Good morning. If you would care
to open your Bibles with me to begin our service to Colossians
chapter one. Colossians chapter one. And when you're done turning
and make sure I've got everybody's attention so everybody gets this.
Beginning two weeks from today on the 15th of November, Our
service is going to begin at 10 a.m., a half hour earlier,
so that following the service we can have Sunday school classes
for our children. They'll not last any longer than
about 20 minutes probably. So you parents here waiting will
have to wait forever. So our service will begin at
10. We'll give a few minutes for
the building to clear out and then our classes will begin.
I think that'll be a good thing for our young people. I know
that Their teachers are missing them. They're probably missing
their teachers. So I think this will be a good thing for us.
So two weeks from today, 10 o'clock. All right. Colossians chapter
one. We'll begin our reading in verse one. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother,
to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae.
Grace be unto you and peace from God, our father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you
have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth
of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in all the
world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you, since
the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. As
you have learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who
is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared
unto us your love in the spirit. For this cause, we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God. strengthened with all might,
according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering
with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by him
and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile
all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were some
time alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet
now hath he reconciled. in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which you have heard and which was preached to every
creature, which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister."
And we'll end our reading there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
merciful Heavenly Father, we bow before you this morning giving
thanks that you are God alone, that you're sovereign over everything
that happens in your creation. Father, we're thankful especially
that you're sovereign in salvation, that you did not leave the salvation
of your people up to our will, up to our dead sinful will, that
you're sovereign in salvation. That you chose whom you would
save and that all of those people who are put in your son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, are fully and completely redeemed by his
obedience and by his bloody sacrifice. Father, how we thank you. How
can we ever even begin to thank you for your mercy and your grace,
your love and your pity to sinful men and women such as we are.
But Father, we do thank you. And it is our earnest desire
that this morning you would enable us by your spirit to worship
you in spirit and in truth. Give us a heart of true worship. Father, I pray that you would
be with me in this hour, that you would enable me to rightly
divide the word of truth with a heart of compassion, preach
your gospel to your people and give us a believing heart. Without
thee, we can do nothing. We can't preach, we can't hear,
we can't believe, we can't worship, we can't do anything. Without
thee, we can do nothing. Father, enable us this morning
to hear the gospel of your dear Son and to believe it and to
leave here rejoicing in Christ our Savior. And Father, we Pray
for our world at this time. As we said earlier, how thankful
we are, thou art sovereign, that we know that as crazy as this
world seems to us, that everything is still happening according
to your eternal will and purpose. But Father, we pray that you
might see fit to deliver us from this virus that's gripping the
world at this time At this time of an election in our country,
Father, we pray that you would deliver this country from receiving
what we're due. But Father, be merciful. Oh,
be merciful to our country. Give us a leader who would preserve
and protect the freedoms that we enjoy in this land, that we
might still freely meet together and worship Thee. We know whoever
sits in the throne or in the Oval Office, whoever has any
power or authority, anywhere in this world is given from Thee. Father, we pray that You give
us a leader who would preserve our freedoms. Don't give us what
we deserve. This country's gone so far from
Thee. Don't give us what we deserve,
but continue to be merciful and gracious. Continue to cause Your
gospel to ring out freely across this land. that your people might
be saved and blessed and edified. Father, we pray for our children
at this difficult time in which they grow up that you would preserve
and protect them. How thankful we are for each
one of them. We pray your mercy and grace
would be upon them. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Wonderful, merciful Savior Precious
Redeemer and friend Who would have thought that a lamb would
Rescue the souls of men Oh, you rescued the souls of men Counselor,
Comforter, Keeper Spirit we long to embrace You gave us hope when
our hearts had Hopelessly lost our way Oh, we hopelessly lost
our way You are the one that we praise You are the one we
adore You gave us healing and grace Our hearts always hungered
for Oh, our hearts always hungered for Almighty, infinite Father
Faithfully loving the lost Here in our weakness you find us Falling
before your throne Oh, we're falling before your throne You
are the one that we praise You are the one we adore You gave
us healing and grace, our Hearts always hunger for Oh, our hearts
always hunger for You are the one that we praise You are the
one we adore You gave us healing and grace Our hearts always hunger
for Oh, our hearts always hunger for If you would, now open your Bibles
with me to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 8. I've titled
the message this morning, All Things Are By Christ. And that's why I read that passage
to open the surface from the book of Colossians. After you
get home this evening, after you've heard this message and
had some time to think about it, go back and reread that.
