In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of a narrow path and a broad road. He emphasizes that there is no middle ground and that every individual is either saved or lost. The preacher highlights that all people are born in sin and are enemies of God, but through the grace of God and receiving Christ, they can be saved. The sermon also mentions that the Bible warns about the way that seems right but leads to death. The preacher encourages listeners to choose the path of righteousness and avoid the ways of the world.

We know that our Father, who cometh in Jesus' name, with thy Word only for us, became the premise by faith that the essence of thy Word gives light and understanding. We ask thee, Father, that thou wouldst in this hour, if thy Word was well and spoke, use this blessed Word to bring the light of salvation to some, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Brethren, my hope, desire, and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a deal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, the righteousness to everyone that believes. Mary, I met you this morning in the 11 o'clock hour when I talked here. We took up a subject in the nature of a comparison, a contrast between the narrow road and the broad road, and we showed from the Word of God that there is no middle path, no neutral ground, which simply means that at this present moment every one of us are either saved or lost. That there is no such thing as being either for or against. The Lord Jesus said, he that is not for me is against me. He that gathers not with us shall not progress. And so, the Bible teaches at this very moment where we are, every individual in this building is saved by the grace of God having received Christ, for we are still lost in this sin, on the way to endless destruction. We learned this morning in our study on this subject here that all of us, by nature, are born lost, dead in trespasses and in sin. We found out in Romans chapter 3 that the entire record of the Word of God gives to us a very dark description of the human heart. We learned there that there is none but who is good, and no not one. We're all together to overcome a problem, and we're all going out of the way. The Word of God distinctly convicts all of those who are in this building this morning that by nature we make our entrance into this life lost, dead, spiritually with no life from God, alienated from the life that is in God, and by nature we are enemies of God. This is not a delivery, I am sure, and neither is it possibly acceptable with a natural man. But, the Bible reminds us in Romans chapter 10 and verse 9 that if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. We were reconciled to God by the death of his son, lest we have been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And so, we are taught in the Word of God that as financial gods, we are born enemies of God. We are lost, and this is the way all of us make our beginning or entrance into this life. Now, the message we are going to take up tonight is in silence of things of the past, or streaking down a bit narrow road. The text that we ought to remember tonight is Proverbs 16 and 25, where the Bible says there is a way that seems right unto a man, that the end of life are the ways of death. As we learn this morning from the Bible, that we are all born by nature in the broad world, we shall learn tonight that the Word of God that brought all of us are born on the broad road that leads down to death and destruction, that all unsafe people do not live on the same side of the broad road. Who is removing the artist who is seeking to impress upon us here with this narrow segment of the broad road? Remember this entire area here is seeking to put forth the imbolic of the truth of natural depravity that we are born lost in the need of salvation. Let me do this narrow line here in this section, and call it the clean footpath to distinguish between good, moral, righteous, sane living people as contrasted with a broader section of the broad road where the wicked and the ungodly can live. Here on this clean footpath, as all those others are bright citizens and people who are very respectful of the things of God, forgive, grace, and smoke, and many other racist habits and vices that these people here are afflicted with on this part of the broad road. Now, tonight we have our objective to see what the Bible teaches us about the clean footpath. You see, my friends, what other moral Jesus died for upon the cross, and this is what we shall show this morning from Romans chapter three, that God has faith in Jesus Christ, and we trust him as our Savior. He declares that we are righteous in his sight, and that Christ also has told us of our guilt. The Bible states it like this in Romans 3 and verse 24, being justified or declared right to strip lives by the grace of God through the redemption that is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And, remember, you and I believe in the Son of God, and we accept his death as payment for our sins, and we receive him by entering in through this door. He himself said, I am the body of heaven and earth, and shall be saved. The moment we do that, immediately God in heaven declares that we are now justified. We are acquitted. We are acquired from all guilt. We are now given a right standing in the presence of God, and this on the basis of the infinite value of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Not the value of our place upon the death of Christ, but this is salvation, but it's a practical death of Christ that will ever satisfy the righteous demands of God against me. You see, it is God for whom the satisfaction has been made, and it is God, rather, for whom the sacrifice was given. Christ died