Verse number one of the ninth
chapter of the book of Mark. And he said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here
which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom
of God come with power. And after six days Jesus taketh
with him Peter and James and John, and leadeth them up into
an high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before
them. And his raiment, or his garments,
became shining, exceeding white as snow. so as no fuller on earth
can wipe them. And there appeared unto them
Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter
answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles,
or three little booths, three little tents, little temporary
buildings. Let us make three tabernacles,
one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist
not, or he knew not, what to say, for they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my
beloved son, hear him. And suddenly, when they had looked
round about, that is, when Peter, James, and John, and suddenly
when they looked round about, they saw no man anymore save
Jesus only with themselves. Well, I want to talk to you a
little bit here this morning about the latter part of that
eighth verse, where it says, "...they saw no man any more
save, or except Jesus only, with themselves." Jesus only. This was the last sight the disciples
had upon the mountain. They saw Jesus only. When they were first there on
the mountain, it was Peter and James and John
and Elias and Moses and the Lord Himself. The last sight that
fell before the view of their eyes as they were getting ready
to leave that mountain was Jesus' own. they saw Jesus only. Well, he was often with his people. He went from place to place and
he was with his disciples and they were attracted or he attracted
by his miracles healings and so forth. Great crowds of people
thronged after him and they observed him and seen him, looked upon
his face numerous times. But they didn't notice him or
look upon him as Jesus only. They seen the Lord Jesus Christ
in a crowd They seen the Lord Jesus with His disciples. But I don't think that there
was too many during the course of our Lord's ministry that seen
Him only, just seen Jesus only. Now, I don't think that you and
I will ever see Jesus only until like The disciples, we have seen
Moses and Elias too. We cannot see Jesus until we
first see Moses. Now, Moses is representative
of the law. Grace and truth came by the Lord
Jesus. The law came to us or was given
to us by Moses. Moses is representative of the
law. Now, what I'm saying here is
this, that never was there an eye which saw Jesus only until
first that eye saw Moses. You can't see Jesus until you
first see Moses. Look with me, if you will, to
the book of Romans, chapter 7 of the book of Romans, and verse
number 7. Let me read something to you
here about the law. Now, I'm saying that we've got
to first pass under the terrors of the law. We first must be
made to tremble under the demands of God's law. We first must be
made to hear the thunder of the wrath of God as it rolls over
our heads. We've first got to come into
contact with Moses before we're ever going to see Jesus only. You can't see Jesus only until
you've first seen Moses. Moses is representative of the
law. We've got to hear what the law
says and what the law demands and what the intent and purpose
of the law is. We've got to understand some
of those things, and we've got to feel some of the guilt and
shame and misery and brokenness that the law conveys to our poor
hearts when we hear it. If we don't hear from Moses,
if we don't see Moses, what I'm saying is, we're never going
to see Jesus only. And we've got to see Jesus only
if we're ever going to wind up at the feet of God Almighty in
eternity to come, we're going to have to see Jesus only. Not
Jesus plus something else, but we're going to have to see Jesus
only. Not Jesus and Moses and Elijah, but we're going to have
to see Jesus only. That's the ultimate of the Bible,
is to bring a man to see Jesus only. I said at the outset, now there's
many people seen Jesus in the crowd, but they never seen Jesus
only. We got to see Jesus only. Look over here in Romans chapter
7 and verse number 7. I said that Moses is representative
of the law. We're going to have to have the
law put on us. We're going to have to feel the wrath of God in the demands of that law. And
we're going to have to feel the hopelessness of ourselves in
light of the law and see what the law demands of us. The law
demands that we honor God and love God with all of our hearts
and all of our souls. That's what the law of God demands.
The law of God demands that you love your neighbor as yourself. That's what it demands. A man
has got to see Moses before he can see Jesus only. He has got
to feel the heaviness and the weight of the demands of this
law on his own heart. The law was never given in order
that you might be brought to see Jesus only by observing that
law. The law was never given as a
means of our acceptance with God. That was never the purpose
of the law. What was the purpose of the law? It says right here in verse 7,
What shall we say then, is the law sin? The law is not sin. The law is the embodiment of
the character and perfection of God. It's not sin. Nothing
wrong with the law. As I've said many times, there's
nothing wrong with loving God with all your heart and all your
mind and all your soul. Nothing wrong with that. That's
good. But that's what God demands out of me. That's what God demands
out of you. Now, if you're honest, if you're
honest now, and quit playing, if you're honest, you're going
to say, I'm guilty. You're going to have to say, is that right?
