All right, turn with me if you
would this morning over to Jeremiah 31. What did he say? Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, and
we're gonna look at, actually I'm gonna read three verses that are all correlating together here. Jeremiah 31, verse 33. And then
we're gonna look at a couple of places in the New Testament
where this verse is actually quoted and then also reiterated
a couple of times. Jeremiah 31, verse 33. It says, but this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts
and right in their hearts and will be their God and they shall
be my people. Now look with me if you would
at Romans chapter 2. I'm sorry, put your hand at Romans
chapter 2 and turn with me to Hebrews 10. I'm going to come
to Romans 2 next. Go to Romans 10. I'd like to
read Romans 10 verse 16 first. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 16.
It says, This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord, that I will put my law into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them." Okay? Now, there's a different direction
I could go on these verses in talking about the Spirit's teaching. Matter of fact, back in that
passage in Jeremiah 31, we find the very next verse, 34, It talks about them all being
taught of God. So the fact that God puts his law in their heart
and in their minds, that is, to me, speaking of, and me and
Chase was talking about this last night, I believe the Holy Spirit sometimes
will teach and put things in our minds and that Later we come
and we find it here. I was telling him about eternal
vital union. The Lord began teaching me eternal
vital union, although I couldn't take you to a scripture and point
that out. I couldn't expound it, really
declare it, but there was all the elements of the eternal election,
the eternal aspect of being the seed of Christ and Him having
a generation of His own, opposite of the physical seed, the spiritual
seed, all these things of being in Christ Jesus, all those things
the Lord taught me even though I didn't know it here and I never
heard anybody ever preach on those things, didn't know that
the term eternal Bible union even existed, but yet all of
a sudden then I found there were people that were teaching something
called Eternal Bible Union, and whenever I began to read their
sermons on what they had written, and everything, it's like, yeah,
that's exactly what I've been thinking, but didn't know it,
and then, of course, seeing the verses that they used pointing
to that, and then going into now, those verses all of a sudden
had a different ring to it, because of how it all tied in with Eternal
Bible Union. Well, I think that's what some of this is talking
about, is the law written in the heart, but that's really
kind of not what I want to get at this morning, But it says
here, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those
days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and into their minds will I write them. Now go back to
Romans chapter 2 and let's look at verse 15. It says, I'll start at verse
14. For when the Gentiles which have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the law,
These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the means while accusing
or else excusing one another." So we see that the work of the
law is written in the heart. Now, the question I was going
to ask this morning and everything is, What law is written in our
heart? These verses, what law is it
talking about that's written in our heart? I think the major
assumption that most people have is that it's talking about the
Old Covenant law, the law of Moses, the moral law. Now, everybody else wants to
excuse the ceremonial and the civil and all the the other laws,
but they'll say, well, the moral law and the Ten Commandments,
yeah, that's still intact, and that's the law that God writes
on our hearts, but all those other laws. But nowhere in Scripture
do we find that the law of God is ever divided up into sections
where there's a moral law, there's a civil law, there's a ceremonial
law, There's these Ten Commandments and they stand separate from...
No, it's all the commands of God that He has given in the
Old Covenant are all one set of law. And what a lot of people
assume is that God writes those laws into our hearts and therefore
we keep those laws because God writes it in our heart and so
we try to keep those laws. But, brethren, at least have you examine what
the scriptures teach about that Old Covenant law. And then re-ask
the question after you do that. So let's look at a few things
that the Bible tells us about the Old Covenant law. Now, remember,
we have an Old Covenant law that was given in the ordinances that
God had given to Israel, and Israel was the only ones who
was given that law. The Gentiles didn't receive.
In fact, we just read that. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, they didn't have the law of God given to
them. They did not have the things
of God commanded to them in the Old Testament. But I think there's
a New Testament connotation to this because even as the New
Testament came, the New Covenant came in with John the Baptist
and the preaching of the New Covenant began with John the
Baptist and then with Jesus and the apostles And the apostles
in the first churches, as they were laying that foundation,
before it spread out from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria, before
it got to the other ends of the world and started going out into
the Gentiles, the Gentiles didn't have the new covenant law either
yet. They still hadn't received the new covenant law. So the
Gentiles had never received the old covenant laws. It was never
given to them. The ordinances of God was never
given to them. The new covenant, During the
time period until Paul started going out to the Gentiles, they
did not receive the New Covenant laws either. So we have the New
Covenant laws, we have Old Covenant laws. Well, the assumption is
that the laws that God writes on our heart is those Old Covenant
laws. But I would push that it's the
New Covenant laws that God has wrote on our heart, not the Old
Covenant laws. And the reason for that is because of the overwhelming
evidence that the Scripture teaches about what the Old Covenant is
to the child of grace who is the new covenant child. The new covenant child is not
the child of the Old Covenant. We are not the physical Israel. We are the spiritual Israel.
The physical Israel was given the physical laws of God for
a physical outward show that would show them that they were
unable to keep those laws, that they were unrighteous. However,
the new covenant laws is given to the spiritual Israel of God
and it is a spiritual work of God that they can't perform themselves,
that only God performs and He faithfully performs that within
His people where they do keep that law 100%. They do keep righteousness
100% because they have a surety that has stood for them and that
that work of obedience, that work of faith, that work of righteousness
is theirs because it has been imputed to their account. And
that person, that seed that is within them comes from that spiritual
seed which is perfect and it cannot sin. And so the physical
Israel could not keep the law, yet the spiritual Israel cannot
break the law. Because it's spiritually worked.
by God Himself. And we've talked about that before,
and I even mentioned last week, or the last time we had preaching,
I mentioned that the able ministers are the ones who preach that
message, the message of faith and not the message of the law.
