This is the second in a series
of messages that I feel moved with God to bring to this congregation
on this subject of sanctification. Now, it's not too often that
I take on a particular subject and try to go through it like
I'm doing this, but I hope it proves to be a blessing to you. Now, the Lord led this charge
against the most outward moral, law-abiding, zealous people who
ever walked on this earth. They put our modern day fundamentalists
to shame. They put the so-called holiness
people of our day, those who believe in outward outward holiness,
and it's all a show. It's all a show. I don't say
that they're not sincere, but it's all to be seen of men. And
that's the way they preach. Now, to this type of people,
our Lord said this, and He could put us to shame in our day. He said, you neither know Me
nor My Father. You don't know Me. Now they said
they walked with God. They said, we believe God. They
said, we have Abraham to our father. We have God to our father.
He said, you neither know me nor my father. To the Samaritan woman, she said,
you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan. You worship God in those mountains
and we worship God down here. He said, you worship you know
not what. You don't know me, and you don't know my father."
And then he turned to his disciples, and he said this. He said, I'm going to my father's
house, and whether I go, you know, and the way you know. And
Philip said, wait a minute. We don't know where you're going,
and we don't know the way. We don't know the way. And so they said, well, show
us the father and we'll be satisfied. We won't talk about this no more.
Just show us the father. And he said, Philip, have you
been so long time with me and have you not seen the father? Man is a falling creature. He's
a falling creature. And he does not know the living
God. He knows the God of religion.
He knows him well. Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me. He's been singing that since
he was in kindergarten. He knows that. Smile, God loves
you. He knows that God. He's heard
that God since he was an infant. Just do the best you can and
God will accept you. He knows that God. He's heard
that God all his life. But he don't know the living
God. He don't know the living God. He knows there is a God. To deny the existence of God,
you're going to have to totally ignore creation and conscience. Conscience tells you there is
a God, and He tells you what this God demands. He demands
perfection. And you can never pray enough,
you commit a sin. You can never pray enough, give
enough, do enough, attend enough to get rid of the guilt of that
sin from your conscience. You can't do it. You have to deny creation and
deny conscience to say there is no God. And neither one a man can do.
But a saving knowledge of God is a knowledge of God as He's
revealed in the person. Are you with me? The person. of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the work He came to accomplish as it's applied to our hearts
by the Holy Spirit of God. There is no other way to know
the living God. And I say that to you because
I don't know where you come from sometimes when you say things.
And I made a long thing out of this last week. I don't want
to do it again. I'm trying to press you to the Scriptures,
what the Scriptures say. what the Word of God says. And
I read to you a while ago here in the book of John, no man has
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He declared Him. That's the only
way you'd know God. And if you'll read John chapter
17 in the first two or three verses there, He tells you what
eternal life is. It's to know the Father and Jesus
Christ whom He has sent. I John chapter 5 tells you the
same thing. And we know that the Son of God
has come and given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true. And know that we're in Him that's
true. This is the true God and eternal life. That's what life
is. And we've got thousands running
around, religious, and got lapel pins on, and got their hair combed
a certain way, and dressed up a certain way, and go to church
two or three times a week, and run around telling everybody
they know God and they don't know God. Not the living God. God can only be known in Christ. He can only be known as you see
those things that Christ accomplished in the work of redemption, satisfying
the justice of God, doing the will of God, accomplishing those
things that God has purposed in His Son to redeem a people.
That's the only way you can know God. That's a saving knowledge
of God. Now, you can know His power and
His Godhead if you go out and look at creation. Now you won't believe in the
Big Bang Theory, that's up to you. But a saving knowledge of God
is a knowledge of God revealed in the person and work of Christ
as it's revealed to you in the work accomplished by Jesus Christ. And my generation, just like
every other before it, is ignorant of the true and living God. He's
more God is no more to this generation than just a figment of their
imagination. And their imagination is superstitious. Can't work on Sunday. Why not? Why not? Huh? Can't work on Christmas. Why not? You see what I'm saying? We're
superstitious about things. Pretty soon we ain't walking
under ladders because it's bad luck. We can't look at a black
cat. We can't break a mirror. It's
all superstition. Paul walked through those streets
of Athens and he saw all these gods and all these memorials
erected and he looked around and he said, I perceive that
you're all too superstitious. God said, I am the Lord. Now,
let's listen to me for a minute. He said, I change not. Now, what's
that mean? It means He don't change. That's what that means. Does that mean He never has changed?
