Alright, we're in Acts chapter
17. Now, the Athenians, the idolaters,
the philosophers in Athenia, imagined that God depended upon
them to build Him a temple. So they literally constructed
a temple for their gods to dwell in. they imagined that God depended
upon them to worship Him. So they had all these trinkets.
They had all of these things made by the silversmiths and
what have you to use to worship their God. And all kinds of ceremonies
that they'd come up with to worship their God. Now that's the heart
of all idolatry. And this is a, what you might
say is a magnified example of it right here. Everybody can
look at this and see this and say, now that's idolatry. That's
idolatry. But this idolatry is alive and
well in our day. The same exact thing. Have you
ever heard anybody under the banner of Christianity claiming
to preach Christ say, God has no hands but your hands and no
feet but your feet? God wants you to be saved. They take that verse, God's not
willing that any should perish, and make it to be God just wants
for you to be saved so bad. He loves you. I don't know who
God loves. I know He loves those He put
in Christ, and He loves His Son, and He loves all those who trust
in His Son. Some believers say that's idolatry. But then men who wouldn't dare
say something like, God has no hands but your hands and no feet
but your feet, will turn around and set forth things to do with sanctification
and holiness, as if God has no hands but your hands and no feet
but your feet, as if it's all dependent upon you. And it's
the same will worship as the universalist who claims that
Christ needs a center to make a decision for Christ in order
to make Christ's blood effectual. We must never put ourselves on
a pedestal. So as to imagine that God has
benefited or somehow dependent upon us in any aspect of our
worship. As though He's powerless to affect
it or as though He lacks something. If He hadn't have chosen you
and given you all spiritual blessings and benefited that He would need
something or wouldn't be complete if He hadn't have saved you or
me. Such conceit leads sinners to
exalt ourselves above God and to imagine that God owes the
sinner a reward for serving Him. That's what the end result always
is in such a thing. God doesn't need men's hands
to build the temple that He dwells in. And He doesn't need the strength
of man to make His elect truly worship Christ. And He's not
benefited or added to by those He brings to worship Him. Now
look in Acts 17, verse 24. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped
with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth
to all life and breath and all things." The title of my message
is, God Giveth to All. God Giveth to All. Now, in this
mention of a temple made with hands and of worship with men's
hands, Paul addresses the two elementary aspects of idolatry,
the two fundamental aspects of idolatry and the fundamental
aspects of the depraved nature. You might call them the two ditches
of the depraved nature. One, as I said to you folks,
making it as if by something you do, by your decision, by
something you do, you make yourself the temple of God. You can build
the temple of God. And that's just as much idolatry
as those fellows who went out and took dead stones and built
up a temple and said, now God dwells in that. For me to try
to make it so that you can do something for God to take up
residence in your soul is the same as if I said, you can build
you a temple and house God in it. God don't dwell in temples
that men make. He dwells in the temple He makes.
And then men turn around and say, now then, Here's how you
worship Him. And it consists in various things
you do or you don't do, you abstain from, that you engage in now
in religion. And those things, they say, now
this is how you worship God. And it's just as much idolatry
as those fellows who had created their ceremonies and created
their trinkets and all those things and said, now this is
how you worship God. We've got His house built, now we've got
a ceremony we've made, and we've got trinkets made, and we've
got all kinds of symbols and things, and this is how you do
it. But it's just as much idolatry to think we, by our decision,
can create a house for Him to dwell in, and that by the works
of our hands, we can create, or we can worship God. That's
not so. Now, I tried to show you last
week. I'm just going to briefly review this for a minute. But
in verse 24, he declares that God doesn't dwell in temples
made with hands, as though He needs anything from your hands
or mine. God created the heaven and the
earth, and the Spirit moved upon the face of the deep. And God
said, let there be light, and there was light. That's how God
builds His house, just like He created the first creation. It
begins with a body that He prepared for Christ to offer, to lay down
His life, to purge the sin of His people, and to make His people
holy. And when He prepared that body for His Son to dwell in,
the Holy Ghost moved upon the Virgin. And that body was formed. And God said, it's as if He said,
let there be light. The Son of God took up residence
in the womb of the woman that He Himself made. And in that,
God shows us exactly how He builds His temple. Paul said, He that
said, Let there be light. He hath shined in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus. Just as that Spirit moved upon
that void formless deep in the beginning. Just as the Holy Spirit
moved upon the virgin. The Holy Spirit moves upon a
sinner. And God says, Let there be light. And Christ is formed
in him. And God dwells in that person. He becomes the temple
of the living God through the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells
in that person, in a believer. And then Christ collectively
builds up those living stones to create His body, the church,
by moving upon them with the Holy Spirit and bringing them
together and building up His body and they offer up spiritual
sacrifices unto God. And that's how His temple is
created. He in them and them in Him. And therefore John said,
when he saw the celestial city, he said, and I saw no temple
therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it. God doesn't need me and you to build His temple. That's how
He builds His temple. He doesn't dwell in a temple
made with hands. He builds it. Now, we come here now to this
verse. Verse 25, and it says, neither
is he worshipped with men's hands. Just as he begins and creates
in the beginning, so then is continued and true worship is
the result of what God does and not man. Now I know this, what
Paul's speaking here, he's applying to these idolaters who had built
the temple and who had made all these symbols and they were worshipping.
