Acts chapter 7 and verse 48. If you don't have your Bibles
with you, there are a few Bibles. Please follow along with us this
morning as we read and keep your Bibles handy. I've got some places
I want you to turn to with me in the course of the message
this morning. This is breaking in right to
the conclusion of a message that Stephen the deacon preached. and answer to a question that
had been asked him, are these things so? And he preached a
lengthy message. Really, it was a historical view
of the time that the Lord told Abraham all the way up through
Moses until the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the conclusion of
Stephen's message to these Jews. In verse 48. Howbeit the Most
High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the
Prophet. Heaven is my throne, and the
earth is my footstool. What house will you build me,
saith the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these
things? ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your
fathers did, so do you. Which of the fathers have not
your fathers persecuted, and they have slain them which showed
before of the coming of the Just One, the Lord Jesus Christ? of
whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers, who have received
the law by the disposition of angels, and you have not kept
it. When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said,
Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God. And they cried out with a loud
voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon Him with one accord,
and cast Him out of the city, and stoned Him. And witnesses
laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he knelt
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep." Now, back in the sixth chapter, in verse eleven, Stephen had just begun preaching
a message, and when he finished, some began to accuse him of blasphemy. We don't know what Stephen said
exactly. It's not recorded. But look here
what they said in chapter 6 and verse 11. It says in verse 10,
they weren't able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which
he spake. They couldn't refute what he
was saying. And they subverted men, they had hired them to bring
false witnesses against them, which said, We have heard him
speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they
stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they
came upon him and called him and brought him to the council."
That's Sanhedrin council there in the temple. And they set up
false witnesses which said, This man seesteth not to speak blasphemous
words against this holy place and against the law. We have
heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this
place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And
all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly upon him,
saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel, and then
said the chief priest, Are these things so? Are you telling people
that Jesus is going to destroy this place and the temple? Are
you telling people he's going to change the customs, the laws,
and the ordinances that Moses gave to us? I don't know exactly
how they reported this. I don't know exactly what he
said. But we do know this. There is a measure of truth in
what they were saying. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
predicted the destruction of this temple and the Jewish people
would be scattered. Now I want you to look at that
in Luke chapter 21. I want to lay a foundation for
what I want to say, just a minute. But hold Acts chapter 7 and look
back in Luke chapter 21 and look in verse 5 and in verse 6. Look at chapter 21 and look in
verse 5. The Lord was here with His disciples
in the temple, and He was noticing people bringing money into the
treasury. And in verse 5, probably His
disciples said this unto Him, And as some spake of the temple,
how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, He said, As
for these things which you behold, the days will come in the which
there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down." Now that was the prediction of the destruction
of the temple where Stephen was facing this council. You're telling
us that this temple is going to be destroyed? Well, the Lord
said that, didn't He? The Lord said that. And look
here in the same chapter, Luke 21, and look in verse 24. Not
only was the temple going to be destroyed, but look at the
people, the Jewish people. And they shall fall by the edge
of the sword, and shall be led captive unto all nations, and
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times
of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. So they said, you're telling
us that the Lord is going to destroy this place, that great
havoc, war is coming on us? The Master said that. Daniel
said this in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 26. Listen to this. He
said, After three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off,
but not for himself, and the people of the prince shall come,
and shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." The Lord predicted
that the armies of Rome would come and overthrow this city
and turn this place upside down. And that's what happened. We
know that the temple was destroyed. We know that they were taken
captive. And we know also from the New Testament that the law
was changed. Moses had delivered them the
law, the ceremonial law, and they thought this law would stand
forever. But the Lord Jesus is saying
here by His prophets, you ain't going to have a sanctuary. You
ain't going to have a priesthood. You're not going to have a temple.
And Hebrews chapter 8 in the last verse in that chapter tells
us this, that these things that Moses instituted, the priesthood
and the laws and the sacrifices, they have decayed, they've waxed
old, and they're ready to vanish away. And in A.D. 70, that's
what happened. That's what happened. So when
it was said here that this man speaks blasphemy, he's saying
the temple's going to be destroyed. Jerusalem's going to be destroyed.
These customs are going to be changed. Well, that was true.
