an emergency appendectomy on
Wednesday, and he went home last night, so he's home recovering.
Oh, there's Susan. Hey, Susan. And Lord willing, Savannah's
going to go into the hospital tonight about midnight, and they're
going to begin inducing labor for her. So maybe sometime tomorrow
we'll have a new baby. in our fellowship. Remember Savannah.
All right. Bert, the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. I ask the Lord that I might grow
in faith and love and every grace, might more of His salvation know
and see more earnestly His face. was He who taught me thus to
pray, and He, I trust, has answered prayer. But it has been in such
a way as almost drove me to despair. I hope that in some favored hour
At once he'd answer my request And by his love's constraining
power Subdue my sins and give me rest Instead of this, He made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart, and let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in heaven. Yang Moor with his own hand he
seemed Intent to aggravate my woe Cross all the fair design
I seem Blasted my gourds and laid me Why is this, I trembling cry? Wilt thou pursue thy worm to
death? Tis in this way the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith. This inward trial I employ
from self and pride to set thee free and break the schemes of
earthly joy that thou may hide thy all in me. Please be seated. That's a good hymn. That's my
experience. And that was the Apostle Paul's
experience, too, when he said that he had a thorn in his flesh
and asked the Lord to remove it. And the Lord said, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in your
weakness. in your weakness. Faith, contrary
to what a lot of people believe, is not our strength. It's the
admission of our weakness. Lord, I'm not able. Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 4 for our scripture reading this morning.
Hebrews chapter 4. We'll begin reading at verse
9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. That's what I'm interested in.
I need to know that there's a place where I can rest my soul from
all fear of judgment, wrath, punishment. Where can I rest? For he that is entered into his
rest He also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. That's where you rest. You rest
when you're not working. Let us labor therefore. It's
the hardest thing. The natural man is going to find
something to do. Let us labor to enter into that
rest lest any man fall after the example of unbelief. For
the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Lord, would you speak to my heart
by your word? Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? It is That's our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly. That doesn't mean with a cocky
spirit. It means with confidence. With
confidence. Let us come with confidence.
to the throne of grace, that we might find, that we may obtain
mercy and find grace, grace to help in our time of need. I'm
confident that the Lord Jesus Christ did everything necessary
to make me acceptable to God. Everything that God requires
of me, he looks to Christ for. That's my confidence. That's
grace. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but by His grace and mercy He saved us. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we ask that You would minister that grace to our hearts
and enable us to enter into Thy rest, to find the Lord Jesus
Christ, work to be finished, and to be able to rest our souls
in knowing that he is the propitiation for our sins, that they've been
put away, covered by his blood. Lord, we do pray again that you
would forgive us for our inability to worship you as we ought. Truly, Lord, you are holy. We're
in need of Christ to intercede even, even in the Attempts that we make to worship
you. Comfort our hearts. Calls us
Lord to. To rest in Christ. For it's in
his name we ask it. Amen. We're going to remain seated
for this next hymn. Would you turn to number 103?
103 I do know this, after we sing
this hymn, I guarantee you'll be singing this the rest of the
week. It's a favorite hymn of ours. 103. One day when heaven was filled
with His praises One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin Dwelt among men, my
example is He Living, He loved me Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day! One day they led Him up Calvary's
mountain, One day they nailed Him to die on the tree. Suffering anguish, despised and
rejected, Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He. Living, He loved
me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming. Oh, glorious day! One day they left Him alone in
the garden, One day He rested from suffering free. Angels came down o'er His tomb
to keep vigil, Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is He. Living, He loved
me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the grave could conceal
him no longer, One day the stone robed away from the door. Then he arose, over death he
had conquered, Now is ascended, my Lord evermore. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sin far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming. One day the skies with His glory
will shine. Wonderful day, my beloved one's
bringing. Glorious Savior, this Jesus is
mine. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Bared, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. I hope that's an earworm in my
brain. I love that hymn. I've got so
many other things going on in my mind that don't need to be
there. I'm thankful when the Lord puts a hymn on our heart. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 8. chapter 8. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy
chapter 4 that the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine. They won't put up with the gospel.
