Turn with me, if you will, back
to Galatians. Galatians chapter 1. To do a
recap, the last time we were together, we ran our series on
the Ecclesia of Christ, or Christ, Ecclesia, or Church. And we lengthily dealt with the
The nature of the church, which we found the scriptures teach,
was a local assembly, a visible assembly, a gathered assembly,
a congregation of people that is meeting together and serving
Christ. And then we looked at the beginning of the church, or the
start of the church, or when did the church begin. Beginning of the church was whenever
Jesus began his earthly ministry. That is whenever the church began.
So the nature of the church is local and a congregation, visible. And the beginning of the church
was with the things that John had prepared
for Christ. And whenever he came and was
baptized, He went up and he began to gather that church into the
congregation, and he placed within it first the apostles and built
upon that. And now, the last couple of weeks,
the last time we were together, we're looking at the gospel of
the church, and the title of the message was No Other Gospel. and I'll kind of recap just a
little bit about what we talked about since it's been a couple
weeks or so since we've meant to preach on that. But in Galatians
we found that there is only one gospel. There's a notion today
running around that's really part of ecumenicalism, and ecumenicalism
is really a tool of the heart of the church The Harlot Church
preaches love and acceptance and everybody
in unity, okay? And the Bible preaches that also.
The Bible teaches that we should love each other and that we should
serve each other and that we should fellowship with each other
and that there should be definitely unity among each other. However,
the, excuse me, Harlot Church, the Harlot Church teaches that
we do that at any cost, that unity should count at any cost. And at that cost usually is always
the gospel. And so whenever we preach love
and unity and fellowship here, it is with the understanding
that that is love and unity and fellowship in the gospel. That
is the only way that we can have true unity. I can't hold my hands
with the Methodist and the Presbyterians and the Churches of Christ and
those around the area that is preaching other gospels. There
is no unity there, although we may have a physical unity where
we get together and we don't argue and we don't fuss each
other and we act nice to each other. and we're cordial and
we may be able to feed homeless people and do things like that,
that is not the unity that the Bible speaks of. The Bible speaks
of a unity in the gospel. And if there is no gospel unity,
then there is no unity. That's why the Bible said, how
can two walk together unless they agree? There is no biblical
unity unless that unity is around the true and only gospel. And
so we have this being preached very fervently today that, that
there should be unity and for the sake of unity, the gospel
has been watered down. It's to a place now where we
try to make the gospels so unoffensive to people that we just want everybody
to get along and we want everybody to come. We wanna fill up our
church buildings with people and so we're gonna preach a gospel
that's not gonna be offensive to them. Well, it's not that
we're trying to be offensive, but the gospel, the Bible says
itself, that the gospel is gonna be an offensive thing. There
is gonna be an offense of the gospel. And people who do not
believe the gospel are always going to be put off by the preaching
of that gospel. And they're always gonna run
to where their itching ears are gonna be satisfied. They wanna
go and hear somebody preach what they want to hear preached. what
they believe that they can listen to and not be moved or not be
the God that is preached in the Bible, but the God of their own
making. And so whenever we preach the gospel, the gospel is gonna
divide. The Bible says that it will divide
households, it'll divide father and son, mother and daughter. It's gonna divide people because
there's gonna be either those who believe or those who don't
believe. And that's the case. And that's
the only two camps. There's not this in-between camp. There are believers and there
are non-believers. Now granted, whenever we become
a believer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And we began to grow deeper in our understanding of the things
of God. But whenever we are born again and we are by the Holy
Spirit brought to conversion, whenever we are taught the gospel
by the Holy Spirit, That gospel is the gospel, that is the only
gospel. It's not a quasi-gospel, it's not a gray area gospel.
It is the only gospel, and that gospel is what we preach, it's
what we teach, it's what we defend, and that's what we perpetuate
here in the church and throughout all generations. And that gospel
was given to the church in Jerusalem whenever Jesus gathered them
together He preached that gospel to them very fervently. A lot
of people don't believe that Jesus preached the sovereign
grace gospel, but he did. He preached it, actually, he
preaches the sovereign grace gospel more thoroughly than the
apostles and the epistles that we have from them who deal with
these, probably, Paul was probably the closest in his writings on
that, especially in Romans, but Jesus was outright black and
white in his preaching of the doctrine of grace in the fact
that he said that there are those that are his and there are those
that are not his. That there are sheep and there are goats
and that you don't believe because you're not my sheep. And that
my father has given me a people and that people is the only people
that will come to me and that is the only people that I will
die, that I'm dying for. And they will come to me and
so that is the The gospel that we hold to is that that is a
gospel of election, that is a gospel of perfect and complete effectual
redemption that is particular. It is not for everybody. It is
only for his people, and it will accomplish what he intended for
it to accomplish, and that whenever the Holy Spirit comes to give
life, that that life comes apart from any condition of man. that
it comes and he gives life whenever he chooses to give us life. And
we can't escape that. We can't fight that. We can't,
you know, I can't reject that. Whenever he decides to give life,
it will come. And then he will keep us until
he comes again, until we die and go to be with him. He will
keep us in that faith. But that gospel that was given
to that first church is the gospel that was handed down and is perpetuated. That is the gospel once delivered
to the saints. That's what we are here for,
is to not only preach that gospel and teach that gospel, to expound
that gospel, but we're here to perpetuate that gospel and defend
that gospel in our age that we're living in. And so we see here
in Galatians, if you'll look with me, Galatians chapter one,
we'll look back here. add a few verses that we read
last week, and I'll touch on a couple of points, and then
we'll look at the passage that we've seen back in 2 John. It
says in chapter one, verse six, now remember Paul had traveled
to the area of Galatia, and there were several churches around
Galatia, and Paul had visited those churches, and whenever
he had visited those churches, He established them in the gospel.