And you'll see why I chose that to read to open our surface.
You'll see how everything is mentioned there is all by Christ.
It's in Him. It's by Him. Everything was created
by Him and for Him. Because all things, all things
are by Christ. Anything worth having is going
to come to us by Christ. And that's why I want to show
you from the scriptures this morning that Christ is everything that
we need. I want to show the lost, those
who are here this morning that do not yet know Christ our Savior. I want to show you, I want to
preach to you Christ. So you'll come to him because
you see in him is everything that you need. And I want to
say, those who believe Christ and know Christ, I want you to
leave here this morning rejoicing, having comfort and assurance
in your heart because you've seen that the Lord Jesus Christ
really is everything that you need. I want to show you Christ
so that you will continue to depend upon Him joyfully, thankfully,
willfully. Look here, 1 Corinthians 8, verse
6. But to us, there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him. And one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." Now, in short,
what the apostle is saying here is that everything is in the
Father. And the Father gives everything
to His people by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we are, everything
we have, comes from the Father, to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything sinners like you and
me need is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that
the Father has for a sinner is given to sinners like us by the
Lord Jesus Christ. So if you would be saved, if
you would know God, if you would know the gospel, go to Christ. Flee to Him because He has it
all. And since everything comes to
us by the Lord Jesus Christ, then Christ is all that matters,
isn't it? You know, we get so easily caught
up in the things going on in this world and going on around
us, and we need to be constantly reminded of this. In the end,
Christ is all that matters. Now, if in the end, Christ is
all that matters, then Christ is all that matters right now.
Isn't that right? He's all that matters. So make
it your business to seek Him. Make it your business to know
Him. Because Christ is all that matters to your soul. And I want
to show you seven vital spiritual blessings that are found in Christ
and are given to us by Christ. And we'll take these. They're
not in order of how important or whatever I think they are.
We're just going to take them in the order that Scripture presents them
to us. The Gospel of John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Here's the
first thing. Grace and truth are come to us
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and truth. That's important. Grace and truth. John 1 verse
14. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the
only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. John bear
witness of him and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And of his fullness have all
we received and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, John says here that
grace or that the law was given by Moses. Now we know that God
is the one who gave the law, right? We know that. God gave
the law to Moses, and Moses gave the law to the people. And you
know, that is all any preacher can do. All we can do is take
what God has given us and give it to people. That's all preaching
is. But there's a specific reason
here that John says the law was given by Moses. He's going to
show them something important. The Jews were so proud to have
descended from Moses. They said, we're Moses' disciples. We are followers of the teaching
of Moses. And they weren't lying, were
they? They were followers of the law. They were trying to
come to God by their obedience to the law. They were disciples
of Moses in the sense that Moses gave the law. Now, they had no
idea that Moses wrote of Christ and spoke of Christ. But as far
as following the law, that's how they were trying to come
to God. And there's no doubt Moses was a great prophet. We
ought to give honor to whom honors do. Moses was greatly used of
God. How the church has been blessed
through the ages by Moses, the prophet. But John's going to
show us something very important here. Moses was just a mere man. He's going to show us how inferior
even the great prophet Moses, Moses is so inferior. to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he shows us that by showing
us how inferior the law is to grace. The law was given by Moses. The people received the law from
Moses. But you know, nobody was ever
saved by keeping that law. Nobody. That's true then as it's
true today. Nobody can make themselves righteous
by keeping the law because we can't keep it. Our nature, the
nature that we're born with, is a fallen nature. It's fallen
into sin so that all we can do, everything we do is sin. So then why did God give the
law? God knew we couldn't keep the law. Why did God give the
law? God gave us the law to show us our need for Christ to come
and keep the law for us because we can't keep it ourselves. God
gave us the law so that we'd see our filth, the filth of our
sin, the disobedience of our heart, And we need Christ to
come and obey the law for us and to make us righteous. So
salvation by keeping the law, the message of the Pharisees
at that time, we're Moses disciples. Salvation by us keeping the law
is a lie. There's no truth in it. Anybody
who says they've made themselves righteous and made themselves
perfect so that God will accept them by them keeping the law
is a liar and a hypocrite. There's no truth in them. but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came
to earth in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It came to
earth in the person of Christ. John says He's full. The Lord
Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. He's full of it. That
means there's nothing but grace and truth in Him. Christ came
to show us True salvation. True salvation by Him keeping
the law for His people. And by Him putting away the sin
of His people by sacrificing Himself for their sins. Now that's
grace. That's grace. God didn't have
to do that. That's grace. Christ made His people righteous
by His obedience. And He put their sin away by
His sacrifice. Well, now that Christ has come
and He's put away the sin of His people, so that sin no longer
exists. Even God says He can't see it.
