Pouring forth the blood of tears
Let us join our prayers to help them Let our faith and love abound
Let us pray that holy manna may be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for mourners
to their Savior they can view. Does anybody have another song How about one more, hymn number
180. In the same book, old school hymn book. 180 is well my soul. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well It is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control That
Christ has regarded my helpless disdain And hath shed His own
blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Now, this is the verse I like
right here. My sin, all the bliss of this glorious thought, my
sin not in part, But the whole is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord haste the day when the
faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound. And the Lord shall be said, even
so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well It is well with my
soul. Amen. Does anybody have a song
that you'd like to sing? Our gracious heavenly Father,
we thank you for another day that you have given to us, a
beautiful day this morning, Lord, that you've given us some sunshine
and cool breeze. Father, we thank you for this
opportunity that we have another venture in our church's life
that you've brought to us, Lord, and meeting in the house once
again. And Lord, we are thankful that we have a place to meet.
We thank you, Lord, for all that you've given to us in the past,
for the provisions that you've allowed us to meet in the building
that we did for so many years, Lord, and it was a gracious gift
by you and we glorify and honor you for that. And Father, even
now that as we have to move back into a house, Lord, our hearts
and our souls are not downcast because of that, because we know
that the church is where your people meet together. And we
are so grateful today to be able to gather once again. for the
preaching and the singing and the fellowship. Lord, we just
pray that today that we might be pleasing to you. We pray father
that you just might help us in our worship to cause our hearts
to not only rejoice in truth but father that we might truly
from our from our hearts proclaim the majesty and the glory of
who you are. Father, we pray that our worship
is in spirit and in truth as you have asked You have to give it to us, Lord.
You have to give us that ability to do that, because our flesh
profits nothing. So we ask that the Spirit come
and aid us in this worship today, or that you might help me speak
and preach the word of God as it's being opened up. These brethren
that are here today, that you might give them ears to hear,
that you might open up their understanding, that the Spirit
might apply the things that are being said to their heart and
to teach them that Christ might be glorified in all that we do
and say today, Father. And so we ask now for this help.
We ask, Lord, that you would just be with us during this time. We pray for our members that
are not here. Lord, we ask that you would be with them, that
you would minister to them, that you would speak to their hearts
this week during their studies, Lord, that you might encourage
them and that they might be back with us soon. Father Lord, again,
we thank you for all the things that you've given to us and we
ask you to bless this day and this time together now in Jesus'
name, amen. All right, Galatians chapter
one. Galatians chapter one. This is a little bit different
for us here. It's been a while since we've met in homes and
getting kind of Acclimated to that, we may change a few things
up here and there as we go along, but we'll try to continue on
with our worship as we normally do, but how we do it, where I
stand or how you sit and how we do things might change a little
bit depending on how everybody feels about things, but we'll
work all those kinks out eventually. Galatians chapter one, we began
looking last week at chapters, or excuse me, verses
13, 14, and 15. And we saw where Paul had told
the Galatians in his letter to them that the gospel that he
had received from Jesus Christ was not after man or by man. We've seen that up in the first
verse, and we've also seen that down later in verse 11, we've seen that Paul said that
this gospel that he had received of Christ is not a gospel that
is after the law. It's not a gospel that is after
the traditions of men, okay? The Judaizers was coming in,
they were saying that to be saved that you had to keep the law,
that you had to continue in the in the traditions of the fathers,
and if you didn't follow after those things, then you either
wasn't saved or couldn't be saved, or if you were saved, that you
could continue to be saved if you didn't keep those things
up. And as I mentioned before, we hear that being preached in
so many churches around the world today, is that there is this
condition that you must meet to be saved, and then once you
are saved, that you have to keep up a righteousness of your own
that if you don't, then you'll be out of the will of God, that
you'll be backslidden or whatever the case
might be, that there is this form of righteousness that we
have to keep in keeping of the law. And Paul has been dealing
with these Judaizers just about everywhere he goes. Matter of
fact, I believe that these very Judaizers are the ones that Paul
speaks of whenever he talks about having a thorn in his flesh,
that these messengers of Satan that are following him around
and going behind him and all the churches where the gospel
has been established is going behind and trying to draw people
back into Judaic worship, back into law keeping and back into
the traditions of the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews. And
so Paul has taken us so far on this letter, has taken us right
straight to the point of the matter, and that is that anyone
who preaches a gospel other than a free grace, free salvation,
sovereign grace message, they're not preaching the right gospel.
They're preaching a false gospel. Oh, fire church, get going. Apologize
if my dog gets to barking, whoever's listening or watching. So Paul has gotten right straight
to the point that there is only one gospel and that that gospel
is a gospel of free salvation. We looked at that in Corinthians.
We've seen that whenever the Spirit is given to us, the Spirit
is gonna testify to a gospel of what has been freely given
to us. Not what you've earned, not what you've worked for, not
what, in a condition that you've made, God give it to you because
you did something. Okay, that is not free, that
is wages, remember. And so Paul is saying, listen,
whenever you preach that message, whenever you preach a gospel
that is filled with conditions that you must keep, whether it
be for salvation or to keep salvation, that that is a false gospel,
that it is no gospel at all, that it is a perversion of Christ
himself, and that you are persuading men and not God, and that you
are not a servant of Christ. And yet there's so many people
that want to say that, hey, oh, well, these guys are just doing
a good job, they're doing what they can, or they just don't
understand and all like that, but yet they're still serving
the Lord. Paul here, by the Holy Spirit, says they're not serving
Christ. They're not serving Christ. No
matter how much they use the name Jesus, no matter how much
they use the word Christianity, no matter how much they use the
word gospel, that does not mean that they are preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
a gospel that is the only gospel, and it is a gospel that is exclusive
to all others. I mean, there is no other gospel,
Paul said. And so in verse 12, He may have
mentioned that he had not received that gospel of man, neither was
he taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus revealed
this gospel to him directly. And so he's laying the weight
of this delivering of the gospel to these Galatians who have quit
listening to Paul and started listening to these Judaizers.
And in doing so, they have moved away, as he said there, I marvel
that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace or into the gospel of grace of Christ, unto another gospel,
which is no gospel. And then in verse 13, we begin
to look last week. He said, for ye have heard of
my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion, how that
beyond measure I persecuted the church of God. So now Paul is
bringing up the very zealousness of himself. He said, listen,
I was the Jew among Jews. I was the most religious person
you could ever see in that religion, in that tradition, in that way
of thinking. I was the most zealous. You couldn't
have gotten more religious than I was. And he said, all those
things that I did, it's not necessarily in this passage, but in other
passages that Paul writes about, he says, all those things that
I thought were my game, that he was doing to gain a righteousness
before God. See, all the law keeping that
he was trying to do, he was doing to keep a righteousness before
God. All the tithing, all the outward works that he would do,
the traditions of the fathers that he would keep, and even
the persecution of the church itself Paul thought was in keeping
with the righteousness before God that would make him acceptable
or keep him acceptable before God. And Paul himself said that
whenever I, that gospel that I was running in, that I thought
was the gospel, what I thought was the teaching of God, what
I thought was the message of our God, he said, all that I
count as done. He said, I counted as done because
none of that will bring righteousness. The Bible says that there are
none righteous, there's none righteous, no not one. The Bible
says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. that he didn't
say, and I've mentioned this to you guys before, he didn't
say all of our unrighteousnesses are as filthy rags. He said all
of our righteousness. That means that in the flesh
that anything that we do the very, very best that we can be
and we can do is filthy rags before God because he is holy.
