Well I want to turn your attention
to Titus chapter 2 and the text is going to be verse 14 but we'll
refer to the whole chapter by and by before the end. Now you
know that our gospel, the gospel that we preach is the gospel
of salvation, gospel, good news, the good news I'm a sinner, what,
I've got to face a holy God. What a terrible dilemma I'm in.
Is there any good news? Yes, there's the gospel. The
gospel is good news. And what does it declare? Salvation
from sin accomplished. Now that's important. Not possibility,
if only you will let, if only you will accept. No, no. Salvation
from sin accomplished and accomplished entirely by the doing and dying,
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who are saved by that
doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ contribute absolutely
nothing to it, nothing. Let me be clear, let me underline
this. Why did God elect a people before the beginning of time?
Now there are those who will tell you, I've heard them, I've
heard them. They'll say, who did God elect? Well, he looked
forward through his spyglass into time and he saw that, ah,
now there's a good character. There's one who will... There's
one who will be inclined to accept me, so I'll elect that one. And
there's a... No, not in the slightest, that's
not the teaching of Scripture. The teaching of Scripture is
that completely by grace, sovereign grace, what did God say, who
did God say he would have mercy upon? The one he saw would be
good? No, he said, I will have mercy on whom I want to have
mercy, on whom I, God, decide to have mercy. That's what God
said. So not in election do we, the sinners, those that are saved,
contribute a solitary thing. We contribute nothing towards
our justification from the accusation that the law brings that we're
sinners condemned by a holy God, justly condemned. We contribute
nothing. Oh, what about sanctification?
Oh, there are so many that say, well, justification is the work
of God in the gospel of Christ, but sanctification Once you believe,
now thou, it's over to you now. I've done everything for you,
now it's over to you. Off you go, you obey the law of Moses,
and the better you are at obeying it, the more reward you'll get
in heaven, and the better prepared for heaven you'll be. And the
less good you are at it, the more you'll lose out, the more
you'll spend eternity in bitter regret for what you didn't do.
That is not the teaching of the scriptures, not in the slightest.
How are we sanctified? For of God Christ, is made unto
us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification. and redemption. Yes, Christ is our sanctification. Not our obedience to the law
of Moses. Christ is what makes his people holy. Heavenly rewards. God is our eternal reward. That's what he said to Abraham.
Abraham, I am your eternal reward, your great reward. Eternal glory. That kingdom prepared for the
people of God from the foundation of the world. It's all His doing. The sinner saved contributes
nothing to it. So then, what's the reaction
to that? You preach a gospel like that,
that's what we seek to preach here. And we know several others
who seek to preach exactly that gospel, and we're very blessed
by them. But if you preach that gospel, religious legalists and
others of various flavors, will accuse us of promoting careless,
sinful living. They will say, ah, what you're
saying is, because Christ has done everything, you can now
do what you want. It makes no difference whether you're a very
good person or a bad person. If you're saved, that's it. It's
all done by Christ. It doesn't matter what you do
or how you live. Therefore, let us sin all the
more. so that that grace of God which
is superabounding will superabound, it will cover it all. And Paul
writes in another place that he was slanderously accused of
it. In Romans 3.8 he said, I'm slanderously
accused by those that are legalists, Judaizing legalists, I'm slanderously
accused of preaching a gospel that promotes sinfulness, sinful
living, licentiousness, sinful living. In fact, even, some of
you won't have ever heard of this man, but he was very famous
50 years or so ago. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones preached
at Westminster Chapel for many, many years. And in fact, we actually
heard him preach. In the 1970s, one of his last
sermons, we heard him preach in Welling many, many years ago.
But Martin Lloyd-Jones even said, if you are not, as a preacher,
if you are not accused of preaching antinomianism, which means it
doesn't matter how you live, he said you're probably not preaching
the true scriptural gospel. And that's absolutely right.
