All right, let's begin this evening
right where we left off this morning. Turn back, if you will,
to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians, the second chapter, verse 6. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Now some of you here
have not yet received Christ Jesus the Lord. Let me tell you
what you must do. You must receive Him. You must
receive Him. You must lay hold of Him. You
must come to Him. You must believe Him. You must
trust Him. And this is how. You simply cast
everything on Him. everything. No righteousness
of your own, you have none, as Merle said just a moment ago.
No merit of your own, you have none. No feelings can prepare
you to cast yourself upon him. No works, no prayers, no No deeds
performed by you. You simply venture your soul,
your eternal soul, your eternal welfare upon the Son of God,
trusting His merit, the merit of His blood, the merit of His
righteousness as your only hope before God. You're full of sin. You're nothing but sin. You can
do nothing but sin. Everything you do that you think
is good is nothing but sin. And it comes from a corrupt heart
and is therefore corrupt before a holy God. You cannot do that
which is right in God's sight. Well, how on earth can I come
to God? With all your sin. With all your sin. Just as I
am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and
that thou bidst me come to thee. Oh, Lord God, I call. And that's how you come to it.
Now, some of you have been walking with him for a long time. It's been 30 years now since
first the Master stopped me in my mad rush to hell and granted
me life and faith in him and caused me to see something of
my sin, the depravity of my heart, the corruption of my nature,
and calls me to believe on the Son of God. And today, right
now, if anything, even more fully
than 30 years ago, I come to Him the same way. A sinner with
nothing but sin, in need of everything in Him. In need of His atonement,
I can't make up for one sin, much less all. I can't satisfy
the justice of God for one offense, much less all offenses. I trust
His blood and His blood alone to make up with God for my sin. I trust His righteousness and
His righteousness alone to give me acceptance with God. Now,
as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, look at it. walk ye
in him. Now the more clearly you understand
that, the more fully convinced you are of that, the more fully
you will be rooted and built up in him and established in
the faith. When you find out that Christ
truly is all, And Christ truly is all to your soul. Nothing
going to take you away from him. Every wind of doctrine, every
slight and cunning craftiness of men, every subtle deceit of
Satan that would turn you this way or that, you'll understand
clearly. You stand in Christ and in Christ
alone. As you have been taught, abounding
therein, abounding in this faith, abounding in this utter simplicity,
this singleness of heart and mind fixed on Christ, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. You men lead us in prayer in
the office here. I think I can accurately say
every one of you constantly offer thanksgiving to God. that He's
taught you the way and kept you in the way. See that you're bound
with thanksgiving. Abound with thanksgiving. Now
then, look at this. Beware. Beware. Watch out. Watch out. If Satan can, he's
going to turn you away from Christ. And if he turns you away from
Christ, no matter where he turns you, he's won the day. Beware. Lest any man spoil you, ruin
you, destroy you, destroy your faith, utterly destroy it. Not by causing you to blaspheme
openly, not by causing you to out and out and say, I don't
believe in the Son of God, oh no, no, no. That's not cunning and that's
not crafty. But destroy you by causing you to mix something
with Christ. to mix something with faith,
to mix something with grace. Read on. Through philosophy and vain deceit. The philosophies of men. Philosophy
is that which man devises which man deduces, which man invents
from his own depraved brain and calls it brilliance, philosophy,
and vain deceit. Anything that turns you to any
degree away from Christ Anything that would cause you to put hope
in any degree in yourself, in your experience, in your feeling,
in your doing, anything that would cause you in any degree
to look to some ritual, some ceremony, some service you perform
is vain deceit. Vain deceit. No basis for it
at all in Scripture and bringing you at last to destruction. After
the tradition of men. Now Rex, that's just the way
men are. That's just the way they are. Every man by nature
is an idolater, you and me included. Every man by nature thinks that
he can do that which pleases God. Every man by nature presumes
that he can by some means have some way in which he can make
himself right with God and soothe his own conscience. That's the
history of religion throughout the world. This is after the
tradition of men and after the rudiments, the elements, the
natural things of this world, and not after Christ. Now then,
look at this. For in Him, not in me, not in
you, not in the church, not in our experience, in Him dwelleth. I love the old King James translation. The reason I use it is because
there's nothing better than this, nothing to improve on this, and
I love those ETH endings in verbs like this, dwelleth. That means
it's there and it's going to stay there forever. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead. All that God is and all that
God gives And all that God does is in Him. Everything. Everything. That being the case, that being
the case, since we have received Him as nothing but sinners, since
we walk in Him, trusting Him alone, Since we are in Him, and
in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, you are
complete in Him. How complete? That's kind of
redundant, isn't it? Complete's complete. That means
you're finished. That means you're full. That
means you've got everything. That means you're like nothing
in Him. So much so, look in chapter 1 of Colossians, verse 12. The
apostle says, giving thanks unto God the Father. Look at this
now. Which hath. Hath, it's done. It's done. This is not a prophecy.
