It's good to be back with you.
Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to you. Ask your prayers for
me and God give me liberty and unction of His Spirit. And pray
that God the Spirit would take what is said in His Word and
apply it to your hearts. I tell my people, this congregation,
this all the time. This never gets easier. Matter
of fact, I realize more and more my dependence on him. I am totally dependent on him. And I know that you are the same. You are dependent on him to give
you a word to speak to you. And I hope that your your prayer. I know you glad to see me and
I am very glad to see you. You love me and I love you. But
I know this, you don't want to hear me, you want to hear Him.
I promise you, you want to hear Him. And when He speaks, you'll
know. You'll know He speaks and not
me. Let's take your Bibles and turn with me to Galatians chapter
6. Galatians chapter 6. I have been studying in the book
of Galatians in our congregation for over six months going through
the book of Galatians. And this was the last message
I preached to them on Sunday. I think it's needful. I think
it's needful for everyone to be reminded of this. Look at
verse 16 of chapter 6. And the apostle concludes this
message, this gospel, The epistle with these words, he says, as
many as walk according to this rule, this rule, peace be on
them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. The title of this message, this
rule. as many as walk by this room. Now, as believers in Jesus
Christ, there are two things that we are in constant need
of, peace and mercy. Every believer is surrounded
by trouble, by difficulty, by enemies without, enemies within,
constantly robbing us of peace. Our sin, the guilt of our conscience,
constantly seems to rob us, to think it robs us of the mercy
of God. We think that we are beyond it
at times. And the apostle comforts us by
this, they, as many as walk by this rule, what? Peace on them. Not just any peace, the peace
of God. I don't want just any peace,
I need the peace of God. And mercy, I don't need just
any mercy, I need mercy from God. And these two things I am
in constant, constant need of. Well, if we are in constant need,
then we should understand what it is then to walk by this rule,
because that's who gets peace and mercy in this world, those
that walk by this rule. And so my subject is this rule.
Now, here the apostle tells us that every believer has a rule.
Everyone who is alive and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ has
a rule of life. He says, as many as walk. Now,
what does walking have a connotation of? Activity, movement, life. You walk in, if you're what?
You live in. And so if we are born again of
the Spirit of God, we are now living, active, we are walking. In salvation, everything is passive. Our election had nothing to do
with us. Our atonement, we did nothing
for it. Our conversion, we had nothing to do with it. Even the
keeping of ourselves, our souls before God, we have nothing to
do. It's passive. It's all the work
of God. But every believer surely is
in himself not passive, but active now. Peter said we are living
stones. We are royal priesthood and we
offer sacrifices. What are our sacrifices? the
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. We don't offer sacrifices for
sin, but as we walk, so this walking, what does that mean?
It is the rule, it is the conduct of our life. As many as walk
by this conduct of life, by this manner of living in this evil
present world, we are daily walking, daily walking. And so then our
manner of life is not free to choose as we please. We don't
live after the way we please. We are subject to the king, aren't
we? Aren't we subject? We are subject
to him in every way. And so we are not lawless. Now,
what the apostle, and I've got much to say about this, but I'm
going to go ahead and move forward just a little bit. The apostle
throughout this whole book was distinguishing between the two
covenants. You are either under a covenant of grace or you're
under a covenant of works. These two will never meet. These
two will never come together. You are either under one or the
other. If you're under the law, you're
under what? The curse, he says in chapter
3 and verse 13, I believe it is, he said, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. But believers are not under the law, but we are
under grace. We are under grace. What a soul-refreshing
thought that we are saved by the grace of God and not by our
works. And so the Apostle Paul, when
he says this, he says, as many as walk by this rule. We know
this. He is not referring back. He's not canceling everything
he had just said in the six chapters. So this is not referring to the
law in any measure. This rule is not the law of Moses. Listen to this very carefully.
