Our Lord ordained congregational
singing. And when he was on this earth,
he sang with the disciples. They sang a hymn. And right now,
there's a worship. You know, our brother just prayed
and we pray for our brethren, wherever they are gathered together,
worshiping him, all the congregations. Well, there's a congregation
right now in glory. And they have congregational
singing there, I know they do. And I was singing this song thinking,
could you imagine being in the congregation, singing from the
depth of your soul, not just with lip service or entering
in with the mind or the heart, I mean with the soul. I was sitting
there thinking, I know it's silly, but I wish we could sing this
song in glory. And then it hit me, this is wonderful,
but a sinful man made this. There are songs there that I
can't, it's not possible to utter right now, can't describe. The beauty of the words that
have been written. The melodies, you know, I love
a melody. A melody hits my heart and it just, wait till you hear
the melodies of the saints in glory. Man, oh man. Something
to look forward to, isn't it? Turn with me back, actually this
time go to John 8. Turn with me over to John 8. John chapter 8, I want to read
one verse right here, verse 32. John 8, 32, it says, and you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. You shall know the truth. And
the truth shall make you free. Now I don't want to waste your
time this morning. I'm serious. I'm going to try
to be brief. I always try to be brief, but this morning I'm
going to try to be brief. I don't want to waste your time.
I'm going to get right to the point. Sometimes we build things
up and we, you know, have this culmination. I'm going straight
to the point this morning. I want to tell you the difference
in the lies of religion, the lies that will eternally damn
a soul to hell for believing. I want to tell you the difference
in the lies of religion and the truth of God's word, the truth
that will eternally set a man or woman free. free from sin,
free from death, free from hell, free from Satan. I want to tell
you how you can identify a preacher who has no idea what he is talking
about or is deliberately telling lies. This is so, I'm so passionate
about this. This is so important. How you
can tell the difference in a preacher who has no idea what he's talking
about or is on purpose, deliberately telling lies. And a preacher
who has been called of God to deliver the truth of His Word. How you can tell the difference.
Here it is. The lies of false religion. false preachers, all of them,
it does not matter what denomination, nothing matters. All false preachers
say, do, D-O, do. The truth of God's word says,
Done. D-O-N-E. Alright? That's the difference. That's
the difference. That's the difference in listening
to a man preach and saying, yeah, I like that. He's telling me
the truth. Or listening to a man preach
and saying, that's nothing but lies. I won't stand for it. I won't have it. I don't want
to have anything to do with it. Get away from it. It's going
to damn your soul to hell. That's the difference. Do or done. We are all under the bondage
of sin. I believe we know that. We are
all under the bondage of the law. This flesh is under God
gave a law to this flesh. We are all under the bondage
of our own sinful works. until God sends the truth of
the gospel to a sinner. We're under that bondage until
God comes with the truth and speaks to that sinner's heart
by saying, rest. I mean rest in Christ. It's done. It's done. If you hear a man stand up in
a pulpit and say, now this is what you need to do. He's lying
to you. Don't listen to him. Do not listen
to him. In order to be saved. All right,
that's what we're talking about. In order to be saved. If a man
says you need to do this in order to be saved, he's lying to you. He's not God's man. Not called
of God. But if you hear a man stand up
in a pulpit and say it is finished. Then he's telling you the truth.
You can believe that man. And if God does give you a heart
to believe, if God does put that faith. In your heart, in my heart,
to believe that truth, that will set us free. It will set us free. Now, I'm going to prove that
to you, all right? Go with me to where our brother just read.
Romans 3. Romans chapter 3. Verse 19 says, Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law. Now who's under the law? Every
one of us, all of us, we're all under the law. Verse 19, we know
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped And all the world
may become guilty before God. Now, who is guilty before God?
I have a reference in my Bible that says, subject to the judgment
of God. Who is subject to the judgment
of God, guilty before God? All of us. All of us. Every single one of us. There
is not one mouth that can speak up and say, now wait a minute,
I never sinned. There's not one mouth that can
say that. Every mouth is stopped when the
accusation of sin goes out. Every mouth is stopped because
all the world is guilty before God. All the world, including
me, including us. Man who wants to go before God
and be justified before him on the basis of doing. Oh, the poor
man. The poor man. And that's something that men
and women want to go meet God on whether they realize it or
not. And here's why. Nobody assumes they're going
to hell. Nobody. Nobody. Even the people who in ignorance
and stupidity say that, they still don't think that. They believe that, you know,
whatever the word of God says, the law of God says, surely somehow
I'm going to make it through. And we just won't worry about
it. I mean, you know, everybody's going, everybody's doing it. Poor preachers, poor preachers. I feel sorry for their ignorance. Who makes any of us to differ?
