of the church whenever they came
to worship. Each one had a psalm, a hymn,
and they prayed, they preached, they sang, they ate together.
And that's how we try to follow in our worship as well. We follow
that pattern of the first church. We like to meet together. We
like to sing together, pray together, preach and eat together. But
one of the things that says that each one has a song or hymn,
that doesn't mean that you have to every time we meet together
have a song or hymn. But I always like to leave room
for anybody who has something that the Lord has laid upon your
heart, whether it's a hymn, request a hymn to be sung. If any of the men have any scriptures
that they'd like to read or anything that they would like to say,
I always want to give that time. And the same thing after the
message, we always give time for anybody that might have any
questions or any corrections or rebuke. That's also, you know,
I'm not perfect. I don't have all knowledge. And
I'm just like anybody else, I'm susceptible to error. and I need
to be held accountable to the word of God just like anybody
else does. And so we give that opportunity for that as well. So don't feel shy to speak up
and ask, or don't feel like you can't ask to sing something or
whatever. We'll be glad to do that. Well,
turn with me this morning, brethren, if you would, to Galatians chapter
three. Galatians chapter three. I pray that the Lord give me
the ability to speak with my voice being like this. Galatians chapter three. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
before we begin. Does anybody have any prayer
requests before we pray? All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Heavenly Father, we come once again and we thank you for your
mercy and for your grace that's in Christ Jesus. We thank you
for another day that you've given your saints to gather together,
Lord. We thank you for these brethren that you've brought
from their homes all across this place to gather this morning. And we gather, Father, not for
a show. We don't gather to make a spectacle
in front of the world, but we gather because our hearts have
been knit together by your grace. that we've been given a love
for God. Even though it is imperfect, you've given us love for you
and love for the brethren. And we meet together, Father,
asking that your spirit would help us to worship you, to worship
in spirit and in truth, as we mentioned before. Lord, that
you would give us hearing ears and seeing eyes, that you would
give us the ability to understand, teach us by your spirit, Lord
Jesus, may you give us an understanding of the Word of God as we open
it up now. Once again, I pray for utterance,
Lord, that you would give this feeble mouth the ability to speak
and to declare the truths of Scripture, Lord, that you would
keep me from error. And that these brethren would
gladly receive the Word as it is truth in Christ. And Father,
we pray for anyone who's listening or watching. over Facebook or
sermon audio, we ask Lord that you might minister to them, that
you might edify them by your word. Father, we thank you for
Jesus who came and died for us, who rose again on the third day
for our justification. And Lord, we're grateful that
by his blood we have received reconciliation to God, that we
have received forgiveness of sins, that we have received propitiation,
that we have been given the Spirit of God in us and faith to look
to Him and what He has done for us. And Father, we just rejoice
in the Gospel this morning, and I pray that it's a blessing to
those today as it's being preached, Lord, if it is preached at all. And Lord, we just ask that You
be glorified in everything that we do and everything that we
say, for it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Well, last week we was looking
at Galatians chapter three, and we saw in the first verse that
Paul now has moved from his history lesson, I guess I should say,
about what he had speaking with Peter when Peter came and he
corrected Peter for his mixing law and grace among the Gentiles. He now moves in and is directly
speaking to the Galatians. If you remember, as a matter
of fact, if you look back, Paul began in chapter one, going through
how he began to hear of the grace of God. He says in verse 11 of
chapter one, Brethren, but I certify unto you, brethren, that the
gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Neither I received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And brethren, I'm here to tell
you today, if you hear or know anything of the gospel or the
grace or the word of God, it's only because you've been given
a revelation by Jesus Christ. It's because you have been taught
by Christ alone. We are not taught spiritual things
by carnal means. We are only taught spiritual
things by the Spirit of God. Paul said that who knows the
mind of the Spirit except the Spirit alone, but we have the
mind of Christ. We have been given a spiritual
understanding so that the Spirit might be able to teach us spiritual
things. You remember whenever Jesus was
given the parables? to his disciples, and he said,
the reason I give these parables to you is so that they can't
believe. That's just the opposite, right?
I used to hear all the time preachers saying that the reason that we're
giving parables is so that Jesus was teaching, taking the message
that he has given, it was hard for them to understand. And so
he gave them a parable to make it more easy for them to understand.
Well, that's actually just the opposite. Jesus actually spoke
in parables so that the people who were not given to believe
could not understand only the ones who had been given to believe.
And he said, you've been given to understand these things, but
they haven't. And that is why I speak in parables.
Jesus was giving them physical, physical understanding or giving
them physical stories, physical examples with spiritual application. And still today, there's so many
people that still look at all the Word of God in such a wooden,
literal sense that they have forgot that this is a spiritual
matter. We are to search out the things
of God and seek those spiritual matters in there. Of course,
we know that whenever we, by the Spirit, search the Word of
God, we're gonna find Christ at the center of all of it, right?
So if you're searching the Word of God, listening to a preacher,
a preacher is a preacher, you're studying the Bible, however it
is, the Spirit of God is always gonna testify about Jesus Christ. And so the Spirit, if we worship
in Spirit and truth, if the Spirit of God is teaching us, and that's
the only one who can teach us, I can teach you all day long.
I can speak doctrine, I can speak the Word of God all the day long,
but until Jesus, by His Spirit, in your heart and in your mind,
teaches you those things, reveals to you that's the truth, You'll
never understand that to be the truth. Look how many years that
we all as individuals walk thinking other things about Jesus. You
know, I used to believe Jesus loved everybody and that he was
wanting the whole entire world to be saved and that anybody
who just made a decision for Jesus, that they would be saved
and Jesus would accept them and they would be saved because they
believed on him. And I was zealous about that.
I mean, I was zealous. I went all over the place preaching
that and teaching that. And yet, whenever the Lord chose,
as Paul said, to reveal His Son in me, then I was given a revelation. There was light given me that,
hey, that's not the correct gospel. That's not true. This is what's
true about Christ. And so, no man taught me that. Now, there were men who was very, and I'm thankful for it, was
very upfront to me about the gospel. and that what I was preaching
was not true, but yet it wasn't them who ultimately give that.
