Honest for all, brother, he's
leaving Honest for all, brother, he's leaving He will come, brother,
he will come Oh, Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Children of God, glory to God in the highest. ♪ Where he's gone ♪ ♪ Where he's
gone, where he's gone ♪ ♪ Where he's gone, where he's gone ♪
♪ Where he's gone, where he's gone ♪ ♪ Where he's gone, where
he's gone ♪ Here in Acts 15 we have the account of a large church
council being held at Jerusalem, and
you might call it the first Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. Though it was intended to be
strictly a church meeting, yet there were four preachers that
preached at this conference. And here was the purpose of the
meeting here in chapter 15. We'll get right into it. Verses
1 and 2 of chapter 15. It says, "'Certain men which
came down from Judea taught the brethren,' and this is at Antioch,
that Gentile church, remember? "'Certain men which came down
from Judea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with
them,' in other words, they argued with They determined that Paul and
Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem
unto the apostles and elders about this question. So that
was the purpose of this meeting. Some of these legalists had crept
into the Church, and they had begun to teach the people, mixing
law with grace, trying to bring people under bondage to the law,
or as Paul said in Galatians, frustrating the grace of God,
frustrating the gospel, confusing the people. And some people are
confused. There are some weak brethren,
I believe, that are confused by all the things they are hearing. They hear a man get up and preach
about the righteousness of Christ and hear another man get up who
is supposedly supposedly believes in that righteousness, and he
tells them that we have a righteousness. So they get confused, you know,
and they see it in passages like Psalm 18 and so forth, and don't
see that it's talking about Christ, that it's a Messianic psalm.
Well, they get confused, and these legalists start to blame
for it. The Church here in Jerusalem made a unified denunciation of
this. They got together and united
in denouncing what these so-called preachers were saying to the
people. They denounced it and preached grace alone and Christ
alone. Now over in Galatians chapter
2, turn over there. Acts 15 is the account of this
meeting. Galatians 2 is the theology of
it. Acts 15 gives a generalized summary
of what went on, but in Galatians 2, Paul gets into the meat of
what he said, not only to those Judaizers, but to the people
of Jerusalem when he came up there to preach. Look at verses 1 through 5. Paul
is recounting this event. He says, 14 years after the Lord
revealed himself to him, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas
and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation,
and the Spirit told me to go, and communicated unto them, or
preached to those there in Jerusalem, that gospel. which I preach among
the Gentiles." Paul, when he got there, he preached the gospel.
He said that's what he wanted to do every time he got up to
preach. He said, but privately, severally, to them which were
of reputation, he spoke in private to some of them, lest by any
means I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who
was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.
Titus was an uncircumcised man. And he said, and this is the
reason I went up, because of false brethren unawares brought
in, false brethren brought in, who came in privately to spy
out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might
bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection.
We didn't let them get up and preach. No, not for an hour. We didn't let them up there,
not that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." So
Paul called these legalists, and they were Pharisees is who
they were, he called them false brethren. Didn't he, Charles? False brethren. Trying to bring
us in bondage again. That's a serious charge, isn't
it? False brethren. Trying to bring
us into bondage. Because self-righteousness is
serious. It will damn you. It will damn
you. Self-righteousness is serious.
The scriptures call any righteousness that we think we have filthy
rags, doesn't it? Isaiah 64, 6. All our righteousness. What's your righteousness, John?
Is that self-righteousness? Not mine. It's yours, isn't it? So it's yourself. It belongs
to yourself. Self-righteousness, isn't it? That's what it is.
