Well, I'm going to bring a message
tonight entitled, Some Words of Assurance. Some Words of Assurance. I'll tell you what gave birth
to this message. I prepared this message a few
weeks ago on purpose, to accomplish a purpose. It's not something just of late,
but I'm running into it more as my
congregation gets older. Some of our older folks have
had some troubles with assurance as they've gotten older. Some of our folks are now in
their eighties together. So they denied us, and we had a little problem with the
shields. In fact, there were two of them, and yet
about just one had been our real close friend for 53 years. I
met him when I first moved to Iceland about when I was in America.
He was way north when we went to Asheville the first time,
and this man is one of my first friends. He's now 80. He's 14
years old, and I'm 87. And the other man is 80, and
he's been out here 44 years. All people have gotten close
friends of mine, and supported me in high school. And, uh, Obama
then had a struggle with insurance. And that may, uh, amaze you,
but you're not 80. You know, that, uh, that does
make a difference. You know, you have to be in a
situation that pushes anything to really enter into their pockets. And, uh, One of the men came
to my home and said, I've been having a struggle with baptism. I said, I just wondered if maybe
I ought to be re-baptized. And he was very troubled about
this. But you know, our Lord told us,
there shall arise false promise and false prophets, and shall
show great signs and wonders, insomuch as it were possible
they shall deceive the very earth. And sometimes our older folks
who aren't paid about their race and families and their jobs and
work, sit home once a week, these religious movies on television,
and different works, and free will, and baptism, and all these
different things added to Christ. And it was in fact on his own
that people learned, you know, about, they go back and look
at their profession, they go back and look at their values,
they go back and look at their experience, they go back and
look at their seniors, and they spend a lot of time alone questioning
these things. So, he's very close to me and
I asked him, I said, well, let's just talk about this a little
bit. I said to him, do you think it's
necessary for salvation? Do you think baptism makes any
contribution to putting away sins or salvation or eternal
life or relationship with God? He said, well, no. I said, well, do you think maybe
if by that time you had been in it, it was one of the congregations
that might have impressed the most? Do you think maybe it would
make an impression? Well, this son of God who gave
himself on the cross to be a sinner, he said, you made an impression,
blessed me. He said, by and large, hopefully
it did. I'm not quite impressed. I said, well, do you think you're
laughing at faith? Do you think it'll strengthen
your faith in Christ? It'll cause people to look more
to Christ. He said, I don't think so. I said, I know that. And
what it'll do is cause people to think that way. That's what it'll cause people to do.
You feel as well. Maybe I've got something fixed
up, man. I've done something. But I said, as time goes on,
you'll figure out if you've done something bad. He felt the insufficiency
of Christ. I had some fruits, a little bit
of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money,
a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of
money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of
money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of
money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money,
a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of
money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money,
a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money, a little bit of money,
a little bit of money, Now you've got to be eighty years of age
to be coming to the end of the world, and to have this, to have
this kingdom, to be with God and with Him. When you declare
a dream, publicly, to you who don't know whether Christ is
sufficient or not, you have to add something to it. We shall
all be well. That's impressionable, isn't
it? That's very impressive of these
young folks of yours. You don't think. This is the
thing. And this happens so often that
you just don't think it's going to be. I've certainly put a question
mark on the back of my page. And he said, I'm going to do
that for all, all, everything in this place. And I said, well,
they just don't even talk about it anymore. He said, I think that's a real
hot stick of gold. I mean, I'm happy to talk about it. I won't
talk about it anymore. But, you know, I was a friend
of mine. His dear dad, I've known him
for All these years, too, and God's a man, I wrote the gospel,
mercy to Christ, and he got me. I worked in his late 80s, and
the last time I went to see him, and the last time, he's dead
now, but the last time I went back a few years ago, he didn't
know me. And he knew Christ. He knew the
