Okay brethren, let's turn now
in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 5. Exodus 5. The message of the gospel is
the good news of liberty and rest in Christ. That's the message
of the gospel. It's the good news of how Christ
accomplished liberty and how He frees His people to rest in
Him. But before we rest in Christ
alone, before we rest in Christ alone, we have to be brought
to see our bondage and our utter helplessness to save ourselves. Liberty and rest will only be
valued by those who have been made to see their total bondage
and their total helplessness. We come into this world and we're
in bondage to the law and to our sin nature and under the
power of the devil. That's how we come into this
world and there's absolutely no way we can free ourselves.
We cannot make ourselves righteous. We cannot put away our sin. Christ
is the only one who makes His people righteous. He is the righteousness
God has provided for His people. The righteousness of God. And
the only way that we establish the righteousness of the law
is through faith in Christ. That's the only way. Paul said
that so clearly in Romans chapter 3. God didn't set Christ forth
so that you and I could go around boasting and bragging about our
righteous obedience to the law. He set Christ forth to declare
His righteousness. And when He got through declaring
that, how the law shuts us up to Christ, the law declares us
guilty, how the law is not our salvation, how Christ is the
righteousness of His people. He then tells us the way we establish
the law and have that righteousness is through faith. He said, seeing
it is one God which shall justify the Jew and the Gentile through
faith. He said, do we then make void
the law through faith? Do you know what justification
is? Justification is establishing the law. Paul says, and God justifies,
whether you're Jew or Gentile, He justifies His people through
faith. Are we then making void the law
through faith? God forbid. We establish the
law through faith in Christ. That's what he's declaring. Liberty
in Christ and rest in Christ is God bringing us to submit
unto the righteousness of God. because Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And doing
that means we cease from trying to go about working out our own
righteousness. We cease from that. The second
thing is, Christ frees us from our sin nature. When He comes
and gives us life and faith in Him, He frees us from our sin
nature, not so that we can keep the law ourselves, so we can
believe on Him and rest in Him. He leaves us with an old man
of sin so that it's impossible for us to keep the law, but He
brings us in that new man to cast all our care on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's the only way we're
snatched from the devil and his taskmasters and freed from that
bondage so we can actually rest in Christ and worship Christ
and enjoy worshiping Christ. I've titled this message, Rest
from Taskmasters. Rest from Taskmasters. First
thing I want you to see here is the gospel that we're taught
when God begins to give us this liberty and this rest. The gospel
we're taught when God begins to give us this liberty and rest.
Verse 3. They had heard the message Moses
preached and they went to Pharaoh with Moses, the elders of Israel,
and this is what they are all declaring. They said, ìThe God
of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee,
three daysí journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the
Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with sword.î
God, people. His people are given liberty
because Christ comes to us. God comes to us. We're in bondage. We can't go to Him. He comes
to us. The God of the Hebrews hath met
with us, they said. That's the first step in being
freed and given rest. God comes to us. He is the God
of the Hebrews. That means He is the God of His
elect out of every nation on this earth who He brings to believe
on Christ. Galatians 3.7 says, the same are the children of
Abraham, for the scripture, for seeing that God would justify
the heathen, the Gentile through faith, preached before the gospel
unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. That means not everybody out
of all nations, but His Hebrew people. the elect out of all
nations shall be saved. So then they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham." That's who the Hebrews
are. They're the children of Abraham by faith, saved through
faith in Christ. We are the circumcision. We are
the true Jew, the spiritual Jew, the Hebrew of God, which worship
God in spirit, Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. The God of the Hebrews met with
us when the Son of God came to this earth and accomplished the
righteousness of His people by establishing the law for us.
