I think you just played it awkward for one time, like, oh, it's super good.
Let's start back at the phrase we're going to play here.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, I can play it again.
I can play it again.
Let's start one more time with a little word.
I can play the word for the earth.
Oh,
a little quick.
I like
you.
Oh,
I was going to force up the
left hand,
seven,
ten, as well as my soul.
I wanted the slower song.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, one of the final.
Oh,
that's right.
Oh,
oh,
All right everybody, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Glad to have you here tonight.
Let's go ahead and take our hymnals to our first song.
Go ahead and turn to song number 439, Count Your Blessings.
Good thing for us to do every single day.
Song number 439, Count Your Blessings.
Song number 439, sing it all together.
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
Are you ever burdened with the load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy? You are called to bear.
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold,
Count your many blessings, money cannot buy, Your reward in heaven or your home on high.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
So amid the conflict, whether great or small, Do not be discouraged, God is over all.
Count your many blessings, angels will attend, Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
Amen. Great singing. This is Barrett's Word of Prayer.
Dear Lord, we just thank you that we could be in your house tonight and have fellowship with your people
and to hear their preaching of your word.
I just pray you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit now and help him to edify the people here.
We love you, Father, and pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.
Next song is going to be 127, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."
Again, that's song number 127. Sing it all together.
"'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take him at his word,
Just to rest upon his promise, Just to know the saint, the Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, precious Jesus, Hope for grace to trust him more.
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to trust his cleansing blood,
Just in simple faith to plunge me, Beneath the healing cleansing flood.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, Hope for grace to trust him more.
Yes, it's sweet to trust in Jesus, Just from sin and self to place,
Just from Jesus simply taking Life and rest and joy and peace.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, Hope for grace to trust him more.
I'm so glad I learned to trust thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend.
And I know that thou art with me, Wilt be with me to the end.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, Hope for grace to trust him more.
Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin still, you can lift up your hand nice and high
and one of our ushers can get a bulletin to you.
On the front, we still have our Bible memory passage, Psalm 148.
On the inside, we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats.
I'm going to try and get a count for any soul winning that we had for the last few days to report of.
Was there anything from Thursday to report for solely one over here?
All right. What about Friday? Was there anything from Friday?
What about Saturday? Anything on Saturday?
It looks like six for Saturday and then Sunday, today the van had three.
What was outside of the van?
Like 17 total, so praise the Lord on that.
And then on the right, we have our list of expecting ladies.
Keep all of them in your prayers. We have our prayer list.
Any other prayer requests, please submit those in either via email or a communications card.
On the back, we have our upcoming events, the Shreveport Marathon.
Please make sure to sign up.
September 25th, we have the Pure Words fake Bible warning.
If you have anything to contribute, just let me know.
I have a cabinet full of stuff and we'd like to kindle as much as we can.
October 2nd, we have a fall swap.
October 6th, Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
November 13th is the Oklahoma City Soul Winning Marathon.
A lot of soul winning marathons coming up.
Really encourage you to participate.
For the Shreveport one, we'll have a group leave the church.
A group meet at the church and then leave from here as like a carpool.
It'll probably leave about 6 a.m. because it takes about three hours to get out there.
And so if you'd like to participate in carpooling, you can plan on kind of showing up here.
I'm going to try and make a video this week of just the specific details.
We're going to be meeting in a park area and then probably for both breakfast and lunch.
And somebody had asked, they'd known a friend and they said,
Do you have any recommendations for any parks or something that we can meet?
And they said, I recommend never come here. It's really dangerous.
And I was like, oh, it sounds like it's going to be great for soul winning then.
But I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
I was just kind of looking at the area for where to go soul winning.
It looks a little rough. But you know what?
If you're a soul winner, it looks great.
So if you look at the soul winning eyes, you're thinking this looks awesome.
But if you're looking to live there and be safe, it's different.
But that's pretty much all I had for announcements this evening.
Let's go to our third song.
It Is Well With My Soul, 145. Song 145.
And when we get to the chorus, we want to sing it the traditional way tonight.
So we'll have the ladies sing the first part, It Is Well With My Soul, and then the men follow it up.
And then the last part of the chorus, we'll sing all together at the last part of the chorus there.
So it's going to be song number 145.
Now I need y'all ladies to sing really loud for the first part.
You've got to hear your voice.
Song number 145, It Is Well With My Soul.
When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my heart, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.
Ladies.
It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
No Satan should buffet, No trial should come,
Let this blessed assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath set his own blood for my soul.
It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
My sin, O the bliss of this glorious Lord, My sin not implored, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
And, Lord, hasten the day when my faith shall be signed, The clouds be rolled back as I scroll,
The drums shall resound, And the Lord shall descend, Even soon it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul, It is well, it is well with my soul.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
II Corinthians 3, the Bible reads,
Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of condemnation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
In such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves,
but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious,
so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his confidence,
which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness succeed in glory.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth.
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more, that which remaineth is glorious.
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses,
which put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished,
but their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for all the souls that were won out soul-winning today.
I pray, Lord, you are to fill Pastor Shelley with your Spirit, allow him to preach boldly and clearly,
and help us pay attention that we may better glorify and honor you, and in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. The final of my sermon this evening is Under Grace.
Under Grace, it's a phrase that's found in your Bible, and we'll get there later as far as where that's located.
But 2 Corinthians 3 explains a lot of really important doctrine, and I have three points this evening,
and when you're under grace, the most important aspect of what that means is that you're righteous by grace,
that you're righteous by grace.
If someone's under grace, it means that they're righteous specifically by the grace of God,
and obviously we receive that grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 tells us, for by grace are you saved through faith.
So when people in the New Testament or Christians will say we're under grace,
if you truly are under grace, that means that your righteousness has come by grace, okay?
Now, specifically in chapter number 3, it's going to talk about a distinction between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Now, the Old Testament, people will call this being under the law, and in the New Testament, they're saying they're under grace.
But as we go through this chapter, we're going to kind of see how, really, you're either under grace or you're just nothing, okay?
Look at what it says in verse number 7.
But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious,
so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was to be done away?
Now, as we jump in here, he's talking about the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is also described as the ministration of death.
Why? Because if you didn't follow the law perfectly, your penalty was death.
So, basically, it was just saying what Moses told you was that you were going to die,
that basically if you don't follow this perfectly, you're going to experience death.
And if you think about this in a modern context, it's pretty simple.
You know, the law of our land doesn't do anything good for you. It can only condemn you.
You know, the speed limit doesn't help you in any way. It only condemns you if you basically break that statute.
And the laws in our land today, you only get a ticket, go to jail, or receive some kind of punishment because of it.
It doesn't really do anything positive for you.
And the same comes with God's law in the sense that it's a ministration of death,
that basically what the law does is it just helps you realize you deserve death,
that what you've earned is death, and it makes sin exceeding sinful before your eyes.
What I really like about this verse is, notice what it says at the end, which it says,
which glory was to be done away. Meaning what? That the Old Testament was never a forever thing.
It says that it was to be done away with.
You know, I've heard this weird idea, even from Baptist pastors saying, like, hypothetically,
the Old Testament could have gone on forever. And it's like, no, it was always planned to be done away with.
It was just there for a temporary basis, and specifically it is going to be done away with.
Let's read a few more verses here.
