I want us to begin tonight going
to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. I have something that
I believe is very vital for believers to understand. Very, very vital for believers
to understand. If the Lord will help me make
this clear, this is very vital for believers to understand. Luke 4 verse 16 says, And our Lord came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives. And Isaiah said, The
opening of the prison, that's what he said. And recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." What glorious things.
And then in verse 25 he said, But I tell you of a truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow, one woman. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong." After all those beautiful words
of life, I'm here to preach deliverance to the captives, sight to the
blind, the gospel to the poor, Don't turn over there, but in
John chapter 8, our Lord told some Jews, some of the Jews that
believed on him. He said, you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. And some of the Jewish
Pharisees that heard him, they heard him say that and they heard
him say some other things, their response was, you have a devil. He said, you'll know the truth
and the truth will make you free. And they said, you have a devil.
He has a devil. Men hate free grace. And it's absolutely absurd. It's absurd. This flesh, all flesh hates free
grace and it's absolutely absurd. It would be just like saying,
it'd be just like coming up to a person and saying, your mortgage
is paid off, paid in full. And their response being, don't
you tell me I have a mortgage. Don't you tell me I owe anything. Well, do you have a mortgage? Yeah. Well, then that's absurd. Is
that not absurd? The blood of Christ has paid
your debt in full. Don't you tell me I'm a sinner. Well, have you sinned? Yeah. Everybody would say yes. Well,
then that's absurd. Is that not absurd? Isn't that
ridiculous? I'll never forget the first time
I heard, um, as we preach this gospel, one man said, expect
men to believe it. Which was just something I'd
never heard before. I expect men not to believe it.
But it's absurd not to believe it. It's absurd not to love it.
Absolutely absurd. This flesh that is born soaked
in sin is such an enemy of God. And it won't have it. It just
hates free grace. Now, with that being said, with
that truth set forth, go with me to the text, Acts chapter
18. Acts 18 verse 12 says, And when
Galileo was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with
one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat, saying
this, the word fellow is in italics, it was added by the trans, they
didn't even call him anything, they just said this, persuadeth
men to worship God contrary to the law, contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to
open his mouth, he was about to say something. Galileo said
unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness,
oh, you Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. If he
was actually breaking the law, I would step in. But if it be
a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it. For I will be no judge of such
matters. And he drove them from the judgment
seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes,
the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment
seat. And Galio cared for none of those
things. He didn't care about any of it.
Now this man Sosthenes, he was a dear brother. Don't turn, just
listen to what Paul said. to the Corinthians. He opened
his letter by saying, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ
through the will of God and Sosthenes, our brother. This man Sosthenes
is with us. So he was a dear brother. And the Greeks, when they saw
that Gallio didn't care, Now the Jews brought them before
the judgment seat. The Jews were upset, but the
Greeks, when they saw Gallio didn't care, they took the opportunity
to just grab hold of one of those who professed Christ and just
beat him right there in the court, right before the judgment seat. All men hate free grace. That's
the point. Jews, Gentiles, all men hate
free grace. Our Lord said, vengeance is mine.
Well, the reason all that took place, that's an interesting
story. The reason all that took place is because in verse 13, They said, Paul persuadeth men
to worship God contrary to the law. They are lawless. They're lawless. That has been
the accusation of men and women who cling to free grace. And I don't know if anybody's
ever experienced this. Coming to know the truth and
being accused. This accusation, they call it
antinomian. You ever heard that term? I don't
do big terms, but I remember I was about 12 years old and
a split took place. And everybody who was involved
in the split, which my family was one, my parents They're just
a bunch of antinomians. That's all they are. Lawless. That has been the accusation
against men and women who cling to free grace ever since grace
was made free. And grace has always been free.
There's no other kind of grace. Grace means gift. Free gift. Come five o'clock
on Friday, nobody goes to pick up their grace check. Nobody. It's your paycheck. You
earned it. They owe it to you by works. Are you paid? No work, no pay, but that's not
how it is with grace. That's just not how it is with
grace. If you work, it cannot be grace. If you earn it, it's not grace.
