Well, the truth is, I actually
like North Carolina basketball. I just like to tease Gary. But
anytime good basketball is played, I like to watch it. But I like
Kentucky basketball better. I do. But listen, it is a real
privilege and honor and joy for me to be back here. It's been
a long time. And so many of you that I've
known in the past and it's just, I've got some good memories of
being here and preaching the gospel here before. And I am
so glad that, you know, God's providence is amazing, isn't
it? How you started here and left
and then come back here and how I started in Ashland as a member
of the church. preached in Cottageville, went
to Georgia, ended up back in Ashland. You know, we would have
never figured, would we? But I am so glad that the Lord
has led Brother Gary back here and that he's your pastor. I
know that you are. He's a friend to me and to all
of us at 13th Street. And I cannot express in words
how precious his friendship has been to us, especially in these
last few years. He's been to our place to preach
and the Lord has just used him greatly to bless us. And with
that in mind, I want to express on behalf of the brethren at
13th Street, their love and gratitude to you, their prayers for you.
They all want me to say hello and to make sure that you know
that you're on their hearts and in their minds. sister church
in Christ and how standing for the gospel of God's grace. So
I just want to express that to you from my heart. And I am so
glad to be here and hope and pray that the Lord will bless
you in the preaching that he's laid on my heart for this weekend. But you keep me in your prayers. Keep our church there in Ashland
in your prayers. We've been through some trials,
but the Lord always blesses us. And you've been through them
too. But the Lord always blesses His people in trials. You know,
Philippians 1 calls those trials a gift, just like faith's a gift. And it's hard for us to look
at them sometimes like a gift, because we say, well, now that's
a gift I don't want. But see, God knows better than we do.
He's sovereign. He knows the end from the beginning.
He knows what we need. And what's best for us, we don't,
but He does. So we keep that in mind. Now,
I want you to turn in your Bibles tonight to Genesis chapter 7.
Genesis chapter 7. And I know that you are most
likely very, very familiar with this section of the book of Genesis.
Genesis chapter 6 all the way up through chapter 9 deals with
the subject that we normally call Noah and the Flood, Noah
and the Ark. I like to call it the Ark and
Noah, the story of the Ark and Noah, rather than Noah and the
Ark, and you're familiar with that. And I want to just deal
with one, basically my text is going to be Genesis chapter 7
and verse 1. But Brother Joe, I know we didn't
get together before you come up here and read your scripture,
but it's so appropriate to what I'm going to say tonight on this
subject over there in Psalm 46, where it starts out, God is our
refuge and our strength. Well, the ark was Noah and his
family, his refuge and his strength. And of course, you know as well
as I do, that ark is an illustration and a type of a person, someone
greater, someone eternally and infinitely better, than anything
we could imagine here on this earth, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ, for He is our ark of safety and refuge." And then
that psalm went on to say, therefore will we not fear, though the
earth be removed. You know, that's what God was
doing in the flood, pretty much removing the earth. And it says,
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, they
were certainly carried into the midst of the sea in the flood. And though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, it never rained before on earth until
that time. And though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof, God is still our refuge in time of
trouble." Well, you know the story here up until this point.
