Good morning again. Do you remember when Isaiah went
to the king, Hezekiah, and told him, get your house in order,
for the Lord has told me that you're going to die. And the
scripture says that Hezekiah, on his deathbed, turned his face
toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord. There's another picture
of the wall in there. Might God give us the grace this
morning to turn our faces towards Christ and to pray unto him for
mercy, for grace, for light, for truth, for salvation. That's
why we're here. Let's stand together. Brother
Bert's going to come 475, number 475. you Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy. His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed. His child and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus,
no language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of His
presence with me does continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, child and
forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent,
His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. I know I shall see in His beauty, He guarded my footsteps and giveth
me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. Genesis chapter 3. 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 ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, You shall not surely die, for God doth know that in a day
ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye 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 of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto 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. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
This serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said
unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed
above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of
thy life. and I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel." Romans 5 and verse 12, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so that death passed upon all men, because all have sinned, Father, we thank You, Father,
that in Your love for Your children, that You had already, Father,
made arrangements to make Him to be sin for us, Father, who
knew no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God
in Him. We thank You, Father, for salvation. We thank You, Father, that You've
saved us out of a world of sin. You've called us, Father, to
be conformed to the image of Your Son. You've given us a place
to worship, Father. You've given us brothers and
sisters in the Lord. You've given us everything, Father.
We've asked that You'd make us thankful and grateful, Father.
Cause us to love You even more, Father. We ask in Jesus' name,
Amen. We're going to sink again on
the back of the boat, and you may remain seated. Again, on
the back of the boat. With wandering eyes, Lord, we
admire the feast prepared by grace. Come, Lord, and set our souls
on fire and fill each heart with peace. These emblems of thy precious
love by faith may we receive. And with a solemn pleasure prove
we in thy name believe. No goodness of our own we bring,
Where sinners vile and base. Christ is our all, of Christ
we sing, And long to see His face. O may we each with heart
and tongue sing worthy is the Lamb. To Him alone the praise belongs,
and we'll adore His name. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, please? 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. How can I know for sure? I want to have assurance of my
salvation. I want to be sure that the message
that I'm hearing is true. I want to be sure that what I
believe is true. How can I be sure? The Lord had sent Paul to Thessalonica
to establish a new church. Within three weeks of being there,
a riot broke out and he was forced to leave. He went down to Athens. and was grieved in his heart
over not knowing what the condition of the saints was back in Thessalonica. And in chapter two, verse 19,
he says, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? are not even you in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, for you are our glory
and joy. Wherefore, when we could no longer
forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone and sent
Timothy. The burden for our soul, or for
your souls, was so great that we couldn't stand it any longer.
That's what Paul's saying. We had an urgency for your soul,
for your salvation. Now, that's one of the ways we can
know for sure. Does this message speak to my heart? Does it give
peace to my heart? Does it give me hope of my eternal
salvation? You compare what we preach here
and what we believe to what most folks practice in religion and
you'll see a vast difference. The heart of the message that
you hear in religion today all has to do with how you live.
Now I want to live a better life. I want to live a life that honors
the Lord. But here's the thing about it.
The way you live your life will be a reflection. It will be, it will come, you concentrate on the salvation
of your soul. Now that's something that, that's
a work of grace. That's not something the natural
man's gonna be concerned with. He's more concerned with the
things that he has to do in this world, isn't he? Paul says, our
desire, our concern was for your salvation. He didn't write them back to
say, well, you know, we're concerned about how you're living your
life. We wanna make sure you're doing everything right. No, our
burden was for your soul, was for your salvation. Most of the
preaching today is just pop psychology with a little religion, teaching
men how to live better lives, how to be better people. The
truth of the gospel speaks to the heart. Now, only a regenerated
heart has a concern for his soul. It's a work of grace. The natural
man's not going to be concerned for his soul, and if he has a
thought of concern for his soul, he will make desperate attempts
to atone for his own sins. The scripture says in the book
of Isaiah, you made a covenant. With death. And with hell, you're
in agreement. Now there's the problem. The
problem is that when men do have an interest in their souls, they
try to solve that problem by salving their conscience with
a covenant that they make with God. Well, I'll just make some
promises to God. I'll make some commitments. I'll
make sure that I'm going to be saved when this life is over
by decisions that I make. And here's what God says in that
passage of scripture, I will disannul your covenant. You see, the hope of our salvation
is not in a promise that we make with God, it's in a promise that
God makes with God. It's called the covenant of grace.