This is not a promise. This is not a prospect. This
is history. which hath made us, every one
of us who have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walking in him
by faith, he's made us meet. That word, Oscar, means worthy,
fit, properly, ready. to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. We are right now in Christ worthy
to enter into glory. Right now in Christ worthy of
God's approval. Right now in Christ worthy for
God to look on us and smile. So that he looks on every sinner
in Jesus Christ the Lord, every sinner believing on Christ, looks
upon him as complete, perfect, holy, righteous, and sinless. And he doesn't see sin in Israel,
nor see iniquity in Jacob. But rather, he looks on Christ
and says, his name is Jehovah Sekinu, the Lord our righteousness. And he looks on his church and
says, her name is Jehovah Zekiah, the Lord our righteousness. Now with that in mind, let's
go back to this problem of reform doctrine. I showed you this morning
several heresies. that are promoted and taught
in Reformed theology. I'm referring, for the basis
of Reformed theology, to the Westminster Confession of Faith
and to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. I realize there are
many, many, many others. I've read most of them that are
available to us today. But those two, basically, are
the confessions of faith upon which many women who are of what
they call the Reformed faith believe and teach their doctrine.
The first heresy, and I think probably the first heresy is
that which is the mother of all the others, is
the heresy of necessary consequence. The teaching that we get our
doctrine and our religious practices, our principles of religion, not
only from the written word of God, but from that which we as
men conclude may be reasonably or necessarily deduced from the
word of God. In other words, not only do we
look to the scriptures and see what does God say, but we look
to the scriptures and see what God says, and now since God said
that, these things must follow. Oh no, no no. Our basis of faith
is the word of God alone. This is the reason in this congregation
you'll never see me offer you a piece of paper with some doctrines
on it saying that you need to sign this or you need to sign
that, say I believe this, I believe that. Put your name to this book,
that'd be enough. That'd be enough. Put your name
to what God says. Folks say, well, we need creeds
and confessions so that men will understand what we believe. I'll
guarantee you there's not anybody who ever set foot inside this
building that doesn't understand what we believe. We preach it
plainly and clearly and distinctly. We don't put it on paper and
hide it away in a closet somewhere. We tell it publicly. But our
basis of faith is not what we as men have decided must be so,
but what is written right here in this book. And if it's not
written here, let's throw it away right now. We have no reason
to believe it and no reason to practice it. The second narrative
is that of conditional grace. Reform doctrine by and large,
and I realize there are fellows who would not fit into this,
and I'm sorry if they take offense, I'm talking about those who do.
