Amen. I take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Galatians. Galatians chapter 3. Entitled
this message, The Receiving of the Spirit. Now, last Wednesday,
many of you were not able to attend on Wednesdays. I thought
it necessary to slow down. I took a large portion of scripture
last week. I believe I went from one to
verse nine on Wednesday night. And I know that a lot of you
maybe are not able to be here and not able to receive, to get
this, but I would encourage you always to pick up the messages
that you're not here for. I'm longing to go through this
book with you, this book of Galatians. I see a great necessity, and
not just here. This has been an amazing thing. I started this because I thought
it necessary for us to go over the things that we know. This
is not anything in this book we haven't already gone over,
or we know. If you are a believer in Christ,
these things I'm teaching you, these things I'm showing you,
these things are things you know. Paul said that in the second
chapter of this. He told Peter, we know. We know
we're not justified by the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. And that's why we believe. Christ,
that we would be justified by the faith of Christ and not the
law. You know these things. But I have received such a response,
not just from here. There are people that have sent
many emails and phone calls concerning the study of this book, and I
see more now the need of this. This is a This adding of the
law at this time obviously is great. Churches are constantly
trying to push the message of progressive sanctification, which
is not another gospel, friends. This is not the gospel. It is
another gospel. This idea of progressive holiness
by our obedience to the law. And so I thought it necessary
repetition and so this is what I'm going to intend to do is
I'm gonna plow over something and then I'm gonna come back
and plow over it again and I'm gonna come back and try to plow
over it again and it's my intent Paul said it you know what was
it Philippians chapter 3 and He said, To write the same things
to you is indeed not grievous, but for you it is safe. It's
not grievous for me to do this. You, for me to say the same things
over and over again, it is safe. It's good. So that's what I intend
to do this morning. I did take this verse already,
but I want to go back over it again very slowly with you. Okay,
so let's look at this again in chapter 3. Paul said, O thoughtless
Galatians, Who hath bewitched you, seduced you, that you should
not obey the truth? What is he talking about? He's
talking about adding the law to Christ. Adding your obedience
in some measure to add to your salvation, whether it be your
righteousness, your justification, your sanctification, your redemption. He said anybody who adds anything
to this, you've not thought this through. You've not thought this
through. And you are actually preaching
another gospel. You've not obeyed the truth.
He said, Before whose eyes Jesus Christ has evidently been set
forth, crucified among you. Paul said, Did I not preach Christ
plainly enough to you? Did I not set forth your only
hope of justification, righteousness, sanctification, redemption is
the death of Jesus Christ? Did I not set him forth clearly
among you? And so now he said this, in verse
2 he asked this question, This only would I learn of you. Received
ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of
faith? The truth of the gospel of God's
grace in Christ alone is apart from works and Paul turns here
now to the experience of these believers, these professing believers. And he said, I just want to know
this. And he said, this question, the answer to this question is
obviously rhetorical. Everybody who knows this, everybody
who's received the spirit knows you didn't receive it by the
works of the law, by the hearing of faith. But yet the answer
to this obviously was not obvious to these people. because they believe somehow
by receiving the Spirit or continuing in the Spirit had to do with
their obedience. But he asks this question, Receive
ye the Spirit by the works of the Lord, by the hearing of faith.
And if we answer this question, it will clear up the whole thing.
The answer to this question will clear up the whole matter. You
profess Christ as Lord and Savior. You claim to be saved. Did you
receive the Spirit? Answer that question. Did you receive it by obedience
to the law? Or did you receive it by the hearing of the faith
of Christ? You received it by the hearing
of faith. This is an all-important question
to ask personally. Every one of us should ask this.
Have you received the Spirit? Have you received the Spirit? And if you have, how have you
received the Spirit? This will clear up all heresies
and will confirm the truth of the Gospel. The answer to this
question will expose false doctrine and confirm the real Gospel. Now to some, As I preach this
message, I know this will be a savor of life unto life. When
I preach to you receiving the Spirit of God, you're going to
say, that's it, that's it. How he said it, that's how I
received it. It's going to be a savor of life
and you'll be refreshed. Now some will say it will be
a savor of death. They will not like it, they will
hate it, they will despise it. So I have two thoughts concerning
the importance of receiving the Spirit of this question. First
of all, the importance of the Spirit and His work. Paul is emphasizing the importance
of the Spirit and His work. What is the work of the Spirit? You that have received Him, what
is His work? And secondly, how have you received
him? How have you received him? First
of all, the importance of his spirit and his work. Paul, in
love and hope for these believers, he supposes that they receive
the spirit. He's already assuming. I remember Henry Mahan shook
this guy's hand and he said, hello, brother. And some other
guy, some other believer said, don't you know he's not a believer?
