himself shall be thy helping
friend, thy good physician and thy nurse, to make thy bed shall
condemn sin, and from the affliction take the curse. Shouldst thou a moment's absence
mourn, Should some short darkness intervene, He'll give thee power
till light return, To trust him with the Cloudbeam, Start that a little high. That's a good passage of hymns
right there. There's a lot of times whenever
we are in affliction and pain, turmoil, whatever the case might
be, or it may even just be spiritual, you know, whenever we're in the
spiritual, be twitched whenever we've come into maybe sin or
maybe we're struggling in an area spiritually and everything,
we don't feel like there's this uh, presence of the Lord with
us and everything. And, uh, you know, that's what
it means where there's a cloud between there seems to be God's
face is hidden from us. You know, we're praying to him.
He doesn't seem to be answering to us. We're crying out to him
to help us. And he doesn't seem to be answering,
but he says here, um, that, uh, don't doubt it. He's never going
to leave you nor forsake you. everything that's happening is
happening for a reason or a purpose. And that we are to cleave to the Lord
by faith. That's something that a lot of Christians really don't
quite understand, that the faith that's given us in the new birth,
whenever we're born from above, that divine faith that's given
to us, it's not something that's common to the natural man. Apart
from the Spirit of God being put in us, we don't have that
faith. That faith, not only does it trust for Christ alone for
salvation, but that faith is also looking to Christ in his
perfect work of bringing us to himself. That from the time that
we are born until the time that we either go by death to be with
him or at the end of the resurrection whenever Christ comes back and
calls everybody to himself, that By faith, we continue to persevere,
trusting Him in what He's doing with our life. He is the potter
and we are the clay, and we're trusting Him to be molding us
into the pot and using us as the pot, exactly as He has designed
us to be. And that's why Paul makes that
argument in Romans 9, you know, we don't have the right as the
pot to look at the pot maker and say, I probably should rephrase
that, The potter, and we're the clay, not the pot makers, especially
now that that's being so prevalent in our society all over the place
you see dispensaries. That's not what I'm talking about. That the clay does not have the
right to look at the potter and say, you know, why have you made
me this way? Why have you brought me to this
place? Why have you put me in this situation? Why have you
given me this lot? We don't have the right to say
that, do we? The Bible says you don't have the right. Who are
you, old man, who replies back to God, why hast thou made me
thus? Hath not the potter the power over the clay to make one
pot, one vessel, a vessel unto honor and one vessel to dishonor?
Does he not have the right to do with the clay whatever he
chooses to do? And so whenever we are in these
times, like this man is writing about Joseph Hart, Whenever we
are in these places, whenever we are burdened down with stress
and struggles and trials and temptations and sin and spiritual
apathy, spiritual weakness, whatever the case might be that we find
ourselves in, the Bible says that that faith, that God will
give us the faith to persevere. And we see that every child of
grace will continue to persevere in the faith. They'll be trusting
in the Lord. They won't be trusting in themselves. And so the message of the child
of grace is always that we're gonna look to God. I don't know
what's going on, but I trust the Lord in what He is doing. So these songs that we sing are
full of doctrinal richness, and I hope that's kind of what you're
gleaning out of this, is they're full of doctrinal richness, Richness
is not just stuff that we just sing for no reason, but that
it truly is singing what the Bible teaches us in doctrine. Hymn number 1,112. 11, 12. 1,112.
Try not to comment too much on this. Bless our poor spirit, we'll
sing this just as I am. 1,112, one one, one two. Blessed are the humble souls
that seek their emptiness and poverty. Treasures of grace to them are
given and crowns of joy laid up in heaven. Blessed are the men of broken
heart who mourn for sin, With inward smart, the blood of Christ
divinely flows a healing balm for all their woes. Blessed are the souls that thirst
for grace, hunger and long for righteousness, They shall be
well supplied and fed with living streams and living bread. Amen. Well, all right. One more,
542 in that same handbook. And then if anybody has a request
for one, We can do that in 542. We'll sing this to take my life
and let it be. Jesus is my great high priest. bears my name upon his breast,
and that we may never part, I am sealed upon his heart. I am sealed upon his heart. All my sins were on him thrown,
He for them did once atone He did all my debts discharge And
has set my soul at large And has set my soul at large By His
own atoning blood He, my wounded spirit pure, Washed and made
me white as snow, Cleansed me well from top to toe, Cleansed
me well from top to toe. He, the veil has rent entwined,
Through His flesh I enter in, and with Him forever rest, in
the Lord's most holy place, in the Lord's most holy place. He has bought me with his blood,
reconciled my soul to God, made me meat for glory too, and will
bring me safely through. and will bring me safely through. Amen. Anybody got a song that
you'd like to sing out of any of the hymn books? Or a chorus,
or a scripture song? Can you sing 19? 19. 19 in the birthday book. See what you're getting
into here. Okay. Jesus. Number 19. My Jesus, I love Thee, I know
Thou art mine. For Thee, all the follies of
sin, I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior
art Thou. If ever I love Thee, my Jesus
is now. I love Thee because Thou hast
first loved me, And purchased my heart on Calvary's tree. I love thee, poor weary, the
thorns on thy brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus,
tis now. I'll love thee in life, I will
love thee in death, And praise thee as long as thou lend'st
me breath. And say when the death do lies
cold on my brow, If ever I loved thee, my Jesus is now. In mansions of glory and endless
delight, I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright. I'll sing with the glittering
crown on my brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus
is now. Amen. Anybody got another one? Galatians chapter 2. Back in Galatians. Galatians chapter 2. We're going
to be looking this morning at verses 11 down through 14. Congratulations
to the 11th through the 14th. Let's bow and we'll have a word
of prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
King of kings and Lord of lords, the Spirit of truth, we thank you today for your mercy
and for your grace. We thank you, Father, for the
time that we have together once again as a church. in your name
to open up the book that you have given to us that speaks
of Christ. And we ask Lord that today that
your spirit might come and aid us in this very endeavor to worship
you in spirit and in truth, to proclaim your name, to preach
your gospel, to open up your scriptures and to declare them
the truth. Lord, we ask for assistance. Lord, I pray that you would help
me. to preach and to minister this message and expound these
passages, Lord, in truth, and that you might give aid in those
that are here to hear and to understand or that we might be
edified by this word and that it might give us more understanding
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father,
we just are so grateful that you've given us the opportunity
the freedom, Lord, in this country to be able to meet and to gather
and to worship and to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. And
so Father, we just are so grateful for that. We're grateful and
thankful today for our salvation that's come by the Lord Jesus
Christ. That although we are full of sin, although that we
have transgressed the holiness of God in all accounts, That
we are unable in our natural self to keep the law of God and
to be the standard that you've said. Missing the mark at every
point, Lord, we are grateful to have a savior. Grateful to
have one who came and lived the law for us, who came and provided
a righteousness for us that we could not ever attain ourself
and that in Securing that righteousness by his death and by his blood,
we now, by the Holy Spirit, have that applied to us in the new
birth by giving a spiritual life, to have spiritual ears, to have
spiritual understanding, to be able to spiritually discern the
things of the spirit of God. And that we are given faith to
receive and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as our only
salvation. to see Him as our only hope and
to trust in Him, hoping in Him and that that perseverance that
comes through the Spirit of God in us will keep us in the faith. Not only in the faith of doctrine,
but in the faith of Christ that He and He alone has made us worthy,
that has made us acceptable, that has made us meet for God.