That's when God met with us. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. God came in the flesh. He was
justified in the spirit. He was seen of angels. He was
preached unto the Gentiles. And He was believed on in the
world and received up in the glory. God came and met with
us and He accomplished the redemption of His people. And the God of
the Hebrews met with us when He came through the gospel and
He quickened us through His Word. That's what we have a picture
of here in our text. Aaron and Moses came declaring
the Word of God. And when He did, the elders of
Israel bowed their head and worshipped. And they were given boldness
to go to Pharaoh and declare this message. When born of the
Spirit, Christ calls us to walk in newness of life, not in the
oldness of the letter. He said there in verse 3, ìLet
us go, we pray thee, three daysí journey into the desert.î Christ
arose from the dead to newness of life after three days. Christ
arose from the dead to newness of life after three days. And
when Christ resurrects us in the new birth, He calls us to
walk in newness of life. Not in that old dead letter of
the law, in newness of life, in Him through faith. Romans
6.6. Let's go there just a minute.
Romans 6.6. This is what Paul is saying.
This is what Paul is saying here. Verse 6, knowing this, that our
old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. That's all we did in our old
man of flesh. But by sending Christ before
God, before the judgment seat of God, God has justly satisfied
justice upon that old man of each of his elect because our
old man died in Christ. So that we are not going to serve
sin anymore. God will not regard his child
as serving sin anymore because that old man is dead before God
in Christ. And he says, and he that is dead
is freed from sin. That word means he is justified. Justified. He is righteous. Now,
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with Him. See, there's two sides to this
coin. Christ didn't stay in the grave, He came out. Watch what
it said. Knowing Christ being raised from
the dead, dieth no more. We're not going to die anymore,
believer. He dies no more. Death has no more dominion over
Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once. But unto
that He liveth. He lives unto God now. Christ
lives unto God now. And He says, likewise, Reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are alive and living
unto God now. We can live unto God now, you
who are born again. And he says, ìLet not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust
thereof.î And like I said to you this morning, the chief sin
heís talking about is turning back to the law and going again
after those dead works by the works of our flesh. And I can
prove that because after Romans 6, where does he go? Look at
Romans 7. Verse 1, No you not, brethren, for I speak to them
that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man
as long as he liveth. Isn't that what he was just telling
us in Romans 6? The law only has dominion over
you while you're alive. Now you're dead, brethren. who
died in Christ. Verse 2. He said, The woman which
hath a husband is bound by the law. She is bound by the law
to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be
dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. And here
is what he meant. Verse 4. Wherefore my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. That you should be married to
another. That you should be united with another other than the law. even to Him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Like we
saw this morning, this is how we are born of God, how we are
the fruit of God, we are the child of God, and this is how
we produce children of God, and this is how we produce fruit
in ourselves. Christ produces it. Not the law. Look at verse 5. For when we
were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law
did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Just
like we saw with Paul. Just like he's going to go in
saying here in Romans 7. We saw it this morning. But now
we are delivered from the law. That being dead wherein we were
held. That's the law and our sin nature. The law has been fulfilled and
our sin nature has been crucified with Christ. So we have been
delivered from that wherein we were held. So that we should
serve now in newness of spirit, not in oldness of the letter.
Newness of spirit, walking by faith, following the Lord Jesus
Christ, obeying Him, following Him, honoring Him, constrained
by Him. newness of spirit. No more yoking,
and biting, and whipping, and condemning, and doing things
from a legal motive, but from the constraint of Christ's love. Because you want to. And then
look back now at our text. When God quickens us to walk
in newness of life, He teaches us to come to Him only by faith
in Christ. And He teaches us to walk by
faith in Christ, and worship by faith in Christ, and do everything
by faith in Christ. Look at verse 3. He says, God
called us not only to go three days, not only to walk in newness
of life, He called us to sacrifice unto the Lord our God. You see,
if you're going to come to God, you've got to have a sacrifice.
God won't receive you without blood. He won't receive a sinner
without blood. But the only sacrifice God will
receive a sinner in is the Lord our righteousness. When I say
we believe and we walk by faith and we're constrained by the
love of Christ, I'm saying we do everything through the blood
of Christ. He's the one sacrifice. We worship
Christ, we're constrained by Christ, we hear Christ in the
Gospel. This is the one sacrifice God is pleased with. We can't
come to God any other way than through faith in the Lord our
righteousness. He's the only righteousness God
will accept. And then, if we come with the
works of our own, we will surely die. This is why we don't go
back to the law. If we come with any works of
our own, this is why that old sinful heart that begins to think
in legal ways and think that there's something we ought to
do just so we can indebt God to us. When we start thinking
like that, That man has got to be crucified and the Lord puts
him down because if we come with anything other than Christ, look
at this, verse 3, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with
a sword. We come anyway, but Christ will
surely perish. Now that's what God begins to
teach us whenever He begins to call us out of bondage into liberty. But Satan and his taskmasters,
hate the message of liberty and rest in Christ. Satan and his
messengers, Satan and his preachers hate the message of liberty and
rest in Christ. And what we are going to see
here is Pharaoh and his taskmasters picture Satan and his preachers
in Will Works religion. Verse 4, they go and they tell
this good news now to Pharaoh. and to his taskmasters. They
are so excited. They know what bondage is and
so now they are so excited to hear this news of freedom by
Christ and in Christ. They are excited to hear it.