way. And that's how important it was
to know Christ. But he wanted, he asked his sons
to go back there and baptize him. And his sons, all of them,
they said, don't do that. Don't do that. And we will marvel
and rejoice in Him for a moment. The people of His church, the
people of His... He set an example all these years
of faith and godliness and trust in Christ and belief in the gospel. And what this has done is, yeah,
but they're not thinking like we do every day. And... It would be an influence
by outside preachers and books that put emphasis upon our works
and our fashions and our attitudes. And so tonight we're going to
turn to the Book of Beliefs. And so the next thing tonight
I'd like to do is to see all of this. I'm going to talk about
truth. I'm going to talk about the word
of truth, confidence, rest, peace, no matter how old we get, or
how rough the road gets, or how convicting these arguments are
that people put up with Christ. And here in Galatians, I'm going
to look at chapter, first of all, chapter three. That was
really the way. Now Paul labored. The Apostle
Paul labored among the churches of Galatia. Preaching the gospel. He preached the gospel. He said
here in Galatians 3, in Galatians 3, verse 31, verse 13, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a Christ-populace. For it is written, cursed is
every man that hath an opportunity, that the blessings of Abraham,
that the righteous, might crumble the Gentiles through the evil
of the Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through the Christ." That is Paul's message. And then back
here in the later, just two, He said this, this is what he
preached out of it, Galatians 2 verse 16, "'Know that a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no man be done.'" Then in Galatians 3, verse 6,
he said, it is evil as Abraham believed God. He was accounting
Him for righteousness. No need ask me that they which
are of Satan were sinning for the children of Abraham. And
then even on other scriptures, other folk in the community,
Paul said in Romans, therefore we conclude that man is justified
by faith without the beast of the Lord. And then in Romans
5, he said, therefore being justified by faith, we like peace with
God whom our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Ephesians 2 verse
8 it says, "...for by grace I will save you from evil." And that,
I would say, justifies our purpose in this church. That's what he
puts in this church. That's what he puts over and
over and over and over and over again. That's the foundation
on which this church is laid, the church is related. Well,
all day. All day. And that's what he's
supposed to do. All preachers came in and insinuated
different things. One insinuated Paul really wasn't
a pastor. He said he really wasn't a pastor
because he wasn't with the religion of the pastors, the clergy, the
priests, the post-pastor. Paul was never with them, the
post-pastor. And an apostle must have three
things. For number one, he must have
seen the Lord. Number two, he must have got
to give message directly to the Lord. And third, he must be made
an apostle by the Lord. Follow the apostle Jesus Christ. Now Paul, if one looks at the
vision of Luke, they think this is a child. They said, Paul is
not a prophet. And if he is, he is, in theory,
to be the king of the prophets. There's no question of it. But
when did Paul see the Lord on the roof of his house? He said,
I saw the Lord. There's no other way to do that.
No other way. I saw the Lord. Number two, he was called because
the Lord said to Adam and Eve, go down to the Bastille. He's
a chosen vessel for me, but that's not a name to begin with. I chose
him, Adam and Eve. And three, and what's this? Ten
Galatians 1. Galatians 1. And Paul said, what's the record? Galatians 1 record. Now, those
11 apostles, when taught by the Lord, will tell us truth, and
the church that believes in one God. I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which is preached of me is not activated. I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught of it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And through that, what further? He said in verse fifteen, when
three stars, this is important, when three stars were separated
from one another's truth, called me by the phrase, to reveal his
Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately
I conferred upon the flesh and blood, and these were brought
out in Jerusalem for them who were apostles before me." Now
you can say, you don't see Peter saying this now. How do you know?
But I went into a race again. I went into the desert. Well,
who fell there? The Lord fell. That's right. That's right. I went to a race,
and there the Lord fought. I've only stayed there, you don't
know, for about six, seven years at all. And I met a little brother
who said, but I went into a race again, and it turned to gambling
again, but then after three years, I wasn't as good. I did go see
Peter, the apostle, for the third year that he was an apostle.
