Good morning. We're going to
sing the hymnal in the back of your bulletin. And if you could
all please stand, the back of your bulletin. The head that once was crowned
with thorn is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorned the
mighty victor's brow. The highest place that heaven
affords belongs to Him, my right, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, and Heaven's eternal light. The joy of all who dwell above,
the joy of all below, to whom He manifests His love and grants
His name. To them the cross, with all its
shame, with all its grace, is give their name an everlasting
name, their joy, the joy of heaven. They suffer with their Lord below,
they reign with Him above. Their prophet and their joy to
know, the mystery of His love. The cross he bore, his life and
health, though shame and death to him. His people's hope, his
people's wealth, their everlasting fame. You can be seated. If you'd like to be finding the
book of Zechariah in your Bibles, next to the last book of the
Old Testament. Good morning. We want to welcome
Isaac and Alexandra's little girl, Ava, for her first time
in church. She's in the nursery and we're
so Very happy for that, for them. Andrea, where's Andrea? Brian,
there she is. Mitch and Carla are Andrea's
parents and they have been members of the church in Lexington for
many, many years. And Andrea just got a job down
here. and just moved in to her new
place yesterday. So, Andrea, welcome. We're glad
you're here. Also, before we read the scriptures, Fiore's husband, Richard, is
in the hospital, just found out, and Peggy Avila is in the hospital. So, we want to remember to pray
for both of them. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Zechariah chapter 12. And it came to pass in that day. I'm sorry. And it shall come
to pass in that day. And it has come to pass because
that day is this day. That day is this day. Zechariah
is speaking prophetically about what is going to happen in our
day. Oh, that the Lord would be pleased
to fulfill this promise for us today. That I will seek to destroy all
the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour upon
the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the
spirit of grace and supplication." Now that's what you and I are
in need of, for God to pour into our hearts a spirit of grace
and supplication. Somebody might think, well what
is supplication? The root of that is supply. What
do you need God to supply you with? What do you need for Him
to supply you with? And what is it you can do on
your own without him? If God pours out the spirit of
grace, your answer to that question is going to be everything. I
can't draw my next breath without him. Lord, I need for you to
supply me with everything. Forgiveness of sin and hope and
salvation. Lord, life Cannot exist without
you supplying it. How do I know if God's poured
in my heart a spirit of grace? Because he has caused me to see
that I'm dependent upon him for everything everything And they shall look upon me Whom
they have pierced How do I know he's poured out of my heart a
spirit of grace? Because I'm looking to Christ. And I know
that what happened to him on Calvary's cross was because of
my sin. I pierced him. I pierced him. And they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Now skip down
with me to chapter 13, verse one. In that day, there should
be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin. Oh, Lord, I need you to open
that fountain. Wash away my sins. The water of life would come
forth. And for uncleanness, Lord, I'm
a leper. And it shall come to pass in
that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names
of the idols out of the land. Lord, I can't go anywhere else.
I've been, and I was born an idolater. I've been an idolater
all my life, but now the spirit of grace and supplication has
been poured out and all those idols have been put to death
and I can't go anywhere but to Christ. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would be pleased now in this hour to pour out
the spirit of grace and supplication that you would cause us to look
to the one whom we have pierced and mourn for him, desire him,
long for him. Lord, if that is to be, you're
going to have to do it. Lord, we mourn for so many things
in this world. Only if you do a work of grace
in our hearts will we mourn for Christ. Father, we pray for Richie
and for Peggy, and we ask, Lord, that you would minister grace
and healing to their bodies, give them encouragement to their
hearts, be with those who minister to them physically and give them
skill. And, Lord, we look to you as
the one and great physician that heals both body and soul. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. We're going to sing to him number
17. You can remain seated number 17 in your hardback hymn. Yeah. Humb thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Raise the mountain fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure, safely
to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger Interposed
His precious blood ? O to grace how great a debtor ? Daily I'm
constrained to be ? Let thy goodness like a fetter ? Buy my wandering
heart to thee ? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it ? Prone to leave
the God I love Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it
for thy courts above. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 22. Isaiah chapter 22. I've titled this message, A Nail
in a Sure Place. A Nail in a Sure Place. Now this
is a weak, weak illustration, but I think it's one that we
can all relate to. There's been many occasions my
wife has asked me to hang something on the wall and she wants it
right there. And more times than not, I find
out that the only thing right there to hang it on is a half
inch of drywall. And that doesn't hold much. But
every so often, you drive a nail in the wall and you hit a stud.
