we're going to be in Galatians
chapter six, if you would like to turn there. Galatians chapter
six. Last week, we looked at these
same verses and the title of the message was, God is not mocked. God is not mocked. Paul is being
as simple as he possibly can be in explaining what it is to
sow to the flesh and sow to the spirit. And he's using agriculture
to let it be as simple as it can be. And if it was, Even possible,
he's attempting to make it even more simple by using agriculture
on top of everything else. You're sowing, you're reaping.
Everybody understands that. You plant a seed, you grow something,
you reap what you sow. You can't plant an apple seed
and grow an orange tree. It just doesn't
work. You can't plant an orange and
get an apple tree, vice versa. So we see that what you sow is
what you're going to reap. That's what Paul's telling these
Galatians. As Paul's closing out his letter,
he's given us an example, example of what grace and works looks
like with this agriculture example, and explains just the simple
truth that what we sow is what we will reap. Let's read our
text, Galatians 6 verse 7. through 14. Be not deceived,
God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are the household of faith. You see
how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest
they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but
desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. I've titled this message fact
or formula, fact or formula. Everyone alive will read this
if they have not been born of God's spirit, if they have not
been born again by his own choice, by his will, if he has not birthed
them into the family of God, they'll read this entire word
and believe that it is a formula. It's a formula to attain salvation,
or it's a formula to achieve something spiritually, but in
the flesh, and it's not true. Paul's saying, no, you want to
know what it is to sow to the spirit, it's to look unto the
Lord Jesus Christ as all. It's that simple. That's sowing
to the spirit. You want to know what it's like sowing in the
flesh, it's looking to the flesh as evidence or part of salvation. That's what Paul's telling them
here. So what we have to ask ourselves when we're reading
this, is that a fact or is that a formula? Because so many churches
are preaching formulas. And we're going to go through
some of them here in just a minute. If the Lord does not make us born
again, born of his will, born of his spirit, we will see this
as a formula. We'll say, okay, I don't need
to sow to the flesh anymore. I need to sow to the spirit.
What must I do to do that? All that the flesh can produce
is corruption. You sow to the flesh, you shall
let the flesh reap corruption. That means if I'm sowing in the
flesh, I'm going to reap corruption regardless of how good my intentions
are, how good I try to do. It's going to be corruption if
I am sowing for the purpose of salvation or for the evidence
of salvation. Men and women believe that the
things that are written in these precious pages are a formula
for righteous living or obtaining righteousness. It's not true.
It's not true. Men preach formulas, not facts.
They preach the lie, not truth. Paul's laying the final blow
to this legalistic mentality. That's what it's called, legalism.
Legalism says do. Grace says done, it's finished.
Legalism says work to achieve something, work to do this, work
to do that, whether to, all of the rewards, that's what they
say, work to get a greater reward when you go to heaven. The rewards
Christ and he's all that his people want. I don't, if it's
a robe, I want it to be his righteousness. If it's a crown, I want it to
be his righteousness. I don't need a crown in a row. When I
get there, it doesn't do me any good. I want him. And if I have
him, that's all I need. Most people believe they can
get different crowns, they can achieve different favoritism,
they can get better favor towards God. God will have favor towards
them. It's not true. God has favor
towards one, the one that he's pleased with, the Lord Jesus
Christ, him alone. He is the reward of the Lord's
people. And so if man is teaching formulas in order to achieve
greater rewards, or if he's preaching health, wealth, and prosperity,
if you're obedient under the things that God says in his word,
you live a Christian life, as people say, he's sowing to the
flesh. Do we see that? That's the issue. Paul's saying, no, stop looking
at what you're doing. Start looking at what the Lord
Jesus Christ has already done. Rest in that. as all your hope
of salvation, because looking to self is only going to end
up in corruption. But looking to Christ is so into
the spirit, you shall have the spirit do what reap life everlasting. That's the two contrasts there. To look to the flesh. To look
to the flesh only promotes self, self-adoration, self-congratulations,
self-praise, and it's all antichrist. It's all antichrist. If I look
to myself, I'm not looking to him. That's antichrist. We must look and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation. Having nothing
good in this flesh whatsoever whereby we can hang on to and
say, well, I'm not that bad or I'm not, don't do that anymore.
I think I'm getting a little bit better in this or a little
bit. No, it's not any of that. It's Christ is all. Paul said,
God forbid, I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What does he mean glory in the cross? That means glory
in the finished work of the cross, glory in what God accomplished
on the cross, the salvation of his people, glory in that. Not
in this flesh, don't look at me and what I do, but that's
exactly what legalism does is it says look at me and look at
you and now we can go back and forth and compare and I can congratulate
you on your life that you're living. You can congratulate
me on the life I'm living. And that's why you have different
men and women in churches, they have clicks and things because
they they think that they're better than others. Really, that's
what it comes down to my righteousness is better than your righteousness.
He's saying that's just so into the flesh. That's a righteousness
outside of Christ and God won't have it. These that look to the flesh,
they justify their self based on what they do or what they
don't do. And it's just to congratulate self in the sight of God. You
remember what the publican said? He said, Lord, I thank thee.
First of all, it said the publican prayed thus within himself. He wasn't praying to God. He
was telling God about how good he was. Do we see that? Lord,
I thank thee that I'm not as other men. I'm not a false accuser. I tithe, I fast, I do this and
I do this. I thank you that I'm not like
this publican. And the publican wouldn't so much as lift up his
head to the heavens, but yet smote upon his breast and said,
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ said, one
of these men went home justified. Now, did they go home justified
because he said have mercy on me, the sinner? No, he said have
mercy on me, the sinner, because he was already justified. Do
we see that? God drew that out of him. That's what he does.
So that's the difference. If we're looking to self, we're
promoting self, we're congratulating ourself, we're saying I am good
enough for God. But looking to Christ reveals
that we're sinners needing a savior. And the only way we can do that
is if he gives us faith to look and believe. The Lord's made it so clear that
if we're able to congratulate or be proud of what our works
are or do, we're walking in the flesh and we're just going to
reap corruption. Can you look at your life and say, boy, I've
really done some good works. I've really done some good works.
Well, let me ask you this. I'm up here preaching right now.
Is that a good work? That's an interesting question, isn't it?
I'm in the flesh. Don't forget that. So if it's going to be
a good work, I have to have my eyes focused on Christ alone.
I have to declare him alone. I don't promote self. I don't
promote self. I don't talk about self. We talk
about him. This is who we came to hear about.
This is who we need to see as him. The only way that it's a
good work is if it's him. All about him, not about me.
But I won't be able to see what he's doing in your heart. I won't
be able to see it. He won't reveal that to me, because
then I might puff me up. He also won't let you see what
he did. Whenever I received it first,
I get preached to first. It just comes straight from the
source. I mean, sometimes it's wonderful. It's always wonderful.
But sometimes it can be grievous, depending on the subject, depending
on what we have to discuss. The purpose of preaching is to make
sure that you preach the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
you hold nothing back That's what we attempt to do. We come
here and the Lord honors that he promised he would he promised
he would Which brings me to my next point
somebody told me recently you have to have good works and if
by that they mean an outward evidences of salvation. Show me your works and I'll show
you my work so we can see whether we're actually believers or not.
I strongly disagree with that. But if they mean that you have
to look to Christ, I agree with that. But I look to the Lord
Jesus Christ as my only hope of salvation. The Lord says that's
a good work. You know why? Because it's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. He's caused you to look to him.
He's caused you to be accepted and the beloved by the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the difference. The only
way we produce good works and so do the Spirit is by looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ as all, as all. The only thing that the
flesh can produce is destruction. It's destruction, it's corruption.
You show to the flesh, you shall let the flesh reap corruption. That's death. But you know what
the good news is? The product of the Spirit is
eternal life. The product of the flesh is corruption,
but the product of the spirit is eternal life. Now understand
something, it is his spirit in you that births us. It's not,
he gets all the glory. He gets all the glory in this.
We must be born of his spirit according to his purpose and
will, completely without the works of the flesh or we'll remain
hopeless and helpless, unable to do anything as part of salvation. Show us that here in our text.
Look at verse eight. For he that soweth his flesh shall of the
flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth through the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Of the Spirit. Do
you see that? He shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. It's not going to be of you.
It's going to be of the Spirit. Boy, that's good news. If you've
ever seen yourself as a center, you sow to the spirit because
of the spirit in you, and you're going to reap of the spirit,
uh, because here you'll reap show. of the spirit-reaped life
everlasting. It's his doing. It's all his
doing. This is the Lord's work. He doesn't save us and then give
us some requirement in order to maintain our salvation, or
he doesn't save us and give us obligations to do in order to
prove that we're saved one to another. You know what proves
to each of us that believe the gospel, that our brother or our
sister are our brother and our sister? Well, number one, it's
the confession that they have of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
it's also the love that they have shed abroad in our heart
and the spirit bearing witness between us. When I talk to someone,
the Lord gives you and I the ability to have a conversation. We know if that person or we
feel that that person, this is my brother. How do you know?
I don't know. I just know by the way he, what
he was speaking and the way my heart, because it's knit to his
or hers. And we're not trying to be fruit
inspectors is the whole point I'm making. The only way that
we know is because with a confession that someone has, and when the
Lord bears witness between us, that's it. We don't look at their
life and say, okay, well, I don't know if you're a believer because
you're not doing this properly, or you're not doing that. That's
just fruit inspectors. We're not called to do that. Paul did say,
search yourself. He did say, examine yourself,
see if you'd be in the faith. What he meant by that was, is
don't look at your good works. Literally examine yourself. Is there anything
in you where you're holding on to other than the Lord Jesus
Christ, other than his blood atonement, other than his righteousness
for justification before God, other than him for salvation?
If so, you're not in the faith, he's saying. It's not by faith,
then it's by sight. You're looking for it. This is
of the spirit by faith. Look at verse 12 and 13. As many
as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
and here is the reason. that they may glory in your flesh. That's the reason. They want
to glory in the flesh. These that desire outward works
as part of salvation or evidence of salvation are merely just
glorying in the flesh. That's all they're doing. They're
saying, look at me. And the sad part about it is,
is they're gonna go to the judgment throne unless God does something.
And they're going to say, look at me and what I've done to God.
Lord, Lord, we've cast out demons in thy name. We healed these.
We did this. I preached for this many years. I was a pastor. I
was a deacon. I did this. I did that. Lord's going to say,
depart from me that work iniquity. I never knew you. You were sowing
to the flesh the entire time. You didn't look to my son for
righteousness. You had your own righteousness. It's a scary thought,
isn't it? Lord, don't leave me to myself.
That's why it makes me cry out. Lord, don't leave me to myself
because I don't want a glory in my flesh. I want a glory in
the Lord. I think that's what, that's exactly what Paul's saying.
God forbid that we glory except in the cross of Christ. The scariest
part is, is these individuals, they're sowing to the flesh in
the name of Jesus Christ. That's the scary part. They're
doing what they're doing in the name of Jesus Christ. They are adding to and thereby
taking away from the finished work of Christ. This is fact. This isn't formula. He's not saying do better. The
fact is, if you sow to the Spirit, it's because you're looking to
Christ, and if you sow to the flesh, it's because you're looking to
self. This is a fact. It's not a formula in order for you to
try to sow to the Spirit more, because it's of the Spirit that
you sow to the Spirit. How is that? By faith, looking
to Christ. This is what Paul actually speaks
of in Romans chapter 10. Let's turn over there, Romans
10. This first portion describes
everyone sowing to the flesh that knows something about God.
They have a zeal for God. but they're ignorant of the truth.
Look at verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. That's everyone that's outside
of Christ. That's everyone outside of Christ.
You'll find that everyone is religious in some way, shape,
or form. Even the atheist is religious. It's just how it is.
It's what you believe in. What is your hope? Well, I'm
an atheist. I don't know how you can have hope out of that,
but you understand what I'm saying. It's everybody by nature, by
nature is religious. What's the first thing that happens
whenever something really bad happens to somebody? What do
they yell? Don't they say God usually? Oh
God. don't know what they're saying, but that's what they
do. They're religious by nature. That's what he's saying here.
You have a zeal, but not according to knowledge. The Holy Spirit hasn't revealed
Himself to you. The Holy Spirit must reveal Himself
to us or we'll never see Him. We might have a zeal. We might
have a desire. We might have a passion for the things of the
Bible, but until God opens up my eyes that He is God and I'm
the sinner, I'll never see Him as the sovereign King of kings
and Lord of lords that He is. I'll see Him as the The little
baby Jesus, meek and mild, that can't do anything. That's how
we'll see him in the flesh, because we exalt ourself up. And it goes
back to sowing to the flesh and having that adoration and having
that self-congratulations as we see ourself as God. That's
what the flesh does. It sees itself as God. Look at verse four. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For
Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth these things shall live by them. But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart,
who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall ascend into the deep? That is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. What he's saying here, That's
the addition and subtraction of the finished work of Christ
that's saying I have worked my way to heaven that's to bring
Christ down or I made my choice which made Christ effectual that's
to bring him up from the dead as if he wasn't already resurrected
is there as if that resurrection hadn't already accomplished everything
it was supposed to now now that I believe. Now that resurrection
accomplished something. No, that's what Paul's saying
here. No, no. That's what faith says is we
don't say that. That's what he's talking about
here. This is the work of Jesus Christ, the salvation of his
people all by grace. What he's saying here, who will
work their way to heaven or who will make the work of Christ
effectual? Nobody. Nobody. Nobody worked their way
to heaven. Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man come to the Father but by me. Any other
man try to come up any other way, same as a thief and a robber.
Lord's not going to have it. He's the way. He's the way. It's
impossible to work our way to heaven, and it's impossible to
make the work of Christ effectual. It was 100% finished on the cross
of Calvary. There is not a jot left that
was undone. Every I was dotted, every T was
crossed. There's nothing left undone. All that God required
for the salvation of his elect was achieved at the cross of
Calvary when our Lord bowed his head and said, it is finished
and gave up the ghost. It's finished. It's finished.
The work that we do in the flesh doesn't determine whether we
are saved or lost. The work that we do in the flesh
doesn't determine whether or not we're his or we're not. This flesh is not what we look
to, to determine those things. Christ is salvation. And if you
desire to be saved, come to Christ. Don't look at your flesh, what
you're doing or not doing. Don't look at what, that's what
he's saying here. If you're looking at the outside, you're sowing
to the flesh. The only way to look, the only way to sow to
the spirit is look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse eight. But what
sayeth it? The word is nigh. The even in
my mouth and in my heart, that is the word of faith which we
preach. Now something very important
that I want to point out is these next two verses and you might
have heard this in religion this they called it the Romans road
you would say for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. They called it a bunch of different
Roman verses, verses from the Book of Romans. But this next
two right here, I want us to see that it's in light of eight,
because I never saw this before until I studied. I knew, but
I never really actually saw it. Look with me in 9 and 10. That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart, "'that God hath raised him from the
dead, "'thou shalt be saved. "'For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, "'and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. "'Here's the light of all of that. "'But what
sayeth that the word is nigh thee, "'even in thy mouth and
in thine heart, "'that is the word of faith which we preach.'"
That's the entire clue to that whole next part. If he hasn't
given you the word of faith in the heart, you're not gonna confess
from the heart. That's the difference. Men say,
okay, all I gotta do is just confess and believe and I'll
be saved. Yes, the problem is we can't. God must give us the
ability to confess Christ in the heart and believe on him
through the eyes of God-given faith. And it's all by grace.
It's all by grace. If it's not, if the nine and
10 by itself is how it was actually done, if you confess and believe,
you'll be saved. That makes it a work. Do we see that? That's
something I have to do in order to be saved. If we confess from
the heart and believe, it's because he's already saved us on the
cross of Calvary, and he's revealed himself. He revealed the work
is finished, and we confess him, not as part of our salvation,
but because he saved us. See, he's the cause. The effect
is we just believe. We just confess. He's the cause,
and he gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. verse 11 for the scripture saith
whosoever believe on him shall not be ashamed for there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over
all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved now here is I
would say the clue to that verse. You ready for this? For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe on him in whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad
tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Who's the word of God? It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you have faith, it's because he calls you to hear. It's his
faith given. And if you've been given faith,
it's because you heard a gospel preacher preach that was sent
of God. He was sent to you of God, just
as he said here, And you believed because you heard. You heard. He did it all. That's my point. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." That's true.
But how shall they believe in whom they haven't heard? That's
what He's saying. And you have to hear not with just these ears.
God has to give us a brand. We are so broken by nature, our
sinful nature. Our ears are broken, spiritually
speaking. We are born dead. We are born
dead. We need new ears. We need new eyes. We need new
legs. Everything about us needs to be new. You know what the
Scripture tells us though? that you have been made a new
creature in Christ. Behold, all things are become
new, all things. Old things have passed away,
behold, all things become new. Confessing Christ in the heart
is the result of bestowed faith. It's the evidence of salvation,
not the cause. Not the cause. Believing and
confessing are not the cause of salvation, or we would bring
Christ down from above, or we would bring him up from the dead.
You see that? No, it's the cause. We believe because he enabled
us to believe. Therefore, we sow to the spirit,
having no confidence in the flesh. He clarifies this by saying,
God must send the preacher. He must calls him to preach,
calls us to hear and give faith and grace. uh, give faith by
grace that we might believe. He literally says, God has to
do this and this and this and this, and then you're going to
hear. And if he don't, we'll never hear. That's what he's
saying. It's all of the Lord. Salvation is truly of the Lord. It's all of the Lord. Brethren,
this is, this is fact. not formulas. This right here
isn't a formula for you to be saved. This is the requirement
that God has for you. And the only way you can do it
is if God enables you and causes you to do it. So it's not a formula
for salvation. It's a fact that if the word
of faith is in your heart, then you're going to confess him with
the mouth and believe in your heart, God raised him from the
dead. And because of that, that shows forth you've been saved. in the covenant of grace before
time ever began. You were saved on the cross of
Calvary when the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood. You're being
saved right now from yourself over and over and over. This
is the good news of the gospel. The Lord does all the calling
and all the keeping. Let's go back to our text, Galatians 6. I'm gonna read this again, 11 through
16. You see how large a letter I've
written unto you with my own hand. What Paul's doing there
is he had what's to believe the thorn in the flesh was poor eyes. Poor eyes, that's what biblical
scholars, we don't know for sure. But the whole point of him saying,
I wrote this letter myself, usually he would use a penman. Several
times he used Timothy and some others. This time he's saying,
no, I wrote this with my own hand. You see how lengthy letter
I wrote with my own hand. He's telling them, I love you.
I love, you mean something to me. I'm giving you this labor
of love to prove to you I love you. He's like a father would
love his children. He said, you see how large a
letter I have written unto you with mine own hand, as many as
desire to make a fair showing in the flesh, they constrain
you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I glory,
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of
God." If someone is saying, what Paul's saying here is they desire
to glory in your flesh. If someone is saying, look at
me, there's evidences on the outside, you won't suffer persecution.
because of the cross. The offense of the cross is gone.
If I give one work, or if a preacher gives one work for you to do,
you have to do this, fill in the blank, it doesn't matter
how little it is or how big it is, then the offense of the cross
is gone. The offense of the cross is that
salvation's not up to you, it's up to God. It can't be accomplished
by you. It was already accomplished on
the cross of Calvary. There's nothing left for you
to do. It was finished once and for all. The blood is sufficient
and doesn't need us tending to it or doing anything to it. It
accomplished that which it was supposed to. Christ's death wasn't
in vain. He died for his people, the ones
that he loved. He doesn't love everybody. He didn't die for
everybody. That's the offense of the cross. The offense of
the cross is that those whom he did die, he loved, They are
going to be born again, born of His Spirit, made to confess
Him as their righteousness, as our wisdom, as our sanctification,
and as all of our redemption. The offense of the cross is that
God does the choosing. We don't. The offense of the
cross is salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man, nor of
the will of man, nor the will of blood, but of God. Why is
that so offensive? Well, it takes us out of the
picture completely. It renders us powerless, powerless. It shows that we have no control
over our salvation or destiny. And our flesh doesn't like that
because our flesh wants to be in control of everything. And
in reality, we're not in control of anything, really. If you have something on the
outside that you're looking to, or if a church says, yeah, yeah,
we're saved by grace, but you have to do this, you have to
become a member, you have to do this or that. We have two ordinances. I said this last week and you
know this to be true. We take the Lord's table in remembrance
of him and we're baptized. We confess Christ in baptism.
We do this because we were commanded to. We don't do that as part
of salvation. We do that because he saved us
and we're confessing him. That's what that means. That's
as simple as I can put it. It's an outward confession of
what He's done on the inside. It doesn't change you. The thief on the
cross was never baptized. He would have been, I promise you.
Every believer that comes to the knowledge of the truth, the
Lord will put it on their heart to be baptized. It's just how
it works. I don't know why it's that way. But the point I'm making
here is that we don't have anything in this church whereby we say
you must do this in order to be saved or to prove that you're
saved. We don't have that. Why? Well, there is one thing
we do have. We say you must believe, but
I can go back to Romans 10 again and say, how are you going to
believe on whom you haven't heard? It's gotta be Him. It makes you believe.
Everything God requires, He provides. So if it's something that you
must do or something that I must do outwardly as part of salvation,
the offense of the cross has ceased. It's not an offense anymore
because now it's Christ plus my work. Now I have done something
to please God. Now I have done something to
make what Christ did effectual or effective for me. And this
is why Paul is so adamant about this, even though it's circumcision,
he's saying, no, they just want to glory in your flesh. They
don't want to suffer the persecution of the cross. Anytime you preach
the gospel, there's going to be those that hate it. There's
going to be those that despise it. I'm thankful we live in a
free country where we can worship freely without worrying about
bad things happening. It may come to that one day.
I don't know. But right now, we're able to assemble together and
freely declare the gospel without without persecution for the most
part. I mean, you understand what I'm saying? But these, in
this time, this persecution Paul had, I mean, he was beaten. He
was put in jail. They tried to kill him. They
stoned him. They thought to death. He was called to the third heaven,
heard things that was unlawful for men to utter. The Lord brings
him back because he wasn't done with them yet. Paul suffered.
He was under persecution because of this gospel. And the point
I'm making is, is you're going to lose family. You're going
to lose friends. You're going to lose loved ones. Why? Because
people hate this gospel because it's offensive to the flesh.
The flesh can't believe it and won't accept it. But the Lord
says, I'm going to make you as my child, believe me. I'm going
to cause you to be saved and you're going to be saved. I will
save you and you will be saved. That's what the Lord does for
his people. The offense of the cross, brethren,
is that our flesh is impotent to come to Christ. He must make
us come to him. Give us faith. This is fact. This isn't formula. What's written
in the word of God is not a formula for us to figure out how to be
saved. It's facts that say how we were saved by Christ alone. That's the difference. Preaching
works is to say he failed, therefore he's not God, I am, if I have
to fix it. Can you imagine saying I have to fix what God broke
because he didn't fix it all the way? That's crazy, but that's
what men say. They don't even mean to say it
that way, but that's just the truth of it. I must make his blood
effectual, or it's in vain. That's blasphemy, isn't it? It's blasphemy. The offense of the cross is this. It says that Jesus Christ is
both Lord and Savior. He's not meek and mild. He's not broken and worried and
pacing the floor. He's not waiting on you or I
to do anything. He's the absolute sovereign creator
of this universe. He's God. He is Lord and Savior
of his people. He's God and I'm not. Fact. Fact said his blood did not fail
to redeem everyone he died for. That's what the fact says. Formula
says you have to do something for the blood to be effectual.
No, it's fact. The blood, call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sin. This is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of who I am chief. And what did the Lord say on
the cross? It is finished. The sin's gone. It's already gone. There's
nothing else for you to do to make it gone. He's going to make
you believe that it's gone. That's what's going to happen.
Now in closing, I want you to notice this because this is to
show you why I titled this message what it did. Look at verse 16
with me. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace
be on them and mercy and upon the Israel and upon the Israel
of God. That word rule right there, some
might think it means law. Some might think it means a work
to do. It's a rule. That word translates
fact. Fact. So I want to read that
again with that. And as many as walk according
to this fact. Peace be on them, and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God." If you find yourself walking
in the fact that Jesus Christ is all, you have a lot of mercy
on you. It's on there, because the Lord
put it there. He's the one that put it there.
This is the fact of God's salvation, not formulas to obtain or prove.
This is fact that we receive by grace alone. This is the result
of salvation by grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is all of grace. And if you add works to grace,
it's no longer grace, then you don't have salvation. It's that
simple. It's that simple. I wrote an article something
similar to that. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
Cause us to believe, help our unbelief. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.