Amen. I'll take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter
3. The last time we met, we looked at
the rebuke of the Apostle Paul to the Apostle Peter. You remember
that Peter, desiring to obey the law of Moses, separated himself
from the Jews. And the Apostle Paul said this
concerning Peter, that he obeyed not the truth. He was walking
unevenly His confession was salvation was by grace through faith in
Christ. And yet his conduct said that
the law of Moses had something to do with his acceptance with
God. And Peter said that's an uneven
wall. You cannot mix law and grace. You're either saved by the law
or you're saved by grace. You cannot be saved by both.
And that's what he said in verse 16 of chapter 2. He said, knowing. This is something we know. Nobody's
justified by the law, Peter. We know that. You and I are Jews. We've been under this law. We
understand that. We know that a man is justified by one means,
the faith of Jesus Christ. And what I mean by faith of Jesus
Christ, I mean the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Not only his
faith in God, but his obedience to God and his death. We know
a man's justified that way. And that's why, Peter, we believed
in Jesus Christ, that we can be justified by His faithfulness. That's why we believed in Him.
And he said, Peter, if we go back under the law, we've made
ourselves sinners, because that's all law can do, make us sinners.
And he said, is Christ a minister of condemnation? No. The law is the minister of condemnation. The law says, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do. The law is a minister of condemnation. That's what
it is. Can't help you. So if I'm under the law, guess
what I am? I'm cursed. Well, Christ's not a minister
of condemnation, is he? He's a minister of life. He's
a minister of no condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. And so now he's taken his eyes
off Peter. He gave that illustration for a very important purpose.
Because the Church of Galatia was doing exactly what Peter
was doing. They chose a different law. Peter
chose the law concerning meats. The Church of Galatia chose the
law of circumcision. So it doesn't really matter which
part of the law you choose. You want to choose the Ten Commandments,
you want to choose the dietary, you want to choose Sabbath worship
and tithing, whatever part. If you choose one, you're under
the whole thing. That's what he's telling them.
That's why it's so important. And listen to what he says to
these Galatians. Look at chapter 3. Now he turns to them and he
says, O foolish Galatians, who has seduced you? That's what
it is. Bewitched. Enticed you. Listen. Legalistic religion is
enticing. Makes us feel good about ourselves.
We do something, and then we look at what we've done, and
then we feel good about ourselves. It's seducing. If I do religious
deeds, I feel religious. Therefore, God must love me.
No. It's seducing, but it's not right.
It's just a it's just a deception. It's an illusion. Just because
you feel good about yourself doesn't mean that your relationship
with God is good. That doesn't have anything to
do with it. I tell you what, I feel more
of the opposite. You believers, you understand this. We feel
more of the opposite. Because salvation is by grace,
I don't care how I feel about it. My salvation doesn't depend
on how I feel about it. Religion is all about feelings.
That's it. But true gospel is dependent
upon, so who seduced you? That you should not obey the
truth. Listen to this, this is going to be my point. Before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you. In other words, Paul said, who
bewitched you? Did I not preach the gospel to
you? When he said the cross of Christ, that is synonymous with
the gospel. The cross of Christ is synonymous
with the gospel in this. The cross is the center of the
gospel. It is the foundational point
of the gospel. the cross of Jesus Christ. He told those Galatians, the
Colossian church, he said, I determine, I'm doing this on purpose, not
to know anything among you, but one thing, Jesus Christ and him
crucified. Somebody once said this, a message
without the cross of Christ or the blood of Christ is an abomination
in its preparation, abomination in its execution, and an abomination
if you believe it. Anything besides the cross of
Christ. Why, it is the foundational point of the gospel. Without
it, there's no gospel. If we're going to talk about,
you know, your family and your circumstances and all of those
things, that may make you feel good, but there's no gospel in
that. This cross is the gospel. He said, did I not preach the
gospel to you? If the cross of Christ is not
preached, if the blood is not the substance of our pardon,
our forgiveness, our justification, our sanctification, it is not
the gospel. If that's not preached, then
you're not hearing the gospel. We're going to sing that hymn,
nor silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption, nor riches of
earth could have saved my poor soul. The blood of the cross,
listen, is my only foundation. The death of my Savior, redemption
has wrought. I am redeemed. Not with silver. I'm bought but not with gold.