We've seen so many spiritual illustrations here and truths
that come forth in this Old Testament. We say story, but it was a historical
event or it was something that was real. This is not just a
children's story that God put in here so that we could admire
Noah and lift him up and exalt him. But in this passage, you
know, there's so many illustrations. For example, it starts out with
a picture of a world fallen, corrupted, ruined in sin. And that's the state of all men
and women by nature born of Adam. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We fell in Adam, ruined by the
fall. And that's a picture of this
world in Noah's day, that men and women forgot God, rejected
God, rebelled against God, had no inclination towards the true
and living God, steeped in idolatry and ignorance and the darkness
of sin. And that's an illustration of
every individual born of Adam. That's our state by nature. born
in sin, depraved. That's what total depravity is
all about. Total depravity is not just a
doctrine that starts off the acrostic tulip. Total depravity
is the reality of sin. The doctrine of total depravity,
as recorded in the scripture, and if revealed to us by the
Holy Spirit, shows me and shows you why we need salvation by
grace, sovereign grace, sovereign mercy. It shows us that not only
is our minds and our hearts under the bondage of sin, but our wills
are just as much under the bondage of sin. So you have this world,
and here God, in His divine power and providence, according to
His justice and his holiness, he reveals to this man Noah that
he's going to destroy this world by flood. He revealed it to Noah. The whole world lies in the wicked
one. And yet God chose, elected sovereignly,
and marked out this man named Noah and revealed it to him and
said, now you go build an ark. And Noah built the ark. It took
him, what, 120 years, I believe it was, Gary, that he was building
the ark and preaching the gospel. He was preaching the gospel to
his generation, anybody who would listen, just like we did. Somebody
said, who do you preach to? Anybody who will listen. And
we know who's going to listen, all those whom God brings to
listen. But Noah built this ark, and he built it according to
the exact specifications that God gave him. God didn't say,
no, you go out there and you build it any way you think is
best. No, He said, I'm going to tell
you how to build. The materials, the dimensions, all of the inner
chambers, everything. How it was to be pitched within
and without. And so Noah built the ark and now at this point
in time here in Genesis chapter 7, all things are ready now for
God's judgment. The time has come that God revealed
to Noah 120 years before. And here's the point. Now, at
this time, all whom God would save from his wrath in this flood
must now be brought onto the ark. This flood cannot come until
they're all brought onto the ark. The flood couldn't come
upon the earth until all who were appointed by God for His
purposes and for His glory, that all of them, that every last
one of them were whom God intended to save from the wrath of that
flood unto this ark. And this is what he says. Look
at Genesis 7 and verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation. Now, I've entitled this message,
and I want you to listen to this very carefully. It may seem a
little strange at first. I've entitled this message, A
Call to the Righteous. A Call to the Righteous. Now,
you may sit and think, you say, well, now that doesn't sound
right, because we know what the scripture says about the calling
of God's people into the kingdom. And it's a call to sinners. Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And I want to show you a couple
passages of scripture. Turn over to Luke chapter 5.
We have scriptural testimony right here that the call of the
gospel, the call to Christ, is a call to sinners. So how can
you say it's a call to the righteous? Well, hold on. Now, look at Luke
chapter 5 and verse 27. It says here in Luke 5, 27, And
after these things he went forth, that is, our Savior, and he saw
a publican. Now, you know what a publican
was. A publican was one of the most despised individuals in
the Jewish country. A publican was a traitor. He
was a man who collected taxes for the Roman government, collected
taxes from his own people, and they were known. They were well
known. It was common. In fact, if you found a publican
who didn't do this, it was very uncommon. They always skimmed
off the top. They always lined their own pockets.
They always took more than they should. And that's how a publican
was known. That's why they were so hated.
They were on the level as the harlots. That's what the Pharisees
said of our Lord. He eats with publicans and harlots. And that's how they looked at
Him. These were men who did not even appear righteous in the
eyes of men. You know, the Lord said the Pharisees
did. He said you appear righteous in the eyes of men. But you see,
not in the eyes of God. Well, these publicans didn't
even appear righteous. I mean, they made no pretense.
And so he met a publican named Levi. It says in verse 27, sitting
at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, follow me.
Now we know that this Levi is the same one who was known as
Matthew. He was saved by the grace of
God. Had nothing to recommend him unto God. He didn't deserve
salvation, and he didn't earn salvation. And you know what? Neither do we. I was talking
to Brother Gary and I said, we've got to think about this. You
know, at no time, I want you to think about this, at no time
in our lives as saved sinners can we ever say or will we ever
be able to say, now I deserve salvation, now I've earned it.
