Everyone, as you remain sitting,
let's begin our services tonight by singing 208, Are You Washed? 208. Are you washed in the blood? Have you been to Jesus for the
cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His
grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless,
are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the
Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Do you rest each moment in the
Crucified? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless,
are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? When the bridegroom cometh, will
your robes be white? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Will your soul be ready for the
mansion's bride, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are they
washed in the blood of the Lamb? Lay aside the garments that are
stained with sin, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb. There's a fountain flowing for
the soul unclean, oh be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you
washed in the blood of the Lamb? Thank you. I would like to read the first
part of Luke 15. Luke 15. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he
has found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And
when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors
saying unto them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep
which was lost. I say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
over 99 just persons which need no repentance. Either what woman
having 10 pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not
light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till
she find it? And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors together saying, rejoice with
me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you, Father, for assembling us together again this evening.
It is such a rare and great blessing, Lord, that we can come into this
corner of this building, Lord, and to assemble together. And
will you, Lord, give us an appetite for the gospel. Lord, you know
our weaknesses and our frailties and all things perfectly. But
Lord, will you allow us this evening that we may feed from
the gospel, which Lord, we hope to hear this evening and be with
brother Eric again, as he stands here before us, Lord, will you
pour out your mercy and grace upon him that and give him joy
in his soul, Lord, that he may declare the wonders and the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ to us and Lord, go with us further
as an assembly. We do not know the future and
Lord that we may humbly rest in you for all that is necessary,
whether it's financial or all of our needs that we need to
continue assembling together as a little flock. And father,
if it would please you, would you add to this little flock
and will you remember also our loved ones, you know, all things
perfectly. And Lord, all things are possible
with you. And if you have that one lost
sheep, Lord, including our loved ones, if you would have mercy
upon them and call them out of nature's darkness, that they
may receive a hunger and thirst after that righteousness, which
can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. And
Father, remember also brother Scott, we are gladdened. Our
hearts are gladdened, Lord, when we hear that he has improved
And if it is possible, Lord, will you once again bring him
to us here that he may assemble with us. Lord, we thank you for
all that you have done for all of us. And Lord, remember those
that are struggling among us. Lord, we do not know all things,
but you do. We think also of Brother Eric
and Michelle as they hope to travel this coming week. Lord,
keep them safe and return them once again back here. Lord, bless
his preaching also there where he hopes to be. For Jesus' sake
alone, Amen. Let's sing 232, when I see the
blood, 232. Christ, our Redeemer, died on
the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your
soul with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass the pass over
you. When I see the blood When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will
save, holiest promise that He will do. Wash in the fountain,
open for sin, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I
When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Judgement is coming, all will
be there, Each one receiving justly his due. Hide in the saving,
sin-cleansing blood, And I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, When I
see the blood, when I see the blood I will pass, I will pass
over you O great compassion, O boundless
love, O loving kindness, faithful and true. Find peace and shelter
under the blood, And I will pass, and I'll pass over you, When
I see the blood. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Thank you. I don't know if we
sang that before. Have we? I mean, I know it's
sung before. I don't know if I sung it. Yeah.
Well, thanks for your help, because I was caught a little bit off
guard on that one. One thing about that is I can't
tell if it stops. Like I only know when we're done
and then I look and if it says 23 seconds or 30 seconds, but
we'll see if the way we have it set up is better now. Good evening, brethren. We're
going to be in John chapter 17. John 17, and I was taken by verse
16, so that's going to be our focus. Here our Lord says in
His high priestly prayer, as He's praying to the Father for
His disciples, He says, they are not of the world. even as I am not of the world."
And I thought, what a wonderful truth, what a blessed truth that
is, just to consider how that we're not, as our Lord is, so
are we. And He's not of this world, and
you that believe and hope in Him, that He's all your righteousness,
that you're not of this world, either and so I want us to to
learn what Christ means when he says that you are not of this
world and we'll we'll look at this verse 16 and some some blessed
truths about this and what our Lord is saying and and then we'll
see three things at the end we'll look at three things that our
Lord does specifically whereby we are made by Him, not of this
world. We'll see those three things,
one of them being that He delivers us from the way of flesh. He delivers us from darkness
to see and to understand what I'm doing in this flesh, false. It's wicked. It does not save
me. It cannot save me. And second, which is very much
a part of that, and that results from this one, which is he makes
us new creatures. We are new creatures born again
of his grace. And then third, he teaches us
that we are citizens of heaven now. We are our citizenship.