That's the reason that we, that people get off in this area whenever
we're looking at law and grace and those people who believe
that they can keep a righteousness before God by obeying the word
of God, by obeying the scriptures, that God is going to accept them
or keep them. Because of that, they have a
misunderstanding. They have their standard. They're
looking at their standard as either they're setting the standard
by themselves or by somebody else. See, the standard is Christ. Christ is the standard. But what
we, in our minds, in our flesh, in our carnal way of thinking,
we have an understanding of this. Well, I'm better than so-and-so.
Well, so-and-so doesn't do, you know, they don't do as good as
I do. Or hey, I'm keeping all these and, you know, I'm setting
the standard by myself. Whenever I first became a Christian,
I couldn't do, you know, I was a drunk or I was a whatever,
whatever you was. You know, I was a drug addict.
I was a prostitute. I was a thief. I was a murderer.
Whatever the thing you want to say about yourself. But now I've
come so far and look at how much sin that I've quit doing. See,
you're judging yourself by yourself. That's what we do. We like to
judge ourselves by ourselves because we think that we've become
more holy in and of ourselves. And see, that's not what salvation
is all about, brethren. Salvation is not about making
you holy. Salvation is you submitting to
the righteousness, which is Christ. And that's even what Jesus and
what Paul and everything has been saying. He said they didn't
receive these things because they did not submit to the righteousness,
which is in Christ. See, they don't submit to the
righteousness which is in Christ. And then he's talking about the
Jews, but that's even... So with us, the Gentiles, we
don't want to submit to the righteousness of Christ alone. See, for us,
we think it's something that we have to do. And that the righteousness
which is of Christ alone for our salvation just drives at
our pride. We want to have a part of something. We want to think that we have
control of our destiny, that we have the free will, the free
choice, the free decision that God would not transgress our
freedom to make us this or that. When all through the scriptures,
the Bible says he does. He transgressed people's free
will all the time through the scriptures. Did Jonah want to
go to Nineveh? Y'all know the story of Jonah?
Did he want to go to Nineveh? No, he didn't. What did he do?
He said, Nineveh's that way. I'm going to go over here. So
what did he do? He hopped a ship to go over there.
What did God do? Had a fish swallow him up and
take him to Nineveh, spit him out on the ground. Did that God transgress Jonah's
Pray well? He absolutely did. He absolutely
did. See, we think that we have this choice
to do things and by doing that, it all goes back to the garden. The deceiving nature of Satan
and the world system that he has created is you can be like God. You can
make the decision. You can make the choice. You
can have your own right. You can be like God. You can
do a righteousness that will make you acceptable. And so every
time we think that by the law or by some commandments or by
some work within ourselves, we can make ourselves acceptable
to God and righteous before him in some way or another, and we'll
say the things like, well, yes, no, I'm not perfect. But I am
becoming more holy. I'm not like I used to be in
my old life. Well, Paul here, he said, listen,
even after he was saved, he said, oh, wretched man that I am. He
says, I want to do the things that I want to do, I don't do.
The things that I don't do, that I shouldn't do, those are the
things that I do. And I find that there's a law
within me that whenever I want to do good, evil's present. that
I want to try to do the law of God, but in my flesh, I cannot. My flesh, in my flesh, is, well,
it's no good thing. I want to do it, but I can't
because there's no good in me. And see, that's the mentality
of the Apostle Paul. That's what he's trying to convey to us over
and over in all these epistles, just not in Galatians. But in
almost every epistle that he writes is that there has been
established a righteousness for God's people that is not from
them. It's a righteousness outside
of them that is foreign to them. And that righteousness is not
earned by a condition. That righteousness is imputed
by sovereign grace. God imputes that. He lays it
to their account. He gives it to them freely without
their doing anything, asking for it, working for it, saying
anything. We don't even have the knowledge
of it until the Lord comes and gives us the revelation of that,
and we'll get into that here in just a minute. So Paul here
is saying that this gospel is a gospel that is not only given
to me directly by Christ, but it's also a gospel that's revealed
to us. See, we can't even know this gospel unless we are born
from above. And so he goes on to say that
I have, done all this wonderful religious stuff and everything
and how bad I was, and he says, and profited in the Jews' religion
above many of my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my father. But there was a difference. There was a change. Something
happened. This is where I wanted to come
back to today. We talked a little bit about
it last, last week and I mentioned to you that what we see here,
what the Apostle Paul is bringing forth in his own biography here,
is basically the experience of every child of
grace. He says, I continued in making
a righteousness for myself, but When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me, that's where the difference comes. When do we
stop looking outwardly to things that we do for righteousness
and start looking to Christ alone? Whenever it pleases God to reveal
His Son in us. And we're gonna talk about what
that means here in just a second, but a couple more recaps of what
from last week, what we talked about last week. See, Paul was
saying here that there was a pleasure of God to reveal Christ in him. And we read several verses last
week. Matter of fact, if you didn't write them down, I'll
go over them here quickly again, Psalm 22, nine. But thou art
he that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast. Jeremiah 1 5 says, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee, before thou camest forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. And so we see that there was
an experience of grace that was given to the child of grace,
that even before we were born, God had made this choice of who
would be his people, and even down to the very ministry of
the gospel that they would carry out. Turn with me, if you would,
to Romans, because I want to prove from Scripture that this
is not a Baptist teaching, although we as Baptists, we believe that,
but it's not a theological system that we're trying to follow,
but that this is the very words of Scripture. Look, if you would, at Romans
chapter 9. And I'm going to start reading at verse
7 or verse 6. It says, not as though the word
of God had taken effect, for they are not all Israel, which
are of Israel. OK, so not everyone who is of
the nation of Israel, because his argument here is, you know,
some Ethnic Israelites are not being saved, and they're thinking
that God's promise is falling because they thought that every
Israelite was going to be saved, okay? But Paul, beginning actually
in verse chapter 8, but mostly in chapter 9 and through chapter
11, is proving and showing to them how God's Word is not taking
none effect. that it is true, that it hasn't
fallen, that God's word is consistent. It's just that we've had our
misconceptions down, that there's not every person in Israel is
gonna be saved, that only a remnant of Israel will be saved. There'll
only be a portion of Israel. And that's the same out of every
tribe, language, nation, and tongue. God has elected out of
every ethnic group, if I could use that phrase, a remnant of
people to save, out of. We have been saved out of every
language, nation, and tongue, okay? And so here, Paul is making
this case that God's word hasn't failed. Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. You're not the
children of God because it never was meant to be that way. The
New Testament always, always, always gives light to that which
is in the Old Testament. The New Testament always is the
commentary upon the Old Testament. And whenever we see something
veiled in the Old Testament and then it is expounded upon and
the light is shed upon that in the New Testament, then we take
that greater light That's what it means, and so whenever we
see here that in the Old Testament, Abraham said that your seed is
gonna be as many as the stars. But then in the New Testament,
we find out that he's talking about Christ as the seed. Not
as of many, but as one, Christ. And that in him, there are many
seeds. But it's not an ethnic seed,
it's a spiritual seed. And so Christ, who is the true
elect of God, Out of him comes all the elect children of God.
