Psalm 73. Psalm 73. Truly God is good to Israel,
to such as are of a clean heart. But as for me, my steps were
almost gone, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh
slipped, for I was envious at the wicked when I saw the prosperity of
the wicked, for there are no bands in their death, but their
strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other
men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore, pride
compasses them as a chain. Violence covereth them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness, and they have more than heart
could wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouths against the heaven, and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore, his people return hither, and waters of
a full cup are wrung out to them, and they say, Does God know and
is their knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the ungodly
who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily,
I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning.
If I say I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God, then understood I their end. Surely thou did set them
in slippery places, castest them down under destruction. How are
they brought into desolation? As in a moment, they are utterly
consumed with terrors. as a dream when one awaketh,
so, O Lord, when thou wakest, thou shalt despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So
foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw
near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God that I may declare all thy works. Oh, our Father, and our God,
and our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our blessed,
blessed, blessed Savior, Lord, we come to you. Come to you. Come with some confidence, come
with some liberty, come with some freedom. Not because of
our holiness or our own works or any merit or anything we've
done, but we come in your merit, in your work, in your blood,
in your righteousness. For Lord, we have nothing but
what you've given us. And Lord, when it comes to things
spiritual, we know nothing but what you've taught us. And Lord
Jesus, we bless you for being so gracious, so loving, so kind,
so tender, so pitiful towards us, your people. Lord, you know
that we're just dust. Our frames are so frail and so
weak. And, oh Lord, we ask for your
grace today, your strength today, your power today, the liberty
of the Holy Ghost today. We asked, oh Lord, that you'd
visit your plantation, the vine that you've planted, the trees
of your own planting, the people, the sheep of your pasture, those
that you made for yourself. Visit us today in the gospel.
Visit the lost with the gospel. Strengthen and encourage the
saints of God with the gospel. And Lord, I pray, as we always
do, for those we love who are lost. You know who they are,
and you know how we love them, and you know how we desire to
see them convicted of their sins, troubled of their sin, troubled
of their life. Make their life miserable for
them. Make life distasteful. Take the flavor out of life for
them. Take and put rocks in their mouth.
Put rocks in their shoes. Make their life so uncomfortable,
Lord, that they can't stand it. And they'll come to you. And,
Lord, you can do that. You can do that. We ask that
you will. Have mercy on us today. Be merciful,
gracious, kind, strengthening and encouraging to the sick and
the discouraged. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Now, I want you to look back
with me here at Psalm 73. Psalm 73. And down in verse 17,
look what it says. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God, then understood I their end. I want to talk about understanding
the end. Understanding the end. There's
a lot of ends that we come to in life. We all understand what
the end means. It means the termination of something,
the finality of something. But it also means you have a
goal in purpose or an aim in purpose. You've got an end to
what you're going to do. There's an end to what you're
going to do. And there are several places in God's Word where it
talks about the end. Peter said this in chapter 4
and verse 7, the end of all things is at hand. And Peter, when He
followed the Lord Jesus and followed them afar off when they took
the Lord Jesus into the high priest to try him. It says that
Peter went and sat down there to watch to see the outcome,
to see what the end would be. He sat down to see the end of
what would happen. He won't see the outcome of what
would happen. The final conclusion, what is
the purpose? And I ask that God would be pleased
to let us all have an understanding of the end. And sometimes the
learning of what the end of something is is sometimes very difficult.
And that's why it was here in Asaph's case. He had a very,
very troublesome time in his mind and his heart and what was
going on in his life. And he started out by saying
the end of envy and the wicked. You know, he says in how foolish
it is to envy somebody, and the end of envy and the end of the
wicked, this is the first thing I want us to look at. He says
truly, verse 1, God is good to Israel, even such as are of a
clean heart. But as for me, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my
steps had well not slipped, for I was envious at the foolish,
I was envy at foolish things, is what he's saying. I was envy
at the most foolish, stupidest, ignorant things, that when I
saw the prosperity of the wicked. But he said, everything is good
for Israel. Is he not a member of Israel? Is he not in Israel? But he didn't
even count himself in those that God was good to. For he says,
but as for me, God's good to everybody but ask for me. He said, I was envious at the
foolish. I was envious of the foolishest
things and the foolish subject I was envious at. And then look
what he said what he was envious of, the prosperity of the wicked. He says, there's no bands in
their death. There's nothing. There's nothing that holds them.
