Let's turn our Bibles back to
Romans chapter 9. I titled the message this morning,
Three Conclusions from Sovereign Grace. You know, Paul's theme
for the whole book of Romans is justification by faith. Justification
by faith in Christ, without any of our works being added to it.
He's taught us so plainly from God's Word that sinners are made
righteous by the obedience of Christ to the law for them, not
by our own obedience. And now Paul stops for a moment
to take account of everything that he said so far. He says,
now, what should we say? These things have been said,
let's stop and think about this. He said, what should we say to
all these truths that the spirits taught us throughout this epistle?
Specifically, what should we say to these great truths that
we've seen here revealed to us in chapter nine of Romans? I
mean, this is the chapter 9 of Romans is a great, great, great
chapter. We spent some weeks on it. Let
me remind you just a little bit of what we've seen here in chapter
9. Paul showed us no one is part of spiritual Israel because they're
related to Abraham. Well, how does that apply to
you and me? Okay, I see that. How does that apply to you and
me? Well, no one can be saved. No one can know Christ. No one
can be part of the body of Christ because we're related to believers,
our parents, our husband, our wife, our friends. Salvation's
got to be by the sovereign choice of God. And the example we saw
of that is how God chose Jacob and he passed by Esau. Then Paul
asked, he knows what the natural man's gonna ask, well, is God
unrighteous to do that? Is God unrighteous to have mercy
on some and to pass others by? God forbid that we think that.
God is sovereign. He's sovereign in all things.
And what God does is right. He always does His will. And
whatever the will of the holy God is, must be right. And nobody can argue against
it. The example He gave us is how long suffering God was with
Pharaoh. When He finally destroyed Pharaoh,
nobody could say God was unfair, could they? Paul knew some will say this,
well, how can God find fault with me? If everything I do fulfills
God's will, even like fair, even my rebellion, if my rebellion
fulfills God's will, how can God find fault with me? God made
me this way. How can God find fault with me?
Remember Paul's answer? Who do you think you are? to
question God. Who do you think you are that
you think you have some ability to be able to understand what
the Almighty is doing? Then he tells us that God's going
to get glory to himself by both the vessels of wrath and the
vessels of mercy. Both ways, God will get glory
to himself. He'll get glory in his sovereign
mercy to his people. And he'll get glory in giving
justice to those vessels of wrath. Then Paul told us that God is
going to get glory to himself by saving the worst of sinners,
the worst sinners, even the Gentiles. Now this was a shock to the,
to the Jew. God's going to show mercy, even to the Gentile, not,
not good people. No, the worst, the worst, the
Gentiles, those idolaters and heathens, that's who God's going
to show mercy to, the worst sinners. Every one of God's sages is going
to say with the apostle Paul, God, this is a faithful saying.
It's worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to believe this
and accept this. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Everybody wants to tell Paul,
Paul, one worse has come along. You better move over. God saves
the worst of sinners. And then we looked at this last
week. How are sinners made righteous? Well, it's not mainly they do.
It's by the work of the father, the work of the son, and the
work of the Holy Spirit for them. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of God's will, of God's grace, of God's doing, of God's purpose
for his people. And he shall not fail. Every
one of them will be saved. Now, what should we say? What should we say then? Paul
gives us here three conclusions to God's sovereign saving grace. The first one is this. The worst
of sinners. are saved by grace. The worst
of sinners are saved through faith in Christ. Verse 30 of
Romans 9. What should we say then? That
the Gentiles, which follow not after righteousness, have attained
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. Now the Gentiles
are the worst of sinners. They weren't following after
righteousness at all, were they? They weren't trying to be righteous.
They weren't seeking God in the least. They were worshiping idols
and happy to do it. These are the ones, these Gentiles,
these heathens, these are the ones that the apostles said they
see something of God that they know God is. That's why they're
worshiping an idol. They know God is, they just don't
know what he's like. They know something about God,
that he exists through the light of nature. But instead of seeking
God, instead of using the life that God has given them to seek
God, you know what they do? They turn God into an idol. And
they don't make something magnificent, They make him out to be like
a creeping thing or an animal. It's the heathen. They're so
dead they're not seeking God. But these worst of sinners, they've
attained righteousness. They have been made righteous. How can that be? It can't be
by their words, can it? They're not seeking after righteousness.
They're not worshiping God. They're worshiping an idol. They're
not trusting the sacrifice of God's son. They're killing their
own babies, sacrificing their babies to an idol. How can they
be righteous? They couldn't keep the law, could
they? The Gentiles never even heard the law. Only Israel had
the law. How can somebody that doesn't
know what the law is and obey it, how can they be made righteous?
