I want to admit, brethren, I
gave Art the wrong number to the song. I said, showers of
blessings number 349. I told him it was 348. I don't
know where he got 347. I'm having that same kind of
morning, Art. Let's go to Exodus chapter 10. Exodus chapter 10. Now sin and death entered this
world according to God's purpose. Sin and death. Sin and death
by sin. All men came into this world
according to God's purpose. And that purpose was that God
might show His mighty works in the salvation of His people. Exodus 10 verse 1 says, ìThe
Lord said unto Moses, ìGo in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened
his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these
my signs before him.î Notice who hardened Pharaoh's heart
and the heart of his servants. God said, I have hardened his
heart and the heart of his servants. God left Pharaoh to his own will
and so earlier in Exodus it says, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And since Pharaoh would not believe
on God, God justly made it so that Pharaoh could not ever believe
on God. That's called reprobation. Now
be sure to understand this. Every sinner has a responsibility
to believe God. Every sinner has a responsibility
to believe God. But when Scripture says Pharaoh
would not, and other sinners will not, that does not mean
that sinners have the ability to believe on God. Sinners are
responsible to believe on God, sinners do not have the ability
to believe on God. Now, the religious world will
cry and they'll say, well, then God cannot hold us responsible
for something we do not have the ability to do. The law does
it every day. Next time a creditor comes to
your door and says you owe a bill, you just tell him, I don't have
the money to pay it, so therefore I'm not responsible for it. See
how that works out for you. Every sinner is responsible.
Scripture says the natural man receives not the things of God,
neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
But God never made Pharaoh sin against God. God left Pharaoh to his own natural
depraved will and it was Pharaoh who sinned against God because
it was Pharaoh's will to do so. God's not the author of Pharaoh's
sin and He's not the author of any man's sin. God didn't make
Pharaoh sin. Pharaoh did what was Pharaoh's
own will to do just like every other sinner left to his own
will. But even in rebelling against
God, Pharaoh fulfilled God's eternal purpose. He fulfilled
what God determined before to be done. He did exactly what
God determined before to be done. It's obvious it was God's purpose
for Pharaoh because God told Moses beforehand exactly what
Pharaoh would do And God told Moses it was according to God's
purpose. He said there that I might show
these my signs before him. Now the same was true of Adam
in the garden. And that was before sin and death
had ever entered in now. We are talking about a man God
created upright. God didn't make Adam sin in the
garden. God merely let Adam do what was in Adam's own will to
do. It was Adam's own will to side
with his wife against God rather than side with God against his
wife. That was Adam's will. God let him do his will. His
will was to break God's law and plunge all his family into sin
and death. But Adam's rebellion was according
to God's eternal purpose. It was what God determined before
to be done. We see that because we see that
it was God's purpose by the fact that God told Adam beforehand
exactly what he would do. God said in Genesis 2.17, of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it. Because if you do, you're going to die. That's not
what God said. He said, for in the day that you do, you shall
surely die. It was no surprise to God that
He ate of it. It was God's purpose. But the
fault and the sin was all Adam's. Just like it was all Pharaoh's.
But God did it, and this was His purpose, that God might show
all His mighty signs in the salvation of His people. That's why He
allowed Adam to sin. All unregenerate sinners boast
about their free will. All of them do. I did it when
I was dead in sin. I boasted about my will being
free. I can do what I want to. I made
three cups of coffee this morning and drank them. I can do whatever
I want to. But even when man was upright
with no sin, left to our own will, man always sins against
God. Even when we were upright. But
that doesn't excuse our sin. We have a responsibility to obey
God. That does not excuse our sin.
But God is so wise that even our rebellion fulfills God's
eternal purpose. Paul said, I will say then, why
does he yet find fault for who has resisted his will then? The
answer is, who are you to reply against God? We don't have any business replying
against God. Fact is, not one of man's idol
gods could ever do what God has done. None of idol gods can declare
the end from the beginning. Not one. God challenges them
to. He said in Isaiah 41, 22, let
them show us what shall happen. Let them show former things what
they be that we may consider them and know the latter end
of them. Or declare us things to come. Show the things that
are to come hereafter that we may know that you are gods. Yea,
do good or do evil that we may be dismayed and behold it together. None of man's idols can do that
because man's idols are just an extension of man and man can't
do that. In Isaiah 44, 7, He said, Who
is I shall call and shall declare it and set it in order for me
since I appointed the ancient people and declare the things
that are coming and shall come and let them show unto them?
Who is Me shall do this? God said. Nobody. This is what
makes Him God. Isn't it amazing that the main
thing, this right here, God's sovereign eternal power, to control
everything and purpose everything from the beginning and it all
going to pass exactly as God purposed. This very thing that
men despise, you know why they despise it? This is what makes
God, God. That's why. Men don't want a
real God. Men want a rabbit's foot, that's
what they want. Men want a lucky number, that's
what they want. Something they can just attribute
it all to just happenstance. That's as high as man can go
in his polluted imagination. Isn't that terrible? That's all man wants by nature.
God's eternal purpose in allowing Adam to sin and to plunge all
men into sin and death was the same as God's purpose in allowing
Pharaoh to sin. Here it is, Exodus 10.1. At the
end there He says, "...that I might show these My signs before him,
and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy
son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and My signs
which I have done among them, that you may know how that I
am the Lord." God's eternal purpose from the beginning to allow sin
to enter into this world and death to enter into this world
was so that God might show all His mighty works and the salvation
of His people so that you and I, who He saves, might declare
this gospel to our children and to our children's children. That's
why God did it. It gives a great purpose to why
we're sitting here right now, doesn't it? We are sitting here
right now doing what we are doing because this is God's eternal
purpose. This is the secret of the whole
world right here. Why this whole world exists and
why it is in the shape it is in and why God is doing what
He is doing. For this right here, the declaration of His Word to
our children. First off, everything God works
in salvation, He works that His people might declare the Gospel
to our children. He said there, that I might show
these my signs before him, and that thou mayest tell in the
ears of thy son, and of thy son's son. In Moses' day, after God
sent him word, and he used Moses to deliver that word, and he
worked all these mighty works, and he redeemed all the children
of Israel from Egyptian bondage, God commanded that they offer
certain sacrifices, which pictured their redemption. And also, God
ordained an ordinance called the Passover which would always
remind them of how God had provided a Passover lamb and it was through
the blood of that lamb that God passed over them and delivered
them out of bondage. Now, that ceremony that they
were to do, what it was, was they were to, all the first born
beasts that were born, they were to set them aside, sanctify them
and sacrifice them to God, because all the first born belonged to
God. And all the first born children that were born, they were to
redeem them with money. And all that was to picture their
redemption out of the Egyptian bondage. But more importantly,
for the believer in that day, it pictured Christ Jesus, our
redemption. And that was their way of worshiping
God. That was their way of doing what
we're doing right here. They came and they made these
sacrifices, they paid the redemption money to redeem their firstborn,
and they observed that Passover ordinance that God had given.
And the reason God gave this was to constantly make them remember. It was to constantly put them
in remembrance of what God had done in bringing them out of
bondage. That's why we come to hear the gospel. Remember Paul
told Timothy, you'd be a good faithful pastor if you put them
in remembrance of these things. That's what preaching is. We
come here every week to be put in remembrance of what Christ
has done for us. But that wasn't the only reason
God did it. God said this, ìAnd thou shalt
show thy son in that day, saying, ìThis is done because of that
which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.î And
he said, ìAnd it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to
come, saying, ìWhat is this?î Thou shalt say unto him, ìBy
strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt from the house
of bondage.î It was not only for their own remembrance, that
worship service of sacrifice and ordinance, that ordinance
observation was not only for their own remembrance, it was
so they could teach, go home from that service and teach their
sons and their sons' sons and all their children what it meant.
That was the purpose of it. Now today, we are not to offer
those sacrifices because Christ is a fulfillment of those sacrifices.
Everything those sacrifices pictured, Christ is the fulfillment. He
is the firstborn. He is the Lamb that God provided
by which we have been redeemed from all iniquity. And so we
are not to observe those sacrifices. We are not to make literal sacrifices
anymore. Christ is our sacrifice by one
offering, by one sacrifice. He is perfected for everything
that is sanctified. So we don't offer any more sacrifices.
We come here And we hear that one offering preached. We hear
Christ preached. And Christ changed the ordinance
of the Passover the night He instituted the Lord's table.
That's our ordinance now. That took the place of the Passover
because Christ is our Passover. And so He gave us bread and wine
to drink for the same reason as they observed the Passover,
to put us in remembrance. That's why we come here to this
gospel, to put us in remembrance. That's not the only reason. It's
also so that when we go home from this place, it shall be
when thy son asketh thee, saying, what is this? Thou shalt say
unto him, by strength of hand, the Lord hath brought me out
of bondage. It's to tell him what all this means. Remember
the other night we were looking in Proverbs. I put it in the
bulletin. We are looking in Proverbs and it said, The wise man, it
will be the young person that hears this word, to hear the
gospel preached and then go study it in the Word. And it says,
And he will attain to wise counsels, to learn the interpretation of
a parable and of a dark saying. One thing that means is, he will
go to those believers God has provided, be it his mother, his
father, other believers in the congregation, his pastor. He
will go to them and ask them, What does this mean? And they
will teach him what it means. Because that is what God ordained
this whole thing for, was to teach the young people. Let's
stop just a minute. Let's all stand up. Everybody
stand up. You woke up real good. Everybody
wake up, wide awake, shake, do whatever you have to do to make
sure you are wide awake. Alright, now let's sit back down. All of this is to teach our young
people what this means, to teach them this Gospel. Over and over
throughout the Scripture, God commanded this, over and over
and over, and told them they were to come and offer these
sacrifices and observe the Passover. That was their worship. bringing
their children to this worship service. And all their children
will watch this done. And all through Scripture, He
told them they were to do this. And all through Scripture they
did this. Then they went home. They told their children what
it was all about. And God blessed it. God saved His elect among
them. Go over to Psalm 78 and look
at this. This is years later now. This
is the psalmist writing. Listen to what he says. Psalm
78, verse 1. Give ear, O my people, to my
law, to my gospel. Incline your ears to the words
of my mouth. I'll open my mouth in a parable.
Remember we preached the mystery of the gospel? It's a parable
to the laws. I'll utter dark sayings of old.
It's the same old gospel which we've heard and known and our
fathers have told us. We heard it. We heard it preached
in those sacrifices in that Passover. And our fathers taught us this
too. We will not hide them from their
children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord
and His strength and His wonderful works that He hath done. For
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in
Israel, which He commanded our fathers. What was it? That they
should make these things known to their children. that the generation
to come might know them, even the children which should be
born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that
they might set their hope in God and not forget the works
of God, but keep His commandments. This is what God ordained. In
the day Moses heard the Gospel preached, in his day he heard
it preached in different manners. That's what Hebrews 1 said, in
diverse manners. They heard it through those sacrifices.
They heard the Gospel preached through those sacrifices. They
heard it preached through the Passover. And then he taught
his children. And God saved his elect from
among them. What if I don't have children?
If you don't have children, you don't have children, look around
you. You've got a lot of children.
Every young person is for us to teach. Moses taught those
young people. And then in David's day, David
had been taught, the Lord had saved him. David, in different
manners, through the sacrifices and the offerings, he heard the
Gospel preached. And he brought his sons and daughters to hear
it preached. And God saved some of the children
in his day. And then now here we are. Because
it just keeps being passed down like this. The Gospel keeps being
preached. And the fathers and mothers and
the brethren teach the young people. And God continues to
save His elect. He doesn't do it without the
sacrifice and the Passover. He doesn't do it without the
preaching of the Gospel. He is going to do it through the preaching
of the Word. But He is also going to use His people then to go
and teach what they've heard and study what they've heard
like the Bereans. I had the privilege one time
when I was younger And I say this to our young believers because
there is always somebody younger than you looking up to you. And
the Lord, I had the privilege one time, there was a young man
in our congregation and he had got to be about 14 years old
and 14, 15 and he was just really and truly getting on everybody's
nerves, all the young people because he was just so obnoxious. And I say that lovingly but he
knows it's the truth now. But he would come over to our
house and he would want to go fishing at night. So I would
take him fishing. And it didn't take me long to figure out he
wasn't interested in fishing. He wanted to talk about the gospel.
That's all. And he wanted me to explain scriptures
to him. That's the only thing he was interested in. And it
wasn't that alone that God used. God used the preaching of the
Word through our pastor. But God used that too. And God
saved him. God saved him. So it's our responsibility
as fathers and mothers. And that doesn't just apply to
us who physically have children. If you're older and you're a
believer, you're a father or a mother to these younger. folks
that don't even believe yet, to teach them, to instruct them.
And it's our responsibility when they hear this word preached,
to take every opportunity we can to teach them what it is
that's being preached. Make sure they hear it, make
sure they understand it. When I was growing up, In our
house, we always had bulletins laying around. We always had
gospel books. I mean, anywhere you were in
that house, there was a gospel book within reach. There was
always sermons playing on. You know, if my mother was cleaning
or something like that, she would put in a sermon and she would
have that playing. Not loud enough she would try to beat you over
the head with it, but loud enough you could hear it. And the Lord
blessed it. The Lord blessed it. So this
is our responsibility. This is why God permitted sin
to enter in His mighty works. Not only for us to hear this
gospel preached, but to teach it to our children. And then
here is the second thing. What are we to preach and teach?
What is the message that we are to preach and what is the message
we are to teach in our homes? The message God will have us
declare to our children are God's works. God's works. Look at verse Exodus 10-2. He
says, "...and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and
of thy son's son what things I have wrought in Egypt, and
my signs which I have done among them." That's what He would have
them to teach. The message of how sinners are
saved is not the message of man's works. That's not the message. What you hear preached in most
churches today, for most pulpits today, is just moral lessons. Moral lessons on how to live
a moral life in this world. And when you have that message
preached, it's fine to teach that message as long as you first
declare a sinner's total inability to do anything pleasing to God
in themselves. and shut them up to the fact
they are depraved sinners, and then to declare that Christ is
the only righteousness and holiness of His people, and preach Christ.
And then, when the motive and the heart is what Christ has
done, and men are constrained by Christ's love, then teach
them the importance of living in an honorable way in this world
that is moral. But if you just teach the morality
and leave the other out, men leave in thinking salvation is
just a matter of doing what Andy Griffith says. And that's not salvation. That's
not what we're to teach. What we're to preach, brethren,
is God's person and God's works. We read there in Psalm 78, verse
4, He said, We will not hide these things from their children,
from our father's children. We'll show to the generation
to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful
works that He hath done. That's our message. Psalm 145,
5, I'll speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy
wondrous works. If men asked us in a nutshell,
what's the difference between your church and every other church?
I would say we preach God's works and they preach man's works.
Is that not the difference? That's the difference in a nutshell.
We're preaching God's works, men are preaching man's works.
The message we preach and teach our children is the message of
the glorious honor and majesty of God's person. The triune God's
person revealed in Christ Jesus bodily. Scripture says the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. When you look at Christ,
you're looking at Jesus Christ overall, God blessed forever. That's who you're looking at.
That's who He is. The Son of God and the Son of
Man in one glorious person. God came down and took flesh.
John 1.1 says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, the Son of God, full of grace
and truth. That's who Christ is. Isn't it
amazing, brethren? Isn't it amazing that God in
heaven, God in glory, God who created everything, God who created
you and formed you in the womb and provided for you and is providing
for you right now, God came to where we are and took our human
nature without sin. God came down to where we are.
That's amazing to me. It's amazing to me that before
the world was made, He became surety of all those the Father
gave to Him and said, I will go and pay all they owe and redeem
them. We can't see God. No man has
ever seen God. God's a spirit. But God in His
wisdom figured out a way to make heaven and earth, and make human
beings, flesh and bone, and then come and take up a bode in a
human body, and live and die in our room instead, made perfectly
one with us, and then ascend to the Father as a glorified
man, so that He might bring us to be with the Father and be
able to see God and know God. Isn't that amazing? That's beyond
anything we can do, anything we can comprehend really. That's
why we have to believe God. It's by faith and not by sight
or not by our ability. We just think beyond us. If you could do everything God
could do or you could figure God out, what kind of God would
you have? We're talking about God. Way,
way, way bigger than me and you are. Bigger than all of us put
together. God came down and dwelt among
us. That's what we'd have preached.
God who's the God-man mediator who could bring God and His people
together in one. He's God and man in one. And
He's the daysman who could bring God and His people together in
one. You see the Gospel preached just
in His person. He's God and man in one person.
And just in beholding His person, you behold His work. That's what
He came to do, to bring God and man together in one person. We
preach and teach our children His strength and His wonderful
works that He's done. Not only His person, we preach
His strength and His wonderful works that He's done. God the
Father freely just because it was His will to do, chose to
save some of Adam's race. Just because He would. He did
it to manifest His mighty works in their salvation so that you
and I would have something to tell sinners about and tell our
children about. to preach God's words. God did
that freely by His grace. He didn't look at you or me or
see anything about us that would commend us or anything about
us that would say that they're going to one day do something
for me so I'm going to choose them. None of that. He chose
us and made us everything we are. And our Lord Jesus Christ
who became our surety and agreed to pay our sin debt came to where
we are and He lived under the very law He gave. That's astounding. He gives a law declaring His
righteousness and He showed by that law that none of us are
righteous. We can't keep that law. And then He came and made
Himself a man under that very law and kept it all to show us
He is the righteousness of God. He is the very righteousness
of His law. You know, if God gives a law,
That law is an extension of who He is. And Christ is the giver
of it. He's the law giver. And that
law is just an extension of who He is. So when He came and lived
under it, it wasn't like He was straining and really having to
force Himself to do all those things. That's just who He was.
And who He is. Him obeying it was just... That's just who He is. And it
shows us He is the righteousness of God. The righteous God. the righteousness of the law.
