Love that hymn. Thank you joy.
Pray the Lord will still our hearts this morning and. That
he'll give us rest in Christ. Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah chapter 32. Isaiah 32. What a blessing this weekend's
been Donnie. Thank you, Shirley. Thank you
for letting Donnie come with you. It's been a good weekend. Isaiah chapter 32, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the author and the subject of all of scripture. And when this passage speaks
of the king, he's talking about that king of kings, the Lord
of Lords, the Lord Jesus Christ, behold, that word means give
your undivided attention, your undivided attention. Look, behold,
a king shall reign in righteousness. We have no righteousness whatsoever
outside of the righteousness of Christ. And he reigns. He has established righteousness.
He's the end of the law for righteousness. He's accomplished everything
necessary for his people to be able to stand in the presence
of a holy God. Behold, a king shall reign. And he reigns, doesn't he? He
reigns. He reigns in righteousness and
princes shall rule in judgment. Now that means that those who
speak for him will declare the judgment of God accomplished
in Christ. and a man, the man. The man shall be as a hiding
place. This gospel is for those who
need a place to hide. And there's no hiding place outside
of Christ. Every other hiding place that
men come up with is going to be discovered. Oh, but to be
found in him. That's a safe place. 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. How dry and thirsty this world
is that we live in. There's no hope for salvation
outside of the message of God's free grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. As a shadow of a great rock in
a weary land, And the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. Scripture says that the seeing
eye and the hearing ear are both from the Lord, and when he opens
the ear and takes the scales off our eyes, it's clear, isn't
it? Believers wonder sometimes, how
can people not see this? It's so crystal clear. The Lord
doesn't give you eyes to see and ears to hear, you won't see
it. The heart also of the rash shall
understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall
be ready to speak plainly. It's a plain message. Doesn't
appeal to the intellect, doesn't appeal to the flesh. It's a simple
message, the simplicity of the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the message that we declare and we preach. Let's
pray together. Our merciful and glorious Heavenly
Father, we have great hope in knowing that we can come into
thy holy presence, looking in faith to thy dear son for all
of our righteousness and all of our acceptance. We thank you
for the revelation that you've given us of him in your word,
and we pray, Lord, that you would open the eyes of our understanding,
that you would unstop our ears, that you would enable us to hear
the very voice of God, and that we would be brought in faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ, resting all the hope of our salvation
in his glorious person and in his accomplished work. Lord, we ask that you would enable
us to speak with plainness. Paul said he came with plainness
of speech. Lord, let us speak plainly and
clearly with compassion, knowing that
we are sinners in need of your grace. We ask it all in Christ's name.
Amen. Will you open your hymnals, your
hardbacked hymnals, if you'll open them to number 222. Number 222. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners
plunged beneath that flood. shall be cleansed from all their
guilty stains. Let's stand together. Tom, you
come please and lead us. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, ? Wash all my sins away ? Wash all my sins away ? Wash
all my sins away ? And there may I, though vile as he ? Wash
all my sins away Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood shall never
lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. be saved to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, Thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. and shall be till I die, and
shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter tone,
I'll sing thy power to save. Please be seated. Let's turn now over to hymn number
125 and the same hardback timbrel, number 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sid had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow For nothing good have I Whereby thy
grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's
Lamb Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain, He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. We'll have special music now,
Adam and Caleb. If you'd like to follow along,
it's number 466 in the hardback handle. Once far from God and dead in
sin, no light my heart could see. But in God's Word, the light
I've found, now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. As rays of light from yonder
sun, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love came
forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. As lives the flower within the
seed As in the comb the tree So praise the God of truth and
grace His spirit dwelleth in me Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. With longing all my heart is
filled That like Him I may be As on the wondrous thought I
dwell That Christ liveth in me Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. Thank you man. Scripture says Christ in you
is your hope of glory. What hope we have. Would you
turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter
13. We'll look at verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
and the first question I want us to try to answer this morning
is what exactly did the Gentiles hear? They were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord. What was it? What was the response
to what they heard? And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Now let me introduce this message
by just saying that that's exactly what that means. Our folks have heard me tell
this story before. I was speaking with a man on
a Sunday afternoon at lunch who was a Sunday school teacher and
Freewill Southern Baptist Church and trying to share the gospel
with him and I brought up this passage of scripture and his
response to me was Interesting that you should bring that up
He said we looked at that verse of scripture for an hour this
morning. We couldn't figure it out You see it was just contrary
to everything that he thought was true and so I He rejected
the simplicity of the scriptures in order to hold on to the lie
that he had believed. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. Who believes those who are ordained
to eternal life? The Gentiles were glad. And this verse is set in contrast
if you look back up just a few verses to verse 45. But when
the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with envy and spake
against those things which Paul spoke with contention and contradicting
and blaspheming. So you have two groups of people
here. When they heard it, they were glad. The other, when they
heard it, they contradicted what they were hearing and they blasphemed
the word of God. Nothing has changed. Same thing happens today. Every
time the gospel of God's free grace in the glorious person
and the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared,
men will either get mad or they'll get glad. one way or the other. You cannot remain neutral when
it comes to the gospel. It will strip you naked before
God and leave you with no hope outside of Christ, to which you
will be resentful or you'll be happy. And you'll glorify the
word of the Lord and you'll believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
the Holy Spirit had sent Paul and Barnabas out of the church
in Antioch at Syria. There's two Antiochs spoken of
in the scriptures. And they were now going to, as
the scripture tells us, Antioch and Pisidia. And as their custom
was, they went to the synagogue first and they preached the gospel.
Paul was invited to speak and so he stood and he recounted
all the events of Old Testament Israel, how God had called out
Abraham and how God had given them his word. And when he gets
to David, this is all in chapter 13, when Paul gets to David,
he makes the leap from David to the son of David, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And these Jews were waiting for
another man like David to be raised up to set things straight. And this gospel preacher sent
by the Holy Spirit makes it very clear to them that Christ Jesus
the Lord is the fulfillment of all the promises that God made
to David and for his people. Notice in verse 32 of this chapter,
verse 32, and we declare unto you glad tidings. That's the
same word for gospel. We declare unto you the gospel.
This is good news. What's the good news? Well, read
on. How that promise which was made unto the fathers God hath
fulfilled. That's the good news, that all
the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. That God's
not waiting on you and I to do something in order for him to
fulfill his promises for us. That Christ Jesus is the fulfillment
of all the promises that God made to save his people. And
these Jews were hung up on the law and they thought, well, you
know, there's something we need to do in order to make the promises
of God work for us. And we can't have a message that
robs us of our righteousness and gives all the glory to another.
And so they spake against the message of the gospel. But when
the Gentiles heard it, they were glad. And they glorified the
word of God and all that were ordained to eternal life believed. What exactly did the Gentiles
hear? We'll go back with me to verse 48. And when the Gentiles
heard this, what did they hear? Well, look
at verse 46. After these legalistic Jews spoke
against the gospel, Paul and Barnabas in verse 46
waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you, but seeing that you put it from you. Those who observe lying vanities
forsake their own souls. That's what they were doing.
They were observing lying vanities. They wouldn't have the gospel.
And so since that you have put it from you and judge yourselves
unworthy for eternal life. That one phrase right there tells
us what the purpose of God's word is. The purpose of God's
Word is to give us eternal life. Reveal to us the One in whom
there is eternal life. For this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. There is no life outside of Christ.
Christ Jesus the Lord is our life. And so when they judged themselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, and this is a quote from Isaiah 49, I have set thee
to be a light to the Gentiles, that thou should be salvation
unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. When the Gentiles heard that
this good news of accomplished salvation was for them, they
were glad. You mean what you're declaring
from God's word is for a Gentile dog too? Yeah, yeah, it's for
you too. For a pagan like me? One who
is an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. One who is by nature
a stranger to the promises of grace that God gave to Israel.
You mean this message would be for me? Oh, the truth is it's
only for you. It's only for you. For this is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. That's what they heard. When
they heard this, When they heard that the good
news of the gospel of God's free grace was for them, they were
glad. They were glad. They were without
hope. They were without God in this
world. And what they were saying was,
you mean for me? Even me? God's people are amazed. that Christ would die for them. The self-righteous, the religionist
who speaks against the gospel will respond to this very verse
of scripture as my friend did. Ordained to eternal life? That
can't be so. That's not fair. God's people Lord, I don't want
what's fair. I don't want what's fair. You
mean God would have mercy on a sinner like me? You see, that's
what they heard. And that's what they were amazed
at. A sick and sore sinner can be
saved? There's hope for the putting
away of my sin? Notice in verse 38, here's what
they heard. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, through this man, which
is being preached unto you, is the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe
are justified from all things. That's what they heard. Only sinners are gonna be glad
to hear that message. The self-righteous, Those who
are looking to something that they've done, some decision they've
made, some prayer they've prayed, some work they've accomplished,
some knowledge that they've acquired are not going to be glad to hear
a message like that. But those who have nothing and
are in need of everything are glad when they hear that through
this man there is forgiveness of sin. These were dogs. You remember in Judges chapter
7 when the Lord raised up Gideon and told him to put together
an army of men? And Gideon did, and he had too
many men. And so the Lord sent him down
to the river, and he said, you watch him drink. And the ones
who lap up water like a dog, those are going to be your army. And Gideon separated unto God
those who lapped up water like a dog. You remember the story
of Mephibosheth? Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan.
