Unbelief has not the Father put
to grief His spotless Holy Son for me Upon the cruel cursed
tree And will the righteous judge of men Condemn me for that death
of sin He charged to my great surety When he was slain at Calvary
Complete atonement Christ has made, The love's demanded price
He paid, And all that His people owe to God, He's satisfied by
His own blood. God's wrath on me shall not take
place. I'm robed in Christ's own righteousness. He shed for me his precious blood. My sins are drowned beneath the
flood. Christ Jesus, my discharge procured,
The whole of wrath divine endured. The law's tremendous curse he
bore, Justice can never ask for more. Payment God cannot twice
demand, First add my bleeding shirt to his hand, And then demand
the price for me, For whom Christ died at Calvary. Be still, my soul, and find sweet
rest, the merits of my great High Priest. His righteousness
and precious blood have satisfied the Holy God. I'll trust Christ's efficacious
blood and never fear the wrath of God, since Jesus Christ has
died for me and lives for me to intercede. There's a lot of gospel doctrine
in that song right there, Brett. I don't know if you picked up
on all that or not, but that is beautiful. to know that Christ
died, and this goes to show the fallacy, the error of the Arminian
doctrine, that Christ died for everyone, and yet some will be
in hell. If Christ died for somebody's
sin, then justice was satisfied on behalf of that person for
whom Christ died, and God cannot extract justice from them anymore,
because he laid it all upon Christ. Christ died for all their sins,
not just for some sins, but all their sins, including unbelief.
Now, whenever I was an Armenian, I used to preach and teach that
Christ died for all of our sins, except for the sin of unbelief.
That's the only one that sends us to hell, you know, is unbelief.
Well, all of us have been in unbelief. Everyone is guilty
of that sin. And so that can't be the sin
that is the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin has nothing
to do with being an unbeliever, because all of us at one time
or another has been guilty of unbelief. And matter of fact,
there's a lot of times, even after we've been quickened and
converted of God, that we still find times of doubt. And so if
we're guilty of that, I mean, just think about Peter. He denied
Christ three times. All the disciples, whenever Christ
was being crucified, they all ran and hid. And so, at times
we're gonna have unbelief, so that ain't the thing. So, God
cannot look upon us if Christ died for us and extract justice
from us. Again, what a great thought that
is. All right, turn now, if you would,
back to Uh, hymn number 22 in that same book. Hymn number 22, Jesus only. We'll sing this to the tune of
Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus. Jesus only is my savior. Jesus only will I praise. Trusting Him, I need no other. Trusting Him, I have a grace. Jesus is my God and Savior. Jesus saves me by His grace. Jesus only. Jesus only will I praise. Jesus only represents me. He's the Lord, my righteousness. His obedience perfect, holy. is before my God, my dress. Jesus is my God and Savior. Jesus saves me by His grace. Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus
only will I praise. Jesus only died at Calvary, bearing
all my guilt and sin. Precious blood he shed so freely. has atoned for all my sin. Jesus is my God and Savior. Jesus saves me by His grace. Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus
only will I praise. Jesus only rules in heaven. Therefore me he intercedes. By his blood I am forgiven. And for me, his blood he pleads. Jesus is my God and Savior. Jesus saves me by his grace. Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus
only will I praise. Jesus only, King of glory, soon
will come to call me home. I will see him, Jesus only. When I reach my heavenly home,
Jesus is my God and Savior. Jesus saves me by His grace. Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus
only will I praise. Amen. The Bible says that he is worthy
of our praise that by his, or at his name, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ. All right, turn
to your Gatsby hymn books if you would. The Gatsby hymn books. To hymn number 912. And number 912. Tune to this as I worship the king. Salvation by grace, have charm. Sorry, wrong tune. I won't worship
the king. Salvation by grace, how charming
the song, with seraphim joined, the theme to prolong. Twas planned by Jehovah in counsel
above, who to everlasting shall rest in his love. This covenant of grace, all blessings
secures. Believers rejoice, for all things
are yours. And God from his purpose shall
never remove. But love thee, and bless thee,
and rest in his love. But when like a sheep that strays
from the fold, To Jesus thy Lord thy love shall grow cold, Think
not he'll reject thee, howe'er he reproved, for though he correct
thee, he'll rest in his love. In Jesus the Lamb, the Father's
delight, the saints without blame, appear in His sight. And while in Jesus their souls
shall approve, so long shall Jehovah abide in His love. The Bible says nothing can separate
us from the love of God. Nothing. And that includes your
sin. As our hymn said there, even our wanderings away, you
know, whenever we tend to become cold in our heart towards the
Lord and everything, that He'll correct us because He loves us.
We're not bastard children. We are His children, and He loves
us, and He will pursue us in love and restore us to Himself. Does anybody have a hymn that
you'd like to sing or a chorus? Or maybe Tom's not in any of
these hymn books. You might know. In the blue book, hymn number
eight. All right, let's just sit here and
take my life and let it be. Blessed is the man, oh Lord,
? Who was chosen by your grace ? ? Your election and your love
? ? Cause our hearts to sing your praise ? ? Cause our hearts
to sing your praise ? ? God of love you sent your son ? to redeem
your chosen ones. Precious Savior, precious blood,
for our sin your blood atones. For our sin your blood atones. When the time of love has come,
God the Spirit comes to sum. By grace we cannot resist. God's elect are called to come. God's elect are called to come. Come to Jesus, yes we do. Come to Christ alone for grace. By God's sovereign grace and
power, we the Son of God embrace. We the Son of God embrace. Blessed Father, blessed Son,
blessed Spirit, three in one, we for grace our praise return. Thank you, Lord, for all you've
done. Thank you, Lord, for all you've
done. Amen. Amen. Anybody else got
something? Scripture you'd like to read?
Anything you'd like to bring before the church? Alright. Turn with me if you would to
Galatians chapter 5. Lord willing we'll be looking at three
verses here today. We went down through verse 12
last week. Today we want to look through
verses 13, 14, and 15. I'm going to back up and start reading
in verse one, just so that we can get our minds around the
the context here because what we're going to see here in verse
13 draws back to what Paul began saying in verse 1 of chapter
5. Actually, it's drawn out through
all this letter, but particularly we want to see what he's speaking
about here in verse 1. He says, Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Now let me pause just there and
remind you. Stand fast therefore in the liberty.
