Alright, let's begin our service
opening our Bibles to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. I hope all of you can stay and
enjoy dinner and time of fellowship today as we celebrate Clara Floyd's
20th birthday. I look forward to that time together.
I hope you all can stay. Alright, Galatians chapter 5. We'll begin our reading in verse
1. We'll read down through verse 10. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. If
you try to keep any one of God's laws in order to improve your
standing with God, Christ shall profit you nothing. It's either
going to be all Christ or all you. He says, verse three, for
I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is
a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. If you
think you are justified by your obedience to the law, you have
fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love. Ye did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? For this persuasion
cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded, but he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. All right, let's stand together
as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship. Not all the blood of peace On
Jewish altars slain Can give the guilty conscience peace,
Nor wash away the stain. takes all our sin away. The sacrifice of nobler name
and richer blood My faith would lay her hand On
that dear head of thine While like a penitent I stand And there
confess my sin Wisdom and power belongs Immortal
crowns of majesty and everlasting song. Thank you, may be seated. Turn now in our hymnal to great
hymns of faith, page 49, page 49. Jesus fought a friend for sinners,
Jesus, lover of my soul. Prince may fail me, hosts assail
me, He, my Savior, makes me whole. What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a Friend! Saving, Helping, Keeping, Loving
He is with us. Jesus taught us strength in weakness,
let me hide myself in Him. Lifted, tried, and sometimes
failing, Be my strength, my victory win. Alleluia! God, our Savior! Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end. Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my comfort, helps my soul. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! What a friend! Saving, helping, keeping, Jesus, Lord, our guide and keeper. still is high. Storms about me, light o'er takes
me, be my pilot, hears my cry. Alleluia, what a Savior, Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end. In Him I find He hath granted
me forgiveness I am His and He is mine What a Savior! Hallelujah! What a friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end. Thank you. That's good singing. Let's turn to 191. 191. We haven't
sung in this song in a while. It has great words. Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to
face. Here would I touch and handle
things unseen. and all my weariness upon thee
lean. Here would I feed upon the bread
of God, here drink with thee Here would I lay aside each earthly
load, Here taste the fresh, the calm of sleep, I have no help but Thine, nor
do I need another arm's length. It is enough, my Lord, enough
in Thee. Thy strength is in Thy might,
Thy might alone. Thine the righteousness, Thine
is the guilt, Thine the cleansing blood. my rope, my refuge, and my peace, thy blood, thy righteousness,
O Lord. Turn with me, if you would, to
Hebrews chapter 12. Our pastors asked us to read
beginning in verse 12, verses 12 through 17 of Hebrews chapter
12. starting in verse 12. Wherefore,
lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and
make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way. Let it rather be healed. Follow
peace with all men and holiness without which no men shall. No
man shall see the Lord looking diligently, lest any man fail
of the grace of God. lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any
fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears." We'll end our reading there. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you leave us not to ourselves, that rather we find a place of repentance
in Christ, that Christ be revealed to us. Father, leave us not to
ourselves, for foolishness is bound to our heart. Sin is bound
to our heart, that sin which which so easily doth beset us,
the sin of unbelief, the sin that left to ourselves, we would
leave you. Rather, Father, draw us and keep
us as you promised and according to your word. And for your namesake
and for only your namesake, what we pray, we pray that our eyes
be focused on you and not on ourselves, that this service
and in fact this very prayer, that it be all about wrapped
up in you. Father, make us wrapped up, our
hearts and our minds, and keep us cleaving to you. For we would,
left to ourselves, we would be just like Esau, focused on ourselves
and find no place of repentance, no hope, no hope outside of Christ. Let this place, this service,
and this congregation of believers, this flock, let us today and
always be completely taken up with you, that we worship you
as you deserve to be worshiped. Let us not be distracted by whatever
things go on in this life, but rather give us faith to see
the happenings that happen day to day through the eyes of your providence,
that it is good. It is good. regardless of how
we would see things through our sinful minds. Father, leave us
not to ourselves. Keep us cleaving to you. I thank
you for the blessings you've given us both here together as
a congregation in this world. Thank you for your goodness.
You're good to us, our families, our jobs, how you've seen fit
to provide for us. Thank you. Thank you. spiritually. Thank you for the full forgiveness
of sin in Christ because of his work that in your goodness and
in your wisdom and in your providence you saw fit to save sinners. We have much to be thankful for.
