Good morning again. If you know somebody that's been
trying to watch for the last few weeks, we've had some technical
difficulties and we thought we had it worked out this morning.
I don't know if we have people watching right now. They may
have given up after the first hour because the sound was messed
up during the first hour, but I don't know if somebody didn't
let me know if it's working now. Okay, we don't know. All the more reason to need to
be here, isn't it? Lord's met with us the last few
weeks and it's just amazing. We haven't been recording anything. The Lord told Nicodemus in John
chapter 3 verse 5, barely, barely, barely, barely, I say unto you,
accept a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. Now, the water is his word. We're
told that we're washed with the water of his word. And God uses his spirit and his
word in order to save his people. And that's why we're here. We're
here to proclaim his word and pray that he will send his spirit
and make the message of the gospel effectual to our hearts. I'm
thankful to be here. Thankful you're here. Brother Tom, we're going to sing
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. Ascribe to God, ye sons of men,
ascribe with one accord all praise and honor, might and strength
to him, the living Lord. Give glory to his holy name and
honor him alone. Give worship to his majesty and
bow before his throne. The Lord doth sit upon the floods,
their fury to restrain. He reigns above both Lord and
King, and evermore shall reign. The Lord shall give his people
strength and bid their sorrows cease. The Lord shall bless his
chosen race with everlasting peace. Please be seated. Good morning. You turn to the
book of Jeremiah chapter 31 for a call to worship. Jeremiah 31. And we're going to begin reading
at verse 10, 10 to 17. I do pray that the Holy Spirit,
as He has in revealing this passage, bless it to your hearts as well.
This is a passage of great, great comfort for we truly are in Zion
right now and hoping He will speak to us in this next hour.
Verse 10, Beloved, hear the word of the
Lord, O ye nations, and declared in the isles afar off, and say,
He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a
shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Therefore They shall come and sing in the height of Zion
and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord for wheat
and for wine and for oil and for the young of the flock and
of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered garden and they
shall not sorrow anymore at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice
in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will
turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make
them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of
the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied
with my goodness, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, a voice
was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel, weeping
for her children, refused to be comforted for her children
because they were not. Thus saith the Lord, refrain
thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work
shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again
from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end,
saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own
border. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts. Father, we do give you thanks
for your word, for the blessings of comfort and peace. that we
find in thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank
you for gathering us once again here this morning that you purposed
in eternity that we might behold you, worship you, and that we
would hear once again the gospel of thy dear son that would satiate
our souls, Lord, to the core. We thank you for the first hour,
Lord, the sober reminder how we need you to give us ears
to hear, that we might cry out to you right now, that you would
turn us and that your face would shine upon us and that you would
save us. We are so grateful, Lord, for
the faithfulness of your gospel preachers that you have raised
through the years. We're thankful for what you've done. And now
we ask that you would be with the Mayhans, especially tomorrow,
as we give you all the glory and praise in Christ, as everybody
gathers to worship you. Pray now, Lord, that you would
do that for Greg. Send your Holy Spirit now in
power, that your people would be blessed and rejoice and leave
here knowing that that day is coming very soon. where we will
be at your feet to worship you forever. Be pleased now to do
that, Lord, according to your glory and to the name of thy
dear Son, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Amen. Number 12 from the Spiral Hymnbook,
number 12. Yeah. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul at rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what He does is best. So 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. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harms. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. So 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. So 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 life's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God, Who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good. So 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. Please be seated. I want to introduce this message
by asking you what I have already asked myself. Do you need to
be saved? Do you need to be saved? Saved from yourself. Saved from the wrath that is
to come. If you do, you're in the right
place. Salvation is of the Lord. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. That's who he came to
save, sinners. So when I ask you if you need to be saved,
I'm asking you, are you a sinner? Our text this morning will be
found in Zachariah chapter 8. Zachariah chapter 8. Most folks don't have much interest
or need in being saved. This matter of salvation is not
a one-time experience. We used to think that. in free
will works religion we look back on an experience when we let
jesus come into our heart and we thought well i've been saved
i got saved at that issues settled that's out of the way now let's
move on to bigger and better things there's nothing bigger
and nothing better than the salvation of the center and there's nothing
that you and i need more than to be safe does god say His people. Our text this morning is found
in Zechariah chapter 8. Look at verse 7 with me. Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, this is God speaking, Behold, I will
save my people. Now that's the promise of God
and that's the title of this message. I will save my people.
I will save my people. When does God save His people?
Well, there's five answers to that question. There's five answers
to that question. He saved them in the covenant
of grace when the Lord Jesus Christ agreed with the Father
to be the surety of those whom God chose according to His own
will and purpose. The Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant promise and he promised to come in his power
and to make those whom God chose and those whom Christ would die
for willing in the David's power. That's called the covenant ordered
in all things and sure. David said, although my house
be not so with God, although my family and my life isn't like
I wish it was, it's not like it ought to be. Yet, yet, He
has made with me an everlasting covenant. Now in the Scriptures,
when the word everlasting is used, it's not talking about
something that begins now and lasts forever. When everlasting
is used, it's talking about something that never had a beginning and
never had an end. So this covenant, which is ordered
in all things and sure, And David went on to say, it's all my salvation. It's all my salvation. It's the
one thing I need more than anything else. The covenant promises of
God is all my salvation and it's all my desire. So that's the first answer to
that question. When does God save his people? He saved them
already. He saved them already. The second answer to that question,
is that we were saved. We were saved when the Lord Jesus
Christ willingly laid down his life as our substitute, satisfying
the demands of God's holy justice. We were saved 2,000 years ago
on Calvary's cross when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty
head and said, it is finished. It's finished. Everything necessary
for salvation was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. When he ascended back into glory,
he took with him the names of those for whom he lived and died,
and they are at the right hand of God. Saved. Saved. That's not the end of
it. Now, the fatalists would say, well, that's nothing I can
do, but that's all settled now, so let's just go on. No, there
has to be a new birth. All that God chose, all that
Christ died for must hear the gospel, must believe, must be
born again. except a man be born of the water
and spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus,
you've got to be born of the spirit. And so there's the new
birth. When God opens the eyes of our
understanding, when he takes out the heart of stone, when
he opens our ears and enables us to hear and to believe. So there's three answers already
to that question as to when I'm saved. And the fourth answer. Is I'm continuing to be saved. I never grow beyond my need to
be saved as you received Christ Jesus the Lord whenever that
may have been. Whenever God was pleased to call you by his grace. So walkie in him. How did we
receive him? We received him as a mercy beggar
and we continue to come the same way, don't we? Lord, I need to
be saved. I can't rely upon yesterday's
manna. I can't rely upon that experience
that you gave me whenever it was. It's subjective and it might
be spurious. I don't know. I can't rely upon
that. I've got to have you right now
and I need to be saved right now. And the Lord says, I will
save my people. So when I ask you, do you need
to be saved? And then the fifth answer to
that is we shall be saved. We shall be saved. When the Lord
takes us into glory and does for us what he did for brother
Henry this past Friday, whenever that was, I think it was Friday. causes us to see him in all of
his splendor and all of his glory when we shed this flesh and we're
given a resurrected body and made like him. Oh, then we'll
know. Then we'll know what salvation
really is. Right now we see in part, don't
we? But then face to face. So we have been saved, we are
being saved, and we shall be saved. And God says, I will save
my people. I will save my people. Notice how this passage begins in verse 1 of Zechariah chapter
8. Again. Again. We saw that from the Psalms.
Was it last Sunday? I can't remember now. Turn us
again, O Lord, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we
shall be saved. We shall be saved. Lord, I've
got to be turned again and again and again. I looked up this word
in the Scripture. It's used a lot. Again. Lord, I never get beyond my need
to be saved. Again, Peter was quite proud
of himself when he asked the Lord, he said, he said, Lord,
shall I forgive my brother seven times? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very,
very spiritual, aren't I? I'm willing to forgive my brother
seven times. What'd the Lord say? Not seven
times, Peter, but seven times 70. And he wasn't saying 490
times, he was saying don't quit forgiving. Do you think that
you're more merciful and more gracious than God? How often times do you and I
need to be forgiven? Or not, I've turned away again.
I've taken my eyes off of Christ. I've been in enticed by the things
of this world again. Again, Lord again. Again, the word of the Lord of
hosts came to me. Lord, I need for you to speak
again. I mentioned this in the first hour,
it just, it becomes more and more clear to me. The more the
Lord keeps us in Christ of how rare a blessing it is to have
heard the word of the Lord. Now Peter tells us, he says,
all flesh is as grass. And the grass fadeth, and the
flower withered away, and all flesh is grass. But the word
of the Lord, the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. So there's
a whole lot of people that have read this book. There's a whole
lot of people right now that are attending religious services
where the Bible's being read and where they say they're preaching
from it. Is the gospel being preached? Is Christ being lifted
up? Is God saving His people? Because if the gospel's not being
preached, the Word of God's not being preached. What a What a unique blessing. The vast,
vast majority of the people never even heard anything from this
book, and the people who have heard from this book have never
heard the gospel. And here you and I are again,
again, coming to this place again. Lord, again the word of the Lord
came unto me, and I need to hear it again. Lord, I forget so quickly
There is a famine in our land. Not a famine of bread or of lack
of water, but a famine of hearing the word of God. Hearing the
word of God. God has to give us ears to hear.
The gospel of God's grace has to be preached. Christ has to
be lifted up. Lord, I need to be saved again.
I need for you to speak to me again. Again, the word of the
Lord of hosts. Notice the next word, tame unto
me. If we're going to hear from God,
it's going to have to come to us. We can't go to God. That's what the Tower of Babel's
all about. That's what man-made religion's all about. Man trying
to find some standing with God based on something he does. A
prayer he prays, a decision he makes, a work he performs. Men
all over the world are doing their best, doing their best
to get to God, building their towers. Bricks made by hand and
slime holding together. And there's confusion of speech
at the Tower of Babel, isn't there? This one says that, the
other one says the other. Lord, I need you to come to me.
The scripture says that the Lord came and walked with Adam in
the cool of the day in the garden. Adam was put in the garden, but
he couldn't leave that garden to go to God. God had to come
to him. God had to come to him. Noah, in his generation, found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. God looked at Noah and had favor
upon him and visited Noah and spoke to him and saved Noah and
his family. And the Lord says, as it was
in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son
of Man. Lord, come to us again, again. Don't leave me to myself. Don't allow me to take comfort
in some word that you may, however real and however genuine it was,
don't let me feed off of yesterday's manna. Come again. Come again. I need that manna to fall again. Abraham was stuck over there
in the Ur of the Chaldeans. Now the Chaldeans are the Babylonians. They're the same. Sometimes they're
mentioned as Chaldeans, sometimes Babylon. It's the same place. And we know what that represents.
It represents all the godless religions of this world. And
Abram was a pagan in Babylon. He was a Chaldean. And God went
to him. God came to him and called him
out of there and gave him the promise of a new land. And Abraham
walked by faith after having been called by God. The word,
here's the means by which God saves. He saves again and again
and again, and God's people understand their need to be saved again. And he saves them by coming to
them. coming to them. Lord, you've
got to come to me. I can't come to you. You've got
to speak to my heart. You've got to visit me. You've got to do for me what
Boaz did for Ruth when he left a handful on purpose. Lord, you've
got to leave some grain for me. You've got to feed me with the
bread of life. You've got to cause me to come
to the fountain and drink. These are the means by which
God saves. Everybody's trying to save themselves by going to
God. Lord, you've got to come to me. Don't you love the story of Mephibosheth? David said, is there anyone left
from the household of Saul that I might show him mercy for Jonathan's
sake? Well, there's this little cripple
boy, Jonathan's son, the only living heir to the throne, and
he's hiding out over there in Lodabar where there's no bread.
What did David say? Fetch him. Fetch him and bring
him to me. There we are. We're Mr. Beshef. We're by nature in low debar.
There's no bread in this world. God's got to come to us. And
again, He's got to speak to us. The Word of the Lord has to be
made effectual to our hearts, doesn't it? He has to bring us
to Himself and sit us at His table and say, sit down here
and you're going to feast on the King's fare the rest of your
life. And if the Lord ever comes and
calls us to Himself, that's where we're going to be. We're going
to be sitting at the king's table, eating of his fare the rest of
our lives. And if we get to the point to
where we're like the Israelites and we say, we loathe this light
bread, we're tired of eating this stuff, and we leave, then
God never fetched us. He never fetched us. Saul, the scripture says, of
Tarsus was breathing out threatenings against the church. and the Lord
arrested him. Light from heaven shined, he
knocked off his horse, and God stopped him in his tracks. And
Paul said, my conversion is a pattern for your conversion. For in the
same way that God had to come to me and stop me in my tracks,
He's got to come to you. Lord, come to me. Again, again
the word of the Lord must come to me. And when God speaks, this
word of the Lord is not just the written word, it's the gospel.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the word of the Lord, isn't He? In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God, and the Word dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory
as the only begotten of the Father. He's the one that's full of grace,
and He's the one that's full of truth. Lord, I need You to
come to me. I need You to speak to me. And
here's what God says, I will save my people. I will save my
people. And here's the means by which
I'm going to save them." That Ethiopian eunuch had no
hope of getting to God. Came all the way from Ethiopia
to Jerusalem thinking, I'm going to find God. Years ago, there was a religious
campaign going on. Now, young people probably don't
remember this, but people drove around with bumper stickers on
their car that said, I found it. It was a religious campaign. You know, how can you be, I found
it. Well, he's not lost. He's not
lost. You're not gonna find him. He
knows exactly where he is. But if he doesn't find us, we're
in trouble, aren't we? Again, again, the word of the
Lord came unto me, unto me. Lord, cause your word to come
to me. You know, Lord, I can't pray what Moses prayed. Lord, Moses prayed for the Lord
to condemn him for the salvation of Israel. I've got to be honest with you.
My salvation is what's most important to me. What's most important to me.
God opened up the book of the Lamb's Book of Life for me. I'm
going to be going to the E section. I'm going to be looking for my
name. First, isn't that the way? When God puts a burden on your
heart for your soul, that's just the way it is. Lord, I've got
to have your word come unto me. It's not that we don't, we're
not burdened for the souls of other men and for our loved ones
and for our children and grandchildren. We want the Lord to come to them,
but where are you gonna come to me first? This is the means by which the
Lord saves his people. Not by bower, not by might, but
by spirit, saith the Lord. The Lord sends his spirit in
power, doesn't he? Of his own will begat he us,
saved us with the word of truth, with the gospel, the preaching
of Christ. That's why you're here. That's
why I'm here. Lord, I need to be saved. I need the word of
the Lord to come to me again and again. Verse two, thus saith the Lord
of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with a great jealousy. Now, normally we use the word
jealousy in the negative sense. Jealousy is usually a bad emotion
and character trait that we have in our own weaknesses, but that's
not the way it's been used here. God's jealous for his bride.
This is his particular love. People say, well, there's a sense
in which God loves everybody. Listen, God is immutable. God only has one kind of love,
just like He only has one kind of hatred, and just like He has,
it's holy love. It's perfect love. Jacob I have
loved, Esau I have hated, and people say, well, that means
that He loved them less. No, it doesn't. It means He hated
them. You say, well, there's a sense
in which God loves everybody because we see the benevolence
of God in the world. I mean, the rain falls on the
unjust and the just and the unjust get to... Listen, the only reason
that the fire of God's wrath is not falling on this world
and consuming it in its entirety is because the church is still
here. That's the only reason. Only reason. There's no benevolent
love in the heart of God for unbelievers. The reprobate are
vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. That's what the scripture says.
Lord, I don't want to be a part of that destruction. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
because the fire of God's wrath fell on him 2,000 years ago and
he accomplished the salvation of his people. How do I know
he did? that for me, because I'm crying
with Zachariah. Again, save me. Again, send your word unto me. Lord, I'm, and I need your particular
love. You know what? Love to be love
has to be particular, doesn't it? Men, when you get home, say to
your wives, honey, I love you. I love all the other women in
the world too, but I love you most. That's just, there's no
love to that, is there? Love is particular. Love is special. And what's the Lord say here?
I am jealous for Zion. The body of Christ. the Bride
of Christ, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. There was never a time
I didn't love you. And you think you know what love
is. You know, when people say there's a sense in which God
loves everybody, or God loves everybody in a benevolent sense,
or God has less than hatred for them, All they're doing is showing
that they're making God to be like themselves. That's the way
our love is. We have degrees of love, don't we? But not so
with God. You thought that I was altogether
as thyself. Herein is love. Here's the definition
of love, not that you love me, but that I loved you and gave
my son as a propitiation for your sins. And ever since I put
you in the covenant of grace way back there when I wrote your
name in the Lamb's Book of Life, indelibly with my pen dipped
in the blood of my Lamb that was slain before the foundation
of the world, I've loved you. Never been a time I didn't love
you. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for
her with great fury. For thus saith the Lord, I am
returned unto Zion. Oh, my prayer every time we come
together, Lord return here, come again. Lord, we were so blessed
and encouraged with your visit with us last time we met. Lord, return to Zion again."
And this is his habitation. This is his dwelling place. He
said, I inhabit the praise of my people. where two or three
are gathered together in my name. There I am in the midst of them. I walk among the candlesticks. This is where he's pleased to
make himself known and display his grace in the hearts of his
people. Lord visits Zion again. We can never be presumptuous.
We can never, we can, God, as I said last Sunday, I think it
was God, God can leave anytime he wants. God does what he wants. We come here. Do we? Do we pray
before we come and say Lord meet with us? Or don't let me just
go through a religious procedure and habit and tradition. I need you to meet with me again. And I need your word to speak
to my heart again. I need to be saved. And he will dwell in the midst
of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city of peace. Oh, what peace there is here.
We're going to see that as we get, as we go down a little bit
further. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of us have been in, in,
religion where there is such contention and such self-righteousness
and such competition among religious people trying to see who's more,
who's more holy than the other. What a blessing it is to be among
God's people where everybody believes themselves to be the
chief of all centers. And everyone's able to, by the
grace of God, esteem one another more highly than themselves.
Believe the other. No one needs grace more than
I do. And every child of God believes the same thing about
themselves, don't they? You know your sin better than you know
anybody else's. And so he says, I dwell in the
midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth. The city of truth. I heard a young person ask recently,
he said, well, everybody thinks they know the truth. Every flavor
of religion believes they have the truth. And they have a document
to prove it, don't they? The Muslims have the Koran and
the Catholics have their traditions and everybody's got their sacred
writings and their seers and their prophets and they hold
to what they have as the truth. How can you prove to me, this
young person, how can you prove to me that what you say is true
is true over what they say? And my answer to that question
is I can't. I can't. Now I'm not going to try. But
here's the good news. They shall be all taught of God. No, you don't have to have a
theological education to know the truth. You don't have to
be a holy man. You don't have to be a prophetess.
You don't have to be a seer. No, as a matter of fact, The
Lord Jesus Christ said, father, I thank thee that thou has hid
these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them
unto babes. You got to be a, got to be a
cry baby. I'd be a cry baby. Don't you? And that's a work of grace too,
isn't it? And the Lord reveals to his people that this city
of Jerusalem is a city of truth. There's a little article in your
bulletin that David Edmondson wrote, he said he was talking
to a friend and they asked him, they were self-professing atheists,
and the atheist said to David, he said, can you prove to me
that the Bible is the word of God? And David said, no, God's
not going to do that. He's the only one that can. And
so he asked his friend, the atheist asked David, he said, well, can
you prove to me that there's a God? He said, no, the Bible's the
only thing that can do that. And if you know the truth, truth
will set you free. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
that woman at the well, you drink of the water. If you knew the
gift of God and who it is that sayeth unto you, give me to drink,
you'd ask of him and he would give you living water and you
would not have to come back to this well. How do I know I have
the truth? Cause I'm not looking for it
anywhere else. There was a time when we were running to and fro,
looking for some new discovery of truth, and now we have Christ,
who himself is the truth, and we need nothing else. Nothing
else. Is Christ enough? Is he enough? Scripture says Christ is all.
He's all in election. He's all in redemption. He's
all in regeneration. He's all in sanctification. He's
all in glorification. He's all in providence. Christ
gets all the glory. I don't need anything else. The only time that Christ is
enough is if He's all you've got. If it's Christ plus something
else, then He's not enough. But if He's all you've got, then
He's enough. This is the means by which the
Lord saves His people. Oh Lord, show us Christ. Show
us the truth. The truth about God. Who He is. His absolute immutable sovereignty. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. I change not. I am the Lord and
I change not. And therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Lord, show us the truth about
that. You see, every other religion of the world is based upon a
God who adjusts himself to man. He's not complete in himself.
He's not all powerful. He's not sovereign. He's not
immutable. He's dependent upon man for something
in order for him to get his way. And the gospel teaches us the
truth about God, doesn't it? It teaches us the truth about
election. It teaches us the truth about
redemption. There's nothing to add to the
redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He actually successfully
atoned for all the sins of all God's people. What hope, what
rest? He's not looking to me for anything.
He did it all by Himself. That's the truth. And the means
by which God convinces those who would say, how do I know
that you're telling me the truth over all these other people who
say they've got the truth is the preaching of the gospel.
God uses the foolishness of preaching. And the world says we'll pile
a truth. Truth, don't you know there's no absolutes? Everything's
negotiable. Everything's flexible, everything's
relative. No, not the truth. You say, well,
each person's got their own truth. God's the only one that can determine
what the truth is. When he says it's true, then
there's, what do God's people say? Amen, amen, amen. That's what faith says. Faith
bows to the truth. And this is the only place you're
going to hear the truth. You're not going to hear it on
the news. You're not going to hear it in school. You're not going
to hear it from your politicians or the philosophers. Isn't that
what Paul experienced in Athens when he went to Mars Hill and
the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers were debating about what truth
was? Nothing's changed. The whole
world is made up of Epicureans or Stoics today. The Epicureans
say that you find the truth outside of yourself. And so you indulge
yourself in the pleasures and prosperity of the world in order
to discover meaning in life. And the Stoics say you find truth
in yourself. Personal sacrifice and reflection
and those sort of things. And the whole world is made up
of Epicureans and Stoics today. And most people are vacillating
between the two, aren't they? They'll indulge themselves in
Epicureanism until they are dissatisfied and then they'll go to Stoicism
and say, well, we'll try that for a while and see how that
works. And then they're not content there and they go back to Epicureanism.
And Paul said, I'm gonna preach to you the unknown God. And he
preached Christ to them. He's the truth. There's no truth
outside of him. The whole world is searching
for truth outside of the Lord Jesus Christ and he himself is
the truth. And he's only, he's only revealed. He's only held up. He's only
worshiped. He can, he's only known among
his people. Look. Thus saith the Lord, verse
three, I am returned unto Zion, and I will dwell in the midst
of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth,
the mountain of the Lord, of host. Now, when the scripture
calls God the Lord of host, that means that he's Lord over the
living and the dead. That means that he's not waiting
for someone to make him Lord. That means that he reigns sovereign
over the lives of every person. So this idea of making Jesus
Lord of your life is just ridiculous. He already is. He already is. You bow to His Lordship, don't
you? He's the Lord of hosts. The armies of heaven, the inhabitants
of the earth, no man can stay His hand. And this is His holy
mountain. This is His holy mountain. Mount
Zion. What happened at Mount Zion?
What was the first thing, the first time Mount Zion is mentioned
in the scripture, what happened there? It's called Moriah. Remember Abraham? God said to Abraham, take thy
son, thine only son, whom thou lovest and sacrifice him unto
me. And Abraham took Isaac up on
Mount Moriah, that's Mount Zion, that's the church. It's the first
picture that we see taking place on that mountain. And it's the
same place where the Muslim dome of the rock is built today, in
the middle of the city of Jerusalem. And God's saying to me and you,
it's not that physical mountain. It's not what the world calls
that holy land. This is Zion. This is where God
provided for himself a lamb. This is where Isaac was spared. And the lamb of God who was caught
in a thicket took his place. This is Zion. That's where God saves his people. Verse four, and thus saith the
Lord of hosts, there shall yet old men and old women dwell in
the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staff in his
hand for very age or multitude of days. And we've got some that are chronologically
old here and I'll put myself in the category of that. But
here's the, it's the spiritual makeup of the church. Because
the next verse is going to talk about children playing in the
streets. And believers are at all different
stages of maturity, aren't they? And there's old men and young
men and babes in Christ. And they live together in harmony
in this city of peace. And they encourage one another
and they love one another like in a family. It's better in your natural family.
Oh, I choose you as my family over my natural family. I mean,
that's not even a question for me. I love my natural family. I pray for them. I hope the Lord
will have mercy on them. I don't have anything in common
with them. I can't play in the streets with them. I can't carry
on the staff of the gospel with them. Look what he says, and
the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing
in the streets thereof. This is the family of God. This
is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church of the living
God, and Paul calls it in 1 Timothy, the pillar and the ground of
the truth. Now the illustration is that
of a building. And the ground is what supports
the building and the pillars are what support the roof. And
the roof is the most important part. It's the protection, isn't it?
In the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house of God is the
pillar and the ground of the truth, lifting up the roof. the Lord Jesus Christ. You've
seen pictures, perhaps you've been over there in the Middle
East of ruins, some of the ancient ruins that are there. You can
go to Athens, you go to Ephesus, a lot of these old cities. And
what do they have? Old Roman columns just standing
there. And the buildings have since
fallen. There's no roof, they're just columns. And that's what religion looks
like today. They got the pillar, they got
the ground, but they don't have the truth. And it's a worthless
column, not holding up anything and not supporting anything and
not saving anyone. Verse six, thus saith the Lord
of hosts, if it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of
this people in those days and these days, And that word, that
word marvelous is hard or difficult. And how amazed we are of how
hard and difficult God worked in order to save us. Are you
amazed at that? Is it marvelous in your eyes?
Is it just, Lord, why would you go through such pain? Why would
you do such for me and bring me to be a part of something
like this? And the Lord says, if it's marvelous in your eyes,
should it also be marvelous in my eyes? Thus saith the Lord of hosts. Verse 7, God's saving his people. I will save my people. That's
the promise. Verse 7, Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the east country
and from the west, from the rising of the sun to the setting of
the same. The Lord calls his people from all corners of the world. And
when he sends out his angels to reap his harvest in the final
day, they're going to go to the four corners of the world and
bring together all of God's elect. And I will bring them. I will
bring them. I want to be careful about saying
this, because young people, you're at home, you're under the authority
of your parents. You come here because you're
made to. I understand that. I understand that. But you know
what? They're making you come because
they know this is what you need more than anything else. And
they're praying and hoping that God's going to give you ears
to hear. But I would say other than the young people. if you
don't want to come don't come. We're not here to make folks
feel guilty about coming to church. God doesn't want to make folks
come to church. I will draw them. I will cause them to come. I
will bring them to Zion. I know it's an effort sometimes
to get here. I know some of you have driven
from a long way. But how many times I've heard you say, boy,
it was hard to get here, but I'm so glad I did. For once again,
God has spoken, and he has saved me. He saved me. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your church. We're thankful for the gospel.
Of your free grace. Most of all, we're thankful for
thy dear son. And for his marvelous work of
redemption that he accomplished for us. We pray now that as we
celebrate this table. That you'd be pleased to put
in our hearts. Faith. To believe on the body
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for all our salvation. for we
ask it in his name, amen. I'd ask the men if they'll come
and distribute the bread and the wine. Tom, we're gonna, number
17 in the spiral hymnal, just remain seated, please. See the table spread before you,
see the feast of bread and wine. These are symbols of our Savior,
tokens of His love divine. Bread that's broken is his body,
crushed beneath the wrath of God. Wine poured out is a reminder
of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of the Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. Jesus came, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us never forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us home to glory. Praise his name. With this hope
and expectation, we rejoice to keep this feast, celebrating
our redemption till we lean on Jesus' breast. so I want to read a passage of Scripture
from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. A lot of self-righteous
religionists do a lot of self-righteous things
to try to prove that they're worthy of taking of this table. But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. In fact, those who pretend to
be worthy of the Lord's table by their outward deeds are making
themselves unworthy. We become worthy only by recognizing
our unworthiness and by acknowledging the fact that the body and blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ is our justification and our righteousness
before God. At the end of the supper, he
took the bread and he broke and he gave it to the disciples and
he said, take and eat for this is my body as often as you do
it, do it in remembrance of me. Then he took the cup, cup of
the new covenant. the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which covers all our sin. And he said to the disciples,
do this in remembrance of me. All God's people said, amen. Thank the Lord for bringing us
to this place today and hearing from you. Let's stand together. Brother Caleb, would you dismiss
us in a word of prayer, please?