Liberty from what? What is it that Paul is speaking
of that they have liberty from? Well, this whole entire letter
has been written to them to remind them that the gospel is a gospel
or good news that we are no longer under the curse of the law, underneath
the power of the law or the condemnation of the law, That we are no longer
under the law to keep for works of righteousness or anything
like that. That never was intended to be the use of the law to make
us righteous. And that these Judaizers have
been coming in saying for you to be saved and ultimately what
some people call sanctification. I have a different understanding
of sanctification than what I've seen most people write about. What he says about them becoming
saved and continuing in salvation is by the law of Moses, by circumcision
and by the law of Moses. And Paul here is writing that
just the opposite is true. The fact that we cannot keep
the law is evident and that by the law, no man was ever intended
to be justified anyway. That was never the purpose of
the law. And so the gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ
has fulfilled by his substitution. He has fulfilled everything that
God's justice required for us. Okay. We were born and we were
conceived and born into sin from our mother's womb. We are sinners
by nature as we are children of Adam. The flesh cannot do
anything to please God. And so we have an inability,
we have no way of performing that which
God requires in holiness and in righteousness. And so Paul
is saying that if you're listening to these Judaizers, if you're
listening to men who are preaching that you have to follow conditions
and law For salvation or to maintain and keep your salvation, you're
going in the wrong direction. You're going and walking in the
flesh. You're not walking in the spirit.
To walk in the spirit is to look upon Christ, to trust in Christ,
to have faith upon Christ alone as your righteousness, as Abraham
did. Okay? Now, so that's what liberty
Paul is talking about. He says, stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty or in the freedom from the law that Christ has
given you. And it's Christ who gave it to
us, right? Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty. Where would Christ
have made us free? By the work of Christ and his
substitutionary death and his resurrection and his, I would
say, his life as well. The whole work of Christ in Him
coming for us has made us free. That's what has made us free.
Your law keeping didn't make you free. Okay? Your good intentions
didn't make you free. Your mama and your daddy being
a Christian didn't make you free. Okay? You being a Jew or a Gentile,
that doesn't make one free or not free. What makes us free? The fact that Christ died for
us. That has made us free from the law, from the condemnation
of the law, from us having to perform some sort of a something
before God for righteousness. Okay? Christ has performed it
for us. And brethren, I know we've talked
about this and I keep saying these things over and over and
over and over again. And I hope that this is food for you. I
hope that you find this to be edifying and not just, man, I
wish the guy would get off the same subject. But brethren, that's
the very heart of the gospel. The very heart of the gospel
is that justification before God, our righteousness before
God, doesn't come by anything that we do. It came by what Christ
done. And for the child of grace who
has been given that spiritual mind, that becomes a comforting
thing. We rest in that. We cease from
our labors of trying to enter into righteousness or performing
righteousness before God by doing all these things that the law
says to do. And we realize that we can't
keep that, and so we trust that Christ does. That doesn't mean
that our desires and our mind that we want to do good and we
want to be right before God as far as keeping the things that
God said, but that, you know, and we're going to talk about
this today, what is the commands of God that we're to be keeping?
And so we stand fast in the liberty. So he says, stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not
entangled again with that yoke of bondage or the law. Behold,
I fall saying to you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. So keeping that law ain't gonna
make you any better with God. It's not gonna profit you, okay? It says, for I testify again
to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole
law. Christ has become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from
grace. It doesn't mean they lost their
salvation. It means that they have fallen away from the doctrine
of grace. They've moved away from the gospel
to works. It says, For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. Now pay close attention to that
phrase because we want to find those things in our passages
today. The only thing, what does he
say? For in Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision availeth anything. But what is
it that availeth? What does that word availeth
mean? Did anybody know what that word means? Availeth. We can
substitute that word profit, okay? That word profit, does
anything profit you? Okay, but that word availeth
there, what is it that is worthy of something? What is it that
we should be looking at? What is it that is the center
of attention and it's not the keeping of the law, whether you're
keeping the law or not keeping the law? What is it that we are
looking for? which worketh by love." Okay? Now, keep that in your mind because
you're going to see it said another way here in just a minute. Verse
7, he said, He did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should
not obey the truth? Okay? Remember that phrase. We've talked about that many
times already before. Okay? What is obeying the truth? Galatians 2.14, remember we've
seen that, we talked a little bit about that last week. Galatians
2.14, but whenever I saw that they walked not uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel. What is walking according to
the truth of the gospel? Walking in the spirit. What is
this obeying the truth? What is that talking about? We
want to see today. This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that
ye will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall
bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I
yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased? I would they were even
cut off, which trouble you." Now that's what we dealt with
up to there last week. And today we go forward. It says,
for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. See, Christ has
called us into this freedom. He's not calling us into the
yoke of bondage. He is calling us into liberty. The call of God is not to come
and work, but come and rest. Come unto me, all ye who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you more to do. Is that
what he said? No. He said, come unto me, all
ye who labor and are heavy laden who have been trying to perform
a righteousness before God, a satisfaction before God by your words and
finding that you can't do it. Come unto me, all ye who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you, what do you say, rest.
I will give you rest, right? For brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another." Now that's kind
of what we just seen up here a while ago whenever it said
the only thing that availeth is faith which worketh by love,
right? By love serve one another. Love
worketh. Working of love. What is working
of love? Well, we're going to talk about
that a little bit today. But by love serve one another,
for all the law is fulfilled in one word. Even this thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."
Let's bow and ask the Lord to bless the preaching today. Father
Lord, we do come to you this morning and we thank you so much
for all that you are. We thank you for your sovereign
over all things. We thank you for your graciousness
to us. We thank you, Father, for your
mercy and your kindness that you have shown us. We exalt you,
Father, this morning because you are the creator of all things
and by whom all things consist. We are grateful for all that
you have done, not only in the natural but also in the spiritual.
Father, we just look to you today and we give you praise and honor
and glory. for all that who you are. And
so, Father, we just ask now because of who you are, because of your
sovereignty and your graciousness and your mercy that you delight
in giving mercy to your children and grace to your children. Father,
we ask that even now that you might help us in this worship
time, that you might reveal to us your word, that you might
give us light and understanding of these things, that you might
help me to preach, Father, That I might not speak error, but
I might speak truth. That I might not say things of
my own thoughts and my own traditions and presuppositions, but Father,
that I might take the Word of God and explain the Word of God
as you intend it to be understood. And I pray that those that are
here, Lord, that you give them ears to hear, that you might
give them eyes to see, and that they might have a heart that
receives the things of the Spirit of God, because you have opened
up their understanding of these things, that you have opened
up their heart and prepared them for this very word, Lord. And
I just ask that you just might be glorified and exalted in all
that we do and say today. And it's in Christ's name that
we pray. Amen. So it says here, brethren, we
have been called unto liberty. Use not that liberty, though,
for an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one another. Now, I'm not going to dwell a
whole lot on this because there's other things that I really would
like to speak about this morning that at least I've been led to
dwell upon this morning. But one thing I wanted to say,
even though we have liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ and we're
not under the law, the Bible here admonishes us to not use
that liberty in such a way that it would give occasion for the
flesh, okay? So basically what I'm saying
is because we're not under the law, I'm not telling you to just
go out and live however you want to live, okay? And I know that
whenever men like me preach and teach what we are teaching here
today and what we've been teaching over the course of the last few
months about not being under the law but being under grace
and that the law, you know, that we do not need the law anymore
for anything that has to do with righteousness. Of course, it
never was for righteousness. that the law has been abolished
for us in the fact that Jesus has fulfilled everything on our
behalf and that we no longer are under that law. Men always
want to gravitate to the argument, well, then you're just going
to live lawless. If you're not under the law, then you're just
going to live a sinful life and sin as much as you want to sin.