Whenever he gathered them together, or they gathered together as
churches, Paul came and set them in order, the gospel order. That's
what, that's kind of the verbiage and the language that we kind
of use today. We are set in gospel order. Whenever a church is organized,
what does that mean? You know, we talk about that
all the time. You know that this church was organized back in,
Well, what does that mean? Well, that means that a church
came together, a family of baptized believers came together. They
began to covenant together to worship and to edify each other
and to fellowship with one another and to serve one another, serve
the Lord. And they are set in gospel order, meaning that they
have the gospel and they have the ordinances and they hold
those, the gospel and the ordinance according to the way that Jesus
told it and they serve and they work amongst themselves and amongst
the community the way that Christ has commanded. And whenever you
do that outside that, you're outside gospel order. You're
actually in disobedience to Christ's commands. And so that's why we
say unity for the sake of unity and ecumenicalism sounds like
a good, you know, little crystal palace that we all want to go
live in, but that is not true. And while some people think that
that's helpful, you know, well, it's always helpful to just hold
hands with everybody and be right, you're actually going against
what the Bible says. The church of Jesus Christ is
his bride. And if that bride goes holding
hands with somebody else besides her husband, then that jealous
husband is gonna come and get her. The Old Testament story
of Gomer and how Hosea went and she just kept going away and
going away and he kept going back and getting her and going
back and getting her. Jesus is our husband and he has
told us what we should do to stay in fidelity with him. And we should, as a church, we
should desire to be in fidelity with our husband. We should desire
to keep those things which he has commanded, despite how it
looks, despite how it's received by the community, despite how
it's received by other people, that we are called to worship
him and to serve him in the way that he has commanded. And so
whenever Paul went to Galatia and set them people in gospel
order, and he gave them the things that Christ had given him to
tell the churches and to establish them in, some time went by and
the Judaizers had come in and began to say, well, we agree
with what Paul's saying. Salvation is by grace, but you're
also gotta continue to keep the law to be in right standing with
God. And so we gotta go back to the
Mosaic law. and whatever word got to Paul
about this, he wrote the letter to them and he says here, look
at verse six, he says, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So any other gospel
that's preached other than the gospel of grace, then that is
a perverted gospel, no matter how good it seems. no matter
how right it seems, no matter how zealous the people that are
preaching it and serving it seem to be, it's a perverted gospel. He says, but though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. I mean,
that's not only a warning to the church, but it's also information
that we have to have as we are looking out here and finding
churches to fellowship with. Whenever we are looking at pastors
and preachers, whenever we have somebody that, maybe the Lord,
and here the Lord calls, a man says that he feels that the Lord
has called him, and we begin to examine him, and we begin
to examine the gospel that he preaches. And if he's preaching
another gospel, then we can't, You know, we can't ordain him
to be a minister of the gospel because he holds to another gospel.
And so it says here, if any man, if anyone, whether it be a man
or an angel or anybody, preaches anything other than what Christ
handed down and preached and what we have received and then
turned around and give to you, that is no gospel. It's another gospel, and let
that man who preaches that gospel be accursed. Now, we don't take
those things very seriously much anymore today, because God doesn't
strike people dead on the spot like he did back then. You remember
the story of Ananias and Sapphira, whenever they come and lied to
the Holy Spirit, and they died right there at the foot of Peter?
We don't see that much today. I'm sure it happens. I'm sure
that the Lord can do that still if he wants to, but we don't
hardly see that much anymore. But yet that's still a serious
to the Lord, a very serious to the Lord, that we obey his commands
that he has given to us. And the command that he has given
is to preach no other gospel than the one that he give us.
And to accept no other gospel except the one. See, he's talking
to the Galatians here, not about preaching another gospel, but
receiving another gospel. See, that's a big debate right
now among a lot of sovereign grace people, is the fact of,
is it okay to receive those who don't preach the same gospel? If they're very zealous for the
Lord and they don't understand the doctrines of grace, but still
love the Lord and they're preaching death, burial, and resurrection,
they're teaching salvation by grace alone through faith, then
shouldn't we accept that and receive that and let them preach
in our churches and let, should we call them brothers in Christ?
And here we see that Paul, by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
is telling Paul to write these things in relation to church,
and it's about receiving those who preach this other gospel.
