Good morning again. Tom's going to come in a moment
and lead us in hymn number 103. One day, one day. Oh, what a
day that'll be. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace. and of supplication. And they
shall look upon him whom they have pierced. They shall mourn for him as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him
as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. The Lord calls
our hearts to mourn after Him, to desire Him more than anything
else, anything else. Number 103, let's stand together
one day. One day when heaven was filled
with His praises, one day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men, my
example is He. be dying he saved me buried he
carried my sins far away rising he justified freely forever one
day he's coming Oh glorious day One day they led Him up Calvary's
mountain, One day they nailed Him to die on the tree. Suffering anguish, despised and
rejected, Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He. Living, He loved
me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. One day they left Him alone in
the garden. One day He rested from suffering
free. Angels came down o'er His tomb
to keep vigil. Hope of the hopeless, my Savior
is He. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, a glorious
day. One day the grave could conceal
him no longer. One day the stone rolled away
from the door. Then he arose, his birth ended,
conquered. Now is ascended, my Lord, evermore. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming. One day the skies with His glory
will shine. Wonderful day His beloved ones
bringing. Glorious Savior, this Jesus is
mine. Living He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. Please be seated. Would you turn to the book of
Ruth to our call of worship? Ruth chapter two. This is a wonderful, wonderful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Clear, clear gospel passage. We're going to begin in verse
four. Ruth chapter two. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem
and said unto the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered
him, the Lord bless thee. Then said Boaz unto his servant
that was set over the reapers, whose damsel is this? And the
servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, it
is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi. out of
the country of Moab. And she said, I pray you, let
me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So
she came and hath continued even from the morning until now that
she tarried a little in the house. Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest
thou not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field,
neither go from hence, but abide here, fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field
that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged
the young men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou
art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young
men have drawn.' Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself
to the ground and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine
eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am
a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto
her, It hath fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto
thy mother-in-law since the death of thy husband. and how thou
hast left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy nativity
and art come unto a people which thou knowest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work
and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel under
those wings thou art come to trust. Then she said, let me
find favor in thy sight, my lord, for that thou hast comforted
me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thy handmaid, though
I be not like unto one of thine handmaids. And Boaz said unto
her, at mealtime, Come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip
thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers,
and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed,
and left. And when she was risen up to
glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even
among the sheaves, and reproach her not, and let fall also some
of the handfuls purposed for her and leave them that she may
glean them and rebuke her not. So she gleaned in the field until
even and beat out that she had gleaned and was about an ephah
of barley. I hope the Lord would enable
us to glean this morning from his table. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks again
for being merciful and gracious to purpose that we would be here
in this field this morning to glean, Lord, just the Quran from
thy table. Thankful for the picture of Boaz,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our true kinsman redeemer. How we ask
Lord, if you would set our hearts and affections now on thee, as
we ask that you would be merciful once again to turn us, to redeem
us to yourself. Bless the word you've given our
pastor and open up our hearts to receive it, Lord, that we
may see thee. and lift thee up. Oh, forgive us again for our
unbelief, our sins. Wash us in the precious blood
of our dear Savior and clothe us in his righteousness as we
seek to worship you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, again for this
day, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, let us
know Thee as the Lord our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now Thy precious
treasure, let Thy word hear Give to us a gracious measure,
Tis Thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. We have plenty of empty notions,
don't we? I was thinking about, as Bert
was reading from Ruth, what a contrast there was between Ruth leaving
Moab to come to Bethlehem and Naomi's husband, Elimelech, who
left Bethlehem to go to Moab. You read the beginning of the
book of Ruth, there was a man by the name of Elimelech, and
his wife's name was Naomi. And there was a famine. The economy wasn't going too
well in Bethlehem. And so he decided to move his
family to Moab, where he could do better financially. And Limelech
died in Moab, as did his two sons. Oh, don't leave Bethlehem. Don't leave the house of bread.
to go to Moab for financial gain. There's no bread there. No bread
there. And that illustration goes so
well with the message that I want to try to bring this morning.