Okay? So it's a spiritual seed. So
because they are the seed of Abraham, they are all children,
but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are
the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For
this is the word of promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father, Isaac. And here
it is, verse 11, for the children being not yet born. See, they hadn't even been born
yet. They were in the womb, even before they were in the womb,
even before they were conceived, even before those twin brothers
was conceived in their mother's belly. because we already know that
this was said before anything had happened. God had already
told Abraham before Abraham and Hagar laid together and had Ishmael. God had already told Abraham
that he would have a son of promise. So see, God had already made
the choice even before conception had happened with Sarah. So it
wasn't just in the womb, that they were in the womb and God
made a choice. All right, well, Isaac and, or
Jacob and Esau are in the womb and I think, no, it was even
before that. Matter of fact, if we look through
what scripture teaches, when was Jacob's name written down?
The Bible says that names were written in the Lamb's Book of
Life before the foundation of the world. Now let me just, as
a side note, say, what makes us think that we have a choice
in our salvation whenever God had already made that choice
before the foundation of the world? And I know some people
are gonna say, well, God is not in time, he's in eternity, and
time means no matter, so he's in all times at the same time,
so if he wrote it down, whenever it says that, that there is no
time limit for God and everything. I don't know about that. My mind
can't comprehend eternity, can't comprehend something outside
of time, because we've been confined to time ever since we've been
born. Ever since creation began, it
began, and God set time in its place, and we've been under time
since, what was it, day three or four? I can't remember now.
I have to go back and look, okay? It wasn't day one, by the way,
but it was day two or three, something like that. We've been
constrained by time, and God speaks to us in time frames. And he says, before the foundation,
before I set time and place, before I called creation into
existence, I already knew you. I already loved you. I already blessed you with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I already
wrote your name down in the book because you're mine. I already
gave you to the man Jesus Christ whom I have brought forth to
be your Redeemer. When you come into existence
and you sin before me and you become what you are, I have already
called you by name. By name, not by group. He didn't
call an elect by group. He didn't call my people or believers,
he called you by name and wrote it down. Now, I don't think God
has to write things down, right? We know God knows everything.
He uses those as pictures for us to understand, right? God
wrote it down, but I mean, I'm not saying that there isn't a
book either. I'm not saying that either, because it talks about
it over and over, and the Bible says that at the last, that books
will be opened. and people will be judged. So
I'm not saying that there's not a book, but I think there's a
book. And those names were written
before the foundation of the world. Now, go back to our reading
here, back to chapter nine, verse 11. For the children being not
yet born, neither having done any good or evil. So God's choice
is not based upon good, and it's not based upon evil. And I've
had people that's tried to woo me to a different way of thinking
that said, oh, see here, so you're talking about a God who doesn't
base his election or his damnation upon sin. People are thrown into
hell for sinning, but God doesn't do that based
upon sin because it's neither good or evil. Listen, God made
the choice, and it wasn't upon whether or not the child had
done good or evil. Matter of fact, what did Jacob
do? Jacob did more evil than he did good, right? Esau was
the faithful son. Esau was the faithful son who
was doing what his father wanted him to do, who was out there
hunting, who was out there providing meat for the family, who was
coming back in and taking care of his father. It was Esau who
was doing what was right, Jacob was the surplanter. Jacob was
the one who was laying around in the tents with his mommy.
Instead of getting out there and working, instead of being
a man and doing what men should do, what did Jacob do? He laid around the house with
his mommy. And he was a surplanter. He tried
to steal the blessing and he did. He stole the blessing from
Esau. But see, that was the whole guy's purpose. That was all God's
purpose. So, it doesn't matter whether
it's good or evil, God says, neither having done any good
or evil, why? Why is God doing it this way? That the purpose of God according
to election might stand. See, God has a purpose in election.
God's purpose in election is that so that no man can boast. How is it that God, whenever
all this is all said and done, and we stand before God, that
God can receive all the glory, and man doesn't get any of that
glory except what God gives to that man. The Bible says that
we will be glorified with Christ Jesus, but that glory didn't
come from us doing anything. It was shed on us. That glory
was given to us. So how is it that God, whenever
we get before Him at the end of time, how is it that there
are going to be people that are there and no man is going to
be able to boast in His presence? It's because salvation was never
put in the hands of man to begin with. It wasn't for you to choose. It wasn't for you to make a righteousness
of your own, to keep a righteousness of your own. It was all according
to election. God's purpose of election to
elect a people for himself and to impute to them a righteousness
they could never keep of their own. So God says that the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. So the purpose of God according
to election is not according to works. God doesn't look down
in time and see what you do for him. It's not of works. He doesn't
look down and see your faith. Matter of fact, if he looks down
to see something, he will see, excuse me, he will not see faith. The only way any man has faith
in Christ Jesus is because God has first given it to him. And
we've talked about this before, brother, and I don't mean to
get too far off track, but the faith that we put in the Lord
Jesus Christ is not a natural faith. I've heard the example
all my life that, you know, like this chair, you know, I put my
faith in that chair. If I sit in that chair, it's
going to hold me up. Okay. I have faith in that chair. I have faith in an airplane.
Whenever an airplane takes off, and that airplane's gonna get
me to my destination, or if I get in my car and I have faith, that
car's gonna get me to wherever I'm gonna go, okay? Well, that's
faith. God has given us faith, but we
just have to take our faith and the object that we put it in,
we put it in to Christ. Our faith is in Christ. Well,
the Bible tells us that not all men have faith. Not all men have faith. So that
tells me, especially whenever we see that the fruit of the
Spirit is faith, One of the fruits of the Spirit is faith. It's
a spiritual gift. If it's that, then not all men
have faith. Then that means that faith has
to be given to us, right? It's a gift of God. Faith is
a gift of God. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
So faith isn't something that in my natural self I can place
in Christ Jesus. So the faith that I put in this
chair is a natural faith. The faith that I put in Christ
is a spiritual faith because it's been spiritually given to
me. It's a different kind of faith. And we don't have that
faith until we've been born from above. We've been made spiritual.
