and preached through Jesus the
resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and
put them in hold until the next day, for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard
the word believed, and the number of the men was about 5,000. It
came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes
And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander,
and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered
together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you
done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent
man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become
the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. And now when they saw
the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were
unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge
of them and to acknowledge of them that they had been with
Jesus, and beholding the man which was healed standing with
him, they could say nothing against it." Stop there. Our Father, blessed be the name
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we're here, you brought
us here this morning from many different parts of this country,
and even from places outside of this country, for one purpose,
and that's to hear your Son lifted up and magnified and glorified
and honored. Christ and Him crucified. Crucified
on behalf of an undeserving, unworthy people that you had
given Him. Many of those undeserving, unworthy people are here this
morning, you've gathered, We delight to hear once again about
our Lord and our Savior. We pray for those who can't be
with us. As they've been mentioned, you are with them still. We give
you thanks for these two men that you have brought our way
and that they have brought the gospel to us. They have brought
us good news from far countries. And we delight in their presence.
And most of all, we delight in their Lord and delight in their
message that they're going to bring. For we know that they
are going to stand here in a few minutes and preach Christ to
us. We ask that you give them the power of your spirit, that
you open their understanding and give them words to preach
to us, and that you open our understanding. We know that when
your son is lifted up, when you have gathered two or three people
here in his name, we will hear the gospel. We give you thanks
for that. What a privilege, what a blessing,
what an honor to be able to be called Christ, our big brother,
and to be able to call you our father through him. We know that
our sins have been put away. We know that before you in him,
we are clean. We've been robed in his righteousness.
Our sins have been purged and washed away by his blood. And
we never get tired of hearing about our savior. Bless us today,
Father. Bless those who must leave after
the services this morning as they travel back. And we'll give
you all the praise, honor, and glory. In Christ's name, for
his sake. Amen. I don't know about tomorrow. I must live from day to day. I can't watch. For its skies may turn to grey
I can't worry o'er the future But I know what Jesus said And
today I'll look unto Him For he knows what lies ahead Many
things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand But I know
who holds tomorrow And I know who holds my hand I don't know
about tomorrow. It may bring me poverty. But the one who feeds the sparrow
is the Lord who saveth me. And the path that He might portion
may be through the flame or flood, but His presence goes before
me, and I'm covered with His blood. Things about tomorrow I don't
seem to understand But I know who holds tomorrow And I know
who holds my hand Every day I'm getting closer to the time I
see his face. For the one who paid my ransom,
save me by His sovereign grace. And the One who drew me to Him
will not fail to bring me o'er in the day of no tomorrows, in
His presence evermore. Savior, I must journey through
this land. Yes, I know who holds tomorrow. And I know who holds my way. Thank you. That was excellent
and such a blessing to us. It's been good to have Pastor
Wells with us for these few days. I think I met you lots of years
ago in Tennessee, Crossville, I think. And we kind of got reacquainted
down in Jacksonville. a few months ago. And God in
His providence has directed him to come and preach to us. We're thankful that you could
be here in Tim's absence. Continue to pray for brother
Tim and his family. Billy is Tim's older brother
and he's in very poor health. And we pray for them in that
situation. But God ordained for you to be
here. And we're so thankful to have
you. Pastor Wells, you come preach
to them. So good to see you. So good to
be here. I thank your dear pastor for
the invitation to come and for God's providence in allowing
me to be here. I have to say happy anniversary
to my wife. Today's the 11th of November.
This is 48 years and two months. I determined a long time ago
if I hit every 11th, I'd hit the right one once a year. I was 35 years old when I heard
the gospel. And after that, I went through
a little bit of, I wish I'd been saved sooner. And a verse of scripture came
to my mind from the book of Galatians, when it pleased God. And that settled the issue. would
it please God. This morning would you turn with
me to the book of Leviticus chapter 8. I want to read a couple of
verses there and then go back to the book of Exodus. I have so appreciated your fellowship,
your kindness, Your handshakes, I was told this morning by a
brother, you're the first person I've ever met from Oregon. And
I said, I hope that's a good experience. Did we represent,
I'm an anomaly from Oregon, I'm a conservative. Leviticus chapter 8, and I want to read verse 2. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the
bullock for a sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened
bread. I would like to spend a little
time this morning on that thought, and the garments. and in particular
one garment, and would you turn back with me to the book of Exodus.
Here it tells us they had garments made in the book of Exodus that
describes those garments. So let's go back to the book
of Exodus and chapter 28 and the one I would like to look
at this morning in these various pieces is his robe. There was a linen garment, and
Brother Ron and I were just talking about this this morning. There
was a linen garment that was next to the body of the priests. And that linen garment represented
the righteousness of Christ. Now when we study about the Lord
Jesus Christ and his righteousness, ever gave that up for one moment. He was forever righteous. He
is eternally righteous. He never gave up his righteousness.
And that robe depicts that very thing. It was his character. It is his character. It is his
nature. to be righteous, and it is only
in Christ that we're righteous. We have absolutely no righteousness
of our own. In fact, the description of our
righteousness in scripture is very clear. It's filthy rags,
and we're in desperate need of the clean righteousness of Christ,
and he robes us with that. Well, there are several elements
to the garments that these priests wore, and in Exodus chapter 28
and verse 31, we read these words, and thou shall make the robe
of the ephod all of blue, and there shall be a hole in the
top of it, and in the midst thereof, and it shall have a binding of
woven work round about the whole of it, as it were the whole of
a herbargon, that it may be not rent. Now there's more to this, but
that's where I would like to spend my morning this morning.
There is a garment, a garment of blue that was made and it
was placed on the high priest and it had a hole in it and around
that hole. Now, I'm not gonna pull my t-shirt
out to show you, but we have it in a sense today. that row
around our shirts that keep them from coming undone easily, becoming
to be rent. We have that description here
about this robe that the high priest wore. Now, this robe was
one piece and we find that there's one God, one faith. There is not a bunch of faiths,
there is one faith. and we find that there will be
a place a hole at the top in the middle for the head of the
priest and this hole was specially woven to prevent ripping or tearing. It had a woven collar. Now this collar, as I've looked
into the scriptures and I pray that I can deliver this, this
woven collar speaks tremendous volumes about the glory and presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the assaults that were placed
upon him He never tore. He never gave in. All of the blasts that came upon
him, we find as we look at this, And we consider this beautiful
piece of blue robe as was put on Aaron, a hole for his head
was sewn in such a way to prevent ripping and tearing. The splendors
of this is innumerable for us, where we find that there's going
to be a constant assault on God Almighty and a constant assault
on His Son, and yet they never change. They are always the same. He was tempted You know, I've
been tempted, but I don't know the kind of temptations he went
through because he never gave in to temptation. I am tempted
with good vanilla ice cream. And you know what? When I get
tempted with good vanilla ice cream, I go down to the grocery
store and I get it. And my wife says, you're eating
too much of it. We are tempted in many ways,
and that's just a minor statement, but the Lord Jesus Christ was
tempted in all ways. We are tempted, and yet His robe
never tore. He was tempted in all ways that
we're tempted, yet without sin. Not one. He didn't have a thought. I cannot imagine what it was
a blessing for Mary and Joseph to raise the Lord Jesus from
infancy, from birth up and then have the next child born. What'd
they say? What in the world? This one was, he never cried,
he was the perfect son, and we get the next one come along.
Well, they had that problem, just like we have our problems
with our children in Rurinan, but they never had one problem
with that one son. He never thought an evil thought.
He never wanted to go to an evil place. He never did anything
that was wrong. He was perfect. He was the holy,
righteous Son of God. And He came in that capacity
to save His people from their sins. They are undone. He is perfect. He had this robe
on as the high priest did, and he had a collar that was sewn
in so it couldn't be ripped out, but he was going to be under
assault from every direction, but he never tore. Look with me if you would to
the Book of Matthew Chapter 4. The master of deceit attempted
to bend him, the devil himself. Now, the devil never made Eve
sin or eat that fruit, and the devil did not make Adam eat that
fruit, and the devil has never made you do anything. It's our
nature. It's our nature. I had a brother
that by the age of 18 was a full-blown alcoholic. And I'd go home and
my dad said, it's the people he's running with. And I just
said, no, they run with him because they agree with him. It's not
the people you run with, it's you, it's me, we're the problem. But there's hope in Christ Jesus
because he didn't have that problem. He's the holy righteous son of
God. When he laid down his life for
ransom for many, it was a clean ransom because he didn't have
to pay for himself. Here in the book of Matthew chapter
4, we find the Lord Jesus Christ is tempted by the greatest tempter,
the deceiver, The devil himself, and in Matthew chapter 4, the
devil got a hold of his collar. He says, I'm going to see if
I can't rip this tight bound opening in your garment. I'm going to grab a hold of this
and let's follow what the Lord said here in Matthew chapter
4, when he went under the severest of temptation, and it says, Matthew
chapter 4, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil. This event was absolutely predestinated. It must be done because in the
council halls of eternity, God demanded this. Now, I had a lady
one time that attended church there in the Dalles, and she
said she believed the doctrines of grace. She believed in election
and predestination. And in one of my messages, I
mentioned that every step that Jesus Christ took during his
personal ministry on the face of the earth was a step laid
out in heaven ahead of time. She says, I can't believe that.
I says, I'm sorry. Every step he took. was laid
out, there was a map in heaven and he's just following it out.