So he's saying, hey, the Old Testament was great. I mean, it's not that there's anything wrong with the law.
The problem with the law is us. The fact that we're sinners, and because we're not holy,
because we're not righteous, because we're not going to keep the law perfectly,
it's a ministration of death, it's a ministration of condemnation.
And if you really like that, you know, the Jews, they really liked Moses. They really liked the law.
They thought it was great. He's saying, then how much greater, then, is the ministration of the Spirit?
How much greater, then, is the New Testament as we look towards it?
But in verse number 11 it says this, it says,
So he's saying there's something that is done away, and then there's something that remains.
What is it that was done away? The Old Covenant. The Old Testament is done away.
You know, I've even heard dual covenant theology. This is a false doctrine where they'll say,
Well, Israel has their covenant. We have our covenant. No, no, no, no, no.
The Old Covenant is done away. It's gone. Sorry.
You either have the ministration of the Spirit, you either have the New Covenant, or you have nothing.
There is not another option. There's not like, well, I'm under the law, or I'm going to keep the law,
or I'm with Moses, or I'm going to follow the Old Covenant. No one has that option.
That option's been taken off the table. Look what verse 11 says,
Which is done away. And notice, at the time that this is written, he's saying it's done away.
I'm not saying like now it's done away. I'm saying even back then, the moment that Christ died, the veil was torn.
And his Bible says that the New Testament is in his blood. So that's when the New Testament started.
Now, in your Bible, the New Testament starts in Matthew.
But actually, the majority of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are talking about things that happened in the Old Covenant,
or the Old Testament, as it were, because Jesus Christ came to fulfill that Old Covenant, to fill that Old Testament,
and to bring in and usher in a New Testament, a New Covenant, which is the ministration of the Spirit.
And at his resurrection, he breathes on his disciples, he gives them, and he talks about,
In Acts, chapter number 2, they're filled with the Holy Ghost, and now we see that we're in the ministration of the Spirit,
we're in the New Testament, and we're under grace. Okay?
Look at verse number 12. Let's keep reading.
Meaning that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face,
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that, which is abolished.
Now think about what he's just saying. He's saying, hey, this is to be done away, it is done away, and is abolished.
So what option do you have here, then, to say, oh, well, I'm under the Old Covenant, the Old Testament.
The Jews don't have the Old Covenant. It's been abolished.
There is no such thing as an Old Testament Jew today, because the Old Covenant has been abolished, it's been destroyed.
You know, they that call themselves Jews are really just the synagogue of Satan today.
And even at the time of Christ, you know, as we were entering into the New Testament in the book of Acts, it was already done away with.
It's just, they're trying to have to learn and realize that it's been done away with.
And it makes sense, you have books like Hebrews trying to explain to them, look, you need to get off of that system, because that system is already done.
That system has already been abolished. It's already been fulfilled in Christ, and so we're now in the New Testament, we're under grace.
Now why would you say under grace? Well, think about it. The law was not gracious unto you.
The law is just saying, you know, if you commit this sin, death, or pay a fine, or pay a penalty, or, you know, the law is not gracious.
The law is what you justly deserve.
You know, the law is basically pure justice.
And then grace is not getting what you deserve.
Okay, so they're actually completely different.
You can't say that they're the same.
We're under grace in the sense that I'm not going to get what I deserve.
I'm going to heaven regardless of my action, because I don't deserve heaven.
I deserve hell. I deserve death. I deserve condemnation. I deserve damnation for my actions.
And even today, you know, being saved for a long period of my life, if I had to live by the law to get to heaven, I wouldn't make it.
If I had to do it for five seconds, I probably wouldn't even make it, okay?
No one can make it into heaven by keeping the law because no one is perfect.
So the only way to go to heaven is to be under grace.
So once you've accepted Christ, you're now under grace and you're in the New Testament.
If you're not under grace, you don't have anything, though.
In the Old Testament, okay, what you have to understand is, yeah, they were technically under the law,
but even back then, those who believed in Christ were under grace at that point as well, okay?
But being under the law is really just every single person that's not saved.
People want to make being under the law and under grace as like strictly Old Testament and New Testament,
and there is truth to that, but it's really more appropriately applied to the fact of if you're saved or unsaved.
Because everybody that's not saved is under the law.
Every person that is saved is under grace.
That's why point number one that I have this evening is this.
If you're under grace, that means you're righteous by grace.
Now, what would be the other righteousness that people seek?
Righteousness by the law, under the law.
They're trying to be righteous by keeping God's commandments.
So they point to what?
How they live their life, the fact that they do good, the fact that they help people.
And when you go out and preach the gospel, that's pretty much what everybody says.
You ask, hey, how are you going to heaven?
They say, I'm a good person.
I try to do right.
I try to help people.
I try to follow the golden rule, as it were, to do good unto others as you would have them do unto you.
But there's a problem because no one gets to heaven under the law.
You can only get to heaven under grace.
Now, from a New Testament perspective, you also have the fact that, hey, we're all under grace once we're saved.
But the Old Testament has been completely done away with because it was never going to get anybody saved anyway.
And it's just that the New Testament has now been revealed.
But being saved by grace has always been the same plan of salvation.
It's just back then when they only had Moses, it wasn't necessarily as obvious or things weren't necessarily as clear,
but they were still saved by grace the same way.
And they were under grace even in that period of time.
Go if you would to verse number 14.
Let's keep reading here.
It says,
So, he's pointing out the fact that unbelieving Israel, unsaved Jews, even in the New Testament area of time,
they're under the law in a sense.
But it's not to say that the Old Covenant is still in existence.
Notice he already told you that it's been abolished.
You don't want to get all these ideas conflated with one another.
If you're under grace, that means you're saved.
Right? Okay.
Additionally, the Old Testament has been abolished.
But just because the Old Testament has been abolished doesn't make every Israelite saved, and it doesn't make them all under grace.
You have to believe in Jesus to be under grace.
And if you're in the Old Testament, you could have been under grace once you believed, once you accepted Christ.
That's when it was done away with is when you believe on a personal level.
Okay.
Look what it says in verse number 16.
And so when we talk about liberty, you know, people will say,
Well, that liberty means that I can just live however I want.
I don't have to follow the Old Testament Covenant because I'm under grace.
That is not what it's saying.
What it is saying, though, is that no matter how you live your life, if you're under grace, you're still going to heaven.
Meaning what? God's grace will cover every transgression that you commit, and you will still go to heaven.
That's where the liberty comes from.
What is the bondage of the law?
It's the fact that if you break any single commandment, you're a transgressor, and you would go to hell.
Okay.
If you went to Galatians, chapter number 2, Galatians, chapter number 2, what is really being drawn out in chapter number 3?
What's being drawn out is the fact that the New Testament is better.
Obviously, the menstruation of the Spirit is more glorious.
Okay.
But other things that you can learn is the fact that the Old Covenant is gone.
Okay.
It's been done away because it's been fulfilled in Christ.
Now we're in the menstruation of the Spirit, and we're all under grace in the sense that if you're saved, there is no Old Testament Christianity anymore.
It's been replaced by New Testament Christianity.
But on a personal level, if you are under grace, it means that you're saved.
That's what it simply means.
That you have righteousness, but you receive that righteousness only by grace, not by anything that comes in the law.
Galatians, chapter number 2, is going to emphasize this again, and we see even churches in the New Testament kind of get mixed up with this works-based type salvation.
Look at what it says in verse 16.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Now, as I was thinking about these chapters, and I was thinking about these verses, this is what really kind of triggered in my mind, is how these verses prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that repenting of your sins has nothing to do with being saved.
Because if you think about it, what is a repenting of your sins?
A repenting of your sins is seeking righteousness by the law.
It's saying, the law tells me not to commit fornication, so by not committing fornication, I'm seeking to be more righteous doing right by not fornicating.
Or, whatever the sin, drinking alcohol, lying, stealing, idolatry, blasphemy, doesn't matter what sin you want to put in the category, what does the law do?
The law says, you know what's righteous? Not to lie, not to steal, not to commit idolatry, not to commit any of these sins.
So by turning away from sin, or giving up sin, what you're trying to do is you're trying to be more righteous, or be more godly, or doing right by the works of the law, by doing that which is right.
But notice Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 is making it clear that we're not justified by the works of the law.
It's by grace. And so this is so funny. When people will say that you're under grace and they got there by repenting of their sins, that is completely contradictory.
Because they're saying that they got their righteousness from the law which gave them grace. It's like, what? No, no, no, no, no, no.
You got righteousness that you did not deserve. Not from the law. Not that anything that the law had to do.
It's even better than the righteousness that comes from the law. It's a better menstruation. It's a better gift.
And so if you're under grace, it's meaning that you didn't deserve the righteousness that you have. Your righteousness has nothing to do with what you did.
Not of your works. You know, that's what we think about with Ephesians chapter 2, 8, and 9.
Keep your finger in Galatians. I want to come right back, but go to Romans chapter number 10 for a moment. Go to Romans chapter number 10.
The Old Testament has been abolished. Why? Because no one could repent of their sins and get saved.
Why get rid of the old covenant? Because no one could get saved through the law. No one could get saved by keeping the commandment.
No one could be righteous by hearing the law because all the law did was condemn you.
All the law did was point that, you know, you deserve to die.
So that's why you either are under grace or you have nothing at all.
And that's why I'm saying don't get too conflated on the Old and New Testament because in the old covenant you also had to be under grace to get saved.
Either you were under grace or you were like everyone which is under the law and you were going to basically receive that just punishment.
Now sometimes the Bible used these terminologies to refer to multiple aspects or multiple truths.
The fact that the Jews are under the law and the Gentiles are not. They're not having the law or whatever.
But here's the thing. Even the Gentiles are still going to be judged by that same law.
And they have the law written in their hearts and they still realize what's right and wrong from God.
And if they're not going to be under grace they would still be under the law in that sense when it comes to personal salvation.
But look what it says in Romans chapter number 10 verse number 3.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness. This is talking about Israel. It's talking about Jews saying that they have no idea what real righteousness is.
And going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God.
Notice this. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
And notice what it says. It's the end of the law. Meaning the law has ceased. It's been what? Abolished. It's been done away.
Now here's the thing. We think of the law being abolished and done away with at the time that we enter from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
But from an individual level that moment happens to you when you got saved.
And that could have been in the Old Testament or in the New Testament.
And a Jew that got saved at the time of Christ, that was the end of the law for him. The law was abolished to him.
He's freed from the law. He now has liberty from the law. He's under grace. Meaning what?
No matter what transgression he commits in the future, the law isn't going to be able to condemn him.
The law isn't going to be able to say you received damnation. Because God's grace is going to constantly cover that.
God's grace is going to go over the top of every transgression, every issue, and now that's what it means to be under grace.
It means every time you sin from now on, God's grace covers that for your salvation and you're still going to heaven.
That's why repenting of your sins is a necessary requirement to salvation completely undermines everything we're talking about.
Because notice it's the end of the law. And it's through faith in Christ that gets me right with God.
Why would I then attach the idea of, well you also have to give up all your sin too?
That was seeking righteousness by the law. And notice those who did that, in verse 3 again, are ignorant of God's righteousness.
And let me tell you what, preachers that preach repent of your sins are ignorant of God's righteousness.
Meaning they're not saved.
You get up and you lie to people and say you have to turn from sin to God to be saved and you're not saved.
They have to repent of their form of righteousness, of their seeking their own righteousness that they've made up, and look it is their own.
Because every single one of these repent of your sins heretics, lying, damned, false teachers have their own idea of what sins they have to repent of, don't they?
You ask them, okay, well which sins do I have to repent of then? Do I have to repent of the thought of foolishness?
How about you could ask a lot of them, do I have to repent of the sin of gluttony? Because it looks like you're needing some work on that one, buddy.
You know, how about the sin of ignorance, the sin of stupidity? A lot of these guys, you know, act like a bumbling idiot on the stage.
Oh, I'm just, bless God, I'm just a patcher on the, it's like, how about you get some wisdom, bro? How about you learn how to speak English properly, you know?
How about you stop smoking cigarettes or how about you stop eating so much food or whatever? It's like they just want to cherry pick which sins they had to repent of to get saved.
What does that do? They're creating their own righteousness standard. Because let me ask you this, which sins did you have to repent of to get saved?
And I'll tell you the answer, none of them. None of them. Because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
Me seeking to be right with God ended the moment I believed in Jesus. Notice it didn't end the moment that I turned from my sin.
It didn't end the moment that I got right with God from by quitting all my sinning or giving up some kind of a wickedness or trying to do some special work.
No, it ended the moment I trusted in Christ. It's done. Verse 5.
For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
Saying what? If you keep every single commandment perfectly, then you'll live. You know what the problem is? No one can do that.
So you know how you actually get life? By believing in Jesus. And the moment you do that, it's the end of the law of righteousness for you.
You're already righteous. You're righteous in God's sight the moment you go back to Galatians.
That's why Paul's saying, knowing that a man is justified by, or not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
He's saying, hey, we already know that. It has nothing to do with how good you are or trying to follow the commandments.
It's just a free gift by faith. Otherwise, it would not be grace.
You have to realize, grace is not just this arbitrary word that we can attach any definition to.
Grace means something you don't deserve. You did nothing to earn it. It's just a gift that's blessed unto you.
And here's the thing. If you're saved by grace, then it means it could never have any work attached to it whatsoever.
Otherwise, it would no longer be grace. Read Romans 11. Let's keep reading here in Galatians, though.
Look at verse 17.
Now this is an interesting thought train that he's saying. He's saying, okay, well then I'm justified by faith alone.
If I'm right with God by simply just by believing in Jesus Christ.
If I'm then found a sinner, does that make Christ the minister of sin?
Does that mean that me believing in Christ is telling me I should sin or exonerating my sin or making it like I should sin or there's nothing wrong with sin?
And he's saying very clearly, God forbid.
But he's saying in verse 18,
for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
What is he trying to say?
Obviously, Christ is not a minister of sin here.
But if I go back to teaching you that you have to keep the law in order to be saved,
then I'm just totally just reneging everything I just taught you.
He's saying, look, you don't have to keep the righteousness of the law to be saved.
He's making this caveat saying, look, obviously you can sin and do whatever you want and still go to heaven.
I'm not saying that you should, though.
And if I say that you have to stop any sin, now all of a sudden I'm a transgressor.
I'm not actually being faithful to what the gospel is.
That's why he's saying in verse 21,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
If I add anything other than faith in Jesus, now all of a sudden I've destroyed the grace of God.
Now all of a sudden I'm ruining the whole gospel message, I'm frustrating the grace, because it's frustrating.
Imagine if I told you, hey, I have a free gift for you, but I do kind of need you to give me five bucks.
And you're like, it's a good gift, here's five bucks.
And they're like, oh, and actually you also have to mow my lawn.
Every time I start adding something, it starts getting more frustrating.
I thought this was a gift. I thought this was something that was free.
Why do you keep adding all this other junk on it?
And it's like, this is what they do.
You'll say, oh, salvation's by grace through faith.
All you have to do is believe.
But if you're not really going to church, do you really believe?
And they're like, well, I'm going to church.
And they're like, but if you sin on a regular basis, are you really saved?
And they're like, oh, I don't know if I'm on that.
And if you didn't get baptized, are you really saved?
And they just keep frustrating the grace of God because they just keep adding all this other junk on there.
And then they look at someone like us and they say, oh, you guys think Christ is a minister of sin.
You're saying just live however you want and go to heaven.
And it's like, God forbid that we live however we want.
But you know what, I'm not going to frustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ by adding your false doctrine of repenting of your sins.
Look, repenting of your sins is a works-based salvation.
There's no other way around it.
It's seeking righteousness by the works of the law, by stopping sinning.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
What is that? That's the works of the law.
That's repenting of your sins. Is that not? Thou shalt not.
What else is there? Hey, I stopped lying.
What did you do? You repent of your sins. That's the works of the law.
You get no righteousness from that.
Righteousness only comes through faith of Jesus Christ.
Anything adding to that is frustrating the grace of God.
Look at Galatians chapter 3 verse 1.
So he's looking at these people and he's saying, look, you guys got the spirit.
You know, at least some of them did.
And he's saying, did you get that by stop drinking?
One day where you're like, I'm giving up booze and all of a sudden you just understood the Bible.
Well, you might have been sober. You might have understood a few things.
But, you know, it's like, he's like, what happened?
Was it me coming and preaching the gospel and now all of a sudden you understand all the things of God?
Or did you give up some sin and then magically understand all the things of God?
And it's obvious that it came after they believed in Christ.
It's obvious to them that that's how they really received the spirit.
So he's asking this question, this rhetorical question, to try and get them to realize, look, you didn't get this from repenting of your sins.
Because I guarantee you, when Paul's going into these Gentile areas, there was plenty of people that had given up drinking.
There was Alcoholics Anonymous back then, you know, whatever they call it back then.
You know, Galatian Guzzlers or something, you know, group to support.
You know, they had their, you don't think that there was anybody that lived in the Gentile world that decided that they were going to try and live a little bit better life.
They went through the college years. They went and studied with Socrates or something, you know, whatever.
And they're like, you know what? I'm going to clean up my act. I'm going to get better.
And he's saying, is that when you had all these changes in your life or was it after you heard the gospel and you believed?
Is that how you really made all these changes? Is that really how you saw the working of the spirit?
Is that when you received a lot of the miracles? And in fact, a lot of these Gentiles started speaking with other tongues.
You know, did you get that when you quit at fornicating or did you get that as soon as you believed in Jesus Christ?
Now all of a sudden you can speak with a whole foreign language.
And you saw the miracles and you had people getting both believing and baptized and all that.
He's trying to point out that it came from faith.
Verse 3, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now made perfect by the flesh?
There's a good question for your repentance of sin preachers.
Did you really get perfect by the flesh? The flesh profits nothing.
Repenting of your sins profits nothing is what the Bible says.
It makes it crystal clear. Go to verse 23. Skip it forward.
But before faith came, we were kept under the law.
Shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.
Now again, this is important.
Saying that you're talking about the law and you're talking about grace could generally be in reference to Old Testament and New Testament.
But in this context, I'm helping you understand it's a broader context than that.
Because what is the context that I'm making? Unsaved, saved. Right?
Unsaved, saved. Notice what he says in verse number 23.
He says, but before faith came, we were kept under the law.
Now who's he talking to? Galatians.
Now here's the thing. Were Galatians ever under the Old Covenant?
They weren't even given the Old Covenant. It was given to the Jewish people.
But notice he says all of us were under the law.
What is that picturing? It's picturing that they were all unsaved.
Every person that's not saved could generally be described as being under the law because they're going to be judged according to the law.
But then when faith came, meaning they believed in Jesus Christ, which that law was a schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ,
they were now justified by faith. Verse 25, but after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
So he's saying we don't need the law to perfect us. We have the Spirit.
Now some people take this to a real weird extreme and I'm going to explain that later in my sermon.
But ultimately, if you're saved and you have the Spirit of God inside of you, you wouldn't technically need the Old Testament to do that which is right.
Because the Bible says if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And I liken this into this analogy.
If you know how to ride a bike, you don't need training wheels.
You need the training wheels to first learn how to ride the bike.
But once you know how to ride a bike, you don't need the training wheels.
And if someone said, I know how to ride a bike, and they're riding on training wheels, you'd be like, do you not know how to ride a bike?
You're like, what's going on here?
You'd really question if that person knew how to ride the bike.
And that's what he's doing with the Galatians.
He's saying, what's going on with all the circumcision?
What's going on with all those other things that you're doing with the law?
Do you not realize that you're supposed to be in the Spirit?
Here's another analogy I use to help understand this even clearer.
When it comes to your spouse, if you love your spouse, I don't need to give you a list of how to love them.
You're just going to do right.
You're going to talk sweetly to them.
You're going to do good unto them.
You're going to provide for them.
You're going to want to spend time with them.
If I have to give you a list that says, tell your wife that she's pretty.
Go take her on a date.
Spend time with her.
Look at her.
Then here's the thing.
If you don't know how to do those things, the question is, do you really love her?
If you love her, then you don't really need a checklist, do you?
True love is going to fill in all the blanks, as it were.
And that's why, when it comes to God, loving God fills in all the blanks.
That's why the whole law is fulfilled in loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.
Because every single law, every single commandment in the Bible is either loving God or loving your neighbor as yourself.
Even Leviticus 20-13, it's loving.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And I believe it.
So when it comes to New Testament, technically speaking, if you're filled with the Spirit of God,
you wouldn't have to necessarily have the checklist of the Old Testament to not break God's commandments.
That does not mean that the law isn't profitable.
It doesn't mean you shouldn't read it.
It doesn't mean you shouldn't memorize it or any of those things.
But it's silly when someone is breaking the commandments and then you point it to them and they're like,
oh, the Spirit isn't telling me about that one or whatever.
It's like, you're just not filled with the right Spirit then.
Because if you are filled with the right Spirit, every time the law is brought up, you would agree with it.
People that don't agree with the Old Testament, you know what that tells me about them?
They're not filled with the Spirit of God.
People that argue with Old Testament commandments have a problem with their spiritual walk.
They're not walking in the Spirit. They don't have the Spirit of God.
Because the Spirit of God agrees with the whole Old Testament.
So you have this perfect...
And look, we don't need that necessarily.
We're not under that schoolmaster anymore because I've already learned it.
You know, once you learn something, theoretically, if you didn't forget, you wouldn't have to relearn it.
Just like I'm saying with the bike thing.
Once you learn how to ride a bike, you should be good how to ride the bike.
If you keep falling down, then someone's like, okay, get the training wheels on.
Let's kind of teach you again. Let's kind of get you back on there.
But you don't know how to ride a bike.
Here's the thing. If you say you know how to walk in the Spirit, but then you're breaking all the Old Testament laws,
you don't know how to walk in the Spirit.
Okay, so you need to like get training again or there's some kind of an issue.
And the Bible is making it clear, though, that after we have this faith,
you know, if we're walking according to the Spirit, we're not going to feel the lust of the flesh and we can be right with God.
Go if you would to chapter 4 for a moment.
So what does under grace mean then?
We're righteous by grace.
Now obviously, we should follow the commandments.
We should do that which is right.
We should walk in the Spirit.
If I'm not, I'm still under grace.
But think about it this way.
Every time I'm doing right, I don't need grace.
Okay?
If you do good, you don't need grace.
You know what you need grace for?
Transgression.
When you screw up.
So what logical sense does it make then to say, well, you could lose your salvation or you have to do right in order to stay saved or something.
Look, if you're under grace, it's implying that you're going to keep screwing up.
Because you're under grace.
The whole grace is needed because you're going to screw up.
You're going to do wrong.
You're going to fail.
But praise God, I'm under grace.
And you say, where's your righteousness?
It's from grace.
And it means it doesn't look like you deserve it.
You're right because it's under grace.
Like what did you do to deserve it?
Nothing.
All I did was believe in Jesus Christ.
But some people, they desire to be righteous by the law.
Okay?
Galatians chapter 4, look at verse 21.
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
So he's saying, oh, really?
You want to get to heaven by works?
Well, okay.
Let's start reading the Old Testament then.
Because anybody that wants to say they want to get saved by the works, you just start showing them Old Testament commandments and they're going to be damned real quick.
They're going to realize it's the ministration of death.
It's the ministration of condemnation.
Because you can't be righteous by the law.
You're a sinner.
That's why you should only seek by faith.
Chapter 5, look at verse 11.
And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased.
Now that's another really good verse.
The offense of the cross is ceased.
What is he saying?
He's saying if I preach circumcision, I wouldn't have any problems.
People wouldn't be persecuting me.
People wouldn't be mad at me.
You know what he's saying?
He's saying this.
If I preach works-based salvation, no one's going to be offended.
The Jews aren't going to be mad at me.
If I go around and just attach Jesus to all the commandments, there's no problem.
The problem is what he's saying is when you believe in Jesus, you can live however you want and still go to heaven.
And that's called the offense of the cross.
Saying that you're not righteous by keeping the law.
The law has nothing to do with you being right with God.
It's just faith of Jesus Christ.
And you know who hates that the most?
The Jews.
Why?
Because the Jews look at the Gentiles and say, we're more righteous than them.
We're better than them.
We're not sinners like they are.
They're scum.
We're good.
And you know what?
This is the same of the repentance of sin preachers today.
They look at the world and say, they're scum and we're righteous.
That's why we're saved.
You know what?
It's the offense of the cross that says, you know what?
You're not even saved if you believe that.
Because it's a free gift or you don't have gospel.
You're not under grace.
And there's so many preachers today that want to drag people under the law rather than trying to drag them under grace.
Hey, I'm trying to drag people under grace, not under the law.
Repenting of your sins is dragging people under the law.
And you know what?
If you preach that repenting of your sins is a false gospel, you are going to offend a lot of people.
People are getting really mad at you.
When you start calling out all these repent of your sins heretics, like Ray Comfort.
All kinds of preachers.
There's all kinds of independent fundamental Baptists that get up and preach repent of your sins.
I mean, the list goes on and on.
I don't even have time to name all the names.
I wish I could because it would be great and I will continue to do it.
But you know what?
When you preach against repent of your sins, you upset people.
You make people really angry with you and they say,
Oh, there's all these Baptists who think that you don't even have to repent to get to heaven.
And it's like, well, what do you mean by repent?
There's always a straw man with these people.
Of course I believe in repentance for salvation.
If you mean you have to change from believing in works to get you to heaven to believing in Christ.
Yeah, you better repent of that.
Hey, you better repent of your repenting of your sins doctrine if you want to get to heaven.
Yeah, I believe in that repentance.
You know what? I don't believe that you have to turn from any sin to get to heaven because no one can.
No one can turn from all their sins.
No one can give up every single sin.
That's impossible.
Go to Galatians chapter 6 and look at verse number 13.
Why would a preacher get up and preach this repent of your sins false doctrine?
Let me show you.
For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law,
but desire to have you circumcised they may glory in your flesh.
You know what he's saying?
Back then they would preach that you have to keep all the law, but they didn't keep the law.
They were hypocrites.
But then why did they get people circumcised?
Why were they trying to force them to become Jews like them and keep that law
so that they could glory about the conversion that you made?
And these repent of your sins preachers are no different.
They want to glory in the conversions of all of their members.
They don't want to have a church that they say looks like the world and acts like the world and talks like the world.
So what they do is they get up and they preach this false doctrine of repent of your sins
to try and get everybody in here to act a certain way and look a certain way
and then they glory in how their church looks.
They would get mad at a church like ours because we have people walking in that have tattoos all over their body
and people dressed in street clothes.
You know, in some independent fundamental Baptist churches, they will not allow women to walk in the building
if they're wearing a pair of pants on.
They won't let women dress however they want or men come in without a shirt and a tie or without a jacket on or whatever.
Why? Because they want to glory in your flesh.
Instead of just preaching the Bible and letting people make the decisions for themselves
and giving them a little bit of grace,
it's not that I don't believe that, but at the same time, I'm not trying to put on a show here.
And I don't want to force anybody to do something they don't want to do.
I want people to actually believe it.
I want people to dress the way that they should because they believe that they should dress that way.
I want people to act the way that they should because they believe they should act that way.
And you know what? I want to extend them grace so that God will extend me grace
when he looks at me and says, you're pretty screwed up too, buddy.
You have your issues and you have your sins and you have the things that you struggle with.
But these false repent of your sins preachers, they get up like a hypocrite,
like a liar saying, oh, you're going to repent of all your sins to be saved.
Well, when did you repent of all your sins, buddy?
You liar, you false teacher.
But look, it's no different.
It's the same false preachers back then as the same false preachers today.
What are examples of this?
Your victory temple.
Your victory temple, you know what they do?
They try to get the scummiest people, drug dealers and homeless people,
and they try to get them to convert and walk around and giving out bread
and appearing righteous all of a sudden.
And they love the glory in their flesh.
They glory in their conversion.
Yet these people are damned and on their way to hell
because they believe it's a works-based salvation that gets them to heaven.
Every one of those guys that wants to hand you bread all believes in works to get to heaven.
And in fact, they're the hardest people to get saved.
I'm not saying you shouldn't try, but I'm saying this.
It's usually they won't get saved.
And they, looking at their conversion, quote, unquote,
they're looking at their, well, I turned from a life of sin.
Well, I repented of my sin.
Well, I gave up a wicked lifestyle.
You're telling me I didn't have to give up that lifestyle and I could have gone to heaven?
Yes.
And that's too horrifying to them.
