The hymn we're about to sing
starts out with, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the
Nazarene. May God be pleased to give us
the grace to truly stand amazed in his presence as we sing this
hymn. Let's stand together. Tom, you
come, please. 452. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. For me it was in the garden He
prayed, not my will but thine He had no tears for his own griefs
But sweat drops of blood for mine How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! In pity angels beheld him and
came from the world of light To comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night ? How marvelous, how wonderful
? And my song shall ever be ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? Is
my Savior's love for me ? He took my sins and my sorrows ?
He made them His very own He bore the burden to Calvary And
suffered and died alone How marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall
ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me When
with the ransomed in glory His face I at last shall see, T'will
be my joy through the ages To sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading
is going to be located in Psalm 90. I'm going to read Psalm 90
this morning. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place
in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hath formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, Thou our God, everlasting to
everlasting is both ways. Eternity past and eternity future. When it says, thou have been
our dwelling place, it's because we have been in Christ since
before the foundation of the world. We've always been with
him in Christ. Thou turneth man to destruction,
and thou sayeth, return ye children of men. for a thousand years
in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch
in the night. So a thousand years to us is
like a day to him. And that's what the scripture
says. That's how God's perspective is. Thou carriest them away as
with a flood They are as asleep. In the morning they are like
grass which groweth up. In the morning it flurries and
groweth. And in the evening it's caught
down and withereth. For we are consumed by thy anger
and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hath set our iniquities
before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance. For all our days have passed
away in Thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. The days of our years are threescore
years and ten. And by reason of strength, they
be four score years. That's 70 or 80 years. It's saying that it's a lifetime.
Yet, is there a strength, labor, and sorrow? For soon, cut off,
and we fly away. Our life is just like a vapor. It goes by quick. Who knoweth the power of thine
anger? Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. Who knows the power of the anger?
And surely only Christ knows that wrath that we deserve and
that he went through for us. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning
thy servants, or satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice
and be glad in our days. Oh, may we receive mercy from
the Lord early in our lives, so we may enjoy the rest of our
days. It says, make us glad according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein
we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory into their children. Let God's work be evident
to us, which is Christ. And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us. And establish the work of our
hands upon us. Ye the work of our hands, establish
thou it. Father God, we come before you
this morning only by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
his sacrifice, by his death, his shedding of blood. We have
this privilege, Father, this blessing of being able to come
before you to give you thanks and worship you, Father, for
all that you are and all that you have given us in Christ,
Father. We ask, Father, that we may number our days, that
we may seek Christ every day left in our lives, Father. That's
how we could best spend the days left. We now ask for the service,
Father. We pray that you might pour your
Holy Spirit on all of us, the listeners, as well as Brother
Greg. that we may understand more of
Christ and his glory, Father. We need your Holy Spirit assistance
to be able to do this. We also pray for all the other
churches that preach the gospel. Father, may the gospel be clear. May the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ be ever so clear to us, Father. And we pray this in Jesus'
name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn on the back of the bulletin. The Lord God Almighty is my refuge,
a very present help in time of need. My vile sins come on me
as a deluge. Christ bore those sins for me
on Calvary. The everlasting Christ is my
refuge. He is my shield, my high and
mighty tower. To Him I flee from this sinful
refuse. He is my horn of salvation with
power. In the shadow of his wings is
refuge. I fled to that good hope set
before me. My need for protection is very
huge. His pavilion is grace, love,
and mercy. He chose His own before the world
was made. Jesus Christ has redeemed them
with His blood. The Lord is their refuge, their
only aid. In his refuge, God lavishes his
love. Please be seated. Our sovereign God maintains his
universal throne. Heaven and earth and hell he
reigns and makes his wonders known. His counsels and decrees
firmer than mountains stand. He will perform where'er he please. and stay His hand. All things His will controls
and His all-wise decree has fixed the destinies of all in matchless
sovereignty. Jacob by grace He saved and gives
no reason why But Esau's heart he left to pray. Who shall dare
reply? What if the potter takes part
of a lump of clay, and for himself a vessel makes, and casts the
rest away? Who shall resist? His will or
say, what doest thou? Jehovah is the sovereign still,
and all to Him must bow. My soul bow and adore the Lord
in all His ways. His sovereignty none can explore. I will trust His grace. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things. To whom be glory evermore. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. That's a blessing. Thank you, Caleb. You still have
your Bibles open to Zechariah chapter 11, titled this message,
Beauty and Bands. Beauty and Bands. It is clear. from Zachariah chapter
11, that this whole chapter is about none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you look with me at verse
12, and I said unto them, if you think good, give me my price
and if not forbear. So they weighed for my price,
30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, cast
it unto the potter, a goodly price. And I was prized at of
them. And I took the 30 pieces of silver
and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. You know,
that was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was sold by
Judas to the religious leaders of his day for the price of a
slave. Scripture makes it clear in the
law that if a man had an ox that gored a slave and killed him,
that he had to pay 30 pieces of silver for that slave. And
that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ was paid for, was
bought for. Judas, in his regret and guilt,
tried to atone for his own sin by going back to the very figures
of the law, the Pharisees, and casting those 30 pieces of silver
at their feet. They took them. And rather than
put them into the coffers of the temple, which would have
been against the law, they bought a potter's field, not knowing
that what they were doing was fulfilling everything that God
had said would happen concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's
a word of encouragement, brethren. We know that Judas was the son
of perdition. We know that he was not chosen
of God. We know that he was a child of
the devil, according to the scriptures. But the truth is, had Judas taken
those 30 pieces of silver and gone back to the Lord Jesus Christ
and fallen at his feet, rather than going back to the law and
seeking atonement for his sin through the law, the Lord would
have forgiven him. The Lord would have forgiven him. Beauty and bands. That's the
title of this message and that's the subject of this chapter.
Beauty is a picture of the gospel. Bands is a picture of the law. All of God's word contrast the
gospel of God's free grace in the glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ to the law. And the truth is
that there's only two messages of salvation in all the world. In all the world. You take every
message of philosophy and religion that's ever been derived, that's
ever been imagined by man, and they're all going to be works.
They're all going to be law. And so the Lord. Speaking to
us in chapter 11 of Zachariah says in verse 7 and I will feed
the flock of the slaughter. Even you. I love that I love
the way the Lord said even you me. Could this be for me? If the Spirit of God's pleased
to cause you to believe what He says right here, then yeah,
yeah, even you. I will feed the flock of the
slaughter." We saw in the previous verses that God sent a great
forest fire to burn down the trees of those works, religions,
and force His people out of the safety of that forest. The Scripture
The scripture says in verse 2, the last part of verse 2, O ye
oaks of Bation, for the forest of the vintage is come down. And if you look up the word,
the forest of the vintage, it translates defensed forest. Your defensed forest, the place
where you hid in order to try to, in order to try to atone
for your sins, God's burned it down. And his children come running
out. And then the Lord says, I'm gonna
feed my poor sheep that have come forth the flock of the slaughter,
even you, oh, poor of the flock. Now, what does God feed us with?
What's he feed us with? He says, my body. is your meat
indeed and my blood is your drink indeed and unless you eat of
my body and drink of my blood there's no life in you what is
the body and blood of the lord jesus christ it's his perfect
life of righteousness and his sacrificial atoning death of
justice on calvary's cross that's his body and that's his blood
i was uh... listening to the radio this past
week and there were some scientists that got some old pottery out
of a museum that came from Egypt that was 2,000 years old and
they scraped the inside of this pottery and found microscopic
spores of leaven and duplicated those microscopic stores to enough
to where they had enough to make a loaf of bread. 2,000 year old spores of yeast that
were embedded in the crevices of old pottery. Now the Lord
told the children of Israel when they celebrated the Passover
that they were to sweep out the house of all the leaven. Well you know when they swept
out the house of all the leaven, there was billions of microscopic
spores of leaven still in those houses that nobody could see.
Nobody could see. Now what is leaven in the scripture?
The Lord Jesus Christ is called the unleavened bread. He's the
only one that's without sin. And we sweep out all the things
that we feel guilty about as we ought. We ought to identify
those things and confess those things before God. But the point
is that there's microscopic spores of leaven in your heart and in
my heart and our lives that we can never see. We can never see. We can't get rid of them. We've
got to have a perfect righteousness before God. And that's what beauty
is. And that's what the Lord feeds
His children with. He feeds them with the bread
of life. That manna that was white like
coriander. We saw the whiteness in the previous
verses. Lebanon is white, a picture of
righteousness. And that bread that came down
from heaven that fed the children of Israel in the Old Testament
is still the bread that comes down from heaven. And he's the
only one. He's the only one that's without
leaven. And what you and I can't see,
God can see. God can see. He's got electron
microscope. I mean, he can see every spore.
Until. Until. The blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ is spilt. And all that leaven that you
and I are guilty of. The Lord says I've separated
it from you as far as the East is from the West, and I remember
it no more. God feeds his children with the
body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 7 again. I will feed the flock of the
slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. Now the Lord in the
Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 said, blessed of God are the
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. How do I
know if I'm poor? Now I've never in my whole life
been starving to death. But I can only imagine, I can
imagine that if I was starving, I had to have food to live. Nothing
else would be of any concern to me. Nothing else. The weather would be no, the
politics would be no concern, people would, nothing else would
be close of any concern to me if I was so poor and so poverty
stricken that I was starving. I had to have food. Now that's how you know you're
poor. Lord, I've eaten the rotten meat of this world and it's only
made me sick. Lord, I can't, I'm so poor, I
can't buy food. You've got to feed me or I'm
gonna starve. I'm going to die. I'm going to
spend eternity separated from God if you don't feed my soul
with the bread of life. If you don't open the windows
of heaven, that's how you know you're poor. You've got to have
Christ. You've got to have him. You've
heard me say it before, I'll say it again, it's so, so true.
Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, this passage started out with
open thy doors, oh Lebanon. Opening your doors and coming
to Christ is never a choice. It's never a choice. If you and
I have a choice between coming to Christ or something else,
we'll always choose something else. Only the poor, only the
starving, only those who have no place else to go, will come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come willingly. They
say with Peter, Lord, where else shall we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have shut us
up to yourself. This wasn't a decision I made.
It wasn't a choice I had. Lord, you've made me hungry. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. That's how you know you're poor.
That's how you know you're poor. You cannot satisfy the hunger
of your soul or the hope of your salvation anywhere else other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. God has sent that fire and consumed
your oaks and your fir trees and your cedar trees, and you've
been left with nothing but Christ. Nothing but Christ. And the Lord
says I'm gonna feed the poor. I'm gonna feed the poor. Those
who don't have anything. Those starving people who are
concerned only with being fed. I'm gonna feed them with my body.
Because they're gonna come to see that their body's got leaven
in it. And I can't have anything to
do with that. And I took unto me, look at the
rest of verse 7, and I took unto me two staves, the one called
Beauty, and the other called Bands, and I fed the flock. As we saw in the previous hour,
this is symbolic, prophetic language. And what is more beautiful than
the Lord Jesus Christ? What is more beautiful to the
child of God? What captivates their interest
and their attention and their hopes and their desires and their
love more than the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's
the stave. He said, I'm going to take two
sticks. One of them is called beauty
and the other one is called bands. Now, what else binds one from
knowing God to the point to where they can't do anything about
it more than the law of God? You see, beauty is the gospel
and bands is the law. The gospel of God's free grace
in the accomplished person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is beautiful to him. Beautiful to the child of God.
Turn in your Bibles with me to the Song of Solomon, please.
Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. The yoke of bondage is the bands. It's the law of God. It's those
things that men look to outside of the Lord Jesus Christ for
the hope of their righteousness and their justification before
God. We could say that every bit of this book. Is a juxtaposition
between law and grace. Every story. Every chapter. God is contrasting law and grace. beauty and bands. He's saying you are by nature
under the bondage of the law and by my grace I'm going to
draw you to myself with my beauty. Look at the Song of Solomon chapter
5 and we'll begin In verse 6, I made a reference to this in
the first hour. And I opened to my beloved, but
my beloved had withdrawn. Now this is the bride of Christ
speaking. This is, this is me and you speaking. The Lord has
come and he's knocked on her door. And he said, open the door. And she didn't get up right away. That's our problem, isn't it?
So she finally gets up. She comes to the door and I opened
to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself. Brethren, God often does that. He withdraws the awareness of
his presence. He says, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. but he will withdraw the awareness of his
presence to try our faith and to see if we're gonna do what
she did. Look what she does. He was gone,
and my soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. And the watchmen that went about
the city found me, and they smote me." Now, who are those watchmen?
Those are the false prophets. Those are the prophets that are
putting men under the law. Those are the prophets that want
you to be bound in the bands of the law. And the watchman
went about the city. They found me. They smoked me.
They beat me with a rod of law and they wounded me. And the
keepers of the wall took away my veil from me. Hey, they, the abuse that these,
that these religions were given to this child of God by putting
them under the law. Now she says to them, I charge
you, oh daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that
you tell him that I am sick of love. I've got to have him. I can't do without him. And they say to her, what is
thy beloved more than another's beloved? You think you're the
only believer in the world? You think you're the only Christian?
You think your God's better than our God? We all worship the same
God. What makes you so special? Have
you ever heard that? You have, haven't you? Heard
a lot, haven't you? You stand up for the gospel with
your friends and family members. That's exactly what their first
response is gonna be. just exactly what this people's
response was. What makes your beloved better
than our beloved? And they'll try to intimidate you with that
accusation. And she said, and oh thou fairest
among women. You think you're special with
God, don't you? You think you've got something
with God that we don't have. You fairest among, you see it's
sarcastic that they're speaking here. What is thy beloved more
than another's beloved that thou dost charge us? You're not going
to stand the judgment of us. We're the watchman. We're the
ones that are rigorous for the law of God. We're holding the
bands. Oh, my beloved is white. He's perfect. He's without leaven. He's sinless, he's holy, he's
undefiled, he's separate from sinners. He's the only God that
can save. My beloved is white and he's
ruddy. He's the chiefest among 10,000. His eyes are like the
eyes of doves by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly
set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices
as sweet flowers. His lips like lilies dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set
in a barrel, set with a barrel. His belly is bright ivory overlaid
with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon.
What's Lebanon? White. Excellent as the cedars. His
mouth is most sweet. Oh, when he speaks, his words
are life to me. Yay, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. Oh, you daughters of Jerusalem.
She stands up clearly for her husband. She declares Christ
and that's what we do. Men ask us, what do you think
you're special? What's your God better than our God? We don't
get an argument with them about theology and doctrine and denominations
and those kinds of things. You just tell them about Christ.
You really want to know the difference? I'll tell you what he's like.
He's white and he's ruddy and he's cheapest among 10,000. His
legs are like pillars of marble. His mouth is sweet. Verse 6, now they're going to
speak. Whither is thy beloved God? We want to meet a man like
that. That's what they say. We'd like
to meet him. O thou fairest among women, whither
is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee? My beloved has gone down into
his garden. to the beds of spices to feed
in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloveds and
my beloved is mine. He feedeth them on the lilies. My brothers and sisters and my
friends. We are sitting in God's garden right now. Right now. This is where he's gone. It's
what he said. He said where two or three of
you were gathered together in my name. I suspect that out of
this group, there's at least two or three of us that believe
on Christ. And we're gathered. We came together
in his name. I know there's a lot more than
that. And he said, I'm going to meet
with you. I'll meet with you. I'm going to feed the flock. Go back with me to Zachariah
chapter 11. I'm going to feed the flock. of the slaughter, those sheep
that came out of that forest fire, they're poor. I'm going to feed them with the
bread of life, the manna that's come down from heaven, the perfect
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to look
to me for all their righteousness before God. They're going to give up any
hope in their cedar, and in their fir, and in their oak trees.
And they're going to rest all their hope in me for their righteousness.
They're going to be made to see that all their righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before God. And I'm going to feed them. I'm
going to show them who I am and what I've done for them. I'm going to feed him with my
words. His words are words of life. Never a man spake like
this man before. His words are true and faithful. His words are powerful and effectual. No one else has words of comfort
for my soul. I can talk to my accountant to
maybe get some advice for my accounting. I can talk to my
educator and maybe get some advice on those things of knowledge,
but for my soul, for the salvation of my soul, I need a righteousness
outside of myself. I need God to feed my soul with
the bread of life. I have no righteousness outside
of him. The Lord said, I will feed you. You poor? Got no place
else to go? I'll feed you. And by the way, with that bread,
I've got some wine, too. It's that wine that was spilt
on Calvary's cross. It was that wine that I placed
on the mercy seat. It was that wine that said, there
I'll meet with you. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. I'll cover all your sins. And all that, my goodness. I use that analogy of microscopic,
but that's really the way, we have no idea of how sinful we
are. Our holy things. He has to bear
the iniquity of our holy things. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
has to take what we're doing right now. Worshiping God, he
has to take my efforts to preach and your efforts to hear and
worship and sing and present them before God in an acceptable
manner. They're not acceptable if they
come straight from us. They're not acceptable. Why? Because like that old pottery,
there's still leaven in it where pots of clay that the glory might
not be in the vessel, but in the oil that's put in the vessel. He feeds us with the gospel.
He causes us to see that he chose us in Christ, the lamb that was
slain before the foundation of the world, before time ever began.
From everlasting you go to everlasting wherever you went. Everlasting
to everlasting, that's everlasting life. Everlasting life is not
something that begins when you make a decision to accept Jesus.
There's no comfort in that. That doesn't feed my soul. Maybe
I had mixed motives when I accepted Jesus. Maybe I was just in trouble
with something else and I wanted God to be like my bellboy that
just kind of came and carried my bags for a little while and
helped me out. How do I know that the decision
I made was sincere enough and good enough? But now, if my hope
of salvation is based on a covenant, an everlasting covenant that
was established between God the Father and God the Son and God
the Holy Spirit before time ever began, I can rest there. That's what David said. This
is all my salvation, all my desire. He has made with me an everlasting
covenant, an everlasting covenant. The hope of my salvation is not
determined by how faithful I am to keep my promises to God. It's
based on His faithfulness to keep His promise to me. I'm going
to feed them with the gospel of my grace. I'm going to feed them with the
righteousness of my Son. I'm going to justify them with
His shed blood. I'm gonna cause them to be buried
together with Him in baptism. I'm gonna raise them up to walk
a new life in Christ Jesus. I'm gonna show them that their
union with Christ is the hope of their salvation. Their union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what that's gonna
do? That's gonna cause them to love me. That's going to cause
them to keep looking to me. That's going to cause them to
keep coming to me. What is more impossible to be
delivered from than the law of God? What can be more of a band on
a man's soul? than the perfection and the requirements
and the intolerance of the law of God. Turn to me to Galatians chapter
three. Galatians chapter three. You see, the Lord teaches his
children with the law and with gospel. He shows them their impossibility
of the law. Then he points him to Christ. Galatians Chapter 3 look at look
at verse 10. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse, for it is written cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law on the side of God, it is evident. For the just must
live by faith. They shall live by faith. And the law's not a faith, but
the man that doeth them shall live in them. You won't be saved
by the law. You gotta keep the whole law,
nothing but the law. not just in outward behavior.
Saul of Tarsus thought, concerning the law, I'm blameless. Nobody
can charge me of breaking God's law. But then he said, when the
law came, sin revived and I died. When I saw what the law required,
I realized I've never kept God's law. To state law and grace Bands
and beauty. And they stand in contrast to
each other. We're not going to be saved by the law. Can't keep
the law. Look at Galatians chapter four,
verse 21. Tell me you that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear the law? Now, let me pause just a moment.
I don't think Christian will mind me sharing. Christian's
going to be baptized this morning. We were talking last night, and
Christian, like some of our young people, say, you know, I've never
been. You talk about Arminianism and free will religion a lot,
and I've never been a part of that. I've grown up all my life
under the gospel. It's all I've ever known. And
yet, in the conversation, He confessed to me that the reason
why he's put off baptism is because he looks at his life and he thinks,
you know, I'm not worthy to be baptized. And we came to the conclusion
that a person doesn't have to be in a false religion to be
under the law. All men by nature are under the
law. If you're looking to something
other than the Lord Jesus Christ for the hope of your salvation,
you're under the law. You don't have to have anything
to do with freewill Arminianism. You can sit here under the preaching
of the gospel of God's free grace all your life and be under the
law. I'm looking to something in my
life, something other than the accomplished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ for the hope of my salvation. Do you not hear what the law
says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one
by a bondwoman and the other by a free woman. Galatians chapter
4 verse 23. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Now God had already told Abraham,
Sarah's going to have, it's going to be your descendant. It's not
going to be Eleazar. It's going to be your descendant
of your own loins. that the Messiah is going to
come and the blessings of salvation are going to come. And Abraham
waited and Sarah doesn't have a child. So Sarah and Abraham
get together, you know, we're going to help God out. And they
brought Sarah's handmaiden into the picture, didn't they? And
Ishmael was born as a result of that union. And the world's
never gotten over it. All the stuff you hear about
in the Middle East, That's Isaac and Ishmael. And that's the law
and grace and that's what God's saying here. He's saying the
bond woman, that was Hagar that brought in Ishmael. Ishmael was born according to
the flesh. It was man's attempt to help God out. That's all it
is. And what I'm saying to you and
what God's saying to us is God's done it all. You can't add to or take away
from what he's accomplished. He feeds the poor, the slaughter
of his flock with the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and
shows them the impossibility of being saved by the law. Which things, verse 24, are an
allegory? For these are the two covenants. There's only two. There's only
two covenants. You take all the religions of
the world, they're going to fit into the same covenants, the
covenant of works. Man putting himself under the
law in order to earn favor with God, robbing from Christ, his
glory and salvation. The one from Mount Sinai, you
know what Mount Sinai is, that's the mountain of the law, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. And this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and
is in bondage with her children. So, Paul's talking about those
Jews in Jerusalem who are all under the law. And they still
are. But they represent all the religions
of the world. But, but, Jerusalem which is
above, that new Jerusalem that came down from heaven, Christ
and his church is free. Be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to Egypt. There's
no salvation in the law. She's our mother. Psalm 116 verse 16. Oh Lord,
truly I am thy servant. And thou hast loosed. My bands and I will offer to
thee. The offering of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving That's what we do. We just express
our thanksgiving to God. For what he's done. Or do you
did all the saving? I'm going to feed my flock. With
beauty. And with bands. Go back with
me to Zachariah chapter 11. Verse 8. Three shepherds also I cut off
in one month." Now what is that one month a reference to? We
know this whole chapter is about Christ, the whole book is about
Christ, but this chapter is about the sacrifice that Christ made
on Calvary's cross, on Calvary's tree. And the Lord Jesus Christ
appeared to the disciples for just a little over a month after
his resurrection. And he appeared several times
to them and explain to them what had just taken place. And what
did the result of that have for the disciples? They separated
themselves, didn't they? And they gathered together in
the upper room and then the Spirit of God came on the day of Pentecost. What are the three shepherds
that the Lord Jesus Christ cut off from the disciples during
that one month? What are the three shepherds? You read about them in the New
Testament. They're called Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes. And they're
all under the law, and they all exist today. The Pharisees are
the conservative fundamentalists who take pride in their outward
behavior and want to put you under the judgment of their self-righteousness. The Sadducees? Oh, they're the
religious liberals that have all their ceremonies and types
and want their union with the Herodians and with the government.
And the Scribes? What are they? They're the lawyers. They're the self-professed theologians. You see, the truth is that the
Baptists, the Catholics, and the Presbyterians are the Pharisees,
the Scribes, the Sadducees, and the Scribes today. It's all self-righteousness. It's all man's attempt to earn
favor with God by the law. And God says, three shepherds
also I cut off in one month, and my soul loved them, and they
also abhorred me. You see, the self-righteous fundamentalist
and religious ceremonial liberal and the self-professed theologian,
intellectual, they all hate God. They hate the gospel because
it exposes them for what they are. And the Lord says, when I feed
my sheep, I'm going to cut those shepherds off from them. They're not going to go back
to them. They're not going to go back to them. They're not
going to be looking to any of those things. They're going to
be feeding on me. The bread of life. Verse 9. Then said I, I will
not feed you. Who's he talking about? Those
three shepherds. Those self-righteous, legalistic,
fundamental, liberal lawyers, I will not feed you. That that dieth, let it die. Has God killed in your heart
the hope of salvation outside of Christ? Let it die. Let it die. Burn it down. That's what Noah said to me after
the first hour. Burn it down, Lord. Let it die. And that, that is to be cut off,
let it be cut off. And let the rest eat one the
flesh of another. And that's exactly what happens
in religion, brethren. They're just eating up one another,
aren't they? Fighting with each other over this law and that
law trying to figure out what which one's most important And
God says to the slaughter of his sheep that have come out
of that forest fire I'm gonna feed you with the body of my
son and with his blood and you're gonna live And you know and you don't know
what I meant when I said to the disciples about all that other
stuff When they said, Lord, you've offended the Pharisees, what'd
the Lord say? Leave them alone. They're blind
guides leading the blind, and they're all gonna fall into the
ditch. You follow me. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father. Oh, how we pray that your spirit
now would cause us to believe you. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Mass those are going to be baptized
to get ready for the Tom number 190. Let's stand together number
190. Uh. If you have little ones in the
nursery, moms, why don't you bring them out so they can observe
the baptism, okay? Be a part of that. Number 190. We bless the name of Christ the
Lord, we bless him for his holy word, who loved to do his Father's
will and all his righteousness fulfilled. We follow Him with pure delight,
To sanctify His sacred right, And thus our faith with water
seal, To prove obedience that we feel. Baptized in God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, three in one, with conscience free, we rest
in God, in love and peace through Jesus' blood. By grace we Abba Father cry,
by grace the Comforter comes nigh, and for thy grace our love
shall be forever only, Lord, for thee. I want to do something I've never
done before. I'm going to ask you to open your bulletin to that little article that Henry
Mahan wrote, because I'm, as your pastor, concerned that this
is something that is true here. I want to read this as an encouragement.
I want you to follow along with me. There are people in our assemblies
who have heard the gospel of Christ with the heart. They believe
him. They love him. They truly rest
in him as Lord and Redeemer, but they have not confessed Christ
and believers baptism. The question asked why Terry
is thou? I believe I can answer for them.
Number one, they are troubled by the presence and strength
of indwelling sin. in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing." They are shocked by the weakness of their faith. They
fear that they will fail and dishonor the Lord and embarrass
the Church. They are waiting for greater assurance and more
grace. They are by nature very timid and shun public demonstrations. No such reasons are valid. For
in baptism we are not confessing our holiness but His. We are
not confessing our strength but His. We are not confessing our
life but His. We are dead and our life is hid
with Christ in God. Isn't that good? It's kind of green on the motor
here, so we'll let you, let's see, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. I think I got it. Is it even
on? Well, we're gonna turn this around this way. If it's right
here, that'll work, I think. Maybe pull it up a little bit. Someone asked me recently if
we were going to put a big baptistry in our new building. I said no,
we're going to keep this one. It reminds me of a coffin and
I don't have to get wet. So Tia, we're so very thankful
for you. Tia and Judd attended services
in Sarasota for the years that we were going over there on Sunday
evenings. And they make it over here as often as they can and
watch the services when they're not able to come. So Tia, it's
with great joy that we baptize you as a sister in Christ in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with
Christ in baptism. I don't think we've ever baptized anyone as young as Lacey. I've been so encouraged with
this young lady, and God has given her a love for the gospel,
a love for Christ, and she's had so many encouraging things
to say to me over the last year or so, every time she hears the
gospel. And she asked me two Sundays
ago, can I take the Lord's table? And so I had a chance to explain
to her the difference between baptism and, so this week she
called, she said, I really want to be baptized. Lacey, it's with
great joy we baptize you as a sister in Christ, 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. Amen. Christian? I've already told
all Christians, so I won't say anything else about him. One
encouragement was last night, they spent the night with us
last night, and he came to me and said, would you baptize me
tomorrow? And of course, I was just delighted. So Christian, we baptize you
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried
with Christ in baptism. Raised to walk a new life in
Christ Jesus. God bless you, brother. All right,
Tom's gonna lead us into hymn, and y'all come by and greet these
new brethren in Christ, okay? We'll sing Amazing Grace, just
let's all stand together. Amazing Grace, we'll sing it
a cappella. It's number 236 if you need the words. 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. was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. This praise that brought be 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. Amen.