I'm saying, and that's not what I'm encouraging, and matter of
fact, that's not what the Bible even teaches. Matter of fact,
the Bible teaches that as we begin to trust and believe upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, that that right there in and of itself
constrains us. The love of God constrains us,
and it keeps us from being lawless. It keeps us from going out and
trying to live just a debaucherous lifestyle, okay? But here's the
thing. If we have been given liberty,
we need to be very careful. Brother Ed coming in. Good morning. Good morning, brother. Good morning. Good to see you. Come on in and have a seat, wherever
you want. There you go. Take that chair
right there. Good to see you. We've missed you. Finally got some mode of transportation
again. It's good to see you, brother. We're in Galatians chapter 5.
That's where we're at. Galatians chapter 5, verse 13. That's where we're at right now. So as I was saying, the mentality
of a lot of people is that if you preach that we're not under
the law, then we can just live any way we want. That is not
anywhere in what we're saying. Now, with that being said, we
need to be careful that with our liberty that we do not offend
those who have yet to be brought into the light of this understanding.
See, there are some Christians who are still young in the faith
who the Lord has not brought them to this full understanding
of some of these things, and I don't claim to have the full
understanding of these things, but a more mature understanding
of these things, I guess I should say, that some of these brethren
might have an occasion to be offended because of our liberty
that we have in Christ Jesus. As a matter of fact, remember
Paul was talking about how that some of those Judaizers had come
down to spy upon them and the liberty that they had and everything. But what do they do? Paul said,
if offending my brother is eating meat, well, I'm not going to
eat meat in front of my brother. He didn't say that eating meat
was bad. He just said, if that offends my brother, then I'm
not going to do that in front of my brother. So if there's
something that might offend your brother or sister in Christ,
We want to be careful and not offend them. Now, with that being
said, I think that we ought to take opportunity to, with meekness
and long-suffering, teach them rightly the Word of God and to
help them in that. Well, I say help them, but pray
that the Lord, as the Bible says, pray that the Lord would give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Okay. That eventually
that the Lord will bring them into this light of freedom and
that they are not under the law. But, Brother Mattel, the Lord
gives them that understanding and that revealing. We've got
to be careful not to be an offense to them in our liberty. Now, like I said, that wasn't
the main thing that I wanted to talk about today. That will
be for another sermon at another time. I mainly wanted to get
to what is the gist of these verses in chapter 5, and especially
as we move on to verse 14. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even this, that thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself." What is this walking in the Spirit? What is this obeying
the truth? What is this fulfilling the law
in one word? Keeping the commands of Christ,
right? This is kind of what we want
to know about. Well, turn with me, if you would, back to the
Gospel of John. The Gospel of John. And look
with me at chapter 13 and verse 34. The gospel of John. Not the epistle of John, but
the gospel of John. We will be going to the epistles
of John here in just a few minutes. But John chapter 13, and look
with you if you would down to verse 34. Jesus said this before
he before he left to go back to
the Father. He says, A new commandment I
give you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. By this all men know that ye
are my disciples if ye have love one to another. Okay, so Christ
gave a new command. Okay, there's a new command. Whenever we speak about the commands
in the New Testament, we're not talking about the Old Testament
law. That was fulfilled in Christ, and Christ put that away. We're
no longer under that law. But we are under the law of Christ
now. And Christ has given us a few
laws in the New Testament that we are to abide by. Number one
in the commission, he has given us the command to make disciples,
to baptize those disciples, and to teach those disciples all
things whatsoever He has commanded. He has given us the command to
keep the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, right?
Okay? So there are some commands that
the Lord has given us to keep. But in regards to what we're
talking about here specifically, The Lord is talking about the
command to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. On
these two things hang all the law and the prophets, okay? So Christ is saying the commands
that I give to you is a new command, okay? It's a new command. Now if you'll remember, the writers
of the New Testament often spoke about when Jesus first came and
called the disciples out They use that as from the beginning,
not meaning the beginning of creation or the beginning of
time, but from the beginning when Jesus' ministry came and
He began to walk and to gather His disciples and to preach His
doctrine. That is often talked about as being the beginning,
okay? Now, keep that in mind that Jesus
has given us a new command. He did this whenever He was before
he was crucified, before he died, before he was resurrected, okay? Matter of fact, this was right
before he was arrested and after Judas had betrayed him. So keep
that in mind as we turn back to 1 John, the epistle of John. And look with me at chapter 3,
1 John chapter 3, And we want to look at verse...
Let's start in verse 22. It says, And whatsoever we ask,
we receive of him, because we keep his commands, commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this
is his commandment. Okay? You hear people all the
time, you know, this is how we know that we love God, that we
keep his commands, right? We're going to be reading those
verses here in a minute. But we keep his commands. Well, he's
fixing to tell us, what is his commandment? And this is his
commandment, that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. As
he gave us commandment. So that means that he's already
given us commandment. Who gave the commandment? Jesus
gave the commandment, right? Okay? And so, now let's keep
all this in context. Because a lot of people are going
to come to you whenever you preach and teach that you're no longer
under law, but under grace, you're going to come and say, well,
what about this verse? Well, what about this verse? Well, what
about this verse? What about this one? It says right here
that if we love him, we'll keep his commands. Verse 24, and he
that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.
And hereby we know that he abided in us by his spirit, which he
hath given us. There you go. We've got to keep his commands.
We're still under the law. We've got to keep his commands.
Well, brethren, we've got to keep in context what the new
commandment is. There's a new commandment that's
been given to the children of grace because of what Christ
has done for us. That new commandment is not keep
the law for righteousness because that cannot be done. The new
commandment is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that He
has kept the law for you. That's the new commandment. And
to love the brethren. We're going to talk about what
that means also because that also involves doctrine. doctrine. He says, and this is the commandment
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. It doesn't say believe in Jesus
Christ. Okay? There are a lot of people
that believe that Jesus existed, that He was a historical person,
but they don't believe on Jesus Christ. Okay? There are many people that believe
Jesus died. and that he was buried, and that
he was resurrected. Even Paul talks about the gospel.
He said, you know, here's the gospel I've delivered unto you,
that Christ died, that he was buried, and that he was resurrected.
But there was that little phrase after that. Anybody remember
what that phrase was? That how Jesus died according
to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was resurrected
according to the Scriptures. See, if we don't preach the death,
burial, and resurrection according to the Scriptures, see, it's
not just about dying and being buried and being resurrected.
It's what was that death for? Who was that death for? What
did that death accomplish? And in that resurrection, what
did that mean for all those for whom Christ died? See, we see
that the Bible overwhelmingly teaches that Christ's death is,
and we sang it in one of our hymns this morning, that Christ's
death was efficacious. That means it had an effect.
It actually did something. Christ dying actually caused
God's wrath to be not upon us anymore. Christ's substitution
for us caused God to be able to forgive us of all of our sin.