They're made righteous through faith in Christ. They're made
righteous through union with Christ, so His obedience to the
law is their obedience to the Lord. This word attain that Paul
uses here, it shows us it's by faith. The word means eagerly
seized. These worst of sinners, they
eagerly, gladly seized upon, grabbed hold of and would not
let go the obedience of Christ to be their only obedience before
God. They eagerly seized it and would
not let it go. Just like a drowning man, he
eagerly seizes upon that life preserver. He's not going to
let it go. These worst of sinners believed God. God made them righteous
by giving them the obedience of Christ to be their righteousness. So the obedience of Christ is
their personal righteousness before God. And the gospel declares
that righteousness. Look back at Romans chapter one.
It's the gospel of God that declares that righteousness, that the
righteousness of Christ is given to sinners through faith, through
faith in Christ. Chapter one, verse 16. Paul says,
for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first. also to the Greek, also to that
heathen Gentile. For therein, in that gospel of
Christ, therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it's written, the just shall
live by faith. Paul says the righteousness of
God is revealed in the gospel through the preaching of the
gospel. What does that mean, the righteousness of God? We're
not only talking about the righteous character of God being revealed
in the gospel, Although it is, but this is what he primarily
means. The gospel reveals Christ, how Christ is the righteousness
of his people. And that righteousness is received
through faith in Christ. Look over at chapter three, verse 21. This is what the gospel
reveals. But now the righteousness of
God without the law. without your obedience to the
law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. Well, there's no difference
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation, a
sin covering through faith in his blood. to declare his righteousness,
not our righteousness, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. See, this whole matter
is received by believing Christ, through faith in Christ. And
everyone, everyone who believes Christ is just. Everyone who
believes Christ is made righteous, made the very righteousness of
God, even the worst of sinners. Actually, I shouldn't say even,
should I? I should say only, only the worst of sinners. They're
made righteous because Christ was faithful to do everything
that was necessary to make them righteous, to save their souls.
He did it all. He obeyed the law for them. And
then he suffered and died to put their sin away. And what
Christ did, His people did in Him. That's faith. What Christ
did, His people did in Him. That's how we're made righteous.
Now listen to me. I don't care who you are. People
say, oh, you don't know what I've done. Somebody did that
to me one time. I said, stop right there. Don't tell me. Don't tell me. It doesn't matter. Really. Let it go. Paul said, forgetting those things
which are behind. Let them go. It don't matter.
Look to Christ. That's all. I don't care what
your background is. I don't care what your present circumstance
is. It doesn't matter what sort of sin you've lived in in the
past or even this very second. I promise you it's worse than
what we think. Just believe. The moment you believe Christ,
you're made whole. You're made righteous before
God. So you don't stand before God in the lack of your own obedience. You stand before God perfect
in Christ, His obedience given to you. It's no wonder the worst
of sinners gladly seizes hold of this, isn't it? Eagerly seizes
hold. What a wonderful gift of God's grace. He would make his
people righteous through the obedience of his son. Paul says
they found this righteousness and they eagerly seized upon
it. I'd like that to be mine, wouldn't you? Well, how'd they
find it? Maybe I can find it the same
way. Well, there's a couple of ways they found it. First, they
found it through the gospel, through the gospel preach. This
is the gospel that Paul talked about in Romans chapter one. You wonder why we put so much
emphasis on the preaching of the gospel Sundays and Wednesdays,
the importance of preaching the gospel. We have classes for our
children every Sunday. Every year in the summer, we
have Bible school for the children. We take time to teach the gospel
to them. We take time to preach the gospel
here. Dan takes time to put it out
there on sermon audio. He takes time to send messages
off to the radio, put on the radio. Why so much importance
on his preaching the gospel? Because brethren, this is the
only way God saves sinners. The only way God gives life to
his people. The only way God gives faith
to his people. is through the preaching of the gospel. The
way these worst of sinners found righteousness is because it's
revealed in the gospel. Because Christ our righteousness
is revealed in the gospel when we preach. This is the gospel
of Christ. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing the gospel
of Christ who reveals Christ our righteousness. So they found
this righteousness through the preaching of the gospel. But
second, tell you how they found this righteousness. They found
this righteousness when they found God. More accurately put,
they found this righteousness when God found them. Look back
at Isaiah chapter 65. This is the passage that the
apostle Paul is quoted from. Here, Isaiah chapter 65. These worst of sinners, these
ones so far from God, aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel,
strangers to the covenants of promise, they found this righteousness
when God found them. Isaiah 65 verse one. I am sought
of them that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not
called by my name. Now here's a sinful people who
were not calling on God. But God came to them and He called
them. And when He called, they started
calling on God. When He called, they found Him. These are sinful people. They're
not looking for God, but God found them. And He appeared to
them and they found God. You know why? Because in the
gospel, He says, behold me. And they said, I found Him. I
found Him. Well, who found who? God found
them. But when he did, they found God
and they found righteousness. They found life. They found salvation. God said, look, look and live. And they looked and lived. And
now they see, they see how God makes sinners righteous. It's
not by me keeping the law. It's not by me being better than
anybody else. Now they see how God makes his people righteous.
