One foundation, Jesus Christ
her Lord. Number 186, let's all stand together. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With His own blood He bought
her, and for her life He died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith,
one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food. and to one hope she presses with
every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed. and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. We'll begin in verse 25 of chapter
2. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Innocent. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said you shall not eat of
every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch
it lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband
with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we are thankful. we can come before thy throne
of grace in the name of thy dear son based
on his merit and because of his shed blood and know that our
sin has been put away and though lord we still find ourselves
subject to the deceits of satan We have an advocate and we plead
in his name that you would clothe us in that robe of righteousness,
that lamb's wool that you took from the one who was without
spot and without blemish and clothe us so that our nakedness
will be hid. Lord, we confess to you that,
like our parents, we find ourselves sowing together fig leaves. Lord,
what a shameful thing it is. We pray that you would speak
to our hearts tonight, and we pray that you would remind us
once again and reveal to us the accomplished work of thy dear
son. Cause us to find our rest and our hope in him. Lord, we pray for Robert and
we thank you for him. We ask, Lord, that you would
encourage him and that you would strengthen him. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. Robert and Deanna aren't
here tonight. Robert wasn't feeling well Sunday
and he's not feeling well now, so you all continue to pray for
Robert. Tom. Let's all stand together again.
Number eight from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book. Number
eight. Eight. O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire to lift up from this earthly mire. O may we thank God things
and know the joy thy presence brings. Lord let us see the Savior's
face and let us taste of thy sweet grace. May open ears thy glories here
and may we smell my fragrance near Be pleased to open heaven's
door, And on our heads thy blessings pour. All wretched, poor, and
needy we, Where can we go if not to thee? O may this day be blessed the
most that Jesus Christ becomes the host to feed our souls with
living bread and with our souls in joy to wed. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 52? Isaiah 52. Usually when we wake someone
up, we tell them to get up. It's time to go. Time to go to
work, time to go to school, time to get busy. The Lord in our
text says, wake up and sit down. And that's the title of this
message, Wake Up and Sit Down. We have a tendency to slumber,
don't we, spiritually. And the Lord, in His grace and
mercy, by His Holy Spirit, speaks through our hearts, by His Word,
and wakes us up and reminds us of our position in Christ. Look what he says in verse 3.
For thus saith the Lord, you have sold yourself for naught. You were the price that you paid
for sin. You were the currency. You sold
yourself for naught. You were sold a bill of goods.
You were made promises by Satan that he couldn't deliver and
you sold yourself. We did it in our father Adam
and we continue to do it. And the Lord by his spirit is
reminding us of the one who is able to give us that which we
sell ourselves for. Why do we why do we continue
to sin? Why do we believe the lies of
Satan? He's the liar and the father
of lies. He's he's been lying from the beginning. He continues
to do so doesn't he? He promises us things that he
cannot deliver And the Lord says you've sold yourself for naught And You shall be redeemed Without
money You're not gonna buy yourself back you're not gonna get yourself
out of this mess you're in You're gonna have to be redeemed and
your redemption is gonna come without money and without price
You're not gonna barter for it. You're not gonna bargain with
God. He's going to redeem you and You've been bought with the
price of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ So you're gonna
be redeemed without price. That's the promise. What a precious
promise we find ourselves Continuing to do what our father Adam did
didn't we don't we? Believing the lies and yet the
Lord in his mercy. What does he say awake? awake
He stirs us up You know, I was thinking if the people that invested
their life savings with Bernie Madoff knew that it was a Ponzi
scheme, they wouldn't have done it. And yet, what they lost is
much less than what we have lost in our father Adam. And the Lord's
speaking to us now and telling us what the truth is. He says, if you know the truth,
the truth will set you free. I've redeemed you. I've bought
you to myself. Satan's continuing to lie to
you, but I'm going to tell you the truth. Awake Awake. Stir yourself up. It would be
like someone going to somebody that was involved in a bad investment
and saying, hey, don't put your money there. Don't do it. It's not going to pay off. You're gonna lose everything. And that's what the Lord's saying.
Wake up. Open your eyes. Be alert spiritually. I've got something very important
to tell you. Put on thy strength. Put on thy strength. Well, we
know that we are without strength, so where are we gonna get this
strength from? When we were yet without strength in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. Paul was desperate to be delivered
from the thorn in the flesh, and what'd the Lord say to him?
Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. And Paul said, our
glory in my weakness, for when I am weak, then I'm strong, for
his strength is made perfect in my weakness. And so, in order
to hear God's voice, we have to begin by saying, Lord, I'm
weak, I I'm weak to the temptations of Satan. I'm weak in my understanding. I don't know that, I don't, I
can't do this. You're gonna have to be my strength.
And so the Lord says, put on your strength, O Zion. And oh,
how strong he is. How able he is to save to the
uttermost them that come to God by him. Now here's the glorious
truth. You and I haven't sinned to the
uttermost. He is able to save. He is able to save to the uttermost.
And so he says, awake, wake up. Don't be deceived. Don't be caught
up in the lie. Isaiah chapter 27. Turn back with me to that verse
just a moment, to that chapter. Isaiah chapter 27. Look at verse five, or let him
take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and
he shall make peace with me. Lord, wake me up. Don't let me
slumber. Don't let me sleep. Don't let
me be deceived. Make me, make me a child of the
light. Don't let me walk in darkness.
Lord let Christ be my strength and the Lord says put on me as
your strength and you shall have peace with God You shall that's
my promise So the Lord says wake up put on thy beautiful garments
Well, we know what that is don't we The Lord saying, do what blind
Bartimaeus did, drop that filthy robe and flee naked to Christ. That he might clothe thee. The filthy clothes that we wear
are our fig leaf aprons. Give up on manufacturing fig
leaf aprons. They're not gonna cover your
nakedness, not before God. Come to me, just like you are,
with no righteousness and no strength and no ability. In all
of your nakedness, expose yourself to God. That's what he's talking
about waking up. Lord, I don't have anything. I can't do anything.
I don't know anything. I'm dependent upon your strength
and I've got to have you clothe me. You're going to have to clothe
me in that robe of righteousness. The Lord told a parable of a
man, a king, who gave a feast, a wedding for his son. And everybody
that came into the wedding hall was given a wedding garment. And then the king came in and
he found a man that was there without one of the prescribed
wedding garments. I'm sure that this guy came in
the door and he looked at the wedding garment that was offered
him and he looked at his own Clothes and he thought you know,
I look pretty good. I'll just wear what I've got.
Thank you very much And when the king came in and saw him
he cast him out into utter darkness Now there's only one there's
only one garment that will clothe our our nakedness before God
and And that's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so how do we put on this beautiful garment? We look to the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness before
God. It's a matter of faith. It's not something we do. It's
a work of grace in the heart causing us to look to Christ. Lord, I've got to have Christ
for my strength. I've got to have him for my righteousness. Oh, Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem. This message is for the city
of peace, for those who have peace with God. You put on my
strength and you shall have peace. How are we going to have peace?
Well, you've been redeemed. You've been bought with a price.
All the sin and all the foolishness and all the disobedience has
been nailed to the cross. It's been put away. Christ is
your strength. He's your righteousness. And
so this is, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so he's declaring to us Jerusalem, the holy city, The holy city. No one can come into this city
that's not holy. How am I going to be holy? The
Lord's going to have to impute to me his righteousness. He's
going to have to call me holy. He's going to have to charge
me holy. I'm going to have to be found in Christ. Not having
my own righteousness, which is by the works of the law, but
that righteousness which is by the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's my only hope. And if I'm
looking to Christ as he is, so are we. He that does the making
holy, he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified, all
is one. So the Lord's declaring us to be holy. We're looking
to Christ for our strength. We're looking to him for our
righteousness. Then we have peace with God. And we have holiness
before God. We have acceptance before God.
How else are we going to come into the presence of a holy God?
