Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 223 from your hardback hymnal, 223.
Let's all stand together. Arise, my soul, arise. Arise, my soul, arise, shake
off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. before the throne my surety stands
my name is written on his hands my name is written on his hands
He ever lives above for me to intercede His all-redeeming love,
His precious blood to plead His blood atoned for all my sins,
and sprinkles now the throne of grace, and sprinkles now the
throne of grace. Five bleeding wounds he bears,
Received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers,
They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, Nor let that ransom sinner die, Nor let that ransom sinner
die. The Father hears him pray, his
dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the presence
of his Son. ? His spirit answers to the blood
? ? And tells me I am born of God ? ? And tells me I am born
of God ? My God is reconciled His pardoning voice I hear He
owns me for His child I can no longer fear With confidence I
now draw nigh And Father, Abba, Father, cry. And Father, Abba,
Father, cry. Please be seated. Would you turn with me to Isaiah
55 for our scripture reading tonight. Isaiah 55. Tom, good to have you back. You have a
very capable replacement when you're not able to be here. So
Adam, Adam did a very good job. Very thankful. I looked up this word ho in the original language and
the definition that was given was a passionate cry of grief
or despair. It's the same word that we see
translated woe in the scriptures when God pronounces a judgment,
and the Lord is calling our attention to the urgency of the gospel
and of our salvation. When he begins in this passage,
ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come buy. wine
and milk without money and without price. That word price is the
word barter. How oftentimes we find ourselves
trying to barter with God. And the Lord says, don't come
that way. Come without it. Come with an
empty hand, without money, without price. It's already paid for.
Don't try to make a deal with God. He'll do that. This, you'll
do that. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? How much effort we put into things
that do not feed the soul. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? And you labor for that which
satisfies not. Hearken diligently unto me and
eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Some might read that and think
it was a contradiction. How can you make something in
time that is everlasting in eternity? I will make an everlasting covenant
with you. The covenant of grace is everlasting.
And we come to enjoy that covenant and to live off of Christ when
the Lord makes it our covenant. Behold, I have given him, the
Lord Jesus Christ, for a witness to the people, a leader and a
commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation
that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee, because of the Lord thy God and for the Holy One
of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. The Lord Jesus Christ came
to glorify the Father. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return
unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have given
to us your inspired, infallible word. We pray, Lord, that you
would attend these words with the power of your Holy Spirit. and that you would cause the
urgency of our salvation to be real to us, or that we would
come to that fountain that flows clear as crystal from the Lamb
and from the throne of God, without money and without price. Thank
you, Father, that the price of our redemption was fully paid
by the shed blood of thy dear son. Lord, forgive us for ever
having a thought that we could add to or take away from his
perfect, accomplished, successful work. Lord, we pray tonight as
we look again to your word that you will remind us and call us
and keep us and draw us and do to us, Lord, what we cannot do
for ourselves. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 44 from your spiral hymn
book. Let's all stand together, 44.
? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? ? We as such to Thee draw near ? ? Let Thy spirit dwell within
us ? ? With that love that casts out fear ? matchless savior let
us know thee as the lord our righteousness cause our hearts
to cleave unto thee come and with thy presence bless Open
now thy precious treasure, let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Ruth chapter 3. Ruth chapter 3. I don't know if you remember a
few months ago we were preaching through the book of Acts and
in Acts chapter 28 when Paul got to Rome finally. The scripture
says that they allowed him to stay in house arrest and that
many came to him to hear the gospel and he preached the gospel
to them. And the scripture says some believed. And that word believed is in
the passive voice. And some believed not. And that
word believed not is in the active voice. And we looked at that
passage and were reminded of how salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is something done to
us. We are passive in our salvation. To reject the gospel after having
heard it, you must actively participate in that rejection. And so some
believed passive and some believed not. active. When the service was over last
Sunday, Adam brought something to my attention that I hadn't
really thought about, and I've since looked at this passage,
Adam, and you were right. The same truth that we just talked
about is seen here in our text. Notice in verse 11 of Ruth chapter
3, and now my daughter, fear not, I will do to thee all that
thou requirest. Boaz, a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Kinsman Redeemer, is saying to his bride, fear
not. I will do to thee. You're going
to be passive. When something's done to you,
you are passive in that. I'm going to do to you, not all
that you requested that I do. I'm going to do this for you
in response to your request. I'm going to do this to you in
fulfillment of what you require. My question tonight is, what
has the Lord done to us that we are passive in? Let's read
on. For all the city of my people
doth know that thou art a virtuous woman, and now it is true that
I am thy near kinsman, albeit there is a kinsman nearer than
I. Tear ye this night, and it shall be in the morning, that
if he will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman well,
Let him do the kinsman part. But if he will not do the part
of a kinsman to thee, to thee, then will I do the part of a
kinsman to thee, to thee. As the Lord liveth, lie down
until the morning. Be still, lie down. Don't move
a muscle. Something that you require before
God must be done to you. There is another kinsman. We
saw Sunday that that kinsman, we'll look at it more when we
get into chapter 4, when Boaz actually goes to the city gate
and reconciles with that kinsman, that that kinsman is the law.
