Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6. Our text will be found in verse
16. Scripture says, And as many as
walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and
upon the Israel of God." The title of my message this morning
is simply, This Rule. This Rule. As many as walk by
this rule, this rule. Now as we have been through this
book of Galatians, the main theme of this book is to distinguish
between the two covenants. These Galatian believers were
duped into believing that they were saved by faith in Jesus
Christ and then they were to finish this salvation by their
obedience to the law. They said, well, you believe
in Christ, that's good. But you also need to follow the
law in this matter of circumcision. And Paul, throughout the whole
book, is pointing to this one truth. You are either under the
covenant of grace or the covenant of works. You can't be under
both. You can't be under both. And
so we're going to see, and I'm going to show you very clearly,
this rule that he's talking about is not the law. It's not the
law. And so we're going to discuss
this morning, I pray God give me grace to preach it, what is
this rule? What is this rule? And that's
my subject this morning, the rule of the believer's life. And so having laid the gospel
of salvation by grace through the faith of Jesus Christ without
the law, He sets forth the need of unity. Now the Apostle tells
every believer has a rule of life. Every believer has a rule
of life. He says as many as walk by this
rule. Now walking, everybody knows
what is walk? It denotes action, doesn't it?
It denotes action when someone's walking. So the believer surely
is passive in his salvation. Totally passive. When God chose
you, where were you? What did you do? Nothing. Passive. When Christ redeemed you, what
did you do? It was passive. You were in Christ
and He redeemed you. When the Spirit of God came to
you, was it because of you? No. You were actively going the
opposite way. You were actively going against
God, and God, by the power of the Spirit, quickened you to
life and faith in Christ. And so salvation is passive,
but once we are saved, we are not passive. This morning as
you worship, you're not passive. Worship is active. Peter calls us living stones.
Living stones. We are a royal priesthood, the
apostle says. We offer up sacrifices. What are our sacrifices? Praise
and thanksgiving. Those are our sacrifices, not
those of the law, not those of our works, but praise and thanksgiving. And so when he says walk and
believe, it has to do with the believer's manner of conversation,
his conduct of living in this present world. How are we as
believers who are saved by the grace of God, totally passive,
how then are we to live in this world? There's a rule. There's
a law. The manner of life, we're not
free to choose. It's not a matter of opinion
how the believers live. He says, as many as walk by this
rule, there are going to be two things that we're going to see,
peace and mercy. Any believer here want peace,
need it. I'm in constant need of it. Everything
around me is without peace. There's no peace in this world. With the end, there's a warfare.
Without, there's a warfare. So what do I long for? Peace.
I long for peace. As many as walk by this rule,
let God say, peace be on thee and mercy. And so we're not free
to walk the way we choose. It's not an option. We cannot and must not adopt
our own rule of life or how we think what that rule should be. We are not free to speculate
as to the walk of a believer. We who are believers in Christ,
though, are not lawless. We are not under the law of Moses,
but we are not without law. We're not lawless. And this is
the accusation that I get quite often, that you're, they use
a big word, antinomian. You say we're without law. I
never said that at all. I just said it's not the law
of Moses. I have a rule that every believer
lives by. And so he says, now what is a
rule? A rule is a boundary. That's what it is. It's a boundary. It's a standard of our faith
and practice. What is the standard of our faith
and practice in this life? The line. by which we walk in
this world. And only those who walk by this
rule have peace and mercy. Only they are the Israel of God.
So then what is the rule? And I'm going to cut to the chase.
