I want you to know how much I
appreciate this. This helps me a great deal, believe
it or not. And I just thank the Lord for
you, brothers and sisters. Our Scripture reading for today
is taken from the book of Psalms, Psalms 96. Verses 1-13. Psalm
96. O sing unto the Lord a new song, Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord. Bless his name. Shoo forth his
salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen,
his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations
are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty
are before him. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto
the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come
into his courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Fear before him all the earth.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also
shall be established that in it shall not be moved. he shall
judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord. For he cometh to judge the earth,
he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people
with his truth. May the Holy Spirit add blessing
to the Scripture. Amen. Would you turn to the Psalms
with me if you would? Turn to the 118th Psalm. Psalm 118. And I'd like you to
mark your Bibles because we're going to look at several other
verses this morning. I usually try to avoid jumping
through lots of scriptures, but I've got to be honest with you
folks, this morning has been a struggle for me. I pray the
Lord will give me words of wisdom. I have no notes today, I just
have scriptures to read. I pray the Lord will use these
words from his inerrant Word of God, the Scriptures,
to bless our hearts, to give us peace. One of the things I
love about the Scriptures is that when we look into the Old
Testament and we can plainly see a picture of our Savior. It's like the picture of The
Lord, when Ab and Eve sinned against God, and the Lord, they
tried to cover themselves with the leaves, their own hands,
the works of their own hands, sewed leaves together, tried
to cover up their sin, tried to make themselves look righteous
by doing that, and the Lord showed us a picture of His Son by killing
an animal. See, that picture of beliefs,
that doesn't work. That doesn't do anything because
Adam had sinned. He died spiritually the moment
he sinned. That's what the Lord tells us
in His Word. In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. Adam died. From that moment,
everything he did was filled with death. Leaves don't cut it. The picture
is that we need righteousness. And God gave us a picture of
that very thing when he robed them, both of them, with animal skins. Blood had
been shed for their sake. That's a picture of our Savior,
isn't it? We all know that, right? Well, that's not the only place.
I like it when we see those very things in other parts of Scripture
too. Look at verse 27 with me. I saw this verse, I think it
was Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever, I can't remember where I saw
it at, but I read it and I thought, oh my goodness, there's a message
right there. And though I sat and contemplated it, sat and
contemplated it, when it came right down to putting down words,
I just couldn't do it. So pray that the Lord will be
with me this morning. and that He'll guide my tongue.
Folks, I need it. I need His guidance more than
anything. Because I'm standing up here speaking to God's people.
I'm speaking to you. For you to benefit, the Lord
needs to guide my tongue in what to say. I'm living proof that
men can't do it. I'm living proof that we have
no power within ourselves to do anything but stand up here
and make a fool out of ourselves. But thankfully the Lord gives
us His Word to talk about, pointing you to His Word where there is
truth. Look at verse 27, God is the
Lord which hath showed us light. We see several things right there
in that very first sentence, part of the sentence there. God
is the Lord. He's Lord of everything. He's
sovereign ruler over all that is. That's the God that we worship. We don't worship a God like the
rest of the world, a God who's done everything. He's created
all there is. He's set everything in place,
and now He's waiting for you. to accept His love and His righteousness
and His mercy. No, that's not the God we worship,
is it? The God of Scripture declares
Himself to be maker and creator of all that is, as we read in
John chapter 1, and we'll get to that in a moment. So we see
that God is Lord, what a word to say there, which hath showed,
revealed, illuminated, whole world, not all of mankind,
not all of his creation, but us. You see the distinction that
God makes in his word? First off, he declares, I'm sovereign.
