Difficult to play and difficult to sing, but very good, very good. First Corinthians two. I want you to turn to a couple of scriptures and then we'll stay in Romans one the whole time. First Corinthians chapter two. This whole chapter, if you noticed, as I read to you, it talks about the things of God, which are not things, material things at all. Not things. It's not things that I want us to think about, but unseen things, eternal things, spiritual things. Are you with me? We have a hard time doing that. We're already having a hard time doing that, because this world, this material world, just drags us down. Colossians 3 says, set your affection on things above. Where, what thing? Where Christ is.

1 Corinthians 2, it says in verse 9, I have not, as it is written, I, this is Isaiah 64, I have not seen nor ear heard either have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. We just read that no one loves God by nature in Romans 1. Haters of God, but God. Who loves some and he causes them to love him. In verse 10, so having entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto him, his people, by his Spirit, those who are led by the Spirit.

For the Spirit, Holy Spirit, searches or shows us the things of God, yea, the deep things. Read on, verse 11. It says, what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him, even so, The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.

In other words, you don't know my mind, my heart, unless I tell you. And we don't know God's either, unless he reveals these things. God has revealed them. You don't find these things out. We're gonna see that man's not interested. He's not looking. And you weren't either. But God. Verse 12.

Now, We've received not the spirit of the world, that's the God of this world, but the spirit which is of God, Holy Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, of God, which things, keep reading, Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches. What did the Holy Ghost say? What did our Lord say the Holy Ghost would say?

He'll take the things of man and show them unto you. Because God hath given all things into Christ's name. Are you with me? All right, verse 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. There's foolishness done to him. Man thinks this is all there is. This is it. Man doesn't believe what he can't see. There's foolishness done to them. They're spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual, born of God, judges or discerneth all things.

One more, okay, Proverbs 8. Go to Proverbs 8. And those of you who know, you know, scripture says the gospel is the power of God. He said Christ is the power of God and what? The wisdom of God. This is Jesus Christ speaking, Proverbs 8. If you know that, You're known of God. You understand that? If you know that, you're known of God, that this is Christ speaking. Not talking about a concept or some kind of wisdom you attain by your, no, no, no, it's a person. Saving knowledge is to know Christ, wisdom. Fear of the Lord's beginning wisdom, knowledge of the Holy.

Proverbs 8, look at verses five through seven. Oh, you simple, ignorant, what that means. Man's ignorant. Yes, he is, or he don't. Understand wisdom. He fools. Man's so foolish, he says there's no God. How foolish can he get? Rebels against the one who has his breath in his hands, or he don't.

Be an understanding heart. Here, Christ said, I'll speak of excellent things. Excellent things, not earthly things, not lowly things, not temporal things, eternal things, wise things, holy things, good things, lasting things. He says, the opening of my lips will be right things. Everything I say is right. You can't hear anything that anybody says, anything anyone says that's right. It's all wrong. It's lies. You know it's so. Can you believe what you're hearing and seeing today? It's fake. It's phony. It's artificial. This has never been a more ignorant generation. Never.

That's what Romans 1 says God gave him over. I believe the Lord has taken his hand off of the world and our society especially. Okay. Like Sodom. Good God. Here we sit. This is the greatest blessing on earth. We don't understand that. It really hasn't entered into our heart. It's going to someday. Boy, we're going to sing that song. You have a hard time hitting that. Was that a G? Is that a high G? Come on. I think it's a high G. Boy, we ain't going to have any trouble hitting it then.

Hallelujah. We're gonna sing it from the bottom of our heart to the top of our lungs. Read on, verse seven. My mouth shall speak truth, wickedness is an abomination to my lips. Look at verse 11. Wisdom is better, Christ is better than Ruby, and all the things that may be desired, all things that may be desired of man are not to be compared to him. That's why Paul said, set your affection on things above, excellent things.