Before time ever began, the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety of
his people, and that word surety means that he provided everything
necessary for our salvation. He struck hands with the Father,
and he agreed to redeem those whom God chose in the covenant
of grace according to his own will and purpose before time
ever began. That's what the scripture teaches.
And Paul says, our concern is for your soul. We don't go around
monitoring one another's lives. We don't go around trying to
measure our obedience and our faithfulness and comparing one
another to one another. Believers believe themselves
to be the chief of all sinners. There's no competition with believers
to see who's holier than thou. Every believer believes themselves
to be in need of grace more than anyone else. And they're pleading
for that mercy. They're calling on the Lord to
have mercy on their soul. And so my question to you is,
is the message you're hearing, is it about the condition of
your soul or is it about the way you live your life? I'm not too worried about how
you're going to live your life if God gives you a concern for your
soul. That's what I was trying to say
earlier about your life being a reflection of yours. This is the one thing that's
different from everybody else in the world. I'm gonna encourage
you to be selfish. Be selfish about the concern
for your own soul. Because your concern for other
men's souls and your concern for how you live your life will
be born out of the concern that you have for your own salvation. And there'll be a direct relationship,
a correlation between the concern that you have for other men's
souls and that which you have for yourself. And so, Lord, save me. Give me a burden to be saved
and to know Christ and to have assurance of my salvation. Paul said, we could no longer
forbear. We couldn't stand it any longer.
We had to send Timothy to check on you. Now here's my question
to you. Has the Lord brought you to that
place where you could no longer forbear? You can't go another
day, you can't go another hour without knowing the state of
your soul. Lord, I've got to know. I've
got to know. Paul said, this is our glory. This is our rejoicing. This is our crown of hope. It's
the salvation of your soul at the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, men give themselves a false hope
when they look to the pattern of their life
for the assurance of their salvation. They give themselves a false
hope. The only way we're going to have
assurance of our salvation is looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising its shame. The Lord Jesus Christ, that's
where God's looking. He's looking at his wounds, he's
looking at his sacrifice. He said, your names are written
upon my hand and your walls are ever before me. So, how do I
know if the message I'm hearing is true? It concentrates all
of its attention on the state of my soul and it gives to me
an urgency to know that I'm right with God, that I have salvation, that when the Lord brings this
life to an end, I have the hope of knowing that I will see Him
as He is and be made like Him. That's my hope. That's my urgency. The urgency of the message is
about salvation. And the urgency that God puts
on the hearts of his people is for the salvation of their souls. We get so bound up with temporal
things. Most folks don't have time to
think about their souls. Yeah, I've got too many other
things that are calling for my time and attention to be concerned
about my soul. I'll work that out later. If that's true, That's true. You've not heard the gospel.
And if that's the message that you're hearing, it's not the
gospel. Blind Bartimaeus had a concern
for his soul, didn't he? The Lord was coming through Jericho
and Blind Bartimaeus, oh son of David, have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me. And the people
tried to shut him up. Bartimaeus, you're just embarrassing
yourself. Look at you, you're a filthy beggar. And then somebody
said to Bartimaeus, be of good cheer. The master calleth for
thee. And Bartimaeus dropped his dirty
ground and he went to the Lord. Bartimaeus, what would you have
me to do for you? Oh Lord, that I might see. That I might see. I've got to be able to see. I've
got to be able to see the truth about God. I've got to be able
to see the truth about myself. I've got to be able to see the
truth about how it is that God saves sinners, because I'm a
blind beggar. I can't do anything for myself.