I'm lord of everything. And then he declares, it's because
of me, he says, that you see anything at all, that you're
not wandering around in darkness like you were when you came into
this world. What is darkness? What is the
darkness of this world? It's unbelief. It's the unbelief
of who God is. It's the unbelief of what He
has done. Oh yeah, yeah, He went to the
cross and died for the sins of some people, of all the people,
you know, but it's up to us to make that decision. It's up to
us to follow. It's our responsibility to get
up and change our ways. That's not what the Lord is telling
us at all here in this very word. This is one verse. One verse
in the Old Testament where we can see the Lord Jesus Christ
completely, and we'll get to that in a moment as well. Let's
go on with this verse. It says, bind the sacrifice with
cords. He's shown us Let the blood, for their sakes,
bind the sacrifice with cords. Not me. I can't bind God with
anything. He's bound Himself. Let me turn
over to Acts chapter 2 for just a moment. We're going to turn
there together as well. I want to read this, Acts chapter
2. In Acts chapter 2, verse 23,
it says, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. If He's bound by anything, it's
by Himself. What cords could bind the Lord
Jesus Christ? The cords could bind God Himself
but Himself. Back in Genesis, we see where
the Lord inspired Abraham to take his son. He told him to
take your son up onto the mountain and sacrifice him. And he took
Isaac up and he had the fire, the wood, sacrifice,
but he didn't have a lamb. And Isaac says, Father, where's
the lamb? And Abraham says, Don't worry,
son. God will provide Himself. There's the cord. There's the
cord that God is bound with, and it's the cord of His own
doing, it's called the covenant of grace. God the Father gave
God the Son a people. He gave Him a people that God
the Son, in that covenant, would save to the uttermost. That He
would become flesh, that He would walk this earth, manifest in
the flesh, that He would die on the cross. the death that
His people deserved. That's what the Lord Jesus, that's
what God is bound by. Nothing by you and I. If He was
bound by anything that you and I could do, then it wouldn't
be called grace, would it? Grace is unmerited favor, is
that correct? Isn't that right? He's bound by the cords of love. even unto the horns of the altar. Oh, how the Lord has bound himself
to the cords of love that would drive him all the way to Calvary. For us, Mike. For you. For us, Becky. God did that for
us. When we can wrap our minds around
the depth of God sending His only begotten Son to die for
us, that's a love that if we could just wrap our minds around
it, we'll believe those words where He says, and let me just
turn over there so I don't get it wrong, over in Romans chapter
8, where it says, who also maketh intercession
for us. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Isn't that good news? That's
the gospel. Jesus Christ loved the people.
He was bound by the cords of love even to the death of the
cross. Isn't that wonderful news? Oh,
see what I mean? Have I missed it? Did I misread
anything here? Do you see what I'm saying? On
how this points us to our Savior? Here it is in the Old Testament.
I don't know how long it was. I'm not a big, deep theologian.
But I know it was a long time before Christ ever walked this
earth. A long time! It was 400 years between the
days of Malachi and John the Baptist, which were the two prophets.
The last prophet of the Old Testament and the first prophet of the
New. I love seeing how deep, how wonderful
my Savior's love for me is. I can't wait to have some folks
in here next Sunday that have heard this before and will hear
it again. At least one. You may have never
heard it before. God is the Lord. Mark your Bibles. We're going
to turn over to Psalms 95 for just a moment. Go back to Psalm
95. Look at verses 4 and 5. is Lord. Verses 4 and 5 of Psalm 95, in
His hand are the deep places of the earth. You can take that as far as you
can and not go too far with it. The deep places It's the very dust that floats
in the air. That's pretty deep. For the Lord is a great God,
and in His hand are the deep places of the earth, the strength
of the hills is His also. You see how you can take that
and just keep going with it? You can grab a hold of that and
run for miles and miles and miles, and it still does one thing.
It points us to his sovereignty. I was asked the other day, we
had a pretty big deal out here on Tuesday. We have what's called
a national night out here at Rescue. The fire department sponsors
a bunch of people. They get a hold of all kinds
of different sheriff's departments, rescue departments. I mean, everybody. There was even a politician out
here advertising for herself while they were here. And somebody
asked me, so what kind of Baptist church is this? You know, there's
more Baptist churches than there are any other religion out there,
I think. You've got Southern Baptist,
you've got Calvary Baptist, you've got this Baptist, that Baptist. And I said, well, we're Sovereign
Baptist. I never heard that. Of course not. Of course not. The world doesn't teach that
God is sovereign. Oh, they say He is. Oh, yeah,
He created everything. Oh, yeah, He's God of all the
dust. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. He's not going over me. I make my own decision when I'm
ready to come to Him. I did that. This is exactly how
John did it. Mom, she won't get mad because
I tell you this. Mom, I have my own relationship with God.