Our conversation is in heaven. And so we're not of the world
because we are citizens of heaven. Our lives are hid with Christ
in God. So not of the world. So in verse 16, our Lord is repeating
something which he said in verse 14. Let's read verse 14. He says, I have given them thy
word and the world hath hated them. because they are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. And so, we understand
this. The world hated Christ. We know
that the world hated Christ. They took him and crucified him. Not just the Jews, but the Romans
also. The Roman government crucified
the Lord of Glory. The world hates Christ. And even as they hate Christ,
they hate you. who are made in the image of
Christ, who are conformed to the image of Christ. You that
love him and believe him, you're hated of them also. Now, last week, when we were
looking at this verse, we were looking at four verses and four
points in those verses, and when we got to this verse, we saw
where the Lord is speaking of his word, and it's he, it's our
Lord that makes that word effectual unto us. He speaks that word
effectually in your heart. And he makes you to hear it with
understanding. He makes you to hear it in the
new man. He makes you to hear it by his
spirit. And when you hear our Lord speak,
you hear that word by faith. That's what he means when he
says, I have given them thy word. He didn't just say it, and now
it's up to you. He gave it to you with power, with power, so
that you live by that word, and you hear that word, and you receive
that word, and you believe the word of your God. And that's
the grace of God that gives that to you. That gives that to you.
When I was visiting with Brother Scott today, he had said some
things that blessed my heart. And I said, Scott, flesh and
blood hasn't revealed that to you, but our Father which is
in heaven, he's revealed that to you. He's given you that confession
where you give glory to God because the old man doesn't speak like
that. That's the grace of God that enables you to bless him
and to give glory to God for what he's done for you. And so,
he gives us spiritual life. Now, to many, to all the natural
men in this world, they don't hear the gospel. They don't hear
the gospel as the gospel. They don't hear it the way you
hear this word, how that it's life unto you. It's living bread upon which
you feed. whereby you are strengthened
and comforted. They don't hear this word. And
when we didn't have the spirit, when we were in this world, living
according to the course of this world, under the power of the
prince of the air, when we were under those things, under those
elements, the elements of this world, we didn't hear it as the
gospel. We didn't believe this. We didn't
know what it meant. We didn't understand it. And
our Lord speaks of this He says, turn over to Matthew 13. Matthew
13 here. And our Lord had been speaking
of the parable of the sower. and the disciples had asked him
to explain this parable to them. And he said, well, the reason
why they don't hear it is because of this, in verse 14 and 15,
we'll read a few verses here, but he said, in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah. which saith by hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and
shall not perceive. And so this is true of all men. It was true in the day that Isaiah
spoke it, it was true in the day that our Lord spoke it here,
and it's true in our day. No man can hear the things of
God. He'll hear the Word, he'll read
the Word, and he can sit in services, and he can hear the reading of
the Word, and the declaration of the Word, and yet not hear
it. Not hear it as the living new
creature hears it, born of Christ. And so, no man can hear it except
God is gracious to them. And he tells us what prevents
them from hearing it. He describes it this way in verse
15, for this people's heart is waxed gross. it's become fat
with lard, just natural carnal fat in the sense of not a big
person, but it's full already. That's what he's saying, they're
already full. And I was thinking of this, I don't know why this
particular example came to my mind, but about this time last
year maybe a little earlier last year when they were talking about
having nuclear war with russia it was more so back then and
they began to talk about people getting the iosat i think it
is the the potassium iodide And the reason why you take potassium
iodide if there's been a nuclear bomb and there's fallout coming
over your neighborhood, you take these tablets once a day. And
what it does is if you don't have it and nuclear fallout comes,
this is a dark example, I apologize, but this fallout comes and what
happens is your thyroid will take in that irradiated iodine
that whatever it is there it sucks it in and then you get
a rapid onset of cancer so the way and I guess that's a more
deadly I mean you could die of something else but but but it
what you do is you take these tablets and these tablets they
saturate your thyroid so it can't take anything else in you can
have that irradiated iodine all around you but the tablets saturate
for 24 hours your thyroid so you can't take in that that radiated
iodine or whatever it is. So that's the purpose. And what
he's saying is their hearts are waxed gross. They're full of
fat. It's already filled up with something.
They're already confident that they have life. They're already
confident. So their ears are dull of hearing. I've heard this all before. I
know what you're going to say. That's the natural man. I've
heard this. I've grown up in this my whole life. Their eyes,
they have closed. There's nothing more to see here.
