Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 21 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns,
hymn book number 21, The Covenant, Ordered and Sure. Let's all stand
together. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one, made a covenant ages past, made a
covenant sure and But my Father chose His own In the person of
His Son, And ordained that I should be One with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law,
And retrieve me from the fall. Christ, in love so willingly,
Stood as my great surety. For my price He offered blood,
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heav'nly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and he brings us to the Lamb. By his mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word. by his spirit and his blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be in Psalm 119. If you'd like to open your Bibles
to that portion of God's word. Most of you know that Peggy Avila
has been suffering with a rare form of muscular dystrophy for
some time now. She went in the hospital. She's
had labored breathing and heart issues as a result of it. And
she went in the hospital Wednesday. And Henry called me this morning
and said that they had just called him and they put her on a ventilator
this morning. So Peggy hadn't been able to come
to services for a while now. But I want us to pray for her. She didn't go in the hospital
with COVID. They tested her when she went
in and they're retesting her. If she did get it, then she got
it in the hospital. But it's probably just the muscular
dystrophy that she's been dealing with, so. Talked to Clarissa this morning.
She's at home watching the services, so. Let's pray together. our merciful heavenly father. What great hope and joy we have
in knowing that we can come into thy holy presence with not just
your full acceptance, but your perfect love. We thank you that the Lord Jesus
Christ has satisfied all the demands of your holy law. that
He has, by the sacrifice of Himself once and for all, put away our
sin, and that we can call You our
Father. And know, Lord, that Your love
for Your children is pure and perfect. It's holy and unchanging. Lord, that You are sovereign
in all their all of our circumstances. Lord, we take great hope and
comfort in knowing that you do all things well and that you
work all things together for our good and ultimately for your
own glory. We pray, Lord, that you would
be pleased to bless us today as we are here gathered together.
Lord, that you would meet with us Make yourself known to us
and that you would open your word to us and open our hearts
and open the windows of heaven and come down. Show yourself
glorious and gracious. Lord, we pray for Peggy. We ask Lord for your hand of
mercy and grace to be upon her. We pray that you would comfort
her heart. Pray that you would give her your peace and your
grace and Pray for those ministering to her now in the hospital that
you would give them the understanding that they need to treat her well.
Lord, we know that you are the great physician and that healing
is in your hands. And so Lord, we pray for your
will to be done. We pray for your mercy. We pray
for Henry and for Clarissa. Ask Lord that you would comfort
them as they wait on you. We ask it all in Christ's name.
Amen. I want to introduce this message
with. Some statements about the circumstances
that we are in the midst of right now in terms of the political
campaign. The candidates, the. pundits
and the commentators are filling the air with words, and we are
left to sort through the barrage of accusations and promises in
order to find out what the truth is. Religion is very similar
to that, in that the candidates are campaigning for our vote. The false Christs are everywhere. The pundants or the experts,
the false prophets are telling us what we ought to believe and
everybody seems to be a commentator with no fear of voicing their
opinion about things and how they ought to be. In light of that, what would
it be like if we had words that were very pure, words that didn't
have to be weighed. They didn't have to be sorted
through. They were perfectly true and reliable, such that
you could trust them, every one of them, not only for this life,
but for the salvation of your immortal soul. We do. We do. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119. Look with me at verse 40. Thy word is very pure. Thy word is very pure. Therefore,
thy servant loveth it. Now we don't have to, we don't
have to try to wade through a barrage of promises and lies. We have before us a pure, inerrant,
inspired, infallible Word of God. And faith is just taking God
at his word, believing God. And here, David voices the feelings
of every one of God's people. Thy words are very pure. Now, as we've often seen, we
do not separate the written word from the living word. The written
word is the scriptures. That's the book that you're holding
in your lap right now. It's the word of God. It's the
Bible. And we believe that it's inspired
of God. It did not come by private interpretation,
but holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit
and every word of it, every word. Turn me over to Proverbs chapter
30. Proverbs chapter 30. Here's that word pure again. Look at verse five in Proverbs
chapter 30. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that
put their trust in him. Now, the scriptures are the word
of God. Not here to try to convince anybody
of that. I'm here to declare it to be
so. And I'm confident, I'm absolutely
confident that God's people will bow to it and they will say with
David, thy word is pure and thy servant loves it. And the word
of God is the source of all truth. The written word, the living
word, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was made flesh and dwelt
among us, the Word of God, which returned unto the Father. Not
void. You remember the scripture that
Isaiah says his word will not return unto him void. It will
accomplish the purpose for which he sent it. We take great comfort
in knowing that when we declare the written word that it will
accomplish the purpose for which God sent it. It will give faith. It is the means of faith. Faith
comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. It'll
give faith to God's elect, and it'll harden the heart of the
reprobate. It will accomplish the purpose
for which God sent it. And the living word, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who ascended back into glory, accomplished the
purpose for which God sent him. God sent him for the purpose
of saving his people, and he returned back into glory with
the names of those for whom he lived and died. He accomplished
his purpose. And so God's people say, thy
word, thy word is very pure. It's very pure. It doesn't have
to be, it doesn't have to be questioned. It doesn't have to
be sorted through. It's, it's simply very pure. Now this word pure means to be
tried as with fire. That's what the word pure means
in our text. Turn back with me to Psalm 12.
