Alright, if you would open your
Bibles again with me to Acts chapter 12. What we're going to look at this morning
is a story about a prisoner. And we're going to examine something
about what his experience was in the prison. And before I begin,
I kind of want to open this with something that we see in our
own society right now, as psychologists study prisoners. And this is,
you know, how do we get them not to reoffend? And what they
found is, you know, a very high percentage of these prisoners
who had been incarcerated for a long time, When they're released,
they often will re-offend and it doesn't take them long to
re-offend and get back in. And so the question bears, why? Why after 20 years, 30 years,
40 years of being in prison, looking forward to that day of
when you get out, why would you then re-offend and do something
to put yourself right back in where you were at and you hated
being where you're at? Why? What they found was the
psychologists saw that prisoners, it's where they were at home.
It's where they were most comfortable. It's where they had found that
they wanted to be. That's completely contrary to
the way we think, being not in prison, that it becomes a culture
of where they live in the prison. So I want you to kind of remember
that in light of what we're going to look at with regard to being
in prison focusing on that as that's false religion. Why is
it that when someone would be shown freedom from that, that
they would turn and go back to it? Because we do see that as
well. So I'd like you to consider that when we're looking at this.
So let's read these first seven verses here together. Chapter
12. Now, about that time, Herod the
king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
And he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. because
he saw it pleased the Jews. He proceeded further to take
Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened
bread. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and
delivered him to four quadrants of soldiers to keep him, intending
after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter, therefore,
was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the
church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth the same night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains. And the keepers before the door
kept the prison. And behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, and a light shined into the prison. And he
smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly.
And his chains fell off of his hands. This is going to be the
title of our message today. What happens when the chains
fall off? So what I want us to examine
here this morning are these two chains that Peter was chained
with. These two chains have a name.
Each has a name, and we're going to examine what those are, and
then what happens when the chains fall off. So this first chain,
just to kind of get into it, the name of the first chain is
presumption. Now presumption is that which
is taken, an idea that is taken to be true. Although it's not
known if it is true, but it's the springboard for other ideas
to come out of. So it's something we don't know
it to be true, but we suppose it to be true. So presumption.
Now, to kind of build on this thing of presumption, I started
to think of how do I do this in my own life? And one of the
ways that I do it in a real experience was sometimes when I leave my
house, I'll go out to go take a run. And when I leave my house
to go take a run, I don't take my keys with me. I'm not driving
the car anywhere, but I'm operating under the presumption that the
door is going to be open when I get back home. And so there
are times that Megan's left the house. I presume that she would
be home and the door will be open. I get home from my run,
and the door's locked. I can't get in the house. So
I made a pretty serious presumption there that I could get back into
my house. I assumed it would be, and so therefore I'll leave
my keys. I won't think about it. I didn't
even ask her if she was going anywhere. But there I stand,
outside the door. Presumption is something that
we all do in many areas of our life. I wonder how much presumption
many are doing this morning with regard to things of God, in regard
to their own salvation, to how they're accepted before God.
There's many things of presumption in this area. How do you gain
favor with God? Through, most people would say,
what you do or what you don't do. This is salvation by works. Great presumption relies around
this. And these stand in light, these
ideas, being saved by what you do or what you don't do, stand
in light of scriptures that say, by grace are you saved, through
faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. But yet still people go about
trying to do things or not do things for the means of trying
to find favor with God. Now this is a very thick chain,
this chain of presumption, one of these two chains. It's forged
in ignorance and in self-worship. Presumption manifests itself
in many different ways, and we're going to look at a few of these
ways. The first is found in Matthew chapter 23. The first area is
the law. This is the Lord speaking to
the Pharisees, he says in verse 23 of Matthew 23. Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, For you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the
law, judgment, mercy, faith. These ought you to have done,
and not to leave the other undone." So what we see here, the Pharisee
approaches his salvation and acceptance before God by keeping
the law, or so he thought. laws was to pay tithes of all
you had. Now everybody in here, and I
think even a child can understand this, everybody in here has spices
in their cabinet. And these Pharisees were taking
some acceptance before God based on how much of those spices that
cost $3 if you buy at the store, that they had in their cabinet.
