We're going to go ahead and get
back into our study of grace this morning. As I mentioned
a couple weeks ago, I had a few concluding remarks, so this is
the conclusion of the conclusion of the conclusion. Anyhow, if you remember whenever
we began the conclusion, we talked about kind of just recognizing
exactly what grace was or what a definition or description of
what grace was. And if you remember, we looked
and we've seen in Genesis that it was God's favor. that Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It was his mercy. It was the grace of giving of
gifts, his eternal life. The gospel itself is God giving
grace. It's the gospel of grace. And so the gospel is grace in
and of itself. And we've seen that that grace
is where salvation comes from, that grace is where the call
of God comes from, where faith comes from, justification, forgiveness,
where we're given a consolation. All of that stems from grace. We also learned that grace is
all abundant, all sufficient, is glorious, it's great, It is
manifold, it's rich, and it's undeserved. And then we've seen
last week its relationship. We went from describing what
grace was and seeing what its relationship was to believers,
and we've seen that all believers are under grace and not law,
that we have received grace, that we stand in grace, we abound
in grace, He just wrote an article on growing
in grace and knowledge, and it's a very good article, and I'll
try to post that on our Facebook page in the next few days or
so, as I have time. But it was very good, speaking
of what growing in grace actually means. Growing in grace, we speak
with each other, we speak with grace, and that we are inheritors
Now, this morning, like I said, I don't have a lot of time today
because I have to leave later on. But one thing I'd like for
us to see is some of the negative aspects of how grace can be used. Now, if you remember in the beginning,
we've seen that, again, grace was God's unmerited favor, right? God's unmerited favor, and we've
seen how Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, back
in Genesis chapter six, if you wanna turn there, you can. I'm
gonna read a couple of verses about Noah, and I'm gonna show
you that those who, find grace, look at grace, or think of grace,
preach grace, talk about grace, different than those who are
not of God. In Genesis chapter six, and we
look at verse nine, this is the account that God gives of Noah. He says, these are the generations
of Noah, Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
and Noah walked with God. So we see that Noah was a just
man. We see that he was perfect in
his generation, or upright. That word can mean upright. in
his generation and that he walked with God. Now, as we study scripture,
we know that there was nothing inherent in Noah that made him
just or made him perfect as meaning have never sinned. That word
upright or that word perfect there doesn't mean without sin. And then it says that Noah walked
with God. So here we see the characteristics
of one who has found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's
why Noah was just. That's why Noah was upright or
perfect. That's why Noah walked with God
is because that he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God
had given him grace, and because of that grace, Noah was just. Noah was upright, and Noah walked
with God. Noah didn't work on that, okay? It wasn't ten steps to, you know,
Christian maturity that got him there. It was God's grace that
got him there, okay? So that's what God said about
Noah. Now, God also said about Noah
in 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 and verse 5, it said, spare not the old world,
but save Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness bringing
in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Okay, so from the
account we see in Genesis and the account we see in 2 Peter,
Noah was an upright man, he was a just man, he walked with God,
and he was a preacher of righteousness. So he was a preacher of righteousness. Now, one who is under grace,
one who has been saved by grace, one who is a child of grace, is one who is just and upright,
who walks with God, and they preach righteousness. Now, what
was the righteousness that Noah preached? Did he preach his self-righteousness? Well, I believe if he did, God
would not be commending him in 2 Peter. And if he did, I'm sure Paul
in Hebrews would not be saying how faithful Noah was, okay? No, the righteousness that Noah
was preaching was a righteousness that was foreign to Noah. It
was the righteousness of God. He was preaching the righteousness
of God. Now, I know a lot of people may
not understand or have seen or there may be some that just flat
out right don't believe that the Old Testament prophets and
saints believed the gospel. I think they think that they
believe some other system. And unfortunately, we have a
system of a doctrine that has been ingrained, and again, there's
a lot of indoctrination comes from this, from the Schofield
Bible that teaches this dispensational look at God's word, and how it
breaks this down, that how the Old Testament saints were saved
differently than the New Testament saints, and that they were under
this covenant of works where if they did those things that
they were told to do, It was a temporal thing. It wasn't
an eternal thing. with anything we do or conditions
that we make. Now I will also say even the
temporal things that we do, I believe those also have to do with the
monogistic work or the sovereign work of God alone. So even the
temporary things, the things experiential, the old school Baptist would
use the term experimental, to describe those things, which
is our everyday life. And so even those things, the
temporary things of life, the temporal things of life, our
daily walk, our obedience to God, you know, taking of the
means that God has given us of his word, of preaching, of fellowship,
all these things, all these things are also governed by the work
of God in us. So I believe that everything
comes by his hand. But yet in the Old Testament,
God give them these things that do this and live, meaning your
life would continue on, living and breathing, okay? If you didn't
do those things, you would die. Because that same in Ezekiel,
you'll see that same admonition is given to the prophet as well. Because it said that those who
are righteous, if they do not continue doing righteousness,
then they too will die. So either we're wrong and we
can't lose our salvation, and it is based upon works. Or there's
a misunderstanding somewhere of what that meant back there.