Who can approach unto His holy hill? They that have clean hands
and a pure heart, who have not lifted up their heart to vanity,
nor have spoken deceitfully. Well, Lord, my heart is wicked
and deceitful. I can't know it. I'm so easily
deceived. I'm so easily distracted. And yet the Lord said, I take
out your heart of stone and I put in a heart of flesh. You have
the mind of Christ. If you've heard the voice of
God, you know the truth. Here's your hope. Here's your
hope. Yeah, you've still got that old
man, but the new man is renewed day by day. Day by day, by the
Spirit of God, through the preaching of the gospel, by the ministry
of the Word of God, we're renewed day by day. For henceforth there
shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Now how can someone say that
a child born into this world is a member of the covenant community. In Old Testament Israel, most
of the Israelites were unbelievers. And so the believers that were
among the Old Testament church were constantly saying to the
unbelievers, you need to know the Lord. And now the Lord said,
I'm gonna make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the tribe of Jude. It won't be like that covenant
that their fathers broke. I'm gonna write my law upon their
hearts. I'm gonna press upon their mind. I'm gonna reveal
my my righteousness to them I'm gonna show them my strength and
I'm gonna give them faith to trust Christ and No longer will
it be necessary for a man to say to his brother Or to his
neighbor know the Lord know the Lord for they shall all know
me from the least of them even into the greatest So, the Lord
says, no more is someone going to come in. The only people that
are members of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ are those
who know the Lord. Those who have been saved by
His grace, those who are looking to Christ for all of His righteousness
and for all their holiness before God. From henceforth there shall
no more come unto thee them that are uncircumcised. This is not a circumcision of
the flesh. This is not you cutting away some fleshly habit or behavior
in your life to make yourself acceptable to God. This is a
circumcision of the heart performed by the Spirit of God, enabling
us. Turn with me to Romans, I'm sorry,
Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Verse 1, then verily the first
covenant had also ordinances of divine service and of a worldly
sanctuary. So he's talking about that Old
Testament covenant that the children of Israel were under. He said
there was a sanctuary, a physical building. There were rules and
regulations that were laws that were to be adhered to. For there was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was a candlestick, and the table, and the showbread,
which is called the sanctuary, the set-apart. Now Christ is
that candlestick. He said, I'm the light of the
world. He's the bread of life. He's the showbread. He's the
candlestick. And He's the sanctuary. Everything
about that Old Testament sanctuary. The fact that it was made of
badger skin, the fact that it had a single door going in, the
holies of holies, the Ark of the Covenant, and that which
was in the Ark of the Covenant, and the mercy seat most in particular.
that hammered gold mercy seat and the cherubim that hovered
over the throne, where the high priest went in once a year on
the day of atonement and put the blood and God said, here,
I'll meet with you. That was all a picture of what
the Lord Jesus Christ would fulfill. And you remember what was in
the ark? Well, I think the scripture tells us right here. And after
the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of
all, And that was where the tabernacle was, which had a golden censer
and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein
was a golden pot that had manna. So inside this ark, this box, that was made of, of, of Chittimwood
that was overlaid with gold, a picture of the humanity and
the deity of Christ. And inside the box was a, a golden
pot of manna that they had kept from the, from the manna that
came every day in the wilderness. Now you remember when the children
of Israel would try to save enough manna for the next day and they
went back and they had worms in it? This manna had been saved
for centuries and there were no worms in it. Why? Because
this manna represented the bread of life which came down from
heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ on whom
we feast and on whom we feed. He's our sustenance of life.
So there was a golden pot of manna and then Aaron's rod. Aaron's
rod. Remember the rod that Aaron put
down next to the rods of the leaders of each tribe? When they
got into the wilderness, they were complaining about Moses
being their leader. And God said, bring the heads
of each tribe in and let them put down their rods. And Aaron
put his rod with all the rest of the rods. And the next morning
they came and Aaron's rod This dead stick had come alive and
it had budded and flowered and produced fruit. And now this
rod is in the ark. Why? Because Aaron was the priest.
He was the intercessor. He was the only one that could
present the case of the people of God to God in hopes of being
redeemed. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is our priest and he's our king. Look at the rest of this. And
Aaron's rod that budded and the tables of the covenant. That's
the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.
They're in the ark. So there's three items in the
ark. There's the law, There's Aaron's
rod, and there's the bread. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
our prophet, that's the bread of life. He's our priest, that's
Aaron's rod, and he's our king. He's the one who established
the law, and he's the one who kept the law for us. And God's
saying now, all those things were types, they were pictures.
They were in and of themselves, they had no power. They had no
ability to save in and of themselves. All they did was point to the
one who will save. And over at the cherubims of
glory, shadowing the mercy seat of which we cannot now speak
particularly, now when these things were thus ordained, the
priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. So the priests were always making
sacrifices. Blood was being shed. But unto
the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without
blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people.
So the high priest went into the holies of holies once a year
and put the blood on the mercy seat. And the Holy Ghost, this
signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet
made manifest while as yet the first tabernacle was yet standing.
Now what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ cried, it is finished. Father into thy hands I commend
my spirit. There were priests and the scripture
says not a few of the priests believed. Why? Because they were
in the temple that day and they saw a miracle. Prior to that
day, some of the duties of the priests were to stand outside
the tabernacle and warn the people to stay away. This place is holy,
you come here. Even the high priest, when he
went into the Holies of Holies, they tied a rope around his ankle,
and they put bells on his skirt, and if they heard, why? They
were afraid if he went in unworthily, God would kill him in there.
And nobody could go in and get him, so if they didn't hear the
bells ringing, they'd just pull his dead body out. So the warning
was stay away. Don't come. This is a holy place. This is this is this is a ministry
of blood for the sins of the people. And then what happened
from top to bottom. The veil was rent. The veil was
rent. You know, the scripture makes
it clear, the description of that veil, that it was blue on
the top, and it was red on the bottom, and it was purple in
the middle, which is what happens when you mix blue and red. And
you see the picture, don't you? The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
who came down from heaven, the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ
who shed his blood on Calvary's cross, and the two natures of
Christ put together, the God-man. And now the veil is rent. And
now the Spirit and the Bride, they don't say, stay away. Now
what do they say? Awake! Awake! O Zion! O Jerusalem! Put on thy strength! Put on thy beautiful garments!
Come! Come! The way has been paved. Holiness has been established.
You don't have to fear the wrath and judgment of God anymore.
You have an advocate with the Father. You've been redeemed. Yeah, you sold yourself for naught.
You paid the ultimate sacrifice. Your very soul was the, you sold
your soul to the devil. That's what we did. That's what
Adam did back there in the garden. That's what sin is. And he wasn't
able to deliver. He promised you a lot. He promised
he was gonna give you power. He promised you were gonna be
like God. He promised he was gonna give you pleasure. He promised
he was gonna make you popular. What did Eve say? She saw that
it was good for the taste. That was her, that was the pleasure
of eating this fruit. It was pleasing to the eyes.
And that's the attraction that we have for the eyes of other
men. Why is it that we're so concerned with the opinions of
other men? Why is it? God says you love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. We get so caught up in this
thing of popularity, don't we? We want other people to look
at us and think well of us. Why? Because by nature we're
insecure and we need the approval of other men in order to feel
better about ourselves. But here's what the Lord says,
if God be for you, who can be against you? If you have popularity
with God, what does it matter what men might think? You see,
Satan is promising you popularity with man. Satan is promising
you pleasure. And there may be pleasure in
sin for just a season, but in the end it leads to death, doesn't
it? He cannot deliver. Why? Because he doesn't have,
he doesn't own power. He doesn't own pleasure. He doesn't
own popularity. That's the other thing she saw
that it was it was good for the taste. It was pleasing the eyes
It was able to make one wise this will make you powerful.
You'll have a free will you'll be able to make decisions and
you'll have Virtue and and and you'll be somebody you'll be
like God and their eyes were open. They saw they were naked
They were shamed and tried to cover their nakedness and the
Lord said you sold yourself for naught and He promised you something
that he could not deliver because he didn't own the goods. You
bought a bill of goods. But I can offer you, I can give
you that which he offered you. Power? Yeah. What greater power is there in
this world than to be able to come before the throne of grace
with boldness? With confidence? To be able to
pray and enter into the very presence of the holies of holies
without fear of judgment. What greater power? There is
no greater power than the power of love. To be loved by God and
to be able to love God? To be able to believe? You see,
what Satan promises us in sin, only God can deliver. What greater
pleasure is there than to fellowship with God? To know Him. To have Him speak to your heart
by His Word and to give you peace. And to say, let your heart not
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house there are many mansions. If we're not
so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. What greater pleasure is there than to know that we have
a place prepared for us? You see, all the things... God
said you sold yourself for naught. You gave yourself as the payment. You sold your soul to the devil
for naught. He wasn't able to give you what
he promised. Why? Because he's a liar. And he's
the father of lies. Come unto me. Awake and sit down. Sit right here. Sit right here
at my footstool until I make all my enemies My footstool. There's no greater pleasure.
There's no greater power. There's no greater popularity
than to be the apple of God's eye. To be the apple of God's eye.
Now that's what the Lord said. He said, wake up. Don't believe
him. He's lied to you. The investments that you've made
in him, he can't deliver. You're going to lose everything. verse 7 Hebrews chapter 9 but
in the second went the high priest alone once every year not without
blood which he offered for himself and for the errors of his people
the Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while as yet the first tabernacle
was yet standing which was a figure for the time then present in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not
make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the
conscience. What greater pleasure, what greater
power, what greater popularity is there? All that's in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
that's what the world has to offer. What greater pleasure
is there than to have a clear conscience before God? How are
you going to have a clear conscience before God? Only by putting on
your strength, Jerusalem. Only by putting on your beautiful
garments. Only by waking up from your slumber
and believing God, your faith is just believing God. You see,
that's why the root of all sin is unbelief. That's our problem,
isn't it? Lord, help thou mine unbelief. And faith comes by hearing, and
hearing comes by the Word of God. And a steady diet of the
gospel causes us to grow in faith, doesn't it? And we just believe
God. Little more, little more, little
more each time he speaks. Lord, I'm so full of unbelief. And I believe the lies of Satan. I'm enthralled by him. But you
know, believers are the only people that have buyer's remorse. And it comes real quick, doesn't
it? It comes real quick. You see, an unbeliever never
has buyer's remorse because he still thinks that Satan's going
to be able to deliver. He still thinks that the reward
for his unbelief and his sin against God is somehow he's going
to, you know, he still believes the lie. Though we get distracted
and though we get caught up, The Spirit of God smites our
heart with buyer's remorse, doesn't He? And we know this is not right. Verse 10, which stood only in
meats and drinks and divers' washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation. Now that's the
only place in the Bible where that word's used. And religious
folks like to talk about what happened in the 16th century
as a Protestant reformation. Nothing was, you don't reform
error. This is a reformation from the
old to the new. And here's the glorious thing
about it. The new covenant is infinitely older than the old
covenant. The new covenant is the covenant
of grace that was established before time began. God put man
under the law in order to show him his need for grace. The Lord
knew Adam wasn't going to keep the law. The Lord knew the children
of Israel weren't going to be able to keep the law. And so
he gave them all these types and pictures to point them to
Christ. Because it's only when we fail in our ability to keep
the law that we cry out, Oh Lord, give me your strength. Give me
your beautiful garment. Give me Christ or I die. But Christ, look at verse 11,
but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not weight made with
hands. That is to say not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and goats and calves, but by
his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. The Lord Jesus Christ went
in as the high priest one time and he obtained by the shedding
of his blood. And the scripture says that he
tabernacled among us. His body is what that tabernacle
was a picture of. His blood is what the blood of
the bulls and goats were a picture of. That ark of the covenant
Is to say to us that we have a priest with God who has already
obtained finished eternal redemption for his people. There's no reason
fear calm awake. Don't believe the lies of Satan.
Don't believe him. He's a liar. He can't give you
what he promises. The promises of God now, on the
other hand, are sure, aren't they? They are yay and amen in
Christ. And there's no pleasure, there's
no pleasure like knowing Him. There's no pleasure, there's
no power like having your sins forgiven and having the hope
of eternal life and having your conscience clear. How can you
have a clear conscience? If somebody makes an accusation
against you and you did not do it, you're ready to defend yourself,
aren't you? Because your conscience is clear
and you can speak with clarity about it. You can say, no, that's
not true. I did not do that. That's the
only time. Now, if somebody makes an accusation
against you and it's something you did, then you hang your head,
don't you? You think, well, yeah, I guess
I did it. God says, I have separated your
sins from you as far as the East is from the West, and I remember
them no more. You see, we're able to have a
clear conscience before God because we never did it. We never did
it. In the sight of God, you say,
well, that's the way God sees it. Yeah, and that's the way
it is. The way God sees it is the way it is. God's if you're
in Christ God's not looking at you. He's looking at the Lord
Jesus Christ And what does the believer say Lord look to Christ
for everything that you require of me? Everything and that's
what he does. He said awake awake You sold
yourself for naught You you sold your soul to the devil in your
father Adam and And you and you still go get tempted. Don't you
still you still believe his lies, don't you? Oh Put on your beautiful
garment Put on your strength Go back with me to our text.
We have one who has obtained eternal redemption for us Verse 3 in Isaiah 52 for thus
saith the Lord Yeah, you sold yourself for not You sold your soul to the devil
you believed his lies and you didn't get anything in return
you bought a bill of goods But you've been redeemed and
You've been redeemed without price You're not going to, you're
not going to make up for what you did. I'm going to have to
redeem you. And that's what I've done. He
has obtained eternal redemption for us. That means your redemption
was, you remember the word eternal doesn't mean that it starts now
and lasts forever. When God speaks of eternal, that
means it never had a beginning, never had an end. God has always
seen his people in Christ He's that's why he's been able to
love every one of us with an everlasting love with an eternal
love He didn't just say well now now that you believe you
I'm gonna love you. No No We believe we're just discovering
something God's already savaged and then don't we it's always
been and For thus saith the Lord. I love
that. I love when God said this is
what I say. Because what I say is the way it is. Doesn't matter
what the world says. Doesn't matter what you think.
Doesn't matter how you feel. Remember Naaman when he came
to be healed of his leprosy? I thought, well just stop right
there because that's your problem. My thoughts are not your thoughts
and my ways are not your ways. It doesn't matter what you think.
It doesn't matter what I think. It matters what God says. Thus
saith the Lord. Look, my people went down a fortime
into Egypt to sojourn there. That's what we did. We went,
sold ourselves to the slave masters, And we desperately attempted
to keep the law and to save ourselves by our free will and by our good
works, everything that we could do. And every day we'd wake up
and the quota would go up. And then the taskmasters would
take away the straw. And it just became more and more
difficult, didn't it? The Lord said they went down
to Egypt. But I brought him out. I sent
my prophet. I sent Moses. And the Lord said
to Moses, I'm going to raise up another prophet like you.
Moses is a type of Christ who went down into Egypt and brought
the children of Israel out. But now look at the rest of this
verse. And the Assyrians oppressed them without cause. Now, I have no idea why the translators
put that word cause there. You can look it up. Every other
place this Hebrew word is used in the Old Testament, it's translated
end, cease, or finality. This is the only place where
this word, for some reason the translators wanted to put the
word cause there. So let's reread this. They sojourned in Egypt, I brought
them out, and then the Assyrians oppressed them without end. Without end. Now, if Egypt is
a picture of the law, and it is, what are the Assyrians a
picture of? Well, just look up the word Assyrian.
They plagued the children of Israel all throughout the Old
Testament. Remember Nineveh? When Jonah was sent to Nineveh,
Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh. Why? Because Nineveh was the
capital of Syria. And they were the bitter enemies
of Israel. And to this day, here we stand,
how many thousands of years later, and it's still a problem, isn't
it? Mosul, today, is where Nineveh
was. Same problem. And the Israelites
hated the Assyrians, and they plagued them without end. Now, what do the Assyrians represent? Assyria, translated, means steps. Steps. That's what it means.
Now, what are you plagued with? What is it that plagues your
faith every day, without end? Well, you know, if I could just
do this, or if I could do that, or if I could make this change,
or if I could do that step, if I could sew just the right fig
leaf together, somehow I could cover my nakedness before God.
You're not gonna get to God by steps. The Lord said when you
build an altar, don't build it like those altars they've got
down in Mexico. You know, that's what they were.
They were altars on the top and they made their sacrifices because
when you walk up those steps, all you're going to do is expose
to everybody below you your nakedness. And that's what God said. Don't
make an altar with steps. And don't put an iron tool to
the stone. Don't try to beautify, just put
the sacrifice on the altar. Why? Because the sacrifice that
God put on the altar is the only means by which you are able to
be right with God. And it's the only means by which
the blessings of God are going to come your way. Not by any
steps, not by anything you do. Not by any improvement you make.
But we're still plagued with it, aren't we? We still have
these thoughts. Well, yeah, I gotta do something.
What you've got to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Awake,
awake from your slumber. Oh, Jerusalem, put on your beautiful
garments. Put on your strength. I know
the Assyrians continue to oppress you without end. That's your
flesh. That's your unbelief. And you know what? They're going
to continue to do that. You until you get rid of this
flesh. That's why the believer so longs To have this corruptible
made incorruptible Lord I you mean there's gonna
come a time. I'm not gonna sin anymore. The Assyrians aren't
gonna press me anymore I'm not gonna be thinking about steps
and things that I can do. I'm not gonna be deceived by
Satan anymore. Yeah Yeah, I'm gonna give you
a new body Incorruptible Now, therefore, verse five, what
have I here, saith the Lord, that my people has taken away
for naught? The Lord said, why are you still
selling yourself for naught? Oh, Lord, I still do it. They that rule over them make
them to howl. Who rules over us? The Assyrians. Our flesh. Our weaknesses. Our unbelief. That's what it
boils down to, is just unbelief. And my name continually every
day is blasphemed. Therefore, my people shall know
my name. Here's your hope. Your hope is not trying to figure
out the right steps to take, the right procedures. Yeah, that's
what religion's full of that, isn't it? You know, if most religious
groups were in the wilderness when God sent the serpents, the
preachers would have gotten together and had a convention on how to
kill snakes. You know, or how to run from
snakes. Or how to control the snakes.
You know, let's put all, and that's where all their emphasis
would have been on the snakes, wouldn't it? And we still do
it, don't we? We know it's a lie. We know it's
not true. But the snakes get our attention,
don't they? And what did the Lord say to the children of Israel?
No. If a snake is crawling up your
leg, look to the serpent on the pole. Don't worry about the ones
on the ground. Look to him. Look to the one
who bore your sins. And as soon as you look, you're
gonna live. And all the things that those
snakes are promising you, all they can do is kill you. Put the serpent on the pole,
that brazen serpent. He took all those snakes on himself
and put them away. Put on thy strength. Put on thy beautiful garment.
Sell, don't sell yourself for naught. Don't don't don't buy
into the lies. I know this Syrians are oppressing
you I know that you you're full of unbelief and that's why that's
why I'm telling you my people shall know my name They're gonna
know my name. What's his name? His name shall
be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins
Not he's gonna make an attempt not he's gonna make an offer
not he'll do his part You take the first step and do your part
No He's gonna do it all by himself. He accomplished the salvation,
eternal redemption once for all by the sacrifice of himself.
He bore all the sins of all of his people on his body upon that
tree. My people gonna know my name. I'm Jehovah Sidkenu. I'm the
Lord, your righteousness. And in looking to me, I'm going
to put my name on you and you're going to be called holy and no
more, no more with an uncircumcised, no more with an unbeliever come
into the holy city. This holy city is made for holy
people. They're holy by virtue of their
union with Christ. They're holy by virtue of their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're holy because they have
a holy one who fulfilled the law, who is their bread and who
is their priest. And he intercedes on their behalf. My people don't know my name.
I know their sins going to blaspheme me every day. They're going to
be oppressed by steps and Syrians and they came out of Egypt and
they got all this unbelief. But my people shall know my name.
Therefore, they shall know in that day that I am he that doth
speak. Behold, it is I. It is I. I am the resurrection and
the life. Martha? Lord, do I know my brother will
raise again in the resurrection? She had hope in an event that
was gonna take place, but she didn't see that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is our resurrection. You see, what that means is that
when he raised from the dead, we raised from the dead. That's
why Paul said, oh, that I might know him and the power of his
resurrection. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. He said, because I live, therefore you shall live. And
he that believeth in me shall never die. Never die. And all this oppression, and
all this blasphemy, and all this flesh and sin that we struggle
with in this world, and all the lies of Satan that we sell ourselves
for naught. The Lord says, I'm gonna redeem
you without price. And you're gonna know my name.
And when you cry out for help, you're gonna cry out in my name. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, based on his merit and his righteousness and his shed
blood, O Lord, help me. Wake me up. Give me life in Christ. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for the revelation of the truth that you've given
us, and we ask you for Christ's sake to forgive us, Lord, for
so much of our unbelief. And Lord, give us hope. Wake
us up and then sit us down. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 42 in the Spiral Hymnal,
let's stand together. ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Prophet, priest, and sovereign king ? ? To him render adoration
? ? Laud and homage to him bring ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? God incarnate from above Came to save his chosen people
Sent by God in covenant love Let us praise the name of Jesus,
who upon Mount Calvary shed his blood and sealed our pardon,
died for sin to set us free. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
Risen, conquering, gracious friend, Advocate and mediator, All our
hopes on Him depend. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
for he brought us to his fold. Come, exalt his name and worship,
may the Savior be extolled. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
till we see Him face to face. Then throughout the endless ages,
praise Him for His love and grace. Okay.