And so Father Lord, we just thank you today. for the work of Jesus
Christ and may He be exalted in all that we do and say. In
Christ's name that we pray, amen. Well, last week we looked at Paul as he reviewed with the
Galatians his trip back to Jerusalem after his conversion and subsequent
uh, should I say indoctrination by Jesus, uh, that he went to
Jerusalem, uh, because there were all these Judaizing, uh,
men who have been following along after him that was coming in
to the meeting houses and behind Paul, who was preaching the gospel
that was given to him, Jesus Christ, uh, was, was coming in
and subverting that by once again trying to put the people under
the yoke of Moses, by bringing them back under the law of not
only circumcision, but also of keeping the law of Moses, as
was accustomed by the traditions of the Jews, okay? And so Paul
here, last week we saw, and of course we went back to Acts 15,
and we're actually gonna go to Acts 15 again today, so if you
wanna put your finger in there as well, you can. But we found
out when we went to the account in Acts 15, we found that in
this discussion between these men, the apostles, we see that
they discuss the very fact that the gospel that Jesus had given
to Peter and those first apostles and the gospel that God had given
Paul in his calling him out as a apostle,
but a special apostle to the Gentiles, that that gospel was
one and the same gospel. That there wasn't a different
gospel to be preached to the Jews and then a different gospel
to be preached to the Gentiles. It was the exact same gospel. And the way that the Lord made
this known to them, especially not only in the personal indoctrination
that Jesus did those three years with his disciples, but to Peter
specifically, whenever God give Peter that vision of the sheep
coming down out of heaven and teaching him that all things
were clean and that that was a symbol or it was a sign to
him that the Gentiles was gonna be included in this salvation. It wasn't just for the Jew, but
for the Gentile also. And so Peter was specifically
told that this salvation And the way it was going to be accomplished
was not by the works of the law, not by keeping Moses, but by
faith in Christ Jesus, or by the faith of Christ Jesus. And
so it was by Christ, by grace alone that we are saved, not
by works. They are antithetical. Grace
and works are opposite sides. They cannot coexist together. And Jesus made that clear. Paul made that clear. Paul said
in other places, he said, if it's by grace, then there's no
more works. If it's by works, it's not a grace. There's never
a mixture of the two. The law was given for a specific
reason, but it was never intended, and we'll see these in the following
verses in the coming weeks, but the law was never given or intended
to make anyone righteous, either to get saved or to stay saved
or to become more holy. It was never given in that because
man never had the ability, God designed it from the very beginning
with Adam, designed man to be natural, to be lower than him,
to be, because if he's God, he cannot make someone equal to
himself. Otherwise then he would not be
the only God. Okay. He has made everything
creation lower than himself. Thus, there is nobody in creation,
no one in creation, who can attain to the standard which is Him.
So even though God gave the law, that never was a prescription
to say, all right, well, just because I give the law, that
means that you are able to keep it, that you're able to do it.
And so that's a lot of mentality. I even preached that. I used
to preach that. You know, well, God wouldn't
have given it if He didn't expect us to be able to keep it. Obviously,
God thinks that we can do that because he gave it to us. Okay? Well, that's not the case. And
if you study the Bible, you'll find out that the reason that
the law came in was so that the offense might abound. And he
wanted the offense to abound so that those who have been given
spiritual eyes and ears would know that in me dwells no good
thing. We talked about that last week,
right? The law is a crushing blow. It is God showing our inability,
our inadequacy, our depravity. It is showing that we are in
need of a savior. We must be saved. There is no
hope outside of God. Salvation is something that God
must do that man cannot do. And so he gave that law, which
is the most strictest, stringent line of standard that could ever
be, and that is His holiness. He gave the law that no man could
keep so that all would fall under it. Every man, every woman, every
child, would fall under that standard and fall short of that
standard, thereby confining all under sin. All has been confined
under sin so that he might save a people for himself. Out of
those people, he would save, and in doing so, he would show
the glory of God, the righteousness of God, the mercy of God, the
love of God, He would show all these attributes of God that
are on what we would call the positive side. But to also glorify
himself in his totality, we would also see the justice of God,
the wrath of God, the hatred of God. We would see all those
parts of God as well. And we see that in the condemnation
of sin and the condemnation of sinners or the reprobates. So
God has made the vessels of wrath, the vessels of mercy. He has made those two vessels
so that in both those vessels, he might show forth all of his
glory, not just part of his glory, but all of his glory. And so
when the law is given, and as we've seen last week, the law
was given to bring people to their understanding, if they've
been given spiritual understanding, their understanding of, I can't
do this, I need help. There is no, that's why Jesus,
whenever the, you know, the rich young ruler, yeah, when the rich
young ruler came to Jesus and said, you know, hey, I've done
all this, you know, and, you know, I've kept all the commandments,
you know, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said,
you know, he started wrapping off this, said, I've done that,
I've done that. And everything, he said, all right, well, go
and sell everything that you have. to come and follow me. And the
rich man really went away because he had a lot of wealth. And he
went away. And then Jesus said, it's hard
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's easier
for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than it is for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, right
after that, and I don't believe it was talking about the camel
going through an eye of a needle or a rich man getting into heaven,
but the whole The whole scenario that Jesus was talking about,
about keeping the law, it's just law upon law. You kept it here,
you kept it here, you kept it here, but you can't keep it here.
You can't keep it there. And those disciples knew, hey,
we know we can't keep the law. We've been trying, but we can't
keep it. And so what was their question to Jesus? It's impossible. How can this be? How can anyone
be saved if that is the standard? And what did Jesus say? With
men it's impossible, but with God all things are possible.
See, with man it's impossible to be saved by law keeping. Impossible. It cannot happen. It never will happen and it never
was intended to happen. And so whenever Paul went to
Jerusalem, as we've seen last week, and confirmed with the
apostles, they confirmed. That's what Jesus told us too.
He told us that the camel's gonna go through an eye of a needle
before anybody's gonna get saved by keeping the law. And so they said, hey, these
Judaizers are going out to all these churches and trying to
tell these people, yes, we are believers in Jesus, we believe
Jesus, but you have to keep the law. You have to be circumcised
and keep the law of Moses to be saved and stay saved. If you
don't do that, then you're not going to be saved. You're not
a follower of Jesus. And they said that was something
that we didn't command. Now, if you look with me, look
at Galatians 2, verse 7. We see that the gospel is the
same. It says, But contrarywise, when
they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed
unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter,
for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of
the circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles."
So what Paul is saying here is the gospel was the same gospel
between Paul and Peter. God had sent to Peter, which
Didn't Jesus tell that the gospel was going to go to the Jew first,
then to the Gentile? He said you'll be witnessing
to me first in Jerusalem, and then in Judea, and then in Samaria,
and then in the uttermost parts of the world. That's the flow
of the gospel. This now unveiled gospel that
has been hidden in times past This gospel that has been in
part, in past, this gospel that has been in types and foreshadows
all through the Old Testament, but clearly preached to as much as God would reveal
it to them, it was clearly preached. Now that it has been totally
unveiled, it was going to be to the Jew first, then to the
Gentile. And it started to the Jews in
Jerusalem, then into Judea, then into Samaria, and then into the
uttermost parts of the world. And so it started with Peter
and the apostles, the Lord bringing the apostles together and laying
the foundation within the church who was now the new vehicle of
God's oracles and God's ordinances, where once the nation of Israel
and the priesthood within that elect group of people was the
ones who kept the oracles of God and the ordination, the ordinances
of God, now that house has been left desolate. And now God has
created a tabernacle of lively stones, not made with hands,
but with people, a church. That's why we say a church isn't
a building. A church is a gathered assembly. It's whenever the individual
believers in Christ Jesus who have been baptized scripturally,
come together for worship. The church forms, that's the
tabernacle of God, and God's presence is with that. Jesus
promised his presence with that. He didn't promise it in a building.
He didn't promise it on a mountain. He didn't promise it, you know,
when one certain man did. No, it was whenever the people
of God comes together to worship together, he promised that his
presence would be there with them. Lo, I am with you always. even until the end of the age.