And I think that's the case. It's talking about works for
continuing living. God gave them and said, if you
will do this, then you will live. Now, I'm going to say this as
a side note. How long they did those works
and lived was also determined by God. And when they didn't
do those works and was snuffed out by God, that was also by
his determinant counsel, And he brought those about exactly
as he deemed fit. So there wasn't no one working
or not working more or less. And God wasn't out there just
waiting to see what they were going to do. We've been told this book of
lies about righteousness that in the Old Testament that there
was no preaching of the gospel. Yet the scriptures tell us that
there was preaching of righteousness in the Old Testament. I believe that was in, is that
in 1 Peter? Did we find that? It says starting in verse 7,
the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold,
that perishance, though it be tried with fire, might be found
under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
whom having not seen ye love, and whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. Of which salvation? Now he's
talking to current day believers right then, but he says, of which
salvation? So he's talking about the salvation
that's in Christ. of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you. So there was a righteousness
that was preached in the Old Testament that was a righteousness
that was the gospel of grace. Was it in vivid detail like we
see it today? Absolutely not. We know that. We know that the scriptures are
very clear about how there were some things that were hidden
but now are made visible. manifest. Some things that were veiled
but now are unveiled. Some things that were clouded
and blinded but now that is open to be understood. Things that
are known now that wasn't known then. But yet, however that was,
however it was cloaked, however it was veiled, At the end of
the day, all those specific details weren't there, but yet behind
that, they knew that there was a righteousness that was outside
of themselves, that was gonna come from a Messiah that was
to come, who would be their Messiah, who would be their salvation,
who would be the one who would do all the things required for
them, and all those sacrifices that would begin to be instituted
during the Levitical priesthood and forward until Jesus. All
those things that took place, when they did those, they never
were teaching those people that this is the ground and the foundation
of your salvation. No, everything that they did,
whenever they taught those children about all those feasts and all
those celebrations and all those sacrifices, they were teaching
those children this is pointing to our coming Messiah. They're
telling them this is about our Messiah. And they were preaching
righteousness. So Noah was preaching righteousness. And this righteousness is not
going to be commended if it's any other righteousness but that
which is of Jesus Christ, of the coming Messiah, of the hope
that they would have that was to come. And so we see here,
it says, of which salvation the prophets had inquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto
you Searching what or what matter of time the Spirit of Christ,
which was in them, so that also proves that they were indwelled
by the Spirit, did signify. When it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ in the Lord. So there was a signifying
of Christ's work in the Old Testament, and we know that to be true by
all the types of foreshadows, right? That was the signifying,
okay? And so we see that there was
a signifying of things. Christ wasn't literally sacrificed
in the Old Testament, but yet in those sacrifices there was
a signifying of his sacrifice that was yet to be manifested
in time later on. Now, I'll just on a side note,
and I don't want to get into this, but to stir a pot here,
that same word signifies what we find at the very beginning
of the book of Revelation of Jesus Christ in chapter one. where it says the revelation
of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John. So right there we learn
that revelation going into that everything that we're about to
read in Revelation is a signifying of an actual event And so how
we are here on this side looking at a signification given by John
in Revelation, we don't know how it's going. Our eyes are
veiled to that. That's how them Old Testament
saints were. Their eyes were veiled, but yet
it was signified in a way that we kind of had an idea and maybe
could get some clues by searching the scriptures. And that's what
these prophets were doing. They were searching the scriptures.
looking at all the signifying aspects of this to find out what
was gonna be. And so they had an understanding.
We may not have every detail, but we know what's gonna happen,
okay? We know that Christ is coming
back, right? We know that he's coming back for his people, right? We know that he's gonna come
back and judge the world with their sin. We know that he's
gonna destroy this world and a new heavens and a new earth
is gonna come, right? We know that everybody that is not found
in the Lamb's Book of Life that is in hell right now is gonna
be brought up out of that, brought before the judge, judged for
all that they've done, and then ultimately them, Satan, and all
the demons are gonna be thrown in the lake of fire, and that's
gonna be the end of all things, and the eternal state where we
will be with the Lord forever and ever will begin. Now we know
that, but we don't know the detail in every detail. And I know a
lot of guys get in here and they wanna kind of make these literal,
but he says he's going to signify it. Just like in the Old Testament,
God signified it to them, but yet the truth was still there.
The gospel was there, it was just signified. So Noah was a
preacher of righteousness. Now, why did I say all of that?
What's all this got to do with anything? Well, I wanted to show
that one who comes under grace or is a child of grace, one who
has been saved by the grace of God, their attitude towards this
whole gospel of grace becomes just that. They realize that
they're not just, that they're not upright, that they're not
righteous in and of themselves. They're preachers of righteousness. They are ones who tell of their
righteousness or who their righteousness is. They, like Noah and all these
other prophets, understand of a salvation that was received,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
of which salvation we've inquired, we've sought diligently. Whenever
we search the scriptures and we find what the Bible says about
our salvation, we come to the end that it wasn't anything that
had to do with us, it had to do with Christ. Now we talked
a little bit last week, or a few weeks ago, that the gospel of
grace, I read to you out of Brother Andrew's book last week, The
Anti-Gospel, that the gospel is the gospel of grace. That's the cornerstone of the
gospel is Christ's grace given to us. It's all about grace. And so that is gonna be what
is preached. And it's going to be preached not in a self-righteous
grace, not in a man-centered grace, not in a synergistic grace,
because all that defeats the whole definition of grace. It's
going to be preached the way the Bible teaches it, the way
God gives it, and that is sovereign grace. The only grace that scripture
knows about as it pertains to the salvation of God's elect
is sovereign grace. There is no other kind of grace.
It's a sovereign grace. Now, I mentioned that this was
going to be about a negative aspect of grace. There is those
who pretend to be Christians, that claim to be Christians,
that may have a zeal for God, so to speak, but not according
to knowledge, that are religious, but they are not a child of grace,
because a child of grace will declare the gospel of grace,
believe the gospel of grace. And I don't care, I've listened
to all the arguments out there and all the people and all the
accusations, and you're saying that all people that are Armenians
are not elect. I didn't say that. I said, until
they come to believe the gospel of grace, they're unbelievers.
Will they come at some point? I don't know. I don't know. But
as long as they're believing an anti-gospel, then they cannot
be a child of grace preaching the gospel of grace. And that's exactly what was going
on. In Jude, we find this to be so. Look with me at the epistle
of Jude and look at verse four. Those who are not righteous,
who are not who are not upright, those who are not children of
grace, this is how they handle grace. For there are certain
men prepped in unawares who were before of old ordained to this
time and nation, ungodly men. They weren't godly men, they
were ungodly men. So this tells me that they were
not children of grace, they were ungodly men. They were under condemnation.
And a matter of fact, they were ordained to that condemnation. They crept in. That means, you
remember, Jesus said anybody that creeps in and doesn't come
through the door, these are the ones he's talking about. And
he says, for certain men crept in unawares who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation. And here it is, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. So what does one who is not a
child of grace do with the gospel of grace? They turn it into lasciviousness. That's one thing that they can
do. They can turn it into lasciviousness. Big word. Anyone got any thoughts
on what lasciviousness means? Already like me, for so long,
I just kind of skipped over it and thought, wow, that's a big
word, and it obviously means something bad. Any thoughts on what lasciviousness
is? Mark, you know what lasciviousness means? Well, not necessarily, but They go
hand in hand. Last savageness would be termed
as someone who is, a lot of times it goes along with immoral. It goes with sexually deviant
activity. Wantonness is a word that you
could probably use for last savageness. So lasciviousness, but one of
the main things about lasciviousness is without restraint. Lasciviousness
is without restraint. And if you look, even among sovereign
grace believers, there are those who look at the grace we have
in Christ and they just say, well, we can just do whatever
we want. and it's all right. We can live
any way we want, indulge in anything we want, just live it up the
way that we want because we're not under law, we're under grace. And we can, as Paul says, we
can sin that grace may abound. You say, well, is there really
people out there like that? If you've trolled the internet
much through Facebook groups, the Sovereign Grace Facebook
groups, you're gonna find they're out there in droves. Men who
just think, hey, don't bring up any rule or regulation or
admonition to me. We're all under grace. You shouldn't
be telling me that I can't do this or do that or shouldn't
live this way or that way. That is true antinomianism. True
antinomianism is, or without law, is just saying that there
is literally any way that I live is fine. If I live some debauched
lifestyle, it doesn't matter because I'm an elect child of
grace and my sins have been covered, and he died for every one of
those sins. You know, I've made that statement that we're going
to sin every sin that Christ died for, no more, no less, but
that's not a license to go out and just sin all you want to
sin. That's not telling you to do that. That's stating the fact. The fact is, is that God in his
providence is going to bring about every sin that he has determined
that I should walk in and everyone for whom Christ died And I'm
not going to send any more than that, and I'm not going to send
any less than that. But that isn't him telling me, so just
go and do whatever you want. No, that's not what I'm saying. And so we see here that these
men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying
the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. And so those who
are not under grace is gonna take grace and gonna preach it
in one direction to the full extreme of live the way, any
way that you want, that there is no biblical or any Christian
way of living, so to speak. But the Bible says that because
of the grace that we've received, that we establish that law. The
Bible says that we have in us that principle, not in tablets
of stone on the outside that we should live to gain, But now
he has placed those on the inside of us, and he causes us to walk
in his statues. Now I'll agree, there's a lot
of things that some people call evil that the Bible doesn't call
evil. There are some things that people
call sins that the Bible doesn't call sins, and they think that
if you indulge in that, then you're living lasciviousness.
But that's not true. And I'll use the illustration,
and I know this gains a lot of argument and everything, but
you know, drinking alcohol is one of those things. The Bible
does not prohibit the consumption of an alcoholic beverage. It
does preach about drunkenness. Do not get drunk. It does warn
about the excess use of alcohol can lead to drunkenness. And
it warns you about that. But see, there are some that
believe that if you consume any alcoholic beverage, that you've
committed a sin because you've drunk that alcohol. And then
thus, you are not only sinning, but you are also to stay away
from the appearance of evil. So even though, yeah, well, maybe
the Bible doesn't say you can't drink any alcoholic beverage,
but you should never do it just because you need to stay away
from the appearance of it. Well, it has to be evil for it to be the
appearance of evil, right? So that would be one case. And
I'm sure that there's others that we could probably bring
up. That's probably the most obvious one that probably we encounter
is that. But the lasciviousness guy who
says, well, and I've actually had a conversation with a guy
about this, hey, we can just The drunkenness that the Bible
talks about is an ongoing, continual, habitual lifestyle, not a one-time
occurrence. Drunkenness is an extended life
period of being a drunkard. Not a one-time experience. If
I drink and I get drunk, I haven't committed the sin of drunkenness.
Well, I'm afraid you have. To get drunk is to get drunk. So life seriousness tells us,
well, we can just do that. It's okay. So there's that one
aspect. But then there's this other aspect
that could be preached by those who claim to be children of grace. Turn with me back to Galatians,
if you would. An abuse of grace is preaching
lasciviousness and you'll find that those who don't know grace
will preach lasciviousness or they will bend to the other direction
and they'll preach an overuse of the law. Now look with me
if you would in chapter 2, beginning verse 17. It says, but if while
we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live
unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live,
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me.
and gave himself for me, and then here it is in verse 21,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So Paul here
is teaching us there's another opposite end to what we're seeing. There's less selfishness being
preached by some who claim to be children of grace. And then
on the other hand, there is all this law. These over here are
debauchery that's trying to put on an air of salvation. These over here are self-righteous
religious people who are putting on an air of salvation. And I
mean air as in not H-E-I-R. And so we see that both of these
are wrong. Paul says that it isn't about
the law either. But I want you to notice here,
he says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. So the grace of
God can be frustrated, but I think we need to understand what that
word frustrated means. Now, whenever I was studying for this and looking
at this, I went to the dictionary to see what the dictionary defined
frustrated as, and it says this. It says, to make worthless, to
defeat, to nullify, to disappoint, to thwart, And that's what the
dictionary defined frustrated. But then I went to
the scriptures, and I actually looked up this word and what
it was in the Greek. And I found every place that
it is translated frustrated. I found every place that it was
in the King James Bible. It's used 16 times in the King
James Bible. And the King James translators
translated it eight times as despise. This word is translated
as despise, or define. I would say define, despise. That's how we define. We don't
go to the dictionary to get the definitions. We go to the scriptures
to get the definitions. The scripture defines it as despise
four times. It defines it as reject. One time, it defines it as bring
to nothing. One time, in this case, it's
translated as frustrate. One to disinhaul or one to cast
off. But you'll see the overarching
definition or meaning of this word frustrate is not making,
you know, God's frustrated. Can't believe they're doing that
again. Or I can't believe they're not doing that. God's not up
in heaven throwing up his hands frustrated because we're either
not doing something or doing something that we shouldn't.
That's not what frustrated means here. The word frustrated is
exactly how it's defined in the King James Bible. It's despised. Paul is saying, listen, I do
not despise the grace of God. I do not reject the grace of
God. disannul the grace of God or
cast off the grace of God. He's saying whenever it comes
down to this, he's saying, even though I'm saying that we are
dead to the law, and I've also said that the law
is written in our hearts and we're going to do that, I'm not
disannulling or I'm not rejecting what the grace of God is all
about. The grace of God is all about that it has been done. What does the grace of God tell
us? The grace of God tells us that the law is fulfilled in
Christ and that he is the one who stands before us, before
God in that positional way and that all of the account that
we have of not keeping the law has been wiped away and his record
stands for us. But it also tells me that the
grace of God is also at work in my life to will and to do
His good pleasure in His time as He sees fit. And so Paul,
and remember, Paul wrote Romans 7. He wrote Romans, all of Romans. But he wrote all those things
with these same concepts. And he says here, I do not frustrate
or I do not despise the grace of God. That's what he's telling these
Galatians. He's saying, if you remember, it was the Judaizers
who was coming back in to tell them to go back under the law.
Yes, you might be saved by grace, but you're kept and you need
to continue to do the law, to do the law, to stay, to be. And if you don't, then it's going
to be taken away. And Paul's saying, no, that's
frustrating the grace of God. That's disannoying the grace
of God. That's rejecting or despising
the grace of God. The grace of God is something
that's freely given, not something that's worked for. The Judaizers
are telling you to work for this, and God's grace is telling you
that it is freely given to you and is being freely given to
you in your temporal walk. It's being freely given to you.
