Olivia Dunbar was almost, no,
she was a year old, a year old and a month when we started this
fellowship 20 years ago. Today's her 21st birthday and November the 13th, the second
Sunday of November, which will be here quickly, will be our
20th anniversary as a church. And I'm hoping everybody will
come and bring some friends. We're going to have a catered
meal, which we normally don't do, after the service and some
activities and just time of fellowship together, second Sunday of November. Okay? 20 years. That's amazing,
isn't it? According to the eternal purpose,
which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom, in Christ,
we have boldness, we have confidence, and access with confidence by
the faith of Him. By the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we have access to God. Not by our faith, but
by His. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress, Mid-flaming worlds in these array,
With joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, For who ought to my charge shall lay, Fully absolved through
Christ I am, From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. This spotless robe the same appears
when ruined nature sinks in years. No age can change its glorious
hue. The robe of Christ is ever new. When from the dust of death I
rise, To dwell forever in the skies, Even then shall this be
all my plea, The Lord hath lived and died for me. Please be seated. For those who were with us when
we started, you want to know if life is a vapor? It's a vapor, I can tell you
that right now. Turn with me, please, in the
Word of God to Matthew chapter 19. And we will begin at verse 16. Matthew 19, verse 16. This is Matthew's account of
the Lord's interaction with the rich young ruler. And most people, when we read
this, it tells about a young man whose God was his worldly
possessions. And what his reaction was to
when the Lord expose that to him. But this morning, the Lord's
shown me something, and I'd like you to consider it on another
level. That is true, by the way. But there are many more who are
not rich in worldly goods, but are rich in their own righteousness. And I'd like us to look at that,
consider that as we read this about those who are rich in their
self-righteousness. Because it applies just the same. Verse 16 says, And behold, one
came and said unto him, the other author said it was a rich young
ruler, and he called him Good Master. He did not call him Lord. He did not see him as God. He saw him as a good man. He
only saw Christ in his humanity, but then so did everybody else. And he asked him, what good thing
shall, you see those next two words? I do. That tells us he's this is a
self-righteous man and tell me what to do and I'll do it. I
can do it. What shall I do that I might
have eternal life? And the Lord said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There is none, none, not even
one good, but one that is God. There is none good, but God. This morning, this is not a good
man speaking to you. And it's not a good man speaking
to people who are not good. Only God is good. But if thou
will enter into life, if you want eternal life, keep the commandments. And he saith unto him, Which?
Well, tell me which one. I'll keep it. Just tell me that.
And Jesus said, thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit
adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And he only gave
them small. When the Lord says, keep the
commandments, he's not talking just the 10 commandments. He's
talking about everything he's commanded. And here's what the
young man said. The young man saith unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I
yet? And that's the reply of every
self-righteous person. I've prayed a prayer. I've walked
an aisle. I made a commitment. What lack
I yet? Verse 21 is a verse that For those who don't know, we
teach all of our young people, and if your children are coming
in, we teach them all. This is important, they understand
this. And the Lord said to him, if thou wilt be perfect, perfect. God's standard is absolute
perfection. It's not best you can be. It's not I'm better than I was
before or I'm better than somebody else. It's not that, well, I
don't do that anymore and I do this instead. God says when you
stand before Him in the judgment day, you must be absolutely perfect. Even our young people, when you
ask them, are you perfect? No, no. If God ever gives you
the grace and the faith to see this and believe it, you'll reply
as other believers, woe is me. I'm in trouble. I'm a guilty
sinner. And God in justice and holiness
must cast my soul down into the pit of hell. I need a substitute. I can't stand before God. in
my own likeness. And then he tells him, since
you're absolutely perfect, that's the sad part, this man thought
he was perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor
and thou shall have treasure in heaven and come and follow
me. Sell everything you own and follow me. Cast off all of your
righteousness and follow me. And this is the reply, both of
the wealthy worldly and those who are rich in their own righteousness. But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. When men and women and boys and
girls are told that all of their righteousness. Everything you
think that gained favor with God is filthy rags. They will turn and walk away,
unless the Lord intervenes. And then the disciples ask, who
can be saved? We ought to ask ourselves, who
can be saved? And the Lord says in 26, with men this is, Impossible. It's not possible
for any man to save themselves or contribute anything to the
salvation of their soul. But with the Lord Jesus Christ,
all things are possible. The only hope we have is Christ.