Bought with the price. Yes, a price. The blood of Jesus
Christ. That's what we're bought with.
We're redeemed. This is the message Paul set
forth among them. Look to the Lamb of God. And
when you look to Him, keep looking to Him. You see, they professed
to look to the Lamb of God. And then what did they do? They
shifted their eyes from the Lamb of God to the Law of Moses. No. You look to the Lamb of God and
then what? Keep looking to the Lamb of God. Why? He's the only one that can
save you. He's the only one that can save you. Now I've got three
points concerning the cross of Christ. I'm going to preach the
cross to you this morning. The cross of Christ. I want you
to know this. First of all, it is the only
means of salvation. There's no other means. What
do I mean by salvation? Now you're going to hear a lot
of words And they're all synonymous. Redemption. Sanctification. Justification. Reconciliation. What am I saying
when I say all of I'm saying salvation? You have to have all
of them to be saved. You can't just have redemption
without sanctification. Holiness. That's what we're.
You make it simple. The word sanctification means
holiness. If you have redemption, guess
what else you have? You have holiness. Right? If there are no more sins, if
they're all bought, if they're paid for, if they're gone, then
what's left? But holiness. You're sanctified
by the blood of Christ. You're justified. What does justified
mean? It means this, that I have never
sinned. Somebody who is justified has
never sinned. When Christ died for me, He justified
me, He made me to be without sin in the eyes of God. So when I use all these words,
reconciliation, when I reconcile, that brings someone together,
right? Can you be brought together without redemption? Can you be
brought to God without redemption? Can you be brought to God without
being holy? Can you be brought to God, reconciled to God without
righteous? No! And this was done by Christ
at the cross. Now, the second thing I want
you to see is that this redemption was successful. And the third
thing I want you to see is that the preaching of this is the
power of God to save. So first of all, the preaching
of the cross is our only means of salvation. Now, in the beginning,
when our father sinned, when Adam sinned, he plunged us all
into death and hell. He plunged us all into sin. When he sinned, we sinned. That's what a representative
is. Somebody who represented you. Adam represented us and
he sinned. And in him, our representative,
we sinned. Now what's the result of that?
When you're born into the world, you are born a sinner. Nobody taught you to sin. It's
natural to you and me. Why we were born in sin. But
at the same time, God gave a promise of reconciliation or redemption. He said, the seed of the woman,
the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. Remember, the father of all sin
is Satan. And God says, I'm going to take
it out at the source. He's going to crush your head.
And He's going to do this very specifically by you bruising
His heel. God told that Christ would come
and destroy sin, put away sin by the bruising of His heel and
then He gave them a picture. You remember that Adam and Eve
were naked and they were ashamed. What's the first thing that God
did after He promised a Redeemer? You remember He killed an animal.
and covered them with the skin of that animal. The first sacrifice
that was ever made, God made it. And that was a perpetual picture
that carried through their children on all the way through the law.
You remember those two children, Cain and Abel. They brought a
sacrifice, and Cain brought what? What did Cain bring? He was a
farmer. He brought the fruit of his labor. I'm sure it was the best fruit.
I thought about that banquet feast that Cain put out there.
I'm sure it was elaborate. I'm sure that any one of us would
have said, man, that's a good-looking meal. He put it out there and
he really meant it. He was sincere about offering
that to God. You know what God said about
his work? Scripture says God had no respect
to Cain or his offering. You know why? Because it was
without blood. Abel made an offering. He sacrificed
a lamb that he didn't give birth to. He sacrificed a lamb he didn't
work to make it grow. He didn't do anything. He led
that little lamb out there to the pasture. The lamb fed all
day. God caused the lamb to grow up. God provided the lamb. And he killed the lamb and God
had respect to his. Why? Because it was a blood offering. A blood offering. And then you
see this carry on through the law of Moses on the Passover
and the great day of atonement. All of those sacrifices daily
were offered blood. The apostles said almost all
things by the law were purged with blood. Here's a maxim. Here's a statement of fact. Without
the shedding of blood is no remission. There's no remission of sin without
blood. There's no remission of sin without death. Death is the
penalty for sin, and without it, you cannot have payment.
