He had heard of the believers
at Rome. He had never seen them. So far
as we have any indication in the scriptures, he had never
met even one of them. But he had heard of their faith,
and he was determined to go to Rome to preach the gospel to
those people. And he wrote the epistle to the
Romans while he was at Corinth. In the middle of chapter 1, verse
15, He says, so as much as in me is, because I'm a debtor to
all men, being saved by God's free grace, having this treasure
in earthen vessels, I owe it to everybody to tell them about
Christ. I'm a debtor to all men, so as
much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, from one believing sinner
to another believing sinner. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. When Martin Luther was a Roman
Catholic monk, an idolater, teaching through the Book of Romans, teaching
what he had been taught through the Book of Romans. As he read
the book and studied the book and read what other men had to
say about the book, God Almighty began to deal with his soul.
And through these pages, he lit up the man's heart, caused the
light of the gospel of the glory of God to shine in his heart,
and lit up the world in what we call the Reformation. It has
changed the entire course of history for 500 years. No single event since the death
of Christ has had such a profound effect upon history as that thing
we call the Reformation. Luther certainly cherished this
book. He said concerning the book of
Romans, this is the true masterpiece of the New Testament. He said
it is the perfect gospel. He wrote it is well worth a Christian's
while not only to memorize it word for word, but also to occupy
himself with it daily. as though it were the daily bread
of his soul. John Calvin said a man who understands
what's written in these 16 chapters understands. He has the key for
understanding to open all the hidden treasures of Holy Scripture. This epistle, I don't want to say things to
detract, I want to be helpful. But this epistle is considered
by many, I have no way of knowing, I'm not a scholar, but it is
considered by many scholars, both believers and unbelievers,
to be the most profound piece of literature in the possession
of any man. And it is a profound piece of
literature. It is an epistle of pure gold
from beginning to end. It was this book, Paul's epistle
to the Romans, that was used of God to give light in a dark,
dark world and break the arms of papacy. Maybe if God's church
becomes familiar with the message of this book again, darkness
will be dispelled in the hearts of men today, and the arms of
idolatrous papacy will be broken again today. Now, I hope that
kind of whets your appetite for the epistle. You may be aware
of the fact, you may not, that this was not by any means Paul's
first epistle. In fact, as I told you, it was
written while he was at Corinth on his third missionary journey.
He had already written much of the New Testament by the time
he writes the Book of Romans. But in God's providence, it is
placed where it is in the canon of Holy Scripture, perhaps because
of its importance, the importance of its message of free justification
by Christ Jesus. Now, we have no idea how the
church at Rome began. We're not told. Some folks want
to speculate, but not any point in that. We just know there was
a group of believers there, folks who had been baptized in the
name of Christ, who worshiped God and believed the gospel of
God's grace, and Paul was concerned for them. He wanted them and
us to be established firmly in the faith of the gospel. As I
thought about that a little while this morning, I couldn't help
but to think what a magnanimous heart that man must have had.
What a huge heart. He sits down and writes. He wrote
by divine inspiration, but inspiration didn't mean he didn't think.
He writes what is perhaps the most complicated to write piece
of literature in the New Testament, and he writes it under the stress
of great pressures, preaching at Corinth in the face of opposition
all the time. And he writes it without any
of our modern conveniences, to a group of people he had never
seen, whose names he did not know, just because he cared for
their souls and the truth of God and the glory of God. Now that's the spirit of our
Redeemer. That's the spirit of the gospel. The Book of Romans is important
because this book reveals every essential aspect of gospel truth
taught throughout the Word of God. Every essential aspect. Now, when you say that, automatically
the warning sign pops up. Don't want to give folks the
impression that the rest of the scriptures are not important.
