Good morning. Thank you, Joy.
That's the hymn we're going to open with this morning. Hymn
number 21 from your Gospel Hymn Spiral hymn book. Let's all stand
together. The Covenant, Ordered and Sure,
number 21. you. ? God the Father and the Son ?
And the Spirit three in one ? In eternal ages past ? Made a covenant
sure and fast ? God 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, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. heals the lame, and he brings
us to the lamb. By his mighty sovereign call,
God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner ? For God's covenant will endure
? ? It is sealed by God's own word ? ? By his spirit and his
blood ? ? Blessed, holy covenant, God of Israel ? 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. That's the only
covenant that gives me any hope. The Lord has. Given us two covenants in his
word. Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. Covenant of
Works can't save. Only the Covenant of Grace is
able to save that promise that God the Father made to God the
Son and God the Son agreed with God the Holy Spirit to accomplish
the salvation of his people. What hope is our surety of just
We were singing that hymn, I was thinking about what, turn with me to Genesis chapter
43. Genesis chapter 43, I want you
to see this. Verse eight, and Judah, the Lord
Jesus Christ is of the tribe of Judah, he's the lion of the
tribe of Judah. When John was in heaven and he
saw the book that no man was worthy to open, the angel said,
John, stop crying, weep not, for the lion of the tribe of
Judah hath prevailed, and he is able to open the book. So
Judah here is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said to
his father Israel, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and
go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also
our little ones." So here the Lord Jesus Christ is saying,
send Benjamin with me, otherwise we're gonna die. We're all gonna
die. And I will be surety for him. Now, a surety is a person that
provides everything on behalf of another. And that's exactly
what Judah did. Judah said, I'll stand in his
stead. I'll provide everything necessary
for the salvation of Benjamin and all of Israel. Of my hand shalt thou require
him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee. then
let me bear the blame forever. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to the father. Father, you let me take care
of Benjamin. And if I don't bring him back
safely, I'll bear the blame before you forever. Now, is it possible
that the Lord Jesus Christ would be blamed by the father for not
saving his people? Malachi chapter 3, you'll turn
with me there in your Bibles, Malachi chapter 3. I want us to leave here this
morning having assurance of our salvation. I'm very, very hopeful
that the Lord will show us that our faith is of
Him. and that it is in him and that
we'll be able to leave here with great hope and great encouragement. Let's bow together and ask the
Lord's blessings on his word and ask him to bless us to that
end. Our Heavenly Father. Once again,
you've, in your good and merciful providence, brought us here to
this place. You've given us your word. You've promised your Holy Spirit. Where two or three are gathered
together in thy name, you said that you would be there in the
midst of them, and Lord, that you would send your spirit in
power to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, Open the windows
of heaven to pour out a blessing of grace on our souls. Lord,
we are in need of that this morning. Pray that you would give us clarity
of thought and pray that you give us faith and pray Lord that
your word would be as it is alive. And powerful and sharper than
any two edged sword that it would divide us under the thoughts
and intents of our hearts. Lord, that it would reveal. Our
nature as centers. And the nature of the Lord Jesus
Christ is our only Savior, our surety, our sin bearer. And all our salvation. For it's
in his name we pray. Amen. There is a theme that is repeated
over and over and over again in the book of Malachi, a message,
I should say, not a theme, a message from God that's repeated over
and over again, where the Lord says, I say, and then the people
of Israel respond by saying, what? What is it? That's not
true of us. In other words, they are striving
with their maker. They are contending with him
over what he says. Now, that's something that faith
doesn't do. It's something faith doesn't
do. We may shamefully contend with our maker when it comes
to the difficult circumstances of life, but that contention
doesn't last long, does it? It doesn't last long. We may
murmur and complain over our circumstances for a moment, and
then the Lord reminds us, I sent that, I sent that, and he shuts
our mouths, and he shames us for having ever called into question
his good purpose and good providence in our lives. But one thing that faith does
not contend with God over is his word. When God speaks, God's
people say, amen. They don't take any part of God's
word and say, well, you know, I just don't know about that,
Lord. We know that faith is the substance
of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen and without faith, without faith, it is impossible to please
God for they that come to him must believe that he is and that
he's the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. What is
the substance of the evidence of true saving faith? And this is the essence of it.
Some would lead us to believe that faith is the strong resolution
and commitment that something's going to happen in the future.
If I just believe it hard enough, I can make it happen. That's
not faith. That's presumption. That's taking
upon you the very nature of God. That's the opposite of faith.
Faith is not believing that God's going to do something for me
in the future if I just believe it strong enough. Faith is believing
that everything that God said is true. Everything. Every word
is true. And it's loving that truth. It's not being able to live without
that truth. That's what faith is. And we know that without the
preaching of the gospel, there can be no faith where faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. And faith
is a gift from God. He shuts our mouths and he gives
us the miracle of faith, the ability to believe everything
that he has said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. How do I know if I'm a believer?
Well, simply put, I believe everything that God has said and I believe
that everything he said points to the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God. I believe that, why? Because
God said so. Notice in verse 13 of Malachi
chapter three, the Lord speaking and he says
to these unbelieving Israelites, your words have been stout against
me, saith the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken
so much against thee? Now turn with me to Isaiah chapter
45, Isaiah chapter 45. Verse nine. Woe, now when God says woe, that's
a word of judgment. That's a word that ought to stop
us in our tracks and say, oh, Lord, I don't want to be part
of God's woes. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Now a potsherd is a broken piece
of pottery, and that's what we are by nature. Now the Lord mends
that broken pottery and fills it with the treasure of the gospel
for his people, but they're still just men of flesh. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioned it, what maketh thou or thy work? He hath no hands. Woe unto him that saith unto
his father, what begettest thou? Or to the woman, what hast thou
brought forth? Woe to him that calls into question. the sovereignty of God. Now turn with me to Romans 9.
Romans 9. We'll begin reading at verse
18. Well, let's back up to verse
17, because this is our point this morning. Verse 17, for the
scriptures sayeth. What sayeth the scriptures? That's
all a child of God wants to know. What's God say? That's why when
we preach, we say, thus sayeth the Lord. And that's all a child
of God wants to hear. What's God say about it? I'm not interested in your opinion.
I'm not interested in your church doctrine. I'm not interested
in your denominational creed. I want to know what God says. And you know, the religious world, they
strive with their maker when they test the word of God by
their confessions. They put the word of God to test
by their confessions of faith and by their creeds and by their
traditions. They're striving with their maker.
And the child of God says, just tell me what God says. And so
the Lord says, the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for
this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my
power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Now, previous to that, the Lord says, I'll
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will harden. It's my sovereign right. And
what's the unbeliever say? Well, that's not fair. And they
strive with their maker. They call into question the sovereign
authority of God. Faith doesn't do that. Saving
faith says, Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord, you're the potter,
I'm the clay, you've got the sovereign right to make out of
me whatever you will. Lord, I need your pity, I need
your mercy, I need your grace. That's what saving faith says.
But the potters of the earth, they contend and they strive
with their maker. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, verse 18, and whom he will, he hardeneth. The scripture over and over again,
through all those 10 plagues in Egypt, what does God say?
The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. God hardened his heart. He won
the Lord's. Thou wilt say then unto me. And here's the, here's the striving
of the potsherd. Here's the contending with God.
Here's the evidence of unbelief. See, child of God, this is what
you don't do. You don't do this. You don't
say this. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his
will? How can God blame me? If it's
all in God's sovereign will and purpose, if it's all according
to his to his covenant promises in eternity past, if everything
is predestined and predetermined, then how can God blame me? If
I'm not saved, it's God's fault. It's God's fault. Faith doesn't
talk like that. Now this theme is repeated over
and over again. The Lord says to the Israelites,
he says, I have loved you. in chapter one and they respond
by saying, where in us thou loved us? What are they doing? They're striving with their maker.
They're calling into question the word of God. The Lord says
in chapter two, you have despised my name. And they immediately
respond by saying, where in have we despised thy name? We're not
guilty of that. You're accusing us of something
that we're not guilty of. What are you talking about? See,
what does faith do? When God says, you're a sinner,
faith says, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord, yes. I'm not going
to strive with the word of God. I'm not going to call into question
what God says. The Lord says in chapter two,
he says, you came before me with tears, but I regarded them not. And they respond by saying, wherefore?
Why didn't you regard our tears? Because they were hypocritical.
You brought the wrong offering. You brought your will and your
works as the hope of your salvation. You brought lame animals for
a sacrifice rather than a spotless lamb. You didn't come to me on
the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
all your tears accounted for nothing. And they, and they respond
by saying, wherefore that's not fair. The Lord says, you've wearied the Lord with
your words. Now, these are all quotes from
Malachi. This short four chapter book. And this is a message that
God repeats over and over again. And the Lord says to the Israelites,
he says, you've wearied me with your words. And they respond
by saying, wherein have we wearied you with our words? You see,
over and over again, you have gone away from my ordinances,
return unto me. But you say, wherein have we
gone away from your ordinances? You see, that's what unbelief
does. Unbelief hears the word of God and they strive with their
maker. They contend with, they disagree
with God. Faith never does that. Child
of God, when God speaks, you just have to be silent, don't
you? You can't contend with the word of God. You believe everything
God says. It's called saving faith. You may, like I said, we all,
shamefully so, we all have moments of contending with God every
time we murmur over our circumstances. But when God speaks, faith says,
amen, amen. You remember last week, you have,
or a week before last, I think, you have robbed me wherein, well,
you've robbed me. And what'd they say? Wherein
have we robbed you? We have robbed God. We're not
guilty. Arguing with God, justifying
yourself, refusing to admit guilt or responsibility, and not believing
the word of God. That's unbelief. That's unbelief. You still have your Bibles open
to Romans chapter nine. Look at verse 20. Nay, but oh
man, who art thou that replies against God? You're going to,
you're going to stand up to God. You're going to disagree with
God. No, you're not going to do that. Are you child of God?
Now the proud and the self-righteous unbeliever will stand in the
presence of God and think that they can win the argument. And
God says, woe, woe unto him that striveth with his maker. How
do I know I have saving faith? Because you cannot not believe
God. Child of God, you believe everything
God says, don't you? So, well, how much of the Bible
do you have to believe in order to be a believer? Every word of
it, every word of it. And when God makes you to be
a believer, you just believe you just believe. Tom, you read
in the study this morning, Peter's message to the Jews on the day
of Pentecost. And the scripture says, when
they heard of the message of the resurrection of Christ, they
were pricked in their hearts for Peter to accuse them of their
wicked hands. They crucified that slain the,
the, the son of God. And, uh, and, and you stop right
before that passage where they said, and what should we do?
Men of Israel, what should we do? Repent and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believing. Lord, you make me to believe. Why? Well, look, but nay, but
nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? You see, this passage goes right
back to Isaiah chapter 45, doesn't it? It's exactly what the prophet
said in Isaiah 45. And we're talking about all the
scriptures. And all the scriptures are about Christ, aren't they?
I noticed something this week in my Bible I've never noticed
before. The cover page for the Old Testament just says the Old
Testament. I suspect it's that way in your
Bible. I looked at two or three Bibles and they were all the
same. The cover page for the Old Testament before Genesis
chapter one just says the Old Testament. And the cover page
for the New Testament says in my Bible, it's not inspired,
it was put in there by, you know, by the men that put these Bibles
together. But the cover page for the New Testament says the
New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, what are you implying that
the old Testament is not about our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And Robert knows what I'm talking
about. Robert came out of a reformed church where the preacher never
preached from the old Testament. He never preached from the old
Testament. What am I saying? This whole book is about our
Lord and savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about him in
the volume of the book. It is written to me. We believe
everything that God has said, because it's all about him. It's
all about Christ. And our hope is in Christ. Our
faith is in Christ. I said, well, I don't know if
my faith strong enough. I don't matter. The strength of your
faith is not what saves you. It's the object of your faith.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, if you have faith as a small as
a mustard seed, you can say unto this mountain, be thou be removed
and it should be cast into the sea. I heard someone tell me
recently that there was a, some report on the internet about
some guy that down in South America that actually cast a physical
mountain out into the ocean. There was probably nobody, I'm
sure there was nobody else around when it happened, because he
can't corroborate that with any witnesses. What is the Lord saying? If you believe me, trust me,
rest the hope of your salvation in me. However feeble and weak
your faith might be, I'm the one. that takes those barriers
that separate you from God, and that's the symbolism of the mountain,
and casts them into the depths of the sea and remembers them
no more. So this message from Malachi over and over again is the Lord
rebuking the unbeliever Israel, the unbelieving Israelites by
accusing them of their unbelief and the evidence that they're
guilty of what he's accusing them of is their opposition to
what he says. Is there, they're, they're contending
with God. They're striving with their maker.
They're disagreeing with God. Child of God. You can't disagree
with God. Can you, you just can't do it. God's given you faith,
you believe everything that God has said. Everything. The unbeliever doesn't. What do you mean? Every imagination of the thoughts
of my heart are only evil and that continually? Well, that's
not true of me. What are they doing? They're
contending with God. Contending with God. What does the child
of God say? What does the believer say? It
says what that Lord said to that Syrophoenician woman, it's not
right that I should give the bread of the children's dogs. He called her dog after having
ignoring her, please. After having publicly humiliated
her, then he calls her a dog. And what comes out of her mouth?
Truth Lord. And she worshiped him. You see, you, you can't not believe
God when God speaks, but faith just believes it. Doesn't it. You remember Goliath that uncircumcised
Philistine who blasphemed the God of Israel. And he comes out
there and he sees little David coming. And he says, what am
I, a dog that you would come against me with staves and stones? Am I a dog? He didn't know he
was a dog, did he? Unbelief. Luke chapter 4, when the Lord
began his public ministry in Nazareth, his hometown. That's
a small village. He knew everybody, worked in
everybody's home, probably had been in most all the houses in
that community, the people. And here's the son of God. I
mean, nobody had a charge to make against him. Everybody knew
how wonderful he was. And he comes to the synagogue
and he opens the scriptures. to the book of Isaiah and he
reads a passage that clearly is a passage about the Messiah? God has anointed me to preach
the gospel and he puts down the book? And they wondered at the
gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. They thought,
Could this be? Have we been with the son of
God all these years and not know it? Could it be that he's the
one? And then he interpreted the passage. And he said, in the days of Elijah,
there were many widows in Israel. Many Israelites that didn't have
a husband, that were destitute, but God showed mercy upon none
of them except the widow of Sarepta, who was a Gentile. And their eyebrows raise up.
And then he says, in the days of the prophet Elisha, there
were many lepers in Israel, many people suffering from leprosy.
And God showed mercy upon none of them except for Naaman the
Syrian. And when they heard these words, they were filled with wrath.
These were his friends. They were filled with wrath and
they took him out of the city and would have cast him over
the brow of the hill headlong. And he, and he walked right away
from them and they didn't know where to go, where to go. Wasn't yet his time. Was it? What is it that they, they hated? They were contending with God,
weren't they? They were striving with their beggar. What would
they say? No, that's not possible. It's not possible that God would
show mercy upon a Gentile and not an Israelite. It's not possible
that he would save one and not me. It's not possible that God,
that God, uh, has the sovereign right to show mercy yet. What
are they? They're contending with their
maker. And the child of faith, what's
faith say? Oh Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, if I'm going to be saved,
you're going to have to save me. If I'm going to have a surety, you're
going to have to be my surety. If, if, if the, if the righteousness
of God is going to be satisfied, you're going to have to do it.
If the justice of God is going to be met, you're going to have
to do it. Lord, I'm completely dependent upon you. That's faith. Faith just believes God, doesn't
it? Turn with me to the Song of Solomon,
Chapter 5. Song of Solomon, Chapter 5, right
after Ecclesiastes. Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. Now the woman. in the Song of Solomon is the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ and the man spoken of as her
lover is Christ. That's the story here. This whole
book's about Christ and his church and about how he saves sinners. And the husband, her beloved
comes to her and knocks on her door and she's and she's in a
spiritual slumber. You ever been there? And she
doesn't get up and then he leaves. And she catches an aroma of his
presence and she runs out of the house looking for him. And
she goes out into the city. Look at, look at verse six, solemn,
solemn, a chapter five or six. I opened to my beloved, but my
beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. Now listen, child
of God, the Lord will often withdraw the awareness of his presence
in order to set us to seek him. Okay. He said, I'll never leave,
you know, forsake you. That's our hope. That's our promise.
But. The awareness of his presence
is another thing, isn't it? And he was gone, and my soul
failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called, but he gave me no answer.
So I went out into the city and I asked the watchmen. Now these
watchmen were false prophets. and the watchman that went about
the city found me and they smote me and they wounded me and the
keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. They took away all my hope and
that's what false prophets do. They beat you up with the law.
They tell you you gotta do this and you gotta do that and you
gotta do the other if you're gonna be right with God. It's
a covenant of works. And the child of God who has
saving faith is beaten up by that. We don't want to hear it.
We don't want to hear it. That robs me of my veil. That
robs me of my hope. If you're putting part of my
salvation on me, then I have no assurance that I'm saved because
I'm not sure I did it right. But if my salvation is all dependent
upon Him, then I have hope. And so she speaks. And she says,
I charge you, oh daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am sick of love. I need him. God have him. And
that's what the gospel is, brethren. You know, let the religious world
talk about commitment all they want. This is all about need.
I've got to have Christ. If I don't have Christ, I've
got nothing. Nothing. And if I have Him, I've got everything. Everything. Now notice what they
say to her. These are the daughters of Jerusalem.
These are the religious people who are following the watchmen,
the false prophets. And you've heard them say this
to you. If you've ever shared the gospel
with anybody, you've heard these words. What is thy beloved more than
another? More than my beloved. Oh thou
fairest among women. Now this is sarcasm. What are they saying? What makes
your beloved so special? What makes you so special? What
do you think? You're, you're, you're, you're
better than everybody else. You think you're the only one
that knows God? Exactly what they say today is nothing's changed.
Nothing's changed. You declare God for who he is,
for who he's revealed himself to be in his word. And men will
make accusations against you and against Christ. But then she answers their question. And she describes him. Look at
the rest of verse nine. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved that thou dost so charge us? You're going to
accuse us of not being saved? You think you've got the only
God of salvation? And so she goes on to describe
him. And here's my hope. Here's my
hope. That when the Lord Jesus Christ
is lifted up. That the striving with the maker
among the pot sherds will come to an end. And that they will
join her because it's the only hope. Whoa, unto him that strive
with his maker. Woe unto him that calls into
question the word of God. We'll skip over these verses,
because they require some time to define each of these characteristics. But look at verse 16. His mouth
is most sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Now his mouth being
sweet means that his words that come out of his mouth, that's
my food, they're sweet to my taste. And he's my friend and
he's my beloved. Chapter 6, verse 1, Whither is
my beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? This is the daughters
of Jerusalem, now they're interested. Now they're interested, they
said, fairest among women, where is thy beloved gone? Whither
is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee? We're attracted to the man you
just described. We want to know him too. Where's
he gone? Where can we find him? And the
next verse answers that question. My beloved has gone down into
his garden. The bed of spices to feed in
the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved and my beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies. You know what that is. That's
where we're at right now. We're in a valley of lilies right
now. This is his garden. This is where he feeds his sheep.
This is where he makes himself known. And this is where God's
people come. To meet with their beloved and
to hear the sweet words that proceed out of his mouth. And
to believe everything he says. Amen. Alright, let's take a break.