To the Son He promised to redeem
My blood and righteousness His own He would my soul reclaim
In the due time Emmanuel came to live and die for me. He lives today and bears my name. Christ is my surety. In love He sent His Spirit down,
Who gave me life and grace. He drew me and I followed on. My Savior to embrace Now I rejoice
in covenant love Amazing grace I see I now am conquered by His
love. My Savior is my King. Amen. The Bible says that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That God loved us before
the foundation of the world. And even though we are sinners,
he still has love for us, and that's because of our union with
Christ. Without that union, we'd have no love. So we thank God
for that covenant love. All right, turn if you would
to hymn number 30. Hymn number 30. In number 30, and I don't know
if you've got it in your books, at one time we marked down, whenever
we get to the chorus where it says, all praise to the Lamb,
we marked out all, not because we thought it was wrong, but
it just, it doesn't fit the timing of the tune. So we'll just say
praise to the Lamb instead of all praise to the Lamb, because
it flows better with the tune. But we'll sing this to Blessed
Be the Name. Worthy the Lamb for sinners slain,
His blood can never fail. The conquering line of Judah
came, And over all prevails. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is
the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Praise to the Lamb, praise to
the Lamb, praise to the Lamb who was slain. Dear Lamb of God, you took our
sins, and made them all your own. Your blood you shed, your
life you gave to bring us to your throne. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is
the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Praise to the
Lamb, praise to the Lamb, praise to the Lamb who was slain. That precious blood we know was
not for sinners shed in vain. Not one of those can ever die. for whom the Lamb was slain. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is
the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Praise to the Lamb, praise to
the Lamb, praise to the Lamb who was slain. This lamb who died, he is alive,
whose will is always done. He conquered Satan, death, and
hell, and then he claimed his throne. Worthy is the lamb, worthy
is the lamb, Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Praise to the lamb, praise to
the lamb, praise to the lamb that was slain. The lion rules to save his own,
his chosen ransom grace. He conquers and subdues their
wills by matchless sovereign grace. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy
is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Praise to the Lamb, praise to
the Lamb, Praise to the lamb who was slain. Did Jesus rise,
the lamb of God, and take his rightful place? So surely shall his ransomed
ones in heaven find their place. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is
the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Praise to the Lamb, praise to
the Lamb, praise to the Lamb who was slain. Amen. One of my favorite passages
in scripture is in that That portion in Revelation where it
speaks of Christ on the throne, where all of creation is given
praise. We see the same picture back
in Daniel. He saw the same thing. Christ
seated upon the throne, high and lifted up. His glory filling
all of the temple and all the angels and all of creation was
crying holy unto the Lord. That's going to be amazing whenever
we get there. I've mentioned here before, you
know, I love to hear congregational singing. I love when everybody
is singing whenever we go to Bible conferences and there's
a lot more people and to hear everybody sing. And of course,
I remember back in the days of youth camp with lots of kids
and everything, everybody singing and everything, just thinking
about what it's going to sound like when all the elect of God
are gathered around the throne singing to the Lord and everything. I can't wait. Can't wait to hear
that. It's gonna be truly amazing. All right, hymn number 95, if
you would. Hymn number 95. In the third stanza, if you notice
there in the second line, it says, imputed not to us, or now
to us, we change that unto us, we believe here that the imputation
of Christ's righteousness was imputed to us before the foundation
of the world and not in time. So we changed the wording to
that to be a little more biblical, we believe to be a little more
biblical, biblically sound. The merits of Christ's righteousness
imputed unto us makes us complete in holiness and Christ God accepts
us. So we were accepted in the beloved
in the foundation of the world for the foundation of the world,
so the imputation of righteousness was there. Of course, that's
a big controversy between some folks, I believe, but anyway,
we'll sing Unto Us there instead of Now to Us. And we'll also
sing this to the tune of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. You all
know that tune, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear? ? Emmanuel, we bless your name
? Our Savior God and King Our God a man like us became That
he might mercy bring The mystery we cannot explain How God became
a man But His great praise we can proclaim Christ is both God
and man God could not suffer, bleed, and die To put away man's
sin And man could never satisfy ? The laws demand for sin ? But
Christ the God-man bled and died ? Instead of His elect ? His
blood God's law has satisfied ? And fully paid our debt The
merit of Christ's righteousness, imputed unto us, makes us complete
in holiness. In Christ God accepts us. Emmanuel, God come to save us. the people of his choice. Emmanuel, God who has saved. Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. All right. Does anybody have
a song that you'd like to sing? I didn't get to hear much. Doesn't
have to be this one. or a chorus or a hymn that's
not even in a hymn book that we use? Is that about all, though? What about in your gallery? Another hymn book, or this hymn
book. We'll sing that after we sing this one. It remaineth a rest for God,
for the people of God. We'll sing this to Jesus causes
over the tumult. Hymn number 1101 in the Gatsby. Jesus lead me by thy power ?
