The Gospel shows the Father's
grace, Who sent His Son to save our race, Proclaims how Jesus
lived and died, Proclaims how Jesus lived and died, that sinners
might be justified, that sinners might be justified. It sets the Lamb before our eyes,
Who made the atoning sacrifice, And calls the souls with guilt
oppressed, And calls the souls with guilt oppressed, To come
and find eternal rest. to come and find eternal rest. It brings the Savior's righteousness,
Our souls to robe in royal dress. From all our guilt it brings
release, From all our guilt it brings release, And gives the
troubled conscience peace. and gives the troubled conscience
peace. It is the power of God to save
from sin and Satan and the grave. It works the faith which firmly
clings. It works the faith which firmly
clings to all the treasures which it brings. to all the treasures
which it brings. It bears to all the tidings glad
and bids their hearts no more be sad. The heavy laden souls
it cheers The heavy laden souls it cheers, And banishes their
guilty fears, And banishes their guilty fears. May we in faith its tidings learn,
Nor thanklessly May we in faith its truth confess,
May we in faith its truth confess, And praise the Lord, our righteousness,
And praise the Lord, our righteousness. All right, our first speaker
this evening is no stranger to this congregation, Pastor Gary
Shepherd. He pastors the Sovereign Grace
Baptist Church in Jacksonville, North Carolina. And so glad that
he could come up and be with us again this year, and glad
that Betty could join him. And we're delighted to have him.
And Gary, you come and preach the gospel of grace to us. May the Lord be with you. Let me say how thankful I am
to be here. It's hard for me to imagine that
I've been back to the same place more than once. I've been a lot
of places in my ministry once, so I'm always thankful if I get
to Come back. I'm thankful for this congregation. I'm thankful for this pastor
and his family and for these other brethren. And I'd invite you tonight to
turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 32. I take the title of my message
tonight from that last phrase in verse 3. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. But I'll go back and read beginning
in verse 1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender earth. and as the showers upon the grass,
because I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness
unto our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity,
Just and right is He. When I was a little boy, they taught me to rehearse and recite
what they called a prayer. And it began with these words,
God is good, God is great. But I knew nothing of the greatness
of God. And I only found out something
of the greatness of God through the gospel. I found out when the Spirit of
God began to reveal to me the glory of grace." Moses spoke these words to a
very rebellious, idolatrous people. They're part of what is called
the Song of Moses. And if you look back at verse
27 of chapter 31, he says to this people, For I know thy rebellion
and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive
with you this day, You have been rebellious against the Lord,
and how much more after my death? Then in verse 29, he says, For
I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves,
and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil
will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil
in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through
the work of your hands." Now, after he tells them this, he
speaks what he does in chapter And in the same way, we have
at this very hour a gospel for like sinners. He spoke these
words to a people that he already knew exactly how they would be
and what they would do. And he tells them, in these words,
to ascribe greatness unto our God. And the truth is, when we
proclaim the true gospel, we ascribe greatness to God and
not man. And likewise also, when we believe
the gospel, all who truly believe the gospel, they likewise ascribe
greatness unto our God. We ascribe greatness to God when
we preach the gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God in
Christ crucified. Let me read you a verse in the
book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 51 and verse 10. He says, The Lord hath brought
forth our righteousness. come and let us declare in Zion
the work of the Lord our God." The Lord has already done something. And let's now declare in Zion,
which is in the midst of his people, the things that he has
done. This has to do, first of all,
with his glory and his greatness. And when that same man, Moses,
asked of God, that he might behold his glory, after having seen
all that he had seen and witnessed with his own eyes, and he is
yet calling upon God, Show me your great glory. And it says that the Lord said
to him, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, And I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy." And if you look at this third
verse in Deuteronomy 32, before he says that, he says, likewise,
because I will publish the name of the Lord. And the one he's
talking about there, this one who is the name of the Lord,
the name having to do with that which identifies this person
or being, that which he is renowned for and known for, the name of
the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the glory of God is the salvation
of his people in Christ, and not just that he saves them,
but that he saves them in a way that is consistent with his own
character and attributes. He says, I'm going to declare
the name of the Lord. I'm going to ascribe greatness
to our God. And likewise, you are to do the
same thing. So he says in that fourth verse,
he is the rock. And he gives us that in capital
letters so that we will know that this is a proper name for
a proper person, and it is that he is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says he is the Rock. Singular. And it doesn't matter how we
are viewed as narrow or whatever it is. As Tim says, we are definitely
one-sided. We have a cyclops kind of mentality
and can see none other but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
rock. He is the way. the truth and
the life, he is that one unique, one of a kind, and distinguished
from every other. Look down in verse 31, I believe
it is, of this same chapter. Because when he goes on and he