But let's look at a few things about the law. Now, just on the
outset, let me say this, and I'll reiterate what Paul says.
I'm not saying that the law is bad. The law is good. and it's
good for what God had intended it for. The law was never, ever,
ever, ever intended to make anybody righteous. God didn't give the
law so that somebody could take that law as a list and say, okay,
I'm going to do these things so that I would be pleasing to
God, be accepted by God, and be preserved by God. That was
never the intent of the law, but that's what everybody in
the world seems to think the law is for. That's what almost
every church that's out in this world is preaching today is that
those old covenant laws are given to us so that we can see that,
feel that, love that, and get out and do that. And therefore,
we're keeping up. And let me just say something.
I was thinking about this last time when me and Chase was talking about some
of these things. A lot of people look at justification and they
say, yeah, justification is a one-time thing. We are justified by the
finished work of Jesus Christ. I believe that there is a legal
work that Jesus did and that legal work is the grounds and
the basis for God's declaration of righteousness on all of His
people. But whenever we are walking in this life and we are trying
to keep the law for acceptance pleasing Christ, to stay in right
with God. We used to call it, growing up
in the Armenian church that I grew up in, and the thinking that
I had before, is, you know, we have to stay right with God.
You better get right with God. You gotta stay right with God.
Well, what does that, again, what are we saying when we say
that? I mean, words mean things, right? Whenever we say, well,
you better get right with God, what does that mean? I gotta
get justified. Being right with God means justified before God.
So my daily walk, I have to keep in steps with God. We used to
say, man, you got to stay prayed up. What does that mean? I'm
confessing my sins, making sure that I'm repenting of my sins,
keeping away, staying on the straight and narrow, whatever
it is that you want to say. I'm walking a pleasing life to
God. in my obedience. That's what
we're saying whenever we're sinning. Now they call it sanctification.
This is a progressive sanctification thing that we're progressively
becoming more and more holy and less and less sinning, right?
And so they're saying that that's what they're doing. Well, in
effect, what they're saying is I am walking to stay justified
before God by my obedience. So justification isn't just a
one-time legal work that Christ did to those who believe that
there is a progressive obedience and a righteousness that comes
by trying to keep the law, what they're saying is that my daily
adherence to this law is what is keeping me justified before
God. It's justifying who I am. I'm
justified as a child of God because I'm keeping this law before God.
But let's look and see what the law says about that, okay? Let's
look at what scripture says and let's not worry about what theologians
say and what confessions and creeds say about the law and
all the lawmongers that are among us. Let's look and see what the
scriptures say. Look with me if you would, and
I'm sure all of you know one of the main places that we want
to go is over to Galatians, but turn with me if you would over
to Galatians. We know the Bible says that without
faith, it is impossible to what? Please God, right? We've talked
about that this week, didn't we? Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. So if man has not been given
faith, and remember, this is what man that Andrew was talking
about the other day, the Bible also teaches that all men do
not have faith. That means every one of us. None
of us have faith. Faith is something that is not
inherent in the natural man. Now, he has a natural faith,
and we've talked about this quite a bit, and I don't want to rehash
it too much, but we have a natural faith If I lean on this, it's
not going to fall over. I have faith that this is going
to hold me up. I have faith that when I get in my car, it's going
to drive me across town. I have a natural faith on things. I may have a natural faith that
Brother Larry is going to be kind and gentle to me all the
days of my life that we're together. Don't bank on it. Don't bank
on it. And vice versa. So we have a
natural faith. But that's not what we're talking
about. We're talking about faith that receives the Gospel. Faith
that believes outside of ourselves that we can produce any kind
of righteousness. A faith that looks to Christ
alone and receives His righteousness as your righteousness. that believes
like what Abraham did. He saw that Christ was his righteousness,
and he looked away from himself and anything that Abraham could
ever do, and he looked at what Christ would do for him, and
that is what he believed as his righteousness. The natural man
can't do that. That's what's given to us. It's
a gift of God, and God gives that to every one of His elect
children. Now He gives it to them in His time period. There was a point in time that
I went that God didn't give me that faith. I was leaning on
my own understanding, leaning on the arm of flesh to keep the
laws and to do religious things. It wasn't until God revealed
His Son in me that I began to see I can't do this. There's no way that I can keep
the law. And then it was revealed to me that Christ has kept the
law on your behalf and his righteousness is your substituted righteousness.
And that righteousness is what God is looking at and does. And your righteousness doesn't
mean anything to him except for dirty rags and filthy rags and
wood, hay and stubble. So it wasn't until then that
the Lord revealed that. Now, whenever he did, And He
gives me faith to believe that faith is what pleases God. And it pleases God because it's
His own work. It's not my work. It's not me
who reads a bunch of scripture and builds up my faith so that
I can get out there and do a lot of good things for the Lord.
do a lot of religious activities, be a great person and all like
that. Now, I like those type of people and I hope all y'all
are like that. I mean, I'd rather have somebody nice and like me
and be kind and considerate and all that kind of stuff than,
you know, throw rocks at me and all that kind of stuff. But this
faith is something that is given to us. It's the work of God and
therefore it pleases God because it is the fruit of who He is. He is actually faith. and it's
a fruit of Him. And so, without faith, it's impossible
to please God, but all men don't have faith. So we are beholden
to God to give us that faith. And the Bible is clearly, and
teaches us very clearly, that He only gives this faith to His
children that He has chosen from the foundation of the world,
that He has given to Christ, and that are Christ's children.