Every person he met, every word he said, every event that took
place was absolutely predestinated before the foundation of the
world. He is God and he worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. And he's still doing it. He was led in the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days
and 40 nights, he was afterward a hundred, demonstrating his
humanity. The God-man. He's not 50% God
and 50% man. He's 100% God and 100% man, yet
without sin. And when the tempter came, to him and said, if thou be the
son of God, command that these stones be made bread. I can just
see in picture. We're going to see how far we
can stretch this. How well will this binding hold if thou be
the son of man? You know what we do? Well, I'm
going to show him. God Almighty told him. But he
answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, when
the devil taketh him up into the holy city. Now who's in charge
here? Not the devil. Jesus Christ is in charge here.
The devil is taking the steps that were purposed before the
foundation of the world. He's God's devil. He took him up into the holy
city, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down. For it is written, He shall give
his angels charge concerning thee. And in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone. And Jesus said unto him, It is
written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Then said Jesus unto him, Get
thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve, then the devil leaveth
him. Three times in this passage of
scripture the great deceiver grabbed ahold of that wonderful
collar on this robe of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
tried to tug and pull out the threads and make Jesus, what
he wasn't, but he couldn't because Jesus Christ is the perfect Son
of God. The attempts to remove him physically
are recorded a number of times in the Gospels where those who
did not like his preaching He went to his hometown. After I
was saved, I went to my hometown. I went to the church where I
grew a pin. I asked the pastor for just a moment to tell the
folks that God had saved me by his free and sovereign grace.
He gave it to me. And there was one person in that
whole congregation that said, I know what you mean. And the
rest said, I don't believe it. Now, I believe if that man really
understood what I was talking about, he could not have gone
there. The Lord Jesus Christ went to his own community. He
preached the sovereignty of God. He preached the sovereignty of
Christ. He preached the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit to that congregation
of people, and they picked up stones to kill him. They grabbed
ahold of him one more time and tried to pull all of that strength
out of him. He was worship, he was speaking
of his eternality, and many of them took up stones to kill him.
Before Abraham was, I am. Abraham was glad to see my day,
and they said, You're not even 40 years old. What are you talking
about? The attempts that were made on
the Lord Jesus Christ to rip this wonderful robe, the collar
out that was made strong in the eternal purpose of Almighty God. The Lord very person was attempted
to rend them religious people attempting to speak to him and
correct him and speak down to him. How dare your apostles go
through the field and eat grain on the Sabbath? Did you know
those apostles did? But Jesus didn't. He kept the law. They spoke down to him to find
fault with him. Everywhere he went, there was
somebody finding fault with him. And if he had been you and I,
in some respects, he'd have given in and said, OK, I want to be
your friend. Jesus Christ did not give into
any of the assaults that were brought against him. In fact,
those assaults that were waged against him were absolutely purpose
before the foundation of the world and that he would be the
savior of his people. I've heard and I probably said
from time to time, friends, we got this brother or this sister
or this child that is sick and we need to pray. And if we can
get the more people to pray for this person, the more we can
get, let's get a prayer chain going. Let's get it around the
world. The more people that we can get to pray for this incident,
we can change God's mind. In Malachi, the prophet wrote,
for I am the Lord, I change not. I don't want to get involved
in something that happened over 150 years ago, or 140 years ago. But there were people on the
southern army praying to God for victory. And there were people
on the northern armies praying for victory and for the will
of God. And you know what? Every one of them found out.
They were right if they prayed for the will of God. God's will was performed, whether
we can see it or not. I change not, I am the Lord,
I change not. Preachers have declared that
God has done all he can do. They grab a hold of that collar
and say he's done all he can do, now it's up to you. Well,
we find that he who worketh all things after this counsel of
his own will is doing all he is doing. And nobody can stay
his hand or say, what do I stop? When we get to reading that passage
of scripture, that passage of scripture is by a pagan king
that God turned out to pasture and he brought him back in and
he makes that comment about the Lord. He says, there is none
that can stay his hand or say, what doest thou? He is the sovereign
ruler of all things and always has been and always will be.
There will be no distortion of him. The theory of evolution
did not start in the classroom. The theory of evolution started
in the pulpits. Cain was a believer in evolution. By these vegetables, I can raise
my level up. And Abel was to declare, by this
sacrifice, I'm admitting I am in a pit, a horrible pit. and there is only one way for
me to ever get out of this horrible pit. He must lift me out, but
when he does, he will set me on the solid rock and he will
put a song in my heart and I will glorify the Almighty God that
lifted me out of a horrible pit. Evolution is being taught all
over in schools, but it's taught everywhere in religious organizations. Brother Rupert Reibenbach preached
out at Oregon one time, and he made this comment. He made several
people really upset, but it's the truth. He said there is more
sinning going on Sunday morning in America than ever took place
Saturday night. When people are lying on God,
that's far worse than people drinking Saturday night. Not one thread of his glorious
being has been rent. When he was arrested and tried
and crucified, the enemy boasted of all they had accomplished. Yet it was done to redeem his
sheep. Turn with me, if you would, to
John chapter 10. This garment, not like our garment. We wear out our clothes by washing
them. Just look at the lit basket. God's holiness is never worn
out. We'll never find any lint from
it. The strands stay put. They don't come undone. It is woven in such a fashion
in the purpose of grace that they will never, ever come unraveled. You'll never go to church and
have your wife, oh, let me get that thread that's coming out
of your coat. that thread that's coming off your, that's one out
of your shirt. It never happens. When the Lord Jesus Christ does
his business, no one sees any open threads because the garment
stays intact, has always stayed intact, will forever stay intact.
He is the righteous holy son of God, and because he's sitting
at the right hand of the throne of majesty, he is telling us,
I've finished the work. that I was set out to do. Here
in the book of John chapter 10 verses 11 through 18, we find
the Lord Jesus speaking. John chapter 10 verse 11, and
it says, I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is in
hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the
wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. You know what? Men
have the tendency of having their collars pulled around. But not God. He is absolutely
stable. One of the most difficult things
for me to have ever faced is to find out, as Paul wrote to
the Galatians, if I or an angel from heaven ever preach anything
else, don't listen to me. And when you find out that faithful,
faithful, faithful preachers of God's righteousness have failed. We take hold of God and said
He changes not. His gospel changes not because
sin hasn't changed. Gospel hasn't changed. God hasn't
changed. Man hasn't changed. We need this. We need something to hang on
to. Grip God Almighty in Christ Jesus. He will never fail. Tells us there, in verse 14,
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and have known of mine.
As the father knoweth me, even so know I the father, and I lay
down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold. Them also must I bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one shepherd. And in
verse 22, and many of them said, he hath the devil and is mad.
Well, I hear you. Verse 22, and it was at Jerusalem,
the feast of the dedication of the winter, Jesus walked into
the temple in Solomon's porch. And when the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. Now I may ask the question, you
may ask the question, why are all those folks on the left-hand
side at that great day? Jesus answered the question right
here. We don't have to make excuses for them. You believe not, because you're
not my sheep. My youngest brother asked me
one time, when I was talking to him about the gospel, he said,
what about all of those folks in other countries that never
get to hear? And I said, I want to share with you the same words
that a pastor told me when I asked exactly the same question. The
issue is not with them, but what think ye of Christ? That's the
issue. Let's don't put it over there.
Everybody that stands on the left-hand side at that great
day, there's no excuse. Jesus said, you believe not because
you're not my sheep. Most of Israel died in the wilderness. Why? Because they believed not. They had the gospel preached
unto them just like we do. But they died in the wilderness
before they entered the promised land. And in the book of Hebrews,
it declares because of unbelief. Why will you there be all the
hosts on the left side? That's the reason. This seamless
garment of blue with the reinforced hole in the top of the head for
the head of the priest that was made such as not to tear speaks
of the perfect, eternal, altogether righteous Savior. Jesus Christ,
who is the only Savior without Him, declares man hopeless. With him, all hope. All hope is found in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Without him, there is no hope. There's nothing to hang on to.
It's a slippery slope. It's a downhill pass. In him,
we don't actually hold on to him. He holds on to us, but we
get to act like it. I just love to see granddads
holding their grandsons or granddaughters. You know, that grandson thinks
he's holding on, but he's really being supported by granddad.
That's the thing. We're being supported by our
heavenly father. We just get to hang on and pretend
like we're holding him. What a blessing it is to have
a Savior that is complete, true, holy, righteous, altogether,
without sin. And that Savior said, I give
my life a ransom. Ransom means this. There's an
implication of slavery. A lot of people don't want to
know what that means. We're slaves to sin. And he paid
a ransom. That means he paid the ransom
price to redeem sinners. And that ransom price is his
own blood. And his own blood is pure and
changes not. It's not tainted. It doesn't
have any impurities. So blessed, blessed is the people. that here, that glorious sound,
salvation is of the Lord. Let's go to Psalm 226. Thank
you for the message, brother. And all four of your messages have been
such a blessing. Let's stand together and we'll
sing this 226, and then we're gonna take a little bit of a
break and we'll, when you hear the musicians strike up a few
notes, then you find your place. 226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His
word indeed Christ died for sinners, this I read For in my heart I
find the need Of Him to be my Savior that he should leave his
place on high and come for sinful men to die. You counted strange,
so must it I, before I knew my Savior. Know that He fulfilled my seek,
the turning of His soul in me, and with His Word contented me,
as I with my dear Savior. Day-living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring That He who lives to be
my King Must try to be my Savior