That was true. And it happened, didn't it? We
look him back now, we know that's what happened. Then, how was
it said here, they set up false witnesses? If it was true, for
the most part, what he said, how was it said they set up false
witnesses? Well, think of it this way. He
said here, they said he blasphemed. They set up false witnesses and
said he blasphemed. Well, that wasn't blasphemy,
was it? It wasn't blasphemy to tell what
the Lord had predicted and what Daniel had predicted, what Hosea
had predicted, that they'd spend many days without a priesthood
or a sacrifice. That wasn't blasphemy. False
witnesses said that. But I think here is what happened.
They misrepresented what he said. They left out part of what he
said. They represented him in such
a negative way that they turned the hearts of the people against
what Stephen was saying. Have you ever told anybody a
precious truth and they went off and told somebody else just
a part of what you told them? Or have they went off and misrepresented
what you told them? See if this ain't so. Have you
ever told anybody about the eternal purpose of God? That God has
an eternal purpose? That He purposed in Jesus Christ
the Lord. And everything that's going on
today is fulfilling God's eternal purpose. Have you ever told anybody
about that? And they jump to this conclusion,
oh, you're talking about fatalism. What will be, will be. So there's
no sense for us to pray about anything. There's no sense for
us to seek the Lord about anything or to be faithful about anything.
No, that's not what we just said, is it? Back in the New Testament, they
said things like this, where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. Sin has brought life. Sin has
brought death. But Jesus Christ, by His grace,
has brought life. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Aren't you happy for that? But
there are men who twist that and they say, well, let us sin
then that grace may abound. That's misrepresentation, isn't
it? When we teach that a believer
is secure in the Lord Jesus Christ, That he's in Christ and nobody
is able to pluck him out of Christ? That he's eternally secure? He's
saved with an everlasting salvation? And we tell somebody that and
they say, oh, you just believe a man makes a profession of Christ
and lives like he wants to and he dies ungodly and yet he's
saved? That's what you're saying. No,
that isn't what we're saying when the Lord saves a man. a
man that's in Christ. Not everybody that makes a profession,
but those who are in Christ are secure. They're saved in Him. When we teach that a believer
is not under the law, but under grace, the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ, but when we've come to Christ, we're no
longer under a schoolmaster. Oh, I know what you're saying.
You folks are antinomians. You believe that you just live
like the devil and you obey the flesh and live in the world. No, that's not what we're saying
at all. You know something? If the covenant
of grace and all the blessed words that fill this book about
that covenant of grace, and if the Holy Ghost is not able to
be your rule of life, And if hope and faith and love cannot
rule your life, there's no sense putting on your neck the yoke
of the law. Because that won't do it. But people misrepresent us, don't
they? And that's what they did to this
man. That's what they did to him.
They misrepresented the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what they
said about him. He told them one day, he said,
destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again.
They said, 42 years it took us to build this temple, and you're
going to tear it down and raise it back up in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. Well, they came to the time when
they tried the Lord there before Pilate, and they had these false
witnesses came in, and they still were misrepresenting what he
said. We heard him say, Destroy this temple and in three days
I'm going to build one made without hands." We know he said that,
but what did he mean? Yes, you're quoting part of what
he said, but what did he mean? You're quoting part of what Stephen
preached, but quote the rest of it. Here's what he said about
Moses' law. He didn't say, I'm going to change
it. Christ didn't say, I've come to change the law, did He? He
said, I've come to fulfill it. I'm going to magnify it. I'm
going to honor it on your behalf. Yeah, He told them He's going
to destroy Jerusalem. And He told them why too, didn't
He? They left that out. They conveniently
left that out. He said He was coming to destroy
this place. He's going to take the kingdom
of God from us, and He's going to give it to another nation.
