Huh? Oh, did I already say that? You
wasn't listening. You was outside on the porch,
wasn't you? Crow wants me to remind you once
again we're having dinner Sunday. Okay. That's taken care of. Okay. Galatians
chapter 6. Let's read verses 11 through
14. Paul writes to the Galatian church
and says, You see how large a letter I have written unto you with
mine own hand? As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only lest
they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but
desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I am crucified unto the world. I like it when a plan comes together.
I had all my ducks in a row yesterday. I finished the bulletin, finished
the Bible study, and was about one paragraph from finishing
my message. Come a knock on the door. Ed
showed up. He said, I'm going to mow your
grass. I said, well, bless your heart. And I hurried around and
got the lawnmower filled up with gas before he changed his mind.
I'm just kidding. Then after he mowed the grass,
he was all red in the face. He says, now I'm going to vacuum
the church. And he vacuumed the church for me. And I thought,
man, this is great. I was amazed how much a man will
do just to avoid having to go shopping. But at any rate, my plan was, I had a paragraph
to go. I was ready. You know, I was
done. Now I could clean the house, vacuum, start packing, wash clothes,
get all that stuff, get all the stuff I had to do. And I went
to the grocery store to get a few items for Josh. He's going to
be house sitting this week. Now message was from Numbers
chapter 8 verses 1 through 4 on the lampstand as a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the light of the world. By 1.30 yesterday afternoon I
would have been finished completely. Ed came, he mowed the lawn back
in the church. When I went to food line, this
verse 14 kept popping into my mind. I'm not one of those preachers
that say I feel led of the Lord to do something. It sounds pompous
and it normally is when it's said. And I used to say that
because I tried to sound spiritual. That's baloney. So I'm more prone
to say what Rolf Barnard said, God or somebody gave me this
message. I couldn't get it out of my mind.
Last night when I opened up My Bible and my notes on Numbers
8, all I could think of was this verse, this passage of Scripture. Went to bed thinking about it.
Woke up thinking about it. So I said, well, I ain't going
to get nowhere on that other thing until I deal with this
thing, whatever the reason might be. This is possibly one of the most
profound and self-contained verses in all of Scripture. It is the
declaration of a man who loves God, who bears the marks and
the scars that he suffered for Christ Jesus in his body. This
man has taken more stripes than our Lord took. Our Lord took
40, which is the maximum. Paul took 39, three different
times. This man was stoned at Lystra
and I believe died and went to the third heaven and saw things
which cannot be uttered and God sent him back for whatever reason
to preach the gospel. This is a man who carried a thorn
in his flesh because God sent Satan to buffet him so his pride
wouldn't be great because he had seen things that no man had
ever seen before. He was not like those men of
today who see anything and they write a book about it. who see
anything and they become famous preachers, who see anything and
they ask for money. He said, I saw things I'll never
be able to talk about. And he didn't talk about it in
the rest of the scriptures either. He said, I can't talk about it. Unlawful,
unspeakable things. I don't know what he saw. We'll
see it one day, what he saw. This man writes to this church. And His last words to them are,
having spent basically six chapters saying exactly the same thing
in a hundred different ways. This is where it all is. This is where it all begins.
This is where it all ends. This is our life as a child of
God. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross or the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
verse 11, he says, you see how large a letter I've written unto
you with mine own hand. Now if you read different commentaries,
they'll tell you a different thing. They'll say, Paul's problem
was an eye problem. He couldn't see very well, so
he had to write this book in large letters. That's stupid.
But that's one idea. That's one idea. We know that
it can't be talking about the extent or the size of the epistle
itself. For Roman and Ephesians both
are greater in length. than the book of Galatians. What
Paul is saying here, he is saying, every other epistle I wrote,
I dictated. I spoke it and one of my servants
wrote it down and then I signed my name as a salutation to it.