That's ridiculous. Even a child understands that
that's not keeping the law. The Lord upgrades them and says,
these things you should have left undone. You should have
not really cared about the spice things, but you've omitted the
weightier matters of the law, judgment, righteousness, mercy,
and faith. So these things they left out,
but yet they're keeping the smallest thing that anybody could do,
but yet have left out the things that are actually what God says
are the weightier matters of the law. It's this do and live
with the law. So if you approach by the law,
you must live by the law. If you keep one commandment,
if that's the one thing that you're trying to do, approach,
you're responsible for keeping them all. You can't pick and
choose one or two commandments and say, well, I've kept the
law. So they had left out the big things of the law, the things
that God looketh upon the heart and are keeping, giving spices. So we can't approach by the law. It's presumptuous to think that
we can come by the law. The law wasn't given so that
man could be saved by it. The law was given to show our
total inability. You can't keep one commandment
one time. The law was given to condemn
us, to drive us to Christ, to drive us away from the law that
we can't keep. So one area of presumption is
the law. So if you will turn back to Matthew
chapter 7, and this is presumption based on the good works, the
good things that you can do. It's a familiar passage. In Matthew 7 verse 21, the Lord
says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven. But who will? He that doeth the
will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in
that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And
in thy name have we not cast out devils? And in thy name done
many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. So they're approaching unto the
Lord based on what they've done here. And there's nothing wrong
with casting out devils. There's nothing wrong with preaching.
There's nothing wrong with the things that they've done. But
what does that have to do with my standing before God? They're
approaching on the good things that they do. But the Lord doesn't
look on it the same way you and I do. That is their perception.
Many wonderful works have we done. The Lord doesn't look on
it that way. And we can see that because he
says the people who are gonna enter, but he that doeth the
will of my Father, which is in heaven, that's who's gonna enter.
And what is the will of the Father? In John 6, 40, he says, and this
is the will of him that sent me. Everyone which seeth the
Son, believeth on him shall have eternal life. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. So we see the will of the father
is seeing the son. The will of the father is believing
upon him. That's who will gain eternal
life. Not who does all these wonderful works by your own admission. So you see, we can't come to
God on our own judgment grounds. We have to come on the grounds
by what he says in his words. There's nothing wrong with what
they did, but that doesn't mean that God accepts that as a reason
to save them, as a reason for entrance into heaven. So we looked at the law as an
area of presumption. We've looked at the good things
that you do. Here's another one, that you can provide an atonement
or an offering that he can accept. Now, most people, even the children
in here would say, if you're honest with yourself, nobody's
gonna say, I can provide an atonement that he can accept. But yet,
why do we see and hear people start talking about all that
they've given up for Christ? What's that? That's an atonement. It's something that I've sacrificed
in order to come to Christ. So that's an atonement. So that's
a way that we can basically have a very presumptuous attitude
toward it. And this is an offense to God to come and say all that
I've given up. There was actually a pastor who
put out a message to his church, if you will, about six things
that they needed to give up in order for Christ to have Christ.
I'm going to give you what he said to the man who was supposed
to be shepherding what he would call the Lord's sheep. First
thing was music. You've got to give up music.
Music today is not representative of a spirit of worship, so you've
got to give up music. Second, politics. You can't be
involved in politics and have anything to do with the church,
so you've got to give that up. Third is style of worship, whether
it's contemporary, whether it's, you know, whatever. I don't even
know the styles of worship, I guess, so, but he's saying you can't
fixate on that, so you've got to give that up. The fourth was,
what is it, whether you have a building or whether you don't
have a building, you've got to give that up. You can't be fixated
on that. You've got to give that up for Christ. You have to give
up your time. You have to be willing to do
things, give these things up, give up your time and energy
for Christ. And you know, this last one was
in there, money. You got to give up your money.
So he knew that there was a way to roll that. You got to keep
the train rolling. So, so he, he said, these six
things are what you have to give up in order to have Christ. And
this is an offense to God. This is ridiculous and not even
based on scripture. But yet this is what many of
these places around here are saying, things like this. In
light of what did Christ give up? This is why it's an offense
to God. He gave up his glory. He gave
up everything that made him righteous and accepted before the father
when he came here and became a man and was made sin. That's
what he gave up. He gave up communion with the
father. Before this world began, there was never a time where
he didn't have communion with his father. He was always in
his presence. Yet he came here and became a man and God made
him to be sent. He lost communion with his father
at that time. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He did not have the father's
ear at that time. He gave up he was. He was reviled. They
was hated in this world. They hated who he was. They hated
his message. It was everything against what
man stood for because it took man down to the dirt and said,
you can't keep the law. You can't come before God. You
can only come by me. So he was reviled. He was denied
his person and he was eventually killed. The son and the father
gave all. What is it that we would say
that we gave up for Christ, that we would approach unto Him and
say, I've given this up? How presumptuous for us to approach
on those grounds. Cain came that way. Cain brought
an offering. He brought an atonement. And
the spirit in which Cain brought it was not wrong. Cain worked
hard. He planted. He nurtured those
plants. He watered. He made sure no weeds
got in the way. He really made sure he wanted
to bring something to God that he did. And there was nothing
wrong with what he did. It's what he did with it. In
bringing it to God as an offering to say, accept me based on the
grounds of what I've brought before you that I brought with
my own hands. These are all salvation by works.
