In thy great name, O Lord, we
come to worship at thy feet. O pour thy Holy Spirit down on
all that now shall We come to hear Jehovah speak To hear the
Savior's voice Thy favor, favor, Lord, we seek Thou make our hearts
rejoice Teach us to pray and praise and hear And understand
Thy Word to feel thy gracious presence dear and trust our living
Lord. This house with grace and glory
filled, this congregation blessed, thy great salvation now revealed,
thy glorious righteousness. Please be seated. I still can't remember to put
it on, so I might not remember to take it off. It might be a
good thing. Please turn with me in the Lord's
call to worship to Psalm 23. Psalm 23. Most people in this
room don't need to turn because they recited this probably a
hundred times in their life. And there's millions and millions
of people that can quote this, but as the Lord says, They don't
believe it. They have no understanding. And
this is a great psalm of great comfort to me. And I pray that
he'll bless his word this morning. It begins with, the Lord is my
shepherd. He's the shepherd for the sheep.
And I shall not want. Well, that's, God's going to
have to give me his spirit to do that. I'm full at once. And I want you to see all these
next verses. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He
leadeth me beside the still waters. He, over and over, he restoreth
my soul. He, God, Christ, leadeth me for
the path of righteousness for his name's sake. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. God does these things for Christ's
sake. And yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, not death, the shadow of it,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod, which is
his correction, and thy staff, which is his bringing you in,
they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Verse six is of great, great
comfort to this sinner. Surely, that's just like verily. You want a sure thing? Here it
is. I'm going to tell you a sure thing. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me. See that next little three-letter
word? All. all, all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. I was thinking, you know, when
did God first show goodness and mercy to me? And if you're a
believer, to you, in the covenant of grace. God showed goodness and mercy
to us when the Lord Jesus Christ descended from glory. He showed
mercy and grace to us and goodness when Christ took on our sins
at Calvary. He shown goodness and mercy to
his people when one day he sent a gospel preacher to preach Christ
to me. And he showed goodness and mercy
to me when he sent his spirit to give me the faith to believe
what was preached. And he showed goodness and mercy
to me every day when I get up and I can say, oh, Lord, thank you for your
goodness and mercy. I can take a breath. And that
goodness and mercy will follow me all the way till my last breath
is no more. So if you're in afflictions,
I can tell you God's goodness and mercy never has left. If you're troubled and in the
pit and feel like you can't get out, God's goodness and mercy
is still there. And I pray that he will let us
see that. I thought of a gospel preacher
who said, yeah, I had trouble praying. And I began thanking
God for his goodness and mercy and said, my troubles with prayer
ended. because I couldn't exhaust it,
how goodful mercy has been to us. What a comfort it is to know,
despite me, his goodness and mercy never ends. Let us try
to go to the Lord in prayer and pray that he'll bless it. Lord, we're so thankful that
you are a God of goodness and mercy. That's what we need. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us this morning to worship you and to praise you and to glorify
you and you only. We plead with you, O God, that
you would speak to the hearts of your servants, Brother Greg
and your other gospel preachers. Lord, that you would put into
their heart and mind what you once said from your Word and
that your spirit would be upon them to declare Christ and him
crucified truthfully and simply and boldly. And Lord, we pray
for your people that you give us the faith to believe what
is preached and to know that it is true and to believe it. We ask your forgiveness of our
sin of unbelief, our great sin of unbelief. Forgive us, Lord. We pray that all glory would
go to you. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number eight in your spiral gospel hymn symbol.