Now, with that being said, look at verse 12. It says the law
is not of faith. So if the Bible says that without
faith it's impossible to please God, then that's telling us it's
impossible to please God by keeping the law. By trying to keep the
law. By your attempt to keep the law,
Everyone says, well, I know that, but at least if I try to keep
the law, God's going to be pleased with my efforts. I'm sure I'm
not going to be perfect. I'm sure it's not going to be
all the time. But God looks at the heart. God
knows my heart. I've heard that a lot. God knows
my heart. Yeah, He sure does. He knows
it's desperately wicked above all things. It's deceitful. It's evil continually. That's
what your natural heart is, yes. He knows your heart alright.
And unless He gives you a new heart, then you're going to continue
to think that that evil heart can produce good fruit. But it's
not until you're given a new heart that you realize and rest
in the fact that good fruit will be gifts that God gives you and
produces in you, and there's nothing that you can do to produce
that fruit on your own. So, he says here, the law is
not of faith, but rather the man that doeth them shall live
in them. The man that doeth the law shall
live in them. Is there any man that doeth the
law? One. Besides him, is there any
man that doeth the law? So if there is a man that doeth
the law, they'll live. But no man can do the law. So
no man's going to live by the law. So we don't live by the
law. There's no way we can live by
the law. So anyone that tells us that the law is our rule of
life, they are contradicting what Scripture says. Scripture
says that the law does not give life and the people of God do
not walk by a rule of law. They walk by something else that's
a rule of faith. Because faith is what pleases
God, not the attempt at law keeping. He says here, he says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. So Christ was made a curse because we ourselves had the
curse of the law, or the condemnation of the law. The curse of the
law is the condemnation of the law. What's the condemnation
of the law? Well, the combination of the law is if you break the
law, you die, right? The wages of sin is death, and
every one of us can't keep the law. Now, where does that leave
us? If none of us can keep the law, and the wages of sin, and sin
is the transgression of the law, where does that leave us? It
leaves us all guilty before God. There's not one person in this
world that from Adam clear down till now, that can please God. So if you want to say that God
has written the law in our hearts and we live by what He has written
in our hearts, and you're talking about the Old Covenant law, well,
the Old Covenant law can never bring us to please God, and living
by that We will not please God because those who live in the
law, and living in the law is keeping it 100%, then we'll live. But if we can't keep it 100%,
then we die. So if your rule of life is to
live by the law that you think is written in your heart, which
is the old covenant, then brethren, you're not going to please God,
nor are you going to continue to live because it will bring
death. Now, we're going to come back
to Galatians here in just a little bit, but I want to look also
at Romans 5 and verse 20. Romans 5 and verse 20. It says, Moreover, the law entered
that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Now, you guys heard me preach
this before, that the context of Romans 5.20, everything before
that, is Adam's sin. This is not talking about necessarily
the law that was given to Moses. Now, I believe that that's part
of it, because I believe anything in the Old Covenant whether it
be the law that you give to Adam, the law that you give to Noah,
the law that you give to Moses, whatever, all that Old Covenant
do and live things are all wrapped up together. But yet in direct context here is Adam's
transgression, the law that God gave Adam, do not eat of that
tree. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
Don't eat of that tree. Because in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now that's the sin that
God is talking about. And I appreciate the fact that
the Holy Spirit gives that as the starting point here instead
of going to the Law of Moses. He came back all the way to the
very beginning to the very first law that was ever given And he
said the reason that that law was given, so any law that's
ever been given by God to man was given for a purpose. And
the purpose for that law is that the offense might abound. The law is there to increase
the transgression. The law is given there to increase
the transgression or to magnify the transgression of man. It's
to show our Sinfulness. Adam, created of the earth earthy,
created natural, without the Spirit of God, perfect in what
God created him for. God created him as that first
Adam, so that sin and death might come in through that one man.
God created him for that purpose. Therefore, when God looked upon
Adam after He created him, He said that he was very good, not
that he was very holy or very righteous or very sinless. He said he was very good, meaning
that that purpose for which God had created him, He had created
him exactly the way He wanted him created in the image of God.
He created him, therefore, the type He created him there for
the purpose of bringing sin and evil into the world, sin and
death into the world, so that Christ might be uplifted as the
Savior and glorified through that. So, the offense was always
purposed by God. Adam's sin was purposed and ordained
of God. I know a lot of people don't
like that talk. We've talked about that all the time around
here, but people out there don't like to hear the fact that God
has foreordained sin and evil, or predestinated sin and evil. They think that that makes God
some thing that the Bible doesn't say He is. They make Him out
to some theological argument that God is the author of sin.
But, not to get off too far, Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. The purpose of the law was to
magnify or to bring forth, to manifest the evil and wickedness
and the intent of the heart of man and his inability, the capability
of man to be able to do righteous. Man is utterly devoid of righteousness. And the law came in to expose
that But listen, the only ones who actually feel that are the
children of grace. When God has given them the heart
and the mind to know the things of God, the spiritual things
of God, they feel their inability and their inadequacy and the
hope that they have is not in themselves anymore, it's in Christ
because they know there's no hope in my flesh. And so that was the purpose of
the law. The law came in so that the offense might abound, or
that the offense might be made magnified, that the people of
Adam cannot keep God's law, so there needs to be a Savior that
can save them, that will save them, that is righteous. There
is one and only one who is righteous. It's God displaying His righteousness
to those who are unrighteous. That's the reason that the law
came in. Not to make you holy, but to expose your unholiness.
