Let's turn back to Romans 1.
June 18th through 20th, we're going to have vacation Bible
school, beginning Tuesday, 1030 in the morning till one in the
afternoon. And that's always a very blessed time. I've got a question for you. Are all things of equal importance
or are there some things that are more important than others? That's an easy answer. We realize
that there are some things that are more important than others. And the inspiration to this message
is where Paul said, first, first, first, I thank my God. First refers to first in time,
place, order and importance. And the Bible has a lot to say
about what is first. As a matter of fact, it's going
to take two messages for me to bring this message. I'm going
to have to continue this one tonight like I did last week. But I feel no safety in looking
at anything in the word of God as something of secondary importance.
If God revealed it, It's of primary importance. But it's also true
that the Bible tells us what comes first. I've entitled this
message First Things First. Paul said first, I thank my God. At the beginning of this great
epistle to the Romans, he does what is most important. He gives
God his rightful place. First, first, I thank my God. I remember back in the 70s, I
think it was when Jerry Falwell was kind of big national preacher
or whatever it was. But I remember he had this little
slogan. It said, Jesus first. And he had lapel pins. People
would put Jesus first. It's not Jesus first. It's Jesus
only. And I don't put God first in
the sense of first in my priorities. First God, then family, then
job, then, you know, the, no. Christ is all. He's not first
priority, He's everything. First, I thank my God. You see, every good gift and
every perfect gift cometh from above and cometh down from the
Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. Paul said in Romans, 1135, for
who has first given to Him. Who has first given to Him and
to be recompensed to Him again. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things. To whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. We love Him because He
first loved us. Now don't, may the Lord deliver
us from trying to prioritize. Christ is all. He's not first. and then something else a second.
Everything will fall in line. Everything will be okay when
he's all. Now, as long as you try to make
him first and try to prioritize things, you're gonna be messed
up. Oh, may the Lord cause us to
give God his rightful place. Now, turn to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. verse 20. Knowing this first, now this
is what comes first. This is of critical importance. Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scriptures of any private interpretation for the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Knowing this first. The Bible is not written by men.
It's written by God. And this book is our only rule
of faith and practice. We don't care what denominations
say. We don't care what men say. What does God say in his word? We don't stand over this book.
We stand under it. We don't look into this book
to find out if it proves what we believe. We look into this
book to find out what to believe. This is the inspired, inerrant
Word of God, and this comes first. You lose this, you lose everything.
I mean, if you lose this, it's got my opinion or your opinion,
and what difference does it make? But knowing this first, we bow.
We bow to what God says in His Word. Now, what you and I think
about God is seen in how we respond to this book, the Holy Bible. I love calling it that. It's
the Holy Bible. We have a book written by God
without ever knowing this first. No scripture is any private interpretation. Somebody says, here's what I
think. Well, it doesn't matter what you think or what I think.
It's holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Turn to Ephesians 1. I love this. Now remember, first means first
in time, place, order, and importance. Now look at Ephesians 1, verse 12. that we, every believer, should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Now, who's the first person to