Christ's death brought it where we no longer have an account
of sin against God, that He no longer sees that, but that full,
holy righteousness is placed to our account. Okay. Whenever we see these things,
whenever we look at these things, all these things that, that,
that, that is talked about in scripture, that's what his death
was about. His death wasn't about that.
Jesus loves everybody and has died for everybody. Okay. That's
not the gospel. That's not what the Bible teaches.
Whenever Paul said how he died according to the scripture, there
was a certain reason, there was a certain group of people, there
was a certain outcome that happens because of that death. And that
resurrection showed forth that God was righteous, God was holy,
that God is just, and that God accepted everything that Christ
did on behalf of those people for whom he did it. Okay? Jesus dying for everybody and
some going to hell, that is not the gospel, that is not what
is taught in God's Word. Because as we read this morning,
God cannot extract justice twice. Okay? He cannot charge you with your
sin after Christ has already paid for that sin. He would be
unjust to do so. For God to send anybody to hell
for whom Christ died would be unjust because Christ died for
that people. That would be not only contempt for his son, but it
would also say that Jesus Christ's death didn't have any meaning
at all. That had nothing to do with it. And if that's the case,
then that means that we're saved by our works. We were saved by
our choosing God, our believing or repentance or coming to church
or whatever you want to put it, that's what it is. And so we
see that the command is not just to believe in Jesus or believe
on or that Jesus did what he did, but it's to believe on the
name of his son Jesus. What does that mean? We've talked
about that here before. Whenever we speak of the name
of Jesus, that at the name of Jesus, is it just because someone
says Jesus that every knee is going to bow? What does the term
or that phrase in the name mean? Well, that word name throughout
scripture has to do with position for one, okay? It has position
for one. Christ who is at the right hand
of God, okay? And He is the one who is the
image of the invisible God. He is the one that all of the
Godhead dwells in Him. And so the one true God is in
Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is the manifestation
of God, okay? And so at the name of Jesus,
Jesus is representing all that who God is. He is God, okay? But the word name means authority. He comes, and I've used this
illustration to you before. If you're out here and you go
and you rob a bank and you start to run and the police come and
they say, stop in the name of the law, what does that mean?
Stop under the authority of I'm the law and you need to stop
and do what I say. Otherwise, there are going to
be repercussions, right? The name of Jesus has to do with
his authority. He has authority. The Bible says
he's been given authority over all flesh. He's been given power
over all flesh. Those names, that word name means
authority, it means power. He's been given authority over
all mankind because he is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The Bible says that he is the
only potentate. He is the only sovereign, okay? but also he has been given power
over all flesh. So it says here that we are to
believe upon the name of his son, his authority and his power. What has he done? By his authority
he has done what? He has taken away our sins. He
has forgiven our sins. By His authority, He has given
us His righteousness. By His authority, He has removed
all of our guilt, all of our sin. By His authority, He has
substituted on our behalf. And by His power, He sustains
us. He has given us life. He sustains
us. He has given us faith. All these
things are done by His power. He is all power. So whenever
it says here that we should believe on the name of His Son, it isn't
just believe that He existed or believe that He did certain
things, but it is to put our trust in His power and authority
that what He said He has done for us is enough. Why? Because it's under His authority.
If Jesus said that me dying for you causes you to be free from
the law, and that that righteousness is put to your account, and that
God will no more remember your sins, and that I will bring you
unto myself, then based upon His name, His authority, and
His power, and remember, He is God and He cannot lie, that under
that authority and power that He can do that. Not only does
He have the right to do that, but He has the power to keep
us and to make sure that it happens. The Bible says that His people
will be made willing in the day of His power. He's the one that
causes us to understand spiritual things, to believe upon Him,
to receive Him into our heart, to receive the gospel for ourselves,
to continue to keep us in the faith. This is all by the power
of Christ. And so we trust in Christ that
what He said, He will do. What he did was enough. Is he
sufficient for us? Is him and his work sufficient
or is it not? If it's not sufficient, then
we just need to go home. Because we're most men most miserable. Because what's going to happen?
If Christ isn't sufficient, then that leaves something for us
to do. And we have been overwhelmed by scripture over the last several
months that tells us that there is nothing that we can do to
gain righteousness before God. So if Christ's righteousness
wasn't enough, our righteousness surely isn't going to be enough.
But what this is saying is that we are to believe upon His name,
believe upon who He is, believe that everything that He did is
all that is required and needed and sufficient for our salvation. From start to finish, from eternity
to eternity, not just the moment that we believe, but in everything. That's what believing in His
name means. And it says, and this is the
commandment that we should believe on the name of the Son of Jesus
Christ and love one another. While you're there, look back
to 1 John chapter 2. So we're to love God. Christ is
God. We're to love God. We're to believe
upon His name. Look at 1 John chapter 2 and
starting in verse 1, it says, My little children These things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Okay? He's the righteous, not you,
but He. He's the righteous. And He is
the propitiation for our sins. What does the propitiation for
our sins mean? That word propitiation, that's
a big theological word, right? That word propitiation basically means a turning away
of. He is a propitiation for our
sins. What does our sins deserve? The wrath of God, death, right? The wages of sin is death, okay? By no means will God acquit the
guilty. He's going to bring judgment
upon them. He's going to judge them. He is going to pour out
His wrath upon them. But if Jesus has substituted
for them, all of that wrath that was to be put upon us, if we
were not the elect of God, was put upon Christ. Okay? So that means that He has taken
God's wrath, therefore we are not appointed under wrath. Why? Because we're in Christ Jesus.
And in Christ Jesus there is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. We use the term eternal, vital
union. We have an eternal, vital union
with Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians chapter
1 tells us that we were in Christ Jesus before the foundation of
the world. And because of that eternal, vital union with Christ,
God, before we were even created in Adam, God had already declared
there will be no condemnation upon these people. This is my
seed. They will be in Christ Jesus.
I will view them in Christ Jesus. They will not have sins imputed
unto them. Will they sin? Absolutely. We
all sin, right? We just read it. We all sin,
right? And if we say we don't, we make
God out to be a liar. We are all sinners. We actually
do sin. But God was in Christ, reconciling
the world of His people, okay? Not imputing their sins to them.
He's reconciling us back to Him. We have sinned. We have gone
away. The Bible says that we, by nature,
were children of wrath against God. That we were the ones who
went away, despised Him, were at enmity with Him, did not.