Yeah, He's going to do that. And I'll tell you why He's going
to do that. Because you hated Him. He came to you, and you
refused Him. You despised Him. You rejected
Him. And He's going to utterly and
justly turn from you. Tell the whole story. Tell the
whole story. In verse 48, after Stephen had
taken some lengthy time of going back in history, telling who
Abraham was and who Moses was, and all these prophets, their
foretold of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he
comes here to the conclusion of his message. And that's just
what my message is this morning. I won't keep you long. He makes
four statements to them. And after he makes these four
statements to them, it gets him stoned. It gets him killed. Because
these things, these things they gloried in. These things they
trusted in. And when Stephen kicked the props
from under their glory and under their vain confidence, they couldn't
take it any longer. And they stoned him. They killed
him. The first one is found here in verse They gloried in the temple, did
they not? Even the disciples, bless their
hearts, the apostles couldn't hardly get away from the temple.
Look at these beautiful stones. Look what a beautiful temple
we have. Look how we've adorned it. They couldn't imagine life
without their temple. They couldn't imagine the presence
of God without their temple. So Stephen tells them here in
verse 48, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with
hands. The heaven, he said, is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool. He fills heaven because He is
there, and He fills earth. He even fills eternity, doesn't
He? Boy, this was a blow to these
people. God don't dwell in our temple.
Well, he had, but just for a time. But the temple that they were
glorying in, they had corrupted it. They had made it a den of
thieves. They had brought their cattle
and their money changers right in and made the Father's house
a den of thieves. Stephen knew that God had dwelt
in this temple. He's not denying that. But what
he is telling them is this, that God is not confined to one place. Neither is he confined to one
place where he is worshipped. I love this place. I thank God
for this place. But you know something? God is
not in this place. He is not confined to this place. We didn't say this morning, let's
go here because God's going to be there where we can worship
Him. I don't know what's going to happen to this building. It's
going to finally get old and they're going to tear it down
and put something else here. God does not dwell. He is not confined to this place. Look with me over in John's Gospel
and look in chapter 4. Look at this. This is what I'm
saying. And this is what Stephen says. Look in John chapter 4. And look in verse 20. Here the
Lord was preaching to this Samaritan woman that He would give her
living water. And look what He said. In verse 20, she said, Lord,
I perceive you a prophet. In verse 20, here's what this
woman said. John chapter 4, verse 20. Our
fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you tell us that in Jerusalem
is the place where men ought to worship. And Jesus said unto
her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither
in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father."
Now, he wasn't saying you're not going to worship the Father
in Jerusalem. Of course they were. He wasn't saying you're
not going to worship the Father in Samaria. They worship Him
in Acts chapter 8. But what he's saying is that
worship of God is not confined to any one place. You don't go
there to worship God. Look what he said in 22. You
worship you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation
is of the Jews, but the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit. He is not eternal, holy, pure,
unseen spirit, and an immense spirit to fill heaven and earth.
And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth." Now, if you've got your hopes wrapped up in a building,
that's a blow to you. If you have to go to the temple
out in Utah to find God, if you have to make a trip to Mecca,
if you have to go to St. Peter's Square or you have to
come to a Baptist altar, you've got problems, haven't you? Because
God is not worshipped with men's hands. God is worshipped in spirit. God is worshipped in Stephen said, that's what it's
talking about, your temple. And when your temple is gone,
your religion is gone. When your temple is gone, your
God is gone. And boy, that's what got them
stirred up. That's what got them stirred up. Look back over in my text again. And look in verse 51. Here's the second thing he confronted
them with. First of all was this temple.
God is confined to our temple. We have to go to the temple.
The priesthood. Here's the second thing. And
man, this got them too. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears. Ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost, as your fathers did. So do you." Circumcision. They laid a lot
of claims. on circumcision, didn't they? Well, they did, didn't they?
Oh, my. You know what they said about
circumcision? Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
can't be saved. You can't be saved. They didn't
say it may be difficult. You have to work a lot harder.
They said you can't be saved. Not without circumstances. Here's what Paul said of them.
They desired to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. If you weren't circumcised, the
Jew would not come into your house. And he would not sit and
eat lunch with you. They looked at Peter. and said,
you mean to tell me you went into men's house uncircumcised
and ate with them? You did that? Circumcision. Paul said this, and this is why
they hated him. This is why they stoned Stephen.
In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. It doesn't matter if you were
circumcised or you're not circumcised. The only thing that avails anything
is a new creature, a new heart and a new spirit. And here Stephen
says that circumcision that God requires, you don't have. You're uncircumcised in your
heart. That's why you're rebellious.
