Alright, let's turn our Bibles
to Romans chapter 2. The title of the message this
morning is a warning to gospel hearers. I hope you'll pay particular
attention, those of you who've been around a long time, and
our children, our young people. This is a warning that's good
for us to hear. I have a warning this morning
for people who regularly hear the gospel. It's almost everybody
here regularly hear the gospel. But still yet have not committed
all to Christ. There's a tendency for people
and I know what I'm talking about. I grew up hearing the gospel.
There's a tendency for people who grow up only ever hearing
nothing but the gospel of God's truth. There's a tendency for
us to think that hearing that is enough. Getting mental agreement
to that, to the fact that that's true. We think there's a tendency
to think that that's enough. There's a tendency for us to
think we're OK because we have a head knowledge of the gospel,
even though we have not yet closed with Christ. You look in verse
13 of Romans chapter two, Paul says, for not the hearers of
the law are just before God, but the doers of the law should
be justified. The same thing applies to hearing
the gospel. It's not just the hearers of
the gospel. that will be justified, but the doers of it. Well, what
is it to be a doer of the gospel? It's to believe it. To be a doer
of the gospel is to quit all of your works and to rest in
Christ, to commit all to Him. Then we tend to think we're on
good spiritual ground because we know the right doctrine. We've
been well taught. If you've been around here for
very long, You ought to be well taught. There's no excuse for
you not to be. God's given us teachers and pastors who have
been so faithful to teach us the word. If we're not well taught,
we don't at least have a head knowledge of the gospel. It's
our own fault for not paying attention. And I'd say almost
all of y'all here know the truth up here. Now you know the truth.
And I'm glad you do. That's a whole lot better than
only knowing error. It's a whole lot better. But
the warning to us is this. Salvation is not a work in the
head. Salvation is not a work that the pastor or your teachers
can do in your head by teaching you the ABCs of the gospel. It's good to know those things,
but salvation is a work that God Almighty does in the heart.
And without that heart work, we will perish, no matter what
we know. Then we tend to think we're on
good spiritual ground because we're related to people who Our
parents are believers, our grandparents, our relatives, our friends, and
we think we're in good company. Now, you are in good company,
and it's good to grow up in a home with believing parents who teach
us the scriptures. That is an undeniable blessing
of God. But there's a warning to us here.
Salvation can't come to our souls through Adam's bloodline. Salvation
can only be found in the blood of Christ. We can only be saved
being washed in his blood, having the Holy Spirit apply his blood
to our hearts. And most of these Jews, and Paul
knew what he was talking about. He grew up there. Most of these
Jews fell into these very tribes. They looked to who they were
related to. They thought their soul was in good shape because
they descended from Abraham. They heard the law every Sabbath
they read. Other nations didn't, so they
thought they were just fine. And we do the exact same thing
today. We just substitute hearing the gospel for hearing the law.
At the end of chapter two, Paul answers this question. Who is
a spiritual Jew? A spiritual Jew is a safe person.
And that's the question I want us to consider this morning.
Who is a true Jew? Who is it that's a safe person?