I pray that you never let our hearts wander and take your goodness
for granted. Pray for your forgiveness because
our hearts do wander. take you for granted. Father, forgive
us. Continuously see us for Christ's sake because of his work. It's
in his name that we pray and give thanks. We have a special treat this
morning. Amber Jennings has come. She's
Claire's sister all the way from College Grove, Tennessee. She's
going to bring us a special in music. Traveling with her, Lauren,
and Becca Cunningham. I have it on very good authority
that they are the apple of their pastor's eye. Their pastor is
their daddy, Chris Cunningham, our very dear friend, and we
are so delighted that you all could be with us this morning.
So, Amber, you come, bring us a special, if you would. I will lift up my eyes unto the
hills cometh my help, my help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer
thy foot to be moved, will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord
is thy shade. The sun shall not smite thee
by day Nor the moon by night The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil He shall preserve thy soul The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in From this time forth and even forevermore
Even forevermore Alright, let's open our Bibles
now again to Hebrews chapter 12. The passage Brother Jonathan
just read for us. The title of the message this
morning, Lift up the weak, feeble, and lame. Hebrews 12, begin reading in
verse 12. Lift up the hands which hang
down and the feeble knees. Our text begins with the word
wherefore. Now there are some things that
the family of God should do based upon everything that's been said
up to this point in this chapter is led up to the writer bringing
us to this conclusion. Wherefore, we are to lift up
the weak hands and the feeble knees of our brethren because
we're accomplished about with such a great cloud of witnesses.
who have already finished their race. We know it's possible for
a believer to finish their race. Then let's lift up the weak hands
and the feeble knees of our brethren and help them finish their race.
Then we saw, we looked at this last week, that God chastens
and He corrects His children to teach them. And when we see
one of our brothers, one of our sisters, suffering correction,
let's not be judgmental and think, huh, I wonder what they did.
to deserve that, to deserve God doing this to them. Let's be
helpful. Don't be judgmental. Let's be
helpful and be encouraging. They've got weak hands. They've
got feeble knees. Let's lift them up. Let's lift
them up to help them. So first, let's consider the
weak. How can we lift up the weak hands? Remember, in context
here, we're talking about believers running their race that God has
put before them. And this race is not a short
race. It's a marathon. And when you run long distances,
you get tired. You just can't run long distances
without getting tired. And it's not just your legs that
get tired. It's not just your lungs that
gets tired. Your arms get tired. You're running, your arms get
tired. You just want to run with them flopping at your side. Oh,
they seem like they weigh a ton. Well, that's God's children running
our race. Sometimes we get so tired. We're so tired we can't
lift up our hands. We can't lift up our hands to
thank our God. We can't lift up our hands to call upon Him.
We can't lift up our hands in service to one another. We can't
lift up our hands to defend ourselves. Well, how do we help those who
have weak hands? It's by holding their hands up
for them. You remember the story about Joshua leading the army,
Israel's army. He was fighting with the Amalekites
down in the valley. Moses was up there looking down
on them Israel's army prevailed as long as Moses held his hands
up, the rod of God in his hands. But the Amalekites prevailed
when Moses got tired. His hands got weak and he had
to drop his hands. The Amalekites prevailed. Well,
how did Aaron and Hur help Moses? It's by standing on either side
of him and holding his hands up. So that Israel prevailed.
Now, there are a lot of ways that we can hold the weak hands
of our brethren up. You all do this so often for
me, I thank God for you. How often you hold up my weak
hands and praying for me as I study this. So often I'll be in the
study and I'll just be floundering. I can't see the message and suddenly
it becomes crystal clear. And I always think somebody's
praying for me. God showed me that now I see.
You hold my hands up in your words of encouragement and your
faithfulness. in service, you hold my hands
up. Let's do that for all of our brethren. Turn to, if you
would, Isaiah chapter 35. Isaiah tells us here, this is
the main way that we can hold up the weak hands. And you may
want to mark this place. I'm going to refer back to it
a few other times in the message this morning. Isaiah chapter
35. In verse 3, this is the passage
the writer to the Hebrews is quoting. Isaiah says, strengthen
ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them
that are of a fearful heart, be strong. Fear not. Behold,
your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He
will come and save you. Here's how we strengthen the
weak hands. By saying to those who have weak hands, be strong.