That's why you're hanging on to your traditions and the temple.
You've not been cut loose. You know what circumcision means.
I can't go into detail. I'd embarrass myself. I'd embarrass
you. It's a very technical, very embarrassing
thing. But if you study about it sometimes,
you'll understand why they call it a cutting loose. A cutting
off or cutting loose. They snip the male infant's foreskin
and it cuts him loose. It frees him. And when God circumcises the
heart, it's cut loose. The spirit is free. You see,
man by nature is bound by nature. He's bound by sin. He's bound
by the curse of the law. He's condemned. He's guilty.
But when his heart is circumcised, he's freed from nature. He's freed from sin and guilt. Then he's free to believe. Then he's free to love. Then
he's free to worship. Then he's free to serve and follow
the Lord. But until he's circumcised in
his heart, he's bound. He's in bondage. That's why Stephen
said, you're stiff-necked. You're stiff-necked. That means
you won't bow. That means you're a rebel. That
means when you put the yoke on the old oxen to break him, He
wouldn't submit to it. Man, he'd be everywhere. He wouldn't
broke. Until a man has a new heart and
a new spirit, until he's circumcised in his heart, until he's cut
loose from nature, he never will submit. He never will submit. Paul said the Jews have a zeal
of God, but not according to knowledge. They have not submitted
themselves. We won't have this man to reign
over us. Why? He ain't been circumcised. He ain't been circumcised. Deuteronomy 10, 16. Listen to
this. Circumcised, therefore, the foreskin
of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. The poor Charles
Feeney would have a hit sale day with that, wouldn't he? I
told you he said you had to circumcise yourself. Well, listen to Deuteronomy
30 and verse 6, And the Lord your God will circumcise your
heart and the heart of your seed to love the Lord. Why does He
tell you to circumcise your own heart? Why does He tell you to
give yourself a new heart and a new spirit? Probably to just
let you know you can't do it. Try it. Try it. Try to circumcise your heart.
How would we go about it? That's why we come to Him and
say, Oh, Lord, give me a new heart. Give me a new spirit. I missed a very important part
of this. On verse 1, on my first point, I wish I hadn't missed
it. I'm sitting here looking at it and I thought, how in the
world did I miss that? Where God dwells. Can I go back and redo
that? Can I start over? You know, this
is so important. Let me go back to this. I keep
getting my mind on what I'm doing now because I keep thinking of
what I missed. And I'll beat myself up if I
don't say this. If the Lord does not dwell in
temples made with hands, where does He dwell? He dwells in the
heart, don't He? He dwells in the heart. Glenn
read it this morning in his lesson. If we love one another, God dwells
in us. Isn't that amazing? You know
what's amazing to me? That temple. Have you ever seen
any pictures of that temple? Videos of the temple? The replicas
of it? That was the most beautiful place.
Man, that was beautiful. And he let them take that temple,
burn it, and turn it upside down. He forsook it. And he says, my
head's made these things anyway. I'm not interested in them. And
He left that beautiful temple and He come and dwell in this
heart. Isn't that amazing? Oh, He said,
I am He that inhabiteth eternity. My name is holy and I will dwell
with Him and in Him who is of a contract and broken heart. Christ dwells in your hearts
by faith. Now, ain't that amazing? He that
fills the heaven and earth is content and pleased to come and
dwell in us. And He says to us, and He says
this to us, you are the temple of the living God. Here we are,
Wayne, we're talking about before service, we're wearing out, we're
getting old. We're talking about Methuselah who lived to be 970
or so years old. Can you imagine what he looked
like? Wayne said he probably looked pretty good, and I bet
he did. Back when everything was young, can you imagine what
we'd look like now if we lived to be that old? But if you could,
and if you did, God in heaven would be content to dwell in
this temple. This is the place of His rest. I will dwell in them, and I will
be their God, and they shall be my people. Oh, what a blessing. What a blessing. I can go on
now. The last portion of verse 51,
look at this. Here's what he said to them. You do always resist the Holy
Ghost as your fathers did, so do you. Well, here I've been
preaching for years that the grace of God is irresistible.