It's not to make you righteousness, but to expose your unrighteousness
and to magnify the righteousness of Christ. That's why the law
came in. Never as a to-do list for us
to get out and do. To keep Him pleased. To stay
in right step with Him. To stay in good graces with Him. That's what it never was there
for. So if God wrote the law upon the hearts, why would He
write the law that only magnifies our sinfulness? He's not going
to write that law upon our hearts. Look, if you would, while you're
there in Romans, back in chapter 4, and look at He said, because the law worketh
wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. The law
worketh wrath. The Bible says that by nature
we are children of wrath. You notice that in that passage
of Scripture, it says that we are children of wrath, not under
wrath. The Reformed people take that
verse that There's a period of time where we're under the wrath
of God, God hates us, God is displeased with us, and until
we believe and have faith and then are justified because of
our faith, then God removes that wrath and now we are loved by
God. But brethren, that's no different
than what the Arminian teach. The Reformed people are just
as messed up in their theology as the Arminian is. No, the Bible
teaches that God loves us with an everlasting love and that
we were never under wrath because the Bible says that we were not
ordained under wrath. We were not ever under God's
wrath. Ever, there never was a time.
You say, well, you're telling me we're not sinners? No, I'm
not saying that. We were sinners. We are sinners. We continue to
be sinners. But we have never been under
God's wrath. God has never looked on us in wrath Because Christ
is always, before the foundation of the world, stood as our surety. Yes. God, man's hands can't touch
that. But the reformers want man's
hands to still touch something, even though they claim sovereign
grace, even though they claim predestination and election,
they still want man's hands to be on a little bit of something.
But God's pure, free grace is outside of man, because it all
was done, the works were done from the foundation of the world.
Christ stood as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
All of our works were, we talked about this also last night, decreed
of God. If God decreed the end from the
beginning, then that means everything from the end all the way up to
the beginning, everything in between has been decreed of God.
Nothing can change because God is immutable. Everything that
has ever happened in this lifetime and ever will happen in this
lifetime, God has decreed those things and it's finished from
before the foundation of the world because time ain't going
to change anything. Man's not going to change God's
mind, man's not going to change God's purpose, and man's not
going to change and overrule God's providence in bringing
those things to pass that He said that I will bring to pass
all that I have pleasure in. that all that I've declared,
all that I've done, I'm going to bring that to pass. You can't
stop that, man. You can't stop God. And so all
these things is there to show God is there. And it says here,
it says, because the law worketh wrath. Well, what does that mean? The
law worketh wrath. Well, the law worketh wrath in
us. The law worketh wrath in us. If we go to keep the law, we
cannot keep the law. We are deserving of God's wrath. And that continual attempt to
think that we can procure something righteous that God will accept
only builds more wrath upon our heads. If I continue to say my
righteousness in this or my righteousness doing this or my righteousness
doing this is going to please God and God's going to accept
that, God's going to say, all right, you did good. All that's
doing is heaping more wrath upon my head. It's like whenever Jesus
talked about those going out and making those Jewish proselytes
and everything. He said, you're only making twofold
the child of hell. These people are thinking that
they're coming in under this religious tent, and they're coming
in, and you're telling them that if they'll do all these law-keeping
things, that all you're doing is causing the transgression
to increase, because you're giving them hope that they have a righteousness
before God in doing these law things. Well, that's what it's
talking about here. If we continue to believe that we, by working
the law, is pleasing to God, all we're doing is increasing
the transgression and therefore it's working wrath on us and
not grace. Every time you try to keep the
law to please God or for justification before God or for sanctification
before God or continual acceptance, all those things, The only thing you're going to
receive is wrath because you can't keep them. Look at 1 Corinthians if you
would. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And look with me if you would
down to verse Verse 56. It says the sting of
death is sin, but it says the strength of sin is the law. Now, do you want that law written
in your heart? Do you want that law written
in your heart? The law that is the strength of sin? Brother,
I think whenever we look at things a little more biblically, and
think of things more in the light of the New Covenant, and especially
when we put Jesus Christ at the center of everything, not in
the outskirts, not in the wings, not in the background of, oh
yeah, well, everything's about Jesus, but no, whenever you really
put Jesus in the middle of everything and as the focal point of everything,
there can never be a me, myself, I, what I do, what I can do,
what I try to do, what I hope to do, it's never about... That's
why Paul said, we don't lean on the arm of our own understanding.
We don't lean on the arm of the flesh. We don't learn and lean
on the wisdom of men. Why? Because those things are
temporal. Those things cannot please. Those things are of the
flesh. And some people, they only equate
the things of the flesh as evil, immoral things. But listen, the
things of the flesh are anything that we try to do to be accepted
of God. We've talked about this before.
The Bible says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. It doesn't say our unrighteousnesses
are as filthy rags. It says all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. The Lord, and whenever He said,
depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you, the
things that they brought forth and presented to Him were not
immoral, wicked, evil things in man's eyes. They were calling
Him Lord, Lord. They recognized Him as being
Lord. They, or at least their lips
professed Him as Lord. The Bible says their lips professed
it, but their heart was far from it. But they professed Him to
be Lord. They casted out devils in His
name. They did all these wonderful
works in His name. That's not wicked and immoral
people out here, the drunkards and the pedophiles and the, you
know, adulterers and adulteresses and all the people that's out
here. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about the
very bests, plural, that we do. The goodies that we do. It's
all those. And so, whenever we look here,
it says, the strength of sin is the law. The law, whenever we are given
a law, it's only there to expose, you can't keep this. I've told
the story a lot of times, whenever my kids were little, Flora would bake some cookies,
she might bake, their kids are off playing in the other room,
Don't have a clue Lori's baking cookies. She bakes some cookies
and they sit in the kitchen and those kids run around. Maybe
they pass by those things 15, 20 times and never know anything's
there. But as soon as Lori says, hey,
I made some cookies, but you got to stay out of that until
after dinner tonight. You know what the first thing
that happens? Immediately, you can see the wheels moving in
her head. And before you know it, you see
them in there trying to sneak the cookies. Before the law came in, I was alive. But when the law
came in, I died. So what did the law do? The law
brought death. The law slayed your apostle Paul. The law came
in and exposed the evil intent. When the law came in, the evil
intent of going against my wife, disobeying my wife, And the evil
intent of sneaking and deceitfully taking what they said was not
to be theirs was in their heart. But it wasn't until the law came
in that it was exposed. See, the deceitfulness, the sneakiness,
going behind our back and doing it and then lying about it. Did
you take a cookie? There was five cookies here,
now there's only four. No, I didn't do that. The lying, that's the
deceitfulness. That's in the heart, but it wasn't
until the law came in that it was exposed. It was already there.