He said, well, if I don't got him in Christ, I got him in Adam.
It's not important whether I know or not. But he supposes that
they had already received the Spirit. And he assumes that they
had already know the importance of the Spirit. Why? Because without
the Spirit, there is no salvation. We worship a triune God. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the
Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are God. They are one in person, one in
nature, they are one in holiness and all attributes, yet they
are distinct in their persons. And God has purposed this. that each person of the Holy
Trinity have a work in the salvation of His people. God, the Father's
work is what? The election of grace. It was
the Father who chose His people in Christ, put them in Christ
and purposed that they should be holy. He loved them. In love
He did it. The work of the Son is to accomplish
that salvation. It is to accomplish all their
righteousness, sanctification, redemption, to be their wisdom.
He is to be everything. And that's what He did when He
came into the world. He accomplished that salvation. The work of the
Holy Spirit is to apply that salvation. The salvation the
Father purposed, the salvation the Son purchased, the Spirit
of God will take that and effectually apply it to the hearts of every
elect sinner. That's His work. It's His work. And so it's vital for us to understand
this. You can know all about election.
You can know all about the crucifixion of Christ. But if the Spirit
of God has not quickened you to life and faith in Christ,
then you're none of His. The work of the Spirit is vital. Vital. It is necessary. Paul
says in Romans 8, verse 9, He that hath not the Spirit of Christ,
He is none of His. Don't give me this foolish nonsense,
and this is a religion, is that men say you can be saved, but
later on you get the Spirit. You hear this? Without the Spirit
of Christ, He is none of His. You are not His unless you have
the Spirit. When God saves, He sends forth
His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And so when we received the Spirit,
how do we know we received it? Well, let me tell you about His
work. This is important to know. You that received the Spirit
of God, you can identify if you received Him based on His work.
Based on His work. Go to John chapter 16. Our Lord
here is about to go out of this world and He promises to send
the Holy Spirit. John 16 and verse 7, look what
the Lord testifies concerning the work of the Spirit. First
of all, He testifies of His necessity. Look at verse 7. He said, nevertheless, I tell
you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. They
didn't want Him to go. They wanted Him to stay. We don't want you
to go. No, it's necessary I go. This
is why. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him unto
you. And when he is come, here is
his word, he will reprove, that word means convince, convict,
he will convince men of three things, of sin, righteousness,
and judgment. Three things, sin, righteousness,
and judgment. First of all, of sin. He will
convince a man of sin. When you receive the Spirit,
this is the first thing He does. He convinces you of sin. Now,
all men know that men are not perfect. Men are not perfect. Everybody knows this. Men make
mistakes. They're not perfect. Yet only those that are possessed
by the Spirit, only those that are sanctified by the Spirit, know this, I am a sinner. When you receive the Spirit of
God, this is what He teaches you. He convinces you that you
are a sinner. That you are a sinner. I know there are a great many
people who confess that others are sinners. This is our natural condition
like do this. You talk about anybody? Gossip? What are you trying to do? What
are you trying to convince somebody else of? That person's bad. That person's bad. Stay away
from that person. He's bad. We don't have a problem seeing
that other men are sinners, but when the Spirit of God comes
in power in the heart, He will convince us not of other men's
sins, but He will be convincing us of our sin. When the Spirit
of God came to me, I was not so concerned about anybody else's
sin. I was concerned about my own.
I was concerned about my own. This is the first work of the
Spirit in the heart of man to convict us, not of the sins of
others, but of our own sin. Have you professed to receive
the Spirit? Has He confirmed this in your
own heart that you are a sinner? That you are a sinner? You know,
total depravity, I learned this when I was very young. I learned
total depravity. I knew the doctrine very well.