Now I come here and read, you do always resist the Holy Ghost.
And somebody's going to stand up and say, we told you you were
wrong. We told you he could be resisted. Yes, he can. Yes, he can. If he lets you. And you better hope he don't
let you. Old Ralph Barney used to say,
every unregenerate man is at war with God. And you better
hope he don't let you win. Yeah? If He lets you resist Him,
if He suffers you to do it, you're gone forever. Our prayer better
be this, O Lord, work in me and don't let me, don't let the world,
don't let the devil hinder you. Fulfill that Scripture upon me
where you said, I am God and there's none else. I will work.
And no man shall hinder me." Oh, Lord, work in me. Keep me coming. Keep me believing. Keep me cleaving. Keep me hoping. Don't let me
leave you. Yeah, there have been a lot of
people who resisted Him, haven't there? A lot of people made war
with the Creator. And they thought, boy, I'll beat
Him. I beat him. He'll win at last. You can't
strive with him. That's like the pastors trying
to strive with a man that's putting it on the wheel. You can't do
it. That's like the hammer trying
to lift it up itself against him that holds it. You can't
do it. Verse 52, two more things real
quickly. In verse 52, which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one of whom you have
now been the betrayers and murderers. There was something about these
people in this generation. They always looked back on their
forefathers and said, we're much better people than they are. They would go out and give them
a bucket of whitewash to one of the prophet's tombs. And they'd
whitewash their tomb. And they'd get down next to the
tomb and they'd say, Oh, Zachariah, if I'd have been in your day,
I'd have never treated you like my forefathers treated you. I'd
have loved you. I'd have obeyed you. I'd have supported you. I would have defended you. I
would have never killed you like my forefathers did. Oh, they
talked about Abraham, how they loved Abraham, didn't they? Abraham's
our father. We're Moses' disciples. And what
did they do? They killed the Lord of the prophets. They killed Him whom the prophets
loved and spoke of and predicted would come. Oh, you think you're better than
your forefathers. You're worse. Well, we live in a day where
people think, well, we just live in a day, I think, where we've
got it all figured out now, haven't we? We just know about everything. We know more than what God's
Word knows. We thought that this universe and man was created
in six days. Well, we know better than that
now, don't we? We've got smart. Our forefathers
were sort of dumb. They just looked at the Bible
and believed it. But now, I heard a fellow say the other day, we
have learned a lot more than our forefathers knew. Yeah. We
learn now that we came out of a little cell. and that we came
out of the water and some way adapted legs to run on the land. Then we found ourselves in trees
swinging, and then we turned into these brilliant, smart fellows
that we are now. And there's no telling how much
we're going to learn before it's over with. We look back on the
Puritans, and this generation thinks, boy, that was just a
bunch of legalistic, burdened people, miserable people. Huh. We know so much more than
the Puritans know today. We just know everything, don't
we? We're smart is what they're saying. We're smart. My goodness. We've got too smart,
haven't we? We got too smart. We got so smart
now that we don't need God anymore. We don't need to humble ourselves
and seek him. for what we have. We can do it
ourselves. We're smart. We're better. We're
wiser than our forefathers were. Aren't we? Wouldn't you love to have the
presence of the Lord that those Puritans have? Wouldn't you love to know Christ
as they know Him? I don't think, brothers and sisters,
we're all that smart. I don't. I don't think we're
that much better. We got a church almost every
corner now, haven't we? Man, religion running out our
spiritual ears and eyes and nose. But how close to heaven are we?
How close to our Lord are we? How much of Him do we know? How
much do we love Him? How closely do we follow Him?
Oh, our poor forefathers, if they only knew what we did. We're
so much better than them. I'm afraid we're not. I'm afraid
we're not. Here's the last one. Look in
verse 53. Boy, here's the straw that broke the camel's back. You have received the law. You
received the Ten Commandment law. You received the ceremonial
law. By the disposition of angels. That's what that fire and everything
was there on Mount Sinai. The voice of words sounding. And Spirit Israel to death. Those
angels were flashing. God's servants. God's spirits.