That's why it's saying here, the strength of sin is the law. While you're there in Corinthians,
go to the second letter to the Corinthians. Look at chapter
two. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and look
at verse 6 with me. Sorry, brother. I was thinking
that that was a different verse, but that's not the verse that
I was wanting to read. Go ahead and turn to Romans 8
then. We'll just kind of forget that one. I don't know what I
was thinking. Late night, early morning. Romans chapter 8, verse 2. This is for the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death. So the law is a minister of sin
and death. The Bible says that the law killed
2 Corinthians 3.6. Who hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. The letter of the law, keeping
the letter of the law, killeth, because no man can keep
it. There will be transgression. can always count on. I know some
people say that they think that they are keeping the law. And
they're just deceived. They're blind. They're blinded
to that. They're blind to their inability.
But it says here that the able minister is one who is the minister
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
So that's what we're saying. That's what I was trying to get
across in that message on able ministers. To get up here and
preach to you to keep the law, and to give you moral lessons
that you need to get up and keep. And I was telling you guys the
illustration of me going to that Christian bookstore and seeing
all those rows and rows of Christian self-help on how we can be more
pleasing to God if we'll just do this. 10 Steps to Christian
Maturity. We used to have that little booklet
by whatever that little organization used to be. I can't think of
it now. 10 Steps to Christian Maturity,
how to get right with God, how to walk, how to keep the law
of God, and all these things that I've seen in the past. But
anyway, here, an able minister is going to be a minister of
the Spirit and not the letter. If we're an able minister of
the Spirit, we're going to be teaching you about what's pleasing to
God is what is walking in the Spirit. We don't walk in the
flesh. If we walk in the flesh, we are
going to mind the things of the flesh. And the things of the
flesh, again, are not always immoral, evil, wicked things
in the lives of men. Walking by the flesh is walking
in the confidence of the flesh. Walking in the confidence that
the flesh is accomplishing something before God. That's walking in
the flesh. But to walk in the Spirit is
to walk trusting in Christ Jesus, to walk by faith. Now, look back
into Romans chapter 7. We'll find there that the law
also is a... Romans chapter 7, look if you
would. It says, For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did work
in our members to bring forth fruit under death. Again, I want to
ask, do you think the law that's written on the hearts of God's
children is the old covenant law that does all these things? So what law is it then that's
written on our hearts? I mentioned earlier, I think
it's the law of faith. I think it's the law of faith
that is written on our hearts. So if you would, I quoted it earlier, but I just
want you to go ahead and read this. Hebrews 11, 6, But without faith
it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is, and that He is a reward of them that diligently
seek Him. That's not a condition, by the
way. Men read into that a condition. There you go. Those who come to God must believe
that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. You've got to believe those two
things. God is who He is and that He
is the rewarder if you diligently seek Him. They believe that's
a condition. But it says, without faith it's
impossible to please Him because he that cometh to God must believe
that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him." This is talking about the character of a person who is
a child of grace. A person who is a child of grace
who is walking by faith believes that God is and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Not because they sought
him, but whenever we seek God, And whenever we seek God, what
does he mean by that? Whenever he says, seek and ye
shall find. He's not talking about keep the law, keep in right
standing with God. Whenever he says, seek and ye
shall find, he said, seek for me. Seek after me. Look to me,
look unto me. Seeking righteousness, because
you know you don't have it yourself. Right. Seek it after me, not
in your own flesh. Come unto me, all ye who are
weary and heavy laden. and I will give you rest." See,
he's saying you're finding that there's no rest in this law keeping.
There's no rest in this continual struggle to be righteous and
you continually know and your heart is exposing your unrighteousness
because your heart has been made flesh. No longer the heart of
stone. I have pulled out of the heart
of stone. I have put into the heart of flesh and caused them
to walk in my statutes. But the statutes there again,
even isn't talking about the law in the Old Covenant, it's
talking about the New Covenant statutes. To walk by faith. And
whenever we, by faith, receive the report of that we are unable,
but Christ has provided everything that we need, there's where the
wreck. Because listen, brethren, to
the true children, now again, to the religious zealot out there,
to them, Going out and doing all this work is something. They
think they're doing it. They think they're accomplishing
something. They think God is being pleased by all their religious
efforts. But to the child of grace who
has really been given to know their sinfulness, their depravity,
the continual work for righteousness always comes back to their heart
exposing them as unrighteousness. And there's that constant unrest,
that constant burden of sin, that constant burden of unrighteousness
that we are. And that's where the rest comes
when Christ gives us to believe the Gospel that He's all I need. I love that song. He's all I
need. He's all I need. We don't need anything else.
We don't need to look to ourselves, we don't need to look to a lifestyle
of conformity of this and that and this and that. We trust that
not only has He provided us a righteousness that God has accepted, but He
also is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure and
that all the works that God has ordained for us from the foundation
of the world will be done in us because it is God who works
in you to will and to do His good pleasure. It's God who is
doing the work. And they are His works. Therefore,
I can't produce them and I can't hinder them. God's doing that
work. Again, God is performing His
works that He has declared the end from the beginning. He is
performing those works. And those works, I can't rush
it. I can't stop it. I can't speed it up. I can't
increase it. I can't make it better. I can't
be more joyous, more loving, meek, I can't be more, I can't
be nothing. As Paul says, what makes a thief
different? It's Christ. I am that I am. Why? Because of Christ Jesus.
The things that I do, I don't want to do the things that I
do. But then I do the things that I don't want to do. Well,
who's doing that? It's not me. It's not me because
what is working in me is sin. In the flesh, it's sin. no longer
I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me. The life that I
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
I live not by my own work, my own effort, my own flesh work.
But I live by what Christ has done and the faith of Christ
and what He has accomplished on my behalf. And that God has
accepted and has justified me before Himself, who is the holy
judge, who is righteous, who is not a judge that turns the
blind eye or takes a little money under the table or anything like
that or has some sort of political aspirations in another direction.
No, God is a righteous judge. And if God says what Christ has
done on my behalf is all that is needed, There's where the rest, the weary
burden goes away because I'm no longer trying to work for
anything. I'm resting that work has already
been done on my behalf. Look if you would at Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 10. Back to Galatians again. I know we're kind of jumping
back and forth and back and forth in some of these, but sorry,
I was just having a thought process at this moment. In Galatians
3, in verse 10, I'm going to read a few verses here in the
third chapter. Galatians 3, look at verse 10,
it says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth
not. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law." That's
why I said the law encompasses everything in that Old Covenant.
Because whenever this was written, there was not a New Testament
yet. So the book of the law is everything that was given to
them in that Old Covenant law. But it says, "...cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are in not just your onesies
and twosies that you want to pick out, your favorites, not
just the decalogue, not just the ceremonial, not just the,
you know, no, it's all. He says, but that no man is justified
by the law on the side of God is evident, for the just are
those who are justified, the elect of God, the children of
grace, the child of grace, the brethren, they shall live by faith, not
by law. It says right here, no man is
justified by the law, the just shall live by faith. The just
is not going to try to live by the law, because they know that
their justification doesn't come by the law, it comes by Christ. Therefore, they live by faith
in what Christ has done for their justification. They don't find
their justification in any works that they do, whether it be before
conversion, after conversion, whether it be before quickening
or after quickening, or to get quickened. They don't believe
any of that stuff. What do they believe? They believe
that Christ has done it all already. It's accomplished work. And matter
of fact, while Christ did come in time and accomplish the ground
of that justification in time, the declaration of it was before
time. And if God, Chase said this last
night, if God declared it before time, then that declaration,
because see, the Reformers say that God doesn't declare us justified
until we believe. I think if you read, I think
everyone here would agree that I'm not misrepresenting the Reform
position on that. The Reform believe that we are
justified by our faith in time, so God doesn't declare us righteous
until we believe that God has declared everything before the
foundation of the world. And if He's declared it then,
that means the declaration of righteousness on every child
of grace was declared before we ever was made in Adam. Before
Adam ever was created and ever brought sin and death into the
world. That's why people say, well, I don't understand how
someone can be justified before they've ever sinned. I presume
it would be justified because justification is a declaration
of righteousness and an acquittal of sin and all that stuff. God
declared that this was, and that's why the Bible is congruent. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin. God hasn't imputed it to him.
That's why we've never been under wrath. because sin never was
imputed to us even whenever Adam sinned and even whenever Michael
Smith personally sins, that sin has never been imputed to me
because before the foundation of the world it was already imputed
to Christ and declared justified. I've been declared justified
before God. That's why in Ephesians it says
that He chose us in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the
world, that we might be before Him in love. How can God love
us from everlasting? Because we've stood in Christ
from everlasting. And because we've been in Christ
from everlasting, we've been justified of all future sins
that we will ever commit. Why? Because God did not impute
sin to His elect. The only people that had sin
imputed to them was the non-elect. The non-elect had sin imputed
to them. The sin of Adam was their sin. They had their own sin. But to
us who actively sin because we are also of the seed of Adam
in the flesh, and we actually sin, yes, we are guilty of sin. We are condemned under the law
as sinners. But yet the law cannot be over
us because we were never imputed to sin. It never was laid to
our account. It was definitely our account,
just like Christ's righteousness. I've never personally had righteousness,
but Christ's righteousness has been laid to my account. Well,
the same thing with sin. I have personally sinned, but
my sin has been never laid to my account. Christ never sinned
a day or an inkling in His life, but yet all the sins of His elect
was laid to His account. He didn't actually sin, but He
was imputed that sin. I've never been righteous, but
it was imputed to me. My sin has never been imputed
to me because it's always been imputed to Christ Jesus. That's
why I stand in love before God from the foundation of the world,
because He has only seen us in a justified state in Christ Jesus.
He can look on sinners before they're sinners and love them.
He can look on sinners after they're sinners and love them.
And He can look on sinners after they know that they are sinners
and continue to sin even though they know their sins have been
taken care of. They continue to sin anyway clear until the
day that Jesus comes. And until the body of sin is
removed and we are given the full inheritance where we receive
a body that cannot sin and therefore our body will catch up with what
our imputed spirit has already had right now, a justified, non-sinning,
incapable of sinning and we will therefore be conformed to the
image of Christ Jesus who in spirit and in body knows no sin. We ourselves will be spirit and
body, know no sin. We'll be conformed to the image
of Christ Jesus. Now, I want you to note something there in
Galatians chapter 3. I'm just about done. It says, verse 22, it says, But
the Scripture hath concluded all under sin for a purpose. The reason that God put us in
Adam, that one lump, and brought us forth in Adam to show us as
a people of righteousness by faith, showing faith in Christ
Jesus out of the same lump that everybody else doesn't have faith.
The reason that God did this is that the promise might be
given to them that believe. It says, but the Scripture hath
concluded all under sin. So every one of us has been put
under the law in the flesh, and all of us have been made sinners
in Adam. And that's physically. That's
naturally who we are. We've been concluded under sin. But there was a purpose here.
But the Scripture has concluded all under sin. that the promise
might be given to them that believe." Now notice I skipped a little
section there. That's kind of a comma. That's
kind of a little added phrase of clarity there describing something. But you'll notice if you take
that little section and just kind of pull it out for just
a minute, you can read the sentence as it would have naturally flowed
if you didn't add that little section there. that the promise
might be given to them that believe, but the question is, how is the
promise given to them that believe? Is it because you believed? No. That's why the section was added
in between those two phrases. The how the promise is given
to them that believe is by faith of Jesus Christ. You see that? I hope I didn't make that muddy. whenever we read it, but the
Scripture hath concluded all in a sin, that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. We
think that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ in us doing
the work might be given to them who have faith in Jesus Christ. See, it's saying something redundant,
but that's not what the text is bringing out. It's saying
that the promise that's given to believers, and not because
they believe, but because they've been given belief, because of
the children of grace, it's a group of people. It's an identifier. God is identifying us as believers,
because there's only two groups of people, those who believe
and those who don't believe, right? We are believers. But
what is the cause of us being given the promise as believers? The faith of Jesus Christ. It's
by the faith of Jesus Christ that the promise is made sure.
See, it's again, outside your hands. God didn't give it for
you to tinker with and try to fix and try to make right. No. It's taken out of your hands
the promise and the belief And the faith and the trust and everything
else of walking by faith in the works of God is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. And it's not the faith of Jesus
Christ imparted into you so that you can work it out. It's the
faith of Jesus Christ that He Himself personally procured for
you, that the promise is given to you And now you believe that
promise because you're within that group of people that he
did this for. I hope that wasn't too muddy. And lastly in chapter
6 we see, if you remember, this whole letter that Paul has written
in Galatians from the very beginning to the very end is talking about
living by faith. And it is a condemnation or it
is a diatribe against the Judaizers who was coming in and saying
that you must keep the law of Moses for salvation. Not just circumcision. I hear a lot of Reformers say,
well, it also says about, it's just talking about circumcision.
But if you look in Acts, whenever Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem
and started complaining to the apostles up there saying, hey,
you're going to have to get a handle on these Judaizers that are coming
down here. out of the church up here who are still believing
that we're under the law and telling the Gentiles that they
have to keep the law of Moses. Whenever you look in Acts chapter
15, you see that council, whenever they come together and talk,
they say that we must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. Not just circumcision, which
was the command to Abraham, but also the law of Moses. They were saying we have to keep
the law of Moses. Paul is saying that is not the Gospel that I
received from Jesus Himself. I didn't confer with men. I was
given it to Him by Jesus Himself. That's how he began the letter.
The whole entire letter is a thesis and a treaty upon faith is the
life of the believer, not law working, not law keeping, not
law walking. And so he ends this in chapter
6, in verse 16, and as many as walk
according to this rule. Now some want to come back and
say that it's talking about the end of verse 15, being a new
creature. Now that's part of it. Being
a new creature definitely has some bearing on this because
you can't walk this walk that it's talking about unless you
are a new creature. But Paul is referring back to
the whole treaty that he just has done in the first six chapters. He's talking about walking by
faith. The walk that he is talking about
here, as many as walk according to this rule, the rule he's talking
about is not the rule of the old covenant, but the new covenant
rule of faith. As many as walk by this rule,
peace be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God."
Who is the Israel of God? The spiritual children of God
who worship in spirit and in truth and not the letter of the
law. As many as walk according to
this rule, peace be on them. God doesn't speak peace to those
who are walking in the law. Why? Because there's condemnation.
The only thing that's in there is condemnation. So brethren,
this is what I say. The law that has been written
on the heart of the children of grace is not the old covenant
law of Moses and everything in the Old Testament, that we're
to walk by that, that God caused us to want to do all those things.
No, the law that God writes in our hearts is this new covenant
law of faith. And as many as walk according
to that, peace be upon them. Not only peace between them and
God, but peace within their hearts. Listen, I'm telling you, we were
talking about this last night. When a child of grace is given
to know the Gospel and to know that Christ has done everything
for them and everything, what an assuring thing that is. What
a comforting thing that is. What a relief that that is to
the mind who knows how sinful we are. And brother, that's why
the Bible says that there's peace upon them. But those who are
not, there is not peace on them. There's a constant work. And
you just talk to those people who believe that they have to
keep up some sort of a religious walk before God, and you talk
to them, they're going to get all over you. You mean to tell
me you can just do it without doing this or doing that or doing
that? You just don't do nothing? You're just there? See, it gets
them riled up. Why? Because there's some anxiety
that, I have to be doing something. I have to be doing something.