I want to answer this question very plainly and simply so that
when we leave here this morning, each of us knows Whether or not
we're a true Jew. Whether or not we're a saved
person. We're going to start out with some things by which
we cannot be saved. Number one is this. Salvation does not come to our
hearts through right doctrine. Salvation is through faith in
Christ. Verse 17, Brother Henry told
us that so many times. You don't arrive at Christ through
right doctrine. You arrive at right doctrine
through Christ. Paul says that, verse 17, Romans
2. Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest
thy boast of God. Paul says you're a Jew. Your
nationality is from Israel. You're a natural born Jew. But
does that give you any spiritual advantage? No, it does not. Because salvation is by grace. And if salvation is by grace,
salvation can't have anything to do with our flesh. It can't
have anything to do with it whatsoever. Now the Jews, that nation Israel,
that nation that's still over there today. In times of the
Old Testament, that nation was chosen by God to be his people
on this earth. God chose them to be a picture. He chose them to be a picture
of his elect, spiritual Israel. But that nation Israel, God chose
them to be his nation on earth. Did that mean that God saved
them all? No, it doesn't. Matter of fact, he just saved
a few of them. No one was ever saved because
they descended from Abraham. And if you want to know the truth
of that, all you got to do, you look right close to Abraham,
Ishmael, and Esau. They weren't saved. So the only
way any of us can be saved is through faith in Christ. Let
me see if I can show you that with the nation Israel. Remember
how the nation Israel was down there in Egypt in bondage? cried
unto the Lord. And the Lord delivered that nation
out of Egypt with a mighty hand. I mean, they didn't leave a thing
behind. And when they left, they spoiled
Egypt. The Egyptians were just giving
them all their possessions. Here, I'll give you all this
gold if you get out of here faster. He delivered them with a mighty
hand. And Paul says in Romans 11, verse 26, that all Israel
shall be saved. Was Paul talking about the nation
Israel? Was he talking about that nation that God delivered
out of Egypt with the mighty hand? He couldn't have been,
could he? No way was he talking about them.
Because we know everybody that came out of Egypt was not saved,
were they? We know they weren't. Well, why
weren't they? Weren't they related to Abraham?
Weren't they children of Abraham? Oh yes, they were a natural Jew. But they weren't saved. Why not? Because they didn't have faith
in Christ. Hebrews chapter three. Hebrews three, verse 16. For some, when they had heard,
did provoke, How be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses?
But with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them
that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to
whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believe not? So we see they could not enter
in because of unbelief. And chapter four tells us how
this applies to you and me. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest Any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith, and then did hurt it. So simply
hearing the gospel is not going to profit us at all, unless we
believe Christ. Isn't that plain? You can't mistake
what he's saying. Salvation cannot come just through
hearing the gospel or having the right head knowledge of right
doctrine. Salvation can only come through
faith in Christ. All right, here's a second thing.
There's a second way salvation cannot come to us. Salvation
is not in a good outward show in the flesh. Salvation must
be an inward work of grace. Verse 18 of Romans 2. And knowest his will and approve
us the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law.
and are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light
of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and the
truth in the law. Now Paul's saying to these Jews,
he said, you say that you know God's will. You say you know
God's will in saving sinners. And up here, I'd venture to say
everybody in this room has a head knowledge of God's will in saving
sinners. You say You know things that
are more excellent. You know things that are more
excellent than things going on in the heathen world and false
religion. So now you think you can be a teacher of all those
poor ignorant people. But here's the problem. If a
person makes himself a teacher, instead of God making him a teacher,
he's going to be full of problems. And God will not use that man
with that attitude to teach anybody. The person that Paul describes
here looks down on everybody else. He says, oh, I better go
teach those blind, foolish babes because, you know, I'm more wise
than they are. And God will never use that kind of attitude to
teach or to feed his sheep. See, this person, they're just
making a good show in the flesh, but not in the spirit. All he
has is a form of knowledge. The form might look good. But
all it is is an outward form. He got no inward spirit. And
all that is is a dead corpse. Isn't that a dead corpse? A dead
corpse has all the form of a body, doesn't it? Everything's there.
It's all in the right form. But there's no inward life. So
all that dead corpse can do is corrupt everybody around it.
And it can't be of any use to anybody. Because you've got the
right form, but there's no inward life. That's what this teacher
is who only has the right form of doctrine. He's of no use to
anybody, and all he can do is corrupt everybody around him.
So salvation is not in the right form of religion. Salvation is
having Christ formed in the heart. That's why Paul told the Galatians,
he said, I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
Because that salvation, it's an inward one. And this thing
of having the right form, boy, I know what I'm talking about.