And so the despising So those on one end will say less semishness,
set it up, grace may abound. If that's the case, they're not
preaching the gospel of grace. Or they're over here preaching
law, law, law, law, keep the law, keep the law, keep the law,
keep the law, for God forbid that they're saying keep the
law for justification, but then they're saying keep the law for
sanctification. Keep the law for fellowship, keep the law
for righteousness now. And Paul is saying, wait a minute,
that's the other extreme of this. If you preach this, you're frustrating
or despising the grace of God. That's why he said, then Christ
is dead in vain if that's what you preach. Meaning that something
in Christ's death takes care of what you think the law is
doing for you now. Christ's death covered what it
is you think you have to keep the law for. So whether that's
for sanctification, for justification, for right fellowship, for standing,
for continuing, for ultimate end, whatever it is, you put
your finger on that, Christ died for that. And if you think law
keeping is gonna get you there, then Christ died in vain. And
there's no reason for him to have died. And so that is how
one who is not a child of grace will preach grace. And then, lastly, Inquiring into
Galatians, and we'll be done for the day. Galatians chapter
five. Galatians chapter five. It says, Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I call saying
to you that if ye be circumcised, Now he's not just talking about
the physical act of circumcision. He's using circumcision as just
a symbol or a, I don't even know the word that I'm looking for
in my head, but he's using that to signify law keeping. Okay? Because that's what the Judaizers
were here doing, you know, trying to get them to come back under
the law and be circumcised. All you Gentiles still need to
come in and be circumcised. It says that if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. So if you're banking on your
law keeping, then Christ has profited you nothing. For I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the
whole law. So he said, if you're going to
look to your law keeping for getting in or staying in, then
you're a debtor to keep it all. Because that's what the law said. The law said, do this with no
transgressions. Keep all of it. There are people that want to
break the law down into ceremonial law, moral law, civic law, all
this kind of stuff. They want to break this down.
And I'm up for correction for this. In the New Testament, I
do not see where there is any designation between any of the
different types of laws in the Old Testament. I haven't seen
that. I have seen that Christ has put
an end to the law. for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Those things in the Old Testament, whether it be ceremonial, whether
it be civic, whether it be moral, all those things in the Old Testament
are no longer on the outside. they've been done and anything
on the inside. And I think Mike McInnis made
a great point in his article on growing in grace. Growing
in grace isn't me becoming more spiritual by attaining to spiritual
accomplishments, religious activity, things such as that. Whenever
it talks about us growing in grace, that is talking about
us growing in the understanding and how it works, that we are
nothing, and Christ has done everything in that, growing in
grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Growing in trusting
grace and not law and words and self, but in the knowledge of
what Jesus Christ has done. But it says, Christ has become
no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are, here it is, here's the term, fallen from grace. And the Armenian will say, aha,
there you go. You can lose your salvation because
you can fall from grace. What does Paul mean here? He's
saying, not that you can lose your salvation, but he's saying
that if you believe that justification can be attained by works, then
you have fallen from grace being your gospel to works being your
gospel. You have fallen from the grace
that was given to you to your own self-righteous activity being
the cornerstone of your salvation. Your justification is no longer
of grace. You have fallen down from grace
down to the humanistic belief of free will as your hinge pin
for salvation. And so that is what Paul is meaning
by fallen from grace. You at one time believed that
grace was your justification, and you've fallen from that to
now believe that you are saved by your works If you don't believe
that's what he's meaning, look at what he says in chapter 3.
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should
not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you. That's the truth. That's the
grace that was preached to you. That was what was set before
you when I came. And you received that by grace. And you trusted in that by grace. You hoped in that by grace. And
then he says, this only what I learned of you. Received ye
the spirit by the works of the law? No, you didn't receive the
spirit by the works of the law. That was a sovereign work of
God who came at the appointed time, and you were indwelt by
the spirit of God who quickened you, put that spirit in there,
and caused you to be a spiritual person. That was done not by
the law keeping. It was done as the wind bloweth. And then he says, or by the hearing of faith. Are
you so foolish, and here it is, this backs up what I just said,
are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, are ye now made
perfect by the flesh? Brethren, there isn't nothing
that we can do in this flesh that can make us perfect, positionally,