True blessing, true happiness is not in natural things, perishing thing. That's why nothing in this world can, it's called vanity in scripture because it doesn't last and it doesn't satisfy and it doesn't give you what it promises. Riches don't make you rich because they have wings. Good health and wealth, that's the modern gospel isn't it? It won't last. Health and wealth. Beside the fact that got nowhere in the Bible does it say God wants you to be healthy and wise. The blessing of God is to be poor and needy. Be hungry and thirsty. Healthy and wealthy man to be poor and spirits blessed are the poor and spirit.

There's is the kingdom of God All right, go back to Romans 1 now Romans 1 now I could read so many things So many scriptures in Matthew 16 one time the Lord was telling his disciples that he was going to the cross to die He kept telling him that that's why he came He came here to rescue, to ransom, to save people like you and me who were, who our life was in things. And came to rescue us who lived in sin. And God is our belly. Scripture says that. But God sent Christ, the Holy Spirit.

And he said to his disciples, He said, I'm going to the cross, and Simon Peter said, no, Lord, let's not talk about that. He said, get behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of man. Oh, God doesn't want this to happen. Hold on now.

You don't understand what's gonna happen to this place. and God's the one that's doing it. That's what I want to say, the wrath of God, it ends with the judgment of God. But it doesn't end in judgment for God's people who understand the things of God. You see where I'm headed with this?

And Christ said the things of God, holiness, righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, it's not here. Not on this earth. It is a little bit when God's people meet together. Christ said that the kingdom of heaven is not in meat and drink, but it's in righteousness and joy. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. What do you mean joy in the Holy Ghost? The gospel, Christ.

Some of you understand, you're nodding your head and you're smiling. You're so blessed. These things that no one can take from you. And it hasn't really entered into our heart what it's going to, the things that we're going to experience and see and hear.

You know, when Paul came back from the third heaven, when they stoned him that time, he died. And he went to glory. He said, I knew a man didn't bring up his own name. I knew a man who went to the heaven of heaven. He said, he didn't say what he saw. He said, I heard things. You can't put into words. I heard things unlawful to others. This is how life begins with you. You hear his voice. You hear, he heard people singing, going. Fannie Crosby never saw one thing while she was on this earth. She never saw one material thing while she was on this earth, Fannie Crosby. And she's the one that wrote so many hymns face to face with Christ. That will be glory for me. Boy, was she heard. See, eyesight becomes severe. Don't trust the things you see. The things that are seen are temporal. Things that are unseen are eternal. Oh boy. All right, Romans 1. Let's look at it. Romans chapter 1.

Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Verse 1 begins, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. It begins with the gospel. This is why God created a whole universe. Because one day he would bring forth this gospel, the gospel of God. The gospel of his son, it says. The gospel of Christ over in verse 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's concerning, verse three, his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, declared to be the son of God, with power, holiness, who rose from the dead, who died, the gospel of God. The things of God start with the gospel. The greatest story ever told. The best news you could ever hear. Good news, glorious news. The eternally glorious good news of Christ the Redeemer of a bunch of dying sinners.

Old brother Scott Richardson. who, not unlike Job, went through so many things, lost his firstborn daughter, sons went to prison, lost his health, cancer, lost his wife. He said, Brother Scott said, I've never heard any really bad news since I've heard the good news. He said, if you knew what God knows, you would order your life exactly the way he did it. He's too good to do wrong. He's too wise to err.

And the goodness of God is seen in the gospel of Christ crucified. The love of God. If God loves you, you love the gospel. You know that the love of God is in Jesus Christ, Romans 8, 39. Outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire. He's not like these modern preachers are saying, God loves you just like you are. No, it doesn't say that in this Bible, anywhere.

No prophets or apostles ever, ever, ever stood up and said, smile, God loves you. Can you imagine Noah putting a bumper sticker on the outside of that ark? Smile, God loves you. They'd be lying to people. No, the wrath of God was falling on them. If there was a bumper sticker, it was on the inside. Those in the ark were loved of God. How'd they get there? God called them. God brought them. God brought them into the ark. Shut them in. Pitched them. Sealed them. Shut them in. Couldn't get out.