It's cast behind God's back. Now God can be true. He can be
just in saving His people, giving them eternal life and glorifying
them with Christ. Now that salvation is gracious,
isn't it? Oh, it's so gracious. And it's
true. God can save sinners and still
be true to His holy character. At best, at the very best, all
the law can be is a picture of Christ, but it's not the real
thing. Christ came to bring the real thing, to bring salvation
in grace and truth. And grace and truth can only
come by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you come to Christ. You come
to him and beg him to save you and you will receive You'll not
earn, you'll receive. And now He says in verse 16,
of His fullness have we all received. Nobody earns it, we receive grace
and truth. And it says here, we've all received
and grace for grace. I'll tell you what that phrase
means, grace for grace. It means grace heaped upon grace,
just grace heaped upon grace, just grace greater than all of
our sins. It's God's electing, redeeming,
justifying, pardoning, adopting, regenerating grace. Just grace
heaped upon grace. It's all in Christ. He's full
of grace and truth. Now, if we've received from God's
Son grace and truth, we're plumb saved, aren't we? Plumb saved. That ought to give peace and
joy to the heart. Alright, number two. Look in
Acts chapter 4. We're made whole. by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 4, beginning in
verse 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent
by what means he is made whole. Be it known unto you all, and
all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at Nod of you builders, which has become
the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. At the end of verse 10,
Peter says, even by Him does this man stand here before you
whole. Now I tell you this often, you know this, that in scripture,
every time we read about physical healing, that's been done as
a picture of spiritual healing. Certainly it's done as a kindness
and a mercy to the person who is suffering some physical ailment,
but it's given to us as a picture of spiritual healing. Here was
a man who'd been lame all his life. He was lame from his mother's
womb. It must have been something happened
in the womb. His body wasn't formed right.
He's been lame from the womb. And Peter came. Peter and John
came by and they healed this man. Now this is a picture of
what happens when God saves a sinner. You and I have not been lame
just from our mother's womb. We've been lame and dead from
the time we fell in action. We've been lame and dead for
over 6,000 years. We were made incomplete by Adam's
fall. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And we came short of the glory
of God. We're incomplete. You know, sometimes when you're
in school, I mean, you just haven't finished the assignment. You've
done such a bad job. They don't bother giving you
F. They say incomplete. That's us. We're incomplete.
And the only way we can be made complete, the only way we can
be made whole is by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
is the perfect man. He is complete. He is the complete
whole man that the father requires. And he didn't just do this for
himself. Listen, he did that for his people. There is salvation
in his name. Now, when scripture talks about
someone's name, It doesn't just mean the moniker by which we
call them. It means somebody's character.
We talk about the name of Christ, we're talking about His character.
We're talking about His perfect righteousness. We're talking
about His holiness. We're talking about how He's full of grace
and truth. That's the character. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ
is like. There's salvation in His character. So call. I mean, can you think
of a better reason to call upon His name and beg Him for forgiveness. Other than to hear it's His character
to forgive. It's His character to save in
grace and truth. You call upon Him and beg Him
for forgiveness for His sake alone, and God will save you.
That's what Scripture says. If your only hope is Christ,
without anything you've done being added to it, whether you
know Moses or not, whether you're Moses' disciples or not, whether
you've been religious or not, regardless about what you've
done or haven't done, If your only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ,
He'll save you. Believing on His character, on
what He is like, on what it is He came to do. If you believe
on Him, His character as the Savior of sinners, it's impossible
for you to be lost and to perish. It's an utter impossibility. And He makes His people whole
by faith in Him. That's how He makes them whole.