He says, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you,
let him be, a curse, so they were receiving men that was preaching
other gospels, and that's what Paul was concerned about. Now,
we also find, and we'll see probably over in Corinthians when we get
over there, that Paul mentions that a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. That's one of the reasons why
we have church discipline, is because that a little leaven
will leaven the whole lump. We, by nature, in Adam, We desire
to be like God. We desire to have the prerogatives
of God. We desire to have the prerogative
of, I'm gonna make my own choice, I'm gonna make my own destiny,
I'm gonna do my own thing. And whenever that teaching becomes
to be seeped into the church, little bit by little bit, that
human nature is going to latch onto that and say, you know,
that's right, I like that. I think I hear it, you know. I mean,
even to this day, as much as I love the doctrines of grace
whenever I hear a good old Armenian preacher up there preaching and
wailing away on the pulpit and laying it down, you know, and
everything, sometimes that appeals to my flesh because I like that
type of stuff. But then the Holy Spirit has
to rein me back in and say, that's not the truth. That's not the
truth. That's not telling the truth
on Christ. It's not telling the truth on his work and his sacrifice. It's not telling the truth on
his church. So we have to be careful whenever
we talk about receiving other gospels. And so Christ has given
us a gospel that that gospel is a gospel of imputed righteousness. It's all about what he did. It's
all about what he has accomplished. There is absolutely not one iota
of a condition for salvation whether it be the eternal aspect
of condition or whether it be the temporal aspect of salvation. Our justification is completely
conditionalist, meaning that He has done it all, and then
our walk every day is also by His sovereign grace, by His enabling,
by His working in us to willing to do His good pleasure, to do
those things, to conform our minds and to change our hearts
and to give us the desire to do His will, that also is His
work. And so that in and of itself
is no condition. There isn't nothing I can do.
If I ever try to put my hand to any condition, I'm gonna taint
it with my flesh. And the Bible says that we shouldn't
put our, confidence in the arm of flesh and that we should not
look to the flesh because the flesh profits nothing. So anything
that I try to do for the Lord or work for the Lord or do and
everything in my flesh, that is going to be completely and
utterly cast out, that's nothing. And so that mentality is what
is pervading a lot of churches today, but Paul here is very
clear He says, anyone that preaches unto you another gospel, which
is no gospel, let him be accursed. Verse nine, he says, and we say,
as we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed. So he said it twice. I mean,
he reiterated this fact. Do not receive people that are
preaching another gospel. Now, does that mean that we ought
to be mean to them and ugly and, you know, fly on the bird and
kick them in the rear and say, get out of here? I mean, no,
that ain't what we do. What do we do? We love them.
And how do we love them? Huh? We talk to them. Have conversation. Have conversation with them.
But what is the way that we, how do we love them? We tell
them the truth. See, the only way that I can
show that love to that person is to is not to accept them in
their untruth, but to confront them with the truth. See, it's
better for me to tell you the truth than to accept your lie
and let you think that your truth is okay. See, to tell the truth is actually
what the love that Christ has given us is all about. I'm thinking of a verse right
off the top of my head and I can't think of it. It's in one of the epistles of John.
I think it's in 1 John. If I don't find it quickly here,
we'll move on. Well, that's definitely a good
passage there. It goes along kind of what we're
talking about. But the passage I'm looking about
shows that one of the ways that we love each other is by doing
the truth and sharing the truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts beforehand. For if
our heart condemneth us, God is greater than our heart and
knoweth all things. That's not the one I was looking for. I'm
sorry, I should have wrote that down. I mean, it just kind of
came to my head this morning again. But anyway, we love each
other and I show love by telling the truth. I don't gain anything
by accepting the false truth. Matter of fact, I do more harm
than anything. And I think that is one of the
things that Paul is reiterating here, is it's better for man
to just be accursed than to go on continuing in spreading the
false lies. Now, he says here, he says, verse
10, for do I now persuade men or God? So he's saying here that
my goal is not to persuade men, okay? My goal here is not to
be popular among men, it's to preach the truth. He says, or
do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. So see, that goes along with
what I was just saying, that if one comes among us with a
false gospel, or we go to a church and that church is preaching
a false gospel, And we say, we, you know, extend the right hand
of fellowship and call them brother in Christ. Or they come here
and we extend them the right hand of fellowship and call them
brother in Christ, although they don't hold to the gospel. And I'm just trying to persuade
or please a man to, so that we can have fellowship or that we
can have, you know, another person here and on the number rolls
or whatever. and everything. It says here
that if that is my motive, if my motive is just to please men
or to get men to come or to be popular among the crowd, then
I'm not a servant of Christ. See, the servant of Christ is
the one who tells the truth about Christ. The servant of Christ
is the one who follows and does the things that Christ has commanded
and tells the truth about Christ. And so we see We've seen that,
verse 11, but I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached of me is not after man. Okay, so the gospel that's
preached by Paul to the Galatians whenever he came there absolutely
had nothing after man. Okay? It had nothing to do with what
men do. It has nothing to do with what
men keep or obey or believe. or receive, it has nothing to
do with the conditions of man. He goes on, he says, for neither
received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. He said, this gospel is not about
man and it didn't come to me by man. It came to me straight
from Jesus. And so we see that he was very
clear here that the gospel that is to be preached is an exclusive
gospel, and that that gospel, if it is compromised in any way,
then it is no longer a gospel, and then the person who preaches
that, the Bible says, it calls, let them be accursed. Turn with
me, if you would, back to the second epistle of John. Again,
just kind of going over the things that we hit on last week, not
going into the depth that we did last week. Second Epistle
of John, we also read, we read this, verse nine. It says, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Now listen, this
is just as hard for me as it is for anybody else, okay? Because every one of us has family
that fit this category, that do not fall in the ones who are
holding the doctrine of Christ. It says here, and this is the
Holy Spirit saying this, this isn't Michael Smith, it's not
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church's philosophy, although we hold
to this, It isn't coming from us. This isn't something we've
just stirred up, okay? This isn't something that we
just like to talk negative, okay? This is admonitions coming from
the Holy Spirit to the Church of Jesus Christ here in Joplin
and how we are to be careful about our fellowship and about
our calling brothers and sisters and accepting people into membership
without careful examination. It says, verse nine, whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. Now, what does that tell me?