And they go tell Pharaoh, verse 4. And the king of Egypt said
unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from
their works? Who gave you the authority to
let the people stop working? Then he turned to the elders
of Israel and he said, ìGet you under your burdens.î Verse 5,
ìAnd Pharaoh said, ìBehold, the people of the land now are many,
and you make them rest from their burdens.î Pharaoh was not in
bondage, so he thought. His taskmasters were not in bondage,
so they thought. They had other folks in bondage.
They werenít lifting a finger to do that work. They had other
folks in bondage. Christ said to the Pharisees,
woe unto you lawyers, you laden men with burdens, grievous to
be born, and you yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your
fingers. You know why when there is something
that needs to be done here, I am the first one to do it? You know
why when there is an offering to be made, I am going to be
the first one to make it? Before I ever ask you to do anything,
you know why? I don't want to be like these
Pharisees who won't lift a finger to do a thing. I'm not going
to lay on you a burden if I hadn't lifted my finger to do it. And
Christ takes that burden off His people. He takes it off His
people. So when the devil and his taskmasters
detect, when they detect God's delivering one of His elect from
their bondage, from that will works religion, when Satan detects
that, when his will work preachers detect that, They become angry. They don't like it at all. And
their preachers, their will-work preachers will confront Christ's
preacher. They said there, wherefore do
you, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? I've
had that happen. I had a preacher call me and
ask me why I was preaching liberty in Christ. Where do you get it
that you're telling people that they're not under the law, they're
under grace? Where do you get that? Get it
out of God's Word? It's what God said. But they'll
confront the preacher and they'll say to the one God's calling,
get you to your burdens, get back to work. Get back to work. And they'll try to prevent the
rest of the people that are under their bondage from hearing it
too. They said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and
you're going to make them rest from their burdens. We're not
going to have that. We don't have that. It's because
Will Work's religion has no idea. The dead sinner has no idea that
the good news of the gospel is liberty from the works of the
law, from the bondage of the curse of the law and our sin
nature and Satan, from all that bondage to rest in Christ where
we actually want to come hear the gospel and enjoy hearing
the gospel and enjoy serving Christ and loving our brethren.
We don't have to be wimped. We like it. We like Christ. We like hearing what we... We
are doing what we want to do. If we could, we would do it without
sin. Notice that word rest. That rest
from their burdens. What does that word mean? Pharaoh
was so scared of this. You are going to cause them to
rest from their burdens. What does that word mean? Go
to Genesis 2. This is the first place the word
is used. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 2. Genesis 2 verse 2. Let's read verse 1. Thus the
heavens and the earth were finished. They were finished and all the
host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended
His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day
from all His works which He had made. There is the word, He rested. Why did He rest? Why did God
rest? Because all the works were finished. He rested because there was nothing
else to be done. The creation, the first creation
was finished. Well, go with me to Hebrews chapter
1. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the creator of His people. He is the creator of the new
heavens and the new earth just like He created the first creation.
He was the creator of that too. He was the one who rested on
the seventh day. Look here at Hebrews chapter
1 verse 2. Let me tell you this first. Whenever Christ was on
the cross, what did He cry out? It is finished. When did God rest in the first
creation? When it was finished. Well, look
here in Hebrews 1, 2. God hath in these last days spoken
to us by His Son. whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds. He was that one back
there that rested. What was he teaching us by that?
