and the champion of self-righteousness. He was the strictest of Pharisees,
legalists. Said he was blameless before
the law. He was a defender of the Mosaic
law, the Levitical law. So strongly that he persecuted
everyone who disagreed with him. Listen to him. I barely thought
with myself that ought to do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus Christ. Which thing I did in Jerusalem,
and many of the believers did I shut up in prison, having received
authority from the chief priest. And when these believers were
put to death, I gave my voice against them. The same man writing
this. Listen. I punished believers. in every synagogue, I compelled
them to blaspheme God. And being exceedingly mad against
them, I persecuted them even in strange cities." Acts 26,
verses 9-11. That's Paul's testimony. But by the grace of God, this
man became an ambassador of the gospel. He said, God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased
to reveal his Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to me. And then he made this statement,
O that I may win Christ and be found in him. not having my own
righteousness, which is the law, but that righteousness which
is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He wrote to Titus and
said, Titus, it's not by works of righteousness which we've
done. It's according to his mercy he
saved us. He wrote to the Roman church.
I conclude, this is my conclusion, that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. He says here, for us to stand
fast in this freedom wherewith Christ has made us free from
the law. And don't be entangled again
with the bondage. Paul knew more than anyone, better
than anyone, the bondage of the law. He knew that the bondage
of days and ceremonies and traditions and the slavery of it, that he
could not be free. He knew there was no peace or
rest in works. He finally wrote, therefore,
being justified by faith, I now have peace with God. He never
found any peace. He said, why don't you cease
from your works and enter into his rest? He knew the emptiness
of ritualism and duty. He said the fullness of God is
in Christ, not in the Lord. and we're complete in Him. All by grace, by the grace of
God, was made to finally see that these laws and types and
rituals of the Old Testament had no saving value, no saving
power, that they were but pictures of Christ and that God really
never, never had any pleasure in these sacrifices. never had
any satisfaction in them. Let me show you two or three
scriptures. Start with 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15. The prophet of God
came out to where Saul and the people of Israel had made war
on someone. And without a priest, Saul offered
a sacrifice to God. And Samuel rebuked Samuel said
in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel, hath the Lord as great delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the
Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken
better than the fat of many lambs. And that's what Christ said over
here in The book of Psalms, chapter 40, this is a prophecy of our
Lord Jesus in Psalm 40, verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou
didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou digged, burnt
offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Then said
our Lord, I come in the volume of the book, it's written of
me, I delight to obey thy will, O my God. Thy law is within my
heart. To obey is better than sacrifice. God has no delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices. He delights in the obedience
of his Son. And that's what he's fulfilled
here in Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 5. Verse 4 says, It's not
possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Wherefore,
when Christ comes into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not. But a body hast thou prepared
me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Thou hast never had
any pleasure, no pleasure. Then said I, I come in the volume
of the book that's written of me to obey, to obey God, to do
God's will. That's what has to be obedience. Not the labor of my hands can
fulfill his law demands. Could my zeal know respite? No,
these for sin could not atone. Nothing in my hands I bring,
except that to the cross of Christ I cling. Naked, I come to thee
for rest. Helpless, I look to thee for
rest. out to the fountain fly. Wash
me, Savior, or I die." I want you to look at Acts 13. Acts
13, verse 38. Here the Apostle declares our
gospel of freedom in Christ from the law in no uncertain terms. Acts 13, verse 38. Be it known
unto you therefore, men and brethren, be it known unto you, that through
this man, the obedience of this man, and the blood of this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that
believe are justified in the sight of God from all things,
all transgressions, all iniquities, all sins, from which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. You could not be justified. That come upon you which is spoken
of in the prophets. Behold ye despisers and wander
and perish. I work a work in your days. What
is that work? I come to do thy work. Come to
do the work of my Father. Fulfill the work you gave me
to do. I work a work in your days, a
work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man preach
it to you. Work of redemption by the obedience
and blood of the Son of God, not by the law. Now, in the event
that someone here thinks that maybe we're speaking a little
strongly about the law and the impossibility of a man fulfilling
the law, I want to show you a few things. It says here in Galatians
5, verses 1 and 2. Let's read it again. Stand therefore,
stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ hath made you free, free
from the law. free from its ceremonies, sacrifice,
circumcision, traditions, Sabbath days. Don't you be entangled
again with this yoke of bondage. The whole, I, Paul, say unto
you that if you be circumcised for salvation, Christ prophets
you nothing. And what is this circumcision?
