Let's turn in our Bibles to 2
Peter 2. I really do thank you for having
me, and it's a privilege to be with you, and I really do mean
that. Anytime you're with the Lord's
people, it's a privilege. He's given us the privilege of
having brethren who are His royalty. And the world doesn't observe
this kingdom. They don't observe this royalty.
But it's truly a kingdom of kings and priests that He's made so. And that's a privilege anytime
you can be with His people. I do hope this weekend that the
Lord will be gracious to teach us. I hope He's the one that
preaches these messages to us in our hearts. That's what we
need, and that's what I hope. I do hope that. All right, let's
look here now at 2 Peter chapter 2, and I want you to look first
just at verse 21. I'll show you what caught my
attention. It had been better for them not to have known the
way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from
the holy commandment which was delivered
unto them. The holy commandment which was
delivered unto them. Let's go back up to verse 19
and we'll get a little context here before we look into this.
I want to focus on what is the holy commandment. What is the
holy commandment? Verse 19, it says, talking about
false teachers, they promised their hearers liberty. It says,
while they promised them liberty, They themselves are the servants
of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome,
of the same is he brought in bondage." Bondage that they teach
and the bondage they lead into is teaching that liberty is somewhere
other than Christ Jesus and His finished work of redemption.
That's where liberty is. Anything else that's taught,
whether you're teaching men that They've got a license to sin.
Are you teaching men to go back to the law of Moses? Anything taught is liberty other
than the liberty we have in Christ Jesus. The full, complete redemption
He's accomplished is bondage. It's not liberty. Then the false
teacher and those they lead away, they're not ignorant of the work
of the Savior. Verse 20 says, For if after they
have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge
of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they heard, at least
with the carnal ear, the gospel, they heard it and they made a
profession. They appeared to have escaped
the pollutions of the world for a time, but they followed after
liberty. They turned to try to find liberty
someplace else other than Christ. And when they turn back, they
overcome by the pollutions of the world. And he says, and when
that happens, verse 20, and they are again entangled therein and
overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
Now they're twice dead, dead in sins, and now they have a
false refuge. worldliness that's worse than
any other worldliness, that legalism or that lawlessness that's worse
than any other lawlessness, is self-righteousness. Thinking
we have a righteousness that we've worked out by our work.
Verse 21 again, he says, For it had been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it,
to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. And that's
what I want us to look at, the holy commandment. We know here
now that their knowledge was natural. We know it was carnal,
because those who've been taught truly, effectually, given the
unction of the Spirit, are not able to turn away. We can't turn
away. We're kept by Him, and we don't
want to turn away from Him. Can't do that. But this is my
question. What is the holy commandment?
What is the holy commandment? Well, when we hear the word commandment,
A lot of times folks think about the Ten Commandments. That's
where your mind goes to, the Ten Commandments. And the Ten
Commandments, the law of God given through Moses at Sinai,
indeed is holy. It's holy and it's just and it's
good. But that's not the Holy Commandment
that's spoken of right here. That's not the Holy Commandment
that's spoken of here. The Holy Commandment, simply
put, is the Gospel. The Gospel is the Holy Commandment.
And it was delivered to them. It comes to them and they hear
it like we hear it here when the gospel is preached. They
heard it delivered that way through the preaching of the gospel.
But I want to talk to you about the holy commandment when it's
delivered by Christ the prophet, when it's delivered by our head,
our king, our high priest, when it's brought to us by him. When
the gospel is preached, when the holy commandment is spoken
into the heart of the sinner by the prophet, By thee, Lord
Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, the holy commandment
makes the sinner willing to do what he's commanded. It makes
us willing to do what he's commanded. When he commands it, he affects
the commandment he gives because that commandment makes us willing
to do what he says. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. This holy commandment comes with
power. His voice speaking. The holy
commandment. There's three things we're going
to look at, three things. When he speaks, when Christ speaks
the holy commandment into the heart, he commands, number one,
repentance. That's what he commands. And
he brings it about by speaking this into our heart. The second
thing is when Christ speaks the holy commandment, he teaches
us and convinces us through the spirit in our heart. He convinces
us of the way of righteousness. He commands us to look to the
way of righteousness. And we look. We see. We look
to the way of righteousness. The way a sinner can be made
righteous with God. And then thirdly, when Christ
speaks this holy commandment, He commands us to believe on
Him and to love one another. And when He speaks it, we do
it. We believe Him and we begin to
love one another. Alright, let's look at these
three things. Now, when the voice of the Lord Jesus speaks, He
commands us to repent. And we do that. Let's look at
Romans 7. Romans 7. Now, the way he commands us to
repent and teaches us repentance is he teaches us what the law
says about us. He convinces us of sin. Let's
look at Romans 7, 9. Paul is speaking here and he
said, I was alive without the law once. Now, Paul had the Ten
Commandments, we know that. He had the Ten Commandments,
and he thought he was alive by his obedience to the commandments.
