Well, it's a privilege to be
with you all again. I do pray that the Lord tonight
would be the one to speak to us. I pray that he would truly
speak in power into our hearts. I was thinking today about that
whenever the Lord sent Gideon into battle and he had that earthen
pitcher. This was their weapon. He had
an earthen pitcher, an earthen vessel that had a lamp in it,
a light, a candle in it. But the only way, and the way
that what he said to do was break the vessel. And that's how the
light shined. And the Lord's put this treasure
in earthen vessels. And the way the light shines
is the vessel's broken. I feel like I'm standing before
you a broken vessel. And that's good. That's good. I want the only light you hear
and see to be Christ's light. You know, everything seems to
be dividing us, doesn't it? Sin divided us, separated us
in the garden, And this world's been divided
ever since and just keeps division, division, division. This past
year we had this pandemic and it just has separated us. And the world's so divided right
now. And trying to legislate unity,
trying to make us to be unified by law. You can somewhat get
people to show unity outwardly by forcing them to do it by law,
but you can't create unity in the heart. You can't create oneness
in the heart by law. You can't legislate it. It can't
be accomplished by our deeds. But God makes his people one. He said the purpose for which
he He sent his son and the purpose of God from eternity has been
in the dispensation of the fullness of time. He will gather together
in one all things. That is all his people. Those
in heaven and those in earth. He's going to gather us all together
in one in Christ. and to show us that it's all
in Christ. God permitted the devil to enter
the garden, and he permitted Adam to transgress the law, sin
to separate us, and we've just been more and more divided ever
since. But Christ's come, and he's just
bringing his people back into unity. And this whole thing,
if you looked at a picture of a desk full of items and books
and different things, this whole life we're going through would
be like that desk just getting more narrow and more narrow and
more narrow and things just falling off the edges. Unnecessary things. That's what everything in this
life is. The Lord is teaching us constantly that the one thing
needful is our Lord Jesus Christ. And this thing is getting more
narrow and more narrow and more narrow. And one of these days
we're gonna take one breath and that's gonna be it. And we're gonna open our eyes
and we're gonna have one thing. And that's the one thing we needed
the whole time. Yes. Was Christ. Amen. I pray God help us get that. We just need the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all. And if we have Him,
we have all. That's what I want you to get
tonight. That's what I want us to get in our hearts. And we'll
leave this place comforted if we get there. If Lord enable
us to know this and really enter into it. We just need one. We
need Christ. We need Christ. Now these Judaizers
had come to Galatia and they were telling believers that it
wasn't enough to believe on Christ. They had to add something. They
had to add their law keeping. And I want you to see something.
Turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. I want you to see this. We were teaching that you had
to add your law keeping or you couldn't be a child of God. Now
these were Jews, natural children of Abraham, and they were put
pride in the fact they were the natural sons of Abraham. We like
something outwardly that differentiates us or that we think makes us
to differ from others. And they thought that made them
to differ. They thought because they had the law, the old covenant
law, that made them different. They really thought they were
keeping it. And so they told these Gentile believers, these
true believers, now except you come under this law, it's alright
to believe on Christ, but now you've got to add your law keeping
or you can't be a true child of Abraham. And listen to what
the Spirit of God moved the Apostle Paul to write to these believers. Now listen to this. He said in
Galatians chapter 3 verse 26, He said, you're all, he's talking
to believers here, you're all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. For as many of you have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew
nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male
nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be
Christ, if you're Christ's possession, then are you Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise. Now that is the message by which
God makes his people one. This is the message by which
God makes his people one. The Spirit of God moved Paul.
He didn't come there and talk about their differences. He didn't
come there and talk about this one's sin and that one's sin
or this one's good work or that one's good work. He came here
and he pointed them to the Lord Jesus Christ. To the grace of
God and what God had done by his everlasting covenant promise,
ordered in all things and sure in Christ. That's the message. And he told them here, you're
one in Christ. God's given you one in the same
faith. He's given you one in the same
righteousness, one in the same holiness. He's made you equally
one in Christ, giving you one inheritance. And that's the message. That is the message of how God
makes his people one. Now let's look at this. First
of all, God the Holy Spirit declares through Paul that those with
true God-given faith are all equally the children of God.
