Good evening. It's like the weekend
is almost starting. A lot of visitors, so that's
good. Let's open this evening service with hymn number 38 that's
in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book. Number 38, the debt of
love. And let's all stand together,
number 38. Come every sinner saved by grace,
you who by faith God's Son embrace. Tell all who hear your voice
below, the debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. He left His Father's throne above,
And came to earth on wings of love. For us He lived the perfect
man, And so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am, or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee All that I am or hope to be I owe alone, O Christ, to
Thee From heaven Christ will quickly
come, And bring His ransomed people home. There we shall see
His lovely face, And chant the praises of His grace. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. We have no understanding of what
we really do owe Him, do we? One day we're going to be able
to worship him perfectly. Pray right now the Lord will
give us the grace to worship him at least in truth and in
the power of his spirit. This does seem like almost a
Sunday morning crowd, doesn't it, Tom? It's good to have our
guest with us today and looking forward to this weekend. by way
of announcements. Pillows, blankets, Bibles, when
you guys leave tonight, please, if you have any of those here,
take them with you. We're going to try to clean off
the pews and let everybody fend for themselves on Friday night
to try to find a place to sit. Also, there's a sign-up sheet
on the back for our cleanup schedule for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
if you could take notice of that. Will you open your Bibles with
me for our scripture reading to Psalm 63. Psalm 63. A Psalm of David when he was in
the wilderness of Judah. Oh God, thou art my God. Early while I seek thee, My soul
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is. That's where we live, isn't it? Spiritually speaking, this is
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. What am I thirsting
for? To see thy power and thy glory
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. That's where we are
right now. We're in the sanctuary and our
hope is to see his power and his glory. Because thy loving
kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus, while I bless thee while
I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be
satisfied. God is satisfied with Christ.
Might he be pleased to give us the grace to be satisfied with
him. My soul shall be satisfied as
with morrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips. When I remember thee upon my
bed and meditate on thee in the night watches because thou has
been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of thy
wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after
thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul to
destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They
shall fall by the sword. They shall be a portion for foxes.
But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth by
him shall glory. but the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
you've called us to come before thy throne of grace in our time
of need that we might find mercy and grace to help. Lord, we are
a needy people. We are sinful people. Know how
we need the hope of knowing that we have a righteous advocate,
thy dear son, our savior, our sin bearer, standing in our stead. Lord, we pray that you would
open the windows of heaven, that you would give us eyes to see
him seated at thy right hand, and that you would enable us,
Lord, to enter into worship, worship that's based on the truth
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's accomplished.
worship that is inspired by your spirit and worship that affects
our very hearts and souls. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity
that you've given us to be reunited with our brethren from other
places. And Lord, how we pray your blessings on our fellowship.
We pray that you would knit our hearts stronger together in thy
love. And Lord, we pray for Angus and
for Chris and for Todd as they travel we pray that you give
them traveling mercies and pray that you would burden their hearts
with the messages that we need to hear this weekend and Lord
we ask that you would give us ears to hear and draw us into
thy presence and we pray Lord for our children and young people
and for the strangers that will be here that are yet strangers
to thy grace. And Lord, we ask that you would
be pleased to call out your sheep and save your elect. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number 17 from the hardbacked hymnal.
