Romans chapter 16. I don't want to too much look closely
at this verse mainly. I want to read it and I want
to comment on it, but I just want to see mainly two things,
two or three things from Romans chapter 16 and verses 25 and
verse 26. Romans chapter 16 verse 25 through
verse 26. This is the close of Paul right
into these Romans, those in Rome, probably mostly Gentiles. But
I'm sure there were Jews in this congregation too. Now to him
that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, to
strengthen you, to make you strong and stable. make you like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, establish you, fill you full
of joy and comfort even in your trials. According to my gospel
and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, the gospel
is a mystery, but now is made manifest and by the scriptures
of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting
God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."
Now last week we looked at the mysteries of the kingdom of God
if you remember that. We looked there in Matthew chapter
13. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's what the Lord Jesus said
as he and his apostles went preaching. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And the Lord Jesus set up that kingdom. We looked at that in
Daniel chapter 2. He set up a kingdom cut out without
hands. And the Lord Jesus was conceived
of the Holy Ghost. He wasn't man-made, was he, like
you and I? He wasn't born of a man. He didn't
have a human man for a father. He was cut out without hands.
And this kingdom of Jesus Christ we looked at, it will increase.
And as Daniel said, eventually the kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to overthrow all other kingdoms. And that
kingdom is going to endear forever. Of the increase of His kingdom,
there will be no end. It is still increasing today. And it will increase until the
end of time. The Bible says that Christ must
reign until He hath delivered up the kingdom to God, even the
Father. He is reigning now. He is king
now. And He is reigning and subduing
all of His enemies, the last enemy that He will subdue is
death. And when all of that is finished, He is going to deliver
up the kingdom back to God, His Father. And he said about this
kingdom that it's a spiritual kingdom. It comes not with observation. You don't see it. You see some
evidence of it, but it's the spiritual kingdom. He even said,
My kingdom, the kingdom of God, is within you. It's not meat. It's not drink. It's not keeping
holy days. It's nothing like that. But he
said it's joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God
is within you. And when God's redemptive purpose
is finished, every elect soul that will ever be saved, and
all the elect souls will be saved, there will be one kingdom left,
just one kingdom left. That's the kingdom of God, the
kingdom of God's dear Son. And every saved person, listen,
not just the New Testament saints, But all the saints in the New
Testament, the saints in the Old Testament will be in that
one kingdom. Every saved elect soul will be
in that one kingdom. There is not a kingdom for the
Jews and one for the Gentiles. There is not a kingdom for the
Old Testament saints and a kingdom for the New Testament saints.
There is coming a day when the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of
Heaven, will be made manifest. It's going to be seen. There's
coming a day, the last day, the Bible calls it, the Day of Judgment,
when the internations, every man, every woman that's ever
lived in the history of time will be brought to stand before
the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, the King on His throne. And He'll
take the sheep on His right hand, and He'll say, Come, you blessed
of My Father, inherit the kingdom, the kingdom, not a kingdom, but
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And all of the saints from Adam and Eve, if they were saved,
and I believe they were, on to the last soul that was ever saved
will be in that kingdom. And the Bible says they'll come
from the east, they'll come from the west, and they will sit down
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who were in the kingdom of heaven. Just one kingdom, isn't it? Just
one kingdom. And all of the saints belonged
to that kingdom no matter what age they lived. In the four Gospels we looked
at last week, John the Baptist and Christ and His apostles,
they came preaching this kingdom. And they said it's at hand. And when the Lord Jesus had raised
from the dead in Acts chapter 1 verse 3, He spent 40 days with
His disciples. And those 40 days He preached
to them, He taught them the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God. Forty days. He taught them that. Now I want to just show you something.
I want you to exercise your fingers just a little bit and turn to
some Scriptures in the book of Acts with me. And I want to begin
there. I want to begin there. And this
is the reason I want to begin there. I want us to see that Jesus Christ Himself that
set up this kingdom taught His disciples what this kingdom was
all about. And when they begin to preach
it, they never cease to preach this one kingdom. I want to show
you some places. Look in Acts chapter 3 and look
in verse 3. Here is where the Lord raised from the
dead in verse 3. To whom also He showed Himself
alive after His passion, after He had suffered, by many infallible
proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God. Don't you wish He had wrote
a book? Don't you wish you had 40 days?
