For all those just joining on
Facebook Live or Sermon Audio, before we come on live, we have
our congregational singing. And sometimes we discuss a few
things before we come on, but we just sang a hymn called, My
Times Are In Thy Hands. And I thought it would be good
to read this because it really hits where most of us live most
of the time. things that happen in our life
that cause struggle and pain and turmoil and everything. But we know the Bible teaches
us that my times are in their hand. I'll just read this hymn
real quick for those that didn't get to hear or sing along with
us. It says, my times are in thy
hand, my God, I want them there. Choose Lord the path that's best
for me throughout my journey here. My times are in thy hand. There is no cause for fear. My
father's providence is good. I should be free of care. My
times are in thy hand, I would submissive be. Forgive my fears,
forgive my doubts, drive unbelief from me." And really that's what
that is whenever we're not submissive to God's providence. When we want to get all riled
up about what's being done and when it's not going my way, basically
that is a fear and doubt about what the Lord has foreordained.
And then the last stanza says, my times are in thy hand, my
God, do what you will. Grant grace to me to honor you,
to trust you and be still. And that's hard for us to live
in that place where we say, not my will, but thine be done. But that's what the Lord taught
us to pray, right? Not as I will, but as you will. Thy will be done. That's a good
hymn. Well, turn with me this morning back to the first chapter
of Galatians. Galatians chapter one. We're
gonna continue the exposition through the book of Galatians
here. Galatians chapter one. So far we have looked at the
first nine verses. Today we'll be looking primarily
at verse 10. But I wanna go back and start
reading at verse six and then I'll read down to verse 10. The word of God says, I marvel
that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another,
but there is some that trouble you and will pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. Strong words by the
apostle there. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
ye received, and in that receiving, he's speaking of that they received
from Paul, who received it from Jesus, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or
God Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ." Heavenly Father, we thank you
today for your mercy and for your grace, for Jesus Christ
who came and died for us. We thank you, Father, for that.
We thank you that we have life and life more abundant because
of Christ. Father, we thank you for the
gospel, for the word of God, but for that good news, that
glad tidings of what Christ has finished for his people. We thank
you, Father, for the work that he did on our behalf. And so
we pray that you just might help us this morning, worship and
glorify Christ, that we might honor him. Today is the Lord's
day. It's a day to honor Christ and
to worship Christ corporately, as we gather together to publicly
lift up the name of Christ, together around his word, to preach about
him. And so we pray, Lord, that you
might help us, guide us, direct us. Father, give me the words
to say. Give hearing to those that are
here or watching and listening. Father, we just pray that you
would help us to be able to rightly proclaim the gospel of Jesus,
to faithfully proclaim these very things. Lord, we pray that
you would keep this church faithful and that you would help us to
minister to those who are Christ. And Lord, we pray that we will
be found as servants of Christ and not pleasers of men. Lord,
it's so easy to move away from these things, to preach easy
things so that we might gain crowds and notoriety within our
communities. But Father, our heart's desire
is truly to be pleasing to you and not to men, to honor you,
to speak of truth and not err just for fame or for position
or for power or for notoriety, Lord, we pray that you would
help keep that pride and that arrogancy out of our minds and
out of our hearts, Lord, that you might give us to be faithful
to your word. faithful to the truth that you've
given us in Christ. So we bring this all to you this
morning and ask that you would be with us. In Jesus name that
we pray, amen. Just a little note, we know today
is Mother's Day and I do want to Wish all the mothers a happy
Mother's Day. Well, we got one here today,
that's a mother. But anybody watching or listening,
we do wish them a happy Mother's Day. And probably across most
of the country, churches are gonna be getting up and preaching
the Mother's Day sermon. And they're probably gonna go
to Proverbs and preach about the virtuous woman and things
like that. We're gonna preach Christ today.
We surely wanna honor our mothers and our fathers as the Bible
has proclaimed for us to do. But brethren, whenever we come
into the public worship, it's all about talking about Jesus.
It's all about worship of Him. We can instruct on being a godly
mother, we can instruct on being a godly father, but primarily
whenever we come to God's house of worship, And I mean that as
the gathered assembly, not this building, because as we all know,
this building is going to go away for us here in a little
while, and we're going to be somewhere else. It isn't about
the building, it's about the people gathered. But as we gather
as God's house, as God's building, as God's people, his church,
it is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not to lift up men
or lift up women. but it's to honor and exalt the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's why we don't preach
mother's sermons on mother's days and lift up fathers on father's
day. And that's why we don't preach
on any kind of holiday about the things of man or the traditions
of men. We preach the word of God. as led by the Spirit of God to
exalt God, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what we're gonna continue
to do even today. So no mommy sermon, no daddy
sermon coming down the pike. Let me recap just a little bit
for you this morning where we're at. We're looking at verse 10.
and I've titled the message today, Man Pleaser or God Pleaser. You know, a couple of weeks ago,
I was preaching a message that you are complete in Christ. And
in that message, I mentioned the fact that I'm a kind of person
that things are either black or white with me. especially when it comes to doctrine
and things. There are some areas of doctrine
that we give leeway to, but we either believe it or we don't
believe it. We either defend it or we don't
defend it. We either stand for truth or we don't stand for truth.
We're either complete in Christ or we're not complete in Christ.
There's no middle ground in that. And I mentioned that in that
sermon. Well, this is kind of another area where we see the
Bible showing that things are black and white. There is no
middle area. Now we looked last couple of
weeks at these seven, eight, and nine, where the Bible tells
us that there is no other gospel. It's either the gospel or it's
not the gospel. There's not a middle gospel.
There's not a partial gospel. There's not some gospel that
we know and need to be made full or known. There's one gospel
and that gospel is in its fullest. We preach that full gospel. There's not a gospel that you
preach to the seeker than a gospel that you preach to the one who's
now come in but is still immature. There's not a gospel that you
preach to the mature and that you don't preach to the seeker,
as far as the gospel is concerned. Does the Bible say that there
are some things that are heavier, that are meatier, and some people
are just babes and they need to be fed milk? Well, absolutely,
but whenever it comes to the gospel, The gospel is defined
by the word of God. The gospel is the, as we looked
at last week, good tidings, or glad tidings. But it's the gospel
of salvation that is free. Remember in Corinthians, we looked
and seen that the Holy Spirit of God is given to us that we
might know what is freely given to us. So the gospel isn't good
news about some condition that you have to keep to get saved.
