Very simple message, and I hope a very plain message.
But look here in verse fourteen with me. Let me read these verses
again. The apostle writing says, I'm
a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to
the wise and the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel, the gospel of Christ." Now that's
the key there, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of
God unto salvation for everyone that believeth to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. But therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The
just shall live by faith." Paul says he's not ashamed of the
gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of God that concerns
his son. Three things I want you to notice
about the apostle here. First of all, look at his burden
there in verse 14. He has a burden. I think everybody
who knows the gospel and believes the gospel and preaches it has
a burden. But here's the burden he has. I'm debtor both to the
Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
You know, I'm a debtor to them. I'm a debtor to do what? To bring
them the gospel. To not hold back the gospel to
them. Look over in Romans. You keep
this and look in Romans 9. This is what he's saying. He
said, I'm a debtor to him. Now, he didn't say, I'm in debt
to God. You see, though we, well, the scripture doesn't tell
us that we're ever in debt to God. The salvation is by grace.
And I mean, we love Him and we acknowledge Him. And we all feel
like we owe Him more than our own lives. And we're the whole
realm of nature, mind, that we're present far too small. for such
amazing love, so grace and great and divine. But Paul here has
such a great burden to the Greeks, to the barbarians, wise or unwise. It didn't make any difference
to him. He had to say a message. He had a burden to get the message
to them. He said, I say the truth in Christ and I lie not. And
this is an amazing thing. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have a great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. I could wish myself separated
from Christ if they would believe the gospel. I have such a debt
to them. I have a debt to tell them the
truth. I have a debt to these people. And my debt is not to
the grace of God, but to these sinners. the sinners here that
need the truth, whether they're Greek, whether they're a barbarian,
whether they got some sense, or whether they ain't got no
sense. He said, this is the burden I have. And he says, brethren,
my heart's desire for Israel is that they might be saved,
for I bear record that they have the zeal of God, but it's not
according to knowledge. How do you know, Paul? Because
they're going about to establish their own righteousness. So he
has this great burden to get the gospel out. And then look
at what he says in verse 15. Look at his boldness now. He
says, so as much as in me is, and that's another statement,
see, as much as in me is, as much as I have the ability while
I'm in this body, as much as I have the ability by the grace
of God, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also. I tell you, I'm ready. I am ready
to be there. I'm ready to preach the gospel,
and I want to preach it to you at Rome. And that's why he says,
I'm in prison. He told 2 Timothy 2.9, he says,
I'm bound. I'm bound, but the word of God's
not bound. And he says, the word of God
will have free course. So he has this great boldness.
And look in Acts, keep Romans and look in Acts 26. Here's what
I'm talking about. The apostle had this great boldness
and had this great desire to go preach the gospel. And he
wanted to preach it to men and women. no matter what their station
in life was. There's a barbarian, didn't understand
anything, never heard the gospel, never heard the true God. He
said, I'll go to them barbarians. I'll go to these wise Jews. I'll
go to these unwise Greeks. I'll go to... I said, these are
the people that need the gospel. He said, I'm not going to go
to the righteous. I'm not going to go to the good.
I'm not going to go to these philosophers. I'm going to go
to these people that are nothing. Barbarians, Greeks, wise, unwise,
don't make no difference to me. Then look what he says there
in verse one. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, you're permitted to
speak for yourself. Then Paul stretched forth his
hand and answered for himself. And listen to what he said now.
He's standing here as a prisoner now. He's before a king. And he said, I thank myself happy. I thank myself blessed of God,
because I can answer for myself this day before you, touching
everything whereof I'm accused. So Paul had a boldness. He said,
I'm ready to preach the gospel. And then look what his belief
was. Look what he believed. And this is why he's ready to
preach it, and who he's ready to preach it to. For I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth. Oh, beloved, he's not ashamed
of the gospel. Paul told Timothy, he said, Timothy,
don't be ashamed of me. Don't be ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, nor of me, his prisoner. Now, I want you to notice this.
We're the apostle. desired to preach the gospel.