When people hear the true scriptural gospel, the flesh, the religious
flesh will say you're teaching people to commit sin. You're teaching people that it
doesn't matter how they live. In fact, all of the preachers
on Free Grace Radio are accused of it. We've heard somebody say
of a certain Free Grace Radio preacher who preaches a solid,
solid, truthful, scriptural, gospel ministry. consistently
down years and years. Oh that man doesn't preach the
whole counsel of God. Why? Because he doesn't have
his whip out whipping people to obey the law of Moses as their
rule of life. Well I'm telling you that's not
what the scriptures teach. They don't teach that so we don't
preach it. They say these accusers, they
say you must balance the doctrine in the epistles. You know, lots
of epistles are first part doctrine, second part practical application.
And he says, they say you must balance the doctrine in the epistles
with the obligation on Christians to obey the law of Moses in order
to progress in sanctification towards heaven. But we maintain
that preaching Christ alone is preaching the whole counsel of
God. How do I say that? I'll tell
you how. Paul the Apostle said in 1st
Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 2, he said, I determined when
I was amongst you to know nothing, to preach nothing other than
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What's your message Paul? Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. What you mean? Haven't you preached
about that? Yes, well what's your next message going to be?
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then when he was with the
elders on the beach at Miletus, the Ephesian elders on the beach
at Miletus, and it was a very sorrowful parting because they
knew that Paul was going by and by to his death at the hands
of the Roman Empire, and he'd said to them, and it's recorded
in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 20, he said, I have not shunned
to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. Oh, you preached
extra things other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. No,
that is the whole counsel of God. Jesus said of these scriptures,
all of them, said you search the scriptures, in them you think
you have eternal life. These are they that speak of
me. With the disciples on the Emmaus
road, after the resurrection on that first resurrection day
he walked with them and he beginning at Moses and the prophets expounded
to them in all the scriptures what what did he did he teach
them how to live did he teach them how to make the world a
better place no he preached the things concerning himself What
does the scripture say? This should be our rule. What
saith the scripture? Like the noble Bereans, search
the scriptures daily to see whether what you're hearing as preaching
is so. Well, let me give you a couple
of scriptures. Galatians 5 verse 14. The law is fulfilled in one
word. Oh, right, New Testament teaching
about the law. How is the law fulfilled? Give
me one word that tells me how the law is fulfilled. This is
it. love your neighbour as yourself. That's it, that's it. Romans 13.8, you know, is it
just one place it says it? No, look, Romans 13.8, he that
loves another has fulfilled the law. He that loves another has
fulfilled the law. Romans 8 verse 4. The law is
fulfilled in us. Who's the us? The people of God,
the believing people of God, who walk not after the flesh,
who don't live according to the sinful desires of the flesh,
but according to the leading of the Spirit of God, who has
quickened them and made them alive to the truth of the gospel
in Christ. But there are those, and we must
always be aware of it and acknowledge it, and ask ourselves if it's
us, there are those who profess faith who deny its reality by
their lives. They profess to know the truth
and believe it, but they deny the reality of that by their
lives. Look what verse 16 of chapter 1 says. about those peddling Jewish fables,
and they're called in verse 15, the defiled and unbelieving,
because they don't believe the truth. And in verse 16, Paul
says of them, they, these people, profess that they know God, but
in how they live, in works, they deny him, being abominable and
disobedient, and unto every good work, reprobate, antinomians,
against law, saying it doesn't matter how you live. You see,
they say that the grace of God in the gospel is abounding, therefore
there's enough of it to cover any sin we might commit. So it's
a field day, let's go for it. Let's commit whatever sin we
want to. It doesn't matter how you live. To say it matters how
you live is to be a legalist, and that's surely, oh no, we're
not having legalism, no, no, we live how we want, that's what
the gospel tells us to do. That is not what the scriptures
teach. Do you want people to believe
the gospel you profess? J.C. Philpott said this, the
strongest witness you... you see, J.C. Philpott was accused
of this very thing all the time. He was accused that the gospel
he preached promoted antinomianism, promoted people living sinfully
so that grace might abound. This is what he said, the strongest
witness you can give to the truth of the gospel is that witness
of a godly life. You say, well, gosh it's hard
living in this world. I know. I lived in the real world. I'm not a preacher who's left
school, gone to a Bible college, become a pastor of this church
after that church and never had any experience of what it's really
like to get up Monday to Friday, early in the morning, set off
to this place and that place in pursuit of your career, at
the bidding of your employer, and have all of the stresses
and strains of those. I know what it's like. It's very,
very hard. Nevertheless, it is possible.