They are. They are all equally inspired and equally authoritative,
but they don't all equally teach things. And this book of Romans
is specifically intended by God to give us a single book containing
the whole of essential truth with regard to the gospel of
God's grace. Let's look at the book together. In chapter 1,
as Paul begins his epistle and his introductory comments, He
clearly, distinctly, and unmistakably identifies and defines the gospel. Now remember, there is but one
gospel. Paul says in Galatians chapter
1 that any other gospel is a false gospel. In the New Testament,
the gospel is spoken of not as a gospel, but as the gospel of
God. Look in Romans 1.1. Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the
gospel of God. This gospel is no novel or new
thing. This is the gospel of God. It
was conceived in the mind of God in eternity. It is the gospel
of which God alone is the author, and it is that gospel which speaks
only of God and of his works. This is the gospel which is of
God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. In other words, Paul says, now
what I'm writing to you, these Roman Gentile believers, what
I'm writing to you is what God spoke of throughout all the Old
Testament scriptures by his holy prophets. It is concerning his
son. The gospel is all about Jesus
Christ. The gospel is not a declaration
of what Christ did and what you must do. The gospel is not a
word of morality, it is not a word of religious dogma. The gospel
is concerning God's darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all
grace and glory in him. Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh, and declared to be, declared by virtue of what he accomplished,
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit
of holiness. You remember Paul said in 1 Timothy
he was justified in the Spirit? When Christ was made to be sin,
he put away all the sin that was made to be his, all our And
when he had put away our sins, on the third day he rose from
the dead, being justified in the Spirit. And thereby, by the
Spirit of holiness, declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection
from the dead. God declares his Son, when he
raised him up from the dead, and says, This is the one of
whom all the prophets spoke. This is he who came to put away
sin. This is the Redeemer, by whom
we have received grace. All grace. comes to sinners by
Jesus Christ upon the ground of his finished work of redemption
as the risen Lord seated in heaven, by whom we have received grace
and apostleship." Now watch this. We've received grace for obedience
to the faith among all nations. In other words, men and women
are brought to the obedience of faith in Christ. God commanded
you and me. believe on his son, 1 John 3,
23. And we lived in constant rebellion and disobedience until
God, by the power of his grace, caused us to obey his commandment,
believing his son. To the obedience of the faith
among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also the called
of Jesus Christ. So Paul defines the gospel in
his opening chapters. And then, after defining the
gospel, he says, now, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. I'm not
ashamed of it wherever I am. I'm not ashamed to proclaim it
to you. I'm not ashamed of it because this is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone who believes. This is the means
by which God Almighty works in this world to the saving of his
elect wherever they are scattered in his good providence. And then,
beginning at verse 18, And going through chapter 3 and verse 19,
Paul deals with that which is foundational to the gospel. He
shows us the total depravity of all human beings by nature. and the total inability of man
to change his condition before God because he is under the wrath
of God. He is constantly living as a
wrathful creature opposed to God and one upon whom the wrath
of God resides. Beginning in verse 18 of chapter
1, and going through that middle of the, almost the end of the
third chapter, he shows us hereby the universal need of the gospel.
He tells us that all men by nature are condemned, all by nature
are under the sentence of God's wrath, consciously under the
sentence of God's wrath, the wrath of God abiding upon them
because they believe not. And they all hold the truth of
God, verse 18, in unrighteousness. Now that word, hold, it means
to hold down, to suppress. And this is what Paul tells us
in chapters 1 and 2. Everybody knows that God is. Folks say,
well, he believes there is a God. Well, what wonderful thing to
say about a fellow. He believes there is a God. Everybody
knows that God is. It's not a matter of choosing
to believe it. The atheist may choose not to believe it, but
he still does. He knows that God is. The fool
says in his heart, no to God. But he knows God is. He knows
God is. And he holds down the truth in
unrighteousness. And the way he tries to suppress
a screaming conscience is by searing the conscience with his
rebellion and unbelief and his denial of God's being, character,
and authority. They hold the truth in unrighteousness. They suppress it. The heathen
know that God is by the light of creation, by the light of
nature, by the light of conscience. God consciousness is a part of
every man's being. There's no question about that.
No question about that. Men and women do not become religious
because they're raised up in religion. Men and women are religious
by nature. They have a God consciousness.