Oh, he was crippled in a fall as a child and he was hiding
out in a place called Lodabar. And Lodabar, by translation,
means a place of no bread. There was no sustenance. There
was no hope for him. David had become king. And Mephibosheth
was the last surviving heir of Saul's household who had the
legal right to take that throne back from David. If he could
get an army together, he could take it away. And David said
to his servant, he called Ziba to him. He said, are there any
left of the household of Saul that I might show kindness toward
him for Jonathan's sake? And Ziba said, well, yeah, there's
a cripple boy over in Lodabar. David said, fetch him. Fetch
him, go get him, bring him to me. Don't you know that Mephibosheth
thought all the way back to David, I'm a dead man, this is it. They
said, I thought I was in a hiding place and it wasn't a very good
hiding place. The king has found me and he's bringing me in to
have me taken out, put away. And when David saw Mephibosheth,
he said, oh, Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. He saw the likeness of Jonathan. And Mephibosheth responded to
David by saying, oh, what would the king have to do with such
a dead dog as I? You see, he saw himself as a
Gentile dog, a man worthy of death. These are the ones who
are glad to hear the gospel of God's grace in Christ, those
who know and believe that apart from God's grace, they are hell
deserving sinners. Child of God, you believe that
about yourself, don't you? You believe that if Christ doesn't
stand in your stead and present his righteousness and his person
and his accomplished work on your behalf, you will be sent
to hell. You believe that about yourself.
Most folks don't. Most folks don't believe they're
hell-deserving sinners. Mephibosheth did. These Gentiles
who heard the gospel were glad because apart from this message
of salvation in Christ, they were dogs. They were dogs. You remember when the Lord had
that conversation with a Syrophoenician
woman. She came begging for mercy, begging
for mercy. And the Lord, first of all, he
ignored her. And then the disciples said,
Lord, send her away. She's just embarrassing herself
and she's embarrassing us. And, you know, just just send
her away. And she kept begging. And the Lord called her a dog.
He said, it's not right that I should give the children's
bread unto dogs. Now, if you were in that situation,
you're begging for mercy. Number one, you're ignored. Then
the disciples embarrass you publicly by telling you to be put away.
And then the Lord calls you a dog. You know what most folks would
do under those circumstances? They would huff off and say,
well, if that's the way you think about it, just forget it. That's what most folks would
do. If that's your view of me, just forget it. I'll go find
help somewhere else. When the Lord called her a dog,
what'd she say? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. What you say about
me is true. Would you just push a couple
crumbs off the table so that this dog could eat them off the
floor? You know, one crumb from God's table is more than all
the food that this world has to offer. One crumb from God's
table. But only the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from the master's table. The Gentiles heard this and they
were glad. And they glorified the word of
God and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. They believed. Now you contrast
those stories where believers acknowledge themselves as dogs
like Mephibosheth and like Gideon's army and like the Syrophoenician
woman to Goliath. Goliath with all of his power
and his strength and his size. And he sees little David running
to him. And he said, what am I, a dog?
That you would come after me with sticks and staves and send
a boy to take me on? He was offended that they had
such a low view of him. Sinners are never offended to
be called a sinner. No, they rejoice. They're glad.
