As God will enable me, I want
to talk to you very plainly this morning about three things worse
than atheism. Three things worse than atheism. You might say, Pastor, what could
possibly be worse than atheism? Atheism is but the denial of
God's existence. Horrible as that is, These three
things are worse than atheism, for these three things would
make God to be nothing but an idol, an imaginary God, an imaginary
deity, one that men fall down to worship, who has no power
to save. Three things that are worse than
atheism. I stand before you either as
God's servant or the devil's. There's no in between ground.
I either speak for God or I speak for Satan. Can't possibly be
anything in between those two. I either represent God as God's
ambassador to your souls, or I represent Satan as his ambassador
to deceive your souls. Our master said, he that is not
with me is against me. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. In another place, the apostle
Paul says, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let
him be accursed. Now that's not my language. That's
the language of God in his word in Galatians chapter one and
verse eight. If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
forever damned. That's not mean, that's honest. That's not mean-spirited, that's
spoken with all the kindness of firm conviction. If any man
preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. If I do not preach
the gospel that Paul preached, a curse hangs over my head. That
puts me in a position of tremendous responsibility. The old prophets
referred to it as carrying and delivering the burden of the
word of the Lord. You see, I am set over you by
God's providence, and I trust by God's grace as a watchman,
a watchman for your souls, a watchman over your souls. It is my responsibility
to faithfully instruct eternity-bound sinners in the way of life and
salvation by Christ. As I hear the word at God's mouth,
if I am a watchman sin of God, I must speak that word to the
law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. I recognize that the things I'm
saying are naturally repulsive to men, and I recognize they're
naturally repulsive to religious people because we all want to
unite. We all want to get everybody
under the big umbrella, and we all want to think that everybody
knows God. The fact is Few in this world
know God. Few who call on his name walk
with him. Few who claim to be followers
of Christ worship the Christ of God. He that hath my word, God said,
let him speak it faithfully. so that those who are sent of
God to preach the gospel, those who are entrusted with the word
of God, those men who stand as I do in this place to speak to
eternity-bound men in the name of God, must proclaim God's word
faithfully. They must be faithful to the
word of God, the will of God, the glory of God, and to your
immortal souls, faithfully preaching Christ. I call on you who hear
me, as I have done many times in this place, to compare every
word I preach to this book, to this book. If what I say is according
to this book, believe it and bow to it. If what I say is not
according to this book, get up, walk out the door, and don't
ever hear this man preach again. And I say the same thing with
regard to every man who opens the Bible and claims to preach.
If he speaks according to the words of this book, hear him. Bow to the word and believe God. If he doesn't, don't hear him. He's a false prophet. I make
you this promise. That which I have preached to
you this hour is that which has been inscribed upon my heart
by the finger of God, experienced in my soul by the operation of
his grace, and proved by the faith that God has given me for
49 years. proved. It's not theory. It's
not opinion. It's not conjecture. It's not
Baptist doctrine, Catholic doctrine, Pentecostal doctrine, Presbyterian
doctrine, Arminian doctrine, or Calvinistic doctrine. It's
Bible doctrine. It is the very truth of God.
Will you who know God lift your hearts in prayer and ask God
to be pleased to bless his word to your heart and cause you to
rejoice in it? and ask God to give life and
faith to those here who do not know our God. That those who
are dead in trespasses and in sins may this very hour be born
of God. There are certain things about
the character of God. That all men and women who profess
to be Christians, all boys and girls who profess to be Christians
believe and stand for conservative and liberal, both the fundamentalist
and the folks who are not fundamentalist. All the profess to be Christians
profess to believe that God is spirit. God is spirit, eternal,
immutable, and independent. I don't know of a person in the
religious world, in what's called Christianity, I don't know of
a person in what's called the Christian world who would deny
that God is spirit, that God is infinite, eternal, immutable. All would say that God is holy,
wise, and good. They declared that God is omnipotent,
omniscient, and omnipresent. He has all power, He's everywhere
present, and He knows all things. All would declare that God is
just and true and faithful. And of course, everybody says
God is love. God is love, He's merciful, He's
gracious, He's long-suffering, He's forgiving. Those things
are indeed attributes of God. They are characteristics of God's
beings. Attributes of Him which are necessary
to Him. If He were not all of those things,
He would not be God. He who is God is indeed spirit,
infinite, and immutable. He who is God is indeed omniscient,
omnipotent, and omnipresent. He who is God is indeed holy,
wise, just, and good. He who is God is indeed love,
gracious, forgiving, kind, long-suffering, and forbearing. But there's another
attribute of God. which almost everybody in the
world who professes the name of God despises. And that is
God's glorious sovereignty. God's sovereignty. His absolute
sovereignty. God is sovereign. Our God is in the heavens, the
psalmist said, and he said it twice. he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased." God's sovereignty is simply the declaration that
he who truly is God is totally sovereign. The God of the Bible,
the one true and living God, the God we worship, love, and
trust is an absolute sovereign. He's in total control of all
things, all the time, everywhere, doing as he will in all places. The Lord God Almighty is that
one who is universally sovereign. Now I say this in the boldest
terms I can imagine. Anything less than an absolute
sovereign is no God at all. Anything less than an absolute
sovereign is no God at all, but a worthless, useless, helpless
idol. Anything less than an absolute
sovereign. I haven't had a rabbit's foot since I was a little boy,
but I know some folks who still carry them. Oh, I don't believe in that.
