Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Romans chapter 1. Every week, I struggle over what I'm going to say to
you. Because I must give an account,
what the scripture said, for the things which I say, and I
also know by the Scriptures for the things that I don't say. Not only for what I do teach
and what I do say, but for what I leave out, I must give an account. And I worry about you. And I worry about those who read
what I write and hear what I preach that's been recorded. And I care
very much about what I say and what you hear and how you hear
it. I tell you this, one of the most
dangerous things in this world is that during
this time of worship, while we're gathered in here, in this building,
And I stand up to preach to you. One of the most dangerous things
during this time of worship is complacency. Self-satisfaction. No need to hear. No want to hear. No urgency to hear. No love of
what you hear. Our churches are full of people
who try to work into their busy schedules some time every now
and then to worship the Lord and hear His gospel. I wonder
sometimes if we really know what a privilege it is to have a place
to worship and hear the gospel preached. I don't think we do.
I really don't think we do. I hope there is no one in this
building today who thinks that everyone who stands in a pulpit
and opens this Bible and reads from it is called of God to preach
his gospel. I hope there is no one here today
who thinks they can hear the gospel anytime they want to. I had a man tell me that not
too long ago. Well, I can hear the gospel anytime I want to. Our Lord said, how shall they
preach except they be sent? Somebody's going to have to cross
your path because you've got no desire. I just read to you
in Romans chapter 3, there are none that seeketh after God.
The only way you're going to come in contact with anybody
and hear from God is if God draws you and sends Him. That's the
only way you're going to hear. I hope there's no one here this
morning that believes that hearing is just a matter of getting up
on Sunday morning and driving to church. Well, I showed up. I did my part. Did you? Paul introduces his letter to
the church at Rome. by not only his personal interest
to preach the gospel to them, but by emphasizing the great
privilege and necessity of hearing the gospel preached. This gospel, God's gospel, the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, he said, is the power
of God unto salvation. Look up there in chapter 1. And
you can read to yourselves as I'm speaking to you, verses 15
through those next several verses. He said, it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and
also to the Gentile. The gospel. I want you to hear
me. The gospel, beloved, is necessary
for the salvation of God's elect. It's necessary. It's not an option. It's necessary. Let me tell you something. This
ain't the place for passing notes. I've been noticing a lot of our
young people passing notes and scribbling and drawing cartoons.
This ain't the place for that. This is the place for hearing. This ain't the place for planning
lunch. What am I going to fix for lunch?
Maybe I got some potatoes. This ain't the place for that. This is the place for hearing.
Hearing. How shall you call on him of
whom you have not heard? Huh? How shall you hear without a
preacher? The gospel is necessary for the salvation of God's elect.
And when we come in here, listen to this. Let me read you something
here in Ecclesiastes chapter 5. He said, keep thy foot when
thou goest to the house of God. and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil." And if you'll read the rest of that chapter, you'll
find out that the evil that they were ignorant of is their big
mouth. They kept talking and yakking
and talking about this and I know that, and didn't hear, didn't
listen, didn't listen. Didn't enter in to worship. Didn't
enter in with any kind of seriousness or full thought. They just came
and sat down and counted the sealing tile or whatever it is
they do. They don't consider that they
do evil. Didn't even think about it. Listen to this scripture,
James chapter 1, verse 18. It says, "...of His own will,"
talking about the Father of Lights, our Heavenly Father. of his own
will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a
kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, do you believe that? Then listen to this. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear." Isn't
that what he said? Oh, be swift to hear. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And it's a divine privilege
to hear the gospel. Now, I'm not talking about a
privilege to hear me as an individual. I'll tell you, this preacher
knows that he's less than the least of every man in my day
that preaches the gospel. I know how ignorant I am. I know
my lack of talents and gifts. I'm way down the line. I'm not
saying to you that it's some great privilege to come and hear
this man. But the gospel I preach is a
privilege. It's a privilege. And the longer
I'm in the ministry, the more I'm learning what a rare jewel
this gospel is and how few places that it's truly preached. The
gospel's not this universal, easy-believe-ism, this fully-stocked
medicine cabinet ready to hand out whatever it is that ails
you. I listened to a man this morning preach for 45 minutes
on how to manage your money and then gave an altar call at the
end. You either manage your money
or your money will manage you. Everything he said was right.