That's what that means. Well, what about in time when
man fell? God don't change. Well, what about when man was
redeemed? God don't change. I am the Lord, I change not.
Every good gift, James said, and every perfect gift cometh
down from the Father of lights with whom is no bearableness.
He not wish he was, he like will. There is no bearableness, neither
shadow of turning. He is not even a shadow, not
even a sign that God is going to turn. Christ went to the cross, it
said He set His face like a flint. Not going to change. He's of
one mind, the prophet said, who can turn him. God's unchangeable. Yet the theology
of this world in all of its variations based salvation on the fact that
God changes. Their whole salvation is built
on the fact that God changes. He changes his mind. I saw my dad had a thing on his
bumper and my brother threatened me. He loved my dad. He didn't understand the difference.
And he said, don't you mess with that bumper sticker and I want
to wear a scrubbed bit off. I couldn't stand it. It said
prayer changes things. Prayer doesn't change it. It
doesn't change God. He said, I'm the Lord. I change
not. God said He does all that He
pleased to do. David said, Our God is in the
heavens. He hath done whatsoever He pleased.
That's what He does. What God pleases, that's what
He does. He does it in the earth, in the
seas, and all deep places. He does exactly as He pleases. None, He said, can stay my hand. None can resist His power. None
can keep Him from doing what He wills to be done. Am not I
the powder? Don't I have power over the clay
of the same lump to take one vessel and make it a vessel of
mercy and set it on my trophy as a trophy of grace and take
another vessel and make a vessel of dishonor? I'm God. The little pipsqueak man says,
I ain't fair. Why does he yet find fault? Who's
resisted his will? Who art thou that replies against
God? Modern evangelism bases all that
they say on a God whose will is subject to the will of man.
God said my will not subject to anything or anybody but my
own. God says He's omnipotent. And
yet I hear people talking about making Him Lord. He's the Lord of the dead and
the living. God says he's everywhere present,
but man builds him a house. God's in this house. God told
Solomon, he said, will you build me a house? Isaiah said he sits
on the circle of the earth and all the inhabitants thereof are
like grasshoppers. Stretches out the universe as
a tent. God is just. God is holy. And man totally throws that to
the wind just like he does everything else that's said of God. Now,
my subject this morning is sanctification. And what I hope to do is to look
at this sanctification of the believer from a legal standpoint. Just as religion denies God's
immutability and sovereignty and eternality, they especially
deny his justice. That's what I'm trying to tell
you is God is just. He's not like the God of religion. He's not like the God of false
religion. I'll just say it. I'll let you
put them in the categories. I won't try to do that this morning.
You put them in your own category. False religion has a God who's
willing to compromise his justice. This book says the living God
is not. Is not. He said he'll keep mercy
for thousands. That's what he told Moses. I'll
keep mercy for thousands. But I will by no means clear
the guilty. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. God's not going to compromise
His justice for us. He's not going to compromise
His justice even for Himself. He's the lawgiver. He's the judge. He plainly tells us in the Scripture,
I will not clear the guilty. And man is a transgressor of
the law. He's a fallen, condemned creature
whose sins have separated him from God. He has been and is
daily judged and condemned of God. Most people, when you talk
to them about sin, yeah, I've got to get things right with
God. I've got to make my peace with God. I'm getting older now.
My son-in-law told me, he said, when I get a little older, he
said, I'm going to get these things straightened up. No, you
won't. No, you won't. You may not get
any older, number one. The old must die and the young
may, is what the Scripture says. But he's looking way out there,
and most of us did. I remember growing up, I was
always looking way out there at judgment. Judgment's way out
there. Judgment ain't way out there,
it's way back yonder in the garden. You might not even know. Did
you know that natural man's under the judgment of God? He's under
the wrath of God. He's already been judged. Christ
said, I didn't have to come into this world to judge. I didn't
come here to judge. I don't have to leave my throne
in glory to judge. I came here to save. The world's
already judged. And here's the judgment. Here
I am. I'm light. I just read it to
you in John chapter 1. Here's light, eternal light,
pure light. In Him is no darkness at all.
But men love darkness rather than light. They don't love anything
about me. They don't love what I'm doing.
They don't love what I'm saying. They don't love me in my person. They don't love me in my offices.
They don't love me in my accomplishments. They don't love me. They love
darkness. That's what they love. They love
superstition. They love religion. They love
self-righteousness. They love duty. They don't love
me. That's the condemnation. That's
the wrath. That's the judgment. How do I
know man's judged? Just listen to him talk. Watch
him act. Watch his life. He hates God. He that believeth not, it said,
the Son. The wrath of God abideth on him. He's in the prison house. He's
shackled in chains of darkness bound in a coldness of heart.
He can't warm his heart up. He can't make himself love God. He can't make himself serve God. He can't make himself pray. He
can't bring himself into fellowship with God. He's got a cold heart. It's cold as stone. In order
to save that man, God has to take out that heart of stone,
he says, and give him a heart of flesh. He's in the prison house. He's
shackled. He's bound in the coldness of
his heart and the darkness of his mind. And he's barred by
sin. And the holy justice of God won't
let him out. It's God's holy justice that
put him there. And until this justice is satisfied,
there's no way for him to come out of the prison house. He has
to stay there until the uttermost is paid. Many are the young boys
who committed crimes and found themselves behind bars in a world
without compassion and mercy and cried for mercy and begged
for pardon. But the law said you can't go
until the debt's been paid. Don't do the crime if you can't
do the time. Oh, I'm so sorry for what I've
done. That doesn't lower the price a bit. Many are the mothers and wives
who go down to the judge hearing that verdict on their sons and
on their husbands and beg for their release and plead their
love. We love him. We need him. He's
got children. We depend on him. We have to
have him. And the judge says he can go
as soon as the law satisfies him. He can go. Not until. My friend, justification and
pardon and propitiation, they might just be terms in the air
to you. I'm telling you, these things
are legal terms. And there's no other way for
you to be redeemed. There's no other way for you
to be reconciled to God. There's no other way for that
guilty conscience to be purged until you come to understand
something of these legal terms. Justice has to be satisfied. The true and living God is the
God of justice and righteousness. And you can write it down. He
will not act contrary to His law or His justice. He ain't
going to do it. And the salvation of sinners because of God's holy
character must be grounded in the law and justice as much as
it is in mercy and grace. He doesn't have mercy and grace
apart from law and justice. and argue this point upon the
character of God. And then secondly, by your own
conscience. Paul said, I'll take what I say and turn it over to
your conscience. Our consciences demand a lawful
satisfaction before that guilt can be removed. Until my heart
and mine are convinced that justice is satisfied and sin has been
paid for, its guilt remains. It just keeps crying, David,
guilty, guilty, guilty. Now let me tell you something.
If God is not bound by His own character of righteousness and
justice and law, there'd be no need for Christ to die on the
cross. There'd be no need. There'd be
no need for Christ to become a man, live under the law, become
a servant to it, obey it unto death, even the death of the
cross. There'll be no reason for him to die or to be raised
from the dead. The cross proves beyond all doubt
that the justice of God is fixed and certain and unavoidable. Nobody can, not even Christ the
Substitute, can avoid that law and that justice. Acts 17.31 said, God has appointed
a day in which He'll judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom He hath ordained. There'll be a great and universal
gathering of all men before the throne of God, where God will
declare His justice and righteousness, both in the salvation of His
elect and in the reprobation of ungodly men." That's what
that judgment's all about. Both will be in strict accordance
to law and justice, both of them. The redeemed are going to stand
there perfectly holy, unblameable in His sight, unapprovable. Well, they're as bad as I am,
but not in that day, because you're going to see them in His
righteousness and see them in His atoning blood. What God declares in Romans 3,
verse 26, in this free justification of faith, which is the gift of
His grace, is that God is just. and justifier. That's why He
did what He did. And He's that way on all those
that believe on Christ. Now, as law and justice is the
legal basis of salvation, so are they of sanctification. God
hath made Christ to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That's what He said. We've got
no more reason after conversion to hope in some sinless perfection
than we did before. Huh? Don't you still have foolish
thoughts? I do. I'm not ashamed to admit
it. I know what I ought to be ashamed. You don't have foolish thoughts? You don't lust? You're not proud? Huh? Sure you are. We've got
no more reason after conversion to hope in some kind of a sinless
perfection. And perfection is all God can
have anything to do with. If it ain't perfect, it's not
going to be acceptable. To be acceptable, it has to be
perfect. It has to be perfect. But we've
got a problem. When we would do good, evil is
present with us. Huh? The evil is still in you,
isn't it? It ain't going nowhere. Paul said, old Richard, he said,
the good that I would, I don't do. I want to do it. The want to's here in conversion. The want to be whole is here.