That's the love of God. That's the love of God. that whomever he gave to Jesus Christ to come down here and pay for their sins and establish a righteousness and impute that righteousness to their account and send the Holy Spirit to give them repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, justify them, they're saved forever. They're shut in, they're shut up, they're sealed. They're loved of God and nothing can change it. There's nobody in hell right now God loves. But everybody in heaven God does.

He loves. This is the good news. This love of God never fails. This love of God saves. This love of God is eternal. Why would you want that other? The good news of sovereign, effectual, eternal love. The love of God. The good news of God's mercy. His mercy endureth forever. Mercy means not getting what we deserve. The wages of sin is death. That's what every one of us deserves. Start with me.

And mercy, but God rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved, who? Ephesians 2, that's what was a quicken, given life, chosen. Ephesians 1, 4, chosen of God, called of God. Like these in Rome, blessed, beloved of God. Look at verse, that's verse seven. All that be in Rome, beloved of God.

We live in Rome. This all sounded like the United States of America to me. You read it with me. It's like reading front page news of, and we're here. We're right here in the middle of Rome. We're in it. I don't believe we're of it. I don't believe we're of it. Are you of it? Here's the test. You want out? You want it out of you lot? Do you? There was a time we didn't. Right, brother? There was a time we didn't care about this thing.

Hmm, both God. Beloved of God. Who does God love? He sends the gospel to them. And they believe the gospel. And it says in verse, look at verse seven, beloved of God, verse 10. Verse 10, he says, I make request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. Paul always said that, didn't he? He began every epistle nearly by saying I'm an apostle by the will of God, by the will of God, by the will of God, didn't he?

Now here's good news. that everything is according to the will of God. Nothing is left up to man's will. Man does not have a free will. You know where that is? It's everywhere. But Ephesians 1 11 says, it works all things, God worketh all things after the counsel of his will. all the way through the scriptures. We could turn to scripture after scripture. Isaiah 43, he said, I will work, and who will let me?

Doesn't he say that? Now man hates that. What do you think? You don't understand. If you love that, that you don't have free will, if you don't want your will be done, if you want God's will to be done, if you believe God alone does all things after the counsel of his will, That man doesn't have a free will. That Satan, no one else, is doing anything according to their will. It's all according to God's sovereign, absolute, reigning, ruling will. Oh, it makes you so happy.

I'm not worried about Iran. I'm not worried about Putin. Ho Chi Minh. Oh, he's long gone, isn't he? Name somebody. They're gone. God's not. Christ is not. Scripture says he's king of kings and Lord of lords, not a figurehead, an absolute reigning, ruling monarch in control of every single thing. God's will alone is working right now in this world, and nobody can stop it. That makes me happy. I can go to bed. He that keepeth Israel. This whole world literally, brothers and sisters, he's not a Jew, which is one outwardly.

The kingdom of God is not over in that little country over there. The kingdom of God is right here. The kingdom of God is in Kingsport, Tennessee, Fairmont, West Virginia. The kingdom of God is in his church. New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. God's gonna wipe out Israel one of these days. He kept destroying the temple, kept bringing those people into captivity.

However, God has revealed his absolute sovereignty, no more clearly, anywhere at any time, his absolute sovereignty over this world, and how he's kept that little bitty two-bit country from being destroyed by every single nation in the world trying to destroy them. We're gonna get rid of them. No, you're not. You understand that? People have nuclear bombs and they want Israel gone. Why can't they?

Because that's an absolute proof that God reigns. He said Israel's going to be a nation as long as there's been a world here. Nobody's going to destroy it. And perhaps, maybe, we hope, Romans 11, that he has some more Jews he's going to At least 144,000. God reigns. It's his will. Everything's by the will of God. Evil as well as good. Didn't he say that? Isaiah 45, seven, Deuteronomy 32, 39, on and on it goes. I, the Lord, do all these things. Oh, man. The will of God. Look at verse 17. Talks about the gospel of God, verse 16. Verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God. The power of God unto salvation. The gospel is the power of God.