In any measure. People like to divide the law
because they see this rule and they say, well, it's got to be
the law. In some measure, the law of ten
commandments is what they usually say. But the law is never divided,
friends. If you're under one part of the law. And this is
what the book is about. They wanted to be under circumcision.
That's what they wanted. They said, well, Christ was my
justification, Christ is my righteousness, but I need to sanctify myself.
In order to make myself a Jew, I have to obey circumcision. And you know what he said in
chapter 5? He says, if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit
you what? Nothing. So, if you want to be under the
law in any measure, Christ will profit you nothing. And so then, if it is not the
law of Moses, what is it? What is this rule that believers
are to live by? Well, the apostle, when he said
that as many as walk by this rule, obviously he stated it
before this. And the rule is found in verse
14. Look at the rule that the apostle
says everyone who has peace and mercy lives by. Here it is. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the rule
by which we should live. The first part of this rule is
simply this. God forbid that I should glory in anything but
Jesus Christ. This is the rule that we live by And this is what
it is actually, to restate this very simply, this rule is faith.
Faith. As we live by faith, we would
never seek to glory in ourselves. If we would constantly live by
faith, looking only to Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we
should never glory in ourselves. We should never look for any
works in ourselves. We should never look for any
assurance in ourselves. We should never look to be accepted
with God in ourselves. If we are constantly living by
this rule of faith, We would never look to the law. We'd never
look to our works or glory in anything that we have. So then
whatsoever gives us any glory should be what? Abandoned as
we live by faith. Now, this flesh is constantly
seeking glory, isn't it? Doesn't it need to be constantly
mortified, constantly put off, because it seeks glory? So if
we're living by faith, what are we doing? We're constantly putting
off ourselves. Any glory to self. We say with
the psalmist, not unto us, not unto us. One time's not enough.
Not unto us. O Lord, not unto us, but unto
Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and Thy truth. Well, where does
that come from? That comes from Christ. So we who believe, we
still confess this, that sin is mixed with all we do. We confess
this. And God forbid that I should
in any measure strive to return to the law. Look to the law in
any measure for any comfort. Any assurance, any hope, there's
none there. So herein is the rule, the believer's
life is always then to what? By faith, glory in Jesus Christ. Daily, constantly, steadily,
looking to Jesus Christ alone. This is the rule of every believer's
life. Now, as I was going to preach
this to you, I received a call that startled me. And I found
out I needed this message just like you do. We are easily moved
from looking to Christ. The things of this world are
constantly clamoring for our attention. We are constantly
by the flesh trusting in something or someone else. And that has
to be constantly put off so that our eyes, the eye of faith should
be fixed on Him. Now, I've got four things, four
things about walking by this rule of looking to Christ. First of all, looking to the
cross of Christ, looking to Him. First of all, you've got to look
on the one who died on the cross. Who is it that died on the cross? As we daily walk, we must consider
who it is that died on the cross. Secondly, we must consider constantly
why he died. As we walk in this life, we have
to consider what was his purpose. We consider him who died, we
must consider why he died. Thirdly, we must consider for
whom He died. If we understand why He died,
it's altogether important to know who He died for. And fourthly,
we must by faith consider what He accomplished. So four things
as we walk daily. First of all, we must look by
faith to Him who died on the cross. The Apostle says in verse
14, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we're going to look
by faith to Christ, we must first look and see His person and His
office. In these three words, we find
all three. His person and His office. Lord Jesus Christ. First of all,
He says, Lord. As we walk by faith, consider
you that have been saved by Him. You that have been given the
grace of faith to understand and look to Him. Consider this. He's Lord. He's Lord. What does this remind
me of? It reminds me of this. He's God.