The want to give is here. So why don't I? Because evil's
present with me. That's why. I want to love him. He loved me. What's the problem? Sin dwelleth
in us. That's what the problem is. And
the evil. Oh, he said the evil that I wouldn't
do. I wouldn't do that for anything. Yeah, he said that's exactly
what I do. We're talking about a converted man. We're talking
about the man who wrote half the New Testament. And finally,
he tells us this. Here's the law. Here's the law
of the believer. When I would do good, evil's
present. No matter what. I can't do what I would. I can't
do the good that I would. I can't restrain from the evil
that I would. I can't do either one. I find
myself going both ways all the time. But never, never to perfection
in either direction. Just pull. Pull one way, John,
and pull back. And pull this way, and then pull
back. Finally, he said, old wretched man that I am, not that I used
to be, We don't have that here, and I wouldn't start that for
anything. But back in the old Nazarene church, we used to have
stand-up testimony night. And they'd stand up. Boy, I remember
what a rounder I used to be. You still are. Oh, yeah. You still are. Boy, I was an
awful man back then. You still are. You still are. And that's what
Paul said, oh wretched man, oh wretched man, that I am, not
that I used to be, that I am. Who's going to deliver me from
this body of death, this body that wants to but can't? Who's
going to deliver? I've got the want to, but I've
got an anchor that I drag, a corpse that I drag around with me everywhere
I go. I drag around this corpse, this
sin. And it gnaws and chews and drags
and pulls and I can't do what I want to do. Who's going to
deliver me from that? He said, I thank God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Huh? Same thing he found in justification,
he found in sanctification. Now watch this. Let me read something
to you over here. I think it's over here in Romans,
chapter 8, verse 1. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh. Well, how do they walk? Well,
it tells you up there in chapter 7 in the last verse. This old
wretched man who's going to deliver me from the body of this death,
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind
I serve the law of God. With the mind of understanding
and enlightenment that sees the perfect righteousness of Christ
and sees that law honored and exalted in Him. Who sees all
of that righteousness. I don't have any. My righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, but I see Him. And I take that righteousness
before the holy law of God, and I serve the law. Now, brethren,
I'm telling you, you better not serve that law any other way. No other way you can do it. You're
going to come away condemned. Winston and I were talking about
this article of Henry in there talking about election. And election
is unto godliness and holiness, which is what I'm trying to preach
to you this morning. And he said, boy, that convicts
me. I said, it convicts me too. Sure it does. Sure it does. And
you're going to come away condemned when you read things like that,
when you see things like that, unless you can see your righteousness
in Christ. That's my hope. Seeing that hope,
I'm going to be transformed into that same image day unto day. Not in perfection. We're not
going to have the perfection of Christ until we're in glory.
You're not going to get that in this life. That's just a lie
is all that is. As imputed righteousness justifies
me before God, so this justification gives me all the rights and privileges. That's what John's talking about
in that scripture I read to you. But as many as received him,
to them gave he the power. That word is right and privilege.
Look it up. Gave them the right and privilege
to become. Not to be declared as, but to
become the sons of God. To enter into the inheritance.
That's what that's all about. I can't enter into it, Russell,
by will. I can't enter into it by blood.
I can't enter into it because I want to or because I make a
decision or because somebody talks me into it. The only way
I can enter into it is to be born and given the right and
the privilege Brother, serving God is a privilege. It's not a duty. It's a privilege.