I couldn't hear that from Christ. I couldn't hear that from Paul.
I spoke to him, I talked to his son. But he was an apostle. But
these fathers, that was the third time they were on the Lord and
they followed not the prophet. If he is, he's inferior to Peter
James and Johnson. He's got an inferior race. Number
three, this is the charge they brought. They didn't deny that
Christ died for us. These men didn't deny that Christ
died for us. They didn't deny that we must
believe on Christ. In fact, they taught us we must
believe on Christ. He's the person who came into
the race for us. The race for us wasn't meant
to do it. It was denied by Christ. All
believe on Christ. But what they couldn't resist,
Christ is necessary but not sufficient. It's necessary to believe on
Christ, but it's necessary to do something else. That's the
reason. You believe on Christ, that's
fine, but Christ alone is not sufficient. What other things?
You've got to obey the Lord. He had an insertion site. He
got paid a pie. He was being sabotaged by the
people of peace. He had an apple, first fruit,
in front of the priest. He went to a certain place. Now,
he went to 3,000. Now here, what Paul says about
3,000 is the way he came to know about this. This is what happened. These people came in and said,
I know you believe on Christ. What? You've got to talk about
it. You've got to do the same set
of rules in the Old Testament about who the Father is to be.
You've got to keep it up. And Paul said in Region 1, verse
1, verse 10, in Region 1-6, he's writing to this church, and this
is the problem with this book. The answer is that. I marvel,
God said, first thing, you so soon removed from him that caused
him to be very surprised by another gospel. Who is he that caused
him to be very surprised? Paul the Apostle, the one who
gave gifts to God. I marvel you so soon removed
from him that caused him to be surprised, and demonstrated God's
apology, and the Lord Jesus' apology, gifts to another gospel. which is not of theirs, but there
be some that trouble you to pervert the gospel of Christ." And then
in verse 18 he said, "'For a manger or a hanging room from heaven,
put in your gospel of Jesus, and that which we have preached,
let there be a church. If we set the rule, I'll say
it again, and I'll say it in any man's person, any other doctor,
it won't be you, and that you have received, and that him,
me." Now, what were they saying that
these people were teaching? Well, that's Galatians 4. Galatians 4. This Paul meets
us here somewhere. Galatians 4 verse 9. But now,
After you have known God, or rather known us, we know Him
because He's first and He's last. We follow God because He's first
and He's last. We love Him because He's first
and He's last. But after you have known us,
how turn you again to the weak, beggarly animals? How can you
turn? That's the second thing. That's
the third thing. Back to these power paragraphs,
back to the time, back to the people of the Sabbath. How could
he do that? Back to no pride, back to no
pride, no love love. How could he go back to his pictures
of the people? Where did he desire him to be
in bondage? It's our brains. You keep holy
days, sacred days. You've worked months, and times,
and years. I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid of your secrets from
me and me. You're so full of savagery, and
hustle, and pride. I need a little bit more. Great ways, sovereign ways, sufficient
ways, redeeming ways. The blood of Christ flows with
us all, and nothing I did before God's call, or after God's call,
is completely unsalvageable, and so, how say you? He said,
I'm afraid I have no more acceptance here, but I'll restore it for
you later in time. The Turkic philosophy. Who makes
a list of what the Turkic philosophy is? Philosophy is just truth. Listen to this, and I'll give
you two reasons. You believe some of these things
here, that these preachers are calling you to, and can never
tell you, you say, well, we're not talking about those
things. There ain't no more circumcision, or diaphragms, or no more of
these other things. It's all in the cross. The cross
plus this, or that, or the other. And I was surprised, two verses
of 16. That old man had a full judgment,
didn't he? On drink, on respect of a holy
day, of the new moon, of Sabbath day, things of shadows. I said,
sometimes pictures are fine. I said, even times are fine.
