We actually had a water leak
Friday and had to have an extraction team come in and take the water
out of one of the rooms. And as a result of that now,
one of the air conditioners is not working. So, we should be
able to get that fixed tomorrow. If you hear somebody in that
part of the auditorium cry out during the service, it's because
they put their arm between those two benches and got pinched,
okay? You guys that are sitting over
there the pews as you can tell move a little bit and we're gonna
fix that this week, but Be careful, and that would be that would
be very painful To to get pinched between those pews The Lord said in John chapter
4 The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper shall
worship the Father in spirit, that is, by the power of the
Spirit of God, and in their spirit, and in truth, according to the
revealed truth of God's Word. For the father seeketh such to
worship him. God is spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. And the woman said unto
him, I know the Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. And when
he has come, he will tell us all things. And Jesus saith unto
her, I am speaketh unto thee. I am that Messiah. I am the Christ. I am the Savior of sinners. We
come into this place in hopes of the Spirit of God enabling
us to worship Christ in spirit and in truth. Let's stand together. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. They are with jesus They are
ransomed from the grave I've eternal they shall have with
them may we be now and through eternity. God did love them in this time,
long before the world begun. May the seal of this receive,
when on Jesus may we be with them now, may we be now and through
eternity they are justified by grace their dear savior took
their place all their sins are washed away they shall stand
in God's great day With the number may we be now and for eternity. Please be seated. Scriptures instruct us not to
let the right hand know what the left hand is doing. By that
the Lord means that we're not to look for affirmation or credit
or glory from one another. We do our alms in secret and
the Father which seeth them in secret rewards us openly. Scripture goes on to say whether
we eat or whether we drink or whatsoever we do, we are to do
it all to the glory of God. Whatever you do, do it heartily
as unto the Lord, not as unto man. We don't serve God for reward. We serve him because he has rewarded
us. The Lord told Abraham, I am thy
shield, and I am thine exceeding great reward. And in having Christ
and knowing Christ and believing on Christ, the Lord moves the
hearts of his people to serve him willingly, sacrificially. and pray that he would give us
the grace and the humility not to look to the right hand for
affirmation of the left. That having been said, it does
not mean that we're not to be thankful or to show appreciation
for the things that our brethren do. Paul in the writing to the
church at Corinth, commended the church, the household of
Stephen. Now, I don't know if it was the
same Stephen that was stoned in Acts chapter seven, but he
commended the household of Stephen. He said of the household of Stephen,
they are addicted to the ministry of the saints. And In Acts chapter
nine, when Peter was called to go to Tabitha's house, Dorcas,
the believers were all gathered together and they were grieving
over the loss of this sister who they said to Peter was full
of good works. So what are you getting at pastor?
I want to express my thanks to God and my thanks to you for
all the sacrifices and all the work, all that's been done in
being able to make this place possible. I'm especially encouraged
that we don't have believers that
are offended because they haven't been properly recognized. If
I started naming individuals here this morning, I'm sure that
it would only lead to things that we don't want to
happen. But my heart is full and my life as your pastor has
been greatly blessed. in watching the commitment and
the sacrifices that you've made. And I can say of this household
that they have been addicted to the ministry of the saints.
And for that, I'm very grateful and thankful to the Lord that
he's provided this place. And I pray that we will have
many years together and being able to gather here and worship
him Noah was saying this morning, he said, you know, he said, I
was just a baby when we built that building. And that's all
I've ever known is that building. And now the Lord is bringing
new babies into our fellowship and pray that we will have the
same experiences here, Noah, that the Lord has given us over
there. Let's pray together. Our heavenly
father, We're so very thankful for the
abundance of your mercy and grace. Lord, all the provisions that
you've given to us in life and in eternity. We are dependent
upon you and we are forever grateful. We're thankful for the work of
grace that you do in the hearts of your people. causing them
to sacrifice and to give and to work tirelessly and sacrificially
for your glory. Lord, might we do all that we
do for your glory. Thank you for this place. Lord,
remind us every time we walk into here, why we're here, cause
us to bring unto you words asking you, Lord, to meet with us and
to bless us for your glory and for the salvation of our souls.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 17 from the hardback hymnal number 17. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
To my heart to sing Thy praise. streams of mercy ever ceasing
all for songs of loudest praise teach me some and focus on it
you only pay me you talk so loud Praised about, I'm fixed upon
it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Hear my praise, my Ebenezer,
Hither by thy help I've come, And I hope by thy good pledge
safely to a private womb. Jesus sought thee when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue thee from danger,
interposed his precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily i'm constrained to be let thy goodness like a feather bind
my wandering heart to thee prone to wander lord i feel it prone
to leave the path i love Here's my heart, oh, take and steal
it. Steal it for thy courts above. Please be seated. Caleb and Lacey
are going to bring special music. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like she-billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the place of this glorious
thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole. is nailed to the cross and i
bear it no more praise the lord praise the lord oh my soul it is well it is well with my soul
with my soul it is well It is well with my soul. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ,
my sense to live, If Jordan above me shall grow, pain shall be mine for in death
as in life thou wilt whisper thy peace to my soul it is well
it is well with my soul with my soul it is well it is well
my soul. But Lord's is for thee, for thy
coming we wait. The sky, not the grave, is our
goal. O trump of the angel, O voice
of the Lord, ? Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul ? ? It
is well, it is well with my soul, with my soul ? ? It is well,
it is well with my soul ? ? And Lord, haste the day ? When
thy face shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, And
the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well With my
soul, with my soul It is well, it is well With my soul Thank you, Caleb Lacey. May the
Lord give us the grace to be able to say that. In the most
difficult of our circumstances, some of you may not know that
the man who wrote that hymn was grieving the loss of all of his
children. Five daughters have perished
in a shipwreck. And he was able, by God's grace,
to say, it is well with my soul. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, has been nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
O my soul. Let's open our Bibles together
to Acts chapter seven. I've known for several weeks
where I wanted to preach from this morning. our first service
in this new building. We've been for over a month now
looking at Stephen's words in Acts chapter 7. And we're going
to skip ahead just a little bit to verse 47, because 47 through
50 is where I want to try to preach from this morning to remind
us of what we have here, and more importantly, what we have
in Christ. A house does not make a home. And a wedding does not make a
marriage. Neither does brick and mortar
make a place of worship. If we are enabled to worship
here, it will not be because of anything particularly special
about this building. It'll be because the Lord has
been pleased to meet with us and to enable us to worship him. We can rightfully refer to this
building as a sanctuary in that it has been set apart. That's
what sanctuary means. It's set apart for a purpose,
nothing holy, in the building itself, but the purpose for which
it has been set apart to worship our God is very sacred and very
special. Stephen says in verse 47, speaking
of that Old Testament temple, Solomon built him a house. David had a desire to do it,
but the Lord would not allow David to build the house. The
Lord said to David, you are a man of blood. You will not build
for me a house, but your son, Solomon, whose name means peaceable,
will build for me a house. Solomon built a house, how be
it the most high. And here's what I want us to
see this morning. The most high dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. A lot of hands went into building
this building. The most high dwelleth not in
temples made with hands. Sayeth the prophet, heaven is
my throne and earth is my footstool. What house will you build me? Sayeth the Lord, or what is the
place of my rest? Now that's the answer. That's the question I want to
answer this morning. What is the place of my rest? I've titled this message, The
Temple of God. And by temple, we're not referring
to this building. Scripture says the word, speaking
of Christ, became flesh and he dwelt. And that word dwelt means
tabernacled. He tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory as the
glory of the only begotten of the father, the only one that's
full of grace and full of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
tabernacle of God. He is the temple of God. And by virtue of the fact that
he is in us, he calls us as a church, not a building, but as a church,
the temple of God. Know you not that you are the
temple of the Holy Ghost. This is the residing place of
God in the hearts of his people. Verse 50, hath not my hands made
all these things? First Chronicles chapter 22,
we won't turn there, I'll just tell you the story. David wanted
to build a permanent sanctuary or temple for the people of God
to be able to worship. Up until that time, all they
had was the tent that had been following them around in the
wilderness. They had that tent that Moses
had built, and they had the Ark of the Covenant, and David wanted
to build a permanent structure. And the Lord said to David, thou
art a man of war. You have shed blood, but a son
shall be born unto you. and he shall be a man of rest. Now, David represents the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's a picture of Christ all
throughout his life. He's a man after God's own heart. He's the sweet psalmist of Israel.