We're spiritually dead. The Bible says that we are dead
in our trespasses and sin, that we are spiritually dead to the
things of God. The only way that we can know
those things and the only way that we can experience those
things and the only way that we can exercise those things
is by the spirit of God in us. So it says here, it's not of
words, but of him that calleth. The purpose of God according
to election is of him that calleth. That's the one who does it. God
calls us. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. That's an affront to most people,
to think that God hates somebody. Why? Because from every one of
us in here, from a very small child, we've been told that God
loves everybody. See, that's why I don't go around
telling everybody that God loves you. God loves you. I don't say that because I don't
know. I don't know who God loves. Now, if they believe the gospel,
I can bear witness that if you believe in Christ Jesus, that
God loves you. because the ones who believe on Christ Jesus has
had the love of God shed abroad in our heart, and the Bible says
that we love him because he first loved us, and that he loved his
people with an everlasting love, and those people that he loved,
he gives faith, and he gives faith to those that are his.
So I can assume that upon people who love the gospel, the true
gospel. Now, some are gonna say, well,
that's not very nice for God to hate some and not love others
and not be according how good we are or how bad we are. I thought
that's how we measured everything, is how good and bad we are. See,
that's again, that's the thoughts and the traditions of men. Men
have taught us that we are judged upon what we do good or what
we do bad, right? The whole Catholic system that
has influenced most of quote-unquote Christianity today has always held that there is
a justification of works, that we are justified by our works,
that there is some grace and works infused together. Brethren,
the Bible doesn't teach any such thing. It is all of grace or
it's nothing, is what the Bible says. And so Paul here, whenever
he brings up the fact that there is a righteousness that God has
done in giving to some and not to others. The ones that he loved,
he'd give that righteousness to. The ones that he hated, he'd
give that righteousness to. And listen, nothing in the ones
that he loved, they didn't do anything to deserve that, they
didn't do anything, again, they've done nothing good or bad to become
the recipient of God's love. Same thing with the people who
God hates. Before they had done anything
good or bad, He chose not to set His love upon them. Whenever
He created mankind in Adam, He created them natural. He created
them of the flesh, of the earth, earthy. He created them void
of the Spirit of God, and they, in and of themselves, because
of the nature they were created with, They cannot keep the law
of God. And the law was given, according
to Romans, the law was given so that Adam's sin might take
place and that sin would pass upon all his people. And out
of that, the Lord's people is part of that one lump of Adam
in the flesh. But in the spirit, we are of
Christ. And he has placed that righteousness upon us, his people. For verse 15 says, for he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Is your God that you worship,
that you love, that you adore, that you serve, a God that in
your worldview, your biblical view, a God who can say, I don't
have to give you mercy, but I can give you mercy. If not, then
you don't have the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible can
give mercy on whom he will give mercy and compassion on whom
he is sovereign to do that. And so Paul then says in verse
16, look, if that's the case, if God has a purpose according
to the election, and it ain't not anything good or anything
bad that you have done, that is the call for God's calling
you, okay? God calls you based upon his
pleasure, upon his decision. So if it isn't got anything to
do with you, even before you even conceived in the womb, God
made that choice. He set you apart before the womb. Paul says, so then it's not of
him that willeth. You don't receive this place
with God. You do not receive the love of
God. You do not see the election,
the calling, the love, the redemption, the forgiveness, the salvation
of Christ. You do not receive that by your
will. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's not according to your will.
It's not according to your actions. but of God that showeth mercy.
And we just learned in the previous verse that God gives that mercy
to whom He wills. He gives compassion upon whom
He wills, right? Now, back to Galatians. Hush, hey, hush. Back to Galatians. So with that being said, we see
that Paul has been revealed this gospel by Jesus Christ. He has preached
to them this gospel of that type of salvation and electing salvation. The purpose of God according
to election is what Paul preached as his gospel. And these men
were coming in and saying, wait a minute, it's of works also. You gotta keep your works. And
so Paul began to say, listen, I already been there, done that,
tried that. And so in verse 14, verse 15,
he talks about how he, above everybody else, did exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased
God who separated me from the womb to reveal His Son in me,
that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood, Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them
which were apostles before me, but I went again into Arabia
and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went
up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw
I none save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which
I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Afterwards, I
came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and was unknown by
face under the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But they
that heard only that he which persecuted us in the times past
now preaches the faith which once he destroyed, and they glorified
God in me. So what was the difference in
Paul? Paul said, I was zealous for religion. I was zealous for
the traditions of men. I was zealous in a righteousness
that we imparted upon ourselves by our obedience to God, our
faithfulness to the Torah, our faithfulness to the commandments
of Moses, that we serve Moses diligently. But Paul said, whenever
you serve Moses diligently, you're not serving Christ. See, Moses faded away. Moses was insufficient. That's
why a New Testament had to come. That's why the Old Covenant was
the Old Covenant, and we have the New Covenant, which is a
better covenant, according to Hebrews. And Paul said that,
I didn't know that, that because of my dead in spiritualness,
my being dead in spiritual life, that I did not know that. I really
thought I was serving God. But whenever God revealed his
son in me, my message changed. When God reveals his son in us,
whenever we are given spiritual life and then we hear and read
and begin to see the gospel of electing grace, sovereign grace, as Jesus preached, as Peter preached,
as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John preached. The first church preached. The
first church is preached. If we begin to preach that message,
see that message, the Bible says that our thinking changes. We're
converted from thinking that we can gain a righteousness by
ourself, by keeping the law. And Paul is saying, listen, these
men that are coming to you, they're taking you backwards instead
of forwards. They're taking you backwards.
They're pointing you back to Moses. They're pointing you back
to yourself, which in and of yourself, you can do no good.
They're pointing back to you to do something in your flesh,
but you can't do nothing in the flesh to please God. And so in
conversion, we change from thinking that righteousness is made by
law-keeping, by works, by decisions, by free will, by conditions,
and we turn and trust in Christ and His finished work alone as
our whole, complete salvation. And whenever we do that, people
take note of that. They don't take necessarily note
of how holy we've become. They take a note of who our hope
lies in. It's not in our law keeping.
