Bless you, my friend. Good morning. It's a real joy for me to be
here. And an honor as well. Bruce was
talking about The first time we met, I think,
I don't know, 78, 79, 80, somewhere, a long time ago. I had hair back
then, and so did he. It's been a while. But the Lord hadn't saved one
of us back then. We were lost in religion. And
I hadn't seen Bruce since that day, back in the late 70s or
80s, until I saw him yesterday, better than 40 years ago. But
I'm amazed at what God does. You couldn't Hollywood script
this. How God can take two guys lost
in religion, save them both, and then reunite 40 to 50 years
later. Only God can do that. You couldn't
Hollywood script this. I need your prayers this morning.
I'm tired in body, but the Lord is our strength. Amen. He's our strength. Romans chapter
10. I had Bruce to read my text this
morning. I want to reread it to you. Romans chapter 10. I always tell people, I was talking
to somebody this morning and I told them my name and they
said, what? I am Greek, half, I'm half My
father was born in Sparta, Greece, so I'm half Greek and I'm half
Irish. My mother's from Metcalfe County,
Kentucky. So I don't know if you've ever
heard of a Greek hillbilly, but I am that. I'm that. It's quite the combination. I'm
known as Billy R. There was a man who hung that
nickname on me years ago, and it stuck. I told somebody back
there a few minutes ago, I said, most people call me Bilyar. He
said, well, I remember that. I said, I've been called a lot
of things, but Bilyar is sufficient. I need your prayers. Romans chapter
10, I want to read the first three verses and try to preach
to you a little bit. 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. What does Paul mean when he says
that? Well, the next verse says, 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. Let's pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name. We thank you, Father, for who
you are. where you're at and how you got
there. We come before you this morning,
Lord. We ask you, Lord, that you meet with us for nothing
of any eternal value will ever be done unless you meet with
us. Lord, just give me the words
to say the wisdom I need to preach this message. Give me liberty,
Lord, don't leave me to myself. For without you, I can do nothing.
Have your way now. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. You know, it's a sad thing to be ignorant. It's a sad thing not to know
what, or I should say who, the righteousness of God is. Now, Paul's brethren, the Jews,
he said they had a zeal of God. They were very religious. They were eye-dotters and tea-crossers. They tithed. They were missionary-minded. They worshiped the feast days.
They did the sacrifices. And they made up a lot of their
own rules. I mean, they were religious.
I mean, I've often said the Pharisees would have made good Baptists.
The Pharisees were the fundamentalists of their day. They strictly believed the law.
But they were ignorant of who the law was talking about. They
were ignorant of what the prophets were talking about. It's a sad
thing to be ignorant. I want to preach to you for a
few minutes on three things the religious world is ignorant of. Three things the religious world
is ignorant of. Now, when I say religious, What
I mean by religious is a show. What I mean by religious is they
have some rules, they have some regulations, they have some doctrines
and they worship their tradition. Religion today is nothing but
entertainment. We pay somebody to sing for us.
We pay somebody to preach for us. We pay somebody to keep us
entertained. Every church, every time you
drive down the road, you talk about, you see churches about
we're doing this to keep our young people interested. We're
doing this to bring our young people into the church. And the
church has wound up being babysitters. But I've said this and I still
say it. The same gospel that saves a
man in his 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s is the same gospel that saves
a teenager. It's the same gospel that saves
a man in his 20s. And that's so. If you know the
Lord Jesus Christ, if you know what the righteousness of God
is, You won't want anything else. It'll sustain you. It'll keep
you. And it'll keep you interested.