He says, verse 26, for you are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. Now believer, God help us to
get this in our heart. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are a child of God. Think about that. You are a child
of God, in the family of God. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the
saints that are already there, you're in the same family with
them. Children of God. God is our Father. Christ Jesus,
the last Adam, is our everlasting Father. He's our elder brother. We're all in the family of God. Children of God. Now he didn't appeal to anything
outward. If he'd have done that, you know
what would have happened? He'd have made more division. That's all they
would have done. Some would have thought they're
better than others because of something in them. He didn't
do that. He said, you're all the children
of God by faith in Christ. Now, faith in Christ doesn't
make us children. We didn't become children when
we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is given to us
to manifest God already made us children. Amen. God chose
us freely by His sovereign grace in Christ before the world was
made. And in time, when God sends the
Spirit into our hearts and gives us life and faith in Christ,
it's because He already made us children. Look over there
at Galatians 4 and look at verse 4. He said, when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, and
here was the purpose, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. And because you are sons already,
God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. which
made you cry, Abba, Father." You see that? We were sons. We
were children before God sent the Spirit. He sent the Spirit
and gave us faith to cry out to our Father because we were
sons. Because we were sons. That faith
is a gift. It's the gift. You look over
at Ephesians chapter 2. We were dead in sins. And we couldn't believe, we couldn't
do anything whatsoever. And He sent the Gospel to us,
and He sent the Spirit into our hearts, and He gave us faith.
And He said there in Ephesians 2.8, By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. That means I didn't read a book
on how to be born again. I didn't exercise some spark,
fan some spark that was in me, there wasn't any I didn't exercise
my will, my will was in bondage to my nature The other day I
saw a video of a beaver, this woman had a beaver in her house And I thought what a great illustration
of the bondage of the nature. She had brought this beaver in
a home. He wasn't out in the wild in a beaver hut. He's in
a house. A human being's house. And this beaver had taken every
box she had. She had a bunch of extra boxes
for Christmas presents and stuff like that. He took every box
and piled them up in the living room. He was making a dam in
the living room. And she had some water in the
bathtub. And she caught him. He'd already put a plunger in
there. And he'd put a bathroom brush in there. And he was taking
one of her wrapped gifts and was about to put it over in the
bathtub. And she took it away from him. Why do you do that?
That's his nature. I was coming home from service
the other day. There was a field of Canadian geese on the left
side eating grass seed and there was a deer carcass on this side
with a bunch of buzzards eating it. Why wasn't the buzzards eating
the grass seed and the geese eating the carcass? That wasn't
their nature. They were doing what their nature was. Well,
our nature was dead in sin but he came and it says, and by the
gift of God, He gave us faith. He gave it to us by grace. We're
His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus on two
good works. And faith's one of those good
works. He called it a good work. Repentance is a good work. He ordained us to that. He prepared
us for that. That's why He sent us faith.
He sent us faith. So brethren, don't let anybody
bring you into bondage saying there's some legal requirement
that you've got to do to prove you're a child of God. Faith
is the evidence. Faith is the substance of things
not seen. He brings us to believe on Christ. And that's it. When you read
John over there and he talks about the difference between
the children of God and the children of the devil, and he says the
children of God do righteousness and they love their brethren.
There's only one thing that a child of God won't do that a child
of the devil will do. A child of God will not stop
believing on Christ and loving his brethren because he's born
of the incorruptible seed and God won't let him. It can't.
It's his new nature. He believes Christ and he loves
his brethren. He said, this is his commandment, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and love one another. That's the differentiating
manifestation. You're a child of God, you believe
on Christ. Believe on Christ. Now secondly,
look here. He declares that we who believe
all have the same righteousness and the same holiness. The same
righteousness and the same holiness. He says, verse 27, for as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now these carnal Jews thought
the law made them differ. Now spiritually, the law declares
there's no difference in any of us. The law declares that
we're all sinners. The law concluded us all under
sin. That's what the law said. There's
no difference in any of us, the law said. Paul gave that long
list of the Gentile sins in Romans 1. Then he told in Romans 2,
he told the Pharisees, and you all are self-righteous thinking
you're keeping the law and you're condemning these Gentiles and
you're just condemning yourself because you do the same thing.
And he said, when he got finished, he said, what then? Are we Jews
different than those Gentiles? No! We've concluded all under
sin. That's what the law tells us.