Number eight. O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire To lift up from this earthly fire Oh, may we think of heavenly
things and know the joy Thy presence brings. Lord, let us see the
Savior's face, and let us taste of Thy sweet grace. May open, dears, thy glory's
ear, And may we smell thy fragrance near. Be pleased to open heaven's
door, And on our heads thy blessings pour. All wretched, poor, and
needy we Where can we go if not to Thee? O may this day be blessed
the most That Jesus Christ becomes the host To feed our souls with
living bread, and with our souls in joy to wed. Please be seated. Caleb's going
to bring for us music. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and rest my Father's hand. Controls the world And
what he does is best Be still my heart And doubt no more Believe
and find Sweet rest God's wisdom, love And truth and power combined
to make thee blessed. In raging storms and fiery trials,
he keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and holds me
in His everlasting arms. Be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. my God with skill infallible
and great designs of grace with power and love that never fail
shall order all my ways be still my heart doubt no more believe
and find sweet fresh God's wisdom love and truth and power combine
to make ye blessed my life's most minute circumstance is ordered
by God who promised that in all things he will ever do me good. Be still my heart and doubt no
more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom loves and power
combine to make me blessed. Thank you, Lacey and Caleb. That
was beautiful. Will you open your Bibles with
me, please, to Acts chapter 7. Just so you'll know, I'm having
to wear these things for the benefit of the microphone that's
in them, not the hearing part. We would not be able to broadcast
if we didn't have the microphone, because this microphone only
goes to that speaker down there. I've titled this message Sojourners. Sojourners. The very thing that
the unbeliever fears and lives in denial of is the believer's
hope and joy. And rightfully so. Rightfully so that both groups
would feel that way. For the unbeliever has no hope
that they will have acceptance with God, that they will have
the reward of eternal life. And that is all the believers
hope. The scripture says in Daniel
chapter 12, verse two, and many of them that sleep in the dust
of the earth shall awake, some to eternal life and some to shame. and eternal contempt. There is no purgatory. There
is no middle ground. It is life or death. And this gospel message is the
only hope that dead sinners have for eternal life. Because apart
from hope in Christ, there is no hope of life. But in him,
oh, You remember in John chapter 11, when the Lord came to Lazarus'
tomb and he was speaking to Martha and said to her, she said to
him, Lord, I know that in the resurrection, my brother will
rise from the dead. And the Lord said to her, Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me,
though he be dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Never die. You see, that's what
the world fears. That's what they have no hope
for. And it's the very thing that
the believer rejoices in. And it's the place where his
hope is. And the Lord went on to say after
that, He said, believest thou this? Do you believe that I am
the resurrection and the life, that I'm not just gonna point
you in the right direction? I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man can come unto the Father
except by me. The Lord told Abraham, he said,
I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward." I'm your reward. The Lord, David said, is my portion. And then in Psalm 17, verse 15,
David said, ask for me, ask for me. I will behold thy face in
righteousness and I shall be satisfied when I awake. in thy likeness. Oh, to see him as he is and to
be made like him. That's our hope. That's what
we, we live for dying. We live for dying. I told a little
story about a young sailor that was horribly seasick, and the
chief came and put his arm on his shoulder. He said, son, he
said, I know it's bad, he said, but the good news is no one's
ever died from being seasick. And the young sailor said, sir,
don't tell me that. He said, it's the hope of dying
that's kept me alive this long. Now that's a funny little story,
but it carries with it a great truth, doesn't it? It's the hope
of dying. has kept us alive this long. We are dying men and women. We start dying when we come out
of the womb. The world lives in denial of
it. We live in hope of it. David went on to say in Psalm
16 verse 11, in thy presence in thy presence is the fullness
of joy, and at thy right hand, at thy right hand, there are
pleasures evermore, evermore. The message in man-made, self-righteous,
freewill, works religion is all about how to have a better life,
how to have Peace and prosperity in this world. How to have peace
with man. The Lord said, I did not come
to bring peace. I did not come to bring peace. I came to bring
a sword, a sword. You see the bottom line is you're
either gonna have peace with God or you're gonna have peace
with man. Everybody wants peace with man
and they have no interest in the peace of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Prince of Peace. He said, my peace I give unto
thee. Not as the world gives, let the
world find their peace in the comforts and happinesses of this
life. No, I didn't bring you that kind
of peace. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. You have your Bibles open, Acts
chapter seven. Look at verse 16. Verse 15 says, and so Jacob went
down into Egypt and died. If you go back to the first few
chapters of the book of Genesis, it gives the genealogy of the
men who lived between Adam and Noah. And before the flood, men
lived six, seven, eight, 900 years. Methuselah, 969 years. And you think, well, that'd be
something, wouldn't it? And after it's described, the
men are described and how long they lived over and over. I think
it's about 10 or 12 times in those two chapters. It's repeated. He died and he died. Now this is not a message of
morbid. It's not a message that's morose
or morbid. It's just not. It's a message
of hope for the child of God. Like I said, the very thing that
the unbeliever wants to avoid, the very things they live in
denial of, the very thing that they're afraid of, the very thing
that they've tried to make their own covenants with God, which
God says, I will disavow your covenant, is the believer's hope. Child of God, we are sojourners
in this world. We're just passing through. This
world is not our home. Abraham called himself in Genesis
chapter 23, he called himself a sojourner. The Lord had promised
him the land, but he didn't possess any of it. He didn't possess
any of it. And except one little piece,
one little piece. Look at verse 16. And they were carried over unto
Sycam, which is Shechem in the Old Testament. which is also
known as Hebron or Hebron, and we're gonna be looking at that
in a moment, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought
for a sum of money of the sons of Emor, the father of Shechem. Now that's the cave at Machpelah
that Abraham bought for 400 shekels of gold in Genesis chapter 23
from Emor. It's the only possession that
he had. What Abraham had in this world
was a burial plot. And that he had to pay for. But
what he was looking for in the world to come was a city. Now there were lots of cities. Abraham went down into Egypt.
Abraham had cities in Canaan. There were lots of cities, but
Abraham was looking for a city, the scripture says, which hath
foundations. Now that means it's the city
that cannot be moved, a city that's never going to be destroyed,
a city that is eternal. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
described as that foundation stone. to the new Jerusalem,
the city of God, the cornerstone, which the builders rejected God
has made to be the head of the corner. And Abraham looked for
a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker, whose
architect and designer and builder is God. Not a city built by man,
not something that man has produced, but something that God has produced. So when Stephen now is preaching
to the synagogue, synagogues of Satan, that's who he's preaching
to here in Acts chapter seven. He's telling them and reminding
them about this cave that Abraham made sure the scripture says
in Genesis chapter 23, he made sure by paying for it, he got
a deed for it. And it's all he owned and all
the All the patriarchs were buried in the same cave at Machpelah. Joseph was taken back. His bones
were taken back and put into that cave, as was Jacob's. And
all the patriarchs were buried there. All they had in this world
was a burial plot. Now, by way of illustration,
and in hopes of impressing you, I want you to know that I own
some of the most valuable property in Winter Park, Florida. I bought
it. Trish and I bought it a few years
ago. I calculated the value of this property by the square foot,
and it came out to be about $5 million an acre. That's pretty
valuable property. This piece of property is in
fact smaller than a sheet of plywood. I've got the deed to it. It's
in my name. I bought it, paid for it. It's
been made sure, but I will never enjoy it. I will never profit
from it. I will never glory in it. It
will stand until the Lord comes as a testimony of my corruption,
my mortality, and my weakness. And in the end of my life, it's
all I'm going to possess. And it's all you're going to
possess. A burial plot. It's all we have
in this world. We accumulate things in this
brief life. James says, what is your life?
It is a vapor. It's here for a moment, and then
it vanishes away. Oh, how foolish it is to invest
in a world that all we're going to own in the end is a three
by six piece of property. Turn with me to Psalm 39, Psalm
39. I remember a woman asked me one time when
I invited her to come to church, she said, well, are you a positive
preacher? And I'm just absolutely certain if she was here today,
she'd be walking out about now thinking, this guy's not a positive
preacher. He's just talking about death. Oh, to the child of God,
this is the most positive subject there is, isn't it? You know
what, brethren, we're on a train. We're on a train. Sometimes a
train goes fast, sometimes it goes slow, and sometimes it makes
stops and we feel like we're not moving at all. And the last stop, the last stop
this train's gonna make is the stop of death. But which hope
we have that when we step off that train, we're gonna step
into the presence of our Savior and be made like Him. Oh, that's
where I want our hearts to be. That's where I want our hope
to be. You see, the free will gospel
says, If you live a certain way, then you'll be prepared to die.
And God says, if you're prepared to die, you'll live right. And you can't know how to live
until you know how to die. Psalm 39, look at verse four.
Lord, make me to know mine end. Make me to know mine end. Can
you say that? Can you say that from your heart
to God? Lord, make me to know mine end. I get so caught up in the things
of this world. I get so discouraged. I get so
lustful for the things of this world. And I forget. I forget
that I'm a sojourner here. I'm a pilgrim. I'm like Abraham. All I've got's a plot of land
to be buried in. I don't have anything else. I've got Christ. I've got everything. And if I don't have Christ, I've
got nothing. I mean nothing. Lord, make me to know my end
and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know how frail
I am. That's a good prayer, brethren.
That's a good prayer. Lord, remind me how frail I am.
Remind me of how brief this is. Lord, I get so proud and caught
up in the things that I achieve, and then I get worried about
things that I don't achieve. Lord, just make me to know my
end. Look at verse five. Behold, thou
hast made my days as a hand breath. That's right there, that's a
hand breath. The width of your hand. Measure it, see how big
it is. It's not gonna be much. And mine age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether nothing. That's what the word vanity means.
Every man at his very best state The best thing that you've ever
accomplished, the best thing you can do in this world is nothing
before God. You're in need of Christ. You're
in need of a Savior to deliver you from death and from hell
and from the grave and from the wrath of God. And what great
hope we have in knowing that, oh Lord, I am frail and this
life is brief. Oh brethren, may God give us
the grace to be reminded of that every day. You know, I was talking
to a man about something that happened a few years, just a
few years ago. And his response was, boy, that was a long time
ago. Doesn't seem like that to me. Seems like it was yesterday. I was talking to a brother recently.
I told him, I said, I'm going to be 66 this week and you're
29. And yesterday I was 29. Yesterday
I was 29. Oh, this is our only hope. This world,
everybody gets caught up in it, don't they? And we get caught
up in the crowd. We get pushed along in the throng. Lord, deliver us. Help me to know my end. Surely
every man walketh, and look at verse six, surely, surely, it's
certain that every man walketh in a bane show. Oh, we love to
puff ourselves up and impress one another with who we are and
what we've done and what we have. God says, I'm not impressed.
I'm not impressed. Not one bit. I'm impressed with my son. You look in faith to him. You'll
have the hope of knowing that God loves you. That's where faith
is the evidence of things hoped for. Every man walketh in a vain show. How vain we can be. How empty,
how proud we can be. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. You get disquieted? That means
to be worried. That means to lose sleep. That
means you get anxious and you get upset and you get concerned
about the circumstances of your life. And God says, every man
gets disquieted in vain. In vain. Why is it in vain? Because our God reigns and He
works all things together for good for them that love Him and
those that are called according to His purpose. Oh, to be able
to rest in Him and wait on Him. Wait upon the Lord. He shall
renew thy strength. He will mount you up as eagles.
You'll walk and not weary and run and not faint. That's it.
But we get We're vain, aren't we? We're in our better, best
state, we're vain. And we get so disquieted. Why? Because we're
forgetting what we're looking at right now. We're forgetting that that train's
got one last stop to make. And it's going to be making it
soon. And some of our young people are looking at me, yeah, maybe
for you. Oh, sooner than you think. Surely they are disquieted than
vain. He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather
them. Oh, we accomplish so much and we accumulate so much and
then we die. And our children squander it. They didn't work for it. And now Lord, what wait I for? What am I waiting for? My hope
is in thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. You know, young men want to do
great things. And old men just say, Lord, don't let me be a
reproach to Christ. The days of High ideals and accomplishing
great things are behind me. Lord, just keep me from being
a reproach. Keep me. Turn with me to Psalm 90. All Abraham had was the cave
of Matpila that he paid for. There's a gospel message there
too. Remember, Elam was going to give
it to him. Abraham said, I'm a sojourner
in your land. He said, but my wife has died.
I need to bury her body to get it out of my sight. And can I
purchase from you a piece of your property as a burial site? And Elam said, you're a mighty
man among us. You just pick the best site you
want. You can have it for free. And Abraham said, no. No, I'm
going to pay for it. And Elam said, he said, well,
it's worth 400 shekels of silver, but what's that between me and
you? I mean, you can have it. And Abraham shelled out 400 shekels
of silver and bought it. And that became the burial site.
And the scripture says twice in Genesis chapter 23, that he
made it sure, just like I have a deed for the property that
I'm gonna possess one day. Or at least my body will. Abraham
had a deed and he made it sure. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
purchased for himself by his shed blood and made it sure. The covenant of grace is made
sure in all things. He's got a deed. And the names
of his people are on it. His name is on it. We're the beneficiaries. Isaac and Jacob and the sons
of Jacob all buried there with their wives. They didn't pay
anything for it. Abraham bought it. You didn't
pay anything for your salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ bought
it. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 90. Look at this passage. We'll begin reading in verse
nine. For all our days are passed away
in my wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. It's just a little short story.
That's what it is. Just a little short story. The
days of our years are three score years and 10. That's 70 years. That means four years from now,
I'm gonna be on overtime. And if by reason of strength,
they'd be four score years. Yeah, older brothers know what
this means. You live to be old. You have problems. You have health
problems. You have problems with your children,
your grandchildren. If by reason of strength they
be four score years, if I live to be 80, yet is their strength
labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Fly away. Who knoweth the power
of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. I quoted
that in the first hour. God has made him to be our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. Lord, you
see, we're not going to apply our hearts to Christ. until the
Lord shows us the vanity and the brevity of this life and
of ourselves. Otherwise, we're going to be
like everybody else, put down roots, investing everything in
temporal things. That which is seen as temporal,
that which is not seen as eternal. God's going to shake all things
that can be shaken so that those things that cannot be shaken
might remain. The only thing that's going to
remain is that which is eternal life in Christ. Lord, teach us to apply our hearts
unto wisdom. If in this life only we have
hope. We are of all men most miserable,
most foolish, most deceived. And if you listen to the message
of salvation being promoted by the false prophets, it's all
about hope in this life only. And they are of all men most
miserable. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. Verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel, the good news, that the Lord Jesus Christ
has satisfied by his perfect obedience all the demands of
God's holy law, that he has satisfied God's justice and wrath by the
shedding of his own blood and the putting away of the sins
and the guilt and the shame by bearing them himself on Calvary's
cross, that God has rewarded him for his successful work of
redemption by raising him from the dead and seating him at the
right hand of God. We are waiting for the redemption
of our souls in Christ who cannot fail, who cannot fail. So Paul says, I declare unto
you the gospel. This is good news. The good news
of salvation is that you don't have anything to do with it.
If you had anything to do with it, it wouldn't be very good
news. Because I guarantee you I'd mess it up. And you would,
too. The Lord Jesus Christ couldn't
mess it up. That's the good news. Flee to Christ. Look to Christ,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, rest your hope in Him, because
one day soon, the only thing you're going to own in this world
is a little plot of land that they're gonna bury you in. That's
it. This gospel which I preached
unto you, 1 Corinthians 15 one, which also you have received
and wherein you stand." You believed it and you stand there. You've
got no place else to go. Isn't that a great place to be? Oh, to stand on Christ. To have
our feet firmly planted on the rock of ages and to have no place
else to go. No place. Don't want to go anywhere
else. Can't go anywhere else. Wouldn't
go anywhere else. By which also you are saved. We're saved by the hearing of
this gospel. How can they call upon Him whom
they've not believed in? How can they believe on Him in
whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without
a preacher? Lord, preach the gospel to me. If you keep in memory the things
that what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. John put it like this. They went
out from us because they were not of us, for had they been
of us, they would have remained. Here's the good news, brethren.
If the Lord's taught you and called you and saved you. That's
for eternity. He called it eternal life. You
can't lose it. You can't earn it by anything
you do, and you can't lose it by anything you do. Well, that's a message of license. No, it isn't. Oh, it isn't. Anybody that hears that and thinks
that that's a license for sin has not been taught of God. It's
the only thing that'll humble you before Him. It's the only power you have
against sin. It's faith in Christ. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins. Now, there's a whole lot of people
in this world that believe that he, that Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of God, died on Calvary's cross back there in Jerusalem
and was put there by the Romans 2,000 years ago. They believe
that he died, but they don't know why he died or how he died
according to the scriptures. He died as the surety of his
people. He died as the scapegoat. He died bearing the sins as the
Lamb of God that is without spot and without blemish for his people. He died to save his people from
their sins. But the world doesn't think that.
They think he died in order to make an offer of salvation of
which you have to accept in order to make it effectual. You got
to do your part to make what he did work for you. That's a
lie from the pit of hell. Paul preached how that Christ
died according to the scriptures. And then he was buried and he
rose again the third day. according to the scriptures. You know, maybe your train's
crawling right now. Maybe you're at a temporary stop. Maybe you're full speed ahead.
I don't know. But there's a stop coming. Sooner
than we think. What a glorious day that's going
to be. You've rode on a train before. We don't ride on much
of them here, but go. Someplace in the world trains are, and
you're watching the thing up there and you're waiting for
your stop. And if you're in a foreign country and the thing's in a
different language, you're having to ask somebody now, where's
my stop? When do I get off this train?
And you're waiting for your stop. And you're watching that thing
to see when your stop's coming. Oh, that God would give us that
kind of faith. So watch for the train to stop.
My stop's coming. Your stop's coming. Might we with anticipation know
that we shall see him as he is and be made like him. And Paul
went on to this passage to say that this corruptible is going
to be made incorruptible and this mortal body which has to
die is going to be made immortal. Look at the last part of 1 Corinthians
15. Verse 54, so when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put
on immortality. See, there's no death after this
death. No death. He that liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Never die. Then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Swallowed up. God swallowed it
up. That's what he did. The Lord
Jesus Christ, when he drank the bitter dregs of our sin, that
cup that he asked the Lord to pass from him, he swallowed up
in victory his work of redemption for his people. Oh, death, where is your sting? There's no sting to death for
the child of God. Oh, grave, where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, we have victory through the Lord Jesus
Christ, who satisfied the demands of God's law and put away our
sin so death no longer has any power. No longer has any power. We're free. You know, naturally speaking,
people who have near-death experiences, you know, they deliver, they
experience some liberation from the things of this world for
a little while after that. You know, because they, because
it's, I'm using that as an example
to say we live in the reality of death. We're liberated from
the trappings of this world, from the penalty of our sin.
And when we get trapped up and caught up in the things of this
world and the accuser of the brethren rubs our nose in our
sin, might the Lord remind us that the sting of death is sin. and the strength of sin is the
law, but thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus, we have the victory. We read from 2 Timothy chapter
four previously in the first hour where Paul said, I charge
you before God that you preach the word. And at the end of that
charge, he says this, the time of my departure is at hand."
I love that. He called death a departure.
It's not an end. We're not going to cease to exist.
We're going to depart from this world into the next. And he says, the time of my departure
is at hand. We say when someone loses a loved
one, well, they lost them or they, you know, And I understand
what they mean by that. But don't say that about a believer. We'd lose them. The Lord took
them home. We know exactly where they are.
They're not lost. He says, the time of my departure
is at hand. We use words like accident and
chance and luck. So those things have, ought not
to have any place in our vocabulary. It is appointed unto man once
to die. You know, be healthy, eat right,
exercise, it'll make you feel better, but it's not going to
make you live longer. It's not going to make you live
longer. Your day of departure is already set. You're not going
to do anything to change that. The time of my departure is at
hand. What do we hear people say? Well,
you know, that was an untimely death or their life was cut short. No, no, no. Nothing untimely
about death. Nothing being cut short. God
is bringing to fruition that which he ordained and purposed. And then he says, the time of
my departure is at hand. In other words, it's very close.
It's as close to me as my hand. Lift up your head for your redemption
draweth nigh. It draweth nigh. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. He owned nothing in the promised
land except for that cave at Machpelah that he bought and
paid for. And he looked for a city which
hath foundations, which builder and maker is God. And the scripture
says that Abraham is the father of the faithful. Can you say
I can identify with Abraham? That's my faith. So this picture is a picture
of redemption. It's also a picture of Christ
in so many ways. I mentioned at the beginning
of this message that Shechem is the same place as Hebron.
And if you go back to Genesis chapter 12, when God first made
a covenant with Abraham, and then after Abraham came back
from Egypt in chapter 13, Abraham built an altar and worshiped
God at Hebron. It was the place where he met
God. And that altar is a picture of Christ. We have an altar.
We don't build an altar. We don't do those sort of religious. We preach the gospel. We sing
hymns, we pray, and we preach the gospel. We don't have religious
ceremonies that we practice at an altar. Why? Because our altar
cannot be seen with the physical eye. Our altar is Christ. We have an altar. But Abraham, when he built that
altar, foreshadowed what we have now in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the sacrifice that he made
on that altar at Hebron was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then in Joshua chapter 14, after Joshua brought the children of
Israel back into, Moses died on the east side of the Jordan,
picturing the law, not being able to come into the promised
land, but Joshua, whose name means Jesus, led the people across
the Jordan, which is the river of death, into the promised land,
which is a picture of heaven. And who did he bring with him?
There was only one left. You remember Joshua and Caleb
were two of the 12 spies that were sent in by Moses to spy
out the promised land 40 years earlier. So Caleb now is an old
man. And Caleb's name means a faithful
dog, and Caleb pictures the whole church of God, and Joshua pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Caleb says, of Hebron, of
Hebron, he says to Joshua, give me that mountain. That was the
mountain that was occupied by the giants in the land. that
was spied out some 40 years earlier, and Caleb said, I'm as strong
now as I was then. And the child of God says, Lord,
give me that land. Give me that land. My faith is more real now than
it's ever been. Hebron was also one of the six
cities of refuge. It was, which is a picture of
Christ. The person who committed manslaughter,
the law required eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a
life. But the Lord provided cities of refuge so that a person who
committed a murder, who killed someone by accident, could flee
to the city of refuge and avoid the binger of blood, the nearest
of kin, which was responsible for taking his life. And that
city of refuge is Christ. And Hebron was one of the cities
of refuge. And this is where Machpelah was.
This is the burial plot for Abraham and for the patriarchs. And then when David reigned as
king, the scripture says that he reigned seven years in Hebron. Now the number seven is the number
of perfection. And all of David's children were
born in Hebrew. And then he moved his headquarters
to Jerusalem and reigned there for 33 years. What do you suppose
those numbers represent? The life of the Lord Jesus Christ,
33 years in this world. And seven, that's his eternal
perfection. And all of his children were
born in the covenant of grace when he chose them according
to his own will and purpose and shed his blood as the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world to redeem them unto God. I hear people talking about that
they don't believe in eternal justification, that we're justified
only at the cross. If there's no eternal justification,
then our God is mutable. That means that we weren't justified
at one point and then we got justified at another point. No,
I am the Lord and I change not and therefore you sons of Jacob
are not considered. No, we're eternally justified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those seven years in Hebron are
a picture of that. And the 33 years in Jerusalem
That's the church, the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven.
That's the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain to build it. One day, this lifeless body is
gonna make use of that little plot of land, and that's all
it's gonna be good for. That's all I'm gonna have. In
this world. In this world. But in the next,
I'm gonna have everything. Everything. Sojourners. That's what we are. Just passing through. And that's
a good thing. That's a good thing. Keep looking
up to that little lighted map on the train. And know that there's a stop
coming at the very end. We're going to get off. We'll
get off. It's going to be a great day.
Great day. Father, bless your word. Forgive
us for our fleshly, earthly vain thoughts and life. Lord, give us hope
in my dear son. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. 511. Let's stand together. Number
511. Face to face with Christ my Savior
Face to face what will it be When with rapture I behold Him
Jesus Christ who died for me Face to face I shall behold him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by. Only faintly now I see him, with
a darkling veil between. What a blessed day is coming
when his glory shall be seen. Face to face I shall behold him
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory
I shall see him by and by. What's rejoicing in his presence
when our banished grief and pain? When the crooked ways are straightened
and the dark things shall be plain, face to face I shall behold
him far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by. Face to face, O blissful moment,
face to face I'd see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by.