Once again this evening, I want
to go back to the book of Exodus and virtually pick up where I
left off. And I endeavored to set before
you this morning the subject, God spake out of the darkness. And that's the subject that I'm
going to continue to deal with this evening, God spake out of
the darkness. I'll read once again the two
verses that I read for you this morning, Exodus chapter 20, verses
one and two, and God spake all these words, saying, I am the
Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage. Let's ask God to bless our time
together. Oh, our great and glorious God, as
we enter this very special, very delightful time of worship. We ask that you would enable
us to focus in upon the seriousness of knowing God. After all, this is, according
to the words of our Savior, this is eternal life. To know Thee,
Thou who art the living God, and to know Christ Jesus, whom
you sent into this world. Lord, help us to be serious about
the things that have to do with eternity. Our souls, Lord, we don't want
to perish. We don't want to die swearing
on a stack of Bibles that we know you. Lord, we want to be
known of you. And we want you to write your
word upon our hearts. We want to be, if we have not
before, we want to be born of the Spirit. We want the life
of God. We want to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Lord, we want to be found
in him, not having our own righteousness, which is according to the law,
not law obedience. That's not our goal. Our goal
is to be found in and to know Christ Jesus, who is himself
the Lord, our righteousness. Reveal Him, O Spirit of grace,
to our hearts. Reveal Him to us in His glory,
in His magnificence, and in His office as Savior, Advocate, and
Mediator. Teach us, O blessed Holy Ghost,
of the Savior of sinners the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach us of
His righteousness. Teach us of His sacrifice. Teach us of His obedience. And, O Lord, may we be found
in Him. He's the only hope of sinners
God. If we look to the law of God for hope, the law of God
is administration of death. We find no hope there. If we
look to our own righteousness, well, that's just filthy rags.
If we look to our own works, our works come forth out of a
polluted heart. Oh God, reveal to us your grace
in the Savior. May we know him. knowing the
power of his resurrection. May we magnify his name this
evening in this message, and then as we go forth, walking
in the newness of life, may we glorify him in our lives and
honor him in all that we say and do. So Lord, be pleased to
meet with us again this evening. Bless these who've gathered. Bless those who are watching
by way of the internet, those who shall be watching or listening
to this message later. Lord, thy word is truth. Enable us to hear what you have
to say. Bless the gospel to our everlasting
good. May it be to us a savor of life
unto life, and not a savor of death unto death. Oh God, do us good, if you would,
and be merciful to us, the chief of sinners. For Jesus' sake I
ask these things, amen. God spake out of the darkness. This morning I said before you
four questions. The last one, which I didn't
have an opportunity to really develop, but I'll repeat the
other questions for the sake of those who weren't here. If
you didn't get to listen to the message this morning, I'll kind
of bring you up to date. Here are four questions that
I raised this morning and tried to answer as best I could from
the word of God. We know the law of God. We've
read the law of God. Joe read to us in the book of
Deuteronomy the second reading of the law of God. Well, who
spoke these words? And it's the Lord who spoke them. The Lord God spoke these words. They're not the words of Moses.
They're the words of the Lord God, our Savior. Jehovah who
saves. He's the one who spoke these
words. God who created. God who sustains
all men. Secondly, where did God speak
these words? He spoke these words on Mount
Moab. Mount of Horeb and Mount Sinai. Horeb meaning dry land, nothing
to refresh the soul. And of course, Mount Sinai, thorns,
briars, that which is painful, that which pricks us. You see,
God's law is not designed to delight us It's designed to put
us on our faces before God as we lay down our righteousness
beside the righteousness demanded by the law of God. And I would
say this, if you feel good after reading the law of God, if you
feel good about yourself, feel good about your life, well, I'm
a pretty good person. Oh, I may have failed on a point
or two here, but basically, I'm a good person. If you lay down
your life beside the Ten Commandments, and then you can feel good about
yourself, you're in bad trouble. Because this law of God is not
designed to save. It's not designed to offer you
any hope. It's designed to show you your
condition before God. You're not what God demands. And you better look for somebody
who met all of God's demands and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only perfect one. And He's the only one who satisfied
that awful penalty for breaking God's law. He suffered upon the
cross of Calvary for all of the people of God. Who spoke these
words? The Lord God, who redeemed Israel.