He's the prophet of God. He's the king of Israel. He's
the shepherd of God's people. And David was a man of war. He shed blood. He defeated the
enemies of God's people and established at the end of his life, he established
the land that Israel would occupy. But during David's life, they
knew no peace. It was constant war. It wasn't
until Solomon's life that they enjoyed 40 years of peace. That 40 years of peace under
Solomon is a picture of Christ building his church by his spirit. And what we've known for the
last 2,000 years is summed up in the 40 years of Solomon's
life. The Lord Jesus Christ, during his life, was a man of
war. He had to go toe to toe against
sin. He had to fulfill all the requirements
of the law. He had to satisfy God's holy
justice by the sacrifice of himself. He had to shed his precious blood
as a covering for our sins. And the church really did not
begin to be built until after he ascended back into glory and
sent Solomon, his peaceable spirit, to empower his church to proclaim
the gospel. And on the day of Pentecost is
the beginning. of what we're experiencing today,
the New Testament church. As God said to David, you will
not build my church for you are a man of war. Your son who comes
after you will build it. And we're reminded of what the
Lord asked the disciples when he said, whom do men say that
I am? And Peter said, well, some say
that thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah or one of the other
prophets. And the Lord said, whom do you say that I am? That's
the question. Whom do you say that I am? And
what did Peter say? Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure of it. And what did the Lord say to
Peter? Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood
did not reveal this unto you. You didn't come to this on your
own. You didn't figure this out. My Father, which is in heaven,
has made this known unto you. And upon this rock, what is the
rock? Christ is the rock. He's the
cornerstone on which the church is built. He's the stone that
was rejected by the builders that God has made to be the head
of the corner. And the Lord said upon this rock,
the confession that you just made that I am the Christ, the
son of the living God, I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. David wanted to build a house,
but because David was a man of war, Solomon, Solomon, the spirit
of God, the one scent of Christ. The Lord said of the Holy Spirit,
it is necessary, it is expedient for you that I go away for if
I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not come. But when he comes,
when he comes, he's gonna convict the world of sin. because they
believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my father and
of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged.
And the Holy Spirit's been doing that for 2000 years. And he continues
to do that. As we look back to our man of
war who shed his blood for the covering of our sins, we pray
for him to send his spirit to save us. to reveal Christ to
us, to give us faith, to believe on Christ. Lord, if you don't do that, that's
what it means to worship God in spirit and in truth. The other thing we see in 1 Chronicles
22 is that David provided all the materials. for Solomon to be able to build
the house. Can you imagine, Brian, if before we started this building,
everything we needed, I mean, every light bulb, every piece
of carpet, every gallon of paint, everything we needed was already
here on site and all we had to do was just draw from what was
here. No, I cannot tell you how many trips we've made to the
hardware store over the last six, eight months, how many times
we've had to order stuff, how many things. What's the spiritual picture
there? What's the Lord saying to us? Everything the Spirit
of God needs to build my church, I'm going to provide. David provided
everything. You see, we don't go anywhere
to add to what Christ has done. He's already provided everything. Everything needed. for the building
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ was provided by David. Go back with me to our text. Verse 48, how be it the most
high dwelleth not in temples made with hands, sayeth the prophet. That's a quote from Isaiah chapter
66. God doesn't, He doesn't reside
in buildings. He resides in the hearts of His
people. He resides through faith in His
children as they rely upon their David to provide everything for
them. These types that Stephen's speaking
of from the Old Testament are just types and shadows. You see,
we have these shadows of Christ given to us in figure, but now
we have the substance of the Lord Jesus Christ given to us
in person. Hebrews chapter one, turn with
me to Hebrews chapter one. Someone came into this building
this past week and I invited them to come and join us for
worship. And they looked around and they
said, you know, you guys need a cross up here and you need
some flags over here and you need something to, you know,
to entertain people. No, we don't need any of that.
