See everybody out this morning.
Welcome our visitors. Remember those who requested
prayer. Wanda Vance is not doing very well. She's still having
some real troubles with this after effects of the shingles.
So remember her. Drew Dietz is doing good. He's out of the hospital.
Had quadruple bypass. He's doing OK. Jim Byrd had a
stent put in. He's doing OK. He's preaching
this morning. Got a funeral tomorrow. Bruce Crabtree's wife, Jo, who's
had a brain tumor for years, is in the last throes of life.
So remember Bruce and Jo Crabtree. Steve Lomax, is he doing OK?
Yeah, he's right under the wrist. OK. All right, continue to remember
him and John Bull Standing Deer, who's in the hospital with COVID. And Nancy Rice. And Nancy Rice. Oh, good. Glad to hear it. Glad
to hear it. Okay, let's begin our worship
service this morning. Hymn number 100. No, excuse me. Your handout. Unworthy. Unworthy am I of the grace that
he gave. Unworthy to hold to his hand. Amazed that a king would reach
down to a slave. This love I cannot understand
Unworthy, unworthy A beggar in bondage and alone But he made
me worthy His mercy has made me His own. My sorrow and sickness stripes
on His back. My sin calls the blood that He
shed. My faults and my failures have
woven a crown of thorns. ? Of thorns that he wore on his
head ? Unworthy, unworthy ? A beggar in bondage and alone ? But he
made me worthy ? And now by his grace has made me his own. Unworthy am I of the glory to
come. Unworthy with angels to sing. I'm thrilled just to know that
you love me so much. A pauper, I walk with the king. Unworthy, unworthy. A beggar in bondage and alone,
but he made His grace, His mercy has made
me His own. Also wanted to remind you, next
Sunday, last Sunday of February, we'll observe the Lord's Table
after the morning message. There'll be no afternoon Bible
study. That's next week. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number and 25. If you have your Bibles, share
with me please to First Kings chapter 21. First Kings chapter
21. I'm going to read the entire
chapter. I'm actually going to read through
verse 20. And it came to pass, after these
things, that Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard which was in Jezreel,
hard by the place of Ahab, the king of Samaria. And Ahab spake
unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have
it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house, and I
will give thee for it a better vineyard than it. Or if it seem
good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And
Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me that I should give
the inheritance of my father unto thee. And Ahab came to his
house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the
Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he said, I will not give
thee the inheritance of my father's. And he laid him down upon his
bed and turned away his face. and would not eat bread. But
Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is thy spirit so
sad that thou eatest no bread? And he said unto her, Because
I spake to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy
vineyard for money, or else, if it please thee, I will give
thee another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give
thee my vineyard. And Jezebel said unto him, Dost
thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread,
and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard
of Naboth, the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's
name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent letters to the
elders of the nobles that were in the city dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote the letters, saying,
Proclaim a fast, and that's really a trial, and set Naboth on high
among the people. and set two men, sons of Belial,
before him to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme
God the king. And then carry him out, and stone
him, that he may die. And the men of the city, even
the elders of the nobles, who were in the inhabitants of the
city of Jezebel, sent unto them. And it was written in the letters
which she had sent unto them. They proclaimed a fast, or a
trial, and set Naboth on high among the people. There came
two men, children of Belial, that sat before him, and the
men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in
the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and
the king. Then they carried him forth out
of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died. Then they
sent to Jezreel, or Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned and
is dead. It came to pass, when Jezebel
heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said
to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the
Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money, for Naboth
is not alive, but dead. It came to pass, when Ahab heard
that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard
of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it. And the word
of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down
to me to have the king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold,
he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess
it. Now shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord.
Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak
unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord. In this place, where
the dogs lick the blood of Laban, shall dogs lick thy blood, even
thine? And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast
thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found
thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight
of the Lord. Let us pray. We bless you and thank you for
your blessed word, which is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our
path, the entrance of which gives light and understanding to the
simple. We pray that you didn't leave yourself without a witness,
but it blesses this grand and wondrous book. It teaches us
of your dealings with men. It teaches us of your sovereign
majesty and your holiness. We thank you, Father, that the
truth is set forth about men in this book. They're not lauded
and applauded and lifted up on high as if they were anything.
They're cast down into the dust where they belong to show what
kind of things they are, often worse than beasts, wicked and
undone, unclean, full of lies and deceit. We know what we are,
Father. Your spirit has taught us. We
know our only hope is in Jesus Christ the Lord and that perfect
sacrifice that he offered to you, to thee. That death that
settled the question of what we owe to you, that he paid that
debt for us. And you have made us to be the
very righteousness of God in him. We stand in that glorious,
imputed righteousness and are so thankful for it because we
know that we have no righteousness of our own. We are thankful that
you have made him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We bless you, Father, and praise
you for your kindness and your tender mercies toward wretched
creatures like ourselves. We pray for those who are sick
those who are going through trials, we ask Lord your help for them.
Watch over them. These struggles are real. We
know that ultimately they will bring your children to your feet
to seek mercy and grace for their hour of need. Help us this hour
to worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us, Lord, to think
on the good things, the things of thee. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Him number 125. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
out. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power,
and Thine alone. ? And changed the leper's spots
? ? And melted the heart of stone ? ? Jesus paid it all ? ? All
the debt I owe ? ? Sin had left a crimson stain ? ? He washed
it white as snow ? ? For nothing good have I ? Whereby thy grace
to claim ? I'll wash my garments white ? In the blood of Calvary's
Lamb ? Jesus paid it all ? All that I owe He washed in white as snow. And when before the throne I'd
stand incomplete, Jesus died my soul to save. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. I'm going to ask Fred and Stan
to receive the office this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again, we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, the blessed name, the
only name under heaven given above men, whereby we must be
saved. We are thankful for the unspeakable gift of Christ, and
we know that with him, with that gift, you have given us freely
all things. Let us not boast as if we have
not received these things, for we know that if we have them,
it is because of your mercy and grace. The only thing owed to
us He's dead. And we're thankful that our Savior
paid that debt for us. As we render to Thee that which
belongs to Thee, let us do so with joy. In Christ's name, amen. so so I invite your attention back
to 1 Kings. The title of my message this morning is Gaining and Losing. This text is about the use and
the abuse of the law, which people can use and abuse. Paul made it clear in the third
chapter of 2 Corinthians that the law kills. The old covenant
kills, never makes anyone alive. It's death and it's not the ministry
that he had. His ministry was to preach Christ
and him crucified and not the law. Paul's most scathing letters
in scripture, Colossians and Galatians, had to do with the
men trying to bring the believers back under the law. In fact,
The only epistle that Paul wrote where he did not use the word
beloved, speaking of the brethren, was
the book of Galatians. The believer has no relationship
to the law except a past relationship to the law as his former husband. But the law is used extensively
in religion. The law is used extensively in
false teaching, and is used according to the Word of God, Paul said,
to excuse or accuse someone. The Lord said, What shall it
profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his soul? And
we have an illustration of that and what has happened here with
the vineyard that belonged to a man named Naboth, which has
real life. And how it was taken from him by using the law. It was taken to him by using
the law and in one sense it was used in a lawful manner. So whether
the law is used lawfully or unlawfully, it is still death either way
you look at it. It never changes. For a believer
to use the word law lawfully is simply to say this, it has
been fulfilled completely by the blood of Jesus Christ. The
law is fulfilled and it is set aside. Our Lord said He came
in the volume of the book that was written of Him to do the
will of God. He taketh away the first, that is the first covenant
the old covenant the Sinai covenant and establishes the second which
is the covenant of grace which in reality was the first covenant
but the second reveal. Now Ahab and his wife Jezebel
if you know anything about them they prove themselves to be the
poster kids for total depravity throughout their whole existence
They are glaring examples of religion without Christ. They are very religious people.
They practice idolatry, and they unlawfully use the law. Paul
told Timothy of men who used the law unlawfully, and he said
their design was to do away with the successful work of Christ
and bring those who had been forgiven back under the bondage
of sin and guilt. The law operates in the realm
of sin according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. For false religion, the law is
a convenient tool to accuse or excuse behavior. The law is a convenient tool.
The realm of the law is sin so that Those who employ it unlawfully
can only and do only address behavior. They don't address
the spirit or the soul of a man. The illegal use of the law is
manifest in many ways. For example, men who would exalt
themselves pick a particular aspect of the law in which they
might excel and make that law more important than the others.
Some use the law to trick people, in the case of the Pharisees.