Everything he said was good. It just didn't have anything
to do with the salvation of sinners. There's no gospel in their lives.
There's no Christ in their message. There's no glory of God revealed.
It's all philosophy, reform, decisionism, ceremonialism, legalism. It's all about turning your life
around. My friend, you're dead. That's what Christ said. You're
dead, and your life is hid in Christ with God. That's what
the gospel tells you. The gospel doesn't tell you,
oh, now I'm going to show you what you can do in this world.
No, no, no, no, no. The gospel shows us what we are
by nature, sinners. Religion will talk to you about
changing some bad habits and turning over a new leaf and all
that kind of Tommy Rock. The gospel Paul was ready to
preach. He said, I'm ready to preach
the gospel, God's gospel to you. The ordained gospel. This gospel
God ordained before the foundation of the world. God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. When did He do that? From the
beginning. And it's not going to alter until
the unalterable God can change. This gospel Paul was ready to
preach. He also was persuaded to be the
power of God unto salvation. And I'm not going to debate this
with men or argue with men about it. It's the clear declaration
of the Word of God that the gospel is the means ordained of God
to call out His elect and establish them in the faith. If you're
seeking some other way to hear, you're not going to find it.
You'll hear, but you won't hear from God. He said after that,
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You can't sit in your room and
read your books and listen to the professors and go to school
and talk with the psychologists and all this kind of stuff and
learn anything about God. In the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believed. That's I Corinthians
1 verse 21. God chose a people in Christ
before He created this world. He wrote their names down in
the Lamb's Book of Life. He wrote their names across the
Savior's heart and on His shoulders to bear them up before the Lord.
He chose a people before the foundation of the world. He chose
them unto salvation. They're not going to be saved
no matter what. They're going to be saved by
the divine purpose and means that God has ordained. And He
appointed for them a divine surety, a redeemer. And in the fullness
of the time when it was come, He came into this world as a
representative man. Who did He represent? Those given
to Him of the Father before the foundation of the world. And
He came into this world as a man, as a representative man, and
He did for them what they could not do for themselves. He came
into this world as a servant to the law. What the law saith,
it saith to them that are under the law. You remember I read
that to you a few minutes ago? He put Himself under the law
as a representative man. a servant to the law and justice
of God on our behalf. And he took our place under the
law of God, became subject to his own law, became responsible
for his actions, became accountable for his motives, thoughts, and
deeds. And as a representative man,
he exalted the law and made it honorable. He lifted it up out
of the vain and ignorant idealism of men and revealed to us the
true holiness demanded of God. And then as our substitute and
sin-bearer, He suffered and died. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. He put away our sins. He was
made of God, Paul said, to be sin for us who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And then before
this unbelieving world, God raised His Son up from the dead to declare
His full satisfaction for all that He had accomplished, declaring
by His resurrection the full, free, complete justification
of all His elect. Justified. Scripture said He
was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. And then the Father sent His
holy angels who received Him on a cloud and carried Him up
to sit at His own right hand. But before His ascension, having
accomplished all that the Father sent Him to do, having been declared
the justifier, and having by his accomplishments declared
God to be just in their justification. He gave this commission to his
church. He said, Go ye and preach the
gospel. Isn't that what he said? Folks ain't going to want to
hear it. Huh? They ain't going to want
to hear it. I ain't never found anybody yet
that wants to hear it. A little group here. A little group over
there somewhere. I ain't never found no multitude
that wanted to hear this gospel. Go ahead and preach this gospel
to every creature. To all nations of men. Jews and
Gentiles. Rank idolaters and religious
folks. You go preach this gospel. Wait
a minute. Man's dead in trespasses and
sins. Huh? This don't make sense. This going
and preaching don't make sense. He said to the wise, the preaching
of the gospel is foolishness. This is just foolish. This is
just some kind of superstitious religious tradition, this preaching
thing. That's what wise men say. That's
what Paul said they say. To the religious man, it's a
stumbling block. Now wait a minute. Wait a minute.
