Would you turn with me to Second
Corinthians chapter three? Tonight, I'm going to be speaking
out of Malachi chapter three, and it's where God says to his
people, prove me. Now, that's a awesome thing to
think the Lord says to his people, put me to the test, prove me. And I want to speak on the subject
of proving God. Second Corinthians, chapter three.
I'd like to read. From verse four down to the end
of the chapter. And such trust. Have we through
Christ to Godward Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,
who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of
the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit Now, he's contrasting in the
rest of this chapter, the Old Testament and the New Testament,
the letter and the spirit. He's setting one against the
other by contrast. So let's go on reading. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away? How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceeding glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth. For that which is done away was
glorious much more. That which remaineth is glorious. Seeing, then, that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech And not as Moses would
put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished, but
their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. When it shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away." Now, the Lord is that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. But we all, with open or unveiled
face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed. into the same image, from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. In this passage of Scripture,
Paul is contrasting the Old Testament and the New Testament. Law and
gospel, the letter and the Spirit. Now, definition of terms, that's
always very important. What is meant by the Old Testament
when Paul is speaking of the Old Testament in this passage
of Scripture? He's not simply speaking of Genesis through Malachi. He is talking about salvation,
and this is what the Old Testament is. Please listen real carefully.
If you want to understand what the Old Testament is, here it
is. ultimately dependent upon what
man does. That is the Old Testament. Salvation ultimately dependent,
contingent upon, predicated upon, however you want to say it. Salvation
ultimately dependent upon what man does. Now here is the Old
Testament. Salvation, your eternal destiny,
ultimately is dependent upon you, what you do. That is salvation by works. Now, the Old Testament can take
many forms. It might be keeping the Ten Commandments. If you keep the Ten Commandments,
if you can personally do that, you'll be saved. Here's another
form of the Old Testament. God loves you. Christ died for
you. God wants to save you. He's paid
for all your sins. Christ died for you. But as to
whether or not you'll be saved, it's up to you. You have to do
something to activate what he did for you. And if you don't
do it, you won't be saved. That is salvation by works because
it makes salvation ultimately dependent upon you. And the New
Testament gives us a glorious illustration of what the Old
Testament is all about. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
four. Verse 21, Paul says to the Galatians, tell
me you that desire to be under the law, under the Old Testament. Salvation ultimately depended
upon something you do. Tell me you that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law? Don't
you hear what it says? For it's written that Abraham,
and this is interesting, when Paul is going to describe the
Old Testament, he doesn't go to the Ten Commandments. He gives
us a story about Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael. For it's written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, Hagar, the other by a free woman,
Sarah. Now, do you remember the story?
Here's the story. God promised Abraham a son. Fifteen years pass and still
no son. Sarah says, Abraham, God has
promised us a son, but we need to do our part. Obviously, the
reason we don't have one yet is because we haven't done our
part. God's promise will fall to the ground if we don't do
our part. Now, here's Hagar, my servant. You go in into her and you'll
have, we'll have a child through her. We've got to do our part
to make what God says to do work. Now that's what he uses to illustrate
law us doing our part. Let's go and read verse 23. But
he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh. There
wasn't anything miraculous. He went into a young woman and
she had a child. But he of the free woman, Sarah,
who had already gone through the act of menopause. It was
impossible for her to have a child, humanly speaking. But there was
something miraculous in the birth of Isaac. She'd already gone
through menopause, and yet she has a child. Which things, verse
24, are an allegory. For these are the two covenants,
Old Testament and New Testament. The one from Mount Sinai, where
the giving of the law was, which genders the bondage, is Hagar.
For this Hagar is Mount Sinai. Now, listen to the language.
Hagar is the law. That's who Hagar represents,
the law, Mount Sinai, the giving of the Ten Commandments. If salvation
is dependent upon me doing my part, That is law. That's the Old Testament. For
this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem,
which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem,
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all, speaking
of every believer. For it's written, Rejoice thou
barren at Sarah, who lacked the ability to bear. Break forth
and try thou that prevails not, for the desolate Sarah hath many
more children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of the promise. But as then he
that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what sayeth
the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son. Cast her out. Don't have anything
to do with salvation by works. Don't have anything to do with
the old covenant. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be
heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we're
not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Now, salvation,
by works, the Old Testament, the letter, is salvation in some
way dependent upon you. It's where the buck stops. You
know, you've heard the saying, the buck stops here. It means
man is the ultimate determining factor in his salvation. God's
done his part, but we've got to do our part. That is law. Now, the New Testament salvation
by grace, the spirit, the gospel, the New Testament is salvation
being utterly dependent upon Christ doing his part. It works like this, Hebrews chapter
one, verse three says, when he had by himself. Note that when he had by himself
with no help from you, with no contribution from you, without
you doing anything, when He had by Himself purged us of our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high, from henceforth expecting till His
enemies be made His footstool. The New Testament is salvation
by Christ, by what He did. He did it Now, Paul calls the Old Testament
letter, and the New Testament spirit. The Old Testament is
the letter. The letter has no life. Notice he says in verse 6, the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. You cannot get any
spiritual good from that which has no life. We only get physical
nourishment from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, that which
comes from living organisms. That's the only way we can derive
any physical nourishment. We cannot be nourished by things
that never had life. We cannot live off laboratory-produced,
man-made artificial sweetener. That won't do you any good at
all. You can only live off that which
comes from life. You know, the closest man can
come to making food is artificial sweetener. And you can't live
off that, can you? The Spirit gives life. As a matter of fact, look what
verse 17 says. Now, the Lord, 2nd Corinthians 3, the Lord is
that spirit, the spirit being spoken of the letter in the spirit.
The Lord is that spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. Only God can give life. I can't
give life. I can't impart life. You can't
impart life. No, we can't produce life in
a laboratory. Only God can give life and only
the gospel, only the spirit. can give life. The Lord said, it's the spirit that quickens. The flesh profits nothing. The spirit is living. The flesh is a picture. The letter is a picture. That's
what I mean, the letter. It's a picture. It's an outline.
It's a drawing. It may be a very perfect It may
look just like the real thing, but there's no life in a letter. You can't have a relationship
with a picture of somebody. You can only have a relationship
with a real, living person. A picture is not going to keep
you warm at night. It must be a real, living person. The letter gives life. The letter
is the Lord Himself. I mean, I'm sorry, the spirit
gives life, the spirit is the Lord himself, the letter cannot
give life. The letter is the proper spelling
and the enunciation of a word. You can properly spell big words
and impress everybody, but that doesn't mean you know what the
meaning is. You see, where there's life, there's an understanding
of the meaning, not just the proper spelling, but the meaning.
Literally, the letter is tracing. That's what the word means, tracing.
And as I brought out, I think it was last couple of weeks ago,
I remember when I was a kid, I used to love to put a piece
of paper over the comics and I'd trace out the picture and
I'd look at it and I could do a perfect Mickey Mouse. I can
do a perfect Daffy Duck, all those different films. I can
do it great. But what my work wasn't, it wasn't real. It was
just tracing. And the letter doesn't give real
life, it's just tracing. It's intellectual only. Letter,
spirit, law, gospel, death, and life. The letter is intellectual
only. The cognitive thought process.
The spirit is the Holy Spirit breathed life-giving knowledge
being born of the spirit. Now, let's look at the way Paul
contrasts these two things. Old Testament, which is represented
by the letter. The New Testament, which is represented
by the spirit. And he says, In verse 6, he's
made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
the old, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills. That's
all it does. It kills. But the Spirit gives
life. The letter salvation by law cannot
produce life. And you just write that down.
If that's the message I've heard and believed, I have No life. The letter cannot produce the
life of God in the soul. Only the spirit gives life. Because the gospel, God, the
father, God, the son and God, the spirit is life giving. The words, our Lord said that
I speak unto you, their spirit and their life. Our Lord said,
I'm come that they might have life and they might have it more
abundantly in this theme of life. Listen, listen real carefully. Life, spiritual life, eternal
life is actually the life of God in you. Now that's a, that can be believed,
understood, no. But it's the life of God in you. It's God breathing his life into
your soul. That which is born That which
is birthed of the Spirit is Spirit. This is a wholly supernatural
thing. It's not just getting some agreement
to some things and saying, yeah, I see that. No, it's God's life
being birthed into your soul. That's life. The Spirit gives
life. Only God can do that. The letter,
all it does is kill. All it does is expose sin. Look in verse 7 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. But if the ministration of death,
and that's what he calls the Old Testament, all it does is
kill. That's it. Nothing else. It kills. If the
ministration of death, written and engraved in stones so that
you could see it, was glorious. So that the children of Israel
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory
of his countenance, which glory was done away, how shall not
the spirit, the ministration of the spirit, the New Testament,
be rather glorious? Now the letter was written in
stone. The spirit writes on the heart.
Look back in verse three. For as much as you are manifestly
declared to be the epistles of Christ ministered by us, written
not with ink, But with the spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. Now, the letter
is written in stone. We can see it. We can see it
even makes sense to us. It's something written down.
There it is. To me, the simplest illustration
of this is. What if I write down two and
two equals four? Now, I see that. I grasp that. I understand that. I understand
how 2 and 2 equals 4. I've got that down pat. 2 and
2 equals 4. But you know what? It doesn't do anything for me. I'm not moved by that. It's just
so. I'm sure not going to die for
it. Will you die for the fact that 2 and 2 is 4? No, I'll say
it's 5. I'll say five. I'm not willing to die for that.
It's not something that captivates me. I see it. I believe it. You can see the doctrines of
grace. You can see how the Bible does,
in fact, teach that men are totally depraved. That's what the Bible
says. God elected a people. Christ died for the elect. God's
grace is invincible and irresistible. They will. You can see. Yeah,
it makes sense. But that's not faith. That is not faith. That's intellectual. That's the
cognitive thought process. It makes sense. Well, sure, it
should make sense, but that is not faith. With the heart, man
believeth unto righteousness. It means it's not just giving
a sense of some facts. It's the heart. Well, with my understanding,
I believe that Christ is my righteousness before God. I understand that.
I understand it ain't my righteousness, it is. I understand that, but
not only do I understand this, I love this. I love being saved
by Christ. Do you love this? Not only do
I love this, if I'm given the choice, as far as my will goes,
would you rather be saved by Christ's righteousness or by
your own righteousness if you could have one? I'd rather be
saved by Christ's. You see, it's with the heart.
Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem. When it says comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. It's literally
to the heart. Tell them her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. She
is received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The letter is the ministration
of condemnation. The spirit is the Ministration
of righteousness, verse 3, once again, for as much as you are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered
by us with ink, not with the spirit of the living God, not
in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. Verse 7,
if the ministration of death written in engraved stones was
glorious, so much of a ministration so that the children couldn't
Steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was done away. How shall not the ministration
of spirit be rather glorious? Verse nine, for if the ministration
of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of
righteousness exceeding glory. Now, Old Testament, New Testament,
Old Testament letter is a ministry of condemnation. All it can do
is condemn. That's all God's law can do is condemn you. All
an understanding of the gospel simply on an intellectual level. All that does is condemn you.
But the ministration of righteousness, he calls the gospel actually
the ministration of righteousness. I love thinking about this. The
gospel makes me righteous. Now, the law, all it can do is
condemn me. It exposes my faults and exposes
my sins. It shows me how weak I am. It
shows me how sinful I am. But it doesn't give me any hope.
It doesn't give me any power. All it does is condemn. But the
gospel is called the ministration of righteousness. Now, what is
righteousness? Righteousness is a perfect standing
before God's holy law. So that God's holy law looks
me over and says, there's no sin there. That's righteousness. It's not just never having done
anything wrong. You know, so many people in their
lives, well, what's wrong with it? You know, I haven't done this
wrong. Well, not only righteousness, it is not simply not having done
anything wrong, it's always having done that which is right. Now,
God's people have righteousness in the gospel. Now, how can that
be? Righteousness, there's only one
righteousness. David said, I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. There's only one righteousness.
Preachers will talk about imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness.
And that's that's really not right. You know, this word imputed
in the Bible is never used as an adjective, always as a verb. What do I mean by that? Well,
it's not imputed righteousness. It's righteousness imputed. There's all the difference in
the world. Now, righteousness, a perfect standing before God's
holy law. How can the gospel make me righteous? Because I
certainly don't feel righteous. As far as my experience goes,
I don't know how. Well, my sin, the sins of all
God's elect were placed upon Christ. He was guilty. My sin, my personal sin, my personal
transgression, the filthiness and wickedness of my sin. He
was made to be. And God killed him because that's
what he had coming. He deserved to die because my
sin became his sin. And just as truly as my sin became
his sin, his righteousness is mine. And I stand before God
righteous. Now, his righteousness, his righteous
nature, this is what the new birth is. His righteous nature,
that holy nature is imparted to me in the new birth. Now,
this doesn't mean that God, by his grace, works on my old nature
and I gradually become better and better and better. And I
become more and more holy and less and less sinful. No, it
doesn't mean that at all. That's just foolishness. What this means
is God puts a new nature, a new heart that was not there before.
And I have a righteous nature. This is the nature that loves
God. Now, I still have that sinful nature. I'm painfully aware of
that. But I have a new nature. Now, the spirit, the gospel,
the New Testament makes righteous. All the Old Testament does is
convene. The letter is done away with
and the spirit is eternal. Look in verse 11. For that which is done away was
glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Now, the letter is done away
with, the Old Testament. Paul put it this way. You're
not under law. You're under grace. The Old Testament
has been done away with. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. The writer to the Hebrews described
the Old Testament as that which decayeth and waxes old and is
ready to vanish away. It's not going to last. The law
has been fulfilled and put away. But the spirit, the gospel, is
eternal. It remains, it continues. We read of eternal life, eternal
redemption, the eternal gospel, and all that God does is eternal. And the gospel remains. The reason
I'm going to persevere is because the gospel perseveres. The reason
I'm going to endure is because I'm in him. He endures, he remains,
he is eternal. I love that hymn, Jesus, listen
to the words of this, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness.
My beauties are, my glorious dress, midst flaming worlds in
these arrayed. With joy shall I lift up my head,
when from the dust of death I rise, to take my mansions in the skies.
Even then shall this be all my plea, that Jesus lived and died
for me. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay, while through thy
blood exalted I am. from sin's tremendous curse and
shame, this spotless robe the same appears. When ruined nature
sinks in years, no age can change its glorious hue. The robe of
Christ is ever new. The reason I cannot fall away
is because the gospel remaineth. It is eternal. Look in verses 9 and 10 of 2
Corinthians chapter 3. For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory. Let's talk about the Ten Commandments.
And the Ten Commandments are glorious. Can you imagine what
it was like when the finger of God wrote the law and the mountain
was smoking? And even if a beast touched the
mountain that God wrote on, it would be stoned. God said, worship
ye afar off. It was glorious. What do you say about much more
that the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory? For even that
which was made glorious had no glory in respect by reason of
the glory that excelleth." Oh, the gospel is so much more glorious
than the law. You see, the law has been done
away with. It doesn't remain. But the gospel remains eternally. It is the glory that excels. Now the letter is veiled and
obscured. Look in verse 13. And notice,
not as Moses, which put a veil over his face. You remember that
in the Old Testament, when he came back after having received
the law, his face was shining so much that the children of
Israel couldn't look at him. And he had to put a veil over
his face to talk to him. And not as Moses, which put a
veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But
their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the
same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away with in Christ. But even unto this
day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts. Now,
under the Old Testament, the Shekinah glory of God was in
the Holy of Holies. a true light, but there was a
veil separating, and no one ever saw it. And the children of Israel,
what did they see? All they saw was a tabernacle
covered with badger skin. That's it. But the believer is
allowed to see the very glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Veiled, obscure. You know, under
the Old Testament, you never knew if you'd done enough. There
always had to be another sacrifice, another sacrifice, another. You
never had confidence. Have I done enough? Are all my
bases covered? But in the New Testament, you've
done enough. You see clearly that all that's
needed for God to be pleased with you is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see that clearly. Verse 16, nevertheless, When
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away, and
turning to the Lord, you'll see. If you don't turn to the Lord,
you won't see. But if you turn to the Lord, you'll see. Now,
the Lord is that spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. There's freedom. Under the Old
Testament, there's nothing but bondage. Knowing all is paid
and nothing left undone, I have freedom. That's what freedom
is. Freedom is knowing I don't owe anything, and I get to do
what I want to do. Lord willing, we're going to
consider that more next week when we're going to consider this
thing Christian liberty. But here's what it is in a nutshell.
Under the gospel, I owe nothing. All God requires of me, I have. I stand perfect before the law,
and I'm serving him because I want to. Not because I'm afraid not
to, but because I want to. Now look in verse 12, 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, seeing that we have such hope. What is the hope? Well, the life
of God is in my heart. That's a hope, isn't it? I possess
the very righteousness of God. And I can't fall away. I'm going
to endure eternally because of the eternal nature of the gospel.
I have the glory of Christ given to me, seeing we have such hope. And here's my hope. My hope is that when I stand
before God in judgment, He's going to look me over and He's
going to say, you're perfect. You're without sin. You've always
done what is right. You've never done what is wrong.
You know, that idea of believers standing before God and being
judged by their works and giving a given a particular reward in
heaven based on how good you've been or how bad you've been,
maybe if you're in the slums, if you didn't do really good,
you're going to have a shack. But if you did really good, you'd
have a big mansion, drive a Rolls Royce. Everything's going to
be great. That's so evil. That's so evil. What can you
do to add to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Would
your works make his righteousness better in any way? That's offensive,
isn't it? That's offensive. No, the believer
stands. Here's my hope that when I stand
before God in judgment, he's not going to say, well, you didn't
witness here enough and you didn't pray enough and you didn't. No,
I'm going to stand before God without guilt. perfectly righteous
through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
my hope. Now, seeing we have such hope, the hope of God's
grace, we use great plainness of speech. Plainness of speech. I've done that, too. I don't know how many times I've
sat through a service and thought, When will this be over? When
I was a kid, you've all done that too. You all heard the story
of a little boy that was sitting in the service in World War II,
and they put up pictures of people who were killed in the service,
in wartime and everything. A little boy sitting down with
his daddy. He said to his daddy, he said,
Daddy, who are those people? He said, son, son, they were
men who were killed in the service. He said, morning or evening? I was like... Seeing we have such hope, we
use great plainness. Plainness of speech. Well, in opposition to this,
look in chapter two, verse 17. For we are not as many which
corrupt the word of God. Look in chapter four, verse one, therefore,
seeing we have this ministry as we've received mercy, we think
not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully. using
it to maintain our position, but by manifestation of the truth,
we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Now, this plain speech stands in opposition to all timidity,
all desire to deceive, or the fear of consequence, not covering
the truth with wisdom of words, not speaking an ambiguous language,
where you could take it any way you wanted, whatever position
you hold, you can get something out of it. That's not the way
we preach. We use great plainness of speech. I'm not trying to package the
gospel in order to reach the culture. I'm not trying to market it in
such a way as will make it more attractive to natural men. That's
deceitful. If you're packaging something,
that means you're trying to cover something up. You're trying to
make it more appealing. We don't do that. I'm not about
trying to make the gospel more appealing for one reason. To
me, it is appealing just the way it is. I don't want to try
to package it. I'd run it. That's like taking
a beautiful painting. And so this is one of the great
masters didn't say, well, let me put my mark on it to improve
it. But no, if I touch it, I'd ruin
it, wouldn't I? We use great plainness. boldness, simplicity of speech. We begin with the Word of God. The Bible is the inspired, infallible,
inerrant Word of God. Now, can I prove that to you?
No. Do I feel any need to? No. If you don't believe it's the
Word of God, God hasn't revealed Himself to you. There's nothing
I can do about that. If you know who God is, you know
that this is His Word. It's not intellectually proven.
I'm not giving proofs, you know, people proving the Bible is the
Word of God. I don't need to. I know because I know His voice.
My sheep hear my voice. The Bible is our only rule of
faith and practice. That's it. Now, there's no, there
it is. The Bible is God's word. That's
why, you know, we don't, you know, what do y'all have a church
covenant and church? No, no, we don't have any of that kind
of stuff. The Bible is our rule of faith and practice. I think
it's interesting how some people have a four or 500 page document
to show you how the Bibles are. No, just get rid of that document.
The Bible is our only rule of faith of practice. We believe
what the Bible says. It's the Word of God. It's God's
revelation of Himself. And God is as the Bible declares
Him to be. God is absolutely sovereign.
Now, what do I mean by that? That means I'm in His hands. That means you're in His hands.
And your destiny, you have no control in it. It's up to Him. as to whether or not you'll be
saved, or whether he'll pass you by. Your eternal destiny
is utterly in his hands. Is that a good place to be? You
know, some people see no safety in that. That's the only place
of safety I see, because if my destiny is in my hands, I know
what's going to happen. I will not be saved. If my destiny
is in my hands, if it's a... To say God is sovereign is as
simple as to say God is God. He is the cause. He's the first
cause of all things. He reigns. He's in control. He's
holy. He's just. He's everything, all-powerful,
everything the Bible declares Him to be. God is God. Greatness of speech. And man
is who the Bible declares Him to be. Dead in sins. Graveyard dead. What can a dead man do to give
himself life? Preach to him, plead with him,
persuade him. What good does it do? Nothing
as far as life goes. God's got to give him life or
he will remain dead. Now we preach. We preach to all
men. Somebody says, why preach to
dead men? Because God said to. That's another reason, isn't
it? Go out and preach the gospel to every creature. But we know
this, the only way there will be life is if God gives life. And here's why there will be
life, because before time began, and you listen to me real carefully,
before time began, God selected a vast number of people to be
saved. He didn't choose everybody. He didn't. He chose a great number,
but it wasn't everybody. Somebody says, well, how could
that be fair? Well, it's fair because God does it. Whatever
God does is fair. And if you talk about fairness,
fairness is mean you're going to hell. That's just write it
down. That's what's fair. If you want
God to be fair with you, he'll send you to hell. But God, because
he's gracious, he chose a people called election before time began.
We don't use words on that. I don't want glory in this. It's who God is. Christ Jesus,
God's son, came into the world as a representative of God's
elect. He didn't come to save everybody. He came to save the
elect. And you know what he did? He
saved them. He saved them. Everybody that he intended to
save, he saved. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for them which you've given me. For they are thine. I lay down my life for the sheep.
This is what he came to do. We use great plainness of speech.
Don't try to hide this. Don't try to speak in such a
way as it could be taken either way and we can keep everybody
happy. No, we use great plainness of speech. The grace of God the
Holy Spirit is irresistible and invincible. God's grace saves. Grace is not an offer. Grace
is salvation. It's God coming in and giving
you life. And everybody, listen, everybody that God elected, everybody
that Christ died for, Everybody that God the Holy Spirit calls,
they will persevere in the faith. They'll continue all the way
to the end looking to Christ. They won't leave. He said, I
give my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man can pluck them out of my Father's hand. Now,
seeing that we have such hope, Oh, what hope we have. It's a
sure hope. You know, I hope the weather
gets warmer. Don't you? My hope, that doesn't
mean a will. The hope we're talking about
is a sure hope. I have a sure hope that I stand
before God right now without sin and that I'll be accepted
on Judgment Day. Now, seeing that we have a hope
like this, We use great plainness of speech. Old Testament, New Testament,
letter and spirit, law and gospel. There's an infinite difference
between the two. May God give us grace. to be of the Spirit,
of the gospel, of grace, and not of the letter, not of the
law, not of the Old Testament. And let me leave you with this
thought. I mean, how in the world can I know that
I'm of the Spirit? How can I have some part in the
New Testament? How can I know that I have some
part of what Christ did? I want to be one of these people
in the New Testament, don't you? I don't want to be of the Old
Testament. I want to be of the New Testament. How can I know whether I am a
part of this thing of the New Testament? Now, there's one way
you can know. Paul, in Acts chapter 13 and
48, it says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Do you believe the gospel? By belief, I'm not just simply
saying, do you believe that this is what the Bible teaches? I'm
saying, are you relying right now on Jesus Christ as your righteousness
before God? Are you relying on Him for everything? Do you really believe that He
is all in salvation? Are you entrusting the salvation
of your soul to Him? or your hands are off, you're
looking to Him only. Now, if you do, you are of the
Spirit. You are in the New Testament. You are in Christ. May God give
every one of us the grace to commit the salvation of our souls
to Him only. And if you do, the Lord's done
something for you. Let's pray.