an advocate, a substitute, one
who has completely satisfied all of your holy demands and
that we have our acceptance before thee in him. Lord, we pray for
Megan right now and for the doctors and nurses that tend to her and
we ask, Lord, that you would give them understanding and give
her and Jeff grace as they wait on you. We pray for her life
and health. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Megan had to go to the hospital
this afternoon, so we don't know what in all is happening, but
pray for her. Okay, Tom. Let's stand together again, number
326, 326. I'm sorry. ? More about Jesus
would I know ? ? More of his grace to others show ? ? More
of his saving fullness see ? ? More of his love who died for me ?
? More, more about Jesus ? ? More, more about Jesus ? More of his
saving fullness see, More of his love who died for me. ? More about Jesus let me learn
? More of his holy will discern ? Spirit of God my teacher be
? Showing the things of Christ to me ? More, more about Jesus
More, more about Jesus, more of His saving fullness see, more
of His love who died for me. ? More about Jesus in his word
? ? Holding communion with my Lord ? ? Hearing his voice in
every line ? ? Making each faithful saying mine ? ? More, more about
Jesus ? ? More, more about Jesus ? ? More of his saving fullness
see ? More of his love who died for me ? More about Jesus on
his throne ? Riches and glory all his own ? More of his kingdom
sure increase ? More of his coming Prince of Peace More, more about
Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of his saving fullness see. More of his love who died for
me. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Acts
chapter 21, and we'll begin reading in verse 17. Acts 21, verse 17. I've titled this message, Gospel
Lessons from Error. Gospel Lessons from Error. How
much do you learn from your mistakes? I pray the Lord will show us
the things that we need to learn from the mistakes that the apostles
made here in Acts chapter 21, beginning in verse 17. And when
we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. No question about it. These are
brethren. These are believers. These are
God's apostles and the church in Jerusalem, the apostle Paul. And the day following, Paul went
in with us unto James and all the elders were present. James,
Peter, James and John, what part of the inner circle of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the pastor of this mega church in Jerusalem, Paul
meets with him. And when he had saluted them,
he declared particularly what things God had wrought among
the Gentiles by his ministry, Paul. gives them a update as
to what the Lord is doing through the preaching of the gospel among
the Gentiles. And when they heard it, they
glorified the Lord and said unto him, thou seest, brother, how
many thousands of Jews there are, which believe and they are
all zealous for the law. Now they make it clear that they
do not believe in salvation by works. They don't believe that
keeping the law is somehow going to earn them favor with God.
They've already reported to the Gentiles back in chapter 15 that
that was not necessary. But their customs and their traditions
are so strong And by observing these Old Testament types and
ceremonies and sacrifices, they are, at best, confusing the message
of the gospel. They're confusing the message
of the gospel. And the Lord's going to teach
Paul, some important lessons here and pray that he will teach
us as well. This first generation of Jews,
you know, a generation is 40 years in the Bible and from 30
A.D. at the time of our Lord's life
here on earth to 70 A.D. when Rome came in and completely
destroyed the city of Jerusalem. This first generation of Jewish
believers were were still practicing a lot of their Old Testament
customs. And they, as the scripture says,
they were zealous for them. Look at verse 21, and they are
informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among
the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to
circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs. Paul,
there's some things being said about you, that you are denying
the customs of the Jews. What is it therefore? What do
we do about this? How are we gonna reconcile this? How are we gonna bring together
the brethren? And the multitude must needs
come together. You see, now they're expressing what their motive
is. This is their motive. to find some common ground between
truth and error. What James and the Jews in Jerusalem
was doing was wrong. They were clouding the issue
of the gospel with all these Old Testament customs and they
were still making blood sacrifices. And now they're trying to find
some common ground. between the error of these Jews
and the gospel of God's free grace. We must needs come together for
they will hear that thou art calm. What are we gonna do about
this, Paul? Let's find some way to rectify this division that's
in the church. Do therefore this, what we say
to thee, for we have four men which have a vow on them." Following
the Nazarite vow. Now Paul had already done this
in previous chapters with Priscilla and Aquila. The interesting thing
here is, you know, Paul wrote Galatians before Acts 21. But he didn't write Romans until
after Acts 21. So as clear as he was on law
and grace in the book of Galatians, he certainly expanded on that
when he wrote the book of Romans. And that's one of the lessons
to be learned from error. Gospel lessons learned from error.
How many lessons do you learn? I learn more from my mistakes
than I do from my successes, don't you? Verse 24, them take and purify
thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they
may shave their heads, and all may know that those things whereof
they were informed concerning thee are nothing but that thou
thyself also walketh orderly and keepest the law. As touching the Gentiles, which
believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no
such thing, save only that they keep themselves from idols and
from blood and from strangled and from fornication. These things
were decided in chapter 15 at the Jerusalem Council. So what
they're saying is, we're not saying that these things are
necessary for salvation, but these are our customs. Then Paul took the men, and the
next day, purifying himself with them, entered into the temple
to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification until
an offering should be offered for every one of them, a blood
sacrifice. This is so contrary to the gospel. And when the seven days were
almost ended, the Jews, which were of Asia, when they saw him
in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on
them, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man that teach
of all men everywhere against the people and against the law
and this place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple and
polluted this holy place. As it turns out, the very thing
that they were trying to accomplish turned out to be just the opposite.
A riot breaks out and more confusion comes as a result
of Paul's attempt to find some common ground between truth and
error. There is no common ground. Gospel lessons to be learned
from error. The first lesson is that if God did not use flawed
men, he would not use men at all. Man at his very best state
is altogether vanity. And man at his best is but a
man at best. The Lord tells us to cease from
men. were not to look at the men and
women of the Bible as if they were some sort of super spiritual,
perfect examples to follow after. That role is reserved for the
Lord Jesus Christ. And God used flawed men all throughout
scripture, didn't he? You think about Abraham. Denying
sarah as his wife and allowing pharaoh to take her into his
own harem in order to save his own skin And isaac turned around
did exactly the same thing with rebecca So many flawed men We can be
encouraged by this brethren You and I are flawed We uh we can be encouraged to trust
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. How many people have ceased from
the gospel because of the fall of a man? And that just tells
us, I mean, none of us want to be a reproach to the gospel or
a stumbling block to someone else. But if a man ceases from the
gospel because of the fall of another man, that only tells
you where his trust was. Isn't that so? Cease from man. Trust in the
Lord. For the best of men are just
as flawed as you are. You want somebody to be trusting
you for their salvation? No. He gives power to the faint and
them that have no might. He increases strength. Paul said,
I am what I am by the grace of God. And he did say, follow me
as I follow Christ, but only as I follow Christ. If I'm not
following Christ, don't follow me. And he wasn't following Christ
here. So the first lesson to be learned
is that Man at his very best state is altogether vanity, and
so are you, and so am I. There's the good news of the
gospel. The gospel is for the weak. It's for the wounded. It's
for the sick. It's for the sore. The well need
not a physician. I came not for the righteous,
but for sinners, for lepers, for the blind, and the halt,
and the lame. those who don't have any strength
in themselves. Why would we expect Paul and
James to have any more strength than we have? Their hope was
the same place where ours is. It's in Christ. Psalm 103. He knoweth our frame,
and he remembereth that we are but dust. Oh, aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful that when
you and I sin and when we do stuff like Paul did here, like
James did here, that the Lord doesn't give up on us. He teaches
us from those things. He doesn't. In that same Psalm,
Psalm 103, the scripture says, as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He pities us. What father would expect their
five-year-old to act like a 10-year-old or their 10-year-old to act like
a 20-year-old? That's not reasonable. And the Lord looks at us and
he knows what we're made of. He's full of mercy and grace
and forgiveness. Let's turn to that. There's a
couple more things in that Psalm I wanted you to see. Psalm 103.
Turn with me there. This is the first lesson to be
learned from this error that James and Paul had and did. Psalm 103, look at verse eight. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide,
neither will he keep his anger forever. There is a day of reckoning.
And there will be chastisement for his children, but that's
always a loving hand. It's always a hand full of mercy. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor according, nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities. Amen. Aren't you thankful for that?
Aren't you thankful for that? No, he's rewarded us according
to the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's given
us himself as our reward. I am thy shield and thine exceeding
great reward is what he told Abraham. And as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that
fear Him. As far as the East is from the
West, so far has He removed our transgression from us." I love
thinking about that. You know, you think about North
and South, and there is a place where North and South meet. As
a matter of fact, there's two places where North and South
meet. But East, you know, we have this imaginary international
date line out there in the Pacific Ocean, but it doesn't really,
it's not really there. We just did it. East and West
never meet. They never meet. You go East,
you never go West. That's eternity, isn't it? That's
a perfect circle. He separated our sins from us
as far as the East is from the West. And he remembers them no
more. He's buried in them in the depths
of the seas, covered them by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, even Paul and James. Look at the next verse. Like
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we
are dust. That we are dust. Not that we're
made from dust, but we are dust. There we are. They're just dust. They're just grass. Look at,
look at, as for, as for man, his days are as grass and as
a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. The wind passeth
over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no
more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon all that fear him for his righteousness unto children's
children. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. The second lesson that we can
learn from this event in the life of the church in Jerusalem
is that the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder
of wrath He shall restrain. Now we want God to restrain us,
don't we? And yet, He often allows us of
our own guilt and our own responsibility to disobey Him, to fall, to do
things that are shameful. And He uses that. He uses that
for His glory. He uses it here. The Apostle
Paul, shortly after this experience, writes the letter of Romans and
clarifies the difference between that Old Testament law and grace. And Hebrews probably written
after this even. And there's even a more comprehensive
picture of the very problem that was going on here, where The
Lord takes these Old Testament types and pictures and clarifies
how fulfilled they are in Christ and how things now are better
and we don't go back to the old. He's put away the old that he
might establish the second. Now, we're fully responsible
for our sin. We cannot We cannot say, well, God purposed it, therefore
I'm not responsible. No. God's divine purpose is going
to be accomplished. And yes, he, he purposed there. He's the first cause of all things,
but let no man say when he sins that God, God made me do it.
We, we sin, we're drawn away of our own lust. And yet the
Lord used it. How shameful was what, was what
Peter did? when he denied the Lord on the
night of his crucifixion. And don't you know that he had
that in his mind when he wrote that your adversary like a roaring
lion seeketh whom he may devour. Walk soberly and be on guard
for him. I wasn't on guard as I ought
to have been and he He uses that experience in many
of the things that he said in 1 and 2 Peter. How shameful is
it what David did with Bathsheba, and yet without that, we wouldn't
have Psalm 51. How many things, you know, and
this is true in your life and in my life, the Lord teaches
us, and we learn more about his long-suffering from our sin. and forgiveness and mercy and
grace. And we love him more as a result
of that. Truly, the old man does serve
the younger, doesn't he? He does. Esau, the older brother,
a picture of our old man, served Jacob, the younger brother, a
picture of our new man. And it is our sin. that keeps
driving us back to Christ, to whom coming for more mercy and
more grace and more love and more forgiveness. And so the
wrath of man, we think of that, the wrath of man shall praise
him in the horrible things that men do in the world. And that
God is the first cause of them and he's gonna use them for his
end. But our sin is our wrath, it's our wrath. disobedience
to God. As I mentioned earlier, Paul
had not yet read the book of Romans and Hebrews and so all
these things. The Lord had already revealed
that the apostle Paul would be arrested, would be bound and
taken to Rome. And he said, you must testify
of me in Rome. And there's so many governors and
kings that he went before. He said, I appealed to Caesar
and the Lord was going to take Paul to Rome. And this happened
and the Lord used it to accomplish his end. And he uses it in your
life and in my life to accomplish his purpose and his end. Truly,
truly all things work together for good. That's not just the
difficult circumstances in our lives that work together for
good, but it's our sin. It's our, it's our disobedience. It's our error. It's our, God
works together for good. makes us love him all the more
for being so pitiful toward us and remembering our frame that
we are but dust. Think about what Joseph's brothers
did in selling him to Egypt and all the hardships that fell upon
Joseph as a result of their sin. And when it's all over, what
does Joseph say at the end of the book of Genesis? You meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good to save a people. Everything's going to result
in the glory of God. It's all going to result in his
glory. He's going to use our sin to
bring about his own glory. Elijah had to go to Mount Horeb. Elijah did the same thing that
Paul and James are doing here. He runs back to the law. And
he's doing the same thing that you and I do. The strength of
our sin is the law. Our depravity, as I said Sunday,
is not seen so much in the bad things we do, it's seen in the
good things that we think we can do. The good things that
we think we have, that we can present to God for our righteousness. You know, the worst criminal
in the hardest prison believes that he's capable of better if
he just decides he wants to. He thinks he's capable. I've
got it in me. I can do it if I want to. There's
the sign of depravity. And that's what the Lord has
to break us off. To bring us to that place where
we're able to say, in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Behold, I am vile. Lord, there's nothing good in
me. I'm completely dependent upon you. Paul and James thought,
well, we'll do something here to reconcile the differences
between truth and error. Elijah had to go to Mount Horeb. You remember after what happened
in Mount Carmel and Jezebel gets after him and he runs back to
the mountain of the law. He hides out in a cave. Probably
the same cave that God put Moses in when God said to Moses, there's
a, there's a rock here near unto me. And he hit him in the cleft
of a rock. And now Elijah's back in the
same place, but he had to be there, which was wrong for him
to go there in order to hear the still small voice of God. A lot of things happened at that
mountain. You know that the only place Arabia is spoken of in
the Bible is as it relates to Mount Sinai in Arabia. And when
Paul said after his conversion that the Lord took him to Arabia,
he doesn't say he took him to Mount Sinai, but don't you know
that's exactly where the Lord took the apostle Paul? He's sitting
at the foot of the mountain of the law, learning the gospel
of God's free grace. And yet, even after having learned
that, he turns around and does this. How many things have you done
that have denied everything you know to be true and believe to
be true? Yet God uses our sin. He uses
our sin. The best example of that is the
cross, is it not? The Lord used the wrath of man
to praise Him. And He even used the forsaking
of the disciples. They all forsook Him. Scripture
says that the prophecy was that His familiar friends would deny
Him. That's His disciples. And that
He had to go to the cross alone. So the Lord used their sin and
their fear in forsaking Him and leaving Him to fulfill the greatest
good and glory to God, the salvation of His people. He's still doing
that for you and me right now. The wrath of man shall praise
Him. Second lesson. First lesson is that man at his
very best state is altogether vanity. Second lesson is the
wrath of man shall praise him. And the third lesson is we are
not to try to find common ground between truth and error. The
Lord didn't let it happen here. How many times have, you know,
they're going to accuse him of things he's not guilty of. And
rather than just preaching the gospel, he makes a defense for
himself. And it just, things get worse. When the unbeliever thinks that you have to justify
yourself and defend yourself against their false accusations,
it only makes them more bold to attack you even the more,
doesn't it? There is no common ground. We're
confident that the gospel is the finished work of Christ,
having fulfilled the law of God, having satisfied the demands
of God's justice, having established eternal righteousness all by
Himself. We don't have to defend that.
We don't have to argue it. We just declare it. We just declare
it. There are many things that we
should be willing to lay aside for the good of the peace of
the church and for the gospel. Customs and personal preferences
and culture. Plenty of things that we need
to lay aside in terms of our own personal rights and feelings
for the sake of union among the brethren. But the gospel is not
one of them. To try to compromise the gospel
is to destroy the gospel. They wanted to maintain their
ceremonies and their sacrifices and their holy days and their
dietary laws and have the gospel too. At best, at best, they were confusing
the gospel, but in the end, those sort of things only result in
destroying the gospel. They deny the finished work of
Christ. The apostles' attempt to justify
themselves and squelch the objections of the Jews had just the opposite
effect. It only made people more bold
to be more angry at him. It brought more animosity and
more division. We don't find common ground.
Don't try to find it. There is none. In the book of Nehemiah, Chapters 4, 5, and 6, Nehemiah
comes back from the Babylonian captivity, given instructions
by God to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, the temple, the wall,
and to set the gates. And as he's doing it, two men,
one by the name of Sanballat, Now Sanballat, when the Babylonians
came in 70 years earlier, they did what they often did. They left behind the Jews that
weren't profitable to them, and then they brought men and women
from other pagan nations and brought them into the land to
intermarry to destroy their culture and to destroy their religion.
And it's exactly the effect that it had because Sanballat was
the father of the Samaritans. These Jews that had intermarried
with pagans during the Babylonian captivity. And so now when the
Jews come back, who have preserved their lineage, Sanballat is threatened
by them. He had already intermarried with
pagans. Isn't this what happens when
men weaken the gospel by compromising it with other religions? Tobiah. Tobiah, the scripture says, was
an Ammonite. Now, Ammon and Moab were the
two sons given birth to by Lot's insetuous relationship with his
daughters. And the Moabites and the Ammonites
were constant trouble for the Israelites. And that's where
Tobiah was from. So now we have these two men
picturing compromising of the gospel. One who gives birth illicitly
to two children shamefully and become enemies of the people
of God. And the other who intermarries
with pagans and brings about shame to them. And they're threatened
by these Jews now are coming back with a pure gospel. They're
building the building of the temple and the setting of the
doors and the building of the wall and the reestablishment
of Jerusalem. You understand the gospel implications
of that. It doesn't have anything to do
with building town. It has to do with what we're
doing right now. It's building the gospel, building
the gospel. The purity of the gospel had
to be established. And these men were threatened
by it. And they started out by making false accusations about
Nehemiah. They said, he's an insurrectionist.
He's, he's doing this because he's going to build an army and
go against the King, which wasn't true. And then they called him
all sorts of names. And, uh, and then they threatened
him with war. And Nehemiah had his workmen
with a sword in one hand and a trowel on the other hand. So
while they're working, they're also ready to defend themselves
with the word of God. That's the sword of the spirit,
the word of God. You see, the commitment that
Nehemiah had was, we're not going to compromise the gospel with
Tobiah and Nehemiah and Sanballat. We're not going to do it. Matter
of fact, he goes on to say, because Sanballat finally writes him
a letter. He writes him a letter, sends a letter five times. Five
times. And Nehemiah's answer is the
same time, five times. And in the letter he says, come
down to the valley of Ono and let's talk about it. Let's find some common ground
where we can, you know, agree to disagree on our differences.
And what did Nehemiah say? Nehemiah said, we are about a
great work. We cannot come down. Don't you love this new word
that people always say, and we need to have a conversation about
that. When someone says that to you, what they really mean
is, you need to sit down and let me convince you that I'm
right and you're wrong. That's what they mean by that,
isn't it? And that's what Tobiah and Samballot were saying. Come down to the valley, let's
have a conversation. Let's talk about this thing.
Nehemiah said, no. We are about a great work. All of Christianity today is
a compromised version of the mother of harlots. Protestant Christianity, when, When Luther nailed his
95 thesis to the door at Wittenberg, what he was doing was he was
calling the scholars of the Catholic Church to come together and have
a debate over these issues. Now that was the first mistake
of the Reformation. Just preach the gospel. Don't
call the scholars together for a debate. And nothing has been
settled ever since that day he nailed those things to the wall
or to the door. They're still debating them.
And all the Protestant denominations of Christianity have done nothing
but just come up with another reformed view of error. Error has a meaning. You can't
reform error. You cannot reform error. Error is error. And you
can't find a common ground for it. And we're not to be mean-spirited
about it. We're just not to, you know,
how many, I can't tell you how many times I've had people want
to engage me in some sort of debate over what they believe. And you know, as kindly as I
know how to say, I say to them, you know, I don't, I'm not asking
you what you believe. If you want to know what I believe,
I'll be happy to tell you. And the best thing for you to
do is come and hear me preach. But I'm not asking you any questions
about what you believe. I know what you believe. I'm
not interested in what you believe. And there's no common ground
between what you believe and what I believe. And so we, you know, men, men
will say things like, well, you know, there is a sense in which
God loves everybody. And then they talk about God's
benevolent love. No, there is no sense in which
God loves everybody. God loves Jacob and Esau. I hate
it. And he's angry at the wicked
every day. Now God's love and God's hatred is not like you
and me. Let's don't, we gotta be careful. We don't make God
to be like us. His hatred is holy hatred. His
love is a holy love. But this idea that God has a
benevolent love towards some people and a more special love
towards others, that's not in scripture. Or there is a sense
in which Christ died for everybody. And they talk about, you know,
the efficient, work of the atonement versus the sufficient work of
the atonement, and they'll say things like, well, you know,
Christ died forever. What are they doing? They're trying to
find some common ground. Let us use plainness of speech. That's what Paul said. So that
there can be, you know, that's what political correct speech
is, isn't it? It's the kind of speech that
allows everybody to attach their own definition to what's being
said. Be so vague and so clouded in your speech that everybody
can make it mean what they want it to mean. That's not preaching.