Every male, Abraham was the first one, when God called Abraham
and said, I'll make of you a great nation. Every male was to be
circumcised. And this was the sign of Israel.
This was the sign that God gave. It's signifying that this man
is an Israelite. He's circumcised. He's an Israelite.
And it was so required. This law was required so strongly
that God almost killed Moses because he didn't circumcise
one of his boys. Let me show you that in Exodus 4. Now, God had already appeared
to Moses at the burning bush and told him he'd deliver Israel
from Egypt. And he was on his way down there.
And he and his wife and son stopped in a tavern, an inn, to spend
the night. And this boy had not been circumcised.
He's supposed to have been circumcised when he was born, when he was
eight days old. That was what the Jews required. But Moses'
wife objected. And Moses gave in to her. And
here in Exodus 4, verse 20, 24. He came to Paris by the way in
the inn that the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. Zinzibar,
his wife, took a flint stone, a flint knife, and circumcised
the boy, cut off the foreskin of his son, and cast it at Moses'
feet in anger and said, Sure, you're a bloody husband to me.
So God let him go. And she said, a bloody husband,
because of the circumcision. That's how important it was.
The Amplified Bible says that the Lord met Moses and sought
to kill him, made him acutely and almost fatally ill. This
was because he failed to circumcise one of his sons, his wife being
opposed to it. But seeing his life in such danger,
his wife took a flint knife and cut off the foreskin of her son
and cast it to Moses' feet and said, You're a bloody husband.
And God let Moses alone to recover. But she still wouldn't relent.
You're a bloody husband. Circumcision was required. God told Moses, if you circumcise
that boy, I'll kill you. There won't be any deliverance
from Egypt. It's that strong. Now let's see the Sabbath day.
Let's turn to Numbers 15. I've got a lot of folks today
talking about keeping the Sabbath, keeping the Sabbath. It's like
Paul said, you that would be under the law, don't you hear
the law? I want you to listen to this Sabbath day. This is
just a brief illustration. The Sabbath day, you can only
walk three-quarters of a mile all day long. That's as far as
4,000 feet all you can walk. Sabbath day's journey, that's
halfway around the park. That's as far as you could walk.
You couldn't cook, you couldn't pick up sticks, you couldn't
do anything on a Sabbath day. Total, complete rest required,
just like that circumcision. Here is a man in Exodus, Numbers
15, verse 32. And while the children of Israel
were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks
on the Sabbath day. He was picking up sticks. And
they that found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and
Abraham, to all the congregations. And they put him in ward, because
it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord
said unto Moses, The man shall be put to death. All the congregation
shall stone him with stones without the camp." What did he do? He
defiled the Sabbath day. So the congregation brought him
without the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died as the
Lord commanded Moses. What about the tithe? Leviticus 27. This is another
thing that they're trying to put folks under today. Pay the
tithe. The tithe was to support the
Levitical priesthood. The tithe was to support the
Sow House. The tithe was to support the
tribe of Levi, because they didn't have any property or any holding on any land. And this tithe was
to be a tenth of everything. There was a tenth and then a
tenth of the nine-tenth. the man had unusual property.
In Leviticus 27, verse 30, verse 30, And all the tithe of the
land, whether it be the seed of the land, or the fruit of
the tree, is the Lord's, holy unto the Lord. It's like that
Sabbath day. If a man will at all redeem all
of his tithes, he shall add that to the fifth part thereof. He's
got to be penalized. Concerning the tithe of the herd,
of the flock, whatever passes under the rod, whatever shepherd
passes under his rod, the tent shall be holy unto the Lord.
He shall not search whether it be good or bad, whether it be
gross or net, or lost or gained, neither shall he change it. If
he changes it all, then both it and the change there shall
be holy and it shall not be redeemed. That verse over here in Galatians
4.21, tell me, you that desire to be under the law, you want
Sabbath keeping, tithing, circumcision, you want back under that law.
Don't you hear the Lord? The Lord requires certain washings,
touch not. There are certain things you
couldn't touch, you're defiled for days and days and days, just
touching something. Taste not certain diets, things
you could not eat. Certain purifications, handle
not. Under the law, all commanded
sacrifices must be made. All feast days must be kept,
all holy days observed, or death. What about those? They were types,
they were pictures. Circumcision is of the heart. Circumcision is not of the flesh,
it's of the heart, and it's an operation performed by the Spirit
of God, whereby men come to believe Christ and to love Christ and
know Christ. They're circumcised in heart.
They're made righteous in heart, the work of God's Spirit. And
that's the token. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Over here, if any man be in Israel,
he's circumcised. If any man be in Israel, he's
circumcised. He could be circumcised and not
be in Christ, but he could be in Israel. But if any man be
in Christ, he's a new creature. His heart's been broken and operated
on by the Spirit of God and given repentance toward God and faith
in Christ. It's a hard work. And don't touch
that other anymore. The Sabbath day, Christ is our
rest. And this Sabbath day that was
so strict, it was strict because the Rest of Christ is strength. Christ has fulfilled the law
perfectly for us. He ceased from his labor like
God the Father ceased from his in creation and entered his rest,
and we labor to enter the rest of Christ. Giving. Any preacher that calls
on his congregation to keep a strict tithe must go to the book of
Leviticus and get that thing down pat, because if we're going
to do that, we're going to have to do the rest of it. But here's
the law of giving. Turn to Galatians, I mean to
2 Corinthians, chapter 8. Here's the law of giving. There's no tribe of Levi now
for all the other eleven tribes to take care of and give to keep
the temple going and all these other things. But there is the
preaching of the gospel, and there is the work of the ministry,
and there is the help of the needy, and there is the help
of the unfortunate, and there is the help of missionaries and
one another. So how is it to be done? In 2
Corinthians 8, verse 7, Therefore, as you abound in everything,
in faith, God's given you faith and you grow in faith. He's given
you the ability to preach, utterance, witness, Knowledge, he's given
you knowledge of the word, diligence, and in your love one to another.
Now see that you're bound in this grace. This is the grace
of giving. And just like you grow in love,
and you grow in faith, and you grow in ability to preach, you
grow in the knowledge of the word, you grow in generosity. It's not a set ten percent. You
grow in generosity. Faith is not a set point in my
life. I believe, therefore I'm saved.
No, I grow in faith. I love Christ, but I don't love
him back then like I do now. And have a little more patience,
a little more understanding, we'll grow in this place. Read
on. I speak not by commandment. What if it's a tithe? It's a
commandment. Paul, here's a preacher, he said, I'm not telling you
what to give. I'm not commanding you to give ten percent. If it's a child, you have to,
but it's not. But by occasion of the forwardness
of others, by the example of others, by the example of all
God's people, especially our Lord, and to prove the sincerity
of your love. That's how you prove your love
for Christ, is your generosity. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he
became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. And
herein I give my advice. This is expedient for you who
have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a
year ago. Now perform the doing of it,
that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance
also out of that which you have. For if there be first what? A
willing mind. It's accepted according to the
man hath, and not according to that he hath not. You don't give
what you don't have. Now look at 2 Corinthians 9.
Now here, this whole, these two chapters deal with giving. 2
Corinthians 9. This I say unto you, he that
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he that soweth
boundefully shall reap also boundefully. Here's how you give. Every man. every boy, girl, man, woman,
everybody, according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give."
How? As he decides and purposes in
his own heart. Not a tithe, a rule laid down. That's not so. That's law. This is as he purposes in his
heart, led by the Holy Spirit, led by love. So let him give,
not grudgingly. Nobody pays their taxes willingly,
they do it grudgingly. There's no way you can set an
amount for somebody to give and him not begrudge it, somehow. But now if he did it because
he wants to, don't turn it down. If he gave it out of your heart,
like one person told me one time, said, if a man gives you an old
hound dog, take it. You might be able to give it to a hunter,
but take it, because he gave it, he wanted to give it. willingly
out of his heart, not in a necessity, God loves the cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace
abound towards you. Now, this is what, don't get
back under that law. They say, well, Sunday is a Christian
Sabbath. It ain't no such thing. No, sir. Sunday is the Lord's
day. Today we meet to worship, but
it's not a Sabbath. We're not under a Sabbath day.
I can't handle a Sabbath day. Circumcision of the flesh, we're
not under that. Tithing, I don't want under that. I don't want laws and rules and
regulations to determine my relationship with Christ. Washings, I've been
washed. Turn to 1 Corinthians 6. What
about these washings? There's a lot of washings in
the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 6 and 7. First Corinthians 6, verse 9,
verse 9. Now, you know, know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Now listen,
read it carefully. Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, or ever inherit the kingdom of
God. Such were some of you. Everybody in here, in fact, by
nature, by imagination, done all those things. Such were some
of you, but you are washed. You are sanctified. You are justified
already in the name of, by the grace of, through the blood of
Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. That's enough for me. I
don't need any laws, rules, and regulations. I've been washed.
I've been sanctified, I've been justified already. Purification? He's going to present you holy
and unblameable. Sacrifice? Jesus paid it off. Feast days? We feed on him. All right, let's
move on here. Now, verse 1 says, You stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Don't
be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you, if you be circumcised, if you do an act of religious
tradition, circumcised or Sabbath-keeping or tithing or duty to be accepted
of God, if you do that out of a religious regulation or rule,
Christ prophets you nothing. You forfeit his blood and righteousness.
His cross prophets you nothing, the empty tomb, the resurrection. the mediator, Christ prophets
you nothing. That's serious, isn't it? And
here's the reason. I testify again to every man
that does any of these things. I testify to any man who is circumcised,
who returns to any part of the law. Sabbath, circumcision, feast
days, holy days, tithing, you return to the law. and expect
to find from your obedience and adherence to that rule some favor
with God. You are better to do it all. Go back, let's get Leviticus.
Tonight, John, just go to Leviticus and tell us all what to do, because
it's a heavy burden. But we don't want anything to
do with that. Christ has become of no effect
under you, whosoever you are, that are justified by the law.
You've fallen from grace, departed from grace. He laid hold on works. The hymn writer said, It's not
what these hands have done that can save my guilty soul. It's
not what this toiling flesh has borne that can make my spirit
whole. It's not what I feel or do that
can give me peace with God. Not all my prayers or sighs or
tears can bear this awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can
take away my sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God,
can give me peace within." I'm happy with Christ. Happy with
Christ. Verse 5. I want you to look carefully
at this, and I'll close. Let's identify who this is. We
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we who find in him our
washing and sanctification and justification and righteousness.
We through the Spirit, the Holy Spirit who regenerated us and
called us and revealed Christ to us. It's the Spirit that quickens
us. The flesh prophets nothing. We through the Spirit, we wait.
We wait for the hope of righteousness. Wouldn't it be better to say,
well, we're working while we wait? No. No. We wait. We're not working. So the energy
is rest. To complete the foundation and
temple of God, we have nothing to do but wait. The work is here. To the garment of righteousness,
we add not a single thread. We wait. Our acceptance with
God and inheritance with Christ, we add nothing. We wait. To the
atonement and offering for sin, we contribute nothing. It's finished.
We wait. We, who through the Spirit of
God, wait for the hope of righteousness. And our hope of righteousness
is not merely a wish. It's expectation. based on his
person and work. Our hope of righteousness is
Christ in us, the hope of glory. And it's a good hope. It's a
good hope through grace. It's a blessed hope by the resurrection
of Christ from the dead. It's a better hope based on better
promises and a better sacrifice. And it's a living hope. He has
begotten us again unto a living hope. We live because he lives. We who believe through the Spirit
of God wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. It's already secured.
For in Jesus Christ, now understand this, in Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. It doesn't
matter either way. But faith which worketh by love. Now I've got to add this, and
I know you'd want me to. Salvation is the work of Christ
alone. And it's ours by faith. But it's
by a saving faith, and a living faith, and a loving faith, and
a faith that works. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. The Apostle Paul talks to this
early church at Thessalonica, and he says in verse 2 of 1 Thessalonians
1, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of
you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith, your labor of love, and your patience, waiting, patience
of hope. in our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the sight of God our Father. True faith, worketh, but it works
by love. It's work of faith, labor of
love. Believers, they obey God's commandment,
not out of law, not out of fear, not out of duty, not for reward,
but because they love it. It's a faith that worketh by
love. Believers worship God. David
says, I was glad when they said to me, let's go to the house
of God. And David went to a temple where the priest operated, offered
sacrifices and these things. He went to a pattern, a picture. And he was glad to go. He believed
God. I was glad when they said to
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. And we go to the house
of the Lord. Why? Because of love? No love. We're glad to go. We want to
go. We worship God. Believers give. We're not under a law of the
tithe, but we're under a law of love. We love the missionaries
who preach. We want to help them preach.
We love our pastors who teach us. We want to help them teach.
We love our friends who are in need. We want to help those in
need. Why? Because it's a rule? No! Because
it's a heart love. Believers pray for one another.
Believers serve the Lord. Believers delight to give and
to help and to forgive. Why? Because it's a duty or a
law? No sir. But because they love one another.
That's what he said here in our text. We through the Spirit. We don't work or labor. We wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision of aliens or anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith. It's faith. Faith alone. But it's not a faith
that is alone. It's a faith that worketh by
love. It's a faith that changes the heart. Changes the life.
Changes the direction. All right. May the Lord bless
the message to your heart.