This is to my shame. When I was in college, I was a freshman
in college, we had a group of 16 boys there in this suite we
were in. One night a week, we'd all get
together out there in a common area for a debate. You know,
we're in college or higher education. Our minds are all good. You know,
we debate. things we would debate was religion. Buddy, I had to form. I mean,
I let them have it. And with the exact same form
and the exact same mind, I could debate who was the greatest first
baseman to ever live. Both of them were formed. Didn't
do anybody any good. That's what Paul's talking about.
Thirdly, religious activity can't make us holy. Just simply coming
here to the service and hearing the gospel, that can't make us
holy. The only way a sinner can be
made holy is in Christ, verse 21. Thou therefore wouldst teachest
another. Teachest thou not thyself? Thou
that preachest, a man should not steal. Dost thou steal? Now
you know what was going on in religion in Paul's day. is exactly
what's going on today in 2017. People in that day got a hold
of a little law, and they became legalists. People today get a
hold of a little form of the gospel, a little form of the
Bible, a little understanding of something about the law, and
they do the same thing. They become legalists. And what
do they do? They keep telling people, don't
do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. It sounds like
somebody walking around with a three-year-old. Don't do that. Stop. Don't do
that. That's their message. Don't do
that. Don't do that. And God won't be mad at you.
God will save you if you don't do that. But you know, legalistic
religion is always full of hypocrisy. The preacher just hammers away
at people to be moral, doesn't he? He hammers away. Don't steal. Be honest. And he's the biggest
hypocrite in the room the whole while. He's not living honestly
before me. He's not dealing honestly with
men's souls. He's deceiving them for this
purpose. So he can get their hard-earned
dollars. He's just stealing from them. That's what he's doing.
And worse yet, he's a thief. He's robbing God of His glory
and salvation. When a person lies on God and
tells you, you can do something to get saved. There's an article
in the bulletin to help you read it. Did you get saved? That man
tells you you can do something to get saved? He's robbing God
of His glory. He's taking the glory of God
away from Him. God saves sinners purely by His
grace and His mercy alone. That salvation gives God all
the glory. But giving you something to do to get it gives you some
of it. And robs God of His glory. Salvation is not something that
we can do for ourselves. Salvation is something that God
does for us, that Christ purchased for us, and the Holy Spirit puts
in us in the new birth. That's what salvation is. You
know, these people that want the law, they want more law.
They want more law. Tell me how to live. Tell me
what the law says I ought to do. If a person, if all he thinks
about, all he preaches about is the law, you know what he's
going to do? He's going to become a bigger
lawbreaker than ever. Verse 22. Thou that sayest to man should
not commit adultery, does thou commit adultery? Thou that abhors
to idols, does thou commit sacrilege? You know, the more you tell yourself
and the more you tell other peoples how to live by following the
law, the more you're going to incite the flesh to break the
law. That's all you're going to do.
The more you tell yourself something, don't do something, the more
you want to do it. Jonathan told me last week about
a place he went, a health club he went to. And one of the men
told him when he'd come, he said, bring your razor. We're all going
to go to the steam room after a workout and shave. He said,
it's the best shave you'll ever get. So after their workout,
they went in the steam room. And Jonathan said, there's signs
everywhere saying, don't shave in the steam room. And he said,
the sign says, you're not supposed to shave. And he said, oh, don't
worry about that. This is the best shave you'll ever get. Well,
then he went to the Ashland Y. He goes in the steam room. Nobody's
there shaving. John says, all you got to do
to get that place full of men shaved is hang up signs that
don't do it. It's the first time somebody tells you. It's never
dawned on anybody to do it. But the first time somebody tells
you don't do it, that's all you want to do. First time the law
told me, don't covet. You know what happened? All I
could think about is how I wanted what my neighbor had and I didn't.
First time the law told me, don't lust. That's all I could do. Paul tells us that's human nature
in Romans chapter 7. Verse 7, he says, What shall
we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said,
Thou shalt not covet. And these people, that's all
they want to do is talk about the law. Want to guide you, tell
you how to live by the law, tell you how to get saved by the law.
