th th Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 70 from the hardback hymno number
70. And let's all stand together. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy All the saints
adore thee Casting down their golden crowns Around the glassy
sea Cherubim and seraphim Falling down before thee for thee, which
wert, and art, and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. You see a little extra smile
on my face this morning. It's because my baby girl's back
in town. So glad to have John and Jennifer
back. Brian said, a minute ago, he
said, well, I guess that means you won't see Lord Grace as much.
So I said, all right. There's plenty of her to go around,
too. We're just thrilled. We're going to be in Zachariah
chapter 8 this morning. Zachariah chapter 8. Bob, Jeanette, Christy, good
to have you guys with us. They attend the church where
Chris Cunningham pastors just outside of Nashville. And they're
here on vacation this week. Deanna went home yesterday. So
she's still very, very weak and. Hopefully she'll convalesce at
home better than at the hospital. So. We're going to be in Zachariah
Chapter 8 both hours this morning and the second hour I prepared
a message when God is with us or when God is with you and I
was thinking about. That. hymn that we just sang,
holy, holy, holy, and Isaiah's experience in Isaiah chapter
six. And one of the ways that we know
that God is among us is that having seen something of his
holiness, the first words out of our mouths are, woe is me.
Woe is me, I'm an undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm a sinner in need of grace.
And then we hear the Lord say, I've taken a hot coal from off
the altar and I've touched your lips and. That's our that's our hope this
morning that the Lord will be pleased to meet with us. Let's let's pray. Ask the Lord's
blessings, our Heavenly Father. We are in need of thy presence
and thy blessing more than we could even know. Lord, we pray that you would
cause us to hunger and thirst after righteousness, after our
Savior, thy dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for he alone is
our righteousness. And we pray, Lord, that in the
hungering and thirsting that you put in our hearts, that we
would be filled. filled with Your grace, filled
with Your mercy, filled with hope, filled with the light of
the gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in
His name we ask it. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Zechariah chapter 8. There's a verse of scripture
here that's repeated several times in the Bible. It's found
in verse eight. I will bring them and they shall
dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and they shall be my people and
I will be their God. Now that statement is made six
or eight times in the scriptures. Usually it's reversed in order.
I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now man-made religion says I
will and God shall. I will accept Jesus. and God shall save me. I will
follow God's statutes and he shall bless me. I will believe
God's word and he shall save me. I will be his witness and
he shall count it unto me for righteousness. But that's not
what the Bible says. The I will is what God will do,
and the they shall is what God will do. I will and they shall. Now, this passage of scripture admonishes us to
not be afraid, to not be afraid. And the greatest fear that every
child of God knows anything about is the fear of not being saved,
the fear of not being saved. Whatever other fears we might
experience in this world, they cannot compare. They cannot compare
to the fear of, I know that God will save His people, but am
I one? Am I one that God was pleased
to save? I need to know. I need to know. Now, the way the Lord calms that
fear - because it's impossible for us to know the secret counsel
of God's will in terms of what He has determined to do. As far as who he's going to save,
that's in the heart of God. The secret things belong to the
Lord our God. Those things that have been revealed
belong to us and to our children. So the only way that we can know
if we individually are in the secret will of God for salvation
is if that which is revealed by God has been made plain to
us. So what I'm trying to say is
that the only way that we can know the I wills of God is to
see the they shalls of God. Does that make sense? God says,
I will, and they shall. So if we're able to see the work
of God's grace in terms of the they shalls, then We can have
confidence, and we can take the word of God to heart when he
says, fear not, for I willed your salvation, and as the result
of my willing your salvation, you shall, you shall, you shall. Verse 6 of Zechariah chapter
8, thus saith the Lord of hosts, if it be marvelous, and that
word marvelous means difficult, if it be difficult in the eyes
of the remnant of his people in these days, the scripture
refers to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ as the remnant,
The elect, the few, many are called, few are chosen. And he says, if it be difficult
in your eyes, should it also be difficult in
my eyes, saith the Lord of hosts? You remember when the Lord told
Abraham that Sarah was going to give birth to a child. Sarah
was 90 years old, and the scripture says Sarah was in the tent and
she was listening, and she laughed. And the Lord asked Sarah this
question. He said, is anything too difficult
for God? Anything too hard for him? how oftentimes we have difficulty
in believing God, don't we? We have fear and faith mixed
together in our hearts, don't we? And the only thing that calms
our fears is for God to increase our faith. And so the Lord, the
disciples asked the Lord, Lord, increase our faith. Increase
our faith. We're just, we're full of doubts. We're full of fears. And the
greatest fear we have is the fear of our own salvation. Lord, you're gonna have to give
us faith. And faith is the evidence of things hoped for. That's the
they shall. They shall believe on me. They shall believe every word
that I've spoken. They shall trust me for all their
righteousness. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn after him as one mourneth
for his only son. I will and they shall. What are you gonna have to do
that they shall in me for me to know that what you willed
is for me, is for me. It's difficult. Now, faith is not, be clear on
this, faith is not believing that God will do anything that
you trust Him for. That's presumption. You know,
if I just believe hard enough for this or for that, then God
will be forced to reward me with that blessing. That's the I will
and he shall. Okay? That's not what faith is. Faith is how you - so many religious
people say, well, you just have to believe harder. You just have
to - you just have to believe more, and God will do it and
God will reward your faith. Faith is believing that God will
do everything He said He would do. Everything He said He would
do. Faith is believing God. It's
believing His word. It's believing the revelation
of the gospel that He's made in His word. It's believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what faith is. Now let
me say this, the Lord Jesus Christ is not the central theme of the
Bible. He is not the central theme of
the Bible. He's the singular theme of the
Bible. In the volume of the book it
is written of me, everything in this book is about the Lord
Jesus Christ. So when God speaks and we think,
well, that's difficult. That's difficult. God says, it's
not difficult for me. I spoke it and I'm going to do
it. I'm going to do it." Faith is
believing God, is believing everything that God has spoken. So our faith
is mixed with fear, isn't it? Just as our existence is carrying
that old nature. You know, the fear comes from
the old man, the faith comes from the new man, doesn't it?
And the Lord said of Jacob and Esau, the older, that was Esau,
that's the man of flesh, will serve the younger, that's Jacob,
that's the man of promise. And so it is our fear. How oftentimes we read in the
Bible where God says, fear not, fear not. Why would he say fear not to
people who don't have any fear? You got to know a little bit
about fear in order to be able to hear God say fear not. You know, what do we say? Ignorance is bliss. Isn't that
true? And if you have any understanding at all, and believers are the
only ones that really have any understanding as to what the
consequences of death are, there's reason to fear. There's a reason
to fear. Men try to cover up their fear,
don't they? narcissism in this world, and
that's rooted in fear and insecurity and men trying to hide their
real fear. Sometimes people try to drown
their fear in alcohol or they'll try to hide their fear under
some sort of vibrato or bravado, I meant to say. Everybody's - God says to His
children, don't be afraid. Those things that men are afraid
of, I know your concern is for the salvation of your soul. And
I know that it's difficult for you to understand. But it's not
hard for me. Not hard for me. Trust me. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Verse 7, Behold, I will save my people. I will and they shall. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Turn with me to Jeremiah, chapter
32. Chapter 32. Oh, Lord, increase our faith. Who then can be saved? Isn't
that what the disciples asked the Lord? And what did the Lord
say? This was after He gave the illustration.
It's easier for a rich man It's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God. And the disciples were marveled. And they said, who
then can be saved? With man, it is impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. I can even save a rich man. And
I'll humble him. I will. And they shall. They shall be my people. Jeremiah chapter 32. We'll begin reading at verse
37. Behold, I will gather them out
of the countries, whether I have driven them in mine anger and
in my fury and in my great wrath, and I will bring them again into
this place, onto this place, and I will cause them to dwell
safely. I will, and they shall. Oh, Lord,
the only time I feel safe, the only time I feel safe is when
I hear about the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made on
Calvary's cross, successfully accomplishing the salvation of
His people. The only time I feel safe is when I know that I have
a righteousness outside of myself in Him. I can't do anything but
cast my care upon Him who careth for me. I can't add to His righteousness. I can't put away my own sin. He did it by the sacrifice of
Himself once and for all. The evidence that God willed
to save you and me is the safety and the peace that you get when
He speaks truth to your heart about Christ. When He tells you
about who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He's done for you,
and you're able to rest your hopes on Him. That's, I will
and they shall. And they shall be my people,
verse 38, and I will be their God. There it is again. This passage is repeated in the
book of Corinthians. And I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and their children after them. How do I know? They shall have one heart. They're
all going to believe the same thing. They're going to believe
on the same Savior. They're going to believe the
same word. There's not going to be any division among God's
people. All the divisions we see in religion today, all the
conflicts and controversies in religion, you don't find those
things in Christ's church. I will and they shall. They shall
be of one heart. They shall believe the same Christ,
the same truth, and the same gospel. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them. I will make an everlasting covenant
with them. Now, don't forget that word everlasting
doesn't mean, well, I received it now. You know, in religion,
the hope of our salvation was based on experience that we had.
Well, I know I got saved on a certain day, at a certain hour, at a
certain place. And now that I've got saved,
it's going to last forever. That's not what everlasting is.
When God says I'm going to make an everlasting covenant, that's
a covenant that never had a beginning. We're not resting the hope of
our salvation in an experience that we had in religion. We're
resting the hope of our salvation in the same thing that David
rested the hope of his salvation in. That's the everlasting covenant
of grace. That's the covenant that God
made with God before the foundation of the world. When Christ was
seen by the Father as the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world, and David said, this is all my salvation and all my
desire. What is? He's made an everlasting
covenant with me. Where are we looking for the
hope of our salvation? You see, that's the, they shall
is the evidence of I will. They shall believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's their hope. That's the
evidence that I willed their salvation. Is anything too marvelous
for me? Is anything too hard for me? It may be hard for you
to imagine how it is I could save a person like you. And every
child of God wonders how could God have mercy upon somebody
like me, a sinner like me? How could the Lord - I will and
they shall. They shall what? They shall trust
me for that everlasting covenant. I will turn away from them to
do them good and I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart from me. They shall not depart from me. The only sure evidence of salvation
is perseverance. If a person can leave the gospel,
they eventually will. They will. God's people can't leave. Why? Because I will and they shall.
They shall. They shall because they must.
Why? Because I'm doing the they shall
just as much as I'm doing the I will. and they will never leave me.
They can't. And I will never leave them nor
forsake them. For thus saith the Lord, verse
42, like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people,
so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised
them. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. How's that second stanza
go? T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed. You see, there's fear and faith,
isn't there? Go back with me to Zechariah
chapter 8. I will be their God in election. That's what we just were looking
at. I'll be their God in election. I will choose them according
to my will and purpose before the world ever began. And the
yea, nay preacher, Paul said, I did not preach unto you yes
and no, but I preached unto you yes, for all the promises of
God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. And I speak to people
and say, well, yeah, yes, God's elected a people, but no, that's
not what the Bible says. No, the Bible says it's yea and
amen. It's not yes and no. It's not
that there's a sense in which God chose everybody, but there's
a sense in which everybody has an opportunity. There's a sense
in which Christ died for his elect, but there's a sense in
which he died for all men. Or there's a sense in which God
loves everybody, and there's a sense in which he loves particularly
his elect. No, that's yea, nay preaching.
That's yes and no preaching. Scripture says it is yea, And
amen. So be it. It's finished. End
of story. No nothing, no controversy. And
when it comes to God being our God in election, what do we say? I will, and they shall. What shall they do in light of
the fact that I've chosen them? I'll tell you what they shall
do. They shall say altogether, if God had not chosen me, I never
would have chosen Him. I am so thankful for election. I am so thankful that God has
predestinated me to be conformed to the image of His Son, for
had He not done that, I would remain in unbelief. You believe that? I know you
do. That's that they shall. That's that they shout, and I
will. When it comes to redemption, redemption, that means to be
purchased. And the Scripture says that we
are purchased with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's not Christ's blood plus my decisions or Christ's blood
plus my works. It's Christ's blood alone. When
the Lord told Aaron, you put that blood on the mercy seat
and here I will meet with you. And when He told Moses back there
in Egypt, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. The blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only price sufficient to pay
for my sins. I can't add to it. I cannot take
away from it. And God says, I will spill my
blood as a covering for your sins and you shall Look to the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone for all your redemption,
all your redemption before God. So how do I know that God's will
was for me? Because I've got no place else
to go. I can't add to what Christ did. How can I separate from the Lamb
of God, the one who's without spot and
blemish? I will call them. I will make them willing in the
day of my power. I will send my spirit. and open
the eyes of their understanding and cause them to come unto me. I will, and they shall come. I got no place else to go. You
remember what the disciples said when the 5,000 left after the
Lord said, you're just following me so you can have your bellies
full? And that's what religion is all about today. Men are much
more concerned. The belly is a picture of the
flesh in the scriptures. Men are concerned about their
salvation. I nailed that down. That's taken care of. Now I want
God to be my help here and give me an easy life. And that's what
religion is all about. It's just using God to improve
one's standard of living. They're not coming to Christ,
trusting Christ alone. I will make them willing. I will
send my spirit. I'll do for them like I did for
Mephibosheth. I'll fetch them." And what did
the Lord say after speaking to the - after those 5,000 left?
You only follow me so that you can have your bellies full. If
you want to be my disciples, take up your cross. That's identify
yourself with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow after
me. And the disciples - see, the
disciples standing there, I can just imagine. Mouths are open,
their eyes are, you know, and the Lord looked at them and said,
aren't you going to leave? Aren't you going with them? What did Peter say? Lord, where
are we going to go? Where are we going to 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 see, coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ is not a choice. It's not a choice. Let the world make a choice out
of it all they want. That's the I will and God shall. Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ
is when God shuts you up to Christ and you've got no place else
to go. No place else. I will call them and they shall
come because they won't have any place else to go. No place. I will reveal myself to them, and they
shall believe everything that I say." Faith is just believing God.
I'm so thankful that God doesn't require us to understand everything. You know, faith is believing
what we don't understand. Intellectualism is pretending
to understand something that you don't believe. And that's
all the world is. That's all religion is. It's
just a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals pretending to believe something,
to understand something that they do not believe. I will speak
and they shall believe everything I say. So how much of the Bible
do you have to believe to be a believer? Every word of it. Every word of it. That's the
essence of what a believer is. He just believes God. I will
and they shall. Have you been shut up to Christ?
Have you been forced to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have
you trusted His blood and righteousness for all of your acceptance before
God? Do you believe everything God says, whether you understand
it or not? You see, that's the I shall. That's the work of God's
grace in the heart. The I will is the work of God's
grace in the covenant of grace, which we can't see. But what
we can see is what he's done in our hearts. It's the evidence
of faith. It's the I shall, or they shall. Listen to this one. I will take
away the name of Balaam out of her mouth and she shall speak
of her idols no more. Don't you love that? How do I
know that he's taken away my idols? I can't find any. I'm repulsed by those idols. We can't look to the idol of
our free will. We can't look to the idol of
our good works. We can't look to any idol for
the hope of our salvation. Listen to this one, Zechariah
chapter three. I will take out of the midst
of thee those that rejoice in their pride. And they shall be no more haughty because of the holy mountain."
Now, I know we're all infected with pride, but we hate it, don't we? We
hate it most in ourselves. And one thing - my children will
not lie. We're not proud in terms of taking
the glory of God to ourselves for the hope of our salvation.
That he's taken away. I'll take the haughty spirit
out of them. They're not gonna credit themselves for salvation. In closing, let's turn to 2 Corinthians
6. 2 Corinthians 6. Verse 14, be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness
and what communion hath light with darkness? How can a believer go back to having any kind of
fellowship, spiritual union with unbelievers. For what concord hath Christ
with Baal? And what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Lord, we can't go back. The child of God hates his sin. There's no question about that. But the truth is, every honest child of God has
to admit they keep doing the same thing over and over again.
Isn't that true? In your heart, your attitude,
your word, your speech, your action, you just keep doing the
same thing over again. And then we hear this admonishment
from God's word, the dog returns to its vomit and we fear thinking
maybe I'm returning to my vomit. That's not what returning to
your vomit is. Returning to your vomit is forsaking
the hope of your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and going
back to a freewill works gospel. And that, my brothers and sisters,
is something a child of God cannot do. Why? Because God said, I will, and
they shall. They shall. All right, let's take a break.