You can see at the bottom it's
in tune of Near to the Heart of God. Jehovah reigns, rejoice, rejoice! God sits upon His throne. With fear and trembling, hear
His voice. His purpose shall be done. Jehovah, Sovereign Savior, Our
everlasting King, We gladly bow before you. Your praises we will sing. What I have spoken, I will do. My purposes shall stand. And to my covenant I'll be true,
None can restrain my hand. Jehovah, Sovereign Savior, Our
everlasting King, We gladly bow before you. Your praises we will sing. In heaven above, God has his
way, and in the earth below. Bold men and demons he will sway,
to do his will, I know. in glory. I'm sorry. Jehovah
Sovereign Savior, our everlasting King, we gladly bow before you. Your praises we will sing. In glorious sovereign majesty
Our God performs His will His purpose from eternity He must
and will fulfill Jehovah Sovereign, Savior Our everlasting King We
gladly bow before you, your praises we will sing. Everlasting, glorious name, God
for himself shall have. Creation shall proclaim its fame,
God shall all glory have. Jehovah Sovereign, Savior, our
everlasting King. We gladly bow before you. Your praises we will sing. Amen. All right, why don't you
turn over to hymn number 22 of the same hymn book. 22. Jesus only, we'll sing this too.
It is so sweet to trust in Jesus. I don't know that other tune
there. Jesus only is my Savior, Jesus
only will I praise. Trusting Him, I need no other. Trusting Him, I have all grace. Jesus is my God and Savior. Jesus saves me by His grace. Jesus only, Jesus only, Jesus
only will I praise. Jesus only represents me. He's the Lord my righteousness. His OBE is 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. 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. It's all about Him. He is the center
of all things. There's no other name found among
men by which we should be saved, which we are saved. In the name
of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.
All right, turn over just a page to hymn number 25. Say goodbye, my heart to you.
We'll sing this to Rock of Ages. Say goodbye, my heart to you. Guide my steps in all I do. By your grace and power and love. Fix my heart on things above. Give me grace to honor you. Say goodbye, my heart, to you. Lord, my sinful flesh is weak
and opposed to all I seek. Things I would, I cannot do. What I hate is what I do. Jesus, I would follow you. Say goodbye, my heart, to you. Lord, my Savior. Oh, I'm sorry. While I walk this pilgrim way,
Jesus ever near me stay. Hold me lest I fall in sin, when
I do restore again. Lift me up and make me true. Savior, bind my heart to you. If my days on earth be long,
give me grace and make me strong. Hold me, Christ, as I shall stand. Stay secure within your man If
my days be long or few Savior, bind my heart to you How long, O Lord, must I toil
Till this flesh returns to soil? Till I leave this world of sin
And your glory enter in? Lord, I long to be with you Savior,
bring me home to You. All right, if you don't have
one, how about the hymn number 28? One more. Eternal Blood,
Eternal Land. Behold, the Lamb of God was slain
by God's own wise deed. The blood of Christ has stood
for me from all eternity. God's wrath could not destroy
the world, though Adam fell in sin. Because the Lamb was slain
for man before the world began. Then at the time ordained by
God, the Lamb poured out His blood. for all the world of his
elect and paid the debt we owe. Dear Lamb of God, your precious
blood has ransomed me from death. and I will praise you for that
blood as long as I have breath. Though Satan rage against my
soul, though I am full of sin, I trust Christ in atoning blood. It gives me peace within. That blood is my security. Christ must be satisfied. Not one can ever be condemned
for whom the Lamb has died. When I have dropped this robe
of flesh and entered heaven's bliss, The Lamb who has been
slain for me, I shall forever bless. Eternal blood, eternal
Lamb, eternal God, All right, does anybody have
a song that you'd like to sing? 55 in the blue. Pray to God for grace. Be to
the tune of Just As I Am. Eternal love electing grace Secured
for me in heaven a place Chosen from all eternity A son of God
by blood above me. The Spirit came in sovereign
power at the exact appointed hour, revealing Christ, creating
faith, my soul, he quickened from his death. Now I rejoice in sovereign grace,
my sovereign God shall have my praise. Praise God for grace,
praise God For grace sovereign, eternal stay, being grace. Amen. That's one of the reasons why
we named our church Sovereign Grace. Sovereign Grace, I will proclaim
it. The Holy Friend we have in Jesus. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying. Guilty, I deserve God's wrath. Long I fought against my Master. Hell-bent, I was courting death. But the blood of Christ had bought
me. He refused to let me die. This poor sinner, loved by Jesus,
must be conquered by and by. At the time which was predestined, God's grace. God in mercy sent his spirit. Blessed time of love and grace. to reveal his son's great merit
as the sinner's substitute. I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. blood for sin's atonement. Justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished. And I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening. Grace that broke my stubborn
will. Grace that would not let me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell. Sovereign grace I will proclaim
this. Irresistible and free. Grace that chose me and redeemed
me. God, by grace alone, saved me. Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by His blood. Alright, turn over if you will
back to Galatians chapter 4. We're going to be reading our
passage where we're at in our exposition. We'll then be back
into Romans again, so Galatians and Romans. Galatians chapter 4, we're down
to verse 9 and 10. It says, but now after that ye have
known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to
the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to
be in bondage. Actually, it's just nine that
we're at. So let's bow and have a word of prayer. Then we'll
dive back into what we've been looking at the last few weeks
about why Paul is so antithetical against the law. Why is he warning
the Galatians against the law? And so we want to dive back in
and see what the New Testament we've been looking through to
see what the New Testament, mostly in Paul's epistles that he has
written by the Holy Spirit, has written on the subject. So why
does he come so emphatic against these things? So let's bow and
have a word of prayer and we'll be back into these things. Father, we do thank you this
morning for Christ who is atoned with his blood, Thank you, Father,
for all the work that he has done on behalf of his elect.
Father, we are in great need of salvation. We are sinners
who cannot keep the law, whose self-righteous pride and arrogance
that thinks that we can, by religion's work, perform a righteousness
that's worthy to enter into your presence. But Father, we know
because of the spirit that's been given to us, and the grace
and understanding that's been bestowed upon us, that the word
of God teaches that none of us can ever merit your favor by
the works of the law. Doing righteous deeds, even the
very things of the Bible, we cannot keep because you demand
perfection. The law demands perfection and
we cannot provide a perfect obedience, but we are humble this morning
because of perfect obedience has been laid to our account
because of the perfect work and righteousness of Christ Jesus. Thank you for sending him. Thank
you for electing us before the foundation of the world to be
united to him as our surety, as our substitute, as our elder
brother, our kinsman, redeemer, Thank you, Father, for giving
us to him in that eternal covenant. Thank you for coming and purchasing
us with your blood. Thank you for sending your spirit
to us to give us understanding, to give us knowledge of that
salvation. As we just sung, that blessed
time appointed of love that you have given to us, that we might
know the things that have been freely given to us. Father, we're
so grateful for all that you've done on our behalf. Jesus only,
Jesus only. Jesus only will I praise because
it is because of him that we are here today. It is because
of him that we have been given life. It is because of him that
we have all things for life and godliness. It is because of him
that we have been given this morning to know the wondrous
things of the gospel. And it's because of Him that
one of these days at His return, this body will be shed and a
new body will be given to us. One without sin, one without
the curse, one without the knowledge of sin, the experience of sin. Lord, we just look forward to
that day that You come again for us. I pray today, Father,
that You might speak and minister to Your people here. Lord, we
know that the Spirit must be given today to teach us. We ask Lord that he might come.
