2 Peter chapter 2. Now verse 18 says, Peter speaking
here of these false teachers. There's three things here that
stand out. Three things that stand out. He speaks here, first
of all, of what they speak. He says, when they speak great
swelling words of vanity. And then he tells us how they
attract. He says, they allure. The word
is bait and trap and snare. They allure through the lust
of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that are almost escaped
from them who live in error. They do it through what the flesh
craves, what the flesh lusts after and wants. And then it
tells here about what they promise. It says, verse 19, while they
promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.
For of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in
bondage. So we've got three things here that stand out. We've got
the word they speak. They speak great swelling words
of vanity. We've got their attraction. They
allure through the lust of the flesh. And we've got their promise. They promise them liberty. And
I want to use these three headings for our headings today, and I've
titled this, The Great Word of the Gospel. We're going to look
first of all at the gospel, the word we speak. And then secondly,
we're going to look at the attraction of the gospel. And then thirdly,
we're going to look at the promise of the gospel. The words we speak
are the gospel. Paul said, it's my gospel. And
I'm telling you, by God's grace, this is my gospel. He made it
so. He made it my gospel. Now verse
18 says of false teachers, they speak great swelling words of
vanity. Our gospel is great. It is great. It's great because our gospel
is concerning our great God. Deuteronomy 10, 17 says, the
Lord your God is the God of Gods, and the Lord of Lords, the great
God, mighty and terrible, which regardeth not persons nor takes
reward." You can't offer him anything. You can't turn him.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, for
the poor sinner. He executes judgment for the
fatherless and the widow. He loves the stranger. He gives
him food, Christ our bread and raiment, Christ our righteousness.
He does that. The Lord is a great God and a
great King. Above all gods in His hand are
the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is
His. The sea is His. He made it and
His hands formed the dry land. He owns everything. Everything's
His. He's called in Titus 2.13 the
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. That's why our gospel's
great. It is great. It is great. Our
gospel is great because our gospel declares, as the Hebrew writer
said, so great salvation. So great salvation. The Lord
brought a, in 1 Samuel 19, 5, it says the Lord brought a great
salvation for all Israel. The Lord did it. That's what
our God declares. Salvation, or our gospel declares
salvation is of the Lord. Of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And you and me ain't in that,
we're not in that equation. The saving part is all Him. He
does it. He does it. That's why it's so
great. God the Father, Ephesians 1-3 tells us, God the Father
elected whom He would unto salvation in Christ. It says, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according
as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Why did He do that? So when we fell in Adam, in Christ,
before Him, before God, we would be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Because He put us in Christ and
always looked at us in Christ from the very beginning. And
He predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. according to the good pleasure
of his will. He told Moses, I'll have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy.
That's why our salvation, our gospel is great, a great gospel. It's great because God the Son,
Christ Jesus, came into this earth and took our human flesh
Because the elect were flesh and he came to live and to die
and to fully, completely, thoroughly accomplish redemption for us
and put away all our sin. He didn't come into this world
and try to do it. He didn't come. He shall not
fail till he has set judgment in the earth. That's what Isaiah
said by God's grace concerning him. He said when he prayed to
the Lord in John 17, he said, Father, I have glorified Thee
on the earth. I have finished the work that
You gave me to do. What's that work? Hebrews 1.
Hebrews 1. Here's that work. Here's that
work. I'll have you turn to these two
scriptures I'm fixing to have you turn to quite a bit. And
I'm going to keep having you turn to them. Hebrews 1.3, "...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 on the right hand
of the Majesty on high." Look over at Hebrews 10, and you hold
your place in Hebrews. We'll come back there in a moment.
I want you to see these Scriptures. Now look, when he by himself
purged our sins, you know what that means? That means that when
he did that by himself, they were purged. It was done. They were gone. The sins of somebody,
the sins of those for whom he died, they were gone when he
died. They put away when he died. He did that. Then, right then,
they're gone. That's why He sat down at the
right hand of the Father. There wasn't anything else to
do. He finished the work. He did it. That's what God sent
Him to do. Look at Hebrews 10, 12. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice, four sins forever set down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expect until his enemies be made his footstool.
Why did he do that? For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He finished the work God gave
him to do. And then our gospel is great gospel because it speaks
of God the Holy Spirit who comes and regenerates and gives faith
and repentance to each and every one of those elect children whom
God chose and whom His Son redeemed. We got to be brought into an
understanding of what these great, great things God's done for us.
