We've got more special music
and baptism and the Lord's table, so we'll go ahead and get started. Tom's gonna come in just a moment
and lead us in number 145. If you'd like to open your hymnal
to that hymn. Hail, thou once despised Jesus. Hail, thou Galilean king, thou
didst suffer to release us. Thou didst free salvation bring. He did it all, didn't he? And
he did it all by himself. Oh, what a blessing. Salvation
is of the Lord. Let's stand together. Brother
Tom, you come please. 145. you. Hail Thou once despised Jesus,
Hail Thou Galilean King! Thou didst suffer to release
us, Thou didst free salvation bring. Hail thou agonizing Savior,
bearer of our sin and shame. By thy merits we find favor. Life is given through thy name. Paschal Lamb, thy God appointed,
all our sins on thee were laid. By almighty love anointed, thou
hast full atonement made. All thy people are forgiven,
through the virtue of thy blood. Opened is the gate of heaven,
peace is made with man and God. Jesus, hail, enthroned in glory,
there forever to abide. All the heavenly hosts adore
thee, seated at thy Father's side. Therefore, sinners thou
art pleading, there thou dost our place prepare, ever for us
interceding, till in glory we appear. Worship, honor, power,
and blessing, thou art worthy to receive. Loudest praises without ceasing,
meet it is for us to give. Help me, bright angelic spirits,
bring your sweetest, noblest lays. Help to sing our Savior's
merits. Help to chant Emmanuel's praise. Please be seated. Couple of announcements we will
not have our regular Wednesday night service this week so You
all enjoy your fireworks wherever you're gonna be But we won't
be doing that Excuse me I'm always very hesitant to make
any announcements because I with social media like it is, every
time I tell somebody, oh, we already knew that, it's out,
you know. But Savannah gave birth to Oliver this week, and he is
home doing well, and his grandparents and great-grandparents are here
with us this morning, and we're very thankful. I asked Robert
if he would allow me to read scripture this morning. Normally,
he does it on the first Sunday of the month, and of course,
was happy to do that. But I had a purpose. Will you
open your Bibles with me to Proverbs chapter 1? Proverbs chapter 1. As I'm sure you know, there are
31 Proverbs. And I wanted to encourage each
one of us this month to commit ourselves to read a proverb a
day. just make it first thing you
do in the morning proper one is one of the longest of all
of the proverbs so type just a few minutes but uh... i just think that it would be
a great encouragement to all of us to be reading the same
scriptures and these scriptures are so are so wonderful and uh... what i want to say in preparation
for reading number one is that The scripture says that God's
word is exceedingly broad. And by that it means that it
has different layers of meaning. And it doesn't mean that the
lower levels of understanding are irrelevant. It just means that there's deeper
meanings that can only be understood in light of the gospel. Now I
say that in order to say that an unbeliever can read the book
of Proverbs and see the admonitions that the Lord gives to all men
to do what's right. And those things are true. They're
true. And the believer hears them and rejoices with an amen. Yes, Lord, give me the grace
to do that. But only the believer is able
to understand the higher levels of God's word as they relate
to the gospel. So I want to encourage you as
you read the Proverbs this month to have an eye towards Christ. Understand that these things
are yes, they're very practical. They're very true and they ought
to be they ought to be bowed to But there's a there's a revelation
of the gospel and of the Lord Jesus Christ in these Proverbs
that's that that's glorious and so I hope that I know many of
you already have a Something you do for your own personal
devotion, but We could all do it as a church, just read one
proverb a day for the next month, and maybe we'll do it again next
month. I think it'll be a blessing to us all together. The Proverbs
of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ in the
Proverbs is wisdom personified. To know wisdom is to know Christ.
Instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive
the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity. All the justice of God was satisfied
in Christ. All judgment was exercised when
God put to death his own dear son on Calvary's cross and equity. You know the other word in the
scriptures that describes our attempts to try to earn favor
with God by our own righteousness is referred to as inequity, unequal. And so what is equity? What is
equity? Equity is the righteousness of
God and the Lord Jesus Christ that satisfies the demands of
God's holy law. Okay. I'm not going to make any
more comments. We're going to read it, but I
want to just see how these proverbs. Yes. Oh Lord, instruct me, teach
me, give me wisdom. Let me do what's right, but have
an eye to Christ as you read these and the Lord will show
you the glory of him. who himself is our life and our
strength. To give subtlety to the simple,
to the young man knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear
and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall
attain unto wise counsel. To understand a proverb and the
interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings,
Now the word dark here is not used as evil, the word dark here
is used as hidden. So there's something hidden in
these proverbs. There's something much greater even than the application
that they have for our behavior. They reveal to us the gospel. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son,
hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy
mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head
and chains upon thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee,
consent thou not. If they say, come with us and
let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privately for the innocent
without cause, Now of course that's true if a person's trying
to entice you to do something that's wrong, but the gospel's
seen here with your religious friends and family members are
trying to get you to compromise the gospel with them, isn't it? Let us swallow them up alive
as the grave and whole as those that go down into the pit. We
shall find all precious substance and we shall fill our houses
with spoil. Oh, man-made religion is all
about what he can attain for spoil. Cast in thy lot among
us and let us have one purse. My son, walk not in the way with
them. Refrain thy foot from their path,
for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood. Surely
in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they
lay wait for their own blood. They lurk privately for their
own lives. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain,
which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. We're content with Christ. But
the religious man is always trying to gain something else, isn't
he? Add to the work of Christ. Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth
her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place
of concourse in the openings of the gates, in the city she
uttereth her words saying, how long ye simple ones, will you
love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their
scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn you to my reproof, behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words
unto you. Oh Lord, make known unto us the
meaning of the Proverbs. Because I have called and you
refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded,
but you have said it not, all my counsel and would not have
any of my reproach. I will also laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear cometh." Now this is a judgment against
the unbeliever. When the Lord comes and separates
the sheep from the goats, he said in the Psalms, he said,
I'll laugh at them, hold them to scorn. When your fear cometh as a desolation
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer. They will seek me early, but
they shall not find me. It will be too late in that day
of judgment to find grace and mercy. Call upon him while he may be
found. When can he be found? Right now.
Right now. for that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of
my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity
of fools shall destroy them. But who so hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely and shall be quiet. from evil or from fear
of evil. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we ask that your Holy Spirit would quiet our hearts, that
you would take away the fears that we experience, and that,
Lord, you would cause us to have a reverence, a fear of thee,
worship or cause us to bow and to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. O Lamb of God, still keep me
near to thy wounded side. Tis only there in safety and
peace I can abide. What foes and snares surround
me? What lusts and fears within? The grace that sought and found
me alone can keep me clean. "'Tis only in thee, hiding, I
know my life secure. Only in thee, abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thine arm the victory gaineth
For every hurtful foe, Thy love my heart sustaineth In all its
care and woe. Soon shall my eyes behold thee
with rapture face to face. The half hath not been told me
of all thy power and grace. Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
the wonders of thy love, shall be the endless story of all thy
saints above. Please be seated. Caleb. Bethlehem, Calvary, all of it
tells. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Mountains and plains with His
praises shall swell. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Unto the uttermost. ? Wonderful,
glorious ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? ? There on the cross where He stood
as my stead ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? Securing salvation when he rose
from the dead. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. ? Come to the uttermost ? Wonderful,
glorious ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? It is finished ? The battle is
over ? It is finished no more war. It is finished, the end
of the conflict. It is finished, and Jesus is
Lord. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a
Savior. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Unto the uttermost, wonderful,
glorious. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, wow. Thank you, Caleb. Caleb's mom and dad are here
with us and his sister. I assume that's your sister,
is that right? Yeah, okay. We're happy to have you all.
Your son's a blessing to us. He really is. Will you open your
Bibles with me to Mark chapter nine? Mark chapter nine. The Lord said to the unbelieving Pharisees,
you thought that I was altogether as unto thyself. Actually, that
was David. I think he said that in Psalms.
The Lord corrected the Pharisees too, didn't he? The Lord said, you honor me with
your lips, but your hearts are far from me. And from what I can see in my
own experience and in the world in which you and I live, is that
men in essence deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll say he's God, they'll
call him Lord, but then they will make him dependent upon
man for him to be able to do what he wants to do. God loves
everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
won't save everybody. But bless his heart. Bless his
heart. His hands are tied. He just can't
get it done unless you do your part. That is a denial of the
Lord Jesus Christ being God. God. Now the disciples knew by the
Lord's works and by his confession who he was. And yet they never experienced
a more clearer revelation of his deity than what is recorded
here in Mark chapter 9. In all of his healings, in all
of his miracles, in all the things that he said, there was no more
clearer revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ being God than what
we have here. And my prayer this morning is
that the Lord will enable us to bow. If we ever see Him as
God, we'll just bow to Him. We'll worship Him. We'll believe
Him. We'll submit to Him. This is
the story of the transfiguration The word transfigure, you know,
is the word metamorphosis. That's the exact word right here
in our text. Meta means change and morph means
form and the form of the Lord Jesus Christ changed right before
the disciples' eyes. The veil of his humanity was
taken away and the brilliance of his deity and the voice of
God that spoke and they fell at his feet and worshiped him. But because of fear and because
of ignorance, Peter said some things that we can learn from. You know, we learn from our own
mistakes probably more than we learn from good things, don't
we? And here we can learn from Peter's
mistakes on how it is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ Notice
in verse two of Mark chapter nine, and after six days, Jesus
taketh with him Peter and James and John and leadeth them into
a high mountain apart by themselves. Oh, that's my prayer this morning
for each one of us, that the Lord would take us by the hand
and lead us to a high mountain by ourselves. If he does that,
Each of us will be completely oblivious to anybody else. And He was transfigured before
them. Oh Lord. Whatever. We all have a tendency to caricature
God. You've seen these pictures where
a particular aspect of God's of a man's anatomy is accentuated. And you can look at it and say,
well, I know who that is. But it's a caricature, isn't
it? And if we're not careful, we'll do that with God. And unless he transfigures himself
and makes us to see the glory of his deity, we'll err even
as Peter erred. Even as Peter erred. and his
raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller,
that's a person who cleans clothes, no filler on earth can white
them. And there appeared unto them
Elias, that's Elijah, and Moses. And they were talking with Jesus.
Now Luke tells us in Luke chapter 9 exactly what they were talking
about. Luke tells us that the Lord spoke
with Elijah and Moses of His decease that should be accomplished. Now, when was the last time you
thought of a decease being an accomplishment? Well, that's
exactly what it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. He accomplished
the salvation of His people. It's finished. It's finished. Oh, comfort ye, comfort ye my
people. Speak ye comfortably unto them and tell them their
warfare is accomplished. Their sin and iniquity is taken
away. The Lord Jesus Christ now on
this Mount of Transfiguration is conversing with Elijah who
symbolizes all the prophets of the Old Testament and Moses who
symbolizes all the law of the Old Testament of those things
which he should accomplish in his decease." Now what is it
that he accomplished in his decease? How is it that he was able to
accomplish the salvation of his people? Well, all the prophecies
were about him and all the law pointed to him. Verse 5, And Peter answered and
said to Jesus, master now all times for Peter to not call the
Lord Jesus Christ rabbi that's what it means here teacher this
is the same title that Nicodemus gave to the Lord remember when
Nicodemus came to the Lord by night which symbolizes Nicodemus
his own spiritual darkness and he said he said rabbi we know
that our son of God for no man can do the things that thou doest
except God be with him Oh no, no Nicodemus, no Peter. I am
God. I am God. Call me Rabbi. Call me Lord. Bow. Worship. Master, it is good for us to
be here and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee and
one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he wist not what to say,
for they were so afraid. Now this is one of those examples
where it's best to keep your mouth shut and let people think
you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. But that's
exactly what Peter did, didn't he? He opened his mouth and he
removed all doubt. He didn't have an idea what he
was talking about. He was afraid. A good lesson
to be learned here, isn't it? When you're afraid, the best
thing to do is not say anything. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my
beloved son. Hear him. Hear him. Hear him with a listening ear.
I've mentioned this I know many, many times, but the most often
passage of scripture from the Old Testament quoted in the New
is they will have ears, but they will not hear. Eyes they will
have, but they will not see from Isaiah chapter 6. And how true
that is. Lord, if you don't, the seeing
eye and the hearing ear, they're a gift of God and Lord, if you
don't open the eyes of my understanding, I won't see and I won't hear.
I'll think I hear. I'll think I hear. Well, those
self-righteous Pharisees, they said, are you suggesting that
we're blind? And what did the Lord say? If
you were blind, then you could see. What's that mean? But because you say you can see,
therefore your sins remain. Lord, if you don't give me eyes
to see, I won't be able to see. I won't be able to see. But men
think they see when they can't see. Men think they hear when
they can't hear. And in essence, they turned right
around and denied the very deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8, and suddenly when they
had looked around about, they saw no man anymore save Jesus
only. They didn't see Elijah anymore.
They didn't see Moses anymore. They saw Jesus only. Now they're beginning to enter
in to worship. When we see Jesus only, that
he only all by himself did everything necessary for our righteousness,
for our justification, for our redemption. that He Himself is the brightness
of the glory of God. He's the express image of His
person. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. He's God. He's the fullness,
the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you who are in Him are complete
in Him. You're complete. He's the second person of the
triune God. He is the glorious, infinite
I Am, the self-existent One, the creator and sustainer of
all things. When we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
we bow to Him, we worship Him. We submit to his authority and
we plead for his mercy and for his grace, knowing that he has
the right. I had a man one time tell me,
well, my father wasn't like that. Well, your father wasn't God.
Your father wasn't God. Your father couldn't save you.
And your father wasn't able, well, didn't have the authority
to cast your body and soul into hell. This is God we're talking
about. He's the Holy One of Israel. He's the one that Isaiah saw
in Isaiah chapter 6 with the seraphim hovering over the throne
of God with six wings and with two they did fly in constant
service to Him. With two they did cover their
feet, hiding their creatureness. And with two they did cover their
eyes, the glory of His grace. was such that they could not
look at no man. And would they cry, holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of hosts. Oh, he's not like us at all.
He's not anything like us. He's not like us in thought.
He's not like, my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are
not your ways. We think of the Lord Jesus Christ
as being perfect in his behavior and he was, he was. But he goes a lot deeper than
that. He's perfect in his thoughts. Man looks at the outward appearance.
God's looking at the thoughts and the intents of the heart.
And I'll tell you another place where it says only Genesis chapter
6 verse 5, when God looked down from heaven He saw that the wickedness
of man was great upon the earth and that every imagination of
his thoughts of his heart were only evil and that continually. Does that mean that we walk around
with these awful thoughts all the time? No, we haven't. It
means that you take your best thought, man at his very best
state is altogether vanity. You take the best thought you've
ever had And compared to his thoughts, God says they're evil. That's what Paul was talking
about in Romans chapter 7 when he says, The will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. I'm
not capable of being holy. I'm not capable of having holy.
I want to see him as he is. I want to be made like him. I
want to get rid of this vanity of vanities and all this flesh
and everything that keeps me from being holy. I've never had
a holy thought. And that's all he ever had, all
the time. Why? Because he's God. And the
Psalms give us some window into what he was thinking about. All
the time, every conscious moment of his life, he was in perfect
fellowship with the Father. That was the agony of the cross,
wasn't it? Oh my God, my God, wast thou
forsaken me? For all eternity we've had perfect
fellowship, holy thoughts, holy relationship, and now the sky
is blackened and the substitute has become sin and God is forced
by His very nature to turn His back on His only Son. Now God's given us a peek into
His deity. only Jesus there's only one God
John chapter 17 verse 3 and this is life eternal that they might
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent
no other name has been given among men whereby we must be
saved I am the way the truth and the life no man can come
to the father but by me We have to have a sinless substitute,
don't we? We have to have a Savior who's able to save. All the gods
of this world can't save you. Say, what are you talking about
the gods of this world? I'm talking about the god of
man's imagination because that's all they are. The gods of this
world don't really exist. They're figments of man's imagination.
They think they exist. And so they've imagined a God
who has abdicated his sovereign authority to man's free will.
That God doesn't exist. Or a God who is waiting for us
to do something in order for him to have favor on us. That
God doesn't exist. A God that loves everybody and
is trying to get everybody saved, that God doesn't exist except
in the imagination of man. Here's the God. Here's the God,
the radiance of His glory shines forth, and they saw none but
Jesus only. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse
17, God said, Paul wrote, he concludes his first chapter like
this, now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God. be unto him glory forever and
ever. He's the king. He's immortal. He's invisible. He's the only
wise God. And if he doesn't take us up
on a high mountain, we'll make him to be like ourselves. We'll
see nothing but his humanity and we'll not see his deity unless
he unveils, transforms himself. metamorphoses himself in our
very presence and reveals the glory of his grace, his power,
his sovereignty? Only. In Matthew chapter 8, there was
a centurion, a Roman soldier, who had a servant. And he brings
his servant, or he comes to Christ, pleading with the Lord to heal
his servant. And the Lord says to him, I'll
go with you. And the centurion says, oh no,
Lord. Lord, I'm not worthy. I'm not
worthy that thou should come unto my roof. Only speak the
word and my servant shall be healed. That's all you have to
do. I'm a man under authority. I
know what authority means. I say unto my servants, you go
and they go. And I'm told to come and I come. And I know that you have all
authority and all you have to do is speak the word. Speak the
word only. That's God. Let there be light. He spoke and it was. Lord, speak to me. Speak the
word of grace and mercy and salvation to my heart. Lord, if you don't
speak to me, you're gonna lead me to myself. And what'd the Lord say about
that centurion? I've not found such great faith, no, not in
all of Israel. That's faith, isn't it? Just
saying, Lord, all you've got to do is speak it. All you have
to do is speak it. Luke chapter 8, there's a man
by the name of Jairus who had a 12-year-old daughter who was
on her deathbed and Jairus went to the Lord to beg him to come
and heal his daughter. and the Lord agreed to go. And
on the way back to Jairus's house is the story of the woman with
the issue of blood. And that was a divine interruption,
wasn't it? And it was all for Jairus. It
was for that woman with the issue of blood, but it was for Jairus
because by the time the Lord finished dealing with the woman
with the issue of blood, the servants from Jairus's house
came and said, Bob, the master no more. His daughter's dead.
She died. He didn't get there in time. Oh, I can just imagine Jairus's
his knees collapsed, he probably fell to the ground, I'm sure,
I'm sure he did. The Lord reached down and said
to Jairus, be not afraid, only believe, only believe. That's it, nothing else. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rest all the hope of your salvation on him alone. Now, what is it that he accomplished
as God on Calvary's cross? What is it that he was discussing
with Elijah and Moses that would be accomplished at his decease? Turn with me to Acts chapter
28. And this is Paul's defense in
Rome. In verse 23, and when they had
appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning Jesus. Both out of the law of Moses
and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. Now, the
only text that the Lord Jesus Christ had to preach from was
the Old Testament. The only text that the apostles
had to preach from was the Old Testament. New Testament wasn't
written until they were all gone. I mean, it wasn't compiled. It
was written towards the end of their life. But hear the Lord
saying that Paul preached to them Christ out of the Old Testament. So everything that Elijah and
Moses represent, represent the Law and the Prophets from the
Old Testament. When the Lord revealed Himself after the resurrection
to the disciples, He expounded unto them those things concerning
Himself from Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets. So these Old
Testament texts were all for the purpose of pointing to the
Lord Jesus Christ, whether it be the Law or whether it be the
prophets, they were all designed to point us to Christ. You remember what Nathanael or
Philip said to Nathanael in John chapter one, he went to his brother
Nathanael said, we have found him whom Moses and the prophets
spake of. Jesus of Nazareth and what Nathaniel
say, what good can come out of Nazareth? And Philip said, come
and see, come and see, we found him. And when the Lord saw Philip,
he said, there's an Israelite indeed in whom there is no God.
How do you know me, Lord? I saw you when you were under
the fig tree. I'm God. I knew everything you prayed.
I'm here to answer that prayer. Everything in the law and the
prophets were fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter three, will you
turn with me there please? Romans chapter three. Verse 24,
verse 20. Therefore, By the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight for the law is the
knowledge of sin. The law exposes our sinfulness
for what it is. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the end of the law for righteousness. He satisfied the demands of God's
law not only in his life but in his very heart. Love the Lord
with all of his heart and all of his mind and all of his soul.
all the time, all the time. And that's what God required.
And that's what we see when we see the unveiling of his deity
shining forth and Peter coming to, when he finally come up out
of the dirt, he didn't see Elijah and Moses anymore, why? Because
the Lord fulfilled everything that Elijah and Moses were pointing
to. He was the purpose of Elijah
and Moses, the law and the prophets. They saw Jesus only, only. It's not the Lord Jesus Christ
plus your works. It's not the Lord Jesus Christ
plus your will. It's not the Lord Jesus Christ
plus anything. It's not the Lord Jesus Christ
plus your understanding of prophecy. or your keeping of the law, it's
Jesus only, only. Romans chapter 3 verse 21, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. There's Moses and
Elijah again. There's Moses and Elijah, law and the prophets.
The righteousness of God was witnessed by them When they pointed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, it was witnessed by them. Even the
righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be propitiation through faith
in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this
time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting? Where is boasting? That's what was happening on
the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah were there,
the law and the prophets. The Lord was conversing with
them about what would be accomplished at his decease. And what would
be accomplished at his decease was the fulfillment of all the
prophecies and all the laws which pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I conclude with this illustration. What is our relationship to the
law? Because David said, Lord, I love
thy law. I love thy law. And the scripture says that the
law of God is holy and just and good. You and I have never been able
to keep God's law. Not how God requires it. God
requires it to be kept from the heart. Does that mean that we
have an adversarial relationship with the law? That that means
that we can just do anything we want to do and live any way
We don't have an adversarial relationship with the law. The
law has been silenced. In the book of Galatians, the
law is referred to as a schoolmaster. Now, a schoolmaster was the most
trusted servant in a king's household or in a rich man's household.
He was the most loved, trusted servant. And the master, when
he began to have children, would take this schoolmaster. He did
more than just take the children to school. He enforced all the
rules of the household for the children. He woke them up in
the morning. He made sure they were dressed.
He made sure they were fed. They could never leave the house
without him. He got them to the rabbi. He
brought them home. He got them washed up, got them
to bed. The schoolmaster was responsible in a wealthy man's
home of taking care of the children. Now, if you grew up in that situation,
what kind of, the master gave the schoolmaster the household
rules and the schoolmaster was responsible to the master to
make sure the children kept the rules. Now, how often do you
think these children are trying to break the rules? The schoolmaster
is there to crack the whip, to keep them in line, lest he has
to answer to the master. for not disciplining the children
properly. What kind of relationship, you
suppose, after you got grown you would have with that schoolmaster?
Would you hate him? Would you hate him? Would you
have an adversarial relationship with him? You see, when that
child became a certain age, now he becomes joint heir of the
estate. Now the schoolmaster is his servant. Now he's not under the authority
of the schoolmaster anymore, anymore. The schoolmaster doesn't
tell him what to do. The schoolmaster doesn't threaten
him. The schoolmaster has brought
him, he's brought him up but now he's become of age. And he's
heir of the estate, he owns everything. And he's grateful. He's grateful
for the schoolmaster. He has a love for the schoolmaster,
doesn't he? David said, I love thy law. He's just not under the authority
of that schoolmaster anymore. He's grown into becoming heir
of the estate. Join heir with his father. Does he now just, all the things
he learned from his schoolmaster growing up, does he just say,
well, I don't have to do any of that anymore? No. The honor of the household
is still at stake, isn't it? The honor of the father is still
at stake. When the scripture says you're
not under the law, but you're under grace, that's what the
scripture is talking about. you're not under the authority
of the law anymore. You don't have to answer to the
law anymore. The law's been answered. The law's been satisfied. The
law's been fulfilled. Is lying and stealing and sexual
sins and all the things that the law speaks to are those that,
well, we can just indulge in those things now, can't we? No. Romans chapter 6, shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. But there's the analogy
that the scripture gives of the relationship that we have with
the law. There was a time when we were under that law. We were
under the authority of the law. The law had the authority of
the Father to whip us. Now, we're under grace. not under the law anymore. The law and the prophets have
all been fulfilled through the successful saving
work of the Son of God who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. What a savior, what a savior. Let's pray together. Our merciful
heavenly father, we're so very thankful for thy
dear son and for his accomplished work of redemption. Lord, we
pray that you'd be pleased now to bless Michael's profession
of faith, his baptism, Pray that you'd put your blessings on this
table and the wine and the bread as we receive it, and enable
us, Lord, through it all, through the preaching of your word, through
the singing, through the ordinances that you've ordained for your
church, to see Jesus. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. All right, Tom's going to come
lead us in the hymn. You know what, Tom? Michael's
ready. So let's go ahead and do the baptism and then we'll
sing the hymn before we have the Lord's table. Is that OK?
OK. Michael Bolton, not the singer,
that guy right there. we've known michael for several
years uh... been living in california and
uh... the lord led him to move here
about two or three weeks ago michael had talked to me over
the phone saying when i get to orlando i'd like for you to baptize
me and so what a joy it is to uh... baptize you brother we've
had some very sweet fellowship he and i have and i encourage
you all get to know him loves the gospel or it's giving him
some good understanding already in his in his walk so this very
very thankful thankful for you brother and for the confession
baptism is a public confession of an inward conversion it's
publicly identifying yourself with the death burial and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ When he died, I died. When he was
raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. His life is my
life. It's also a renouncing of all false religions. Most
of us, most of God's people, he takes through some form of
false religion before he shows them Christ. And I have people
say to me, well, you know, I was baptized in this church. Is it
a false church? Were they preaching? You weren't baptized. You weren't
baptized. You just got wet. So baptism,
true baptism is one, one baptism, one faith, one Lord, one gospel.
And Michael is confessing to you before God, his trust in
the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for the hope of his
salvation. And we rejoice in being able
to participate in his baptism, so. Order in Christ, in the name
of the Father. Men, if you'll come for the Lord's
table, just remain seated and we'll sing hymn number 17 from
your Spiral Gospel Hymn book, number 17. 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 our 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. The gospel is not complicated.
It's really not. Baptism is such a simple ordinance,
isn't it? Such a simple ordinance, following
Christ in baptism. Denying yourself, taking up your
cross, and following Him. And the Lord's table is very
simple. He said, this is my body which is given for you. This
bread is unleavened, representing the fact that there's no sin.
in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, unlike us. And he offered
it up, not to man, he offered his body up to the Father. And
the Father saw the travail of his soul and the Father was satisfied. When we take this bread, all
we're saying is that we're satisfied with what God's satisfied with.
Amen? Often as you do this, do it in
remembrance of me. It's only one way to have a sinner's
sins covered in the presence of God. Only one way. Can't make
up for your sin. Can't excuse it. You know, one
thing is true. When you become a sinner, you
own full responsibility for everything, don't you? You can't point your
finger to anybody else. Say, I'm the sinner. I'm responsible. Oh, but for that shed blood,
when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins, but oh, how precious
is that blood that covers our sins. And God says, here, I will
meet with you. As often as you do this, do it
in remembrance of me. Darryl, it's a great blessing
to have you and Joyce with us, and I'd like to ask you if you
would close our service in prayer, please. Darryl Hardman, let's
stand together.