We ask that you will come by your spirit and give us understanding. Open up, reveal, shed light upon
your word today. Lord, we ask that you would just
be with each one that is here. We pray that all these brethren
that are here might be edified. Father, we pray for those that
have not professed Christ and followed you in baptism. Father,
we pray that today, if they're your elect, child of grace, that
you might draw them by your word and that you might convert them
to the repentance and faith that is in Christ Jesus. And Lord,
we just ask that you might bless this service, help us, Lord,
to rejoice and to bring forth praise for your name. And Lord,
we just ask that you would help now Word of God is being preached,
that you just might give aid to me as the preacher. Lord, that you keep me from error.
Lord, that you would give hearing ears to those that are here.
And Father, our hearts also go out this morning to Sister Jacqueline,
who's sick this morning and their family is home. We ask, Lord,
that you just might minister healing to their family, to her. Lord, that you might keep them
from getting any worse. Lord, that you might bless them
today. We miss them and we are asking Lord that you are, as
the great physician, able to heal those, if it be your will.
We thank you that Daniel's back with us today and for getting
him better and for his family as well, Lord, and for his brother
being able to go back to work. Lord, we're just thankful for
the answer to our prayers. And we know that it isn't because
we prayed that you acted or moved, but because your sovereign will
chose to do these things and you moved our heart to ask for
them and that our dependence is always upon you and that our
hope is always in you. And so we know that because of
that, we come to you and you've given us promise in your word
that we might approach your throne of grace boldly and make our
petitions known and Lord that you might do your perfect will,
but not as we will, And so, Lord, we just ask that all these things
come before you this morning and that your will will be done.
For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. All right. Paul says here, How turn ye again
to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to
be in bondage? And I asked the question a few
weeks ago, why is Paul so emphatic about this? Why is Paul so worried
about these Galatians trying to follow the law? I mean, to
us, I was like, well, isn't that a good thing? I mean, don't you
want them to try to follow God's law? I mean, that's a good thing.
The thing is, is whenever we try to follow God's law, whenever
we look to the law for righteousness or acceptance before God, it
is a bondage that we cannot get out of on our own. Christ has died to free us from
the bondage of having to keep the law for righteousness or
acceptance for God. Of course, it never was intended
that way for even the Old Testament saints. They were never accepted
or made righteous by their law keeping. All their law keeping
did, year after year after year, was show how much they cannot
keep the law of God. If the law keeping was making
them more and more holy, Then over time, there would be less
and less sacrifices that was having to be given, but the sacrifices
continued. There was the ministry of the
priest, day in, day out, the atonement made every year for
the nation. And so it was there as a constant
reminder of their inability to keep the law. And so Paul, who
grew up, and every one of the Jews that was of his day had
all grown up knowing these very things, that they cannot keep
the law, even though they continued to try and they offered their
sacrifices, the burden of the law was upon them. They was afraid
that if they do this or do that, that they would keep the law.
Matter of fact, Paul was, whenever he was converted on the road
to Damascus, was on his way to persecute the Christians there,
because in his mind, he felt they were breaking the law of
God. by what they were preaching, by what they were teaching, by
how they were living. And so Paul was on his way there
to gather them up for persecution because of his zealous religious
zeal for the law. And so on his way there, Christ,
as we all know, confronted him, converted him, and set him on
his way, and he ceased being Saul of Tarsus, the great Pharisee
of Pharisees, and he became Paul the Apostle, the preacher of
the gospel and writer of most of the New Testament under the
direction of the Holy Spirit. And so we see that Paul, who
was trying to persecute those who were, as he thought, breaking
the law, come to find out that this law has been a burden his
whole entire life. Whenever the law came in, and
he's seen what the law said, and what did the law say? Did
the law say, do not commit adultery? Yes. Did the law say, thou shalt
have no other gods before me? Yes. Did the law say, do not
covet, or do not desire what someone else has? Yes, it said
that. All those laws that was there,
did the law say those things? Yes. But what is it that the
law actually says in all those things? Do this or die. Do this or die. That was the
law. The law said either keep this
completely, perfectly, or die. That's what the law said. And
whenever Paul realized what the law was saying, when the law
came in, he said, I died. He said, I thought I was religious
and righteous before God because of my law keeping, but whenever
God gave me the understanding of what the law was actually
saying, he said, I realized that day that I died. Not that he
died spiritually or that he died physically. In his understanding,
in his mind, he said that I'm dead. When the law came in, I
died. I died to that ignorance. I died to that unknowingness
of how bad I was before God. See, he thought he was good.
He thought he was keeping the law. Remember whenever he said,
you know, I was the Pharisee among Pharisees. I was circumcised
on the eighth day. I did all this. I sat at the
feet of Gamaliel and I learned all these things and I was doing
all this. and I thought that I was righteous
before God. And what Paul, he said, what I thought was gain,
what I thought was gaining me acceptance and righteousness
before God, I now count that as dung. All that law keeping,
all that religiousness, all that stuff that I thought was making
me right before God, I now count that as dung. Okay, we all know
what dung is, right? Poop. You know, he said, I count
that as a pile of poop. All my working for religious
means, for zealousness towards God in my flesh was just a pile
of poop. It doesn't matter. It isn't going
to get me anything. The flesh is just flesh and it
cannot please God no matter how many good things I do, no matter
how many righteous things that I do, no matter what I do as
following this book, my flesh is tainted with sin and so everything
that I put my hand to, it is corrupted. Everything that I
put my mind to, or excuse me, my voice to, is corrupted. Everything that I try to do to
please God is always tainted with sin. Therefore, it cannot
please God. It's always gonna miss the mark.
It's always gonna be disobedience, not obedience. And so, Paul learned
this and he said, whenever the law came in and it taught me,
that schoolmaster taught me what it was saying, taught me what
it was, intended for, taught me what Christ has done, guess
what? That day I died. I died. I died
in trying to work for righteousness. I died to trying to keep the
law. I died to myself trying to be the one who is accepted
before God by my own works. And I began to trust in Christ
alone. I was alive to Christ. I was dead to myself as a way
of becoming righteous, and I was alive under Christ in that I
trusted him alone as my righteousness. And so just like Abraham, who
had lived in idolatry for all of his years, and then when God
called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and then came to him personally
in the form of Christ, came to him and preached to him the gospel
and everything, Abraham no longer thought, hey, I can appease a
God by my own works, that the seed of God, the seed of Christ,
or the seed who is Christ, he is my righteousness. And he trusted
Christ and believed upon Christ for him, and Abraham counted
Christ as his righteousness. And that's what we are called
to do. That's what Paul is saying. Listen, in the gospel, we called
you to believe upon Christ as your righteousness and you have
become dead to the law and you've become alive unto Christ. And
so that's what we want to look at today. Now remember, we've
been, that's why Paul is so emphatic about this, your desire to be
back in bondage. Being under the law or trying
to keep the law is putting yourself back in bondage to the law and
everything that the law demands. The law demands that you do all
of this. I'll give you a good example.