We don't know anything except God reveals it to us. Isn't that
what we just saw? Who do we think we are? All those
kinds of things. But these poor preachers in ignorance,
they're standing up and they're telling poor sinners, you know,
probably the best thing to do would be for you to go ahead
and get right with God. I really think you ought to just do that.
I'd encourage it and it'd probably be a good idea to accept Jesus
into your heart and you guys could become friends and y'all
could have a good thing going. Me and Jesus. And as a little
extra insurance, you might want to clean up your life. It'd probably
help matters if you could go ahead and do that. They're all going to go stand
before him and standing right next to them will be God's holy,
perfect, just, right, strict, condemning law. God's law standing side by side
before the judgment throne. God is going to look at them.
And then God is going to look at his law and he is going to
say, and we know this from his own word, he's going to say,
damned. Well, I mean, no, I'm not that. I'm not. I mean, clearly, no,
I'm not that. But I did try to clean everything up a little
bit. He's going to say, you didn't
do it perfectly. You did not do it perfectly.
God has clearly set forth that in order for it to be perfect,
it must be perfect, not only in deed, but in thought and in
motive of the heart. Sometimes we do thing and have
our minds fooled that we're doing it for the right reasons, but
really we're not. And if we forget about all the
things we've done, if we would just go into our mind for one
second, we could all be convinced of the fact that I have sinned
against him. Are you not horrified by what
rolls through this mind? Absolutely horrified. He will say, depart from me,
I never knew you. Never knew you. Outer darkness,
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Verse 20 says, therefore, by
the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's all that the law can do
for us is expose our sin. That's it. No flesh will be justified
before God by trying to do. No flesh. Verse 21 says, but
now. That means here's the good part. Thank God. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifested. What does that mean? Look with
me at John chapter 1. Hold your place right there and
look with me at John chapter 1. John chapter 1 verse 1 says,
in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and
the Word was God. That's Christ. In the beginning
was Christ. He was not born 2,000 years ago
even though he was born 2,000 years ago. He said, a body hast
thou prepared me and he humbled himself. So he was with God because
he was God. He is God. Christ is God. Verse 14 says, And the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The righteousness of God, Christ
himself, was manifested. God came down. God became a man. Now go back with me to Romans
3. Verses 21 to 26, this is one
sentence. Let's read this one sentence,
okay? 21 to 26. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. The law looked at Christ. All
of the prophets in the Old Testament pointed to Christ. Everything
about the Old Testament points to Christ, all of it. Verse 22,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation." That word means a bloody victim. God set him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he
might be just that means The judge, the holy, right, cannot
clear the guilty, must punish sin, judge that he might be just
and the justifier, the freer, the pardoner. of him which believeth
in Jesus." Now, what did he just say? Everything we just read
there, what did he just say? He said, because man could not
do and satisfy God, Christ came and did it for him. That's what
he said. And because man broke God's law
and had to be punished for that, Christ came and suffered the
punishment for him. Christ did it all. The wages
of sin was death, so Christ took the sin of his people upon himself,
suffered God's wrath, and died for him. He died for him. Verse 27 says, where is boasting
then? Where is boasting then? It's
excluded. We have nothing to be proud of
in this. We have nothing to glory in. Where's boasting then? It's
excluded. By what law? Of works? No. By the law of faith. Every time the question comes
up, what does God demand of me? Just look to Christ. That's what
he's saying. Just look to Christ. Everything
God demands, Christ has already provided. Everything. Every time
this law says you've broken me, we go through this law and we
see I've broken it. Every time the law says to us,
you've broken me and there's a price to pay, just look to
Christ. Just look to Christ. Every price
that the law demanded, Christ has already paid. Verse 28 says,
therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. What does that mean? That means
it's not due, it's done. That's what it means, it's done.
It is absolutely Now, let's take a quick look at what
Christ has done. Okay? It's what He has done. Faith in Him. Faith in His blood. What has Christ done? Look with
me at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians 1 verse 1 says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. Now, before we move on, I do
want to point out that this letter is not written to everybody.
The translators put a heading at the top of it and it says,
the epistle of Paul, the apostle to the Ephesians. Just want us
to be clear on the fact Paul did not write this letter to
the Ephesians. Paul did not write this letter
to the Ephesians. Verse one says he wrote it to
the saints, which are at Ephesus. and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. The Word of God is written to
his people. That's who the Word is written
to. The Word of God is not written to everybody on this earth. It's
written to his bride. It's written to his own. And
he has this to say to, as he calls it right here, us. Those
who have been made saints. How does a sinner become a saint?
We just read about it in Romans three, couldn't do anything about
it. God came down and did it for
us. All those who have been made to be saints. Verse two, he says,
grace be to you and peace from God, our father and from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In Christ, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, God the Father has already blessed us. He has already blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. It is done.
It's done. There's the story. We know the
story of Isaac and Jacob and Esau. You know, Esau was the
firstborn in the family and he was owed this birthright blessing. Isaac was supposed to give to
him all of the birthright blessing, but Jacob being the center that
he is, he, he, the trickster, the supplanter, he went in and,
and deceived his father. And that's a picture of us going
before the throne in Christ, as Christ. But Isaac ended up
giving Jacob the blessing, the birthright blessing. And at first
Esau didn't want it anyway. He sold it for a bowl of soup.
But after it was all over, Esau went into Isaac crying and he
said, Father, you gave the blessing to Jacob instead of me. And Isaac's
response was, what's done is done. I'm not taking it back. Yeah, but he was unworthy. He's
a sinner. What's done is done. I'm not
taking it back. I am not taking it back. We have
already, in Christ, we have already received the blessing. We've
already received the eternal blessing, and He will not take
it back. Isn't that great? What's done
is done. What Christ has done is done. It's done. Verse four says, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. In Christ, God the Father has
already chosen us. already chosen us. He did it
before the foundation of the world. Our election is done. It's done. Verse five says, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Our path to lead us to Christ
was predestinated. If God purposed to save us, if
God purposed to show mercy to us at some point, at some age,
at some time in our life, he brought us to his truth, the
truth of his word, the truth of his gospel, the truth of his
son. He brought us to his truth and
that path in our entire life. Like that man said, I'm so glad
God put me in a wheelchair. Every piece of it was predestinated,
predetermined. Our adoption into the family
of God is done. It's already done. I love it
how when our Lord, after he rose from the grave, Mary Magdalene
never left. She stayed there. Oh, just heartbroken
and He revealed himself to her first. And he came and he said,
I want you to go tell my brethren that I'm going back to my father
and your father, my God and your God. It's done. It's done. The adoption's done.
Verse six says, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved. You notice how all this
is past tense? It's all past tense. He blessed
us. He chose us. He predestinated
us. He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Christ, our acceptance into
the presence of God is done. It's done. Listen to me. If you
will become baptized, if we fill this up and baptize you, then
you can be accepted into the presence of God. I just lied
to you. Listen, if you will get up from
your pew, come walk down that aisle, I'll meet you. And if
you will shake my hand, you can enter into the presence of God.
I just lied to you. Right? If you will beg for forgiveness
for all of your bad doings in front of the congregation, and
if you'll this and if you'll that, it's just not so. In Christ
we are accepted in the Beloved. Stay in the pew. Stay in the pew. It's done. It's done. Verse 7 says, In whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace. That does not say we will
have redemption. We have it. It's done. Verse 8 says, wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure,
which he hath purposed in himself. He's already abounded. He's already
made known the mystery of his will. What is it? Verse 10, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The reason men say do. The reason
they say do, the reason they believe that you need to do,
and the reason they say you need to do, what they're saying is,
you want to obtain your inheritance, don't you? Come on now. You're about to lose your inheritance.
That's what they're saying. You want to obtain it, don't
you? In Christ, I already have. I already have. It is done. He is my inheritance. If I have Him, I have all things.
I literally have all things. Verse 12 says that we should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ In
whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. When God opens
a sinner's eyes, when God opens a sinner's ears, when they truly
see and hear the truth, the truth of the gospel, what they see
and hear is a person. a person. The truth is a person. The gospel is a person. Salvation is a person. The Lord
Jesus Christ. And when God's people hear Him,
they trust Him. They do. They believe Him. Verse
13 says, In whom you also trusted after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also after
that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of his glory. Faith to believe God's
word. Faith to believe on Christ, faith
to truly believe it's finished, truly believe that it is finished. That is the earnest of our inheritance. This is the best illustration
I know for this. When you buy a house. You put
earnest money down. And what you're saying with that
is I promise to buy this house. I promise. I will redeem." That
means pay in full this house. Well, I did not buy my Lord. My Lord bought me. And faith
to believe on Him is His earnest to me. That is His promise to
me. I will come back and get you
along with all of my other people and receive you to myself." That
faith to just trust Christ, that faith that believes His blood
finished it. That is the earnest. of everything
we're going to inherit in him. That's the earnest promise of
everything we're going to inherit with him. So here's the message
of scripture. Here's what God called preachers
say. This is what they preach. Look
to Christ and rest. Look to Christ and rest. Moses
was a true preacher of God. You know what he said? Stand
still. You just see the salvation of
the Lord. Stand still. Look to everything
He has already accomplished. Trust in the blood that He has
already shed. It's done. It's done. All right, now we're going to
sing about it. Stand with me and let's all turn to 207.