I would be perfectly satisfied
to go home with what I've already heard. If you would, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Romans, the tenth chapter. Romans, chapter
ten. I want to speak to you this afternoon
from Romans, the tenth chapter. on this subject calling on the
name of the Lord. And I'm using verse 13 as a text,
but the bulk of what I have to say will be in the earlier part
of the chapter and in the earlier part of the book of Romans. But
I saw something here. I've been studying through Romans
verse by verse, and I ran onto something here in chapter 10. I can't tell you what a valuable
thing it is to set a time during your day, whether it's early
in the morning, that's when I prefer, or whatever, but to sit down
and go through this book verse by verse. And as I was going
through this tenth chapter, and I like to write down whatever
I feel like the Lord has given me, on those verses, I write
them just like I'm writing a book. And then I can go back and look
at those things when I preach from that text, or if I just
go back and hear somebody else preach or whatever, I can go
back and those thoughts are called back to me. But as I was going
through here, I found that no less than eight times, Larry,
he begins what he's about to say with this little three-letter
word, four. He says that in verses 2 through
5, he begins each verse with that word, four. And then in
verses 10 through 13, four times in a row, he says, four, four. And what this does is to tell
us that what he's about to say is based on something that he's
already seen. Now, religion's big on taking
one verse of Scripture, just one verse of Scripture, and building
an entire denomination on that one verse of Scripture. And I don't want to chase rabbits
this morning, but I feel like this is important for us to see,
so if you would turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter,
just hold your place there in Romans 10. And while you're turning over
there, let me just make some comments. on that chapter that
we're going to look at there in 1 Peter. And he begins that
chapter by saying, grace and peace. He's talking
to believers. Grace and peace have been multiplied,
added up, layered to us through the knowledge of God and Jesus
our Lord. according as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue." Are you with me? Everything concerning life, eternal
life, temporal life, all life, this life of faith and godliness
is given to us through the knowledge of Christ. We're not going to
get it by clenching our fists. We're not going to get it by
determination. We're going to get it by knowledge.
That's how it's going to come. Faith comes by hearing, not by
walking, not by gritting your teeth. It comes through knowledge,
and that knowledge is of Christ who has called us to glory and
virtue. are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises," now listen, "...that by these ye might be
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." And then he goes on to
say, to add to that, let's add, he says, let's add virtue, add
to your faith, virtue, knowledge. temperance, patience, godliness,
brotherly kindness, and charity. And if you do these things, verse
8, and if these things be in you, not from you or not of you,
but in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be
barren nor unfruitful, now listen, in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you
do these things, you'll never fall." And just briefly, you
make your election sure by your calling, and you make your calling
sure by the word of God. That's what Paul said, knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God, because when our gospel
came unto you, it came in power, not just word only, but in power. And then three times he talks
about his desire and duty to stir them up to remembrance.
Remember what? That he's called us out of this
world, given us the fruit of God's Spirit, And we become partakers
of the divine nature by the knowledge of Christ. He said, I don't want
you to forget that. Don't forget that. These things
are given to the believer through the word of God by way of great
and precious promises. Don't forget that. Three times,
he said. Remember these things. How are
we going to remember them? Look down here in verse 19. We
have a more sure word of prophecy. We're unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts." We're
to take heed to the Word of God. He said it's not cunningly devised
fables. This is not just religious rhetoric. It's not just a book of history.
It's not a bunch of religious sayings all gathered together.
This is the Word of God. That's what Peter said. It wasn't
given to decorate our coffee tables or to be laid up on the
shelf like a shrine or on a table before the pulpit. It wasn't
given to us for those reasons. It wasn't given to put on a shelf. It wasn't given to carry around
like a badge so everybody that sees it be sure to see me with
my Bible or lay it up on the dashboard of my truck so everybody
that looks in is going to know I'm a Christian. One time we
went fishing up, I should tell this on myself, we went fishing
way up into northern Canada. We drove till we ran out of rope
and we stopped at this truck stop. It was the only place we
could go where we could still get some gas and get our money
exchanged to go into Canada and all those things. And so we pulled
in there. My buddy was in there getting all the goodies for the
road, candy bars and pops and whatever. And I was standing
out by the car, he had the keys, and I was waiting on him, and
the watchman was walking around the truck stop. He came over
where I was, introduced himself, and we talked. He wanted to know
where I was going, and I told him. He looked up on the dashboard
of the truck, and he said, now there's something you don't see
every day. And I said, what's that? He said, a Bible and a
fuzz buster. Well, this is not a badge. We
don't carry the Bible around so everybody will be sure and
know that we're Christian. The Word of God is the children's
bread. Wisdom is justified of its children. That's what Larry said a while
ago. And believers feed in this book. These are the green pastures
that David talked about. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. We walk through those pastures.