Three things the religious world is ignorant of. And this is the
reason why they play church. This is the reason why the churches
have been turned into praise teams and praise worshipers and
all this stuff. And you can't tell the world
from the church. The church has invited the world
inside, and you can't tell the difference. But when you come
to know God, when you come face to face with Christ in the truth,
if that ever happens to you, it'll change you. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, what is it that they're ignorant
of? First and foremost, they are ignorant of this. They are
ignorant as to what happened in the Garden of Eden. They have
no idea what happened in the fall. Now there's this issue
that I want to talk to you about this morning is something that
you have to take sides on. Man was either utterly ruined
in the fall or he was injured. There is no midway ground. If
he was injured in the fall, like the modern gospel says, if he
was just injured in the fall, then he does have some righteousness
of his own. If he was just injured in the
fall, all we have to do is find that little spark of so-called
righteousness that he has. And if we can get the right preacher
and the right soul winner, to fan that little spark like it
is when you're trying to build a fire with kindling. If we can
just fan that little spark and make him a good proposition and
appeal to his understanding, we can fan that little spark
and that man can come to Christ on his own. That's what religion
believes about what happened in the fire. Now, I'll tell you
this, what you believe about what happened in the fall determines
the gospel that you preach. If you believe that man was just
injured in the fall and can come to God on his own, what you'll tell him is simply
this, just come and accept Jesus as your personal savior. You're
fixed up for heaven. We don't care what else you do.
If you ever need him, just call on him. More people have went
to hell from a church view hearing that kind of preaching and believing
that kind of preaching than you can shake a stick at. But man
wasn't injured in the fall. He was utterly ruined. Utterly ruined. God created Adam
perfect. I mean perfect. He was made in
the likeness of God. He was created perfect. What
I mean by that is there was no sin in Adam. Nothing. There was no sin in Adam. He
was in a place of perfection. And God told him one thing. Just
one. He said, Adam, you can eat of
every tree that's in this garden, but this one, the tree in the
midst, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely, what do you say? Die. Not cripple. Not injure. but die. Adam willfully, with his eyes
wide open, transgressed God's law. Willfully. For Romans 5.12 says, for by
one man, one man, Adam, for by one man, sin entered into the
world and death by sin and death passed upon all men because,
A-double-L, all have sinned. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 22, in Adam all die. Not in Adam all are injured,
but in Adam all die, die spiritually. What happened to Adam in the
fall? When he took of that forbidden
fruit, the fellowship he had with God was gone. Communion
was gone. His eyes were opened, and he
saw that he was naked. He never saw he was naked before.
He was never naked before. But now he knows what guilt is.
Now he knows what sin is. Now he knows that God is holy,
and he hides himself among the trees. And he knows he's got
to have some kind of covering to cover his nakedness. So you
know what he does? He gets a bunch of fig leaves
and sews them together to cover his guilt, to cover his nakedness. And mankind's been doing that
ever since. Separated from God. Depraved. Adam once said before the fall,
he loved Eve. He said she is the mother of
all living. But as soon as he ate of that forbidden fruit,
he didn't think too much ever then. When the Lord said, Have
you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? You know what
Adam said? The woman that you gave me, she gave it to me. If it hadn't been for her, I
wouldn't have eaten it. And if you hadn't given her to me in
the first place, none of this would have ever took place. Man has been blaming somebody
else for his sin ever since. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. died spiritually. 1 Corinthians
2.14 says, For the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. The old timers called this the
depravity. What depravity means is simply
this. He can't understand spiritual
things. He's dead in trespasses and sins.