If you'll open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter
12. As we've seen, we're going to
be in the book of Zechariah also, if you want to try to find that,
Zechariah chapter 6. But I want to read a couple of
verses in Hebrews chapter 12 by way of introduction. As we've
seen in the book of Zechariah, the children of Israel are coming
back from Babylon. You and I are Babylonians by
nature. And they are under the leadership
of Ezra and Nehemiah and Zechariah and Joshua. They are building
the temple of God. the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, where they might feast on the bread of life and worship
God in spirit and in truth. And I've titled this message,
The Temple of God. The Temple of God. It is the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 12, begin reading in verse 26. whose
voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying,
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more,
signifying the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, carnal things, earthly things, When
God speaks, those things that are fashioned by men will be
destroyed. That, those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. There's only one thing that's
going to last for eternity. That's Christ and His church,
His bride, His body. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is
a consuming fire. One thing that can't be moved,
one thing, the gospel of God's free grace among God's people. in God's temple, his church. Turn with me to Zechariah chapter
6. You remember last October the
10th of 2018, Hurricane Michael, category 5 hurricane with 160
mile an hour sustained winds, hit Mexico Beach, Florida, up in
the panhandle, not far from here. And devastated, devastated that
city. I mean, I saw pictures, aerial
pictures, I'm sure you did, of the beachline area after Michael
came through, and there was nothing. It was just sand dunes cleaned,
except that there was one house And they interviewed the guy.
Watch the interview. I don't know if you saw it. This guy had built a
steel and concrete fortress on the beach, right where the eye
of the hurricane came through. And it was the only thing standing
after all the devastation that took place. I thought, you know, there's
a storm coming. It's gonna make Hurricane Michael
look like a mild afternoon rain shower. And when that storm comes,
everything that can be shaken will be removed. And only one
thing will be left standing. And that is the fortress that
the Lord Jesus Christ has built himself. He said, upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not be able
to prevail against it. Now I want to be a part of something
that's going to last forever, don't you? I don't want to have
anything to do with the devastation that's going to come. Well, the
storm of God's wrath comes to shake all those things that have
been fashioned by the hands of men. I want to be a part of that
which has been built by God. For what God builds will stand. It will not be shaken. It will
remain. It will remain. Now that's what
our passage of Scripture is speaking of. Speaking of the The building
up of the temple of God. And in verse 13, we're not going
to spend any time in verse 13 because we dealt with it last
Sunday. But in verse 13 it says, even
he shall build the temple of the Lord. Who? The branch. The
Lord Jesus Christ is revealed in the previous verse. He shall
build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory.
there's a little article in your bullets i would encourage you
to read because i think it's an accurate illustration of man-made
religion they lift up their champion uh... at the end of the at the
end of the team sport game and uh... they praise him for having
won the game but everybody knows he couldn't have won the game
by himself it was a cooperative effort the whole team had to
help him out didn't he We have a victor who by himself purged
our sins and put them away. The gospel is not a team sport.
It's not a team sport. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
the work of salvation all by himself and he gets all the glory. And so the scripture says, he's
going to build a temple, he's going to bear the glory, he shall
sit and rule upon his throne, he shall be a priest upon his
throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. We
have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ who has satisfied
the demands of God's holy law. by his perfect obedience and
willing sacrifice on Calvary's cross. He has covered our sins
by his shed blood. We have peace, peace, a real
peace, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Now, in the verse before that,
the Lord has instructed Zechariah to make crowns of gold and silver. And in Revelation chapter 18
or chapter 19, the scripture speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ
as wearing many crowns. He's crowned King by His Father
who set His King upon His holy hill. He's crowned King by His
Spirit who leads all men to him, points to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's crowned king by his church, who lift him up and praise him
as the victor who won the game, won the victory. He got the victory
all by himself. And each one of his children,
each one of his children cast as it is their crowns because
he's made us priest and kings and we cast our crowns at his
feet. So he's wearing these many crowns. Joshua now is, the Lord's
given us a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ when he takes Joshua
and puts on his head crowns of silver and crowns of gold. And in verse 14, the scripture
says, and the crowns The crowns that are upon the head of Joshua
shall be to Helam, and to Tobijah, and to Zediah, and to him the
son of Zephaniah for a memorial in the temple of the Lord. so
here joshua as the high priest is standing in the midst of the
temple of the lord and he's wearing these golden and silver crowns
that have been fashioned for him and the lord says those crowns
are going to be a memorial to these men so when they come into
worship they're going to look at the crowns that are on the
heads of joshua on the head of joshua and uh... they're going
to remember something What are they going to remember? Well,
their names are very significant. Their names are significant.
