They're telling men and women,
preachers are, they're telling men and women
that God loves you, and we do too. We saw that on a sign just
yesterday. God loves you, and we do too.
But now what about Romans 9.11, says the children not being yet
born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose according
to God's election might stand, not of him who willeth or him
that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy, and the children
not being yet born. God said, Jacob hath a love,
and Esau hath a hate. And what about Pharaoh? God said,
for this purpose I raised you up. The only reason I let you
be Pharaoh when Israel was in Egypt was so that I could destroy
you in the Red Sea. That's the only reason I raised
you up. And Judas, our Lord said that he was the son of perdition,
the son of damnation from the beginning. And God says
that He hates, now listen to Him, He hates the workers of
iniquity. People say, well, He loves the sinner, but He hates
his sin. How do you separate the two? It don't say that in
there. It don't say that God loves the sinner and hates the
sin. He said He hates the workers of iniquity. And He's angry with
the wicked every single day. And I'll tell you where God's
love's at. It's in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're
ever going to know anything about the love of God, you're going
to find it in Christ. And here's the second thing.
Old Brother Barnard, when he went to Ashton, Kentucky, back
in 1954, and the first night he got up, he said, there's been
two lives been told all over Ashton, Kentucky. And this tent
was full of hundreds of people. He says, let me tell you, two
lives been going all over. Acts of Kentucky. First thing
is that God loves you, loves everybody, and the second lie
that's being told is that Jesus died for every single one of
you, and that's the two lies that the devil's telling us.
And that's what preachers are telling people today, that Jesus
died to save you, and he's done all he can do for you. Now, His
death and His blood can't save you, has no power to put your
sin away, no power to save you and cleanse you from your sin
until you mix your faith in it, until you put your tears in it,
until you make your choice, and your choice is what makes the
blood of Christ effectual. It has no power until you do
something. Here's the blood and power and
glory and death of Christ, and it's here, and now it is. And
they said, now here it is for you, and He's done all He can
do. Now here it is, and it ain't going to do you no good until
you cry into it and put some faith into it, and you may give
your Jesus your choice, and then His blood will put your sin away.
When the Scripture says that He entered once into the holy
place and obtained eternal redemption for us, and what does the Scripture say?
He shall, thou shalt call his name Jesus, and he shall, shall,
not try to, not hope to, not open a door for, but shall save
his people from their sins. All that the Father give me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out."
Look in Isaiah 53 and 10 with me. This is our gospel. This
is our gospel right here. This is our gospel. This is our hope, this is our...
In Isaiah 53.10, look what it says here. Oh, you know, being saved, this
is a wonderful Bible term. God's saving people, right now,
all over this world. But he said here in Isaiah 53.10,
look what it says now. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. This death of Christ on the cross was an act of God.
He hath put him to grief. Who did? God did. When thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin. God made his soul an offering
for sin. And when he did, he saw his seed.
Whose seed? All of his he left. Those that
were given to him. Well, I just read to you that
God gave grace to in Christ before the foundations of the world.
And God said, it prolonged his days in the pleasure of the satisfaction
of the Lord would prosper in his head. And watch this, he
shall see of the travail of his soul, see who's dying for it,
who he's going through agony for, and shall be satisfied by
his knowledge, by him giving the knowledge of himself, shall
my righteous servant justify many, not everybody, justify
many. Why? Because he will bear their
iniquities. Who's he going to justify? The
ones whose iniquities he bore. Nobody else's. Now, they're all
listening. Here's another thing preachers
are saying. God have mercy on the preacher that's like this.
And I know, I've been there. I know what I'm talking about.
They say, you know, you know, you're really, you are really,
really good people. You're honest, decent people.
And because you're such good, honest, decent people, that God
owes you a chance. He will not let you leave this
world until He gives you a chance to be saved. And when He gives
you your chance, if you'll cooperate with Him when He gives you your
chance, now you cooperate with Him when He gives you your chance,
and then you'll be saved. And if you miss that chance,
then you may never get another. Then they turn around and say,
He has a wonderful, wonderful plan for your life. Well, you
know, that would be all right if salvation was by chance. But
salvation is on purpose. Did I just not read it? That
God who has saved us and called us with the holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose, purpose and
grace, given us in Christ before the world began. that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. And oh, beloved,
he's got a wonderful plan for your life. What about the, did
he have a wonderful plan for Judah's life? Had a wonderful plan, had a wonderful
plan for Pharaoh's life. Esau, what about Ananias and
Sapphire? Had a wonderful plan for their
life. Killed them both, graveyard dead,
because they lied to the Holy Ghost, huh? And what about Job? Did God have a wonderful plan
for Job's life when all of a sudden he's sitting there and he's up
worshiping, somebody comes and tells him the news that his children's
been killed, his cattle's been stolen, that his house has been
turned down, that he's lost everything he had in the space of 24 hours?
I'd just love to see a preacher tell him, you know, Joe, God's
got such a wonderful plan for your life. If you'll just trust
him. And here's another thing that
preachers are saying about, we're talking about when is a man saved?
And this is what people say, that this is how people are getting
saved, little things that I'm telling you about. They've got
this claim it and you got it. Claim it religion, claim it salvation,
claim it and it's yours. I guarantee it. You claim faith
and it's yours. You claim hell, put a picture
on your refrigerator of what you want and claim it! Claim
it! You see that catalog out there,
that hanging, you want it? Put a picture up there and claim
it! And I say before you do that though, send me some money and
I'll pray for you that you get it. Send me some seed faith money. Oh, if you want prosperity, want
a good marriage, you listen to what I got to say." And then
they turn around and say, when things are going well, it's because
you got strong faith. When Paul, when he had a thorn
in his flesh, asked God three times to take it away, he said,
you know what he said about strong faith? He said, when I'm weak,
then am I strong. Huh? And I tell you something,
this is what people are saying that men are being saved. And
what they say about sin. Sin is not something. Sin is
in things. Sin is in things. Sin is in things. Things you do. Places you go. Sin is in the way you dress.
Sin is in what you do. And sin is something that you
do with your hand. And the more sins you've committed,
snorting cocaine, and the more sin you commit, being a drug
addict, the more popular you become as a preacher when you
stand up and tell all the things God saved you from. I tell you what, it's not things
that God saves us from, He saves us from sin. S-I-N. Saves us from the power of flesh. Saves us from the idea that we've
got anything. And I tell you, beloved, they
say, you'll go to hell for rejecting Jesus. We, the whole human race, rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ and our Father Adam in the Garden of
Eden. Ain't that right? And I'll tell you something,
beloved, sin's not of the hand, but it's of the heart. Our Lord
Jesus said, for from within, out of the heart proceeds. The first thing He said was evil
thoughts. Pride, second thing. Blasphemy is the third thing.
Fourth thing is adultery, fornication. People want to catalogue sins
and say this sin is worse than that. When God said that He even
hates the proud. Look, seven things are an abomination.
And the first one is a proud look. We've got sin as... I've got
it all upside down. You don't want to know what sin
is? Just look at yourself. Look at yourself. Oh, listen. A blind man A blind man in his mind can look
on a woman and lust after her. A man that has no hands can be
a thief in his heart. Now, is that not right? Well, turn back with me to Romans
10. Now, this is what I'm saying. I'm not preaching a different
religion. When I deal with these things,
I'm preaching a different God. A God than all these other things
that I've talked about. All the things that I've said,
it's all about a different God and a different Jesus and a different
way of being saved, which is no salvation at all. I'm not
preaching a different religion. That's what they said about Paul
when he was on Mars Hill. They said he seemed to be a setter
forth of strange gods. strange God. Now, I know there's
a true preacher, one that God called, has a sincere desire
to see men saved. God, you know, you all know here,
and God knows that I, there's people in here that I pray for
that's never confessed faith in Christ. They've never stood
up or told me or told anybody else, you know, that, oh, I'm
a sinner and I need Christ. And I have a sincere desire for
you to be saved. But God have mercy on a man who
uses the ministry for any other purpose but for the glory of
God. And Paul says here, and beginning at verse 1, he says,
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israelites,
that they might be saved. Because he says, my people have
a zeal for God. I bear them record they have
a zeal for God. They have a religious enthusiasm. Oh, they great zeal, have a great
religious enthusiasm. But, oh, beloved, they have no
knowledge, no real knowledge of spiritual things, no real
knowledge of what it means to be saved, but they're being ignorant
of God's righteousness. Now, let me give you several
things. A man can say he is saved when he knows, when he knows
now. that he cannot be saved or accepted of God by his own
goodness or his own righteousness. Look there in verse 3. For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their
own righteousness, and have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God. Now, a man who is ignorant of
God's righteousness cannot possibly be saved. And how in the world
do we know that a man's ignorant of his own righteousness, of
God's righteousness, because he goes about to establish his
own righteousness? Well, how in the world do you
establish your own righteousness? Well, you keep Romans 10 and
look at Matthew 23 with me, and I'll show you the same way that
men's always established their own righteousness. You start
questioning them about salvation, and they start arguing, start
debating, and they start running to things that they've done.
Matthew 23 and verse 5. You know, they're like that Pharisee who
prayed thus with himself, and he said, I thank thee, O Father,
that I'm not as other men are, not even like this publican.
I fast twice in the week, I've paid tithes of all that I possess, I've kept the law, I've done
all the other things, I'm not like them other people are. And
let me say, here's how men go about to establish their own
righteousness. Look in verse 5, Matthew 23, but all their
works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad their
phylacteries, they carry their Bibles so everybody can see them.
We in that back there where everybody can see them. And they can't
go anywhere without, you know, going to a restaurant or something,
a whole bunch of them. They got to hold hands and they got to
pray. Let everybody know That they're praying people. When
our Lord said, when you pray, enter into your closet. And the
only reason in the world people want to make a show of praying
in public is because they want to be seen of men. Now, ain't
that right? And look what he goes on to say
here now. And they enlarge the borders of their garments. Now,
what that means is that they make their garments to shine
out really so good, they put I'm the clergy here. Put crosses on here. Wear crosses
and wear all kinds of religious garb. So they let everybody know
that I'm a Christian. And look what they've done. And
they love them for most rooms at the feast and the chief seats
in the synagogues. And, oh, preacher, preacher,
preacher, preacher, rabbi, Christian, Christian, Christian. I'd love
to be called that. And also like that rich young
ruler, the Lord Jesus, He comes and says, What must I do to be
saved? And our Lord Jesus says, Sell
all that you have and feed the poor. Keep the Lord. He said, All these have I kept
since my youth up. I've kept them all. And our Lord
Jesus said, If you have, go sell everything you've got and give
it to the poor. That's the loving God more than anything you've
got, and surely loving your neighbor when you give everything you've
got to him. You see, beloved, here's the thing about it when
we're talking about establishing our own righteousness, ignorant
of God's righteousness. God's law requires perfect obedience. You that desire to be under the
law, do you hear what the law says? It says perfection, perfection,
perfection, perfection. If a man offends in one form
or all, the scripture says he's guilty of breaking every bit
of it. And you know what? Paul did. He counted his righteousness
which he had by the law. He had a righteousness. He said,
after the righteous, the law is blameless. You know what he
ended up saying? The righteousness that I had after the law, I count
it but dumb. I throw it here and I count it
garbage. I don't want nothing to do with it. I count it but,
oh, God, that I ever thought that was anything that made me
acceptable to God, that I found out is stinking, and it's rotten,
and it's corrupt, and it's dumb, and I put it down. I don't want
nothing to do with it. And I tell you, God stops the
mouths of those He saves about their own goodness, their own
righteousness. They're no longer ignorant of God's righteousness.
They quit trying to establish their own righteousness. They
say, Oh God, forgive me that I ever had any confidence in
my flesh. And I'll tell you something else.
Look here. And Romans 10 with me again. No longer ignorant
of God's righteousness. They quit trying to establish
their own righteousness. Whenever you ask them, you know,
How do you know you're saved? Because I don't have no righteousness
of my own. My righteousness is our filthy
rags. Have you done any good? No. Got
anything you can brag in? No. Got anything you've accomplished? No. God did it all. And secondly, a man can say he
is saved when he knows, when he knows, when he knows, not
when he thinks, that he knows that the only righteousness that
God will accept is his own sons. Look there in verse 4. Talking
about the righteousness of God, for the Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Oh my. So Christ is the end of it. So
I'll tell you, I'm a Christian, I have a small righteousness,
and I've come to the righteousness of God, which is Christ. You
see, Christ is the end of the law. You see the purpose of the
law. Here's what folks don't understand. They put up the Ten
Commandments everywhere, and beloved, the purpose of the law
was never given to save. but to make us know what sin
is and to point us to Christ. The law is our schoolmaster,
to bring us to Christ, and when we come to Christ, we're no longer
under schoolmaster. When you look to the Old Testament,
you look to the law, when it says, love God, I've got to find
somebody who loves God, who accomplished that and fulfilled that law and
brought an end to it, and that's Christ. I've got to have somebody,
I've got to love my neighbors, myself, because God said that.
And so I've got to find somebody who loves the neighbors, herself,
and Christ, it fulfilled that. He's the end of that. That's
something I covered. I've got to find somebody to
get through that. Somebody. And that's Christ, who's the
end of the Lord. And as a schoolmaster, when I
see that in the Old Testament, I come to Christ, and now we
look to Him and Him alone. Our Lord Jesus says this. You
know, it says about Him, when the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. To do what? To redeem them that
were under the law. He's the fulfillment of it. Our
Lord Jesus says, you think not that I've come to destroy the
law and the prophets. I've come to fulfill them. And
when it says the end of the law, that means the termination. The
termination, the end of it. I mean, it's the end of it. When
you get to the end of something, when it's going to be the end,
it's done, it's finished, it's accomplished, there's nothing
else to do. And when it says the end of the
law, it's the termination of the law as a covenant. Look what
Moses, he describes the righteousness of the law in verse 5. He says,
for Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law. That the
man which do, do, do, doeth those things, this one is going to
live by it. But oh, listen, Christ
is the end of the law, not Moses. His determination of the law
is a covenant. Do and live. His end of the law
is a curse. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
And Christ was made a curse for us. to redeem us from the curse
of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus fulfilled all
of His precepts, kept it, and then He suffered His penalties,
and our room is damned. That's why it says there's therefore
now, now, no condemnation to them, now listen to it, which
are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
what does that mean? We're not trying to be saved
by anything that this flesh can do, our fallen nature can do. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free. From what law? Sin? Sin has no more power over me.
Christ put it away. And death? I will not have to
face second death. He saved me from that. And then he says that for God
made him to be sin, God condemned sin in the flesh when He sent
His Son, that the righteousness, now listen to me, the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. Ah, no wonder he said, who shall
lay any faith in the charge of God's elect? Who's going to lay
it? God's going to do it. He's the
one that justifies. Who's going to condemn us? Christ
died for us. So God won't do it. The law won't
do it. The angels won't do it. The devil
can't do it. And oh, beloved, here in Romans
5, 10, it says there in verse 5, God, you know, for Moses describes
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that does
those things shall live by them. God requires more. than just
agreeing. God's law requires more than
just agreeing with it. I agree with it, but it requires
more than just agreeing with it. It requires more than knowing
to do good. For man knows to do good and
does it not to him that sin. It means, it requires more than
trying to do good. It requires doing. The law was
to require a perfect walk. Perfect talk and perfect thought.
That's why Job said, if I justify myself, my own mouth will condemn
me. Oh, do you know Christ is your
only righteousness? Do you know that, that Christ
is the end of the law to the man that believes for his righteousness?
Thirdly, a man can say he's saved when he knows that Christ is
his holiness, Here's what I see in holiness. Christ is His obedience,
and Christ is His righteousness, and it's His by faith. His by
faith. Look down at verse 9. Here's what we're talking about
now. That is, thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine that God hath raised him from the dead, here's that
word saved again, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Do you believe in your heart?
For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. Do you believe
that Christ is the only righteousness that you would possibly confess
before God, before men, before your own heart, before your conscience?
Do you believe that in your heart? That His obedience is your obedience,
His righteousness is yours, His holiness is yours? Do you believe
that in your heart? If you do, you know what you'll
do? You'll tell yourself, you'll tell your wife, you'll tell your
husband, you'll tell your neighbor, you'll tell your daddy, you'll
tell anybody that'll listen that Christ is my all in all. Every mercy, every blessing of
God is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God made Christ unto
us wisdom. We wouldn't know God from a goat
if it wasn't for the wisdom of God. God made Christ unto us
to see how God can be just and justify us. He made Christ unto
us righteousness. God did this. We didn't do it.
Our faith didn't do it. Our works didn't do it. Our church
agendas didn't do it. Our tears didn't do it. Our goodness
certainly didn't do it. God made Christ unto us wisdom. God made Christ unto us sanctification. God made Christ unto us righteousness. God made Christ unto us redemption. God did this. And, oh, I love Him. Are you
in Christ? How do you get in Christ? God put you in Christ.
That's why old Scott Richardson said that all the time. God hath made Christ unto us
and hath put us in Christ. And you know if God don't love
you in Christ, who is God made unto us? Oh, all spiritual blessings
are in heavenly places in Christ. And Colossians 2, 9 says, for
you're complete, complete in Him. who's the head of all principalities
and powers. And this is the gospel right
here. I hope you listen to this. We know that God is just. He's
the judge of all the earth, and He must do right. And He says
He will by no means clear the guilty and will not at all acquit
the wicked. Well, then how in the world can
God, who is just, who said He will not clear the guilty, will
not acquit the wicked, how can He turn around and take a wicked
man, and a guilty man, and acquit
him. How can he do that? You know
how he does that? He takes the Lord Jesus Christ,
his own Son, send Him into this world, and he put on Him That guilt, he said, no means
to the guilty. So he put on Christ all the guilt
of all his people. Wounded for our transgression,
bruised for our iniquities. And so when he done that, he
punished him, poured his wrath out on him until he himself cried
out from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And the answer came back, because thou art holy. And so God says now, He sent
forth Christ to be a propitiation and atoning sacrifice, that through
faith in His blood, God declares, I'm righteous. How? By punishing somebody else in
your stead. And that He'll justify those
that believe in the ones that was put in His stead. And I believe, beloved, and that's
why we're talking about that, that when God put Christ in our
place and put our sins on Him and punished Him in our place,
now when you come to Christ and you trust Christ and you believe
Christ, God's just to say, I'm guilty, justified, righteous. Abraham believed God and was
counted unto in righteousness. And listen to me, we don't go
to the cross, we don't go to Calvary for forgiveness of our
sins and then run over to Mount Sinai, Moses, to become holy
and become sanctified. And we don't go to Christ for
redemption and to put Him away our sins and then go over to
the Lord to find us a righteousness. Christ is all in it all. We're chosen in Him, redeemed
in Him, accepting in Him, seeing in Him, and securing in Him. Ain't that right? Let me tell
you something else, when a man can say he's saved. When he knows
that the gospel, when he knows the gospel is the same for all. Look what it says here in verse
12, Romans 10. When he knows the gospel is the
same for all. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved." When he knows that there's
no difference, every single person in here that's been saved by
the grace of God, been made to know Christ, chosen in Christ,
redeemed by his blessed blood, accepted in the beloved, Made
to rise up and sit with Him together in heavenly places, securing
Him. Every single one of them knows
that the way God saved them, everybody else has got to be
saved the same way. There's no shortcuts. There's
no way around it. He knows that everyone must come
to God like He did. And everyone else who was ever
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ has got to come the same way.
There's no difference. There's no shortcut, there's
no way around it. You know, Abel, first man, first
man, who died on the face of this earth, murdered by his own
brother. You know what it says? Abel,
by faith, offered a more excellent sacrifice. And God testified
of it. Do you know why he offered a
more excellent sacrifice? Because it pointed to the Lord
Jesus Christ and salvation by Him. and the forgiveness of sins
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What about Moses? The Scriptures tell us that Moses
offered the first Passover, and the Scriptures tell us that Moses
wrote of Christ, and looked at Christ, and believed on Christ. Abraham believed God and was
counted unto him for righteousness. Job said it like this, I know,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know He does. Now that's the
oldest book in the Bible, is the book of Job. And Job said,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. And He's going to stand on the
earth in the latter times, and I shall sin for myself. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. and persuaded that what I've
committed unto Him, He's able to keep against that day. So,
you know, He knows that there's no difference. That's why we
preach the same way all the time. We preach Christ, because I mean,
if you're going to be saved, if God's going to save you, He's
going to save you the way He saved everybody from Abel to
now. He's going to save you the same
way. I'll save you the same way. He
knows, and I'll tell you, he knows that the preaching of the
gospel is necessary to faith. Look what it says there in verse
14. He knows the preaching of the gospel is necessary to faith.
He knows that without the gospel, there'd be no hope for him. He
blesses God the day that God crossed his path with the gospel.
Look what it says here. How then shall they call on him,
it says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. People, stop right there. Preachers, stop right
there. See, you called on, didn't you call on the Lord? Well, you're saved then. Now,
wait a minute. What Lord did you call on? What
Jesus did you call on? How, then, shall they call on
Him in whom they have not believed? Huh? Watch this. And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? Oh, my. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God. How can a man call on Christ,
trust Christ and Him for salvation if he knows nothing about Him,
if he don't know anything about who He is? He is not some beggar
with tears in his eyes. He is not somebody pecking on
somebody's heart's door, begging please to be let in. And we was
going out of town yesterday, and back there on 127, right
outside of town, the sign on the church says this. Stop here
and get your ticket for heaven. You don't go to glory by ticket.
You can get in a county fair by ticket. You can get in a football
game by ticket. You can get in here a singer
by ticket. But you don't get the God-bought ticket. How blasphemous is that? God
has mercy on the preacher and the people that hear him who
says, stop here, get your ticket for heaven. That tells me that they absolutely
know nothing of who Jesus Christ is. He was God manifest in the
flesh. He was, when you see him on this
earth, you're looking at God Almighty. When he raised Lazarus
from the dead, he was speaking the voice of God said, come forth
Lazarus and Lazarus came forth. But what did he do? What he did
was not that I, Lord Jesus Christ, come into this world to do. He
come here to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And
after he by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right
hand of God. He entered in once into the holy
place with his own blood. And when he got in there, he
came out with eternal redemption. Not redemption until you believe,
not redemption for those who will believe, but redemption
for all whom He died for. And if eternal, I'll be beloved,
and eternal means that has no beginning and has no end. Christ
put my sin away and redeemed me, beloved, before I ever existed. He entered into that holy place,
beloved, and I'm telling you, long, long, long, long before
I ever existed. Huh? How can a man know this? How can he know this? How shall
he call on him if he does not believe? How shall he believe
in Him of whom he has not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? How are you going to know who Christ is? How are
you going to know what He did when He stoned the cross? Unless
some man tells you. The Ethiopian eunuch had been
up to Israel, been up to Jerusalem, been up there worshiping for
forty days. Stayed up there for the Passover,
went up there for the feast, and went up there for the unleavened
bread. And the Jews are doing that right now. This is the Yom
Kippur. This is the Day of Atonement. Jews right now all over the world
are going to the wailing wall and crying out, God forgive me
of all my sins, but He'll never do it because they got no lamb.
They got no blood, they got no priest, they got no tabernacle,
they got no sacrifice. Why? Because Christ is the end
of all those things. That Ethiopian eunuch sat and
reading Isaiah 53, and Philip joined himself too and said,
do you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I?
Except some man guide me. Huh? That woman at the well, you know
what she said? He showed her a water bottle
and said, come see a man. Told me everything that ever
I did. He knowed my heart. He knowed
my life. He knowed where I was and what
I was doing. He knew everything about me. I know that when the Messiah
come and he gonna tell us everything, I'm the one. I am. Our Lord said,
Zacchaeus, how in the world do you know my name? Oh, Zacchaeus didn't know anybody
knew who he was, but his wife and his kids and some people
in the neighborhood. Zacchaeus, you mean he knows
my name? Yes, he knows your name. Come
on down. I'm going to give you a chance to be saved today. No,
you know what he said? Salvation has come to your house
today. I must, I must come to your house for salvation has
come to you today. I must. And let me quickly say
the next thing here. Here's not only that, that he
knows that the gospel and he knows salvation is the same for
all. He knows that saving faith is a gift, a gift, and that it
comes by hearing the word of God. Look what it says down here
in verse 16. For they have not all obeyed
the gospel, For Isaiah 53-1 says, Lord, who
hath believed our report? Who's believed our preaching?