Oh, he's still got a mind to think with, reason with. He still has ears of where he
can hear sounds. He can still see. He can still
taste. He can still talk, walk. He has
a mind to take care of the business affairs that he has in this world. He can do everything fleshly. But when it comes to spiritual
truth, He knows nothing. He knows nothing. Why is that,
preacher? What happened in the fall? When Adam sinned, he plunged
his entire posterity into death. Now, physically, he didn't die
about seven, eight hundred years later, but boy, spiritually,
the very minute he ate of that fruit, It separated him from
God. Man is depraved. This is shown at birth. In Psalm
51, verse 5, David said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me. That's right. Psalm 58, 3, the wicked are estranged
where? From the womb, they go astray
as soon as they be born. Speaking lies. You don't have
to teach a child how to lie. They know how. They know how. Oh yeah. Why do they know how? It's in here. It's that nature. It's that nature. Not only are they, depraved at
birth, but they have a wicked, depraved heart. Jeremiah 17, 9, it says, for
the heart is deceitful above all things. Did you get a hold of that? Deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. And the last line says,
who can know it? The heart is the harbor where
all evil flows from. Jesus told the Pharisees, Mark
7, verse 19, it's not that which goeth in to a man's mouth that
defiles it. It's what comes down. From within
and out of the heart proceedeth evil things, adultery, fornication,
uncleanliness, lasciviousness, pride, foolishness. All these
evil things come from where? Within. And they defile the man. Man's in bad shape. He's ruined in the fall. He goes astray from the womb
as soon as he's born. He was born in sin. And if that's
not enough, in Romans 8 and verse 7, it says, the carnal mind is
enmity against God. That word enmity means hostility. The carnal mind is hostility. Why is that? It's not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can be, so then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You can't do it. Regardless of education, regardless
of background, Regardless of who your mother is or who your
daddy is or who your uncle is, they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. I mean, this is a sad condition,
Madden says. He's ruined in the fall. He goes
astray as soon as he'd be born, speaking lies. His heart's deceitful
above everything, and it's desperately wicked. His mind is utter hostility
against God. Then to top it all off, Christ
said to the Pharisees, to the religious people, ye will not
come to me that you might have life. You won't do it. You won't
do it. One of the common objections
that people make Concerning the depravity of man, they say, Preacher,
I shouldn't have to go to hell because of Adam's sin. Don't
worry. You owe. You were there. You say, now explain that, Preacher.
No. Can't do it. So says the scripture. You say,
I don't think that that's fair. Let me ask you a question. What
can you do about it? Just because you don't think
it's fair, does that change anything? What can you do about it? Two things. You need to run from
it or bow to it. Now that's it. You say, well,
now our church don't teach that. Our preacher don't preach that. Well, I would only say to you
one thing. You need to change churches. Now, that's so. That's so. We're talking about the souls
of men here. We're talking about eternal life
or eternal death here. And there's nothing to play around
with. Nothing to play around with.
Man was utterly ruined in the fall. Save himself, the scripture
says in Ephesians 2 verse 1, and you have to be quickened
who were dead, d-e-a-d, dead, in trespasses and in sins. A dead man can't do nothing.
A dead man can't hear. A dead man can't speak. A dead
man can't respond. A dead man can't feel. He can't
think. He can't perceive anything, anything. Something's got to take place. Something supernatural has got
to take place to awaken a dead man. I can't do it. You can't do it. Only God can. Only God can. You see, man is helpless and he's hopeless,
and Jeremiah 13, 23 says, can the Ethiopian change his skin?
Can't. Can the leopard change his spots?
Can't do it. Then may ye do good who are accustomed
to evil. You can sing in the choir. You
can teach Sunday school. You can preach. You can be the
doorkeeper. You can be the janitor. You can
do everything possible religious that you can do. And it won't
save you. It won't change you. I want to give you three things
here real quick. Why a man can't save himself. God demands perfection, not only
outwardly, but inwardly. That's right. Galatians 3, cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all the things written therein. You can pretty yourself up as
best as you can on the outside, but it won't change the inside.
God demands perfection not only in outward works, but He demands
perfection inside. He demands perfection in motive.
He demands perfection in your thoughts. Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength,
and all your might. And the second is likened to
this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Let me ask you something. How
are you doing with that? How you doing with that? That'll
slay everybody. God demands perfection, and I
can't keep it. You say, it ain't fair. God demands
perfection, and I can't keep it. It's not fair. I can't keep
it. That's the whole point. You can't do it. You can't do it. Then God demands
faith. Hebrews 11, 6, without faith,
it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. God demands faith. No salvation
apart from faith in Christ. And you don't have it. Where
are you going to get it? Can't buy it at Winn-Dixie. Can't
buy it at the hardware store. Can't get it from Amazon.com.
Where are you going to get it? God's going to have to give it
to you. That's right. You don't have any faith. Romans
10, 17 says faith comes by what? Adhering by the Word of God. See how lost man is. He's ruined
in the fall. His heart's deceitful. His mind's
utterly hostile. He won't come to Christ. God
demands perfection from him and his holy law. He can't produce
it. God demands faith and he don't
have it. And then you come to this realization. God can either save you or he
can send you to hell at his pleasure. Now, boy, that's
where the rubber really begins to rub. God can do what He will
with you. I hear these preachers all the
time saying, what are you going to do with Jesus? How ignorant
they are. It's not what you're going to
do with Jesus. What's He going to do with you? What's He going
to do with you? You're in His hands. He's the
sovereign of the universe. He holds the very breath of life.
