most instructive warning to heed. This is a warning from Christ.
That's the first thing I want you to notice here, that this
is Christ Jesus Himself that is giving this warning. That's
important because whenever we speak, we preach about false
preachers. We speak about sin and the sinfulness
of sin. We speak about certain sinners
and what have you. It's common in our day for men
to say, now wait a minute, Christ the Lord said, don't judge. He
said, don't judge. I mean, you'll hear men say that
a lot. Well, the Lord did say that. In fact, He said it in
this same sermon. Back up in Matthew 7 verse 1,
He said, judge not that you be not judged. The Lord teaches
His people to deal patiently and mercifully with all men. He teaches us to deal patiently
when we're dealing personally with men rather than condemning
them, rather than being judges of them. That's what He means
here. But there's a difference between judging someone, condemning
someone, and using spiritual discernment. There is a difference
in the two. For example, look here in verse
6. Right after teaching us to judge
not, The Lord Jesus in the same sermon says this, verse 6, Now
we have to use spiritual discernment to do that. We have to do some spiritual
judging using spiritual discernment to obey Christ here. He's telling
us there's a time to declare the holy gospel, the holy pearls
of the gospel to men and be patient and merciful toward them and
then there's a time whenever they make it known that they
reject the gospel and don't want to hear the gospel, there's a
time to dust off your feet. The Lord said in Matthew 10,
look there with me, Matthew 10 verse 14. He said, Whosoever shall not
receive you nor hear the words when you depart out of that house
or that city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto
you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Solomon Gomorrah
in the day of judgment than for that city. Now we have an example
of this over in Acts 18. Acts 18, the apostle Paul was
preaching and he was teaching some men and the scripture says
here in Acts 18 and verse 6, It says, and when they opposed
themselves, that's what men do when they reject the gospel,
they oppose themselves. And he said, when they opposed
themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto
them, your blood be upon your own heads, I'm clean, from henceforth
I'll go unto the Gentiles. Now men will hear that, men will
hear somebody say something like that and they'll say, now the
Lord said don't judge. But that wasn't judging. Paul
said, your judgment's left in the hands of between you and
God, but I'm clean from your blood. I preached the gospel
to you. That was Paul using spiritual discernment and obeying the Lord,
doing what the Lord said. So back in our text in Matthew
7, So it's not judging when Christ tells us to beware of false prophets. He's telling us to use discernment.
Now Christ himself warns us repeatedly in the scriptures to beware of
false prophets. I want you to see that, that
Christ himself gives this warning repeatedly. In fact, if you look
at Matthew 16, Christ even warned of whole denominations. What He says here is the equivalent
of warning a people of an entire denomination. Look at Matthew
16, 6. Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. He's saying beware, they're mixing
works with grace. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. That's a whole... The Pharisees
were a whole denomination unto themselves and the Sadducees
were too. He just lumped a whole denomination
of people into a category and said beware of them. And then
he warned us of our day. Look at Matthew 24 and verse
24. He said, there shall arise false
Christs and false prophets. He's talking about preachers
here. And shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if
it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. They're
going to be saying things and doing things that's going to
appear so much to be like the truth and so much like the gospel,
that if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect.
Now, Christ taught His apostles to warn others, and they did. They did as well. Paul said in
Philippians 3, 2, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware
of the concision. Those are not pretty words, but
those are words describing men who promote free will works religion,
idolatry, blasphemy against God. Peter said, Many, many shall
follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. Falsehood is so common and men
receive it as truth so commonly that when they hear the truth
and they hear the gospel, men speak evil of the gospel. The
Apostle John said, Beloved, believe not every spirit. He means preacher. Believe not every preacher, but
try the spirits whether they are of God. Because many false
preachers have gone out into the world. So, I'm showing you
Christ teaches His preachers by word and by example to warn
believers of false preachers. He teaches that. And so in our
day, it's important to know this is not being judgmental. This
is simply warning believers of false preachers. Now secondly,
look back in our text. He tells us about false preachers. The first thing he says here
is, you will not recognize them by their outward appearance.
Verse 15, he says, they come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves. An unregenerate man can take
on an outward form that looks like a sheep, looks like one
of God's elect, looks like one of God's sheep. But a man can't
change his own heart. Only God can change the heart.