But After their own lust, and that lust is not necessarily
a lust to indulge one's flesh in pleasure, it is a lust for
power. After their own lust, they will
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They will heap
to themselves preachers that are masquerading themselves as disciples,
as prophets of God, who are leading the people of God, leading men,
I should say, into a works gospel, a freewill gospel. In Isaiah
chapter 8, the Lord gives us the remedy to that problem. Look
what he says in verse 20, to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. That's how we can try the spirits
to see whether they be of God. That's how we can tell a false
prophet from a prophet of God. That's how we can find true rest
for our souls or be deceived by one who is saying, peace,
peace, when there is no peace. Those who would speak comfort
to our hearts and deceive us with lies of Satan. How do we tell the difference?
The Lord said, if they speak not according to the law, that
word's Torah. He's not talking about the Ten
Commandments. He's talking about the full canon
of scripture. He's talking about this book.
If this book, the Word of God, is not the source of their understanding,
it's because there's no light in them. But he doesn't end with
that. He doesn't say, well, they have
to be preaching from the Bible, because there's a whole lot of
folks that are doing that that are false prophets. And so he
adds the testimony. The testimony is the message
of this book. The testimony is the meaning
of this book. Peter put it like this, he said,
all flesh is as grass, and the flower of the grass is like the
field, is mown down, but the word of God endureth forever. The word of God endureth forever,
and this is the word. which by the gospel is preached
unto you. So there's the word, there's
the law, and the testimony. The scripture makes it clear
that the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in Revelation, the Bible says
that Christ is the spirit of prophecy. So all of scripture
speaks of him. And the testimony, I'm sorry,
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. All right,
so let's back up. I wanna know, I wanna know if
what I'm hearing is true. I wanna have assurance of my
salvation. And let me say this, only the
Lord can give you that. Any man that will try to speak
peace to another man's heart is a man that doesn't have peace
himself. I can't speak peace to your heart.
That's God's work. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
I had a man tell me one time, you need to speak peace to my
children. They're beginning to doubt their salvation. They'd
all been saved since they were two or three years old, according
to him. And after hearing the gospel, they're beginning to
wonder whether or not they ever were saved, which is a good thing.
And he held me responsible to speak peace to his children's
heart. You need to remove from them the doubts that they're
experiencing. He himself was doubting his own
salvation. The only man that'll go around
trying to convince another man that he's right with God is a
man that's not right with God. I can't convince you you're right
with God. You can't convince me that I'm right with God. That's
a work of the Spirit of God. You're going to have to go to
the throne of grace for that. To find help in your time of
need. I pray that the Lord will give
me grace. to speak a word of comfort. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.
Tell them that warfare is accomplished. I want you to find that place
of rest. I want to have rest for my soul. I want to have comfort. I want
to have hope and assurance in my salvation. But all we can
do is declare the testimony. The Lord's the one that has to
make it effectual. We speak the outward call. God speaks the inward call. He's the only one that can do
that. Verse 16, in Isaiah chapter 8,
bind up the testimony. The Lord's commanding the prophet,
bind up the testimony. and the law among my disciples. Preach the gospel. Christ is
the testimony. He's the meaning of the Bible. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. And so the Lord's commanding
the prophet, the preacher, to bind up the testimony, seal the
law among my disciples. My disciples are the only ones
who are going to hear it. The, the, the reprobate's not gonna
hear it, but my sheep will hear my voice, and they will follow
me. And I, look at verse 17, and
I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house
of Jacob, and I will look for him. Now that's a, that's a call
from God and a promise to his people. If you search for me
with all of your heart, you will find me. But also that's a declaration
of what the Lord Jesus Christ experienced on Calvary's cross.
When He was forsaken of the Father, when the sins of His people were
placed on Him, and God was forced by His holy justice to forsake
His own Son, He hid His face from the Lord. And yet, in the
midst of that forsaking, the scripture says that the Lord
Jesus Christ trusted his father. I will wait upon him. I will
trust him, even though he has forsaken me. Though he slay me,
Job said, yet will I trust him. Job didn't have perfect faith.
There was times in Job's illnesses and sickness where he had not
yet been slayed, that he didn't trust God. But speaking prophetically
about the Lord Jesus Christ, though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. Father, into Thy hands I commend
my spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only man that had perfect faith. He trusted God perfectly. And
the hope of your salvation and my salvation is that the testimony
of who He is and what He accomplished would be bound up in our hearts
and that we would be looking to Him and His faithfulness to
the Father for all the hope of our salvation. So that when we
believe not, He remaineth faithful. Lord, I do believe, help thou
mine unbelief. Lord, I'm so full of unbelief.
I can't even worship you. I can't even make an offering.
I can't even serve you without it being filled with flesh. I
need one who stands in my stead before you. One in whom you are
pleased. One in whom I can have full assurance
and full acceptance. If the assurance of your salvation
is based on anything that you do, number one, you will have
no assurance. Number two, you'll be a liar. One of the two. You'll either
lie to yourself, convince yourself that you've got something you
don't have. If you're an honest person, you'll never have assurance
of salvation. If it's based on your faith and
your faithfulness and your free will and your works, You can
never know that you've done enough. But if it's based on Him and
what He's done and who He is, though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. I will wait upon the Lord that
hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for
Him. And He did. And God rewarded
Him for His faith. His works went before Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that can do that. His works went before him to
recommend him to God. And God looked at his works.
And God said, I'm pleased. This is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. And God was obligated to receive
the Lord Jesus Christ back into his presence based on his perfect
faith. And based on his perfect faithfulness. Can't say it about me. Can't
say it about you, can we? That's why the scripture says
whatever is not a faith is sin, is sin. Lord enable me to cast
the whole hope of all my salvation on thy dear son. He's the only
one. Behold, behold. And when God uses that word,
behold, he's saying, here's something absolutely amazing. Here's something
that you can't see on your own. Here's a mystery that will be
hid from the eyes of the natural man. Here's a work that God must
reveal to you. Behold. Job said, behold, I am
vile. I see something I never saw before.
And now the Lord says, Behold, I and the children whom the Lord
hath given me. That's Christ speaking, isn't
it? I and the children whom the Lord hath given me. Father, John
chapter 17, I pray not for the world. Now that's the voice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If God loves everybody and wants
everybody to be saved, And Christ died for everybody. Why would
the Lord Jesus Christ say, Father, I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me out of the world, thine they
were, and thou gavest them unto me? Keep them, Father. Why would he pray that? He wouldn't. I and the children which thou
hast given unto me. God has an elect people. He chose
them in the covenant of grace before time ever began, and He
did it according to His own will and purpose. He did not look
down through the corridors of time and see anything of any
merit in any man and say, well, I'll choose him. No. No. Before the children were
born, before they had done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, Jacob I have loved
and Esau I have hated. That's what God says. That's what I believe. That's
my hope. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, it is because there's no light in
them. He didn't say, well, they might
have some light or they've got little light. No. They're either,
they're either sin of God or they're sin of the devil. We
saw that in a previous hour. We'd be children of Abraham. What'd the Lord say to those
Pharisees? You think they were outwardly moral? You think they
were religious? You think they were upstanding
citizens in the community? Sure they were. And what did
the Lord say to them? Your father is the devil. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, the whole of Scripture I've been
there. I'm speaking from experience. There was a time when I was a
false prophet, and I was preaching from this book. But I'd come
upon things that didn't agree with my doctrine, and I'd just
skip over them. I was like that king in the Old
Testament that they brought the scriptures to and the Bible says
that he read them and he took his pen knife and he cut out
the parts he didn't like. And that's what we did. We rested
the scriptures. We changed the word of God to
fit what we thought. They spoke not according to the
law and the testimony because there was no light in them. You listen to men preach today,
they'll preach moralisms, they'll preach politics, they'll preach
doctrine. But they won't preach Christ.
They speak not according to the law and the time. It's because
there is no light in them. None. They're in darkness. Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel
from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion. Where
the law and the testimony is preached, that's where the Lord
is. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. I inhabit
the praise of my people. I walk among the candlesticks.
I live in Zion. That's where I'm going to manifest
my glory. Nowhere else. I want to be where God is. I
want to be where He's pleased to save sinners, because that's
what I am. I'm a sinner in need of grace.
And this is His promise. I and the children which Thou
hast given Me, they are for a sign and a wonder. You want a sign? You want to wander? Look at the
work of grace in God's people. Look at how the Lord takes a
man from darkness and brings him to light. Look at how the
self-righteous is brought to see that his strength is made
perfect in my weakness. Look how God changes one who
believed in free will to know. that God's absolutely sovereign
in salvation. He'll have mercy upon whom He
will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardeneth. He's the
potter and we're the clay. What a transformation! What a
change! It's not like anything else,
is it? People say, well, I know I'm a child of God because I'm
not doing this or that anymore. Don't look to that for the hope
of your salvation. There's a whole lot of folks
who have turned over a new leaf and changed bad habits and started
doing good things. The Lord told a parable about
a man who had a demon in his house. One demon. And he cast
the demon out and he swept the house clean and garnished it. And you know what that's a picture
of? That's a picture of a person who's got a really bad habit.
A self-destructing habit. Whatever it is. And he's gotten
sick and tired of being sick and tired and he's decided he's
going to turn over a new leaf. And he changes his life. And
he puts that demon out of his house. And he sweeps the house
clean. And then he garnishes the house
with religion. It's not the end of the story. The demon came back with seven
friends. and saw that the house was swept
and garnished and came back seven times stronger than before. The demons of religion are a
whole lot worse than the demons of just worldly indulgence. They're worse. If a man's a drunk,
he knows he's got a problem. He knows he's not right with
God. He knows he's got to do something. But if a man's religious
and has been deceived and thinking that he's right with God when
he's not, those demons are a whole lot stronger. for signs and for wonders in
Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion. That's where he dwells. Verse
19, and when they say unto you, when they say unto you, seek
unto them that have familiar spirits. Now you can look that
word up. A familiar spirit is one who consults the dead. Now what do they do in religion?
What did we do in religion? Dead theologians society. That's what I was a member of.
And I read what Dr. Sounding Brass and Dr. Tinkling
Cymbal said and I believed it because he said it. I was consulting
familiar spirits, dead theologians. One of the worst things you can
do is read the Puritans. Puritans were, I mean, they were
Calvinists, and they were lawmongers. And I thought, well, if a Puritan
said it, if Dr. So-and-so said it, then it's
gotta be true. Those who consult familiar spirits
and unto wizards. Now, you can look that word up.
It means one who has knowledge. and knowledge puffs up and man
increases in his knowledge and becomes a fool in his heart toward
God. We thought because we had some
knowledge and had some theology and had some doctrine and had
some understanding of history and the Lord says beware, beware
of those, don't follow after those who say that some dead theologian said it,
or because they've got some knowledge, or they peep or mutter. That's all their speech is. Once
the Lord gives you grace to hear the voice of God and to know
that the law and the testimony are true. I like what I heard
one preacher said. He said, you know, the word of
God sure does shed a lot of light on them commentaries. There's a lot of truth to that.
If they speak not according to the law and the testimony, it's
because there's no light in them. What saith the Scriptures? What does God say about it? Is
this God's Word? Those who peep, those who mutter,
Those who mumble, that's all it is. Once you hear the voice
of God, all those voices are nothing but the chirping of birds
and the mumbling of a madman. They don't know Christ because
there's no light in them. There's no light in them. The law, the book, the Torah,
The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword, able to divide asunder the soul from the spirit
and expose the intents of the heart. This is what God's Word
does. God's Word speaks to our hearts.
That's why we just go verse by verse by verse through the Word
of God, don't we? because we believe that this
is the means by which God is pleased to save His people. We
speak according to the law and according to the testimony of
His own will. of God's own will begat he us. It is not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's God that showeth mercy.
You don't decide when you're going to get right with God.
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. With the word
of truth. He didn't use the words of a
man. He used the word of God. We don't
rest the scriptures. We don't leave out parts. We
don't pick and choose what we want to believe. The Word of
God is true and it's faithful. It is a light unto our path,
a lamp unto our feet. It's faithful and true. God gives
you eyes to see the testimony I love what Peter said in 2 Peter
chapter 1 when he's describing his experience on the Mount of
Transfiguration. And he says, we did not bring
you fables, cunningly devised fables. We didn't make this up.
We handled the Word of God. We saw the veil of his humanity
taken away. We saw the radiant glory of his
deity shine forth so bright as the noonday sun we were forced
to fall on the ground. We were there. Now that would
be a mountaintop experience, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be
something? The next verse says, yet we have
a more sure word of prophecy. The word of God, which came not
by private interpretation, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. This is God's word. If they speak
not according to the law and to the testimony, it is because
there is no light in them. No prophecy of scripture came
by private interpretation. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, to make the man of God thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. What does God call a good work?
What's God call a good work? looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of your faith, trusting Christ for all your
salvation. That's what God calls a good
work. And the word of God is the means by which the Lord reveals
himself to the heart. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, it's because there's no light in them. If the eye be single, the whole
body would be full of light. But if the eye be evil, full
of labors, the whole body is full of darkness, And how dark
is the darkness thereof? This book is about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul asked this question when
confronting the Judaizers. He said, what saith the Scriptures? What saith the Scriptures? That
settles everything. There's no way I can convince
you that this book is the Word of God. Not trying to. I'm declaring to you what it
says about itself. It claims to be the Word of God.
If God enables you to trust Christ, you'll believe it's the Word
of God. And you'll give up on any other source of knowledge
or hope for salvation outside of the Word of God. If they speak
not according to the law and to the testimony, it's because
There is no light in them. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul, Psalm 19. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, it's because there's no light in them.
No light in them. Lord, I want the light of the
gospel to shine in my heart. I want to see Christ." If you're
going to see Him, you're going to see Him in God's Word. But He doesn't end with just
the law. He talks about the testimony. The testimony. The testimony is the gospel. And the whole of Scripture is
about the gospel. It's about Christ. in burnt offerings
and sacrifice for sins, thou hast no pleasure. Then said I,
Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me,
to do thy will, O God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I've
come to do the will of the Father, and the volume of the book is
written of me. It's about Christ. Contrary to
what a lot of religious moral people believe, outwardly moral
people, this is not a rule book for Christian living. This is
not a set of rules and regulations, do's and don'ts and laws that
you're to follow. And if you follow them to a certain,
if you do, just do your best. Just do your best. I can't tell
you how many people I've talked to said, well, what's the hope
of your salvation? Well, the law of God. How are
you doing with that? Well, I'm doing my best. Your
best is not good enough. God requires absolute, total,
perfect obedience to the law of God. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the only one that ever satisfied the demands of God's law. This
book is about Him. It's about Him. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1, God
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto our fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, who is the express image of his person. The Lord Jesus
Christ is everything you'll ever know about God. in this book
from the very first prophecy that was made. The seed of the woman, heel would
be crushed, would be bruised by the serpent. And the head
of the serpent would be crushed by the seed of the woman. That's
the first promise. And all the way through, people
think of a prophecy as if it's some sort of prophetic working
of future events. No, Christ is the prophecy. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Him. This is about Christ. And so is your salvation. So
is mine. It's all about Him. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name. To Thy name be
glory. Very quickly, the testimony. It's not your testimony, it's
not your experience, it's not what God has given you or done
for you in this temporal world. The testimony is Christ. He's
the testimony. And the arc of the testimony,
we'll just turn, turn to a couple passages. Exodus chapter 16.
Exodus chapter 16. verse 34 and the Lord commanded
Moses so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept he's
talking about that that container of manna God had sent manna from
heaven The Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear in John chapter
6 that Moses didn't feed you in the wilderness with bread.
My father sent you that bread. I am the bread of life. It was round. It was sweet. It
was like honey. All these things you can read
in Exodus chapter 16 about the manna. And the Lord Jesus Christ
makes it clear that he is the manna sent from heaven. And what
did the Israelites say? We loathe this light bread. We loathe this light bread. Our
flesh rejects this manna. Can you imagine manna in the
morning, manna at noon, manna at night? Every day was manna.
And the children of Israel said, we're just tired of eating manna.
And that's a spiritual picture, isn't it? The natural man hears
the gospel that's all about Christ, and he said, well, isn't there
something more? Can't I have something more? Is Christ all
you've got for me?" Yes. He's all I've got for you. And
He's all you need. He's enough. The Lord gives you
eyes to see. The Lord said, you take that
manna, that ophar of manna, you put it in a jar and set it before
the testimony. What was the testimony? It was
the ark. It was the ark, that ark that
was made of gopher, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of where the glory of the cherubim
hovered over the mercy seat, protecting this, in the same
way of Isaiah chapter 6, when the seraphim hovered over the
throne of Christ. Holy, holy, holy. These seraphim
are protecting and preserving the simplicity of the gospel
in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where I'll
meet with you. Nowhere else. So what was in
the ark? Oh, and the ark had rings on
the side of it, and they were to put staves through it and
carry it on their shoulders, and they weren't to touch the
ark. Why? Because as soon as you put, that ark is a picture
of Christ. The wooden box, a picture of His humanity. The gold, a
picture of His deity. The mercy seat, a picture of
His death on Calvary's cross. It's all a picture. Don't put
your hand to the ark. You remember what happened to
Uzzah when he touched the ark? God killed him. Why? Because
as soon as you put your hand to the work of Christ, you've
defiled it. And so they were to carry the
ark on their shoulder through these staves. And it was to sit
in the holies of holies and be protected all year. And the high
priest, a picture of Christ, went in once a year and made
the sacrifice. And the other priest stood outside
the temple and they warned the people, stay away, stay away,
there's something holy going on here. And now what happens
when the Lord Jesus Christ, who bears in his body all the sins
of all of his people and satisfies God's justice once and for all,
he bows his mighty head and says, it is finished. Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And what happens to that veil?
It's rent. God miraculously tears it from
top to bottom. And now what does the spirit
and the bride say? Don't stay away. Come. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our manna. He's the prophet. He's the one
who came to bring the bread of life in himself. He is the bread
of life. He said, if you eat of my flesh
and drink of my blood, you'll have life. My flesh is your meat
indeed. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life. My life is your life. My shed
blood is the only hope of you being justified and having your
sins put away. There is no place else to go.
Christ is the testimony. If they speak not according to
the law and the testimony, he's the prophet. He's that manna.
But it doesn't stop there. What else did God instruct Moses
to put into that testimony? The rod of Aaron. Remember? All the other leaders in Israel
stood up against Moses and Aaron and said, we don't need to submit
to you. We'll be our own priests. We'll be our own king. And God
told Moses, you get a representative from each of the 12 tribes, have
them bring a staff. And we'll put those staffs before
the testimony. And they did. And the next morning,
they went and they looked at the staffs. And the staff of
Aaron, the staff of Aaron had budded, bloomed, and produced
almonds. It come alive. The stick came
alive. And God quieted the objections
of all the rest of the Israelites, showing that Aaron was the type
of Christ. He's your priest. He will bear
the iniquity of the holy things before God. You know what amen
means? You can look this up. It means
to hear. There's only one letter difference
between the word amen in the original language and the word
to hear. And you've got buds and blooms
and full fruit in Aaron's rod. And so is the hearing that God
gives to our hearts. Sometimes it's just a bud, and
that bud eventually will bloom, and that bloom eventually will
produce fruit if God's speaking and it's alive. Christ is our
priest. He's our priest. And that's in
the tabernacle. That's in the testimony, I'm
sorry. That's in the testimony. What else is in the testimony?
There's three things. You see this in Hebrews chapter 9. Paul
talks about the Old Testament tabernacle and the Ark of the
Covenant, which is called the testimony, and in that testimony. is the ofar of manna, speaking
of Christ as our prophet, the rod of Aaron, speaking of Christ
as our priest, and the tablets of the law, speaking of Christ
as our king. He's the one who gave the law
and he's the only one that can keep the law. Moses came down
off the mountain with the tablets of stone the first time. And
what did he find? He found the children of Israel
worshiping around a golden calf. And what did he do with those
tablets of stone? He threw them down and broke them. And what
God's saying to you and me is you've broken my law. If you've
not kept one jot or one tittle of my law, you're guilty of it
all. And that's where we stand. Lord,
I've never been able to keep one of your laws, not one single
time. I'm guilty. I'm a sinner. I need a law keeper. And Moses
went back in the mountain and God wrote the tablets of stone
with his finger and Moses brought those tablets of stone down and
he put them in the testimony. So now we've got the Lord Jesus
Christ as our prophet, as our priest, and as our king. He's
the only one that can keep the law from you. If they speak not according to
the law, the Torah, from the scriptures, the testimony, bind
up the testimony, Christ is the testimony. It's because there's no light
in them. They're not preaching Christ. They're not preaching
the gospel. They're not preaching free grace
in the finished work of a glorious Savior for men and women who
can do nothing but sin. It's because there's no light
in them. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word. We're thankful for your Holy
Spirit. We ask, Lord, that you would open the eyes of our understanding,
that you would cause us to set our hopes and all our affections
on thy dear son. Thank you for this table, for
the bread reminding us of his sinless life, and the blood reminding
us of his sacrificial death. Lord, as we participate in this
ordinance, we pray that you would give faith to our hearts to rest
our souls in Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Would ask the men if they would
come, please and distribute the bread and the wine. Bert 1 25. You could just remain seated.
We're gonna sing number 1 25. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For now, indeed, I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spot And melt the heart
of stone Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good am I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the flood
of Calvary's flame Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before death broke,
I stand in Him complete Jesus died my soul to save My lips
shall still repeat Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe Sin had
left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow The gospel of God's free grace
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is too simple
for the self-righteous. It's just too simple. They want to believe that there's
something more. There's nothing more. His life
is our life indeed. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. Life is in the blood. The Lord
Jesus Christ had to shed His precious blood to pay for our
sins, and that's what He did. His blood. That's all. Nothing
more. I don't have to do something.
No. Just His blood. The stain that sin has left doesn't
go as deep as the blood. I'm so thankful for that. As
often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. All God's people said, amen,
amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Brian, would you dismiss us please in a word of prayer? Our most gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you for all that you give to us. We ask, Lord, that
you give us ears to hear and eyes to see. Lord, that we would
trust Christ in all things. God, our hearts, our minds, bring
us back here on Wednesday that we might celebrate our living
Savior. We ask, Lord, that you be with
Savannah as she goes through this trying time. It would be
with Ryan and all of our church family that we would be blessed
with the birth