You can call it whatever you want to, but you can't call it
grace. Grace is free. It's just what grace is. So because
salvation in Christ is free grace. Those who truly follow Christ
and believe on his free grace, they've been accused of being
lawless. And some young believers believe
them. This is why I say it is so important
to understand this accusation. I knew coming into this, this
is all going to be to the head. I pray that that's not the case.
I pray it's not the case. I pray the Lord will bless it
to us. But this is so vital. This is so, so vital. It's a serious accusation. We're
going to see that it's wrong. But God's people who are free,
if you know the truth, the truth will make you free. They're not
lawless people. They are not. They are not rebels
against God's law. I have heard so many times, and
I know that some of you have heard also because you told me,
that when people find out what you believe, they say, if I believed
that, I'd have a free pass to go do whatever I wanted to do.
I could live like I want to live. I could worship like I want to
worship. I could have no regard to God's law. Now let's ask this question.
Is that true? Is that true? Is that the heart
of a sinner who is clinging to God's free grace? This is what
I titled the message tonight. Is our worship contrary to the
law? Free grace. Does that mean we're
contrary to the law? Verse 13, saying, This fellow
persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. Is that
what I'm doing? Is that what I'm doing? Is that
what Paul did? We are worshiping God tonight,
aren't we? We're worshiping Him in spirit
and in truth. We worship Him daily in prayer,
in reading His Word. One of these days we know we're
going to be with Him and our heart's desire, this is my heart's
desire, one thing have I desired. I want to spend eternity worshiping
Him. We worship Jesus Christ our God,
but is our worship contrary to the law? Is free grace a denial of the
law? Is that what it is, a rebellion
to the law? Go with me to Romans chapter 7. Romans 7 verse 12 says, Wherefore the law is holy and
the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid. God forbid. Now, I looked up the phrase,
free from the law. Did we see what he just said?
The law is holy, it's good, it's just, it's right. Is all that
made dead to me? God forbid. We just sang, on
purpose, free from the law. I've been singing that for as
long as I can remember. So I looked it up today, for
the first time. It's in the scripture one time,
and it's in Romans chapter 8. Go to Romans chapter 8, verse
1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin. Not of God. The law is not my enemy. That law of sin, that war is
with me. Christ has made me free from
that law. So Paul said back in Romans 7, the law is holy and
the commandments holy and just and good was then that which
is good made death unto me. God forbid. We have the New Testament
now. Does that mean we can just take
some scissors and cut off the Old Testament? We don't need
that anymore. We have the New Testament now.
God forbid. Our Lord said, not one word of
mine shall fail. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. What I demanded back then, I demand right now. And he said at the end of this
book, if any man adds anything to these words, if any man takes
anything from these words, he's going to be cast out. So our
Lord came to this earth. And in his own words, he said,
I came not to destroy this law. And I did not come to destroy
the prophets. I am come to fulfill it. I came
to fulfill it. So the truth of the matter is
we must worship God according to the law. When somebody talks
to you about free grace and they send this accusation, they pulled
Paul in and they said, this man is persuading people contrary
to the law. When they bring that accusation
in, know it's a life and death issue that we worship God according
to the law. Now, my question in all this
is, do we? Do we? Is our worship according
to the law or is it contrary to the law? Our Lord gave so
many commandments concerning worshiping Him in His law. I just want to show you four
of them. I'm going to make this quick. But I want to show you
four. We could look at any of them
and we would get to the same result that we're going to get
to with these four. But I want to show you four of
his demands for worshiping him in his law. And I want the answer
to this question. Is our worship contrary to the
law? All right, we're going to find
out. The first one is in Genesis 17. Go with me to Genesis 17. Genesis 17 verse 9 says, And
God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou
and thy seed after thee and their generations. This is my covenant
which you shall keep between me and you and thy seed after
thee. Every man child among you shall
be circumcised. and you shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you." Verse 14, the uncircumcised man-child whose
flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall
be cut off from his people. He hath broken my covenant. God
said, in order to worship me, In order to be allowed to worship
me in my covenant, the flesh must be cut away. It must be cut away. Now, do
we have any desire to approach God in the flesh? As we worship