He holds it in his hands, and all he has to do is remove his
hand from you, and you're gone. Sure as God's on the throne. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion, and whom I will be heartless. religious
world is ignorant of what happened in the fall. And secondly, and
I got to go ahead, they're ignorant of what happened on the cross.
Most people, when you ask them what happened on the cross, your
standard response is, well, Jesus Christ died for the sins of the
whole world. That's everybody's standard response. You can ask him, well, why did
he die? Well, he died because he loved
us. And that basically is true. And that's all the religious
world knows about what happened at Calvary. Nothing else. That's
all they know. Christ died for everybody and
God loved us. Christ died to keep us out of
hell. Well, the scriptures don't say that. No. Romans 14.9 says, for to this
end, Christ both died, rose, and revived that he might be,
keep people out of hell, that he might be Lord of the dead
and the living. He's sitting on a throne. That's
right. When Christ went to Calvary, he died for the sins of his people,
God's people. Ephesians 1, 4, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be what? Holy and without blame before
him in love. He died to make people holy.
Can you imagine that? He died to make me holy. Me, an ungodly, wretched, no
good, no account human being. He died to make me, of all people,
holy. That's what he did. Oh, what mercy. Oh, what grace. You say, Preacher, I just don't
believe that. I believe that Christ died for
everybody. His blood was shed for everybody.
Let me ask you a question. Is the God you serve a failure? Does he ever fail at anything? What you're saying, if Christ
died for all the sins of all men, you're saying that the blood
of Christ wasn't effectual. What you're saying is that the
blood of Christ just doesn't work. Let me tell you something, folks.
God never does anything that fails. John chapter 17 and verse,
I think it's 20. Here's what Jesus said, I pray
not for the world, but for them that thou hast given
me. Why would he even die for a people
that he wouldn't even pray for? Makes no sense. He died for a
people. He died for a people. I've heard people say, well,
you have to accept it. You've got to believe it. You've
got to accept that fact. Accept what fact? We're not talking
about believing the Jesus of history. We're not talking about
believing verses of Scripture that you either have to accept
or reject. We're not talking about that.
We're talking about knowing a person, not a fact. Because that's what
salvation is. This is, John 17, 3, this is
life eternal. What is it that men might be
Baptist? Nope. That men might accept facts of
the scripture? Nope. What is life eternal that
men might know Thee, the only true God? And Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent, that's what salvation is, is knowing God. Do you know him? Do you know
him? Christ died. You say, Preacher, man goes to hell for unbelief.
I'm here to tell you Christ died for my unbelief. It's unbelief of sin? You better
believe it. It's the granddaddy of all of
them. Now, for Christ to die for all
the sins of all men, which would mean he died for their unbelief,
and then turn around and send a man to hell for unbelief, that's
paying for the same sin twice. That'd make God a monster. But he's not a monster. Oh, what wondrous love. What
wondrous mercy. He died for a people. He didn't
die. I mean, he didn't die for what
they would do. He didn't die because of foreseen
faith. He didn't die because there was
anything good in you. You know what? God did it. I
don't know. I wish I could plumb the depths of death. He set his
love on you. He set his love on me. It's like
Romans 10, 11. For the children not yet being
born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, the elder shall serve
the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. Oh, how could God love Jacob? He is crooked as a dog's hind
leg. Why? He wouldn't do to swap horses
with Jacob. I can tell you that. He'd crook
you in a minute. But God's love is not based on
works. It's based on His pleasure. It
pleased God. To make you His people. He loved
me. He loved me. Christ is a successful Redeemer. Acts 13, 48. Scripture says this,
when the Gentiles heard this, they glorified God. And as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. Now that's it. Salvations of the Lord. I'm going
to go ahead. What happened? What are the three
things the religious world is ignorant of? They're ignorant
of what happened in the fall. They're ignorant of what happened
on the cross. The greatest mystery of the gospel,
and I have to say this before I go to the last point, the greatest
mystery of the gospel is this, how God can be just and justify
lost sinners. God's law must be honored. God is not thrown away as law.
