If you would like to turn to
Galatians chapter five. Now the translators that translated
this, the word of God from the Greek and the Hebrew, it originally
didn't have, it was written as a letter to the church of Galatia. And so, and throughout the entire
scripture for that matter, it didn't have verses in it. It
didn't have chapters in it. So this is a literal continuation
of what he said in chapter four. It, it, uh, wasn't originally
broken up is what I'm saying. And that's true throughout all
of scripture. We have, um, in the book of Psalms,
you'll have certain, each one of those would have been individual
Psalms, but I think you understand what I'm saying. This would have
been a continual letter, just as if you had wrote a letter.
Paul's letter continues a contrast, the contrast we saw in the first
hour of law and grace, of works and faith. And he speaks of liberty
and he speaks of bondage. And that's exactly what he was
talking about in the first hour, wasn't it? He had just said in chapter four,
verse 31, we are born of the free woman. Now he continues
that thought through chapter five. Now let's look in chapter
five, verse one. Let's read the first six verses.
Stand fast, therefore. And I liked what Todd Nybert
said. What is the therefore, therefore?
Well, because we've been born of the free woman. Stand fast,
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. But I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole law. Christ is become of none effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye are fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. I've titled this message, The
Liberty of Christ. He said, stand fast in the liberty.
I've titled it, The Liberty of Christ. Men desire to place others
and themselves under the yoke of bondage by preaching a free
will, works religion, preaching a free will works salvation,
preaching the law for salvation. But he just said to us plainly
that if we are looking for our justification to the law, Christ
is become of no effect unto us. Men tell others that you have
to do this or you have to do that. And Paul's addressing this
as the yoke of bondage. the yoke of bondage, being a
slave, being born of the bond woman, that's what he's speaking
of, that's what he's continuing to speak on, what we heard the
first hour. Then he refers to that as fallen from grace, falling
from grace. Now the free will enemies of
the cross believe that if they do not continue in their moral
traditions, if they do not continue in the law of man for their righteousness,
then they can literally fall in and out of salvation. You
ever heard that before? I have family members that believe
that to be very true. But if you don't live your life
right, then you're going to fall from grace. That's not what Paul's
talking about. Those that are fallen from grace
are looking to the law for their righteousness. It's not possible
for us to lose our salvation because it's his salvation that's
given. We are kept by the power of God.
We're not kept by the power of our believing. We're not kept
by the power of our doing. No, that's bondage. If you start
talking about doing, that instantly becomes a work. We're kept by
his works, aren't we? We're kept by his power, aren't
we? We're kept by Christ alone. The reason men believe this is
because to begin with, they believe they can fall in and out of salvation.
I mean, well, after all, they're the ones that got in salvation
to begin with, right? They chose to be saved. They
chose to let God. They chose to make God Lord.
I said, that's the first hour. That's the reason that they can
lose it. If we believe that we can choose it, then certainly
you can lose that salvation. There's no doubt, but God didn't
allow us to choose him. He chose us in Christ. When did
he do that? Before the foundation of the
world. It's Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1. Romans chapter 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 9. If men believe this, There's no
liberty in that, are there? No liberty in falling in and
out of salvation. No liberty in keeping ourselves.
Aren't you glad you don't keep yourself? If it's left up to
me, I know where I'll end up, don't you? We'll end up in the
pit of hell, and rightly so, if it's up to me. I'll choose
myself. I'll choose my glory. I'll choose
my flesh. And I'll choose it all the way
to hell. I'm so thankful the Lord doesn't allow us to be kept
by our power. He does the keeping. He did the
saving. He did the calling. He did the
redeeming. He did it all. Paul says, therefore, stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. If our foundation
is the Lord and his salvation, we have liberty from the bondage
of the law. We have liberty, there's liberty
from the bondage of do. Now our liberty says done. Our
liberty says it is finished. It's not the message of do any
longer, is it? It's the message of it is finished. We've been made free. That's
how we can rest. That's how we can stand fast
in this liberty. We've been made free from the
law of God and the moral law of self-righteousness because
we are dead to the law in Christ. We're dead to the moral law that
men wants to put us under. Why? Because we're not looking
to our own righteousness any longer. We're looking to the
righteousness of God. We're looking to Christ alone, aren't we? That's
who we need to see. That's who we must see. For if
we are to be saved at all, it's going to have to be him that
does it. It's going to have to be him. If we are looking, on the other
hand, to the law of do, to the law of works as our hope before
God, we've fallen from grace. We've fallen from grace. We're
no longer looking to the grace of God. We're looking to ourselves.
