I'll take your Bibles and turn
back with me to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. I'll title this, The Effects of Inward
Grace. The effects of inward grace. Read this in Let's begin our
reading again in verse 17. He said, For the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are
contrary one to another, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. But here's our hope. If we are
led by the Spirit, here's my confidence. This is very comforting
to me. You're not under the law. Isn't
that good? No matter that you have this conflict, whether you
win or whether you lose, you're constantly, I feel like I'm losing
all the time. But irregardless, I'm still not
under the law. And then he begins this, now
the works of the flesh. flesh and lusts against the spirit.
He says the works of the flesh are manifest, they're clear,
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, uncleanness, wantonness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, sedition, heresies, envying, murder, drunkenness, reveling,
and such like. Pretty long list, isn't it? He said, I've told you in time
past and I do now tell you this, they that do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. But conversely, there he's going
to talk about the spirit, the flesh, it's manifest, these are
the works of the flesh. But there's the spirit, remember
these two are in, the fruit of the spirit is what? Love, joy,
peace, longsuffering. Gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. Now, the apostles have been preaching
throughout the book that justification is by the grace of God through
faith in Christ alone. This is the theme throughout
the whole book, that justification is not by the deeds of the law.
Paul says that every man that seeks to be justified by the
works of the law are under what? The curse of it. There's no blessing
in the law. There's only curse because we
failed. But everyone who comes to God
by faith in Jesus Christ is, listen, justified. We are justified. And so behold the victory this
morning of the work of our Lord. See how that He who is God manifest
in the flesh came as a representative man. He represented all the elect
of God. That's who he came to save. You look at Calvary and you see
that he was the spotless Lamb of God, the sinless Son of God. He was sent to be the Passover
Lamb for Israel. Just talk about that Passover
lamb. He had to be spotless. That's what the pictured Christ,
isn't it? His blood had to be shed in the midst of the congregation.
Pictured Christ, His blood was shed in the open. He was crucified. And yet His
death, according to the sovereign, eternal decree of God, redeemed
Israel from their sins. That's his purpose, wasn't it?
To die for his people. As when the angel came, he shall
save his people from their sins. Now, everything I just said,
modern religion will say, yeah, that's right, they believe that.
This is the thing they deny, his success. Was he successful? Did he actually redeem them,
or did he just make it possible? Did He redeem our sins? Was God
really pleased with His offering? Or was that offering contingent
upon something you have to do? We know this, it was totally
successful. I think Hebrews chapter 10 is
the clearest among this. I've got many, but Hebrews chapter
10, look at that. In verse 4 it tells us, For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Wherefore, when
he cometh to the end of the world, he sayeth, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices, sin thou had no pleasure. What are
you talking about the law? They burned how many offerings?
They killed how many animals? And when God was never pleased,
you know how we know that? Because they had to keep doing
it. If He was pleased, then there would be no more need for Him.
But He was never pleased with that. That's why He said, A body
you prepared Me. And then Jesus said, Lo, I come
in the volume of the book that is written of Me to do Thy will,
O God. The whole volume of this book.
The whole volume of this book is written of Him. If you want
to understand the Bible, you very simply have to know it is
a Him book. It is all about Him. That's it. Lo, I come to do one thing, thy
will, O God. He came to do the will of God. What was the will of God? Look
at verse 10. Verse 9, He said, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. He'd taken away the first, they
may establish the second. He's establishing a covenant
of grace. He takes away the law, which
was first in time, in our view. He takes that away by establishing
it, to establish a covenant of grace. By the witch will. Now whose will is he talking
about? The will of God. I came to do Thy will. By the
witch will. We are, what, sanctified, holy,
made holy, declared holy, holy, by the will of God we were declared
holy. We are sanctified. Well, how
do you do that? Through the offering of the body
of Christ. How many times? Once. See the difference in the Old
Testament offerings and his? Once. Every priest standed daily ministering,
oftentimes the same sacrifices that can never take away sin
but this man. That's our message, isn't it?
This man. Our message is this man. This man. Look at this man. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sins, he did something no priest ever did. He sat down.
No priest in the temple ever sat down. There was no chair
in the temple. They were never done. He sat
down because it was finished, it's done. He sat down at the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Does this not clarify his success? I mean, does this not codify
his success? It just, it magnifies his success. He hath perfected,
how long? Forever! Them that God sanctified
by His will, that He sanctified by His blood. They're perfected.