Any righteousness or goodness I think I may have or merit in
anything I do is self-righteousness, right? I don't care how you class it. It's self-righteousness,
is it not? Scripture says all our righteousness
are filthy rags to a holy God. He won't accept it, yet he abhors
it and detests it. Because anything we've come before
God with to be accepted, to be approved of God, to be commended
by God, other than the perfect and complete work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his person, his work, is an abomination to God
Almighty. It's like saying, that's pretty
good, but I can add to that. Right? What Christ did, I know
that's good, I know you said that we're complete in him, but
I got a little something to add. Isn't it? It's impugning the
wizard, or despising the wizard, saying that God is not wise enough,
that Christ's work was not finished, that it's not good enough, that
he really didn't need. And Paul said in one place, if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ died in vain. That's serious, isn't it? Self-righteousness
gets mighty serious when you get down to the heart of it,
doesn't it? It's saying, now Christ really didn't need to
shed his blood after all, because I could have. That's what Cain
said, didn't he? God said, you bring the blood
because charges against you are serious. It requires death, your
death, and only a substitute's blood will get you in my presence
Cain said, well, that's theologically sound, but I've done some things
here that surely God will. You saw what happened to him,
though, just for bringing some flowers for adorning the altar. Oh, these things seem harmless,
don't they? Don't they seem harmless, all
these religious goings-on? Well, they're sincere. God's
sincere about what he did with his son, too. He's mighty sincere
about his gospel, mighty serious about it. They're serious. Self-righteousness
is serious. Paul labels them false brethren,
and he said that they're trying to bring us under the curse again.
Any kind of law, salvation is a curse to us. God won't accept
anything we do before he saves us or after. apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ, right? Without shedding, without blood. He won't accept anything without
blood, without blood. And anything we try to bring,
God will reject it, and it only becomes a heavy yoke we cannot
bear. All right, look at verse 4 there in Galatians. He said, Unawares. You see that? Unawares. In other words, they looked good.
They sounded good. They seemed like grace men. But they weren't. Paul said,
Unawares. In other words, to most people.
Most people were unaware that these men were false brethren. That's what the Lord, like the
disciples, were all unaware that Judas was the traitor. Right? Nobody suspected Judas. That's how subtle self-righteousness
can be. And it says they were brought
in. You see that brethren, false brethren, unaware, brought in. Brought in by who? Pharisees or the Temple or Sadducees,
no, Satan. That's it. He's the one. Ordained by God, God determined
that, like the Scripture says, there must be heresies among
you. There must. God sends them ultimately, that
they which are approved might be made manifest. It's just another
lesson learned every time something like this happens. I'll give
you an example. I've learned this the hard way
as a young man. You know, young believers are
being ignorant, are so enthusiastic and so zealous about anything
that pertains to scriptures or God, that take, listen to tapes,
read books, listen to anybody that's talking about scripture.
Anybody that seems to have any sense or knowledge, they'll listen
to it. And I used to follow a man. This man was an old, worked in
a body shop. And I was interested in working
on cars. And he taught me and he tutored me on working on cars. And he was a member of the church
there in Ashland. And I would go up to his house
and we'd work on cars together and he'd talk. And I always had
a religious station going on with the radio, you know. And
he'd say things to me, and I'd think, wow, that's so profound. And later on, thinking back about
some of the things he said, I thought, that's so stupid. That's ignorant,
what he said. I can recall some things. I'll
not go into it. At any rate, I was taken by this man. I looked
up to him. I esteemed him highly. This is
just one example. I can think of many others. And
that man, later on, was he sided with some enemies of the gospel,
enemies of my pastor, and believed some horrible stories, some terrible
lies and slanders had been brought against people in the church
and the pastor and all. He believed them. After twenty-some
years of attending there, he believed them and took sides
with them again. And of course, we parted ways.
Well, that's just one example of many. and that they which
are approved might be made manifest. You see, there were others who
were kind of quiet and humble. There were men there in the church
who were humble and quiet and didn't say so much, didn't come
across as being quite so theologically profound, you know, that I didn't
pay much attention to. But they kept right on. They
were seated, they were right there, grounded and settled.
In fact, I bothered Saddle up to them, I'd have found out who
the true ones were, right? That they were better approved,
might be made man. It's not the big talkers. It's
not the theological talkers, either. It's those walkers, those
that are walking right there. All right. It says they came
in to spy on our liberty. They came in to spy on our liberty.