They just make themselves, they incite their flesh to want to
break the law. That's why all these TV preachers
who preach the law as a way of righteousness, who preach the
law as a rule of life, you got to keep the law and God will
bless you and make you rich and happy. That's why so many of
them fall into all these scandals because all they can think about
is the law and it just makes them want to break it. Same thing
is true with these Catholic priests. They take a vow of celibacy and
I'm telling you from that moment on, that's all they can think
about. because the law prohibits it. Verse 23. Thou that makest
thyself, thy boast of the law. Through breaking the law, dishonest
thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you, as it's written. How many people
do you know, they don't want anything to do with Christianity,
they don't want anything to do with the Bible, they don't want
anything to do with religion, even good religion, even good
preaching. Because they've seen famous TV
preachers. They know very strict religious
people. They see them. They lay heavy
burdens on people. And then they turn around and
fall into open sin. They do all these things that
dishonor God. Even an unregenerate man sees the error in that. And
the worst thing yet is this message of law keeping is spiritual adultery. And while they're committing
spiritual adultery, they're spiritually robbing God of His glory and
they're robbing the opportunity for men and women to hear God's
Word. They're robbing them. So salvation
can't be something by us keeping the law. It can't be done by
us keeping the law and making our own selves holy. Salvation
can't be got that way and salvation can't be kept that way. It's
not God saves you and then you've got to live holy. That's you
keeping holy or salvation. No. Salvation can't be kept by
you keeping yourself holy through the law. Salvation, let me tell
you where it's found. Let me tell you where holiness
is found. It's found in the Lord Jesus Christ, keeping the law
of Christ. His obedience is our obedience.
We lay hold of it by faith in Christ. All right, here's the
fourth thing. Salvation is not fixing up the
outward, the way we act on the outside. Salvation is starting
to act more religious. Salvation is God giving a new
heart. Verse 25, for circumcision is
barely profitable if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker
of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore,
if the uncircumcision, if the heathen Gentile, if they keep
the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, Judge thee who by the
letter and circumcision does transgress the law? Here's what
Paul's telling us. This circumcision, it was an
outward sign, an outward sign in the flesh that somebody was
a Jew. That's how you can tell somebody
was a Jew. They were circumcised. It was a sign in the flesh. It
was a token. Now, circumcision was required
by the law. They had to take those boy babies
and circumcise them on the eighth day. It was required by the law.
But circumcision never saved anybody, not one person ever. The only way circumcision will
profit you or profit them in the Old Testament, the only way
it can profit anybody is if you keep the whole law, the whole
law of God. But nobody can do that. Nobody
can keep the whole law of God. So circumcision never profited
anybody spiritually because we couldn't keep the whole law.
And this is just a hypothetical situation Paul's talking about
because nobody can do this. And he asks in this hypothetical
situation, wouldn't it be better to keep the whole law and not
be circumcised rather than be circumcised and break all the
rest of the law? I mean, see how foolish man's
religion is. If somebody would just take two
seconds to think about it with the brain God gave you see through
the error of it. But I'll tell you how this applies
to you and me. We don't have this issue, you know, with circumcision
today. But we do have, we have the same
heart problem. We tend to think, you know, there's
this law, and you know the law we pick out is the one we think
we can keep. Circumcision was not something you decided to
do for your own self, it's something your parents did for you. You're
eight days old, you never had any say in it. So this is the
way, that's why they picked out circumcision. I didn't have to,
it's already done. We just think, well, there's
one law, I don't really have a problem with that law. I think I can
keep that law, so I'm gonna keep it. And God's gonna be more pleased
with me than somebody else would do. If I keep this, I know my
righteousness is in Christ, but if I keep this one law and do
really good, God's gonna give me extra credit. Well, we think
that, you know what we've done? We've put ourselves in bondage
to the entire law of God and made the obedience of Christ
to be of no use to us. Let me show you that, Galatians
chapter 5. That's exactly what we've done.