Nothing binds them. Their strength is firm. They
don't have trouble come their way like other men. They're not
plagued like other men. And because of that, they get
so proud. They get so proud and so lifted
up. And their eyes stand out with
fatness. Their eyes just sparkle. Their
eyes just tell them, oh, you know, they just look like, you
know, everything's going. Their eyes sparkle, got life
in their eyes. And they have more than their
heart could wish, is what he says. But here's what they really
like. They are corrupt and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. If anybody oppressed them, they
speak wicked about it. They speak loftily. They speak
very high, very arrogantly. And boy, here's what happens
to the Lord's people. His people return there and waters
of a full cup are wrung out to them. And this is what they even
say among themselves. They say, how then does God know?
Is their knowledge in the most high? Don't God see what's going
on? Behold, these are the ungodly.
Don't God know this who prosper in the world? They increase in
riches. Oh my. Here he is. He's upright. And he doesn't
seem to see any good end in this world for himself even. He was
upset. Very upset. Very troubled. And all he's watching is what's
going on in the world. He's seeing how wealthy people
were getting. How people just ignored God. And proud and arrogant. Had anything their heart could
wish. And God just letting it go on like nothing was going
on. And he says, but for me and all the Lord's people said, God
takes the cup and He wrings out everything He can into their
cup. He said, oh, listen. He said,
this is the way it was until I went into the sanctuary. Then
I understood what's going to happen to these people before
it's all over. That's what he says. Oh, I understood
the world and the prosperity of the wicked, the ungodly who
prosper in this world. But look what he says what is
going to happen to them in verse 18. He said, surely you just
set them in slippery places. They don't know it. They're just
slipping and sliding in this world. They don't have sure footing
at all. They think they do, but they
don't have any sure footing at all. And he says, not all of
that, but you're going to cast them down into destruction. You go cast them down into very
destruction. And look what else he says. And
then desolation is in a moment they're utterly consumed with
terrors that everything's going to come on them, but they always
was afraid of having. And I tell you what, that's what's
going to happen to people in this world. I don't care how
big they get. I don't care how mighty they
are, how prosperous they are. And it's foolish, absolutely
foolish for a believer to ever envy anybody that's in this world.
If you're ever gonna emulate anybody and think of anybody
and consider anybody, consider emulating somebody that's godly
and righteous and walks upright in this world. It emulates somebody
that's got grace and love and mercy and kindness and generosity. But it just absolutely blows
my mind that people just, they hold up the, you know, They'll
ask somebody who the vice president is, they don't know, but you
ask them who some popular celebrity is married to, and they know
that just like that. And then you look at all these politicians,
my soul, they stand and lie to us flat-footed, promise things
that they can't give, and everybody just applauds them and goes and
lines up by the hundreds and thousands to see them. But you know what the end of
it's going to be for all of them that don't know God? People go, people, listen, this
Warren Buffett, you know, I don't want to get too carried away
with this kind of stuff, but there's people that pay $100,000
to get to eat lunch with that man once a year. You know why? Because they hope that his money-making
ability will rub off on them. I'd hate to have to buy their
lunch. But that happens. That's the
prosperity of the wicked. And oh, Asaph said, he said,
oh Lord, this is awful. I understood. And then he says,
look at verse 20, Lord, he says, and then I understood their end.
And then I understood what a fool I was. Look what he says down
verse 21. He said, oh, you're going to cast them. I understand
the end of what's going to happen to these people. You know, they're
just slipping and sliding. They don't have no sure footing.
They think they have sure footing in this world. It's like the
man that was rich and prosperous. And he said, oh, soul, said,
oh, you've got so much goods. He said, I don't know where I'm
going to bestow them all. He said, I'll tell you what I'll
do. I'll tear down my barns and build big ones. And he said,
I'll fill them up. Now, he said, soul, take thine ease. Be merry. For you've got much good laid
up for many years. And that very night, God said,
you fool. You fool. Tonight, your soul is required
of you. Oh, listen, and that's the way
this world is. I mean, it's on ice and it don't
know it. And then you look what he says
now, he said in verse 21, then I understood what a fool I was.