Where did he speak these words? He spoke them at Mount Ahurab
and Mount Sinai, neither of which can offer you any refreshment
for your soul. The only refreshment for your
soul is to be found in the gospel. Here's the third question, under
what circumstances or what conditions did God give his law? You know,
he didn't give it with angels singing ever so sweetly in the
background. He didn't give the law with the
angelic whiners maybe strumming on their harps and then God whispering
in a still, small voice, these laws, oh no, oh no. The mountain is smoking. The
mountain is shaking. That awful trumpet sounded. And it got louder and louder
and louder, the voice of God. And God, he spoke out of the
darkness. And such was the fear of the
Israelites that they wanted, Moses, you speak to God for us. We don't want to speak to him.
We don't have anything to do with this God. They sought for
a mediator. And that's who we seek for, is
a mediator. in the midst of this awful and
glorious display of majesty and the loftiness of the Lord. Do
you think any of the Israelites would have been foolish enough
to walk up to that fire, walk up to that mountain and say,
you know, Lord, I've been serving you as faithfully as I can. Do
you think anybody would do that? Lord, I want you to look at what
the good I've tried to do amongst the house of Israel. Would anybody
be so foolish as to say that sort of thing? Or would anybody
say, you know, I know you have your law, but I just want you
to know, Lord, I've done the best I can do. You know, Lord,
I've done the best I can do. Oh, he knows exactly what you've
done and he knows exactly what you are. There's nothing hidden from Him.
I tell you, it would be foolish,
it would be suicide to go to God and say, now Lord, look at
all I've done for you, therefore reward me with glorious benefits
based upon my service for you. Only a fool would talk like that.
I tell you what wise people do when they hear the law of God.
They look for one to do business with God on their behalf. You
see, that's what the law does. It just strips us. It strips
us. It leaves us with rags. Lay your
very best according to the Ten Commands. Lay them right down
beside this law. How do you fare? How do you look? What happens to your goodness?
Well, it just goes up in flames. You'll brag no more. You'll look
for the mercy of God. That's what you'll do. You'll
look for the grace of God. And then here's the fourth question,
and I just got to this this morning. Why was the law given under these
circumstances? I'll give you several reasons.
Number one, this sets forth the way God gave this law. In this atmosphere of holiness
and fearfulness, it sets forth the majesty, and the glory, the
omnipotence, the justice, and the holiness of the one who gave
these laws. Question, who can shake the earth
but the earth's maker? Who can make a mountain? Who
can make a mountain? Smoke, but he who made the mountain. Who can speak with a voice that
sounds like a trumpet getting louder and louder and louder
except the voice of God Himself? Who can make darkness but God? He says, I make darkness and
I make light. I make good and I make evil. And it's out of the darkness
that He spoke. Oh, what a mystery is this! God
enveloped in this awful, awful darkness that scared the Israelites
to death. You cannot have anything to do
with a holy God. You've got to have the Son of
God to intervene on your behalf. the law of God was given under
these circumstances to fill us with fear for this God. And of
course, one of the accusations against all men by nature there
in Romans chapter three, there's no fear of God before their eyes. If you ever see what his law
demands, you'll have some fear of God.