That was right after he told the church, go ye therefore,
make disciples, baptize them, and then bring them back in,
and teach them all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. He's promised
his presence among the church. The church is now that vehicle
in which the administrators, I should say maybe is the best
word to use, the administrators of Christ's kingdom. And that
church is now administrating the gospel of Jesus and the ordinance
of Christ, and in doing so, that started with the Jews. And the
apostles was laid as the foundation. And what Christ preached to those,
that's when he turned to Paul and said, guess what? Go preach
that to the Gentiles too. But what had happened is, is
there was still some Jews, as we seen last week, that were
standing up and saying, we believe in Jesus, but they must be told
to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. And not only were
they saying it there in Jerusalem, but they were saying it at Antioch,
they were saying it at Galatia, and obviously they've been saying
it at other places around in the areas where Paul had been
going. And so Paul basically is saying it's time to nip this
in the bud, to quote Barney Fife. I bet nobody has ever had a preacher
quote Barney Fife before. We are making leaps and bounds
here at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Paul said, I didn't need
to go to Jerusalem to confirm the gospel Jesus confirmed it
to me. He said, I did go to Jerusalem
to confirm with them that this gospel that Jesus has given us
is not a gospel of grace and works. It's a gospel of grace,
and that's all. that we are saved apart from
anything that we do. We are saved solely based upon
the work of Christ alone. And there is no conditions for
us to keep, meet, or continue on in for that to take place. And that is being subverted.
That gospel is being subverted by some of your guys who are
coming out onto my territory. There needs to be There needs
to be a unity among the people of God to say, no, that's not
right. Well, brethren, there's no difference
today. We have many brethren, I call them brethren, and as
we'll see here today, we'll see that you can still fall into
that error of thinking that you still have to keep the law for
something. You can still fall into that. Good men still fall
into that. Some men who knew differently
can still fall back into that. But the Lord will eventually
bring them out of that. And we'll see that here today.
But we see that these men were preaching these things and even
today we have men who are out there that are preaching that
there must be this for salvation. There must be this for sanctification
or continuing in your Christian walk. as they define that term. But here we see that that was
never commanded, that the gospel is the same to the Jews. It wasn't
grace and work for the Jews and grace alone for the Gentiles. It was the same for both. And
so it is grace alone. Now, as I was reading through
these scriptures this week, and I'll be honest with you up front,
This week was a very busy week. I did not get to do as much preparation
and study as I normally would do on this and everything. So we may be a little sporadic
or more sporadic than normal. But something did catch my eye
in reading this, and it brought me back to what we read last
week in Acts 15. And it just kind of kept coming
up. It kept coming up. And that is the word certain,
certain men. certain men. And that caught
my eye. Here in Galatians, look at verse
12. Let me read verses 11 down through 14. It says, but when
Peter was come to Antioch, I was stood into the face because he
was to be blamed. But before that, certain came
from James. He did eat with the Gentiles,
but when they were come, the certain that came from James,
he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them, the certain that
came from James, which were of the circumcision. And the other
Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also
was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked
not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel. I said unto
Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew livest after the
manner of the Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compelst
thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Now, as I said here, the word
certain came up and I got to looking back at Acts 15, where
we was at last week. And I noticed that that came
up several places. So turn back in Acts chapter
15 again. Somebody gets to the very end
of this today and say, what was that all about? The title of my message, if there
is a title, it's hard for me to title messages. I would say
certain men versus chosen men. But look at Acts chapter 15.
We see in verse one, it said, and certain men, which came down
from Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. We read that
last week, right? So it is for salvation. that
this law keeping, the mentality of it, is for salvation. And I would even say this for
those men who preach the law today for sanctification, they're
actually saying the same thing. Because at the end of the day,
they'll say, well, if you're not keeping the law in sanctification,
then that's because you never was saved to begin with. Because
if you're saved to begin with, you'll be keeping the law for
sanctification. So it all does come down to salvation
and besides, The Lord doesn't save in part, does he? The salvation
of Christ is not a partial salvation. It's not the legal part was on
Christ, but the practical part is on us. Now, there are some
that believe that. There are some that teach that
among certain religious groups of Baptists, I would say, at
least. There are certain groups that
believe that there is two kinds of salvation or two types of
salvation, that there is a eternal salvation and that there is a
time salvation, and that eternal salvation is by the sovereign
work of God alone, but the time salvation is a conditional time
salvation, that it's conditioned upon your work, upon your accepting,
upon your believing, upon your obedience, and upon, you know,
that salvation in time is based upon what you do. Now, I believe
that that's erroneous, and I believe that those brothers are in error
whenever they preach that. and teach them, I pray that the
Lord would deliver them from that. The salvation of Christ
is to the uttermost, the Bible says. That he is not only the
one who has laid down all the legal, the necessary legal things for
our salvation, meaning that his substitution for us is what God
demanded for his justice to be satisfied, but that he also,
by his own word, by his promise, has promised to keep us, to work
in us, to do all those things that he is ordained for us to
do. That he is the one who is giving
us the will and the desire to do, that he is the one that is
keeping us in the faith, that he is the one that is keeping
us from falling away, apostatizing, That He is the one that is continuing
to give us the faith to look to Him and not to Moses. That
it is He that is giving us all this thing that is keeping us.
And not the law. It's not Moses that's doing that.
It's not our own selves that's doing that. But it's Christ that's
doing that. And just as much faith that we
look to Christ for our legal part, we should be looking to
Christ with that same faith for our practical part. I trust Christ
that he is doing and keeping me and making me live exactly
the way he wants me to live in the way and the growth and the
grace and knowledge of Christ, that he's doing that just as
much as he did and what he did on the cross, the Calvary. And
so here we see these men are saying that salvation is something
that is conditioned. To be saved, you have to do this.
And there were certain men who We're preaching that. Look at
verse 5, Acts 15, 5. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed. Now, I believe that
the Holy Spirit ain't telling a story here. I believe that
these men had believed upon Christ and they were considered believers.
They were within the church at Jerusalem. They were Pharisees
that had been saved. The Lord had saved them. They
were the elect out of Israel. They were the Israel that were
actually of Israel, okay? They were the spiritual Israel
that was out of the nation of Israel. They were the elect of
God. They were the spiritual ones,
but yet their understanding of things had still not been put
into, they still had grave clothes to be taken off, if you use the
Lazarus example, remember? And Lazarus, he was made alive,
but the Bible says that Jesus said, now loose him, let him
go, take off them grave clothes. He had to unravel those dead
garments, that dead works. We are covered in dead works,
brethren. And we think that by those dead
works that we provide a righteousness to God. And we have to be shed
of those dead works. We have to be shed of the mentality
that any of our dead works can please and suffice God. And so
here, these men still had some of those old grave clothes that
went to Moses, that looked to Moses, looked to their dead works,
thinking that their dead works were doing something for God.
But who was it that was doing it? It was certain men. Certain
men. Look at verse 24. He said, for
as much as we heard that certain which went out from us have troubled
you with words Subverting your soul saying you must be circumcised
and keep the law To whom we gave no such commandment and we looked
at that last week We'll go over all that again, but notice here
in three places and then over in Galatians. We see a fifth
place We see our fourth place We see that it was certain men
Who did this and brother today? There are certain men who are
preaching and subverting Christ among the people of God in the
churches by saying that you have to either be saved based upon
conditions or that you are kept based upon conditions that you
keep. And both of those are false. Both of those are false. When
we preach that we are subverting Jesus Christ, going back to what
Paul talked about in chapter one, that any other gospel is
no gospel, it is an accursed gospel, and that that gospel
and that person that's preaching that is an accursed gospel preacher. He is not a servant of Christ.
If there is a preacher that's out there that you're listening
to, watching, following, going to church, that is preaching
a gospel of free will, decisionism, conditions, things like that,
that is not a servant of Christ. Don't listen to him. That's what
Paul is doing here. He said, don't listen to them
guys. They're subverting you. The gospel is grace alone. Christ has saved his people.