God, do we have any desire to approach God in the flesh, in
our heart to God? Do we have any desire to come
before Him without coming in the way that
He said to come? Or is our only hope in the fact
that God has cut it away? Well, you know, a person could
say they really did that. That was literal. That was physical. That was not metaphoric. That was physical right there. Listen to this. We worship God through a union
with Christ. A physical union with Christ. It's not a metaphoric union with
Christ. John said Christ was manifest
in the flesh. He physically was made to be
flesh, not metaphorically, physically. And Isaiah said he was cut off
for the transgression of his people, not metaphorically. He was cut off. God cut him off,
the one who was one with us. united to us. We worship God
pleading the circumcision. Do you see that? Our only plea is that He was
cut off from us. We're here worshiping tonight
and what we're worshiping is the fact that Christ was cut
off for us. The only reason that we're here
and all of our plea is, Lord, we are the circumcision. Right? Christ was united to us and cut
off from us. If that's the case, we worship
God according to his law. We're in total agreement with
his law. All right, now look at Exodus 12. Exodus 12 verse 1 says, And the
Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall
be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the
congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the
house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household
be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto
his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You
shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall
keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. Verse 12 says, For I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against
all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood
I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever." This is what God said in His law. Every
soul must have a lamb. Every soul. Now, would we dare
Go before God without a lamb. Would we dare? Hearing what he's
going to do, knowing what he's going to do. He's going to judge
us. He's going to pass through this
land. Would we dare go before God without a spotless lamb,
a male, the first fruits? John was preaching and he said,
behold the Lamb of God." Cain, he brought his works. Abel
brought a lamb. Which one are we? One of two. Which one are we?
If we from the heart truly worship God through the Lamb, then our
worship is according to His law. You see that? We're not lawless. We are not law. We are not antinomian. We do not disregard the word
of God. We are law keepers in our land. We are bringing a lamb. God said
bring a lamb. We are bringing a lamb. Through
our lamb we worship God perfectly. God is pleased with our worship
through our lamb. Now if we came without a lamb,
We're going to die in our sins, but we have a lamb just like
God said to. All right, now go to Leviticus
23. Leviticus 23 verse 26, And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of the
seventh month there shall be a day of atonement, and it shall
be in holy convocation unto you. You shall afflict your souls
and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. You shall
do no work in that same day. For it is a day of atonement,
to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For
whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same
day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever
soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul
will I destroy from among his people." He's being very clear,
you're not going to work on this day. This is the day of atonement. Verse 31, you shall do no manner
of work. It shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations, in all your dwellings. It shall
be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls.
In the ninth day of the month, at even, from even unto even,
shall you celebrate your Sabbath." God said, I am going to be worshipped
because of a day, a day of atonement. You are going to look to a day. You're going to acknowledge that
you did no work on that day. None on that day. All you did
was rest on that day. God appointed them a day that
would atone their sins. Now, what are we looking to?
What is our hope in? Well, there are 365 days in a
year. And what I'm hoping is that at
least 183 of them, I'm hoping that my good days outweigh my
bad days. Because then God will be happier,
you know, if the bad days outweigh the good day. No! Our hope is
in one day. One day. Every saint, every child
of God before that day looked forward to it. Every child of
God after that day now looks backward to it. One day, the
day of our atonement. Don't turn. This is one of my
favorite verses of scripture. Zechariah chapter 3, this is
what it says. Listen to this. For behold, the
stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall
be seven eyes. That's all the eyes. Behold,
I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts. What's
that? He said all their names are engraved in the palms of
my hands. And I will remove the iniquity of that land, in one
day. I'm going to do it in one day.