God demands that I love Him with every fiber of my being, that
I love Him before mother, father, husband, wife, son, or daughter. Yeah, even my own life. That's
what the law demands. If you're going to If you're
going to use the law as a means of your acceptance with God,
listen to what the law has to say. The law has to say this,
that you've got to love me supremely and love your neighbor as yourself.
You say, well, if that's what it says, woe is me, I can't do
that. I can't do that. I've never done
that. What's going to happen to me? Well, the law doesn't
convey any blessing to you. The law says this is what you
do, and if you don't do it, this is your end. You're going to
go to hell. Or the curse of God's upon you, which is hell. The
condemnation of God, which is judgment and hell. That's what
the law demands. The law demands, that's what
Moses demands. He's representative of the Lord
and demands perfection. You say, well, surely if a man
does the best he can. No, that won't do it. The best
you can is not enough. You've got to square with that
first commandment. You've got to come to that first
commandment and look it in the eye and hear what it says and
render unto it what it demands. And if you can't do it, if you
can't do it, Then you're going to be, if you're interested in
not being indifferent in this matter, you're just going to
be full of despair and despondency and you're going to say, well,
there's no hope for me, no hope for me. Well, that's right. As
long as you look to the law as a means of your acceptance, there's
no hope for you. But if this law, if this law
will so bring you to the place of misery and guilt that you
begin to look outside of yourself and what you can do to someone
who can fulfill that law and who can do for you what you couldn't
do for yourself. There is hope. Then you'll see
Jesus only. Look at this verse. Is the law
sin? No, sir. God forbid. The law
is not sin. The law is good and holy and
perfect. Nothing more after the law. Paul
said, I delight in the law of God. Nothing, not a thing, is
wrong with the law. The law is good, and we reverence
the law, and bow to the law, and would that all men could
keep the law, but we know that all men can't keep the law. God
forbid, listen to what Paul says now. Paul said, I had not known
sin, or I wouldn't have known what sin is but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the Lord said, Thou shalt not covet." Now, this is what I'm
saying. I'm saying that a man does not
know what sin is or what the law demands until he comes to
see the truth of the law, the purpose of the law. Now, Paul
said, If it had not been for the law, he said, I would not
have known what sin was. Now, let's look at this honestly.
What's Paul talking about here? Is Paul talking about, I didn't
know that it was sin not to love God? Now, I don't think Paul's talking
about that because Paul knew something of the Old Testament.
In fact, he knew more of the Old Testament than any man alive
at that time, really. I suspect any man alive right
now, Paul knew more about it. He knew what the law was. He
knew what the law was. He knew that it was sin to commit
adultery. Paul knew that that was wrong.
He knew that was sin. He knew that God frowned upon
adultery. Paul knew that it was wrong to
take that which belonged to another man. Paul knew that that was
sin. He knew that. Well, what's he talking about
then? I thought it meant that Paul didn't know that stealing
was sin until the law was set forth before him that said, Thou
shalt not steal. I thought that's what it meant.
That's not what it means. Paul knew that it was wrong to steal. He knew that it was wrong to
commit adultery. He knew it was wrong to kill
somebody. He knew those things were wrong
and an abomination in the sight of God. But what Paul did not
know, he discovered what sin was against God. That is, the
true spiritual import of the law had to do with his heart.
It had to do with his heart. He knew it was wrong to commit
adultery out there. He knew that. But he didn't understand
this lust in his heart. He didn't understand that. He
didn't understand what our Lord said. He said, I know that the
law says this and that and so forth, but I say unto you, if
any man looketh upon a woman with lust, Lust in his heart. He's already committed adultery.
That's what Paul discovered. That's what Paul discovered.