And then you can put a 16 penny nail in that stud and say, you
know what baby, you can hang anything you want on that nail.
It'll hold. It'll hold. Now religion is like
that nail stuck in a half inch of drywall. Won't hold much. This is a nail in a sure place. You can hang the hopes of your
soul on this nail. It's symbolic language used to
describe the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the nail and he's been fastened
in a sure place. How much are you hanging on him? Now some of you are thinking,
well I thought we were going through the book of Isaiah and
you were in chapter 14 last week and we've skipped all the way
to chapter 22. Perhaps there'll be a time when
we'll go back and look at those chapters, but we're not going
to do it now. Chapters 13 and 14 are the burden that God gave to the
prophet Isaiah, pronouncing judgment against Babylon. Chapters 15
and 16 are a description of the burden that God put on the heart
of Isaiah to pronounce judgment against Moab. Chapters 17 and
18 are the judgment that God has pronounced against Damascus. And chapters 19 and 20 are the
judgments that God has pronounced against Egypt. Now, if you think
about those nations, Moab and Damascus and Egypt and Babylon,
and then in chapter 21, there's several other smaller nations
that God is pronouncing judgment against. You'll know that on
a map, these are countries that completely surround Israel, God's
people. They have been the enemies of
God. And the application here is what we just read in Zechariah,
that the enemies of God will be destroyed. And the enemies
of his people are his enemies. And the fulfillment of these
prophecies were all accomplished in the destruction of these nations. And then in chapter 22, the burden of the valley of vision. That's how the chapter begins.
Now it's a message of hope and encouragement to the people of
God and set in contrast against all of these fearful words of
condemnation and judgment that were made against all the enemies
of God. So that's what I want. That's
what I want for you. That's what I need. I need to
know what the burden of the vision for the valley. Jerusalem was
built in a valley. It was a city that was surrounded
by mountains. And so this is for God's people. begins in verse 20 with a type
of Christ when he says, and it shall come to pass in that day. Again, when we read in God's
word, it shall come to pass in that day, you and I have the
great joy and blessing of living in that day. this is the day
this is it Lord would you would you fulfill this prophecy for
me Would you pour out the Spirit of grace and supplication in
my heart and cause me to see who Christ is as a nail fastened
in a sure place and give me the hope and comfort and joy of being
able to hang all my sin on Him? That's the point here. And he
says, it shall come to pass in that day that I will call my
servant. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
referred to as a servant of God. Behold, Isaiah 42 verse 1, behold
my servant, the one whom I uphold, the one in whom my soul is well
pleased. Christ came as the servant of
God to accomplish perfectly what the father, his master, his God
had sent him to do. And so the father sends Christ
on a mission. What is that mission? What is
the mission? that the Father sent the Lord
Jesus Christ to accomplish. Was He a faithful servant? You
know, we call ourselves the servants of God, but we're not always
faithful, are we? Was He faithful? Yes. Did He
accomplish perfectly what the Father sent Him to do? Yes. You
shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people. I came to do the will of my Father."
And in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy
will, O God. So this Eliakim, though he was
a priest that God raised up to, there's a historical application
to this passage, of course, as is true in most of the Old Testament
passages. But we're not really interested
in that. What does this tell me about the gospel? What does
this tell me about Christ? How does this speak to my soul?