To give is a privilege. I was just talking to Winston
about this over in the Book of Acts. The early church, you know,
we meet here, what, twice a week. Have a Sunday school lesson and
a morning service today, and then Wednesday night we'll have
another one. And some churches meet three or four times a week.
The early church met every day. Every day, they went house to
house breaking bread. Some of you out here tithe. I
wish you wouldn't. I wish you'd just give as the
Lord lays on your heart to give. If it's a dollar or $500, I don't
care. That's between you and God. But
tithing is a duty. It's a law. I don't care how
you want to finagle it around. It's a duty. It's a law. Don't
tithe. Just give. Just give out of your
heart. Set aside something, whatever it is, and give it. Give it because
you love Christ. Give it because you're thankful.
He gave Himself for us. But the early church, when God
poured out the Holy Spirit on them and revival was in the church,
they took everything they had, Russell. Took everything. They
took their houses and their lands and their tools, everything,
their cattle, and they sold it and they brought it down to the
apostles. And they said, we believe that you're servants of God.
Here it is. We believe God's leading you, and through you,
He's going to lead us. Here it is. They gave them all
of it. And they said, you know more
about what we need than we do. You just give us whatever we
need. You ever found anybody like that? I haven't either. I haven't either. There it is
in its nugget back in the day. There it is in its purity. That's
what this sanctification is. It's a right and a privilege
to be called sons of God. Just sit and think about what
kind of privileges are involved in this. Huh? The millions going
down the broad road. Deceived. Why ain't you deceived? Huh? Why ain't you deceived? Why ain't I deceived? What have
you gotten you haven't received? Huh? Nothing. Oh, many as received Him, to them
gave He the right and the privilege to become sons of God. To become
sons. To live as sons. To walk as sons. To think as sons. To die as sons. And they're born, not of blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
This new birth is the evidence of the justifying work of Christ
on your behalf. No man, hear me, no man will
ever be born of God who was not justified in the death of Christ
nor set apart by the Father in eternity. It's not going to happen. Not going to happen. Faith is the result of that justification. It's the result of it. Read Ephesians
chapter 1. He quickened us in Christ and
raised us up in Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly places
that in ages to come He might show unto you the exceeding riches
of His grace in Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. What faith? Huh? That faith that
was a result of that raising up in Christ, that justifying
righteousness and death of Christ. It's the righteous obedience
and shed blood of Christ that gives us the right and privilege
to become sons of God. The one who accomplished the
Father's will, the one in which the Father committed and trusted
all things, the one in whom He first trusted, Paul said, is
the one in whom you trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. And after you believe, he said,
after you believe, you were sealed with what? That Holy Spirit of
promise. That Holy Spirit of promise.
You're sealed with that. That's the first fruits. That's the evidence. That's the
down payment of your inheritance. That Holy Spirit of promise.
That's the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession. Turn with me over to Romans chapter
8. The walk of the believer is the walk of faith. And that faith, it shows in that man. It shows
him that in the person and work of Christ, it shows him his legal
right and privilege to become a son. Jesse, you remember calling
me? Yeah, but how do I know if this
is for me? Because that's the only people
he sends faith to. That's the only people he opens
their eyes to see it. Everybody don't see this. If you don't think that's so,
you go try it on. Take it over to work and try that on somebody. It shows him how and what he
shall be in that day. Paul said we had no idea what
this was going to be. He said the only thing I can
tell you is when I wake, I wake with his likeness. I've got no concept except as
I view him here in his work, in his attitude, in his spirit
toward men. I've got no other knowledge of
that perfection in that day. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. The only thing I know is when
I wake, I'm going to wake with his likeness. And it sees what we shall be
in His character and spirit. And it sees what we want to be
in our resurrected Lord. And it groans to have it. Now
watch this here in Romans 8, verse 22. For we know that the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Now watch it. And not only they,
But we ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
to wit the redemption of our body. For we're saved by hope. But hope that's seen is not hope,
for what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it? Can you see
it? I can't. That's just what you and I are
talking about, Winston. I can't see it. I can't find
it. That's why you still hope for it. But if we hope for that we see
not, that is that we see not in ourselves, then do we patiently
wait for it and long for it. 2 Corinthians 4-5 speaks of a
walk based on a far greater and eternal weight of glory, looking
not on things which are seen, that is seen in this world or
in this flesh, but eternal things. The things that you see with
these eyes are carnal. The things that you don't see,
things that we see by faith, These are eternal things. For
we know, 2 Corinthians 5, 1, that if our earthly house or
this tabernacle were destroyed, we have a building of God and
house not made with hands. For in this we groan. We groan
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is
from heaven. And this hope is not based upon
what we do or what we say or how we feel. It's upon what the
Lord has purchased for us. It's about what God has predestinated
for you. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate. What did He predestinate? To
be conformed to the image of His Son. That's it. That's it. These things are according
to His divine power, Peter said. He's given to us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby, 2 Peter
1, verse 4, whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. It's the justifying work of the
Lord Jesus Christ that gives to us the right and privileges,
the very freedom that it takes to live before God as a son and
an heir. That's a freedom. He has to free
you. You remember, he illustrates
this in the marriage. Marriage is one of the most sacred
unions we have in this world. He illustrates that in there.
And Paul uses that over in Romans where he's talking on this very
subject. And he said, this woman, she selects a husband. And she agrees to marry him.
And then she finds out what he is. Boy, I messed up. I want out of this. Law says
you ain't getting out. The only way you can get out
is to die. Yeah, but Judge Heath, He abuses
me. Yeah, but you're legally married.
Yeah, but he don't show me affection like he ought to. He don't do
what this talks about over here in the scripture. He don't fit
that. Yeah, but he's still your husband.
The only way you're going to get out of it is to die. To die. The law binds. It binds us. That's the strength
of sin is the law. How's the law strength to sin?
Because it binds you. You make these decisions and
you do these things and you, just like the woman with the
husband makes this decision and marries the wrong man, you're
going to have to live with him now because it's the law. It's
the law. Now, I know we've got laws different
from God's law, but God's law, Christ said in the beginning
it wasn't like this. That's what he said. You're bound
until you die. The only way that you can be delivered from the
power of sin, which is the law. How is the law the power of sin?
Okay. When a man sins, what does it do? It separates him from
God. He sins again, and he sins again,
and he sins again. How far is he from God? Every time he sins, he's cursing
himself. There's no possible way for him
to ever get back. Once Adam stepped over the threshold,
it was over. There was no coming back. Now
he's cursed of God. He's got no spiritual light.
He's got no spiritual affection. He's got no love for God. He's
an enemy. And he's going to act like an
enemy. And the law must treat the sinner as a sinner. The only way you can have these
benefits, the only way that you can be reconciled to God is by
the free grace of God who intervenes and comes and says, here it is.
I paid for it. I redeemed you. And He sets you
free to serve Him. He doesn't set you free to sin
some more. He sets you free to serve Him,
to love Him, to love one another. Strength of sin is the law. If
it wasn't no law, there wouldn't be no consequence, would there?
Huh? You just do whatever you wanted
to. But there is a law. There is a law. Now brethren,
I'm telling you, we need to consider two things, and I'll hurry here.
The first thing I need to consider this thing of sanctification
is I've got to look at it from the perspective of my sins. Modern
evangelism makes a distinction between knowing Christ as my
Savior and knowing Christ as my Lord. You've heard them talk
about it. I've heard them talk about it all my life. One has
to do with the guilt of sin. The other has to do with the
power of sin. Now brethren, Christ is Christ. He's Christ. No matter how you accept Him
or whether you accept Him or what you want Him to be or what
you don't want Him to be, Christ is Christ. He's not going to
change. He's the Savior. He's the Lord. And faith in Christ
does not determine who He is. It determines what you are. Faith reveals God's elect. Faith
is the gift of God, not of works, not of ourselves, not of him
that willeth, not of him that runneth. And this whole theology
of being able to be saved and then somewhere down the road
to make Jesus your Lord, to move up a notch, some of them even
got a plateau way up here of sinless perfection. The church
I was raised in had that. That's what they call sanctification.
Once you reach that, you give enough, prayed enough, came enough,
devoted enough, you go up here on this plane and you don't sin
no more. This whole theology leads men
to believe that a man can be saved from the guilt of sin and
left to wallow in the filth of it. That's what it does. That's
exactly what it does. leads men to believe that sanctification
is an option and not an absolute necessity. The guilt of sin and
the power of sin are inseparable. Over in Romans chapter 6, and
I want you to see this, if the guilt of sin be removed, then
the power of sin is broken, isn't it? Because they're connected. Romans 6, 8. If we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. You can't
have one without the other. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
Him. Law put Him to death, but He satisfied the law. And now
He's alive. Now He's alive. For in that He
died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth
unto God. Likewise, he said, reckon yourselves. Get this in
your head. Reckon this. Think about this.
Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin, therefore,
reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it in the
lust thereof. The reason why men do not serve
God is because their nature and the curse of the law bind them.
It binds them. They have to be delivered from
the curse. And the more man sins, the farther
from God he gets. But God frees the sinner by the
death of Christ. He's dead to the law and he's
dead to sin. But he's alive under God. God
raised him up in Christ. And he's free. What does that
mean? That means he's got a title. That's what our Lord said. As
many as received him, to them gave he the right and privilege
to become the sons of God. He has a title. The prodigal son came home. The
father come running out to meet him. And he had his little field
memorized. He made it up while he was down in the hog pen. And
he said, when I get there, I'm going to tell him I'm just going
to be a hired servant here. I'm not coming here to be your
son. I'm not coming back here expecting anything. I'm not coming
back here looking for a reward. I'll just move in out here with
the servants because they're living better than what I am
down in the hog pens. So he had his little speech.
And when he come, the father grabbed him and started kissing
him. He couldn't even talk. And the father was kissing him
and hugging him, been looking for him out the window, had people
out there watching for him. Had the calf all pinned up, fattening
him up for the celebration for when he'd come home. He knew
he was coming. And he ran out there and he put his arms around
him and he began to kiss him. I used to love to hear Scott
preach on that. And he just kissed him and kissed him and kissed
him. He loved him. And he said, go get the ring. Put it on his finger. Huh? He still smelled like hog pens.
He said, put the ring on him. Now, you go get the calves. We're
going to have a celebration because my son, not my servant, my son
has come back. He's here. He's a son. You see what I'm saying? He gives
us the right and privilege to become sons of God. We have a
title, we have the right, and we have the privilege to all
the blessings of God. And you and I, we don't know
that much about that. What it means to be a son of
God. Our Lord said it was written
of Him. Anything written of Him is written
of His people. It is written in him that he
has his angels as charge over him lest he should trip on a
stone and stub his toe. The angels watching. In Hebrews chapter 1, he said
the angels are just ministering spirits sent forth to minister
them who shall be heirs of salvation. That's for the heir, John. You've
got the right and privilege of whatever angels are here today. Huh? I'll tell you. I told you a story
the other day about Brother Ranch Robertson down in Ball, Louisiana. I went out to meet his son. And I went out there and he had a
telephone call or something. He had to go. He said, I'll be
right back. He said, just sit here and interrupt. He said,
when I come back, he said, I want you to meet my son. And they
were right in the middle of harvesting sweet potatoes. He farmed two
or three hundred acres of sweet potatoes, so this was a big,
massive undertaking. And I stand there by the truck
watching. He come back. He said, all right. He said,
I apologize for the interruption. He said, I'm going to go introduce
you to my son. I said, I know who your son is.
And he said, did you meet him? Did he come over here? I said,
no. I said, ain't nobody come over here. Ain't nobody said
anything to me. But I know which one's your son. He just kind
of grinned. He said, which one is my son?
I said, the one carrying two bags. He owns the farm. That's right. He owns the farm. He's got a
personal interest in it. That's what sanctification is
all about. He calls us to be sons. It's
not a universal anything. When a man marries a woman, it's
an individual thing. You and her. Nobody else. When
you come to know Christ, it's an individual thing. He calls
you out to be a son. That's why you serve Him. That's
why you love Him. That's why you look to Him. That's
why we follow Him. We're sons. And if sons, then
heirs and joint heirs with Him. Oh, I'll tell you what sanctification
is all about. That legal right. That legal
right, don't ever lose vision of that. This legal right, this
justifying work of Christ, it gives you the title and the privilege
to become a son of God, even to them that believe on His name.
Do you believe? Then you're a son.