Let's open tonight's service
with a hymn from our softback teminal, number 18, The Bible
is a Book of Christ. Let's all stand together, number
18 in the softback teminal. God gave His holy inspired word
for only one great end, the prophets and apostles to reveal the sinner's
friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds Those deeds of power and of grace Set
forth a woman's seed The Bible is a book of Christ It only speaks
of Him On every page it shows us Christ, it only speaks of
Him. The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. The types the great redemption
show, Christ's blood and grace now bring. The Bible is a book
of Christ, it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us
Christ, it only speaks of Him. Behold the Lamb, the Baptist
said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in his word our Savior said,
rejoice, I come again. The Bible is a book of Christ. It only speaks of him. On every page it shows us Christ. It only speaks of him. Please be seated. Good evening. It's good to have
Judy from Pikeville, where Tom Harding pastors. She was here
with her mom back during the conference and down visiting
her. So we're glad you're here, Judy. And if you want to turn
around and wave to the brethren in Sarasota, they're waving at
you right now. We're so, so happy to be able
to share this time with them. If you'll turn with me in your
Bibles to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. As we were singing
that hymn, I was thinking about this passage and hoping that
the Lord would do for us what he did for these disciples. In
Luke chapter 24, in verse 26, you know, the Lord is walking
with these disciples who think that all their hopes are gone. The one that they thought was
the prophet, the Messiah, has now been crucified. And the one
they were grieving over was walking with him and talking with him
at the very time. In verse 26, ought not Christ,
this is our Lord now speaking to them, ought not Christ to
have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they
drew nigh unto the village whither they went, and he made as though
he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying,
Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.
And he went into tarry with them, and it came to pass, as he sat
at meet with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and break, and
gave to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew him.
And he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by
the way and while he opened to us the scriptures. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly father,
we plead with thee to constrain the Lord Jesus Christ to abide
with us here this hour. We pray that you would send your
Holy Spirit in power to open up the scriptures and reveal
to us the truth of thy dear son, who he is and what he's accomplished.
We might find our hope, our rest, our comfort and all our salvation
in him. We pray that as we break your
bread, Lord, that you would open our hearts, that you would cause
us to be able to leave this place saying with those disciples,
did not our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the scriptures? How completely dependent we are
upon thee to that end. We ask for your mercy. We pray
it in Christ's sake, amen. Number 75 in the hardback, abide
with me. Number 75. Abide with me. Fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself my guide and
stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O
abide with me. Hold thou thy word before my
closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks and earth's
shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me. Please be seated. I want you and I tonight to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and to rejoice in the work of God. in the work of God. Truth is,
our God is a perfectionist. Have you ever thought you want
something done right, do it yourself? Well, that is true of our God. His holy nature required that
it be done right. And he knew that for that to
happen, he had to do it himself. What comfort, what hope we have
in knowing that the work of salvation and the work of providence, the
work of creation, everything, he is the doer of it. There are several places in the
scriptures where it speaks of the work of God. The work of
God. And I want to reference six of
them. The first one is found in Exodus
chapter 32 at verse 16. If you want to look there, you
can. It just simply describes Moses coming down off of Mount
Sinai. And the scripture says in Exodus
32 verse 16, the tables were the work of God. The law was
the work of God. written on tablets of stone by
the very finger of God. What this tells us is that God's
law is perfect. It's perfect. It's such that
no man can live up to it. In Psalm 19, the scripture says,
the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Now, the
word there for converting is restoring. The literal translation
is the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The law doesn't
convert the soul. The law never saved anyone. The
law can't do anything but condemn. And the law, contrary to what
some people think from the book of Galatians, does not lead us
to Christ. The law shows us the perfection
of the Lord Jesus Christ and we're brought to conclude there's
a man, there is a man who has lived his whole life loving the
Lord God with all of his heart and with all of his mind and
with all of his soul. There's someone who's been able
to accomplish that. In Psalm 19, the scripture goes
on to say, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the
simple. God's law is perfect, and the
perfection of it is seen in the life and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Men, as you read Sunday morning,
Michael, from Romans chapter 10, are zealous for God, They're
zealous for God. They have a zeal for God, the
scripture says, but it's without knowledge. Ignorant of the righteousness
of God. There's Christ. He's the one
who kept the law. He's the one that, that law was
played, those tablets, where were they put? They were put
in the ark, weren't they? And that's where the blood was
placed, over the ark. And he's the law giver and he's
the keeper of the law. And that passage in Romans chapter
10 goes on to say that they were ignorant of the righteousness
of God. They go about trying to establish their own righteousness
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. The law exalts the Lord Jesus
Christ. The law is not necessary to be
preached in order to bring men under conviction. We already know in our hearts
that we've broken the law of God. Christ himself is the end
of the law for righteousness. And when the scripture says the
tablets were the work of God, the statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. Now, if the law read and understood
and believed was that which rejoiced the heart, I don't know anything
about that. The law itself only rejoices
my heart as I see it revealing the glorious person of Christ. Because the law doesn't say anything
to me that causes my heart to rejoice. The law says guilty. The law says condemned. And then
I see that we have one who kept the perfect law of God, as we
just sang. The commandments of the Lord
are pure, enlightening the heart. The commandments of God are pure,
and they enlighten the heart. They give light to the light. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the light, is seen in the perfection of the law. So the work of God is seen in
the law, and it's seen in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the only one who ever kept the law. Now in Psalm 64,
the first eight verses of that Psalm speak of God destroying
his enemies, which is exactly what he did on Calvary's cross.
The Lord Jesus Christ destroyed Satan. He set captivity captive,
free. He took those who were under
the domain of Satan and made them his own. He conquered death
in the grave. He accomplished all of that in
the destruction of his enemies on Calvary's cross. And then
in verse 9 it says, And all men shall fear and declare the work
of God. There's the work of God. The
work of God is not only seen in the perfect law of God, but
the work of God is seen in what the Lord Jesus Christ did in
destroying His enemies and the enemies of His people. If you
want some encouragement, read the first eight verses of Psalm
64 sometime, and you'll see the promises of God's hand in destroying
your enemies. The verse goes on to say, for
they shall wisely consider of his doings. They shall wisely
consider of his doings. They shall take into account
what the Lord Jesus Christ himself accomplished on Calvary's cross
when he destroyed their enemies. and establish for them the hope
of everlasting life. He goes on to say, the righteous
shall be glad in the Lord and trust in him. So this work of God that's seen
on Calvary's cross causes those who are righteous, not in their
own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ, to rejoice
and to put their trust in him. He's the one who wrote the law
of God. He's the one who fulfilled the
law of God. He's the one who satisfied the righteousness of
God. He's the one who established the justice of God. He's the
one who destroyed all the enemies of God's people. And what do
God's people do when they see the work of God? We're talking
about the work of God here. We're not talking about our works.
We're talking about God's work. They shall rejoice and put their
trust in him and all the upright of heart shall glory. Glory in what he's accomplished. Glory in the accomplished work
of Christ on Calvary's cross. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse
13, listen to this verse. Consider the work of God, for
who can make straight that which he has made crooked? Consider the work of God. Who's
able to make straight that which he has made crooked? Now I see
two things apply there. Number one, if God the Holy Spirit
ever makes you to be a sinner, you'll always be a sinner. You'll
never be straight again. You'll always see yourself as
vile. You'll always see yourself as
unable to satisfy the demands of God's righteousness. You'll
always see that in you, there's no good thing. You will be made...
If God makes you... Here's the work of God. Who can
make straight? That which He has made crooked. If He ever makes you to be a
sinner, The only thing that'll happen in your growth in grace
is you'll become more of a sinner. You'll become more of a sinner.
And you'll see more and more of your need for Christ. More
and more of your need for His grace. This is the work of God. Who can change the work of God
when He takes that which is straight and makes it crooked? That's His work. We are so dependent
upon that, are we not? For the Spirit of God What did
the Lord say? It's expedient for you that I
go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But when He comes, He's going
to do three things. He's going to convict the world
of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on Me. There's the easily besetting
sin that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 12. Lord, I've
got a problem with unbelief. That's the sin. And there was
a time when I couldn't believe at all. Lord, now I do believe,
and help thou mine unbelief. It's still my problem. There
was a time when I could not believe at all. He convicts the world
of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my Father, and of judgment because the prince of this world
has been judged. That's exactly what we just talked
about. And so, here's the work of God. Here's the work of God,
when He makes us to be a sinner, He causes us to realize that
our problem is our unbelief. If we could believe God perfectly,
we wouldn't sin. We'd never sin, we'd be perfect. That's why we're completely dependent
upon the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His faith, and His
faithfulness that saves, it's not ours. The second thing I see in this,
consider the work of God, for who can make straight that which
He's made crooked? Not only does He make us to be
a sinner, but He also reveals to us the crookedness of man-made
religion. And once He does that, it can
never be made straight again. There was a time when we thought
we were on the straight and narrow. We thought we were walking according
to the laws of God, and we were on our way to hell and didn't
know it. And once the Lord made that crooked
road, once he made that road that we thought was straight
crooked, it stays crooked for us the rest of our lives. We
can't go back to that road. Turn to me to 2 Thessalonians
2. Wayne and I were looking at this
verse this afternoon. Look at verse 10 of 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth. Now the whole chapter is talking
about men setting themselves up on the throne of God in false
religion and denying the truth of Christ. who he is and what
he's accomplished and making their will and their works the
hope of their salvation. They have no love for the truth
that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion and they shall believe. You see that,
that next little word is an indefinite article. It's the word a. In
fact, I looked it up and it's the definite article that's in
that verse. It's the word the. It's not the
word a. It's the word the. It's not just
a lie. It's the lie. It's the lie. God sent them a strong delusion
that they might believe the lie. What is the lie? It's a denial
of the work of God in Christ. It's believing that God's work
wasn't perfect, that God's work wasn't sufficient, that we had
to do something else to make what He did work for us. That's
the lie. And you can define it in any
form of religion that you want to define it in, but that is
the lie. Denying, having no love for the
truth, no love for Christ, no love for the work of God, they
add to the work of God and set themselves on the throne of God,
and that is the lie. And the scripture says here that
God sent them that strong delusion. Oh Lord, don't send that delusion
my way. Lord, make the straight crooked
to me. Make what everyone else sees
as being straight and narrow, that lie, make it crooked to
me. And who can change the work of
God when he takes that which is straight and makes it crooked? That's the work of God. And if
he's ever done that work for you, you won't be able to go
back. That's what Hebrews chapter 10 is all about. It's a description
of those who said they believed the truth and then they went
back to the lie. They said, oh, that thing that
we thought was straight was really crooked, but then they went back
and called it straight again and trampled underfoot the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fourthly, Ecclesiastes chapter
8 verse 17. And this passage is talking about
the providence of God. So we see the work of God in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. on Calvary's cross. We see him as making us to be
a sinner and making false religion to be sinful. We see the work
of God in the law of God as it describes and declares the perfection
of Christ. And here we see the work of God
in providence. Look at verse 17 of Ecclesiastes
chapter eight. Then I beheld all the work of
God. that a man cannot find out all
the work that is done under the sun. He's not talking about the
work of salvation here, we've already dealt with that. He's
talking about the work of providence. He's talking about those things
that God has ordained to do under the sun in the earth, and we
can't figure it out, but we know it's the work of God. Whatever
he does, whatever happens is the work of God. What's happening
in time is just the fulfillment of the work of God in eternity. Look what he says, that a man
cannot find out all the work that is done under the sun, though
a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Though
a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find
it out. You can't connect the dots. You just can't do it. Except through faith. We know
that He's connected them. Every single one of them. And
you know, if God's done a work of grace in your heart, you know
that all things work together for good for them that love God
and those that are called according to His purpose. You know there's
nothing in providence. You remember what that word means?
Pro is before, video. God saw it all before it ever
happened. The movie's in the can. You know, it's just, there's
no editing the movie. There's no adding to it or taking
away from it. It's all happening in God's providence. And what do we do? We're like
this man that the Lord is describing here, trying to figure out how
A connects to B and B to C and how we can fix it so D doesn't
take place. You know, we're always got our
hand in it, don't we? And God said, let the wise man
seek to figure it out all he wants. He's not going to be able
to do it. Why? Because it's the work of God. It's the work of God. Our God's
a perfect God. Everything he does is right.
He hath done whatsoever he wills. With the armies of heaven and
the inhabitants of the earth, no man can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? The nations are dropping the
bucket to him, a speck on the scale. In providence, the work of God
is perfect. And in Romans chapter 14, the
Lord is talking about those who were offended because someone
wasn't following the traditions of the law. And he says, for
meat, eating of meat, you remember that passage, eating, but we
won't go into all of it. But he says, for meat does not
destroy the work of God. If you can receive it with thanksgiving,
receive it. Whatever you eat, whatever you
do, do it all to the glory of God. Do it with an acknowledgement
of your dependence upon Him and your thanksgiving to Him for
it. If you can do that, then you have the liberty to do it.
And the scripture goes on to say, For whatever is not of faith
is sin. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Now what does that mean? Here's
the work of God. The Lord said in John chapter
6, labor not for that meat which perisheth, but for that meat
which endureth to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you. Now what's he talking about?
Am I laboring? He said, don't labor for the
meat that perishes, but labor for the meat that endures unto
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for
him hath the Father sealed. What shall we do, they said.
And listening to that, they said, what shall we do to work the
works of God? How are we gonna work the works
of God? And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
this is the work of God. Here's the meat that you labor
for. Here's the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath
sent. So whatever's not of faith is
sin. The only hope that we have of
having faith is that the Son of Man would give it to us. And
it is the work of God that we would believe. If you believe
the gospel, It's evidence of the work of God. Faith is the
evidence of things hoped for. It's the foundation, the ground
upon those things which are not seen. It's our hope. It's a work of God in our hearts. Turn with me to John chapter
3. This is the work of God that you believe. In John chapter
3 at verse 18, he that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. but because he is not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. That light has come into the
world and men loved darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. Now that doesn't mean that men
were indulging themselves in all sorts of fleshly pleasures
and that's the reason that they wouldn't come to Christ. It means
that their deeds were their righteousness. And the light of the gospel revealed
their righteousness for what it was, iniquity. Look at the
next verse. For everyone that doeth evil,
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved, exposed for what they are. Here's the work
of God. Here's what he's done. He's taken
that which was straight and he made it crooked. And men, when
they're told that they're crooked, when they think they're straight,
they won't have it. When the light of the gospel shines, they'll
deny Christ before they'll admit their inability to do righteousness. But he that doeth truth, what
is it to do truth? It's to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what it is to do truth. He that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds might be made manifest,
that they are, what? Wrought in God. I come to Christ. that my deeds might be made manifest. What deeds? Well, the deeds of
my sin, that they might be made unrighteous, that they might
be made crooked, but my faith, my faith. Come to Christ, that
my faith might be made manifest. And knowing that that is what? Wrought in God. Now, when you wrought iron, the
iron is completely passive in the process of being wrought,
is it not? The artisan is applying the heat
and the pressure to the iron to fashion it into the... And
that's what he's saying here. If you have faith, You come to
God that your faith might be made manifest knowing that that
faith was wrought in God. You were completely passive in
that faith. That all your ability to believe
the work of God was the work of God. It was nothing less than
the work of God. It wasn't your work. Was this
not the problem that the rich young ruler had? when he said,
good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What work
can I perform? And what's the first thing the
Lord said to him? Why callest thou me good, for there's none
good but God. There's none that can work the
work of God other than God himself. If we're gonna have faith wrought
in us, God's gonna have to do it. If we're going to believe
in Christ, if we're going to see these works of God, He's
gonna have to enable us. Why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. He said, well, and then the Lord
answered his question, what can I do? What can I do? Keep the law. Keep the law. And he didn't even, he didn't
even bring up the first four commandments, which was man's
relationship with God. He just brought up the easy ones.
Man's relationship with man. And those commandments are a
lot easier than the ones that God, that relating to us and
God. And he said, those things I've done since my youth. No, the problem is your money
is your God. You're trusting the wrong thing. You're trusting in your righteousness,
you're trusting to take all that you have, but he went away sad
because he was a man of great possessions. He wasn't trusting
Christ. He didn't have faith in Christ. Hebrews chapter 12, God says, Lay aside every weight and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of faith. He's the author of our faith.
He's the finisher of our faith. What that tells me is, you see,
any work, men will attempt to do good works. they will make sacrifices, they'll
give of their money, they'll give of their time, they might
even give of their own life in hopes. What does Hebrews chapter,
1 Corinthians chapter 13 say about that? Turn with me there,
1 Corinthians 13. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not Christ." Just change that
word. It's okay. It's okay. We can insert love, which is
what that word is, charity. We can insert Christ. We can
insert faith. It all means the same thing.
If you are able to speak every language of the world, and you
can even speak that language of the angels, and you have not
faith, you have not Christ, you know not the love of Christ in
your heart, then it's of no value to you. It's your sounding brass
and tinkling cymbals. Though I have the gift of prophecy,
though I know everything, And I have not Christ. I have not the love of Christ.
I have not faith in Christ. It's of no profit to me. And
look at the next verse. Though I give all my money to
the poor, and give my own life to be burned, though I go to
the stake and sacrifice my very life, and I have not love, I
have not charity. I have not Christ. I have not
the faith of Christ in my heart, wrought in God, in my heart. What does he say? Profiteth me
nothing. It profiteth me nothing. So what is a good work? What is a good work? It's faith. It's faith. That's the good work. God's only pleased. Our God is
a God of perfection. And if we're honest with ourselves,
everything that we do is fraught with sin. Everything we do, I
don't care how hard you try to be sincere about it, every good
work that you perform is infected with ulterior motives. So what makes those good works,
good works to God? Faith. Faith. You see, God's children always
have an eye to Christ. They always are able to acknowledge
that the word of God is perfect. that the work of God is perfect,
that the son of God is perfect, and that everything God does
in providence and in salvation is perfect. That's what faith
does, it believes God. And without faith, it's impossible
to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and there's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. God
is pleased with his people. because of the faith that he
put in their hearts. He's pleased with his people
because they're not looking to their works as the hope of their
salvation. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. And we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath ordained that we
should walk in them. And we do. God's people walk
in good works. Why? Because they're walking
in faith. They're walking with an eye towards Christ. They're
trusting Christ. They're believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the author and the finisher of their faith. So, that's the good work. Because it's God's work. We've
come to the light. And we've understood that the
faith that God has given us was wrought in God. And that He's
pleased with it. He's pleased with His children.
He is. He delights in you. He delights
in those that He's given faith to. Not because of what... That's why believers don't go
around boasting in what they've done. They glory in Christ. They point to Christ. God's pleased
with the Lord Jesus Christ and He's pleased with the faith that
He's put into the hearts of His children through the miracle
of the new birth because their faith, their faith is always
pointing to Christ. It's always relying upon Christ.
It's always trusting in Christ. That's the good work. And what
a good work it is. That's why the scripture says
in Romans chapter 14, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. We're not in sin. We're dead
to sin. Why? Because we're in faith.
We're in faith. And Paul said in Philippians
chapter one, verse six, I'm confident of this thing, that he which
began a good work in you will perform it, will complete it,
will perfect it until the day of his coming. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we rejoice
in knowing that there is a good work that you have done in establishing
your law, in fulfilling your law, in destroying the enemies
of your people on Calvary's cross, in making that which was straight
crooked, and in giving to your children.
the good work of faith, rotting in us the work of God. Lord,
that we would come to Christ, come to the light, increase our
faith, Lord. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 89 in the Sopach Temple,
let's stand. Soon every creature shall support
thee. Heaven, earth, and hell shall
praise the triune God. Every event of providence and
all created things shall bow before God's sovereign throne
and to Him honor bring. The angels who rebelled against
his throne so long ago shall fall before God's glorious throne,
and there his greatness show. Sinners who now in enmity rebel
against God's Son shall be subdued and bow to Him. You shall His
greatness own. In vain you fight against the
Lord, surrender or be damned. Confess your sin and trust God's
Son, or be forever damned. We all were made to praise our
God, and Him we all shall praise, either as objects of His wrath
or of His saving grace. Thank you.