My sheep hear my voice. I open this book and I hear the
voice of God speaks to me from this book. Not something I do
because of duty. Not something I do because I
believe God will send me to hell if I don't read it. I feed out
of this book. It feeds my soul. And these words are not just
words. These words are how the life
of God comes into the soul. Paul told Timothy, Thou hast
known the Scriptures, he said, from a child. It's the light
of God, Peter said, shining in the dark hearts of sinners until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. And that's
Christ. Believers or unbelievers, read
this book and take heed, Peter says. Take heed to it. Don't
just read it like you'd read a novel. Read this book. Read
it reverently. And don't pick up this book with
all your preconceived notions of God. Please, don't do that. You do yourself harm. Don't read
this book with human reason and logic. Well, this piece has to
fit that piece, and we go through here. Don't read this book that
way. Don't read this book and then
measure it by the philosophy of this world or the doctrines
of organized religion. Take heed to the Word of God. Now listen to this, verse 20.
Here's where I'm going. Knowing this first. Here's the first rule. When you
pick up this book and you seek to know God, you seek to know
something about the Savior, Here's your first rule. Know this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. And what that means, without
a great big explanation, is this. No scripture stands in the light
of itself. Don't run out and build a denomination
on whosoever will. That's what this is saying. Don't
run out here and talk about universal atonement because you read over
in John 3.16, for God so loved the world, because it won't hold
water. Here's the first rule in the
Word of God. No prophecy of the Scripture
stands in its own light. Four, you see that little word
there again? Four, the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved of the Holy Ghost. The scripture is God-breathed,
and no man can of his own ability, in his own wisdom, and by his
own perception, read this book and understand what it says,
because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. This is one of the things of
the Spirit of God. For there are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
understood. The Bible is God's testimony
concerning His Son, and it consists of thousands, thousands, maybe
hundreds of thousands of little pieces. I remember the first
time my parents bought me one of these big 500-piece puzzles,
and they dumped it out on the floor. And I picked up a little
piece, and it has an eye on it, and this little piece has a foot.
And none of these things, by looking at these individual pieces,
made any sense. But after days and days, when
I finally got that thing together, then it looked like something.
And you see, we open this book up and we read this and we read
that and we find something here and something there and it doesn't
say too much to us, but when all the pieces, when God the
Holy Spirit opened your heart and opened your mind and through
the gospel puts all the pieces together, then you see the express
image of God in the face of Jesus Christ the Lord. You see it. Now let's go back to Romans 10.
And let's see if God will let me put some pieces together for
you this morning. Now, my text, I said all that
to say this, that my text is of little value in verse 13 without
the foundation laid throughout the whole entire book of Romans.
If you want to understand what Romans 10 says, go back and read
Romans 1 through 9. I like what old Barnard said.
He said, that Bible sheds a lot of light on them commentaries. And it does. You go back and
read verse by verse. I forget where it's at. I think
it's in Isaiah 28 or somewhere along in there. He talks about
speaking to a people on that day with stammering lips and
another tongue. And he says, here's how they're
going to hear it, line upon line. precept upon precept, here a
little and there a little. And that's how I received it,
and that's how you'll receive it if God gives it to you. But it's of no value without
the foundation laid in what Paul had said before. And I've had
this text quoted to me as a foundation text for what I call easy beliefism. They march people down the aisle,
and they have counselors in the church, and they get up front,
and they don't even know why they came down there. They just,
by trickery, they've got them down there, and now they're in
a spot, you know. And this counselor comes over,
and he says, now don't worry. He said, I'll make this easy
for you. Do you believe in God? Yes. Would you believe that Jesus
is His Son? Yes. Do you believe that Jesus
died on a cross for sinners? Uh-huh. You believe that you're
a sinner? Uh-huh. Well, then you're saved.
You ain't in spitting distance of being saved. I beg your pardon. Thousands of people over this
land are being herded down the aisles of organized religion,
and they're repeating these words, and they're going through the
motions, and they're going on their way with a false assurance
and a false hope, and they'll fight you over it to the grave.
