All right, let's look at Galatians
3 again for a moment. It says here in chapter 3, verse
7, Know ye therefore that they, not preachers, choir members,
Sunday school teachers, deacons, elders, soul winners, just they,
they. Not Jew or Gentile, male or female,
old or young, it's just they. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, saving faith, living faith, God-given faith, genuine
faith, they are the same are the children of Abraham. Verse
9, So then they, there it is again, they, Jew or Gentile,
rich or poor, old or young, black or white, they which be of faith,
those who can believe, are blessed with Abraham. And verse 26, For
ye are all the children of God by faith, by faith in Jesus Christ. You're not children of God because
you were born to parents who were children of God. You're not children of God because
you were born of Abraham's seed and you're Hebrew of Hebrews.
You're not children of God because you've been in church all your
life. You're not children of God because you're a believer
in the doctrines of grace. You're not children of God because
you've never done some of the more wicked deeds that folks
have done. But you're the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. Now, during the darkest days
of the Civil War, a committee of people came to visit the President,
Abraham Lincoln, for some matter of business. And before they
left, one of them was heard to say to Mr. Lincoln, Mr. President, I trust that God's
on our side. God's on our side. To which Mr. Lincoln replied, I'm not so much
concerned with God being on our side as I am with our being on
God's side. That's a white horse of another
color, isn't it? We're on His side. Who's on God's
side? Who here this morning really?
We say, God be with you. I need to be with Him. I need
to be with Him. I need to be in Him, of Him. Who's on God's side? Who are
the children of God? You know, everybody claims to
be children of God. I've been up Thursday and Friday
up in the mountains of West Virginia. customs and ways and doctrines
and all these things I ran into, quite different. And they all
claim to be children of God. Everybody claims to be a child
of God, no matter who they are, no matter what they believe,
no matter what they do, no matter how they worship, no matter how
they live. Everybody I meet is a child of
God. That's just, everybody claims
to be children of God. God is our Father. That's what
the Jews said to Christ. He said, God's our Father. We'd
be not born of fornication. God's our Father. The wealthy, living in luxury
and extravagance, go to the mafia in New York, Chicago. Folks living
in the most outlandish luxury and extravagance, they're children
of God. They tell you so. And yet You
go up in Pennsylvania and hear these Amish people who won't
have any electricity, running water, no washing machine, no
sewing machine, no tractors, no automobiles, walking around
in their little black hats and black suits, living off the land,
living in poverty and simplicity. They're the children of God.
Here's folks at opposite extremes. They're both children of God.
One working their way and one with no works at all. They're
athletes. They're fellows right now. It's
ten to eleven, and the people of God are meeting all over this
country, and those boys are in a smelly locker room this morning
getting ready to go out on the football field and kill each
other. But they have prayer just before
they go out. That fellowship of Christian athletes. They're
all children of God. They spend every Sunday that
way. They're never in church anywhere. They never worship
God any time. They're not identified at all with the things of God.
just brute beasts, making all they can make, millions and millions,
desecrating what they call the day of worship. But they're all
Christians. They're all children of God.
And over here are some folks that are keeping a Sabbath. Today,
there are people in our country, some Calvinists, Reformed Calvinists,
who won't even cook on Sunday. They won't eat on Sunday. They
won't swing on Sunday. They won't walk on Sunday. They
won't do anything on Sunday. meet around a table sharing some
things of God. Now, here are these people at
total opposite extremes. Here are these big fellas in
there damning it and all this in the locker room and cussing
and swearing, but they're all Christians. And these Reformed
over here, they are too. Now, what kind of God we got
here? I don't understand this. I don't
understand this. And then the politicians sitting
up there in Washington conniving in power and compromise and plenty
and loss of any even concept of integrity. He knows God. He'll tell you right in the middle
of his speech, now God bless you, God bless you. We're going
to have our day of prayer. And there's a prisoner sitting
up there in the cell for murder. He knows God, too. He's a child
of God. This is confusing to me. The
Catholic bishop and pope in their old robes and their rituals and
idols, just going around with all the pop and the richest organization
in the world is the Catholic Church. Did you know that? The
Vatican. Rich. They ain't bankrupt like
the United States government. They're rich in gold and silver
and plenty. Powerful, rich, powerful organization. And they're children of God.
