Good morning. If you could find
your seats, please. Sweet sound of fellowship. We're going to sing to him now
in the back of the bulletins. And if you could stand, we're
going to sing it to the doxology, the back of your bulletins. Complete in Thee, no work of
mine may take, dear Lord, the place of Thine. Thy blood has pardoned but for
me, and I am now complete in Thee. Complete in thee no more shall
sin, Thy grace has conquered, reigned within. Thy voice does bid the temper
flee, And I shall stand complete in thee. Complete in thee, each want supplied,
And no good thing to me denied. Since thou my portion, Lord,
wilt be, I ask no more complete in thee. Dear Savior, when before thy
bar All tribes and tongues assembled are, Among the chosen may I be
At thy right hand, complete in thee. For our scripture reading this
morning, would you please turn to the book of Matthew, Matthew
25. It is my hope this morning, as God
the Holy Spirit has placed this matter of urgency, life and death issue of the gospel,
where my soul is going to spend the rest of eternity, as we read
this Very sobering passage. I hope that he does so for you
as well as he's done for me this week. This business of the gospel
is a matter of life and death for the soul. I'd like you to start in verse
45 of chapter 24 because it truly does put this and proper perspective,
who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made
ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season,
a faithful gospel preacher, faithful to preach the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we have such a brother, so
thankful. Blessed is that servant whom
his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto
you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. He'll continue
to reveal Christ to you, Brother Greg. He'll continue to provide
the grace and the power necessary that we, his church, would be
edified. But now look at the contrast. of a false preacher,
but and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord
delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his
fellow servants, begin to bring them back to Sinai, beat them,
conform them, and to eat and drink with the drunken, oh, intoxicated
with the works of his hands, The Lord of that servant shall
come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that
he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder and appoint him
his portion with the hypocrites, all having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. And now verse 25, this is a picture of what's going
on right now, right here in this church this morning. Then shall
the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took
their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom." The ten
virgins, we all have an outward appearance of the robe of righteousness. We have the word of God in our
hands, and we're coming right now. Where two or three are gathered,
the Lord said he would be here. The bridegroom is right here.
But notice in verse two, and five of them were wise, and five
were foolish. Beginning with the foolish, verse
three, they that were foolish took their lamps and took no
oil with them. The oil of gladness, the oil
of grace, no regard for the Lord Jesus Christ, the olive tree,
who was pressed and bruised where that oil, which is pure and perfect,
dependent upon the word being made alive, they took no oil,
no regard for them. But the wise, on the other hand,
took oil in their vessels with their lamps. The wise are those
who know that unless the Lord builds the house, unless the
Lord is pleased to reach out from that pit and pull us out
and give us his spirit, give us a new heart, that's what that
vessel is, give us a new heart, then we have no other hope. But
that's all their hope. They're depending upon God's
mercy and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now while
the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. We all
go through life every week. We work. Another year goes by. We slumber. We sleep. And the
child of God, whose feet are dirty, who come in here on Sunday,
slumber. They're in need of getting awake. But not so the fool. The
fool is asleep. No regard, once again. And at
midnight, there was a cry made, behold, the bridegroom cometh.
And that's what our brother Greg is going to be doing here in
a short while. He is going to once again saying,
look to Christ, behold, here he is. Come to him. Come and meet him. And all those
virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto
the wise, take note of this. They went to man to ask for this
oil, for our lamps are gone out. Well, you never had oil to begin
with. But the wise answered saying, oh, not so, lest there be not
enough for us and you. The child of God knows that the
Holy Spirit, that the grace of God is specific. It's for him. It's sufficient. It's for nobody
else. And so he says to the unbeliever,
but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.
I know as a child of God, you tell the unbeliever, oh, come,
come buy wine, come buy milk and bread, but with no money.
And if the foolish would have just stayed there long enough,
the bridegroom was coming. They could have asked the bridegroom
for that oil, but they didn't. They had no need for the bridegroom.
And so while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they
that were ready went in with him to the marriage. Why were
they ready? Because God provided everything
from the day of salvation to the day of coming. It's all been
done. It's ready. And this is very
sobering, these next couple of verses. And I'm very terrified
when I read this. And the door was shut. These doors are open and as long
as the Lord is pleased to bless our pastor with the gospel, a
message that door, but there's going to come a day when that
gospel will no longer be sounded out and that door shut and what
God shuts, no man can open. And for the believers, they get
to enjoy their Lord. No more sin. Tears are wiped
away. We're embracing the one that
we have been waiting for our whole lives. Verse 11, Afterward
came also the other virgins, saying, they acknowledged him
in a title, Lord, Lord, open to us. Lord, did we not prophesy
in thy name? Did we not do miracles? And this
is so terrifying to me. Verse 12, but he answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, I know you. I never knew you, you workers
of iniquity." And in verse 13, watch therefore,
be vigilant, beloved. Every time we come together here,
be vigilant, ask the Lord. For we know neither the day nor
the hour, and the Son of Man cometh. The Lord said it like
this in John 14, 14. He said, anything in my name, anything,
and I will do it. I'd like to ask him that he would
send us his Holy Spirit, that we would have that oil of gladness
that will carry us all the way to the end. The word is thy lamp
unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I hope he would do
that for us this morning. This is a matter of life and
death, and the Lord pressed that upon my heart for me, and I hope
he does that for you this morning. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, we do come to
you confessing once again that unless you build the house, unless
you're pleased to reveal yourself to us, we would all go away as
fools saying, no, God. But Lord, we look to the one,
the veil that's within the anchor. sure and steadfast, our advocate,
our all in all, we ask, Lord, that you would, Holy Spirit,
place us in him and that you would be pleased to speak to
our hearts this morning, Lord, giving us peace, reminding us
once again that you truly are all our righteousness. It is
the faith that you give us to look to your faithfulness. Until
that day, when we shall bow before you and see you face to face.
Oh Lord, we ask that you would once again, as you have enabled
our brother, your messenger, your preacher, the faithfulness
to proclaim thy dear son, that we may be saved through him. For we ask it in his name. We're going to go ahead and now
sing the hymn on the hardbacked hymnal number 158. Number 158,
if you all could please stand. Come, Holy Spirit, heav'nly dove,
With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold parts of ours. Look how we grovel here below. Fond of these early toys. Our souls, how heavily they go. To reach eternal joys In vain
we tune our formal songs In vain we strive to rise Hosannas languish
on our tongues, and our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we
ever live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold
to Thee, and Thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavily dove,
with all thy quickening powers, come shed abroad a Savior's blood,
and that shall kindle ours. You can be seated, please. Turn in your Bibles with me to
Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. What, or better who, is the believer's
rule of life? Most would make the law their
rule of life. They would attempt to satisfy
the demands of the law, and in doing so, either end up self-righteous
or end up with no hope, no comfort, and no peace, knowing that the
law of God cannot be kept by us. cannot be. In Hebrews chapter 10, our Lord
tells us that he is going to write his law on our hearts and
impress them upon our minds in the new covenant. What does that
mean? What does that mean? Does it
mean that we're going to be aware of the Ten Commandments? I think
not. Those are written on every man's
heart from birth. Every man has been given a conscience
and he knows the difference between right and wrong. Now granted,
a person can see their conscience. They can lose sensitivity to
that sense of right and wrong and sear it as with a hot iron
and destroy the nerves of it, if you will. But every man knows
that the commandments of God are holy, just, and good. That's not what he's talking
about, writing on our hearts. Let's read these verses together.
Verse 14, for by one offering, that's the offering of himself
on Calvary's cross, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I love that. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the sanctifier. And the sanctified and the sanctifier
have all become one. They've been made holy so that
John goes on to say, as he is, so are we in this world right
now. If we're found in Christ before
God, we are perfectly holy in the person of our Savior, righteous
before God. How can it be? Because of what
he accomplished, because of what he did. He has perfected forever
them that are sanctified by the offering of himself, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he said
before, this is the covenant that I will make with them. After
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds will I write them. Here's the new covenant. It won't be like the covenant.
This is a quote from Jeremiah 31. It won't be like the covenant
that I made with their fathers, which they broke. This is a covenant
that I will make sure and steadfast. I will provide them an anchor
for their soul. I'm going to fulfill the law
for them. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Nothing for us to do. To offer God anything to try
to satisfy his law. The Lord Jesus Christ has done
that by himself once and for all. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. In the Old
Testament, priests were stationed outside of the holies of holies.
Particularly when the high priest was making the sacrifice on the
Day of Atonement, everybody was warned to stay away. And now,
the veil's been rent. And the messengers of God are
not warning men to stay away, but rather the spirit and the
bride is saying, come, enter into the veil. The forerunner
has already gone in. He's put his blood on the mercy
seat. God's satisfied with him, and you have acceptance before
God in him. What a glorious gospel. This is not like that Old Testament
gospel. I mean, not like that Old Testament
law. Look at what he says. Verse 20,
by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God. We have a priest who is ascended
to the right hand of the majesty on high, who ever lives to make
intercession for us. So that when we are found to
be sinful, what do we do? What do we do? I write these
things unto you, my brethren, that you sin not. But if any
man sin, we have what? An advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And so sinners are brought to
plead the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ for
all their acceptance before God. and we come with confidence.
How can we have confidence in ourselves? How can we have confidence
in anything that we've done or haven't done in hopes that we
find acceptance with God? Scripture tells us our acceptance
with God is only in the beloved, only in him. Let us draw near. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. There it is. Faith. It's all
we've got. And for the child of God, that's
all he needs. We don't have anything else. Faith in Christ. I made this comment in the first
hour. Some of you weren't here. Some people say, well, that's
too easy. Faith? That's all there is? Try it.
Try it. You can't do it. You can't do
it. Apart from God the Holy Spirit
opening the eyes of your understanding and enabling you to believe God,
it's the one thing that man will never be able to do. Never. And so he says, Let us draw near
with a full, with a true heart. True heart, looking to Christ
alone for all our righteousness. That's the true heart. We're
not being double-minded. We're not saying, well, I need
Jesus to patch up my righteousness. I need to do my part and he'll
do his part and we'll work this out together. No, that's not
a true heart. A true heart of full assurance
is being sure that God is completely pleased with him. He is our righteousness
and he is our rule of life. having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he
is faithful that promised. Our salvation has nothing to
do with our promises to God. It has everything to do with
his promise to us. And he confirmed it with an oath
when the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for the sheep on Calvary's
cross. Now what is this law that God
has written on the hearts of his people? It can't be the law of Moses. The law of Moses can do nothing
but condemn. I love it when Paul went back
to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 and confronted the elders
in Jerusalem because some of them were suggesting that the
Gentiles who were now being converted had to submit to the law of Moses.
And Paul presents himself to the elders and says to them,
our fathers couldn't keep that law and you couldn't keep it.
Why are we putting it on the Gentiles to try to keep it? The
law can do nothing. The law of Moses is not the law
that God writes on our hearts. The law of Moses can do nothing
but judge us. It can do nothing but condemn
us. Let me show you what happens when a man looks to the law of
Moses. Turn with me to Romans chapter
7. Paul put it like this in Galatians
chapter 5, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has
made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That's what the law of Moses
does, is a yoke of bondage. You try to compare yourself to
it and you're going to find yourself falling short every time. never
been able to keep any of God's laws. The law of God can only
say guilty. And Paul says in Romans chapter
7, here's his assessment of himself when it came to the law of God.
He says in verse 15, for that which I do, I allow not, and
for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I. I can't measure up. I've got
an understanding of God's law. I've got a love for God's law.
God's law is holy, just, and good. And yet, it does nothing
but condemn me. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it's good. Nothing wrong with
the law. The problem's with me. If there
was a law that could save, God would have given that law. But
there isn't a law that can save. Now then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. What's he saying? My old
man, my flesh, never been able to keep God's law? He's saying
it's not me, it's sin. That's my problem. I know that
in me, that is in my flesh, in my old man, in my nature, dwelleth
no good thing, for to will is present with me. But how to perform
that which is good, I find not. I'd love to be able to keep God's
law. But every time I look to myself,
I find that all my desires to be holy, to be good, to be righteous
before God, I find myself condemned by the law. Condemned by the
law. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. This law of God, it just exposes
the evil that's in my flesh. I can't satisfy it. Tried to
lighten the law of God after the inward man. The new man,
the new man's perfect. The new man's found in Christ,
not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. There's
my hope. My hope is that the new man cannot
sin, for the seed of God is in him. And the old man can't do
anything but sin. That's all he ever does. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. I'm captive. My old man, this is not the law
that God writes on the heart. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? How am I gonna
be set free? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh, the law of sin. I delight in God's law. In my
spirit, in my new man, my faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is all my righteousness before God. And in him, the law's been
satisfied. My old man, only thing the law
does is condemn him for who he is. But since I have a new man, and
since the law has been satisfied, and since I'm not under the law,
but I'm under grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is now, therefore, no condemnation. No condemnation. No fear of wrath,
no fear of judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ once and
for all suffered the full wrath of God's judgment in order to
satisfy the demands of his justice. The law's been silenced. The
law can't condemn me. The law can't judge me. The law
can't send me to hell. It's already been fulfilled in
him. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." What does that mean? Are we without any
rule of life? No. No. We have the Spirit of God. Turn
with me to, well, right there, Romans chapter 8, look at verse
2. for the law of the spirit of life. Here's the new law. Here's the law that's written
on the heart. The law of the spirit of life.
What does the Holy Spirit does? What does he do? He points me
to Christ. He causes me to find all my hope
and all my salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. I now have the
spirit of life in me. for the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death." The moral law, the ceremonial law, all those laws that God
gave to Israel because of their sinfulness It just condemned
me, but now it's been fulfilled, and I have a new law. For what
the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. For the righteousness
of the law, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
I've got a new law. This is the law that God writes
on the heart. He said, I'm going to write my
law upon their hearts. I'm going to impress it upon
their minds. It won't be like the law that
I gave to their fathers, that they broke, that they could not
keep. We don't go back to that law is our rule of life. We have
the Spirit of God. Look what he says. For they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Now he's
not talking about being fleshly minded in terms of pursuing fleshly
pleasures in this world. He's talking about judging your
righteousness by that which you do in the flesh. That's what
he's talking about. He just made that clear in Romans
chapter 7. that I can't satisfy the demands
of the law. When I look to my flesh, I see
that in me dwelleth no good thing. Those who would make the moral
law their rule of life, those who would make the scriptures,
the Bible, their rule of life. The scriptures are given to us
to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sum and substance of
the Word of God. It is written in the volume of
the book about Him. So, the purpose of the Scriptures
is not to give us precepts to live by. The purpose of the Scriptures
is to reveal to us the glorious person and the accomplished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He becomes our rule of life.
We're not walking after the flesh. We have a new law written upon
our hearts, the law of the Spirit. It's a better law. Oh, it's a
better covenant made after better promises. But they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. If
I'm looking, to what I do or what I don't do in my flesh as
the hope of my salvation or as the evidence of my salvation
or in any way to be my righteousness before God, I'm being carnally
minded and that's death. If by the Spirit of God I am
able to look to Christ, then I have life and peace. Life and peace. And don't forget,
the strength of sin is the law. We're not advocating lawlessness
here. We're not saying, you know, we're
talking about having the Spirit of God. The law, the moral law,
the ceremony, all those laws, they just create more sinfulness
in us because they make us self-righteous. which is the worst sin of all.
It's the worst sin of all, self-righteousness. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. The natural man cannot be subject
to the law of God. When I would do good, evil is
ever present with me. I would if I could, but I can't. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Nothing you do can earn you any
favor with God. God's pleased with faith. Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. For they that cometh to
him must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Christ is our rule of life. We're
following after Him. God's pleased with Christ. The
Spirit of God points us to Christ. That's the law that He writes
on our heart. We are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If
so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. Oh Lord, give
me Your Spirit. Give me Your Spirit. Break me
of this self-righteousness. For if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwelleth in you. He'll make you alive. He'll give you... We're not... The gospel doesn't... The gospel
has never been preached without it being accused of being lawlessness. Ever. If you hadn't been accused
of being an antinomian, you haven't stood up for the gospel. Men
hear this, men hear the gospel, and their first response is,
well, that just makes, that leads to licentious living. That's
just gonna lead men to sin. No, no, that's not what he's
saying here. That's what the natural man thinks,
why? Because he has not the Spirit
of God. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors
not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if we live after
the flesh, we shall die. But if we through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. Now, what does
that mean? What does it mean to mortify the deeds of the body?
Does that mean I've got to pull myself up by my bootstraps and
grip my teeth and try to keep from sinning? When have you ever
been able to do that? The harder you try to do that,
the worse it's going to get. It means to reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ. It means to find all your righteousness
in Christ and find Christ to be Himself your rule of life. And only by the Spirit of God
can you come to that place. The Spirit of God has to take
us there. If we live after the flesh, again
in the context of what he's talking about, are we suggesting that
men live licentious lives? No. But that's not what he's
talking about here. He's talking about judging your
righteousness by what you do in the flesh. You can't do it. It's so subtle. It is, isn't
it? For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. If you're under the law,
you got something to be afraid of. As that law is an avenger
of blood, he's relentless. He's not gonna let you go. If
you're trying to satisfy the law, or trying to prove your
salvation by the law, or using the law as your rule of life,
or saying, well, doesn't the Bible say we need to do this
and do that? And we're trying to keep God's commandments? And
you're not looking to Christ? But you have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Turn with me to Romans
chapter three. Verse 19. Now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. All the law does is expose me
as a sinner. And we're not talking about individual sins. That's not what a sinner is.
A sinner is not a person who's broken this law or that law.
I talked to somebody recently, they said, well, I asked them
what a sinner was, they said, well, it's somebody that's broken
one of the Ten Commandments. Oh, no. A sinner is a person who's
never been able to keep one of God's commandments for one moment.
Is that you? Are you a sinner? Has God made you to be so? You
know you don't want anything to do with the law. You can't
be justified by the law. You can't be sanctified by the
law. The law is not going to be a good rule of life for you.
You need the Spirit of God to reveal the Son of God in your
heart. Here's the law. He said, I'll
write my laws upon their hearts. I'll impress them upon their
minds. Look at verse 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. Here's the righteousness of God.
Here's my standing before God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
one that I'm following after. What I'm saying to you this morning
is trust Christ. Look to Christ and live like
you want. You can't tell people that. Yes,
I can. If you're looking to Him, He
will work in you, causing you to will and to do of His good
pleasure. Look to Christ. I'm just certain that if God
gives us the Spirit of Christ and enables us to look to Christ,
that we will be sufficiently convicted when we sin. We will be sufficiently corrected
when we need to be corrected. We will have one that we can
look to that will be our rule of life in every situation, every
circumstance. Here's the law that he writes
upon our hearts. This is it. James called it the
law of liberty. Where the Spirit of God is, there
is liberty. If Christ has made you free,
you're free indeed. Free from the law. Why, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then?
Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. There it is. This is the law
that he writes on our hearts. He writes the law of the spirit
and the law of faith, causing us to look to Christ Christ Himself
is a sufficient rule of life for you. He will guide you. He will direct you. He will enlighten
the eyes of your understanding. He will cause you to love Him
and to follow after Him, to rejoice in Him. We're not without law,
but we're not measuring ourselves by any law. We're looking to
Christ through the law of faith. for all our righteousness, trusting
that he will order our steps and direct our path. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. You
say, well, does this apply to me? Yes, yes, it applies to you
and to me, to every man, every way, every person who's enabled
by the grace of God to look to Christ, to trust Christ. Someone says, I know I've said
this twice, someone says that's too easy. Try it. Try it. I want you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Abraham was fully persuaded that
he was able to do that which he had promised and God counted
it to him for his righteousness. Faith. Faith in Christ. Look to Christ. Don't look to
the law. And a person who says that that's
going to lead to lawless living doesn't know what it means. They
have not the Spirit of God. They have not the Spirit of God.
Your living in the flesh is already lawless. Everything you do is lawless. You see that? Your only righteousness
is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
not going to improve your flesh. Seeing it as one God which shall
justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through
faith, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. We establish the law. By placing
all the hope of our salvation in the accomplished work and
glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are making the law
honorable. He's the one who made the law
honorable. We are declaring it as holy and us as unholy. We are declaring it as just and
our only justification is in his keeping it. We are declaring
the law as good and our only goodness is found in him. Turn with me to the book of James. I made reference to this a moment
ago. Stand fast, Paul said, in Galatians,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. This is the
year of Jubilee. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
read from Isaiah 61 in Nazareth, at the outset of his public ministry,
he said, this day, this This word has been fulfilled in thy
sight. This is the year of jubilee. All slaves are set free. All that's been lost has been
returned to its original owner. All debt is canceled. Why? Because the spirit of God is
upon me and he has sent me to preach deliverance to the captive,
those who are captive to the law of God. James chapter one, verse 22. But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. What does that mean? What is it to be a doer of the
word? That means I gotta go out there
and show some evidence of obedience to God's precepts and commands,
I can't just hear it, I've got to actually do it. Is that what
it means? That's contrary to everything
we've just read, everything I've just said. What is it to be a doer of the
Word? A man came to the Lord, Lord,
what can we do to work the works of God? We want to be religious. We want to be obedient. We want
to be pleasing in the sight of God. What can we do to work the
works of God? And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has
sent. Now what James is saying here
is don't just listen to the truth of the gospel and think that
because you've processed some of the points of it intellectually
that you're saved. That's what he's saying. Don't
come to church and hear the gospel and think because you heard it
with a natural ear that therefore that you're a Christian. Don't
be a hearer of the Word. Be a doer. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Trust Him. Believe Him. That's what it means
to be a doer. What you read about the ten virgins. You know, I fear that, you know,
the Lord gave us that illustration there. Is half of us tares and
the other half of us wheat? Is that it? I'm saying, believe
on Christ. Don't trust your works. Don't
trust your knowledge. Don't look to anything other
than Christ. Believe on Him. Don't just be
a hearer. Be a doer of the Word. For if any man be a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his face
in a glass. That's a mirror. So you come
to church, you look at yourself in the mirror, and you walk out,
and you forget about what manner of man you are. Why? Because you didn't believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. You didn't have the Spirit of
God to go with you out into the world. You heard that you were
a sinner and you shook your head and you said, yeah, I'm a sinner,
I need a savior, but you didn't believe on Christ and you left
without him. That's what James is talking
about. He's not saying, well, you need to go out there and
do the word of God. Don't be just a listener. You be a doer. All man-made religion's based
on that, isn't it? Everybody competing to see who's
doing more than the next guy. Believe on Christ. That's all you can do. And you
can't do that. For he beholdeth himself, verse
24, and goeth his way, and straightway forgiveth what manner of man
he was. He forgets he was a sinner. He just goes about living his
life in this world, He's trying to improve himself and make himself
better, and he doesn't have Christ with him. He's not believed on
Christ. Oh, don't leave here without
believing on Christ. Believe on Him. Ask God to give
you faith. Turn me, O Lord, and I shall
be turned. Bid me, Lord, to come unto Thee.
Would you pray that with me? Ask Him for His Spirit. Ask Him
for Christ. That's what you need. That's
what I need. But whosoever looketh into the
perfect law of liberty. Now what is the perfect law of
liberty? Is it the commands and precepts
and orders of the Bible? No, the law of liberty is Christ. That's what He came to set men
free. He's the law of liberty. It's the gospel of His free grace
in His finished work. If the Son makes you free, you
shall be free indeed. If you know the truth, the truth
shall make you free. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Oh Lord, I want to know the truth.
I want to be free from the law. I want to know you, I want to
walk with you, I want to follow after you. We are by nature a
self-righteous religious people, and if God doesn't break us of
it, we'll die and go to hell in our self-righteousness. Whosoever looketh into the perfect
law of liberty, and continueth therein, How are you gonna continue
therein? Does it mean you, oh, I gotta
keep doing good stuff in order to be saved, in order to prove
I'm saved, in order to get assurance of my salvation? When has that
ever given you any assurance of salvation? The only person that that would
give assurance of salvation to is a Pharisee. but a doer of the work. What is it to be a doer of the
work? It's to believe that the work
that the Lord Jesus Christ did to satisfy the demands of God's
law and put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself once and
for all, that he has ascended to the right hand of the majesty
on high, that he has acceptance before God. that he did not return
back unto God void, but he took with him the names for whom he
lived and died, and he ever lives to make intercession for us.
That's the work. Continue in the work. I was talking
to somebody recently, they said, boy, you know, we came out of
this religious experience and they just wore us out. Just wore
us out, you know, just giving us more and more to do. You know,
this this ministry and this job and and the people are religious
people always said, what are you doing for Jesus? Well, let
me tell you about what he's done for me. That that should be our response.
Let me tell you about what he's done for me. He set me free from
the law. He's become my Lord. He's given
me His Spirit. He's written it upon my heart
and pressed it upon my mind. He's given me a love for Christ. He chastises me when I sin. He
corrects me. He guides my step. He gives me
hope in my heart. I've got a place of rest in His
finished work. I'm continuing in the work and
I can't not continue in the work. When I try not to continue in
the work, he brings me back. He's got me on a leash. He keeps
me from falling. This man shall be blessed in
his doing. That's what that word deed is.
You're concerned about what you're doing? Don't worry about what
you're doing. That's it. You'll be blessed
in your doings if you continue in the work. You'll be blessed in your doings.
The Lord will bless you. He'll direct you. He'll restrain
you. He'll correct you. He'll guide you. You'll be blessed
in your doings. If you don't look to your doings,
look to what's been done and who did it. He is our rule of
life. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would be pleased to bless your word to the hearts
of your people. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Brother Byrd, 107 in the South
Back Temple. Let's stand together. Sorry. 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, no law can now with
us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. 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 God thrown,
and sing the praises of the Lamb, whose grace makes us His own. Amen. We're here.