They came by the house one day and said, How you doing, brother?
We just stopped by to see how you're doing. Not how, but what you're doing,
right? How you doing? Just came by to see how you're
doing. Spy out our liberty and bring
us into bondage, he says. To bring us into bondage. Have
you ever felt uneasy around some of these religious people? If
you've ever not felt uneasy around it, I should say. But I mean
around people who are supposed to be grace people. Huh? You've felt uneasy around it? I know there are people even
now that I feel like, oh, you better watch what you say, what
you do, how you look. You might stumble and fall, and
they'll think you're a man. You know what I mean? They'll
call you unsaved, stump your toe. You ever been around people
like that? I have. I wish I had some of
Barnard's gall at times like that. Well, he says they try to bring us
into bondage. Bondage to what? Well, the law. What is he talking about? Bondage
to the law. To the law. Their interpretation
of it Paul said in 1 Peter 2 that they desire to be teachers of
the law, and they don't understand whereof they affirm or what they
are saying. They sound good, but they don't
know what they are talking about, Joe. They are preaching the law
and going through the Old Testament law, and they don't know what
they are talking about. Because if they don't primarily
point you to Christ through the preaching of that law, They don't
know what they're talking about, right? Scripture says the law
is a schoolmaster, doesn't it? It has one purpose, to point
us to Christ. They say, well, no, we're not
justified by the law, but it is our rule of life. You know what they say? No, we're
not justified. We know that. We're not preaching
that, brother. But it is our rule of life. we
do go to the law to see how we are to live. Is that right? Is
that right? Some call the law their rule
of life. What does scripture say? Like Tim James would say,
Scripture, please. The law our rule of life? Well,
Paul said in Romans 7, That which was ordained unto life I found
to be unto death. Didn't he? He said the law is
administration of You know what it said? That's what Scripture
said. I know what they're saying, but
that's what Scripture said. I'll take that. I'll take what
God said. Legalists say, well, the preaching
of the law promotes holiness. Does it? Does it? What does the Scripture say?
Scripture please, the strength of sin is the law. So far from promoting holiness,
sounds like to me it promotes rebellion. Is that what it said? They said, no, that's talking
about unbelievers. Strength of sin is the law. That's talking
about unbelievers. Now, what does the Scripture say? Romans
8 says that they're not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed,
can be. John, they're not looking at
the law of God. How could it promote sin in them? They're
not looking at it. It's those who you're looking
at, isn't it? They're not subject to it. Neither
indeed can they. Do you understand what I was
just trying to say? That doesn't apply to unbelievers, it applies
to believers. Paul warned us in Galatians 3,
he said, Are you so foolish to begin in the Spirit? God saves you at Calvary and
you're going to go back to Sinai to find out what to do? Huh? My, my. Well, the issue, here's the issue. Here's the issue, really, about
this thing of law and grace. What is our motivation? What
is it that motivates us? What does God use, what are we
to use to motivate men and women to holiness of life and so forth.
What is it that constrains us? The law? Huh? Joe, does the law make you a
better husband? Huh? What is it that restrains us
from evil? The law? Does the law restrain
us from evil? Huh? What is it that inspires
us to live godly? The law? And understand me, I'm
not I'm making fun of the law. I'm making fun of what they're
saying about the law. No, grace is the answer to all
of the above. Grace is our motivation. The
love of God is what constrains us. Mercy is what restrains us. He said in Romans 12, did he
not? I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God that you
present your body. Didn't he? I beseech you, brethren,
by the law of God. Isn't that what he said, Vicki?