That's what Paul's addressing here. Either we're looking to
Christ or we're falling from grace. It's that simple. Now
that doesn't mean that we fall in and out of salvation. I've
already said it. I'm going to keep saying it to make sure I'm very
clear on this. This isn't talking about falling in and out of salvation. We're kept by his power. Them
that are saved have been saved by him and therefore kept by
him. But as soon as we run to the law, he's talking about,
you're no longer looking to Christ. You're no longer looking to grace.
You're not looking to his finished work. You're looking to the law
as your justification before God. That's what he's referring
to in the falling from grace, looking to the law for righteousness.
Now, Peter, James, and Barnabas did just that. They looked to
the law. It was Christ is all. but you
got to be circumcised too. And that's who he's, that's what
he's addressing here with these Galatians. Do you remember, and I mentioned
this Wednesday night, for those of you who aren't here, I'll
tell you again, Peter was with the Gentiles. And I'll use the
same analogy again, because it's, it's, uh, very easily understood. They were having a meal, they
were eating together. And we know that Peter was a
Jew and they were Gentile. So more than likely, and because
he was, he immediately got up when the Jews came in and he
left the Gentiles, that tells me they were eating pulled pork.
I mean, they were having a barbecue or something like that. It had
to do with pork. And he thought, well, I can't be seen eating this. My they'll
think that I'm. unrighteous, I have to go over,
that's adding law. Those that are circumcised, you
do one law, you're a debtor to the entire law, the entire law. That's what he tells them in
the first few chapters, you're a debtor to the entire law if
you do one. No, Peter and Barnabas and James, they were duped for
a brief moment into thinking they had to do one little thing
to add to the finished work of Christ. That's, that's fallen
from grace. And what does the Lord do to
his people? Does he leave them in that state? Let them think
that they have a righteousness of the law? No. He brings them
back. He brings them back to the knowledge
of Christ. He reveals that it's all by grace. All by God's grace. He restores his people. That's
what David said. He restoreth my soul. That's
what he was talking about. How did he do that? He makes
me lie down in green pasture. He leads me beside the still
water. What is that? That's the resting in the finished work
of Christ alone. Resting in his provision alone. Resting what
he has done. Resting in his person, his character, his work. Resting
in his blood, that's how he restores our soul, by his gospel. Paul is not implying that we
are unsaved if we look to self. So I have a question for us.
Can you lose your salvation? Well, if you're the one that
acquired it, yes, you can definitely lose that because it's a figment
of our imagination at that time. If I'm the one that procured
my salvation, yes, I can lose that because it's a figment of
my imagination. It doesn't exist. If I'm the one that worked my
salvation and tried to please God and believe that I have a
righteousness before him by keeping the law, yes, I can lose that
salvation because it doesn't exist. Salvation's of the Lord. So can you lose your salvation
if you're looking to Christ? No, he's the one that calls you
to do that. It's his salvation that's been given to you. Men
believe that they can have a salvation outside of Christ. That's the
salvation that can be lost. But the salvation in Christ is
an eternal salvation. Salvation in Christ is an everlasting
salvation. Salvation in Christ is forever,
forever. We neither lose it nor gain it
by doing. He's the one that keeps us. He's
the one that bestows it. He's the one that does it and
gets all the glory for it. The true elect of God were in
Christ before time began. It's God that justifieth. That's
what the scripture says clearly. It's God that justifieth, not
a man. Man don't justify, not our works. Works don't justify.
Not the keeping of the law. That doesn't justify. It's Christ
that justifieth. It's God that justifieth. And
he does it by his own blood. That's how we were begotten. His own blood. It's his keeping. It's God's keeping of his law.
It's Christ's keeping of his law that we look to as our righteousness
before God. It's his death that secured eternal
redemption for us all, for his people. There is only hope of
justification and righteousness before God in Christ Jesus. And if we have been justified
by God, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. He put away the sin. Who's going
to charge us? It's gone. I love the thought
that our adversary is called the accuser of the brethren.
What does that mean? That means he presented himself. When the scripture says he presented
himself unto the Lord during Job's time and he said, The Lord
said, if you consider my servant Job, he said, the only reason
that he honors you, the only reason he's doing good before
you is you have a hedge built about him. He said, remove that
hedge from him, he'll curse you. He'll curse you. And he said,
okay, you can remove the hedge. He presents himself unto the
father and he accuses the brethren. But what is he doing? He's accusing
us of sin that's already been paid for. It's already been put
away. The Lord said, I have cast your
sin as far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered
again. Cast them into the depths of the sea. They're gone. You've
been made the righteousness of God in him right now. So when
he's accusing, he's just lying because they're already gone.
Isn't that glorious? They're already, they're not there. He's
accusing something that doesn't exist. We see them. We see them,
but in God's eyes, they've already been put away. They've already
been done away with. We had nothing to do with this
attainment of salvation. Therefore, we cannot forfeit
it. I will say this, if someone hears
the gospel and they can leave, and they can leave, they didn't
lose their salvation. They never had salvation to begin
with. If someone hears this and they depart, then they never
heard to begin with. And it's not a loss that they
lost. No, it's not what happened. They were never given faith.
Faith looks to Christ. And faith, there's no undoing
faith. It's the gift of God. He did
that. He did that. He keeps his people. He keeps
his people. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. and all that come to me, I shall
not lose one. If he lost one, he's a failure.
If he loses one that he died for, he is a failure, but he
will never lose one. Every single person he died for
has been made the righteousness of God in him and will be carried
all the way through to glory. All the way through this thing
we call time, he'll keep his people. How does he keep us? He keeps us looking to Christ.
He keeps us by his power, but he keeps us looking to Christ.
So what is Paul saying? The moment we take our eyes off
of Christ, we bring about bondage again. That's what he's saying.
The very moment you take your eyes off of Christ, you look
at circumstances, you look at the law for righteousness, you
look at anything else, we're bringing about bondage in some
way, shape, or form all over again. How often do we look at
ourself, our circumstances, our unbelief? There's our problem,
isn't it? We look to self. We're not looking
to Him. That's our problem. That's our
primary issue, isn't it? Unbelief. Lord, we believe, help
our unbelief. I want to look to you all the
time. I want to believe you all the
time. I want to never worry again. I was just talking to someone
after service. We were talking about worrying
over, it's already finished. Why do we fret when Jesus is
our portion? If he watches over the sparrows
and he sees not one falls to the ground unnoticed, how much
more is your heavenly father going to take note of you? If
you have, if us being evil, give good gifts unto our children,
how much more is our Heavenly Father going to give unto us
that ask of Him? He'll give us exactly what we need. And you
know what we ask for? Christ. Is that not true? What is your
primary prayer? Lord, save me, save my children. For those of you who have them,
save my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. That's the prayer, isn't it?
That's the one we cry out the most. Because I know that if
their name is written above, they will be saved. And if they
are His, they're going to be called. And if they're His, they're
going to be kept by His power. And it's forever. It's done.
It's finished. There's the rest, isn't it? There's our rest. There's
our hope. Paul's saying, if you stop looking
to Christ, you just fell asleep again. There's no liberty in
that sleep. There's no rest in that sleep.
Taking our eyes off of Him will get us in trouble, won't it?
Lord, wake me up. I need to be woke up again. Here I am like Lazarus. I'm dead
in my grave again. I need to be woke up. You understand
what I'm saying? I need you to say, come forth
again. I'm falling asleep. I'm falling asleep. I'm not implying
that we become dead and trespasses and in sin again. I think every
believer here knows exactly what I'm talking about. We go through
the motions of this life and we get so cold and so indifferent
Paul told them here in this book, he said, I'm amazed that you,
who bewitched you? Who bewitched you that you have
so soon been turned away from the truth? He's talking to believers
here. We understand what that's like. It's like this flesh constantly
wants to look at self, constantly wants to look at circumstance,
constantly wants to look at surroundings. Paul says, look to Christ. You're
bringing bondage upon yourself. It is finished. Rest in him. Stand fast in the liberty that
he hath given you. The world and our adversary,
Satan, our flesh loves to sing a lullaby that tries to put us
to sleep all the time. All the time. It's just being
sung. Our flesh loves it too. Our flesh loves going after sin
and things of this world. We're like, have you ever been,
I know every one of us are like this. You go to a store, something
shiny catches your eye. That's the flesh. That's what
we, we're drawn to things. We're not drawn by the flesh
to Christ. The flesh is enmity against God.
He has to say, seek you my face, return unto me. And then we say,
Lord, that's why your face I will see, because you said, when you
said it, when you commanded, live to Lazarus, that's why Lazarus
came forth, not before. Lord, I feel like I'm just growing
cold again, falling asleep again. Asked the disciples, he said,
could you not pray with me one hour? No, Lord, I can't. I want
to. I'm willing. I have the desire
to pray for an hour with you. Could you not wait and watch
with me one hour? No, they fell right asleep, didn't they? That's
what I'm talking about. Lord, wake me up. Put myself
under bondage by looking to self, looking to circumstance. Lord,
don't let me go to the law and put myself under bondage for
righteousness. Cause me to arrest everything in Christ. Is there any rest? in anything
else but Christ? In this life, is there any other
rest but Christ Jesus? No. No, there's not. There's
no other peace. He is peace. He's the one that
gives peace that surpasseth all understanding. What does that
mean? When we see Him, I don't need to understand anymore. I
just believe Him. I don't need to get the reason or the definition
of why this is happening and that's happening. When He gives
peace, do we not just say truth, Lord? You're right and I'm wrong. Whatever it is, I bow to it.
Not my will, but thine be done. Is that not true for each and
every one of his people? But if Christ hath made us free,
we are free indeed. Paul says, stand fast in the
liberty wherein Christ has given us by grace. Paul says in another
place, stand therefore, and having done all to stand, stand therefore,
having on the breastplate of righteousness, having on the
helmet of salvation, having the sword of the spirit, having our
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, our loins
gird about with the truth, and having the shield of faith, wherewith
we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
I remember in false religion, They said, well, you better put
on the armor of God. God has to do that, brethren. It's not
something we put on. He put it on. How are you going
to put on righteousness? We can't do that. He does that. How are
we going to have the preparation of the gospel of peace? He's
going to have to give it to us. How are we going to have the
helmet of salvation? That's his salvation. He's going to have to be the
one to give it. How are we going to have the sword of the spirit?
It's the sword of the spirit. It's his spirit. What about the
shield of faith? Well, I need your faith. Faith
just believes God, it quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked,
it focuses me on Christ. I've got to have this armor of
yours, this righteousness of yours that's not of me, this
faith that looks to you. And when you have all that, you
know what you're doing? You're standing in the finished work
of Christ alone. That's what we do. We stand where
we rest in the finished work of Christ alone. We stand in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Paul said, forgetting those things
which are behind, press towards the mark. You'll notice everything
about that armor I just mentioned. There's nothing in the back.
There's nothing guarding the back. You have to go to Psalm
23 to find out what's behind us. It's goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. That's what's behind the
Lord's people. Every step is ordered. Every
step is sure because of the one that ordered it. The Lord did.
Forget those things which are behind, don't live in the past,
look to Christ. I hope I can say this right,
don't live in the now, look to Christ. Don't be troubled by
the now, look to Him. Don't live in the future, look
to Him. His salvation's eternal, isn't there rest in that? There's
rest in that. How do we live? Live looking
to Christ. It's in Him we live, it's in
Him we move, and it's in him we have our being. Therein is where life is given
to his people. Therein is righteousness revealed,
right in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ by his faith. See,
the law doesn't create life. The law can only, if a man preaches
the law, it can only create one of two things, a self-righteous
Pharisee or a rebel. And I think all of us can confess,
for the most part, it made a bunch of rebels here. We were in false
religion. I kicked and bucked about everything
and only thing I spoke of is the things I wasn't doing that
other people were doing. I don't do that like so-and-so.
I've got a righteousness and he does this. I'm better than
that. I sat just a little bit higher than everybody else because
of the taste not, touch not, handle not mentality. What does
God say? That's going to just produce death. That's just going
to produce fruit unto death. I don't see that as righteous.
Our righteousness are as filthy rags. No. Either we're a self-righteous
Pharisee or a rebel when it comes to the law, if it's preached.
Neither can make one righteous, but you know what does? Look
in verse five. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. The next four words for in Christ
Jesus, that's righteousness. There he is. We wait for the
hope of righteousness. We wait for the hope in Christ
by the faith that he's given us. Christ Jesus, you can take
that word righteousness and you can plug in Jesus Christ every
time you see it just about. He is our righteousness before
God. We must be found in him. We must
be found in him. Mixing a little bit of law, Just
a little bit of law makes it a self-righteous work that God
will not have. He will not honor it. He will
not accept it. It's got to be Christ alone.
Look in verse 9. A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump. is the same thing we call yeast.
A little bit of yeast causes the dough to rise. That's what
yeast does. It puffs up, doesn't it? It gives
glory to the flesh. Do we see that? That's what he's
talking about here. A little bit of that, just a little work,
that gives you something to glory in other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. That would give me something to be proud of. other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. But no, the Lord's people, we
know it's all by grace. It's all for his glory. And we
despise the leavening of the flesh, don't we? The leavening
of the Pharisees is what Christ calls it. He calls it the yoke
of bondage. It cannot be the most minute amount
or the whole lump is ruined. It becomes a works gospel. Paul says it like this, look
in verse 11, I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, preach the
law, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. You give one work, we give one law to do, the offense
of the cross is gone. What is the offense of the cross?
Christ Jesus is all. Christ Jesus saved his people
from their sin. Everyone that he loves, he saved
on the cross of Calvary. He redeemed them. And there is
nothing you and I can do to constrain him or restrain him in any way. Boy, that's offensive to the
flesh, isn't it? Our flesh says there's got to
be something I can do, something where God will take notice of
me. You don't want God to take notice of you. We don't need
that. If we have that, if he notices
us, if he sees the sin upon us, we have no hope. We have no way
of doing away with that sin. Christ Jesus did. He put away
the sin of his people on the cross of Calvary. We need him
to see Christ, and Christ gets all the glory. That's what we
need. Paul says, if I preach a work to you that you must do
to be saved, I'm not preaching Christ as all. One work, one
thing, no matter how minute, no matter how microscopic it
is, one thing. No, it has to be Christ as all,
or we have no hope. We must be made to believe Christ
is all our righteousness before God, or we have no righteousness.
We must be made to believe that Christ is our righteousness before
God, or we have no righteousness. We must be made to look to Christ
alone by faith, knowing that he justified his people, or we
have no justification before God. See, salvation's of the
Lord, and it's revealed unto his people at his appointed time. I wrote an article in your bulletin,
you probably, some of you have already read it, but it's Righteousness
Revealed, and it says this in it, I'm going to paraphrase a
bit, but it says, to God's people, Christ alone is more than enough. Christ alone is more than enough,
isn't he? He's enough, that's all we have to offer people.
I don't have any other, you've heard me say this, I got a call
a while back and what kind of classes do you have? What kind
of studies are you doing right now? Do you have this, do you
have that? Do you have a Wednesday night
thing for the kids? We have the gospel. We have a
Bible study for the kids on Sunday morning, but we have the gospel,
that's all that we offer. We have nothing else. He's enough,
isn't He? He's enough to His people. He's
all that we want. Most would profess that they
preach Christ is all, but Men flatter with their lips and they
bring men into bondage. They add something to it. They
look at what they're doing. They look to the classes that
they're having. They look to the people that... I talked to
a man one time and he said, you know, I've saved 200 people this
year. I said, you saved 200 people? Wow. What a statement. I mean,
Lord, don't leave us to think that kind of thought. No, the
salvation's of the Lord. He does the saving, doesn't he?
And then he does the calling and he does the keeping. He does
it all. Men flatter with their lips and bring bondage, but want
to draw attention to the flesh. The Lord said, the people draw
near to me with their mouth. With their lips they do honor
me, but have removed their heart far from me. And their fear towards
me is taught by the precept of men. That's Isaiah 29, 13. Their
fear, what they've learned, is based upon the precept of man.
They're looking to men as their justification. What they don't
do, what other men do, that's their justification. That's what
he's saying. They don't have their heart towards me. Why?
Because man's heart's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. We need a new heart. You need a heart transplant.
I don't need this heart to be worked on. I need it to be removed and
given a new one. One that looks to Him. One that
loves the Lord and His preset. One that fears the Lord. One
that needs Christ alone. Why are these others heart far
from God? They were persuaded of man. If
a man can talk you into it, another man can talk you out of it. That's
a pretty simple saying that I say pretty often. I think Greg Elmquist
is the first one I heard say that. I don't take any credit
for it, but it's true, isn't it? If you can talk me into something,
somebody else can talk me out of it later on. And there's several
of us here. We used to think something about
health and nutrition. And as more information comes
out, it's like, well, that was a terrible idea. We should have
never drank aspartame. We had no idea that that was
a terrible sweetener. And we learned something new.
And we say, well, stay away from that. If somebody drinks aspartame,
I'm not picking on you. I'm just simply saying they say it's bad
now, but it was fine at one time. That's all I'm saying. Point
I'm making is, is we learn things and we change, but when it comes
to the Lord, if we're taught of him, it never changes. It
never, Christ is all, that's the message, that's it. And he's
finished the work, that's it. It's not Christ plus this, it's
not Christ minus this, it's not Christ in addition to anything. Christ is all. That's the message. That's our hope. We must be taught
of the Lord. He must reveal himself. Are we taught of God or persuaded
of men? Being taught of God means he's revealed Christ. He's revealed
he is God. Christ is God. He's revealed
God is God. He's sovereign, seated on the
throne. And he's revealed that Christ is our only hope before
him. We must be found in him. We do
not present our works to him. We do not present our keeping
of the law. That is the desire to the flesh. The desire of the
flesh is to run to self-righteousness. Try to find some kind of self-righteousness,
something to look at me about. Aren't you glad the Lord keeps
his people? Keeps them looking unto him, keeps them needing
him. You know why circumstances arise
and storms come? If they never came, we'd never
say, Lord, save me. We never would. Peter didn't
cry out. Peter was walking on the water. A grown man walked
on water named Peter. It was because he was looking
to Christ. It was the Lord's miracle that happened. It wasn't
anything about Peter. We find out later on that he
spoke foolishly on different accounts. He denied the Lord
three times, and here he thinks circumcision, adding that to
the finished work of Christ, is okay. You get what I'm saying?
Nothing good in Peter. Peter had to be kept by the power
of God, just as you and I do. But he really walked on water
for a moment. How long? I don't know. Whether it was
one step or 10, it doesn't matter. It's still amazing that he walked
on water. What happened? He took his eyes off of Christ.
That's what happened. He saw the storm. He saw something
scary. He got frightened. And what happened?
He began to sink. He didn't say, Lord, I'm going
to take the first step and you take the rest. He didn't say, Lord,
I need a hand here. He didn't say, Lord, if you'll
throw me a lifeline, I can swim back to the boat. He said, Lord,
save me. See, that's us. Sometimes we're standing firm
in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free. And we take
our eyes off of him just for a moment. We begin to sink. And
what do we cry out every time? Lord, save me. I'm going to die
if you don't save me. That's the need that he gives
his people. Lord calls me to see Christ again. Don't let me
see. Don't don't look at me. Look
at my substitute and calls me to be found in him. Calls me
to be found in the one that is my surety. The law was given to show we
have no righteousness. There's no such thing as self-righteousness. Now, before God, you understood,
men have self-righteousness, but it's a false righteousness.
It's not true. It's filthy rags. The gospel reveals Christ, who
is our righteousness and justification. This is not good news to the
flesh, but to the believer, this is all our life, all our hope,
All our rest, it's our liberty. It's our liberty. We don't want
to be in bondage anymore to the law. We don't want to be in bondage
to self anymore. We need Christ. We cry out for
him. All false gospels in every religion
have one thing in common. You can do something to please
God. You can do something, change
the name, change his name from Jehovah to Allah to Abu, whatever
you wanna change his name to, you can do something to be God,
or you can do something to please God. They have that in common,
every single one of them. This gospel, true religion, says
Christ is God. I am not. He is righteous. I am not. I cannot hope to do
enough to balance that scale of righteousness because all
my righteousness is filthy rags. I cannot go to the law because
as soon as I do, I'm in bondage again. I'm in sin again. I'm
in death again. Lord, cause me to stand fast
in the liberty wherein you have made us free. And what did he
make us free with? His grace. It's all of grace. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy. That's how he saved
us. That's how he loves us, according
to his mercy, his choice, his choice. Paul says clearly, stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. Be not entangled,
entangled again. The children of Israel, And I
think the girls learned about this in Bible study this morning,
but the children of Israel had every need met and yet they murmured
and they complained and they grumbled. And we see them coming
to the place where they were hungry. And the Lord gave them
manna from heaven that fell. Who is that manna? That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he tells us that
plainly. I am that manna that fell from heaven when he's talking
to the Pharisees. He said you didn't believe God then, you're
not going to believe God now. You won't come to me that you may
have everlasting life. That's what he told them. He said, you're
of your father the devil. That's what he told him. He had
the manna that fell from heaven that met their need. And then
you have the water that they needed. Lord, we need water.
They're murmuring again. The people are thirsty. What
am I to do? I want you to take your rod and I want you to smite
the rock. What is that a picture of? Well, Moses represents the
law. And whenever the Lord Jesus Christ was found guilty bearing
our sin, The law smote the rock and forthwith come the life giving
water to his people. That's what that represents.
That's what a picture of. That's what it is a picture of is Christ
upholding the law. Then just a few verses later,
you see them fighting against a nation. And I can't remember
the name of that nation at the moment. What is it? Amalek. Children of Amalek. The children
of Amalek came up against them. It doesn't even say why they
came up against them. It said they just found out as soon as
they got the water from the rocket right after that. And then Amalek
came up against them. What is that a picture of? Well,
as soon as we've been made born again, we have this old flesh
that comes to war against us, doesn't it? Well, what do we
look to? Well, we see the The law being upheld in the war,
his arms had to be upheld. Moses' arm, the law had to be
upheld. It couldn't fall down for the victory to happen. And
who held it up? The priest on one side and the
other helper, the one that helped Aaron, the one that helped Moses. They held his arms up. And as
long as his arms were held up, they won the war, the battle.
They won, they got the victory. But as soon as his arms started
falling down, what happened? The battle started swaying in
the enemy's favor. Well, Moses being tired, they
brought him a rock to sit on and he rested upon that rock.
What is this a picture of? It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ going to the cross of Calvary, the law resting, the
father resting on the Lord Jesus Christ. The law being upheld
by Christ completely. That's who we look to. He's already
given us the manna, the life-giving manna. He's already given us
the water from the rock that give us eternal life. And he's upheld
the law for his people. We no longer look to that law.
He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ
Jesus is who we look to. Christ Jesus is who we rest in.
Christ Jesus is the liberty that we stand in. He's made us free,
free from the law of sin, free from the law of death. We've
been given liberty, haven't we? We've been made free in his finished
work alone. Paul says, stand fast in the
liberty wherein Christ has made you free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. But there is one yoke. The Lord's
people have now, isn't there? It's the yoke of Christ. He said,
come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am
meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest into your soul.
Why? My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. What is that? What makes his
yoke easy and his burden is light? The work's been finished. The
work has been finished. There's nothing left to do. We
don't go to the law anymore. We don't try to do anything to
attain salvation. It's his salvation. He finished
the work. His yoke is easy because there's
no more work. No more work to be done. God's
not looking at the life I live as my justification. He's looking
at the life that Christ lived for his people as their justification. God's not looking at my good
deeds as my righteousness before him. He's looking at Christ,
who is our righteousness. God hath made unto him, Christ
Jesus, had made him unto us all our wisdom, all our righteousness,
all our sanctification, all our redemption. That's how we stand
fast, is looking to Christ alone He's not looking to the traditions
that we keep. Men keep traditions, don't they?
I know people in religion that somebody told me recently I was
talking to them about the gospel and I had remember explaining,
they said, well, why did you quit where you came from? Why
didn't you stand fast in that? And that's what prompted the
memories. They said, stand fast. I said, well, I heard the gospel.
I heard the best news I'd ever heard. And I began to explain
it to them. And they said, well, what I believe
was good enough for my grandmother, and it was good enough for my
mother, and it was good enough for my husband, it's good enough
for me. And I said, well, that's not
very smart. If it's good enough for somebody
else, that shouldn't matter one way or another. What does God
say? You want to know the truth? God
says it's finished. No, don't come to Him bringing
any work that you have. Don't come to Him looking to
the law for righteousness before Him. You won't find it. There's
just death there. Come begging for Christ Jesus
alone. Come to Christ. Don't move a
muscle. Don't move a muscle. Come to
Christ through the eyes of faith, looking unto Him, looking unto
Him who has finished salvation for His people, for those He
loves, For those he loves, he causes us to look to Christ alone. Causes them to look to Christ
alone. Philippians 3.9 says, we must
be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. We must be found in him. And
if you're found in him, You are perfectly righteous by what he
has done. In the keeping of the law, in
the living the perfect life, in the Lord making his soul an
offering for sin, in the sacrifice of himself, in drinking damnation
dry and putting away the sin of his people, he has made us
the righteousness of God in him. There's nothing left unfinished.
There's not one thing that God requires for his people to be
made righteous that Christ did not provide. There is not one
thing. Christ provided everything. God only accepts perfection.
God only accepts holiness. God only accepts truth. He only
accepts what he provides. Christ had to provide it all,
and he did. He is the perfect lamb that took away the sin of
his people. Our Lord is as holy as God is. Do you know why? He is God. And
he's made us as holy as he is by his own blood. Christ told
us he is the truth. That's what God accepts as his
darling son. The father looks at his son and
he is pleased to pardon his people. He is well pleased to pardon
his people. I charge us today to stand in
the finished work of Christ alone. Stand fast. You know what that
means? Don't move. That's what that
means. Don't stand fast. You heard the
term stand fast, hold fast, don't move. Don't move, stand on Christ
alone. If the Father rested in his Son,
the Father rested in the Sabbath from the foundation of the world,
we should too, amen? If God was pleased with him,
I know that we should be pleased with him too. And if we're his,
we will be. We will be. He'll give the faith
that makes certain. Stand fast in the finished work of Christ
alone. Rest in his blood alone. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
because in him there is liberty and outside of him there is no
liberty. There's only bondage. In him
there is all life and outside of him there is only death.