Say that you had say that you had a job shoveling, let's say
that you had the job shoveling out all, you worked at a dairy
farm. I had a cousin that used to own
a dairy farm in, where was that at? Milfay, Milfay,
Oklahoma. Owned a dairy farm there, and
they had all these cows that come in, and they would milk
these cows and everything. Well, oh, you get, hundreds of
cows all in these stalls and they're milking these cows and
they're saying, guess what? There's a lot of cow poop that
gathers up in there. And one guy has to go in there
and spray all that stuff off. They gotta clean all that stuff
out, okay? So say that was your job and
all you had to do day after day after day after day after day
after day is go in and shovel and hose down all the cow poop.
As soon as you get there at eight o'clock, you start and you're
not done doing it until five o'clock in the evening. But then
one day, your boss comes up and says, guess what? I'm gonna trade
you jobs. I'm gonna put you in that air-conditioned
tractor over there that's got a stereo, it's got a TV, and
you can just get out there in the fields and that thing almost
automatically will drive itself. And you can sit out there in
that tractor and drive from eight to five. You get a break at noon,
you get to eat your lunch, and all that stuff. And so now, there
you are, you're out from underneath all the poop, and all the stink,
and all the nasty, and everything like that, and then you get in
that nice air-conditioned cab, and you're just trolling away,
tractoring away. You got it easy. The tractor's
doing everything for you. You don't have to do nothing.
You just sit there, and it's all been done for you. But then
all of a sudden you decide, you know what, I think I would rather
go back and shovel poop. Well, why would you do that?
Why would you go back and shovel poop whenever you have an automated
tractor that's basically doing everything for you? All you gotta
do is sit there and abide in that tractor, and the tractor
is doing all the work. It'd be foolish, wouldn't it?
How many of y'all would volunteer to go back to the poop shoveling?
Any of y'all? Aidan, would you like to show
Pope? No, we wouldn't want to do that.
Well, that's what Paul was saying. Remember he said, everything
that I did in a religious manner, and I did it better than anybody
else of my day. He said, all of that, I count
that as dumb. I count it as dumb. So why would I want to go back
and mess with dumb when I've been freed from that. I don't
have to mess with that anymore. I don't have to do that for righteousness
or anything. I don't have to do that. Okay?
So that's what Paul is asking here or telling the Galatian
church. You're listening to these guys who are telling you to go
back to the dung heap. You've been put over here in
autopilot mode. You've been put over here in
a mode where Christ has done everything for you. He has performed
everything for you. Provides everything that you
need. You don't have to worry about anything else. All you
got to do is abide there and enjoy it Why do you want to go back to
shoveling down So Paul is Warning these people if you go back to
the law, you're going back into bondage right now. You're free
in the gospel. You're free That's a child of
grace. You are free. You don't have
to go and do that So, what have we been doing? The last few weeks,
we've been going back, starting in the first of the New Testament,
and we've been working through most of the Pauline epistles,
but we've been working through and seeing why Paul is saying
that. Why is the law considered or
looked on as bad for keeping it? Okay? Because for most people,
they think, well, there shouldn't be, I mean, the law is good. What's wrong with trying to keep
it And don't you want to be pleasing to God? Surely God's pleased
with you keeping the law. The problem is, is you're not
keeping the law. You're trying to keep the law, but in every
instance, in every case, in every way, shape, and form, you are
missing the mark because you are in the flesh. And the flesh
cannot please God. Cannot. Not will not. Cannot. Cannot. Cannot please God. So Paul, all over his epistles,
has written about this very thing. And so let's look today, let's
go back to Romans chapter seven. So far, we have looked at a few
things. We started in Acts, remember, where the council at Jerusalem
had declared there that, hey, listen, you know, The Gentiles
shouldn't even need to be told or taught this stuff about the
law because they've never been under the law. And so we shouldn't
require them or tell them that they're required to keep the
law for salvation or for continual preservation because they never
was under it and we never could keep it and that's not the message
of the gospel anyway, okay? So we've seen that. So the law
is something, what do they call it? Do y'all remember what they
call the law? In Acts chapter 15, he said neither
our fathers nor us could carry this, so why should we put a...
Anybody? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone know the answer? Anyone?
You guys are dead today. Why should we put a yoke upon
them? Not an egg yoke, but a yoke like a like that they put over
beasts of burden, like a steer or a cow or a mule, that whenever
they would go to plow the ground, they would put this yoke, that's
the thing that goes over their neck, that's got the ropes and
all that stuff that goes back, and as they pull, that thing
pulls along behind them, that yoke, okay? That's what it is. Why put a yoke, why put a, something that is going to just
wear them down. Why put that on them? So we've
seen that the law is a yoke to them and so we don't want to
put a yoke on people by trying to teach them that they have
to keep the law for salvation or for preservation before God.
Perseverance. We also learned that The law
is given to us to expose us as sinners, to expose us as sinners,
but never was intended or never was given to take away sin. The law wasn't given to take
away sin. The law was given to expose who
we are as sinners, to expose that nature of sin that is there
that cannot keep God's law, and that's what it did. We've also
seen that if the law could be kept, if
we could keep the law, then there is no need for Christ. There
is no need for Him to die. If there was an ability for us
to be pleasing and accepting and saved because of our law
keeping, then there actually was no reason for Christ to come
and die. All we need to do is just keep
working on keeping the law. But see, the law shows us that
we cannot keep it, and therefore the very seeing that Christ came
and died for us should tell us that we have to have Him because
no one can keep the law. We were told also in Romans chapter
4 that all those who try to follow after the law, the only thing
that that does is to bring wrath towards us. It brings wrath towards
us. And so if you want to keep the
law if you want to preach the law to people if you want to
be a preacher that demands that people follow the law for acceptance
or for salvation or for continuance in the faith then you're preaching
wrath upon those people you are preaching to them uh... something
that is anathema that is a curse upon them they're never going
to be able to uh... fulfill that therefore you are
giving them false hope false security, you're giving them
false assurance that they can do something that the Bible clearly
says it cannot do. The law brings nothing but wrath. It doesn't give us an ability
to do or to be accepted before God. And we've seen in chapter
5 that the law exposes our sin and we've seen where the Bible
said that the law came in that the offense might abound. Okay, the offense might have
bounced. So whenever Adam was created, he was created in such
a way that that sin ability was there already, and that it just
hadn't manifested itself. But whenever God gave him the
law to not eat of the tree, that lust in his heart rose up, that
temptation by the serpent and by his wife to eat of the fruit.