He thought he had really kept them. He, like so many of us,
so many of us who the Lord has called, he said, I will circumcise
the eighth day. He put confidence in something
his mother and daddy had done. That was part of the law, the
old covenant, and he thought that was something he had done,
that they had done for him. He was of the tribe of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews. He put all this confidence
in where he came from and who he was brought up under and who
he belonged to in that blood lineage of his family and all
those things. And then concerning himself, he said, I was zealous,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness, which is in
the law, blameless. I was alive without the law once.
He thought he was alive. He thought he was accepted. He
thought he'd done everything to make himself presentable to
holy God. But then look what happened.
Verse nine. But when the commandment came, when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. Let's go to Acts 22 now. Acts
22. When did the commandment come?
From whom did the commandment come? Where did this come in? Remember what John declared?
John said the law was given by Moses. Now, he had that law and
he thought he was living by that law. But grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. This second part, when he said,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, this
is when the holy commandment came. Christ taught him what
the law said about him and he taught him in grace and in truth.
Let's look here at Acts 22. Paul is speaking here, and he
says, Men and brethren and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make
now to you. And you know where Paul was?
You know who he's talking to? Let me show you this. Look back
there at chapter 21 and verse 28. He's talking to some men
who grabbed him and laid hands on him and bound him. And this
is what they said, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is
the man that teaches all men everywhere against the people
and the law and this place. And he brought Gentile Greeks
into this temple and polluted this holy place. Now, Paul's
standing there and he's bound by these men. He's standing there
bound by these men. And he says, now, I'm going to
let me tell you something. Let me tell you something that
I have found out. And he says, he begins to speak
in the Hebrew tongue, and they hear him. Verse 3, he says, I'm
verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia,
brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according
to the perfect manner of the law of the Father. And I was
zealous toward God, as you all are this day, and I persecuted
this way. This way of righteousness, Christ's
way of righteousness. I persecuted this way. I did
to them what you're doing to me now. That's what Paul said.
And I persecuted them unto death. I bound them. I bound them. I
put them in bondage. And I delivered them into prison.
Put them in and in a cell behind cell bars, both men and women,
as also the high priestess bear me witness and all the elders
from whom I received letters to do these things. I went to
Damascus to bring them that were there bound unto Jerusalem to
be punished. When Paul was doing all that,
when he was Saul and he was doing all that, he thought he was alive. He thought he was in liberty.
He thought he had liberty in what he was doing. True liberty
with God. And you know what the truth was?
He was the servant of corruption. He was entangled in the bondage
of his sin and his flesh and the law because he didn't hear
what the law said. He didn't know what the law said
at all. And now here he stands and he's standing before these
men who are doing the same thing to him that he had been doing.
And they're the ones bound. Paul's standing there literally
physically bound, but he's not the one bound. They're the ones
bound. And he says, now let me tell
you how I was unbound. Let me tell you how I became
free. Let me tell you. He says, verse
6, it came to pass that as I made my journey and was come nigh
to Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great
light round about me. And I fell into the ground and
heard a voice. That's when he heard the holy
command. I heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul. He said,
I call my sheep by name. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? He was going to persecute others
who believed on Christ. But Christ said, why do you persecute
me? And I answered, who art thou,
Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth,
whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw
the light and were afraid, but they didn't hear the voice of
him that spake to me. This is when the holy commandment
came to Paul, and this is how the commandment comes to us.
The holy commandment comes when Christ speaks through the spirit,
into the heart, through his gospel, and he singles out his elect.
There may be a whole standing here together like there is tonight,
like there was there with Paul, but he singles out his one and
he speaks this holy commandment into the heart. And when the
commandment comes, we go to the dust. Sin revives and we die. We go to the dust. He said, I'll
send forth the Holy Spirit. And when he comes forth, he's
going to reprove the world of sin. He's going to come and he's
going to speak because they believe not on me. Another place, they
led Paul there to Damascus. Paul said, what shall I do, Lord?