And then I'll tell you another reason this sets forth what's
going to happen to the religion of men, religion that's built
upon anything else other than the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary
sacrifice. People build a false foundation. They think they're okay with
God. I often think about those folks in Matthew chapter 7. The Lord Jesus said, many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in
thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works. In
thy name, in thy name, in thy name. Three is the number of
orthodoxy. We did it in your name. We healed
in your name. We preached in your name. We
did these miracles in your name. We cast out devils in your name. And then he's going to say, depart
from me. I never knew you. You're just
workers of iniquity. All that you did, oh, you did
it in my name, but everything you did was just iniquity on
top of iniquity. Oh, how solemn that is. And one of these days, God's
going to shake men loose from their false foundation. He's
going to expose it. storm of God's wrath is going
to destroy every false foundation that there is. What foundation
are you building on? Our Lord went on, you know, to
give that parable. A wise man built his house upon
the rock. A foolish man built his house
upon the sand. Who are you building on? Or rather,
who are you building on? You're building on the rock Christ
Jesus. There's a foundation that the voice of God won't even shake
you loose from that foundation. But if you build on anything
else, build on something you've done. Build on your baptism. Build on your church membership.
Build on your faith. Build on your repentance. The
voice of God in the last day will absolutely shake you loose
from that. He'll expose the falseness of
your refuge. Men build refuge and God sets
a refuge of lies. And He's going to expose it as
being a refuge of lies. If you look to any other foundation
than Jesus Christ and Him crucified, May the God of grace shake you
loose from that foundation right now. Right now. He's going to shake you loose
from it either now or at the judgment, one or the other. Lord, if I'm built on the sand,
show me now. Have you ever thought about this?
Those people in Matthew chapter 7, they've died. and they've gone to hell, and
they've been raised, and they face God at the judgment, and
here's what they're saying, there's been a big mistake made. I've been put in a dungeon that
I don't deserve to be in, because I did all these things in your
name. And he'll say to them, depart
from me. I never knew you. I'll tell you something else.
Here's another reason the law is given under these circumstances. Because it sets forth what happens
in the heart and in the conscience of an individual when God uses
this law by his spirit to shake us loose from our false foundation
right now. Right now. The law just slays
us. The law doesn't heal. The law kills. It kills your
idols. It kills your power. It kills your righteousness.
It's a killer. That's what the law is, administration
of death. It wounds us. It pricks us like
thorns. It shuts us up to no hope, no
possibility of acceptance with God. When the Spirit of God shuts
our mouths and exposes our guilt, then the gospel comes in. See,
God uses the law to expose our sinfulness, and that paves the
way for the Spirit of God who used that law to shut our mouths
Then he brings us to the gospel, the good news of the grace of
God in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then
the gospel becomes good news indeed. You know why the gospel
of finished redemption is not good news to the average person? Well, I can tell you. It's because
their own guilt has never been exposed. There's never been any enlightenment
in the heart. There's never been the shaking
of God the Spirit, of the darkness, and the iniquity, and the ungodliness
that fills the soul. So people feel pretty good about
themselves. Here's what Paul says, when the
law of God came, I died. He said, I love the law of God. Don't misunderstand me. I love
the law of God. I love the law of God because
it killed me. It stripped me. It wounded me. It laid bare my transgressions. I thought I was a good person.
And then the law came in its authority and in its power. And
it just struck me down and now I see I'm nothing and I'm nobody. And then the gospel comes to
you in power by the Holy Spirit. It says look here, here's good
news for you. There's a Savior for folks like
you. For people who can't please God.
For people who are disobedient. For sinners. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm the chief. And I'll tell you something else.
Why was the law given under these circumstances? Because it sets
forth two great events. It kind of sets the table, as
it were, for two even greater events than the giving of the
law. I want you to turn to the little
book of Haggai. The book of Haggai, and it isn't
so hard to find if you go to the split of the Testaments and
you back up, there's Malachi, before Malachi, the next to the
last book of the Old Testament is Zechariah, and then there's
a little two-chapter book called Haggai. I want you to look at
that with me. Let me tell you a little bit
about Haggai. He's a prophet of God who, along with Zechariah
and Malachi, he ministered to Judah after the 70 years of Babylonian
captivity. His ministry was to Judah. Here,
a bunch of the Jews were being released, kind of the first wave
of slaves who were from Babylonian captivity and they go back to
Jerusalem. When they get back to Jerusalem,
they find the walls are crumbling down, the temple has been destroyed,
ruined. Their own houses, they had been
battered and burned up. And so they go back and under
the direction of Zerubbabel, They were instructed to rebuild
the temple, rebuild the walls. Well, they got back, and the
first thing they did was they started rebuilding their houses.