I wish you wrote a book. Acts chapter 1 and verse 3. Is
that what I told you? 3? 3, 3? Well, don't turn to
where I'm telling you. Turn to where I'm thinking. Acts chapter 1 and verse 3. See
it there? To whom also He showed Himself
alive after He suffered, rose from the dead by many infallible
proofs. There is no doubt that Christ
did rose. Many infallible proofs. Let men doubt it to their own
peril, but He rose. He is alive. And He spoke to
His disciples for forty days. Man, I wish they would have wrote
that down, don't you? Can you imagine what He said
about the kingdom of God? And look in chapter 8. Look in
chapter 8. Philip went down and preached
to the Samaritans. And look what he said in chapter
8 and look in verse 12. Peter came preaching in chapter
8 and verse 12 to the Samaritans. And when they believed Philip
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. He preached
that kingdom. Now look over in chapter 14 and
verse 22. Here Paul is preaching to the
Gentiles. He went everywhere preaching
to the Gentiles. Many of them were saved and now
he goes back through and preaching to them again and look in verse
22 of Acts chapter 14. Look what he did. He was confirming the souls of
the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and
that we must through much tribulation enter unto the kingdom of God. Paul is now preaching the Kingdom
of God and he's preaching it to Gentiles. Now look in chapter
19 and verse 8. 19 and verse 8. He goes into the synagogue of
the Jews. Acts chapter 19 verse 8. He went into the synagogue
and spake boldly for the space of three months disputing and
persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of God. Now look in another place. Look
in chapter 20 and verse 25. Here he is speaking to the elders
of the Ephesian churches. He is saying goodbye to them.
And look what He said in verse 25, And now, behold, I know that
you all, among whom I have gone preaching, the kingdom of God
shall see my face no more. One more place. Look in chapter
28. Acts chapter 28. And look in verse
23. Here He has gathered the Jewish
people together at Rome. Here He is at Rome now. And He
has gathered the Jews there at Rome together and they have come
to Him in His own hard house. In verse 23, And when they had
appointed Him a day, there came many to Him and to His lodging,
to whom He expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of
the prophets, from morning till evening. And one more place there
in that same chapter and look in verse 30. And Paul dwelt two
whole years in his own hard house and received all that came into
him, preaching the kingdom of God, teaching those things which
concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding
him. So what do we see in all of this?
We see the Lord Jesus started preaching, and what was He preaching?
The kingdom of God. His apostles, And Philip, what
did they preach? The kingdom of God. He preached
to the Samaritans. Paul preached to the Gentiles.
Then he preached to the Jews in the synagogue. And what were
they preaching? This one kingdom. This one kingdom. This kingdom that will never
be moved. This kingdom that we are preaching
today. And the kingdom that will never
cease to be preached as long as this world stands. There is
only one kingdom. Just one kingdom. The kingdom
that Christ set up, the one He taught to His disciples, the
one that they preached, and when the book of Acts is finished,
He is still preaching the kingdom of God. In the 1800s, we often talk about
the 1800s, but in the 1800s, boy, there were some good things
happening in the 1800s. some of the best preaching probably
this world has ever known if you've studied much about the
1800s. You've got men like Charles Spurgeon. You've got men like
J.C. Ryle, J.C. Fieldpott, Bonar. You had some
wonderful preachers in the 1800s. But you know in the 1800s you
had some bad things that happened too. Real bad things that happened. You're just two or three of them.
You know something about Jehovah Witness? That come in the 1800s. You know something about Mormonism?
That come in the 1800s. And a lot of cults, the charismatic
movement began in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. And it spread
like wildfire. But another awful thing that
began to happen in the mid to late 1800s was what we call dispensationalism
or ultra, ultra dispensationalism. And this is some of the most
awful, awful things that's happened then and it's spread to our day. And you don't think very much
about it until you start seeing friends get into this and get
carried away with it. And then it breaks your heart,
especially after they go astray so far and they die and you wonder,
was he even a child of God dispensationally? I want to get into this maybe
for the next few weeks, but I'm going to try not to get bogged
down in it. But one thing dispensationalism
does, and you may have seen this when I mentioned some of these
things, they divide the history of this world into what they
call dispensations, into periods of times. Let me give you just
for instance, and it depends on which one of them you've talked
to. They divide the Bible like this. Adam and Eve were in the
Garden of Eden before the Fall. That was the time of innocence.