Now their conscience is perverted like the rest of their nature,
but they know that God demands righteousness, and they're going
to meet him in judgment. Every man knows that. The Jews,
and you and I, who now have the Word of God in its full completion,
have an even greater guilt than the barbarians in the most barbaric
tribes, in the most barbaric dark corners of the earth, if
we believe not the gospel, because we have the whole revelation
of God. And so we read in Romans 2, verse
1, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man. Verse 12, For as many
as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without the
law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by
the law. All men by nature are under the
wrath of God and refuse to believe the gospel of God, and they pervert
that which God has revealed to them, whether by creation or
by conscience or by his word. They pervert it according to
their own lust, turning the truth of God into a lie. And so all
are without excuse, and none will ever be turned from the
darkness of their chosen ways, except by this gospel that is
the power of God unto salvation. Now look at verse 19 of chapter
3. This is what all that means. Salvation by the doing of man
is utterly impossible. Utterly impossible. utterly impossible. When Paul finishes showing us
the guilt and depravity and corruption of the human heart and human
nature, he says, ìNow we know that what things whoever the
law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God.î If the Jew can't be saved by keeping God's law, the heathen
can't be saved by worshiping a stump. Men and women with polluted
hearts and polluted hands cannot do that which will give them
good standing before God. And then in chapter 3, beginning
of verse 20, Paul begins to deal with this marvelous, wondrous,
great, glorious gospel declaration of free justification by the
free grace of God. through the redeeming blood of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Every man wants salvation. Every man does. I've never spent
much time reading them and don't plan to start, but if you want
to read some of the ancient philosophers, even the ancient pagan philosophers
who would be real hesitant to talk much about God, kind of
like our politicians, they all know there's something called
salvation, they want it. They just think they're going to get
it by something they do. Paul here speaks plainly, declaring
to us the only way a sinner can ever stand before God Almighty
is to be just, righteous, holy, and right with God. It can't
be done any other way. Beginning then in this 20th verse,
the Holy Spirit shows us that justification is altogether the
work of God's free grace. the work of his free grace in
Jesus Christ without works of any kind on our part. The gospel
is a proclamation of free justification, of free salvation. It is a declaration
of righteousness and redemption already accomplished and brought
out. It is the declaration of salvation to all who believe
upon the grounds of justice satisfied. And the gospel reveals how that
God Almighty, in his holy character, may be both the just God and
the Savior he declares himself to be, back in Isaiah 45. Look
here in Romans 3. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's all the law can do,
is show you what you are. It can't do anything else. But
now the righteousness of God without the law. This is not
talking about the righteousness of God's character. That's not
something that has to be performed. That's what he is. The righteousness
of God without the law is the righteousness that Christ established. It is the perfect righteousness
of a perfect man. Righteousness that God will accept.
The righteousness of God. I'm sorry. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. It's revealed. It's declared,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. That is, this is
what all the book of God is about, verse 22. Even the righteousness
of God, now watch this, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It didn't say by faith in Jesus
Christ. It didn't say by you believing
in Jesus Christ, but the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. By Christ's faithful obedience
to God as the God-man mediator, our substitute. No, you don't.
By faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.
For there is no difference. For all is sin to come short
of the glory of God. Being justified freely. without a cause. No cause in
us. Aren't you glad? By the grace of God. God justifies
men and women by his free grace. It is altogether a gracious act.
But don't ever imagine that the grace of God is in opposition
to the justice of God. Don't ever imagine that the mercy
of God and the truth of God do not walk the same path. These
have kissed one another in Jesus Christ the Lord. Folks say, don't
give me justice, give me grace. You won't get grace without justice.
It won't happen. God will not forgive sin except
according to strict justice. He won't violate his character.
He won't violate his word. He will only do that which is
just and right. All right, we're justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. redemption finished in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth in the old eternity, in the covenant
of grace, in the Old Testament scriptures, in his everlasting
purpose, God set him forth. In the preaching of the gospel
now, God sets him forth to be a propitiation, a justice-satisfying
through faith in his blood. That doesn't mean that the propitiation
is made when you believe. It means that he sets him forth
to you as you believe. Redemption is done. Redemption
is finished. Propitiation is made. Justice
is satisfied. And every believer sees it. He's set forth clearly by the
Spirit of God in your hearts. And now he declares his righteousness. through the remission of sins
that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say it
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Now we rejoice to declare
the wondrous love of God. Oh, God is love, aren't you glad? But the gospel is not a declaration
of God's No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. The gospel's a revelation of
his love. And we don't know the love of God anywhere except in
the sacrifice of his darling son. You can't see it anywhere
else until you see it there. But the gospel is a declaration
of righteousness, justice, and truth. And that's the issue that's
got to be settled. How can God save me? How can
God save me? How can I stand before God Almighty,
perfect, accepted, righteous, and just, only through the sacrifice
of God's darling Son? And that's the message of Romans
3. In chapter 4, Paul uses two examples, two notable examples,
well known among the Jews and among the Gentiles. Abraham,
the father of the Jewish nation. David, the greatest of their
kings, and the greatest of their prophets in many ways. David
and Abraham, Paul says, they were both justified just exactly
the same way Rex Bartley is. Just exactly the same way. No
difference. No difference. Justified just
exactly the same way. Believing on Christ. Trusting
Christ. You say, well, they didn't. They
didn't know all those things. Our Lord said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. Abraham knew a heap sight more
than you think he did. Abraham took his son Isaac up to Mount
Moriah, and Abraham knew that Isaac was the child through whom
the promised seed of woman was to come into this world, in whom,
by whom, and through whom all the nations of the earth would
be blessed. And he took him up to Mount Moriah to kill him.
And he did. You can't do that, Abraham. How are you going to do that
and expect God to fulfill His promise? That's not up to me. It's mine to hear what God says
and obey Him. God will do His work. And he
said to his servant, I and the lad are going to go yonder and
worship God. And we will come back here in three days. We will
come back. And Abraham, when he saw that
ram caught in the thicket, his son asked him before that, he
said, Father, we've got the wood for a burnt offering. And here
we are, got fire for the offering, but where is the sacrifice? You told me all my life we can't
worship God without a sacrifice. And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself. a lamb for a burnt offering.
He didn't say God will provide for himself. He said God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. He believed God. And
Paul says when he drew back the knife to kill his son, he didn't
even stagger. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. And God imputed it all to him
for righteousness. The sacrifice of his son? No.
What was pictured in it? His act of believing? No. The
one he believed. And God declared to Abraham,
you're righteous. You're righteous. Now, all this
is written concerning Abraham and David. So much so that as
David said, I have sinned, the Lord said, said by his prophet,
the Lord put away your sin. David said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And he's telling us that
justification is accomplished not by our act of faith, but
rather by God's free grace that brings us faith. Now look at
chapter 4 verse 16. If faith added anything to the
justifying work of God, Paul's statement here in chapter 4 verse
16 wouldn't make any sense. But rather, faith receives the
blessedness of free justification accomplished by Christ. Paul
says, therefore it is of faith. that it might be by grace. To
the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to
that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of
the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Now, grace,
what is that free, unmerited favor? Is that what grace is? But if grace is the response
to faith, then that doesn't make any sense, does it? Oh, no, no,
no, no. Faith is the result of grace. And we receive justification
believing on the Son of God. Now look at Romans 4.22. When
we read here that God imputed righteousness, the righteousness
of Christ to Abraham, Paul tells us it wasn't written just for
his sake, but for us also. Look at verse 24. But for us
also, now I'm going to give you a very exact translation of verse
24. It was written for us also to
whom it is being imputed. To whom it is being imputed. This is a continual thing in
which we are totally passive. It is being imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And then
in verse 25, Paul tells us that our Lord was delivered to the
justice of God, delivered to death, delivered to suffer all
the horror of God's holy wrath for us because of our sins. Our sins imputed to him. And
he was raised again the third day, not in order to get us justified,
but because of justification, because he had accomplished our
free justification. And then in Romans 5, look at
it. Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace with God.
What's faith do? Oh, it gives me peace. Peace with God. David, I believe
on the Son of God. I'm not condemned. That's called
peace. I believe on the Son of God. I rest my soul on him. That gives me peace. Being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now, skip
down to verse 9. Much more. Being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Not only
do I have peace, having been declared righteous by God, but
I have every reason to stand with confidence before God in
this grace. I'm going to be saved by him
who died for me. I will stand with him in glory. Verse 10,
for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son. It didn't say if when we were
enemies, God made us reconcilable, did it? It said we were reconciled
to God by the death of his son. Reconcile in all points of law
and justice, so that God has no argument or quarrel with us
anymore. Much more, being reconciled,
reconciled now in our hearts by faith in him, we shall be
saved through his life. He's not going to let us go now.
And not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. And then in the
rest of chapter 5, Paul tells us, now this is the way this
thing works. You remember what you heard about
your daddy Adam? How is it you got to be sinners?
