All right, turn to 1 Peter chapter
1. We should be able to wrap up 1 Peter
chapter 1 today. We'll pick up in verse 22 and
we'll read it to the end, which is going to be verse 25. 1 Peter
1.22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying
the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren,
see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. This is
why it must be the work of God that does this. For all flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away,
but the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. So you might recognize
some of the verses that we looked at this morning, and there's
certainly a very, there's similarities to what we heard this morning,
but I think a lot of what we'll look at is still different than
what we, you know, heard. It's the same, but I mean different
passages and whatnot. So the title is The Eternal Work
of Christ the Word. And that's what we'll see, the
eternal work of Christ, what He does for the sinner. And we'll
have two divisions again, called unto perfection, called to Christ,
and second, made perfect by Christ. So Peter says here to believers
that he's writing to in verse 22, the first half, it says,
seeing ye have purified your souls and obeying the truth through
the Spirit. Now believers have been delivered
from the kingdom of darkness, right? They are brought out of
darkness even to see, you know, to see the end of what the law
was pointing to, so that we're brought out of just those shadowy
types and pictures that were seen in the law through a veil,
we're brought out of that to see that which they were declaring,
that is, pointing to the Christ, pointing to when Christ came
and what He would do for the sinner in making them righteous
and in cleansing them from their sins, so that believers now,
today, they leave behind those types, and those shadows, and
those things that were contained there in the law, and they're
led by the Spirit of Christ unto the Lord Jesus Christ, to behold
His obedience, to behold His faithfulness, to rest in what
Christ has done for His people. Because the law, it pointed unto
Christ. But the Jews who were practicing
the law, not having the Spirit, they didn't see the end of what
the law was pointing to. They didn't see that it was to
picture the salvation that God provided in his son Jesus Christ. So the pictures given in the
law, they were just a shadow of things to come in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet many people today, just
like the Jews, they like religion. They look to religion because
they're just fleshly, incarnal people. They don't have the spirit.
And so that's why you'll meet a lot of people, especially in
the Northeast. I know this where it's heavy religion on outward
things, especially where there's a lot of Catholicism or even
Presbyterianism, you'll see this great big cathedrals that they
go to with stations of Christ, they would call them, where you
see statues that are very moving emotionally, and you see some
picture of what Christ has done, you know, him ministering, or
they show the apostles doing something, and you see the stained
glass and all these beautiful pictures that bring your mind
to some heavenly thing. And so when people go there,
you know, They smell the incense being swung and coming down the
aisle and the long robes and holding up a cross and a whole
procession of things. They're moved by those things
and they feel as though they've had a religious experience. And
though they know nothing of Christ, they know nothing of themselves
being sinners or wicked or in need of salvation or justification
before a holy and a righteous God, they still come away feeling
like, wow, I feel like I was near God today. And they come
away having some experience, some feeling or emotion, and
all they've done was had an empty religious experience. They think
they've had a brush with God, and they may have brushed with
Satan, but they didn't have a brush with God because never were their
eyes put upon Christ and what he has done for the sinner and
their need of him. They just saw these little pictures,
if you will, and it made them feel as though they were elevated
and taken out of the carnal and lifted up into the heavenlies,
and that's why they do those things, a lot of them. That's
why those cathedrals and stuff are built to sort of take you
out of the common everyday pictures of life and bring you up into
the heavenly. And all they do is produce a
feeling. So believers are called out of those beggarly elements
of the world and of this religion. Peter says in our text, seeing
ye have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the
Spirit. Now, Paul dealt with these things
when he wrote to the Galatians and then in the epistle to the
Hebrews. So if you turn over to Galatians
4, and we'll look at verse 1, Paul writes to the Galatians
4.1, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under
tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world. Paul is writing about that time
prior to when we laid hold of Christ, or rather when Christ
laid hold of us and gave us faith and life and fixed us in him. It was prior to our quickening,
as Paul says to the Ephesians, when we were dead in trespasses
and sins. And he called us, by nature,
we were all children of wrath. even as others. And when he wrote
to the Colossians, he said that we were for some time alienated
and enemies in our mind by wicked works, so that these wicked works
that we practice, as religious as they were, were all elements
of the world. So that these are the weak and
the beggarly elements of the world of religion that cannot
save us. They can't do anything for our
souls to deliver us out from under the wrath of holy God that's
coming against all unrighteousness and all those in this world that
are just practicing unrighteousness, whether they're religious or
not. So God has provided that full
and free salvation in the Son, Jesus Christ. He's done everything.
And God sent the Son into the world to redeem the children,
to purchase the children with his own blood, to save the children
of Abraham, the children of faith, the children of the promise.
So we were promised to Christ as his inheritance before the
foundation of the world and that's why God sent him in to the world
to glorify his name and to deliver us from the darkness and the
sin that we were all plunged into when we sinned against God
in our father Adam. So he delivers us from that.
So Galatians 4.4 says, But when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, And for this purpose, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Because when
we were under the law, we were not like sons and daughters. We were whipped and beaten and
shown what we are by nature in the flesh, that it's weak and
unable to please God our Father. But Christ has made us sons and
daughters unto God so that he's given us a spirit whereby we
read that because we are sons, because we are daughters of the
Most High God, he has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And that's how we walk, brethren.
It's by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and showing us
the way that we should go. Always pointing us to Christ
who is the way, the life, and the truth. He's always pointing
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, Paul writes in Galatians
4.7, wherefore thou art no more a servant, laboring under the
bondage and fear that we had under the log, but a son, and
if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. How be it? Now
here Paul is going to summarize for us what we did under nature's
darkness. So then when he knew not God,
he did service unto them which by nature are no gods. You just
did dead works of religion that cannot save. But now, after that
ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggarly elements, right? They're returning
back to the Law of Moses. How turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days and months and times and years. They were being
turned away from Christ, to his life, and turned back to a form
of religion that saves no one, that no one can be saved under
trusting in those things. They were just to point us to
Christ. And once Christ came, we're hooked
to Christ. Even under the Old Testament,
no one was saved by the law and their law keeping. They were
saved in having the light of the Spirit that showed them,
this is pointing to Christ, this is how God saves his people.
He's going to save them in the coming Messiah. So those who
looked to that, who believed and understood, however lightly,
they were looking to Christ. They weren't trusting in the
law for their righteousness. They were trusting in God providing
a son who would deliver them, just as he promised Eve back
in the garden They understood and were always looking for that
Messiah. To us it probably doesn't seem
like that very much because we see the Son, we see the Messiah,
so we're not waiting for a Son and a Deliverer to be born, but
those who don't see Him are still waiting for that Son, that Deliverer
to be born that was promised. But we see Him now and the Spirit
has shown us that Christ has fulfilled all the Scriptures,
that He is the Christ that should come into the world and save
His people. So therefore, that's what God
is delivering us from, those things, so that we're to look
to Him and trust the salvation that He has accomplished for
us, of putting away our sins. Now, Peter writes in there that
we are called unto perfection, right? That we're called unto
perfection, and that's in Christ. And I said that Paul wrote of
these things even in Hebrew. So look at Hebrews 6, chapter
6, verse 1. Now this is a verse that, for
some, it may confuse us. I know when I read it the first
time, I thought, wow, what is it saying? It seems to go contrary
to everything I hope in and believe in, that Christ is my salvation. Is the Hebrew writer saying that
we are to look outside of Christ or past Christ for our perfection? So let's read it. Therefore,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works and of faith toward God." So Paul is addressing
the Jews just as he was addressing the Gentiles. Everything I said
concerning what he was telling the Gentiles is same and is true
of the Jews here. So he's saying you saw when you
practiced the law, when you looked at the law, you saw, you were
looking to the principles of the doctrine of Christ, the principles
being the beginning of these things. So that when you are
looking to the law, he's saying these were just types and shadows
being pictured in the law. They were the principles of Christ,
under which all this world still walks about doing its religious
things and doing what they cannot do because they don't see the
truth of God revealed in the face of his Son, Jesus Christ. And as we're going through, I'm
going to read. You can put your finger there and read along with
me because I'm going to read a few verses from 2 Corinthians 3,
verses 14 through 18. But what he's saying there is
just like what Paul is saying to the Jews is that when you're
looking to the law, when you're looking back to the law and going
back to the law, because that's what the Jews, when he was writing
to the Hebrews, that's what they were doing. They were going back
to the law. And he's saying, why are you
going back to the principles that you saw of Christ in the
law? They were just types and shadows.
We're going on. We now have the fullness of Christ
revealed to us. Look to him who is salvation.
Don't go back to those weak and those beggarly elements that
you saw there in the law. And then when you look at what
Paul said to the Corinthians, he says, but their minds were
blinded, for until this day remain at the same veil, untaken away
in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. So it might sound odd at first
when you're looking at Hebrews 6.1, and you might get a little
confused, but he's saying that they're leaving the principles
of the doctrines of Christ as vaguely seen in their keeping
and practice of the law. That's what they're to go on.
That's what they're to go beyond is stop just looking at the law
to see Christ because it's just a vague picture. It's pointing
to Christ. So, I mean, we can go to the
Old Testament, but we show how it's pointing directly to the
Lord Jesus Christ and how he's revealed in all the scriptures
to us. So, it's like trying to look
at a picture clearly with a veil over your eyes and having a dullness
of heart that you can't understand what's being said or what's being
shown. And then he says to the Corinthians,
but even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their
heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And he would ask,
well, how does one that's dead in trespasses and sins, turn
to the Lord, that the veil may be taken away. And he says in
verse 17, 2 Corinthians 3, 17, Now the Lord is that spirit,
and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we
all, with open face, beholding as in the glass the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory, from the
glory that was in the law, to glory, the glory that is now
revealed to us in Christ, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. So the law doesn't
perfect anyone. The law is not saving anyone.
The law is not making anyone righteous. We're made righteous
by Christ and his faithfulness in fulfilling all the law on
behalf of his people. So that Christ is our perfection,
He's our salvation, He's our sanctification, He's everything
that we need to stand before God Almighty. So, in Hebrews
6.1, Paul also says, let us go on unto perfection. Perfection. Now I want to read a couple verses
in Hebrews that talks about perfection, and we would see that perfection
here is talking about our salvation, being complete, whole, made whole
in the Lord Jesus Christ to stand before Almighty God on His throne,
though he judge us for judging the Lord Jesus Christ. We have
nothing to fear. So if you look over at Hebrews
7 verse 11, Hebrews 7, 11, he says, if therefore
perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the
people received the law. What further need was there that
another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek and
not be called after the order of Aaron? And this priest, who
is called after the order of Melchizedek, is made not after
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
life. For he testified, Thou art a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now listen, verse
18. For there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment gone before. Why? For the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof. For the law made nothing perfect. The law didn't save anybody. It cannot save and still cannot
save anybody. It doesn't make perfect. It only
declares either this is acceptable or it's unacceptable. It doesn't
make us perfect. We're either declared righteous
or declared unrighteous. That's all the law can do. only
show what is. But the bringing in of a better
hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God. So that salvation,
sanctification, isn't going to come by us looking back to the
law. The law made nothing perfect. So how can we go back to the
law to sanctify ourselves and perfect ourselves? Or make more
perfect what Christ himself has already made perfect? The law
doesn't make us perfect. Christ makes us perfect in all
things and in all ways. And then, Paul, just to conclude
what he was writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 12,
seeing them, that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech, right? We preach the plainness of the
gospel as declared in the simplicity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
really is very simple, but as long as we're in religion, you
know, and especially we see it when They declare Christ, you
hear a sweet message of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then before
you know it, they're right back to pointing you to the law. So that there's all this confusion,
and there's this veil over your heart, and you just don't fully
get it. How is Christ everything in all
our righteousness and our sanctification and justification? But now we're
being told to go back to the law, and as soon as you go back
to the law, You know, you forget, all that terror and that fear
comes back on you because you're just always wondering, am I doing
enough? Have I done enough? Is this sufficient
to please God or am I going to be thrust out? Because you know
what you are by nature. We ought to be thrust out. We
ought to be kicked out and driven out from the presence of the
Lord. And that's what we feel like when we're looking to the
law. It just creates confusion in our minds. It's just a cloudy
thing. And he goes on to say, And not
as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished. The law of Moses is abolished
in Christ. He's fulfilled it all. It wasn't
abolished before Christ fulfilled it. He fulfilled the entire law. He honored it because it's righteous,
it's not bad, and he fulfilled it all on behalf of his people.
So now, we're not looking back to the law. That's abolished
for us. We're looking to Christ, who is our righteousness. So
we point men to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we don't try to then
confuse them by telling them, go back to the law now to keep
yourself holy and righteous and make yourself more pleasing to
God. No matter how we word it, as soon as you tell them, go
back to the law, Your mind immediately goes right off of Christ. It's
fixed on the law and what you need to be doing. The flesh is
happy because the flesh likes that kind of thing. Oh good,
now I can get something done because now I'm responsible for
myself. It's hard to put your responsibility and trust into
another person. I'm sure if you own your own
business and you have to entrust some aspect of it, you're always
like, oh, they're not doing it the way I would do it, you know,
and you just, yeah, it really gets to you. So, you know, but
now you got the law to do, all right, I can get this thing done.
So your eyes are off of Christ. So Peter says, seeing ye have
purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit.
And he's just summarizing what he said in the beginning of 1
Peter when he said in verse 2, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. so that Christ
is the one who purifies our souls, he purifies our hearts and our
minds, and he puts our hearts and our minds on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when the lust of the flesh rises up, we cry out,
Abba, Father, save me, have mercy upon me, Lord, please forgive
me for my sin and drive these lusts out of me, because they're
there. The flesh is just a wicked, dead, you know, vile corpse that's
just always going around with us. So we constantly are looking
to the Lord, crying out, Abba, Father, trusting that He's forgiving
us in grace and mercy and also working this out, leading us
to Christ, gently teaching us and giving us a heart that longs
for Him and isn't satisfied with the lusts of the flesh, you know,
and wanting to do the things that the flesh lusts for. And then he says in the second
half of 1 Peter 1.22, it says, unto unfeigned love of the brethren,
he adds an exhortation, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart, fervently. Well, I found a good picture
of how we are to love our brethren. If you turn over to John 13,
we see what the Lord himself said this. In John 13, verse
34, This is when they're sitting
down to take the Lord's Supper, and Judas has now gone out to
betray the Lord. He's had enough of this Jesus,
and he's going out. He's going to turn Him over to
the religious, unbelieving Jews and set in motion that glorious
work whereby our Savior would deliver us and purchase us with
His own blood. And our Lord says to His disciples
that are with Him in verse 34, A new commandment I give unto
you, that ye love one another. as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." So this
is the fruit that Christ is going to bear in us if we are his.
He's going to bear that love that we have for our brethren
to sacrifice and lay down our lives for our brethren and serve
them in the gospel until the Lord returns and takes us out
of this place. So John 13, 36 now. Simon says
unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? And that has to do with
what Christ was speaking of before we got to this section. And the
Lord answered him, Whither I go thou canst not follow me now,
but thou shalt follow me afterwards. And Peter said unto him, Lord,
why can I not follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. And Jesus answered him in verse
38, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied
me thrice. And we know that Peter denied
his Lord three times that night, just as the Lord had said that
he would. But the Lord shows the love that we are to have
for our brethren. When we offend and do things
against our brethren and we hurt them the way Peter surely hurt
the Lord, in denying him three times. And the Lord paid for
that. The Lord's blood was shed to put away that sin, his rejection
of the Lord of glory. And Christ would bear that sin
only a few hours later before the Father and put that sin away. And the angel said to Mary Magdalene,
go your way, tell his disciples and Peter, that he goeth before
you into Galilee, there shall you see him as he said unto you."
And that's where our Lord met the disciples on the shores of
Galilee and he reinstated Peter and commissioned him to feed
his sheep. So that the Lord works that in
the hearts of his people to love the brethren, to want to serve
the brethren, to lay down their lives for the brethren. That's
why we're here doing the things that we're doing because of the
love that Christ has borne in our hearts for his people. That's why many of us have left
our livelihoods and our families. Not just me, but you here as
well. You gave up opportunities and
things to come down and to be joined together with the brethren
here, and to see the Lord's work be established here. And that's
a sweet thing. That's a work that Christ works
in our hearts for one another, so that we continue now to labor
and serve one another, that his name be glorified even in this
dark place of the earth here. As it says, so when you're thinking,
well, how are we to love our brethren, remember what Christ
did for Peter there and how he loved him. He just got done saying,
love your brethren, and then knowing, full well knowing that
Peter was going out to betray him. and do what he did. So don't
be surprised. We're not unaware of how Satan
works. We know how he comes in to create
disruption, to create doubt, to create questioning. Are you sure about this? Are
you sure this is what we should be doing? Are you sure this is the
right person? All those things, he comes in
and works that in us to create dissension, to create doubt,
to question what God is doing here among us. But just remember,
love your brethren. Just how the Lord stayed and
put away the sin of Peter and loved him, even reinstating him
to be an apostle most imminent among us, that we love and have
his letters here. So how are we to love our brethren?
We're to forgive them in the name of Christ. Let all bitterness,
Paul said, and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice, be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. And be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children, as dear children. The way you're so happy
and delighted when your children are dear, you know, when they
listen to you and do what you ask them to do, and how sweet
that actually is. As dear children, be followers
of God, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath
given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet-smelling Saviour." So, that's how we're to love our
brethren. That's the fruit that Christ produces in us by His
Spirit. So all the fruits that we bear
in this life, if there's anything good or profitable or praiseworthy
or something that, you know, glorifies and points to our Savior,
know that they're produced in us by His Spirit, by our husband. the Lord Jesus Christ. He's putting that seed in us
and he's bearing that fruit in us by dwelling in us. Now, just
as you said in 2 Peter 1, 3 and 4, according as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life, and godliness
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust." Notice that Peter didn't say, you know, go back to the
law, but he said, by these promises, these great, these exceeding
great and precious promises, these things are given to us.
Not given to us by rooting them out, practicing the law, but
by Christ himself. So Peter says now in 1 Peter
1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Again, this
is a continuation of how Peter opened the letter in verse 3,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we're all familiar with what
Christ said to Nicodemus who came to him by night. when he
said in John 3, 5, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And that's what we're talking
about here, is a heavenly birth from above. It's not a work produced
in the flesh. It's a work performed in us,
done in us, given to us by the Spirit of Christ, doing that
work for us, so that it's not of the corruptible works of man,
but of the incorruptible work of the Spirit of Christ. Our
Lord said in John 737, in that last day, that great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirsts, let
him come unto me and drink. And the living soul thirsts for
that righteousness of Christ. That's the water of life that
we have in us, that flows within us. He that believeth on me,
he said, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this he spake of the spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. So when Christ gives us his spirit,
He gives us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and the Holy Spirit
gives us life and life in the Lord Jesus Christ, which we're
born, as you said, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. And the reason it must be
so is because our blood, our seed is tainted, right? So when
we produce seed, Our children come forth speaking lies from
the womb, just like we came forth from the womb speaking lies.
We're just dead sinners, born in deadness and in darkness of
nature, so that that which is born of God must be by the Holy
Spirit. That's why Christ was conceived
of the Holy Ghost in the womb of Mary. Because it can't be
by Adam's corrupt seed, because it's through Adam that the corrupt
seed is passed on to each of us, and that's why we're all
sinners because of our father Adam and must be born again by
the Holy Spirit through that incorruptible seed just as Christ
was born of the incorruptible seed of the Spirit in Mary's
womb. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. So that Paul said in 2 Corinthians
4.18, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. And Peter would tell us later
in the epistle, 1 Peter 3.4, where Peter speaks to wise with
unbelieving husbands, which is a lot like us too, isn't it? That we have that new man, the
bride of Christ formed in us with an unbelieving husband,
the flesh here, you know, it's just, it's very, you can see
a picture of the gospel there and how the Lord is dealing with,
you know, these wives with unbelieving husbands, how much it's like
us, you know, that Christ is formed in us. We are the bride
of Christ and have this wicked flesh that's unbelieving and
doesn't hear. But he says that our adorning
is to be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight
of God is of great price." Because man, naturally, we know it, man
loves the outward. We love the appearance of things.
We like that which is beautiful and lovely and pleasing to the
eye, so we glory in that which is passing away and growing old
and corrupting and and fading away, but God, the lights and
the eternal work of the Son, Jesus Christ, that new man, created
in the image of the Son, that which does not sin and is not
corrupted. Similar to what our brother read
in 1 John 3, 9-11 We read, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because
he is born of God. And this, the children of God
are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another. So the new man in us does not
sin. The new man constantly looks
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot sin. He's not corruptible.
He's not corrupted by the things of this world. He continues to
look to Christ, to call out to Christ, to cry out, Abba Father,
to trust Him and to save Him. And in the new man we love one
another. As Paul You know, but the flesh
still loves sin, so that the spirit and the flesh are constantly
at war with one another, each one wanting to have the preeminence
and do what it wants to do. As Paul wrote to the Galatians,
this I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under
the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these, and it goes on and enumerates various things like adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. And he says in verse 24, they
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, and
we do if we're Christ's, let us also walk in the Spirit, and
we shall if we're Christ's. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. And brethren,
that's exactly what we do if we try to be pleasing in the
flesh by keeping the law, by looking to the law. We immediately
become desires of vainglory. We want people to see what we're
doing and how we're doing what's right for the Lord. And we're
separating ourselves so that you would see my good works and
look to me that you might be inspired to be like me, right? And then we're provoking one
another, we're correcting one another. Be careful now, you
know, you better do what I'm doing and be like me, or we're
envying the other guy. And be like, man, why doesn't
anybody see my good works? Why are they looking at him?
They think he's so awesome and not looking at me and what I'm
doing. So that's desires of vainglory, provoking one another and envying
one another. And that's all done, as we know,
through men that are zealous for the law. That's exactly what
the fruit is of that focus in trying to be zealous for the
law. And then in Galatians 6, 7, 8,
he says, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And that's
true. If you plant a tomato seed, you
know you're going to get a tomato plant out of that. If you plant
a cucumber seed, you're going to get a cucumber plant out of
that. It's never any surprise, it's never any mystery seed unless
you don't know what the seed is, but you probably know most
seeds anyway just by looking at them, what's going to grow,
and that's what grows. So that's what's going to happen.
So if you sow to the flesh by practicing sin and corruption
and going out and partying, you're going to reap the consequences
of those things. You drive drunk, you're going
to get a DUI, don't be surprised. That's just part and parcel.
If you sow to the flesh, that's what you're going to get. Same
thing with sowing to the flesh through the law. If you sow to
the law, if you're laboring there in law, you're going to reap
all that vainglory That envying one another and provoking one
another, you're going to do those things because that's what we
do in the flesh. We put away those lusts of the
flesh. We're delivered from those lusts
of the flesh by looking to Christ and trusting in Him and resting
in Him. That's how we're grown. in Christ. Just keep looking
to Christ. You see the sin in your life
and we do and we shouldn't be satisfied with it or happy with
the corruption that we see in the flesh but it's not going
to be by driving your stake in the ground and saying from here
on out I ain't ever doing that again. It's begging the Lord
and keep looking to the Lord and just keep seeking Him and
He'll deliver you from it and He knows how to deliver you from
it. Trust me, He knows exactly what to do for each and every
one of us and removing a sin when that time comes for that
sin to be removed or to give us a heart and greater love to
serve one another in that time. I mean, he didn't call me to
the ministry until in my 40s, you know. So there was a lot
that he dealt with and he did it in his time and in his way
and I can only glory in him. I can't glory in myself and say
I did it by doing this and this and that and this. Nope. All
my works were repeatedly frustrated. Everything I decided that I should
do was always crossed and brought to nothing. and show him for
what it is, just the work of the flesh. The Lord, just sit
under the gospel and the Lord will feed you and he'll teach
you. He'll bring you to Christ and that's the best, best thing
that could ever be done. So Peter says, being born again,
not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of
God which liveth and abideth forever. And the word of God
that liveth and abideth forever is the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then he says, you know, this is, well, he says, in the word
of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. So that's why we keep preaching
Christ, because he's that word that we're preaching. He's the
light and the life of man. He's the one who's gonna teach
us and feed us. James said, you might wanna see
this in James, if you're there in Peter, just turn over to James
one, in verse 18. If you look at what James is
saying, he's actually saying the same thing as Peter. James
1.18, it's right after Hebrews, just before Peter. And he says in verse 18, of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. So there is, again,
preach the word. So if his own will begat he us
with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his preachers. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, to hear that gospel, slow to
speak, slow to wrath. Men who desire to be teachers
of the law, they want to speak. And they go quick to wrath. you
know, to correct. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. Christ is
able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the Word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man
be a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding
his natural face in the glass. For he beholdeth himself, just
like a man who looks in the law and beholds himself, looks to
his own flesh, and goeth his way, the way of carnal man, not
the way of the Lord, but his own way, and straightway forgetteth
what manner of man he was, Now he's a full-fledged Pharisee,
just telling you what you need to be doing. But whoso looketh
into the perfect law of liberty, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
which declares to us salvation by his righteousness, and continueth
therein, walking in the spirit and not in the flesh, He, being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed, because that's the new man created in
us by the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll keep us, not looking to
our own selves, our own flesh, looking in the mirror of the
law, that just, you know, and then go our own way according
to the flesh, but look into that perfect law of liberty, the Lord
Jesus Christ, as it's revealed in him, and he'll keep us in
the way that we should go. So the Lord sends his gospel
word to us, as Peter said in Acts 10, 36, the word which God
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ,
he is Lord of all. That word, I say unto you, which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John And that's what we looked at
this morning, how that John, bear witness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not the law, I'm not telling
them what they need to be doing, but as it is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. For that reason, brethren, it's so critical that we hear
the gospel, that you come and hear this gospel, because the
reason why we need Christ is what Peter says in verse 24,
all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever. Brethren, so this is why we come
to hear the gospel, why we gather together, because that's where
we're going to be fed is under the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. So just trust Christ. If you're
his, he's created that new man in you, and he's created you
with the incorruptible seed and given you his spirit. So when
you see the lust of the flesh, cry out to your Father, the Lord,
the Lord God Almighty, because thanks to His Son, Jesus Christ,
we've come to Him through the blood of the Son.