Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 22 from your gospel hymn spiral hymn
book. And let's all stand together.
Number 22, For the Glory of His Grace. By the fall, Adam's sin defiles
us all. By our deed, as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retreat. ? But the blessed Son of God
? Came as man in flesh and blood ? He fulfilled the most demands
? And in death stretched out his hands ? On the cross of Calvary
? Christ redeemed and set us free In the time which God hath
said, the Spirit came for His elect to regenerate and pull
from the ruin of the foe. By His power and by His grace,
we were born for God's own grace. ? Saved according to your will
? Sing this song of joyful praise ? For the glory of your grace
? Blessed holy triumph come ? Hear our praise to Christ our Lord
Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
be in First Peter again tonight, if you'd like to open your Bibles
with me. First Peter chapter two. And the message is going to be
from verse six, but I want to read these verses together, beginning
with verse four. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That's what
we just sang. accept our sacrifices, accept
our praise by thy son. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe,
He is precious. And that word precious means
priceless. He's the pearl of great price.
There's nothing that those who believe would trade for him.
Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, and that word disobedient is the word
apathy. those who are indifferent, those
who could take it or leave it, those who might have a fleeting
interest, but Christ is not their life. He's not precious to them. They're apathetic about Christ. The stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And a
stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which
stumble at the word being disobedient where unto also they were appointed. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. That word
peculiar is the word purchased, a bought people, been bought
with the price of the blood of the Lord Jesus. A peculiar people
that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Let's pray. Our gracious, glorious, merciful
Heavenly Father. We thank you that there is a
throne of grace. To which we can come. And find
help in our time of need. Lord, our need is that we are
often confounded, we are often confused, and we know that the
cause of our confusion is our own sin. And so, Lord, we pray
that you'd be pleased tonight to reveal Christ to our hearts,
that we would find in him our all in all, that we would be
able to look to him and rest in him and believe on him, Lord,
that you would make him precious to us, that we would find our
hope and our comfort in him. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 199 in the Hartbeck Tymnal. Let's all stand together again,
199. ? Sinner Jesus will receive ? ?
Sound this word of grace to all ? ? Who the heavenly pathway
lead ? ? All who linger, all who fall ? ? Sing it o'er and
o'er again ? ? Christ receive and sin command ? Make the message
clear and plain. Christ, receive and send all. ? And He will give you rest ? Trust
Him for His word is plain ? He will take the sinful last ? Christ
receiveth sinful man ? Sing it o'er and o'er again ? Christ
receiveth sinful man Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive the sinful. ? Now my heart contemns me not
? ? For before the law I stand ? ? He who cleansed me from all
spot ? ? Satisfied its last demand ? ? Sing it o'er and o'er again
? ? Christ, receive the sinner's praise ? ? Make the message clear and plain
? Christ, receive a sinful man ? Christ, receive a sinful man
? Heavenly with all my sin ? Purge from every spot and stain ? Heaven
with him I enter in ? Christ received his sinful man
? Make the message clear and plain ? Christ received his sinful
man Please be seated. That is our hope. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, sinful men, men who have nothing to bring
to God but their sin. What a glorious Savior we have. Titled this message, The Simplicity
of the Gospel. And I'm reminded of, I think
I've perhaps made reference to this recently, but John Newton
on his deathbed, the author of Amazing Grace, said that, he
said, you know, we were talking about our elderly parents and
how easy they get confused. And Newton said, he said, my
memory is not as it ought to be. And not like he used to be.
But this one thing I remember, I'm a great sinner and Christ
Jesus the Lord is a great savior. And that was his hope. And that is the simplicity of
the gospel. Notice in our text in verse 6
of 1 Peter chapter 2, wherefore also it is contained in the scriptures. Then Peter's going to quote from
Isaiah chapter 28. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. How easily confounded we can
become. How easily confused we can become. And the Lord has made it clear
here that the cause of that is unbelief. He that believeth on
him shall not be confused, shall not be confounded. Unbelief is the root cause of
all of our sin, and it is the reason for us being confounded. Ultimately, it will be the cause
of men standing before God. Ashamed, that's another way to
translate this word confounded, also translated the word ashamed. And those who die without believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ will stand before a holy God and shamefully
have no defense. But he that believeth shall not
be ashamed, shall not be confounded. If we are to rest in peace, if
we are to be content and to have hope and joy and comfort and
clarity and understanding, God must give us faith. Faith, it's a gift of God. It
must be enabled by the Spirit of God to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And notice the word believe is
the word believeth. You see that? And generally speaking, when
you see in the King James a verb that ends with I-T-H, or E-T-H,
as we have in this case, you could just replace those letters
with I-N-G. I-N-G. It is a continuing act
of believing. And so this work of grace that
the Lord does in the hearts of his children is a continual work,
to whom coming, laying aside. It's not a one-time event. It's something that we are always
in need of because of the unbelief that remains in us. And so he
that believeth, he that continuing to believe shall not be confounded. Now, if we're looking to see whether
or not we're saved, we're going to be confounded. If we look
to see whether or not we are elect, we're going to be confounded. if we try to figure out whether
we're going to heaven or whether we love Christ or whether we
love his word or his church or whether or not we have repentance
and sorrow as we ought, we will be forced to look to ourselves
for evidence of those things. And looking to ourselves will
leave the child of God with much confusion. It'll fill our hearts with doubts
and fears and weakness and wanderings and we'll lose our peace. We won't be unconfounded, we'll
be confounded. This saving faith is all about the object of its
faith. The Lord rebuked the disciples,
you remember, when they were on the boat in the storm on the
Sea of Galilee, and he said, oh, ye of little faith, why were
you afraid? In another place, the Lord said,
if you had faith as a mustard seed, you could say unto this
mountain, be cast into the sea. And so the Lord has made it perfectly
clear that it's not the amount of our faith that saves, it's
the object of our faith. Who is it that we believe? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he is able, I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. Of Abraham, Scripture said he staggered not in unbelief,
but was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was
able to perform. So this matter of faith in Christ,
this believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is resting our hope in
his glorious person and in his accomplished work. We're not
trying to figure out whether or not we're one of God's elect.
You're never going to know that. I mean, you're not going to be
able to We can't look into the last book of life and find our
name. We don't know who the Lord chose and who he passes by. But who we believe, who we're
resting the hope of our immortal soul on, the Lord says, he that believeth
shall not be confounded. And here's how we come. We come,
you remember when the king of Persia, his name was Ahasuerus, Haman tried to destroy the Jews
and brought lies to Ahasuerus and Ahasuerus wrote a decree. Anyway, Mordecai
had to go into the king's chamber and to approach the king without
being summonsed was certain death, to go into the king's chamber
without being asked to be there. And Mordecai told Esther, he
said, you have to go. And what did Esther say? Esther
said, if I perish, I perish. If I perish, I perish. My only
hope is that he will extend to me the golden scepter, that he
will have mercy upon me. That's how faith comes. That's
how we come. If I perish, I perish. But my only hope, my only hope,
is that he will extend the golden scepter of his grace and his
mercy toward me. And if he doesn't do that, I
won't be saved. But I've got no place else to go. I've been
shut up to Christ. And if Christ doesn't save me,
I'm not going to be saved. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. I must be saved by God's grace
or I will not be saved at all. So what does this faith that
God gives look like? Well, the first thing I want
you to see is the simplicity of it, the simplicity of it. The Apostle Paul, in writing
to the church at Corinth, he said, I fear for you, lest by
any means that Satan, who deceived Eve, might deceive you from the
simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. The simplicity of the
gospel, the singularity. Believers, faith loves not having
to make choices. That's why believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ is not a decision. It's not a decision. It's when
God shuts you up to no place else to go. Lord, to whom shall
we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. We've got all our eggs in one basket. We've
placed all our hope on you. We're not diversifying our hopes
here. Lord, if you don't save us, we
won't be saved. I love the simplicity of the
gospel, don't you? There's one way. The Lord said, I am the way, I am
the truth, I am the life, no making unto the Father. There's
one God, there's one faith, there's one Lord, there's one baptism,
there's one church, there's one gospel. I don't know about you, but I always
hated multiple choice questions in school because invariably
two of the answers were obviously wrong but there were two that
were so close together and you couldn't figure out, you had
to really parse the words in order to figure out what do they
really mean by this and which one is right and half the time
I'd get it and the other half I wouldn't. This matter of the
gospel is not a multiple choice. There's only one answer. There's
only one There are no options, there's only one. He that believeth
on him shall not be confounded. The simplicity of the gospel. You've been to a restaurant and
they give you the menu and there's so many choices in you. You say,
you know, there's just too many choices, I can't decide what
I want. Years ago we went to a a famous barbecue place in
Alabama that was in a building that should have been condemned.