I'm even though when I look at me, I don't see it whatsoever. All I see about me is sin. I
don't see it. Any righteousness anywhere in me, but I know anger
because God said so. He made his people righteous
in Christ. They see now they see how God
saves sinners. And here's the real issue. This
is what they see. How God can save a sinner like me and still
be gone. Still be righteous, still be
holy, and still be just. It's by making me righteous in
Christ, by giving me faith in Christ. Look at Ephesians chapter
2. This is what happens when we
find righteousness, when we find Christ our righteousness. And
this is who Paul is speaking to, these Gentiles, these worst
of the worst. in verse 11 of Ephesians chapter
2. Wherefore, remember that ye being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised
by that which is called the circumcision of the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you are without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.
You had no hope and you're without God in the world. That's how
you were when God found you, wasn't you? I don't care who
you are, Jew or Gentile, religious or heathen. That's how you were
when God found you. but verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. You see, when we see Christ,
we find out, I was lost all along. How did I get lost? How did I
get myself in this mess? Well, it was in Adam. I sinned
in Adam. I did what Adam did. I was made
lost. I was made unrighteous by the
disobedience of one representative man in Adam. And it wasn't just
his guilt, and Brother Clay told us this so well, Winston, just
not that Adam's guilt was, you know, pushed upon me. No, I sinned
in Adam. And that one representative man,
I sinned. I disobeyed God. I took that
fruit. I willingly ate it and said,
I'll be like God. That's how I became lawless.
That's how I became unrighteous. Well, if I ever see Christ, this
is what I'm going to know. The only way I can be found and
made righteous is in the obedience of the second Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ, so that when Christ obeyed the law, I didn't do it.
And sinners, they find this righteousness, they find it in the gospel. They
find it when God finds them. And they receive this righteousness
through faith in Christ. Now, what is faith in Christ?
And we talk about faith a lot. I'm afraid we make it far more
mysterious than it really is. What is faith in Christ? Well,
faith in Christ is believing Him. Believe in Him. If I believe,
how can I tell? Do I really believe Christ? How can I tell if I believe Christ?
Well, if I really believe Him, then I know He's all I need.
If I really believe Him, I'm not looking for anything else
to make me more saved or make me more acceptable to God. If
I believe Christ, I believe Christ is all I need to be saved. Christ
doesn't just give me righteousness. I need Christ. Christ is my righteousness. Christ doesn't just give me redemption.
He doesn't give me just a sheet of paper. He says, here, you're
redeemed. The price of the pawn shop's been paid. Christ is my
redemption. Christ doesn't just give me sanctification. No, He is my holiness. Christ
doesn't just give me wisdom. Now I know something more than
somebody else does, and that's why I'm saved. No, Christ is
my wisdom. He is my wisdom. Faith is just
believing Christ. So I really believe He's all
I need. I'm not looking for anything
else. Faith is resting in Christ. If I really believe Christ, I'll
rest it. I'll just put all the weight
of my salvation upon Him because I believe Him. I don't have to
add one thing to Him. I don't have to help Him in any
way. I just rest it all on Him. And
faith is this. Saving faith is looking to Christ
alone. Saving faith is not looking to
Christ plus my testimony. plus my good Christian life,
plus my baptism, plus my morality, plus all my doctrinal knowledge,
you know, that I got to have. Now, saving faith is just this. It's looking to Christ alone.
And the best example I can think of is the children of Israel. When they were bitten by those
fiery serpents in the wilderness, God told Moses, make a brazen
serpent, just like those, just like those serpents that bit
them, but make it out of brass. Stick it on a pole and lift it
up. And you tell everyone that's bitten, look, look. Now, you notice he didn't say,
see, did he? He said, look. Somebody here
this morning is blind. Spiritually blind in a group
this big. I just it's just so somebody here spiritually blind.