You received the law. Moses gave you that law. But
look at this. And you have not kept it. The Lord Jesus said, Did not
Moses give you the law? And none of you keep it. Why are you going about to kill
me? Because you said we don't keep
the law. Paul said they don't keep the
law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised that
they may glory in your flesh. Any man who says the law is his
rule of life and turns right around and breaks that law, all
he's doing is dishonoring the law. I've asked this question to you
many times, and you need to ask it of yourself. Do you keep the
law? Do you keep it? Then if you don't,
you're guilty. God requires us to keep the law. And if you don't keep it, then
face this. I either keep it or I'm cursed
by it. Cursed is everybody who continues
not in all things which are written in the books of the law to do
them. Cursed is everybody. Well, I'm trying. I didn't ask that. And I'm sincere
when I ask this this morning. I didn't ask you how hard you
were trying. I'm asking you, do you keep God's law? Do you love Him with all your
heart? Do you love Him with all your
strength, all your mind, all your thoughts, all your affections,
all your will? Do you love Him continually? Is there ever a time in your
mind that you have a foolish thought? Is there ever a time
where you think less of God than who He is? Do you love Him with all your
heart? Do you serve Him with all your
mind? If you don't, then admit it. These men would not admit
it. None of you keep the law, our
Lord said. Well, that's bad. That's bad.
That's not a trivial thing, is it? And if we don't keep His
law, we're cursed. We're staring death in our face. We go lay down on our beds and
sleep, and the curse of God is upon us. We get up and we clean
up and we go to work, and all day long, the curse of God is
upon us. Because we keep not His law. Now let me ask you this question.
Are you capable of keeping His law? Do you have the ability? Do you
have the wisdom to keep His law? No, you don't. Sin has ruined us. Sin is not
in our hands. Sin is not in our feet. Sin is
not in our eyes. Sin is in our hearts. Sin is
in our nature. We're ruined. It's disabled us. We cannot obey. We cannot love. We cannot do anything that pleases
God. And that's where we are. We're
in a fix, aren't we? And if we can't find some way
apart from the law, not at the expense of the law, but apart
from the law, that God will justify us and accept us, then we're
going to be lost and condemned forever. Now, that's the truth.
Nobody will be accepted of God and go to heaven at the expense
of justice. God won't say, Oh, I love you
so much, I'm going to let you up here in heaven anyway. My
law has been dishonored by you. You've degraded it. You've not
obeyed it. But I love you so much. And I'm
such a merciful God. I'm just going to go ahead and
accept you. He won't do it, folks. I'm telling you, He will not
do it. He is a just God. We must find some way outside
the law, apart from the law, to justify us, to save us. And what way is that? It must
be through Jesus Christ. And what did He do in the days
of His flesh? He kept the law. He perfectly
kept the law. He honored the law. He magnified
the law. And He didn't do it for His own
behalf. He didn't do it for His own satisfaction.
He did it on behalf of those who would come and submit to
Him and believe upon Him for it. You don't become justified by
what you do. Might as well forget about it. You've done messed up in doing.
Now you've got to look at the done. The work is done. Jesus has did it all long, long
ago. Dear old Christmas Evans, an
old one-eyed Welsh preacher, was preaching a message about
the mercy of God, standing at the graveyard's gate, and mercy's
tears were filled, eyes were filled with tears, And they said,
Mercy, why do you weep? And Mercy said, I desire to go
in and bring them from their graves, but I cannot. And they said, Why, Mercy, can't
you go in? If you so desire to give them
life, why can't you go in? Justice won't let me. I'm hindered by justice. I cannot
go contrary to the will of justice. And she said, Justice, what will
it take to open the graveyard and let me go in and raise the
dead? And Justice says this, it will
take Emmanuel's blood. And then Emmanuel says, I'll
go. I'll give my obedience even unto death. And I'll give my
blood. And upon the cross, when He said
it's finished, And the Spirit poured the blood from his veins. Mercy opened the door and gave
him life from the dead. Quit looking at your works. You're
condemned already. You're condemned already. Look to Christ. Look away from
your obedience, away from your disobedience, and look to Christ
who is obedient. Look and live. My brother, live. Look to Jesus Christ and live. God bless His Word. Let's pray.