The most religious of all fallen creatures is the
devil himself. Satan doesn't mind you being
religious and acting good. He likes for you to do so. The Apostle Paul tells us plainly
that his ministers, ministers of Satan, preachers who stand
in pulpits like this and preach to folks like you on Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Tuesday, Wednesday through the week, ministers of
Satan, he transforms into ministers of righteousness. They teach
you to do good. They teach you to behave well. They teach you to live by moral
code, if not by the law of God. They teach you to behave rightly. Satan delights for you to be
religious. He delights for you to go to
church. He delights in causing you to
live uprightly. His desire, his purpose, his
determination is to keep you from Christ. And the safest way to keep you
from Christ, the surest way to keep you from Christ is to make
you feel good about yourself. To make you think that you are
righteous, to make you think that you know God. Satan loves
to make folks religious. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3 again. Now this is how he does it. Most everyone you know, most
of the people you're associated with, your family, your neighbors,
your friends, folks you go to school with, folks you work with,
Most everyone you know has made some kind of a profession of
faith and they presume that salvation is deciding to serve Jesus. They
presume that salvation is saying I believe on Jesus. They presume
that they went down to church last week and decided to start
serving the Lord, so they joined the church and they said, I believe
in Jesus and everything's all right. They quit doing some things
and started doing other things. Other people, most all religious
people, most that you know and I know, most of your family and
mine, presume that salvation is doing good and somehow righteousness,
being righteous, and knowing that you're saved means obeying
the law, keeping the commandments, and you reform your life and
you straighten up. Most places, most places, most
religious places, are maintained by keeping control of people. They make sure you tithe and
maybe give more than you tithe and come to church with some
regularity and read your Bible and check up on you and be sure
you're not violating the law and they go through statements
and creeds and confessions and say we believe things and they
recite things. I was in a church once, a few
years back, every Sunday morning, the whole congregation would
stand and recite the Ten Commandments. Boy, it was, isn't that solemn? Isn't that, isn't that worshipful? Isn't that wonderful? No. No,
it's not. Well, what could be wrong with
reciting the Ten Commandments? Nothing, if you believe what they teach.
Nothing, if you believe what they teach. There are whole religious
denominations where mothers and fathers would take that newborn
baby of yours and mom and dad would stand in front of a preacher
and they'd put a little water on the kid's head. And that mother
and father would dare to enter into a covenant before God, swearing
before God that that child will be raised to live in obedience
to God's commandments. Man, what a promise to make. What a promise to make. People
everywhere think that what they do determines their eternal destiny. People everywhere think by Satan's
delusion that by goodness, we merit God's favor. By goodness,
we merit God's grace. By goodness, we merit God's mercy. There's no question. Sin is the
transgression of the law and we merit God's wrath. But you cannot merit mercy. You cannot merit salvation. You cannot merit grace. Those things are given, the free
gifts of God, and your goodness has nothing to do with it. Your
goodness has nothing to do with it, not in the beginning, not
in the process, not in the end. Your goodness has nothing to
do with you getting God's salvation. Let me see if I can make that
clear. David Coleman, your goodness has got nothing to do with you
getting God's salvation. Nothing. In fact, if we could
say it has anything to do with it, that's the one thing will
keep you from it. That's the one thing that will
keep you from it. It is my intent, my purpose, my desire in this
message, indeed in every message I preach, to turn you entirely
away from yourself. To turn your eyes entirely away
from you. To turn your eyes entirely away
from the church. To turn your eyes entirely away
from the things people do. And turn your eyes to God's Son,
Jesus Christ, sitting yonder on the throne, the crucified
Redeemer, as your only hope before God Almighty. I'm here calling
you to believe on the Son of God. Calling you to faith in
Jesus Christ the Lord. I don't ask you to produce obedience. I don't ask you to obey God's
law. I'm calling on you to trust Christ's
obedience. to trust Christ fulfilling of
God's law. I'm calling on you to believe
on the son of God, not to keep a set of commandments, not even
God's commandments, but to keep God's word commanded in the gospel,
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I set before you this
day, not the commandments of Sinai, but the commandment of
God in the gospel. And here it is. This is his commandment. You see it? This is his commandment,
not plural, singular. In verse 24, he uses it plural.