Most people haven't discovered that yet. And they'll never see
Jesus only until they discover this. You see what I'm talking
about? Because they'll always mix Jesus
with something else if they don't discover this. the true intent
and import of the law. They'll build up a righteousness
of their own. How many people that you know
and I know, and maybe some here this morning, that you agree
with what the Bible has to say about the Lord Jesus, that He
was born of a virgin and unique, and He came with one purpose,
to save men from their sins, And He died on the cross, and
His blood was shed, and He was buried, and He was resurrected,
and you have some sort of a hope, some sort of a hope in either
in Him or that which He did. But you still retain within you
this idea that there's something I've got to do. There's something
I must be. I must think a certain way. In
order to put that alongside of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order
that I might somehow be... I know Jesus did everything,
but! We all have that, but! Jesus only. Well, this is what
it says, I had not known sin, nay, but by the law. For I had
not known lust, except the Lord said, Thou shalt not covet. Paul
knew what it meant to covet. He knew that it meant that he
wasn't to covet his neighbor's farm or his neighbor's wife. He knew that, outward things,
but secretly in his heart, see, in his heart. That's where Paul
found it out. He said, the commandments deceive me. Deceive me. They finally slayed me when I
seen the truth of it. Seen the truth of it that I was
a sinner before God. A rebel before God. I had a bad
nature. Bad nature. Something within
me that I couldn't control. I can control these things out
here. Paul said, I never had anything
to do with a woman. I never got married. Why? He said, I lived in all honesty
and decency before God in the time I was converted. If you
don't believe that, you turn with me to Philippians chapter
3. Listen to this now. Verse number 6 of the 3rd chapter.
It will do you well if you'll turn there and look at that verse.
If you don't believe that I know what I'm talking about in the
matter of Paul here. Paul says concerning zeal and
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, he said, I'm blameless. I took care of all these outward
things. I took care of that. But he said,
I found something out about my nature, about my heart. See,
that I couldn't do anything about. I can take care of these other
things, Pat. The golden rule, I can try to
love people. I can try to honor the brotherhood
and remember the King and keep the outward laws. I can do that,
but that's not what it's all about. Paul said, I found something
about my heart here. Well, what I'm saying is then,
first, we must see Moses if we're ever going to see Jesus only. We've got to see Moses. We've
got to feel the thunder of the wrath of God against us as it
rolls over our heads and we hear the demands of it and feel our
own guilt and hopelessness and helplessness under that law. We've got to feel it. We've got
to come to the place where we can say before God and in our
own hearts with a good conscience and sincerity and truth, Lord,
this is more than I can bear. I can't keep that law. I can't
keep that law. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And I'll
open myself before we'll ever see Jesus only. Well, we must see Moses first. or else we'll never see Jesus
only. Because if we don't, this is what we'll do. We'll be trusting
our own self-righteousness and we'll be putting something with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses must come in and he must
break down self-righteousness. He must come in with a smashing
hand and smash down and destroy our self-made righteousness or
else we'll never see Jesus only. Now, Jesus only. Here's the first thing. We must
see Jesus only for our justification. Now, we're all born fools, and
we shall be fools until we get to heaven. And one of the foolish
things that will always be sprouting out of us is our wanting to put
something else with Christ in the matter of justification.
You say, well, you never do that. You never put anything else with
Christ. in regard to your acceptance
with God. Well, I'll tell you this. I'm
sure you do, but I'm going to tell you this. It's a hard and
a difficult thing to stick fast by this great truth of Jesus
only as the rock and foundation of your salvation. You've got
to understand this, and I hope that if you understand it, that
you'll remember it and you'll treasure it in your heart. The meritorious cause of my salvation,
or your salvation, is not in the least degree dependent upon
what you do or what you don't do. Now if you can get that,
if you can just put that under your tongue right there. The
meritorious cause of your salvation is not in the least degree dependent
upon what you do or what you don't do. Now, it is dependent,
that is, your salvation is dependent upon Jesus only. Jesus only. Now, if we could
just hang our confidence where it ought to hang, Jesus only. If we could just lay our sins
on him who was the chosen and appointed only sacrifice, we'd
get some comfort once in a while if we could do that. Instead
of trying to put our sins on Jesus and then trying to do something
else along with what the Lord Jesus Christ has already done
as a means or matter of our acceptance with God. Listen, when you find
yourself full of sin and wickedness, grieve over it, mourn over it,
repent over it, but don't think for a moment that the ground
of your acceptance or the ground of your hope is one with the
less sure or firm because of your wickedness or your sin.
When sin prevails, remember this, that as your righteousness cannot
make Christ's righteousness any better, your sin can't make it
any worse. Our justification before God
is Jesus only. I just talked to a lady this
morning And she said to me, she said, well, I see where the Baptist
people have come out taking a stand against a certain vice. And we talked a little bit about
that, and she thought that that was wonderful that the Baptists
come out against that, and I guess it is. I'm opposed to it too. I was afraid that she thought
that because she didn't become involved with this certain vice,
that that helped her a little bit in her justification before
God. And what was true, I believe,
with her is true with the majority of people who are involved in
religion or not involved in religion who have some sort of a hope.
