Hebrews chapter 5, we'll look
again in the verses we've been in for the past two lessons.
We saw that in the first lesson we looked at here in Hebrews
5-7, we saw that in the days of His flesh, He suffered. Our Lord suffered as a man. He can be a compassionate high
priest because He knows everything about us. He knows the feelings
of our infirmities. And then we looked in the lesson
after that, and we saw that He was heard. Meaning, not only
did He have to suffer, but He had to suffer perfectly. And
God heard Him. God heard Him and answered Him.
All the graces that we need as a man, He needed those graces
too. I know He's God, and as God, He needs nothing. But as
the servant of God, He depended upon God. And we saw that. And then today we're going to
look that we must suffer some things as well and we must obey. Let's look here. It says, verse
8, Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered. In being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
My first question is this. What is obedience? What is obedience? There's a lot of talk. We start
thinking about looking to scriptures to correct, you know, one another
and to instruct one another. But before that, there needs
to be a question asked of what is it to obey? If we don't know
how to obey, know what it is to obey, then you don't discipline
somebody that doesn't know how to obey, don't know what obedience
is. We said in one of our last lessons that obedience is the
voluntary submission to, and it's the perfect fulfillment
of another's will. That's what obedience really
is. Obedience to God is owning God's absolute, total authority
and submitting to Him. Obedience to God is to be constant
with singleness of heart, nothing wavering toward accomplishing
God's will, perfectly. That's what obedience is. And
since God is the God of all grace, true obedience accomplishes His
will perfectly while at the same time completely depending upon
Him for all the gifts of grace needed to finish the work. Y'all just speak up if you want
me to repeat something, tell me, okay? Obedience to God is
loving God and every one of His children from the least to the
greatest with the very same perfect love as God loves them, even
to the point of dying in shame to save them. That's what obedience
is. Verse 9 says, and being made
perfect to see the preeminent fulfillment of God satisfying
obedience. We need not look anywhere else
but to Christ Jesus, the Son of God. That's where we see what
obedience is. That's what I've endeavored to
teach you in these last couple of lessons, that there's where
obedience is seen. In the days of His flesh, He
obeyed God according to God's definition of obedience. In other
words, according to righteousness. Now as God's servant and the
high priest of his people, he magnified God's holy law and
he made it honorable as no man ever had or ever shall. As God's
servant and the high priest of his people, he obtained eternal
redemption for the brethren which God entrusted to him and for
which he became surety from eternity. His obedience was both perfect
love for his father and perfect love for his brethren. How do
you say the whole law is fulfilled? Love for God and love for the
brethren. There we see in Christ the perfect obedience. He perfectly
loved God and he perfectly loved his brethren and he was forsaken
of both in order to satisfy obedience. He not only experienced obedience,
He perfected obedience. And He always has been, He now
is, and He'll always be the High Priest of God's choice. Because
He is perfect. Therefore, God has been, now
is, and shall always be satisfied with the obedience of one. Now, I'm just telling you what
true obedience is. Verse 9, being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him. Now here's our lesson. Since
our great high priest came because it was an absolute impossibility
for his people to obey God, that's the reason he came, because we
couldn't obey him. And since God is pleased with
his obedience and satisfied completely with his obedience alone, how
on earth can a worm like me possibly obey him? How can I obey him? Romans 5. Turn over there with
me. Romans 5. 18. As by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Now hear me. Now hear me what
I'm going to say here. How do vile, wretched, impotent
sinners obey Christ? How do we obey Christ? The answer
is simple. It's too simple for a carnal
mind. That's why God has to reveal
it. But it's simple. It's mysterious. It's a mysterious
thing. By Him and through Him. That's
how. He's the author of eternal salvation. He planned it. He purchased it. And he applies it. And he preserves
it. And works it in his people. Bear
with me now. Stay with me. True obedience
is the effectual operation of Christ working experimentally
within the sinner. which makes the sinner willing
to voluntarily surrender all to Christ Jesus the Lord, our
Great High Priest. It's His operation upon us that
makes us willing to obey Him, to trust Him. I'm going to go
back to some very principal things here, and I'm working my way
up to something. When we were born of Adam, we were made with
a defiled nature by natural generation. Psalm 51 5 behold I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me I was I was
conceived by a seed that was corrupt in natural generation
corrupt defiled and therefore when we're born when I was born
I did only what was in my nature to do and what was in my nature
to do is Psalm 58 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb.
