Let's turn to my text in Galatians
chapter 3. I've got a quote coming up in
our next Sunday's bulletin that says something like this. I didn't
write it down. I just thought of it. It said, That sermon is
the best sermon which is the fullest of Christ and has greater
revelations of Christ in it. And I read several quotations
by different men today upon good preaching, what constitutes good
preaching. And I think this is going to
be a good message. Whether or not I have liberty
to, or freedom, I don't know if you know what I mean by liberty.
I think you do. I think you may know at times
when the Lord gives me utterance, or anybody, any man, teacher,
whatever, whoever, Your teachers can enter into this, teach classes.
You know when the Lord gives you utterance, when you're able
to think freely and speak freely and not fumble for words and
when it touches you more than anything. That's liberty, when
it touches your heart and it bubbles up in you and you have
to get it out. But whether or not he gives me
that or not, this is a good message. I can say that in all confidence. all confidence, because it's
very needful, very edifying. Galatians chapter 3. Now, let
me ask you a question. I'm not going to call anybody
to answer this, but can you explain God's sovereignty and man's responsibility? If you were talking to someone
on the street, could you explain that to them? God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility. Do we even understand it ourselves?
Can you understand and explain how faith is the gift of God,
yet he commands us to believe? How that repentance, that's what
you were saying earlier, repentance is the goodness of God leads
us to repentance, but he says he commands me in every way to
repent. I believe we get so confused
at times about these things that we don't rightly know what to
believe concerning these things, and the more we try to explain
them, the more confused we become. But I believe our text here contains
both, here in Galatians chapter 3. Read with me verse 27, one
verse of Scripture. I don't normally like to do topical
preaching, but I was impressed with this. Verse 27, as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. As many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ. Now, if the Holy Spirit will
give us ears to hear and give me utterance. We'll be blessed
through this, and if we'll hearken and pay attention. Right there
you have God's sovereignty and our responsibility. If he gives
utterance and ears to hear, but we've got to pay attention, right?
That right there is the sovereignty and responsibility. Do you understand? Let me ask you this question.
Do you understand the difference between the faith of Christ and
faith in Christ. Now, we studied all the way through
this book of Galatians, and we saw it several times. Now, turn
back over to Galatians, chapter 2, beginning with verse 16. It's
found twice here in Galatians 2, 16. Do you understand the
difference between the faith of Christ and faith in Christ? Terry said, I think. Well, here
it is right here, verse 16. A man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Is that just a translation error,
or is it supposed to be there? Well, go on. Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ by the faith of Christ. Here we have us believing in
and faith of Christ. Well, look down at verse 20.
It's found twice there in 16. Look at verse 20. Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I'm alive. You and I, we live.
We have a life to live. Yet, it's not me. But Christ
lives within me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. who loved
me and gave himself for me." There's another one, chapter
3, verse 22. I'm going to take this coat off. Chapter 3, verse
22. He says, the Scripture has concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. There you have both, don't you?
Faith of Christ and us believing in Christ. Well, let me sum it
up. Let me sum up our text and these
verses and salvation itself in a few short statements. The salvation
of a soul, and you can pass this, it's a good message to pass out.
The salvation of a soul is one hundred percent the work of God
almighty from start to finish. Men and women do absolutely zero
in this thing of their salvation, nothing in the saving of our
soul, nothing. We attribute nothing to the salvation
of our soul. The word save itself explains
it. Saved, that means somebody had
to come rescue us. that if somebody else, an outside
source, didn't come and save us, rescue us, redeem us, we
would not have been saved, right? We would be forever lost, doomed,
damned, and dead in sin, right? The word saved should explain
that to us fully. Here's a summary of the gospel.
Election by the Father, redemption by Christ, Sanctification by
the Holy Spirit. It's all the work of the triune
God. You've heard that time and time again, many, many times.
Election by the Father, that is God Almighty, unconditionally,
not based upon a foreseen faith, not based upon merit or works
in the creature, in the people, but unconditionally. Just look
down and chose a people. those that he would choose. He
chose a people unconditionally, not based upon works on the contrary,
in spite of their evil deeds and works of self-righteousness.