They're glad to hear this, because now they don't have to look to
themselves for anything. Only sinners look outside of
themselves for everything. Ben-Hadad was the king of Syria. He sent his servant by the name
of Haziel down to speak to Elisha, the prophet in Israel, to find
out if he was going to recover from his sickness. And Elijah looked at Haziel and
said, yes, Ben-Hadad's going to recover from his illness,
but you're going to kill him. And then you're gonna bring the
army of Syria down to Israel and you're gonna kill us. And
Elisha wept. And Haziel looked at Elisha and
he said, what am I a dog that I would do something like that? And he went home and did exactly
what Elisha said he would do. He was a dog, he didn't know
it and he wouldn't admit it. And God's people say, Truth Lord, you mean the gospel
is for a Gentile? It's for a dog like me? You know, we often find in God's
Word and declare without apology unconditional election and we
declare a limited atonement, that God elected a people before
the foundation of the world, and that Christ successfully
saved those whom God had chosen on Calvary's cross, and only
those whom God had chosen. We declare irresistible grace. We say that men are dead in their
trespasses and sins, and they will not believe on Christ unless
God intervenes and makes them willing in the day of his power.
And then we declare a message that that secures the salvation
and says that what God has started he's going to finish and he's
not going to lose one of his sheep and he's going to keep
them all. And the religionists will debate with us over those
issues, won't they? But you know what? The real problem
is not those four points that I just made. Not those four points. Men will
debate unconditional election, limited atonement, they'll debate
irresistible grace until God teaches them the very first point,
total depravity. Total depravity. That's the problem.
You see, the problem that those have, the problem that every
person has who does not believe the gospel is that they've not
been made a sinner. They are not Gentile dogs. They
don't, they've not been stripped naked before God. They, they,
they've not been taken that all their righteousness has not been
taken from them. They're still looking to something.
Then that's why they object to those other points. But you,
you find me a person whom God has made to be a center and they're
not going to have any problem with any part of the gospel.
It all stands or falls on depravity. And only those who find themselves
standing in the presence of a holy God will believe themselves to
be a sinner. Isaiah said in the day that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled
the temple and the seraphims hovered over his throne and they
cried, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and
earth is filled with his glory. And what's the first thing out
of Isaiah's mouth? Woe is me. I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. My
eyes have seen the king. I'm dead. God doesn't have mercy
on me. I'm a dead man. And that's always
the case. Always the case. Job spent 20-something chapters
defending himself and accusing God of wrongdoing. I don't deserve
this kind of treatment. Until the Lord came along and
said, who is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge?
Job, sit yourself down. I'm going to ask you a few questions.
And God begins to interrogate Job. And in interrogating Job,
what's God doing? He's revealing his glory to Job. And Job says, oh behold, I am
vile. I am vile. They were glad because they were
sinners. And every sinner's glad. They're
glad to hear about the forgiveness of sin. Oh, the putting away
of our sin by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, covered
by his blood, never to be seen again, separated from us as far
as the East is from the West. And God says, I remember them
no more, no more. David put it like this, blessed
is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose iniquity and
sins have been covered, have been covered. See men go around
trying to cover up their sins with their own righteousness.
And what men covers, God uncovers. In the day of judgment, they'll
all be uncovered. What God covers? You see, what men cover, God
uncovers. What men uncover, when God makes
them to be a sinner and they come naked before God and, Lord,
this is, truth, Lord, I am a dog, God covers. And when God covers
it, Oh, it's just, it's put away. It's put away. They heard a message about the
covering of sin. All my sin, you're telling me
is put away. Yeah. Cast into the sea of forgetfulness. God put them away by the sacrifice
of his son once and for all and by one offering he has sanctified
forever, forever them that are sanctified. Or he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified by the one offering of himself. He bore the sins of his people.
He didn't die for everybody. He bore the sins of his elect
on Calvary's cross and he suffered the full wrath of God's justice
and judgment in order to put away all those sins. And in him,
the son of David, you read this whole chapter and what Paul's
saying to them, David's still in the grave, but the son of
God, he raised him from the dead in order to prove that what he
had done on Calvary's cross was successful in accomplishing the
purpose for which God sent him, to save his people. That's what
he came to do. The Lord said, you shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people. Jesus translated
means salvation is of the Lord. Jehovah saves. He does all the
saving. He does the electing. He does
the redeeming. He does the regenerating. He
does the keeping. He does the glorification. He
does it all, from beginning to end. Salvation is of the Lord. And that's what his name means.