What you've given up for Christ is the same thing as coming with
the fruits of the ground. We can't come by anything that
has anything to do with the works of the law. So it's presumptuous
to come before God on the grounds of bringing an atonement that
you can provide. And lastly, let's look at that of knowledge.
If you will, turn over to 2 Timothy 3. You can't come by the law, you can't
come by the good things you do, you can't come by bringing your
own atonement, and you can't come by knowledge either. So
in verse 1 he says, this know also that in the last days perilous
times shall come. So we know first of all perilous
times are here. What's an evidence of that? In
verse 7 he describes who these people are. Ever learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. So this has to
do with knowledge. Ever learning. I'm barely able
to quote I know people who can quote books of the Bible, but
yet they have no understanding about what it's about. I know
people who have studied and spent their life learning doctrine,
learning scripture, learning theory, all these things about
it, yet they've never come to an understanding of the truth
of who God is in the scriptures. So you can learn and learn and
learn, it says right here, ever learning, but you're never able
to come to a knowledge of the truth. You have some knowledge.
But it's not a knowledge of the truth. The Lord said, I am the
way. If you want a way to the Father,
it's me. I am the truth. You want to know
who the truth is? He said, I'm it. And I'm the
life. If you're to have any life, any
spiritual life, it's going to be through me. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. I'm the way, I'm the truth, and
I'm the life. So if you want to know what the
truth is, you need to know him. You need to know Jesus Christ.
So I need to have some understanding of who he is. And in seeing his
holiness and in seeing his justice, everything that he stood before
the law, perfect, blameless. He was holy. He didn't compromise
his person for any area of his character. And in seeing that,
I'll know something of a righteousness that I need. There's a righteousness
that I don't have. I need to be made acceptable
and I need to be made righteous before God so that he can look
upon me in favor. So I need righteousness and I
need mercy. If he doesn't show me mercy,
I won't have it. Mercy is the only grounds by
which I know that I can come before him. Those things are
found in Jesus Christ. His shed blood before the Father
is the only grounds by which I can know that my sins are covered.
So I've got to come on the grounds of knowing the truth. And the
truth is a person. We have a relationship with this
person. It's not just a group of facts. Do you recall the story
of, back to the idea of presumption, do you recall the story of Zedekiah
and Jeremiah? Zedekiah was the last king before
Nebuchadnezzar came in to Jerusalem and sacked Jerusalem. So Jeremiah
told Zedekiah on many occasions, he said, I'm presenting before
you right now the way of life and the way of death. He's giving
him what God told him to say. God said, go tell him this. I'm
presenting before you the way of life and the way of death.
If you abide in the city, you're gonna die. But if you come out
of the city, you allow yourself to be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar. He said, your children are gonna
live and you're gonna live too. Now, some time has passed since
Jeremiah told him this. And Zedekiah hasn't come out
of the city. He stayed in the city. So Jeremiah
goes to him again. He says, why will you die? I told you this, come out of
the city and you'll live. Your children will live. You'll
save many lives in doing this. Come out of the city. This is
what the Lord told me to tell you. But what was Zedekiah doing? He was listening to false prophets.
And what were those false prophets doing? They were tickling his
ears saying, you don't need to come out. You're gonna be able
to save the city. You're gonna be able to fight
against him. You're gonna be fine. Everything will work out
and it'll be all right in the end. What's the message of the
false prophets today? The message of false prophets
today is God loves you, Christ died for you, and if you'll accept
what he did for you, then you'll be saved too. Well, this stands
completely in light of what we just read out of Matthew 7, where
the Lord turned to those people and said to all the wonderful
works they've done, and said, I never loved you, I never do. This is a message of presumption.