To show this group of people what he cared for them and how
much he cared for them, he declares this, I wrote this whole thing
myself. I didn't use a secretary. I didn't
sign my name to it. Every word you see here, I wrote
down with my own hand. You see how large a letter. How much time I've spent. And
He does it because He cares for their souls. This distinguishes that the subject
and the people addressed are close to His heart. What do you
tell somebody that's close to your heart? Verses 12 and 13. or the reason for the strong
statement in verse 14. Paul in these verses is teaching
that men glory in something other than what they ought to glory
in, and men do. In verse 12 he says, As many
as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they glory in something
other than Christ. In order to make a fair show
in the flesh, The reason is always the same, really. People do what
they do to be recognized for doing it. That's why they do it. And on
a natural level, there's nothing wrong with that. There is nothing
wrong with that. We have two fine young athletes
here. And I'm glad to recognize them
as such. And part of that playing ball
is not only they love it, they enjoy the pats on the back, don't
you? It's just natural. It's just natural. But when you
do what you do religiously or through religion to gain attention
for yourself, you're just trying to make a fair show in the flesh. Your religion is not spiritual
at all. Men want to bring attention to themselves in religion by
showing the effect they have on others. Listen to men talk. Listen to what they talk about
in their in their big campaigns and things. They talk about how
many came, how many got saved, how much they affected people,
how many they won to Jesus, and all of this sort of thing. What
a great witness they were. I heard Jerry Falwell said, who
is now dead, in case you didn't know, he is now dead. He is still
dead. He died a while back. He is still
dead today. The problem is he was dead before
that. He didn't know it. But I heard him say one time
in his younger days, I guess he was in his fifties probably,
he said, I can't wait to get to heaven and hear people say,
thank you for saving me, Jerry. Now, I know he didn't mean that.
He had better sense than that. But it was what we call in psychobabble
a Freudian slip. He really believed that He was
what affected those people. And that's why they have ministries
like they have to make a fair show in the flesh to bring attention
to themselves because they affect people's life. You know how you
affect people's life even as a believer? You know how you
affect people's life? Always for the worse. You really do. There was a parable like or an
analogy given in the Old Testament. If a priest takes in his garment
an unclean thing and carries it to you and you touch the unclean
thing, will you be unclean? The answer of course is yes.
You touch the unclean, you'll be unclean. He said, well, what if he takes
a clean thing in his garment and you touch the clean thing? Will that
make you clean? The answer is no, it won't. We
bring a clean thing to people. We bring the pure gospel of grace.
But we're still involved in it. And I guarantee you, apart from
a work of grace, you can convince men of the doctrinal truth of
the Scripture. And they miss Christ altogether. They can miss
Him altogether. The good thing, you're not going
to affect people for good. That would give you credit, wouldn't
it? That would give you glory. That would give you honor. You
can only affect people for bad because that's what you are by
nature. And that's where we are in this world as human beings.
We're physical human beings in a natural world. If anything
spiritual happens, God has fixed it. So He's going to get all
the glory and you're not going to get any of it. I won people for Jesus. Nobody
has ever won anybody for Christ. Well, didn't Paul say that I
may win some? He was talking about winning influence with
them. Doing what was necessary. Becoming all things and they
might listen to it. Hear it. Hear it. They want to
bring attention to themselves. Our Lord said, when you're giving,
you ought to let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
What does that mean? Don't pay attention to yourself. My brother used to say, practice
being unnoticed. Make it a practice to be not
noticed, so men will notice Christ. and not you. Those who want to
bring attention to themselves are seen in Matthew 23 as the
Pharisees who do what they do to be seen of men. That's why
they do it. That's the reason that they do
it. It says here also that they constrain
you to be circumcised. Now when you read the word circumcised
in Galatians, it's not talking about just the act of circumcision. the physical act of circumcision,
the cutting of the foreskin. That's not what this is talking
about. We see the word circumcised in the book of Galatians generally
throughout the whole New Testament. It means a general application
of keeping the law. That's a general application.
So when he's talking about being circumcised here, and though
these Jews were trying to press these Galatians to actually be
physically circumcised, what they were really doing was trying
to bring them under the rule of law as a rule of life. as
a way of righteousness before God, trying to get them to be
under the law. They constrain you, that means
they pressure you by employing tactics to make you feel guilty,
or with the promise of blessing, they make it your duty to live
righteously by the law. And this was the thrust of this
entire epistle, if you know anything about the book of Galatians.
They constrain you, they pressure you. People are amazed when I tell
them, well, you know, I've been pastoring for 29 years almost. October,
I think, will be 29 years. Never given an invitation. Never sat down and tried to get
someone to confess Jesus Christ. Never done it and ain't going
to do it. It's simply not my job. My job is to tell you back
away and see if God will save you. That's my job. And I ain't
going past it, because every time I have, I messed up. You
know everybody I've converted, I've lost? Every last one of
them. Some of them are in jail now.