That woman with the issue of blood was urgent for her salvation,
wasn't she? She had spent everything she
had on physicians and was worse off now than she was at the beginning. And some of us can relate very
well to that. We spent everything we had on the doctors of religion. Going from one denomination and
one persuasion to another. And we were worse off in the
end. Why? Because it was all putting attention
on me. Till the Lord was pleased. to
enable us to crawl through the crowd, and to touch the hem of
his garment, and virtue went out from him. Who touched me,
the Lord said. Oh Lord, why do you ask? Look
at all these people, everybody's pressing on you. What do you
mean, who touched me? No, someone touched me, and virtue went out
from me. And the scripture says, and she
told him all the truth. She told him all the truth. She
told him what she had done. She wasn't even supposed to be
around people having an issue of blood. She was supposed to
be letting everybody know she was unclean. But no, she had to get to Christ. She had an urgency for the salvation
of her soul. And the Lord saved her and made
her whole. Paul said, our urgency is for
your salvation. We're not writing you to see
how you're living and to monitor you with the law. We're not comparing
you to one another. We want to know whether or not
you're going to be ready when the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ comes for the salvation of your soul. It's the only thing
that's going to matter in that day. It's the only thing that's
going to matter. Nothing you and I have ever done,
and some of you have been at people's deathbeds before. I've
been there several times. And I promise you, it is It is
clear that we brought nothing into this world and we shall
take nothing out of it. And nothing a dying man does, or has done, will be of any benefit
to him when he draws his last breath. No possessions that he's accumulated,
No influence that he's had. Nothing. Nothing matters. It's the only thing that will
matter. Might God be pleased to deliver us from the vanity
of this temporal world and give to us a heartfelt concern for
the salvation of our souls. Paul said we couldn't forbear
any longer. We had to send Timothy. We had
to know if what the Lord did when we were there for those
three weeks was real. We've been praying for you. We
have a concern for our own souls and we have a concern for your
soul. We couldn't stand it any longer. So we sent Timothy. That's how you know. The message
that you're hearing is the message this this matter of having a
concern for your soul. It's a work of grace It is a
work of great you I'm not suggesting that you just all of a sudden
You know figure out a way to have a concern for your soul
The Lord's got to give you that Saul of Tarsus didn't have a
concern for his soul and all his concern was was was becoming
more powerful in the in the religious elite and was persecuting the
church and he went from a persecutor he went from a persecutor to
a man pleading for mercy what happened The Lord shined a light
from heaven. The Lord said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? What would
you have me to do? What would you have me to do?
And now this is the same apostle that's writing back to this church
saying, the concern that God has put on our hearts for our
own soul is reflected in our concern for you. Do you have assurance of your
salvation? Not based on a covenant that
you've made with God, not based on promises that you've made
with God, but based on the truth of the gospel. The promise that
God made with God to save a people is all of your hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Are you looking to Him alone
for the hope of your salvation? Notice in verse 2 How do I know
a? God called preacher has been
sent with a message of salvation a Message of salvation Now the world is full of preachers
That are not telling the truth Listen to what God said in Jeremiah
chapter 14, the prophets, this is what God says, the prophets
prophesy lies in my name. Just because they're using the
name of Jesus, just because they're talking about God doesn't mean
they're telling you the truth. The prophets prophesy lies in
my name, I sent them not. Neither have I commanded them,
neither spake I unto them. They prophesy unto you a false
vision and divination and a thing of not out of the deceit of their
own heart. Now that's the false prophet.