And so, the heart of a false preacher, Ezekiel says, is wolves
ravening the prey to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest
gain. So, no man knows the heart, brethren,
You can't look on a man's heart. And so we're not going to be
able to discern a false preacher by outward appearance. That's
judging. That is judging. You can't discern
something by outward appearance. Okay, then he tells us there
is a way for people to recognize a false preacher. Look at verse
16. You shall know them by their
fruits. You shall know them, he said,
and you shall know them by their fruits. Christ's sheep. Look
at 1 Corinthians 2. This is very important. Christ's
sheep are given spiritual discernment. And what is it that we discern?
1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. What is it we discern when we're
given true spiritual discernment? Look at 1 Corinthians 2, verse
12. We have received not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God, that we might know, you see this,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. That's the gospel, brethren.
He's saying we know the gospel. We know the things God has freely
given to us. Now look at verse 13. Which things
also we speak. We speak these things, but not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth. You see, a false preacher
is going to use man's wisdom to teach the gospel. He's going
to be intellectual, he's going to try to impress you with his
intellect, and he's going to use man's wisdom and try to water
down the gospel and present it in a way that's not offensive.
Look at this, but which we teach, not in the wisdom man teaches,
but which the Holy Ghost teaches. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. In other words, we preach this
book. We preach scripture and scripture. We go to scriptures and look
at scriptures and see this is what God said. When you're preaching
what God said, you can see it in the book. And this is how
you know a man's preaching the truth by what he's saying. Is
it in the book? And he says there in verse 15,
He that is spiritual judgeth all things, because we have been
given this spiritual discernment. At the end of verse 16, he says
we have the mind of Christ. Christ is instructing us in our
heart. Now look at John 10. John 10. And look at verse 4. This is
what Christ said, He's the shepherd, His people are the sheep. Now
this is what He said in John 10, you know, in verse 4. He says, When he putteth forth
his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him,
for they know his voice. They know his voice. And he calleth
his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. And when he
putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will
they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the
voice of strangers. Now look down at verse 27. He says, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. This is the discernment He's
given to us. Now, go back to our text, and
let me show you this. He gives us an illustration.
Christ gives us an illustration. He says in verse 16, Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? If you're going to
gather some good fruit, like a grape, you're going to have
to go to a grape vine to get it. You can't get a grape from
a thorn bush. If you're going to get a good
fruit like a fig, you've got to go to a fig tree. You can't
get a fig from a thistle bush. That's just simple. Alright,
here's what he means by it. Look at verse 17. Even so, here's
the meaning that he's conveying. Every good tree bringeth forth
good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A
tree is going to bring forth fruit after its kind. So the
good tree is going to bring forth good fruit. The evil tree is
going to bring forth evil fruit. So what is this fruit then? He
is saying to us, you are going to know them by their fruits.
You got some discernment given by God. He says my sheep hear
my voice. And he says a good tree is going
to bring forth good fruit. An evil tree is going to bring
forth evil fruit. So what is this fruit we are going to know
the false preacher or the true preacher by? Look at Matthew
12. Matthew 12. And look at verse 33. Saying the same thing, talking
to us at a different occasion, the Lord said, either make the
tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt
and its fruit corrupt. So we see He's using the same
illustration here. Now here's what He said. For
the tree is known by his fruit. Now what's he mean? Listen to
what he says. O generation of vipers. He's
talking to some false preachers. O generation of vipers, how can
you, being evil, look at that next word, speak. How can you
speak? How can you preach good things?
How can you declare good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Now, Christ is saying
that the believer will be able to discern a true preacher from
a false preacher one way. It's by the gospel they preach. By the gospel they preach. Listen
to this from Jeremiah 23, 16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
hearken not unto the words Hearken not unto the words of the prophets
that prophesy unto you, they make you vain. They speak a vision
of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. Listen
for Isaiah 820. He said, To the law and to the
testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them. And that's about as simple
and direct as it gets. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. The preacher
that has been saved by the grace of God and sin of Christ is sent
to preach Christ. And he's sent to preach Christ
from the words of this book. And that's what he's going to
do. That's what he's going to do. And the false preacher is
going to preach man and he's going to give man glory. The
true preacher is going to give God all the glory. The false
preacher is going to give man room to boast. Christ sent preachers
to declare this, all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. And here's why we declare it.
God has made us to know that's what we are in our flesh. The
voice said, cry. Christ said, cry. He told John
the Baptist, preach. And he said, what shall I preach?