And that's what the natural man is. He's done with God. He's heard it all. He's heard
enough. He's got nothing more to say. His belly's full. He
doesn't want another thing to eat. Probably I should just use
that example. But it says there that lest at any time they should
see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand
with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them. And so the natural man is already
full. He knows who God is. He's got
nothing to learn from God. Nothing more to hear. And that's
not good. That's not good because we think
of ourselves more highly than we ought to think of ourselves.
That's all of us in this flesh. We all have blind spots and things
that we think we know and have nailed down that we don't. We
don't understand. We don't know what we don't know. But where God is gracious to
a sinner, when God is gracious, There will be an opening of the
ear. There will be a softening of
the heart. There will be a hunger and a
thirst for righteousness and God is the one who does that
for his children. Every one of his children. None of us is saved except God
be gracious to us and open our ear. And when He opens it, when
He does that work, there's no failure of it to come to pass.
He finishes that which He has started. He continues it. And
so, our Lord says to His disciples in verse 16 and 17 of Matthew
13, He said, But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and
your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you that
many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things
which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things
which ye hear and have not heard them." And what he's describing
there is the mystery of the gospel, hid from ages past. that men didn't know or see in
the glory and in the light of the face of Jesus Christ as you
now see and understand this day. That Jesus Christ is all my salvation. He is the Lamb of God sent to
take away my sin and the sin of all his people scattered throughout
the world. He is the Lamb of God sent to
save the world. All his people in the world,
scattered throughout the world. And so this mystery is revealed
so that now when you read the Old Testament, you don't read
it and see it and understand it in the flesh to say, well,
I better go and get myself a lamb or get myself a bull or any other
literal type translation, but you see Christ in the pictures,
the shadows, the types which are given to us that show us
what He came to do, what He had to do, and what He did and accomplished
as the successful Savior of His people. Christ is all, He's everything. And so, it's needful for us,
it's needful for us for Him to do this for us. Because, frankly,
Christ explained this parable in the hearing of His disciples.
all 12 of the apostles were there. All 12 of them. And we know that
Judas heard Christ define this and explain this and yet he did
not receive that word, he did not believe it, he didn't hear
it and understand it with the hearing that you by grace hear
and understand this day. Now what he's saying there in
that parable of the sower is, We're new creatures, we must
be born again. Lord, I need you to do this.
I'm not out there tilling and preparing my heart. Lord, I need
you to prepare my heart. Save me, save me, Lord, lest
I perish like those other soils out there, those other people.
So without him doing that gracious work for us, we're gonna hear
his word just like Judas Iscariot heard it. the flesh, in the flesh
with a fat full heart and closed ears and closed eyes. Now in
John 17 14, let's read it once more. He said, I have given them
thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. And the context there
is that our Savior is praying for our divine protection. He
cares for you. He's praying for you because
He knows the hatred of the world. He experienced the hatred of
the world. He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He knows exactly what we feel. He knows how difficult, how impossible
this is for us in the flesh, how impossible it is. And so
He prays for divine protection for His people to be kept against
the hatred of the world. Because if this world is allowed
to, they would do exactly, they would do to us exactly what Cain
did to Abel when he took him and slew him. Because Abel preached
grace. Abel understood the grace of
God. Abel came in the blood of the
Lamb. Abel came humbly before God,
believing the word of God, and Cain, Cain Cain made things up,
and came in the way that he would come, and came by his own wisdom,
and his own works, is what he did. And so, this hatred comes
to you, it's really rather simple. The hatred of this world is against
you because God loves you. Because God loves his children. And the love of God means that
God is gracious to you. He's gracious to you. He doesn't
leave it up to you to save yourselves. He doesn't leave it up to you
to figure things out and to turn your life around so that he can
save you. That's not the God of this scripture.
The God of this scripture loves his people and that love results
in the salvation and the deliverance of his people from the bondage
of sin and death. And because the world hates God,
They hate him, but they can't touch him, so they touch you.
They go after you if they can. It's just a manifestation of
the enmity of the natural man's heart against God. That's why
they persecute and come against the church. Now, I'll show you
this and go back to John 15. John 15, verse 19, and he actually
says these words in our text. He said, if ye were of the world,
the world would love his own. If you spoke the things of the
world, if you preached work salvation, if you preached the doctrine
of Muhammad and the Muslims, if you preached Hinduism, if
you preached Buddhism, if you preached Satanism, whatever it
is, the world would love you. They would love you because you're
just talking about what man can do or needs to do to save himself. As long as you're not talking
about grace, the grace of God that saves sinners and leaves
men and blesses men by his grace and mercy. So they would love
you, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen
you, I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you." See that? Because God loves you, the world
hates you. Because the love of God not only
chooses you, but delivers you, saves you, and they hate that.