The gospel is simple. The gospel is clear, and we have
to be simple and clear. And all Paul and James were doing
here is confusing the gospel and trying to find some common
ground between these Jews that could not let go of their traditions
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to 2 Corinthians, and I'll close. 2 Corinthians 3. And what do they do? They resort
to name calling. They will intimidate you by trying
to make you defend yourself. They'll call you an antinomian.
Well, they're against the law. That's what they were calling
Paul. Well, he's an antinomian. We're not against the law of
God. We love God's law. We love his law. We see the Lord
Jesus Christ as the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. And these shadows and types of
the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ. And they'll call you
a hyper-Calvinist. That's the first thing. Soon
as you start preaching the gospel, that's the first thing that's
going to happen. They're going to do what Samballat and Tobiah did to Nehemiah. They're going to start name-calling
in an attempt to intimidate you. get you to come down to the Valley
of Ono and have a conversation with them. Nothing's changed, has it? It's
the same. 2 Corinthians 3, look with me
at verse 12. Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech. We don't want there to be any
confusion about what we're saying, about God's absolute sovereignty. And His sovereignty cannot be,
cannot coexist with man's free will. It cannot. About the successful work of
atonement that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's
cross. There can't be a side door to
that. About our holiness before God
being found in Christ. There can't be any such thing
as progressive sanctification. We cannot become more holy. Do
we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ? Yes. We're not getting
holier and holier. All our holiness is in Christ.
He is our sanctification. You see, all these compromises
that men have made in an attempt to take the edge off the gospel
and get along with Sanballat and Tobiah and the Jews that
are zealous for the law, as James said, they do nothing but ultimately
destroy the gospel. We use great plainness of speech. We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore I have
spoken. I'm sorry, I moved to the next chapter, forgive me.
Verse 13, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end,
which is abolished. When Moses came down from Mount
Sinai, the reflection of God's radiance was so great, he had
to put a veil over his face and hide his face so the children
of Israel couldn't look at him. But their minds were blinded,
for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. They're trying to keep these
traditions and customs of the Old Testament. And all they're
doing is veiling the face of Moses. They can't see the law
for what it is. But this veil is done away in
Christ. No common ground. But even unto
this day, when Moses read, the veil is still upon their heart.
Still there. Well, but isn't there a sense
in which the law is our rule book? I mean, it's our guide
for Christian living. Isn't that what the law of God's
all about? The law of God's written on every
man's heart. You don't need the 10 commandments
to know what they say. You were born with that law. You need Christ. to put that law in your heart,
make you love it and follow after him. He's the one who kept the
law. Nevertheless, now let's read
verse 15 again. But even until this day, when
Moses read the veil is upon their heart, nevertheless, when it,
the heart shall turn to the Lord, the veil should be taken away. Gospel lessons from error. If God did not use flawed men,
he would use no man at all, and all men are flawed. You and me,
all men. These men and women of the Bible
are not different. They're men and women of like
passion, just like we are. They make horrible mistakes,
committed grievous sins, Second point is the wrath of man shall
praise him. God will use the error of his
people for their good and for his glory. And thirdly, there
is no common ground between truth and error. We must speak with
plainness of speech and not intimidated by the accusations that are made
against the religious, that we are somehow... You know, the
other thing, this happened just recently, somebody called us
a cult. I don't want anybody to think of us as a cult. What
are they doing? Come down to ONO, let's talk
about it, and I'll take that accusation back if you'll find
some common ground with me and I won't call you a cult anymore.
Sorry. We just have to take the accusations
and know that God knows better. God knows we're not. We know
we're not. Amen? Amen. Tom? Number three in the Spiritual
Hymnal, let's stand together. so A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant
mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness on my person an
offering to bring. The terrors of law and of God
with me can have nothing to do, My Savior's obedience and blood
hide all my transgressions from view. ? The work which his goodness
began ? ? The arm of his strength will complete ? ? His promises
yea and amen ? ? And never was forfeited yet ? ? Things future
nor things that are now ? ? Not all things below nor above ?
? Can make him his purpose forego ? or sever my soul from his love. my name from the palm of his
hands eternity will not erase impressed on his heart it remains
in marks of indelible grace yes i to the end shall endure as
sure as the earnest is given more happy but not more secure
The glorified Spirit's in hand.