That's what God's telling you. But the blood of those offerings,
the apostle goes on to tell us this, that none of them, none
of them paid for sin. They only pictured the offering
of Jesus Christ that would pay for sin. That's what they were
there for. And so Jesus Christ, for this
cause, is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of
his death for the redemption of the transgression to them
that were under the first covenant, that they which are called might
receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. Jesus Christ is
the mediator of a new covenant, not of works. The law is a covenant
of works. What did Cain find about the
law of works? He found out God had no respect for his work.
Listen to me, God does not have any respect for your work. Our work is unacceptable to God. Now it may be acceptable to everybody
else that we're doing it for. You feed the hungry, he's going
to be thankful. You clothe them, They're going to be thankful.
You did a good deed for that person. There's nothing wrong
with that. The deal is, it's not anything to God. Because
you did it selfishly. And we do it selfishly. But God has made Christ to ratify
a covenant of grace without works. Salvation without works. Isn't
this glorious? Salvation based on nothing you
do. It's astounding that we always
want free things. This is the only free thing that
men don't want. This is the only thing that men want to earn. But this is absolutely free. And Christ, by his blood, ratified
that covenant, made it effectual, and he has redeemed us from the
transgression. The law did none of this. The
law only has a purpose of exposing guilt. I don't know, have you
read the law? Anybody just take time to read
the law? Every time I read it, you know what I feel? I feel
guilt. Every time I read it. Why? Because I am. I've broken
everything it said. And that's the purpose of the
law, to expose sin, not to help you overcome it. And what the law teaches us is
that we are not sufficient to pay the debt. Why is hell eternal? Because they can never pay the
debt. That's why. We cannot pay the
debt. We are guilty under the justice
of God, yet here is the mercy of God on display, that the blood
of Jesus Christ is the only redemption price He has accepted. The only
price He has accepted. In Galatians chapter 3, look
over just a few and look what it says. In verse 13, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law cursed me,
but Christ has redeemed me from that curse. How? Being made a curse for us. For it is written, curse is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. Christ was made a curse, and
I want to be very clear about this so nobody misunderstands. It is only the blood of Christ
that can reconcile you to God. It is the only means of redeeming
your sin. Now religion says, okay, you
want to redeem your sin, go do this. That's religion, isn't
it? The Catholic Church will tell
you, say five Hail Marys or whatever, they'll tell you to, you know,
and then they, well, you do that and you'll be absolved. Where's
the blood? Where's the blood? Without the
shedding of blood is no remission. Where's the blood? I remember
listening to this man, he was a Jew, and he was reading, and
he had one question. Where's the blood? He looked
at his religion. He looked at the law, and all
he saw was blood. And he went to his rabbi, and
he said, Rabbi, I'm scared. Where's the blood? He said, well,
you know, because of this and because of this, we don't have
that temple. Now it's a mosque. We can't offer it. And he made
all these excuses. But he was convinced of this.
Without the shedding of blood was no remission. And the Lord
opened to him Christ. Why? Because He, by His blood,
has reconciled us to God. And not by the goodness and obedience
of man. We know this, everyone who has
been reconciled, we know that all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. If anyone has ever come to Jesus
Christ for the redemption, we see this, that we cannot reconcile
ourselves. We've seen that our sin has alienated
us from God and taken us away from communion with God. It is
then that God manifests to us that the Savior has already redeemed. Go to 2 Corinthians. Look at
2 Corinthians. Chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
18. Paul says, All things are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself. Don't you see that all
that it took to reconcile us, he says that's of God. All things
are of God. And He did what? He reconciled
us. Now what did I tell you it takes
to be reconciled? It takes a redemption price. You have to pay for your
sins. Your sins have to be paid for.
You have to be made holy. You have to be sanctified. You
have to be without sin. You have to be justified. You
have to be righteous to be reconciled with God. And listen, God did
all these things for his people. How did he do it? Look at that. By Jesus Christ. That's how he did it. We're talking
about the means of salvation. How did he do it? By Jesus Christ. Notice he didn't say by Jesus
Christ and your obedience. We did it by Jesus Christ. That's
it. That's how he did it. And then
he gave to us the ministry of reconciliation, and this is our
ministry. that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
not imputing their trespasses to them. The word imputing means
charging. Now listen, He did not deny it
was their transgression. I do not deny my sin is mine.
