the book of 1st Timothy and we're
continuing to talk today about peace. Peace. I've been pondering this in my
own life over the last few weeks about how really the one true
antithesis of the peace of Christ in the heart of our flesh is
indeed discontentment. Let's think about that for a
second. And let's just call it what it is, as the old adage
is, call a spade a spade. To be discontent is to sin against
the Lord. No amens. To be discontent is
to sin against the Lord. No matter the reason, no matter
the circumstances, no matter the environment, So by that reality,
by that statement alone, we all can say very clearly that we
have sin in our lives. I mean, we know other sins, right?
But the sin of discontentment is the opposite of peace. Fear, doubt, where does it come
from? I think it roots in discontentment.
We wish we were in a different place. We wish we had different
circumstances. We long for a different scenario. We're not at peace where we are. That's the whole idea of being
discontent. We're not at peace where we are. We're not at peace
with what we have. We're not at peace with who we
are. We're not at peace with what
we want. But the opposite, or the outcome
of discontentment is despair, hardness, bitterness, frustration,
fickleness, insecurity, and the list goes on and on. For me,
anger. When things aren't going my way,
I'm angry. Not at anyone, just in general. I could punch the
air, you know? That's my protection. I get angry. Why? Because when I'm angry,
I feel strong. How about you? It's like an ant pointing his
finger in God's face. As Brother Trey read out of Job
this morning, you know, who are you to question me? But that's
what we do. That's what we are, beloved.
Even in our regenerated flesh, our flesh is weak. Our flesh
is sinful. Our flesh is wasting away and
it will, in its corruption, die. It will die and it will be destroyed. And for we who are in Christ,
it will be renewed. The soul shall not die. The spirit
shall not die. But the sinful flesh will. It's
a promise. In philosophy circles, without
getting into the weeds, let's just say that it's been for a
very long, long time understood that the simplest answer is typically
the thing that we should focus on. Jesus taught us that. When he says, faith like a child,
unless your faith is as one of these a simile, It's making a
comparison that as a child believes anything and everything, so should
the faith of a child of God be. Not bogged down in the weeds
and the ditches and the thickness of the depths of all these crazy
stuff. Not with absolute constant plowing
against the mud of contemplation. But just sitting still like a
leaf on a pond. flowing in the wind of the Spirit. That is literally blowing where
it wishes. Now think about the difference
between plowing through mud and resting on the top of the water's
surface. A child and a child's faith rests
in a simple way. A child can be discontent, but
it doesn't take much to pacify them, does it? I know you just
had a horrible day, you want a piece of candy? Candy, hey.
You see? We have Christ. Candy can make
all sorts of boo-boos be better for a child, but we have Christ.
And yet we still are discontent. Oh, no, you don't have Christ,
some will say. Christ says you have him. Better
yet, Christ says he has you. And if your faith rests in him,
you belong to him. And the reason that you know
you belong to him is because you know him. Beloved, this letter. Is going
to deal with a lot of discontentment. This letter that Paul, these
letters that Paul has written to his protege, Timothy, to this
elder, to this young boy who is now in charge of an entire
city. Of overseeing the joy of the
saints. and their well-being in the faith. Timothy's not evangelizing them. He is overseeing those who have
heard the good report of the finished work of God Almighty
through the one he set apart and anointed for himself to satisfy
his justice in his death. That is gospel. That's a modern-day,
literal definition of gospel, what I just said. But we're discontent. By nature,
we're discontent. And we're always looking for
that next experience. We're always looking for that next understanding.
We're trying to seek after that next epiphany. Hey, we can ride
the waves. We don't want still water. We
don't want that which is promised in John's revelation. The sea
of glass. What is that picture there? No
waves, no ripples. What is that an image of? Absolute,
eternal, sovereign, divine peace. That's what it's a picture of.
And guess what's happening in that imagery? There's no sea
of glass in the imagery of that exposition. The wicked are being
cast into the lake of fire. So you think there'd be a little
turmoil in the water, right? No. Absolute contentment. Absolute
confidence. Absolute peace. Absolute rejoicing. Because all is well with the
soul of righteousness. Beloved, I really think that
this is the point. This is the stick. This is the
wrench and the cog of Christian living in America right now for
the true church is that we have lost our joy in Christ. And we long for another lover.
We long for a greater knowledge. We long for a deeper experience
when everything that God is has been revealed to us in Christ.
And there is nothing that he has for us that he has not already
given us. And we're all guilty. Some people think preaching ought
to be convicting. No, the word of God is convicting.
Some people think preaching ought to be only theological things
about redemption, but yet that's not what the apostles taught. The apostles taught doing. The
apostles taught being, the apostles taught and commanded joy. Do
you know the whole expression of belief on Jesus Christ is
a commandment from God to his people? Change the way you are
thinking and believe on the things that I say about who I am. This
is Christ speaking. We have summed it up in repent,
believe, repent, have faith. But we don't know what that means.
And so we're discontent even in our understanding of these
things. Beloved, we're not here to be
discontent. We're here so that as the elders
oversee our joy, we are learning to be composed in the simplicity
of grace, to rest in the sufficiency of Christ. and realizing that
that resting, that striving to rest and working to rest is a
spiritual battle, not a physical one, not an emotional one, not
a mental one, not an academic one, not a theological one. It
is a spiritual battle with which the spiritual forces of evil
are working against the very flesh that we live in and the
power of God the Holy Spirit who does as he pleases with the
elect and the non-elect. will guide us to truth and patience
and peace. And the outcome of that will
be joy. We were in Philippians, we've been in all sorts of places.
