Alright brethren, Isaiah chapter
8. Isaiah 8. This is not part of our study
in Isaiah. I had lunch with Walt yesterday
and we were talking about something that made this scripture come
to my mind. And it made me change directions
from what I was intending to preach. I mainly want to focus
on these verses in verse 13 and 14 and 15. Let me give you a
little background before we get to the passage. Ephraim, which
is Israel, had united with Syria. And can you imagine Israel and
Syria in our day uniting together? Well, that's what they had done.
They united in a confederacy to destroy Judah. Ephraim represents vainly religious,
unregenerate men. Vainly religious, unregenerate
men. Religious and zealous, but unregenerate. Ephraim had once been together
with Judah. That was their kinsman, but they
broke off from them. Now they're against them. Syria
represents irreligious unregenerate men. They never were part of
Israel. Irreligious unregenerate men. And Judah represents God's regenerated
elect, His saints, His church, who Christ redeemed. That's who
Judah represents. Now, Ephraim and Syria, by them
uniting to fight against Judah, here. It's a picture of irreligious
men, men that have no desire to be in religion whatsoever.
It's a picture of them uniting with vainly religious men in
a common hatred of Christ and a common hatred of his people.
That's the picture here. Usually, vainly religious men
and irreligious men, they seem like they don't agree and that
they hate each other. But they're no different from
each other. Just because a man's religious
and unregenerate and a man's not religious and is unregenerate,
there's no difference in them, in heart. They have a common
enmity against Christ and against His people. And they will unite
together against Christ and His people. They certainly will. You know Galatians 4.28, Paul
said, Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
But as then, he that was born after the flesh, unregenerate
Ishmael, he persecuted him that was born after the Spirit. So
it is now. Same way now. those born after
the flesh, unregenerate, persecute those born after the spirit.
So Ahaz was the king of Judah. He heard this news that Israel
and Syria were united and they were going to come against him
and try to destroy him. Isaiah 6 says he was shaking
like the leaves on the trees. And so our Lord sent Isaiah preaching
our Lord's word to King Ahaz. And he told him, he said, take
heed and be quiet. He said, ìFear not, neither be
fainthearted.î Donít be fainthearted due to these two enemies thatís
come up against you. ìThus saith the Lord God, ìIt
shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.î Thatís the
word the Lord sent to Ahaz. And the sign the Lord gave to
assure Ahaz that it wouldnít come to pass is the one sign
there is. Christ alone. He said, therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. The Lord
would not permit Judah to be destroyed because Christ is coming
through Judah. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. Well brethren, now Christ has come and he's justified his
people. He's made us the righteousness
of God in Him, and He's coming now through the preaching of
His Word through His church into the hearts of His lost sheep.
So just like He wouldn't let anything happen to Judah, He's
not going to let anything happen to His church. But Ahaz rejected the Gospel
of Christ. Ahaz rejected the Gospel of Christ,
and he made a confederacy with some enemy nations. to try to
save themselves by their own works. That's what they were
doing. Trying to be wiser than God.
That to them, this thing of just trusting the Lord and waiting
on Him, that wasn't wise. It was more wise to look to men.
Men had a mighty army. So the Lord declared He had chastened
Judah. He declared that He was going
to bring a mightier nation against Judah. The Lord told Him this.
Going to bring the Assyrians against them. mightier nation
than Syria any from. And you know, God was not reacting
to Ahaz's rejection. He wasn't simply reacting and
saying, okay, you won't believe me, okay, then I'm going to send
a Syria against you. God wasn't reacting, He don't
react. God was fulfilling what He purposed from eternity. He
knew Ahaz was going to reject Him. That's why he told Isaiah
when he sent the word to Ahaz, he said, you take your son with
you Isaiah. Ahaz, I mean Isaiah had a boy
named Shurjazib. And you can just picture Isaiah
walking up to the pool of Siloam and he's got Shurjazib with him
and Ahaz, King Ahaz said, that's a fine looking young boy, what's
his name? Isaiah said, it's named Sher-Jazab. It means, the remnant shall return. When God has sent Israel against
Judah and taken you into captivity, God's going to bring the remnant
back. His elect remnant. About that same time, Isaiah's
wife had a son. And God told him, you name him
Meir Shalahazbaz. And that means, speedy to the
prey. It was prophetic. The name was
prophetic, showing how God is going to send the Assyrians and
He is going to make haste to come in and attack Judah just
like a lion to the prey. See, all this was ordained by
God. It was all purposed by God. Nothing was out of God's control.
So our text now is the Lord's Word delivered through Isaiah
to His elect remnant in Judah. That's who He's preaching to,
and it's to everybody in Judah, and it's to everybody in all
the world. And it's to you and me today. In fact, if you look
at that last verse there, in verse 18, Behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in
Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwell in Mount Zion. This
is really Christ speaking, because that's who that applies to. And
Christ is, He waited on the Lord, He trusted the Father when He
walked this earth, and He teaches you and me to do it. And when
the Word's going forth, He's the one preaching it. He was
using Isaiah, but it's really Christ preaching. Now here's
the word, verse 9, Isaiah 8, 9. Associate yourselves. Unite with men. Unite with men. Attempt to save yourself rather
than trust Christ alone. Associate yourselves, O ye people.
You shall be broken in pieces. And give ear, all ye far countries. This applies to everybody. All
ye far countries, give ear. Guard yourselves. Attempt to
be your own strength. Attempt to gird up your loins.
Attempt to be your own strength. Attempt to cover yourselves with
your own works. Protect yourself. Shield yourself.
And you'll be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves and you shall
be broken in pieces. Take counsel together. Attempt
to be your own wisdom. Take counsel together. Look to
the counsel of men, he said, rather than Christ our counselor,
and it shall come to nothing. Speak the word, make a confederacy
with men, a covenant with men, rather than trusting Christ our
covenant, and it shall not stand. It shall not stand. Why? For God is with us. You see,
Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. And He's with His church,
He's with His people. So every enemy can unite in confederacy
together against Christ and against His church. It will not stand. It will not stand. Verse 11.
For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed
me." Christ is the power, He is the strong hand. Christ is
the wisdom who instructs His people. What does He teach us? That I should not walk in the
way of this people, saying, Say ye not a confederacy to all them
to whom this people shall say a confederacy? The Lord saved
Isaiah. He turned him from this King
Ahaz and from all these folks going to these foreign nations
and making a confederation with him. He turned him from that
to trust Christ. But this is what he said, neither fear ye
their fear, nor be afraid. They're afraid of men. He said,
sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself. Sanctify means in your new heart,
through faith, behold Christ on the throne. Behold Christ
high, holy, ruling, reigning, our salvation, our all in all. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts. Let
Him be your fear. Let Him be your threat. Fear
Christ rather than men. Look to Christ rather than men.
And He shall be for a sanctuary. a rock, a sanctuary, a refuge,
but for a stone of stumbling, for a rock of stumbling, and
for a rock of a fence to both the houses of Israel, some in
Judah and some in Ephraim, for a gin and for a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. My subject
tonight is one rock for two ends. One rock for two ends. Yesterday
when Walt and I were having lunch, he made the observation of how
differently men read the same scripture but come away with
two totally different things, looking two totally different
places, trusting two totally different ones. Well, this passage declares that's
exactly according to God's purpose. That's exactly according to God's
purpose. Christ is the rock for these two ends. By God's grace
in the hearts of those in whom the Spirit reveals Christ, gives
you spiritual discernment, Christ is the rock of our sanctuary.
We flee into Him, we trust Him, and we're safe. All by God's
grace. But to the unregenerate who God
leaves to themselves, they may become very zealous in religion,
or they may be totally irreligious. But either way, Christ, He's
still the rock, but He's to them a stone of stumbling, a rock
of offense. He's for a gin and a snare. It's
on purpose. So that many stumble and fall
and are broken and snared and taken. Two different ways of
reading this Word. Two different views of Christ
all together. And two different views of self.
Brother Don used to say, the same Scriptures that reveal Christ
to God's elect are a snare to the non-elect. And both ends
are according to God's purpose. And that's what this book is
telling us. That's what this passage is telling us. Now I
want to ask you two things and then we'll look at God's application
here. But first of all, what do you
seek when you read this book? What do you seek in the Scripture?
What are you looking for when you read the Word of God? The
Pharisees were zealous for their religion. They were very zealous
in religion. But they were lost. They were
unregenerate men. They were lost. Christ told them
they were of their father the devil. Christ told them what
they were seeking in the Word of God. He said in John 5.39,
Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. What do you mean by that? Like
most people do, like we did before God gave you an understanding,
most go to this book and the Pharisees would go to the Word
of God looking for what they must do to earn eternal life. That's how most go to this book.
And this is what Christ said, He said in these scriptures,
they are they which testify of Me. Everything in this book is
God's testimony of His Son. And you will not come to Me that
you might have life. An unregenerate man goes to the
Scripture seeking what he must do to earn eternal life. Works
that he must perform to make himself righteous before God.
That's what he's looking for. He goes there looking for works
he must do to make himself holy. He goes looking for works he
must do to make himself accepted of God. Christ said that God's Word testifies
of Him The whole Word of God is God's
record concerning His Son. That's what this whole book is
declaring. Christ is eternal life. Christ
is righteousness. Christ is holiness. Christ is
redemption. Christ is all in all. That's
what this book is declaring. No man comes to the Father but
by Him. God made His people accepted
in the Beloved. He already did it. He said, He
that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. The wages of sin is death. The
only thing we're going to earn by going to this book, coming
to a church house and reading this book and going home and
seeking nothing but what works must I do to be saved. If that's
what we're seeking, the only thing we're going to earn is
the wages of sin, which is death. But the gift of God, the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. It's a gift. Christ said, you're searching
these scriptures trying to earn life and you won't come to me
that you might have life freely given. You know, every man finds what
he's seeking in the Word of God. Every man finds what he's seeking
in the Word of God. The unregenerate seeks works
he must do. That's all he finds. Unregenerate men only understand
the book in the letter. They can only understand what
they can see with carnal eyes and understand with carnal understanding.
This book declares Christ is the Savior of His elect people.
Not the Savior of everybody in the world, the Savior of His
elect scattered all over the world. In every generation, He's
had an elect remnant. And He's their Savior. His name
is Jesus, Savior. For He shall save His people
from their sin. That's what the book declared.
God declared through Daniel what Christ accomplished at Calvary.
This is what Christ accomplished. This is what He meant when He
said, It is finished. He said, 70 weeks are determined
upon who? Thy people, Lord, and upon Thy
holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to
make reconciliation to God for iniquity. Christ wasn't reconciling
God to us. God was the one that we offended.
We had to be reconciled to God. And He made reconciliation for
iniquity. And He brought in everlasting
righteousness. And He sealed up the vision in
prophecy. He fulfilled all the law and
the prophets. And He anointed the most holy.
Christ Jesus entered into the holy place having obtained eternal
redemption for us. That's what Christ meant when
He said, It is finished. He finished it all. He did that
for His people. This book is God's record that
God has given us life in His Son by what His Son did, by what
His Son accomplished. And if you have the Son by His
grace through faith, you have eternal life. That's the record.
That's God's testimony. Every man finds what he seeks
in this book. You let a man get some harebrained
notion, something he already plans to do, and he'll go to
this book and start seeking to justify what it is he intends
to do from the Word of God. He'll find it. Mark it down. He'll walk away thinking he's
just doing whatever it is he planned to do. You let a man
be offended by another. He goes to this book seeking
how to justify himself and how to condemn the other one. He'll
find just what he's looking for. And that is a totally wrong motive
for going to the Word of God. Absolutely wrong. All of that. Every man is going to find what
he seeks in this book. An elect remnant are going to
find Christ our rock, and He's going to be our sanctuary, and
it's going to be by the grace of God alone, making you look
for Christ. But many, many shall stumble
over Christ the rock, many shall be offended by Christ the rock,
and they'll stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and
be taken. Turn over to Romans 9. Turn over
to Romans chapter 9. Once you see this, What are you seeking in this
book? That's my question. What are you seeking in this
book? Romans 9 verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained
to righteousness. You see that? They weren't following
after righteousness, and yet they have attained to righteousness. Even the righteousness which
is of faith. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, had not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. As it's written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. To the Gentiles, Christ
was a rock of sanctuary through God-given faith in Him. But to
the Pharisees, to the Jews who were seeking to come to God by
their obedience to the law, Christ was a rock of stumbling. And
they fell and were snared and were taken. And it was according
to God's purpose. Read on. Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. He's saying they're not saved,
they're unregenerate, they don't know God. For they, being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ, there He is, there
He is, that's who the righteousness of God is. Christ is the end
of the life for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now,
who are you seeking in the world? That's the first question. You
see, the unregenerate are seeking what works they must do and they
stumble at Christ. Oh, Christ just can't be enough.
He can't be all. What about me? What about my
works? And they stumble and do not attain
the righteousness God requires. I don't care how good they appear.
I don't care how whited outwardly they look. And you've got Gentiles
that never had the law, that's stumbling and fumbling and mourning
over their sin and they don't see a thing they do as being
any good whatsoever. They're hungering and they're
thirsting after righteousness. When you're hungering and thirsty,
you don't feel full, do you? That's what we're mourning over.
We don't have any righteousness of our own. We're hungering and
thirsting for Christ our righteousness. He said those that want to be
comforted, those that hunger and thirst to be filled. So what are we seeking? Now secondly,
if you do go to these scriptures seeking Christ, and you believe
on Him, and you repent from self, and you follow Him along, then
here's my second question. Who made you to differ? Who made
you to differ? Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Every child of Adam enters this
world totally void of any spiritual discernment. This book is a sealed
book to the unregenerate. It's sealed to God's elect by
our first birth. So who made the difference? 1
Corinthians 2 verse 6. Howbeit, Paul said, we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect. That means you that have been
brought to the end where Christ brings His people, where you
find Christ to be a sanctuary. Perfect, regenerated, given faith. Yet not the wisdom of this world,
nor of the princes of this world that come to naught, but we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory." There's the
first reason. One reason that God's saints
have spiritual assertment is this, because God ordained it
before the world. You see that? It's God ordained
this before the world unto our glory. Christ came and gave us
the glory so that we can know Him. As many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Remember what Christ said? He
said, Father, the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given
them, that they may be one even as We are one. I in them, and
Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that
they may know that Thou has sent Me and has loved them as Thou
has loved Me. Paul said, God ordained this
before the world. to give us this glory, to know
Him. That's why you believe. That's why you have understanding.
Look at verse 8. Which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. Now we usually misquote this
next verse. We just quote this next verse
in regard to heaven. And we miss the good news. We
speak of heaven and we quote verse 9. But as it's written,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But read the next verse. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. You see that? He's talking here
about how we know the gospel. He's not talking about heaven.
He's talking about how we know things we never could have known.
It never entered our heart and we would have never known it.
But the Spirit of God now has revealed these things to us.
For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God. For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit
of a man which is in him? I don't know what you're thinking.
Only you know that unless you tell me. Well, so it is with
God. He said, even so the things of
God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received,
we've been given, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. The one reason we have spiritual
discernment, brethren, is the Spirit of God has revealed Christ
to us. He's come and given us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is
true, and this is how we know the things that God has freely,
freely, freely given to us. You know why it's free to us?
Because it cost Christ His precious blood. It cost Him His life.
And He willingly paid it. gave us free righteousness, free
justification, free redemption, free life. Verse 13, which things
also we speak, not in the words which man wisdom teaches, but
which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. Christ's preachers speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery. We speak the hidden wisdom, because
God revealed it to us by the Spirit. But we preach not in
man's words, not in the wisdom of men. You know, God's saints,
can't you just discern the difference when you hear vain preaching,
worldly preaching, unregenerate preaching, and when you hear
the gospel preached, you can tell the difference. It's totally
different. Natural man can't discern that
difference. Natural man just knows you're
reading out of a hymn book, you're going to a church house, you're
sitting in a pew, somebody stands up and preaches, you say grace,
regeneration, forgiveness, sin, they know the terms. And so they
just hear that and everybody hears it. It's just the same.
But you know that man preaching that does not have the Spirit
of God, he's pointing men to men. He's pointing men to himself
and to man's works. God's preacher is pointing you
away from yourself to Christ and His works. And that's the
difference. God's getting the glory when
the Gospel goes forth by a true preacher. Man's getting the glory
when men preach. But brethren, Brethren, be patient
with unregenerate sinners. Look here at verse 14. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolish and discerned to him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. Be patient with unregenerate
sinners. I feel like this sometimes. When
I'm listening to men speak and try to speak to me about what
they think is the gospel, I'm thinking to myself a lot of times,
This sounds like a man that's been blind from his birth trying
to tell me what the rainbow looks like. And the man, they think
they know what they're talking about. And you're sitting there
listening to it and thinking, man, you're blind as a bat. That is
not what the Word says. But you have to be patient because
we didn't know. You couldn't know God. Natural
man doesn't receive these things and he can't receive them. So
no point in getting puffed up and offended if somebody doesn't
receive what you say to them. They can't! Neither could we,
brethren. Verse 15, but he that is spiritual,
He judgeth, he discerneth all things, yet he himself is judged
of no man. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? None of us did that Christ may
instruct him. We never knew the mind of the
Lord, but now we have the mind of Christ. The one reason we
discern Christ in these Scriptures, the one reason we want to go
to these Scriptures and see Christ and hear Christ preached and
hear Him magnified and exalted and honored before us and in
our hearts, is because at God's ordained time, by the Spirit
of God, of God, Christ was made wisdom unto us. That's how spiritual
discernment comes. Christ has made wisdom unto us
by the Holy Spirit doing it. And He used a preacher. And we
value our preachers. I value my preacher for preaching
the gospel to me. But brethren, it's Christ who
preaches. It's Christ who gave us an understanding. Who have known the mind of the
Lord that Christ may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ. Christ gave you that mind. He
is your wisdom when he entered in in spirit. That's real. That
really happened. And it continues to happen. This
is why God's saints don't boast in our flesh. This is why we
don't go around and talk about how we accepted Jesus and how
we took the first step and God took the rest. No! With glory
in the Lord. The Lord chose me. The Lord redeemed
me. The Lord called me. The Lord
drew me. The Lord's keeping me. I can
do nothing except it's given me from above. It's the Lord's
power, not my power. That's what we delight in, isn't
it? It's God's grace that makes us go to this book looking for
Christ. And it's God's grace by His Spirit
that makes us find what we're looking for. He makes you see
Christ. You see, the puzzle just all
is in place now when He's given you the discernment to know Him.
You see Christ where you didn't see Him before. You didn't see
Him before at all. You had to have a red letter
Bible to know that this was the Word of God. It's all the Word
of God. Lastly, back in our text, let's
hear and heed the Lord's Word to us now. To all who go to this
book seeking life by your own hand, God says, associate yourselves,
O you people. You unite with men like Israel
and Syria united together. against Christ, against His saints.
Brethren, that's what churches are doing all over the world.