The Bible is very clear, it's in black and white, that salvation
is of the Lord. It is not of the Lord and you,
it's of the Lord, it's black and white. It's black and white
that salvation is of grace and not of works. That's black and
white. There's no mixture in that. And
here today, we see in black and white that you either are trying
to persuade men or trying to persuade God. Now, what does
that mean? Well, in long about definitions
and terms and meanings and old English and all that kind of
stuff, this is basically saying, do you try to please men in your
preaching or do you try to please God in your preaching? And Paul
says here that if ye should try to please men in that preaching,
in that gospel, then you're not a servant of Christ. Now that
flows from what he said previously, whenever he said that Another gospel is no gospel,
verse seven, which is not another, but there'll be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. See, that's black
and white. Anything that you preach other
than that free, sovereign grace gospel is a perversion of Christ. It's a perversion. It's either
about Christ or it's a perversion of Christ. It's either for Christ
or it's against Christ. It's either a gospel of Christ
or it's a gospel of you. It's either a gospel of works
or a gospel of grace. It's a black and white issue.
And here he says that those who preach another gospel should
be accursed, but those who are preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ, they are the servants of Christ. to be a servant of
Christ, you must be preaching the gospel. And there's a lot
of preachers out there today that are not preaching the gospel
of this Bible. They're preaching the gospel
of men's traditions and philosophies. They're preaching some augmented
gospel that that wants to mix law and grace. They're preaching
a gospel of free willism. They're preaching a gospel of
decisionism. They're preaching a gospel of
Jesus died for everybody, loves everybody, but yet not everybody
is saved at the end of the day because of their decision or
because of their will. That's not free grace. That's
not the sovereign grace gospel that Jesus preached. And so it's
black and white. They're not a servant of Christ.
I don't care how many degrees they have behind their name.
They may be, you know, Reverend, Doctrine, so-and-so with a, you
know, THD, a THM, you know, a DDS, you know, they may have 15 or
20 letters behind their name. That doesn't mean anything. They
may have graduated from 15 seminaries with degrees from all of them
at the highest level. They may be the most articulate
preacher that you've ever heard, the most charismatic preacher
you've ever seen. They may be able to make their
outlines perfectly. They may be able to, what is it, whenever all of your
points line up with the same letter, or whenever they all rhyme, you
know, So, you know, it doesn't matter any of that. It doesn't
matter how many crowds. Joel Osteen preaches to thousands
and thousands of people inside that building, but he is not
a servant of Christ. No matter how many times he uses
the name Jesus, no matter how many times he uses the word God,
no matter how many times he says the word saved, he is not a servant
of Christ. And anybody who preaches a false
gospel, which is no gospel, the Bible here says they are not
a servant of Christ. And so we have seen in our recap
that Paul is very forceful in the beginning of this letter.
that he is a messenger from Christ and not from man or by man. Man
didn't send him, that the message wasn't from man. He didn't get
it and listen from a third party. He heard it from the source.
He heard it from Jesus himself. He was sent by Jesus himself,
called by Jesus, sent by Jesus. Now, was there a time where Paul,
in submission to church order as God has laid church order
down, the roles within the church, did Paul and Barnabas go as members
of the Antioch church and fulfill their... calls that God had placed
upon them through the local church? Yes, they did. They were submissive
to those things. They were submissive to the leadership
of the Antioch church. But brethren, listen, the message
that Paul received, he didn't receive from the Antioch church
or its pastor. He received it from Jesus Christ.
And so that's why so much weight is being thrown in here at the
very beginning, because in verse six, these Galatians have been
moved or removed from the gospel. They've been moved away from
grace. They've been brought away from
grace. See, he says in verse six, he
said, I marvel that you are soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ. They were called into the faith
that teaches and preaches the gospel of grace. They were called
into the grace of Christ. Now, if you remember, I made
the distinction there. We are called by grace. That
is our saving, our conversion, as you would. We are called by
the grace of Christ. We are in election in eternity
called by God to be elect. But here it says that we are
called into the grace. We are called into the grace
of Christ. And that could very possibly
mean being called into the experience of that grace, which would be
a conversion, a quickening and conversion. But it also could
be that we are called into the gospel that preaches grace alone. And the reason I say that is
because they've been removed from that gospel. That's why
I think that it means into the grace, means into the preaching
or the teaching or the gospel of grace alone, because they
were removed from that. And because in other places,
Paul says in chapter three, he says, oh foolish Galatians who
have bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified. And this
removal, it's called a bewitching. And what were they bewitched
from? From looking at Christ alone. They went into the law. Look at verse two. This only
would I learn of you, receive ye the spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish having
begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? And so this is a removal or bringing
away from looking at Christ alone, grace alone for salvation. We've seen that the gospel is
of utmost importance because as I said, it's either the gospel
or it's not the gospel. There is no other gospel. And
the reason that it's so important as we see there in verse seven,
is that at the heart of the gospel is Christ himself. Whenever you
preach a false gospel, you are preaching a false Christ, a perverted
Christ, a Christ who is not the true Christ. You're not telling
the truth about the true Christ. And we say that all the time
whenever we talk to people that are preaching other gospels.
We tell them, you're not preaching the Christ of the Bible. The
Christ of the Bible accomplished his salvation. The Christ of
the gospel actually justified, sanctified, and glorified his
people through the work that he has done on the cross. that
He is keeping His people from falling away, that He is causing
them to persevere. It's all about Jesus Christ.
And whenever you preach anything that has to do with a condition
of you, some work that you must perform, some law that you must
keep, some action that you must do, whether that be believing,
receiving, repenting, keeping the 10 commandments, whatever
it is, Those things are conditions and they are works. And if it's
by work, it is no longer by grace and salvation is only by grace.
So it's no salvation at all. You're telling a lie on Christ.
You're telling a lie upon his salvation. And so the gospel
is of utmost importance. And that is why we are to stand
firm in the gospel. That is why we are to stand on
the gospel, defend the gospel, earnestly contend for the faith.
That's why we do not mix our gospels with other gospels. That's
why, as I mentioned last week, we don't do ecumenical work with
people that preach false gospels. We fellowship and do If we do
any kind of ecumenical work, it's with people of our own light,
faith, and order. People that believe what we believe
about the scriptures, the true gospel, that believe about the
Lord's church, that believe about the ordinances, how Christ has
given them to us. We do that with people who believe
the word of God. And so if we, hold hands with
other people than we are holding hands with people who are lying
about Christ. And so it is important. That's
why we are very careful about that. That's why we don't go
to churches that are preaching false gospels, even for special
occasions that family and friends might have. We don't go to do
that. We cannot do that. The Bible instructs us that we
are to be separate That we are to come out and be separate from
them and to not partake in their sins. Whenever they are preaching
a false gospel, they are preaching a sinful doctrine, a sinful gospel. And so for us to participate
in that, to go in and worship with them in that that false
act of worship, then we too have done the same. And so that's
why we don't do that. The Bible instructs us that way.