Thus was my heart grieved and I was pricked in my reins. So
foolish was I and ignorant. And I tell you what, when it
boils right down to it, he says, do you know what I feel like
before you? I said, I was like a beast before you. I didn't
even think about things the way it ought to be. Nevertheless,
I'm continuing with thee. And listen to this, even when
I'm in this condition, thou hast holden my hand. Thou hast holden
my right hand. and thou shalt guide me with
your counsel. As far as bad as I got, and as
far fest as I got, and as envious as I got of the wicked, he says,
you know, he says, you're gonna still guide me with your counsel,
and you're afterward gonna receive me up to glory. When I, who,
and this is what he finally learned. He said, whom have I in heaven
but thee? Who do I have in heaven but you?
Now he sees where his true riches are. He sees where his life really
is. He sees where his heart's at.
He sees where his treasure's at. He said, whom have I in heaven
on me? And there's none on earth that
I desire beside thee. Now, my flesh and my heart faileth. But oh, that's what he said,
didn't this? My flesh and my heart fails over
these things. But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion. And I understood, he said, now
I understand what a fool I was. But let me show you something.
I'm going to read two things to you while you turn to Job
chapter 42. I'm going to read something to you while you turn
to Job 42. I'm going to read something to you from the book
of James while you're turning over there. Job 42. Here's what James says about about Job, behold, we count them
happy, which endure, or blessed, which endure. You have heard
of the patience of Job, and listen to it now, and have seen the
end of the Lord, the goal of the Lord, the purpose of the
Lord, the finality of the Lord's dealing with Job, and that the
Lord is very pitiful and of a tender mercy. Now look what he says
here in Job 42. And if I get over there myself,
let me get there just, Job 42, look what he says here. And verse 10, and the Lord turned
the captivity of Jacob, or Job, excuse me, the Lord turned the
captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also, listen
to this, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he ever had before.
Then there came unto him all of his brethren, and all of his
sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before,
and did eat bread with him in his house. And they bemoaned
him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought
upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money, and every
one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter
end of Job more than his beginning. For he had fourteen thousand
sheep, six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and
a thousand she-asses. And he also had seven sons and
three daughters. He even doubled his family. How
do you know that? Because he already had ten in
glory. And now he gave him 10 more on the earth. So he had
22. God doubled everything he had. He took it all away and
he turned around and gave him twice as much as he ever had
before. That's the end of the righteous. That's the end of
those who know Christ. Oh, Job was tried severely, but
oh, the end results, what God had in purpose for Job. Now,
let's turn to Romans chapter 10, and let's look at the end
of the law. Understanding the end. Look at
the end of the law. Romans chapter 10. You know, understanding the end,
we understand the end of the wicked and we understand how
foolish we are when we envy anything in the world. We ought to pity those that's
in the world, ought to pity those that are so taken up with the
things of this world, especially our own families. But look what he says here. Romans
10 verse 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. There's an end of the law, the
purpose of the law, the goal of the law, the fulfillment of
the law, the whole of the law and the prophets were fulfilled
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now back up in verse 1, let's
go down through here just for a minute. Brethren, My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel that they might be saved.
We desire the salvation of our friends. We desire the salvation
of our families. And just like Paul did for Israel,
we want to see our families saved. I want to see people converted
here. I want to see salvation wrought out here in people's
hearts and lives. And we desire the salvation of
our friends and the families and people we love and care about.
And then he turns around and bears witness. He says, Oh, I
bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. He says, Oh, they know something
about God and like to talk about God, but when they talk about
it, they don't know what they're talking about. They don't have
any knowledge. And what he said is, how in the world could they
miss Christ? The law testified of him. The
prophet spoke about him. He was described in his coming
in his detail. Everything about our Lord was
described in the Old Testament down to the minutest detail and
yet they missed the Lord Jesus Christ with a Bible in their
hands. With the scriptures in their
hands. They'd rather say I belong to Moses or I belong to Elijah
or I belong to this or that or something else as to say People
all the time like to talk about God. How about knowing God? We'll talk about how God loves.