And Boaz saying to Ruth, there's another kinsman nearer to you
than me. If he's able to do to you what you require, No, the
only thing the law can do to us is what we deserve, not what
we require. And so the law has got to be
reckoned with, and that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did when
he fulfilled all the requirements of God's holy law. And so she's told by Boaz, more
importantly, you and I are told by the Lord Jesus Christ, lie
still until morning. I've got to do something to you. And she laid his feet, verse
14, until the morning and she rose up before one could know
another. And he said, let it not be known
that a woman came under the floor. We'll deal with these verses,
Lord willing, this coming Sunday. Also, he said, bring the veil
that thou hast upon thee and hold it. And when she held it,
he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. And she went
into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law,
she said, who art thou my daughter? And she told her all that the
man had done to her. This is God's word. Is the Lord
not telling us something here? I'm going to tell you all that
the man did to her. And she said, these six measures
of barley gave he me. And he said to me, Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law.
And Naomi's gonna confirm what Boaz has said. When Naomi says,
and here's our Lord again, speaking to me and you, the hardest thing
to do is to do nothing in our salvation. And she said, sit still. Sit still. Don't move a muscle. You require God to do something
to you in order for you to be saved. You've got no contribution
to make to this salvation. It's a work of grace that must
be done to you. Sit still, my daughter, until
thou knowest how the matter will fall, For the man will not be
in rest until he has finished the work this day." We have a rest. We have a Sabbath. We have a Savior who has finished
the work from the foundations of the earth in the covenant
of grace. And He finished them in time when He laid His life
down for His sheep. He did a work. to us, those of us that have been in
man-made religion know what a beehive of activity the church can be. between ministries and ceremonies
and committees. There's never a lack of things
to do. And that is designed on purpose.
It begins with step out from your pew and walk the aisle.
We're gonna give you something to do. And now we're gonna keep
you hooked into the church by giving you more and more and
more to do. I hear the Lord's telling us just
say, no. You require God to do something to you. If he does
something to you, you know what? You'll do whatever the Lord leads
you to do in terms of ministry and gifts and works and those
sorts of things. We're not gonna make those things
a part of your salvation. David said in Isaiah, in Psalm
46, verse 10, be still. Be still and know that I am God. You know, that's something, by
God's grace, that's something we can do. We can just be still,
just do nothing. Just do nothing. A work needs
to be done to you. There's great comfort in that.
If my salvation is in any way determined by the work that I
do for God, I'm gonna have to just work harder
and harder and harder and harder and keep trying and see if I
can do a little more and maybe in the end, there'll be enough.
No, there's no comfort in that. There's no rest in that. There's
no hope in that. Sit still, my daughter. The man
will not rest until he has finished the work this day. You require
a work from a redeemer. You require him to reckon with
the law. You require him to give you faith.
