Bell being on his mind for two
months, bless his heart, I'm glad you're relieved of that
burden. Now you can think better thoughts. Thank you so much for inviting
me back. It's been a while. The first
time I preached here was at a homecoming service, and they were taking
up an offering to buy a new carpet. I don't know if this is the carpet
or not, but And I remember one old fellow
came up to me afterwards, and he was kind of old, and you know,
he wanted to respect the elders. And he said, I like that message
you preach. I said, Well, thank you, sir. He said, You didn't
say anything about predestination. And I said, Well, I said it wasn't
in that particular passage that I preached, so I didn't mention
it. He said, I don't think much predestination. He said, I don't
like predestination. And I said, Well, you like what
the Bible says about predestination, don't you? He said, Oh, yeah.
I said, Well, we're good. Isaiah, Chapter 58. Thanks to
Johnny and Rhonda for taking such good care of me. I'm living
at the Parker Resorts and Inns and Suites. It's so very nice. I haven t lived out high on the
hog in a long time, and I really appreciate it. Now, Isaiah chapter 58, our Lord,
and remember when you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos,
these prophets were prophesying approximately at the same time
in different areas about the same subject, and the subject
was a mixture of the worship of God with idols, and they were
dealing with that, and they said, For the glories of Jesus Christ,
the glories of the new covenant all the time warning these people
that God was going to destroy them, and weeping over the fact that
He was because they loved their brethren, and they wouldn t hear them.
They had pastors, they had preachers going around all the time saying,
Peace, it s not going to happen, God s not going to come destroy
you, God s not going to send the Chaldeans to Babylonians to wipe
you out, God s not going to do that. Peace, peace, there s not
going to be no sword, peace when there is no peace in anybody
in this day and this age that stands in a pulpit anywhere in
the world and preaches that message is lying! He s lying! There s only one peace in this
world, and that s the peace that our Savior gives to us, not as
the world gives, but as only He can give. peace was established
at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby His children
were reconciled to Him by the blood of the cross. That s the
only peace there is. That s the message of the Gospel.
Christ s death is what brings us peace. Now, our Lord is dealing
with His people in this, and they were religious folks. They
were that elect nation. Now, they weren t spiritually
elect, they were physically or naturally elect, And the problem
with natural election, it almost always leads a person to think
of entitlement. And the reason why those who
hate the Gospel mock those who believe in spiritual election
today is because they believe we're saying we're entitled,
and we're saying just the opposite. God chose a bunch of dogs, vile
and unclean and undone, worthy of ten thousand hells. That's
who He chose to save because our salvation is entirely completely
by the grace of God. But He had a people here, a people
that were privileged to live on this Earth. Out of this whole
population of the world, He had a people. Out of 59,000 acres
of land, or 59 million acres of land, He met with one man
once a year in a 15 by 15 cubit for these people, and He shed
blood on their behalf. God was gracious, He gave them
the Oracle He gave them His Word, they had the promises, they had
the rites and the ceremonies, all the sacrifices, all the feast
days and all the Sabbaths, they had it all! And yet on every
street corner, Jeremiah said there was a statue of Baal, or
Baal Peah, or Ashtar, or some other god on every street corner,
you know. And in the Temple where the true
God was to be worshipped had statues of Baal. When they came
out of Egypt, they carried the statues of Baal with them. They
ve always been idolaters, and we all are by nature exactly
as they are. And our Lord said to His prophet,
You need to tell them something, because they were meeting for
worship. They were going in there among their idols and talking
about the true and living God. He said to His prophet, Cry aloud Spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, show my people their transgression, and the
house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, delight
to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook
not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinance
of justice, they take delight in approaching
unto God. Wherefore have we fasted, say
they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our
soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast
ye find pleasure in exact all your labors. Behold, you fast
for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast as ye do to
this day, to make your voice to be heard on high." Now, in
this passage of scripture, our Lord confronts those who are
professors that they belong to the Lord God. They had no real
spiritual interest in Christ. There was a few here and there
that God chose to reveal Himself to, but generally speaking, what
they had was what they could see. What they had was what they
could see. They were outwardly very moral
people practicing and observing the ordinances of God, and by
all appearance seemed to be the true people of God. People said
that about But men look on the outward appearance, and God looks
on the heart. Men see actions and often base their estimations
on what they see, but men cannot discern motive and cannot see
the heart. God discerns the heart. Knows
your heart tonight and knows mine, too. Sometimes that s a
scary thought because I know the darkness of my own heart,
and I thank God for His grace. Our Lord even discloses what
lies beneath the visible machinations of religious piety. He exposes
the motive for their sanctimonious behavior. The exposure of their
motives is that their morality, their obedience, their law-keeping,
their prayers, their fasting, their pursuit of righteousness
is this, SIN. Show my people their sins. The old Puritans called it Splendita
Peccata, Shining Sins. Verse 1, The Lord calls upon
his prophet, his preacher, to cry aloud and spare not. He means
don t worry about hurting somebody s feelings. He used to make his
voice heard publicly. He used to do it loudly and overtly,
show the people their sin at the house of Jacob, their transgressions.