He chose a people. And he did it freely. He did
it freely. That is, he chose them not because
of something he saw in them or something he would see in them
eventually. But no, he just chose them freely. And it doesn't cost, it still
doesn't cost us anything. It cost him a great deal. But
it doesn't cost us anything. It's unconditional. It's had
for the giving. Election by God. That is, he
loved a people, chose them eternally before the foundation of the
world. And his love, his election, his salvation is eternal. It's
everlasting. Everlasting love. It will never,
ever, ever cease. ever. You are saved, Barbara
Raw, because God Almighty set his affection upon you and chose
you and placed you in Christ. You are saved because of that.
No other reason. Oh no, God looked down and saw
you're going to be a rotten rebel. And he saw, I'm going to have
to choose her, else she would not choose me. "'Tis not that
I did choose thee, O Lord, that could never be. For if thou had
not chosen me, I would never have chosen thee.'" Right? Right. Election by God. Redemption by
Christ. Now, we saw over there in John
17 how that God, after he elected these people, gave them to Christ.
Made a covenant, an agreement with Christ. They're people of
time, people in the flesh. Christ had to come down in the
flesh, born of a woman, made under the law that God made,
and redeem those people from the curse of the law. God gave
these people to Christ, these people that he elected, gave
them to Christ to come down and pay for their transgression,
to fulfill righteousness, to live that perfect life that God
demands of every single one of those people, and to take their
sins upon himself to pay the punishments that was due them.
And he did it. Not us. He did it all. And he
entered in finally, and he arose from the grave and went into
the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. Sat down
at the right hand of God and ever lives to make intercession
for us. having obtained our redemption. That's the work of God choosing
us. It's the work of the Son to come down here and redeem
us, fulfill righteousness, and pay for those sins. And now it's
the work of the Holy Spirit. After Christ said, if I don't
go away, it's expedient that I go away or else the Holy Spirit
won't come. The Holy Spirit must come and do those three things
he talked about there in John 16. Convince of sin, righteousness,
and judgment. Right? And he does that to all
his people. He takes the word of God and
he plants it in the heart by faith, show them their sin, their
iniquity, show them who God is, show them who Christ is, and
causes them to repent, to believe, to come to Christ, to walk, to
call upon him. All these things is the work
of the Holy Spirit. It's the work of God, right? The Holy
Spirit sanctifies. He calls us. Like, he culls them
out of the herd. He culls the sheep out from the
goats, the wheat from the tares. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. Set apart. That's what the word sanctify
means. The Holy Spirit does this. You don't do it in this thing
of salvation. He does it all. He does it. He
lassoes you like a cowboy on a horse looking for that calf,
you know. And maybe a whole herd, and he's got one on his mind,
and he's going to brand him. And we're sealed. After the Holy
Spirit said, there he is, the one that God called. They all
look alike, yeah, but I know my own, I know my sheep. And
he lassoos them with the gospel, right? That gospel net lassoos
them, lassoo, lassoo, whatever, lassoos them and draws them in
to himself, right? And brands them on the heart
with the gospel, faith in Christ. in the ear. He pierces the ear
through and opens the eyes and all. It's the work of God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And like that
leper before that high priest of old, we just stand here. We just stand there and the priest
does it all. All right? Like the children
of Israel before the Red Sea, what Moses tell them, just stand
right there. Just stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. Isn't that salvation? That's
it. We don't do anything. Oh, no. Now, somebody said, oh,
yeah, we do. We do the sinning. Well, I don't
want credit for that, but we have to take credit for that.
We do all the sinning, God does all the saving. That's about
what we contribute to our salvation. It's all the work of God, and
even faith is the gift of God. Even faith is the gift of God,
and faith—I've said this so many times—is merely the result of
salvation. It's not the cause. Oh, no. It's much like—let me give you
these illustrations. It's much like physical life that we live
here. A child is conceived by the parents. A father and a mother get together
and join, and a child is conceived into the womb of the mother,
right? We, in time past, in eternity past, were conceived by God Almighty,
right? Chosen and placed in Christ,
right? We weren't born yet, but in the
mind's eye of God, we were already here, already children. Everything
we needed to be saved in Christ, right? And then that child is
born into the world. All of a sudden he opens the
matrix and comes out alive. alive, a human being. Eyes, and
eventually he grows up, eyes open, ears, he becomes cognizant
or aware of his surroundings and so forth. And that's us.
We live in this world, we're born again by the Word of God,
given birth by the Word of God. Our eyes are open, our ears are
open, right? We become cognizant of our God,
of ourselves, of Christ, of salvation. Cry, and hearse, all the things,
like a little child. And then we die. You're conceived, you're born,
and you die. You die. Well, we die finally. We leave this world to be with
Christ. Now, all of this is the work of God, right? He brings
forth. He said, have not I caused to
come to the birth, and shall I not bring it forth? Confidence,
you read it there in Philippians 1, confidence that he which hath
begun a good work in you, he that hath conceived you, chosen
you in eternity past, he'll give birth to you, and he'll give
eternal life to you. You will die, but all that is
in him is in the heaven. We've been saved through God's purpose
in eternity past. We are being saved through God's
word, through the present, through the sanctification of the Holy
Spirit, and we will be saved when we leave this body of death
and go to be with God's resurrection, go to be with Christ in the eternity
future. You say, what's all this got
to do with Galatians 3.27? Well, look at it again. Galatians
3.27. He says, as many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Baptized into
Christ. Now, are you talking about water
baptism? Many people think so. Well, look over at Romans chapter
6. Well, that's ignorance. That's
just ignorance. They that are led by the Spirit
and spiritually taught, they discern all things. Look here
at Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, look at verse
3. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? We are buried with him by baptism
into death. Whose death? Our death? No, his
death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life. Does that remind you of Galatians
3.20? I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I've risen
in Christ. Baptism. Excuse me. The word baptism means to immerse. Right? Simply put. Now, these
sprinklers are just ignorant. The word baptize means to immerse. There is no such thing as sprinkling
in reference to this baptism. I won't get into that, but baptism
means to immerse, to put down under, right? To be, the word,
the Greek word is to be whelmed. We use the term overwhelmed.
I'm overwhelmed. Whelmed. Overcovered. whelmed, covered up with, dipped
into. Now, baptism, the figure, is
to be put in that water up there. Like the Ethiopian used to say,
here's much water. What does it mean to me? It'll be put down
under, right? Well, baptism is a picture of
the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
And believers, God's children, are said to be crucified with
Christ. as if we actually went down into
the grave or actually were hanging on that cross. It says we died
with him as if we actually went down into the grave and were
covered up by that stone down in the heart of the earth and
risen with Christ, as if we were seated with Christ in heaven,
as if we were actually in heaven itself. In other words, we have
been infused or immersed or placed in Christ. Right? Covered completely. Well, I live. It's not me. I'm not seeing or
heard from anymore. I'm not seeing. I'm dead. Paul
Mahan died. When? Nineteen hundred and ninety
years, or nineteen hundred and some odd years ago. When Christ
died on that cross, I died. I died. And you, if you're a
believer, child of God, We were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, and God placed us, baptized us, immersed us,
considered us in Christ. When Christ lived, we lived.
When he lived the perfect life, God counted that to all believers,
as if they did it. When Christ died, it's as if
we died, and our sins are paid for. We're dead. God can't charge
me, cannot punish me, Henry, again for the sins that I've
already paid for in Christ, right? I'm dead. You don't dig a man
that went to the electric chair. You don't dig his body back up
and say, we've got some more to get out of you, bud. He can't
exact any more out of me. He's dead, right? I'm dead. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are, what, in Christ, right? And when he arose, accepted
by the Father, seated at the right hand of the Father, I rose
with him. And like I quoted, we're seated
with him in heaven. It's as if we're already there,
Terry. And this is the only way you can say this. We're assured
for heaven as if we were already there in Christ. Those people
say that by saying that what they mean by that is I'm a pretty
good fellow. I'm living a good Christian life
and so forth. But in Christ you can say that. In Christ. I am
in heaven. I am in heaven. Baptized into. Placed in. Immersed in. Washed
in. Christ is the water of life,
right? We've been immersed in him. The water of life. The water
of his word. The washing of water by his word.
Where is that written? Right. I had to look it up myself
a while ago. Covered up by his blood. Covered. by the blood of Christ, not to
be our sins and iniquities remembered no more, no more, baptized. Does that make sense? I believe
that. I believe that's what the text
is saying here. Now, look back at the text again, Galatians
3. Now, as many of you have been baptized into Christ, you've
been placed into Christ by God Almighty, you've been saved and
put in Christ, chosen by the Father, put in Christ, sanctified
by the Spirit. As many of you as have been baptized
into Christ, and let me say this, not all, I didn't say all, many,
many, a remnant, yet many. There are many, as is the number
of stars in the sky and the sands of the sea shore, a number that
no man can number, many people. When God says many, that's a
lot of people, but as many. As many, what? As many as were
ordained to eternal life to live, right? As many as the Lord our
God had chosen and called and given to Christ, right? As many. As many have been baptized, as
many of you as have been baptized into Christ, now here, look at
this, let's look at this for a little while, have put on Christ. Now we've had, now we've just
spent twenty minutes, twenty-two minutes. on the sovereignty of
God in this thing of salvation. I didn't give any hint whatsoever
that we had anything to do with that. Nobody can charge me one
iota with saying this thing is up to us. No way. It's God Almighty. It's God Almighty. Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
and his electing grace and his redemption and his sanctification,
we're saved. Not ever. Now, there's no but here, is
there? As many of you as have been baptized
into Christ have put on Christ, and as many have put on Christ. Mark it down. Every single person
chosen by God Almighty will be taught of God, and everyone that
has heard and learned of the Father, the Scripture says, cometh
to Christ. That is, believes, trusts, repents. Except you repent and be converted. Repent. Repent. Repent. They put on Christ by faith.
They believe Christ in the heart. They confess Christ in water
baptism. I say if you have not confessed
Christ in water baptism, you're living in disobedience to Christ's
command. Here they walk with Christ in
this life. They're being conformed to the
image of Christ. And just like children that grow up to be like
their parents and resemble and emulate their parents, so every
single one of God's people do the same. Yes. Now listen. Question. If this is the work
of God, if salvation is entirely the work of God Almighty, why do men and women have to
be exhorted to believe and put on Christ, as it says here? to
walk with Him, to emulate Him. Why do we have to be exhorted?
Let me give you several reasons that will be comforting to you.
Several reasons. First, because we're flesh. That
which is flesh is flesh. We're still in the flesh. We're
still in the world. That's the reason Christ in John
17 prayed for us. Father, keep them from the world.
Why? They're worldlings. Oh, they're
not of the world in a spiritual sense, yet they're very much
in it. very much in it, and at times we feel like there's very
much of the world in us, right? Or fleshly. That which is flesh
is flesh, and we live in what Paul called a body of death.
Ever we carry it around like a dead man on our back. It stinks
to us, weighs us down. We can't soar on the wings of
eagles. Can we? We've got this dead man on our
back. We can't fly like we'd like to. Had a dead man we're
carrying around. He smells, he stinks, he weighs
us down. We can't run the race as fast
as we can, can we? And we grow tired easily. Why?
We've got this dead body of death we carry around. We're so influenced
by what we see and what we hear and what we feel. Every one of
us. We're so influenced. Christ said,
with man it's impossible. It's impossible. Ellen, if left
to yourself, it's impossible. You can't hear this sermon. You
don't even remember a word that I've said tonight, unless God
recalls it to your mind. And you're sitting right there. Why? Oh, the Spirit is willing. Flesh is so weak. Flesh is weak
stuff. Eddie, just take this little
bitty instrument or just cut it and mangle it. Flesh is so
weak. And we have such a hard time
believing what we can't see, don't we? There's a bunch of
Thomases in here. Everybody in here is a Thomas.
I won't believe unless I see it. That's it. That's it. Secondly, why are we exhorted? Because of the adversary. It's
not flesh and blood that we're dealing with. We're flesh, but
we're not wrestling with flesh. It might be a lot easier if that
was the case. And we just round up the strongest men, the biggest
army, and the most numbers would avail then. But we're not dealing
with flesh and blood. We're dealing with somebody we
can't see. How would you like to fight somebody, have an enemy
you've never met before, didn't know who they were, constantly
at war with you, picking, darting in and out, never seen them before,
don't know where they're coming from, what you're going to do next?
Formidable foe, right? That's our adversary, the devil.
That's a roaring lion. How do you like to have a lion
in your house and you can't see him? A snake. That's what the Scripture says
about the devil. How do you like to have a boa
constrictor in your house and you don't know where he is? That's
us. We've got an enemy. Prince of
the powers of the air, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness
and high pleasure. We're no match, Terry, are we? We can't see him or hear him,
much like, but take consolation, we can't see Christ either. We can't see Satan, but we can't
see Christ either. And the reason we don't feel
that Satan doesn't handle us like he's capable of handling
us is because Christ is handling him for us. Ah boy, the word of faith is
this. I know they like to abuse this,
but it's true. Greater is he that is in you, Christ in you,
than he that is in the world, the prince of this world. Greater,
stronger. A strong man, armed. He got that
lion on a chain. Got him on a chain. Now, he's
a lion, alright, but he's on a chain. He's fangless. He's
toothless. He's clawless. Can't hurt you,
except what the Lord himself permits. Right? Just like old
Joe. And thirdly, we're exhorted because
we're like little children. We're like little children, we've
got to be raised up. What if you just decided, just,
I get tired, getting tired of telling those kids what to do,
I just, I quit. Let them, let them go. Have at
it, just do the best you can. They wouldn't last, they wouldn't
make it five minutes, they'd kill themselves, wouldn't they?
Starve to death, kill themselves, kill one another, kill each other
off. Our kids would kill each other
off, and us too. But we're like little children.
We have to be raised up, we have to be nourished, we have to be
comforted, we have to be warmed, we have to be fed, we have to
be protected, we have to be instructed, we have to be matured, we have
to grow in grace, we have to be sent forth to work, to gather
responsibility, to live, and so forth. We're just like little
children. We've got a life to live, and
God sees to it that we have instructions to live it by. Now, it's very
much like this life in that there are different degrees of maturity.
Now listen to this. This is an important part of
this message. He talks about putting on Christ
here. There are different degrees of growth and maturity. Different
degrees. Just like our children. You have
two children. They're both very different in
maturity and growth and so forth. Girls sometimes seem to mature
faster than boys and so forth. You have children and they differ,
right? In the way that they grow and their habits and so forth.
Different degrees of growth and maturity. Much of it is according
to what? According to their appetite. Right? And when I was a child,
I was a poor eater. My parents had a hard time getting
me to eat anything. Now, I know what doctors say,
that they're all right, that's all right, they'll get enough.
Well, here I am, a little squirt, because I didn't eat anything.
Didn't eat my green beans. Maybe I did, I don't know. But
some are better eaters than others. Some eat you out of house and
home and grow up to be strong, strapping kids, you know. Right? According to some, are
better eaters than others. What did Christ say to us? What
did he say to a couple of people? According to your faith, so be
it unto you. Didn't he? Huh? According to
your faith, so be it unto you. How does faith come? By hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. Appetite for the Word. Desire
to consume the milk of the Word. Now, it just stands to reason,
doesn't it? It stands to God's reason. that those that are continually
on the sound of God's word will grow more rapidly and mature
more so than others that don't eat, right? That don't protect.
Right? Right. Now they're all children.
They're all children. And all saved, but different
degrees. And these are the things we wrestle
with. Our lack of faith and our weakness
and our frailty and our depression and all these things we grapple
with, aren't we? We want to get rid of them, don't
we? Well, it's good advice. It's good counsel. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You ladies have
got an advantageous seat. Front row. Sundays and Wednesdays,
it's good. That's good. Eat, eat, desire. Some are raised in fear and nurture
and admonition of the Lord, right? They have an advantage over others,
right? Some are raised with parents that are godly, God-fearing men. Like that song we sung. That's an advantage. The environment
certainly is an advantage to children. And how can light have fellowship
with darkness, right? If we associate ourselves and
are constantly in an environment of unbelievers or have close
bosom buddies that are unbelievers and all, very, very unlikely
that we'll do much rubbing off on them. But they'll sure rub
off on us and bring us down with them. But you surround yourself
with God's people at all times. and you'll edify one another,
you'll build up one another in this most holy faith, right?
This is true. Yet according to God's purpose
and plan and providence as to how the means are used, God's
children grow. He's given us these responsibilities,
these means. That's about the best I can explain
it. Great faith, maturity, strength, God gets all the credit. We get
all the blame. God has to give it. He gets all
the credit when we have it. If we don't have any, though,
we get the blame, because we've got the millions right here in
front of us, don't we? Right. This I know from God's Word.
He says here, put on Christ. Put him on. Now, like I said,
it's not implying salvation at all. It's not putting... He's
talking about trust, believe. We talked about this in depth
one night after service, didn't we? trusting, loving, walking
with Him, seeking, studying Christ, wearing. Put Him on. He's called
a garment. Let me give you this illustration.
By putting on a garment, Christ is the garment. Listen to this,
it'll bless you. Christ is like putting on a garment,
and this garment, Christ is a costly garment. Oh, it's, you can't
afford this garment. You can't afford it. If you went
down You couldn't afford it. He's a costly garment. It took
the precious blood of Christ to establish this righteousness,
this righteous garment for us to wear. Precious blood, whom
God purchased with his own blood, Scripture says. The blood of
God's Son. It took myriads, it took eternity
to work out our salvation. And it's still not finished in
that we're not up there yet. I mean, we're sure for there.
But it takes all of eternity to save one person. It's costly,
isn't it? Costly. Costly garment. It's a beautiful garment. It's
nothing like it. None quite like the garment of
Christ. It's a coat of many colors, like
old Joseph's coat. Oh, boy. The beautiful, spotless
holiness of Christ himself in all his character all his many
colors and character, it's a beautiful garment. Gorgeous to wear. No man could unravel it by any
man. Nobody could sew this up, but
it's made by the hands of God himself. Only God the Son could
make this garment, this perfect life of a man. Thirdly, it's
a well-tailored garment. It fits us to the tee. I went and had that coat, Mindy
bought that coat for me for my birthday. And they tailored that
to fit me. It fits me. It was made especially
for me. It had my name on it. Christ
took upon himself the likeness of a man. That's you, Henry Soar? You a man? It fits. You can wear
this righteousness that Christ brought out. Well tailored, yet
without sin. It's suited for sinners, this
righteousness. Well suited for sinners. Needful.
It's a lasting garment. You know where this thing out
like the children of Israel their clothes in the wilderness never
wore out forty years never wore out their shoes or not that same
pair of shoes or never wore out and you'll never exhaust the
righteousness of Christ it'll last for throughout eternity.
So never lasting righteousness never perish never decay never
wax old. Bag that won't wax old it's a
fifthly What color is this garment? White. White, pure, spotless. White. You know, white will go
with about anything. You want to match an outfit up? White. White will match it, right?
Christ's pristine, spotless robe of sinless perfection will cover
our blackness. It'll cover it. Sixthly and lastly,
it's white because it's a wedding garment. It's a wedding garment. Somebody called it the dress
code of heaven. You can't get into that marriage supper of
the Lamb without this on, without Christ on. You can't get in there.
It's the wedding feast. It's the dress code of heaven.
If you try to enter in any other way than Christ himself, you'll
be looked upon as somebody having not on the right apparel, right?
I got you in here without a wedding garment on. Bind them hands and
foot and cast them out. They'll smell you coming before
you get there. But with these robes of Christ, a smelling of
sweet fragrance of myrrh and frankincense and all these things, you look and smell just like
Christ with His wedding garment on. Well, how do we put Him on?
How do we put Christ on? You need it. You need Christ. That's the first step, right?