Now, He's loved us with an everlasting love. But we were the ones who
had went astray in Adam. And God was reconciling His people
from all the four corners of the world, bringing them back
to himself. And he was doing it, and the
Bible says he is not imputing our sin. All those sins that
we've been committing all this time, he's not been imputing
those to us. They've never been imputed to
us, why? Because blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not sin. We were blessed in Christ Jesus
with all spiritual blessing, Ephesians chapter one, okay? So He is the propitiation. So
the wrath of God that would have come upon us had we not been
in Christ Jesus fell upon Christ. So there was a turning away of
wrath from us to Christ because Christ was our substitute. He
propitiated that. That word propitiation also has
to do with the mercy seat of God. If you remember the Ark
of the Covenant, whenever it was built, Upon top of that,
there was a thick bar of gold that laid upon, as a lid upon
that ark. And it was there that the sacrifices
of blood was put. And that bar of gold was called,
it was called the mercy seat. And it was here that God received
that blood for those people. And that was a picture of Christ. Christ was shielding us from
God's wrath. by his own perfect obedience. See, the gold was pure gold. It wasn't partial gold, it was
pure gold. And whenever we speak of gold,
we speak of purity, we speak of without any kind of dross,
you know. All the dross has been removed
and it's pure gold. Well, there was a lid of pure
gold and that represented Christ and that blood was the representation
of His blood on our behalf and His perfect righteousness is
what God viewed in our place. It was His blood that was the
forgiveness of our sin, okay? So that is what propitiation
is. Propitiation is turning away
all of that wrath and anger of God so that we might receive
everything else from God, okay? And he is the propitiation for
our sins and not for ours only. Now, whoa, wait a minute. But
for the sins of the whole world, does that mean that he died for
everybody? Is that what that's saying, preacher? No, remember
who John has been writing to. Remember who John is. John is
a Jew, and he was writing primarily to Jews. And so John here is
saying, hey, The mentality of us Jews has always been that
we are the chosen people alone because of our Jewishness, because
of our being the children in the flesh of Abraham. That was
not what was meant all those years in the Old Testament that
we were teaching the Old Testament. That was not what that was meaning.
Those were types of foreshadows pictures of what was to come
in the spiritual. The spiritual Israel is of every
tribe, language, nation, and tongue. All the people, Jew and
Gentile alike, have been brought into one and made one people,
and that one people being brought together, Jew and Gentile, make
up the Israel of God. And so when John says this, not
for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world, he means
that it's not just for Jews, but for also the Gentiles. He
died for the Gentiles as well. And hereby do we know that we
know him, if we what? Keep his commands. Well, here
again, what's the context? Okay, what's the context of those
commands? That we believe upon the name
of the Son of, or the Son, Jesus Christ, and love the brethren. That's the commands that is in
context here, brother. He said, I know him, and keepeth
not his commands, is a liar. and the truth is not in him. But whosoever keepeth his word,
or command, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby
know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him
ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." How did Christ
walk? Remember how Christ walked? What
did Christ say? He said that Whatever the Father
tells me to do, I do it. I trust in Him. Whatever He says,
I do. The Father has told me to do this, and what have I done?
I've done it. Okay? Now, He's telling us to walk
as He walked. Christ walked in faith that God
would keep the covenant that was made in the everlasting wherever,
before time began, when Christ stood as our surety, and was
brought forth as our lamb, he was brought forth as our substitute,
our advocate, as Christ came forth before God in the new covenant
or the everlasting covenant, the mediator, the only mediator
between God and man is the man, Jesus Christ, right? And whenever
he was brought forth in the counsel of God to be that mediator, And
to make covenant, what was that to be? He made covenant to whatever
God says, I will do. And upon the completion of my
righteousness, God will accept these people on my behalf. That's the everlasting covenant.
That by not blood of bulls and goats, not by law keeping, not
by any inherent thing that we do that's good, but by the work
of Jesus Christ, by his shed blood. That's why in Isaiah,
the Bible talks about, by my righteous servant. Jesus served
Christ, or served God by doing what? By being obedient to what
God had told him to do. Now we're to be obedient in what
Christ has told us to do. And what has Christ told us to
do? To believe on him and to love the brethren. That's what
Christ had told us to do. And we know, oh excuse me, but
whosoever keepeth his word, in him is the love of God perfected.
Hereby know we that we are in him. He that said he abideth
in him are also to walk even as he walked. Brethren, I write
no new commandment. Now, let me just back up there,
because I want to make something clear here. If you want to take
that to say, no, that's not meaning that preacher, it's saying that
we have to keep the law of God You have so many verses that
we've already covered in scripture that has already told us that
we cannot keep the law of God. This says that we are to walk
even as He walked. If you're going to take that
to mean complete obedience to the law, Jesus did that perfectly. If we are to walk as He walked,
we have to do it perfectly. And the Bible even tells us that.
You who desire to be under the law, do you not hear what the
law says? The law says that you've got to keep me perfectly. So even if this did mean all
the other commandments that have been in the Old Testament, we
cannot walk as Jesus walked. But what can we do? Well, by
the grace of the Holy Spirit in us, with the faith that has
been divinely given to us, not a faith that came from the old
man, not a faith that comes out of our nature or flesh, but a
faith that comes from above, that is given to us, that is
worked in us by the Holy Spirit, that faith can look to Christ. And that faith can also look
to our brothers and sisters and serve them in love. Brethren, I write no new commandment
unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning."
Now, see what he's saying here? That's why I brought up what
I said earlier about a lot of times the understanding was from
the beginning. Remember we said, was it John
also who wrote that when they were talking about Christ that
we had seen and heard Him? that who was from the beginning,
okay? That can mean from the beginning
of time, yes, Christ definitely was before the beginning of time,
but John's saying our experience as the disciples who are now
taking everything that he taught us and teaching you, that from
the beginning of the time that Jesus began to teach us, this
is what Jesus has been saying. Paul was saying to the Galatians,
remember, Everything that I'm telling you is not new, it's
everything that Jesus had been telling the disciples and me
now that I'm one who was born out of due time or normally out
of time, meaning that he became an apostle later than the other
ones, but it's the same gospel. The same gospel that was preached
to those disciples was preached to me as now I'm being preached
to you. John is saying this is the same
command that Jesus has been preaching ever since he has been here is
that believe upon me. Believe upon me. Look upon me. Now, lest we think that that's not
correct and that I am twisting scriptures, let's look at John
chapter 6, the gospel of John chapter 6. John chapter 6, and look with
me if you would, and I want to start reading that, I want to
start reading in verse 26. It said, Jesus answered them
and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because
ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and
were filled. I wrote about that this morning. A lot of times we seek God and
we praise and give glory to God, for the benefits we get from
him and not for who he is. We ought to be giving praise
and glory to God because of who he is, primarily, and then the
benefits, you know, less later. See, what was these people? They
were following Jesus because they were getting fed. They weren't following
Jesus for who he was. They were following for what
he got from them, right? From him. But it says, verse
27, labor not for the meat which perish, But for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they
unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? So their understanding is, okay,
then what is it that we need to do? What are you telling us
to do? What's your commands then? What's the commands of God that
we need to keep? And Jesus said unto them, This
is the work, or the command of God, that ye believe on him whom
he hath sent. Okay, we've now seen three places
in Scripture that have said that the command of Christ is to what? Believe upon him. The Bible says
that in the mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established.
Right? And I'll put that forth to you.