If that's you, I'm not telling you, see, I'm not saying look
here and see and then believe. No, I'm telling you. Even though
you're blind, look. You look, you'll see. Looking
to Christ is looking to Christ alone. But I can't see. I don't
matter. Some of those children of Israel
were bitten. They were so far away they couldn't see what Moses
had lifted up there. Maybe those that venom had gone
through their bodies had swollen their eyes shut and they couldn't
see. But Moses didn't tell them to
see. He said, look. And they looked. And you know
what? Why'd they look? If they couldn't
see why they looked, they believed what God said. And that's what
I'm telling you and me. Just look to Christ. Now, don't
look to Christ and your wife and your husband and your parents
and your friends. Don't look at them and say, well,
they're looking to Christ. No. Look to Christ alone. Don't look to Christ plus your
faith. Don't look to Christ plus these
other things you're doing. Look to Christ alone because
He's all you need. Because He's everything it takes
to make you whole. Look to Him because He is life. Look to Him because you believe
God. Because God said, look and live.
Then I'm looking. That is saving faith. Saving
faith is to trust Christ to be all my salvation. Really, just
exactly like God the Father trusted Him. Let me show you that in
Ephesians chapter 2. From eternity, the Father trusted
Christ to be all the salvation of His people. Everyone God saves
has the exact same faith as the Father did. Ephesians chapter
1 verse 12. That we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Now there's God the
Father. He's the one who first trusted
in Christ. We've been talking recently in
the Psalms about Christ saying He paid His vow to His Father.
One eternity when only the Father, Son, Holy Spirit existed. The
Father and the Son entered into a covenant. And the Father chose
the people. He gave them to His Son. And
His Son made a vow to His Father. I'll pay their debt. I'll come
as a man And I'll redeem them. I'll do everything it takes to
redeem them, and I'll make them righteous. I'll bring them all
to glory. So one day, I'm going to tell
you, Father, here they all are. I and the children you've given
me. And the Father believed Him. He always saw His people as perfect
in Christ. That's the Father. He believed
Christ. Now, that's the Father. Here's the elect, verse 13, in
whom you also trust. When did you trust in Christ?
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
his glory." See, there's the elect. They believe Christ. And that's the faith that gives
a sinner righteousness before God. We receive that righteousness
through faith in Christ. So that's the first conclusion
we draw from sovereign saving faith. The worst of sinners are
saved through faith in Christ. But now here's our second conclusion.
The best of men cannot be saved by their works of the law. Back
in our text, Romans 9 verse 31. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore? because they sought it not by
faith, but they sought it, as it were, by the works of the
law, and they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now, the Jews
were so religious. I mean, we can't understand how
religious this nation was. Their whole life was about religion. Their whole daily life was about
religion. Their society ran upon it. Their
leaders were not, you know, They were not elected officials. They
were not diplomats and these kinds of things. Their rulers
were religious rulers. And they thought about religion
constantly. Everything they did in their
daily life was part of their religion. You know, we got to,
you know, obey what God said in this manner and this manner,
how we conduct ourselves and we're doing business and in the
home and walking down the streets. Everything was about making God
happy with them, obeying God's law, everything. They were trying
to earn a righteousness before God by what they did. But this
is what Scripture tells us. They failed. They failed to do
it. The word attained that Paul uses
here about Israel is not the same word attained he used about
the Gentiles who eagerly seized upon Christ. This word attained
means to arrive at. All their religious activity,
and let me tell you, they were sincere about it. I mean, they
were serious about this matter. But all their religious activity
did not allow them to arrive at righteousness. They were still
as unrighteous as those Gentiles, the worst of sinners. Well, how can somebody fail to
arrive at righteousness if All you're doing is trying to get
righteousness. If you're trying to do everything right, how did
you how do you not arrive? I mean, you think eventually
you'll arrive. Because everything we do in these
bodies is sinful, that's why. If you go the wrong way, you're
never going to arrive at your destination. And that's what
these bodies, this body of sin always takes us the wrong way.
The only way a sinner can be righteous is in Christ. The only
way we can receive that righteousness is through faith in Christ, by
being joined to Him by faith. But the Jews didn't want Christ.
They rejected Him, didn't they? He came into His own and His
own received Him not. So God left them, He gave them
what they wanted and left them on their own. And left to their
own attempts to arrive at righteousness, they didn't arrive. They fell
short of the glory of God. They fell short of righteousness
and they could not find righteousness no matter how hard they looked
for it, because they were looking in the wrong place. Let me give
you an example. Every time I come to service,
I always put my keys in my left pocket. Always. I guess that's
so I don't forget where they are, because I would do that.