And he's seen that and it was good to his eyes and all this
kind of stuff. That temptation and that inner
lust. Everyone says it was just the
outward thing that tempted him. But the Bible tells us that we
are tempted whenever we are drawn away by our own lust. Not by
somebody else's lust. Somebody else's lust is their
lust. That's for them to worry about. You sin because you have
sinful lust in your heart. And Adam had sinful lust in his
heart. Therefore, when he was tempted, That lust was tempted
by that and it was drawn away and when it conceived it brought
forth sin. Sin brought forth death. And
so the law came in to expose that or to show that that was
manifest in us. And that's what the law is here.
That's why we preach the law. That's why we teach the law is
so that for the child of grace whose mind and understanding
has been given spiritual understanding sees, hey, I can't keep that.
I can't keep that, I can't do that, I can't do that, and then
it pushes them and makes them look to Christ alone. Faith is
given to us to look away from our self-righteous words and
look to Christ alone. So the purpose of the law was
so that the offense might abound, so that we might understand how
sinful we are, not to make us less sinful. Everybody understand
what I mean by that? And then last week we've seen
that we are not under the law but we are under grace. We are under grace. Now today
I want us to look into Romans chapter 7. We're going to be
bouncing back and forth between Romans 6 and Romans 7 but look
with me if you would this morning at Romans chapter 7. I want to
start reading verse 1 and I want to read down because I want you
to see. Remember now, Paul wrote this
letter to the Romans But yet it's the Holy Spirit. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. The Holy Spirit is the one who
has given Paul the things to write down. These aren't Paul's
words that he thought up on his own or ideas he thought up on
his own. This is the Holy Spirit. This is God writing to us to
tell us what things mean. Verse 1 of chapter 7 of Romans. It says, Know ye not, brethren,
for I speak to them that know the law, Okay, so his audience
was definitely people who were versed in the Law of Moses, who
knew what the Law said. It says, Know ye not, brethren,
how that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? The Law has dominion over us
as long as we live. Now he gives an example of what
he's talking about. He starts using something. This
is what Jesus used to do. You know all those parables that
Jesus used to teach? Those were physical stories,
physical teachings that were to convey a spiritual meaning.
Here Paul is fixing to give us a physical application to help
us understand a spiritual reality. Verse two, for the woman which
hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as
he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she
is loose from the law of her husband. So the Bible's saying
here that the law says that a woman, as long as she is married to
a man, or as long as that man is living and she's married to
him, that she is bound to that man as long as that man is living,
okay? And that as long as that man
is living, she is to live under his headship, underneath his,
it says there, under the law of her husband, okay? Under the
law of her husband. Now, I don't mean to get off
on a bunch of stuff. That doesn't mean that, you know,
everything he says that she has to do especially if it is against
the law, or against the word of God, and leads her into something
that would be against the word of God. But what we're saying
here is that he is the head, God has designed the family as
the husband is the head, and the wife and the children are
under him, just as the church is under Christ. Christ is the
head of the church, and we are under him, okay? He is our head. And so he uses the picture of
marriage to illustrate this. He's done this in several places,
not just here, okay? We see it in Ephesians as well,
as we'll look here in a minute. It says, for the woman which
hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as
he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she
is loose from the law of her husband. So then, if while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be
called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law so that she is no longer adulterous,
though she be married to another man. So what's that saying? It's
saying as long as that man is alive, that woman is enjoined
to that man or is married to that man and cannot get out of
that bond. All right. They're there together.
And and he is her head for that whole time. And so she, by law,
is to be joined to that man until one of them dies, okay? If he
dies, she is no longer bound to that husband. She's free from
that husband because he is dead. He's dead to her and she's dead
to him, okay? He's not there anymore. So she's
no longer bound. But if he's still alive and she
leaves him, and goes and binds herself to another man, then
she is an adulteress. And the Bible and the law, of
course, says that thou shalt not commit adultery. Right? She is an adulteress. That means
she is cheating, that she is committing adultery against her
husband. But it says if he's dead, then
that law doesn't abide anymore. We are no longer bound to that
law. We are no longer bound to that
husband. But we're free from that and
we can go and bind ourselves to another husband and not be
breaking the law or being considered an adulteress. Okay. So there
is the picture that Paul has given us. He's given us the picture
of marriage. Okay. I think all of us might kind
of understand and know that, that divorce is wrong. Whenever
we are married, we give our vows to each other. What does the
preacher generally say? What God has put together, let
no man put us under, right? Okay. And so, and we're going
to look at this and we're going to see that this is why this
is so important also, as this picture of marriage is here.
But look at verse four, it says, wherefore, my brethren, in light
of what I just said, this illustration that I just gave you about men
and women, men and women being married and bound to each other
by that covenant, okay? Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead
that we should bring forth fruit unto God." So here, the Word
of God tells us that whenever Christ died for us, the elect
of God, that by that death, that we died to the law. The law died to us. The law is now dead. We were
bound to that law And under that law, remember in Galatians, at
the first part of Galatians, it was our tutor, it was our
schoolmaster, our governor. It was over us to govern us,
to tell us what we were doing wrong. Okay. It was the law that
was over us. But now we are no longer under
that. We are no longer under the law
because the law has died to us. The law is now dead because of
the body of Christ. Christ became the perfect obedient surety for us, or substitute
for us. Everything that was required
of us in perfect obedience to the law, Jesus did for us. And so that whenever he was nailed
to the tree and hung to the tree, all the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us for breaking the law was nailed to his tree.
He died for him. Therefore, every broken law that
we have ever done or will ever do in the future was all covered
in blood by Jesus Christ. He paid the price for all of
them, and His righteousness of keeping all the law is then,
had been imputed to us. So we have the account of Christ,
perfect obedience. He is given our account, complete
and total sin. Complete law break is laid to
his account. He died for that. Therefore,
all those sins that all the elect have ever done, ever will do,
have all been removed. The law can't grab onto it anymore
because the payment from the law, what did the law say? Do
this or what? Die. Die. Do this or die. The wages of sin is what? Death. Right? The wages of sin
is death. And so Jesus paid those wages
of every sin of every child of grace. So if you're here today
and you're a child of grace, every sin that you have ever
committed or committing or ever will commit, Christ died for
those. Therefore, the full wage that
sin or that the law demanded because of your sin was paid
in full. Therefore, there's no more account
for there is no more I have a car out there I have a house right
here and I bought that but I still owe money on it I still owe money
there is still an account open that says you owe this much money
okay for us we don't owe any money and yes do we have future
sins that are going to be committed yes but even those future sins
have already been paid for before we even get to them and do them.