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of
His person and upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. Our Lord Jesus Christ cried out,
It is finished! And when He cried that out, He
had finished purging the sins of His people. He had finished
the work of redemption. He had finished the work of redeeming
all His people. Finished the work of declaring
God just and the justifier. He had finished the work of making
His people righteous in Him. And so He sat down. He rested from all His work. He rested from all His work.
Now go to Hebrews 4. When God causes us to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what He brings us to do. He teaches
us, that's what He was teaching us when He rested on the seventh
day in the beginning. He teaches us that what He accomplished
when He sat down, He did it because the works were finished. And
when He teaches us that, He makes us rest in Him. Hebrews 4.3 We which have believed, see that? We which have believed. He's talking about faith here.
He's talking about believing on Christ. He's speaking to Hebrews.
He's telling them, don't turn back to the law. Continue holding
fast to your profession, believing on Christ. Because we which have
believed do enter into rest. And that's what Christ was teaching
us back there in that first rest. Look here at verse 4. For he
spake in a certain place of the seventh day, on this was God
did rest the seventh day from all his works. That's what he
was teaching us about rest in Christ. Verse 10. Because he
that is entered into his rest, the believer that's entered into
Christ's rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did
from His. Let us labor therefore. Isn't
that an ironic thing to say? It's because what he said is
if you want to work at something, if you think that you need to
work, this shows you that they were thinking they should go
back to the law and work. He said if you want to work at
something, you labor to enter into that rest, into Christ our
rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. And I'll tell you what's sad
about Satan and his taskmasters. They take that very text right
there and use that text to say, you have to observe a Sabbath
day. And that's not... You can't read
the context of Hebrews 1 up to this passage or through the rest
of the book and anywhere in the book of Hebrews get the idea
that God is telling believers to go back to the law. You can't
get that from the context here at all. This is Hebrews who were
Jews who had been under the law who were thinking about going
back to it. And he said, don't dare do that. Believe on Christ. He's our rest. He's our rest. Now let's go back to our text.
But what happens when Satan and his taskmasters hear that? When
they hear God's preacher declare that, what do they do when one
of their servants begins hearing Christ is the believer's rest?
When they begin to hear Christ is the believer's rest and they
go and they talk to the taskmaster, what does he do? What does Pharaoh
do? What does the devil do in his
preachers? Verse 6. And Pharaoh commanded the same
day that the taskmasters of the people and their officers, he
commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers
saying, you shall no more give the people straw to make brick
as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw
for themselves. And the tail of the bricks which
they did make heretofore, you shall lay upon them. That means
they got to make the same amount of bricks as before. You shall
lay that work upon them. You shall not diminish all thereof,
for they be idle. Therefore they cry, saying, Let
us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon
the men, that they may labor therein, and let them not regard
vain words. When a poor sinner begins to
hear about rest in Christ, and he is in one of these wheel works
churches under Satan's taskmasters, Their answer to that, when he
tells them, I believe that we're supposed to rest in Christ. Their
answer is to laden him with more works and keep him in bondage. That's the message of free will
works religion. They accuse him, like Pharaoh
did, you're just idle. That's the problem, you're idle.
They forbid them from saying, let us go and worship Christ
alone and rest in Christ alone. Don't keep preaching that message.
Don't keep speaking that. Don't you be speaking that to
other people in this congregation. And they tell them to disregard
this true gospel, calling it untrue, calling it vain words. That's vain words. You can't
tell a sinner that he's free from the law. He will live like
he wants to. Bless God, wouldn't it be great
if He did? By God's grace. If that doesn't work, you know
what they do? They whip them. Look down at
verse 14. The officers of the children
of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beat
and demanded, Wherefore have you not fulfilled your task in
making brick, both yesterday and today, as heretofore? Now
here's what I'm telling you. Satan and his preachers love
religion. Pharaoh didn't bother them while
they were in bondage. Did he? He left them there. And when you're drunk and in
a gutter and all that, Satan will leave you alone. But when
you start hearing the gospel, and you start coming to Christ,
to believe on Christ, and telling others about Christ, and rest
in Christ, that's when Satan and his vain preachers are going
to attack you. And they're going to tell you
that you must earn a righteousness by your own works. They're going
to tell you, you must put away sin by your own works. They're
going to tell you, you must create a pure heart in you by your works. They're going to tell you, you've
got to grow in holiness by your works. They're going to tell
you, you can only please God by your works. They're going
to tell you, you've got to use your works to gain a greater
reward in heaven over somebody else. It's biscuit whip religion. dangling
a biscuit before you as a reward and whipping you the whole time.