So, Paul, what I'm doing, for those of you who haven't been
here, is I am taking the idea of grace, mercy, and peace. We
talked about grace, we talked about mercy, now we're talking
about peace. This is week three. Next week, we're going to talk
about peace with each other. Today is peace of the soul and
the mind in the context of our assurance because of God's grace
and mercy toward us. Where do we find our contentment
in the Christian life? That's why it's easy for a pastor.
Let me change that. It's easy for a preacher to guilt
people into coming to church. It's impossible for a pastor
to do so. Because guilt should never drive you to the cross
of Christ. Guilt should never drive you and fear should never
drive you to the pew. Guilt should never press you
into loving your neighbor. Grace does that. Grace does that. And the pulpit is to help us
steer our household of faith into the right direction that
gives glory to Christ and deals with issues and expressly dealing
with them as the scripture commands us to do. And so peace and joy
are commandments of God. He commands us to be content. He commands us not to complain.
He commands us through Paul to the Thessalonians to not even
worry about other people's business. How far have we come from learning
the simplicity of what God is teaching us? And I hear the voices
already in my head. I hear them as I had these conversations.
Some of our very church members have even accused me of being
a legalist because I tell the body what they should be doing.
That is demonic to accuse us of that. Because to say that we aren't
to do certain things because of whose we are is to ignore
the full counsel of the Word of God. It's blasphemous. It's spitting,
according to Paul in Hebrews, it's spitting in the face of
Christ. because we don't have to think
about how we relate to one another. If we think purity in the faith
is just knowing the gospel, then we don't need the Bible. We just
need a couple of chapters out of it. We need a couple of things. We don't even need Genesis. You
didn't need to know the gospels there. You see how silly that
is? Beloved, I say that Because I
think the simplest thing is that we don't read the scripture.
We're not reading the Bible. Out of the last dozen or so,
and I haven't counted them, I just thought about this yesterday,
out of the last dozen or so conversations I've had with Christians about
theological things that they're concerned about in their own
life and understanding, not one of them have received this epiphany
from the reading of the word. that has brought their concern
to their mind. None, not one of them, none of
them, not one of them. They read an article here, they
watched a sermon here, they had some conversation with somebody
over here, they were thinking in the shower. See, I'm dangerous
in the shower. I don't know what it is, you're
just in this mode of doing your business and your brain is like
on fire. Is every am I the only crazy
person in here? Okay, everybody's on. And I thought, man, if I
give me a waterproof recorder, but you know, the hot water run
out. I'd never get out of there. I mean, literally, last night,
I'm trying to get out of the shower so I could go write something
down that was really just awesome. And I couldn't remember by the
time I got out. Waterproof ink and paper. I don't know what
to do. I digress. But no, I'm not the only nut
in the house. But we think about these things
and that's where we get these ideas. We think about them, we
are introduced to them. Beloved, these exterior ideas
are the devil's work. He is the master of these exterior
ideas. And they always, 100% of the
time, sound spiritual because that's his trick. Did God really
say He didn't say, let's look at what God said. He said, did
God really say that you would die? And every false teacher, the
ones that are bothering Ephesus, the church of Ephesus that we'll
get to in a couple of weeks, I promise, are questioning what
God's word has said, what the apostles have written. And they're
taking it deeper than what's given. out of context, into a
pretext of their own conversation, in their own mind, and beloved,
we are guilty, we get discontented when we try to go outside of
the simplicity of grace. And you know what? Then we start
to doubt our salvation. We ask the question, am I really
a Christian? Well, by definition, a Christian is one who does what
scripture teaches them to do. Let me say that again. By definition,
a Christian is the one who does what Scripture teaches them to
do, who does it. There are so-called unconverted
Christians. Now listen to the play on words
I'm having here. Because the word Christian was a pejorative
term, what does that mean? That means it was a mockery of
those people who were living as Christ's apostles had commanded
them to, and the people of the culture looked at them and mocked
them. So look at those little Christ followers. That's what
Christian means, Christ follower, the people who live like Jesus,
the people who act like Jesus, the people who talk like Jesus,
the people who love like Jesus. Now, I'll be honest with you,
the evangelical world of Southeast Georgia is so far from living
and acting like Jesus, it'll blow your mind. The minute Jesus became a Republican,
it became demonic. The minute. Evangelical church,
majority of it is just a cult. It traps people. Sovereign grace
movement, majority of it is just a cult. Reform movement, listen,
any time there's a movement, it's going to be a cult before
the end of it. It's going to take somebody else, it's going
to take the thoughts of simple teaching of scripture and it's
going to pervert them into possible ideas or philosophies or incredible
accounting. And it's going to make it sound
like something that the Bible doesn't teach to the point that
we ponder ourselves into discontentment. And then we've got the King James
only controversy, and then we've got this controversy, and that
controversy, and the marrow issue. And I'm not saying these things
should be handled. We have to handle controversies. But how
about we stop making them? Where do they start? Up here
in our brains. And we get discontent and we
say, well, I am a Christian. I don't know. Are you living
as Christ calls you to live? Well, am I an elect? Do you believe
in Christ as the scripture commands? Has God granted you the faith
to rest in Him? The idea is not, am I elect so
that I can believe? The idea is, do you hear the
command to believe and follow it? And guess what the scripture
says? The natural man cannot do that. The unconverted man
cannot do that. The man that's not born of the
Spirit, John 3, cannot rest in the sufficiency of Christ. Nicodemus,
in the conversation Jesus had with him, could not rest in the
instruction Jesus gave him. Nicodemus could not obey the
command that Jesus was giving him. And so Jesus gives these
contrasts. Those who are believing in me, have eternal life. And those
who are not believing in me are condemned already. He was telling
Nicodemus he was condemned already because he was not believing
in me. This is simple teaching. We're not to dive into what Jesus
really, really, really, really meant. and then decide about
where God's going to really be thinking about certain things
in the context of that conversation and how God was looking at Nicodemus.