You require him, well, we're gonna look at the things that
we require that he's done to us. What great comfort we have
in a God who does it all. And he does it to us. You know,
I was thinking about, you know, you have a health problem and A healthcare professional gives
you a battery of things you need to do in order to try to resolve
your problem. Or we can just put you under
anesthesia and do surgery on you and we'll do something to
you and it'll fix it all. How much easier it is to have
something done to us than it is for us to do something. Be
still and know that I am God. Psalm 4 verse 4 says, Commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Be still. In Mark chapter four, when the
Lord was in that boat on the Sea of Galilee with the disciples
and he was asleep, you remember, and a great tempest came up and
they thought they were going to drown and they woke him up
and they said, Lord, care it's not that we perish. And after
the Lord rebuked them for their unbelief, He said, peace, be
still. And immediately that sea became
a placid lake. It was a great calm, the scripture
says. And the apostles were wondering
who this man was. What manner of man is this that
even the wind and the sea obey his voice? Oh, they do. The turbulence of our own sin
obeys his voice. The threatenings of the law obey
his voice. The circumstances of trials and
troubles that he stirs up in our lives obey his voice. What manner of man is this? Be
still. He's able to speak to the wind
and to the seas and say, be still. And there was a great calm. When the Lord spoke to Moses
at the Red Sea, you remember they were, scripture says there
was a The Egyptians were behind them and the Red Sea was before
them. And the only thing that kept
them safe was that cloud that covered them. And the Lord said
this, he said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
Stand still, Moses, don't do anything. Just stand still right
there and watch what the Lord is gonna do. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 7, the
Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore,
I cried unto her and I said, her strength is to stand still. The Egyptians can be no help
to her. And we know what the Egyptians represent. They represent
works. That's the taskmasters of slavery
always Always adding on. You remember they would meet
their quota and they would just increase the quota. You've had
that experience perhaps at work. You can never quite measure up. Always wanting more. That's the
way the law is. And the Lord said, the Egyptians
can't help you. And so he spoke unto them and
he said, your strength, your strength, is to stand still,
to do nothing. That's what Paul said when he
said, when he prayed for the Lord to remove the thorn from
his flesh and the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee.
And Paul said that I will glory in my infirmities for when I
am weak, I'm strong for his strength is made perfect in my weakness. Stand still, brother. You need
for Boaz to do a work to you, to you. You're going to be passive
in that work. Psalm 37. And I looked up this
word rest. The verse in Psalm 37 says, rest
in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Just rest. Rest in Christ. Hebrews chapter
4, this is the labor of faith. The labor is the labor to enter
into His rest, to not do anything. That's an impossible task. We're fixers. We're control freaks,
aren't we? We want to make sure we got it
right, get everything in, get our ducks in order. And God said,
no, no. Rest, and that word means to
lie silent. Lie silent. Wait patiently for the Lord. For the Lord himself has finished
the work. He's finished the work. He's
seated. He's seated right now at the
right hand of the majesty on high. And the scripture says
that you are seated in him in the heavenlies right now. What
a great place of rest. That picture of that demoniac
in the gatherings who was living in a graveyard. That's where
we live. By nature, we live among the
dead. And they tried to restrain him by chaining him, but he kept
breaking the chains. You can't be restrained by the
law, can you? You break those chains. The law
doesn't have the strength to restrain you. There's no, there's
no, there's no hope in that. And he was cutting himself because
he wasn't restrained by the law. Therefore he was, he was atoning
for his own sins. What is it cutting yourself?
Shedding your own blood in hopes that somehow that's going to,
that's going to fix it. You're going to atone for it.
You see this demoniac is a picture of us by nature. The Lord cast those demons out.
The scripture says that he was clothed. He was, where'd he get
his clothes from? He was naked. He was running
around naked in the graveyard, breaking the chains and cutting
himself and a wild man. Now he's clothed. You can see the Lord taking his
robe and putting it on that man. And he was seated and he was
in his right mind. He was in a right mind. That's what we need. We need
for the Lord to do a work for us, for us. But the self-righteous nature
is to say with the Pharisees, what work can I work? to do the
work of God. What can I do to work the work
of God? Surely there's something I can
do to obligate God to save me. And what the Lord said, this
is the work of God. And he wasn't giving him something
to do. He was saying, this is the work of God to you, that
you believe on him whom he has sent. It's the work of the Spirit
of God causes us to believe on Christ. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? Isn't that what the rich young ruler wanted to know? What
must I do to inherit eternal life? Surely something is required
of me. No, what is required is that
Boaz do a work to you and he will not rest until he's finished
the work. Oh, what rest, what comfort,
what hope. I wanna say, well, that's gonna
breed irresponsible living just to tell people that they're passive.