He said there's other ways. There's other ways. Is there?
God said there's not. God said you'd be saved this
way or you won't be saved. It's a stumbling block to the
religious man and it's foolishness to the wise. But to us who believe,
it's the power of God and it's the wisdom of God. How am I going to preach these
people? They're totally depraved. The Bible tells you. I just read
it to you. None righteous. None that seeketh after God.
None that understandeth. All gone out of the way. No fear
of God before that. Why would I want to go to them
and preach? It's a waste of time. No, no,
no, no. Before he sent them to preach, he made this statement.
He said, all power in heaven and earth is given unto me. Now,
go you and preach this gospel. Huh? You study the Roman civilization,
there's never been a more immoral civilization on the face of God's
earth than the Roman civilization. Paul said, I'm ready to preach
to you that are in Rome. I'm ready to preach to you. Why? Because he said, this is God's
gospel. Oh, boy, that makes a difference
now. This is God's gospel. It's His
gospel. That's why it's the power of
God unto salvation, because it belongs to Him. It's about Him. It's empowered by Him. It's taught
by Him. I can't say the words, but I
can't touch the heart. But He can. He can. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. Listen to this. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Isn't that what that says? He that believeth not shall be
damned. He shall be damned. In 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, I quoted part of this to you a few minutes ago.
Paul said, We are bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. obtained the glory, saw the glory,
rejoiced in the glory. That's what they saw. When the
blinders was taken off, when the religious hood was removed,
when the scales were gone, then they could see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what Satan blinds men's
minds to. I don't care anything about debating
over these issues or arguing over all these whatabouts that
men have. The gospel of Christ is the means
God has and will call His elect to repentance and faith and preserve
them unto the day of Jesus Christ. They'll hear this gospel and
they'll come back and hear it some more, and they'll hear it
some more, and they'll hear it some more, and they'll keep on
hearing it until they die and awake in His presence. These
all died in faith, every last one of them. The just, the scripture
says, over and over, shall live by faith. Those who believe this
gospel, they confess that faith according to His divine command
in believers' baptism. By way of this baptism, they
identify themselves with God's people. And by way of this baptism,
they confess their faith in what and who is being preached in
that place. And by way of this baptism, they
humbly submit themselves to the authority of King Jesus and all
such authorities He is pleased to delegate in the church and
in the world. This gospel is the power of God
unto salvation, and it demands our attention, and it commands
our obedience, and it evidences this faith in the lives of all
them that believe. Paul wrote to the church at Rome,
and he said, as in me is." Now, I told Caleb last night I was
going to preach from Romans chapter 4. I'm sorry. I just, I read
this and I kept reading it and all of a sudden that thing went
home to me. As much as in me is, he said,
I'm ready to preach the gospel to you. As much of the experience
of this gospel in me is, As much of the understanding of this
gospel in me is. As much of the glory of this
gospel in me is. As much of the power of this
gospel in me is. I'm ready to preach. He didn't
say how much, John. He doesn't give a percentage.
He just said as much as is. That's what's required of me.
As much as in me is. But where do you start? Huh? This gospel is a big... You're
not going to stand up here in 45 minutes and preach everything
in this gospel. Where do you start? Well, most
churches start with the love of God. I never knew this until a man
pointed it out to me. The book of Acts is the record
of the beginning of the New Testament church. Do you know that the
word love or any of its forms don't even appear in the book
of Acts? John, all them gospel messages,
Pentecost, the messages to the Sanhedrin, the messages Paul
preached before the king, all the way through the book of Acts,
the word love, lovest, loveth, loved, none of its forms is found
in the book of Acts. Do you know Paul wrote to the
church at Rome? And with everything that he did,
he doesn't even mention the word love until chapter 5, and then
he just mentions it in passing and goes on. And I don't think
he says any more about it until chapter 13. Briefly mentions it and goes
on. The gospel don't begin with men
at the love of God. It begins with the wrath of God. Read this letter. He tells them,
he said, as much as in me in, I'm ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at wrong. This is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also
to the Gentile. And then what's he telling? Far,
he said, the wrath of God." That's where you start. That's where
you start. It begins with the wrath of God.
