service in the Blue Hymnal number
36. Number 36, a mighty fortress is our God. If you could please
stand. Number 36. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing. Our helper He amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth
seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great. and armed with cruel hate, on
earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confine,
our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our
side, man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He. Lord, severed with His name. From age to age the same, And
he must win the battle. And though this world with devils
filled Should threaten to undo us We will not fear, for God
hath willed His truth to triumph through us The Prince of Darkness'
friend We tremble not for His, His rage we can endure, For lo,
His doom is sure, One little word shall fail Him. That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them abided. The Spirit and the gifts are
ours, through Him who with us sided. Let goods and kindreds go, This
mortal life also, the body they may kill. God's truth abided
still. His kingdom is forever. You may be seated. Thank you, Bert. We're going
to do our have our scripture reading from Colossians chapter
three. If you'd like to turn their Colossians
chapter three. Michael and Robert, thank you
all for bringing the messages Sunday and. Thank you all for
your prayers and. We had a good trip. I was very
encouraged with the meeting and. It's good to see everybody and. bought the Bryants and the Greenleafs
back with us. So I just figured each time we
go up we'll bring a couple families down and they can just... Brethren in Kentucky send their
love and regards. Let's read from Colossians chapter
3. If ye then Be risen with Christ. If when Christ died, I died,
then when He was risen, I was risen. And when He ascended into
heaven, we ascended with Him. Seated at the right hand of God,
all the blessings of God are in the heavenlies, in Christ. If you've been risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above where Christ is seated, at the
right hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth. We need to hear this admonition,
don't we? We're so prone to set our affections
on earthly, temporal things. For you are dead. You are dead. Right now, you're
dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. This world is not your life.
This body is not your life. Your life is in Christ and you're
in Him. He is your life. When Christ
who is our life shall appear, then you shall also appear with
Him in glory. And your mortal will become immortal
and all those temporal things will be made eternal and sin
will be taken away. Mortify therefore your members.
If this is true, reckon yourself to be dead Indeed, unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, mortified therefore your
members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things sake the wrath
of God cometh on the children of disobedience. And to which
you also walked some time when you lived in them. But now you
also put off these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications
out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him. Let's pray. Our dear and blessed Heavenly
Father, we come before thy throne of grace thanking you that we
have a righteous advocate, an intercessor, one who is seated,
having finished his work of redemption, and one through whom we are able
to come into thy very presence. We pray that you would renew
our knowledge in Christ, that you would speak effectually to
us, that you would call us unto thyself, Lord, that you would
enable us in this hour to set our affections on things above
where Christ is seated at thy right hand. We confess to you,
Lord, that we're so prone to set our affections on the things
of this earth And we're so. We're so bound by this body of
death. Or remind us. And give us faith
to believe. That Christ. Is our life. Fortune his name we pray. Amen. Would you turn to number 125
in your hardback, the blue handholds. Jesus paid it all, number 125. If you could please stand. ? I hear the Savior say ? Thy strength
indeed is small ? Child of weakness, watch and pray ? Find in me thine
all in all ? Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart
of stone Jesus paid it all ? All to him I owe ? Sin had left a
crimson stain ? He washed it white as snow ? For nothing good
have I ? Whereby thy grace to claim ? I'll wash my garments
white ? In the blood of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, My lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Will you open your Bibles with me
to Psalm 68 please, Psalm 68. Now I want to look at one verse. I've titled this message, Command
Thy Strength. It's every believer's prayer
in that while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly. This prayer is a prayer for our
God to command His strength. Let me introduce it by this.
Is it possible for God to command something and it not come to
pass? You remember when the Lord was on the boat with the disciples
and He was asleep and the disciples, they were in the middle of the
storm. They thought they were all going to die. These were
seasoned fishermen. They knew what it was like to
be on the water and to be in a storm. Lord, cares not that
we perish? Oh, ye of little faith. And he
said, peace be still. And what those disciples say,
what manner of man is this? That even the wind and the seas
obey his command? When God sends forth a command,
It's not an invitation, it's not a suggestion. When God commands
something to be, it is. When the Lord said, Lazarus,
come forth, was it possible that Lazarus would not come forth
out of that tomb? Our God speaks with authority.