In the preceding chapter, he's used it plural. Commandments,
commandments, commandments, commandments, commandments. But in verse 23,
he says, and this is what I'm talking about. This is his one
commandment that you believe on the name of his son, Jesus
Christ. And wait a minute, that makes
it two. That makes it two. And love one
another as he gave us commandment. That little word and, it's translated
and, it's translated but, it's translated even, and its translation
must be determined by the context in which it is used. Read the
sentence this way. This is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, even
love one another as he gave us commandment. For faith in Christ,
that faith which is faith in Christ, that faith which God
works in us, that faith which the scriptures speak of as a
faith that gives us a saving union with Christ, faith in Christ
works by love. Faith in Christ loves the Redeemer. And loving Christ loves his people
because they're his people. Look in chapter 5, verse 1. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Believe on Christ. That's proof positive you're
born of God. Believe on Christ. That's proof
positive you're born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. Now watch
this. By this, we know that we love
the children of God. When we love God, we keep his
commandments. I know I love you if I love God. I know I love
you if I love my Redeemer. I know I love you if I believe
on the Son of God. This faith, he speaks of, is
obedience to the commandment of God, and it causes believers
to love one another. The one thing God requires of
every sinner, the one thing God requires of you, and God does
require something of you, the one thing God requires of you
is faith. in Jesus Christ the Lord. You
must believe on the Son of God. Did you hear that? Did you hear
that? You must believe on the Son of God. You must trust Jesus
Christ, the Lord. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
of God hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Whosoever shall believe on the Son of God has everlasting life. Whosoever believes not the Son
of God shall perish. That's the language of scripture.
I wrote this morning to show you from the word of God how
God requires this thing of faith. Urging you right where you are
to believe on Christ. I'm not asking you to join this
church. I'm not asking you to make a
decision. I'm not asking you to say a prayer. I'm not asking you to change
your life. I'm not asking you to come up
here and make some statement before me. I'm calling on you
right where you are without moving your lips, without moving a muscle
to come to Christ, to believe on the Son of God. I want you
to be saved by God's grace. And I know the only way you can
be saved is by obeying this commandment of God, believing on his son. And let me show you five things
plainly revealed in this book about faith in Christ. Five simple
declarations. Five things that go to the heart
of faith. Number one. In order to be saved,
you must believe on the Son of God. That faith which saves the
soul is believing on a person, depending on Jesus Christ for
eternal life. We're not saved by believing
certain religious dogma. We're not saved by believing
certain facts about the life of Christ and the death of Christ
and the resurrection of Christ. Somebody says, well, the gospel
is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. No, it's not. No, it's
not. The gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was
buried according to the scriptures, and that he was raised from the
dead according to the scriptures. Believing facts is not salvation,
no matter how true those facts are. Believing doctrine is not
salvation, no matter how true that doctrine is. We're saved
by believing a person. Saving faith, saving faith is
not consent to a proposition. It is not that. It is not that. When I was seven years old, I
don't think I'll ever forget it. I hope I don't. I needed
the experience. Everybody was stirred up. at
a religious meeting at church where I was attending when I
was a boy and preached about hell and scared the hell out
of everybody. I mean, just scared everybody
to death. All the kids were terrified, just terrified. And they had
a long invitation time and folks started coming forward. And after
a while, I started blubbering like a baby and I came forward.
I was scared to death that going to hell had been for some time.
And the fellow Big old fella, he was an airline pilot, Piedmont
Airlines, big fella, John Jackson, never will forget it. He knelt
down with me, put his arm around my shoulders, and we went through
the Romans Road thing, and he said, you don't want to go to
hell, do you? I said, no. At seven, I had enough sense not
to want to go to hell. You know you're a sinner, don't you? Well,
I don't know. Did you ever tell a lie? Yeah, I've done that.
Well, you're a sinner. And go down to Romans Road, Do
you believe in Jesus? I don't know. He said, well,
pray this prayer with me. And he told me what to pray. And I repeated
after him. And he said, now, Don, you're
saved. Don't let anybody tell you any different. Sign this
right here. And I signed a little card he had there. Signed my
name on it. Saved. Everything's all right. Everything's
all right. And nothing was all right. Nothing
was all right. Salvation is not consent to a
proposition. You got that? Salvation is commitment
to a person. Salvation is consecration to
the Son of God. Specifically, in our text, John
tells us three things we must believe concerning the Lord Jesus.
We must believe that Jesus Christ is God, the Son. This is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son. No one can or will
trust Christ who does not believe that Jesus, the man, is God incarnate. Jesus Christ is God. Isn't that wonderful? Jesus Christ is God. He is as really and truly a man
as the man standing here in front of you. He walked on this earth
in flesh and blood. He ate and drank just like we
do. He got tired just like we do.