for God in order to make it possible, as we read in Romans 3, for the church that God should be just in the death of fire for them that believe in Jesus. Now, you see, the only way God can save sinners without becoming a sinner himself is that someone must die and pay for sin. So, the Bible continues to tell that the way to the sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. The only payment God accepts for sin is death, and that's why, indeed, that we are justified freely by the grace of God's truth and redemption. That means, without that, by paying a price, proven against what it implies, Jesus whom God has set forth and has faithfully opened his place, crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven at God's right hand, has been satisfactorily sacrificed by his death, and the only thing God requires in your part in mind is pay. Now, this is what salvation is. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ that is a power of God unto salvation. But, you see, my friends, the Bible teaches that the devil, and we'll see that later this Sunday night at three messages on Satan, and we'll learn that Satan primarily is a religious being. His main way of deceiving people is not to be denied the Bible, nor the gospel of Jesus Christ, but to imitate it. That's the reason why so many countless Christians in the world today who know all the right answers, who carry the Bible in their hands like real believers, who have been baptized and joined the church and received in the church fellowship, many of them in new and ancient homes, they can defend their position. There are those who can tell you why I am this and why I am that, if you're actively speaking. So, I have a lot of this particular persuasion, and there are those who can tell you why I don't take sin in me like people here at Northgate Chapel. But, it's one thing to have one's head filled with the knowledge of proper and correct doctrine, and another thing to have the heart filled with Jesus Christ. And, you see, my friends, a great weapon that the devil uses is to deceive people into believing they are saved. He can give you something so like the real thing that you may go on for years, and years, and years, and not even know that you are not a real Christian. This is why I've I would like to publicly go on record that I have not one grip of confidence in my preaching or the powers of human ambition or persuasion of personality, but only in power of God. The essence of God's word gives light and gives understanding. You are here tonight, and you believe that you are saved, and you are really on the clean footpath. The way that seems that to a man is ended up in the ways of death. I shall never, if I live with you forever, and each day of the day before I was available for eternity, I could never persuade you nor show you that you're wrong. Only the word of God can do that. That's why we must stick right to the book. And so, I do know what the Bible teaches regarding the devil. He is a master counterfeiter. But, have you claimed the church of God today? Every local congregation you find is literally riddled with false professors who look, and act, and walk, and talk like real Christians, but who have never had a real experience of conversion to Jesus Christ. Now, we know this is true for the simple reason in twenty-some years of traveling throughout the southeastern United States of America, preaching the gospel, that rarely ever do we take up this section of the chapter of what some Christians got saved. Some Christians. You know what I mean? Somebody who has passive existence. Somebody who has hope that they will stay. It happens to people that you would be absolutely dumbfounded if you knew this. I knew one lady in the city of Greenville, South Carolina, whose husband for years and still does write gospel tracts, the leaflets that Christians give out, and witnesses her love. And, she, for thirty years, patiently gave the tracts out to her husband Francis. And, when we went there for meetings in Greenville, we were there, and she was one of the nicest, most generous, established women a lady you ever met in your life. Had a real Christian in her own eyes, and everybody else's eyes. She was one of those unusual, outstanding Christians. Now, about the second night she was released from the lessons of the cleanser class, Brother George and I came into the meeting. She was sitting there with her husband, and she said, Mr. Ellis, I'd like to speak to you. And, I went over, and she said, you know, it may be, but I have just gotten paid since you have been here with this child. And, I said, after thirty years of giving out gospel tracts and being in church fellowships? She said, yes. The next evening, she said, Ms. Ellis, come over here. And, I went over there, and she said, I am absolutely frustrated that I have just gotten paid. And, after I left there, she wrote me a most beautiful letter telling me the difference between a canopy and a genuine believer. To the truth of thirty years, I still have to tract my husband, Turner, because of the fact that it was my duty to do so as his wife and as a professing Christian. But, she said, now that I have been delivered from the cleanser class, she said, praise the Lord, it's a joy that I've tracked because my heart is so gratitude to God, and love for Jesus Christ. So, there's a difference. Now, you see, my friend, what we have to be aware of today in the teaching of the gospel of Christ, we must not only work many, many more than girls to believe on the wrath of God, to believe on Jesus and in the blood, but we must also want to beware of Satan's counterfeit. So, please prepare. You see, a person here, for example, in a Christian home, and in an evangelical environment such as here and other places that are fundamental to Bible belief, including churches, a child is brought up in such an atmosphere just because it learns all of the language. As I said before, it's because the language is not apparent. They can look good in the face. Others have led others to Christ who have never been saved. I had the joy of meeting a young man, the Lord, in the city of Augusta, Georgia, less than three years ago, who led his wife to be to the Lord, and he wasn't even saved himself. Now, he led his own wife to the Lord, and she was greatly saved, but he had not yet been saved, but he had not yet discovered this. But, he did shortly after, he led his own wife to be to the Lord. Nine years ago next month, here in the city of Burlington, we had this church up, and we were speaking there. That was a wonderful time of blessing when the Lord came in. We saw 26 or so professors be saved, among them a couple of medical doctors, school teachers, nurses, and so on. It was one of those wonderful movements of the Spirit of God. What a time of blessings was from the presence of the Lord. But, let me show you how God was working. In this meeting was a young couple by the name of Trent and Marjorie Mayer. Now, Trent practically operates an egg factory with 70,000 layers. That's an immeasurable program to grow up 85 right out of nothing. He and his wife had met at Bryan University in Dayton, Tennessee, and at Portland, they were married. Bryan University is a fundamental Bible school, and there they had gotten married, and after they left there, they came back to Burlington and went into the church in the midst of a traditional raising. She was from a very fundamental conservative magistrate in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She had two brothers on the mission field. The pastor of her church, when she was a girl, was Dr. Carl Van Gorder's father. He was very close friend of Dr. Van Gorder on that wonderful broadcast that you hear on the radio to listen to the day of discovery, and also a radio Bible class. Well, they had gone back to the traditional church of his background in which he had been raised, and liberalism began to creep in, and in contrast, against liberalism, he looked like a group in the church, Prince William Street, and Associated, which is where I stand. You know, the church that gathers like this. The group had become firmly established in the church. He would be up on the platform giving out the verses in the Bible to us. He was meeting with the men in the men's meeting, conducting the business of the assembler. He was teaching Sunday school. They were both happy, very, very happy in their new clothes. On the evening retreat, when the thing took place, the following night, Mr. Von Bergen was standing by the door talking to this young lady, and her husband standing there with a very small lady in his arms, and then he looked at Mr. Von Bergen and said to me, he said, did you know that Marjorie Mann got saved last night? I said, I don't even know Marjorie Mann. He said, well, this is Marjorie. She got saved last night, and then she told me a little bit about it. Her husband, Kent, was standing there, and I looked at Kent with a baby in his arms, and he was absolutely dumbfounded, and I said, Kent, did it ever occur to you that your wife Marjorie was not really saved? He said, Miss Ellis has never crossed my mind. Do you believe it or not? I went home that night and checked that place. By the grace of God. So, there were two people who met in the marriage of Eastern University who came home and protested against liberalism, left the church, and went and joined the Ireland Street Chapel, and were actively serving God. Three months after this was over, I went up for a Sunday, and they invited me home for lunch, and I said, do you remember the lunch table up there? I said, well, now that everything is quieted down, and the spirit of the revival is over, and everything's back to normal, I said, what really happened was you were saved when you were children like you believed, and what now actually happened God expected to you, and you've had another experience, and now it's been a deepening of your commitment to Jesus Christ, and then you listen to a person who said, no, no, we just got saved. We just got saved. So, I went and argued with them about it. We're back by there three years later, and I would have plenty of time to think it over, and I said, I'll check them out just one more time. So, I got them through the same routine. I said, shut up now. You had more time to think it over. You were really saved, weren't you? Weren't you? And, they spoke again in unison, and said, absolutely not. Said, look, I was absolutely ever convinced of what would happen to the people who did not have been saved before. What's the matter? Don't you believe them? I said, of course I believe you. I just wanted to be sure you knew what it was all about, and you know what? He spoke up, and he said, I tell you this, even when I was unstable in the fellowship of the church, I had rather be with a graduate than any other people on the earth, and she blessed the heart. I never will forget it. I just woke up and said, and I had to know I was separated, too. A separated, sanctified sinner on the way to hell in the fellowship of the church. This is a dream come true. Oh, my spirit, may the spirit of the living God penetrate your heart tonight, and show you whether you are on the now road, having received Jesus Christ, or whether you're on the dream come true path, having learned into the intellectual knowledge of Jesus Christ. You are an intellectual believer in this Chronicle of Jesus. I see a young man in this world joining tonight, and I remember when I was doing his father's body shop, and his daddy was cutting hay to teach him his scripture verses, and I remember correcting this young fella to memorize about 300 verses before he got to the first grade, and he got paid with his college. My friends, I'll tell you that heaven is in the context of Jesus. May God touch your hearts tonight. Remember this text, and you listen. It is a dream that seems right to a man at the end of all the ways of death. And, you see, my friends, there's a reason. Sometimes, if I ever have the chance to revise again your letters and your books, and I've left out some stuff here because it's too crowded, I very well, if I can get all these scripture texts on this mailing list, on the mailing section, when I have your verses, let me bring the text down here and make it this loud, because there are more people on the dream side of it. There are more than there are on this side. You understand what he said? I believe there are more people on the way to hell on the dream footpath than there are here, and the reason is because the devil has deceived them into believing they're right. Do you think for one moment that the Jehovah's Witnesses, so gallant and so good, God's so-called good, can deliberately deceive you and others and take you to hell? They do not. They are absolutely sincere. They're innocent here, or they are fools who work as hard as they do, and the reason they have so many followers, and the reason the Mormon church and others are doing such phenomenal work is because they have that devil to enlist their members for them by his arch of deception to deceive the souls of sinners. The dream footpath of the way that that's the end of the way to hell. Now, listen. I believe there are two reasons why I believe on the dream footpath. One is because an exercise fellow who is concerned about the relationship to God may rather be given up on his fear by the devil. When you get concerned about whether you're with people or not, the devil will be the very first one to say, you want to switch your meaning? You want to switch this and that? Straighten up and do right, and come over here, get just enough to listen to make you decently respected all, but look out for this dog, because once you get in there, you'll be a fanatic. They're warning you not to go in the dog, because when you're in here, you're one of those fanatics. You're always walking around sticking little papers on the people's noses and asking what they're saying. They're warning you, don't do that. Once you're in the devil's eyes and say, if you quit your meaning, bring your girl to church, and on that side, you go to college and seminary and get to be a preacher, a theological professor, the devil will say, amen, praise the Lord, go ahead. That's exactly what you ought to do. For the moment, the very moment of the poor guiltless killing, you realize you're lost and you never have a bit of insight, and this darkness, boy, he'll resist you every inch of the way. That's the reason some of you young people tonight, and some of you older people as well, have never yet gotten up the courage to admit that you are lost and on your way to hell. The devil is taking you every breath, every inch, every step of the way. He is determined to take you to hell. Straight religious training, I believe, was the primary reason that Jacob is going to hell on the Kingfoot Pass. Now, the people of whom we were meeting tonight were on the Kingfoot Pass, and they were there because of very strict religious training. As you look at this passage we read in Romans chapter 10, I want you to notice quickly, please, that there are certain things said of these people here, until when we found two of everyone tonight was on the Kingfoot Pass. Now, the Jewish people were exceedingly religious, especially the Pharisees. Do you know why it was so difficult for a Jew to get saved in the days of the apostles? Number one, Judaism is the only God-given religion the world has ever known. I repeat, Judaism is the only God-given religion the world has ever known. Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is Christ. Religion is a code of ethics and a moral, a system of ritual and ceremony. That was Judaism. But, we read here in verse four of chapter 10 of Romans, notice, Christ is the end of the mouth of righteousness to everyone that can read. Now, the reason it was so hard for a Jew to get saved is because he had a God-given religion, a God-given ritual, a God-given sacrifice, and a God-given ceremony. But, whenever the Lord Jesus was rejected by the Jews and died upon the cross, God set the law aside and set the Jewish nation aside, and both Jews and Gentiles prayed the day by faith, and faith alone in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the end of the mouth of righteousness to everyone who believes. But, you see, the Jew had a problem understanding this, and that's why the hardest people in the world today can read. What about those who are resting on a false foundation? The hardest people in the world get saved are those who are securely roped to sleep by the devil, who have been lulled into a state of stupor. They are relaxed and contented. I'm all right. My mother and father were fine Christians. I've known this ever since I've been able to understand anything on the world of God. I believe everything the picture says. So does the devil. So does the devil, that's me. And, you see, people, the hardest people to read are those who have a false foundation. Give me a man that believes nothing and he'll get saved ten times quicker than a man who believes everything. Give me a man who has no hope and a man who gets saved ten times quicker than a man who has a false hope. Now, I want you to notice how the Spirit of God shows us the problems that confronted these people, and you'll find that this problem is exactly how I greatly prefer the problem confronting all of these people today on the page that says. First of all, what I like about Paul is that if he's finding there's good to say about you, he says that verse and then he lets you have it. Notice in verse 2, speaking of these hungry people, he says, "...I bear them record that they have a view of God that is not according to knowledge." Now, I'll tell you, I believe one of the most commendable things in the world is zeal. First of all, give us zeal for soul. God give us the zeal of Christian faith, and then I would say, you won't get much done without it. I guarantee you that. If we're not enjoying our own salvation, if we're not enthusiastic about going to heaven where it's like to make other people want to go with us, if it's not real love, nobody else is going to be interested in it. Perhaps you see the problem with the Jews, well, is that they have zeal, but they didn't have knowledge. Now, zeal without knowledge is like a wood saw without a governor. Gets out of control, the knowledge, and it cuts up the log, and it cuts up the logger. And, knowledge without faith, without knowledge of zeal, rather, without the control of cyber knowledge, is most distraught. But, it's good to be zealously affected, and it's a good thing, says the apostle, but it's not good to be zealously affected in that which is error, or which is love. So, he commends them for their zeal, and then he tells them what the problem is, and step one, two, and three, there's exactly the progression of error. The first problem produced the second, second produced the third, and the third sealed their doom. This is exactly the order of progressive error into which all people in Poland who live in Poland are being put back. Now, look at verse three. After commending them for their zeal, and enthusiasm in the Jewish religion, he says in the third verse of Romans 10 concerning the Jews, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. Now, that was the first problem that you had. Now, all of this was ignorant of, and twelve times it's found in the New Testament, and not one of the twelve does it ever mean mentally deficient. Not one of the twelve times the Spirit of God uses in the New Testament does the word ignorant ever refer to a person who is mentally tired, or short of brain. It always is a word means uninspected, not knowledgeable. They do not have knowledge, and what the Spirit of God is saying to the inspired apostles, the first problem of the Jews, and everyone like them on the clean footpath, religious and moral and kind, is that they haven't invoked religion on the wrong road is that you are without knowledge. You see, the problem is the man or woman on the clean footpath does not really understand just how God saves a sin. This is the problem with the Jews. Can you imagine what it was like for a race of people, the Hebrew nation, who for a couple of thousand years or so or longer had been cursed? That ritual and sacrifice, and the priesthood, and the temple, and obedience to the Mosaic law was the way to heaven, and now it comes along a man and turns the world upside down and throws the whole thing out the windows, and that's not the way it is yet. It's equivalent to asking a Protestant congregation or fundamental believer to take elements from the communion table and go out and put them in the gutter and truffle them with their feet. This is the problem in getting the message across to the Jews. They were not instructed. It's not that they weren't aware of the fact that God was righteous, but the very fact that they were still offering animal sacrifices, proof, evidence that they had not lost sight of the truth that God was holy, so you could approach them as a kind of a prophet of the way of sacrifice. But, what they did not know was that not only was God righteous, but if they were able to be righteous, God had to make them that way, and you didn't need any help from them. This is what they had not learned. So, when he says they were ignorant of God's righteousness, it means that they did not really understand. They did not have a proper knowledge as to how God saved a man, a woman, or a boy or a girl through faith and evil ties, and declared that one to be righteous in his plan. The righteousness of God that they were ignorant of wasn't the character of God, but the salvation of God they did not understand. Step number one. Now, notice the logical sequence in exactly what follows. As a result of a lack of knowledge as to how God saved people, they were going about to establish their own righteousness. So, my friends, it could have been written in 1976. It would not have been in what today. Where do you find people today who do not understand just how God saved sinners? And, if they are concerned about the relationship with God, do you think you'll find them in the pool house? Do you think you'll find them working for a brothel or whatever? No. If they are concerned about the relationship with God, you'll find them in the church going back to their bedsides and serving the Lord. You see, because they are concerned and yet not knowing how God saved people, they are going about trying to save themselves, and this is exactly what the Jews were doing. When they accepted the righteousness of God as a free gift we pay for Jesus Christ, they were busily going about trying to establish a righteousness of their own to make it acceptable with God. Notice the third step, which is that, as a result of that, they have not submitted and the better word is subjective, they have not subjected themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now, here is a statement that tells us that the righteousness of God, the salvation, the sanctification, the sacrificial, that's not built to go through custom and savior, comes not by the way of activity but by submission, by subjecting oneself to this righteousness. So, you see, I believe I am perfectly correct when I say this, that there are only two kinds of people who attend church regularly, who are active in church work, and who give money to the Lord on the churchly cost. Only two kinds. First of all, there are those who do that because they are saved by the grace of God, and they, out of appreciation for God and gratitude, seek to serve Him in the fellowship of the local church in some capacity, and they give of that material means. The other kind of person who gives to God and serves God and is faithful in the church is that person on the painful path whom the devil has deceived into believing that these three things, generally speaking, are a part of that which makes him acceptable to God. This is what the Bible calls self-righteousness. Righteousness that runs on for justice. It's the effort of a sinner trying to make himself right with God, and there's only one thing known. That is religious activity and good works, and Paul tells us what he is inside of three times. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us. Not by works of righteousness. Now, I want you to notice. Let's look at it again. They did not really understand how God saved a person. As a result of that, they were trying to save themselves, and so busy trying to save themselves, they never took out time to just stop and let God save them. The hardest soul in the world for God to save is a poor sinner who's busy trying to save himself. He don't give the Lord a chance. Oh, my friend, about that I wonder what about the king's footpath? Are you saved? Goes to the kitchen home, nothing there, paper to God, paper to the church, and I ask you why? Why is it you have so little and almost no interest in the things of God? I'll tell you the thing that strikes a nerve of terror in my heart is that the people on the king's footpath don't know that they're there, and if God doesn't show you through his word you'll never learn. What I can do is tell you what the book says, and warn you to be sure. Ask God to show you, open your heart to the Lord, be honest with God, and say, Lord show me, am I on the king's footpath, or am I on the narrow way to safety? I want you to turn to the third chapter of Romans, Romans chapter three, and we're just talking about the righteousness of God, and this will remind you of this in closing. In the Roman epistle, sometimes the righteousness of God refers to the character of God, an attribute of God. Other times, the righteousness of God in the Roman letter refers to the salvation of God. Sometimes it's called justification, sometimes it's called being justified, sometimes it's called righteous. The context of that would tell you that it's in reference to the character of God, the salvation of God. Now, what we're going to see here is the righteousness that God has provided for us, and I want to give you a verse from Scripture in Matthew chapter five and verse twenty. In the Scripture, it appears right here in Romans chapter three. In Matthew five and verse twenty, Jesus says to the Pharisees, listen, I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, he was addressing people, the Pharisees and the Romans, but he tells them this. Except you have a righteousness that is superior to, the word exceed means superior to, over, above, in contrast, and in quantity, not quantity, but it's a kind. He says to these people, except your righteousness is superior to, over, above, in contrast, and in quantity to the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, this is a solemn promise from Jesus Christ that, if I do not have a righteousness superior to that of the scribes and the Pharisees, I can never get to heaven. Now, very briefly, those of us who are familiar with the New Testament right away will know that the main strength and the platform of righteousness on which the religious Pharisees stood, and this platform was comprised of a number of things, but the two main boards and the platform of truthful righteousness on which the Pharisees stood, hopefully to be accepted with God, the two main boards, there must have been about ten like the other, standing right in the middle of the platform, was obedience through the law and participating in good work. Whatever else they added through the law, and never forget that the Pharisees added hundreds of things to the law that you don't find written in the law. They made laws to themselves, but two main laws was obedience to the command and participating in good work. All right, now, that says if you're going to get to heaven, you're going to have a righteousness better than that. And, I'm going to show it to you. 1st and Romans 3. Now, notice in verse 21 that, "...now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. These are the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ." Now, notice please, my friends, that here it says, "...the righteousness of God," in verse 21, "...is the salvation of God. It is an act on the part of God that whenever you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, God declares that you are righteous in his sight. You are justified, you are a prophet of goodness from all guilt, you are now a Christian, you are given a new relationship to God, and you have a new standing, and you are now accepted with God." Notice in verse 21 of chapter three, "...it is without the law..." There goes the first verse. Look in chapter four. Verse one, "...what shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh is found, good as Abraham was justified by righteousness, brought up with glory, but not before God. But that the scripture Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, not to him that worketh in a world like the place of death, but to him that worketh not. But to him that worketh not, but to him that worketh not, but believe on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." And here's the verse, "...even as David also described the righteousness of the man unto whom God induced righteousness without work." In 321, it's righteousness without the law, and 4 and 6, it's righteousness without work. You see, it's a very implicit thing here. It's the exact opposite of parasitical religiosity. There's a righteousness of God which is a free gift from faith in Jesus Christ, and it's apart from the law, and it's not any working outside. Do you see this righteousness? This is eternal life. This is salvation, and notice David says, "...blessed is the name of him the Lord, and to righteousness without work." Now, this is going to be great, this word improvement, but I'll tell you what a simple word it is, and what a familiar word it is. Could you happen to be trading in a grocery store where some poor man has not yet learned better than enough people have things on credit, and you've been accustomed to going in there and buying $10 worth of groceries, and say, Mr. Smith, would you charge this for my cash? Well, remember those little racks now, those little screens where they had the yellow pad, and you'd pull down and put your purchase on. You know, you've seen those back in your boyhood, girl of day, and seeing that, reaching out and putting the name and pulling the screen down like a mousetrap, taking your book out, and writing on the yellow pad, getting a number of my money you owed it. Then you'd say, Mr. Smith, would you charge that to me? Now, the next time you go and buy $10 worth of groceries, and if you'd like to impress Mr. Smith with a new word, say, Mr. Smith, then keep that, please, for my account. That's the red charge. Now, whenever that man charges a grocery store account by your name, that's your account, bring it to Mr. Smith, the man for whose account God charged eternal life. Salvation for that man, and a safer one without the law. But, I say, notice in the 2 of chapter 3, even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all, but upon all in that belief, but upon everybody. It doesn't mean that everybody's going to be saved. It only is good because they are those who receive Jesus Christ. Okay? Unto all but only upon them that believe. Now, when you receive Jesus Christ, why do you want to gain those letters away? It's a good way to change out your name, but to end it off with an H there. Now, friends, listen. God has provided a righteousness for us, and it is ours not by wealth in the kingdom, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Let's revise it for us. From 1 Corinthians 1 30, we read that of God are ye in him that is Christ Jesus, whom God has made a less worthy in righteousness than sanctification, even revenge. From 2 Corinthians 5 31, God has made the Lord Jesus Christ to be sin for us. He who rules in that we might be made a righteousness of God in Christ. And so, my dear friends, remember that if you've never received the Lord Jesus, and if you've learned by the mercy of God through the word of God that you're only paying for time, you've never really been saved. For I see that you turn thy palm in your Jesus name, come unto me all you that lay upon a heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I can't think of anybody that would be any more heavily laden than that in burden than some young person here or some older person who for something years has been trying to convince yourself that you're saved, and all the time you know you have nothing but a false profession. What a horrible burden it must be to carry about a false profession, mob-eaten, worm-eaten, confession that you're making of a child, and the verminous, malicious things of God. I want you to flee from the wrath of God, throw your sin away in the garbage, say a word of love, and get saved by the grace of God. You'll go where you're taught in good life, you'll receive the requisites of God's decree of three different ways in Jesus Christ. There is a righteous, all-listening way, a baptized way, a praying way, a Bible-reading way, a Bible-believing way, an active way in the service of God in the church, and at least with help. And, if you write your name at the word of God, this tickle-the-cancer end is the way it's done. You know, we just bow our heads in the presence of God tonight, very quietly, and just ask the Lord, speak to me, Lord. I don't want to speak in judgment and in and out. I just want you, Lord, to show me my condition. And, with that, I'm, I'm not saved. Help me to be found. Help me to have the courage to admit it, because if you don't, you can never be saved. So, I ask you now, I assure you, as I've been on the faithful path, take this kind of bit on the real matter of the nature of it. For my part, we just seek, seek to have mercy upon all of us gathered here. For me, remember thy word says the Bible was drawn and signed in the minds of the young believing, and old believing. So, we know to be a fact that many, many people have lived for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, thinking they were saved, going through the struggle, and could never be born again. Father, think of these dear people gathered here, your brothers, tonight. The heart is desperately looking to speak to them of all things who can know, only the Lord knows. So, we pray, the Holy Spirit of God, we take that word of yours and pierce our hearts with our own scissors tonight, to reveal to us our true condition, if there needs to be a justice. Oh God, move this heart to pray. From Jesus name, Amen.