Not because we just don't like that, it's because the Bible
has instructed us that. We are to listen to the truth
of God's word and not men's word. Men's traditions and men's word,
they want to persuade you so that they might glory in you.
They want to persuade you to follow them. Why? Because it doesn't matter to
them. It isn't a meaningful thing to them because their false gospel
does not declare this. Their false gospel does not declare
this to them. Everybody's okay. We all just
love Jesus. Let's hold hands and sing kumbaya. Let's all just
get along. But brethren, the Bible says
that the gospel is an offense. It's an offense, not an old offense,
but an offense. It's offensive to people. It's
offensive to religious people more than anybody. The gospel
is offensive. And so we come to verse 10 this
morning and we see Paul says, and the
reason that he goes into this is because if we are preaching
and that black and white, false gospel, true gospel, if you're
a servant of Christ, you're gonna preach the true gospel, no matter
where the chips fall, no matter how many people against you,
no matter what happens, you're gonna stand on that because to
be a servant of Christ is to be persecuted in this life, to
be rejected in this life, to bring division in this life. The Bible even tells us that
Christ said he did not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword. Now he's meaning this in regards
to standing in the gospel. Whenever we stand in the gospel
of Jesus Christ, it's not gonna bring peace among people. Now
it will truly bring peace to the child of grace who is born
from above and given to know these things. But brethren, whenever
we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, it will bring division. The Bible says that it will be
like a sword and it will bring division. The Bible says that
it will cause a father and a son to be divided, a mother and a
daughter to be divided, a brother and a sister to be divided, families
will be divided, friends will be divided over the gospel. It's black and white. You either
are for me or you are against me. And I know a lot of people
say, well, we don't believe like you do, but we're for God. The
Bible says it doesn't matter what you think or what I think.
The Bible says that if you're for him, if you're a servant
of Christ, you will preach the gospel of free and sovereign
salvation, a gospel that teaches that Christ alone saves and that
you don't have any conditions to keep. It is an eternal gospel,
it is an eternal covenant, and it is an eternal salvation that
we have received. It was done before the foundation
of the world. Known unto God are all his works,
the end from the beginning. And the Bible says that his works
were finished from the foundation of the world. They were completed
from the foundation of the world. We cannot add anything to that. God doesn't look down on us and
see what we do. And then he writes it down in
his plan book. God has determined all things that is ever gonna
be. He's determined everyone who's
gonna be saved. He's determined everyone who
is not gonna be saved. Names were written in the book.
Names were left out of the book. It's black and white. And here Paul says, are you a
persuader of men or of God? Are you a man pleaser or are
you a God pleaser? It's black and white. You either preach a message that
pleases man, keeps the crowds, that is no offense, or you preach
the gospel that will not bring peace to the flesh, but a sword. It all comes down to this, brethren.
Does your gospel give God the glory or does it give man the
glory? Now, yes, I've heard. Well, we believe that giving
man free will brings God even more glory, that he is even more
sovereign, that he can allow us to make the decision that God in His sovereignty has
given you the choice or allowed you. You're the one who's limiting
God's sovereignty. You're limiting God's sovereignty
by saying that He can't allow us to choose. Brethren, it isn't
about limiting God's sovereignty or not. We know that God's sovereignty
is not limited. But we have to listen to what
God's Word says. God's Word says, God has not
given man the free will. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God. It's not by flesh and
blood. It's by God. Salvation is of
the Lord. It's of him. It is of... It is
of God that you are in Christ Jesus. It is God who grants you
repentance. It is God who gives you and grants
you to believe on him. No man can come unto me or believe
on me. That's what that word come, whenever
Jesus said, come unto me. No man can come unto me. That
word come there is equated to the word believe in scripture.
Jesus makes that clear. Jesus is the one who says that
come equals believe. And when Jesus says, come unto
me all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you
rest, doesn't mean that that is an invitation for anyone who
wants to come can come. Because Jesus also said, no man
can come unless or except it be given of him of God. Unless
the father draws him, unless it is given unto him to be able
to come because no man is able to come. We have a spiritual
death in our bodies. We are spiritually dead. We cannot
receive the things of the Spirit of God. We are without Christ. We are without the things of
God because we are dead in trespasses and sins. And so the gospel that
preaches that God and his sovereignty allows you to choose is not a
differences of theological systems. It is an agree. I lost the word that I was wanting
to use, but it is an affront to the gospel because the gospel
teaches that salvation is not by God lowering himself to give
you the option to reject him or to accept him. The Bible teaches
that we are accepted in the beloved, not that we accept the beloved.
So it's black and white. You're either a man pleaser or
you're a God pleaser, and it comes down to God getting the
glory. If you preach a gospel that has a condition on it, then
you get the glory. And listen, the preachers that
preach like this, they do this so that they might boast in your
flesh. Look, if you would, over to Galatians
chapter six. Now, remember, this whole, letter
to the Galatians is a letter that is dealing with how we are
justified before God. And it is dealing with the gospel
of grace versus the gospel of law for salvation or conditions
for salvation, law keeping. And Paul has already told them,
you know, these Judaizers are bewitching you. We just read
that in chapter three, verse one, two, three. that they are
being bewitched. But look here in verse 13 of
Galatians 6. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. See, these guys were coming in
and telling the Galatians, he said, you still have to be circumcised
to be saved. If you're not circumcised, you're
not saved. And by the way, once you are circumcised, you still
have to keep the law of Moses. You can still preach Christ,
but if you don't keep the law of Moses, then you won't stay
saved, and it'll prove that you never was saved. But look here
at what the Holy Spirit says, and it's the Holy Spirit, it's
not Paul. Paul's writing it down. These words are inspired by God,
the inspired word of God. God said this. For neither they
themselves who are circumcised keep the law." They can't keep
the law. The ones who are preaching to
you to accept Christ, to come to Christ, they can't come either. They can't come, they can't do. And the ones who tell you that
you gotta keep the law to stay saved, they're not keeping the
law. The Bible says here that no man
can keep the law. There is an inability in the
flesh of man to please God. And the spirit of man that is
in him, that is controlled by that nature, is not gonna desire
the things of God, unless that person is born again. Once the
person is born again, the spirit of God now lives in them And
that person now has the capacity for spiritual things, to hear
these things, to believe these things, to love these things,
to desire these things. And then they're also given faith
to look to Christ alone for that salvation and not, oh, now I
got to pull up my bootstraps and get to work. And so what
Paul here, now watch carefully what he says. He says, for neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have
you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. Now, what's
he talking about there? Now, we're eventually at some
point in, let's see, six chapters, maybe the next two years or so. What he's saying here is the
ones who's preaching to you to keep the law can't keep the law.