The One who saved me is God. Jesus Christ is God. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, yes. He was with God. John didn't just leave it there,
did he? He said, and He was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, consider
this as you daily are in your struggle, daily in your afflictions. Listen to this, the one who loves
you is God. I tell you this, in the middle
of your affliction, you don't feel like he loves you. You feel
like he's trying to destroy you. Newton said that without pursue
that worm to death. How often I ask the same question. But by faith, I must see the
one who loved me is himself God. Our God is in the heavens. And
what is He doing? Exactly what He purposes to do. Whatsoever He hath pleased. That's what our God does. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is God. Equal with the Father and the
Spirit. One with Him in will, in purpose, in deity, in holiness,
in all attributes, but yet distinct He is the Son of God. And so
as we will look at Him, we must see Him as God. Secondly, we
must see Him as He is, Jesus, the Lord Jesus. This reminds
us that He is not just God, but that my God, determined to save
me, loved me so much that He condescended to become one of
us. Now listen, I don't want to be
one of us. This world is full of trouble. How many times do
you want to just escape? And He, on purpose, came into
this as a man. Jesus, He took on flesh. God,
very God, became man, very man. That's what His name Jesus signifies. He took our nature. Scripture
says it behooved him to be made like unto the sons of Abraham. Why? That he might save us. This
was the only way. As we remember him coming, he
came in our nature, the sinless, spotless Son of God, came in
the flesh, was rejected of men and crucified. Crucified. And so as we see him, we see
him as God and man, and consider this, that our Savior, who is
God, was also man in that he is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Was in all points tempted as
we are, excluding sin. To know that he understands our
sorrows. His sorrows were magnified so
many times more than any sorrow we've ever had. Man of sorrows. That was his name as he walked
on this earth. And notice this, Christ, as we
see him, this is his office, Christ. When he came into this world
as a man, it was not by chance. But as it was, God anointed Him
to be the Christ, to be the Savior of His people. He anointed, that's
what Christ means, anointed one. He was anointed of God from the
beginning to be Savior of His elect, so then the Word of God
from the beginning testified of Him who is our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Scripture says the seed of
the woman should crush the head of the serpent. This was prophesied.
His coming into the world was no accident. It was on purpose. He came to save us and it was
determined how He would do it. He would crush the head of the
serpent. Isn't that glorious? It's wonderful. You look around,
it seems as though the serpent has the upper hand. He doesn't. His head is crushed. His power
is gone. He is defamed. He has no power. How did he do that? By the bruising
of his heel. By his crucifixion. That was the first prophecy,
but as you go on, you see greater prophecies, don't you? You see
wonderful things about this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
in whom we believe, the one in whom we trust. You take the Passover. What a wonderful picture that
is. His people were in bondage, under Egyptian bondage. What
a picture of us. We were under bondage, could
not deliver ourselves. And God said, take a lamb, the
most unlikely hero. A lamb. You know, Israel, I'm going to
save you. I'm going to deliver you. Well,
how are you going to do that? By lamb. That's exactly what
he did. He said, take a spotless lamb
and you crucify, you kill him in the midst of the congregation.
Wasn't Christ killed in the midst of the congregation? He was.
Paul said this thing was not done in the corner. It was done
in the open. Why? Because that was fulfillment
of that prophecy. And what happened? He took the
blood. He sprinkled it on the doorpost. And everyone, the firstborn
inside of the house, he was delivered by the blood of a lamb. What
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ as we go through this life. Remember,
He is our Passover. When God saw the blood, what
happened? When the spirit applied the blood
to your heart, what hope do you have God will pass over you? You have a good hope. You see
who it is that died. You have a good hope. God passed
over. He can take the great day of
atonement. Can't you? Wonderful. I don't have any of this written
down, but it's just glorious. It's wonderful. Great day of
atonement. Don't you realize that everything in that picture
is Christ? I think it's amazing. It's astounding. He's the high
priest. He's the scapegoat. He's the strong man that takes
the scapegoat away. He's the sin offering. He's the
priest that takes it into the Holy Ghost. He's the Ark of the
Covenant that the blood is sprinkled on. He's everything. What a picture
of our Lord Jesus. So as you daily, constantly walk
by this rule, looking to Him who is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the One who died on Calvary to save us from our sins. Friends, He is all our salvation. You that are sinners, would you
have it any other way? If you're a real sinner, you wouldn't have
it any other way. You wouldn't have it any other
way. And so then as we go through life, we are constant need of
mediation, aren't we? Walk by this rule. For there
is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, the man Christ Jesus. Secondly, as we walk through
this life, we must not only see who died on Calvary, He who is
God and man, He who is the Christ, the promised, anointed Savior.