Shadows are fine. But the bomb is Christ. Let no
man be tired of you or your reward. Who is ever more fast about seeking
praise than the Lord? In a bondage of humility, a worshiping
of angels, including unto those saints which he hath not seen,
vainly brought forth by his flesh and blood, for shame. Wherefore, if you be dead with
Christ, from the rudiments of the world, from these elements,
from these pictures, from these patterns of the past. Why? As for living in the world,
I'm subject to ordinances, touchdowns, face-offs, hand-offs, which aren't
fair to humans, and to ants, and to ants, and to flies. So,
that's what's going on here in the race. or right to their concerns,
constraints that they're brought in. The design of the Book of
Revelation is to once again establish the truth of the gospel, to justify,
to proclaim, to sanctify righteousness and to proclaim our Lord Jesus
Christ Jesus. Through this merciful Jesus,
through this precious blood, we are sanctified, justified,
righteous, and living in the Christ alone. With faith alone,
without any works, without any business, without any deeds,
without any factories, without any circumcision, without any
baptism, without anything of the past. In Him, whether all the books
of the Bible you read, you know, and whether they call it a 50,
60, 70, or 80, or whether you get the whole bunch straight,
you remember it, you think it, it's still Christ. Not just Christ
in the beginning, it's Christ now, and it'll be Christ in the
end. So, that's what we preach there. The ten books of Titus,
these are inscrutable books of the power of the Holy Spirit
to me. You'll pick out three. Titus, chapter three, chapter three, verse four, I
read it to you. But after that, the kindness
of God hath outstripped us all. But after that, the kindness
of God hath made us for man's good." Now, how much is life,
you should say, dear girl? But according to you, it's mercy.
You say, girl, by the washing and regeneration, the renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which has shed on us all. to Jesus Christ. That's it. That's our foundation, that's
our conviction, that's our belief. Through the Holy Spirit. Let's
go to school. Let's go to normal school first.
And it's called, here in normal school, it takes an example of
a rebirth. Amen. It says here in Romans 4. Now, what should we say then
that Abraham out of poverty as pertains to the flesh of man? Now, Abraham was just as proud
to work by the works. He had brought up the glory,
but not the full power. Let's hear it for Scripton. Now,
here's what Scripton said way back down in Genesis 15. Abraham
relied, and was bound to do a good job. Now, the years that worked
it, as you will go, are not record of praise for the faithful. No
matter how much work they do or how little, it's dead, not
record. But the years that work it now, but believing on him
that justifieth the unrighteous, he hath saved his countenance
from us." Now, you look at the last two verses of that chapter
four. Now, this was not written by
Abraham, saith the Lord, that righteousness was imputed to
him, but from us also, to whom the same righteousness shall
be imputed. It was for me, I was in it, to
raise up Jesus, I was going to do it. He was the head of the
procession. He was the head of the procession. I was related
to that man. I'm just being honest with you. And I'm sad to say
I was never related to that man. Amen. Give him back to me. That's right. People haven't ever heard about
it all over the world, but we certainly have heard about it. How is it justified? How is it
accepted? How could Abraham be said to
be the son of God? He really is God. That's the way it is. Everything
else he did was because he knew he was God. He didn't have his
faith or his religion. That's what faith meant most of the
time. on the side of the first saint. God, in the name of his
love for us, he says, I will get you, Christ, out of the way.
What's more, he now justifies bountiful, how about baptism,
circumcision, and sabbath keeping, and tithing, and kinship, and
all this. Justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were livid, we
were reconciled in wrath at the death of His Son, not at all.
Being reconciled, we will be saved by Him. We will talk later. I know
a religious woman who talked later. She was healed. He wrote
this on this subject. Not the name of my enemies can
fulfill the love of my enemies. Could my zeal, no respite, no,
could my tears forever flow? These the saints would never
know. Christ was saved by faith. Nothing in my years I've heard
Only to His cross I pray. Next, I come to Him for rest. First, I come to Him for rest. Now, I can account for my restlessness
with Him when I die. That's it. And then, oh my, what's
another way, gracious Lord, I hope that will be filled in my grave.