Fear not. Behold, your God will come. He'll
come with a vengeance. Isaiah, he was looking forward
to Christ's coming, wasn't he? We can look back on it. We strengthen
the weak hands of our brethren by telling them, your God and
Savior has come. Just exactly like Isaiah promised,
He's come. He's come in the flesh with a
vengeance. He's come to take vengeance on sin. He came. to bear all of God's vengeance
against your sin as your substitute. And He's put your sin away. He's
taken away God's wrath. So there's no vengeance in God
left for you. He poured it all out for you
upon your substitute. So you know what that means?
God will never let you perish. He will correct you, but He will
never punish you. He's already punished your sin
in the person of your substitute, And God's justice demands that
you live. No, I know you're weak right
now. I know. But be of good cheer. Don't be afraid. Your God will
come to you. He'll come and strengthen you.
He'll come and strengthen you by enabling you to see Christ.
Enabling you to depend upon Christ. When you're weak, then you're
strong, aren't you? Because when you're weak, you
know you can't depend upon the arm of the flesh. You've got
to depend on Christ. That's when you're strong. He'll
come. God strengthens his people by showing them Christ, by showing
them Christ again, by enabling them to see and believe Christ. I'll tell you one reason a believer's
hands get weak as we run our race. We're trying to carry something
that don't belong to us. Our hands get weak. You know,
I used to do quite a bit of running. Our Lord has fixed it where I
can't run anymore, but I used to enjoy doing a lot of running.
And over running long distances, I had a difficulty. I needed
some water. Sometimes I'd ask Jan, OK, now
in 30 minutes, here's the route. I mean, you drive out and find
me and bring me some water, you know? That was kind of inconvenient
for her. I tried carrying a water bottle, and that didn't work
too well. My hands would get so weak, oh, I just It seems
like every few steps I'll be changing that bottle from one
hand to the next. My hands are so weak. Well, you know, that's
what's going to happen. If a believer tries to run carrying
something that don't belong to us, if we try to carry the load
of our own sin and make up for that sin ourselves, our hands
are going to get weary so quickly. You know how to help those weak
hands? into Christ. Now you depend upon Christ. You
trust Him. He bore the burden of your sin
so you don't have to. Quit trying to carry it yourself
and trust Christ to put it away. Trust Him to be enough. That
will strengthen the weak hands. Do you know what's going to happen
if a believer tries to run our race carrying the guilt of our
sin? Trying to heal our own sin sicknesses. Do you know what's
going to happen? Our hands are going to get weary. Our hands
aren't cut out for the job. So the way we strengthen the
weak hands is by reminding our brethren, look to Christ. Depend
upon Him. By His stripes we are healed.
Not by something that we do. By His stripes we are healed
by the sacrifice of Christ. So depend upon Him. Rest in Him,
you will be weary more. And when our brethren get weak,
don't be critical. Don't be like Job's friends and
come asking, what did you do to deserve this? If you straighten
up, it'll get better for you. Don't tell them that. That won't
help them. That's not going to help the weak hands. Be encouraging
to your brother. If you'd be helpful and encourage
your brethren, just sit down and talk to them about the Savior.
See, our Father corrects us. You know, we looked at this passage
last week about the Father correcting His children. You know why He
does that? To soften us. and make us more
sympathetic when others suffer. If we never suffered, we couldn't
be sympathetic when our brethren suffer. And God's trials, His
corrections to us make us able to help our brethren, to comfort
them with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted.
And this is very serious business. Our text ends this morning with
a warning about being apostate. It's a warning about quitting
the race. and not looking to Christ alone anymore. So when
you see a brother or sister whose hands are hanging down and it
looks like they might feel like quitting the race, lift up their
hands, strengthen them by pointing them to Christ. Otherwise, they
may become apostate like Esau did. And that's the last thing
we want. All right, second, let's look at the lame. The lame are
those who have feeble knees. So feeble, they become lame.
Now when you run a long distance, your knees will eventually start
to ache, won't they? And that happens when your knees
start to ache. You just, you limp along like a lame person.