Listing the false prophets. We get an idea of what we're
told, but what's it based on? If it's not based on the words
of this book, if it's not based on that, what do we have? We
have nothing. We have an idea that is supposed
to be true, but it's actually not true. And when there's springboard
for many other ideas. Did Zedekiah end up obeying Jeremiah? He didn't. So what happened? King Nebuchadnezzar came in,
burned down Jerusalem. He brought out Zedekiah. The
first thing he did to him was blinded him. He put out his eyes.
He put him in chains, just like Peter, and he was in prison until
the day of his death. This is presumption, and this
is a heavy chain, one that Peter was chained with. Zedekiah knew
the consequences, yet he put out his own eyes. He put out
his own eyes. He was told the truth, but yet
he wouldn't listen. Woe to the man or woman who forsakes
the words of this book. We have it before us here this
morning, and you hear it week after week after week here. We're
called upon to believe the gospel when it's preached. We're called
upon to hearken quickly. So the first chain is presumption. The second chain we see Peter's
chain with here is called the wickedness of the will. Now the
first chain, it offers a false hope. That's presumption. It's
an idea we think is true, but it really is not true. It offers
a false hope. But not this second chain. This
second chain offers a very dark way. It destroys hope. It offers
no peace, and it will make you seek out other gods. Why would
you seek out other gods? And I'm not talking about gods
in the sense of thinking about a god, but it's something else.
Something in place of Christ. Seeking out, whether it's pleasure,
vanity, self-fulfillment, whatever it is, it's gonna cause you to
seek out something other than Christ. Something that says there's
gotta be something more. The second chain offers no peace.
And what is the second chain saying? Here's some things that
it says to you. It's delightful. You look around, you sat under
the gospel this morning, you didn't hear anything. Other people
around you are rejoicing, they're hearing things. It's too late
for you. That's the wickedness of your
will speaking. Because the wickedness of your will is saying, you're
looking for an experience. And if you don't have an experience,
you're not saved. That's the wickedness of your
will speaking. What else does it say? Your sins are willful. sins are numerous. You're going
to be cast off if you're doing the same thing over and over
and over. With what you're doing, how can
you be saved? There's no way you can be saved.
First of all, the wickedness of the will speaks from the vantage
point it doesn't know what it means to be a sinner. If you're
a sinner, you sin all the time. There's never a time when you
don't sin. In fact, All you do is sin. You don't have the ability
to do anything but that. And approaching by this ground
that you're not saved because you did this makes the idea that
if you didn't do it, somehow you'd be okay. That's a self-salvation. You don't need a savior. You
just need to quit doing whatever sin it was that you're weighing
on your heart. So this is the wickedness of
the will speaking to us. Wickedness of the will also says
there's got to be something else. How someone can say that after
hearing the gospel and saying that they've seen Christ, that's
your own nature. Because if you've seen Christ,
if you've seen who he is, you're not going to be looking anywhere
else. Someone who says that there's got to be something else to this,
you mean all I'm called upon to do is to believe? and that
everything God has required, his son's provided for me, and
because of his death, all my sins are forgiven. There's nothing
I have to do other than that, just believe. Yes, that's the
truth. Someone who could look for something
more outside of that, you've never seen Christ. And if he
shows you who he is through his word, we'll find he's all. There's
nothing else we're looking for. He's all we want, and it's because
he's all we have. That's the only hope this sinner
has. It's Christ. The wickedness of the will also
says it's not right for God to choose some and to pass by others.
This is how God saves people is through election. This ought
to be the best news you and I ever heard because you can't be saved
apart from election. If he didn't choose you, how
could he choose you based on what you've done? You can look
at you and be honest with yourself. If you sin one time, he can't
choose you. So he had to put you in Christ
before the world began. This is the only way a man or
woman can be saved is through election. This is the best news
that we've ever heard because that means somebody can be saved.
Not that he wouldn't save everybody, but somebody can be saved. Because
if God did what we deserved, he wouldn't save anybody. If
we've got what we deserve, so he's showing mercy upon us by
even having an election at all. So we're called upon to believe
that. And an attitude that would have
a problem with that is one that says, I'm more righteous than
God. I have a more holy view than
God does because I would do this. I would show love in a different
way. So this is not the way God saves
and this is the only way that we can be saved is through election.
This is a dark chain, this chain of the wickedness of the will.
It's a chain that no one can break. No matter how, all of
these things that you've said in your mind, how can I be saved
and keep doing these things? You've all thought that. You've
all thought that, you know, I didn't hear anything and everybody else
is rejoicing, I didn't hear anything. This is the wickedness of your
will speaking and telling you that. This is the old nature.
Do you remember the Gadarene demonic? Remember when the Lord
came over in that storm in the sea and he hit the shores of
the country of the Gadarenes? How was this man? He was bound
in fetters and chains. He had chains on him the whole
time. And he lived in the tombs and he cut himself. And they
kept him there. They kept him away from the city,
out chained up. Why did they chain him? That's
the question. Because they were trying to make
him do something that he didn't want to do. See, these chains
represent false religion every time. False religion tells you
many things that you don't want to do. Otherwise, you would do
it and it wouldn't require chains. It's not natural to do these
things, so therefore you've got to be chained into it. They say
things like, stop sinning. You've got to stop sinning. Don't
think the evil thoughts that you think. You shouldn't think
that way. Don't drink that. Don't eat that. Don't go there.
Don't do that. You've got to tithe, you've got to start cursing,
and you've got to start adopting holy living. All these things. You know, if it was your nature
to do things, you wouldn't have to be told to do them. And that's
why this man was chained. And so how did that work out
for him? Every time, it said he would break the chains that
signed him. They'd tie him up, they'd chain him up, and he'd
break them. Because it wasn't what he wanted to do, that was
not his nature. In the same, what made me think
of this was, you've seen some of these Las Vegas shows where
they have these tigers and lions and they parade them around,
you know, on the stage and then they jump through hoops and all
this stuff. These are not tame animals. They look tame, but
they're just beaten to submission. You don't see any of the people,
the handlers out there with them yanking on their tail, is what
would happen. You turn around and one of the
guys got his face chewed off by one of the famous shows. He
got attacked by his animals here in the last few years. So you
can change someone into submission, but that doesn't mean it changes
the will. So if we go back to Acts chapter 12, we look at the
power of the gospel with Peter here chained in verse 7. And behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, That's what happens first, isn't it? Did
Peter ask for anything? Did Peter do anything? No. God
did something for him, just like he did for all his people who
were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He elected you in Christ, so he did something for and independent
of Peter. Could Peter do anything at all?
No. He was chained. He couldn't do
anything. He was just laying there in the prison, helpless
and inbound. So God came to him. The second
thing it tells us that happened, it said, the light shone in the
prison. What's that? The light is the illuminating
work of God the Holy Spirit. He gave him a new heart. He gave
him a new nature. He gave him eyes to see. He gave
him life. This is our life. The quicker
that God brings us to an understanding that we're dead and that we were
born dead and we won't, you can't have life unless you're dead.
If you're living already, you can't be given life. You can
only be given life if you're already dead. So this is the
work of God, the Holy Spirit, the illuminating work. So the
light shone in the prison. What happens when the light shines
and the Lord opens your eyes? It's a smoke. First thing we
find out is we're in trouble. We're guilty before God. We're
sinners and there's nothing that we can do about it. And if he
doesn't do something for me, I'm lost. And I have no hope
before him. The beauty of this is you can't
be found unless you're lost. In order to be found, you've
got to be lost first. So the Lord has to show you,
you are lost. And it's only then, that's when
the shepherd will come to find you. Put you over his shoulders
and he'll carry you all the way back. He said it's smoking. And then, it's only after that
he was smoked, he was dead, he said he was raising his body.
It's the next thing that happened to him. He said, Peter, rise
up, quickly. He rose up, so he was given life
in Christ. That's what that picture. So
all of these things, just in this one verse, pictures all
the aspects of how God saves a sinner. He comes to you, where
you're at, he shows you, he opens your eyes, he shows you a sinner,
and then he gives you life. He brings you up, and you're
raised alive in Christ. And then, what's the last thing
that happened? Chains fell off. What happens when the chains
fall off? Well, go back to the Gadarene demonic. What happened
with him when the chains fall off? When he was in the presence
of Christ, it said, what happened to him? He was given a new heart.
He was seated, he was clothed, and he was in his right mind.
He sat before the Lord. And what happened when the people
of the city came out to see this sight? Crazy guy in the tombs
that nobody can get near, that we chained up, is now seated,
clothed, and in his right mind. What was their reaction? They
were afraid. Why were they afraid? Because
they're afraid of what would he do? He's gonna do something. No, that's what you would do.