He said, all flesh is grass. The goodliness thereof is as
the flower of the field. It fades, it withers, it fades
away because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. And he said,
and so are the people, they're all grass. But it's the Word
of the Lord that endures forever. His Word never changes, it never
alters. So Paul was faithful to preach
that and he said it about himself. He said, I know in my flesh dwells
no good thing. He said it about himself. The
preacher that's preaching the gospel will tell you, I'm a sinner. There's nothing good about me.
The Lord of glory saved me by grace, not because of anything
good in me. And so we go to men and we preach
and we say, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God. It's an impossibility for a man
as he's born the first time to please God. He can't do it. But
the false preacher will say, oh, there's a little spark of
goodness in everybody. You just got to fan the flame
a little bit. That's free will. That's works. That's giving man
some glory. That's not offensive to a man.
Christ sent preachers are going to declare that God chose His
people and we didn't choose Him. And the reason we're going to
declare that is because God's been made us to see my flesh
is His grass. It's worthless. It's nothing.
There's nothing good in me. There was nothing good in me
for God to look at me and thereby choose me. Therefore, He had
to have chose me by grace. And that's what we preach. Christ
said, all things I've heard of my Father, I've made known unto
you. He's telling this to those that
he's going to send forth to preach the gospel. And he says this,
you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should
remain. That's the only way a man's going
to preach the gospel. That's the only way a man's going
to be saved. And so faithful preachers go forth and we go
forth declaring, so then it's not of him that willeth, it's
not of him that runneth, it's of God that shows mercy. But
the false preacher will say, oh, but it is partly up to your
will. No, it's not partly up to your
will. Scripture says it is not of him
that willeth or of him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy.
That shuts us up to the mercy of God, brethren. That brings
a man, if God blesses it to his heart, that'll bring a man to
the feet of Christ to beg mercy from God. Christ's preacher comes
forth declaring that Christ successfully, by Himself, put away the sins
of His people and redeemed each one that God gave Him before
the foundation of the world. Because that's the message that
declares God's just and the justifier of His people. That's the message
that gives God all the glory. Christ said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And He looked at some men there
and He said, but you believe not because you're not My sheep.
Why is it that God's preachers will go forth and declare that
Christ laid down His life for the sheep? It's because we've
been made to know and we believe the truth. because we're His
sheep. He called us out and made us
know this. So we say that when He had by
Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high. We go forth preaching and say, now once in
the end of the world has Christ come forth to put away the sin
of His people by the sacrifice of Himself. We go forth preaching
that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. That's why
He suffered without the gate. You see, it's all in His hand.
He did it. He did it. And He receives the
glory. Your faith don't make it effectual. My faith don't
make it effectual. He makes it effectual. He did
it. Faith merely... We urge men to believe on Christ. But we tell men, but your faith
is not what's going to make His blood effectual. Your faith is
not what makes Him to have put away sin or to have made His
people righteous. Faith merely receives that which
He's already accomplished. But the false preacher says,
he died for everybody. And if you want to make it effectual
for you, you have to believe. That puts the whole work of redemption
in the hand of a sinner. It makes the sinner the final
say in whether or not Christ accomplished anything. And that's
a lie. You want Christ to have the glory
or do you want man to have the glory? Christ's preachers declare
the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. We declare
that God must give a man faith and that God will do that irresistibly
by the Holy Spirit. He'll give him life, He'll give
him repentance, He'll give him faith, He'll bring him to the
feet of Christ. We'll be made willing in the day of God's power.
Now look at something, John 3. Don't you see something here? Paul preached it because he had
experienced it. He said, I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of his power. And when you've experienced
that, that effectual working of his power, then you'll tell
others about it. But until you've experienced
it, you can't tell a man something you don't know. It's just impossible. Look at this. The Lord told Nicodemus,
verse 5, that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And then he turned around
and said this in verse 11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
you receive not our witness. You see, the true preacher preaches
that which we do know. We preach that which we have
seen. And a man cannot preach what he does not know, and he
can't preach what he has not seen. Christ sent preachers to
declare that God preserves his people, and therefore we persevere
in faith. God preserves his people and
therefore we persevere in faith. He which hath begun a good work
in you, he will perform it on the day of Jesus Christ. That's
what the scripture says. But the false preacher will come
forth and he'll say, a man can be saved today and he can be
lost tomorrow. Why would you tell a man that?
To terrify a man so that you can get him to do whatever it
is you want him to do. You can terrify them and whip them and
make them do whatever you want them to do. Dangle a biscuit
in front of them today and put a whip on their back tomorrow.