We're all the same. We're all the same. Isn't it amazing how
lost sinners will take the law that God gave to declare us all
guilty sinners and they'll take that law and try to say they're
different from others because of something they did by that
law. Isn't that something? The law says we're guilty, but
when God makes you hear it, if we're going to esteem others
better than ourselves, if we're going to be the least and be
a worm so that we don't try to exalt ourselves over others and
point out their faults and expose their sins and condemn them for
their sins, but really and truly consider our brethren better
than ourselves, you know how that's going to happen? God's
going to make us know we're sinners. Really, truly sinners. But he says here, he says, but
as many of you, now he just spoke about faith in Christ, and the
first thing a believer's gonna do once he's brought to faith
in Christ, he's gonna confess his faith in Christ in believer's
baptism. And he said, now many of you
has been baptized, you've put on Christ. What does that mean? You've put on Christ. I got ready
to come over here, my jacket was hanging on the back of the
chair, I picked it up and I put it on. When you believe on Christ
through faith, God robes us in the righteousness of Christ.
He robes us. He doesn't robe one in one righteousness
and another in another righteousness. We have one righteousness, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He robes us in the same righteousness.
We got the same faith and the same Savior and we're robed in
the same righteousness. You see how this thing is bringing
us together? How it's making us one? One righteousness. Every
true believer. Equally perfect. before the law
of God, equally righteous before the law of God because of what
Christ did for us. Every one of us. He said back
up there in Galatians 2.16 He says, knowing that a man's not
justified, he's not made righteous by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Christ, by Christ doing and dying, by his person,
his work, even we believed in Jesus Christ. That's what faith
lays hold of, Christ, our righteousness. That we might be justified by
the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. By the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Paul said in Romans
3, he said, the righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. He came down and did for his
people what his people couldn't do. He came and manifest the
righteousness of God. He is that righteousness. And
it's by the faith of Christ. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe on Christ. For there is no difference. No
difference in us. We're sinners. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, but we're justified freely
by His grace. Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be the mercy seat, the
satisfying propitiation through faith in His blood. Christ took
down the middle wall. We had this, the Jews, here's
the thing, there was no Jew and Gentile before God gave the old
covenant. In Abraham's day, Noah's day,
there was no such thing as a Jew or a Gentile. When God gave the
old covenant, that, he gave it and said, now, you're different
from the rest of this world. But the spiritual lesson is,
God alone makes the difference. And he doesn't make it by giving
you a carnal law, a temporal law, a law written in a letter,
he does it by writing a law in your heart. And the law he writes
in your heart is not the old covenant Ten Commandments, we
had that law written on our heart. What he writes on our heart is
this new everlasting covenant of grace. He makes you know the
gospel. He makes you know it's called
the law of faith. It's called the law of love.
It's called the law of liberty. It's called the law of Christ.
It's called the law of righteousness. He actually makes you understand
something about righteousness that you don't have any and Christ
is the only righteousness. This is what he writes on our
heart. He writes the gospel on our heart. And when he does that,
brethren, he's taken down that middle wall. He came, Christ
came, and he abolished in his flesh the enmity. What was the
enmity? What was it that made the Jew
hate the Gentile? It was the law. It was the law. And he took that down because
he made of two one new man. One new man. In Christ we're
one. One righteousness. He reconciled
both His elect Jew and His elect Gentile unto God in one body
by the cross. And then He came and preached
this to us and so now by His Spirit we have access to God.
By one Spirit. He robed us. He robed us. He
created oneness of heart. He justified us so that we don't
have any differences in us now according to the law. We got
the same righteousness. And not only that, when he gives
you the Spirit, when the Spirit of Christ enters in, you remember
when they built the tabernacle and the Lord came down in the
Shekinah glory and he entered in and he sanctified that whole
place? Well, when the Spirit of Christ
enters in, you want to know what a simple definition of sanctification
is? It's when Christ enters you in
Spirit. There's a new man, there's a
holy man and you can't tell where the new man, where the new spirit
is and Christ began. They're one, they're one. You
remember Peter had the law and he thought he was he was sanctified
because he didn't eat certain meats. And the Lord came to him
and he let down that sheep out of heaven and he said, and they
had all manner of these synods, they weren't supposed to eat
by the law. And he said, arise Peter, kill and eat. Peter said,
not so Lord, I've never eaten anything common or unclean. And
the Lord said, what I have cleansed, don't call common. And he said,
now there's some Gentiles over here. that you didn't think you
were supposed to have anything to do with. He said, you go down
there and preach the gospel to them. And he went down there
and preached the gospel to them. And let me go over to Acts 15,
let me show you this. He went down there and preached
the gospel to them. When the Jews came down there trying to
tell these Gentiles they had to go back under the law, listen
to what Peter told them. Acts 15 verse 8. He said, God
which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the
Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no difference between
us and them, between us Jews and those Gentiles, purifying
their hearts by faith. That's holiness. That's being
made clean. That's being made pure. Purified
their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our
fathers nor we were able to bear? But we Jews believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, us Jews shall be saved even as
those Gentiles who never ever had the law. You see, This is
the big thing in our days, and it's really big where I'm at
up there, because there's a ton of reformed folks up there. And
they'll take you to Mount Sinai for righteousness, but once you
believe on Christ, they're going to take you right back. You've
got to leave the promised land. You've got to leave Mount Sinai.