Was it by something you did? No. The things you started doing
as soon as you had any consciousness called sin, that's the result
of what you are by nature. We got to be sinners by the fall
of our father Adam. and our sin and fall in him,
as our federal head and representative in the garden before God. All
men were in him." You can picture what I am by nature. Is really something that happened,
the result of something that happened long before I was born?
You got it. You got it. You got it. Now, you choose what you want,
and you always choose evil because that's what you are by nature.
But all that you are by nature is what you are in Adam. Oh,
I don't like that. Like it, brother. Like it. You see, Paul explains here that
Adam was typical of somebody else, and he was created to be
a type of somebody else, another man. the last man, the last Adam,
and all that we are in grace. Everything we are before God
Almighty. Now with God at peace, reconciled
in my heart, joyful, confident, standing confident before God.
No reason to be afraid of God. That's all together. the result
of something that happened entirely outside your experience. It's
altogether the work of Jesus Christ, the last Adam. Do you
see that? The angels fell without a representative,
and there's no mercy given to them, no grace extended to them,
no hope for them. They're reserved in chains of
darkness until the day of judgment. we fell through the fall of another. That means there's hope we might
rise through the recovery of another, and that other one is
Jesus Christ the Lord. Now that's exactly what we experience
in the new birth, in the life of faith, commonly called sanctification,
that's described in chapters 6 and 7 and part of chapter 8.
Chapter 6 begins with a brief description of believers' baptism. And it's really not so much a
description as Paul simply using it for an illustration of the
basis of our faith, of that which we confess. He says, when we
were buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, we were baptized
into Christ and baptized into his death. And when we arose
out of the waters of baptism, we professed that we believed
our whole hope before God is in the death, the burial, and
the resurrection of Christ, and our death, burial, and resurrection
within. And then Paul draws another very
important conclusion. He says, in this thing called
baptism, you lifted your hand to God, and you said, I belong
to God. I belong to God. I am risen with
Christ to walk with him in the newness of life. And oh, what
a life it is. Paul says in this new life that
we have in Jesus Christ, we must not serve sin, but rather, look
at verse 11, he says, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin. Man, that is good reckoning.
That is good reckoning. He says this is how God reckons
things. You reckon it the same way God does. But alive to God. Dead to sin. Alive to God. Being saved by God's free grace,
he tells us twice. Once in verse 14, once in verse
16. In this sixth chapter he tells
us twice. We're not under the law. You see, believers are children. Believers are not slaves. Believers are not ruled by law
and regulation, they're ruled by love and faith and gratitude.
You're not under the law, but under grace. And it tells us
again in chapter 7, we're dead to the law. Just in case you
folks over at Rome have had some of those visitors from Galatia
to come by your place, you tell them you're dead to the law.
Dead to it. Because you died with Christ,
and the law has no claim on you. And then it tells us in the The
latter part of the 7th chapter, we're dead to the law, we're
dead to sin, we're alive to God, but Paul, got all that in my head, but
my soul, there's so much corruption in me, so much evil in me. How do you explain that? Paul
says, listen to me now, as long as you're in this world, you're
going to live in constant, constant warfare with yourself. He says, in me, in my flesh,
there's no good thing. He said, when I would do good,
he was present with me. He said, things I want to do,
I don't do. Things I hate, those are the things I do. But if I
hate it, he says, in whom were I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. That's not really who I am. Let me see if I can illustrate
that for you. Now, this is going to come as
a shock to you all, I know. You all have never seen this
side of me. Sometimes, for absolutely no
reason at all, except the horrid ungodliness that's in me. I speak more mean to that woman
right there than I would to any of you ever. But she still loves me. How come? Because she understands that
ain't me. That's not what I want. And I hate it, but that's the
way it is. Oh, when I would do good, evil
is always present. The things I hate, that's what
I do. I don't have the least bit of
trouble. I don't ever have the least bit of trouble doing what
I hate. Oh, but the things I would. I can't do it. Because I'd love
your children just like I'd love mine if I could. And love you
just like I'd love myself if I could. Can't do it. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body and this death? Thank God. Deliverance is sure. Look at chapter 8. Paul continues
with this matter of sanctification in the 8th chapter. In the first
part of the chapter he tells us Being in Christ Jesus, we
no longer live after the flesh. Now, almost everything you ever
read anywhere on this 8th chapter of Romans, these opening verses,