Safe unto the promised rest ? ? Hide my soul within thy arms ? ? Make
me lean upon thy breast ? ? Be my guide in every peril ? ? Watch
me hourly, night and day ? else my foolish heart will wander
from my spirit far away. In thy presence I am happy, in
thy presence I'm secure, in thy presence all afflictions I can
easily endure. In Thy presence I can conquer,
I can suffer, I can die. Far from Thee I faint and languish,
O Thy Savior, keep me nigh. Do you have a song that you'd
like to sing? Or a chorus? A Bible song? Or a Bible verse? Song? Hymn? Spiritual song? You better get a good joke you
like to tell. You better wait. Alright. Alright, well if there's not,
we'll move on. Speak now or forever hold your
peace. Alright, turn with me if you
would to Galatians chapter 3. I just have a few thoughts this
morning. Yeah, a few thoughts. You know what a few and just
about none means in preacher talk. Galatians chapter 3. We looked
last week at verse 21. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteous
it should have been. by the law, but the scripture
has concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. And we talked a
little bit about the law and is it against the promises of
God? And we found that it wasn't against the promises of God,
that the law and grace are antithetical. They're opposed to each other
in the fact that the law was never intended to give righteousness
righteousness was to be given by grace through the faith of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that he had done and not
by anything that we did. So you see that law and grace
are opposite sides. We do not work to get righteousness. It's freely given to us and that's
what grace is all about. Grace is freely given to us. So if we have to do something
to get saved, we have to do something gain righteousness, or to be
righteous before God, to keep our righteousness before God,
then that's considered works. And the Bible says that we are
not saved by works, we are saved wholly by grace from start until
the finish. Matter of fact, before start,
from the foundation of the world until the very end, from eternity
to eternity, our salvation is by grace. I know a lot of people
say, well, what about Ephesians where it says, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, but the
gift of God. There you go, you have to exercise your faith or
you don't get that grace that's been given to you. That's not
what that grace means. Matter of fact, if we look at
the context in Ephesians on whose faith is in context of Ephesians
5, we'll see that the faith that's being talked about there is not
through your faith, but through Christ's faith. So whatever it
says, for by grace are you saved through faith, it's talking about
through the faith of Christ, not through the faith of you,
exercising that, believing upon Christ, and then you get your
salvation. No, it's the faith of Christ
that that grace of salvation is procured, is given to us. And so it's all through Christ. And I think if you look throughout
all the scripture, you'll find that nowhere is salvation in
any aspect. Whether it be to get saved, to
stay saved, whether it's growing in the grace and knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ, none of it comes by our own ability. It all comes from the work of
Christ alone. And that's the gospel. That's
why we preach it. That's the good news. Because the news that
we get from the law, as we've seen now for three chapters,
The news that we get from the law is you're not good enough.
You're condemned. There's no way that you can keep
this law. You break it at every turn. There's no hope for you under
the law. You deserve to be punished. You
deserve to be under God's wrath. You deserve to receive God's
wrath. That's what the law tells us.
So to preach the law to the people of God for their instruction
in righteousness, for their encouragement about righteousness uh... is really not the gospel that
cannot be part of the gospel the gospel is not to preach the
law the gospel is to preach the work of jesus christ on behalf
of that that's good news that's the good news the good news is
is that you don't have to keep the law to be saved that you
have to just believe that christ jesus uh... has done everything
for you and if you believe that That means you've been saved.
You've already been saved. If you believe that Christ has
done everything for you, and there is no doubt. Matter of
fact, the Bible teaches us that whenever we rely on our flesh,
whenever we look to our flesh to provide some kind of a righteousness
to make God happy, to make God appease, to be our salvation
or to keep our salvation, when we do that, that is actually
unrighteousness. because we are saying that our
flesh is doing something good enough to appease God and that
Christ and His work was not enough. And I know, brethren, even among
sovereign grace believers, we hear that, oh, you've got to
keep the law, you've got to keep the law, you've got to keep the
law, and that they preach over and over about our duty. We have
duty faith that we have to continue to to believe these things and
work out these things and fear and trembling and that we are
to do all this stuff that is going to make God happy to keep
God happier to please the Lord or he's going to come down and
he's going to you know whack us on the head if we don't continue
to do right and brethren that's a misunderstanding of what law
and grace is all about grace is all about looking to Christ
alone for everything that there is to finally rest in the fact
of knowing that in my flesh dwells no good thing, that I am a wretched
man, that there is nothing in me that can do any good whatsoever,
and so my only hope is in Christ Jesus, and that He has finished
that work that God requires, and He's finished it for me.
Trusting in Him alone, and that's hard. That's hard to do because
by nature, We want to do something to not only be patted on the
back with our pride, you know, our pride likes to, you know,
we pretty good, you know, we pretty good. But not only that,
but our nature just is built in a way that we want to be as
God. We want to be the one who gets
the glory. We want to be the one who does
what we want to do, to say that we did it ourselves. It goes
all the way back to the garden. Whenever Adam looked upon the
fruit, whenever Eve looked upon the fruit, they looked and they
saw that it was good. They wanted it. They desired
it. And God told them, don't eat of that fruit. And what happened? Whenever the law came in, that
lust was stirred up in them and they thought, and then Satan
came. And what did he do? He enticed
that lust that was in there. He enticed that lust. And what
did he do? He said, Has God really said that? Surely God didn't
mean it that way. If you eat this, you're gonna
be just like Him. Surely He would want that. And
so what happened? The pride of life, the lust of
the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, it all swelled
up. What did it do? It rushed out
for that and said, yeah, we're gonna be just like God. That
hasn't ever stopped. That's in our nature. That's
in our nature. We continue to think that we
can provide for ourselves something like God. We can be like God. We can perform a righteousness
and be holy before God, acceptable before God by something that
we do in the flesh. And so that's why God gave us
the law. He gave us the law to be a schoolmaster. We've seen that last week, didn't
we, right? Verse 23, is that where we saw that? Verse 23,
but before faith came, and we're talking about Jesus, before Jesus
came, we were kept under the law. shut up unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, as we're looking in
today, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus, by faith in Christ Jesus. For
as many as you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Now
let's keep that in mind, starting at the end at verse 29, that
ye are in Christ, that if ye be Christ, Then are ye Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise. Remember, this all goes
back to the fact that Abraham was given a promise. Remember,
Christ came to Abraham and told Abraham, you're going to have
this seed that's going to come. And this seed is going to provide
for you a righteousness. And it's going to provide you
a seed. There's going to be a seed. Those are going to be like you.