We must understand why He died. Why would God come to sin to
become a man? What is the purpose of His coming
into this world to die? Why would He do that? It's not what we commonly think
of. We commonly look at the effect
of why he died instead of the root cause. Now the root cause
is vitally important to you and me. The root cause was not to
save you. That was a byproduct. What he came to do was glorify
God. He glorified God by His offering. And because He glorified God,
He saved you. The first cause of everything,
the first cause of everything is the glory of God. God does
everything for His own glory. Walk by that rule. Well, that just eats at the flesh,
doesn't it? Why do you suppose that is? Because
the flesh wants glory. But the truth is God does everything
for His glory. When Jesus Christ was about to
be crucified, what did He say? Glorify thy Son. What's the first
thing that needed to be done? He needed to be glorified. that
thy son may glorify thee. See what's first? The glory of
God. Then what's the byproduct of
that? He said, He said, Glorify thy son that thy son may glorify
thee that he may give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. Once I'm glorified, what am I
going to do with that? I'm going to save them. Now why is that? To magnify your glory. To them,
I'm going to show them Your glory. I'm going to magnify it. Read Ezekiel 36. What a beautiful
picture. That's the covenant of grace,
isn't it? It's the covenant of grace. I will remember their
sins and iniquities no more. That's beautiful. We love that
part, right? That's great. But you know what
God said before that? He said, I'm not going to do
it for your sake. I don't do it because of you. There's nothing
in you lovable enough to do it. There's nothing in you but sin.
I'm not going to do it for your sake. He said, I'm going to do
it for my name's sake. This is what he said, I will
sanctify my great name. That's what he's going to do.
He is going to set his name apart from every other name. And this
is how He's going to do it. Listen, I'm going to sanctify
my name, which you profaned. Now, we profaned His name. We profaned it in the midst of
the heathen. But He said this, the heathen shall know that I
am the Lord, saith the Lord God. Listen, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. What is he talking about? He's
talking about the magnification of His grace. Listen, we can
see the justice of God, we can see the power of God in the created
world. You can see His power, can't
you? You see His power in creation.
You can see His justice and judgment because the law of God is written
on our hearts. We understand law and judgment and justice. What we don't understand is grace. Consider what God did for you
as you walk in this world. Consider as you look to him what
he did for you at the cross. He took a rebel. He took one who hated him with
every fiber of our being. Yet, in sovereign love, not according to anything we
have done or could do, He purposed to give His only Son to die in
our stead. In sovereign love, God decreed
a covenant of grace to save us who only merited His hatred.
We only merited his wrath. And yet God says, I'm going to
show grace to the most vile objects I can find. You that are saved, you understand
that. You walk by this rule, you know this is true. That we
were saved for one purpose. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Isn't that why you were chosen? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, according as
He had chosen us, in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love, having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, what? To
the praise of the glory of His grace. You and I are objects
of His grace. We are manifestations of the
glory of His grace. And as you understand this, listen,
this should give you the most encouraging and that your salvation
is tied to His glory. Do you understand when He said
that? I chose you, I purposed you to be holy, I said I'm going
to do it because I love you, I did it by Jesus Christ, and
I'm doing it for the praise of the glory of my grace. Now then,
if you are lost, His glory diminishes. That's not going to happen. For you to be lost, the blood
of Christ would have to fail. The sovereign deity who reigns
on the throne, who swears to save you, would have lied. I'm
going to get to this later, but he said, of all the Father giveth
me, I should lose how many? If he lost one, would not his
glory diminish? As you walk through this world,
remember your salvation is tied completely to Christ, completely
to the glory of God. That's why Paul was so confident.