But it applies just as much and it really needs to be hit home
to folks who, I told you the story, I was talking with a friend
one time that was over in the UK studying and he said, I was
referring to Isaiah where Isaiah said, you found the life of your
own hand and you weren't grieved. And he said, yeah, but those
were idolaters. Those people were steeped in idolatry. They
were worshiping images and things. And my point was, that's exactly
what you worship. You're making man out to be the
idol and man to be the thing to be worshiped instead of the
Creator. And that's idolatry. And if we
think idolatry limited just to those who are
making images outwardly. God has no hands but your hands.
That's idolatry. That's idolatry whether you got
an image or not. That's idolatry. That's an imagined
God and that's idolatry. Here, I want you to see first
of all, true worship. He says here in verse 25, neither
is God worshipped with men's hands as though He needed anything,
seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all things. Now,
worship, brethren, worship, let's look at what it's not, what worship
is not. Worship is not the things that
we do when we come here. Our singing, our reading, Our
praying, our preaching, and our hearing of preaching is not worship.
Worship's not outward morality or ordinance. It's not what you've
abstained from, what you haven't done, or what you have done.
whereby you touch not, you taste not, or you handle not. Believers
sing. Believers pray. Believers delight
in the gospel of Christ. Believers are zealous for good
works. Strive to mortify the deeds of the flesh. But those
things are the result of true worship. True worship. The praying
and the singing and the reading of God's Word, those are the
means whereby we enter in to commune with God. And that's
worship. These things are not worship. If you think these things
are worship, you're putting confidence in these things. These things
aren't worship. Worship is beholding Christ and sitting at His feet
and hearing what great things He has done. That's worship.
Entering into what He's done. And so, it's not, it's what Paul
said, we're the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Now, true worship is of God. We're not only created to newness
of life by God, we're not only made the temple of God, we're
not only built up a habitation of God through the Spirit, but
the believer worships God by the power of the Holy Spirit
in spirit and in truth. Now turn over there with me to
John 4, verse 20. John 4, verse 20. You'll see
here eight times, in this passage I'm going to read you, eight
times this word worship is used here. And it's used in two different
ways. It's used by the Samaritan woman
at the well in what she thought worship is. And it's used by
Christ Jesus the Lord saying what true worship is. Now let's
read this. In verse 20, she said, Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain. It's a physical place right there
where she was in Samaria. She said, Our fathers worshipped
in this mountain. And you say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. And all she's heard when she
heard Jerusalem is that physical place Jerusalem. Jesus said unto
her, Woman, believe Me. The hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at physical Jerusalem worship
the Father. And the hour was coming for her.
The hour was coming for her and was upon her. Because she was
fixed to find out what it is to worship God. You worship ye
know not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is. When the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. When the Father seeketh such
to worship Him, when the Father seeketh, when the Father seeketh
such to worship Him, They are found, they are brought to Him,
and they worship Him. And they stop worshipping a place.