But they asked Christ if the harlot should be stoned, or they
asked Him which was the greatest law. Others used the law to excuse
themselves of guilt, as did the priests when they refused to
take the money back that they had given to Judas to betray
Christ. They had paid Judas to bear false
witness and then said the money was blood money and the law would
not allow them to take it back. They gave him the money. but
wouldn't take it back. The law is one thing, whether
it comes in the form of a command or an edict, or it comes in a
rite or a ceremony where a sacrifice is offered. The law simply, concisely,
and precisely says that the sinner must die. That's what the law
says. You want to go to the law? Go
ahead. The law says you must die. The soul that sinneth, it
shall die. We sang Jesus paid it all. What did he pay? And what was
the price that he paid? He paid our sin debt. What was
our sin debt? Death. What was the price he
paid? His death. That is the price that was exacted,
and it was the only way to satisfy the law. If you want to keep
the law, let me tell you that in the natural sense, all of
us WILL die someday, and the reason that death is in the world
is because SIN is in the world, according to Romans chapter 5
and verse 12. But this does not stop religion
from employing the law for personal gain. This is what is before us in
this passage in several manifestations. After about just every encounter
with Elijah, we see Ahab going into some kind of blue pity party.
It's always that way. The last verse of the previous
chapter, Ahab had been told that he would die because he had let
Ben-Hadad free when God told him to kill him. And he walks
away sad and discouraged. And in this chapter, we find
him once again his old self feeling kingly and figuring that what
he sees he has a right to possess and he sees a vineyard that belongs
to Naboth that was close to his property. He says, I think I
want that. I know I want it. He sets his
eyes on the vineyard belonging to that man named Naboth. There
does not seem to be any evil business dealings on the part
of Abraham. He does offer him a good price and offers him more
land for it. There seems to be that he's willing
to do some kind of bargain. He offers to buy the vineyard
or trade for it. It seems like good business.
What he was doing was against the law, though. It was against
the law. It's like here on the Cherokee
reservation, the nations. You can't sell your land to somebody
else. You can't sell your land to somebody
you don't belong to. And if you die having no relatives,
it goes back to the tribe. That's the way it is among the
Jewish nation. for Ahab to seek to buy this vineyard was against
the law. You see, Naboth owned the property. It was his inheritance from the
Lord. And even if the owner became
impoverished and had to pawn his land, which he could do,
he could pawn it, it was freely returned to him in the year of
Jubilee. where he hath to seek to buy this land was against
the law, and Naboth knew that he could not legally sell his
land. He said the Lord forbids it. Where does he forbid it?
He forbids it over in the Levitical law when it says this in Leviticus
chapter 25 and verse 23, the land shall not be sold forever. For the land is mine, for ye
are strangers and sojourners from me." It's actually God's
land. You don't mess with God's land. And rather than accepting
the fact, Ahab got all sullen and collapsed into a sulking
mode, refusing to speak to anyone and even refusing to eat. That's
what it says. All wine and no cheese. The essential mark and cardinal
trait of depravity is self. Me, me, me. One said that the
opposite of love is not hate. It's self. It's self. Egocentrism, thinking that the
world is all about you is easily understood in children. We look
at our kids and it's all about them. They think the world is
about them. But the fact is, apart from a
work of grace, All that adults do is seek to perfect ways of
self-gratification. It began in the Garden of Eden
with Adam, blaming his sin on the woman that God gave him. He was saving himself and he
was really saying this, when he said, that woman you gave
me, if you hadn't given me that woman, I wouldn't have never
gotten to her. What was he really saying? He
said, what so many people say, I hear them say. I'm really a
good person. That's what he was saying. It's
that woman you gave me, you see. I'm really a good person. He
was setting forth his own righteousness. Ahab didn't get what he wanted,
and he had himself a good cry. Naboth had honored God and refused
to do what God had forbidden, and Ahab had transgressed the
law in seeking to possess that which could not be lawfully his.
What follows is a course in the unlawful use of the law. And
the instructor of the course, the professor in this course,
is none other than the Lady Jezebel. And she's well versed in the
subject matter. After she sees her husband in the whining mode,
wallowing in self-pity, she berates him, tells him that the law doesn't
apply to him because he's the king and needs to start acting
like it. Aren't you the king of Israel?
She tells him to cheer up because she will give him the vineyard.
She didn't say, I'm going to try to get it for you. She said,
I'm going to give you the vineyard. I'm going to give it to you.
Well, you can't give what you don't possess, so it stands to
reason she believed the neighbor's vineyard was already hers and
it belonged to her. It was hers to give, therefore
it must be hers. Depravity has at its core the
concept of entitlement. This is mine. How can she use
the law to get the vineyard? The law says he can't sell the
vineyard. How can she use the law to get the vineyard? Well, if Naboth is dead and he
has no heirs, the land can be claimed for the realm so the
king can get it. Now, Naboth had some sons according
to the record in Chronicles. And in that record, Jezebel had
them put to death also. She not only killed him, she
killed his sons also. You say, well, she can't go out
and murder them all. Well, she has to appear to put them to
death in a legal manner. I mean, murder is still murder.
It's a sin to kill someone. You have to do it in a legal
manner. The first thing to do is to stir up the people against
them. Stir up the people. She sends
out letters. and calls for a trial. Now, this is called a fast, but
it's not a fast of hunger. It's adjudicating some wrong.
That's the idea behind it. Everybody gathers to do it. It's
an open public court. And doing this always produced
in the people a sense of anticipation, as it does today. You get some
big trial going on with some famous person and the people
are waiting outside to get in the courtroom. There's an anticipation
about it. Doing this always produces in
the people a sense of anticipation that some wrong had been done
and somebody is going to get the comeuppance. This practice
of public trial for differences among believers is forbidden,
yet I see some preachers today, preachers that I've thought and
believed in grace, actually taking church members to the law. It's
not to be done. If there's some legal matter
to be settled, we feel there's a legal matter to be settled
in the church, scripture says choose the least person in the
church to decide the matter. What he says goes. That's the
way it's done in the church of the living God. Now, the law
forbids false witness against your neighbor. It also requires
that a legal matter cannot be settled except in the face of
two witnesses. That's the law. Now, you're not
supposed to bear false witness. But if you can hire somebody
to bear false witness as if it's true witness, you have, in a
sense, satisfied the law. because you've got two witnesses.
And I often use that when somebody calls me and says, well, so-and-so
said this about you. I'll say, well, produce two witnesses
and we'll talk about it. Until then, we'll not talk about
it. No use to answer foolishness
like that. She unlawfully uses the law to get Naboth out of
the picture. She transgresses one law and
unlawfully uses another law to get the job done. She is a multitasking
transgressor. Her treachery, her disregard
for life and for the law, except when it served her purpose, got
her the gift for her husband. Naboth was stoned to death, and
so were his sons. Now Ahab is the proud owner of
Naboth's vineyard. He got what he wanted. His wife
got it for him. The same tactic was used by the
law lovers to accuse our Lord and his servants, Stephen. Even
Saul went out and wreaked havoc in the church. How? Under the
law. Those who crucified Christ applied
the law to do so. Those who crucified Stephen,
or rather stoned Stephen to death, did so using the law. And so Saul of Tarsus went out
with the same letters as a lawyer who studied at the feet of Gamaliel
and knew the law. Even in the misuse of the law,
in all its instances, the end result is the same. When the
law is employed, regardless whether it is done lawfully or unlawfully, in all instances, the result
is the same. It is death, always. That is what the Lord said. Romans
chapter 3 and verses 19 and 20, it says those who are under the
law are guilty. What the law says to them that
are under the law is that the WHOLE WORLD might become guilty
before God, so by the law there is no such thing as righteousness
to be had. The law works in the realm of
sin. In Romans chapter 8 it talks about the law of sin and death
that we as children of God by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
have been freed from. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that walk in the spirit and not in the flesh for the
law of life in Christ Jesus has freed us or delivered us from
the law of sin and death. The Law of Christ. Sometimes
a law means a principle. Sometimes a law is simply stated
as a law, though it is not in the law books, because it is
an EXACTING TRUTH, and the Law of Life in Christ Jesus is our
exacting truth. Remember that our Lord fulfilled
the law by willingly dying under its curse. He became a curse
under the law, for it says, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.
He fulfilled the law. says the law to everyone who's
under it. So Christ willingly went under
the law to die the death that the law required to be made a
curse for us. He was made sin for us, and He
knew no sin. And I still wonder and am amazed
at what that means. I'm not even sure I'll ever really
grasp the fullness of it. But I know that 2,000 years ago,
the sins of all of God's elect was laid on Jesus Christ, made
to meet on Him, imputed to Him. They were there upon Him. And
because of that, our sin being imputed to Christ, God will not
impute our sin to us. He will not charge us with that
sin. The law employed lawfully or
unlawfully always has the same result, death. Life exists where
the law has no ground to accuse and therefore has no function.
