You fooled me, Adam. Let's open
our Bibles together to Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter 9. The Lord asked the Pharisees,
what think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? That's
the title of this message. He also said, as Moses was lifted
up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me. I want us
to experience the lifting up of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I want us to be convinced by the Spirit of God, through the
Word of God, who He is. Because I know that if we believe,
if we're enabled by the Spirit of God to believe what the scriptures
tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ, all will be well. All will be well with soul and
with life. All will be well. We'll find
ourselves resting in Him, looking to Him, rejoicing in Him. It's a work of grace in the heart
that the Holy Spirit has to give us faith to believe who the Lord
Jesus Christ is and what he has accomplished. And so the question
is, what do we believe about Christ? Scriptures are clear. They're full. All of the Bible
speaks of him and reveals him. And we're going to be looking
at a lot of scriptures this morning. And that's a good thing because
faith, which is what we need, comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. So our hope in the next few minutes
is that the Lord will take his word speak to our hearts, convince
us once again who Christ is, and enable us to rest all our
hope, all our hope in Him. The second question I want to
try to ask, answer, is what evidence do we have? What evidence do
we have? of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and what he has accomplished. Do we have the evidence of our
experience, the evidence of history? Do we have the evidence of theologians,
some dead theologian or some confession or some creed? What
is our evidence? And the answer to that question
is very simple. You already know it. It's the
word of God. That's the only evidence that
a believer needs is what say the scriptures. And we don't look to the evidence
of miracles. The Lord told that rich man that
had gone to hell when he asked Abraham to send someone to warn
his brothers of this place. What did Abraham say? They have the same thing you
had. They have the prophets. They have the scriptures. They
have the law and the prophets. And if they believe not these,
even if one was raised from the dead, they will not believe.
No miracle is going to convince them. It's the word of God that
gives us faith. And that's what we find in our
text. And then the third question is,
by what means do we use? And the answer to that question
is very simple. The same means that the church
has been using from the beginning, and that's the preaching of the
gospel. God is pleased to use the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. And so our hope this
morning is to preach Christ from God's word and that we would
be more thoroughly convinced than we've ever been before of
who he is and what he's done. And we will rest all our hope
in him. You have your Bibles in Acts
chapter nine. Saul of Tarsus has been radically
converted on the road to Damascus. The Lord has sent Ananias to
him on the street called straight and he's received his sight.
And for a few days after he recovers from that experience, he's hanging
out with the disciples. Look what he says in verse 19. And when he had received meat,
he was strengthened. Then Saul was certain days with
the disciples, which were at Damascus. What a time of encouragement
that must have been for him to fellowship with these believers
who he was out to murder. And then in verse 20, and straight
way, he preached Christ in the synagogue that he is the son
of God. When we preach Christ, we're
saying this man is the God-man. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And there's your hope because
you are complete in him. So immediately, Paul, the apostle
now, goes into the synagogue and he preaches Jesus as the
Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed
and said, is not this he that destroyed them which called on
this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he
might bring them bound unto the chief priests? They were confused. Wait a minute, just a few days
ago, this man was threatening to kill us. And now he's standing
in the synagogue and he's preaching this Jesus as the son of God. Look at the next verse. But Saul
increased the Moor in strength and confounded the Jews which
dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ. Now that word proving, you look
it up, literally translated it means to knit together. Saul
couldn't prove to anybody that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ.
I can't prove to you and you can't prove to anyone else. What
we can do is we can knit together the scriptures and those who
have been given faith to believe God will have all the proof that
they need. Isn't that glorious? They will
just have all the proof that they need that this is the son
of God, that he is the anointed one. He is the Christ that God
has prepared from the foundation of the world. He's the one sent
as the Messiah to accomplish the salvation of all of Israel. He's the reason for everything,
everything. John chapter 10, the Lord tells
the Pharisees that I am, I and the Father are one. And the scripture
says the Jews took up stones to stone him. And the Lord said,
for what works do you stone me? And they said, oh no, not for
good works do we stone thee, but because you, Being a man,
make yourself out to be God, we're stoning you for blasphemy.
