Paul in Ephesians chapter one
is praying for the church in Ephesus and he says that he's
praised that the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe
according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
his right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities
and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head
over all things the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all." The body of Christ, right here. He's the head. We've come here
to receive all of our instructions from our head in the same way
the members of your body obey your mind, Let the Lord be pleased
to give us the mind of Christ and respond appropriately. Tom,
we're going to sing the hymn on the back of the bulletin.
Let's stand together. ? Precious is the name of Jesus
? ? Who can half his worth unfold ? ? Far beyond angelic praises
? ? Sweetly sung to harps of gold ? Precious when to Calvary
droning, He sustained the cursed tree. Precious when His death
atoning, Made an end of sin for me. Precious when the bloody
scourges cause the sacred drops to roll. Precious when a wrathful
surge overwhelms His holy soul. Precious is His death victorious,
He the host of hell or throes, In His resurrection glorious,
Victor crowned o'er all His foes. Precious Lord, beyond expressing
are Thy beauties all divine. Glory, honor, power and blessing
be henceforth forever thine. Soon in glory we shall see thee
clothed in garments spotless white. ever living in thy presence
of the lamb who is the light. Please be seated. Good morning. Our call to worship
will be in the book of Matthew chapter six, chapter six, And in this passage, it's a call
to prayer. Verse nine. When the disciples, their three
year brief, the walking with the Lord, notice a lot of wonderful,
wonderful thing, miracles, the preaching of the gospel, even
the Lord manifesting his deity. But there was one thing that
the disciples took notice of. And that was the Lord Jesus Christ,
perfect communion with the Father, his prayer life. And of all the
things that they asked to be taught, they asked the Lord to
teach them how to pray. So I'm hopeful that this morning
that the Lord will teach us this prayer. Because I recall, I talked
to Greg yesterday, when we were little boys, this was our first
introduction to religion, was to memorize the Lord's prayer.
And we were told that if we said it over and over and over again,
somehow we'd have some intrinsic power and God would notice us
more and, you know, find favor with us. Obviously, that's a
lie. This morning, if God the Holy
Spirit gives us eyes to see, we're going to see aspects of
the gospel in this prayer. Adoption, God's sovereign decree,
His holiness, the bread of life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the putting away of sin, the ability to be able to forgive
one another sinners, the Holy Spirit restraining us from temptation
and keeping us from this evil. And to sum up this whole prayer,
the ultimate purpose for all this is to his glory. So let's
read that. Let's read this together as a
prayer unto the Lord, as he taught the disciples how to pray. I
pray that he will teach us from the heart to pray this. Verse
9. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Holy are you, Lord. You're not
like us. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Is that clear? Everything that
we're doing, everything that the Lord purposed in eternity,
he's bringing it to pass. Unlike what we were taught, that
what we did here, what our will was or what our work was here
on earth determined our destiny in eternity. Give us this day our daily bread,
Lord, right now. Manifest yourself that we may
feast on thee. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation.
Oh, but deliver us from this evil right here. And here it
is, Lord, beloved. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word. Thank you for giving us this
prayer that we may in return offer it back up to you for we
know the one that is seated on the right hand of the majesty
on high Lord, we look to him knowing
that all our acceptance and all our rights before thee is in
him. We're thankful, Lord, that you
sent this bread of life, that we might have life. And so we
ask this morning that you would again be pleased to manifest
the Lord Jesus Christ. For everything that we say and
do here this morning, Lord, we know that he has to make it perfect,
offering to you, Lord, for it to be acceptable. Lord, we do
ask for this bread as Brother Greg comes again to preach the
message that you have purposed on his heart for us to hear this
very moment. Lord, we are confident that you
will bring it to pass, that the gospel will save and a sweet
savor, and it'll also be to others May you be pleased, Lord, to
draw your sheep this morning. Bless your word, forgive us of
our sins, and again, Lord, enable us to worship thee, for we ask
it in Christ's name, amen. Number 169 in the hardback temple. Let's stand together once again. Holy Spirit, faithful guide,
ever near the Christian side. Gently lead us by the hand, pilgrims
in a desert land. Weary souls, for e'er rejoice,
While they hear that sweetest voice, Whispering softly, Wanderer,
come, Follow me, I'll guide thee home. Ever present, truest friend,
Ever near thine aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear,
Groping on in darkness drear. When the storms are raging sore,
Hearts grow faint and hopes give o'er, Whisper softly, wanderer,