I've got a lot of things to say about this that are, and I'm
going to just, I'm going to have to skip over it because I need
to get to the meat of this. I want to get, this isn't the
meat. This is just true. It's not the Ten Commandments. Okay? Millions upon millions
of people are duped into believing it is the Ten Commandments, that
they're saved by faith in Christ, but they need to finish this
walk by their obedience to a set of laws and standards, and most
of them would say it's the Ten Commandments. What does Paul
say about this in Galatians 3? Look at that. Galatians 3. He said in verse 2, let me learn
this of you. He's saying, listen to me, let
me learn something from you here. Did you receive the spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How did you
receive the spirit? Was it by works or by the power
of the spirit? Which was it? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are
you made perfect in the flesh? Is that how you're going to make
yourself holier? Did you begin this walk by spiritual
and end this walk by something you do? No. No. So we must be very clear that
the believer in Jesus Christ, you that are born again, listen
to me, this is freeing to you. It should be freeing. It should
be the most free thing in the world. You are in no measure
under the law of Moses. None whatsoever. You are free. You are in no measure under the
law of Moses. Now, the word law is used in
different ways in the scripture, isn't it? In the Psalms, when
David speaks of the law, it means the whole word of God. It doesn't
mean just that law. Sometimes it speaks of the law
of sacrifices, or the governmental law, the dietary law. But when
most people hear the word law, that's the first thing they run
to is the Ten Commandments. Because that's all they really know about
the law. Or that's all they've heard. But let me tell you this. I don't care how you slice it. The law is the law is the law
is the law. If you want to be under one part,
you've got to be under everything. Nowhere does the scripture divide
the law and say, well, OK, you're free from the ceremonies. You're
free from the dietary. You're free from the government.
But now you need to do this other part over here. And this is what
most people do. They try to pick and choose what
law they want to obey. And so I'm just going to make
it very clear. Tell me, you, that anybody desires
to be under the law. Anybody. Name one you've obeyed. Name one. Would you dare stand
before God and say, I've done that? You know who did that,
that lawyer? All of these have I kept from
my youth up. And Jesus said, oh, really? Oh, really? By the time he was
finished with that young man, that young man went away sad.
Why? Because if you have never lied
in your life, Have you done it in love to God with all your
heart, soul, mind, body, and spirit? Just that one. If you were ready to keep that
one, you didn't lie at all. Have you done it in love to God?
No. No. None of us have obeyed the
law. Therefore, Paul says, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. in the sight of
the God. Why? Because the purpose of the
law is only to expose sin. That's it. That's all it's meant
to do. He said in Galatians, he tells
us, he said, Wherefore then serveth the law? What's the purpose of
the law? It was added for the transgression. It was added to show sin. That's it. So when you look at
the law, when I look at the law, you know what I see? My guilt.
I don't see a rule of life. I see guilt. I see a law that cannot save
me. It cannot help me. It can't. So the purpose of the law is
only to convince us of sin. And this is a sad part because
the apostle in chapter 5 of Galatians, look what he says to anybody
who wants to be under the law in any measure. Look what he
says in verse 3. I mean, verse two, he said, behold,
I, Paul, say unto you, if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you what? What will Christ profit you if
you obey that law? If that law is what you are hanging
your hopes upon, either to justify or sanctify you before God, what
does Christ profit you? Nothing. and so forth, to take one part
of your salvation to be by the offering of Christ, and then
to take one part of that for yourself. Listen to what you're
doing. You're robbing God of His glory. If salvation is dependent
upon you in one thing, you are robbing God of His glory. Robbing God of His glory. All
who believe on Jesus Christ, we rejoice in this. He is the
end of the law. Romans 10, 4. He is the end of
the law for what? Righteousness. Isn't that what
we need? We need righteousness. And Christ
has fulfilled the law. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. To who? Not to everyone. To everyone
that believes. You that believe? So wherefore
then serveth the law for you? What is the purpose of the law?
The purpose of the law exposed your sin. Didn't it do its job?
When you came to Christ, wasn't that one of the major reasons
you fled to Christ? Because of sin? Because of your
need of righteousness, you fled to Him? Well, the law served
its purpose. And now what? Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So
what is the heart of every believer then? The same as the psalmist,
Psalm 115 verse 1, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory for thy mercy's sake and thy truth's sake. So we who believe confess this,
that sin is mixed with all we do. And God forbid I should trust
any measure of my life based on my obedience to the law, anything. And so herein is the rule, our
rule of life by which we live. It is not to glory in ourselves,
but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To glory in Christ. If you look back at your text,
the apostle gives us the rule of our life. Go back. He says,
many have walked by this rule. Now, what is he talking about?
Well, he's referring back to verse 14. Verse 14. Here's the rule of life. You
that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to live by this
rule every moment of the day. Every moment of the day. Listen
to this. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's the rule
by which we are to live. There's the rule. God forbid
that I should glory in anything except the salvation of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he says
that, he's not talking about that wooden thing. He's not talking
about things people wear around their necks. He's talking about
the object of the one on the cross. We live by faith in Jesus
Christ. Now, when we look by faith to
the cross of Christ, there are always four things that we see.