It's in Christ. Now, is there going to be a difference
in us? Yes. The Lord's going to lead us and direct us and
guide us into good works. The Lord is going to compel us
and in our heart we're going to desire holiness, we're going
to desire to live right before God. We're going to desire those
things, but brethren, that is not the basis and the grounds
of our fellowship, righteousness before God, acceptance before
God, anything. Christ has given us faith to
trust in Him, not to work out our salvation ourselves. Now
this word here in verse 16, to reveal his son in me. This word here is apocalypto. Does that word kind of sound
familiar to you? An English word that we might
have, apocalypto. What was thinking, thinking what
that comes from? What we get that word from? Apocalypse,
apocalypse. Now when we think apocalypse,
we're thinking like end of the world zombies, right? Bad Max
or something like that. Matter of fact, the Revelation
of Jesus Christ, that's an apocalyptic book. And people think it's an
apocalyptic book, and they are thinking in the terms of the
end of the world, which there is the end of the world is spoken
of in Revelation. But the Revelation of Jesus Christ,
that book, is not necessarily about that. It's about Jesus
Christ. But what's the revelation of
Jesus Christ? Matter of fact, let me just read
it real quick. You don't have to turn there, but let me just read it real
quick. The very beginning. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him to show his servants things which must
shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it by his
angel unto the servant John, who bare record of the word of
God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that
he saw. So the revelation is about Jesus
Christ. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's not the revelation by Jesus Christ, although it
did come from Jesus Christ. It's the revelation of who Christ
is. The whole book of Revelation
is a book about Jesus Christ, not about the end times, although
the end times is talked about in some degree towards the end
of the letter. But this right here is a revelation
of Jesus Christ. Well, this word reveal, that's
what it means. It means to take off, it comes
from two words, oppo, which means to take off, and collupto, which
means cover or hid. So in essence, it means to uncover
or to take off the cover, to unhide, it means to reveal, okay? I've got a phone in my pocket,
right? You can't necessarily see it,
but whenever I, Pull it out. I've revealed what was in my
pocket. It was already there, though,
wasn't it? You didn't see it. You didn't know it was there. No one knows it's there. I might
have even forgot it's there. I may be walking around forgetting
that it was even there, didn't even know it was there. But all
of a sudden, I stick my hand in my pocket, and it's like,
hey. I'll give you a better example.
This used to happen all the time. My wife, she has like four or
five different purses and different coats and stuff. And it may be hung up in a closet,
and it's not been worn for like over a year. And this happened
actually one time. She puts that thing on, sticks
her hand in the pocket, and guess what? She pulls out $100 bill. That thing was there all along.
We didn't know it was there. But all of a sudden, she pulls
it out and reveals something that was already there. She made
manifest something that was already there. It wasn't seen. That's what this word means.
And Paul is saying, but when it pleased God to reveal His
Son in me, to throw back the covers and reveal something that
was already there. God was in Paul, but it wasn't
yet seen. until God pulled back the cover,
until God revealed Christ in him. Same thing with us, brother. We are quickened of God and the
spirit of God comes in us and it is there and it may be there
and not known until God by the gospel reveals that. How do we know that we are of
God? We believe his gospel. That's the difference between
quickening and conversion. To be quickened of God means
to be made spiritually alive. To be converted is those who
are spiritually aware and have spiritual knowledge now, spiritual
understanding of spiritual ability, whenever they hear the gospel,
see it as the truth and they turn from the false gospels.
And Paul here is leading up and he says, listen, The traditions
of men I was steeped in, but when God pulled back the cover
and revealed Christ in me, guess what? My gaze turned away from
the religious things of the traditions of men, and trying to make my
own righteousness before God, and thinking I was in control
of everything, and He revealed this to me. And the Spirit of
God attested that that was true, and showed me that that was wrong.
and convinced me that that in and of itself, and guess what,
and it is, it's sin. For us to think that we can gain
a righteousness before God by our own abilities, that in and
of itself is sin. We are missing the mark. The
Bible says that for the wages of sin is death. The word sin,
it means to miss the mark. We have fallen short of the glory
of God. Anything that we do in our flesh
falls short of the glory of God. That's why I said at the very
beginning of this, we judge ourselves off of a standard of either we
judge ourselves by ourselves or by somebody else. But the
standard is Christ Jesus. And Paul, when God revealed Christ
in him, realized that the standard was higher than he thought. He
thought the standard was, hey, I'm just as good at, matter of
fact, look what he said there. He said, and I profited in the
Jews' religion above many of my equals in my own nation. He was judging himself with each
other. He said, listen, I was the Pharisee of Pharisees, judging
himself by others. And what do we do? We judge ourselves
by others or by our past life, but that is not the standard.
The standard is Christ Jesus. The standard is God's holiness,
God's righteousness. And the Bible says that we all
have sinned. We all have fallen short of that
glory. Therefore, nobody can attain
to that glory by following what these Judaizers were saying.
By following what all these preachers that are out here preaching,
all this kind of stuff is preaching. You cannot attain a righteousness
that is going to be acceptable to God. Your only hope is Christ
alone. And faith only looks to Christ.
It doesn't look to you and Christ. You know, we use the theological
terms monergism and synergism, right? Kids know my gaming name is Monergist
Mike. Well, that word monergist means
a work of one. Salvation is a monergistic work,
it's a work of one, Christ. Synergism is a work of combining
or two, working together, a joint effort. And there are preachers
out there all over the place today that are preaching a gospel
of synergism. You and me, Jesus, we sure fooled
them all. That's about as unbiblical as
I used to sing that song. Praise the Lord, he's giving
me repentance to know the difference now. It isn't about what me and
Jesus do together. It's only about what Jesus has
done. That's monergism. That's Christ alone for salvation. And Paul says, when God revealed
his son in me, I immediately quit preaching this and I began
to preach to the heathens this. I began to preach this, and whenever
I did, those who had been given ears to hear, spiritual ears,
spiritual eyes to see, spiritual understanding to receive and
to know, what did they do? They glorified God in me. They
glorified God in me. Now, is this true of every child
of grace? Well, I believe it is. I believe that Paul is conveying
that in his conversion from the traditions of men and their false
gospels was the revealing and the uncovering of the Christ
that was already in him. And to make manifest what was
already true and that Christ was in him by quickening or being
formed in him and that the life of Christ in him bears testimony
of the truth of the true gospel. Now we see this in other places
throughout the scripture that whenever the spirit comes in,
he bears witness to Christ, he bears witness to the truth. Now
look at, if you would, Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter
four. Just a few pages over from where
we're at. Galatians chapter four, look
at verse 19 with me. It said, my little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."
Until Christ be formed in you. So Paul here is saying that we're
going to continue in travail and preaching the gospel until
Christ is formed in them. Now granted, we're going to be
preaching to people and Christ may never be formed into them.
But we don't know who Christ is, so we just keep preaching
the gospel. That's Christ's business, not ours. We don't make quickened
people. We don't quicken people by preaching. God quickens them by the Spirit.
But we continue to travail in preaching the gospel again and
again to them until Christ be formed in you. But this phrase,
Christ being formed in you, that's what Paul was talking about when
Christ was revealed in him, whenever he was whenever he was formed
in him. So we see that in quickening,
what happens? Christ comes into us. Christ comes into us and is formed
in us. That's what Paul was talking
about. Look at Galatians chapter six and verse 15. Paul goes on to write this, for
in Christ Jesus, In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." See, it
doesn't matter whether you're a Jew or Gentile. It doesn't
matter what your religion is. It doesn't matter what form of
religion that you're following after. That doesn't matter. That's
not what's going to get you accepted before God. That's not what's
going to cause you to know and to understand the spiritual things
of God. The only thing that's going to do that is for Christ
to be formed in you, or as it says here, for you to become
a new creature. See, Paul was made a new creature.