In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man
his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. Everybody
come on in and rest. I'm going to do it all in one
day. It happened the day Jesus Christ died on that cross. That's our glorious day if we
worship God from the heart for everything he accomplished for
us on that day. Then we worship Him according
to His law, remembering the day of our atonement. Last one. Go to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9 verse 1 says, Then
verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service. And he lists some of these ordinances. Verse 6, Now when these things
were thus ordained, the priest went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God, but into the second. That's the holy of holies. into
the second went the high priest alone." Nobody else. In the Old Testament, so many
men tried to worship God not according to His law and God
killed them. God said, don't touch that ark,
the Ark of the Covenant, and it was carried on that cart and
it started to fall and Uzzah put his hand up and God killed
him. Aaron's sons got incense and
they were going to worship God in their own way, not according
to the way God told them. Aaron's sons, God killed them. God said only the high priest
can enter into the Holy of Holies. Verse 7, but into the second
went the high priest alone, once every year, not without blood. Over in Leviticus 16, the Lord
told Moses, you tell Aaron You make sure you tell Aaron, if
he comes into this holy place without blood, I'll kill him.
Make sure he knows that. But if he comes with the blood
of the lamb, not without blood, if he comes bringing the blood
of that lamb, I will allow him alone to come into this place,
come unto me where I am, And I'll allow him to wear that breastplate
that has the names of all of my people on it. And that mitre that has the names
of all my people that he's interceding for. And I'll allow him to dip
hyssop in that blood and I won't kill him. I'll allow him to sprinkle
blood on that mercy seat if he has that blood. Now let me ask
us this. Would any of us here dare go
into the Holy of Holies representing ourselves? Would any of us dare
walk into the holy place alone? Or is our only hope in the fact
that we have a high priest who entered in for us, not without
blood, His own blood. And he sprinkled the mercy seed
on our behalf. Which is it? And I tell you that
every almost every church in this town would walk in alone. The men who are the pastors there
are persuading the congregation contrary to the law, and those
people are going to walk in alone and God's going to kill him just
like he said he would. But we have a High Priest. We
have. It's not a metaphor. We actually,
just like the Israelites, they really had one. So do we. Alright, look at Hebrews 3. I'll
close with all this. Hebrews 3, verse 1, it says,
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider
The, capital A, Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus. He's our High Priest. Chapter
4 verse 14 says, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest
that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Chapter
7, verse 26 says, For such an high priest became The high priest was the sacrifice
too. He became us, who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.
And chapter 8 verse 1 says, Now of the things which we have spoken,
this is the sum. If you want to hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. We have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens. If all of our fear and all of
our hope, you know, you remember when the high priest went in,
he had bells on. And all those people knew as long as we hear
the bells, he is not dead. And everywhere he went, those
bells jingled. And they fearfully waited on him to go make that
atonement and come back out. And if all of our fear and if
all of our hope and if all of our trust is in our high priest,
if we're looking to our high priest, then we worship God according
to His law. Totally according to His law,
just like He commanded His people to do. All right, so where does
free grace come in? God said your flesh must be cut
off, so He gave us Christ. God said you must have a lamb,
so He gave us Christ. God said there's a day appointed
where blood must be shed for your sin, so He gave us Christ. God said only my chosen, worthy,
perfect high priest can enter into me, so He gave us Christ.
He freely gave us Christ. Christ is our free grace. We don't hate free grace. We love free grace. And it's
not a doctrine. The doctrines of grace, it's
not free grace is a person. Free grace is a person. In Him,
we worship God perfectly, according to His law, perfectly. In Christ,
mercy and truth meet. righteousness and peace. Kiss. I can't obey God's law. I can't
obey God's law. Oh, but I do. I do. The law is not the wicked
thing that Christ, thankfully, he got me away from the law.
No. I keep the law in him. I keep the law. God is satisfied
with me because He gave me free grace, which is not a doctrine,
it's a person. His name is Christ. And Christ
is made to be all I need to satisfy God and His holy law. Everything
I need, God provides in Christ. Does that make sense? God doesn't make us free from
His law. He makes us able to keep it. That's amazing to me. That's
just amazing to me. Without Christ we're going to
die in our sins. So thank God for free grace.
Thank God for Christ. We cry out free grace and what
we're saying is Christ. Thank God for Christ. Alright,
let's stand together.