If you have your Bible, you might want to turn to Romans 10, 1 through 13. Appreciate you're taking your time as we study the Bible together. If you're looking for a title, we'll call this going fast in the wrong direction. Incidentally, if you'd like to be a part of our subscription service, now this is different from the monthly tape that we send out. We who are for those who want to subscribe to the programs, the same ones we send to the radio station, you get 24 programs, three takes every month if you're on the subscription. If you'll call us at 1-800-keylife, I'd be glad or somebody would be glad to tell you how you can do that. Now that's not the monthly tape that we send out for each month. We'd love, and I'll be telling you about that this week. But let's go before the throne before we study the book. Father, another week, and we look into this week glad that you know the future even if we don't. Father, you meet out to us exactly what we need when we need the pain and the tears and the loneliness you allow that, when we need the joy and the affirmation you allow that to, and Father, we trust you to do what is necessary and what is good. If our tears cause us to see you better, then may we reap. If our broken heart causes us to lean on you a little bit more, may we lean on you and continue with the broken heart. Father, we hardly know what to say. We hardly know what to pray, and so we trust you as our Father, as a benevolent Father, a good Father who loves us, but also as a sovereign Father who knows best. We praise you because you are our Father. We praise you because you found us and you gave us your son to die on a cross in our place. You promised to get us home before the dark. But, Father, if you have never done any of that, you are still God, and you are worthy of all of our worship and all of our praise and all of our affirmation. Why don't we come before you now to confess our sins? We are not good people, but we are yours, and to ask that you speak to us through your word. We ask that you forgive the one who teaches his sins for they are many. We would see Jesus and Him only, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This week, we are continuing with our study in the book of Romans, and if you have got your Bible turn, if you will, to the 10th chapter of Romans, verses 1 through 13, and while you are finding that, let's take just a very quick moment to review what we saw last week in our study of Romans. Texted in was Romans 9, 30 through 33, and if you were listening, and some of you weren't, and I know your names, who we noted a couple of side roads. We noted God's weird choices, Romans 9, 30. We noted this seeking in the wrong place is the same thing as not seeking at all. That's Romans 9, 32. And then last week, we saw the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone, and not works, is a major stumbling block to people, and especially Americans. We asked the question of why, and we had six answers. First, because we want to do it ourselves. Secondly, because we like to get the credit. Third, because we don't like being worthless. Fourthly, because it robs us of our autonomy. Fifthly, it takes away our arrogance, and sixthly, we have to trust in Jesus, and we don't like to trust in anybody. But ours ends. Now, let's turn to our text for this week. As we look at a new chapter in our study of the Book of Romans, it Romans 10, 1 through 13, and my very good friend, the Apostle Paul, writes his follows. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the vest that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God is raised in from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the scripture says, Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between you and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'm going to spend the rest of this week talking about moving fast in the wrong direction. But first, as usual I want to go down a couple of side roads so we don't leave anything out of this text. Number one, note if you will what it takes to be saved. Look at Romans 9-9. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. Now that you know who He is, and you believe that the process is very, very simple. Listen to this, Romans 10-13. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's it. Doesn't take anything else. If someone adds baptism to that, you tell them to go to heaven. Or church going, or Sabbath keeping, or goodness, they just don't understand what Paul's saying here. One of the problems with the Christian faith or at least the initial movement into the Christian faith, becoming a Christian is that it's simplicity, foods, a lot of people. You've heard the statement from 500 people. If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't. Think if I hear that again, I think I'm going to scream. Well, that's valid statement when you're talking about con artist. But when you're talking about the Christian faith, let me say something that is true. If it seems to be good to be true, then check it out. It might be true. I heard it take the other day with a famous attorney, John Joy McCoy said to young lawyers, if they don't complain about the faith, then the faith is too small. There is a complaint about the Christian faith. It is that the faith is too small. Jesus says, y'all come, and I love you. I love the statement, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's it. Let me say something to you guys who are searching. The Christian faith is a river in which children play and where elephants can swim. Jesus kept saying, he said, you can't ever get this name unless you become a child. Unless you become quite small, unless you just let go. I'm not an evangelist, but don't miss it because it's so simple and I'm telling you, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Michael Kelly Blanchard has a wonderful piece. Called, there are no songs. If you've been listening to this broadcast very much, you've heard me quoting a lot. I think he's one of the best lyricists in the country and a dynamite musician. But listen to these words, and if you're searching, listen very carefully. There are no songs still springtime comes. No melodies for voice. There are no tombs till death has stung that Easter might rejoice. There are no words to bring you back from your frozen winners' will. There is no hope, the ice will crack. Though Jesus melts the chill. For some you say, perhaps many, yes, but surely not for me, for I have run from the very best. How can there mercy be? Come home, come home, my rambling child, let down your ragged se you, and steer your heart to the ocean's wild, with a breath of God, it's not too late to turn around and catch the tender breeze that blows you to the holy ground you find beneath your knees. For when it has sold, been bound to time, or heart to cold to melt, or forgiveness to lost to find, when regret is truly felt. There's mercy. Mercy, my little ones, mercy without bounds for all who simply turn and come and lay their burden down. For there's nothing that you've ever done, that my love cannot change unless you choose to finally run away with pride and pain. There are no words to bring you back from the frozen winners' chill. There is no hope. The ice will crack. Though Jesus melts your chill. You say, Steve, I've been listening, man. I thought is a lot more complicated than that. I thought I had no whole bunch of stuff. Listen, all you got to do is scream help in the right direction, the one who does help. And that is Jesus Christ. And he died on a cross in your place, and he'll forgive you, and he'll love you, and he'll promise to get you home. He'll promise to get you home before the dark. So it's that simple. Don't let it simplicity fool you. Now, let me give you another side road. Note the answer to a shame-based life from in his 10-11. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. I don't know about you, but that kind of thing really speaks to me. I'm an adult child of an alcoholic. I know, I know. I have the same problem you have with a constant whine. The problem with a clevering movement is that it has a tendency to become another addiction. But I never heard of the formal title adult child of an alcoholic until a few years ago when I was speaking for Bill and Gloria Gator at the praise gallery in Indianapolis. Great, great, wonderful place. And that thing is so big. There's so many thousands of people that if you're a speaker there, you don't have to do anything. You have to speak and then you go back to the room because you just melt into the crowd. Well, after I'd spoken, a man came up to me and said, Mr. Brown, I've been listening to your takes for years. Can I take you to dinner? Well, by then, I was so lost in the crowd that I would have gone to dinner with the devil himself. And I said, I would like that. I would, of course, try to, if I went with the devil to lead him to Christ. But I was lonely. That ain't right. This man asked me to, if I'd go with him to dinner. And after we were seated in the restaurant, he said to me, Steve, let me tell you some things about yourself. Then he proceeded to tell me a bunch of negative things that only my wife knew. And I said to him, my wife sent you to me, right? And he said, I don't even know your wife. She didn't send me. But I heard you say once on a tape that you were an adult child of an alcoholic. And I just gave you some of the normal traits of adult children. And I began to read at that point a lot of literature and decided that this really could be a problem. One of the things my friends said about me that evening in Indianapolis was this, you live a life of shame. Afraid that somebody's going to find out all your secrets. Now that was true. If you had a parent who was an alcoholic, you know exactly what I mean. You were constantly making excuses, constantly trying to hide the truth, constantly, constantly trying to pretend that things were fine when they really weren't fine. You're about the man who was an alcoholic and his wife had been agonizing over him for years. Finally, he realized his problem and asked his wife to pray for him. She got on her knees and said, oh Lord, my husband is a drunk. At that moment, she had dealt a tug at her sleeve and he said, honey, don't tell him I'm drunk. Tell him I'm sick. Well, if you're an adult child of an alcoholic, that isn't very funny because it reflects the shame-based life that you've always lived. Now, if you've been abused, if you've been put down constantly, then you have a similar kind of thing, it's called toxic shame, or shame-based life. A shame-based person is always afraid that people are going to find it up. About how bad they are. They live in constant fear that they will make a fool out of themselves. We'll be ashamed if their clothes are not exactly right or the house exactly neat or their car and nice car. They don't want people to know because it will shame them. The most horrible thing that can possibly happen to a shame-based person is to be made ashamed. And he or she will go to almost any length to avoid that kind of shame. I know. And the reason I know is because I've been there and I still struggle with the problem. Now listen, a 12-step program may be helpful, but it isn't the answer. A recovery group may be helpful, but it isn't the answer. Counseling may be helpful, but it isn't the answer. The answer is Romans 10-11, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Listen, you can't put me to shame. Man told me recently, he thought I was arrogant and primal and rude. I thought about it and decided he was right. And I said to him, you're right. But I'm better than I used to be. People are always saying, me, Steve, you're not living up to your potential. And I want to say, of course, I'm not living up to my potential. You knit with. Nobody is. And if it's all right with you, I think I wouldn't live up to my potential for a little longer. You know why? Whoever believes on Christ won't be put to shame because the unconditional love Christ gives us. I don't have to be right all the time anymore. I don't have to pretend to you that I'm better than I am anymore. I don't have to be great anymore. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. So bear. In other words, his acceptance of me as I am enables me to accept myself and then get better. It is true, whoever calls on the name of the Lord won't be put to shame. Why? Because there's hardly anything you can say about me that won't be at least partially true. And you know something? He loves me anyway. I told you about Annie, our dog, the little orphan Annie, the little rug rat of a dog. Now I always kidded people I had little dogs. I said, why don't you get a real dog? Because we always had German shepherds, and still do. Quincy, the wonder dog, is still king of the roost. But if you remember Anna, almost ran over a little Annie, and she was dirty and nobody had fed her, and somebody let her out in the woods near our house. And so Anna brought her home and we, I was away somewhere speaking, and she said, I've got a surprise for you and you get home. The veterinarian, she said, I've called everybody, I know, nobody knows who this dog belongs to, and the vet said, Anna, anybody who treats a dog this way doesn't deserve the dog. Now Anna started calling, little Annie, the orphan baby. And Quincy, the wonder dog, our German shepherd told me, Steve, I love you, but I'm not living in a house with a dog named Baby, so we call her Annie, the orphan. Now, anyway, can we dog, Annie, is an ugly dog? In fact, she's the ugliest dog I've ever seen. She got her lower teeth stick out, she looks like that movie. Well, was it Grimmlin's? She looks like a Grimmlin. Annie looks like one of those. But she's so happy to be loved, that her ugliness doesn't matter to her. She's so happy to be loved, that her ugliness doesn't matter to her. I learned a lot of things from Annie. Barnhouse used to say all of life illustrates Bible doctrine, and Annie certainly does that for me. Annie doesn't want much, except to be loved. When I come home, she literally jumps in my arms. She doesn't wank her tail. She wank your whole body. Sometimes I'll say to her, and of course she doesn't understand. Annie, you're about the ugliest dog I've ever seen. You are ugly on ugly. Then she will start wanking her tail and licking me, and Annie will say, on Annie's bed, yes. I'm ugly, but you love me anyway, and that's all that matters, and that's all I care about. That's the answer. No reason to be ashamed, when the God of the Universe loves you a whole lot. In other word, love is so overused, I think I'll put it a different way, if that's okay with you. No reason to be ashamed, when the Creator, the Sustainer, the Sovereign Ruler, the Universe likes you a lot, and likes me a lot. I was shame-based, but no longer the cause of that amazing love. Now, I'm going to spend the rest of this way talking about legalism or work for righteousness. Those folks who think if they can just keep all the rules be good, nice, pure, wonderful, religious, and spiritual, then God will love them and save them. They're afraid to say anything, it might be wrong, they're afraid to do anything, it might be wrong, afraid to think anything, because it might be wrong. I suspect, and this is what I've noticed about legalists, is that they think there is just one right and proper way to do something, and so they wait, and wait, and wait, and never do anything, because they want to be wrong. The lengthen Martin Luther's colleague was one of those, and it used to irritate Luther no one. One time Luther said to my lengthen, my lengthen, why don't you go out and sin? So you will have something about which to repent. And you say, Steve, you was really a legalist. You must, just like those people who pervert the gospel, no, as a matter of fact, I love them. And folks, they're hard to love sometimes. They're always judgmental and angry about some kind of sin or some kind of theology that someone else believes or is done, believe it or not. They're often harder on themselves than they are with anybody else. But I love them. They tell you why. I was teaching a leadership course, or a portion of the leadership course at a very straight Christian college once when a young man who sat in the front row was obviously upset and angry with me about something. I mean, he had his arms crossed. His body language suggested, I don't like you. I don't like you one bit, and I think you're ugly. He came up to me after the class was over, and I said, son, have I said something to offend you? I just think that you aren't biblical and your church isn't biblical. Now, that was the old and days when I was a pastor, and I said to him, I've been accused a lot of things, but generally, that isn't what I'm accused of. You'll let me know what area is where I'm not biblical, and I'll be glad to change. Well, he said, looking very spiritual, you have secular music and your church. Well, we didn't do it often, but we had some Christian jazz musicians come and do an improvisation concert in our church, and he really, there wasn't very religious, but they were Christians, and this was the way they worship God, and I said to him, son, let me give you some scripture, and I took him to the Bible and showed him some of the Psalms about making a joyful noise to the Lord, about the use of instruments and worship, and I said to him, son, can you tell me what is so spiritual about the no-day? And he said, well, nothing, I suppose. So I said, if a pagan plays a no-day, then it's the devil's music, and if a Christian plays the no-day, it's Christian music, right? And he said, well, I never thought about it that way. I'll think about it. We went right after that same class, another young man jumped all over me because we had done Godspell in the church where I was a pastor. Now, before you got up said Godspell was a wonderful evangelistic tool with which we reached pagans. Now, I know Jesus was a clown in that, but that was no disrespect. He was a wonderful character, and he had the group of clowns that followed him around, and there was one scene saying goodbye before the crucifixion. And I used to sit in the back row and the audience and think, I'm not going to cry tonight. I mean, I'm a macho male kind of guy. And I shouldn't be crying at every time when he did it. It got me, and the resurrection scene absolutely was the most glorious thing I've seen in drama. I said to the same man, I said, well, was it offended you about Godspell? Only he said it was the prostitute. I said, son, you ever think that if you had been with Jesus in the first century, you would have seen a real thing. He said, well, no, I'm thought about it that way. I remember driving away from that college, very angry. I don't want to tell you about my anger, but let me say that when I spit, grass withers, at any rate, that's when God gave me, and I was impressed with these words, child, those are my lambs. And they love me a lot more than you do. And they desired to please me more than you desired to please me. And their desire pleases me. You are not to beat them. I have called you to teach them and to love them. And you know what? God has given me a love. Now, I can't say all the time, but most of the time for Pharisees. God has given me a supernatural love. And dear friend, it's got to be supernatural. For legalists, I want to hug them and say, listen, it's all right. You're a twit. But it's all right. God loves you. And he has taught me to love you too. Just the way you are. God did the same thing for Paul. And a great deal of Romans, as we have seen, is the teaching of salvation comes by faith in Christ alone and not by your goodness or your purity or your righteousness. That's what Paul is saying here. Verses one and two of the 10th chapter, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In other words, they really want to please God. This is going about it in a wrong way. Only Jesus pleases God and those who have faith in Jesus and trust in Him. So for the rest of the time, this week I want to talk about works righteousness and the problems with it. So without further chit-chat, let's dig in. First problem with legalism and works righteousness. Is the problem of ignorance. Look at Romans 10 and 3. Are they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness? Have not submitted to the righteousness of God. In other words, they really think they are going to do with themselves. By hustle and obedience. You've got the man who was walking through a graveyard late at night and he fell into an open grave. And he tried to get out, but the walls were so high that he finally gave up. I decided just to go over in a corner in the grave and sleep until morning. And somebody would come along and get him out. So he went to sleep. A little while later, that same night at drunk was walking through the same graveyard and fell into the same grave. He also tried to get out, but with very little success. But what he did was wake up the sleeping man who had first followed him into the grave. Well, that sleeping man walked over to the drunk, put his hand on the drunk shoulder and said, Mr. you can't get out of here. But he did. Well, when you try to get out of a pit of sin by yourself, the father comes along and says, child you can't get out of here and you can't. I love it. I love it when somebody gets really serious with God makes all kinds of promises. Now I want to tell them but I don't. And I don't tell them you don't have a chance of being that good. Do you know why I don't tell them that? Because they need to try. And they need to try hard. And they need to fail a lot. And after they have failed, they will learn to lean on Christ and trust His imputed righteousness instead of their own. I used to look at you guys, most of you who listening to this broadcast or evangelical fundamental Bible believers. I used to look at you guys. And outside I would say you were weird and obscure and distant silly and Bible bumpers. But inside I knew you had a reality. And I wanted that reality too. And I noticed you did some things that I didn't do. You did the Bible a lot and you prayed a lot. And you were a good person. You smiled a lot. And I decided that's it and I got it. I just didn't know the rules. If I read the Bible a lot and I pray a lot and I smile a lot, I'm as good as possible. Then I'll have to take off my mask and look into the mirror and know when I was honest that I wasn't good and pure and kind and loving and honorable. And then I simply didn't have it. You say, man, that's bad. No, that's good. Because it was at that point that I turned to Christ because I had no other place to turn the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector. And Luke 18 is not the difference between a bad man and a good man. You remember the Pharisee and the tax collector went to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee prayed, Lord, I'm glad I'm not like other people. This tax collector, for instance, Yuck. I'm in church three times a week. I tied. I'm a good person. I'm a good witness. I believe the Bible. I believe all of the doctrines of the faith. But you remember Jesus said that the tax collector would hardly look up. And he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said that the tax collector went away from the temple justified in the eyes of God. Now the difference between the tax collector and the Pharisee was not the difference between a good man and a bad man. Now are you listening to me? But between a bad man who knew it and a bad man who didn't know it. Listen to what Jesus said in 1814. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be a based and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The difference was between a bad man who knew he was bad and a bad man who didn't know he was bad. And so, when you try and try and try and you're really not as good as people think you are. You work at it really hard. You have two options. You can either fake it. Or you can lean on the grace of Christ. The second way always works. The first way displeases God. That's the difference between a legalist and somebody who was learned to depend on the grace of Christ. Then secondly, and this is brand new with works of righteousness and legalism. There is not only the problem of ignorance. There is the problem of persistence. Romans 10.5 for Moses writes about the righteousness which is the law. The man who does these things shall live continued to live by them. It isn't as you can't ever obey the law of God. You can sometimes. It's just that you can't keep on obeying the law forever. The truth of your sin finally comes out. I think he was Buckner fanning a Baptist acquaintance of mine in Texas. He went to a Baptist pastor's meeting on a Monday and he got there a little early. And there was this pastor sitting over a corner looking very depressed. Buckner asked him what was wrong. Pastor looked up from his depressed thoughts and said, Buckner, you ever tried to baptize a man with a corporate leg. We tried it yesterday and couldn't keep it down. Every time we thought he got him under that corporate leg, would pop right back up. Well, that's what perseverance in following the law is like. It's like a corporate leg. You can almost do it. And then the thing pops up on you. You can never quite get the whole thing done. You never can quite get the whole thing accomplished. You ever watch a parent who's really angry with his urge, but manages to hold it in for the sake of the neighbors. You're about to walk through the grocery store with a little boy who was acting up. Little boy was screaming and taking things off the counters and throwing them on the floor and kicking other people. And through it all his father was saying, Be calm Albert. Don't be that way Albert. Watch yourself Albert. Be calm Albert. Finally, one of the other shoppers just handed up to his ears. And he said, Sir, I don't want an affair. But you need really to spank Albert. I mean, what you're saying isn't doing any good. Father said, you don't understand. I've watched the Pharisees and they're really trying hard. But you know, they're going to pop. I've watched the legalists and they seem to be as tight as a drum. And you have this feeling that when they explode, you don't want to be around. I get letters from people who spend ten pages telling me why I'm wrong. And they're sometimes right. And I'll have to write back and say, dear son, so you may be right, but you're probably wrong, sincerely Steve Brown. I mean, they don't know how to deal with that. But if you're going to be a good person and earn God's favor, you might fake it for a little while. You might be able to keep it up for a little while. You might be able to be righteous for a little while. Maybe even for years, but you are going to break. Ever listen. Ever listen to the neighbors talking about the serial killers in their neighborhood. You don't have to watch those interviews anymore because they always say the same thing. I always say, I can't believe this. He seemed to be such a nice person. I mean, he loved children and dogs, and he smiled and he was always so helpful. But folks, there was something bubbling in there and then it broke. Am I saying that legalists are destined to become serial killers, of course, not? But they are missing so much joy, so much freedom, so much love, not only that, one day they won't be able to hang on any longer. They won't be able to be good enough, long enough. And when you taste them, you don't want to be a wrong person. You don't want to be a wrong person. You don't want to be a wrong person. You don't want to be a wrong person. You don't want to be a wrong person. You don't want to be a wrong person. And that happens. The problem is persistence. And then, thirdly, with works of righteousness, and legalism and fair autopsism, there's not only the problems of ignorance and persistence, there's also the problem of pro-action. Roman stands lucky but the righteousness of faith speaks this way. Say, and do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from heaven? Who will ascend into the earth that is to bring Christ down? In other words, don't say you're going to reach up to up to heaven and accomplish all that is needful for your salvation. Acting, acting, acting, and acting, and you know something. Being a Christian isn't how you act, it is who you are. It is not action, it is being. Steve Childers has said that there are great dangers in the church, neo-perfectionism, neopassivism, but the greatest danger is just try harder. Just try a little harder, like the little train. It says, try a little harder, try a little harder, it gets almost to the stop, and the mountain, and then explodes, have you ever come to the end of yourself? I mean, have you ever worked on something so hard that you simply ran out of energy and gasoline and ability, and the problem was still there? Well, that happens to me often. And I just give up. When I first entered the ministry, I was sure that I was God's gift of the church. Then things started happening, a man committed suicide. Woman left her husband, a child was killed, and I didn't know what to do. I took down my single reading, Steve Brown Boyz, psychologist, and blushed. It was then that I began to see God work in my life and in the church. Well, in terms of salvation and almost anything else, there's a principle that's an important one. Listen to it. The beginning is the ending. The beginning is the ending. To it God begins where we end. Let me repeat that. The beginning is the end. To it God begins where we end. Alan Thompson tells about a man driving through the country when he saw a sign in front of a country store, rabbit burgers, 25 cents, intrigued by both the idea and the price. He stopped when inside and purchased one of the rabbit burgers. While he was eating, he spoke with a proprietor. I stopped because I saw your sign and your price are these made completely from rabbit meat. Well, they're mostly rabbits from privers. When you mean by mostly, well, I put a little mule in it, what do you mean you put in a little mule? Well, the proprietor said 50-50. What do you mean by 50-50? The storekeeper answered, you know, put in one rabbit and then you put in one mule. What are you doing to obtain God's favor? 50-50, a little of God, a little of you. The truth is that God is in the business of bringing people to the end of themselves and when that happens, he begins. My friend Joel Hunter was talking the other day and he said that when he was a kid, he used to play King of the Mountain and it didn't matter how big the hump of dirt was, the kid who got to the top said he was King of the Mountain and everybody tried to take him down. He said the problem with human beings is that we are kings of our own space, we're King of the Mountain and only Jesus will be King of the Mountain. When John said about Jesus, he must increase and I must decrease. He was articulating a reality for salvation and for life. But now, said the Christian faith is always God-centered. It is, he said, like a sea salt. You're on one end and God's on the other when you're up, he's down, when you're down, he's up. Or he said, when you see yourself as a zero, he stands beside you and you become a ten. And if you're a double zero, he stands beside you and becomes a one hundred. When you're a triple zero, he stands beside you and you become a thousand. Are you about at the end of yourself? At the end of your marriage, the end of your business, your work, your ministry. You're at the end of trying to be saved. That's bad. No, that's good. Now you will see what God will do with your mess. Let me give you one other point. With the legalist, the Pharisee, the work's the whitestness person. There's not only the problem of ignorance, the persistence and pro-action, there's the problem of elitism. Romans 10 and 12. There is no distinction between you and Greek, for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon you. You know the reason we like to do it ourselves, because we want to credit ourselves. And not only that, we want to look down and feel superior to those who weren't able to do it for themselves. You remember when the mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked her sons, if her sons would be able to sit one on the right and one on the left when he introduced King to Jesus, of course, said it wasn't his to give. But then the disciples started their conversation. Can you believe that? Can you believe those twits? Can you believe their mother? They're so bad. And that's when Jesus called all of his disciples together, sort of like a mother-culture children. And he said, you know that the rulers, this is Matthew 10, 25, through 27, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles were to do for them. And those who were great exercise the authority over them, yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to be great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The legalist, those who were into works righteous in the earth, are often those who feel superior to others because quite frankly they think they're better. When you see that, know that Jesus had nothing to do with it. Here about the woman who was asked why she picked Bill to marry Oversean and she said when I was with Sam, I thought he was the smartest man in the world. But when I was with Bill, I thought I was the smartest woman in the world. Well, when you're with Jesus, you can hardly see anything but Jesus. Somebody tells how at a university somewhere students were demonstrating and they had a sign and it read this university has waited 150 years for us. Maybe, but there's a kind of arrogance in people who have not reached the end of themselves. You just can't find God there. Don't forget the principle. The beginning is the end where you end. He begins. You think about that? Amen.