By the Spirit of God, by Christ coming and being formed in him,
Paul became a new creation, a new creature. Look at, if you would, at Colossians chapter one. Look with me, if you would, at
verse 27. It says, to whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, which is Christ in you. The hope of glory. See, if we're gonna be given
a hope, it's a hope in Christ alone. You know, we talk about
that a lot, right? That our hope is in Christ. Our
trust is in Christ. Our faith is in Christ. That's
all talking about the same thing. That whenever we speak of faith
or trust or belief, we're speaking of hoping on Christ, not hoping
in, oh man, I hope it's so. I just hope it's so. No, it's
hoping is to place trust in that we are trusting that Christ alone
is our salvation. We're trusting that we are His.
Our hope is in Christ. We hope in Christ. It means an
earnest expectation, right? An earnest expectation. That
means we're expecting that this salvation is ours because Christ
promised it. Christ paid for it. Christ alone. We're not hoping in ourselves.
We know that there's no hope in us. That whole hope is in
Christ. And so that hope that is in Christ,
but it says here that it is Christ that is in you. So before we
could ever hope in Christ alone, before we can ever place faith
in Christ alone as our salvation. Meaning that we turn away from
all the traditions and religious workings of man that we are so
busy about in churches today and just resting in Christ alone
in his finished work. No man can do that until Christ
is in him. Because it's Christ in you who
becomes the hope of glory. Look with me if you would to
John chapter 14. I mentioned these verses a few
weeks ago, but I want to read them again here. Look at John
chapter 14 and verse 16. Jesus says this, he says, and
I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever. Now, Jesus, again, Jesus is saying,
I'm gonna give you another comforter. Now, whenever he says, I'm gonna
give you another comforter, I don't believe that that is talking
about another comforter as in number, as in I'm, here's a comforter,
here's a comforter, and here's a comforter. This comforter's
not gonna be here, this comforter, but I'm gonna send another comforter,
okay, as in somebody else, okay? And I know, and people listening
and watching and everything, is gonna take issue with this
because this is one of the verses that they go to to prove that
there are three separate and distinct persons in the Godhead.
Because they say, there's Christ, he's praying to the Father, and
he's talking about himself praying to the Father, and that he himself
is gonna send another comforter, speaking of the Holy Spirit,
okay? And I know that's what is being
said by a lot of people, but they're reading into these scriptures
More than that's actually there, right? And I think the Bible
will lend to that truth if we keep reading. Now look at it. It says, and I will pray the
Father. And whenever we speak of the
Father, who are we speaking of? We are speaking about Jehovah.
We are speaking about that invisible God. We are speaking about who
God is in his divine essence, that divine God. We are speaking
of the Father, right? But who that God is in
His invisible essence, that invisible God who no man has seen at any
time, became flesh. That was Christ Jesus. That invisible
God who revealed Himself as the Father and the Word and the Holy
Ghost, He indwells the man, Jesus Christ. All the fullness of the
Godhead dwells in Him bodily. That the Father dwells in Him,
the Word dwells in Him, the Holy Spirit dwells in Him. Why? Because
they are all the same One Spirit God. And that that God was known
as the Father. He is known as the Father. And
Christ, being the everlasting Father, has become flesh. He has become flesh. God has
become flesh in Christ. And then the spirit is the spirit
of Christ. But notice, if you will, here,
he said, I will pray the father and he shall give you another
comforter that he may abide with you forever. OK, Christ was here
in his manhood and he wasn't to be here forever with us, that
he went away. And even Jesus said, if I don't
go away, the comforter will not come. I have to go away and I
will send a new comforter. Okay, now Christ was their comforter
while he was here. But now he's about to leave and
he's saying, I'm gonna send unto you another comforter. But look
who he says he sends. Look at verse 17. Even, or that
means the same person, okay. Even the spirit of truth, that's
another name for the comforter he's sending. The spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. Now, wait a minute, who's dwelling
with them right now? As he's speaking, Christ is.
Christ is dwelling with them, God with you. God is with them,
that's what his name, right? Emmanuel, isn't that what his
name was? God said that he will be called Emmanuel, which means
God with you. that he tabernacled among men,
he dwelt among men, Jesus dwelleth within. So Jesus is the spirit
of truth. Matter of fact, Jesus said, I
am the way, the truth and the life. He is the truth. And so
it is the spirit of the truth. Well, who's the truth? Christ
is. Christ is the truth. So he's saying, I want to send
another comforter The Spirit of Truth, and He shall be in
you. Look at verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. Now he's saying He is coming.
Jesus is coming. See, everyone's thinking that
there's one, two, three people up there in heaven, distinct
people. And that Jesus is going to go,
that there's the Father and the Holy Spirit is back in heaven
and Jesus is down here. And now Jesus is going up there
and now the Holy Spirit is going to come and take his place in
the hearts of all these men. But Jesus here is saying, I will
come to you. Jesus is going to come back to
them as a comforter. But how's he going to come? He's
going to come as the spirit of truth. He's going to come as
the Holy Spirit. He is going to come because it
is His Spirit. It is the Spirit of Christ that's
being sent. Look at John chapter 15 if you
would. John chapter 15 and verse 26. But when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth. So there's the name still there.
The Comforter coming, being sent from God, Even the Spirit of
Truth, who he said is the same as the Comforter, which proceeded
from the Father, he shall testify of me. The Holy Spirit that is
revealed in Christ Jesus, that's why. Or that is revealed in us,
testifies of Christ. The Spirit of Christ testifies
of Christ. And isn't that what we're told
In Corinthians chapter one, or excuse me, chapter two, I believe,
1 Corinthians. Hold your finger back there in
John. 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse 10, but God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit, 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, that's what Paul was, what he's
saying right here, or excuse me, John is saying right here
in verse 26. He says, but when the comforter has come, whom
I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth
which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of me. Why?
Because he searches the deep things of, God. He knows the
things of God. And He's gonna testify of those
things. Why? Because God is Christ manifested. Or excuse me, Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. He's gonna testify of Christ
and of His gospel. Look with me if you would at
2 Corinthians. Chapter three. starting in verse
one. It says, do we begin again to
commend ourselves or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much
as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. In such trust we, through Christ,
do God work. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministration
of the death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was
to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory." What's Paul talking about here? He's talking
about preaching Moses, preaching the law, preaching works. He said, listen, if the law was
glorious in and of itself for what it was here for, if it was
glorious and it was meant to fade away, it wasn't even meant
to stay. It wasn't meant to do anything
for anybody, but yet it was glorious in the fact that it was given
to drive us to Christ and that when Christ had made a fulfillment
of all those things, and that there is now a revealing of all
the things of the gospel and everything, he's saying, listen,
if that which was to be done away with was glorious, how much
more that which is not gonna be done away with, that which
is of the spirit, the righteousness that comes from Christ alone,
how much more glorious is that? Why should we preach grace and
not the law? Well, because grace is much more
glorious than the law. Even the Bible says so. For even
that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect
by reason of the glory that excelleth." See, while the law was glorious
in and of itself, it did not exceed the glory of grace, even
in the Old Testament. Christ didn't save anybody by
the law in the Old Testament. Christ saved people by grace
in the Old Testament, just like he does in the New Testament.