Why, you got it then. But you're a fool if you worship
a rabbit's foot. That's just a good luck charm.
That's just hocus pocus nonsense. That's just good enough for little
boys on playground wanting to get a good at bat. That's nonsense. That's nonsense. But anything
less than an absolute sovereign is nothing but a rabbit foot,
God. That's all. It's the idolatrous
figment of man's depraved imagination. And the God of this generation,
go to churches, any direction, any way you want to, across this
county, everywhere you go this morning, you'll find preachers
rubbing a rabbit's foot. That's all. Just a rabbit foot
God, nothing else. When I assert that God is sovereign,
I'm simply declaring that he is God. God Almighty has the
right and the power to do what he will, when he will, with whom
he will, as he will, and he always does. The God of this apostate
age, this generation of Antichrist Christianity is anything but
sovereign. Our God described the God they
worship like this. They pray unto a God who cannot
save. Modern religion sets aside God's
sovereignty to make room for the autonomy and sovereignty
of man. Today, men everywhere deny God's
sovereignty so that they may exalt the imaginary freedom of
man's will. The fact is the God of this 21st
century church is a weak, helpless, frustrated, effeminate idol. He commands no one's respect
and gets none. The God of the modern pulpit
is an object of pity, not an object of worship. Let me be
clear. We're told that God loves everyone. But many whom God loves will
perish anyway. Oh, what a shame. A God to be
pitied. We're told that Jesus Christ
died to redeem and save all the people of the world. But multitudes
that Christ died to redeem and save will be in hell anyway.
Oh, what a shame. of God to be pitied. We're told
that the God, the Holy Spirit, calls all sinners alike to life
and faith in Christ. He draws all alike to life and
faith in Christ. He persuades all alike to come
to Christ. But multitudes whom he calls
resist his will and are in hell at last. Oh, what a pity of God
to be pitied. Those are the very things by
which the God of this age is described. They describe your
father's God and your mother's God. They may even describe your
God. But David, that's not the God
of this book. That's not the God of this book. Why pray to
a God who's helpless? Why? Why bend down and pretend
to act like he's in control when he's not in control? The God
of the Bible is an absolute sovereign. Now listen to this statement,
2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. All things are of God. Preacher, how far are we gonna
carry that? Just as far as your mind's imagination can carry
it. All things are of God. And when you've reached the utmost
stretch of your imagination, you've not begun to commence
to get started knowing what he says. All things are of God. In creation, all things, all
things. In providence, all things. Everything
that God made, everything. and everything in the elements
of the universe. All the sunshine and all the
rain and all the drought and all the famine and all the experiences
and things in this world, in God's creation and in providence,
in the government of societies, in the government of various
nations, all things are of God, all things. Man has control over
nothing. Man has power over nothing. God rules everywhere. Men are nothing but instruments
by which he accomplishes his purpose. Devils have power nowhere. They are only instruments by
which God accomplishes his purpose. Go ask Job and Satan. Talk to Job, ask him who Satan
is. Satan is that one that the Lord
God spoke to and said, have you considered my servant Job? And
he comes back again after afflicting Job horribly and he says, have
you considered my servant Job? And he said, now this is what
you can do to him. I'm gonna show you who Job is. Satan and
devils are nothing except instruments by which God accomplishes his
purpose. The angels of God have no power
except as they are instruments given power by God for the accomplishment
of his purpose. God Almighty is an absolute sovereign. Now turn to Romans chapter nine.
This is the subject of Romans chapter nine. God's sovereign
in creation. He's sovereign in providence.