Look at verse six. The words of the Lord are pure
words. They're pure words. They're perfect
words, they're infallible words, they're inspired words. All scripture,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And all scripture is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. Everything necessary for us is
found in God's pure word. Look what he says in Psalm Psalm
12, verse 6. The words of the Lord are pure
words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. The imagery here is clear, isn't
it? God's word has been tested by fire. It has been. Governments have tried to outlaw
it. Kings have piled up copies of
it and burned it. The irreligious have mocked it,
and the religious have sought to change it. You know, most
of the, they call them translations. They're not translations. Most
of the modern versions of the Bible are paraphrases. They are the words of men inserted
into the word of God, changing it, twisting it. And so here's
the world with God's word. They either try to destroy it,
or they mock it, or they change it. And it's been tried all through
the centuries as with fire. Paul said, and here's our hope,
brethren. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter two, verse nine, I suffer
trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds, But the word of God
is not bound. It is not bound. The word of
God reaches to every place where God's people are. Sometimes people say, when we
talk about election, well, what about that person in the far
reaches of some primitive culture? The word of God is not bound.
It's not bound. If one of God's elect lives in
such a place, the Lord will be sure to get his gospel to them. And it will take no more power
or grace from our God to get the gospel to them than it takes
to get the gospel to you and me. Distance is not the problem.
Unbelief is the problem. And it's the same power and the
same grace of God that opens the heart of the person in a
distant far land is the God who has to do the same work of grace
for you and me. The hearing ear, And the seeing
eye are both from the Lord. And if the Lord doesn't give
us eyes to see and ears to hear, we will not see. We can sit right
under the preaching of the gospel and not hear it. How often we've
seen that. People have come. They, they
seemed interested and may even make a profession of faith. but
eventually they lose interest and fall away. That's a fearful
thing for you and me, isn't it? Lord, you're going to have to
keep me. A lot better men than I have fallen
away. Lord, you're going to have to continue to reveal yourself
to me. your word to me. And here's our
hope. The word of God is not bound. Who can stop God speaking
his word to the hearts of his people? Turn me to the book of
Zachariah. We studied Zachariah recently. Next to the last book in the
Old Testament, Zachariah chapter 13. Look at verse, look at verse
seven. Away goes sword against my shepherd
and against the man that is my fellow, sayeth the Lord of hosts,
smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And I will
turn my hand upon the little ones. Now this is a prophecy
relating to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself
as the living word was tried by fire. You see, the Lord is gonna test
our faith. Our faith is tried by fire, the
scripture says, that it may be made pure. A faith untested,
a word untested, a Christ untested is not reliable, is it? Look at verse eight. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut
off and die, but the third part shall be left therein. He's talking
about his elect. His elect, this word when it
goes out, this unbounded word, this word that will have its
purpose fulfilled, will cut off the majority of man and then
the remnant will be saved. And look at verse nine. And I
will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them
as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried and
they shall call on my name, and I will hear them, and I will
say, it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God."
What a glorious promise. Thy word is very pure. God's word has been tried by
fire. And God's word will be tried
by fire in your heart and in my heart. The Lord will test
it. He'll test it with his providential
circumstances. He'll try it by allowing us to
hear things that are contrary to it. And he'll prove it. They shall be proven. They shall
be tried as with fire. The written word is the source.
of all truth. And the living word is the substance
of all truth. Did you get that? How do we know
the truth? I introduced this message by
an experience that we're all having right now. Probably all
be better off if we paid a little less attention to politics and
more attention to the word of God. But so be it. We're having to sort through
lots of words And God says, my word's been tried as with fire. The written word, which is the
source of all truth, and the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the word of God, which was made flesh, is the substance of all
truth. The Lord Jesus himself said,
I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. As the source of truth, the scriptures
are infallible. They are reliable. We can rest
all our hope on the word of God. Turn to me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter
1. James puts it like this, of his
own will, salvation is of the Lord, and he has mercy upon whom
he will have mercy, and has compassion upon whom he will have compassion.
Therefore, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
it is of God that showeth mercy. Salvation is in God's hands,
it's of his will to give to whomsoever he wills. And now look what Peter
says in 1 Peter 1, verse 23. I'm sorry, I didn't finish that
passage in James. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. With the word of truth, with
the scriptures and the gospel that preach from the scriptures.
Look at, we're not just elevating the Bible. We're saying that
the Bible, the message of the Bible is the gospel. Look at
verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed. Man's free will is corruptible
seed. Man's works is corruptible seed.
Man's wisdom is corruptible seed. We're not born again of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Thy word is very pure. It's been tried in a furnace
of earth seven times and has come out perfect. And the Lord
says, for all flesh is its grass. All flesh, that's us, where's
grass? And all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. Oh men, we love the glory in
ourselves, don't we? We love to boast in our accomplishments
and in our You know, it's just grass. The Lord said, tell them
they're grass. Tell them they're grass. But
the word of the Lord, I'm sorry, all flesh is this grass and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth
and flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word. which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Now, many of the statements that
I've made thus far this morning would be agreed to by a lot of
conservative fundamentalist, people who believe the whole
Bible is the word of God, but they've changed the word of God. They're not preaching the gospel
from the word of God. The Lord said, this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. The Lord said to those
Pharisees, you search the scriptures because you think in them you
have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me.
In the volume of the book, it is written of me. You see, the
word of God is not being preached if Christ is not being preached.
If the written word is not tied to the living word and the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his successful work of redemption
for his people is not declared, then the Bible is not believed
and the word of God is not being preached. That's why we say you
cannot separate the written word from the living word. And if
Christ is not revealed in the preaching of the scriptures,
then the word of God's not being preached. This is the word of
God, which by the gospel is preached unto you. All flesh is as grass. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible even by the word of God. We're dependent
upon the written word, the source of truth, and the living word,
the substance of truth for the salvation of our souls. And that's
what the Lord's given us. And that's what David is saying
here. Thy word is very pure. There's not a, not a speck of
impurity in it. It's been tried as with fire
and it's come out faultless, faultless. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. This is the message that we preach. Look at verse
1. Finally, brethren, pray for us.
that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified
even as it is with you. And that we may be delivered
from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith. All men have not faith. Pray
that this word, which is not bound might be given by God free
course to be declared without hesitancy. What did Paul say
to Timothy? I charge you before God that
you preach the word in season and out of season. For the time
will come when men will gather about themselves, teachers having
itching ears. They'll just want They'll just
want to hear lies. Tell me lies. Tell me lies. Tell
me sweet little lies. That's what man-made religion
is all about, isn't it? It's twisting and perverting
the scriptures so that Christ is not glorified. Turn with me back to Acts chapter
15. We're going to be looking at a couple more passages this
morning. Acts chapter 15. Look at verse 35. Paul also and
Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word
of the Lord with many others also. And some days after Paul
said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren
in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see
how they do. That's what we're called to do.
Pray the Lord will give us the grace every time we come to this
place to open the scriptures and to preach Christ. But Paul
said, I profess to know nothing among you save Christ and Him
crucified. We're not here to tickle man's
ears. We're here to lift up Christ.
The Lord said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw men to me. He's
the living word. He's the substance. He's the
substance of this book. He's the substance of truth.
He's the substance of our life. And we declare Him. Paul and
Barnabas did. We're doing the same thing today
that they did 2000 years ago. Preaching Christ and him crucified. Turn back with me to 1st Thessalonians
chapter 4. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4. Don't you love just being able
to say what sayeth the scriptures? What does God say? Let me just
Tell me, I'm not interested in man's opinions. I'm not interested
in the commentators. I'm not interested in the pundits.
I wanna know what God says. What does the word of God say?
And what do the prophets always say? Thus saith the Lord. Thus
saith the Lord. And as I said already, we're
not here to argue that point. We're not here to try to convince
anybody of it. We're here to declare it. and
believe that God will make it effectual to those with whom
it will not be bound. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4 and
we'll read verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so, them also that sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. And this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain until the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
Now, some of the believers, all the believers expected the Lord's
return in that first generation of believers when the Lord ascended
back into glory and the angels came and told the disciples,
this one that's been caught up into heaven will come in like
manner. and you go back into Jerusalem and wait for the Holy
Ghost to come upon you, they thought, as do every generation
of God's people, that the Lord's going to return. He's coming
for those who are waiting and watching for them. Are you waiting? Are you watching? Are you anticipating
the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the hope that
every child of God has. And so now that some of the believers
were beginning to die physically, the others were questioning,
where's the Lord's return? What about those that have died?
And the Lord's saying, those that have died, they're not gonna
prevent you. When the Eastern sky splits and
the trump of God sounds and the dead in Christ should be raised
and those of us which will remain should be caught up together
with them and so shall we ever be. with the Lord. This is the
word of the Lord. This is God's word. And God's word, turn back with
me to the book of Acts chapter 13. This gospel is our glory. Acts chapter 13. Look with me at verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
now the Jews, they didn't believe God's word. Paul's preaching
the gospel just like I'm trying to do right now. And the religious,
the self-righteous, those who rely upon something that they
had done for the hope of their salvation, rather than looking
to Christ alone for all their righteousness, didn't believe
what Paul was preaching. but the Gentiles, the Gentiles. And that word, what did the Jews
call them? They called them dogs. That's what Caleb's name means,
a faithful dog. Where Joshua and Caleb, Joshua
represents the Lord Jesus Christ, Caleb represents all the church
of God. What did that Syrophoenician
woman say? When the Lord called her a dog, she said, truth Lord,
truth Lord, that's what I am. The Gentile dogs. Those are the
ones that believe. The Gentiles heard this and they
were glad and they glorified the word of the Lord. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. That's pretty
clear, isn't it? That's pretty clear. I was sharing this verse with
a man, a religious man, a deacon in his church, a man who believed
in a works freewill gospel. And it was on a Sunday afternoon.
I was talking to him about this passage of scripture. And he
said, you know, that's amazing that you should bring up that
passage of scripture. He said, I teach Sunday school
class at my church and we spent an hour discussing that very
verse and we couldn't understand it. Couldn't understand it, why?
Because we already had a preconceived idea that salvation's for anybody
and everybody that decides they want it. What could it possibly
mean to as many as were ordained to eternal life believe? See,
that doesn't fit our doctrine. And so they rejected it. It means what it says, doesn't
it? It just means what it says. As
many as were ordained to eternal life will believe. And nothing's
changed. That's true right now. It's true
right now. If you believe, If you believe
it's because you were ordained to eternal life. Turn with me to first John chapter
one, first John chapter one. If we preach Christ, we will
only be able to preach him from the scriptures. But if we're
preaching the scriptures without preaching Christ, we're not preaching,
we're not preaching the word of God. These two things are
inseparable. Verse John chapter one, verse
one, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and
our hands have handled of the word of life. Who's he's talking
about? He's talking about Christ. In another place he said, we
did not bring you cunningly devised fables, we handled the word of
God. We touched him and we saw his
glory up on the mountain when the veil of his humanity was
taken away and the radiance of the glory of the word of God
was so bright that we were forced to the dirt. For the life, look at verse two,
was manifested And we have seen it and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested
unto us. In John chapter 17, the Lord
said, father, I pray not only for these, talking about his
apostles, but for them, which will believe because of their
witness, because of their testimony, because of their words. So the
Lord prays for his whole church. And now John's saying, he was
manifested. The word of God was manifested
to us. The word became flesh. We beheld
his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the father.
He's the one that's full of grace and full of truth. We saw him,
we handled him. We're testifying to you the truth
about who he is and about what he did. to accomplish the salvation
of his people. Verse three, that which we have
seen and have heard, declare we unto you. We declare unto
you that this Christ who came down from heaven is the very
living word of God, the substance of all truth, that He is not
to be questioned. He's to be believed. He's not
to be doubted. He's to be bowed to. That which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may
have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, here's the word of God. When John saw him in Revelation
chapter one, his feet were like fine brass burned in a fire. Thy word is very pure, tried
in the fire of God's wrath. It was the fiery wrath of God's
justice that fell on Christ as he bore the sins of his people
on Calvary's cross. And he quenched that fire. He
put it out. He put it out by the sacrifice
of himself. And we say, yes, Lord, thy written
word is very pure because thy written word reveals to me the
glory of thy living word, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
word of God. You remember what the Lord said
to that church in Laodicea? that they were lukewarm. Turn
with me to Revelation, just over a couple of pages from where
you are, Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three, verse 16. So then because thou
art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of
my mouth because thou sayest, Here was some of the people in
the church at Laodicea. The church itself was now years
in the making and was drifting, drifting from the gospel. And
they become proud and they believe that they were rich. Look what
they, Look what they said. Because thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing, thou knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. There we are. The Lord says that
we're grass. We're wretched. We're miserable.
We're poor. We're blind. We're naked. And
now look what he says in verse 18. I counsel thee. to buy of
me gold tried in the fire, that thou might be rich, and white
raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of
thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve
that thou mayest see. The Lord saying to me and you,
don't rely upon any of the riches that you have, whether it be
material or spiritual. Rely upon Christ. By of me, gold
tried in the fire. Who is that gold tried in the
fire? It's Christ. Christ was tried in the fire.
And a white robe that you might cover your nakedness. An eye
salve that you might save. Where do these things come from? What are the Christ? Christ is
the gold tried in the fire. He is our robe of righteousness. And he's the one that opens our
eyes, enables us to see. And the Lord saying to us what
he says, well, at the end of the book of Revelation, the end
of the book, the end of scripture says what? The spirit and the
bride, that's the spirit of God and the church say come. Come. Come where? Come to Christ. Come
to Christ. He's the truth. He is the hope
of our salvation. He's the gold driving the fire.
He's our righteousness. And he's the one who opens the
eyes of our understanding. God bless his word. Let's take
a break.