All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Colossians 3, Colossians chapter
3. This message may be a little
longer than the main message, but I want to take our time and look
at the scriptures. Colossians 3. Now, we're going
to focus mainly here on verse 17. But I want you to see something
here that's very important. I want you to notice the emphasis
is on the heart. The emphasis is on the new heart
that the Lord's created within His people. Now this is for the
saints. This is for those born again
of God, child of God. Colossians 3.1, he says, if ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection,
that's the n-word, we're talking about a heart matter, spirit.
In the new spirit, the new heart, set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. So this is written, folks, the
Lord has given faith. He's created a new heart, a new
spirit, given faith to believe. And if you haven't believed on
Christ, listen very carefully, very diligently to this message,
and I pray the Lord give you faith to trust him, make you
hear him. But look how the emphasis is
on the new heart. For you that believe, look at
the emphasis here on the new heart. He says in verse 11, At
the end, Christ is all and he's in all. In the people that are
born of him, Christ is in all his people. The hope of glory
is Christ in you. He's in the new heart. Look at
verse 12, it speaks of bowels of mercy. Mercy constraining
your inward most being, your inward heart. He speaks of humbleness
of mind. Verse 15, let the peace of God
rule your hearts. Rule your hearts. Verse 16, let
the word of Christ dwell in you, richly, in all wisdom, teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. In your
hearts. Verse 17, and whatsoever ye do,
in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Now I pointed
out to you that this is the heart matter, it's what the Lord has
worked in the heart, given a new spirit, the new man, it's in
the heart. And the reason I tell you that
is because The motive of the believer's heart is more important
than what we do or how we do it. The motive of the heart is
more important than what we do and how we do it. 1 Samuel 16,
7 says, the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Jeremiah 17, 10. I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give
every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of
his doings. In regeneration. The Lord Jesus
created a new heart in his people. He regenerated us, created a
new man in his image. Back up there in verse 10, he
says, you have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him. It's a new man that was
not there, a new spirit that was not there, created, in the
image of Christ, and Christ is the one who created this new
man through the Holy Spirit. He dwells in the new heart, and
because of Christ dwelling in us, the new man is holy, the
new heart is holy. We've been born again of incorruptible
seed. the word of God that liveth and
abideth forever. Therefore, you have an incorruptible
new heart, an incorruptible new man. You have a new man that
will live forever and abide forever because the spirit of the Lord
dwells in that new heart. Look at 1 Peter 3 and listen
to what the Lord says right here. Now he's speaking about obedience,
1 Peter 3. But look what he says to do.
He says in verse four, 1 Peter 3, 4, let it be the hidden man
of the heart in that which is not corruptible. The new heart
is incorruptible because it's born of incorruptible seed. not
corruptible, it's holy, holy, not corruptible. Even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great
price. God sees the new heart, the new
man that he's created. God our Father, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, blesses his word to our hearts. When we hear the
gospel, it's not affecting our old man of sin. A believer has
two men, according to the scripture, an old man of sin, what we were
by our first birth, and a new man, born of God, created of
God. And there's a warfare between
them. But when you're hearing the gospel, the Lord's blessing
the new man, he's renewing the new man. And so this is why Paul
said in Romans 7, he was talking about those two natures, and
he said, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
with the mind, with the inner new man, the new heart, with
the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh
the law of sin. Our old man is sin and will always
be sin. The new man is holy and in the
new man we worship the Lord, we believe the Lord, we obey
the law of the Lord. Well, we can't look to ourselves
because the old man of sin is mixed with it. That's why Paul
said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. But I'm just
pointing out to you, it's this new heart that's incorruptible.
Now what is the motive of the new heart? What's the motive
given in our text? Go back there with me to Colossians
3. He said, and whatsoever you do
in word or deed, what's the motive? What is the motive of this new
heart? He said, verse 17, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus. There's the motive. Do all for
His glory. Do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus. Here's the motive, giving thanks
to God and the Father by Him. Gratitude, thankfulness for what
the Lord's done for you. These are the motives of the
new heart, the motives God created in His child. Now, I want you
to consider, first of all, God makes our motive to be His motive. He makes his motive to be our
new motive. God had a motive in what he did
in the salvation of his people. He has a motive in what he has
done for us, what he is doing for us, and what he shall do
for us. God has a motive moving him to do what he does. What
is it? Well, why did he choose his people?
Scripture says he chose a people, he elected who he would save. That's his glory, to do with
his own what he will. And Scripture says before the
world was made, he chose a people that he would save. What was
his motive to do that? What moved him to do that? Deuteronomy 7, in verse 7 says,
the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. That was
his motive, love. Because the Lord loved you, because
he would keep the oath which he swore unto your fathers. There's
his motive, faithfulness. Therefore the Lord brought you
out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen
from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now that was true spiritually
of his true people amongst Israel that he had chosen. And it's
true of his elect Gentiles, you and me, who are not of the nation
Israel. It's true of his elect Gentiles.
His motive was love. His motive was love. What was
God's motive? What moved Him not to destroy
us when we sinned in Adam? We fell in Adam. We transgressed
against God in Adam. All men became guilty in Adam. And because we're born of Adam,
we became corrupt in our sin nature. Why did God forbear with
us? Why was He long-suffering to
us? Why was He merciful? What was His motive? Isaiah 48,
9. I want you to look at this. Isaiah
48, 9. Here was God's motive. Why He didn't destroy us. Why
He deferred His anger till Christ came and He poured out the justice
that his people deserved on our substitute, the Lord Jesus. Why
did he do that? Isaiah 48, verse 9. For my name's
sake will I defer mine anger. And for my praise, praise that
my people will give to me, for my praise will I refrain for
thee that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I've chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction for mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I
do it. For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory
to another. Harken unto me, O Jacob and Israel,
my called. I am he, I am the first, I also
am the last. That was his motive, for his
name's sake. I'm trying to show you, when
he calls you in regeneration, he makes his motive to be your
motive. You start having the same motive
he had. You start doing what you do in
the name of the Lord Jesus for his sake, for his sake. Why did
he send his only begotten son? Why did the Lord Jesus come and
lay down his life for? What was the motive of our Lord?
1 John 4. Look there, 1 John 4. Verse 9. And this was manifested,
the love of God toward us. There's the motive, his love. because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his son, the propitiation for our sin. Look at 1 John 3 and
verse 16. Verse 16. Hereby perceive we
the love of God because he laid down his life for us. We ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren. Go with me to Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. What was
his motive in giving you life? What was his motive? We came
into the world spiritually dead sinners. We couldn't know God.
We had no will to believe God. Not the true God. What was his
motive to give you a new heart? Ephesians 2.4. The first part of Ephesians 2
says we were under the curse, we were under the power of the
devil, we were children of wrath even as others. Look at verse
4. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us
together with Christ by grace are you saved. We saw not long
ago in Isaiah 43, He said, even everyone that is called by my
name, I have created him for my glory. I formed him, yea,
I made him. That was God's motive. He said,
he's speaking of Christ, the son of David after the flesh,
and he said in 2 Samuel 7, 13, he said, he shall build a house
for my name. He's gonna do it for my name.
and I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever. When
he gives you faith and he brings you to cast all your care in
Christ's hand, what's God's motive for forgiving you? Look at Ephesians 4. What's his
motive for forgiving you? Ephesians 4, 32. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake. hath forgiven you. He does it
for the sake of his son, for the sake of his son. He said
in 1 John 2, 12, I write unto you, little children, because
your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. That's the motive. See, he's holy, he's just, that's
his name, that's who he is. That's all included in his name.
And he sent his son to die in place of his people to justify
his people and to honor his law. His law had, he had to execute
the sinful people who died. And because all his people died,
Christ, because we were guilty in sin, Christ came and died
in our place. And so for his sake, for his
namesake, because he's holy and he's just, and Christ justified
his people for his namesake, he forgives you when you come
to him and believe on him. Why does God not forsake us?
Look at 1 Samuel 12, 22. Why does he not forsake his people?
He says he never will. He promised us, I'll never leave
you and I'll never forsake you. What's his motive? 1 Samuel 12,
verse 22. The Lord will not forsake his
people for his great name's sake. There it is, for his great namesake,
because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. What
moves him to keep renewing us and restoring us and keeping
us looking to him? What's the motive for God to
do that? He said in Psalm 23 in verse
three, he said, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the
paths of righteousness for his namesake. for His namesake. See, God's doing what He's doing
in saving His people for His glory. He's doing it for His
namesake. Christ is His namesake. He's
doing it for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased
Him to give Him all preeminence, to honor Him. Everything He's
doing, He's doing for His glory. He's doing it for His name. He's
doing it because He loved His people freely. and he's doing
it all for his name and for his glory. Now, so secondly, go back
to our text now, when the Lord is formed in us and he creates
this new heart in us, this new spirit in us, in the new man,
he gives you a new motive for everything you do. And that new
motive is the same as his. He gives you the motive he has. Colossians 3.17, and whatsoever
you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. You do everything
for His namesake. You do what you do for His namesake. That's the heart He gives His
people. You want Him to have the glory. You want Him to have
the praise due to His name. Now the world knoweth us not
because the world knew Him not. Unlike the unregenerate, a carnal
man that hasn't been born again, Unlike the unbeliever, believers
are not ruled and motivated by selfish desires and selfish interests. That's not what rules us. We
have some of it because we still have an old man, but that's not
what rules our heart. That's not our chief motive anymore,
and that's only by the grace of God. That's by his spirit.
We're ruled and we're motivated by the same things that ruled
and motivated our savior when he walked this earth. It's by Christ, it's by his grace
and his power. The believer's new heart is ruled
by faith. We're ruled by faith. We look
to him, believe him, and we're constrained in our heart, motivated
in our heart by the love of Christ for us. He was motivated for
the love of God toward him and the love he had for God. And
he puts this love in our heart. You love him? But we don't speak
much of our love because it's so nothing compared to His love
for His people. But He did what He did in loving
us. Now He makes you do what you
do in love to Him. 2 Corinthians 5.14. You need
to look at this. 2 Corinthians 5.14 says this. It says, The love of Christ constraineth
us It constrains us. You don't live like the hellion
that you were before He saved you because you're constrained
by the love of Christ. And you do whatsoever you do
in word or deed by the Spirit of God, by His grace, constrained
by His love for you. That's subordinate. It's not
law. Law is not our motive. We don't do what we do because
we have the Ten Commandments telling us, do this, don't do
that. We do what we do. out of love, because of the Lord's
love for us. We do it in gratitude and thankfulness
to him. We speak and we do for his namesake. When we pray, we pray in Christ's
name, and you know what we make the basis of our petition to
be? Him, Christ. We make his namesake, God's own
name to be the basis of, and the reason we ask what we ask.
Let me show you that, Psalm 25, 11. Psalm 2511. He's praying for forgiveness. And he prays in Psalm 2511, For
thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity for it's great.
That's the basis on which we ask God to forgive us. Not for
our sake, for his sake, for your name's sake. We don't want your
name to be corrupted. He justified his people. It wouldn't
be honorable for him not to pardon us. It would be glory to his
name for him to forgive us. So we ask him for your name's
sake. In Jeremiah 14, seven, Oh Lord, though our iniquities
testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake, for our
backslidings are many, and we've sinned against thee. That's what
Jeremiah prayed. Don't forgive us because of anything
in us. Do it because of your name's
sake. All we've done is sin. And we ask God to help us. Psalm
79.9. Look at this. I'm gonna get you
coming to something that's important to know. All of this is important
to know, but I'm coming to something that's, I'm gonna make a point
here in a minute. I want you to stay with me. Psalm 79, verse
nine, we're asking God to help us. Look at verse nine. Help
us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name. And deliver us and purge away
our sins for thy name's sake. When we ask him to lead us, Psalm
31 three, Psalm 31, three. He says, for thou art my rock
and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. You see, that's our motive for
what we do, for following him when he leads us. And our motive
in asking him to lead us is, Lord, do it for Your namesake.
Do it for Your namesake. See, in the new birth, this was
the Lord's will. This was His motive. And in the
new birth, He made His motive to be our new motive. This is
our motive now. Now, here's the third thing.
God is looking on the heart. He's looking on the heart. So
the motive, while we say and do, is more
important than what we say and do. The difference between a
work being a good work or being legalism and self-righteousness
is the motive of the heart, the difference. Two people can do
the exact same work, exact same thing. One's motive is to make
himself just before God. One's doing it because he's trying
to make himself holy before God, or he's doing it because he's
trying to get a better reward than another in glory. The other
one, and that man, the Lord rejects him. He rejects him. There's no faith involved. There's
no love constraining his heart. He's not doing it for the Lord's
namesake. He's doing it for himself. It's a selfish motive. He's doing
it to justify himself. He's doing it to make himself
holy. But the other does what he does in faith. And he does
what he does because the love of Christ constrains him in his
heart. And he does whatever he does in the name of the Lord.
He does it for his glory. He wants him to have honor and
glory. And his works come up to God, even though there's sin
mixed with them because of his old man, even though they're
not Maybe not as good as the other man did his works, but
they come up to God acceptable by the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has put that motive in his heart. He does what he does for the
Lord's sake. By God's grace, the believers
are going to enter into our closet, as Christ said, and we're going
to pray to the Lord. We're going to pray to the Lord.
We're gonna pray in his name. We're gonna ask to be received
for Christ's sake, for the name of God, for God's namesake. We're
gonna be asked to be received for Christ's sake. The Pharisee,
Christ said, they pray, and here's their motive, they pray to be
seen of men. That's their motive. They won't
be seen praying. And Christ said they have their
reward. That's their reward. Man sees them and applauds them.
This is Paul's point, Romans 14. This is so important. Go
to Romans 14. This is Paul's point right here.
This is what the Lord's teaching us. Now get this, brethren, please
get this. I pray the Lord make us hear
this. You take a brother who, let me tell you what it says,
then we're gonna read it. You take a brother who's weak
in faith. He doesn't fully understand that
Christ put an end to the law for his people. He fulfilled
it. He's the righteousness of the
law. He's our holiness. We're free from the law. We're
not under the law in any regard. We're free. We're under grace. But this man, weak in faith,
still wants to live to the law. He wants to do things the law
says. He's doing it in faith. He's
doing it, and he's not judging his brother, who knows he has
liberty. That man's not a legalist. He
is not a legalist. The motive of his heart is faith.
He's doing what he does for the name of the Lord. He's doing
what he does because he wants God to be glorified. He's just
weak in faith. He doesn't realize he don't have
to live under the law. You take another man, he knows
he's free from the law. He knows Christ's freedom from
the law. He walks by faith. He doesn't
judge his weak brother who's still under the law. He doesn't
judge him. That man's not a legalist either. They're both free by
Christ. They're both righteous in Christ,
both holy in Christ, both do what they do in faith for the
namesake of the Lord. Look here, Romans 14, one. Him
that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputation. Don't doubt him and dispute with
him. For one believeth that he may eat all things. Another who's
weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise
him that eateth not. and let not him which eateth
not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who art
thou that judges another man's servant? You don't, if you're
out somewhere, or even here, if somebody came up to you and
said, your children sure do not behave very well. They should
behave like so and so's children. They just do not behave very
well. You probably wouldn't like that a whole lot. Christ doesn't
like it either when we criticize one of his children or one of
his servants who he's teaching, who he's growing, who he's bringing
up by his grace. He says, who are thou to judge
another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth, yea, he shall be held up for God's able to make
him stand. One man esteemeth one day above
another. Another esteemeth every day alike.
You see, the man that esteems one day above another, he's weak
in faith. He doesn't realize the Sabbath
is Christ. He doesn't understand that fully.
He believes Christ is his rest. He has faith, but he still wants
to observe the day. That's fine, if he's doing it
in faith. If he's not telling you, now
except you observe this day, you're lost. He's not judging
you. He's just doing what he does
in faith. That man's not a legalist. Another
man esteems every day alike. He knows he's free. He worships
the Lord every day. Let every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind. This is a heart matter. It's
a matter of the mind and the heart. Let a man be fully persuaded
in his own heart. He that regardeth the day, regardeth
it to the Lord. He does it in faith. He that
regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He
that eateth, eateth to the Lord. For he giveth God thanks, he
that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, giveth God thanks.
But now listen, but if either one of these judge the other,
if either one of these say, this is a requirement for salvation,
and he tries to make the other one live like he does, whether,
now listen, this is important, whether it's the one who's observing
the law and he says, if you don't observe this day, you can't be
saved. If he says that, if he brings
in this except you, or you can't be saved, and he starts trying
to constrain you to live as he does, he is a legalist, he is
a self-righteous man. But now get this too. If the
one who knows that he has freedom in Christ, he knows God's people
are free in Christ because Christ has fulfilled the law. If that
man tells the other brother, you got a brother who's observing,
he believes God, he's doing it in faith, he's weak, and he's
observing the day. This one who knows he's free
says, you're not a believer. You're lost because you're observing
that day. If you don't stop observing that day, and live without being
under the law, you can't be saved. That man that's saying that is
a legalist. You can be a legalist claiming
you're free from the law and condemning others that don't
live free from the law. A man can be a legalist doing
that too. That's why I said it's not circumcision nor uncircumcision
that matters. You can be just as much of a
legalist trying to constrain people to live without the law
as you can be one trying to constrain people to live under the law.
When you make it a requirement for salvation, you put something
between the sinner and Christ. Something the sinner does between
the sinner and Christ. And that makes a man a self-righteous
man. Here it is, look now, Romans
14, 22. Hast thou faith, have it to thyself before God. Happy
is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth. Whether it's not observing the
day, not eating certain things, not living under the law, he's
happy. God's made him know he's free
and he has faith and he's doing what he does for the sake of
the Lord. You got another man who's observing
a day, eating certain things, he's doing it for the name of
the Lord, he has faith, he's not trying to make the other
brother do what he'd have him to do. He's free. And he that
doubteth, if you constrain him to eat, you got this brother
that knows he's free, you constrain him to eat, or one constrains
the other not to eat, whichever side of this you're on, he that
doubteth, is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith
for whatsoever is not of faith of sin. See, we don't, you know,
I'm sitting here preaching. I'm not trying to constrain you
to believe, because if I get you to make a profession of faith,
and it's not of God, and God hasn't given you faith, it's
just sin. It's illegal work. Well, the
same goes true for what we do and don't do. Christ is the one
who teaches his children. You and I don't put a stumbling
block in front of one another by saying you've got to live
as I do. Whichever side of that you're
on, you know. Listen to this. Here's another
example. I said to you, it's not what
we do. It's not how we've done it. It's
the motive of the heart. Take this example. The Pharisees,
were given large sums of money that day. Christ is standing
there. They're given large sums of money, but in their heart,
they think they're being righteous and holy by what they're doing.
They think they're making themselves acceptable to God. They're living
by the letter of the law. They're given exactly 10%, like
the law said. That's a tax. The law required
it. Men had to give it. They're doing
it. There's no faith involved. They're
doing it to make themselves right. They give 10%. Here comes a widow. She drops in two pennies. Lord
said she gave more than all of them combined. She gave everything
she had. It's not what you do or how well
you do it. It's what's in the heart. What
was her motive? When Paul was instructing the
Corinthian brethren to take an offering to Rome, He said this,
I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the foreignness
of others. I'm telling you because of how
well these other folks did it. Prove the sincerity of your love,
he told them. Here's the motive. Here was that
widow's motive. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might be made rich. That widow had two She had two
mics, that's all she had to her name. Pharisees had a whole bunch,
and they had a whole bunch left over, and more left over. She wasn't going to have anything
else left over. And she brought two pennies and threw it in the
basket. And the Lord said she gave more than they all gave.
She did it in faith, she did it in love to the Lord, she did
it for his name's sake. What you do or how you do it
is the motive of the heart. Here's another thing. I'll show
you another thing. You can look this up, 2 Chronicles 6. Sometimes
the work's not even carried out. The work's not even performed.
And God knew the motive of the heart and said it was good. Listen, David wanted to build
a house for the Lord. He wanted to build the Lord a
house. And the scripture says, 2 Chronicles 6, 7, it was in
the heart of David, my father, to build a house for the name
of the Lord God of Israel. But the Lord said to David, my
father, for as much as it was in thine heart to build a house
for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart.
Notwithstanding, you're not going to build my house, David. The
sun that's going to come from your loins is going to build
my house. He wasn't talking about Solomon. He was talking about
Christ. Built the true house of God. But you see, David didn't
even build the house. He was in his heart to do it.
And God looked on his heart. Same with Abraham. Remember he
told Abraham, offer up your only son Isaac. Abraham right back
there with a knife was fixing to do it. God said, you stop.
He saw his heart. And in his heart, Abraham slew
that boy. His motive was to obey God. So it's the heart. Christ knew
the hearts of Pharisees. He said to them, all your works
you do from this motive, to be seen of men. He said, how can
you believe which receive honor one of another? That was their
motive. I want to hear Joe tell me how good I am. I want to hear
Jim tell me how good I'm serving. You do it for the honor of another. He said, How can you believe
when you seek an honor from another and not the honor that comes
from God only? Don't think that I'll accuse
you to the Father. There's one that accuseth you,
even Moses whom you trust. They were thinking God received
them because they were keeping the law. He said, but if you
believe not his writings, how are you going to believe my words?
He wrote of me. Everything the law says is of
Christ. See, unregenerate men, though they're religious and
though they do all these wonderful works, they're living to themselves. That's what we did when we were
dead in our sin. We were acting in our own name,
for the sake of our own name, in our own strength, with our
purpose and motive for self. That's what it was all about.
That was our heart's motive. There was no love for Christ.
There was no faith in Christ. We weren't doing it for God's
glory. We were doing what we're doing. Oh, we might have said
we were doing it for His glory, but in our heart, we were doing
it for ourselves. Look at Galatians 6. I'm out
of time. Here you go, Ben. Galatians 6. Ben says that I always say I'm
gonna stop, then I have you turn to three more scriptures. Galatians
6. Here's what most of religion
is right here. Galatians 6. as many, verse 12,
as many as desire, there's their motive, here's their motive,
the desire, the heart's motive, as many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. They constrain you to be circumcised
only less, here's the other motive, lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. Here's a believer, but God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world's crucified unto me and unto the world, for
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Don't be a legalist by trying
to make men Do the law and tell them they can't be saved except
they do it. And don't be a legalist by condemning
sinners that are weak in the faith, who are still observing
certain laws, but they're not saying it's for salvation. Circumcision
or uncircumcision doesn't avail. We can be a legalist on either
side of that. Here's what matters, being made a new creature. You
and me didn't have a thing to do with that. That's all of God. God chose us, Christ redeemed
us, the Spirit of God created us anew. It is entirely of God
alone. You don't add to that, you ain't
gonna take from that. That's all of God. Look, and
as many as walk according to this rule, that's our rule. faith which worketh by love,
as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them,
and mercy, and upon the Israel of God, from henceforth let no
man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord.
You see, by God's grace, by Christ dwelling in us, the believer
does what we do by his power, by faith in Christ, we do it
for the name of God, we do it for the sake of Christ, we do
it constrained by his love for us, and we love him, we do it
in respect to his authority, we do it in thankfulness to him. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Here's what you can do. When
you do your works, even those sins mixed, when that widow gave
those two mics, there was a lot of sin mixed with it. You better
believe if you were coming to give everything you had to your
name, There's gonna be an old sinful man in you that's gonna
say, I don't know if I ought to do this. That's unbelief. You can guarantee that was mixed
with it. But what's done in faith to Christ with a motive of love
comes up to the Lord in Christ Jesus, acceptable to God. perfect in God. I heard a story
one time about this lady that wrote a letter and was sending
it to somebody very important and she gave it to Brother Charles
Spurgeon and it had all kind of misspellings in it and the
sentences were run on and it was all just, you could hardly
read it. Spurgeon sat down, took her letter
and sat down and rewrote it so it was just right, perfect, and
took it and gave it to the person. That's what Christ does for everything
we do. It's just full of sin and corruption,
and he takes it and presents it to God in his righteousness,
in his wholeness, in his perfection, and it's perfect. And as far
as a brother or sister that's not, that's weak in faith, that's
trying to live under the law, or even if it's a brother who's
weak in faith and that he thinks that if you don't live free like
he does, Trust Christ to teach them. Trust Christ. They're his
servant. They're not my servant. They're
his child. They're not my child. He will
make his people stand. He will teach his people. He
will guide his people and save his people. You can just mark
it down. You can mark it down. This is an example that happened
to somebody here. I'll spare the names to protect
the innocent, Let's say the Lord teaches you, you've been in religion,
in a form of religion, and one day the Lord teaches you that
Christ is the Sabbath rest, and not a day. And you're rejoicing,
and you think everybody's gonna rejoice with you in this, that
you see Christ is your rest, it's not observing a day. And
you go to your pastor and you tell him, Christ is our rest,
look at this, and you show him in the scripture, where scripture
clearly says, Christ is our rest. And the preacher says, except
you keep a day, you can't be saved. You know what that preacher
manifests? He's a self-righteous legalist
because he made it a requirement to keep a day. If he had said,
that's wonderful, Christ is our Sabbath rest, but I feel like
I should keep the day. I just want to keep it because
I love him, I want to honor him. But you don't have to keep it,
but I feel like I should. That man's not a legalist that
says that. He's a weak, he's weak in faith, but he's not a
legalist. But when you bring that except you do it, if you
don't live like I do, now you put something between a sinner
and Christ and that is, that's unbelief, that's carnal, that's
fleshly, that's damning. You get, am I clear on this? I know what I'm telling you is
absolutely fact. It is absolutely the truth. So
if you don't get it, go to the Lord and ask him, because it's
so what I'm telling you. All right, let's go to the Lord.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for teaching your people.
Lord, make us trust you. Make us leave our brother into
your hand. Help us to help him. Help us
to help one another. Look to Christ. And Lord, save
us from being a stumbling block to our brethren. We ask you do
that for Christ's sake. We ask you do it in his name.
We ask you do it, Lord, according to your grace and your mercy.
Glorify your name. And Lord, thank you for what you
have taught us. Thank you for the grace you've given us. And
we pray you keep us and continue to grow us. Call your lost sheep,
Lord, Make us rest in Christ. One day, Lord, we're going to
see You are totally the end of the law for righteousness. We're
going to see that You are all salvation. Until that day, Lord,
we ask You to keep us for Your namesake. Amen.