You know why we're not supposed to go there? Because God did
not reveal himself to us that way. And that is to ask, is God
really like this? Did God really say this? And
this is where a pastor versus a preacher will start to become
very clear. Because I despise, I despise
when people cause you to doubt the very teaching of Christ.
Because that's the devil's business. And the flesh is ready for it,
isn't it? We don't even have to talk to ourselves. Those thoughts
just pop into our minds. So not am I a Christian, am I
elect? Am I even eternally chosen before
the foundation of the world? Oh, what am I? How many of you,
just by a show of hands, have had an evangelistic conversation
with a friend, or family member, or neighbor, or co-worker, and
that has come out of their mouth? They've asked, well, how do I
know I'm elect? Yeah, all of us. I hear it all the time. It is
the number one rebuttal to my evangelism. Because when I teach
what the Scripture teaches concerning God's promise to His people,
the very next question out of most of their mouths is, well,
how do I know I'm one of God's people? You're not listening. You're not listening. But then
we get discontent and then we have this word saved. Am I saved? Am I saved from what? I don't
know. Have you saved your money? Are
you saved from famine? Are you saved? See, the idea
of redemption and salvation, we have taken the word, are you
saved or you're not saved? You better get saved. You see
how bad that is? This is not about us getting
saved. And I love statistics, and I
love data, and I love stuff as it relates to anthropology. I
love it. I love to read what people think
and how they operate because I can't figure myself out, but
I can listen to what other people are saying. and it's a lot easier
in that context. But I see people talk about salvation,
and I see salvation being used in such a broad way to really
think, people get to the point to really think that if they
haven't come to a certain degree of understanding of things, that
they're not saved. But what does the Bible say about salvation?
Salvation is of what? The Lord. Salvation is by grace. For by grace you have been saved.
Now we've already gone through that. We've gone through that
for the last year and a half, two years, three years, ten years now. We've
talked about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace
of God. All three persons are God. One
being. Don't forget that. And God's grace saves us. What
does that mean? God's mercy saves us. God's loving
kindness saves us. God's purposes saves us, save
us. And what is that all boiled down
to? God's promise. God's promise saves us. So then
when we settle that, OK, God is the one who saves. So we're
saved by the promise of God through Jesus. OK, great. Oh, sure, I'm
saved. But am I born again? You see,
and it never ends. It never ends. Well, I don't
know, let me give you a survey. The survey's not in the Bible.
The quiz isn't here in the scripture. Someone confesses to be in the
faith, and they have learned and been taught the gospel clearly,
and God causes them to rest in the sufficiency of the work of
Christ, then we can consider them born again. What happens
when they doubt? We reassure them based on the
promises of God, not on their performance. Based on the promises
of God, not on their person. Based on the promises of God,
not on their correct profession. Because anytime we put the condition
on anything that the man is, does, or produces, we are preaching
a false gospel. I don't give a flip what it is. Any condition is a false gospel. Any condition is a false gospel
when it comes from me and you. Now, that doesn't let us ignore
faith. That doesn't let us ignore necessary
conditions because A condition put on me and who I am and what
I've done and all this kind of stuff is not the promise of God.
But yet, without faith, we tell people they're under condemnation.
Without belief given by the Spirit, we don't tell people that they're
justified. This is simple stuff, y'all.
Faith is a necessary condition of salvation, which is a necessary
condition of redemption, which is a necessary condition of justification. You're saved by grace through
faith. If you don't believe you're saved by grace, you are not justified
to anybody. It doesn't matter how God sees
you if you're elect, you're going to get come to faith five years
from now. That's not in the Bible. What's
in the Bible is where are you now? What do you believe this
moment? And what are you resting this
very second? You see how easy it is to be
discontent? Mark my word, beloved, what I
just said in the last five minutes will make me a heretic in many
people's eyes. And you know what I say to them?
Que sera, sera. You know why? Because I can't
worry about what people think about the truth of Scripture.
That's God's business. It's God's business. If I'm wrong,
the Spirit of God will correct me. If I'm saying it wrong, the
Spirit of God will guide me and we'll all learn together. But we can have peace in our
heart and mind because of the promises of God. I want us to
turn to Romans 8, and I want us to read. We're going to read
a lot of scripture this morning. As a matter of fact, I don't have a whole
lot of preaching to do after that little introduction, because God's Word
says enough. And I'm going to show you a little
bit through our walk, and we're going to go through Romans 8 real quick.
We're going to also go through Hebrews, several different chapters,
reading probably 20 minutes' worth of scripture in the next
40. Because the scripture teaches
us. Two things are going to happen. One, you're going to learn the
truth that the scripture is trying to teach you and teach me, teach
us, and we're going to understand peace from the position of assurance.
And then we're also going to learn how exposition is really
done. Because the scripture actually
preaches itself and then we pause and ponder it and make application. In Hebrews, excuse me, in Romans
chapter 8, we'll go to Hebrews in a minute. In Romans chapter
8, Paul starts with these words, there is, therefore, now. All right? What does that mean?
