Book of Romans - God's Governance of Man | The Law of Love, Pt. 6 (02/13/2022)

The Law of Love and the Danger of Adding Law to Grace

Okay, we're preaching verse by verse through the book of Romans. We're in Romans chapter 13, verses eight and nine. I'm just gonna read verse eight. Oh no man, anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

That sort of pushed us off, launched us into for a few Sundays looking at something because it's very important and funny. We laugh about how Bill steps all over my sermon every time he teaches Sunday school.

And we don't collude, like he has no clue exactly what I'm gonna say. But he was talking about false prophets this morning in Sunday school. And it was a wonderful lesson, by the way. You guys really need to be here for Sunday school because it was a wonderful lesson.

But it kind of has to do with what we're talking about here on this particular verse, because what happens is this verse is talking about basically the law of love, which is the law of Christ. And there are people for 2000 years have been doing it.

They're still doing it today. And I mentioned an example in a little town where our ranch is close to Mahea. There are two women there starting to teach legalism. And yeah, you need to believe in Jesus, but, and when they put that word there, you need to just leave.

Paul said, I don't give them one hour of time when they start to add law in with grace because you can't mix the two. They're not mixable. And people don't realize that. And even good Christians will allow false teachers to slip in unaware and start bringing in law.

And it's very subtle and usually they'll be Jewish or half Jewish. That's why I'm half Jewish. So many times I'm a half Jewish. And then all of a sudden we Gentiles just bow down and say, oh, well, they're Jews.

I know the Bible better than I. They start saying, you do realize the real Sabbath is on Saturday, right? Well, no, I thought it was Sunday. No, no, it's actually Saturday, which is true. And they say, you need to be worshiping on Saturday, not Sunday.

Well, now they just brought law in right there. So we got on this topic a while back and we're going to finish it before we go to the verse, whatever the next one is, verse, probably about verse 10. I doubt we'll get to verse 10 today because we're still on verses eight and nine.

So let me just say this about that. We have, in this little study, I don't know how you guys laugh at me because we've had, we've actually had people. I think when Ashton first started coming to church here, I had just started this study on, and I'm not kidding, on Romans, verse by verse to Romans, she now has three children.

Actually, you have four. We said we met the fourth one yet. So we go slow, but here's the thing. Even in the last couple of Sundays in this little topical concept we're looking at, which is why is it people want to go back to the law and how can we show they shouldn't, that we shouldn't?

And do you need some ammunition with your family and friends? The answer is yes, because if you don't have the ammunition, they're going to out-argue, they're going to beat you because they're always zealous.

They know their scriptures. And if you don't know the word of God, you just like, you just tend to be quiet and let it go. And you should never do that. Paul said, their mouths must be stopped. Think about that.

Whose job is it to do that? I'm not going to be there when it happens to you at Christmas, you got to do it. So I've already given you 21 reasons in this little study here. I think last Sunday we finished reason number 21.

All you need is one of them, because it's God's word, right? You just need one of them, but you got 21. So think about this. Now, let me just, I'm not going to sit here and preview 21, but let me give you just a couple, a few of them here that we've covered because they're astounding.

Like the one in Matthew 12, 17 through 19, where God himself, the voice from heaven, his voice from heaven told Peter, do not lift Moses and Elijah to the same level as my son, Jesus. He was going to build tents for all three of them.

God said, no, you're not doing that. Peter is probably the only man I'm aware of that God the father actually rebuked. So he was not allowed to do it. And it proves that Jesus and grace are here and law is somewhere below that.

That's kind of where we started this study is with that scripture right there. Then you go into Matthew 5, 17, we see that Jesus himself said he is the fulfillment of the law. So it's already fulfilled.

And he's the only man or woman or any human who could have fulfilled it anyway, because the scripture says, if you break it in one point, you've broken it all. Paul said, if you get circumcised, if you believe you got to believe in Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised.

He said, then Christ availeth you nothing. Let me ask you a question. If Jesus avails you nothing, where are you going when you die? Because you've broken at least one of them. You have to keep the whole law.

That's your one choice. Or you receive grace through Jesus Christ as a free gift, which is redundant because grace means free gift. So it's a free, free gift. If you got to pick between the two, Jesus and Paul both spent nearly all of their ministries on this earth, convincing a Jew that God will save them.