And as Paul said, I didn't receive it of man, nor did I get man's
permission to do it. It was given by revelation of
God. So every one of us who know anything
of the spirit of God knows it because we are taught of God. The Bible says that you have
no need that any man should teach you. And one John, I believe
it's been one John, he says, there's no need that any man
should teach you. But we shall all be taught of
God because we have that anointing. And no, that's not some Pentecostal
term that of some special blessing that comes down from above if
we just jump so high or speak so, you know, speak in tongues
with a bunch of gibberish or whatever. The anointing that
comes from above is the Spirit of God that has been given unto
you. Every child of grace has that anointing, not just the
man of God who's up preaching. The Spirit of God that is in
us is the anointing that that's talking about. He said, because
you have the anointing, you are able to know God because the
Spirit of God is going to teach you about Him. Jesus said that
He would send His Spirit, and that Spirit would teach them
the things of Christ, that they would make the things of Christ
known to them. The Spirit doesn't speak about
itself, it speaks about Christ, right? He doesn't go on and on
speaking about the Father or speaking about the Spirit. He
speaks about the man, Jesus Christ, whom in all the fullness of the
Godhead dwells bodily. He is the one true God. He is
the one who is to receive everlasting glory and honor and praise. And
so the Spirit is going to testify and teach us about Christ. So Paul, He begins in verse one
of chapter three, he moves from that biography about him and
about how he was going and how he was taught of God, and God
converted him to the truth, and that in that truth it was confirmed
among the other disciples that grace alone is what saves, that
we are justified not by the works of the law, but we are justified
by the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ were justified
by Christ alone. You know, we hear these things
about Calvinism and about reformed teaching and things like that
that talk about the tulip and it talks about justification
by faith alone. And we do believe that justification
is by faith, but the question is, is whose faith? Is it your
faith or is it Christ's faith? And as we've seen in the previous
two chapters, and especially in chapter two, that it is justification
by the faith of Jesus Christ. It's by his faith that we were
justified. It's about him and what he did,
the righteousness that he has given us, that he has secured
for us by his obedience to God, by his service to God, as the
servant of God, as the anointed of God, as the one who came and
kept the law for his people and then also suffered the penalty
for his people. We are justified by that. And
so Paul now is moving into the third chapter and he tells the
Galatians, you know, Christ has evidently been set forth before
you as the one who justifies you. I preached it. I received
it from Christ. Then I turned around and came
to you and I give to you exactly what Christ told me, the way
that you are to be justified. You are justified by him and
his work alone and not by the works of the law. And you received
that message. You gladly heard that message.
You received it in your heart. You believed upon him. but now
all of a sudden someone has come in and bewitched you to make
you think that now you have to keep some kind of an appearance
before God or some kind of law keeping before God to either
get saved or stay saved or to be acceptable to Him day by day. I have to have this day by day
walk that follows after Jesus, otherwise I'm going to be out
of His will. That's not what the Bible teaches,
brethren. In no way, shape, or form does
the child of grace have some form to keep, to be saved, or
to stay saved, or to be accepted of God, because God does not
accept anything that our flesh does, because it is filthy, it's
dirty, it's nothing. It does not please Him. Even
the sacrifices that the Old Testament says, that God gives them the
sacrifices, but yet He said, You know, the blood of bulls
and goats, he said, I do not desire, I do not love, I do not
find pleasure in the death of these bulls and goats. That's
not what satisfies me. There was only one sacrifice
that satisfied God. There's only one life that satisfied
God. There's only one faith that satisfies
God. And that is the faith, the work
of Jesus Christ alone. And so Paul said, these Bewitchers
have come in, they have bewitched you, and as we looked at last
week, that word bewitched, it means to enchant. It means to
entice. It means to charm you. Whenever you hear these lawmongers,
okay, that's actually a word, you can look it up. I made sure,
I've been using that word for a while now, and I thought this
is more thought this morning, is that actually really a word
that I can find in the dictionary, or did I just make it up? It's
actually a word. Now, I've heard other preachers
use it, but like I said, I didn't know if it was actually a word.
And it actually is a word. A lawmonger is someone who is
obsessed or follows after the law. It is someone who desires the law. And lawmongers,
what they do is they take the law and they oppress others with
that law. You remember I mentioned that
last week. Have you ever had that person that constantly just
nags at you, finds every little thing wrong that you're doing,
nitpicks you to death, and all they can do is find something
wrong with you, and how that eventually gets to be, you know,
irritating, you know? That's how the law is. The law
is constantly and only seeking out your condemnation. pointing
out your condemnation. That's all the law can do is
condemn us because we cannot keep it. And Paul says, Galatians,
you are foolish if you're listening to these bewitching Judaizers.
You're foolish. Oh, foolish Galatians who have
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth. And so we seem to listen and
to believe that your salvation or your sanctification, if that's
the term that you want to apply to your walk with Christ, I would
encourage you to do a study on sanctification. Sanctification
is not a progressive thing that you get more and more holy. Sanctification
is something that Jesus does for us. He sanctifies us. Our sanctification is Christ
Jesus. He has set us apart for God's use. He doesn't make us
more and more and more holy till we get to the place where, hey,
we're not sinning very much. Okay? He sets us apart for His
use. Okay? But whether it's for justification,
whether it's for your daily walk, anybody who believes the law
is doing that for them in God's presence, in God's sight, that's
foolish. You've been bewitched. It's a
foolish thing to think, to preach, to teach, to demand that you
keep law before God. It's a foolish thing. And brethren, that is in many,
many places, preach just the opposite. Everybody's out there
preaching how we have to have this performance before God to
be accepted of Him or to stay accepted. And Paul here is saying,
if you believe that you are foolish, you're foolish. You've been bewitched. Somebody has come and charmed
you. They have enchanted you with
their smooth words, with their good sounding words, with their
religious words. You know, hey, the religious
leaders, hey, they came with a good show. They had a lot of
religious sayings. You know, we grow up and we are
indoctrinated as we grow up and we hear things, we read things,
we see things on TV, we hear things on the radio, and all
those things bombard our minds and we hear it over and over
and over. It's called indoctrination, right? We hear things over and
over and over. Matter of fact, it's kind of
one of the ways that whenever you raise a child up and you
try to teach them things, what do you do? You're consistent
in repetition. keep repeating things over and
over and over to them until what? It sticks in their head, right?