Christ died for those sins. Therefore, the law cannot come
to me two weeks from now whenever I do whatever it is that I'm
going to do and tell me that's sin. Guess what? Jesus is mad
at you. Your fellowship is broken. He's
going to turn his back on you. If you keep doing that, you're
going to lose your salvation. No, none of that can be said
because the law cannot lay anything to our account Because the account
of all the elect of God is no sin. The account, whenever God
looks in his ledger and opens it up and gets to Michael Smith,
he says, ah, there is absolutely not one sin on this page. Complete
and full righteousness. Now is my righteousness in and
of himself? No. In this flesh? No. Is the spirit of God that is
in me perfect? Absolutely. It cannot sin. It cannot sin
because of the Spirit of Christ. See, that's why we're ready.
We just sung about getting rid of these old bodies of flesh.
We get rid of these bodies of flesh that is the very embodiment
of sin. When we get rid of this body
of flesh, we will be done with sin because the body that we're
getting at the resurrection is a body that does not know sin,
that cannot know sin. It's a body that is enjoined
to a spirit that is equal to it. A sinless spirit and a sinless
body brought together to make one whole person. That's what
we're waiting for. That's why we desire the resurrection.
That's why the elect of God moan and groan within them for the
resurrection, for the revealing of all the sons of God, for us
to be resurrected to to that gloriousness that we have before
us when Christ comes again. And so we see that we are dead
to sin whenever Christ died for us. His death is the basis and
grounds that we now are no longer under the law, that the law has
died as our husband. We were married to the law, but
the law died And according to the law, if that husband is dead,
we are no longer bound to it or its laws, but we are now free
to marry Christ and we are his bride. We are his wife. Okay. We are his wife. We're going to read about that
in just a second. So he says, wherefore my brother and ye are
all also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. See,
you're not dead to the law by our law keeping, by fulfilling
the law. We can never put the law to rest by trying to fulfill
it. It had to be by the death of Christ that the law was fulfilled. That ye should be married to
another. See, Christ came and died and
put away the law so that we could be married to him. Look at verse
five. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. But what are we in Christ Jesus
when we're married to Him? He is raised from the dead that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. What is that fruit? Keeping the law? No, that's not
the fruit. A lot of people think that's
what the fruit is. They preach that's what the fruit
is. Well, if you're born again, then you're going to bring forth
fruit of good works, meaning whenever they say good works,
they mean law-keeping. But the Bible doesn't define
good works as law-keeping. It defines good works as the
work of the Spirit in us, producing repentance and faith, trust in
Christ, love for the brethren, love for the doctrine of Christ,
the Word of God, love for God. It produces in us these things,
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance,
faith. All these things are the fruits
of the Spirit. This is bringing forth fruit
unto God. We are bringing forth that type
of fruit, not do this, do that, do this, do that, do this, do
that. Because the deeds of the flesh will never please God.
But the works of the Spirit, they do. please the Lord because
they are His works. So we see here that we are dead
to the law and married to Christ. He is now our husband. Turn with
me, keep your finger there in Romans, but turn with me back
to the Old Testament to Hosea. It's right after Daniel's book, not
just Daniel. prophet Daniel, right before you get to Joel.
If you get to Joel, put her in reverse. If you're at Daniel,
push on the gas pedal and move forward a little bit. The book
of Hosea, let's look at chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2. Look down with me if you would. Now remember, hopefully you all
know who Hosea is and the story of Hosea and his wife. Hosea took a wife, her name was
Gomer, not Gomer Pyle, but Gomer, and Gomer committed adultery
on Hosea over and over and over again. She was constantly going
and committing adultery against Hosea. She would go sleep with
other men over and over. Hosea would always go and always
bring her back, bring her back. Till one day she went and then
she was taken and was gonna be sold into slavery, okay? She's gonna be sold into slavery.
And Hosea, even though she had done all kinds of cheating on
Hosea Hosea still loved her and went and bought his own wife
who was his wife went and bought her from the slave traders and
brought her back home okay now this whole thing of and this
is a real this isn't just a story this actually happened these
were real people okay this really happened but this is a picture
Hosea is a picture of Christ And Gomer is a picture of the
elect of God. We continue over and over and
over again to commit adultery upon Christ by thinking that
we in our own self-righteousness can please Him or be accepted
by Him by trying to keep the law, by looking to the law, by
going to other churches that are preaching another gospel.
I mean, we're committing adult spiritual adultery against Christ
Jesus because we are going and listening to these others. That's
why Paul was being emphatic with the Galatians. Hey, listen, that
gospel is not the gospel. That's that's some of that's
a false gospel. And whoever's preaching that
is not a minister of Christ. Let them be cursed. Let them
be cursed. They're going to that gospel is a gospel that is full
of curse because it's telling you to do something that all
it can do is curse you. That's why he doesn't want you
to listen to it. to it. Don't go to it. Don't try to
perform it because it's not going to work for you. And so that
is committing adultery upon Christ whenever we over and over and
over again think that our righteousness or our acceptance or our staying
saved, our persevering in the faith comes because we are doing
this law. This is the picture of that.
Over and over and over again, Gomer Cheated on her husband. Cheated on her husband. Cheated
on her husband. Cheated on her husband. But what
did Hosea do? Every time, brought her back.
Brought her back. Brought her back. Even paid for
her to release her from bondage. And now let's read. This is Gomer
speaking here. Or this is God speaking. It says,
And I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness,
and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall
come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will
hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth
shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, And they shall
hear Jezreel, and I will sow her unto me in the earth, and
I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy. And I
will say to them, which are not my people, thou art my people,
and they shall say, thou art my God. And so we see the picture of
God loving his people. We see this in the picture of
God in Israel over and over and over again, God uh, Israel was
sitting against him and doing what they shouldn't. And God
would send them off into bondage and into slavery. They'd come
back and they'd turn to idols again, and they'd keep going
back to these idols and everything. And God kept bringing them back
and kept bringing them back. So we see God's eternal love
for us in all of this. What did he say there? I will
betroth thee to me unto me forever. Okay, God is not ever going to
turn. Christ is never going to say, okay, that was it. You keep
saying you're going to quit sinning and you don't. You told me that
was the last time you were going to do it. You didn't. You did
it again. You didn't stop. You kept going. So, you know,
man, it's been 9,975 times that you've done this since the time
you said you wasn't ever going to do this again. I think that's
more than enough. I tell you what, I'll give you
to 10,000. If you reach 10,000, that's it for you. I'm not going
to forgive you anymore. No, that's not how God works. That's not how Christ's sacrifice
worked on our behalf. Christ took all our sin, every
one of them. How many sins do I have? I don't
have a clue. I do not have a clue. I've got
a lot of them. But all I know is every one of
them has been paid for and God does not require anything by
my hand anymore because Christ took them. Now there are folks
that, you know, they want you to keep tabs with God that your
fellowship depends upon you, keeping short accounts with God.