Don't you worry about it. I had no idea who God was. I just wanted to get her off
my back. In his hand are the deep places
of the earth, and the earth The strength of
the hills are His also. Look at verse 5. The sea is His,
and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Folks, God is ruler over all
that is. He is the sovereign Lord. He's not just Lord, He's Lord
of Lords, King of Kings. And we worship Him as such. We give Him all the glory. You
know, we didn't used to do that, did we? Each and every one of
us can remember a time when we walked in the darkness of this
world where there was no light in us. And we thought to ourselves,
I'm not such a bad guy. I heard Gene say this once. Oh,
I sold a few oats. I won't tell you any of the stories,
but I've heard stories of him and Larry Kent. And sowing wild
oats is not quite what you would call it. I'm not going to embarrass myself
by expressing any of the wild oats that I sowed, but I'll call
it that just for that sake, you know, to get past the embarrassment
part. We remember, don't we? That song we sing once I was
blind, but now I see. It means something, doesn't it? It truly means something. God is Lord, sovereign ruler
of all that is, and then He declares this to us, which showed We walked in that darkness until
the day we heard the Gospel preached for the first time. I don't mean
that we heard it, maybe we had heard it once or twice in our
lifetime, but we never heard it with ears of the heart. We
never heard it with a heart that loved Him. We never heard it
with the heart that turns away from the world and turns to Him.
He's our Lord. He wasn't my Lord before He was.
I just didn't know it. He's everybody's Lord. We just
didn't know it. Then the day came when He drew
us to His Gospel. And we heard the truth for the
first time. We didn't hear about a God that
was trying. We didn't hear about a God that was waiting. We heard
of God who does what he is purposed to do. That's the sovereign God
of Scriptures. And that's the God that shines
the light of his Son in the hearts of people who were once dead
in trespasses and sin, but are now quickened, as it says in
Ephesians. Quickened, made alive. Lazarus was dead, wasn't he?
Just to prove that point to you and I, it's recorded in scripture
where he said something to Mary. Mary turns around and says, Lord,
he's been in the grave four days. He's stinking. That's how dead
he is. He's stinking. We were dead. He trespasses and
sins. We can't reach over to the nightstand
and pick up the medication. Dead people can't do that. Yet
God shines the light by giving life to dead people. That's what
we see here. The Lord, which has showed us
light. Well, what is that light? Turn
over, if you would, to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Mark your place. We're going
to come back there to that verse in Psalm 118. Look over at John 1, beginning
at verse 1, read through 4. In the beginning, this is the
Lord Jesus Christ, God. God is Lord. I'm going to show
you that Jesus Christ is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it is He which showed us the light. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life. And the life was the light of
men. Do you see that? Just in case you're
wondering about what that Word, the Word that is God, the Word
that was with God, the Word that is God, look over at verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory. The glory is the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth." Turn over to Acts
chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. We're considering
who it is He's the Lord. And we're considering
it for who it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
here at Acts 2.16. That's not what I was meaning
to look at. 36, I'm sorry, I don't know where
I got 16 at. Dyslexic, look at verse 36 here. And Cassie's going, no. She knows me, by the way. Today
we are, you know, I gotta stop for just a moment. Blessings of God, you wanna talk
about blessings of God? This woman has put up with me
for 48 years as of today. 48 years. I'm so thankful for you. I'm so thankful for you. Verse 36, we're talking about
the Lord. We're talking about Jesus Christ
who is God. the word that we just read about
back in John chapter 1. Here in verse 36 of Acts chapter
2, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that
means completely, let all the house of Israel understand this
with full authority, completely, that Jesus Christ, that God hath
made that same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ. Who is it we're reading about
back there that says God is the Lord? We're reading about the
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. That's who. It says next that He hath showed
us light. Turn over to 2 Corinthians, if
you would, chapter 4. 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. I just mentioned a moment ago
how we all remember a time when we once walked in darkness. I don't want to get ahead of
myself with next week's message, but I've had so many conversations
with my sister Shirley over that very thing. Surely, Kathy and I were one
time just like this. Before they moved off to Colorado,
when they came back from Kansas, we were so close. You could find
us camping together, sitting on the back porches of each other's
house, barbecuing, all those different things that you would
think a family so knit and so tight would be. If anybody in this world knows
me as well, if not better, than that woman sitting there who's
been with me for 48 years, it's my brother Lee and his wife Shirley. Oh, the times we spent talking. And then the Lord called us all
out of darkness. Lee and Shirley first, of course.
Many years later, myself and then Kathy as well. We remember, don't we, that darkness. Today, the light of Jesus Christ
shines in all of our hearts. That's the message we want to
give to the world. Pray for me as I try to put together
a message that would honor our Lord, that would honor our Lord
for next Sunday. Folks, Jesus Christ is the One
who is the Light. And He's the One who shines the
Light in our hearts. Look over at 2 Corinthians 4. Look at verses 1-6 if you would. Therefore see, we have this ministry
as we received mercy. We faint not. But have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor
handling of the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. Now get
this next part. Read this with care. May God
place this in your heart with to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I think we looked
at this last week. Turn over to Ephesians. Go over
to the right there to Ephesians. Chapter 1. I think I looked at this last
week. Verse 17, "...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling, what the riches of His glory, of His inheritance in
the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward
who believe according to the working of His mighty power. Christ shines the light, the
light of Himself. He is the light of the world,
as we read back there in John chapter 1. He is the light of
the world. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
1. Hebrews chapter 1. This is the description that
God has given us of His Son. In Hebrews 1, verse 3, we read
these words, "...who being the brightness..." Do you know when
Paul saw the brightness of the Lord Jesus Christ for the first
time, remember? He had been sent out with letters
to persecute the church, and God shined His light He was blinded as those scales
were on His eyes. He was blinded. This is that
light right here in verse 3, "...who being the brightness
of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high." Turn over to John chapter 3.
I told you we're going to look at a lot of Scripture here. We're
about halfway through and it's almost 12, so I don't think I'll
get through everything. Turn over to John chapter 3. We're talking about this One
who has shined the light in our hearts. The One who is the light
of the world. As we read about here in John
chapter 3, beginning at verse 17, son into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through him might be saved. 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 condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil." We never thought
that before, did we? We never saw that before until
the Lord shined His light through the preaching of His Word. I
remember, not the exact time when I heard these scriptures,
but I remember at one point where I had heard them and I thought
to myself, that's what that means! Gene was up there preaching about
it, and that makes more sense about the light of the Bible
than anything I've ever heard! The Word of God is the light
of the world, but only to those that He loves! only to those
that He shines that light in, as we read back in our text,
which has showed us the light. It says next, bind the sacrifice,
spread the sacrifice with cords, cords of love. Look over Ephesians
chapter 1 again, this time the first four verses, or first 4
through 7. This is the love of God. This
is what He's bound by, by His promise, by His determinate counsel,
by the covenant of grace. Look at verse 4 of Ephesians
chapter 1. According as He hath chosen us
in Him, that's God the Father choosing us in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame. that last part of verse 4, in
love. Now, I know that they put that
on the last part of verse 4, but remember the original language
never had any verses with it. So if you pick it up right there,
to me it reads better. To me it declares the love of
God more earnestly. It says, if you read it this
way, in love, Because He loved us. Because of the binding sacrifice
of the sacrifice with the cords of love. Because of that love,
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
To the praise of the glory of His grace. Stop there for just
a moment. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, at
the end of the chapter, He that glorieth what? Glory in the Lord. That's what this is right here.
According to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Jeremiah. I'll turn over there
and read this for you real quick. Jeremiah chapter 31. We read these words. We're talking
about the bind, the sacrifice with cords. The cords of love. The very love that God Almighty
has for a people. The very love that God prepared
a body to send to this world for. In Jeremiah 31, verse 3,
we read these words. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Before anything was ever created,
before the foundations of the world as we read a moment ago
in Ephesians. in love, having predestinated
us. He hath loved us with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness I have drawn thee." Because of
that love, because of the love, the cords of love, the sacrifice
was bound and had to happen. Listen to this, if you would.
I'm going to try to get through this in the next few moments,
but you'll bear with me. Listen to this. In the light of this Scripture,
we behold... This is Don Fortner, by the way.
In the light of this Scripture, we behold the wondrous grace
of our covenant God, who has made His light to shine upon
us in the face of Jesus Christ. He who is the Lamb slain since
the foundation of the world is the one to whom the sacrifice
cords point. The very altar to which He was
bound for our eternal redemption as His elected children. This
binding was not by force of man, but by the will of God. And the
willing offering of the Son, who gave Himself in love for
His chosen people. Here is the glory of sovereign
grace. Not that we sought Him, but that
He sought us. He is marvelous light. That's
what that verse is saying. God is the Lord, which has showed
us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords,
even unto the horns of the altar. Who's your altar? Horns of the altar. I'll bring
this to a close. Christ is my altar. He's not
only my altar, He's the one who is sacrificed on that altar.
Turn over to John chapter 3 if you would. John chapter 3. And I'll bring this to a close
with that. John chapter 3. Picture what an altar is. I'll bet you
all got something in your mind, don't you? In the Old Testament,
it shows us and describes how to build altars. A lot of those
altars were made with rocks. Many a times in those altars,
the Lord said, don't hew anything with your hands. You know, just
take rocks, pull them up out of the river at bed. Whatever. stack better, just take rocks. Don't mess them up with your
hands. That's what he's telling them.
And build up an altar, and so you build up this altar and he,
wait a minute, you gotta build it up. When you think of altar,
do you think like me? You gotta build it up. You gotta
build it up, why? So it can be above, so you can
see it. We don't wanna lay it down on the ground, put something
on the ground, no, build up an altar. Here's an altar. Vipers would come into the camp
of Israel. The people of Israel, God's chosen
people, came into the camp and started biting people. And people
started dying. And Moses went to God and said,
Lord, help us, as we all do when we get to needing God, right?
Lord, help us. And the Lord said, take a pole,
one that's high enough, an altar, put it up there and put a brazen
serpent on it. What was everybody doing? They
were looking at the altar. And they were looking at the
sacrifice on that altar. A picture of the very one who
is Lord of all. The very one who is God, the
Lord. which hath showed us the light.
Bind the sacrifices with cords even unto the horns of the altar. You know what the horns of the
altar represent? That's representing the horns on the outside of the
mercy seat. Remember what the mercy seat
was? You're supposed to put two, or a share of them on each corner. Kind of gave them like little
horns. Jesus Christ is our mercy seat. That's where our mercy comes
from. It's from Him. I have a message for next Sunday. And the mercy seat is that message. God is merciful
to whom He will be merciful to. That's grace. He's not bound
by anything men can do. He's not bound by any goodness
that's in you. He's only bound by His mercy. And He will be merciful to whom
He will be merciful. Are you with me here? In John
chapter 3, look at verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. I don't know. I don't know. I just don't know. I don't know
nothing. But I know this, the Lord Jesus
is God Almighty. He's my God. I pray that He's
yours as well. Lord be with you folks. Stand
with me if you would and turn to page 183. It's fitting, you
know, before she sets off the thing, I gotta point this out. It's fitting that I close today's
message with raising my Savior up like the brazen serpent. Look what the psalm is that we're
going to sing for closing on 183. Beneath the cross of Jesus. Isn't that something? She picks
out the psalms. Ultimately though, it's God Almighty
who does that, right? It's God Almighty who does that.
We're beneath the cross of Jesus looking unto Him, our Savior,
our God.