And he's talking, remember a spiritual seed. Now that he definitely
had a physical seed and he promised him a physical seed and there
was a physical seed that came, but we're talking about the spiritual,
spiritual aspect of this. Those who believed on Christ
alone for their righteousness. And Abraham was so to speak,
the one who God showed as the head of all this. And Abraham
believed God and Abraham. Look to Christ and count in Christ
as his righteousness. And that's what we should do.
We shouldn't look to the law and think that we can provide
our own righteousness. We look to Christ, and if we
look to Christ and consider him as our righteousness, then we
show ourselves to be a child of Abraham in the spiritual aspect
of it. And so we're going back to see
that this is talking about a spiritual group of people, a spiritual
family. a family of believing people
that believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We are believers. Remember
whenever I said last week in verse 22, but the scripture hath
concluded all understand that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. That's a category
of people, to them that believe. It's given to the believing ones.
It's a group of people. That's the family of God. The
family of God are the family of faith, the family of believers,
okay? We don't believe in order to
get salvation. We believe because we have been
saved by Christ and that believing is one of the promises that God
has given to us. He promised that we would, by
faith, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. and that we'd be
given that faith, and that we would come to Christ, that we
would come. Remember, Jesus said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's a promise of God.
And how did they come? The word come there in John chapter
six is equated with believe. All that the Father hath given
me will believe on me. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. What does follow mean? That means
they believe upon Christ. They trust in Christ. They listen
to what Christ say and they believe that. That's what following Christ
means. Following Christ doesn't mean I have to act like He acts
and walk the way He walks and be as righteous as He is righteous.
None of us can do that. Matter of fact, the law even
tells us when you try to do that and you don't do that, you've
broken it all. You've broken every law. And
there's no way that you can keep that law. So what is it whenever
we follow Christ? We follow Christ by looking to
Him and trusting Him that whenever the law says this, Christ did
that for me. I have completely done that in
Christ Jesus. I have fulfilled all the demands
of the law. And he nailed out those ordinances
that was against us saying, you broke the law, you broke the
law, you broke the law. He nailed the ordinances to the
cross and they're blotted out. They're not there anymore. And
listen, Satan comes and accuses us. As a matter of fact, the
Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren, right? Satan is
the accuser of the brethren. What does he do? He comes and
he accuses you. You're not keeping the law good
enough. You're not holy enough. You're not doing this right.
You're not doing that right. You really aren't a very good
Christian. You know that? You're sure not very faithful.
You really ought to be doing more for the Lord. What is he
doing? He's doing that and he's accusing
the brethren. He's always there before us,
accusing us. But brethren, that's what's so
good about the gospel. That's why we need to hear the
gospel. That's why all of us here, the
ones who profess Christ Jesus, we need to hear the gospel continually.
It's because the accuser comes, the things in our lives comes,
our guilt comes, our flesh comes up. All these things come and
tell us you're no good, you're no good, you're not worth it,
you're not doing it, all these things. But yet, what does the
gospel say to us? There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. The gospel tells us that He has
forgiven us of all of our sin. The gospel tells us that all
of our iniquities, all of our sinfulness, all of our things,
that He has cast them as far as the east is from the west
and remembers them no more. Now, brethren, that's just not
our past sins. That's all of our future sins,
every sin that we'll ever commit. God has already forgiven us those in Christ Jesus. And
so as the people of God, we become believers, believing upon him.
That's walking in the spirit. We walk in the spirit. Now, with
that being said, it says in verse 24, wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster, to bring us onto Christ that we might be justified
by faith. Now, what is that talking about?
Well, number one, let's talk about the schoolmaster again.
We know that's talking about the law, right? The law is our schoolmaster. What is a schoolmaster? We kind
of don't use that term anymore. We don't really, you know, that
kind of is an antiquated word in our vocabulary, schoolmaster.
But what was a schoolmaster? Schoolmaster was somebody who
was over children. He was a master over the children. Like they would go to a school
or an academy or somewhere and the schoolmaster was tasked with
the job of making sure that all the children was kept in line. They were to be kept in line.
And that whenever they were out of line, he corrected them, spanked
them. kept them in line. And so the
schoolmaster was there for children. But whenever those children,
as they matured and came to maturity, they no longer was under a schoolmaster. They became adults. And in their
adulthood and maturity, they have been taught right from wrong. They've been taught what is,
you know, the way that you should be. as a man or a woman that
you've been taught. And now the schoolmaster has
no control over you because you're no longer under his tutelage.
I know that kind of sounds like a weird word. You're no longer
under his care. You're no longer under his discipline. You're no longer under that.
Brethren, we, as the children of God, as we come into our understanding
of Christ, Whenever the Lord first gives us repentance, whenever
the Lord first comes and gives us the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ and who we are, what happens? We realize that
we're a sinner. We realize, oh man, I really
am breaking the law of God. This thing says that I gotta
keep everything and I'm not keeping any of it hardly. Not hardly, you're not keeping
it at all. You're not keeping any of the law. So the schoolmaster,
what does he do? He comes and he swats. Get back
in line. Get back in line. Get back in
line. You messed up. You messed up.
