Morning again. Reynaldo and Laura's
daughter, Daniela, is going to get married in Atlanta next Sunday,
and she's asked me to come up and do her wedding, so we will
not be here next Sunday. Caleb, where's Caleb? And Robert will be bringing the
messages next Sunday. We're gonna go up a few days
early and try to see some fall colors. So Wednesday night, Adam
Clark will be bringing the message. So pray for these men and pray
for us. We'll miss you. We'll see you
back the next Wednesday night. Okay. In Judah, and that's where we
are right now, is God knows. His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle
and his dwelling place is in Zion. Judah, Salem, Zion, Israel, that's
where we are. There, there break he the arrows
of the bow, the shield and the sword and the battle. This is the place where God causes
his people to put down their weapons of rebellion and bow
in worship to him. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Christ is all in all. Let's stand together, Tom. When is it Christians all agree
and let distinctions fall? When nothing in themselves they
see, that Christ is all in all, that Christ is all in all. But strife and difference will
subsist, while men will something see. Let them but singly look
to Christ, and all are one in Him, and all are one in Him. The infant and the aged saint,
the worker and the weak. They who are strong and seldom
faint, and they who scarce can speak, and they who scarce Eternal life's the gift of God,
it comes through Christ alone. Tis His, He bought it with His
blood, and therefore gives His own, and therefore gives His
own. We have no life, no power, no
faith, but what by Christ is given. We all deserve eternal
death, and thus we all are even. And thus we all are even. Please be seated. For God's call to worship, please
turn with me to 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. 1 Corinthians, chapter
13. I tell you, I cannot say that
standing up here is very overwhelming, and how I've pleaded with God
that he would tell me what to read, because that's-that I not
try to do this in my own power, because I'm incapable. In verse
7 it says, Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things. Charity, or love, never faileth. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they
shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophecy
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, when Christ comes a second time, then that which is in part
shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as
a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith,
hope, charity, and these three, but the greatest of these is
charity, our love. I had the great blessing this
week. They say there's no greater joy in heaven than the passing
of the saints. the passing of our sister. And
all week I kept thinking about the words of John Newton about
dying. Please forgive me, but I'd like
to speak to you. Mr. Newton said, we are pilgrims
in this world. This is not our home. We're soldiers. We're just passing through. And
the Lord is pleased to give us three things to help us in our
journey, faith, Hope and love. He has given his people faith,
the faith to believe God. We believe what God says. There's
things in this word I cannot explain and I don't understand,
but I believe them. I'll believe them if God enables
me to my death. A hope. God has enabled by his
spirit to cast all my hope in Christ. Our sister did that.
And anytime that hope wanders outside, to crush my rebellion. That's the only hope we have.
I always love what Brother Greg said. Christ has either done
all of our salvation or he's not done it at all. And love. He's given us a love for Christ,
a love for his gospel, and a love for one another. I saw this clearly
in our sister. Mr. Newton said also, the day
will come when this old flesh is gonna die. And our sister
knows this now what we hope for. And that's when we enter into
the door of glory and faith says, I stop right here. You no longer
walk by faith, you will now walk by sight. You will be living
in the presence of God Almighty for eternity. And hope, hope
says, I also stop. For your hope is now your reality. And then we will see clearly,
no longer darkly. And love, love will say, let
us go in together. Our sister can do something now
that you and I cannot do. Her flesh has died and now she's
able to do, keep God's commandment of loving the Lord Jesus Christ
with all her heart, all her mind, and all her soul. That's something
we hope for now by faith. But now she's experiencing that
and rejoicing in that. I said, she knows something that
we hope to know. And that is, we believe it, but
yet we see it dimly. She knows what Paul meant when
Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Gain. Her death is gain. And we're so thankful for her,
but oh, I'll speak for me. I'm so jealous of her and look
forward to that day when we can join her. And I'll close with
one thought. I had this. I said, we do love each other. That's
only by God's grace that we can do those things. But how often
we've wanted to say, I can speak for me, you've wanted to tell
somebody, I love you. But you don't because I thought,
well, they don't hear it. That creepy old man said he loved
me. I don't know. I don't feel good here. This
gives me the creeps. But we do love each other. We
do love each other. And only God can give us that.