to witness by a godly life. Think of the profile that we
give. Think of the message that we
give in our attitude to things, in the way we respond to things,
in what we do. I know I can look back and I
can think of no end of times that I bitterly regret because
I'm a sinner. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But nevertheless,
what's the general direction? There's a wavering to the left
and the right, as we saw in that verse in Isaiah a few weeks ago.
But there's a voice behind saying, this is the way, you walk in
it. profile you put on Facebook, all the different social, the
things that you say, all says something about what you are
and what you believe. And in verse 10 of Titus chapter
2, there's this well-known verse where it says, not polloining,
not stealing, talking about slaves, don't steal, but show all good
fidelity, truthfulness, faithfulness, that they may, look what it says,
by your life you may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in
all things. You know, at Christmas time of
year, people like to adorn their houses. You see it all wherever
you go now. 9th of December. Bit early for
my liking, but never mind. 9th of December, and wherever
you drive at night, houses are lit up with glittering lights,
dangling, cascading, glittering lights. What are people doing?
They're adorning their houses with lights in the darkness of
winter. They're making their houses look
attractive. In the houses, you'll have a mirror over the fireplace,
and people will put holly with red berries on. What are they
doing? They're adorning the mirror. They're making it look nice.
Well, what does Paul say here? He says, if you want to make
the doctrine of God our Saviour look nice, look pleasant to the
eye of those that see it, live righteously. Don't be unfaithful,
don't steal and be dishonest, because in doing that which is
right, in living, as it says in verse 12, soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, you adorn the doctrine of God
our Saviour. God's grace has very practical
outworking. In verses 11 and 12 of chapter
2, The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all
men. It doesn't mean all men without
exception. It means all sorts of men, all kinds of men, all
strata of men. Teaching, and it doesn't just
mean men either of course, it means mankind. Teaching us, what
does it teach us? What does this grace of God teach
us? This doctrine of God our Savior,
what does it teach us? It teaches us that denying ungodliness
Not saying, oh, we can be as ungodly as we like, but denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, the things of the world. We should
live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world.
Now then, you might be thinking, oh, here he goes, he's on his
soapbox, the preacher, he's getting the rod out to berate us and
to tell us off for this, that and the other. Not in the slightest.
I'm just trying to be faithful to the Word of God. Is not this
what it says here? You tell me if you can read it
and not come to this conclusion when I've finished. We're bidden
to live soberly, righteously, not flippantly and frivolously
and extravagantly and stupidly, to live soberly, righteously,
godly, with our affection. Look, verse 13, looking, live
looking. You know, if you were a fisherman's
wife, and people have accused me of being politically incorrect,
because why should I talk about a fisherman's wife? Oh, is that
not a sexist stereotype? No, don't be silly. Let's just
listen to the illustration. If you're a wife of a fisherman,
a trawlerman, in Peterhead in Scotland, and in these terrible
storms of winter they go off, into those raging oceans to catch
fish, and they're away for several days, and you're expecting them
back on a certain day, and I know communications are a lot better
now, but imagine when that was not the case. Can you imagine
what it must have felt like for those fishermen's wives? And
they're thinking, it's 10 days, they should be back by now. And
what are they doing? They're doing their washing,
they're feeding the children, they're keeping the house, they're
going and doing their work at the fish preparation. But all
the time, what are they doing? They're looking for that trawler
to come back in. They're looking for it. It's
where their affection lies. It's what they're looking for.
It's what they're longing for. Verse 13, looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ. That's not two gods. That's the one God. The one great
God who is manifested to us, flesh, in and through the person
of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the God-man, God
made manifest in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We're bidden to live soberly,
looking for it, looking for it with our affection set on heaven. Why? Because, verse 14 gives
us the answer, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people
zealous of good works. Have you heard the story, is
it one of Aesop's fables, about the North Wind and the Sun having
an argument about how to get the coat off a man's back? Have
I remembered that rightly? Well, I tell you what, even if
I haven't remembered it rightly, I think the way I've remembered
it will do as an illustration. They want to get the coat off
a man's back. And the North Wind says, I'll blow that coat off
his back. I'll blow such a strong gale,
I will blow the coat off his back. And the North Wind blows
and blows and blows. And what does the man do? He
tightens the coat around him. He buttons it up fast. He gets
a rope and puts it round his middle. He'll do everything he
can to stop that North Wind blowing that coat off his back. But here
comes the Sun in competition with the North Wind. And the
Sun comes out. and the warmth comes down, and
the man feels that lovely warmth of the sun on his back, and do
you know what? In no time he's taken that coat off. What's won? What's won? The sun has won.
This is what we have here. It's not the threat of the law,
it's not the threat of punishment or the threat of loss of reward,
it's the glories of the gospel. That's the motivation. for living
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. So I want
us to see firstly Christ's gift of himself, then his purpose,
which is redemption, and then its effect, which is purification
of a peculiar people, and then finally its outworking. Its outworking? Zeal for good works. Zeal for
good works. First of all, Christ's gift of
himself. Looking to eternity for God to
appear. Is that how we live? That's what
we pray. Lord, give us that desire to
look to eternity. to look to eternity for God to
appear, for our Lord Jesus Christ to come again. The angel said
when he went back to heaven to the disciples, why are you looking
up in heaven? Go and preach this gospel. He's
going to come again in like manner as you've seen him go. He will
come again. The book of Revelation tells
us again and again, behold, he cometh. He is coming. Our God
is coming back. Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming
back. He's coming back to end this
kingdom of antichrist, of Satan. and to establish triumphant his
own kingdom for which we pray thy kingdom come. The great God
in the likeness of sinful flesh gave himself for us. The great
God became man in the Lord Jesus Christ. conceived of the Holy
Ghost, born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Ghost, but truly
man, with human blood flowing in his veins, he came and gave
himself for us. For us? For whom? For those who
believe on him, for his people. Who is it that believes on him?
Oh, lots of people believe on him. No, they don't. They don't
believe his gospel. There are loads, there are millions who
call themselves Christians. They don't believe his gospel.
They don't believe his book. They have their own version of
his book. You hear it and see it all around in sincere ways,
but it is not the message of this book. The message of this
book is that God has a people chosen in Christ from the beginning
of time, and for these he came into time to redeem from the
curse of the law. So why? did he need to give himself
for his people. He gave himself for us. Why?
I want you to think briefly with me back to the first two chapters
of Genesis. You don't need to turn there.
But the time before the fall, when Satan tempted Eve, and Adam
took the fruit that his wife gave him, and because she'd eaten
it, he ate it, and they fell at that moment. They fell into
sin and corruption and took the rest of the human race with them.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve were in perfect, sinless, intimate
fellowship with God. This was the kingdom of God.
It was this creation. The whole creation was the kingdom
of God. And it's that kingdom which Jesus,
in speaking to the disciples, telling them about the end times,
he says, that he will say to his true people, come and inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
This is it! When all things are restored, come and inherit that
kingdom. Now, in that pre-fall kingdom of God, the rule of it
was delegated to Adam. It was delegated to Adam. And
in eternity, Before time, an elect people had been chosen
in Christ, Ephesians 1-4, the people of God, the church of
God, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And those people were put into eternal union with Christ. They
were betrothed, as it were, engaged, as it were, to Christ then, before
the beginning of time, looking forward to the marriage supper
of the Lamb. But all of those people given
to Christ in the election of grace before the beginning of
time, as human beings, had to be born of Adam's race. They had to be born of Adam's
race. They were a people who were pictured
by Eve. Eve married Adam. Adam pictures
Christ. The church is pictured by Eve.