But the reason they're telling you to keep the law and to follow
their prescribed pattern of conditions is so that they can boast in
your flesh. They can glory in your flesh.
And think about it, brethren. Think about it. All these churches
that are out there that are preaching these false gospels of decisionism. All you gotta do is just make
a decision for Christ. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Pray this prayer. Come down the aisle. Shake the
preacher's hand. All these things that just appeals
to the flesh of man, that I have done something. I have come down
and I accepted Jesus. I've heard men say, put your
tent peg down. Put it down so that you know,
that you know, that you know. If you doubt, come down and put
it down today. Make for certain today. Listen, brother, anything that
you do that is a condition, all men are doing is glorying
in your flesh. They're making proselytes. They're
boasting. Just look at it. Look out at
all the reports that you see of Christians on how many was
saved in my revival. How many was saved in my concert? How many was saved by our church
last year, by our outreach ministry? Look how many people we baptized.
Look how many we did this and all glory be to Jesus. No, not
all glory be to Jesus, all glory be to you. You're boasting in
their flesh. You're boasting in their coming
and their conditions of falsehood. Matter of fact, Jesus told the
Pharisees who were making proselytes by the law, he said, all you're
doing is making twofold the child of hell. What does that mean? These people are already children
of hell because they're not truly saved and all you're doing is
you're deceiving them, making them think that they are saved.
And what they're doing is an affront to God and the gospel.
It is a perversion of Christ But whenever men want to please
men, they will compromise the gospel. They will compromise
the message. They will compromise their practice. They will compromise all those
things so that they can boast in your flesh. Now, what is the difference between
a man pleaser and a servant of Christ? Turn with me, if you
would, back to Isaiah chapter eight. Isaiah chapter eight. I want to bear a warning from
the scriptures here to you guys. And why, preacher, are you so
hard on this? Why are you, for the last three
or four weeks now, are driving this point about a false gospel,
false preaching, persuading men, persuading God? Why are you spending
so much time in these first 10 verses? Why are you preaching? Brethren, because we are inundated
today with churches and preachers that are preaching a false gospel.
And we are inundated with professing Christians who believe that by
those false gospels, that they have been saved. Now I'll say here, we are not
saved by what we believe. We are saved by the work of Christ
alone. We are converted when we hear
the truth of the gospel, we are converted. But rather there are
people that are out there that are believing that because they
have accepted that false gospel, accepted that way of coming,
accepted the fact that they have done something for Jesus and
then their little pathetic attempt of keeping the law throughout
their life is what is making them right for heaven. They are perverting the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we have people all over the
place that whenever they hear a message like. I've been preaching
the last few weeks, and other preachers like me that preach
these messages and everything, to them, we're a cult. To them,
we are something that is out of the ordinary. To them, that
can't be. I've heard this my whole entire
life. Listen, brother, I used to preach that other gospel for
a long time. I've lived underneath that gospel
for many years. I've been associated with churches
and used to travel around and sing that gospel. that I used to hawk that gospel. But just like Paul, there comes
a time whenever the Lord gives us an understanding of the truth,
that we count all those things as done for righteousness. Listen, none of that stuff that
I did in preaching and teaching, persuading men to come to Christ,
under those false gospel systems was not being a servant of Christ.
It was being a servant of Satan. Jesus told those religious leaders,
he said, you're going to do exactly what your father does. You're
going to lie because he's the father of lies. And you're his
children. You're are a brood of vipers. You are snakes. You're serpents because you're
a child of the serpent. And those things that your father
does, that's what you're gonna do. And he's the father of lies
and know what you're gonna do? You're gonna tell lies. And what
are these people doing but telling lies upon Jesus and his salvation? But what does Isaiah chapter
eight verse 20 say? Chapter eight verse 20. To the
law and to the testimony, If they speak not according to this
word, it is because there is no light in them. Now, I didn't say that. Sovereign
Grace Baptists didn't say that. Predestinarians didn't say that.
We surely declare it and preach that. But that didn't come from
some system that we made up. This is the Holy Spirit of God telling Isaiah, write this down,
to the law and to the testimony. Now, what is that speaking of?
To the law and to the testimony? Speaking of God's word. Speaking
of God's word. But also, also, I believe it could be speaking
of Christ himself, because Christ is the testimony, not only of
God, but he is the testimony of God's salvation. He is the testimony to the law
and to the testimony. If they do not speak according
to what the word of God says, they do not speak according to
this word, it is because There is no light in them. And that's what God says about it.
That's why it's so, that's why Paul was so stern at the beginning
of this letter. That's why I've been so, so worked up about this these
last few weeks. It's because, brethren, we have
friends We have relatives, we have communities that is hearing
these false gospels. And there are some who believe
true the true gospel that are still saying, well, it's OK if
you believe that gospel over there. Eventually, eventually
you'll get it right. The more you study, you'll get
it right. No, we should always, always be pushing them to the
truth. holding them to accounts to the
truth, not compromising with the truth. Now we should do that
in meekness. The Bible says that a teacher, a man of God ought
to be meek and pray that God would give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. We should be patient with them,
but brethren, never claim it for them. You can't ever claim
that for them. And as long as they're holding
that false gospel, believing that false gospel, you should
be preaching the true gospel to them. Rejecting those things. For do I now persuade men or
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. If he preaches another gospel,
let him be accursed. It's not black and white. Well,
let's look at some black and white statements that the man-pleasers
will say, and then what the servant of Christ will say. The man-pleaser
will say, well, I came to Jesus because he's given me the free
will to choose him. I've come to Jesus because God has given
me the free will to choose him. Turn with me to John chapter
five, and let's see what the servant of Christ will say. John 5, and look if you would. The man pleaser will say, I came
to Jesus. I found Jesus. I came to Jesus by my own decision,
by my own free will, determination. But what does the Bible say? Verse 39, let's start there.