How about God loving you? People like to talk about how
Jesus loves to save people. How has Christ saved you? People want to talk about how
sinful everybody else is. How sinful are you? It's us that he said, and look
what he went on to say, and they was ignorant. I'll tell you something,
every man's born as ignorant as a post. I mean, ignorant of God, ignorant
of everything in this world. They know how to get on in the
world, know how to make a living, know how to do a lot of things,
but they're ignorant when it comes to the things of God. Their
understanding is darkened. And that's why Paul said, he
said, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant. And they
were ignorant of the most important subject that you can find in
the Bible. And what is that? That's the
righteousness of God. How do you know? Because he says,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. what the righteousness
that God requires. God requires righteousness of
everybody, and everybody don't have it, they gonna judge them
for being unrighteous. And where you gonna get a righteousness
that God will accept? And he says, and Paul said, they're
ignorant of it. And that's why he says, what
makes them so ignorant? Because they're going about to
establish their own righteousness. They won't talk about how good
they are and what they've accomplished and their works and their merit. How good they've been all their
lives. As far as I know, I ain't, I've been, as far as I know,
I've never mistreated anybody. As far as I know, I don't reckon
anybody's got anything against me. I ain't got nothing against
anybody else. You remember that fella's house burnt down? I took
him a whole bunch of clothes and gave him a check. Surely
that's gonna count for something. I stopped and helped a fella.
I stopped and got a gas can when a guy ran out of gas and bought
him some gas and went back and took it back to him. Surely,
surely that means something to God. You know what? Paul said if righteousness
come by the law, anything anybody could ever do, Christ is dead
in vain. Oh, listen now. And he says,
oh, they're going about to establish and talk about how good they
are and what they've done and what they've accomplished. And
oh, listen. And he says here, they haven't
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. What is
this righteousness they haven't submitted them to? Christ. Christ is the end, the fulfillment,
the purpose, the goal of the law was to bring us to Christ
and Christ is the end of the law. When you get to the end
of something, you can't go no further. Oh, listen here, I'll
tell you what, beloved. What is this righteousness? Christ
is. Righteous never by law, never
by works, never by doing. It was and is by believing. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. To who? They didn't say didn't
do anything. Don't do anything. He didn't
say run to the law. He didn't say run join a church.
He didn't say run become a Calvinist. He didn't say quit your chewing
and quit your messing around and quit your cussing, quit your
this, that and the other. He says Christ is the end of
the law for what? To who? Them that believe. Believe. Abraham believed God. God said, Abraham, you're a righteous
man. And I'll tell you something,
how could he believe God had he not been given life before
he ever believed God? You can't believe God until he
gives you life. Now, let me tell you something.
Oh, I'll tell you what, look what Moses did. Look what it
says here. Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law. He said, you know, if you want
to be saved by law and you want a righteousness to face God with
by law, he says that the man which does those things shall
live by. If you're going to do law, he says, you got to do,
you got to live by it. And everybody talks about all
the time, you got to live it, you got to live it. You got to
live this life, you know, you got to live right. You got to
live good. You got to live holy. You got to do all this living.
Moses said, if you're going to do that, you got to do it from
the day you're born to the day you die. And look what else he goes on
to say. But the righteousness that believes,
the righteousness that looks to Christ, the righteousness
that looks for nothing, asks for nothing, but the Lord Jesus
Christ, look what it says, but the righteousness which of faith
speaks on this wise, it doesn't say in your heart, what should
I do to get Christ, say it not by heart, who shall ascend into
heaven, who's going to bring Christ down for me, so what can
I do to get Christ to come do something for me? And faith doesn't
say that. Christ's already come and done
something for me. And then it says, who shall ascend
into the deep? That is, how can I get Christ's
death to do something for me? How can I get it to accomplish
something for me? But what does faith say? This is what faith
says. The words nigh thee. What word?
Christ and his righteousness and his work. And it's in your
mouth and in your heart. And that's the word of faith
which we preach. We preach, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you'll be saved. Believe in what he did. And oh,
he goes on to say that. And then that's what causes,
this is what happens. This is why we say this, that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and I do,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. I believe that, I believe that. For with the heart, listen to
it, the man believeth under righteousness. From here, that's where you believe. Here. The affections, the emotions,
the understanding. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. Oh, listen. Righteousness of
faith. Faith of people that trust Christ
and look to Christ, faith is absolutely, looks for nothing,
asks for nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all we want.