As I mentioned last week, what does that mean to us then? Then
that means that one of the ways that we know someone is of God
is because they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, the doctrine
of Christ. Now one of Christ's doctrine
is particular redemption. One of Christ's doctrine, part
of Christ's doctrine is election. Part of Christ's doctrine is
preservation of the Holy Spirit and of the saint by the Holy
Spirit. The only way that a person is
saved is by the finished work of Christ and Him alone. And
it's only for those who was given to Him before the foundation
of the world. So if they do not have that doctrine, that's the
doctrine of Christ. That's the doctrine of Christ.
Read John 6, John 10, John 17. I mean, a lot of places in John,
but those three chapters particularly, you know, the doctrine of Jesus
Christ there. So if they do not have that doctrine,
The Bible says they are not of God. So that should cease any,
that should cease any debate that we have of whether or not
someone who doesn't believe sovereign grace doctrine that Jesus taught,
and I'm not talking Calvinism, okay? That's another misnomer
that we have out there, that people have to believe Calvinism.
We despise Calvinism, okay? I hate that word, okay? not only is Calvinism not the
gospel, no matter what Spurgeon said, Calvinism is not the gospel. It may contain bits and pieces
of the gospel, but it's not the gospel. John Calvin didn't hold
to the gospel. He didn't hold to a gospel church. So we don't care about Calvin,
Calvinism, we don't care about reform, Reformation stuff, That
is no, we want to be biblical. We want to follow what Christ
has taught. He is the head of the church.
Not Calvin, not John Gill, not Charles Spurgeon. These guys
are all fallible men who had fallible teachings, just like
everybody else does. Okay, we all have fallible teachings. And we don't believe things because
of that. We have, those who have the doctrine
of And it says here that if they have not the doctrine of Christ,
they are not of God. So how do we know that they have
Christ? Well, they'll be believing the
doctrine of Christ. Now, that's not the only one.
The Bible also says that they'll have a love for the brethren,
that they'll also have a love for the word of God. But one
of the things that is evident that someone is of God is that
they believe and hold to the doctrine of Christ. Now until
they do that, we can't call them Christian, we can't call them
brother or sister in Christ. Until they exhibit the belief
of the doctrine of Christ, then we can't say that. We have no
grounds scripturally to call them a brother in Christ. Or
receive them into membership because they have yet to believe.
No matter whether or not they were baptized into sovereign
grace, you know, landmark, primitive Baptist, whatever kind of church
that preaches the doctrines of grace, it doesn't matter if they
were baptized in that, if they don't come with the doctrine
of Christ, they are not of God. And they are not a believer.
What is a believer? One who believes what Christ
taught. One who believes the doctrine
of Christ. And so if they're not a believer, if they are believing
in a free will gospel that Jesus made man savable, and that we,
by our own decision, choose him or that we can reject him or
that there are some that Christ died for that will go to hell,
that is not the doctrine of Christ. And so if that's what they're
preaching, if that's what they're teaching, if that's what they're
believing, then they're yet to be called believers because they're
not believing the doctrine of Christ. And as far as we can
tell, if they continue in that until the day that they die,
then they died in unbelief, and they are not of God, no matter
how zealous they were for God before that. And listen, I know
people in Armenian churches, and again, that's another term
that I could care less about, but to distinguish between one
and the other, those who are in free will churches, who are
zealous for God, they read their Bible all the time, they study
all the time, they pray all the time, they go to church every
time the doors are open, They, you know, give their tithe, you
know, all the time. I mean, they, you know, all this
stuff. But what did Paul say? If anyone
comes with another gospel that is no other gospel, let them
be accursed. And he said, if they come and
they don't, and John wrote, if they come and they have not the
doctrine of Christ, they are not God. And if they're preaching
that to persuade men, And that's what freewill gospel is all about,
brethren, is to persuade men to choose Christ. He said, then
they're not the servant of Christ. And then Paul backed that up.
If you remember, we didn't get into it. We did last week, but
we didn't get into it. Last week, Paul backed that up,
and he went through his whole little accolades. Hey, listen,
I can tell you about the being zealous for God. I was the one
zealous for God. There wasn't no one more zealous for God than
I was among all the Pharisees. But he said, In another place
in scripture, he said, what I counted as gain, I now count as loss. I count it as done. He said,
man, everything that I did zealously for what I thought was for God,
in that false understanding of God, in that false religion,
he said, basically, if you get down to it, it's a pile of poop.
That's what he said. It's done. And I know we have people that
are loving, what they believe is Christ, they're loving what
they believe is God, they're loving what they believe is the
church, but yet they're not serving Christ because they're not serving
where the doctrine of Christ is being held. And people I know are gonna say,
well, you're just too seclusive, you're too, you know, sectarian. You know, that's not my words,
brethren. That's Jesus's words. And so
we just wanna preach and teach and hold to what Jesus says.