He felt things just like we do. He endured slander and reproach
just like we do. He wept just like we do. Jesus
Christ is a real man. But this man is God in the flesh. God, God, the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us. Paul puts it this way, God was
manifest in the flesh. Manifest. Jesus Christ is that
one who hath declared God. He takes all that God is. All that God is. Everything the
triune Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is, He takes
that. And He shows it to us in His flesh. By His obedience and
death in the accomplishment of redemption. God was manifest
in the flesh. Now it's absolutely essential
that He who is our Savior and Redeemer be God. Because only
one who is God in the flesh could be our Redeemer. Man must suffer
because man had sinned, but man could never satisfy. And God
could not suffer. But the God-man both suffered
and satisfied. He fulfilled all the requirements
of God upon man and suffered the full wrath of God until justice
was fully satisfied. Fully satisfied. so that the
Lord God Almighty looks on him and says, enough. Any religion
that denies the deity of Christ, the eternal Godhead of Christ
is absolute infidelity. How do you explain the incarnation? If I could explain it, that means
it wasn't so. How can God, how can God become
one of us and still be God? I don't know. I don't know. But
he did. How can the virgin birth take
place? I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue, except by
the overshadowing power of God, the Holy Spirit. Well, brother
Don, that's a biological impossibility. This I know this is a shock to
folks. It's a shock to folks. God is
not subject to biological laws. He created this world. He created
the womb. He gives life in the womb. And
he who is our Redeemer is God who came in the flesh, the seed
of women, without the corruption of man. Believing that Jesus
Christ is both God and man, we trust him as the Christ, the
anointed one of God. He is that one spoken of in all
the prophets as ordained, anointed, and sent of God the Messiah. I've told you this the other
day when I was preaching to you about Jephthah and his daughter and
the sacrifice, perpetual virginity. Every mother in Israel who believed
God hoped that she would be the one through whose womb Messiah
would come. Can't you let us imagine living
in that prospect? Mother Eve, Our mother Eve, no
sooner had they been cast out of the garden, but she understood
God's promise. I'm going to bring one, the seed
of woman, and he's going to crush the serpent's head. And Eve got
pregnant and her belly began to swell. And finally, the time
came for her delivery and she brought forth a son and she said,
I've got him. I've gotten a man from the Lord.
The Redeemer is here. Everything will be taken care
of. She didn't know it was Cain, another devil. But she thought
it was the Redeemer himself. And so every mother in Israel
lived in hope of that time when the Messiah, the promised one
of God, would come forth from her womb. And then he did. And we must believe that Jesus,
who is God, the Messiah, God's anointed one, the lamb provided
and ordained of God, who is himself God, believe that he is Jesus. An angel came to Mary and said,
you're going to bring forth a son. She said, how can that be? I've
never known a man. He said, that's no problem with
God. God the Holy Spirit, the most high, shall overshadow thee.
And that thing conceived in you shall be conceived by the overshadowing
power of God the Holy Ghost. And he told his father Joseph,
his adoptive father, call his name Jesus. Call him Jesus. Jesus. We don't use that term
of familiarity much. I don't encourage that we use
that term of familiarity much. The scriptures speak of him as
the Lord Jesus Christ and we speak of him with that honor.
But call his name Jesus. How come? There was a man in
the Old Testament by the name of Jesus. He was Moses' successor. Moses, you remember representing
the law, died outside Canaan because Moses could not bring
Israel into the land of promise. But God said, I'll raise up one
after you. His name is Jesus, Joshua. That's the Old Testament
name for Jesus. And he will bring my people into
the land and I will fulfill my promise by Joshua. And the angel
said to Joseph, call the Messiah's name Jesus. Call this incarnate
God Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins faith
Trust the Lord Jesus Christ God's Son the anointed one the Messiah
We trust his righteousness His righteousness turn to Romans
chapter 5 for a minute Romans chapter 5 Romans chapters 3 4 5 & 6 The
Apostle Paul is dealing with this matter of righteousness
before God How can sinners be made righteous before God in
chapter 4 uses David and Abraham as illustrations? He says you
can't be made righteous by works Circumcision won't do it. Good
works won't do it. You can't be made righteous by
ceremonies about something you do. I Righteousness, we're told
in chapter three, is God's free gift. We're justified freely
by God's grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. This
righteousness that's given to us is the righteousness of Christ. It is righteousness accomplished. Are you listening now? It is
righteousness accomplished outside myself. It is righteousness accomplished
outside my experience, outside my work, outside my emotion,
outside my feeling. It's his righteousness. Look
at Romans chapter 5, verse 12. How do we get in the mess we're
in? Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world. When
Adam sinned, we all sinned, and death by sin. When Adam died,
we all died. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned." Thank God that's the way it happened.