We don't need that. Christ's people don't need that.
We have Christ. We behold Christ and what He's
done for His people. They tell you to focus on yourself
and the law and their church rules rather than Christ alone.
And I'll tell you what all that is. I'll tell you what every
bit of will-work religion is. It is as impossible to do as
it is to make bricks without straw. It's as impossible to
do as it is to make bricks without straw. Impossible. You can't fulfill the law. You can't please God any other
way. You know how they are going to
have to obey God? You know how the children of Israel are going
to have to obey God? They are going to have to leave that bondage.
and rest from all those works, those slavery, slave works, and
trust God. You know how you're going to
obey God? It's not by the bondage of those works that religion
puts you in. You're going to obey God by leaving
those works, leaving that vanity, leaving Egypt, and resting in
Christ. That's how. But when God's drawing
His child, something else He'll do too. Satan will even make
it so hard on you that you'll turn on God's preacher. He'll
make God's child turn on God's preacher. Look at verse 20. And they, this is the elders
of Israel, they met Moses and Aaron. This is after Pharaoh
laid all this burden on them. made their lives even more bitter
than it was before. They met Moses and Aaron who
stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And they
said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge, because you've
made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in
the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay
us. They've even turned now on Moses
and Aaron. What brought that about? Pharaoh
and his taskmasters. What would bring that about in
one God's teaching grace and liberty to in Christ? Pharaoh
and his taskmasters. I mean Satan and his taskmasters.
Things look pretty helpless here for the children of Israel, don't
they? They've heard this message of redemption and they went to
Pharaoh with boldness, excited, told him about it, and all Pharaoh
did was just throw it in their face, reproach him. They went
out to tell their brethren about this good news and they got out
there and Satan sent forth his taskmasters and just burned them
down with more and more works. At one point there, they went
back to Pharaoh and they thought they might get mercy from Pharaoh.
And Pharaoh accused them again, ìYouíre just idle. Itís your
fault.î And they even are brought to the point where they turn
on Moses and Aaron. Say, look at what you've done.
You've just made it harder on us by this message. You put a
sword in the hand of our enemy to slay us. That's all that's
happened here. But Pharaoh is being used of
God to accomplish God's purpose of teaching his child that all
the power is of God. And all the mercy and the grace
is of God. That's what he's using Pharaoh
to teach his child. And when Satan is allowed to
do these things to us, and his taskmasters are allowed to do
these things to us, God is using them to fulfill his purpose of
teaching his child that we're saved by God's power and God's
grace. And he won't teach us that message. until He has brought us to where
He brought the children of Israel, to the end of ourselves, to see
our total, thorough bondage and helplessness to free ourselves.
God won't reveal this to us until then. But then He does. Look at here. God delivers us
into that rest then so that we know God did it all. Look at
verse 22. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord,
wherefore hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it
that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to
speak in thy name, he has done evil to this people, neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all. By this God showed that
the preacher is not doing this work. Moses and Aaron weren't
doing this work. You see, they are brought to
the end of their selves too. God's preacher is brought to
the end of himself too. I'll tell you one of the worst things
in the world, or most difficult things, is to see a child that
you think is a child of God, that God is teaching the gospel
to, and you see them struggling with their sin and their unbelief,
and see that Satan inflicting all this affliction on them.
And you see that warfare going on. God is bringing them. He
is bringing them to believe on Christ. But Satan is trying his
best to keep them from doing it. And the hardest thing in
the world for God's preacher is to do nothing. Don't meddle
in it. Don't put your hand to it. Stay
out of the way and let God do what He is going to do. Trust
God to do what He is going to do. And that's what He showed
us here. So when everybody involved in
this was brought to utter helplessness, now look at chapter 6 and verse
1. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Now, now, now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall
He let them go. Look at verse 7. And I will take
you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And you shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will bring you unto the
land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob. and I will give you for an inheritance. I am the Lord. Now sinner, as
God brought you to the end of yourself, I pray, my prayer,
I laid there all night, last night, unable to sleep and praying,
Lord, praying for this one and that
one and the other one. Lord, bring them to the end of their
self. Teach them this gospel. Has God brought you there? Has
God brought you to see you can't do anything to save yourself?
I can't do anything. I'm staying out of the way. I'm
going to God saying, Lord, help. I can't do anything. Has He brought
you there? Where did Moses go? Where did
he go? Don't go where the children of
Israel went. They went to the preacher. They went to Moses
and Aaron. Go to where Moses went. Moses went to the Lord.
Moses went to the Lord. If you're brought to that place
where you can do nothing to live yourself, Christ says, He that
hath no money, He that is totally helpless, come ye, buy wine and
milk without money and without price. What's He saying? Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. And His rest, Isaiah 11.10 tells
us, His rest, O His rest, His rest shall be glorious. What is it? Listen to this. Through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Past, present and future. God says, to that child He draws
to Him. This is the glorious rest. He
says, you don't have any sin. You have no sin, past, present
or future. You can do nothing to bring yourself
into condemnation. You have no sin. My Son has put
it away. You have none. And by Him all
that believe, by Him all that believe, are justified from all
things. Justified from all things, from
every sin that plagues you and bothers you that comes up and
you can't... Oh, why did I think that? He justifies you from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. is glorious
rest. Isn't it rest, brethren? You
that have experienced this, isn't it rest to know that I don't
have to try to keep the law of God. I have established the law
of God in the perfection of Christ my righteousness. And that's
the only way God sees me, is in Christ my righteousness. When
God imputes righteousness to me, He's telling me, I'm accounting
you righteous because that is what Christ has made you. And
when you're righteous, brethren, sin can't condemn you because
you have none. And you'll never have any before
the law of God, before the judgment seat of God. You'll never have
any. Isn't that rest? That's the constraint, brethren,
that makes you stop trying to work with that legal motive in
your heart. I'm not saying you won't do works
of faith. I'm not saying you won't follow
the Lord in baptism and come to His table and unite with His
people in His church and hate your sin. I'm not saying that
you won't do any of that. You will do that. Faith without
works is dead. You will do that. The works I'm
talking about is rest from those works of thinking that all this
is done by you going back to the law and keeping the law.
The rest from those taskmasters of will works religion, whipping
you all the time and making you feel guilty all the time and
burdening you down all the time. You know better now than to go
back under that mess. Paul said, stand fast in the
liberty that Christ has given you and don't ever, ever, ever
be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And Christ won't
let His people... He's taught you now, you've got
rest. I'm not letting you go back in that bondage. Get that
rest, brethren. Sinner, this is what I'm telling
you. I'm telling you if God's brought you to the end of yourself,
take that burden and cast it all on Christ. He says, I will
give you rest. I'll take all that burden off
of you by letting you know. I put away your sin completely,
you are justified. In the law of Moses, your works,
nothing you do could have ever done what I have done for you.
That is glorious rest, brethren. And it just gets better and better
and better. Every hour of every day. You
know what we are doing? We are drawing nearer. You and
I who believe, we are drawing nearer. to that glorious liberty
of the sons of God. I envy my elder believing brethren
because they are nearer to that liberty that we will have when
we put off this body of sin and enter into His righteousness. That's what Paul said. We wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. That's what he's talking
about. We're waiting for that day when
this work is going to be totally done and we're going to be through
and through the righteousness of Christ with no old man of
sin anymore. And we wait for that by faith
in Christ. So what I'm saying to you is
what God said. He said, look unto Me. I want you all to do something.
Let's do an experiment. Everybody look up at that beam
right up there. You know what? I didn't see anybody
do a work to just look at that beam. I didn't see a one of you
do anything. You just looked. That's salvation. Look unto Christ and be ye passively
saved by Him. It doesn't matter where you are
on the ends of the earth, because He says, I'm God. I'm your Savior. And there's none else. Look to
Christ. God bless His Word. All right,
Brother Eric.