Why do we do one thing here? Why do I stand up and preach the gospel every time? Why is it that's what we do? We want people to be saved. We want people to come into the kingdom of God. We want our children, our grandchildren, and our neighbors, and people, and visitors to come in here, and not to entertain them, and to fill their bellies with spaghetti. We want their souls saved, and there's one thing that does that. It's the gospel. The gospel's the power of God and salvation. We preach the gospel. We don't ask people to do anything. We don't beg people. We don't bribe people. We don't promise them anything, that we just declare who Christ is.

Declare who God is. Declare what man is. Peter at Pentecost stood up and preached Christ reigning and ruling. He did not say God loves you and Jesus died for you. He did not say that. Did he? He just declared a sovereign God, a sovereign Lord on the throne who sent Christ to hang on the cross. to die for the sins of someone, his people. And he was buried, rose again.

People everywhere got up at sunrise and they didn't want to do it. But they're going through these traditions and rituals and make the, you know, see this is man all right. He's got a material, I feel good about looking at the sun come up in the morning.

That won't make you think of Jesus Christ. You'd rather be in bed, wouldn't you? The gospel is what makes you think of Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel. The Christ who's buried and rose again, proving whom he was by the resurrection of the dead, seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, reigning and ruling. That's what Simon Peter preached at Pentecost and sat down.

He didn't ask anybody to accept Jesus. He didn't ask anybody to let him be your Lord. He didn't ask anybody anything. He declared him to be Lord and sat down and God the Holy Spirit moved with power. and broke the hearts of all those God-hating, well, I might let him be my Lord.

Boy, you gonna find out he's Lord. And what you need is for him to reveal to you, I am God and you're not. And I have come in mercy and grace and love to you to reveal that I'm your God, I'm your Lord, I'm your righteousness, I'm your salvation, I'm your only hope, you do nothing but sin, but I did it all for you, now. There it is. The gospel is the power of God. The only thing. It's not the preaching of the gospel, it's not the preacher of the gospel, it's not this act, but it's the gospel message, the word of God, which is crying.

I saw this man, I interviewed and he said, I asked Jesus. I just said the name of Jesus and he came into my heart and I've been changed ever since. He said there was no preacher, nobody around. I didn't hear anything. I just said, said the name Jesus said, if you'll do that too, you'll come in. You are just say Jesus.

Complete denial of what God's words is. God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Preaching what? The gospel of Christ. You must hear Christ exalted, Christ preached, Christ crucified. You must. You will not be saved. Nicodemus came at night to Christ and wanted to discuss scripture. He said, you must be born again. Christ didn't ask him anything. Won't you say, I want to be your Lord, if you'll let me. No, he did not. But later, Nicodemus was standing at the foot of Calvary, watching Jesus Christ crucified, and heard every word out of his mouth hanging on that cross.

And it broke his heart. Born again. Now he knows. Look at verse 17. In the gospel, the power of God is the righteousness of God revealed. Is that important? Oh my. The righteousness of God. You know how many times it says that in Romans alone? in the Bible over 500 times. Is it important? Do you hear it today? Once? Anywhere but here? In places that preach the gospel? No, you don't. What is the righteousness of God?

Hmm? Paul kept writing on him, declaring the righteousness of God, declare at this time his righteousness. Now, number one, it's his character. Number one, God, the righteous Lord, loved with righteousness, Scripture said, and hateth iniquity. Hated? Yep.

God is holy, holy, holy. You said that last Sunday, but yes, I did, and I'm gonna say it forever. Holy, holy, just. Will by no means clear the guilty. Righteous. God is righteous. To be in the presence of this holy God, we've got to be as holy as God. We've got to be as righteous as God. And we've come far short of that. Does none righteous? No, not one.