So what do you have? We have the gospel. I said, what
do you have for my 10-year-old son? I hope you got some cartoons
for him, because he's not going to be interested in the gospel.
I said, well, he's not going to hear the gospel anywhere else. That's all we
have. We're not here to entertain.
We're here to preach Christ. Hebrews 1, verse 1, God, who
at sundry times, different times, and in divers manners, in different
types and shadows, spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets. 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, 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 had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. David provided
everything. And when David took his last
breath, he took his rest. David said what every believer
says, although my house be not so with God. Yet he has made
with me an everlasting covenant. David was looking back to that
covenant of grace established by the triune Godhead in eternity
past. And he said, he made with me
an everlasting covenant ordered in all things. everything necessary
for building the temple David provided. It's ordered in all
things, and it's sure. It's sure. This is all my salvation,
David said. And this is all my desire, though
we make it not to grow. Everything I'm looking to is
that Christ by Himself has purged our sins. And all these types
and shadows from the Old Testament. You know, you put a You put a
chair here and shine a light on that chair and it's going
to cast a shadow, right? Would you want to try to sit
down and rest on that shadow? Oh, no. Neither do we go back
to the Old Testament and pull out the types and shadows and
try to recreate them. They were foreshadowings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one that we sit. in and on and rest in and depend
upon for all of our salvation. So when Solomon built the temple,
he built it according to the fashion that God had given to
Moses. But all those things about the
temple pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. There was only one door
going into the temple, one door. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way. I am the door into the sheepfold.
Anybody comes in by any other means, he is a thief and a robber. No man can come to the father
except by me. He's that one door. So when Solomon
built this temple in the Old Testament, he was foreshadowing
what the Lord Jesus Christ would do as the door into his sheepfold. That temple, that tabernacle
that Moses built was made out of, and even the one that Solomon
built had linen in it and it had badger skin in it. And that
pictures the humanity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The God now, the one man, the mediator, the only mediator between
sinners and God. The only man. The only man that
can touch a sinner and not be defiled. The Lord Jesus Christ
touched lepers. And he wasn't wasn't defiled
by them. And he will touch you and touch
me. We're lepers full of sin and
not be defiled. He's the only man that can touch
a sinner and not be defiled. And he's the only man that can
touch God and not be destroyed. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mediator between God and man. And these things, that's why
he had to be the God man. He had to bear in his body the
sins of his people and suffer the full wrath of God's judgment
in order to purge us of our sins by himself. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's the brightness of God, the
fullness of his glory. He's the only one that could
do it. And so when Solomon built this
temple, he's pointing figuratively, symbolically, in pictures, what
would be fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
we say God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake
unto our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. We don't have flags and crosses.
We don't have symbols. We don't have shadows. We have
Christ. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
who promised to be in our presence. He promised to send us his spirit. That's why we rely on two things,
two things in this building and two things only, preaching and
prayer. That's it. We preach the gospel
and we pray that the spirit of God will give us ears to hear
and eyes to see, faith to believe, that he will give us a new heart. And if you can't enter into that,
you see, if a man have not the spirit of God, he's none of Christ.
Lord, give us your spirit. Ezekiel preached to a valley
of dry bones and God asked him, he said, man of God, can these
bones live? And Ezekiel said, Lord, thou
knowest. If they're gonna live, you're
gonna have to give them life. I'm looking at a bunch of Bleached
out, dried bones. The insects have removed the
marrow from them so that there's not even enough DNA to figure
out anything. That's us. These bones, Son of
Man, are the full house of Israel. And as He preached, the bones
started taking shape, but there was yet no life in them. There
was no life in them. And so the Lord said to Ezekiel,
prophesy to the wind. That's what we have here. We
have preaching and prayer and nothing else. And we enter into
this together. Preaching is not something that
one man does. One man stands up here and utters
the words, but we enter into this preaching together, don't
we? We're not preaching at men. We're not preaching over men. We're preaching with them. And
in your heart, you're asking the Spirit of God to give you
ears to hear. You're rejoicing in hearing about
what Christ has done. So when Solomon built the temple,
there was one door. There was linen, and there was
badger skin, and there was a golden candlestick. And the Lord made
that clear when he said, I am the light of the world. In him was life and the life
was the light of the world. Men by nature live in darkness.
They're completely ignorant in complete darkness about who God
is, about who they are, about how God saves sinners. We don't
know anything by nature. We know nothing about salvation
unless the light of the gospel shines in our hearts in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, we're not going to pretend
to be worshiping God here by doing the foolish things that
religious people do in order to act like they're worshiping
God when they have not the spirit of God. We're going to depend
rather than rather than pretending we're going to depend on the
Spirit of God to speak to our hearts, enable us to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. In that tabernacle that Solomon
built, there was an altar of incense. Now, incense in the
Bible is a picture of prayer. And as the incense was placed
on the altar and the smoke went up, so we offer words as we enter
into the presence of God, asking him to be merciful to us. But
our dependence is not on our prayers. Our dependence is on
the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord told Peter
that night before his crucifixion that he was going to forsake
him three times, Peter did exactly the same thing that Judas Iscariot
did. What was the difference? What
was the difference? The Lord hadn't prayed for Judas.
He hadn't prayed for Judas. You see, we don't depend on the
sincerity or the depth or anything about our prayers. We pray. Lord,
we're looking to the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ who
said to Peter, Peter, be of good cheer. I've prayed for you. I've
prayed for you. And when you are converted, teach
the brethren. Oh, brethren, we are. If any
man sin, John said, if any man sin, we have an advocate with
the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one who intercedes
on our behalf. And so in the temple, they had
the altar of incense It had the brazen altar where the sacrifice
was made. And the book of Hebrews says
we have an altar. We don't have an altar here.
We don't have a physical altar. We're not going to ask anybody
to come forward and kneel and pray and make a spectacle of
themselves. No, but we're going to call on
men to come. Come to Christ. The Spirit and
the bride say come. In your hearts, enter into the,
come before the throne of grace with boldness, calling on Christ
to help you in your time of need. You see, this is a spiritual
exercise. It's not done because we have
anything physical to look at. In that temple that Solomon built,
there was a veil. A veil that separated the holies
of holies where the Ark of the Covenant was. Everything about
that Ark foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have an
Ark. We don't have a veil. But we do. We do. Revealed to us in Scripture. We have that Ark that has within
it What was in the ark? Three things. Three things. The tablets of stone. That's
the law of God given to Moses on Mount Sinai. A jar of manna
that was kept, an ofar of manna that was kept from the manna
that fed the children of Israel in the wilderness. And Aaron's
rod. Aaron was the priest who interceded
for the people. Aaron's rod that budded and came
to life. And those three things were put
in the ark. And what does that tell us about the Lord Jesus
Christ? We're not gonna have a rod and a manna and a table. We're not even gonna put 10 commandments
on the wall. We have the Lord Jesus Christ as our prophet,
the bread that came down from heaven, as our priest, Aaron,
who intercedes on our behalf and bears our sins before God,
and as our king, the one who gave the law and kept the law.
And then on top of that ark was a mercy seat of pure gold. And the Lord instructed Aaron
on the day of atonement, you come in through the veil and
you take the blood of the sacrificial lamb and you put it on the mercy
seat. And here I will meet with you. And when the Lord Jesus
Christ bowed his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. I've kept my vows. I fulfilled
all my promises to the Father. I performed my responsibility,
my obligations, my duty to save my people. He did it. He did it out of love. That was,
you know, the first cause of our salvation is the love of
God. He's loved us with an everlasting love. God so loved the world,
He gave His only begotten Son. He laid down His life willingly
for His sheep. And when he did, what happened? The veil was rent. That's what
Stephen's talking about. And he's reminding them that
temple there in Jerusalem, the disciples ask about the temple
in Jerusalem, what the Lord said. He said, not one stone is going
to be left upon another. The Lord allowed that temple
to stand for one generation. And in 70 AD, the Romans came
in and they completely destroyed it. Not one stone was left on
top of another. Everybody was impressed with
the building. And God said, don't be impressed with a building.
Be impressed with me. Be impressed with me. I'm the
temple of God. I'm the tabernacle that came
among you. I'm the one that all those things
foreshadow. It was my blood that I put on
the mercy seat. It was my body that was rent
on Calvary's cross. Now God says to his people, come,
come. When Aaron went into the holies
of holies to make that blood sacrifice, this is the temple
that Stephen's talking about. When Aaron went in to make that
sacrifice, he went in with the names of the 12 tribes on his
breastplate. He went in as their intercessor. Those 12 tribes represent the
whole nation of Israel, spiritual Israel, all the people of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
went and received His rightful place back into glory, took with
Him the names of those for whom He lived and died. And He's seated
right now. at the right hand of God making
intercession for us. This is the one Stephen's telling
them about. God doesn't reside in temples
built with man's hands. Yes, set them apart. Yes, make
sure that what's done in there is true worship, not pretend
worship. People that have to have all
sorts of trappings in their religious meeting houses. are people who
are devoid of the Spirit of God. They don't have ears to hear
the Word of God and they know nothing of the Spirit of God.
They have no eyes to see the Son of God. We're not going to
distract ourselves with those things. We don't recreate these types
and shadows as a shadow has a substance. So the shadows in the Old Testament
are substantive in Christ. As a picture, as a person, a man gets deployed in the military
to a foreign country and he's at war. And what does he have
in his pocket? If he's married, As a sweetheart,
what's he have? By the time he gets home, that
picture is so tattered and folded. But that's what he looks at constantly.
And he gets home and he's reunited with his wife. What's he doing?
He doesn't look at that picture anymore. He doesn't need the
picture anymore. He's got the substance of his
bride before him. We're not going to try to recreate
these types and shadows. We have the substance of Christ. We have the person of Christ. God at sundry times and in divers
manners spake to our fathers in times past by the prophets,
but now in these last days, he has spoken unto us by his son,
who is the brightness of his glory. who by himself has purged
our sins. This is what it means to worship
God in the Spirit? Crosses and statues and drama
and all these other things that men create is idolatry. It's idolatry. We have the word of God and we
have the spirit of God. We don't have discussion groups
or Q and A sessions. And somebody asked me to preach
recently. They said, well, afterwards, you know, we're going to have
a Q and A. Well, I've said everything. I don't have any more answers.
I've said everything I know to say. You don't have to ask me
any questions. It's not that we don't discuss
these things or rejoice in these things, but we don't make a,
we don't make a debate out of it. I can remember in religion
when we had Sunday school classes, and it ended up being nothing
more than a bunch of people getting together and pooling their ignorance.
You know, we just, well, I think it means this, and I think it
means that. God's called a man to say, thus saith the Lord.
And God's people rejoice in what God says. That doesn't make any
man infallible. I said last week, I want to be
faithful to God's word. And I stand before you willing
to forsake anything that I believe that's not consistent with the
Word of God. We're not here to defend the
Gospel, defend our doctrine, our creed, or our confession,
or to debate it. We're here to declare it and
to rejoice in it. Paul said, I have not shunned
to declare unto you the whole council of God. That's what you're
to do. Now Stephen is bringing up David and Solomon
and the temple and the tabernacle of the Old Testament in order
to show these people that these were all types and shadows fulfilled
in Christ. We now have the spirit of God
and we have the man of war who has shed his blood and who has
provided everything for the building of his church. We now have the
word of God and the spirit of God to teach us and to enable
us to worship him. Let me show you another place
where this truth is brought out in the scriptures. Turn with
me to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. Is this not so clear? Melina and
I were talking about this the other day. She's from Greece
and we were talking about the Acropolis. And there at the Acropolis,
you can go to Athens today and Mars Hill or the Areopagus where
the philosophers met and debated religion is still there. It's still there. And it's right
where Paul went in Acts chapter 17. And he walks around Athens
for several days before he goes and confronts the Epicurean and
Stoic philosophers at Mars Hill. And here's what he says to them.
Look at verse 21. for all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else but either
to tell or to hear some new thing." Oh, they loved a new knowledge. You know, I've discovered something
that nobody else knows. There is no truth or knowledge
older than the gospel. of God's free grace, and it goes
back further than the time of Christ 2,000 years ago. It goes
back further than Paul. It goes back further than Abraham.
It goes back further than Adam. It goes back to eternity. And there's nothing new about
it. Nothing new about it. We don't glory in discovering
some new truth. Or debating some new doctrine.
We go back. to the ancient truth of the gospel. And that's what Paul said about
these Athenians. And nothing's changed. We could
say the Orlandians are the same way. The Floridians are the same
way. The Americans are the same way.
The Athenians are still the same way. Everybody loves to get together
and pool their ignorance and debate what they think is true.
And they won't listen to what God says. But listen to what
Paul says to them. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you are too superstitious. That's what men are by nature.
They're just superstitious. They hang the hopes of the salvation
of their immortal soul on the figment of their imagination. They're just superstitious. They
believe things that are not true. The older I get, the more convinced
I am of that. And men don't want to know the
truth. They don't want to know the truth. They gather to themselves
men that will tickle their itching ears. They want to be made to
feel better. Speak to me words that'll make
me feel better. Lies, lies, sweet little lies. It's all men want to hear. Tell
me a lie. And God give us the grace to
speak nothing but the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth here in this place. Paul said, I see that you're
very superstitious. For as I passed by and I beheld
your devotions, Paul walks around Athens and he sees all these
statues to all these different gods, these superstitious Greek
gods and goddesses all over the place. I found an altar with an inscription. There's an altar over there.
At the end of that row of statues, I see there's an altar without
a statue on it. And it says on the altar, to
the unknown God. What were the Greeks doing? They
were covering all their bases. In case there's another God that
we haven't yet imagined, we'll make an altar to Him. Well, in
fact, there is and there was. And look what Paul said to them.
I see that you are too suspicious. I pass by and I have beheld your
devotions. I found an altar of this inscription to the unknown
God, whom therefore you ignorantly worship. Him declare I am to
you. That's the God I'm gonna preach
to you. The one you don't know. The one that must reveal himself
to you. He's the God I'm gonna preach
to you. And then he goes on to say the
same thing Stephen said. Same thing Stephen said, look,
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he
is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands. Neither is worship with men's
hands, as though he needed anything, seeing that he giveth to all
life and breath and all things." Our God doesn't need anything
from us. We don't come here to help him out. He doesn't need
our approval. He doesn't need our decision.
Now we're the ones who are in need of Him. We come here because
we need Him to meet with us. We need Him to save us. And He hath made one blood of
all nations. You see, all men are the same.
It doesn't matter. no matter where in the world
you go or what generation you enter into. We're looking at
a generation that took place 2000 years ago. It's exactly
the same today. No difference. Exactly the same. And he hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and
hath determined the times beforehand appointed and the bounds of their
habitation. He determined exactly when you
would be born where you would live, when you would die. All
that's predetermined by God. That they should seek the Lord.
That's why we're here. That's the purpose of this building.