They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. I've
said this to you before, no child has to be taught or even compelled
to disobey God, their parents, their siblings, or anybody else. We disobey because it is our
nature to disobey. That's when Scripture speaks
of, be quick to hear, Slow to speak, slow to wrath. That word wrath means natural
disposition. Be slow to give way to the flesh. That's what it's saying. Outward
sin is the result of a sinful nature. Children, and I'm speaking
to everybody here, why does a buzzard eat things that are dead on the
side of a road? Why does a sheep graze in a green
field. Why doesn't the sheep go and
eat what's on the road? Why doesn't the buzzard go graze
in a green field? It's not his nature. It's not
their nature. A sheep's nature is to graze
in a field. A buzzard's nature is to eat
something dead. That's what his nature is. He
does what his nature dictates him to do. He's constrained by
his nature. Now, when a redeemed child of
God, somebody that God put in Christ before the world began
and that Christ redeemed, justified, made them complete, when that
child is born of the Spirit of Christ, God creates within him
a new nature, not by natural generation, but by supernatural
regeneration. In natural generation, our nature
was shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin. So we came forth with
that nature that hates God. Opposite to this, in regeneration,
we're born with a separate nature, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness, born of an incorruptible seed. That means it can't be corrupted. And the product of that seed
can't be corrupted. Well, whose righteousness and
whose true holiness? Look over to Ephesians 2 with
me. Ephesians 2 verse 10. We are His workmanship. This is talking about this nature
I'm telling you about, this new man, this new creation. Christ
is going to make all things new. Everything is going to be made
new by Him. He's the second Adam. The first Adam corrupted everything. The second Adam is going to make
all things new and righteous. For we are His workmanship, Here's
where the righteousness and true holiness in which we're created
is. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. Now hear me now. The good works which the elect
were ordained to before the four to walk in are preeminently,
first and foremost, the good works which Christ performed
on their behalf. God ordained us to walk in Him,
in Him. There's where our completeness
is. There's where our righteousness and our true holiness is, is
in Him. And by faith in Him, we fulfill
the whole law of God. Romans 3, at the end of Romans
chapter 3, is the law made void because we believe on Christ?
No, that's the only way the law is fulfilled by a believer. That's
the only way we can fulfill the law of God is by believing on
Him who fulfilled it in our place as our representative. He fulfills
it. We love God and our brethren
perfectly in Christ Jesus because He loved God perfectly and He
loved His brethren perfectly. This new nature is born with
that Spirit. It's for we've made partakers
of the divine nature. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Philippians 2, 12. What did Paul
tell the Philippian brethren? They had some difficulties just
like every church does. And here's what he said in Philippians
2 and verse 12. He said, Wherefore, my beloved,
as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, as men-pleasers,
but now, much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling." Conduct your daily affairs with fear
and trembling. Be very careful. Be very slow.
Be careful. Why? For it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. He works in
each one of His people individually, and He works in His church. together. It's His body. He's working in
us both to will and to do His good pleasure. His will and His
good pleasure is what He's doing in us. Now, the believer's obedience
to God is always the fruit of the Holy Spirit working experimentally
within us. It's the work of the Holy Spirit.
It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit working within us. 1 Corinthians
12, 3. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3, Wherefore I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed,
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the
Holy Ghost. That is the Spirit effectually
working within us. We can't leave Christ and we
can't bow to Christ except by this working of grace within
our heart. Now look over at 1 John 3, 9.