speaks, Concerning all that is nothing more than purely idolatry,
he says of all those outside of Christ, he says, for their
rock, small letters by the way, for their rock is not as our
rock. We are not talking about the
same God. And we most definitely are not
talking about the same Jesus. He says, for their rock, small
letters, is not like our rock, notice this next part, even our
enemies themselves being judges. I don't know how many times I've
begun to try to tell somebody about the rock, and they very
quickly have let me know that their rock is not like my rock. They say, my God wouldn't do
that, or my God isn't like that, or my Jesus is nothing like that. They themselves testify that
their rock is not like the rock. And when you come to this word,
rock, it has some interesting definitions according to what
I'm able to find out. It actually can mean something
like creator. And our rock is the one who made
all things. All things are made by Him and
for Him. Not only that, but it also can
mean something like origin, or the first cause, or the fountain,
or the first principle. And about every definition I
could find to that word wrought in some way did signify none
other than Christ, Christ who is the Alpha and Omega of all
things, the one who is the author and the finisher of our faith,
the one who is not only the creator, but said to be the beginning
of the creation of God. Just sit around and think about
that just a little bit. The Creator is also said to be
the beginning of the creation of God. And he who is the creator
of all that we have in this world is also the beginning of that
new creation, that creation which is in Christ Jesus, a spiritual
one. And he's also that fountain opened
up for sin. He is the first and the last. He's the rock. And what I find
in this book is that when it speaks of a rock, it oftentimes
has reference to a foundation, has reference to a solid foundation. In other words, Christ is said
to be the foundation, the stone which God himself has laid. We didn't come up with him. He
is not the product of some medieval theologian. He is that foundation,
that stone which God has laid, and he is the foundation upon
which all of the salvation of our souls and all the blessings
from God and all the deliverance from sin, it all depends on and
rests in and is secure in the rock. The one foundation. We're not talking about many
faiths. We're talking about the rock. We're talking about the one foundation. And there is, according to what
the Apostle Paul said, there is no other foundation that can
be laid other than the one that God has already laid. We don't
have a contemporary gospel because God is the same always, immutable,
unchangeable, and man is in the same state no matter what day
it is, so we have this one rock, this one salvation, this one
gospel, this one foundation. And if I'm sure of anything,
I'm sure of this, it is the foundation that holds the building up and
supports the building up, and it's not the building that supports
the foundation. He's the rock. He's the only
one there is. We can sing that song, but do
we realize what we're singing? On Christ the solid rock I stand. What? All of the ground. is sinking sand. Nothing else but Jesus Christ. And he said that man who builds
on the sand, which is everything else other than the Lord Jesus
Christ, the least storm, the least wind, Christ said, comes
and blows it away. He has no real foundation. But that one who builds on this
rock, He is forever secure. We find in this book that the
rock is also spoken of as a source of water. A source especially
of that living water. Paul says in speaking concerning
an Old Testament picture that we have of a rock, he said, that
rock was Christ. Do you remember what happened
to that rock? This same man, Moses, when the people, this
same people, were doing just exactly what he said, this same
people were murmuring and complaining and all that, and God said to
Moses, you take your staff, take that rod and go out to this certain
rock that evidently he was very familiar with and smite the rock. What happened? And the water
came gushing out. And then all of a sudden, a little
bit later, they're at the same state, they're at the same situation,
doing the same thing, and God commands Moses, He said, you
go again to the same rock, and you stand before the rock, and
you speak to the rock. Of course, you know that Moses
in his anger and his frustration, he did just about like what I
do and Jim would do and Tim would do, a preacher. Oh, we get so
frustrated. He struck the rock again. God said, you won't go in the
can. Why? Because that rock was Christ. And just like was read in our
Scripture reading, he is smitten once, once for sins forever,
and there is not need of him being stricken a second time
or smitten by the hand of God in wrath a second time, because
that one time was sufficient. And even in violating the type, it cost Moses. Why? Because he's the rock. He is
the rock. And also in Scripture what I
find is that this rock is also pictured as a refuge and a place
of safety. I like what it says in Isaiah
32. He says, "...and a man." Not some men. Not a few men. Not even like the Marines, a
few good men. He said, and a man, one man, shall be as a hiding place from
the wind. Just one refuge. There will be a lot of refuges
of lies, but a man, shall be as a hiding place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place,
as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Just one rock. One foundation. One refuge. One fountain for the cleansing
of sin. One fountain for the living water. He said, He is the rock. And you ascribe greatness to
Him for that. But He didn't stop there. He
didn't stop there. Look back at verse 4. He said,
He is the rock. His work is perfect. That's right. His work is perfect. Not our work, but His work. What work is that? It's called
a work of righteousness. It's perfect. You see, God, contrary
to what so many believe, requires perfection. I'm just like you. I kind of
grew up hearing that if you do the best you can, As a matter
of fact, I was pretty much telling folks that from the pulpit in
the beginning. And so Brother Henry Mahan came
to preach for us one time. And you know, you're just still,
even when the Lord begins to reveal the truth to you, you've
got the rags of religion still hanging to you. And so the song
leader, he got up Guess what he led the congregation in singing?