It's not what these hands have done can save my beautiful soul. Not what this calling flesh has
borne can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give
me peace in God. Not all my prayers and works
and deeds can ease this awful world. But by work alone, O Christ,
can ease this weight of sin. I blow the drum on the Lamb of
God. Give me peace." That's it. But I've taken it from the old
Bible, it says, it doesn't matter. And John Knox had the real Bible. But here's something else, that
this man, like everybody else, lived by. And where he's going
now, it's not righteousness, it's not wisdom,
it's by no contention. And here's the way this old man
lived, he was a person, a human being. He's never freed by on
this earth from the temptation to base his salvation on Christ
plus what we can do today. Our own nature is sinful, but
remember this, our own nature is religious. So think over that. That's why, that's the reason
so many of us are religious people. I'll tell you this. Religion
came naturally. That's the reason why people
hopped out of their cars. They're religious by nature. Rival nature is not only sinful,
but also religious, and it insists on having at least a little part
in our religion. That word works. It works. It insists. But we are saved
by free faith, by our sovereign grace. Spiritual life is the
gift of God. How it works is in the case of
all of us. There's always a better way to
do it. Now, let's look at Galatians
5. This is what I want you to look
like for a little while. Paul is making this book of Galatians
to close the last two chapters. And he says in Galatians 5, And my friends, he says, stand
fast, I quote him. Stand fast in deliverance. What's that word here, freedom?
Freedom. You want to be selected for so to make you free, to be
free to do it. I think the most is freedom from
sinning. I mean freedom from sinning. Now, not from the indwelling
of it, not from the presence of it. Everybody here has experience
of it. I'm very glad you memorized this. But the presence, And the influence
is still there, but retrieved, absolutely retrieved, from the
pinnacle. I'm sorry, retrieved from the
pinnacle and from the power of the Lord. One day we'll be free from the
price of sin, because right now He's made us free from sin. In
Christ there is no sin. He said, our sins are separated
from us as far as the east and south of us. He said, I remember
them against you. No, no. He said, the blood of
Christ went with us to my heart, you see. So we're free from the
penalty, you see. We're free from the power of
sin. Sin shall not reign over you. It shall not have to be you.
He couldn't do that. I separate your sins from you,
sir, and you sin from me. How many ballots, pledges, and
keys? They come. They come. A second one. We are
free from the sermon on the cross. The Lord knows us. All of these
sermons on the cross, I know I'm still free. He said, I haven't
done it in a short time. I can't prove it. And he foretold
that the Lord Christ is our place. Circumcision is at the heart,
not the flesh, because Christ operates on the heart. We're
free from the sin of, we're free from circumcision, we're free
from the priesthood, we're free from the Sabbath requirements,
we're free from the peace page, without carrying on, we're free
from the law of Moses. He foretold that. Very good. We pray for the moral law and
the covenant. I'm going to show you something.
Turn to Genesis 2. Here is the moral law imposed
on Adam. The moral law imposed on Adam. I'm
talking about, I shall have no other God before me. I shall
not take for meaning no background in vain. That's what not bow
down to the poor did, believe in images. That's what not kill,
that's what not commit adultery, that's what not steal, that's
what not burn false witness, that's what not threaten others.
Those are God's moral laws. But God gave Adam moral laws. Now, what did you get Genesis
2? Genesis 2 verse 16. This was
the trouble that Adam was running. And the Lord God commands," that's
a lot of words, commands, the man saying, of every tree of
the garden, now there's three leaves. But of the tree of the
garden, there's good and evil, that's the law. He doesn't. And
in the day he eats, he dies. That's it. God's marvelous law
is given heaven with this pillar. Break it and bow. That's the
truth. You broke it, you bow. Are you
in that realm? No, I'm not. I bow. I perish because we break God's
law in thoughts, in imagination, in anger, in love. So we don't know how wrong our
hearts are when they're so constrained. We have our lives, we have to
deal with it, all these things. So, thank God, I'm not up to
the mall now. Somebody says, the mall's open
all the time. Well, it's a, it's a, it's a
God-finding social plan, but I'm not up to the table. It's
a break it and die. You see what he's done? He's delivered us from sin. Hold on, here, counselor, please. Deliver us from sin, Lord. I'm
not on the wrong side of things, of time and circumcision and
priesthood and holy grace and all. Those are perfect. I'm not
on the wrong, those are perfect. Christ has paid that. He's selected
perfectness for me. Fourthly, I'm free from the fear
of grace. Now, don't worry about sin. Don't
worry about it. Actually, under God, He's given
us, He's given us a victory. And I know Jesus Christ. I'm
afraid of the fear He has. He that believeth on me shall
never die. The slave will never die. And
fear Him. I'm afraid of the fear He has. But if I don't have no confidence
in Him, I shall never, So, stand in this street where
there's Christ and made you free. I trust that. Don't become, back
to my text, believe me, and don't become entangled again with this
yoke of bondage. How did Christ free us from sin,
from the sin of the law, from the moral law of the covenant,
from death and from judgment? He fulfilled the law perfectly.
He died and paid the debt of justice. He arose and went and
sings for us as our advocate. He gave us freedom to come to
God, and He arranged our natural birth. One family, a couple of
brothers. Not only brothers, too. And here are the three serious
consequences of trying to add anything that you can think of
to Christ. Here's the great, great danger. I don't care if I'm not really
tempted to be baptized. Or somebody else saw him do it,
so I had a friend over in Papua New Churches put his chair for
him all the time. He felt like it was a child. He put him on there all the time.
And I hope some fellas will put their churches under the saddle
thing. You can't do certain things on
the saddle thing. You've got to keep it just out
of confusion. Now, here's the way, here's the
way, when you start doing it, this is what Paul said. The whole
question, I, Paul, said to you, if you be circumcised, Christ
shall be with you. In other words, if I be, if I
be, then I need to add some duty to Christ, some work, some duty. with disobedience prophecy, that
I can't have disobedience at my house. I can't have just words
in my hand. It can't be words and notes.
It can't be. I've got to pick one or the other.
So if I start picking with nothing, then He promises me nothing.
All priorities are not limited by Him. That's right. His obedience
promises me nothing. His love promises me nothing.
His mediatorial insertion promises me nothing. His high priesthood
works promises me nothing. And His love. Think of the series. If I fall into this trap of doing
something to add to the work of Christ, he promises to come. But here, look at the next verse.
That's not all. But I certify, I testify again
to every man that is circumcised, or baptized, or keeps the Sabbath
day, or adds any of these things to Christ, that he's a better
man than the old man. In other words, if I was turned
to a part of the law, that makes me a better believer of the whole
law, because James says to a servant, one part of the law is to be
given to the whole law. I've got to walk down the road
of pure grace and pure love. Amen. All praise and all love,
never fold. Let me show you that Romans 11.
Romans 11, 5, and 6. You see, I know you've been seeing
it many times, you've probably preached this, but let's say
it again, because I keep reminding you of one another this. You see the blame given on Adam
and Eve by Abraham. Hebrews 11, verse 5, listen. Even so, there at this present
time, there's a rampart according to the direction of grace. And
if it's not grace, there's no more grace. Otherwise, grace
is not grace. But if it feels grace, it's not
grace. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. It's one over others. I don't have any weakness at
all in the way of pure, sovereign grace of Christ. Christ. Because if I return to the Lord,
I dare to keep that old law. Good verse. Look at verse four. Christ, if we turn, if we add
a word to Christ, Christ can become a filter. He
said if you were just about to belong, you'd follow the rules.
You're not growing up. This was a big business. You know what they meant by that?
I used to hear it somewhere in a novel about so-and-so's father
who was extremely well-off. He had committed some kind of
sin. He was part of somebody who did
something he shouldn't have done. His father was a good man. Let
me tell you, Peter didn't have his nose, but he and his father
were friends. He didn't fall from grace. He
did not look. He didn't fall from grace. David committed adultery. He didn't fall from grace. David didn't fall from grace.
Straight down the line, without any grace. Uh, Solomon had a
lot of improprieties and infirmities. He didn't fall from grace. Uh,
Peter came down there to any outfit and, uh, I've got a problem
with all of these problems, man. You see, what makes a problem
great is to try to work your way through them. That's a problem,
see? I would say, if you be, let me
go back to it, if you be safe from that, Christ's prophecy
is nothing. Christ is become, I testify here
tonight, circumcised again through the Holy Ghost on the third of
verse four, Christ is become of no effect to some of you just
above the law. You have turned away from salvation
by grace and are seeking salvation by the Holy Ghost. That's the
power of repentance. I've departed from God's mercy,
I've departed from God's grace, I've departed from Christ's blood,
I've abducted and been judged on the basis of my works. Christ's
power is in me. Let's sing one more song. All right, bring this
to a close. Our hope of eternal life stands
on pure grace. Sovereign grace, free grace,
grace alone, grace unqualified, grace as a gift. God saved us
not because we're gracious, but because He's gracious. God saved
us because He's God, not because of whom we are. God accepts us
on the basis of what Christ did, not on the basis of what He did.
It was so when we first looked to Christ, it's so after we've
looked to Christ for years, and it'll be so when we stand and
see Him as He is and believe His likeness before we look to
Christ. And I'll tell you this, the people
on the cross is a clear-cut example of how God said He's going to
love us. The man had to walk. He had to walk. He had to work. He had to walk slow. He had to
walk around. Work a bit. And so he would write about passion.
That is to me when I say, I think to myself, it's perfect that we're in this
state. Clothed in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, We
are as receptive of the Father as if we had never seen him.
Then he said, I correctly said, Had I never seen him, I would
only stand with my own righteous battle of anger. but having seen
and been forgiven, better, much better, far better, infinite,
better, outstanding, not in a man's righteousness, but in the righteousness
of God, the Son of God. This, by faith of Christ, we
have come to righteousness. Come to righteousness. As far as we're
concerned, You can't. I'm going to give you one other
verse of Galatians, verse five, and you'll just read this like
an idiot. For we, that's we who believe, God's elect, through
the Spirit, by the Spirit of God, by the Word of God, wait,
not worry, not strive, not serve. by the hope of righteousness. How? By faith. By faith. What kind
of faith is it? Well, it says that Jesus Christ
did the sacrifice, and the Savior gave him anything or other sacrifice,
but faith worked by love. Now, that's faith. It's a thing
that works by the law, not by the law, not by the rules, not
by the sense of duty. Now, I hope that's a blessing.
I've had several of our folks who have, on that gesture, we
can come out of it. God taught me to be satisfied,
sanctified, justified. Our Father, we thank you for
this book of relations. We thank you that you inspired
the love of God to write this book of the gift of mercy. You
need to be encouraged. You need to be empowered. You
need to be involved in the family of the Lord. It's what you need
for the stronger good of the future. Without faith in God,
thou shalt not be a father. Without faith in God, thou shalt
not be a mother. Satan is so powerful, such a power. All of
that is. We need, over and over again, to draw on another that's looking
to Christ, that's believing in Christ. So I wait for you to
be in Christ, do a good work, who live like Jesus did for us,
by whom you saw Him, who was redeemed by the blood of the
Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself to us, and we find
in Him our rest, and our peace, and our joy, and our hope, of
which I am one with. The Christ is one with me, and
I am one with Him. you.