Now listen, that was written a long time before I came into
this world. That was written before I was ever in here to
help perfect it. I didn't have any hand in it,
did I? I didn't have any hand in that perfection. It was by the will of God. I
like to visualize this as the great day of atonement. Remember?
A high priest, once a year, a high priest. And who was he a priest
of? Was he a priest of the Hivites,
the Jebusites, the Canaanites? No, he was a priest of Israel.
Why? Because he represented Israel. So when He offered those sacrifices,
He didn't offer them for the other people. He offered them
for Israel. Jesus Christ is our high priest.
He is the priest of God's elect, of God's people. That's who He's
a priest of. And He'd take that high priest,
he had two goats. Now one's not sufficient to make
the picture. Gotta have two of them to make
the picture right. You remember, He'd take that one and He'd confess
the sins on the head of that one called the scapegoat. Christ
is not only the priest, He's the scapegoat. The Lord God charged
our sins to His Son. And you read Psalm 69, and when
He says, My sin, that's Christ speaking. God don't condemn the
innocent. Is that right? I mean, is that
so? It's an abomination to condemn the innocent. Yet Christ knew
no sin. He did no sin. He felt no sin.
He thought no sin. And yet He was made sin. I don't
understand that. That's just so. God did it. He
transferred my guilt to Him in such a way that He became guilty. And God charged Him, convicted
Him, sentenced Him, and killed Him. just like that other goat. The other goat pictured Christ,
too, and that his throat was cut. The blood was shed. And you remember the high priest,
he would take that blood into the very presence of God, into
the Holy of Holies. That's exactly what our Lord
Jesus Christ did. He didn't take the blood of somebody
else. He took his own blood and presented it to the Father. You
know what the Father said? I'm satisfied. What were his
words upon Calvary's tree before he died? It is finished. It's finished. Sacrifice accepted. And it's a picture of that scapegoat
after he confessed. The scapegoat, you remember that
strong man? That's a picture of Christ too. He's a strong
man. He's the priest. He's the scapegoat. He's the
blood offering. And He's the strong man that
carried away that scapegoat. The scapegoat's a picture of
our sin. Christ carried our sins away into a land uninhabited. And you see the picture. All
Israel's watching. This is done in the open here.
This is all done in the open. Israel's watching that strong
man grab that goat and put him in his arms and he starts walking.
And he just keeps walking and walking walking until they're
gone. What a picture of what Christ
did with our sins. They're gone. How do we know he was successful?
Two things. The strong man came back without
the goat. Isn't that right? He came back
without the goat. The priest, when he went into
the holy presence of God, how do we know God accepted that
offering? He came out. That's what Christ pictures in
his resurrection. He's the strong man that came
out of the tomb. He's the priest that came from
the presence of God being accepted. You see how that works? His offering
is successful, victorious. He bore our sins. He carried
them away. What does this mean to us who
are sons of liberty? Paul calls us sons of liberty.
Why? Because you are free from the guilt of your sin. You are
free from the guilt of your sin. I feel the guilt of my sin, don't
you? But regardless of how I feel
about this, this is what God did before I ever felt the guilt
of my sin. He took it away. And so when God looks upon his
people, what he sees is his son. He sees the very image of his
son. Jeremiah says in that day and
that time, the Lord show the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be none. It's astounding. And so simply stated, we that
believe on Christ know this, that He is a successful Savior.
And I know this, everyone that Christ died for will come to
Him. Everyone. Everyone the Father sanctified,
everyone the Son sanctified will experience sanctification. The Spirit of God will come to
them, and they will believe without doubt. Why? Because Jesus said so. I don't care about the rumblings
of theologians and foolish men jabbering. Christ said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's sufficient for
me. Spurgeon, Spurgeon, he preached that. that God's only going to
save the elect. And after, one of these wise thinkers came to
him and said, well, if God is only going to save the elect,
why don't you just preach to them? He said, sir, if you'd
kindly point out the elect to me, I will only preach to them.
I don't know who they are. That's not my business. My business
is to preach to everyone because somebody out there is his elect.
And he's going to find them, and he's going to bring them
in. Not my business. So Jesus said it now that what
then is the result of it? How do we know? Because I mean,
God's going to elect people, not just so. It's only a certain
number of people. I don't know how many. I don't
know who they are. I just know he's got them because he said
so. Christ died for them and they are perfectly saved, perfectly
redeemed. The Spirit will at the appropriate
time, appointed time, He will call them and they all will believe. Now then, how do I know that
I am one of them? Because I doubt. I have fears.