Search the scriptures for in them, Ye think ye have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me, and ye will not
come to me that ye might have life. Ye will not come to me. People search the scripture and
they think that by searching the scripture and obeying the
scripture, that they'll have eternal life by doing what the
scripture tells them to do. But yet Jesus is saying, I am
eternal life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. If you're gonna get to the Father,
it's because Jesus brought you there. It's because he died for
you. It's because his spirit came
and quickened you. It's because His Spirit taught
you the truth, and caused you, and gave you repentance, and
turned you from dead works, believing in dead works, and turning to
Christ alone, looking to Christ alone, giving you faith to believe
that Christ is enough. Christ is all you need. You're
complete in Him. Christ is all you need. It's
finished. Is it? Was Jesus right when He said
it's finished? Or was he, somehow, surely he was mistaken because
we hear so many people saying that it's not finished, that
Jesus didn't finish it, that there still is justification
to take place because until you believe on Jesus, then you're
not justified. Was it finished, reformed person? Some may say, well, we're not
born again until we believe. We have to believe first, then
God gives us salvation. Is that true, Arminian? Some may say, well, yeah, we're
saved and justified by Christ, but then we have to be sanctified.
So you got to keep the law. You got to continue to keep the
law or you won't be sanctified. You got to keep the means of
grace. You got to read your Bible, study
the word of God. You got to come to church. You've got to tithe.
You've got to do all this. You got to do all these things.
They'll give you all the long list of things that you have
to do. Otherwise you will not be sanctified. Is that what it says, Judaizer? The law is not a faith, the Bible
says. The child of grace is gonna walk
by faith. That means trust alone in Christ. We are gonna walk by faith. What
is keeping the commandments of Christ? Walking in faith. What
is walking in the light? Walking by faith. What is keeping
the rule? Walking by faith. We walk by
faith. We look to Christ alone. That
is what it is. And we do not come to Christ,
he comes to us. We do not come to Christ. And
so whenever we search the scriptures and we think we have eternal
life, by some condition that we do, that it says we've missed
Christ altogether. And the Bible says that any man
who preaches those things to the law and to the testimony,
if they hold not to these words, if they do not preach these words,
teach these words, proclaim these words, it's because there's no
light in them. The man-pleaser will say, just
come to Jesus, choose on Him, choose Him, choose you this day
whom you will serve. That verse has nothing to do
with eternal salvation whatsoever. Go back and read the context.
But the preacher of grace, the preacher and servant of Christ
will say, look at John chapter eight, Look down at verse 34. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, and the servant
abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, he shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham's
seed, but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place
in you. Kind of what Isaiah said, right?
If they preach something other than what Christ has preached
and taught, the true gospel, because there's no light in them.
Isn't Jesus the light? I speak that which I have seen
with my father, and ye do that which ye have seen with your
father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.
And Jesus said unto them, If you were Abraham's children,
you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that had told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This
did not Abraham, ye do the deeds of your father. Then they said
unto him, we be born of fornication. We be not born of fornication.
We have one father, even God." By the way, notice those, Israelites
believed that there was only one father and one God. Jesus
said to them, if God were your father, ye would love me. For I proceed forth and came
from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. "'Why do you not understand my
speech, "'even because you cannot hear my word? "'Ye are of your
father, the devil, "'and the lust of your father ye will do.
"'He was a murderer from the beginning "'and abode not in
the truth, "'because there is no truth in him. "'When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, "'for he is a liar and the father
of it.'" And because I tell you the truth, ye believe not. Which
of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth God's
words. Ye therefore hear them not because
ye are not of God. See brethren, if you're a man
pleaser, you're gonna preach the words that will please men
and it will tickle their ears and they will love it and they
will follow you. They will listen to you. But
listen, if you preach and be a servant of Christ and preach
his gospel, only the children of grace are gonna hear that.
And they're gonna follow that. And they're gonna love it. But listen, the religious, they're
going to hate it. They're not going to like it.
They're going to despise it. They're going to ridicule you.
I've told you guys before that this church here, there was a
preacher that used to be in Kansas City who, didn't want to have any kind
of fellowship with me and a couple other brothers that, preachers
that are friends with us, because we preach this very thing of
not being under law, but under grace. And they think that we're
antinomian. And so because of that, and a
few other things that I preach, this man had instructed other
people who was investigating our church down here on whether
or not to come here when they were in the area was telling
them to stay away from us because we were, because I particularly
was a heretic and that our church was an antinomian church. See,
religious people who want to keep the law and want to put
you under the law, whenever they see free grace, whenever they
see liberty in Christ, whenever they see people who are walking
by faith, then that angers them. It divides. But Jesus here makes it very
clear. So the servant of Christ will be preaching those things.
Not that you can come to Jesus of your own free will. Look at
verse 44 there. I'm sorry, not 44, 644. John chapter six and verse 44. Quoted a while ago, but Jesus
said, no man can come to me except the father which has sent me
draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. No man can
come, that's a term of inability. I preach that a lot here, I won't
go much into that. But look down at verse 65, he
reiterates it. Therefore said I to you that
no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my
father. So the man pleases gonna preach,
come to Jesus of your own free will. But the servant of Christ
is gonna preach that you can't come until God draws you. The man pleases is gonna say,
I let God save me. Just let God save you. Just let
him in. Let Him save you. Turn with me
to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. Let's see what the servant of
Christ will say. Psalm 115, look with me if you
would, verse three. But our God is in the heavens.
He has done whatsoever He hath pleased. Did you let God save
you? God was wanting to save you,
but you wouldn't let him. God wants to save you, but you're
just not letting him. Just let go and let God. That's
what the man pleaser says. But the servant of God says,
God is in the heavens. He does whatsoever he had pleased.
Look at verse six. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but
they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their throat. They that make
them are likened to them. So is everyone that trusts in
them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and
their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the
Lord. He is their help and their shield.
Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help
and shield. The Lord hath been mindful of
us. He will bless us. He will bless
the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.
Look at verse 18. But we will bless the Lord from
this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. We didn't let
God do anything. He, blessed us, we trust in the Lord. We don't trust in ourselves.
Psalm 135, verse six. Psalm 135, verse six. It says, whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth and the seas and
all the deep places. Does that sound like we let God
do something? I actually skipped over one back
to Psalm 110. Psalm 110. Look with me, if you would, at
verse three. God has done all that he can
do in sending Christ to die for your sins. You know, just a side
note. We go around telling people that
God loves you. That God wants to save you. Can't find that anywhere in the
Bible. The only context in which God's
love is told about is in relation to those who are already saved. And that God wants to save you
is never the message of the preacher. It's always a declaration of
Christ saving his people from their sin. And to go around and
tell somebody that God loves you when you don't have any idea
of that, because brethren, God doesn't love everybody. The Bible
is very clear about that, black and white, remember? He hath
loved Jacob and hated Esau. He loves all workers of iniquity. God hates all, now, how many
of y'all have heard that in other churches, they preach that God
loves everybody. And God wants everybody to be saved. See, we're
not saying this to degrade God, we're saying this to tell the
truth about who God is, about the revealed God of Scripture.
See, that's what I'm saying. We're either pleasing men by
saying, hey, God loves everybody. And what does that do? That gives
everybody this sense that no matter how bad I am or what the
depths of depravity that I might find myself, one thing's for
sure, God still loves me. And at any time I want, I can
always come back from that and turn to Christ and choose him.
And everything's going to be hunky dory. See, it's using God
as a tool. Let us keep going in. See, everybody
keeps preaching the law, thinking that's gonna make men righteous,
but actually preaching the law makes men unrighteous. It reveals
they're unrighteous. You think that at some point
you can start doing right, and that's gonna be pleasing to God,
and that's not the case. See, when salvation is completely
taken out of the hands of man, where they can't do anything
about it, the flesh hates that. It is only the Spirit of God
in the man that causes the man to love that and to acknowledge
that and to live in that. We live in faith. of what Christ
has already done. And as you see here in Psalms
110, look at verse three. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. See, we're not willing whenever
we want to come. We're not willing at all. We are made willing. We have
to be made willing to come to Jesus Christ. Why? Because the
flesh is at enmity with God. That which is flesh is flesh
and it cannot please God. It's at enmity with God. It's
wrathful towards God, the God of the Bible. Now, the God of
the man pleaser, they're all right with. They can sit all
day and listen about that Jesus and about that God because that
God isn't wrathful. That God there isn't a judging
God. That that wrath there isn't a
discerning God, a discriminating God. They're okay with that God
because That God is like Santa Claus. He does whatever they
want them to do. They bring God down out of heaven
and what they've done is they have fashioned to God after their
own liking. The man pleaser is gonna say,
I'll let God save me and I can come by my own will. But the
word of God, the servant of Christ will say that they will be made
willing in the day of his power. And then no man can come The man-pleaser will say, hey,
I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And the man-pleasing
preacher, he's gonna say, hey, accept Jesus, come today and
accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. But is that what the
Bible teaches us? Is that what the servant of Christ
is gonna teach? Preacher, is that what you're
gonna preach? Or are you gonna preach what the Bible says? The
Bible says this, Ephesians chapter one and verse six, it says, to
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein, that's His grace,
by His grace and by the good pleasure of His will, verse five,
He hath made us accepted. See, you don't accept Jesus Christ. It's not about Christ accepting
you. I love this. We've been watching the Chosen
on, vid angel and I'm usually not much for movies about Jesus
and things like that but I have been kind of checking this one
out because a lot of it is about the the backstory of all the
people the disciples that surrounded Jesus and I kind of been watching
and it's been good and Philip said in in in his thing he said
that Someone made mention about accepting
God and he made a statement. He said, it's really not so much
about us accepting God, but about him accepting us. Well, I mean,
I mean, Jesus, whenever they asked him about, did he, you
know, when did he accept to come and follow Jesus? And he said,
it's really not about me accepting him, but him accepting me. And
I thought that was really good, especially for something on TV
to make that declaration so clear that we do not accept Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior. We don't accept him. He accepts
us. See, it isn't that Jesus is up
for grabs. He's up there like, you know,
some lineup, police lineup, which is the man that you're gonna
accept as the one who did it. You know, he's not there for,
you know, Dodgeball. I accept Jesus. I want him on
my side. I want him to be my Lord and
Savior as if there's any other Lord and Savior as if there's
anyone else to accept. See, it isn't about our acceptance.
The servant of Christ isn't gonna preach, accept Jesus Christ into
your heart, or accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. No, the
servant of Christ is gonna say, you don't accept Jesus, Jesus
is the one that accepts you. If he is pleased to do so, to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. How many of you here in other
churches may have sung the song, ? I have decided to follow Jesus. ? ? Though none go with me, I still
will follow. ? ? My cross I'll carry till
I see Jesus. ? How many of y'all have sung
that? That's probably one of the most unscriptural songs of
anything. We didn't decide to follow Jesus. Look at verse three. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him. See, we didn't accept
Him, He accepted us, He chose us. According as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. So did He choose
us based on something that we have done? Absolutely not. that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. That's
how he did it. He didn't look down the corridor
of time and see that old Mikey boy was just a good old boy doing
all that he could for Jesus. He didn't look down the corridor
of time to see that Mike accepted Jesus Lord, I give my life to
you. My life is in your hands. I give
my life to you. I'm gonna let go and let you
have it. I'm gonna put it in God's hands. We should sing a
song like that. Gonna put it into God's hands. Start living on God's plans. No, we don't do that. That's
all unbiblical. That's what the pleasers of men
preach. We preach, the servants of Christ preach, that it's according
to the good pleasure of his will. Why did God elect some and not
others? I've heard that question a lot since I've come to believe
what the scriptures teach. Then why did God elect some and
not others? Why didn't he elect everybody? And the only answer
that I can give, and there is an answer. Some guys say, well,
we really don't know that. No, there is an answer in scripture,
and it's right here. It was according to the good pleasure of his will.
That's the only answer that God gives us. that it's according
to the good pleasure of his will that he chose those whom he would
save. Verse seven, in whom we have
redemption through his blood for forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace. Is it according to your faith?
Is it according to your repentance? Is it according to your law keeping? Is it according to your accepting
Him, deciding for Him, walking that aisle, putting your life
down at the altar, leaving it all at the altar?
Is it of you confessing your sin? Is it of you being baptized
in water or baptized by sprinkling, baptized by flag waving in your
face with a damp rag, whatever? Is it by anything that you did?
No, it's according to the good pleasure of His will, according
to the riches of His grace. Brethren, the man pleaser preaches
that opposite. I have decided to follow Jesus. Now, my salvation came when I believed
in Jesus, the man pleaser. A preacher will say that if you
believe on Jesus Christ, then he will save you. He will save
you from your sin if you believe him. Brethren, does the Bible
teach that we should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely
it does. Does the Bible say that whenever
we believe on, those who believe on Jesus Christ, they shall be
saved? Yes, but does it say those who
believe in Jesus Christ, then Jesus will save them? That's
not what it says. It says, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's a statement of fact.
It's telling you the saved ones are the ones believing on Jesus
Christ. Now, do we find that in scripture? Do we find that in scripture?
Well, we did see some in John. Again, John chapter six and verse
29. We saw John 6 and verse 29. Verse 28, it says, Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered
and said unto them, now look how he answered them. He said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. If you believe on God, it's not
a work that you did, it's a work of God. Belief is a work. Belief is a work. Some people
say that faith or belief is not a work, but belief is a work. It's just not your work, it's
a work of God. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. That's exactly what Jesus
said. No man can come except the Father
give it to him to be given. They have to be given to believe.
That's the work of God. So what was he telling? They
asked what should they do to do the works of God? And Jesus
didn't tell them what to do. He told them what God does. See,
the man pleaser will always tell you what you have to do, but
the servant of Christ will always tell you what Jesus has already
done. It's finished, completed, it's done, it's over. He did
it, he's the Savior, he saved. The work of God is that ye believe
on him. They didn't say, this is the
work of God that you go and believe on him and then he'll give it
to you. No, the work of God is that you believe. That's the
work of God. But you don't do it. It's God work, not your work. Now, While you're there, look at Acts
chapter 18. It's closer. Acts chapter 18. Look at verse 27. This is speaking of when Apollos
was going through Antioch and preaching, or into Achaia. It
says, and when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, verse 27,
the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him,
who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed
through grace. They believe through grace. So
you can't believe unless you've been given grace to believe.
It's not by your free will. It's not by you choosing. It's
not by your own power. It's not you doing your part
and believing in salvation. No, you have to be given grace
to believe. Back to Ephesians, but let's
look at the second chapter, Ephesians chapter two. And look with me
at verse eight. Verses that are very familiar
to most people, and people quote these verses most of the time,
they quote them incorrect, or they have the wrong interpretation
of these. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that, not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast." Now, some will say, well, there
you go. We're saved by grace, yes, but it's always through
faith. You have to believe or God won't save you. That's not
what this says. It says, for by grace are ye
saved. Present tense, for by grace are
ye saved through faith. Whose faith? Your faith? No,
if you'll look up at the previous writings, and especially if you
go over in the Romans, you'll find that it is through the faith
of Jesus Christ, not your faith, but the faith of Jesus Christ
that you were saved. Matter of fact, if you'll look
back at verse five, four and five, it says, but God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
by grace ye are saved. He doesn't put through faith
there. It's by grace are you saved.
See, some people say it is by grace through faith. And listen,
I've even heard some people say that it is by faith that we are
saved. We are saved by faith. No, it
says we are saved by grace through faith, but it tells us very plainly
people want to get people want to break down the greek and hebrew
and i've done it i've done it here a couple of times i've preached
on this passage of scripture and i've preached that it is
by grace through faith and what does the that mean and that not
of yourselves what does that mean what's it referring to when
it says and that not of yourselves what's not of ourselves Well,
the Arminian, the man-pleaser, is going to go back and say,
well, it's talking about the grace. The grace is not of ourselves,
but the faith surely is. No, the that goes back and refers
to everything preceding it. The grace, the being saved, and
the faith are all not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Grace is
a gift of God, salvation is a gift of God, and faith is a gift of
God. Matter of fact, Christ's faithfulness
being imputed to you is the greatest gift that God could ever give
anybody. He can give us mansions, he can give us money and wealth
and fame and all that kind of stuff. Not very often does he
do that for a child with grace, He can do that. But listen, the
greatest thing that God could ever give us, He could give us
the gift of the faith of Christ. Not only for what Christ did
in His righteousness, His faithfulness, but in giving us faith to believe
on that, to trust in that alone. See, faith isn't changing the
object of your faith with the natural faith that God has already
given you. It's giving you a new faith. that isn't from you. A faith that does look to Christ
alone, that's why it's called a gift of God. It's a gift of
God. And listen, it's not of works. If you do it, it's works. If
God does it, it's not your works. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. The man pleaser is gonna tell
you how to get born again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you'll be born again. Come to Christ and you'll be
born again. Turn to one last verse here,
John chapter three. John chapter three, starting
verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, I know that thou art a teacher come
from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, excuse
me, except God be with him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. So if you're telling people
that you just need to come and do this or do that or believe
this or believe that, and then you'll be born again, Jesus said
it was just the opposite. You have to be born again first
before you can even see the kingdom of God. He said, Nicodemus said
unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter
a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Like
begets like, right? We've taught that here before.
Adam produces the flesh, Christ produces the spirit. Okay, that
which is born of the flesh in Adam is just flesh. And so anything
that we are apart from the new birth, because that's when we
get the spirit, that's when we get quickened. That's when we
have spiritual life is at quickening. So anything before that, the
Bible says, is just flesh, and it cannot please God. So you're
not gonna please God by your faith because you can't do it.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. He didn't
tell him how to get born again, by the way. Says the wind bloweth
where it listeth, now here's the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it come, and whither it goeth. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit, And Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and
testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness.
If I have told you of earthly things and you believe not, How
shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man
hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Ooh, wow, you mean
Jesus is in two places at the same time? He sure is. So you
see here, well, let me finish reading to
get to my point at the end of this. And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son." Now see, that's where someone
would say, there you go, preacher. You just said a while ago that
God didn't love everybody, and right here it says, God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. Well, the Bible uses the word
world in several different ways in scripture, and you have to
let the context dictate what that word world is referring
to. The scope or the reach of the
world, what world is it talking about? It wasn't before, you
know, far after this, there were some people that were talking
about Jesus, and they said, listen, the whole world has gone after
him. Does that mean that everybody in the whole entire world has
gone after Jesus? Does that mean that the people from Asia was
coming, that the people from Europe was coming, that the,
you know? No, it was talking about everybody
in that region was going out and listening to him, starting
to follow him. The religious leaders weren't
going after him. They were the ones that was even
saying, hey, everyone's going after him. They were not, but
so is everyone, everyone is the world, the world. The world also
is used in scripture, brethren, to teach the difference between
Jew and Gentile. The Jews always spoke of the
Gentiles as the world. And then the Bible also uses
the word world as those who are those of Christ's. Those who were the believers.
He loved everyone from every Nation, tribe, and tongue. No,
not everyone. He loves some. The Bible says that there will
be people out of every tribe, language, nation, and tongue.