They weren't fully understanding on how it was being done, but
they knew there was a Messiah to come, that he would stand
for them. and save them. And the sacrifices all pointed
to that. But he says, for if that which
is done away was glorious, now, wait a minute, you mean the law
was done away? Some people don't think the law's
been done away with. They keep wanting to keep it and apply
it, press it upon people, preach it at them. But what does he
say here? For that which is done away was
glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing
then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. And not as Moses, which put a
veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished, but
their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth
the same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ. See, all that law stuff was to
point us to, it was to show us Christ, point us towards what
Christ was going to do. All of that was to show us that
we can't keep this, but there is one coming who will keep it
for us, and it will be applied to us. And see, it was veiled
in the Old Testament, but yet it was still glorious. But now
the unveiling of what truly is glory is the fact that Christ
has accomplished salvation for his people. That's the exceeding
glory. But notice it was definitely
done away. The law was done away with. But even unto this day,
when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless,
when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
See, whenever we come to the Lord, whenever by grace we have
been quickened of God, given spiritual understanding, and
the gospel is preached to us, what does it teach us? It teaches
us that that old way is not the way. That old law, that law system,
that trying to keep a righteousness for yourself before God, never
was intended to be your righteousness. It was just to show you your
inability. Every time that, every year,
whenever that priest went into the tabernacle, and he went into
the Holy of Holies, and he made that sacrifice for the people,
it was a reminder to them, every year, that you're still missing
the mark. That killing of that lamb didn't
make anything change with them. They still were sinners sinning.
And God was showing them that, listen, every sacrifice that
is made, whether it be the yearly sacrifices or the regular sacrifices,
every sacrifice bears witness to the fact that you cannot keep
my righteousness, that you're falling short. That's what it
was showing them. And so now that Christ has come
and lived for us, died for us, the veil, whenever we come to
Christ, He removes the veil so that we can see it's not in our
law keeping, it was in what Christ did. And that's what happened
to Paul. When Paul seen Christ, the veil was taken away. He thought
his righteousness laid in what he had to do, but yet God removed
the veil. When he removed the veil, he
saw Christ. And when he saw Christ, he saw
that his only hope for salvation was Christ because his righteousness
was filthy rags. and Christ the standard could
never be sought, could never be kept, could never be attained. And so now he looks away from
Moses and he looks to Christ. Now the Lord is that spirit.
And where the spirit of the Lord is, what does it say there, brother? There is what? Liberty. There's freedom. No bondage. We are no longer bound to the
law. Paul used an illustration later
in some of his epistles about a man and a wife and divorce.
He said, listen, if a man dies, his spouse is no longer bound
to him. Listen, the law has been done
away with. We have died to the law. We are
no longer bound. We are married to another. We're
married to Christ. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our salvation. It's not in what we do before
God. And whenever the Spirit of God comes into us, which is
the Spirit of Truth, it's going to testify of who? Moses? No! It's not going to testify of
Moses. It's going to testify of Christ. And where the Spirit
of Christ is, where the Spirit of the Lord is, the Spirit of
Christ, same thing. Christ is the Lord, right? where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty, freedom. We know that we're no longer
under the law. We know that we are no longer to look at our righteousness in
our law keeping. But we all with open face, beholding
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
So see, brethren, whenever the Spirit of Christ is in us, we
will see Christ. We will not be looking to something
else. We're not going to be looking to ourselves or to the law for
righteousness. We're going to be looking to
Christ for our righteousness. Two more verses and we'll be
done. Look, if you would, at 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Look with me at verse 5. Scripture says examine yourself
whether you be in the faith. It doesn't say examine yourself
whether you have faith. It says examine yourself whether
you be in the faith, meaning in the doctrine of Christ. Examine
yourselves whether or not you are in the doctrine of Christ,
that you're keeping the doctrine of Christ, that you're believing
the doctrine of Christ, teaching the doctrine of Christ, preaching
the doctrine of Christ. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves, knowing
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates. See, the reprobate will never
have Christ in him. But the ones who are of God, the elect, they
will have Christ in you. And whenever Christ is in you,
you will hold to His doctrine, His faith. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves, know ye not, your own
selves how that Jesus Christ is in you. except you be reprimands. And then back to chapter 5, 2
Corinthians chapter 5. We read this verse 17. Therefore. If any man be in Christ. He is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things. Are become. Now, let me just stop right there. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. Now, I've heard it, and I've
even preached it this way before, and God forgive me for doing
such, that this is saying that all my sins, all my old way of
life, my sins, and everything that I used to like to do is
passed away, and now all things are new, that now I quit don't
sin. I stopped wanting to sin anymore, and I started becoming
more holy. That's not what this is saying. Old things are passed
away. If you look at the context of
what's being talked about here, it's talking about the gospel.
It's talking about righteousness by Christ alone. Old things are
passed away. What are the old things that
are passed away? My old way of thinking of how righteousness
is attained. Righteousness isn't attained
by works, by us doing something. righteousness is attained by
imputation from Christ. It's obtained by faith but not
our faith, Christ faith. We are made righteous because
he lived the law for us. His righteousness was put to
our account. He obeyed God and everything that God demanded
in every facet, in every way, every job, and every And that righteousness, that
righteousness before God of living perfectly, meeting the standard
of holiness, being the standard of holiness, that righteousness
is given to our account. I'm as righteous as Christ is
righteous. Not in actuality, I'm a sinner. But God views my
account, views me as righteous because of Christ. And that's
the old things that are passed away. My thinking that I can
attain to a righteousness of myself. What are the new things?
Behold, all things become new. The things that become new is
my new way of thinking. That righteousness is by Christ.
that me, that my experiences of the gospel, of that Christ
has obtained it for me, and that it has been given to me freely,
and that I'm not bound under the law anymore, and that I'm
released from those old things, and that we are reconciled to
God because of the work of Christ and not because of the works
of ourselves. Look at what it says in verse 18. And all things are
of God who hath reconciled us to himself, not by our choice,
God didn't reconcile us to himself because we chose him. He reconciled
us to himself by Christ Jesus, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, some
people think that that's the preaching of the gospel, that
we're going out there and we're reconciling people to God by
preaching the gospel to them and they're coming in. Some people
also look at that and say, there you go. God reconciled the world
unto himself. So Christ was reconciling the
world. Therefore, he loves the world. Therefore, he wants all
the world to be saved. That's not what that says at
all. Matter of fact, what does it say? to with that God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. That was a dumb
thing, right? That's an absolute. That's a
statement of fact. God was in Christ reconciling
the world. How did God reconcile the world
to him through Christ? So what does that mean? If God
reconciled the world to Christ or to God through Christ, then
what does that mean? It's not hard. It's not hard.