That was no good. That was no good. And you can
read in this little book the two chapters of Haggai that God
said, hey, you doing this for your houses? What about my house? That's what God said. I'll even
show you that. Look in verse three, chapter
one, verse three. Then came the word of the Lord
by Haggai, the prophet saying, is it time for you, O ye, to
dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lay waste? This house lie waste? You're
home building your houses. What about the house of God?
He said. What about the worship of God? The very first thing
they should have done was attend to the house of God and then
start worshiping God by means of a sacrifice. That should have
been priority number one. But they went back and started
working on their own houses. And the hay guy, he got on them
about it. He says this, and here's a statement
that's found quite often in these two chapters. Consider your ways. Look in verse 7. Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and
bring wood. Build the house. Forget about
your house. Build God's house. Let's restore the worship of
God. Look what he says in verse 9.
It's like they're putting, since they're using their money on
self-satisfaction of their houses and so forth, it's like they
put it in a bag with holes. Verse nine, he looked for much
and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home,
I did blow upon it. You see, God can make a little
go a long ways. or you're gonna have a lot and
neglect him, and it won't go anywhere at all. And he even
asks the question, why, saith the Lord of hosts? Here's the
reason, because my house, mine house, that is waste, and ye
run every man to his own house. What about me, God said? And
this is the way it goes on. So hey, God gets on him about
it. And so they start building the temple. They took the rebuke
and they started building the temple, rebuilding it. 50,000 workers rebuilding the
temple. And then they just stopped. They
got discouraged because they realized this is nowhere near
the glory of Solomon's temple. much smaller, so they got discouraged. They worked for a month, and
then they quit. And Haggai gets on them again
in the second chapter, and he's on their case. But he says this,
and I don't have time to go into all of this, but he says this. Look at verse six. For thus,
chapter two, verse six. But thus saith the Lord of hosts,
yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens
and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake
all nations. And the desire of all nations,
he shall come. And God says, I'll fill this
house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, let me go back
up to verse six where it says, but thus saith the Lord of hosts,
yet once, It is a little while. What he's saying is, once more. And I just, a long time ago,
I wrote the word more in there because this is the idea. Once
more. When did he shake things before? Back there next to chapter 19. God shook things up. And now
the prophet of God says to them, once more, God says, in a little
while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth. And I'll shake all nations. The
desire of all nations shall come. Now you know who that is. That's
the son of God. He's got a people out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. And our Lord Jesus came to this
earth. And here's the first thing that
I want to remind you of, this shaking, this shaking of the
earth, this shaking of the heavens. That happened when the Son of
God came. Now certainly He entered into the temple of God. Look at verse 8. The Lord said,
the silver is mine, the gold is mine, said the Lord of hosts.
In other words, don't think that I'm running short restoring this
temple. Don't think that I'm at a loss
as to perform my will. God said, I own it all. I own
everything. And then he says this in verse
9, the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former,
greater than Solomon's temple. And now He's speaking, first
of all, of our Lord Jesus Himself, who is the temple of God, is
He not? He's the temple of God. Our Savior
said there in John chapter 2, destroy this temple, three days
I'll raise it up. What is He talking about? He's
talking about His body. He's the temple of God. God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. is a reference to our Lord when
He came the first time. Well, when did the earth shake?
When did the heavens shake? When did this happen? When He
died on the cross of Calvary. That's when God shook the earth
again. Oh, He gave it a good shaking. How much did He shake the earth?