You've got to go to Mount Sinai for sanctification and holiness.
No, brethren. We have our righteousness and
our holiness from the same place and it's from the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the righteousness and holiness
of His people. Out of His side came water and
blood. There's a fountain open for sin and uncleanness and that
fountain is Christ. He's both. So what he said to
us here brethren is, don't be brought back into that bondage
of the law because we have, you've put on Christ and we have one
righteousness and one holiness and it's our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's not one sinner that's more sanctified than another
sinner. There's not one believer that's
more holy than another believer. That thief on the cross had the
same holiness that the oldest believer that ever lived had.
Both of them did. And that thief on the cross had
his hands and his feet nailed to a cross. And that holiness
was Christ. Now thirdly, let's look here.
Galatians 3, he said verse 28. So there's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
you're all one in Christ. Now you won't talk about unity.
This is where it's at right here. We're one in Christ. The world
is trying to create oneness by law and they're trying to legislate
it and they're trying to end racism and sexism and all these
different things. And it just won't ever work.
It just won't ever work. But I'll tell you where God creates
unity and oneness, and that's in Christ. That's in Christ. If Paul had justified them, if
he'd said something outward, made them to differ, it would
have just created more division. But this message is the unifying
message right here. Now, outwardly, differences still
exist. And we're not going to be...
I mean, when you believe on Christ, a man don't become a woman and
a woman don't become a man. You still who you are outwardly. But in Christ, we're one. In
Christ, we're one. He said over there in Colossians,
He said, you've put on the new man. That new man's renewed in
knowledge after the image of Him that created him. That new
man's of God, created of God, in the image of God. And he said,
and there's neither Greek nor Jew, there's neither circumcision
nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ
is all in all. Now let me tell you something
about this circumcision and uncircumcision, and we need to get this because Those two boys, Ishmael and Isaac,
they couldn't live under the same roof. God said, you got
to tell Ishmael to go. And here's the sad thing. Me
and you haven't Ishmael in us. We haven't a man of the flesh
that's in us. And he's self-righteous. And
what Paul is saying here, brethren, is it's not what a man does. It's not his circumcision that
makes him a child of God. And it's not when a brother falls
into sin or stumbles, that doesn't mean he's not a child of God.
If a Jew that was under the law and a Gentile that never had
the law, he said, that's not what matters. And we're prone
to, if a brother stumbles and has a problem, we're, oh, I don't
know if he's a believer or not. We don't need to do that. If
our brother could see our hearts, they'd say, I don't know if he's
a believer or not. That's right. What we need to do is know that
what matters is God's made a new creation. A new creation. What will we do in that case?
What do we do in that case? It's not It's not justifying
a brother's slip and fall and sin. It's not justifying to be
nice to them and be kind to them and be loving to them. But what
we do, we bear one another's burden and we turn each other,
we remind each other what Christ has done for us. The only thing
that turned us from our sin in the first hour was hearing what
Christ did for us. And it wasn't the whip of the
law that did it. It was hearing what, it was the
goodness of God that led us to repent. And it's hearing about
him. And that's what we need to do
is remind each other because tomorrow you might be the one
slipping and falling and you need him to do that for you.
You know? So that's the point here. We're
one in Christ and these outward differences, brethren, I know
they're there. I know they're there. You got
young believers, you got believers that have been in the faith a
long time, and you're not going to expect a baby to walk like
a grown-up's going to walk. But here's the thing, we need
to walk in lowliness of mind, with long-suffering, esteeming
others better than ourselves, remembering the endeavor to keep
the unity of the Spirit. Religion, law religion is always
looking for some reason to exclude people. God's people are looking
to unify people, to unify brethren, to endeavor to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. And here it is. He said
there's one body, there's one spirit, there's one hope of your
calling, there's one Lord, there's one faith, there's one baptism,
there's one God and Father of all who's above all and through
all and in you all. That's the unifying message.