That's the kind of job I do. So I finally figured out, we
don't give invitations here because the Bible don't do it, but because
it's an invention of men, so men will see other men do things,
and they can take credit for it that they've affected somebody.
A man did a survey on Billy Gribb's first crusade out there in California. Not in San Francisco, but Orlando. No, not Orlando. What's it? Oakland.
Oakland, California. First one he had out there, 1950s.
Something like 6,000 or 7,000 people confessed Christ. About
10 years later, this reporter just wanted to see if there was
anybody still doing that. So he got the role of those people
that had confessed Christ that night down there in that big
stadium. And he started asking them. He said two people out
of 6,000 were still even attending churches. And they weren't attending
churches or preaching anything. Two out of 6,000. But you don't
read about that. What you read is 6,000 saved
in Oakland. They weren't saved. They weren't
saved. They constrain you. Paul also
says they constrain you to be circumcised, they push you to
do it, and they do that lest they should suffer persecution
for the cross of Christ. That's an interesting way to
turn this phrase, isn't it? This is the main goal and the main
reason why they do it, the main motivation why they do it. They
want to avoid persecution. You see, there's no persecution,
and you can mark it down, whether it be in the political realm
that looks at religion, or the law enforcement that looks at
religion, there is no area where the political system is persecuting
any religionist for trying to make people live right. They're
just not. They're just not. The law don't
bother with that either. They like for folks to tell people
how to live. But you see, the gospel don't tell people how
to live. The gospel gives people life.
And life lives. That's what it does. That's why
it's called life. That's why it's called life. These want
to avoid persecution, but not just any persecution. I know
this about religion. They would gladly suffer if they
thought they would merit something by it. Crow told me of a woman
who believed that. The more she can make herself
suffer, the greater place she would have in God's economy. Your suffering is not meritorious.
It never has been and it never will be. It never merits one
thing. I heard of a man this week who
said to a friend of mine, he said, I can't believe this is
happening to me. I've tried to be good all my life. He's had
a terrible disease. I can't believe this is happening
to me. My friend told him, why shouldn't it happen to you? It
happens to everybody. Why shouldn't it happen to you? What do you think? That your
life actually has to do with your salvation? That you're living
what you do? You see, to preach the cross
puts an end to the law for righteousness. These folks want to avoid persecution,
but it's the persecution of preaching the cross of Christ. Preaching
the cross of Christ. That message declares that your
life, no matter how well it is lived, or how vilely it is lived,
plays absolutely no part in your salvation, either before you
knew Christ or after. Has nothing to do with it. Paul
looked not only at his former life, but his present life, even
to the fact when he met Christ on the road to Damascus and says,
that is past. I'm not looking to any of that.
I'm living now in this world. The message of the cross declares
that your life is nothing in reference to the salvation wrought
by God. To those who fear persecution
for gospel's sake, to them the gospel was scandalous. The gospel
was offensive. And it still is true today. If
you don't believe so, preach it. Tell a religionist that what
he does means nothing. You'll find out. You'll find out. Why, if you
preach that mess, if you preach that grace all the time, if you
preach Christ alone, by grace alone, through the Scriptures
alone, by the sovereign will of God alone for salvation, that'll
just open up the front gates of sin and iniquity. No it won't. But if you're preaching to keep
the law, that will. That will. Paul said in Galatians chapter
5, Verse 11, And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,
he said, if I preach the law, why do I yet suffer persecution?
He said, people are beating me up, wanting to kill me because
I'm preaching something other than the law. He said, all I'd
have to do is preach the law. Why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. See, the offense of the cross ceases. You're nothing. I'm nothing. My great intellectual
prowess is nothing, my human wisdom is nothing, my standing
in society is nothing, my place, my race, my faith is nothing
in the matter of salvation and acceptance of God. And to religion
that is absolutely a scandal. It's scandalous. In fact, the
word offense there in chapter 5 and verse 11 is a scandal.
There's the scandal of the gospel is removed. We don't want to
remove the scandal of the gospel. They held that such salvation
that required nothing from the one saved, no works that could
be recorded, no lives affected for good, no evidence of godliness,
yet according to Scripture perfect before God, would open the floodgates
of sin and would scandalize the holiness of God. God is holy! You can't live like that! You
can't think those thoughts! They're thinking them. They just
won't admit it. They think they're above that.