He shook the earth when Christ died so much that the veil of
the temple was rent entwined from top to bottom, opening the
way into the presence of God. That's the death of our Lord
Jesus. The death of Christ was an earth-shaking,
heaven-shaking event. It had never shook like that.
since our Lord Jesus died, opening the way to God. What can open
up the door into heaven? What can open up an entrance
into the presence of God for folks like us? Only the death
of the Son of God. And when the Son of God laid
down His life for sinners, when He died, it's like creation,
creation just erupted and shook itself. shook by the hand of
God. And then he's going to shake
it again, too. I said two things. At his first
coming, Christ, death, the earth shook. The earth shook. You know, it shook so much that
it rent the rocks. That's what it says. It rent
the rocks. Rent so much, God shook this
earth to such an extent that graves burst open and the dead
lived. That's the result of the death
of Christ Jesus, the dead live. The dead live. The Spirit of
God comes upon the successfulness of the substitutionary sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus and on the basis of the blood poured out,
on the basis of righteousness established, the dead live. And you're an evidence of that.
You're an evidence of that. If you're a believer, He shook
you. He shook you. then our Lord Jesus
is coming back. One of these days he's coming
back. He's gonna shake it again. Turn to Revelation chapter 16.
Revelation chapter 16. I said the manner in which God
gave the law set forth two greater events, the first coming of our
Lord Jesus and the second coming. of our Lord Jesus. Revelation
chapter 16. Look at verse 17. The seventh
angel poured out his vial into the air. There came a great voice. Remember the great voice there
at Exodus chapter 19 and 20? There came the great voice out
of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, it is done,
it is finished. It's all brought to pass. And
there were voices and thunders and lightnings. And there was
a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth. So mighty an earthquake and so
great. That's what's going to happen
when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back to judge the world. He's
going to shake this place from pole to pole. Who can shake the
earth? But he who made the earth, he
shook it when he died, and he's gonna shake it again when he
comes again. But you know what? Let him shake
it all he wants. We're safe in him. Isn't that
great? We're safe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our refuge. I was recently
asked about the end times. In fact, a couple of people emailed
me about that. I can't tell you if there's going
to be another world war or not, things of that nature. I don't
know. It might be. I know there'll
be wars and rumors of wars, but I'll tell you this. Let, that
come what may, all of the people of God are safe in that one who
is the refuge of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ. safe in him forever. Oh yes,
he who shook the earth when he gave his law, he shook the earth
again when he died upon the cross of Calvary, when he satisfied
divine justice, and he shall come again and shake this world
one more time, one more time, and then come at the end. Ah,
the giving of the law was a most solemn event. Indeed it was. Let all the world take notice.
Take notice. No wonder back in Exodus chapter
19, no wonder Moses told the people, get ready. Get ready. God's coming down. God's coming
down. Take a bath, what he said. Wash your clothes. God's coming
down. And I'm telling you, God's coming
down again. He's coming down a second time.
He's either going to come for you in death or He's going to
come for you in His second coming. Be ready. How am I going to be
ready? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are
they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Oh, be washed in the blood of
the Lamb. Oh, Lord, wash me. Wash me and
I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. And I'll tell you this, if you seek to come to God upon
the basis of law works, that is your obedience, you're not going to be safe when
Christ comes back. It's just an impossibility. People don't understand who the
Lord Jesus is. They don't understand the strictness
of His law. The law was not given as suggestions. The law was not given as a code
of conduct for the nations of the world to go by. Why was the
law of God given? Now look at Romans chapter 3. Let's just see what the Word
of God says. Why was the law of God given? Romans chapter 3, and look at verse 19. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Now, hold on right there. It
speaks to those, the law speaks to those who are under the law. Now hold your place right there
and just turn, in my Bible, just turn one page over. Look over
at chapter 6 and verse 14. What the law says, it says to
them who are under the law. Now look at verse 14 of Romans
chapter 6. He's speaking to the people of
God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under
law. You're not under the authority
of the law. You're not under the control
of the law. You're not under the condemnation
of the law. You see, the law speaks to those
who are under its power. So go back to chapter 3. Now
we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, hey, I'm not under the law. So it doesn't
have anything to say to me. Is that what you get from this?