That's the offense of the cross
because they don't want to admit or they don't want to realize
that their works had nothing to do with it
because of pride in their heart, pride in their heart.
Mormons, no different.
Look, Mormons have a very strict set of rules.
If you go into a Mormon church, I mean, they're going to all be dressed to the nines.
I mean, all the men and women are going to dress to be very well dressed,
godly, you know, look nice.
They're not going to even drink Coca-Cola, you know.
I mean, they're not going to drink coffee, amen?
I'm just kidding.
I didn't get any amens on that.
I mean, they're going to live a strict life.
Why?
Because their preachers, their prophets want a glory in their flesh, don't they?
They want to have a righteousness that comes by the law,
not by faith in Jesus Christ.
And when Mormons finally get what you're actually teaching them,
it's offensive to them.
Oh, you think you can just live however you want and go to heaven?
You're like, yes.
They're just like, ah.
They're offended at that. Why?
Because it would mean that all the works that they've done up to this point are done.
You know who realized that? Paul.
He said, hey, I realize that everything I've ever done up to this point is just done,
but I considered it done so that I could win Christ, so that I could be saved.
Not having the righteousness which is the law, but by the faith of Christ.
It comes by just mercy and being under grace.
Church of Christ, same way.
Church of Christ is one of the most strict denominations.
In fact, if you're backslidden at all,
like you didn't show up to church this week, you're not saved.
I'm not joking.
I mean, everybody that didn't come to Sunday night service, they're in trouble.
You know what I mean?
If you're not going out there and doing the works, Jehovah's Witness,
if you're not soul winning, you're not saved.
Why? Because they want a glory in their flesh.
They want to have a bunch of trophies to show off to everybody
and say, look at us. Look at how great we are.
Look at how wonderful we are.
Holiness, Pentecostals, same way.
There's a group of Pentecostals that are just as strict as a fundamental Baptist church.
Women have to dress a certain way. Men have to dress a certain way.
They'll cast out the demons out of you.
It's holiness because they're striving to have righteousness by the law.
We've already seen they're not under grace, they're under the law.
Methodists, the same way.
The list just goes on and on and on, my friend.
Islam. Sorry. Hinduism.
You name the religion out there, you know what?
It's seeking to be righteous by the law.
Now, obviously they may quibble on which laws are applicable,
but at the end of the day, it's an under the law religion.
There's only one way to heaven. It's under grace.
Go to Romans, chapter number nine. Go to Romans, chapter number nine.
What does it mean to be under grace?
It means you're righteous by grace.
Praise the Lord I'm righteous by grace
because I don't have righteousness.
Our righteousness are as filthy rags as the Bible said.
If I had to get up and tell you how great a person I am based on the works that I do,
you would think I'm a terrible person
because it's not just everything I did that was good,
it's also everything I did that was bad.
Who wants to come up here and tell us the ten worst things you did this week
to prove how righteous you are?
If anybody was honest, they would realize,
I suck still.
I got some serious issues. I got some major problems in my life that I still need to work on.
Praise the Lord I'm under grace.
Romans, chapter nine, look what it says in verse number 29.
And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
we had been a sedoma and been made like unto Gomorrah,
meaning that everyone there was reprobate.
Verse 30, what shall we say then?
That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness.
So he's saying, how is it that all these Gentiles are righteous
when they're not even trying to follow the law?
They're not even trying to follow the commandments.
They're just partying and living lascivious lives
and they're just living it up and doing whatever they want.
How are they righteous?
How did they get righteousness?
It says specifically, or even, the righteousness which is of faith.
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained the law of righteousness.
Every single person that wants to go to heaven by repenting of their sins has not attained.
They haven't gotten there.
You need to keep repenting, buddy.
And then after you keep repenting, repent even more and then repent and repent and repent.
And then finally, when you realize you're never ever going to get to heaven that way,
you repent of your repenting and then you can get to heaven.
Because it's just by grace, buddy.
Every one of these repent of your sins preachers are liars.
And I question all their salvation.
You know, there's plenty of people that I would love to think that they're saved,
but the fact that they can't articulate the gospel correctly
and they teach the after repenting of their sins makes me think they're not even saved.
Now you say, well that's offensive.
Okay, well, verse 32.
Wherefore, why did they not have righteousness?
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.
For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense,
and whosoever believeth on him, do not be ashamed.
Notice, when you tell the repent of your sins heretic,
hey, it's not repenting of your sins, buddy.
It's just faith and Christ.
They stumble at that.
They stumble at the offense of the cross.
They don't like the fact that Jesus paid it all.
They don't like the fact that Jesus gets all the glory.
They don't like the fact that Jesus gets all the credit.
They don't like the fact that Jesus did everything.
They hate Jesus.
If you think it's by your works, you hate what Jesus did.
You're stealing his glory.
You're stealing his righteousness.
You're trying to be more prideful about what you did.
Look, it's either you accept what Christ did and it's all free,
or you're despising Jesus and you're despising what he did,
and you're calling God a liar, and you know what?
You're going to go to hell.
You're going to split hell wide open.
I don't care how good of a person you think you are.
The greatest person to ever live that's trusting in their works is going to go to hell.
And the worst person to ever live that believes in Jesus is going to heaven.
And you know what? You know what that offends?
The guy that was righteous, quote, unquote.
The guy that thought he was so good.
The guy that was a pastor for 50 years.
Oh man, I've been a pastor and my dad's a pastor and he's a pastor
and I'm so much better than these drug dealers.
Well, you know what? The drug dealer that believes in Jesus, he's going to heaven
and you're going to split hell wide open with your repent of your sins false doctrine, buddy.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 8.
I want to make two more points, but I'll try to cover them just real quickly.
The first point's the most important point.
What does it mean to be under grace?
You're saved by grace.
You have righteousness by grace.
So if someone tells you that they're under grace but you have to repent of your sins,
they're not actually under grace.
They're under the works of the law.
They're trying to drag other people under the law, too.
Number two point, though, if you're under grace, that means you are a New Testament Christian.
It means you're no longer...
We're not going to adhere to only the Old Testament.
We're actually New Testament Christians.
Hebrews chapter 8, look at verse 13.
So he's saying the Old Covenant is pretty much just done.
Now, why is he saying it in a tense that's like it's ready to vanish away,
it's decaying, it's waxing old?
This is my personal opinion on how to interpret this verse.
What I believe he's saying here is he's basically saying
there's only a small number of people that are even claiming and trying to follow the Old Testament at this point.
He still had some Jews that are kind of going to the temple,
and they have the sacrifices, and they have the Old Testament system that's kind of in place.
But he's saying it's decaying, meaning that it's losing its steam,
more people are walking away from it, more people are becoming Christian,
you know, it's just decaying and vanishing, and it's pretty much ready to just be gone.
And here's the thing, at 8070, it is gone.
I mean, the temple's destroyed.
Who right now is sacrificing lambs according to the law?
Where's the Levitical priesthood?
Where's all of the Old Testament stuff that was...
It's gone at this point.
But there was obviously a transition where people were still doing the sacrifices even after Christ had come, right?
It was a short while, it was a short space,
but we understand that the New Testament started the moment that Christ died and his blood was shed.
That's when it started for real.
It's just that people were still kind of, you know, playing the wrong song for a little while, okay?
But then God finally just kiboshed that.
But it doesn't mean that the Old Testament wasn't done away with at the moment of the gospel. It was, okay?
I'll say this also.
For an individual, the moment that the law ended for every individual was the moment they got saved.
So in the Old Testament, it ended for them the moment they believed in Christ, in a sense.
Obviously, they're still obligated to fulfill the law if they were a Jew at that time and to do those things.
But we as New Testament Christians, we're under grace.
We don't follow that system anymore.
It's been fulfilled in Christ. Look at chapter 9, verse 1.
So then he goes on to explain all the things that were in the Old Testament.
It says in verse number 8,
Now in verse 9, he says,
That's kind of a mouthful.
What is he saying?
He's saying it was a figure while they were in the Old Testament, okay?
But once Christ came, you don't need that picture anymore because you have the real thing.
But also, he's putting it in past tense, meaning that currently, those who are performing those sacrifices are no longer a figure.
It's blasphemy at that point.
It's now just rebellion to God's commandment because they come to the time of reformation.
And you say, well, when's the time of reformation? Verse 11.
But Christ being come.
So the moment that Christ came, now there's no longer Old Testament Christianity.
There's just New Testament Christianity.
And there's no such thing. You can't be an Old Testament Christian.
Old Testament Christianity is now the synagogue of Satan.
It made the transition to being blasphemous and to being rebellious and to being wicked.
Before Christ, it was a picture of Christ.
After Christ, it's a rebellion.
It's idolatry.
It's sin, okay?
Well, what happened?
It changed.
Go to Hebrews 7.
Go backwards and look at verse number 12.
Hebrews 7, verse 12.
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
So notice the Old Testament change.
The priesthood changed.
It's no longer Levitical priesthood.
It's the priesthood of Melchizedek, which Christ is now our high priest.
Okay?
And what changed about the law?
Well, here's the thing.
It's not hard.
And people will say, oh, you guys cherry pick which part of the Old Testament you believe.
No, I don't.
I just do whatever the Bible said.
Meats, drinks, divers, washings, and cardinal ordinances.
You say, what changed?
Those did.
Everything that Christ fulfilled.
Obviously, I'm not going to sacrifice a lamb because Christ is that lamb.
Obviously, I'm not going to have a drink offering because his blood still was the drink offering.
I'm not going to have to go through all these carnal rituals of washing my hands to offer
these sacrifices because I've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So anything that was fulfilled in Christ is done away.
It's been changed.
It's no longer needed.
All of the priesthood aspects.
But it's not saying here that thou shalt not kill is good now.
Like, hey, Christ fulfilled the commandment of not killing anybody.
But now you can just go on a killing spree.
Now you can lie without recourse.
Now you can steal without recourse.
Obviously, that part of the law is still in force.
And that's what we believe in the New Testament.
Go to Colossians chapter 2.
Let me show you another verse here.
Colossians chapter 2.
And it's funny.
People, when you show them things in the Old Testament, they say, oh, I'm not under the
law, buddy.
I'm under grace.
And you're like, that's not been fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-dressing was not fulfilled in Christ.
The force was not fulfilled in Christ.
Okay.
Lying and stealing was not fulfilled in Christ.
I mean, can you imagine?
You're talking to somebody and they lie to you and you're like, hey, you shouldn't lie.
And they're like, oh, I'm under grace, buddy.
It's like, that doesn't mean you should lie.
That doesn't mean you should steal.
It doesn't mean you should commit murder.
Okay.
Yeah.
I don't have to.
If someone came up to me like, where's your lamb sacrifice?
Then you can say all day long, I'm under grace, buddy.
If they said, hey, where are you going to bring the atonement offering this year?
Are you going to Jerusalem?
Are you traveling?
No, I'm under grace.
Okay.
But if they tried telling me, hey, you don't have to, you can lie and steal and cheat,
I'm going to say, that's not being under grace there.
That's just willfully sinning.
Okay.
Colossians chapter two is going to reiterate what we just read.
Verse 14 is what Christ did.
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to
us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
So we have, again, a mention of the fact that there were certain ordinances that was against
us.
You say, what was that?
You know, saying you can't eat bacon.
Obviously that was contrary.
Okay.
Now we get to enjoy bacon in the New Testament, right?
Verse 16, let no man therefore judge you in meat.
Praise the Lord.
Bring on the bacon.
You know, we went to lunch and Cassandra had this like bacon sandwich.
It was like bacon sandwich, man.
You could add like 20 stacks of bacon on this thing.
I mean, I was like, praise the Lord, we're in the New Testament.
You know?
And it says, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or the new moon, or the Sabbath
days.
So like you don't have to observe the Sabbath.
You don't have to observe, you know, the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Weeks.
And people that are trying to get Christians to do this, it's, you know, you're bringing
them under the law.
I've even had family members get mixed up in this and they're like, we're observing
the Feast of Tabernacles.
And I'm like, what?
You're under grace.
You know?
I don't know why you're trying to do that.
I'm afraid of you.
You know?
Really.
Obviously, people can do whatever they want.
But I think it's bad to observe the holidays that were fulfilled in the Old Testament.
They were fulfilled by Christ.
Okay?
Now, go to Romans chapter number six, go to Romans chapter number six, and obviously they
even foreshadow things that haven't happened.
You know, obviously, you know, the Feast of Weeks and things like that can picture the
rapture and they can picture other future events.
But the feast being a commandment has been fulfilled in Christ that I don't have to go
to Jerusalem and observe all these different feasts.
I don't have to observe the Passover.
I don't have to observe the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Tabernacles or these things.
And there was other fulfillments that had already been made in Acts chapter number two.
They obviously went out in the day of Pentecost and they had a great harvest.
But then there's another fulfillment of that, of the rapture.
Okay?
So we understand there's a lot of fulfillments of the Old Testament scripture.
But you know what?
If you're under grace, it means I'm a New Testament Christian, I'm not an Old Testament
Christian.
Okay?
Here's the last point I want to make.
If you're under grace, you're still a servant of righteousness, though.
You're still a servant of righteousness.
And this is what I find so funny.
The term under grace is only found in two verses in your Bible.
Okay?
And most everyone, they use this when you try to bring out, like, their sinning or you
bring out some kind of the Old Testament commandments that they're violating.
And they're like, oh, I don't have to observe that.
I'm under grace.
But let's read the verses in your Bible that actually bring up this phrase.
Okay?
Verse 14.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace.
Think about the context of what he's saying.
He's saying don't let sin take over you because you're not under the law, you're under grace.
So he's saying it's even more important not to sin when you're under grace than when you
were under the law.
So how could you use being under the grace as a justification to sin?
How about the next verse?
What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?
God forbid.
These are your two mentions of under grace.
Yet, liberal Christians all day long, you bring up things about tattoos or drinking
or whatever and they're like, I'm not under the law, buddy.
I'm under grace.
It's like this was saying, shall we sin because we're under the grace?
It was like, God forbid.
It's so stupid that they would bring up this phrase, which is typically in the exact opposite
context of this verse.
Okay?
Go if you would to James chapter 2, it's less blessed to have you turn, all right?
Now think about this.
If the whole law was just gone and had no relevance to us today, then I would say this,
you can't even sin because the Bible says sin is the transgression of the law.
And where there is no law, there is no transgression imputed.