That's all we need. And it talks about Christ being
the end of the law. How is he the end of the law?
How is he the end of the law? Well, he's the end of the law
as a covenant. I'll tell you something. And
we sung that song this morning in 205. We're not under the law. Watch that song we sung in 205
there, you know. Blessed condition, O children
of God. Christ is a covenant. We're not
under a covenant. We're under a covenant of grace.
And then we're not under the law as a curse. Cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things in the book of the law to do
them. We're not under the curse. We're not under ceremonies. We
don't have to get somebody to do some kind of ceremony. We
don't have no altars. We don't have no candles to burn. We have no robes to wear. We
have no oil to anoint people with. We have no water to sprinkle
anybody with. We don't have any ceremony you
have to go through. People don't have to stand up,
don't have to raise their hands, don't have to come up here to
the front. No ceremonies. Christ is the end of the law
for all these ceremonies, for all these rituals that people
go through. Baptists and Presbyterians and all them, we don't have no
robes to wear, we don't have no beanie caps we got to put
on our head. None of those things. Christ
is the end of that. And He fulfilled it, all of it.
He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And
now everything there was just a shadow. Everything in the Old
Testament deported to Christ by prophecies and by promise.
But when Christ came, the shadow's gone away. We have the image.
We have Him. And let me ask you something.
How does somebody get faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? How does
somebody obtain faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, You're
not born with it. You're not born with it. Everybody's
got it. You just got to exercise it.
No, that's not true. That's not true. All men have
not faith. You know how you get faith? For
by grace are you saved through faith and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. God gives
it to you. He gives it to you. And then
a second way of receiving faith is hearing. Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. So Christ is that, that's one
end. Let me show you another end over here in 1 Timothy. And
then I'll be done. 1 Timothy. Look over here in
1 Timothy. Chapter 1 and verse 5. So we
have understanding the end of the wicked, understanding how
foolish we are. And oh, thank God, Christ is
the end of the law. You all remember there was a
dentist and his family that came here. They come here every summer
and they had a place over here somewhere. And he had three beautiful
daughters and his wife is all beautiful blond-headed girls.
They'd come out here for three weeks, and they'd show up Sunday
morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night for all three of those
weeks. Until one Sunday night, I preached on Galatians 3, where it says, you know, there that
we're not under the law, that even, you know, the just shall
live by faith. Curses is everyone that continues,
not in all things. And I said, if we're not under
the law and under no circumstances, under no situation, and I'm not
going to bring myself under the law, and I ain't going to let
nobody else, ain't nobody going to put me under bondage in any
way, shape, form, or fashion. They ain't going to tell me where
I can go, what I can wear, what I can eat, who I can fellowship
with, what I can do with my money, and where I'm even supposed to
attend services. Nobody's going to tell me that. They're not
going to tell me how to run my house. They're not going to tell
me how car I'm going to drive, they're not going to tell me
how clean it's got to be. I'm not going to be put under bondage. It's not going to happen. And
I preached along those lines and he met me right there at
the door. He said, Brother Don, he said,
did I understand you tonight to say that believers are not
under the law in any way? No way at all? I said, yep, that's
what I meant. He said, well, man, that's been
an antinomy. And I said, I don't care what
it means. I know what it means, and I ain't going under the law,
and neither is this congregation. And then his wife says up there,
you know, what about over there in 1 Corinthians where it says
the strength of the law is sin. I said, that's exactly right.
Sin finds its strength whenever you put people under law. You
start telling people what they can't do, and the next thing
you know, that's exactly what they're going to try to do. I've
told you time and time again, you leave your house sometime,
you leave your house and you close the door and lock the door
and you've got 15 rooms but there's 16 rooms, there's one room and
now don't go in that room. And you leave the house and you won't be gone five or
six minutes and they'll be doing their dead level best to get
in that room. You start telling people what
they can't do, and they say, well, I listen. I don't know
who you think you are, but I, and see, God don't even, Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself says, whom the Son sets free
is free indeed. You know what bondage we're into,
and I'll get to that later. The only bondage we have is to
love one another. That's the thing that God, that's
the bond that God, that's the only thing that we're bound by.