Number 17, come thou found. Oh. ? Come thou fount of every blessing
? ? Tune my heart to sing thy grace ? ? Streams of mercy never
ceasing ? ? Call for songs of loudest praise ? ? Teach me some
melodious sonnet ? ? Sung by flaming tongues above ? Praise
the mount, I'm fixed upon it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I've come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger Interposed
His precious blood. O to grace, how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. ? Prone to leave the God I love
? Here's my heart, oh take and seal it ? Seal it for thy courts
above Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. I've titled this message, Only. Only. If you look in this psalm
in verse 2, David says, he only is my rock. In verse four, he
says, they only consult to cast him down from his excellency. In verse five, David says, my
soul wait thou only upon God. And then in verse six, he repeats,
he only is my rock. and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved." Men love
choices because it gives them power. If you limit a person's
choice then they lose their ability to exercise their rights. We like the power that we have
in our system of government in that men have choices. We choose our politicians versus
a dictatorship where everyone would be subject to one man and
would not have any choice. Just thinking about a restaurant
would not succeed if it only had one item on its menu. And
a car dealership would not be very successful if there was
only one vehicle that you could buy and they were all the same
color. Men like to have choices because it gives them a sense
of power. Unfortunately, the unbeliever
carries that same philosophy into his view of spiritual things
and he insists on deciding for himself what he'll believe and
what he won't believe and it gives him a sense of power to
have choice. God's people rejoice in having
all their options taken away from them. They love the simplicity
of the gospel. They love being able to join
their hearts with Peter when he said, Lord, where shall we
go? Thou alone hast the words of
eternal life. And we know and are sure that
thou, you've shut us up. You've taken away all our options. Someone says, well, doesn't the
Bible, didn't Joshua tell the children of Israel to choose
ye this day whom you would serve? Turn with me to that passage
of scripture. It's in Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. If you just let your eyes scan
through this chapter, you will be drawn to the to the personal
pronoun I that's repeated over and over and over again beginning
in verse 3. I think it's about 16 times from
verse 3 to verse 13 where God says, I'm going to do this and
I'm going to do that. You're not going to have anything
to do with it. I'm going to do it. And then Joshua in verse
14 says, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity
and in truth. Now that's not an option. God
doesn't... God commands all men everywhere
to repent. He commands us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to Christ is not something
that He gives us a choice about. He makes us to come. And Joshua
commands the children of Israel, you serve God. You worship Him
in sincerity and in truth. and put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and
serve ye the Lord." He didn't say, he's not saying you choose
whether you're going to serve God or whether you're going to
serve the gods of Egypt. He didn't say that. He said you
serve the God who is. Serve him in truth. So what does,
look at verse 15. And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, If you're not going to serve God, that's
evil. And if it seemed evil unto you
to not serve the Lord, then choose you this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your father served that were on the other
side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites. There's your
choice. He's not saying choose between the gods of the Amorites
and the gods of Egypt and the God who is. He's already commanded
them to serve the God who is. He's saying if you're not gonna
serve the God who is, then choose one of those other gods. There's
only one God. You need to make a choice about
which one of those false gods you're gonna choose. You see,
the truth is that when men have a choice as to who they're gonna
serve, It's always a choice between one false god or another. Because when one of God's elect
are brought to serve Him, they're made to obey His command, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Joshua said,
but as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. We don't
have a choice about it. You choose between the gods of
Egypt or the gods of the Amorites or whatever God you want. So this matter of worshiping
God is not a choice. The Lord says only, only. Go back with me to Psalm 62.
Truly my soul, This is of a truth. This is not
a speculation. This is not a maybe. This is
the truth. Joshua said, worship the Lord
in truth. The Lord said, God, the Father,
the Lord told that woman at the well, the Father seeketh after
them who worship him in spirit. That is by the power of the spirit
of God and in the heart and in the truth, the truth of who he
is. And the Lord says you are the
true circumcision, the ones who have been circumcised in the
heart. That's a work of grace. Circumcision of the flesh is
the work of the flesh. The averages of the flesh is
flesh and the flesh prophet is nothing. The flesh can circumcise
the flesh and the flesh and I'm not talking about physical circumcision.
I'm talking about cutting away those things in your fleshly
behavior. People in religion do it all
the time. they cut away bad habits they think that because they
don't do the things they used to do that uh... that's evidence
that they're believers and uh... that's that's just circumcision
of the flesh the circumcision of the heart is a work of the
spirit of God who makes us to bow in worship to Christ and so we have the true circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in who He is. We rejoice
in what He's done. We bow in gratitude to Him. And then how's the rest of that
verse go? And have no confidence in the
flesh. We can't get any hope or any
confidence or any assurance out of anything that we do in the
flesh. All of our confidence is in him,
rejoicing in Christ Jesus. God circumcises you in the flesh.
The gospel becomes only, only, truly my soul, my soul waiteth
upon God. That word waiteth means is silent,
is silent. I can't speak Lord, you're going
to have to do it. I can't, I'm just waiting Believing, trusting
you. Now Isaiah said, he that believeth
shall not make haste. In other words, believing God
is waiting on him. It's being silent before him.