Has the Holy Spirit shown you your need of the Lord Jesus Christ? You feel cold and naked without
him before this holy God? You hungry? You hungry and thirst
after righteousness? You see a need of him? Put him
on. Take him. It's there. He's there. You see your rags? You see your awful rags? Oh boy,
I sure like to have a new suit of clothes. He's there. He's there. He's there. Put him
on. How do you put him on? Scripture
says, come and buy. Well, you say it doesn't cost
anything. It doesn't. Come buy wine, milk, without money, without
price. Well, wait a minute now. I don't understand it. I don't
either, but do it. Do it. Without money, I say,
there's something else left. No money, without price. What
do you got? Like that old Indian warrior
one time, a missionary came to his village, and the old Indian
was impressed by the the message of Christ crucified and he came
up to the to the missionaries tent one day one evening and
said Chief he was a chief of the village he said and he was
holding in his hand his bow and arrow that he'd used to to shoot
many a deer and bear and buffalo and so forth he was a mighty
warrior and these were symbols of his strength and his pride
he brought it and said with a little tear in his eye He said, Chief,
give bow and arrow to Jesus. The missionary said, Chief, Christ
doesn't want your bow and arrow. He walked out. He came back a little while later,
and he had his big headdress. I mean, this was a symbol of
his authority and his rule and his power. The Chief, his pride,
this was his pride. He brought in his big headdress
with all those feathers in it. the people he fought and killed
and so forth in battles. He held it in his hand and said, Chief, give headdress to Jesus. The missionary said, Chief, Christ
doesn't want your headdress. He doesn't need your headdress.
What does he want in a headdress? Oh. He walked out. A little while
later, he came back in empty-handed. empty-handed. He said, Chief,
give yourself to Jesus. The missionary said, no, he'll
take that. He'll take that. Come by. I know how they abuse this, give
your heart to Jesus. I know, but the scripture does
say, my son, give your heart to me. Doesn't it? What's he
want with that old heart? Give you a new one. and transplant. We've got to come to it and we'll
know in the end if we do come it was him that brought us. There's
a difference in what we preach and what others preach. We do
tell men to come to Christ. It's their responsibility to
come. We'll tell them in the end though that not that it's
up to you. God's done all he can do. No,
we'll say if you do come it's because God did do all that was
necessary. If you do come, it is because
God has done all that he can do, and it's enough. It's all
powerful. Come and buy. Surrender self. Self. Put him on and wear him.
Believe him. Trust him. Walk according to
his word. Be constantly attentive. You know, if you hang around
weddings long enough, you'll decide you need a pretty good
set of clothing, right? You hang around this place long
enough. And you'll decide, you'll see your need of Christ. You'll see yourself say, hey,
I do need that righteousness. It's pretty bad. You'll start
smelling yourself. And other people, they smelled
you a long time ago. Well, listen to this and I'll
quit. Turn with me to John chapter 14. I'm going to turn to Deuteronomy
here in a minute, but turn to John chapter 14. The scribe,
if you remember the story a couple of weeks ago of that That woman
was caught in adultery, and Christ stooped down. And he raised himself
back up, and he said, He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her. Now, they watched him right in
the dirt. They saw the written word. They
heard his words with their ears. He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast a stone. They were convicted, the scripture
says, convicted in their conscience. not in the heart, but in the
conscience. They were convicted. But what does it say about the
scribes and Pharisees? They went away. They didn't come
to Christ. They went away. In other words,
the Word not being mixed with faith, right? And Christ says
to us, too, now you've heard some hard things, some difficult
things, hard to understand. Will you also go away? What's
your answer? Can you say with the disciples,
Lord, Where are we going to go? Why? He's got the words of life,
right? I'll tell you what. How many
times have we heard the Word preached, like you're hearing
tonight, saw it written, the written Word, but gone away untouched? Convicted, like those Pharisees,
yet gone away without really closing with Christ. Maybe there's
somebody in here that has not closed with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm sure there is. I'm a certain of it. I know it.
How many times have you heard this gospel message and been
exhorted, heard the word of exhortation? Paul said twice in Hebrew. Today,
hear his voice. May not be a tomorrow. Listen to John 14, verse 23.
Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he'll
keep my words. And my father will love him.
And we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Is that
what you want? That's what I want. He that loveth
me not, let him keep my saints. The word which you hear is not
mine, no, the Father sent me. What is it to keep Christ's words?
It's to cherish them, to keep them to heart, to cherish them
in your bosom, to be prized, the prized possession. The apple
of your eye, your faith's eye, your mind's eye, the pearl is
the word of God, the gospel of Christ, that pearl of great price. For the life of me, folks, I
mean, really, that's the right terminology, for the life of
me, I can't stand, I can't stand that anybody, I've got to be here, I've got
to be here, not just because I got preached. I've got to have
this gospel. I feed upon it for the life of
me. Right? It's the words of life. Isn't that what I quoted? Lord,
where are we going to go? What are we going to do tonight?
Where are we going to go? What are we going to get into?
You've got words of life, and I want to hear it. I'm being
honest. The Holy Spirit is going to be down there. Christ is going
to be with two or three guys together. I want to be there
like that little boy with my ears, my hands cupped over my
ears. If he speaks, I want to hear
him. If he's passing by, I want to grab hold of him. Right? That's the reason I say that
we need to avail ourselves of everything that has to do with
His Word. That's what it is to abide in
Christ and walk in His Word, keep His Word. Put a tape in. Take out Johnny Cash. Put in
Henry Mahan. Take out old Merle Haggard. the
Bluegrass Mountain Boys or whoever it may be, and put in the Gray
Singers, put in Danny Blair. That's what it is. Feed on it. Desire it. Can't get enough of
it. You can't get enough. We cannot
get enough of this work. Now listen, when I close this
book, when we leave here, we will do well to have retained
in and out of what has been said tonight, right? How badly do
we need this? Badly. Badly. We need to be here at every opportunity
so in order that we might get one word, right? Over a period
of thirty-three years, Stan, if we're here as often as possible,
we might gain a little knowledge, a little something. Well, the
words of Christ? Right, don't just say it sounds
good, it looks good. Sitting there on the rack, there
it is on the rack. Looks good. Try it! Put it on! Right? Now, over to
Deuteronomy, I'll quit. I saw this today and I thought,
wow, what a verse of scripture. I don't remember seeing this
before. I've seen it, but I just saw it. Deuteronomy 32, verse
40. Now Moses came, Deuteronomy 32,
44, Moses came to speak all the words of this song. Read the
whole chapter when you get home. Speak all the words of this song
in the ears of the people, he and Joshua, son of Nun, that's
God and Christ. And Moses made an end of speaking
all these words to all Israel, and then he said this unto them,
and I leave you with this. Set your hearts unto all the
words which I testify among you this day. and command your children to
observe to do all the words of this law, for it's not a vain
thing for you. It is your life. You see that? What we're doing
tonight is not a vain and useless thing. We ain't going to church.
Like that quote, we don't go to church. We are the church. We're not going to church, we're
coming to hear words of life. It's not a vain thing, it's your
life. When Christ, our life shall appear. We'll be ready, waiting. Why?
We've been listening for Him, we've been hearing Him. And through
this thing, look at it, and through this thing, what thing? This
world of tribulation. And by this word, you'll prolong
your days in the land. everlasting life, eternal life.
Prolonged days? Yeah, eternally, when you go
over Jordan to possess it. I like that. Mark that down. That's a wonderful verse of Scripture.
As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Put Him on. God has chosen you. The Spirit has set you apart. giving you faith in Christ. Put
Him on. Wear Him. He fits. Believe Him. Trust Him. Look to Him. Follow Him. Keep
His words. Abide in Him. There's sovereignty
and there's responsibility. We're kept by His power, but
He gives us the power, right? He gives us His Spirit, His strength. Strength to strength. Grace that
we need. His grace is sufficient. All
right, stand with me and I'll dismiss it. Our Lord is so much, and we're
so feeble, and we ask that you would grant
us just a portion of your Word.
It might sink in. baptized in Christ's death, risen
to walk in newness of life. So, Lord, may we walk with our
Lord, and we plead your promise there in John 14, that you'll
come, if we keep your word, that you'll abide with us. You'll
abide with us. That's what we want, Lord. We
want to walk with our God like Enoch. We want to walk with God. Someday we'll walk right on into
heaven itself. in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.