Wow, what a difference. Is that
right, 62? John said in Revelation chapter
1, and I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being
turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the golden
candlesticks, I saw one like unto the Son of Man, clothed
with a garment down to his foot, and girded about with paps with
a golden girdle." John saw Christ walking among the churches. The
candlesticks were the churches. And he was in the Spirit on the
Lord's Day. I hope that'll be our experience.
We'll be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And that we'll turn
to see the voice that's spoken unto us and being turned. You got that? We turned. John said, I turned and being
turned. Who turned him? The Lord turned
him. I saw Christ. That's our hope this morning.
Let's stand together. Tom's going to come lead us in
number 62. Number 62, crown him with many
crowns. Crown him with many crowns. The Lamb upon His Throne. Mark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky, Can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries
so bright Crown Him the Lord of life, Who triumphed o'er the
grave, Who rose victorious to the strife, For those He came
to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. Crown Him the Lord of heaven,
One with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given,
From yonder glorious throne. to thee be endless praise, for
thou for us hast died. Be thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Please be seated. Morning, beloved. Can you turn
to 1 Corinthians 1? 1 Corinthians 1 for our scripture
reading. If you're a sinner this morning,
this is a very familiar and very precious passage. Verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. When were we saved? By the sovereign
electing determined grace and mercy of our Lord in eternity. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's my hope this
morning, that the Lord would save me this morning, enable
me to believe Him this morning. For the Jews, the religious require
a sign, and the Greeks, the intellects, continue to puff up with wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. That's all we got, Brother Greg.
That's all we have. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ. the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see, if you're a sinner saved by God, you see this. For
you see your calling, brethren. You know this. How that not many
wise men, after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble,
are called. And here's our resume. Every
sinner knows this. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things, unable to do anything for themselves, of the
world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things
of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen,
or the residue. things which are not, to bring
to not things that are, and here's the crux. that no flesh should
glory in his presence. The preaching of the gospel puts
law and grace in its proper perspective. There's only one that can stand
glorious in his presence. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
his dear son. And we by union in him, and he
says that in verse 30, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that gloryeth,
let him glory in the Lord. And that's my prayer this morning,
that we would glory in him. Lord, we do come to you and the one that you are well
pleased, thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Everything that
you require of us, Lord, you find in him. And, oh, Lord, when
you do come, may we be found in him. Lord, unless you blessed the preaching of
the word this morning, Lord, we're not gonna be saved. And
we ask, Lord, you would do that. Lord, send your Holy Spirit.
We need to be saved. We need to be kept. We need to
have your righteousness. We need to be forgiven of our
sins. Lord, all of this is for Christ's sake. Lord, would you
do that? And as you have so often, Lord, your faithfulness to provide
a message, I pray now you'd bless that to our brother's heart.
Give him utterance. Give us ears to hear, Lord. Oh,
Lord, we just want to worship you and exalt you. Forgive us
of our sins. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
For we ask it in Christ's name, to his glory. Amen. Let's stand together again. Hymn
number 352. 352. Let's all stand together. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide
me, O my Savior, hide. till the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring. Hover, my defenseless head, with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. If the Lord has given us any
understanding, and that's where it comes from if we have it,
of that hymn that we just sang, then I know what your answer
is to the title of this message. I asked this question Wednesday
night, and I've titled the message this morning, This Question. is Christ all you have. Not is He all you need, is He
all you have. You've got nothing else. No place
else to go. That's what we just sang. That's what the scripture teaches.
He is all and He is in all. I've got no place else to go.
I've got no other hope for salvation. I've got no other one to provide
for me life, liberty, freedom from the law. Christ is all I
have. Now, there's a whole lot of folks
that are trying to reconcile what they hear when the gospel
is preached to something else. I know people that try to reconcile
the gospel of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ to religion. And they're trying to find some
common ground. And they're confused. Well, they can't be reconciled. You can't reconcile it to religion.
You can't reconcile it to free will. You can't reconcile it
to works. I know people who try to reconcile
the gospel to psychology. And they're trying to understand,
well, how does this gospel work in the world of psychological
things? And they remain confused. They
try to reconcile the gospel to philosophy. There's only two
schools of philosophy that the scripture teaches of in all the
world, Stoicism and Epicureanism. And most men go between the two
schools of philosophy constantly, looking for peace, looking for
happiness. They think, well, I'll become
a Stoic. I'll search out the deep things
of life, and I'll discover the meaning of life through Stoicism,
and it's not there. So then they become Epicureans. They think, well, I'll just indulge
myself in the pleasures of this world. That'll give me meaning.