I'll tell you why our knees begin to ache. It's because we're trying
to lift and carry a load that don't belong to us. We're trying
to lift and carry a load that's too heavy for us to bear. The burden of our sin. of the sin of God's elect has
already been borne away by Christ our Savior. The scapegoat of
old pictured him. This priest, high priest, symbolically
transferred the sins of the people on top of that scapegoat, the
head of that scapegoat. And he was led away into the
wilderness, never to be seen again. Christ bore the burden
of the sin of his people away. So it's never seen again. Now
if Christ bore the burden of our sin away, what am I doing
trying to carry it? If you try to carry load that's
too heavy for you, your knees are going to get shot quickly.
I have a friend who works for a company that they deliver appliances
and things, you know. And he says, we can't keep anybody
five, six, seven years at the most. By the time they lug around
refrigerators and washers and dryers and all these things,
you know, he said their knees are shot. They're backshot. They
can't do the job anymore. They're trying to carry a burden
their body was not designed to carry. Brethren, God did not
design his people to carry the burden of their own sin. He designed
his people to trust Christ, to have faith in him, who bore the
burden of God's sin away. So they don't have to carry it
anymore. All right, what can we do to help the lame? What can we do to strengthen
those people who have feeble knees? It's by pointing them
to Christ. Look at verse 13. And make straight
paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of
the way, but let it rather be healed. Now look at Isaiah chapter
40. I know that this, what the writer
is talking about here is referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, because
this was the job of John the Baptist. This is the job of every
gospel preacher, to make the path plain, to make the path
straight. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 1, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Now how does God's
preacher comfort the hearts of God's people? Is it by telling
them, don't worry, God's got a plan, everything will be alright.
It may not be all right. I don't know. Not in this life
it may not be. I tell you how God's preacher comforts the hearts
of God's people. How does he comfort those whose
knees are aching? Oh, their aching knees. How do
you comfort them? By pointing them to Christ. By announcing
Christ to them, just like John the Baptist did. Here's a prophecy
of John the Baptist. Verse 2. Speak ye comfortably,
speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley should
be exalted and every mountain and hill should be made low and
the crooked should be made straight and the rough places plain and
the glory of the Lord should be revealed and all flesh will
see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now
how do we make the way plain and easy to walk on? It's by
preaching Christ. And when we see the glory of
Christ, the way becomes plain, straight, and easy. We make the
way plain and easy to walk on by preaching the sinfulness of
man, the total depravity, the total helplessness of man, and
by preaching the grace and power of God as clearly and as simply
as we possibly can. Verse six, the voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
Lord, tell me what to cry. And Lord said, here's what you
cry. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as
the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
faded because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth and the flower
faded, but the word of our God, shall stand forever. That's how
you comfort the hearts of God's people, by making it plain that
our salvation does not depend on us, just the weakness of our
flesh, there's nothing better than grass, but on the Word of
our God, which shall last and endure forever. Now back in our
text, in verse 13, this phrase, straight paths, you know what
that means? It means beginner paths. Jan
and I recently were in Memphis, and they've got this huge, gorgeous
city park there. And they've got some biking trails
and some hiking and running trails, some horse trails. And you go
into the visitor center, they give you a big old map, you know.
And we wanted to do some walking and maybe some biking. And so
you know what we did? We looked for trails that were
marked beginner. We don't want no hard paths.
Or we don't want no big hills like you're running. No, we wanted
something that was paved, something that was flat and easy. That's
what we wanted. Low, low stress. That's what
we wanted. Well, you know what? That is
exactly the way we're to preach the gospel. Eric, God's given us the map.
Here's the map he's given to us. Take this and preach the
beginner trails. Preach it so simple that a child
can understand it. I got very, very good advice
from my dear friend, Brother Dale Simpson, one time. He told
me, you keep preaching the gospel. He said, think about one of my
grandchildren. Think about one of these little ones here in
the congregation and preach to them. He said, if they can get
it, maybe I can. Just preach the beginner trails. Make the gospel easy to understand. Oh, I wish I could make you believe
it. I wish I could just take you and put it in your heart. I can't do it. If God enabled
me, I could make it easy to understand. You might not believe what I'm
telling you, but God helped me to make it where you can understand
it. Oh, this frightens me, that you'd
leave here thinking, what did Frank say this morning? I don't
get that. I understand you may not believe
it. I want you to understand it. If we preach the gospel to
the babes, the old men and the old women in Christ will be fed
too. They'll be blessed too. Look at Jeremiah chapter 6. Let's
make the gospel plain. If you want to make the gospel
plain, don't try to be original. I think that's the worst thing
a preacher can do, try to be original. Don't try to be original.