If we think we can add anything to extra credit, do something
good to make God happy with us, the righteousness of Christ will
not benefit us at all. Galatians 5 verse 2. Behold,
I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, If you get
circumcised in order to keep the law and make yourself saved,
make yourself more righteous than somebody else, Christ shall
profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that's circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You're
fallen from grace. If you think you can be justified
by something that you do, You've fallen from grace. Christ has
profit you nothing. Now let me make this application
to all of us here. Salvation is not something outward
that we do. Salvation is not in where you
attend church. I hope you attend a service here.
I hope you attend a place where the truth of God's gospel is
preached. Wayne, you've got one lexicon.
Oh boy. You live, you be there. It's
good for you to hear the gospel. All God sends is pastors and
teachers. Be there. But now listen, salvation
can't come just because you attend there. Salvation is not something
we know about the Bible that all these other lost people don't
know. You know, that's what the woman at the well thought, wasn't
it? She thought, well, where you worship's important. You
know, we worship in the mountain. You say you're supposed to worship
down there in the temple. Where you worship, you know, matters. Our
Lord taught her. Well, that doesn't have anything
to do with it, does it? Salvation cannot be something that we deserve. Salvation must be by grace. Salvation is not in the outward.
Salvation is not even in the outward sign of baptism. If anybody
here, if you want to be saved by being baptized, you think
being baptized will make you saved? I'll tell you what we're
going to get. We're going to get a wet, guilty, dead sinner. Salvation is a hard work. And
we believe God because God's given us a new heart faith. And
we publicly confess. If God gives us faith to believe
Christ, then we publicly confess. Christ died. He died for my sin. You know why he is buried? Because
he had to die for my sin. And he was raised, he died for
me. He was buried for me. And he was raised again because
his sacrifice put my sin away. That's all my hope of salvation. Didn't have anything to do with
anything I've done. And now I live in Him. That's your hope of salvation. If you believe Christ that way,
you must be baptized. You must confess your Savior.
That's our Lord's commandment. And that's all baptism is. It's
a confession of what God's already done. It's just an outward sign. It's a confession of what God's
already done. But if you try to be baptized to cleanse your
sin, you're just going to come out just as guilty as you ever
were. Because salvation is not any outward. Brethren, if we
would be saved, God got to give us a new heart. And that's what
Paul says in verse 28. Now we get down to the question.
He's not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. But he's a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart and the spirit and not in the letter. whose praise is
not of men, but of God. You see, none of this outward
stuff affects the salvation of my soul at all. God's got to
give me a new heart. That's what I need. You know,
Paul talks about the circumcision of the heart. That's what he's
talking about. The cutting away of the flesh, the cutting away
of that stony heart, and the giving of a new heart. If God's given you a new heart
and a new birth, He's given you a heart of faith that believes
Christ. He gives you a heart that loves Christ. You're a Jew. That's right. You're a Jew. You're
a spiritual Jew. That's what it is to be a spiritual
Jew. It's to be saved. And it all is an inward matter. It's a heart matter. It doesn't
have anything to do with the flesh. All right. That's what a spiritual Jew is.
That's who a saved person is. Well, this is what I want to
know. Am I saved? Are you saved? Am I a spiritual
descendant of Abraham? Well, you know, every spiritual
descendant of Abraham is gonna have some family characteristics.
I got five, and there are probably more, but I'm gonna give you
five family characteristics, five characteristics you will
find in the spiritual DNA of every believer. You know, there
are things that I do, especially as I get older, I think, wow,
my dad did that. Why do I do it? It's just in
my DNA. I just can't help it. That's
the way it is with the believer. There's five things that are
just in our spiritual DNA if we're a spiritual Jew. Number
one is this. Every spiritual Jew is chosen
of God in God's electing grace. Just like Abraham was. No believer
is ever chosen because we're better than somebody else. Absolutely
not. We're chosen by God. because
God's good, because God loves sinners, because God has the
capacity to love sinners. God didn't choose Abraham because
he's any good, did he? Now everybody, all the Jews like
to talk about Abraham, but where is Abraham and God found him?