The church is destined to marry Christ at the marriage supper
of the Lamb. The people of God, the church of God, was pictured
by Eve, married to Adam before the fall. These are God's people. Look, I'll show you, John 17. John chapter 17, verse 6. I have
manifested, this is Jesus praying to his father before he goes
to the cross. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, they have kept thy word. Verse 10. All mine are thine,
the fathers, and thine, the fathers, are mine, and I am glorified
in them. Verse 11. And now I am no more
in the world, but these, his people, are in the world, and
I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Verse
24. Father, I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou loves me before
the foundation of the world. The people that God the Father
gave to God the Son, destined for eternal marriage, the marriage
supper of the Lamb, but In the fall of Adam, because they had
to be born as Adam's race, as we are, they're ruined by that
fall. Ruined by the fall. Romans 5,
12. Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. We all die. In the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die, said God to Adam. In the day you eat thereof
you shall surely die, and we all surely die. And what's the
justification for it? All have sinned. You say it's
unfair? No. All have sinned. Look at
it. We all sin. 1 Corinthians 15 22. In Adam all die. Christ's bride
is dead in Adam. there's utter and total depravity
as a result of this fall. The people of God, before they
believe, are described as being dead in trespasses and sins,
children of wrath, even as others. How could this bride of Christ,
given to him in eternity, before the fall, before the beginning
of time, how could that one, corrupted by the sin of Adam,
and by their own sin, because all have sinned, How could that
bride, how could she appear in heaven with all her filthy defilement
of sin and corruption, and that defilement is everything that
is contrary to the character and nature of God. How could
she appear in heaven as the Lamb's bride? Of course she couldn't. Impossible. The scripture says
nothing that defiles can enter in. Nothing. Nothing that defiles.
We in the flesh are defiled. How could we enter in and be
the bride of the Lamb of God? We can't. In the flesh we're
defiled. How is this going to be recovered?
Only in this way. By the eternal Son of God. taking
into union with his own divine person our human nature, by being
clothed in flesh and blood just like his people, and coming as
a representative, as a substitute, as it says in Hebrews 2.14, As
the children, those that the Father gave to the Son before
the beginning of time, are partakers of flesh and blood, yes we are,
aren't we? You can feel it. We're clothed in it. He also,
Christ also, himself, likewise, in the same way, took part of
the same flesh and blood, that through death, dying the death
that the law demands of those that break the law of God, that
through death he might destroy the power of death. And what's
the power of death? It's the devil. It's the devil
who drew mankind into sin. Thereby, Christ came and gave
himself for us, and he gave himself into... You see, the law demands
sufferings and sorrows for the sinner, and Christ gave himself
into all the sufferings and sorrows demanded by the divine justice
of God for his people's sins. He's the substitute of his people,
doing and suffering what the church for which he was substitute
could never do. So then what was his purpose
in giving himself? Answer? That he might redeem
us from all iniquity. Redemption from iniquity. Redemption
speaks of payment of a price. It's used all the time. You redeem
a voucher. You use a voucher to pay part
value of something. You redeem... If you've given
something into one of those shops where you lend goods to them
and they give you money. P-A-W-N shop. A pawn shop. You see one or two of them these
days. and you lend them something of value and they give you money
and then when people get paid they go and they redeem the item,
they buy it back, it becomes theirs again. It's the ransom
price for liberty, you free it from, it's in bondage to the
pawnbroker and you buy it out of that slavery, that bondage. And all of us are slaves to sin
by nature as a result of the fall. We have an enslaved will. It's held captive. This was Satan's
great accomplishment at the fall. How did God create Adam and Eve? How did God create man? Answer,
in his own image. He created man in his own image,
but Satan's great accomplishment was to have so debased the image
of God in the heart of man that He completely, forevermore, in
men and women that come forth from Adam in this generation
in which we live, have no right view of God. And all men, including
God's elect in the flesh, all of us, we all know it. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all constrained
in this flesh to rack up immense debt to the justice of God. And
the law of God and the justice of God is merciless in arresting
everyone found under it. You know we keep hearing of the
CPS. The CPS in Britain is the Crown Prosecution Service and
it looks at cases where People are to be prosecuted for an offence,
and they look and they say, is there enough evidence to produce
a conviction in a court of law? And you see it so often, they
say, oh no, and public outcry goes up because the people think,
of course this is an absolute outrage, that person ought to
go to jail for that, and yet the CPS is saying there's not
enough evidence. I tell you, the law of God and
the justice of God is not like the CPS. It's absolutely merciless. It's absolutely strictly just
in arresting everyone found guilty under it. And there's a dark
dungeon of sinful slavery into which all are put. But Christ
gave himself in order to redeem his people, in order to pay the
price of the liberty of his people. I stress that. He didn't do it
for everybody. The Scripture teaches clearly.