I struggle. I'm like that boy inside the
house on that Passover sacrifice. Father, you sure? Are you sure
this is true? there's always an effect of inward
grace. When God begins a work inside
of a believer, there are things that every believer experiences
without exception. The first sign of inward grace
that you really believe on Christ is this, there's a war begins. You sons of liberty, You are
free from the guilt of sin. You are free from the power of
sin. But listen to me, you are not yet free from its presence. The flesh, verse 17, here's the
sign of inward grace. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary. They are at war with one another.
And the result is you can't do what you want to. Either one
of them. Either one of them. Now, every believer that's born
of the Spirit, I want you to understand this, and I do not
understand people opposing this. I don't understand why they oppose
it, except they want to have some kind of hand in their salvation. They oppose that there's two
natures inside of every believer. I don't know how else you read
this. The flesh, there's one. In the spirit, there's the other. These are two contrary natures
residing in one man, one believer. And these two are contrary. If there was only one, it wouldn't
be. How can you have something that's contrary when you only
have one? There are two, and they are contrary one to another.
Now, this new nature that you have as a believer, It is without
sin. The new nature that is created
of God is holy. It is holy. Go to Ephesians chapter
4. Flip over a couple pages. Ephesians chapter 4 and look
at verse 20. Look at verse 20. Two, he said
that you put off concerning the former conversation, what? The
old man. Now listen, you, why would he
tell you to put off the old man if you don't have one? You have one. Why do you have
to put him off? Because you have him. He's there. He is the old Adamic nature that
you were born with. He is the old man of sin that
resides in every one of us. What do we do as believers? You've
got to put Him off. Why? Because He's constantly
trying to pull you away from Christ. You have to put Him off
constantly. You put off him and his deeds
according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and put on the new man." Well look, there's
another guy. An old man and a new man. Now notice the difference. The new man, which is after God,
which after God, it's in the image of God. And notice this,
it's created. You don't have to be a scholar
to understand that when something's created it wasn't there before.
One time the earth wasn't here and God created it. Well you
know what? There was a time when I didn't
have a new man. Until when? God created it. And God created
it in holiness, in perfection, after the very image of His Son.
In righteousness, and look, it's not false holiness, it's just
true holiness. He didn't just put holiness, he said, no, this
is real. This is real holiness we're talking
about. Clarify this, go to 1 John. Look
at this, we're still talking about the new nature that God
creates inside of every believer. This is our experience of every
believer, this is what we have. Look at chapter 3 and verse 6.
1 John 3 and verse 6 he says, Whosoever
abideth in him. Isn't that what, this is talking
about union. Remember Christ said, he that
abideth in me. I am the vine and he is the branches. And he that abideth in me bringeth
forth much fruit. Anybody that does not abide in
me shall be cut off and is withered. A branch, you cut a branch off
a vine. And what does it do? By itself it's withered. But
we abide in Christ by faith. Do you abide in Christ by faith?
Do you believe in Christ by faith? Listen to what he said about
you. He said, He that abideth in him, listen, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. This is, wait a second, I'm kind
of conflicted here. Strange, because I feel like
that's all I do is see Him. I'll get to that. Look at chapter
5 and verse 18. He clarifies this even more.
He says, 1 John 5, 18, We know that whosoever is born of God
sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the
wicked one toucheth him not. This not only seems conflicting
to my experience, it also seems that John is conflicting to himself
because in the first chapter of John, he said this, if we
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Now how in the world
do you reconcile these two things? If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we say we have
not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Is
he contradicting himself? No. He's expressing the same
thing that Paul is expressing in our text. That the flesh is
that old man of sin that cannot do anything but sin. And the
new man is without sin and he cannot sin. He keepeth himself. Why? Because he's born of God.
He's created of God. And when these two are now inside
one man, there is what? There is a war. There is a war
that takes place in everyone who is born again of the Spirit
of God. And so then this is the effect
of all true faith. All true faith, this is always
going to be the effect. A warfare starts. When people
come to me and they say, well, I believed on the Lord. I said,
great, get ready for trouble. I want to be honest with you. I want you to understand that
your life is not going to be easy. The world tells you that's how
it is. The world says if you just believe in Jesus, everything's
going to be well. Well, it is well with my soul, but it has
nothing to do with my body and this world and my flesh. Nothing. Matter of fact, it gets worse.
Try to find me one saint in the Old Testament that it got better
after he believed. Find me one. Come on. In the Song of Solomon, chapter
6, the Lord said this to the bride, now the Shulamite is a
picture of the church, a picture of God's people. And God says
this, return, return, O Shulamite, return, that we may look upon
thee. What will you see in the Shulamite? What will you see inside of everyone
that is born of the Spirit of God? Listen to me. As it were
a company of two armies. That's what you're going to see.