That's a lie, brethren. God's people are preserved by
the power of God. He gets the glory for that. Faithful
preachers urge believers to do good works, but we declare that
God receives the glory for all our good works, beginning with
faith throughout the rest of our life, because we've been
made to know, by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest
any man should boast. We're His workmanship. created
by God in Christ Jesus, ordained unto good works, that He's already
predestinated us unto, that we shall walk in. So if a man does
any good work, we have to say, it's God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He gets the glory,
we don't get the glory. But a false preacher will spend
a whole sermon preaching on good works and say many good things
about it, but he never does tell the folks that it's only by God's
grace that you're going to do a good work. And it's God that's
going to get all the glory for it. So a man's left thinking
he can do all his works himself and he's puffed up by what he's
done. So you be sure you get what I'm saying here. Believers
discern good fruit from evil fruit by who gets the glory in
the message that's being preached. The man who's going to preach
from this word is going to give God all the glory because this
word gives nobody but God the glory. God says, I will not share
my glory with another. And the man who preaches his
own words, he's going to leave room for a man to boast. That's
just how it is. And that's how you discern the
difference. The Lord said a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
A little bit of leaven. You put a little yeast into some
dough and it's going to make that whole dough rise up and
get all puffed up. Let me ask you this. If you have
bread and it's 99% bread and you put just .0001% poison in
it, what does it become? It ceases to be bread and it's
poison. It stops being... Will you eat
it? Look at what's in rat poison. There's very little poison. But
they don't sell it as those other ingredients. They sell it as
rat poison. That's what it is. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. The Lord put it like this through Paul. He said, if it's
by grace, it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. That means it can't be both.
It's one or the other. And salvation is by grace. If
you mingle the two together, you got poison. You got poison. Now, go back to our text, Matthew
7. Christ goes on to say that preachers can only preach what
their heart dictates. Matthew 7, 18. He says a good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. That's an impossibility. The
preacher with a corrupt heart cannot declare Jesus Christ is
Lord, preaching salvation is of the Lord in spirit and in
truth. It can't be done. And the preacher
speaking by the Spirit of God cannot call his Savior a cursed,
which is what free will works preachers do when they preach
the will and works of man. It's called Christ a cursed.
Can I back that up? Turn to 1 Corinthians 12. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Look at I Corinthians 12, 3. I give you to understand that
no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. And no man can say that Jesus
is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Now, there are diversities of
gifts, he says, but it's the same Spirit. There are differences
of administration, but it's the same Lord. There are diversities
of operation, but it's the same God which worketh all in all.
Let me see if I can put that into an illustration for you. There's an old saying. It goes
like this. A man may preach the gospel better
than me, but he can't preach a better gospel than me. And
that's what he's saying here. He's saying all of God's true
preachers will preach the same gospel. One may preach it a little
better than the other, but they're all going to preach the same
gospel because it's the same God which worketh all in all. It's the same Spirit working
in them. One has more gifts than another, but it's the same Spirit
working in them. Now that's so. Now let's go to
the last point here. So a man can't preach this gospel
unless God's given him a heart God's speaking through him. It
just can't be done. Lastly, Christ gives assurance
to the false and to the true. Verse 19. Every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Turn to Jeremiah chapter 14. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Now this
is a word for all false preachers and for their followers. Jeremiah
14, 14. Now what God says here of the
false prophet of old is what Christ is saying of the false
preacher today, right here. Jeremiah 14, 14. Then the Lord
said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I sent them
not. Oh, I wish we could get that.
He said, The man who is preaching a lie, I did not send him. I
did not send him. We might love them, we might
think they're just wonderful people, but this is a fact. God
said if they're preaching lies, if they're not preaching according
to this book, I didn't send them. And he said, Neither have I commanded
them, neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a false
vision, and divination, and a thing of naught, a thing of nothing,
and the deceit of their heart. He said, That's what they're
preaching. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets
that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not. Yet they say,
Sword and famine shall not be in this land, Listen to what
the Lord says. By sword and famine shall those
prophets be consumed. And the people, and the people
to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem
because of the famine and the sword. And they shall have none
to bury them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters,
for I will pour their wickedness upon them. Now brethren, that
is why our rulers today are legalizing sin and why they're calling it
a civil right. It's because of false preachers.
It's because of false preachers. That's the first chief cause.
And that's why the people in great delusion are saying amen
to it and speaking evil of the gospel. I'm warning you of these
things because this world is full of false preachers. false
preachers, man-exalting, flesh-pleasing preachers. They will please you.
They tell sinners what sinners want to hear. They tell sinners
things that are not offensive. But Paul said, if I please men,
I wouldn't be the servant of Christ. If I don't preach this
word, and this word's offensive and men will hate you for it,
but he said, if I don't preach this word, I'm not Christ's servant.
The master says, beware of false prophets. That's not judgmental.
That's nothing but warning you for the good of your soul. That's
all that is. Now turn to John chapter 10.
John chapter 10. I've got one more thing to show
you here. Bless God by His grapes, His
sheep shall know the true from the false. He says in our text,
Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. That's how He
ends our text. He says, By their fruits you
shall know them. Every Christ sent preacher that
he has sent shall preach the good fruit of the gospel. Every
one of them shall. They'll do it in spirit and truth
because Christ promised it. He said, I will give you pastors
according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. That's Christ's Word. That's
His promise. And He does that. And all of
God's elect, everyone redeemed by the precious blood of Christ
and given a spiritual discernment by the Holy Spirit, shall discern
between the true and the false. Not one shall be led away by
a false prophet. Not one. Christ said if it were
possible, they would deceive the very elect. But thanks be
to God's power and the grace and the saving, irresistible
power of Christ our head and our captain, that shall not happen. It is not possible. The Lord
said this in John 10, 27. My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. Our Lord said, You shall know
them by their fruits. His people shall. His people
shall. So let's go to Hebrews 10. Hebrews
10, let's end with this. Now here's some good practical
instruction for us, brethren. This is what we need to put into
practice right here. Knowing these things that our
Lord Jesus has taught us, if you've been given a heart to
know the Gospel, He says this, verse 23, Let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful
that promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another so much the more as you see the day approaching.
It's going to get worse and worse and worse. And as you see the
day of Christ approaching, he says, so much the more you gather
together, you circle the wagons, you get together and you hear
this word preached. This is our defense, brethren.
This is what's going to save us from the enemy. The sword
of faith, the shield of faith is able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. And to have that faith, you've
got to hear the faithful one. You've got to hear the faithful
one giving you faith, strengthening faith, keeping you faithful.
That's what we need. Now look at what it says there. There's a warning there too.
Now look. If we sin willfully, if we turn away from the gospel
after we've heard it, if we sin willfully after we've received
the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. When he says sin willfully there,
he's not speaking about, you know, where you just go out and
sin. He's talking about if we willfully
turn away from the gospel and depart from the gospel, he said
there's nothing else for you. But a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. And I pray the Lord bless that
message to our hearts and make us heed what He said. Beware
brethren, beware. Amen. He is the sanctifier and He is
the sanctification of His people. Christ formed in you is the holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. He is our holiness. He is our sanctification. But
false preachers teach that once you have begun in the Spirit,
then you go back to Mount Sinai, you go back to the Law, and now
by your obedience to the Ten Commandments, you become holier
and holier and holier. And Paul called that bewitching. He called that witchcraft. Let
me read it to you. Galatians 3, 3. O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law? Did you receive
the Holy Spirit by your obedience to the Ten Commandments? Or by
the hearing of faith? By hearing of the faithfulness
of Christ. Was it by your works of the law
that you were born of God? Or was it by hearing of Christ
and His faithfulness? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? He's saying, having begun by
the hearing of faith, having begun by the Holy Spirit of God
giving you life in your heart, are you now going to go back
to the works of the law and be made perfect by your obedience,
by your flesh? He said, that's bewitching. That's
bewitching. He therefore, in verse 4, He
says, Have you suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet
in vain? He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you. He's speaking
of Christ Himself first and foremost. And he's speaking of that faithful
preacher that preached the gospel to them. He said, does he do
it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? The
one that worked this work in you, did he do it by your works
under the law or did he do it by hearing the gospel? You see
this point? We're going to grow in holiness. We're not going to grow more
holy. We are holy if we've been sanctified by Him. But we're
going to grow in that state of holiness. We're going to grow
in grace and knowledge of Him. But it's not going to be by the
works of the law. It's not going to be by hearing
the works of the law. It's not going to be by God doing
it through the works of the law. It's going to be done the same
way we started, by hearing the gospel of Christ and Him crucified.
That's where we stay. We stay at Christ's feet. Amen.