See, they weren't converted. They don't have a new heart.
So they know that if those chains, what false religion tells you,
don't do this, do this over here. If those rules weren't in place,
what would you do? That's a reaction to anyone who
hears the message of grace. Well, that'll lead to sinning.
No, it won't. Not to one who God has changed
his heart. He doesn't have chains on. He was doing what he wanted
to do. He was seated at the Lord's feet. The only reason he put
chains on there, because that's what you would do. That's what
you do if the chains weren't there. That's why you put the
chains on him. And that's why you put it on you and everybody
else, because you're trying to control people and make them
do something they don't want to do. But not this man. He was
given a new heart and he did what he wanted to do. He set
it at the Lord's feet. And that's what all the Lord's
children do who are given life in Christ. We come to him and
worship. We don't have to worry about
somebody having the attitude, well, that'll lead to sinning,
saying you don't have to do this. I don't want to sin. I know what
it took to pay for my sins. And for me to try to willfully
add to that, that shows that I have no love for Christ. You
won't find that in any of his people. So that was their attitude
towards this man when he didn't have his chains on. He was doing
what he wanted to do. The chains had fallen off. He
was no longer bound. We're no longer bound to keep
the law. It's already been kept in the person of Christ. I don't
have the chain of the law on me. I don't have to keep it.
What about my works? What did Paul say? Dung, worthless. He said that my works don't mean
anything to me. Everything that was important
to me. And as far as you and I go, the Apostle Paul, there's
no one who had kept the law more than the Apostle Paul in terms
of world and name. And he said, this is worthless
compared to what I have in Christ. And add to this, anyone who does
take some confidence in the works doesn't understand the scriptures
whatsoever because it says over, I believe it's in Philippians,
it says that whatever good works we are foreordained that we should
walk in. So even if it was a good work
that we did, if it was foreordained and predestined that I would
do it anyway, how can I take glory in it? I can't. He foreordained
that I should walk in it. So I have no glory in my works.
Atoning for your sins. Christ did that on the cross.
One time. Christ became the effectual offering
that the Father accepted. I don't have to bring any more
offerings. I don't have to tell you what I gave up for Christ.
I don't have to do all these things in order to gain His favor.
I already have it in the person of Christ. What about knowledge? Surely that's good. Knowledge
is a good thing, but it's nothing compared to Revelation. We're
shut up to Revelation. You can know everything about
this book. The worst thing in the world for those of us who
teach and preach is when we go to the Word, trying to find the
message. The first time you do that, it's
a closed book because I'm trying to find something. Apart from
the Lord opening your eyes and showing you Himself in the Word,
It's only when we're giving up saying, Lord, if you don't help
me, I got nothing. And then the Lord shows you himself in his
word. Knowledge is not how we come to an understanding of Christ.
Ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.
I need to know who he is. And in knowing him, he will reveal
to me himself in the word. I can remember, this is one of
those things that as a young child, I do remember and I still
remember today. When I was probably about 10
years old, I remember Pastor Henry saying, he was going through
a chapter of scripture and he said, I don't see how anybody
can read through a passage of scripture and not see Christ
in it. He said, he's all in this word. You just have to look for
him. And I didn't understand that at the time. I was a little
kid, but I remember that. And when the Lord opened my eyes
later in my life, whenever that was, Christ is all through this
book. He's everywhere. It doesn't say
His name, but there's pictures of Him everywhere. And so we're
seeking to have that revealed to us. So we don't have the chain
of trying to know knowledge in order to see Him. We don't have
to know anything other than seeking Christ in His face. What about
the chain of your old man? Your sins, your evil thoughts,
the things that estranged you from God. Well, this old man
will be dead soon enough, and I won't have to deal with him
anymore. See, I can't fight against him in this world. I mean, I
know I have a new heart and a new nature, but I can't fight against
him. He's going to win that battle every time. But he's going to
die soon enough. And then all this is going to
be over with. Right now, we see darkness. You can see through
the glass dimly. We can't really see. But then
we're going to be known. We're going to know him as we
are known. We're going to be able to see with eyes, just like
Paul, when the scales fell off his eyes after the Lord blinded
him. He said the scales fell off his eyes. And so we're going
to see what's been here all along, but we couldn't see it because
we're in this body of flesh. I look forward to that day. I
want that chain to fall off of me. Drop off the old man. My
chains are off. The gospel makes us free in Christ. There's nothing to do because
it's already been done. The Lord said it is finished
on the cross. And that means it's done. My faith that I have. What about your faith? Well,
that's the gift of God. I didn't have to do anything
for that either. So if I have faith, it's not because I did
anything. It's because he gave it to me. Righteousness earned? No. Now we have all we ever need.