So the only way that you could even potentially sin is if there's a law that you're supposed
to follow.
Now I don't think you would find a Christian that would say sin doesn't even exist anymore.
So then here would be your question.
Okay, well then which sins or which laws do we have to follow?
And then you can't cherry pick.
It's just obviously all of the whole Bible except for that which was fulfilled in Christ.
That's why it's so simple.
You know, people get really confused on this.
They'll say, oh, it's really confusing which parts of the Bible I'm supposed to obey.
Is it really that confusing?
I mean, are you really reading the Old Testament and like, I guess I need to start bringing
doves to church now?
You weren't thinking that.
You know, nobody is logically reading any of that thinking that they still need to do
that kind of stuff.
Okay?
And all that was fulfilled.
And all the stuff that's real obvious that wasn't fulfilled like the lying, stealing,
and cheating, but just let the Spirit of God lead you.
He's going to make it real obvious to you, you know, not smiting your fellow servant
and you know, not stealing and not robbing and not, you know, lying to people.
That stuff's real clear that you still shouldn't do that.
And Christ said, think not that I'm come to destroy the law of the prophets, I'm not come
to destroy but to fulfill.
Christ didn't destroy the law, he fulfilled the law and he changed the law, okay?
But let me prove to you in the New Testament that you still need to obey the Old Testament,
okay?
If someone wants to come up to you and be like, oh, I don't have to follow the Old Testament,
take them to James 2, alright?
Verse 8, for if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love
thy neighbors thyself, you do well.
Boom!
Do you know where that's coming from?
Leviticus.
And if you can go back to Leviticus and say Leviticus is still in effect, he said you
do well.
Why?
Because we're still supposed to follow that law and we're supposed to fulfill the royal
law.
Now, again, you could go to another verse or two and show you how the whole law is fulfilled
in one word, which would be, you know, the rhetorical thought of love, loving God, loving
your neighbor.
He says in verse 9, but if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convinced
of the law as transgressors.
You think, how could you be a transgressor if the law isn't in effect anymore?
Because it's still in effect.
Verse 10, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty
of all.
Why didn't James stop and say, for whosoever shall keep, oh wait, the law doesn't matter
anymore.
The law is done.
No, he's saying, hey, even if you kept the whole law and yet offended in one point, you're
guilty of all of it.
Tell that to every repent of your sins preacher out there.
If you didn't repent of every single sin, you're still guilty of all of them.
Well, I gave up my drinking.
Okay, well, did you give up your gluttony?
Did you give up your thought of foolishness?
Did you give up your lust?
Did you give up, you know, what did you not give up?
Because if you didn't give up even one thing, you are a transgressor of the law.
You're a transgressor of everything.
You're guilty of everything.
Verse 11, for he that said, do not commit adultery said also, do not kill.
Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the
law.
So he's saying, look, just because you obey one aspect of the law, if you break another,
you're still a transgressor.
You're still guilty.
And we don't want people to be under the law, we want them to be under grace.
He says this, so speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law, notice this,
of liberty.
Isn't that an interesting phrase, when it says that it's the law of liberty, but you
know what, you're going to be judged by that in your daily life, even when you're safe
still.
Now, praise God, if you're under grace, when you stand before God, none of your sins will
be reminded, you know, be brought into remembrance, none of them will be, you know, you'll have
to account for them.
God is not going to look at you as anything other than Christ's righteousness when you
stand before him.
But before you get to that point, while you're on this earth, even though you're under grace,
if you break any of the commandments, you're going to be judged still.
And hey, it's the law of liberty because what?
The law of God will liberate you from sin.
It'll liberate you from the consequences of sin.
What's some of those consequences?
The main consequence is hell.
You've already been liberated from that, but you haven't been liberated from the other
consequences of sin, which would be physical death, which would be losing your money, losing
your mind, losing, you know, all manner of things that you can lose in the physical world
today.
That's why it's important that we preach the whole Bible.
That's why it's important that we preach the Old Testament law.
People get mad and they'll say, why do you guys always focus on the law?
Don't you realize we're under grace?
Yeah, but you know what?
I'm a servant of righteousness.
I'm not supposed to be a servant of sin.
And if we read a little bit more in Romans chapter number six, you'd realize that all
these questions that we're leading about being under grace, he says, hey, don't yield your
members as instruments to unrighteousness, but rather yield yourselves as servants under
righteousness.
So we're no longer supposed to be a servant of sin, a servant of, you know, be a transgressor,
being ruled by the devil, being a child of disobedience, but rather we're supposed to
follow God's commandments.
What's the title of the sermon?
Under grace.
What does that mean?
You're righteous by grace.
When God looks at you, you're considered righteous in his sight.
What is another thing it means?
You're a New Testament Christian, but also you're still a servant of righteousness.
Just because you're under God's grace doesn't mean you should be asking for more of it.
Right?
Because when you sin, his grace is going to cover.
But I don't want more.
I don't need to have more grace in my life.
I need to be a servant of righteousness so that God doesn't have to constantly give me
more and more grace.
I don't need to prove how gracious God is.
That's not going to get you any favor with him.
God wants you to do that which is right.
Every time it asks and begs the question, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
Let's remember that even though we're under grace, we still need to be a servant of righteousness.
Let's move in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us grace.
Thank you for the gift that you gave us of your son.
Thank you that we don't have to return from any sin or repent of any sin to be saved.
Rather, all we have to do is just trust in the finished work of your son Jesus Christ.
And I pray that as we realize that salvation is completely free, we're not supposed to
continue being a servant of sin, but rather we're supposed to yield ourselves and become
a servant of righteousness.
And be a New Testament Christian and try to walk in the Spirit so that we don't fulfill
the lusts of the flesh.
And I pray that we wouldn't be offended by the cross, and we also wouldn't be offended
when people bring up the Old Testament law, but rather we'd realize our need to walk more
in the Spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
With that, let's sing another song.
We do have some baptisms after the service, so stick around for that.
But let's go ahead and turn in our hymnals to song number 56, When We All Get to Heaven.
And if you don't know, if you're going to heaven, you should get that taken care of
tonight.
All right?
Ask pretty much anybody in this room.
They'll tell you how to go to heaven.
Song number 56, When We All Get to Heaven.
Sing nice and loud.
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus.
Sing his mercy and his grace.
In the mentions, bright and blessed, we'll prepare for us a place.
When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory.
While we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky.
But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, not a sign, when we all get to heaven, what
a day of rejoicing that will be.
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory.
Let us in be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day.
Just one glimpse of him in glory, will the toys of life repay.
When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory.
Onward to the prize before us, soon his beauty will be whole.
Soon the pearly gates will open, we shall tread the streets of gold.
When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.
When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory.
For the James, if you trusted Christ as your Savior, then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life.
We also have Sister Cassandra coming for baptism.
Sister Cassandra, if you trusted Christ as your Savior, then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life.
Congratulations. Yeah, you can take that.
We also have Sister Tammy coming for baptism.
Sister Tammy, if you trusted Christ as your Savior, then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life.
We also have Brother Sam coming for baptism.
Brother Sam, if you trusted Christ as your Savior, then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life.
Congratulations.
Thank you all so much for coming. Make sure to congratulate all those that were baptized, and you are dismissed.
Thank you.