I could take you to every scripture and show you concerning the total
depravity of man. I could. But you know what I
wasn't convinced of? I wasn't convinced that I was
totally depraved. I was convinced you were. But when the Spirit of God came
to me, total depravity was not a doctrine, it was personal. I was totally depraved. I was
a sinner. Has the Spirit of God convinced
you? See, a sinner will never see his sin is against God unless
the Holy Spirit come in power to quicken that man's soul. The
Spirit of God, these people in Galatia, they were outwardly
performing the act of circumcision. But circumcision was a physical
thing that represented a spiritual thing. When God comes in the
Spirit, He circumcises the heart so as it becomes tender, it becomes
painful concerning its sin. We begin to feel our sin and
know our need. Oh, men are able to see sin by
their conscience. I'm not talking about conscience.
You remember the Pharisees when they brought that woman taken
in adultery, right? You know it was a sting operation. You know they set this up. And
they went in and they grabbed that woman and she was in the
very act and she didn't get her clothes, anything, threw her
out there in the street. And said, the law says she needs
to be stoned. You see, Christ said he was a
friend of sinners. They thought they had him. They
said, well, if he shows her mercy, we can say this, he's against
the law. But if he condemns her, he is
no friend of sinners. How can he be just and show mercy? You know what he said? He said,
he that without sin among you, let him cast the first stone
at her. Who was the only one in that
group who could cast a stone? It was Christ. And they said,
beginning at the eldest to the younger, they all dropped their
stones and turned away. They didn't go to Christ for
mercy, but their conscience convicted them. So conscience, men can
be convicted of conscience and not have the Holy Spirit. That's
not Holy Spirit conviction. They may feel their guilt and
remorse, They may be pricked in their
conscience and regret the consequences of
their sins. They may be sorry for what they've
done. They may be overwhelmed with
emotion and try to change their life. How many of your children
and grandchildren have you seen this in? I've seen it. I've seen
it as I've grown through. I've seen men get into a horrible
car accident. I don't want to go to hell. And
so their conscience convicts them and they start... Man, they
go to church. Boy, they're first in line to
get in. How do you know it's not real?
Because by and by their conscience is seared and they're like the
hog. Once you wash a hog, what is he going to do? He's going
to go back to the pen. He's going to go back to the
mud. That's what happens with conscience. So conscience is
not the work of the spirit. Any man could feel guilt for
his sin. But anyone who does this and
stays in religion, what are they going to do? They're going to
turn to the law. They're going to try to look for measurements
concerning their acceptance with God. They're going to look at
their works, and then they're going to say, they're going to
try to measure, am I accepted with God based on what I'm doing?
That's a man who's just been convicted by conscience. That's
what these Judaizers were doing. They were convinced that they
needed to be saved, But then they turn back to the law to
measure that salvation. This was only conscience. The
problem with conscience is that it's not that it's wrong, it's
just defiled. It's defiled. Conscience can be seared by religion
and works. But when the Spirit of God gets
a hold of a man, God the Spirit will always bring
him to the end of himself. You that have received the Spirit,
have you been brought to the end of yourself? The Spirit of God will expose
a man not to be a sinner, but the sinner. And that's what the
publican found out that, remember those two men praying, the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, Lord I thank you, I thank you
I'm not like that guy. What was the publican's prayer?
Lord be merciful to me, the sinner. He was convinced he was the sinner. And we're not sinners against
men. When God convicts a man of sin, he learns this, his sin's
against God. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Only the Spirit of God can cause
a man to see his sin. And so, when the law then is
put forth before the eyes of one who is convinced of his sin,
what does he see? You that have received the Spirit,
when the law is put before you, what do you see? Do you see a
way out? Do you see hope? I see this, that the law can
only do one thing to me, curse me. The law cannot help me to
God. I know this, when the law is
set forth before me by the Spirit, I know there is no hope to be
saved by it. None. No hope. No hope. If you look at the law and you
see hope, listen to me, That's not the work of the Spirit. The
work of the Spirit is to convince you that you have no hope. Have you been convinced of that?
Secondly, he tells us this, righteousness. Only the Holy Spirit can cause
us to see the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. All men know God demands something
better than they can do. Otherwise, there wouldn't be
any religion. Religion is a manifest proof of this. They know God
wants men to be better than they are. That God demands something better.
But religious men see this and they believe that they can achieve what God demands of them. Even secular men know that God
is good and evil is bad. Look at the laws of nations.
I mean, there are laws. Why are there laws at all? Because
men know in their hearts that murder is wrong, lying is wrong,
stealing is wrong. The law of God is written in
their hearts. Men know that God is good, but because of their
depraved nature, they believe that God's goodness is much like
their own. that God's standard of righteousness
is much like their own. Here's my standard of righteousness
and God's just a little bit better than me. So they believe that
somehow they can get over that bar. They can work themselves
over that righteous standard. They believe God to be much like
themselves. They say, well, surely God's
not going to send me to hell for lying. Lying's not a bad
sin. It's not like murder. It's not
like the rapist or the pedophile. Surely they're going to hell. But you know what? I do lie a
little bit. Liar. You just lied some more. This is our nature. It's what
we think. Why? Because we don't really know
how holy God is. When the Spirit of God comes
to the sinner, He exposes his sin. How? In light of God's holiness. The only way I'm going to know
how much of a sinner I am is to show me the standard. The
standard is holy, absolute, sinless perfection. God is the standard. Who shall ascend unto the Heal
of the Lord, the psalmist writes. Listen. He that hath clean hands
and a pure heart, and not sworn his soul to vanity. Who's done
that? Who has clean hands? Perfectly
clean hands? None of us. God's righteous standard is holy
perfection. Be ye holy even as I am holy. This is what the Spirit teaches.
Have you been taught that? You've been taught the standard
of God is absolute perfection? This is what the Spirit teaches.
So the standard of heaven is not our best, and it is not our
sincerity. Again, men think that if they're
just sincere, that God will count sincerity as holiness. No, no
he won't. It's absolute holy perfection,
perfect obedience. The Spirit's work then is to
show us how that we, how low we are and how high God is. To the natural man, these are
not much of a gap, but to those who have received the Spirit,
we know this, it is a great gulf fixed that we cannot bridge. I cannot bridge this gap. I cannot, by my own obedience,
merit God's holy perfection. I know that. And so then we see sin and righteousness,
we see our sin and God's righteousness. You know what the Spirit of God
taught you? You receive the Spirit. Third is judgment. We know this,
that God, God's judgment is real. Is real. I thought of everyone
in, remember Pilgrim's Progress, what was the name of the city
that Pilgrim lived in? It's called the City of Destruction.
Do you realize everybody knew that name? Hey, what city do
you live in? I live in the City of Destruction. You know what the difference
between Pilgrim and the rest of them was? Pilgrim actually believed it
was the City of Destruction. He was convinced of the judgment
of God. Now listen, I know this. Satan uses this. There have been
many years in many centuries where men have tried to scare
people into a profession of faith. They talk about hell, they talk
about how hot it is, they talk about burning forever, which
is, there's not anything wrong, it's true. All of that's true. But their intent was to scare
you into a profession. When I was a kid, they did that
over and over, and I can't tell you how many times I had to walk
down the aisle, because it was just, it wasn't enough. They
scared me every time. I'm not here to scare you. Matter
of fact, I can't convince you that God's judgment is real.
Only the Spirit of God will convince you, and when He does, you know
it is. You know that God can and He must punish sin. And so when one has received
the Spirit, he is convinced of this, that if God gives me hell,
it's only what I deserve. I'm convinced of that. God is
doing nothing wrong. If He sent me to hell, He'd do
nothing wrong. Because He's right. He's just. You that receive the Spirit of
God, is this not true to you? I know it was for me. This is our experience. I know
that I am a sinner. I know that God is holy. And
I know He must and will punish sin. And I tell you the truth, you
that have received the Spirit of God, is this not daily? Are we not daily convinced of
these things? I mean, I wasn't convinced of
these things just one time. I'm convinced of these things
right now. These things are still true. And the more I grow in
grace, the more I know my sin. I know more of God's holiness,
and I know more about God's judgment. Do you realize a lot of people
think growing in grace is getting better? They do. They think, well, if I just grow
in grace, I'm going to feel better about myself. I'm going to do
better. I'm going to be better. Let me
give you the Apostle Paul in his progression of growth. Listen
to this. In 1 Corinthians 15, this is what Paul said, I am
the least of the apostles. That's pretty humbling, isn't
it? All the apostles, I'm the least. Later on, in Ephesians
chapter 3, Paul said this, I am the least of the saints. You suppose that Paul is growing
in grace then, don't you? You know what he said last before
he was killed? He said, I am the chief of sinners. Did he
seem to get better in his own eyes? You that grow in grace,
do you suppose you're going to get better in your own eyes? No, he'll get better in your
eyes. He'll grow more necessary His glory will be larger and
greater. But you know what will happen
to you? Conversely, you will become lower. That's what it
is to grow in grace. And so after the Spirit of God
brings a man here, I am thankful for this. This is not the end
of the Spirit's work. Aren't you glad? All those three
things are very, boy, they just bring you down. But that's necessary. You have to be brought here.
The Spirit of God brings us here. But then, at this point, when
a man is brought to the end of himself, you that have received
the Spirit, you know this. He gives you hope. You say, yeah, you're a sinner.
You don't have any righteousness. God is righteous and God will
judge sin. But let me tell you this. There
is hope. How does He give us hope? He gives us hope in this. in the preaching of Jesus Christ.
That's where the hope is. Look at Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah
30. Look at this. Listen to what
the Spirit says about us. Verse 12, Thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and
thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause,
that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing medicines. That's what he's talking about
our sin. You know what you have? You have no hope. There's no
way to heal yourself. But look at the hope in verse
17. For I will restore thy health. See, you got an incurable disease
that you can't cure, but here's my hope. I'm going to heal you. I will restore thy health unto
thee. I will heal thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying,
This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. God here gives the hope
of the Holy Spirit, and how does he heal? He heals by Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God in great mercy,
when He blows upon the heart of the sinner, He kills our hopes, and then gives life. He kills us, and then He gives
us life. You know what Paul said? The commandment I thought was
unto life, when it came to me, killed me! Destroyed my hopes! And then what? He gave him hope
in Christ. He kills our hopes of earning
favor with God. He expresses the vileness of
our works. And it's here he will manifest
and display the grace of God by Jesus Christ. You know the difference between
conscience and the Holy Spirit? The conscience testifies you
need to do better. The Spirit of God points you
to Jesus Christ. You that have received the Spirit,
have you been pointed to Jesus Christ? Of course you have. That's the
job of the Spirit. Jesus said that when He has come,
He will not testify of Himself. Any spirit that testifies of
Himself is not the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God testifies
of Christ. testifies of Christ. The operation of the Spirit is
to point men not to death, but to life. Not to render judgment,
but rather to show us that justice has been satisfied. Not that
men would go about to sanctify themselves, but testify that
we already have been sanctified by the will of God, by the death
of Christ, and now we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. But when He said, You that have
received the Spirit, you know this, that you have received
the Spirit, you understand this, that you are by Jesus Christ
made righteous. You know that. You know by Jesus
Christ that you are redeemed, that your sin has been paid for
by His death. You know that. And you know this,
that you have been made holy in the new birth. He has given
you a new nature, a new heart according to the covenant of
grace. He said, I will give you a new heart. You know what He'll
do to you? He'll give you a new heart. I'll put my Spirit within you. We know this, that by Jesus Christ,
the sin that was ours, by nature and by choice, that God has now
imputed and charged our sins to Christ. who paid them in full. This is what the Spirit, you
that have received the Spirit, this is what the Spirit testifies
of, that Christ has paid our sin. We've read it many times
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we know that God was in Christ reconciling
the world to Himself. There was a divide, there was
a separation, but God in grace reconciled us to Himself. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Verse 18, all things are of God
who hath reconciled, hath reconciled, I like that, don't you? He hath
reconciled us to Himself. How? By Jesus Christ. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation
to which God was, this is the ministry, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses
to them. Not imputing their trespasses
to them. They were their trespasses, but
God said, I'm not going to charge them with it. Now what'd God
do with him? I told you he's holy, how's he
gonna do that? For, verse 21, God hath made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin. That's how. Holy Spirit
testifies of this, that all my sin that separated me from God,
you got that? All my sin that separated me
from God was nailed to that cross. What I mean by that is Christ
bore my sin in his own body on the tree, and when the holy justice
of God saw my sin in Christ, he punished him. You ever heard that phrase, hell
on earth? The only one who has ever endured hell on earth is
Christ. That's it. He endured the wrath of God for
our sins. The scripture says He had taken
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. What was
that? The law. The handwriting of ordinances
was the law. It was against us. And what did
He do? He took it out of the way, nailing
it to His cross. nailing it to the cross of Christ. He took the law away. The law,
back in our text, it says, curses everyone that continueth not
in all things written in the book of law. The law can only
curse me. What did He do with my curse? He made Christ a curse. Verse 13, He hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse. That's what the
Spirit of God, you that receive the Spirit of God, that's what
He testifies to your heart, is that my sin was now Paid. Paid. So He convinces us of sin. What
about? That Christ has bore my sin.
Of righteousness, what? That Christ is all my righteousness. Of judgment, that Christ has
endured all my judgment. That's what the Spirit of God
testifies to us. It's here we see by the spirit
of God that Christ has endured the wrath of God. And we know
that God is satisfied because Christ raised him. God raised
Christ from the dead and set him on the throne of God. That's
how I know it's done. That's how I know it's finished, because
he's not dead. He's alive. And now my Savior
sits on the throne of heaven, fulfilling his will, which is
what? To give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given
him. That's what he told us. All power
is given unto him in heaven and earth, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. Well, what's the means
of giving us this eternal life? Remember, God willed your eternal
life. Christ purchased your eternal
life. But how does he give us this eternal life? His Holy Spirit. So therefore, Jesus is sending
His Holy Spirit into this world to give life to whomsoever He
will. I love that picture. Don't you?
That river that Ezekiel saw. He said, wherever the river went,
there was life. Wherever the Spirit goes, there's
life. That's the work of the Spirit. To give us life And what's
the evidence of this life? It's not only our conviction
of sin, it's summed up in this word, faith. Faith. I believe God's word concerning
my sin. I believe God's word concerning
his righteousness. I believe God's word concerning
his judgment. I believe God's word concerning his son as my
only standing before God. I believe on Jesus Christ. You
that have received the Spirit, is it not so that all your hope
and assurance rest in Christ alone? This is my experience. Now, you that have received the
Spirit, quickly, how did you receive the Spirit? You know His work. Now, how did you receive it?
Was it by your obedience to the law? If you've been convinced of the
first thing, you know that's not true. Sin. You've convinced
you're a sinner. You know that's not true. I did
not receive this Spirit by my obedience. I did not earn the
Spirit of God. I did not receive Him that way.
Or did you receive Him by the hearing of faith? This is the means by which everyone
receives the Spirit. Go to Romans 10 real fast. Look at verse 13. Here's the gospel we preach,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I don't know who the Spirit's going to, that's not my business.
But I know this, I say whosoever will, come. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That is a true fact. If you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. But whose work is that, yours
or his? Is that your work? Can you contribute to that work? No. How then shall they call on him
whom they have not believed? You can't call on somebody you
don't believe, right? And how shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? You can't believe in somebody
you haven't heard about. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? See the necessity? And how shall
they preach except they be sinned? Listen, I don't want to be here
if God don't want me here. God sent me to do this. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they've not all obeyed the
gospel. Isn't that something? I tell you that wonderful news,
still some will not come. Why? Because Spirit didn't come
to them. They have no ability. So then here's the conclusion.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. How did you
receive the Spirit? By your obedience to the law?
By the hearing of faith. And listen to the reason. Go
back one more minute. Go back to the reason. Now look
at this. Verse 3, if you received it by
the grace of God through the hearing of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, if you've been convinced of your sin, of God's righteousness
and God's judgment, if you've been convinced that Jesus Christ
is all your hope in standing before God, you've been convinced
of that. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him against that day. I'm convinced
of that. Are you? That's the Spirit's
work. Now then, are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you got that? Everything
that you have in life and faith and salvation comes by the operation
of the Spirit. Now, are you so foolish to think
that you started that way? And God says, OK, now you finish
the rest. If that were true, there'd be
no hope for me. No hope for me. I'm convinced of what I am. I'm
convinced that if I stand, if I keep the faith, it will be
by the operation of God alone. I'm totally convinced. Are you? Or do you still think you've
got something to add? If you've got something to add, I want
you to know it's not the Spirit of God teaching that. Spirit of God will always bring
you back to Christ and Him alone. I'll tell you the truth, we all
may be seduced by this. I'm saying this, I should be
with all my heart convinced of this, that I am capable of being
persuaded to go the other way. If Peter was and Paul was, I
sure am able to be persuaded. God keep me from And I pray he would keep you
from that by convincing you that the work of the Spirit of God
applies the work of Jesus Christ to us and keeps us. He that hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. I pray God will bless this through
your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
blessing and mercy. Pour out your grace and spirit
upon us, please. Without you, we can do nothing.
I plead for the grace that is in Christ Jesus alone. Help us to continually live by
faith and not by law. Hold us fast to your love that
constrains us from sin. pray you do this for your own
glory in Christ's name.