You're going to see a warfare. You're going to see your flesh
lusting and opposing the Spirit. And the Spirit is going to oppose
the flesh and these two are constant stalemate. So that you cannot do what you
would. The new man would always believe, would always love, would
always serve Christ. And the old man would do nothing
but hate and diminish and kill and destroy. That's all. And
these two are inside of you. Philpott said this about self,
self is the worst of our enemies. You know why? It's always present. Now you can shut out the world,
cut off all your televisions and radios and stop listening
to news and put yourself on a hill or some monastery all by yourself. But wherever you go, there you
are. You still have you. Satan is
not omnipresent, you know that? He's not omnipresent. He's an
evil enemy. He's against us, but I tell you
this, you're always present with you. And so then, what then is the
manifestation of this? Look, go back to your text. What
are you going to see when this warfare begins? You're going
to see exactly who you are. God is going to expose you for
what you really are. However bad you think your flesh
is, it's much worse. You just don't know it. And as
we grow in grace, we begin to know more of this flesh. He said, the works of the flesh
are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
sexual lusts. These last two are inordinate
affections, evil things. And he said, idolatry. Man's
a God factory. Your flesh is a God factory.
You know that? By nature, we would worship anyone but God. I saw a picture of this Catholic
priest the other day, and he was crying, and he was holding
this statue up like this, and they said he was weeping because
he was carrying the Creator. Very intelligent man, I have
no doubt, a very intelligent man, but yet when it comes to
worshiping God, he'd bow down to a piece of gold with a bunch
of gemstones and call it the Creator, rather than bow to the
Creator of all things. But don't just look at him, look
at you. The Galatian church had moved
from worshiping Christ to another God. And so it is possible with
us. Idolatry still resides in us.
Witchcraft. Oh, this is interesting. It's not just hocus pocus witchcraft
as we think about it. This is in us. It's not just
in the people bowing down to Satanists and things like that.
Witchcraft is in us. You know what it is? Do you like
to know the future? Witchcraft is taking anything
that belongs to God and trying to possess it for yourself. That's
what witchcraft is. Ouija boards. What do they want
to know? They want to know the future. What does the church want to
do? They're looking at Revelation trying to figure out the future.
Witchcraft. That's what that is. You're looking
for signs and wonders. Isn't that what witchcraft is?
Magic? That's what you're looking for is magic. You want to see
somebody healed. This is in us all. Hatred. Isn't that in us? Hatred. Emulations, wrath, strife,
sedition, heresies. That word heresies has a root
word opinion. You know that? Opinion. Take the word of God
and add your opinion. Heretic. I want my opinion. You don't want my opinion. Worthless. Envy, murder, drunkenness, reveling
in such life. Now, again, the apostles not
writing this list so you can look outside and see. Oh, look
at that. That's Joanne. He's telling you,
this is your flesh. This is the flesh that lusts
against the Spirit, and these things are in you. They're not
in somebody else. They're in you. If you don't
recognize that, whatever one of these, you say, well, you
know, I'm sure I've hated people, but you know what, that adultery
thing, I've never really... Careful. Oh, it's in there. You know,
David wasn't a young man when he committed adultery. He was
an old man. You don't realize that? Why? I'm sure he thought he was safe. Not safe from yourself. Not safe
from yourself. These things are in you. But
there is a converse thing here. The fruits of the Spirit. Look
at this. He said in verse 22, but there's
another nature that resides in you. And this is called not the
work, but the fruit. Now listen, you plant a seed
and you sit there and watch it. The rain will come down from
heaven and water it. You just watch it. And what will
happen? It will bear fruit all by itself.
I didn't do anything to do it. I didn't have to work at it.
It was already in the seed to bear the fruit and the fruit
just comes out of it naturally. If I plant an apple tree seed
and watch it grow, you know, I don't have to manipulate the
DNA inside there to get the fruit. It's going to come out naturally.
That's what it's telling you. This fruit of the Spirit is going
to come out of you just as naturally as the works of the flesh come
out of you naturally. Work of the Spirit. So this is
a real conflict, a real warfare. But this I know that Like I said,
when you plant an apple tree seed, how do you know it's an
apple tree? I got two seeds. I got an orange seed and an apple
seed. You put them in the ground. How do you know which is which?