You messed up. You messed up. You messed up.
But then the Bible says there comes a time whenever we are
no longer under the schoolmaster. whenever we come to maturity.
In our conversion, not in whenever we were born again, being born
again and our conversion are two separate things within the
Christian life. To be born again is to become
spiritually alive, okay? To be born again is whenever
we become spiritually alive, where we now have spiritual receptors,
eyes that see, ears that hear, Okay, we have the ability to
understand spiritual things. The new birth brings that, but
conversion is whenever God grows us in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the place where we understand the
gospel, where we hear the gospel and we understand the gospel,
the true gospel that is, the gospel that says that Christ
alone is your righteousness, that Christ has done all the
law on your behalf. The gospel tells us that it is
finished, that everything that was needed to satisfy God's justice
on our behalf was done in Christ Jesus. And so that is becoming
more mature. We are maturing. We've matured
in our understanding. See, at first we didn't understand
that, right? At first we thought, and I'll admit, whenever I first
began to have any kind of spiritual inclination of anything, I thought,
okay, well, I've got to go down front of a church, and I've got
to confess my sins, and I've got to shake the preacher's hand
and pray a prayer, and then after I pray a prayer, I might have
to fill out a card and give it to them, and then they have to
take me and run me through the baptistry, and then I have to
join the church, and, you know, whatever the case might be, that
I have to do all those things so I can be saved. Well, that's
not what being saved is all about. See, I begin to think these are
the things that I have to do. Oh, all I gotta do is give my
heart to Jesus. Okay, well, is that what the
Bible says? There's nowhere in the Bible
that says give your heart to Jesus. Anywhere. Don't even know why
we even came up with that thing. You know? It says you gotta make
Jesus your Lord and Savior. We don't make Jesus Lord and
Savior. He already is Lord and Savior. The Bible says that he's
been given a name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow and every tongue She confessed that God has made
both Jesus Lord and Savior. We don't make Him Lord and Savior
of our lives. So see, all these things we thought
in maturity and immaturity, we thought all these things. We
thought this is how it is to be saved. We thought, well, if
we just believe that Jesus exists, if we believe that Jesus died
and was buried and was risen, then we believe the gospel. But
is that the gospel? Well, Paul said in Corinthians,
whenever he said, That, you know, I don't know anything among you
except Christ crucified. Whenever he said, you know, that
I've told you that Christ died and was buried and was resurrected.
There's those little words in there that Paul used, the Holy
Spirit had him put that in there because there is a difference
between just believing in the historical death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus and believing that Christ died according to
the scriptures. See that Paul put in there by
the Holy Spirit, how Christ died according to the scriptures and
was buried and was resurrected according to the scriptures.
See, we got to understand what does the scriptures say about
Christ dying and his resurrection? What does the Bible say about
that? And as we look in the scriptures, the scriptures say there is a
specific group of people for whom Christ died. and there is
specific promises that are given to those for whom Christ died.
And if Christ died for those people, that all of those promises
are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, it's theirs, they are the heirs
of it, the recipients of it, they will get it. Whenever we
first come and are born from above, we may not understand
those things. And so the law is given to us
to keep pushing us to say, well, if I think that My coming to
church is that the Bible will say, well, what about this? The
Bible says, what does the Bible say? Do not forsake the assembling
of yourselves together as in the manner of some. So what if
I miss church? Now, what is the law telling
you to do? What did the law say? Keep the
Sabbath. Oh, no, we got to keep the Sabbath. Whenever the Bible says to honor
your father and your mother, and you don't. Whenever the Bible
says not to covet, not to want your neighbor's things, to not
look in lust on somebody else. Whenever the Bible says don't
steal. All of us have stolen something. Every one of us, I'm
sure, at some point in time has stolen something. You say, well,
I ain't stolen nothing. Have you ever been at work and done
something that's not work-related? You've stolen your you stole
your employer's time. I mean, see, we don't think about
that. See, our minds are so finite that we don't even realize how
much we have broken God's law. We don't realize how sinful we
truly are. That's why the Bible says the
flesh cannot please God. It doesn't matter what it is.
It cannot please God. And so we have been given a schoolmaster. to tell us over and over again,
whack, you did wrong. Whack, you did wrong. Whack,
you did wrong. Until we get to the place of
maturity where God, in growing us in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus Christ, brings us to the place where we realize, just
like Paul, I mean, this is exactly what happened with Paul in chapter
seven of Romans. He said, I kept wanting to do
right. The law kept telling me this
is what's right. But I found that I kept doing
the opposite. I kept doing wrong. I kept doing
wrong. I kept doing wrong. The schoolmaster
kept swatting me on the hind end, or on the hand, or wherever
you get your swats. My mom gave me my swats on my
rear end, OK? Wherever you get your weapons,
the law keeps telling me You're not doing it. You're not doing
it. You're not doing it. But what happened to Paul in
Romans 7? He said, I found then that there was a law that in
my flesh, I cannot keep these things. And then I'm going to
continue to break these things. But then I found there was another
law in my mind, the law of God that was in my mind that I wanted
to do these things. I desire to do these things,
but I can't keep them. because my flesh is weak. That's
why the Bible says that the old covenant was not good because
that it was weak in the flesh, because the flesh can't keep
the law. And so the schoolmaster is swatting
us, swatting us, swatting us, swatting us until we come to
maturity to realize, wait a minute, I'm never going to reach righteousness
this way. I can't reach righteousness this
way. The law is always going to be
against me and always going to be telling me I'm no good. But
there, Christ, the Bible says that Christ has done it all for
me. And so what has the schoolmaster done? The schoolmaster has whipped
us with the law over and over and over again so that it might
bring us unto Christ for righteousness. It brings us from our thinking
that we can ourself make righteousness before God and brings us unto
the righteousness which Christ has done. That was the purpose
of the law. That's why he's called a schoolmaster.