They all will be saved. Not one will be lost. People
aren't dying and going to hell because we're not getting enough
missionaries out there in the world to gather them all in. Not one
is going to be lost. Why? Because he's going to make
sure that every one of them has been born from above and has
been brought to Christ Jesus by faith. And the gospel is going
to come to them and they're going to believe upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're going to believe on him
alone for their salvation. They're not going to believe
that their destiny lied in their own hand. They're going to realize
that they were destitute and in sin and Christ in mercy and
grace saved them apart from anything they did. And they're going to
give praise and glory to God for what they and themselves,
they couldn't have done. I know that in me, I can't do
it. I couldn't have ever done it. But praise God, He did it.
And it was given to me freely. That's what the Spirit has given
to us. Remember in 1 Corinthians, that the Spirit has given us
so that we might freely know what has been given to us, not
what we earned, not what we worked for, not what we was conditioned
upon. See, it was given to us freely.
Grace, the gospel, is free. It doesn't cost anything. Not
a single thing. It doesn't cost you your decision
or your will. God doesn't have to wait for
you to will to come to Him. Why? Because the Bible says that
God will cause His people to be willing in the day of His
power. See, He doesn't have to wait
on you to will to come to Him because He'll give you the will.
He'll change your will. How does He do that? By taking
out that heart of stone and putting in the heart of flesh. He'll
take that out and he'll put it in the heart of flesh and he
will cause you, the Bible says in Ezekiel, he'll cause you to
walk in his statutes. Now is that a promise of God
or is that a condition that you gotta keep? It's a promise of
God. He'll cause you. So should I
run around worried all the time whether or not I'm doing enough
for God? No, if I have faith in Christ Jesus given in the
new birth, that's a divine faith, that faith is gonna be trusting
that, hey, I'm exactly where God wants me to be. I'm doing
exactly what God does, tells me to do. I'm living the way
God is wanting me to live. Does that mean that we're never
gonna sin? No. What happens whenever we
sin? We confess that. We acknowledge that. Hey, I sinned.
But that too was in the purpose of God for our growth in grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ. But see, this doctrine, brethren,
this doctrine, can't be believed by most professing Christians
because they don't even have a category in their doctrinal
library that says God uses sin. They believe that God does not,
don't touch, don't taste, don't hear, nothing. God can't have
anything to do with any kind of sin. Now does the Bible say
that God hates sin? Absolutely. Does God say that,
He tells us that that's sin? Is it trespassing against him? Absolutely. Does it say that
it is what is going to cause us to be judged before God? Absolutely. But nowhere in the Bible does
it say that God can't purpose sin to be, that he can have use
in. Matter of fact, the Bible says,
the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath
thou shalt restrain. There is a portion of man in
his sinful wrath towards God and his rebellion against God
and who he is and what he does that is against God that God
has purposed for his youth. If it wasn't for the wrath of
man, would Christ have ever been crucified? And doesn't God specifically
say in Acts that you who by wicked hands you took and you took Christ
and you crucified him. But it says, but you did it according
to the determined counsel of God. God had determined in the
counsel of himself before the foundation of the world that
evil and sin would be in the world and that by that evil and
sin Christ would be taken so that the people in sin that are
his would be redeemed out of it to show forth his glory. just
like with Lazarus. Lazarus died. Jesus let him die. Jesus knew he was sick. You knew
our brother was sick. Why didn't you come? You waited
for several days and you didn't come and he died. Now he's been
dead for several days and he stinks. What did Jesus say? Lazarus died so that the glory
of God might be shown. See, We don't have that category
that God uses sin. And so whenever we look and we
see that the law, whenever we are what people call sanctification,
they think that we gotta maintain this righteousness before God
and a growth in this holiness in God. Otherwise, it shows forth
that we've never been saved. But see, it's never based upon
your sin. Salvation was never based upon
how much you sin or how much you don't sin. whether you've
done any good or bad, but that according, that God, according
to the purpose in election might stand. He chose one and not the
other. You were saved, not because of
anything that you've done good or how much good you did, or
how little bad you did, or you were discluded because of how
much bad you did. But God made the choice in the
pleasure of his own self. And those people that he said,
listen, He did not impute that sin unto them. See, if we could
ever grasp that, that the Bible teaches us, that blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin. If you're a child of
grace, your sin has never been imputed to you. So your sin doesn't
make any difference about your salvation or not. Or your finishing
of salvation. Because your sin was never imputed
to you. Now that doesn't mean you're not guilty of it. You
surely are guilty of it. And if you're honest with yourself,
you know you're full of it, right? But see, if you understand the
gospel, you'll see that, wait a minute, you mean before the
foundation of the world, God determined to never even, even
though I was going to sin, even though in Adam, all sin, Adam
sinned and all his seed that he produces, produces sinful
people. Why? Because his nature is sinful
and like begets like. Every seed produces after its
own self. And Adam was made a natural seed. And so now he is the father
of all sinners. And we all are sinners. For all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But you mean
to tell me that even though we are not only sinners because
of our nature coming from Adam, but sinners indeed because every
one of us have actually sinned, that God before the foundation
of the world does not impute that does not count that to my
record. That's what that word impute
means. He laid it to my account. You mean God never laid that
sin to my account? Well, the account's there, though.
I mean, if God never laid it to my account, then I've never
been guilty of sin. If I've never been guilty of
sin, then why did Jesus have to come and die? Well, see, that's where
this mystery of the gospel and this thing that we don't understand
because of time and eternity and things like that, we don't
understand those things. But we understand this, that
yes, we do sin and we do have a sinful account. But God determined
beforehand, based upon what Christ would do in time, upon his righteousness,
upon his sacrifice, his substitution in our place, that that would
be the grounds of which he would never impute sin to us. And therefore,
sin has never been imputed to us. So your salvation didn't
have anything to do with whether or not you are too sinful, less
sinful, and your salvation is never lost or waivers because
you are more sinful or less sinful or more holy or less holy. Because
it doesn't, it isn't ever based upon your performance one way
or the other, positive or negative. Your salvation is based upon
the standard of Jesus. How holy are you? As holy as
Jesus. When? On Sundays? Whenever you
put on your best to come here? No. On Fridays or Saturdays, Tuesdays
or Wednesdays, whenever you're at your very worst, whenever
you're at the very worst, here's Holy Scripture. Can you fathom
that? Now do you understand why we
sing these praises? about thankful that Christ has
done this for us? Because it isn't about how much
you do or don't do. Preaching do or not do, preaching
do or not do, preaching do or not do to a congregation of people
only brings a yoke upon them because if they are spiritually
alive, they have been given the understanding of their sins. See, the man outside, they don't
know they're sick. That's why Jesus said, only the
sick need a physician. These Pharisees out there, they
don't even think they're sick. They think they're okay. So they
don't have the need of a physician. They were blind. They were truly
sick, just like anybody else was as far as sin was concerned.
But what Jesus was saying is, it's only those who have been
given the spiritual life that understand the depth of their
sin. Not that they're sinners. Because even those Pharisees
realized that people were sinners, that's why they had to keep the
law and make the sacrifices. They had to do that because they
sinned. But they didn't think that their
sinning was to the level to condemn them, because they were doing
righteousness before God. And so we come back to this same
thing that's in every generation, that's in every walk of life,
that's in every major religion, that's in everything. that if
I do good, if I do more good than I do bad, then God will
accept me. There is a righteous standard that I could keep enough
of that God will be merciful, be just, that he'll be fair with
me. But see, they don't realize that
what's in the other side of that scale is Jesus. Jesus is in the
scale. So everything that you do is
comparison to him, not to each other. And the Pharisees were
judging each other by themselves. That's what Paul was saying.