That'll give me hope. And they do that for a while,
and then that doesn't satisfy them. And isn't that the way
we are? We just go back and forth between Stoicism and Epicureanism. That's what the Word of God teaches.
And both are contrary to the Gospel. The Gospel is all about Christ.
And He becomes everything to you. Because He's all you've
got. He's all you've got. Turn with
me in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 11, please. Isaiah chapter 11. Is Christ all you have? Is he all you have? Everybody saw the Lord Jesus
Christ. as just another man. His outward appearance did not
cause him to be distinguished from the outward appearance of
anyone else. You're the Messiah? You're God? We know you. We know your father's
Joseph. We know your mother. We know
your brothers and sisters. You're one of us. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh, according to Romans chapter 8, for what the law could
not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh to
redeem them who are under the law. So the Lord Jesus Christ
comes into this world as a man. God doesn't split the eastern
sky and present himself in some superhuman form. He's born of
a woman, born under the law to redeem them who are cursed by
the law. He comes in the body of a man. And that's what our scripture
tells us. The very first verse, look. And there shall come forth. Now let me just stop for just
a moment and say this. When God says something shall
happen, it shall happen. You can rest your immortal soul
on the shalls of God. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. God says this shall happen, it's
going to happen. There's lots of shalls in the
Word of God. And the comfort of our soul rests
in the fact that our God cannot lie and that what he promises
he must also perform. That's what faith is. And so
the Lord says, 650 years before the Lord Jesus Christ
was born of a woman, in the world. There shall come forth a rod. That's a twig. That's a little sprout of growth
that comes out of the stump of a tree after you cut the tree
down. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. I think it's glorious to trace
the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. I see on TV all these
advertisements for discovering your ancestry and your genealogy. I dare not go there. I can only
imagine. I've seen pictures of some of
my relatives. I can only imagine what lurks
in the shadows of my family tree. The same thing lurked in the
shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ family tree according to the
flesh. He came from the root of Jesse. Jesse was the grandson of Boaz,
birthed through his wife Ruth, who was a Moabitist. You're talking
about shameful. To have a Moabite in your family
tree, according to the law, would have been a shameful thing, and
yet the Lord Jesus Christ comes into this world through the birth
of a child, Obed, who was birthed through Boaz and Ruth. You remember when Boaz redeemed
Ruth, and he said, there is a kinsman nearer to you than me, and I've
got to deal with him first. And so Boaz goes to this nearer
kinsman and says to this nearer kinsman, here's Naomi, and she
needs to be redeemed. And if you're going to redeem
her, redeem her. But if you're not, I will. And
the Nero Kinsman says to Boaz, I'll redeem her. And Boaz says
to the Nero Kinsman, in the day in which you redeem Naomi, you
must also redeem the Moabitest Ruth. And what did that Nero
Kinsman say? Oh, no. I can't have a Moabite
in my family tree. It will mar my inheritance. We can't do that. And so, Boaz
takes Ruth, a Moabite, shameful Moabite, and God brings Christ
into the world through her. And then Jesse gives birth to
David, and David has this horribly shameful relationship with Bathsheba,
you know all about that. And who's birthed out of that
union? Solomon! in the family tree of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And even long before that, Jacob
had a son, oldest son, who was married to a woman by the name
of Tamar. And the scripture says that Jacob's son was evil in
the sight of the Lord and God killed him. And so, according
to the law, his son's wife, Tamar, was given to the next son, and
the next son refused to have children by her, and so God killed
him. And so Tamar, desperate to have
children, dresses herself up like a harlot and deceives herself
to Jacob, her father-in-law. And Jacob lies with her, and
she gets pregnant with twins. And that's the story. You remember
where the two children come out? The first one comes out, and
the midwife wraps a red scarlet thread around the hand of the
first child. And then the child goes back
in, and the next child comes out. Fair as! He's in the lineage. He's in the family tree of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the firstborn. And that
one with the scarlet thread, that's you and me. Pharaz had
to be born first. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. Sound like your family tree?
Sound like your family? We're a mass, aren't we? Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
come into this world in such a way, in such a shameful way? Because He came to save sinners. And what the law could not do,
Christ being made in the likeness of sinful flesh, came in order
to redeem those who are cursed by the law. What a glorious Savior! that He was willing to be wrapped
in the flesh of sinful men. And yet without sin, God made
Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. The only hope of righteousness
that I have is Christ. Christ must be all to me. I don't
have anything in my family tree. I don't have anything in my ancestry.