Never a man spake like this man. When our Lord went into the synagogue
in Luke chapter 4, there was a man there that was possessed
with demons. And the Lord looked at him and
said, Come out of him. Come out of him. And here's what
the people said, What a word is this! For with authority and
power he commandeth the unclean spirits to come out and they
obey? Now that's our God. When He commands
something to be, it is. And so, our prayer to Him, Lord,
command thy strength. Command thy strength. Lord, I'm
confident that if you command your strength, it'll come. It'll
come. I have no strength in and of
myself. And I'm confident that when you did command your strength,
in your son it came. It came. Look at verse 28 of
Psalm 68. This is the whole verse. Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Now we know that these Psalms
first and foremost apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Father
was His God. His Father and His God. And the
Father commanded the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ and
it was. Now God commands all men everywhere to believe. And he commands his law. His law commands that, doesn't
it? His law commands that we love the Lord our God with all
of our heart and all of our mind and all of our soul, all of the
time, and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. And yet we're unable
in and of ourselves to fulfill that command. And so In order
for the Lord not to have issued forth a command that wasn't fulfilled,
He fulfilled it. He fulfilled it. He fulfilled
it in His Son. The Lord Jesus Christ loved God
with all of His heart and all of His mind and all of His soul
and all the time. And He loved His neighbor. He
loved His brethren as He loved Himself. None of us have ever
done that, but we have. You see, that command has been
fulfilled. It was fulfilled in the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He obeyed the Father perfectly. He obeyed Him in His life and
He obeyed Him in His death. Philippians chapter 3 says that
though He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, Yet he
made of himself no reputation. And he obeyed the father. Let's
turn to that passage. I can't quote the whole thing.
Let's turn to it. Philippians chapter three. Verse 7, but made himself of
no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was
made in the likeness of man. A body thou hast prepared for
me. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were cursed
by the law. He came in order to fulfill the
command of God. And so when David says, thy God
hath commanded thy strength, he commanded us to do something
that we weren't able to do, and in order for that command to
be fulfilled, he fulfilled it. He fulfilled it. And here's how
he did it. He came, though he thought it
not right to be with God. He made of himself no reputation.
He humbled himself and became in likeness of a man, and being
found, verse 8, in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
That's what God had commanded of him. He commanded of him Not
just to keep the law, not just to love God with all of his heart.
Thy God hath commanded thy strength. He commanded it to the Lord Jesus
Christ and he did it. And his strength is seen most
powerfully where he bore the sins of his people in his body
on Calvary's cross. So he was obedient even unto
death, even the death of the cross. We see the power and strength
that God gave to his son most gloriously demonstrated at the
cross, don't we? Thy God hath commanded thy strength. And we see it in his resurrection.
That's why Paul said later on in Philippians chapter 3, he
said that I might know him, the power of his resurrection, the
fellowship of his suffering, because what he did I did. And
if God commanded his strength to be obedient and to suffer
even unto death in order to put away the sins of his people,
that was the covenant of grace. That was the agreement that the
Father and the Son made in the covenant of grace before Adam
was ever created. When the Lord Jesus Christ became
our surety, he said, Father, I will obey you. I will obey
you perfectly, even unto death. And thy God hath commanded thy
strength. And all the strength that the
Lord Jesus Christ had as the God-man came from his Father. Came from his Father. Bearing
our sins on Calvary's cross, And then we see his strength
in the resurrection. Turn with me to Romans chapter
1. Romans chapter 1. Paul, verse 1, Paul, a servant
of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated. onto the gospel of God. It's
God's gospel, isn't it? It's not our gospel to mess with.
It's not a denominational gospel. It's God's gospel. And what did
Paul say later on in Galatians? He said, if I or an angel from
heaven come and preach any other gospel unto you than the one
that's been preached, let him be accursed. God's gospel has
to be preserved, preached, protected at all cost. It's his gospel,
which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,
how that Christ died according to the scriptures. Everything
the Lord Jesus Christ did was in fulfillment of all the prophecies
so that he is the yea and amen of all the promises and prophecies
of God. Verse three, concerning his son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord, that's what the gospel concerns. as
a concern our feelings it concerns it doesn't concern us I don't
to us all or not to us but into by name be glory for that namesake
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made up of
the seat of David according to the flesh God doing business
with God on Calvary's cross the Lord Jesus Christ the God man
and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the
spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Thy God hath commanded
thy power. God commanded that the Lord Jesus
Christ live, die, and rise again according to his power, and that
command was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God hath commanded our power. Back to that experience at another
time where the disciples were on the boat on the Sea of Galilee
and they see the Lord coming and they thought it was a ghost
and then they realized it was the Lord and what did Peter say?
Lord, bid me to come unto thee. Thy God hath commanded thy power. The only way that you and I are
going to have the power to believe is if He bids us to come unto
Him. If he fetches us like he did Mephibosheth and brings us
to himself, if he effectually speaks to us like he did Matthew
when he saw him at the money changer's table and said, follow
me, and immediately got up and followed him. What was that all
about? It's called the effectual call.
It's called irresistible grace. When the Lord Jesus Christ shined
his light from heaven and knocked Saul of Tarsus off his high horse,
what did he say? Saul, Saul. Why persecutest thou
me? Who art thou, Lord? Jesus, whom
thou persecutest. Oh, Lord, what would you have
me to do? Oh, what a transformation. What was that all about? Thy
God hath commanded thy power. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
takes great power. It takes more power to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ than any man has. We have no ability
in and of ourselves to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We
can't just decide one day, well, I'm gonna be a believer. Thy
God must command his power unto us in order for us to believe. He must speak to us. Ezekiel
chapter 16, you remember the child that was not washed after
it was born. It was obviously, it was a child
that had some sort of physical defect, some sort of serious
birth defect. And the child without any medical
care was cast out into the field to die. It wasn't wrapped up,
it wasn't washed, it wasn't cleaned, its umbilical cord wasn't cut.
It was just thrown away. And what's the next verse? And
when I saw you in thine own blood, I said unto thee, live And when I saw thee, it's repeated
twice. So when I saw thee in thine own
blood, I said unto thee, live. And what happened? What happened
to those dry bones later on in Ezekiel? Ezekiel prophesied of
the bones. Lord, they're dry, they're very
dry. Preach to them, Ezekiel. bone
came to bone, and sinew, and flesh, and yet there was still
no life in them. They were hearing, and they were
processing what they were hearing, but they weren't made alive.
They couldn't believe. They could not believe. And without
the Spirit of God, none of us can believe. And so the Lord
said to Ezekiel, prophesy to the wind. And Ezekiel prophesied
to the wind. And what happened? The Spirit
of God came and breathed life into them. That's the new birth. Nicodemus, you've got to be born
from above. Thy God must command thy strength. You don't have the strength to
believe upon me unless you're born of the Spirit. Unless you're
born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, you
are completely dependent upon me. This idea of man choosing
to believe and man making a decision, make a decision for Jesus and
invite Jesus to come into your heart, you see it puts all the
power in the hands of man. And here's what God says, thy God must command thy strength. If we're going to believe, The
Lord Jesus Christ is going to have to make us believe. Turn me, Lord, and I shall be
turned. Open the eyes of my understanding, and I'll see. Unstop my ears,
and I'll be able to hear. Take out my heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh, and I'll believe. The Lord hears
my prayer. Command thy strength to me. Command
thy strength. And Lord, I'm confident that
if you command your strength. That it will be fulfilled. Lord, I can't live this Christian
life. Oh, I'm so prone to wander. This world has such an attraction
to me. You've said set your affections
on things above Lord what you command you must provide. You
must provide. I know that I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet it's not I, but it's Christ
that liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me.
Not only must God command us to live, He must command us to
be able to live. If we're gonna walk by faith,
He's gonna have to command his strength Lord when I seriously think about
dying I believers that there's no bands
in their death they've made a covenant with death with held an agreement
they talk about the law going home to this big family reunion
and everybody's good I've never been to a funeral where the person
who died one priest and And I've never been to a funeral where
anybody there thought that that person had gone to hell. And
they all comforted themselves with this idea that believers
are the only ones that have a sober view of death. We understand
the consequences of death. Not only for others, but for
ourselves. And we say, Lord, command thy strength. Lord, you're
going to have to take the sting out of death. You're going to
have to give me victory over the grave. And what is the sting
of sin? What is the sting of death? Sin. And what is the strength of sin?
The law. Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, we have the victory. The law has been fulfilled. Death
has been conquered so that we can say with David, when I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for
thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they do comfort me. We don't go into death with a
paralyzing fear, but we do go into it with a dependence upon
God to command His strength for us. We don't go into it with false hope. Lord, command
Thy strength in my new birth, in my life. And in my death,
Lord, you're going to have to command your strength. And if
that body, once it's put into the grave and goes back into
the dirt, it's going to be made alive. You're going to have to
command your strength. You're going to have to raise
my body, a new body. You're going to have to change
my mortal to the immortal and my corruptible to the incorruptible.
You're going to have to, you're going to have to cause me to
be caught up together with them in the air. Lord, if I die in
this flesh before you come, you're going to have to open the grave.
I don't have the power. Go down to the graveyard and
see if you can get somebody to respond to you. I tried to have
a conversation with somebody down there. There's no power
at all, is there? Lord, if I'm going to be raised
from the dead and be brought into thy presence, You're going
to have to command your power for me to be born, for me to
live, for me to die, and for me to be raised into thy presence,
completely dependent upon thy power. Now I want you to notice the
rest of this verse. Verse 28, thy God hath commanded thy strength. He commanded the Lord Jesus Christ
in His obedience and in His faithfulness and in His satisfactory death
and in His resurrection. God commanded His strength and
He came forth. And God commanded Him to come
back into glory and He ascended back into glory and took His
rightful place seated at the right hand of God. And whatever
strength we have, To believe, which is impossible. To live
the Christian life, which is impossible. To overcome death,
which is impossible. To be raised from the dead, which
is impossible. God's gonna have to command our strength. And here's the promise of God.
Thy God hath commanded thy strength. You say, well, my strength seems
so small. Well, that's the reason the rest of that verse is there.
Look at the rest of the verse. Strengthen, O God, that which
thou hast wrought for us. Lord, I know that the only hope
that I have to be born again, the only hope that I have to
be able to walk after Christ, the only hope that I have to
come forth out of the grave is thy strength. But Lord, my faith. Remember what the disciples,
the Lord, the Lord told the disciples, he said, He said, if your brother offends
you, seven times in a day, and seven
times in a day, he comes to you and repents and says, I'm sorry.
You're to forgive him. You're to forgive him. Later
on in another conversation, remember Peter must have been reflecting
on that conversation because he said, you know, he's proud
of himself. He said, Lord, I forgive my brother seven times a day.
Oh no, Peter, you misunderstood the whole thing. Seven times
seventy, Peter. Start there and then you maybe
figure out something about your forgiveness. But when the Lord
told the disciples to be forgiving to one another, they said, Lord,
increase our faith. Increase our faith. The strength
that thou hast wrought, strengthen it more. Lord, you wrought faith
in me, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, that's a gift of God. I wouldn't have had faith
if the Lord didn't give me faith. If he didn't call me to himself,
I wouldn't have believed. Lord, I see that my faith, when
that man said, Lord, I believe, that's the new man, the new man
does believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord I'm carrying around
this body of death and I'm so I'm so I'm so prone to not believe
you. Lord strengthen that which thou
hast wrought for us. You've commanded your strength
but I need more of it. I need more of it, I need a lot
more of it. Turn me to Ephesians chapter
1 Look at verse 16. Paul's praying
for the church at Ephesus and he says, Oh, I cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him. I pray that you might know him. that you might have the wisdom
to be able to discern the truth, and that you might have the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what it is to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy God
hath commanded thy strength. Lord, strengthen that which thou
hast commanded. That which you've wrought in
us, make it stronger. Make it stronger, Lord, I'm not...
I'm not saying... The religious man looks back
on some sort of religious experience he had where he turned over a
new leaf and where he had some emotional feelings and he's resting
himself in that experience. And the child of God can never
live off of yesterday's manna. And so we're always saying, Lord,
give me more. Give me my daily bread. Strengthen
that which Thou hast wrought for us. And here Paul's praying
for the church and he's saying, look at verse 18, that the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe according to the working. You see that word working? It's the same word over there
in Psalms, the Hebrews in Psalms, but it's
the same idea. It's the word from which we get
our word energy, and it means the word. It's wrought. It's translated some places wrought,
here it's translated working. 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 own right hand in heavenly
places." So Lord, work in me what you wrought in Christ. Turn with me to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. Everybody loves to quote verse
16, don't they? We all know what verse 16 says
and we know what verse 16 means. And look at verse 17. For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved. the world's already condemned
everything and everybody in this world is condemned unless the
lord saves us he that believeth on him is not
condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because
he had not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god
and this is the condemnation that light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil men won't come to christ because of their righteousness. They don't realize that their
deeds are evil. And the gospel exposes the self-righteousness
of the religionist. And it won't come to the light.
Won't come to the light. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved or exposed. But he that doeth truth, what
is it to do truth? It's to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that doeth truth come to the
light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought
of God. All my righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, and the only reason that I believe the gospel is
because it was wrought in God. It was wrought in me by God.
God gave me faith to believe. God keeps me from falling. So
we don't glory in our decisions. We don't glory in our works.
We don't glory in our faithfulness. We glory in Him. And He said,
I'll not share my glory with another. and whatever abilities
we have were wrought in us by God. It's He that works in us,
causing us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Lord, what must we do to inherit
eternal life? To work the works of God. This
is the work of God. This is the work of God that
you believe. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is the work of God. And so we're saying, Lord, give
me faith. Increase my faith. Cause me to
believe on Christ more. Lord, I'm so prone to doubt you. I'm so full of unbelief. I'm
so attracted to the things of this world. I'm so unfaithful. Lord, increase my faith. And that thing about forgiveness wasn't so much about us forgiving
one another. That won't be a problem if we
ever believe that God has forgiven us. There's the unbelief. The sin
that does so easily beset us is the sin of unbelief. It's
the mother of all sins. It's the fountainhead of every
other sin that we deal with. It's unbelief. And so when the
Lord, when the disciples said, Lord, increase our faith, strengthen
that which thou hast wrought in us. You wrought faith in me,
but I need more. I need more. I'm so prone to
not believe. What is it that distinguished
the Lord Jesus Christ from every other man that's ever lived? He believed God all the time, perfectly. He believed to his dying breath
when he said, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. He
trusted that the father was going to raise him from the dead and
reward him for the work of redemption that he had accomplished for
his people. What else does God wrought in
us? I want to take just a couple minutes and deal with a subject
that I think is, well, it's prone to be forgotten, perhaps. The subject of works. Works. Look at the verse again. Thy
God hath commanded thy strength, the strength to believe. The
strength to follow after Christ, the strength over death, and
the strength to be ascended into glory. God hath commanded it. He fulfilled it perfectly in
Christ, and now the child of God says, O Lord, strengthen
that which thou hast wrought in us. Strengthen our faith. What else has God wrought in
us? He's wrought in His children a desire to serve Him. And we serve Him by serving His
people. He's wrought that in us. We have
a heartfelt desire. The Lord says, that we're to
do good unto all men especially those of the household of faith
and that Ephesians two eight nine four we are uh... what uh... for by grace you say through
faith and not of yourselves it's a gift of god not of works lest
any man should both for we are his workmanship that's what that's
the word rot that's the word energy we have we are the rot
works of god Unto good works which he has ordained that we
should walk in them So if God ordained something and command
something you can be sure it's gonna come to pass. Don't you
and the child of God says Lord strengthen Strengthen my desire
to love you and serve you Strengthen that which you have wrought in
me and in religion we used to pretend
to believe in grace and we would say that we're not saved by works
but works are the evidence of our salvation and what we were
doing was we were looking at our works in order to get confirmation
that we were that we were that we were believers well I'm here
to say to you tonight that that works are the evidence of your
salvation but not your evidence not yours any evidence to other believers and our love for christ can be
separated from our love for god's people so we're not looking for works
or when did we do those things for you And what do you say to the sheep,
to the goats? Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never
knew you, but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name.
The child of God's not looking to his works, but that doesn't
mean the child of God doesn't have works and doesn't have a
zeal for works. Turn with me to Titus chapter
two. Let me show you this, Titus chapter two. Look at verse 14. Well, we begin in verse 13, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God, of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave
himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. So he not only redeems us from
all transgressions, which is our shameful bad behavior, but
he redeems us from our iniquity. David said, I will mention thy
righteousness and even thine only. We get redeemed from our
self-righteousness, don't we? And we come to realize that all
my works add up to nothing in terms of earning me any favor
with God. He redeems us from our iniquity and he purifies
unto himself a peculiar people zealous for good works. Now that's the work that God
brought in us. We could go to James Chapter
2. You remember the Lord speaks of Abraham and he says that Abraham
was justified by his works. What was the point that he was
making? Then he talks about Rahab and that Rahab was justified
by her works. What if Abraham had said to God
when God said take thy son, thy only son, up on Mount Moriah
and make him a sacrifice. What if Abraham said I'm not
going to do it? I'm not going to do it. That's what James was talking
about. What if Rahab had said, I'm not going to protect these
spies. I'm not going to risk my life
for them. She would have died with everybody else in Jericho. So James is dealing with those
antinomians who say, well, we have faith. We don't need any works. The
new man is perfectly righteous in Christ. The old man can live
any way he wants. Salvation, it's what Paul was
talking about when he says, shall we say that since we're saved
by grace that we can continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. God forbid. Why? Because God
has wrought in me a hatred for my sin and he's wrought in me
a desire to serve him. And when the Lord said, let not
the right hand know what the left hand's doing, right, left. He wasn't saying the right hand
and the left hand aren't doing anything. The right and the left
hand are doing a lot of things. They're zealous for good works.
Read on in Titus chapter 3. Put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawler
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
divers lust and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. But after the kindness and love
of God our Savior towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost. That's
a work that God had wrought in us. That's a work that he had
to command for us. You see, James, Titus is making
it clear we're not saved by works. which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior being justified by his grace. We should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying and
all these things. I will that you affirm constantly
that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. Lord, you have wrought in me
a belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have commanded me to come
and I came because your command is irresistible. Lord, I'm dependent upon you
for every day of my living. Lord, if I'm going to survive
death and enter into glory, you're going to have to command your
strength. Lord, you've wrought in my heart, not only a love
for Christ, but a love for his people. And yet Lord, I wake
up first thing in the morning, I open my eyes and I'm the center
of my own universe. And I spend my whole waking day
thinking about myself more than anybody else. Lord, I'm so selfish. I'm so inconsiderate. But you've
wrought in me a love for your people. Lord, strengthen that
which you've wrought in me. And cause me to have a zeal for
good works that you might be glorified." Look at the last
phrase in verse 8. I said good works are not your
assurance of salvation. But they are the evidence of
your salvation to your brethren. not I'm not suggesting that you've
got to convince your brethren you've got to convince other
men that you're saved up that's that's the kind of stuff they
did in religion I'm saying that your good works are encouragement
to your brethren look what it says these things are good and
profitable on to me or strengthened which you have
wrought in me." Brother Burt. Number 22. Let's stand together.
Number 22. We were ruined by the fall, Adam's
sin defiles us all. By our deeds as by our birth,
we deserve the lost great curse. Helpless, hopeless, sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. But a blessed Son of God Came
as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled the Law's demands And
in death stretched out His hands On the cross of Calvary Christ
redeemed and set us free In the time which God had set Spirit
came for His elect To regenerate and call From the ruin of the
fall By His power and by His grace We were born for God's
own praise ? Now your purpose we fulfill ? Save according to
your will ? Sing the song of joyful praise ? For the glory
of your grace ? Blessed, holy, triune God ? Hear our praise
through Christ our Lord I like those last two illustrations
that Ray had.