You mean something as ridiculous? I'm telling you. I'm telling
you. I preached to groups of people
one time in a little church. My cousin was a pastor. It looked
like if I had a relative there, surely he could pull some strings
for me. And he wanted me to come up and
hold a revival. And I said, those people ain't
going to like what I've got to say. And he said, well, you come
on. He said, as long as you're within the pages of that book,
he said, we're going to hear it. I preached one night. He came back down the next day
and he had his head down and he said, I really hate to tell
you this, but they don't want you to come back. You see, to
get to Romans 10.13, you have to start back here in chapter
1 and come up through chapter 9. Back in Romans chapter 1 and
going through verse 5, that's where Paul strips away the veneer
of our religion. That's where he strips away these
false ideas and hopes and strips away the veneer of our concepts
of God and of salvation and of righteousness. He takes it away.
He strips away our excuses and our alibis. You see, we thought
we were born innocent. That's what I was taught from
the time I was a child. You're born in innocence, and
then somewhere around 11, 12, 13, somewhere around there, then
you reach this, what they call the age of accountability. I
can't find it here. It's all over in religion. It's
just generally understood. And then you make a decision
one way or the other. I'm either going to go on and
serve God, or I'm going to be a sinner. But Paul said here
in Romans 5, by one man sinned and entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Death rang, he said, from Adam
to Moses, before any law was given, even over them who had
not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. And
you do what you want with that, but that's talking about babies
and young children. That's exactly what it's talking
about. Well, you preaching babies go to hell, I don't even know
anybody that preaches that. I've never read anybody that
preaches that. But what I am saying is that
they're sinners. We come forth from the womb,
David said, speaking lies. We go astray as soon as we be
born. I'm saying that we're all sinners. That's what Paul said. We're
sinners. And he strips away all of our false concepts about men. He said there's none righteous.
I was talking to a fellow here the other day, and actually he
started the conversation, and he said, let's see if I can remember
his exact words, he said, You don't really believe that God
would take a good little Jewish boy. This man's a Catholic, and
he was talking to me. He said, you don't think God
would just take a good little Jewish boy. He's lived upright.
He's done these things and sent him off to hell. I said, no,
God wouldn't send a good little Jewish boy off to hell, but there's
none good. There's none good. It doesn't
matter what I think anyway. It's what this book says, and
this book says there's none good. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. There's none righteous.
He said, you rake them all up together in a pile, and they're
unprofitable. There's no profit in any of them,
or all of them put together. Oh, but you say, Preacher, I
go to church, and I sacrifice, and I pray, and I give to God's
ministry, and I read my Bible, and I give to the needy. So did
the Jews. And if you go back here in verse
1, that's who Paul had the burden for in chapter 10, was the Jews.
These were church folks. And you can read it for yourself
there in Romans 3, verse 9. He said, Are we better than they?
Are we better than they? We've had the Bible, and we've
had the prophets, and we've had the tabernacle, and the types,
and the symbols, and we've had everything that God had to give
to men He gave to the nation of Israel. And we've had it for
thousands of years. He said, Are we any better off
than these heathens? No. There's no way. For we have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles, they've all got the same disease. All of
them sin. And only a man who'd been digged
from the pit, only a man that's been translated out of the darkness,
into the kingdom of God's dear Son, only a man who has spent
his life in blindness and then at the end given eyes to see,
only a man lying helpless on the bed of his human depravity
and then being raised and given life to walk and to love and
to live, only that man can describe the utter inabilities of his
flesh, and even he can't do it. Even he can't. You read back there in Romans
1, we're 100% in God's hands. 100%. And if God doesn't do something
for us, if God doesn't do something in us, we're on a downward spiral. We're headed downhill. No breaks. Don't ever get the notion. Don't
ever get the notion that you're holding your own. I was talking
to a guy the other day. I said, how you doing? He said,
I'm holding my own. No, you're not. No, you're not. Don't ever get the idea that
you're maintaining some certain elevation. I've reached this
plateau. Don't ever get there. Because
you're either growing in grace, or you're plunging deeper into
the abyss of sin, one or the other. Always moving. Always
moving. Paul said back in chapter 1,
when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Ain't that what
this generation's doing? It's exactly what they're doing.
God's not sovereign. God's not perfectly just. God
doesn't demand perfect righteousness. Salvation is not altogether a
work of God's grace. They glorified Him not as God.
That's what they did then. That's what they're doing now.
Christ came into this world exactly. He preached it to us a while
ago. He came into this world exactly as the prophets proclaimed,
exactly in the place they proclaimed, being born exactly as they proclaimed
He would be born, saying exactly the words that He would speak,
and they glorified Him not as God. He raised the dead. They
wouldn't glorify Him as God. He took a few fishes and fed
5,000 men and women, and besides the children, And they glorified
him not as God. He took a leper and cleansed
him. He took a dead man laying in
the tomb. Lord, by now he's stinking. And
they called him out of the tomb, and they wouldn't glorify him
as God. They said, you being a man, have made thyself God. They glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish hearts were darkened." Oh, would the God
He give me the words to tell you what this means like He told
me in my studies. We won't have the witness of
God. We want something else. We want
something else. Show us a sign. Give us a sign. We won't heed the light of creation. We won't take heed to the light
of conscience. We won't take heed to the gospel
of Christ and Him crucified. And as a result of our rebellion,
here's what happens. We become vain in our imaginations. We imagine that instead of taking
God at His word, that somehow He's going to give us something
else. We imagine that. He doesn't say that. We imagine
that. He's going to give us some emotional
evidence to build on. He's going to show us a sign.
He's going to give us a vision. Or we're going to get a feeling.
One night I'm going to sit and I'm going to hear the gospel
preached and I'm going to get this warm feeling. Barnard says, if
you want a warm feeling, pour some warm honey down your back.
That'll do it. We imagine that we can be saved
any time we want to. All I got to do is make up my
mind I want to be saved and I can be saved. This book don't say
that. You can't find it anywhere, cover
to cover. Oh, preacher, when I get ready,
I get a grip on my life, then we're going to seek the Lord.
No, you won't. No, you won't. There's none that seeketh after
God. You tell me what it says? Oh, when I get a little understanding,
there's none that understand. We imagine that by doing the
best we can and being good moral citizens and maybe even being
good Calvinists and being correct in all of our doctrines that
somehow God is pleased with us. We imagine that. He didn't say
that. We imagine a God who can save
sinners at the expense of his justice, that he can overlook
sin. that He can redeem without payment
and justify without judgment. It just ain't so. We imagine
those things. Our foolish hearts have been
darkened. We imagine a God who excuses our sins that we can sin that His grace
may avail. Vain imaginations, and our foolish
hearts are darkened. The Bible says the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Out of the heart, our
Lord said, proceed evil thoughts and adulteries and fornications
and murders and idolatry and witchcraft and emulations and
on and on and on. How can something as evil and
vile as the human heart be darkened? How can that be? By taking to
itself some useless kind of religion. What did our Lord say to those
cities that He upbraided? You read part of it there a while
ago. He was upbraiding those cities, or He did in the root,
upbraiding, woe unto thee, co-raising and so on. What did He say to
them? He said, the folks back in Sodom
are going to be better off than you are. Those folks back in
Gomorrah, where I burned them to a cinder, they are going to
be better off than you are. Why? Because you took to yourself
some useless kind of religion. Because you held on to your own
righteousness. You held on to your own philosophies. Turn with me over to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. While you turn, let me quote
you another scripture. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to the lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded their
minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should
shine unto them. The subject over here in 2 Thessalonians
is false prophets. They cry just like the false
prophets of today. The only thing they want to talk
about is the Millennials. They want to talk about that
70 weeks of Daniel. Let's go to Revelations and we'll
talk about the pre-trib and the post-trib and the amillennialism
and all those things. That's what religionists love
to do. And they were saying that the
second coming of Christ was at hand, either on the threshold
of being there, or had already come and they were living through
it. But here in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3, he said, Let no man
deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except
there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed,
that son of perdition. who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God." Now, brethren, these verses are not talking about
some incarnate evil that's going to appear on this earth the way
Christ did with the number 666 stamped in his forehead. That's not what this is saying.
What this is talking about here is a succession of a principle
in religion and religious leaders that's been from the beginning
of time. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about a spirit
of Antichrist. And it's manifested in a succession
of false religion and their spiritual leaders throughout all time.