The Gospel begins according to Mark chapter 1 with a voice crying
in the wilderness. That's what he said. This is
the beginning of it. What does this voice cry? Well,
you go back to Isaiah chapter 40. The voice said, cry. He said, what shall I cry? He
said, cry, all flesh is grass. That's where you start, right
there. All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of the flesh
is as the flower of the grass. And the grass withereth, and
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord blows on it. What's he blow on? He blows on
the flower of your flesh. He blows on that self-righteousness. He blows on all your good works
and all your good intentions. He blows on them and withers
it up. Having stated his readiness to
preach the gospel, having clearly stated whose gospel it is and
the necessity of it to be preached, he begins now to talk to them
about the wrath of God. It's revealed, he says in verse
18, from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. It's revealed from heaven to
the consciences of men. When the Gentiles, he tells us,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law. These having not the law are
a law unto themselves, Romans 2.14. Verse 15, which show the
work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness and their thoughts either accusing or excusing one
another. The wrath of God is clearly revealed. from heaven against the light
of conscience, sinning against the light God has given to all
men. And the wrath of God, he tells
us, is clearly revealed from heaven against those who deny
the light of creation. Creation, by its undeniable detail,
scope, and preservation, declares the eternal power and Godhead. Don't it? God, with one swift
move of His voice, set before all men an undeniable evidence
in the light of creation and established Himself as God. God. He is before all things
and by Him all things consist. There's too much order and too
much harmony and too much detail and too much scope in creation
for it just to be a fluke. Well, all right, preachers. How
do men deny or suppress this light? By going contrary to it. By saying God didn't create it.
By saying there is no God out there controlling these things.
We have control over these things. We can change this and that.
We can change the weather. I can't believe sometimes how
bold Men think about themselves that they think they have the
power to preserve creation. Huh? It's by going contrary to it,
denying God's power, denying Him as the author of it. And
He also does it by doing this, by worshiping the creature more
than the Creator. And he goes against nature. If
you finish reading Romans chapter 1, we got a lot of young ones
in here this morning, but he talks about women with women
and men with men doing those things which are not convenient,
changing the natural use into that which is against nature.
That's that light. That's that light he's talking
about. And if the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against the sins of conscience and creation, What
about the sins against the greatest light, the Son of God? This is condemnation, he tells
us in John 3, verse 19, that light has come into the world,
and men love darkness rather than light. Man is not totally depraved by
nature, and by nature the child of wrath. Why would he despise
one who is all love, and all goodness, and all kindness, and
all mercy, and all just? There was nothing in him to despise. Satan came to him to intimidate. Satan came to
him to try to change, to try to find something he could use.
in Christ, and he found nothing in Him. Found nothing in Him. Christ desired nothing that man
has. You can't despise Him for that.
You can't despise Him for His covetousness. He coveted no man's
silver or gold. You can't despise him for his
competition. He didn't compete with man, but
he ministered to him as a servant. He told no lie. You can't despise
him because he's a liar because he told no lie. He did no evil. He was a burning and shining
light to even his enemies. The Pharisees, they said, we'd
be not born of fornication. That's what they cried to the
Lord. We have one Father, even God, to which our Lord replied,
if God was your Father, you'd love me. You'd love me. For I proceeded
forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
I was sent. And if you're here this morning,
and you're yet denying your depravity and wretchedness, You need only
to check your own heart for the love of Christ. That ought to alone convince
you of your depravity. Check your own heart for the
love of Christ, submission to Christ, faith in Christ. He that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, it says at the end
of John chapter 3, but the wrath of God abideth on him. You see what he's talking about?
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all this
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. They had the truth, but they
throw it away. They had the truth, but they
turn their backs. The prophet said they jerk their
shoulder. Young man gets up about 12 years
old, gets filled in his whitties, and his mama grabs him by the
shoulder and pulls that shoulder. That's how the prophet described
us before God. Pull that shoulder like you're
gonna do something. I'll tell you this. You wouldn't have any trouble
this morning If I had a bowl of holy water back there by the
back door, you'd come in. Somebody told you that's what
you're supposed to do. You put your fingers in there and do
whatever it is they do. The holy water. Or if I told
you that you had to walk down an aisle. That's where salvation
is. You have to walk down this aisle. You have to take my hand.