I can acquire knowledge and information about things that took place
historically in the nation of Babylon and Moab and Israel,
but that really doesn't do anything for me. Knowledge puffeth up. It might make me proud and give
me some advantage over someone else, but that's not what the
purpose of God's Word is, and that's not why we're here. We're
here to know, what does this say to me? Who is Eliakim? It's Christ. Eliakim is a type
of Christ. His name means God raises up. God raises up. That's what Eliakim's
name means. And the scripture says, God hath
both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power. Now that's what I'm interested
in. I'm interested in not trying to figure out how I'm going to
get through another day of life in this world. I want to know,
am I going to be raised from the dead? Because there's going
to come a day very soon I'm going to die. There's going to come
a day very soon you're going to die. And whatever things occupied
our time and attention in this life will be of no significance. I need someone. I need a priest.
Eliakim was a priest. He was an intercessor. And I
need a priest that will raise me from the dead and give me
the hope of eternal life. And the only way I'm going to
have any hope of being raised in that day is if I have hope
that when Christ was raised from the dead 2,000 years ago, I was
raised in Him. I was raised in Him. I was crucified
with Him, I was buried with Him, I was raised with Him. So this is about Eliakim. And the Lord says, I will call
him. In Hebrews chapter five, verse
four, speaking of the calling out of the high priest, that's
what Eliakim was, he was a high priest. And in Hebrews chapter
five, the scripture says, no man taketh this honor upon himself,
but he that was called of God, As was Aaron, so also Christ
glorified not himself to be made high priest, but he that said
unto him, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Now, when
the scripture speaks of the Lord, of the Lord Jesus Christ being
the only begotten of the father is speaking of him being raised
from the dead. That's when he was begotten. He was, he was
raised to life by God. This is my beloved son in him. I'm well pleased. I begotten
him. I raised him to life and he didn't
take this. He didn't take this upon himself.
I called him. I anointed him. I sent him. He didn't take this honor upon
himself. He is our high priest. So my question for you and for
me this morning is, do you need a priest? Do you need one who can intercede
for you before God? Or do you have confidence in
being able to approach God on your own? All by yourself? Is your nail fastened in a sure
place? Because I promise you, the weight
of your sin will pull any nail out that's not fastened in Christ. And it'll fall. And the fall
will be great. So this prophecy begins, the
Valley of Vision. This is the hope that you have,
Israel, Jerusalem. I'm gonna raise up Eliakim. I'll
call him. He'll be my priest and he'll
be my servant. And he's going to raise you from
the dead. And the proof that he will raise you from the dead
is his resurrection. That's the proof. So what evidence
do I have? You've got the evidence of the
resurrection. The Jews, the scripture says, require a sign. Now that means the religious
are always wanting some evidence. They always want some supernatural
sign. And God says, a wicked and perverse
generation seeketh after a sign. No sign will be given to it except
for the sign of Jonah. What was the sign of Jonah? Jonah
spent three days in the belly of the whale, didn't he? And
then he was vomited forth onto dry land. And so the grave could
not hold Christ. It brought him forth, and he's
alive. And that's the hope that we have,
that God's pleased with what he accomplished. What evidence do you have that
God's pleased with you? People say, well, I think God's
satisfied with me. That's not a nail in a sheer
place. What evidence do we have that
God is pleased with Christ? That God is satisfied with Christ? God raised him from the dead.
I will not allow my holy one to see corruption. I'm going
to bring him forth from the dead. Eliakim's name means God raises
up. God raises up. And I will clothe
him with thy robe. I will clothe him with thy robe
revelation chapter 1 gives us a glorious description of the
Lord Jesus Christ and in verse 13 it says and in the midst of
the seven candlesticks that's the church in the midst of the
church is Christ here right now is he here he promised to be
He said, where two or three are gathered together in my name, is there one other person here
besides me? Another is, another is. I'm there in the midst of them.