He was an idolatry. God didn't call Abraham because
he's any good, he was worshiping idols. God called Abraham because
God's good, because God saves sinners. And the same thing is
true of everyone God chooses. If God did not, could not choose
you because there's anything good in you, it's only, it could
only be because of the goodness of God in your spiritual Jew. Second, every spiritual Jew is
called of God. It's like Abraham. One day there's
Abraham worshiping idols, going about his life, you know, and
God called Abraham. Abraham, get out of your father's
house and go to a place, I'll tell you, God didn't call anybody
else from that family. Some people left because one
of them was married to Abraham, one of them was his nephew, some
of them were servants. But Abraham left because God
called Abraham. Abraham was blessed. Oh, how
blessed Abraham was. God called him. And the same
thing is true of everybody God saves. Everybody God saves, He
calls them individually by name, on purpose. He says, come follow
me. Now we do call on God. We've
called on God today in prayer. We had two men here publicly
pray. We didn't call on God. He called us first. He calls
his people. You hear something different
from Abraham. God doesn't call his people audibly. Abraham with
fleshly ears heard God speak to him. We're not going to hear
God that way. Today, God calls His people to His Word. In these
last days, He's spoken to us by His Son. He calls His people
through the preaching of the gospel, and God gives them an
ear of faith that hears. And when God calls, we follow. God's given you an ear of faith.
If He calls you, you follow. If you hear God speaking to your
heart in the gospel, you're a spiritual Jew. I looked over my notes this
morning, I always think, is that playing? Can the youngest person
understand that? You hear God speaking to you
in the gospel. You're saved. What does that
mean? See if I can help you. You hear this gospel preached
and you say, oh, that suits my need. It's like that preacher
is talking to me. How does he know what's going
on in my heart? If you hear the gospel that way, if Christ suits
your every need, you're a spiritual Jew. God's calling you. Thirdly,
every spiritual Jew is committed to God. Absolutely committed
to God. Just like Abraham was. Go back
to Genesis chapter 14. Genesis 14, Lot and a bunch of
these other folks have been taken captive. Abram took a few of
his servants, went down there and defeated them and set them
all free. The slaughter of the kings is what it's called. Look
here after the battle's over, Genesis 14 verse 21. In Abram, verse 21, yeah, and the
king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and you take
all those goods to thyself. All of that, you take it all
to yourself, all the spoils, it's all yours, just give me
the people alive. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I've lift
up my hand unto the Lord, Jehovah, the most high God, the possessor
of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to
a shoe latchet, that I will not take anything that's thine, lest
thou shouldest say, I've made Abram rich, save only that which
the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which
went with me. That's all I'm going to take.
I'm not going to take anything lest you say you've made me rich.
I've lifted my hand to God, and I've committed everything to
Him. If I'm going to have it, He's
going to give it to me. I've committed myself to Him so that
everything I have is going to come from Him. Abraham, when
God called him, said, Abraham, go out to the place I tell you.
Abraham committed all and went out, not knowing where he's going,
trusting the Lord to lead him. Everyone God saves says the exact
same thing. We say with the Apostle Paul,
I know whom I believe. And I'm persuaded, I'm confident
of this. He's able to keep that which
I've committed. Faith always involves a commitment
to Christ. Believer, what have you committed
to Christ? Absolutely everything. All of
my salvation, I mean all of it without me taking a shoe latchet
or a hair's breadth. All of it is on Christ. That's why I've committed that
to Him. In all this life, I've committed to Him. If I was a
buddy, I'd go to the operating room tomorrow. I would. I'm committing
all to Christ. Aren't you? That's why I committed
all to Him. Faith in Christ always involves
commitment. And if you've just committed
everything, all of your eternal life to Christ, you're a spiritual
Jew. Fourthly, every spiritual Jew
is justified, made without sin, by faith, not by words. Just
like Abraham was. Look at Romans chapter four.