You see, the Lord commands repentance. When he does, we turn from what
we thought we should do, what the priest said we should do
and what the preacher said we should do and what man said we
should do. And then repentance is now we've been turned to the
Lord to say, Lord, what will you have me to do? And he turns
to him and he sends him to Damascus. And the scripture says he sat
there for three days and three nights. He didn't eat anything.
He didn't drink anything. And the Lord told Ananias he's
praying. First time he ever prayed. He's sitting there and he's praying.
Now, I can picture something going on here. I can picture
like what went on with you and I, what happened to us in the
beginning. You know, you try to justify
yourself. You try to sit there and say, well, Lord, haven't
I kept the law from my youth up? You start bringing up all
these things, you know, that He put all His confidence in.
And the holy commandment is the Lord Himself speaking to the
heart. And He keeps saying to the heart, you've not sold everything
that you own. and left it all and given it
to the poor and followed after me." That's the love of the law. That's the righteousness of the
law. You haven't done that. You haven't done that, Saul.
And Saul said, and if it wouldn't have been for this, the law,
and him showing me what the law says, I would have never known.
I'm a covetous man. I'm guilty. I've broken the whole
law. That's when he finds out, the man finds out that he's a
sinner is when Christ speaks into the heart through this gospel,
through the Spirit of God, and he convinces us you're guilty
of everything. He meets us right at whatever
it is we think that we've done. That's where he meets us and
says, you haven't done. And if you're broken in one point,
you've offended all. And then he makes us to know
not only this, but You can't even plead anything according
to the law because you were conceived in sin. You came forth from that
corruptible seed of Adam who died in the garden and was just
passed right to you so that you conceived with a nature of sin. So that everything you came forth
doing was sin. Been a servant of corruption
from day one. And I'll tell you something about,
we don't want to come to God in the law. We don't want to
try to come to God in law because the law is strict. I'll give
you something, an illustration about how strict the law is.
When I was in school, we had a teacher that was real strict.
She was strict, strict. Nobody wanted to get this teacher.
Nobody wanted to get her. And I got her. And I had to be
in her class. And we decided, some of the students
and the parents, her birthday was coming up. We decided we'd
throw a birthday party, a surprise birthday party. We want to get
into the room and we want to decorate the room for her so
when she came in, it'd be all decorated. She'd be surprised,
you know. So I was a little mischievous in school and the kids asked
me, my friends asked me, how can we get her door unlocked
and get in this room to decorate it? And I said, I can handle
that. So I went up to her desk one day and I walked back from
her desk on the way back. I just unlatched the latch on
the window. And so when we all went to lunch,
and she took us all to lunch, I just snuck back around the
building and went back over there and opened up the window and
crawled in and unlocked the door. And we had parents there and
everything. Parents come in, and we just decorated that room
up with balloons and everything like that, you know. And she
came back. All the kids got in the room,
got hidden, you know. She came back, opened the door,
and when she came in, we did the happy birthday surprise,
sang happy birthday, had cakes. She had some presents and all
that. Well, the next day, she called me up to her desk, and
it was just me and her, and she said, Clay, I found out that
you opened my window and came in this room through my window
to unlock that door. And I said, yes, ma'am, I did.
I said, I didn't figure you'd be too upset about it, because
we was trying to honor you. We was trying to have a birthday
party for you. And she said, well, you broke the rules. And
she took me in the back and gave me a paddling. I mean, wore me
out. I mean, wore me out. And you
think, man, that's strictness without any kind of mercy at
all. But what I'm making, I was doing it with the intention of
honoring her. And Paul said, I was zealous
toward God, trying to come to Him in all my law keeping. But
the strictness of the law is, we've broken it. And so the law
says, You're guilty. It doesn't matter how zealous
you are and how sincere you are. Can't come to God anyway, but
the way God says we can come to it. OK, now let's look at
this next thing. When Christ speaks the holy commandment,
let's look at Isaiah 42. When he speaks the holy commandment,
Isaiah 42, this is what he commands us. The holy commandment comes,
he commands us to look to. the way of righteousness. He
commands us now, he's going to teach us the way of righteousness.