Well, as we have grown up under false gospels, under false teaching,
we have heard things over and over and over to the point where
it's ingrained in our mind. And now, whenever we hear something
that's different than that, there seems to be a little reservation
in our mind saying, Man, I don't know, that's not what I've heard,
that's not what I know. You know, it don't sound right. We have to keep going to God's
Word. Let God be true and every man a liar, no matter how good
that man is, no matter how loved that man is, no matter who that
man is, every man is a liar and only God is true. The Word of
God is the only truth. That's the only thing that is
true. What I say, you have to hold that up to the Word of God
and see if what Mike's saying, the Word of God, or is it not
the Word of God? I have to be compared by this,
no matter how well I speak, no matter how well I deliver it,
no matter how well the system is that I can put together to
make it all sound good. Hey, it doesn't matter. Listen,
I have now, of course, I have a few books down here and a few
books over there. few books down in my bedroom,
then I got a bunch of books in storage since we've moved out
of the meeting building. I've got theology book after
theology book after theology book, systematic theologies. I've got systematic theology,
I've probably got five or six different systematic theology
books that I can remember off the top of my head. And every
one of those, whenever I read through those things, oh man,
they sound good, oh, it all works together, pieces together just
fine. And then I read this guy's systematic theology and his may
differ from this guy's. And I read this, well yeah, that
sounds good. It all works together all right. And then I read this
other guy's and his looks good too, but yet he differs from
this guy and this guy. So now we got three guys saying
something and all three of them are claiming that this is the
truth. Right? But we have to weigh the truth
by what it says here. Now every one of those guys are
taking the word of God and saying, hey, this is the truth. You look
at the confessions of faith, whether it's the 1644 Baptist
Confession of Faith or the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith,
the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the New Hampshire Confession
of Faith, the Goveyard Confession of Faith, the Belgian Confession.
You take any of those confessions of faith and look, and they'll
put down what they believe, their little systematic theology And
then they'll put a bunch of verses down below there saying, here's
the backing, here's the scriptural proof of what we believe. But some say something different
than that. The Westminster Confession of Faith, they put down in there
all these verses that support their baby baptisms, their sprinkling
water, their covenant families. They put all those verses on
there. But how is it that the true child of God that claims
to be a Baptist has a confession of faith that contradicts this
guy's. And he's using the same verses.
See, that's why I say, let every man, let God be true and every
man a liar. See, even though we might be
using the word of God, if we're not using the word of God correctly
and in truth, then it doesn't matter. And that's why I say,
even us in our minds, we have to be taught what is true about
the word of God by the Spirit of God. See, men can take this
all day long, but they can take it out of context, they can twist
it, they can put their own spin on it, their own interpretation
on it, and the Bible says that this doesn't come by the interpretation
of men. It comes by the inspiration of
God. God inspired this word, and it has its meaning, and only
the Spirit can teach us that. It can teach us that meaning.
So we have to have seeing eyes, we have to have hearing ears,
and we have to be taught by the Spirit. And Paul had set forth,
if you look there in verse 1, he set forth Christ crucified
among you. That was the grounds of their
justification that Paul taught them. Paul taught them that your
justification come from the work of Christ alone and not from
what these bewitching lawmongers, these Judaizers, are telling
you. It didn't come from works of
the law. And he says in verse two, this
only what I learn of you received you the spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. So let's look at that
today. What does that mean? What does
that, what is, what is Paul saying here? Well, every one of us,
carnally speaking, fleshly speaking, every one of us seeks to be justified
in the things that we do, right? Every one of us try to justify
our actions. This goes all the way back to
Adam and Eve, remember? Whenever Eve took of the fruit,
she'd give it to Adam, and Adam ate it, and then their eyes were
open, they hid from God, they tried to cover themselves with
fig leaves, and God came and said, hey, you know, what happened? What are you doing? And what
did Adam do? He tried to justify what he did,
right? Well, I did this because of the woman you gave me. Okay,
so not only was he blaming somebody else outside of him, blaming
somebody for his own sin, but he was trying to justify the
reason that he did it. I did it because of the woman
you gave me. So he's trying to justify himself.
And we do that all the time. Whenever we do something wrong,
What do we do? We try to justify the reason
why we did it. Well, I did it because of, you know, we tried
to justify it before. That is ingrained. That is part
of our carnal nature. That's part of our nature in
Adam, our flesh. Our flesh thinks that we can
justify ourselves by things we do and say. That's our default
nature. Our default nature is works,
works, works, works. That's why it is so antithetical. That's why it's so against the
gospel. That's why people are so outraged
by what we preach. That's why people are so angry
whenever we tell them that there's nothing that you can do, that
you're dead in trespasses and sins, that you're completely
depraved, that you have no spiritual inability, that only God chooses
who will be saved and who is a vessel of wrath and who is
a vessel of honor. People get mad about that because
our default nature thinks that we can justify ourselves before
God by works, by what we do, by who we are. See, we have the
pride of the eye. We think that we can see things
and by what we do, by the pride of life, We think that we can
do things by our own actions, by our own works. And so we see,
Paul said, listen, whenever you approach justification that way,
when you think your acceptance before God is that way, you're
foolish. You've been bewitched. I have
set before you Christ crucified as the only way for justification. And he said, so let me ask you
then, if you think that. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Turn with me, if you would. Keep
your place there in Galatians 3. But turn with me, if you would,
to Proverbs 20. Proverbs 20. I want you to read
with me And I always encourage everybody
to have your Bibles before you, to read along with me. Don't take my word for it. You
read it for yourself. Find out whether these things
be true. Be a good Berean. Like the Bereans, they didn't
listen to Apostle Paul and trust him. They looked and see what
he said. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 12. The Bible declares
this. This is a truth declared by God.
the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even
both of them. Now, we know that he made the
physical eye and he made the physical ear and he made that
physical eye to physically see and that physical ear to physically
hear. We also know that God has made
physical eyes that cannot see and physical ears that cannot
hear. We know that to be true, right?
We see that even in the New Testament. There were those that came to
Jesus who had been blind from birth, who had been deaf and
dumb from birth. They couldn't speak, they couldn't
hear, they couldn't see. God has made all those things.
And yes, there is a physical aspect to that. God is the Creator. Christ created all things. And
He's created all things according to His will. He created the blind
man to be blind for his purposes. He created the deaf man to be
deaf for his purposes. The crippled man to be crippled
for his purposes. God has created all those things.
But brethren, there is a spiritual application to this as it pertains
to the things of God and the spiritual nature of these things. The Bible says that God has given
the hearing ear and the seeing eye, to be able to see spiritual
things, to be able to hear the gospel and the spiritual things
that's implied within the gospel. We learned that in, matter of
fact, in Romans chapter 10, turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Remember, we're trying to answer
the question, how did we receive the Spirit, right? Paul asked
him, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? And so we gotta find out, what
does that mean? What does the hearing of faith mean? In Romans
chapter 10, look with me. Verse five, or excuse me, verse
four. Well, I'll tell you what, let's
go up to verse one, because the context here is really good,
because it talks about those that we were just talking about,
the Judaizers. It says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. We know a lot of people like that, right? There's a lot
of people that have a zeal for God, but it's not according to
knowledge. That means that they are zealously
religious out there doing religious things. They use the word Jesus.
They use the word God. They use the word church. They
use the word serve, pray. They use the Bible. They have a zeal for God. Paul said he had a zeal for God
above all of his kinsmen, above all of his people, that he zealously
followed after the traditions of the Father. There is a zeal
for God, but it wasn't according to not just knowledge, brethren.