He has said some things, and then he's saying, therefore,
because of what I've just taught you, there is now. So what he's
about to say is present, a present reality. And what is the present
reality? What is the present reality he's
talking about? No condemnation. So presently, there is therefore
no condemnation. Who's he talking about? For those
who are in Christ Jesus. What has he already said? Romans
1 through 7. What has he already said in Romans
4 and 5? It is faith resting in the sufficiency of God's promise
to his people to effectually apply justice through the anointed
one that he has sent. That's what Christ means, by
the way. The anointed one who was sent. to satisfy His wrath
that righteousness has upheld. Why? As a substitute for His
people's sin that He might forgive them having their sins paid for
in righteousness so that they would become the righteousness
of God, imputed to them, credited to them from Christ. Okay? So those who are in Christ Jesus
have the peace of God. And then he says, for the law
of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from
the law of sin and death. Now we have a lot of things to
talk about when we use the word law, but ultimately we need to
understand that law is anything that God has asked, commanded,
or written in regard to conditions for blessings and promises, or also condemnation. like we see in the Decalogue
or the Ten Commandments. If you do not do these things,
you die, for the wages of sin is, as Paul has already said,
death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.
So we are in the Spirit, we have been set free from the law of
sin and death. Our guilty verdict has been placed
on Christ, who has been punished in our place, so the law has
no power over us in condemnation. Okay? You need to understand
this. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could
not do. The law could not give you life.
It will always kill you if you seek life by obedience. I'm not
talking about temporal experiences. And Trey spoke on this a few
weeks ago. How did he do so? By sending
his son in the likeness of sinful flesh, there's the substitute,
and for sin, for the sake of sin. He condemns sin in the flesh. Why? In order that the righteous
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, I've already
said that, I've already explained that, who walk not according
to the flesh, not according to the precepts, not according to
what we can do, not according to obedience, not according to
all these spiritual things that we think are spiritual that we
are doing in fleshly ways, not in discontentment thinking we
need to do better, not in performance, but according to the Spirit,
because the Spirit informs the mind of the regenerate of the
sufficiency of the work of Christ, and then by the reading of the
Word of God as He sees fit, through the assembly and the oversight
and the maturing of the saints together, we individually and
corporately grow into our understanding of what God has done deeply,
more so some than others. That's why some people seem to
never be shaken. In their faith, there's always
rock solid, but some of us, it's like, oh, I saw a rock. I didn't stub my toe on it, but
I saw it, and now I'm all upset, you see? I know I'm gonna stub
my toe before the day's over. Well, move the rock. I don't
wanna go near it, cause I'll stub my toe, but I know I'm gonna
stub my toe anyway, you know? I mean, that's how most of us
are, right? About something. and for sin he condemned sin
in the flesh, in order that the righteous will cry unto the law,
and it might be fulfilled in us who walk, not according to the
flesh, but according to the Spirit." So for those who live according
to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. How
am I doing? What do I want? What about lust? What about sin?
These things that I know I shouldn't desire, that I do desire. Oh
no, I must not be born again because I got sin in my life.
Oh my gosh, I got to get better so that I can be better. And
all this stuff, and it's just this turmoil. And it's where
the Romans were. I taught 37 weeks in Romans.
It was a very quick read-through. It's on the church website if
you want to see it. It's not impressive or anything, but it's just like
what we're doing now. We read and we talk and read and talk because the
scripture pretty much preaches itself in these letters. And so we walk according to the
Spirit, not according to the flesh. For those who live according
to the flesh, verse 5, set their minds on the things of the flesh.
And sometimes we labor in fear and discontentment spiritually
because we're trying so hard to do everything correctly so
that we can prove to our own consciences that we are indeed
born again when the Bible is the root of our assurance and
its promises therein. Because those who live according
to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
The Spirit is the one who converts. The Spirit is the one who regenerates.
The Spirit is the one who teaches. The Spirit is the one who gives
confidence. The Spirit is the one who grants faith. The Spirit
is the one who gives repentance. And so we're thinking wrongly
when we think, what must I do to be or go or grow versus what
has God promised me about these things? Spirit. The hardest thing that we can
do, let's talk about this for a second, and Paul talks about it also
in this very same chapter because it's the very next thing. Well,
I can't even pray correctly, right? How many of you, don't
raise your hand, but I mean, how many of you are discontent
with your prayer life? Why? Because you start and it's
like, what's going on? Where did all these thoughts
come from? What's happening here? The discipline for me for prayer
is first to read and to praise and to soak in the word. And
then I realize sometimes that I'm trying to pray in my flesh. Sometimes I realize that I'm
thinking about the flesh, that I'm setting my mind on the things
according to the flesh. How am I going to pray? Why can't
I pray? God help me pray. rather than just resting in the
reality that God's Spirit says He would pray and intercede for
us. How does that flesh itself out
practically? I think you're just going to have to experience it.
We see the disciplines of how we should pray, how we should
model our prayers, when we should pray, about what things we should
pray, the posture and the attitude of prayer, but ultimately it's
about the Spirit of God. And as long as we're trying to
be the prayer warriors that the culture says we should be, we're
never going to pray in the Spirit. You see how it's so easy for
people to want to get mixed up in the supernatural aspect of
that? Ooh, if I pray in the Spirit, then it must be another tongue,
you know? Nope. That's not what the Scripture
teaches. Those who live according to the
Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit, the things
that God has done and promised, the person of Christ. For to
set the mind on the flesh is death. Is death not the outcome? The destruction of our joy, the
destruction of our contentment, the eradication of our peace
when we constantly labor over who we are and what we're trying
to do and why we can't be the Christians we want to be. I mean,
you know what's really a cycle, a vicious cycle, is when you're
discontent and you're frustrated and you're angry and you're bitter,
and then you're bitter and discontent and frustrated and angry about
your anger, frustration, bitterness, and discontentment. And you need to hit your head
on the rock and go to sleep a little while. You see? Let somebody
kick the rock in our heads, and maybe we'll be a little more
spiritual during that coma. Not to make jokes about comas. For to set the mind on the flesh
is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."
