Again, if you weren't here the
first hour, please take notice of some announcements in your
bulletin that are coming up events that we look forward to as a
church. Very, very thankful to be here
this morning and pray the Lord will be pleased to take that
sword from his thigh and speak to our hearts this morning. Let's
stand together. Tom's going to come and lead
us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. ? Come let us join our cheerful
songs ? With angels round the throne ? Ten thousand thousand
are their tongues ? But all their joys are one Worthy the Lamb
that died, they cry, to be exalted thus. Worthy the Lamb, our lips
reply, for He was slain for us. Let all that dwell above the
sky and air and earth and seas conspire to live the glories
high and speak thine endless praise. The whole creation join
in one to bless the sacred name of Him who sits upon the throne
and to adore the Lamb. Please be seated. For the Lord's call to worship,
would you please turn to 1 Thessalonians. Thessalonians chapter one. Thessalonians
chapter one. While you're turning there, the
Lord's been dealing with me on the difference between happiness
and joy. Happiness and joy, they're not
the same. I'm ashamed to tell you, I hope
my wife doesn't get angry, we're going to have a garage sale next
week. And we're separating happiness and joy. And she's getting all the stuff
to sell on one side and to keep on the other. And you're seeing
things there that you didn't even know you had anymore. And
I looked at the pile to sell and I thought, that's all things
that A lot of them, I bought most of them for happiness. And when I bought them, I was
happy because I thought I really needed them. A few weeks later,
they fell back in the garage and I never seen them again for
20 years. Brethren, we need to understand
the difference. Happiness comes and happiness goes. Happiness
depends on our circumstances. But you're going to read here,
brings satisfaction. We're satisfied with what we
have. And I know I'm thankful, I thought
Brother Greg said it many times, are you and am I satisfied with
Christ? Religion's not, that's why they
have to have bigger, better, and more, don't they? But you'll
see here, when the gospel's preached and God gives us the faith to
believe it, it brings joy, because we're satisfied. And that joy
never goes away, no matter what our circumstances are. And I
pray we'll see it here. Paul's writing to the church
at Thessalonica. Paul and Silvanus and Timothus,
unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without seizing your work of faith and labor of love and patience,
patience, of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, and all these things
are done in the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren
beloved, your election of God. God done the electing. We know that we're saved because
God elected me, not because I chose God. For our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord. having received the word in much
affliction. You notice we received the word.
If you receive it, somebody has to give it to you. God gave us
the word, and the word was declared by his gospel preachers with
joy of the Holy Ghost. Joy. God had to give us the faith
to believe to give us that joy. so that you were examples to
all that believe in Macedonia and Ikea. And from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Ikea, but
also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad,
so that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show us what
manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turn to
God, that's repentance, from idols to serve the living and
true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised
from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to
come." If the Lord has given you, if He has sent to you the
gospel and given you the faith to repent and to believe it,
You'll have a joy that this world cannot understand. And what a
great blessing, and it was all a gift from God. If it didn't
come from God, it's not true joy. It's just happiness, and
it'll come and go. May we go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we've gathered this morning
We know you're present. You promised that. And we confess
to you we are unable to do anything in ourselves. We can't even pray
or write. But Lord, we look to you and
ask you for your blessing upon our time here together. We pray
for your servant, Brother Greg, and your other gospel preachers
and their families. We pray, oh Lord, that you would
enable them by your spirit to speak and declare Christ unto
us. And we pray, Lord, that you would
give us your spirit to receive these words with great joy and
comfort. And that you would give us the
ability to stand for you and praise you and glorify you. Lord,
that you would strip us of any hope outside of Christ, that
you would crush that. We especially pray this morning
for those who gather with us who are listening that are strangers
to your grace, that this might be the day, Lord, if you are
willing, that you would send your spirit to them and give
them the faith to rest in Christ and to experience the joy We
ask these things for Christ's glory. Amen. Let's all stand together. Once
again, we'll sing hymn number 239. 239. Art thou weary? Art thou languid? Art thou sore
distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming
be at rest. Hath he marks to if he be my guide. In his feet and hands are wound
prints and his sigh. Is there diadem as monarch that
his brow adorns? Yea, a crown in very surety but
of thorns. If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask Him to receive me, will
He say, be nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is he sure to bless? Saints, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs,
answer yes. Please be seated. Rachel Weishi
is going to bring the special music now. When life's strength and beauty
is small A child of deepness, washed in the rain I believe
in hope ? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Thy power in thine alone can cleanse
the lepers, the spots, and melt the tongues of souls. Jesus, thank you. of the dead I own. I've seen them, a crimson sting,
emotions bound as stone. When you fall, I stand in completion. Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall sing. Jesus made it all. All. The death I held in my hand. Soon I met a crimson sting. He washed my heart and my soul. Thank you, Rachel. Would you
turn with me in your Bibles to Mark Chapter 12, please? Mark
Chapter 12. And I'd like to use the point
that Micah was making by way of introduction. As I've titled
this message, Faith Not Understanding. Faith Not Understanding. God doesn't tell us that we have
to understand. Truth is We don't understand
anything we believe, but he does tell us to believe, to believe. I wish I could say that I was
content with my circumstances all the time, but daily it's
exposed to my shame how discontent I can be. But I can say this, by the grace
of God, I don't want anything else for my salvation other than
what Christ provides. I am content with Him for the
salvation of my soul. I don't want to add anything
to Him and I don't want to take anything away from Him. You have your Bibles open to
Mark chapter 12. Look at verse 11. This was the Lord's doing and
it was marvelous in our eyes. When God gives you eyes to see
his works, they're just marvelous. Now I looked up that word and
the definition that, that the Greek lexicon gives,
the Greek language gives to that word is passing human comprehension,
causing amazement, full of wonder, extraordinary. In other words, it's beyond our
ability to comprehend. When the Lord healed that man
in John chapter 9 who was born blind and the Pharisees wanted
to interrogate him over theological issues, you remember that's the
man who said, listen, all I know is that I was blind and now I
see. As far as your questions about
this man, I don't know. But then he went on to say, why
herein is a marvelous thing that you don't know from whence this
man came, yet I'm standing here before you and I see. That's
an amazement to me. is beyond my comprehension. How
it is that here I am, you know, you've already asked my parents,
you know that I was born blind, you know that no one's ever been
given sight that was born blind, and I'm standing here before
you with perfect sight and you don't know where he comes from?
No man could do what he did unless he'd be son of God. In Philippians The Lord tells
us to be careful for nothing. In other words, don't worry.
But he doesn't say don't worry, be happy. He says, be careful
for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving. Season all your prayers with
thanksgiving. With thanksgiving, let your requests
be known unto God. and the peace of God which passes
understanding. It's marvelous. It's beyond your
comprehension. The peace of God which passes
understanding will keep your heart and your mind in Christ
Jesus. Oh, to be content with him, to
have peace with God, to know that the Lord Jesus Christ has
done everything necessary to put away the sins of his people
and to establish a righteousness before God that makes them accepted. That's peace. In this world,
you shall have tribulation. And we do, we have a lot of tribulation
in this world, much of which we bring on ourselves. But the
Lord says, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Faith is not believing that you've
had an experience with God. Our experiences are subjective. And it doesn't mean because you
can look back at a time when you had an encounter with God
that therefore you have faith. First of all, we can't live off
of yesterday's experiences anyway. We're just like the children
of Israel. We've got to have fresh manna every day. Give us
this day our daily bread. We try to live off of yesterday's
experiences and we'll just be deceiving ourselves. So faith
is not believing that I've been saved or faith is not believing
that I am saved. Faith is not believing I hear
people say, well, I believe, therefore, God's going to do
something. God's going to provide something out there in the future
because I'm just believing with all my heart that it's going
to happen. That's not faith. That's not faith. Faith is believing
God. It's just believing God. It's
not understanding God. It's not being able to explain
God. It's believing God and believing
everything that God says. So I ask you this morning, I
ask myself, do you believe God? Do you believe God? Most folks
don't. They don't believe God. These
Pharisees in our story did not believe God. Look at the next
verse after verse 11. And they sought to lay hold on
him, but feared the people for they knew that he had spoken
the parable against them. they were convicted by this parable
they were convicted by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and
they knew that he was talking about them they didn't like what he had
to say they didn't want to be put in their place by the Lord
and so the last part of that verse says And they left him
and went their way. Now that phrase is just the opposite
of faith. And they left him and went their
way. They chose their way over God's
way. And that's all unbelief is. Unbelief
is hearing what God has to say and coming to the conclusion
that you've got a better way. Faith is hearing what God has
to say and saying amen. Truth, Lord, I don't understand
it, but I can't help but to believe it. Now, what was this parable and
what was it that they were so offended by? What was it that
they did not believe? Well, go back with me to verse
1. Nothing's changed. Same thing's
true today. And he began to speak unto them
by parables. Now, they suspected that this
parable was against them, but they didn't understand the meaning
of the parable. They didn't believe the meaning
of the parable. The disciples asked the Lord,
he said, Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? And the
Lord said, because it's not for them. It's not for them to understand
the things of the kingdom of God. It's for you. It's for you
to believe. What is it that we are able to
understand and what is it that we are able to believe by what
the Lord says? He began to speak unto them by
parables, a certain man planted a vineyard. Now this man is God himself. The vineyard is his church. He does the planting. It's his
seed that he plants. The Lord is saying this salvation
is of the Lord. God did it all. Turn back with
me to Psalm 80. Psalm 80. Verse 7. Turn us again, O God of hosts,
and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Lord,
I'm always in need of being turned. I'm always looking away. I'm
always setting my affections on the things of the earth. Lord,
turn us and we'll be turned, dependent upon you to plant the
vineyard. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast
out the heathen and planted it. Now, here's Israel. It was brought
out of Egypt. It's a picture of how God has
brought his church out of the bondage of the law. These taskmasters
in Egypt were requiring the children of Israel to do things that they
were not able to do. And so it is with the law of
God. The law of God demands from us quotas that we cannot produce. And so the Lord takes us out
of Egypt. And what does he say in In Galatians chapter 5 he
says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith God has made you free
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go
back to the law. Don't go back and be entangled
with the demands of you can't keep God's law. So the Lord has
taken his people out of Egypt and he's planted them. Thou preparest
room before it and cause it to take deep root and it fill the
land. Here's your church, Lord, spreading
out all over the land. And the hills were covered with
the shadow of it, and the bows thereof were like the goodly
cedars. She sent out her bows unto the
sea and her branches unto the river. Here's the Lord's planting
of his church. He sends her out. Look at Psalm
92, just over a few pages from where you are, Psalm 92. Verse 13, those that he planted
in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our
God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall
be fat and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He
is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. Now the Lord says, I
planted a vineyard. I took you out of Egypt. I gave
you my seed. This matter of salvation has
to do with what I purposed in predestination, in election,
in irresistible grace, in particular redemption. This is all my work
and I'm going to get all the glory for it. And so he's speaking
in the parable about Old Testament Israel and he's about to tell
us that the difference between Old Testament Israel and New
Testament Israel is that Old Testament Israel was made up
primarily of unbelievers. But in the New Testament church,
no longer will they say to their brother, know the Lord, know
the Lord, as the believers had to say to the unbelievers in
Old Testament Israel, for they shall all know me from the least
of them even unto the greatest. And so Old Testament Israel was
a type of what God was going to fulfill when he planted his
church in the New Testament and gave to each one of his children
his spirit. He said, I planted you, I planted
you. Turn to me to Isaiah chapter
65, Isaiah 65. Verse 8, Thus saith the Lord,
as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy
it not, for a blessing is in it. Oh, inside this cluster of grapes
there's a blessing. Don't destroy it. That blessing
is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, don't
destroy the vine for there's a blessing in it, so will I do
for my servant's sake that I may not destroy them all. Now he's
going to take this vineyard, this church, away from these
legalistic religionists in Israel and give it to a new nation.
And here's the fulfillment of that prophecy. And I will bring
forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor of
my mountains and mine elect shall inherit it. And my servants shall
dwell there. Now that's Isaiah prophesying
as to what the Lord was going to do when he came. And now he's
here and he's telling the Pharisees exactly what God meant in those
prophecies. He said, I planted a vineyard,
go back with me to Mark chapter 12. A certain man planted a vineyard
and he set a hedge about it. Oh, when the Lord plants a seed,
it's going to grow and it's going We just read it in Psalm 92.
Even unto old age they shall be fruitful. God's not going
to lose one of his sheep. What God starts, God's going
to finish. If the Lord's given you faith to believe Him, you
will believe Him until your dying breath. You'll have no ability
not to believe Him. They marveled at what the Lord
did. They didn't understand it, but
they believed it. And so the Lord hedged it about.
He protected them. He's still protecting his children
today. And he digged a place for the wine fat. Now, turn to
me to Isaiah chapter 62, Isaiah 62. Verse six, I have set watchmen
upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace, day nor night, yet they make mention of the Lord, keep
not silent, and give him no rest until he establish, until he
make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Now, that's the tower. That's the tower that the Lord
built. It's a watchtower. And it's the
prophets and the preachers that God has provided for his church
to declare the truth about who Christ is. And the Lord, and
what does our verse say? And they saw the marvelous things
that the Lord had done and they marveled at them. So he builds
a tower and a wine fat, a wine press. Turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63 at verse 1. Who is this that cometh from
Edom? Now Edom was the place where the descendants of Esau
resided and Esau represents everything that is at enmity with God. Now the scripture says that God
will make his enemies to be his footstools. You see, you and
I come into this world at enmity with God. We are by nature, by
our own nature, we are Edomites. And the Lord has to give us a
new nature. And that's exactly what he did.
And so he says, who is this that come out of Edom with dried garments
from Basra? Now Basra translated means a
sheepfold. So we have a picture here that
God's given through his prophet of a sheepfold inside Edom. And there's a man coming out
of Edom who's been to Basra. He's been to the sheepfold. He's
been through the very gates of hell in order to bring them out. And this is, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
Here's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's seen glorious in his apparel. He's seen traveling and the power
of his strength. He's like a conquering warrior
now who's come out of Basra. But he's not dragging his sword.
He's not struggling to put one foot before the other. He's covered
in blood. His blood is his own blood. And
he's coming out saying, I did this to bring my sheep out of
Basra. I that speak in righteousness."
Everything that God speaks is righteousness. And God's people
just believe everything that God says. Mighty to save. Is He able to
save us all by Himself? Does He need us to do something
to help Him to save us? No. How did He save us? I planted
a vineyard. I put a hedge about it. I dug
a wine press. I put up a watchtower. I've done
all of this. What is the wine press? Here
it is. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the wine fat. So the person observing
this mighty man coming out of Basra says, why are you all covered
with blood like you've been in a wine press? I have trodden the winepress
alone. He's going to answer that question
now. I did it all by myself. The grapes of wrath, I've trodden
them out all by myself. I suffered the full wrath. This
blood that you see on me, yeah, it's my blood. My blood, which
was shed for you. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass by you. Whose blood? His blood. His blood. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me, for I will
tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood
shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment,
for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none
to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore,
mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld
me, and I will tread down the people in mine anger and make
them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to
the earth." Now that's exactly what the Lord is telling us He's
doing here in Mark chapter 12. I planted the vineyard. I put
up a hedge. I digged a wine press. I put
up a watchtower. I did all of this. I did all
this for Old Testament Israel. But because they didn't have
faith, they have rejected what I've done. Now in the New Testament
Israel, every member of Israel is going to believe me. They're
going to know that everything I did was effectual. was successful in providing them
their salvation. Go back with me to Mark Chapter
12. Now in Revelation Chapter 14, and we won't go there right
now for the sake of time, but in Revelation Chapter 14 the
Lord Jesus Christ is seen trampling out the winepress of God's fury
for all those who refuse to believe. All those who refuse to believe.
There's two wine presses spoken of in the scriptures. One took
place 2,000 years ago when the Lord Jesus Christ all by himself
pressed out the wrath of God's justice on Calvary's cross for
the sake of his people shedding his own blood. And then there's
Revelation 14 wine press where he's going to shed their blood,
their blood for the judgment of their sins. I want his blood
to be paid for my sins. He led it out to husbandmen and
went into a far country. Verse 2, and at the season he
sent to the husbandmen a servant that he might receive from the
husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him
and beat him and sent him away empty. And again, he sent it
to them another servant and at him they cast stones and wounded
him in the head and sent him away shamefully. And again, he
sent another and him they killed and others beating some and killing
some and having yet therefore one son. Now, you know who those
servants are. Those are the Old Testament prophets
that God sent to Old Testament Israel to declare what God was
doing and they refused to believe. They did not mix faith with what
they heard. Let us kill the son, his well-beloved. He sent him also last unto them
saying, they will reverence my son, verse six. But those husbandmen
said among themselves, this is the heir, come. let us kill him
and the inheritance shall be ours and they took him and killed
him and cast him out of the vineyard. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. There are still plenty of religious
clubhouses. I won't call them churches. on every corner of every town
that are casting out the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking His glory
to themselves. Wanting, this is the air. You see, the truth is that men
hate Christ just as much now as they did when they put Him
on Calvary's cross. And people say, well, I don't hate Him.
Let me ask you this, do you hate the truth of total depravity? Because if you do, you hate Christ. Now total depravity means not
that you're as bad as you could be, you could be a lot worse.
It means that you have no ability whatsoever within yourselves
to make any choice for God. It means you're dead in your
trespasses and sins. It means that regeneration necessarily
precedes faith. That God has to do a unilateral
work of grace in your heart before you can believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And men say, I don't believe
that. You don't believe that, you don't believe God. You don't
believe God, you hate Him. You hate Him. People say all
the time, well I don't believe in predestination. You don't
believe in predestination, you hate Christ. If you don't believe
that God sovereignly, according to His own will and purpose,
chose a people before the world ever began, that He predestined
them, He elected them, He chose them, you don't believe God. You don't believe God, you hate
God. You see, this is what the Lord meant when He said, if you're
not for me, you're against me. If you don't believe everything
that I've told you, you hate me. Now these men hated the Son. Let's take the heir. We want
to take His glory to ourselves. We'll be the inheritors if we
just kill the Son. And men are still killing the
Son. People say, I don't believe in
particular redemption. I don't believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ just died for the elect. If you don't believe that,
then you are killing the heir to take his glory to yourself. I don't know how to make that
any more clear. You see, men are still saying
exactly what these Old Testament Jews said. Why? Because they
did not believe God. They did not believe God. Let
us take the heir. And then there's some who say,
well, I believe in all those things. And then they write in
the words of men creeds and confessions that they look to for their doctrine. And what they're saying by that
is I don't believe God's able to provide by himself everything
necessary for my salvation. We've got to We've got to interpret
God's word in a creed and that becomes our. Let us, let us take the heir
and kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. Nothing's changed. You see, what
does it mean to believe God? I've said this title of this
message is faith not understanding. faith not understanding. It's to believe everything that
God says. It's to believe that he planted the vineyard. It's
to believe that he hedged it about. It's to believe that he
built the watchtower. It's to believe that he treaded
out the winepress of God's wrath all by himself. It's to believe
what God says. What, verse 9, what shall therefore
the Lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the
husbandmen and will give the vineyard unto others. Now this vineyard has been given
to us. Who are us? Everyone that believes. Everyone
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone that believes
everything that God says. That's who us are. Have you not read the scripture,
the stone which the builders rejected has become the head
of the corner? Turn to me to Zachariah chapter
4. Zachariah chapter 4. It's one
of those small minor prophets in the back of your Old Testament.
Zachariah chapter 4. The stone which the builders
rejected has become the head of the corner. What are men saying? We'll not have that man reign
over us. We want to be heirs to the inheritance. We want to
make some contribution to our salvation. We don't believe that
everything necessary for our salvation is bound up in one
man. Now, Zerubbabel is the man that
led the children of Israel back from Babylon to rebuild the city
of Jerusalem. And he's typical of the Lord
Jesus Christ in this passage. Verse nine, the hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish
it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. For who hath despised the
day of small things? For they shall rejoice and see
the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. These are the
eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro throughout the whole
earth. So Zerubbabel is seen not only
as the one who laid the foundation, but the one who's going to finish
the house. And he's using a plummet, a plumb line, and that's the
standard. That's Christ. He's the plumb
line. And what he began, he's going
to finish all by himself. Let me show you one other passage.
Turn with me to Isaiah 28, please. Isaiah 28. Verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, God, behold, look, Look, daughter
of Zion, listen, hearken unto me. I lay in Zion for foundation
a stone. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's that rock. And God said, I lay in Zion a
stone, a tried stone. I tried him in every way and
he proved himself to be faithful. a precious stone. That word precious
translated means priceless. He's the pearl of great price.
There's no amount of money that those who have faith would take
for the Lord Jesus Christ. A sure foundation. A sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line." Here's what Zerubbabel did. I'm going to hold up this
plumb line and it's going to hang perfectly straight and everything's
going to be compared to that. And anyone that doesn't believe
me is going to be found to be a teetering wall put together
with undobbed mortar, the scripture says, and that wall's going to
fall and it's going to crush anyone that's near it. the plumb
line. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the
hiding place." Men try to hide from God. You say, how do I know
if I have faith? Faith will cause you to flee
to Christ. Unbelief will cause you to do
exactly what these Pharisees did. Go back with me to our text. Verse 10. Have you not read in
the scripture the stone which the builders rejected is become
the head of the corner? I laid the stone. It's a tried
stone. He's a sure foundation. Build everything on him. Isn't
that what the Lord said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount
in Matthew chapter 7? He said everyone who hears these words
and believes them is like the man who builds his house upon
a rock. And when the storms come, Not
just the storms of this life, but the storm of God's wrath
and judgment that will come in the end, that house will stand. But anyone who hears these words
and believes them not is like a man who builds his house upon
the sand. And when the storms come, that
house will fall. I laid the foundation. This was the Lord's doing. and it was inexplicable in our
sight. We couldn't explain it. We couldn't
understand it. What about the new birth? Can
you explain how it is that you came to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Can you explain how it is that
God, out of the millions of people in this world, billions of people
in this world, chose you to hear the gospel? and to rest all the
hope of your salvation on him? Is that not marvelous in your
sight? You see, not only what he's done
in establishing his church, but what he's done in putting you
in his church. It's marvelous in my sight. I
can't explain it. I don't understand it. Why? What
does the self-righteous religionists say when they hear the gospel?
They say that's not fair. That's what they say. God elected
a people? Christ only died for a particular
people? I'm completely spiritually dead and not able to do anything
for myself? I can't have faith? That's not
fair. That's not right. And what does the child of God say?
Lord, why me? They say, why wouldn't God save
everybody? And the child of God said, this
is marvelous in our eyes. I don't understand it. I don't
understand it, but I believe it. The Lord told Jairus when they
came and said, bother the master no more for your daughter is
dead. And Jairus, I'm sure, I can only imagine what he experienced
when he fell to the ground in grief and the Lord said to him,
Be not afraid, only believe. But Lord, she's dead. Only believe. You don't have to understand.
This is the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous in our sight. And what the Pharisees do? He's
talking about us. and they left him and went their
way. How do I know if I have faith?
I've got no place else to go but to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the Lord's doing. It's beyond my ability to comprehend,
but I cannot not believe Him. I've got to believe Him. Everything
He said. How do I know if I don't have
faith? you will leave him and go your
own way. Church is made up of wheat and
tares and in time those wheat and tares
will be exposed for what they are. Truth is that if we're able to
leave the gospel we eventually will. Eventually will. Those that stand marveled by
what God has done, particularly their own salvation, they can
do nothing but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not understanding. We don't
understand any of it. It's not experience. Those things
are at best subjective. It's believing God. It's marveling. It's fleeing in hope to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all your salvation. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that you have come into this world
in the person of thy dear Son that he has treaded the wine
press of thy wrath all by himself, that you planted a vineyard.
Lord, oh, how we need a hedge to be put around us, how we need
a watchtower to declare to us the truth of Christ, and how
we need, Lord, for you to keep us. Well, this is your doing,
and it's marvelous in our sight. Cause us, Lord, to to turn and
we shall be turned. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 268, let's stand together.
? How firm a foundation ye saints
of the Lord ? ? Is laid for your faith in his excellent word ?
? What more can he say than to you he hath said ? ? To you who
for refuge to Jesus have fled ? Fear not, I am with thee, O
be not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, keep thee,
and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. ? When through the deep waters
I call thee to go ? ? The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow
? ? For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless ? ? And sanctify
to thee thy deepest desires ? When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design, Thy draws to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Okay.