Amen. Number one, that's why the Bible says, Jesus died for all men. Where pas in Greek means all, usually all kinds of men. It doesn't mean every individual. It means all types of people from every people group.

Some people from every people group in every race will be saved. That's what that means. And you know why he had to say it? Because the Jews in the room, he's always preaching the Jew first, the Gentile.

The Jews didn't think he'd save a Gentile. He said, no, no, no, he died for all kinds of men. That's what the Greek says. So they had this battle. And then, so the Jews didn't come in and say, okay, well, all right, we've received Jesus, but you got to be circumcised.

And Paul said, well, if you do it thinking that you have to do that to be saved, then Christ avails you nothing. That is one of the most frightening verses to me because we live in the South here and a lot of our friends and business friends are Church of Christ and different things.

Roman Catholic, Baptist Catholic, Methodist Catholic, whatever, people that want to add something to grace. And they're your friends and your family. And you just let it slide because they're sweet people and they don't understand what it means that Christ availeth them nothing.

And man, when you have to show them that, you might not see them next Christmas. But whose job is it to show them that? What if you don't show them that? Can they be saved without hearing the true gospel?

Let me ask you something. If all they've heard every Sunday is, you know, well, I'll use Church of Christ. They got five things you got to do to be saved. And one of them is, we got a Baptist back here, so they got to get in the Baptist.

You know what? That wouldn't be good enough because they have to see the one in their building. Or you don't go to heaven. And Baptists have their little things. Oh, you got to repent and believe. You got to pray.

Come down to my altar. Pray this little prayer. Your Jesus come to my heart and say to me again, that did it. Really? My Bible says, for whosoever desires, if you read it in the Greek, whosoever, because it's subjunctive, whosoever desires to call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved.

I know the English reads, whosoever calls on the name. The Greek reads like this, if you know grammar. Whosoever desires to call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. So they got saved in the pew before they came down here.

Listen, no depraved human being ever has a desire for Jesus until the Holy Ghost puts that desire in his heart, and that's called the calling, the effectual calling, and it's regeneration is what it's called.

And while we're here, our sins have peaked. Quickness, what did you do today? Let me ask you, what did you do when you got bored physically? How much of the work did you do? None, Jesus said, it's just like that when we're spiritual.

So how much work did you do when he, while you were still sinful, you're still in sin when you're lost as a goose. You're lost as a goat, but you're not when you're a sheep. You're a lost sheep. You just didn't know it yet.

And while you're still in that state, he quickens you, what work did you do? Nothing, and that's why the great reformers of 150 years go all the way back to the process of reformation. And before Constantine, before prior to that, they were the same way.

They all said it's salvation is the blood of Jesus plus nothing, right? So why do we want to mix law? And when we do, we don't have grace anymore. That's the fright. See, I've got friends that are in that place.

You do too. All right, so we talked about, that's why this is important. I mean, I really think you should have notes. You should have all 21 of these things by now. If you don't, you can go to the archives online and hear the sermons the last few Sundays.

Christ the Fulfillment of the Law and Salvation by Faith

All right, so Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. That's enough to prove that they're wrong right there. The third thing we looked at is the promise of salvation comes not through the law, but the righteousness that comes by having been given the faith of Christ as a gift, as in Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

It's a free gift that was one of the, I don't know, 33 some odd things the Holy Spirit gives us at the moment he regenerates us. Did you know that everything else that you do is an effect, not the cause?

And an effect can never be the cause of the cause. Romans 14, 13 says, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

So 400 years before Moses, God says you're saved by faith. Is that Old Testament? Yes. A lot like the New Testament in that sense, isn't it? And then Hebrews 10, 19 says, there is no more Old Testament Jewish sin offering.

Well, how can their system even work if they no longer have a sin offering? They haven't had one since the day Jesus died because that was the last one. Historically, check it out. The Jews, the best Jews in the world don't have them.

Why? So how are they gonna be saved by law? The law is not even intact anymore. And then, so here's another one. 2 Corinthians 3, 10 says that the law has been done away. Is that plain language? Check it out.

We already did, but if you weren't here, done away. 2 Corinthians 3, 10 and 11. Then it goes further and says, grace is more glorious than the law. And then it also says that the law has been abolished.

2 Corinthians 3, 12. How can you get more blame than that? What does abolished mean? I mean, God's the one that did it. So these false teachers that Bill was talking about wanna bring it back. And then when you argue, no, it's free, they just think, well, you're not even living for the Lord.

Have you seen the billboard? You probably saw it coming from Dallas here. It says, real Christians obey Jesus. Well, there's a sense in which that's true, but why did they choose to say that out of all the things they could have said?

Because they're saying, if you slip up once or twice and you're not keeping our list of rules, you're not saved. That's what they're saying, I'll bet you. I should call them and ask, but that's what I think.

Anyway, we'll see. And then listen to this, Galatians 4, 9. God says the law is beggarly. What a strong term. It is beggarly compared to grace. And then Hebrews 8, 13 says, the law has decayed, grown old, and vanished.

Wow, how about out of the 21, just remember that one. That's enough right there, Hebrews 8, 13. Or how about this, Hebrews 10, 19 through 23. We now enter in by a new and living way, which implies there is an old and dead way.

The law brings death, the law killeth, but the spirit bringeth life, right? So Hebrews 10, 19 through 23, we now have been given a new and living way, which, listen to this, is through the offering of the body of Jesus for us.

You don't need anything in addition to that. And to say that you do, frankly, is blasphemy. So your friends are blasphemers, and you don't wanna tell them that, and I don't think I would put it that way to them.

You gotta be nice, you gotta be me, the scripture says, but it also says you gotta instruct them. You're not trying to argue with them. Always remember that if you get in an argument. It's not an argument, you're instructing them because they don't know the scripture.

They think they do, and they'll show you their five verses. You probably have around 200 that contradict their five verses. They don't wanna look at those, though. So if they get to that place where they won't even be open, just change the subject, pray for them, maybe for a while, too.

God may just remove you as the instrument, you may have to bring someone else, or he may just, they might be a ghost. They're never gonna be saved, you don't know. Israel did not attain salvation by the law, right?

By the law, all right? In Romans 9, 31, it says very clearly that, that Israel which followeth after the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not by faith.

Is that clear? They sought it not by faith, but as it were, they sought it by works. So they have not attained it. What does that mean? Where are they going when they die if God doesn't regenerate? Where are they going?

They're trying to be saved by doing stuff for God. They can't do enough. And what they do is like filthy rags. I should say, we. It's not they, it's all of us as humans, right? So they stumbled at the stumbling stone.

What is that, by the way, if you know scripture? Or who is that, by the way? Jesus Christ, they stumbled at Jesus, and they wanna keep rules. Listen, the false preachers that come into our churches are the same.

They say, oh yeah, you gotta believe in Jesus, but they don't believe in Jesus. Let me ask you this. If a man told you that I'm gonna die and take all your sins in my. First, I'm gonna take your sins on my body on the cross.

And God the Father is gonna see you and me, and he's gonna kill me. And then I'm gonna be buried. I'm gonna rise again when I do. God has given you my righteousness. It's imputation, right? He imputed your sins to me.

I'm gonna die for you. He's gonna impute my perfections to you. You're gonna rise with me, and you're gonna be a new man or woman, and you are saved. And you say, yeah, but I gotta do this other stuff.

Do you really believe that man? No. You don't, so you're not saved. You can say it all day long. You can say, well, I believe in Jesus, but you gotta do this. No, no, no, you don't. Listen, wait, wait, let's go over this and make sure we're talking about the same Jesus.

That's a good thing to tell them. Because my Jesus said this, and then you just tell them the gospel. Kind of tricky, I know, but works. So here's what my Jesus said, and you're saying, but you mean stuff that he didn't say you needed.

So apparently, yours is a different Jesus. What part in history was he, where did he come into the world? Because mine came in in the main year. I'm like, it's not really Christmas Day, but it's October 4th, I think.

That's when he was born. That's my birthday. But they do think he was born sometime around the 4th or 5th. Bill argues with me, because I think his is on the 5th. So, oh, yours is the 6th. So it's like, oh, I got it backwards.

Yours is the 1st, okay. 4th, 5th, or 6th, somewhere in there. All right, so we see these things. So now, I didn't name all 21 of them. Those are some of the strongest ones out of those. So let me get you to look at this.

The Gentiles, the Remnant of Israel, and the End Times

Turn with me, if you would, to Isaiah 11, verse nine. Believe it or not, I'm gonna give you the 22nd one here. I had a new Christian recently tell me, who knows a lot of history and is very well-educated, said, you know, we know from all of the centuries of speech giving that a good speech always has only three points.

And it can have several sub-points, only three. He had heard me preach recently. So it was a subtle way of him telling me and saying, you know, you need to cut that down a little bit because it got into my lunch.

So anyway, he's listening, because he's online listening. So I won't tell you his name. Listen, how much, could we do an auction? He'll give me $10 and know who that was. No, I'm kidding. But I love him.

But here was my answer, and he agreed. I said, but I'm not giving a speech. It ain't a speech, and it's got more than three points, 21 points. Now we're on point number 22. But I'm not stupid enough to make you sit there and hear them all in the same day.

Because what I do, here's how many points a sermon should have to see if you agree. You've done this longer, more places longer than I have. Like when they start dying, you should stop. When they're rearing, cannot handle, and their brain just goes off and they're not getting it, the sermon's over.

That could be after the first point. In fact, we're almost there. Okay, all right. So look at Isaiah 11, nine. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy hill. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

And in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse, that's Jesus, which shall stand for an instant of the people, and it shall be to, I'm sorry, and the Gentiles shall seek this person. Well, it is so interesting to me that so many scholars say that the tribulation period coming up in our future, the seven-year tribulation period, is for the Jew only.

There is no scripture that says that, but all through Bible history, it's been to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, but it's both. The tribulation period has meaning for both Jew and Gentile. I will promise you that.

But I don't wanna go into that further, that's not the topic. But here, obviously, Jesus came to die for both, for all kinds of men, Jew and Gentile. It's so wonderful that that's in Isaiah. That's in the Jewish material, right?

For what they would call the Jewish material. We know it's our material too. So the Gentiles will seek him and his rest shall be glorious. And he shall set up an instant for the nations. And to the Jew, the word nations mean the other nations like Gentiles.

That's what it means to the Jew. So he'll be an instant to all the other people besides Jews also, and shall assemble the outcast of Israel. So now he's saying, you know, there's gonna be Jews that aren't saved.

He's gonna gather them too. Now, let me tell you something. This is a far prophecy, not the near prophecy, but a far prophecy of the end times. Because tell me right now, how many out of 100 of the Jews, how many of you think are saved right now?

Born again Christians. And I don't mean they had to be Gentiles, but like a remnant. And my mentor was one of them, right? So just a few Jews are saved. And the church at large is Gentile. Wouldn't you agree?

I mean, if you just look at the numbers, it's Gentile church, right? All right, well, think about this. That prophesied that number one, it would become a Gentile church, didn't it? Or could, it didn't say it would, but it could because he's an instant to the Gentiles.

But then it says that, and this is the part that is a clue to me, this is a reference to the end times, is that he's going to gather the outcasts of Israel because right now most Jews are not saved. And yet Paul said, all Israel shall be saved.

That's future tense. So every Jew that's still alive when the tribulation is over, when he comes, they'll receive him. They will fall on their knees and receive Jesus as their Messiah. 100 of them that are still here will.

So that's the remnant being brought back in. And I think, this is, okay, I'll always try to tell you when it's my opinion and it's not scripture, but it's my opinion of the scripture. When Paul gave that warning, he said, now you guys, you Gentiles, you don't get private.

Because if he can pluck the true branches off, he can cut you off. And I think that's happened. I think it was a prophecy. I've never ever read that it's a prophecy. I now think it is, because I've seen some stuff since January 9th in particular.

I've seen some stuff in my life. And I think that the predominant, something we can talk about over coffee, okay? I think the predominant job of the church, predominantly Gentile church, has been to be the salt and the light to the world.

Like the Jews were supposed to be in the Old Testament time. They failed. Now we've failed. And I think we're in the plucking off process. As church, I don't mean individually. You can't lose your salvation.

I mean, the influence of church, I think it will ultimately be totally removed and God will witness through three agents that are not the church. One will be the hundred, I mean, I know that. I didn't think of it, honey.

Yes, sir, you're right. The 144 ,000 Jewish evangelists and then the two prophets standing at the end who die and rise up and are raptured, I guess. They ascend into heaven in front of the whole world, but scared to death at that point.

And then the other's an angel, angelic being circling the earth, giving the gospel, which is a strange one to us, but that's gonna happen. I don't see the church doing that stuff. And the reason is they're hiding at that point because every one of them that gets found will have their head removed from their shoulders along with the Jews.

So don't you think it's logical? See, this is what I mean. I can't prove this yet, but it's logical to me that if the Lord says, hey, when you see this stuff happening, don't even go back in your house and leave.

Go to the mountains. And so if he's gonna have us leave, we can no longer be the light and salt. Something else has to do that. It's gonna be those three agencies. Anyway, so here we see a glimpse of this in Isaiah 11.

It's amazing, 2 ,600 some odd years ago. Now look at Isaiah 42. Let's flip over there right quick. That'll help you stay awake long enough to eat lunch. All right, Isaiah 42. If you had a real Bible, you'd have to flip.

Takes energy. All right, Isaiah 42, one. Behold my servant. Now this is Jesus. It's a reference to the Messiah. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delights, the Father says. God the Father says.

I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth justice. It says judgment. It just means righteousness, justice to the Gentiles. There it is. It's not just Jewish material. It's Gentiles too. Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which comes out of the earth, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it.

Would you be alive without Jesus? Right, because without me, you can do nothing. That means you can't even breathe without him. And spirit unto them that walk therein. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness.

There is the effectual calling right there. You can't be saved without that. No human can make a human be saved through human instrumentality, not even a mother. And I hate to say it, but it's true. Certainly not a preacher.

You have to be called. So I the Lord have called thee. Now this is a reference to Jesus being called, however, but there's many references to all of the saints have to be called. And I the Lord have called thee, still a reference to the Messiah if you're looking at the context here.

And I will hold your hand and will keep you and give thee for a covenant to the people. And who's the people? That's the Jews. And by the way, this is, they helped me remember Byron's beautiful example where he's got the lamp, you know, with the Abrahamic covenant when they kill the animals and the lamps went around it.

One of those lamps represented Jesus. And because Abraham was asleep when this happened. So he has no works to do in his salvation. He was asleep on purpose. God put him to sleep and God, the father made the covenant with Jesus and Jesus was on behalf of Abraham and all of the children of God.

And he said, if I don't, if I don't, and on behalf of Abraham, if I don't live perfectly, may I be as these dead animals. And guess what? Abraham didn't live perfectly. So Jesus had to die. You see, this is all the whole story is in that.

And so that's why it just, it just really creeps me out when people say that's not sufficient. That like that deal doesn't work. You've got to have my deal, which includes all these points that I want you to keep all these rules.

That is so, so frightening. And give thee for a covenant of the Jews and for a light to the hood. Everybody else, the Gentiles, all men, all kinds of men to open the blind eyes. That's all of us, isn't it?

To bring out the prisoners. That was all of us. Satan held us in prison till the moment we did receive light. Till the moment we were regenerated, we were in prison and headed for hell, seemingly from the human viewpoint.

Truth is, we were never headed for hell because we were lost sheep. We weren't goats. Jesus said, of them, I will lose nothing. So you weren't headed for hell, but it seems like you were. Your life was, your walk was hellish.

Mine was hellish until I was 24. Jesus saved me in that car. But he will be for a covenant to the people and for a light to the Gentiles. He's also, we're part of the Abrahamic covenant according to the book of Galatians.

To open the blind eyes, bring us out of prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. So the 22nd point is Jesus was elect and called by the father to bring righteousness to the Gentiles, which means you don't have to keep the law.

And point number 23 is also found in this. Jesus opened our eyes and we are set free by Jesus our Lord. So that's it. Let's stand and have prayer together. And that's all we have time for this morning, but now you got 23 reasons, just pick a good one.

Make sure you memorize it and know where it is. And don't let anyone ever, ever, ever sneak in unawares and tell you they're smarter than you are. And you got to have Jesus, but you need to add this other stuff.

Just say, look, I'll share some. I want to know who your Jesus is. I'll tell you who mine is. And after that, if you still believe the same, you got to be out of here within an hour. Not really. You won't say, Paul said that.

You'll be nicer, right? When we meet Paul someday, probably going to be kind of awesome because he's kind of prickly. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much that you promised that you breathed it to us.

You gave it to us, but that you would preserve it until the last generation. Thank you that you did that and have done that. We have it. And help us to take what we've learned today and use it in our lives as we come across opportunities to use it, where you instruct us to use it by your Holy Spirit with exactly the people you want us to cross paths with.

And Lord, we thank you for each person here. We ask you to bless us in our fellowship time, bless the food we're about to have. And we ask you in Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed. Please stay, if you can, for lunch.