My sin is mine. Your sin is yours. Yet God, by
sending Christ, said this, I am not willing to charge you even
though it's yours. I'm not going to charge you with
it. Well, that's good. Well, how
are you going to do that? He was in Christ reconciling
the world, not charging their trespass them. He committed to
us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ,
though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ, be
you reconciled. Here's the foundation. For God
hath made him to be sin, For us, this is how He reconciled
us. He took your sin, your guilt,
and made it to be Christ's. The great exchange. The great
exchange. And listen, who knew no sin? This astounds me. This is a mystery.
Don't tell me you got this figured out. I just don't believe you.
Any man tell me he got it figured out, I don't believe you. I just
don't. Maybe I'm just stupid. Maybe
you're really intelligent and I just don't understand. That's
all right. I know it happened. I believe
it happened. He was made sin for us. He bore our sin, Peter said,
in his own body on the tree. And yet he felt no sin, he thought
no sin, he did no sin while he was made sin. With me it's just the opposite.
He has made me righteous and yet I confess I have never done
anything righteous. I've never felt righteous, never
thought righteous, never been righteous. And yet, what? I am. He never did sin and yet
he was made sin. for this purpose that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. All that were in
Christ, given to Him, when the Father gave us to Christ, He
died for all the Father gave Him. They were, just as you were one
with Adam, I told you you were in union with Adam, when he sinned,
you sinned. Even so, we who are in Christ
are in union with Christ so that when Christ died, we died in
Him. I didn't feel that, did you?
Well, I didn't feel it when Adam sinned. I definitely didn't feel
it when Christ died. That doesn't make it any less
true. I was in Him. And He is the means of our redemption. He is the means of our justification.
And I want to show you a couple of scriptures. I'll hold off on it. I'll hold
off on it. We'll move on. The second thing is this. I've
proclaimed to you the means. Now I'm going to proclaim to
you this. When we preach the cross of Christ, we must preach
the success of it. You cannot preach the cross of
Christ without preaching the success. We can talk all day about the
cross of Christ redeeming the sinner, but if he failed to redeem one
of those the Father gave him, then he is not the Christ of
this book. There are many today who contend
for an open-ended crucifixion. that Christ opened the door and
He made salvation possible. He died on the cross, but He
really didn't actually redeem anybody until that person makes
it effectual or powerful for themselves. It's kind of like
they say that grace is floating up in the air and all you've
got to do is reach up and grab it and bring it down to yourself. But the Christ who made salvation
possible, the truth is, He actually redeemed nobody. It's possible
He redeemed nobody then. Isn't it possible? If salvation
is dependent not upon the blood of Christ, but upon the will
of man, then it would be possible He redeemed nobody. We know that's
not true. Jesus died. I'll tell you this,
according to the scripture, if Jesus died for everyone, there
is no hell. He's so successful that if that was his purpose,
there is no hell. If we were to follow modern religion,
he said we died for all the sins of all people. He died for all
the sins except for unbelief. I consider that. What if Christ
died for all the sins except for unbelief? What will you do
to pay for unbelief? Does faith pay for sin? What
did I tell you pays for sin? Blood. Without the shedding of
blood. So that if he died for all sins
except unbelief, listen to this, there is nobody going to heaven. But the truth is, Jesus Christ
died for all of the sins of all that the Father gave him. He
died for all of the sins, and this is the truth. He is successful. He's successful. And any gospel that says that,
well, he died to redeem me, I believe all that, preacher, but you know
what? I believe he died for my redemption, he died for my justification,
but you know what? I've got to add to that my obedience. Well, then you're saying that
he's not successful. That's what you're saying. If you have to
add anything to it, it's not done. This is the whole point of the
letter of Galatians. They were seeking to add one thing to Christ. And Paul said, you do not obey
the truth. You do not obey the truth. The
gospel message of the cross that I preach to you, I preach a successful
savior. And I'll give you a little taste
of what's being said. I'm so thankful that God has
put us in a little bubble sometimes. I'm thankful that you don't have
to hear all the garbage that's out there. But listen, This was
a very prominent man in Houston many years ago, and his church
is still around. He's still preaching. He said
this in public, and it just kind of floors me that they would
even actually say this out loud, that there were two games being
played at the cross. The thieves were gambling for
the garments of Christ, and Christ was gambling for the souls of
men. That's what they really believe.