You say, Preacher, we ain't under the law. Well, you're not if
you're a believer. But if you're not a believer,
you're under the curse of the law as sure as your foot high.
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all the sayings written
therein. But Christ Jesus the Lord went to Calvary and he shed
his blood. He did for me what I could not
do. He satisfied God's holy law. down to every jot and tittle,
and God now, because of His Son, can be just and justify every
man that believes on His Son. That takes you out of the equation.
That just takes you out. You say, well, what about me?
What can I do? I just told you. That takes you
out of the equation altogether. I didn't do this and I can't
mess this up. Anything I ever did, I've made
a mess up. But anything God does is perfect. I mean, absolutely perfect. Now, I'm justified when God sees
me as far as my Standing is with Him. He's the blood of the Lamb. And I'm holy in His sight. Oh,
I don't understand that. I don't understand 1 Corinthians
1.30, but of Him are you made in Christ Jesus, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. I don't understand any of it.
I just know it so. It is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And then last but not least,
The religious world is ignorant of what happens in the new birth. The greatest illustration ever
given to a religious man while Jesus was here in the days of
his blessed is found in John chapter three. Nicodemus, a ruler
of the Jews, Pharisee, teacher, he had sense enough to know That
the Lord Jesus couldn't do the things he did except God be with
him. That's all he knew. And the Lord
wouldn't even respond to that statement. He just said, Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It's a birth. It's not a decision. It's a birth. You hear what I'm
saying? It's a birth. John 1 12, But
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not which decided, but which were born, not of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but of God. It's a birth. A new nature. Christ in you. Nicodemus couldn't understand
it. He said, how can this be? How can a man enter into his
mother's womb the second time and be born? And Jesus said,
Nicodemus, are you not a master of Israel? And you don't know
anything about this? He said, Nicodemus, except a
man be born of the water and of the spirit, the water being
the word of God and the spirit being the Holy Ghost, can't enter
the kingdom of God. And Jesus described it this way. John 3. The wind bloweth where
it listens. Thou heareth the sound thereof. But canst not tell whence it
cometh, or whether it goeth. So is every one, every one, that is born of the
Spirit. Salvation is a revelation. It's a revelation. Matthew 16,
Jesus said to his disciples, who do men say that I am? Some
of them say you're John the Baptist, risen from the dead. Some of
them say you're Elias. Some of them say that you're
Jeremiah. Some of them say that you're
another prophet. Jesus said, who do you say that
I am? Peter said, thou art. The Christ. The son of the living
God. And here's what Jesus' response
to that was. Blessed. Blessed art thou. Simon Barjot. We could say this, Bruce. Blessed
art thou, Bruce Crabtree, for flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. Flesh and blood didn't what?
Reveal this to you, but my Father, which
is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou
art Peter. Hold on to your seat here. That thou art, Peter, and upon
this rock. What rock? Peter? No, the Lord's never built anything
on the creature's foundation. What's the rock? Upon this rock,
the rock of revelation. Upon this rock, Jesus said, I
will build mine. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. The new birth is a revelation.
It's like the wind. It's like the wind. The saddest thing I know, let
me say this in closing. The saddest thing I know is for
a man, woman, boy or girl to go to hell from a church piece. Thousands have done it. Thousands
still are doing it. You better be sure about this.
It won't do to make light of what you've heard. Do you know
Him? Do you know Him? That's the question. Do you know Him? Let's pray.
Our Father, we thank You, Lord. For your
goodness and mercy to. Lord, I pray that. You'd use
the message for you. But you might be pleased. Open
hearts. Have your way now, father. Deal
with man as it pleases thee. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together and I'll
ask the young lady to come back to the piano. Let's sing Amazing
Grace. How about that? Then we'll be dismissed. I don't know what number it is
in the song, but... 236. Let's stand to our feet. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, But now
I'm found of slime, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart
to fear? At grace my fear relieved. How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed. Last verse. when we've been there
ten thousand years bright shining as the sun with no less days
to sing God's praise than when We've first begun. Amen. You are dismissed. May
God bless you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.