Good evening. All right, so let's
turn back to Isaiah 28. And our text is verse 16. Now,
last week we were looking at the false refuge that men put
their hope in. And those that are hoping in
a false refuge, they say things like, we've made a covenant with
death. Now they don't say that word,
they don't say we've made a covenant with death, but what the Lord
is revealing to us here is that anything that we hope in, anything
that we trust in, that is not the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
death. And if that's your hope, if that's
your focus and what you're trusting in, That's death. It's not Christ. It's a covenant
with death. And they continue in verse 15,
saying, And with hell are we at agreement, when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, when the judgment comes It's not going
to come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under
falsehood have we hid ourselves. And that's what it is. Anything
that we trust in, that isn't trusting and resting and putting
all our hope upon The one whom God sent, the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's a covenant with death. It's lies. It's not going to
save us. It's not going to stand for us
as our righteousness in the day when we are judged by the true
and living God. And so we see this. The natural
man, he puts his trust and confidence in many things. Himself, chiefly. His own righteousness. his riches,
his strength, his works, even his religion. Many, many people
trust in their religion and the congregations that they're in
and doing things according to what they do. That's their hope
and confidence, but they never see Christ. They never look to
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are all covenants with
death and their lies. So, the thing is, is that Naturally,
that's us all, right? Every one of us naturally is
drawn to something other than Christ. We have no fellowship
naturally. We have no spiritual life. So
we have no fellowship with God until the Lord makes a difference
there for us. But the Lord's answered this. The Lord has answered and provided
the answer to this foolishness that we all find ourselves under.
He's provided one, a one response, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. And this purpose, this he purposed
from eternity. And we know this because the
scriptures even reveal Christ as the Lamb slain from eternity,
from before the foundation of the world. He's already determined
who should save his people and who is the one who's going to
reveal the wickedness and the foolishness that men are trusting
in. He's the one that reveals that
to us. And so this response of the Lord
that he's already determined and already provided, already
purposed in himself before man did anything, This one, the Lord
Jesus Christ, it serves in two specific ways. First, we see
him rebuking the wicked. He's making known to the wicked
that what you're trusting in is a lie. It's not the truth. You're not honoring the one whom
God has said to honor. And the purpose, we're told,
is that they would go and fall backward. What is that, verse
13? At the end there, that they shall
go back and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. And so that's going to be brought
to pass for the wicked. And the second thing that he
does is he provides a great mercy to the elect, to you that believe. to you that hope in his mercy
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's done this way because
Christ is a trying stone. You'll see that he's the tried
stone, but he's also a trying stone. He proves. He proves that
work, which is the Lord's work, versus the work that is of our
flesh. The Lord does that. He's a trying
stone. And so it's His work to expose
the false refuges, the false refuges that we're trusting in
and hoping in. It's His work. He does that.
When you see the lies that you're holding on to, it's His work.
He's doing that on purpose to expose that in us and to draw
us back to Himself once more. And that happens before conversion
as well as after conversion. Before, we know, we understand,
because we didn't know the truth. And after, because we continually
are being drawn away by the flesh to look over here when we should
be looking to our Savior. And so in mercy, He continues
to expose the false refuges that we're trusting in and bring us
back to Him, to lean wholly upon Him. Because from first to last,
it's all of grace. It's always of grace, always
will be of grace, and continues to be of His grace. And so our
Lord, He separates His people from these false hopes, and we
can be certain of that. The Scriptures teach that. Over
in Hebrews 4, verse 12 and 13, we're told that the Word of God,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ, He's quick, that is, He's living,
He's a living God. And he's powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And thankfully he
is a gracious God because he knows our heart, he knows our
thoughts, and he knows that we're but dust in ourselves and have
no righteousness of ourselves. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And so our
Savior, our Lord, is very good at, He's perfect in sifting us
and separating us and drawing us out to His salvation, as well
as exposing the wicked and what they're trusting in and making
it known to them, and yet in their heart and hearts, they
continue to go on in their wicked ways. So that's the work of our
Lord, and we'll see that tonight. Now our Lord describes this proving
stone, this saving stone, in verse 16. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. So that's what I want to look
at tonight with you. The title is the foundation, the foundation,
and we'll have two divisions. First we'll look primarily at
Christ the stone rejected, and then a few things received. Okay? So let's look here at the
rejection. In the scriptures, The Lord uses
the Israel the church in the Old Testament. He he uses this
people in such a way that it's in many ways it's an emblem of
hypocrisy and self-righteousness. It shows us just what we are
by nature. The Lord does that very well
throughout the scriptures because we see the continual idolatry
and self-righteousness of the Jewish people. right that the
Lord is has shown us that in in the scriptures we see it once
they receive the law and how confident they were in themselves
in the law and it didn't break them it didn't turn them to the
Lord it didn't show them what it was purpose to do and showing
them the weakness of the flesh but they trusted in it and so
the Lord shows us just how foolish they are I mean we even have
the prophets here who are who are declaring to them the truth
of God that judgment is coming and they won't They won't hear
it. And the reason why the Lord does this isn't to make us puffed
up in ourselves or to be arrogant and pride and boastful and to
look down upon them and to judge them because it's showing us
what each of us is by nature. It shows us that all of us are
dependent upon the grace and the mercy of our God that we
never grow beyond meeting the Lord. We never outgrow the Lord,
but He continues to ever be our Lord, our Savior, our Husband,
our God. He's all these things and He
always will be these things to us for all eternity. He's all
in all to His people. And so the purpose why I'm saying
this is that the Jews were building up the house and they were trusting
themselves and their own laws and their own customs to build
the house and to make a righteous house unto the Lord. But they were trusting in themselves
for it. And the psalmist in 127 one says
except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that building. And that's what Judah was doing
in Isaiah's day, and that's what Judah was doing when the Lord
came. That's what Israel was doing
when the Lord took upon him flesh and came and dwelt among his
people. They were trusting themselves. And so the Lord said, behold,
I lay in Zion. He tells them, before it ever
happened, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a foundation stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. And so when Isaiah was declaring
this, when he declared this foundation stone, it would call to their
mind what he was talking about. Because in Psalm 118, verse 22,
the psalmist wrote there, the stone which the builders refused
is become the head of the corner. And so that verse would be familiar
to them. And I say that because that's
one of the Psalms that they sung. That was part of the hymns that
they sung during the Passover. They sang from Psalm 118. So
they knew that verse that the builders were rejecting. They
were going to reject the chief cornerstone and then he came.
And that's exactly what they did. They rejected the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so Peter even was speaking
of this. When Peter was talking to the
Jews, when the Jews stopped them and arrested them and wanted
to speak to them because they were declaring Christ to the
people, he said to them in Acts 4, 11 and 12, he said, this,
this Christ is the stone which was set at naught of you builders. which has become the head of
the corner, neither is, right? So, in other words, you've set
aside the one whom God provided as the righteousness for his
people. You put him to the side. And you're now seeking to establish
your own righteousness by the works of the law. You're trusting
in the works of the law. But that's the one whom God told
you that you builders are setting aside. And that's exactly what
you're doing. But listen, he said, verse 12, neither is there
salvation in any other. You're trusting in your own salvation,
righteousness by the law. But there's no salvation in any
other for there is none other name under heaven. given among
men whereby we must be saved. We declare plainly, it's by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Any other hope that we're trusting
in, anything we're looking to, we're taking that stone that
God provided and said, this is the chief cornerstone, this is
the one upon whom you will build the house, and we're setting
that aside, just like they did, and we're trusting in our own
righteousness to build the house, to build that up. So, if we're
doing that, we're setting at naught, we're taking that stone
and just setting it aside and saying, thanks but no thanks,
I think I'll work on my own form of righteousness here before
the Lord. And that's true even if we confess
Christ, because there's many that speak of Christ and confess
Him, but they then go and look to something else. They trust
in something else. They say, well, I don't know
if that's enough. I don't know if I can really
trust that the Lord saves his people completely by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so they begin to turn to
other things in hope and in trust, believing that this is a mark
of their righteousness. This is what is going to prove
and show that they're true children of the Lord. And what they're
doing is refusing the stone. And then even if you don't believe
in God, if you don't believe Christ, you don't think anything
that there's a true and living God, that's also rejecting the
stone. You are putting the stone which
God has provided to save his people to the side. You're rejecting
it. You want nothing to do with that.
So whatever it is that we do because this is what we do by
nature we trust in our own works we trust in in our own righteousness
we look to ourselves and the Lord when he was here when he
began his his ministry he was speaking to the Jews and in Matthew
7 there on the Sermon on the Mount He said, everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine, everything that Christ has shown
us when he started to expose dead religion for what it is,
and that dead letter religion that we all are so prone to naturally. He said, everyone that heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the
rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat
upon that house. Because that's what we're doing.
We're building a house. A house of righteousness. And he said
all these things came against that house and it fell and great
was the fall of it. And so the Lord is showing us. He's showing us in mercy and
in grace that what we do naturally is we build a house of righteousness
according to our idolatry, according to our own self-righteousness
and what we think is the way that God is pleased. That's what
we do naturally. until the Lord comes to us and
exposes it for the dead religion that it is and makes us to see,
no, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to Him. He's the one who
I've provided to deliver the people from the coming wrath
of God. All right, so to reject Christ,
to look away from Christ is to trust in your own righteousness.
It's to reject Christ and it's to trust in something that you
are doing yourself. And the Lord tells us in 1 Corinthians,
for other foundation can no man lay. Then that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ." And so the Lord has gathered us together,
called us together, to build upon the foundation of Christ.
The way we build upon the foundation of Christ is to preach Him, to
declare Him, to continue to declare, this is how the Lord will accept
you. By Christ, through His blood,
through His righteousness, That's how we gain entrance into the
Lord. That's how we are made holy and
accepted in the beloved is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
it's always Christ. We never take over what he started.
We never we never pick up at some point and say, well, thanks,
Lord. Now let me carry on. And I got this from here on.
No, it's never that way. It's always the Lord. All right.
The scriptures tell us that He is able to save them, all His
people, to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them. And that means that
we ever need Him to be interceding for us. There's never a time
where we outgrow our need of Him. All right? You know, that's
why preaching it, preaching Christ, that's living that verse, that's
showing where our confidence is. All right. And that seems
pretty simple, doesn't it? That. If we if we really believe
that he's our confidence, we'll continue in Christ and we'll
continue to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. If we think that our
righteousness is by the works of the law, then we'll start
preaching the law. And we'll reject the stone, which
is Christ. But if we truly believe him,
we'll continue preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
how you know Whether, you know, when you walk into a church,
there may be different customs and different things and different
mannerisms and how they do things. And all that is just, that isn't
the issue. That isn't the thing to be concerned
about is, do they preach and love the Lord Jesus Christ? Is
he there all in all? And you'll know by what they
declare, what they preach. and they'll continue in it, they'll
continue preaching the truth. Alright, so the wicked, they
have another thing coming because the Lord tells us they're going
to be shaken. He's come for the specific purpose
to shake, to shake even the church, to shake the church, to destroy,
to crumble away and show that which is not truth and that which
is false and not going to help us in that day. And the Hebrew
writer said in 1225, he said, see that ye refuse not
him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that
spake on earth. Christ was there on earth in
the flesh declaring the truth. Here's the light of God right
before them. See that you refuse him not because
they didn't escape who refused him when he spake on the earth.
Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that
speaketh from heaven. whose voice then shook the earth,
but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more, I shake not the
earth only, but also heaven." So we're to hear the Lord, and
what the Lord is saying to us is, I've provided the stone. I've provided the stone, and
he's the very foundation upon which our righteousness is established. It's in Him. It's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one that delivers His
people from the coming wrath by making atonement for their
sins by shedding His blood to cover the sins of the people. That He might present us holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. That's how sufficient
His blood is. His blood is sufficient to do
that. Now turn over to John 5. John chapter 5. And just stay with me for a moment
in John. In John 5, we'll look first at
verse 22. Our Lord said, John 5, 22, For
the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
the Son. So the one that men are rejecting
is the one who's going to judge them. You that reject Christ,
that don't trust and hope in Christ, you're rejecting the
very one that's going to judge you. And I know from, if you've
ever been a manager, you know that the way to get the people
to listen to their manager is the manager usually has the power
to redo your annual reviews. Sometimes he or she has power
over your raises, how much you get. Right? And so people realize,
you know, sometimes they have hiring and firing ability. And
so people realize, oh, I'm going to hear what they say, because
if I don't, they have an influence over what my trajectory is like
here at this job. And so that's why. And that's
what the Lord is saying is to is to look to the Son, because
all judgment, the Father has committed all judgment to the
Son. And the reason is that all men
should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent
him. Because if we, what we're saying
is if we reject Christ, or if we think that Christ is insufficient
to save to the uttermost, we're saying, God, you're a liar. You're a liar. He's not sufficient
to save. Surely there's something more.
Surely it can't be the simplicity of Christ has saved us. Surely
there must be something more. And so we're calling God a liar. We're not resting in his son. We're going elsewhere to find
some righteousness to stand before God in that day. And then you
too that don't believe, if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you're still calling God a liar because you're saying,
no, there's no wrath coming. There's no wrath coming. There's
no God who's judge of all and who's created me that I have
to give an account to one day. You're still calling God a liar,
either way. Verse 24, verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that
sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. All right, so that's what
the Lord is showing us. He's the salvation that God has
provided. Now, those who don't believe
in Christ, who don't believe God, listen closely. Turn over
to John 3. John 3.18. Our Lord begins in John 3.18.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation.
that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. And so that's why
Isaiah says back in our text, you can hold your place there
and John, we'll look at another verse later, but in Isaiah 28,
16, he said, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone. In other words, God the Father
has laid this stone. He's the one that's laid it,
and for this very purpose, for His people, to expose dead religion,
and to show us the truth, to show us how we are to worship
God, how we are to come into His presence, perfectly, perfectly,
without sin, perfect righteousness. He's a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. And what the Lord is showing
us is that Christ is proven. He's a proven stone. He's proven
in all points. We're told that He was proved
in the task that God sent Him to do and was successful. He's
a successful Savior. He completed the salvation. The
very purpose that God sent Him, He did it. He did it. We are told that he was proved
or tried in temptation and in trial. We saw even last week
in the garden how he was tried. He was tried and found faithful. Even in that last hour before
the cross, he was tried and found faithful. So every time he was
tempted, every time he went through trials, he was always found and
proven to be faithful. And then he was tried of men
and of God, when he went there to the cross without having any
sin, having done nothing wrong or nothing, nothing, nothing. He broke no law, but he fulfilled
all righteousness. And God tried him when he laid
the sin upon him and he put away the sin of his people successfully
so that God raised him from the dead. That's how we know that
he was found, that he was tried and proven and found righteous
because God raised him from the dead. That's how perfect our
Savior is and how proven He is. And so, He that believeth shall
not make haste. In other words, we won't be ashamed.
And I think it uses it in that way, shall not make haste, the
way I see it, is that in the last minute you're not going
to be scrambling. thinking, oh, this isn't enough.
I better get doing, doing, doing, and doing something more. You
won't have to make haste. He's proven. He's sufficient
to the uttermost. All right. So let's go on to
the next one. The stone received. I want to speak a little bit
about those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
who have received Christ. All right. Now, it's by faith
by faith that we receive the Lord Jesus Christ. So by faith, that's how believers
receive the Lord Jesus Christ. These are those who truly believe
were appointed to this faith. They were appointed to this.
We're told over in Acts 13, 1848 that when the Gentiles heard
this Paul was there Preaching and he was speaking to many Jews
at that time and there were there were some prominent Greeks there
as well And that when they heard Paul preaching when they heard
Paul speaking to the Jews when they heard this when they heard
the gospel they were glad and They glorified the word of the
Lord and as many as were ordained ordained chosen to eternal life
They believed. Those whom God ordained to this
very work, to this word, to hear it, they heard and believed.
So faith is not a work of the flesh. Faith is not a work of
our flesh. It's a work of the Holy Spirit.
All right, it's not something that we bring forth of ourselves. It's the gift of God. It's the
Holy Spirit that works that in his people to create and to,
he creates that faith and he reveals faith to the faith which
he's created and put in you, in his people. He's the one that's
revealing Christ to you. Because we see what natural man
does. Natural man trusts in his own righteousness. He trusts
in his own works. He trusts in anything but Christ. And that's what natural man trusts
in. And so it's the spirit that reveals
this faith to the faith which he's given to you. And that faith,
what's so amazing is that faith in all spiritual gifts were obtained
by the Lord Jesus Christ because of his perfect work. When he
died and rose again, The Lord just gave him everything necessary. He obtained, earned, and obtained
everything necessary for your salvation to give freely and
abundantly to his people to ensure that they shall be brought from
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Christ
obtained that for his people. He did that very work. Alright? Now listen to what Christ said
back in John 3. John 3, verse 17 and 18. We're told, therefore God sent
not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through him might be saved. And that world, we know, it's
speaking of not just you Jews, not just you religious Jews,
but God has a people among the ignorant Gentiles scattered throughout
the world, scattered throughout the earth. He has a people among
them as well. And so he that believeth on Christ,
whosoever it is that believes on Christ, they are not condemned. They've passed from death unto
life. They're not condemned anymore. So whoever they are, those that
believe in Christ shall be saved. The reason is because it's Christ.
Salvation is of the Lord. It's not through little things,
little rituals, and little steps that we take. It's a work of
Christ, which He did for His people in the covenant of grace
according to the purpose and the will of God to come to this
earth in the flesh just like we are so that He's a fit sacrifice
fit to do this work and he fulfilled all the law perfectly. He loved
God perfectly and he loved his neighbor perfectly. Everything,
he spoke the truth, he did that which was right and honored God
perfectly so that he was a fit sacrifice and he went to the
cross to do what you and I cannot do for ourselves. And he obtained
righteousness for us and made us righteous by purging us from
our sins. and putting all that away so
that we can know Him and have fellowship with Him once again.
And so He sent His Spirit and gave us life and all those gifts
He imparted to His people willingly and freely, though we didn't
earn any of it of ourselves because He's a perfect substitute and
a perfect sacrifice. And so look at verse 21, that's
what it says. It says there in John 3, 21,
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light. Right. We're going
to come that his deeds may be made manifest that they are brought
in God. God did this. He did this in
his people. All right. And so and that's
what it's saying so clearly over in throughout the scriptures.
But even Paul when he was writing to the Thessalonians in Second
Thessalonians 2 13 he says we're bound to give thanks always to
God for you brethren be loved of the Lord and and you think
about that that you that believe you that believe Christ your
beloved of the Lord that and it says because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit that is separating you apart by the Spirit's work so
that the reason why you're all here in this part of the country
and there's a There's a candlestick here with the light of the gospel
here. And you're hearing it from this
man here, preaching it is all by the purpose and the will of
God who chose you to this and put you here. And he says, you're
beloved, beloved of God, beloved of him. And so he separated you
by the spirit and caused you to believe the truth. belief
of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's Christ the
foundation stone to who we are separated out to. It's him that
we are separated to and we rest upon him as opposed to being
with all the wicked who don't believe him and have rejected
him. And so Christ came preaching and he declared the truth when
he was here and some heard it. And they wanted to kill him for
it, and others heard it, and they believed. They believed
and said, yes, that is, he's the truth. What he's saying is
the truth. I can see him myself in my own flesh. I can't keep
the law perfectly. I need righteousness. I know
that God is perfect and holy. I need righteousness, but I see
I can't do it myself. And yet God has sent him. to
be the very righteousness of his people. And so they heard
and they believed. Some fell away, sure, but they
left. They left, they didn't continue
believing. But others heard and believed. They trusted and rested
in God to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now turn over to 2 Peter. Go to 2 Peter 2. 2nd Peter 2 and look at verse
5. And he says, ye also, 2nd Peter
2, 5. No, that's got to be 1st Peter. Ye also as lively stones are
built up in the spiritual house, that's 1st Peter. Yeah, 1st Peter
2. Sorry about that. He also says, lively stones are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Peter's writing
to those who are born again. They're born again, born of the
Spirit. That's why they're chosen. That's why they're separated.
That's why they're there hearing this letter. They believe. And
he's saying, you're born again. And remember, being born again
is not a work that we do of our flesh. We don't make ourselves
born again. That's how I was raised. You
make yourself born again by your faith. No, then that means faith
is a work of the flesh. We're born again by the work
of the Spirit. Wherefore, also, it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded or ashamed. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. Those are the ones whom Christ
came to bless. You that believe Christ is precious
to you because you hear, you've heard the righteousness of God
and that we can't make ourselves righteous. You've heard this
word and you believe the one who sent it, who says it, the
Lord Jesus Christ and that he's our righteousness. But unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed
or rejected, the same is made the head of the corner. And a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which
stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. And so we see how believers were
appointed. They were ordained to believe.
And then there's unbelievers that were ordained to not believe. They were appointed to that.
Now I just want to say on that point that you that believe,
you that believe, it's because you're a believer. Unbelievers
don't believe Christ. I know that some You know, due
to the shackles of religion and the things that we've heard growing
up, some of you, you hear this, you hear, oh, surely I'm one
of those that are pointed to among the wicked, to unbelieve.
But you believe. So that shows you right there,
you that believe and hope in Christ and know that he is the
righteousness of God and that only he can be your righteousness,
only he is sufficient to make you righteous to God. You believe
because the unbeliever doesn't believe. They don't believe.
They reject that. They trust in their own righteousness.
So it's what what is tripping you up is religion. It's that
religion that says, whoa, whoa, don't be rushing to Christ here.
Let me throw down this stumbling block in your way. Let me put
this hoop here. Let me light this hoop on fire
and make you jump through this hoop first and then jump over
here. And you've got to run over this obstacle course and go up
here and down there and all around here. That's what religion does.
It runs you around ragged because you can't attain to what they've
attained to, at least not so fast. They slow you down. And
yet all we see from the scriptures is that those that believe, even
Philip said to the eunuch when he ran up to the chariot, he
said, if thou believest with all thine heart that Jesus is
the Christ, thou mayest. There's nothing stopping you
from being baptized. Be baptized, trust him, believe
him. If you believe, it's because you're not appointed to unbelief. You're not appointed to the lot
with the wicked. You believe because God has given
you that. The Holy Spirit has worked that
in you. He's shown you and exposed you, exposed dead-letter religion
to you and delivered you from it and given you hope in Him,
the trust in Him. All right, verse 9 there in 1
Peter 2. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. That
ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were
not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not
obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." So I just wanted
to stress that to you so that I know I know the trappings of religion
and how harmful it can be in weighing us down. But if you
believe, give God the glory. Who else can we glorify in that
but the Lord who showed us that and given us a hope, a good hope
that we shall never be ashamed for. That's what it means. We'll
never be ashamed trusting Christ. You trust Him. You believe Him.
You won't be ashamed. You're not going to be exposed
as naked in that day. You'll be covered in His righteousness. You that believe. Alright? So,
those that don't believe, they were appointed to that. They
don't believe that they might go and fall backward and be broken
and snared and taken. But you who believe have been
appointed unto you therefore, he says, Christ is precious. He's precious. And that's why
He's precious. He's precious to you. So, Of him, we are told,
of him are ye, or are we, in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. And you glory in the Lord because
you're not going to be ashamed. You rejoice in what God has done
for us in his son, Jesus Christ. So I pray the Lord will bless
that word and comfort your hearts in Christ. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy and your grace, your
peace and your kindness that you provided abundantly in your
son. Lord, comfort your people. Them that believe and trust in
Christ, that know that He's the Savior. They know that they are
sinners and cannot save themselves. Give them comfort in Christ. Cause them to rest and to continue
in that faith. Believing and rejoicing in what
you've done in your son. That we are of the beloved, the
beloved of God. Lord, we pray for your people
here that you would help us and comfort us and teach us, Lord,
in this walk. And we pray for your people all
over the world, Lord, and all the churches where they are laboring
to declare Christ, who is our foundation. Help us. Keep us looking ever to Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.