So, there will be believers that come from every tribe, nation,
language, tongue. They're all gonna be represented
That's how Christ has loved the world. That's how God has loved
the world and the fact that he just didn't leave it up to the
Jew. And right there, they were talking to a Jew who was a ruler
of the Jew, who had been teaching the Jews that God only loved
the Jews and that they were the only ones who was going to be
saved. And that God, whenever Messiah
come, that he would kill the Romans and that they would start
taking over and Israel now was gonna rule with Christ as a nation.
over all the area or over all the world. And see, they were
thinking that it was the Jews that were going to be the ones
and that was it. But the message has always been
from the beginning that it was going to be Jew and Gentile.
It was going to be people out of every group in the world would
be represented in the elect of God. And Nicodemus misunderstood
that. And so Jesus, whenever he said,
for God so loved the world, that was a testimony to Nicodemus
to tell him, listen, it's not just about you descendants of
Abraham. Isaac and Jacob, this is people
from all over the world have been loved by God with an everlasting
love out of every nation tribe, out of. There's a difference
between out of or that he has loved every nation, tribe, and
tongue and is going to save them all. But anyway, he goes on to
say, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through him might be saved. The reason
he didn't send him into the world to condemn the world because
the world was already condemned in Adam. He didn't need to send
him in to condemn the world because the world was already condemned
in Adam. but that the world might be saved through him. He that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already." See there, that's why he didn't have to
come in to condemn because they were condemned already. Because
they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son
of God. And this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. Everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds be reproved. But he that
doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God." So see, the person who's been
born from above, the servant of Christ, is gonna preach the
things of Christ, teach the things of Christ, and follow the things
of Christ, because Christ is in them. They have light in them. Remember, If they do not speak
according to the law and to the testimony, this word, it's because
there is no light in them. But if there is light in them,
then they will speak according to this. They will do truth.
They will walk as children of light. They will walk in the
light. How is it to walk in the light?
It's to walk by faith in Christ alone. Now there's a lot more
that I was going to say about this, but for time's sake, I
think we've kind of made that point clear that if we persuade
men, we are not the servants of Jesus Christ. Brethren, listen,
that's why it's so important. That's why we have harbored on
this gospel. Listen, it isn't because we just
want to be mean to people or to be hateful to people or to
reject people. Listen, it's not saying that
we and our little click is the only ones here. No, it's not
that either. It's telling the truth on Jesus.
It's telling what Christ has taught us. It's what the Word
of God says. See, it's no small thing to keep
following the false gospels that are no gospels. Let him be accursed. You are a pleaser of man and
not a servant of Christ when you are doing that. You might
think you're being a servant of Christ, but you're not. And matter of fact, that's exactly
why Paul goes into the next section of verses. He thought he was
a servant of Christ or a servant of God. He didn't see Christ
as Messiah at that point before. He thought he was serving God.
by all those false things that he was doing. But look at verse 15, we'll be
looking at this in the next couple of weeks. But when it pleased
God, not whenever Paul made the choice, y'all know the conversion
of Paul on the road to Damascus. He was on the way to persecute
the church in Damascus. He's gonna round them up, possibly
even kill them. And while he was on the way to
do that, Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus road, struck
him blind and told him, well, that's it for you. Saul, you're
not doing that no more. You're coming and gonna be a
messenger for me. You're gonna be one of my apostles.
He didn't ask Paul, hey Paul, you wanna change your mind here
and be my apostle? You wanna let go and let God?
You want to give your life to Jesus instead of the law? He didn't say that, no. But when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace. Did He say offer or invite me
by His grace? No, He said when He called me
by His grace to reveal His Son in me, not to me, but in me. He revealed God's Son in me.
I was given to understand who Christ really is. See, that's
where the man pleaser and the servant of Christ, they differ.
The man pleaser only sees Christ as a way to, as a means to the
end. We want to be saved. And so we
have to choose Christ and to get salvation, we have to get
Christ, give our life to Christ, come to Christ, do all these
things. And if we do that, then we get to go to heaven. We're
going to heaven. So Jesus is a means to the end. But Paul here, he says, whenever
one is born of God, that God reveals his son and who Christ
really is. Christ isn't just a means to
the end, although Christ does cause us to be saved and does
cause us to miss hell and go to heaven. But we begin to see
Jesus as who he really is. We begin to believe on him as
he really is and what he has done. Whenever Christ is revealed
in us. Then we know that it's about
him and not about us. The glory is for him and not
for us. So brother. May we be found to
be a pleaser of God that we might be found a servant of Christ,
not a man pleaser. Comments? Gracious heavenly Father, we
come to you this morning once again, and we thank you for the
word of God that we have to go to. Father, we do pray that you
might help us again to be faithful to these things, that we might
not compromise for the sake of men, but that we might be a pleaser
of Christ, a servant of Christ. And Father Lord, we just pray
that even though we might not see the things that is being
accomplished by the preaching of your gospel here in our little
congregation, Lord, one of these days, whenever we get to heaven,
we'll know all that you have been doing in us and through
us, among us. And in the community that we
live, Father, to the people that have maybe even listened, even
the ones that even now on Sermon Audio that we see that listen
from other parts of the world that we may never know their
name, never hear anything, but Father, they're glorifying you
in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so Lord, we just pray that
you would continue to make us faithful, as I said. Father,
I pray for those who are watching and listening who are struggling
with this whole issue of churches that are preaching these other
gospels that are no gospel at all and that are basically being
men pleasers instead of God pleasers. Father, Lord, I pray that you
would just give them courage and give them strength. Lord,
first, give them life if they don't have life, that they might
see you and that they might have Christ revealed in them so that
they might love the true Christ, not the offering weak Jesus that
wants to save everybody but can't because their free will won't
let him. the one who made salvation possible, but never did actually
save anybody by his death until they appropriate those things
and make it theirs. Father, we pray that you would
just give them the knowledge of Christ and his accomplished
salvation, and that they might live in the good of that, and
they might walk in the light of that, and that they might,
by faith, look to you, not only for their salvation, but for
their daily walk, every day, that whatever they're doing,
Lord, that you are guiding them and directing them, and that
their steps are ordered by you, and that they are accomplishing
every good work that you have ordained for them to do, no more
and no less, and that you will present your people before you,
righteous and holy. And Lord, that we have been given
that in grace. So Father, I pray that these
things are blessed news to the child of grace and those that
are troubled by these words, Lord, I pray that you would convert
them to Christ and away from their dead works, away from their
selfishness, away from their pride and from their arrogance,
thinking that they can serve God and please God by their flesh,
by their works of law, by their commitment to you, Lord, may
they find their sufficiency in Christ alone. And it's in Christ's
name that we pray, amen.