I have four things as we walk by faith in this world. which
is our rule, we are going to see these four things. First
of all, we must see who died on the cross. This is the rule
of life, that I must continually see the one who died on the cross. Secondly, we must consider constantly
why he died on the cross. Thirdly, we must consider for
whom he died on the cross. And fourthly, we must consider
what he accomplished when he died. So first of all, who died? Who died? God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who died on
the cross? As we look by faith to the cross
as the rule of life, we are constantly aware of who died there. Listen
to these three words. Lord Jesus Christ. These three titles are vitally
important as we walk through this world. Who is the object
of my faith? First of all, he is Lord. He
is Lord. The one who died upon the cross,
I want you to understand he is God. He is God. John says, in the beginning was
the Word. He's talking about Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was Jesus Christ, the Word. And the Word was with
God and the Word was God. The Christ in whom we believe,
the Lord Jesus in whom we believe, He was from the beginning with
the Father and the Spirit. and was one with the Father and
the Spirit, he is himself God. God. As you walk through this
world, does this not give you peace, you who believe on him? Does this not give you peace
to consider that the one you worship, the one you believe
in, is God? The one who holds your soul,
the one who saved you is no mere man all by itself. He is himself
God. The psalmist says, Our God is
in the heavens and hath done whatsoever he pleased. And so
as you move through providence, dark providence after dark providence
after dark providence, who's in charge of these dark providences?
the one in whom you believe. So as you walk through them,
by looking to him, what do you find? You find peace. You find
mercy. He is God, very God. Secondly,
he says he's not only Lord, he's Lord Jesus. This denotes, this
causes us to remember that he is also man. The one in whom
we believe, the one in whom we trust, is not only God, very
God, he is also man, very man. You see, God condescended to
be made flesh and dwell among us. Isaiah said, Unto us a child
is born. When Mary From the Virgin, she
held that baby, that prophecy was fulfilled. Unto us a child
is born. But he was much more than that,
he was a son given. You see, he was the eternal son
of God, made flesh. Just like the prophet said he
would be. He was a man. Just like we are
men, we touch, we have feelings, we have a body, a soul, a spirit,
that's what he was made to be. Now the only exception is he
was without sin. He was without sin. He was made
not of the seed of Adam, but the seed of the woman. Isn't
that the first prophecy? He told the woman, he said, thy
seed, thy seed, the seed of the woman should crush the head of
the serpent. And he should do it very specifically
by the bruising of his heel, by his crucifixion. And that testifies this, that
he who is God and man, and being man, listen to this, this helps
us in this world as we walk daily because he is also, as a man,
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He understands
what it is to be a man. He understands what it is to
be rejected and hated and despised. He himself felt those things. He experienced those things.
You and I experienced those things, but we're still of sin. He had no sin when he experienced
those things. But this last word, Christ, what
does that mean? He was the anointed of God. He
was the Savior, the Christ, When you read the Old Testament,
what are you looking for? When you read about the Passover,
what are you looking for? History lesson? No, you look
for Christ. Why? Because He is the Passover.
When you study the great day of atonement, where you have
the high priest confessing the sins on the scapegoat. Who's
the high priest? Christ. Who's the scapegoat?
Christ. The strong man carrying the scapegoat
out into the wilderness. Who's the strong man? Christ.
You have the other goat whose throat is cut and his blood is
spilled. Who's that? That's Christ. You
have the high priest bringing the blood in before the presence
of God into the holy of holies. Who's that? That's Christ. You
don't see that all things in the Old Testament point to Him
who is Christ. And so our faith, our souls are
resting on this person, and this person alone, the Lord Jesus
Christ. How are you to walk? Every day
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in the Lord. with all thine heart. Isn't that a good rule of life?
I don't understand this. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways
acknowledge what? Who? Him. And what does he promise to do?
He'll direct your paths. Isn't this the way we're to walk?
Isn't this the rule of our life? Looking unto Him. Constantly,
steadily looking to the person of Jesus Christ. Our Lord said this, Greater love hath no man than
this, than a man lay down his life.
for his friends. How much greater then is the
love of the Lord Jesus Christ who laid down his life for his
enemies? Would you lay down your life
for your enemy? You did. So this is the one we
look to every day of our life. And so then no other man could
ever have accomplished what He accomplished. What God purposed
for Him to accomplish was what? Our salvation. We look to Him
for what? The world looks to Him for a
new car, a new house, a new home. They look to Him for a new job.