Use the old paths of the gospel. The old paths of God's Word.
And that's pretty good advice for pretty much all of life.
Find the old paths and stick to them. You young people, remember
what I'm telling you. Stick to the old paths. I've read it's
a real insult now to call somebody a boomer, okay boomer, and kind
of roll your eyes at them. It's like you don't understand.
You don't understand. If you try to make right right
and wrong wrong, you try to make a man be a man and a woman be
a woman, okay boomer. It's like you don't understand.
You've got to get way more liberal than that to get up with the
times. Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. You stick to
the old paths. These old folks know a whole
lot more than what you think that they know. Stick to the
old paths. Do that. Oh, especially do that
in the gospel. Jeremiah 6, verse 16. Thus saith
the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old
paths. Oh, ask for the old paths. There's
the good way. And when God shows it to you,
walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they
say, well, not walk therein. I know by nature you'll say you
won't walk therein, but if God will show you the old paths,
you will. Oh, my. Now, here's the old way. This
is the well-worn way of God's Word, the well-worn way of the
gospel. Salvation began with God. Before
anything was created, the only thing that existed was God, God
the Father. elected a people to save. See,
salvation is not us choosing God. No, salvation is not you
making your decision for Jesus. Salvation is God's choice of
you. And God is so loving and He's
so gracious that He chose to save people who He knew would
be sinful, who He knew would never choose Him. He chose a
people to save who by nature would not walk in these old paths,
who by nature would hate His Son, but God chose to save them
anyway. Oh, that's such good news. Nobody
would ever choose God unless God chose them first. And He
did. He chose a people to save. Then God the Son came incarnate,
came to this earth as in the flesh. And He obeyed the law
for those people the Father chose to save. He made them obedient
and He made them righteous in His obedience for them. And then
He took the sin of His people away from And He died for the
sin of His people. And put that sin away with His
precious blood. And it's gone. That means that
sin, the sin of God's elect can never damn them. Christ already
suffered hell for it. No one for whom Christ died can
ever perish. That's the old path, the worn
path. And then God the Holy Spirit
comes. And He gives life and He gives faith. to everyone the
Father chose and everyone for whom the Son died. See, God never
leaves the salvation of His people up to them. He doesn't leave
it up to chance and He doesn't leave it up to them. If He did,
they'd all perish. So God the Holy Spirit comes.
I know we read in Scripture of Him knocking. I want to tell
you what, when He comes to save His people, He kicks the door
down. I mean, He kicks it in. And He comes and He sits and
He reigns in the hearts of His people. He gives them faith.
And He gives them life. He reigns, but He don't reign
against their will. No, He reigns with their full consent. And
now they choose God. Oh, they choose this old path
because God, the Holy Spirit, gave them a new nature that loves
God, that chooses Him. Now they love God because God
first loved them and He gave them a nature of love. Now they
believe the gospel when they hear it. They didn't used to
believe it. Now they do because the Spirit has given them a nature
of faith. Now they beg God for mercy, because
God has given them eyes to see. Eyes to see themselves as they
are, and eyes to see Christ the Savior, and they beg for mercy. See, salvation is up to the Lord.
And everything that God's people do is a result of what God's
done in them and for them. It's all in response to God's
grace to us. And God will never leave nor forsake those people.
He will bring them all the way to glory. There can be no doubt
about it. Not one of them will be lost.
Not one. So when we see a brother or sister with feeble knees and
weak hands, don't beat them with the law. That's not going to
help them. Don't beat them with the law. Encourage weak runners
with grace, with these old paths of God's grace. Look here in
our text, verse 18. Don't beat them up with the law.
The Lord says, for you're not come unto the mount that might
be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and
darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice
of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the words
should not be spoken unto them any more. You're not come to
Mount Sinai, where the law is given. You're come to grace,
to Mount Zion. Look at verse 22. But you're
come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." You're coming
to grace, not to law. You're saved by grace, not law.