Alright, now look over a few pages of Acts chapter 10. Here's
the third thing. We have peace with God by Jesus
Christ. Acts chapter 10, verse 34. And Peter opened his mouth and
said, of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
But in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness
is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. That word,
I say, you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began
from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,
who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil, for God was with him. And we're witnesses of all
things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem,
whom they slew and hanged on a tree. God raised up the third
day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses
chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with
him after that he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to
preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was
ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give
all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins." Now here is Peter says
in verse 36, the word which God sent unto the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ. When we preach the gospel, we
preach peace by Jesus Christ. Now we preach the gospel, it
divides, doesn't it? It divides the flesh and the spirit. It
divides the believer and the unbeliever. But we're not preaching
war. We're not preaching to try to
divide people, make people hate one another. We preach the gospel
of peace, peace by Jesus Christ. I tell you, our gospel, the gospel
of peace by Jesus Christ is only good news to people who are at
war, who are at war with God. When we preach the gospel, we
declare the terms of peace to rebels who are rebels against
God. See, by his sin, Adam declared war on God. And we've carried
out that war against God by our sin to this very day. That's
what we're doing. Carrying out war against God.
And God's angry with that sin. God's angry with the wicked every
day. God is holy and He's angry with
sin. Well, then how can, you know,
God's character cannot change, can it? God's a holy character. He cannot do anything, violate
His holiness. Then how can these two warring
parties ever be reconciled? How could these two warring parties
that are polar opposites ever have peace? And you know, when
I say peace, I don't mean just the fighting stopped, but there's
still hatred in the heart. No, this peace means peace with
God. Peace that comes by Jesus Christ
means the war stops because the two warring parties now love
one another. That's the peace we're talking about. Now, how's
that possible? I'm interested in this. I want
to know how a rebel like me can have peace with the Holy God.
How is that possible? Well, it's not by me doing anything
good, is it? No, because everything I do is against God. The only
way a sinner like you and me can have peace is by the Lord
Jesus Christ. By His sacrifice. Now, here's
how this comes by Jesus Christ. By His sacrifice, He put away
the sin that made God angry. And when that sin is gone, it's
been washed away under the blood of Christ, God doesn't have any
reason to be angry anymore, does He? No, sin's gone. And He smiles
on His people in grace and love. Alright, but what about the other
party? What about men? What will make men be at peace
with God? Well, God's people have peace
with God the same way God has peace with His people. It's by
Jesus Christ. Peter here says that Jesus Christ
is Lord of all. This is the sovereign Savior.
He's Lord of all. He rules and reigns everywhere
that He is. His will is always done. And when He speaks in power,
and He washes His people in His blood, those stony, dead, hateful,
sinful hearts are broken. And they receive a new heart.
God doesn't change the nature of a man and make that dead nature
suddenly love God. He doesn't give that dead nature
light and faith where now he can know God. No, God speaks
in power and He creates a new heart. He creates a brand new
man that never existed before. And that man loves God. That
man believes Christ. That man trusts Christ. And that
new man is not angry with God anymore. He loves God. And there's
peace. It's all by Jesus Christ, by
His blood. And Jesus Christ can do that
because He's got the power to do it. Because He's Lord of all. In verse 43, Peter says to Him,
give all the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever
believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. See, when
sin's gone, there's no more war. When sin's gone, the new man
doesn't hate God, and God's not angry with that new man either.
When we believe on Christ, when we believe on the Son of God,
there is peace with God. But the only way that can happen
is by Jesus Christ. By His sacrifice that put away
the sin of His people. And that's exactly what Isaiah
meant when he said, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. Christ
had to be chastised. He had to pay for that sin and
put it away so there'd be peace with God. See, God was angry
with Adam, wasn't he? Because of Adam's sin, God was
angry. God thrust Adam out of his garden. God created a perfect
garden. God came and walked with Adam
in the cool of the evening in that garden. And God told Adam,
you can't live here anymore. We're not having fellowship like
this anymore because now we're at war. You have declared war
on God by your sin. But now, in Christ Jesus, we're
reconciled. We're reconciled. We're brought
back into the presence of God, accepted and have fellowship
with God because there's peace. Peace by Jesus Christ. Now I
tell you, you who are at war with God, you who have not yet
bowed to Christ, this thing of not believing, not believing
on Christ, It's not just a matter of our inability. No, it's rebellion. Those who do not believe on Christ
are rebels. They're doing it willfully, rebelling
against God. Now you quit. You quit your rebellion. And you come and bow before Him.
