Well, that's the thing. Salvation
is to know God. Salvation is to be born again,
is to be regenerated by the Spirit of God. Man cannot give himself
life. Not invited to take life. I didn't
ask my children if they wanted life. You want me to give you
life? That's the way it is in this
salvation. God gives life. He don't offer
it. He don't invite people to it. He gives it. And that's what
salvation is, God regenerating a person. Salvation is being
made a new creature in Christ. Being made Christ in you, the
hope of glory, being made a new creature, one with the very nature
of Christ in him, the very nature of God in him. He loves holiness,
he loves righteousness. And, O beloved, what is it to
be saved? Salvation is to be justified. It's to be sanctified,
it's to be redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, to be set apart
by Him, to be washed in His blood, to be justified by His deeds.
It's to be saved, and salvation is to be delivered from the very
power, saved from the very power of sin, the penalty of sin, and
even from the practice of sin. And then look what else he goes
on to say here, verse 2. So he said he has a heart's desire.
That's our heart's desire. That's our heart's desire. I
know many of you have woke up during the night and prayed for
your children when you wake up. Your mind automatically goes
to your children. Everybody's done that. I do it. That's just
something we do, not only for them, but others that we know.
And he says here, for I bear them record that they have a
zeal, a zeal of God. We know that people, we know
that people, have a zeal for God. They have a religious enthusiasm. How many people do we know that
have a religious enthusiasm? Great zeal for God. But it says
here, but it's not according to knowledge. Lots and lots of
people have a zeal for God, a religious enthusiasm, but no real knowledge
of spiritual things. No knowledge at all of anything
spiritual. And it's obvious when you talk
to them, it's obvious when you hear the preachers, it's obvious
when you hear people talk about their, what it means to accept
Jesus and that, but they're ignorant, spiritually ignorant of what
it means to be saved. Now people say, well, you're
setting yourself up as a judge. Paul's not setting himself up
as a judge. You're not setting myself up and you're not setting
yourself up. If a man's ignorant of God, And it's obvious when
a man has a zeal, a religious enthusiasm, but has no spiritual
knowledge, no spiritual ignorance, it's obvious that it's that way.
You see, beloved, God's people know what salvation is, and we
know that there are people who give no evidence whatsoever of
possessing it. That's why the scripture says,
Be not unequally yoked together, Light with darkness, Christ with
the lion. How can two walk together except
they be agreed? And we can't walk with God if
we don't know God. We can't have a righteousness
of God unless we know God. We don't know what salvation
is unless we know God. We can have all kinds of religions
and wave our hands and clap them and say, Hallelujah, Jesus, and
dance in the aisles. And all that religious enthusiasm,
the Pharisees had it, the Muslims got it, the Catholics got it,
everybody's got it. But oh my, Paul says, but they're
injured. They got a zeal, but they're
not according to knowledge. You see, beloved, we know, let
me give you this, the first thing, we know these things. I know
this about a saved person. A saved person knows. A saved
person knows. that God revealed Himself to
knows that they cannot find acceptance with God on the basis of their
own goodness or righteousness. They know that. They know that
they cannot find their acceptance with God on the basis of their
own goodness or righteousness. Ain't that what it says in verse
3? For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness. have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Now I know, and you know, that
we cannot find acceptance with God on the basis of our own goodness
or righteousness, and that's why these people are ignorant
of God's righteousness. They go about to establish their
own. All of our righteousnesses are as a filthy rank, is what
the prophet said. And when men are ignorant of
God's righteousness, they go about to seek to establish their
own righteousness. And I'll give you a perfect illustration
of a man. Look in at Luke 18. Here's a
man who went about to establish his own righteousness. And if
a man's establishing his own righteousness, he's going to
let you know about it. I don't care how bad a person
is, they've got something good that they can look to, something
good they can brag about themselves, something good that they say,
well, God surely will do this for me on that count. But here's
to, look what our Lord says here. In verse 9 of Luke chapter 8,
here's a man who seeked, wanted to be ignorant of God's righteousness. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves. Now, say a person doesn't trust
in themselves. Huh? That they trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. Do you trust in yourself that
you're righteous? In yourself? And despised others. They went
up to pray. They both had zeal. They both
went to pray. He had this zeal. He was going
to go up. He had enthusiasm. He went to put an effort, went
to the temple to pray. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself and said, O God, I thank you that I'm not as another
man, I'm not as torturing, a doctor, a publican, a baptizer of the
weak, and all that. He went on and on. He established
his own righteousness. And that rich young ruler, When
he was faced with God's holy law through the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, he said, All these have I kept from my youth up, establishing
his own righteousness. And that's why the Lord says,
you know, not everyone saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall come
into the kingdom of God. For many shall say unto me, in
that day, Lord, have we not cast out devils? Have we not done
many wonderful works? Have we not preached in your
name, taught in the streets? And he's going to say unto them,
depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew. And oh, how many goes about to
establish their own righteousness. And here's the thing about it.
They do this before God. before God Almighty. God's law
requires perfect obedience. That's why we understand that
we cannot be accepted of God by any good that we have or any
righteousness we've ever done. Ye that desire to be under the
law, don't you hear the law? Don't you hear it's condemning,
thundering power to offend Him at one point, to be guilty of
it all? How ignorant a man he is who goes about to establish
his own righteousness, to stand up before God or anybody else
and say that I've done something, and I've established something,
and I'm a good person, and I'm a righteous person, and God accepts
me on the basis of my righteousness. If he does it, he's ignorant
of God. He's ignorant of God's law, and he is especially ignorant
of himself. What did we say? All my guilt,
all my sin, all my former state is mine! Any life I have is yours! Any life I have is yours! Any
understanding I have is yours! And he's certainly ignorant of
the Word, and he's ignorant of what righteousness is. And I
tell you, you live ignorant, you'll die ignorant. And it's
just absolutely unconscionable that a preacher would get up
and lie to a congregation of people. Let me tell you something
else about a saved person. Not only does he know he can't
be accepted of God by his own righteousness or goodness, because
they were ignorant of God's righteousness when about to establish their
own. And a saved person, a person who knows God, knows that the
only righteousness and holiness God will accept is the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What he did, look there in verse
4 of Romans chapter 10. Now here's the righteousness
of God that they don't submit unto. When you go about establishing
your own, you're not going to submit to God's. You're not going
to do that. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. The only righteousness
and obedience and wholeness in God is His. Let me tell you something. I
know I've told you this so many times over the years. The purpose
of the law was not to save us, never to save us, never even
to sanctify us, but to point us to Christ. Look over here
in Galatians chapter 3. Look in Galatians with me, chapter
3. You know, it comes to point us to Christ. You come to convince us of sin. When the law comes, it brings
the knowledge of sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Paul said, I had not known sin, but the law sent out somebody
to come in. No, he was coveting something.
He was coveting silver, he was coveting gold, he was coveting
a position, he was coveting something very ambitious. And whatever
it was, the law came to him and showed him that covetousness
is idolatry. Anything that you covet. Anything
that you set in the place of God, anything that you set up,
whether it's your own righteousness, your own imagination, your words,
your silver, your gold, your house, your home, your job, anything
you set up, it's coviness, it's idolatry you're putting in the
place of God. And that's why Paul found out that he put something
in the place of God, and the law said, now shall not covet,
and he said, sin revived, oh, it rose up. And I died right
then and there. Look what it says here in Galatians
3, 23. Oh, not to save us, but to point us to Christ. But before
faith came, we were kept under the law. Couldn't get out of
the country. Couldn't save ourselves by it.
Shut up unto the faith, and the faith being the knowledge, the
thing which we are to believe concerning Christ, which should
afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. It was our teacher, it was our
instructor, to bring us to Christ. Now watch this, that we might
be justified by faith, but after that faith has come, you don't
need a schoolmaster anymore. Don't need him. Huh? And back
over in our text, Christ said here, Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. That means he's the fulfillment
of it. I mean, he got to the end of it. He got to the very
end of it. There's nothing left for a man
to do. He fulfilled in every job, every
title, everything. And anybody that wants to go
under the Ten Commandments has absolutely got... Why would you
want to go under the Ten Commandments? You ain't kept the first one
yet. You've not kept it. I've not
kept it. Nobody else has kept it. The only person that's ever
worked his way to heaven, the only person who ever stood before
God without breaking the holy law of God was Christ himself.
That's why he's the end of it. He's the termination of it. As
a covenant, we're not under his curse. And he's the termination
of it as a curse. He doesn't make a curse for us
to redeem us from under his curse. And you would not believe, you
just would not believe how many people believe that believers
have the law as the rule of life. And believe they keep the Sabbath,
keep Sunday as the Sabbath and keep it holy. Was God not holy
on Monday? You're not supposed to be holy
on Monday? God not holy on Wednesday? God's only holy on Sunday? And
we're supposed to only be holy on Sunday? Oh, how ignorant. That's why he says
the ignorant. I'll tell you something else
about a saved person. Not only does he know that the only righteousness
and holiness that God will accept is Christ, and He's the end of
the law, but righteousness now, that's our righteousness. He
knows the severity of God's holy law. Look here in verse 5. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Because
Moses, what he does, he describes the righteousness which is of
the law. If you're going to have a righteousness by doing, if
you're going to have a righteousness by obedience, if you're going
to have a righteousness by establishing your own righteousness, Moses
said, I'm going to tell you what you're going to have to do. This
is the way you'll get it. That the man which doeth those
things shall live by them. Oh, the law of God requires more
than agreeing with it. Everybody agrees with it. The law of God requires more
than agreeing with it. You know, they have these fights
over where you can put up the Ten Commandments, not put up
the Ten Commandments, and all that stuff, you know, and that's,
uh, oh my. And everybody, you know, they
want to keep it up more and more, you know, here and there. And
I don't care. I don't care. Don't bother me. I know where
I stand before the law. I know exactly where I stand.
Guilty, guilty, guilty, condemned. Huh? But thank God in Christ,
righteous, righteous, righteous. Huh? But everybody goes up there
and fights for keeping it there. They're agreeing with it. But
it causes a heapsight more than agreeing with it. The law requires
more than doing to do good. Oh, I know what to do, preacher.
I know what to do. Good for you. It requires a heapsot
more than just knowing. The law requires more than trying
to do good. Why did Moses say, you're the
man which doeth? Present tense. Present tense,
didn't say the man who did, the man who accomplished, the man
who has, it says the man who does, does, right now, doeth
right now. Oh, the law, here's what folks
miss, the law requires a perfect walk, perfect. Walk up right
before me, walk before me perfect. The law requires perfect talk. You know, that's why the Lord
said a man should give an account of every idle word he speaks.
Ain't that what he said? Oh my, how many idle words have
we spoken? How many idle thoughts have we thought? How many useless... As old Scott Richardson said,
I've read books that ought not read. Talked talks ought not
talk. Watched shows ought not watch. Book places I should not
have went. It all ain't a matter of nothing.
Oh, the law requires a perfect quality. It requires perfect
thought. Everybody talks about the golden
rule. I admit the first person is Kempen. Have you? The law is more than the golden
rule. Not only that, it requires perfect
thought. It requires that mind right there to be as pure and
as holy. You see, God looks on the heart.
God looks on the heart. And if a man seeks to be saved
by his works or his deeds or his goodness, how good does he
have to be? How good does he have to be?
He's got to be as good as God. He's got to be as holy as God.
He's got to be as sinless as God. You know, Job said this,
if I justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me. I'll tell you
the fourth thing a saved person knows. Have you all agreed with
me so far? A saved person knows that the
wholeness and subvenience of Christ is theirs only by faith,
not by doing, but by believing. How do we get the righteousness
of Christ? How do we have Christ's holiness? By believing, not by
doing. Look what it says here in verse
8. But what sayeth him? What does,
in verse 6 says, the righteousness which of faith speaks on this
wise. Well, what does it say? The righteousness
which is of faith. Now, there's a righteousness
to be had. There's the righteousness of God to be had. There's the
righteousness of Christ to be had. Well, how do you get it? How do you get it? where you're
as holy as God, as sinless as God, as good as God, and as righteous
as God. How do you get it? Well, the
righteousness of faith, what does it say, and what does it
speak? The word is nigh you. Where's it at? It's in your mouth.