How many revivalists do we all know have employed this first
verse to wage war on alcohol, drugs, lasciviousness, and all
manner of societal evil, even the Internet? The problem with
that is that religious people are already generally against
those things, and such messages only serve to prop up their self-righteousness
because they are not guilty of those things anyway. You remember the story Henry
Mahan used to tell about the fellow who every time the preacher
would preach, he said, Boy, you got them today! You told them
today! And the preacher would just shake
his head, and every time he went to church, and one time it was
a snowy night, and him and the preacher was the only one that
showed up. And he was wondering what that guy was going to say
after he preached, and he went to the back door, and that fellow
says, Well, if they'd have been here, you'd have got them. However, the sin of this people
is their religion, their religion. The sin that the Lord requires
His prophet to show or disclose is their moral doings in the
context of their religious worship and their religious duty. These
are not outwardly vile people. They are not. Outwardly they show piety and
rectitude, and that cannot be questioned. But our Lord looked
at this group in His day and said, You are whited sepulchers
full of dead men's bones, dead men's bones. It's not acceptable
in this day to run down other people's religion, though I enjoy
it immensely. Our Lord did, though. He looked
at Pharisees after He fed those people with fishes and loaves,
and He told them, He says, I know you don't believe Me. I know
you don't believe me, but all the Father gives me does, and
they'll all come to me, and to a bunch of Pharisees who says,
Why don't you tell us who you are? Why don't you tell us if
you're the Messiah? He says, I've already told you, you didn't
hear me. He said, There's a reason why you didn't hear me. You're
not my sheep, because my sheep hear my voice, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life. This religion is a religion
of morality without Christ, and you'll never find anything harder
or colder or meaner on the top side of this Earth. It is without
Christ because its DESIGN is to bring glory to men and not
to God, to recognize man's will and man's work, but not God's
will and His work. to be seen of men, that's why
it's done, that's what our Lord said in Matthew 23. And Paul
said to the Galatian church to make a fair show in the flesh. Verse 2 begins to catalog these
sins, the list begins with the word YET. This signifies that though what
they do is sin and useless, they still do it, they still practice
it, they still keep going. do it with consummate zeal. What
should precede these words, and does thematically, is that these
things that follow are for appearance sake, for public perusal, to
be seen of men, and thus to garner irrefutable evidence that they
are truly the children of God. People talk about that a lot.
Got to show evidence you re a child of God. Anybody like to raise
their hand and show me something? Huh? Only one thing in scripture that
says it is evidence. Hebrews chapter 11. Faith is
the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things
not seen. And I would like for you to show me your faith. You can't and I can't either.
Well, no one in the world thinks we are crazy. No one in the world
would look at this outfit showed up here tonight, drove miles
and miles, some of you to come and hear the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and they say, What in the world is going on? These
are believers. What a strange bunch they are! Our Lord said, They seek me daily.
They are constant in their attendance to temple and synagogue. They
delight to know my ways. They like to talk about God.
They cherish theological debate and gather teachers to themselves
having itching ears. They read and know the Bible
and seek to explain the intricacies of providence to have people
know that they understand what God is doing. God is doing this
today, and God is doing that. You don t know what God is doing,
and let me be very clear, you don t want to know what God is
doing. Providence is tough, it's hard,
it'll kill you, and it's always good, and always glorifies God,
and will ultimately bring you to the feet of Christ if you're
His. Many years ago, my dad died. My dad always took Mom to church
on Sunday. When he died, she didn't have
no transportation because her neck was bad and she couldn't
My brother, who had been under the Gospel all his life, said,
I'll take you, Mama, I'll take you to Church. So he took her
to Church, and I believe the Lord had done something for him.