If we're going to be a son of Abraham, we're going to have
these traits just like Abraham. Every saved person is justified
by faith without works. Romans 4, verse 3. For what saith
the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. That's how a person is justified,
made righteous, through faith in Christ. Now Abraham was circumcised. Abraham wasn't justified because
he was circumcised, was he? No, he justified long before
he was circumcised. Abraham was justified when he
believed God. So that shows us we're saved,
we're made righteous, we're made holy through faith in Christ
without any of our works. And every belief, Every spiritual
Jew is justified the exact same way, by faith. John chapter eight. John eight, verse 39. They answered and said unto him,
Abraham's our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you're
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. If you're
Abraham's children, you'd act like him. Now every spiritual
Jew does the same works Abraham did. Well, what are the works
of Abraham? Abraham believed God. That's
why Paul told the church at Galatians, know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, that's who are the children of Abraham, those
who have faith in Christ. So you're a Jew. You're a safe
person if you believe God like Abraham believed God. Just believe. Just believe. Just rest in Christ. I don't
have to understand how God can justify me through the obedience
and through the death of another. I don't have to understand that.
It's a good thing because I can't. All I'm called on to do is believe
I'm justified in Christ. I don't have to understand how
God is going to do everything he promised he's going to do.
I don't have to understand how it's going to happen. I just
have to believe he's going to do what he promised. Then lastly,
every spiritual Jew looks to Christ as our sacrifice and our
only hope of salvation. John 8 verse 56. Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Now what day is the Lord speaking
about there? He is talking about a specific
day. He's talking about that day Abraham
took his only son Isaac to the top of that mountain. Abraham's
going to kill that boy, his son. He's going to slit his throat.
Whatever he does with the blood, he's going to quarter the body.
He's going to burn it to ashes. Because that's what God told
him to do. And right as he lifted that knife
to kill his son, God said, Abraham, stop. Abraham looked behind him,
and there was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. Caught
by its power, Abraham took that ram. He offered him up as a sacrifice
instead of St. Isaac. St. Isaac went back down
that mountain to make their service. I can only imagine how glad Abraham
was. There's something far greater
going on there. Abraham was glad. You know why? Because in that
picture, Abraham saw the redeeming. He saw, God showed him by faith,
he saw this is how God's going to save sinners. This is how
God's going to save his people. Christ is going to be sacrificed
as their substitute. They're going to live because
Christ is going to die as their substitute. Whoopee. Oh, he's glad. This is how God
saves sinners. And every spiritual Jew looks
to Christ the exact same way. His sacrifice is my only hope
of salvation. The only hope I have of life
is that Christ died as my substitute. The only hope I have that my
sin is paid for is Christ suffered and died and shed his blood as
my substitute. Now, if you look to that sacrifice,
the sacrifice of Christ, You're glad because you see your only
hope in Him. You see your life in His death.
You see Christ as your substitute. Then you're a spiritual Jew.
You're a safe person. That's how God saves sinners.
I pray God will make us see that this morning, that He'll apply
that to our hearts and make us spiritual Jews. Let's bow in
prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. Father, we thank you that you've
preserved and protected your gospel, that you've blessed your
word preached here in Ashland for so many years. All these
years, you've not left yourself without a witness. You've given
your sheep a place where we can come and feed in the green pastures
of your word. You've raised up a place and
preserved a place for sinners, lost, dead, vile, guilty sinners. and hear the free remedy, the
substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we
pray that you continue to bless your word. Would you continue
to bless your gospel? And Father, this morning, we
hope you'll pray that you'll bless your word, bless your gospel
here to you return, if it be thy will. But we're not promised
tomorrow. Father, today, this morning,
this hour, this minute, Would you bless your word, we beg of
thee, bless your word to the hearts of your people. Give life,
faith, salvation. Strengthen us and edify us. Cause
us to find our joy and gladness. Life and salvation by looking
to our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks.