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Bro. Otis Fisher
Does God use faith, Dennis? He uses faith? David, why doesn't God need faith? Well, I'm asking. John, does he use it? Greg, well, you're right. God doesn't. What? God doesn't need faith. He knows everything that's going to happen.
We don't. Turn to Romans 3, 11. Now, in all of the universe, over all of the time, has there been any that understand? Has there been anyone that seeks God, Dennis? There is none that seeketh understanding.
There is none that seeketh after God. Adam saw to that, and there is none, absolutely none. Now, this is excluding Jesus that came to this earth. There is no way that you can refuse that which you do not seek.
You cannot refuse something that you do not seek. And no man seeks God. Now, forever, man has worshipped something. He has set himself up to worship. He has set others up to worship. They have worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars.
But no one seeks God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Romans 3, 12. There is no one that does good. Well, John, I thought when you come over Saturday and help me prop up my garage, that that was good.
What does it mean here that no one seeks good? But Dennis, John was looking for something good to do for me. Was that not good? It says, go ahead. Yes, it says they are all dead. What's that mean, David?
Everybody is dead. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. My, what a picture. Their throat is an open sepulcher. What does sepulcher mean, Russell?
Grave. And it is an open grave. The word open is a perfect participle. What's that mean, David? That's right. A grave that has been opened with the result that it stands open. Their throat is an open sepulcher, an open grave.
Now, what's the first thing that you would notice about an open grave, Greg? All right, what would you notice before you saw the body? That's right. They all stink. What did David say? Open. Their mouth is filled with passive imperative.
It has been done to them once forever with words that stink like a newly opened grave. Since it's been done to them, what part does that play in them doing it, Dennis? Why are they doing it, John? Because that's what God ordained them to do.
No one is basically good. Now, I know you hear that. The world thinks that. He's a good man if he's just given a chance. Is that true, Russell? No. So no man is evil because of his society or environment.
If no man is good, then no man is evil because of his environment. Now, there comes something I want you to remember. I want you to remember everything, but especially this. Dennis, if two things are so interrelated that if you have one of them, it demands that the other be present also.
Can you explain that? Do you understand that? Give me an example. All right. That's good. David, give me another example. We know where he's been. Greg, give me a legal example. Well, forget the legal.
Let me repeat the premise. If two things are so interrelated that if you have one of them, you know the other one is present there also. Even though you can't see the other, you know it's there. Now, John, can you give me an example?
No.
All right.
That's what I have down. We know the light is here. We can see it. It shines forth. But we know that electricity is there also, or we wouldn't have the light. Now, all of that to say this. If you have learned any spiritual truth, really learned the truth about a matter, what is the unseen ingredient in that, David?
That's right. We know that the Holy Spirit is in you, or you would not have learned. Now, does God inject his Holy Spirit into the non-elect? No. Just simply no. So if you have learned anything, and it's spiritual, and it's the truth, you know the Holy Spirit did it.
You couldn't learn it by yourself. Do you understand? Yes. But he won't understand them. That's right. That's right. Each one of you can go back before you were saved and look at things that occurred in your life that now you understand it had to be the Holy Spirit that was doing that, although you didn't understand it at the time.
Isn't that great? Where would we be today, John, if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit? You wouldn't be here. Fourteen. He's still talking about these deplorable people whose mouth is full of cursings and bitterness.
Now, when I was growing up at home, it was illegal for you to use a curse word on the phone. How many of you remember that? Am I the only one? I'm much older than I thought. It also was not practiced on television when it came in.
On radio, never. What about now? It has become part of our language, words that you can look up in the dictionary. They weren't there when I was a child. My, David, the world is really, really slipping.
You see it and hear it now even in small children. You hear things that are openly voiced with no hesitation that the worst man in our town would not have said to his dumb mule out behind the barn. Fifteen.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. What's that mean, Dennis? How many murders in this country during a 24-hour period? Anybody know? How many murders in Dallas in a 24-hour period? In Los Angeles? There's one every eight seconds.
Yes.
Is that one day or one year?
They'd have to narrow it down to an hour now. I don't see how he can wait much longer. No, he's not waiting. The time is set. But I've never lived in a time when life is more cheap than it is today. Sixteen.
Destruction and misery are in their ways. What's it mean, ways, Greg? Yes. And the way of peace have they not known? Now, we hear a lot about peace today. What kind of peace are they talking about, David?
Today. Now, what kind of peace, real peace, is there? That's right. This is a way of life that appeals to these people. They thrive on it. Most all people think of themselves first and last. Let me give you a little experiment to try.
The next time you're in a line, whether you're in a car in a line, whether you're standing in a line, whatever, there's a line in front of you. I want you to leave enough space, not really, but almost enough space for somebody to crowd in ahead of you.
Now, the test comes, what was your thoughts? How did you react to that? Well, it'll happen. I'm tempted to say something here, but I won't. There is no fear of God before their eyes. No fear of God for them to see.
No fear of God. What does this fear consist of, David? Do even we, his children, sitting here this morning, do we really fear God? What? Yes? Well, these people think there's nothing for them to fear.
Money can fix everything. They go their merry way. Now, we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified. Remember that word. Justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, give me an explanation of the word justified, as used in the Bible.
All right. Then I can justify you before God, Greg? All right. Here is the definition. It is an act of God removing the guilt and penalty of sin from the chosen. But that's not all. That would leave a void.
So he bestows with a positive righteousness, and that righteousness is Jesus Christ, in whom the believer stands a righteous person before God's law for time and eternity. We had nothing to do with it, folks.
Self-justification is wrong. And you find it every day. You'll find it in an excuse that somebody gives, and they say, I would have been here, but the train prevented it. I'm trying to not use excuses.
I do, all of the time, every day. But if I just not use that word but, and I just used it, don't put it in there. Now, this is a legal standing. Does not change or affect the character of the person to be justified.
Now, David, tell me, what happens to that person's character if justification doesn't change it? Then what happens? That's true. The character of the old man is gone. Now the new man has to learn. Russell, how long will that new man have to go to school and learn?
All right. All of the time. You're all in school. You're all learning every day, every moment of each day. You're learning how to better become a Christian. Each morning you stand in front of your mirror above the wash basin, and as you look at your face, it needs washing, it needs shaving, it needs powdering, whatever, and you know that because the mirror told you so.
But do you correct it in the mirror? No, you have to go to the wash basin. You have to go to the word, the holy word of God, and that's below. You cannot just look at the law and practice the law and become good.
The water of God's holy word is what changes you every day. I'm so amazed, and I guess that's the right term. I'm amazed every day at what I see that I had not seen before in the word. Passages that I studied umpteen times over the years, and I see something new.
Why is that, Dennis? And he'll never run out. The mirror is the law, the water is the gospel. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of them that believe.
For there is no difference. No called person stands closer to heaven than you do. Why is that, Dennis? It's his faith, not yours. Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The glory of God is not sinning.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, Russell, the very word redemption, redeemed. What does deemed mean? Deemed, not redeemed. What does deemed mean?
All right, you could say that. Greg, what does deemed mean to you? Dennis, what does deemed mean? No, that's redeemed. What? Self. All right, what do you want to say? Declare, all right. All right. So deemed.
Now, tell me, David, what does redeemed mean? All right, so you see, the very word redeemed proves that we have always belonged to God. He redeemed us through the blood of Christ. Redemption, the act of redeeming that is in Christ Jesus.
If Jesus Christ had not died on the cross, then we would never have been saved. If Jesus Christ had not died on the cross, I would still be under the law. Supposing there was a law since the Redeemer is not coming.
I want us to study sometime soon, as David's been teaching, the cross itself and what occurred at that time. He's been on it for a year, and it just blows your mind away. And you see, as you open the cross, what Christ did.
Justice required a death. Mercy provided it. Grace gives us the power to obey the word of God. Remember this. The item purchased must be equal to the value in its worth of the medium of exchange. You buy a loaf of bread, the medium of exchange is the money you pay for the bread.
You have deemed the loaf of bread is worth this much money, and you pay the money for it. Now, what is it that Christ paid for us? Who's on the back? Rick, answer. What is it that Christ paid for us? Alright.
That depends on whether you're buying or selling. But what medium of exchange did he use? Himself was what, David? His blood. The blood of Christ was the medium of exchange for your soul. Now, you tell me your soul is not worth anything?
Don't ever think that. 25. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, expiratory, having the power to make atonement, satisfaction, assurance, beyond the doubt of question, complete, conviction, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, this is before the cross, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Now, that God, that Jesus might be just, and the justifier, what's that word justifier mean, Russell? It is the person that is doing it. I am the justifier of XYZ. In this case, it's all of those that do what, David?
Well, he justified who? Those which believe in him. And to believe in him is to agree with him. Well, if this is true, then where's boasting? How can you boast about your salvation? It is excluded. By what law?
The law of works? No. But by the law of faith. Give me some results of salvation by works. Let's just spend the rest of time in thinking of salvation by works. If it was by works, then what would we have?
John? All right. All right. Dennis? Pride. If it was by works, I could be prideful of it. Russell? All right. All right. Greg? And I could say it took more for you than it did me. What about you, David?
That's right. Well, God would have to love all of mankind the same, would he not? Now, there's people that teach that. God would need to wait on you to decide if it was by works. He would need to wait until your last breath, if it was by works, to see everything.
You would need to make a spiritual decision when you are spiritually dead. If it's by works, then you could lose it by works, which David says. If it were possible then for you to become saved again, Christ would have to be crucified again.
For him to be crucified again for you, and maybe Russell lost his tomorrow, he'd have to be crucified tomorrow, and he would end up being crucified all the time. Well, it isn't by works, thank goodness.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now, the reason he's bearing down on the law is he's talking to people that grew up under the law, and they think that we have salvation because I've kept the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision, or Jew, by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
What does, David, tell me, what does by faith and through faith, how do they differ? All right, verse 30 of the third chapter of Romans. I want all of you to look up by and through faith in that verse.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish or we make firm the law. How is God glorified in us, John? How is he glorified in me? What does his grace in us? What does his grace work in us, Dennis?
Oh, his grace works holiness in you. And how is God glorified? It is by his grace that he is glorified in you. Now, what is his motive in doing this, Greg? That's it. By whom does he give salvation? Russell?
Yes. Yes. Jesus Christ. How is Christ obtained for us? He redeemed us. What price did he give? Rick? Rick. All right, his blood. What does his blood affect, David? How is his blood applied? I can't see who else is here.
John? That's what I said. With a paintbrush, it's applied by faith. Now, who is it that gave this victim for our salvation? Greg? What does his grace perform? Pardon sin, purifies the heart. For who is this all designed?
It's for his people. I have concluded that natural man will accept nothing unless he can add something of himself to it. Natural man will accept nothing unless he can put something of himself in it. The last word.
We are justified before men by works and before God by faith. Dennis dismisses, please.