Listen to me. You can't act like a Christian. You can't work something up whereby
you'll be a Christian. You can't come up with a list
of things to do to be a Christian. You know what you are? You are
a Christian, a believer, because God Almighty by His own will
and purpose made you so, and He didn't consider you at all
except as a vessel in which to pour His mercy." And that vessel,
by the way, is dirt. Dirt and water. A clay pot. A clay pot. Your pride That's what it'll
cost you to preach the gospel. Preaching of the cross costs
you yourself. You can't glorify God and glorify yourself at the
same time. You can't bring attention to yourself and bring attention
to Christ at the same time. You can't thank God and thank
yourself at the same time. Your merit? Nothing. Your wisdom? Foolishness. to be destroyed
by God. Your sense of self-worth, self-esteem,
down the tubes. Oh, but you know what you gain
in here when you hear the gospel, when you truly hear it with the
ears that God gave and eyes that God see? You'll gain soul esteem. You'll care for your soul. You'll
want your soul to be right with God. Verse 13 it says, For neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire you
to be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. What
does that mean? These folks were not open law
breakers, they were Judaizers. What this is saying is no man
has ever kept the law for righteousness and life. Paul said if there
had been a law that was made for life, then righteousness
would come by the law in verse 22 of chapter 3 of this very
book. their keeping of the law. And
yours also, by the way, if you believe that's how you're going
to merit righteousness before God, is dung, the same dung that
Paul talked about in Philippians chapter 3. The very same dung. Here's my righteousness. You
know, I go to church. Manure. Say that next time. Well, you
know, I've read this book 23 times. Manure! I pray three times
a day. Manure! I'm really just a little
too civilized to say what the real word was. We southerners
know what that word is and we know how to use it. That's what
it is though. It's manure. All those years
you know I served Jesus, it's manure. Until you hear the gospel
of God's grace and know and understand by grace through faith that all
your righteousness, all of it, all of it is Jesus Christ. Everything
else manure. We're called beggars on a dunghill
when God found us. Why did he call us that? Because
that's where we are. So don't it stink? Not if you
live there long enough. If you live in Canton long enough,
that place starts to smell like money. But you live in a dunghill. Remember
we used to paint with oil-based paint? Your painting room would
be all closed up, and all of a sudden you'd get kind of goofy.
But you didn't smell it anymore, you just sort of was high. But
you went outside, stayed outside for a few minutes, then come
back in. Boy, that smell was so strong, why couldn't you smell
it when you were there? You was used to it, it was your life, it was
where you was at. That's where you're on a dung hill. So you
work some manure, and you smell like manure. That's your standing
before Almighty God apart from a wonderful blessed work of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ. These fellows were pretenders
of righteousness who live to control others from their Moses
seat. They themselves who are circumcised,
they don't keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised.
They desire for you to keep the law that they may glory in your
flesh. They want to take credit for what you do. Their ministries,
so-called, are designed to display their successes and disdain the
effects of preaching the gospel of Christ. Their churches boast
of the numbers they have and the things that they do for God. Within this last ten years, we
have new names for churches. They are not churches anymore,
they are plants. Like an industrial complex. And
it is. It's got these little machines
called preachers in there. And these little systems called
invitations. And these little systems called
certain kinds of schools and studies and such. And they stamp
out them Christians one by one. They all act the same, smell
the same, look the same, have the same message. Don't know
God from a goose. Lost as a goose in a snowstorm.
And yet they keep turning them out. They are factories. Just
like machinery over and over again. They call them mega churches. I don't know what they'd call this
one. Micro. No. Somebody talks about a mega
church, say, we belong to a nano church. Because that's the smallest technology
they got so far is nanotechnology. Mega. We have 50,000 members in our
church. We have football and basketball
and baseball for them. We have classes on how to stop
being this and how to start doing that. We teach them how to live
a better life and live the life that God intended for them. You
know what they are saying? They are saying everybody is
laying on a sick bed. ever poor old sinner who suffered
drug addiction or alcoholism. They're not living as God intended
them to. But let me tell you this, where you are is where
you're supposed to be. If you don't get that, you don't
understand God yet. Where you are, that's where you're
supposed to be and what you are. That's what you're supposed to
be. If you're a child of God, that's what you're supposed to be. Because
God has ordained you to be so. He's God. He's God. Didn't we prophesy in thy name?