We were standing outside, leaning against that old Buick and having
a smoke. He said, That's all right, ain't
it? He was having us a smoke, and
I said, Myron, if God had asked you, He said, All right, if I
take your daddy so I can get you under the gospel. I said, If he asked you, what
would you say? He said, I'd probably say, No, because I love my daddy,
and I didn't want to lose my daddy. Providence is tough, hard,
but it's always, always good. Our Lord said, This is a nation
that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of the Lord."
Buddy, when the time for the Feast was there, they were there
all of those eight Sabbaths, all of those Feast days. They
made sure that the priests offered up the burn offering, and the
peace offering, and the sin offering, and the wave offering, and all
the offerings were offered up. They KNOW how this is done, and
they made sure it was done right. This is not questionable because
their efforts were for the eyes of men were seen. They ask for the ordinances of
justice. This means they seek advice on towing the line and
dotting the i and crossing the t and doing everything by the
letter of the law. They take delight in approaching
God. They LOVE going to church, LOVE going to temple. It s the
day we go to temple, and this is a day the Lord has made. They
d probably say that. That s talking about a whole
other day, but they d probably say that. They delight, and their
delight is based on the notion that their works assuredly make
them welcome in the presence of God. If I do this, surely
God will accept me. Somebody said that one time.
They said, Lord, Lord, I don t I, Lord, didn t we prophesy
in your name? Didn't we do great wonders in
your name? Didn't we cast out the demons
of drugs and alcohol and sexual things? Didn't we get rid of
them in your name? We did it in your name. We said
it in Jesus' name. We said it over and over again,
and He said, Depart from me ye that work iniquity in my name. I never knew you. In verse 3, the Lord begins to
expose the nature of their false professions They believe that
the Lord is obligated to take notice and account of their works.
They say this, Wherefore have we fasted? Now, we fasted. Wherefore
have we fasted? They say, And Lord, you don t
seem to notice. You don t see it. Wherefore have
we afflicted our soul, and you don t take any knowledge of it?
Behold in the day, our Lord said, you fast, you find pleasure. Something wrong there. I find
no pleasure in missing a meal, and if I do it on purpose, I
guarantee you I won t find any pleasure whatsoever. And you
exact all your labors. They fast, and the affliction
of the soul are to them designated ways of self-denial and sacrifice. They suffer for the cause, yet
they ve not been delivered, nor realizing that the fasting and
the affliction of the soul is actually the source of their
bondage. Self-imposed suffering means nothing to God. It s sadomasochistic sanctity
is all it is. They actually find pleasure in
their suffering because it garners the praise of men. There wasn
t a dry in the house, they d say. The Holy Ghost must have been
there because everybody was a-crying, running in the back of pews and
throwing books and stuff like that, and falling down, having
women covering up their legs with blankets and stuff. Surely,
surely! But they had no mercy. They were
cruel. exact all their labors. They said, We do this, and you
better do it, too. This means that they are hard
people. They are cruel to their servants and to those whom they
deemed inferior to them. They are those as our Lord describes
as rejoicing in their own righteousness and hating others. They had no
mercy, no grace, no forgiveness, They were watchers, however,
they paid attention. They were watchers of men to
see if any failed to come up to their exalted and lofty standards. Their motive, the reason why
they do what they do is exposed in verse 4. The Lord said, Behold,
ye fast for strife. You do it for strife and debate,
and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast
as ye do this day. you do this day. It s all about
keeping things stirred up. You fast for strife. If a fella
tells you he fasted, he wants you to be upset because you didn
t. I remember seeing a fella one
time preaching at a church, and the guy had to go out 350, 400
pounds, and he was bragging about fasting. And I m thinking, You
re just lying. I mean, that s You ain't never
missed a meal. In fact, I think you've stolen
a couple that belong to somebody else. You fast for strife. Why do they do that? They control
men by pitting one man against another. Their visible, pious
behavior is designed to make people angry, to cause division,
for people to take sides. They take pleasure in their misery
because it causes strife. You fast for strife and debate. They like to debate. A friend of mine, I got a good
friend who likes to debate. And I just told him, if you can
debate the scriptures, the scriptures are debatable. And we're going
to have a problem with that because the scriptures ain't debatable.