And the only hope I have is that in that day of judgment, that the Lord Jesus Christ will
stand for me. And that He will say, Father,
this is one of them that You gave me. I've lived and died
for the salvation of their souls. That's my hope. That's the only
hope I have. And I pray this morning as our
brother comes to declare Christ to you that you would not, anyone
here, will not walk away sorrowful, thinking they have a righteousness
on their own. Let us try to pray to the Lord. Lord, we are so thankful that
you are a God who keeps all his promises. And that we can say
with certainty this morning that you are present with us For you
promise to be whether your people are gathered. And we rely, Lord, your promise
that your word would not go void that this morning when your people
gather, wherever it may be, that you will be with your messenger,
our brother, that you would give him grace, boldness, comfort
to speak clearly and with conviction and declare Christ to us. We pray that you would give them
the ability to speak that we may walk away here today that
said, surely the Lord spoke to us. And as your people, we pray
that you would send your spirit to give us the faith to believe
what he has declared. and to glorify you and you only
for it. We ask these things, that Christ
would take this prayer and make it acceptable to God the Father. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number 158 from the heart. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go
to reach In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosanna's languished on our tongues. And our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 28, Isaiah 28. I've titled this message. Whose promises do you believe? Whose promises do you believe? Now we are in the. whatever it is, political campaign,
where politicians are having to make promises in order to
get votes. It's hard for me to believe that
there's anybody with any sense at all that believes any of them. Whose promises do you believe?
We certainly don't believe theirs. What about yours? Do your promises differ from
the promises that the politicians make? How many promises have you made
that you've broken? I was thinking about that. Well,
somebody says, well, you know, I made a promise to my spouse
when we got married and I've been faithful to them. You have?
Have you? In your heart. In your heart,
that's what we're talking about. All men are liars. God alone
tells the truth. Don't hang the hope of your salvation
on anybody's promises but God's. He's the only one that you can
trust to be faithful to keep his promises. You've not been
faithful to any of your promises. Not in your heart you haven't.
God made you to be a sinner. You know this sin thing is not
just a behavioral problem. It's an issue of the heart. Man
looks at the outward appearance. God's looking at the heart. We
go about trying to impress one another with our outward appearances,
don't we? And the Lord said, you're like
whitewashed tombs. You have the appearance of beauty
on the outside, but you're full of dead men's bones. Isn't that
the case? We're just, we're so corrupt. A covenant is a promise. It's a promise. In verse 14, 15, verse 15 of
Isaiah chapter 28, Because you have said, we have made a covenant
with death, and with hell we are in agreement. Now there's
the covenant that a man makes. Now historically, Israel is about
to be taken off into Babylonian captivity and the the physical
application of this passage is that Isaiah is telling them you've
made a treaty with Syria and Egypt and in that treaty you
have paid them tribute to protect you They're your allies. You've gone into a covenant relationship
with them. You've promised to pay them tribute
and they've promised to protect you so that when your enemy comes
against you, you all will join forces and defeat your enemy.
Now that's the physical meaning of this passage. But we're not
really too interested in that. What does what happened 2,600
years ago have to do with me today? What does Assyria and
Egypt and Babylon and Israel and all those treaties and covenants
that they made have to do with me today? What's that have to
do with the salvation of this sinner's soul? I want to know
the spiritual meaning of this. Can you see the spiritual application?
We've made a covenant with death. We've made a promise to pay tribute
to God. And in response to that tribute
that we've made to Him, He's going to protect us and save
us. And that's what all men do. That's what everybody does. I'll let Jesus come into my heart
if He will save me. I'll exercise my faith. I'll
make a decision. I'll perform a work. I'll do
this or that. That's the meaning of this. Because
you have said, we made a covenant. Is the hope of your salvation
based on a covenant promise that you made to God? Because just like those alliances
that Israel had with Syria and Egypt, and you know, I was thinking
about it, how futile it is to sign treaties, particularly in
that culture, even today. The politicians know. They don't
mean it. They'll pay tribute. They have
no standards of loyalty to anybody. It's whoever's going to pay me
a bigger tribute down the road. And if someone else is willing
to pay me more, I'll jettison my relationship with one nation
and take on a relationship with another. That's still the case
today in the Middle East. Isn't it? That's the struggle
that we deal with in trying to make treaties with these nations. They're not committed to them.
They're willing to forsake their promises in order to benefit
from another relationship. We've made a covenant with death.