And so, we're born, John said, John 1, 13, not of blood. It's
not family relations that makes you a child of God. Abraham had
a, he had a son named Isaac and a son named Ishmael. And God
said, Ishmael's the work of your hand, Abraham. You tried to make
Ishmael. Isaac's going to be the son of
promise. I'm giving you Isaac because he's a picture of Christ
who's coming in whom my salvation is completed by me. We're born
out of blood. We're born not of the will of
the flesh. It's not because a preacher constrained
you and he talked you into something and he got you to do something.
That's not how you're going to be born of God. And it's not
the will of man. It's not how to be born again. I can't tell you how to be born
again anymore than I can tell you how to be born the first
time. You got nothing to do with it. God does it. God does it. But of God, that's how we're
born. He's not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Circumcision's
not that that's outward in the flesh. He's a Jew, which is born
one inwardly. Not in the letter, but in the
spirit, whose praise is not of man, but of God. God does this
work. And each one of those chosen,
redeemed children, they're gonna be kept by our God, and none
is gonna be lost. That's why our gospel's the great
gospel. Philippians 1.6 Paul said, I'm
confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's
not going to stop. The Lord said, my sheep hear
my voice, and they follow me, and I know them, and they follow
me, and he said, and I give unto them eternal life. Does the Lord
give eternal life to his sheep and then something causes them
to go, no, I'm taking it back. No. He said, I give them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. And our gospel is not only great, our
gospel is through the Word. He said here, they speak great
swelling words of vanity. Our gospel is great. And our
gospel is through the Word. It's through the incarnate Word. Christ Jesus the Lord. He, the
Word, the Word, the Word that was in the beginning with God.
That Word that said into whose hand the whole work was entrusted
before the foundation of the world. That Word that was going
to get all the glory for doing the whole work. He started the
whole work by doing this. Let us make man in our image. after He spoke the heavens and
the earth into existence. This is the Word that created
all things. Colossians Paul said, He's the
one by whom and for whom all things were made. This is the
Word we're talking about. And then that Word came to where
we are. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And John said, And we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
God the Father gave the whole Word to us. He created the world
in which he was going to come into and accomplish the salvation
of his children. And He's the one that speaks
that word just like He created that first creation. He's God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness in that first
creation, who speaks that same word and shines the light of
His gospel into the heart and causes us to see the glory of
God in His face, in the face of Christ Jesus. He's the one
the whole work's entrusted to. God gave it to Him. Of His own
will begat He us with the word of truth. being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever, in whom ye also trusted after you heard
the Word of truth." You know what Satan is propagating? You
know what Satan is going into the earth speaking? Lies of deception. You know what God's speaking?
You know what He's sending forth into the world? The Word of truth.
God don't operate in lies. He's the God of truth. God of
truth. For our gospel, Paul said to
the Thessalonians, came not unto you in word only, but in power
and in the Holy Ghost in much assurance. So it does come in
word, but our gospel's not vanity. It's not vanity. You know why?
Look at Isaiah 55. I'll show you why our gospel's
not vanity. Our gospel's not vanity because it never, ever
goes forth without accomplishing exactly what God sent it to accomplish. Isaiah 55, 11. It never returns
to him void, ever. Isaiah 55, 11. He says, So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. You see there where
he said that word's going out of my mouth? You ever heard God
speak? You ever heard him speak? He
said this word is going out of my mouth. Look back at Isaiah.
This just occurred to me. Look back at Isaiah. Look back at Isaiah 52. Look at verse 5. He says, Now
therefore what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken
away for nothing? They that rule over them make
them to howl, saith the Lord, and my name continually every
day is blasphemed. Now watch what he said, Therefore
my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in
that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold, it's I. He said
the word's going out of my mouth. You ever heard him speak? You
ever heard him speak? How does he speak? Look at verse
7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings
of good, that publishes salvation, that saith undesigned, Thy God
reigneth. Thy watchman, His watchman, those
He sends, shall lift up the voice. I'm lifting up my voice right
now. And you know who I'm hoping I'm lifting it up with? You know
who I pray and I'm lifting up my voice with? He said the word's
coming out of my mouth, He said. Look at verse 8. with the voice. I'm lifting up my voice and I
pray I'm lifting it up together with the voice, with the voice
that I'm singing right now to you this gospel and he's singing
it to you right now. Because if I'm doing it by myself
it won't do any good, but if he's speaking it, it will. It
will. And it never returns to him before,
for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord springs again.