And men call him Jesus, and then they deny the very essence of
his person. They were glad. Gentile dogs
are always glad to hear about the forgiveness of sin. And look with me at verse 39. And by him, by the Lord Jesus
Christ, all that believe are justified from all things. When you and I forgive someone, As sincere as we are, knowing
that we've been forgiven, we forgive one another, we do forgive
one another, and forgiveness is a work of grace. You've been
forgiven, you'll forgive, but you know what? We're just not
able to completely forget, are we? The word justified means to render
righteous. I've heard it interpreted like
this, just if I'd never done it. Well, that's okay. But the truth is when we're in
Christ, we never done it. That's what it means to be justified.
And the only way we're gonna be able to stand in the presence
of a holy God is if we have no sin. Now sinner, how are you
going to stand in the presence of a holy God? How can a man
be just with God is what Job said. How are you going to stand
in the presence of God unless Christ put those sins away and
justifies us in the presence of a holy God, standing in our
stead, being our sin bearer, being all our salvation, satisfying God's justice, And
here we are founding Christ, not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law. We can't be justified by the
law. Turn to me, if you will, to Galatians chapter two. Galatians
chapter two. Look at verse 16. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. In other words, this is the message
of the gospel. We cannot justify ourselves.
We cannot render ourselves righteous. We cannot hide our sins from
God. I don't care how close to the law we try to live. A man is not justified, not before
God. We may justify ourselves, we're
pretty good at justifying ourselves to one another, aren't we? God looks at the heart. Sin is
an offense against God. Psalm 139, he knows our thoughts
before we think them, he knows our words before we speak them,
he knows us inside and out. Nothing, you can't hide anything
from God. And yet men go around thinking, I'm going to justify
myself by the keeping of the law. I'll just do better, and
I'll try harder, and God will be pleased. No, he won't. No,
he won't. God demands absolute perfection. The law has to be kept perfectly. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one that ever did that. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Oh, look what he goes on to say,
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. We're not even justified by our
faith in Jesus Christ. We're justified before God by
the faithfulness and the faith. You see, God requires perfection
and He requires perfect faith. And you and I are always having
to say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. My faith
falls short of being perfect, but his faith, all to his dying
breath, father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. He believed
God, holy and perfectly. And he sat and God saw the travail
of his soul. And God said, I'm satisfied,
satisfied with him. I'm not satisfied with you, but
I'm satisfied with Christ. And so the Lord makes it clear.
We know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we who have believed in
Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ
and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. But by the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, When the Lord Jesus Christ, as the living word
of God, ascended back into glory, he took with him the names of
those for whom he lived and died. My word will not return unto
me void. And he sat down at the right
hand of God. And all the blessings of God
and all of our righteousness and all of our salvation is seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high right now in Christ,
in Christ. You see, this is how sinners
respond to the gospel, isn't it? The Gentiles, the Gentiles
heard this and they were glad and they glorified the word of
God. They, they believe this is nothing short of the word
of God. This is not a man's opinion.
We're not, we're not declaring a doctrinal distinction here
from other religious groups. We're speaking the very Word
of God. They glorified the Word of God
as the Word of God. They didn't say, well, that's
what you think about it. No. No. They're like those Bereans. They rejoiced in what they were
hearing, and they searched the Word of God to see if those things
were true. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're just searching the Word of God. We open God's Word. For one reason, as sinners, as
Gentile dogs, who in need of having their sin put away and
in need of being justified in the presence of a holy God, we
open God's word for one reason, and that's to find the only one
who is able to save us from our sins. And that's what this book
is. This book is not a book of theology. It's not a book of
history. It's a book about the Lord Jesus Christ in the volume
of the book it is written of me. We're looking for Christ.
And if we don't find Christ in a passage of scripture, you know,
Donnie and I are, we come upon a path, you know, we preach verse,
I preach, I know you do too, Donnie, preach verse by verse
through a book of the Bible. And you wonder sometimes, well,
why didn't he continue where he was last week? Because I couldn't
find Christ in that passage. The Lord hadn't showed him to
me yet. And I just have to keep looking at it and praying over
it before, oh, there he is. Now I can go back and preach
from that. I don't preach to you something that's going to
tickle your ears or give you some satisfaction to your flesh
or your knowledge. No, we're here to lift up Christ. And I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men unto me. For as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Paul
said, I determined, I quoted this last night when you finished
preaching, that was such a Christ honoring message, Donnie. I determined
not to know anything among you save Christ and him crucified. Why? Because we need to be saved. I need a savior. I don't need I don't need knowledge
that can give me some advantage over another man. I need a savior
that will give me acceptance with God. And that's what this
is. They glorified the word of the
Lord as the word of the Lord, because Christ is the essence
of God's word. The Lord said to those self-righteous
Pharisees, you search the scriptures, you're very diligent students
of the Bible, and you've learned a lot, and you've got everybody
else impressed, but these are them which testify of me. You've missed the meaning of
the Bible. And only God can give you those
eyes to see Christ in the scriptures. No amount of study, no amount
of intelligence. Albert Einstein is known by the
world as the man of the century. The man of the century, the 20th
century, a hundred years. all the advances that have happened
in science as a result of the things that Albert Einstein discovered. I'll quote you from Albert Einstein.