And with hell are we at agreement? And when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge. You see, they knew these treaties
were based on lies. They knew they were. They knew
that they couldn't trust their alliances. We've made lies our refuge, and
under falsehood have we hid ourselves. And here's the thing, here's
the spiritual application of this. If the hope of your salvation
has anything to do with a covenant or treaty or tribute or an alliance
that you have made with God, you know it's based on lies.
You know you can't trust it. And the reason you know it is
because you don't have really any assurance of your salvation.
Because you don't know if you've done enough. You don't know if
the tribute that you paid was sufficient. And you know how you can't trust
yourself. You see, it's all based on lies. It's all based on deceit. And men go through life lying
to themselves until they believe the lie. At which point God sends them
a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. Why? Because they had no love for
the truth. Turn to me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. What are we doing? We're comparing
the spiritual to the spiritual. There, listen to me. There's
only two covenants. There's only two covenants. There's
the covenant of works and there's the covenant of grace. There's
the covenant or promise that's based on a commitment that you
make to God. And there's a covenant that has
nothing to do with any contribution whatsoever that you make. It's a covenant that God made
with God. And which one are you going to
trust for your soul? Men won't have a covenant of
grace. Why? Because it robs them of their
righteousness. It robs them of their glory.
It says, you mean my contribution doesn't mean anything? I'm not
gonna have that. I'm not gonna give all the glory
to someone else. I'm gonna take some credit for
my salvation. And because you said, I made
a covenant. I made a covenant with death.
I made an alliance with hell. I'm not going there. And when the overflowing
scourge comes, when death comes, and you know it's coming, you
do know that, right? It's coming sooner than you think.
And the child of God says, Amen, come Lord Jesus, even now come.
I'm not declaring this as a fear factor. I rejoice in knowing
that to be with Christ is great gain. Great gain. What a glorious day that will
be. Comfort ye one another with these words. What words? When the trump of God shall sound,
and the voice of God, the angel of the archangel shall cry, the
Lord shall come. The dead in Christ shall be raised,
and those of us which are alive shall be caught up together with
them in the air. Oh, what a glorious day that'll be. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, you
have your Bibles open there? Look at verse 10. And with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. These are
the ones who've made a covenant with death. These are the ones
who are trusting the salvation of their soul on a promise that
they have made. And God says, they're deceived. Because the promise that they've
made is unrighteous. It's not perfect. Because they received not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. They wouldn't have
Christ. They would have no love for the
truth, no love for Christ. They wouldn't stand fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made them free. They wanted to
be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. They wanted to go
about trying to establish their own righteousness. Being ignorant
of the righteousness of God, knowing that Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness, to everyone that believeth, they
wouldn't have Christ. Why? Because to have Christ meant
that they had to strip themselves naked before God and forsake
any promise that they ever made to God as any hope of their salvation. And the natural man won't do
it. He will not do it. He cannot do it. It's too foreign for him. For this cause, because they
had no love for Christ, because they are hoping in a covenant
that they made with God. For this cause, God shall send
them a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. They
believe the covenant that they... I'm speaking to those who have
doubts about the covenant that they have made with God. If you
have no doubts about your covenant with God, If you're convinced
that God is pleased with the decision that you've made and
you have no fear, then I fear that God has already turned you
over to a reprobate mind and that you have believed the lie. God makes you to believe a lie,
you're going to believe a lie. God shall send them a strong
delusion. All this delusion is strong.
It's strong. Men will hold on to it to their
dying breath, thinking that the covenant that they made with
the grave, the covenant they made with God, the covenant they
made with hell, the covenant they made with death was going
to stand. That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now that doesn't mean that they
just indulge their flesh in all the pleasures of the world, going
out there, you know, feeding themselves with all sorts of
ungodly pleasures. It means that they comforted
themselves. in the covenant that they made
with death. They were pleased with their
unrighteousness as the hope of their salvation. I've given my heart to Jesus. I'm a good person. I'm doing
my best. And they're pleased with their
unrighteousness. Go back with me to our text.
Whose promises do you believe? The gospel of God's free grace,
God's sovereign grace, God's finished work in the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, wholly, wholly dependent upon
Christ alone for all righteousness. is incomprehensible to the natural
man. He won't have it. He can't receive
it. It's the hope we have, isn't
it? Oh, what glorious rest. Let's
go back with me to our text in Isaiah chapter 28. Verse 9, whom shall he teach
knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine, the gospel? Them that are weaned from the
milk and drawn from the mother's breast, like a newborn babe,
they desire the sincere milk of the word. They see in the
word of God, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, a revelation of their glorious Savior, and
they find their rest and their hope in him. They're like babes. They're like a babe, a baby.