He said, I desire to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
also. Now, he had preached the gospel, but he had never been
to Rome yet. Never preached the gospel at Rome yet. And that's
what he says down here in verse 11 of chapter 1. I long to see
you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, that I may,
by the grace of God, impart something unto you in preaching to you,
that you may be established, that you may be established,
that you may stand strong in the gospel of Christ. And, oh,
beloved, that's why he says, and then he says, I'm ready to
preach the gospel to you in Rome. Now, let me tell you something
about Rome. You know, Rome right now is still a great, great city. People travel from all over the
world, and most of them go there to see the Pope and the Vatican.
But Rome at this particular time was the mightiest city in the
world. This is where the Caesars dwelt.
This city of Rome had the greatest army, had the Caesars, it had
the Colosseum, it had the Roman Baths, it was the world of art,
it was the world of literature, it was the legislative capital
of the world. And Rome at that time controlled the known world.
Mary and I was in England several years ago, and we went to a town
there called Bath. And the reason it's called Bath
is because the Romans went there thousands of years ago, and they
built a Roman bath there. And that thing was still in there,
and still worked. And you could go down under there,
and all the aqueducts and everything still worked. It was an astounding
thing. And it had been there for Thousand years. And so here we was, and that's
where Paul wants to go. He wants to go to this great,
great city. Great paintings, learned city,
mighty buildings, baths and orators and philosophers and all that.
And yet, in spite of all that, it was one of the most wicked
cities in the whole world. Oh, it was a wicked city. Horribly
wicked city. And you know who was the most
wicked person in that whole city? It was Caesar. He said, you'll
worship me or you're going to die. He put up statues of himself. And this is where Paul desired
to preach the gospel. In this place. But notice what
he wanted to do when he got there. He said, I believe I'll go sightseeing.
I believe I'll go see some of these Roman baths. Go! I believe
I'll go and see some of these paintings, some of these great
paintings of all these Italians, and I'll go hear some philosophers,
you know, and I'll go see the Colosseum, and I'll see all these
Roman... and I'll get in them Roman baths, and I'll enjoy myself
while I'm there. No, no, no. Notice what he wanted
to do when he got there. I'm ready to preach the gospel.
I'm ready to preach the gospel. He didn't want to go to Rome
to sightsee. He didn't want to go to Rome
to behold its great marbles, and its great buildings, and
its great orators, and its theaters, and its palaces. And he wasn't
going there to show off how much, how intellectual he was, and
how smart he was, and how learned he was. And lots and lots of
men went to Rome to show off their learning. And that was
the place they'd go and have their works published, you see.
If you had a book, you as a great philosopher learned, you went
to Rome. But Paul had only one reason to go to Rome. Just one
reason. And that's to preach the gospel.
Didn't have no other reason to go there. When I go to Mexico
or any place else, there's only one reason I go there. It's to
preach the gospel. That's the only reason you go.
And I tell you, it wasn't to show off himself. He went there
to preach the gospel. And notice what he had, the feelings
he had about going to Rome. He says, I'm not ashamed. I'm
ready to preach the gospel at Rome. I'm not going to sightsee. I'm not going to hear some philosophers. I'm coming there to preach the
gospel, and I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Now, listen
to me. Then you're talking about some
words full of meaning. really full of meaning, remarkable
words. When he says, I'm not ashamed,
there's a lot of people ashamed of the gospel, a lot of people
ashamed of the Word of God. But when he says, I'm not ashamed,
what he's saying is, I glory only in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I come here to preach the gospel,
I glory only in the cross of Christ. When I get there, I'm
not going to glory in my learning. I'm not going to glory in how
great Rome is. I'm not going to glory in how
good a preacher I am. I'm not going to glory in my
knowledge of the Scriptures. I'm going to glory in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed of it then. He
said, by which I'm crucified unto the world. And what he's
saying is, That when I get there, I'm not ashamed. I'm going to
preach to you the way of righteousness. And this is what is not ashamed
of. The way of righteousness through the cross. The way of
righteousness through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what He gloried in. That's what He gloried in. The
way of righteousness. The way that God makes a man
righteousness through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only thing we've got to glory in. If any man glory, let him
glory. in Christ. And I tell you what,
beloved, he wasn't ashamed of the gospel. Let me tell you where
he wasn't ashamed of it for. He wasn't ashamed of the gospel
before God. Are you ashamed of the gospel
before God? You see, beloved, what I'm telling
you is he rested, he rested his eternal salvation before God
in Lord Jesus Christ and who he was. I'm going to say something
right here. Salvation is in a person. David
said, he is my salvation. He is my salvation. Now, he did
a work, and we'll get to that. But, beloved, if you trust who
did the work, who provided the righteousness, and that's why
Paul said, I rest my eternal soul I rest my eternal soul on
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not
ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that
He is able to keep that that I've committed unto Him against
that day. And look in Galatians. I want you to see this. I've
quoted this so many times. But look in Galatians chapter
2 and verse 21. You know, this is what he's saying.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel before God. And I'll tell you
what, if you don't believe Christ and trust Christ, you ought to
be ashamed before God, because you've got nothing to face God
with. You have nothing to face God
with. If you don't have Christ, you have no one to face God with. That's why it says, my conscience.