No, by the mercies of God. By the mercies of God. I beseech
you, brethren, present your bodies, because that's what the law says
to do. Well, it does say to do that, but that's not going to
make you present your body. See in the mercy and the grace
and the love of God that you will. That will. And here's a
summary of what I'm just saying. A legalist, there's a pretty
good definition of a legalist. A legalist is motivated by fear
of punishment and a desire to be rewarded. A legalist is motivated
by fear of punishment and a desire to be rewarded. A believer is
motivated by the love of Christ. the love of Christ and a desire
to be like Christ. Back in Acts 15. In this conference
there were four speakers. John, you get to get in on this
conference, buddy. You're off tonight. You get to
attend this conference. There were four speakers, Paul,
Barnabas, Peter, and James. Look at verses 4 through 6 again.
And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received at the church
of the apostles and elders. This is Paul and Barnabas here.
And they declared all things that God had done with them.
Galatians 2 said that they preached the gospel, the same gospel they
preached to the Gentiles. They preached it again. What
have you got to say, Paul? Well, I've got one thing to say.
I'm determined not to know anything among you, and he tore it off,
John, into the gospel right there. Did they say, We've heard that
before, Paul. No, they all rejoiced in it.
That's great, Paul. That's great. We enjoyed that. And it says Barnabas said the
same thing. They were with one accord in
that. But then he added here, and he said, Now there rose up
certain of the sect of the Pharisees, verse 5, which believed, or said
they did, saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the
law of Moses. And the apostles and the elders came together
for to consider this matter. They had a little meeting after
Paul and Barnabas preached. They preached the gospel and
then they came to tell the church about this heresy. And this council
was no attempt to compromise. This council meeting they had,
that's about all that goes on in these church councils. Throughout the land they're having
councils. They love to have councils, conventions and all. And what
it is, is a big attempt to compromise. to soothe everybody's ruffled
feathers, somehow. Well, this group over here, they're
upset about this. Oh, they're upset about this.
And then they believe this and they believe that. Let's compromise. That's all it is all about. One
big compromise. One big cop-out. Council. Cop-out council. Well, this was
no ecumenical effort on the part of the apostles to unite all
faiths. Is that what they did, Joe? Let's
have a big Council, and I received a letter that they were going
to have a big Jesus Cares ministry over in Franklin High School
soon, and they sent me a letter. They want me to be on one of
the councils. Well, of course, I'm going to rush right over
there, but they want me in the Jesus Cares ministry, and they
said in this letter that God This man had a dream, and as
I said, he believes that variety is the spice of the church, and
we need to have variety and everything is all right. Incidentally, I
received another letter that we're getting a special deal
on Krispy Kreme donuts for our sunrise service. So you'll want
to get your order in for that, too, while we're at it. That's
the kind of mail I get, you know. Well, pardon me for that. Edit
that. Terry didn't deserve the time
it took to say it. Well, at any rate, these apostles
came up to Jerusalem. Their minds were made up. They
didn't come up to compromise. They came up, what are we going
to do about these legalists that are causing problems? That's
what they came up to discuss, and to warn everybody about this
Heresy is creeping in. So Paul and Barnabas were preached,
and they rehearsed again what God had done. They preached the
gospel, told what God had done through the preaching of the
gospel. This same gospel. Well, Peter
is next on the program. And there are some people, Rick,
that heard that Peter was going to preach, and they murmured,
and they said, hey, we heard that Peter was kind of toying around
with this law thing. They heard that. Peter is straddling
the fence here. Let's see what he says about
this law and gospel. We're looking at verses 7 through
9 here in Acts 15. And there had been much disputing.
Peter rose up and said, "'Men and brethren, you know how that
a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentile by
my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And
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, purifying their hearts by faith." Peter
preached the title of his message, justification by faith alone,
in Christ alone. Salvation by grace through faith
Salvation by Christ alone, that's what he prayed. Read on. Now,
therefore, don't tempt ye them, tempt God, don't put a yoke upon
the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear. He talked about the law. But
we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall
be saved, even as they. Amen. Amen, Peter. Good message. Good message. Good message. For all are saved one way, Peter
said. Salvation is by grace, salvation is by Christ. That's
all necessary to believe and be saved. Amen. Good message. Then James is next on the program.
James got up to preach. James is the pastor here at Jerusalem. He says in verse 12, all the
multitude kept silent. Well, no, I'm sorry, Barnabas
and Paul preached again. Verse 12, they declared again
what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles
by then. Now James got up, and James entitled
his message, Eternal Predestination. That was the title of his message.
Look at it. Let's read it. Verse 13, after
they held their peace, James answered, said, Men and brethren,
hearken unto me. Simeon, or Peter, hath declared
how God at the first did visit the Gentiles. made the first
move, and the middle, and the last. God did this, and God went
to the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. God
chose a people. That's what he said. God elected
a people out of the Gentiles. Not just Jews, but out of the
Gentiles. God has an elect people. He does. It's God's work, it's God's choice,
it's God's election. He did it for his name, for his
glory. 3, verse 21, says, This people have
I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. God chose
a people, God elected a people, predestinated a people, and some
of them are among the Gentiles. Scripture says that, verse 16.
Then he preached an Old Testament type of Christ to people like
this, too. You say, where are you getting
all that? Well, right there. It's right there, isn't it? I'm
not sure even James knew this as he preached it. But see, if
you don't see Christ in this verse, take it out of Amos 9,
after this I will return and build again the tabernacle of
David. What's he talking about, a literal temple in Jerusalem?
Huh? No, twenty years later, the one
that was there then was going to be burned to the ground by
Titus, the Roman emperor. And none is ever going to be
built again, Terry. I don't care what the pre-millennialists
and the The others say, forget that temple. I don't care what
Patterson said. There's not going to be a temple.
Christ is not going to come down and sit on some puny little throne.
He won't fit. Oh, that's a bunch of hogwash,
tommyrot, cow manure. Give me another adjective. This is talking about Christ
here, the tabernacle of God among men, isn't it? He said, After
this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of
David, which is fallen down. What's that talking about? Christ
who was crucified. I will build again the ruins
thereof, and you will raise him up. He said, I'll set it up.
He'll set him at the right hand of the majesty which is on high.
And we are the tabernacle of God, the temple of God, the church
of God, who was crucified, buried, risen again with Christ, and
seated together with him in the heavenlies. And a remnant, according to the
election of grace, will seek after the Lord. All the Gentiles,
upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord." It doesn't say,
upon whom we'll call upon my name. It says, whom I call by
my name. Doesn't it? Upon whom my name
is called. You're my son. You're mine, he
says. My beloved, saith the Lord, who
doeth all these things. Verse 18. James says, Known unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world. That's
predestination and God's sovereign predestination, especially his
family. God especially knows who's going
to be in his family, especially his sons and his daughters. He
especially knows whom he sent his son down here to die for.
He knows who every drop is for. Not one drop shall be wasted.
Not one. He knows. Known unto God are
all his works from the beginning. He's not standing back and waiting
to see who's going to do what, is he? He's not standing back
and waiting to see if anybody's going to let him save them, or
who will accept him, or who will believe. It's not what Acts 15,
18 says, is it? Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. Wherefore, my conclusion, the
conclusion of this message is, James said, don't trouble anybody
with anything, just preach Christ. Amen, James! Amen! Just preach Christ. Don't
trouble them, he said. Don't trouble them. Tell them
that are troubled to rest with us. That's all. Tell them that are troubled to
rest with us. That's what he said. That's my sentence. Now, here's a few practical observations
that they need living out there in the world. Verse 20, let's
read on. A few practical observations, but this doesn't have any bearing
or condition on their salvation. Verse 20, "...right unto them
that they abstain from the pollution of idols." Now what this is,
and Paul dealt with it in depth, and I won't go in depth, but
you can read it for yourself throughout 1 Corinthians and
2 Corinthians. What this is, was after these
pagan idol worshipers would sacrifice all these animals and so forth
to these gods, they would have meat left over. A lot of meat
left over, and poor people, and they would sell this in what's
called the shambles. Remember Paul talking about it?
They would sell it outside these pagan temples and all for a cut-rate
price, bargain prices. And the poor people, man, they
were getting a good deal. But there were some weak believers,
weak believers who thought, we can't eat that, that's sacrificed Paul said, it's nothing. Christ
said, it's not what goes in the mouth. Remember that? But some
weak, some who still had some legalistic things about them
said, we can't eat that, that's offered to idols. And so here
a believer is trusting Christ over there and he's getting bacon
for fifty cents a pound, start eating it, and you can't quite,
what's wrong with you? You can't do that. You got a
TV in your hand. And they were upset. Maybe we
can't. So they said, well, let's not
offend anybody. This is an area you just don't
need to offend. Paul said, so if eating meat
will offend a weaker brother, I will not eat meat anymore.
Really? Right? And drinking wine and
so forth. I have these liberties, he said,
but if it offends a weaker brother, I just won't do it anymore. That's
what they're telling them to do. Don't offend. These things aren't worth it.
They're not worth it. All right, go on. And from fornication
now, the Grecians, they practiced all sorts of abominable social,
and I'll not go into that. They just, about like the United
States. I believe you'd shack up and
just go on about your business. And nothing wrong with adultery
and so forth, and they wanted to make it clear that God does
not condone that type of behavior either. Don't do that. And from
things, children, these are practical. And from blood, drinking blood,
and so forth. All right, go on. And he said,
well, what about, somebody said, what about the law? Are we to
preach the law? Are we to read the law? He said,
well, Moses of old time, ever since from the beginning, has
in every city, them that preach him. being read in the synagogues
every day. That's fine. It's as it should be. We read
the law of God, don't we? Huh? We go all the way through. The law is good. The commandment
is holy and just and good and right. We need to be able to
discern it, though, don't we? We need to discern it. But James
says, now, there's just a few necessary things. few necessary
things to avoid, and read on down. So it pleased the apostles
and elders, verse 22, with the whole Church to send chosen men
of their company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas,
Barabbas, and Silas. You will be hearing a lot more
about Silas later on. Chief men among the brethren,
and they wrote letters by them after this manner. Let's go ahead
and read it again. Here is the letter that they
wrote to the church at Antioch. The apostles and elders and brethren
send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in
Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. Forasmuch as we have heard that
certain which went out from us have troubled you with words
subverting your soul, saying you must be circumcised and keep
the law, we didn't tell them that, and neither does God's
word. It seemed good unto us," it says
on down, the Holy Ghost. It seemed good unto us now, being
assembled with one accord, one mind, one heart, one faith, to
send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Saul
and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas
and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy
Ghost and to us. to lay upon you no greater burden
than just these necessary things. Trust Christ, believe Christ,
follow Christ, and don't offend the weaker brother. Stain from
meats, offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled,
from fornication. What about the Sabbath? Wait,
wait, wait. What about the Sabbath? No mention, is there? Perry that's an odd omission
in. It's so important. Why. The. What is it was the name of that
that cult. Seventh-day Adventists. They
claim all their worship on Sunday have the mark of the beast on.
You know that's what the mark of the beast is you know Sunday
worship. That's the mark of the beast
if you're not worshiping on Saturday. You have the mark of the beast
on you. Why did they leave this out, Barbara? We need to know
about this. You know about it. You know where
your Sabbath is, and you've been well taught. The Lord of Sabbath. He came
down here. He dealt with it, didn't he,
Joe? He dealt with it. They didn't hear him. They won't
hear us either. Will they? Sabbath, man wasn't made for
the Sabbath, didn't he? Wasn't made for a day. A day
didn't make you holy. Paul dealt with it, too. Trust Christ. Believe Christ.
That's all they said. Follow Christ and don't eat these
meats, or vegetables, don't drink any blood, things strangled.