You only know about when the fruit comes out, right? Apple tree's going to produce
apples. Orange tree is going to produce orange. Listen, when
God plants a seed of life inside of a believer, these fruits will
appear. They will come. So every believer,
I know this, you have the works of the flesh in your old man,
but every work, every fruit of the Spirit is also in you. Love,
joy, peace, meekness, temperance, goodness, all of these are in
you. Listen to what John Gill says
about this. John, 1 John 3, verse 7, he said, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. Isn't that right?
Who's righteous? Well, the guy that does righteous.
That's it. That's how you know. John Gill
said, men are only made righteous by Christ. You're only made righteous
by Christ. And everyone who is made righteous
by Christ, We are convinced of the insufficiency of our own. Is that true of you? Are you
convinced of the insufficiency of your righteousness? Are you
convinced of the sufficiency of His? So what are we going
to do? We are never going to try to
add ours to His. Never. We're never going to try
to make His better by ours. That can't happen. Why? Because
all my nature can do is sin. So anything I add is what? Sin. So we are constantly looking
to Him and His righteousness. We are convinced of His righteousness.
We renounce our own. We submit to Him. We lay hold
upon His. We receive His. We exercise ourselves
by faith in His. And the consequence is what?
That's how we'll live. That's how we'll seek to live.
We'll seek to live righteously. Titus chapter 2 says that the grace of God, he said
the grace of God teaches us. The grace of God teaches us what?
living soberly, righteously, godly in this present world.
What teaches us to live soberly, righteously? It is the love of
God that's in Christ. That's what teaches us. It's
by seeing Him, by believing Him, we desire, isn't this what the
new man desires? To live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world. That's just what we desire as
a believer in Christ. Never to impose that upon his. No matter how much I can be righteous,
I would dare not add any of that to Him. That's what religion
does. And yet what do we find? We find
the flesh is always against that, isn't it? You would do righteous,
but the flesh is always, always, always opposed to righteousness. We who believe on Christ, we
confess our proneness to these sins. And so long as we're in
the body, these manifest sins will not cease to allure us.
That's a fallacy of modern religion is that they get a guy, I know
this believer who failed. He failed miserably. He committed
adultery and lost his wife and his family. He lost all the honor
that he had. And he felt miserable. And the
false church came along and said, hey, we know how to help you.
Come on over here and we'll help you. What you've got to do is
this. You've got to sanctify yourself. You've got to get yourself
some buddies and kind of help watch over you and you watch
over them and start trying to do good. And eventually, listen
to what they believe, eventually that desire will fade. That is a load of crap. Why? Because the flesh is still the
flesh, is still the flesh, is still the flesh, is still the
flesh. That which is born of flesh is
what? Flesh. It never goes away. This warfare
never ceases, friends. It never ceases. Go to 1 Corinthians 6. Go to
1 Corinthians 6. Look at this. Still speaking
about the inward struggle of the believer. This is the effect
of grace. Verse 9, the apostle said, Know
you not the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
That's just obvious, isn't it? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abuses of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God." That's evident, isn't it? And such were some of you. What made the difference? Such were some of you, but you
changed. You started living right. You
stop being an adulterer. You stop being a fornicator.
You stop thinking bad thoughts and doing bad things. No. What's
the difference? The difference is we were washed. That's the
difference. We were washed. But you are sanctified. But you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. What is he
talking about? He's talking about the new nature. He's talking
about what God has put in you. The old thing didn't change.
But the new thing that was given you is holy. It's righteous. It's just. Now, surely, I know
this. I'm sure that they stopped fornicating. I know that. You're a believer
and that's what you were doing before. I know this. You don't
want to do that anymore. And I tell you this, the thought
doesn't stop. The feeling doesn't stop. The
attraction doesn't stop. You may have been a thief. The
desire to steal may never stop. Why? Because that which is born
of flesh is flesh. And you're going to have to fight
against that every single day of your life. But my hope is this, not my fighting
against it because I failed. Have you not failed? Have you
not given in to these things? Hatred, emulation, strife? Yeah,
we have. What's my hope? My hope is I'm
washed. I'm washed. My security is this. I've been sanctified. I've been
made holy. Something I couldn't do for myself.