Well, how can an unrighteous sinner be righteous with God? The holiness, the character of God. The righteousness of God is His personal character, His holiness, His justice, His righteousness. And the righteousness of God is Jesus Christ, His righteousness, imputed, charged to, reckoned to the account of some, not all. You understand? You do understand that, some of you do understand. I know we say this a lot, but My generation is so ignorant of the righteousness of God. That's what Paul wept over in Romans 10.

He said, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them record to have a zeal of God, but not according to the knowledge they're going about to establish their own righteousness. Which Isaiah said is filthy rags. I told you what those rags were in Isaiah 64, six, look it up.

And yet man, you'll think, look at what I've done, look at me, surely God'll, look here, I've given up this, lint. I've given up shaving for a week, didn't I sacrifice? What it took for God to accept a sinner is for Jesus Christ to come down here for 33 years and live a perfectly holy, righteous life before God to fulfill the holy law of God.

He said, if you keep the law, you'll live. If you don't, you'll die. Nobody's kept one jot or tittle of the law, but Jesus Christ came. and fulfilled every jot and tittle. He said it behooves us to fulfill the righteousness of God. Well, we can't do it, but he did it as a substitute. Second Adam, the first Adam fell in the first day or two. Second Adam came, took him 33 years to live perfectly.

Every jot, every tittle, God was well pleased for his righteousness sake. And if righteousness come by the law, Paul said, Christ died in vain. If anybody thinks that God will accept anything they do, why did Christ die on the cross? Why did he live so long? Why didn't God just, well, forgive and forget? And Christ hung on the cross and endured the equivalent of an eternity in hell.

He could do that because of who he was. But that righteousness that Christ wrought out, that perfect holiness that God is well pleased with, like that prodigal son that came, he's dressed in rags, smelling like the hog pen, he'd rebelled against his father and against God and he came back in repentance by the goodness of God.

And he smelled bad and he looked bad, he'd wasted his whole life, riotous living, but the father said the first thing, bring the best robe. He's filthy, he's rotten. Take those rags off of him and cover him in this beautiful robe. Kill the fatted calf. Blood's gotta be shed. Pay for our sins. Put the ring on his finger.

Some of you understand the righteousness of God. This is a blessing. There's gonna be a lot of people stand before God. And say, I gave up so much for Jesus. And I lived my whole life in sacrifice. Gave my body to be burned and I did this and I did that. And God's gonna say, depart from me, I never knew you. And they're gonna be shocked. But you and I know. that righteousness is of God and holiness is of God. We're accepted, how? One way, in the beloved, in the beloved. I got to go on. Look at verse 18.

See, the righteousness of God is followed here by the wrath of God. Have it, verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest or revealed to them. God has showed it unto them.

Everybody has the same Bible. Well, I used to have the same Bible that you have. They read this thing. Preachers preach it. I mean, preachers read it, but they withhold it. When it says they hold the truth in unrighteousness, it means they hold it down. They take off the offense.

That's not what man wants to hear. Man wants to hear how much God needs him and loves him. Doesn't it? That's the exact opposite of the truth. Man wants to hear there's basically some good in all of us. That's the exact opposite of what this Bible said.

And the wrath of God is revealed from heaven every day. Every day. In the lives, of this whole world, the wrath of God. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, you name it. Keeps happening. Has been happening since the beginning of time. And man just doesn't see it. Man's a fool. There is no God. This is just natural occurrences. God is angry. They don't see it. Do you? Do you see that's the wrath of God?

Lightning struck our neighbor's house one time, burned it up, destroyed it. Just 60 feet from our house. One day it did strike a tree in my yard, and Brother Kelly, I went out in the garage, and you know that lightning traveled about 50 or 60 feet underground and busted a hole in the concrete in my garage, Steve.

Everything, death, disease, calamities, disasters, it's the wrath of God. Except in the life of God's people. Do you understand that? afflictions, and distresses, and persecution, and illness, and sickness, and even death is sent by God, by the will of God. It's not the wrath of God, it's the love of God.

You say, you're confusing me, preacher. No, no, Scott, you say, you're already confusing me. But those whom God reveals the truth to, They know that if God did not send afflictions and trials and so forth and so on, we wouldn't ever think about him. Because no one does until something bad happens, you know, they get religion.

Right? The wrath of God. Let me hurry on. It talks about the creation of God. I don't have time. Invisible things, verse 20, clearly saying creation of God. You can clearly see God made this. Eternal power and Godhead, my, my. And He shows the whole world by one great thing that He brings up every, doesn't bring up, He lets us see it.

It's such a picture of His Son, the Son, And men, that's what they were doing this morning, they were worshiping that big ball, not Jesus Christ. Oh, the invisible things clearly seen by us, not the world, but they, because when they knew God, verse 21, they didn't glorify Him as God. No, God didn't make all this. They weren't thankful.

Boy, if you realize God is God, if He shows you He is God, you'll see that every, what do you have you have not received? And every single thing you have, he gave it to you. And everything that's taken away, he took it away. He's good. So, verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fooled.

This is an educated society, never been more educated. More than Greek, Greece, more than all those ancient societies full of their philosophers It really is, isn't it? We've got more universities and colleges and schools and all that. There's never been a more foolish generation in the history of the world.

Because look at verse 28. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. See that? They studied everything but God. And it changed the glory of God. The glory of God, verse 23. We've been talking about that. The gospel of God is his glory. The son of God is his glory. The righteousness of God is his glory. The wrath of God is his glory. It's all about his glory, isn't it? The glory of God, the creation of God is his glory, but the greatest glory of God is his salvation of unworthy, undeserving, unable sinners. That's his glory. That's what he said to Moses, didn't he? I'll show you my glory. I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful. No man doesn't see it that way. Why doesn't he see it that way? He's blind. God keeps blinding him. So God gave him over, verse 25. It changed, verse 25, the truth of God into a lie.

Brothers and sisters, I say this all the time, I keep saying it, bring up false religion because all the prophets did and all the apostles did, they warned, warned, warned, warned their people about all of this. John talked about the love of God so much, but he also talked about false prophets did, anti-Christ. Yes, he did, John, over and over again. There are many anti-Christ.

It changed the truth of God. Everything that modern religion is saying about God is the opposite. It's a lie. Everything they're saying about Jesus Christ is a lie. It's another Jesus. Wants to, and tried, and failed, and can, he's outside your heart. No, he's not. That's another Jesus. And all who believe that Jesus are lost. All who baptize in the name of that Jesus, they just dumped underwater. All they're saying about man is a lie. And who's behind it?

The God of this world. Our Lord is an absolute sovereign ruler, savior, he's the great creator, he's blessed forever, amen. And let me close, verse 20, verse 32. And he goes on to talk about our society very clearly, doesn't it? Verse 32, who knowing the judgment of God and preachers don't preach the judgment of God. You hear anybody preaching the judgment of God? Do you?

That's what Jeremiah 23, he said the false prophets would say, no evil shall befall you. The judgment of God is coming. And they which commit such things are worthy of death. And such were some of you. But you're washed. You're justified. You're sanctified. How? in Christ, in Christ. And they have pleasure, they're not only not afraid, no fear of God, don't believe in the righteousness of God, judgment of God, don't believe these things, but have pleasure in it. They glory in their shame, ashamed of God's glory. Oh, we're so blessed, brothers and sisters. The world would call me a pretty sorry preacher. I don't have any education to speak of.

But I know what this book says. And I've told you from Romans 1, from start to finish, what God says. The things of God. And bless God, I believe there's some little people in here whom God has revealed himself to and his son in, and you're gonna be with God someday. While a myriad of people are lost. That's something, isn't it? Aren't we blessed? We just looked at the things of God. Just stand with me and I'm just gonna dismiss this in prayer.