That's why it's such a great joy to be here. I hope we're
as thankful as we ought to be, or try to be. Let us try to go
to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we confess in ourselves,
that is our flesh, there is no good thing. We have no power. Lord, we are totally dependent
on you for life, all things. We can't even pray, Lord, unless
you enable us. We've gathered today and we're
thankful, Lord, that you've given us the faith to know that you
are here as you have promised to be. And we ask, Lord, that
you would speak to our hearts this morning how we want and
need to hear from you. We pray for our brother that
you have sent and we're thankful for him and Trish. And we pray
that you would bless them and encourage them. You would speak
through him this morning. Give him freedom, Lord. And as
your people, Lord, oh, unstop our ears and let us cast aside
the things of this world that we may hear this morning. And
Lord, by your spirit, you give us the faith to believe. Lord, we look hope. We hope to
that day when you call us home and we will be with you in eternity.
We ask that you keep us until that day. We ask that Christ
take this prayer and he make it acceptable to God, the father. Amen. Number 168 from the hardback
teminal. 168. Let's all stand once again. 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. ? Pass me not, O tender Savior
? Let me love and cling to Thee ? I am longing for Thy favor
? Whilst Thou art calling, O call me ? Even me Even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. ? Pass me not, O mighty Spirit
? Thou canst make the blind to see ? Witnesser of Jesus' merit
? Speak the word of power to me, even me ? Even me ? Let thy blessing fall
on me ? Love of God so pure and changeless ? Blood of Christ
so rich and free ? Grace of God so strong and boundless ? Magnify
them all in me ? Even me, even me ? Let thy blessing fall on
me ? Pass me not thy lost one bringing ? Bind my heart, O Lord,
to thee ? While the streams of life Please be seated. Believers can sing that hymn
with some understanding. Lord, would you be pleased to
have mercy on somebody like me? The world believes that God is obligated
to bless. They really do. God's obligated. God's not obligated
to do anything. Will you open your Bibles with
me please to Psalm 97, I'm sorry, Malachi chapter 1. Actually I
thought about trying to finish the message from the first hour
but the Lord has given me a message from Malachi chapter 1 and I
think that we'll go back to Psalm 97 another day. I've titled this message and
you'll find the title in verse 9 And now I pray you, beseech
God. That word beseech means to seek
the face of. So what the Lord is telling us
in light of this passage of scripture, he's saying, I beseech you, seek
the face of God that he might be gracious to us. That's what
we're in need of. We're in need of God's grace. And we know that the world talks
about grace. Generally what they mean is we're
a gracious people and we tolerate anything. Just come on in and
enjoy, you know, time with us. That's what most people think
about grace. We understand that the grace
of God is absolutely free. There's nothing in human power
or in human will that can cause the grace of God. The grace of
God comes from itself and it returns glory back to itself. God's grace is completely free. Nothing we can do to merit it.
Nothing we can do to earn it. And there's no amount, get this,
no amount of unworthiness that can hinder it. Ain't that glorious? No amount, sinner, of your unworthiness
can hinder the grace of God. It's free. It's free. It's like the sun. It's like the wind. It's like
the rain. You didn't do anything to cause
it. You can't stop it. It's completely controlled by
God. It's free and it's sovereign. He will have mercy upon whom
he will have mercy. That's why we're always mercy
beggars, aren't we? Give me grace to seek thy face
that you would be gracious to me. The benefits of grace always
go back to God. Always give him the glory. Now. We're going to back up to
Malachi chapter one at verse 6. And I want to remind you. That all scripture. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and all scripture is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. Now, clearly, this passage of
scripture that we're about to consider exposes the popular
message of man-made free will works religion. And the Lord
makes it clear that that is an abomination to him. But our intention
this morning is not to sit here and point our finger to the free
will, works, self-righteous religionist and fail to benefit from this
passage of scripture for us. Just like we're not pointing
our finger to the godless multitude and setting ourselves up over
them, We're not here to just make application of this scripture
to the religious world. It is profitable for us. It would
be a reproof and it will be a correction, but our hope is that it will
result in us being thoroughly furnished by the grace of God. All things necessary for our
salvation. Now, if there is someone holding
to that freewill religion for the hope of their salvation,
I pray the Lord will strip them of those fig leaves and will
clothe them in the Lamb's robe of righteousness. I pray that
the Lord will take this passage of scripture and apply it to
your hearts. There is a word of warning and
admonishment to each of us exposing the Pharisee within our hearts
that man of the flesh which is prone to flirt with and glorify
in something other than the Lord Jesus Christ. We sang that hymn a few moments
ago, Christ is all in all. That would be a good title for
this message. Christ is all. How often we need to be reminded
of that. How often we lose sight of the
fact that all the hope of our salvation is in Him. He is all
and He is in all. How frequent the man of the flesh
rears his ugly head and tempts us to look away from the Lord
Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord will take
this passage of scripture and teach us, convict us, rebuke
us, and cause us to find all our hope, all our hope in Christ. All offerings made to God without
an eye to Christ are polluted and blemished. The Lord makes
it clear that whatever is not of faith is sin. Faith means
that we're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as the author and
the finisher of faith. That passage in Hebrews, I've
quoted before, I said Jesus is the author and finisher of our
faith. The word our is not in there. He's the author and finisher
of faith. All faith, He's the author of it. All faith, He's
the finisher of it. In other words, Faith begins
with him and ends with him. Just like grace comes from itself
and back to itself, so does the glory of God through faith. But
how much unbelief remains in our hearts? We can identify very
well with that man that said, oh Lord, I believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. Lord, I'm so prone to look away
from Christ. I'm so prone to attempt to make
an offer to you without an eye to Christ, without looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ for my all in all, without trusting
him for all my righteousness. Lord, we're much more concerned
about the Pharisee in here than we are at the one out there,
aren't we? how prone we are to want the
right hand to know what the left hand is doing. You got that problem? Want somebody
to know something good you've done? This is what this, let's
read it together. Verse 6, a son honoreth his father,
and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honor? How often we dishonor our Heavenly
Father. And if I be a master, where is
my fear? How often we fail to fear God
as we ought. We've never feared Him as we
ought. Sayeth the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest, Now the scripture
makes it clear that the church is a kingdom of priests. God and John tells us in Revelation
that God has made us unto our God priests and kings. We believe in the priesthood
of the believer. We believe that we are all priests
and we have one great high priest. And we're able to enter into
the presence of God by Him. We don't need another man to
represent us before God. That's blasphemous. So the Lord's
speaking to His people here. He's speaking to those whom He
has made to be priests. I know, as I said, this exposes
the blasphemy of self-righteous, free will, works religion. Yes, it does. But it also exposes
the dishonor that's in my own heart when I fail to worship
God as I ought. And that's always the case, isn't
it? Who of us can say, well, I worship
God like I was supposed to? No, that's the hope of glory,
isn't it? That one day we'll be able to
worship him in the fullness of his glory, but now we're struggling
with this old man. We're not able to be what we
ought to be. Somebody said, well, if I believed
what you believed, I'd live like I want. You know what the believer's
response to that statement is? I wish I could live like I want.
Oh, I wish I could live like I want. One day I will. to will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good I find not. O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus I am free. There is now
therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Christ
is my all before God. If God's judging me based on
what's in this man, The Lord saying to his priest.
If I'm your father, where's my honor? If I'm your master, where's
my fear? Oh Lord, enable us to honor you
more. Enable us to come before you
and in a greater understanding of reverence and fear for God. Or grow us in your grace and
in the knowledge of Christ. Lord, this is for me. This is
for me. Look, and you say, where it is
we've despised thy name. You offer polluted bread upon
my altar. And the word bread is not just
used for a loaf of bread. It's used in the Bible to speak
of all the offerings and all the meats and all the food. It
just, you can replace that word bread with food. So whether it
was a meat offering or water offering or bread offering or,
or grain offering, it was all called bread. And so God says,
you've polluted my altar. You've brought something into
my presence without a clear eye to Christ. And you say where, and if we
polluted it. in that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible. Child of God, how much of our
worship is half-hearted? Do we not pollute the presence
of God when we come half-hearted? How much of our prayers are lazy
and insincere. Now the point that I'm making
is not to try to bolster your resolve to be more fully hearted
and more sincere in your prayers, but to see that our acts of worship
are infected with our flesh and we cannot come into the presence
of God based on them. We cannot present our most sincere
prayer. We cannot present our most committed
moment of worship to God for the hope of our standing. Christ
is all. Let the world pollute the altar
of God proudly. We do it shamefully. How much of our offerings to
God are really just leftovers. Scripture says we're to bring
our first fruits. We give God our leftovers, don't
we? We give our best to the flesh and then we give God what's leftover.
Oh, how much of our service is done
for the praise of man? How does our love for God and
others compare to our love for ourselves? Can you identify? This scripture's
for us. Lord, I would not dare come into
your presence based on anything that I'm able to do because what
I do is fraught with my sin. I need a righteousness before
God that's perfect. I need an advocate. I need someone
to bear my sin and present himself on my behalf or I would never
come into the presence of God. All I'm able to do is pollute
the altar of God with what I bring. How does our need for spiritual
food compare to our need for physical food? Well, if we were as concerned
and passionate about eating spiritually as we are eating physically,
we'd, you know. If I'm your father, where's my
honor? If I'm your master, where's my fear? You polluted my altar.
See, that's all we can do as sinners is pollute the altar
of God. Christ is the only one. that
was able to put his blood on that mercy seat. We can't put
our blood there. Remember how much blood we shed
in sacrifice to God. The Lord's not going to say I'll
meet you there. No, but he said it of Christ, that lamb that
was without blemish, without spot, that perfect lamb of God. He put his blood on the mercy
seat and God said, that's where I'm going to meet you. How often do we set our affections
on things of the earth rather than the things above? How much stronger in our hearts
is fear than faith? How often we concern ourselves
with the praise of men over the praise of God, how strong How
strong in our experience is the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life? You see, you and I are polluted,
aren't we? We really are. If we try to bring something
that we've touched into the presence of God for our acceptance before
God, And do we not make offerings? Do we not make prayers? Do we
not worship? Yes, but always with an eye to
the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness. Whatever is not
of faith is sin. How quick we are to trust in
our schemes and our strength rather than trusting in God.
Oh, what hypocrites we are. I had a dear sister say to me
recently, she said, you know, I feel like a hypocrite all the
time. I said, yeah, I'll try getting up here and preaching. It's true, isn't it? Those of
you that stand up here and speak for God, somebody like me, you
want to feel like a hypocrite. Why do we feel that way? Because
we are. Because we are. That's why we feel that way. Now, the religious world will
say, no, no, no, no, no, you know, discount those. No! It's
the truth of our sin that drives us to Christ. The old man shall serve the new
man. And the new man exposes the old
man. We didn't know we had an old
man until we got the new man. The new man reveals him for who
he is. Yes, this passage of scripture speaks from God's heart about
the abomination of man-made religion. But scripture, all scripture
given by inspiration of God is profitable. The problem is that
people in religion aren't even reading this. And if they read
it, they're certainly not going to apply it to themselves. Only
the child of God is able to make application by the grace of God,
of these truths to themselves. Lord, I'm the man, I'm the man. I'm the center have mercy upon
me. I need an offering that's unblemished.
I need an offering that's unpolluted. I need one outside of myself
to offer himself on my behalf. Look at verse 8. And if you offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Oh, we are blind by nature. We are sick by nature. The Lord's the only one that
has pure sight. He's the only one that's, that's whole, sinless,
undefiled and separate from sinners. And he's the only one that God,
the father satisfied with. Nothing we bring. Will be acceptable
to God. Outside of Christ. And when we do make our offerings,
whether it be prayers or gifts or worship or service. Everything's looking to him in
it. I have no hope in this. My hope is in Him. Look what the Lord says in the
middle part of verse 8. Offer it now unto thy governor.
Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the
Lord of hosts? Is God going to be pleased? Is
He going to accept our person based on something that we offer
Him outside of Christ? Is He? Oh. That's what the Lord
saying. To his priest, no. Knock on,
I'm not pleased with you. Except. When I give you by my
grace the faith to do what you do. Unto the glory of God. And now. The Lord has given you
ears to hear. If this makes any sense to you,
if this is your experience, if you can say with that Syrophoenician
woman, truth, Lord, truth, Lord, I'm a dog. Now I pray you beseech
the face of God. Oh, here's another place. How
many times we're more concerned with God's hand than we are his
face. And he said, Lord, I need you to stick your hand in here
and fix this. Without any real regard for seeing the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I want your hand. And here he's saying, I beseech
you if you understand how polluted your offerings are. and how dependent
you are on the only one able to make an offering that's acceptable
to God, then I beseech you, seek his face. Seek his face. His face is his person, his glory,
his accomplishments, his faithfulness before God, his love for his
people. That's his face. You know, he
took that blind man, he anointed his eyes. He said, can you see?
And he said, I see men as trees walking. And then he took him
by the cheeks and turned his face to the face of Christ. And
what'd he say? I see all things clearly. Lord,
if you enable me to look into your face, then everything's
clear. Everything's good. And the truth is I know that
your hand is involved in this, whatever it is. You're the one
that stirred it up, and you'll bring it to an end, and you've
ordained it. Lord, I need your face. And that's
what you and I need. We need the face of God. The
hand of God's already at work. And now, and now, right now,
Right now. You know, the Lord never said,
you know, you need to think about this. You need to just go home
and ponder this for a while and wait till you get something,
you know. No, now is the acceptable time. Truth is, you and I have never
done anything later. Ever. Now is the only time that anything
can be. It's the only time now. Now is the day, today is the
day of salvation. The Lord's calling on us right
now to seek his face, that we might have an offering that would
not be polluted, that would be acceptable in the sight of God. Light has shined in the darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. But the Lord who commanded
the light to shine has shined in our hearts to reveal the glory
of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says,
and now I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto
us. You need grace? If you say, well, I'll bring
my faith to God. Our faith, our faith is the result
and the evidence of our acceptance with God, not the cause of it. Now that's a huge difference.
So, well, I'll bring my faith. God, you know, the Bible says,
if you believe I'll save you. So that if is conditional, I've
got to do something in order for God to do what he wants to
do. No. Faith is the result of our salvation. It's the evidence of it. It's
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ that's the cause
of our salvation. Now we come before God by faith.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. For they that
come to him must believe that he is, and he's the rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. And whatever's not a faith
is sin, but that faith is a gift from God. We don't bring our
faith. We come in the one in whom our
faith is. the object of our faith, not
the... that's why the Lord said if you have faith as small as
a mustard seed you can say into this mountain be removed and
cast into the sea and it shall be. You see it's not the quality
of our faith, it's the object of our faith. The men look at
their faith as the, you know, I'm going to believe God, I'm
going to do this, I'm going to do that, what's God say? You polluted my altar. You brought contemptible bread
No, the only, there's only one thing doesn't pollute the altar
of God. Only one thing, only one thing he accepts the doing and dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's it. The perfect righteousness
and obedience, even unto death and the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, there's two covenants in
the Bible. There's covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
The covenant of works says, God says, if you'll believe, I'll
save you. And the covenant of grace says,
I'm going to save you and you're going to believe because I'm
going to make sure of it. Everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for on Calvary's cross will be given the gift
of faith by the Spirit of God, and they will believe on the
Lord. They will believe. That's grace. Lord, be gracious
to us. Give us faith. Give us Christ. looking in faith, trusting Christ
for all of our acceptance before God said, well, if I can be sorry
enough, then that'd be, you know, be sorry. And this don't misunderstand
what I've been trying to say here this morning. This message
is not for the purpose of making you feel down and out about yourself. And no, I've got, I'm going to
leave here. I'm just going to be dragging my feet and I'm going
to be feeling. And maybe God will accept me
because I'm going to be sorry. Nope. He won't. Your sorrow is not sorry enough.
Turn me to Psalm 38. Psalm 38. Psalm 38 is all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at verse 2. There is no
soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin. God made him who knew
no sin to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. There was an imputation, a transfer
if you will, crediting the Lord Jesus Christ
with the sins of all of his people and Christ owned them as his
own. So when he hung on Calvary's
cross and cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's
because of sin. Look at verse 4. For mine iniquities
have gone over my head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy for
me. If our sin did not become His, if you get punished for
someone else's sin, you might feel resentment for
that. or you might feel proud that
you were able to satisfy the law for someone else. But one
thing that you could never feel, because in your heart of hearts
it wasn't you, you could never feel guilt. You could never feel
sorrow. Now read on, look at verse 17,
for I, and this Christ is still speaking, for I am ready to halt
and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare
my iniquity and I will be sorry for my sin. Now that's the only
sorrow that God's pleased with. Don't think you're going to leave
here with, with, with, with, with just, you know, well, I'm
just a dead dog center and I'm so sorry. And if I'm just humble
enough and sorry enough, God will accept me. That is a polluted
offering. It is a polluted offering. There's a passage of scripture
that has bothered me for some time. I want to show it to you.
Um, turn me to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter chapter 5 first
let's look at a verse in Hebrews chapter 5 look at verse 7 speaking
of Christ who in the days of his flesh when he had offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death and he was heard
in that he feared God heard the prayers and sorrows
of the Lord Jesus Christ because he feared his father in perfect
faith. He made an offering that was
acceptable to God. If I be your father, where's
my honor? If I be your master, where's
my fear? Oh, you priest, you're offering
up polluted offerings. Christ's the only one that offered
an offering that wasn't polluted. His sorrow was complete. Ought
we to be sorry when we sin? Of course. Ought we to be convicted
of sin? Of course. But you know, unbelievers are
sorry for sin. Most of our sorrow is because
of the result of our sin, not because we've sinned against
God, but because we've had to suffer some consequence because
of it. Isn't that true? The Lord Jesus
Christ was the only one that offered up a sorrow to God that
was acceptable. He's the only one that offered
up a faith to God that was acceptable. Now, here's the verse that's
bothered me for a long time, and I hope it'll help you. Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 15. Looking diligently, lest any
man fall of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any
fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. He considered the birthright
contemptible. He was more concerned with feeding
his flesh than he was with feeding his soul. How often we've done
that? And here's the verse, for we
know how that afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing,
he was rejected for he found no place of repentance, though
he sought it carefully with tears. Has that verse ever bothered
you? You know why Esau found no place
of repentance because he was bringing his tears to God as
his offering. He found no place of repentance.
Now the word repentance means to have a changed mind. That's
what repentance means. And man by nature thinks, well,
if I'm sorry enough, I'm faithful enough, I do enough, God will
be obligated to accept me. And God says, you bring that,
you polluted the altar. You polluted the sacrifice. You've
got to have your mind changed. That your offerings and your
sacrifices and your doing all the way up to your dying is not acceptable on the side
of God. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
only acceptable offering. Esau thought, well, if I just
weep and wail enough, God will accept me. And he brought his
tears as his offering. The Lord Jesus Christ, on the
other hand, prayed with tears and sorrow, and he was accepted. because he feared God. How are we going to come to Christ?
How are we going to come to God? How can a man be right with God?
How can, how can I be accepted in the presence of God? Only
in the beloved. And he ends up getting all the
glory, doesn't he? He gets all the glory. And now I pray you, beseech God, seek the face of
God that he will be gracious unto us. For this has been by
your means, and that word means is hands. You've been bringing
your offering, stuff that you've been touching. Will he regard your person, saith
the Lord of hosts? No, he won't regard our person. I have no pleasure in you, verse
10, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from
the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, My
name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense
shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name
shall be great among the heathen saith the Lord of hosts. Our prayers, our offerings, our
worship, our service, whatsoever you do. Whether you eat, whether
you drink, whatsoever you do. Do it all. In the name. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing
that he's the only one. That makes offerings acceptable
to God. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for this word and we pray that you would make it profitable
to our hearts. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. 272, number 272, let's stand together.
? My hope is built on nothing less
? ? Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ? ? I dare not trust the sweetest
frame ? ? But wholly lean on Jesus' name ? ? On Christ the
solid rock I stand ? ? All other ground is sinking sand ? The
ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. Other ground
is sinking sand His oath, His covenant, His blood Support me
in the whelming flood When all around my soul gives way He then
is all my hope and stay On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other
ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. Okay.