Before the Fall was the time of innocence. And then after
the Fall from Adam and Eve up to the Flood was the time of
conscience. And then from the Flood up to
Abraham was the time of human government. And then from Abraham
to Moses. after Abraham up until when Moses
came was the dispensation of promise. Abraham lived in the
dispensation of promise. And then from Moses up through
Christ, they got the dispensation of law. I said till the time
of Christ. I made a mistake there. Law was
from the time of Moses to Paul, until Paul. And then from Paul
on to what they call the tribulation period was the time of grace.
Only Paul knew anything about grace. And then the last dispensation
will be the 1,000 years, the millennial. Now that's seven
dispensations. Seven dispensations. And here's
the two things I find wrong with that. Nowhere in all the Bible
do you see the Word of God dividing history up or dividing the Bible
up in such utter nonsense. They talk about the age of conscience,
the dispensation of conscience, and yet from the fall up into
Abraham, conscience is not even mentioned. Conscience is mentioned
many more times in the Gospel age than it is in that time. That's the first thing. Just
to start saying We divided this time up and divided this time
up and divided that time up. That makes no sense when the
Bible doesn't do it. That's the first thing to begin
with. Why would anybody want to do that? But the second thing
and the most dangerous thing is this. In almost every dispensation
that they mention, they say God saves sinners in a different
way. He saves sinners in a different
way. And they call it ultra-dispensationalism because they started out it was
just dispensational. And there wasn't much wrong with
that, but it laid the foundation for the ultra-dispensationalism.
Some dispensations, He saved sinners by faith plus a sacrifice. Now I'm getting this right out
of their books. I'm not making this up right out of their books.
God saves sinners in some of the dispensations by faith plus
the sacrifice. That's the way Abraham was saved.
He brought a sacrifice by faith. And then in the dispensation
of law, people are saved, sinners are saved by law. When Moses
got the law on Mount Sinai, from there until the coming of Christ,
sinners were saved by the law. And then when the Lord Jesus
came, until the time that Paul received the gospel of grace,
men were saved by believing that Christ was the Messiah and repenting
and being baptized in water. That is where they say Acts chapter
2, repent and be baptized every one of you. And they say that
is not the gospel that Paul preached. And then Paul, Paul's gospel
was revealed to Paul alone and it was a gospel of grace and
then right now we're living in that time, a gospel of grace. It's going to end and then the
tribulation is coming, they're going back again to the law plus
faith and then when that's over there will be a kingdom of Christ
set up, His personal reign and they're just not for sure how
people are going to be saved in that. That's honestly what
they say because Christ is going to be here, you're going to be
able to see Him so they're not sure how people are going to
be saved. If this stuff was being taught
in some third world country, we wouldn't think anything about
it, would we? But you know, this is being taught in Baptist churches. This is absolutely ran like wildfire. It's being taught in so many
prominent Christian denominations in our time. You can get on the
Internet. I get flowers from them. I get
the material from them. I listen to them as they preach
these things, as they witness these things. And this is more
dangerous in our day. Listen to this. This is more
dangerous than Mormonism. It's more dangerous than Jehovah
Witness. It's more dangerous than Catholicism. You can readily
detect those heresies, can't you? You get your little flower
to tell what the Mormons believe, one of the first things they
do is deny the death of Christ. You can pick that out in a minute,
can't you? You say, that's wrong. I see the heresy in that. But
these dispensationalists, they don't deny the death of Christ. They don't deny the inspiration
of the Scriptures. They don't deny other important
aspects of the Scriptures. But they are so confusing that
they're all over the Bible. You cannot pin them down on anything. If you pin them down on one spot
and say, let's talk about this, they'll jump plumb over here
on something else. They're all over the Bible teaching everything.
They're like these little, what's these little boxes where you've
got these little clubs and these little animals jump up and you
pack them on the head and they jump up over here and you pack
them. That's the way they are. You pin them down here and they'll
jump up over here and you pack them over here and they jump
up, they're all over the Bible. And it's hard to pin them down.
and stop them. They have at least two gospels. They have different kingdoms
that true believers, they say, are really in. They have at least
two churches and one of them told me there were many physical
resurrections. I have never in my life, brothers
and sisters, studied anything about this system of hyper-dispensationalism
that has utterly wore me out. I can take Catholicism. I've
got books on Catholicism. I've got books on the great religions
of the world. I can understand that. I can
explain where they're wrong. I can see the error in that.