practically, nothing. The flesh is flesh and prophets
a little bit, nothing. It profits nothing. And so Paul
here is saying, the abusers of grace, the preachers who have
a form of godliness but deny the power, the ones who are wolf
in sheep's clothing are going to preach, believe, teach, hold,
force, a gospel of grace that says either lasciviousness or
law keeping. And if you do that, then you
have fallen from grace, meaning you've fallen from an understanding
that is the truth, that grace is grace, unmerited favor. And you have fallen and succumbed
to a belief that is this, and if you stay there, and you don't,
then you really never was a child of grace. Because the children of grace
are just, and righteous, and upright, and preachers of righteousness. Of whom the Bible says we have
none. So it isn't preaching what we
do. So there are churches out there, I've been a part of it,
I've been a preacher of it, I've been a instigator of it, I've
been a promoter of it. In my time's past, that preach
and hound people with the law, you're just not living up, you're
not living up to it, you're not living up to what God has for
you. Oh, you can have so much more if you just live up to what
God has for you. Law, law, law. but then also
I've been on the other side. It doesn't matter what I do,
just live it up. Now, if you preach those, you're
not a preacher of the gospel of grace. You're gonna encounter
those, brethren, when you're out there. Many brothers and
sisters are taken in by people who look really close to us. but their gospel has fallen from
grace. And even though it's under doctrines
of grace, there still is at the core of that free will. And I
say that's what reformed theology is the devil's lie. It is so close to the truth,
but it takes justification and places it upon your faith. It takes salvation. will of man, while on the other
side of the mouth is preaching sovereign, monergism, five points,
tulip, Calvin, Luther, blah, blah, blah, blah. They disannul, they frustrate
the grace of God. Whenever they preach, it's by
your faith. God can't justify you until you believe. You have to, you have to... You have to use the means of
grace that God has given you so that you can grow spiritually. And I know that to be true, especially
here. I know that to be true. If you
all remember several years ago, not long after I first come to
pastor here, we had a couple that was coming to church here
who were Presbyterians, who was coming and attending because
they couldn't find anywhere in town that was preaching the doctrines
of grace. And so they were coming here
for a while, and at one point they approached and wanted to
know, you know, when are you guys going to have the Lewis
supper? We need to take the Lord's Supper. It's been a long time
since we've taken the Lord's Supper, and we need to be refreshed. And I asked him, I said, well,
I mean, what do you mean? And he says, well, I mean, the
Lord's Supper is a means of grace. That is one of the ways that
God's grace builds us up in the faith. And if we don't have that
on a regular basis, then our faith can wane. It's a means
of grace. And I had to let him down and
tell him, I said, well, even if we did have it, you guys would
have to be baptized before you can be a part of this. Because baptism isn't by infant
sprinkling. So we had a long conversation.
They continued to come for a little while, but it wasn't long after
that that they left. And left on good terms, it wasn't mad
or upset and just vacated. They just said, you know, we're
going to have to find a place because we truly need to be under
those means of grace. And, you know, we obviously see
that there is no budging in your, you guys' views of baptism and
things like that. And we said, well, no, we just,
that's what we see in scripture and we can't do anything different
than what we understand in scripture. So it was a court of parting,
but still it all come down to it was a means of grace. It was
Judaism. It was not sovereign grace. It was a form of free
willism. It was a form of that. But yet
doctrines of grace, believers, I say believers, doctrines of
grace than what you see among the doctrines
of grace believers. And I'm not saying our church
is the only church. I hope nobody takes that as what
I'm saying. I'm not saying that we know everything
and we're right on everything. I could very well be wrong. You
could be wrong about some things. We as a collective body here,
we could be wrong about some of the things we hope to. And
until God convicts us and brings us to that revelation of those
things, we are what we are. And I'm not saying we have all
the answers and everything. We're the only ones that preach
this truth. And unless you're in our group, then you're all
wrong. I'm not saying that either. I'm
just saying that we need to be careful that it may look like
this, smell like that, taste like that, but it may not be.
And we've got to be, how does the Bible put it? shrewd as serpents or something
like that. Wise as serpents. So be careful of those out there
that is preaching grace. Matter of fact, I think Beth can attest to the fact that
just because you're called Grace Baptist Church or whatever, that
doesn't mean that you preach grace. or are graceful to others. It's all about what the Bible
teaches of the gospel of grace. It's about sovereign grace. It's
about God's work for us and in us, apart from anything that
we do in and of ourselves. Anybody got any comments or any
things you'd like to add? Any brothers got any word that
you'd like to mention or say? Not even on this subject. So for UFOs, we're not gonna
talk about UFOs. Bigfoot. Okay. All right. All right, let's