The reform doctrine by and large teaches that faith is a condition
of justification. That is not the teaching of Holy
Scripture. Faith is the result of justification. Our faith is
that by which we receive, by the gracious operations of God,
the merit, the benefit, and the blessing of Christ justifying
work to our own souls. So that in Romans chapter 5 and
verse 1, last week I believe it was, might have been the week
before, Lindsay was teaching from that passage. And he read it
exactly as it ought to read. Therefore, being justified, and
that's where the comma ought to be. By faith, we have peace
with God. Our justification does not come
as the result of our believing. Our peace with God comes as a
result of believing. Because being justified, now
believing God, we have peace with Him. Peace in our hearts,
for He declares us to be just. Not only do they teach that faith
is a conditional a condition of justification, but they also
teach that sanctification is a conditional, progressive thing. That is, that we, having been
born again by God's Spirit, having been given this new nature, gradually,
by diligent use of means, by reading and praying and attending
church and living right and doing right, we gradually move ourselves
progressively up the scales of holiness, And none would suggest
that we ever attain that perfectly in this world, but little by
little make ourselves more and more holy until at last we have
arrived at that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
Nothing could be more damning than such belief. Listen to me. There is no point between the
gates of hell and the gates of glory where you do anything to
gain God's favor. Our standing with God is in Christ
who is our justification and our sanctification. We are sanctified
in Jesus Christ the Lord, made holy in Jesus Christ the Lord
right now. worthy or meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now that's the language
of Scripture. And then there is this heresy of self-righteous
assurance or of work-based assurance. And that is the teaching that
we look to ourselves for assurance with God. So that when we look
inside and we examine our lives and we see that we are doing
pretty good. We've tried to quit sinning,
and tried not to give way to our lusts, and tried to pretend
that our lusts are not as active as they once were, and we've
compared ourselves with one another. That's the only basis we've got. I attend church a little more
than this fellow does. I read the Bible more than you
do. I pray more than my neighbor does. I watch my wife, watch
my husband, they don't seem to pay nearly as much as I do. I
must be doing pretty good. And so on that basis, we consider
ourselves to have evidence of grace and salvation. Such a consideration is the Pharisees'
consideration of righteousness. In the day of judgment, those
on the left side, the goats, Well, here the Lord said, depart
from me, you cursed. I was hungry, naked, thirsty,
in prison, and you didn't feed me, you didn't clothe me, you
didn't visit me, you didn't comfort me. And they said, when did we
do that? We always did what we thought
was right. Those are the goats. Those are the reprobate. Those
are folks who presume that they have done good. Whereas the sheep
on his right side, They hear him say, come you blessed of
my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world, because I was hungry, and I was thirsty, I was in prison,
I was naked, and I was sick, you fed me, you clothed me, you
visited me, you comforted me. It's weird. When? When did I do that? Because they
understand. They've never done anything worthy
of his approval on its own merit. Never. You see, believers are
just the opposite of the unbeliever in this regard. The unbeliever,
the self-righteous religionist, looks to himself and his works
and thereby soothes his conscience until he's at last damned forever.
The believer looks at himself and acknowledges his very best
righteousnesses are but filthy rags before God. And as nothing
but a bankrupt sinner looks to Christ for everything, and looking
to Christ, that's our assurance. That's it. Now then, here's the
fourth heresy. It is the heresy of legalism.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 6. There is no heresy I know of
that's more inherently evil, causes more difficulties, creates
more havoc, or runs more blatantly in the face of Holy Scripture
than the teaching that believers are still under the Mosaic Law
and consequently obliged to observe Sabbath days, pay tithes, and
must fear punitive measures in this life and in the life to
come if they fail to measure up. Now let me first show you
what the Reformed people say. Now remember, I'm not telling
you what I think they say. I'm reading to you exactly what
is written in the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the
Baptist Confession is almost identical to it. Listen carefully.
The moral law doth forever bind all, the just persons as well
as others, to the obedience thereof, informing them of the will of
God and their duty. It directs and binds them to
walk accordingly. The threatenings of it serve
to show what even their sins deserve, and what afflictions
in this life they may expect for them, although freed from
the curse thereof are threatened in the law. The promises of it
in like manner show them, that is both the righteous and the
wicked, both the justified and the unbelieving. The promises
of it in like manner show them God's approbation of obedience
and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof.
Regarding the Sabbath day, which they say was changed to Sunday,
I've been looking for that a long time. I haven't found it. But
folks, the Sabbath day was changed to Sunday. We call it the Lord's
day. No. Nowhere in this book was Sabbath
day changed to Sunday. Sabbath has always been Saturday.
It was on the first Saturday of time. It was when God gave
the law. It was when Christ fulfilled
the law. And it still is. The Sabbath day is the seventh
day of the week. It's on Saturday. But this is
what they say. They say the Sabbath is to be
kept holy under the Lord. when men, after due preparing
of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs beforehand,
do not only observe and wholly rest all the day from their own
works and words and thoughts about their worldly employments
and recreations. I'd like to meet somebody who
did. Now, it'd be nice. It'd be nice to put those things
out of my mind for 30 seconds, much less 24 hours. But you put
those away from all thoughts about worldly employments and
recreations, but also are taken up the whole time in public and
private exercises of his worship and in the duties of necessity
and mercy. Now, that's what the reformed
folks say. Let's see what God says. Look at Romans chapter
6. This is what God the Holy Spirit says in the book of inspiration. I'll read it to you with very
little comment. It doesn't need much. Verse 14. Now, remember in Romans chapter
6, Paul is talking about the believer's life in Christ. In
chapter 6, beginning at verse 4, he talks about our baptism.
