Hebrews chapter 4 speaks of what we just sang about in verse 9 there remaineth therefore
a rest to the people of God for he that is entered into his rest
He also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Believer ceases to look to his
works as the hope of his salvation or the assurance of his salvation.
He looks to the Lord Jesus Christ. I listened to a man preach this
past week and he said the mark of being a true Christian is
good works. No, he had a lot of good things
to say about the gospel, but he left me looking to myself
to see if I was really a child of God. And that's never a safe
place to look, never. Our passage this morning in 1
Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, I'm sorry, chapter six and chapter
seven speak of this subject. our rest in Christ who has finished
the work for us and hopefully the Lord will give us some some
understanding here so let's pray together and ask his blessings
on his word to our hearts our Heavenly Father we ask that
you would cause your face to shine upon us. We pray, Lord,
that your blessed Holy Spirit would open the windows of heaven,
that you would turn our hearts and cause us to set our affections
upon Christ, to find in him the fullness of
our salvation, the freeness that we have from the judgments and the rigors
of the law to know that we have a Savior who's accomplished all
righteousness and satisfied all your divine justice. Lord, we are sinners and we desire,
Lord, to to honor you with our lives and we pray now that you
would give to your people the grace and the power to that end. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I had another man tell me this
week that he doesn't always preach the gospel. He said there are
passages of scripture that don't have anything to do with the
gospel. that we need to preach man's responsibility. And I told
him, I said, if you preach man's responsibility without preaching
the gospel, you're going to put men under the law. That's all
you're going to do. Are men responsible? Yes. Yes. Do God's people have
a desire to honor Him with their lives? Yes. If we devoid or divorce
that truth from the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
all we're doing is looking to ourselves. All we're doing is
putting ourselves back under the law and we won't know the
liberty nor the power that there is to be had in Christ Jesus. Religious legalism focuses on
only the outward appearances. Religious legalism focuses on
behavior. And men err in thinking that
the sin problem that we have is only a behavioral problem. It's not. It's a problem of the
heart. And the gospel speaks to the
heart. The Lord said, speaking of those Pharisees, those ones
who would give all their attention to outward appearances he said
you're like whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones you
take that you take that that headstone and you whitewash it
and make it look beautiful but inside there's nothing but death
and then he said you're like a cup that's been cleaned up
and made to look good on the outside but inside it's full
of corruption the gospel speaks to the heart Now, does that mean
that we're not concerned with behavior? Does that mean that
outward life is irrelevant? No. No, it doesn't. But it does
say that you can clean up the outside without changing the
inside. But if God does a work of grace on the inside, it will
affect the outside. It just will. What we're concerned
with is the Lord doing a work of grace in the heart. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, the
Lord gives us the motivation for this separation. In the latter part of verse 16,
you remember he's already said, don't be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. There's no fellowship that the
temple of God can have with the temple of idols. And then he
concludes this argument at the end of verse 16 by saying, I
will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God
and they will be my people. So the Lord's, Paul's quoting
from the passage in Leviticus, which is God's precious promise
for intimacy with his children. The loving affection of a heavenly
father who lives in us. and in whom we are in the person
of Christ. And he says in verse 17, in light
of this, in light of this relationship that God has established with
his people. Wherefore, you see that in verse
17? In other words, the conclusion
of that is that we're to come out from among them and be separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I'll receive
you. So he's speaking of coming out
of religion. He's speaking of coming out of
the world. He's speaking of being made separate. unto the Lord. And that's the
believer's desire. The believer's desire is not
to have any fellowship with anything that's unclean. And the believer's
hatred is for the sin that he still sees in his own life and
for the world in which he lives. He wants to be made separate. And the motivation for being
made separate is seen in the latter part of verse 16. I will
be their God and they will be my people. I'll fellowship with
them. I'll manifest my glory to them. I'll do a work of grace on the
inside. I'll take out that dead, cold,
lifeless heart of stone and I'll put in a beating heart of life,
a warm heart, a loving heart. I'll give them my spirit, cause
them to desire my glory from the heart. Verse 18, And I will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Here's the work of grace in the heart. He's called us out of religion. Once he's done that work of grace
in our hearts and shown us the truth of the gospel, we can't
ever go back. Can't ever go back. Don't want to go back. Wouldn't
go back under any circumstances. Why? Because the Lord's called
us out of that and he's made us separate. He's also caused
us to be strangers in this world, hasn't he? Our philosophies,
our values, our priorities, our desires, our hopes, everything
has changed. is we're we're we're not of this
world in the world but we're not of the world that's a work
of grace that God does in the heart that's what he that's what
he's talking about here I'll be a father unto you and you
should be my sons and daughters you be my children I'll have
pity upon you as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him and I'll show my affections towards you I'll
draw you to myself. Can you imagine the look on the
father's face when the prodigal came home? He didn't look at his son and
say, oh, look at you. What a mess you've made of yourself.
He didn't shake his head in disgust and tell his servants to clean
the boy up. No. He ran to him, the scripture
says, and he embraced him and he lavished him with kisses and
affection. That's what broke his heart,
isn't it? Look at verse 1. Chapter 7, verse 1 is part of
chapter 6. The division really should be
after verse 1. because the subject changes in
verse 2 but verse 1 of chapter 7 is part of the same point that's
already been made in the previous chapter having therefore these
promises in light of the fact of what God has promised to do
for his children In light of the fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ has fully satisfied all the demands of God's law on our
behalf. In light of the fact that he
has suffered the full judgment of God's wrath for all of our
sins. in light of the fact that God
has adopted us into his family, in light of these precious promises. Now that's why I said you can't,
if you focus on behavior apart from the gospel, or if you believe
what that man told me this week, I preach God's word without preaching
the gospel sometimes. Because their sections of scripture
don't have anything to do with the gospel. They have to do with
man's responsibility and we need to present that and promote that
and encourage people and teach them. Well, you just put men
under the law if you don't preach the gospel. These two things
are inseparable. If there's going to be any change
of behavior, it'll be through the light of the gospel and through
the ministry of the Spirit of God in the heart, in the person. of the Lord Jesus Christ so now
he says having these promises in light of what God has done
in light of what he has promised in light of what Christ has accomplished
dearly beloved all you you're loved of God you know if you
if you see yourself just under the wrath and judgment of God
there be no it's the goodness of God that lead us to repentance
it's the mercy of God that breaks the heart it's the love of God
so the Lord's confirming this he said dearly beloved you are
loved dearly by God for Christ's sake so that he loves you in
the same way he loves if you're in Christ If you're in Christ,
this is the motivation for life. This is our hope of salvation
and this is the thing that will change everything for us. Let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. Does God call on us to be clean? To separate ourselves? Yes. Does
He say that we're not to make provisions for the flesh? That
we're to seek to honor Him? Yes. Is it by the power of the
law that these things are accomplished? No. No. It's only by the power
of grace. It's only by the power of the
Spirit of God. It's only by the power of love. It's only by having
this familial relationship with God as our Father, being His
sons and daughters, being loved and embraced by Him. You remember,
it is the love of Christ that constraineth us. It's not our
love for Christ. Not our love for Christ. I heard
another man preach this week. He was talking about, you know,
after listening to this message, I just thought, well, I wish
I, I was left feeling like I wish I loved God as much as he did.
And, uh, you know, that unless you, unless you're committed
as Christ as I am, you know, you're just not, you're just
not a real Christian. Um, and, um, it's the love of Christ. that
constraineth us. Do believers have a desire to
be constrained? Yes. Yes. Often times the scripture speaks
of this perfecting of holiness as being
the work of the Spirit of God in Acts chapter 15 verse 9 when
Paul came back to Jerusalem to defend his ministry to the Gentiles
to the Apostles he says that the Holy Spirit has made no difference
between the Gentiles and the Jews between us and them for
he has purified their hearts by faith so the purification
is work done by the Holy Spirit by faith he gives us faith and
faith is looking to Christ resting in Christ relying upon Christ
that's that's our faith looking to him as all of our righteousness
all of our justification before God and Paul says the Spirit
of God has has purified the Gentiles hearts by giving them the same
faith that he gave to us Jews and then in Ephesians chapter
5 when Paul speaks of Christ's love for his church he says that
the Lord Jesus Christ has sanctified or made it holy and cleansed
it with the washing of water by the word So there's these
two means by which the Lord purifies His people. He purifies them
by faith and by His Word. He causes us to believe what
God has said in His Word. And He uses His Word as a means
of making us, He purifies us by His Word. He causes us to
believe His Word. We just believe every bit of
it. And this is the purifying work of the Spirit of God. This
is the purifying work of Christ. And now He says, in light of
this, in light of what He's done, in light of His love for you,
He tells us in verse 1 of chapter 7, basically saying the same thing
Paul said in another place when he said, work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in
you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. It's the Spirit of God that's
done a work of grace in the heart. The Lord does not leave his children
undisturbed by their sin. He doesn't leave us that way.
We're not apathetic or indifferent about our sin. We hate our sin. And it's this work of grace that
he's done in our hearts that causes us to say, Lord, I desire
to be cleansed of the filthiness of my flesh. This body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit. Lord, I don't want to take the
temple of the Holy Spirit and serve idols with it. Turn with me back to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. This perfecting holiness in the
fear of God, most people are motivated to show outward appearances of
obedience for the sake of impressing other men or for the sake of
confirming salvation to themselves. In other words, they think, well,
if I can just avoid doing some things and do some other things,
I'll give myself some reason to believe that I'm a Christian,
or I'll give other people reason to believe that I'm a Christian.
And our text says that this perfecting of holiness is to be done in
the fear of God, out of reverence for Him, out of worship to Him. It's not in recognition of what
other men think or what I think of myself. It's out of love for
Christ. and out of reverence to God for
what He's done and who He is. And it doesn't mean that we're
making this holiness that God has set us apart in Christ more
perfect. That's already perfect. That's
an absolute. The word perfect means to bring to its complete
end. In other words, the holiness
that God has already put you in comes to its maturity, to
its completeness, to its finished end as he causes us to live. Let me show you chapter
6 of verse 9 of 1 Corinthians. Let's go to that text. Know ye not Verse 9, that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Lord, this is not the life that
I desire to live. It's filthiness of the flesh.
It's the defiling of the temple of God. It's the thing that I
need for you to work in me to through faith and through
your word to cleanse from my life. Romans chapter 13. These things are not divorced. from the gospel of God's free
grace verse 9 Romans chapter 13 for this thou shalt not commit
adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt
not bear false witness thou shalt not covet And if there be any
other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying,
namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill
to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment
of the law. Lord, I need to have my heart
set on the love of Christ. And I need for you, to do a work
of grace in my heart, causing me to love Christ in such a way
as to desire His honor and in His glory. Look at, go back with
me to our text. Verse one, chapter seven, having
therefore these promises, if we know anything about this relationship
that God has established with his people as his children through
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ if we have the Spirit
of God yet you read in the study this morning before the service
from Romans chapter 8 and that's exactly what he's talking about
here this having the Spirit of God if you have not the Spirit
of God you're none of his if you have the Spirit of God You're
not under the bondage of the law and you're not going to offer
up the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness.
It's just not consistent with this work of grace that God's
done. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh. and the spirit. It's not just
the outward defilement of the flesh, but it's also the sins
of the spirit. It's the sins of thought and
motive. It's the pride and the lust and
the self-righteousness and the malice and hatred and covetousness
and greed that creep into the heart. These are the things that
that the gospel speaks to, isn't it? This is where the Lord causes
his children not only to loathe themselves, as he goes on in
this chapter to speak of, but to have sorrow that leadeth to
repentance. Let's go on in verse 2 of our
text. verse 2 receive us for we have
wronged no man we have corrupted no man we have defrauded no man
I speak not this to condemn you for I have said before that you
are in our hearts to die or to live with you what Paul's affirming
to them is that I'm I'm I'm speaking these things to you not in order
to stand in judgment of you or in order to discourage you in
order to condemn you but because I love you Because I desire your
best interest because I want you to have a life that that
that honors the Lord and a life that that he's going to bless
that's that's Great is my boldness of speech
toward you great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort
I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulations I For when we
were come to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled
on every side. Without were fighting, and within
were fears. So we didn't leave our troubles
in Troas. When we got to Macedonia, we
still had these same conflicts, these conflicts that the gospel
brought upon us, the conflicts from within, the fears and the
trepidation that we had in our hearts and the conflict that
came from without. All these things were against
us. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, verse
six, God that comforted those that are cast down comforted
us by the coming of Titus. The God who comforts those who
are in need of comforting. Isaiah put it like this in Isaiah
chapter 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord,
speak ye comfortably to them. Tell them, tell them their warfare
is accomplished. Tell them their sin has been
put away. Tell them their iniquity's been
cleansed. They've been made perfect before
God through the war that the Lord Jesus Christ, their commander,
fought on their behalf. That's all Paul's saying in this
passage is, in light of the comfort of the gospel, this is the encouragement. that the believer is to seek
his life to honor Christ for what he's done. Titus had brought Paul encouraging
words. The first epistle that Paul wrote
to the church at Corinth was very confrontational. And now he's going to make reference
to that. And he was concerned that maybe
they would be discouraged by the sins that he had pointed
out in the first epistle. But now Titus has come with a
good report. Titus has come to him in Macedonia
and saying, they were rebuked by your confrontation. They received
your word as it was the word of God and as it was spoken in
love for them. And they've been brought to godly
sorrow for what they had tolerated in the church. And Paul said,
I'm so encouraged by that. I'm so encouraged that the Word
of God has had its effect in your life and in your heart. Verse 7. and not by his coming
only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in
you, and when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning,
your fervent mind towards me, so that I rejoice the more."
It wasn't just that we saw Titus, it was the message that Titus
brought. Titus brought this message telling us that you had received
the rebuke of that first letter and had mourned over your sin.
And we're thankful for the confrontation that I had given you. And that's
the reason I'm so encouraged. That's the reason I'm so thankful.
For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though
I did repent. Now what he's saying here is
that I was afraid that my language was so strong that it might discourage
you. I sent that letter out and I
didn't know what effect it would have. I didn't know whether you
would receive it or not. But now I'm glad that I sent
it. Now that I've gotten word back from Titus as to how you
received it, I'm glad that I sent it. It's had its effect. What was that effect? It wasn't just them being sorry
for their sin it was for some changes that God made in their
lives look what he goes on to say now for I had a part of verse
8 for I perceive that the same epistle have made you sorry though
it were but for a season You were made sorry by the exposure
of this sin, but it was just for a season. It was for a brief
time. Now I rejoice, not that you were
made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. God did a work
of, this word repentance means a changed heart, a changed mind. It doesn't mean just a changed
life. As I said at the introduction of this, you can clean up the
outside without the inside being affected. But if the inside's
changed, then it changes everything. Out of the heart flows the issues
of life. But that's where we want to be
concerned. God, I need you to do a work of grace in my heart.
Don't allow me to just be a pretender. Don't allow me to just put on
a facade and be filled with dead men's bones. Lord, I need a work
of grace done on the inside. If the filthiness of my flesh
and of my heart is to be changed, it's going to have to be changed
from the inside out. You're going to have to do it. You sorrowed to repentance for
you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive
damage by us in nothing. The Spirit of God did a work
of grace in your heart. He gave you godly sorrow. He gave you a desire to perfect
holiness in the fear of God. not for the sake of trying to
satisfy a law, not for the sake of trying to bolster your own
assurance of salvation, not for the sake of trying to impress
other men, but godly sorrow was given to you in the heart for
the sake of honoring the Lord and seeking to please Him. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation. If God does it, it'll be It'll
be all the way. He won't start something not
to be repented of. You won't be sorry for that.
God brings repentance and Godly sorrow, you'll be thankful for
it. But the sorrow of the world worketh death. Just worldly sorrow. What is
worldly sorrow? Regret. You know, loathing oneself
can be worldly sorrow. Just hating your sin for what
it is can be worldly sorrow. Unless it's looking to Christ. Unless that sorrow causes you
to seek your righteousness and your salvation and your love
and your affection in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
it's just focused on itself. What I'm saying to you is if
all you do is turn your attention against your sin, and and loathe
over your sin and wallow in the guilt of your sin that's worldly
sorrow that's nothing but penance and it won't lead to repentance
that's just man-made sorrow is all it is verse 11 for behold this self same thing
that you sorrowed after a godly sort What carefulness it wrought
in you! Yea, what clearing of yourselves! Yea, what indignation! Yea, what
fear! Yea, what vehement desire! Yea, what zeal! Yea, what revenge! In all things you have to prove
yourselves to be clear in this matter. You received the rebuke
as it was intended by God from the heart. you look to Christ
as all of your righteousness and God gave you the desire through
these blessed promises to have an indignation against your sin
but also to have a carefulness in how you live a desire to honor
Christ, a vehement desire, a zeal for the gospel Verse 12, Wherefore thou wrote
unto you, I did it not for his cause. Now he's speaking of that
man in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 that was involved in an incestuous
relationship with his father's wife. Now he's speaking to them. He
said, I didn't write you that letter just in order to expose
him and make him feel guilty. I didn't write it in order to
just try to give some comfort to his father. That's who he's
talking about here in this verse. Look what he says. Wherefore
that I wrote unto you, I did not this for his cause that had
done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that
our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you. We're in this together. What
happens to one happens to all. He said, I wrote this to you
for the good of the church, for the glory of God. I wasn't interested
in just exposing one man's sin or trying to give comfort to
one individual. This is for the sake of the gospel. This is for the unity of the
church. Therefore, we are comforted in
your comfort. Yea, and exceedingly the more
joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed
by you all. His heart was spoken to by what
God did in your heart. For if I have boasted anything
to him of you, I am not ashamed. But as we spake all these things
to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before
Titus, is found a truth." It's all about the truth. The truth. The Lord said, if you know the
truth, the truth sets you free. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. And His inward affection is more
abundant toward you, whilst He remembereth the obedience of
you all, how with fear and trembling you received Him." So encouraged
to see that God has brought a godly sorrow to your heart, that He's
caused you to have this vehement desire and zeal to honor God
and to serve Him and to follow after Him. This is his work that
he's done. I rejoice therefore that I have
confidence in you all in all things. The fact that you've
received this rebuke and this word so humbly in the spirit
of grace confirms to me that you belong to the Lord. Alright, let's take a break.