And they served two things, ribs and light bread. They called
it light bread in Alabama, light bread and ribs. That was it.
They didn't have a menu. And I said to the guy, I said,
is there any way to get a a pulled pork sandwich, you know, because
we just put the meat on some bread. He said, yeah. So he brought
me my plate, and there was a piece of light bread with a rack of
ribs on it and another piece of light bread on top. There
you go. That's all we have on our menu. Only one choice. There's only
one. The simplicity of the gospel. It is so simple that a person
cannot claim to not understand. All they can say, if they're
honest, is, I don't believe. It's not that I don't understand
that the Bible is the word of God. It's not that I don't understand
that it's the only revelation that we have of Christ. Look
at our text. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scriptures, in the scriptures. The simplicity of the gospel
is that God has given us his word. And our Lord rebuked Martha. He said, oh Martha, you are careful
and troubled over many things. Don't you feel like Martha a
lot? Careful and troubled about a lot of things. But there is
but one thing that is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good
part. Mary was sitting at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one thing needful, one thing. David said in Psalm 27, one thing
if I desire to the Lord and that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and behold
the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. So one thing,
one thing. The older we get, the more thankful that we are
that the gospel is simple. The Lord said, my grace is sufficient
for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. The
more we grow in grace and the more we see of our own sin, the
weaker we become and the more dependent we are on Christ. The
one thing needful, one thing. It is a great comfort to the
child of God, to have the gospel reduced. We have all of our choices
taken away. That's where I wanna be. Lord,
don't give me any options. Don't give me any choices. If
I have to choose, I know from my past experience that my choice
is not gonna be right. Shut me up to Christ. It is contained in the scriptures. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
28. Isaiah 28. This is the passage that Peter
is quoting. Look at verse 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men. They don't, you add anything
to the scriptures, you don't believe scriptures. We have,
don't you love, I mean all the voices and all the opinions of
men and all the different things that, you know, that the world
is, this was Satan's very first temptation and he hasn't changed
his tactics. What did Satan say to Eve? Did
God say? Did God say? He could just get
us to question God's Word and we believe every word of God's
Word and we believe only God's Word, no other place as it is
contained in the scriptures. Hear the word of the Lord ye
scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem because
you have said we've made a covenant with death and with hell we are
in agreement when the overflowing scourge shall pass through it
shall not come unto us for we have made lies our refuge and
under falsehoods that we hid ourselves. Oh we have found We
have found a message of salvation somewhere other than the Word
of God, somewhere other than the finished work of Christ,
somewhere other than his person. We've made lies our refuge. We've hid ourselves in those
false lies. Wherefore, Verse 16, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. He shall not be confounded. He
shall not be ashamed. He that puts all of his hope
and trust in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ as he is revealed in the scriptures. Don't you love what
Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 when he talked about the death,
burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? And he says,
as. How that Christ, how that Christ
died and was buried and raised again according to the scriptures
according to the scriptures. We don't want any other place
to go. Here's what the faith that God gives looks like. He
shuts us up to God's word. We've got no place else. There's
no other source of truth for the forgiveness of our sin and
for the salvation of our souls other than the word of God as
it is contained in the scriptures. And believers love that. They
love resting right there. Saving faith looks to God's word
for all the proof that it needs. The word of God settles all controversy. It shuts the believer up. It's
the only way in which he's not confounded. What sayeth the scriptures? If I try to reconcile my feelings
or my experiences or even my faith with what God says, I'm
going to be confounded. But if I'm able, by God's grace,
to just believe what God says, God says I'm a sinner, I'm a
sinner. I don't have to worry about trying to figure out the
full depth of my sin. God said I'm a sinner. So many glorious promises. Faith just believes God, it doesn't
stand in judgment of God's Word. It says amen to everything that
God says. Someone asked me, well what do
you believe about so-and-so? Whatever the scripture says.
What God says is what I believe. And the scriptures are clear
and they're plain and they're simple. They are. They speak of Christ. And as I said earlier, a person cannot use the argument
that they do not understand. They must say, I don't believe. I just don't believe. I don't
believe that. Not that I don't understand it. The understanding
is clear. I was sharing some very, very
clear scriptures and very simple scriptures with a man recently.
And he said, well, you know, you know that the scriptures
can be twisted. I said, yeah, they can. What
I just told you is clear and simple and plain, and you know
what it says. And if anybody's twisting the
scriptures, it's not me. But the Lord says they will rest
the scriptures to their own destruction. But that's what men do, they
take the clear teaching of the word of God and they twist it. Speaks of Christ. When God says you shall call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins, that's
so simple. He shall. It's what he came to
do. He came to save sinners and he
was successful in what he came to do. And faith just believes
that. I am poor and needy, yet the
Lord thinketh upon me. Oh, there's our hope for the
poor and the needy that the Lord thinketh upon us. I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of good and not
of evil, to bring you to your expected end. That's a promise from God, that's
so simple. Christ came to save sinners. whom I am chief, all my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before God." That's so simple. I have no righteousness
outside of Christ. You see the simplicity of the
singularity of the gospel, the oneness of the gospel? The Lord
said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's not convoluted. It's not confusing, it's His
promise. And so when God is pleased to
give faith, that's why our hope is so encouraged when we gather
together for worship because there's no other time where we
are brought by the Spirit of God to a more sure faith. than when the gospel of God's
free grace in Christ is being preached. It's when the Lord
confirms to our hearts, yes, yes, I do believe. I'm not apathetic. I'm not indifferent. I'm not
looking here and there. And Christ is not just one option
for me. He's all my salvation. We know that he works all things
together for good for them that love him. Those are the call
according to his purpose, but how our faith waivers, how our
faith waivers. And yet when we hear that and
we're brought by the spirit of God to believe God, we're sure,
we're sure of it. We're certain that God is sovereign
and he is working all things together for my good and for
his glory. No question about it. He that
believeth shall not be confounded. We hear the Lord Jesus Christ
saying, I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
so that where I am there you may be also. If it were not so,
I would have told you. and the Spirit of God takes the
Word of God, faith comes by hearing, and we're able to rest as it
is contained in the scriptures. Where else can we go? No place. No place else can we go. Not
if we're gonna hear from God. God speaks in his Word. When
the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished. Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit. Lord, I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. And God, the Holy Spirit, meets
with us when we gather for worship, and he gives us faith to believe
that. If Christ didn't die for me,
I won't be saved. If I perish, I perish. I've got
no place else to go. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and the only thing that keeps me from not being confounded. Is my hope in Christ? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and now shall be saved. Yes, we do believe. Lord help the higher unbelief. I mentioned that verse in 1 Corinthians
15, 3, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. All the way back in the garden,
the very first prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God said
to Adam, after the fall, the seed of the woman will crush
the head of the serpent. And that's exactly what he did.