He says, by this shall all men know you're my disciples because
you'll have love one toward another. The law, and that's what we're
going to deal with right here. Look what it says in verse 5.
And when I get through with this, I'll finish it up tonight, Lord
willing. Look what it says here in verse 5. Now the end of the commandment,
the end of the law, the goal of the law, the purpose of the
law, the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart
and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. This was
the end and the aim and purpose of the commandment, charity. The aim of the law is to engage
our hearts to love God and love one another. Look what our Lord
Jesus said, Matthew 22. Matthew 22, look what our master
says over here. Matthew 22 and verse 35. You know, the gospel even tells
us to love our enemies and to do good to those that
hate you. You know, though I have the tongues
of men and angels and have not charity, I'm a sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. Though I understand all mysteries
and have all knowledge and have faith to move mountains and have
not charity, I have nothing. He said, if I give all my goods
to feed the poor and my body to be burned at the stake and
have not charity, it profits me nothing. Profits me nothing. But look what our master said
here in Matthew 22, 35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer,
I mean, this fellow, when he talked about a lawyer, he talked
about somebody that understands the law to the jots and the tittles,
asked him a question, tempting him and saying, master, which
is the great commandment in the law? Our Lord says this, thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind. That's the first and great commandment.
We can't do that until God puts his love in our heart. We love
God because why? He first loved us. And look what
else it says, and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and all the prophets. Huh? You know, this is the royal
law. Look in Romans with me. Look
in Romans 13. You know, the end of the commandment, we're talking
about law, Christ being the end of the law. Well, this is the
end of the commandment. Look in Romans chapter 13. They call
it a royal law. This is the royal law. And I
tell you what, our Lord Jesus, he says, you know, if you love
them that love you, what think have you? And if you're only
good to people that's good to you, what think have you? If
we only was good to people that's good to us, we wouldn't be very
good to very many people, would we? We wouldn't. You know, if you're
only good to somebody that's good to you, it'd be a tough
old world to live in, wouldn't it? But look what he said here
in Romans 13, 8. Oh, no man anything but to love
one another. Everybody here got that debt
paid? Huh? Oh, no man anything but to love
one another. You got that debt paid up? Could you write out the bill
and say, paid in full? Here, Donnie. I've paid that
bill, I don't owe you any more love. I love you and I paid you
up. We ever gonna get that debt paid?
Look what else he goes on to say. For he that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law. Did you hear what that said?
He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. And oh, listen, and this is what,
this is what some of these law keepers told me. They say, well,
how do you keep your people from committing adultery? What do
you do if somebody commits adultery or kills or steals and bears
fault with, what do you do about it? I don't know. I said, I don't
do anything. I said, the gospel deals with those issues. And
I said, and I went on to say this. I've said this, several
people said when I was lost. When I was 20 years old, when
I was 19 years old, when I was 17 years old, when I was 25 years
old, I knew every one of those things was wrong. Nobody had to tell me that lying
and stealing and cheating and all that was wrong. I knew it
was wrong. But did knowing it was wrong
keep me from doing it? No. But when God puts His Spirit
in you and the love of Christ in you, then things change. dramatically. He writes His law in your heart,
and the first law He writes in there is love. Love. That's the first thing He puts
in your heart. And look what He says now. And
thou shalt not covet, in verse 9, if there be any other commandment,
it's briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. Now listen to it. Love worketh
no ill to his neighbor. Any of y'all got any neighbors
that you just sit around and think about, you know, boy, I
sure would like to do this to them, do that to them, hurt them
this way, hurt them that way? No, you wouldn't do that. You
don't do that. No, they don't even think ill to your neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. You want to be under the law?
That's the law that the scriptures tells us to be under. Ain't that
right? Would you all agree with that?
That's what it says, ain't it? And then back over here in 1
Timothy where it says, now the end of the commandment is charity.
Charity. And then look what it says, out
of a pure heart. Oh, now. 1 Timothy 1.5, out of a pure heart,
an honest heart. Paul was preaching in Acts 15
and who says there that God has purified our hearts by faith.