That's not peace. They think they are living under peace,
but that's not peace. That's actually turmoil. That's
living in anxiety. That's living, wondering and
knowing, am I doing enough for God? Am I pleasing enough for
God? Have I confessed all my sin before
Him? Am I being forgiven of this or
that? Have I forgot something? Am I
doing enough to do what God wants me to do? Am I following His
little path? Am I walking in God's will? Or
have I strayed off His path and went some other way? Which direction
should I go? All these things. That's not
living in peace. Living in peace is to live your
life knowing that God has done everything for you as far as
salvation is concerned, and that every event in your life is being
ordained of God, and He is bringing you through all these things. He's bringing you through everything
that you're going to experience, everything that you're going
to know, everything that you're going to learn, everything that
you're going to believe and hold true. He's in charge of all that. And true rest is just, okay, I'm trusting that you're doing
that. What do I know? What's the doctrines that I hold
and know? Well, I'm trusting that the Lord's teaching me because
He said He would teach His children. That He would send His children
or His Spirit to teach His children. He's going to guide me and lead
me because He said that He's the Good Shepherd and He will
lead His children. I'm just trusting that He's doing that. Well, what
about this? You didn't do this and you didn't
do that and you're not doing all this. So you're telling me that Christ
isn't leading me? Christ isn't working in me to
willing to do His good pleasure? I mean, I either believe the
man out there, or I believe God. Let God be true in every man
alive. See, if God says that it's His
work and He's doing it, if God says that I'm the one who's going
to do all these things for you, if God is the one who says there's
nothing that you need to do because my son did it all, But I trust
Him. He says there are as many as
walk according to this rule. Peace be on them and mercy. But it's only upon the Israel
God, and that's not the physical Israel God. That's the spiritual
Israel God. That's those who are in His spiritual
kingdom. He's their spiritual King. He's
their spiritual Head. He's their Savior. They're looking
unto Him, and the finisher of their faith. They know who their
Savior is. They know who their Lord is.
And it's not juxtaposed like the MacArthurites like to do. You can make Him your Lord, but
not your Savior. Therefore, you've got to keep
up this resemblance of law keeping so that you're making Him also
your Lord, not just your Savior. He is your Lord and your Savior,
whether you keep all those laws or not. But just know you're
not keeping them, even when you try. He's still your Lord and
your Savior. If I would have to look at myself
and say, am I keeping the law to the point where everyone out
there knows that Jesus is my Lord? In its greatest expression, I'm never going to be looked
on as anything. People gonna look at me, I mean they already
do look at me and say, you know, who is this guy? You know? But
more importantly, my conscience will never be able to live with
that. My conscience will always condemn
me before God. So praise the Lord for the gospel. Anybody got a question or anything
you'd like to add? I'd say the Judaizers today are just saying,
yeah, Jesus did it all, but you still got to repent and believe.
And they turned that, just like circumcision, they turned to
faith and repentance into a work of man. And actually, I'm not
against repentance or faith, but my believing in repentance
doesn't make a difference. I repent and believe because
he did it for me. They end up, so, I would say
if you're repenting and believing to be saved, you don't understand
the gospel. I do believe, but it's not believing,
I believe because He died for me, not for Him to have died
for me. Yeah, they make repentance and
belief the hinge pin upon which salvation is waiting to turn. You know, salvation is here,
He's done all He can for you, and he's offered it to you, and
now he's invited you to it, but you have to repent and believe,
otherwise he won't give it out. I want to save you. I'm not gonna
give it to you unless you do repentance and faith, baptism,
church membership, whatever. It's a gift, but you gotta receive
it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, and that's... Not
accept it. Well, I heard that my whole entire life. I used
to preach that, actually. You know, even though you have
a gift, you still have to reach out and receive the gift. You
have to take it. There's something you have to
do. That gift is just gonna sit there unless you take it, right? The Bible doesn't talk about
receive in that. Receive in the Bible is a passive
thing, not an active thing. So, you guys heard me give the
illustration. I can go and punch Zach in the
eye and give him a black eye, and Zach's received a black eye
from me. He didn't do anything to get it. He received it. It was a passive thing on his
part. The active things on my part, faith, belief, repentance
are passive things that the Holy Spirit gives to his people that we don't do anything for. And Father, we thank You once
again for the beautiful message of the Gospel. We thank You for
the glorious work of our Savior. We thank You for the Word of
God that testifies of all that He has done for us. It will be
His. Father, we pray that the Holy
Spirit might testify to us even this morning of the glorious
work of Christ on our behalf. And that our sins and all of
our wickedness that we ever will procure in this lifetime in this
flesh has been eradicated by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Father, we're so grateful for
the gospel. We're thankful for what Christ has done. Lord, we
never would have devised a salvation like this because our natural
mind would always tend to look to what we can do for you. But
we're thankful for the gospel of what has been done. It truly
is finished. Lord, help us to continue to
rest in that. By your Spirit, may we find joy
and peace and comfort in the work that Christ has done on
our behalf. Father, for all your children that are out there that
are still, that you have not revealed yourself to them in
this capacity, Lord, we pray that they might find peace and
comfort in the Gospel. and that they might turn from
those false Gospels, the very Gospel of the Judaizers of do
and live and acceptance through activity. But Lord, we pray that
You might give them, even today, the grace to believe upon You,
to trust upon You. Lord, we pray for all those who
have trusted upon You, that You by Your Spirit might also lead
them to profess Christ and baptism Lord, to be a member of the church
and to edify and to build each other up. Lord, what a precious
thing you've given to us here. Not too many places have a church
and a witness of Christ. And we pray for all those brethren
that are out there. Lord, we just pray that you'd
continue to edify them through the means that you've provided
for them. Lord, we ask that you would just be with us even As
we go our way today, that you might keep us and that you might
encourage us, keep us safe as we go. And we might gather together
again. And we anxiously wait for you
to come and to bring us home to be with you. We thank you
again for this service. We thank you for the brethren
that are here. And we ask that you bless it all in Christ Jesus'
name, we pray. Amen.