And look what he said here in Galatians 2.20 and 2.21. He said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me." And listen to this,
I do not frustrate the grace of God. I don't make bored the
grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So I'm not ashamed of
my of the gospel before God himself. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not
ashamed of preaching it. He was like David, who says,
The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things insured. And he says this, this, this
covenant, ordered in all things insured, this is my salvation,
all my salvation. And I tell you, beloved, he understood
that he had no other way of access into the presence of God. He
had no other acceptance with God. And I tell you what, if
this fails, everything fails. And that's why I said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not
ashamed of the gospel. And the scripture said in Romans
10, 11, he says, and he that believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. If you believe on Christ, And
you trust Christ, and you know Christ, and you've bowed to Christ,
and you've received Christ, and you know that He's your only
way of acceptance with God. You say, I might be ashamed of
Him, and I might be ashamed of acknowledging Him. I might be
ashamed of His gospel. I'll not be ashamed of telling
people that He's my only hope, my only righteousness. I won't
be ashamed to let folks know that I have no one else than
to make me righteous before God and acceptable before God other
than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I'll tell you who else he
wasn't ashamed of the gospel. He wasn't ashamed of it before
men. He wasn't ashamed of it before
men. Many are. I know when I first started hearing
the gospel, learning the gospel, preaching the gospel, I couldn't
tell you how many men told me, said, you better leave that stuff
alone. You better leave that election
and predestination and that sovereign grace business alone. He said,
it'll ruin you. It'll ruin your ministry. Well,
it did. It ruined my ministry. It killed
me, graveyard dead, and then God gave me a ministry. Then
I have God call, you know, and I tell you what, that's, you
see, he wasn't ashamed of the gospel before me either. Many,
many are. Many are ashamed to tell the
whole truth. I remember some real, real big
shot creature. I don't, you know, you wouldn't
know him from, but you know, he, he was a big shot among the
circle he was in. And he says, you know, he said,
we was talking about this and things, and he says, you know,
election is a family secret. I said, well, why in the world
don't you get up and tell the family? You know, they sit over a cup
of coffee, and they'll deal with things. But when they stand before
men and tell the whole gospel, and tell men that there isn't
one righteousness, and you have no ability to get that righteousness
by yourself, that you can't in and of yourself make yourself
righteous, that you can't in and of yourself do anything to
make yourself acceptable to God. And that's why I said he wasn't
ashamed of the gospel before men. And I'll tell you, if you
ever believe the gospel, you'll never be ashamed of it either.
And he decided to proclaim the gospel to the whole world at
once. My soul, wouldn't I love to do that? And wouldn't I love
to hear Henry Manning do it, or Don Fortner, or any of these
men? If they could get up before the
whole world and get a gra- Wouldn't you love to see some- wouldn't
these thousands come see these rock stars? Wouldn't you love
to see some preacher get up in the middle of that and for 45
minutes tell men and women the truth? Oh, wouldn't it be something? And oh, when he got there, oh,
people would have sneered at him. They'd have sneered, this
fella's coming to Rome and all he's got as weapons is words. Just words. Look at Acts 17 with me just
a minute. He's just coming here with words.
He ain't no, you know, he ain't an artist. He's not a philosopher.
You know, he's a little old beady fella. Ball-headed? Bow-legged? I read the other day of a description
of somebody giving a description of Paul, and they said he was
a little old bitty short fellow, ball-headed, bow-legged. The
whole lot of preaching. Look what he said here in Acts
17, 17. He just comes with words. Therefore he disputed he and
the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the
market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him." Encountered
him, went up to him and said, now wait a minute, what will
this babbler say? You know, they call it, that
word babbler means a base fellow, this lowlife, this nobody, that's
what they're saying about him. He seemed to be a setter forth
of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. They mocked him because all he
had was words. He seemed to be a setter forth
of strange gods. And that's why Festus said to
him, says, all your learning has made you madder to matter. He said, oh, no, I'm not mad.
I'm just preaching forth the words of truth, soberness, and
righteousness. That's all I'm telling you about.
And oh beloved, they would have just come in here with words
talking about a righteousness without anybody doing anything?
A righteousness without words? But he didn't care what they
thought about him. He wasn't ashamed. They would
have come to him and said, what in the world would you come here
to such a wicked place preaching another man's righteousness?
But he wasn't ashamed. He knew the gospel was their
only hope. And I tell you beloved, the gospel
is your only hope and my only hope. And that's why we're not
ashamed of it. You know, there's reasons why
men are ashamed of the gospel. Let me give you some of them.
Natural men are ashamed of the gospel because it seems a way
of foolishness unto them. It seems foolishness to them.
You know, Paul says that Christ sent me to preach the gospel,
not with wisdom of words. He said, He sent me to preach
the gospel. And to them that are perishing, it's foolishness.
Now, you know as well as I do that when you start talking to
people and telling people that you can't believe, that you can't
have a righteousness, that your works, nothing about you, is
acceptable to God, you know, men will be ashamed of it. They
say, that's foolish. I couldn't tell you how many
times that I've heard people tell me that over the years.
That's foolish. People in my family told me it's foolish. Preachers have told me it's foolish.
That fellow that I told you about the other night that shot himself,
he said this was foolish. You know, to not have your own
free will, to not have your own power, to not have your own rights,
that's foolish. To preach another man's righteousness,
that you and of yourselves, if God don't give you a righteousness,
if God don't give it to you, you'll never have it. that through another man, by
what another man did, what another man did, that God will take what
another man did and put it on your account and never, never,
ever take anything that you ever did and accept it. Oh, they're ashamed of it because
of the way it deals with wisdom, human wisdom and reasoning. You see, men think that they
can figure this out. They think that they can have
the wisdom and they can reason this business out about being
saved. But beloved, wisdom and reasoning
does not enter into this thing. I don't care if you're the wisest
man in the world, but if, you know, Buddha was wise, but he's
been in hell now for 3,000, 4,000 years. Confucius is wise, but
he's been in hell. A lot of wise men in this world.
Albert Einstein was supposed to be the smartest man that ever
walked on the earth. He's in hell now. Wise men don't. And listen, your
learning's got to be come to nothing. You see, it's by revelation by
the Spirit of God. If you ever see or know anything,
God's got to reveal it to you. John said this, a man can receive
nothing except it be given him from heaven. They couldn't believe
who God was. They couldn't believe who Christ
was. They couldn't believe the gospel until it was revealed
to them from heaven. Our Lord told Nicodemus, you
must be born again. Huh? My dad told me it made sense.
That's the foolishest thing I've ever heard. How in the world
is an old man, an old man, going to get back in his mother's womb
and be born a second time? Our Lord said, if I told you
earthly things, and you can't receive them, what are you going
to do if I tell you about something from heaven? Huh? And oh, beloved, it only
knows one way to be saved. You see, everyone's not righteous.
Everyone's not righteous. That's everybody's problem. They're
too righteous. Everyone doesn't have good points. In fact, I'll tell you something,
by the time you go to a one-step flood nest, you don't have any
good points about you. Your mom may think you've got
some good points. Your wife may think you've got
some good points. Mary knows, I don't. There's
no argument about that. But let's listen, I'm telling
you right now, this is what's missing. Preachers are telling
folks, you're good people, you need Jesus. If you're good, you
don't need him. God said he went looking. God
said himself in Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, he said he went looking. For somebody that was good, for
somebody that understood. And you know what conclusion
he come to? I didn't find anybody good, and I didn't find anybody
righteous. I didn't find anybody seeking.
I didn't find anybody that understood one thing. That's what he said
he found out. And so you see, when he says
he looked about, and he didn't find anybody like that, that
includes me and you too. They said, oh, that includes
all them other folks that's out there. That includes us! That
includes your mother, and your sons, and your daughters, and
your grandchildren, and everybody that you possibly know. That
includes us all. And oh, you see, it's not, let's
just all love Jesus and we'll all meet in the street by and
by. That's not the way it works. And that's why they're ashamed.
Because it won't, it has, human wisdom and reason don't enter
into it. To the philosopher and the intellectual, they say, why,
it's just too simple. It's too simple. I need to sit down and have something
complicated. I need some metaphysics. I need
some philosophy. I need to find out the origin
of things, and I need to have an answer for this, and I need
to have an answer for that. But all we do is to tell the
philosopher, the intellectual, and the people that think they're
smart, we say, God says. God says. And He can't stand
Somebody being so sure and positive. They can't stand it. They can't
stand somebody being sure and positive. Standing one place
and not moving from it. Ain't that right? They can't
stand it. That's why the Lord said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you've heard me talk about revelation
in these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed among
the babes, because it seemed good in your sight. And I'll
tell you another reason why men are ashamed of the gospel. And
maybe this is why folks don't, you know, maybe they don't believe
it because they're ashamed of it. They're ashamed of it because
it's against all the notions and men's ideas of human ability. Men, for some reason, think they
have some great ability. All you got to do is make the
choice. Tell men that they have the will.
That they have the right. That they have the power within
themselves to save themselves if they'll just make the right
choice. They can believe that. And they'll
glory in that. And they'll brag about that.
And feel good about themselves about that. And you tell them that Christ
died to make them savable. To give them an opportunity.
To open a door. To make them savable if they'll
just make the right move. They'll understand that and believe
that. And it'll feed their pride, it'll
feed their ego, it'll boost them up. But I tell you what, the
gospel doesn't tell men that. The gospel tells men, you know
what they call them? Thou worm, Jacob. God calls us
worms. Do you mind being called a worm?
I was, we put out this mulch, and if any of you want fishing
worms, come to the house. Just rake back the mulch and
just pick you up a handful of them. And every time I rake across
there and I see the worms, I think of me. I'm serious. A worm. You know what our Lord
said about Himself? Had He not said it Himself in
Psalm 69, He said this, He said, I'm a worm and no man. That He so identified with us
that He said, I'm a worm and no man. God called His elect,
He says, thou worm. You know what else He calls them?
Grasshoppers. Just grasshoppers. How significant
is a grasshopper? How significant is a worm? Calls
them clay. And the clay doesn't have any
power to make itself anything. And as Brother Hinger used to
say, he said, for men to get up and brag on themselves like
one worm, bragging on another worm. I'm a better worm than
you are. But you see, the gospel tells us this, that it's a God-willed
gospel, not your will. It's a God-must-save gospel. Christ is a sufficient and essential
Redeemer. His blood did actually put sin
away. And no man can come unto the
Father except by me, our Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, no
man can come unto me except the Father which sent me drawing
him. And I'll tell you, beloved, that's what men... Man's dead in trespass. What
can a dead man do? What can a dead man do? If there's
a spark of life left in him, he's not dead. I mean, he may be right on the
verge of going into eternity, but as long as there's a little
tiny heartbeat, a little brain wave going on in there, they're
not dead. Until that heart stops and that
brain stops, you're still living. And I'm telling you something,
a dead man cannot believe, he can't see, he can't hear, and
the only way he'll ever see, hear, believe anything is for
God to give him life. And they're ashamed of it because
of the way they view human merit. Let me tell you something, beloved.
Man, he just tastes a part with his righteousness. That's the
last thing he'll give up. It's a hard thing to do to give
up your own righteousness. It really is. You'll keep running
back to something you've done, something you believed, or some
experience you had. You'll keep going back and saying,
well, I did this, and I believed that. I've done this other thing.
When I was this, you just hate to give it up. But you know,
Paul said, I shall have everything but done that I might know Christ
and win Christ. Men hate to part with their own
righteousness. I had two meetings closed on
me because of this very point right here. I was up in Kentucky
one time, and I was in a meeting right out here. No, three meetings.
One down in Goodlessville, Tennessee, and one here somewhere around
Creston. And it was because a priest's
man had no merit, had no righteousness, that before God, His righteousness
was a filthy rag. And one fellow told me, he says,
a woman got up and she said, you know that He's calling you
all sinners? Do you know what He's saying
about you? He's calling you all some of the worst people I ever,
that I wouldn't even associate with people the way He's calling
you all. That's what she said. And sure enough, the next day
the preacher said, boy, you gotta go. Said, you've upset the apple
cart. Got down in Goodman's field and
the fellow told me how many people he had. You know, and all of
a sudden I started preaching this business, you know, man
don't have any merit. He's just a rotten, hell-deserving
sinner. He's a sinner from the top of
his head to the sole of his foot, from the inside out. After two
days of that, that preacher said, oh man, you got us so down, we
can't speak anymore. And then you, some of you all
remember out here north of, out in Creston one time, you girl's
son, you was just real young. You hadn't even been married
yet. And the fellow called me the next morning and says, boy,
we just can't take no more of that. Just can't take no more
of that. And I tell you, see, men hate
to part with their righteousness. And when you start telling them
they ain't got one, when you've got a church house full of people
that that's all they're trusting in, in what they believe, in
their church attendance, in their works, in their prayer life,
and their goodness, and their witnessing, and their dress codes. Do you know how self-righteous
a Mennonite and an Amish are when they make their dress to
be their holiness? I'm holier than you, I'm better
than you because of the way I dress. Do you know how self-righteous
they are? I had an appointment to meet
with five Mennonites one time. We was going to discuss the gospel.
And they called me that morning before we were supposed to meet
and said, well, we decided we just won't do that. Because they know they
didn't have a leg to stand on. That's what I'm telling you.
You know, it's not your badness that keeps you from Christ. You
know what it is? It's your goodness. It's not
how bad you are. It's how good you are. If you're
as bad as the scripture says you are, and God made you that
bad, you'd trust Christ quicker than I'd snap my fingers. It's not a man's immorality that
keeps him from Christ, it's his morality. It's not his dishonesty,
but it's his honesty. It's not his sin, but his righteousness. You see, a man's got to part
with three things if he's going to know Christ. He's got to part
with his sins, that's what he does. He's got to part with his
sin, that's what he is. And he's got to part with his
righteousness. That's what he thinks of himself. Huh? Oh, my. Salvation by grace alone,
through Christ alone, destroys all human merit. Look with me
in Rome at Matthew chapter 9, just a moment. Matthew chapter
9. That's why I said, for by grace
are you saved through faith. And it's the gift of God, not
of words, like any man should boast. And you know it as well as I
do, it's not your badness that's keeping you from Christ. It's
your goodness. It's not your sin, it's your
righteousness. It's your righteousness. It's
a good conception of yourself. Look what our Lord said here
in Matthew 9 and verse 11. Many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. You notice how they
described them, publicans and sinners. And when the Pharisees
saw it, oh, they didn't like it. They said unto his master,
why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? Oh, my. We don't do that. We're too righteous
to do that. We're too good to do that. We
can't go sit down with no sinners. We can't eat with sinners. We
can't eat with public, it's people that are despised. And Jesus
heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole don't need
a doctor. But who needs a doctor? People
that are sick. Now look what he said here, but
you go and learn what that means. You learn what it means that
only the whole don't need a doctor, but they that are sick. You go
and understand, you learn what that means. If you're whole,
these Pharisees said, we're whole. We're not going to sit down with
publicans sinners. But if you're sick and you got problems and
you don't have no health, he says, you need the doctor. And
then look what he says, and I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy. I'm going to show mercy. I'll
have mercy. I delight in mercy. I rejoice
in mercy. I delight to show mercy. And
I'll not have sacrifices. I don't want you to sacrifice
your self-righteousness. I don't want any sacrifice you've
got to offer. I don't want no tears. I don't
want nothing from you. I don't want you to sacrifice
anything. Bring nothing to me. I've not
come to call the righteous. Don't bring me a sacrifice of
your filthy hands. I've not come to call the righteous.
I've come to call sinners. When he's talking about sinners,
he's talking about the genuine article, God made sinners. Not
men made sinners, God made sinners. And he comes to call them to
repentance. And I tell you, if a man can be saved, if a man
can be accepted because of some goodness they have, or good deed
they've done, let me ask you this, why in the world did Jesus
Christ die? If God will accept anything you've
done, Why did Christ die then, if you can be accepted by any
goodness or any merit or any work or any righteousness? Why
did Christ die? You just answer that question.
Self-righteous souls on works rely and boast of moral dignity
and despise to say, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus
Christ is my all in all. I've got to hurry, I've taken
too long. They're ashamed of the gospel because it makes no
distinction in mankind. This is one of the things that
I delight in the gospel about. I delight in it. It makes no
distinctions in anybody in life at all. He says there's none
righteous, no not one. He says there's none good, no
not one. All have sins. And, you know, people say the
way you preach, that you make God a respective person. He's
only going to save certain people. But they, you know, they say,
well, it makes him a respective person. But what they preach
does. Because, you see, if they preach that it's up to you, then
they make you, they make God a respective person. He's got
to view something you've done. And if a fellow hasn't done it,
he's got to respect you then, because you've done something. or you're better than somebody
else, or you've got more faith than somebody else, or you live
better than somebody else, if God respects you and does something
for you, he don't do for somebody else. But, oh, that's a respective
person. But here's what I'm talking about.
God looks at all men exactly the same. He looks at the prophet
and the priest, the rich and the poor, The high, the low,
the Ph.D., and the fellow that ain't got sense enough to get
in out of the rain. Huh? God considers everybody
lost, everybody sinners, everybody rebels, and I'm telling you from
the President of the United States to the person sitting down there
on Skid Row in Nashville, Tennessee right now, God says that there's
none righteous, no, not one. Huh? The preaching of the gospel
and the cross makes all men to be saved exactly the same way. Mary Magdalene, Christ cast seven
devils out of hell, but Mary, the mother of Jesus, they both
gonna have to be saved exactly the same way. Ain't that right? If a woman came in here and she
had If she was just as low life as you could possibly think,
and you here that are mothers and loved by your families and
that, if you have all these good qualities and this person has
none, you're both going to have to come to Christ on the same
ground. And that's what I love about the gospel. It puts us,
it levels, you know the politician said, we need to level the playing
field. Well, God does. He really, really does. He really, really does. And you
know what that tells me? That if you're nobody, you don't
know nothing, and you come to God the way God
meant for you to come through His blessed Son, Jesus Christ,
He will accept you and receive you who you are right now. Oh, not only are they ashamed
of that, but they're ashamed of his preachers. Look in Mark chapter
3. Oh, boy. Well, we ain't got nowhere to
go but somewhere else. Look in Mark 6. Mark 6 with me
real quick. Let me show you something. They're
not only ashamed of the gospel, they're ashamed of the preachers.
They're ashamed of his preachers. Henry Mahan, as good a preacher
as he is, one of the last meetings he had up in Indiana, Bruce Crabtree, the
one that just said, you know, y'all need to get Brother Henry,
and Brother Henry went up there and he preached twice, I believe,
and the preacher called and says, you know, your message is upsetting
some of the folks, so you need to, you know, that's it. That's
it. And the reason being, let me
tell you something. He says, you know, Brother Henry said
he's not offensive in his personality. If there's any offense, it'll
be in the gospel. And the love of the gospel was offensive.
And Bruce told that bunch, he says, you'll regret this. You'll
regret this. I wouldn't be in your shoes for
10,000 worlds like this. And you wouldn't believe some
of the things that happened to some of those people. Because people are ashamed of
the gospel, and they're ashamed of their preachers. But look
what he said here in Mark chapter 6 and verse 3. Oh, they heard the Lord Jesus
Christ preach, and they said, what is this wisdom? Where does
he get this stuff? We see these mighty words brought
by his hand. Now watch this. His mother is the carpenter,
the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and of Judah
and Simon. And I'll hear sisters here with
us, and listen to this. And they were offended at her. They were offended at him. They
were offended at him. You know what they said about
Peter, James, and John? These are the most eager and
unlearned men I've ever seen. But listen now, we've got to
shut these fellas up. They're eager and unlearned.
We know something. We've got to shut these fellas
up. Get them out of here. And that's why Paul says we have
this treasure, this treasure in earthen vessels, in clay pots.
See that glass right there? That glass is better than a clay
pot. And God said we have this treasure in an old clay pot.
And it's a treasure. So it's not the pot. It's the
treasure that's in the pot. And people will perish because
they stumble over a fault in a man instead of believing the
gospel. And then let me hurry quick.
I've got to hurry. Now look back over here in Romans. Paul says
we're not ashamed of the gospel. That took too long, but I'm going
to finish it. I need to finish this, and so please shake yourself
just a little bit until I get done. Paul says we're not ashamed
of the gospel. Why? Because he says there in
verse 16, it's the power of God unto salvation. That's why it
is. Because it's the power of God unto salvation. And what
it means, it's the power of God. It's the power of the gospel.
It's the power. And that word there means dynamo,
dynamite. The same thing as a power that
comes in explosive. And the gospel comes and it explodes. It comes with such power to a
man's heart. It quickens him from the dead.
It transforms men and their lives. It transforms their thinking.
Look how it changed Paul. It made him from a rebel to a
wonderful preacher and an apostle. It quickens the dead, it gives
sight to the blind, it gives a voice to the dumb, and takes
out a heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh. The gospel
does that. And because it's the gospel of
righteousness, the gospel of righteousness revealed. You can
tell what he says in verse 16, 17. Now what does he mean, the
gospel of righteousness revealed? It means here how God can be
just and justify you. how God in righteousness can
save a sinner through Jesus Christ. That's what the righteousness
of God means here. The righteousness of God here is the doing and
dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me ask you a question.
How in the world can God take men that I've described, sorry, good-for-nothing worms,
grasshoppers, sinners, Self-righteous? Men who think they've got something?
Men who think they are something? How can God take a man who is
nothing but a sinner and make that man righteous? It's they
God. And make that man righteous is
God Himself. And that's what he called the
righteousness of God, because that's the righteousness he gives.
How can God take you and put away all your sins and give you
life at the same time? Make you righteous. That's what
Paul is saying here. That's why the gospel is the
power of God. Because it shows you how that
God himself can make you righteous. And make you, declare you righteous
and give you the righteousness of Christ. Make you righteous
in His sight. Make you acceptable in His sight.
And I tell you what, when we talk about obedience, you know,
if you're going to be saved by obedience, the obedience has
to be perfect. And Christ's obedience was perfect. Perfect. He was obedient before God from
the day He was born, all the way to the grave, until He ascended
back to the right hand of the Father. He obeyed the law perfectly. He obeyed his parents perfectly. And everything he did, he did
everything perfectly. You see, now here's the thing.
His obedience had merit. Ours don't. His obedience had
value for his people because of who he was. He was God and
man and one blessed person. And when he died, he didn't die
for himself. He died for someone else. He
Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And so
what God does when you come to Christ, He takes that obedience
of Christ and gives it to you, because Christ took your disobedience. He takes the righteousness of
Christ and charges it to you, and takes your unrighteousness
and your sin, and He charges it to Christ. It's a perfect
exchange. He gets all your badness. and
you get all his goodness. He gets all your sin, you get
all his righteousness. He gets all your disobedience,
you get all his obedience. He gets all your filthiness, and you get all of his holiness. Now that's what the gospel of
righteousness is talking about. Now let me tell you this in closing.
Look down there in verse 18, why men should believe the gospel,
the Christ, the gospel, the cross, the righteousness of God that's
revealed. Because for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. If a man don't believe the gospel, you know
what else is revealed from heaven? Not only righteousness revealed,
the wrath is revealed. And you know where God reveals
His wrath? Let me show you how He reveals
His wrath. Look what He says in verse 21. Because when they
knew God, they didn't glorify Him as God. They weren't thankful.
And their foolish heart was darkened. They professed themselves to
be wise, and they became fools. They changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man,
to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Now, this
is where the wrath of God is manifested. God gave them up
to uncleanness, to the lusts of their own hearts. God gave
them up. Look what it says in verse 26.
God gave them up to vile affections. And, oh, beloved, you go right
on down through there, and this is what needs to be given up
of God. I mean, he'll leave you to yourself, he'll leave you
to your flesh. If you don't like God in your
knowledge, if you don't like God in your affections, if you
don't like, don't want to know God, God has said, I'll tell
you what I'll do. You don't want to know me? I'll just give you
up. And you'll never know me. You don't want that to happen. You know how bad you have to
be for God to give you up? You know how far you've got to
go for God to give up on you? PRABHUPÄ€DA Whoo! Fighting it.
Yeah.