They're judging themselves by themselves. And they know that they're not
able to keep the law, but they're wanting to make you to keep the
law. And if you stay under the law and do the law, then that
feeds their flesh that they have brought you up as this proselyte,
that you've made them, you know, a religious person. But see,
it isn't about making people religious. It's about bringing
people to the understanding of trusting in Christ alone, trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we preach the gospel?
So that people will trust in Christ, not in their works. When
you preach the law, people begin to trust in their works. They
begin to trust in their ability to try to keep the law. They
begin to believe that there is a righteousness that God will
accept in part if they do enough or if they're good enough. And the apostle said, we've never
given such a command for Christ. Christ never taught that. We've
never told anybody to say that. And these men that are coming
down here, they're just, they're mistaken. They're wrong. So certain
men will preach the law. But notice there was another
group of men there. Look at verse 22 there in Acts
15. Then it pleads the apostles and
the elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own
company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surname
Barsabbas, and Silas, chief among the brethren. There were chosen
men that was sent. Look at verse 25. It seemed good
unto us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men
unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. See, the church recognized, see,
the apostles being the foundation laid the gospel down. And the
church believed that gospel. Matter of fact, that was the
foundation of the disciple making. Remember, as in Mark, Mark 16,
whenever Jesus gave the commission to the accountant in Mark, he
said, go with the gospel. And preach to every creature.
Well, if we're going with the gospel that Jesus taught, It's
the gospel of free grace. It's the gospel of salvation
apart from works, apart from conditions. It's the gospel of
imputed righteousness alone by Jesus. It's not works and conditions. And so if that's the case, then
every disciple that was made that became a member of that
church testified to that gospel. Otherwise, they would have been
baptized. See, you only baptize people that testify to the gospel.
that profess faith, the faith of Christ Jesus. Not the faith
of something else that's not, no gospel, okay? We don't baptize
people that are testifying of accursed gospels, only those
who are professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel,
right? And so it says here that these other men that were coming
down, they were subverting Christ. whenever we are in the church, it is the assumption
from the very beginning. Now, we've gotten to this day
and age where there are so many splinters and denominations and
factions and stuff like that, that it's just crazy. But if
you remember back here at the very beginning, the church was
built upon that foundation of that gospel to those apostles
And every church that came out of that, the Antioch Church,
the Galatian Church, all these things, was, and we'll see, their
word was confirmed. They were confirmed in this gospel.
Meaning that not only was it started, those churches were
brought together by people believing that gospel, being brought together
into a church, but that the apostles continued to go from church to
church, confirming that same gospel over and over and over
and over and over again. You wonder why we have Bible
conferences and we have other preachers come sometimes to our
churches and everything to preach and everything like that? Well,
that's also following a pattern that we've seen in the New Testament,
is that these preachers, they were called evangelists, they
would go from church to church and they would confirm the gospel.
They would confirm the gospel. And what does it mean by confirm
the gospel? It means they are preaching the gospel that these
people, if they are truly born from above, that the Holy Spirit
has taught to them. And whenever they hear it, hey,
it's not just my preacher saying that. They're hearing it over
there, too. And they're hearing it over there,
too. And they're hearing it over there, too. You mean all these
people are believing the same thing, even though they've not
come from Jerusalem? That's amazing. How is that happening? Because of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is teaching them that gospel. And then God has
provided for them preachers that go along, chosen men who have
gone Out from among the church, who the church confirms, yes,
they are the ones, they believe the truth, and they are preaching
the truth. We are sending them out as messengers to preach this
gospel and to confirm it to others. That's what they were doing.
And so what did they do? They sent these men, these chosen
men, verse 25. It was chosen men. And we know
Jesus had said this, turn with me to John, and we're gonna stop
with this and not go too much further. But John chapter six.
if you would, John chapter six. And remember, this is, uh, after
Jesus had preached a, if you allow me a five point doctrine
of grace discernment in John chapter six, Jesus actually preached
all five, some people call it the five points of Calvinism,
which is ridiculous, okay? We deny that is Calvinism. Calvinism is a man made up term,
and Calvin didn't invent or come up with anything. He didn't even
reinvent anything, okay? I could care less about Calvin
and what all he did. But in John chapter six, we see
Jesus preach all five Doctrine of Grace points. He preached
depravity, he preached unconditional election, he preached particular
redemption or limited atonement, he preached irresistible grace,
and he preached preservation of the saints. That's the five
points that you hear people talk about, especially in Calvinistic
circles. But Jesus preached those, and
they come from Calvin, they come from Jesus. Now, we've been castigated
by many people, especially among some Baptists. We've been castigated
because we are sovereign grace believers. We are believers in
the doctrines of grace, or the five points. If you're a five-pointer
or you're a hyper-Calvinist, you know, if you believe in five
points, you're a hyper-Calvinist. Well, then Jesus was. but I would
not attribute the term Catholics to Jesus. That's blasphemy. Jesus preached that, and if I
had the time, I could go and show you all five points there.
But at the very end of his sermon in John chapter six, there were
some that believed and some that didn't believe. And in verse 64, Jesus said,
but there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from
the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should
betray him. See, Jesus from the beginning
knew who his people were, who would be given life, who would
be given ears to hear, and who he had made as betrayers. Judas,
he was ordained to that condemnation. Those false prophets and false
teachers that were sneaking into the churches later on that Peter
talks about, The Bible says that they were ordained unto that
condemnation. That God had ordained from the
foundation of the world that they would be these sneaky snake
preachers coming in preaching a false gospel. So that blasphemies
must come so that the people of God might be made manifest. See, it's all God's plan and
purpose. It says, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were,
they believed not, and who would betray him. And he said, therefore
said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him by the Father. That is total depravity right
there. No man can come to me. That's
a term of ability, not a term of exclusion. God's excluding
you from coming to him, okay? Although he did choose who would
and who would not be the elect. But it's not that, it's that
The state that you're in as a sinner, as a man naturally born from
Adam, you cannot come to me. You will not come to me because
you have no desire to do that. Not to the God of the Bible,
to a religious God that has been set up by denominations and religious
factions all over the world that meet their little free will needs. Yes, you'll come to him, but
you will not come to the God of the Bible who does exactly
what Jesus preached in John chapter six. except it were given to you by
my father." You have to be given repentance to come to him. You
have to be given faith to come to him. You have to be given
spiritual eyes to understand and come. Then verse 66, from
that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. He said, You want to go back
into the world that wants to preach that there's another way
of salvation besides grace alone? You want to go back to the preachers
that are telling you to get under the law? Because that's where
they went. These were disciples that came
from the law. The law preachers. These were Jews. These were the
ones who had been under the preaching of the Pharisees who were teaching
for righteousness the law. and the traditions of men that
Paul had talked about in Galatians chapter one. The law and the
traditions of men, they weren't servants of Christ. They were
not servants of Christ. They were subverting Christ.
And here, these men here said, you know what? We just heard
you preach the gospel. And if that's the gospel you're
preaching, I'm sorry, I don't want none of that. I want to
go back to where my ears get tickled. Tell me how good I am. Tell me how well I do. Tell me
how much prominence I can have. Tell me how much work I could
do to please God. Tell me how, tell me what I need
to do to do the works of God. That's what I want to hear. Take
me back to that, please. And so there were many who went
back and walked with them no more. They wanted to go back
under the law. They didn't want to hear about
a God who elects some and that they could not be saved unless
God drew them. They didn't want to hear about
the fact that Christ was only going to die for those people,
that that Messiah was only there for them. They didn't want to
hear the fact that God had given them this ability to believe
and they didn't even choose it. That it was something that God
just did on his own, out of his own sovereignty. They didn't
want to hear that. We want to hear what can we do.
Tell us. Preach to us law. Preach to us
righteousness by what we can do for ourselves so everybody
can see how holy we are. See, whenever we're religious,
people can see that because that's outward, right? They can see
us dress up in our Sunday bests. They can see us going to church.
They can see us giving. They can see us helping here
and helping there. They can see all these outward things, but
they can't see the heart. People say that they trust in
the Lord with their mouth. Jesus says, but your heart is
far from me. You say it with your mouth, but
your heart is far from me. My grandpa used to say, hey,
what's in the well comes up in the bucket. If you're trusting
in God, if you're trusting in Christ alone for salvation, what's
in the well is going to come up in the bucket. You're going
to be trusting Christ in everything you're talking about. You're
trusting him. And that means for my righteousness
also. If I'm trusting Christ for my
righteousness, I'm not looking to my works of righteousnesses. I'm looking to Christ righteous.
I'm not looking to be patted on my back. I'm not looking to
be the popular preacher. That's why Paul said, Persuade
man or do I persuade God? Am I a persuader of man? Is my
calling to be out here to be popular among the people and
preach popular things? No, it's not. It's to declare
the gospel that was given to me to declare because that's
the food for the sheep. And I've been called to preach
to the sheep, not to the goats. Let the goats go gather in their
churches. Let the goats go listen to their preachers. Let the goats
go. I pray that the Lord give them
repentance and that they're truly not goats but sheep. that will
be brought out of those churches. And if they are sheep, guess
what? They will be brought out. Christ is commanding his people
to come out of those harlots that are out there. You see,
Jesus here is preached the doctrines of grace. He has taught the gospel,
the true gospel. And there are some that wanted
to say, hey, wait a minute, I don't want that. I'm going back under
Moses because that's not my God. And what did he say to the disciples
who had been given ears to hear? You gonna go with them? But what
did the chosen men say? Then Simon Peter answered, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. See, eternal life isn't found in the law keeping. Eternal
life is found in Christ. He is eternal life. I am the
way, I am the truth, And I am most certainly the life. No man
coming to the father except by keeping Moses, not by me. The only way that you come to
the father is by me. And it says, and we believe and
are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living God, Jesus
answered them, have not I chosen you twelve? And one of you is the devil.
Now, Jesus chose Judas, though, right? He chose Judas, but he
chose Judas for a certain purpose, because Judas was to betray him.
That was the purpose for which Judas was chosen. But the other
men were chosen by Christ to be the apostles of the gospel
laid down in the church first. They were chosen men. And what
did the chosen men want to hear and want to preach? They wanted
to preach what Jesus preached. I want to preach what Jesus preached.
And Jesus preached sovereign grace. I know people say that
that's blasphemy to say that that's not even found in the
Bible. Well, Jesus preached corruption. Jesus preached particular redemption. Jesus preached depravity, perseverance,
irresistible grace. Jesus preached those things.
That was his gospel. And so we see that they were
chosen men. Look at John chapter 13 and verse 18. This is where Jesus has washed
the disciples' feet. Verse 12, I'll start reading
there. So after he had washed their
feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said
unto them, know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master
and lord, and ye say, well, for so I am. If I then your lord
and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's
feet. For I have given you an example
that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither
he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know
these things, happy are ye if ye do them. I speak not of you
all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be
fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me. So the scripture, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, Judas was gonna do what he was gonna do,
right? that the scriptures might be fulfilled. So that means that
somewhere in the Old Testament, it was talked about that Judas
was going to betray Jesus. There would be one that would
betray Jesus. And if it was said in the Old Testament that Judas
was going to betray Jesus, then that means that God, way back
then, had already purposed Judas to be that person. And if God
had said it way back then, then that means that God set it before
the foundation of the world. Because all prophecy is, whether
it's Old Testament prophecy, whether it's New Testament prophecy,
all prophecy is is forth telling what God has already purposed.
It's not fortune telling. Prophecy is not fortune telling,
foretelling the future. It's saying what God has said.
And the only reason that God knew in the Old Testament that
Judas would be that one is because God from the foundation of the
world the Bible says, knows his works, the end from the beginning.
All the things which have been done and those things which have
yet to be done. He knows all those things, and
why does he know them? Because he looks down and sees
in the future what we're gonna do, because he's not in time,
he's in eternity, wherever that's at, and he's looking ahead in
time and seeing what we're gonna do, and then he's coming back
to where he's at and saying, all right, well, this is what
I'm gonna do, because that's what they're gonna do. No, how does he know that? How does God know? How did God
know all those things? Well, because he's God. He's
omnipotent, all-powerful, and he makes sure that it all happens.
But he's also omniscient. That means he knows all things.
He knows all outcomes of all things. Well, how come God's
omniscient, though? How does God know all things?
Because God has purposed all things. and has decreed all things
to be, and by providence is carrying all things out, exactly as he
has decreed them. So everything happens. Right
now I'm watching out that window and I'm seeing the wind blowing
these trees and these leaves, hundreds of leaves, and they're
all fluttering in different patterns, in different ways, at different
speeds, in different directions, and shadows are falling and moving
across those leaves in different ways as the sun shines down through
there. And every bit of that God has decreed from the foundation
of the world exactly to happen exactly as it's happening right
now. And if God is doing that and
you think you control God by your will and choice, you're
going to stand up before God and say, not this gospel. I'm going back to the, I'm going
back to the law and I'm going to provide for myself a righteousness
that this God can't tell me how to do it. Is that what you're
going to do? Who art thou, O man, who replies
unto God? You think you're going to tell
God that you're good enough because you went back to Moses and picked
up those tablets and started working on righteousness for
yourself? You're going to go back to those
preachers who are telling you to follow after Moses that your
salvation is all wrapped up in Jesus Christ, but unfortunately,
you can't have it unless you do this or that. Choose him. No. See, the ones who were chosen,
the ones who were chosen by Jesus, they went on to be the ones who
did not deny him, who did not betray him. You say, well, yeah,
Judas betrayed him. He turned him over to be crucified. He turned him over to be crucified.
Brother, whenever you, who are a child of grace, have been married
to Christ, go back to trying to provide
a righteousness for yourself, you have now committed adultery
upon your husband. You have went back to Moses,
who the Bible says that has died and that we are no longer bound
to, and that we are now married to another. We are married to
Christ. And for us to put our eye over
here on making ourselves our own righteousness by decisions,
by free will, by law keeping, by religious activity, by whatever
it is that we want to do, it's the same as a husband or a wife
saying, oh, I love my... I think going over here, committing
adultery. Got one eye on Jesus, but I'm
holding hands with the law. We can't have both. Jesus said
you can't have both. The apostles taught you can't
have both. Paul made it clear you can't have both. It's not
law and grace. It's grace. Grace. Salvation
is by grace. And it's not by you performing
something to get grace. It's God bestowing grace on whom
he wills to bestow it. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. And if that's not the gospel
that's being preached, if the gospel of sovereign grace being
bestowed upon the elect of God, and everything that they need
for salvation, whether it's legal or practical, being fulfilled
in the life of that person, and at the end of time, they stand
before God without blame, if you're not preaching that gospel,
you're preaching another gospel. And that's not the gospel that
was commanded. You're preaching a certain man gospel, and not
a chosen man gospel. The chosen men preach the gospel
of grace alone. One last verse and we'll end
for today. John chapter 15 and verse 16. John chapter 15 and verse 16.
Jesus says, ye have not chosen me. Should that not end all discussion? Right there. Why do we continue
to have doctrinal debates about whether or not we choose Jesus.