He walks among his candlesticks. Here he is, and he's walking
among the candlesticks, and he's like unto the Son of God, clothed
with a garment down to his foot, and gird about the paps with
a golden girdle. Now this is a description of
Aaron's priestly garment. Remember the priestly garment
that went all the way down to his feet and had tassels on the
bottom and bells and the oil that they put upon Aaron's anointing
oil went all the way down and the breastplate that he had across
his chest and in that breastplate were seven stones and in those
seven stones were written, I mean twelve stones, I'm sorry, and
in the twelve stones were written the twelve names of the tribes
of Israel. There's the church at the heart of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And John sees Christ high and
lifted up in Revelation 1 and his robe, the robe of his priestly
garment, the robe of his righteousness goes down to his feet. And look
what else he says in verse 21. And I will strengthen him with
thy girdle. The girdle of truth. That's our
strength. That's our strength. What's true? What's true? The world's full
of lies. I mean, we're having to endure
a lot of lies being told these days by politicians, aren't we?
You know when a politician's lying when his mouth's moving,
right? You know, what hope are you going to put? What trust
are you going to put in the words of politicians? Or anyone else for that matter?
These words are true and faithful. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. And so this girdle is the girdle of truth, it's the
girdle of strength, and it's our strength. If you know the
truth, the truth will set you free. Do you need to be made
free? Free from the lies, free from
fears. The only way that freedom is
gonna happen is to know Christ. He is that truth. And so his
strength is the belt of truth, the girdle of truth. And in Isaiah
chapter 11, verse five, and it says, and righteousness shall
be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his
reins. So I'm gonna put my girdle upon
him. That girl is going to be a girl of strength. It's going
to be based in truth. And the truth is that He's going
to be all our righteousness. And His faithfulness, oh, how fearful it is to think that
God would have mercy upon us based upon our faithfulness.
How faithful are you? Yeah, I made that statement a
moment ago about politicians. Scripture says all men are liars.
How many commitments have you made that you haven't kept? You know, people say, well, we
just need to, we just need to commit ourselves more. We just
need to rededicate ourselves more. I remember in religion,
we used to have people rededicate themselves all the time. Just,
you know, just got to bolster up my commitment and be more
sincere and more faithful and then everything will be well. Your salvation doesn't have anything
to do with your commitment. It has everything to do with
your need. And your need will be seen when you realize, by
the grace of God, how unfaithful you are. And that His girdle
is the girdle of faithfulness, and truth, and righteousness. Here's the valley of the vision. Is this a vision you need? As the Lord opened the eyes of
your understanding and enabled you to see that this is about
Christ and you, and you. This is for you. It's for me. It's for each one of us. It's
not a general call. Many are called, few are chosen.
You know, we're to issue the call of the gospel outwardly
to all men. And we try to do that. But in
doing so, we understand that it will fall on deaf ears if
the Spirit of God doesn't make effectual the call in the hearts
of specific men. Are you one of those? Lord, speak
to me. Call me. Don't let me be satisfied
with some sort of general call. I need to know this is for me. And I, verse 21, and I will commit
thy government unto his hand. The government shall be upon
his shoulders. All governments. All governments. All politicians,
all kings, all presidents, all governors, they're all his servants. We saw that in the previous hour,
didn't we, with the Caesar who exiled the Jews from Rome just
to have Quilla and Priscilla go to Corinth and hear the gospel.
They're all servants of God. What a great comfort we have.
Why? Because he is the one who's controlling
all governments. But more specifically, he's talking
about the government of grace in his church. John chapter 5 verse 22 says,
The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to
the Son. He that honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father. Everything has been put on His
shoulders. He's the one who stands in judgment. And you know what
His people do? They just bow to Him. They don't question his
authority. They don't question his ability.