But trying to pin these guys down and understand what they're
saying and explain it is the most difficult thing I've ever
had to do in my life. That's how confusing it is. And
I thought to myself just a few days ago, I thought, what's the
matter with me? That I can't get a hold of everything that
they were saying. And then I got some material that a guy, he
almost acts like he's a theologian. He's brilliant in the Scriptures.
And he said, these guys are wearing me out. I can't keep up with
them. They're all over the place. Les Feltick. He lives in Nebraska. He is all over the United States.
I have friends that listen to him. Let me make you one statement
that he wrote. He has made some statements like
this. He said, Nobody knew or preached
the gospel of the grace of God until it was revealed to Paul.
For the first time in the history of the world, sinners were saved
in a different way, by grace. plus or minus nothing. Neither
Christ nor any of his apostles preached the gospel that Paul
preached for it was not known until God revealed it to him
alone. And that's why he says here in
my text that he called it my gospel. My gospel. Now to him that is of prayer
to establish you according to my gospel. But you know that
wasn't just Paul's gospel. It's your gospel, isn't it? It
was Peter's gospel. It was Christ's gospel. I just want to begin tonight,
just bear with me for a few minutes, I want to make three statements. And then next week I want to
look at another one of these mysteries and I want to look
at it in the in the sense of what they're saying about these
things. I wasn't going to do this, but I got to thinking about
a dear friend of mine, and he died. And he told me about this. And I got to talking to him about
it. And I said, Brother, that's wrong. You're getting off on
that wrong. I started to ask him some questions. He said,
Well, I believe it. I said, Explain this to me. He said, I can't
explain it. You listen to him. He said, He can. If you believe
in something that you can't understand in the Bible, then don't believe
it. Don't believe it until you understand
it yourself. But I got to thinking about my
dear friend, Marvin. And I thought, well, we need
to look at this. We need to take time and look at this. And we'll
be, the next few weeks, we'll be looking at some of these places
where they err us so greatly. And I bet you when you start
hearing some of these things and you start talking to people,
you start listening, You'll hear. Ah, that's it. Brother Larry
called me one day and he said, Do you know this guy? I said,
Oh, I know him, yeah. Les Felick, I know him. He had
a friend. And he started to tell me. Paul didn't preach the gospel.
Peter did. So let me make these three statements
tonight just to get us started. Three quick statements. First
of all is this. There never has been. There is
not now. Neither will there ever be. but
one gospel. One gospel. No one ever has been,
no one is now, and no one will ever be saved apart from the
gospel that is revealed in the Word of God. Nothing else can
save us now, or when the Lord Jesus was here, or in the Old
Testament. Ain't no other way of salvation
but that's revealed in this one gospel. When Paul says here in
our text in verse 25 that his gospel was kept secret since
the world began, he wasn't saying that nobody knew it. that it was in the heart of God,
that it had never been made manifest or known or shown in any way
whatsoever because he goes on here in verse 26 and look what
he said. But now it is made manifest by
the Scriptures of the prophets. Of course it was hid, but where
was it hid? In the Scriptures of the prophets.
Look over here in Romans chapter 1. In Romans chapter 1, you remember
when the Lord Jesus was teaching His disciples, His
apostles, about Him being betrayed and crucified and buried, and
the third day He would raise again. And it said they didn't
understand what He was saying. They could not perceive what
He was saying, and the Bible says it was hid from them. What was it hid? You mean the
whole Bible never said a thing about that? The Old Testament
was full of it, wasn't it? It was hid, it was hid in the
Bible. It was hid in the Word of God,
in the prophet. But look here at what he says
in Romans chapter 1. I was talking to Paul Mahan today
and we were talking about a message, some messages that we used to
hear his dad preach and one of them was from this text right
here, Henry. Henry preached a message one time, how do we know the
Gospel we believe is the true Gospel? And right here was his
text. Look what he said, Romans 1.1,
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to being an apostle, separated
unto the Gospel of God. How did he know it was the Gospel?
Look at this, which he had promised before by His prophets in the
Holy Scriptures. Where is the Gospel revealed?
In the Holy Scriptures. And what is the Gospel concerning?
Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead. The Gospel concerning His Son.
And you know from Genesis to Revelation you have the Gospel. Sometimes
it is revealed in a promise, many promises. Sometimes you
have it revealed in predictions. He shall be born of a virgin.
Sometimes you have it in prophecies. He shall grow up before Him as
a tender plant. but it is revealed from Genesis
to Revelation. And you know something? You found
only one gospel in the Old Testament. I hope most of you have read
the Old Testament. And as you have, have you found more than
one gospel in it? That is the only gospel, isn't
it? Paul said this in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 2. Listen
to this. He said, And to us, us in the New Testament, was
the gospel preached as well as unto them. The gospel was preached
to those in the Old Testament, the Jewish nation. But the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it." Look at another place, a very familiar
passage of Scripture. Look over in Luke's Gospel, chapter
24. This is after the Lord Jesus had raised from the dead. Those
two were on the road to Emmaus. And they didn't know him when
he began to talk to them. He began to talk to them and
look what happened in chapter 24. And look in verse 25. They
said, we thought this was surely the one that was going to redeem
Israel. And he began to talk to them. In verse 24 he calls
them fools and slow of heart to believe. Here in verse 25,
look at it. Luke 24 and verse 25. And he said unto them, O
fools and slow of heart to believe, all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have separated
these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself." Brother Henry used to call the
Old Testament the hymn book, the H-I-M book. It is all about
Him. And look what he said over here
in the same place, in the same chapter, in verse 44. These are
the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which was written in the Law
of Moses in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. And then he opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. What does the Old Testament Scripture
reveal? Jesus Christ. And this was hid
from Paul. But it was hid from everybody
until it was revealed by the Blessed Holy Spirit. I didn't
understand it either, did you? I read Moses and I didn't see
Christ in it. Remember that Ethiopian eunuch
that was reading Isaiah 53? He said, I can't understand this.
It's hid from me. But it wasn't hid, was it? Just
from him. Other people read it. God revealed
it to them. Paul never saw Christ. He never
saw Christ. All of his unconverted life,
he never saw Christ in the Old Testament. He read about the
Passover. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. And he never saw Jesus Christ there. He read Psalms
Chapter 22, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? He never
heard Christ say that from the cross. He read Isaiah 53, All
we like sheep have gone astray, and God has laid on Him. He did
not know who Him was. It was hid from His eyes. He
said this was hid from the foundation of the world. But it was hid
in the Word. Listen to Galatians chapter 3
and verse 8. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the gospel unto Abraham. Abraham knew the gospel? Yes,
he did. He knew the gospel. Saying, In
thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. I am not
saying that the Old Testament saints had the gospel. in as plain a light as we do
in the New Testament. But they have the Gospel. They
have the very same Gospel that we have in the New Testament.
There is but one Gospel in the Old or New Testament. But the
plainer revelation of the New Testament did not make void the
Gospel of the Old Testament. Somebody says, well, it wasn't
as plain back there. That don't mean God saved somebody
a different way. But one way to be saved, and
that's to be the Gospel. Now, I say that for this reason.
When they say, when they start telling us there's more Gospels
than one, then show that to us. Then show that to us. Let them
answer some of these simple questions. Where's it at? Where's it at
in the Old Testament? It's not there, is it? It's not
there. One gospel. One gospel. Secondly, here's the second statement
I want to make. There's never been anyone saved,
no one is saved now or ever will be apart from the free grace
of God. Nobody has ever been saved and
ever will be saved apart from free and sovereign grace. Look over here in Genesis chapter
6 right quickly. Turn to Genesis chapter 6. That's
going back pretty close to the beginning of time, isn't it?
Genesis chapter 6. Look here in verse 7. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 7. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast, and creeping things and fowls of the earth. For it
repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord." What was it that made Noah different?
What was it that preserved him when everybody else was destroyed? He found grace. He found grace. Some have even speculated that
Noah was just as ungodly as everybody else until he found grace. I
don't know what his life was, but I know this, he was lost
until grace saved him. Grace saved him. In Psalms 106,
David was rehearsing the sins of Israel when God called him
out of Egypt and all through the desert he was rehearsing
when they came out of Egypt and they sinned there at the Red
Sea and through the desert, how they kept sinning against the
Lord and all of this. And here is what David said in
Psalms 106 and verse 8, The people in the wilderness
found grace in the eyes of the Lord, even Israel, when He went
to make him rest. Grace! You remember when the
Lord sent Jonah to Nineveh, that great city? And He said, Their
wickedness is so great it's come up before Me. They've got 40
days and I'm going to destroy them. And remember what happened? They repented. The Lord forgave
them. And you remember what Jonah said Motivated the Lord to do
that? Listen to this. He said, I knew
that you are a gracious God. I knew that you are a gracious
God. What was it that motivated God
to save that wretched, hell-deserving city? Grace. Grace. And even when you don't see the
word grace, the concept is always there. It's always there. Listen
to Psalms 107 verse 17, Fools because of their transgression
and because of their iniquities are afflicted, fools. Their soul
abhorreth all manner of meat. They draw near unto the gates
of death. And then they cry unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He saves them out of their distresses.