It's peace. Beloved, you've got to read your
Bible. Don't read verses. Read your
Bible. Read the letters of God. Read the Spirit of God speaking
to His people. Read the Bible. Read it. I cannot tell you that this is
the only place you are going to find contentment and peace
and the only means through which you will find rest for your souls
and the only place and the only discipline that will cause you
to make good wise choices and to get out of our emotional turmoil,
fear and frustration. For the mind that is set on the
flesh is hostile to God. Now, beloved, we know in the
context of hostility toward God, this unconverted mind is hostile
to God. But beloved, I'm going to tell
you right now, the converted mind that is set on the flesh is hostile
to God. Because it violates the promise of God's peace. It contradicts
what God has promised us in Christ. And not only what God has promised,
what God has finished. What God has fulfilled. See,
an unbeliever, when I say these things, they go, huh? I just don't understand how I
can be at peace with God without cleaning myself up, without being
something better, without doing something. Well, that's the whole
point. You can't be at peace with God until He shows you how
He has made peace with you. Those who have the mind and the
soul and the flesh and have hustled to God for it does not submit
to God's law. Isn't that the craziest thing? Because isn't
that the hostility? Isn't that what we're all talking
about? Discontent or I need peace. I'm going to do and be and strive
and do and be and strive to the point where now I feel as though
I am adhering to the commands of Christ to a better degree
than I was. And the scripture says that person
is hostile and cannot submit to God's law. Why? Because God's law says we must
live in the spirit. that which God has accomplished.
Indeed it cannot, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And of course Paul is talking about the unconverted here. I
just made that little side idea that we also can be hostile in
our thinking when we put on flesh. You however, verse 9, are not
in the flesh but in the Spirit if in fact the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although
the body is dead because of sin, see you thought I was making
that up when I started out the sermon, didn't you? The spirit
is life because of righteousness. Now let me state something and
then move to Hebrews. The spirit of God, God himself
in us, working in us, is our life. We're gonna sing it. Number 389 right there. All I have is Christ. God is our life. We are not our
life unto God. God is our life. The Spirit of
God in us is our life. Our bodies in all of their glory
are dead. Our fleshliness in all of its
perfection is dead. Our obedience and absolute striving
is dead. Now I'm not saying, because he's
already dealt with this. See, you gotta know where Paul's
come from. Paul's already said, okay, I'm
preaching a gospel that is all of grace. I'm preaching a good
report here of what God has done. And he's just, he's done it and
slung you into it. He snatched you out of death
and crammed you into the bread dough of eternal life, Jesus
Christ. And there's nothing you can, you can't get out of it.
You can squirm, he's gonna bake you in there and you can't escape.
There's no way you can get away. He's the big, body-building uncle
that hugs forever. You know? You don't get away
now, are you boy? Gives you that noogie up there
and you got bruises on your skull. God will not let you go. And
the natural response is, Ha! I can do what I want to do. Live
how I want to live. Be how I want to be. The Addams Family. I mean,
you know, we can just do what we want to do. There's no recourse. Of course there's a recourse
in the context of our temporal lives. And the worst part is
when we sin, we're actually shaming Christ because He died
for that sin. So should we continue to sin
that grace may abound? It cannot be, Paul says. Do not
do that. What's the instrument of keeping
us in check? Praise and joy and peace in the gospel of grace.
sovereign and free, and then the glory in the name of our
Father and the reputation in the name of His body as He is
our head amongst the brethren. There's a lot at stake when we
just sin, but not our eternal security, not God's redemptive work. It's
not at stake. It's not at stake. The greater motivator to submission
is the love of God over any condemnation. So Paul's already dealt with
that. That's why you read Romans, not just chapter 8. Chapter 8,
oh wow, this is great. Of course it's great, because
we've gone through some struggles here, haven't we? Spirit is life because of righteousness.
So God is our life because of righteousness, because God has
killed his son in order to establish and uphold righteousness, because
he is going to give us a pass for our guilt. We have worked really hard to
get our check, the check is due, even if you don't pick it up
from the employer, the employer has to send it to the state and
the state holds it in an escrow forever. An employer cannot take
your money back if you don't pick up your final check. That's
yours. The check of death is written
for us. But Jesus cashed it. You see? So, life, because of righteousness. Because
Jesus died, righteousness is upheld. I mean, you know, we've
got to get the Hebrews, but Romans three, the righteousness of God
is not displayed in the law, though it's a shadow of it. The
prophets of the law bear witness to righteousness, but the right,
the true righteousness of God, the fulfillment of what the shadow
of the law gives is Jesus Christ. And more than just Jesus in his
person is his work of redemption, his propitiatory work of satisfying
God, the Father's wrath and justice and righteousness in his death
for the sake of his people. How do I know? He grants you
the faith to rest in the sufficiency of the work of his son. But we're not in the flesh, we're
in the spirit. If the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you. We have peace. Peace within. Peace with God. Peace In the
gospel, peace with God the Father, peace because of the work of
Christ, peace inside of our hearts and minds to know that we have
eternal life. Now, go over to the book of Hebrews,
and we'll spend the rest of our time here today. When we go and we begin to read
in this text, it's so hard to start. This letter is written
in such a way it's almost impossible to pop in the middle of it. It's
really difficult because it is like you got eight minutes to
write this Paul and go! And he just wrote and it sent
it and it was done. It wasn't, you know, it's written
in such a way that it is one message. It's one message. And then there's some application
and some therefore and some commandments from God through the Apostle
Paul to the Hebrew Jewish, ethnic Jewish people who are in Christ
Jesus. who are being tempted to look
inwardly for their assurance, who are being tempted to walk
away from the peace that God has established through His Son
and to try to find some solace, some contentment, some confidence
in the doings of Judaism, which is to the strict adherence to
the precepts of Moses, a.k.a. the law of God, the prophets,
etc. And Paul starts this letter out by saying to the recipients,
God has spoken to us and our forefathers for a long, long,
long, long time through the prophets. And we've learned a lot about
who He is, but now we know Him perfectly because He speaks to
us through His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through
whom also He created the cosmos. He is the radiance of the glory
of God and the exact imprint of His nature and upholds the
universe by the word of His power. After making purification for
sins, He finished and sat down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. having become as much superior to angels as the name
he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. And then this, oh,
this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful expressions from verses five
through verse 14 or through verse 13 about how God the father even
calls the son, God. And then he tells the Hebrew
people to pay attention, just like they were told to pay attention
in the Exodus, and that those who didn't pay attention to the
promises of God, they found themselves dying in the wilderness for 40
years. You know, that's why God left Israel in the wilderness,
so that the unbelieving generation would die out. And all the children were like,
come on, Dad, really? I want to spend my childhood
in the desert. Sorry. So pay attention. It's been given. The gospel has
been given. The sovereignty of God and salvation
has been promised. The power of God has been displayed.