1 John 3, 9. Now we know John has already said
in this letter, he already said that if a man say he hath no
sin, he's a liar. We have sin, no doubt about it. We have sin in our members, in
our flesh, in that nature that we were created in, in Adam.
We have sin. But now look what John says.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Now we've got to find out what
he's talking about there. What is sin that he's talking about
there? He's talking about he does not cease to believe Christ
for all his acceptance with God, and he does not cease to love
his brethren. Christ is the elder brother of
his people. He's the elder brother of his
people. There's where love to brethren begins. There's where
love to God begins. It begins by trusting Christ. I could show you no better love.
I can show you no better love than to preach to you the message
of Christ and Him crucified, because that's how God saves
sinners. I could show you no better love. And if I do that,
if God's given me a spirit to do that, if you come to my house
and you need a coat and you need food or you need anything like
that, because the Spirit of God will not allow me to do anything
but preach the truth of God, the Spirit of God also is going
to be the reason why you're going to walk away with a coat on your
back and food in your belly. You're not going to go away empty.
Now, you could come to my house, and I could give you a coat,
and I could give you bread, and I could tell you to go away,
and I could feed you physically. But now let's bring that back
around to what's really needful. I could do that and never know
God. I could do that and never do
anything but tend to your physical needs. If I preach to you Him
who is food, the bread from heaven, if I preach Him to you every
time I stand here, every time you come to me for help, if I
point you to Him, every time we're sitting together and I'm
down, you point me to Him. I tell you about Him in whom
we're clothed with a perfect garment of righteousness. I fed
you and I've clothed you. Spiritually. Not I, Christ has. Because it's God who worketh
in us both to will and do of His good pleasure. That's what
His servants are going to do. That's the counsel His servants
are going to give. Every time. There is no other
counsel. But to point you to, what's His
name? Counselor. Right? Government of God is on
His shoulders. I can't, I can't, all I can do,
brethren, is encourage you to patiently be just wait. And God is working in you. You will. You'll wait and you'll
watch. And in time you'll go, that is
true. I'm safe and secure in Him. Without
a shadow of a doubt, I'm secure in Him. Now look here, let's
look back at this. 1 John 3, 9. Whosoever is born
of God does not commit sin. Why? For his seed remaineth in
him. How were we born the first time?
In natural generation? By the seed of Adam. How were
we born in the supernatural regeneration? By the seed of God. Well, Peter
told us that is the Word which liveth and abideth forever. Yes,
it is. And who is the Word? Can you separate them? Can you
separate the written, the living Word from the written Word? The
written Word is how we find out about the living Word. And who
is our life? Search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have life. The written Word is not my life. It tells me about Him who is
life. The Word of God is my life. It's
His seed. It's Christ in me that is my
life. And He cannot sin. because he's
born of God. He can't do it. He can't do it
because he's born of God. In this the children of God are
manifest and the children of the devil. Here's what makes
the distinction. Who maketh thee to differ? Here's
the distinction. Some are born of the seed of
Christ and some are born of the seed of Adam. All may confess
to believe Christ. It's not a big deal to sit here
and learn a system of doctrine. It's not a big deal to learn
five points of Calvinism. It's not a big deal to stand
up and preach them. When the Lord sent forth His people to
preach, how many did He send forth? He sent forth twelve,
and they went and preached, didn't they? And He said, I've chosen
you twelve, and one of you is a devil. Can a natural, carnal
mind not hear and understand the things that Christ is teaching
and stand up and teach them? Sure he can. But he can't have
the fruit of the Spirit in the heart. And sooner or later it's
going to get out on him. It's going to manifest itself.
And he that's born of the Spirit, it's going to get out on him
too. It's going to be open and shown to the people. They're
going to know it. This man is born of God. Here's
what he's talking about when he says he can't sin. Whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth
not his brother." What did Christ say? The whole law is summed
up in these two things? Let me get over there with you.
I want to show you something down the page there. 1 John 3, let me see here. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. This is the commandment, verse
23. First of all, that we should believe on the name of His Son,
Jesus Christ. Look back up, verse 10. Neither
he that loveth not his brother, look back down to verse 23, and
love one another. How do we do righteousness? By
faith in Him who is our righteousness. That's how we do righteousness.
How do we love our brethren? By faith in Him who is our elder
brother. Now if those things abide in
us by the Spirit, there's going to be some outward manifestations
of it too. We're going to be not just saying
we believe God, we're going to be doers of His Word too. That's
what the Lord said. He said, Either make the tree
good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his
fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit. And there
were some religious people sitting there. They outwardly showed
a lot of works. He said, O generation of vipers,
How can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things. Where does that good
treasure come from? He abounded toward us in the
riches of His grace. Isn't it the riches of His grace?
That's the good treasure. There's where they come from.
There's where good works come from. His treasure. He hath before
ordained that we should walk in good works. The works that
He has ordained us to walk in continually, He has prepared
us to walk in them continually. And guess what we're going to
do? We're going to walk in them continually. And you and I may
not even know we're doing a good work. Hopefully, you don't look
at it and pat yourself on the back and say, boy, this is a
good work. Because after we've done everything,
we just say we're just unprofitable servants. Isn't that right? What do I have that I didn't
receive of God? Now, let me show you first how this pertains to
Christ. The Son of God's God, He's equal with the Father. But
when He took up His abode in human flesh as God, He needed
none of God's grace. As God, he needed none of God's
grace. But as man, he depended perfectly upon every grace which
his brethren depend upon. He that sanctifyeth, and they
that are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is not
ashamed to call us brethren. Now listen, John bear record
saying how he saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a
dove, and it abode upon him. It abode. It was his habitation,
the Spirit. of God. This is a mystery, brethren. All I can say is, God give us
grace to just receive it. This is a mystery. How could
the Son of God be a man? As much God as if not man, as
much man as if not God, and as a man, the Spirit of God descend
upon him like a dove and abide on him. Because back in Isaiah
11, it says, There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord, and he won't judge after the sight
of the eyes. Neither reprove after the hearing of the ears.
He won't go by hearsay. But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth. And he'll smite the earth with the rot of his mouth and
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. That's talking
about Christ as a man. The Spirit was upon him and did
all those things for him. Just like as a man, you and I
need the Spirit of God. We need all the graces from God,
all the gifts of God, don't we? To do anything. to serve him
at all. Now listen, how does this pertain
to Christ redeemed? The Lord said this, if any man
love me, he will keep my words. And my Father will love him and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. Now how is
God the Father and God the Son going to make their abode with
us? Their spirit, they're seated
in the heaven. How are they going to make their
abode with us? John 15 verse 4, He said, Abide in Me and I
in you. How do we abide in Him? Because
He abides in us. Why does He abide in us? Because
we abide in Him. That's called atonement. That's
oneness. That's union, inseparable. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abideth in
the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine,
ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
can do nothing." Have you ever seen a grapevine
straining to produce grapes? It just does it, doesn't it? A believer doesn't strain
to believe God. He doesn't strain to love his
brethren. He does it because it's His nature
to do it. It's as natural to Him as grapes
are from a grapevine. Because He's abiding in the vine,
Christ. And Christ is abiding in Him.
They're one. And just like all the nutrients
that are needed to grow that, produce that fruit, flow into
the branch, so everything flows through Christ, from Christ,
through faith into us by His faithfulness and our faithfulness.
We are just joined together, vitally linked together. We cannot
be separated. But I will tell you what believers
do strive to do. We strive to crucify the flesh. There is where our labor is.
And we only do that by Him too. Let me tell you how Paul put
it. He said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I. But Christ liveth in me, and
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
I just flatly disagree with some of the commentators on it. I
just do. You know how I live, first and foremost? I live by
the operation of His faithfulness upon me, who loved me and gave
himself for me. All this talking about Christ
in us, where does faith originate? Christ in us. Remember when the
Shekinah glory entered into the temple? It said it sanctified
the temple by His presence? When Christ enters in to you
who have built it up a habitation of God, the place is sanctified. It's
consecrated. It's for holy use now. It's holy. by virtue of something I did,
no, by Him. I'm going a little long here. I'll be short on my
message, though. He said, I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. Isn't that right? Now, let me give you a point
where I differ in this understanding of what God's teaching here from
the Reformers. Now, go on back a ways And there's
a little difference. But now the ones today, here's
where we disagree. As far as I can tell, many confess
that it's God's Spirit which makes a man willing to obey God. But if we say that the Spirit
leaves us the free choice of doing good or evil, we nullify
the whole work. What did John say? They can't
sin. They can't help but believe God.
They can't help but love their brother. It's their nature to
do it. It's the new nature. Now that old nature is still
the same. It's still there. It still hates God. Why is it,
do you think, when you hear something bad said about you, the first
thing that happens is you want to fly off the handle? Because
you've still got that old nature. But you know what Christ does?
He subdues you. He brings you back down. And
He causes you to wait. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes
we run headlong into the middle of the action, thinking we're
going to pull the sword like Peter and stop it and make it
not happen. God said, Lord, don't you know,
Peter, I could summon more than 12 legions of angels right now
to come to my aid. I don't need you. Put your sword
up, Peter. I've got to go to this cross. I've got to go through
this suffering. If I don't suffer these things,
you're not going to be redeemed. And if we don't suffer these
things, we're not going to trust Him alone. Every trial, every
bit of suffering we go through, where did He end up when He was
suffering? With strong crying and tears
unto Him that was able to save Him from death. And by His operation
working within us and never leaving us to ourselves in that new nature,
you know where we're going to end up after every trial? At
the feet of Him, crying out for mercy and grace. That's where
we're always going to end up. He writes a new covenant. This
shall be the covenant I'll make with the house of Israel after
those days. I'll put my law in their inward parts. I'll write
it in their hearts. I'll be their God, and they shall be my people. Now look at Galatians 5.13. I've
got to show you this, and I'm going to close. I'm not getting
through all this, but if y'all want, I'll just pick up right
here in the second message and save that other message for the
next time. Look over Galatians 5, 13. This
will be real light on this thing for you. Galatians 5, 13. Paul here, he's talking to some
folks who believe God. And those who would turn them
to the law have entered in. And they're trying to turn these
folks to the law. Brethren, listen to me. Listen to me now. A man doesn't have to go to the
Ten Commandments to be preaching the dead letter of the law. He
can go to the New Covenant. He can go to the New Testament
and he can pick out things right there that a man is supposed
to be doing and be preaching them and the dead letter of the
law just like he would if he preached the Ten Commandments.
Same way. That's not the spirit. That's
not the spirit God gives. They're two different spirits.
Listen, look here. Galatians 5, look at verse 13.
Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. When God writes
His law in our hearts, He writes the perfect law of liberty. We're going to be going through
the book of James in our bulletins. I started the first one today,
and I want you all to read them, okay? Brethren, you've been called
unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. Don't use the liberty of the
new man in the Spirit to give way to the flesh. But by love
serve one another. That's the fruit of the Spirit,
love. Now listen, for all the law is
fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. If you bite and devour one another,
take heed that you be not consumed of one another. This I say then,
walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that
you cannot do the things that you would." In other words, the
Spirit is constraining us in the new man from doing what we
would if we just left ourselves in the flesh. We'd do exactly
what we want to do in the flesh. But, if you be led of the Spirit,
you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings murders drunkenness
revelings and such like of the witch I tell you before as I've
also told you in times past that they which do such things Shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. There's law against those things
right there Law is against those things because those things are
contrary to God, but now look here, but Here's the here's why
the flesh and spirit war against one another That's what the flesh
likes. That's what all our Adamic nature,
that's what we all like by nature right there, those things we
just listed. That's why we like TV and movies and the news and
songs because it's all about depravity. And we love it. It
entertains us. We can sit and watch the news
for hours. We pick up this Bible and start reading it and we'll
be asleep in five minutes. The flesh loves to be entertained.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love. Here's the perfect law
of liberty, brethren. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such, there is no law. That's why we're not under the
law, because the law of God is written on our hearts. We're
under the perfect law of liberty, and there's no law against it.
That's the fruit of the Spirit. There's no law against that.
These other things, oh, there's law against that, but not this. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another and envying one another.
I want to give you one thing, one more thing here. I told you
I was through, but I've got to give you this one more thing.
This is important. James 1.13. Turn over there with
me. We're talking about the difference
between the flesh and the spirit here. We're talking about what
true obedience is. What is the cause of it? What is it the result
of? It's Christ working. And it's
the faithful one. He planned it. He purchased it.
And He applies it. And He works it. Do we believe? Yes, we believe. Why do we believe? because Christ abides in us.
It's our nature. We can't help but believe. We've
got to believe. He's my all. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? Look here. But now, what about when we start
sinning and treating brethren cruelly and turn from Christ
to the law? What about these things? Let no man say when he
is tempted, I am tempted of God. The word temptation here means
when he falls into sin. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of something that is the product of God, no,
of his own lust and enticed. It is the flesh. Then when lust
hath conceived, where does conception take place? Within. It starts
within. It starts within that old man
and that old rebellion. And it bringeth forth sin. And
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved
brethren. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. It cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And
then here is the example He gives. What have I been trying to teach
you this morning? Of His own will begat He us with the word
of truth. That we should be a kind of what?
the first fruits of His creatures. I am going to just tell you this.
There are two examples there in the end of James chapter 2. There is Abraham and there is
Rahab. And one of them is showing what
faith toward God is and the other one is showing what love for
the brethren is. Abraham shows us what faith toward
God is. God called on Abraham. He said,
I want you to offer up a burnt offering." Obedience submits
to God. He said, Yes, Lord. He said,
Abraham, I want you to offer your only son Isaac. Obedience is a denial of self. It's a denial of our flesh. Isaac's
that bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. You're going to
have to crucify him, Abraham. Yes, Lord. So they start up that
mountain. And Isaac says, he's younger,
probably a teenager, he's carrying the wood. He said, Father, here's
the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb? That boy knew the law,
didn't he? He knew the law. We've got to
have a lamb. That's what the law says. Christ
is the fulfillment of that law. Did Christ turn and say, okay,
I believe God, but now I had better carry a lamb with me up
here too. No, He said, God will provide
Himself a Lamb. I'm going to trust God. Trust
His Lamb. That's faith toward God. And
He went up and He was justified by His works. His faith was shown
outwardly to be true, genuine faith because He never wavered.
He didn't go back to the law. He stayed on Christ. He stayed
on Jehovah. He never moved, never wavered.
And then we have an example of Rahab. That's what my message
is going to be on today. Rahab. She's an example of loving
a brethren. Those messengers came to her.
She didn't send them away. She took them in, gave them food
and shelter, sent their pursuers another way, told them, don't
come after them. They're not here. You've got
to go somewhere else to find the ones you're looking for.
They're not here. out the messengers. She provided
for some out. Why? She knew God. She knew Christ. She trusted
that God was going to provide Himself a lamb. And she manifested
by loving her brethren. By loving her brethren. These
things are going to show themselves, brethren. But it's going to take
time. It's going to take suffering.
It's going to take patience. And it's going to have to be
God wrought. They're going to have to work it in us. Because
if we don't, we're going to be drawn away of our own lust. Okay.