We'll have plenty of time for
good fellowship after the service. When our Lord began his public
ministry, he went into the synagogue at Nazareth, where he was well
known. And he took the scroll and he
opened it to Isaiah, chapter 61, and he read it. And that
passage reads, The spirit of the Lord is upon me. That means
I am the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. He hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed
the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down.
And the eyes of all them in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. All those promises of God in
the Old Testament to send a Messiah were accomplished, were fulfilled
when the Lord Jesus Christ was made man. Let's stand together, Tom. You're
going to lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. In thy great name, O Lord, we
come to worship at thy feet. O pour thy Holy Spirit down on
all that now shall meet. We come to hear Jehovah speak,
to hear the Savior's voice. Thy face and favor, Lord, we
seek, now make our hearts rejoice. Teach us to pray, and praise,
and hear, and understand thy word, to feel thy blissful presence
near, and trust our living Lord. This house with grace and glory
fill, this congregation bless. Thy great salvation now reveal,
thy glorious righteousness. Please be seated. If you would, please turn with
me in the word of God to Matthew, Matthew 19. Every believer, one of our greatest
desires is for our lost loved ones to hear the gospel. because
we know there's no salvation apart from the preaching of the
gospel. I think about this often, I said,
I'll say it publicly, I always say it, I like the words of William
Carey, when I die and Brother Greg preaches my funeral, don't
tell him about Michael Etheridge, you tell him about Michael Etheridge
as God. And I thought this is one of
the things that, not particularly this one, but I would want my
loved ones to hear, and they need to hear. So we'll begin
at verse 16. I know Brother Eric preached
on Wednesday night, but there's a couple things I'd like to point
out. I want you to think, when you
think about this, this is about, they talk about a rich man. And
in religion, it's all about material wealth. That's not our problem.
I mean, most of us, our problems are righteousness. we think we
are rich in our own self-righteousness. And that is what I want you to
think about when he is talking about riches. Ok. And behold, one came and said
unto him, Good Master, what good things shall I do? He is in trouble already isn't
he? I do. The Gospel is not what I do,
the Gospel is what Christ has done. That I may have eternal
life, And he said unto him, the Lord's gonna correct him. Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that is God. But if thou will enter into life,
keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. This sound
like we have, you ever had children? We have at ours, grandchildren.
I want you to clean the room. Then they wouldn't negotiate.
What part of the room do I have to clean? Do I have to clean
just the bed? That's what he's doing. He's
wanting to negotiate with God on his commandments, is what
he's doing here. Which, he says to the Lord, the Lord said, thou
shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father
and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And the young man saith unto him, All these things have I
kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? And this is what I'd want. This is what I want my lost loved
ones to hear, this next verse. And Jesus said to him, if thou
wilt be, you see that word right there? Perfect. You want to enter eternal life?
You have to be absolutely perfect. From when you drew your first
breath to when you drew your last breath. And if, I can tell
you, anyone has any honesty with themselves at all, they'll know
right now, Lord, I'm not perfect. And that's the only standard
he has. But it's a perfect standard.
You must be absolutely perfect when you stand before God But if you be perfect, go and
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. Get rid of your
self-righteousness. You have none. And when the among
men heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great
possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the
kingdom of heaven. And again, I say unto you, it
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Our problem is not material wealth.
Our problem is self-righteousness. And man will not let it go. God
has to humble him, break him, to see that he has no righteousness.
And the only hope we have There is but one that can say, yes,
I am perfect. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's that's the only hope we have in it. But thank God
it's a sure hope. May we go to the Lord in prayer? Or we come here this morning.
Knowing that you are present with us. Lord, we plead that you would
enable us this morning to worship you. And we know, Lord, that
we are not perfect, and we have no hope of standing before you
unless we are in Christ. He alone is perfect. Lord, I
pray that you would break us of these thoughts we have of
self-righteousness and crush them. and that by your spirit
today you would cause us to look to Christ as our only righteousness
and our only hope. We ask your blessing upon our
brother this morning and wherever your people gather, your gospel
preachers, Lord, that you would speak through them, speak to
their hearts and enable them to declare you and give them
peace and comfort in doing so. And oh Lord, we plead with you
that you would give us the ability to hear and the faith to believe.
If not, Lord, all is vain, and that all glory would go to you. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 352, Jesus, lover of my soul. Let's all stand
together. 352. Jesus lover of my soul, let me
to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is All my health from Thee I bring,
Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find, Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take a view. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Caleb Hickman
is going to bring special music now. On my grave, sovereign God, I
cast my soul and rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what he does is best. So be still, my heart. No doubt, no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Enraging 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 combined to make thee
blessed. My God with skill, infallible,
with 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 My life's most minute circumstance
is ordered by my God, who promised that in all things He will ever
do me good. So He's still my heart and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make me blessed. Thank you, Caleb. Will you open
your Bibles with me to the 10th chapter of Daniel, please? Daniel
chapter 10. I want you to please listen carefully
to this statement. everything that God requires
from me and you, he must provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is what he provides. Now that's just the truth of
this book. That's the truth of the gospel.
And Daniel's gonna learn that experience. Daniel is left after
the Lord speaks to him without strength, without strength. While we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. And the Lord touches Daniel and
strengthens him. Look at verse 16, and behold,
one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spake
and said unto him that stood before me, oh my Lord, by the
vision my sorrows are turned upon me and I have retained no
strength. I don't have any strength. And
how can the servant of this my Lord talk with this my Lord?
For as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither
is there breath left in me. Now Daniel is face to face with
the Lord Jesus Christ and he's saying, you've taken my breath
away, I can't breathe, I can't, I have no strength, I have no
ability to do anything. Verse 18, then there came again
and touched one like the appearance of a man and he strengthened
me. and said, oh man, greatly beloved,
fear not. Peace be unto thee, be strong,
yea, be strong. And when he's spoken unto me,
I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for thou hast
strengthened me. Now God's requiring Daniel to
be strong. But Daniel has no ability in
and of himself to be strong. And so the Lord has to provide
what the Lord requires. And that's the case all the time,
all the time. Then said he in verse 20, knowest
thou wherefore I come unto thee? Daniel, do you understand why
I'm here? And now, while I return to fight with
the Prince of Persia, and when I am gone forth, lo, the Prince
of Gratia shall come, verse 21, and I will show thee that which
is noted in the scriptures of truth. If God doesn't show us
what's written in the scriptures, we have no other way of learning
it. Man cannot teach you what God has to say. God has to teach
us. If we're going to have ears to
hear, the Lord's going to have to give us ears to hear. If we're
going to have hearts to believe, the Lord has to give us hearts
to believe. What God requires, God must provide. And the Lord saying to Daniel
right here, Daniel, I'm going to show you what the mystery
of the scriptures are. The Pharisees were great students
of the Bible and the Lord rebuked them when he said, you search
the scriptures. You search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life, but these are they which
testify of me. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me, for I have come to do thy will, O God. This
book is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and unless he's
pleased to reveal himself, we'll never understand it. I met a
man in seminary one time who had the entire Old Testament
committed to memory in Hebrew. And he was absolutely clueless
as to the gospel. There's a man on television today.
His name is Jack Van Impey. They call him the walking Bible.
He's committed the entire Bible to memory. And he's clueless
when it comes to the gospel. He has no idea what the Bible
means. He's interpreted all that he's memorized As to the second
coming of Christ, he thinks he's got all figured out. He doesn't
have anything figured out, doesn't know anything. Memorizing the
scriptures, learning theology, learning doctrine, reading the
Puritans, having historical understanding of things is no value, is of
no value. The Lord said, they shall be
all taught of God. If the Lord doesn't teach us,
we won't be taught. And when he does teach us, no
one can unteach us. So the Lord said to Daniel, Daniel,
do you know why I've come to you? I've come to you in order
to reveal to you the mystery of the scriptures. I've come
to you to show you how completely dependent you are on me for everything. And here's the message for you
and I this morning, brethren. Everything that God requires
of you and me, God must provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he provides. The disciples didn't understand
the scriptures until the Lord broke bread and opened up their
eyes. You remember in Luke chapter
24, when the Lord's walking with those disciples after the resurrection
on the way to Emmaus, and their eyes were whole and they didn't
know it was the Lord that was walking with them. And he began
to expound unto them the scriptures, those things concerning himself.
And they got to Emmaus and they invited the Lord to come in and
have a meal with them and he broke bread with them and in
the breaking of bread he opened their eyes and what did they
say? Oh did not our hearts burn within us as he spake with us
along the way He was revealing himself to us and we were blind,
we couldn't see. And then the Lord went and met
those disciples at the end of Luke 24. And the scripture says
he opened up their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. You and I have no ability to
understand the mystery of the gospel unless the Lord shows
us. all that God, and God does require
understanding, He commands us to understand, but we cannot
understand unless He reveals that to us. Everything that God
requires, God provides, and the only thing that God accepts is
that which He provides. God required a blood sacrifice
as a result of sin, The Lord said, in the day in which you
sin, you shall surely die. The wages of sin is death, and
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
And so all those Old Testament sacrifices that were made, starting
with that one in the garden, when God took that lamb and slew
that lamb and took the fleece of that lamb and clothed the
nakedness of Adam, all those sacrifices were a picture of
the spotless lamb. the land that was without spot,
what God required God had to provide. In Genesis chapter 22
when the Lord said to Abram, He said to Abram, take thy son,
thy only son, the son which thou lovest and take him to Mount
Moriah and make a burnt offering of him. And Abram took Isaac
up Mount Moriah And Isaac, on the way up the mountain, says
to his father, Father, here is the wood, and here is the fire. But where is the sacrifice for
the burnt offering? And what did Abram say to Isaac?
God will provide himself a sacrifice. And they got there, and Abram
took the wood and made an altar and laid Isaac on the altar.
And there's no language of Isaac resisting what his father's about
to do. And Abram takes a knife, and he's about to slay his son. And God speaks from heaven, stops
Abram, and Abram looks behind him. Yet the way it always is,
we have to look behind us, don't we? When the Lord, what did Abram
find behind him? He found a ram stuck in a thicket
by its horns. What a picture. Here's the lamb. By the strength of his horns,
he's stuck in a thicket. Here's a picture of Christ on
the cross, God providing himself a sacrifice. We have to look
behind us to find that sacrifice. We can't look in our lives. We
can't look as Jack Van Impey does to future events. We have
to look all the way back to Mount Calvary. And then we have to
look beyond that, all the way back to eternity past and see
that God had a lamb that was slain in the covenant of grace,
ordained of God to lay his life down for his sheep. God required
a blood sacrifice for our sins to be covered. and what God required,
God provided. And the only thing that God accepts
is what God provides. No amount of sacrifice. What
did David say in Psalm 51? He said, he said, if sacrifices
are what thou required, I would give them. I would give them
if offerings and sacrifices is what God required of me, I would
give them. And if any man was in a position
to make sacrifices and give offerings, King David was. But what does
David say in the next verse? But the sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart that he will not
despise. Why will not God despise a broken
spirit, a broken and contrite heart? because he has to do it. Everything that God requires,
God provides, and the only thing God accepts is what he provides.
David was broken over the fact that there's nothing I can do
to redeem myself. There's nothing I can do to offer
God to make up for my sins. There's nothing I can do to atone
for my... If sacrifices and offerings is what God required, I would
make them. I'd make as many as I could. But what God requires
is what God has to do. He has to do it in the heart.
He has to break me of all my self-righteousness. He has to
break me of all of my ability. He has to make me completely
dependent upon that which He offered. God will provide Himself
a sacrifice. There's three things being said
in that statement. God will do the providing, God's gonna provide
himself, and God's gonna provide the sacrifice to himself. When
the Lord Jesus Christ as God hung on Calvary's cross, he wasn't
making an offering to me and you. He wasn't sacrificing his
life to us. He was making a blood offering
to the Father. And what God required, God provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he provides. No amount of sacrifice, no amount
of offering. When those self-righteous stand
before God, the goats, what are they going to say? But Lord,
we cast out demons in thy name. We've done many wonderful works
in thy name. Lord, take into consideration
all that we've done. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. What did Abraham in Genesis chapter
22 call Mount Moriah after that experience that he had? He took
the ram out of the thicket and he sacrificed that ram and he
called the place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord shall provide. God is requiring Daniel to be
strong and Daniel's without breath. He's without breath. He's had
the breath You ever had breath knocked out? That was the one
thing I hated playing football because I have breath knocked
out of me every time. It's a horrible experience. You
feel like you're going to die there for about four or five
seconds, don't you? And that's where Daniel was. He had his
breath knocked out of him. He couldn't breathe. And God
says, Daniel, be strong. How am I going to be strong?
I've got no strength left in me. And that's why Paul said,
when I am weak, then I am strong, for his strength is made perfect
in my weakness. What God demands, what God requires,
God must provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he provides. God requires a sacrifice, and
God provided that sacrifice. God requires a perfect righteousness.
Men go about trying to establish their own righteousness, ignorant
of the righteousness of God. They go about trying to present
to God something that they think will satisfy the demands of God's
holy law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I cannot tell
you how many times I've talked to people and said, well, you
know, I'm doing my best. I'm doing my best. Well, that's
a good thing. We should do our best as often
as we can. And you know, as a preacher, I have the experience. I'm sure
you have it also when people want to impress you with their
spirituality. I have it. I had it this week,
just a couple days ago. Ran to some friends, and they're
good folks. They're good people. They spent
20 minutes telling me about all that they were doing for my neighbor. And I'm glad they're doing it.
That means I don't have to do it. But what they were saying to
me is, aren't you impressed? And I was. I was impressed. And I was thankful they were
doing it. But I wanted to say to them,
just because you've impressed me doesn't mean I'm not the one
you have to impress. I'm not the one you have to impress. God's only impressed with one
thing. He's only impressed with one person. God requires not that we do our
best. God requires absolutely perfect
righteousness. And we have none. But here's
the message. You know, I can remember when
I first heard about Calvinism. You know, total depravity, okay,
that means that man is spiritually dead, unable to do anything. And yet, we're called on to believe
and so how can a dead man believe? And we held God in contempt and
charged God of wrongdoing thinking this isn't fair. This isn't fair. How could God require something
that we're unable to do? Well, here's the message of the
gospel. Here's the mystery of the scriptures. This is what's
noted in the truth. Everything that God requires,
God provides. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which He provides. So, yes, He requires us to believe. He requires a perfect righteousness. He requires a blood sacrifice. He requires perfect faith, perfect
faith. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3, verse 19, now we know that what things soever the law
saith that saith to them that are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. The purpose of God's law was never to save anybody. The
purpose of the law was to make us guilty, show us our inability
to keep it, to make sin utterly sinful. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by
the law is the knowledge of sin but now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets so the purpose of the law is to be a witness of
that which is perfect the Lord Jesus Christ the righteousness
of God Romans chapter 10 Men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteous for
even, look at verse 22, for even the righteousness of God, which
is by faith of Jesus Christ. Our faith is so fraught with
unbelief, isn't it? Every child of God knows, can
sympathize with that man whose child was dying and the Lord
said to him, and he said, Oh Lord. Now remember
he brought his son to the disciples. They couldn't heal him. And then he brings him to the
Lord and he says to the Lord, If thou canst do anything, have
compassion on us and heal my son. And what did the Lord say
to him? If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to them that believeth. And what did the man say? Oh
Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I'm
so full of unbelief. God requires perfect faith. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
one that believed God with all of his heart and all of his mind
and all of his soul all of the time. What God requires, God
must provide. And the only thing God accepts
is that which he provides. God requires perfect love. When
those Pharisees asked the Lord, what is the greatest of the commandments?
When the Lord asked him, what's the greatest of the commandments?
love the Lord thy God with all of your heart, all of your mind,
and all of your soul. Who's measured up to that law? That's God's
requirement. God requires us to love him with
all of our hearts, all of our minds, and all of our souls all
of the time. What God requires God must provide, and he has. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he has provided. Daniel is called on by God to
be strong, and never has he been weaker in his life. Finally,
my brethren, Hebrews, Ephesians chapter six, verse 10, finally,
my brethren, be strong. That's a command. in the Lord
and in the power of His might. Lord, I can't be strong unless
you place me in Christ and give me His grace. Haggai 2, verse
4 says, be strong all ye people of the Lord, saith the Lord,
and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. I am
with you. There's our hope. Be strong. in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. Fear not, Abram, for I am thy
shield and thine exceeding great reward. God calls on us to believe. When he calls on us to be strong,
he provides everything necessary to that end. What God requires
of you and me God must provide. Repentance. God commands repentance. The very first words recorded
in the scriptures after the Lord Jesus Christ read that passage
in Nazareth He came back out of the wilderness. He began to
preach. And the very first line of the first message that the
Lord Jesus Christ preached in his public ministry was, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. God requires repentance. He requires us to have a changed
mind. Men think, okay, I'll repent,
I'll stop doing this and I'll stop doing that, and God will
be pleased with me because I've repented. I've changed my ways. I've turned over a new leaf.
God's not pleased with that. The word repentance here means
to have a changed mind. It means to think completely
different about who God is, about who you are, and about how it
is that God remits sin. How are we going to think differently
only if God gives us a new mind? Repentance is a work of grace.
The Lord said in Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 14, verse 14, turn, oh,
you backsliding children, saith the Lord. Repent. And then the prophet says, turn
me, oh Lord. and I shall be turned. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord? But we have the mind of Christ. In the new birth, God gives you
a new mind. He causes you to believe for
the first time in your life that you have absolutely no righteousness
in and of yourself. He makes you to be a sinner.
He causes you to know that the only hope of your salvation is
in what He has done. And He causes you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of remittance of our
sins. Mark the perfect man, behold
the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Philippians chapter 3 verse 20,
our conversation is in the heavens. From whence also we look. From whence also we look. If
we're going to look on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's going to have
to come from heaven. The Lord's going to have to give
us eyes to see. He's going to have to give us
ears to hear. He's going to have to give us hearts to believe. All
that God commands and all that God requires, God provides. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he provides. Mark chapter 8, when the Lord
healed that man that was blind, he put spittle on his eyes and
he had him look and he looked up and he saw men as trees walking
and the Lord took his head in his hands and turned him to look
straight at the Lord Jesus Christ and he said, do you see now?
He made him, the scriptures say, look up. And when he looked up,
he saw all men clearly. If we're gonna see, God's gonna
have to give us eyes to see. Oh, you remember the story of
Bartimaeus in Mark chapter 10, when he kept crying, son of David,
have mercy upon me. And what did his friend say,
Bartimaeus? Just shut up, be quiet. You're embarrassing yourself
and everybody else. And Bartimaeus cried all the louder. And finally,
the scripture says, the Lord stood still. Now that's what
you and I need for him to do for us, don't we? We need him
to stand still. And they said to Bartimaeus, be of good cheer,
Bartimaeus, he calleth thee. And when Bartimaeus went to the
Lord, what did the Lord say? Bartimaeus, what would you have
me do for you? Oh Lord, that I might see. And
the Lord healed him. And from that day forward, Bartimaeus
followed after Christ. What God requires, God must provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he provides. God requires us to understand
the gospel. John 8, Mark 7, verse 14, hearken every one of thee to
me and understand. Hearken to me and understand.
And then in John 8, 43, he said, why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. Then opened he
their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
What God requires, God must provide in everything, in everything. Where is boasting? What do you
have that you've not received? Who gets all the glory? Who gets
all the glory? He gets it all, doesn't he? Lord,
what have I done? What have I done? Nothing. How many times the Lord commands
in the imperative, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. Believe. That's what he told
Jairus. They came to Jairus and said,
bother the master no more, your daughter's dead. And I'm sure
that Jairus has fell to his knees and the Lord looked at him in
compassion and said, Jairus, don't be afraid, only believe. only but God commands you and
I to believe. And yet the scripture says, for
by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Without faith it's impossible
to please God, for they that come unto him must believe that
he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Lord, how am I going to believe if you don't give me faith? What
God requires, God provides. And the only thing God accepts,
the only thing God accepts is that which He provides. The spirit and the bride say,
come. God commands us to come. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Learn of me. If any man thirst, let him come
and then the Lord said no man can come unto me unless the father
which sent me draw him so what the Lord commands God has to
provide you can't come to Christ without the Lord you can't believe
you can't see I was thinking about those children of Israel
in the wilderness when the Lord told Moses to make a serpent
and put it on a pole and raise it up and anyone that looked
at that serpent would live. Now the children of Israel, God
sends fiery serpents into the camp of Israel and these venomous
snakes are biting people and people are dying. It was a real
problem. Now who do you suppose the first
person was to get bit by a snake? There's a million folks in this
camp. You know that there's some blind people in there. The blind
guy is going to be the first guy to get bit by a snake, right?
I mean, he can't see the snake. And yet God says to the blind
man, look and you'll live. Are you saying that we're blind?
Isn't that what the Pharisees said? What did the Lord say?
If you were blind, then you could see. But because you can say,
because you say you can see, therefore your sins remain. See, we've got, we can see, we
understand, we've got it figured out, we know. And what's the
child of God say, Lord, if you don't give me eyes to see, I
won't be able to see anything. If you don't open the mystery
of the scriptures to me, I won't see anything. If you don't cause
me to see what's noted in the scriptures of truth, I won't
know anything. I won't have any understanding.
If you don't provide a blood sacrifice for me, I can't make
enough sacrifices to atone for my sins. If you don't give me
faith, I won't believe. What God requires, God must provide. And the only thing God accepts
is that which he provides. And so we say to God be all the
glory for all things. God requires perfect obedience,
perfect righteousness, perfect faith, perfect love. He provided
all of that in the Lord Jesus Christ. He provides us to come. He requires us to come. What about that crippled man
begging for alms at the gate called Beautiful? He wasn't able
to go in and worship God because he was unclean. He was unfit
for worship because of his physical condition. And so he's sitting
at the gate of heaven wanting to go in, but he can't. And Peter
and John come by and he's begging for alms. And Peter looks at
him and he says, silver and gold have we none, but such as we
have, we give unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ,
stand. and walk. He's commanding the
impossible. And the scripture says he leaped
to his feet. God told Daniel, you're out of
breath, you have no strength, you have no ability. Daniel said,
now that you've given it to me, I have it. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
2. Philippians chapter 2. We read some of this earlier. Read down to verse 11. I want
to pick up at verse 12 because God calls on us to obey Him. He does. He calls on us to obey
Him. How can we do what God requires
only if He makes us able? Only if He makes us able. Whatever resisting of the devil,
whatever walk of faith, whatever obedience to the Lord, whatever
ability to prayer, whatever... God gave it to me. God gave it
to me. He gets all the glory. after the Lord describes himself
here by saying that he made of himself no reputation, became
a servant, that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.
Now look at verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. Okay, God's require, that's God's
require. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Obey
what God has declared. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Lord, you've
called on me to resist sin. You've called on me to believe
you. You've called on me to walk after Christ. Lord, you're gonna
have to work in me and cause me. For that to be worked out,
you've got to work something in. You've got to work something
in. What God requires, God must provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which He provides. God requires us to esteem others
more highly than ourselves. God's going to have to make me
a sinner before I can do that. God requires me to love my enemies.
God's going to have to show me how much He's loved me before
I'm going to be able to love my enemies. God requires me to forgive. I'm
going to have to be forgiven before I can forgive. God requires me to believe. He's
going to have to give me faith. God requires me to understand.
He requires me to seek. He requires me to come. What
God requires, what God requires, God must provide. And the only thing that God accepts
is that which he has provided. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly father,
we ask that you'd be gracious and merciful to us, providing
that which we are unable to provide for ourselves. that we might
give to thee all the glory. For it's in Christ's name we
ask it. Amen. Brother Tom. Number 34. Let's stand together. 34. it is finished sinners hear it
hear the dying saviors cry hear the lord himself declare it justice
has been satisfied It is finished, go proclaim it,
To poor sinners far and wide. Holy Spirit, make them hear it,
Jesus Christ, for sinners died. It is finished, all is over. Jesus drank, damnation dry. What a Savior, what a Savior! See Him now, exalted high. Hit His finished look, behold
Him, Seated at His Father's side. Yonder on the throne, behold
Him, Christ our Substitute who died. It is finished, hear him
pleading, As our advocate on high. His own blood, great merit
pleading, Pleading justice satisfied. It is finished, can you hear
Him? All the work is fully done. Now believing, looking to Him,
we are saved by God's own Son. All right, we're going to enjoy
some time together. If you didn't come prepared,
don't worry about it. We've never run out of food. So please stay
and enjoy the time together. Logan and Emily have set up tents
outside, and we've got inside here as well. So let the folks
that are going to set up the food, give them a few minutes
to do that. Keep the pathway along the back there open so
that they can get from the kitchen to outside. And when it looks
like it's ready, just go get some food, OK? Logan, would you
pray for us, please? Lord, we thank you for drawing
us here today, and you that caused us to be here. We ask that you
be with us now, and bless our time together, our culture, and
our conversations be about you, Lord. We ask you to sing this
communion.