Matthew 5a says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall
see God. Now a lot of people think that
that happens at the end, you know, if you got a pure heart
and you're blessed, you know, you'll see God in the end. No,
no, this is not something we're going to attain, then see God. No, we see God now. Why? Because
God has purified our hearts by faith. We have pure hearts. Where do we get a pure heart?
Christ spinkled our consciences with his blood. Having a pure
conscience in us all called a true heart drawn near with a true
heart full of assurance. Now, none of us say we've got
a pure heart, but God says he purified our hearts. God don't
dwell in an unclean man. God don't dwell in a heart that's
not pure. And he purifies it himself with
the spirit of God. And that's why I'm telling you,
you know, I'm taking too long, but I tell you, sin to a believer
becomes It becomes, it has something to, he don't have to do a thing
in the world to sin. All he's got to do is thank the
wrong thing. All he's got to do is feel the
wrong way about something and that becomes sin to him. I'll
tell you what, you don't have to say a word. You don't have
to go anywhere. But to a believer, what goes
through his mind and what comes in his heart becomes so sinful
sometimes that he barely can bear it. Ain't that right? Now that's
what we're talking about, a pure heart. How could you? And that's
what we mean. Oh my. And then he says out of
a good conscience, a pure heart and out of a good conscience,
A conscience, a good conscience. Paul's talk about a void of offense
toward God and a void of offense toward men. I'll tell you something, I'm
going to tell you the truth. When you're facing death, facing death
is not for yourself, but somebody you dearly, dearly, dearly love.
I'll tell you what you do. Your purpose in your heart not
to go through this world with any regrets. going through this world, holding
grudges, and being ill, and being contrary. Because I tell you,
life is too short. Life is too brief, and life is
too full of trouble for us to waste one moment in time going
through this life saying, I wished I had, I wished I had, I wished
I had. If you wish you do it, then do it. Do it. If you want to go someplace,
go. Do you want to do something?
Do it. But don't go through this life
saying, I wished I had, I wished I had, I wished I had, I wished
I had. Don't do that. Don't do that. And that's why
it says a good conscience. Let's go through this world with
one another with a good conscience, a pure conscience, vote of office
toward one another. Let's love one another, be kind
to one another, tender-hearted one to another, forgiving one
another, even as God, for Christ's sake, forgave us. I'm not going to leave this world
with any regrets towards you and toward the way I treated
him. I'm not going to do it. God helping me, I'm not going to
do that. And a faith unfeigned. Oh, listen, we have the blood
of sprinkling, and that'll satisfy our conscience. And then he says,
of faith unfeigned. Oh, my. What's faith unfeigned? When you feign something, that
means you pretend. It means you pretend. It means you put on. He says,
a faith that's real, that's true, that's genuine. A real, genuine
belief of the truth. Nothing phony, nothing put on.
And what he's saying now, listen, you have a heart. He says, this
is what the law means. He says, the law's fulfilled.
Love God. Love your brethren. Love one
another. Love one another. Don't owe nobody nothing but
that. And then, you know, having a good conscience. Hold, hold, you know. And then
he goes on to say, have faith unfeigned, no hypocritical, no
phony, not put on. And what he's saying is, is that
they really love, they really truly love, they really need,
they must have Christ, they must have the gospel, they must have
the fellowship of the church, they must. And we're their charity,
These things are the fruit of it. The fruit of it. Now, I'll try to finish this
tonight. I've got two or three more points, but I'll finish
them tonight. But that's a good point to leave on, isn't it?
The end of the commandment. Charity. Love. Good conscience. Good conscience. Have a good
conscience for God. Have a good conscience toward
one another. And then have a faith that's
not phony, not put on, it's real, genuine. That's got to have Christ,
got to have the gospel, got to have the fellowship of the saints
of God, got to have it, just got to have it. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the
truth. And oh, Lord, your book, your
word's just too big, just too big, just so much of it. Lord, we scratch the surface. We seek to Be honest, and oh
Lord, the Lord, your word speaks to me. Oh, how it speaks to me,
and I pray that you'd cause it to speak to the others that's
here. Oh, Holy Spirit, speak to us
through your word. Father, bring glory to yourself
in this service today. We thank you for allowing us
to meet. In Christ's name, amen, amen.