Who can separate me from the love of God that's in Christ
Jesus? I'm confident. Neither life nor death or anything
in between. No being from in heaven, no being
in hell. Not even this vile being can
separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Why? It's tied to his glory. That's
why he came to die. For the glory of God. The glory
of God. And He did glorify God. So remember,
you that were born dead in trespasses and sins, remember that none
of us could have saved ourselves. And yet God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, He sent Christ to
die for our sins. I like that. Even when we were
sinners. He didn't wait for you to get
better. Isn't that wonderful grace that
he didn't wait for you? He said, well, I'm going to send
my son, but I'm going to wait on you to get a little better.
That would never happen. We are objects of His grace,
and so we see the one who died. We see why He died for the glory
of God, to save us and tie our salvation to the glory of His
grace. Now then, the third thing, for
whom then did Christ die? If Christ came to die, and Christ
came to magnify the glory of God and save a people, who are
they? I want to know who they are. The popular belief of religion
is that He died for all men without exception. I was talking to somebody
earlier this week, and he pastored a church, a little small town,
kind of like this. He was telling me that man, they're
free will Baptist churches all over the place. I don't see him
in Louisville. You don't see you don't see big churches saying
free will Baptist, you know, you see community church or,
you know, whatever is ambiguous. So try to get anybody to come
in the trap. But this is still prevalent,
I don't care what they put on the door, most religion believes
that Christ died for everyone. That's what they believe. Now,
it's just so. And that's just a non-starter. If you talk to
them, that's a non-starter right there. If you don't believe that,
they don't want to talk to you. It's fine with me. But that's just
what they believe. The problem is that's not in
the Word of God. That's what I tell them. It's
not in the book. It's not in the book. They've
got three Scriptures and they'll take you to them and they're
easily seen and just foolish how they see them. Now the Word of God concerning
those whom Christ died for is very clear. It's not ambiguous. He died for the elect. There's no doubt about that.
The Scriptures are vitally clear. He died for all those that the
Father gave Him. Not one more and not one less. Many passages, I just read Ephesians
1, but we'll go to John. Go to John 10. This is mine. I'm just going to assume it's
mine. There's a message in that. I
know Don preached it one time. I still remember. I'm not going
to get on that message. I thought about it, but I won't
do it. John 10, look at verse 11. I
am the good shepherd. Now, to the Jewish mind, listen
to this. That is saying, I am the Christ. Many scriptures in the Old Testament
point to Him as the shepherd. A shepherd will come, and this
is it. He's saying, I'm Him! I am the
Good Shepherd! And what does the Good Shepherd
do? He giveth His life specifically for what? The sheep. Well, maybe He didn't mean that.
But that may not... Maybe he's going to explain himself
a little bit clearer. Look at verse 14. I am the good
shepherd. I know my sheep. And we'll get to this later.
And am known of mine. If you're a sheep, you know who
he is. And you know who He is because
He knew who you are. You're His. My sheep. And they're known of
mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for what? The sheep.
He doubles down. He doesn't explain it away. He
doubles down on it. He said, I'm dying for my sheep.
I'm dying for my sheep, just in case you didn't hear me the
first time. I came to die for my sheep. And listen, other sheep
I have that are not of this fold. They're not all Jews. Now, that's
great for us, isn't it? That's wonderful for us. Notice
what he said. Them I also must bring. Now, when God says He must do
something, that's pretty strong language. I told you that it's
tied to the glory of God. Jesus Christ must bring them. And listen what He said they'll
do. and they shall hear my voice. Similar language in the Old Testament.