Thank God that's the way it happened. I'm so thankful we fell in a
representative man. We died in a representative man.
The whole race did. Every human being in Adam was
represented in Adam. In Adam was in his loins. When
he rebelled, we rebelled. When he died, we died. The angels
fell one by one. And they're reserved in chains
of wrath and everlasting destruction with no mercy given. But God
created one man who represented the whole human race. And when
that one man died, the whole race died in him. But that one
man Adam was created to be a type, a picture, a similitude of another
Adam. the first Adam who comes the
last Adam. His name is Jesus Christ, the
Lord, the Son of God. That's what we're told in verse
14. Now skip down to verse 17. For by one man's offense, death
reigned by one. Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, therefore, since this
is all we got in this mess, as by one man, the offense by the
offense of one judgment came upon all, all being to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. Now, what on earth does that
mean? Does that mean that everybody died in Adam and everybody saved
in Christ? No. No. But all means all. If I had a nickel every time
I've heard that, I'd have a bunch of nickels. All means all. World means world. Everybody
means everybody. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. It depends on
what you're speaking of. All who are in Adam died in Adam. All who are in Christ are made
alive in Christ. That's not talking about everybody
in the world. All over here on my right are on my right. All
over here on my left are on my left. That doesn't mean you're
over here and you're over there. No. Folks over here, over here.
Folks over here, over here. And all who are in Adam, the
whole human race, died in Adam. And all who are in Christ, the
last Adam, they're made to be justified in Adam. They have
life in Christ. They have life in Him. Now look
at verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Our righteousness before God
is Christ's perfect obedience to God as a man. That's our righteousness. Faith trusts His righteousness
for righteousness. And faith trusts His blood for
atonement. Faith trusts His blood for atonement,
redemption, forgiveness. We hear a lot of talk these days
from talking heads on television who may be smart as a whip about
everything else, but when you talk about religion, they're
dumber than a box of rocks. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard Bill O'Rourke say, well, I believe in atonement.
I believe a man can make atonement. No, you can't. No, you can't. That's one thing you can't do.
You can't make atonement. Offer God the fruit of your own
loins and you can't make atonement. Offer God the limbs of your body
and you can't make atonement. Cut off your right hand, cut
off your left hand. You can't make atonement, let alone by
doing something. No, no, you can't make atonement,
but I'll tell you somebody who did. Jesus Christ, the son of
God, with his own blood, entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. I'm calling on you to
give up your righteousness. It's just filthy rags. I don't
know why that's so hard for folks to do. I don't know why that's
so hard, folks, to do. It's just filthy rags. It's just
filthy rags. I don't have any trouble getting
rid of dirt. I just don't like it. I don't like it. I get dirty,
I want to get clean. If I get my clothes dirty, I
go home and change. I don't want to wear dirty clothes. I just
don't like to do that. For one thing, I don't like it. But even more important, I don't
like for other folks to think I'm dirty. I don't I don't want folks to
say, well, if it wasn't for Brother Dodd, he hadn't had a bath in
a while. I just don't want that. I don't want that because of
my stupid pride. But when it comes to man's righteousness,
you love it, don't you? You'll take your filthy mistress
cloth and rub it all over yourself and say, boy, ain't I pretty,
don't I smell good? That's the word. Oh, brother
Don, that's offensive. Not near as offensive as your
righteousness is to God. That's how God speaks of righteousness,
your righteousness. That's how God speaks of it.
Throw away your righteousness. Throw it away! and cling to Christ
the Lord our righteousness. Trust his blood and his blood
alone to give you acceptance with God. Trust his intercession
and his intercession alone to give you life before God. Faith
is something more than simply believing the truthfulness of
these things. Faith acts on God's revelation. Let me see if I can be as personal
as I can be with my grandson sitting there. Will, I don't
have any question you believe everything I've just said. I
don't have any question about that. Yes, sir. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ
came in the flesh. He was born of the Virgin. He
obeyed God. He established righteousness.