Bow before Him. And you'll have peace with God.
You'll be reconciled to God. See, believe in Christ. I'm talking
to you now who believe in Him. This will give you joy and peace
of heart. Believing Christ will give you
peace, calmness of heart, while everything else around you is
falling to pieces. You still have peace. You can
have peace of heart, even though the mind and the body suffers,
by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ, you have peace
with God. All right, now look at Romans
chapter 2. Here's the fourth thing. All of us will be judged
by Jesus Christ. Romans 2, verse 16. In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Now being
judged by Jesus Christ means more than that Jesus Christ is
the judge who will hand down the verdict. It does mean that.
That's true. The Lord said, the Father hath
committed all judgment unto His Son. The Son is going to be the
one who judges everyone. He'll be the one to hand down
the verdict. But it means more than that. It means that the
Lord Jesus Christ will be the standard by which all people
are judged. He's the standard. We must be
as righteous and holy as the Son of God in order to be found
not guilty. We can't just do the best that
we can do. That's not good enough. No, we
must be as perfect as the Son of God. There's gonna be no plea
bargains where you get a lesser sentence. We must be as righteous
as the Son of God or we'll be damned. Now on the face of it,
that's bad news, isn't it? Because all of us are sinners.
Everything we do is sin. Then how can we ever be found
as righteous as God himself? One way, it's by being in Christ,
who made his people righteous and who justified his people.
who makes his people the very righteousness of God in him. And that is received through
faith in Christ. It's by trusting Christ to be
everything that God requires of you. Not trying to add anything
to it. Not trying to earn some extra credit. But by trusting
Christ to be everything that God requires of you. You're made
the righteousness of God in him. Now the only question that will
be asked in judgment is this. Do you believe Christ? The apostle
says here will be judged according to my gospel. Do you believe
the gospel of Christ that was preached into you? That's the
only question. We'll be judged according to this gospel. Do
you believe Christ or not? And if we have faith in Christ,
we will be found innocent and righteous and be accepted of
the holy God. And if we do not believe Christ,
we'll be damned. That's the only question. So
you see how faith in Christ is all that matters? Do you see
that Christ is all that matters to your soul and to mine? And
Paul says here something that I know false preachers take and
try to scare people to death about, but now here's some comfort
here for God's people. He says that Jesus Christ will
judge the secrets of men. Now certainly that does mean
secret sins that nobody knows about but us and God. Secret
sins even we're not aware of. But it means more than that.
It means also Secret faith. Faith in the heart that men do
not always see. Unfortunately, even for the believer,
all people see about us is our sinful flesh. Normally, that's
what they see, isn't it? This means the inner man, the
secret man of the heart. And Jesus Christ, the judge,
is going to see that secret man, that inner man, and pronounce
him righteous. I was going to say the best example
I can think of, the best example in Scripture. is Lot. You read the story of Lot in
the Old Testament. Did Lot ever make a right decision?
Did he ever do anything right? No, he didn't. Everything Lot
did was wrong. Lot lived in Sodom. He chose
to live in Sodom and he kept living there. Yes, Scripture
says it grieved him, but now wait a minute, he never moved. He stayed right there, didn't
he? And he really wasn't too anxious to leave. Sodom! But what does the New Testament
call law? Righteous law. The best example I can think
of is Frank. All I am is sin. But scripture
says righteous Frank. It says that about every believer.
Aren't you glad that Jesus Christ is the judge? If the Lord Jesus
Christ, who loved you eternally, who died to put away your sin,
who made you righteous, if He is your judge, what do you have
to worry about? Not one thing. Nobody knows you're
righteous more than the One who made you righteous. Then there's
no reason for the believer to fear death and to fear judgment.
