Well, it's good to see you this
morning. It's good to be back. We had
a good time, Brother Clay Curtis. I believe the Lord blessed the
messages. Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. I'd like to deal with one verse
of Scripture, verse 17, and I've entitled this, Our Great Wall
of Salvation. Let's pray together. Our Father, how wonderful it
is to be able to come together and assemble ourselves in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed hope and salvation,
our comfort. How we pray this morning, would
you bless this service. Lord, would you set our hearts
aflame with joy and thanksgiving If you bless the message, Lord,
we will rejoice in it. Help us. How desperately do we
need you. We ask that the preaching might
be to your honor, that it might be to the good comfort of your
people. For Christ's sake, Amen. The last time we looked, We looked
at verse 16 and we were talking about the city. The city of God. That's the bride. Church. And this church, the Scripture
says, was measured in furlongs. Now you know that the Scriptures
don't just use words. Just pick a word and just arbitrarily
throw something out there. There's a reason for it. Furlongs. That's how this city was measured
with the reed, verse 16, 12,000 furlongs. And we looked at and
considered that a furlong is a measurement of a race. That's how a race was measured. Furlongs. This life is a race. Hebrews 12.1. Let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. This life for a believer
is a race. It's a race of faith It is a
race of obedience and it is given to the believer, set before us
by the good providence, by the will, by the purpose of Almighty
God who does all things according to His good pleasure. Every believer has his race to
run. His race is not this believer's race. This one doesn't, there's not
a pat, you know, we don't say, now this is the way it's going
to be. The Lord calls a man out of darkness
and this, this, this, this, this, and this, and then he'll go,
no. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, 7,
I have fought a good fight. I have finished what? My course. I've kept the faith. He's not
bragging. He's exclaiming, proclaiming,
giving honor to the grace of God that kept him. That's what
you say. You that believe. That's what
you say. I've kept the faith because He's
kept me. Henceforth is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all
of them also that love is appearing." Is appearing. One day. One day. So this city, the Church of God,
the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, is measured according to verse
16 exactly the way that God has set forth the race to be. They're all there. The length,
that's what it says, the last part of verse 16, the length
and the breadth and the height of it are Equal. I looked up that word equal. You know, I pretty well know
what equal means. It's, you know, it's equal. No, I didn't know what it meant.
It means as perceived with the eyes. It's equal. That is, as perceived with the
Lord's eyes. The Lord looked and He saw that
the heart of all men was desperately
wicked, deceitful. Everybody but one man found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. One man was perceived by Almighty
God to be equal as perceived with the eyes." This city right
here, 12,000 furlongs, the length, breadth, height is perceived
by the eyes of God to be equal. Well, having considered the city,
verse 17, we'll just look at it for a few minutes. is talking
about the wall. And when it comes right down
to it, we're talking about the security of this city. We're
talking about the wall. We're talking about the protection.
Verse 17 says, And he measured the wall thereof, 144 cubits,
according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. This wall is not actually a physical
wall as men would perceive a wall to be. We look at something and
we say, well, that's made out of brick. That's made out of
wood. That's got this. That's a wall. That's stone. This wall is actually salvation. This wall is actually the Lord
Jesus Christ. Listen to this. Zechariah 2.5,
For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire, round
about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. Isaiah 60
verse 18 says, Violence, that is, wrong and cruelty and injustice,
shall no more be heard in thy land. Wasting, that is, oppression
and robbery, nor destruction, no ruin within thy borders, but
thou shalt call thy walls salvation and praise." How secure is the
bride of church in glory? You say, well, she's just secure. No, no, no more tears, no more,
no nothing. She's there. That's how pure
she is right now. Your wall is Christ Himself,
robed in Him. Salvation, the Lord Himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. What a wonderful
thought. What a blessing. Now the city,
we looked at a while ago, measured as a race. How did she get there? Well, the Lord ordained that
this was the way that she was going to come. Paul referred
to it as a race, furlongs. But the wall, I want you to notice
it's measured in cubits. That's a different measurement.
Cubit. And when you look up the word
cubit, this is what it says. The mother. Or the standard. This is the,
this is the, you know, this is the, you know, if you're going
through and somebody was digging for gold or something, and they
said, boy, that's the mother load right there. You'd say,
you know, everything else is going to be compared to that
one. If y'all's vein of gold doesn't measure up to this one,
there's the mother load right there. That's what cubit means,
the standard. It means the standard or the
mother or the standard from which all other measurements come.