It doesn't have anything to say to me. It doesn't have anything
to say to you. It only speaks to those who are under God's
law. That every mouth may be stopped. Every mouth may be silenced. And all the world may become
guilty before God. That's what the law does. The
law pronounces us guilty. Has it spoken to you? It sure
has spoken to me. And I say again, here's what
you need to do. All of you fine people, watching
by way of the internet or anybody in here, all of you folks who
think that you're living by the law of God, you don't really
hear what the law of God says. Here's what the law of God says.
Be ye holy, for I am holy. Well, I'm trying to live by the
law. No, it doesn't say try. You've
got to be holy. If you're going to take the law
of God as your rule of life, Here's what's involved, absolute,
perfect obedience. Right down the line, outwardly
and inwardly, that's what's required. And if you would do this, take
your obedience and as it were, lay it down and then right beside
of your obedience, lay down the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you think you fare pretty
well, you're in big trouble. Oh my, I wouldn't want to be
in your shoes for nothing. Not at all. You see, the law of God demands
what we cannot produce. You know what God says? Walk
before me and be ye perfect. Be thou perfect. You live up
to that standard? Well, trying's not good enough. See, the law only understands
this. Be perfect, live. If you're imperfect
anywhere along the way, death for you. That's it. I don't understand why people
say, well, I'm trying to live by the law of God. Don't you
hear what the law of God says? The law of God says the soul
that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. The
law of God reveals God's holiness, God's demands, God's requirements
of perfection, and the penalty for anything less than perfection. God never gave the law for nations
to live by, never gave the law to be a code of conduct, God
never gave the law as a means of salvation. God never gave
the law as a way to attain the holiness. He gave the law to
expose our sin and our guilt. And I hope and pray he'll use
that, use the law to shut our mouths. And I'll tell you what
the law of God does in the hands of the Holy Ghost, if we're ever
smitten by the law of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit,
then we'll realize, I need a mediator. I need Christ. I need Christ. This is, the law of God was given
in such a way to, it's given to impress us with the awesomeness
of God. And I'll tell you, I'm impressed. Aren't you? I'm impressed. And I go to a greater than Moses
and say, oh, greater than Moses! Deal with God for me. And he says, already have. Already have. Let me give you
this, and I'll quit. Not law, but grace. That's what
we want. A law, again, is administration
of death. It will kill you. The law of God rewards perfect
obedience. And you know, we understand the
principle of work and get rewarded. We understand that principle
in everyday life. We teach it to our children.
Make up your bed, straighten up your room, pick up your toys,
do all of these things, help mom in the kitchen, You'll be
rewarded with whatever. We understand that. But here's
what man by nature does. He takes that over into the spiritual
realm. And he thinks, if I do something
for God, he will reward me with good things. Doesn't work that
way in the salvation of the soul. doesn't work that way in any
manner, spiritually. It's not what you do for God.
Honestly, do you want God, just don't answer out loud, but answer
in your own heart. Would you want God to reward
you for what you've done for him? Honestly now, Well, I've preached and I've
prayed all these many years. I don't want him to reward me
for those things. Because everything I've ever
done is always tainted by sin. And that's true of you, too.
You've never done a perfect deed, never spoken a perfect word,
never had a perfect thought. That's the impossibility. All that we do in the worship
of God, in the service of God, is not fit for God because it
comes forth from a polluted vessel. That's just the truth. And I
know people don't understand that. It's got to go through
the Savior. That's why we come to God in
Christ's name. God receives us for Christ's
sake. Here are five things I want to give you. I jotted these down
this afternoon. And before I say that, let me
just say one other thing here on this. The law of God says
you better back up, sinner. Don't touch this mountain. Back
off. Back off. But the gospel says,
come unto me, I'll give you rest. One says, be perfect or die. The other one says, I freely,
fully forgive everything. That's the gospel of grace. Here
are five things, not law, but grace. Number one, we're not
justified by the law, but by grace, Romans chapter 3. Verses
19 through 24. Number two, we're not sanctified
by law, but by grace. Believers are not under the law
of God in any way, shape, form, or fashion. I just read it to you, you're
not under law, but under grace. We're under the dominion of grace,
we're under the authority of grace, we're under the power
of grace. You see, the law's not made for
a righteous man. That's what the scripture says.
