teen from your spiral gospel hymns, hymnal number 18. Let's all stand together.

God gave his holy inspired word for only one great end, the prophets and apostles to reveal the sinner's friend. The Bible is a book of Christ, it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ, it only speaks of Him.

The prophecies of old report God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace set forth a woman see. The Bible is a book of Christ, it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ, it only speaks of Him.

The prophets all reveal our Lord as prophet, priest, and king. The types of great redemption show Christ's blood and grace now bring. Bible is a book of Christ it only speaks of him on every page it shows us Christ it only speaks of him behold the lamb the baptist said the sin atoning one as it was promised long before god's son as man has come The Bible is a book of Christ, it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ, it only speaks of Him.

Our substitute obeyed the law, then died and rose again. And in his word our Savior said, Rejoice, I come again. The Bible is a book of Christ. It only speaks of him. On every page, it shows us Christ. It only speaks of him.

Please be seated. Good evening. I love that hymn. And I do hope and pray the Lord will reveal Christ to our hearts tonight as we open his word.

I'd like to ask you if you will turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 62. Psalm 62, a Psalm of David. We see the Lord Jesus in this whole Psalm.

Truly, my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock. He only is my salvation. He only is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. How long will you imagine mischief against a man? David speaking to those who would trust their own righteousness and take Christ down off of his throne.

How long will you imagine, and that's all it is, it's just an imagination, you shall be slain, all of you, And one of the reasons I wanted to read this psalm is because of this verse, speaking of a bowing wall and as a tottering fence. The imagery here is that of a wall that's about to fall.

They only consult to cast him down from his excellency. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth. but they curse inwardly, Selah. How true that is of so many who would say Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is the Son of God, and yet they deny him his glory and salvation and take to themselves the power of salvation in their own will and in their own works.

As for my soul, I wait only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us."

And we see in these first verses not only the voice of faith as it stands in contrast to those who would trust in works, But we see the voice of Christ, and now he's calling his children to join him. We see how the Lord is expressing his hope in his heavenly father. And now he calls upon us.

Surely, verse nine, men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery. If riches increased, set not your heart upon them. God has spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. for thou renderest to every man according to his work. Let's pray.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding us by these words that all of our righteousness is to be found in Christ. that left ourselves, we would be but a bowing wall and a tottering fence, whether of low degree or high degree. Lord, we are lighter than vanity. We pray that you would reveal Christ to our hearts. We asked Lord for your Holy Spirit to give us faith. that we would find our rest, our comfort, our hope, all of our salvation in his glorious person and in the accomplished work that he performed at Calvary's Cross.

Lord, we pray for the members of our family that are sick and remember Don and Mary and Remember Jeanette, and Lord, you know our every need. You've told us, Lord, to pray for one another. Lord, how needy we are and how hopeful we are, Lord, that you'd be pleased to place your hand of strength and healing, both spiritually and physically. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Number 42 in the hardback teminal. Let's all stand together.

42. ? All hail the power of Jesus' name ? Let angels prostrate fall ? Bring forth the royal diadem ? And crown him Lord of all ? Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all.

Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, ye ransomed from the fall. Hail him who saves you. by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all.

Let every kindred, every tribe, Hond this terrestrial ball. To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all.

? So that with yonder sacred throng ? ? We at his feet may fall ? ? We'll join the everlasting song ? ? And crown him Lord of all ? ? We'll join the everlasting song ? and crown Him Lord of all.

Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to the book of Amos, chapter 7. Amos, chapter 7.

psalm that we just read is such a clear description of what we would do by nature. Take Christ down from his lofty throne and set ourselves up there in his place. And the Lord likens the natural man to a a bowing wall. A wall, as Zachariah says, has been has been daubed with untried mortar. It's a wall that men lean upon for safety, but in the wrath of God it falls.

One of the many figures that the Lord uses in his word to describe and to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ is that of a plumb line, a plumb line. If you're gonna build a wall straight, you need to use plumb line.

In Amos chapter seven, at beginning of verse seven, thus he showed me. and how hopeful we are that the Lord will show us. Thus he showed me, and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line with a plumb line in his hand. I've titled this message, Christ, Our Plumb Line.

A plumb line is an old tool. I don't know how far it goes back. Sure, a long way before the time of Amos. Men figured out that gravity was reliable. It was consistent. The plumb line always was true. It always was true.

I remember in 1999, when we were building our first building. None of us knew how to lay blocks, so we found a block mason who was willing to work on the weekends. And he charged us a dollar a block. I think his name was Tom. He was short and stocky and had a great big beard, and he carried four blocks at a time and worked by himself. A couple of days he brought a helper with him, but most of the time he was out there by himself laying block. And he used a plumb line. I watched him. He was old school. And when the inspector, the building inspector, came to check his work, he left a plumb line hanging on the corner of the building. And I was there when the building inspector came. And the building inspector said, who laid your block? And I told him. He said, I've never seen block laid like this before. He said, this is perfect. I said, well, the man used a plumb line. There it is right there. He said, well, that made the difference.

What a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was always true, always consistent. And I don't know what the tolerance of error would have been for our inspector. Half inch on a 10-foot wall, an inch, I don't know. Far as I could tell, that plumb line was straight up and down on those block. But I know this, that when the Lord uses a plumb line to illustrate for us and reveal to us the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is saying to us, this is the standard by which all will be tested. And there will be no variance or tolerance. It'll have to be exact to this plumb line or it's a bowing wall and a tottering fence.

How can that be? Oh, how I must be found in him, how he must give to me his righteousness, how he must stand in my stead before God. and how much he must deliver me from myself, lest, like those that we just read about in Psalm 62, we find ourselves trusting in our own righteousness and taking Christ down off of that lofty place.

One more quick illustration. I was helping a guy build a house down in the Virgin Islands one time. And we had a nice level, but we had dropped it off the mountain and basically destroyed it. And we were on a small private island and didn't have access to tools. And we had to set a beam over a 20-foot span. And so I got on the roof of the house, and we set that beam to the horizon of the ocean. came back later with a plumb line and a level and checked it and it was perfect. It was perfect. The level of the ocean is always exact. The test of gravity is always exact.

And so here we have a picture of the Lord holding a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, verse eight, what seest thou? And I said, a plumb line. Then said the Lord, behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people, Israel, and I will not again pass by them anymore.

Now, Amos is going to bring a message of judgment against the northern kingdom, against Israel. Amos is from the south, but he's prophesying against the north. And they're going to be carried off into captivity because they denied Christ as their plumb line. And they went about to establish their own righteousness. And they set up in Bethel. They set up in the city of Bethel places of pagan worship, where they bowed to golden calves and other idols that they had made for themselves. and the high places of Isaac, verse nine, shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. I'm gonna bring the sword of my justice against Jeroboam and against his household and against all of Israel.

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, and here we have a prophet, who's saying peace, peace, when there is no peace. And he sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear his words. If you've ever had an opportunity to talk to your friends and family members about the perfection that God requires, and that God has provided in his plumb line, the Lord Jesus, and that there is salvation in none other, and that men left to themselves are dead in their trespasses and sins. They are but bowing walls and tottering fences, and that God has set a plumb line, and he's not going to deviate. He's not going to move that plumb line. He's not going to change it. It must measure perfect to his plumb line.

You know a little bit about what Amaziah is saying to Jeroboam. He's conspiring against us. We cannot bear his words anymore. Isn't that what the unbeliever says about the gospel? You're conspiring against them. You're just being mean-spirited. You're just being narrow-minded. We all worship the same God. And they won't bear your words. They won't bear the word of God.

For thus saith Amos, This is what Amos said, Jeroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. And Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go flee thee away into the land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesy there. Go back home. He didn't call him a prophet, he called him a seer. Sometimes prophets are referred to as seers in the scriptures, but a seer can be something other than a prophet. A seer can be one who has received their visions from some other spirit than the Holy Spirit. And so he's accusing Amos of being a seer. Go home. Go back to the land of Judah.

And verse 13, but prophesy not against any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel. It's his sanctuary and it's the king's court. It's his house. Bethel, the house of God. They're using the name of Jehovah. They've kept a lot of the, practices that God had given the children of Israel to do in worship and making sacrifices. But they've mixed, they've mixed the religion of Israel with the pagan worshipers. And Amaziah is saying, Bethel, this is the king's chapel. This is his sanctuary. And this is his court, this is his home. Go away, we don't want you here anymore. Be quiet.

Brethren, here's the difference between faith and unbelief. We're here tonight because we want to hear what God has to say. We want to hear what God has to say. We want to be found not having our own righteousness which is by the law, but that righteousness which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we want to be found in him. We want to be reminded and believe that left to ourselves, tested by the plumb line that God holds in his hand, we are a wall put together with undubbed mortar. We are a wall.

It goes back to Bethel, doesn't it? Not to Bethel, to Babel. When the people said, let us make for ourselves a city and a tower that will reach up into the heavens. And what did they have? They had brick for stone and slime for mortar. And they tried to build a city to reach heaven. That's just what man-made religion is. They have the bricks are the works of your own hand. The Lord said, if you're gonna make an altar, make it with stone that has never had a man's hand put to it. And don't put your tool to the stone. Don't try to dress it up because as soon as you touch it, you defile it.

But Babel was a city and a tower built with bricks made by the hands of men. and they had mortar, they had slime for mortar. And that's the same thing that Noah used to cover the ark. It's the pitch that Noah used for covering the ark. And it's the same word for atonement. It's the covering. And in Babel, what do we have? Babel goes all the way through the Bible, all the way to the book of Revelation. And you have the death of Babylon in the book of Revelation. It's man-made religion. It's bricks for stone. It's the atonement. We're trying to hold together, trying to hold together what man has fashioned with his hands with the work of Christ. We're doing just like the children of Israel did. Mixing works with grace. And if it is of grace, it can no longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace. It has to be all of God.

And we want to hear this. And we want to be told this. We want to be able to see where we have put our hand to the work. And we want to take our hand back. This is the difference between faith and unbelief. The unbeliever is offended when they are told that their hands have defiled the sacrifice. The believer rejoices in knowing that I have a sacrifice that's undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. I have the Lord Jesus Christ as my plumb line before God. That's what I want to hear, and that's who I want to know.

Because God said, I'm going to put all the works of man to the test. I'm going to put them to the test. And the standard is going to be the plumb line. And the plumb line always, men, you know, You have to wait for the plumb line to settle down, don't you? You ever use a plumb line before? It'll swing for a while. And it takes a few minutes before that thing stops. You'll be patient and wait for it. Men put their hands to the plumb line. Just wait. It'll always settle back to the same position. And it'll show a perfect line. Perfect line to heaven. God's got the plumb line in his hand. And Amaziah, and all the priests of Bethel, and the king of Israel, Jeroboam, they don't want to hear these things. Go away. We find comfort in our works. We've made a covenant with death.

Turn with me before we read any more in Amos. Hold your finger there and turn back with me to Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah chapter 28. Verse 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people, which is in Jerusalem. Because you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are in agreement, and with the overflowing, and when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in our falsehoods we have hid ourselves. Take that plumb line away. We've made our works, and our will, and our doings, and the works of our hands and the bricks that we have fashioned. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And he that believeth shall not make haste, Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. A plummet is a plumb line.

Now here, the Lord is reminding us, those who trust in their own righteousness, those who think that they've made a covenant with death, those who are trusting in the promises that they've made for their salvation, and not looking to Christ alone for all their righteousness before God, I'm going to put a plum to, I'm going to put it to the plummet. You say we're going to stand. No, you're going to be a, you're going to be a Boeing wall. It's not going to, it's not going to stand to the plum line and hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the water shall overflow the hiding place and your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall not stand. when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down."

This imagery that God has given to us of Christ, it's so simple. It's so clear. It's Christ. He's the righteousness. He's the standard. And in order for me to To not be found wanting, I've got to have my sin put on him. And I've got to have his righteousness given to me.

Sometimes I have people ask me about our church. Matter of fact, talked to a man yesterday in another city on the phone. He had asked me about the gospel, and I shared some things with him, and I've been sending him stuff and encouraged him to listen. And he told me yesterday, he said, well, I found a church, and they believe the Bible. And he told me about the church, and I warned him.

But people want to know, how do I decide what church to go to? Go to the church that's got a plumb line hanging on the wall. Go to the church where it's not men's attempt to keep the law that becomes the standard. It's not the elder that becomes the standard. It's not this person or that person or this work or that work. It's Christ. Christ is the standard. He's the plumb line. Everything is judged and tested by him. It's not a confession, it's not a creed, it's Christ.

You have your Bibles open to Isaiah 28, turn back with me just a page or two to Isaiah 26, because there's another figure that the Lord uses for his church. And that is that of a building and a walled city. And we don't wall our cities today. But back in the day, the city was walled with bulwarks and towers and guard stations to protect the inhabitants of the city from invaders. And in Isaiah chapter 26, the Lord likens his church, look, in verse one, in that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. We have a strong city. God has made the salvation, the work of Christ, the wall around our city. This is the city of Jerusalem. And now the Lord is going to go on to speak of the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven. And you remember, that in the book of Revelation, that New Jerusalem was exactly the same cubits wide and long and high. It was a cube. It's the perfect measurement. And here we go back to the plumb line. God is measuring everything by Christ and everything will fit into that perfect standard, to that perfect righteousness.

Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. What are we doing to keep the truth? We're holding up Christ. We're not taking him down off his throne as David revealed in Psalm 62. We're not trusting in the works of our hands. We're keeping the truth. We're holding up the gospel. We're looking to Christ, we're waiting on him. He's that new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven.

That will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Here's where we have our peace. Peace of mind, peace of heart, peace with God, rest. When? When we're able to look to Christ and know that God has built a wall around the city of Jerusalem. And that wall is perfect. And that bulwark and that wall is our salvation. And it has been put to the plumb line. And it's perfect.

Show you a verse in the Song of Solomon. This is wonderful. Song of Solomon, verse two, chapter two, I'm sorry. Look at verse eight, Song of Solomon, chapter two. The voice of my beloved, behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. Oh, all the little hills that make up the mountain of God. Another picture of the church. My beloved is like a row or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our wall. He looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.

Now here the Lord is using our flesh as this wall and he's saying that the Lord Jesus looks through the lattice and reveals himself in part. We look in part now, we see him in part. We look through a glass, darkly, but then in that day when the new Jerusalem comes down, And we see him as he is. And the bridegroom has made herself ready for the bride. How has she made herself ready? She's resting in Christ. She's looking to Christ. She's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made her ready. He has dressed her in the robe of righteousness. And tested by that plumb line, She's perfect. She's perfect.

Hebrews chapter 11 says, Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations. And we just read in Isaiah chapter 28 that Christ is that tried stone that God has built his church on. He is the foundation stone. And when we see the new Jerusalem coming down in the book of Revelation, the city of Jerusalem is made on 12 foundations. And what is that a picture of? It's a picture of the 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and the 12 apostles in the New Testament. It's the revelation of Christ.

We began the service tonight, Tom, with the Bible is a book of Christ. And so the new Jerusalem is built. That's the city that Abraham was looking for, which hath foundations. We have God's word. We want to hear God's word. We want to know that Christ is all that God requires. Because he's all we have. He's all we have. We've got no place else to go. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder And I understand that to be architect, designer, and maker is God. The one who designed the city, the one who built the city, the one who put it all together, the one who laid the foundation, the one who built the walls. This is not man's building of Babel.

The other thing we see at Babel is the confusion, the confusion of languages and how appropriate that is in what we see today in man-made religion. And nobody can understand one another, but we understand. We speak in an unknown language, an unknown tongue. It's clear to us, Christ is all, and he's in all. God holding a plumb line. So we look for that city. Zechariah chapter two, the scripture says that the Lord himself is a wall of fire around the city. A wall of fire.

Turn me to Zechariah chapter four. Zerubbabel, he was the son of Jeroboam, the last king of Judah, but he was born in Babylon. And now 70 years have passed in Babylon, and the descendant of the last king, is bringing the children of Israel back to rebuild the city, reset the gates, rebuild the walls, and reestablish the worship of Jehovah in the temple in Jerusalem. Zerubbabel's name translated means sown in Babylon or born in Babylon. This world is Babylon through and through. Started with the Tower of Babel, it's children of Israel were spent 70 years in Babylon. We spend our life living in Babylon and we rejoice in knowing that one day all the efforts of man to dethrone God and to establish for themselves a righteousness will be judged by the plumb line. and that only those who are found in Christ will be allowed into that new Jerusalem. And so Zerubbabel now is bringing them back. Look at Zechariah chapter four. Who art thou, O great mountain? Now there was a lot of objections by the Samaritans and by other tribes that Ezra and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel had to defend the things of God against these naysayers. And now the Lord is likening those things to mountains or obstructions. And so the Lord says, who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain. and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, saying, grace, grace unto it."

What does this plumb line say to us? That if we're going to be saved, it's going to have to be by God's grace. We cannot be saved by our works. That's what the world's trying to do. There's a way that seems right unto man, but in the end that way leads to death. Men go about trying to establish their own righteousness. Men deny the truthfulness of that plumb line. That plumb line exposes us for what we are. And we want to be exposed. We don't want to say it's a conspiracy. We can't bear these words. No, we love God's word and we love being exposed as sinners that we are. That our salvation would be all to his glory and all of grace. Grace, grace unto it.

Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands also shall finish it. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. For who has despised the day of small things?" See, the king and the prophets of Bethel and all the powerful people of Israel Didn't wanna hear Amos. Amos goes on, we didn't finish what Amos said there in chapter seven, but Amos goes on to say, I'm not a prophet, neither I'm the son of a prophet. See, I'm just a farmer. But God has given me a message. And this is the message. There's a plumb line. If we're gonna be saved. we're gonna have to measure up to the perfection of that plumb line.

And who shall despise the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. We rejoice that God has in his hand a plumb line. That plumb line shows us what God requires, absolute perfection. That plumb line exposes us for what we are, sinners, unable to save ourselves. And we rejoice that Zerubbabel has laid the foundation and Zerubbabel will finish the work. He that began a good work in you will complete it. He will finish it to the day of Jesus Christ. There's our hope.

Believers in the Bible are called lively stones, living stones, built on the one foundation. Just a little stone here, a little stone there, but built together into what Peter calls a spiritual house. a spiritual house. This is a house that cannot be seen with the physical eye. We cannot look at our lives and our performance and our church because the world would say, this is a small thing you guys get going on here. This is a really small thing. Don't despise the day of small things. God's gonna lay the plummet to all those churches and all those individuals that are but bowing walls. All those that have built their towers of Babel that are gonna fall. All those cities of Jericho are gonna come tumbling down when the trumpet of God sounds and the dead in Christ are raised and those of us which are alive be caught up together with them in the air. And our plumb line, our plumb line will be our righteousness. And we'll rejoice that our salvation is all of grace. It's all of grace, not of works of righteousness, which we have done, but by his mercy, he has saved us.

Our heavenly father, thank you for the simple picture of a plumb line. Thank you for the perfect wall that you have built. Lord, we look through a glass darkly. We see you peering upon us through the wall of a lattice. Lord, what a glorious day that'll be when we see the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Perfect. Perfect. and how we long for that day of perfection.

Bless your word. Remind us what you've taught us. And Lord, by your spirit, we pray that you would bring these things to our memory and cause us to recall and rejoice in them. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.

Number 24, in this Bible hymnal, let's stand together.

Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. We love to call you by that name, our Savior Christ Jesus. Jehovah Sidkenu, the God-man live for us bringing eternal righteousness which God imputes to us Jehovah said can you substitute who died your blood has put away our sin and we are justified Jehovah said your love has won our praise trusting your blood and righteousness we're saved by your free grace Jehovah said

? We stand in you alone ?
Our only fitness before God ?
Is in our Lord his Son ?
Jehovah Sidkenu ?
The Lord our righteousness ?
Christ Jesus