Didn't we do great wonders in thy name? Didn't we cast out
devils in thy name? And I will say unto them, depart
from me ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. Paul says, they do all this to
glory in your flesh, but God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I should glory
saving the cross of Christ Jesus. And this is not only a statement
of Paul's utter aversion to anything that is not the pure gospel.
We know he had an aversion to that. He had an aversion, a real
aversion. Kind of like an allergy. He'd
hear false gospel and he'd just start itching. He had to leave
or confront it or something. He said, if any other person,
whether they be from heaven or earth or anybody else comes preaching
any other gospel than what I preached to them, let them be accursed.
That's pretty strong. Say that to one of them other preachers
around here. If you're not preaching the gospel, go to hell. That's what
he said. That's what he said. You're not
preaching what I preach? Go to hell. Because that's where
you're going. Because there ain't but one gospel. And it is defined
in Scripture. It's not a mystery. It's not only his determination
to preach nothing else but the gospel. He said, I'm determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I'm determined to do that. It's in my mind to do that. God
forbid that I should lower it. Woe is unto me, he said, if I
preach not the gospel. These words of Paul, I believe,
however, is a declaration that God forbids anyone to glory in
anything or any other person than the Lord Jesus Christ. God
forbids it. Shall we know ye all should not
drink? God forbids. He doesn't forbid drinking. He
forbids drunkenness. And if you carry your drinking
too far, I know everybody likes to have a glass of wine, a glass
of beer, whatever you want to have as your business. I ain't got no
problem with that. If it goes to the point where
you start losing your mental function, you're sinning against God. It's
that simple. Go ahead and write it down. That's
just how it is. Well, you know, that's sin. That
adultery, that's sin. That's true. That's forbidden
of God. That fornication, that's against God. That's forbidden.
This is forbidden of God to glory in anything else but Jesus Christ.
God forbids it. So anyone who glories in anything
other than Jesus Christ is in direct disobedience to God's
command. And He says it on pain of death.
We just read in Isaiah 45 this morning that if you're incensed
against Christ, you're going to be ashamed. You're going to be brought
down. John chapter 5, verse 22 and
23, our Lord says, God says He'd give all judgment to the Son.
He that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father. And he that does
not honor the Son, God will not honor. He will not honor. God forbid that I should lower
you. This is the singular theme of Paul's message. This is his
life. This is what his life is all about. First Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 26, he says, 26 through 30, he talks about
not many wise are called, not many noble. But God has chosen
the foolish things of the world and the nothings and the nobodies
to confound the powerful and the wise. That no flesh should
glory in His presence. No flesh. For of Him, Are you
in Christ, who of God is made unto you wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption? That is, it is written, him that
gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. In Philippians chapter
3, he says, we are the circumcision. We are the true Israel. We are
the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The cross of Christ. What do
you think about when I say that? What first pops into your old
memory tank up there? The cross of Christ. Not talking about the wooden
gibbet that they hung Christ on. Not talking about these trinkets. and ear bobs and such that people
put around their necks and their ears. He's talking about the cross
of Christ or His crucifixion because He uses the same language
as to the results of the cross. The world is crucified under
Him and He's crucified to the world. He's talking about the
crucifixion, what Christ did on Calvary Street, what He accomplished
on Calvary Street. There and there along. was all
that is involved in salvation forever settled. You know that? Thou weren't around. You sure
weren't. In fact, this was given to you
before the world began if you were a child of God. God who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began. On the
cross was sin settled. It was settled. On the cross,
the elect were redeemed. On the cross, the elect were
sanctified. On the cross, the people of God
were perfected. On the cross, the appointed time
for them to hear the gospel and receive faith and believe and
repent was all settled on the cross of Christ. Whether they'll
have eyes to see and ears to hear, the gospel settled on the
cross. God Almighty was satisfied for the sins of His people on
the cross of Christ. On the cross of Christ, the elect's
sins were put away by the sacrifice of Christ. On the cross of Christ,
everlasting righteousness was brought in. On the cross of Christ,
the prophecies were sealed. All the Old Testament types and
prophecies were fulfilled. There on the cross, everything
pertaining to salvation was forever settled, and all for whom Christ
died were eternally redeemed. He didn't have a thing to do
with it. Before or after, or during, it
was all between God the Father and God the Son. This man, by
his one sacrifice, has perfected forever them that are sanctified.