Who's believed our preaching? So then, if you're going to believe
preaching, if you're going to understand preaching, if you're
going to be saved by knowing who Christ is and what He did,
somebody's going to have to tell you. So then, faith cometh. If you don't have it, that means
if it comes to you, that means you didn't have it. Ain't that
right? For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves? It's the gift of God." So if
faith comes, that means you didn't have it. It comes to somebody
that didn't have it. So then faith coming. How does it come? Through the ear gate. Through
this thing right here. God gets into that understanding. It's the first thing He does,
enlighten that understanding. And it comes into the ear gate.
And He says, look here, it comes by hearing. And hearing, not
just anything, by the Word of God. By the Word of God. It's not just preaching that
we need to hear, but the preaching of the Word of God. That's why
Paul says, preach the Word. Whether it's convenient for you
or it's not convenient. Whether it's easy or it's not
easy. Preach the Word. Preach the Gospel. Preach Christ.
He said, Timothy, You know the Holy Scriptures which are able
to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ,
the preaching of the Word. And that's why we like to keep
our Bibles open and follow along in the Scriptures, so you can
see for yourself what we're saying. I know this, that faith doesn't
come by dreams. It doesn't come by visions. Does
it come by traditions handed down from one generation to the
next, from mother to father, to father to son, to son to daughter? No, no. But it's by the Word
of God. Now look over with me in 1 Peter
1. Let me show you this and I'll
be done. 1 Peter 1. You know, the Word is what convicts
a man of sin. He won't know nothing about sin
until he hears about it. God makes him to know it. God makes him know what sin is.
The Word is what reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of
God is the only thing that gives assurance. And look what he said
here in 1 Peter 1, verse 22. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth. And how did you obey the truth?
Through the Spirit. through the Holy Spirit, unto
unfeigned, not hypocritical, not put on, love of the brethren.
Love one another with a pure heart, fervently. And this is
how you obey the truth by the Spirit, being born again. That's
the first thing, being born again. Not of corruptible seed, not
of some seed besides the Word of God, not of the flesh, but
of incorruptible, incorruptible seed. by the Word of God. And this Word of God lives, lives. It says it lives. Not only does
it live, but it abides forever. It never changes. And why must
we be born again? Why is this seed incorruptible? Why does it live forever? Because
here's what flesh is. It's just grass. What's man's
glory? It's the flower of the grass.
The grass quither, and the flower thereof fadeth away. But here's
what lasts. The word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Now let me show you this in closing,
back over in Romans 10. Can it be said, can I ask you
this morning, can it be said that you're saved? Can it be
said that you're saved? Can you say, yes, I'm saved.
I'm saved by the grace of God. I'm saved. I believe everything
you said, preacher. Christ is my righteousness. I
know I've tried to establish my own righteousness, but God
saved me from that. Well, I know this, if a man can
be and is. You know what he says here? Look
what it says in verse 11. For the Scripture says, Whosoever
believeth, believeth on him. shall not be ashamed. You know
what our Lord Jesus said? You be ashamed of me before men,
I'll be ashamed of you before my Father. You'll be ashamed
to own me, to be everything, and I'll be ashamed to own you. And not only will you not be
ashamed, but you won't be brought to shame. You won't be brought
to shame. Could you have the righteousness
of Christ and trust Christ and have Him to be your all in all,
and then not be ashamed of it? Could you be ashamed of His righteousness? Could you be ashamed of His blood?
Be ashamed of His power? Be ashamed of His glory? Be ashamed
of the salvation that He wore out by Himself? And not only will I not be ashamed
here, but you know, when I face God Almighty, I might be ashamed
there either. You know why? because he said he won't bring
me to shame. If he won't bring me to shame, God help me not
to bring him to shame. Our Father, O gracious God in
heaven, how blessed and glorious and holy and gracious is your
name. Bless you for allowing us to
meet here this morning. Thank you for the gospel of your
blessed grace. the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Father, I pray that you
would do for sinners what only you can do. Only you can give
a new heart. Only you can give light in a
dark understanding. Only you can count a man to count
all of his righteousness as a filthy rag and dung. Only you can do
those things. And I ask that you do. We ask
that you do that and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.