The promises of God in His person and by the Spirit have been given
to His people. And faith has been given to those
who are His. And then in chapter 3 of Hebrews,
Paul talks about The fact that Jesus Christ is greater than
angels for chapter one and two and greater than all things and
greater than Moses and greater than Melchizedek. And he keeps
on talking and greater than the prophets. Because all of these
things are shadows of the real Jesus Christ is the one who has
come. That he is the high priest that
finished the work, he doesn't go in year after year after year,
he finished, he got through, he rose from the dead, he sat
down at the right hand of righteousness. That's a picture. of Jesus as
the high priest that no high priest in the mortal flesh could
ever have born of a man and a woman. No priest can go into the Holy
of Holies as if he's there with his pops. Yeah, that's what Christ
did. Christ is the Holy of Holies.
Christ is where God meets man. Christ is the propitiation of
our sins. Christ is the mercy seat. Christ is the law. Christ
is the Ark of the Covenant. Christ is the bread that comes
down from heaven. Christ is life. and He is seated,
He is finished, He's moved on through the judgment seat and
He's done, He's raised from the dead and is alive today and is
seated with the Father in the heavenlies. This is the picture. And so, Paul reminds the Hebrew
people of this. And he says, therefore then let
us leave the elementary doctrine, let us leave these things. Let
us get beyond all this stuff. Because God has made a promise
and this promise is irrevocable. And let me tell you where your
peace really comes from, where your assurance comes from, is the
Word of God remembering and being reminded by the Spirit of God
of the promises of God for His people in Christ Jesus. And it
is a solid guarantee. Does that mean you won't doubt? We have times of doubt. But beloved,
the faith that God grants us by His Word and Spirit eliminates
that doubt. And then we're tempted. What
about circumcision? Galatia. What about this? What about that?
What about this? What about going back to the
temple? What about ha, ha, ha? You see? What about skirts, jeans,
dresses, ties, suits, Kanga hats? What is it, you know? Loud music, soft music, drums,
organs, choirs. No music at all. Smiles, frowns,
happiness. Pain. Heck, the Puritans, most of the
Puritans actually believed that the whole point of redemption
was to worry that you're going to go to hell. Just read them. They were miserable. They were miserable people. There's
exceptions to that, but as a whole, read the Puritans. I'm probably
lost. I'm probably unconverted. I'm
probably reprobate. But oh God, please have mercy. That's a condition that you must
be a certain way and have a certain idea of your wickedness in order
for God to see you. God sees you in your death, beloved. God gives you to Christ at your
best, which is wicked, which is your worst. You realize self-righteousness
is your worst. It's not your best. And Paul says there's a promise.
Well, listen, I've made promises. I promise if you go to bed, we'll
go to Dairy Queen. I mean, you know, instead of
saying I'm the daddy and I want you to go to bed. Oh, I'll give you
ice cream, please. And you're like, what have I
done? Gosh, what a sinful thing to do. Or if you don't go to
bed, I'll kill you. I mean, you know, that kind of
thing works, too. Either way, there's something to look forward
to on the other side. You didn't catch that joke, I guess. So
when we tell promises, when we hear the word promise today,
it means nothing. And we've applied God in some way. We know that
he won't break his promises, but we have this really meh,
blase attitude about promises. Well, God's promises, my neighbor's
promises. He told me his dog would poop
in my yard again. Blah, blah. So each his own. What does the
scripture say about the promises of God? Verse 13 of chapter six. Get ready, we're going to go
to six, we're going to go to nine. We'll go to 10, and 11, and then John
10. Here we go. For when God made a promise to
Abraham, since God He had no one greater by whom to swear
in His promise, He swore by Himself, saying, Surely I will bless you
and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently
waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something
greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath
is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more
convincingly to the heirs of the promise, notice that language
there, it wasn't that the promise had to be received, they would
inherit it. Nothing they could do about it.
Even if you don't know about it, faith comes to you through
the hearing of the promise. to the heirs of the promise the
unchangeable character of His purpose. Now let me read that
again. So when God desired, verse 17 of Hebrews 6, when God desired
to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the
unchangeable character of His purpose. So what did He want
to show to His people? The unchangeable character of
His purpose. the immutability of God, the
unchanging essence of his being, that everything he has purposed
to do will come and everything he has promised to do is as good
as done. So when he wanted to do that,
he guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled
for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast the
hope set before us." Now think about that for a second. Is that
not a statement of peace? Is that not a contract of contentment?
That's what this is. That's what this is. God has promised. He's created
a contract with Himself that His people will be at peace with
Him through Christ Jesus and they will be content in Him.