They hate that they've been passed by because it stands to reason
that if God, if Christ chose a people, if God chose a people
and gave them to Christ, then it stands to reason that there's
a people he did not choose. And that's testified to in the
scriptures that verify that and back that up, that we are chosen
of him in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now, like in verse
14, that dealt with divine protection from the world, we see in verse
16 that he's praying there for divine protection against the
evil one. At the end of verse 15, back
in John 17, he said that thou shouldest keep them from the
evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. And that's a wonderful thought,
that we should be made like unto our Savior. Him who is holy,
spotless, righteous, perfect, pleasing to the Father in all
things, that we should be made like unto Him. So the reason
that we are not of the world is because Christ is not of the
world. Our Savior, the one after whom
we are patterned by God. The one in whom we are made like
unto is Christ. And he's not of the world, and
you're not of the world, and he is the one that makes us like
unto him. It's not our works. It's not
what we do or don't do. It's not the things that we say
or don't say. Anything we do or don't do, anything
we say or don't say, that's the fruit of the Spirit. It's the
fruit of his life being revealed and manifested in us as a testimony
that we are His. It's His work of grace and power
for us. Now, there's three things that
Christ does for every one of His people in regards to us not
being of the world. There's three things that we'll
look at here that we see our Savior do for us that deliver
us from this world, that make it so that we are not of this
world. We're not like them. We're not the inhabitants of
the earth that perish. that are under condemnation and
coming under the wrath of God, and are under the wrath of God
even now. First, he delivers his people from the dark ways
of this flesh. Our Savior delivers his people
from the dark ways of this flesh. That's a broad point. There's
a lot in that that testifies how that he delivers us from
the flesh. You see, Christ teaches us that
all we were, all we did, everything we did to worship God was according
to the flesh. And the scriptures teach us that
whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So in other words, whatsoever
is not of faith is this flesh. And anything of this flesh is
not of faith, but it's sin. It's sin and it doesn't please
God. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8, 8. Cannot please Him. So naturally we all come forth
born of Adam's seed, born of our parents, born of this natural
seed. the flesh of man, and our ways
are carnal, our ways are corrupt, we're ruined, we're not born
in the image of God, but in the image of Adam, who's corrupt,
and sinful, and defiled, and that's why we all come forth
speaking lies, that's why we all grow up, and you see that
sin manifest from the time that we're little babies to when you
see us as adults, you see the manifestation of sin, and you
see the corruption and the ruin of sin in man. And we see that. We all come forth of the flesh
and that's because we're subject to the law of sin and death. We're subject to that. By one
man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so all
men died because all have sinned. We've all sinned in Adam. We're
under the law of sin and death. Now turn over to Romans 8. Let's
see a few scriptures there. Here's where we see confirmed
to us, our Lord instructing us and showing us how that he has
delivered us from the flesh. Because we have to learn this.
We grow in this. He teaches us this little by
little. He's teaching us through the
hearing of the gospel. He's settling us. He's showing
us how that he's broken us from out from under that bondage of
the law of sin and death. And he's given us his spirit.
Now look at verses one and two. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. Previous to being made free,
before we were set free, we were in bondage to the law of sin
and death. And that means that everything
we did, we were trying to please God. Even if we knew some right
doctrine, even if we grew up in families hearing the right
things, we still look to our flesh to try and please God,
to try and satisfy God, to try and soothe the guilt of our conscience,
if we even had any guilt. But we came to God and we worshipped
God and we went through the motions of this flesh and religion in
the flesh, in the flesh. And so we couldn't free ourselves
from that. Men try to free themselves from
this bondage by the law of Moses. They study the Law of Moses.
They turn to the Law of Moses. They teach the Law of Moses.