They look to Him for health. Now, we ask for these things.
There's nothing wrong with asking for these things. But that's
not what we're really looking to Him for, is it? What are we
looking to Him for? Our salvation. Our perfect salvation. And listen, as I look to him,
I know this, that there was nobody else that could do it but him.
Nobody else could save a sinner but him. Only God could obtain
the righteousness of God. Isn't that right? No man has
ever obtained the righteousness of God. Only God could do that. But what good would that do me
if He didn't come in the flesh? I needed a representative man. Adam represented me and failed. I needed another representative
man, therefore the Son of God came in the flesh to represent
me. To do for me what I could not
do for myself. And by His death He satisfied
the justice of God for who? Everyone that believes. Everyone that believes. Therefore,
our rule of life is what? To believe. Well, just so you know, I'm not
pulling this out of thin air. Go to 1 John chapter 3. This
is our rule of life, to believe on Him. To believe on Him. Look at 1 John chapter 3. And look at verse 20, 22, we
begin there. He said, for whatsoever we ask,
we receive of him because we keep his commandments. Oh, man. Anybody want to put the Ten Commandments
there? You think you'd ever receive
anything if that were the basis? That's not what it intends. He's
gonna, look at this, because we keep His commandments and
do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Go ahead, look in the mirror
and tell me you can say that. And just in case you didn't know
what the commandments are, look at this, and this is His commandment.
I like the scripture, don't leave you to guess. If you just read
it, it don't leave you to guess. And this is his commandment.
What is it? That you should believe on the name of his son Jesus
Christ. And this faith is going to do
something. It's going to produce something
in us that's going to come out. And that's the second part. And
love one another as he gave us commandment. As we look to Him
and His love, that love will be generated in our hearts and
we will love one another as He gave us commandments. So what
is His rule of life? As many as walk by this rule.
What is it? Believe on the Lord Jesus. Don't glory in anything
else. God forbid I should glory in anything except this. The
cross of who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, now that as we walk
in this world, we should consider not only who died on the cross,
but why he died. This is vitally important. If
we're to consider walking in as we go through this world,
consider him. Yes, he is God manifest in the
flesh. He is the Christ sent of God
to be our savior. Now, why? Why did he die? It's astounding to me. The first
thing that you think about is not necessarily true. Why did
he die on the cross? Well, you say to save me. That's
not the first cause. That's the result. I get this. The reason he died
on the cross was to glorify God. That's it. Everything that is
done, everything that is done, this goes against our nature
and our flesh because we want some glory for ourselves. But
everything that is done is done for the glory of God, especially
our salvation, especially our salvation. And so Christ came into the world
to glorify God, and by glorifying God, he saved us. John chapter 17 and verse 1,
that high priestly prayer, he says, glorify thy son. That thy son may glorify thee. Now how does he glorify God?
that he give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
That's how God's glorified, is by your salvation, by Christ
saving you. In Ezekiel, we read that beautiful
covenant, Ezekiel 36, you read about that new covenant, it's
glorious, it's beautiful. God sets out that covenant and
he makes a statement at the very beginning where he tells them
that their sins are going to be put away and I'm not going
to remember them anymore. He says this, in Ezekiel 36 and
verse 23, he says, I will sanctify my great name. See why God's
going to save you? He's going to save you because
He wants to glorify His name. He said, which you profaned among
the heathen. And the heathen shall know I'm
the Lord when I am sanctified in you before their eyes. You know how God's gonna glorify
His name? He's going to save every one
of His elect. And when you were saved, did
you not glorify His name? Did you not praise His name? Well, that's His purpose. His
purpose was to die for you, save you, so that God's name should
be magnified, glorified. It was by the grace of God that
sinners are saved. It was man that sinned. It was
man that rebelled. It was man who would not have
God to rule over him. Oh, how our hearts were against
him. How our hearts were set on the things of the world and
the love of the flesh, saying, I will not have you to rule over
me. God said, oh, yeah? Let me show
you something. I'm gonna glorify my name by
saving that sorry, no good son of a gun right there. I'm gonna
magnify my grace in loving him, in bringing him to myself. God, even before our sin, in
sovereign love, according, not according to anything we could
do or ever do for him, He purposed that Jesus, his only son, should
die in our stead. Is there anything else that magnifies
grace more than that? In sovereign love, he decreed
in a covenant to save us who only deserved his hatred, his
wrath. That's all we deserved. And yet,
in a covenant of mercy, he said, I will save you. I will save
the rebel. I like this scripture. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners. Paul said, look, if you think
you're too far gone, listen to me, I'm the chief. If he saved the chief, can he
not save those who are less sinners than him? Is his arm too short? Is his arm too short to save
a sinner? Is there anybody too far gone
for Him? If He determines to save them,
is there anyone? He decreed to save us. He did
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He
came to call sinners to magnify the glory of His grace. Oh, let this be our rule of life,
to glorify God. to glorify God for sending His
Son to die for our sins. Let this be the law of our life,
to praise the glory of His grace. And God, speaking of salvation,
says this in Isaiah 48, For my own sake, even for my own sake
will I do it. Now, why has God saved sinners?
Why did Christ come to die for sinners? God said, I'm doing
it for my own sake. Do you ever look inside of yourself,
try to find out why God saved you? You ever look for a reason? Found
one? The only reason is he did it
for his own name's sake. I ain't found anything in here.
No reason God to save me. Ain't no difference between me
and anyone else. in this world as far as being
a sinner. And yet God, by mercy, saved us. And those who take
this law as a rule of life, seeking not to glorify themselves, but
seeking to glorify God, they shall find peace and mercy.
God says of his people, I don't do this for your namesake nor
for your glory. I do this for my own glory. We give glory for all the salvation
that is in Jesus Christ. Now behold, this morning the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the glory of God. It is the
glory of God. Jesus came as a man to give His
life a ransom. to reconcile sinners by His blood. As we look to Him this morning
and look to why He came into this world to glorify God and
to save us, we often are caused to remember our condition. We
were born dead in sin. Wasn't this condition that He
found you in? He found you dead. He found you without life. Remember
that none of us could ever save ourselves. But the scripture says, God who
is rich in mercy, for his own glory he purposed that Jesus
Christ would die in the place of the guilty. That Christ would
redeem sinners by his blood and provide righteousness by his
obedience. And by His act alone He glorified
God. You, listen to me, you could
never glorify God by what you do. You could never glorify God
by what you do. I don't seek to glorify God by
what I do. I seek that the glory of God is accomplished in Jesus
Christ. It is accomplished in Christ
alone. He alone glorified God. His blood alone redeemed me from
my sin. His righteousness alone clothes
me and I can stand before God. That's it. His alone. It was
by the grace of God, then he gave us a new nature, a new heart. It was by the grace of God, he
called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, he called
us from unbelief to belief. Isn't that right? I remember
the lady came in and she gave me, she was talking to me about
how the Lord saved her. I thought it was a wonderful
explanation of faith. She said, somebody gave me a
message and I was listening to the message. And I knew this.
When I started listening to the message, I did not believe this. But as I listened to the message,
I found myself, I could not help but believe it. It wasn't a matter of choice,
it was a matter of power. God giving us life and faith. So as we walk in this world,
remember Him who is Lord, who is our mediator. Remember that
He is the Christ, the Savior, and remember why He came. He
came to glorify God by saving you. This should give you some assurance.
How sure is the glory of God? How sure is God going to get
glory? Is there anything that's going
to stop Him from receiving all the glory? Anything. I want you
to know this. Your salvation is vitally tied
to His glory. In other words, if He purposed
to save someone and Christ died for them and they're not saved,
His glory is diminished. That's not going to happen. So
as you walk through this world, Consider this, your salvation
is tied to the glory of God. Jesus Christ, who died on that
cross, did this for the glory of God, to save you. And so then, by faith, we constantly
look to Christ, glorifying God, having no boast in ourselves.
Now then, thirdly, For whom did Christ die? We saw who died,
we saw why he came to die, now then the question is for whom
did he die? Now this is a, it is a popular
belief of religion for many years that Jesus Christ died for everyone.
That's very popular, still popular. That man sinned and God needed
a remedy for it and he came up with this idea. That Jesus, his
son, he's gonna send him in the world and he's gonna die for
all of them, giving them the possibility of being saved. That's a popular religious view.
Problem is, it's not in the word of God. It's not here. Friends, that's a doctrine of
devils. Why? Simply because of this. It makes
salvation dependent on you. And if salvation is dependent
on you, who gets the glory? If you're saved, and salvation
is dependent on you, no matter how big or how small, who gets
the glory? You do! It's not in the Word
of God. It's not in the Word of God.
The Word of God concerning those for whom Christ died is very
clear. He died only for the elect. That's it. No one else. He died
only for His people that the Father gave Him. And no one else. Go to John 10. Go to John 10. Let's hear the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. John chapter 10, look at verse
11. I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for who? Who does he give his life
for? The sheep. One group of people,
the sheep. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd
and know my sheep. What's the evidence we are a
sheep? We're going to get to this in just a minute, and are known
of mine. His sheep know who he is. He knows who they are, but
they also know who he is. As my father knoweth me, even
so know I the father, and I lay down my life. Who? He doubles
down. He doesn't make excuses, doesn't
hem-haw around. Oh, well, I didn't mean this.
I meant, no. He said, I said it here. I'm
going to say it again. I lay down my life for the sheep.
Now listen. Of the sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them I also, what, must bring. And there shall be. There shall. They shall hear my voice. And
there shall be one fold. and one shepherd. Does that sound
ambiguous to you? Does that sound like Jesus died
for everybody and he's hoping that you'll accept him? No. It's the same thing he said in
the Old Testament. I will and you shall. I died for my sheep
and this is what's going to happen. They are going to hear my voice
and there's going to be one full Jew and Gentile together in one
unified church. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and
He laid down His life for the sheep. Listen to this, not all
men are sheep. You don't start out as a goat
and become a sheep. Has that ever happened? Has that ever happened in the
history of goats and sheep? Now a goat can act like a sheep.
He can move around with the flock like a sheep. He can try to eat
grass like a sheep. The difference is, he's a goat.
He's always going to be a goat and there's no way to change
it. Look at verse 26. Those Pharisees
didn't like what he said. A lot of people don't like what
he said. Look at verse 26. He said, But you believe not,
because You are not of my sheep. Notice how he said that. You
believe not. Why? Why will men not believe?
Why will men die in their sins? Because you are not of my sheep. He didn't say it the opposite
way. He didn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe.
That's modern religion. The truth is you believe not
because you are not of my sheep. Listen, if a man will not believe
in the Son of God and die in his sins, it's because he's not
one of God's elect. That's just so. These Pharisees
were not. He knew it. He told them. This
is why you won't believe me, because you're not my sheep.
My sheep are going to hear my voice and they are going to believe
on me. And I'm going to give to them eternal life and they
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. I like reading Isaiah 53. If you were to follow
that and read this, my people, my people, he said in Isaiah
53 verse eight, he was taken from prison from judgment who
shall declare generation. He was cut off from the land
of the living for the transgression of my people. Was he stricken? Who did Christ
die for? His elect people are no different
than anyone else when they're born. There's no difference.
You can't tell the difference. You can't look out in the congregation
and say, well, that's one and that's not. I don't know. I don't
know. Spurgeon was told, he said, you
mean to tell me that only God's going to save the elect? He said,
yes, sir. He said, well, why preach? And he said, sir, if
you would kindly point out the elect to me, I'll only preach
to them. I don't have a clue. I preach to everyone because
I don't know who they are. I just know He'll call them. And so we all come to this world
dead in sins and yet by an act of God's grace, He chose us. By an act of grace, He put us
into union with Christ and saved us. And by an act of sovereign
grace, He will call us to Himself and we shall believe on His name. Do you believe on His name? This seems, I don't know why
it seems harsh. If you're a believer in Jesus
Christ, this should be the most liberating thing in the world.
This should be the most wonderful, gracious thing that God would
have ever chose you to salvation. Why? That he would send his son
into this world to die for your sins? That he would call you
and leave others? Gracious act of mercy. Not a
hard, cold God, but a loving, caring, merciful God. Now there's some poor sinner
who may say, Preacher, I know what you're saying is so. God
has a people. I know that Christ died for them. But the question is, How can
I know if I'm one of them? Isn't that the important question
here? If God chose a people and Christ died only for them, isn't
that the most important thing to know? If you're one of them? I'm going to give you four marks
of everyone who's elect. Four marks of everyone who's
elect. First of all, they're sinners. I don't mean they've done bad
things. I mean from the very core of their soul. This is something
I know daily. That from the sole of my foot
to the crown of my head is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. That's who I am by nature. I
am a sinner! Do you know that? Man, if there
were any sinners, What did God do to sinners? Secondly, they know this, they
need a perfect salvation. Do you know you need a perfect
salvation? One you can't help, one you can't
provide. Do you know that? When God calls His elect, they
become the most needy person in the world. I need a righteousness
I can't make. I need an offering I can't give. They come empty. They come with
no hope. Is this how you come to God?