I will and they shall. I will and they shall. I will
die for my sheep. I will bring them and they shall
hear what? My voice. And there shall be
one fold. Don't bother with all that stuff
over there in Israel, Atlanta, Palestine. Don't mess with that. That's just... There's sinners
that need Jesus Christ just like we do. There's one fold and one
shepherd. Jesus is a good shepherd and
he laid down his life for the sheep, whoever they are, Jew
or Gentile. You know what he's going to do?
He's going to bring them. They're going to hear His voice? The
hour is coming and now is, we told that Samaritan woman, didn't
we? The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. And they that hear shall live.
And so His sheep, but we know this, that His sheep are not
all men. They're not all men. Well, how do we know that? Look
at verse 26. These Jews doubted. They didn't believe. They said,
look, you, if you're in the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I just
told you and you believe not. Now, listen, why they don't believe?
Because you are not of my sheep. I lay down my life for my sheep,
but you're not my sheep. Did he die for him? He said he
didn't. They're not his sheep. And notice
this. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. He didn't say it like religion
would say it. Religion says it this way. You're
not my sheep because you don't believe. That's not what he said. You
believe not because you're not of my sheep. If a man continually
not believe on Christ. There's a reason. He's not His. He's not His. A man will not believe on the
Son of God and he die in his sins is because he is not one
of the elect. Why? Because Christ came to die
only for His elect. Listen to this in Isaiah 53.
He said, for the transgression of my people. What was he stricken? Very specifically, my people.
We know it's not the nation of Israel, because not all of national
Israel was saved. We know it's spiritual Israel.
You can read Romans 9 and figure that out. His elect people. His elect people, now by nature,
were no different than any of the other ones. There's no difference
by nature. There was no goodness in us,
no righteousness in us. Yet by an act of free grace,
God chose us. As you walk daily, that's not
a boastful thing, friends. Election has no pride in it. The doctrine of election gives
no pride. You're not any different than any one other, any of the
other fallen sons of Adam. The only difference is God made
the difference. He chose us. He put us in the
union with Christ. It was by an act of sovereign
love that God made Christ to be our salvation. 1 Corinthians
1 and verse 30, But of God are you in Christ Jesus? As you walk
in this life, are you in Christ Jesus? Who put you there? Did I give you any room to boast?
Any glory for self? None whatsoever, as you walk
in this life. Election is the most humiliating
gospel there is. It abases man and glorifies God. And see now the gospel, as it
abases man and glorifies God, behold, the cross of Christ testifies
in full measure that salvation is something that God has done
outside of me. I love this picture. Salvation
was something God worked outside of me. Where were you when the
elect were chosen? Where were you when Christ died?
I like the way he talks to Job that way, doesn't he? He talks
to Job and he says, you know, where were you at when I laid
the foundation of the world? What did you have to do with that?
Nothing. What did you have to do with
your salvation? Nothing. It was something done by God
for me. He done it for his elect. And
when Christ came into the world, he actually accomplished that
salvation of all the elect. Every one of them were saved.
The day he said it is finished, it was finished. That finish
was purposed by God in eternity. But at that time, at that time,
our salvation was neatly tied up in a bow. Finished. Done. Done. So then as we walk by this rule, all who know their election of
God Find peace and mercy. If you know your election of
God, there is peace and mercy. But perhaps there is some poor
sinner here who does not know. For adventure there'll be somebody
that says, I understand exactly what you said. I've heard it. God has an elect people. I've
heard all my life, Christ died for those elect people. The problem is I don't know if
I'm one of them. I want to give you four marks
then of us who do. Everyone who knows their election
of God, there are four things we constantly live by in this
world. We know this, that I am a sinner. What I mean by that is this.
I know that sin is not just what
I do. It's who I am. I am the sinner. Every elect child of God knows
this. Every elect child knows this.
Number two, I need a perfect salvation that I can't provide. You know that? Do you realize in the core of
your soul that there is nothing you can do to earn God's favor?
Nothing. Nothing you can do to turn his
head and give you grace. Nothing. Every elect person understands
that. And this is the most vital thing.