He's going to teach us the only way a man can be righteous with
God. He commands us now, look, look at verse 42, I mean, chapter
42, verse 1. Here's a command. Behold my servant. This is Christ Jesus he's speaking
about. Behold my servant. Whom I uphold, mine elect, and
whom my soul delighteth, I put my spirit upon him." He'll bring
judgment to the Gentiles. And look down at verse 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged,
for he set judgment in the earth. Look down at verse 21. Verse
21. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness' sake. His righteousness said, He will
magnify the law. He will make the law honorable.
He will do this. So He turns us from us. Now,
He's put us in the dust. He showed us now what the law
said about us. Now He commands us. Now, behold,
righteousness. Behold, my son. And then He begins
to teach us what the holy commandment is all about. What the holy commandment
is. Look over at John 10. John 10. He begins to teach us through
the Spirit, through this gospel, that the holy commandment was
given to Christ from the Father. From God the Father to God the
Son was given to Him before the world was made. He gave Him this
holy commandment. And this holy commandment that
He gave to the Son was for the Son to come forth and take the
form of a servant as a man, the last Adam. to come forth and
to magnify His law, to walk under His law perfect, proving Himself
to be truly perfect, to honor it in every regard completely
as the representative and substitute of his people. This was the holy
commandment given from the father to the son. This was what he
and the son entered into covenant surety ship for his people to
do that, to to obey his father, to come forth and do what the
father sent him to do, commanded him to do. So when the fullness
of time was called, God sent forth his son made of a woman.
Those he was redeeming with flesh and blood, he has to be made
flesh and blood, made of a woman. They were under the law. He was
made under the law to redeem them. That means to purchase
in full, to make the full payment, to redeem them from under the
law that we might receive the spirit of adoption, the adoption
of sons so that we're no more servants in bondage and serving
the corruption of the pollutions of the world and entangled in
servitude like a slave, but that we might become sons freed by
Him. Now, when He came forth, you
know what men said to Him? Men said to Him, to our Master,
to the Lord Jesus Christ, they said to Him exactly what men
say to us. When we preach this gospel, they
said exactly to him what men said to Paul after God brought
him out and showed him in whom his liberty was, in Christ. And
he began to preach Christ. They said he's preaching against
the law. He's a lawless man. He's an antinomian. He's against the law and against
the people and against this place. He's telling us we can't do anything
to bring ourselves to God. He's telling us and he's telling
us He's destroying the whole law. And the Lord Jesus Christ
on that Sermon on the Mount, he said, don't let it even enter
into your mind that I came to destroy the law. The law has
got to be honored. The law has got to be magnified.
And he said, I didn't come to destroy that law. I came to fulfill
the law. And he said, till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law till all be fulfilled. When's the last time you tried
to go buy something that had a price attached to it and they
let you purchase it by just paying half the price? If it's got the
price on it and that's the price, you've got to pay that price
in full to make the purchase. That's what redemption is. Redemption
is paying the full purchase price. And the full purchase price was
the law that Adam broke, that we've broken, that his elect
people have broken. That law's got to be filled full. Payment's got to be made in full. Now, he said clearly there, I
came to fulfill it. He said, I came to fulfill it.
Now, you see this glass right here. It's not full. It's not full. This glass will
be full when we put so much water into it that there cannot be
another drop added to it or it'll spill over. When it's filled
full, you can't add anything else to it. That means it is
filled full. It is full field. That's what
he came to do. That's exactly what he came to
do. And that's exactly what he accomplished. He came to do it
and he accomplished the righteousness of the law. This is what the
holy commandment teaches. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous. I've heard it over and over and
over. Read that scripture where he said, think not that I came
to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And they'll say, see there?
And we've got to get back under that law. We've got to work and
try to fulfill it. Our righteousness has got to
exceed the righteousness of the spouse and Pharisee. We've got
to work harder and harder and harder to do it. He's telling us, Brethren,
I came to do it because you couldn't do it. I came to do it. By the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. By his obedience.
The righteousness requires holiness of nature. He's that holy thing
formed in the womb by the Holy Ghost. He came forth thinking
only that which was right. He probably didn't even cry when
he was born, like babies cry, like we cry when we're born.
He probably didn't even cry. He came forth righteous, and
righteousness of the law requires righteous obedience. In thought,
word and deed, and he did all the righteousness, obedience
to God. Not because he was preaching and trying to struggle and trying
to do it, because that was his nature. He's holy. It was just
his delight to do it. And it requires death for the
disobedience of it. And so he went and laid down
his life for his sheep. That's what he did. Now, the
holy commandment that was given to Christ of the Father was the
Father's will for Christ to fulfill all righteousness, making His
elect the righteousness of God in Him. Now, I have you turn
to John 10. Let's look here at John 10, 14. He's teaching us
this. He said, I am the good shepherd,
and I know my sheep and have known of mine. And as the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. He knew who he came to save.
He came to save those given him of the Father, the sheep. And
that's who he said, I'm laying down my life for the sheep. Now,
look at this. And other sheep I have which
are not of this foal. I have some Gentile sheep, I'm
bringing them too. Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice. They're going to hear this holy
commandment. I'm going to teach them too. They're going to hear
this holy commandment. And there shall be one foal and one shepherd.
Therefore, does my father love me because I laid down my life
that I might take it again?" Now, the law, we're told over
and over again that the fulfillment of the law is love. That's what
the fulfillment of the law is. The fulfillment of the Ten Commandments
given on Mount Sinai is love. And Christ is telling us here,
I'm not doing anything by the constraint of law. Nothing. I'm doing it because I love my
father. I'm doing it and he loves me because I'm doing this in
love. I'm not doing it for a legal
reason. I'm doing it for legal constraints. I'm doing it for love. Now watch
this. No man takes it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. Nobody made him do it. He stopped
doing it. That's what love does. I'm doing it. I have power to
lay it down. I have power to take it again.
Now, all of this he's been talking about. Look what he says. This
commandment, this commandment I have received of my father.
This is that holy commandment the father gave him. And he said,
I received it of him and I'm doing what he would have me to
do. I'd like to do his will. Look
at John 14, 30. John 14, 30. He said, Hereafter, I will not talk much with you,
for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me,
but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the
Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. You see, when he begins to come
to us, let's go to Hebrews 10 now, Hebrews 10. When he begins
to speak this holy commandment and command us now to behold
his servant, to behold Christ, to see the one in whom righteousness
is accomplished for his people. What he makes us to see is, you
remember, I asked Brother Paul to read Psalm 40. This was the
verse I wanted you to particularly get. He said, I delight to do
thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. You know what this law he's talking
about that was within his heart. It was that commandment given
him before the world began that in the everlasting covenant to
come forth and redeem his people. That's the law that was in his
heart to fulfill. That's why I said I must be about
my father's business. This is I've come to do this
for him. Now, look here, verse five, what
it says, Hebrews 10, five is quoting that. And it says, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body has now prepared me in burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin. Thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it's written
of me, to do thy will, O God. What was his will? For him to
come forth and redeem his children from the curse of the law. To
come forth and establish righteousness for his people. To make his people
accepted with God. And verse 10 down there, he says,
By the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all time. It's done. Verse 14, for
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
When this holy commandment comes, he teaches us Christ is the righteousness
of God. He laid down his life for his
sheep, for he hath made him sin for us. For us. He made him sin
in our room instead. He made him, and he said, no
man takes this from me. No man makes me. I do this willingly. He made him sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness, the righteousness,
the righteousness of God in him. The law is not of faith, but
the man that does them shall live in them. If he can do the
whole law, he can live in it. But the law is not of faith.
But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us, for it's written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. Well, he's a Coptist for us.
The blessing of Abraham was the blessing Abraham had by promise
430 years before the law at Mount Sinai was ever given. He didn't
even have that law. It was a promised blessing that
he, in his seed, in Christ who would come, all his children,
his spiritual children, would be blessed from the four corners
of the earth and they would be accepted with God by what he's
accomplished. And he gave the law at Mount
Sinai to show us The magnitude of that sin in the garden and
the magnitude of this righteousness of this One who would come forth
and accomplish this for us. Because He did it all. He did
it all. Justified His people. Purged
His people of our sins. And then He sat down when He
finished it. Perfected us forever by His one
offering. Now, there's something else He
teaches us. So now He's put us in the dust
when this Holy Commandment comes. He showed us what the Ten Commandments
taught us. And then he comes and he shows
us now the holy commandment commands us now to behold this one whose
righteousness. And he makes us to behold him
and he shows us the holy commandment was given of the father to the
son and he came forth and fulfilled the will of the father because
that commandment was in his heart and he's redeemed his people
from the law. He brought them out from under
it now. He's taken all the law out of the way and nailed it
to his cross, so that now they're back in a reconciled union with
the Father, whom we had offended. And he says, now this is all
done by one, by the obedience of one. And he shows us this,
and he commands us. And when this is happening, you
know what's going on when this commandment comes. This commandment
is, we talk about the gift of faith. and granting us repentance
and creating of the new nature and the new man within. This
is all what's taking place, right? It's just a it's just a there's
just a incorruptible seed that is making us alive within as
he's speaking this word of life into our heart. And then look
what he said or something else. He speaks now, John 12, John
12. This is the holy commandment, John
12. When he speaks, he commands us
and he makes us willing to believe on Christ and to love one another.
Now, watch. The father gave Christ this holy
commandment to come and do this work, and he gave him another
commandment to something else that said there in Psalm 40,
part of this commandment, he told him to go forth and preach
righteousness in the great congregation. He's the prophet. He's the price.
So you go forth and preach righteousness. And he said and he said, and
I'm not refraining my lips. And he said, I've not hid thy
righteousness within my heart. I've told folks. And he said,
and I've declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I've not concealed
thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
I've preached it. I've taught it. This is preacher school 101
right here. We want to see where to find
out how to be a preacher. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
Want to find out how to be anything. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ came forth with a holy commandment from
the Father to preach righteousness. And as that servant, he said,
all the fathers given me will come to me. No man can come to
me except the Father draws him. And as that servant of God, he
is God. He is God the Son. in the form
of a servant, taking the form of the servant, experiencing
obedience by the things which he suffered. He's sitting there
listening, obeying the Father, and he's preaching the gospel
right there in the midst. And everybody comes up and they
reject him and they mock him and they ridicule him and they
do all these things. But he just kept right on declaring
righteousness and the faithfulness of God and the loving kindness
of God. And here's what he said. Look at John 12, 49. John 12,
49. He said, I have not spoken of
myself. That is, I have not spoken. I
didn't just come up with these things on my own. That's what
he said. I have not spoken of myself. He says, but the father
which sent me, he gave me a commandment. This is that holy commandment.
He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should
speak. And I know that his commandment
is life everlasting. His commandment, this holy commandment,
is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak, therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. This is what
I'm doing. This is what I'm declaring. Now,
go back to John 6. What is this commandment, then,
that's life everlasting? He just preached what the Father
sent him to preach. What is this righteousness? What
is this faithfulness of God, loving kindness of God? Where's
it found? Where's this truth? What is this? Where's it found?
What's this commandment that's life everlasting? The law was
a picture of what was taking place. Moses was a picture of
a mediator. He came down and the Lord said through the law,
I set before you life and death. They said, do these things and
you'll live. And he gave a bunch of promises.
They were all temporal promises. They all promised temporal things
if they could do those. But that was all a picture of
this holy commandment given by Christ, the mediator who comes
down and preaches righteousness and says, now this, this commandment,
it's not life, it's life everlasting. This is everlasting life. This
is eternal life. What is it? John 6, 40. John
6, verse 40. This is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, believeth on him, may have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. Look down at verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. That's when this holy commandment
comes. That's the first thing that when he's put us in the
dust and he showed us righteousness now and he says now, believe
me. The Father, Son, and the Spirit.
The Father, the Word, and the Spirit bear record. The Father
says, this is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased to hear
ye in. The Son says, the Father said to me, this is what he said.
This is everlasting life. Believe on me, and I'll raise
you up at the last day. And the Spirit bears witness
in our heart, saying, judgment's accomplished. He's cast out the
strong man. Bound him now. And he's saying
to our hearts, believe on him. You know what's going to happen
when that happens? We're going to believe on him. When he gives
the command, he gives the power, and he gives the life, and we
believe him. There's something else to it,
too. Look at John 13, 34. John 13, 34. He's fulfilled the
law. He's established it. It's accomplished.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. When we're born
of Him and believe on Him, given His Spirit, trust in Him, we
see He laid down His life in love for us. He laid it down
for us. And He says this now to us, verse
34, John 13, 34, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love
one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Now, the law, the letter of the law said, Love your neighbor
as yourself. But do you see how much better
it is to have this holy commandment taught us of Christ Jesus the
Lord? Because when he teaches us what
his will is, what the law says, he says to us this love one another
as I have loved you. Love one another as I have loved
you. And he says, verse 35, "...by
this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you
have love one toward another." Not by how you dress. Not by
how holy you try to act. Not by putting on a show and
all that. That's not how men are going
to know your mind. They're going to know your mind
because you love one another. How do we love one another? John
said, this is His commandment. That we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave
His commandment. How do we love one another? We
love one another like He loved us. Just as real as He was in
that Sermon on the Mount. Go to Matthew 7. Matthew 7. Just
as real as He was in that Mount, that earthly Mount, when He gave
this sermon, He's in the heavenly Mount right now. And He brings
forth this holy commandment, and He teaches us in our heart,
we can't do anything to be accepted. Coming to him in law, from a
motive of law, from a motive of trying to gain acceptance
by our works. Can't do it. And he teaches us
all righteousness is accomplished by him. He's our righteousness.
And by that very righteousness accomplished in him laying down
his life for us, he teaches us how to love one another. He said
in that mount and he Just like he did in that earthly man, he
teaches us this when the gospel is preached. It's not a one time
thing either. These things I'm talking about here, it don't
come just in the beginning. It keeps coming, keeps teaching
us this over and over and over through this gospel and through
providence that he works in our midst. This is what he said,
this is what it is to love, Matthew 7, 12. Therefore, all things
whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even
so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. This is love.
This is love. What you would have them to do
to you, you do to them. Now think of the things he taught.
He said, you thought murder was just in the act. Murder is in
the heart. It's anger. If somebody has ought
against you, be reconciled to them quickly. That's what we
want other folks to do to us. If I got ought against you, I
want you to come to me in a way and say, I'm sorry, and let's
be reconciled. That's what I want from you,
and that's what you want from me. And you know how we are constrained
by the love of Christ in this? We see that Christ came to us,
our elder brother, and He had aught against us. And He said,
the Father has aught against you. And you're going to be carried
to the Father, to the Judge, and be cast out into the uttermost. But He didn't come to us in law. He didn't come to us whipping
us and beating us. He came to us in grace and in
truth and taught us. I've reconciled you. I've reconciled
you. We don't want, he taught us,
he said, don't go around looking at your other's wife or their spouse,
their husband, whatever, and all these lustful thoughts in
your heart and all that. That's just, that's going to
cause division. That's going to cause strife. You don't want
that from me and I don't want that from you. And what's constrained
us about it is we see Christ came to where we are. And rather
than have that whole body perish, his body perish, he willingly
was cut off, like he said, cut off the eye, cut off the hand.
He was cut off that he might bring us to God. That's what
constrains us, brethren, to turn away from the lust of the flesh.
Not love. That's how love is wrought. He
said to us, Don't forswear yourself. I don't want you to have to go
around saying all the time, for me to trust that you're going
to do something. You say, oh, I promise I'm going to do it. I swear I'm
going to do it. I don't want that from you and you don't want
that from me. I want your yes to be yes and your no to be no.
You know how we're constrained by love to do this? Because Christ
came forth. and fulfilled all the exceeding
great and precious promises of God so that to us now they're
yes and they're amen. There's no maybes about them.
We don't have to be concerned. That's what constrains us to
let our yes be yes or our no. No. We want our brethren to turn
the other cheek when we're acting like horses behind. Don't we? That's what I want from you.
I need that from you. And you want that from me. You don't
want me to raise up in judgment. Christ willingly came to where
we are and had the hairs of His beard plucked out, gave His back
to the smiters. And He not only went an extra
mile, as He said, He not only gave us a coat, as He said, He
went the full distance and justified us and reconciled us to God.
And He's robed us in His righteousness and created us anew inwardly
in righteousness and truth so that we're clothed inwardly and
outwardly like the king's daughter. This is the love that constrains
us, not law. He said, love your enemies. We
were enemies. And He came and reconciled us
to Himself. We don't want others to draw
attention to themselves in the service of the Lord. I don't
want that from you. And you don't want that from
me. I don't want you to stand up and start telling everybody,
well, I gave so-and-so, so-and-so an offering the other day. I
don't want that from you. I don't want you to start praying and
trying to draw everybody's attention to you. I don't want you to Try to do any kind of religious
service to draw attention to yourself. You don't want that
from me. You know what love constrains us? Christ came to where we are.
He humbled Himself. He made Himself of no reputation. And you know what the great almsgiver
did? He, for our sakes, became poor that we might be made rich
through Him. And He did it without observation.