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and
product of human weakness. The Bible, a collection of primitive
and childish legends. He went on to say, strip the
Old Testament of its prophets and priests and strip the New
Testament of Jesus Christ and you have a book that will solve
all the ails of society. And that's what men do. They
go to this book in order to try to solve the ales of society
rather than to be saved. You strip the Old Testament of
the prophets and the priest and you strip the New Testament of
the Lord Jesus Christ and all you have left is law. Precept
and rules and regulations and you don't have salvation. And
the reason why that won't work is because men can't keep the
law. They can't keep the law. And what I'm trying to say to
you is that no amount of human intelligence will enable a man
to see Christ in the scriptures. The Gentiles who heard this were
glad, and they glorified the word of the Lord as the word
of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life. Which one of them were glad?
Which one of them glorified the word of the Lord? Which one of
them were delighted to know that this message was for a dog? Those
that had been ordained to eternal life. Only those who have been
ordained to eternal life are going to believe. People listen to the gospel all
the time and they walk out and they just go on about their lives
doing something else they don't believe. God elected a people before time
ever began, put them in the land slain before the foundation of
the world, reckoned them justified in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And all those whom God wrote
in the Lamb's Book of Life before time ever began, when they hear,
when they're here, when they hear, they're glad. They acknowledge
themselves as sinners and they're glad to hear about a Savior who
puts away their sin and justifies them before God. You say, and
people get hung up on this. They say, well, well, how can
I be sure that I was ordained to eternal life? How can I be
sure that I'm one of God's elect? How can I be sure that I'm chosen
of God? Don't worry about that. You can't, you can't look into
the Lamb's book of life. You can't look into the mind
of God and, and, and know who he chose and who he didn't chose.
The only thing you have to concern yourself with is am I glad? Am
I glad to hear this message of salvation in a man who has put
away my sin and justified me before God? Do I believe that
this is nothing less than the perfect, inerrant, inspired,
infallible Word of God and that it all speaks of Christ? Do I
believe that? Is this message from God the
only hope I have? That's pretty good evidence that
you're one of God's ordained elect. And here's the final evidence,
and really the only evidence they believed. They believed. Do you believe on Christ? When the Lord was talking to
Martha at her brother's tomb, She said, Lord, I know my brother
will rise in the resurrection. And the Lord said, Martha, I
am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he be dead, shall he live again? And then the Lord said, Martha,
do you believe this? Oh, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the son of God, that was to come into the world.
I believe that you are the anointed one of God, the one who came
in the full power of the Spirit of God to accomplish the salvation
of God's elect. I believe that you reign sovereign
and that you are successful and that you will never, never fail
or be discouraged in what you came to do. I believe on you. I do. When Philip, when that
Ethiopian eunuch said, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And
Philip said, if thou believe us with all mine heart, thou
mayest. And he said, I believe that Jesus you just preached
to me, the one with a capital J, the one who actually accomplished
salvation. I believe he's a son of God,
the sovereign successful substitute. the Savior of a sinner like me
and the only you see. Believing on Christ is not believing
that you're saved. That's a wonderful time when
the Lord gives you that assurance and you're able to rest and just
rejoice and and I want that all the time. But as believers we. We wonder sometimes, don't we?
We we Donnie, you brought this up. Lord, is it I? Is it I? believing on Christ is believing
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the successful
substitute, sin-bearing substitute. And the only hope you have to
stand in the presence of a holy God is to have him stand in your
stead. Do you believe that? The Gentiles did. The dogs do. And they're glad. And they glorify the word of
the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life. Believed. Father, we pray your
blessings on your word. We ask, Lord, that you would.
Open our eyes and give us faith to rest all our hopes on Christ.
For it's in his name we ask it. Amen. We're not going to take
the normal break that we do between services. Tom, we didn't talk
about this, but I feel like it interrupts the