There was no question in their mind who he was claiming to be. Had he not meant that he was
God, he would have said, oh, no, wait a minute, you misunderstood. Let me clarify this. No. No, they knew exactly what he
meant. And time and time again, he had declared himself to be
the glorious I am Jehovah of all of scripture, the self-existent
one. And so they knew who he was claiming
to be. He was claiming himself to be
the fullness of the Godhead, all the attributes of deity,
are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the omnipotent one. He is the one full of power. He's the omniscient one. He's
the one who possesses all knowledge, never learned anything and can't
forget anything, never had a new thought, never ask anyone a question. He possesses all knowledge in
and of himself. He's the Holy One of Israel.
He is the immutable one. He is the sovereign one. Many who would agree with those
terms have redefined them. And in redefining those terms,
they have denied the very essence of deity. Anyone who calls themselves
a Christian would say, well, yes, Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God. He's the God-man. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He was born of a virgin and never
knew sin and left the glories of heaven and ascended into this
world. He's God. They turn his omnipotence into
impotence when they say that he doesn't have the power to
change your will. When the omnipotent one comes
up against a creature who's in rebellion against him, The creature possesses more power
than he does because the creature is able to say of his own power,
yes or no, to the will of God. And so they say he's God. The Lord said, you honor me with
your lips, but your hearts are far from me. If you listen to
the definitions that they give to these words, you find out
that they're denying the very essence of deity. they say that he's omniscient
and yet they make him out to be nothing more than a seer one
who reads a crystal ball one who looks down through the quarters
of time to see what's going to happen and then says that's what's
going to happen that's not omniscience that's a that's a soothsayer
omniscience is one who according to his own his own Infinite knowledge
has already established everything that shall be and nothing can
be added to it or taken away from it. He doesn't have to look
down through the quarters of time to see what's going to happen.
He's established time and everything that is going to happen in time. They say he's sovereign, but they hate the idea of him
being sovereign in salvation. They let man possess that power
and make that determination. They say he's holy, and yet they
compete with one another to see who can achieve a higher level
of holiness in order to get some assurance of salvation. So we
have to be careful when we hear what men say about Christ by
what they mean. And I've said this before, in
one sense, preaching is nothing more than defining the terms
of the Bible. We compare the spiritual to the
spiritual, we knit scripture together with scripture, and
we show what's meant by these words. That's what Paul was doing. He went into the synagogue and
he preached Jesus as the Son of God and he proved by knitting
together the Word of God that this is the Christ. He wasn't
speaking in ambiguous terms. He wasn't, it couldn't be, no,
you read on right there in Acts chapter 9, they've got to let
him through a basket out the window so he can escape because
they're out to kill him. They knew exactly what he was
saying. The same thing happened in Luke chapter 4 when the Lord
began his public ministry and read from Isaiah 61 and told
them that this very day these scriptures have been fulfilled
in thy sight. And they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth. They knew that that was a passage
that identified the Messiah. Is this the son of Joseph claiming
to be the Messiah? And then the Lord interpreted
what he meant by that. In the days of Elijah, there
were many lepers in Israel, but God showed mercy on none of them
except for Naaman, the Syrian. And in the days of Elisha, there
were many, many widows in Israel, but God showed mercy on none
of them except the widow of Sarepta. And they, they were ready to
kill him. That's what we're wanting to
do. We're wanting to present. There's a lot of things that
can be said true about the Lord Jesus Christ. You couldn't find
any fault in them. But they could be preached in
any church that calls itself Christian. and no one would be
offended by it. The offense of the gospel is
knitting together and proving from scripture without any confusion
as to what we mean when we say that Jesus is the Son of God.
That's the way I want to preach. That's what I want you to believe.
And, you know, if men are offended by that, They say that the essence of
deity is immutability, but salvation is not determined or established
in eternity past. It's ever changing based on the
will and the whim of sinful men. Where's the immutability in that? So let's take these, let's take
these five attributes of God. Because this is where, this is
what Saul of Tarsus was doing. This is what the Apostle Paul
was doing. He was knitting together, comparing scripture to scripture
and the spiritual to the spiritual in order to prove beyond any
shadow of a doubt who this is and what he's accomplished. And
you and I are in need of that proof, aren't we? We're in need
of hearing again and again. Lord, we just sang about, you
know, that hymn that we sang, can't remember the title of it
now, but about the coldness of our hearts and how prone we are
to wander away from our God. Omnipotence. He is omnipotent. He possesses all power. All power
has been given unto me. All authority has been given
unto me in heaven and earth. And you and I have no power. When we were yet without strength,
without power, without any ability of our own, Christ died for the
ungodly. With men, it is impossible, but
with God, with God, all things are possible. Oh, he has to,
he has to get that camel through the eye of the needle and, and,
and, and he does it by the power of God, by the power of God. Turn to me to Ephesians chapter
one, Ephesians chapter one. And we'll begin reading at verse
19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward
who believe according to the working of his mighty power? Which was wrought in Christ.
when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. We've got the head of the church,
the one who's omnipotent, the one who has the power to save
and the power to raise from the dead and the power to create
out of nothing. And just as he created the physical
world out of himself, so he creates the child of God out of himself. He doesn't take our raw materials
and refashion them. That's a reformation. That's,
you know, people get religion all the time and they turn over
a new leaf and they change their ways and they think they've been
saved. But that's not power. That's a work of the flesh. And
men that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
But they that are after the spirit, they mind the things of the spirit.
Lord, you're gonna have to create me anew in Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
one. Hebrews chapter one. Beginning at verse one, God. who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake unto our fathers by the prophets in times past,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. He's the light. He's the one. In the beginning, God created.
He's the creator and sustainer of all things, both physical
and spiritual. Look at verse three, who being
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person
and upholdeth all things by the word of his power, when he hath
by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Now that's power. That's power. That's omnipotent power. That
the Creator by Himself bore all the sins of all of God's people
and satisfied God's justice. The power to keep the law, the
power to put away sin, the power to raise Himself from the dead.
The power to establish an eternal salvation for his people so that
he's seated all the blessings of God are in the heavenlies,
they're in Christ, the omnipotent one. Paul was proving that Jesus is
the son of God. What means do we have to prove
that scripture? The word of God. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, wherefore God has highly exalted him and
given him a name that is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess to the
glory of God the Father. What? What power. Christ Jesus
the Lord is seated in heaven, the right hand of God, Revelation
chapter four, thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and
honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy
good pleasure they are and were created. We worship the omnipotent
one and we come into his presence, we just acknowledge that we have
no power. Lord, we're completely dependent
upon you. Jude 25 says, to the only wise
God, our savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power
for now and forevermore. Lord told Pilate, said, you have
no power at all except that which is given to you from heaven.
That's true for you and me. You have no power at all. You
can't think straight. You can't draw your next breath. You can't do anything unless
it be given to you from heaven. A man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven. So this, the fact that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the omnipotent one, doesn't mean that he's just
all powerful, it means that he possesses all power. And whatever power we're going
to have, the power to believe, the power to come to Christ,
the power to see the gospel, the power to love Christ, the
power to hear the gospel, that all comes from God. It all comes
from God. I said, well, I've worked hard
all my life. Where'd you get that ability
from? A lot of people aren't able to work at all. Who made
you to differ? He did. He did. John 17 verse two says, the Lord
Jesus Christ praying to the father in his high priestly prayer said,
thou has given him power over all flesh that he might give
eternal life to as many as thou has given him. He's the only
one that can do that. He's the one that possesses that
power. You know what this does for a child of God? It humbles
him in the presence of God. It causes him to fear God. It
causes him to flee to his heavenly father and bury his face in the
neck of a loving father and say, Lord, you're going to have to
be my power. You're going to have to be my strength. You're
going to have to provide everything for me. I was talking to a brother recently,
and he said, you know, when I first heard that saving faith was what
brought us to Christ, I thought, well, you know, it's kind of
like God gives you a really nice shiny sports car, and that's
what you drive in to get to Christ. But he said, now I realize I've
wrecked that car a bunch of times. And if the Lord doesn't come
and take me to Christ, I'm not going to be able to get there. And we don't have any power.
He's got all power. Whatever faith that we have to
believe, that's his faithfulness and it's his power to give us
that faith. Well, the Lord said, be not afraid
of them that can kill the body. And after that, there's no more
that they can do, but fear him rather. Who has the power to
not only kill the body, but cast body and soul in the hill. We
come before him and, Lord, you're gonna have to save me. You're
gonna have to save me. We are proving from scripture.
that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Christ. That when
we talk about omniscience, we're not just talking about a seer
who's looking down into the future and determining what's gonna
happen. We're talking about someone who has set that future by his
own omniscience and by his own power. John chapter 2 verse 25 says,
he needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what
was in man. David says in Psalm 139, he knows
my thoughts before I think them. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me, I can't bear it, can't understand it. He's never asked anybody any
question, he's never learned anything, never had a new thought.
He's omniscient, he's God. And what hope this gives us. John chapter six, verse 64 says,
there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him. Simon, lovest thou me? O Lord, thou knowest all things. You know that I love you. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He is omniscient because he chose
He chose, He didn't just look down and see who was gonna believe
and then say, okay, those are my chosen people. No, He chose
us to believe and then He gave us the faith to believe. Turn with me to Romans chapter
nine, Romans chapter nine. These are not just glorious truths
about our God. This is the comfort of our soul.
Comfort of our soul is that he's powerful to save. The comfort
of our soul is that he forgets not what he determined in eternity
past when he chose a people and became the surety for his bride
in the covenant of grace before time ever began. Romans chapter 9, you remember the The leper that came
to the Lord said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. The world, the religious world
in particular will ascribe to Jesus of Nazareth sovereignty,
but they will say, well, Lord, I know you want to save me and
I'm going to let you. What a difference. That's not
sovereignty. Look what the Lord says in Romans
chapter 9 beginning at verse 13, Jacob I love, Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For as he said to
Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom
I will, I will harden. We don't want to leave any, any
loopholes in the sovereignty of God. We don't want, we're
not going to say, well, you know, God, God will save everybody
that believes. Now there's one of those statements
that you could make in any Christian church and they would all say
amen. God will save everybody that
believes. It's a true statement, but why
say it that way? Except that one's trying to take
the offense out of the gospel. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy. I will have compassion upon whom
I will have compassion. It is not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. I'm
the potter, you're the clay. I'm gonna make out of the same
lump of clay some vessels of honor and some of dishonor. Why not just say what the scripture
says? Because that's too offensive
and that takes man's will away from him, yeah? And it makes
the child of God bow. Blessed is everyone that feareth
God. Lord, you're sovereign. You hold
my life in your hands. You'll do with it whatsoever
you will. I'm completely dependent upon you. Lord, you're the omnipotent
one. You're the omniscient one. You're
the sovereign one. He's unaffected by anything outside
of himself. Let me say that again. The sovereignty
of God means that he is unaffected by anything outside of himself. He is subject to none. He's influenced
by none. He is absolutely independent. He always does as he pleases,
only as he pleases, and always as he pleases. None can thwart
him and none can hinder him. My counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Is there any confusion about
that? He's God. Don't you love it? Don't you
love it? That means we're not and he is. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. No truth about our God. is more
comforting to the child of God than his sovereignty. Are you
comforted by that? To know that our God reigns over
the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth,
that he accomplishes his purpose, that everything is right on schedule,
he's working his purpose exactly as he designed it to be. Not one thing's out of place.
And the child of God, oh Lord, I can rest in you knowing that
that's who you are. And no doctrine is more hated
by the unbeliever than the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty. Now, where do you stand? You love a God who's absolutely
sovereign. Or do you hate the idea of a
god reigning over you? I'll not have that man reign
over me. I'm going to do it my way. No, you're not. And all men are in one camp or
the other. Some say, well, that kind of
sovereignty does away with responsibility. No. Responsibility is my response
to his ability. And divine sovereignty is the
cause of my responsibility. It doesn't do away with it. It's
the cause of it. It's the power behind it. Our God is in the heavens. and
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." Isn't that glorious? Men will sacrifice sovereignty
for responsibility so that they can glory in themselves. They will sacrifice divine sovereignty
for responsibility so that they can glory in what they've done. Where do we first see man's responsibility? In the garden. God told him in the day in which
you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
you surely die. Man was responsible to God. under the most ideal circumstances. Yeah, Adam knew no sin. Adam
had a perfect, he had everything. Everything. And he couldn't maintain
his responsibility. Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is a law unto himself. When you and I have decisions
to make, we have to weigh whether or not that's a good thing or
a bad thing, whether it's right or whether it's wrong. You know
God never does that. He's a law unto himself. It's
right because he does it. He just acts out of his nature
and it's always right. It's always right. You see what I'm hoping this
morning brethren is that these scriptures that exalt the Lord
Jesus Christ as God will humble us before him. And we will find
ourselves to be mercy beggars, completely dependent upon him
for everything. Isaiah said it like this in Isaiah
45 verse nine, woe unto him that striveth with his maker. You're gonna strive with a God
who's omniscient and omnipotent and sovereign and immutable and
holy, you will strive with him? to him that striveth with his
Maker. Let the potsherds of the earth contend with the potsherds
of the earth. But for you, you bow, you worship,
you love, you trust, you believe that he is God." Saul went into
the synagogue and he knit together scriptures proving that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Son of God. You know, our responsibility
is based on divine sovereignty. What right did Adam have to eat
of the other fruits of the trees in the garden? It was God's Word. God's Word gave him the right.
You can eat of all the trees of the garden. Had God not given
him permission to eat it, he'd have been stealing from God to
eat it. So God's divine sovereignty gave
him the right to receive, and so it is in our salvation. What
right do we have to come to God? I mean, this is really who God
is. What right does somebody like
you and me have to come into his presence? His divine sovereignty
has ordained it. He's called us to, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy burdened. my yoke upon
you. My burden is light. Why is it
light? Because I bore your sins and
put them away on Calvary's cross." Meek and lowly of heart. He was
meek and lowly in that he trusted his father and he feared God
and he was heard because he feared God. What hope we have. You see, our salvation had nothing
to do with us. We didn't start our salvation.
The scripture says, being confident of this very thing that he which
began a good work in you will complete it till the day of his
coming. We didn't start it. He started it. He began the good
work in us. And we didn't finish it. We didn't
perform the work of salvation. He performed it. And we don't
finish the work of salvation. He finished it. When he bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished,
it was finished. It's finished. This is a God
that we worship. And I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men to me. We didn't call on him. He called
on us. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. He calls sinners to repentance. We did not choose him, he chose
us. You did not choose me, John 15,
16, but I have chosen you. If you were of the world, the
world would love its own, but because you are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you. We didn't seek Him. He sought
us. The Son of Man came into the
world to seek and to save them which is lost. Is it possible
for Him to lose one of His sheep? No. He's God. He's the omnipotent,
omniscient, sovereign God. We didn't find Him. He found
us. He found us. He left the 99 and
he went out into the wilderness and he brings every one of his
lost sheep to himself. Luke chapter 15, the lost coin,
the lost sheep, the lost son, that's Christ bringing his redeemed
to the father. We don't accept him. He accepts
us. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, to himself according
to his good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein you are made accepted in the beloved. He's got to accept us and make
us acceptable to God. We didn't produce our faith.
to believe on him, he gave us the gift of faith. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it's
a gift of God, not of works. It's not that we loved him, but
that he first loved us. And we do not keep ourselves
in the love of God, he keeps us. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by
the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believeth. This
is our God. Oh Lord, have mercy upon me. Save me, I can't do it. This
is who Saul of Tarsus was preaching. This is who we preach every time
we come together. He's holy, he's the holy one
of Israel, he's mentioned that many times in the scriptures.
In Isaiah chapter six, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted
up, and the seraphim were hovering over the very throne of God,
and with six wings, with two they covered their face, he was
so holy they couldn't look upon him. And with two they covered their
feet. They were just creatures with feet of clay. And with two
they did fly, serving the Lord in whatever capacity they could
and crying, here's how they served Him, crying, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. And when John wrote under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit in John chapter 12, he makes it very clear that that
one that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter six was none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. 700 years before he was born of a
virgin, he was seated upon his throne. Even when the Lord went into
the synagogue in Capernaum, There was a man who was possessed with
demons in that synagogue, and the demons cried out and said,
when they saw the Lord Jesus come into the synagogue, let
us alone. What have we to do with thee?
Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee, that thou art the
Holy One of God. And then you remember when he
went over to the Gadarenes and met that man that was in the
cemetery, possessed with a legion of demons, those demons said,
we know who you are. We know you're the Holy One of
Israel. Have you come here to torment us before our appointed
time? They knew that this Jesus was
and is the Holy One of God. And holiness is more than just
moral perfection. It's more than moral perfection.
Men who pretend to be holy because of their outward behavior or
their piety, don't understand what holiness is. The word holy
means other than we are. And if the Lord ever reveals
himself to you, you will come to this conclusion. There's nothing,
nothing, nothing in me like that. He is other than I am in every
way, in every way. No way I'd compete with that. We bow before His Holiness. Who shall stand in His holy place? Who's going to stand in the presence
of a holy God? I'll tell you who's going to
stand. That verse goes on to say, He that hath clean hands
and a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul unto vanity
nor spoken deceitfully. Who's that? That's the Holy One
of Israel. You've got to be found in Him
if you're going to have clean hands. You've got to be found
in Him if you're going to have a pure heart. You've got to be
found in Him if you're going to say, well, I've never spoken
deceitfully, and my heart's never been swollen with vanity. You can't say that about yourself,
can you? But it's true of Him. It's true
of Him. proving from scriptures that
Jesus is the son of God, the Christ, the anointed one, the
immutable one. You remember what Jacob, when
Jacob was blessing his sons, each one of his 12 sons, he identified
a characteristic about them and he said of Reuben, He said of
Reuben, he said, you are as weak as water. Is your name Reuben? Mine is. Mine is. You see, what Jacob said about
Reuben is true of every one of us. You're as weak as water. I'm the immutable one, and I
change not. And therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed." Oh, we need a God. We need a God who's full
of power and full of grace, a God who's full of knowledge, a God
who's absolutely sovereign, a God who's holy, and a God who never
changes, never changes. And that's the reason why we
cease from men. There's not a man on your right
or a man on your left. Princes can't help you. Kings
can't help you. Governments can't help. No, we
cease from trusting in man. I can't trust in myself. I need
a God who's immutable. Our God is subject to no change
in His being, in His attributes, in His person, and in His purpose
and in His will. He is the eternal God. He cannot grow. He cannot improve. He cannot evolve. He cannot diminish. He's not like us. He is immutable. He's called the rock of ages
because in our experience, a rock is the closest thing we know
of that doesn't change. I am that I am. Psalm 119 verse 89 says, His
word is forever settled in the heavens. His mercy is everlasting. Having loved his own that were
in the world, he loved them until the end. Our God changes not. I tell you
what, brethren, this is a God that we can believe on. This is a God. He's not like
the, the little gods with the little G and the little Jesus's
with the little J out there in the religious world that can't
do anything for you. This is the God who does everything.
Turn to me to Numbers chapter 23. Verse 19, Numbers 23, verse 19. God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said,
and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot
reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. Oh, he hath not beheld iniquity
in Jacob? He doesn't see our sin. Why? Because it's been put away. It's
covered under the blood of Christ. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him
and the shout of the king is among them. God brought them
out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. The horn is a symbol of power
and strength in the Bible, and the Lord Jesus Christ is likened
to a unicorn. You got one horn, one strength,
one power. We have knit together scripture
that will prove to those who have the Spirit of God that Jesus
is the Son of God. and that He is the successful,
sovereign Savior of sinners. And God's people will flee to
Him in fear. They won't hide from Him. They
won't try to justify themselves. They won't try to blame someone
else. They'll just flee to Him. Lord,
that's the God I need. I'm weak as water. Our Heavenly Father, thank You
for Your Word. Blessed by your spirit that we
would be enabled to believe you. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. We're gonna sing a hymn and then
we're gonna celebrate the Lord's table. Adam, you're gonna sing
now, okay? Okay, we'll sing two hymns. Adam's
gonna come and lead us in a special.