They will rest in Him. For the first time in my life,
I've had the worst time staying asleep. My brain and my mind,
stupid stuff. Sometimes it's like thinking
about worrying things, but more recently, it's just dumb stuff.
Oh, that water hose broke this morning. I was supposed to go
fix that. Did I turn the water off? Oh, my goodness, the water
was gonna be high. 3 a.m. Well, while I'm up, I might
as well go to the restroom. Might as well get a drink of
water, you see. We think and think and think
and think. And rest doesn't happen. But in the promises of God, we
don't have to worry about it. We don't have to contemplate.
We don't have to dig under the surface of what God has said
to see what he really means. Or if he says it's by grace,
we have to figure out what grace looks like in the context of
its establishment in our own minds and lives. We can take
it to the bank. We can rest in it. We can sit
upon it and sit still. It is impossible for God to lie.
And then we who have fled for refuge. Might have strong encouragement
to what to hold fast to the hope set before us, the promise of
God and salvation, the promise of God in the assembly, the promise
of God from his word, the promise of God in our own inner peace,
the promise of God to carry us through and that every place
and every opportunity and every experience of discontentment
and frustration and peacelessness that comes along are all part
of God showing and pointing us to the very fact that He alone
is our peace. In verse 19 of Hebrews 6, it
says, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Why is it that when we sing the
song, It Is Well, and I don't want to get into the weeds in
that either, we sing the song, it does something, doesn't it?
You know why it does something? Because it's composed beautifully. If it were a chant, it is well
with my soul, it is well with my soul, it is, no, we'd be like,
oh my gosh, all the people over 40 in here would be like, what
have we come to? You know, all the kids would be like, yay,
it's well with my soul too, I'm excited. Why? Because the composition
would get you happy. But I mean, it is well, it is
well, all the men, you know, with my soul, you've got chills
running up. That ain't God the Spirit. That's
good composition. But when we listen, when we listen,
when we know the promise keeper, who's the promise keeper? Not
the men. That was a terrible choice of words. When we know
the one who is the keeper of His promise, Jesus Christ, God,
our Father, He is the promise keeper. Then that type of truth
has teeth. Yet we know that there is nothing
that can take away our rest and our joy, but yet by the time
we're at lunch, it's not very well with our soul. It's not very well with our soul.
Why? Because there is a spiritual battle with the forces of the
dark enemies of God and the Spirit of God and our flesh at work. Why does God do that? I don't
know. Ask him. He's sovereign in it. But we have the promises of God
as a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul, a hope that enters
into the inner place behind the curtain. I want you to see this. What will wash us and prepare
us to enter into the presence of God? Sometimes Christians
spend more time worrying about their belts and shoes matching
than they do the fact that God the Son has cleansed them of
all unrighteousness. Beloved, I'll tell you how we're
going to enter into eternity, butt-naked and not ashamed. Not ashamed. And that horrifies
some of us. It will not horrify you. It will
not even be on your mind. Go back and listen to Genesis. It's a promise. Some of us would rather be clothed
in hell than naked in heaven, right? Just that fear, I don't
know, it's a toss up and I'm being funny. We enter into the place behind
the curtain because of God's promise. We go beyond the pomp
and the formalities and the precepts and the show and the religion.
We go beyond all that showmanship, which pointed to the severity
of God's righteousness. And it's justice. We bring our
lambs in and the priest would be bathed over and over again
and bathe themselves and their bodies and their hands and their
feet and anoint themselves in certain ways and prepare their
clothes in certain ways so they could walk into a curtain and
pour a thing of blood and run out. Gotta get out of here or God
might kill me. Scary stuff. But Jesus, as verse 20 teaches
us, has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become
a high priest forever. And then it says, after the order
of Melchizedek, which takes some further explanation, but just
understand that that's a picture of an eternal kingdom. It's not
a real eternal kingdom. It's a picture of an eternal
kingdom. That's why he uses that comparison. Jesus has gone there
and he torn out all the shadows and he busted down all the oracles
and all the different things and the showbread and he tumped
over all the tables and he just tore down the curtain and he
bled himself out before the Father. And all that is washed away and
we are cleansed and we go into the presence of God intimately
because of the promises of God through Christ Jesus. Beloved,
faith rests and sits there. Sometimes it takes further explanation.
Well, how? What? Go to Hebrews chapter 9. It's almost impossible to start
there. But if you start, if you go to
verse 11, I'll back up there. It talks about Jesus as a high
priest who has come. And what he has done is greater
and perfect and everlasting and has not been made by, and greater
than what was made by hand. He entered, verse 12, once for
all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of
goats. I've already said this, but I want you to hear it in
God's Word. By the blood of goats and calves, but he entered into
the holy places by his own blood. Listen to this, thus securing
an eternal redemption. Securing, not providing, not
making an opportunity for, securing an eternal redemption, a purchase
that is irrevocable and forever. For if God wanted the blood of
animals, and so on and so forth. My goodness. And if the blood
of animals would pacify, in a way of patience, the wrath of God
as a foreshadow of what was to come, what would the blood of
Christ actually do in reality? It will appease Him. At the end of it The blood of
Christ through whom, verse 14, the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works
to serve the living God. What are dead works? Thinking
that we can affect our salvation. Therefore, verse 15 is where
I wanted to go. Therefore, He, Christ, is the mediator of a
new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised
eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them
from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For
when there is a will involved, the death of the one who made
it must be established." In order for me to get great-granddaddy's
estate, he has to die, and that death has to be established by
a death certificate. For will takes effect only at
death, since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it
is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated
without blood. For when every commandment of
the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took
the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and
hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,"
imagine being sprinkled with blood, saying, This is the blood
of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way,
he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels
used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is
purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness of sin. Thus, verse 23, it was necessary
for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these
rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. For Christ has entered not into
holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true
things, but into heaven itself, into the presence of God, to
now appear on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly.