He's over immature people. He's over young Christians. And I'm not meaning young in
age. I'm meaning young in experience and knowledge. maturity we think we can provide
a righteousness for God but as God by the Holy Spirit grows
us in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ we begin
to learn through that schoolmaster that we can't make a righteousness
before God that Christ is our only righteousness and that brings
us to that converting experience where in conversion We say, wait
a minute, I repent of trying to make a righteousness for myself.
I turn from thinking that I can do righteousness, that I can
do anything to make God pleased with me, that I can do anything
to save myself, and I turn and I'm going to believe Christ alone
is my righteousness. That is conversion. That's where
God converts us from being babes to being mature, from being from
being under the schoolmaster to being free. See, He has freed
us from the law. He has freed us from what the
law is doing. The law is condemning us in our
own mind and in our own conscience. How many of y'all still even
today, whenever you do something wrong, you have that conscience
there, that guilt there. And that's good. The Holy Spirit
is there to tell us, hey, that's sinful. And what do we do? We
confess that before God. Say, I'm sorry. That's sin, but
listen, don't ever let Satan accuse you before God and say,
you're no good. You're not going to make it now. If you can do better than that,
you're never going to do better than that. You're never going
to do better than that. That's why we just confess that
and keep trusting Christ. We keep trusting Christ. Now,
again, I want to say as a disclaimer, because sure enough, as I've
said what I've just said, and people are listening or watching
or whatever the case, there always arises some ding-a-ling that
wants to say, well, then you just think you can live any way
that you want, go out and live like hell and it's okay. That's not what I'm saying at
all. That's not what the Bible teaches either. We have the Holy
Spirit. See, people that say that, they
don't understand the law and they don't understand grace.
They don't understand the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is in there that constrains our sin. You remember the story
of Abimelech? Whenever Abraham and whenever
they came in and they took Abraham's wife and he brought Abraham's
wife into his harem with him and he was going to lay with
Sarah and he ended up not doing that and God confronted Abimelech
of things. and you know a bit like said
you know i look at it later with her and i think and god said
you know i can't you from lying on the one that restrains you
from doing that he got restrains our sins the bible says that
the wrath of man shall praise him the remainder of wrath he
shall restrain he restrained so that means that there is some
sin that god allows or that god has predestined for his purposes,
like taking Jesus and crucifying him. That was sinful, but that
was according to God's purpose. There is some sin in our lives
that God has purposed for our growth in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not to mention that Christ, that
God, continues to give us to our sin, over to our sin, and
doesn't restrain our sin so that it keeps our mind looking to
Christ. As long as I'm confronted with my sinfulness and my inability
to keep the law, I keep looking to Christ. It keeps me looking
to Christ. So that's the design of the gospel. That's the design of the law. But whenever we come to maturity,
to the place where we realize, hey, I'm never going to be able
to keep the law, and I'm never going to be able to make a righteousness
for myself. So therefore, I'm going to rest
in what Jesus has promised. He promised to be my righteousness.
He promised that He's going to forgive me of every sin that
I'm ever going to commit. And that everything of righteousness
that I try to do to make Him pleased is filthy rags. So, you know, I'm just going
to trust, you know, in my mind, I'm going to try to do what I
think the Bible tells me to do. I'm going to try to do all those
things, but I'm not going to rest in the fact that that is
doing anything to please God or to keep me in God's will.
See, we still desire to do that, and we still try to achieve those
things because we love God, because we do want to live righteous.
We do want to live a holy life. But, brethren, don't ever think
that that is going to get any better. Your holiness is never
going to become to the place where we just cease to sin, where
we just quit sinning, or we sin less than we did. That is impossible
because the flesh cannot get any better. If the flesh can't
get any better than that, it means that it continues its course
of complete sinfulness. The only thing that can be righteous
is Christ. He's the only righteousness.
And so wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. What is that doing? The law brings
us to the place where we receive the justification before God,
not by our righteousness, but by his faith, what Christ did,
his faithfulness. See, that's what that's talking
about. We are not, it doesn't say here, wherefore the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by our believing or by our faith. We are justified
in our mind by the faith of Christ Jesus. It changed, that's the
change of mind. That's the repentance there.
We now see that it isn't by our faithfulness, it's by Christ's
faithfulness that we have been justified before God. And so
the law brings us to Christ so that we say we're not justified
by our law keeping, we're justified by the faithfulness of Christ
Jesus and what he did. Verse 25, but after that faith
has come or after Christ and his faithfulness has done what
it is and has been received into our mind, We are no longer under
a schoolmaster. We have no need of that no more.
We don't need the schoolmaster telling us how bad we are because
we now have been given understanding in Christ Jesus that we are completely
bad and never can do right, but Jesus has taken our place and
become our righteousness. Verse 26. for you are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Again, this is a statement
of fact in how we receive the knowledge of that. And why do
I bring that up? Because it's very important,
brethren. It's very important. And here is a fine line between
where Reformed belief, the Reformed Protestant belief is, and where
our biblical, or biblical, I should say biblical, not ours. We don't
make it the truth. It is the truth and we just believe
it because the Bible says it. But there is a distinction even
among sovereign grace believers because there is the Protestant
belief that in believing we become the children of God. Now that's
no different than what the Arminian says. The Arminian says, I become
a child of God by my faith. I believe upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. I ask Jesus into my heart I give Him my life, I do all
these steps, and then He gives me salvation and makes me a child
of God. Okay? Verse 26 cannot mean that
we become the children of God by our faith in Christ Jesus.