It's being still before the Lord. It's being quiet. Now we know
that every Every demonstration of impatience that we all are
guilty of is not only shameful, but it's sinful. But we're not
talking about being impatient here. Being impatient is not
going to cost you the salvation of your soul. But I tell you
what will cost you the salvation of your soul, not waiting on
Him to do the work of redemption for you. You remember when Samuel
told Saul, King Saul, he said, you wait here seven days, I'll
be back. And at the end of seven days,
Saul's army began to disperse and Saul waited and waited and
waited and got close to the time when the time was over and Saul
usurped the authority of the priest and made a sacrifice. Now, that's what will cost you
your soul to make a sacrifice. Uzziah did it. Uzziah tried to
go into the temple and make a sacrifice. He was king and he thought, I
don't need a priest. I can make a sacrifice to God.
and he didn't wait on the Lord. His soul wasn't waiting on the
Lord. He was making sacrifice. He was making atonement for himself.
God smote him with leprosy and he died as a king of Israel in
shame. And that's when Isaiah chapter
6 is written, isn't it? When Isaiah said, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was high and lifted
up. Saul made a sacrifice. Samuel
showed up and Samuel said, Saul, what are you doing? And Saul
said, well, the people were dispersing and the Philistines are on their
way and I was afraid you weren't going to come and so I forced
myself to make a sacrifice. That's what Saul said, I forced
myself. And that's what every act of unbelief is. It's men forcing themselves to
make a sacrifice. And Samuel said to Saul, God
would have kept your name alive and continued your kingship over
Israel. But because of what you've done,
he has chosen another who is a man after God's own heart,
David. was the substitute, wasn't he,
for Saul? So that's what, when God says,
truly my soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my salvation. Oh, I pray the Lord we'll curb
our impatience every time we don't wait for God in some act
of this life. We're just showing our unbelief. And it is shameful, but not waiting
on the Lord to be our salvation. Making sacrifice like Saul made
will cause us to have our names cut away. Justifying yourself before God.
Samuel said, the Lord would have established your kingdom, but
because you didn't wait, because you made sacrifice, because you
made atonement, just like Uzziah, stricken with leprosy, dying
in shame. So, we're waiting only on Him. Lord, I don't, I can't do anything,
I can't bring anything. Truly, truly, my soul waiteth
upon God, from Him cometh my salvation, He only is my rock. Now, we've been preaching through
the Psalms over the last several months and we dealt with the
Lord Jesus Christ being our rock last Wednesday night from Psalm
61. And what a rock he is. He said,
upon this rock, what rock? I am the Christ, the son of the
living God. Upon this rock, I'm going to
build my church. The gates of hell shall not be able to prevail
against it. He's the rock of ages. He concluded that sermon
on the mount by saying, he that buildeth his life on me is like
a man. He that hear these words and
keeps them is like a man who builds his house on a rock. And
when the storms come, the rain falls and the wind blows, that
house will stand. There's a storm coming. It's
the storm of God's judgment. And Oh, I want to be standing
on that rock when that storm comes, don't you? He only is my rock and my salvation. He is the rock. In Psalm 61,
the scripture says, and when my soul is overwhelmed within
me, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Oh, there's
a rock. And our rock's not like their
rock. He's, God leads you to that rock, you find peace for
your soul, forgiveness for your sin. David's talking about trusting
God. You know, I thought, how can
a person trust a God who is a failure? The same people who who say that
God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody and God wants
everybody to be saved, those same people would say that 90%
of the people that God, that Christ died for are going to
end up in hell. You wouldn't take your car to
a mechanic that failed 90% of the time. You wouldn't invest your money
with a bank that only was successful in giving you profits 10% of
the time. You certainly wouldn't go to
a surgeon and let him cut on you who lost 90% of his patients. You wouldn't trust, the point
is you wouldn't trust somebody who was a miserable failure.
So why is it that men trust in a God who of their own confession
is a failure? I'll tell you why. Because they're
not trusting Him. They're trusting themselves. You see, it's not the offer of
salvation that saves. It's not the sacrifice of salvation
that saves. It's my decision that saves. And so I'm trusting in the decision
that I've made, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, that the man of sin
has placed himself on the throne of God. And that's exactly what
the natural man does. He's not trusting in the God
who's a failure. He's not trusting in the one
he calls Christ. He's trusting in himself. And God's people say, He only
is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. Aren't you glad the Spirit of
God led David to put the word greatly in there? Truth is, we
are often moved, aren't we? We just sang that song, prone
to wander, prone to leave the God we love. Oh, the unbelief
is so strong, and our failures are so frequent and painful,
and yet David says, though I stumble, I'm not going to fall. He's not
going to let me. He's not going to let me. I will
not be greatly moved. He only is my righteousness. David said, I will speak of His
righteousness and of His only. Only. I have no righteousness
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all the hope of my righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. He's all my justice before God. His shed blood on Calvary's cross
is the only hope that I have that my sins have been put away.
That God is satisfied with the sacrifice that He made and that
I stand justified in the presence of God. He's all my life outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He only is my life. Didn't the Lord say in John chapter
17, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Only. Oh, to be shut up to the onlys
of God. Here's an only that men don't
believe. When God in Genesis chapter 6 looked down from heaven
and looked into the hearts of men, He saw that every imagination
of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. Lord, that's me. I don't know
how evil I am, but I know that I have nothing but evil. There's nothing but sin in me. Revelation chapter 15 verse 4
says thou only art holy. See, the unbeliever can't understand
what we mean when we say that we have nothing but sin, that
we're only evil. And the reason for that is because
the unbeliever is comparing himself to other people or he's comparing
himself to himself. and thinking that he's getting
better or thinking that he's at least above average, but when
God reveals the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who
is holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, the one whom the
seraphim hover over his throne and cry, holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth is filled with thy
glory, then the believer who's brought by the grace of God to
see the Lord Jesus Christ sees himself for the very first time.
And he says with Isaiah, woe is me. He says with Job, behold,
behold, I see something now that I never saw before. I am vile. There's nothing in me that's
like him. He's holy and I'm unholy. The word ungodly is used in the
scriptures on several occasions. I'm thinking of Romans chapter
five verse six in that while we were yet without strength,
without strength, not of little strength, but without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. And you use that word ungodly
among most people and I think that you're describing someone
who's indulging in all sorts of fleshly shameful behavior
and that's not what that word ungodly means. You could look
it up. It's the word worship with the
Greek alpha in front of it. And in the Greek language when
the alpha is placed in front of a word it reverses the meaning
of the word. In other words it's the negative
of that word. And so when God says in that
while we were yet without strength Christ died for those who were
unable to worship God. Ungodly is not worshiping God. not being able to worship God.
You see there's a lot of people that are outwardly moral, that
aren't doing all sorts of those shameful things, embarrassing,
but they're not worshiping God. And God says to not worship me
makes you ungodly. Why are you without strength,
unable to worship me? I died for you. I'm going to make you able. And
that's what David's saying. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. Jude, in describing the Lord
Jesus Christ in Jude chapter 1, verse 25, says, to the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty dominion and power
forever and ever. He's the only wise God. The Lord
Jesus Christ is called the only begotten son. First Timothy chapter
1 verse 17, now unto the king, eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God. There's only one God. That's
what Joshua was saying over there in Joshua 24. You can only worship
one God. If you worship one of those false
gods, then choose which one you're going to worship. But there's
only one God. Jairus came to the Lord Jesus Christ
with his 12-year-old daughter on her deathbed. and in desperation
begged the Lord to come and heal her. And on the way to Jairus's house,
that's when the woman at the well, I mean the woman who had
the issue of blood, and there's another only, she said, if I
could only touch the hem of his garment, I'd be made whole. That's
all I need to do is just touch him. And so while the Lord is dealing
with this woman with the issue of blood, a servant of Jairus
comes and says, bother the master no more, your daughter's dead.
And I'm sure that Jairus's legs went limp and he fell to his
knees and lost all his strength. And the Lord put his hand on
Jairus and said, Jairus, be not afraid, only believe. Only believe. That's all there
is, just only. Only believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. When Peter, James, and John were
taken up to the Mount of Transfiguration and they saw the veil of our
Lord's humanity taken away and the radiance of His deity was
so bright, it was like they were looking into the sun and they
couldn't look. They had to hide their faces
in the dirt. Moses, the law, Elijah, the prophet, came and
talked with the Lord about that which would be accomplished at
his crucifixion. And Peter foolishly says, Lord,
let us build three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses
and one for Elijah. And then after being blinded
by his glory, they stood up. And scripture says, They saw
Jesus only, only. All that was in the law and all
that was in the prophets was accomplished by what the Lord
Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. We see Jesus only, only. Who can forgive sins but God
only? That Roman soldier that had a
dying servant. Lord, I know what authority is. I tell a man to go and he goes. I tell him to come and he comes.
And Lord, you have all authority. I'm not worthy that thou should
come under my roof, but only speak the word and my servant
shall be healed. Lord, all you got to do is speak.
Someone was asking me this past Sunday about the Catholic Church
and where they got some of their beliefs from. And I said, well, the problem,
the root problem with the Catholic Church is the same problem that
most churches have, and that is that they do not believe that
the scriptures are the finished, final, complete Word of God.
You see, all we need is what God, thus saith the Lord. What does the scripture say?
That's what Paul's argument was. What saith the scriptures? The
Catholic Church believes that God is still making revelations
to the church through the Pope. And he's been doing that for
2,000 years. And so the Catholic Church has what they call church
tradition. And those are the revelations
that God has given post-scripture to the church. Well, their logic
is that those revelations are much more current than the scriptures
and so if there's a contradiction between the traditions of the
church and the scriptures, we choose the traditions of the
church. So they have no final source
of authority. God closes this book out by saying,
if any man adds to the words of this prophecy, the curses
in this book will be added unto him. But they disregard that. You say, well, that's the Catholic
Church. Now, every denomination, the reformers, the Calvinistic
reformers will stand and they will say, sola scriptura, only
the Bible. That's our final source of authority.
And then they'll turn around and test the scriptures by their
confessions and by their creeds. And so the words of men have
become the final authority, not the word of God. And God's people
just say, just tell me, just show me what God says. The believers
in Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica because
they rejoiced in the scriptures and searched the scriptures daily
to see if what Paul was preaching was true. Just tell me what God's
word says, that's all I want to know. Now I'm not here, nobody
can convince you that this book is the word of God. But if God
convinces you of it, you'll believe every word of it. and you'll
believe nothing else. And you'll say with that centurion,
speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. All I need is
what God has given us in his word. Amos chapter three says,
oh children of Israel, you only have I known from all the families
of the earth. Verse 3, Psalm 62. How long will you imagine mischief
against a man? Now the man, all of these psalms
first and foremost have to apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the son of David. David spoke prophetically of
Christ, the King of Israel, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the
shepherd of Israel. So how long will you imagine
mischief against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall you be, and as a tottering fence. This
is another analogy that the Lord gives to the unbeliever. He says
he's got a wall that's been mortared with undobbed mortar. It's falling apart. It's leaning. And he leans on it for safety.
and the wall falls on him and crushes him. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. David said in Psalm 2, why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings
of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed. How foolish it
is. How foolish it is. And what do
they say? Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. Hold them. God's not threatened
by man's unbelief. but they only consult to cast
him down from his excellency. I have set my king upon my holy
hill. I will break them with a rod
of iron. That Psalm two concludes with kiss the son lest he be
angry. Oh Lord, give us grace to kiss
the son. Turn to me to John chapter 11.
John chapter 11. Lazarus has just been miraculously
brought back to life from being dead in the grave for four days. And many of the people that observed
this miracle believed and some of them didn't. No amount of physical evidence
will cause a person to believe. Look at what the scripture says in
verse 44 of John chapter 11. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about him with a napkin. And Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let him go. I love that. Loose him. Loose him. Loose him from his
sin. Loose him from the rigors of
the law. Let him go. Where the Spirit
of God is, there is liberty. And if the Son shall make you
free, You're free indeed. You're free. Your sin's been
paid for. It's been put away. You're free. Then many of the Jews which came
to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on
Him. But some, but some of them went
their way to the Pharisee and told them what things Jesus had
done. So now the Pharisees have multiple
eyewitnesses who had been there mourning with Mary for four days. That's the way they did. The
mourners would come whenever someone died. And these mourners
were still there four days later when the Lord showed up. So they
saw Lazarus die. They saw him put him into the
tomb. They saw him raised from the dead, they saw him loosed.
And there were multiple witnesses to this miracle. And they went
back and they told the Pharisees. Then verse 47, gathered the chief
priest and the Pharisees, a council and said, what do we for this
man do with many miracles? If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take
away both our place, that's our power, that's our position, and
our nation. Those are the people that we
have power over. And we don't want to lose our position, we
don't want to lose our power, so let us cast him down from
his excellency. If we allow him to continue,
all men will believe on him. Go back with me to Psalm 62. They, verse four, they only consult
to cast him down from his excellency. They honor him with their lips,
but the hearts are far from him. They say that he's Lord. They
confess that he's God. But then out of the same mouth,
they say that he's abdicated his throne and he's given the
power of salvation to the free will of man. And he's not able,
he's not able to accomplish what he wants to do. They cast him
down from his throne. or they say you're not under
the law and Christ is the end of the law and then they will
turn right around and put you back under the law and say well
we have to use the law in order to measure your progress we have
to use the law in order to motivate you to obedience and so the law
becomes the rule of life contradicting the accomplishments of the Lord
Jesus Christ and taking him down from his excellency so that men
will not look to him, they'll look to themselves and their
own obedience and their own performance for the hope of their salvation.
They only, they only consult to cast him down from his excellency,
lest, lest they lose their power and their position and their
nation. I've known preachers who will
say, you know, I believe, I believe in sovereign election. I believe
in the irresistible grace. I believe in particular redemption. I believe in limited atonement,
but I can't preach it at my church, because if I do, I'll lose my
place and my nation. Now, I don't want to be anywhere
near that man when the wrath of God falls on him. Nothing's
changed. Nothing's changed. They cast
him down one way or the other. They cast him down from his excellency. Look at what else he says. And
they only do it. They only do it. You see, it's
not like they exalt him at one point and then cast him down.
The only thing they do is cast him down. In spite of all the evidence
in scripture. If we agree to believe what you're
preaching, we'll lose our place, our position, our power, our
authority, our choice. Remember, choice is power. And we'll lose our nation. I'll be cut off from all my friends
and associates. Wasn't that good, Sunday, when
the thief on the cross confess Christ in spite of all of the friends and everybody else
that was speaking against Christ. Well, you have to go back and
listen to that. Look, they only consult to cast him down from
his excellency. They delight in lies. They don't
just tell lies, they delight in them. They rejoice in talking
about free will. They rejoice in talking about
universal atonement and the universal love of God for all men. They
publish that. They declare it from the housetops.
They delight in lies. Why do they delight in them?
Because they believe them to be true. Second Thessalonians, because
they had no love for the truth, God sent them a strong delusion
If God sends you a strong delusion, you're going to be deluded that
they should believe the lie. And they do. They only consult
to cast him down from his excellency. They delight in lies. They bless
with their mouth. They say Jesus is Lord. They
talk about loving God. They wear their crosses so that
everyone can see. They talk about how good God's
been to them. And then they curse inwardly.
Their hearts are far from Him. They don't worship Him. They
don't bow down to Him. They worship themselves. But my soul, my soul, Wait thou only upon God, for
my expectation is from him. My expectation is from him. You know, addictions, fleshly
addictions, are not so binding because of the pleasure that's
derived from them, but rather from the expectation of a pleasure
that never comes. The alcoholic, they say, is chasing
his first buzz. The gambler gets no real thrill
out of winning, it's the expectation of winning. And that's true of
many addictions. It's the expectation of something
that never comes and the flesh keeps thinking that it's going
to get it's going to be better and it never does. It never does. We put our expectations in the
things of this world we will always, always go wanting. But here's the good news, brethren.
Eye has not seen nor has ear heard nor has it even entered
into the imagination of man the things that God has prepared
for us." Oh, put your expectations in Him and you will not be disappointed. The fulfillment of what the Lord
is going to give, we can't expect enough. We can't expect enough
in this life and in the life to come. And that's what David
says. Look what he says. My expectation
is from him. Is from him. He will not disappoint. He will
not let you down. When he only is your salvation
when he only is your desire when he only is your righteousness
and he only is your justification and all the all the expectations
that he gives us and they become all the fulfillment of them is
greater than anything we can imagine he only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're so very, very thankful for the revelation of your mercy
and your grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that you
would cause us to set our expectations on Him. For it's in his name we ask it,
amen. Number 19, let's stand together,
number 19. So cute. Sovereign ruler, Lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. ? Heaven, earth, and hell I see
? Fulfill all your wise decree ? Dares a man resist his Lord
? Stand against the sovereign God ? I will bow before your
throne ? Seeking grace in Christ your Son ? Through his blood
and righteousness ? ? Lord, I plead with you for grace ? ? If you
will, you can I know ? ? Grace and mercy to me show ? ? Will
you, Lord, my soul forgive ? ? Grant this sinner grace to live ? I've
no other hope but this, Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. ? Oh, for mercy, now I plead
? Grant me, Lord, the grace I need ? Turn, oh, turn to me and say
? All your sins are washed away ? In my Son, your debt is paid
? Leave for you the ransom made th th