They stop worshipping things they do. They stop looking to
outward ceremony. They stop looking to outward
signs of religion, whether it's in their own flesh or whether
it's in trinkets and idols and symbols and things like that.
They begin to worship God in spirit and in truth. You recall how Mary bowed at
Christ's feet. And as she bowed there at Christ's
feet, she bowed there hearing of what great things Christ had
done. Of hearing what she was in Christ
Jesus. Of being brought to adore the
Savior. And that's true worship. That's
true worship. is true obedience too. That's
true obedience. This world seems to be striving
to get men to be holy people so that one day they can present
them to the Father holy and spotless and without blame. And so they
preach obedience and they preach self-sanctification and they
preach holiness and separation. Or let me say it like this, when
you and I are sanctified wholly by God, that is when we're separated
out of this world completely by God, body, soul, and spirit,
completely separated from every bit of sin, everything that we
can do or we don't do, everything that we are in our sin. When
we're totally, completely separated to it and made totally, completely
obedient and conform to the image of Christ, you know what God
will have done when that takes place? He will have set us down
at Christ's feet to adore what great things Christ has done
for us. Do you want to make men holy?
Do you want to make men separate? Do you want to make men strive
to mortify the deeds of the flesh? Do you want to see sinners brought
to the feet of Christ? Stop preaching about serving. Stop looking to our service.
Stop looking to our hands. Start looking to what we haven't
done or what we have done. Stop looking to the law as a
measuring stick to determine how far we've come and how far
we need to go. And start looking to Christ so
we can see what we are. Holy. Righteous. Justified. Sanctified. Complete. As He is, so are we in this world. Nothing else remains to be done
in us, by us, or through us, but worship God, Christ, the
Holy One of Israel. That's what remains to be done.
That's what it will be when we're completely brought into perfect
obedience, perfect sanctification. It will be sitting at the feet
of Christ. Now why do we act like when we're in this earth
it's something else? Why do we act like sanctification is totally
something different? When we put the emphasis on our
hands and on what we say or don't say or think or don't think and
begin to look at ourselves to try to find assurance that we've
been set apart and made holy in Christ. That's not worship. That's not worship. It don't
even resemble worship. Worship is entering into what
Christ has done. in worshiping Him. That's worship.
Let me show you how God perfects this. Look at 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter
1. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us." Now how did they get it? How did
they obtain this like precious faith? It's precious because
not many people have it. And God don't give it but to
a remnant in any generation. It's precious. How did we obtain
it? He said they obtained it with
us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. You came into faith through the
righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, he
says, grace. that experience of grace working
in you whereby you are separated from sin and brought to truly
worship Christ and be obedient to God in all respects. Grace
and peace, confidence that you can be at rest, that the warfare
is accomplished, that the peacemaker has made peace for you and that
you have peace with God. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you. It grows, don't it? This thing
grows. This grace grows. And this peace
grows. And we indeed grow because you
know what? Every living thing that you have
ever seen grows. And the sinner is made alive
in Christ and he grows. He grows in this grace of wanting
to be separate from this world, of desiring to mortify the deeds
of his flesh, of desiring to follow after holiness, to follow
after peace with all men. He grows in these things, yearning
to adorn the doctrine of Christ. He grows in these things. And
as he grows in those things, in that grace of God, he grows
in peace with God. And how does that come about?
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now, let me ask you a question.
How much have y'all learned about computers so far and what I've
talked about? How much have you learned about computers and how
good computers can save you a lot of work and save you a lot of
time and effort? How much have you learned about
them? Not a thing, have you? Because I haven't been talking
about computers. Well, how are you going to know anything about
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord if you don't consistently,
continually, all the time talk about God and our Lord Jesus
Christ? And look to God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how this grace and this
peace is going to be multiplied. Now, take it all. The precious
faith that was given to us that we obtained, this grace and this
peace that will be multiplied. Now let's look at verse 3. How did it come to us? According
as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and godliness. Now how did He give that to us?
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue." Now how do we get that? "...whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises." I came into this like
precious faith and the grace of God is multiplied and the
peace of God is multiplied Because by His divine power and by the
knowledge of Him that called me to glory and virtue, He's
given me some exceeding great and great and precious promises.
That by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped. Not, if you'll work on these
things now, you can escape. Having escaped. And do I understand
English writers that past tense? Having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. Now, that's why we preach
Christ and Him crucified. That's why I constantly, consistently
urge you not to look to yourself for assurance, not to look to
what you've done for assurance, but to look to Christ, to hear
Him, because He is the one in whom all the promises of God
are yes and amen. He is the one through whom we
receive this knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our wisdom. He is the one who is the divine
power whereby we are given everything, all things that pertain to life
and godliness. He is. He does it. He works it. Now, secondly, God is the giver
and we're the recipients. Look at Acts 17, verse 24. Acts
17, verse 24, back in our text. God that made the world and all
things therein. seeing that he is Lord of heaven
and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath and all things." Now, this is important
to realize. In this word here where it says,
as though he needed anything, anytime that we imagine that
we can accomplish some aspect of our salvation, whether it
be in wisdom, in righteousness, in sanctification, or in redemption,
anytime, rather than Christ being all, then we most surely will
glory in ourselves. And when we glory in ourselves,
this is what we're doing. We're glorying in what we've
done in religion, And our boast is that we have perfected that
which God couldn't accomplish Himself. That's what our boast
is. We're finishing something God
couldn't finish Himself. We're, in our cooperative effort,
even if it's that, we're completing something that God couldn't complete
Himself. And such a thought makes a man to be the giver to God
rather than God the giver to man. Now that's what these fellas
were doing. It's as idolatrous as if you
think, well, I've got to build a house for God. And so you go
out and you build you a little dog house. And then you say,
well, I've got to worship Him now with my hands. He can't get
any worship Himself. I have to create this for Him.
And you go out and start doing those things. It's just as idolatrous. He doesn't need anything from
man. He can't receive anything from man's worship as though
he needed anything because God is all sufficient. He's all sufficient. We must have all things given
to us by God. And he declares this, Paul declares
this here just using the natural realm. He says, He giveth to
all life and breath and all things. He giveth to all. Did you give
yourself life? I'm just talking about physical
life. Did you give yourself physical life? What about breath? Can you maintain your life and
your breath? What do you have in the natural
realm that you did not have given to you? Well, if you can't give yourself
natural life, you sure can't give yourself spiritual life. And you can't give yourself all
spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. And you can't persevere
in faith unless God preserves you. If you can build God's temple,
and you can give something to God by your religious works,
then God needs you instead of you needing God. And why boast
as if you didn't receive it? So when God gives a sinner all
spiritual blessings in Christ, that sinner is brought to behold
that salvation is the gift of God in his son and everything
that pertains to it. That's what Peter is saying.
Every last aspect of salvation is given to us freely in Christ. Eliphaz, if I'm pronouncing that
right, he applied this wrongly to Job. If you want to look over
at Job 22, or look in your outline there, I think I put it in there,
Job 22.2. He applied this wrongly to Job,
but what he says is true in itself. He thought Job was saying, in
all his complaining and things, Job was saying, he thought Job
was saying, I've been righteous before God, so why is God treating
me this way? That's what Eliphaz thought Job
was saying. And so he applied this to Job,
but what he says is true. Listen. Verse 2, Can a man be
profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto
himself? Can a man be profitable unto
God? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to Him that thou
makest thy ways perfect? Will He reprove thee for fear
of thee? Will He enter with thee into
judgment? Look over at chapter 35 and verse
6. Job 35 verse 6, Elihu, he was wrong in applying this to
Job too. But this is what he said, and
it's true in itself. If thou sinnest, if you sin,
what doest thou against him? Or if thy transgressions be multiplied,
what doest thou unto God? If thou be righteous, what givest
thou him? or what receiveth he of thine
hand? Now thy wickedness may hurt a
man like you are, and your righteousness may profit the Son of Man, but
not God. It don't have one effect on God
whatsoever. God is who He is, whether you're
righteous or you're unrighteous, whether He saves you or He don't
save you. He's sufficient. He's sufficient. Sometimes your
children will be hungry and they're starving. They've been out playing
and as hungry as they can be and they come in, they sit down
at the table and you sit down some food in front of them, but
they don't want that food. They don't want what you give
them. So they poke out that tongue and they cross those arms and
I'm just not going to eat. Okay, don't eat. It don't affect
me at all. Don't eat. I'm not the one that
needs to be fed. You are. Don't eat. Well, you
can go off and sin all you want to and thank you to harming God.