come, Follow me, I'll guide thee home. When our days of toil shall
cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Nothing left but heaven
and prayer, Knowing that our names are there. Wading deep
the dismal flood, Pleading not but Jesus' blood, Whisper softly,
wanderer, come. Follow me, I'll guide thee home. Please be seated. We're going
to have special music now by Caleb and Adam. Pass me not, O gentle Savior
Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Do not pass me by Savior, Savior
Hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Let me addeth from Percy, find the sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
held my arms Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry While on others Thou art calling Do not pass me by Trusting only
in my merit Would I seek thy face ? Heal my wounded, broken spirit
? ? Save me by Thy grace ? ? Savior, Savior ? ? Hear my humble cry
? While on others thou art calling,
Do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry Do not pass me by. Thank you, man. If the Lord is pleased to. Put
that prayer on our hearts. I'm confident that he will answer
it. He won't pass us by if we have a need for him not to pass
us by. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Acts Chapter 5? Acts Chapter 5. I've titled this message delivered
from the common prison delivered from the common prison. Look with me at verse 18 and
laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison,
but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors
and brought them forth. You and I are born into this
world in the prison of sin. David said in sin, did my mother
conceive me? We inherited this nature of sin
from our father, Adam. carried on through our bloodline
from generation to generation. And the wages of that sin is
death. So we are in the prison of death
by nature. That's our natural condition. Dead, the scripture says, in
our trespasses and sin. in the prison of unbelief, the
prison of darkness. And unless the Lord sends an
angel to come open the gates and set us free from that common
prison, the word common means that it's, that it's common to
all of us. There's no exceptions to the
rule. We're all meet the same category. unless the Lord sends
an angel, which is a messenger, to declare all the words of this
life. That's what the Lord told the
apostles to do. You go tell them all the words
of this life. Then we will remain in prison. I'm sure that there are many
young women who are arrested and put into prison who are pregnant
at the time of their arrest. And in delivering those babies
in prison, I'm sure that they are probably mostly given to
family members or adopted out of prison, but those babies don't
grow up in prison. If they did, They wouldn't know
anything but prison. That's all they would know. I
thought about, you know, if a mother gave birth to a child in prison
and that child was not given to someone outside of prison,
all they would know is the environment of that prison. They wouldn't
know there was anything outside. Well, that's exactly what happened
to me and you. We were born in prison. And unless
God enables us to see outside that prison, we're doomed. We don't even know there's anything
else outside of the prison of our own unbelief. The preaching of the gospel is
for the purpose of showing prisoners that there's life outside of
prison. And then I thought about, well
what about, preacher, what about those of us that have been delivered
from the prison of death and the prison of sin? Well, recidivism,
is that how you say it? I think the recidivism rate among
Men and women who are in prison is pretty high. They have a propensity
to go back, don't they? And the word recidivism means
to fall back. And the scripture talks about
us being perpetual backsliders. What are we always in need of? Oh Lord, deliver me from my sin.
Deliver me from death. Deliver me from my own unbelief.
Lord, I'm like that prisoner who's got something in them that
just keeps drawing them back to the prison of the law. That's a that's a prison. Trying to seek some satisfaction
and some hope of salvation by observing something that we're
doing or that we're not doing. That's a prison. That's exactly
what the Apostle Paul was speaking about in Galatians chapter four.
Turn with me there to that passage. You see, we're all being drawn
naturally back to prison. And my hope this morning is that I'll be the voice of a messenger
to declare onto prisoners that the words of this life, the Lord
Jesus Christ came to set prisoners free. That's what he came to
do. And you remember in the book of Revelation when the Lord reveals
the church as the seven stars and the angels of the churches
being the messengers or pastors. That's what an angel is, just
a messenger. He's the one to declare the message of salvation,
the message of hope. I want to be like that prison
guard. You remember Barabbas? Bar meaning son of and Abba meaning
father and Barabbas being a picture of all the children of God who
are by nature murderers and thieves and insurrectionists. That's
what we've done. So I'm not a murderer. If you're
a son of the father, you know that it was your sin that murdered
the son of God. And, and, and you know that,
that you by nature have robbed him of his glory. That's what,
what, what higher or lower form of thievery is there than to
rob God of his glory. You know that by nature you're
an insurrectionist. You'd raise your fist to God.
And you'd say, I'm not going to have it. God, I'm not going
to have this man reign over me. I'm going to have it my way.
You see, we're all Barabbases, aren't we? And Barabbas was the
one that was supposed to be on that cross. And the prison guard
came with the keys to unlock the door. And Barabbas just knew
that this is it. This is the end. I'm slated to
die. And the prison guard came and
unlocked the door and said, another has taken your place. You're
free to go. I want to be that prison guard.
I want to be that angel that says you're free to go. There's
no more bondage of the law. Sin's been put away. Death's
been conquered. The grave's been defeated. Satan's
been put away. Because of the accomplished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to set the prisoner free. You remember when the Lord left
Capernaum and went over to the Gadarenes he went all the way
across the Sea of Galilee with the disciples with the objective
of healing one man and this man was a demoniac he was possessed
with demons and he lived in a cemetery and they had him chained and
he cut himself with rocks and he was naked and the Lord went
and put him in his right mind, didn't he? I thought about the
guy that rode the boat to get the boat from Capernaum over
to the Gadarenes, that that one prisoner, he was in prison to
his own sin. He was not in his right mind.
And those who are in the prison of sin are not in their right
mind. The Lord puts us in our right mind, doesn't he? So I'd
like to be that. that guy that just rode the boat.
Just get the Lord from one place to another that he might set
a prisoner free. John the Baptist Disciples started
following the Lord and they told John, no, look, all your disciples
are, no, no, I must increase, he must decrease. Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. And John
just wanted Christ to get all the glory. He just pointed to
the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that men by nature are in a common
prison and that he's the only one that can deliver them. What did that angel say to those
women at the open tomb? Why seek ye the living among
the dead? He's not here. He's risen. He's
risen. You're in the prison of your
own unbelief. I'm here to tell you that he's
risen. He's alive. He's conquered the grave. Sin
no more has dominion over you. The angel of the Lord came and
delivered these disciples from a common prison. You and I by nature. Are in a
common prison. And we need God to send a messenger. To say to us. These are the words
of this life. And that's our hope this morning.
that the words of life will deliver us from the prison of sin, the
prison of death, prison of the law. You see, a lot of people
know that they've got a sin problem. They know that there is a God
with whom they must do. And so religion is all based
upon what I can do to improve my life so that when I die and
stand before God, I'll have something to answer for. It's man-made
works religion. It's looking to your performance
of the law in hopes of earning favor with God. And it's a prison. Religion is a prison. Look at
Galatians. You've got your Bible open to
Galatians chapter 4. Look at verse 21. Tell me you that desire
to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? Now
the Judaizers had come to Galatia behind the Apostle Paul and told
the members of the church, yes, the Jesus of Nazareth that hung
on Calvary's cross is the fulfillment of all the promises that God
made in the Old Testament. He is the Messiah and he's necessary
for your salvation. But he's not sufficient. You
got to do your part. They were putting them back under
the law. These people had heard the gospel
from the Apostle Paul, who made it clear to them that the Lord
Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. He said, I came not to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill it. I came that every jot and tittle
of the law would be fulfilled. And now these lawmongers are
coming in and trying to put people back into prison. This is our experience, isn't
it? There's a recovering Pharisee
in every one of us. Every believer. You see, that's
the unbelief, isn't it? Lord, I do believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. And we need to hear the message
of the gospel that we don't fall back. That we're not part of
that recidivism number. That we're not backsliding away
from Christ and looking to some performance of the law for the
hope of our salvation. And that's what I want to make
clear this morning. Christ delivered us from the
law. He said, you that want to go
back to the law, let me ask you a question. Do you not know what
the law says? Look at the next verse, verse
22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by the
bondwoman and the other by a free woman. Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. You remember the story. Sarah
is 90 years old. Abraham's 100 years old. Many
years before that, the Lord had promised that they would have
an heir. And they've waited, and they've waited, and they've
waited, and nothing's happened. And Sarah's beyond, far beyond.
She's gone through menopause many years ago. I knew somebody
one time, they said, well, you know, it's not possible for a
90-year-old woman to have a child. But that same person believed
that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. What's harder, a virgin to give
birth to a child or a 90-year-old woman to give birth to a child?
They both happen. It's exactly what happened. But
Abraham and Sarah are waiting, and they're waiting, and they're
waiting. And Abraham gets this idea that maybe we need to help
God out. Maybe we need to do our part.
And so he talks to Sarah, and Sarah says, yeah, I agree. You
go into Hagar and have a child by Hagar. And Abraham agreed.
And the world's been suffering ever since. That happened 4,000
years ago. And Ishmael and Isaac are still
fighting. They're still fighting. What's that a picture of? It's
a picture of salvation. What happens? You see, the old
man and the new man are always in war with one another, aren't
they? That's why you want to hear the gospel. You need to
be reminded of what that old man is. You need to be reminded
of who your new man is in Christ and how perfect he is in Christ
and how the Lord has made him holy and delivered him from all
the sins of the old man. That's what the preaching of
the gospel is. And the flesh wars against the spirit and the
spirit against the flesh so that we cannot be what we would be.
We would be completely holy. Well, we've got this old man
that's dragging us down, don't we? We would be completely sinful,
but we got the new man that's giving us hope. That's what the gospel does.
It reveals the difference between the old man and the new man.
And the old man's always being drawn back to trying to find
something physical, something in the flesh, something he can
see, something he can touch for the hope of his salvation. And
the new man just wants to be pointed to Christ. So the church,
these are believers. Well, Paul calls their salvation
into question actually in Galatia because they were entertaining
the idea that Christ was not sufficient for their salvation.
That there was something else they needed to do. Kind of like
Abraham, put his hand to the work. And that's the way he's giving
this example. Well, look at verse 20, he said,
I desire to be present with you now to change my voice for I
stand in doubt of you. I'm wondering whether or not
you're even believers if you're wanting to question, if you're
wanting to believe these Judaizers that are coming in and saying
that you've got to do your part with the law in order to be saved.
You see, they were receiving that message. And you're hearing a message
right now that you can receive because it identifies that message
for what it is, doesn't it? Don't you? For it is written, verse 22,
Abraham had two sons, the one of a bondwoman, the other of
a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman by promise.
Ishmael, was born according to the flesh to a slave by the name
of Hagar. It was their fleshly plans and
their fleshly purposes in order to try to fulfill the promises
of God. They thought, well, God needs
some help. Let's do our part. Which things are an allegory,
verse 24. And these are the two covenants,
the one of Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar. These are the two covenants.
Brethren, this whole book is a distinction between the two
covenants. There's only two messages of
salvation in this world. It's the message of works and
it's the message of grace. And you cannot mix the two. It's
either all of grace or it's all of works. And it's like I said
Wednesday night, you can't preach Christ high enough. You can't
preach sinners low enough. And you can't preach grace free
enough. Free. See, they were trying to
put them back into prison. They were trying to put them
back under the law. And this is your and our experience every
day as we struggle with the old man. As we have this pharisaical
idea that somehow God's going to bless me spiritually by the
things that I do and he's going to judge me by the things that
I don't do. And we get our eyes off of Christ
and we start looking at our own works to help God out. And what
the Lord's telling you and me is that's Sinai. What was Sinai? It was the law. Don't touch the
mountain of the law. The law is holy. The law is just. The law is good. The law will
kill you. The law judges you as guilty. Don't think you're
going to fulfill the law in order to earn favor with God. That's
slavery. That's bondage. That's the common
prison. That is the common prison that
all men are in by nature. And only the believer understands
it as a prison. The rest of the world were born
there. They grew up there. They don't
see anything outside of that. They think that's all there is.
And only the child of God who's been brought forth out of that
prison knows that's a prison. And I don't want to go back to
it. And so the angel came and unlocked
the prison and set them free and told them go stand and teach
all the words of this life. What life? Christ. Christ is
the life. Go back with me to our text in
Galatians 5. Verse 25, and this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now he is,
and is in bondage with her children. He's talking about the religious
people in Jerusalem. And he says, they're all under
the law. They're all in bondage. They're
all in prison. And they don't know it. They
think they're free. You remember when the Lord accused the Pharisees
of being in prison and he said, what did they say? We've never
been in bondage to anyone. We're children of God. You think
you are? The truth is in the history of
the Jewish nation, they were hardly ever out of bondage except
during the time of David and Solomon's reign. They were either
under the bondage of the Egyptians or the Babylonians or the Philistines
or the Assyrians. They were always in bondage to
somebody. And they thought, well, we're
not in bondage, we're free. I hear people say that all the
time. Yeah, I'm free. I can do what I want. No, you're
in bondage to your own will. And unless God gives you a new
will, you'll not believe. You're in bondage to your sin.
You don't know it. You were born in prison and you've been in
prison all your life. And you don't know that there's
anything outside of that. You've never heard the words
of this life, but Jerusalem verse 26, which
is above is free, which is the mother of us all. You remember
John saw the church coming down from heaven, the new Jerusalem?
That's the church. And the Lord's saying, you're
free. If the Lord makes you free, you're
free indeed. Where the Spirit of God is, there
is liberty. The law has been fulfilled. Death
has been conquered. Sin has been put away. God's
people are free. The angel or the messenger of
God has come and let Barnabas out. And a substitute has taken
his place. What freedom there is in that.
What liberty. Don't go back to Egypt. Don't
go back to the law. That's what Paul saying to the
church of Galatia, and that's what the Lord saying to me and
you. Because there's something in every one of us that are drawn
in that direction and. All the recidivism rate is high. God's people. Long as they're
here in the gospel. They're not going to be. They're
not going to be put back in bondage. Verse 27, For it is written,
Rejoice, you barren, that bearest not. Sarah couldn't bear. Hagar could. The Lord is saying
to Sarah, Rejoice, you barren. Your children are going to be
more than the children of the slave-born child. And so it is. God's people of every generation
are descendants of Sarah and Isaac. Verse 27, For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not. Break forth, and cry, that
thou travailest not. For the desolate hath many more
children than that which hath the husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children
of promise. What a miracle. What could brought
what? What could? What could make a
90 year old woman's womb come alive and and give birth to a
child? Only God could do that. What
a miracle of grace. And so it is in our salvation.
We're children of Isaac. Only the Lord could do that. We're children of the promise.
That's the covenant. You see, if you're going to be
birthed into the kingdom of God, it's not going to be because
you made a promise to God. That's what the covenant of works
is all about. I'll recommit myself. I'll promise
not to do that anymore. I'll make my promises. I'll do
better. And God will reward me for that. No, He won't. He won't. God requires absolute perfection. And we'll settle for nothing
less. And that perfection is only accomplished in the promise,
not that we make to God, but that he made to his, himself,
and to us. It's called the covenant of grace.
It's when God the Father promised to provide his son a bride. And
God the Son promised to pay the ransom the dowry, if you will,
for that bride and put away their sins by the sacrifice of himself.
And God, the Holy Spirit entered into that covenant promise. This
was this happened before time ever began. And God, the Holy
Spirit said, I'll go and I'll make everyone that the father
chose and that cry and that the son redeemed, I'll make them
willing. And I'll bring them. To faith in Christ. Now, is there
any way that the promise that the triune God made to each other
could go unanswered, unfulfilled? No. There's our faith. Our faith and our hope and our
trust is not in a promise that we made to God, it's in a promise
that God made. Now we, brethren, verse 28, as
Isaac, are the children of promise. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. The Sanhedrin, the Sadducees
and the Pharisees in Acts chapter 5 took the apostles by force
and put them into prison. It's the enemies of the gospel,
the works work salvation, Sinai, Jerusalem, which is in bondage
to the law. They took those who were free
and they put them in the common prison because they said, well,
this is where everybody belongs. It's where everybody belongs.
It's a common prison. And the angel came and brought them out. And I don't know who else was
in that prison, but the apostles are the only ones that brought
out. Verse 30, nevertheless, what
sayeth the scriptures? That's the only thing that counts.
You see, this doesn't have anything to do with my opinion or your
opinion, does it? Doesn't have anything to do with
one denominational persuasion or another denominational persuasion.
That's why we spend so much time in the scriptures, because the
scriptures are our only source of authority. Whatever God says,
that's the way it is. What sayeth the scriptures? That's the only question we have
to ask. cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." What
did Abraham do? Sarah and Ishmael became contentious
with, or Hagar and Ishmael became contentious with Sarah and Isaac,
and Abraham said, put her out. Put her out. God saying to me
and you, put her out. Okay? Yeah, this is a prison
that's common to all men, but it's not common for you. I've
sent you a messenger. I've sent you an angel. I've
sent you a boat rower. I've sent you a a voice of one
crying in the wilderness saying, Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sins of the world. I have unlocked that prison for
you. You're not under the law. You're under grace. You're not
being judged by anything you do. You're being judged by what
Christ has already done, what he's accomplished. That's glorious. That's freedom. You see, everybody
else is living fat and happy in the common prison. They're
born in that prison. They don't know anything but
that prison. They don't know there's anything
outside of that prison. So then brethren, look at verse
20, 31. So then brethren, in light of
this, brethren, you know that word, that word brethren means
it comes from the word womb and it means to be birthed from the
same womb. And that's what we are. We're
birthed from the same gospel. We've got the same mother, the
same father. So then brethren, we are not
children of the bond woman, but of the free. God sent an angel
to tell you about what Christ has done. You're not under the
law. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Isn't that what the next verse
says? Don't go back to Egypt. Don't go back to the law. Don't
go back to prison. The angel has come. He's unlocked
the door. The self-righteous Sadducees
were satisfied with what they were doing for God. And they
wanted to put everybody else in the same prison. There's a religious world that
will do everything they can to put you in a common prison, just
like they did. They put those disciples in the
same prison everybody else was in. And nothing would make the
self-righteous happier. than for us to agree with them.
How many times have you had friends and family members wanting you
to find some point of agreement when it came to the gospel? And
in frustration, they'll finally say, well, well, well, well,
we'll just agree to disagree. And I respond to that statement
by saying, no, I can't even do that. We have no point of agreement.
When Sanballat and Tobiah tried to get Nehemiah to come down
off the wall, he invited them. Remember, he kept writing them
a letter. Come, let's talk about this. Let's find some common
ground. Won't you come to the Valley
of Ono? And Nehemiah said, oh no, I'm not coming down there.
We've got a great work here. You and I have nothing in common.
I can't go back to prison. I've been there. I know what
it's like. I'm not going to let you take
me back there. An angel has been sent of God to unlock that prison. And I've heard all the words
of this life and God has set me free. I'm not under the law. My sins been put away. Death
has been conquered. Satan's been destroyed. The works
of the devil. God has given me faith. He's
given me eyes to see. I'm not going back. That's what
the Lord is saying to us right here in Galatians. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. R. Sampson. Turn with me to Judges
chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. Right after Joshua. Samson. Samson's name means like
the sun. That's the translation of his
name. The Lord Jesus Christ is likened to the sun of righteousness,
which rises in our hearts. Every morning when we see that
morning star come up, we're reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the light of the world. And Samson's a type of Christ.
And I want you to notice what happens in Judges. I said six, I meant 16, I'm sorry. Turn with me over a few pages.
Judges chapter 16, verse one. Then went Samson to
Gaza. Now that's the same place that
Philip met with the Ethiopian eunuch. on the road to Gaza,
or Geza, and preached to him the gospel from Isaiah chapter
53. And that Ethiopian believed and was baptized right there
on the road. Now when Samson went to Geza
and saw there a harlot, he went into her. Say, well, wait a minute,
that's not a good thing. When you see it in light of the
gospel, it is. You see, you and I are the harlots. We've spiritually prostituted
ourselves away from our maker because of our sin. We've looked
to another for satisfaction. And the one who is like the sun
went in to a harlot. When it pleased God, Paul said,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
and revealed himself in me. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. For in him, all fullness dwells
and you are complete in him. In him. Now that's what this
is a picture of. Look at verse two. And it was
told the Gazites saying, Samson has come hither. Now, who are
the Gazites? That's the Pharisees. That's the Sadducees. That's
the ones who hate the son of righteousness. That's who want,
that's the ones who hate grace. That's the ones who want to support
a message of works. That's the one who wants to put
you into common prison because that's where everybody else is.
And if you're free, then it exposes the fact that I'm in bondage.
So the Gazites said Samson is here and they can pass him in
and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city and were
quiet all the night saying in the morning when his day we shall
kill him. So they hid out. They hid out
right at the gate of the city and Samson lay till midnight
and rose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the
city and the two posts and went away with them barred all. He
not only took the gates of the city, he took the post that the
gates hung on and took the lock. Okay, he opened up the city. Put him on his back. put him
on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that
is before Hebron. Now, Hebron or Hebron is where
Abraham first built an altar to God. It's where God revealed
himself to Abraham. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ telling the gates of hell, which shall not be able to prevail
against the gospel and carrying them to the place where God is
worshiped, taking them right into heaven. destroying the works
of the devil and setting the captive free. What a picture. This is exactly
what's happening in Acts chapter 5. You see how God's Word, what
say the scriptures? This is not a book about rules
and regulations. I mean, surely there are things
that believers ought to do and not do. And we are under a law. It's called the law of grace.
It's called the law of liberty. It's called the law of love and
the law of the spirit. And it's the spirit of God that
points us to Christ for all our righteousness. and reveals to
us his glory and his accomplished work to take the gates of hell
and carry them right up into heaven that he might send his
angel to declare all the words of this life to set captivity
free. Free. I came to deliver those
who are in the bondage of the common prison. Why is it that the self-righteous
and the religious want to put us in the common prison? Why
is it that our flesh wants to put us in the common prison? Well, the scripture says in Galatians
chapter 6, neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the
law. But they desire to have you circumcised
that they might glory in your flesh. You see, it's all about glorying
in one's flesh. I'm going to glory in what I'm
doing and what I'm not doing. I'm going to glory in the flesh,
the works of the flesh. That's Hagar. That's bondage. That's the common prison. And
all men are glorying in what their flesh is doing. And we're prone to glory in our
flesh, aren't we? Paul said, let him who glories,
glory in the Lord. He's the only one that gets all
the glory. And when you hear the gospel by the messenger of
God, right now in your heart, you're saying, amen, amen. I'm like Barabbas. I'm an insurrectionist. I'm a thief and a murderer. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
taken my place on Calvary's Cross. And the man of God is just come
dangling the keys and unlocking the door. And telling me you're
free to go. You're free to go. Everything
that God requires was just accomplished for you by your substitute. You don't have to be in a common
prison anymore. You've heard the words of this
life. Christ Jesus is our life. Our Heavenly Father. We pray
that your Holy Spirit would speak. Eternal truths to our hearts.
In light of what you've revealed in your word. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. We're going to sing a hymn
and then Scott, if there's any way you can move that camera
to the to the baptistry. Tom, you come and lead us. Yes,
a couple of you guys could take the lid off the baptistry for
us. What's it? What's the what's the him? 27 in the spiral hymnal. Just
remain seated. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blest. No more the dread of wrath, no
more constrained by fear. We worship and we serve our God
with gratitude and cheer. In Jesus we are free. In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt, we live in liberty. We'll join the happy song. With all the blood bought from,
And sing the praises of the Lamb, Whose grace makes us His own. time to be able to witness baptism. I'll give you an update on the
building while we wait for Daniel. If you go in the building, you're
going to pick up a bunch of Overspray on your shoes, and it'll get
on anything you walk on after that so you might want to be
careful about that Bert painted yesterday, and it's gonna finish
today and We ran into some some what they
call hard pan in our property back here that we didn't know
about and And it's like rock. And they brought in some big
excavation equipment to try to dig through it. And they had
some struggles. So it's coming, but it's coming
slower than we thought. Hopefully they'll be able to
finish that up this week. We're hoping that by the 1st
of August we'll be able to have services over there. So that's
kind of the plan right now, unless we run into something else that
we don't know about. within a month or so, we should be able to have
services in our new building. So that'll be good. We won't have to worry about
social distancing so much if we're still if we're still having
to do that by them. So that's kind of where we are. All right, Daniel, you come on
up. Sometimes the pastor gets a little
indication from the response from another person that perhaps
they're hearing something and that's been my experience the
last few months with Daniel. I've just been so encouraged
with the responses that he's made to the gospel and been very
hopeful that the Lord was calling him and revealing himself to
him. And Daniel called me last Sunday,
wasn't it? Last Sunday afternoon. And asked
me if I would baptize him. And of course, I was delighted.
And he told me, he said, you know, I just can't not believe. I believe what you're preaching.
I believe Christ, and he's my only hope. So Daniel is with
great joy, brother, that we baptize you in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with Christ in baptism. raised to walk a new life in
Christ Jesus. And all God's people said, amen,
amen, amen. Daniel's gonna dry off a little
bit while we sing Amazing Grace, so you all come by and speak
to him afterwards, okay? ? Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound ? that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. Was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that ? Brace my fears freely ? ? How
precious did that grace appear ? ? The hour I first believed
? ? When we've been there 10,000 years ? Bright shining as the sun, we've
no less days to sing God's praise than when we Yes, that's good.