They believe because I don't do a certain thing, that that's
going to make me a little bit better in the eyes of God. Now,
I'll tell you why people believe that, because that's human reasoning. It's human reasoning for you
to believe because you're not a drunkard. You're not just a
You're just not an out-and-out drunkard that drinks every night
or every weekend and weekend after weekend. You just don't
do that. And as a matter of fact, maybe
you say, well, I just have never, liquor has never touched my lips.
And the first thing you know, you get the feeling that because
you have not done as another man's done, that somehow you're
a choice gem in God's sight because of what you haven't done. and you begin to manufacture
a little bit of righteousness of your own, and before it's
all over with, you're trusting in Jesus but yourself. And that's not what I want you
to see. I want you to see that the matter of justification is
with Jesus only, not what you do, or not what you don't do,
but it's Jesus only. Now, if you miss that, you're
going to miss it all. If you miss that it's Jesus only,
you've missed everything. I don't care how determined,
or how sincere, or how understanding you are, or how loving and kind
you are to other people, it doesn't make any difference. If you are,
or myself in any sense of the word, if I'm just lifting my
hand as a means of putting that with
what Jesus done, as a matter of acceptance, I missed it. Now,
you say, well, that don't sound right. Well, I know it doesn't
sound right. It doesn't sound right, but it's
right nevertheless, for this reason. That's the way it is,
and God's not going to change. He's not going to lower His standard.
He's not going to lower His standard in order for you and I to accept
it. That's just the way God is. That's
the way He always was. That's the way He always will
be for this reason. For this reason. God, in the
salvation of a sinner, in the salvation of a poor sinner like
me and a poor sinner like you, God will have all the glory. He'll have all the glory or he'll
not have anything. And the only way that God can
have all the glory is for God to do all the work. And if it's
up to you to do a little something, even if it's just a sign, if
it's just a moan, if it's just a moan or a groan, then it's
not Jesus only. I love to hear people say, it's
Jesus only. Are you saved, brother? Yes,
I'm saved. Well, tell me about it. Well,
he said, it's Jesus only. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and right. That's what I like to hear. God
gets all the glory out of it! See? Alright, let me tell you this
again now. When sin prevails, remember this,
and sin will prevail. It will prevail in you. You're
not free from it just because you've been born again. There
hasn't been a whole lot of change in any of us. I'll tell you that
right now. There hasn't been a whole lot of change. There's
been some change, but not a lot of change. But there's been a
change. There's been a change. We're new creatures in Christ
Jesus, but we're not void of the awful, the predicate, and
the terribleness of this sinful nature. We still sin. We still
sin. Whether we do it outwardly or
not, we sin in here. We sin in here. How do we sin?
By not giving God perfection. That's how we sin in here. And
when you don't give God perfection, then you sin. Well, here's what
it is. When you know to do good and
do it but not to him, it is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. A sin. Sin damns you, sin will send
you to hell, sure as two and two is four. Alright? When sin
prevails. Remember this. That as your righteousness
cannot make Christ's righteousness any better. So your sin cannot
make it any worse. The next thing I want you to
think about is this. Jesus only as my rock. I've talked to you here about
Jesus only and the means of justification. Jesus only as my righteousness. And that has to do with justice.
He's my righteousness. You have no righteousness that
is commendable unto God. He's my righteousness. If He's
not my righteousness, if He's my righteousness plus a little
bit of my own, then He's not my righteousness. He'll be all
my righteousness or He won't be any of my righteousness. So we've got to see Jesus only. And I know that I'm going over
and over these things. I do go over them and over them
and over them and over them. And I know that I'm going over
and over these things, and I do go over them and over them and
over them and over them, but brethren and sisters, this is
the only way you can rejoice. You can't worship God. You can't
worship God with any comfort or satisfaction or praise in
your heart if you believe that your acceptance with God is a
matter of Jesus plus something else. Regardless of how little
it is, you cannot worship God right. You can't do it. You've
got to come to this place where you've been stripped of all your
righteousness. Every fig leaf of your apron
has got to fall to the ground and crumble, and you see yourself
as you are naked before God without a stick. of righteousness to
commend yourself. And if you're commendable unto
God, it's got to be by and through Jesus only, Jesus only. And then you can worship a little
bit. Then you can bow down and you can thank God for His grace
that chose you in Christ before time ever was. You can thank
God for the grace that was given you in Jesus Christ. You can
thank God for Jesus Christ who obeyed the law for you. You can
thank God for Jesus Christ who paid that which you owed. And
you can thank Him for that righteousness that He freely imputed to your
account. You can worship, but if you've
got anything to do with it, and you're holding on, you can't
worship. Your motive's wrong. Your motive's wrong. Turn over to Psalm 91, if you
will. Psalm 91. Well, you found that, hold on
to it and turn back to Psalm 62. Turn back there to Psalm 62.