The world didn't even see what He was doing. He came to where
we are. You know what He did? Fasted from the glory of being
with the Father in his presence. He came to where we are, down
to where we are. He fasted from anything. He abstained from anything
that would hinder him from the work. He gave himself to this
spiritual work that he came to do. And now he ever lives to
make intercession for us. When he prayed when he walked
this earth, he didn't draw attention to himself. He didn't walk around
trying to attract people with his prayers. When he did pray
in public, I guarantee you he didn't do it to where men could
even know what he was doing. And most of the time, he went
away into a mountain to pray by himself. And when he did take
somebody with him, he sat them down and he went on a little
further and prayed. He wasn't trying to draw attention to himself,
and that's what churches are doing in our day. They're using
prayer and almsgiving and benevolent deeds and humanitarian projects
to draw attention to the church, to them, to try to get people
to come and join with them. And that's exactly what Christ
said don't do. The love that constrains us is
that He didn't do that, brethren. He didn't do that. We want the
brethren to have their treasure in heaven so much so that when
I'm broke down, On the side of the road, you trust Christ is
going to provide all for you so much so that you're willing
to stop and say, here, let me help you out. What do you need?
Because, you know, he's going to provide for you. That's what
you want from me. That's what I want from you.
He came down and provided all for us, brethren. And he says,
now you seek first the kingdom of God. I will provide all these
other things for you. He says, if he provided, if he
gave us his son, he'll give us these other things. You know what we want? It's what
we want. We want the other brother to
put off a condemning spirit. I don't want that from you, and
you don't want that from me. And you know what the love is? The
love that constrains us is He came to where we are, and He
didn't come in judgment. He came in satisfied judgment
for us. And He came to us in mercy. So now we, constrained by His
love, do like Paul and say, I know he ran away from you. I know
he stole from you. I know he did whatever from you.
Look, whatever he owes you, pay that to my account. And so fulfill
the law of Christ. Next time I get upset because
of somebody else and what they're doing, what they're saying, whatever,
this is the Spirit of love. Charge that to me. Somebody raises
up, they want to lay charge to one of your brethren, you just
stand in between and say, I'll take it. Charge it to me. That's
the love of the law. That's the love of the law. We can't get that in the letter.
We've got to be taught this by the Holy Command, by Him speaking
this in our heart and teaching us. Because here's what we want. This is what we want. I want this from you. You and
you want this from me. We want none of us in this congregation
to do anything whatsoever that will draw Attention from Christ
Jesus, our all, to anything or anybody else. And here's why
we want that. We need Him. We need Him. We need this Gospel. We've got
to have it. And in order for us to have it,
He's put us together to have it, to help provide for each
other, so we have this Gospel continually. Now, if we turn
from Him and look to ourselves, we're going to start bickering
and fighting and arguing, and this is going to fall off, and
that's going to fall off, and this is going to fall off, and that's
going to fall off. And next thing you know, we don't have one another
anymore, and we don't have the Gospel being preached to us anymore.
And that's what we need. So rather than the baby being
cut in half, we say if we love the baby, if the child is our
child, we say you can have it. You can have it. That's the love
of this love. That's the love that we walk
in. That's how we love one another. All right, brethren, let's. Let's
end with First Timothy one, five, First Timothy one, five. Whenever. I first went up there
to New Jersey five years ago. I went and talked to Brother
Henry and just asked him some advice. And I remember what he
said to me. Clay, love them to Christ. Love them to Christ. That's what
you told me. You told me, love them to Christ.
Love them to Christ. Well, Paul said this, verse 5,
You see, he got this commandment. You look there at the first part.
He said, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of
Jesus Christ. He gave me this holy commandment.
So all I'm going to do now is preach this gospel. And he was
giving this to George Timothy. Just go preach the gospel. Don't
do anything else. Just keep preaching the gospel.
And he says, verse 5, Now the end of the commandment. This
is the end of it. Charity out of a pure heart and
a good conscience and faith unfeigned. Now this is what Peter was talking
about, from which some have swerved and turned aside to vain jangling.
Speaking graceful and words of vanity, talking about the law
and talking about many wonderful works in each thing, desire to
be teachers of the law. They missed it, just missed it,
because they hadn't been caught in this holy commandment in the
heart. All right, brethren. Thank you.