Keep yourself informed of the case. Farewell, goodbye, amen. In the Church, it says in verse
30, when they were dismissed and they came to Antioch, these
fellows came down to Antioch with this letter, and when they
gathered the multitude together and they preached the gospel
to them, they delivered this epistle, and when everybody heard
this, they rejoiced. like a breath of fresh air. John, they'd been here all week.
The law pounded down them. I mean, the Lord had saved them
from that, from the curse of it. Here, these fellows brought
them in under the curse of it again, and they were being brought
back down. They were just being brought
lower and lower, and these fellows came back in and said, Wait,
we've got good news. Listen up. You who are troubled
rest with us. Just rest in Christ. He's done
it all. He kept it. Huh? Well, listen to this. This is good. I wish I had time
to read all of them. Hmm. I've got to pick. I've got
three of them. I've got to pick the best one.
Tough. Gadsby's Hymnal. Does conscience lay a guilty
charge, and Moses much condemned? Well, bring in those bills exceeding
large. Let Christ answer them. He paid
thy ransom with his hand, and every debt did quit. And Moses never can demand two
payments of one debt. Now justice smiles On mercy,
sweet. These fellows could write me
justice and mercy met together. Justice smiles on mercy, sweet. Justice never could. You understand
what he's saying? Justice can't smile on mercy.
Justice demands absolute satisfaction. Mercy wants wants pardon. They smile. They get along. He
didn't cry. Justice smiles on Mercy Sweet,
and justice looks well reconciled. Joined hand in hand, they go
to meet and kiss this weeping child. It's okay. It's all right. But ask the Lord, ask the Lord
for his receipt to show the payment good. Ask him. Delivered from
the mercy seat and sprinkled with his blood. The law of your
feet will not enlarge, nor give your conscience rest, till you
can find a full discharge and lock it up within your breast."
That's what old Scott says so much. The only thing that will
save a guilty conscience is a perfect sacrifice. The sight of all this
will melt your heart. and make your eyes run over,
O happy pardoned child thou art, and heaven is at your door." Oh, boy, and these people, they
rejoiced when they heard this. They heard him reaffirm salvation
by grace alone, through Christ alone, according to the scriptures
alone. And here are just a few practical
observations. The Church said, He's the whole center of Job.
Is that it? Trust Christ? Huh? Is that it? Trust Christ and
I'm saved? That it? That's it. That's good
to me. That's good. Sounds good. Sounds
like good news to me. I rejoice in that. That's consolation
to me. That comforts me. That's just
what I needed to hear. Would you come back and tell
it again tomorrow? I can rest now. I've lost some sleep for
the last few nights, thinking I'd lost because I didn't keep
the law. But you tell us to rest, I'll
tell you what I'm going to do. If that's true, you say, yeah,
that's true, just rest and cry. I'll tell you what I'm going
to do next time I see these fellows coming, I'm going to hang a sign on my
door that says, do not disturb, I'm resting. Henceforth, let no man trouble
me, Paul said. Leave me alone. Let the potsherds strive with the
potsherds. I'm resting. Thank you. Any gray areas, I'll appeal to
the Lord himself, myself. All right? All right. They may rejoice in this consolation.
Do you? Great consolation. I'll give
that to anybody who wants it. All right, stand and we'll be
dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you
so much for the gospel, the gospel of free and complete and full
and finished, perfect salvation in Jesus Christ and him alone. And merely by trusting him, we
are accepted with a thrice holy God, accepted, yea, justified
from all things which we could not be justified by the law of
Moses, not one law. We're guilty on all charges,
Lord. Guilty, guilty. But as guilty
sinners, we come to Christ who died for guilty sinners. And
we plead his blood and his righteousness. And you've said you'll accept
all those that come unto you by Christ. So we would ever stay
right there at the foot of the cross, pleading the blood, pleading
our substitute. and are certain and confident
that God, who cannot lie, will receive us in the end upon the
merits and the blood of his Son. And it is in his name we pray
and we are met together. Amen.