This is it. Cubits. That's how whenever the
Lord told Noah, he said, I want you to build an ark. He didn't
tell him, you know, did you remember how he measured it? 300 cubits
long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. And it had one window in
it and it was a cubit. Three stories high. How big is
that boat? It's cubits, cubits. This is
the standard. Now you know that that ark was
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and that Noah and his wife and
his three sons and their wives and all of those animals that
were in that ark set forth in type of all of God's sheep that
would be in Christ saved from the wrath of Almighty God that
fell on the ark. I was listening to a message
the other day. Brother Scott preached. I don't
know how long ago it was. It was a long time ago. And he
was preaching on this very thing right here. And he said this.
He said, just like whenever Noah And all of His people, all of
His family, those animals, were in that ark. And the wrath of
God fell on that ark. And while He was preaching, I
got to thinking about the cross. And there was the Lord Jesus
Christ and all of His people in Him. And about the time while
I was thinking about it, He brought it up. And He said, just as Calvary,
And he said, there was the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, all
of his people in him under the judgment of Almighty God. And
God put away their guilt at Calvary in a substitute. And it fell
on Christ who was made sin. And I thought, oh, that sounds
so good. The standard. This wall. The standard. of all the measurements
that Almighty God would set forth as the security and salvation
of God's people. How big is it? 144 cubits. Now, you know, I went back and
I got to look in verse 12. It said there was a wall great and high. Twelve gates. Twelve angels, the names written
on there, and the names of the twelve tribes. And I looked in
verse 13, on these three gates, north three gates, south three
gates, west three gates. Verse 14, the wall of the city
had twelve foundations, and then the name of the twelve, twelve,
twelve, twelve, twelve. And I kept thinking of all those
twelves in this gym, you know, twelve here, twelve there, twenty-five.
Do you know you can add up all these things? It's told right
there, none of it comes to 144. What are you saying? I'm saying that 144
is a number, a secret number that I don't have the wisdom
to figure out. I can't figure him out mathematically. I can't add and subtract and
multiply and divide and say, I've got this thing all figured
out. No, you're talking to somebody that's just going to admit that
the Scripture sets forth that the secret things of God's grace
and security for God's people is something that's known only
to God. What's His name? He said, My
name is salvation and praise. Lord, as You say You are, that's
the way You are. in the divine Word of Almighty
God, I cannot figure out the wisdom, the depth, oh, mercy
of God. But here is the thing I do know.
It is according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. Why don't I just get away from
trying to figure out all of this and let me bow unto Him who the
Scripture says the salvation, the wall, the protection, the
security of God's people is the Lord Jesus Christ according to
the measure, the standard of judgment of a man. That is the angel, the messenger
himself. God's people are saved and kept
secure by the measure of a man, but not just any man. Romans 5.15 says, But not as
the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense
of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace which is by one man. Jesus Christ hath abounded unto
many. There is one God and there is
one Mediator between God and men and it is the man, Christ
Jesus. You want to talk about salvation,
security, and hope and peace. You want to talk about some comfort
that will keep you in the midst of the storm? You want to talk
about some joy that will sustain your heart in the midst of all
of the trials and the tribulations of this world? Oh, you can try to go back if
you want to to your profession of faith. I was nine. I was 14. I was 18. I was baptized. I joined the church when I was... I rededicated my life when I... My daddy was a preacher. I've
always been saved. You start coming up with all
of that stuff that you want to. And I'm going to tell you something.
There's no security in it. Now, you can probably justify
in your own mind and you'll come up with something. An unbeliever's
got to. He's got something that he rests
in. He's got something that he'll try to hold on to. But only a
believer will say he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. And it's ordered in all things.
And it's sure. How secure, I mean, how sincere
was I when I saw it? Well, honestly, I wasn't sincere
enough. That Almighty God would show
mercy to this sinner. And in spite of what I am by nature, in spite of my frailty, in spite
of my shortcomings, He's not looking at my obedience. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I'm well pleased. You hear Him. You want to have
some joy and peace and comfort? Let me give you some good advice.
Look away from yourself because there's none there. You look
inside, old Newton says, all is dark and vain and wild. When I look inside and I think,
of how inconsistent I am in my walk, in my obedience, in my
thoughts, Newton said, can I deem myself a child? But when I hear of Him who is
the wall of the city, salvation and praise Himself, and it's
according to the measure, the standard of judgment, that's
what I like, it's according to the measure of a man, the man
Christ Jesus. My heart is made to say, Lord,
thanks be unto You who have loved me, kept me, and saved me by Your
grace, chosen in Him, represented by
him, redeemed by him, kept by him, married to him. And I'll tell you this, continually
coming to him. When you talk about coming to
Christ, that's not a one-time thing. To whom coming? God's people are coming to Him
continually. You that believe, you're coming
to Him right now. You're thinking to yourself, Lord, thank You
for just speaking to my heart. Thank You. Thank You for giving
me the thought that You've allowed me the privilege To be able to
think on you again and to thank you for your grace and mercy
to me. Our security, it's a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Alright,
we're going to take a little break. We'll come back in just
a few minutes.