It's the Word of God. It's a proclamation of what God
has said to us. You smite with the fist of wickedness,
the cruel. This refers to the ease with
violent punishment and public humiliation of those people that
don't add up to them. I remember seeing a sign that
was actually on a church about Sister Mary at some church. It
said, Sister Mary is no longer welcome at this church. She can't
come back until she meets her tithe. I mean, it was on the
sign out in front of the church. Poor old Mary, she showed up,
she couldn't come in. Public humiliation, I think of
the Puritans lashing Quakers to a wagon tongue and taking
hot pincers and pulling off their skin, or putting a two-dollar
bounty on the tongues of Rhode Islanders because they refused
to be under the law. That law is still on the books,
by the way, in Massachusetts, still on the books. They smite
with fists because they believe themselves to be righteous judges
because they have proven their worthiness by their works. They
alone have a right to judge and execute judgment. The motive
for their fasting and affliction of the soul is so they can make
their voices to be heard, our Lord said. It is unacceptable
to the Lord and moves him to nothing but anger. Read Matthew
chapter 23 sometimes and find out what God thinks about this,
and it ain t good. The religion, the religion THAT
WHICH GIVES THEM HOPE OF HEAVEN IS SIN. Our Lord said, Show my
people their sin, their sin. God has declared to His people
that the practice of their religion was for recognition of self,
and what they called self-denial. People talk about that, self-denial.
It don t mean what most people think it means. There was actually a wicked,
sinful scheme to garner the applause of men and obligate God to recognize
and reward them for their diligence, but their religion was sin. They
have shirked what the Lord had commanded concerning their purpose
of belief. In verse 5, he makes it plain,
he says, Is this such a fast that I have chosen, a day for
a man to afflict his soul? He said to bow down his head
as a bulrush to spread sackcloth and ashes under him with I ll
call this a fast and acceptable day of the Lord. People speak of denying themselves,
and our Lord gives you a three-fold answer to that. He says they
set a day to afflict their souls. Affliction soul day is what they
say. It s a holiday, perhaps. Affliction
of the soul is a Biblical principle, it is, but it is not set on a
day. It is the tenor of the life of
the child of God. Affliction of the soul is simply
another way of saying, I deny myself. And you need to separate those
two words, my and self. Because you deny your SELF, YOU,
you deny YOU in the matter of the salvation of your soul. The soul in this sense is the
desires of the flesh, and to set one day as a day of self-denial
is SIN. It kind of sounds like Roman
Catholic Lent, doesn't it? I'm going to give
up ice cream because that's going to impress God for 40 days. I saw an article where one priest
says, Here's what I'm going to give up, here's what I love,
and I'm going to sacrifice for God. I love to read the Bible,
so I'm not going to read it for 40 days! That's LENT! The true affliction of the soul,
every believer, especially when he hears the gospel of Jesus
Christ, practices it right in his heart at that moment and
every day of his life, actually. The true affliction of the soul
is what hurts the flesh. It s a continual confession that
you cannot do and have done nothing and could ever do anything to
be worthy of recognition before our Thrice-Holy God. Nothing
you are or do can recommend you to God. Nothing! People think
the stuff they do recommends to God. They think that, I thought
it in religion for many years, for many years. Back in the days
when I was in the Air Force, not far down the road, though
I spent fourteen times I went overseas, but I was right down
the road here at Pope Air Force Base, and I'd get off work and
I'd get on my motorcycle and I'd go by the BX and they'd buy
me a six-pack, and I'd go back to my room and I'd light up some
camo filters and I'd drink that six-pack, and I did that about
every day. But when I got out of the service, I thought, I
m not going to do that no more. And I didn t drink for ten years,
didn t have a drink. You know what I thought? I thought God
liked me for that. I DID! Somewhere down deep inside
me, I thought, This is recommending me to God. NOTHING you can do
as a LOST sinner or a SAVED sinner can EVER recommend you to God! one thing recommends you to God,
and He sits at the right hand of the Father on the majesty
high right now, and His name is Jesus Christ the Lord. What is to deny self? To deny
yourself as having anything to do with a standing before God. In short, it s believing the
gospel, the good news, which declares precisely that He did
it all, we didn t do nothing. Secondly, the Lord declares that
their religion is sin because they exhibit false humility described
as bowing the head like a bulrush. The qualities of the bulrush
are that they have a huge, empty head and a spindly spine. That s a bulrush, and it can
be bowed down with the slightest breeze. False humility has to
do with posture, rather than anything else, praying hands, stern countenance, slunk shoulders, cast-down eyes,
these things people say he's an humble old soul. The large head speaks of pride
on this bulrush, SPEAKS OF PRIDE, THE REED SPEAKS OF WEAKNESS,
SPINDLY SUPPORT OF THAT BIG OLD HEAD. THE EMPTY HEAD SPEAKS OF
VANITY, AND BOWING TO THE SLIGHTEST BREEZE, BENDING TO EVERY STRANGE
WIND OF DOCTRINE, WILLINGLY ACCEPTING THAT WHICH IS FALSE AND AGAINST
GOD. THIS WAS EXPRESSED IN THE INCORPORATION OF IDOLATRY IN
THE WORSHIP OF GOD. Thirdly, our Lord says that their
religion is sin because they make their repentance a spectacle,
a spectacle for all to see. We know from the preceding verses
that they do this to obligate God and gain the applause of
men. This would line up with the notion of visible penance,
do something that men can see, like testimony meetings. which
we laughingly call braggamony meetings because men brag about
how bad they are. You think you s bad, I was worse
than you. God had to really work hard to save me. I actually heard
a lady say that one time. It was up in Detroit, Michigan,
and this woman cut down, and the pastor told me that the Lord
had saved her, and she said, Yeah, and it took him a lot more
to save me than Our Lord says their religion
is sin. They flog themselves, some of
them do. This last Easter I saw them carrying crosses down the
street. Of course, they had training
wheels on them, I thought that was interesting. Publicly flogging, and such is
generally an abundance of tears and wails that garner sympathy.