They do not believe in a successful Savior. If there is one person that Christ
died for that's in hell, then friends, he is not Christ and
the scripture is vain. Why? Because God swears he shall
not fail. shall not fail nor be discouraged. Christ said this, of all that
the Father giveth me, I shall lose nothing. When the angel came, He said,
You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And when I preach the cross of
Christ to you, when I set Him forth, crucified among you, I
want you to understand that redemption is only by the blood of Christ,
and Jesus' blood was totally, completely, absolutely successful
to redeem everyone He wanted to. What were his last words before
he gave up the ghost? It is finished. It is finished. The message of the cross is a
message of complete success. Is this the Christ you believe
in? Is your Savior successful? Did
He actually redeem you? I tell you, by the Word of God,
then, those who believe on such a Savior are fully redeemed. Fully redeemed. Now, I want you
to understand that faith in Christ is necessary. everything I said to you and
preached to you. I tell you by the word of God
that a man must have faith." I want to know this. I know that
he's successful, but is he successful for me? I know he redeemed a people.
The important question is, did he redeem me? What is the evidence
that I am redeemed? I really like to hear that, preacher,
that he did redeem all the elect. That sounds wonderful, but is
that me? How do I know I am redeemed? It is simply this. Do you believe
on Jesus Christ alone? Faith, my friends, is the evidence
of our redemption. It doesn't have anything to do
with my redemption, really. My faith in Christ does not redeem
me. My faith in Christ is evidence
of my redemption because faith, listen, it's not just an act
of will. It is a gift of God. It's a gift
of God. Our Lord Jesus said all that
the father had given me, I should lose nothing. That's great. Am
I one that was given to him? Listen what he said. He said,
all that the Father giveth me, there's gonna be something about
them. All that the Father giveth me shall come to. They're gonna
come to me. They're gonna know that they
have no hope in themselves. They're gonna know they have
no righteousness in themselves. They're gonna hear about me.
My success. You know where they're going
to come? They'll come to me. I know this. When I came to Christ,
I came to Christ because there was no place else to go. God had put me in a narrow place
and there was nowhere else to go. You got someplace else to
go, you'll go. You got something else you'll
trust in, you'll trust in it. When God took everything from
me, I had no place else to go. And I know this in my heart,
there was no place else I wanted to go. I need Him. You know what I found in Him?
I found everything He said I would find. I found peace with God. I found that my peace with God
was not based on anything I could do to make that peace. It was something that Christ
did for me. I came to Him by faith, and I
believe Him. I trust His blood. And he said
this, when you come to him, there is no way I'm going to cast you
out. Isn't that comforting? I can find a million reasons
for him to cast me out. But he said, I will not. It is a determinate thing. I'm
not going to cast out anyone who comes to me. Why? Because
I determined him to come to me. I purposed he should come to
me. He's going to come to me. When he does, I'm going to show
him all my love. Circumstances in this life often
make me feel as though God does not love me. My sin often makes me feel as
though God does not love me. How do I know that he loves me? I can only see it When I see
what He has given for me, He gave His only Son. Behold what manner of love the
Father has shed upon us, that we should be called the sons
of God. I can't find any reason in myself to be called a son
of God other than he loved me and gave himself. The cross is
the manifestation of the love of God. It's the only place you're
going to actually see the love of God. It's that he gave the one he
loved the most. So that I might be a son. And how then is this blood applied, how then does
faith come to the sinner? That's my third point. First
one is the means of redemption. Salvation is the blood. The blood's
successful for everyone he died for, and faith is the evidence
of that. But how does one come to faith?
We come now to the means by which the Holy Spirit gives faith.
The preaching of the cross. Paul said, did I not evidently
set forth Christ crucified among you? The cross, the preaching of the
cross, it is the power of God under salvation to everyone that
believeth. I know God chose a people. Christ
came and died for them. He is successful. I know this,
that He will come to every one of them, and this is the means,
preaching, preaching the gospel. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
1 Corinthians chapter 1. Look what Paul said. Go to verse
16. He said, I baptized also the
south of Stephanus, besides which I know not whether I baptized
another, for Christ sent me not to baptize. Now, baptism is important. If you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only outward confession of faith is baptism. Baptism
is the means that Christ has given by which we express to
everyone, I'm with him. I'm with him. I'm going to tell
everybody by this ceremony, I am with Christ. I am one with him.
But you know what? That's not why I'm sitting here.
Baptism, you need to be baptized. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? You've not? You should. That's not really why I'm here. I'm here to preach what? He sent
me to preach the gospel. How? Not with wisdom of words
lest the cross of Christ may not affect. I'm not trying to
tickle your reasoning and your fancy. I'm not trying to entertain.
I don't entertain. It's not my purpose. Why? Because that makes void
the cross. I don't want you trusting your feelings. I don't want you
trusting the excitement that you feel. That's what religion
wants. I want you to trust Christ. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness." Well preacher, we have heard
this over and over. It is so foolish for you to keep
reminding me this. You know what? You're perishing.
You don't know anything at all about this. If you want something
else, you don't know anything at all about this. Why, it's
foolishness to you. It was foolishness to me. I was
a great theologian at 16. At least in my own mind, I was
a great theologian. I knew all the theology that
you could, I loved to bake. Boy, I loved it, it just made
me feel good. I'd take a person, I'd just box
him in, put him in a corner. Boy, I thought I was doing God
a service. So proud of myself. No. I thought preaching was foolish. We need to move on from this
preacher. You keep saying the same thing over and over. I want
to learn something new. And God arrested me. And I found out the preaching of
the cross was not foolishness. It was power. Look what he says. But to them that perish it is
foolishness, but unto us that are saved the preaching of the
cross is what? It is the power of God. The power of God. Why? It's written. When you hear that,
that's just an end of all debate. It's written. I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, is what he did to me. I will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent, that's what he did
to me. Where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the
disputer of the world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? He did. For after that, the wisdom
of God, the world, by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God
by the foolishness, what men call foolishness, by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. The preaching of the cross is
the only means by which this redemption, this redemption,
the means of our redemption was the blood of Christ. He was totally
successful to redeem all that he died for. He rose again from
the grave, and now all power is given to Him, so that He should
give eternal life, listen, to as many as the Father had given
Him. And what is the evidence of that? It is faith! And where
does faith come? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Therefore, I will always, by
the grace and power of God, preach to you the success, the victory
of Jesus Christ, because that's the power of God. That's what
God uses. He does not use the power of positive
thinking. That's exactly what they're doing. If you just determine in yourself
to be a good person, God will accept you. My question is, where's
the blood? Where's the blood? Without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission. Therefore, we will
constantly preach the cross of Jesus Christ to you. I will set
him up. And listen to this. If Christ
redeemed me, if his blood took away my sins, he was successful, then my sins
are gone. If my sins are gone, I am holy. I am, by virtue of his blood,
my sins have been made God, therefore his blood sanctified me, made
me holy. His blood justified me, made
me to be without sin. And his blood allowed the righteousness
of God to be given to me. Therefore I am received of God,
accepted. by virtue of my union with Him,
completely. What do I add to that? Are you so foolish to begin by
the Spirit and then be made perfect by the flesh? How did you receive Christ? Was
it by the law or by the hearing of faith? These are rhetorical
questions, by the way. They all know the answer. Of
course we received it by the Spirit. Of course we received
it by the hearing of faith. He said, even so, walk like that.
Continue to walk by faith. Not looking to anything you've
done. Why? The cross of Christ has redeemed
me. The cross of Christ has justified me. The cross of Christ has sanctified
me. The cross of Christ has made
me acceptable with God. Therefore, all the glory for
my salvation My spiritual growth, it all belongs to God. We glorify God. We praise God. Because Christ is all my salvation.
I pray that God bless this and make this effectual to you. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer. Most gracious Father in heaven,
be merciful to us today. I thank you for your word. I
thank you for the cross of Christ that it has been evidently set
forth among us. Father, that you would give us,
everyone in this place, faith to lay hold on him. Be gracious to us that we should,
by faith, Receive Him as all are standing
before you. And let us be careful to give
you the glory that even our faith is a gift of Thy mercy. And keep
us, we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ and for His sake.
Amen.