How we begin confessing Christ in baptism. In verse 11, he says,
Now likewise reckon ye yourselves also to be dead unto sin, but
alive unto God. That is, since God reckons you
to be justified, you reckon yourself to be justified. And now he's
telling us how we are to live. No longer the servants of sin.
This would be the perfect place to say. Now, to live right, you
follow these rules. This would be the perfect place
to say it. If you're going to live for God,
you've got to obey the law. This would be the perfect place
to say that. But this is what Paul says. Sin shall not have
dominion over you. How come? Because you're under
the law. That's not what it says. Sin
shall not have dominion over you because you're not under
the law. As long as you're under the law,
sin has dominion over you. That's the reason for the law.
But you're under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we're not under the law? But under grace? God forbid. God forbid. Nobody but a self-righteous
religionist makes such a presumption. You teach folks that they're
not under the law, you tell them they're going to live in sin.
Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! You who are
under the law conclude such a thing. But those who have been made
free from the lost armor, God forbid that we should sin, that
grace may abound. Look in chapter 7, verse 4. Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become d-e-a-d dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. How can I say that? Dead. dead to the law. If something should happen to
me, and I have died before I get home this evening, now Mrs. Faulkner may choose for the rest
of her days to have pictures of me sitting on the mantel,
and she may choose the rest of her days to honor me. I hope she might consider giving
such reverence and respect to me. I'm sure she would. But she
is under absolutely no obligation to me Cause I'm dead. You understand
that? I'm dead. She's free. Well, what
about she marries another man? Should she take his name? Well,
that's nuts. Of course she should. She's married
to him. What about your name? I'm dead. Don't forget it. I'm
dead. Well, should she take her new
husband and do things the way he wants them done? Well, of
course. Oh, but he might like things
different than you do. I'm dead. You understand that? D-E-A-D, dead. This is what Paul
says. You are dead to the Lord by the
body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. Well, boy, what does that mean?
Is there anybody here, any of you young people, that have any
question of what that means? You're dead to the law. But what
sense are we alive to it? In the sense that a dead man
is alive to do something else. We're dead. It's dead to the
law. It has no bearing upon us. It has no consequence over us.
It has no influence over us. We are dead to the law. Chapter 8, verse 1. There is
therefore right now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
that is, walk not after law, carnality, fleshly ordinances,
but after the Spirit, who walk by faith. I recall hearing Brother
Mahan years ago preaching from Romans chapter 8, and he got
to verse 1, and he was telling a story about a young woman Back
in Ashland, this had been a long, long, long time ago, 40 years
ago or more, who had a reputation. She was not respected. And God
saved her. And Henry found out the girl
could sing, and he had her sit down to sing a special, just
like Judy did for us just a little bit ago. One of the deacons in
that southern Baptist church came up to him before the service
and saw that she was scheduled to sing and he said, the preacher,
now we can't have that. He said, she's got a name. She's going to have to live that
down a while. Henry got a little bit upset. And he went to Romans
chapter 8, verse 1. He said, there's therefore now
no condemnation, right now. Bless God, you don't have to
live it down, Christ did. You understand that? No condemnation
to anybody in Christ right now. Chapter 10, verse 4. Christ is the end of the law. Now, that word end, what does
that mean? The only reason folks ask, what
does that mean? It's because they're trying to
figure out some way to say he's not the end. If you were to say,
Lindsey, you go down the highway here until you get to the end
of the road, and then you turn to the right, what would you
look for? Look at the place where the road
stops. That's what that means. This is where the law stops.
Christ is the end of the law. He fulfilled it. He satisfied
it. He's the end of the law's curse.
He's the end of the law's covenant. He's the end of the law's constraint.
He's the end of the law period for righteousness. Any kind of
righteousness there is before God Almighty to everyone who
believes. Christ is the end of the law.
That means the law no longer has any Any, any, any claim upon
me, Christ satisfied it all. Look in Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians the third chapter. Now folks say, well Paul's talking
about, when he talks about the law in Galatians, he's talking
about justification. We're talking about the law's
influence and sanctification. I beg your pardon. In Galatians
chapters 1 and 2, Paul is talking about justification by the law.
In chapter 3, he's talking about sanctification by the law. He
says in verse 3, are you now become perfect by the flesh? Perfect by the law? Oh no. Oh no. Look at verse 13. Christ
hath. There's that word again. It's
done. It's done. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. That
is, He has satisfied the claims of the law, being made under
the curse of the law, to bear the curse of the law for us,
because it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. Look in chapter 3 of Galatians, verse 24. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. If you lived in these days, during
the Roman Empire, and let's say Rex was a very wealthy fellow,
and he had servants in his house, he might
have hired a schoolmaster to take care of those kids. He'd
go to work, and being a wealthy man, his wife would be a woman
about town, you know, so somebody else would take care of the kids.
The schoolmaster trained them, the schoolmaster fed them, the
schoolmaster clothed them, the schoolmaster taught them, and
the schoolmaster busted their butts. The schoolmaster is the
one who made him behave. The schoolmaster is the one who
took out the rod. And he did so with the father's
absolute approval. Because the schoolmaster was
responsible for the care and rearing and training of that
child under the father's tutelage. Until the child reaches the age
of maturity. When that boy turns 21 years
old, the schoolmaster best not take out the rod anymore. Because
now you belong to me. I'm the master. You understand
that? This is exactly what Paul says. When we were under the
tutelage of our infancy, when the church of God was in its
infancy in the Old Testament, the law was a schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ. But now, we've come to the maturity
of faith in Christ, and we're no longer under the schoolmaster. Look at it. Galatians 3 verse
24. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we
might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
what does it say? We're no longer under the schoolmaster.
Don't have to worry about him anymore. The schoolmaster's business
is over. We believe the Son of God. Now
look at 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. We know that the law is good.
Don't let anyone suggest to you, well, you folks believe the law
is something bad, wrong with it. Oh, no. The law is good if a
man use it lawfully. It's horribly evil if you use
it to bring God's people into bondage. Did you hear me? The law is good if you use it
lawfully. It's horribly evil if you use it to bring God's
people in bondage. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man. That's not who it's made for.
But for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
and for manslayers, for whoremongers and men that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and so on. So the law is made to keep men
in check. The law is made so as to terrify
the ungodly. The law is designed to keep men's
depravity closed up in their own hearts, lest they break out
and destroy society. But it's not made for a righteous
man. You know, the law requires that I not abuse my wife. The law requires that you men
not abuse your children. The law requires that a man not
rape his neighbor. The law requires that a man not
commit murder. But, you know, I don't even think
about calling Bobby Estes up and saying to him, now Bobby,
don't you beat Judy tonight. The law says not to do that.
I don't even think about that. Don't you kill that fellow next
door to you. Don't do that. How come? Because he's a righteous
man. You understand the difference?
Now I'm thankful the law says don't do it. I'm thankful the
law holds the threat of punishment over the ungodly. Otherwise this
world would be havoc and chaos. But the law is not made for a
righteous man. Now look in Colossians chapter 2. What about this thing
of the Sabbath day? Don't you think we ought to keep
one day in seven holy to the Lord? Now please understand me,
it is altogether proper that we come together on the first
day of the week as John describes it as the Lord's day. and worship
our Redeemer every Sunday. It's altogether proper that we
arrange our lives around the worship of God, so we arrange
to be in his house, when his people gather in his house, to
hear his word and worship his name. That's altogether proper.
But we dare not, we will not, I shall not tolerate any requirement
of any kind that says this is what you must do, because the
book of God doesn't make that requirement. Look in Colossians
2, verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink. If you want to have pork chop
and a glass of wine when you go home tonight, that'd be alright.
Don't let any man judge you, condemn you in that regard. That'd
be perfectly alright. And I'm not suggesting that you
do. Folks say, well, the preacher
said, folks, go start drinking wine. I didn't say that. I said,
if you want to, it's alright. Now, drunkenness is another story.
That's another story altogether. You don't abuse things. But God's
created this world for you. For you who are His. So He says,
don't let any man condemn you in regard to meat or drink, other
than respect of a holy day. He's writing to these Colossians.
And in the Church of God, many of them had been affected by
the Jews' religion, the Jews who came in and tried to bring
in various Jewish customs and traditions and said, let's keep
a holy day. No. No. Don't do it. Now, listen to me.
This is not optional. This is not a matter of indifference.
In those days, it was a matter of indifference as the Jews were
gradually weaned from the law when the scriptures were written
in Romans 14 and so forth, so that one observes a day and another
does not. But Paul comes now and speaks plainly and clearly
and says, this is not a matter of indifference. Don't you keep
a holy day. Don't you do it. I read, I get
church papers and I see, this is unbelievable to me. I see
fellows who claim to believe the gospel of God's grace, observing
Passover and observing Old Testament sacrifices because they want
to witness to the Jews and honor the Jews. Don't you do it. Don't
you do it. More than that, are of new moon
or of Sabbath days. What do they say? Don't you keep
a Sabbath day. Don't you do it. Number one,
nobody ever has except God. Nobody ever has. Nobody has ever
kept a perfect Sabbath day except God Himself, the God-Man, our
Savior. Nobody else. Nobody else. No
man is capable of keeping the Sabbath day perfectly. The Sabbath
day had been fulfilled in Christ, and we are not to keep a Sabbath
day. The fact is, the only way you can properly keep the Sabbath
is by faith in Him. That's what it was all about.
When God established the first Sabbath, do you remember what
it did? He rested. He wasn't tired, but he rested. He'd spent six days creating
the heavens and the earth and all that in them is. And on the
seventh day, he rested. He just quit working. Just quit
working. Oh, would to God you could rest. You see, every man by nature
Works, works, works, works, works, works, works. Works hard. Works hard trying to find some
way to soothe his conscience so that God will accept him and
he quit having the tormenting fears of wrath and judgment and
damnation. So, boy, his conscience doesn't
bother him. He reads his Bible and he prays
and he goes to church and things kind of smooth over. He stopped
for a little while and then conscience told him this again, because
you can't do enough. You can't read up enough. You
can't pray enough. You can't do enough to soothe your conscience. It won't happen. But the believer
comes to Christ and rests. Rests. Quits working. Listen to me now. I gave up. Long time ago, I gave
up trying to do anything to make up with God for my sin. The problem with the unbelieving
is that you're still trying to make up. You're still trying
to patch things up between you and God, and you can't patch
things up between you and God. You don't have that ability.
A preacher, must I forever go on with this tormented, guilty
conscience? Oh, no. The Son of God says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. There remaineth, therefore, a
rest, a keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God. And that
rest is the rest of faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. There is absolutely no sense
in which believers are under the law. In Christ, we have been
brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Do we then
make void the law through faith? Paul asked in Romans 3. Oh, no. By faith we establish the law.
The law of God requires from Don Fortner perfect, righteous
obedience. and complete satisfaction. That's
what it requires. And it's not going to accept
anything less. Well, how on this earth can I offer God perfect
obedience and complete satisfaction, believing on His Son? Father,
here is my perfect obedience, and here is my complete satisfaction. Your darling Son in His righteousness
and in His blood. You see that? That's what faith
is. Believers are motivated, inspired,
governed, not by law, but by gratitude, love, and grace in
the serving and worshiping of our Savior. You've been bought
with a price. You're not your own. Let it be
the most reasonable thing on this earth. To expect from you
is that you give yourself entirely to Christ. He bought you. The
most reasonable thing on this earth to expect and demand of
myself is that I give myself in my entire being to Jesus Christ
the Lord to glorify Him in my body and in my spirit, which
are God's. He bought me. That's the motive. You say, well,
I need a threat here and there to kind of keep me in line. I need that whip of the law over
here. I want to tell you something.
If you do, I fear for your soul. You've not yet met the Master. I often use the illustration.
Let's suppose that I had a servant in my house cleaning my house.
And the servant was she. And when I hired her as my servant,
I put a list of 10 commands on the door, hang it right inside
the pantry. And I said to her, now, Shelby,
these are the conditions and terms of our relationship. And
I want you to do this and this and this and this every day,
every week, every month, every year. This is how things will
be done. And she says, OK. Now, if you do this, this is
what I'll give you as a reward of your service. Fair enough.
So every day, she goes about her business. And daily things,
she checks off. Weekly things, she checks off.
Monthly things, she checks off. Yearly things, she checks off.
And after a while, that wouldn't take me long. I'd get the notice,
and she's right pretty. And I get kind of fond of her. And we get married. And when
we come in from our honeymoon, first thing I do when I walk
in the house is Rich take the list off the door and throw it
away. Well, she's free to do anything
she wants to. Yes, she is. She sure is. And I guarantee
you everything on the list she keeps right up with. How come? She's afraid she won't get paid.
No. She loves the Master. There's a different relationship.
It's no longer the relationship of a master and servant, but
the relationship of a husband. It's no longer a relationship
motivated by reward or fear, but a relationship motivated
by love and gratitude. And I'm telling you that the
believer's relationship with his God is motivated by love
and gratitude, not by fear and promise of reward. And then there
is the heresy of sacramentalism. The Reformers and Protestants
again, retaining the garments of Rome, teach that baptism and
the Lord's Supper are sacraments rather than ordinances of worship.
Now listen carefully. A sacrament is a religious rite
or ceremony by which grace is conveyed to the one who receives
it. We're about to receive the Lord's
Table and these fellows will say this is a sacrament. So when
you eat the bread and drink the wine, you're receiving the things
represented in the bread and wine. Oh no. An ordinance is
simply a symbolic picture of grace. There's a huge difference. Presbyterianism teaches that
baptism, as they call it, the sprinkling or pouring of water,
is a sacrament by which grace is conveyed and sealed to those
who receive it. I won't read all of this, but
this is what it said. Sacraments are holy signs and
seals of the covenant of grace. Seal, that's a strong word. And
it is not only to the believer, but also to the children of the
believer, to be to him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace,
or his engrafting into Christ of regeneration and of the remission
of sin. No wonder they like to sprinkle
their babies and call it baptism. Now this is what to do. Slosh a little water on his face
and by this we presume that this child is sealed into the covenant
of grace. That this child is engrafted
into Christ. That this child is born again
and that this child's sins are put away. And the child's raised
believing that. I've never met one yet who didn't.
Have you? Never met one yet. I recall years
ago, I had an experience similar to Brother Barnard's who was
talking to a lady. This lady went down, moved in behind us
at lookout, down the ridge from us, she and her family. I went
down, knocked on the door, visited, invited them to church. Invited
them to come hear the gospel, got their witness in tune, asked
if she was a Christian. She said, oh yes, I've always been a Christian.
And I remember what Barney said, I said, Hunter, that's too long.
That's too long. Oh, no, no, you hadn't always
been a Christian. And the teaching of infant baptism
implies just that. It destroys the doctrine of conversion.
There is no biblical precedent for it, and no precept for it. I defy, and I've written to,
and I've corresponded with, and I've had hours and hours and
hours and hours of conversations with fellows who are pedo-baptists,
that is, they did baptizes. And I said, now, show me in the
book. And man, you talk about running around the world to get
across the street. They'll run in and out of every ditch and
crook and cranny everywhere trying to figure out some way to demonstrate,
but it ain't there. There's not one time anywhere
in this book where the scripture demonstrates a baby being baptized.
Not one time anywhere in this book where anybody was ever sprinkled
with water and called it baptism. No sir. Baptism is never said
to seal anyone into the covenant of grace or to seal to anyone
the benefits and blessings of God's gracious covenant. But
rather, according to the New Testament, baptism is an ordinance
of divine worship. to be administered to believers
only. I said to you this morning, if God's given you faith in Christ,
come, arise, be baptized. As Peter said, arise, be baptized,
every one of you, and wash away your sins. Not literally. No,
the waters of baptism won't wash away sin, but it does symbolically. That's what baptism is. It's
a picture. It's a symbol. It's a representation. You remember when Philip had
ministered to the Ethiopian eunuch and they came to water. In Acts
chapter 8, you can read it for yourself. The eunuch said, here's
water. What does it mean to me to be
baptized? Now, just think. Sometimes a fellow just runs
something through his mind and just kind of turns on the light
just a little. Just think for a minute. How
many of you, back in those days before they had cellular phones,
Back in those days, when you might get stuck traveling across
that desert for a long time, how many of you would have started
across there with a caravan of people with no water? Any idiot
going to do that? I suspect they had some water
on that thing. I suspect they had a lot of water
there. But they had it in canteens and barrels, not in baptistries. And you can't baptize somebody
in a canteen or barrel. The eunuch came to this body
of water and said, here's water, why shouldn't I be baptized?
Philip said, one qualification, one condition, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And the eunuch said, I believe
that Jesus is the Christ. And Philip said, that's good
enough, let's go to the water. And the scripture says they went
down, both of them, into the water. And Philip baptized that
eunuch. Now Matthew, Henry, Bless his
soul. I read him a good bit and got
some good things to say, but he was a sacramentalist. He said
they went down, rolled up the bitch's legs, they
said robes, you know, and got a little water, poured it on
his head. That's a lot of trouble to get
a cup of water. I never knew anybody in my life to wade into
the creek to get a cup of water. That's utter foolishness. And
nobody would even suggest such a thing if it wasn't in an attempt
to defend the creed rather than obey the Word of God. There's
no basis for it. Baptism is a picture of the Gospel. Our Lord came to John the Baptist
and John said, what are you doing here? He said, I come to be baptized
of you. John said, not me. I'm not worthy
to untie your shoes, much less baptize you. And the master said,
suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. Well, what did his baptism have
to do with fulfilling of righteousness? It pictured it. Crucified, dead,
buried, risen again. And when he was baptized, he
testified that he was going to be crucified, dead as the Lamb
of God, dead as one bearing our sins, risen from the dead as
one who's put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And when
you are baptized, you go into the watery grave and you say
to the world, when Christ died, I died in Him. When He was buried,
I was buried in Him. My sins were buried in Him. And
when he arose, blessed God, I rose in him. And now I'm committed
to him, to walk with him in the nearness of life. Baptism is
a burial with Christ and is always represented as such in the scriptures.
As a matter of fact, I've told you many times the word baptize
is not even a translation. Our King James translation in
God's providence was given to us by a group of Anglicans and
given by the order of Henry, the king in England who was himself
head of that Anglican church. And when it came to the word
baptize, they didn't translate it. What are we going to do with
this? Let's find something. Wait a minute. We learned how
to sprinkle babies from the Pope, and we've been doing it for all
these years. And we can't give that up. But this word means
immerse. This word means dip. This word
means plunge. It never means sprinkle. Never
did. It never means pour. Never did.
So rather than translate the word, they transliterated the
word. So you can make it mean anything
you want to. They just spelled out from the Greek letters, the
English letters, and said, that's it. Baptize. And we'll call it
sprinkling. But the word means immerse. Always
has. And you cannot be baptized without
being buried with Christ in the symbolism of the grave. And then
both the Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists have a shockingly sacramental
attitude toward the Lord's Supper. This is what they say. Now I'm
reading to you this time from the Baptist Confession. Those who as worthy participants
outwardly eat and drink the visible bread and wine in this ordinance
at the same time receive and feed upon Christ crucified and
receive all the benefits accruing from His death. Oh, no. No, this is not a mass. You don't
come here and by eating this bread, drinking this wine, receive
the benefits of Christ crucified. No, sir. When we eat the bread
and drink the wine at the Lord's table, we don't feed upon Christ,
we remember Christ. We fed upon Him and continually
feed upon Him by faith. Not by eating the bread and wine.
We remember Him by this picture. The bread and wine representing
what He's done for us as our substitute. The Lord's Supper
does not convey grace. It shows by outward sign how
grace is conveyed. Now, these men are going to come
in just a minute and they're going to break the bread and
wine, distribute it to you. And as they do, you who are unbelievers,
watch carefully. This is how grace comes to sinners.
Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, represented in that bread
and in that wine, that no other way God could be gracious to
you except through a substitute's death. No other way. And that
substitute must be himself, one without the leaven of sin. Unleavened
bread and wine so that he is the sacrifice who is acceptable
to God the divine God man our Savior God in human flesh Well,
how do we get the benefits of that? We take the bread eat it
take the wine Drink it and it's yours now listen Take the Son of God Take His
righteous obedience, His sacrifice, by faith. You mean, preacher, I can do
that? If you can, you can. Take Him! Take Him! And He's
yours forever. And there's no other way to get
Him. No other way. In the Lord's Supper, as in baptism,
That which qualifies us and makes us worthy recipients of the ordinance
is faith, discerning the Lord's body. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. For of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. And there's a good, good, good
reason why everything is in him, so that no flesh should glory
in his presence. But as it is written, he that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. I hope that's helpful to
you by the blessing of God. Okay, Lindsay, you come lead
us in a hymn, and the deacons will serve at the Lord's table.
Larry, will you assist them please?