You can read about it over in the books of John, 1 John. Down here in verse 7, he says,
the mystery of iniquity doth already work. It's already here. It's already started. Only he
who now restrains will restrain until he be taken out of the
way, and then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with
the brightness of his coming. God give you ears to hear what
I'm about to tell you. this spirit of antichrist, it
rules. It rules over organized, worldly
recognized religion. It rules. It dominates. It's antichrist. They oppose
all that's called God and all that's worshiped. Justification
by imputed righteousness. The sovereign right of God to
do what He will with His own. The omnipotence of God in the
salvation of sinners. The election of a people in Christ.
The predestination of that people to be conformed to the image
of Christ. Salvation by grace alone, through
faith alone, in Christ alone. That salvation is by the free
will of God and not the free will of man. That everything
God requires from a believer is in the person. of Jesus Christ. Everything. He doesn't lack anything. Larry preached that so great
while ago. By himself. That's how he's saved. And religion is against everything
that's called God. All the perfections of God. And
they're against everything that's worshipped. Not their God. Not the thoughts of their vain
imaginations, but the God of the Bible. He, as God, sitteth in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God. He makes the decisions. Do you see that? That's religion. Man sits in
the temple of God. He sits in the churches of God,
and he says, I'll make the decisions. I'll decide the times and the
places. I'll dictate the terms. I'll
make up the rules. It's about my will, not God's
will. In Romans chapter 9, Paul singles out, just so there be
no misunderstanding, he singles out a person, Rebecca. And she's
about to have twins. And God said to her, before they
were ever born, before these twins, either one of them, were
ever born, ever done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand. It was said unto her,
God said it to her. The elder is going to serve the
younger, and I'll tell you why. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. That's why. Now, I'm telling
you, that's the God of the Bible. That's the God of the Bible,
but they won't have that. What are you going to say about
that? I'll tell you what you're going to say. There's unrighteousness
with God. Paul knew what they were going to say. It wasn't
the first time he ever heard it. It's not the first time I
ever heard it. That's exactly what we're going to say. It ain't
right. And if something ain't right,
it's unrighteous, isn't it? Paul said, It's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Hath not the potter power over the clay? Of the same lump to
make one vessel unto honor, and another to dishonor? Didn't God
reveal Himself to our Father Moses? And didn't he say, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and whom I will I'll harden? Didn't he say, I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion? Isn't that how God revealed Himself
to Moses? Ain't that what the book says?
What's man got to say about that? Why doth he yet find fault? How
can God find fault in me if nobody's resisted His will? I'm going
to try to tie all this together that I've been saying. Paul said,
Nay, but O man, who art thou? Who art thou? Who art thou that
replies against God? Sitting in the temple of God,
showing yourself that you are God. I'll dictate the terms. I'll set the times. I'll make
the decisions. I'll reply against God. That's
what you're saying. Who are you? And I said all that
to say this. The Apostle Paul bears his heart's
burden for Israel back here in verses 1, 2, and 3 of Romans
chapter 10. And he said, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. That they might be saved. And
Israel was in this exact condition that I described to you this
morning. That's where they were at. What was their problem? In verse 3, being ignorant of
the righteousness of God. Being ignorant of God's righteousness.
And going about to establish their own righteousness, they
had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
And I believe I could take every known, recognized religion of
my day. I wish I could stand in Southland
Christian Church this morning, I'd tell them the same thing.
I could take every known, recognized religion of my day, all the great
known evangelical denominations of this world, and say this exact
same thing without any fear of contradiction. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. They don't know God. They talk
about God. I heard one other day talking
about, well, God loves the sinner, but he hates his sin. Let me
tell you something. The earth didn't do anything
against God, did it? The earth was exact. When Adam
sinned, the earth didn't do anything. It was just there. It was just
there. But God said, Cursed is the earth
for your sake. Cursed is the earth. It didn't
have any thorns and thistles on it up to that time. Now it's
got thorns and thistles growing. The animals didn't provoke God,
but because of man's sin, he destroyed every living thing
on the earth that wasn't in the ark. Job said, how can man be just
with God? How can he be clean as born of
a woman? He said, behold, the moon and
it shineth not, and the stars aren't even clean in his sight. It says, God hateth all the workers
of iniquity. And He hated Esau. And he that
believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him. Ignorant of God's
righteousness. But here's where you learn about
God's righteousness in Christ. In Romans 8, verse 3, it said,
For what the law could not do. And you can read it from now
until you die. It won't reveal to you what I'm
about to say, because it's weak through the flesh, the darkness
of it, the ignorance of it, the pride of it, and the rebellion
of it. Through the weakness of the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and forced sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. What in the world is He saying
there? He's saying that God took all of our best efforts, and
our best cheers, and our best gifts, and our best energies,
and our best deeds, and our best walk, and the best prayer we
ever prayed, and He hung it on the neck of His Son, and He nailed
Him to a cross, and He said, That's what I think about your
righteousness. That's what I think about your
righteousness. It's not your drunkenness and your carousing
around in your wild spirit. It's not the watermelon you stole
when you was a child, or the secret sin that you won't tell
anybody about. It's the sins of your righteousness
that keep you from Christ. That's what's blocking your way
back to God. And that's where the ignorance
is. Isaiah said, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We fade like the leaf on
the tree, and we drop down and the wind just blows us away.
