I'm leaning on Jesus. I forgot to mention Jim and Linda
Dodson with us. They come to our conference for
20 years in a row. Their daughter got converted
down here. Oh, my goodness! 18, 19 years ago, I guess, by now. But
we really appreciate them being here. They go to Cottageville,
West Virginia. Mike Walker is their preacher.
Love and appreciate you all being here very much. Love you. See
you Wednesday.