Know that. That whenever the Bible speaks
of the Christian having knowledge, it's not just superficial knowledge. It's not carnal knowledge. It's
not human-based knowledge. It is spiritual knowledge. To
have spiritual knowledge. See, anybody can read this Bible
and get the facts out of it. Anybody can memorize this Bible.
They can memorize this whole thing. We've heard of men that
have, listen, I know men who can pretty much quote all the
Bible without ever opening it up, okay? You can put that into
your memory, but you cannot teach anyone the word of God. It has
to come from some divine source. It has to come from a divine
It has to come from outside of us because by nature we are flesh
and we're natural. We are natural. And the Bible
says the natural man receiveth not. Didn't he just say, how
did you receive the Spirit? By the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith. The Bible says that the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Well, what
are the things of the Spirit of God? What were those things that we
received by the Spirit of God? The things that were freely given
us. Remember that? Stay there, stay there in Romans.
I'd hate to jump around and I'll read it to you real quickly. In 1 Corinthians 2 and verse,
uh, 9 says, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard. OK, we're talking about seeing
and hearing. Right. Paul's asking, how did you receive
the spirit by the works of the law, by the by the hearing of
faith? And we're trying to figure out
what is the hearing of faith? What does it mean to hear the
hearing of faith? And so we've looked and seen
the progress is the hearing ear and the seeing eye. The Lord
has given both of them. So whatever it's talking about, the Lord
has to give that to us. If the Lord doesn't give it to
you, you're not going to be able to see it. You're not going to
be able to hear it. You're not going to be able to understand it, right?
God has to sovereignly give that to the people. And then we've
seen in Romans here that we can have a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge. We don't have the understanding.
So look in one Corinthians chapter two, And in verse 9 it says,
But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. So the Spirit reveals to us the
things of God. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. See, no
man can understand the things of the Spirit unless the Spirit
reveals them to you. Right? So if we come to the place
of justification, and we see that justification is by grace
alone, by Christ alone, by His faith working alone. The only
way that we can understand that and the only way that we can
receive that as truth is for us to be given seeing eyes and
hearing ears, for the Spirit of God to be in us to give us
that understanding, to teach us those things. Verse 12 says,
now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God. See, so that means that not every
man has this spirit, right? There's a distinction in just
the regular spirit, the human spirit that everybody has, the
nature that comes in Adam, and the spirit that we have of God.
The spirit that is of God is the Holy Spirit. It's not our
spirit, it's the Holy Spirit. God doesn't come down and regenerate
our spirit, He comes down and indwells us with His Spirit. It's His Spirit that is in you.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. He has indwelled us. Now we have
received the Spirit. It says now we have received
not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. Why? Look at verse 12. Why have
we received the Spirit of God. Why did God send His Spirit into
us? Remember, the seeing eye, the
hearing ear, we don't have that unless God gives it to us, right?
We can't reach out by faith and receive the gospel of imputed
righteousness alone, of grace alone, of Christ alone, of no
works. We cannot receive that unless
we, by the Spirit, are taught that, given that. What does it
say? The Spirit of God is given to
us that we might know the things that are freely, not worked for,
freely given us of God. What is freely given to us? Justification. We have free justification. That
means we are justified without having to work for it. You don't
have to work to be justified before God. You don't have to
work to be accepted of God. You don't have to work to be
holy before God. No work, all gift. That's pretty clear, right? But
yet the Bible says that we can't grasp that. We can't believe
on that. We can't trust on that. We can't
hope on that until Christ's Spirit reveals that. We can have it
in our head. We can stay it all day long. But we can't live by that. We
can't walk by that. That's what Paul, remember last
week, we've seen what obeying the truth or walking in truth
means? Walking in truth means believing
on Christ. That's what walking in faith
means, is by trusting Christ alone for everything. Not you
trying to work and do it. Not you trying to be accepted
before God by keeping good words. No, it is you trusting Christ
for all that you need. whether it be for justification,
whether it be for your daily activities and walk. All the
works that God has ordained for you, trusting Christ is doing
that in you. See, that's what walking in truth
is. And so here we see, this is what this is talking about,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us. Free salvation is free. It's
free. It's free. It's free. It's free. It's free, bro. You didn't have
to work for it. You didn't have to be accepted
by the Lord by your law keeping or your good nature. We're all
doomed if that's the case. Which things also we speak not
in the words which man's wisdom teach. See, even my preaching
right now, I can say that and the wisdom of man is going to
try to twist that and say, well, so are you saying that we can
just live any way we want to live? Is that what I'm saying? No, in some degree. The Bible
says that the Spirit of God in us and the love of Christ will
constrain us. It will keep us, as far as God
determines, you know, if He wants me to not do something, He's
gonna keep me from doing it. He's gonna restrain me. He's
gonna restrain those things that's not in His will. He's gonna allow
those things that are His purpose. He's going to restrain those
things. The Bible says whether you eat or whether you drink,
everything, all, do all to the glory of God. It doesn't exclude
one thing or another. It doesn't say do everything
except this and this and this and this and this. It says whatever
you do, everything is all. to the glory of God. What does
that mean? What does it mean to do all to
the glory of God? That means that everything you
do, let your conscience be cleared that Christ has stood for you,
has redeemed you, has justified you, and has put a righteousness
to your account. All the law has been kept for
you. And everything that you do, you
can do for the glory of God. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God." The natural man says,
well, I don't know about that, preacher. I don't know. I think,
you know, surely, you know, we've got to keep the Ten Commandments.
Surely we've got to keep this law or that law. That's just
kind of foolish. See, the natural man says law-keeping,
or the natural man says that living under free grace is foolish. But in our text, what does God
say is foolish? Thinking that your acceptance
before God is by law keeping. Just the opposite. See, the natural
man says, oh, it's foolish to think about free grace. It's
all free. I don't have to do anything. But the spiritual man is taught
it is free. It's foolish to think that you
can keep the law. For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. See, he's at a loss. The natural man cannot even understand
these things. He cannot receive these things.
He cannot understand it. Why? Because there's an inability
in him. See, it's not just his will.
It isn't his will. It doesn't have anything to do
with his will. Although he doesn't have a will to do those things,
or to know those things, or to believe those things, but he
has an inability. He has a lack of spiritual life,
thus he has a lack of spiritual discernment. See, if there is
no spirit of God in the man, he doesn't have seeing eyes,
he doesn't have hearing ears. And if he doesn't have seeing
eyes and hearing ears, He only sees things in the wisdom of
man and not in the wisdom of God. And God says those who are
not of the spirit of the world, but of the spirit of God, they
know these things. They receive these things. They
live on these things. They believe these things because
they are spiritually discerned. The spirit of God is in there,
in them, teaching them things that are discernible from the
word of God. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ." Now, go back to Romans chapter 10 with
that in your mind, okay? The same spirit that wrote all
that, have that in your mind that everything that we know,
everything that we come to believe upon Christ has to be given to
us in a spiritual life, in the spiritual birth. Okay, we have
to be born from above and have the Spirit of God in us, teaching
us, giving us the discernment of spiritual things to have a
seeing eye and a hearing ear. And so whenever we read now,
for I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge, not according to spiritual knowledge, right? For
they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. See, that's the difference between
the child of grace, who has the Spirit of God living in him,
and the religious professor of faith. The one who doesn't have
the Spirit in them, but they just profess to be a Christian.
They are a religious person. Okay? The Bible tells us that
there will be tares among the wheat, right? That there will
be goats among the sheep. They're going to be those who
look on the outward appearance, look like Christians, but inwardly
they really aren't. They don't have the spirit of
God. And this is what he's saying here. They are ignorant. They
have a zeal for God. They're out there doing all this
religious stuff, doing all these religious things. They got Jesus
on their shirts, on their hats. They got their bracelets that
say, what would Jesus do? They got all their profession
of faith outwardly, literally on their clothing. But inwardly,
they have no spiritual discernment. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to spiritual truth and knowledge. Because they are
ignorant, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. See,
they think that a righteousness comes by what they do. They're ignorant of God's righteousness.
And brethren, we don't look down on people for that. They can't
help that. That's their nature. That's all
of our nature. We all were that way by nature
and Adam. Only by the Spirit of God have
we been made to differ than them. They have not submitted unto
the righteousness of God. Here it is, it's as plain as
day. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now that's not
a condition. Okay, that's not a condition
that you gotta keep. That's a statement of fact. For all the believing
ones, that's his elect, right? We've seen that, that's a term
that the Bible uses to speak of the elect of God, the believing
ones. The only ones who believe are the ones that God has called
and given, that has elected, right? The watershed verse for
me, coming to the doctrines of grace, that really just cut me
to the bone was Acts 13, 48, where the Bible said, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life believe. The only ones that
will ever believe are the ones who are ordained to eternal life,
right? Okay, so that's who we're talking
about here, the believing ones. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. If you are a child of grace,
and you claim to be a child of grace, and you say you have a
hope in Christ, then your mind, your mouth, your life ought to
not be looking to the law for your righteousness. Not be out
of saying that, hey, I can do this, or I will do this. Your
submission is to the righteousness of God. We submit to the righteousness
that's in Christ, not our righteousness. We submit to him and say, it
is your righteousness alone that justifies us and nothing in my
hand. What's that song? Nothing in
my hands I bring, only to the cross I claim. Something like
that. I might not have that wrong, but that's how it's sticking
in my mind. So we see here that Christ is the end of law. So
when a child of grace has been given to believe upon Christ,
they quit looking to the law for righteousness. They stop
because they realize Christ was the end of the law. Christ said,
hey, I didn't come to abolish the law. I come to fulfill the
law. Now, the lawmonger is going to
tell you, see there? Christ said, I didn't come to
abolish the law, so we still have the law to keep. That's
not what that means. It means, I didn't come to abolish
the law and say, well, let's just put the law away. He said,
no, I came and let the law stand, and I am here to fulfill everything
that the law demands. And I will. And he did. He fulfilled
everything that the law demands. Thus, the law was fully kept
by Christ Jesus and, here's the good news, brethren, everyone
that was in Him from the foundation of the world. If you're a child
of grace, you kept the law also 100%, fully kept, and the law now has
no more bind on you. The law has no more to condemn
you. It cannot condemn you because you fulfilled the law in your
proxy, in your head, in your substitute. You see why the doctrine
of substitution is so important to us? You see why the doctrine
of the surety of Christ on our behalf is so precious to us? We can't keep the law, but yet
Jesus said, You've kept the law, because I did. I kept it, and
you're in me. Listen, my children, whenever
I die, whatever inheritance I have to leave them, it ain't gonna
be much, but whatever I have to give them, it's theirs. Why? Because they come from me. Now,
Alessandro, he's a really good kid. But see, my inheritance
don't go to him, because he's not mine. Kevin and Jacqueline,
Their inheritance will go to him. But see why? Because he was in them. He comes from them. My kids come
from me. And the Bible says that we are
the children of God. We receive the inheritance of
our father, who is Christ Jesus. And so he kept the law for us. Therefore, we inherit eternal
life. We inherit justification. Why? Because he secured that
for us. And we did it in him. You remember whenever Abraham
paid tithes to Melchizedek? Well, how did he do that? He did that because who was in
his loins? I got that backwards. They were
in the loins of Abraham. That's how they did it. See,
we have everything that Christ did for us because we are his
seed in him. So it goes on, let's, for Moses
described it, the righteousness, which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. Doesn't mean
that if you do the law that you're going to live. Now he says that
if you're a person who's going to live by the law, you have
to live by all of them. You have to keep it all. And
if you don't keep it all, the whole weight of the law comes
down upon you and the judgment and the wrath that comes for
breaking the law. But verse six says, but the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down
from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring
up Christ from the dead, but what saith it? The word is nigh
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of
faith that we preach. See, it isn't about attaining
to a righteousness that makes us acceptable before God. It's
believing upon Jesus Christ for our righteousness. See, the word
of faith is the word of the gospel that Christ is my righteousness.
Whenever that Whenever that publican bowed before God and said, you
know, that he was a wretched sinner, you know, forgive me,
have pity on me, have grace upon me, for I'm a sinner. And that
religious leader was saying, I'm thankful that I'm not like
that guy. Thank you, Lord, that I'm not
like him. And yet this guy here is broken over his sin. He knows
that he is a sinner before God, and he has no righteousness of
his own. nothing to give to God. And he says, have mercy upon
me, a sinner. And Jesus said, who is the one
that will go down justified? The one who has been made to
know I don't have a righteousness to give to God. And so I plead
Christ's righteousness alone. I plead Christ's righteousness.
That's what he's saying right here. The word of faith, the
word that's in the mouth of the child of grace is not righteousness
by law keeping. It is not, well I will just keep
this, I will do this, well look how much I did here, look how
much I do there. No, the words that come from
the child of grace, the words that come from the elect of God,
the words that come from those who are born from above, is that
I have no righteousness. Christ only is my righteousness. That's why it says in verse nine,
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ,
It isn't just saying, if you'll just say, Jesus Christ, it's
also not saying, Jesus Christ, come into my heart. That's not
saying that either. What does the context say? What
about Jesus Christ? Are we confessing that Jesus
Christ is my righteousness alone, that I have nothing to give to
him? I have nothing to bring. I have
nothing to present. to justify myself. I cannot justify
myself before God because all I am is filthy rags. All my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. They are not profitable. They are not pleasing to God.
All I can claim is Christ alone. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God
raised him from the dead, What did the Bible say? He raised
him from the dead for our justification, right? He was raised for our
justification. See, your justification was based
upon Christ's death and resurrection. It isn't just believing the resurrection.
There's a lot of people that believe that Jesus resurrected
from the grave, but they do not believe on Jesus Christ for their
salvation as far as their righteousness is concerned. But look what it
says here. If thou shalt confess with thine
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Not that
you're gonna get saved, or that you will be given salvation.
It says, if you are believing that, you shall be saved. You are already possessing salvation. Salvation has already come to
you, outside of you, in spite of you. It came because of Christ. That's why you're saying these
things. Why? Because you've been given eyes
to see and ears to hear. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Not that if you will believe
you will be counted as righteousness, right? It says that with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. We believe on the righteousness
of Christ alone. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation, that I'm saved, not because I did
it, because Christ did it. I believe in the heart that righteousness
is outside of myself and comes from Christ. And so therefore,
with my mouth, I will not make known my works in front of God,
but I will make known Christ's works and what he has done. So you can almost always tell
the person who truly has been saved of God because they're
always bragging on what Christ has done and not what they are
doing. You know the difference? I hope
you see the difference, brethren. The person who is always talking
about what they are doing thinks that they have some sort of a
thing before God. They're keeping a righteousness
for themselves. Jesus is going to be proud of me. I've done
him very well today. I told all these people about
Jesus. I've been doing the work of Christ.
I've been doing the work of the Lord. I'm busy doing the work
of the Lord. The work of the Lord, if it's
the Lord's work to be done, only the work Lord can do it right.
Who are we to think that we can do the Lord's work? We're just
servants, right? It's his work. The Bible says
that after we've done all these things, at the end of the day,
we're unprofitable servants. We're servants, but in the flesh,
we're unprofitable. See, the only thing that counts
is those spiritual things that God does, and only He can do
those things. Only God can convict the heart. Only God can draw
the man, call the man, or woman. Only God can give repentance.
Only God can give faith. Only God can plant love. within
the heart for Him and for His people. And our flesh, it does
those things imperfectly, but yet only Christ can do those
things in us. For the Scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. What does that say to
us, brethren? It says, listen, don't be ashamed. Our lives sometimes are going
to be sinful, right? We're going to sin before God.
We're going to do things that is going to bring reproach upon
the Lord. But yet we should not be ashamed
before God. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be already. You see that? Shall
be. That's a present perfect. That means it's already happened
in the past. It's something that began in the past and continues
on into the future. Shall be saved. I was already
saved in the past. Before I was ever born, I was
saved. Before the creation of this world,
I was already saved. God declared from the foundation
of the world that we would be saved. And we are saved. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Only the saved ones will call
upon the name of the Lord. Now notice that he said right
there. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 14. How then shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? If they don't
have seeing eyes, if they don't have a hearing ear, how can they
do those things? How can they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach except they be sent? See, Paul is given
all these questions, and these are what the lawmongers want
you to question. Well, how can they do that? If
you say that salvation only comes by the grace of God, If you say
that a person can only believe these things if they've already
been saved, if you say that someone has to have seeing eyes and hearing
ears and only God gives that to them and not everybody has
it, then how are they going to hear? How are they going to see?
How are they going to call on Him? How are they going to believe
on Him? How are they going to hear if
they don't have someone preach? What about, see that's what the
missionary whole movement was. What about all those people in
all those countries that don't have the gospel. Oh no, they're
all going to die and go to hell because somebody didn't preach
to them. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. Not one person
is going to be in hell that wasn't already ordained to be there.
No matter how many missionaries you have out there, brethren.
No, listen. They do hear without a preacher.
They do see without a preacher. They do believe on him without
a preacher. Now a preacher is there and confirms
those things. I've been watching this morning,
that's how I've been saying truthful things. I've been seeing you
guys. Yep, nodding their head, amens, and things like that.
What is that? You're saying that's the truth.
Yeah, what I'm hearing is the truth. But how did you come to
know those truths? Someone give you a seeing eye
and a hearing ear. Someone put the spirit of God
in you so that you might know what is freely given to you.
You heard by the hearing of faith. See, faith had been given to
you, and it hears the true gospel. The word of faith is a clear
gospel, a precise gospel. It is Christ alone for righteousness. See, that's why I say the Arminian,
they're believing in a false gospel. They're believing in
a false Jesus. They have false preachers preaching
a false system to them. And unless Christ calls them
away from that, they are not the children of God. Now, we
don't know who's in the book of life, right? We don't know
who the elect is. And we do know that there are elect within those
people and amongst those. I was one of them. But we know
for a fact that the Bible says that he is calling his people
out of those. He's calling his people out of
them. Come out of there, my people. that you might not partake of
their sins. Their sins is their righteous
keeping or law keeping. Their sins are thinking that
they are serving Jesus Christ by their will, by their words. The child of grace will come
out and be separate. They will believe. See, faith
that comes from Christ is only going to hear Christ's gospel
message. Not a message about works and
law. They're gonna hear that and say, mm-mm, that don't sound
right. The Bible says that my sheep will hear my voice, and
they will follow me. He says that another's voice
they will not follow. We're not gonna follow after
that. Now, look, if you would. How shall they preach, except
they be sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings
of good things. Now here it is, verse 16. But
they have not all obeyed the gospel. There's that phrase again. Walking by faith, obeying the
truth. Remember, we've seen all those
back in our, in verse 14 of Galatians and in chapter five and verse
seven. What does it mean to obey the
truth, to walk in the truth, to walk in the gospel? Here it
is again, but they have not obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. So faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. The Word of God here is not this. The Word of God is speaking of, if you'll allow me this term,
the fiat of God. Do y'all understand what fiat
means in English? The command of God. By the command
of God. The hearing comes by the Word
or the command of God. not by reading scripture verses,
not by hearing preachers preach, it comes inwardly from the Spirit
of God giving them ears to hear. The command of God to hear. You
remember Jesus a lot of times, whenever he was preaching, he
said, let he who have ears to hear Let him hear. He wasn't just saying that to
say some funny phrase or neat phrase. He kind of sounds cool.
Hey, let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now, what
was Jesus doing? Those children of God who were
in that group of people who had yet to believe on Christ, he
was commanding them to hear. Let him who have ears to hear,
let him hear. And they heard, and those who
have ears to hear believed. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear, the Lord has made both. So the hearing of faith is something
that only comes when God has given us the seeing eye and the
hearing ear. And it doesn't come by outward
expression or works or anything that we do by law keeping. It
comes by an inward work of the Holy Spirit of God. So who are
those who call upon the name of the Lord? The ones who have
been saved. They have been given the spirit of God in them to
know what is freely given. And so what do they speak? What
do they confess? They confess Jesus is my righteousness. They confess that Christ saved
me. They confess that it wasn't me
kneeling at some old fashioned altar. It wasn't me that came
to Christ and give my heart to Jesus. It wasn't me that made
a decision for Christ. It wasn't me who decided to be
baptized or join a church. No, it was Christ who gave himself
for me. I live by the faith of the son
of God who died and gave himself for me. That's how I live. How
do I live each and every day? I live by faith in that. How
do I live every day? Not by keeping the law, but by
looking to Christ alone for my salvation. I live by the faith
of the Son of God who gave himself for me, not only in living a
perfect life for me, but dying a perfect death in my place.
That's what the Spirit of God is telling us to believe. That's
what the faith of God reaches out and receives. It doesn't
reach out, do this, do this, do this. The faith of Christ
that is given to us in that new birth reaches out and says, yes,
Christ alone for my righteousness. And that's what it reaches for. Now, what did Isaiah say? Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, where
Paul was just quoting there, And I want you to pay close attention,
brother. I've mentioned this to you guys before whenever preaching
on these things. I lost my bookmark here. Isaiah 53. Look at 53-1, Isaiah
53-1. Isaiah asked this question, and
this is a question that is asked to all of us here. Who hath believed
our report? Paul just made that question. If this is the case, then who
hath believed our report? Now, what's the report talking
about? Well, the report's talking about the testimony or who has
believed the gospel, who has believed what we have said about
Christ. And I've mentioned this to you
guys before, and I'll reiterate it again. The answer to that
first question is in the second part of that question. Who has
believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
The ones who believe the report about Christ and about us is
the ones to whom the arm of the Lord has revealed it. That's
the only ones who believe the report. So the seeing eye, the
hearing ear, the believing of the report comes from the ones
to whom the Lord reveals it to. Remember, Jesus prayed, Lord,
I thank you. that you have hidden these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes? How
He told the disciples often, it has been given unto you to
know the things of the kingdom of God, but to them it's not
been given. To them, their eyes have been
closed. To them, their ears have been shut up where they can't
hear. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah heard
this from the Lord. Whenever he's seen Jesus sitting
upon the throne, you know that it was Jesus that Isaiah saw. You know, we sing the song, we
read the passage in Isaiah 6, you know, he was high and lifted
up. Remember we sing that song? He
is high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. He was
high and lifted up and the angels cried, holy. Who did he see? Well, some say, well, he saw
the Father, because Jesus hadn't been born yet. Some might say,
well, he's seen God, Jehovah. Well, he's seen Jesus is who
he's seen. And in John, we know that that's
true, because John said that this is who Isaiah saw whenever
he seen what he saw. He said. In verse 8 And I heard a voice of the Lord
saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. And he said, Go and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
their heart, and convert and be healed. Remember we talked
a little bit last week about how the Bible says that by his
stripes we are healed and I mentioned to you that that's not what the
charismatics all say whenever they say by Jesus' crucifixion
we all have healing and so if we just claim it, name it and
claim it, then we'll get it. That that healing is talking
about a spiritual thing. Every bit of that in Isaiah 53
is talking about our spiritual stuff. Well, here it is. God has shut up their eyes and
shut up their ears so they cannot see, so they cannot hear, so
they cannot understand, so they cannot be converted, so they
cannot be healed of their spiritual condition. Because his purpose
for them is something else. He has a purpose for them that
is as a vessel of wrath. and not a vessel of glory. Now,
with all that being said, let's go back to Galatians 3 and we're
just about done here. Paul says in verse 2, this only
what I learned of you received ye the spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. Well, it was by the hearing
of faith. Now this isn't where we we didn't
receive the spirit because we exercise faith. We receive what
the Spirit taught us by the hearing of faith. See, faith was given
to us in the new birth by the Spirit. And we don't get the
Spirit by law-keeping. We know that. The Bible has taught
us that. Right? And so what is the hearing
of faith? Whenever faith hears, what does it hear? It hears the
work of Christ on our behalf. And that is the testimony of
one of the three witnesses that is in heaven. The Father, the
Word, and the Holy Spirit. These three are the three record
bearers that are in heaven. And those three are one and they
testify of who? Christ Jesus. They testify of
Him. The Holy Spirit is given to us
that He might testify of Christ. And so faith, the Spirit, teaches
us this and that hearing ear, that seeing eye, hears. Faith is listening to what the
Spirit says, not what the Judaizers say. And so Paul says, are you
so foolish, having begun in the Spirit's teaching about justification
by grace alone, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you
now justified by the works of the flesh? That's what he's saying. He said, I set before you Christ
crucified as your only hope and justification. And now if the
Spirit of God is in you, it's going to be telling you to look
to Him. But now you're looking over here. That can't be true.
That can't be true. If you are a child of grace and
to be given the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is going to
be teaching you what has been freely given to you by Christ
alone. It's not going to be telling
you to go back by the works of the flesh and try to make yourself
good before God. And so in verse four he says,
have you suffered so many things in vain? Have you, have you been
through much persecution because of the things that we have taught
and you've believed and you've went through all of that to now
turn around and see that goes right along with what Peter,
what he was saying to Peter. Remember, Peter was taught justification
by faith alone and by Christ alone. Christ's faith alone. Peter knew that. He confessed
that. He was shown that by the vision
of God. He seen that the Gentiles were
being saved in the same way without the law. They were being saved
by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation
and not having to keep the law as the Jews were told that they
were supposed to be doing. And Peter seen that, but what
did Peter do? He slumped back into the law.
He said, aha, no. Peer pressure got him, right? He started acting like the Judaizers. Oh, I've got to keep the law. And Paul had to confront him
and tell him, you're wrong. That's foolish. Why are you going
back that way? And listen, Peter, you have received
much affliction over what you were believing, not only from
the Jews, but from everyone. And now he's telling the same
thing to the Galatians. Hey, look, if it's good enough for
the apostle Peter, listen, he's guilty of it too. And listen,
if Peter is guilty of it, if these Galatians are guilty of
it, everyone can be guilty of it. We all can be guilty of it,
brother. But what's the warning to us? Oh, foolish Galatians. We could say, oh, foolish Joplinites
or Carthagites. I don't know how to say it. Oh, foolish Sovereign Grace Baptist
Church, who have bewitched you that you should not obey the
truth? Walk by faith. Walk in trusting
in Christ alone for your righteousness before him, not just to get saved,
but for everything in your life. Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? OK, we're going to stop right
there because I want to start in verse 5 Lord. Well, the next
week, but brethren are are hearing of faith comes from the Word
of God. Him speaking that into us to
hear, let him have years to hear. Let him have years to hear, and
so we hear the message of the gospel and we're not bewitched
by the preaching of the law. And I pray that the Lord would
give us that, keep us in that. Let us not fall like the Galatians
back into looking to the law, that he might keep us faithful
in looking to him alone. Does anybody have any questions
or comments or any, you know, any things you'd like to add? All right. was something. Sure. Maybe you can read it in
English, but there is an Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, 9 and
10. Yes, Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and it is through faith, but again, the question is, whose
faith? Yes, not your faith. It's Christ's
faith. And that faith is a gift to you
in salvation. He gives you. Christ's faith
that he kept to the Father and obeying every one of those laws
was given to you as a gift. And the reason is so that anyone
would not be able to boast. So that no man may boast. It's
given as a gift. The Bible says the Lord's not
going to share his glory with anybody. That no one can boast before
the Lord. If we have any kind of righteousness before God by
law keeping, then we have room to boast before the Lord. That's
not me saying that, that's what Paul said. Paul said that if
we have any way of keeping before God, then we have room to boast.
But no man's gonna be able to boast before the Lord because
everything is a gift to him. And even the workmanship, for
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works. Even those good works that that's
talking about isn't things that we can do in the flesh. It's
all things that is done in the spiritual side. Matter of fact,
and we're eventually going to look at this at some point, but
we have to get the works that's in verse nine by the context
of the passage. And the passage here, everything
that's preceding that talks about the good works that is being
done, preceding that is all spiritual internal works that the spirit
does in us. It's not outward words. It's
inward words. And so, it still doesn't come
down to anything that we do outwardly for show that's pleasing to the
Lord. It's what the Spirit is doing
inwardly in us and what He continues to do in us. And so, we'll look
at that. And I thank you, brother. That's
a good verse because a lot of people, and I used to preach
that too. Aha, see, it's by our faith. exercise faith, then God
will save us. For by grace are you saved, but
through faith, and we always think it's because of us exercising
faith. It's not. It is. Matter of fact,
if you look at that, because that right there, Paul in Ephesians
is going back to say everything that he said in Romans. Everything
in Romans that talked about justification and that talked about faith,
it is in the context of Christ's faith. is by his faith. See, we have to get the context
correctly. And then in Ephesians, you look, all of chapter one,
there is absolutely not one thing that we do. It's everything that
he does. So how can it be our works? How
can it be our faith? It's not talking about that.
It's talking about something outside of us. It's talking about
something that's given to us. I don't give myself, well, I
do like to give myself gifts once in a while, but maybe that's
not a good illustration. But if it's a gift, if it's a
gift from God, then that means that God procured, God got the
gift, and then God gives the gift. It isn't him taking something
that I did and giving it back to me. It's not my faith giving
it to God, that God give, God give me faith and I in turn give
my faith back to God. That's not it either. Everything
was what Christ did. Christ believed. Christ had faith
that God would keep his promises. Christ believed God. He kept
all of the law and did all of that in hope, not in hope, that
probably isn't the right word, that in the purpose of God, he
believed that everything that God said, which he also is God,
by the way, which everything that God had promised in the
eternal, everlasting covenant, that everything that God promised,
that he would give to Christ upon the completion of Christ's
work. And so Christ was faithful in
keeping that. He didn't veer. Not my will be done, but thy
will be done. Christ never wavered in his faith. Christ always said,
if there be another way, I pray that it could be that way. But
it ain't that way because your will is for that I go to the
cross. Not my will be done, but thy will be done. But it was
his will because he was God. He was just See, God gives us
glimpses in human speaking terms. He gives us teaching, and he
makes God, because God is eternal. God is beyond us. We can't fathom
all these things. But God has to speak in terms
that we can understand. And so he'd give us to understand
and to see Jesus praying. Why? So that we might also think
on these things as our same way. Our dependence is upon him. Our
dependence is on him. We pray to him and ask him, not
my will be, but the thought will be done. Okay. So yeah. For by grace, are you saved through
faith? Matter of fact, he even said it in verse five, look at
your wood, if you still get your Bibles open in verse five, he
doesn't even say through faith. He just says by grace, he says,
even when we were dead in sins have quickened us together with
Christ by grace, you're saved. He doesn't even tie faith along
with that. Although. It comes from the faith
of Christ that happened. But he says there, by grace are
you saved. We are justified by grace, the
Bible says. We are justified by blood, the
Bible says. We are justified by Christ. That's
who we're justified by. And that's who faith looks to.
That's who faith listens to. That's who faith clings to, is
that work of Christ alone, because it's what has been given to us.
Does anybody else have any questions or any more comments? That was
a good verse, brother. And a verse that's often misquoted,
mispreached, I should say. Mispreached. All right. All right, let's bow
and we'll have a little prayer. Our gracious Father, it truly
is a wonderful thing to see what Christ has done for us. And we
thank you for the spirit of God that has given us eyes to see
and ears to hear, to give us the hearing of faith to be able
to grasp that which is foolish to the natural man. Father, it
is only because you and you alone that we are able to differ from
our brothers in Adam. But Lord, we are grateful that
we have been made heirs in the kingdom of God, that by Christ
we have been brought from darkness to light, that we have been translated
from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of our dear and
precious Savior. And so Father, Lord, we just
thank you for salvation. We thank you. for the election
of God. We thank you for the work of
Christ on our behalf. We thank you for the application
of that in time as it pertains to our experience of it, of our
knowing of our salvation, and believing upon Christ, and trusting
upon Christ, and the enjoyment of our salvation that you have
given us here, Father. We thank you for the word of
God that testifies of these things. We thank you, Lord, that you
have given us understanding. I thank you for these brethren
that are here. I thank you Lord that you have given us the time
together this morning to gather around your word and we pray
Lord that it has been pleasing to you. I pray the things that
I've preached have been profitable as the spirit of God has used
and taken these things for your glory. And Father Lord, I just
pray that you would bless the time of fellowship that we have
now. Bless the food that we are about to eat, and may it nourish
our bodies by it. And may that even the eating
and the drinking, Father, be to your glory. And I pray, Lord,
that you keep us safe as we leave this place today, that you might
guard us in the faith, that you might keep us trusting and looking
towards you. Lord, we know that this flesh
will fail at every turn, but our hope is in you, our glory
is in you. Lord, we just give you all the
glory and all the praise for it in Christ's name. Amen.