I always put my keys in my left pocket. Well, for whatever reason,
I put them over here. And I'm getting ready to go.
I got to my car. I'm going to drive home. No matter how diligently
I look, no matter how sincere, no matter how I'm just positive
those keys are in my left pocket, because that's where they're
supposed to be. No matter how hard I look and think and look,
I'm never going to find them, ever. I'll never arrive back
home. They're not there. That's what
happened to those poor Jews. They were looking for righteousness.
Oh, they were diligent. Oh, they were sure this is the
way to arrive. But they never arrived because
it's not there. Righteousness is not found. You
can't arrive at righteousness through our obedience to the
law. Righteousness can only be found by faith. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. But with faith, it's impossible
not to please God because the father's pleased with his son.
That's how we're made righteous. Now, that's the Jews, and I always
want to be careful not to talk about somebody that's not here.
They're not here. Let's be sure we apply this lesson
to us today. Now, we're not Jews, but the
society we live in is pretty religious. It's not as religious
as theirs was, I grant you. But our side is pretty religious. And to this group of people,
again, let's not preach to somebody not here. Let's just talk to
us right here. To this group of people, religion and the gospel
and worship and seeking the Lord and these things, they're pretty
important, this group of people. I think I'm a pretty good judge
of that. I stand up here and look at y'all
every week. You're very faithful to attend the service. You try
to arrange your life, you know, around Sundays and Wednesdays
as much as you possibly can to be here to hear the word because
you need it. It's like Adam says, I got to
have it so I make it to Wednesday. I got to have it Wednesday so
I make it to Sunday. It's very important. Y'all support the
gospel. You're so generous and faithful.
And that's good. I'm glad you are glad I made
you that way. But let's be sure that we don't
confuse that with righteousness, that that's how we become righteous.
We can't be made righteous by all these good things we do surrounding
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. Any more than
the Jews could find righteousness doing all those good things about
God's law, couldn't they? But how can we then fail to attain
righteousness. This is going to be in somebody's
mind. How can we fail to attain righteousness? How can we fail
to earn God's favor if everything we preach is about Christ? How
can we fail to attain righteousness if everything I do or so much
of what I do, you know, is about helping the gospel, supporting
the gospel? And, you know, I can tell you why. Listen to me. It's not enough to talk about
Christ. It's not enough to believe some
things about Christ. We must believe Christ in order
to be made righteous. Christ must be our righteousness
that we receive him by faith or we don't have any. That's
the second conclusion to sovereign saving grace. The very best of
men and women cannot be made righteous by obeying the law.
All right, here's a third conclusion. Our eternal destiny, the eternal
destiny of every man, woman, boy and girl that has ever lived
depends entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 33, as it's
written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock
of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. They'll never be found guilty.
Now, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ is that stumbling stone
laid by the Father. Christ is that stone. He's the
rock. And those who do not believe
Him, they stumble over Him. Now, to the believer, Christ
is the rock. He's our foundation. Christ is
our place of safety, the rock in which we hide. Christ is the
rock, our salvation. But to those who do not believe
upon Him, those who are trying to be saved by their own words,
they stumbled at Christ. And you know why they stumbled
at Him? You don't stumble over something you see. You stumble
over something that you don't see. And they didn't see Christ
because they weren't looking for Him. And you know why they
weren't looking for Him? They thought they didn't need
Him. And when they did see Him, and somebody told Him, this is
the Lamb of God that takes us away from the sin of the world.
Surely this is the Messiah. They said, no, it can't be. It
can't be. Well, why not? They stumbled
at Him. They stumbled at his lowly family
tree. Nothing good's coming out of
the house of David anymore. They stumbled at his upbringing.
He's working in a carpenter shop. His hands are calloused from
working in that carpenter shop. He raised in Nazareth. Can any
good thing come out of Nazareth? They stumbled because he wasn't
a king. They were looking for a king to set him free from Rome.
Not for a king that set him free from the dominion of sin. They
stumbled at his followers. They're a bunch of uneducated
fishermen. And they stumbled at his cursed death. Somebody
died by crucifixion. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. That can't be the Savior. He's cursed of God. All
those people, they did not attain any righteousness of their own
because they stumbled at Christ, the righteous one. And they stumbled
and fell into condemnation. When they saw Christ, they were
offended by Him. They would not bow to this man.