But any word that comes forth and it makes salvation to be
conditioned in any way upon any merit in the sinner, any work
in the sinner, anything done by the will of the sinner, that
is great swelling words of vanity. That's what it is. And it's not
the Gospel. It's not the Gospel at all. Salvation
is by grace. It's not by works. Romans 11,
if you want to look there with me, Romans 11 verse 5. Paul said, Paul said, even so then, Romans
11 5, at this present time also, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
That means they are, you heard me say, mutually, grace and works
mutually have the same thing in common. And it's this, they
are mutually exclusive of the other one. If it is, if it is
grace, then it is no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
If it's works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no
more work. It can't be a mixture of the two. Salvation has got
to be all of grace, all by the finished work of Christ Jesus
through faith which rests entirely in His doing and dying on our
behalf and not by our law keeping. And that's how salvation is.
Galatians 2. Let's look over there. Galatians
2. Anything that tells you otherwise are great swelling words of vanity. Galatians 2 and verse 21. Paul
says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If I have to
do something according to the law for God to receive me, what
Christ did on the cross was absolute vanity. Now, any word that tells
you you have to do something, I tell you what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna stand with Paul. I'm gonna stand with Paul and by
God's grace, I'm gonna say, now, I'm not gonna frustrate the grace
of God because I don't want what Christ did on that cross to be
labeled vanity. I don't mind if those great swelling
words that preachers are lying to folks about, if I tell you
that's vanity, that don't bother me. But I'm not going to stand
with them and tell you that what I'm telling you is vanity. That
Christ died in vain. I'm going to stand with Paul
and say, that's vanity. What they're saying is vanity.
I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God, because if righteousness
comes by the law, Christ died in vain. The believer's sanctification
is not by the law. Look at Galatians 3.2. This only
would I learn of you. Received you the Spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?
Are you? Hold your place in Galatians
and go back with me to Hebrews. I want you to see this. Hebrews
2 verse 11. Just speaking of Christ. Hebrews
2 verse 11. You see the word here? Both He
that sanctifies, that's Christ. You just see who it says does
the sanctifying? Christ does. He that sanctifies and they who
are sanctified. You see that? Those who are sanctified
are all of one. Now who in that equation did
the sanctifying? Christ did. He did sanctify.
He did sanctify. And those that He has sanctified,
they're all sanctified. They are sanctified. And they're
all of one. They're one in Christ. That's
what it is to be sanctified. It's to be separated out of darkness
into light. It's to be brought out from among
idolatry into the glorious light of the liberty of the sons of
God. It's to be brought out of that bondage into that liberty.
It's to be brought out of darkness into light. It's to be brought
from being unfit to be made meat to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light that are already in glory. See, you can't
come into God's glory unless you're holy. It's called holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. Now here's where Satan
has entered in. What men used to call progressive
sanctification was true. I think what John Gill says about
progressive sanctification is progressive sanctification. It's
how it ought to be taught. That is, when a person is brought
out of darkness into light and he's made a new creature in Christ,
he's holy. It's done. He's come out from
among them by God's grace and he has perfected holiness. It
is done. He's holy now. He's holy now.
And he's going to grow now, not in holiness. If he died right
now, he's got the holiness to be with God, because that holiness
is him that sanctified it. It's Christ. But in that state
of holiness, he's going to grow in knowledge and understanding
and patience and love. and virtue, he does grow, just
like a baby grows. But when that baby's born, that
baby is a, it's manhood. It don't become more manhood.
It is manhood. It's a man. It grows from a baby
up in that state of manhood. You understand what I'm saying?
And the reason that's important is, is he's the one who sanctified. The law made nothing perfect.
But the bringing in of a better hope did. Christ did. By the
witch we draw nigh to God. That's how God will receive us.
It's got to be perfect to be accepted of God. You've got to
be holy to come into God's presence. I was thinking about this this
morning. I was thinking about those meats and things that those
meats and all those things that, and all the different things
that God gave. And he, you know, you couldn't eat, you couldn't
eat. The Jews couldn't eat pork. They couldn't eat shellfish and
different things like that. They could only eat other meats
that he told them they could eat. Women, certain time of the
month had to go elsewhere. They couldn't live in the same
house with the man, couldn't sleep in the same bed with the
man. And all of those things, you know what God was teaching?