He satisfied for sin. By his death, his blood obtained
eternal redemption for us. Yes, sir, that's so. That ain't
faith. That ain't faith. No, no. Faith
is acting upon God's revelation. That's something else. Moses
cries to God, Lord, what am I going to do? These, these folks have
rebelled against you and they've been bitten by these fiery serpents
and they're all dying. And they look to me, God, what
can I do? I'm not their God, I'm not their Savior, what can
I do? And God said, make a serpent of brass and hold it up on a
pole. And it shall come to pass that
everyone who looks on that serpent of brass shall live. Now I can
just picture folks, knowing human nature for what it is, Moses
makes a serpent of brass and folks get talking about it. Where'd
you get the brass? What kind of brass is that? Had
you formed the brass? Who shaped that thing like that?
Where does that wood come from? What kind of wood was that? That's
cedar? Cedar from Lebanon? Yep, cedar
from Lebanon. Brass, the finest brass. Who
made that? The finest artisans in the land.
Oh, boy, I'm proud of that brass. And you can go to hell talking
about the brass and learning about the brass and bragging
about the brass. but anybody in the land who just
looked. Look! Look and live. Look to Christ and life is yours. Look to Christ and life is yours. Look with your heart. Look in
your soul. Look to Christ and life is yours. Now, second. Understand this
faith in Christ is the gift of God It is the gift of God it
is the operation of God By grace you say through faith
and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God not of works
list any man should boast Well, brother Don, I know nobody
can be saved except God draw him That's not quite the same
thing. I know nobody would say without
God the Holy Spirit. That's not quite the same thing. You can't
believe unless God works faith in you. You cannot believe unless
God works faith in you. You can try. We plead with our
sons and daughters. to believe, we teach them to
believe, we beg them to believe, we pray for them to believe,
but we can't make them believe. I preach to you and pray for
you. I urge you to believe. I weep
over your souls. I can't make you believe. I can't
give you faith. I do my best to teach you what
the word of God teaches, do my best to teach you God's revelation
exactly as God gives it in his book, but I can't make you believe.
Faith is the gift of God. We believe, Paul says in Ephesians
1.19, by the mighty power of God which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead. What is faith? Faith is the resurrection
power of God in your soul. Faith comes when God raises the
dead to life. And faith is the outcome of God's
work in you. Faith doesn't cause God to work
in you. Faith is the outcome of God's
work in you. Faith doesn't cause the sinner
to live. Well, that's, that's absurd.
That's like standing over, over top of a fellow laying here in
a casket and saying, uh, Joe, if you'll take a deep breath,
you can get up and walk out of here. If you ever hear me do
that, please call somebody with paddy wagon and have them come
take me away. I popped a cork. That's just, that doesn't happen.
That doesn't happen. The dead cannot believe. But everyone born of God does.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Now, understand that. Faith is
the gift of God. It come by the revelation of
Jesus Christ, the revelation of the glory of God in the face
of Christ shining in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit. Third,
you must believe on the Lord Jesus. Faith is the gift of God. And third, understand this, there
are no prerequisites, no conditions, no qualifications you must or
can meet before believing. Self-righteousness has a lot
of holes in which it hides It's like a mole. We've got yard full
of moles. You dive them out of this hole.
They'll go dig a hundred There's self-righteousness got a thousand
heads every it's a snake with a thousand heads every time you
cut one off ten sprout out And we pretty well had no problem
with saying salvation by grace alone and were justified without
works at all Salvation by grace and then we had something else
to it. That's a must to it poachers Preachers, somehow, preachers
have the idea. I'm talking about preachers who
ought to know better. They have the idea that somehow, if you're
not real careful, if you're not real careful, somebody's going
to get saved who wasn't chosen. It's good that somebody's going
to get in that the gate didn't have their name on it. It's good
that somebody's going to get to heaven that God didn't plan
on getting there. Don't be too concerned about that. Don't be
too concerned about that. Faith is that which is exercised
without meeting any preconditions. People say, well, you've got
to experience this. You've got to feel this. You've
got to have been there. You've got to go through, oh,
you've got to go through deep conviction. You've got to be
terrified of hell. You've got to find out you're
a lost sinner. Can't tell you how many times
I've heard that. A fellow wrote to me one time, he said, he said,
well, I know I'm a lost sinner. I said, is that right? Oh, yeah. He said, I've been seeking the
Lord for 20 years. I said, do what? He said, I've
been seeking the Lord for 20 years. I said, that's not so.
