As you can see from your handout, the title of the message is called A Tale of Two Worms from verses 4 and 6. Job 25 verse 4 in the English Standard Version says, How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? And verse 6, How much less man who is a maggot and the son of man who is a worm." This is the word of the Lord. It'll most certainly add His abundant, gracious, and magnified blessing to the reading of His holy truth. And let us pray. Lord Jesus, truly You are good to Your people, to those who are pure in heart. But as for us, our feet have stumbled, our steps had nearly slipped. Nevertheless, we are continually with You. You hold our right hands, You guide us with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive us to glory. Our God and Father, whom have we in heaven but You, and there is none on earth that we desire besides You. Our flesh and our spirits may fail, but Father God, You are our strength and our portion forever. Holy Spirit, bring us near to Christ, for it is good to be near our God. Please give us understanding from your word that we may take refuge in you so we may tell of all your works for Christ's exaltation and the Father's great glory. Amen. Chapter 25. In the King James Version, similar to the English Standard Version, how then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? How much less man that is a worm, the son of man which is a worm. He uses two Hebrew words, two different Hebrew words and it's translated both of them worm and it can be. But we'll look at that in a moment. His brother Mike read it and he looked at Bildad's six verses following chapter 24 that we took a look at last week. Whereas Job does mention the prosperity of the wicked in greater detail than he did in chapter 21. And then ends in chapter 24, if it's not so who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say. And now as we start coming towards the climax really of the book of Job and all of his sufferings and these three discourses that his friends have. It ends, the discourses end with Bildad's statement here. And in fact he makes such an immovable, steadfast statement in chapter 24 as we saw. Bildad can only come up with the six verses we have in chapter 25. And in fact, even Zophar doesn't speak. Next, after this, in chapter 26, all the way to end of chapter 31, Job will speak. And the only one that'll be, only one speaking that will be left will be Eliyahu, which is a type of Christ. And then God the Father, the Almighty God, El Shaddai, will speak. to Job and that will conclude the matter. So Zophar feels, as Brother Mike had rightly observed before he read these six verses, that here these three quote-unquote friends may be convicted a bit. And or, like unbelievers, that since Job can't be stirred, can't be turned, that they have nothing else to say. And in fact, Bildad's words actually present this truth. As he speaks first, he just goes and says, look, these, I'm going to speak truths that he's assuming or presuming that Job doesn't know. Because remember, as we've seen in chapters one and two, that God's own words says that he is an upright man, blameless, who fears God and turns from evil. Twice, chapter one and chapter two. And so Job being a righteous man, and as I've mentioned in chapter 42 verse seven, as he speaks to Eliphaz, Job has said what was right about me. And you guys haven't. And so you need to go to Job who's a prophet and have him pray for you. And just to bring it forth for you so that you can contemplate this. In fact, we've been reading Elihu's words this last week in the Robert Murray McShane reading program. And Job is rebuked, and rightly so, by Elihu. How do you reconcile that? Because God, El Shaddai, God Almighty, speaks of Job through grace, But Elihu as a type of Christ also speaks graciously of God, but in judgment towards Job. How's that? I know I'm getting ahead of myself because we're going to follow all the words that Job says right after this chapter. But when Elihu speaks and he actually does rebuke Job, that's what Jesus does for us. When we see the righteousness of Christ, it should rebuke the very best of anything that we have to do. Because He is the perfect Son of God. He is the perfect man. Though He is God incarnate as a man, He walked the righteous life that you and I cannot. And every glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ rebukes us, condemns us. If the Holy Spirit is in us, we can't see that the very best at what we do can never equal what the Son of God has done in living that righteous life, preaching that righteous gospel, and then going to that tree. And that's what today's message is all about. Bill Dadd may be of such a place that he speaks In his final attack, it's indirect. He speaks as if Job does not know these truths. And so convinced are they, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, of Job's wickedness. These will be their last words to him. And as we see, Bildad the Shuhite answered and said, verse two, dominion and fear are with God. He makes peace in his high heaven. Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? Here we see the greatness of God, the glory of God, the holiness of God, and he says so rightly. But we recognize if he hasn't repented from his presumption, which was the greatest of sins for Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, they presumed that Job was unrighteous. And therefore, by his predicament, they had somewhat of a prosperity gospel. We're doing well, so we must be righteous and you must be wicked. And then the question comes up in verse four. How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born a woman be pure or clean? It says in the King James Version. Not clean like when my mother told me to, you know, get washed up for dinner. And I am filthy from head to toe. Now some of you parents might not remember some of this. But I can remember it as if it was yesterday and I didn't get cleaned up. I think I could equate the washcloths of my mother with sandpaper because I didn't get cleaned up well enough. And she would scrub me from head to toe. And I didn't shine, I was pink by the time she was done with me. Pure. There's enough corruption in our mortal flesh that even though we're saved by God's grace, we're not pure. There's only one who is pure and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this from the word of God itself. The first Corinthians chapter 15 says that this, in the King James version, this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. We have not yet put that on. So that means we still have the corruption that remains in our mortal flesh. Why? We wear glasses. We have gray hair. We get up later and moan when we do so. We're bent over. We don't walk as quickly. And as far as anybody over 50, I don't think that I've run since I was a young man. And we're all gonna die if the Lord should tarry. And that shows us the corruption that still remains for sure. The brightness of God. In fact, in verse five, behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, that the moon is just a reflection of the sun. And that's the truth even for us who are saved, that the shining light, the light of the world is the Lord Jesus Christ and his light shines upon us. And we're only reflections of the salvation that we have, the redemption that has been bought and purchased by the Lord for us. And so the moon has really no brightness in itself. We're the light of the world, as Jesus says, but only because Jesus has condescended and left the celestial palaces of glory to become a man and walk among sinful natives of corrupt earth. How much less man who is a maggot and the son of man who is a worm. Let's look at the powerful aspects from the truth that is spoken of Bildad. And though he has this presumption that, Job, you don't know these things. Obviously you're just so set, as we saw in the steadfastness of Job, the patience of Job. He endured through these sufferings because he too, as a prophet, is a type of Christ, our suffering servant. But here's, first we look at the question. of verse 4. How then can man be in the right before God? How can he, were questions, how can he who is born of woman be pure? And notice that the question comes right upon the heels of God's holiness and God's greatness in verses 2 and 3. Dominion and fear are with God. Or dominion and reverence, if you will. They are with Him. And so if you're trying to work up godly fear, you know godly fear is a grace. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you want wisdom, which is a grace also. It must come from heaven above, not lifted up by our own human efforts from the dead dust of the ground from which Adam was made. It must be heavenly, as Jesus Christ is the heavenly man. Jesus Christ is God incarnate and came down from heaven in order to save us. And so as this question comes, how can a man be right before God? A man named J.E. Conant, he lived from 1867 to 1955. He wrote a book that is out of print. It's hard to get. If you can get it, it's worth reading. Passed away in 1955, but he wrote this book called, No Salvation Without Substitution. And he said this, quote, then can God forgive sin? Question mark. Not until he ceases to condemn it and begins to consent to it. And he will never do that until he ceases to love. It is no wonder then that Socrates cried out in despair, Plato, Plato, it may be that deity can forgive sins, but I do not see how, end quote. Remember that Socrates was a disciple of Plato. Plato lived, about 428 to 348 BC. And within that time, while he was alive, Socrates lived. And even as these Greek philosophers believed it was, you know, they could recognize what sin was. They were in a civilized society even then. The Greek empire. But they couldn't see how a God could forgive sins. They couldn't even see that. And so it is a monumental question. We have a problem with it as well. Because it says in our text, how much less, in verse six, how much less man who is a maggot and the son of man who is a worm. This is our problem. One of our readings today, in fact, is in Exodus chapter 20. I'm gonna turn there if you wanted to turn there. I'll mention this. But in your handout, you see that there's a word here, a Hebrew word, ramah. Ramah can be translated worm, and often it is in the King James Version, but it's also more rightly translated maggot. Or if it's translated worm, as it is in Exodus chapter 16, and you don't have to turn there, keep turning to Exodus 20, it is preceded by a word for breeding. So it rightly is, the Ramah is a maggot. It's a young worm. Rapidly bred, as you see here. But this is our problem. In our reading, Robert Murray McShane reading plan, it takes us to Exodus chapter 20, and we know the commandments. Sister Vicki has been doing a really tremendous job with teaching our young people to keep the commandments in mind. And that's a blessed thing, because I've run into guys with letters after their names from seminary who can't recite the Ten Commandments. Here we have them in Exodus chapter 20, where God spoke all these words saying, in Horeb, Mount Sinai, which is in Saudi Arabia. Verse two, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Verse four, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Five, you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Verse six, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Verse seven, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Nine, six days you shall labor and do all your work. Verse 10, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or the livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. Verse 11, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Twelve, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land and that the Lord your God is giving you. Verse 13, you shall not murder. Verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. Verse 15, you shall not steal. Verse 16, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Verse 17, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. Now when the people, in verse 18, this is now when all the people saw that the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off. Clouds and thick darkness surrounded Mount Sinai and they stood far off. And that is not only a problem, it's a truth because that's what we are apart from the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand far off. Our sins have separated us from God. And when the commandments were given, they had already broken them. If you remember, because actually this is today's reading from the Robert McShane reading plan. Then a few days ago, we read in chapter 16, that they had broken the commandment. The people stood far off and they'd already broken the commandment. Exodus 16 verses 27 and 28 speak of, On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Manna, bread from heaven, was poured out by God by His grace and said, and there's an interesting thing about this, that this thing that was like a frost in the morning, like dew, but it was these flakes that that the Psalms call angel's food, that they gathered and it would fall for six days. Then on the seventh day, none would fall, but there would be enough to fall on the sixth day for them to gather twice as much. And then there was none. And then it would start again on the first day of the week. That must be given by God because this thing that they're eating doesn't have any kind of mind of its own. And yet they came out. And interestingly, in verse 21 of Exodus 16, this is where we see the word, it's translated worm in the King James version, but Exodus 16, verse 21, and also verse 24, it uses the word tola, but it says in verse 21, morning by morning, they gathered at each as much as he could eat. But when the sun grew hot, it melted. And verse 22, on the sixth day they gathered twice as much of the bread, two omers each, and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning. Verse 24, so they laid it aside till the morning as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. There were no worms in it. And when it speaks of worms there, it uses the word tola, which I'll get to in a minute. But up here in verse 20, the people were gathering the manna as it was falling. And in verse 20, but they did not listen to Moses because he said on the Sabbath day, gather it, gather it for what you need. Don't stock it up. And so some people stocked up on it. And Moses said to them, let no one leave, in verse 19, let no one leave any of it over until the morning, verse 20. But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And even though the word worms there, it says tola, It says breadworms, and so it's actually speaking of the Ramah. Because in verse 24 it says that there were no worms in it, there were no maggots, is what it should say in verse 24. It uses the word Ramah there. But even though it uses a different word, Tola, in verse 20 these breadworms stank up the manna, because they didn't listen. This was truly miracle bread. But it was not as miraculous as what Jesus said in John 6 that he is the bread of life. His manna, if you will, he is the manna that came from heaven greater than the manna that came to heaven which pointed to Christ. He would not corrupt or breed worms. Not a single worm. Because he would become a worm when he hung upon the tree. Like a worm. This is the problem with us. I'm going to turn to Romans chapter 3. Before I turn to Romans chapter 3, we'll get to Romans chapter 3. Because of the solution. We break God's commands and this is our problem. We stand too far off because our sins have separated us. Because the law was never designed to make man perfect. This is what the New Testament declares, and I'm not gonna get all into that today, but we see it just in Exodus from our reading today. Because the law is given, the people stood far off, because we can never attain to it. God's plan from before the beginning was for Jesus to become a man, and then fulfilling the law in his person, that believing on him, that Christ's righteousness would be placed on our account. That, my dear young friends, is called what? imputation. Christ's righteousness is imputed to our account, just as it says in Genesis 15. I'm turning to Luke chapter 23, which by the way is another one of the Robert Murray Machine reading portions. Luke 23 today. Because the solution is, how much less man who is a maggot. That's what we are. And think about that for a minute before we go to the solution as we turn to Luke chapter 23. Sin has made us less than human in our original design. Adam was made from the dust of the ground, but to dust because of his sin, to dust he shall return. Adam is, he gets his name from the reddish clay in which he was born. And he went back to the ground to basically become worm food. And so he is less than, in our sinful state, we're less than human. We're a worm, but in this text here, we're much less. We're maggots. At least the worm full grown could be used as bait for fish, but a maggot is like sin in its infancy. It has no ability whatsoever. But Jesus became a worm, the son of man. Remember, in Hebrew here in Job, it uses the term, it says, Uvein Adam, uses Adam, son of man. Ben means in Hebrew, it means son, and Adam means man, or Adam's name. And we know that this is a title that Jesus uses because the Aramaic term for him is Baranosh. Son of Man or Son of Mankind, even Son of Mortality, if you will. It's Aramaic. This is from Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 to 14 when the Son of Man appeared before the Ancient of Days in the vision of Daniel. But Jesus hanging upon the cross. In verse 44 we see the death of Jesus. It was now about the sixth hour. And there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Verse 45, while the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Verse 46, then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. At the darkest point of this, he calls out, into your hands I commit my spirit. He did what Adam didn't do. when his wife was deceived, instead of going to the father to receive wisdom, he ate from the tree. He did not go to his creator. But Jesus, as a man, on behalf of all men who would believe, he committed his spirit unto the father. And having said this, he breathed his last. Verse 47, now when the centurion saw that he had taken, what had taken place, he praised God saying, certainly this man was innocent. So the death of Christ even caused a man who had no knowledge of the scriptures to say that this man was innocent, which he was. Verse 48, to prophesy. Verse 48, and all the crowds that were assembled for the spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. even mourning, whether they repented or not, the event of Christ crucified was so spectacular in its power because of what it would do. It caused those who even didn't believe to beat their breasts and mourn because the Son of God lived and died. And verse 49, and all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. They stood where? Afar off. just like in Exodus. But Christ, through his cross, was bringing them close. How so? Because Job tells us that the Son of Man, who is a worm. He was using the word tola, a worm. And here is where I'll have you turn to Psalm in verse six in particular, but we know it's the Psalm of the cross. And I could have gone to Matthew, but Luke was there because it was the reading portion from the McShane reading plan, as some of you or many of you have read this morning. And Psalm 22 recorded in Matthew and recorded in Mark, Jesus quotes this from the cross, the very first verse, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In Aramaic, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that's Aramaic. It says in Hebrew, lama, which is why, azavtani. Lama azavtani would be the term that is in Hebrew, but lama sabachthani is Aramaic, the Chaldean derivative of Hebrew. The reason why this is significant, look at verse six of Psalm 22. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind. and despised of the people. Psalm 22 is called the Psalm of the Cross, written by David a thousand years before Jesus was crucified, right? We know that it is of the cross. It says that is verse 14, I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast. Again, verse 16, for dogs encompassed me, a company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. Crucifixion had not yet even been invented. Wouldn't be invented until the Persians. It wouldn't be. And from the Persians, the Romans would perfect it unto the modern Latin cross that we're so familiar with. The death for ancient Israel was stoning. But crucifixion was a crueler form of suffocation than stoning was. Stoning is not because of the pelting of rocks and the bruising of flesh. It's because the weight of the rocks would cause a man not to have breath anymore. Because life, although the life of the flesh is in the blood, the life of the soul is in God's breath. And so here with the worm, I am a worm and no man. And as it says, oh, actually it says, v'anochi tola'at v'lo'ish. Here in Psalm 26, it says anochi. Ani means in Hebrew, I, but anochi, the term chi that's attached to ani. Anochi means I am like a worm. because it's pointing, David was pointing to something more significant. He was pointing to the Christ who would not literally become a worm, but when he was crushed, receiving God's wrath for sins he did not commit, when he hung upon that tree, suffering God's wrath for sins, those sins he did not commit, paying a debt that he did not owe for a debt that we owe and cannot possibly pay, he was crushed like a worm. And this is the significance of the Tola. Sometimes it's pronounced Tola, sometimes it's pronounced Tulea, which actually is in Job, Tulea, and Tulaot, or Tolaat is in Psalm 22. This worm is used in such ways to be prophetic of a word that's used commonly in Hebrew to date, Tolaat Shneh. Tulat Schnee, the worm that it's speaking of, comes from this crimson grub called, in Latin, Coccus illicis. And it commonly is attached to trees sucking the sap out, most commonly, the oak tree. And this little grub worm that sucks on the sap of the oak tree, it has such properties as a worm in its crimson color that tola ch'ne means, is the color red or crimson. That's the word for red or crimson, tola ch'ne. Ch'ne means two, tola means worm, and it takes only two worms to dry out and crush the powder, crush this worm to powder, and by mixing it with just a little bit of water or some other things, I don't know what exactly all the process that goes to it, but from that dye of just two worms, it can dye an entire full, it's an outer garment. That's what they gambled at the foot of the cross. Well see, that's who Jesus was. He was like a worm because when he was on the cross as a man, God poured out his wrath upon him and he was crushed. That's the word in Hebrew, in Isaiah 53, the ha, it says that he was bruised for our iniquities or he was crushed for our iniquities. The Hebrew word the ha, that's the wrath of God that Jesus experienced and so he was like a worm because we're worms. And so he took the place of you and I, who are worms, by suffering God's wrath for sins he did not commit. This, we see this truth of the solution in Romans chapter three. One of the most wonderful places where it is in Romans chapter three, verses 21 to 26. Here we go. Verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The law hasn't been done away with. It's been abolished in terms of its, when we see it in Hebrews, it uses a word abolished in the King James Version, but it, there was never a way for us to achieve sanctification. Everyone in the Old Testament was a Old Testament Christian. They were looking forward to a Messiah to come because there's no one that could possibly keep the law. Not today and not then, not ever. That's why it's apart from the law. This is why we stand far off. Verse 22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. Verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Verse 25, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time. so that he might be just and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus. And in chapter four he speaks of this and amplifies it because of the former sins. He's speaking of even David's sins. Who in chapter four cried out, how blessed is the man whose sins are not imputed to him or count or placed on his account. And this is the great solution to the problem that we have. It's trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Does it mean that we can't do the law? Does it mean that the Ten Commandments are completely done away with? No, first of all, they're elevated to a place that we can't reach it, but it doesn't mean that we can't do them as best as a sinner saved by grace is able. Jesus fulfilled them. He's the heavenly man. He's the perfect man. And he fulfilled them on our behalf. And now there's people that will say, no, we don't have to do it because Jesus fulfilled it. But that's wrong. Even the best of what we do isn't going to make it perfect, but it doesn't eliminate our duty to God. There's a portion in, in Luke that we had also read earlier this week, and I'm not going to turn there to it, but it says that we are unprofitable servants. Jesus told the parable. We're unprofitable servants because we just did what is our duty. I think I wrote a devotion on it this week. Why is it unprofitable? Why are we unprofitable servants? Because Christ's salvation that we have received, our works profit Jesus nothing. You get that? Our works do nothing to make Him more glorious. He is glorious. Our sin does not cause Him to diminish in His holiness. It's unprofitable to Him what we do or what we don't do. It doesn't affect Him. That's right. Praise the Lord. I appreciate that witness, young man. I want to hear a confession of faith from you soon. For those of you, Stephan is on the back raising his hand, because I can't hear him say amen. It profits Jesus nothing. He did, this is what grace and love is all about. Here, I'll have you turn. Let's close it up with some practical application. We see the cross even in Job. We see the truth of the problem of the situation for the gospel. that man is a sinner and we need a Savior because we have a Savior. But now, how do I do this? Well, if you're not a believer, there's one thing that you must do is surrender to Christ. Surrender to Christ. Surrender to the truth of who He is and what He has done. Until then, You're not gonna know the truth of the Spirit in your life as the Spirit is ministering to you now until you've surrendered to him, to submit to him. We're talking about patience because we know the patience and the steadfastness of Job from last week's message. And I mentioned that there's two words for patience in the Greek from James chapter five, verses 10 and 11. One of them is a word that means to withhold wrath when it's applied to God. But there is another is a hupomone, And just by its conjugation, which means cheerful and really cheerful endurance and submitting yourself to the plans and purposes of God. But it comes from a word that means submit. Hupo means come under. And in fact, so if you are under the circumstances, that might be one of the best places for you. Well, I'm doing fine under the circumstances. Well, praise God you're under the circumstances. Because it's those circumstances that will make you trust in Christ and not your own self. Surrender to Christ. Bring yourself under His circumstances. And that's if you have not made a confession of faith yet. For my young people that have made a confession of faith, this is coming up. But for those of my young people that have not made a confession of faith yet, have not said yes to Christ. Now, I'm not saying that you have to have assurance that this is so, but if you believe in Christ and trust in Him, that's what Jesus asks of you, to say, yes, this is true. Will you have doubts sometimes? Yes, even I have doubts of, Lord, if I'm saved, why did I do this? Why is my flesh rising up in me? And many more mature Christians that are here can confess that because we're still corruptible. But what does it mean that I ask you to turn to Galatians, right? Galatians chapter five or Galatians six. Galatians six first. Stay near the cross. If you're a believer, young people, if you're a believer, Here was the gospel. Yes, it came from a different place. It came from, if you will, left field. It came from Job chapter 25. And it came from a guy that was presumptuous. Included Job as a sinner and a wicked one at that. Because he wasn't a party to what was going on in heaven with Job chapter one and Job chapter two. Galatians chapter six, verse 14 says this. But far be it from me to boast. It says glory in the King James Version. But far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. To boast to glory in the cross. I know in Galatians 2 20 it says I'm crucified with Christ. That's a sermon for another time. But because we heard about Jesus crucified, Christ and Him crucified, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the truth that's at the center of everything that is Christianity. And when we glory in it, when we start glorying in it, this is what it means, what Paul said a little earlier in chapter 5. Look at verse 16 of chapter 5. He said, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Or in the King James Version, the lusts of the flesh. These things that the flesh hates the gospel. It hates Christ. It hates grace. It defies God. That's what the flesh, the old man of our unbelieving nature, that is corrupting our mortal flesh, those desires of the flesh are things that oppose God. Because it says in verse 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. And these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Because if you've been saved, you want to please God. We're thankful that he has saved us, that he sent the Lord Jesus, but sometimes I'm too busy turning on the YouTube and following all those things about what's going on in our country. Then after I've watched about 45 minutes of this, I'm banging my palm against my head thinking, why did I, I just lost 45 minutes, I'll never get back. stupid stuff, some of this stuff that's going on. But I got to get the news somehow, Brother John. Well here, read this. You'll have all the news you need. The good news. But see, here it is to walk in the Spirit. Now jump down from verse 17. It says, from there, jump to verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Verse 23, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. When we glory in the cross, Galatians 6 verse 14, when we are boasting in the cross or glorying in the cross, this is walking by the Spirit so that fruit can come forth from our lives. The first thing is that when we recognize Christ's sacrifice, love is defined. This is what the heart of John 3 16 is, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God loved the world. He loved what he had created and he sent the treasure of heaven to be that sacrifice. We see love on display in Mount Calvary and anything that competes with that love is an idol that needs to be torn away. Whether it's good works or whatever, something that you desire is never equal to what God had done in Christ. But when we see that, Our goodness profits nothing. Our sin does not diminish His glory in the least. Love sent Him to earth to suffer and to die, and that humbles us. That humbles us. When we see the cross and every glimpse of the cross, if we're not humbled, there's something that we need to investigate from our flesh that's rising up to keep us from seeing that, keep us from recognizing that. It's taking love away from us and trying to replace it with something that is an imposter, an imitation, a cheap imitation at that. It's not true love. So we get, I'm just giving you the first three of the fruit of the Spirit, love. And when we seek Christ's love, then it causes us to rejoice in Christ's salvation. It humbles us because that's where repentance comes in. I'm a wretched sinner. That's where godly fear also starts becoming born. By God's grace, we tremble because I am still an unrighteous being. And the only righteousness I have is when Christ's Spirit is ministering through me and to others. So I rejoice in Christ's salvation. There is joy there because we are maggots, yet Christ died for us, becoming a worm himself and was crushed by the wrath of God. My flesh wants to oppose that truth. Oh, you know, I'm something. Says it all the time. No, I'm better. I deserve salvation. I've heard that. You deserve salvation. No, you deserve hell for the sins you've committed against the Holy God. But God, in his love, sent the treasurer of heaven among sinners and doubters, even among his own disciples, with one who betrayed him among his number. And then the people that should have known him, that read the scriptures, sent him to death. And he did all that. Why? Because you're worth it? No, because he's love and he's glorious. Sometimes love, as I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, love gets so used. Jesus loves you. It gets so, it's gotten so used since the 1970s, overused and has become so cliche. It's taken God's justice and His holiness, His righteousness away, the attributes of God. the Creator and the Redeemer. It's removed that from him that he, oh, well, he consents to sin. You can sin all you want. No. No. No. And again, no. That's why I am joyous. Christ suffered and died for us. And now I can respond. Those are the three R's for today. Recognize Christ's sacrifice. Rejoice in Christ's salvation. And then finally, we'll have peace. Because we stood far off. We did not have peace with God as we saw in Exodus chapter 20. We stood far off. Even when Christ died as his disciples, those who were following him, John was up close, right next to Mary, we find out from the Gospel of John, but Peter was still far away. And the rest had scattered. We don't know where they are. And they just peered from the distance. We're far off. but God has brought us together through Christ, brought us together with Him. He's reconciled us, so we respond to Christ's sanctifying grace because of the peace that comes from Christ alone. He's the Sar Shalom from Isaiah chapter nine, the Prince of Peace, and He brings peace. So responding to love, to loving, to the love of Christ, we now love Him in godly fear. Because Romans 5.1 says, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Not because I justified myself by my works, but God has justified me because, and justified you because, you believe in Christ. And because of that, we respond in love and godly fear. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore now having peace with God, we respond in love and godly fear to the love that he has shown me through Christ, shown you through Christ, that we might bring peace to others when God's peace is settled upon our lives. And then we may be those who are extremely blessed. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the peacemakers in Matthew 5 and verse 9. For they shall be called sons of God, children of God, because everything of the gospel is designed to make you more like Jesus Christ. And that's even from Bildad, if you will, like Balaam of old, who was a false prophet and out of greed went to Balak and prophesied by God's grace four times of his blessings upon God's people. And here's Bildad, thinking Job is at ruin and yet brings such astounding truth of the cross of Jesus Christ in Job chapter 25, that how could you not cling? to that old rugged cross. How could you not seeing the love of God in Christ and responding in joy and having peace with God that's filled with godly fear. Reverence, this godly fear is such that I want to please him, but I know that all the work that I do will never amount to what Christ has done. But I'm gonna do it for his honor and for his glory. and sing such things as we'll sing in a moment. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left this crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Seems like what we sang just a moment before we heard this message. Oh, Isaac Watts, many years ago, repenting over 700 hymns. Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he forsake the sacred head for such a worm as I am? I'm glad they didn't change the word on that one because they did on the more modern bouncy version at the cross. To sinners such as I, to worm, to save such a worm as I. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, The blessed truth of who you are and what you've done is glorious. You've allowed me to talk about it for the last 45 minutes and I cannot do it justice. But your Holy Spirit can minister unto our souls its truth. And it is the greatest truth. There's nothing that should not spring forth from it. Everything should spring forth in the Christian's life. from the truth of Christ and Him crucified. That is what we must cling to, the old rugged cross. The truth that you paid it all, all, and unto you we owe. So we ask you to cleanse us from this crimson stain each time we sully and soil our lives. But it's an opportunity to look at you that there's nothing greater than leaning upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is life. That is eternal life. We love you and thank you Lord Jesus. In your name we do pray. Amen.