Now, friend, that is as plain and simple as I know how to make
it. That's the plain old path of
the gospel. We'll look back at Isaiah chapter
35 again. Look what happens when the gospel
is made plain and simple to God's lame people. Isaiah 35. Verse 5. Then the eyes of the
blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as in heart and the tongue of
the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters
break out, streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall
become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water, and the
habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds
and rushes. When the gospel is made plain,
God's laying people. Those people have those weak
knees. They're not weak anymore, are
they? Now they're leaping like a deer. They're able to leap
because their burden's been lifted. Jonathan, when he was a teenager,
he used to tie these weights around his ankles and he'd jump.
He'd jump up there trying to touch the rim. He figured then
once the weights were off, he'd be able to jump like Michael
Jordan, you know. You can leap once the weight's been lifted,
can't you? Now we can go on running. Now we can continue running our
race because we've been refreshed with the water of life. Look
at Psalms 73. I'll tell you another time our
knees begin to ache and we become lame. When we're trying to carry
the burden of judging what God is doing, trying to figure out
what God is doing, who God's people are, who God's blessing,
by looking only at physical material blessings that others enjoy,
and the trials and the difficulties that we endure. We're trying
to carry a burden that don't belong to us. This is above our
pay grade. And if we do that too long, we'll
become lame. And we're going to want to quit. That's exactly
what happened to David when David did this. Psalm 73, verse 2. But as for me, my feet were almost
gone. My steps had well and I slipped. Now why did David feel that?
Why did he feel like his feet were almost gone? His steps were
well and nicely set. Why did he feel like he was getting
ready to quit? He says in verse 3, For I was envious of the foolish,
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. David began judging
God's blessing by the physical blessings of this life. And that
went on. It kept getting worse and worse
until, verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then
understood I their end. Then I understood when I saw
Christ. When I went into the house of
the Lord and heard the gospel preached. And I saw Christ. Then
I understood, verse 21, he said, thus was my heart grieved. I
was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and ignorant.
I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Thou hast hold of me. by my right
hand. You strengthen my weak hands
by holding my right hand, lifting me up. Now shall guide me with
thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And if somebody will point me to Christ, then I'll see. Then my hands will be strengthened.
Then my weak knees will be For lo, they that are far from thee
shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a-whoring from
thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God. I put my trust
in the Lord God, that I may declare all my works." See, David's not
quitting now, is he? He's not quitting now. No, he's
seen Christ. He's heard the Gospel. And he can't quit. See, if God
will ever show us Christ, we can't quit. We can't. Because
we're in His strength, not ours. You know, one thing every year,
Janet kind of rolls her eyes at me, but I love to do this.
I love to watch the Ironman Championships that they have over there in
Hawaii. I mean, I just am fascinated by it. You know, the people that
win, I don't much care about them. I can't identify with them.
But, boy, that day, you know, there's a time frame. It's a
long 20 hours or something. I mean, it's crazy that you got
to finish in. And the people like me, that's
who I like to watch. They're coming in the dark, you know.
They start in the dark, they end in the dark. And they're
approaching that finish line. And some of them are all bent
and twisted. Some of them fall down. I mean,
they fall. And they crawl. They're just
crawling to get that finish line. They just look like a stroke
victim or something. People are watching. They're
yelling, come on, come on. But nobody can go out there and
help them. You've got to cross the finish
line on your own. I mean, buddy, this is cutthroat.
You've got to finish on your own. Or you can't have that wreath. That's not the way it is for
God's people. Remember what I'm telling you. That's not the way
it is for God's people. We get all bent up. We can't
stand up straight. Our knees are feeble. Our hands are weak. We're knocked
down. The best we can do is crawl.
Maybe all we can do is lay there. It's our only defense. When you
see your brethren like that, buddy, you come running to them.
You come running. You pick them up. Oh, they look
like they're going to quit. They look like they're not going
to be able to finish. You help them in love and sympathy. You bear one another's burdens.
You strengthen them. You strengthen their knees. You
strengthen their hands and their heart by making the gospel of
Christ so plain a child can understand it. Bring them to the house of
the Lord. That's where they'll be strengthened.
