Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 22. Proverbs 22. Remove not, verse 28, I'm sorry. Remove not the ancient landmark
which thy fathers have set. Seest thou a man diligent in
his business, he shall stand before kings. He shall not stand
before mean men. The Spirit of God moved upon
Solomon to warn the people about something that Almighty God had
set forth in His law. And it was this, God had warned
to not remove the landmark, the boundary of property that had
been set, been given to the people of Israel. Deuteronomy 19.14
says, Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark which they
of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt
inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess
it." Now the Lord had set His love
and affection on the people of Israel, the people of His promise,
And He gave them this promise, I'm going to bring you to the
land of Canaan, I'm going to bring you to the promised land. And when they got there, the
Lord had assigned each of the families their proper portion
of property. And it was to be marked off with
absolute precision. And they were to mark their property
off, there was boundaries set. And the reason for that is because
there was going to be no confusion, no clashing of interests, no
grounds for lawsuits. Every person in Canaan knew exactly
where their boundaries were. They knew their inheritance according
to God's Word. And those landmarks were not
to be tampered with. They were not to be moved and
to trespass upon someone else's boundary. To move that boundary
incurred the wrath of God. Deuteronomy 27.17, Cursed be
he that removeth his neighbors landmark. Don't touch it. Don't move it. It's not yours. You leave it alone. Now, that's
the natural and true meaning of that passage of scripture.
A piece of property belongs to somebody. It's marked off of
boundaries. You don't have a right to go
out there and pull up a stake and move it over 15 feet, you
know, and kind of show that you've got more than you've got. Don't
touch it. Now, spiritually, we behold something
of the glorious landmark of Almighty God, who has set forth according
to His covenant of grace, that boundary, that inheritance of
His people, of all those that were chosen in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world. Everything set forth in God's
Word concerning the spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ
are included in the landmark. I want you to look at that verse
28. Remove not the ancient landmark
and say landmarks. There's a landmark that Almighty
God has set forth and that landmark is based upon His love. for a people. Listen to Jeremiah
31.3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Now that landmark that we're
going to look at in just a minute is based on God's love for His
people. It's been set. I love my people. And there's a landmark that I'm
going to read to you in just a second. That landmark is based
upon His affection. Deuteronomy 7 verse 6-8 says
this, Scripture declares who has saved
us, loved us, saved us and called us with a holy calling not according
to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Salvation for God's people accomplished
is what he's saying. For his own in Christ Jesus before
the world began is the evidence of this landmark. Now, what is
it? What is the boundary? You buy a piece of property,
you get a plat. You look at it, and it's marked
off, and it gives you so many feet, and this is yours, and
this is yours. And within that boundary, everything that is
yours is marked off with this perimeter. Now I want you to
turn to a passage of scripture that we've read so many times,
but I'm telling you, this is the landmark. Exodus 33. Exodus 33 and verse 19. You remember when Moses asked
the Lord, show me your glory. Everything that Almighty God
has eternally purposed to do is marked off with this boundary
right here. Exodus 33 verse 19. Moses said
in verse 18, I beseech thee, show me your glory, show me your
will, show me your thoughts, show me your purpose. And here's
what the Lord said in verse 19. He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,
and will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy. Now, there's the boundary. There's
the landmark. Everything that almighty God
has eternally purposed to do for a people of his choosing
is summed up in that verse of scripture right there. I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. There's but one boundary,
and this is it. God's mercy. Romans 8, 28, and
29 declares this concerning God's purpose to have mercy and compassion
on whom he will. For whom he did foreknow, that
is, to whom he did appoint or ordained before. He also did
predestinate. I'm going to give you a description
of these words. We read these verses all the
time. He did predestinate. What does that mean? That means
He ordained and marked out. That's what it means. He marked
it out. To be conformed to the image
of His Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren,
moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Now, that word there does not
mean that effectual call by which the Lord calls us, though he
does that. That word right there, called, means surnamed. I named
them before. You're mine. Here's the boundary. your mind, surnamed with a family
name, and determined their call that would come in time. And
whom He called, them He also justified. Now this is all before
the foundation of the world. That means iniquity blotted out. Righteous. and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Mysteriously glorified in glory,
is what I'm saying right now, in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
head of His people. Chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. Loved of Him. Surnamed. Called out in time. This is God's
boundary. Here's God's inheritance. Here
is the Lord's people surrounded with this landmark. Now how does
a sinner know anything about this landmark? What is going
to be that which Almighty God uses to teach them what He's
done for them in Christ? One way, through the preaching
of the gospel. That's the only way that anyone
will ever know what the Lord has been pleased to do for His
people. God Almighty, through the preaching of the Lord Jesus
Christ, has set forth His good pleasure to show grace and mercy
to His people. And we're warned in this passage
of Scripture back in Proverbs 23. Remove not the ancient landmark
which thy fathers have said. Remove not, don't retreat, don't
depart, don't take away from the proclamation of that truth. Don't fail to preach Christ and
Him crucified. Don't fail to preach how God
can be just and justify a sinner. To do so. To fail to preach it. He carries with it eternal punishment. Though we are an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we've preached
unto you, let him be accursed. Failure to preach the gospel
of Christ is to fail to preach God's record of His Son. It's to shun the message that
gives God Almighty in Christ, all the glory, all the honor,
to fail to preach this landmark. If someone were to ask you, what
do you base what you believe upon? We base it on this, God's
word, that God's gonna have mercy and compassion to whomsoever
He will. To fail to preach the gospel
is to fail to proclaim the love for the Lord Jesus Christ. To
preach any other thing is love for me. And the scripture says,
if any man love not the Lord Jesus, the one declared in the
gospel of God as God's lamb and God's substitute for his people,
let him be accursed. Let him be anathema maranatha. What does that mean? It means
he's cursed The Lord has come, remove not the ancient landmark. That boundary that was given
by Almighty God to the fathers, that word that was taught to
them and moved by God's spirit to be written down by the penman
in the laws and the prophet, by the law and the prophet, God's
word to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, it's because there's no light in them. Whenever we
talk about to the law and to the prophets, what does that
mean? That means that which points
to the one who alone has fulfilled all the demands for righteousness
and justice. When we talk about the law and
the prophets, what the law demands, Christ fulfills. What the prophets
proclaim is the Christ who filled the law. So that's the boundary. Now, in closing, in whom was
this landmark promised and established before time began? In whom did
the Father first trust that all the requirements for justice
and righteousness before God would be fulfilled? You know
who it was. The Lamb Himself. Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 29. Seest thou a man diligent
in his business? He shall stand before kings.
He shall not stand before mean men. Seest thou. Now that's causing us to gaze
upon. Gaze upon and spiritually perceive. Contemplate with pleasure. What
does it mean? Seest thou a man diligent in
his business? Do you see a man diligent in
his business? What man is this? This is none
other than the Lord of glory. He alone is the man that is diligent. That is quick, prompt and skilled. ready to do the business of Almighty
God. He is the one who is said to
be diligent in, now look at it, in His business, in His occupation,
in His work, in His service. And what was His business? This
man that is diligent. John 9, verse 4. The Lord said,
I must work the works of Him that sent me. This was his business,
to do all that was required in the redemption of his people
and lose nothing. That's what he said in John chapter
six, verse 39. I want you to read something.
Turn with me to Exodus 31. Hold your place there. Turn with me to Exodus 31. Exodus 31, verse one
to five. Amazing passage of scripture.
It always amazed me when I would read the descriptions of what
the Lord demanded in the building of the temple and all of the
beautiful pieces of furniture. Listen to this, Exodus 31 verses
1-5, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called
by name Bethlehem, the son of Uriah, the son of Hur, of the
tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit
of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, in all manner of
workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold and silver
and brass, cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of
timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. The Lord said,
I've called this man. He called many, but He spoke
specifically of this man, and there was a demand that the Lord
had concerning the building of these things within the temple. And He said, I filled this man
with the Spirit of God, Wisdom and understanding to know how
to do it, it always amazes me. Somebody that's really skilled
in something, and I mean they're good at it. I mean you could
just, there's something about what they do or what they carve
or build or something like that and it just, when they do it,
I mean they're just a cut above. I mean I've seen some stuff that
was done and you think, it's okay. But I'm talking about when
you look at a piece of work, somebody does something that's
just spectacular. You thought, how in the world
did you know how to do that? And to do it just so well, so
perfect. The Lord says, I gave him that
spirit. I worked in him. I gave him the
ability to build and understand all of these things. but concerning
the Lord of glory. The God-man mediator. You know what Almighty God did
for him? This is an amazing thing. God made flesh and Jehovah qualified
him for the work which he called him. God gave him the Spirit
without measure. That's an amazing thought to
me, Neil. God, who you could add nothing to, took upon Himself flesh, a man,
a real man. And Jehovah qualified that man. You'd think, well, He would just
naturally, God gave him the spirit without measure that he would
be therefore ready, quick, prompt, and skilled in his business. All power is given unto the Son that He might give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given Him. Here His meat was
to do the will of Him that sent Him. And the Father in Him was
well pleased. As the mediator between God and
men, God qualified. Just like the Lord qualified
that man right there. I filled him with the Spirit.
I gave him the Spirit to do this, to be able to to understand and
to work in gold and silver and stone and brass. I gave Him that
to be able to do that. Oh, He gave the Spirit without
measure unto the Son that He should save His people in absolute
justice and righteousness before God. Only of Him could it be
said in Psalm 45, too, Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips,
therefore God has blessed thee forever. Qualified him. What about this man in closing?
What about this Lord Jesus Christ? It's just a man that's diligent
in his business. It says, he shall stand before
kings. He shall stand. That is, as one
stationed and remains, he shall stand before kings. One who is
fit as God's servant to be employed in the affairs of kings, his
people, who have been made kings and priests before God. Just like in the book of Job
and the sons of God, the scripture says, came to present themselves
before the Lord. The scripture sets forth here
that the Lord Jesus stands as the surety. of His people. He stands for them. They're all
in Him. What's this one that's diligent
in his business? The one who's pleased God. The
one who's finished the work. Every jot and every tittle of
the law on their behalf, on the behalf of those that God gave
Him in electing grace. What's he gonna do? He's gonna
stand for them. And God accepts all of them in
Him who is diligent, whom the Father was well pleased. It says,
He shall not stand before mean men. What does that mean, mean? Darkened. Darkened, those to
whom the light of the gospel has never shined in their hearts.
He's not going to stand for those as their surety. They'll stand before Him on the
day of judgment and say, we did this, that, and the other for
you. And he'll say, I never knew you. You were never given to
me of my father. I didn't lay down my life for
you. But for those entrusted to him, everlastingly, he is
the great high priest who ever liveth to make intercession for
those that come to God in him. There is an ancient landmark.
that has been set forth by God that was revealed unto the fathers.
That landmark declares the glorious grace and mercy of Almighty God
in Christ to His people. And I'll tell you what we do.
We love that landmark. We love it and we preach it and
woe to the man, according to these scriptures, who tries to
move it. who doesn't acknowledge it, who
will not give God Almighty the right, according to their thinking,
woe to them, that fails to bow to that landmark, that place,
that position that is the possession of Almighty God concerning His
church in Christ Jesus, the one that came into this world to
save sinners. from their sins. Thanks be unto
God. God has laid it out. You know,
that's the fallacy of false religion. Everything's open-ended. It's
open-ended. Nothing's settled unless a man
settles it. Nothing's established until a
man exercises. Oh, no. No, no, no, no. There's
a landmark. There's a boundary. And it's
marked off by God Almighty. Praised be unto his holy name
that God has been pleased to have mercy unto a people of his
choosing. I pray God bless this to our
hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.