I don't have anything in my heritage that I can look to for the hope
of my salvation. Christ is all I've got. He's all I've got. Is He all
you have? All you have, you've got no place
else to go. Don't you love it when Peter
and James and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration and
the veil of our Lord's humanity is taken away just long enough
for them to catch a glimpse of the glory of His deity. And it was, the Scripture says
it was brighter than the noonday sun and they fell to the ground
with their face in the dirt and there Elijah and Moses appear. And the Law and the Prophets
and the Lord Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of all the prophecies
and all the Law of God. He's the end of the Law for righteousness
and all prophecies speak of Him. And after that experience, Peter
wants to build a tabernacle for Moses and Elijah and Christ. And yet the scripture says, And
when he looked up, he saw none save Jesus only. He was the only
one there. Moses was no longer there. Prophets
were no longer there. Why? Because everything in scripture
was bound up in Christ. He came to fulfill all prophecy
and he came to satisfy all the law. You try to reconcile the
gospel to some appearance of prophecy that men talk about
in terms of the events of this world and try to tie verses of
the Bible to the front page of the newspaper. People do that.
There's no way to reconcile those. Christ is the fulfillment of
all prophecy. Look to Him. He came as a shoot,
a branch, a little twig that grew out of the stump of Jesse,
a shameful man, who gave birth to a shameful man, who gave birth
to a shameful man, who gave birth to Christ. The only one who is able to present
himself before a holy God without shame. And the only way that
you and I are going to stand in the presence of God is to
be found in him. Is he all to you? Is your acceptance before
God only in Christ? Are you looking to see some evidence
of your acceptance and your salvation based on something that you've
done? Based on a prayer that you prayed, or a decision that
you've made, or a work that you've performed, or what is my... Yeah, I've got to have Christ,
and Christ is the source, and He's the beginning of it, but
there's got to be more. No, there's no more. There's
no more. He's everything. The Lord came into this world
through harlots and sinners to save harlots and sinners.
Are you one? Revelation chapter 1 and verse
4, the scripture speaks of when John sees the Lord Jesus Christ
sitting upon His throne in glory, he speaks of the seven spirits
of God. Now the number seven is the number
of perfection. It's not as if there are seven
Holy Spirits. There's one Holy Spirit and He's perfect in everything. And so the next two verses tell
us what those seven spirits of God are. These are the seven
ministries of the Holy Spirit. and they are complete in Christ. Don't you love it when the woman
at the well, she was a Samaritan. She was a half-breed. She wasn't accepted in Jerusalem
and the worship of God. She was avoided by all the Jews.
She said to the Lord, You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan. Jews
don't have anything to do with Samaritans. And the Lord said, Oh, if you
knew the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee, Give
me a drink, you'd give to me. I'd give to you and you'd have
life. And the Lord goes on and carries
on the conversation with her, bringing her to that point of
understanding who he is and seeing her need for him. And here's
a statement she made. We know that when Messiah comes,
he'll lead us into all truth. The hope of our salvation is
knowing that God has promised to send a Messiah, the Christ,
the Anointed One. And when He comes, He's going
to come in the full power of the Spirit of God and everything
will be bound up in Him. All wisdom, all knowledge, all
salvation, all understanding, everything will be in Christ.
And even that Samaritan woman knew that. Well, here it is. Look, the seven Spirits of God.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. He's going to
come. God gives to his people a measure
of the Spirit of God. We look through a glass dimly.
We have the fruits of the Spirit in love and joy and peace and
long-suffering and temperance and patience, and those things
are just in measure. because we bear this body of
death. We've got sin and everything's
infected by it, isn't it? But the Lord Jesus Christ came
in the full power of the Spirit of God. That's what Christ means.
That's what Messiah means. That's what anointed means. And
here's the promise of God. He's going to come in the full
power of the Spirit of God and with Him will be wisdom and understanding
and counsel and might and knowledge and the fear of the Lord and
quick understanding. That's the seven spirits spoken
of in Revelation chapter 1 verse 4. Wisdom. Wisdom. Now that word literally translated
means skillful at war or skillful at work. That means this person's
an expert at what they do. Now what did the Lord Jesus Christ
come into this world to do? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Tell them that their warfare is accomplished. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world in order to fight our battle for
us. The battle's not yours. It's the Lord's. He defeated
Satan. He defeated death. He fulfilled
the law. He fought the battle all by himself. Why? Because he came in the full
power of the Spirit of God, and with him was wisdom, skillfulness
at warfare, and skillfulness at work. What was his work? He came to work the works of
God. And they said, what can we do to work the works of God?