trust in Christ? Wasn't me, wasn't you, wasn't
Paul, wasn't King, wasn't Abraham, wasn't Moses. The first person
to trust Christ was God the Father. He trusted Christ for the salvation
of his people. He didn't trust you. He didn't
trust me. He didn't say, I'm going to trust Todd to do what
he needs to do in order for me to save him. No, nothing like
that at all. No, he trusted Christ to save me. Turn to Genesis chapter
42. Here's the great example of this.
I love this. Genesis 42 verse 37, this is
Reuben speaking. And Reuben spake unto his father
saying, slay my two sons if I bring him not to thee, deliver him
into my hand, and I'll bring him to thee again. That's Reuben. If you bring, you take Benjamin
with me, I'll take him and I'll bring him back and you can trust
me to do it. You can slay my sons if I fail. And Jacob said
to Reuben, my son shall not go down with you. His brother's
dead and he's left alone if mischief befall him by the way in which
he shall go. Then shall you bring down my gray head with sorrow
to the grave. Jacob says, I'm not gonna trust
you, Reuben. Nope, Reuben, not with Benjamin. Not gonna trust
you. But look in verse 8 of chapter 43. And Judah, who does Judah
represent? The Lord Jesus Christ. He came
out of the tribe of Judah. And Judah said unto Israel, his
father, send the lad with me and we will rise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ said
concerning poor old sinful Todd Norbert to the father, I will
be surety for him. If I don't bring him before thee,
let me bear the blame forever. And what the father did? The
father trusted him. That we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ. First Corinthians
15. Verse three. Paul said, for I delivered unto
you. First of all, this is what is most important. This is what
is of primary importance. I delivered it to you. First
of all, there's that word first. First of all, that which I also
received, how the Christ died for our sins, according to the
scriptures. And here is what is a primary
importance. It's more important than anything
else. It's how that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures. Now, in the Old Testament, we have so
many examples of how that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures. The first example I think of is the Passover, the
Passover. Remember when God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you? Now that's how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. In the Passover, was there anybody
of the firstborn that was outside of the houses with the blood
over the door that was spared? Not a one, not a one. Now that's
how the Christ died for our sakes according to the scriptures,
but what about this? Was there anybody who was in the house
with the blood over the door that God judged anyway? Maybe
somebody was really bad, real bad. Did God say, I'm going to
get that person anyway? No. No, God said, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Now, that's a primary important.
Now, I can say that Christ died for our sins and never preached
the gospel. If all somebody says is Christ
died for our sins, he hadn't preached the gospel. It's hell
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
according to the Old Testament scriptures. You see, according
to the scriptures, if Christ died for you, you must be saved. Isn't that wonderful? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies them.
Who is he that condemns? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that's risen again. That's the only answer I need.
Christ died. The gospel, which is of primary
importance, it's how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures. Now turn to 1 Timothy 1. Now the word first here The exact
same word is translated the chief, the chief. As a matter of fact,
several times in the New Testament, first is translated chief. Verse
15, this is a faithful saying You can rely on this and it's
worthy of all acceptation. Everybody in this room ought
to hear this as the very best thing they've ever heard in their
life. It's worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to receive this
and rejoice in this. What? That Christ Jesus came
into the world. To save sinners, and I love the
fact that there's not an adjective between save and sinners. It
doesn't say he came to save repentant sinners. It doesn't say he came
to save believing sinners. It doesn't say he came to save
sensible sinners. It doesn't, no, just sinners. No adjective. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am the first. of whom I am the chief." Now
notice he didn't say, I used to be the chief before God saved
me. Not in whom I was the chief, but I am the chief. Now understand
this. If you have any view of the Lord
at all, you'll see this about yourself. And the only thing
that would prevent you from seeing this about yourself is you don't
see the Lord. That's the only reason. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the
chief. You know, you can only hear the
gospel as a sinner. It's not good news to you. It's not. I
mean, it gets dull. It's monotonous. But oh, if you
hear as a sinner. it comes as good news. May the Lord never allow us to
leave this position that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom I am the chief. You know what that means?
That means he came to save me. That's my, he came to save me.
And you know what? If he came to save me, you know
what? He saved me. He saved me. Oh, this comes first. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse six, in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. An animal sacrifice never satisfied
God. Then said I, lo, I come in the
volume of the book it's written of me. to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burn offering and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not neither hence pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. He takes away The first, the
Mosaic law, the Old Testament. What did he do with it? He took
it away. He took it away. It's gone. That he may establish the second,
the New Testament, the gospel of grace. He takes away the law. He takes away the Old Testament
law. that he may bring in the new. He takes away the first,
that he may establish the second. Now, the law, God's holy law. Got a lot in it. Got the Ten
Commandments. Got the ceremonies. You got the
feast days. You got the Sabbath day. You
got the punishments. You know, under the law, if you're,
if you had a rebellious child, you know what you're supposed
to do with it? Stone him. Stoner. Under the law, under
the law, if you broke the Sabbath, you know what you had to do?
If you broke the Sabbath, what did they do with that Sabbath
breaker? He was picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. They came to Moses
and said, what are you going to do with this fella? He said,
stone him, stone him to death and kill him. Now that's God's
holy law. You want to be under that? Well,
we're not under the ceremonial law, but we're still under the
moral law. That's our guide to life. Now, wait a minute, wait
a minute. I love God's holy law, and I love the Ten Commandments.
But where do you have the right to separate one part of God's
law from another? Well, we're under this part, but we're not
under that part. No, God's law is one unified whole. You can't
take away one part and say, I'm under the other part. No, God's
law is one unified whole. And you know all God's law does?
It curses. It condemns. He takes away the
first. that he may establish the second.
I think of what Paul said, tell me you the desire to be under
the law. Don't you hear the law? If you
be led of the spirit. Oh, that's what I want to be
led of the spirit of God. If you be led of the spirit,
you are not under law. All you have to do is add one
thing to grace and it becomes law. And as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse. The law is our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. Now he took away the first. Aren't
you thankful he did that? He took away the first that he
may establish the second grace. I love that verse. Sin shall
not have dominion over you. How come? Because you're not
under law. but you're under grace. I love
that verse of scripture. You know, I use that verse of
scripture a lot in prayer. Lord, you said sin shall not
have dominion over me. Be good to your word. You said
this, not me. You said it. Be good to your
word. Let not sin have dominion over me because I'm not under
the law, but I'm under grace. Now you're there in Hebrews.
Turn to Hebrews chapter seven. For this Melchizedek, verse one,
this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God.
I have no doubt that this is the Lord Jesus Christ who met
Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed it.
The reason I know it's, he's described not having father or
mother, having no genealogy. And when he came to Abraham,
he didn't bring a blood sacrifice. He brought bread and wine, only
the Lord. would do that, that's really
prefiguring the Lord's table when that took place. Now this
is Christ himself, Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning
from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also
Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first, first, first being
interpreted by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after
that also, king of peace. King of first, King of righteousness. Second, King of peace. There can be no peace where there
is not perfect righteousness. What is righteousness? It's a
perfect standing before God's holy law. Righteousness is to
be without sin. You can't be partly righteous.
You can't be 99% righteous. You can't be part good and part
bad. No, the only righteousness there is, is perfect righteousness. And you will have no peace, I
will have no peace, unless there's perfect righteousness. And in
Christ Jesus, Right now, present tense, to the glory of God, every
believer has perfect righteousness. And you know what comes from
that? Peace. The peace of God that passes
all understanding. It's not human peace. It's not
just feeling good about the way things are going and everything
going my way. No, it's a peace knowing that God is completely
satisfied with me. And I'm satisfied with him and
his way of salvation. First King of Righteousness.
Some had to be done with my sin. He did it. He put away and he
took his very own righteousness and gave it to me. And now I
have the personal righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as my
righteousness before God. Matthew 6. Verse 31, therefore, take no
thought. Don't be anxious. Don't worry.
Saying what should we eat or what should we drink or whether
with all should we be clothed for after all these things to
the Gentile sake. For your heavenly father knoweth.
That you have need of all these things, isn't it wonderful to
have a heavenly father and he knows exactly what I need and
he's promised he's going to give it to me. I don't need to worry
about it. I don't need to be anxious. He
says in verse 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. Not all these things that Gentiles
are seeking. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. And I love what it says next.
And his righteousness. First righteousness, then peace.
There he says, seek ye the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Now, I understand he doesn't say, seek to be righteous. Well, you know, I want to be
righteous. But that's not what he says, is it? He doesn't seek
to be righteous. He said, you seek his righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. Now, why does he say that? Because
his righteousness is the only one there is. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness there is? David did. He said, I've made mention of
thy righteousness, even thine only. Now, how can the righteousness
of God be my personal righteousness? How can the personal righteousness,
the law-keeping of Jesus Christ actually be mine so that it actually
is mine? It's not as if it were mine,
it really is mine. That's me. The obedience of Christ. Well, first, by being united
to him. I love it when the Lord came
up to John the Baptist and said, baptize me. And he said, me baptize
you? I need to be baptized in thee.
The Lord said, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. You see, when Jesus Christ fulfilled
all righteousness, everybody that was united to Him fulfilled
all righteousness. I've already fulfilled all righteousness
because when Christ did, I did. His righteousness is mine by
virtue of being united with Him. That's what we confess in baptism.
Oh, don't you love to see people baptized and confess Christ is
my hope. My only hope is that when he
kept God's law, I did too. When he suffered the wrath of
God and sin was punished, I was too. When he was raised up justified,
I was too. His very righteousness is mine. We're righteous by God making
his righteousness to be ours. Of him, 1 Corinthians 1.30 says,
of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. God made him
my righteousness. You know, God's got the authority
to do that. I don't, but God does. And he made his son to
be my righteousness. And then we're righteous by imputation,
even as David described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes
righteousness without their works. It's almost the same thing, but
it's different. The scripture makes it different. Christ's righteousness
is charged to my account and it becomes mine by God imputing
it to me. And then there's righteous by
gift. Romans 5.17 speaks of the gift of righteousness. Righteous
by birth. If you know that he's righteous,
everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. I'm given a righteous
nature, the nature of God. That's what happens in the new
birth. Now, how do I know if I have all this? Can you look
at yourself and say, yep, I can see where I'm united to Christ.
I can see by but I can see Christ righteous. This is imputed to
me. I can see God. I can see all that. Can you?
How do you know? How do you know? to him that
worketh not. Would that describe you? To him
that worketh not, but believe on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. The evidence, faith is the evidence
of things not seen, the evidence that I've been eternally united
to Christ, that Christ's righteousness has been imputed to me, that
it's been given to me as a gift, that it's been given to me by
birth, that God made it to me, the evidence is faith in Christ
right now. Right now, I'm relying upon Jesus
Christ for all these things, and that is the evidence that
I have His righteousness. Now, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall
be added to you. Turn to Matthew chapter 22, verse 34. But when the Pharisees had heard
that he put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting
him and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? I always think it's kind of amusing when people wanted
to put the Lord to the test. He's speaking to omniscience
at this time. He's trying to tempt him, see if he can catch
him in his words, see if he can find some fault in what he's
saying. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is
the first. This is the first and the great
commandment. And the second is likened to
it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets. Now here's what comes first.
Loving God as he is. Loving God as he's revealed in
his word, in all of his glorious, excellent attributes. Loving
the sovereign God, the just God, the holy God, the God of the
earth that does right, the judge. We love him as he's revealed
in his word with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the
strength. That's the first commandment. And the second one is like just
like it. Love your neighbors yourself.
That means do unto others. Do unto others. Here's our rule
of practice. Do unto others the way you want
them to do it to you. Treat them the way you want to be treated
without reference to how they treat you. On this hang all the
law and the prophets. Luke 14, got three more. And some more tonight. Luke 14,
verse 25. And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to
me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brother and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. Now, what the Lord mean by that?
Is he telling me to positively hate my mom and dad and my wife
and my kids, or I can't be his disciples? You know better than that. He's
not saying that I'm to positively hate my relatives in order to
be his disciples. But he is saying this. If I try to put my relatives
into heaven because they're my relatives. If it's at the expense of the
truth of the gospel, I'm guilty of loving them better than God.
That's what he's talking about. I'll have the truth sacrificed
for my own personal interests. He's saying you can't do that.
If any man loved father or mother or sister or brother more than
me, I know she's my mom. I know she's saved. If nobody
else is in heaven but her, she'll be the one. Well, I know somebody
else is there. The Lord's there. The Lord's
there. We know he's there, but this
is what he's he's warning us about trying to. Well, let's
go and read verse 27. And whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. That's that's
the the confession of Christ and the problem that comes from
preaching the gospel, the truth of Christ. He cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to
build a tower said it's not down first. First. and counts the cost, whether
he hath sufficient to finish it, lest, happily, after he hath
laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all behold
and begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and
was not able to finish. First, count the cost. Now, what will it cost you to
be a follower of Jesus Christ? Now, here's the answer. Nothing
from you. and all of you. That's what it costs. You don't
have anything you can give. You don't have anything you can provide.
You got anything? No. Nothing from you. But all
of you. Count the cost. 2 Corinthians
8. I love this. I love them all. But look at verse 12. 2 Corinthians
8, verse 12. If there be first a willing mind. If there be first a willing mind. Now, here is the character of
God's people willing. willing. Psalm 1103 says, thy
people shall be willing, shall be volunteers, willing in the
day of thy power. Now, I realize that by nature,
no man is willing to be saved by Christ. I realize that. But
I also realize this, when God saves somebody, he makes them
willing. He makes it It is God that worketh in you. Philippians
2.13 says both the will and to do his good pleasure. And now we are willing. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Whosoever will. Are you willing
to be saved by Christ? Are you willing to be saved by
the grace of God? Take the water of life for whosoever
will. And what joy there is in willingness. You're doing what you want to
do. Isn't it wonderful to do what
you want to do? And what bondage it is to be
doing something that you think you have to do, it's your duty
to do, it's your responsibility, to be willing. To be willing. What joy there is in willingness.
You're doing what you want to do. Willing submission to God.
Willing submission. You know this thing of submission.
You only submit when it's what you want to do. There's no such
thing as unwilling submission to God. You submit because you
want to. You submit to his word. You submit
to his people. You see, when we do what we do
willingly, not from fear of punishment or hope for reward, but willingly
and freely, there's a nobility to it, isn't there? There's a,
there's a true nobility. Oh, the key to happiness is a
willing submission and turn to second Corinthians eight verse
five. I guess you're already there.
Look in verse five. And this they did not as we hoped,
but first, first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us. by the will of God. Now, this
is what grace looks like. Let's begin in verse one. Moreover,
brethren, we do you the wit, we want you to know. of the grace
of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how then their
great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their
deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. For
to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power,
they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty
that we'd receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of
the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we
hoped, but first gave their own selves. to the Lord and unto
us by the will of God. Now, in the next six weeks, I
guess, we're going to have three people from this church getting
married, including next week. Everybody's invited. But I was
thinking about this thing of marriage. What is the key? What
is the key to a happy marriage? giving yourself to each other.
That's what marriage is. You all together give yourself
to each other. You submit yourselves to each
other. Now, they gave themselves to
the Lord. Paul said in Romans chapter 12,
verses 1 and 2, I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God,
that you present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you might prove what is that good and that perfect and
that acceptable will of God. May the Lord enable me and you,
even right now, to give ourselves lock, stock, and barrel to him,
to present my body a living sacrifice. Now turn with me there. I want
to show you the first thing he said about that. Turn to Romans
12. Verse one, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through
the grace given unto me." Now here's the first thing he says
in proving that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I say,
through the grace given unto me, to every man that's among
you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly. According as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. Now let me say this. The more
high you look at yourself, the more low you see the Lord Jesus
Christ. The higher view you have of yourself,
the more low view you have of Christ. And the lower view you
have of yourself, the higher your view of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing he says
when he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice. Don't think
of yourself more highly than you ought to think. First things
first. And we'll continue this tonight.
Let's pray together.