I'll not have this man reign over me. They would never surrender
to this man. And Christ was offensive to him. But you know, the same thing
is true today. The gospel is offensive to the flesh. The gospel
of Christ offends man's pride because it shows us how sinful
we are. And all those works of the law
we're trying to use to attain righteousness, they're filthy
rags. And not just dirty rags now,
rags defiled by sin that must be thrown away, must be burned.
That offends man's pride. You mean the best I do is offensive
to God? That's exactly what the gospel says. The gospel of Christ
offends man's do-it-myself attitude by showing us we can't do it
ourselves. We're dependent upon God. The gospel of Christ offends
man's love of self by telling us we're not lovable. The gospel
of Christ offends our demand for our own rights. I got rights.
Not before God you don't. We don't have any rights before
God. We're in his hand to do with as he pleases. Now he may
have mercy. Then why don't you beg him for
it? Because I got my rights. You can go to hell with him too.
The gospel of Christ offends man's knowledge. By showing us,
I don't care how smart you are, how many degrees you got, how
many divinity degrees you got. You cannot figure out God. You
can't figure out God's gospel. You can't figure out how God
makes a sinner righteous. We're too ignorant. We can't
figure it out. It must be revealed. And it's
going to be revealed through the preaching of the gospel.
You're going to have to come to a place like this. You're
not going to get it at some divinity college where some smart fellow
with a bunch of degrees is talking about the scriptures. I tell
you, where you're going to hear about God, where God's going
to reveal His gospel to you, where He's going to reveal Christ
the Savior to you, is through just a humble man in a small
crowd preaching the gospel, preaching Christ. And that's offensive
to men. Christ is offensive. He's a stumbling block to all
flesh. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, to all
flesh, whether it's religious flesh or whether it's heathen
flesh. Christ is offensive. and to the flesh he's a stumbling
block. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom, by its wisdom, knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after
wisdom. See, Christ is offensive both
to the Jew and to the Greek, to the religious, to the heathen.
Christ is a stone of stumbling to the unbeliever, no matter
who they are. But he is the rock of ages to
everyone who believes, verse 23. But we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jew, he's a stumbling
block. Under the Greek, he's foolishness. But under them which
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. Christ is the rock. upon which
we build if we believe. And if we trust Him, we'll never
be ashamed. We'll never be found guilty before
God. If we trust Him, we'll never be blown over when the overflowing
scourge of God's wrath against sin comes. Christ is the rock
in which we hide. If we believe Him, we hide in
Him. So we'll never be ashamed. We're
always shielded by Christ, our substitute. Christ is the rock
upon which we stand. If God, by faith, has planted
our foot upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our foot shall not slide,
because He'll never slide. All of our faith is in Christ. It's on Christ, the solid rock,
I stand. All my hope is in Him. If Christ
fails, if Christ is not enough, I'm going to fail and I'm going
to be damned. Because I got no plan B. I'm
not looking anywhere else. That's faith. And this is what
God tells us. If our faith is in Christ like
that, we'll never be ashamed. We'll never be found guilty.
We'll never stand before God naked. We'll never stand before
God with anything to be ashamed of. Because Christ took all that
away. Put it away by his blood. So our eternal destiny depends
entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The only difference between
the saved and the lost, there's only one difference, it's Christ. The only difference between the
damned and the glorified, there's just one difference, it's Christ. One believes on Him, one doesn't.
One loves Him, one doesn't. One never saw their need of Him,
one doesn't need anything like they need Christ. May God be
pleased to bless His Word and cause us to need Christ. If you
need Him, you're going to find Him. You will. And when you find
Him, you're going to say, oh, God found me. Well, He did, and
that's why you found Him. And you're going to believe Him,
because God's going to give you faith in Him. If you need Him, you
need Him, and I'll pray to God to make it so. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for the glorious good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. your free,
sovereign, saving grace in you. Father, how we thank you that
you sent a Savior to put away the sin of your people. How thankful
we are that in Zion, in your church, you laid a rock, a foundation,
sure, precious, a precious cornerstone. Father, cause us to build upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, not on the sinking, shifting sand of
our own obedience, our own religious activity. But Father, cause us
to build upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us wisdom to seek
Him and seeking Him to find Him. Father, cause us to hide in Christ,
our buckler, our shield, the rock, the cleft of the rock in
which we hide. Set our foot upon Him. Oh God, give us faith. Give us
faith to believe that we'll leave here this morning looking to,
resting in, trusting in, enjoying in Christ alone. It's in his
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen.