A good few days off. Sometimes
we need a vacation to recuperate from our vacation. Let's go to
Exodus chapter 9. Let's begin in verse 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God
of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them
go, and wilt hold them still, behold, the hand of the Lord
is upon thy cattle, which is in the field, upon the horses,
upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep. There shall be a very grievous
meringue, a disease. And the Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. And there shall
nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel. And the
Lord appointed a set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this
thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on
the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died. But of the cattle
of the children of Israel died not one. And Pharaoh sent, and
behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites
dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not
let the people go. Now religious folks everywhere
speak about good works. I always hear churches talking
about good works. But what makes a work good? What makes a work good? And what
causes God to accept a work? God only accepts the works that
Christ has worked for and in His people. The only works God
accepts are the works that Christ has worked for His people and
that Christ has worked in His people. The title of the message
is, God severs our works. Now first of all, the disease
upon the cattle. The disease that God brought
upon this cattle shows that all the works of unregenerate men
are dead works. You notice there in verse 3,
the disease came upon the horses, the asses, the camels, the oxen,
and the sheep. These were all animals by which
the Egyptians did their works. These were animals they used
to do their works. Left under curse, that's what
we saw with the lice. Remember, the lice came from
the dust. God said, Cursed is the ground for your sake. The
lice pictured the curse. That was the plague just before
this one. Left under the curse, all of
man's works, every work the unregenerate man does, is a diseased, dead
work. And God will not receive it.
Romans 7 verse 5 says, When we were in the flesh, that is when
we were like these Egyptians, when we were unregenerate, the
motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. A dead man does some works, but
it's dead works. Romans 6.21 said, What fruit
had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end
of those things is death. We are talking about even the
very best works men do. The end of those things is death
for the unregenerate man. Now why are the works of a carnal
man diseased? Why are they dead works? Why
are they only sinful? There are many reasons, but I
will give you four reasons. One, since we are sinners by
nature, everything a sinful man does is sinful. Since we are
sinners by nature, everything an unregenerate sinful man does
is sinful. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. Nothing wrong with plowing, nothing
wrong with the plow, nothing wrong with the ground that is
plowed. The problem is the man who is wicked. Even his plowing
is wicked. Everything a sinful man does
is wicked. Whenever the Lord told him to
make an altar of stone, He said, Thou shalt not build it of hewn
stone. You can't get out there with
your hammer and chisel and work on that stone. For if you lift
up your tool upon it, you've polluted it. Everything a sinful
man touches is sinful. The second reason is because
the carnal man's mind is set on fleshly things. He cannot
fulfill the law of God, nor can he bow and believe on Christ
through which believers fulfill the law of God. He can't do either
one because his mind is set on fleshly things. Go to Romans
8 with me. Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 3. What the law
could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. Nothing wrong
with the law. The weakness was our flesh, our dead flesh. God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. And by Him condemning sin in
the flesh, by His work, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in His
people. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. That is, they've been regenerated
by the Spirit, they believe on Christ under righteousness, and
so the righteousness of the law is fulfilled by Christ and given
freely to them through faith. But why is it that an unregenerate
man cannot fulfill the law of God? Verse 5, For they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, That's where his
mind's at. They that are after the Spirit
mind the things of the Spirit. You hear the gospel, you hear
spiritual things. The fleshly man doesn't hear
it, can't discern it. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. He doesn't say the carnal
mind is at enmity against God, though he is. He says the carnal
mind, all the carnal mind is, is enmity against God. For it's
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And that
word law there means both the Decalogue, the law God gave at
Sinai, it means the whole word of God. He can't even subject
himself to any word of God. He's lost. He's undone. He's
blind. He's dead. He can't subject himself
to it, neither indeed can be, so then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. That's why Paul said to Titus,
unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure.
But even their mind and conscience is defiled. So it doesn't matter
what work they're doing, nothing's pure because they're not pure.
The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination. How much more when
He bringeth it with a wicked mind? That's an unregenerate
mind. An unregenerate mind. Now three,
unregenerate man's works are sinful because his works are
not of faith. His works are not of faith. Romans
14.23 says, He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because
he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. Only God gives faith. He gives
it by His grace. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. The Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 11, 6, without faith
it is impossible to please God. There is nothing a man can do,
an unbelieving man can do that will please God. And then here's
the fourth reason. Unregenerate man's works are
sinful because the unbeliever's works are produced by himself
to his own glory and his own praise. Spirit of God didn't
produce them. Christ didn't produce them. He
produced those works Himself. And He wants praise for those
works and He wants glory for those works. But of the believer,
the Scripture says in Philippians 1.11 that we're filled with fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. That's who fills
the believer with fruits of righteousness, by Jesus Christ. And they're
unto the glory and praise of God. He gets the glory. He gets the praise. We don't.
And we don't want it. We want Him to have it. You see
the difference? The unbeliever produces works
himself and wants the praise and the glory for him. But in
the believer, Christ fills him and God gets all the glory and
all the praise. Now, that tells you and me, sinner,
that outside of Christ, there is no pleasing God. You cannot
do anything that will please God. Come into church, being
baptized, learning some doctrine, going out and doing works, anything
without faith in Christ, anything without being born of God, without
faith in Christ, is unacceptable to God. God will not receive
it. Now, here is my second point.
In Christ and by Christ, God severs the works of His people
from unregenerate men and their works. In Christ and by Christ,
God severs the works of His people from the works of unregenerate
men. Look here in verse 4. The Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. See what He
is severing here? He is severing the cattle. The
cattle of Egypt and the cattle of Israel. And there shall nothing
die of all that is the children of Israel. Now back in chapter
8, we saw that God severed the land of Goshen. Remember what
we saw, Goshen pictures? The land in which God's people
dwell? Where's the land in which we
dwell? We dwell in Christ. God chose Christ and separated
Christ before the world began. And His people are in Christ
by divine election. by the grace of God. And so Christ
is the land in which His people have always dwelt even before
we knew Him. We were in Him. And then it said,
and He put a division between His people and the Egyptians.
That was done by God's distinguishing grace. God discriminates by His
grace. He chooses whom He will and He
passes by whom He will. That's God's prerogative as God.
to choose whom He will and pass by whom He will. But now here
what we have is a type of God separating the works of the believer
from the works of the unbeliever. He severed us in Christ. He severed
us by divine election. And here He severs our works
by Christ. He severs between the cattle
and the cattle. Now look, who is it that does
the work? He says the Lord shall. the Lord
shall. We're reminded by the Spirit
of God here one more time that this is the work of God's hand.
This is the work of God. He's the one who separates the
precious from the vile. He's the one who by His sovereign
free discriminating grace separates His people from the rest of the
world. Now concerning our obedience to the law, We are going to have
to obey the law perfectly. Everybody that is going to be
saved and be in glory has to obey the law in perfect righteousness.
And we have to be justified of all our sin. How is a sinner
ruined by the fall? How are we going to do that?
It is by Christ. We just read God sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. Daniel 9.24 said, 70 weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Here is what
Christ did. He finished the transgression.
He is not waiting on you and me to make it finished. He finished
it. He finished the transgression.
He made an end of sins. He made reconciliation for iniquity. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He sealed up the vision and the
prophets. And He anointed the most holy.
Christ did that by Himself. And therefore, because He did
this for a people, His name is Jesus, for He shall save who?
His people from their sins. Christ said, I lay down my life
for who? The sheep. Christ did this for a particular
people. And because He did this, He ended
their transgression. He made reconciliation for them. He brought in everlasting righteousness
for them. So those who are born dead in
their sins now, they're going to have to be born of God. They're
going to have to be born of God and brought to faith in Christ.
So everyone for whom Christ died shall hear this gospel and shall
be born of the Spirit of God and shall be brought to faith
in Christ. Every one of them. God has set the time. Verse 5.
The Lord appointed a set time saying tomorrow the Lord shall
do this thing in the land and the Lord did it. When God the
Holy Spirit regenerates a sinner, Christ creates a new man in that
sinner, a new man that is severed from our old man. There is a
new man in the believer and an old man in the believer. The
old man is sinful. The old man is what he was before. The old man is sinful. The new man, the new man that
He creates is pure and holy. God doesn't make anything but
what's pure and holy. Ephesians 4.24 says the new man
is created after God in righteousness and true holiness. That's the
new man. The new man's born of incorruptible
seed, Peter said. You know what incorruptible seed
is? Seed that can't be corrupted. When you and I were born the
first time, we were born of Adam's corrupt seed. That seed that
can never be incorruptible. So our nature can never be incorruptible. Christ said that which is flesh
is flesh. That which is spirit is spirit.
This incorruptible seed makes an incorruptible new man within
his people. Christ said, every good tree
bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. Now listen to this, a good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. You got an old man in you that
can't bring forth good fruit. And you got a new man in you
that can't bring forth bad fruit. That's so of every believer.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. The seed, Christ the seed. is
in His people. And therefore, that new man cannot
sin. You say, well preacher, I sin
all the time. That's all I see in myself is
sin. And that sin you see in yourself comes from that old
man. Men will say, well which one
is the old man and which one is the new man? You? Me? I'm just as much the old man
as I am the new man. I'm just as much the new man
as I am the old man. God alone severs between the
old and the new. It's impossible for you and I
to do so. Now, when Christ came, the reason
this is so is because Christ fulfilled the righteousness of
the law for His people. He justified His people from
all our sins, past, present and future. When you're righteous
according to God's holy law, when God's holy law looks at
you and God says you are righteous, past, present and future, there's
no record on the books, I've blotted them out, God said. I
will not remember your sin, I've cast them into the depths of
the sea. When that's the case with you, sinner, you're accepted
of God. You're righteous. You're righteous. You're holy. That's done by Christ. by Him fulfilling the law. We didn't do it. We couldn't
do it. Christ did it. Christ did it. How has it made ours? Through
faith in Christ. When God does that regenerating
work and creates that new man, He gives the gift of faith. And
when He gives you the gift of faith, you believe on Christ. And through faith, God imputes
righteousness to His people because righteousness is what Christ
has made us. That's what Christ has made His
people. Before the holy law of God, before the judgment seat
of God, He has made us righteous. And so God imputes, He accounts
righteousness to His people. That's given through faith. Go
to Romans 10.4. I want you to connect two scriptures.
Romans 10. I think I'm going to have enough
time, so let's go to Romans 9. I want to show you something
here in Romans 9. Verse 30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, these were
those outside, this was God's elect outside of Israel. They
followed not after righteousness. They didn't have the law. They
weren't trying to keep the law. And look, they have attained
to righteousness. How in the world could you attain
to righteousness if you didn't have the law of God and weren't
trying to keep the law of God? Even the righteousness which
is of faith. That is, of Christ's faithfulness
given to us through faith. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, they had the law and were trying to
keep the law. They have not attained to the law of righteousness.
Why not? because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. Because they
stumbled at the stumbling stone, Christ the Lord. So look over
now at Romans 10 and look at verse 4. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Only
to those that believe. But to those that believe, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Why? Look now at verse 10. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The first good
work that God has ordained that all His people shall walk in
is faith. And He gives you the faith by
His grace, all by His grace, free, sovereign, irresistible
grace. He gives you faith. and it brings
you to believe on Christ, where His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus, He gets all the glory. And just like that first work
of faith is of God, every other good work that God has ordained,
that each of His children shall perform, those works are also
brought to pass by this work of God's grace working in you
and me, so that God gets all the glory and all the praise
for doing it. Now, because we're in Christ
and we're accepted, we're in Christ, now the sinner is completely
thoroughly cleansed by the blood of Christ. And all the good works
God brings His people to do are cleansed by the blood of Christ. So there's no sin before God,
you know. Look here, 1 John 1.7 says, if
we walk in the light as He's in the light, We've been born
of God, made to come into the light, made to worship Christ
the light. We have fellowship one with another. We have fellowship with Christ
and Christ has fellowship with us. We have fellowship with God
our Father and He has fellowship with us. We have fellowship with
our brethren and they have fellowship with us. And look, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. From all sin. This is why Titus
said, unto the pure, those that have been purified by the grace
of God, unto the pure, listen to this now, all things are pure. Unto the pure all things are
pure. Now preacher, that sounds like
if I'm in Christ and I'm cleansed by the blood of Christ, that
sounds like before God I can't do anything but that which is
pleasing to God. That's right. That's right. What about when I sin and God
has to correct me? You sin, I sin, God corrects
us. But if any man sins, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and
He is the propitiation for our sin. See, God is not going to
allow His people to fall away. He keeps us in Christ, keeps
us by Christ, and keeps us coming to Christ. And in Christ and
by Christ, we are cleansed by the blood of Christ. in all things. That's how come God receives
us. And another thing about this is God looks on the heart. Now
this is really important. The motive of an unregenerate
man's heart, we just saw his mind set on the flesh, so his
motive is fleshly. The motive of an unregenerate
man's heart, I don't care if he's in the biggest, most beautiful
church in the country and looks like he's doing the grandest,
best works a man could possibly do. The man's motive, I guarantee
you if he's an unregenerate man, his motive is he's trying to
indebt God to him. He's trying to do something to
make God give him something. Be it salvation, be it righteousness,
be it holiness, be it a better reward than others in heaven.
He's trying to do something to indebt God to him. But you see
the motive that God gives in the new heart for the believer
is not that motive. It's a motive of being constrained,
being motivated by the love of Christ. That's what he said in
2 Corinthians 5.14. The love of Christ constraineth
us because we thus judge. If one died for all his people,
then all his people are dead. And in that we live, we live
so that we shouldn't live unto ourselves, but live unto Him
that loved us and died for us and redeemed us. And the love
of Christ, the love of Christ who though He was rich, He became
poor that through His poverty we might be made rich. The love
of Christ, His love for His people, His love for doing the work to
make us accepted of God, His love for us constrains the heart
of the believer. And I'm telling you, I've used
this illustration many times, but love is a far better motivator
than law. You fellows who married to your
sweetheart, you're motivated to do good things for her and
to treat her like she ought to be treated and to lift her up
on a pedestal. Is it law that makes you do that?
You have to come in and read a set of rules and say, well,
I better do this for her. No. Love is what makes you do
that. Love is a far greater motive
than law ever was. And that's what God puts in the
heart. That's what it means when He says He's taken the law out
of the way. He's fulfilled it now. Law has
nothing else to say to a believer. He's fulfilled it now. Now what
we're doing to God is we're living unto God through Christ, cleansed
by His blood. We're doing what we're doing
now because we want to. We want to serve Him. We want
to honor Him. We want Him to have the glory because of what
He has done for us. See the difference. A man could
bring a big dinner to a poor widow's house and this dinner
could be cooked just perfect and I mean just the most delicious
meal and he labored over this meal and he grew it all himself
and labored to cook it and brought it a hundred miles and laid it
out on her table and did everything right for her. And she sat down
and all she had to do was just eat. And the motive of his heart
be he is trying to get in God's favor. And God says it is an
evil work. It is a wicked work. Every bit
of it. You take a believer who he prepares a meal and He overcooks
things and it's not done just right. He left something at home,
forgot something. He doesn't get to her house on
time, had to leave it on her doorstep. She had to come in
and put it on the table because it wasn't all laid out just right.
He just flubbed up the whole thing. God says it's a good work
because His motive was the love of Christ. See what I'm saying? Motive is the difference. Now,
Pharaoh heard this. And Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Look at verse 7. Well, his heart was hardened,
I should say. Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not one of
the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh
was hardened, and he did not let the people go. See, the same
sun that melts the snow hardens the clay. And the same gospel
that causes your heart to melt and be constrained to good works
is the same gospel that hardens the reprobate. Same gospel. We are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the
one we are the savor of death unto death. To the other the
savor of life unto life. That's the truth. Same gospel. Same gospel. But when you hear
this good news and God has given you faith, this is the good news. that constrains you. It melts
your heart. It constrains you. This is why
we have to hear about God's works. This is why we don't preach our
works, we preach God's works. We preach Christ's works. You
know, when the Lord sent Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones, He
didn't say go there into that valley and talk about those dry
bones good works. He said, go into that valley
and you preach my works. You preach what I'm going to
do, God said. And as you preach that, I'll
breathe life into those bones and they'll live. So that's what
Ezekiel did. Those that began hearing the
preaching of faith have to continue hearing the preaching of faith.
Look over at Galatians 3. We'll end with this. Galatians 3.2. These Galatians, they had begun
hearing about Christ's faithfulness, about hearing about God's works.
Then they started turning from the faith of Christ and they
started wanting to hear about the works of the law. And Paul
said, this is only what I learned of you. You received the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Was it
hearing of Christ's works by which God gave you the Spirit
or were you hearing about the works of the law? Look at verse
5. He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth he
it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Christ
who is working miracles in the hearts of His people, does He
do that by the preaching of the works of the law or by the preaching
of Christ's faithfulness? Look here. Here is the answer.
Verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Look at verse
8. because the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham. Abraham was saved by the same
Gospel. Saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed, so then
they which be of faith, those that hear of Christ's faithfulness
and are brought to cast their care on Christ through faith,
those are blessed with faithful Abraham. And I pray this morning
that God would make you to hear I pray God will give you a new
man within and give you faith to believe on Christ so that
God alone might sever all your works from the works of every
other man. Christ's works are made our works. All that Christ
did under the law fulfilling the righteousness of the law
is the believer's fulfillment of the law through faith. Through
faith. And I pray that He would work
in you, you that believe, work in you and make you do everything
He ordained before to be done. And cleanse it all with His blood
so that God says it's a good work. Remember Christ, that woman
came with that alabaster box of ointment, broke it and poured
it on His head? And all his disciples, his apostles
stood there and murmured and complained about it because they
didn't think she did it like she should have done it. What
did Christ say? She had done a good work. She
did a good work. Alright, let's stand together.
We'll take a short break. Father, thank You for bringing
us all again safely. Thank You for giving us a picture
of Your works and what You do to make believers accepted. We pray now that You would bless
us to hear Christ, hear Him exalted, see Him and be constrained by
Him alone. Turn us, Lord, from our sin and
cleanse us and forgive us, Lord, our sin and cause us truly to
worship You. We ask it in Christ's precious
name. Amen.