It was for those people we've been reading of in John 17 that
the Father gave to the Son before the beginning of time. And in
the process, He cancelled the debt that those people owed to
the law and justice of God. There was no other way. How could there have been? Surely
if there had been any other way consistent with the holy character
of God, the infinite God would have found it. but he couldn't.
No, it says in Romans 8.32, he spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all, all his people. Galatians 3.13, Christ, see cursed
is everyone that continues not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them, but Christ came to redeem his people
from the curse of the law. How? By being made that curse
in their place, for them, as a substitute in their place.
Thus the demands of divine law and divine justice are fully
satisfied. And the debts of the elect, that
multitude that no man can number from every tribe and kindred,
the debts to the law and justice of God of those people are cancelled,
are fully satisfied. are paid to the full, so that
Isaiah 61, this was the verse that Jesus quoted from the Old
Testament Scriptures when he first came preaching in the synagogue
in Nazareth, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. to proclaim liberty to the captives,
captives to sin, and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound, to proclaim the acceptable year, the jubilee year of the
Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that
mourn. This is why he came. He came
so that he who knew no sin might be made the sin of his people,
and being made that sin, to bear it, to bear its responsibility,
to bear its guilt, to bear everything about it, so that he cried out
under it as if he was that one who had committed those sins.
He was found guilty by the law of God, by the justice of God,
and he bore the penalty that was due to the full. He drank
the dregs of that cup of the wrath of God, and he did it that
God might have no more need to exact punishment for the sins
of his people. This was to make the fallen bride
fit for glory. That's what it was for. Christ
gave himself in order to pay the ransom price. The sin of
the elect, you put it in the balance of justice. On the one
hand you put all the sins of the elect, and what do you put
on the other side? The infinitely precious blood
of the Lamb of God. The lifeblood of the Lamb of
God. Is that enough? Of course it's
enough. The infinite Son of God. Enough. That's what paid the
price. Paul writes to the Corinthians, you are bought with a price.
You are redeemed with a price. The ransom is paid. And the effect
of it, redemption's effect? To purify a peculiar people. A peculiar people? It says here,
in my margin, One that dwells alone, a separated people, a
people that dwells, a people that is not like the world. He
purifies to himself a people out of the world. He takes them
for a possession out of the world. A people formed to be God's possession. As Isaiah 43 says, this people
have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. Ephesians 5. Let me just read
some verses here. He's talking about marriage,
but it isn't really. Nevertheless, He says, it's a
great mystery, this about husbands and wives, but I speak concerning
Christ and the church. And what does he say? Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. Is that not what we just read?
He gave himself for us, that he might purify, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water. by the
Word, the washing of water by the Word, that he might present
it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Just as that, that's what Christ did. Redemption's price was the
death of Christ, the blood to atone, because without the shedding
of blood there's no remission of sin, and the water to cleanse. Is that not what we sang in that
hymn? This fountain so dear he'll freely
impart, Unlocked by the spear, the soldier's spear at Calvary,
It gushed from his heart, what? Blood and water, with blood and
with water, The first, the blood, to atone, to cleanse us the latter,
The water, the fountain's but one. The death of Christ was
one of providing the price of the law, the price the law required
in the blood for the sins of the people, and the water washing,
cleansing, sanctifying, the water to cleanse. Redemption's purpose
is not to permit sin to go ahead without any consequence, but
to separate, to sanctify a people from the corruption of the fall.