Now here's how we make the gospel plain. I mean in a sentence,
it doesn't get more plain than this. It's all Christ. It's all Christ. And we make
the gospel plain. We're going to preach Christ
is our peace. Look at verse 14 back in our text. Follow peace
with all men. Now certainly believers are to
be peaceable people. And when we preach and believe
the gospel of peace, we ought to be peaceable people. as much
as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. But this means
more than that. It means preach the gospel of
peace and make it plain. Christ is our peace. He has made
peace for us through the blood of his cross. And the writer
says no man's going to see God without that peace. No man's
going to see God unless Christ is his peace. So if I have peace
with God, There's no need for me to make myself weary trying
to make my own peace with God, through my own morality. You're
going to wear yourself out. I have peace for my soul by trusting
Christ, Christ alone. And you know that ought to make
me peaceable with other people too. Now this peace, we are never,
oh I want to stress this, we are never to seek peace at the
expense of the truth. Don't ever compromise the truth
in order to have peace with other men. I'll give you good Henryism. I'll make up a new word, Henryism.
He said, you can be a gentleman and still not compromise the
truth. I mean, you don't have to be a horse's behind about
it. That was me, not him. You don't have to be unkind,
but don't compromise the gospel. Just don't do it. If you do that,
you may have peace with men, but you don't have peace with
God, so what do you got? Now we make the gospel plain, we
say Christ is our peace. And we make the gospel plain,
we say Christ is our holiness. Verse 14, follow peace with all
men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Now
certainly we're to follow after holiness, to be holy as your
heavenly Father is holy. But we're never going to be holy
by our works, by the way we live. Never, ever, ever. And if you're
depending on that, you've got no holiness. God sees you as
unholy. No, this is saying that Christ
is our holiness. Christ made His people holy by
His obedience to the law for them and by His sacrifice for
their sin. He made them holy. See, we can't
make ourselves holy by how well we live or how well we obey the
law. But we are perfectly holy through faith in Christ. He is
the only holiness there is. And without that holiness, without
Christ our holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Christ is our holiness
and Christ is our peace, and no man will see the Lord without
Him. But in Christ, look back at Isaiah 35, but in Christ,
there's perfect peace and perfect holiness. Isaiah 35, verse 8, and a highway should
be there, and a way, and it should be called the way of holiness.
Everything there is perfect holiness. The unclean should not pass over
it, but it should be for those. The wayfaring men, though fools,
should not err therein. They're in there, they're holy
in Christ. And no lion should be there. See, this is the way
of peace. You don't find any lion there, or any ravenous beast
should go up there on. It should not be found there.
But the redeemed of the Lord shall walk there. They're going
to be able to walk there because this is the plain path, the straight path. And
the ransom of the Lord shall return. and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
See, this is Christ, the way of holiness. And if we are in
Him, we're holy. This is Christ, the way of peace.
There's no lying there. Christ has already crushed Satan's
head. There's no sin there. There's nothing to fear there.
You know what else is sitting there? sorrow and sighing, they're
not there. The only thing that's left is
joy and gladness. Sounds like the way of peace
to me, doesn't it to you? In this peace and holiness, they
do not come to us naturally. That's why the writer tells us
to follow after it. Oh, follow after this peace.
Follow after this holiness. Seek it. Seek it. Seek peace
in your home. Have homes of peace. Seek peace
on the job. Seek peace. The best that you
can do, you know, to get along with your neighbor. Some of them
may not be able to, but seek it. Follow after it. Follow after
holiness. Follow after it. How do I do
that? Remember, to make the gospel
plain, it's all Christ. You do this by looking to Christ.
Verse 15 back in our text. Looking diligently. lest any
man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Preaching the gospel is to repeatedly
say, look to Christ, look and live, come to Christ, come to
Christ. It's to say it over and over
and over again from every text in God's word. See, salvation
comes from a look. We must look to Christ. But brethren,
we've got to keep looking to Christ. If you see a brother
or sister start to look away from Christ, you get their attention
and you make it plain. Salvation is in looking, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Salvation is to
come to Christ, but salvation is constantly coming to Christ.
Peter said to whom coming, constantly coming to Christ, constantly
looking to Christ. And I, what the right word here
is, I encourage you, you take this seriously, because if anyone
looks away from Christ, they'll become apostate, like Esau did. Verse 16, here's why you do this,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright, for ye know how the
afterworld When he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought
it carefully with tears. This word fornicator means a
male prostitute. Esau prostituted himself for
a bowl of beans. For a bowl of beans. He gave
up the spiritual blessing, the blessing of being the firstborn. He gave up. It's a spiritual
blessing. It's not just he inherited most of his father's possessions.
