Let's be turning in our Bibles
to Romans chapter 4. I'm thankful for Brother Don and
Shelby for this church. I'm thankful for the men that
have preached before me. I'm so thankful that you all
warmed up the crowd for me. Romans chapter 4. The Apostle Paul, speaking throughout
chapter 3, concerning Christ being the righteous fulfiller
of God's law, at the end of Romans 3, he concludes the chapter by
showing three things that are accomplished through faith, that
God accomplishes through faith in Christ. He first said boasting
is excluded through faith. We're left no room to boast because
we're saved through faith, trusting Christ alone. And then he illustrated
that using Abraham in Romans 4 in verses 1 through 8. Well
then the next question he brings is concerning the uncircumcised
Gentiles. And he declares that uncircumcised
Gentiles are justified by God through faith. And by this he
showed that it wasn't through circumcision, it was not through
the law that sinners establish the law, but it's through Christ
alone. through faith in Him. And then
he illustrated that using Abraham in Romans 4 and verses 9 through
12. So after he is thoroughly shown
that Christ established the law, in Romans 3 and verse 31 he says,
Do we then make void the law through faith? Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. Now it's common for preachers
to take this verse and take it completely out of context, completely
out of the context of Romans 3 and Romans 4 and say, ah, see
there? We do keep the law. Once a believer
casts all his care on Christ, then we do establish the law
by our works. We do continue to keep the law
and establish the law by our works. And that's totally foreign
to the context of what Paul's declaring in Romans 3 and Romans
4. Paul's declaring that God's people
established the law only through faith in Christ. We establish
the law only through faith in Christ. He said, do we make void
the law? That's what we're charged with.
We're charged as being antinomian. We're charged as saying, people
say, well, you just make void the law. You're anti-law. No. God forbid. The believer's the
only one who reverences God's law so much that he will not
bring it down to a sinner's level. We declare the only way for a
sinner to establish God's law is through faith in Christ. Why only through faith? Why only
through faith? Well, again, Paul illustrates
this in Romans 4 using Abraham, and he gives us three reasons.
And I want to look at this as our text. Romans 4, why do we
establish the law only through faith? Verse 13, for the promise
that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. We establish the law only through
faith in Christ. Here's the second reason, verse
14, because If they which are of the law
be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect, because the law worketh wrath. For where no law is, there
is no transgression. Why do we establish the law only
through faith in Christ? Verse 16 says that it might be
by grace. To the end the promise might
be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham. Now let's look at these three
reasons for just a moment, why we only establish the law through
faith. First of all, we establish the
law only through faith in Christ because the promise, the promise,
that Abraham should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
and to his seed through the law. It was through the righteousness
of faith. Brethren, God's salvation, everything
God does for his people in giving us eternal salvation, it's a
promise. Our gospel is a promise. God's salvation is given to us
by His promise, according to His covenant promise. Now there are a lot of promises
included in this promise, but it's just one promise. It's one
promise. John summed it up this way, this
is the promise, that He has promised us eternal life. Eternal life. But the promise
was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. God did
not make this promise to Abraham or to his seed through the law.
He made this promise through the righteousness of faith. The
Holy Spirit used Paul to illustrate this using Abraham because Abraham
lived 430 years before God gave the law at Mount Sinai. Before
God gave the Ten Commandments, before God gave any of the ceremonial
law, it's all one law. Before God gave any of His law,
God made this promise to Abraham. And he didn't make it through
the law. Abraham lived before the law. Abraham lived his entire
life of faith and died never having what most men say is the
believer's rule of life. He never had it. It came 430
years later. That's why the Spirit of God,
God himself, moved Paul to use Abraham as the illustration. What is the righteousness of
faith? If this promise wasn't made through the law, it was
made through the righteousness of faith, what is the righteousness
of faith? Well, it would be easy to turn
to one scripture and I could define this for you. But let
me tell you what I was included in the righteousness of faith.
God made this promise through the righteousness of faith. And
the righteousness of faith is the righteousness of the faithful
one, God's Son, Abraham's seed, Abraham's Lord, our Lord Jesus
Christ. This promise was made through
the righteousness of Christ Jesus, the faithful one. Before God
ever made this promise to Abraham, He made this promise to Christ.
Go to Galatians chapter 3. And you'll want to mark Galatians
3, because we will be back and forth. God made a promise to Abraham
that Abraham would be a father of many nations. because he would
have spiritual seed scattered in all the nations in the world,
so he would be a father of many nations. But before God made
that promise to Abraham, he made that promise with his son, that
he would be the everlasting father of many nations. He said in Galatians
3.16, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Now, that's
quoted from the Old Testament, and some of you may have a Bible,
and you go into the Old Testament, and you read these verses that
this is quoted from, and it won't have the word seed, it'll have
the word children. Throw that Bible away and get
you one that has the word seed in it. Because you'll miss this. This promise that God made to
Abraham and to his seed is the promise God made to Christ the
seed. That one seed, Christ the seed.
He's called Abraham's seed because he came through Abraham's loins.
He came through the genealogy of Abraham. But he was before
Abraham. Brother Larry just said he was
before Abraham. He is Abraham's seed, but he's
Abraham's Lord. And God the Father entered into
covenant with God the Son in eternity, and He entrusted the
whole work of salvation into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole work, beginning to
end. He entrusted the whole thing into the work of Christ's hand. How is he the righteousness of
faith? He trusted his son, Christ Jesus,
to manifest God's righteousness by his faithfulness. This is
what the gospel is. This is the gospel. The gospel
is not about showing up on Sunday and the preacher telling you
how you ought to live and how you ought not to live. The gospel
is concerning the righteousness of God manifest in God's Son
by his faithfulness. Back to Romans 3 in verse 21,
it says, Now the righteousness of God, without the law, without
your and my, you and me keeping the law, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. It's by His faithfulness. It's given to those who believe
in Him, but it's by His faithfulness that the righteousness of God
is manifest. Look down at verse 26. What is
it? What's he talking about? The
righteousness of God. To declare at this time, I say,
His righteousness, that He might be just, that God might be just,
and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Christ Jesus
came forth to manifest how God could be just to show mercy to
a sinner like you and me who God said He will by no means
clear. God said He must execute every
sinner that transgresses against Him because He's holy and He
will. God will execute every sinner
that transgresses against Him. He must do it. He's holy. He
has to do it. And the only way God can be just
to show a sinner mercy is if he pours out that justice that's
due to that sinner on a substitute. And that substitutes his son.
So he sent forth his son to manifest how he can be just and how he
is just and is the justifier of those that believe on Christ.
He trusted Christ to establish the whole law. This is what we're
talking about, to establish God's justice and the righteousness
of the law for God and for His people. The Lord said in Isaiah
42, 21, the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. It never was dependent on you
and I magnifying the law and making it honorable. It was always
Christ who would magnify the law and make it honorable. That's
why he said, think not that I've come to destroy the law and the
prophets. Why did he say that? I'll tell
you why he said it. The self-righteous religious folks in his day were
accusing him of making void the law, just like they accused Paul
of that, and just like they accused us of it. And he said, don't
get the idea that I'm making void the law. Don't get the idea
that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to
destroy, but to fulfill. And you will hear preachers that
will actually not only take Romans 3.31 and say, see there, we have
to establish the law. They'll go and take our Lord's
words right there where he said, I didn't come to destroy the
law and the prophets. I came to fulfill it. And they'll say,
see, he didn't destroy it. We still have to fulfill it.
Well if that's what he meant, he said he also came, he didn't
destroy the prophets. So if that's what it means that
we got to fulfill the law, then you got to fulfill the prophets
too. And you and I can't do either one of them. He came to fulfill
the law and the prophets. And he came to fill it full so
that there's nothing else that can be added. That water glass
right here is not full. You fill this water glass full
and the next drop that goes in it's going to overflow. He filled
it full. He filled it to where you and
I, his people, can't add anything else to it. That's how he fulfilled
it. He fulfilled it because he fulfilled
the perfect righteousness of faith and love. He told us that
the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in this. It's faith. It's loving God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength, and your neighbor as yourself. That's the righteousness
of the law. That's the whole law summed up.
And you and I can't do that. not in the righteousness that
God requires. And not only that, we still have
sin that's got to be dealt with. And our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the perfection of righteousness of faith and love when the hour
came. And He knew, the hour came and
He knew what He was facing. He knew what He had entered covenant
to do for God and for His people. And this spotless one, this one
who knew no sin, this one to whom the law could never charge
him with anything, He showed his perfect faith in
God's promise and his perfect love for God and for his people
in that he went and presented himself at the Garden of Gethsemane,
the just one, the spotless Lamb of God, laying down his life,
the just for the unjust. Just like they brought that lamb
and they brought it and that lamb was spotless. That ceremonial
lamb was spotless. It had to be spotless. And they
brought it and it was spotless. Christ comes, the spotless Lamb
of God, and He presented Himself to the Father to be made sin
for His people. He said, now is my soul troubled.
I can't imagine. I can't imagine. This society
we live in and we're just wimpy. We don't know what trouble is.
This is soul trouble. About to be made the thing that
he hates and he abhors, the thing that he despises. As holy God
he despises it. Knowing he's going to be forsaken
of God, when he made sin. And he goes and he says, what
shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this hour came I into this earth. This is the reason
I came. And what did he say? Father,
glorify thy name. Glorify thyself. And the father
said, I have and I will. You know how he did it? He made
him sin who knew no sin. He made Him sin for us, for His
people, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. You know what God declared this
wonder work of judgment to be? This is what He said, the work
of God's judgment is His wonder work. a work of wonder that he
said he would do. You know what he says he does
by this work? He destroys the wisdom of the wise and prudent. Because men can't understand
how God could make his son sin. They acknowledge it had to be
done, but they want to backpedal it and say it was some way other
than what it was. I've shown you last year, it
wasn't by imputation. Scripture says God will not impute
sin when there is no law. God will not impute sin where
a man has not been made sin under law. He will not do it. That's
the true definition of imputation. Mark Henson, you stole from me. I can impute that to you all
day. I can't make you have stolen from me. I can't make you to
have stolen anything from me by imputing that to you. God
will not impute to a man what he's not. He only imputes what
he is. So how was he made sin? What
was the prior act that made him sin? He hath made him sin. That was the prior act. He made
him sin. He was by obedience. And here's
his perfect righteousness, here's the righteousness of faith. When he was made a curse for
us, and he was crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? That Brother Don preached Friday
night. He vindicated God, declaring,
because thou art holy. Thou art holy. And the righteousness
of faith is manifest when, as he's bearing the just fury of
God, he's bearing the wrath of God in place of his people, satisfying
justice for his people. He's bearing the justice, the
judgment his people deserve. He's bearing that for his people.
And as he's doing that, He's establishing the righteousness
of the law in perfect faith and perfect love by never ever himself
sinning against the Father. While he's justifying his people
bearing our sin, while he's being forsaken of God in just judgment,
he is ever looking to the Father trusting the promise that God
made to him, believing the promise that God made to him. And he's
doing it because he loves God and he loves his people with
a perfect love. I want you to turn to Psalm 38,
I want to show you something. Our text says that Abraham He
staggered not at the promise of God. He didn't even consider
his own body, though his body was dead. He was 100 years old.
He couldn't produce children. He didn't consider his body.
He didn't consider Sarah, whom he loved. The scripture said
he staggered not, but he was strong in faith, giving God the
glory, persuaded that what God promised, God was able to perform.
Now if you go back and you read about Abraham, you're going to
find out that all of that that's said in the New Testament was
mixed with a whole lot of sin and unbelief in the Old Testament
in Abraham. And I'll tell you why that faith
was perfect and God only looked at it as perfect and that love
was perfect in Abraham is because right here. while Christ was
bearing sin of His people on the cross and justifying us from
our sin, here was the positive, perfect love of faith, perfect
righteousness of faith and love that He was fulfilling. Look
at this, verse 3, Psalm 38. There's no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over mine head as a heavy burden, they're too heavy for me. Scripture
says Abraham considered not his body. Christ didn't look to his
body. Look at this in verse 10. My heart panteth, my strength
faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it's gone from me. He didn't look to his body. He
didn't look to those for whom he was dying. Look at verse 11. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof from my sword, my kinsmen stand afar off. He didn't glorify
his enemies. Look at verse 12. They also that
seek after my life lay snares for me. They that seek my hurt
speak mischievous things. But I, verse 13, as a deaf man
heard not. I was as a dumb man that openeth
not his mouth. Thus I was a man that heareth
not and whose mouth are no reproofs. But here's the perfect righteousness
of faith and love by which he makes the faith and love of his
people perfect. Right here. For in Thee, O Lord,
do I hope. Thou wilt hear me, O Lord my
God." He considered not his body. He considered not his loved one. He didn't glorify his enemies.
While he was hanging there, bearing the wrath of God in the place
of his people, he never ceased looking to the Father, believing
the promise that the Father made to him. What was it? He said
in Isaiah 50, verse 7, the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall
I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know I shall not be ashamed. He is near that
justifieth me. He trusted the promise that the
Father made to him that when he had satisfied divine justice,
bearing the wrath of God in the place of his people by himself,
that God would raise him justified in the Spirit with no sin. And that, my friends, is not
only our justification from our sins, that's the perfect establishment
of the law in righteousness. So God's promise to Abraham and
all his elect was through the righteousness of the faith of
our everlasting head, of Abraham's seed, of Abraham's Lord, the
Lord our righteousness. Acts 13, 23, of this man's seed
hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior,
Jesus our Lord. And let me show you this. What
is the righteousness of faith? God trusted His Son to give His
elect the promise of the Holy Spirit and to work the miracle
of grace in our heart to give us life and faith in Him through
the hearing of faith. Through hearing of His faithfulness. Go over to Galatians 3 with me.
Galatians 3 and verse 5. Paul says, He, Christ, he's talking
about Christ. He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
that is, bringing you to faith in Christ, giving you life and
bringing you to faith in Christ, doeth he it by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith? Is he doing it through a message
that declares the works that you need to be doing? Is that
how he ministered the Spirit to you? Did He send some real
worshiping preacher to you to tell you what you need to do
to honor your will and to glorify your works and to glorify your
self-worth and preach you real high and the Lord real low? And
is that how He sent the Spirit to you? If you think He sent
the Spirit to you, the devil sent something to you, but Christ
didn't send something to you. He sends the Spirit through the
hearing of what Christ accomplished by His faithfulness. What we've
been hearing all weekend, we've been hearing the hearing of faith
and that's the message Christ uses. God gave him the glory
to do that. He said, I will give you pastors
after my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. That's what he promised, that's
the prophet, the prophets, and he fulfills the prophets. The
same one that descended and fulfilled all things is the one that ascended
and fills all things, and that's Christ the Lord, and he gives
gifts unto men. He gives his pastors to his churches. If you're here and you don't
have a pastor, I've been there, I know what that's like. These
brethren I pastor who have been there, they know what it's like.
I guarantee you this, if God has ordained from eternity and
given it into Christ's hand to give you a pastor, you're going
to have him and nothing's going to stop you from having him.
And it'll be the right man for the right body and it'll be done
right and right in his time. But he's gonna give it and he's
gonna preach that man and he's gonna preach himself into the
hearts of his people and he's gonna send forth the Holy Spirit
and give you life and faith and call his people to himself. This thing's not left in our
hands. It's all of him. And the only thing that he preaches
is the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of the faithful
one. Abraham heard the same gospel
we've been hearing here tonight. He knew this gospel. Christ said,
he saw my day and he rejoiced to see it. He went up that mountain
with Isaac and he said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. He was looking at it from the
different side than we're looking at it, but he saw and trusted
the same Lord that we trust, by the same Holy Spirit. What's
the righteousness of faith? When he's given you this faith.
It's the righteousness, the righteous establishment of the law by Christ,
by His faithfulness, imputed to you through faith in Christ. In Romans 10.5, here's how it's
described. Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaks on this wise. Say not in your heart who shall
ascend or who shall descend. The work's finished. The work's
finished. We're not telling you to do anything.
We're not saying there's anything left to be done. We're saying
the work's finished. Here's what the righteousness
of faith says. What sayeth it? Verse 8. The word is near you. How near, in your mouth and in
your heart, the word of faith which we preach, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, that
is to believe he did everything he came to do, he accomplished
everything he came to do, and he's all your righteousness and
all your salvation. You believe that in your heart.
Thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, look at it,
for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. Believeth
unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. When I was a young boy, about
my son's age, about 15, and I was down in South Arkansas out in
the scorching August heat, and I was facing down about 300 or
400 bales of hay that fixed to have to be put on a truck, if
I could have just believed unto having those bales on that truck,
I would have done it in the park. You believe on Christ. Oh, you gotta be in that August
heat though for that to be good news. You gotta be a sinner. You gotta be seeing that you
can't do a thing to please God and when he makes you see that,
that'll be the best news you've ever heard. Abraham was fully persuaded that
what he promised he was able to perform, and therefore it
was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, I want to show you another
thing real quick here. We establish the law only through
faith in Christ. Back to Romans 4. Let me show
you this. We establish the law only through faith in Christ,
Romans 4.14, because if they which are of the law be heirs,
Faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect, because
the law worketh round. For where no law is, there is
no transgression. Judaizers then and now. When you hear about Judaizers,
don't just think that's talking about somebody that lived in
the past. You know, they were the folks who came down and they
came to these Gentile believers that the Lord had given them
the gospel, he'd given them the Holy Spirit, he'd given them
faith in Christ, and they were purified, they were righteous,
they were roped in the righteousness of Christ, they were complete
in Christ. These Judaizers came down and they said, all right
now, it's okay that you believed on Christ, but now except you
be circumcised to keep the law, you can't be saved. And men are
standing around And churches every day in this country, every
Sunday morning, are telling sinners the exact same thing. Once you believe on Christ, now
you've got to keep the law. You've got to keep the law. They want to insist you keep
the law of Sinai and whatever other laws that they've made
up. Now remember who God's using here to declare this. He's using
a man who lived 430 years before the law of Sinai was given. There
was no law given. If you think you're an heir of
eternal life, because of anything in you, anything done by you,
be it your worth, your will, or your works, Be it before or
after you profess faith in Christ. Be it for justification or for
sanctification. Then none of the righteousness
of Christ's faithfulness that's imputed through faith and none
of God's promise of eternal life applies to you. None of it. Instead, you are a guilty transgressor
under the wrath of God. Because the law worketh wrath. That's all it works. All the
law is given to do, everybody who's under the law, the law
shuts your mouth in guilt. And it says, don't say another
word. You're guilty. Turn over to Galatians
2 just a moment. What about all these folks that
are running around preaching that sanctification is, that
you got to keep the law, and believers that think that, professing
believers that think that, everybody running around talking about
this progressive sanctification business. What about that? Well,
the Apostle Peter made an error. He got up from a table with Gentiles
and he moved over and sat down at a table with some Jews. He
saw these Jews coming up and he got up and switched tables
because he feared the Jews. And Paul said that by that one
act, he walked not according to the truth of the gospel. By that one act, faith was made
void and the promise of God made a none effect. But for him being
a chosen child of God and righteous in Christ, it would be over for him. But
he was the Lord's and he just made an error. But hear what
he said and learn from this. Paul said he walked not according
to the gospel of truth. Why? Because he compelled sinners
to live as somebody else, like the Jews. He compelled the Gentiles
to live as do the Jews. That's what legalism is, compelling
someone. Do you feel like you're compelled
by law to do anything? By a threat or by a promise of
reward? What makes it legalism is the
motive of the heart. When I listen to this, Galatians
2.16, Paul said, knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
himself. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, if while we claim that we believe on Christ, we
ourselves are found sinners, and he's talking about what Peter
did, if we're found to commit this awful, horrendous abomination
before God of turning from Christ back to the law and to ourselves,
Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? Did Christ minister that? Did he tell you that was necessary?
Did he tell you that sin, that you had to do that sin? And did
he work that sin in your heart? God forbid. Later Paul says to
the Galatians, this persuasion cometh not of him that called
you. Christ didn't work it. Well,
where'd it come from? Verse 18, if I build again the
things which I destroyed, if I bring that law back in and
I build up that middle wall of partition that was destroyed
through faith in Christ, if I build that back up again, I make myself
a transgressor. That's what our text is saying.
Faith is made void, the promise of none effect, because the law
only works wrath. It's only going to find us to
be transgressors and only going to bring us under the wrath of
God. Only. That's what it was given
for. That's what it was given for. Paul said, I say unto you,
if you're circumcised and you can put anything you want to
in that, whatever it is that somebody's compelled you to do
or you feel that you have to do, Christ shall profit you nothing. I testify to a man, every man
that's circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has
become a no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified by
the law, you've fallen from grace. And somehow, preachers still
have the audacity to stand up in pulpits and tell sinners,
believers, that you have to live by the law. In scripture, if
that were true, somewhere in scripture it would say the just
live by the law. But it never says that, it says
just the opposite. As many as of the works of the
law are under the curse, because it's written, cursed is everyone
that continues not in all things in the book of the law to do
them, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
It's evident because the just shall live by faith, and the
law's not of faith. The law's not of faith. You can't
mix law and faith. You can't. It's going to have
to be one or the other. And if it's of law, that man
that does all the law shall live. That's the only way. That's why
it's going to find you a transgressor. And people will hear that. Have
you ever noticed all through Galatians, Paul calls it being
justified before God? And it's obvious he's talking
about sanctification. It's obvious that's what he's
talking about. Because he said in Galatians 3, having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Are you
going to go from hearing of faith to the hearing of works now?
It's obvious he's talking about what men call sanctification,
but he only calls it justification. Why? Because it don't matter
what men call it, before God, it's a man trying to justify
himself by the works of God. Well, that don't line up with
my theology. You ought to throw your theology in the garbage
and get you some good theology. Well, what's the believer's rule
of life? What rule are we under? The same one Abraham was under.
It's the rule of the righteousness of faith. It's the rule of Christ
himself. Paul said, I, through the law,
am dead to the law. Christ took the law out of the
way for me. He fulfilled it. He established
it. He honored it. He magnified it. He gave it everything
it needed so that now I can live unto God. God can say to Abraham,
this is my friend. I have fellowship with him. I
have fellowship with him. Well, that doesn't explain to
me how I'm going to be ruled, how I'm going to walk. Paul said,
nevertheless, I live. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I'm not guiding myself and correcting myself
and mortifying myself and walking by my own rule. I'm living this
life by the faithfulness of the son of God who's living in me
and he's corrected me and he's teaching me and he's leading
me and he's guiding me just as real as if he was standing right
there beside me. Do you believe that? This is
what people don't believe. They don't believe Christ can
do this. That's why they got a committee to watch the committee
and another committee to watch that committee and another committee
to watch that one. They don't believe Christ is
working in his church. Quit trying to go around and
dictate to everybody what they ought to do and preach Christ
and him crucified and watch Christ work in the heart of his people
and you'll have an obedient bunch of people that'll drive from
hundreds of miles around to hear the gospel preached for four
days in a row and nobody ever compelled them to do it. Amen. You'll hear a word behind you
saying, this is the way. Walk ye in it when you turn to
the right hand or you turn to the left. You'll hear Christ. You'll walk in the Spirit and
you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. Paul said in Romans,
the things I want to do, I can't do them. I just can't do them. The things I hate, those are
the things I do. And so the Judaizer said, well,
then you need to be under the law so we can mortify that for
you. Paul said, no, you don't. He
said, if you walk in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of
the flesh. Because yeah, the lust, flesh lusts against the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and he lusts against the flesh so
that Just like your inner man can't do what he would because
of the flesh, well your flesh can't do what he would either
because of the Holy Spirit. But that's Christ doing that.
That's Christ doing that in his people. It's the rule of hearing
faith. He said you don't ever stop hearing
this message. You don't turn back to the hearing
of words. It's the rule of faith which works by the constraint
of Christ's love for us. Nothing will motivate you to
do for somebody like love will. Nothing will. Look at what a
parent will do for a child. And never, and there's no limit
to it, because they love them. And when you beheld what Christ
has done for you, and you see what great love we're with, he
loved you, you don't need a set of rules and regulations to make
you do anything for him. You're constrained by His love
for you. Faith which worketh by love. That's the rule we're
under. Circumcision doesn't avail anything. That means the whole
law didn't change this. And uncircumcision doesn't avail
anything. Faith which works by love. And then it said, what
about that law given at Sinai? Let me read this and I'm done.
Paul said that covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law which is 430 years after, cannot disannul,
that it should make the promise of no effect. If it was of the
law, it wouldn't be but promise, but God gave it to our promise.
Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions.
And I'll tell you one thing that means, if God added it so that
Pharisees would try to keep it and it'd make the world a little
better place for me and you that believe on Him. Aren't you glad He did it? And He added it to make you know
your sin, to make you understand what sin is. But it was till
the seed should come, till Christ should come, to whom the promise
was made. And after he's come and he's
given you faith, you're not under that schoolmaster anymore. Listen
to this. One more thing. I'm sorry. I've
got to show you this one thing. This one last phrase. Where no
law is, there's no transgression. Everywhere I read, nobody would
say what that meant. Where no law is, there is no
transgression. It means just the opposite of
what it means when it says the law works right. What it means
is this, in Christ, when you've been brought to faith in Christ,
robed in Christ's righteousness, you have perfectly fulfilled
the law of God so that the law won't say anything else to you
again. God said, I'll remember their sins no more. They're gone. They're put away. God does not
impute sin to us because we don't have any to impute. Christ put
them away. And the righteousness the law
demands, we've given it everything it demands. So it can't charge
anything to us. And so there's no transgression.
Who's going to lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Christ
died for us. God justified us. It can't be
done. Well, what about my old man of
sin? Listen to this, the fruit of the Spirit, that fruit in
the new man is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and against that,
there's no law. There is no law. And they that
are Christ have already crucified the affections and the lusts.
They've already been crucified. When? I'm crucified with Christ! And I'm crucified, they're crucified
because Christ lives in me. That's what John meant when he
said, a man is born of God, he's got the incorruptible seed in
him and he can't sin. We need to stop looking at things
the way we see them and look at them the way God sees them.
Abraham, he laughed when he made that promise to Abraham, but
in the New Testament it said he was strong and he didn't waver
and he gave God all the glory. Because God didn't see any sin,
because his laws fulfilled in Christ. And where there's no
law, there's no transgression. So it's Christ that makes us
walk. Why'd he do this? So it'd be by grace. That means
he gonna save everybody that's his, and none of them's gonna
be lost. That's the only reason the world's held in place. Thank
y'all.