And the proof of that is if you think about the saints in glory
who are now perfectly sinless in themselves. What is the song
on their lips? Worthy is the Lamb. Even in glory
we will not be able to say we earned it or deserve it. It's
all of grace. All of grace. And so here he
is, it says in verse 28, he left all, he rose up and he followed
him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house and there
was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with
him. I mean, what a motley crew. And it says in verse 30, "...but
their scribes and Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying,
Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?" Why would
you consort with such people? Why would you sit down and eat
with such people? They couldn't understand that.
They wouldn't dare be seen in public with such people as that.
You see, they tell us, you're known by the company you keep.
Isn't that right? Well, think about it. Who's the
company our Savior kept? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners. And look at what he
says in verse 31. And Jesus answering, saying to
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. He didn't come to call the righteous.
He came to call sinners to repentance. And let me show you one more.
Look over at Luke chapter 18, because this will help put it
in perspective as we look back at Genesis chapter 7. Now, I've
entitled the message, A Call to the Righteous. But our Lord
said, right here, He didn't come to call the righteous. He came
to call sinners to repentance. Well, look at Luke 18. Now, this
is the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. Look at verse
9. Listen to this. He spake this parable unto certain,
that is certain people, which trusted in themselves. That's
a good description of man without Christ, man without grace, trusting
in ourselves. That they were righteous and
despised others. They saw themselves as righteous,
but they looked upon others as sinners. And that's the issue
now. taught the parable of the publican
and the Pharisee. You see, what's happening here
is that we need to understand this if we're going to understand
the Scriptures. And that's this. There is a vast
difference between how God sees his people and how we and others
see his people. When he said, He came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's perfectly
right. But men by nature, by nature,
will always see themselves to some degree, in some way, at
some stage, in some way as righteous and despise others. Now, they
may not put it that way. But I'll tell you how you can
tell. Any person who claims to be saved in a way that's not
consistent with God's grace in Christ is making that claim. Is making that claim. So that
when we go back and look at a passage like Genesis 7 and verse 1, we're
not talking about how Noah was or is in himself. We're not talking
about how Noah saw himself or how others saw. We're talking
about how God in His immutable, sovereign, merciful, gracious
will and judgment saw Noah. You see, the Bible tells us plainly
that by deeds of law shall no flesh Be justified, be declared
righteous in God's sight. And that's whose sight we have
to deal with. You see, you may look at me one way, and that
may bother me, or it may make me glad. Either way, it doesn't
matter. What matters, how does God see
me? No flesh will be justified in
His sight. And yet, God says here in Genesis
7-1 to Noah, He says, for thee have I seen righteous before me. He didn't say before
men. He said before me in this generation. Now, unless I am terribly mistaken
or sadly deceived, God's way of making and seeing men, sinners,
righteous back in Noah's day is the same way He does it today.
He's never changed. He's never changed. God didn't
save sinners one way back in Noah's day and then a different
way today. God didn't look upon His people
as righteous back in Noah's day in a different way than He does
us today. It's always by His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, with that in mind,
let me give you three things here. I want you to see these
three things. First of all, this call to the righteous, it's the
call of grace. It's the call of grace. And then
secondly, this call to the righteous is a call to a place of grace. Or we might say it this way better,
to a person of grace. And then thirdly, it's a call
to the people of grace. But it's all grace. Let me show
you. Now, first of all, he says, and
the Lord said unto Noah. This was a specific call. He
said unto Noah, not to all without exception. Now, there is a general
call. of the preaching of the gospel
wherein Christ, He told His disciples, go into all the world and preach
the gospel. Preach the gospel. Who do we
preach? Anybody who will listen. That call goes forth like the
sowers casting forth the seed. It goes out like the net that
goes out into the sea. And we preach the gospel, we
don't pick and choose. We don't look and say, now I'm
going to preach to you, but I'm not going to preach to you. We
don't have that right, you see. And that gospel goes out in the
general call. But unless God, in the power
of His Spirit, points out and focuses in on a specific person
and gives that person spiritual life, eyes to see, ears to hear,
hearts and minds to understand and know and love Christ, to
see our sinfulness and our depravity and our need of grace, It will
always fall on deaf ears. But here it's a specific call.