That we have a place to come to seek the Lord. If happily they may feel after
him and find him. though He be not far from every
one of them." You see, Asher cannot save us. Our God is not
discovered by making steps and doing things. No. The Word of faith is in our mouths. We come to Him with words. That's
what Romans 10 says. The man believes in his heart
and confesses with his mouth. How close is he? He's as close
as the lips of your face. It's how close he is. Lord, save
me. Save me. Lord, have mercy upon
me. In closing, turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 66. Here's these words that Stephen
preaches and that Paul preaches to the Athenians Isaiah chapter
66 verse one, thus saith the Lord. This is the truth. The
heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the
house that you build unto me? And where is the place of my
rest? Where is the place of my rest? This isn't it. This building is not the place
of his rest. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
place of his rest. We enter into his rest when we
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We rest in Christ for all our
righteousness, for all of our justification before God. Christ
is his rest. And he ceased from his labors
and so we cease from our labors. For all these things have my
hands made and all these things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man, will I look? God says to this man, will I
look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and
trembleth at my word. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
man. He's the one who's poor and of a contrite spirit. When
he hung on Calvary's cross, he's the one who trembled at God's
word. He's the one that believed God to his dying breath. And
the hope that he would look at us is that we would be found
in him, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith. He is our rest. Read on in Isaiah 66 when you
get a minute. Maybe later on today. And you'll
see what the Lord thinks about fleshly worship. Worship that
men perform in hopes of impressing God. God says, I'm not impressed. I'm impressed with My Son. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
We do thank you for providing us this place. And we ask Lord
that you would remind us every time we come into this building. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
finished work. And our need to rest in him. We pray that you would enable
us to speak the truth. And to believe on Christ who
himself is the truth. We ask it in his name. Amen. The tom 31. Let's stand together.
Number 31 in the spiral. Repeat the last two lines. Voice of grace and glory, in
our dying Savior's pride. Rending rocks and hills asunder,
and the veil to bring us nigh. It is finished! It is finished! Our victorious
Savior died! It is finished! It is finished! Our victorious Savior died! It is finished! Seek God's pleasure. Prosper in our risen Lord. Come in blessings without measure. Flow to us by Jesus' blood. It is finished. It is finished. Oh, how sweet the Savior's word. It is finished, it is finished. Oh, how sweet the Savior's word. Finished all justice demanded. Finished all required by law. all portrayed and promised in
the shadows of the wall. It is finished, it is finished,
how needly rejoiced with all. It is finished, it is finished,
Thou meekly rejoice with all. Jesus finished our salvation
when he died upon the tree. Righteousness and full redemption
for his love and chosen seed. It is finished. Hallelujah. Praise the Lamb of Galilee. It is finished. Hallelujah. Praise the Lamb of
Galilee. No greater joy for a church than
to witness the baptism of a new believer. Tony's been coming
here for several months. He asked me some time ago about
baptism. Wanted to understand it better.
And recently he asked to be baptized. And I'm just so delighted. He understands that all his hope,
all his hope for salvation is completely bound up in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by being baptized, he is
renouncing, first of all, anything that he ever believed before
about how it is that God saves sinners. That's what baptism
is. It's dying to all of your old superstitions and imaginations. And it's confessing that Christ's
death and his resurrection is my death and my resurrection.
My union with Christ. The fact that Christ died and
by the sacrifice of Himself put away my sins. The fact that God
raised Him from the dead and that He's seated at the right
hand of God. That's what baptism is. It's immersion. It's total
immersion in Christ. Tony, it's a great joy, brother,
that we baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. buried with Christ in baptism. And raised to walk a new life
in Christ Jesus. You know, I made the point in
the message that we don't have shadows anymore. We don't have
types. Pictures. Except for two. The Lord's given the New Testament
church two things that we're to observe. And that's baptism
and the Lord's table. And both of those things point
to Christ and what He's done for His people. So, it's as simple
as it is. The simplicity of Christ is seen
in baptism and is seen in the Lord's table. Tom, we have a
tradition here. We're going to continue singing
Amazing Grace every time we have a baptism. So brother, if you'll
come and lead us, let's stand together. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. was blind but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that race up
here, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, foils,
and stairs, I have already come. His grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there
ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, we've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun.