Well, it's a pleasure being here
tonight. I appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity
to preach. I hope this is a blessing to you. It's been a blessing
to me. I preached this message a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed
the study. So I'll be in Hebrews chapter
12. I'll deal with verse 1 mainly, but
I'll read the first three verses. Hebrews 12 verse 1 says, Wherefore,
seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds. This this book has been a tremendous
blessing to me to go through. I've talked to several people
who say they'd never preachers who say they never want to preach
through this. But I don't really understand it. There's some difficult
chapters 11. I had a lot of trouble with just
telling how to deal with it. But this is so simple. It's a
simple book written to simple people. And if we I think if
we try to complicate it, we lose it. But What simple words we're
looking at tonight? And this book was written, obviously,
in the first century. Paul, we think, is the writer,
at least I do. And it was written to Jews that
were turning to Christianity. They came out of a legalistic
system and turned to Christianity. And, of course, what did they
do? Just like you all, when you were converted, you brought some
of the old stuff with you. And this is what they're dealing
with. When we look at this book, we need to make sure we understand
that just as in the days of Jesus Christ walking with his disciples,
do you remember they were young Christians? And I'm not going
to ask you to turn there, but just remember in Mark 10 when
they encountered the rich young ruler. Do you remember this?
This man came up phony, but he did it anyway, a public phony
display where he bowed before Jesus and then Jesus went through
all these things, basically said to him, keep the law. And the
man said, I've done that since my youth. Well, he's a liar.
He's a complete, total liar. So the Lord lays upon him another
burden that he could not even come close to bearing, which
was give up all your money, come follow me. And off he went sad. But what did the disciples say?
Baby Christians. Well, who can be saved? This puzzled them. I feel like
they knew this man. They knew of him and they thought
highly of him. And when they saw him, in my
mind, I think, all right, we've got that guy on our team now. And the Lord basically sends
him away. Did not give him grace. He gave
him the law. And this puzzled them. But the
question of who can be saved was asked by the disciples. They
were confused. These were baby children in Christ
who really themselves were struggling with what is grace. And that's
exactly who Hebrews is written to. We can make much application
of this today because we still have so many. We ourselves, if
we're honest, struggle with grace every day. And a good dose of
Hebrews, like we just read, is good for us every day. But as
a baby Christian, we most assuredly have all sorts of troubles with
this. In Paul's day, the church was
established as it is today on the gospel of sovereign electing
grace. And along with that, it seemed
like every place he would set a church up, there would be false
teachers quickly coming behind him who would attempt to add
to or take away from the words and the works of salvation. And
much of that false teaching of the day came from the Jews who
were still attempting to push Christians towards keeping the
Mosaic law in some way, shape or form. The letter was written. This letter in particular is
written to directly put away the idea of the Christian being
under the Mosaic law. And again, we're not. Many dispute
this even today, but we are not under the Mosaic Law. So first,
just a reminder, of course, of what the Mosaic Law is for. Just a couple of things. First,
the Mosaic Law cannot be known by those who are still dead in
their sins, especially religious sins. If you are not born again,
If you're not a born again child of God, you cannot know this. The law of Moses can only be
known by those who are born again. And that's an absolute fact from
Scripture. First Corinthians 2 says the
natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit. So the
first order for someone who's regenerated again is what Paul
experiences in Romans 7, where he tells us when the law came. See, this is the first thing.
The law's got to kill you, but it can't kill you until you're
born again. Isn't that interesting? See,
you've got to be regenerate to come under the understanding
that you're condemned in your own self-righteousness. And this
is essentially what Paul said. I thought I was alive once, but
I found out that all my good Mosaic law-keeping was nothing
but a sin covering up my sin. I found out that I was essentially
a walking dead man. I have no righteousness. He said
his righteousness was a pile of dung. See, our good works
are nothing but an attempt to cover up. And God knows that's
even the worst sin. See, the law was never meant
to be kept by us. It could not be kept by us. It
was meant only to burden a man, the Mosaic law, was intended
to crush people under the weight of it, the guilt and the condemnation.
The law of Moses killeth, according to 2 Corinthians 3. And again,
it was never meant to give life. That's what Paul's teaching us
in Galatians. If life could be brought by the
law, then what did Christ do? Nothing. His whole life was vanity. We've got to understand this.
This is what it says in Galatians 3 if you want to turn over. Such
an interesting verse. What a great verse in Galatians
3. Verse 22, but I'll start in verse
21. What a tremendous verse. This
is one that just makes you sit back in your chair and say, man,
that is powerful. Galatians 3 in verse 21 says
if the law is the law, then against the promises of God, God forbid. For if there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should should
have been by the law. But the scriptures have concluded
all understand that the promise by faith of or from Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe. What an interesting verse, what
a tremendous verse that we should take apart a little bit right
now, because this is going to all come back to what we just
read at the beginning of Hebrews 12. There's two points of fact
in Galatians 3.22 that are absolutely vital to our assurance. They're vital to our assurance
that you understand this. I did not say they're vital to
your eternal life. I meant assurance that you would
know that you have life in Christ Jesus. You can be very confused
about this and still be very saved. The promise again, note
this, the promise of faith From Jesus Christ, that is how it
should. It's either of or from the King James gets it right.
But if you look that word up, it literally means from Jesus
Christ. The promise of faith from Jesus
Christ is given to those who are already believers. Isn't that tremendous? See, when
you change that word from of to in, like almost every modern
translation, you lose the power of the verse. It's a tremendous
verse, but you just make a confusion out of it when you take that
away from it, because we're talking about two different things here,
two different forms of faith here that we have to look at.
And if we don't see it, assurance could be taken away. But you
see this verse and you can understand some things. First and foremost, salvation
is by faith in Jesus Christ. In order for you to receive this
gift of faith from Jesus Christ, you must first have faith in
Jesus Christ. You must be a believer. We believe
in the works of Christ Jesus. This is what it means to have
faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that he is God, that
he has performed all necessary duties for our salvation. He has done this with his body,
his blood, his righteousness, with the resurrection. He's done
these things for us. And we believe in him because
we are dead in our trespasses and sins. That's why we believe
it. We have no hope in ourselves
and all our hope is in one man's work. This is what makes you
a believer in the very simplest way. You're a sinner. Jesus Christ,
who is both God and man, is your only hope. Basically, that's
what it is to be a believer. But see, this isn't speaking
about just this faith. That makes you a believer. The
fruit of regeneration is this, that you believe this about yourself. You're a sinner. You believe
this, that Christ is your only hope. But the second part of
this says the promise of faith of or from Jesus Christ would
be given to believers. And now we're talking about something
different altogether. The promise, this promise is
an official Sanctioned summons from the highest court in the
universe. That's God's court. God's court says this is to be
given to you, believer, which is the faith of Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what it gives
to us. It's the gift of his faith. We've got to understand something
about our Lord Jesus Christ. He was faith personified. Perfect faith personified. If we were going to say anything
about the law is mainly the law had to be kept by perfect faith,
perfect belief, perfect faith in God. The law of Moses could
only be kept by somebody who could do the things that were
listed in the law. And you remember and turn over
to Matthew 22 if you'd like to. We're going to talk about what
perfect faith looks like. We could call it the perfect
law of love, the perfect law of loving faith, if you'd like
to turn over to Matthew 22. This is interesting, interesting
for a couple of things. But this is where the lawyer,
a Pharisee, attempts to question Jesus Christ. This is a confused
verse by many. Many who were brothers, too,
get confused by this. Matthew 22, verse 34. But when
the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence,
they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him. That word means
testing him. And saying, Master, which is
the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Then the Lord says this wonderful
thing on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Side note here, just just so
you know, this is not Jesus giving this man, this lawyer, the pathway
to him being saved. This is Jesus Christ giving the
law right back to this arrogant Pharisee, just like he gave the
law to the rich young ruler. This is not your way in order
to be saved. How many people do you know or
preachers have you ever heard that teach this is the way of
salvation? I was reading somebody's writing
the other day on Facebook who otherwise I've always considered
him to be very strong on the gospel. And he was saying this
is proof that we're still need to keep the law in some sort
of way. This isn't the way it goes. God gives grace unto the
humble, but to the proud he resists. He did not tell this man, this
is the way of salvation. Keep the law. He simply said
these are the two greatest commandments of both the Old Testament, the
law and the prophets. We've got to understand that
because it is really vitally important that Christ would never,
ever throw these pearls before swine. He gave that man the law. But he said something very powerful
on these two commandments hangs all the law and the prophets,
the law. By that he means the law of Moses,
which is summarized by the works. of done perfectly without fail. It is love without failure. It
is faith without failure. It is a person who performs the
task of loving God with every fiber of his being, mind, heart,
soul, who would also love his neighbor as himself without failure,
without failure. That's the that's the summary
of the law is that you live your life without failure, depending
upon God the Father for every aspect of your life, thanking
him for every breath. Have all your thoughts in a row. Oh, that would kill ever if we
would just get a hold of that. Your thought life. God knows
every single thought. And if it were true, you'd go
to hell because of your thought life. None of us would get out
of this room. Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ
alone, that's who it points to. There's no way. to do this apart
from perfect faith. There's no way that a man could
do that first part of the law, love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself
without perfect faith in the faithfulness of God, that you
depend upon Him for everything and you thank Him for everything
and you love Him for everything. The prophets, what's that part?
Well, what did the prophets speak of? See, the law only points
to Christ. What did the prophets always
point to? One greater than Moses. They spoke of one whose performance
would satisfy God and his wrath against sinners. They spoke of
him being the son of God who must be kissed or else you perish
when his wrath is kindled. They spoke of their report, which
few believed. They spoke of a salvation without
price and by faith in God's Messiah. Job and 19 said this. I know that my Redeemer liveth
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. They
spoke. of Jesus Christ. That's what all the law and all
the prophets spoke to. It spoke of Him, and He told
us this. He told another group of arrogant
legalists these very words. Turn over to John 5, and let's
read this. I know you know this, but it's
so important that we review this constantly. It's difficult being
saved and having this weak mind that we have that forgets these
things so quickly. John 5 and 38, and this is Jesus
dealing with another group of legalistic Pharisees. And he
said to them in verse 38, and ye have not his word abiding
in you for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the
Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they
are they which testify of me." He continued and said, "...and
ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive
honor from men, but I know you, that you have not the love of
God in you. I came in my Father's name, and
ye received me not. If another shall come, In his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe
not his writings, how shall you believe my words? What's the
law and the prophets? What's the greatest command of
all the law and the prophets? What's it all about? What's the
Old Testament all about? Him, Christ in shadows and types. But that's what he's telling
us, that he is the only hope for salvation because he is the
only law keeper. He is the only one who believed
the Lord. He's the only one who trusted
in the Lord. He's the only one who had perfect
faith. He's the only one who loved the
Lord God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and loved
his neighbor as himself. It is Jesus Christ who this is
speaking of, not us. We are not in any way, shape
or form under the law of Moses. We could go on and on about this,
but the matter of the fact is This is all pointing to Christ.
The law came to magnify Christ in part and to lower us to the
dust. We are not under it. We can't
be under it. It would do no good for us to
attempt to go back under it. It cannot comfort you in your
times of need. He alone loved the Lord with
all perfect faith, and that faith has been transferred to you.
So when you think on your faith as weak as it is, remember this,
already registered in heaven is the gift of the promise of
God's perfect faith through Jesus Christ. Done with. It's registered
in heaven. As weak as our faith is, perfect
faith is going to be in the judgment for us. I hope that helps you. We don't rest on our faith. We
rest on that gift of faith which comes from Christ and Christ
alone. Jesus is the absolute fulfillment
of all the law and the prophets. He alone was the qualified spotless
lamb. He alone possessed righteousness,
perfect righteousness in his flesh. And he gave us that perfect
righteousness. He alone would satisfy the wrath
of God against sinners. And he alone is the answer to
the greatest question. How can God be both just and
the justifier of ungodly sinners, which is very much like, well,
who then can be saved? It's through Christ and Christ
alone. Turn to him and believe on him
and you shall be saved. Now, who said believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved? The Word of God said
it, because if it's just me, I'd have no reason to believe
it. The Word of God said it, and God cannot lie. If you've
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have in heaven right now
perfect faith registered in your name. It's a perfect standing
before God. But the most hated doctrine in
all the world's history is that of sovereign electing grace.
And a great part of sovereign electing grace is this. He gives
this perfect standing to the whosoever believeth. You know,
we have a lot of trouble in our day about this term election
or sovereign electing grace. We ought not to make so much
of it that we keep people from coming. God says whosoever believeth. But we also should not be such
people who just make a joke of it and say such foolish things
as Jesus has done all that he can. Now, the rest is up to you.
That is utter foolishness. If he's leaving it up to me,
then we're all in trouble. If he's leaving it up to you,
you're in very great trouble. Today we hear much trouble with
many who call themselves Calvinist or they call themselves something
else. They have it down. Justification by faith. Absolutely. But they backdoor it with this
thing called sanctification. They say sanctification is a
work that you do in cooperation with God and you need to do some
things or, well, justification is not going to be there for
you. Isn't that what they kind of say? Sounds a lot like that.
They make justification to be a free gift and then sanctification
to be your work. And it's horrible. It's an absolute
horrible tragedy in our day that this is what we have. So many
who want to backdoor this great lesson on sovereign electing
grace. Let us not forget that that means
you have perfect standing before God. Not that you were brought
to your sin by the power of God. Not just that. Not that you believe
by the power of God, but that you have absolutely perfect standing
before God by the promise of his faith given to you who believe. The perfect standing is there. It cannot be taken away or you're
not more than conquerors. It's just halftime. You did really
well because you believed on Christ. Now the rest of it is
you better keep that works up. You better keep your sanctification
work going or something may happen in the judgment. You've got to
be an absolute foolish person to teach such things. In our
time, in our day, we have so many who are backdooring justification
by applying this work sanctification issue. This is an old, old problem,
and it was so old, the Lord read about it or wrote about it in
Isaiah 58. Turn over to Isaiah 58. We see
these things in shadows and tights. The problem with works has always
been there. Isn't that what Adam ran to?
The fig leaf right off the bat. We're so bad about this. The
problem is, it's never been written, but if we were putting on that
fig leaf, he could be like 10 years down the road saying, where's
that fig leaf? That's our problem. We want to
run back to works all the time. Isn't that true of us? We tend
to want to run back to the things that will not solve the issues
for us when we've got to keep pressing into Christ. But look
what the Lord chastises the folks even in Isaiah's time. In verse
4, He says, Behold, ye fast for strife and debate and to smite
with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast as ye do this
day. Is it such a fast that I have
chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his
head as a bulrush, as to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day of the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of
wickedness? to undo the heavy burdens and
to let the oppressed go free, that you would break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, and thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy
house, when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him? Isn't that
exactly what the Lord has done for you? People read that and
they do not think in the spiritual sense in which this is about
Christ. He told us, it's about me. We need to make application of
it. What's our bread that I'm called today to deal to you?
It's the bread of Christ that you're to partake in. The memory
of all that He's done for you. That you would be right before
God. How is it that the poor would
have a covering about them? It's the righteousness of God. This promise of His perfect faithfulness
given to you. That's your covering. If you
came into this house tonight a little spiritually cold, remember
the covering is Christ and all His righteousness. How do you
have the bands of wickedness unloosened? Come to Christ if
you came in here bound by Satan. Come to Christ and it will be
loosened for you. And if you've forgotten who you
are, come to Christ. Keep coming to Christ. It's a
never-ending thing for us until we're gone from this body. We've
got to keep going to Him, coming to Him. And this is what will
set you free. again and again and again. Not that you were ever captive
again in heaven, but down here we're so weak we fall for it. We need to stop and we have too
much of this type of preaching, which is nothing but fist of
wickedness that men try to burden you with the doings of the law
for your sanctification. You're either sanctified right
now Or you're not. You're either holy right now
or you're not. Does that mean you won't fall
down and sin? Of course it won't. It doesn't mean that. Christians
fall down and sin. Should you want to and desire
to? Of course not. But sometimes you do. We've got
to run to Christ and what He has done. And that's exactly
what the Lord's speaking about in Isaiah 58. The message for
the Christian is that Christ has indeed loosed the bands of
wickedness. He is undone and taken from you
the heavy burden. He's let the oppressed go free
and that you break every yoke. And it's exactly this is a long
introduction back to my verse, which I won't spend much time
on. Back in Hebrews 12, this is exactly what Paul's writing
about. Wherefore, seeing we also are
encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight. Every weight. Lay aside this
weight. I believe this is the only time.
Yeah, this is the only time that word is used in the New Testament,
and it means a burden or encumbrance, something that causes restraint. We cannot come to the Lord Burdened
by these laws. Burdened by our law breaking.
Burdened by these things. That's not boldly and confidently
coming. We come shaking off these things
that Satan and preachers, sometimes brethren, say to us about the
law. That you need to keep it up.
That you need to keep pressing in and do the best you can to
keep it. This is a restraint upon you. It is a confinement. It is a
burden. It is a weight that needs to
be laid aside. We, as Christians, are called
to lay aside this encumbrance, this restraint. And this is what
we do to fight against not only our daily issues with our own
flesh, but all the doubts and the fears that we have in a corrupt
world, which we see our world as greatly corrupt today as things
that God absolutely hate are even being promoted by so-called
churches today. And it is a burdensome thing
for us. It is vexing to our souls. But the thing is not running
back to the law. The thing is, you don't run anybody
out looking for a lamb or something you can sacrifice to the Lord. See, back in that first century,
they had to be doing things like that. But what would we do? Should
we run back to light a candle? Should a Catholic who has been
converted, run back and light a candle because he feels bad
and put five bucks in there and pray some prayer to Mary. Or should a Mormon do whatever
they do? No. If you come out of bad theology,
you don't run back to Sinai. You run to Zion. You run to grace,
to the mountain that gives nothing but grace to you. That's where
you go. Our nature, and this is a problem for us, that we're
still in this body of death. Our nature wants to keep working
and we've got to suppress it. It is an encumbrance to us. We
need to toss it aside, lay it aside. And by nature, again,
we are 100% opposed to sovereign electing grace. We've got to
stir up the new man, the hidden man of our heart. We've got to
stir that up to remember He has given us a gift of His faithfulness,
His law-keeping, and by doing that we do the right thing, which
will allow us to also set aside every sin. When you come to the
knowledge of sin, it should cause you some pain, shouldn't it?
It should cause you this knowledge. I have sinned against the Lord.
That's not a good thing to do, is it? No. No. But to try to run back to your
works and try to work it out is sin upon sin upon sin. And the Lord has cleared the
path. He's at the other side of that path, completely lit
up because He is the eternal light and says, come to me. and
we tend to want to put our hands over our ears and turn away.
Why are we so foolish? He says, come to Me. Confess
your sin. Go directly to Christ and deal
with it under the guidance of grace. But see, Paul, under the
power of the Spirit, tells us what to do. Verse 2, looking
unto Jesus, the Author. Same word as translated Captain
earlier in this same book. the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. Let that stir up your heart.
Joyfully Christ went to the cross. Joyfully He was beaten for you.
Joyfully He had nails driven through His body. Joyfully He
hung on a cross of suffocation. That's how they died. Joyfully
He was whipped. Joyfully mocked. for you, despising the shame and has sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him
who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest
you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Why are we so
foolish? Why do we continue to be such
foolish people? It's right there in three simple
verses. Look to Christ. Consider Him
who for the joy that was before Him, He died on the cross for
you. He died on the cross for you. He took your sin, all of
it, and paid the penalty for it for you. Isn't that stirring
in your heart? See, this is the message that
we need to keep up. And I fear that maybe We want
to tend to run back to that legalism sometimes. When we get all these
troubles, all the promiscuous things going on in the church.
We've got all these prosperity preachers and all their goofballness. We've got all these pro-homosexual
and all this stuff going on inside the church. We want to tend to
run back to the very thing we ought not to do. We ought to
just preach what is the real law. Christ, Christ, the law
of faith that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and now
shall be saved because you and I cannot run the same way that
the freewheeler does and saying that Jesus has done all that
he can. Now he's left the rest up to
you. We cannot be the Holy Spirit for people, can we? They first
must be born again before they can come under the subjection
of what the law really means. We can tell people this is sin,
but that is not going to convert them. Christ has got to do that.
But when we see these evidences of brokenheartedness, let us
bring grace to their ears that they would come to Christ. Let
us be this. the pathway unto salvation through
Christ Jesus. This is the thing I fear the
most, that we will leave this gospel because of our times. Let's keep preaching the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ to one another and to those even outside
that they would turn and be saved. Amen. Well, I hope and pray this
has been a blessing to you. I'll go ahead and close with
prayer. Father in heaven, I praise you tonight for all that you
do for us, Lord. We need so desperately to hear
the message of grace over and over again. Lord, help us to
understand this world is full of sin, that it is a cesspool. But yet you came down to the
cesspool and died joyfully for all those that are yours, the
whosoever believeth, Lord. And we know this, that they are
safe. Those who have come to you are safe. It is secure. We
are in the grip of God the Father and God the Son. And we are more
than conquerors, Lord. Help us to remember these things
in all these trying times. Lord, we have so many things
that cause fear, but we need to only do this. Look unto you,
the author and finisher of our faith. We do appreciate that
you have died for us, Lord. We ask you to help us. If it
be so, Lord, that you would bring people into our lives who you
have delivered, cause to be born again and need to hear the gospel,
Lord, that we would bring the wonderful message of hope, the
bread of life that is Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to love one another
as we're commanded to do. that we would encourage one another
all the more as this great day is approaching, Lord, and help
us, Lord, to continue to love you and to be a great example
of love in this fallen and broken world. We pray this in Jesus
name. Amen. Thank you.