He said unto Noah, and he said unto Noah, Come thou and all
thy house into the ark. Now, first of all, think about
Noah himself. Why did God choose Noah and not
somebody else? Well, the answer to that is this. Only God knows. That's right. The only answer that we can give
to that scripturally is simply the one the Lord gave in Matthew
chapter 11. He says, For so, Father, it seemed
good in thy sight. I can guarantee you that God
in no way did anything wrong. He never made a wrong decision.
He was never unfair or unjust. He does that which is right.
But I know this. I know this. He didn't call Noah. He didn't choose Noah because
Noah was a better man than the rest of them. And you know how
I know that? Well, look back at Genesis chapter
6. Now, look at the first thing
the Scripture teaches us about Noah in verse 8. It says in verse
8 of chapter 6, "...but Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord." Now let me tell you how I know Noah wasn't any better
than the rest of them. Because Noah found what? Grace. And if Noah was better than the
rest of them, and if that's why the Lord chose him and called
him, he wouldn't need grace. My friend, grace is for sinners. It's not for the righteous. It's
not for those who are good in themselves or who are righteous
in themselves. Grace is for sinners. It's amazing
grace. Sinners are the only ones who
need grace. You see, if you're not a sinner,
you don't need grace. You don't need mercy. You don't
need salvation. Grace, someone said, grace is
God giving me what I don't deserve and haven't earned. Mercy is
God not giving me what I have earned and what I do deserve.
We find both grace and mercy in Christ. And Noah found grace. But it says in verse 9, these
are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man. That means
he was a justified sinner. He was a man whom God saved by
grace. The Bible says that grace reigns
through righteousness by Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 5.21.
Now, did grace reign some other way back in Noah's day? If it
did, the Bible doesn't tell it. You say, well, Christ had not
yet come. Well, He hadn't come in time,
but He was already there in the mind and purpose of an Almighty
God according to the covenant of grace. He was the Lamb slain
from where? The foundation of the world.
2 Timothy 1, I think it's verse 9, The salvation that He gave
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Gary and I were
talking about this. You know, Christ had to come
in time and die on the cross. And you know why? Because Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah wasn't the first one. Go on back. You can talk about
Abel. I believe you can even talk about Adam. What was God
teaching when He removed the fig leaf aprons from Adam and
Eve and slew an animal, shed blood, and made him coats of
skin? He was showing even then how
God justifies the ungodly, based upon the righteousness and the
blood of one who is to come. And in the fullness of the time,
Christ was sent forth of God, made of a woman, His incarnation,
made under the law, that is, He became responsible for all
that we deserved to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. You see, Noah was a
sinner saved by grace, not without Christ, not without blood, but
because of. And the cross didn't change God's
mind. The cross revealed God's mind,
you see. Noah found grace from the Lord. You see, everything in Noah's
life as far as salvation and blessing from God was of pure,
sovereign grace in Christ. This call was sent forth in Genesis
7 here from the Lord. That's Jehovah, the God of the
covenant, the God of promise, The God who justifies the ungodly. It was to Noah. It was a specific
call to this man. And only those who were called
could come into the ark. This is the invincible, irresistible
call of the Holy Spirit. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 with me. In verse 13, a passage you're
very familiar with. He says in verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians
2, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel, the good news
of God's grace in Christ. The good news of the finished
work of Christ on the cross to die for the sins of His people
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the same call that Noah received. Look at Romans chapter 8. I want
to show you something here. We quote this verse quite often.
Verse 28 of Romans chapter 8. It says, And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. to them
who are thee called according to his purpose." That word called
there is like a summons. You know, if they serve you with
a summons, they don't say, now you show up at court if you want
to. Do they? No, that's a legal summons. It has the authority of the law
behind it. And if you don't answer the summons
in a responsible way, in a positive way, what's going to happen to
you? They're going to come and get you. And that's what this
is. It's a summons. You see, there
is no choice. Our only hope of salvation is
Christ and Him crucified and risen again. What other choice
is there? Death? That's no choice, but
read on. He says, "...who are the called
according to His purpose." Verse 29, "...for whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called." Now the word
called there is a different word. There it's like a word like named. It's like when Aaron was born.