And this is where the rubber hits the road. I sometimes hear
folks say, well, this is the Lord's will. This sickness came,
this accident on the highway, this sudden unexpected death,
this hurricane, this tornado, it's the Lord's will. And they
will acknowledge God's sovereignty in Providence to some degree.
To some degree. Not much, but a little bit. But
here is where men throughout the religious world become enraged
at God. God's sovereign in salvation. Now you try telling that to your
neighbor. Or to your grandma. or to your mother or your daddy
who doesn't know God. God's sovereign. He saves whom
he will. He has mercy on whom he will. I won't worship a God like that.
You'll either worship him or you'll go to hell. There's no in between ground.
This is the subject of Romans chapter nine. It is the sovereignty
of God in the salvation of sinners. In verses 10 through 13, the
apostle Paul asserts the plain, unmistakable sovereignty of God
in terms that cannot be misunderstood with regard to the election of
grace. Look at verse 10, Romans 9. Not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. In the rest of the chapter, verses
14 through 33, the apostle replies to the cavils of unbelieving
unregenerate rebels to the fact of God's sovereignty in saving
whom he will. Now let's look at these verses
together, and I'm going to show you here three things set before
us by God the Holy Ghost as things worse than atheism. I repeat,
atheism only denies God's being. That's horrible blasphemy. Atheism
only denies the existence of God. That's horrible blasphemy. And folks get real upset when
atheists, this time of the year, they put up banners and signs.
We don't see them around here much, but you see them in large
cities and see them on television, on the news, trying to get folks
not to go to church because you don't have to celebrate that
Jesus is God and all that nonsense. And religious folks, oh, they
get upset with that. The religious world fought Madeline
Murray O'Hare for generations, just generations. But here's
something worse. And I lay the charge at the doorstoop
of churches everywhere. I lay the charge at the feet
of preachers everywhere. Here are three things worse than
atheism. Number one, rather than bowing to God and
his sovereignty, unbelieving, unregenerate rebels charge the
holy Lord God with unrighteousness. Now, Paul stated his doctrine
in verses 10 through 13, unconditional election. Here, beginning at
verse 14, by divine inspiration, he demonstrates the obvious truthfulness
of this sweet, blessed gospel doctrine, election. Oh, what
a great word that is. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you, our Savior said. We're bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. How we rejoice
in God's everlasting election. And here the apostle says in
verse 14, he said in verse 13, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. And here's the first cattle that
men raise. You say that, well, shall we say that? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Well, that's not fair that God should love Jacob and hate
Esau. That's not fair that God should choose one and reject
the other. Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. What blasphemy? Dares a man, a fallen sinful
man, charge the Holy Lord God, the righteous God, with unrighteousness. It's blasphemy worse than atheism.
There can be nothing unrighteous in God loving Jacob and hating
Esau, in God choosing one and rejecting the other, when the
choice was made before either Jacob or Esau were ever born,
before they'd done anything good or bad, so that their hand was
not in the business. They didn't have anything to
do with this. This is altogether according to God's sovereign
will. Men object to it. Unregenerate
rebels get mad. I can't tell you the experience
that I've had. Some of you have had the same
experience. How many folks get fighting mad? Did you get fighting mad? I won't
have that. I won't have it. But those same
men defend to the death their own right to sovereignty. You
see, the problem is not that men despise God's sovereign,
God despise the idea of sovereignty. They despise the idea of God's
sovereignty because every man really wants to be God himself.
This is how we act. Every man I know reserves to
himself the right to do with his own what he will. and gets
plum angry at somebody telling him what he's got to do with
his own property. Every man here gets just a little
upset when he's fixing to add a bathroom to his house. He's
got to go down here and get it inspected by somebody else and
they'll tell you what kind of bathroom you can put in your
house. There's not a man in this room who doesn't reject that.
Every man here gets upset when somebody tells him you gotta
do this with your property or that with your property. You can have
these trees, you can't have those trees. Your trees can be this
big, they can't be that big. Every man here gets upset with
that because we think it's right to do with our own what we will.
This is what our master said. Is it not right for me to do
with my own what I will? And you belong to God. I belong
to God. Your sons and daughters belong
to God. Mine belong to God. God can do with us what he will.