If you'd been seeking him that long, you'd have found him. No, you're taking refuge
in a delusion. Taking refuge in something else,
not Christ. Faith doesn't require that you
meet some previous condition, some feeling, some emotion. Well,
I don't know whether I've repented enough or not. You haven't. You
haven't. I'll tell you right now, you
haven't. Well, I don't know whether I feel like I ought to before
I get saved or not. You don't. There's no question
about that. But I don't feel sorry enough
for my sin. Find me somewhere in this book
where God said you had to feel sorry for your sin. Find me somewhere.
Well, Brother Don, don't you think a sinner ought to? Of course.
But not in order to be saved. Not in order to be saved. Well,
but what about repentance and faith? If you believe God, repentance
will follow. But it won't cause faith. Oh,
no. Faith comes to Christ without
preconditions, without prerequisites, without qualifications being
met. People say, well, you've got
to know so much. I remember back in 1985, sitting
in Albany, Georgia, at a preacher's house, and he started this nonsense
about what you've got to know. I was sitting in his house, his
wife sitting right beside me, and him sitting directly in front
of me. What you're preaching is as damning as if you said
you got to be circumcised to be saved. Well, don't you believe
you got to preach true gospel? Of course I do. Of course I do. But if you put knowledge or experience
or works or feelings or emotions or repentance or anything between
the sinner and Christ, it's works and it's damning. You mean, Brother
Don, Faith is something that God gives totally
without me doing anything. Doesn't depend on any feeling,
anything. No. I'll tell you this fourth
thing. Faith in Christ is God's commandment. Faith in Christ is God's commandment. This is His commandment. God
commands you to believe on His Son. God never invites you to. He never offers you an opportunity
to. God commands you to believe on
His Son. Well, I don't know whether it's
right for me to believe or not. If God commands you, it'll be alright.
Did God command it? It's alright then. If God commands
it, you have permission to believe. If God commands it, that's your
authority for believing. If God commands it, that's reason
for you to believe. Robert Murray McShane, very wisely
observed, we must not close with Christ because we feel Him, but
because God said it. God said believe. Believe. God
said believe. Believe. That's the warrant of
faith. Not your feeling, not your emotion,
not your knowledge. The warrant of faith is God's
Word. He commands you to believe. Now,
may He by His Spirit command you effectually. For if He sends
the commandment to your heart, believe you will. You've already told us, preachers
of the center can't believe. He's dead. I read in the book
of God that there was a man one time who had a withered hand. You remember that? And the master
came to him. Remember what he said, David?
He said, stretch forth thy hand. Well, that's kind of dumb, isn't
it? If he could stretch it forth, he'd stretch it forth. Stretch
forth thy hand! Now I could stand in front of
him all day long and all night long for a millennium, and then
you take over and do it another millennium and say, stretch forth
thy hand, and his hand is still going to be twisted up with it.
But when God comes and says, stretch forth thy hand, he stretches
forth his hand. Oh, God, will you come? And command
the dead to hear your voice. Command sinners to live. Command sinners to believe. And if God commands, you believe. This is God's commandment. Now,
one more thing, and I'll pick up on this tonight. I've deliberately
held this to last, but I want you to get it. Faith in Christ
is the fulfillment of God's law. Faith in Christ is the fulfillment
of God's law. The Todd called me on the way
home yesterday, and he said, I want to know what you're going
to say about that tomorrow. I told him what I was going to be preaching on here
this morning. He said, are you saying that by faith in Christ,
we actually keep the law and fulfill the law? I said, that's
what John said. That's what John's saying. Let
me show you. Turn to Galatians chapter 3.
Look at this one text, and I'll wrap this up. People are always talking law,
law, law, law. Law, law, law. Keep the law.
Keep the commandments. Do the commandments. Okay? Let's
see what that means. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
24. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For you're all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. The law was our schoolmaster
Its purpose was to bring us to Christ. That's why God gave the law,
Don, was to bring you to Christ. The law said you got to have
Christ, and the law's purpose is to bring you to Christ, and
now you believe on Christ, and you fulfill the law. God sending his own son in the
likeness of flesh, First sin condemns sin in the flesh. And now, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Believing on the
Son of God, we have attained the purpose for which God gave
His law on Sinai. We're justified by faith in His
Son. The Savior says, look unto me,
and be you saved. Look to Christ and salvation
is yours. God help you to believe his son.