They study it, and memorize it, and learn it, and put it into
practice. They're trying to free themselves
by the Law of Moses, and that is of the flesh. That is exactly
of the flesh, because the flesh, and it's bondage, because the
flesh cannot keep the Law perfectly. Look again now at verses three
and four of Romans 8. for what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
And so, once Christ has come, once the Spirit of God is given
to you, give you life and to turn you from this flesh, you
no longer turn to the law to try to come to God to please
Him. We cease looking to the law for
righteousness. And so, because by the works
of the law is what men do and all that is is the flesh. The
Savior keeps telling us that is walking after the flesh. But the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us through faith in Jesus Christ, looking
to Him. We are made righteous by Him,
in Him. He's the one that makes us righteous
because it's His blood that has put away the sin of our flesh. He's put away that sin and we've
died to the law and live to Christ our husband. We're His people. We're His bride. We live in and
by Him. We don't look back to the law
now. in Christ to try and do our best
and to come back at it a second time, that's like flirting with
a former lover. We're married to Christ. He's
our husband. We don't go back to the law.
We don't look to it. We look to him. We hear him. He teaches us. He speaks to us. We don't listen to another voice.
We're not married to Moses, we're married to Christ. And to back
that up, I'll quote Galatians 3.12, the law is not a faith,
but you are a faith. We're not of the flesh. We're
of faith. And the law is not of faith. But the man that doeth them shall
live in them. And when you try to live in them,
you're under the curse of the law. You have now come back under
the curse. You're under the law of sin and
death. You're in bondage again, and you can't set yourself free.
You've not heard the law. You haven't heard what Christ
teaches us by his spirit. How do you know how to live?
The spirit. Is Christ going to lead you into sin? He teaches
you by His Spirit. He gives you faith. He's given
you His Word. He's blessed you to hear the
preaching of the Word, to hear Him declared in all the Scripture.
And He teaches us how to live. And He instructs us, trust Him. Trust Him. Stop going back to
the flesh. Don't go to Mount Sinai. It's
bondage. And it's not of faith. It's of
the flesh. So look at verse 9 and 10. but
ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that
the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness." If you can't live, if Christ isn't enough
for you, and you need the law to live, then you don't have
the spirit of Christ. According to the scripture here,
you don't have the spirit of Christ. but you that have the
Spirit of Christ, he teaches you. You are righteous by the
blood of Christ. Bless his holy name. You are
righteous by the grace of God in Christ. Look to him, walk
by faith in him, trust him, believe his word unto you, because the
law is for the flesh, and it's done by the flesh, and you're
in bondage, and Christ sets us free from that. We see what men
do under the law. Pharisees and they took Christ
and they crucified him. That's what the law does. The
law does not make us live the way we should live and having
the Spirit of Christ we live by Christ. Now the Spirit bears
faith in the child of God and and leads them in life and liberty
and so in that sense we see that Christ what he does is he delivers
us from the way of flesh. He delivers his children from
the way of darkness. You're not of this world. The
way of the world is that way of darkness. You're not of this
world. Christ has delivered you from
it. Second, The second thing that shows that we're not of
this world, it's that we are made new. We are made new creatures. So the fleshly works cease, they're
ended, where we try to work a righteousness and we stop pleading or bargaining
with God, I should say. We stop bargaining with God,
we are given a new heart and made new creatures. Turn over
to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36, and we'll go to verses
26 and 27. Here our Lord tells His church,
this is what He does for them. Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart also
will I give you. and a new spirit will I put within
you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you a heart of flesh, that is a soft heart,
a heart that hears me and follows me and obeys me, and I will put
my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and
ye shall keep my judgments and do them. That's his word of promise. Believe him. Trust him. He's
not going to lead you astray. Stop doubting him and go back
to the law. He'll teach you the right way.
He'll instruct you. He'll lead you in the way that
you should go. You have a new heart. You have
the spirit of Christ. And the Lord teaches you how
to love your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and your neighbor as yourself, so that you will do what is right.
And you will speak kindly and graciously to one another, and
tenderhearted toward one another. You have the Spirit. And this
new birth is wrought in every child. It is described as a wedding
garment in the scriptures as well. The only way you're coming
into heaven, into His presence, in that that robe of righteousness
as a new creature born again of Christ made new by his blood
given his spirit the law doesn't touch the inward man the law
can't make an inward man the law can't circumcise the heart
that is the work of God for he is a Jew which is one inwardly
and circumcision is that of the heart, not the flesh, not the
law, of the heart, the work of God in the spirit and not in
the letter, there's the law, not in the law, not in the letter,
but whose praise is not of men, but of God, Romans 2, 29. Why
would you look to the law when it's a spiritual work? It's a
spiritual work. So being born again of Christ's
seed, we cease glorying in the flesh and we rejoice in Christ
Jesus who was crucified for this very purpose, to put away our
sin, to propitiate the wrath of God. Why are you laboring
and spending and giving yourselves for that which does not satisfy
when Christ himself is the very satisfaction of God? And he has
made the very satisfaction of his people. who believe Him and
come to God by Him. So, all the dead vain works that
we did in the world, they cease to hold any sway and power over
us. Turn over to Galatians 6. Galatians
6, this will be our last verse on this second point here, being
made new creatures. Romans 6, 14. Paul says, but God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
not glorying in the law. I'm not glorying that I've memorized
the Ten Commandments. I'm glorying in the cross of
Christ who is crucified, who loved me and gave himself for
me. by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. See, we're not of the world anymore.
