For our scripture reading, would
you turn to the 23rd chapter of the book of Psalms, a very familiar passage recited mainly in funerals without
understanding, sadly. But this morning, I trust and
I pray that Holy Spirit would bless us through our hearts who
believe. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I lack nothing. In Him is all my righteousness.
Sinner substitutes satisfaction, love, my faith, believing in
His faithfulness in everything He did. Please, the Father, I
don't need anything else, Brother Gray. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. Oh, He leadeth me beside the
still waters. And I'm praying that's what He's
doing now. And He has to make me. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His namesakes. Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord,
but glory unto His name. It's for His glory. He'll see
to it because His name's on the line. Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. It's a shadow. One day soon my
family is going to bury this body, but I fear not, for I know because
he lives, my soul lives, and I will be with him. For thou
art with me, O Lord, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
And I'm so thankful for that. Because if you're like me, I'm
that sheep that always wanders to that very last end of the
pen, sometimes sneaking out of the pen where the wolves are
ready to devour me. But there he is to correct me
and bring me back. Need be, break one of my legs
and lean him on his shoulder to where I have to rely totally
upon him. He'll do that. He'll see to it.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies."
This is a different enemy. I'm so thankful that he took
this enemy and made him a footstool, that I could worship him. This
enemy one day, very soon beloved, they're going to see, they're
going to look at that table, they're going to realize it's
finished, it's prepared, and all surrounding it are all the
Mephibosheths. And they're going to look to one another in horror. thinking that they were going
to bring something to that table. Oh, no. It's prepared. It's finished. Thou anointest
my head with oil. Oh, my cup runneth over. Surely, surely, goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And as Scripture
says in Exodus, we have seen where the Lord has been, where
He is now, One day, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
I am so looking forward to that day when I can look to our great
shepherd, look at him like where Mary Bell is right now, and say,
oh Lord, thou art my shepherd. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for bringing
us here this morning. Our cup is already running over,
Lord, for that message reminding us that we have an advocate who
is seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, who keeps
reminding you, oh, for your namesake, Father, do not slay them. They're mine. I did it for them. Lord, may you continue to do
that in this message coming up. Bless your word, enable us to
believe, Lord, and keep us till that day when we shall behold
you face to face, to cling to you and to just worship you.
Pray you'd bless us now for Christ's sake. Amen. We are now going to sing. You
just remain seated. Thank you, Bert. Would you open
your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 28? Isaiah 28. As I said in the first hour,
18 years ago today, we had our first meeting at Petals. Many of you that are here were
there then. Like me, you were 18 years younger. I am truly, truly humbled. I'm humbled to be here with you.
I'm humbled to be your pastor. I'm humbled that God would allow
us to be together for all these years and to keep us faithful
to His Word. And now, after 18 years, the
Lord's allowed us to be a part of another work. over in Sarasota
and most of those brethren are here with us this morning. If
you don't know them, I hope you'll make the effort to do that during
lunch today. What a blessing. I guess every religious group
believes themselves to be in the truth. They wouldn't be a part of that
group if they didn't believe it was true. There's a verse of scripture
in Isaiah chapter 28 that describes the true church. And I will leave it to you to
discern whether or not God has us in the truth. In verse 16 of Isaiah chapter
28, I want to be, I want to be in the truth. I don't want to
be deceived. I don't want to think that I'm
in the truth when I'm not in the truth. Truth is the only thing that
sets us free. The Lord Jesus Christ said, for this cause came
I unto the world. For this reason was I born to
bear witness unto the truth. He said, I am the truth, the
way and the life. No man can come to the Father
but by me. I want to know the truth. I want to be settled in
the truth. I want to see the truth. I want
us to be following Christ in the truth. I don't want to be
deceived. So might God the Holy Spirit
be pleased this morning to take this one verse of scripture and
convince us of the truth and comfort us in knowing that this
is a description. This is a description from God.
