I want to speak this morning,
I'm going to use for the text verse 4 here of Galatians chapter
5. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are
fallen from grace. Now, then we'll speak this morning
about Christ being of effect or no effect. Christ being of
effect or no effect. Now this is a very important,
I believe, message. I wish I could preach it to every
religionist in America, every religionist the world over. I
wished I had this morning the ability to put into words what
I feel in my heart as I read the New Testament message. as
I read the gospel as it's revealed on the pages of the New Testament.
I wished this morning that I had the tongue of an angel, that
I could speak forth the great and glorious truths of the riches
of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is to be exalted,
brethren. He is to be praised, sisters,
because the Lord Jesus Christ is our all in all, and there
is nothing that we are deficient of if we stand in Him this morning. How glorious it is to be in the
Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, I want to begin this
morning by making some statements which I think might open up this
text and this subject to you all a little better. Now, recent
religious census of the United States have revealed some very
interesting statistics to me. And out of our population of
approximately 235 million people, There are 139 million church
members. There's 350,000 churches. There's 130 different denominations. And among these church members
and denominations, you will find a variety of doctrinal beliefs. a variety of religious convictions,
if you please, and different views on the subject of salvation. Yet, there are in reality only
two religions in all the world. And at least we want to say that
there are only two religions in the United States of America.
If you could reduce the view of every church member down to
the lowest common denominator, you would find just two categories,
two categories of people. The religion of mercy, number
one, and the religion of merit. the way of grace and the way
of works. Salvation by God's will and salvation
by man's will. Now beloved, let me say that
there are far too much of the former and far too little of
the less to be found in America today. The world is full of religion. The world is full of religious
teachers and preachers. The world is full of heresy. The religious world is full of
heresy and a perversion of the true gospel of God's grace. The world is full of it. Now
the Apostle Paul wrote this epistle, the epistle of the Galatians,
I believe under circumstances that are very similar to those
in which we live today. He had to combat those in his
day that had an unclear message of the grace and gospel of Christ,
and he did so here in this fifth chapter of the book of Galatians. There were those that believed
that Paul, that he spoke like others who had been supposedly
sent out from the church at Jerusalem to teach that those Gentiles
who had believed on Christ that they needed to be circumcised
and they needed to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. But Paul said, no, he said, I'm
not of that stripe. I'm not of that stripe. And in
verse 11 of Galatians 5, he said, and I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, if I'm out telling people that they have to be circumcised
to be saved, he said, then why are they yet shooting at me?
Why am I suffering persecution? Why is it that I'm suffering?
Has it come to the place where the offense of the cross, has
it ceased? Why are they still shooting at
me if I'm just like they are? Well, beloved, one of the ways
that you can tell that a preacher has run cross-grain with the
legalists and with the workmongers of his day is that they're all
shooting at him. And every time he opens his mouth
and proclaims a clear message of the gospel of God's grace,
somebody's got something to say about that individual. Somebody
will immediately brand him as an antinomian. Well, I used to
be a little bit afraid of somebody calling me an antinomian, but
I'm not afraid of that anymore. That doesn't bother me anymore. I have come to see, and you may
see this yourself before this message is over, and you all
know, most of you know what the word antinomian means. It means
to be without law. And it means that an individual
believes that God will save an individual apart from his or
her law keeping. And that's exactly what I believe.
I believe that God saves everybody he does save. He saves them all
without the deeds of the law. He saves them all without their
themselves producing a righteousness which God will accept. He saves
them, everyone, on the basis of faith. He saves them all through
Jesus Christ and His merit and His righteousness and His works. And, beloved, I want to say that
I believe that in this regard, if you want to look at verse
4 and look at it real carefully, I believe that in this regard
that only antinomians, true antinomians, are going to heaven at last. Now that'll really, I know I'm
going to take a lot of flack from maybe not from anybody here,
but when this tape hits the street, and there's some people back
east that hear this, and we send these tapes all the way into
Ohio and other places, I mean when that hits the street, that
only antinomians, true antinomians are going to heaven, then, brother,
sister, I can get some letters in the mailbox about this. But I want you to know what I
mean by that, and I'll try to clarify that as I go along this
morning. Now perhaps, beloved, that there
is no part of the apostolic writings that's more important to be clearly
understood for the comfort and the prosperity of the living
family of God in this present day than Paul's letter here to
the Galatians. A clear understanding of what
Paul taught here in Galatians will cause the people of God
in our day to do exactly what these brethren did back in the
15th chapter of the book of Acts in verse 31, which when they
had read. They read the proclamation that
came out of Jerusalem. They read what the brethren had
sent them, and it said, for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary
things, that you abstain from meats offered to idols, and from
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which
if you keep yourselves, yes, you shall do well, fare you well. So when they were dismissed,
The brethren read this, it was delivered, the epistle was delivered
to them. I'm talking about the Gentile
believers. And in verse 31, it says, which when they had read,
they rejoiced for the consolation. They rejoiced for the consolation
that they were no longer under the bondage of the law. That
that law, which neither, as the apostles put it, our fathers
nor we were able to bear, that that yoke is not on us. because
we're in Christ, and Jesus Christ has provided all that we need
for our salvation, and we're not under the yoke and under
the bondage of the law any longer. If we be in Christ, we're not
under the law, but we're under grace. And so to understand this
message is to make us rejoice with great of consolation, to
have joy of heart, and to be consoled that we as poor sinners
are no longer under the legal demands and bondage of the law
of Moses. Now, beloved, make no mistake
about it, the Apostle Paul preached to these Galatians a pure gospel. If ever a man knew the gospel
of free grace, it was this apostle Paul. He understood the gospel
in and out. He understood that salvation
was by grace from the first to the last. He preached a salvation
that was sure to all the seed according to covenant appointments
and the election of grace. He preached that. He preached
that salvation was free to all those that God had chosen in
the everlasting covenant and that this election that God had,
this election of grace, that the salvation that Paul preached
was the salvation that was to every one of them that which
God demanded of them. But while he had been sowing
the good seed, while he had been preaching a clear message, while
he had been sounding a clear note on the gospel trumpet as
to how God saves sinners, the enemy had come and sowed tares. Now this enemy, we read about
them here, and Paul says you did run well. In verse 7, who
did hinder ye that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion,
he says, cometh not of him that calleth you. This persuasion
doesn't come from the God that called you. It comes from the
enemy. It comes from these fellows coming
along saying that you gotta be circumcised or that you have
to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. This is the enemy.
This is not from God. This is not God's message. And
he says in verse 9, a little leaven leaveneth a whole lump.
Meaning this, that you put a little bit of yeast into a big ball
of dough and it'll affect the entire ball. And you get one
workmonger or one legalist in the midst of the professing church
and in a little while he has brought about an abominable crisis,
if you please, in the church. He has perverted the gospel and
he's destroyed the joy of many and many, many people have come
to the place where they do not understand what God has done
in them and what God has done for them and therefore their
joy is gone and there's no rejoicing and there's no praising of the
Lord Jesus Christ as he ought to be praised. Now we call them
Armenian teachers. and they had crept in and they
sowed the seed of heresy among the people of God. They were
insinuating that it was all very well to preach salvation by grace
and all very well to preach salvation by Jesus Christ and his perfect
work, but that there was a fashionable technicality that they wanted
to add. If you please, and did you get
the word add? I mean the audacity of somebody who would want to
add something to the gospel of God's grace. The audacity of
a religionist that thinks that there is something that he or
she could add to the finished work, the perfect work, the complete
work of Christ the Redeemer, the audacity of such people. Well, with them, it was circumcision,
it was keeping the law. And this, beloved, brought in
an awful crisis into the professing church. It is that abominable,
wicked perversion which will not allow Jesus Christ to do
it all. That's what it is. It's that
thing in man's nature that will not give glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ and will not stand still and allow Christ to do it all. They got to have some part in
it. Now listen to me this morning.
The creature must have his share. He must have his part, they say.
I mean, will you not give us... I mean, what kind of a man are
you, preacher? You absolutely must be bored
of any redeemable qualities about you not to want to have a share
or a part in the salvation of your own soul. Well, brother,
sister, if you've been taught of the Spirit of God and led
down the paths that I've been led, and if you're living in
a body, and if you got the kind of nature I got, then you have
come to the place where that you see that the creature has
no share, and he has no part, and that Christ receives all
the honor, the glory, and the praise for having redeemed our
poor souls out of the bondage of sin and have given us a glimmer
of hope toward eternal life. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
listen, it is the free will system. It's the legal preaching. It's
the rejection of the perfect work of Christ that has robbed
God of His glory and has robbed the professing church of its
joy and consolation. Now, beloved, it becomes those
who have a spark of the spirit of the Apostle Paul or the spirit
of God dwelling in them to come forward manfully and boldly and
insist upon it that if justification is sought by the deeds of the
law or by creature doing in whole or in part or by any condition,
however small, proposed to man, that Christ is become of no effect. He has become of no effect, you're
out of business, and Christ is not your Savior if you're seeking
justification in whole or in part through the law or through
your obedience unto the law. I think the sum and the substance
of this text is simply this. Listen to me. I'm talking about
verse 4 of Galatians chapter 5. That the attempt, now this
is the substance of this verse, that the attempt to add anything
to Christ's perfect work in the salvation of a ruined sinner
is an entire rejection of Jesus Christ. Did you get that? The
attempt to add anything. Now you write it down. I mean,
I don't care what you want to add. But the attempt to add anything,
I'm talking about your church going, I'm talking about your
Bible reading, I'm talking about your prayers, I'm talking about
your giving, I'm talking about whatever you want to add to this
business of salvation. That's an entire rejection of
Jesus Christ. You've rejected Him entirely
and said, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna save myself. Well, you
have to. but you will go to hell just
as sure as I'm preaching to you because there isn't any way to
get out of this world and out of a body of sin and get into
the presence of a thrice holy God except to be in Jesus Christ
and to be washed in His blood and to be declared righteous
on the basis of His own merit. That's the only way to get into
God's presence. Well, I want to talk a little
bit to you this morning about what Paul means by Christ being
of effect or no effect. Now friends, it's effect that
we look for in the gospel of Christ. It's effect. Now, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, to become of no effect, means to reduce
that gospel to inactivity. It means to render it useless.
It means to abolish it. It means to destroy the gospel. And so if a person adds one thing
to it, he's rendered it inactive, he said that it's useless. He
said it's, as far as we're concerned, it's useless. And so beloved,
we don't want to be in that camp, do we? No, we certainly don't.
Now brethren, there's an effect of the gospel which is to be
looked for and realized whenever and wherever Jesus Christ is
embraced. There is an effect of the gospel
that's to be looked for wherever and whenever Jesus Christ is
embraced by faith. Now, I take you to record this
day that Jesus Christ is preached from this pulpit. He is preached
from this pulpit. We have insisted upon Christ
as all in all in a center of salvation and we declare that
fact boldly as it's stated in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 that
He is made of God unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Now what effect has followed? What effect has followed? Investigate
this point, if you will, for yourselves. Those who are not
looking for justification, sanctification by the deeds of the law can trace
some effect that is produced by the preaching of the gospel
in their life. What effect has been produced
upon your heart by the preaching of the gospel? What effect has
been produced in your life? Well, I want this morning to
give you three effects that are produced upon the hearts of many,
and I trust I can put my claim to be among them. Three effects
that we find produced upon the hearts of those who embrace the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and cast out all works and will
have nothing to do with adding anything to the gospel. Now, in the first place, I believe
that the preaching of Jesus Christ has produced the effect of a
pardon sealed upon the conscience. Now, if you sit under the sound
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if God has given you faith
to believe it, and you have embraced the gospel, and if you in a word
have hugged up to Jesus Christ in your heart, I believe that
you have had pardon sealed to your conscience. In Ephesians
1 and 7 it says, "...in whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace." Now there's a difference between the act of pardon Now
listen carefully. If you don't listen carefully,
you're not going to get these things. But listen carefully
to what I'm giving you. Now there's a difference between
the act of pardon passing in the divine mind and the seal
of pardon that's fixed upon the sinner's conscience. The one
took place in heaven and the other takes place on earth. Now, they're inseparable and
yet they are distinct. They are distinct. The act of
pardon for all the election of grace happened when Christ said
in old eternity, Lo, I come. Christ was slain, as we read
in the book of the Revelation, in the mind of God before the
foundation of the world. There was always a cross in the
mind of God. Now listen to me this morning.
It is a covenant transaction. This business of God saying,
I'm going to pardon that sinner. I mean to pardon. And if God
pardons a sinner in time, it's because He purposed to do it
from all eternity. He meant to do it. And He brought
that sinner into the world and He brought him in here so that
He could pardon him and redeem him and make him like His own
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive him at last into eternal
glory and bliss. God does everything He does on
purpose. And He's not out here just trying
one thing. If that don't work, try something
else. No, that's not the God we worship. We worship the God
of purpose. And the God of purpose, He purposed
to pardon His people, those that He chose in Christ. And this
is a covenant transaction. It's a covenant engagement between
the persons of the Trinity that the father would pardon, that
the son would produce pardoning blood, that he would shed blood
through which the father would be justified in in pardoning
the sinner, that the Holy Ghost would write this pardoning certificate,
if you please, upon the hearts and consciences of guilty sinners. Now what has passed in heaven's
decrees, you and I cannot comprehend till we get a copy. Till we get
a copy right here in this world. Who knows what God has done in
old eternity in regard to Jews and sinners until they're affected
here in this life by the Holy Ghost coming and writing them
a certificate and giving them a seal of pardon in their conscience. Well, beloved, that's how we
know we're one of God's elect is whenever the copy comes in
and when we understand when God speaks the pardoning word to
our hearts. Now, till we get the application
or the seal of forgiveness upon the heart and the conscience,
we just simply don't know whether we're one of God's elect. I mean,
how could he know that the Lord had done that if the Lord hadn't
given him a copy of it? If the Lord hadn't sealed pardon
to his conscience, how could he have known it? Well, and our
Lord, in the days of His flesh, told us in positive terms that
it is His prerogative to say, Son, Daughter, be of good cheer,
thy sins are forgiven thee. All the privilege, beloved, of
hearing these words in the soul, to have this pardon sealed in
your conscience. Now the only way it can be done
is for you to be under the sound of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
for you to hear of Christ and His perfect work, and for the
glory of His person. The only way you're ever going
to be able to receive that seal in your conscience that your
sins are forgiven is to come to know Him for whom to know
is eternal life. Now I know that He does speak
this and bring home the Word with power through the reading
and through the preaching of His Word. You say, I'd like to
hear that in my soul, preacher. Stay unto the sound of the gospel
and keep reading your Bible. And I believe that sooner or
later you're one of God's elect. It'll be sealed to your conscience.
that your sins were put away and cast behind the back of the
Lord as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered
against you anymore. It'll come home to your conscience
one day and you'll drop the dish or you'll shout, you'll praise
the Lord. I mean, you'll sing for days.
I mean, the mountains will break forth with singing. The trees
will clap their hands. And you'll be joyous to know
that your sins have been pardoned. They've been put away. And somebody
said, what makes you so happy? My sins have been put away. Have
you heard what the Lord has done? He put my sins under the blood
of Christ. And they're all pardoned. How
do you know? Well, I just got the copy from heaven in my own
soul. And it's been sealed in my conscience.
And I know that it happened, and I know that my sins are blotted
out, and they will not appear at the judgment. And that's what
that verse means when it says, There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No judgment awaiting those who
are in Jesus Christ, because judgment already fell on Christ,
and it will not fall on those who believe on him. so that a
poor soul feels as satisfied and certain of being forgiven
freely and truly and eternally by God as he will be when he
gets to heaven. Now, can you get that happy on
earth? Well, brother, sister, I believe you can. And I believe
those Gentile believers in Acts 15 got awful happy and they rejoiced
with the consolation that their sins, that they were saved by
grace and their sins had been put away. Now a religionist won't
even crack a smile. He'll sit and he'll listen to
something like this and he'll say, boy, I wish that preacher
wouldn't say that. I wish he wouldn't talk that way. Oh, I'll
tell you what I'd do. That bothers me to hear somebody
talk so positive about Jesus Christ and that He's the Savior
and that He's a complete Savior. And a religionist won't, can't
smile. He can't smile. And that's because he's ad. That's
because Christ is no effect to him. That's right, no effect.
But to a man or woman who's just looking to Christ, while they
can rejoice because pardon is sealed to their heart. When Christ
becomes of effect, it is in this way that he seals a pardon to
the heart. Now the second thing, and you
listen to me if you will, I hope I don't wear you out, But like
I said before, we just need to spend this time on these things
because if we don't, we're going to come up without the joy and
I want you to get started before you get to heaven praising your
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to get started here
in this world, worshiping Him and trusting Him and rejoicing
in Him right here in this world. When Christ becomes of effect,
number two, It is in, I believe, the reconciliation of the sinner's
heart to God's method in saving him. Now, you're going to have
to follow this a little bit. You know, there's a whole lot
of people in this world that they believe in salvation. But
brother, sister, when it gets right down to how God saves sinners,
there are not very many people in this world, witness this situation
this morning, not very many people in this world that is reconciled
to God's way of saving sinners. Now, the reconciliation, as for
the work of reconciliation, it was by blood. And that's done. You know the atonement, that
word means at one minute. That means that we're reconciled
to God. We're at one with Him through
the atonement. Now the reconciliation by atonement
is accomplished. The whole price is paid. Now you follow with me, are you
reconciled to God's method of saving sinners? You say, I hope
I am, I hope you are too. Just listen, now the perfection
of deity is satisfied, law has been honored, justice is magnified,
and you might ask, and what now? If all that be true, well what
now? Now the elect sinner's heart is to be reconciled in this world
to God's method of saving him. Will you be saved God's way? Would you be willing? You say,
I'd like to go to heaven, preacher. Well, would you be willing to
be saved God's way? Now you're not going to be saved
any other way. It don't make any difference whether you're
willing or unwilling. Willingness or unwillingness don't really
enter in here, but would you be willing to be saved God's
way? Now this is sure to be the case
where Christ is preached with the fact that the believer is
going to come to the place where they'll be reconciled to God's
way and method of saving. Now, when a poor sinner begins
to seek the Lord, he almost without exception harbors a notion, harbors
a notion that something depends upon himself. Ain't that true? He starts to seek the Lord and
he's got this feeling that I've got to do something, that something
depends on me. That you just got to, I mean,
I got to do something. I got to quit something. I got
to start something. I got to do something. Now listen, that
beloved, some people say, well, it's my repenting. Other people
say, well, it's my believing. Other people say, well, it's
my prayer. Other people say, well, no, it's my seeking. But,
beloved, that's one of the lies of the devil, and the devil is
a liar from the beginning. We know that. Now, I do not say
that our repenting and our believing and our seeking is of no consequence. I do not say that. I mean to
say, though, if you will follow with me, that our repenting and
believing and praying and seeking are of too great importance to
be left a contingent. Now, follow me. It's of too great
importance to be left as a matter of condition, our repenting,
our believing, our praying, our seeking. It's too great importance
to be left to the creature. That's what I'm saying. I mean
to insist that there are no part of the terms of a sinner's salvation
and that you cannot be said to be reconciled to God until your
heart is brought down to this Now watch it, brought down to
this point, I must have my repentance, my believing, my seeking, my
praying, my pardon, my new nature, my perseverance, my glorification,
I must have them entire as the free gift of God in Jesus Christ
and I must have all the repentance and faith necessary to receive
all gifts wrought in me by the Eternal Spirit. Furthermore,
I must have all of the enjoyments that flow down from the fullness
of Christ into personal experience, ministered unto me by the Holy
Ghost of God, or I get none of the above. Is that all right?
Have you ever come down to that point where I had to have it
all worked in me? Had to have it all worked in
me? Had to be all wrought in me? And if it wasn't worked in
me, my repentance, my faith, my believing, my seeking, and
my perseverance, and even my glorification out in eternity
to come, it's all got to be given as a free gift of God in Jesus
Christ. And all of the blessings that
come from all of this, I get none unless it's all worked in
me. Now that's what that verse means
in Galatians 5 and verse 4. That's what it means. Now we're
coming right down to it. Now, so I must come to this point.
that all must be poured into me as an empty vessel by the
hands of a covenant God and kept there that it may be always there
and consummated in me by his mighty working. And unless that
happens, then I'm not a child of God. But when it does happen,
I can with faith and boldness declare that I am in Jesus Christ
and that I am a child of God, a child of faith. But the pride
of man does not want this. It gives us nothing to do, they
say. It gives us nothing to do. You
say that all of this is the gift of God and all must be worked
in us. It gives us nothing to do. Well, what can a dead man
do anyway? And we're all declared to be
dead spiritually. As far as the Bible is concerned,
we're all in the death of sin and we have not a life, we have
not enough life to know our death until the Spirit of God quickens
us and brings us into life in Jesus Christ. It's the greatest
vanity. It's the most ridiculous falling,
and it's flat rebellion against God to introduce anything like
a contingency into the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now that's the
statement that I want you to think about, I want you to look
at, because you're going to have to make this in your own mind
and heart as you investigate whether or not you're reconciled
to God's way of saving sinners or not. Now hearts must be brought
down to this. I have nothing, I am nothing,
I can do nothing, and all that is necessary must be done for
me by Jesus Christ or I am undone. Now, beloved, that's the message
of the gospel. And that's what makes a person
rejoice in Jesus Christ and give praise and glory to Jesus Christ. Now, this is just fine. This
suits poor sinners very well. An everlasting gospel ordered
in all things insure. That's what rejoiced the heart
of old David in the Old Testament. A gospel, a covenant, an everlasting
covenant. That's ordered in all things
and sure. Now, if you're a poor sinner
and you've been brought to that place, you can say amen to that. That's it. I mean, that's what
makes my heart glad. And so, are you reconciled to
God's method? Or you say, no preacher, I still
think I got to do something. If you do, then Christ is no
effect. You're on your own. You're on
your own. You're out here on your own.
And any religious tell you that he's helping Christ and the two
of them together has got together and they're mixed up a little
something and he calls it salvation. That man, he don't know what
he's talking about. He don't know what he's talking about.
I'm telling you this, that you're on your own if you're not reconciled
to God's way and method of saving you. He's going to do it all,
or it's not going to happen. Salvation is God's Word. Now, number three. We're going
to hurry right along here. I won't keep you too much longer.
Where the preaching of Christ has taken effect, there is oneness. Oneness with Christ. Now, the
people of God have something. They have something living. They
have something that's real. They have such a faith that brings
their souls into such an indissolvable oneness with Christ that we are
hourly and daily receiving nourishment and strength and life and power
from the Lord Jesus Christ. We have something. Now, what
do we have? Well, the vine and the branches,
the head and the members, the source and the screen are not
more emphatically connected than Jesus Christ and all the members
of his many-membered body. Did you get that? What I'm trying
to say is that those that are in Jesus Christ, that they're
one with him. There's a vital union that's
been formed, an indissolvable union that is formed between
Christ and his people, they are married, they are one. Now here
again, the same distinction as we made relative to pardon comes
into existence, and we need to think about this a little bit.
It is one thing for the act of pardon, as we said, to be passed
in the king's court, and another thing for it to be carried to
the prison house and to be put into the hand of a criminal saying,
you're pardoned. There's two different things
there. One thing's got to take place in the king's council or
in the governor's mansion, and the other thing takes place down
there in the prison. And it's two different things,
one in heaven, one on earth, as far as we're concerned. But
now, listen to me, it's one thing for a union to be betrothed in
covenant and constituted in the sacred and fixed but secret decrees
of God, and quite another thing for that oneness or that union
to be brought forth into effect. and for the believer to personally
experience so that the poor soul feels conscious of it and can
taste it and can enjoy it and perceive and know this marriage
for itself, to know that you're just one with Jesus Christ, that
he is mine, I am his, I am in him, and I am one with him. Now brethren, while Christ is
the mediator and the head of his people, the people of God
will have the supply and they'll have that grace. which is sufficient
for every need, because I'm persuaded that Paul said in Romans chapter
8 that there is no separation ever between Christ and his people,
Christ and his members. They'll never be separated. Now,
what have we said here this morning? What have we said? Well, what
we've said is basically this, that where Christ is preached
in the glory of his person and the completeness of his work
and the Holy Spirit, gives effect, then pardon is received, reconciliation
is effected in the sinner's heart, and a oneness, a vital union
is wrought that is indissolvable, so that what is needed to live
the Christian life in this world, the supplies of grace are received
in the believer's heart and life by Jesus Christ. Now, before
I close, let me enforce this point. Let me enforce it. Bear
with me. You say, Preacher, I think this
could be done better. It could with somebody else.
But I'll do the best I can with it. You just listen to me as
I try to enforce this point. If the preaching of the Word
of God does not give us a salvation without a condition, Now this
is what I believe after being in the way ever since I was 16
years old, reading this book, listening to lots of people talk,
a lot of preachers preach, reading everything I can get my hands
on, that if this Bible here does not give us a salvation without
a condition, then it gives us none at all. None at all. Did you hear me? All right, one
single condition. Now I'm pressing this point.
however small, left with us, ruins us to all eternity, and
makes Christ of no effect. If it is an act of obedience,
if it be but a word, if it be but a thought, if it be one single
condition left with man, it seals his damnation forever. One condition. And the older
you get, the more happy you'll become to see that there's not
been one sin that has not been dealt with by God, that there
has not been one thing left that has to be worked on before we're
ready to die and be received into eternal glory. I mean, the
older you get, you begin to deal with this thing and see whether
it really is true or not. When you're young, you say, well,
I got a little time here. If this ain't true, I can work
the thing out yet myself. But when you begin to get a little
down the road and you begin to face eternity, then you begin
to see that this is either one way or the other. And either
Christ is to be praised, or then we ought to blaspheme him. Either
one way or the other. And Christ is to be praised as
the all-sufficient Savior. Now then, I'll go on with this. It mentioned the word justified
in verse 4 here, and I just got to add this before we close this
out this morning. What would it mean to be justified? What would it mean to be justified
by God? What does this word mean? Well,
it means the entire forgiveness and acquittal of a poor sinner
from every charge and all possible condemnation before God, and
it means more than this. the entire approval of the soul
as if it had never had a stain or a sin charged to it. Yes, and even more than this,
it means the entire acceptance of the soul as much as if it
had never wondered a single step from God. That's what it means
to be justified. Well then, how is this to be
accomplished? Well, Paul said it can't be through
law or work. Well then, how in the world can
it be accomplished? Well, it's by the merit of Jesus
Christ. It's in the name of Jesus, it's
for the sake of Jesus, and wholly in the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. The very supposition of anything
wanting on man's part for his justification implies that Christ
is not sufficient. It implies at once that he, Christ,
has not done enough. It implies he just didn't get
the job done. He did not, as the Father testified,
finish. the work that he gave them to
do. For if there be enough in Christ,
anything more in the creature is a superfluity. It's a superfluity. Do you understand
what I mean by that? Then he said, if there be enough
in Christ, then anything more in the creature would be an oversupply. It would be an oversupply. Now,
and therefore, the very idea of a condition in man implies
a deficiency in Christ. You get a fellow telling you
he's got to add something, all he's saying is that Christ is
not sufficient. That's what the religion is telling
you. They're telling you that Christ can't do it. And they've
got to add something. They're making their contribution,
don't you see? Well, Armenians, they reject
Christ as not having done enough. Matthew 1 and 21 says he shall
save his people from their sin, and the Arminian says he can't
do it. He shall not save his people
from their sin. That's what the Arminian says.
What a reproach these abominable heresies cast upon the name,
the person, and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has
become of no effect to these religionists. The poet said this,
Jehovah lifted up his rod O Christ, it fell on thee. Thou wast so
stricken of thy God. There's not one stroke for me."
Not one stroke for me. But he said, Preacher, I wish
I could believe all that. I wish I could believe that so I could
rejoice. Well, Spurgeon said this, and
I wanted to close out with this this morning. He said, A man
is never so fit for believing A man is never so fit for believing
as when in himself he is most unfit. It is unfitness, not fitness,
that is really required. What is fitness for taking a
bath? Filth. And filth alone is fitness
for taking a bath. What is fitness for receiving
pardon? guilt. If you are black, if you're
foul, he said, you have all the fitness that is required. You
got all that's required. So come and find in Jesus Christ
all that meets your need and that your most urgent need. Come
and find it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, beloved, this
morning I hope that God has been pleased to give you a little
joy and a little consolation I realize a lot of times this
idea of legalism is not rooted out without a great struggle,
and many poor, timid souls are very much afraid to let go of
their religion, what they believed in, what they trusted in, and
their little righteousness, you know, they got a little bitty,
they got a little chest of righteousness, they got a little bit saved back,
they put a little bit back along the way, and you know a little
something to offer to God? I had a fellow tell me the other
day, he said, now if there's anybody in heaven that's my mother,
It says, my mother and my dad. And he said, the reason why that
I know that they're in heaven is because they never argued
in front of us kids. They never argued. And that's
his gospel. I mean, that's what's going to
get his mother and daddy in heaven, is the fact they never argued
in front of their kids. My friend, those kind of people
never heard anybody preach the gospel. They never heard the
truth. That's not the gospel. That won't get you into heaven.
And nothing else will but Jesus Christ. He is salvation. I wish
you could rejoice in Him. I wish you could be glad in Him.
I wish you could sing about Him. I just wish you could be happy
in the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice with great consolation. He is the Savior. Now we've come
to the place where we all quit. But we've come to the place in
our day and time that it's expected of even gospel preachers that
they say something about the law, that they say something
about our connection with it, that we are involved with it
somewhere. You've got to just get involved a little bit, preacher. I mean, that's expected in our
day and time. And if you don't, oh, my soul, you're really a
renegade if you're not involved in this thing somewhere or another.
You mention it somewhere. Bring it in somewhere, preacher.
Somewhere. Well, you see, but from a gospel
preacher, from a preacher who's called to preach Christ, and
Christ is his message, then that's the only message he's got. That's
it. And I don't take you to all these
other things because there's no hope in those places. I mean,
how long are we going to pump a dry well? I mean, let's give
it up. Let's go to Christ. He's the
Savior. That's the testimony of Scripture
all the way through. Go to Christ. Come to Christ. and find in Him all that we need. Now nobody on earth in their
right mind who's a student of this Bible can dispute what I've
told you this morning. Nobody, no man, no woman who's
in their right mind can dispute what I've told you. What I've
told you is the gospel truth. Christ is of no effect unto you
if you add anything to Him. The key is salvation alone.