It says, he that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Now verse 10, look
at it. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds. Now it says, receive him not
into your house. I think this is, particularly
because this is an epistle to the churches, I think this is
speaking of particularly the church. Now I, for the most part,
am very careful with who we allow come to our house, and definitely
those who are coming to share another gospel like the, Jehovah's
Witnesses and the Mormons and different things like that, I
don't invite them into my house. Okay, I don't even give them
any credence to what they're doing. I don't just say, well,
you know, the last guy that came, he said, well, we'll just have
to agree to disagree. And I said, no, I don't even
agree to disagree. You're wrong and you're preaching
false gospel. And I told the woman, the young
lady that was following this older man around, I told her,
I said, you need to get away from this. But I took him to
scripture to show him where he was in error. But at the end
of the day, he just wanted to shake hands and call me brother
and say, well, we just have some differences of belief. And I
said, no, we have a different gospel. You have a different
gospel with a different Jesus. But it says here, not to receive
him into your house, neither bid him Godspeed, For he that bid him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deed. Look back, if you would, at Romans
chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. Look at verse 17. It says, now I beseech you brethren,
okay, so he's talking to the church, he's talking to those
who hold to the doctrine of Christ, because there's no other ones
that hold to the doctrine of Christ except those who are brethren,
all right? He says, now I beseech you brethren, mark them which
cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which
ye have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Okay, so that's an admonition
from the Holy Spirit to the churches. How do you know that, Mike? We'll
look at verse 16. Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute
you. He's talking about the churches. He's talking to the churches. He's talking about, This is how
things should be in the churches, wherever they may be. And he
says, those who come among you who cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine, which you have learned,
he says, avoid them. Don't have anything to do with
them. But wait a minute, I thought we were Christians, I thought
we were supposed to be kind and loving and accepting to everybody
and not turn anybody away and not be mean. Well, you can do
that without being mean. You can do exactly what he's
saying here without being mean. Again, it's gonna, it's not easy,
I can tell you, as a pastor and having to do it several times,
it's not easy. You have to talk to them, you
have to say, you know, you have to confront them with the error
You have to confront them with their actions and whatever happens,
if they repent, wonderful. But if they don't repent and
they continue in that, then you have to sever their fellowship
there. You have to either remove them
from the church, if they're a member of your church, or you have to
quit going around and talking with them and just avoid them.
And then once you do that, you can tell them, you know, as much
as I love you And everything, I just, we can't have fellowship
until there's repentance from that. And you just have to leave
it at that. And then you don't have to be
mean and send them, you know, dirty letters and ugly things
on Facebook. Just, you know, you don't have
nothing to do with them. You avoid them. As it says here,
just avoid them. And that's what we're called
to do. And that is how those who are
truly the brethren in Christ, that's how they are brought to
repentance. That's what the Holy Spirit uses,
that shunning or that neglect from the people of God, whenever
that comes out. Because what is given in the
new birth? One of the things given to us is a love for the
brethren, right? And a love for worshiping God, and a love for
serving God. And where is that done? It's
done at the local church. And so whenever that inward desire,
if it's truly there, is removed, and the Holy Spirit will lead
them to repentance by saying, you know, hey, you're, look,
you've been cast out. Take another look at what you're
holding to there and preaching there because the church of Jesus
Christ, who is the pillar and the ground of truth is, saying
is looking at you now does that mean that we're always right
no that doesn't mean we're always right okay we have to go to the
scriptures and there has to be scriptural grounding in everything
that we believe and teach and yes there sometimes can be multiple
interpretations of these things but the bible will always interpret
itself and if we find that the bible contradicts something else
of an understanding then we have to find where that is coherent
throughout all the scriptures So it says here not to have any
contact or avoid them. Now, turn with me now to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now, that was a lot of the admonitions in scripture about
the gospel, that there is only one gospel. There's not a gray
area gospel, and that only the ones that hold to that gospel
are considered brothers and sisters in Christ, and that should only
be the ones that we fellowship with. They should be members
of the church, and those are the ones that we should join
to. If the Lord would ever move me
somewhere, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna look for a place that
preaches the truth of Jesus Christ. Uh, not, not a place that's just
filled with good people. They're really good people. Or
he preaches, he's a good preacher. He's a good, you know, don't
ever go to somewhere just because someone's a good preacher. All
right. Uh, that, that a lot of times
can, uh, if he's a good preacher, it depends on what you're saying
when you say he's a good preacher. If it's just that he has a good
delivery, that's not what you want to look for. Okay. You want
someone who is faithful to God's Word above everything else. And really, listen, and I'll
say this, if he's preaching truth above
everything else, and he even fails in a lot of other areas,
it's still better to have a pastor that is preaching the truth than
one that's not. You might go to a church and
have a pastor that doesn't preach the truth, but he is a great
orator, he is an encourager, he is a busybody that's always
involved with everything, and he might be the world's best
pastor that just, he prays with everybody's ingrown toenails
all the way up to cancer. He may be the best pastor in
the world as far as the serving of the people, But listen, if
he doesn't preach you the truth, then all that love is false love. It's humanistic love. And so
we have to be careful of that. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if
you would, whenever we start talking about the gospel, and
as I just mentioned, there is no really gray area for the gospel. Jesus was very clear about what
that gospel was. And the doctrine of Christ is
very simple. It's what Christ has accomplished. It's the imputed work of Jesus
Christ alone that saves. Now, here's where we start getting
into a lot of issues among the people that may disagree with
that. They say, well, in 1 Corinthians, the only gospel that you really
need to know is 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 3. And this is what Paul says. For
I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. Okay, so here again, Paul is
reiterating, just like he did to the Galatians, that this gospel
message is not coming out of my own thoughts, it's coming
directly from Christ. He said, for I delivered unto
you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he
was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according
to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the
12. After that, he was seen of about 500 brethren at once, of
whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are
fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James
and of all the apostles, and at last of all, he was seen of
me as of one born out of due time." And so now people are
gonna come here, and I say are gonna come, they have come here.
I've had this conversation with many a man, who believe that
I'm too strict in the way that we do things here. And they will
say, you're making the gospel too narrow. You're making people
think that they have to believe Calvinism, and not everybody
believes Calvinism right away. Matter of fact, you, sir, did
not believe Calvinism whenever you said that you first were
saved. And that's usually whenever I
have to remind them, whenever I was first saved, and believe
in a freewill gospel, I was saved way before that. Salvation didn't
come whenever I began to believe. Salvation came whenever Christ
stood before God in the eternal covenant. And he said, those
are my people and I'm gonna take their place. And his righteousness
was imputed unto me and I was put into Christ. That was whenever
I was saved. Because from that point forward,
there is no way that there would be unrighteousness seen on me.
There is no way that I would ever fall under wrath. There
was no way that I was not going to be saved. And Christ demonstrated
that in the fact that he made manifest his love for us and
his work of atonement was shown in the death that he died. Okay? So, my salvation had nothing
to do with what I was believing or not believing at the time.
Second of all, my conversion, that came when I began to believe
the gospel, and I usually will remind the person, you know,
I had several times that I thought I was believing the gospel, but
it wasn't until I began to believe the doctrine of Christ and His
gospel that I became a believer, no matter what I thought. I deceived,
myself was deceived before that. I was self-deceived. Other people
were deceived. I deceived others. Matter of
fact, my grandpa, I've told the story here before, whenever I
came up and told my grandpa, you know, that I believe that
the Lord has saved me and that everything else has been fake
and false. And he wanted to be sure, just not unconfessed sin. I mean, you know, I deceived
many. They thought that I was a Christian.
They thought I was a believer. But that wasn't true. It says
here, For I delivered unto you, first of all, which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture,
that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day,
according to the Scripture." And they say, that's the gospel. That's
all that someone needs to believe, is that Christ died, was buried,
and rose again for them. If they believe that, then they
believe the gospel. Everything else is what comes
after that. Okay? But notice, if you would, Paul
put great precision in his writing here. He said, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures, and that how he rose from the
dead according to the scriptures. See, if you don't believe that
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
then you're believing another gospel. See, they just think
it's about believing that Christ died and was buried and resurrected.
The heathens on the History Channel that do all those stupid documentaries
that are not biblical, they all believe that Christ died and
was buried, and some of them believe that he was raised again
from the dead, but they aren't believers. They're just historians,
going by historical records. Matter of fact, it said right
here in our passage, it said that there were 500 people that
saw Jesus at one time after he was buried, after he died and
was buried, and he rose again and saw him alive. 500 people
now. You take those 12 apostles, you
might be able to fool some people and no one's gonna really believe
you because, well, that's only 12 people and they was with him
all the time. But you take 500 people who are
given an account that he was resurrected from the grave, historians
that were alive during that time that were not, followers of Jesus
Christ that rose that he came back to life? So, how did he die according
to the scriptures? Look with me if you would, Psalms
22. How did Jesus die according to the scriptures? Now remember,
at this time, there was only one set of scriptures, and that
was the Old Testament, right? Whenever Paul wrote this, the
scriptures that he was referring to was the Old Testament Scriptures. Now, it was probably the Septuagint
that they were reading. A lot of them was using the Septuagint. As a matter of fact, the disciples
all quoted the Septuagint at that time, which is the Old Testament
translated into Greek. But look with me at Psalm 22. How did Jesus die according to
the Scriptures? It says, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season am not silent.
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praise of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto
thee and were delivered, they trusted in thee and were not
confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and
despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They
shake the head, saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have come past
me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me around. They gaped upon
me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured
out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is
like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength
is dried up like a pop shirt in my tongue, cleaveth to my
jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs
have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me,
they pierce my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. Okay, so what are we seeing here?
We're seeing the depiction of the crucifixion of Christ even
though it hadn't even happened yet, right? This is a prophecy
of what was gonna happen when Christ died. Look at verse 19. But be not thou far from me,
O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul
from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me
from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns
of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise
him, all ye the seed of Jacob. Glorify him and fear him, all
ye the seed of Israel. So Jesus here in the midst of
him talking about his crucifixion, he explains to whom he's dying
for. Okay? Who it is that is going to praise
and glorify him because what he has done for them. For he
hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto
him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in
the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear him. The meat shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. Your heart shall live forever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord
and all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before thee for
the kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the
nations. And they that be fat upon earth
shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the
dust shall bow before him and none can keep alive his own soul. Here it is, verse 30. A seed
shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath
done this. Okay? So here we see in view
the death of Christ, all his work on the cross, and who is
it for whom he died? Well, we see throughout here,
we see the congregation. We see for the seed of Jacob,
the seed of Israel for the kingdom. And here we see also in verse
30, a seed who is also accounted as his generation. And so we see that that is talking
about all the elect of God. And it also, if you remember
back whenever we were talking about the local visible assembly,
whenever we said that Jesus Christ died for the church, we said
that that doesn't mean that he didn't die for the elect outside
the church. He did, okay? He died for both. But the church is made up of
the elect that have been gathered into a congregation. And so whenever they are gathered
in the congregation, you can say that Christ died for that
church because he did die for all the elect. But there is a
place where Christ has died for the church, and there is a special
blessing that is given to the congregation. But here we see
both of them are in view. The praises and the serving and
the worship is gonna be from the congregation. And he says,
a seed shall serve him. Who's the seed? Well, we know
that Christ is the seed, But anyone who is in Christ is a
seed of Christ. We know that we are His heirs. We are His children. We are His
offspring. Okay, so that is another term. Remember, we did that study a
long time ago on the seeds. This is it. We are His seed. Though you're looking at five
of my seed right there. They're my offspring, okay? They are my seed. They are my generation. They
have been generated from me. And so there is a generation
of people, the elect of God, whenever they are brought into
new birth, that is the generation of Christ. Okay, that's his generation,
that's his lineage, that's his people, that's his offspring,
that's his seed. And it says, they shall serve
him And what is it gonna be that they're gonna serve him by? They're
gonna come and gonna declare his righteousness unto a people
that shall be born, that shall be born, that he hath done this,
okay? So again, we see the imputed
righteousness of Christ. We see that the death was only
for his people. So whenever we talk about how
did Christ die for our sins according to the scripture, we see that
he died according to the scripture that there might be a seed that
comes out of that that will serve him. It's going to be an effectual
death. We see that it was only for those
that was of those people that he died for that are going to
come and sing praises to him. Those who won't sing praises
to him in true, honest part, born of God, then they weren't
the ones that he died for because the ones that he died for are
the ones who are going to come and sing praises and are going
to serve him and are going to tell others about his righteousness.
and how he has done it. So whenever we say he died according
to the scriptures, we gotta imply also that he died according to
the scriptures a particular redemption. He died an effectual death. It
actually didn't make people, it didn't make people savable,
it actually saved them. They were actually saved. Look
with me if you would at Isaiah 53. Isaiah chapter 53. We preached on this passage of
scripture several months ago. Hopefully you haven't forgotten
some of the stuff here. Isaiah 53, look at verse 1. It says, Who hath believed our
report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? If you
remember back when we studied through here, we've seen that
that last question, to whom is the arm, or the first question,
who hath believed our report, is kinda answered in a rhetorical
question in that second question. And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? The ones who believe the report
and the ones to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed are the
ones to whom the arm of the Lord has revealed it, okay? The ones
who believe the report about Christ are the ones to whom God
has revealed it. And only God can reveal it. It's
the arm of the Lord that reveals it, not man. But look what it
says here. For he shall grow up before him
a tender plant and a root out of dry ground. He hath no form
or commonliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty
that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of
man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath hid on him the iniquity of us all. Who all? The sheep. He has laid
upon him the iniquity of the sheep, the ones who have went
astray. It says, he was oppressed and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers
is done, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison
and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? Now we've just seen in Psalm
22, that the seed was gonna be the one that was gonna serve
him and was gonna declare and be his generation, right? He
said, who shall declare his generation? It was those ones for whom he
died, those ones who was his seed, those ones whom he died
for are gonna be the ones who come and declare his generation. For he was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression of my people. The transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed."
Again, remember, we're his seed, all those who come to Christ
are born again, Those who are born of the Spirit, born of God,
who are of heaven, not of earth. Those who are divine. And I say divine, I don't mean
we're divine, but those who are of a divinely birth. It says, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. Not all, but many. Okay, so this
says that this isn't a universal atonement. This is a particular
atonement because it says here that he will justify many. Whenever I say the word many,
that means that there is an exclusion of others, okay? There is an exclusion of others.
If I say many, that doesn't mean all. It means a lot, but it doesn't
mean all. He shall, my righteous servant
justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Whose iniquities? The seed's iniquities, verse
10. Verse 12, therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong because he had poured out his soul into death. He was
numbered with the transgressors and he bared the sin of many. Once again, he bared the sin
of many. So whenever the Bible says that
he died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that word
our sins there, that goes back to here in Isaiah 53, Psalms
22. It's talking about the seed that
will serve him, the seed that will be declared as his generation,
that seed that he saw and the travail of his soul and he was
satisfied. Why? Because he seen that everyone
for whom he died was gonna be justified. Why? Because, finishing off here,
because he made intercession for the transgressors. He interceded
for the transgressors. So, how did Jesus die for our
sins according to the scripture? Well, according to Isaiah 53,
he died for a specific group of people that the effect of
that death, not the effect of their belief, not the effect
of their faith, not the effect of their good works or law keeping,
but the effect of his death justified them. That's what verse 11 said,
right? He shall see the travail of his
soul, shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Whenever
Christ bore our iniquities, it manifested our justification. It was upon that ground, his
bearing our iniquities. that our justification came. The Bible says that we are justified
by His death. We are justified by His life. His life, His death, His resurrection,
all those things was what was the merit upon what God justified
every one of the elect child of grace. Turn now, if you would, to Daniel
chapter nine. Another prophetic book that so
many people preach from a wrong perspective. Thanks to Mr. Old Schofield and
Darby and guys like that. Tim LaHaye and guys like that. Daniel chapter nine. is probably
one of the most, some people would probably call it one of
the most mysterious chapters. It's been several years now.
I think, as a matter of fact, it's still over in the other
building when I preached on Daniel 9. And we went through that. Daniel
chapter 9, and look with me, if you would, at verse, starting
at verse, It says, 70 weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Notice that during this
time period, it's going to seal up the vision and prophecy, so
all the prophecy is going to be fulfilled here. Know therefore
and understand that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the print shall
be seven weeks and three score and two weeks. The street shall
be built again and the wall even in troubleless times. And after
three score and two weeks, here it is, Messiah, shall Messiah
be cut off, but not for himself. So here we see that in the midst
of this time period, Messiah will be cut off, but it says
he's being cut off not for his own, but for somebody else, that
he's actually being cut off for somebody else. And the people
of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with the flood, and
unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall
confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the midst
of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make
it desolate. even unto the consummation, and
that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." What's the
abomination of desolation? It was Christ. Christ was the
abomination of desolation. He was the one who was the oblation.
He was the one who was cut off. He was the one who ended the
oblation. He was the one who made desolate
the abomination that was the tabernacle and the service of
the tabernacle. But who did he die for? It says,
the covenant was with many, And he says, it was not for himself. So we know that Christ died not
for himself, but for the many. It was for the ones who, in Psalm
22 and Isaiah 53, were the seed of Christ. Look now, if you would,
at Zechariah 13, verse seven. Go read this and we'll be done. Zachariah, 13. Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi. So if you hit Malachi, turn left,
go back. Keep going, one more. Zachariah, 13. Zechariah chapter 13, starting in verse seven. Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my
fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little
ones. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut
off and die, but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring
the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver
is refined and will try them as gold is tried. They shall
call on my name and I will hear them. I will say it is my people
and they shall say, this Lord is my God. So here we see that
the shepherd is gonna be smited for the sheep and the sheep will
scatter and it's gonna be his people that will be brought back.
Notice there, though, it says that a third shall be left therein. If anybody asks, well, how many
do you think that are of the elect? I don't know exactly,
but here, the elect, it says two-thirds are gonna be cut off
and a third is gonna be kept. So the two-thirds of humanity
will be cut off. But the third shall be left.
That's kind of one of the reasons why whenever people start talking
about being left behind, those left behind books, I always tell
them that I hope I'm left behind. That I hope I'm left behind. Because as it is in the days
of Noah, so it shall be in the coming of the Son of Man. The
ones that were taken were the ones who were the wicked. They
were the ones who were taken away, and the ones who were left
behind was the righteous. But it says here that it's gonna
be the wicked again that's gonna be taken away. They're gonna
be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. And it
says, and they will be tried by fire. They'll come through
the fire and we'll refine them as silver is refined, and we'll
try them as gold is tried, and they shall call on my name and
I will hear them. I will say it is my people and
they shall say this Lord is my God. So who are the ones for
whom Christ died for? Only the ones who call upon his
name. Who are the ones who call upon
his name? Those who have been drawn by Christ, by God. No man
comes to the Father except by me. The Bible says except a man be
drawn, he can't come. That's what Jesus said in John.
He said, unless my Father draws you, you cannot come. No one
cannot come. No one can come unless the Father
draws them. So the only ones that are gonna
come and call upon His name are the ones that the Father draws.
And who are the ones that the Father draws? Well, what did Jesus say?
Again, the doctrine of Christ. What did Jesus say? All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. So is election part of
the gospel? Absolutely it is. Is reprobation
part of the gospel? Absolutely it is. Is particular redemption part
of the gospel? Absolutely it is. Is preservation of the saints
part of the gospel? Absolutely it is. And it said that a seed would
serve him those who would be born. Is irresistible grace a part
of the gospel? Absolutely it is. That's how
Jesus died according to the gospel. Jesus' doctrine upheld everything
in the gospel. And he expounded it even more.
And for us to say that the gospel is only Jesus died, was buried,
and was resurrected is not the gospel according to scriptures.
Yes, that is part of it, but it is not in its whole. And that
we should be forthcoming when we preach the gospel, teach the
gospel. And if no one is believing the gospel as it is according
to the scriptures, then they're not gospel believers. They're
something else. And so we want to make sure that
we are gospel believers. So the church of Jesus Christ,
the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of a finished and particular
work that is done that, due to that, results in the imputation
of righteousness to everyone for whom Christ died without
conditions. Anybody got any questions or any comments or things you'd
like to add to that? I could actually go into talking
about how he died according to the scriptures, and we may look
at that maybe a little bit next week. I only got about two or
three verses on that, but we've gone quite far enough today.
All right, let's bow and we'll have our. Father, we once again
thank you for all that you are and thank you, Father, for.