When you see all these different denominations, every so often
it becomes a trend where they show love. This denomination
wants to unite with this denomination. They want to show how we can
put aside our differences and we can be together. There ain't
no differences. One might dunk under the water
and one might sprinkle with water. That ain't a difference. The
difference is knowing Christ is all salvation and others that
think, no, man's got to add his part to it. There's the difference.
And they're not going to be united. But when all these denominations
are uniting and adapting to the world and uniting with the world,
it's nothing more than just like Ephraim and Syria. And it's against Christ and it's
against His people. The Lord says, you'll be broken
in pieces. Give ear, all you four countries,
this applies to everybody now, me and you sitting here. He said,
you gird yourself, you try to be your strength, your righteousness,
your holiness, you gird yourself, you'll be broken in pieces. Gird
yourself, you'll be broken in pieces. It's important and he
repeats it. Christ is our only strength.
He is our only righteousness. He is our only holiness. He guards
us. He covers us in His righteousness.
He enters in and makes us holy within by His presence within. We didn't do that. Take counsel
together. Take counsel of men rather than
Christ the counselor. take counsel against Christ and
His church, it shall come to naught." He said, in other words,
there's no use fighting against God. God's going to have His
way. It shall not stand. Speak the
word, it shall not stand. Why? God is with us. God's with
His people. I know everybody's going to hear
this, and people that are in the gospel church, they're going
to say, well, that's us. God's with us. And you and me
sitting here say, God's with us. One of us is right, one of
us is wrong. That's just all there is to it.
You know who's going to know they're right? You and who the
Spirit of God is speaking. You know God's with you. And
here's how you know it. The man who's saying, I know
God's with me because look at everything I'm doing, and look
at all my works, and look at how prosperous I am, and I don't
ever sorrow, and I don't ever have a down day, and I've curbed
my sin. I tell you how you know God's
with you. You say just the opposite. I mourn my sin. I can't even
get up in the morning. I can't get through a day without
God carrying me and leading me and being the power preserving
me. If God marked my iniquities, I couldn't stand. I'm thankful there's forgiveness
with him. That's what keeps me fearing him. That's what keeps
me following him. That's what keeps me believing. He's mercy,
mercy, mercy, mercy. That's who God's with right there. When the Spirit of Christ speaks
into the heart, a sinner will do what Isaiah did. He said,
verse 11, The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and
instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people,
saying, Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people
shall say a confederacy? Neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid. Sanctify the Lord our host Himself.
Let Him be your fear, let Him be your dread, and He'll be for
a sanctuary. You know when that's going to happen? You know when
that's going to happen in a man's heart? Isaiah said, the Lord
spoke to me with a strong hand. When the Lord speaks to you with
His strong hand in your heart and He commands you to do that,
you're going to see Him high and lifted up, separate from
sinners, holy, ruling, reigning, your full salvation, and you're
going to trust Him. And that's when you're going
to cease from man. We can't just repent on our own. It's Him speaking into the heart
that makes you cease from man. Ceasing from your own work and
trusting Him alone and fearing Him alone and stop fearing man.
Christ does that in the heart. That's the difference between
the grace and power of God. That He works in the heart. It's Christ sanctifying us in
the heart that makes us sanctify Him. It makes us see Him high,
holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, at God's right hand
and we there in Him. It's Him that does that. That
doesn't mean make Him holy. He is holy. That means just see
Him set apart from all others. Fear Him. Don't fear anybody
or anything else. Trust that He's ruling. But those
that reject Christ, this same rock who is a sanctuary to you,
who you know you flee into and you know you are safe, this same
rock on purpose by God is a stone of stumbling, verse 14, and a
rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. Just because they
were Israel did not mean a thing. It is God's elect. It is God's
choosing. And He was a gin and a snare
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. I have one
prayer for us, brethren. May the God of glory speak into
our heart and make us to see Christ as all. and make us believe Him, and
fear Him, and follow Him, and not fear man's fear, and not
say a confederacy with man, and not go after their vain idols.
Trust Christ only. That's my prayer. One rock for
these two ends. That's what God's doing right
now. Amen.