As you're studying Scripture and everything, It's always good
if you see something and you're thinking, you know, I've never
heard that and this seems to be true and everything, search
the scripture. And if there's two or three other
witnesses that bear a record of what you're seeing there,
then we have a little bit to rest upon. You know, we still
could be wrong, right? We still could be under a misunderstanding,
but we surely know that if there's a multiple witness or testimony
of something in scripture, then we can probably bank on that
it's probably true, right? And we've seen three places now
that says that this is the commands of Christ, that we believe on
Him. They said unto Him, What signs
showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost
thou work? Okay, so they said, well, what's
the miracles? Well, alright dummies, Christ
has already been doing a ton of miracles already, and you're
not believing Him, okay? Jesus our he says our fathers
did eat manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread
from heaven to eat So they're saying hey, look what God did
in the Old Testament. What are you gonna do for us?
Then Jesus said to them verily verily I say unto you Moses gave
you not that bread from heaven, but my father give you that true
bread from heaven See you're wrong on two accounts
number one It wasn't Moses who gave him the bread, it was God
that gave him the bread. And second of all, that wasn't
the true bread. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Okay? So what is the bread? The bread
is Christ, right? And not just Christ, but it is
Christ and what he does, giving life unto the world. He's giving
me power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as have
been given to me, right? So for the bread of God, the
food of God, the sustenance of God to the child of grace is
Christ, the one who has come down from heaven and by his work,
by his obedience, by his death, by his resurrection, give us
life unto the world. And they said unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto him, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. Now brethren, I'm not gonna take
a whole lot of time, but in chapter six, if you'll look at chapter
six, Jesus uses the word come to me, and he uses it interchangeably with
believe on me. Okay? on uh... believe on that fact i think
that's over and uh... uh... to use a chapter of hers
uh... sixty-four there's some of you
that believe not therefore said i knew that no man can come into
me he said to be given to him uh... my father that's not the
verse i was wanting uh... well i don't want to get too
far off track here uh... but you will see that jesus uses
the term come and believe interchangeably so Jesus is saying here he said
I am the bread of life he that cometh to me or believeth on
me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never
oh there he is right there he that cometh to me he that believeth
on me he uses it interchangeably but I said unto you that ye also
have seen me and believeth not all that the father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. And the Jews then murmured at
him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he sayeth,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore said unto them,
murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise them
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh or believeth
on me." Now see, brethren, they call us old-school Baptists,
they call us hardshells. Have you ever heard that term?
Have you ever been called a hardshell? Hardshell. Now that term, hardshell,
actually came from being called hard shalls. The old Baptists
believed in the hard shalls. Whenever it said, all that the
Father gives me shall come to me, they didn't think it was
a maybe so. If you remember at that time, whenever they began
to use these terms against us and everything, if you remember
that time, that was whenever the Baptists were beginning to
split and there was the new school and there was the old school.
There was those ones who was running off and thinking, that
through all kinds of extra church activities that they were going
to win the world of Christ. Guys like, uh, uh, I have those
names slipping my mind all of a sudden. But anyway, they were
being drawn away from the belief that Christ was saving his people,
was drawing his people, was causing his people to come, was gathering
his people into the churches. And they were thinking that through
all these other endeavors, that, you know, that they were going
to be saving the world. And what we see is that the Baptist
said, you know, we believe that God said that all the folly of
me shall come to me, that there isn't going to be anybody go
to hell that Christ died for. So all these people out there,
it's not getting, you know, preached to because we're going through
all of our, you know, human abilities to get to them. You know, if
they die without Christ, it was because they were intended to
do so. They were not the elect of God.
So nobody gets to hell because somebody didn't get to them with
the gospel. They got to hell because they were not chosen
of God. Okay? And so that was a shall
that we stood upon. That they shall come to Him without
man's inventions, without man's means. God is going to save his
people. He's going to bring them to them
experientially to him. They will believe upon him. Okay. See, that's another thing that
a lot of old school printed Baptist, we get a lot of flack about is
they say, well, you believe you don't have to preach the gospel
and that you believe that somebody can be saved and not know it
and never come to Jesus and wind up in heaven. Well, there are
some people that do teach that and believe that. If you scour
the internet, you'll find out that the majority of what's called
primitive Baptists, they hold to that, but that is not the
original primitive Baptists. The original primitive Baptists
believed what we're teaching right here, that they will come.
Matter of fact, they will come in such a divine, mysterious,
spiritual way, a miraculous way, that it doesn't require the means
of men to make it so. That God can save His people.
We see in the Bible, Lydia. Here was a woman who was worshiping
God before she ever heard the gospel. And that God opened up
her understanding whenever the gospel was preached to rightly
put together what was being said to her. Cornelius was a man who
who feared God and eschewed evil, and he was one who gave alms
to God and was praying to God, and God was receiving and hearing
those prayers. That's not something of an unconverted
man, of a man who has been not born again. Okay? No man fears
God, the Bible says. The only ones who fear God are
those who have been born from above. And here Cornelius was doing
all this, but still had not heard the gospel yet. So see, we believe that Christ
will cause his people to come to him without any means, and
that doesn't mean that there's not importance in preaching.
We do preach, and there's a reason for that. But brethren, that
is not, you know, preaching is not what makes people born again,
okay? Matter of fact, you have to be born
again before you can even understand or receive what's being preached.
All right, he says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth
on me hath See that word half there? That's past tense. Matter
of fact, in the Greek, that is a word that is a, in our language,
it's past tense, but in the Greek, it's present perfect. It means
it's something that happened in the past and is a continual,
ongoing thing, okay? He says, he that believeth on
me hath already everlasting life. Not he that believeth on me is
going to get everlasting life. Okay? He already has everlasting
life. He says, I am the bread of life.
Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may
eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever and the bread that I will give is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." The Jews
therefore strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? See, they were still thinking
physically and not spiritually, okay? Now, if you think, the
Catholics take this literally. In their communion, they believe
that whenever they take that wafer of bread from the priest,
and he puts that in your mouth, When you close your mouth, that
actually turns into Christ's flesh. Real flesh. Not symbolic flesh. Real flesh. And that when you drink that
wine, that it turns into the blood of Christ. Not symbolic. Real blood of Christ. And it's called The Eucharist is what they call
that. And they believe that that is a means of grace, a transference
of grace. And all they're doing is crucifying
Christ over and over and over again in their mass. Okay, that's
what mass is all about. It's coming and crucifying Christ
over and over again. Now, with that being said, the
Protestants, who supposedly reformed themselves out of the Catholic
Church, which really wasn't a reformation, The Protestants came out, and
they didn't do that, but they did something similar. They believed
that whenever you take the bread and the wine, that it symbolically
becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus when you take it, and that
confers grace upon you, that it actually instills you with
grace by taking that. Okay? That's not true either.