It's the spiritual leadership of his family. It's a spiritual
blessing. And he counted a bowl of beans more valuable than Christ. That's why he's a he's a he's
a fornicator. He's a profane person. The word
means an unholy person. Well, of course, he saw as unholy.
He rejected Christ the only way of holiness. Now, later on, Esau
was sorry, wasn't he? Later on, he was sorry. But repentance
is not just being sorry. No, Esau found no place. He was
sorry, but he found no place of repentance. The word means
he found no way to change his mind. Even though he was sorry,
he didn't have the material blessing, he found no way to change his
mind about Christ because he rejected him. And God let him
go. Let him be apostate. You know,
he grew up hearing the same gospel, the same promises of God that
Jacob did. It was the exact same. Both of them were scoundrels.
God let Esau go apostate and save Jacob by his grace. It's
the only explanation. You cannot imagine My care for you all. You just, you cannot, you just,
I've grown up with many of you. I've loved you for years and
years and years. And the very, I mean the very
first day I was your pastor, I thought, oh boy, this is different.
You cannot imagine how you're on my heart. Every one of you,
every day. We don't want our brothers and
sisters, I don't want you to fall away from Christ like that. So when we see our brother get
tired and they get weary and you think they might want to
quit, go to them. Don't leave them alone and make
Christ plain to them. Refresh their soul by showing
them Christ again. Make the way plain because we
can keep going. I mean through the worst of it,
we can keep going if we're looking to Christ alone. And this doesn't
just fall upon my care for you. It falls on our care for each
other. Every believer has a responsibility. We have a responsibility to Christ.
We have a responsibility to believe him and to keep believing him.
We have a responsibility to follow him. God help us to do it. We have a responsibility for
the gospel. We have a responsibility to believe it. We have a responsibility
to pray for it. We have a responsibility to never
compromise it. We have a responsibility to support
it so that not just our children and our grandchildren, but this
community might hear the gospel. We have a responsibility. We
have a responsibility to the lost to preach the gospel to
them. We have a responsibility to continue running our race
and we have a responsibility to never surrender. But every
believer also has a responsibility to the church of God. Y'all are
responsible to each other. That's right. We're responsible
to help and encourage those weak brethren. And I pray God will
enable us to do it, because you know what? All of us are going
to be that weak and lame runner sooner or later. And I sure hope that you all
are there for me when my hands are weary and my knees are feeble
and I'm running like a lame man. And I want to be there for you
the same way. I hope God will bless that to
your heart. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you for your mercy
and your grace to your people. How we thank you for the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that you preserved
it here for many, many, many years. You preserved it for your
glory. You preserved it for the good
of your weak and feeble people to continually cause us to look
to Christ. Father, I pray that you would
give this congregation a heart, a heart for you, a heart that
desires above all things your glory, a heart that seeks after
you, and a heart that will care for one another. Deliver us from
being harsh and judgmental about one another Give us a heart of
compassion that cares for one another, that will help one another,
that will help lift up those weak hands and those feeble knees. Cause us to be an encouragement
one to another. Preserve the gospel here, Father,
we pray for many, many years. Father, we thank you for this
food that we're about to eat. We thank you for this time of
fellowship and ask that you bless it. Father, we thank you for
this one that we celebrate this afternoon. We thank you for Claire.
We thank you, Father, for bringing her to us and making her such
a blessing to us. And I pray that you'd make us
an equal blessing to her. Thank you for your mercy and
your grace to her. And Father, I pray your blessings
continue. Bless her richly, we pray. Bless
her and Isaac together as they build their lives together. Father,
bless them in every way. Continue to knit their hearts
together in love. Draw them closer and closer and
closer to one another, we pray. Father, all these things we ask,
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right, after Mike leads
us in singing a song, you know the drill, the man will set us
up some tables. And Claire, you've got to go
first. So, you know, don't make everybody wait. And you all watch
her and get in line behind her, OK? Okay. Let's turn to verse 46. Stand and sing. Verse 46 in our
great hymns of faith. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God,
I'll assist thee to To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease, His music in the His life and health and peace. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean, His blood avail for me. Dear Him, be deaf, His praise
ye dumb, Your loosened tongues employ, He blind me, O pure Savior, Glory to God and praise and love
be ever, ever, ever, ever. Thy saints below and saints above
the church in earth and heaven.