I've already said this stuff, but I want you to hear it. Nor
has he offered himself repeatedly as the high priest enters into
the holy places every year with the blood not of his own, for
then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation
of the world. But as it is, Christ has appeared
once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And just as it is appointed to
man to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having
been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second
time, listen very carefully, not to deal with sin. but to
save those who are eagerly awaiting for Him. You see what saving
faith does? It doesn't ignore sin, but it
longs for redemption. When we're resting by the Spirit
and we're at peace, we look forward to that. To that day when we
will never fight in this flesh again. Now go over to Hebrews
10. And then I'll be done, starting
in verse 8. He talks about the shadow of
the law, and we've been cleansed of sin, and that the sacrifices did nothing
to take away sins, but a body He prepared for me. But in verse
eight, when he said above, you have neither desire nor taken
pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burn offerings and sin offerings,
which are offered according to the law. Then he added, quote,
behold, I've come to do your will. When he does this, he does
away with the first in order to establish the second. And
by that will, we have been sanctified, set apart, made holy. through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now, when
we say offering, we're not talking about Jesus saying, here I am,
use me. He gave himself. And as every priest stands daily
as a service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for
all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down. See, Paul
establishes this in the very first three verses of this text.
He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time
until the enemies should be made a footstool under His feet. For by a single offering, verse
14, He has perfected for all time those who are being set
apart and made holy. And the Holy Spirit also bears
witness to us after saying, this is the covenant I will make with
them. After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws
on their hearts. and write them on their minds.
Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless
deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is
no longer any offering for sin. I want you to hear that. When
Christ died, there's nothing else God requires for forgiveness. It's done. There's nothing else
that The creature must establish in order to be at peace with
God. God's peace is established through the blood of his son. Verse 19, therefore, brothers,
this is really the text I should just preach another hour. Therefore,
brothers, since we have confidence to enter into the holy places
by the blood of Jesus. Now imagine that. In the picture
of entering into the presence of God, we worry and we labor
without peace of wondering, are we able to be presented before
the Father? Because we know our sin, we know
our discouragement, we know the attitudes of our hearts, we know
what we really are and what we really struggle with, and we
have this temptation to listen to the lies and to the minutia
around us and to the circumstances and say, well, I can't do it.
Beloved, you know how many times I've thought, well, I can't serve
God. I can't preach. I can't pray. I'm not worthy. And that's a true thing. But
Christ has made us worthy to be in the presence of God our
Father. And so we have confidence to
enter into the place of the presence of God. Imagine opening a door
and this sign saying, this is the presence of God, enter in.
It would say, enter ye in. And we would be scared to do
so. We would be worried, am I ready? And the kids will be like, yay,
life! You know? Is there candy? And all of us will be like, no,
no, don't go in there! They've got the right idea. Just go in
there. Approach our Father in that intimacy.
Does it disregard reverence and respect and gravity and holiness
and righteousness and awesomeness? No. But as the writer here, Paul,
will say over in chapter 12, We're not coming to the Tempest
of Sinai. We're coming to the party. We're
coming to the marriage celebration. We're coming to the reception
of the saints who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. So we
have confidence to enter in the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
by the new and living way that He opened, through the curtain
that is through His flesh. And since we have a great high
priest over the house of God, look at verse 22. It's a command. Let us draw near. Let us draw near with a true
heart, with full assurance of faith. And the condition of our
conscience is this, with our hearts sprinkled clean. We know
we're sinners, but we're saved by grace. And the blood of Jesus
has clothed us in His righteousness. So our attire and our whole presence,
the countenance of our entire person has been covered by the
righteousness of Christ. So we are fit to walk through
the door of holiness. Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering. Verse 23. How can we do this? How do I know that I'm in this
state? Look at the very next phrase.
For he who promised is faithful. For he who promised is faithful.
That's the truth of the gospel. That's what makes it the good
report. God is faithful. And so because of this, let us
not, well, I'm getting ahead of the negative. Let us consider
how to stir one another up to love and to good deeds and to
service. Let us not neglect meeting together
as is the habit of some of you. but encourage one another and
all the more as you see the day drawing near. Paul goes on to say faith is
the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things
not seen. Jesus says in John 10, my sheep hear my voice and
I know them and they follow me. Listen to what he says, I give
them eternal life. and they will never perish and
no one will snatch them out of my hand. So, beloved, no matter
how far away you feel from grace, the resting place is God's promise.
The resting place is faith in Christ Jesus. And that is inner
peace, as Paul would tell the Philippians, beyond all understanding. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for this peace that comes only through Christ. We thank you,
Lord, for loving us. We thank you, Father, for tolerating
us and putting up with our knuckleheadedness, our foolishness. Father, our
doubts and fears. We thank you, Lord, that you
provided the means through the discipline of learning and worshiping
and teaching and correction. That we all will grow. and that
You didn't leave us in that place of despair. You don't leave us
in that place of bitterness, even though we find ourselves
there and heading that direction. Father, You steer our paths back
to righteousness, back to faith in Jesus Christ, our righteousness. And we don't look at ourselves
as our hope, but we look at the One who gave Himself for us.
And so, Father, as we leave our worship today, We pray that you
will be with us. Lord, help us to be patient with
those who doubt. Lord, help us to teach and encourage
one another in the faith. And help us to speak truth, knowing
that you alone will give understanding. And let us do it and endure it
with much patience, just as our Lord has had much patience when
he gave his life and he endured such hostility with sinners.
even though He is our God. In His name we pray to you, Father.
Amen.