This child that's been weaned from its mother's breast has
three things about it. Number one, it's a child, an
infant. Unless she becomes a little child,
you're not in the kingdom of heaven. Men won't humble themselves
to be like a child. I can be, I can be somebody.
Not if you're going to be saved, you can't be. Number two, that
child weaned from the breast is satisfied. Now before going
to mama's breast, that child was crying. He was hungry, wasn't
he? But now where's that child? He's resting. That's the third
thing about that child. He's a child who's satisfied
and is resting. That's who the Lord teaches knowledge
to. So the question is, number one, are you a child? Number
two, are you satisfied? Satisfied with what? Satisfied
to be saved by Christ. Satisfied with what God's satisfied
with. And let me, I don't know how
to make this any more clear to you to say to us, to me, God's
not satisfied with us? He's not satisfied with your
promises. He's not satisfied with your
decisions. He's not satisfied with your
works. Don't be satisfied with what God's not satisfied with.
Are you satisfied with Christ? God's satisfied with Christ.
And He's the only one He's satisfied with. So like this babe who's
weaned from the breast, are you satisfied? And the evidence that
you're satisfied is that you're resting. You're resting. You're relying upon the Lord
Jesus Christ alone for all your salvation. And what a rest that
is. What peace, what hope, what comfort. My salvation is not based on
a promise that I made. I can't keep my promises. I'm
just like the politicians. I'm a liar. Verse 10, for precept must be
upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line,
here little, there little. That's the way the Lord teaches
us, isn't it? We were talking during the break,
it seems like every time we come together, the gospel becomes
more clear. Is that your experience? If you're a child of God and
you're growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
every time we go to the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ
becomes more glorious to you, and the Gospel becomes more clear
to you. And the distinction between works
and grace becomes more divided. You can't mix the two. Comparing the spiritual to the
spiritual, isn't that what we saw in 1 Corinthians chapter
2? Line upon line, the word of God, God uses. Look at the next verse. I love this
verse. For with stammering lips and
another tongue shall he teach this people. The gospel of God's free grace. And we have folks in our congregation
that don't speak English and we got a whole lot of folks that
don't speak Spanish. Pick out somebody that doesn't
speak English or doesn't speak Spanish and see how well you're
able to communicate with them. It doesn't work, does it? You're
speaking a foreign language, it's just different. You don't
understand what's being said. You cannot communicate. The gospel
of God's free grace is like a foreign language. The natural man can't
hear it. It doesn't mean to him what it
means to us. We're speaking in tongues. We
really are. With stammering lips. The Lord
said this message is going to come to you like a foreign language.
You're not going to understand it. You're not going to be able
to receive it. To whom he said, And here's what
the message says. How do I know if I'm able to
hear it? God's going to have to give you ears to hear. He's
going to have to give you the mind of Christ. He's going to
have to give you a new nature. He's going to have to give you
the receiver to receive the message. Look what he says. Here's what
the message says. This is the rest. wherewith they
may cause the weary to rest. And this is the refreshing. All to rest in Christ. To just sit down. Cease from your labors as he
ceased from his Hebrews chapter four. Quit working. Quit doing. That's what religion's
all about. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? Isn't that what you read, Michael?
Rich young ruler. That's just the natural. This
is life eternal. That you believe on him whom
he has sent. This is the work. This is the
work of God. And you don't perform the work
of God by believing. Your believing is the work of
God. Do you see the difference? You don't make a contribution
of faith in order to make what Jesus did work for you. Faith
is the work of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that faith is not of yourself. It's a gift of God,
not of your works, so that no man can boast. You say, preacher,
you add a few words to that passage of scripture. I did, but that's
exactly what that passage of scripture means. This is the rest wherewith he
may cause the weary to rest. Lord, if I'm gonna rest, you're
gonna have to cause me to rest. I can't rest. I'm just a doer. I can't, I've gotta do something. You're gonna have to, you have
to take away from me all my ability to do. And that's what he does. When he makes you to be a sinner,
When God makes you to be a sinner, you come to realize for the first
time in your life, all your doings are infected with sin. You cannot
do anything. You can't present God anything.
Your promises are full of lies. Your works are full of unrighteousness. You can't satisfy the demands
of God. Verse 13. The last words of verse 12 are
so sobering and humbling, yet they would not hear. They would not hear. Now, I'm going to make a statement,
and if God gives us the grace to understand what I'm saying,
it'll be a light of truth for you. If you're a child of God,
God's regenerated your dead soul, giving you life in Christ. It's
all his work. So you don't have anything to
do with it. And if you're not, it's all your fault. You stand before God without
excuse. You say, well that doesn't make
sense. The Lord turns the light of the
gospel on in your heart, it'll make sense. It'll make sense. They would not hear. But the
word of the Lord was unto them, precept upon precept, precept
upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, that they might go back and fall backwards and
be broken and snared and taken. Now what God is saying is that
the Bible, that the Lord was showing them, precept upon precept,
line upon line, here a little, there a little, the way of rest. The way of rest. But they wouldn't
have the rest. They wanted to work. They wanted
to earn something. And so they took the Word of
God and turned it into a rule book for Christian living. They
said, well, we can do that. When God gave the law to the
Israelites at Mount Sinai, when Moses told them the law, what'd
they say? We'll do it. We'll do it. Every word of it,
we'll do it. Moses said, you can't keep God's law. And immediately
he had to make a sacrifice. A blood sacrifice had to be made
because they could not keep the law of God. But the natural man
looks at the Bible and said, well, I can do that. I can love
my neighbor as myself. I can love God with all my heart
and all my mind and all my soul. I'll be good. I'll be faithful. I'll do my part. And God will
reward me in the end with salvation. They've taken the very means
of grace, the word of God. The very means of faith that
God has given us. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. They've taken the very means
of faith and turned it into a law book. To them it was nothing
more than precept upon precept, line upon line. And they memorized
scripture and they pulled that verse of scripture out of their
pocket and rubbed it like a rabbit's foot every time they get in trouble.
and they don't realize that this book is about Christ. He is our
rest. Look what he goes on to say. They've taken the Word of God
and they've fallen backwards and they've broken and they've
been snared and taken by the Word of God. The strong delusion
that God sends to cause them to believe a lie, He sends it
by His Word. You take the revelation of Christ
and make a book of theology out of it, make a book of history
out of it, make a book of doctrine out of it, make a book of rules
and regulations out of it. Is that not what religion does?
They don't see that this is a book about Christ. This is a book
that points them to their rest. Wherefore, hear to the word of
the Lord, verse 14, ye scornful men that rule this people which
is in Jerusalem, because you have said, we made a covenant
with death. We're in agreement, we're paying
our tribute to God. We've made lies our refuge. Oh, those cities of refuge. Cities of refuge. God gave the
children of Israel six cities of refuge, three on the east
of Jordan, three on the west of Jordan. And if you accidentally
killed someone, you went to that city of refuge and you were protected
in that city of refuge until the death of the high priest.
Christ is that city of refuge. But they say, we made lies our
refuge. We're finding safety in our lies. What are the lies? The lies are
the covenant, the promises that you have made. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, verse 16, behold, oh behold, Don't you love that word? God's
saying, just give your undivided attention about what I'm about
to say. Because this is everything. This is everything. Behold, I
lay in Zion. Now who lays the stone? The sure
stone, the foundation stone, the precious stone. You know
that stone's Christ. Who laid the stone? Christ laid
the stone. God's library laid the stone.
Where did He lay it? In Zion. The only place you're
going to find Christ is where Christ is preached. Where the
gospel of God's free grace in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared from the word of
God to God's people. It's the only place you're going
to... This is where the stones laid, isn't it? You're not going
to find it anywhere else. You won't see something awful.
Look at verse 7. But they also have erred through
wine and through strong drink and are out of the way. The priests
and the prophets have erred through strong drink. They have swallowed
up of wine. They are out of the way through strong drink. They
err in vision and stumble in judgment. Now he's not talking
about being intoxicated with alcohol. He's talking about a
much worse intoxication. It's the intoxication of an evil
spirit that denies Christ His glory and salvation. He's talking
about false prophets. And they've erred in judgment. They've not understood the Word
of God properly. They're not preaching Christ.
They're preaching rules and regulations. They're preaching the commandments
of men. They're preaching moralisms. They're giving you something
to do to bolster up the covenant that you have made. For all tables are full of vomit
and filthiness so that there is no place clean. What a horrible
picture. Now that's a picture of going
to a banquet and everybody is so drunk that they're vomiting
on the tables. Now, you going to go to a banquet
like that? The Lord is likening all false
churches to that. Next time one of your family
members doesn't understand why you refuse to go sit under a
false prophet who perverts the Word of God, and your kind refusal
is not enough, sometimes they just continue to insist, don't
they? Why can't you go with me? Just
tell them, I don't like the sound, the smell, or the looks of vomit. That's what God says. This is
strong language, I know that. This is offensive language, preacher,
I know that. But it's not my language, it's
not my words. This is God's Word. This is God's Word. We're not
interested in being politically correct. I'm interested in you
being saved. I'm interested in me being saved.
I'm interested in knowing the truth. It's only the truth that's
going to set you free. If you call it anything less
than vomit, then you are compromising what God says. It's a strong delusion. Men believe
it and it's condemning them to hell. Look, read on. Therefore I lay in Zion for a
foundation. Don't build on any other foundation
than this. Christ is the rock of ages. He's
the rock that was smitten by the rod of Moses in the wilderness,
out from which flowed rivers of living water. You remember
that rock that followed the children of Israel? And Christ was smitten
by the rod of God's justice on Calvary's cross, and out of the
Lord Jesus Christ flows the rivers of living water. He's the sure
foundation. A stone, a tried stone. A tried stone, a tested stone. I think I shared this with you
all once before when we built this building. This building
is sitting on a monolithic slab of concrete. I forgot how many
yards of concrete are in this slab. It's huge. We dug it out
by hand, didn't we? Many of you all remember that.
And I remember they had to test the concrete to make sure that
it would hold up to 3,000 pounds per square inch. And so the concrete
manufacturer had to present a sample of concrete to the building inspector
and make sure that it was tried and tested to the stress test
before we could put it in our slab. And I hear the Lord saying,
it's a tried stone. And it holds up to a whole lot
more than 3,000 pounds per square inch. This stone holds all the
burdens of all of God's people. This stone holds all the faithfulness
of God's Word. It's tried. For 33 years, he
was tried by the Father, and the Father was pleased with him. He successfully bore the burdens
of his people on Calvary's cross. He successfully presented to
the Father a righteousness with which God was pleased. He was
tried by Satan, and he didn't sin. Tried in every way that
we are, yet without sin. Not in thought. You see, you
and I have never been able to have a holy thought one time.
Not once. He didn't have anything but holy
thoughts all the time. He was tried. He's tried by the
law. He's tried by God. He's tried
by Satan. He's tried by death and he came
forth victorious. Here's the tried stone. Now,
where do you want to trust your salvation? On a covenant that
you have made? Or a stone that's been tried
by God based on a covenant that God made? God Almighty made a
promise. to give his son a bride. The Lord Jesus Christ made a
promise to atone for the sins of God's elect. God the Holy
Spirit made a promise to come into this world and make those
for whom God chose in the covenant of grace, those for whom Christ
died, willing in the day of his power. Now that's a promise that
you can trust. That's a promise you can trust.
You can rest everything on that promise. Why? Because God made
it. And it's not possible for Him to lie. You made a covenant with death.
Oh, this is a precious cornerstone. A sure foundation. A priceless
stone. This is the pearl of great price.
This is a stone that we won't reject for anything. He that
believeth shall not make haste. If you're resting in Christ,
you see, the haste is the opposite of resting. You know what both
of those are because you're doing both every day, don't you? You
make haste all day long on your jobs, don't you? It's making
haste, making haste, trying to get it done. And then at night
you rest. Those that are resting are not
making haste. Which are you doing? Judgment also will I lay to the
line and righteousness to the plummet now these likening the
Lord Jesus Christ to a plummet line a plumb line and Plum lines
are the most true Way to get a straight wall There's no level
there's no there's no What do you call those laser beams nothing
more true than a plumb line and You drop that plumb line and
God says, I'm testing everything by that plumb line. If it doesn't
measure up that plumb line, it's rejected. Christ is the plumb
line. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and water shall overflow the hiding
place, and your covenant that you made with death shall be
disannulled, and your agreement shall not stand when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through. Then you shall be trodden down
from it. Whose promise do you believe? I know you don't believe the
politicians. I'm just certain everybody in here has got enough
sense not to do that. I hope that you have enough sense
to not believe yourself. Because you're just as crooked
as they are. God alone tells the truth. He
cannot lie. Rest in Christ. Put your hope in Him. God's going
to judge everything by the plumb line. It's got to be perfect.
It's got to be perfect. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word and know how we pray that Your Holy Spirit now
would apply it to our hearts and give us faith to believe.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 175. Let's stand together. Number
175. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting
in my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Thank you.