You can look these up. Helam's name translated means
strength. Strength. So when Helam looks
at the crowns that are upon the head, now these men, these four
men represent the whole church of the Lord Jesus Christ who
are casting their crowns at the feet of the Lord Jesus. who gets
all the glory for having saved them, having satisfied the demands
of God's holy justice, having shed his precious blood to put
away their sins. And they are reminded, they are
reminded that yet when they were yet without strength, Christ
died for the ungodly. Lord, all my strength, All my
ability comes from you. Outside of Christ, I have no
strength whatsoever. The gospel is not for the strong. The gospel is for the poor and
the needy, the weak and the helpless. You remember when the Lord chastises
the church in Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3 and he says to them,
you are lukewarm and I'm going to spew you out of my mouth because
you say I am rich, I am an increase with goods, I am in need of nothing. Now that's what self-righteousness
says. I've got a righteousness before God. I've got the ability
to choose my salvation. And God says, you know not that
you are wretched, miserable, poor, and blind, and I counsel
you to come and buy gold tried in the fire. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ is that gold that's been tried in the fire. And the Lord's
saying to us, you're wretched, you're poor, you're miserable,
you're naked, you're blind. And the only hope you have or
any strength whatsoever is going to come from me. It's going to
come from me. That's why Paul said, I will
glory in my infirmities for when I am weak, then I am strong for
his strength is made perfect in my weakness. This crown is going to be a testimony
to heal him and he's going to know that the only strength he
has comes from Christ, His Joshua. There is no greater demonstration
of pride than for a sinner to believe that they possess the
strength, the power within themselves to decide if and when they will
be saved. To make God dependent upon man is the highest form of bless
for me. And yet that's exactly what men in religion do. Men
in religion will tell you that God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, God wants everybody to be saved, He's doing all He
can, but He's dependent upon you. That's not the testimony
of Helam. The testimony of Helam is I'm
without strength. And if He doesn't do it for me,
I'll not be saved. The crowns of the Lord Jesus
Christ remind us of our dependence upon him for his strength. What about Tobijah? Tobijah's
name translated means Jehovah is good. Now I know you, like me, want
to be thought of as a good person. You do. Among men. You don't
want somebody to call you a bad person. You want to be true to
your word. You want to be trustworthy. You
want to be faithful. You want to be honest. You want
to be sincere. And so it ought to be. So it ought to be. Being good among men has nothing
to do with our goodness before God. Paul said it like this in Romans
chapter 7, he said, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. To will is present with me. I
want to be good before God, but how to perform that which is
good before God? I find not. And when the rich
young ruler came to the Lord Jesus Christ and said, Good Master,
what must I do to inherit eternal life? What did the Lord say?
Why callest thou me good? There's none good but God. If you want something to do,
keep the commandments. Oh, I've kept these things from
my youth. He thought he was good. There's none good but God. The first time we find the word
good in the scriptures is in Genesis chapter one. And at the
end of each day of creation, the scripture says, and God saw
that it was good, that it was good. Why was creation good? Because God did it. That's why
it was good. But what happened after the fall?
Wasn't good anymore. Now it's thorns and thistles.
Now it's by the sweat of your brow. You see, man in his disobedience
and his rebellion against God marred that which was good. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
come in order to establish all goodness So these crowns are
going to be a testimony to the people of God. When they come
into the temple of God, Helam's going to remember that that Joshua
there that's got that crown on his head, he's my strength. And
Tobijah is going to say that Joshua there with a crown on
his head, he's my goodness. I have no goodness outside of
him. What about Judea? Judea's name translated means
Jehovah has known. So when Judea comes in and he
looks at Joshua with that crown on his head and sees Joshua as
a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, he knew me from
the foundation of the world. For all that God did foreknow,
He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. And
all that He did predestinate, He called. And all that He called,
He justified. And all that He justified, He
glorified. You see, the truth is that our
God has never had a new thought. He's never learned anything.
He's never asked counsel from anybody. That's what I am means. I am means that I'm not like
you. I possess the fullness of all
things in and of myself. I'm the creator and sustainer
of all things. You don't want to teach me anything.
And when, and when Judea comes into the temple and he sees that,
that crown on the head of Joshua, he says, he's known me. Elect, elect, Peter said in 1
Peter 1 verse 3, elect according to the foreknowledge of God. He knew me before I knew Him. You, you're creatures. I'm the
Creator. You're fallible. I'm infallible. You're mutable, I'm immutable.
You're sinful, I'm holy. I'm not anything like you. And
Judea comes into the temple that the Lord has built and he sees
Joshua standing there with his crowns on his head and he joins
hands with Helam and with Tobijah and he says, He's the God that's known me.
And had he not known me, I never would have known him. Don't you
love it when Paul said, when he's speaking to the church,
he says, the God whom thou has known or rather that has known
thee, has known thee. Oh Lord, I need for you to know
me. What about him? Well, hen, these
crowns are a testimony to the church and hen's name translated
means favor or grace. Favor or grace. Or the only hope that I have
to stand in my presence with acceptance is by your favor and
by your grace. When, you remember when Jacob
was fleeing from Esau and he went to his uncle Laban's house
and Laban took advantage of him. But God blessed Laban as a result
of Jacob being there. And after Jacob fulfilled his
vow, Jacob was ready to go with his wives and with his cattle.
And Laban stopped him and he said, I pray thee if I have found
favor in thy sight, For truly, I have learned by
experience that the Lord has blessed me for thy sake, for
thy sake. All the blessings of God come
to God's people for Christ's sake. It's called grace. He knew it was all of grace,
for by grace are you saved. Through faith. That faith is
not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Not of our
works. Lest any man should boast. You can be sure that him, like
every other child of God, found no place of boasting before God.
Where should we boast? What do we have to? People in
religion boast. You listen to religious people
tell you about their encounter with God and the first word out
of their mouth is going to be I. First word out of their mouth. Well, I can remember when I did
this and I accepted Jesus. The first word out of a child
of God's mouth is if I have found favor in thy sight, Lord have
mercy upon me. Mary found favor and the Lord
said, turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Verse 28, and the angel came
unto her. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus
Christ is typical of the new birth. And it's just as much
a miracle. How much of a miracle was it
for the Lord Jesus Christ to be made flesh in the womb of
a virgin? How much of a miracle was that?
It's just as much of a miracle for you to be born of the Spirit. No difference. And an angel has
to come to you. A messenger has to come to you.
A preacher of the gospel. One declaring the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God has to give you ears
to hear. And He has to give you a heart to believe. The Lord
has to do a miracle of regeneration. A new birth, doesn't He? And
the angel came unto her and said, And when God comes unto us through
His messengers and says to us, Hail, look, listen, stop, behold,
that call becomes irresistible. Irresistible. It's effectual. God's ready to call you. There's
no saying no to God. He makes us willing in the day
of His power, doesn't He? Hail. Thou art highly favored. Mary have anything to do with
that? Thou art highly favored. The
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his sayings. The Lord first speaks, oh, there's
a troubling. There's a stirring. There's an
awareness of our sinfulness that we've never had before. There's
a fear of God that we've never experienced before. There is
a feeling of hope mixed with fear. And that's exactly, she's
troubled. And she cast in her mind what
manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her,
fear not Mary, for thou had found favor with God. And behold, thou
shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and
thou shalt call his name Jesus. And the scripture says that Christ
in us is the hope of our glory. So in the same way that the Spirit
of God implanted the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
womb of Mary, He comes and gives us the Spirit of Christ in our
hearts. We have the same experience.
Same experience. Troubled? How can this be? I've never known a man. That's
what she goes on to say, look. And he shall be great and shall
be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. He shall call his name Jesus.
Why? Because he shall save his... This is Joshua. Now, we're talking
from Zechariah chapter 6 about the high priest Joshua's got
these king, these crowns, it's the same man. Then said Mary unto the angel,
how shall this be? See, and I know not a man. How can it be that Christ could
be formed in me? I've never done anything. And
the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. Hen was reminded by his very
name that it was all the favor of God that brought him into
the presence of Christ. These crowns shall be unto her
a testimony. A testimony of her lack of strength,
her lack of goodness, her need for God to know her before he
could know before she could know him. And finally, her hope for
the favor of God and salvation by pure grace, pure grace. Go back with me to Zechariah
chapter 6. So that's the memorial of the
temple. My second question is who are
the builders of this temple? And verse 15 says, and they that
are afar off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and
you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. Those are the builders, those
that are afar off. You see, you and I, like the
prodigal, have wandered off into a far country and wasted our
inheritance on riotous living and ended up in the pig pen feeding
swine with a husk. That's what we are spiritually.
He's not talking about a far off. Now, perhaps Joshua, Zachariah
is referring to those Jews that are still in Babylon that have
got to come, but this is a spiritual picture, isn't it? This is not
a, this is not a geographical far off. How far off were you
when God called you? How far off from the gospel? Lord, I was on the precipice.
Buried under the self-righteousness of free will works religion?
Bound to the sins of my unbelief? Unable to come to Christ? Lord,
you've called me from afar off. Where did the Lord call Ruth
from? Where did the Lord call Ruth
from? Moab. That was a far country. I was
a pagan land. And Ruth said to Naomi, your
God will be my God and your people be my people and your land my,
I'll not leave you. And she came back to Bethlehem.
Even after all the attempts that Naomi made to get her to stay
in Moab, she wouldn't stay. She wouldn't stay. What about
that eunuch that, that, that, that met, um, The preacher on
the road to Gaza, Philip, what about him? Where did he come
from? Ethiopia. What about the queen? She had
heard about the glory of Solomon all the way down in Sheba. She
traveled from Sheba to hear the gospel and what did she say?
Oh, half the story was not told me. Your glory exceeds the stories
that have gone out about you. What about Mephibosheth over
there in Lodabar? David had to fetch him and bring
him out of the land where there's no bread, there's no meat there,
and bring him and sit him at the king's table. What about
Abraham, the father of the faithful? Stuck off way over there on the
other side of Babylon in the Ur of the Chaldees and the Lord
came to him and showed him the promised land. Had favor on him. Showed him grace. Showed him
where his strength would come. I will bring the builders of
my church from afar off. Exodus chapter 20, when the people
saw Sinai on fire and quaking and surrounded with clouds and
the voice of God. And they feared, and the Scripture
says, and the people saw it and they removed from it and stood
afar off. Afar off. Oh, you don't want
to get anywhere near the law of God. It will slay you. It will slay you. Go to the one
who kept the law of God. He's not far off. Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 10,
the Lord said, I will save thee from afar. And you remember Mark
chapter five, when the Lord crossed the sea of Galilee and went to
the Gadarenes and went to the graveyard. And the scripture
says that that man who was possessed with demons in the Gadarenes,
the demoniac, saw the Lord Jesus Christ from afar off and he ran
unto him. And he fell at his feet and he
said, oh, son of God, don't torment me before my appointed time.