This is a Psalm of David. Listen to what he says. He says,
"...truly my soul waiteth upon God, from Him cometh my salvation."
It doesn't say, "...my soul waiteth upon God, because from him and
me cometh my salvation." But he said, I'm waiting on God and
God alone. From him, from God and God alone
cometh my salvation. He's my salvation. Notice what
else he said. He only, he only is my rock. What is a rock as we understand
it? Well, a rock is firm and It's
an immovable thing. It's good for a foundation, a
solid rock. He only is my rock, my rock. He is my great defense. I shall not be greatly moved
and neither will you if the Lord Jesus Christ is your rock. He only. How long will you imagine
mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence." Alright,
then look at verse number 6. He only is my rock and my salvation. He only. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. Verse 7. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. He only is my rock Alright? Turn with me again to Luke chapter
6. Turn over there. Luke chapter
6. He only is my rock. I have no other rock, no other
foundation that I'm building or standing on. That's what the
psalmist said. My salvation cometh from God. Chapter 6 of the book of Luke
and verse 47. Listen to this. Our Lord said, Whosoever cometh
to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you
to whom he is like. I will point out someone that
he is like, a man that comes to me and believes my sayings. What is the sayings of the Lord
Jesus? Well, we know that we treasure
all the teachings of the Lord Jesus, The main teaching of the
Lord Jesus was that I'm the Good Shepherd, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. That's the main thrust of the
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The main thrust was that He came
into this world to save sinners. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people. His name is Savior. The word
Jesus means Savior. His name shall be called what?
Savior. Savior. That's what it's all
about. From start to finish of this
book, it's about a man who is a Savior. All right, he said,
now I'll show you to whom this man's life that looks to me He's
like a man which built a house and digged deep and laid the
foundation on a rock. He said, I'm going to show you
what this man's like that comes to me, that believes in me as
Jesus only, as one whom Jesus is his only rock. See? I'm going to show you what that
fellow's like. He's like a fellow that digs deep, going to build
a house. And he digs deep. and laid the
foundation of his house on a rock, and says, when the flood arose
and the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not
shake it. That is, spiritually speaking,
when trials and troubles and heartaches and disappointments
and discouragements, when these things come upon us, when things
don't happen like we think they ought to happen, And when we
find trouble and difficulty in serving the Lord Jesus Christ,
when it's hard to become faithful, when our hearts sometimes grow
cold and we think, well, man, I just wonder if I'm even saved
the way I act. When we have trials and troubles
and difficulties, that's the floods and the storms that comes
upon us. A fellow just told me here recently,
he said he had a stroke. Sixteen years ago, he had a stroke. And it's left him that he can't
talk good, and prior to his having a stroke, he never hardly used
a profane word. Never cursed or anything like
that. But since he's had the stroke, he's bitter. He curses
all the time. Just curses all the time. Anything
and everybody. And he says this. He said, Why
me? Why me? Why me? That's all he
talks about. Why me? I was a big six foot
three man, was a truck driver and able to rattle that big truck
around and make a good living for my family and I didn't drink
and I didn't do this and that. Why me? Why me? Why me? Brother, now when it happens
to you and it happens to me and if we're built upon a rock, if
Jesus is our only rock, Brother, when the storms come, and they'll
come, rest assured they'll come. They'll come to you, and they'll
come to me. Every child whom God loves, He
chastises. He don't punish them. He chastises
them for their sin. And every one of us are sinners.
And He's going to bring some... You got some chastisement, you
better bless God for it. You got some burdens in your
heart maybe no one knows about, but they are heavy burdens that
you got, you better bless God for it. If you haven't got any,
if you haven't got any things, it's like a fella told me one
time, he left this church, went out of here in the huff, and
later on he told me, he said, I was never so happy in all my
life as I am right now. Everything's going well for me.
My wife loves me, my children respect me, I've got a good job,
money's coming in, head over fist, he said, I'm doing good,
I'll have you to know it. Brother, he ain't doing good.
He ain't doing, he thinks he's doing good. Alright, let me tell
you this. A fat body and a lean heart is
not very good. And men that have all this coming
in without any cause or troubles or chastisement of God, you can
just mark that down. That fellow's a bastard. He's
a bastard. He's illegitimate. He's claiming
something he never was. Because God has many sons. And every son that God has, He
puts the rod of iron on him every once in a while. for his correction,
for his correction. He does it not out of anger.
He doesn't do it out of hate. He does it out of love because
he loves us. He loves us. See what I'm talking about? Listen
to what it says. It says, upon that house, all
these things fell upon that house, and he could not shake it. That
is, he didn't quit. He won't quit. Because his wife
dies or his children does something that's disgraceful and reproaches
his name, he doesn't quit. He doesn't say, I better resign. I better resign. I better quit.
I'm ashamed to go anymore because I know when I walk in someone's
going to say, well, there's so and so, and look at his wife,
or look at his uncle, or look at his brother, or look at his
home. It's better for me to just quit. Oh no, no, no. Listen, that fellow, his rock,
his rock is Jesus only. I'm going to tell you what, it
won't shake him. It won't shake him. He may turn a little bit.
He may turn a little bit, but he'll never fall over. He'll
never fall over. Why? Listen, for it was founded on
a rock. That's where it's at. It's on
a rock. It's on a rock. What rock? He only. is my rock." All right, one more
verse of Scripture here in Matthew chapter 16. Look over here with
me now. Matthew chapter 16, verse 18. I'll read up here in verse 15
of 6, Mark 6, Matthew 16. He said unto them, But whom say
ye that I am? Said all these fellows that gathered
around him. He said, Whom do you say that I am? Who am I?
I know what David said. David said, He only is my rock. Whom say ye that I am? Simon
Peter answered and said, Thou art to Christ the Son of the
living God. That's who you are. You're the Christ. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. You're
blessed. Oh, you're blessed. Why? For
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. It wasn't the preacher
that revealed this unto you. The preacher might have told
you, but you didn't hear it from the preacher. Where did it come
from? Listen now. Is salvation by choice? Is salvation
by decision? Is it salvation because I accepted
Jesus? You missed it if you think that's
right. Listen to this. Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. That's who you are. Well, you
are blessed among men, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
My Father in heaven revealed that unto your poor heart! You
want to know why this church is not filled up with people
this morning? I'll tell you one reason. Part of it, I'm sure,
is my fault because I'm such a obnoxious sort of fella and
can't get along. I understand that part of it.
But the big part of it, the main part is this. The main part is
this. My Father, which is in heaven, has revealed His Son
to men's hardship. If He ever does, they'll knock
the doors down getting in here. That's right. If God ever reveals
to the churches around here who the Lord Jesus Christ is, their
preacher is going to preach who Jesus Christ is or they're going
to knock the doors down coming here to hear me. One of the two.
That's a fact. That's what he said. Well, he
goes on. Whom do you say that I am? Thou
art the Christ. Verse 18, our Lord speaking. But I say unto thee, thou art
Peter. That's who you are. You're Peter.
Weak worm of the dust. You're just Peter. And upon this
rock," what rock? "...thou art to Christ the Son
of the living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ
the Son of the living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou
art to Christ the Son of the living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou
art to Christ the Son of the living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ
the Son of the living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ the Son of the living God," that's
the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ the Son of the
living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ the Son of the living God," that's
the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ the Son of the living God," that's
the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ the Son
of the living God," that's the rock right there. "...thou art to Christ
the Son of the living God," that's the the stress and structure
of his salvation upon this rock, or upon this foundation, the
power of hell, the rage of devils cannot destroy it. This made
Paul so happy that he cried out in Romans 8 and 31, he said,
If God be for us, who can be against us? That's what it made
old Paul say. Nothing can destroy it. Who can separate us from the
love of God? Who? What? Name them all. Name them all. Highest death,
tribulations, persecutions, death, anything that you can mention,
Paul mentioned in the book of Romans. And he said nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Our dear brethren here this morning,
He is the Rock of Ages. He only, Jesus only, is our Rock. Immovable! Why, the Bible says,
in regards to the Lord Jesus Christ being the Rock of Ages,
it means that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. The Lord Jesus Christ, He doesn't
get sick. He doesn't grow weak. He doesn't
decay. He's always the same. He never
changes. He is as a shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. Jesus only is my rock. And if we was to read Psalm 91,
you'd find that He's not only my rock, but He's my fortress. He's my hiding place. He's my
refuge. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide where? Under the shadow
of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord. He doesn't
say, I will say this to the Lord, but he said, I will say this
of the Lord. He is who? Jesus only. He is my refuge and
my fortress, my God, in whom I will trust. He shall cover
thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler." That's good, isn't it? Not only is Jesus only our
rock and our righteousness and our justification and our refuge
and our fortress, brother, He's our Lamb. He's the Lamb of God. There's many lambs, but Jesus
is God's lamb. He's God's lamb. Let me read
this to you over in 1 Peter. I'll tell you why it's God's
lamb. 1 Peter 1 and 19. There's many lambs. We're referred to as lambs, sheep,
the people of God. They're referred to as the sheep
of God. Look over here in the 19th verse
of the 1st epistle of Peter. You see, he is God's lamb. Jesus only is God's lamb. Why? Well, this verse tells us here
because he is the only lamb without blemish. All other lambs have
blemish. All the lambs in the Old Testament
that were ordained to be used as sacrifices, all those lambs,
even though the eye could not detect any blemish. They all
had some blemish about them. All of them had some blemish.
They pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Lamb, but they
were just pictures. They just pointed to the Lord
Jesus. And the Bible says here, listen,
it says, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb
without spot and without blemish, He, Jesus, is Our land, our only
land, the land of God. May I say this? May I say this?
God ordained that the Lord Jesus Christ be our land. He's a chosen
land. He's elect and He's precious.
God provided Him. You didn't call for Him. There's
not a soul here this morning that felt the need of salvation
and got off someplace. That is, apart from the work
of the Spirit of God. Got off someplace by themselves.
and said, Lord, could you devise some plan where you could be
just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus and send somebody
or something that would free me and clear me of my guilt and
my awful, awful sins? Would you do that? No one ever.
God alone provided, not at our asking, out of His own love and
mercy and grace to us, He provided the land. God provided the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
in human form. God provided Himself a Lamb. And now listen to me. What God
has provided, God must accept. Now you want to be accepted in
the Beloved? I'll tell you how to be accepted
in the Beloved. Accept, receive. fall down on that which God has
provided. Because that which God has provided,
God must accept. Jesus only is the Lamb of God, elect, chosen,
and precious. Cast your cares upon Him who
has been appointed of God to bear your sins. Look over here. In Isaiah 53,
if you're all familiar with these verses, I'm going to tell you
a thing this morning that you haven't heard lots of times.
Listen to this. It says, He was wounded for our
transgression, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. Listen to this now. And with
His stripes, with His stripes, that's how we're healed. Healed
of our disease. Healed of our sin. He's not talking
about physical healing. That's not what's in the mind
of God here. It's our spiritual healing. Healing
of our soul. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord God Almighty has laid on Jesus, laid on Him,
the Lamb of God, the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and
he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears
is dumped. So he opened not his mouth. Oh, my soul! The Lamb of God,
the only sacrifice. Well, I could go on and on here
and tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus only. Have you
seen Him as the only means of your acceptance, your only righteousness,
your only justification, your only rock, your only lamb, your
only right? Have you seen Him as that? You've
got to see Jesus only. As your only priest, your only
priest, He's our only priest. We haven't got any other priest
except the Lord Jesus. You don't have to go this morning,
or tomorrow, or tomorrow night, or early in the morning up to
Farmington or Berksville or Fairmont and slip in there down some dark
hallway and go in some booth and look in an open little hole
there in the side of the wall and whisper in there the awful
mournings and griefs of your heart in regard to sin. He's
our only priest! The Lord, gee, we have not a
priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
We have a high priest, even Jesus Christ, who is in the heavenlies
on God's right hand. He ever liveth, our intercessor,
our advocate. He ever lives to make intercession
for His people. He's our Jesus only. Have you
seen that? Millions have, millions, millions
and millions. You're blessed this morning.
I know that you and I take all these things for granted, but
you're blessed this morning. Someone's come along and told
you that Jesus only is your only priest. He's your only sacrifice,
your only priest. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ
is your only hope. He's your only hope. You haven't
got any other hope besides Him. Have you ever seen Him that way
as your only hope? Well, if you've ever been stripped
of all your righteousness, if the law of Moses and Elias has
come upon you, and just struck you down, and the smashing hand
of Moses has destroyed your works and your self-righteousness,
and any claim that you might have on God if he smashed them
down, and you've seen Jesus on there, then you can say, Jesus
is my only hope. He's my only hope. There was
a fellow come one time to a poor old man, an old saint of God.
He was dying. He was dying, and they knew he
was dying. They knew he was dying. His face
was quiet, and he'd lost all kinds of weight, and he was just
a skeleton laying there. His hair began to fall out, and
he was an awful looking thing. The fellow came to him and asked
him that morning, he said, Brother so-and-so, how do you feel? He knew he was dying. He knew
that there couldn't be more than just hours before he departed
in this world. But he said, How do you feel,
brother so-and-so? And this brother so-and-so, he
said that Jesus is my only hope. That's what he said. But when
we asked him, he said, How do you feel? And you know what he
said? He said, I'm almost well. He
said, I'm almost well. Now how could it be almost well?
Because Jesus was his only hope. That's how company is almost
well. Well, I could say Jesus is the only way, couldn't I?
He is the way. I could say Jesus is the door. I could go on and on. Jesus is
our only friend. Just on and on and on. But in
closing, let me say this now. I wondered this morning how a
man would feel if he could say that he had nothing in this world
but Jesus only. Did you ever think about that?
You don't know, and I don't know, exactly how man feel like it.
But just suppose, just suppose this morning. You know, most of us are pretty
well off. We have a pretty fair income. And we're not beggars. We're not beggars. We have something
coming in, whether we've earned it or whether we haven't earned
it. We've got something coming in. And we're pretty well off,
all of us. There is a man somewhere up on
the top side of God's green earth who can say that I don't have
a rag or a crust of bread. Suppose. I don't know that that's
possible, but suppose that's right. I don't have a rag or
a crust of bread. As a matter of fact, I don't
have one red penny, Bob. And we've got them red pennies
all over our house. Penny here and a penny there.
Got lots of pennies. But here's a fella that says,
I don't have a rib penny. He said, I don't have no wife
and I don't have no children. As a matter of fact, he said,
I don't have no health. I'm as sickly as a man can be. Huh? Suppose there's a man like
that. Huh? He has no rag. He doesn't have a crust of bread.
He doesn't have a red penny. He doesn't have a wife. He doesn't
have a child to love him. He doesn't have any health. He's
as sickly as a man can be. He doesn't have any fame. He
doesn't have any reputation. He doesn't have any character.
His character has been slandered by liars, vicious liars. He has no friends. He said, I've
buried the last of my family. He said, I don't have anything.
I have no earthly hopes. I have no prospects. All I have
is Jesus only." Suppose there's a man like that upon this earth.
All I have is Jesus only. Well, I think, brethren, a consciousness
of that vital truth, which we take for granted, a consciousness
of that vital truth of Jesus only, or a consciousness of the
possession of Jesus only, would have such an overwhelming effect
upon that poor beggar's heart that he would forget his poverty,
he'd forget his leanness, he'd forget the fact that he had no
kinsmen, he'd forget his hopelessness, and this one thought, that he
was stripped of everything in this world, and didn't have anything,
save Jesus only, would swallow up all of his misery, and he'd
be able to smile and say, I have it all. I have him. I'm the richest
man on the topside of God's green earth. Why? Because I have Jesus
only. I have him. I have him. I'm a rich man. Well, I don't have time, but
what if there's another fellow, another case? And the fellow
had everything. He had everything. He had houses,
lands. He had boats. He had cars. He
had televisions. He had guns. He had cattle. He had farms. He had ponds stocked
with fish. He had lush green pastures. He
had a dear wife that loved him dearly. He had children that
respected him and honored him. that came every Sunday and almost
every night of the week to be in his presence. And he just
had everything. He had money in the bank. He
had stocks. He had bonds. He had certificates
at 16% interest. He had everything that you could
think of. There was not anything that his
heart could hope for or wish for that he didn't have. He had
it all. He had good health. He was never
sick a day in his life. He had good prospects. He had
everything. But suppose he didn't have Christ.
He wouldn't have anything, would he? Even if he had a golden coffin,
it wouldn't help him, would it? If he had a coffin made out of
solid gold, it wouldn't help him. Where would he go if he
didn't have Christ? He'd go to hell. That's where
he'd go. Oh, may the Lord help me and
help you this morning to see Jesus on. He's our only hope. Our only hope of heaven. Our
only hope of glory. Our only hope of rest, our only
hope of peace, our only hope of happiness, our only hope of
that which is eternal is in Christ Jesus, because he is eternal.
May the Lord bless you.