They just bow to him. Oh, Lord, I'm thankful that you've
been given this high priestly place, that you have the robe
of the priest and the robe of righteousness, that you've been
strengthened with the girdle of truth and the girdle of righteousness
and the girdle of faithfulness, and that the governments are
all in your hand. Lord, govern me, govern me. I need to be governed. Do you
need to be governed? And he shall be a father to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now in Isaiah chapter 9, when
the scripture says the government shall be upon his shoulders and
his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the scripture is speaking of Christ. It's speaking of Christ
as our Father. We believe that our God is a
triune God made up of God Father Son and Holy Spirit But everything
that we're ever going to know about God as our father We will
discover it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ When that prodigal came home
The father was waiting on him and the father rejoiced and saying
this my son was dead, but now he's been made alive He was lost
and now he's found break kill the fatted calf put a ring upon
his finger Put the robe of righteousness on him and shot his feet with
the gospel That was Christ He's speaking of God as our father
he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as our father and What
does a father do? He provides. He protects. He loves. He supports. He cares. He loves. He's calling him our father. He shall be a father to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. We want to be good fathers. I
want you to be a good father. I want to be a good father. But
we've all failed in so many ways, haven't we? We need a father,
a perfect father. And God says that's what he's
going to be. He's going to be your father. And to the house
of Judah, Look at verse 22 and the key
of the house of David. I will lay upon his shoulder
so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none
shall open. Now what does the Lord Jesus
Christ open that no man can shut and what does he shut that no
man can open? The first thing I need for him
to open is his word. I need for him to open his word.
This word, this book is a mystery to the natural man. 27 times
in the New Testament, this word is called a mystery. That means that it's hid from
the natural man. and only by the ministry of the
Holy Spirit can the eyes of our understanding be open and we
see Christ in his word. I'm just, the older I get, the
more I preach, the more I talk to people and try to minister
the gospel to people, the more convinced I am that you can sit
here week in and week out for 40 years and not have this book
open to you. Because you can open it. When
John saw the scroll, he wept because no man in heaven was
able to open the seal. And the angel said, weep not,
for the lion of the tribe of Judah, he'll do it. He'll unlock
the seal. He'll unlock the mystery of the
gospel. You can study this book the rest
of your life. You can memorize this book. There's
a guy by the name of Jack Van Impey. They call him The Walking
Bible. Maybe you've heard of him. He has committed to memory
this entire book. He can quote every verse of it. You listen to him preach? This
book is locked out to him. He has no idea what it means.
And he's memorized the whole thing. Lord, I need you to unlock the
mystery of this book. Christ is the mystery of this
book. It's not a book of history. It's not a book of doctrine.
It's not a book of rules and regulations, of moral mandates
and precepts. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. Lord, if you don't unlock this
mystery of this book, I'll not see it. I'll not see it. And don't mistake
mystery for mysticism. Mysticism is based on you getting
some sort of direct access to God whereby He gives you information
personally or by where you acquire some knowledge through intuition. That's not how it works. We're
not talking about mysticism. We're talking about the spirit
of God unlocking the mystery of this book. If God's going
to speak to you and me, he's going to speak to us through
this book. You're not going to get some
extra biblical revelation. or information or intuition or
inspiration. No, God speaks by his word in
the volume of the book. It is written of me and of his
own will, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Lord, Don't let me be one who
has ears but does not hear. Don't let me be one who has eyes
but does not see. I can't figure this book out. You can go to all the higher
education schools that there are in the country. I was out of seminary 20 years gone through seminary and
20 years later before the Spirit of God unlocked the mystery of
this book and rewrote this book to me overnight. Has he done that for you? Has
he shown you that this book is all about Christ and your need
for him? God has given to him the key. And he's the only one that can
open it. You can't open it. I can't open it for you. He's
got to open it. Ask him to. Ask him to open his
word to you. Ask Him to make it alive and
effectual and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to divide
asunder the thoughts and the intents of your heart and reveal to you the glory of
Christ. And what He opens, no man can shut. No man can shut. Some of you
have been listening to this gospel all your life and the book is
still not open to you. Our young people sit up, they
grow up under the gospel and the book is still locked to them.
They still can't see it. And there is nothing anybody
can do for you. Why? Because God has given him the
key. And you're going to have to go to Him. You're going to
have to ask Him to take the key and unlock the mystery of the
gospel and reveal Himself to your heart. There's the truth
of it. God has given Him the key and
when He opens it, What God teaches you, they shall be taught all
of God. Father, I thank Thee that Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes. And when God teaches you, no
one will be able to unteach you. You won't be able to unteach
yourself. No man can pluck you out of his hand. You can't convince
yourself out of it. You can't sin yourself out of
it. You can't talk yourself out of
it. And no one else is going to be able to do it either. Once he unlocks the mystery of
this book and reveals Christ to your soul. That's what I need. That's what
you need. You need for him to do something
that can't be undone. What he opens, no man can shut. You need for him to open your
heart, don't you? You can't open your own heart.