Our best. Brother Henry got up and he said,
you know, he said our singing ought to match what we believe. Now I'd say amen to that 100%. And it isn't about our best at
all. It's about his best. His work is perfect. God requires perfection. And even under that Old Testament
economy and the offering of the peace offerings, He said, and
whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord
to accomplish His vow or a freewill offering in bees or sheep, it
shall be perfect. to be accepted. We're not playing horseshoes
here. Close doesn't count. He said it has to be perfect
to be accepted. And I don't care if you've had
good training from the time you were a small child in this world. I don't care if you've been brought
to church all your life. I don't care if you've even been
brought up under the gospel itself. Unless you have an interest in
that one whose work is perfect, you'll perish. It won't be in
you doing your best. It won't be in me preaching my
best. You see, His work, He says, I
have glorified Thee, Father, on the earth, and I have finished
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. His work is perfect because He
is perfect, and it alone can make us perfect. Did you hear
what He said? When he read there in Hebrews
10, by one offering, that's before you came along.
That's before you believed. That's before you did any good
works. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Can you look outside of yourself? If you look inside of yourself
and you find perfection, you've got a real problem. Can you look
outside of yourself and find and see that perfection? What he's saying there is everyone
that God in eternal election, everyone that God in His grace
and His choice and His predestination, everyone that He set apart in
Christ and gave to Christ as His people and bride, every one
of them, when He hung on that cross, He perfected them forever. That sounds like a done deal
to me. He did it. His work is perfect. And the only work, the only sacrifice,
the only righteousness that God will accept is the one that He
Himself is and has done and has given in the person of Jesus
Christ. As a matter of fact, His doing
the will and work of God is the all of salvation. Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. What is that? You see, the gospel is not about
what would Jesus do. WWJD, you ever see those? It's
about what did Jesus do. I come to do the will of my Father. What's that? Well, this is the
will of Him that sent me. that every one of those that
He gave me, I'd lose none of them, but raise them up at the
last day. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believes in Him, I'll raise him up at the last
day. You see, it's not what you feel,
it's not what you experience, but it's the death of Jesus Christ
on the cross. Turn over to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4, and listen
to what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 4 and verse
4. He says, now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. In other words, if you're working
to save yourself, I don't care how you're doing it, it no longer
is grace, but it is that God owes you that debt and will pay
you for exactly what you do. Which means he'll cast you into
hell. Because salvation is by grace. Well, but to him that worketh
not. I'm not going to do like some
preachers do. I'm not going to stop right there and qualify
that. He says, but to him that worketh not, but believes on
him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describes
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness
without work. That sounds pretty good to me.
I'll tell you what, if you ever find out you're a real sinner,
it'll sound good to you. A lady came to me one time,
she said, do you mean to tell me we don't have anything to
do with our salvation? I said, it amounts to this, we
do all the sinning, He does all the savings. What did he say on that cross?
He said, it is finished. I've got an Irish brother and
he said that that word can also, it's just one word by the way,
and he said that word also can mean perfect. He said it is perfect, finished,
complete, can't be improved upon. Can't be added to. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Bottom line. So he says through
this man, the prophet Isaiah, In chapter 32, I love this verse. If you just draw your circle
around this verse and just camp out there just as often as you
can. He says, "...and the work of
righteousness..." There's only one work of righteousness. "...and the work of righteousness shall be peace." And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. The work of righteousness is
peace. And the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. I hear people saying, I really
don't have any assurance. You just don't believe God. I
mean, that's it. He just got through telling us
in one verse, the word of righteousness shall be peace. He made peace
by the blood of His cross. And if you ever are unable to
rest in the same one that God rests in, and believe on the
same one that the Father believes on, you will have peace. You see, only that which satisfies
the court of heaven will satisfy your conscience. And if we ever find out who God
is, and if we ever find out who we are, and He enables us to
see the only perfect person and work, we'll ascribe greatness
to our God. Look at what He says. He is the
rock, His work is perfect, and all His ways or judgment. Justice. If there's one thing that's mocked
in our day, in what passes for Christianity, it is the justice
of God. What does that say? For all His
ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. He is without iniquity. Just and right is He. And that's exactly what righteousness
is all about. It is not about some kind of
moral perfection. If you want to talk about moral
perfection, that has to do with the holiness of God. Holy is
how God is. Righteous is how He does. Do you ever wonder what it's talking
about, the righteousness which is of faith? As a matter of fact, in the very
first mention of righteousness in this Bible, it has to do with
the man, not with God. What does it mean? Righteousness
is simply this, that God did right in saving His people through
the person and work of Jesus Christ. He did right doing that. He'll never be able to be charged
with injustice or inequity or lying or anything else. But at
the same time, every person who believes on Christ, they are
right, they do right to believe on Christ, to expect from God
and believe God that He has blessed them and done so every bit in
Jesus Christ. They are as right to believe
on Him as the Father is right to believe on Him. Think of that. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. Why? Well, it's got to read some
good stories and illustrations, or it tells people how to live. No. The gospel doesn't tell people
how to live. The gospel tells people who died
and what he accomplished in that day. He said, I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. And I'll tell you this, until
we are brought to the point that we can see in the cross death
of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God that
He is so as to do all he does in that way that's consistent
with himself. The brother was talking last
night about the wisdom of Christ being the wisdom of God. He's
the wisdom of God. How do we view wisdom? Who is
a wise man on the natural sense? It's a man who can deal with
a problem that others can't seem to deal with, and deal with it
in a proper way. Well, the God of the universe
had the greatest problem of all. How He could be a just God, punish
sin, maintain the integrity of His attributes and character,
and yet save you from your sins. You talk about a dilemma. How? Christ crucified. You see, right at the heart,
right central to this Word, to this Gospel,
is the death of Jesus Christ. I challenge you to take your
Bible And look in the New Testament from Matthew all the way to the
book of Revelation, and what you'll find out is that though
the life of Christ is shown and displayed as perfect and sinless
and without any blemish whatsoever, the emphasis is not on His living,
it's on His death. You boys don't really get what
all those prophets were saying. Ought not that Christ had done
what? suffered, and to enter into His glory. Because His glory
has got something to do with His sufferings. His glory is
a redemptive glory, a mediatorial glory. Here He is, He's the Rock,
and we're to ascribe greatness to our God as He is in Jesus
Christ, but as a just God and a Savior. He said it is God. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's will? Who can? Nobody can. Why? What's
the next thing? It is Christ that died. I hope I never get beyond that. I hope I never... Just preach
this some kind of mystical Christ that I see talked about everywhere
in this world." No, he said, we preach Christ crucified. Why? Because just and right,
a God of truth and justice is He. And when we proclaim Christ
crucified, and whenever we are enabled to believe on Christ
crucified, we ascribe greatness unto our God. They say, well,
my Jesus died for everybody. My Jesus loved everybody. My
Jesus is trying to save everybody. And you know what I say? I say,
your rock is not like our rock. Our rock came God manifest in
the flesh. And like that priest, bearing
on the plates of his shoulders in gold and on the breastplate
and precious stones set in gold, the names of His people. And that priest went into that
holy of holies where nobody else could go. And he stood before
God representing that people. He offered the sacrifice that
God required, the sacrifice that God had appointed, and the only
sacrifice that God would accept, and that was that Lamb's blood
to be sprinkled on that mercy seat. And he came out. And atonement was made. And when Christ raised from the
dead, the one on whom the Lord had
laid the iniquity of His people, the one that He says, for the
transgression of My people was He stricken, here is this just
God who is a Savior, saving all His people through the blood
of Jesus Christ. It's a perfect work. A finished
work. It's a work that only God manifest
in the flesh could do. And it's our only hope. And now the Lord Jesus Christ,
having died in the place of His elect, and their debt of sin
being paid, and divine justice being satisfied on their behalf,
it is simply just and right is His. To forgive our sins? That's what
John said. Faithful and just. He's righteous
to forgive our sins. But that's not the half of it.
He's righteous and right to give us life and faith and hope and
peace and every blessing and to take us to His holy heaven.
Just as right, just and right as He to do it. Not only that, he wouldn't be just and right
if he didn't. If one poor, wretched sinner
like me was to perish, Christ died for
me. And He cast me into outer darkness It could be said he is not just
and he is not right. If Christ bled in my place, satisfied
every claim against me, paid the debt of my sin, if I perish, if you perish, He wouldn't be so. And all His
greatness would be reduced to shame. When the true gospel of Christ crucified is preached, all the greatness is ascribed
to God. We'll say like Jonah, salvation
is of the Lord. And when that same gospel is
believed and rejoiced in and rested in, we ascribe greatness
to God alone, in Christ alone. And from our hearts we'll sing,
to God be the glory. Great things He hath done. Well, may we sing that to God
be the glory. What is the number? 449. Let's sing a little bit of this one. 449, to God be the glory. Let's
stand together. In a world where he gave us his
love. To be with him, my friends, I've chosen to stand. With our
friends, the white men, and all the old men. With all the little
brothers that we have made. Let's take a bit of a break,
maybe seven or eight minutes. We'll gather in eight minutes.