I've told you the story about how I used to stay up at night
worried because I couldn't remember all the sins that I'd committed
that day. So that night, whenever I laid down in bed, prayed and
was asking forgiveness for the sins that I committed that day
I was worried because I couldn't remember or didn't know if I
even you know had knew of some sins and that I've committed
sins against God and couldn't remember them all did I remember
all these Lord I'm praying and so I pray that blanket blanket
prayer and if there's any other sins that I don't remember bring
them to my mind so that I can ask forgiveness so that you will
be able to forgive me of those sins. And listen, that was a
burden on my heart over and over again every night. Why? Because
the terror of the law was still weighing upon me because I can't
keep the law of God. But the gospel had never been
revealed to me that all of that is gone. You're not required
to have all this law keeping to stay in fellowship with me
or to be accepted by me. It was already taken care of
and done for in Christ. And so we continue to look to
Christ in all those things. Well, here's the picture that
I will betroth thee unto me forever. That speaks of our eternal union
with Christ, right? If we've been betrothed to Christ,
we've been betrothed to Him forever. It's an everlasting love. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. He had purchased for us eternal
redemption. That redemption, while it was
the basis of it, the grounds of it, Everything that was there
to secure the satisfaction of it, the accomplishment of it,
was in time whenever Christ came and died. But brethren, that
was an eternal redemption. It was a redemption that began
before the foundation of the world and will continue after
the destruction of this world and the coming in of the new
heavens and the new earth. It's going to be eternal. That
redemption can't be broken. It's there forever. And just
like the marriage is supposed to be, that whenever they come
together and they become one man, or one man and one woman
come together and become one flesh, that is to be forever.
Whenever we were united to Christ, it was forever. Never to be separated. We can never be separated from
the love of God. Who hath laid anything to the
charge of God's elect? We can never be charged with
anything because it is God who justifies. God has justified
us before himself in the work of his son. And so that we don't
have to worry about not being accepted anymore. Gomer, Hosea's
wife, I'm sure that day after multiple times of going and becoming
a harlot, a prostitute, sleeping with other men. That day when she was about to
be sold for slavery, she probably figured out of anybody in the
crowd, she would see anybody but she probably wouldn't see
her husband. That would be the last person that would be in
that crowd bidding for her. To pay money for her, who she
had cheated on over and over and over and over again. But
who was the only man that came and bothered her husband? Because
he loved her. Listen, Christ loves his people
and no matter how many times we sin, now that's not saying
it's okay to sin. Don't sin. You know, we don't
want to sin. Okay, I say don't sin as if we
can stop, but what I'm saying is our mind, we don't want to
sin. So I'm not telling you just don't worry about sin. It should
grieve our heart. We should sorrow over our sin.
But no matter how many times we sin, Christ's love is greater. The Bible says that love covers
a multitude of sins. Christ's love for his elect covers
the multitude of your sin and just like Hosea over and over
and over continues to go back and gets his wife who is leaving
and cheating on him. We continually are leaving and
cheating on our husband Christ but yet he keeps coming back
and coming back and coming back and bringing us back to himself.
bringing us back to himself. The picture in the New Testament
is a shepherd going after his sheep. The sheep continues to
wander off and he goes and gets it. It wanders off, he goes and
gets it. It wanders off, he leaves the ninety and nine and he goes
and gets it. The sheep wanders and what does he do? He goes
and gets it. The shepherd loves his sheep.
The husband loves his wife. Christ loves his people. And it's an everlasting love.
He says, I will betroth thee unto me forever. I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness. He says, I have come and I have
married you. And now you are righteous because
I am righteous. We are in union together. This
woman has my name because she's married to me. We become one
flesh. She is my wife. Everything that
is mine is hers. You see the upturn of that whenever
you see people getting divorces. Instead of everything being one,
now everything is being split. They want to split away. The
wife wants to take back a different name. The, uh, wants to take,
split up all the stuff. This is my house. This is my
car. This is my bank account. This is my this, this is my that.
This is my thing. Oh, we're one flesh. Everything
that is mine is hers. Everything that's hers is mine.
We share everything. Christ is ours. We are in union
with him. All of his obedience is mine.
All of his sacrifice of death, that's also mine. Every bit of
riches that he has is mine. Every claim that he has in heaven
as the inheritance of God, that's ours. We are joint heirs with
Christ because we are united with Christ. That woman gets
everything that I have when I die. including my debt and my bills.
She gets everything when I die. And you, because you're my children,
when she dies, it all goes to you, whatever's left of it, if
there's anything there. See, that is what Christ has
done for us. There is a covenant there. Christ
covenanted before the foundation of the world for His people. They are my wife. I have betrothed
myself. I've made a commitment of marriage
and love to these people. Therefore, there is nothing going
to separate me from committing myself to that love. Nothing
is going to separate me from loving that wife. She goes away. I keep loving her. I bring her
back. The Bible says that the love
of Christ constrains it. See, this is what, whenever you
start preaching about not keeping the law and us being free from
the law and dead to the law and all this kind of stuff, one of
the things that people always come up with is, well, you just
think that you can live life however you want to live, that
you're not under no law, that you're going to just live, and
what are you going to do? People are going to live lawless. They're
going to go out there and live all this sin and everything like
that. They don't know what grace is
all about. They have no clue what they are telling on themselves
about the desire in their heart, how they covet to sin is what
they're really doing. The Bible tells us that the love
of Christ constrains us, not the law of God. The law of God
doesn't constrain us. The law of God exposes that sinfulness
that we are. But the love of Christ, it constrains
us. The fact that God has shed his
love abroad in our heart causes us to desire not to sin. We don't want to sin. And so
a lot of times, God will restrain our sin through shedding his
love, letting us experience the love of God in our heart. We
love him, therefore we trust him. The Bible says, if you love
me, you will keep my commands. It's not talking about keep my
commandments, mosaic laws that I've given. It's saying, if you
love me, trust me, look to me alone. The commands that Christ
has given us to walk by is to look unto Christ and to love
his brothers, which is the brethren. That's what we do. How do we
love the brethren? Well, we can do physical things to show our
care for them, but how do we love the brethren? Through doctrine. Through fellowship of the doctrine
of Christ. We fellowship with churches,
and what do we say? We fellowship with them of like
faith and practice. What does that mean? That means
that their doctrine is like us, And their practice of that doctrine
is like us. We believe that people should
be, whenever they profess Christ Jesus and they believe the true
gospel, that they should be fully immersed and baptized. So we
believe in believer's baptism. The Bible teaches that if you
believe upon Christ, that you need to be baptized. And you're
to be baptized fully underwater, not just a little sprinkling
of water on your head, not a little wave of mist in your face or
whatever. You need to be immersed because
it shows forth what Christ has done for you. It's your profession
of doctrine. What is your doctrine? That Christ
died for me, that He resurrected for me, and I walk in newness
of life to Him by the Spirit of God. That's what your baptism
shows. Okay? What do we believe? We believe that the ordinance
of the Lord's Supper is here and that He has given Him two
elements there. bread and wine, not bread and
grape juice, bread and wine. And we observe the Lord's Supper
with bread and wine with those who are of the members of this
household, not our household, Smith household, but of the Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church membership. We come together for that. What
do we believe about the doctor? We believe in Sovereign Grace.