The Lord's Supper is an ordinance. It's a memorial. There is nothing
magical that is conferred in that that gives you more grace
by taking it, okay? It's a memorial so that you remember
what Christ, to remind us of what Christ did for us. It's
a preaching of the gospel visually. Just like baptism is, it doesn't
take away our sins, okay? Baptism doesn't make us born
again. Baptism doesn't make us a new creature. It is symbolic. It is a showing of the gospel
in picture form, okay? That's what it is. And so, we
see that these guys didn't understand it because they were thinking
of it in natural terms and not spiritual terms. Jesus is talking
in spiritual terms. My flesh is the bread from heaven.
I give my flesh for you. What is everybody feeding on
that is my people, that is my sheep, that I have come in that
I'm calling and they are coming to me. What are they feeding
on? Are they feeding on religious things like these men are? Or
are they feeding on what I have done for them? What are they
feeding on? What is their sustenance? It's
my broken body and shed blood. It's my work of righteousness.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us. By the washing of regeneration,
and I would challenge you to go study that verse, that washing
of regeneration isn't being born again. That washing of regeneration
is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, his death, burial,
and his resurrection. That's what regeneration is speaking
about. There's two places that regeneration
is spoken of in the scriptures. I have a sermon on this, some
sermon on it, you can go find it. I spent a couple weeks, I
think, maybe on this. Regeneration is found two places
in scripture and in both places it is referring to the work of
Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. That is what
is being talked about. Jesus has done that. His flesh, His blood is our sustenance. That's what we feed on. Why do
we preach the gospel over and over again? Because that's what
the child of grace wants to hear. That's what their souls and their
spirit are fed upon. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me. and I in Him. Now there's
that word dwelleth there. Pay attention to that. Remember
we used the word not too long ago, abide. Abideth in me. Okay,
what is abiding? Abiding isn't working, abiding
is resting, right? Okay. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me. We're trusting in Christ. And if we trust in Christ, that's
dwelling in Him. That's abiding in Him. As the
living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that
eateth me, even he shall live by me. And this is that bread
which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna,
and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall
live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying, and who can
hear it? And when Jesus knew it himself, that his disciples
murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What
and if ye see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? By the way, the Son of Man was
in heaven before he came to earth, so that's proof that Jesus was
man, had humanity, had manhood before he came by Mary. It is
the Spirit that quickeneth The flesh profiteth nothing. The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew
from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should
betray him. And he said, therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. From that time many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said unto
the twelve, will ye also go away? And Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. We believe that Thou art the
Son, the Christ. Jesus answered him, Have I not
chosen you, twelve, and one of you is the devil? Spake of Judas
Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray
him, being one of the twelve. We'll stop right there. But you
see that whole portion there. is speaking about believing on
Christ. Coming to Christ is believing
on Christ. Believing on Christ is believing in His flesh and
blood broken for you. Okay? Now, quickly, let's go
back to 1 John. I'm a little bit over the normal. 1 John chapter 5. Look at verse 1. It says, Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is already born of God. The only ones that
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the only ones who believe and
receive what He has done on their behalf, they're the only ones
that are born of God. And the only reason they believe
that is because they are born of God. And everyone that loveth
him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this
we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commands. What was his commands? His commands
was to believe on Jesus and to love the brethren. By this know
we that we love the children of God. How do we know that we're
loving the children of God? because we're keeping His commands.
What was His command? To love God, believe upon Christ,
and to love our neighbor as ourself, right? For this is the love of
God, that we keep His commands, commandments, and His commandments
are not grievous. Now, if we go back to the law,
brethren, and we take that to be, obey His commandments as
far as the Old Testament law is concerned, those are grievous. Because we can work all day long
and we cannot keep them. So we cannot be talking about
that. It's talking about something else. What's it talking about?
The command that Christ has said. These commands are not grievous.
Love God. And why is that not grievous?
Because God has shed his love abroad in our hearts. God has
given us, in us, the Spirit of God that looks to Christ, that
gives us faith to look to Christ. and to love what He has done
for us. And why do we love the brethren?
Because the brethren are begotten of God. We love Him who is begotten,
Christ, right? Everyone that loveth Him that
begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. We love God
because He begat Christ, and we love all those who are begotten
of Christ. We are His generation. We are
His seed. We are His children. Right? Just as Christ is the child of
God, is the Son of God, right? We have been begotten of Christ. Not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit. Right? By this we know that we
love the children of God, and when we love God, we keep His
commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world,
It means they're victorious, right? If you overcome the world,
that means you've got victory. As a matter of fact, it says
it in the next verse. And this is the victory. So that
overcoming the world is the same as victory. And victory is overcoming
the world. And now he's going to tell us
what is this victory. And this is the victory that
overcoming the world, our law keeping, our works, our determination,
our religious zeal, Being baptized, being added to the church, is
that what overcomes the world? Is that the victory? No. Even
our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
You want to overcome the world and its lust thereof? Believe
in the Son of God. It's belief, it's not law-keeping.
Law-keeping doesn't keep you from breaking the law. believing
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood, and it is the Spirit that bear witness, because the
Spirit is truth. See, the Spirit's gonna bear
witness to that in our heart. Right now, if you're a child
of grace, and the Spirit, by its sovereign power, is pleased
to do so in giving you light today, as these verses are being
read, You're saying, ah, that's truth. That's the truth. It can't
be the law. The law can't be that. For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one. Brethren, both those verses speak
of Christ. Both those verses are talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. The witness of the Father, the
witness of the Word, and the witness of the Holy Spirit all
bear record of Christ. Matter of fact, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost all are in Christ. That's why it's
one. See what it says there? And these
three are one. The Father, Word, and Holy Spirit
are one God, and that one God is in Christ Jesus. The Bible
says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ. You say, well, that's not talking
about the Father and the Holy Spirit. It's just talking about
the Word, and it's just talking about that He has all the divineness
that the whole Godhead has. Brethren, the Bible says that
the Father was in Christ Jesus. The Bible also says that the
Spirit was in Christ Jesus without measure. And we know the Word
was in Christ Jesus because the Word became flesh, right? All
three of that triune oneness of God is in Christ Jesus. He is God manifested in the flesh. And there are three that bear
witness in the earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood,
and these three agree in one. So that says that all three are
bearing record And they agree in one in Christ Jesus. If we
receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For
this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. Now here's the witness of God.
Now the witness of men is going to be telling you something different.
It just said there. The witness of men is going to tell you something
different. But here's the witness of God. He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself. That means he has
the Spirit, has God in him. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye might
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God." There's that phrase again, believe on
the name of the Son of God. These things are being written
to confirm to us, to exhort us, to admonish us, to, if you want
to say challenge it, it's not a challenge, to lift us up to
look to Christ alone, brethren. That's our command, is to believe
on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that
we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will,
He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth
us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that
we desired of Him. If any man see his brother sin
a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give
him life from that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death,
I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is
sin. and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know
that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that
is true, Even his son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God."
Who's the true God? Jesus Christ. This is the true
God in eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Now why did he end it with that?
Why did he say that? That doesn't seem to go into
anything he just said, does it? He's just like, well, what's
my last verse going to be? Ah, keep yourself from idols.