Every elect person sees that Christ alone is that perfect
salvation. And listen to this, we come to
him. All that the father giveth me
shall, what? Come to me. We come by faith in Christ alone. And the fourth thing that every
elect person does is we live by this rule. We live by the rule of faith
in Christ. And so then I would encourage
every sinner to come to Christ. If you come to Christ, you will find something you didn't
expect. I know when I came to Christ,
full well knowing I deserve to be rejected, I found something
that I didn't expect. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. and him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. There is no reason I'll cast
you out. I think of those lepers at the gate. They couldn't go
inside. Of course, everybody was starving
inside. The enemy had surrounded Jerusalem and they were starving
them out. And the lepers are standing there
in between. They couldn't go in the city. They weren't allowed. They'd be killed. They knew that.
So what did they say? They said, look, man, let's just
go on out there. I mean, what's the worst that
our enemies could do but kill us? We're going to die anyway. Peradventure, we'd find mercy. You remember what happened? They
found something that they didn't expect. All their enemies were
dead. Is there anyone who'd say, per
adventure, God show mercy to me? Go to him, find out. I have a whole book of people
who came to Christ and I can't find one he rejected. Not when you came for mercy.
If you came for merit, yeah, no need. You got something still
you hang on to, might as well not come. You come empty. Come empty. He said, I wasn't
no wisecast yet. Why? For I came down from heaven,
not through mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will, that of all He had given me,
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
So as we walk in this life, let us remember for whom He died.
He died for everyone who believes on Him. Everyone. Fourth and last thing, what then
is the result? of his crucifixion. What is the
result? The result is exactly what Jesus
Christ proclaimed on the cross. It is finished. Let every believer
constantly live by this rule. It is finished. It is finished. What does that mean? It means
that my salvation is done. It's completely finished. There is nothing I do in this
life that adds to it. Nothing I do that contributes
to it. Nothing I do that keeps me either
makes it include me or bars me from it. Go back to your text
real fast. Look what Paul said in verse
15. He said, For in Christ neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Circumcision
doesn't make me righteous, nor uncircumcision doesn't bar me
from righteousness. The law and my merits have nothing
to do with my union with Christ. So as we walk, constantly live
by this rule, because you're constantly bombarded with the
flesh saying, it's not done. The flesh is saying, I got to
do more. Do all you can. What are you
adding to it? Be as righteous as you want.
What are you adding to it? If God, peradventure, gives you
the ability to be righteous from now on, do you suppose that actually
adds to it? No. No. Yet this is the religion of the
modern day. Christ justified me, Christ is
my righteousness, Christ is my atonement, but I'm my sanctification. Don't walk by that rule. There's
no peace in that rule. There's peace in this rule. God,
but of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
me, what? Wisdom. Righteousness. Sanctification. And redemption. So what does this mean? It means
I walk by this rule, Christ is all my salvation. We live by
this, Jesus paid it all. Now listen, all to Him I owe.
There's no doubt about that. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. Therefore, Jesus is so bold to
say that He's not going to lose any that the Father gave Him. And so in conclusion to this,
what is the rule by which we live? God forbid us a glory in
anything. but the person and work of Jesus
Christ. God forbid that I should ever turn back to the law in
any measure. God forbid. Walk by that rule. Walk by that
rule. Constantly looking to Christ. Looking to what? His person. The one who saved you is God
and man. He's the Christ. Why did he come? To glorify God.
Which means walk by this rule. Your salvation is tied to the
glory of God. Walk by that rule. Who did he
die for? He died for the elect. Who are
they? Everyone that believes. That's the evidence of my election
is faith. And everyone who believes, every
elect person is going to continually walk this way. And walk by this rule. Christ
accomplished all our salvation. All our salvation. And so as you walk by faith,
who's keeping you as you walk by faith? Who? If you make it, who's doing that? It's all of Christ. It's all
of Christ. I pray God will bless this to
you.