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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/the-trouble-im-in/
Let's turn, please, to the book of Romans. Romans, and we're going to read first of all in chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, and we'll read together at verse number 6. Romans 5, verse 6 says,. "'For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'".
Go over now to chapter 10, verse 1. Paul is the writer, again, verse 1 of chapter 10. "'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal 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 for righteousness to everyone that believeth.'".
We'll take time to read one more portion in the book of Acts in chapter 9. Acts in chapter 9. We're going to read with Saul's experience on the road to Damascus. We'll read at chapter 9 and verse number 3.
Paul is journeying to Damascus with letters to persecute the Christians and bring them bound to Jerusalem, verse 3. And when he journeyed, and as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. Lord, bless to us the reading of his precious word, and we've listened to already this evening.
I was sitting over there as Ben was speaking to you, and I was looking over the audience, and about 95 of you here are under the age of 27. Just a guess. There's a few old gray hairs just popped up.
But I was looking over this audience, and I thought, they're just like I was. Many of you here, in fact, most of you here, especially you younger ones, you were raised in a Christian home. You've heard the gospel your whole entire life.
You've been memorizing scriptures from the time you're old enough to remember. Some of you can quote great portions of the word of God, and yet you find yourself tonight in a very precarious situation.
You find yourself with all sorts of understanding about the scriptures as far as where to find the chapter and where to find the verse. You find yourself in a situation where you've been taught to do what is good, and to live right, and to avoid sin at all costs.
And yet if you were to die tonight, you would find yourself in a place called hell because of your sin. Many of you here tonight are very frustrated when it comes to the gospel. You are no fools. You are quite intelligent, and you've heard the message preached, and you've tried to understand it.
You've tried to figure it out. Many of you have even maybe gritted your teeth, and clinched your fist, and tried to make it true for you. And yet tonight if you died, you'd be in a lost eternity. This morning, you know, we weren't here for the Bible reading in the morning.
We were at a funeral, and it was a funeral of a 95-year-old man, a very lovely gentleman, professed to be saved. But it was a charismatic funeral. I'd never been to a charismatic funeral, and it was a good learning situation.
The man got up, and he told a few stories, and he read a few scriptures, and it was all right. And then the man who passed away asked him to preach the gospel, and he preached John chapter 3. He talked about being born again, went all the way up to John 3, 16.
And then he said this. He said, now if you want to be saved, we're all going to close our eyes and bow our heads. And if you want to be saved, raise your hand. It wasn't awkward. I've never been there.
It wasn't really an altar call, but it was kind of an altar call. And so we sat there, and we bowed our heads. We thought he was going to pray, and he started talking to us. So I lifted up my head and was looking at him.
What's going on? And then he said to bow our heads. So we bowed our heads, and he kept talking to us. So I looked again. And his point was this, that if you want to be saved, raise your hand when no one's looking, and you'll be saved.
And so my eyes were open. I had to see. As an evangelist, if there's somebody in the room who wants to be saved, I need to know who they are. So I'm peeking out one eye over here, and there was an older man and a half-walker sitting there, and he went like this.
And the preacher said, there is somebody. There's some over there. There's some in here. You know better than that tonight. You know that that's not salvation. Ben has preached to you the great need of repentance.
Ben has been faithful to tell us what the real issue is tonight. It is our sin. And if I could make an educated assumption tonight, the reason that you're in your sins, if you wanted to be saved, the reason you're likely there tonight in an audience like this, knowing the audience.
Almost all of you here, I've preached at you in meetings. It's because of this fact that your sin isn't yet your problem. You know that you've sinned and you've come short of the glory of God. And as we've been reminded of the affliction of the soul and the great reality of soul trouble and the great earnestness in it, there's never really been a time in your life that you've wanted to be saved and know the forgiveness of sins above anything else in this life.
And we're going to get to the Apostle Paul here in just a moment. But can your mind go to anyone in the Scriptures that was in such a condition of soul that what they wanted was forgiveness from God? What they wanted was mercy from God.
Your mind could go to Luke chapter 18 and there you'll find two men praying in the temple. The one man, he just prayed with himself. He had no need. But the other man, the publican man, you remember the story how he stood afar off and he beat upon his breast and he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
Have you ever stopped to wonder why he cried for mercy? It was because he was in a terrible amount of trouble. He needed the mercy of God because he had sinned. And there he is in the temple and likely sacrifice was being conducted.
And there in the presence of a sacrifice, an animal that was slain, an animal that was on the altar. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He was in so much trouble. A guilty sinner, afraid to meet God, afraid to meet God.
Some of you know what that's like. I think of another man. He was Luke chapter 23. He's called the malefactor. And the Lord Jesus was there numbered with the transgressors. And there was a malefactor on either side.
And you'll remember the man. And he was there and all he was concentrating on was blaspheming the Lord Jesus, was reviling the Lord Jesus, trying to get the Lord to save him and them, to get them down from this cross.
And yet there was another man. You know, Psalm 107 talks about him. It says, fools, God brings them to the very edge, the very gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord. And that malefactor is there.
And he was partners in crime with the other man. And they were both blaspheming the Lord Jesus. And they were both cursing him. And they were both rejecting him. But something hit this man in a really a moment of time.
He had to face the great reality. That he's going to die that day. And he's going to meet God that day. And he wasn't ready to meet God. What did he say? He says to the other malefactor, he says, don't you not fear God?
Seeing we're in the same condemnation. They're both going to die that day. This man, we never hear from him again. The other man, he says, we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing amiss.
What did this man realize? He was in extreme danger. And he was in extreme trouble. And he was going to meet God in his sins. Can you imagine what that meeting is going to be like? For people that have heard the gospel.
That have grown up listening to the gospel stories. That have heard the gospel preached over and over and over and over. And to go out into eternity and meet the one. The very same one that had died upon the cross to save them.
But now he is the judge. Dear friends, tonight you're in an awful lot of trouble. What do you suppose it's going to be like to meet the Savior? The Lord Jesus and it's too late. What do you suppose it's going to be like when you see him there?
At the judgment of the great white throne. And there the one who died so that you could live. The one who suffered and gave his life and shed his blood. That you could be cleansed of every sin and every stain.
And there you are full of sins, full of stains. And you're face to face. We learned a little bit about it today. But Israel will look upon him whom they have pierced. You're in an awful lot of trouble tonight, friends.
You're in more trouble tonight than you were last night. And the night before that. And you're going to meet the Savior. But he'll be your judge. We come to the apostle Paul. Apostle Paul was a Jew. He was a Pharisee.
He was a Bible expert, if you will. He had learned the scriptures from a young boy. He was a very self-righteous man. Paul had heard of Jesus. Paul had heard of a man who claimed to be the Son of God.
He had heard of a man that did great miracles. And did tremendous good works. And a man that could, that really proved. Even by the opinion of another Pharisee. Nicodemus said, we know you're a teacher come from God.
For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. The teacher in Israel said that. And Paul had heard of Jesus. He had heard that he had died. He had heard that he was buried. And he heard the claim that he had risen again from the dead.
But he didn't believe it. Oh, he believed that he died. He believed that he died on a cross. He believed that the man was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. For claiming to be the Son of God. And Paul and his religion, and his zeal for God now.
You know, he had the only God-given religion, being a Jew. He's going to defend God with all of his being. And he's going to persecute the followers of this man, Jesus. He held the clothes of those, the coats of those that stoned Stephen.
And now he's on his way to Damascus to get more. And what takes place on that old dusty road? As the Lord arrests him. A great light shines down from heaven. We read about it. And he is forced really to the ground.
So can you picture going along, and as the great light forces him to the ground. And he's laying on his face in the dust. He doesn't understand what's taking place. He doesn't know what's going on. But he knows this.
He hears a voice, and it says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He doesn't know who the Lord is, but he knows it's God that is speaking to him. It's a voice from heaven. It's undeniable. The man there is enveloped in light.
He's surrounded by light. He can't even look up to heaven. He's listening to the voice laying in the dust. And he says, who art thou, Lord? And Jesus says to him, he says, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Then he says, I am. Those two words are lovely words, aren't they? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. What's going through Saul's mind? What just happened in a moment of time on the Damascus road? The man was going.
Lord says, it's hard for thee to kick against the goads. Something had been goading Paul for a while. Something had been working on Paul for some time. And he's resisting it. He's fighting it. And now he's on his face.
And Jesus tells him, you're persecuting me. What did we read? It says, and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will you have me to do? What's Saul thinking? He's thinking, my whole, since Christ has died, I've been persecuting the God of heaven.
The Lord Jesus. He didn't know the Lord Jesus. He didn't believe in him before. But he does now. And you know what Paul understands? I'm in an awful lot of trouble. Why is he in trouble? He is in trouble because he rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is in trouble for all of the sins that he has committed. All the things that he has been involved with. And now he is face down on the ground and the Lord is speaking to him. And can you imagine the terror that struck his soul?
I'm in so much trouble. I am in such danger. Do you think Paul realized he should be put in a place called hell right there? I do believe he understood that. He has trembled there on the Damascus road.
Lord, what will you have me to do? You see, when we come to chapter 10 of Romans, we see Paul's heart toward his people. Paul broke a lot of hearts in his day. You think of all the families that he separated.
You think of all the people that were killed at his behest. And now he says, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He's writing with a broken heart. He's looking at his people.
He's looking at the fellow Israelites. He's looking there at those that had the word of God and they had the oracles of God. And they missed the Messiah just like he did. And his heart's desire is that they might be saved.
Why? Because they were just like him. They were just like him. They were continually rejecting Christ. They had refused the Lord Jesus. And see, they're made of the same material. They're just mortal men.
They're going out to meet God. And if his people don't ever come to the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if they don't bow to that in time, and they don't trust him for salvation, they'll be in hell just like he should have been in hell.
So they're made of the same material. And they make the same mistakes. They committed the same sins, really. And there's Paul, and he's remembering what he was. And he's looking at his people. And they're just the same.
But he can't seem to reach them. He can't seem to see anything done. And his heart's desire is that they would be saved. But Saul knows something that they don't know. He knows they're going to meet the same man.
The same man. Who's the man? Jesus Christ. And come back to it again. What are you going to do when you meet him? What are you going to do when it's too late? Where are you going to hide when death and hell deliver up the dead which are in them?
Where are you going to occupy your mind when there's nothing to think about but a burning lake? What are you going to do when the first time in your life the weight of sin is real but too late? Paul says in chapter 9, we didn't read it.
Let's flip back a page and read it. His heart is breaking. He says this, I say the truth in Christ. I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. Romans 9. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
For I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ. He wished he's for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. In other words, if he could trade places with them, he might. He would wish for that.
But he couldn't, obviously. Any parents here? Unsaved children? If it was possible, would you trade places with them? It's not possible. Such was his heart that they would be saved. You see, he had a greater desire for them to be saved than they had to be saved for themselves.
For young folks here, you're in your sins. Your moms and dad have a greater desire for you to be saved right now than you do for yourself. And they can't take your place. But one has already died upon the cross as a substitute for the sinner.
One has already come from the very heights of glory. God manifests in the flesh. And he went to the cross and he went to the place called Calvary. And there, listen to the words of the scripture from Isaiah.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You see, it is God that laid on the Lord Jesus Christ the iniquity of us all.
God is dealing with sin. And then you come to Peter and you'll read words like this, speaking of the Lord Jesus. Remember, God laid them on him. He bore our sin in his own body on the tree. Now, that doesn't mean anything to you tonight, if sin is not the problem.
But if you had the first part of the message and the great reality of sin that would be music to your ears. That would be just the thing you were looking for. That would be just what you've been looking for your whole life.
I remember a man who came to the tent paintings in 1992 on the ridge. Alan Bell was saved the first meeting he ever went to. Our neighbor farming down the road. He just passed away earlier in the year or maybe it was end of last year.
He heard the gospel one time. And he said, I've been looking for that my whole life. I've been looking for that my whole life. That's just exactly what I need. And boy, was he a stickler for the truth.
He loved the truth. Paul says about his people, he's given them record. They've got a zeal for God. They're doing the best they can for God as far as what they understand. They're trying to keep the law for righteousness sake, but they can't.
And Paul knows they can't. And they know they can't, but they're not honest with themselves about their sin. They're doing the best they can, but that'll never be enough. It'll never be enough for us either, will it?
To do the best we can. So they've got a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And they're going about, they're ignorant of God's righteousness. They don't understand. They don't have a clue how God works and how God can be righteous and yet forgive.
And how God can impute righteousness to the sinner. They're just doing the best that they can do. And there are many people tonight that are doing the very best that they can do. And they're far more sincere than most people, but they're sincerely wrong.
And their zeal will never get them to heaven. The best that they can do will never get them the forgiveness of sins. And they're ignorant of God's righteousness. How can a man be right with God? Is the question from the oldest book in the Bible.
How can a man be right with God? God's righteousness has provided a way that the guilty sinner can go free. Because there at the place called Calvary, not only did Christ bear our sin in his own body on the tree, but there he died upon the cross.
And he paid the full payment, the full price for sin. And there he suffered the wrath of God that sin deserves. And he did there at that cross what no zealous person could do. He did there at the cross what no good, well-meaning individual could do.
He satisfied God. And you know, the gospel is called the glorious gospel of the blessed God. You know, it's a marvelous thing tonight to proclaim that one of the definitions of blessed is happy, satisfied.
The glorious good news that God is satisfied. Now that's a message, isn't it? And for a soul that is in trouble and a soul that is in need, and the great reality of sin is real and it is present. The message is this, that God is satisfied with Christ.
The blood has been shed. The payment has been made. And God can save and forgive and that for all eternity. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're going about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
You know, that's exactly what Saul did, wasn't it, on the road. He's there in the dust. Who art thou, Lord? He submitted himself to the Lord. And he understands that if his people don't submit and surrender to him, to the Lord, they have no hope, no hope.
They're without Christ in this world. They're without God in this world. They're without hope in this world. And all they have to look forward to as they live every day. And as people live every day, what does the Bible say?
It says we treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. It's like we're just hoarding up our sins and we're continuing in our sins, which can never satisfy. And they're all being saved. They're all being held on to.
They're all being treasured up, accumulated. You see, before I was saved at 17 years old, God showed me something very real. He showed me a little glimpse of my sin. If you're 17 years old here tonight and you're not saved, and let's just, for the sake of argument, say you were old enough to be saved when you were seven.
Just for 10 years, it's an easy number to work with. The verse that God used to awaken me about my sin was an obscure verse. It's in Proverbs 21, verse 4. It says,. And as I listened to the gospel meeting that night, I could understand a high look, a snooty look, and a proud heart.
I could understand that being sin. But I couldn't understand the plowing to the wicked being sin. Growing up on a dairy farm and plowing the ground and feeding the world. What's sinful about that? And not only that, but what God told Adam to go till the ground.
So now God is telling Adam to go plow the field and that's sin too. That doesn't make any sense to me. And so I asked some questions and I asked my mom and I said, Mom, I don't understand that. That doesn't seem right.
And she said, Brandon, let me put it like this. And this is just exactly what I needed. She said, Just that blunt. You can be out plowing your field and every second you reject Christ as sin because you come to 1 John in chapter 5, he that believes not the record that God gave of his son.
And every second I lived in unbelief, I was calling God a liar. I didn't want to call God a liar, but I was calling God a liar. And so I did the math. And in 10 years time, how many seconds are in 10 years?
And just listen, if you're 17 years old or if you have 10 years of accountability, 315 ,500 and some thousand seconds. And every single second you've said no to God and you've called God a liar. For the first time in my life, I realized this.
If anyone deserves to be in a lake of fire, it's me. It's me. Honestly, no. The presence of God. When? When in your lifetime have you come to the realization that God would be right to put you in hell?
That's repentance. It's agreeing with God. It's a change of thinking, isn't it? I did the math. I thought, you know, if I have that many sins just in 10 years, well, what's 20 years? What's 70 years? And then I got thinking, you know, if I have that many sins and I'm accountable for every second, the math term is factorial.
So if this year I rejected Christ and I'm responsible, I could have, if that magnifies, that's like taking five times four times three times two times one. And I did it on a computer and it just said E.
My sins would have been uncountable for a computer. So my heart's desire tonight, as I look over an audience that was just like me, is that to remind you one more time, if you die in your sins, you're going to meet the man who died upon the cross.
He will not be able to save you there. And I hope you understand in some way tonight that you're in an awful lot of trouble tonight. And you need to be saved before it's too late. We'll pray.