is wrong. It's just wrong. Folks talk about
it, well, if you beat yourself up and just get real close to
God and get so much better than everybody else, you walk in the
Spirit, then you don't have any condemnation, then you have real
assurance. That self-righteous presumption, there ain't no assurance
there. It ain't there. What's he talking about? There's
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. We quit
trying to please God by what we do. That's what it is to walk
after the flesh. Keep trying to please God by
something you do. What is it to walk in the Spirit? It's to
trust Christ alone. That's what it is. Now, to be
carnally minded, to live after the law of righteousness, is
to be dead. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. Spiritually minded, oh, he's
so pious, he's so good. That ain't spiritual mindedness. To be spiritually minded is to
trust the Son of God, and thereby the righteousness of the law
is fulfilled. even in me, because Christ alone
is our righteousness. And then Paul goes on in this
chapter to tell us that since we're in Christ, we have no condemnation. We live now before God with hope
of everlasting glory with the sons of God, in the constant
expectation of the glorious liberty of the sons of God by faith,
because Christ is ours. And when he gets to chapter 8
and verse 28, all the way through chapter 11, Paul begins to explain
how all this has come to pass. Now, modern commentators and
preachers and religious leaders tell us the book of Romans reveals
God's great plan of salvation. Are you listening to me? Nothing
could be further from the truth. Oh sir, it does not. God Almighty does not have a
plan of salvation. You make plans, and I make plans,
but we all know that as Robert Burns put it, the best laid plans
of mice and men often go awry. Plans are nothing. What are you
talking about? Preacher, I thought you believed
in predestination. That's a different thing. God Almighty has a purpose. A sure, unalterable, eternal
purpose. Comprehending all things that
ever have been or shall be, by which he rules the universe.
And his purpose is the salvation of his people. Now read and understand
Romans 8. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. What does all that mean? That
means they're dead sure going to glory. That's what that means.
That's what that means. This purpose of grace includes
everything. It is the rule by which God governs
the universe, and always has, so that nothing whatsoever, nothing
whatsoever, oh, I would, to God, I could get the ear of this generation,
nothing whatsoever hinges to any degree on the will or the
works of any man. Be it good or bad, nothing, nothing. How can you say that for children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil? That the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
He says, I'll have compassion on him, I'll have compassion.
And whom I will, I'll harden. That's what God said. Oh, how
can you say such things? I didn't, God did. God did. What's that mean? Look at Pharaoh.
Look at Pharaoh. He's going to kill the Israelites.
Pharaoh's the one who caused the source of trouble down in
Egypt. Pharaoh's the one who wanted them dead. Pharaoh's the
one who went after Moses. Pharaoh's the one who tried to
kill them from the beginning. What's Pharaoh doing? God raised
him up to drive Israel out of Egypt and to cast his carcass
in the river. Now does anybody know what happened
to Pharaoh? Did he come across the Red Sea? There he is. And Moses sang that song you
love to read. It's done. Redemption's done. And when God gets done with me,
I'm going to cross over this greater sea as still as a stone. And nobody's going to speak a
word against me. Everything's well, because God's on His throne,
and He will perform His good purpose. Or does that mean that some folks just can't be saved?
Oh, no. It means that some folks dead
sure are going to, even as many as believe on the Son of God.
And that's what Romans 10's all about. Paul says in the first
part of the chapter, he said, Faith understands the works done.
Now whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Then in chapter 11, he describes how God Almighty
raised up the nation of Israel and used their rebellion and
their unbelief and the resulting judgment of God upon them, called
the casting away of Israel after the flesh. so that he would send
the gospel to the Gentile nations of the world, and save all his
elect out of every nation, his true Israel, the Israel of God.
And so all Israel shall be saved, we're told in chapter 11, verse
26. And when Paul thought of these things, you don't have
to read the notes when I finish and give them to you, you can
get the rest of it, but when Paul thought of these things, he was just
overwhelmed. He was just overwhelmed. He said
in verse 33, Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. And then he says in chapter 12,
as he brings this thing to the conclusion, he says, now in the
light of all these things, I call on you, children of God, to do
the only reasonable thing you can do. Consecrate your whole
life to the will and glory of God. Present your bodies A living
sacrifice unto God, wholly acceptable to Him. That's the only thing
that makes any sense. That's the only thing that makes
any sense. And soon, the God of peace will crush the serpent
under your heels. Amen.