For all we'll do is go before the One who loved us and made
us righteous. What's the only verdict He can
hand down? You're innocent. You're righteous. Enter into
the glory I've prepared for you. Come enter into the place that
I have gone to prepare a place for you." That's only vertigining
him down. Alright, fifthly, look across the page here at Romans
chapter 3. Fifthly, we're justified by Jesus Christ. Verse 24 says,
"...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus." Now this is closely tied to every
other point I've made this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ justified
his people. He justified his people by his
sacrifice for them. By his sacrifice, the Lord Jesus
Christ made his people to have no sin. No sin. He justified
his people by being made sin for them. He justified his people
by taking the sin of his people away from them and making it
his. He bore that sin in his own body
on the tree and he put it away by the sacrifice of himself.
Now that's grace. Isn't it? The Son of God? Surely
nobody thinks they deserve this. That the Son of God would die
for your sin. That He would take your sin away from you and put
it away by sacrificing Him. Surely nobody thinks they deserve
that. No, this is grace. And this is the kind of grace
sinners like you and me need. The kind of grace that would
move the Son of God to take our sin into His own body and sacrifice
Himself for it. Now this is important. We're
justified freely, Paul says. Freely by His grace. Freely means
you don't have to do anything to deserve it. You don't have
to do anything to deserve it. And we also need to be reminded
of this, you can't do anything to deserve it. You can't. Salvation
is totally and completely by God's free grace. God requires no work, no righteous
works, no good works on the part of the sinner to be saved. Salvation
is given to sinners freely, without any charge. Now, I can't think
of a better reason than God's grace to come to God and beg
for salvation. Can you? Other than His free
grace? Free grace! That ought to make
every one of us run and fall down before the throne of God
and beg Him for salvation, for grace, because it's freely given
to sinners. And I can't think of a better
reason in God's free grace than to rest in Christ with a confident
expectation that I'm going to receive everything God promised
and everything Christ purchased for me. There's no better reason
to expect that. To live in confident expectation
without, you don't have to run around like chicken little with
your head cut off, screaming the sky's falling. You read the newspaper. You watch
the evening news. Yeah, the sky is falling. But
you don't have to run around scared of it. We can live in this confident
expectation while this world is going to hell in a handbasket.
Living in confident expectation, I'm going to receive everything
God promised me. Everything. Because of His grace. Right now,
look over a few pages. Here's Romans chapter 7. Romans
chapter 7. We are dead to the law by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 7, verse 1. Know
ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how
that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. For
the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband
so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's
loosed from the law of her husband. If, while her husband liveth,
she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she is freed from that law, so that
she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. Now salvation must, must come
to us either by us keeping the law or by God's grace in Christ
Jesus. One or the other. It's fully
one or the other, never a combination of the two. Now God's law does
exist, doesn't it? God's law exists, it's in full
force and effect, but the believer has nothing to do with the law.
Even though God's law exists, the believer has nothing to do,
nothing to do with the law. Anybody who believes Christ is
dead to the law. Now, here's an example. Suppose
a man's found guilty of a crime, and that crime deserves a sentence
to spend 10 years in prison. But before that man goes and
turns himself in at the prison, he dies. He's dead. Nobody has
to serve that prison term, do they? Nobody has to go spend
10 years in jail. The man is dead to the demands
of the law, isn't it? The law is not demanding anything
else because the man is dead. The law has no more demands.
The law is satisfied because the man died. Well, that's why
the believer has nothing to do with the law. The believer is
dead to the law by the body of Christ. Because Christ in the
body that the Father prepared for him died. because He already
died for His people. Christ died to satisfy the law's
demand that there must be death for sin. And when Christ died,
all of His people died in Him. That's what we have in baptism.
It's a picture. The person who's being baptized
is confessing, Christ is my Savior. That when He lived, I lived.
When He died, when He was buried, I was buried. And when He arose
from the grave, I arose in Him. I died to the law in Christ. Just like we sinned in Adam,
we obeyed the law in Christ. Just like in Christ our representative,
when he kept the law, we did too. And when he died to the
law, we did too. So the law is satisfied. Yes,
the law still exists, but if you believe Christ, the law is
not looking for you anymore. You're dead to it. The law has
no power to accuse you. Don't worry, oh, I've broken
the law, the law's going to accuse me. The law's not going to accuse
you. Now, if you died in Christ, you're dead to the law. The law
cannot punish you and the law doesn't even want to punish you
if you died in Christ. You satisfied the law by the
death of Christ. So the believer has nothing to
do with the law. Now, don't fall into this trap
of looking to God's law as a rule of life to tell you how to live.
All that is doing is putting yourself back under bondage to
the law. You're dead to the law. If you
need the law to tell you how to live, I have serious concern
about your heart. Serious concern about your heart.
Because the believer is not motivated by threat of punishment. And
the believer is not motivated by promise of reward either.
You know how the believer is motivated? By love for Christ. By love for Christ. I grew up this summer when I
was so, so sick, so helpless. I mean, I just can't even tell
you how helpless I was. There was just precious, precious
few things I could do for myself. And anytime I needed anything,
I had to holler for Janet. Sometimes it'd be in the middle
of the night. Sometimes she'd be in the middle of doing something.
I mean, you know, the pain or the whatever just I needed or
I called for. And she'd come and she'd wake
up in the dead of the night and just come running to me and I
just kept saying, honey, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so
sorry. And you know what she answered
me every single time. I mean, every single time I said,
I'm sorry. You know what she said? She said,
well, honey, I love you. She didn't come do all that stuff
for me. Great sacrifice to herself. Because
she had to. Because the law required her
to. Because we got a marriage certificate that requires her
to do it. No, she did it out of love. And that's what Paul's
talking about here. This woman who married to that
first husband. He's mean and demanding. He's
a jerk. And she did what she did for
him out of fear. Out of fear that he was going
to punish her. Out of fear that he was going to constantly point
out all of her shortcomings. But thankfully, that man died. And she's married to another.
She's married to a kind, loving, generous, gracious man. And she
serves that man, not because she has to, but out of love. She fixes his breakfast in the
morning. He gets up, ready to go to work. And breakfast is
already set on the table. And he said, well, I appreciate
that. And she said, well, I love you. That's why she did it. He
comes home, and all his clothes are washed and hung up in the
closet. And he said, well, honey, thank you. And she said, well,
I love you. Serves out of love. Now who wouldn't want a bridegroom
like that? Huh? If Christ is your bridegroom,
you've got nothing to fear. He'll take care of everything.
He's not going to point out your faults and your sins and your
failures. He's made you complete in Him. And that's what motivates you
to serve Him and serve His people. Love. Not because you have to,
not because you're wanting a reward in heaven, but out of love. Alright,
one more thing here. There's a seventh thing. Look
in Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1. We know the gospel by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Galatians 1 verse 11. I certify you, brethren, that
the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, For I
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ." Now, I could try my best to explain to you
everything that I've said this morning by good doctrine that
I looked up in old writers and some newer writers and give you
all these cold, hard doctrinal facts which would all be true.
And you wouldn't understand it. And if I tried to preach it to
you that way, you wouldn't love it either, would you? But you'll
understand and you'll love everything I've said to you. You'll understand
and you will love the Gospel every time that you hear preached
if Christ has revealed Himself to you. If He'll just reveal
Himself to you, all of the Gospel will be plain and obvious to
you. You see, the Gospel is not just
about Christ. The gospel is Christ. And if
you know Christ, you'll know, you'll believe, you'll love the
whole counsel of God. See, all that matters is Christ,
isn't it? All that matters. And not just
in judgment, but right now. You will know the whole counsel
of God, the whole gospel of God, if Christ will reveal himself
to you. That's why that's our constant prayer for ourselves
and for others. that we might know Him. Oh, that
we might know Him. Alright. I hope the Lord blessed
that to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank You again for
another revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray
You'd take Your Word as it's been preached this morning by
a frail, cracked clay pot that You might let Your people see
and hear, not the words of a man, but that You might take Your
words that's been preached and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ
to our hearts. Father, I pray for each one here
this morning, each one, that You might grant faith and repentance,
that You might grant us to know the Lord Jesus Christ, that You
might enable us Believe and fully rejoice in resting our Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, I pray you bless us as
we go back out into the world, we go back out to our homes and
begin to go back out afresh into the world again tomorrow morning.
Father, bless and watch over and keep your people. Cause us
to feed upon throughout this week the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ that we've heard Preach this morning, cause it to be
a blessing and encouragement to our hearts, we pray. For it's
in the precious name of Christ our Savior, for his glory, for
his sake, we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.