It is good to be here, very thankful. Your pastor has entrusted me
to preach the gospel to you. It's a very wonderful thing to
be entrusted with this. I don't want this to fall off. Here we go. This is mine then.
Okay. Okay. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Galatians. I'm not used to being up this high. Our church
is one flat, real flat, so if I look across, look like this,
and I'm sorry, I gotta. Galatians chapter one, the text
will be found in verse six through verse nine, and entitled this
message One Gospel, One Gospel. The Apostle Paul said, I marvel
that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ, but though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As I said before, so say I now
again. As though it were not enough,
he says it again. If any man preach any other gospel
to you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Listen to
the language, let him go to hell. Very strong language. Now, the apostle begins this
epistle, not like others, with warm affection because he had
found that these Judaizers had come in as wolves dressed in
sheep's clothing. Our Lord warned us of these.
He said, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly were ravening wolves. These came in sheep's
clothing. They didn't come denying the
gospel of God's free grace in Christ. They didn't come denying
the offering of Jesus Christ. But he said they came to do this,
to pervert the gospel. And we know that they perverted
the gospel by simply adding one of the laws of Moses. Circumcision. This was the contention of the
time. These were wolves in sheep clothing
come to pervert the gospel. And Paul said this gospel they're
preaching, it's not a gospel at all. Paul is telling us here
that there is one gospel. One gospel and not another. You
see, by adding one of the laws of Moses, they made void the
gospel of God's grace. So Paul said, I marvel that you
are so soon removed from Him. You see how connected the gospel,
this one gospel, is to Jesus Christ. Why? He is the gospel. To move from the gospel is to
move from Christ. That's why this is a vital thing. So why the Paul did not come
with salutations and things like that. He was right to the point
because this was a vital message necessary. They came not denying salvation,
but grace, but rather turned from grace to the law. And so Paul expresses his love
in this by rebuking them. Let us be aware that in the book
of Colossians there were many errors, weren't there? Yet you
see how patient Paul was in that book. He's not so patient here. Why? Because this is an essential
thing. Believers in Christ, friends,
there is only one gospel, there is only one message of salvation,
one message of God to sinners. One message of hope, one message
of righteousness, one message of justification, one message
of sanctification. And that is the message of God's
free and sovereign grace that is in Christ Jesus alone. It's
only one, there's not many. This one gospel message Paul
preached to them is so high and vital that to add one thing to
it perverts it. Adding one thing to it perverts
it and turns it from the gospel to another gospel, which is not
another. To do this is to add anything
to Christ's offering. is to make it null and void. And Paul concludes in this book,
he said, if you be circumcised, if this is the path you desire
to go, that you believe on Christ and you add to His perfect work
circumcision. Paul makes this statement, Christ
shall profit you nothing. You see how vital this one gospel
is. Therefore we are to bind up this
message and hold it close. Why? Because the alternative
is very seducing to our flesh. I went over the second chapter
of this book this morning and we saw how Peter was seduced. How Peter, pushing away that
pork sandwich that he was eating, and separated himself because
he would not offend these Jews. With all sincerity, Peter desired
to honor God. But in doing so, he nullified
the gospel. Why? By adding the law, he nullified
the gospel. He made it another gospel. And so, I do pray that God would
this evening give us, again, I'm not going to tell you anything
new. You that believe, you know this gospel. And when I tell
you these principles concerning the gospel, you know these to
be true. But it is important for us never to deviate from
these things. Because if we do deviate from
the gospel, we have no gospel. If you deviate from Christ, you
have no salvation. If you add anything to Christ,
you have no salvation. This is the gospel that we are
to magnify as a gospel of grace. Now I have, I did this message
in two parts at our church. I'm going to do it in one. So
God give us grace to go through this. I have nine irrefutable
things concerning this gospel. Nine things that make this the
Gospel. The first thing is, the Bible
is the inerrant, infallible Word of God from which we receive
the Gospel. It is the source of our Gospel. This book that you have in your
hands, this we know, is the infallible, inerrant Word of the living God
concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. This is an infallible Word. The Apostle Paul says to Timothy,
he says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and
is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, for instruction in
righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished
unto every good work. This is the word of the living
God. And Peter says all flesh is going
to perish. But there's one thing that's
going to stand for eternity and that is the Word of the Living
God. Everything else is going to perish.
All flesh is grass. And the goodliness of the, like
the flower of the field, the grass where the flower faded.