We don't have that chain in order to try to win favor with God. We already have that in the person
of Christ. We're going to be made the righteousness of Christ
in him. So we don't have to worry about
that. How accepted is he? We can have confidence in him.
If we have confidence in him, we know that we're joining him.
We're part of His body. When the Father sees Christ,
I'm right there with Him. Everything that Christ is entitled
to, so are all of His people who are joined to Him. If you
will, I won't have you turn your head for time's sake. Salvation
is believing that He is able. That is what salvation is. My
confidence is in Him. When we start looking to me and
my experience and how am I doing, I have no confidence that I'm
saved at all. But when I look to Him, I have all confidence
in Him He's our Savior. We're in Him. And if you look
with anything with your hand, you have no confidence. If you
will turn to this last scripture, John chapter 11. This is a familiar story of Lazarus
dying, but this is the Lord speaking with Martha before He had come
to where Lazarus was. In verse 20, then Martha, as
soon as she had heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if that has been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it to thee. And Jesus said unto her, thy
brother shall rise again, Martha said unto him, I know that he
shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day. So she knew
the facts. She's a theologian now, so she's like, Lord, I know
this thing. And Jesus said unto her, I am
the resurrection and the life. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. So he tells her, I am
the resurrection, Martha. You know the facts that yes,
we'll rise again. I'm in. And in looking to him,
he's not only the source by which I have life, by which I am resurrected. He's also the reason for it.
See, apart from what he did for all of his people, we'd have
no cause for resurrection, but we know that we're accepted in
him. And because he's accepted, I
can be raised again with him. And he says in here at the end
of verse 25, he says, he that believeth in me, we have to believe
in him. And though he were dead, is anybody in here dead? Are
you spiritually dead, dead of yourself? You've got no ability
to believe. You've got no ability to trust
Christ. Can't see him in his word. Stand guilty before the
law. And there's nothing you can do
about it. All you do is sin. If you're dead, there's confidence
here for you. Because he says, though he were
dead, he that believeth in me, he shall never die, yet shall
he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Salvation is a person. And he
lets us know that salvation in this person, he's saying, you're
never gonna die. Why? Because he that had formed
a good work in you, He's going to perform it until the day of
Jesus Christ. If God has saved you and revealed
himself to you, there you go. However many days you are in
this world, there's going to be times you have assurance and
there's going to be times you don't. But he's still our faith. He's our rock. He's what we trust
in. He's the gun at that working. They call it in Book of Ephesians,
the earnest of our inheritance, that's the work of the Holy Spirit.
What's earnest? Earnest is a down payment on
something to be purchased later. So if he's begun that work in
you and had the earnest of that work in you, he's gonna perform
it until the end. And he lets us know that. Gives
us that confidence that we shall live. You're never gonna die.
Believest thou this, Martha, even this, I'm the resurrection,
and he that believeth in me is never gonna die. Do you believe
this, Martha? What does she say? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God, which hath come into the world.
She believed, and in believing in him, what is it that we believe?
Believing is what sets the prisoner free. Believing is what breaks
the chains of this presumption and the wickedness of your will.
The chains of your past, everything you look on, it might be false
religion, maybe living in a way that you know is shameful or
whatever it is. The sins of your past. This breaks
that chain. Christ does. The chains of the
law, the things that you can't keep that expose who you are,
that chain is broken in Christ too. And the chains of your old
nature. Chains that you're reminded of
and kicked down every single morning that you get up. You
aren't even expecting it some days and it's there to remind
you it's alive and well. The old nature. That chain is
broken as well. They fall off. We're not bound
by them anymore. They have no more power over
you and you are free. And if the son therefore shall
make you free, he said you're free indeed because he's given
power over all things. We have confidence in his ability
to save us and his ability to cleanse us and deliver us even
from these bodies. So we're called upon not to reshackle
those old chains. Remember those prisoners that
would go back to prison? Don't reshackle those old chains
that we were chained with in prison. Believe that he's able
and in believing that he is able, those chains fall to the floor. Don't pick them up anymore.