God opened Lydia's heart and she believed the gospel. The heart is wicked and deceitful. No man can know it. You can't
change your own heart. You can't give yourself a new
heart. He's got the key to that. And what he opens, no man can
shut. Oh Lord, give me a new heart. Take out my heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh. Give me faith. Cause me to believe
on Christ. I've got no hope otherwise. What
else have you got? Where else are you going to go?
He's got the key. Your wife can't open your heart.
Your husband can't open your heart. Your preacher can't open
your heart. You can't open your own heart. He holds the key to that. Lord, give me a heart. Give me
a believing heart. Give me a heart that loves Christ,
that trusts Him, that relies upon Him. What He opens, no man can shut.
Lord, I need for You to open heaven for me. The Lord said, I go and prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place,
I'll come again. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's mansion
or my father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a
place for you. Now, what did the Lord Jesus
Christ do to prepare heaven for you? What did he do? Did he make
the opening of heaven possible for you? If you'll make your
contribution and do your part. If that's all you've got, then
your nail is hanging not in a sure place. And the weight of your
sin is going to pull it out. Or did the Lord Jesus Christ
return to the Father as the Word of God, not void, but with the
names of those for whom He lived and died? And does He live now,
interceding on your behalf? And all the hope of heaven being
opened was accomplished by Him. All of it. What He opens, no man can shut.
No man can shut it. Lord, I need You to open heaven
for me. I need you to open the windows of heaven and
show me, show me Christ seated at the right hand of God, interceding
for me. He's got to open the church for
you. You know, occasionally I'll have somebody say to me, you
know, I just don't feel like y'all's church is friendly or
people are not friendly to me, or I feel like there's cliques
and I'm just not a part of it. Believers don't feel that way. They don't, they just, the church
is, that's their family, it's their life. Maybe if that's the
way you feel, maybe the Lord hasn't opened the church for
you. You know, we got broken into a week
or so ago again, and I went around and put dead bolts on every one
of these doors. I mean, we're locked in. The only way to get in this door,
this building, without breaking a window and being a criminal
and guilty by the law for breaking an entry is to have a key. And we had a locksmith come last
Wednesday and make all new keys. And I told the folks in Winston-Ida,
I said, I've got the keys. If you want a key, you've got
to come see me. You're welcome to have a key
if you want one. But that's the only way you're
going to get in this building. The Lord holds the keys to His
church. And those for whom He has opened
the Word, and He has opened their hearts, and He has opened Heaven,
the church is going to be opened to them. And they're going to
delight in the fellowship that God gives them with others who
have been opened. And what He opens, no man can
shut. No man can shut it. And what He shuts, it's the rest
of this verse, what He shuts, no man can open. I've had people say to me, well,
aren't you open-minded about that? Nope. Nope. God has closed my mind
to any other option. You call me pinched brain if
you want. Call me narrow-minded if you
want. Call me inflexible if you want. But what God has shut, no man
can open. My mind is not opened to any
hope of salvation outside of Christ. My mind is not open to
any righteousness outside of the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. My mind is not open to any hope of me having
my sins put away apart from the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God has shut my mind. He's closed my mind. I'm not
open to it. I'm not going to discuss it.
People, this happens often, people, they present themselves as having
a question, but really they don't have a question. It becomes very
clear within just a little bit that they don't have a question,
that they've got a point to make, an argumentative point that they
want to make to me to correct me. And as soon as it becomes
obvious that they're not asking questions, that they're trying
to instruct me, I respond to them by saying, I'm not asking
you any questions. I'm not asking you any questions.