We called him Aaron. Now we didn't, I didn't stand
there and Debbie holding him and I say, Hey Aaron, come here.
No, I said, we named him Aaron. And that's what that word called
is. God named his people. Now in the Bible, when you named
someone, that meant you owned them. That meant they were yours. In other words, when Aaron was
born, nobody else, some stranger couldn't walk into the room and
say, I'll tell you what he's going to be named. I'd have said,
buddy, you get out of here. This is my son, not yours. You have no right to name him.
That's why when the angel came to Joseph at the incarnation
of our Savior and he says his name shall be called Jesus. Joseph, you're not going to name
him. He's the son of God. He shall save his people from
their sins. His name shall be called Immanuel,
which being interpreted, God with us. It's like back in the
Old Testament when they had a census, when they had an accounting,
a naming, so to speak. That's why David got in trouble
when he numbered Israel. It wasn't his. Israel belonged
to God, not David. Israel's strength was in God.
And so he named it. And that's the way it is here.
God names His people. You know why? Because He chose
us from the foundation of the world. He owns us by right of
sovereign electing grace. He owns us by redeeming grace,
adopting grace, and regenerating grace. We're born into His family
spiritually. And so it says in verse 30, "...moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also named. And whom He named,
them He also," what? Justified. Whom God chose. He
justified. And whom He justified, He also
glorified. And you notice all that's in
the past tense. Some of it hadn't actually taken place in time
yet. For example, our glorification. But you see, when God determined
it and purposed it, it was a done deal. Now, when God chose Noah,
He justified him. God's the judge of all. And this
is a calling of grace, you see. had nothing to do with anything
Noah deserved or earned. It was just God saving a sinner
by His grace based on the blood of His dear son. Now, He sought
this call also. It was to a place of grace or
to a person of grace. Back here in Genesis 7, He says,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark. Now, you know and I
know this ark is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is
our ark of safety from the flood of God's wrath. Everything about
this ark is a picture of God's grace given to his people freely
and unconditionally in and by the person, the glorious person
and the finished work of Christ. When Noah and his family were
inside the ark, the flood of God's wrath came down upon the
ark, not upon Noah and his family. And that's the way it was when
we were in Christ. He was made sin. God made Him
responsible for all the sins of all His people. And He went
to that cross, and the flood of God's wrath rained down and
consumed Him, but not His people. We were in the ark. We're in
Christ. That's why our judgment has already
taken place. Our sins were born away, the
Scripture says, in the person of our substitute, our Savior,
our sin bearer, our sin offering, the Lamb of God. He is our ark. We know that the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you notice, look back over here at Galatians 6, or Galatians,
Genesis 6 rather, and look at verse 14. Remember I said that
this ark was made according to the specifications that God gave,
and we could look at each thing in this ark and see how it applies
in some way to the person, and the finished work and the mediatorial
offices of Christ. Who is He? He's God-man. He's
God in human flesh, the Word made flesh and dwelt among us. That's who He is. Very God of
very God, very man of very man. And what did He accomplish? He
accomplished the redemption of His people. He didn't come down
here and try to save you or me or anybody. He saved His people
just like that ark. was a sure arc of safety and
refuge and protection for Noah and his family. Christ is our
surety. That means there's no possibility
of failure. That means He got the job done.
That means it's not a conditional salvation towards us. He fulfilled
the conditions. You know, I like to put it this
way. Everything... Now, if you're in Christ, one
of God's people called to get in the ark, called into Christ,
by the power of the Holy Spirit, to rest in Him, to believe in
Him, to trust Him and follow Him. Everything that God requires
of us is found in full in the person and work of Christ. For
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are what? Complete in Him. Complete. You know what the funny thing
about being complete? Because you can't add anything
to it. If you could add anything to it, it would be incomplete
to start off with. But we're complete in Him. But
let me just give you one of these things here. Look at verse 14.