He tore down the gates of hell. He destroyed works of the devil. He accomplished salvation. He
crushed the head of the devil when he satisfied God's law and
justice by the sacrifice of himself. He was made of a woman. made
under the law to redeem them that are cursed by the law. That's
what God's word says. And the faith that God gives
just holds onto that. We're not trying to figure out
if we're one of God's elect. We're not trying to figure out
if we're saved. Do I believe God? Do I have anywhere else
to go other than the scriptures? how that he died according to
the scriptures. He is the Passover lamb. He's the burning bush, the one
that was burned by the fire of God's wrath and yet not consumed,
the one who consumed the fire himself. He's the lamb, that
perfect lamb. a spotless lamb that was brought
in and inspected for three days and then killed and his blood
was shed and he was burned. And every part of that lamb was
to be consumed by fire, that which wasn't eaten. And so here
we have Christ dying according to the scriptures. He was the
rock that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness.
He was the water that came out of that rock. He was the manna
that fell from heaven. How that Christ died, was buried
and rose again according to the scriptures. He that believeth
on him shall not be confounded, not be confused. We're not confused
when we don't have any choices. That's the only thing that does
away with all confusion. Otherwise we We can't decide. Somebody gives me directions
to go somewhere, and I can get the first two turns, but after
that, you need to write it down. And before GPS, most of you know
the road that we live on dead ends on 436. The road we live
off of, dead ends, Maitland Avenue, dead ends at 436. So we would
have guests that would come stay with us and need to get back
to the airport. And I would say, get that road right there, take
it till it dead ends, and turn right. And you're going to go
about 10 miles. And there's a lot of lights,
and there's going to be some traffic, and some turns. But
don't get off that road, because that road is going to take you
right smack dab into the airport. You can't miss it. You got one
turn to make. And that one turn is at the dead
end of this street. And God brings us to our dead
end and he turns us on the right road and we don't get off that
road. And it takes us all the way to
glory, all the way to that time when God sends the angels from
heaven to usher us into his presence. Oh, what a day that'll be. Don't
you love not having any options? No choices. And the natural man says, well,
you're just oversimplifying things. As someone said to me recently,
he said, well, you know, the Bible doesn't answer everything.
It answers everything that's anything. It answers everything
concerning our souls, everything concerning our salvation, God,
and who we are. who he is and how it is that
God, everything, everything is answered by God's word. So, so simple, but men won't
have the simplicity of the gospel. Men love to complicate things.
And so religion is very complicated. It's very confusing. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. He shall not be confused. He's been stripped of all of
his choices. He doesn't have any other options.
He's been shut up to Christ. And he likes being there. He
likes being there. He doesn't want to have to decide,
well, how many turns do I need to make? Or what choices do I
have on this menu? Or what multiple choice answer
should I pick from here? Oh, just give me one answer.
One answer, because I'm like Martha, I'm troubled and confused
by many things, and I need that one thing that is needful, to
sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, for Him to take away
these things that are confounded. no place to go other than scriptures,
and no one to hope in other than Christ. Notice in our text, go
back with me to 1 Peter 2, wherefore also it is contained
in the scriptures, nowhere else, nowhere else does God manifest
his grace. Nowhere else does God declare
his gospel other than his word. Men, you know, knowledge puffeth
up and men love to think they've got some insight into something
deep and dark and secret and no, it is contained in the scriptures
and the scriptures are simple and clear and plain and they're
for simple men. They're for the poor and the
needy who don't want their pride tickled. They got enough of that
already. They want to be shut up to the
simplicity of Christ. It is contained in the scriptures.
Behold, look. That's what that word behold
means. God is always telling us, look, look and live. Moses made that serpent of brass
in the wilderness of the children of Israel being bitten by fiery
snakes. A picture of the sin that has
bitten us is killing us. And Christ was made sin for us.
That's the purpose of the snake on the pole. And everyone that
looked lived. Everyone that looked. Looking upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, I lay in Zion. This saving faith that God gives
knows that God must do it. He must do all the saving. He's
got to lay the foundation. He's got to atone for my sins. He's got to choose me. I can't choose him. He's got
to redeem me. I can't redeem myself. He's got to call me out of darkness
into his marvelous light. He has to regenerate me. I lay
in Zion. Lord, if you don't do it, it
won't be done. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 15, Moses' song
in Exodus 15. We saw from Isaiah 28 that we
cannot trust in any promise that we make. I've made a covenant
with death. With hell, I'm in agreement.
And we didn't read on in that Isaiah 28 passage, but God says,
I'm going to disannul your covenant for I've laid in Zion a chief
cornerstone. The only covenant that saves
is my covenant. My promise, I lay in Zion. Notice in verse 9, the enemy
said, I will pursue. I will. Unbelief always starts with I.
Always. I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. I'll decide when I'm going to
pursue God, and when I get ready, I'll overtake Him. And I'll take
what He did for me and apply it to my life. I'm going to divide
the spoil up myself. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword. You know what the sword is. The
sword is a picture of the tongue. I'll pray the prayer. I'll say
the things. I will. My hand shall destroy them. The
hand is a picture of our works. And that's the unbelief. I'm
gonna do all these things. Look at verse 10. Thou didst
blow with thy wind, the wind covered them. They sank as lead
into mighty waters. And this just isn't a picture
of the destruction of the Egyptians. When the Lord drowned him in
the Dead Sea, this is the destruction of my will, I will. You see, verse nine describes
every one of us outside of Christ. And there are six I wills in
verse nine, and six is the number of man. And that's our opinion. I'm going to do these things. then God sends a wind. What is
that wind? It's the Spirit of God. He sends
the Spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel and he
buries us in the sea. He said, I've cast your sins into
the depths of the sea. Thou didst blow with the wind,
the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty
waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretcheth
out thy right hand, and the earth swallowed them. Thou, in thy
mercy, hath led forth the people. which thou hast redeemed, thou
hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." And
guess how many thou's there are in that verse? Seven. Seven. A number of perfection. Man says,
I will. God said, no. I'm going to send
the wind. And I'm going to, I laid in Zion a chief cornerstone. And what
does faith say? Faith says, Lord, if you don't
save me, I won't be saved. Lord, if you don't, you know,
you hear people talking about applying the blood of Christ
to your sin. You can't apply the blood of
Christ to your sin. And people talking about, well,
get onto the blood. You can't get onto the blood. Lord, you're gonna have to do
this. I will lay in Zion. Lord, you're gonna have to apply
the blood of Christ if I'm gonna be forgiven. You're gonna have
to hide me in Christ. Otherwise, I'll make a covenant
with death and I'll make the lies my refuge. The simplicity of the gospel
is that we have no place else to go other than the scriptures.
and we have no one else to save us other than God. And we can't
make any contribution to it. The simplicity of the gospel
is that he saves everyone in Zion. All Israel shall be saved. Look what he says. I lay in Zion, in Zion, all in
Zion and only in Zion. This salvation is sure and steadfast,
but it takes place in Zion. It's not for the world. Of course, I did not pray for the
world, didn't die for the world, laid his life down for the sheep.
That's simple. The simplicity of the gospel. I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone. We are built upon the foundations
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone
in whom the whole building is fitly joined together. If we're going to be part of
Zion, if we're going to be lively stones built into this, then
we have to look to that chief foundation stone. We have to
be knit together on that stone. No place, no place else that
we can go. Saving faith looks to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the one in whom God is pleased. The one in whom
God is pleased. This not being, this believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that not being confounded and not
being ashamed That word confounded, as I've mentioned earlier, is
also the word for ashamed. And I don't want to stand before
God in the day of judgment and be ashamed. I need an advocate. I need Christ
to present himself on my behalf. And he said, they that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're not going to be ashamed. Notice in our text, behold, I
lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect, Isaiah chapter 42, behold,
mine elect, my servant, in whom my soul was well pleased. He
shall not be, turn with me to that passage, I can't quote it,
Isaiah 42. Verse one, behold my servant,
look to Christ, nowhere else, whom I uphold, mine elect, my
chosen one, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
He's not wringing his hands in heaven. He's not begging men
to let him have his way. He's God. He's omnipotent. He's sovereign. He accomplishes
salvation in his people. A bruised reed shall he not break. Oh, child of God, how oftentimes
we become bruised reeds because of our own sin. We get confounded. We get confused. We've got our
eyes off of Christ. And the Lord says, a bruised
reed he shall not break, nor a smoking
flax he shall not quench. And here you've got an oil lamp
that the oil is depleted and the wick is just a little ember
on the tip of it. The flame has gone down. How
often, this describes our life oftentimes, doesn't it? He says,
I'm not going to break a bruised reed. I'm not going to snuff
out. You know, normally we would wet
our fingers and just put that wick out. He said, no, no, no.
I'm going to put more oil in the lamp and I'm going to cause
the wind in my spirit to blow. We're going to get that flame
back. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth and he shall not fail nor be discouraged. This is not
complicated. And yet the gospel that we hear
about is a God who's failed, a God who's discouraged, a God
who wants to say but can't. Till he has set judgment in the
earth and the isles shall wait for his law. He's going to save
all of Zion. All of Israel is gonna be saved.
I'm not gonna lose one of my sheep. Everyone for whom the
Lord Jesus Christ died is gonna be with him in glory. And saving
faith looks to the Lord Jesus Christ as the pearl of great
price. We saw this earlier. He's precious, precious. All is abandoned for him. What I mean by that is you forsake
your hope in anything other than Christ. You forsake all of your
own righteousness. Christ becomes all. He's precious. He's priceless. And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded, shall
not be confused, and shall never be ashamed. Unto you, therefore,
which believe he is precious. But unto them which are apathetic,
indifferent, disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed,
the stone which God made the head of the corner, He'll become a rock of offense
to them. We stand on that rock. Our whole hope is on that cornerstone
revealed in the apostles and the prophets. We have plenty of sin. that leaves us
confused and confounded and ashamed and ashamed. God gives saving faith. We look
singularly in God's Word for the Son of God and rest all the
hope of our salvation on his glorious person and on his accomplished
work. Our Heavenly Father, Thank you
for the simplicity of the gospel. Forgive us, Lord, for trying
to complicate things. And bless your word by your spirit
and cause us to rest our hope in Christ, to believe on him.
For it's in his name we pray, amen. 168, let's stand together. ? Lord I hear of showers of blessing
? ? Thou art scattering full and free ? ? Showers the thirsty
land refreshing ? ? Let some drops now fall on me ? ? Even
me, even me ? ? Let thy blessing fall on me ? ? Pass me not, O
tender Savior ? ? Let me love and cling to Thee ? ? I am longing
for Thy favor ? ? Whilst Thou art calling, O call me ? ? Even
me, even me ? ? Let Thy blessing fall on me ? ? Pass me not, O
mighty spirit ? ? Thou canst make the blind to see ? ? Witnesser
of Jesus' merit ? ? Speak the word of power to me ? ? Even
me, even me ? ? Let thy blessing fall on me ? Love of God so pure
and changeless, blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. ? Pass me not thy lost one bringing
? ? Bind my heart, O Lord, to thee ? ? While the streams of
life are springing ? ? Blessing others, O bless me ? ? Even me,
even me ? ? Let thy blessing fall on me ?