But the Word of the Lord shall stand forever. Therefore we say
this with David, I will esteem all thy precepts concerning all
things to be right. Whatever this book says is right. I got this, I had to print it
out. Luther said it and you've heard it before. Feelings come
and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant
is the word of God, not else's worth believing. The word of
God is the source of all our faith and practice. I got a lot
of books. I've read a lot of books. I read
a lot of men that I admire and thank highly of. And I go along
with them so long as they go along with this book. When they
deviate from this book, I leave them. Why? Because if they're
not deriving their gospel from this book, then what good is
it? If they say, I think, or I feel, who cares? You don't
want to hear my opinion. Concerning this gospel, you don't
want to hear my opinion. I want to tell you what God said.
Without thus saith the Lord, we have no gospel. We have no
authority. So the word of God, we esteem
it to be all the source of our gospel. And what is the sum of
God's word? It's not confusing, friends.
God didn't make it confusing. Our Lord Jesus, upon his resurrection,
he sat with those disciples and he said, beginning at Moses. Who wrote Genesis? Moses. Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures things
concerning himself. Our brother just read of that
resurrection psalm. That psalm is his. He said, look
at my heritage. Wow, what a message. That was
Christ speaking. It's my heritage. It's my inheritance.
Why? Because he's not going to leave
me, my soul in the grave. He's going to raise me from the
dead and I'm going to inherit all things. It's Christ speaking. Isn't that astounding? This whole
word is about Him. Men want to make this about themselves.
You know, my part in this book, when you read the word sinner,
that's my part. That's me. But it's about Him. It's about
His glory. And so all the word of God. So
that's the first thing is that our source of this gospel is
the word of God. The second thing is that this
word teaches us something about the sovereignty of God. The gospel
we preach is a gospel that declares that God is sovereign in everything. David said, our God is in the
heavens. and hath done what? What has
he done? Whatsoever he please. You say
that about any of us? Can't be said. It can only be
said about him. Why? He is sovereign. He had
done whatsoever. The apostle Paul in Ephesians
one says, who worketh all things, all things, after the counsel
of his own will. We were in the car and Sherwin
was reminding me of a message Don preached. And that phrase,
all things, came up and he said, you know, I'm going to give you
something very deep, very deep, very great theological truth. Listen to this. All things. You
know what it means? It means this. All things. All things. He worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. And Isaiah, turn to Isaiah
46. Isaiah 46. God here in this chapter is making
a division between Him and all false gods. You know what the
division is? Sovereignty. Baal and Nebo are
not sovereign. They've got to be carried around
by a bunch of cows and when they get too heavy that the cows will
just, when they fall, there's no one to stop them from falling.
They can't stop themselves from falling. Why? They're not sovereign. They've got hands, they've got
feet, they've got mouths, they can't talk, they can't touch,
they can't move. They're not sovereign. You nail
them down and they can't go anywhere. Why? They're not sovereign. But
listen to what He says of Himself. Remember. In verse 9, Remember
the former things of old. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God and there is none like
Me. What? Declaring the end. When? When did God declare the end?
You and I were born. We had a time we were born. Who
declared that? There will be a time that God
has already declared to be our death. He's declared that. And
everything in between He has declared. And this has been from
the beginning. He said from the beginning. I
had declared the end from the beginning, from ancient times,
the things that were not yet done, saying, ìMy counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure.î And he gives us an example, calling
that ravenous bird Cyrus. Do you realize he called Cyrus
by name 150 years before he was born? By name! His parents had no clue what
they were doing when they named him that. God says he's going
to be named Cyrus. You know what? I'm going to give
him everything. Everything that man touches is
going to be turned to gold. And when he comes to conquer
Babylon, I'm going to leave two gates open for him, and he's
going to go in that way, and he's going to conquer Babylon,
and that's exactly what he did. What is this telling us? According
to our gospel, God is sovereign in all providence, in everything
he does. Everything that is happening
is happening according to the will of God. That's great news for us who
believe in Christ, for us who are His. We rejoice in such things. Other men are afraid of that.
They should be. But this gives us comfort. But
not only this, look at that next part. executing the counsel from a
far country, ye have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass,
I purpose it, I will also do it, hearken unto me, you stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness, I bring near my righteousness,
and it shall not be far off, and my salvation it shall not
tarry, I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory."
You see, he's not only sovereign in providence, he's sovereign
in salvation. He said, I'm going to send my son, my righteousness,
and he's not going to be far away. He's coming. And when He
comes, I'm going to establish my salvation. For who? Israel. I'm going to do it in
Zion. I'm going to do it for Israel. You see how sovereign that is?
Our God is so sovereign that He chose His people before the
foundation of the world. Our God is so sovereign that
He chose them in Christ. And Christ, in sovereign mercy,
agreed in a covenant to be their surety. Jesus Christ came into
the world according to His sovereign will, which was to submit to
the will of the Father. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book that is written of Me to do Thy will, O God. And He came into this world.
He accomplished the salvation of His people. Jesus said, I
lay down My life for the sheep. That's sovereignty, isn't it?
Jesus said, I'm going to lay down My life. You ain't taking
it from Me. I'm laying it down. And I'm laying it down for a
very specific group of people. My sheep. That's what I'm going
to do. And listen what they're going
to do. My sheep hear My voice. And they follow Me. And I know
them. And I give unto them eternal
life, and no man shall ever pluck them out of my hands." That's
sovereignty, isn't it? Our Lord said this about his
people. He said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
me. You suppose one is going to be
missing that? No, because he's sovereign. And it is the sovereign
work of the Spirit then to call everyone that the Father chose
and everyone that Christ redeemed. Why? Because God said this, I
will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. You know who he's going to have
compassion on and mercy on? Whoever he will. That's it. I know that men don't like
this. But it doesn't matter because
this is who God is. According to the gospel of God's
word, he is absolutely sovereign. Number three is this, we preach
the gospel that man is absolutely dead in trespasses and sins. Absolutely dead in trespasses
and sins. The false gospel of our age believes
that man has some ability left in him. This is why they talk
a lot of works and doing. Because they believe that man
is still capable of honoring God. That man has some ability
with which either to please or manipulate God into saving him. But according to the Word of
God, again from the source from which we receive our gospel,
God declares this about us, that we are born dead. That the natural mind, the carnal
mind is enmity against God. And here's proof, it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It's not only not willing
to be subject, it is incapable of being subject to the law of
God. This is the truth that man is born in total, absolute depravity. He is born dead. Our Lord said
this in Mark, He said, Make the tree good and the fruit will
be good. If the tree is evil, the fruit is evil. Isn't that
simple? You know what the problem with us? The heart is evil. What kind of fruit is going to
come out? If the tree is corrupt, the fruit is corrupt. What we
need is not to... Religion is like duct taping
fruit on a bad tree. They take the good fruit and
they try to just wrap it on there. No, you need a new tree. You
need a new heart. That's what you need. The gospel
of God tells us that man is not partially dead, he's dead. Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world and death. Isn't that sad? It just is. Death by sin. So death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned. You know, sin didn't enter the
world when Satan came into the world. You know that? Satan had
sinned, but he didn't bring sin into the world. Who did? Our
representative. Adam was a representative, and
he represented all of us, and he failed. According to the Word
of God, we are born dead. Death is past. Man is hopeless,
incapable of saving himself, incapable of pleasing God by
his deeds. Therefore, if man is to be saved,
it cannot come from himself. According to our Gospel, according
to the Gospel of God, salvation is never by what man does for
God. Salvation cannot be worked from
the outside in. It must be something that God
does for the sinner. Our Lord said, no man can come
to me. Why do you suppose that men won't
come? Salvation's free. It's the only
thing really free. It is. It's the only thing that
doesn't cost you anything. And yet men still will not come.
Why? They can't. They can't come. Except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. And the third thing, the fourth
thing is this. We believe that the word of God is the source.
We believe that the God according to this word that wrote this
word is sovereign in salvation. We believe that that man is absolutely
depraved according to the word of God. And we also preach this,
that God has from the beginning chosen some to salvation by Jesus
Christ. We preach the doctrine of God's
sovereign election. This is the gospel, the gospel. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Listen to the language of the
Apostle Paul, and I'm going to give you that other one in Ephesians
1 in just a second, but listen to the language, what he expresses
when he talks about election. It's always thanksgiving and
praise. When he talks about election,
it's just always being thankful. Look what he says, ìWe are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord.î Now why are we giving thanks, Paul? Why are we giving
thanks? ìBecause God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation.î I got a phone call many years ago,
this man, he was, I wouldnít argue about it, He said, you
find one scripture that elections unto salvation and I'll believe
it. God had chosen you from the beginning
to what? Unto what? Salvation. He hung up. Anyone
here? Why, he's not thankful. Election
to him is an evil doctrine. And I tell you, the one who is
depraved and knew it, it's a wonderful doctrine if God had not chosen
then there would none of us have been saved. None of us. He'd give thanks. Because of the depravity of man,
because man by nature could not and would not come to God, God
hath from the beginning to manifest His grace and mercy chose some
to salvation. The true gospel says that God
chose a people. And it was the will and purpose
of God to save this people. Jesus told his disciples, you
have not chosen me. I have chosen you. I have chosen
you. We know this is real clear in
Romans chapter 9 concerning the two infants, same mother, same
father, same womb, born almost at the same time, and yet God
made choice among them. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Why? That the gospel according
to election might stand. Not of him that, not of works,
but of him that calleth. Salvation is by mercy and not
works. Therefore, what do we do? We
who believe the one true gospel, we praise God for his electing
grace. We thank God for it. He says
in Ephesians, thanks be to, he said, Ephesians chapter one. He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's given blessing and praise
and honor. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Here's why. According. I said, why am I blessing the
Father? According as He had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. for this purpose,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. Here's his
motivation, in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. That's the means, by Jesus Christ
to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. There's that sovereignty again
in it. To the praise of the glory of his grace. We who preach the
gospel, we cannot exclude election, because if there were no election,
there would be no salvation. Election is not salvation. It's
to it, but it's, it's necessary. It's vital without it. There
is no gospel. There is no gospel without the
electing grace of the father. In fact, this is the work of
the father, isn't it? In salvation, the electing of
his people. So we see that God did by grace
choose some, therefore we rejoice to preach election. We sing this
in our congregation often, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for
Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee had thou not chosen me.'" The fifth thing is this, that
we preach, we preach the word of God as the source. We preach
that God is sovereign. We preach that man is depraved. We preach that God has chosen
the people and we preach this, that Jesus Christ, the son of
God is a successful savior. A successful savior. That Christ,
the son of God effectually redeemed his people. And the word effectual,
you hear that often, but what does it mean? One preacher says
it gets the job done. That's what it means. When Jesus
Christ redeemed his people, he got the job done. That's what we preach concerning
Jesus Christ. A false religion holds that Christ
died for all men, but some, Men he died in vain for, they
will end up in hell. In other words, the Christ of
this generation is a failure. He wanted to do something, but
he can't. Something got in the way. Man got in the way and ruined
his purpose. That is not the gospel, friends. That is not the Christ of this
gospel. That's another gospel. That's not another. That's a
Christ who is another. That's not the God of this. Why?
Because in Isaiah he simply declares this, He shall not fail nor be
discouraged. When my servant comes, he is
not going to fail. He is going to accomplish everything
he purposes to do. And what was that? It was to
satisfy the justice of God for his people. Isaiah 53, Isaiah
53. We preach the gospel. We preach
Christ. The son of God is a successful savior. Isaiah 53. You see verse six, we all like sheep
have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way. That's us. But here's our hope. The Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened
not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shears his tongue. So he
opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. It's as though the prophet Isaiah
were standing there at Pilate's judgment hall. It's as though
he were there at Herod's. He was delivered from prison
to what? Judgment. It's as though he were recording
what was taking place during the trial of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's as though he was recording the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He was cut off from the land
of the living. Why? Why was he cut off? For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and the rich in his death because he did no violence, neither was
there any deceit found in his mouth. Yet I want you to know
that all of this, yet it pleased the Lord. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He put him to grief. when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be
satisfied. This was 700 years before Christ
actually did this. When Christ Jesus came into this
world, He did not fail to save His people. All the righteousness His people
needed, He made. All the redemption His people
needed, He paid. All our justification, all our
sanctification, all our righteousness, all our wisdom, God made Him
to be everything for us. And when He came into this world,
He actually accomplished all of that. We do not preach a disheartened
Savior. We preach a successful Savior.
Any Savior that failed is another gospel, which is not another. We preach a victorious savior,
one who did it. Go to Hebrews 10. Look at this
magnificent passage of scripture. I quoted just a section of it. He says in verse 9, Then said
He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God, He taketh away the first.
Verse 9, Taketh away the first, He may establish the second.
God's not satisfied with those offerings. He's not satisfied
with burnt offerings and sacrifices. He has no pleasure in those things.
All those things were only to picture His Son. They weren't
ever meant to take away sin. But when He come, He said, Lo,
I come to do Thy will, O God. And by this, He taketh away the
first. that he may establish the second,
the covenant of works and law he did away with. And he established
the covenant of grace. Listen, by the which will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for
all. How often are you sanctified? How many times? How many times
have you been sanctified? once, sanctified by the will
of God and actually through the death of Jesus Christ you were
made holy. What is holiness but absence of sin? Where'd your
sin go? Where'd your sin go? It's gone.
He bore it away. I like that picture of the great
David Tolman when that scapegoat, they confessed the sin of the
scapegoat. They get this big strong guy. They put that goat
on his shoulders and he goes out there into the country. And
you see him go. And he's pretty big at the beginning.
But as he goes, he gets smaller and smaller until what? Can't
see him no more. He's gone. There's your sin.
It's gone. What's left? Holiness. He made it for you. Victorious
Savior. Successful Savior. We praise
God for his victory. That by his offering, and look
at that in verse 14, he says, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. The Son of God we preach is a
successful, victorious Savior. Next thing is this, we preach
the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit. We preach the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit. The false gospel says that man
can resist the Spirit of God. Now there is a general call that
will be, and by nature is naturally resisted. The general call is
always resisted, isn't it? If man's left to himself, he
will never hear this, he will never want this, he will never
know his need. But when God the Holy Spirit
intends to save a man, that call is irresistible. It's irresistible. Why? Because salvation is not
based upon the will of man. When God intends to save a man,
he's gonna send a man, he's gonna send him with that one gospel,
he's gonna send him with this gospel, a gospel of victory. A gospel that declares him to
be a dead dog sinner. A gospel that declares he has
no hope in himself. And then he's going to point
him to Christ. And if the Holy Spirit ever gets
a hold of that man, he will believe on Jesus Christ. He can't do
anything else. There was one lady came into
our church many years ago, and people know this, I'd say this
a lot, because it's a beautiful illustration of how the Spirit
works upon a person. She came in and I asked her,
had she come to know Christ. She said, well, I was not believing. She said, I wouldn't believe.
Matter of fact, I was adamant to not believe. Somebody gave
me a message and I started that message and I did not believe. But somehow during the message
I couldn't do anything else but believe. Isn't that true with
you? You that believe, can you do
anything else? I could ask you, do you want
to do anything else? But can you? It's like Lazarus. Lazarus was dead in that tomb.
And when Christ said his name, Lazarus, come forth. Do you suppose
there could be any resistance? Neither it is when the Spirit
of God comes to save a man. Listen, the wind bloweth where
it wants to. You don't know where it's coming
and where it's going, do you? So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. We preach an irresistible call
of the Spirit. Next, we preach this, that those
who are called are free from the law. This is vitally important. Because that's the whole book
now we're talking about Galatians. That was what the whole book's
about. Those who believe in Christ, you are absolutely 100% free
from the law. We just read that. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. Can't establish the
covenant of grace had the law not been satisfied. So Jesus
Christ, when I said he's victorious, he's victorious in what? He's
victorious in his obedience to the law and his sacrifice that
the law demanded. He was, the law is perfectly
satisfied with him. And because you are in him, the
law is perfectly satisfied with you. The law can demand nothing from
you. Nothing. Why? You're perfect. I don't care how you feel about
it. It doesn't matter what our senses tell us. Faith tells us
differently. We are free from the law. Why? We've satisfied the law in Christ. And matter of fact, if you bring
the law back into it, Christ profits you nothing. Go to Galatians
3. This is exactly what the Galatian
Judaizers were doing. Go to Galatians 3. Look at this. Paul says, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? Before
whose eyes Christ was evidently set forth, crucified among you.
I preached Christ to you, didn't I? I preached His victory, His
success. He was crucified among you. This
only would I learn of you. Receive the Spirit by the works
of the law or by the hearing of faith. How did the Spirit
come to you? He come to you by the law. Is
that how He came to you? Or by the hearing of faith? He's
asking an obvious question that is only, of course, it's by the
Spirit give me faith. Yes, by the grace of God, the
Spirit of God gave me faith. It wasn't by the law. Are you so foolish having begun
in the Spirit, you now made perfect by the law? Does that not summarize
every Reformed church now, Reformed theology anyway? It does. They say we're saved by grace.
And then what? They say, well, we're made perfect
by the law. No, you're falling from grace. You're preaching another gospel,
which is not another. Look what he says in verse 10,
for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. As it is written, curse is everyone
that continued not in all things written in the book of the law
to do that. Got that? All things. Again, very deep, what does that
mean? All things written in the book
of the law. Sacrifices, dietary law, moral law, ceremonial law. If you take one, you have to
take them all. And if you take them all, this
is the pronouncement of God, cursed. That's what you get.
You want the law? We are saved by grace, have no
desire to be back under law. None. Because all the law can do is
curse me. It can't help me. It can't save me. There's no
help to Christ. None whatsoever. But no man is
justified by the law on the side of God. That's just evident.
I just like the way he talks. That's just evident, isn't it?
Don't you get it? That's evident. For the just
is not to live by the law. How's the just lived? We live
by faith. We live by faith. And because of this, we are free
from the law. Friends, if anybody, and I want
you to know this again, this idea of progressive sanctification
is seducing to the flesh. Because we all want to measure
our faith. We want a measurement. Do I really
believe? And so what do we begin to do?
Begin to look at what we're doing to measure ourselves. You're
always going to come up short. It's never going to provide comfort.
What do you do? Don't look to what you do, look
what He did. He finished it. It's full. It's
complete. It's done. There's the measurement. 100% successful. Why would I want to go back under
a law that I cannot fulfill? Don't do it. So then we are free from the
law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Isn't that satisfying? Take a deep breath. That's good. Burden gone. It's gone. No burden. What do you have to
do? Nothing. It's done. The three words he said at the
cross, what was it? It is finished. What does that mean? It means it's done. What does
that mean? It means it's finished. Just keep going round and round.
It's done. What else do you need to do?
I need to keep putting off the old man and his deeds. I need
to stop trying to rely on him, period. Because that's all the
flesh wants to do, is rely on myself. Put him off! To put on
the new man is simply to look to Christ, free from the law. The eighth thing is this, we
preach this, that every sinner that comes to Christ shall be
saved. Isn't that right? This is good. I know God's got an elect people,
I just don't know who they are. That's why I preach to everybody.
I know this, our preaching is 100% successful and the church
is always full. The church is never empty. It's
always at maximum capacity. That's a good thing, isn't it?
I'm not talking about your pew numbers and stuff like that.
I'm talking about the real church. There's somebody out there that
still must believe. Somebody God chose, somebody
Christ redeemed, and yet they've not yet come in. And when their
time of love comes, they're coming in. With us, with religion, it's
more like a gamble. They're gambling. They're kind
of rolling the dice. Maybe somebody will come, maybe
they won't. I know this, that if Christ wants
you tonight, He'll take you. He even used this weak, feeble
preacher to preach you the gospel. He always gets his man. And I know this, whosoever believes
on Jesus Christ is saved. There's no progression in this.
You're saved. The moment you believe, you're
saved. And every moment after, you're saved. You know why? Because the last thing I would
have to mention, the ninth thing is this. Everyone who is saved
shall persevere to the end. Peter said we are kept. By what? Power of God. Some of y'all have been here
a long time. You've heard everything I said over and over and over
again. Why does it still bring you joy?
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that astounding? That this
message still thrills you because you were kept. by the
power of God unto salvation ready to be revealed. I don't know
what real, I don't know what full salvation looks like. I believe that I am fully, completely
safe. I just have no real full experience
of it. I've got a down payment. That's
what the scripture says. I've got a down payment. I've
got the spirit of God dwelling in me. I've got a new nature.
And I believe, and there's some things that I do experience,
but I don't have really a clue as to what it really is. Not
by experience, by faith I do, not experience. We are kept by
the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed, as though
he's sitting on the edge of his seat, ready to give it to you. Do you realize that God rejoices
in this? that he rejoices to save you? I think it was in Zephaniah he
said that he sings. He sings over you to give you
this. Why? Because it magnifies the
glory of his grace. That's why. It magnifies himself
to save you. And friends, any other gospel
that is preached that's not this gospel is not a gospel at all.
Here's our source. What does this talk about? It
talks about Christ. The God of this book is sovereign
in salvation, sovereign in providence. Any God that's not is not God. This book teaches us man is depraved.
Anybody teaches anything else, run away from him. This book teaches us God's sovereign
election. Anybody that won't preach election
and is ashamed of it is preaching another gospel. Don't listen
to them. Any other Christ than a victorious,
successful Christ is not Christ. Any spirit that's trying to save
you but can't is not the Holy Spirit. We believe that sinners that
believe are saved, completely saved. You know the thief on
the cross was just as saved as Paul? And he was only saved for
about six hours. Did Paul receive anything better
than this man? No. Why? Because Christ is the
merit for both of them. And everyone who believes shall
persevere to the end because they're kept. Now listen, anybody
preach any other gospel to you than that, let them go to hell. That's how serious this is, friend.
May God help us not to be seduced by these Judaizers, by these
work mongers. Because I'm telling you, if Peter
could, you and I can too. Don't fall for it. There's only
one gospel. It is a message of sovereign
grace in Christ alone. I pray God blesses to you.