We are accepted in the beloved. We don't accept Jesus. He chooses
us. We don't choose him. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it unto
you." Now, there's a lot to talk about in that verse, and I'm
not going to break down the whole entire thing, but what do we
see here? Jesus is the one who has chosen these men to go and
preach, and when it says to go bring forth fruit, that's going
with the gospel and making disciples of the God's converts. It's not
quickening, men. Whenever we preach, this is not
quickening. This is not giving the new birth, okay? We don't
give anybody the new birth by preaching to them. The new birth
comes by the Holy Spirit of God whenever it decides to come and
give that life to that person. But what we do by the preaching
of the gospel is to those who have already been given that
life, we begin to preach that gospel to them, and they hear
that, and the Holy Spirit has been teaching them in their heart
to testify to this whenever they hear it. That's it. I am a sinner. Christ is the one. And Him alone
is the one who saves. And so what happens? The bearing
the fruit is the disciples that are made by the preaching of
the gospel. They're the ones who are hearing the gospel and
being converted from their righteousness to the righteousness of Christ.
They're saying, oh, it's not the law. It's not me trying to
be good enough for God. It was Christ was good enough
for me. Christ is good enough for me.
Not only was He good enough for my legal, but He's good enough
for me now in my daily walk. God looks at His walk and not
mine. See, the chosen preacher gospel
that goes and bears forth fruit of people that believe the gospel,
not people that believe another gospel. See, there's a lot of
people that say, well, a preacher could go out and, you know, If
they just, you know, confess that they believe Jesus, no.
If they don't believe THE gospel, then you've not taught them the
gospel. You've not preached to them the gospel enough. You've
only given them a little partial. You've not taught them the gospel.
You need to preach the gospel to them before you bring them
back and baptize them. Because they may be agreeing
with you, oh yeah, I believe that Christ died and was buried
and was resurrected. Yes, but are you understanding
that your salvation didn't come because you accepted that or
because you agreed to that, that your salvation isn't about you
trying to now take this and start living up to this so that God
will be pleased with you and then accept you based upon this
or keep you because of this. Or think that you're doing mighty
great in the kingdom of God because you're keeping this better than
somebody else is. Are you understanding that the gospel is that this
right here is outside of your grasp completely, not that we
shouldn't try to attain, right? Our heart's desire is to be this. Our heart's desire is to be holy,
to be righteous, to be obedient, to do what God wants us to do.
That's why Paul was saying, in my mind, I want to do the things
of God. I want to do all these things.
I find it in my flesh, it's not happening. It doesn't happen.
I can't perform that in the flesh that what my spirit wants to
do. My spirit wants to be holy, but my flesh can't produce holiness.
So what do I do? I go back and continue to remember
there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Who's going to deliver me from this body of death? Because that's
all that I produce in the flesh is death. Praise God. Jesus has delivered me from that.
Jesus has provided a righteousness for me. He's provided a law keeping
for me. And even though I desire that,
and I'm going to try to do as much as I can for the Lord, and
I'm going to try to do all those things. But at the end of the
day, that's not what it's about. My trust is in Christ. If I fail,
I confess it. But I'm no more or less his child
and I'm no more or less on the road to glory. I'm not being
kicked back. I've not made three steps forward
and five steps back. No, I'm pressing on the upward
way. New heights I'm gaining every
day. Not heights of holiness, but heights of knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ, grace and knowledge of what he has done
for us. Every day that I fall, it reminds
me of my inability. But every day that I fall and
I'm reminded of my inability to keep God's law, it points
me back to Jesus has provided the righteousness for me and
praise God. That fall that happened right
there, Jesus already died for it. God didn't impute it to me.
When I get before his throne, it's never going to be remembered
ever again. Ain't that great? But do you want to do the law?
Because if you want to do the law, the Bible says that every
act and every deed is going to become before God and it's going
to be accounted for. And if you don't keep all of the law, you're
guilty of every bit of it that you've broken. Everything. You've
broken every commandment of God, if you even break it in one.
So you want to go before God before that? Or do you want to
go before God saying, praise God, yes, I am a sinner. I have
broken every commandment that you have had, but praise the
Lord, that man right over there said that if I looked at him,
if I trusted in him, That means that he has paid for my debt.
And I have been trusting in him. My hope is in him. And I pray
that that man right there calls me his. And Jesus says, enter
in by good and faithful servant. Boy, I wasn't faithful. No, but
that's what your account says. Enter in by good and faithful
servant. It isn't going to be because you were a good and faithful
servant. It's because he was. And God took his account and
copied it down in your ledger. Certain men want to tell you
you can do it on your own. Chosen men tell you it's all
Jesus. Certain men want to preach to
you the law. Certain men want to preach to
you your own righteousness. Chosen men say there is none
righteous. No, not one. Certain men preach
grace alone. And Paul here said, from before that certain came
from James, he did he talk about Peter. He did even with the Gentiles,
but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing
them. We're going to get back to the
second part of this message we'll get to next time we're together
about this. But notice what Paul did. He said, but when I saw that
they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, whatever
you're preaching the law, teaching the law, trying to live by the
law, you are not walking uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel. See, these men were going back
to the law. Even Peter, who had already just
a few weeks before that, had met with Paul and said, we all
agreed, hey, let's not tell them to keep the law. That's not what
we commanded. And that's not what we expect.
And we all know none of us can do that. But yet when the influence
of the Judaizers was there, what happened? We're gonna become
hypocrites. Let's just act on their, for
their sake, let's just act like we'll continue things like we
always do. I'm keeping the law here. And Paul, out of all of
them, said, wait a minute. The word here is dissembled. The word is dissimulation, verse
13. We're going to talk about that
next time. They were dissembled. The Jews dissembled. They became
hypocritical. And we're going to talk about
that because that's one thing that the law does in the natural
man and to the child of grace, I should say, to our flesh. When we think that we can keep
the law, We begin to dissemble or we become hypocritical. We
begin to judge others by our standards. We begin to look to
others, wait a minute, they're not doing what I'm doing. Wait
a minute, they're not doing it like me. Or, well, I'm definitely
doing it more than they are. We become hypocritical. We're
not keeping the law. The law is to be kept, for the
law to be kept, that means everything. moral law, ceremonial law, civic
law, every one of the laws, God doesn't separate them out. Every
one of them is to be kept. If you don't keep it, you've
broken it. And so if you think you're keeping the law and you're
judging others and being hypocritical, knowing that you're not keeping
the law, but yet you're judging them because they're not keeping
the law, you become a hypocrite. And so therefore, anybody who
is walking by the law is dissembled, or is in dissimulation. They're
walking hypocritically. And that's what we'll see next
week. But we see that certain men will
preach the law, chosen men preach grace. But they do fall back
sometimes. Sometimes they fall back as Peter
did. But praise the Lord, Peter had
someone who loved him, Paul. He stood to his face. And Paul,
when he did that, Peter was the first one who acted, but what
happened? Barnabas, he fell into it. The
other Jews that were there who weren't doing it, they fell into
it. See, he got to Peter because Peter was influencing the other
men. See, we as preachers, we need to be careful how we act
and how we live and what we say and what we preach because we're
influencing people unknowingly a lot of times. And so if we're
thinking, hey, these guys are thinking, I'm gonna go back to
the law, well that had an effect on other people. And so Paul
went to Peter, because Peter was kind of the headshot here
that kind of started it all among these men at this point. But
also, so that the others might see, he did it to his face publicly.
He said, hey, what you're doing is not right. We can see that men can fall
back into that, so we don't just immediately jump and call them,
you know, not brothers. We gotta work through that. We
gotta work through that. Now, there might be a time come
whenever they, if they continue to reject the gospel, that we
have to say, well, I can't fellowship with you anymore. I can't call
you a brother anymore. If you're thinking that that's
part of it, then we can't do that. But we do that with patience
and long-suffering. In the meekness, we go to them,
teaching them, praying that God would, perventure, give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. There's a time
period that takes this, but so many today want to just immediately
jump. As soon as you see, oh, you don't believe I got this,
I'll cut you off. No, we don't want to do that. We want to love
each other. We want to teach each other and
preach each other to each other. We want to take each other to
the Word of God. And that's what Paul, he stood to his face and
told him the truth. And thankfully, Peter and the
other apostles, they recognized that and they turned from that.
And thankfully, this Galatian church, whenever he preaches
this, we pray that the Lord had given them repentance and they
turned away from these things. The Corinthian church, we've
seen how they repented from some of the things that Paul had wrote
to them about and everything. And so we don't just jump and
start cutting people off, but we do, I have to take time to
preach to them, to correct them and rebuke them and lovingly
try to reprove them. And the Holy Spirit will bring
them back to repentance that they are truly children of God.
That's what church discipline's all about. That's what reproving,
correcting, that's what all these things are all about is because
I can't make anybody do anything. I can't tell you what to think,
how to think. I can preach to you about what
the Bible says, The Holy Spirit's gonna teach you whether or not
what I'm saying is true or not. But I can't make you believe
something or not believe something. All I can do is bear witness
to the truth. And as the Holy Spirit gives you understanding,
he will lead his people into all truth. Some sooner than others. Some in different ways than others.
You know? I may be, you know, I may preach,
there's been friends I've had that I've told things to and
I've, you know, presented things that I believe in over and over
and over and over and over again. And I'm just like, I just don't
see that. I just don't see that. I just don't see that. I don't
see that. I don't understand that. No, I don't know about
that. And then I may just stop talking about it. And then a
few years later, they come and say, man, he wouldn't believe
this. I was listening to this guy preaching the other day and
he broke this down. He told me, man, look, he brought this out.
I was like, that's exactly what I've been
telling you for. 50,000 conversations that we've had, you know? But
see, that's a little bit prior to now. I taught him something. No, the Holy Spirit taught him,
right? But see, it wasn't being confirmed
in his hearing at the time, even though it may still have been
the truth. I was preaching the truth to him, maybe. But it wasn't
being confirmed in his ear. Why? Because it hadn't yet been
taught by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to teach
first before the preacher can even confirm anything. That's
why I say that word confirm. That's an important word. The
preachers are only confirming these things. The Holy Spirit
is the one who's bearing witness that it's true, teaching you
that it's true. And until the Holy Spirit teaches
you that truth, my confirming ain't confirming anything because
it hasn't been taught to me yet. One plus one equals two means
nothing to somebody who has not yet been taught the truth that
one plus one equals two, right? But anytime someone comes to
you now and says 1 plus 1 equals 2, unless they're being taught
common core math nowadays, you're going to say, that's right. You're
right. You're right. You're a preacher
of the truth. You are a mathematician. Guess
what? People aren't going to know that
preachers are preaching the truth until the Holy Spirit teaches
them whether or not that's truth or error. That's why I say, don't listen
to me. I could be wrong. I could be
deceived. I could still be in the unlearned
position at that particular passage of Scripture, of that particular
doctrine. See, the Lord doesn't just dump
it all in our heads at once, does he? And surely when he calls
a preacher, he doesn't dump it all in their heads and say, there
you go, you've got it all. We think that preachers should
know that. We think that preachers ought to have all the answers
and know everything, have the whole Bible memorized and know
how to rightly interpret everything that's in here, but guess what?
We don't. We are just like you guys. But
God has called us to do this. He's called us to the ministry
of this. And we only by grace can do what we do as preaching. And yes, there's gonna be errors.
There's gonna be times just like I've had to do here with you
guys in many cases. I'm saying something different
at this point in scripture The more I study this, I think that
I might have been wrong in this area. I might have been wrong
in this area. And here's the reason why. So I have to take
you to the word of God and everything. And thankfully you haven't run
me out on a rail for it. You know, why? Because we're
all learning, growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus. And so Peter, he missed it. Barnabas, he missed it. The
Jews, he misses it. And listen, we have brethren
around us that miss it. They may still be brethren. We
still have an opportunity to tell them, to preach to them,
to testify of the truth to them. And then the Holy Spirit is going
to confirm that in its time, or it's going to confirm that
they never believed it to begin with. They are not brothers in
Christ. They do not believe the true
gospel. They are holding to a self-righteousness gospel. and that's no gospel
at all. Unless anybody who preaches that,
teaches that, believes that, wants that, let them be accursed.
We pray that God would give them repentance to acknowledge the
truth of it. All right, does anybody have any questions? Comments? All right. Is it next week? Okay, next week,
I have volunteered again to fill in the pulpit for Delaware. They
have not contacted me yet, so they have not found a pastor.
So I'm still looking. I continue to pray for them in
that regard, that the Lord will give them a pastor. But anyway,
I'll be there next week, so we will not meet here. We will pick
up the following week after that, which is the The 4th, right? The 4th of July. It will be the 4th of July. We
will celebrate our independence from the law on the 4th of July. And then after that, we'll go
celebrate our independence from Britain. All right? The first part is a lot better.
All right, let's bow. Dear brothers, we thank you again
for the day. that you've given to us. We thank you for the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the gospel of free salvation. We thank you,
Father, that you've given us the word of God to teach us of
him, to show us his salvation. And Father Lord, we are so grateful
for the people of God that you've gathered together, that you've
given a love for this word, a love for this gospel. And Father Lord,
we pray, we do pray for our friends and our family and Those that
we know, Lord, that don't believe this gospel, Lord, we pray that
you'd be gracious and give them repentance to acknowledge the
truth of this very thing, that they might turn from their self-righteousness
that truly is what's inherent in this free will gospel, this
decisionism, this gospel that comes by conditions, Lord. We
pray, Lord, that they might be given to see the beauty of salvation
being freely given without any effort on our part, that truly
it is a work of grace alone and not by anything that we have
done. May they find you, our God, to be beautiful, righteous
and holy and just, perfect and wise, not because of pounded
it to them through the pulpit. The Father that because in the
heart you have given them a love for the God of the Bible and
not for the God of religion, not for the God of conditionalism,
not for the God of self-righteousness, the Lord that you have given
them a love for the God of your word. Father, Lord, be with us
this week and help us as we go. that we might be witnesses for
you, testifying of your grace and your mercy, testifying of
your gospel, or that we might be telling others of Jesus, not
of an opportunity, not of an invitation, not of an offer of
salvation, but declaring a finished, complete salvation. And Father,
we pray for those disciples, for those children, those sheep,
that are out there, wherever they be. Father, we pray that
through the preaching of that and the declaration of that gospel,
that you might gather your people into yourself. Lord, that even
now in this church, Lord, that you might add to the numbers
of this church, that you might add to the workers and the ministers
of the gospel here, the ones administrating your kingdom.
Lord, we pray that you might build your church as you have
promised. And we do trust you, Lord. We know that the success
of a church doesn't show itself in the number of people that
is attending, or in the amount of money that is being given,
or the kind of building that they're in, or how many programs
they have running. But the success of the church
is in how faithful they are in the preaching of the gospel.
So Father, we just ask that you would keep us faithful, and that
you would build your church here so that others might partake
in the ministry of this gospel, that we might be edified even
by others outside of what we've had here before, Lord, that seeing
Christ from different angles in the lives of other people
and how he has worked in their lives. Father, what an encouragement
that is. And so we ask, Lord, that you
might do that. And again, we thank you for each brother and
sister that is here. We ask, Lord, that you just might be
with those that are here that have not professed Christ. Lord,
I pray for them, Lord, that if they are yours, that you would
give them belief of the truth, that they might come to an acknowledgement
of their need for Christ, and that they might come before you
and present themselves for baptism, because they might be included
in this beautiful church that you've given to us. And Father,
that they might show forth that profession of faith in the waters
of baptism, and then from that, Lord, begin to learn of Christ,
and to be partakers of the ministry of this gospel, and in the ordinances
of the church, Lord, we just thank you for it. And we ask
you, Lord, in advance to make that happen. And so we just give
it all to you, Lord, knowing that you are the only one that
can give life, that can give faith, and that can draw those
to yourself. And we just pray it all in Christ's
name. Amen.