God has written His Word in their hearts and will remember their
sin no more. Because He is so perfectly satisfied
God, there is no need for any other sacrifice ever again. Ever. Paul says, by whom the world
is crucified under me. This is a result of preaching
the cross. This is what happens when you
do On the cross of Christ, the world
and its religion and its damning power were revealed for what
they were and nailed to the cross. The believer does not glory in
passing things. He glories in that which is eternally
glorious, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I was crucified
under the Word. What does that mean? When a believer is brought
to faith in Christ alone, by the gospel. The world is done
with him. You just got it done with you.
If you really trust Christ, the world is done with you. I'm talking
about the world, it's religion, it's done with you. Christ is
in, he's going to leak out on you, you can't keep shut up about
it. I mean you try, don't you crow? Think, bite my lip? Wait
a minute, that can't be right. You got to talk. You got to tell
somebody. You feel uncomfortable when you
hear men get up and dishonor God and lie on God. It makes
you feel angry inside, indignant. You want to hear somebody stand
up and tell you the truth about God. The world's done with you. I've
had friends who had known for years look me in the eye and
say, I don't want to hear from you again. I never want to hear
from you again. That hurts. Breaks your heart. I went home, hung my head, and
sat down in my recliner, and sat there and thought, I've lost
one of the dearest people I've ever known. Why? The gospel? The world is crucified unto me,
and I am crucified unto the world. The believer is hated and despised
because he refuses to give credence to anything but Christ. He refuses
to participate in the world's religion. He openly confesses
that he had nothing to do with his salvation, that he is nothing
and can do nothing that will make him appealing to God on
any level. He looks at his life before knowing Christ as nothing,
and the life that he has after knowing Christ as having nothing
to do with his acceptance before God. A believer disdains his
own righteousness and claims that Christ is his only righteousness.
He refuses to even claim faith as a thing that he had anything
to do with. He denies his work, his worth, and his words. He
declares that Christ is all things to him. He proclaims for all
to hear that the best thing he has ever done is full of sin
and iniquity. His lifelong mantra is, Lord
save me or I perish. The world hears him and hears
what they think you're saying. You're saying I'm not saved.
Isn't that right? You'll hear that. You tell somebody
how the Lord saved you, you know what they're going to say? You're
saying I'm not saved. Now, I've been doing this a long
time. I've never actually said that
to anybody. You're not saved, because I don't know. That's
gospel business. I know this catch me on any given
day, you think I ain't saved either. Catch me at the right
moment. But that's what they say. Why
do they say that? Because if what you're saying is true, they
know they're believing a lie. They know it. Preacher, if it's
that way, then you're saying I'm not saving. I'm not saying
you ain't saving. You're saying it. Go ahead and admit it to
yourself. Too late. We're all getting grayer
and older. All headed for the grave. Go ahead and say it in your mind,
your heart. Say it to yourself. You don't have to say it to me.
I don't need to know. Trust me. I'm not keeping a record.
I've not got a book so I can jot down something. Listen to
me. If you hear the gospel preaching,
it says to you, I'm not saved. It's telling you the truth. It's telling you the truth. What does that mean? I'm crucified
to the world. I'll tell you what to do. I can't
give them nothing. I can't offer them nothing. I
can't give them no comfort. I can't give them no strength. I can't help them
out. I can't push them along and edify them in their false
religion. I can't do that. And I won't do that. So I'm no
good to them. What good is it? Oh, he's a preacher. We like him. We all go in the
same place. Just come on in. Tim, join in with these preachers
around here. Just keep your mouth shut. Because if you say anything,
you're going to cause trouble. So I'd just rather not go, thank
you. You know what I need in this
world? I need my Lord Jesus Christ. And on an earthly basis, I need
y'all. If I've got my family around me, I am one happy camper. The happiest moments of my life
are not in study. I enjoy study. My happiest moments
of my life is doing this right here with y'all. This makes me
joyous in my heart. I'm looking at the faces of those
I love and who I know love the gospel I love. Ain't no better
life than this. If I flop over dead right now,
it don't make no difference. I'm not going to leave her. I
just want to die preaching the gospel. I want to die among the
people I love. That's enough. What if you don't
get no more here? Listen, a fellow asked me the
other day, through that meeting, he says, how many did y'all have
when you started there at Sequoia? I said we had twelve. He said,
how long did it take to change? I said, about a month. He said,
what happened? I said, it went down to eight. And I said, then we didn't see
nothing for about five years for a stranger here and a stranger
there. Then the Lord began to add to the church, they to them
should be saved. You know how happy we was with just eight
of us? I think there's three originals
left of the three that Peggy came right on the coattails of
things. She was there that first September after we started meeting
in October. September after we started meeting,
after I'd been preaching some, we had that camp up on the mountain.