No, no. Not worried about that one bit. After Moses died on the East
side of the Jordan, The law could not bring the children of Israel
across the Jordan into the promised land. And the law can't bring
you and I into heaven. Joshua had to do that. And before
Joshua crossed the Jordan River, the priests were given the ark
and Joshua instructed them, you take the ark and you stand still
right in the middle of the River Jordan. Job, you remember Elihu came
to Job and rebuked him because Job was justifying himself and
accusing God of wrongdoing because he was saying, you know, I've
lived my life in a way that, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I
don't deserve this. It's not right. It's not fair.
And here's one of the things that Elihu said, hearken unto this, O Job, stand
still. stand still and consider the
wondrous works of God. Now, that was the last thing
that Elihu said to Job in chapter 37. And right after that, the
Lord speaks. And the Lord says to Job, who
is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge? Brace yourself
like a man, Job. I'm going to ask you a few questions. I'm going to interrogate you.
Where were you? And the Lord just goes on and
on and on. What's he doing? He's saying to Job, and God is
saying to me and you, I did this to you. Consider the work of
God. Consider what He has done. Your
salvation is not dependent upon what you do. The children of Israel insisted
on a king and Samuel said, no, the Lord's your king. And they
said, no, we want to be like other nations. And the Lord gave
them what they wanted. He gave him Saul, King Saul. And here's
what Samuel said towards the end of his life. He said to the
children of Israel, stand still, that I may reason with you before
the Lord, all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to
you and to your fathers. So Samuel is reminding them what
God did to them when he brought them out of Egypt and brought
them across the Sinai Peninsula, the desert, and brought them
through the Jordan into the promised land. Stand still while I rehearse
to you the things that God did to you and to your fathers. And then what we do when we preach
the gospel, every time we come together, we're just rehearsing.
We're saying with Samuel, stand still, don't move. Let me tell
you what God did to you. Well, what has God done to us?
Well, he's given us faith. We saw that in Acts 28. Some believed, passive voice,
some believed not, active voice. If you're not going to believe
the gospel, you have to participate in your rejection of that. And
you bear the full burden of responsibility for that action that you took
to reject Christ. But if the Lord gives you faith,
you were passive in that. You just all of a sudden one
day found yourself believing. You didn't make a decision to
believe any more than you made a decision to be born. You just heard the gospel one
day and the Lord gave you ears to hear and eyes to see and all
of a sudden, you found yourself a believer. You were passive
in it. You didn't say, well, you know,
I think I'll give my heart to Jesus or I think I'll believe
the gospel. No. You just became a believer. Why? Because that's what the
Lord did to you. He did that to you. If your faith was determined
by a decision that you made, then what keeps you from making
a decision not to believe somewhere down the road? But if it's work done to you,
and if the gifts, of God or without repentance, he doesn't take back
what he starts, what he gives, then that's a good work. That's
a good work. Faith is not our contribution
to salvation. It is the evidence of the new
birth. I've used this illustration many times, but it's so poignant. It's so simple. When a baby is
born alive, it breathes. It doesn't breathe in order to
become alive. Regeneration precedes faith. Chronologically, we understand
they happen simultaneously, but in the logical order of things. We talked about the order of
salvation recently when, you know, Paul was observing their
order. God has to do a a work of grace to breathe life into
our hearts. The Lord, and I love it, it goes
back to Genesis when the Lord made Adam from the dust of the
earth and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Why would you breathe into your
nostrils the breath of life? Why not into your mouth? Because the mouth speaks, the
nostril just breathes, that's all it does. And we didn't have any words
to say in our salvation. The Lord breathed the Spirit
of God in life. And the increase of our faith
is no more less a work of grace done to us. The increase of our
faith. Child of God, you believe. You
found yourself to be a believer one day. You heard the gospel. You could not believe it. And
you've been a believer ever since. And you cry with the disciples,
Lord, help. Or with that man who said, Lord,
help thou mine unbelief. Or you cry with the disciples
who said, Lord, increase our faith. The increase of our faith is
no less dependent upon God doing something to us now than it was
when we first believed. You see, this is where we are. We need God to do something to
us or do this to me. Let me be passive in what you
do. He must show us the futility
of everything else. And so the Lord in doing that
work to us will allow us to try to find our comfort and our peace
and our salvation in other things until he leaves the 99 and goes
out into the wilderness and brings that sheep home, said, there,
I've done something to you again, haven't I? done something to
you. The hardest thing to do in salvation
is nothing. You say, but don't we have to
believe? Isn't that something we have
to do? Yes, we do have to believe, but the true nature of faith
is to do nothing. The nature of faith is not a
participation of something that we do. The nature of faith is
to trust in another. It is to give the praise and
the glory of our salvation to another. That is the very nature
of faith. It is to rely upon the complete
and finished work of another. Faith is the opposite of work.
It's the opposite of work. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Romans chapter four. You're familiar with this passage,
Romans chapter four. We'll begin reading in verse
three. For what sayeth the scriptures? That's the only thing that matters.
Your opinion, my opinion, the creeds, the confessions, history,
the theologians, the commentaries. What sayeth the scriptures? Here's
what they say. Abraham believed God and it was
counted. It was counted unto him. It was imputed unto him. It was reckoned unto him. Now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
death. but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
had justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
You see, faith is just the opposite of work. Faith is doing nothing. Work is what we do in order to
try to and try to persuade and manipulate God to do something. Come, buy without money, without
price. Don't barter with God, do nothing.
The price has been paid. The man did not rest until he
finished the work. Unbelief wants to bring something.
God makes you be a sinner. You know that you have nothing
to bring. Nothing but your sin. What are you gonna bring, child
of God? What are you gonna bring to God? Nothing. And if the Lord does cause you to
do a good work, you don't give attention to that and find your
hope in that. You say, I'm an unprofitable
servant. The nature of faith is that it
has nothing to bring. has nothing to bring. You see, the problem with our
unbelief is that we're often looking somewhere other than
to Christ for our comfort and our peace and our hope, aren't
we? Jeremiah was the weeping prophet and Jeremiah was carried
off into Babylonian captivity. And he speaks, if you read the
book of Lamentation, and everything Jeremiah is speaking is prophetic.
He's speaking as the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Lamentation chapter one, verse
16, the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. And there's the Lord Jesus Christ
hanging on Calvary's cross, being forsaken of his father. Comforter
is far from me. Crying to his father for his
being forsaken, bearing the full burden that he did not rest until
he finished the work. But I find myself in this passage
as well. Lamentation 116, the comforter
that should relieve my soul is often far from me and wonder
why, why is that? Where does the spiritual coldness
come from? Is it because the Lord has forsaken
me? Is it because the Holy Spirit
has departed as my comforter or Christ has ceased to be my
advocate or God has forgotten his precious promises? Is that
why the comforter has forsaken me or seems far from me? That cannot be. The reason for silence from God
is not that he has moved or changed, it is that we, are looking in
the wrong place. We're looking often to the evidence
of our salvation rather than the source of our salvation.
We're looking for a feeling rather than the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ being all of our acceptance before
God. We are looking for comfort rather than the comforter. We're
looking for an experience rather than the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're looking for the joy of
the Lord rather than the Lord who gives us His joy. We're looking
for the peace of God rather than peace with God in the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's your experience. You see,
this is our unbelief, isn't it? Lord, I do believe, help thou
mine unbelief. The faith that we have been given
keeps us coming back to Christ. Because we can't find comfort
or we can't find hope in any of those other experiences. So what has the Lord done to
us? He's arrested us. just like he
did Saul of Tarsus. He stopped us in our tracks.
He shined the light from heaven. He opened our eyes and our ears
and he took out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh
and he made us to believe on him. Sit still. The man will not rest
until he does a work that is required to you. The new birth, circumcision made
without hands, the writing of his law upon our hearts. That's
a work done to us. The law of sin and the law of
truth and the law of faith and law of righteousness, the law
of liberty, the law of the spirit, the law of Christ. That's the
work done to us. David said, create in me a clean
heart, oh God. Renew a right spirit within me. Lord, you've got to do something
to me. The new heart is not a refurbished old heart. You hear people talk about giving
your heart to Jesus as if he's gonna clean it up and give it
back to you. You know, that's, no. No, he has to take out the
heart of stone. He has to, he has to give us
a new heart. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are all passed away.
All things have become new. All things become new. Oh, we
still have our old flesh. That old man's still just like
he always was, but we have a new heart that's brand new. And it's
a work done to us. Righteousness is a work done
to us. We just saw that in Romans chapter
four. where the Lord said, Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him. It was credited to him. It was imputed to him. It was
charged to him. It was something done to him,
to him. That's what the Lord's saying
here. Daughter, you lie here. Don't move a muscle. Stay here
until morning. Ruth said, sit still, the man
will not rest until he does what is required. It is required that
you have faith. It is required that you have
righteousness. But that's a work that has to
be done to us. God made him to be our wisdom
and our righteousness and our sanctification and our redemption.
that we glory, that we glory in the Lord. He's the one that
did this to us. When David, when John, I'm sorry,
sees the saints in heaven, he sees them dressed in fine linen,
clean and white. And he asked the angel, what
are these? And he said, this is the righteousness of the saints. for the Lord has arrayed them."
The Lord put that robe on them. Adam had to have a work done
to him. Adam tried to do the work himself when he sewed together
fig leaves to cover his nakedness before God, but a work had to
be done to him. The Lord had to kill a lamb and
blood had to be shed and a fleece had to be made to cover Adam
sufficiently. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin. Something was done to Christ
on Calvary's cross. You and I cannot begin to comprehend
what was done. God was doing business with God
and all the horrors of all the sins of all of God's people were
placed on the Lord Jesus Christ. and a work was done to him, and
then wrath was poured out on him, and it was done to him,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So here's a work
done to us. Paul said, I finished my course
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the righteous judge shall give me and not to me only, but
to all of them that love his appearing. Oh, that crown. We have a robe of righteousness
now in Christ. We're going to be arrayed in
heaven with a robe of righteousness, clean and white linen, and a
crown of righteousness is going to be placed upon our head. which
we're gonna cast at his feet. The new man which is made after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Paul said
in Galatians chapter two, verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Cannot get righteous before God
by our law keeping. It's not something we can do.
It's a work that has to be done to us. Turn with me to Romans
chapter eight quickly. Romans chapter eight. Verse three, for what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. There
was nothing wrong with the law. We love God's law. God's law
is holy and just and good. Nothing wrong with God's law.
The problem is with our ability to keep it. What the law could
not do because of the weakness of our flesh God, sending his
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin
in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. That's something done to you.
Faith and the new birth and righteousness, these are works done to us. Sit still, my daughter. Don't
move. You require some things. This
is what you require. You require faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You won't be saved without it, but it's a work done
to you. You require the new birth, but you're not gonna just decide
one day that you're gonna start breathing spiritual breath. You've got to be born again by
the Spirit of God. You require righteousness, but
this is something that's done to you. You're gonna be passive
in this. You're gonna give God all the
glory for it, aren't you? The righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. For they that do mind the things
of the flesh, they that walk after the flesh, they mind the
things of the flesh. What's he talking about here?
He's talking about walking in the flesh, trying to earn favor
with God by the things that we do. That's what it is to walk
in the flesh. And they that walk after the
flesh, they do mind the things of the flesh. What more can I
do? What work can I work? What must I do to inherit eternal
life? But they that after the Spirit
do mind the things of the Spirit, Lord, you're going to have to,
you're going to have to do something to me. Grace is done to you. It's done
to you. You didn't ask for it. We, God didn't show us grace
because we, we worked for it or asked for it. It's a gift.
It's free gift. It's done to us. We thought our law keeping would
somehow obligate God to reward us. And all of a sudden the Lord
stopped us in our tracks and gave us faith in Christ and caused
us to be born of the spirit and gave us the righteousness of
Christ imputed to our charge, to our account. And, and, and
And he showed us grace, grace. Zechariah chapter four, I've
got, we have to look at this quickly. Next to the last book
of the old Testament, Zechariah chapter four. Zerubbabel is the man that brought,
one of the men that brought the children of Israel with Ezra
and Nehemiah back from the Babylonian captivity. And Zerubbabel is
now rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. But Zerubbabel is a type of Christ. And Jerusalem is the church.
And Israel is the people of God. This is a spiritual picture.
And there were many that were trying to object to what Zerubbabel
and Nehemiah were doing. Just like there is objections
in your flesh to the work that's being done to you. And here's
what the Lord says to us. Who art thou, O great mountain? If we have faith of the mustard
seed, we can say unto this mountain, be cast into the sea and it shall
be removed. What is it? Mountain is the picture
of the barriers and sins and objections. And so who art thou,
O mountain before Zerubbabel? Thou shall become a plain and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings crying,
grace, grace unto it. Here's the grace of God. None
of the objections, none of the mountains, none of the things
that we do can stop Zerubbabel from his grace. He's gonna do
that to you. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house, and his hands also shall finish it. And thou
shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you." The Lord
Jesus Christ started the work of salvation in the covenant
of grace in eternity past. He completed it through His death
on Calvary's cross. He sent His Spirit. And by grace,
He calls us to Himself. And He that started a good work
in you will complete it to the day of His coming. And it's all
going to be of grace. It's the work done to us. To us. Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. The Lord didn't single Noah out
because there was something special about Noah. Noah had to have
something done to him. And he found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Oh, there's so many things. Peace. You know what? We oftentimes sacrifice the comfort
of peace by putting the peace of God before the peace with
God. You know, we want an experience
of peace. But here's a work done to us.
My peace I give unto thee. My peace I leave to you. Not
as the world giveth. He's the Prince of Peace. And
He made peace with God through His blood. And we look to Christ
For that work of grace and the peace of God, which surpasses
understanding, keeps our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. This is a work that must be done
to us. David was leaving, fleeing from
Absalom, crossing the Kidron, the Brook Kidron, which is, I
mean, he pictured the Lord Jesus going to the cross after he left
Pilate. He crossed over the valley of
where the Kidron Valley was and went to Golgotha. And David did
that a thousand years before as a type when David was fleeing. And the scripture says he was
weeping and his men were weeping and they crossed over the Brook
Kidron. And David said these words, he
said, let Him do to me what seemeth good to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, let Him
do to me what seemeth good to Him. To me. To me. I said to someone recently, I
said, I wish you didn't have to go through that. And then
I thought, I'm glad that our wish is not his command. We don't wish for anything other
than what the Lord has purposed. And we say with King David, let
him do to me whatever seemeth good to him. It'll be right. Let Him do to me. You see, here's
the problem. Here's the problem. Why men won't
come to Christ. Because they won't be passive.
And they don't want God to do something to them. They don't. I'll not have that
man reign over me. The problem is He does reign
over them. And here's the good news, brethren. Everything He
does to us is for our salvation. It's required. And it's good. And it's pleasant. And it's life. It's hope and
joy. Men that rebel against God, some
believed, passive voice, some believed not, active voice. Men
that rebel against God, actively resist the Lord. They won't have Him do something
to them. Thank God. Thank God for His
grace. Irresistible. Irresistible grace,
effectual grace. He does to us. It's a good work,
isn't it? Oh, I'm thankful. I'm thankful. The Lord does it to us. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Lord, forgive us for all the
times that in our flesh we We resist Thee. Lord, we thank You
also for Your Spirit that will not allow us to remain in rebellion
against You. And Lord, You keep doing a work
to us. For it's in Christ's name we
pray, amen. 15 in the Sproul hymn, let's
stand, number 15. It is finished, Jesus cried. Then he bowed his head and died. Died for sins, but not his own. And redemption's work was done. Justice then was satisfied, God's
elect are justified. ? Righteousness our Lord brought
in ? ? And removed his people's sin ? ? Sin and death and hell
subdued ? ? By the power of Christ's blood ? ? Grace to sinners now
is given ? ? Pardon, holiness and heaven ? ? It is finished,
can it be ? ? That Christ's blood was shed for me ? ? Yes, I know
He died for me ? ? For by grace I now believe ? ? Pleading Christ's
atoning blood ? Kneeling at the throne of God. Gone my guilt, my sin is gone. It is finished, all is done.