And bless your heart, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus,
you are a righteous person through the Lord your righteousness.
So the law's not for you. The law's already done its work
on you. It's already killed you. It's
put you out of the self-righteous business. It's put you out of
the works business and put you over in the category of free
grace. And I'll tell you this, we're
not ruled by law, but we're ruled by grace. Gotta have something
to live by. Grace of God that brings salvation
teaches us. Denying ungodliness and worldly
lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world. Grace teaches us how to live. We're not motivated to honor
the Lord by law, but by grace. The love of Christ Jesus constrains
us. That's what it said. I tell you,
in Romans, when Paul would motivate the Roman believers to commit
themselves to the service of God, to honor Him and glorify
Him, he said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God. He said, that's your reasonable
service. He said, I don't beseech you on the basis of law. but on the basis of mercies.
The love of God for you and your love for the Lord. I tell you,
the strongest motivator in this world is love. And love will
cause a person to do what nothing else will. Cause a man to lay
down his life for his country. caused many a child of God to
lay down their life for the Savior. Love. And I'll tell you this, we're
not gonna be glorified by law either. We'll be glorified by
grace. It's all of grace. If you want the law of God, you can have it. I love the law
of God. but it doesn't have anything
to do with me. My Savior answered all of its demands by His perfect
life and by bearing the penalty, paying the penalty for my violations
of the law. So the law has nothing to say
to me. The law's dead to me and I'm
dead to the law of God. I'm alive under God by grace
through Christ Jesus. That is good news, isn't it?
Good news. The gospel's good news for sinners. Well, let's pray. Lord, take
the things we've tried to say and weed out anything that I
shouldn't have said. Put a filter over my words and
may we remember the words of God only. Don't ever aim to say
anything wrong, but if something between my mind and my mouth
got, I mistook in saying it the right way, Lord forgive me. But
I do know this, we're not under law because that's what you said. And you said the law's not made
for a righteous man, and we're righteous through the Lord our
righteousness. In fact, that is our name. It's not only our Savior's name,
but that's our name, the Lord our righteousness. Our righteousness
is not in any obedience we've rendered to your law. Our righteousness is seated at
your right hand right now. the Son of God who loved us and
gave himself for us. And we do seek to honor you,
Father, in our lives, not motivated by threats, threats of law, but
motivated by the sweet mercies of God to us in Christ Jesus. We're not motivated by promise
of rewards, We don't want to be rewarded for anything we've
done because if we were rewarded for what we've done, the wages
of sin is death. I don't want that. Bless your
name. We're rewarded for the faithfulness
and obedience and the sacrifice of the Son of God. Lord, yours
is an amazing gospel. Thank you for shaking our hearts.
Thank you for bringing about an earthquake in our innermost
beings. And you shook us, and you shook
us loose from any hope we had in the law. You shook us loose
from any hope we had in good works. And you brought us to
the end of ourselves. We confessed we're nothing. And
then you poured in the oil and the wine of the gospel. You said
everything's fine. because your substitute has satisfied
all the demands of the law and he's paid the penalty for your
sins. He died in your stead and he
ever lives to represent you in glory. What a sweet, sweet message
we have in the gospel of grace. A wonderful message to set forth
to this generation that doesn't know anything about the good
news. and won't unless you reveal me. So bless these, Lord, who
come tonight and these who've been watching. We pray that you'll
make your word effectual to your people, and we know you'll do
that. It won't fall by the wayside. You'll make sure your word is
effectual in the hearts of those to whom you send. These things
we ask with thanksgiving and reverence in the name of our
Lord Jesus and for His sake. Amen.