It's very simple. If God reconciled the world by
Christ to himself, then what does that mean? The world has
been reconciled to God, right? The world has been reconciled
to God. That's a statement of fact. Christ
accomplished the reconciling through his body. But look what
it says there. It also says, not imputing their
trespasses. Do you wanna take that first
part and apply that universally to everybody in the world? And
say, therefore, hey, God has been, God wants everybody saved
because he is reconciling the world by Christ Jesus. Well,
it also says that he's also not imputing their sins into them.
And if he's not imputing their sins into them, guess what? They
go to heaven, not hell. Is everybody gonna be in heaven?
Well, according to the scriptures, there's already now people in
hell. If that's the case, then they
weren't reconciled to God. So the word world there doesn't
mean everybody head for head, man, woman, and child. It means
a certain group of people. To wit that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses.
Your trespasses, if you're a child of grace, has never been imputed
to you. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not sin. And hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. What do we preach? We preach
that Christ has reconciled us to God through His death. A finished
salvation. then there's nothing left for
us to do. It is not that we have to go reconcile ourselves to
God by choosing him, by deciding upon him, by following him, by
obeying him. No, we were already, we were
reconciled through the man, Jesus Christ. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us, as though
God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's name,
be ye reconciled to God. What's Paul saying there? Is
he going out and saying, hey, you need to go reconcile yourself
to God? No, what's he saying? He's saying that you have been
reconciled to God, but in your minds, in your experience, in
your understanding, be reconciled to God. Think upon yourself as
being reckoned righteous. Be reckoned as reconciled to
God already. It isn't something that you have
to do to get reconciled. You were reconciled by the work
of Christ, by Christ. He reconciled you to God. Now,
think of yourself that way. See, that's what the gospel is
all about, is us thinking and looking our hope Christ in you,
the hope of war. What does Christ in us, the Holy
Spirit in us, the Comforter in us, the Spirit of truth in us,
what does He do? He leads us into all truth and
what does that truth lead us to? That Christ has completed
salvation for His people. That He has saved them from their
sin. That this Christ, this man, Christ
Jesus has done everything that is required of God and has done
it for those people and those people are counted as righteous
before God, and whenever we come to the knowledge of that, we
are to reckon ourselves dead to the law, dead to the bondage
of the law, dead to the power of sin, and reckon ourselves
alive under God. Reconcile, whenever it says alive
under God, not just spiritually alive, but alive, meaning that
the fellowship and the reconciliation and the relationship of God is
there to be reconciled to life. Remember whenever the prodigal
son had left the father and he said, you know, that he's dead
to me. You know, we use that term. You
know, my son is dead to me. Or I'm dead to my father. What
does that mean? It means there's no relationship
there. There's no activity of fellowship and relationship there.
But whenever he says, now I've been made alive to my father,
or my son has been made now alive who was dead, now he's alive
to me. What does that mean? Well, that's
talking about that now that fellowship and relationship is now alive.
Where once it wasn't alive, now it is alive. And that's what
he's saying here. He said, whenever we preach the
ministry of reconciliation, we're saying reckon yourself as alive
or in fellowship or in relationship to God. And so Paul, whenever
he's talking to these Galatians, he's saying these Judaizers come
to you and tell you just the opposite of the gospel. Whenever
they preach to you works and conditions and free will and
free choice and man having an ability to manipulate God by
his own will and everything like that. that whenever you can make
your own righteousness from keeping the law and doing righteousness,
and you becoming more and more holy, that you're accepted by
God. All those things that we've been talking about, when Paul
says that, he's saying, listen, when you preach that, you're
preaching the exact opposite of the gospel. And it's no gospel
at all. It's a perversion of Christ.
Why are we so adamant? Why do we hound this thing over
and over and over about sovereign grace? Why can we not fellowship
with churches who preach something other than sovereign grace? Because
it is a perversion of Christ. I don't want to preach a perverted
Christ. I do not want to hurt Christ.
I do not want to make him look bad. I do not want to make him
a failure, and that's what you make him when you preach that
Christ is not enough, that Christ did not save his people, he only
made them savable. When you preach that Christ has
done all he can to save people, but you have to make a choice
to do like this, you are preaching a perverted Christ who is weak,
who could not save his people, did not save his people, only
made salvation possible, but they, through their works and
conditions, they're the only way that they can be saved. Listen,
that's not the message of reconciliation. That's not saying reckon yourself
to be alive to God. No, they're saying, no, you need
to choose this or make this decision, come before the church, be baptized,
all this kind of stuff, and then God will reckon you as one of
his. That is antichrist. So no wonder
Paul has been so adamant and his chastisement towards these
Galatians who have moved away from the grace that they had
been called into. He says, but they had heard only that
he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith that
once he destroyed. See, to preach Another gospel
is to destroy the gospel of Christ. But whenever you preach the gospel
of Christ and Him alone, the people of God will glorify God
in you. What does that mean? That on
your behalf, because of what you've said, it's going to cause
them to rejoice in God. That's why we had that verse.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them what the Lord has done
for them, accomplished for them. that he is paid for their sins
double. That's why we talk about that
whenever we speak and preach the gospel, that is edifying,
that is food for the soul, that is the bread from heaven. Christ
said, listen, I'm the bread that came down out of heaven and that
bread was my flesh and I give this flesh for you. And then
the Lord's Supper, he said, matter of fact, we had the Lord's Supper
to remember this broken body and he shed blood. Why? Because
that is the grounds upon which God deems us righteous. And so whenever we hear the true
gospel, the true children of God will be glorified, or will
glorify God, will praise the Lord, will be edified, will be
built up, will rejoice when they hear that. But the Bible says
that this gospel to some is a savor of death unto death. They don't
like it. To them, it's horrible. To them, it's offensive. And
Jesus said that it would be offensive. Jesus said that he would cause
many to stumble at him who is the stumbling block. So we preach the gospel, we keep
the gospel, not the law. The gospel says to look to Christ
alone. All right, does anybody have
any questions or any comments or anything you'd like to add
to this before we pray? Lord willing, we're gonna pick
up in chapter two next week. Just a reminder ahead of time,
June the 27th, I will not be here. I have to preach in Delaware,
Oklahoma. And I'll be there filling their
pulpit unless they find a pastor before then. But I'm set to preach
there for them. that Sunday so we will not have
services here but we will have services up until then and then
we will have services after that. Father once again we come to
you and we thank you so much for Christ Jesus we thank you
for the Word of God we thank you for the Spirit of Christ
that has given to us that guides us into truth, it teaches us.
We thank you for the fellowship of the brethren. We thank you
for our time together even here today. We pray that it has been
pleasing to you. We ask that you be with us now
as we fellowship together and for the food that we're about
to eat. May it nourish our bodies. Father, we just pray that Christ
has been glorified in all that we do and say, in Jesus' name,
we pray.