And there is none that calleth on thy name that stirreth up
himself to take hold of thee." Paul was a religious man, a church-going
man, a man who kept the law. As touching the law, he said,
I don't blame us. His heritage was right, He kept
all the traditions, and he made all the sacrifices, and he studied
his Bible, and he gave his life to the ministry. And he said,
if any man thinks he's got something, the glory in the flesh, he said,
I've got you beat hands down. You ain't got nothing compared
to what I've got. Nothing. But here's what Paul
said that God showed him about these things. He said in Philippians
3, 7, what things were gained to me, he said, I count them
lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to
count them but dumb. I can't find anything in my religious
past that I don't count as dumb. That's what he said. You still
holding on to a vision you have? You still holding on to a feeling
you had back there in a meeting somewhere? Don't. Don't. Turn it loose. Let it
go. Salvation begins by seeing your
ignorance of God's righteousness. That's where it starts. I don't
know anybody that don't know drunkenness is wrong. Do you?
I work with a lot of folks that don't even go to church, and
they know that's wrong. They try to hide that. I don't know
anybody that don't believe that abusing drugs is wrong. I don't
know anybody that don't believe that adultery is wrong. That
ain't the problem. Here's the problem. The sins
of our righteousness. And Paul said faith doesn't talk
about ascending up into heaven. It don't talk about building
a stairway to glory. Salvation faith don't talk that
way. Faith don't talk about somehow working my way into glory. And
faith doesn't talk about climbing up out of hell. It doesn't talk
about that either. I'll tell you what faith does.
Faith says it's finished. It's done. That's what faith
says. It's just that simple. It's just
that simple. Faith's not complicated. Faith
just rests in Christ. Faith sees here's the righteousness
right here. Here's salvation right here.
Here's love. Here's the whole ball of wax
right here. Here's the pearl. Here's election right here. How do I know if I'm elect? You
love Christ? You're resting in Christ? That's
where election's at. All spiritual blessings the Father
blessed us with in heavenly places are in Christ. They are all in
Christ. And faith sees Him, the Lord
our righteousness. Romans 10.4. Here is that big
word again. 4. See, we are building. We are
building. We are working our way up to
something. 4. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. When the heart believes it, the
mouth will confess it. I don't have to drag people down
an aisle. Don doesn't have to drag people down the wall. Henry
doesn't drag people down the aisle. We don't have a bunch
of counselors to counsel you and tell you what to say and
tell you what to pray, tell you what to confess. What the heart
believes the mouth will confess. When the heart receives it, the
members will show it. When faith enters the heart,
the legs will follow it. The arms will follow it. The
mind will follow it. And when a man sees his ignorance of the
righteousness of God, he sees that there is no difference between
him and the Jew or the Greek. We've all got the same problem.
Same Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever,
now, now we've got an open invitation. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But we've got a problem. We've
got a problem. And I'm talking about calling
on that righteous name. that just name where righteousness
and peace have kissed each other, that sovereign name that rules
and reigns over all things, that merciful name can save to the
uttermost those that come unto God by Him, that gracious name
that gives life where it is not deserved, where it is unwanted,
that loving name that God commended to us while we were yet sinners.
Whosoever shall call on that name shall be saved, but how
are you going to call on Him in whom you have not believed?
And how are you going to believe in him whom you have not heard?
And how are you going to hear without a preacher? And how is
he going to preach except God sends him? Now, brethren, I leave
it in your hands, but I believe God sent me here this morning.
And I believe God gave me a message for you. And I believe I have
declared, and Larry has declared, the name of God in the person
of Christ. And I commit you into his hands.