And what did the Lord Jesus Christ say? This is the work of God,
that you believe on Him whom He has sent. That's the only
work of God. And that's not your work for
God, to believe on Him. That's God's work in you, causing
you to say, Christ is all I've got. He's all I have. If I'm gonna defeat death, if
I'm gonna defeat Satan, if sin's gonna be put away, if God's gonna
be satisfied, all I've got is Christ. If the law's gonna be
fulfilled, I need one who's skillful in work to do that for me. And
here he is. The one who comes with all wisdom.
With all understanding. How much time do we spend in
our minds trying to get to the bottom of things? Things are
complicated usually, aren't they? And they're multifaceted. And because of the sin and corruption
of our hearts, we just can't always get to the real core of
anything, can we? We can't get to the bottom of
it. That's what this word understanding means. It means discernment.
It means perfect understanding. And David said in Psalm 139,
such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I cannot attain it. I cannot attain it. It's high. It's lifted up. It's beyond my
ability. And here's the Lord Jesus Christ
who comes through the lineage of Jesse with all sorts of garbage
in his family tree in order to redeem sinners whose family tree
looks just like his. He came with wisdom and with
understanding. He knows men's hearts. He knows
your heart. He understands. Go to Psalm 139. He knows my thoughts before I
think of them. Before you think a thought, He's already got it.
He's never had a new thought. He's never been taught anything.
He knows everything from beginning to end, all at one time and all
the time. He's going to come with perfect
wisdom and perfect understanding. Now that's the kind of God you
need. That's the kind of God I need.
Because I can't discern what's true and not true and I can't
figure this thing out. Lord, I need You. to be my wisdom
and to be my understanding and to be my counselor. You need
therapy? I need therapy every day. All
the time I've got to have a therapist. But I know that any man that
I go to for therapy is going to be just as messed up as I
am. And he's not going to be able to help me. But I can go
to Christ and he's my counselor. Unto you a child is born, unto
you a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and
he shall be a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace." Oh, what a counselor he is. Go
to him. Why do men go to another man
for counseling? It's because they're devoid of
the Spirit of God. They don't know Christ. Lord, would you reveal yourself
to me so that I can have a perfect counselor who has all wisdom
and all understanding? Might. You see that? Look, here's
the fourth of the seven spirits. Power. Ability. You and I are unable We're unable
to satisfy one dot, one crossing of the T. We can't do anything
to satisfy anything in God's law. And he said, the law of
God. How does the scripture say it?
Not one dot or tittle. That's the dot on the top of
the I and the crossing of the T. It's all going to be fulfilled. It's all going to be fulfilled.
I'm going to do it all. You can't even put a dot on the top of
an eye. He's done it all. Why? Because He's powerful. He's omnipotent. He possesses all power and all
ability and we possess nothing. We run around this world as worms
trying to impress other worms of what strength we've got flexing
our muscles and competing with one another and the Lord looks
at us and he laughs. You don't have any power. You
can't save yourself. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. What are you going to present
God? He came with the anointing of
the Spirit of God in all wisdom, all understanding, all counsel,
all might, and all knowledge. What are you going to teach God? We pray sometimes, we cry out
in our hearts as if we're telling God something He doesn't know.
Isn't that foolish? Oh Lord, I know You know this.
take notice of me have mercy upon me Lord the center he's got all knowledge he's got
all the answers and all the solution he's already he is the knowledge
of God he's already fulfilled everything that God requires
for the salvation of his people And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. Do you know Christ? You say,
well, I don't know if I know Him or not. I know some things
about Him. Is He all to you? Do you still think you can add
something to what He's done? Do you still think He's dependent
upon you? To put your two cents worth in?
To make what He did work for you? No. You don't know Christ. Is He everything? You see, Christ
being everything to you is the flip side of you being a sinner. God makes you to be a sinner.
You know that sin goes much deeper than just your behavior. It's what you are. You can't
produce anything that's acceptable before God. You can't produce
anything that's righteous before God. Everything you do is infected
with your sin nature. You're in need of Christ being
your righteousness. All our righteousnesses are his
filthy rags. He's the only one who's righteous
before God. Fear of the Lord. You know what
that is? It's not a cringing, slavish fear of God's wrath and
judgment upon us. The wrath of God doesn't lead
to repentance. It's the goodness of God that
leads to repentance. It's the love of God that leads
to repentance. And fear of the Lord is faith.
It's trusting Christ. It's looking unto Him as the
author and the finisher of your salvation, the Alpha and the
Omega, everything in between. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only man who ever did that all the time with all that he had. You and
I have never had perfect faith. God requires perfect faith. He
requires perfect faith. Here's the summary of the law.
Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and all of your
mind, and all of your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.
That's what God requires all the time. All the time. You and I have never been able
to do that for a moment. Not for a second of your life
have you been able to have a holy thought. Not for a second of
your life have you been able to love God with all your heart,
all your mind, and all your soul, and there wasn't a second of
his life when he didn't. He feared the Lord to the bowing
of his mighty head on Calvary's cross when he said, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. He trusted God to his dying breath. He feared God. He believed God. And the hope of our salvation
is looking to him and his faith. And if he gives you faith to
do that, He'll be everything to you. Quick understanding. Perhaps
you have in the margin of your Bible the word scent for quick
understanding. That's the word there. You ever
used the term, does it pass the smell test? Well, that's the
idea here. That the Lord doesn't look. He
goes on to say, look what He says. but with righteousness,
I'm sorry, verse three, and shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord. He's gonna smell it before he
sees it. He's gonna know it by how it
smells. And he shall not judge after
the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of
his ears. He's not gonna be like you and me. You and I have to
make judgments based on, we can't judge a man's heart. You know,
people talk about hate crimes. How can you judge a man's heart?
You judge based on what a person does, the motive behind it. And yet, God looks at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. He discerns
the heart. He doesn't make his judgments
based on what he sees or what he hears. Oh, I'm so thankful
for that. I'm so thankful that God's not judging me based on
what he sees me do and not do. or what he hears me say and not
say. There's plenty of times I should
speak up that I don't. There's things I ought to do
I don't do. There's things I should do that I don't do. And there's
things that I should not do that I do. Romans chapter 7 Paul describes
my experience. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God through Christ
I am free. He shall not judge by what he
sees. He's going to sniff out faith
in the heart. He knows if Christ is everything
to you. He knows if you're adding to
or taking away from the Lord Jesus Christ, because if Christ
is everything to you, he made you to be that way. He gave you
that faith. I hope you're saying with me
right now, Lord, give me that kind of faith. I want Christ
to be everything to me. Oh, forgive me for adding to
and taking away from the Lord Jesus Christ. But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor. Lord, that's me. I'm poor. Poverty
stricken. I don't have anything. I don't
know anything. I can't bring anything to the altar of salvation
I'm in need of someone else to be my righteousness The Lord
Jesus Christ is described in the Bible as a plumb line and
everything's gonna be measured up to him And we're gonna find
ourselves to be teetering walls To fall over and destroy a man
Christ is my God's gonna judge everything by him. I everything's
gonna be judged by him I'm so glad for that if God looks at
me with righteousness shall he judge
the poor and this thing about smelling to the scripture speaks
of our prayers going up to the altar of God and him bottling
up those prayers as a sweet smelling aroma what are we praying it's
not that our prayers are perfect we're praying that God would
have mercy upon us for Christ's sake For Christ's sake. We're not offering God anything
else. We're not arguing with God. We're not debating with
God. We're not saying, you know, Lord,
well, I've done this, and this isn't fair. No, that's what Job
did until the Lord was pleased to reveal himself to him, and
then what did Job say? Behold, I am vile. I had heard of thee by the hearing
of mine ears, but now mine eyes have seen thee, and I repent
in dust and ashes. It's a work of grace in the heart.
And I stand amazed. Preached the gospel recently,
as clear as I know how to preach it. And two people came to me
afterwards that I know personally don't believe the gospel. And
they said, oh, that was wonderful. And I said, you believe what
I just preached? You believe that God loves, that
God doesn't love everybody? That Christ didn't die for everybody?
that God's not trying to get folks saved? You believe that
God has elect people that he chose in the covenant of grace
before the foundation of the world? I asked them all the things
that I just preached. Didn't say a word. They did not
say a word. See, they sat there and they
heard the name Jesus. And they were in the church where
everything seemed sweet and nice. And they were completely deaf.
to what was being said. Oh, wasn't that wonderful? No,
those are words of death to you unless God gives you grace to
believe them. With righteousness shall he judge
the poor and reprove with equity for the meek. See, you and I
are nothing but inequity. If you own your home, I hope
you're not upside down on it. I know some people are, and I'm
sorry for that because of the economy. What you owe on your
home versus what it's worth, I hope you've got some equity
in it. And that's what makes up the difference between what
you owe on it and what it's worth. And the Lord calls Our works,
inequitous. They don't equal up. Add all
you want. God calls them inequity. They don't satisfy the demands
of His righteousness. He said, I'm going to judge the
poor in righteousness and in equity. I'm going to provide
something that's going to enable them to equal up, to measure
up to the standard of my righteousness. It's amazing how many folks think
that there's a balance scale in heaven with their name on
it. Every time they do something good, God puts it on one side.
Every time they do something bad, God puts it on the other
side. And they're living their lives in this world just hoping
that the good is going to outweigh the bad when they die. It's amazing. That's the natural man. That's
what people think. What they don't know is that
what they think they're putting on the good side has ended up
on the bad side. And the scale's just getting
more and more tipped out of their favor. With everything they do,
God says it's inequity. But with equity, I'm going to
judge them. I'm going to put Christ on the other side, and
He's going to tip the scale in their favor. Christ is all I've
got over there. He's all I've got. I've got nothing
else. But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. There's
no middle ground. There's no gray area. It's life
or it's death. And the same message will either
give you life or it will slay you. Oh, God, don't let the gospel
fall on deaf ears. Lord, give me grace to trust
Christ and to trust him alone for all my salvation. For I know
you are a holy God and you judge in righteousness and in equity
and I can't provide anything. I need a savior. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. You have no righteousness. I
have no righteousness. We're not faithful. I want you to be faithful in
your marriage and be faithful in your friendships, and we ought
to be, and by God's grace we will be. I'm talking about perfect
faithfulness toward God. Christ was and He is. He's the
one who came in the anointing of the Spirit of God. And let
me close with this. Look at this. And the wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with
the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them. What does that mean? If the Lord didn't teach us the
gospel, if he didn't have mercy upon us, it's hard for me to
think about this because I love you all and I know you love me
and you love one another. It's hard for me to think about
this. But if we weren't believers and we were competing in this
world, and some of you, we did this in religion, we competed
with one another and we were prey and predator. prey and predator trying to devour one another
to see who could get the advantage over another and when the gospel
of God's grace comes the wolf lies down with the lamb and a
child shall lead them. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Here's what it means in religion Men are led by the fear of the
law. They're led by intimidation. They're led by threats. If you
don't do this, and if you don't act this way, and if you don't
work things out, we're going to crack the whip of the law
on you. And the men that lead them promote themselves as being
the the standard of righteousness. I'm the elder, I'm the leader,
I'm the priest, I'm the prophet, I'm the bishop, and you're going
to do it my way. And when the gospel of God's
grace comes, we take little Gabriel. How old
is Gabriel now? Three weeks old? We take little
Gabriel, every one of us, and we look at that baby, Say, he's
the one leading me. Because lest I become like a
little child, I should not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer
the little children to come unto me for such are the kingdom of
God. That baby can't do anything but mess its diaper and cry. And that's all I can do. I'm
led by a baby. I'm not led by intimidation.
I'm not led by self-righteousness. I'm not led by the law. I'm not
led by a strong man who's trying to overpower me. I'm not led
by competing with one another. I'm led by a child, and that
baby becomes our example of faith. totally dependent upon Christ
alone for all our salvation and all our life. Is Christ everything
to you? Is he all you've got? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and we ask Lord for your Holy Spirit to bless
it to our hearts for we prayed in Christ's name. Amen. 133,
let's stand together, 133. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The strife is o'er, the battle
done. The victory of life is won. The song of triumph has begun. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The powers of death have done
their worst, but Christ their legions hath dispersed. Let shouts of holy joy outburst. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The three sad days have quickly
sped. He rises glorious from the dead. All glory to our risen Head. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! He closed the yawning gates of
hell. The bars from heaven's high portals
fell. Let hymns of praise his triumphs
tell. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Lord, by the stripes which wounded
Thee, from death's dread sting, Thy servants free, that we may
live and sing to Thee. Alleluia. That's it. Okay.