And a simple mountaineer up there under the brush arbor this morning
singing, I fly away, oh, glory. He's a child of God, too. Here,
opposite pole to pole, they're so far apart, it's pitiful. But
they're all children of God. You see what I'm saying? Everybody's
a child. The Arminian, who is saved by
what he does, and the Calvinist, who is saved by what God does,
they're both children of God. That's what I'm told. The legalist,
wrapped in his ceremony and law, believing that he has God's favor
because of his legalism and morality, and the fundamentalist, who walks
to the altar, both of them find God where they want to find Him.
But they both got God, that's what they say. They're equally
saved. They're children of God. Those
who die in the world and those who die in the church, all of
them look forward to the sweet by and by. Now, there's something confusing
in religion today. It's totally confusing. When according to the scriptures,
this is what our Lord said. Our Lord said this. Our Lord
said, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Broad is the
way that leadeth to destruction. This is the broad religious way,
because most all men are religious. And broad is that way that leads
to destruction. And our Lord said, many are going,
they're proceeding that way. They're making a move. Broad
is that road that leads to destruction, that road of religious deception,
religious perfection. And many, many there be which
go in there, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, life. And few there be that find it.
Few. That's what he said. And again he said this, he said,
not everyone, not everyone that saith, Lord to me, Lord, Lord,
Lord, Lord, Lord, God, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. But he that doeth the will, the will of my Father,
what is the will of my Father? I came down from heaven not to
do my will, but the will of my Father, the will of him that
sent me, and this is the will of Him that sent me. This is
the will of Him that sent me. This is the will that these people
do. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all which He hath given me I'll lose nothing,
and everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, might have
everlasting life." They said, what shall we do that we might
work the works of God? What are the works of God? What
is the will of God? Is it mechanical? Is it outward?
Is it fleshly? Is it conformity to the rules? Is it walking so far, doing something,
bowing a certain number of times, counting the beads, being baptized?
What is the will, the work of God? This is the work of God,
that you believe on Him whom God has sent. That's the work
of God, that you believe. This work of God is work that
is done without a movement. This work of God is a work that's
done inwardly, not outwardly. This work of God, which is done
inwardly, will produce outward obedience. But it's a work done
only inwardly, believing. Not everyone that says unto me,
Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which sent me. Many will say
unto me on that day, many will say, wait a minute now, we preached
and prophesied and cast out devils and did many wonderful works,
but I shall say unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. The work which you did is works
of sin and iniquity. Who are the children of God?
In this confusing day, in this day of so many voices, in this
day of so much religion, in this day of so many cathedrals, and
temples, and churches, and steeples, and crosses, and signs, and voices,
and programs, and denominations, who are the children of God? I'm troubled. According to what
they say, everybody's a child of God, and yet they're opposite
extremes. They're just way out that way,
infinitely apart. Infinitely apart. Everybody can't
be a child of God if that God has any straightness or holiness
or justice about him at all. Now, you say, what about you? Well, if I didn't believe that
I know the way to God, if I didn't believe that by His grace I was
in that way, I wouldn't be dealing with this subject. So evidently,
I'm pretty confident I know the way. Yet you say everybody else
is confident they know the way. They speak with just as much
zeal as you do, enthusiasm, and in some cases, sincerity. And you know, if you didn't believe
this morning to some degree, with some conviction and certainty
that you were in that way, you wouldn't be here. And you certainly
wouldn't be as peaceful as you are. Calm and quiet. Who are the children of God?
Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. Let me read you a scripture over
here, 2 Thessalonians 2. Now there is a hope, a good hope,
in 2 Thessalonians 2. It says in verse 16, Now our
Lord Jesus Christ himself, Christ himself, and God even our Father
who hath loved us, He loved us before we loved Him.
Love proceeded from Him, was born of Him, found its beginning
in Him, and has given us everlasting consolation, comfort, rest, and
good hope, and good hope through grace. Comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good word and work. Whatever this hope
is, it comes from God. gave it. And it's a good hope
through grace. And it's born of His love, and
it's everlasting. You go around to different people
and you ask, well, what is your hope? Tell me your hope. Well,
they say, I'm a member of the church. I'm a Catholic or a Baptist
or a Methodist, but Isn't that what the Jews of old said? We'd
be Abraham's seed? We're Jews? You ask somebody
else, what's your hope? They say, well, I tithe, and
I go to church, and I pray. But isn't that what the Pharisee
said in the temple? He said, I fast twice a week,
I pray, I give alms to the poor. What is your hope? Well, I've
lived a good life, but wait, isn't that what the rich young
ruler said? He said, I've kept all these. Give me something
hard to do." Somebody else said, well, I've
made a profession of faith. Like a fellow said to me the
other day, he said, twenty years ago, I accepted Jesus. But didn't Judas do the same
thing? Didn't Simon Magus make a profession
of faith? Didn't Demas make a profession
of faith? And he departed, having loved
this present world. Well, let's see if we can find
out this way to God. Who are the children of God?
Turn to Romans 4. Now, over here in Galatians 3,
Paul kept identifying us with Abraham. I read to you a while
ago, from Galatians 3, he said this. He said, in verse 7, Ye
that are of faith are children of Abraham. Verse 9, They that
be of faith are blessed with Abraham. In verse 29, if ye be Christ,
then ye Abraham's seed. All right, let's go back to Abraham.
Let's forget all the claims of people and preachers and denominations
and professions, all these things. Let's just go back to Abraham
this morning. Here is a man who is friend of
God, child of God, blessed of God, justified by God, pattern
of believers. Let's see what Abraham, what
he had and where he got it. Romans 4, now look at it, Romans
4, what shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining
to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, if he was justified before God, made righteous and
holy before God by anything he did, by his works, by leaving
his father's by going to another country, by dividing the land
with Lot, by rescuing Lot and the people from the kings of
Sodom, by sacrificing his son Isaac, by sending Ishmael forth. If Abraham's justified by his
works, then he hath whereof to glory. He can glory. Now, not
before God, but he can glory in his works and in himself.
But what sayeth the Scriptures? What brought Abraham acceptance
with God? What brought Abraham union with
God? What made Abraham a child of
God? What made Abraham righteous before God? It says here, he
believed God. He believed God. He believed
God, and it was imputed to him or accounted to him for righteousness. Now, to him that worketh, serveth,
prayeth, giveth, or any of these things, in order to obtain favor
with God, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. It's God
paying you for what you've done. It's not of grace at all. But
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted, imputed, reckoned for holiness,
righteousness, God's righteousness. That's how Abraham was saved.
In the first place, God chose him. He didn't find God, God
found him. He didn't choose God, God chose
him. He didn't love God, God loved him. That's where it started.
God chose him. Noah, I mean, Abraham, like Noah,
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God chose him. God found
him in idolatry, and God called him. And he believed God, and
he responded. He believed God, he responded.
Now look at verse 20. And Abraham, this faithful friend of God,
this man devoted to God, this man who knew God, this man who
was a child of God. Abraham, verse 20, staggered
not at the promise of God, no matter how great it was or how
vast that promise was. Nothing's too hard for God. God said, here's a man nearly
a hundred years old, Abraham, and his wife Maddie, old and
feeble, and God said, you're going to have a son? Now bless
the whole world through that son? Against all human hope? But Abraham believed God. He
believed God. He knew that God was able. God
was able. Staggered not at the promise
of God, however impossible it was as far as human hope was
concerned, he believed God. Now then, you say, you mean God
can take this natural body and make it a glorified body? God
can take all my sins, my sins of thought and imagination and
deed, my sins of the past, present and future, my corruption, wicked
thoughts, my wicked words, my identification with Adam. God
can take all of that and make it as if it never even happened,
blot it out, cover it over, remember it no more. Yeah, God can do
that. God can do that. Nothing is impossible
with God. Nothing's too hard for God. You
mean someday I'll die and this body will be buried in the ground
and go back to the dust, and yet God can raise my body, my
vile body, make it like unto His glorious body, make me like
Christ and give me an eternal heaven, eternal glory, eternal
perfection, eternal happiness, always and always? Yeah. Nothing's
too hard for God. See, Abraham believed God was
able to bring a son out of a dead womb, and I believe God's able
to bring a son out of a dead body, a grave. eternal spiritual
sons and glorified sons. God's able, I believe Him. And verse 21 says, and being
fully persuaded of what God had promised, God was able to perform. God is able through Christ to
perform all that He promised, to justify us, sanctify us, redeem
us, and resurrect us, and give us eternal glory. He's able through
Christ to do all those things. And therefore, it was imputed
to him, charged to him, written to him, on authority from God,
that he was a righteous, holy man. That's what God, holy, perfectly
holy. This is God's righteousness.
Now, I know the world today keeps talking about holiness, holiness. Everybody talks about wanting
holiness and striving after holiness and perfecting holiness and all
these different things. And their holiness is an outward
holiness. It consists in the deeds of the
flesh. In other words, you dress a certain
way, you comb your hair a certain way, you make your face a certain
way, you wear your nails a certain way, you go to certain places,
you do certain things, you read the Bible, you give an offering. And you don't use cuss words,
and you don't drink coffee or tea in some cases. You don't
put pork in your mouth, in your stomach, and you don't drink. You don't play cards. You play baseball, but you can't
deal a card. And you don't shoot pool, but
you can bowl. It takes two hands to shoot pool. They weigh in the bowl. There's,
you don't go, you go to a ball game on Friday, but not on Sunday.
You see, this is a holiness, man's holiness. It's his standard
of holiness. He's made up a standard of holiness. Now, you don't dare look in here. You don't dare open this little
thing here up and look at it. You got an outward holiness,
but in here, pride, even pride of the holiness. I don't do that. I've never done that. You don't
dare look in here because you'd see envy and jealousy, old jealousy. You'd see some bigotry and hatred
for different races, denominations, people. You don't dare look in there
because you'd see that temper and snapping at people, and you
don't dare. You see my holiness, but the
holiness Abraham had, It was an inward holiness and a holiness
before God. You see, it was God's holiness.
It was a perfected holiness. It was a true holiness. Well,
how did he get that? Where did he go to school? What
did he do? How did he spend his days? Believing
God. He believed God, and that's how
he got that holiness. That's how he got believing God.
Believe in God. That's what it says. It said
he believed God, and it was imputed to him, charged to him, reckoned
him this holiness before God. Now, my friends, those are people
who are saved, who know God, walk with God. They're people
of honesty and integrity. They're people who dress decently,
morally. They're people who conduct their
lives on a moral standard, out of love for Christ. And they're
people who are honest in their dealings with others, because
they're honest in their dealings with God. And they're people
who avoid the appearance of evil. Drunkards are not going into
the kingdom of heaven. No, no, that's what he said,
adulterers and fornicators and drunkards and blasphemers, such
were some of you, but you've been washed, you've been changed.
But because you've been changed and you've got a different lifestyle,
a different direction, a different walk, you still know that you're
a sinner before God. And your holiness or acceptance
with God is not because you've been changed, or because you
live a different life, or because you pursue honesty and holiness,
You know that that righteousness of yours is filthy rags in God's
sight. But your holiness is Christ. He hath perfected it and performed
it and purchased it by his life and death. He's my holiness.
He's my acceptance. And nothing I do or don't do
adds to that holiness because it's a perfect holiness. Nothing
I do or don't do, I say or don't say, adds to that sanctification
because He's my sanctification. But I long to please God. I want
a prayer life and a will have, and I want a generous spirit,
a giving spirit, a kind spirit. We're not saved without the law
to be like outlaws. We're not saved by grace to live
in disgrace, and you don't want to. God changes your will, and
changes your want to, and changes your desires, and changes your
direction. Changes those things, but even
then, you know, all of it is imperfect at best. You see that? But in order for
me to be accepted of God, I've got to have perfection. Now,
he said, you folks that want to live by the law, you better
study the law. Do you know what it says? They
that do it live by it. But while Abraham obeyed God,
he wasn't righteous because he obeyed God. He obeyed God because
he was righteous. That's what it's saying here.
All right, look at the next verse. Now, this was written, not for
his sake alone, to whom it was imputed, that it was imputed
to him, this righteousness, but for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed. This righteousness of God, this
holiness of God, this acceptance with God, this union with God,
this communion with God, this child of God, father-son relationship
to whom it shall be given and imputed. If we live the best
we can, if we try the hardest we can, if we're faithful to
the Church, if we tithe and fast and pray and win souls, church,
and don't drink, and don't smoke, and don't curse, and don't play
cards. No! If we believe, you are the children of God by
faith, by believing God. Please, I say to you, salvation
is by grace through faith, not what you do or don't do. Our
Lord tried to tell the Pharisees that he He ate a meal. Now, they had a ritual. You had
to wash your hands. It wasn't just washing. I washed
my hands before I ate. But not for religious purposes.
Not for acceptance with God. These Jews did. They had a ritual
that washed their hands before they ate to keep from being defiled.
And our Lord ate without washing his hands, and they got highly
indignant, and they said, you eat without washing your hands?
Christ said. It's not that which goes into
the mouth that defiles a man. There's nothing I can put in
my, if this were straight gin whiskey, or water, as far as
my soul's concerned, it couldn't affect it when I ordered it.
Did you know that? That's right. I'm not saved because
this is water and not gin, Ronnie. That ain't what saves me. What defiles me is not what I
put in here, it's what's already in here. It's what was born in
here, and bred in here, and in here by nature, and by birth,
and by principle. It's the me, that's my problem.
It's not the material, it's me, my problem. I need to be cleansed
before God. I need His cleansing blood. I
need His righteousness. I need His redemption. I need
His sanctification. And I can't find that in material,
liquid, Elements, I can't find that in myself. I can only find
that in Christ. That's where I find all that
I need. Jesus Christ is made to me all I need. All I need. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Abraham found it there. Isaiah
found it there. David found it there. Paul found
it there. You'll find it there nowhere
else. Well, he says saved men wouldn't drink that whiskey.
That ain't what I'm talking about. That's not the issue. I'm talking
about how he got saved, not what he does after he's saved. How did God save him? By not
doing it or doing it. By what Christ did. Now, if he
loves Christ, and he has a new nature, He doesn't want to dishonor
the Lord. He doesn't want to desecrate
the temple of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't want to bring reproach
on the Lord. That's not what he wants to do. He loves holiness. He loves godliness. He loves
truth. He loves honesty. He's got a
new nature. Doing these things didn't give
him the new nature. The new nature gave him a love
for those things. See what I'm saying? Now, he didn't write all this
for Abraham's sake, but for us, look at verse 24, also, to whom
it shall be the same righteousness shall be charged, imputed, if
we can believe. You hear Peter, the Lord said, Whom
do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. One day he said to the disciples,
Will you go away? They said, To whom shall we go? You have
the words of life. We believe and assure that you're
the Christ, the Son of God. That's what we believe. And while
these men had their struggles and their ups and their downs
and their times of doubts and fears and unbelief, they still
believed. They knew Him. Turn to 1 John
5. I wish I could make this as clear
as it ought to be made. I feel so inadequate. But I do
know this. I do know that the Spirit of
the living God, if He's pleased, Can this morning, for every person
in here, this preacher and everybody out there, make us to see how
holy God is, how incomprehensible and unapproachable and holy He
is, and what's required to stand in His presence. And make us
to see that none of that's found in us or produced by us in anything
that we are to do. And that God sent His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Redeemer and our righteousness
He came to this earth and by his life perfected for me a holiness
with which God is satisfied. And went to the cross and paid
my sin debt and bore my guilt and satisfied God's justice.
And I have that righteousness and that satisfaction of justice
only by looking to Christ, believing Christ and receiving Christ. And my praying or not praying
doesn't add to or diminish it. My working or not working has
nothing to do with it. 1 John 5, now listen to this. 1 John 5, 10. He that believeth
on the Son of God, belief he is the Son of God, he's prophet,
priest, and king. He's the surety, he's the incarnate
God, he's the Lord our righteousness, he's the Lord our substitute,
he's the Lord our risen justifier, he's the Lord our king and mediator.
I believe him. He has the witness in himself.
He that believeth not God hath made God a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son, everything he says
about his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given us eternal life, and that life, that righteousness,
that holiness, that hope, is in his Son. And he that hath
the Son of God by faith hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life. And these things have I written
unto you that believe. You may be the youngest one here
or the oldest one. You may be the weakest one or
the strongest one. You may be the blackest or the
whitest. You may be the richest or the poorest. You may be a
male or female. But if you can believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, He said, I've written this to you, that you
may know you have eternal life. And you may keep on believing
on the name of the Son of God. And don't you let anybody draw
you away. Don't you let anybody come in
with their knives of circumcision. or with their rituals of Sabbath-keeping,
or with their do's and don'ts, or with their standard of holiness,
or with their dress or undress. Don't you let anybody come in
and try to tell you that salvation's in you or what you do. It's in
Him. And you keep on believing on
it. Keep looking to Him and trusting Him, and love Him, and rest in
Him, and get some joy and confidence and assurance from Christ. That's
where salvation is. Oh, bless God, verse 20, look
at, and we know that the Son of God has come and given us
an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we're
in Him that is true, in Christ, even in His Son. And my friends,
this is the true God, and this is eternal life. This is the
true God. This is where it is. So you don't
need to be kept in doubt. I kept asking those questions
at the first. about the confusion of modern
religion. These people claim to be sons
of God. I know who the sons of God are. And so do you. So do
you. It's those who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is a true God and this is
eternal life. You know how it is. And I do
too. And we know it's not of ourselves,
it's all of Christ. Is that clear? But this faith is something that's
working the work of God, this will of God is something that
is done. It's done, but it's something
that's done without a move, without a hand raised. It's something
that's done in here. Like Thomas of old, my Lord and
my God. I believe. Lord help my unbelief.
I believe. I believe. Sink or swim, Spurgeon
said, I'll go to him. and rest in him.