He made me holy. I'm justified. You know what
justified means? Innocent. That's good, isn't it? You're
innocent. Listen, not by the works of your
flesh, but by the authority of Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of
our God. And every believer confesses
this, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Not I was a sinner,
I am a sinner. We confess that in our flesh
dwelleth no good thing, and our confidence is only in the blood
of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is the blood of
Christ, it is the love of Christ that constrains us. When we consider
what he's done, listen, he considered, the new man testifies of what
he's done. He's washed me. He sanctified
me. He justified me. It is by this
I am constrained not to do what the flesh wants to. And so we know a man who confesses
to believe in Christ and still is following after this life,
we know that man's not. He's just a pretender. No real
struggle, is it? To say you believe and just going
out and do what you please in the flesh and then say, grace,
grace! There's no real struggle there,
is there? There's no warfare, there's no fight. We who are believers, listen
to me, the first evidence of our grace is this, there is warfare. Real, constant struggle. And I want to give you the second,
and I'm going to give it to you because I'm not going to be able
to go over this. In every believer, there's not
only a struggle, but there are fruits of the Spirit. I say fruits,
fruit. There's only one. These fruit
of the Spirit is in, just as the things of the flesh are in
you, these things are in you. Love. You that believe on Christ, do
you love Christ? Everyone who believes on Christ
loves him. Now, I struggled with this this
morning. I read that, read it, read it, and I dwelt upon my
love for him. You know, I didn't get very happy.
I felt very discouraged. I know this, that I do love him. But I do not love Him like I
want to love Him. And I know this, everyone who
has real love for Christ, this is the basis of our love. Not that I loved Him. My hope
is not that I love Him. I do love Him. But my hope is
not that I love Him. My hope is this, He loves me.
There's my hope. This is the hope of every believer.
It's not my love, but His love. How is your love for Him? Hot, cold, indifferent? Well, my salvation is not dependent
upon my love for Him, but rather His love for me, because His
love never changes. You got that, I am God and I
change not? However high the love of God
is, it's always that high. However deep His love is, it's
always been that deep. However long His love is, it's
always going to be that long. What did He say? I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. We sing this hymn, Tis not that
I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be.
This heart would still refuse thee. Hast thou not chosen me? Thou from sin that stained me
hast cleansed and set me free. Of all thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee. To a sovereign mercy called me
and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before thee.
For thy rich grace I thirst, this knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. This is a fruit of someone who
really believes. I thought of Peter. And you? How hot was his love when he
said, Lord, if everyone leaves you, I'll die with you. You know, I think he felt that.
I believe he meant it with every ounce of his soul. How often
do you feel like that? I like those feelings. I like
those feelings. It wasn't three hours later,
and Peter's love was nowhere to be found. He denied him three
times. What was the Lord's statement?
He said, tonight you'll deny me three times, but I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. Isn't that true of us, how
many times we deny? But yet, listen to this, those
whom the Lord loves, He never leaves them there. He came back
to Peter and he asked that question, lovest thou me more than these? Has he ever asked you that? Have you ever failed so bad in
your love And then he comes to you with
sweetness. I expected he'd just come and
crush me. But instead, he comes with his
voice. Lovest thou me more than these? Oh, yeah. You know I do. I do. I do. You ask him a second time, lovest
thou me? And then a third. And Peter was
grieved. You ever been grieved about your
love? That's the experience of everyone
with inward grace. We fight and we fail. We love. Then we deny him. And yet he comes to us constantly. What does he do? He stirs our
love by testifying of His own love. So you that are affected
by inward grace, this inward grace of love, my hope is this,
not really my love for Him, but His love for me. And I'll just stop there. I got carried away. Is this your experience? Do you
have this inner conflict? Do you know what the flesh is?
Do you know what the spirit is that God has given you? Do you
know anything at all about this warfare? Yet I'm hopeful this, that yeah,
I know a lot about the works of the flesh, man. But I know
this too, that God will produce the work of the spirit. Love
being the first one. You know why it's the first?
Because it's the only one that's going to last. You know that? Love, faith, hope, and love of
these three, and the greatest of these is love. Why? Because
faith's going to be lost in sight. Hope is going to be re-experienced.
And then what's left? Love. Love. I'll continue on, Lord willing,
next time and pick this up. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
mercies and blessings. Pour out your Spirit. Show us
and testify of the great success of Christ. All the success. Show us the power again of thy
Spirit to create in us a new nature. And Father, help us in
this warfare. I pray, Father, that you'd be
gracious to Give us strength, and that we should mortify the
deeds of this body, put him off, and put on constantly by faith
the righteousness that we have in Christ. Set forth these fruit
in us, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance, faith, gentleness,
goodness, longsuffering. Father, give us grace to do these
things, to manifest these things, not to add to his righteousness,
but to honor him. I pray this in Christ's name.