We believe in election. We believe in predestination.
We believe In full atonement, or particular redemption. We
believe in sovereign grace, irresistible grace. We believe in preservation
of the saints and the perseverance of the saints through the preservation
of God. We believe in all those things that people call the tulip.
We believe in all those things. That's our doctrine. So what
do we do? We fellowship. How do we find
fellowship? Well, do I fellowship with the Catholic down the street?
No, I can't find fellowship with him. I don't show forth my love
to that because that is adultery against Christ. Do I find fellowship
with the Christian church down the street that may be preaching
a lot like us, but not quite, but preaching free will and all
that kind of stuff? No, I don't find fellowship with
that. Why? Because that's adultery against
Christ. That's another gospel. I cannot do that. Do I have fellowship
with other Baptist churches just because they're Baptist churches?
No, because the majority of Baptist churches do not preach the true
gospel of Jesus Christ. They preach Jesus plus whatever
it is that I have to do. They preach conditions. They don't believe that God has
predestinated everything, including sin and evil. They don't believe
that Jesus paid for all the sins of just His people. And that
every one of his people are saved because of what he did, not because
of their accepting, receiving, believing, trusting, raising
their hand, or doing any other condition. They don't believe
that. So therefore, we can't have fellowship with them. What
is love for the brethren? Love for the brethren is love
in the doctrine. We share the doctrine. We encourage
each other in the doctrine. We correct each other in the
doctrine. We rebuke and reprove each other in the doctrine. We
lift each other up with the doctrine of Christ. I know a lot of times
you guys make jokes about whenever Brother JC and other preachers
are getting together and we're talking and everything like that.
And I understand, it's nothing harmful that you're meaning,
but that is the picture of what fellowship is. The fellowship
of sharing the gospel between each other. Not just sitting
around having coffee or eating a meal. Having fellowship is
rejoicing in the gospel with each other. encouraging each
other in the gospel. And see, here we see that anything
other than the true gospel is adultery to Christ. We have been
married to Christ, and therefore, Paul is saying, if you go back
to try to hold hands with a law-based system, with a free will-based
system, that's what free will is saying. People wonder, well,
why are you so bad about free will? Because free will is saying
that I now I'm in the place, the arbiter of my destiny. I'm
the one who decides my destiny. God has done all he could do
and he's made a plan of salvation, but it is only if I believe that
that plan is then enacted in me. That makes me the hinge pin,
the cornerstone. That makes me the one who is
in control of the gospel, whether it's effective or whether it's
not effective. Jesus didn't actually save anybody on the cross. He
only made salvation possible. And it's only if you do this,
then that salvation plan begins to be enacted and it's at that
particular time. That's a false gospel. So the
free will gospel that says I could choose or not choose Jesus is
a law-based system because it says I can do things by my own
self-righteousness that's going to be pleasing to God, or I can
get by in life by my own free will and do my own thing. It's
up to me. Therefore, it's a law-based system. It's not of grace. It's of what
you do. That's why we reject freewillism.
That's why we reject the gospel of decisionism. Because it is
not a decision that we make. It was a decision that Christ
made. And he covenanted for his people, and his people will be
saved. It's not a maybe they'll be saved.
They might be saved. They might choose otherwise.
No, they will be saved. All that the father hath given
me shall come to me. Hosea, was there any way that
Gomer was going to go somewhere else and be with somebody else?
Nope. Her husband was going to go get
her every time, every time, every time. So why is Paul so emphatic
and why does he give the the picture of marriage as a teaching about the law. Well,
as long as the law is enacted and is alive, then we're bound
to it. That was our rudimentary, elementary
relationship. We were bound to the law. But
now the law has died because of Christ dying for us. See,
the law died by the body of Christ. That's what it said right there
in our passage, didn't it? Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that, so that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead. That word even there is just
there for clarifications. So that you might be married
to another, to him who is raised from the dead, meaning to Christ.
Christ died for you so that you are now released from that law
and that husband, and you're married to this law, this husband. Christ's law, Christ is your
husband. See, that is why Paul used the
picture of marriage. See, brethren, we are not married
to the law anymore, and if we try to go back to the law for
righteousness, for acceptance, for fellowship, then we are committing
adultery upon the one who loves us. The law doesn't love us.
The law doesn't love you at all. It wants to condemn you. Christ
is the one who saved you. He loves you. Look in Ephesians
chapter 1. We're just about done. Ephesians
chapter 1. Y'all should be able to quote
this by now. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him. There's our union with Christ.
Our union in Christ doesn't come whenever you believe in Him,
and I know that's going raised the feathers of a lot of Reformed
people, a lot of sovereign grace people who believe that our salvation
begins whenever we hear the gospel and believe. That's not when
your salvation began. Your salvation began before the
foundation of the world when God elected you. It says here
that He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ according as He has chosen us. That's election. All the spiritual blessings given
to us is according to election. If you're not elected, you're
not the recipients of the rest of salvation. Salvation begins with election.
You say, well, preacher, that's an isolated verse there that
you're reading, and that verse right there can actually mean
something else besides that. How about 2 Timothy 1? 9 and
10, who have saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His purpose and grace which was
given to us in Christ, past tense, which was given to us in Christ
before the foundation of the world, but now is made manifest
by the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who
has abolished sin and death made life and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. See our salvation is an eternal
salvation and it begins in eternity past with election. God electing
a people for himself. Now the securing of all that
election of grace is by the finished work of Jesus Christ whenever
he came and died on the cross. But everything before the cross
was secured just as much as everything after the cross is secured. Why?
Because in the eternal covenant of grace, the Word of Christ,
the Word of God, the promise of God to redeem that people
was good enough that God declared they are just because you will
perform all things that is needed for them. Brethren, that's the gospel.