So how do I know If a man has been sent of God, Paul sent Timothy
down to check on the state of the souls of the people in Thessalonica. How can I know if a man's been
sent of God? Well, there's a beautiful story. There's a beautiful story
in 2 Samuel chapter 18, you remember it. Absalom, never seen what a glorious
picture of Christ Absalom is. It's easy to figure out what
Absalom's name means. You know Abba means father and
Shalom means peace. And Absalom's name translated
means the peace of my father or my father is peace. And Absalom stole the hearts
of the people away from David. And as a result, he overthrew
David's throne. And you remember right after
the resuscitation of Lazarus, the Pharisees got together and
they said, we've got to do something with this man. If we allow him
to remain, he will rob us of our nation and of our power,
our people. He is threatening to steal the
hearts of the people away from us. And so with their wicked
hands, they determined to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. Absalom
had stole the hearts of the people. And then there was a battle,
Joab, who was the commander of David's army, led David's men
to fight against the army of Absalom. And in that battle,
Absalom, riding on his horse, gets his hair caught in the limb
of a tree. And Absalom dies hanging from
his hair being a symbol of his beauty and a symbol of his glory. He dies hanging upon a tree and
one of Joab's men come and take a sword and place it right through
Absalom's heart. And here we have a picture of
Christ dying upon a tree and sacrificing his beauty and his
glory for the salvation of his own people. But here's the point
of the story. Zadok, who was the priest, had
a son who was a very swift runner. And Joab had already picked out
a man to go back to Jerusalem and tell David that the battle
was won and that Absalom was dead. And Zadok's son came to Joab
and said, but I want to be the runner. And here's what Joab
said to this young man, you can't go, you don't have a message. I've already sent this other
man with a message. And he kept begging him. He said,
well, let me go, let me go. And so Joab said, go. And so
Zadok's son outruns the messenger that Joab had already sent and
gets to David first. And David said, he went to the
king and he said, the battle's won. And David asked this son
of Zadok, he said, what about the young man Absalom? What about
my son? And here's what he said. He said,
well, there was a tumult, but I'm not exactly sure how it turned
out. David said step aside and then
the messenger that that Joab sent shows up and He says to
the king He says the battles been won and David asked him
the same question. He said what about the young
man Absalom and Here's what the messenger said The messenger
said, let all the enemies of the king be as that young man. Now that was the message. That was the message that Zadok,
I mean, that Joab gave to his messenger that the other man
didn't have. Let all the enemies of the king
be as that man. How do I know if a man's been
son of God? How do I know if a messenger
is telling me the truth? You see the glorious gospel picture
in that don't you some of you do Absalom a picture of Christ
Let all the enemies of God be as that young man You see you
and I were born into this world at enmity with God that's what
the scripture says I Our natural state, our unregenerate state
is at enmity with God and here's what the messenger that God sends
says, let all the enemies of God be as that young man. let them find themselves in him."
What did Paul say? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but The life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
died for me. I was in Christ when He died. Let all the enemies of God be
as that young man. When the Lord Jesus Christ lived
a life of perfect obedience before God Almighty, let all the enemies
of God be as that young man. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
raised again for our justification, let all the enemies of God be
as that young man. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
raised into glory and is seated at the right hand of God, all
the blessings of God are in Christ in the heavenlies right now.
Let all the enemies of God be as that young man. Your union with Christ is the
only hope of your salvation. The first messenger had to step
aside. Why? Because he did not have
a message about the Son of the King. Paul said, we preach Christ
and Him crucified. We profess to know nothing else
among you. We're here to lift up Christ. Now the natural man
is going to get tired of that message. You know what he'll
say? We've heard that before. We want
something more. We want you to teach us how to
live. We want to go to the next level. You can't get any higher
than the Lord Jesus Christ. He's everything to us. Why? Because
the concern and the urgency that we have for the salvation of
our soul is bound up in me being in Him. Let all the enemies of God be
as that young man. If you're not as the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the only way you can be as the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're in Him, here's
what God says, as He is, so are we right now in this world. There's my only hope. My hope
is not if I'm getting better. My hope is not if I'm keeping
the law a little bit better now than I was before. My hope is
that I am in Christ and let all the enemies of God be as that
young man. Absalom, Absalom, the peace of
my father, died in a tree. hanging by his hair, pierced
through in his heart with a sword, stole the hearts of the people.
What a picture. What a picture of Christ. We
know that if a man's been son of God, because he's saying with
John the Baptist, behold, look, behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. I must decrease, he must increase. He must increase. There was a
tumult, but I don't really know what happened. You see, a false prophet cannot
tell you what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, they can
tell you the details about his life and his death. They can
tell you what happened, they just can't tell you why it happened. Go back with me to First Thessalonians,
if you will, please, chapter three. Wherefore, because we
were so concerned for your soul, and that was our only concern,
the hope of our glory and everything, our joy, is about your salvation. It's about your salvation. And
we could not forbear any longer. We had to know. We had to know
the state of your soul. And so we sent Timothy. We sent
Timothy. Now Timothy's name, you can see it in part of his
name. Theos is the Greek word for God. And time is the Greek
word for honor. And so Timothy honors God. And
gospel preachers always honor God. They just point men to Christ. They don't promote themselves.
They're not trying to build a name for themselves. Because of the
concern that God has given them for their own souls and for the
souls of God's people, they just want to honor God. They want
to give him all the glory. and the gospel of God's free
grace in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
only message of salvation in this whole world that gives to
God all the glory. Every other message is gonna
give to man something to do. A decision he has to make, a
work he has to perform, something is gonna take the attention off
of Christ and put it on man. and the men that God sends and
the gospel message that God sends gives to God all the glory. We sent Timothy, our brother,
our brother. Religion, man-made religion is
built on priestcraft. It is. And men love priestcraft.
They love it. The natural man, the unregenerate
man, loves having another man that promotes himself as being
his intercessor to God. Agis likes having it. It's that way in every religion.
I'm not picking out any particular religion. You can go to Islam,
you can go to Catholicism, you can go to Presbyterianism. Everybody's
got levels of sanctification and levels of hierarchy. Why? Why do they have it? Well, it's true, Bert. It's something
you can see. There's a man, a group out of
Missouri came out of a religious tradition up in Wisconsin somewhere
where everybody would sit and the doors would open and the
elders would come in. And the elders would sit on the
front pew and then the pastor would come in and take his position
and all the people would bow and just submit themselves to
the authority of the leaders. That's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel. The ground at the foot of the
cross is perfectly level. And God's people know that they
are nothing but brothers. Paul never calls himself Apostle
Paul. Never. He calls himself Paul,
a servant, who happens to be an apostle. But, you know, this
matter of Timothy is our brother, we're birthed in the same gospel
from the same womb of the same covenant in the same church,
and we're equals. We're equally dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, if there's any
esteeming going on, we're all esteeming one another more highly
than ourselves. We're all believing that every
other believer is in less need of grace than we are. Why? Because we know our own sin better
than we know anybody else's sin. How do I know if this message
is from God? I have concern for my soul and
the attention of the message is not on how I live but how
I die. The messenger has been sent of
God because he's telling me about the son of the king and what
union I have with him. I know the message has been sent
of God because We're all brothers. We're all
equally dependent upon the grace of God. There's no hierarchy. There's no attempt to control
one another with power and that sort of foolishness. Notice in verse 2, and a minister
of God. A servant. The word there for
minister is the word deacon. And we don't have deacons and
elders. And if I'm ever referred to as
pastor, it's always, he's our pastor, not Pastor Greg. Why? Because the best way to ruin
a good man is give him a title. That's true. That's true. We're brothers. We don't do titles
here. With this word, deacon means
a table waiter. That's all we are. We're just
one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. We're just
laying out the food for men to eat. And the Lord said, labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which leadeth
unto everlasting life. For my body is meat indeed, and
my blood is drink indeed. Unless you eat of my body and
drink of my blood, there's no life in you. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ
is His body. We're in the Son. Let all the
enemies of God be as that young man. We're found in Him. And every step that He took,
and every word that He spoke, and every thought that He had
in His 33 years, that's my life. That's my life. That's my biography. My biography
is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He went
to Calvary's cross and shed His precious blood, that's my death.
And the hope of my salvation is that God is looking to Him.
I'm just a servant, just a minister, just a table waiter, just a deacon
pointing men to Christ. And our fellow laborer, our fellow
laborer in the gospel of Christ. Someone asked me Friday. if there
were any other churches in this area that we fellowship with.
And I said, well, not really. And they drew the conclusion
that we were some kind of lone wolf cult. And I said, oh, no,
wait a minute. There are lots of churches around,
lots of churches. I just got back from Missouri,
going to Mexico in a couple of weeks, going up to Crossville
to preach for the conference, Father's Day weekend. There's
lots of churches we fellowship with. Just don't know of any
around here. Wish there was. But we're fellow
laborers. God says this, they shall all
see eye to eye. All the division and controversies
that go on in religion are not of God. Not of God. Everywhere I go to preach, every
believer I know and every other church I've ever met, they believe
exactly what we believe. They believe on Christ. They
believe the simplicity of the gospel. They're preaching the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all that other stuff
is just foolishness. It's just man-made foolishness.
And the Lord said this to the disciples, leave them alone. For they are blind guides leading
the blind, and they're all going to fall into the ditch. Just
leave them alone. We are fellow laborers. The work
of the gospel has been entrusted to God's church and God's people,
and they're all doing the same work. They're all in lockstep
conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul asked this question
in Corinthians. He said, is Christ divided? It
was a rhetorical question. No, he's not divided. He doesn't
have some of his people believing one thing and another people
believing something else. They all believe the same thing.
He teaches them all with the same gospel, with the same scripture,
the same spirit. When it comes to the salvation
of their souls, they all believe the same thing. Fellow laborers,
In the gospel of Christ, the good news. The gospel is good
news. Here's the good news of the gospel.
God's not looking to you for anything. That's good news to a sinner. When the Lord told Isaiah, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem
and tell them their warfare is accomplished and their iniquity
is pardoned and they have received of the Lord a double blessing
from his hand. They received righteousness in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and all their sins been
put away. Isaiah knew what that message
was but Isaiah asked this question. He said Lord, where do we begin?
where do where do I start this message of comfort to encourage
your people and Here's what the Lord said tell them their grass Just tell them their grass that
way they won't be looking to themselves for anything because
I'm not looking to them for anything and That'll be a comfort to them
Tell them they're grass. Tell them they can't do anything
to impress me. Tell them they have no will or
works to earn favor with me. Tell them it's all about the
accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that'll be
a comfort to them to know that I am looking to His hands and
to Him as their walls for the hope of their salvation. Tell
them to look where I'm looking. Tell them to look where I'm looking. That's the gospel. To establish
you. You see that in the rest of verse
two? To establish you. Lord, I want to be sure. I want
to have a firm place where I can stand. Shifting sand, everything
in this world changes. Everything you're changing. I'm
changing politics change economy changes weather changes Everything's
changing You don't know what's gonna happen next do you? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Rock of Ages You stand on him He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. I change not, and therefore you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. He's the only one that doesn't
change. Immutable. Immutable. That word cannot be
attached to anything other than God. The gospel of His grace
is immutable. It doesn't change. That's where we're to be established. Plant my feet firmly on Christ
so that when the storms of life come and the storms of God's
wrath and judgment come, my house won't be blown over. Comfort you, and notice we're
going to finish the same place we started, concerning your faith. He didn't say concerning how
you live your life. Now I'm not advocating a lawless
life, you know that. I want to live a life that honors
God. But that will come as a result
of your faith. Your faith. This is concerning
your faith. This is concerning the salvation
of your soul. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for your word and know how we pray that your Holy
Spirit would speak infinitely more to our hearts than we've
been able to say in words. We thank you for this table.
We pray, Lord, that you would give us faith to look to Christ
as we receive the bread and the wine and to know that it's his
body and his blood that cleanses us of all sin. For it's in Christ's
name we pray. Amen. I'm going to ask the men
if they'll come, please, and distribute the bread and the
wine. Brother Burt, we're going to sing number 17 in the spiral
hymnal, number 17. so 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 in His body,
crushed beneath the wrath of God, wine poured out in 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. 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 Sometimes we become the objects
of criticism and wanting to know, why are you so dogmatic? Why are you all so narrow? Well,
the Lord said, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. You let
just a little bit of works sneak in to the gospel, and it will
destroy the whole gospel. And it doesn't matter if you
put free will at the beginning of the gospel or if you put good
works at the end of the gospel. You take your eyes off of Christ
and look to anything else and it will pervert the gospel. And oh how passionate we are
for the condition of our souls not to pervert the gospel. This is unleavened bread. It
represents the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life
is our life. Everything he did, we just, we
look into, you know, sometimes you hear people say, well, Jesus,
the most important thing in my life, important person in my
life. No, he is our life. We have no life outside of him.
We do this in remembrance of him. This isn't a Jesus plus gospel. His blood alone, his blood alone
covers our sin. God said without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. He's the lamb without
spot, without wrinkle. God demanded a sacrifice and
Christ provided it. We do this in remembrance of
him. all God's people said. Amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Adam, would you dismiss us please in prayer, brother? Thank you. Oh Lord, Heavenly Father, time
and time again, the words of our prayers are insufficient
to meet the standard that you truly demand in your glory as
a sovereign God. But Christ, Satisfied. He's satisfied with you. He's satisfied with the state.