It don't affect him one bit. But on the opposite hand, you
can work and work and be as righteous as you can and you hadn't obligated
God and I hadn't obligated God one iota. If he makes us to perfection
of holiness and perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, it still
won't make him anything more than what he or less than what
he is. He's God all sufficient. And did you know this? Look at
Psalm 16 with me now. This right here will get you.
Psalm 16. You know the goodness of Christ
Jesus didn't add to God? Now this is, Psalm 16, is a Messianic
Psalm. Now from beginning to end, it's
the, let me read it here, it's the, the mictum of David. It means precious jewel of David. It's the precious jewel of Christ
is what this is right here. You want to see the preciousness
of our Savior? Listen to this. Here's David.
He's a king. And he's going to make some mention
of some things here that refers to the priesthood. And that's
what God's people are. They're kings and priests under
God. But here, try to just hear Christ speaking, the servant
in his mediatorial office, Hear him speaking to the Father as
the righteous servant of God. Now listen to this, Psalm 16,
verse 1. Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.
O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent
in whom is all my delight." Now you hold your place there. Our
Lord Jesus Christ glorified God when He fulfilled all that He
was sent to perform. And He glorified the righteousness
of God. In Christ, God is both just and
the justifier of all who believe. He was sent forth of propitiation. He is satisfaction through faith
in His blood. But Christ was not adding to
the righteousness of God. Without a doubt, in the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness of God is manifest. That's what
Romans 3 tells us. But the righteousness of God
was not added to. It was merely seen, magnified,
glorified in Christ, whom he set forth for propitiation. The
goodness of Christ didn't extend to God. As though goodness was
added to God. That's not what was taking place.
Instead, the goodness that God is toward His elect was magnified
in Christ through whom it's freely given to the saints that are
in the earth, to the excellent in whom are all Christ's delight. Does that make sense? Did you
get me now? Do you get what I'm saying? Listen, to wit, God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
to them. and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation," Paul said. What Christ was doing wasn't
adding to God. It was for the benefit of his
people. It wasn't making God more righteous or more holy. He is righteousness. He is holiness. It was declaring that's what
he is. And the goodness was extended to his elect, not to God. What was it the shepherds heard
when Christ was born? Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Not toward God, toward men. Now, not only this, but look
in verse 5. In his mediatorial office, he
declares that God giveth to His servants, to His saints. God giveth to them. Look here
now, verse 5. The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. Now,
right here, he's referring to the Levitical priesthood. Because
the Levitical priest had no inheritance in the land of Canaan. When they
came into Canaan, God didn't give them any inheritance. He
didn't give them any land. He didn't give them anything.
They came into that land with nothing. They didn't have anything
to fill their cup with. Nothing. And yet, God was their inheritance. He was the portion of their cup
and He maintained their lot. Now, get what the Lord is saying
here. The Son of God is God. He can't
be added to any more than God can be added to. He needed nothing. He's the all-glorious Son of
God. But in the person of Christ Jesus, in his office of mediator,
our great high priest and king stands here as one who's not
giving to God an inheritance and filling God's cup, but he
says, the Lord is my portion of my inheritance, of my cup,
and he maintains my life. Now, if the goodness of God's
righteous servant, our Lord Jesus Christ, didn't extend to God,
can any goodness of yours or mine extend to God? Who's our inheritance? Who's
our portion? Who fills our cup? Who maintains
our life? Do we or does God? God does it. God does it. When Moses came
down off that mountain, You remember how His face was all shining
and they looked at Him? Whatever light is in a believer.
People say, oh, let your light shine before men. And they misquote that because
the light is Christ's light. And it's merely a reflection
in His people. Just like the stars are a reflection
of the sun and the moon is a reflection. And when Moses came down off
that mountain and His face was shining, Moses had seen the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus, and the only light that
Moses had was the light of Christ. And that's what they saw. And
that's what we're hearing about here, is that our goodness doesn't
extend to Him, His goodness extends to us. Now here's the last thing
I want you to see. He giveth to all. He giveth to
all. Now, everybody that has life,
whether it's a man or a creature, He gave it to all. But to all
that he saves, to everyone that he calls into his presence and
causes to truly enter into worship with God and truly enter into
worship with Christ and truly walk after the Spirit and not
after the flesh, it's because God giveth to all. He gives to every one of them
and they won't have it. We won't have it if he don't
give it. That's right. How can a sinner who is living
amongst a generation of sinners, just a world populated with vile,
God-hating sinners, how can that sinner become the apple of God's
eye? God sets his affection on him.
God giveth. God giveth. God chose him before
the world began. God giveth. How is it that a
sinner among millions whose heart hates God can fall in love with
Christ? God sends forth the Holy Spirit
and gives him all things that pertain to holiness, to godliness,
to life, and he beholds the glory of God in the face of Christ
Jesus. It's because God giveth. How does one sinner among a sea,
an ocean foaming and raging of sinners that hate God and hate
one another and are self-righteous and self-sanctifying and think
that they're going to take kingdom by the strength of their own
hand, by their own will and their own way and their own doing?
How is it that one can be brought to be holy and unblameable in
God's sight? How is it? by Christ the satisfaction
whom God gave on behalf of his people, whom he set forth on
behalf of his people. Complete justification, complete
holiness, complete obedience, complete righteousness, complete
wisdom, perfect faith, perfect faith, everything that we need. We behold it in the person and
work of Christ Jesus our Lord. And when we lay hold of Him because
God has given us repentance and given us faith, brethren, therein
is how we come in to be holy and without blame before God
in love. It's in Christ. You know, in
Psalm 50, the Lord said, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such
as one as thyself, but I'll reprove thee and set things in order
before your eyes. I wanted to go through that psalm,
and I spent a lot of time on it. Maybe we'll look at it another
time. Just let me give you an illustration here. At your job,
you've got folks working under you. Some of you have got fellas
that work under you. And you tell them what to do
and what not to do. You give them some directions
to do what to do and what not to do. And the glory that you're
going to receive as fulfilling your job It's going to depend
upon them doing what you told them to do and not to do. And
if they don't do what they're supposed to do, you're answering
to it. It's coming back to you. You
didn't get them to do it. Do you think God's that way?
Do you think that the glory that is His, that He will have, that
He will be praised for, do you think that He's going to give
it to you and depend upon you to work it? Do you think He's
going to give it to me and depend upon me to do it? He said, I'm not one like you. He said, I will reprove and set
in order. I'll do it, He said. He's not wanting, he's not wringing
his hands, he's not issuing out commands and hoping the job gets
done. Christ came, Christ finished the work of righteousness for
his people and through the irresistible grace of God. We need to go back
to 101 and find out what the irresistible grace of God is.
That's what we need to do. We'll find out what sovereign
grace is. What sovereign grace is. Sovereign grace saves in
power. Sovereign grace saves irresistibly.
Sovereign grace says light and there's light. Sovereign grace saves. Sovereign grace saves. And when He declares, when He
makes it known, that Christ is the wisdom, that He's the righteousness,
the sanctification, and the redemption. He reproves His people. He turns
them from everything they thought was wisdom, they thought was
righteousness, they thought was holiness, they thought was redemption,
and He turns them to Christ. And He, in Christ, He sets everything
in order. Everything's in order. Everything
lines up. Everything lines up just like it's supposed to be
in Christ. And He keeps us there. He irresistibly, sovereignly
preserves us right there in Christ. And the moment you move an inch
to the left or an inch to the right, you move one inch too
far. That's just how it is. We talked about this last Sunday,
but you know when I first came up here and I was using that
illustration that we start out and we We'd see Christ, we'd
love Christ, we'd trust Christ, we're thankful for what Christ
has done for us, but we got all these other questions, and all
these other things, and all these other ideas that we're hanging
on to. And the more we see Christ, it
gets narrower. The more we see Christ, it gets more narrow.
The more we see Christ, it gets more narrow. It's like a funnel,
and we just keep narrowing in, narrowing in. That way gets more
narrow, and more narrow, and more narrow. And where it's going
to end is as narrow as Christ. I was talking to Darwin Pruitt
this week, and I said, you know, we were talking about 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30, and I said, Of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
I said, I think that's the first scripture that the Lord used
that I can remember realizing it's all Christ. And Darwin said,
and the all just kept getting bigger, didn't it? It has. The all has just been getting
bigger and bigger and bigger. It's all. Christ is all. Well,
if that's the case, then what do we do? As it is written, He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's what men
don't want to do. That's what we got to be made
willing to do, is to glory in the Lord. Because we want to
glory in something else, don't we? I want to close with this
verse. Look over there with me now.
Here's the application. Luke 17. So, let's not look to abstain from fornication. Study
to be quiet. Work with your hands. Do your
own work. Pay your own bills. Don't be a burden to your brethren.
Try to mortify the deeds of the flesh. Try to put away all unrighteousness
from you. Try to walk in a manner that's
going to adorn the doctrine of Christ. Give yourself to that. Give yourselves to it. But know
this, brethren, that we don't profit God. That it's not going
to be left to us to do something that only God can do. If you
walk in a good work, if you're zealous for good works, if you
mortify the deeds of the flesh just as faith and repentance and long-suffering and spiritual
life, just as everything you began with was given by God.
If you do anything else, know this, it's because God gives
that. He foreordained us unto good
works. He foreordained the works. And
He moved sovereignly in us to do His will, to that which is
well-pleasing in His sight, so that we do that work. Get the
one with the power in front of your eyes. And don't get it backwards. Don't set yourself up as being
the one that does it. Always know it's God that's doing
it. And when He has brought us into perfect conformity with
Christ. When He has brought us into Heaven's
glory and we're perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. Even as you walk this earth right
now, and He moves you to do those things that are well-pleasing
in His sight, that are clearly revealed in Scripture, that He's
well-pleased with, even when He does that, and you do that
which you should do, know this. Look at this parable here, Luke
17, verse 7. This is the Lord giving this
parable. His disciples were getting a
little bit high-minded. They were thinking they were
accomplishing some things by their own strength, and that
they were doing some things that they should do. Well, listen
to what He said. Which of you, having a servant
plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when
he's come from the field, go and sit down to eat? Which of
you is going to give him a reward Tell him to go sit down at me
and will not rather say unto him make ready wherewith I may
sup and gird Thyself and serve me till I've eaten and drunken
and afterward thou shall eat and drink That's his job not
only to plow in the field and when he gets to come now and
serve me So I can sit down and eat and so serve me. That's his
job It's the servants job or you when he gets through plowing
the field you gonna say now just go sit down and eat and He's
going to say, come on over here now and you feed me and serve
me. Does he thank that servant because
he did the things that were commanded him? When's the last time a police
officer pulled you over and gave you, instead of giving you a
$150 ticket, he gave you $150 for obeying the speed limit? When's the last time that when
you walked out of the grocery store, the manager come running
out and gave you a load of groceries because you didn't steal anything
in the store? That's what you're supposed to
do. You won't get rewarded for just doing that which was right. So likewise ye, when ye shall
have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we're
unprofitable servants. In other words, we haven't profited
God. We haven't added to God. We've
done that which was our duty to do. We just did that which
was right. That's all we did. So, brethren, we're not adding
to God. We're not expecting any kind
of rewards for anything that we've done. Christ is our reward. Christ is our portion. He's our
cup. He maintains our lot. As He is,
so are we. And when we've done anything
to serve Him, we don't boast in it. We don't glory in it as
if we did something. Say, he's my all, don't look
at me. I've just done that which it
benefited me to serve him. It didn't benefit him, it benefited
me to serve him. I'm just doing what he's made
me to be. So, alright, let's...