It can't mean that. Because we know a couple of things.
Number one, the Bible teaches us, matter of fact, turn with
me. I want you to see the Bible teaches this and not Mike Smith
and some theological system. Ephesians chapter one, and look at verse four. Now let's
just back up to three, we always do. I say it a lot here, Ephesians
chapter one, we go to this passage in scripture like all the time. I mean, almost in everything
that we talk about, somehow we find our way back here. But anyway,
look at verse 3. It says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. See, guys,
we are in Christ. The blessings are to Christ,
the seed, and all that are in the seed receive those same blessings
because they're in the seed. Remember, we talked about that
God has made everything after its own kind, and that everything
reproduces after its own kind. Therefore, whatever the original
is, everything in the seed is going to have the same characteristics
and traits of the first. The first seed was faithful. The seeds will also be faithful,
but remember, we're only seeds in the spiritual sense, not in
the fleshly sense. The fleshly sense can't keep
the law of God, but the spiritual seed can. What does 1 John tell
us? 1 John says that we have that
seed in us and we cannot sin. Paul said, I will serve the law
of God in my mind, that's inside me, in my spirit. I will serve
the law of God. That means I will do the law
of God, every bit of the law of God in my spirit, in my mind.
I desire that, I want that, I will do that in my mind. Why? that
that seed that's in me, it cannot sin. But my flesh, all it does
is sin, and my flesh is sinning all the time. Okay? So, it's in Christ. We're seeing
that these blessings are in Christ, and it's in a spiritual aspect.
Everything is in the spiritual realm. Look at verse 5. No, verse 4. According as He
hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Now,
brethren, I don't believe that the time of this has changed. That it's before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, not later at some time whenever we believe on Him,
not later in time whenever Christ actually died on the cross, although
that is the basis, that is the foundation for why we get this. But brethren, before that, it's
in the same time period. according as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame. The reason that God chose us
in Christ in the spiritual seed aspect is so that there is never
a time that God does not see us that way. He sees us holy
and without blame always, even before we come to know the Lord
Jesus Christ, even before we even are matured to trust and
be converted to the gospel and believe on Christ alone that
God sees us holy and without blame. All those Old Testament
saints before the cross ever happened and that basis and ground
for justification that happened in the blood of Jesus Christ
before that ever took place. Listen, God saw all those Old
Testament saints in Christ Jesus and he saw them holy and without
blame and love. Why? Because they were the seed
of Christ. Because they were justified before God based upon
what Christ would come to do. Now look at verse 5 and here's
what I'm talking about back in our passages. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
Listen, brethren, we were predestinated unto the adoption of children
by God, not by our works, not by our faith. Our adoption came
by the work of God and putting us into Christ Jesus. So whenever it says here, for
a year, all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus, it
isn't saying that we are made children by our believing in
Christ Jesus. The Bible also tells us that
because ye are sons, he hath sent his spirit. Matter of fact,
that's in chapter four. Look down, if you're still in
Galatians there, look down into chapter four. And look at verse four with me.
It says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his son made of a woman made under the law. To redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons, not become sons, but that we might receive. How do
we receive? We receive by faith, right? We
receive our justification by faith. We trust that Christ is
our justification. And so how do we receive that?
By the faith that Christ has given us to trust that. How do
we receive that we are sons of God? We receive that by faith. The Bible tells us that he has
given us the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit will testify to us
that we are his children, right? Where does assurance come from?
Does it come from our law keeping? No. Where does our assurance
come from? Because grandmama tells you you're
a good Christian boy? No. Where does our assurance
come from? Because we've spoken in tongues?
No. Where does our assurance come?
Because we never miss church? No. Where does our assurance
come? Because we've got baptized? No.
Where does our assurance come? The Holy Spirit of God. The Holy
Spirit of God is given to us to testify to our spirit that
we are his. How do we receive that message?
We receive it by faith. And only by faith. That's why
the reprobate cannot believe these things. That's why the
reprobate cannot believe Christ. You don't believe my words because
you are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. Why?
Because they have been given faith to believe these things. They have been given faith to
believe the report. Remember, the Bible says, who
hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the
Lord? extended. Well, the ones who believe the
report are the ones to whom the arm of the Lord has been extended.
The arm of the Lord has been extended to the elect to give
them knowledge of Christ and the things that he has done.
That we have been given the Spirit of God so that we might know
the things freely given to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. See
brethren, we receive this by faith. Not get it because of
our faith. We receive the report. We receive the good news. We
receive the gospel. We receive the fact that God
has told us, you're my son. For as ye are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for by faith, for ye are all
the children of God by faith, We receive it by faith because
we're in Christ Jesus. Verse 27, for as many of you
as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now, what
does that mean? Does that mean everybody that's
went under the water has now put on Christ? Well, there definitely is an
importance of water baptism. The Bible tells us that whenever
we believe, whenever a disciple believes upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he is to be immersed in water on the profession of
his faith, that he is to be immersed in water by the church, and that
after that immersion, that he is to now become a member of
that local church. That is something that the Bible
teaches. That's the commission that we have as a church, is
to teach these things, to make disciples to baptize those disciples
and then to teach those disciples all things what Jesus said. You
can't do that without them continuing to meet with you. They've got
to continue to meet with you. There's three aspects to the
commission, not just preaching the gospel. Everybody thinks
that if we preach the gospel, we're doing a great commission.