You know what the lesson is God's teaching? God's the one that
makes the difference between who is holy and who is not holy. That's what He was teaching in
all of that. Do you remember Peter? Peter's going to be sent
down to Cornelius, who's a Gentile. He's going to go down there and
preach the Gospel to Cornelius, and God's going to pour out the
Holy Spirit on him, and he's going to be baptized and rejoicing
the Lord. Now, he's a Gentile. And Peter's
not, he's been taught in the law, don't have anything to do
with Gentiles. They're not holy, they're not clean. And so to
get him to go down there, the Lord teaches Peter this lesson
all over again. Peter knew this, he'd experienced
this, but the Lord teaches him all over again. And the Lord
sent, he saw, he was real hungry, he was up on the top of the roof
praying, and he was hungry, and there was a net that came down.
And he saw all these different kinds of beasts in that net.
Clean and unclean, according to the law. They were all in
that net. And the Lord said, Arise, Peter,
kill and eat. God's not a member of PETA, by
the way, either. He said, Arise, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter
said, Not so, Lord, because nothing unclean has ever entered into
my mouth. I know what your law says. It says I can't eat anything
that's unclean. And the Lord said, Peter, here's
what that means. Don't call that which I've cleansed, which I've
purified, which I've made holy. Don't call it common. I'm the
one who puts the difference between these two. Now, you're going
down there to a Gentile that I have chosen and sanctified
in Christ by my electing grace, that my son has redeemed and
purified by his grace, and you're going to go down there and preach
this gospel to him, and I'm going to pour out my Holy Spirit upon
him. And he's clean. He's clean. Now get down there
and preach the gospel to him. And he hadn't even sooner said
it than, here come those fellows from Cornelius's house. The Lord
stood up there, and they said, where's this man that's going
to preach this gospel to us? The Lord makes the difference. The
Lord puts the difference. Holiness is of the Lord. It's
not of man. It's of the Lord. But anybody
that turns you back to your flesh and turns you back to the law
for justification or for sanctification, they're speaking great swelling
words of vanity. Look at Colossians chapter 2. I'm going to have to hurry. And
I just want you to see this. We won't spend quite as much
time on our other points, but I've got to lay this foundation. Colossians chapter 2, verse 8. Our gospel is the great word
of God which declares that in Christ the believer is complete.
Look at verse 8. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit. And that is the tradition of
men. That's what man's accustomed to doing. is spoiling folks with
philosophy and vain deceit, thinking man can do something that only
God can do. After the rudiments of the world,
turning you back to the law, to the elements of the world,
and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you see this next word? In
your complete in Him. It's the same word that means
fullness right there. Same word. Just as all the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Christ, that's just how complete you
are in Him. That's what God said. Which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also you're circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands. You didn't do this, He did it.
He put off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ, which He accomplished. You've been buried with Him in
baptism, when he went into that, immersed in the judgment of God
and went into that grave, wherein also you're risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God. When he came out, God brought
him out. He brought all of his elect out
who raised him from the dead. And you, here's where you were,
you and I were, dead in your sins in the uncircumcision of
your flesh. That's where we were right there.
God hath quickened together you with Him, and forgiven you all
trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the
way, nailing it to His cross, and has spoiled principalities
and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in all this salvation." You see that? God did that. That's
what God... So, keep your place in Colossians. We'll come back there, too. But
look, this gospel is great because it's saying, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, He's made us accepted in the beloved.
So God gets all the glory. Now anything else is just great
swelling words of vanity. Alright, let's talk about the
attraction of the gospel. The attraction of the gospel.
Paul said, they allure, they trap, they capture you and bait
you by appealing to the flesh what the flesh wants. Wantingness
is just a word for wants. That's what the flesh wants.
It's what it craves. It's the lust of it. And that's
what he says these false teachers appeal to. Now is there anything
I've told you today that gives you any warrant to trust in your
flesh at all? Anything I've said to you that
said anything good about your flesh, about you and me, outside
of anything Christ has done for us? That's what the flesh hates. The flesh hates that. That's
offensive to a proud, arrogant man that thinks he can earn this
salvation. But here's what false teachers
do. Let me just state this plainly. What's the attraction of our
gospel? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what I've been
preaching to you since I started. That's what we have to attract
with. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it. We're not hunters.
We're not hunters. We don't hunt. We don't hunt.
We don't drop a hook down and try to bait somebody and snatch
them with a hook. We preach the gospel. We preach
the gospel. It's like a net that fish just
swim right into it. But listen to this now, false
teachers, Psalm 12 tells us this, false teachers beguile, they
allure, they bait, they trap by appealing to the flesh. They
do it by flattering sinners, by putting a part of God's salvation
in the sinner's hand. Psalm 12 1, David said, Help
Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. For the faithful fell from among
the children of men." They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor. Paul says, don't lie anymore
to your neighbor. And that's what a believer is born of God,
he stops lying to it. But until then, they speak vanity,
everyone with their neighbor, with flattering lips and a double
heart do they speak. They got a motive. And it's not
the glory of God. It's that new car that the preacher's
driving. It's that big building he's trying
to build. It's glory in your flesh and what they constrained
you to do. It's something other than the glory of God. That's
what Paul said. Verse 3, the Lord shall cut off
all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who
has said with our tongue will prevail. Our lips are our own.
Who's Lord over us? Look at verse 8, the wicked walk
on every side when the vilest men are exalted. You'll catch
a whole lot more with bait and alluring and catering to the
flesh, then the gospel will. The gospel is always saving a
remnant in every generation. The kingdom of God comes without
observation. That other kingdom, it comes
with all kind of pomp and circumstance and hoopty-doo, and boy, it's
making a big show in everything it's doing. And people just flock
to it. They'll flock to it if you tell
a man he can do something. There's none righteous, no, not
one. None righteous, no, not one. What about after a man's
converted? Surely after a man's converted, David had been converted,
and David said this after he'd been converted. He said, man
at his very best state is altogether vanity. Altogether vanity. He said, when he was dying, he
said, God has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure, and this is all my hope and all my
salvation. What about the Apostle Paul?
After he was converted, the Apostle Paul said, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me. Now that God's made me willing
in the day of his power, I have a willingness now. I desire to
serve God with my inward man, he said. But how to perform that,
which I want to do, I don't find it. You know what he's saying?
He's saying the very best righteous deeds I have ever done according
to the law, even now that I've been saved by God's grace, fall
short of the glory of God's righteousness. The glory of the righteousness
of Christ. I want to live up to that. I want to, but I can't. I just can't do it. Well, you're
going to have to have a righteousness. He's the Lord my righteousness.
His obedience is my obedience. Peter, he saw the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when he saw it, he fell down
at the knees of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, Lord, depart
from me. I'm a sinful man. That's all I am. false teachers
bait men by giving them titles and positions in the church and
entertainment and all these things, they'll put your name on a parking
spot, they'll put your name on the back of a pew, they'll put
your name on the church building, they'll give you a title in the
church, they'll give you a position in the church, anything. You know, when a new church starts,
a new church begins, one of the first items on the agenda is,
let's ordain some deacons. We got to ordain some deacons.
We got to make some deacons now. Because if we don't, if we don't,
if we don't make this thing conform and look like that ungodly form
of religion we're copying, if we don't do that, then folks
might leave and say, well, I'm not leaving anything. Y'all got
nothing there. You know, whenever the Lord put it on Peter's heart
to call out and tell them to pick those seven deacons in the
early church. Do you know how many people was
in the church at that time? They started with 120. And on
the day of Pentecost, through the preaching of the gospel,
the Lord added 3,000 to the church. And after that, the Lord added
5,000 to the church. And the scripture says, and believers
were the more added to the Lord multitudes, both of men and women.
And then you get to Acts chapter six, and it says, and in those
days when the numbers of the disciples was multiplied, and
not until then, not until God had provided the faithful men
and had tried those faithful men and approved those faithful
men, did God send a reason to use those faithful men. And those
widows started murmuring and saying, we got nobody. And Peter
said, We've been called to pray and preach this gospel. Pick
out seven faithful men. And they were there. The Lord
had provided for them. But that wasn't the first thing
of business. That wasn't the first point of
business to do. The Lord provided them. When
Simon Magnus, he came to Peter, he saw Peter put his hands on
somebody and he saw the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to him,
those ascension gifts that Christ had given to manifest that he
was working in his people. They're not there now. We don't
have those gifts now. We got the word of God now. But
when he gave those, Simon Magus saw those, and he'd been a sorcerer
and a cheat and a rebellious man, and he wanted it. And so
this is what he did. Pastor, I don't want anybody
to know this. That's why I'm just telling this
to you. I was thinking about giving some money to the church,
like maybe $10,000. You think that would be okay
if I did that? And most preachers will hear
that and say, yeah, that'll be okay. You know, I've been thinking
about, you'd be good to teach Sunday school. Well, I don't
know, you think I'd be able to? You think I'm qualified to do
that? Preacher says, oh yeah, I do,
I do. You know what happened when Simon
Magus came and offered Peter money for those gifts? Peter
said, your money perished with you. And he said, because thou
hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
You see, it's not men that get gifts to teach and to preach.