The blood redeems us from the guilt of sin, the washing, deals
with the defilement of sin, as the Holy Spirit comes and makes
us new creatures, renewing the mind and the understanding, and
liberating the people of God from the dominion of sin. As
we see Christ, as we look to this glorious Son of Righteousness,
I mentioned in the illustration earlier, the sun and the north
wind. Well, in the Scriptures, Christ is called the Son of Righteousness. This Son of Righteousness, when
we see Him in all of His beauty and His warmth, the beauty of
Christ draws affections away from the fleshly love of sin.
Is that not the greatest? You know, why should I give?
Because the law will condemn you if you don't give. Look at
Christ, who gave Himself for us. Now you tell me that you
haven't got a heart to give. Forgive, should I forgive? Look
what Christ forgave. Look what God forgave. Should
you not have a heart to forgive others? Is that not the motive
for this? A renewed conscience from the
practice of sin. You see, the conscience of Those
who are deep in sin is so scorched and burned and it's as if it's
had all feeling burned out of it. So you often hear of crimes
and you think, how on earth could they do that? Because their conscience
is completely corrupted. They have no sense of the evil
that they're doing. They just do not see. But in
the rebirth, the conscience is made tender. and made sensitive
about the practice of sin and thus God saves his elect from
the ruin of the fall and fits them as the bride of his son
for eternal glory. And it has, and I know I'm rushing,
but it has It has a direct influence on life now, because look, to
purify unto himself a peculiar people, now ask yourself the
question, is this you? Zealous for good works. Zealous
for good works. What does it mean? Not laissez-faire. Do you know what laissez-faire
means? French, of course, it means let it be. It doesn't matter,
let it be. Ah, she'll be right, would be
another sort of expression. She'll be right. Laissez-faire.
It doesn't matter. We don't need to bother. No,
no, no, not laissez-faire. Zealous. Ambitious. Committed to the sinless service
of God. Never perfect in the flesh, but
always striving. What does the scripture encourage
us to do? To put on. Listen, Ephesians 4 24. Paul
talking to believers like you and me. Put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. He tells us,
put it on. He doesn't just say lie back
and it will be put on. He says put it on, exactly as
Paul describes. If you read those verses we read
before about the old men and the old women and the young men,
it's all about a style of life which testifies to the truth
of the gospel that we believe. How would you like this world
to judge you? You know, one thing I think,
if I was having my career again, I know one career I would never
head towards, though people once or twice have told me that I
ought to have done, and that is to be a politician. You know,
always inclined to stand on a soapbox and give people an opinion. But,
you know, I would never do it. And do you know why? look at
the media, look how the media spends its entire time digging
away in every little dark corner of your life and your record
and that thing you said 20 years ago to somebody and it comes
back and gets quoted against you and that thing that you put
on social media and all these skeletons in the cupboard Yes,
no doubt we've all got them. I know, I know I have got far
more than I would ever like to have brought out into public
gaze. But are you trying not to be
like that? Are you actively, negligently
storing up a whole load of skeletons in cupboards? Or are you seeking
to live? as those who are zealous for
good works. We mustn't judge one another.
Look at verse 15 of chapter 1. Unto the pure all things are
pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing
pure. Remember, he's talking about
religious legalists, the Jewish fable peddlers. There are people
who claim to know the truth, but do you know they're like
that illustration that Spurgeon gave of a buzzard flying over
a field compared with a dove flying over the same field. And
the buzzard is looking out for the dead meat. It's looking out
for the corruption and the defilement that it might come down and have
a feast on it. And there are those who claim
to be the true people of God and they're only looking out
all the time for faults in others. No, don't judge others. but do
examine self. Put off, put to death that which
is of the world, of the flesh, of self, and put on, put on that
which is of the Spirit of God, that bears the fruit of the Spirit
of God, which is zealous for good works, which is zealous
to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. That's it. Where do we get the
strength? From God, from God alone. Lord, help me. I can't
do this in my own strength, but He gives the strength to His
people to live like this. Remember what Philpott said,
the strongest witness you can give to the truth of what you
believe is that of a godly life. Amen.