The Lord had mercy on him, didn't He? He came from afar off. Where
does God get the builders to His temple? He gets them from
afar off. How many times you and I have
been like Peter? What happened after Peter smote
the ear off of Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane and fled
for fear of his life. And the scripture says that he
followed Jesus from afar off. From afar off. We've done that,
haven't we? Well, here's our hope, brethren. God gets his people from afar
off. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 12 says, at that time you were
without Christ. You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise and you
had no hope. And you were without God in this world. But now in
Christ Jesus, you who were sometime afar off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
into that holies of holies and put his precious blood on that
mercy seat, he brought those who were afar off near. And the spirit and the bride
say now, come, come you that are far off. Come you that are
strangers to his grace. Come you that are without God
and without hope in this world. That's where God gets all of
his people from. He gets them from afar off. You say, well
yeah, I've been sitting on to the gospel all my life. And yet,
who was farther off? The prodigal or the elder brother? Maybe you've been sitting under
the gospel all your life, and like that elder brother, think
you're worthy of some special mercy because of your works to
the Father. That elder brother was in more
trouble than the prodigal was, wasn't he? The elder brother
was farther off than was the prodigal. You see, it doesn't
matter where you are geographically. Self-righteous or sinking in
sin? We are far off when God calls
us. Where does God get his people
from? He gets them from afar off. Who builds the temple? Well,
there is one. who came from such a distance
that time nor measure, space can measure the distance he came
from. How far off was the Lord Jesus Christ when God made him
in the likeness of sinful flesh. when He willingly came off of
His throne in glory and condescended into this world and suffered
the contradiction of sinners? And had the sons of Satan point
to Him and call Him the son of Beelzebub? How far did He have
to go in order to leave glory? and to take his place on Calvary's
cross and to be pierced through with the wrath of God's justice
in order to put away our sin. You see, you and I, oh, we see
examples of people going from rags to riches or from riches
to rags, but that's nothing, nothing. This one came from such
a distance. that we have no comprehension,
we have no understanding, we have no way to understand how
far he came from. But he willingly left his rightful
place in glory, came into this world, born of a woman, born
under the law, to redeem them who were cursed by the law. And then how far off was he when
he hung suspended there between heaven and earth as man's only
mediator and cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
How far off from the father was he? We can't tell. We don't know. You know, the. The religious. understand what they don't believe. And the believer believes what
he cannot understand. We can't understand what the
Lord Jesus Christ suffered. God doesn't call on us to understand
it. We're incapable of understanding it. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now let me finish this quickly,
because I want to touch on this last phrase. And I plan to read
a whole passage of scripture from the fourth chapter of Ephesians.
I would encourage you sometime today to look in your Bibles,
Ephesians chapter 4, and read the first 25 verses of that chapter.
We don't have time right now to read them. But when it comes to the local assembly,
the temple of God, this is for me and for you as a part of this
called out assembly. Do we not have enough examples
in the scriptures? given to us particularly I'm
thinking about Revelation chapter 2 and 3 when the Lord speaks
to the seven churches of Asia Minor and five of those seven
churches he rebukes and he says clearly to them he says clearly
to them repent or I'll take away your candlestick I've been to some of those cities been to Ephesus, been to several
of those cities, there's no churches there. Why? Because they did not bow. Look
at the last part. My question is, on what condition is the temple
of God built? Look at the last phrase of verse
15, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Obeying the voice of the Lord our God is to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What work can I work to do the works of God? This is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. The Lord is not going to build
a church Around a pastor or around the
people. Who are not believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ? Neither is he going to build
his church around? A pastor or people? Who are living in rebellion
or disobedience to him? The temple of the Lord. Here's
the testimony. From whence cometh your strength? Where is your goodness? How dependent
on you are you for God to know you? And how much part does grace
play in your salvation? All or just saw you see, you
can't mix grace and works. You can't mix it. It's it's all
of grace or it's, or it's works. Scripture is clear on that. That's the memorial of the temple.
Who builds the temple? Well, Christ came from the farthest
distance, and he brings his people from afar to build his temple. And they bow. They bow in submission
to him, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking to follow
after him. Oh, that the Lord would build
his temple here. That we would have a place where
we could come and worship him. Let's bow. Our merciful heavenly
Father. How grateful we are that there
is a testimony. There is a witness. There is
a. A memorial here in the crowned Christ. Of our complete dependence
upon him. How thankful we are that you
go to the far reaches. To bring your children from the
dunghill. Into the Holy presence. and how
grateful we are that the Lord Jesus Christ willingly came into
this world, laid down his life for your sheep. Lord, we pray
that you would give us grace to believe and give us grace
to will and to do according to thy good pleasure. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. of the time. 125. Let's stand
together. Number 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. th