If we read 2 Peter, Chapter 2, we ought to be very careful to
stand up and speak anything in the name of God, because it's
not a trifling matter. It's not a trifling matter. It's
not something that you just outline and jump up and hastily speak
something and give them a song or quote a song or a poem or
something like that and walk out and go. This thing is a heart
work wrote of God. It's a heart work that God brings
a man into. It makes him mourn for the people
and pray for the people and seek a word from God for his people.
And only God can give it, and only God gives that gift to make
a man so. And a man can't do it. That's
the point I'm making. Men can't give those gifts. Men
can't give titles and positions and make men anything. The Lord
did tell Paul, and Paul told Timothy, you commit this gospel
to faithful men who can teach others also. But it's Christ
that's got to give the faithful men. It's Him that's got to make
a man who He is to fill the office He's provided. Ephesians 4.11
says, after He ascended, He's the one who gave apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the work of the ministry. And he's the only one that can
do that. False teachers appeal to the lust of the flesh. Look
back at 1 Corinthians 1.17. Hold your place in Colossians.
I'm going to come back to it. 1 Corinthians 1.17. This is what we do. This is what we
do. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's what we do. Verse 17. Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. I just don't know how
much more plain it could be. That's what God sends His messengers
to do. He sent me to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words,
not crafting, not baiting, not leaving out something to give
man insinuation there's something he can do. Lest the cross of
Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which
are saved, it's the power of God. Look down at verse 23. The
Jews require a sign. They've got to see something.
The Greeks seek after wisdom. They're all up in their head.
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and He's
the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men. God doing it this way is much
wiser than anything man could have come up with or devised.
And He says the weakness of God is stronger than man. You see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God's chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God's chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty. He's chosen base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are nothing
to bring to nothing those who think they're something. that
no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him, of him,
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God's made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Yokes
and constraints and attractions and entertainments and bribes
and all of those things that men do, That's a bait. It's a
bait and it's a trap to those that are almost escaped. But
sometimes you end up finding out they come out of it. They
come out of it. They come, they sit, and they
start hearing the gospel. When they don't have them, the preacher
calling them up Sunday afternoon as soon as the service is over
and going, where were you today? Why weren't you there? Or they
don't come over every Sunday and tap on the door and come
in and say, now let me see what kind of books you're reading.
Let me see, let me check you out here now and make sure you're
walking a straight and narrow. And you don't have that yoke
and you don't have that government of men binding you like that.
Sometimes you find out that men never were worshipping God without
that. And that's not worshipping God at all. If you got to be
here because a man's got to constrain you to be here, if you got to
be here because you got to be guilted into coming here, you
ain't worshipping God if you do show up. God gives you a heart
to worship Him and make you come because you love Him. He makes
you want to walk the right way because you love Him. He makes
you want to honor Him in your life and every aspect of your
life because you love Him and you see what He's done for you.
God does that. We're constrained by the love
of Christ, not by men. When you preach this gospel,
you know what happens? Christ disciplines His people. Christ
edifies His people. Christ comforts His people. Christ
admonishes His people. He does all the things He tells
men to do. He does all of those things.
And we do the most of that through the preaching of the Word. There's
times when you have to speak to somebody outside and help
them and correct them about something. But I tell you this, I said this
to you over and over again, if the ax is sharp, If the gospel
you're preaching, this sword of the gospel, and you're preaching
this gospel, that axe is so sharp, it cuts to the root, and it cuts
down all those trees of rebellion, and it brings you into subjection
to Christ by His grace through the Word preached. But if that
axe is not sharp, that gospel is not sharp, You've got to put
forth a whole lot of swinging and a whole lot of sweat and
a whole lot of effort to try to chop down a tree. You've got
to go from house to house and try to yoke and bind and yoke
and bind. And what you're doing the whole
time is you're not in your study praying to God for a word and
seeking God's word in His word so that the axe is getting more
dull and more dull. And you've got to do that jump
more and more and more and more. And so it just ends up being
a lukewarm, watered down, dull bunch of nothing. And pretty
soon, the trees can just grow all they want to grow and do
whatever they want to do, because you can't keep up with them.
Preach the gospel and find out God does the work. God does the
work. All right, let me go down here
and I'll just close with this. What's the promise of the gospel?
He said, they promised them liberty. And he said, and they're themselves
the servants of corruption. For whom a man has overcome,
he's brought into bondage. False teachers make a lot of
promises. Health, wealth, happiness, prosperity. They even promise
you eternal life if you do steps A, B, C, and D. That's being
a servant of the flesh. That's what a servant of corruption
is. What's the corruption? Oh, that's
going out there and that thing and that thing and that thing.
Let me tell you something. The gun don't kill. The one holding
that gun kills. It's not the man who's in an environment that's bad,
that makes the man bad, it's that the man's bad. The problem's
in the mirror. The problem's us. The problem's
not the stuff. We're blaming the stuff. The
problem's us. That's the problem. That's the
corruption. And to tell a man he can come
to God in the corruption is being a servant of corruption. It's
being under the yoke of the flesh, under the dominion of flesh.
It's just to be a natural man. That's what it is. All right,
Colossians 2.18, I can't promise you anything. I can't give you
anything. I can't make any promises to
you. Paul said it's, he said, I'm Paul, and he said, and Apollos,
he said, we're just ministers by whom you believe, but the
Lord gave it to you. He said, I planted Apollos water,
but God gave the increase. I can't make a promise to you.
I can't make anything effectual to you. Paul said this, let no
man beguile you, don't let him trick you, don't let him allure
you, don't let him bait you of your reward and a voluntary humility
and worshiping of angels and intruding into those things which
he hasn't seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Don't
make a man try to make you to be humble and make you to do
those things. not holding the head, that's
the problem with him, from which all the body by joints and bands
have nourishment ministered and knit together and increase with
the increase of God. That's how we grow. That's how
we grow. From Christ the head, not by men. Wherefore, if you're
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living
in the world are you subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste
not, handle not. All of those things are going
to perish with the using. after the commandments and doctrines
of men. Which things indeed, they have a show of wisdom. It's
a fair show in the flesh, but it's will worship, it's a false
humility, it's just neglecting of the body, but it's not any
honor to the satisfying of the flesh. It's not, there's no comfort
there, there's no grace there, there's no life there, Paul said.
Well, but my God can promise you something. And this gospel
I preach to you is the gospel of promise. Peter said exceeding
great and precious promises. We got the promise of no more
offering for sin. We got the promise of reconciliation
by the body of his flesh through death. We got the promise of
eternal life. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life and I'll raise him up at the last
day. The promise of resurrection with Christ. We got the promise
of reigning with Christ. Him that
overcometh, I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as
I have overcame and have sat down with my Father in my throne."
These are promises of the gospel. And these are the promises that
He makes. They're of our mediator, Christ
Jesus. They're of our surety. They're
of the messenger of the covenant. They're of the author and the
finisher. They're confirmed by His oath written in the heart.
Paul said, you're the epistle of Christ written, not in stone,
in the heart that He made. Made good by His power, by His
faithfulness. Better promises than that old
covenant. Not temporal, not conditional, not legal. They're spiritual,
eternal, absolute, free, unconditional, irreversible, unchangeable promises. And I can't make those promises
to you and make them in your heart and make them take effect
in your heart. But he can. And he said, if the sun therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. You'll be free
indeed. You can't be brought back under
man's yoke. You can't be brought back under that bondage of corruption.
He bores our ear like that bond servant and He makes us willing
to serve Him. But not as servants, as sons. Not with the spirit again of
bondage so that we fear, but with the spirit of sons whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. Let me end by reminding you of
this. You be turning to... I got two scriptures, but let
me get you to turn over to Galatians 5. Galatians 5. Here, first thing is, our gospel
is not great swelling words of vanity. It's great. It's great,
and it does come through the Word. It is of the great God
our Savior that salvation is wrought by Him. The attraction
of our gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We're not
trying to bait and switch men. God's people don't have to be
motivated by promise of rewards or threats of punishment. They
just don't have to be. They're following Christ. Christ
does something a whole lot different than that. And thirdly, the promise
of our gospel is made in the heart of His saints by Christ.
He sets His people free. He gives them liberty. If you've
been made free, I'm going to read you Ephesians 4.17. Paul
said, Therefore I testify unto the Lord that you henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds.
Don't walk like they walk. They have their understanding
darkened. They're alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in them because of the blindness of their heart. Their
past feeling, they've given themselves over to this lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness, he said. But you've
not so learned Christ. You have not learned Christ.
That's not what Christ teaches us. That's not what he works
in the heart of his child. He teaches us, he says, put off
the former conversation, all the former conduct, that old
man, put him off. And he teaches us to put on the
new man that's renewed in spirit, that's created in righteousness
and true holiness. Not to lie with our neighbor anymore, not
to try to speak with flattering lips, but to preach the truth
to them, tell them the truth. And he teaches you not to be
angry and full of sin and strife and division when you hear men
blaspheme his gospel. Let the devil have place for
that. There is such a thing as righteous indignation, but it'll
go too far if you're not careful. And he teaches us to, he teaches
us to, the person that stole, don't steal anymore, but go to
work, an honest job that you have to give to them that need.
He teaches us to don't let any corrupt communication proceed
out of your mouth. I told the kids, I read this
to them Friday night, and I told them this. Can you imagine if
no corrupt communication proceeded out of our mouths? We wouldn't
have any news. We wouldn't have any newspapers.
We wouldn't have a phone, because that's most of what goes on on
a phone. We just wouldn't, we wouldn't.
I mean, all our forms of communication would be near as popular as they
are. If all you ever heard come out of somebody's mouth was that
which ministered grace to the hearer. That's what heaven's
gonna be. That's what heaven's gonna be.
That's what he teaches us. not to speak bitter and wrathful
and anger and clamor and all that, but to be kind, to be tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. To be, therefore, followers of children, dear children unto
God, following Him, walking in love as Christ also has loved
us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet smelling savor. That's what he tells us. And
then look at Galatians 5.1. That's concerning all that fleshly
old man in all our daily walk and life and immorality and all
those things. This is concerning now what the
flesh craves as far as the gospel goes. He says, verse 1, stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free. and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage. That's
what the flesh crave. The flesh wants it. We don't
want to be under the law when we're being whipped, but we want
to whip others. That's what the flesh wants,
exactly what it wants. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If
there's anything that you've got to do to bring you to God,
and you think you can do it, Christ profits you nothing. For
I testify again, that every man that is circumcised, he's a debtor
to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you're
fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, now
here's the positive side of that, we through the Spirit of God,
We wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We wait for it, in
the end we're waiting on it, for the hope of righteousness,
but we're waiting also on Christ to work it in our fellow brethren
through his gospel. to work righteousness in them
and make them follow Him. That's our hope. That's what
we're waiting on. We wait on Him to do that. That's how we
restore one another and bear one another's burdens and turn
each other back to Christ and just ignore the rest. That's
what bearing the burden is. You take all the stuff you don't
like and all the stuff that you think ought not to be and all
the stuff that is just sinful and makes you sick about your
brother, you just take all that on yourself. Absorb all those
fiery darts and those errors, those stinging remarks and everything.
You just take them all in and just keep on telling them the
truth and the good news and wait for the hope of righteousness.
That's how we walk. That's how we walk. For in Jesus
Christ, circumcision doesn't avail anything and uncircumcision
doesn't. It's not what I do or don't do.
I'm complete in Christ. Now because He's made me complete
and He's made me to know this, it does greatly affect what I
will do and what I won't do. It does do that. But what I do
and I don't do does not change at all. I'm complete in Christ. You understand that? But faith He says, neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which works by love. Do you see that? Do you see that?
Look over Galatians 6, last scripture, Galatians 6. And I say, well,
man, don't you believe the believers under the law as a rule of life?
I know that's been taught and everything. I don't. No, I don't.
Paul just said circumcision avails nothing and uncircumcision avails
nothing. Everything that the law says
is true. Sin is still sin. Everything it says is true. But
the law wasn't made for a righteous man. And God's children are righteous. We walk by faith in Christ and
we work by love now because we want to. We don't have to be
constrained by law. Now look at what Paul says in
verse 16. And as many as walk according to this rule, Do you
see that? That's the rule we're under.
As many as walk according to this rule. Peace be on them and
mercy and upon the Israel of God. Amen.