The world's crucified unto me and I'm crucified to the world.
We're dead to it and it's dead to us. For in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Forget about
the law saving you. It doesn't do it. The thing that's
important is a new creature, a new creature. And as many as
walk according to this rule, This rule, this is the rule to
hear. This is the rule, peace beyond them and mercy and upon
the Israel of God. As many as that bless God and
praise him, Lord, you have made me a new creature to hear you,
to open my heart, to take away that fat, gross, lard-filled
heart of the flesh and giving me a new heart, born of the Spirit,
walking by the grace of God in Christ. Finally, we are not of
the world so that our citizenship is in heaven. It is with Christ. Philippians 3.20 says, For our
conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That word conversation means
our citizenship. The authority, the power, the
rule, the governorship is all from Christ seated on the throne
in heaven. That's our citizenship. That's
whose rule we follow. That's by whom we live. There's the power. There's the
glory. It's all his. Not this flesh. We have no confidence
in the flesh. Our confidence is in Christ. Colossians 3 verses 1 through
3 says, if ye then be risen with Christ, and you that believe
him, who have been crucified with him, you have been risen
with him. As he is raised from the dead,
so are you. Seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Stop looking down to the
rocks of Mount Sinai, and look to him who is seated on the throne
on the right hand of the throne of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God. So brethren, our Lord
prayed, saying, they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. And in that now we see the breath.
and the depth and the length and the width of the power and
the glory of God, of his love for us in Christ Jesus and what
he has done for us to deliver us from this world so perfectly,
so completely that he says we are not of the world. We've been taken from it. Don't
look to the flesh. Don't look to earthly things.
That's not your life. That's not your inheritance.
Our inheritance is Christ. It's Christ Jesus and all that
is His, which is life eternal, is yours in Him. So that's how
we worship our God. That's how we come to our God. And as Christ prayed it, so you
shall be kept. You will be kept by His glory,
power, grace, His love. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Thanks be to God. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you for your grace. We thank you
for your power. Lord, just seeing how that we
are not of the world, as you are not of the world, how it
blesses our heart, how it comforts us and amazes us, Lord. Lord, we've looked at these things
in the scripture, seeing how that you, turn us from the way of the world.
You've made us new creatures by your grace and our citizenship,
our inheritance, our life is now in Christ, hidden Christ,
with God. It's now in you, Lord, and we've
looked at it, Lord, but I pray that you would bless it to our
hearts to hear that word, not as Judas Iscariot heard it, but
as Peter and John and James and Andrew and the others as they
heard it, Lord, and as you do for all your people, as you bless
them with wisdom and understanding, with knowledge of these things
by your grace, Lord, grow us in this, teach us, lead us in
the way that we are to go, because you know the weakness of our
flesh, you know our ignorance, you know how easily fooled we
are, but Lord, we shall not be separated from your hand, from
your love, because you are all mighty, all powerful, all gracious,
Lord, able to save us. And you say that you shall never
leave us nor forsake us. Lord, keep us. As our brother
prayed earlier, Lord, we pray for our children. We pray for
our families and friends and others whom we love and care
for very much. We pray that you would bless
them, Lord, because It was your grace that delivered us, and
so it's your grace that'll deliver them. And Lord, we can't do it,
even as we couldn't do it for ourselves, but you can. Lord,
you're able. And so we pray that you would
indeed bless us, help us to speak to them in love and in wisdom
and in kindness and faithfully and truly in a manner that that
is pleasing and glorifying to you. And Lord, we ask humbly
that you would bless it to their hearts. It's in Christ's name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. As you remain sitting, we're
going to sing out of the heart back again. 204, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. 204. Just see if I have the right
music here. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. There's life for a look at the
Savior, And life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting,
He passed and we follow Him there. Over us sin no more hath dominion,
For more than conquers we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell. Thank you.