No, no, no. Preach the gospel. If there's disciples made, you
baptize those disciples and then you make them members of the
church. And then you continue to disciple
them in all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. That's
the gospel commission. Okay? I don't mean to get off
on that. I have a whole series on that that you can go listen
to. But what are we talking about here? Baptized into Christ Jesus. There is an importance in water
baptism, but that's not what's being talked about here. This
is talking about our union with Christ in his death. Whenever
Christ was baptized with fire, remember he said, that the baptism
that I'm going to be baptized with, you're not able to undertake
that I'm going to be baptized with fire. Now we were, the church
was baptized at Pentecost. Okay. But Christ is talking about
here, the baptism that Christ received in his work on the cross. Whenever he experienced the full
wrath of God, whenever that all, all of the, uh... that uh... baptism of fire that came upon
him as he experienced those things upon the cross we were in him
and so it says for as many as you as have been baptized into
christ have put on christ now that word put on is a word in
the greek it means to put on like a garment it means to be
put on like a garment or a robe to put on like a robe. Isn't
Christ's righteousness likened unto a robe? That we receive
a robe of righteousness? That whenever it talks about
Christ, it talks about Him being clothed in fine linen? That He
is clothed in white? That we are given robes of white
and that we will be robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ?
It means that we are clothed, covered in. out of the scene
and him and he their eyes were open and they realize that they
were naked before god not just physically naked but they were
spiritually naked before god that they that they have broken
god's law that they they couldn't keep god's law and so they they
what did they do they wouldn't try to sell some some big leaves
together to cover themselves but was that good enough to god
say hey all right you did a good job Fancy outfits, I tell you
what, let's market those. Is that what God said? No. What
did he do? He said, your efforts of covering
yourself is not enough, but I will provide you a covering. And so what did he do? God himself
skinned an animal. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. And then the Bible says, he didn't
hand it to them and told them to put it on themselves. The
Bible says, and God himself clothed them. See, we never clothe ourselves
with the information that God gives us. We never clothe ourselves
with the things that God tells us to do. No, God clothes us. God himself will clothe his people. He took that skin, not only did
he shed the blood, for the remission of their sin, but he took that
robe of righteousness as it portrayed, and he put it on them and clothed
them. Brethren, whenever we are clothed
with the righteousness of God, it is because God himself puts
it on us. As many as you who have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That means that because
we were in Christ, whenever the handwriting of ordinances was
nailed to the cross, whenever we were in Christ, whenever sin
and the penalty for sin was paid in full, we was too, and what
was left? Christ and His righteousness.
We put on Christ in His death. We put on Christ in His death.
Therefore, verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. It doesn't
matter if you're a Jew under the law, or if you're a Greek
who's never been under the law, it doesn't matter if you were
a physical seed of Abraham. It's all about a spiritual seed.
There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. That means that all this work
that Christ did upon the cross He did for the whole group of
people. The elect of God have all been
the recipients of this work in the work of Jesus Christ. We
are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be and if you be Christ. If you're his, if you were in
him in this baptism. You're Abraham's seed. And heirs
according to the promise. See, it goes back. That's why
I say we start at the end there and go back to the beginning.
We started with Abraham, remember? We started with Abraham in this
section of the letter. We started with Abraham. Abraham
was told a promise that there would be a righteousness given
to him based upon Christ and in this seed that he would be
blessed with many more seeds, that there would be more just
like the original seed. that Abraham would be the father
of many, not physically, but in a spiritual sense, that he
would be the one, that from him, there would be other seeds that
would come that would just like Abraham, look to Christ alone
for their righteousness, who would be justified by Christ,
who would be in Christ Jesus in that baptism of death and
would receive all the promises of the new covenant given to
them apart from anything that they do, but all upon what Christ
did. So therefore, it doesn't matter
what lineage you come from. It doesn't matter whether you
grew up under the law in Judaism or whether you were a pagan Greek.
It doesn't matter our skin color, whether we're white or brown
or yellow or whatever color we are, black. It doesn't matter
where we come from. Whether it's from England or
from Israel or from Russia or from Guatemala or from, you know,
Germany or Poland or Russia. It doesn't matter where we come
from. As we said last week, we are all of one blood. But in a spiritual sense, we
are all of one seed. That's Christ Jesus. If ye be
Christ's seed, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise. That means everything that was
promised to Abraham is given to us. And that is a picture
of everything that is promised to Christ in the everlasting
covenant. It's given to us. Now, Brethren, isn't that good
news? It's good news that we get something. And I heard just this week an
illustration. Brother Roy Smith made this illustration
one time in a sermon I heard him preach. And then I heard
one of the young men who just recently was ordained in his
church give the same illustration in his ordination. And he said,
how many of y'all in here, I know we have, have ever got in the
mail, Publishers Clearinghouse, sweepstakes, or some sort of
a thing in the mail that, hey, you've won $10 million, you have
a chance to win $10 million. Just fill this out and send this
in. you have a chance to win $10,000,000. We used to get those
all the time. It's called Publisher's Clearing
House. You don't see it too much anymore, but it used to be a
sweepstakes that everybody would try to enter thinking, oh, and
then if you bought their books, you know, if you bought their
books, you thought you'd have a better chance of winning that
$10,000,000, and Ed McMahon would show up on your doorstep with
a big giant fake check to give to you. To get that letter in
the mail said, did you have a chance to win $10 million, that's really
not good news, right? That's not good news at all. But if you got a thing in the
mail that says, here's your check for $10 million paid to the order
of Michael Smith, well, that's good news. That means it's already
mine. I mean, that's my check. That's
my money now. I have that. I didn't do anything
for it. Someone sent it to me, give it
to me, and that check is mine. It's mine. I didn't do nothing
for it. Now that's good news. But if I have to fill out some
form, turn it in, buy 9,000 books, keep turning this thing in over
and over and over and over again, and then at the very end of the
day, down in the fine print, it says one in 800 million people
will be eligible. I have a one in 800 million chance
after I go through all that. Guess what though? With the law,
you have zero chance in the affinity of being holy. So the good news
isn't here. If you'll do this, you'll get
to heaven. No, the good news is, guess what?
It's already been given to you. It's already been given to you. It's yours. It belongs to you. Brethren, the gospel is the good
news of what Jesus Christ has done, not what we must do. Nobody has any comments or anything
you'd like to add, any comments? All right. Well, remember those that we
spoke about in prayer for those who wasn't on whenever we mentioned
it, uh, sister Loretta Carlson passed away and, uh, her funeral
is tomorrow at nine 30. I'll be changing the time on
our Facebook, uh, event. that I posted. It says 10, but
I was informed this morning that they changed it to 930. Tomorrow
morning at Parker Mortuary here in Joplin, which is just one
block off of Main Street. I can't remember the exact address.
It's on the event on Facebook. But anyway, remember that. Also
remember Brother Ed lost his son this week also. And so be
praying for him. And then continue to pray for
my grandmother and my aunt. and my family. So remember those
things. If nobody has anything, then
let's bow and we'll have our prayer. Father, what great news it is
to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank you for the
faith of Christ that has brought in our righteousness. We thank
you, Father, for The application of that in our lives to give
us faith, to receive it, to believe it, to know it as ours. And Lord, we are so grateful
for all that Christ has done for us, for the forgiveness of
sins and the redemption, the reconciliation for everything
that he has done on our behalf. Lord, we truly are thankful for
that and what a blessing it is to be called a child of God.
Father, I pray for each person that's here today. Lord, I pray
that you might call them by your grace, that they might be yours.
That if there's any here today, Lord, that is yet to be converted
by the gospel, to believe these things that we talked about today,
to believe upon Christ alone for their salvation. Lord, may
you give them that knowledge today and that you might draw
them by your spirit. And Father, that you might also
Give them the desire to walk in obedience to you and to be
baptized and to join the church and to take their place among
the people of God here in the service of God. And Lord, we
just thank you for this church. We thank you for the opportunities
that we have together and to fellowship together, Lord, and
to serve and worship together. It truly is a blessing. Our hearts
do go out this morning to the Carlson family. Father, I pray
that you would be with them, all the children, that you might
bless them, that you might give them comfort, Father, that Christ
might be glorified even within the death of our dear precious
sister. We know the Bible teaches that
the death of the saints are beautiful in your eyes. And Lord, we know
that every man and every woman is allotted a time uh, that you
have given to them. And we know that that cannot
be moved forward or, or anything or made less, uh, that everybody
has their appropriated time. And we know that this was our
time, uh, was the time for our dear sister. And we know father
that she's with you. Uh, the Bible says that absent
from the body is present with the Lord. And we know Lord that
that body, that, uh, that we have been friends with for all
these years now lays and will rot away and will become dust
again. But at your coming, Father, that
you will give her a new body and that she will be raised to
life where that body and that spirit will be joined together.
And so, Father, we're so grateful. and look so much for the resurrection
of Jesus Christ to come for his saints. And Lord, we just are
looking forward to that day of his return. And we're looking
forward to seeing our dear sister once again. We also lift up brother
Ed and his grieving now over his son and his death. Lord,
we pray that you would comfort him also, Lord, we don't know
as far as whether Junior was a child of grace or not. We just
pray, Lord, that you'll be with Brother Ed through all these
things, that you might comfort him and the family through it
all, that you might make provisions for him. And then even as days
go by, Lord, that you will help him and comfort him and be a
source of strength for him as he now lives alone. And Father,
Lord, we just pray that You would make provisions for him. We also
lift up my grandma and my aunt and their health, Lord. We know
that you're in control of all those things. And we ask that
you might help them in that as you see fit and as your will
be done. And Lord, I pray for these brethren that are here.
I ask that you might just keep them this week, that you might
give them safety and their travels and the things that they will
be about this week as you direct their steps. And Father, I pray
that today that you have edified your children, that you have
given them as you promised, the food and the nurture that they
need as your children. Lord, we pray that you've done
that today. I pray the things that I've said,
Lord, has been in accordance with the word of God. And in
truth, Lord, I pray for conviction and correction. If I speak those
things that are not of God and that are not of the word of God,
Lord, I pray that you might give me understanding and that you
might continue to helping the grace and the knowledge of Jesus
Christ to give us that here, not only through the preaching
and the teaching, but Father, as we study the word of God.
And again, we thank you brother, for these brethren that are here
and Lord that you might bless them. We actually bless the food
that we're about to eat and the fellowship that we're about to
have together, Lord, that it might also be just as pleasing
to you as we do in any of our worship or in our times together,
Father. And it's all in Christ's precious
name that we pray.