I'm not asking to be instructed by you. You say, well, that's
awfully narrow-minded. Yep, it is. Because God has shut
my mind, and I'm not open. And when He shuts, no man can
open. There it is, right there. Has
He done that for you? Or are you still tossed about
by every wind of doctrine and toying with ideas that contradict
the gospel? Has God shut your mind to error? Has He slayed all your idols
and shut you up to Christ? He's got the key. He's the only
one who can do it. What he opens, no man can shut. What he shuts,
no man can open. And you and I are in need of
him to open and shut some things for us, aren't we? And I will fasten him as a nail in
a sure place. And he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. If you are a member of the house
of God, then you consider the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ
to be glorious. He rules and reigns over his
kingdom, over salvation. Oh, Lord, your throne is a glorious
throne. Why? Because God has fastened
you as a nail in a sure place. What's going to hang on that
nail? And they, verse 24, shall hang upon him all the glory of
his father's house. They shall hang upon him all
the glory of his father's house. Honey, that nail's in a stud.
You can put anything on it. You can hang yourself on it.
It's not going to move. What's the glory of this father's
house? Righteousness. Are you hanging
all the hope of your righteousness on the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't
it amazing that the Spirit of God uses this imagery of a nail
in a sure place to illustrate the very one that was nailed
in a sure place to Calvary's cross? That's when all this was
accomplished. All the righteousness that God
requires from you and from me, he looks to the Lord Jesus Christ
for it. Have you got all that hanging
on Him? All of God's justice? Any hope
that anything you do or any commitment you make or any good intentions
you have are going to make up for one sin in your life? Or
are you hanging all the hopes of your justification before
God on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? The only hope
that you have of having your sin put away is that God would
see His blood and pass by you. They shall hang all the glory
of the Father's house on Him. all grace, all holiness. He that sanctifies and they that
are sanctified are all as one, whereby he's not ashamed to call
them his brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ holds us
before the Father. He says, this is my brother. Look, Father, he looks just like
me. He looks just like me. He's not ashamed to call us His
brethren. We're all as one. All my hope
for being holy and acceptable in the sight of God is hung on
that nail. That nail. All the hope of God
loving me, herein is love, not that I love God. People put their
hope in the fact that... I talk to people all the time
and say, well, I love God. You think that's going to save
you? Herein is love, not that we love
God. Our love is so faulty. We really
don't know what love is, do we? We don't. It's so infected with
our sin. Hearing his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation
for all the hope of my salvation is hanging on that nail that
he loved me, not that I loved him. That he's faithful to me
and faithful to the father, not that I'm faithful to him. All the glory of the Father's
house is hung on that nail. Got no place else to hang it. And they shall hang upon Him
all the glory of the Father's house, the offering, the offspring,
I'm sorry, and the issue. Now, I don't know if this is
where our term issue came from. You might talk to some folks
sometimes that, well, you know, I've got an anger issue, or I've
got an issue with this or an issue with that. It's called
sin. You look up this word, I don't
know why the translators use the word issue, because the word
is the same as a poisonous serpent. That's the word in the original
language. So what's hanging on this nail?
All the glory of the Father's house, all His righteousness,
all of His justification, all of His love and grace and mercy
and forgiveness and hope and joy, everything's hanging on
that nail. And all of his people, all of his offspring, are hanging
on that nail. So that when Christ went to the
cross, Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet it's not I, but it's Christ
that liveth in me, 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.
Oh, that I might know Him in the fellowship of His suffering.
When Christ died on Calvary's cross, I was nailed with Him
as His offspring. And all my poisonous serpents,
all my issues, all my sin was nailed with Him. And God put
it away once and for all. The valley of vision. Is it your vision? Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word and the revelation that You've made of Thy dear
Son. And we pray, Lord, that You would open heaven and open
our hearts and open Your Word Lord, that no man could shut
us out. We won't be able to shut ourselves
out. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Brother Byrd, 228, let's stand
together. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the Ever-Living One. His wounds for me shall heal. plead. I need no other argument,
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for Enough for me that Jesus say,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. My great physician heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument, I need
no other their plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Alright, let's do this.