It says, Make thee an ark of gopher wood, runes that shalt
thou make, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
Now, you've probably already been taught this, but that word
pitch is the same word, it's covering. You cover it within,
cover that with pitch so that the water couldn't get in. The
picture there is that while we're in Christ, there's no way that
any of the wrath of God can get into us. It cannot come in and
get us. You see, in Christ there's no
condemnation, there's no wrath at all. But this word pitch is
covering, it's the same word that the Bible uses for atonement. The same word the Bible uses
for reconciliation. The same word that David used
in Psalm 32 when he said, Blessed is the man whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. What a great and glorious picture
of our Savior and our safety in Him. My friend, as long as
I stand before God washed in the blood of Christ and clothed
in His righteousness imputed, I have nothing to fear. I have
nothing to fear. You know what my favorite hymn
is. I want this sung at my funeral if there's anybody around to
sing. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I love that hymn. Just like the
man who built his house on the rock when the rains descend and
the floods and the winds come. The house stands. Why? Because
it's such a beautiful house. Because he worked hard in building
it? No, because it's built on the rock. Christ Jesus. You see,
our ark is Christ. And boy, isn't that a glorious
thing? Where else would you rather be than in Christ? Well, lastly,
this call to righteousness is a call to the people of grace.
He says here in Genesis 7 and verse 1, he says, for thee have
I seen righteous before me in this generation. I imagine that
during the time that Noah was preaching for 120 years and building
this ark, I imagine he put up with a lot of ridicule, a lot
of derision. I imagine most people thought
he was just playing nuts. It never rained before. What
do you mean, Noah, you heard the voice of God? Well, we've
heard that. Everybody claims today to hear
the voice of God. I imagine that Noah had to put
up with accusations. But here's the fact of the matter.
All this time, Noah was a sinner. He was not righteous in himself. And he wasn't righteous before
men in the sense of perfection. All this time. And we know this
is true. We know when Noah, when the flood
was over and he got off the ark, the first thing he did is he
what? Look over there in Genesis, I
believe it's chapter 9, or chapter 8, and look at verse 20. What's
the first thing Noah did when he got off the ark? It says in
verse 20 of chapter 8, it says, ìAnd Noah built an altar unto
the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl,
and offered burnt offerings on the altar.î Now let me tell you
something. If Noah was righteous in himself,
that would have been an exercise in futility. You see, the only
ones who need to bring an offering of blood are sinners. That's why Abel had to bring
a lamb, because he knew without the shedding of blood there's
no remission of sin. Noah knew the same thing. You
see, those who are righteous in themselves, they don't need
an altar. They don't need a sacrifice. They're okay. But Noah knew where
his hope was. He knew where his salvation is. Also, later on, you see that
Noah planted a vineyard, made him some wine, and he got drunk. Well, if he was righteous in
himself before, when he got drunk, did he lose it all then? Did
he lose ten percent? No, Noah was a sinner, a sinner
saved by the grace of God. But you see, whenever the Lord
calls anybody righteous, whenever God who is holy, God who knows
the heart, God who sees it all, God who is the righteous judge
who always judges according to truth, whenever God looks upon
a sinner and calls that sinner righteous, you know how He does
it? The same way He does it today. Christ. I say it again. Here's a sinner who in himself
is rotten and filthy in every way. Who in himself deserves
nothing but the wrath of God and the justice of God against
his sins. But here's a sinner whom God
chose from the foundation of the world and gave to his son. Gave it to his son. And his son
willingly and lovingly and powerfully took all the responsibility of
that sinner into his bosom. And he said, I'll do what's necessary.