of this fellowship, the fellowship in Sarasota, and everywhere else
where the gospel of God's free grace is being preached and God's
people are being saved. Verse 16, therefore, thus saith the Lord, the first
question as to what distinguishes a true church from a false church
is what is the source of their authority. What is the source
of their authority? Thus saith the Lord. Behold, what is their call? their call is to behold it is
to look unto Jesus who is the author and the finisher of their
faith is our source of authority sola scriptura as the old reformers
used to say only the scriptures is the Word of God our source
of authority has the Lord enabled us to behold Christ. I lay in Zion. Who does the work of salvation? In the true church, He does it
all. Where does He do it? He does
it in Zion. How important is this work? Well, it's foundational. You
see that? I lay in Zion for a foundation. What is this foundation like? It's like a stone. A stone that is tried, a stone that is
precious, and a stone that is sure. What are we to do in light
of this truth? Believe. Believe. And how do we know if God has
given us the faith to believe? He that believeth shall not make
haste." If God's given us the grace to believe we're not running
to and fro looking for something else, we are resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that's my message, and it's
all from this one verse of Scripture. Is Grace Gospel Church that meets
here on the corner of 6th and Alabama in Apopka, Florida? Is
Sovereign Grace Fellowship that meets on Cattleman Road in Sarasota? Are they true churches? There's a church on every corner,
isn't there? The first thing I see in this
verse that distinguishes the true church from the many, many,
many false churches is that their only source of authority is the
Word of God. We're not here to give you our
opinion. We're not here to uphold and
support some denominational's dogma. We're not here to entertain. Most religious organizations
today are a one-stop shopping where you can get your social
needs met, your entertainment, and a little religious flavor
all thrown in together in one hour. We're not here for that.
We're here to ask the question, what sayeth the scriptures? We
believe that the Word of God in its entirety is inspired by
God. It's not by private interpretation,
but men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
We're not here to prove that to anybody. I can't prove to
you that this book is in fact the inerrant, infallible, completed
Word of God. I don't have any interest in
proving that to you. I'm not here to prove it to you.
I'm here to declare it without apology. I'm here to shout it
from the rooftop. Believing that if you belong
to the Lord, you're going to believe that this is the Word
of God. We're not here to espouse human wisdom, worldly wisdom. We're here to say, what saith
the Scriptures? What does God have to say about
it? That settles all controversy. It settles all controversy. It
doesn't matter what so-and-so believes or what so-and-so said. You hear me quote dead theologians
very rarely. Because that's all they are,
is dead theologians. We're here to stick to and declare
what God has said. That's why the prophets of God
never said, well, you know, you need to consider, or it seems
to me, no, to the contrary, what they said is, thus saith the
Lord. Now that's what I need. I need
somebody to preach to me. I hear people say, well don't
preach to me. I want to be preached to. Preach to me. Shut me up to what God says. Don't lead me to my own opinions.
Don't give me any options. Don't give me the ideas of another
man. Just shut me up to what God says.
And there I will be safe. And there I will know the truth. The true church is interested
in what thus saith the Lord. We have a sure word from God,
and this sure word from God stands in stark contrast to what men
think. You see how our verse starts
out? Now anytime you see that word
therefore, you ask the question, what's it there for? Well, it's
putting that verse in context of the previous verses. So when
you see therefore, you've got to go back and say, well, what
was the context? What was he saying? Well, look
at verse 13. But the word of the Lord was
unto them. It was unto them. The false church. The unbeliever. Did they have
the Bible? Did they believe the Bible was
the Word of God? Yes. Yes. They had the Word of
the Lord. But look what they did with it.
The Word of the Lord was unto them, precept upon precept, precept
upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, that they might go and fall backwards and be
taken and snared by it. They thought the Bible was a
rule book for Christian living. That's what they thought. And
they studied the Bible in order to get some trinkets of life,
some secrets of truth that would help them to be a better person. They searched the Scriptures,
as the Lord said of the Pharisees, because they thought in them
they would have eternal life. And so they memorized Scripture,
they rubbed the rabbit foot of Scripture in their pockets, they
quoted Scripture, believing that somehow this was going to give
them salvation. Well, what did the Lord say?
They did not know. that these were they that testified
of me." This book is in its entirety a revelation of the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. It's not a
line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there
a little, a trinket or tool for you to figure out how to be a
better person. It's a revelation of your Savior
so that you can see Him in the volume of the book it is written
of me. And so beginning with Genesis
all the way through Revelation, we take our text and what do
we do? We look for Christ because we know He's there and He's the
one we need. And that's what the true church
always does. Paul said, I profess to know
nothing among you save Christ and Him crucified. Was Paul not
familiar with the history of Israel? Was Paul not familiar
with the books of the Bible? Certainly he was. But what did
he say? Was he speaking with hyperbole? Was he just using exaggerated
speech when he said, I profess to know nothing among you save
Christ and Him crucified? He may have been the most educated,
intelligent man the church has ever known, the world has ever
known. He was saying, this is what it's
all about. It's about Christ. It's about
Him. We preach Christ and Him crucified
and we do it from God's Word. Therefore, therefore, in light
of the fact that men can't see that, There is a way that seems
right unto man, but in the end, that way leads to death. God
said, my ways are not your ways. Man thinks, well, I just need
to get better. I need to do something. I need to fix something. No,
you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the only way
you're going to believe on Him is if He's revealed to you. And that's not going to happen. but
through the scriptures. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. And this is the word, Peter said,
which by the gospel is preached unto you. If a man stands up
and reads this book and doesn't preach Christ, he's not declaring
the word of God. He's not declaring the word of
God. You can know the acts of God
without knowing His ways. You can know what God has done
without knowing why He's done it. The true church has one source
of authority, and that is the Word of God, and they know that
this written Word is here to reveal the living Word. That's
it. Does that describe us? Does that
describe us? Behold. We're going to stay right here
with this one verse. Behold. What is our source of authority?
The Word of God. The Living Word and the Written
Word, and we don't separate the two. They are one and the same. They're one and the same. What is our call? To look to Him. Behold, it's an amazing thing
to see. That's what this word, behold,
means. When Job said, Behold, I am vile, what he was saying
was, I never saw it before. Behold, what an amazing thing
to see, that I'm vile. God had to open the eyes of my
understanding and reveal that to me. When John the Baptist
said, Behold, the Lamb of God, he wasn't just pointing people.
He was speaking out of amazement. There He is! I've been waiting
for Him! God had told me that I would
know Him when I saw Him, and behold, the Messiah, the one
we've been waiting for, the Lamb of God, which takes away our
sins before God! There He is! Behold! And John the Apostle, when he
wrote the book of John, the epistle of John said, Behold! Oh, behold, look at this! What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the children
of God? You know, I've become more and
more convinced that your problem and my problem is that we're
looking for love in all the wrong places. If we could behold, if we could
just behold His love for us, we wouldn't need to go anywhere
else. We wouldn't need to entertain
any other thought. You know, that's what heaven
is going to be. Heaven is going to be beholding His love. If we could just behold His love,
We wouldn't sin against Him. You can't sin against somebody
that you love. And you can't respond to a person
who loves you like He has loved us without loving Him in return. We love Him because He first
loved us. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. John wrote, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word tabernacled among
us, and we what? Beheld His glory as the glory
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth,
What is our call? It's to behold Christ. It's to look unto Jesus who Himself
is the author and the finisher of our faith. He's our hope. He's our all in all. He's our
advocate before God. John said in Revelation chapter
1, After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened into heaven. And I looked and I saw sitting
upon a throne a Lamb as if He had been slain. Oh, that God
would open the windows of heaven and enable you and I to look
beyond our sin and circumstances, to look beyond our situation,
to peer into the very portals of God and to behold the Lord
Jesus Christ. Isaiah said, I saw Him in the year that King
Uzziah died. I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. He was high and lifted up. He
was reigning sovereign over all His creation. And the seraphim
hovered over His throne and they cried, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. What is our authority? It is the Word of God. And it's
our only authority. We make no apology for it. We
rejoice in it. We believe it. And what is this Word for? It's to cause us to have an understanding
and light so that we can look to Christ, behold Him. In the true church, who does
the work? Now you get involved in a religious
organization and you go, you just go every Sunday for three
or four weeks and let them know that you're serious about being
a Regular member and you know what the first thing there. I
mean you won't be there a month and you're gonna have a job You
don't have a job I've been there I know Cuz that's the hook If
we give them a job, then they'll be obligated to be here and that'll
commit them to the work I've done it And everybody's so busy wearing
themselves out I Trying to earn their way to heaven. Look at the next two words in
our text. Behold, I lay. I lay. God has to do the work. I set my king upon my holy hill. Upon this rock, I will build
my church. The flesh is nothing but flesh.
And the stuff that's going on in religion is just fleshly work.
And it profits nothing. If God doesn't do it, it's not
going to get done. If the Lord doesn't... I've got
it written right here on the pulpit. You just come up sometime
and see this. It's been here for four or five
years. It's been right here. Psalm 127
verse 1, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman watcheth but in vain. God's got to do it. I can't do
it. You can't do it. He's got to
lay it. He's got to lay the foundation
for you and I. And what He does, no man can
undo. No man can undo. What He opens,
no man can shut. What He shuts, no man can open.
If God does it, it's done right and it's done forever. He makes
no mistakes. He doesn't try something. That's
why if you've ever believed the gospel, you are a believer and
will be a believer for all eternity. And you can't get yourself out
of that. You can't get yourself out of that. Why? Because how did you become
a believer? God made you to be a believer. And what He does
can't be changed. It can't be changed. I find such hope in that. What you and I do is so frail
and temporal. When He gives life, He gives
everlasting life. And everlasting life is not a
life that begins now and lasts forever. Everlasting life is
God's life. That means it never had a beginning
and it never had an end. And I'll say this again to you,
God has never had a new thought. He's never had a new thought.
Has it ever occurred to you that nothing, nothing, nothing has
ever occurred to God? There's our hope! I change not! Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The only hope of salvation we
have is that God would have put us in Christ before the foundations
of the world. That he would be pleased to open
the eyes of our understanding, reveal to us the salvation that
he's always purposed, and then keep us in Christ for all eternity. I lay in Zion a foundation. I do it. You didn't do it. I did it. In the false church, God does
His part and you do your part. And you better keep doing your
part if you want to stay there. Not in the gospel. Not in the gospel. You are stripped
naked before God. You've got no contribution to
make. He does it all and he gets all the glory. And God's people
like it that way. They like it that way. You say,
well, that's going to lead people to sin. No, it won't. No, it
won't. It's the only power you have
against sin. It's called the love of Christ
that constraineth us. If you ever get a hold of that,
just a little bit, and God ever convinces you that he did all
of this for you because of his love for you, you won't be able
to sin against him. You're just not gonna spit in
the face of the one who loves you like that. He's done it. He hath done whatsoever he wills,
and no man can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
He's done it. When Pilate said, What I have
written, I have written, God gave him those words. Jesus, King of the Jews, in all
three languages. What I have written, I have written.
I've laid it down, it's settled, and it's sure. And that's why
the prophet said, why do the heathen rage? Why do the kings
of the earth rebel against the Lord and against His anointed?
Why do they do it? It's foolishness. They do it
in vain. And God holds them in derision. He laughs them to scorn. Where does He do it? See, we're right here now in
our text. I'm going to get through this verse, I promise. Thus saith the Lord. The source
of our authority is the Word of God, and it stands in stark
contrast to what men think it means. The second thing is, where do
we look? We behold His glory. Who does the work? I lay. Where
does He do the work? Where does He do the work? Where
is God pleased to make Himself known? Where is He pleased to
manifest His glory? Where is He pleased to save His
people? Where is He pleased to speak
to your heart and to my heart? Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. In Zion. This is the place Yes, our God
is omnipresent. Yes, He will never leave you
nor forsake you. Yes, I hope that you spend time
in prayer and searching out the Scriptures on your own and that's
a blessed time. But something very special happens
when God's people get together and Christ is preached and God's
Word is opened. This is, let me say this, you
can't duplicate this on the Internet. There's people watching us right
now, and I pray the Lord to speak to their hearts and bless them,
but they're not having the same experience that you and I are
having. This happens in Zion. I have set my king upon my holy
hill. This is where he is. Psalm 14
verse 7 says, the salvation of the Lord comes out of Zion. I walk among the candlesticks.
I inhabit the praise of my people. Psalm 48 verse 2, the joy of
the Lord is Mount Zion. Our brethren over in Sarasota
met for a couple years in a home watching us on the internet.
You talk to them today at lunch, they'll tell you what a difference,
what a difference it is to be able to come together at a committed
place with a gospel preacher and experience God's presence.
You don't want to go back, do you? Psalm 50 verse 2, out of Zion,
the perfection of God's beauty hath shined. This is where he
does it. That's why we don't, we don't
manipulate people or shame people about coming to church or bribe
them with rewards. Well, if you come, we're going
to have these treats for you. We don't do that. If you've ever
tasted of the Lord that He is good, you know where that meal
is served. And as brother Henry Mahan used
to say, God's people travel a long way to get to a field of clover. God's sheep, you know, they'll
go, and some of you have come a long way. Some of you have
driven two and three hours this morning. This morning, there's
a bunch of folks here that have driven three hours to get here. You didn't do it because somebody
twisted your arm. Why? Because this is where the
Lord is pleased to speak to His people. Psalm 74 verse 2, Remember
Mount Zion wherein thou dwellest. This is where He dwells. Psalm 87 verse 2, the Lord loveth
the gates of Zion. How important is it? Well, look
at the next word. For foundation. For foundation. It is foundational. I was thinking about when we
built this building. We had to move away a bunch of
soft sand. We brought in some hard clay.
And then we hired a machine, a vibrating roller, steam roller,
a vibrating steam roller. That thing was half the size
of this room. Seemed like it. And I mean, you could feel it
two and three blocks from here as it rolled over that fresh
dirt, shaking it and vibrating it down. in order to give us
a foundation. And then we dug, we brought in
a backhoe and we dug footers two and a half feet deep and
two feet wide and filled them with iron and poured I don't
know how many yards of concrete and made one solid monolithic
slab in building this. This building's got a foundation.
I was there for every, many of you were here for every step
of it. The strength of any building.
Don't worry about a leaky roof if your house is sitting on a
sinkhole. Dean, somebody calls you as a
contractor to come look at their leaky roof and in inspecting
their house you find out it's sitting on a sinkhole, what are
you going to tell them about that leaky roof? Don't worry about the roof,
the house is fixing to fall in. There's no foundation to it.
There's no foundation to it. This is foundational. It's the
most important thing. It's the most important part
of the building. The building's got no structure.
It's got no stability. It's got no use without a firm
foundation. I lay in Zion for a foundation. Abraham looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker was God. And when John
in Revelation chapter 21 saw the new Jerusalem coming down
from heaven, he said it had twelve foundations, each of them made
of precious stones. Here's what God says, Seek ye
first. The kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these other things will be added unto you. Oh, we get
so caught up in trying to patch our leaky roofs and our broken
windows. Go back to the foundation. That's
the problem. That's the problem. If the foundation
is set right, the rest of the house will be strong. Did not
the Lord say, if you build your house upon shifting sand, then
when the storms of life come and the wrath of God comes in
the day of judgment, that house will fall? But if you build your
house upon the rock of ages, upon this rock I shall build
my church, then when the storms of life come and when the wrath
of God comes one day, That house is going to stand. Why? Because
it's built on a rock. God hid Moses in a rock, didn't
He? He said, Moses, there's a cleft
of the rock near unto Me, and I'm going to hide you in there,
and you're going to be safe there. When Moses wanted to see the
glory of God, he had to be put in a rock. When God was going
to bring water to His children out in the wilderness, what did
He do? He smote the rock. I mean, of all the most unlikely
places for water to come from out of a rock, yeah. When the Lord asked Peter, Whom
do you say that I am? Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood did not reveal
the Son to you, but my Father which is in heaven. He's the
one that opened the eyes of your understanding. He's the one that
taught you. And upon this rock, and he wasn't
talking about Peter. He was talking about the declaration
that Peter just made. upon this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail
against it." What's the truth of it? What's
our source of authority? Thus saith the Lord. What's our call? Behold, look
to Christ. Who does the work? I lay. Where
does He lay it? Here, Zion. What does He lay? A foundation. A foundation. A sure foundation. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter
2, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, God knoweth
them that are his. I'm so thankful. You are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. For other foundations can no
man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Paul
said, as a wise master builder, as a wise contractor, I have
laid the foundation. What is this foundation like?
Well, it's like a stone. It's like a stone. You see that? A stone. A tried stone. A tried stone. Back to when we
built this building. I didn't know much about concrete
at the time, but come to find out, concrete had to be tested
before it could be poured. And it had to withstand a certain
amount of pressure. You've got different pounds per
square inch. Those of you that know about
concrete, and I don't remember if it was 3,000 pounds per square
inch or 4,500 pounds per square inch, but the concrete under
this building had to be tested before it could be approved. And that's what this scripture
says. A stone, a tried stone. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
tried. He was put under the authority of God and tried by the Father. He was tested by the law and
he satisfied every bit of its demands. He was tried and tempted
by Satan in ways that you and I know nothing about. And in
all of his trials and temptations, he sinned not. He said, in this world, you're
going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. I have overcome the world for
you. He's the tried stone. He was
tried by the contradictions of men. He was tried by the wrath
of God on Calvary's cross. And He was proven. He was proven
to be faithful and satisfactory to God. God is pleased with Christ. He's pleased with His life and
He's pleased with His death. He's a tried stone. A precious
stone. You see that word precious? Now
in the South we call our children precious. That's not what the
word here means. Literally, this word means priceless. And it's not a word used in exaggeration. We might say of something, well,
that's priceless. Well, not really. You put some money out there
and I'll sell it. It's really not priceless. You put enough
of it. No, this is priceless. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price, and when God brings
His people to Christ, they sell everything they've got for Him.
Everything! For the first time in their lives,
they realize everything they've got belongs to God. It's all
His. It's all His. He can take it
and do with it whatsoever He wills. And they're brought by
the grace of God to stand in the presence of God with an open
hand. Why? Because He's given them the pearl
of great price. The priceless stone. A sure foundation. Sure foundation. Now all the
work that we put into this building, I cannot guarantee you that this
building won't fall. It might. God could send an earthquake. He could send one of those big
hurricanes we get down here and, you know, maybe blow this building
over. It's rated for, I don't know, 120 miles an hour, but
war can stir a wind a lot harder than that. By the authority of God's Word,
I am absolutely convinced. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded. And I can't say this about anything
else in life. I can't say this about myself.
I can't say this about this church. I can't say this about this ministry.
I can't say this about you. I can't say this about anything.
I can't say this about the sun coming up in the morning. But I can say this about Christ.
I'm persuaded. I'm sure. I'm just sure. If God
gives you faith, you're going to be sure. You're going to be
absolutely convinced of it. That the Lord Jesus Christ is
God. And that He has satisfied all
the demands of God's holy law and God's divine justice. And
your only hope is to trust Him. What are we to do? What are we
to do? Lay that belief on Him." You
see that in the last part of the verse? When the Philippian
jailer asked Paul, what must I do to be saved? He said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thine
household. Anybody that believes, cast themselves upon Christ. When Peter preached on the day
of Pentecost, And the people were cut to their hearts and
convicted by the Holy Spirit. And they said, men, what must
we do to be saved? Peter didn't say, well, there's
nothing you can do. Just go home and see if God zaps
you from heaven. No, he said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and be baptized. Profess Him. Trust Him. You say, well, how do I know
if I believe? I want to believe. Ask God to give you the faith
to believe. You can't believe on your own. Faith is a gift
of God. Lord, would you be pleased to
give me the faith to believe? And how do I know if He's given
me faith to believe? Look at the verse. Look at the
verse. He that believeth shall not make
haste. You say, what's that mean? Well, look at verse 12. to whom
he said, This is the rest wherewith he may cause the weary to rest,
and this is the refreshing. Yet they would not hear." How do I know if I believed? I've got no place else to go. This is the truth. This is where
I can hear the truth. Christ is that truth. He's been
pleased to call out a people and give them faith to believe
the truth. And I find great rest. I'm not
interested in you leaving here under the burden of the law. I'm not interested in you leaving
here committed to do better and be better. I'm interested in
you leaving here at rest. I want you to leave here at peace
with God, knowing that you have an advocate with the Father.
I've got rest. I don't need to make haste. I
don't need to work. I don't need to run to and fro.
I don't need to go anywhere else to try to to try to earn favor
with God. I can rest in Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're so very thankful that the work of salvation is
finished. and that there is a place of
rest for Thy children. We thank Thee for Zion and for
causing this place to be a place where Your people can come together
and where they can find in Christ their all in all. We thank Thee
for Your Word and for the the power of it and for the simplicity
of it and the clarity of it and the truth of it. And we ask that
your Holy Spirit would keep us now, continue to keep us, Lord,
even as you've kept us for 18 years. We thank you for it. Thank you for the meal that we're
about to receive. We pray you bless our fellowship. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together, Brother
Bert. We're going to close number 62 in the hardback teminal. And
then after we sing, you all figure out how to eat.