It's how every elect sinner comes to God with nothing. I've got
nothing. I've tried the world and it's
given me nothing. And every one of God's elect
see this, that Jesus Christ is my only hope. ever gonna be saved. He has to
save me. And by grace and power they cling
their very souls to his person and work. I like to think about those lepers,
they didn't know, a big siege and everybody was starving to
death on the inside of the city. Lepers weren't allowed in the
city. They were outside the city. And
the city was starving to death. And the enemies were out there.
You know what they said? They said, look, we're going
to either lay here and die or we'll go out here and we'll see
if there's any, if these enemies will show us mercy. You know
what they found? They found all enemies were dead. And they started eating and they
just kept eating and eating. They said, peradventure. They
didn't know. This is what it is at times when
we have no hope is that we cast all of our hope on this peradventure. He had saved a sinner like me.
And we just lay down at the feet of Christ and pray for mercy.
Well, how long do that until he shows mercy? You know what? I've got a good
hope in this. Every time someone came to Jesus Christ for mercy,
what did they find? What did he find? Did you find
one that he turned away? Why is that? Why would he do
that? You get that woman who's the,
you know, that Canaanite woman, she comes behind him, she's begging,
and he says, he calls her a dog. Did she stop? Why? She had nowhere else to go. Look
at me. When a sinner has no place to
go, when his elect have no place to go, That's when they'll go
to him. And ain't nothing gonna stop them from having, until
they get him. That's it. I must have him or I die. Look,
if you kill me and send me to hell, you're gonna have to do
it at your feet, begging for mercy. And I'll tell you, he's never
turned away one. Now why? Why has he not turned away one? Here's
a hope for faith. Go to John six and I'll close. John chapter six. Why does He
not turn them away? Look at verse 37. All that the
Father giveth me, what are they going to do? They shall come
to me. Didn't I just describe these
people? They're sinners. They have no
hope in themselves. They see that Christ is their
only hope and they come to Him. Why? Because He said they would.
And when they come to him, what does he say? And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, and
this is his will. that of all he hath given me
I should lose, how many? How many will he lose? Nothing. Raise it up again at the last
day. And what's the result of this?
As we walk by faith looking to the person of Christ, as we walk
by faith looking to why he died for the glory of God and the
salvation of his elect, seeing that he has saved us and he promises
to save his people. Whom did he die for? He died
for his elect. And what's the result of this?
Every one of his elect will come to him. They'll come to him. And he will
never cast him out. And as we go and live by this
rule, let me ask you this. Was he successful in what he
came to do? You who believe on him, was he
successful? Did He do what He said He would
do? Did He actually save you or just make it possible? Did
He leave any part of this for you to do? No. So then how do we walk in this
life? Constantly looking to Him. Daily looking to Him. In every
providence, in every circumstance, in every trouble, in every difficulty,
constantly looking to Him who saved us. Why? Because he accomplished my salvation.
It's done. So that I may walk in this peace
and mercy. Peace and mercy. The apostle
says, as many as walk by this rule, peace be on them. Peace. You need peace? You find the guilty soul? Guilty
conscience? Are you without strength? What? What do you find when you look
to Him? You find peace. And what? Mercy. I need mercy,
friends. I need mercy. And only those who come to Him
find these things. And we walk by this daily. This
is our law. This is our law. To believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. To constantly believe on Him. The flesh don't like it because
it's too simple. Well, there's got to be more to it! No. No. That's it. There's your law. Live by that. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Father, be merciful, be gracious.
Pour out your spirit on us and teach us as you please. Take
the things that your word has said and apply them to hearts
of your people. Give them comfort and peace and
joy in the midst of all their afflictions. Help us constantly
look to thy person and work and the finished work of Christ.
That's all I hope. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.