Remember, Blueberry and Peggy came out looking like... Who was that activist who got
put in jail? I can't think of her name. Angela
Davis. That's who you looked like. That's Angela Davis. Sylvester,
Loretta, Ralph. A couple others. We was just happy. We thought
we had something going on, didn't we? We a church. We a Sequoia
Baptist Church, buddy. It wasn't even enough to fill
this one pew. We was happy and joyous because
we knew Christ. Now we didn't think about not
having numbers. We knew that the Lord would add to the church
because the gospel was going to be preached. We knew that.
So what did we do? We just preached the gospel.
Told people things. Jenny and Julie showed up. Dan and Winnie showed up. Harley
showed up one day. Come outside. I'll never forget
it. I'm going to tell a story on you. We was out there working on the
church or something. I remember doing rock work. I remember you walked up
to me and you said, I ain't much for joining churches. I ain't
much of a joiner. Remember you saying that? And I said, OK.
I guess he thought I was probably going to say, well, you ought
to join. I said, that's fine. He said, I ain't much of a joiner.
But you know, he hardly ever misses. He's been with me, what, 20 years?
Human leader? You mean he ain't on a roll?
What roll? I don't have a roll. How do you know who's here? Those
that show up. Those that don't come, they ain't members. Those
that do are. That makes no sense to the world.
You know why? We're crucified to the world.
We're dead to it. Don't mean a thing. But they're
crucified to us too. They don't mean a thing to us.
They don't mean a thing. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
nor circumcision availeth anything, but a new creature in Christ
because of his crucifixion and death. What I do or don't do
is not even remotely considered. That's what he's saying with
that. There are some people who say, well, I was never under
the law, you know. So what? Well, I was under the law, so
what? Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't produce anything. Read
Romans chapter 1 and then read Romans chapter 2, you'll find
that those outside the law never, they ended up reprobates. Those
under the law in chapter 2 ended up self-righteous Pharisees. Chapter 3 concluded them all
under sin. Those who claim righteousness
by the law, they are nothing. Their lives are of no consequence.
Those who boast that they have never been under the law are
nothing. Their lives are of no consequence. God has concluded you and Gentile
alike under sin to look at yourself in any capacity pertaining to
salvation. It is not going to avail anything. You can go ahead
and do it if you want to. It is not going to do any good. It does not mean anything.
If you and I are saved, it will take the act of a Creator, the
Creator, making something new. Entirely new. Something that
did not exist before. A believing, Christ-loving, God-admiring, gospel-relishing, whore-saint. Because that's what we are. Sinners saved by grace. new creature. Salvation is the act of sovereign
creation in Christ, making something entirely new. Salvation is the
act of sovereign creation in Christ, and since it is the act
of the Creator, and what you do or I do is to no avail. We have no part in creation.
We are creatures, I say. Paul simply says this in verse
16, as many as walk according to this rule. You want a law?
You've got to have a law. Preacher, please give me a law.
Give me something to live by. Give me a regulation. All right,
here you go. I'll give it to you. This is the rule. Many walk
according to this rule. Peace be on them and mercy upon
the Israel of God. What rule is that? God forbid
that I should lower it. save in the cross of Christ by
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I am crucified unto the
world." There's your law. Live by it. Live under it. Go ahead. Go ahead. This is the rule. If you live under this rule,
peace, mercy, God forbid. What a day. Our Lord has done for us. Bless
His Holy Name. Father, cause us to rejoice in
the knowledge of the truth. Give us that peace and mercy
because You fixed our minds and hearts upon our Lord who was
crucified. Cause us to love each other enough
to be honest with each other, tell each other the truth. Thank you, Father, for this congregation, for their stalwart, uncompromising
attention to the things of the gospel these many years. Thank
you for allowing me the privilege to minister to them. I confess my poorness, my frailty,
and my weakness. But I'm thankful that none of
that stuff ever had anything to do with anything. It is by Your Spirit, by Your
Word, that Your children are made to know Christ. Call us to be faithful to Your
Word, for Christ's sake. Amen. Good day. God bless you.