That's the only place it can exist. Life exists where the
law does not exist in spiritual truth. Ahab is about to find
out the result. of the lawful use of the law.
You see, Jezebel lawfully got two witnesses to bear witness
against Neba. The LORD sends Elijah to Ahab
to tell him the result of the evil he has done. Verse 17, it
says, And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite,
saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is
in Samaria, Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth." He's
in that vineyard. He's already taken up. He's got
his lawn chair out there among the grape vines. He's in good
shape. "...whither he is gone down to possess him. And thou
shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord." Has thou
killed to take possession? How did you get this? "...And
thou shalt speak unto him, saying, In the place where the dogs lick
the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thine blood, even thine.
And that came to pass, we all know. We all know. And when Ahab went out to possess
Raimund Gilead, he was shot in the chest by a bowman who pulled
an arrow at a vinture, shot an arrow at a vinture. I shot an
arrow in the sky, it fell to earth I know nowhere. It fell to earth in Ahab's breastplate,
killed him. and as I was washing off his
chariot the blood off his chariot the dog showed up and started
licking his blood I said this is how you're going to go the
curve is going to eat your blood and Ahab said to Elijah has thou
found me O enemy O mine enemy and he answered I have found
thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of
the Lord Ahab's response is instructive he calls Elijah And the law he
brings, because Elijah brought the law too, have you killed
to have possession? He says you are my enemy. Is the law the enemy of the believer?
Yes. It is the enemy of the believer
because the law accuses when there is no ground to accuse.
The law has no friends because all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Those who seek to bring a believer
unto the law are not friends, they are enemies. Mark it now
because the law is against me and I've said it and I'll say
it again. We're not worried about the guy that wears a funny looking
fish hat over in Rome. We're not worried about people
who run up and down pews and talk in tongues and smite people
and knock them down. We're not worried about those.
I'm not confused about that. I don't think that's close to
anything I believe or anything that the Bible teaches. Anywhere. What would fool me? Because the
scripture does say, the Lord said that the counterfeit will
be so good that it will almost deceive the elect. Almost. What would do that? Only one thing. If a person says
he believes the gospel of God's grace, he'll prick my ears. But then if he adds a little
bit of law, just a tad, just a tad, that might fool me if I weren't
one of the elect. Because it's so close to truth. The law is our enemy. Our Lord
said that. Our Lord was declared to have
rid us of our enemy. We are by the law, Paul said,
dead to the law. By the law, dead to the law.
By the law being kept and fulfilled by Jesus Christ on Calvary's
tree, we are dead to the law. And the
law is dead to us. He died on the cross for us,
and our Lord said this in Colossians chapter 2. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
13 it says, And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you
all transgressions, all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against you. What? It was against you. It's your enemy. And took it
out of the way, nailing it to the cross. It was contrary to
us. That's what it says. That's what the law is, our enemy. And note well that Elijah is
willing to wear that title. And Ahab said, Oh, my enemy. Elijah said, Ahab said, Elijah,
hast thou found me, O my enemy? And Elijah said, I have. O my enemy, I have found you.
The Lord has found you. Ahab had sold himself to sin
and evil. He had gained the world and lost
his soul. The judgment is just. It's just. says in verse 24, He that dieth
of Ahab in the city of dogs shall eat, and he that dieth in the
field shall the fowls of the air eat. He's talking about when
he goes up to possess Raimund Gilead. His claim to fame is
the title of treachery, the accolade of ignominy, the placard of perfidy,
and the epitaph of insidiousness. He's a wicked man. Verse 25 and
26 of the same chapter says there is none like unto Ahab. none
like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in
the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did
very abominably in following idols according to all things,
as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children
of Israel." That's his epitaph. That goes on his gravestone.
The law can be used lawfully, and it can be used unlawfully.
but it's always the pale rider upon whose name is death and
hell. It's always that way. Trust the
mercy and the grace of Almighty God. And if someone comes to
you and says, well, you know, you gotta do this or gotta do
that, know this, they're not your friend. They are your enemy. They are your enemy. Father,
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name.