You have to repeat after me and I'll take you down the Roman
road. Or we're going to have a school
every summer and we're going to have a catechism. When you
get to a certain age, this so-called age of accountability, we're
going to put you through this catechism, and then at the end,
I'm going to bring you in here, and you're going to stand up
before the people, and I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're
going to give me the answers, and then you're going to become a
man. You do anything a man told you to do, if he told you that
in doing it, you could be saved, except believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not your man won't do that. He
won't take himself and commit himself to the love of God in
Christ. He won't commit himself into
his loving arms. He won't commit himself under
his authority. This one who was sent and loved
him and died, he won't give himself to him. There's only one way
he'll do that, and that's through the gospel of Jesus Christ, when
it's anointed by the power of God, will convince him of his
sins, and convince him of this righteousness, this righteousness
of God. And his judgment is over. And
when he does, he'll put himself into the arms of Christ, and
he'll rest in Him. He'll rest in Him. First order
of business in gospel preaching is to slay the sinner. And until
God the Holy Spirit convinces him of his sins and of the wrath
of God against his sins, he'll have nothing to do with the remedy. He'll kick against it. He'll
fight with it. He'll argue about it. He'll seek
something else. The gospel Paul said is the power
of God unto salvation, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Are you ready to preach the gospel? Are you ready to look this self-righteous,
hypocritical world in the face and tell them the truth about
their sin? Tell them that their best prayers,
their best offerings, their best day, their best week is nothing
but filthy rags before God. Oh, now wait a minute, preacher.
I was raised in church. I've always given thought to
the Word of God. I've always went somewhere to
church. So did the Jews. And Paul said it didn't do them
a bit of good because there wasn't no gospel in it. If I could find me a sinner,
I'll tell you it's the rarest thing on this earth. If I could
find me a sinner, a sure enough bona fide sinner, a man who by
the Spirit of God had given up on himself, bowed his hands up,
said, there's no salvation for me. That's what Jesse called
me and told me one day. He said, there's no hope for
me. I said, oh, Christ died for you. There ain't very many people
I can look in the face and tell them Christ died for them, but
I can a sinner. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. Sinners. And if I could find
one, I've got good news for them. Look at the life and ministry
of Christ. Look at the multitudes. The multitudes
questioned everything he did. They followed him for the wrong
reasons. They turned and left him standing
when the message got tough. Who did he really minister to,
John? Who did he really minister to?
The sick? Huh? The demon-possessed? The desperate? The condemned?
The dead? That's who he ministered to. The multitude was there to look. They were there enthralled, hoping
to see miracles. They were there for all kinds
of reasons. And during this whole time, you're thinking, boy, here's
all these believers out here in this big multitude. No, they're
just one or two. And they're coming to Him just
a few at a time. A few at a time. The leper. The woman with the issue of blood.
And on and on. This is where the gospel begins
with the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold to truth and unrighteousness.
So that when he does get over here to chapter 5, and he does
begin to mention the love of God, here's what he has to say.
God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Huh? You can't know anything
at all about the love of God until you know something about
your sinnerhood. Your sinnerhood. And the element
of evangelism mission today is gospel preaching. Preaching that
strips the sinner. Takes away his hope. Takes away
his righteousness. Takes away all those things that
he clings to. and shuts him up to the free
grace of God. May God the Holy Spirit be pleased
to reveal Himself in me, as He did in Paul, so that no matter
where the doors open, I can say with Him, as much as in me is. Isn't that what He said over
in Galatians chapter 1? When it pleased God, that's what
He said. When it pleased God, covered Him in His mother's womb,
called Him by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach
Him among the heathen. So as much as in me is, I'm ready
to preach. I'm ready to preach. Father, use the message this
morning. Use it for Thy name's honor and glory. We ask you for
Christ's sake, Amen.