The good news of a salvation that cannot be touched with any
hands, that was outside our works in eternity, in Christ and eternity. It doesn't even touch us, except
for our experience of it when the Holy Spirit in us reveals
Christ to us by conversion. When he's granted repentance
and faith, giving you spiritual life, spiritual understanding
of all the things that have been done for you. So look at that,
it says, according as he had chosen us in him, that is when
we were put in Christ. When, when, when Adam was created,
he was created with his wife already in him. He was created
with his wife already in him. She had not been made manifest
yet, though. But she was there. Matter of fact, God said that
he called their name. The word, it says their, and
he called their name Adam. God made Adam, both male and
female. Well, the female hadn't been
manifested. The wife had been manifested,
but she was in Adam before she was ever brought out of his side
when that rib was taken out and God made that woman out of what
was in Adam. She was there. She was manifested
later, but she was there. She was in him. And that's a
picture of us in Christ, brother. We are in Christ Jesus. The life
of us is in Christ Jesus. The life of the elect is in Christ
Jesus before we're ever manifested in flesh. Just as the life of Christ. As God. God was there, spiritual,
invisible, before he ever manifested himself in the body of Christ
Jesus. But in the fullness of time,
God manifested himself in flesh. And all the fullness of the Godhead
came and dwelt in him bodily. And in that body, Christ Jesus
died for his elect people. And we see here that by that
body, everyone that's united in that body, which is all the
elect from all time, from all the time back, all the time forward,
that whenever he died in that body, that all the people of
God died to the law in Him. We are no longer bound to the
law. That's why Paul was saying in
chapter 4, that's the rudimentary thing, that's the elementary
thing. We shouldn't have to keep going over this. The law was
there to show you you need Christ Jesus alone, that you'll never
make it. You need Christ. So why are you
going back to the elementary thing that's only going to keep
telling you you need Christ. Why are you running from Christ
who is your husband? You're an adulteress running
away, running away, running away. Why do you keep doing that? Whatever the very rudimentary,
elementary thing is that this will never satisfy you. Listen,
those other men never would satisfy her. She kept going to them over
and over and over and over again. And her husband kept going and
bringing her back. And it wasn't until she finally
came to herself that she realized that she would remain here. This is where I'm loved. This
is where I want to stay. Gomer did that. She finally come.
God give her an understanding that why am I keep running away
from the man who loves me? This is why Paul is using that
example. This union, his wife is in him. His wife was there
when he died. Therefore, every one of God's
children has died to the law. And if we've died to the law,
why do we want to go back to it again as adulterers? In Isaiah 54, Look at verse 4. The Lord of Hosts is His name. Christ is the Lord of Hosts. Thy Maker is Christ. He is your
Husband. The Lord of Hosts is His name.
And thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Christ is your Redeemer. Who is your Husband? Not the
Law. Not Moses. But Christ is your
Redeemer. Christ is your Husband. The God
of the whole earth shall he be called. Notice David Christ fulfills
all those positions. He's the maker, the Lord of hosts,
the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman, forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth
when thou was refused. Sayeth thy God, for a small moment
have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. See, what's he talking about?
He's talking about that point whenever we have been given spiritual
understanding, for a little bit he forsakes us and lets the weight
of the law come upon us so that we feel the grief of the law
condemning us. And then he brings the gospel
in. See what he says there? For the
Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit
and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee. Jesus said, I will never leave
thee nor forsaken thee. So it's not talking about that
he's turned away and gonna let you go. What has he done? He
said, for a moment, I let you to yourself. I have left you to feel the weight
of the law against you and what the law is saying against you.
For a moment I left you there to understand that. I never did
leave, I never did go away from you, but I forsook you in such
a way as to allow all this to flood your mind and your experience
so that you might know. It says, for a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. So
even though we come under the law and we begin to feel the
weight and the curse and the penalty for sin upon us and the
grievousness nature of that we can't keep it, God doesn't leave
us there, that He eventually brings the gospel. That's why
I say, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. There was
a time whenever we were under the law, whenever we were, as
Galatians says, there was a time that we were under the law as
a tutor, as a schoolmaster. It was teaching us something.
It was governing our life in such a way of showing our inability. And it was there for a purpose.
God had forsaken us for a little while, so to speak. But then
he came and he gathered us through the gospel. That life and immortality
was brought to light, was made manifest, exposed by the preaching
of the gospel. Before the gospel came to us,
we just thought, well, we're doomed. I can't keep this thing. I ain't going to be able to keep
this thing. I have so much sin. What am I going to do about all
this sin? I'll never be able to do enough good to counter
all the bad. But then life and immortality
was brought to light when the gospel came to us. Brethren,
the preaching of the gospel doesn't give life. It brings life to
light. The life that's already there.
The life that we already have in Christ Jesus is there. It
just hasn't been manifested. The life of Eve was already there. It just hadn't been manifested
yet. God had to make a separation for a short time. And then whenever
Eve was brought forth, she was united to her husband. She was
already in her husband, but she had to be brought forth and introduced
to her husband. And what does the Bible say?
They became one flesh. See, there never was a break
in the union, but there was a time when Eve had to be brought out
and made manifest. And we have to be brought out.
We're called out, as if Eve was called out of Adam. Give me that
writ. Called her out of Adam and made
him. Guess what? We are called out. We are called
out. And then we are made manifest.
How are we made manifest? That we are His children. By
faith. He gives us faith. To trust in
Christ alone. To trust in our husband. To be
bound by His law, which is what? Obey the law? No. His law is
believe on the Lord Jesus and love your brethren as yourself.
That's His law. That's how we're made manifest.
The Gospel. What we believe about the Gospel.
What Gospel we believe. That's what makes us manifest
as the children of God. All those that are out there
that are believing other Gospels, besides the Gospel of free and
sovereign grace, they may be religious, they may be zealous
for a God, But all they are is misguided and they are not the
ministers of Christ according to Paul. They are not preaching
the gospel according to Paul. Which is according to the Holy
Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the one who wrote this. So
yes, they might look religious. And to our eyes they might look
like they're trying to be a Christian. But according to this, they're
not. They're not a believer yet. Now
they might be an elect who has yet to be called out. But they're
not a believer until people believe the gospel. It is only then that
we can call them believers. It's only then that we have fellowship
with them. It is only then that we can know
who our brethren are is by the gospel, by faith in the gospel. Not to get life or to get saved. We're not saved whenever we believe.
We were saved in Christ Jesus or because of Christ Jesus. But
it all began in eternity. I know that there's a lot of
people who disagree with that. But, brethren, that's what I've
been given to understand by what the Scriptures teach and what
the Holy Spirit has revealed for me to know. I can't know
what I don't know. I only can know what I do know. And what
I do know, I only know because the Holy Spirit's opened that
understanding to me. If there's another way, I'll
be glad to look at it. But I've looked at the other
way that says you're saved when you believe. And that's not according
to the Scriptures. So, here we are. Anybody got
any questions? Comments? Alright. Father, again we come, once again,
as always, humbled by the Gospel. We also, Father, look at the
intricate nature of the Word of God and how everything is
tied together 66 books, 40 some authors, led by the one author,
by the Holy Spirit, speaking of one person, Jesus Christ and
his salvation of his elect. God, we just stand in awe, not
only of the mercies of God upon sinners, but we stand in awe
of the word of God. And Lord, we just thank you for
giving it to us to reveal who you are. to reveal who we are,
and to show us Christ. So Father, we just pray that
you continue to minister the word of God here among these
people. I thank you for them, that you brought them together
today. Again, we lift up our people
that are not here, for Jacqueline and the family. I don't know
who all might be sick by today, but as of yesterday, Jacqueline
being sick, Lord, I ask that you would give her healing. I pray for Kevin and Alessandro. I pray that you might keep them
from getting sick, if that be your will. Lord, if you desire
to allow them to continue in this sickness for a period of
time, we pray the Lord that you'd give them grace through it all
to trust and look to you. We thank you again for all that
you have done for us, what you have done on our behalf. In Christ's
name we pray.