No, what is he saying? Why did he end, little children,
keep yourself from idols? Because anything other than looking
unto the Lord Jesus Christ is idolatry. If you're looking to
yourself to keep yourself righteous, that's idolatry. If you're looking
to the law, that's idolatry. If you're looking to some statue
to make you, you know, saved or right with God, that's idolatry. The only thing that we are to
look and put our hope in is Christ alone. That's keeping the commandment
of God, of Christ. That is what we should be doing. And if we do so, that is not
idolatry. Listen, it's not idolatry to
talk about Christ all the time, to look to Christ all the time,
to hope in Christ all the time. That's not idolatry, right? But
anything outside of that is. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' love and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, what I do, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ
the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Amen? All right, brethren, I'll stop
right there for today. Anybody got any questions? Okay, Ephesians 2, 14 through
18. You want me to read it? Okay. For he is our peace who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of petition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you
which were far off and to them that were nigh, for through him
we both have access by one spirit into the Father. Amen. Yeah, that's what I was talking,
I was trying to convey, it may have been pretty muddy as I was
saying it. What I was trying to convey earlier
is that there's no more Jew, there's no more Gentile, that
we've been made one in Christ Jesus and he's reconciled us
together into one and he has done that through the cross.
That's what has done it. It says, for through him we both
have access by one spirit unto the Father. So there is no, there's
one way for the Jews to be saved and another way for the Gentiles
to be saved, or there is no, the Jews in the Old Testament
were saved different than everybody in the New Testament. No, we
all came by the same way. What was done before the cross
and what is done after the cross, all is hinged on what is done
on the cross, right? Amen, brother. Thank you for
that. I was actually trying to remember
where that was at earlier when I was talking. All right, anybody
else got any questions or comments? Anything to add to? Another verse
to put in there? I tell you what, this is not,
this is not things that people just believe out of nowhere.
These are things that only the Spirit of God can cause us to
do. We might have it up in our head, but we'll always try to
revert back to law keeping works whenever it comes down to it.
And our flesh tries to do that. Our flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh. All right. Well, we'll stop right there
and uh, we'll, we'll, uh, be back in, I think next week, uh,
I might, I might take a break from, uh, here. I hate to do
it so soon from the end of chapter five, But I think I might take
a break next week and we might look a little bit at the... I generally always every year
around this time of year talk about the modern misconceptions
of Easter and things like that. and talk about the resurrection
of Christ and stuff. For the new folks here, we do
not recognize Easter or celebrate Easter because of its pagan origins. We do believe in the resurrection.
I'm not saying that we don't believe that, but we do not partake
of anything that has to do with whether it's the pagan part of
it or even the Protestant Catholic teachings history and so I generally
every year go through some of those things and Of course, we
always try to put in that Jesus wasn't crucified on Friday We
all everybody celebrates Good Friday, but Jesus didn't die
on Friday. He died on Wednesday Okay, because
Jesus could not be in the tomb three days and three nights if
he died on Friday But there's also more significance to that.
This is just not a theological debate There's actual significance
in this. Jesus was to keep and fulfill
the whole law. That's what we've been talking
about, right? Jesus had to fulfill the whole law. And there is the
law, Jesus was our Passover lamb. There had to be, and the law
required that the lamb be inspected for four days. And there had
to be a preparation for that lamb. And then that lamb, whenever
it was sacrificed, it was to be sacrificed on a certain day
at a certain time. And Jesus died at his appointed
time in keeping with the law. And he had to do it on a certain
day because he is also the one who is the first fruits, which
that's what the, the, after the Passover came the feast of unleavened
bread and came the, uh, uh, the feast of Pentecost. After that,
there was so many days after that Pentecost, whenever Jesus,
uh, uh, left, there was a point out of the spirit of God. Remember,
And these were all in accordance with the law and the timing that
these things were to be done. And so Jesus had to die at his
appointed time, a specific time. And you just say, well, it don't
matter if we say we died on Friday or on Wednesday. Well, it does
if the Bible tells us it's supposed to be a certain day. Okay? If
Jesus said three days and three nights, you know, that's pretty
specific, right? Now, if he would have said three
days, a lot of people say, well, the Jews recognize, you know,
part of a day as a day. But Jesus didn't say just three
days. He said three days and three nights. And we learn in
Genesis that the evening and the morning were the first day. We have a schedule. Now they
go by a different time than us. They go from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. where we go from midnight to
midnight, right? But anyway, we'll talk about that also, Lord
willing, next week too. So, and hopefully I'll have some
things copied off for you guys, as I always do. A timeline of
Jesus' week and all that kind of stuff. And with scripture,
that's the main thing. With scripture, so you can go
and look to see whether these things be true. Because we want
to let God be true and every man a liar. We don't want to
listen to things because the Protestants or the Catholics
or anything like that said, right? They're wrong. They've been wrong.
They're men just like we are. So, anyway, we're going to talk
about that, Lord willing, next week, okay? All right, we'll
be praying for you guys as you are going to be gone next week.
We pray for you to have safe travels and that all the things
you guys have been looking at, dealing with, the Lord will show
you some leadership and all that and continue to pray for you. Good to have Brother Ed back.
Brother, we truly have missed you. It's been a while. About five or six months. Yes, sir. It's been a while. We're glad to have you back with
us today. All right. Well, does anybody
else have anything? All right. Father, again, we thank you for
all that you've done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thank
you for this glorious gospel that you've given to us. And
I pray, Lord, that it has been edifying to those that have been
here today and that has been honoring to you. Lord, I just
pray that you'll be with these brethren as they leave this place
today, that you might give them safety, that you might be with
them this week, that you might teach them, minister to them
as they study the Word of God and as they think upon you, Lord,
I pray that the Holy Spirit will give them, grow them in the grace
and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we just
pray for Kevin and his family as they travel next week, that
you give them travel safeties. And Lord, we also pray for them
as they have a lot of decisions to make coming up, Lord, and
we just pray that you would be with them in all that as they
seek your direction, they desire to do what you would have them
to do and to do the things that are honoring to you. Father,
we pray that you would give them clarity of mind and understanding.
We know that the scriptures tell us that man deviseth his direction,
but this is the Lord that directs his steps. And so we pray that
as they make these decisions and make all these plans, we
know that you will guide them and direct them in the place
and the direction you want them to go. And so we just pray that
you'd be with them, give them peace and all that. We thank
you for Brother Ed being back among us, Lord, we've missed
him. And we're thankful that you've given for him to be able
to have another form of transportation to travel here. And Lord, it's
such a blessing to have these brethren among us, Lord, as we
worship. And we just pray that you'd keep
in, pray for Daniel also and his family, Lord. We pray that
you'd be with him as he's home with his mom and around his other
family, Lord, and that you might keep him as well. And Lord, again,
we just are so grateful for Christ Jesus and the salvation that
we have in him. And we're thankful for the preserved
word of God that we have before us to teach us and to instruct
us in these things. by the working of the Holy Spirit
and it's in your son's precious name that we pray. Amen.