are accounted as evidence of the Holy Spirit, but it s actually
the work of the flesh. Read the last prophet in this
Bible, Malachi chapter 2, and you ll see that he said their
tears were nothing. He said they washed the altar
with so many tears he couldn t even see the sacrifice! God
has to see that sacrifice! spreading her sackcloth and ashes
to pretend repentance. True repentance is turning from
your idols to serve the living God and denying that anything
you do can recommend you to God, but God Himself. And all these
things are forms of self-imposed bondage because they must be
done to be recorded and recognized. Believing the gospel is the denial
of self, and here s the thing, it s not visible. The just shall
live by faith and not by sight. And the Lord confronts this overt
fallenness with a divine challenge. He said, Will thou call this
a fast, an acceptable day of the Lord? Are you going to call
this mess pleasing to me? What then is an acceptable day
of the Lord? What is the fast that the Lord
has chosen? What is it? The fast of denying
self that the Lord has chosen has absolutely nothing to do
with bondage or cleaving to rites and rituals done to be seen of
men. It s not about rules and regulations and ersatz laws or
church covenants. Such are designed to control
men s behavior and keep them towing the religious line. The
gospel is about doing precisely the opposite. The gospel is about
setting men free. What did he say when Lazarus
came forth? Loosen! Let him go! Loosen! The best advice any preacher
can ever give you if you're a child of God, and if you're not a child
of God, you'll use this wrong, but if you're a child of God,
you won't. Here's the best advice. Love
Jesus Christ and do what you want to. Yeah, do what you want to. If you love Jesus Christ, you'll
do what He wants you to do, and you'll want to do that. You'll
want to do that. From A to Z, Christ finished
the work of salvation on the cross and this wondrous knowledge
for God-given faith, and freedom is the knowledge that there is
nothing left to do because all of it's already been done. to loose the bands of wickedness,
is what he says in this passage, the chains of false religion.
Now, my brother-in-law, Larry, he was a drunk, he'll tell you
he was a drunk, heck of a roofer, made lots of
money, had two businesses, three or four trucks in each business,
hired people to work for him, and he roofed houses, and he
made a lot of money, and then he'd go get drunk, and then he'd
buy cocaine to get him sober enough to go home, waste his
life away, and every time he would get down so far and lose
everything, and he lost those two businesses twice, he would
go to church, and he found out every time it
didn t help. It didn t help. They just bound
him up further in religion and broke him down more and more.
One day we were sitting in a restaurant with Wayne Robinson and Henry
Mahan and a couple of other brothers and we were sitting in a restaurant
eating, and Larry was with us, and he had been living with me
for some time then. And we were cutting up and laughing
like we do as brothers and sisters in Christ, and we were having
a good time, enjoying each other's presence. And Larry elbowed me,
he was sitting beside me, and he says, Y'all are so free! Y'all are so free! Yeah, we're
free! Don't put no chains on me. I'm
the Lord's free man. It's to tell a sinner who can
do nothing that there is nothing to do. That's what the beauty
of the Gospel is. It is to undo the heavy burdens,
the Lord said, that religion and its restrictions have placed
on them. Undo them heavy burdens, He said.
It is to let those who are oppressed go free. The psychological oppression
of fundamentalist religion has brought about an entirely new
curriculum of psychological counseling designed to relieve people of
religious guilt, because that s what religion operates on. If it can keep you guilty, it
can keep you coming. But the great Counselor, the
Lord Jesus Christ, has the perfect plan by His substitutionary He
has declared His people NOT GUILTY! In fact, He s declared them INNOCENT! He s declared them as having
NEVER SINNED! And that verdict comes from the
High Court of Heaven, from the Judge of all the Earth who will
always do right! Our Lord said, Break every yoke!
Break them yokes! This refers to the manner in
which religion controls the life of people usually consists of
fear of censure or promise of reward or a whip or a biscuit,
the sword of Damocles or the ill-fitting diadem of merit.
They use all those things. These things control men rather
than cutting them loose. You are the Lord s free men by
His substitution and sacrifice. Listen, He s made you kings and
priests. You have access to God, you can
offer acceptable sacrifices by Jesus Christ. I'm looking at
a bunch of kings and priests right now, right here in Spring
Lake, North Carolina, kings and priests aplenty because of the
Lord's work. This refers to the manner in
which religion controls men, this yoke. The Lord said, My
yoke is easy, my burden is light. The fast that the Lord has ordained,
the denial of self, is about getting outside yourself and
doing something for somebody else. There is such freedom in giving
and caring for others. Look at verse 7, he says, Is
it not to deal the bread to the hungry, that thou bring the poor
that are cast out into thy house, when thou seest the naked, that
ye cover him, and thou shalt not hide thyself from thine own
flesh? Note the last phrase, The effect of the Gospel, the
freedom that it brings is to see the truth about your own
flesh. There s no goodness there, nothing but rebellion against
God, and it s still doing that even tonight right here in this
Gospel meeting. Your flesh is fighting what you
re hearing right now. Thank God your Spirit subdues
it! But your flesh don t like what I m saying. It don And most of these things here
reported that the Lord has chosen fast are things that are not
planned or even accounted as works. You love old Debbie, don t you?
You do, don t you? Is there a bunch of laws on the
wall that says when you do something for her, you say, Boy, that s
a good work. And you bring her a cup of coffee, you say, That
s a good work. Jesus will recognize that. You
don t say stupid stuff like that, do you? Well, stop saying about
what you do in religion. If you do good works, it?s because
God has ordained them. You are His workmanship created
in Jesus Christ, and do good works which God has before ordained
that you should walk in them. You?re going to walk in them!
They?re there! You may not have met them yet,
but you?ve already been equipped for them, and when you meet up
with them, you?ll do them, and you won?t even know you?ve done
them, you?ll just do them because it?s your life! I love my wife. I do. Don't have to work at it.
She's a fine lady. We've never had a rule about
anything. She needs something done, and if I can do it, I'm
going to do it. And I don't think, Man, this has got to count for
something. It doesn't. What we do matters. Don't get me wrong. But it don't count. Don't get
me wrong. It matters, but it doesn t count. If you do works, it s because
God has ordained them, and you won t know that they re being
done. When our Lord took those sheep
and separated them on His right hand in Matthew 25, He said,
I was sick, and you visited me. I was hungry, and you fed me.
I was naked, and you clothed me. I was in jail. You come see
me. And then He kind of looked with askance and said, Wait,
wait, wait, When did that happen? When did we see you there? When
did we see you there? We never seen that. They don't
know nothing about the works he's talking about. He said,
Well, in the least, you've done it to me. In the least, he's
my brother, and you've done it also to me. And they couldn't remember when
they'd done it for their brother. But those people going to Hell,
they couldn't remember because they told the Lord, Well, if
we'd have known, we'd have done it. Love Christ, do what you will,
do what you will. It is evident that these blessed
ones did not consider in Matthew 25 that what they did was good
work. They were nothing more than living life as a redeemed
sinner. Oh, that we would live! This is the beauty of the gospel,
the Lord s chosen fast, it sets men free, cares for them, meets
their needs, and garners no confidence in the flesh. Stand fast in the
liberty, for Christ has made you free, and be not again under
the yoke of bondage. Deny yourself. How do you do
that? Two ways. First, deny you. I had nothing
to do with it. I used to do that with my dad,
my mom would catch me in some sin, doing something, and I'd
say, Me? I don't know nothing about that.
People say you had something to do with your salvation. You
say, Me? I don't know nothing about that! Deny yourself, and
care for your brother and sister in Christ. And if you love them,
you WILL. And if you don't, no religion
can make you do it.