I'll die for his sin. I'll bring forth an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value that enables God the Father to
be both a just God and a Savior. A righteous judge as well as
a loving, merciful Father. How can that be? Job asked that
question, and one of his friends asked it too. How can a man,
a sinner, be just before God? How can man that's born of woman
be clean? Not but one way, and Job said
it in chapter 19, I know my Redeemer liveth. And he'll stand at the
latter day on the earth. You see, this call to the righteous
is a call not to those who are righteous in themselves. It is
a call to sinners. Sinners saved by the grace of
God. Sinners made righteous by the
mercy of God. Let me show you one scripture
and I'll close. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Let me show you this. I said one, I got two. You know,
every preacher. I'm not lying, I just forgot
about the other one. You ever do that? Well, let me
just show you this in closing, all right? Now, you know what
Hebrews 11, that's the hall of faith, you know. Look at verse,
the one dealing with Noah is verse 7. It says, by faith, that means
Noah believed what God said. That's what that means. By faith,
Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, he moved with
fear. That is, he moved with respect
and regard and reverence for God. He prepared an ark to the
saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world. You know,
there's different commentaries on that. I believe it has something
to do with this. You know, the gospel is a life
and death issue. You can't walk away from the
gospel preached indifferent. Now, you may be indifferent to
it, but it's life and death. It's the saver of life unto life
to those who believe. But it's the savor of death unto
death to those who don't. And basically, Noah just told
them, you either get on the ark or you're condemned. You're condemned
to die. And that's why we preach Christ.
You either come to Christ and trust in Him and rest in Him
and what He accomplished at Calvary, or you're going to die. Now,
there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. But outside of Christ,
nothing but condemnation. And so he condemned the world
in that preaching and he became heir of the righteousness which
is by faith. Now what is the righteousness
which is by faith? Is that the righteousness of
Noah's believing? No. No. Because even our faith is imperfect. We believe, but Lord help our
unbelief. Even our faith is imperfect.
Even our faith has to be washed in the blood. So, what is this
righteousness by faith? Well, turn to Romans chapter
9. And then, I promise you, this is the last one. But, you know,
Peter called Noah a preacher of righteousness. That's what
Peter called him, I believe, in 2 Peter 3.20. Called him a
preacher of righteousness. You know what that is? That's
a preacher of Christ. You don't preach righteousness until you
preach Christ. You can preach morality. You
can preach responsibility. Those things are good, but if
you're preaching them, you're not preaching righteousness.
You're not preaching righteousness until you point sinners to Christ
who died on that cross and was buried and rose again the third
day. But what is this righteousness by faith? It's not righteousness
in our faith. But look here in Romans chapter
9. Look at verse 31. It says, But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. They were seeking righteousness
in the law. Now, they didn't make it. Verse
32. Why? Wherefore? Why? Why didn't
they make it? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. Now, what is
it? They were seeking righteousness by their works under the law. But they didn't seek it by faith.
Now, what is it to seek righteousness by faith? We'll look at the last
line of verse 32 and read on. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. Now, where's he going? Going
back to the Old Testament. That's the book of Isaiah. The
stumbling stone. What is that? Verse 33. As it
is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock
of offense, and whosoever believeth on him. That stumbling stone
is a person. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. Read on. Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 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. For Christ is the end, the fulfillment,
the finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believes. You know what that righteousness
by faith is? It's a righteousness that we receive by faith. It's
the righteousness of God in Christ. That's what it is. In other words,
if you're going to find righteousness, you better look for it where
it is. I've told our folks at 13th Street, I said, if you're
going to be a prospector for gold, I can tell you right now,
don't go start digging up our parking lot. And I'll tell you
why. Not only will you tear up the
parking lot, but there's no gold there. And that's what we tell
people. If you want to find righteousness
and peace and salvation, don't go looking inside yourself. Don't
go looking to your works. Don't go looking to your denomination,
your baptism. Don't go looking to the preacher.
Don't go looking to Grandma and Papa. Look to Christ. Because there's where you're
going to find it. Nowhere else. Nowhere else.