And he does with us what he will. We all reserve the right to choose
our own friends. There are some folks you like
to be around, some folks you don't. And that doesn't have much of
a reason. I just enjoy him. I'd just rather not be around
him. I'd rather not be around him. We reserve that right. Nobody's
gonna choose him for you. You mothers and dads try your
best to choose the friends that your children have. You just
can't do it. You just, you can, and I advise
you to do so. Do the best you can to have them
around company that won't, affect them in an evil way. Try to have
a random company of folks their age who worship God, who believe
the things of God. But when push comes to shove,
when it's all over, they're going to choose the friends they want,
and you're not going to keep them from it. We all reserve
the right to choose our own companions. I started to figure a way to
change that word because this day, rather than having husbands
and wives, folks have companions. That means they shack up or whatever
they want to. But we who believe God, We who are gods reserve
the right to choose our husband or choose our wife. I know in
other societies, there's still arranged marriages, but nobody
likes it, except the fellow who does the arranging. because we
all claim the right of sovereignty. And then when we hear that God
does what he will, he chooses his friends, he chooses his bride,
then men are angered and upset and enraged because they have
power taken out of their hands. Put it in God's hands. You don't have any power, God
does. Look at Romans 9 verse 15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. This is the reason you dare not
charge God with folly. He says, verse 16, it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. You know, there are very few
heresies that are specifically identified in scripture by name. There are lots of them that are
dealt with in the scriptures, but few that are specifically
identified by name. We live in a will-worship age. Paul calls it such in Colossians
2, verse 23. And here, the apostle Paul tells
us that will-worship is totally contrary to the revelation of
God. But man has a free will. Free
will. I was preaching on this subject
one time down in Louisville. Brother Magruder was still alive.
That's actually the first time I preached there in a long time
and Brother Magruder came up to me after services and he said,
isn't it strange? Men take the weakest aspect of
man's character and worship it. What can be weaker than your
will? Your will. I remember well a
commercial on television, good ones I can remember. I can remember
bad ones too, but good ones I like to remember. Lay's potato chip. It was probably before you were
born, Josh. Bet you can't eat one. Y'all remember that? Bet you
can't eat one. They made a fortune on that. Who can eat one good,
fresh, crisp, salty potato chip? Give me a bag full. Give me a
bag full. Bet you can't eat one. How come?
Because the weakest thing about you is your will. That's the
weakest thing about you. And yet men make man's will autonomous
over God Almighty. Man, by his will, gets God's
arm behind his back and puts him in a hammerlock and God can't
do anything. What nonsense, what blasphemy.
Verse 17. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will he hearteneth. There the
matter stands. There it must stand. There it will stand to all eternity
in opposition to all the cavils, arguments, and reasoning of ungodly
men against it. God has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. God gives grace to whom he will
give grace. God saves whom he will. Salvation is not up to you. It's
not by your will. It's not by your work. It's by
God's will, by God's work, by God's grace. Number two, Paul
sets before us something worse than atheism in verses 19 through
29. Here it is. rather than bowing to God on
his throne. Lost rebels, religious and irreligious,
dare to charge the Lord God with injustice. You just declare to
them that God's sovereign. The Lord Jesus redeemed his elect. God chose his elect. God the
Holy Spirit calls his elect. That's unjust. That's unjust. Verse 19. Thou wilt say then
unto me. Okay, let's say God is right.
God suffered. Let's say that's right. Why did
he yet find fault? Why did he yet find? If God has
mercy on whom he will have mercy, I can't do anything about it.
Why did he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
I couldn't help it. I couldn't resist him. Nay, but
old man, Who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Here is the impudence of fallen
rebels at its utmost height. With these words, the apostle
was inspired by God the Holy Ghost to display man's utter
contempt for God. Dare any man, you, Me? To charge God with injustice? Shall mortal man be more just
than God? Shall a man be more pure than
his maker? He is the rock. His work is perfect. His ways are judgment. A God
of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. Justice
and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth
go before thy face. Now, I can't emphasize this enough.
God, I repeat to you as I said earlier, is always just in everything
he does. When God found sin on his son,
when the Lord Jesus was made sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him, God Almighty withheld
not the fury of his anger, but he awoke in justice and slew
his son because his son deserved to die when his son was made
sin. The sacrifice of Christ sets
forth the righteousness, the holiness, and the justice of
God. There was no other way by which
God could save sinners, except justice be satisfied. In punishing
the ungodly, the Lord God gives sinners their just due. Now let me tell you what that
means. No one goes to hell. because
he was predestinated for hell. No, you won't find that in this
book. But didn't God purpose the everlasting end of all things? Indeed he did. But you read this
book and you will find everywhere it is dealt with in this book.
Every single place it is dealt with in this book. Judgment is
always just retribution. Folks go to hell because of their
sin. because of their unbelief, because
they refuse to walk in the light that God's given them. Read Romans
chapters one and two. Folks in Africa and New Guinea
and places where they've never heard the gospel, refuse to walk
in the light of God in creation and in their own consciences.
And therefore God gives them over to a reprobate mind. And
men in churches, men who have a Bible in their hands refuse
to believe the word and they go to hell because they refuse
to believe God. No other reason, no other reason.
I'll tell you something else that means. Nobody goes to hell
because of Adam's sin. I know folks get upset with this.
I got done preaching the other night over at Todd's Road, and
I didn't happen to mention it during the sermon, but a fella
had heard something else I'd preached years ago. A young man came up
to me and said, you believe that all babies are saved, don't you?
I said, no, no. All of them who die in infancy
are. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't
believe that. Nobody goes to hell because of Adam's sin. Ezekiel
18, verse 20. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The father shall not be punished
for the son's sins, and the son shall not be punished for the
father's sins. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The scriptures are as plain as
they can be. Look at verses 21 through 24,
and watch Paul's inspired response to man's brazen impudence. Hath
not the potter power over the clay? Of the same lump to make
one vessel under honor, and another under dishonor? My sister is a master craftsman
with pottery. And she's, I've got some beautiful
things back here she's made. Beautiful things. And she makes
that clay into what she intends. She makes some flower pots, some
fruit bowls, some coffee cups, some dishes, some bread trays.
She makes whatever she wants to. And I've never even thought
about anyone objecting to her making out of a glob of mud what
she wanted to. Never even thought about it.
Hath not the powder power over the clay? But we're not clay.
That would be a compliment to us. Hath not Potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel into honor and
another to dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared to glory, even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? The Potter,
the sovereign. The clay is in his hands and
he can do with it what he will. Turn back to Jeremiah. Hold your
hands here in Romans 9 and turn to Jeremiah chapter 18. This
is the picture that God gives us in his book of sovereignty. I like good illustrations, don't
you? I like to see things that are One picture is worth a thousand
words. I like good illustrations. Here's
a marvelous illustration of God's sovereignty. Now, oh Lord, thou
art our father. We are the clay, and thou our
potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. Oh God, thank you. for making
of such filth as I am a vessel of mercy. This is how he does
it. He's at Jeremiah 18, verse one.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and
go down to the potter's house and there I'll cause thee to
hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's
house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the
vessel that he'd made of clay was marred. Now, folks read that
and commentaries say that he found some rough places in it. He found something unsatisfactory
in it. It was marred, as if it was somehow an accidental thing.
Read the text. It was marred in the hand of
the potter. So he made it again, another
vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Oh, Clay,
oh, Clay, what will you let me do? Oh, Clay, oh, Clay, what
shall I make of you? Oh, Clay, oh, Clay, I can do
nothing without you. If you heard me talk like that
and thought I was serious, you'd call somebody to lock me away
in a paddy wagon. Put that man in a straitjacket. He's popped
a cork. He's lost his mind. He's talking about Clay having
power. And that's the way folks talk from pulpits all over the
world all the time. The clay has power over the potter,
nonsense. He made it again another vessel,
as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of
the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you
as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. God's sovereignty stands just
where it did from everlasting. Despite all that has been said
and written against it, God is accountable for his actions to
no one. It's enough to know that God
cannot do wrong. He's righteous in all his ways
and holy in all his works. But Brother Dodd, How can it
be, for God's glory, for David Coleman to be in the shape he's
in physically right now? How can that be? I don't have
a clue. How can it be beneficial to his
soul? I don't know, I don't know. I had preached on Romans 8, 28
one Sunday morning years ago and a preacher sitting right
where David's sitting. Sitting right there. Left the
building, who claimed to believe God's grace. And he said to his
daughters, I don't see how he could say that this is for the
glory of God and by the will of God. I didn't say that. God
did. God did. Well, what do you do
when you run into things that you can't understand? You bow! That's what worshipers do and
they're glad to do it. That's the difference between
believers and unbelievers. Unbelieving religionists say
no, no. God's got no right. I won't bow. Believers bow in reverent silence
before God who says my counsel shall stand and I will do all
my pleasure. And he gives us reason to rejoice
in that fact. Verse 25. As he saith also in
Hosea, that is Hosea chapter two, I will call them my people,
which were not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said unto
them, you are not my people, there shall they be called the
children of the living God. Verse 27. Isaiah chapter 10,
verse 22 and 23, also crieth concerning Israel, though the
number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a
remnant shall be saved, for he will finish the work. God's gonna
do what he purposed to do. He'll cut it short in righteousness.
He's gonna do it. He's gonna do it exactly on time. He's gonna do it in righteousness.
Because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And
as Isaiah said before, as in chapter one, verse nine, except
the Lord of Sabbath, the Lord of hosts had left us a seed.
We had been as Sodom had been made like unto Gomorrah. Oh, what a distinction is made
between believers and unbelievers. The believer bows to God's sovereignty
when he can't understand his path. David said in Psalm 39,
I was dumb. I was dumb. Here I am in this... I'm in this dark hole. I'm in
this... I'm in this terrible adversity.
I'm in the midst of this terrible calamity. My house is not as
I'd want it to be. My sons and daughters are all
rebels. My wife despises me. God, I don't understand! He said,
I was dumb. I couldn't speak a word. I opened
not my mouth. That's the thing to do. Because
thou didst it. God did it. God did it. And Merle, when you wake up one
day and you're so overwhelmed with some horrible thing, That
you can't get a handle on it. You can't understand it. Just
keep your mouth shut. Bow down. God did it. That's our comfort. That's our
security. That's our peace. God did it. God did it. And the judge of
all the earth does right. The rectitude of his character
makes everything he does right. The unbeliever rebels. And this doctrine is the doctrine
according to godliness. Had it not been for God's choice
of us, we would, every one of us have
been like Sodom and Gomorrah. We would have lived and died
in our ungodly hating of God, our ungodly rebellion, our ungodly
way of life. The natural man looks at everything
and confers with flesh and blood. The regenerate man and woman,
immediately upon the revelation of Christ in him, immediately
upon the knowledge of God, says immediately, I conferred not
with flesh and blood. As long as you seek to understand
God's providence by nature, you'll rebel against it. As long as
you seek to understand the events of your life by nature, you'll
hate God. As long as you seek to understand
what seems to be chaos around you, you'll never bow to God. But as long as you worship God,
that's enough. God did it. That's enough. God did it. I'll say no more.
God did it. And God's right. This is the
difference between believers and unbelievers. And it's the
difference that God has made. Believers worship God. The unbeliever
hates him. Believers bow. The unbeliever
refuses to bow. Believers surrender. The unbeliever
refuses to surrender. And it's God who makes the difference. God who bows us. God who makes
us submissive. God who causes us to worship,
giving us faith in him. One third thing. How did you
mention it? Verses 30 through 33. This too is something worse
than atheism. He's a good man. He just hates
God. This too is worse than atheism. Rather than trusting Christ for
righteousness, rather than being saved by a substitute, rather
than believing on the son of God, lost rebels, religious and
irreligious, seek righteousness before God by something they
do. Isn't that amazing? Rather than believing on the
Son of God, lost rebels will work their lives away trying
to make themselves righteous before God by something they
do, by their obedience to the law, by their religious deeds,
by their emotions, by their feelings, by their will, by their choice,
by their decision. Read on, verse 30. What shall
we say then? that the Gentiles, that is the
heathen folks like you and me, followed not after righteousness. They were an ungodly mess. They
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is the faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
the good, moral, upright, decent, law-abiding, church-going folks,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness, Wherefore,
how is it that a rebel, an ungodly, vile rebel, who didn't care any
more for righteousness than he cared for manure, Don Fortner,
has attained to righteousness? And the good folks, the church-going
folks, the religious folks, the moral folks, the folks everybody
bragged on, went to hell without it. How come? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They stumbled, they tripped
over Jesus Christ crucified. As it is written, behold, I lay
inside a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. And whosoever
believeth on him, shall not be ashamed. We have righteousness. Righteousness
of faith. Righteousness accomplished by
the faithful obedience of God's darling son as our substitute.
Righteousness received by faith. Righteousness received by faith. Has God stripped you Made you
naked before him in the dust so that you... Pastor, I have
no righteousness. I have no hope. I'm nothing but sin. You can't
imagine how corrupt I am. You can't imagine how defiled
I am. You can't imagine how dirty I
am. Oh yes, I know. I know just how corrupt, how
defiled, how dirty you are. I know. Would you be righteous? Are you thirsty? Come take a
drink. Trust Christ the Lord and go
home with a testimony from God of perfect righteousness. He
that believeth on Christ, over whom the whole religious world
is stumbling into hell, shall never be ashamed. God help you
to believe. Amen.