That's what Paul's doing in our text. Go to John 17. John read
this just a minute ago. I want you to see something here.
Look at this. You see, when we're brought together
in one, in unity with one mind and striving
together for the faith of the gospel. That's the prayer of
our Redeemer. That's the prayer of our intercessor.
And look at what this unity is. John 17, 21, that they all, and
you know who he's talking about here. He's talking about his
people. That they all may be one. Now how one are we? As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee. Now that's one. that they also
may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me. And he's talking about the world of his elect. He's talking
about his people. Look, and the glory which thou
gavest me I've given them. That's the gospel. He given us
the gospel. That they may be one even as
we are one. I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in one. and that the world, his elect,
wherever they are, may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me." How has he loved you? You a child
of God? Listen to this. How has he loved
you? You've loved them as thou hast loved me, Christ said. That's love. And that's oneness,
brethren. And that's what he's saying here.
These differences are, we're one in Christ. We're one in Christ. Christ said, what we do to our
brethren, we do unto Christ. That's how one we are. So this
is why we want to endeavor to keep unity. Now look, look at
this last thing. We have the same inheritance. And listen now, and we are the
same inheritance. Now put this together. I'm going
to shoot from the hip here, but I didn't see this just a minute
ago. Look at what he says in verse
29. If ye be Christ, that means if
you're his possession. Remember he said in Ephesians,
we're his purchased possession. If you be Christ, Then you're
Abraham's seed, and you're heirs according to the promise. Now
if you're Christ, then you're heirs according to the promise.
Got one inheritance, and it's Christ. This is what matters.
If you be Christ, that's what matters. If you're His possession,
purchased by His blood. This thing of working for rewards
in heaven. We're talking about inheritance
here. This thing of working for rewards in heaven. Now do you
think that there's going to be a spirit in heaven where I'm
going to be on the wealthy side of heaven in the bigger mansion
looking down on the poor saints on the poor side of heaven in
a little house. There's not going to be that
spirit in heaven. That's the Spirit of the world. We have
one inheritance. We have one inheritance. And
what is that inheritance? Look at verse 6. He said, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son. Galatians 4, 6. He said
in the second part, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Jeremiah 3, 19. Remember what
he said? He said, How shall I put thee
among the children and give you a goodly inheritance. How am
I going to do that? He said, you're going to call
me my father. So he sent the Spirit into your
heart, so you cry, Abba, Father. And he says, wherefore thou art
no more a servant, but a son. You're out of bondage now. You're
out of the law now. You're a son. You're in the house
of God, a child of God, and you're an heir of God through Christ. Now what's our inheritance? Read
it again. You're an heir of God. You're going to inherit God. You're an heir of God. That's a two-way street right
there. An heir of God means you're God's inheritance. That's what
He means when He said, if you be Christ. You're His portion. You're His inheritance. And he
says here, and you're an heir of God. He's your inheritance.
Now what else do you want? What else would we want? Remember
what he told Abraham, Abraham? Abraham said, Lot, let's don't
fight. You choose what you want. And
Lot said, I want that well water plain. I'm going to make my fortune. He said, you can have it. And
he went and took a rocky mountain, and it's hard to graze sheep
in a rocky mountain. And the Lord appeared to Abraham,
and I'm sure he was down, and he thought, how am I going to
make any life in this rocky place? And God came to him, and he said,
Christ came to him, and he said, I'm your shield. And I'm your
exceeding great reward." Meaning, you don't have a thing to worry
about Abraham. Whatever you need in this life
I'm going to provide for you because I've got something waiting
on you that you can't even imagine. You're going to come into my
presence and be in my glory and enjoy my glory. And I'll tell you what he told
Dupree. He said, I'm your inheritance
and you're my inheritance. That's right. Listen to what
I love. J.C. Philpott said, All the love
of God, the goodness of God, the holiness of God, all His
happiness, bliss and blessedness, all His might and majesty and
glory shining forth in the person of His dear Son in the blaze
of one eternal unclouded day. That's the saint's inheritance.
That's good. That's good. That's it, brethren. That's it. So this is the message. We are all the children of God,
believers. We're the children of God. We got one righteousness. We got one faith in the same
object, Christ our Lord. We got one righteousness. We
got one holiness. We're His possession and He's
our possession. We're one. We're one. I pray God will bless you. Comfort
you with that. Amen.