I believe on the Lord. That's what he said. And in thy
heart. And that's the word of faith
which we preach. What is it? This is what's in
your mouth. That thou shalt confess with thy mouth. the Lord Jesus, they shall believe
in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. What? Believing? Confessing? That's what he said,
the words in your mouth. With the heart, see it starts
in the heart. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness. With the heart, it's not the
righteousness of the Lord's doing, with the heart he believes. In
your heart, do you agree with what I'm saying? In your heart,
in your very soul, you say, yes, preacher, that's right, that's
true, that's so. With the heart, man believes
unto righteousness. With the mouth, the confession is made
unto righteousness. I confess that Christ is my righteousness. I confess that Christ is my sin
bearer. I confess that I'm a sinner.
I confess that I'm guilty. I confess that the law condemns
me. I confess that I have more righteousness
than I'm going to deny. And I'm coming unto Christ and
I'm going to believe in my heart and say, yes, Lord, You're all
I need and all I want. That's what that's saying. It's
in your mouth. If it's in your heart, it's in
your mouth. Don't let it come out your mouth
when it ain't in your heart. Ain't that right? Come out if
it's in your heart, it's gonna come out your mouth. Oh, you
see, every mercy and every blessing of God, and he goes on to say
here, in verse 11, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. Now, what that means is that
he won't be brought to shame. He won't be confused and confounded
when he faces God. You know, it don't mean that
he's going to be ashamed here before me or you read about it.
Yes, that's not what it means. When a man, that's why, you know,
in Matthew 7, there it says, you know, they'll be the same
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not? And then they'll
be confounded and brought to shame when the Lord says, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, I'll never do you. That's when
they'll be ashamed. Huh? That's why 1 John says,
Beloved, don't be ashamed before him at his appearance. And man,
if you've got Christ, and you've got His righteousness, there's
no way you can be brought into shame before God. Because you
know why you're not standing before Him in anything you thought,
said, or done. Telling all the time. And then he goes on to say, The scripture says, we'll stop
there and I'll move on in a minute, that every mercy and every blessing
of God is by faith in Christ our Lord. All spiritual blessings
are given to us in heavenly places in Christ. Now, I know I quote
this all the time. Look at it with me. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, verse 30. We quote this all the time, but
you need to look at it. You need to look at it. You know, that's why the Scriptures
mean we're complete in Him. And if you're complete in Christ,
complete in Him. If you're complete, there's nothing
lacking, nothing needed. Right? Look in 1 Corinthians 1, verse
30. Chapter 1, verse 30. But of Him, of who? Of God. Are you in Christ Jesus? If you
get in Christ, God puts you there. And then God turned around and
made Christ unto us wisdom. Wisdom. We see the wisdom of
God in Christ. How He can be just and justified.
We see God in Christ. And He made in Christ our righteousness.
You can't have a better right. That's righteousness. You know,
people say it's perfect righteousness. You know, either you're righteous
or you ain't. And He's righteous. He's made us that way. And sanctification,
He's our holiness. And He's our redemption. He's
the one that's going to come and take us to glory to wit the
redemption of our body. And that according as it is written,
if a man's going to glory, going to boast, going to rejoice, he's
got to do it where? In the Lord. In the Lord. I go
over in our text, I tell you something, we don't go to Calvary
for forgiveness of our sins. Don't go to Christ for forgiveness
of our sins. And then go back to the law for our holiness.
We don't do that. We don't do that. You can always
spot a legalist and here's what he says. What do y'all do about
church discipline? When somebody sins, how do you
deal with them? Same way God deals with me. Preach the gospel to them. That's
what God does to me, forgives me, shows me. You know? Man,
love is what... I don't know anybody in here
that's not a sinner and hasn't sinned. Do you? So how am I going
to deal with you? I'll tell you what I'm going
to do. We'll find out what you've done.
We'll call you before the church and we'll embarrass you and we'll
tell you and make you confess everything. And then if you don't
straighten up and fly a ride, we'll excommunicate you. That's
what we'll do. Man, if we'd done that, we'd close the doors. And I'm not making a lot of sin.
I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. And I'm just
showing you that you can spot a legalist that way. The only people Christ come down
hard on was Pharisees. Came down hard on Pharisees.
The publicans of Harlot, they lined up to be with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we don't go to Christ for
our redemption, and then go to the law for our righteousness.
We're chosen in Christ, redeemed in Christ, accepted in Christ,
seated in Christ, and secure in Christ. That's why John said
this is the record that God has given to us, that eternal life
is in His Son, Jesus Christ, and He that hath the Son hath
life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life, and these things have I written unto you, that you
might believe on Jesus Christ, the Son of God." So we know that
Christ is ours, and His holiness and righteousness and obedience
is ours by faith. Here's the fifth thing that we
know. A saved person knows that this gospel, the gospel that
we preach, is the same for every soul. Jew or Gentile, male or
female, old or young, rich or poor, black or white. It makes no difference. Ain't
that what it says there in verse 12? For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that come to God by him. It's the same Lord. Same gospel. Same salvation. Anybody that's ever been saved
has been saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, been saved
by the gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, I
am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no man comes
unto the Father but by me. He said there's no other foundation
that can be laid than Christ. And look over in John, you keep
Romans, look in John 6 for me, just a moment. Here's a whole
other message over here. John 6.40. And all talking about the gospels
for every man. You know, Jew or Gentile don't
matter. Every soul is for life. Same gospel. And this is the
Father's will which hath sent me. And this is the will of Him
that sent me. This is God's will that sent
me. That everyone will see a who? The Son. And believeth on Him,
they have everlasting life. And I'll raise you up at the
last day. This is God's will that you see
the Son. And if you and I or anybody else comes to God, you'll
come as everyone has, and everyone ever will come by the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the only way anybody can
ever come to God. That's the way Abel comes to God. The first
person you find in the scriptures to come to God was Abel, and
he came with a lamb, with bloodshed, pointed to Christ. Moses came
to Christ. He's offered that Passover lamb,
that Passover supper. Met Christ in the burning bush.
Abraham believed God, concerning the promise that in him salvation
would extend to the ends of the earth. Job said, I know what
my Redeemer liveth. Who in the world, what Redeemer
is he talking about? There ain't been but one. Oh, he said, by my knowledge,
by his knowledge, by Christ's knowledge, and he's the one that
gives us the knowledge, by his knowledge shall he justify many.
And that's why Paul says, I know whom I have believed. Oh my,
the only way. We know that the gospel's the
same for every soul. Every soul. That's why, that's
what a blessing that is, to know that there's one gospel. That's
why we want to get the gospel out. You know, when people say,
I say, God, it would be unjust to send people to hell who've
never heard the gospel, never heard of Christ. Well, then,
whatever you do, don't ever take the gospel to them. Let them
stay in their ignorance. Ain't that right? But now, let me tell you something. God's righteous in just no matter
who He sends to hell. And He's righteous in just no
matter who He sends. Ain't that right? And he destroyed seven
nations to save one. And he didn't ask them if they
liked it or anybody else liked it. He destroyed Pharaoh just to
show him that I can do it. He said, I can do this, Pharaoh.
You've talked back enough to me. And if somebody wants to
worship Buddha, you think God ought to not send them to hell
because they won't worship Christ? Somebody wants to worship Allah
and get on a prayer rug? You think God's unjust to send
him to hell? You think God's unjust to send
all them Africans over there to hell? That beloved is just
fighting and killing one another because they hate one another? And so that's why the only hope
for them is the gospel. Now the gospel, that's why we
wrote the Gospel Act. That's why we preach the gospel.
That's why people preach it on the radio. That's why we send
missionaries. That's why you send out tracts. You send out tapes. You do everything
you can to get the gospel to somebody. You know, Tom Hardy told me this
week that a fellow from Utah wrote him a letter listening
to Sermon Audio. You've heard a message on Isaiah
20, that if they speak not according to the law and to the testimony,
it's because there's no light in them. Here's a Mormon, he
wrote and asked, is there any other prophets? Is there any
other word besides the word of God? Is there any prophets today
other than the ones we're in the Bible? And he said, please
write me. Well, Tom wrote him and said,
no, there ain't no prophets. You know, the Mormons got prophets.
We've been seeing all these prophets on television, you know. They got prophets everywhere.
And they get new revelations. And whatever they say is wrong.
The Pope gets new revelations, whatever he says is wrong. But there's only one gospel.
And I don't care who he is or where he is, if he's a Mormon,
if he's a Baptist, if he's a Pentecostal, if it's you, if it's me, if it's
my children or your children or your grandparents, if they
don't hear that gospel, then I'm going to be saved. Ain't
that right? Christ didn't come here to make
salvation possible. He came here to save. And he
chose his word by which to save sinners, the gospel. For the
power of God, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
And all right, let me move on now. The sixth thing that every
saved person knows is that the preaching of the gospel is necessary
to faith. Ain't that what it says over
here in John 10, down in verse 14? Everybody that knows Christ,
knows God, knows that you've got to preach the gospel, that
the preaching of the gospel is necessary to faith. Look what
it says here now. It says, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But now how in the
world are they going to call on Him on whom they have not
believed? How are you going to do it? People do it every day. They'll come into service, don't
know a thing in the world about the Lord Jesus Christ, who He
is, what He did, where He is now. Absolutely know nothing
about Him, except He's Jesus the Savior, and He wants to save
you. He loves you, and He died for you. Please let Him in your
heart. And they walk an aisle, and they don't know no more about
Christ than this group does. And they'll do that. He says,
but oh, and how shall they believe in Him with whom they have not
heard? How are you going to believe Him if you've never heard anything
about Him? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And
how shall they preach except they be sent? Huh? Now listen to me closely now. This is serious business. How shall a man call upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save him
if he knows absolutely nothing of Christ and Christ's redemptive
glory and His character? Who He is? If you don't know
who He is, how can you trust Him? If you don't know that He
came here and by His own blood put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself, He came here as God manifested in the flesh to save
the lost and to call the sinners and to call sinners to repentance. He came here to save His sheep
and to glorify His Father. Oh, that's why Simon Peter said,
oh, who did I say? Simon Peter, who do me say that
I am? Oh, everybody had an opinion as to who he is. And everybody's
got an opinion as to who he is. He's the healer. Come out and
let him heal you. He's your joy. Clap your hands. He's your marriage counselor.
Come on up here and we'll get your marriage straightened out.
That's what he's coming here for, to straighten out your marriage.
Oh, he's the one that makes you wealthy. If you want wealth,
come on to him, he'll make you wealthy. Oh my, but he said,
who do you say? Everybody's got an opinion about
him. But he said, who do you say that I am? You're the son, the son of the
living God. Oh, Simon, God's blessed you.
Flesh and blood didn't make you a nomad, but my Father. And how shall a man call on Christ
if he knows nothing of what he did, of his redemptive work?
What did he do? What did he come for? What was
his purpose of coming here? Huh? God made him to be a sacrifice
for sin. to send him to save sinners,
to wash us in his own blood, not to come to make salvation
possible, not to open a door for folks to walk through, but
he actually come here and accomplished salvation. Romans 1 says, there's that for,
8.1 says, there's that for, no. Now, no condemnation to them
which are in Christ. Now watch this, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now, those that are in
Christ and have no condemnation, they're not walking after flesh.
Their flesh ain't absolutely done nothing for them. It's not
contributed a thing to their salvation. It's the burden of
their heart. They walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. And so be the Spirit of Christ
dwelling in them. That's the only way you can know. You have
to have Christ in you. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through what? It's so called in nature. God sent His own Son, and in
the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin, judged sin, wrath
in Christ in His flesh, that the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us. And how shall a man call on Christ
if he knows nothing of His redemptive glory? You know, He says, it
is written of the Son of Man that he must suffer. before he
entered into his glory. Where is he now? Who is he? Who
is the Lord Jesus Christ? You can't call him if you don't
know who he is. You can't call him if you don't
know what he did. What presumptuous, what a fool to trust somebody
that they don't know who to trust. Trust somebody from the soul
that they don't know what he did. And trust somebody when
they have no idea where he's at right now. Huh? Look at Romans
8 with me just a minute. Romans 8.33. That's what I'm
saying here. Romans 8.33 says this, Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who? It's God that justifies them.
Now watch this. Who is he that condemns them,
judges them, finds them guilty? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
that is risen again, and is even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. Now I want to show you one other
thing. You see all three of these in one verse of Scripture, Hebrews
1.3. You can see who He is, you can see what He did, and where
He is in Hebrews 1.3. You can see all three of these
characters, all three of His glories, all three of His person,
who He is, what He did, and where He is now. It says here in Hebrews 1.3, this
is who He is, who gained the brightness of
His glory and expressed the image of His person. He's God manifested
in the flesh. And oh, as God hath upholdeth
all things by the word of his power, this is what he did. That's
who he is. He's the brightness of God's
glory, the express image of his person. And when he hath by himself
purged our sins, that's what he did. Purged our sins. Saved us from our sins. That's
what he did. And this is where he's at now. Set out on the right hand of
the majesty of God. Who is he? He's the brightness
of God's glory, the precious image of God. What'd he do? He
by himself purged our sin. Where's he at? He sat down on
the right hand of the majesty of God. And how can a man tell
these things? That's why I say, how can a man
tell these things to somebody except they be sin? How shall
a man know these things unless somebody tells him? When Stephen
got up beside, Philip got up beside that Ethiopian eunuch's
chair, and he's sitting there reading, he said, do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I? Except some man. And last of all, back over here
in Romans 10, verse 17, last of all, he knows that saving
faith comes by hearing the Word of God. That's how faith comes,
by hearing the Word. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How's a man going to call on
Christ whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except to be sent? So then, faith. If we're going to have this righteousness
of faith, if we're going to have Christ at the end of the law
for righteousness, where does this faith come from? By hearing
the Word of God. So then, faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. Now, I don't say it just comes
by hearing. hearing the Word of God. That's what you've got
to hear. It's not just preaching we need
to hear. Man, everybody's a preacher. There's a place down home out
there by where we live, I guess there's probably half a dozen
preachers in there. Sometimes they cut their ear,
sometimes they cut their bridge's leg, and they can't get with
it. Turn on the television on Sunday
morning. Preachers, preachers, preachers everywhere. It's not
just preaching we need to hear, but the preaching of the Word.
God said, My Word shall not return unto me void. It won't do it.
Let me tell you something, beloved. Faith doesn't come by dreams
and visions. You know, anybody says, I know
I'm saved because this light come to me and this glory come
over me and I felt light as a feather. Oh, I wouldn't trust that no
farther than I could spit. Faith don't come by dreams and
visions. It comes by the Word of God. I heard Mr. Spurgeon say, I read where Mr.
Spurgeon said, if an angel came walking up to me and I was in
the pulpit and said, I come to tell you that you're saved. He
said, if the Lord saves you, he'd tell that angel, I've got
a more faithful word than you. He said, I've got God's Word.
I've got God's Word. I don't need an angel to tell
me. I've got what God said. Would you rather have what an
angel said or what God said? Oh, you see, that's what faith
comes by. Faith comes. It comes and it
convinces us of our sin. It convinces us. It comes and
it reveals Christ to us. It comes and it gives us assurance. And, beloved, when you... Christ
is the living Word. And the living Word makes the
written Word come alive. Search the Scriptures, our Lord
said. For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and there
are those which testify of them. The Word. The Word preached.
Do you agree with me on those things? I believe you can find
out whether you know the Lord or not by the things that I've
said here today. And if you didn't get them all,