He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their
destruction Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness
and for His mercy that endures forever. What was it that saved
these fools? He didn't say grace, but nothing
else you can apply it to. Grace, grace. In the Old Testament
as well as the New Testament, we could say this, by grace you
are saved. And if you ever study the Old
Testament or the New Testament, and find out that somebody was
saved any other way than by the free grace of God, please let
us know it because I haven't found it. Have you? I haven't
found it. So here we've got one gospel,
one gospel, never been but one gospel. Now grace. No sinner has ever been saved
apart from grace. And thirdly and lastly is this,
no sinner since the fall of Adam has been saved and justified
and walked with God and pleased God except by faith. I don't think you'll find one
single exception to that rule, faith. This concept goes back
to the very beginning of human history when the Bible says by
faith Abel offered unto God. And by faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death. Before his translation he had
this testimony that he pleased God, but without faith it's impossible
to please God. It's impossible to please God
without believing God. It's utterly impossible. And
for man to tell us there's some other way to be saved than faith,
that's just not so. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now,
it was not written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed
to him, but to us also, if we believe on him, that raised up
Christ the Lord from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses.
One last scripture I want you to look at. Look at Hebrews chapter 11 and look in
verse 6 where I just got through quoting from. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
6, But without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that comes
to God must believe that He is, must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Look
at this, By faith knoweth being warned of God of things not seen
of yet, moved with fear, preparing an ark to the saving of his house,
by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness,
which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was
called to go out to a place which he would after receive for the
inheritance, went out, not knowing where he went. By faith he sojourned
in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in
tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, and heirs with them the same
promise. He looked for a city which hath foundations, who builder
and maker of God, his God. In verse 11, Through faith Sarah
also herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered
of a child when she was of past age, because she judged him faithful
who had promised. So there sprang even of one in
Him as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky in multitude,
as the sand which is by the sea sure enumerable. These all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them aforeall, were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from which they came out, They
may have had opportunity to return, but now they desire a better
country that is heavenly. What was Abraham seeking for?
He was in the land of Canaan. He was in the promised land.
Do you know what he was seeking for? He was seeking for that
heavenly country. And he was seeking it by faith.
He believed God. He was waiting on the coming
of Christ. And you go ahead all the way through this 11th chapter
of Hebrews and you see that Moses was a man of faith. He wasn't
saved by law. You say, Bruce, why did he keep
it then? Why did he do what God told him to do? Why do you do
what God tells you to do? Why did He set up the tabernacle?
Why did He start offering sacrifices? Why did He keep these feast days?
God told Him to. But nobody was saved by that.
You say, well, if they weren't saved, why did they do it? Why
are you here tonight? Are you saved by coming here?
Then why are you doing it? Because you believe God. You
assemble yourself together as God told you to because you believe
Him. And Moses wasn't keeping that
law to be saved. He set that up and they kept
those things because God told them to. But they were saved
by faith, by faith. And that's what he tells us here,
all the way through by faith. And he says in verse 39, and
these all, all of these that he's talking about, all the way
through the Old Testament, haven't obtained a good report through
faith, received not the promise. They were waiting for Christ. They were waiting for Jesus Christ
to come. They didn't receive that promise.
They all wanted to be like old Simeon there in the temple. They
wanted to take the baby Jesus up in their arms and see Him.
That's what they wanted. They wanted to say, now my eyes
have seen. Now I've seen. They never got
to see it, didn't they? They received not the promise.
They all died in the faith waiting. But they were saved by faith.
Faith in a coming Christ. We're saved by faith in Christ
that has come, haven't we? And He rose again, and He's seated
in heaven. We're saved by faith. There ain't
no other way to be saved. I don't care what dispensation
you live in. There's but one way to be saved,
and that's faith. And so I don't have to go through
all the hyper-ultra dispensationist stuff, try to figure out everything
those fellows are saying. But I know this much, there's
one gospel, there's one gospel, grace, and it's grace alone,
and faith, it's faith alone. And if you try to tell us that
there is something beside that, we utterly reject it. We utterly
reject it. Well, we'll start there next
week and we'll go to another mystery and look at this, okay?