And then it gets so much more amazing that after He showed
us that, then He goes to a cross, and Willie goes to a garden.
The similarities of everything He's worked out in history, everything
is showing Him. In the garden, in the first garden,
that's where Adam disobeyed and we fell. And then He comes to
another garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And here is the last
Adam. And this is the one who is going
to obey. And this is the one in whom all his people are going
to be made righteous. And he comes there perfectly
holy, perfectly spotless, needing nothing whatsoever. I mean, he
is righteous and holy and perfect and accepted of God. And he comes
there and presents himself, lays down his life, that righteous
and holy life, he lays it down. He comes there and says, I am
willing for you to make me the sin and shame that my people
are. The just for the unjust. And God then somehow made Him
sin for us. So that He's touched with all
the feeling of our sinful infirmities, yet without sin He didn't rebel,
but He's touched with everything that we encountered. God did everything necessary
to make God just to pour out punishment on Him in place of
His people. God said He will not condemn
the righteous. He will not justify the wicked.
He will not condemn the righteous. So God did everything necessary
to make Him to be the transgressor. Though He never transgressed
and never would transgress. He made Him to be our head who
had stood there as the one who not just one transgression, but
all the transgressions of our people was laid on Him. Of His
people. And God forsakes Him. God forsakes
Himself. I don't have any idea how that
could happen. None of this is anything I can
comprehend. These are the things we teach our children. And He
did this, and by this brethren, He totally, thoroughly gave God's
justice, everything we owe God's justice. He gave God's law all
it demanded. so that God looks at His people. I won't even say God's law looks
at His people, because God is His law. God looks at His people
and says, they are as righteous as I am. They are as holy as
I am. With my Son dwelling in them,
they are holy, and by His deeds, what He has accomplished, they
are perfectly righteous before me. Brethren, if that's our state,
and that is the state of every born-again child of God, You
don't have anything to worry about. God saved you. He's crucified your old man,
that old rebel. He's killed him under His law.
And God's just now to say, come, my child. Come, my faithful servant. My well-beloved son, come to
Me. And now Christ is risen and He
is at the right hand of God, brethren. And I love this as
our head. You know why we have this place
to worship? Christ gave it. Go with me to Romans 10. Romans
10.13. I despise when men deny that He
saves through the preaching of the gospel because this is my
Savior's glory. That's why I despise it. And
when men deny this, they deny the glory of God. Look at Romans
10.13. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have
not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You
know where that came right back to? To the fountainhead. It came
right back to Christ. Christ sends them. And Christ
preaches the gospel through them. This is what we saw, Peter stood
up and said, Men and brethren, you want to know how this is
happening? Christ on His throne is doing it all through the Holy
Spirit. And that's what I say to you today. You know how this
is happening? Christ, through His Holy Spirit, is doing it.
You're not working this. I'm not working this. You're
not working this. We're not keeping this thing together. He is. That's
why this is such a comfort to me When the first month or two he
gets down there and he stands there as a pastor, at some point,
real soon, it's going to dawn on him, you ain't got any ability
to do any of this. And you talk about getting scared.
You have left your livelihood, you have left your job, you don't
have any way of supporting yourself and you're standing there depending
on a bunch of sinners to stay together? And you're not going
to be able to do that. And you find out that's just
how dependent you've been on God all the time. But look at
Ephesians 4. Look over there with me at Ephesians
4. When you're saved by the Gospel, you love this Gospel. Ephesians
4 verse 8. You love the preaching of the
Word and you value it. Look here. Verse 8, Ephesians
4, 8. When He ascended up on high,
He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. This is
talking about Christ. Look here at verse 11. And He
gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for
the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ. All those He is calling through
this Word are His body. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, are into the unity of the faith. That is, we all
be called to faith in Christ. And we all come to the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure, the stature,
the fullness of Christ. That is to say, until every member
of Christ's body is called into the faith. so his body is complete. There's not one elect child left
out, not one member of his body that's left out. Look, and he
did it that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and
fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight
of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love that we may grow up into Him
in all things which is the head, even Christ. And watch this,
it's from Him that He's working through this gospel in every
part of every member of His body. It's Him, it's His power that's
working this through the gospel. From whom the whole body is fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.
That is, by Christ's effectual working through the Spirit. And
He makes an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in
love. See, that whole body is brought
together and He provides what... You know how He made your body?
Didn't when He made your natural body, didn't He give you a member,
every member you need to make you a complete body? Your eye
don't hear, but your eye sees. And your ear don't see, but it
hears. And so you need all these different members to make up
a complete body. I loved how when right before
the week of the conference, well from the time we started working
on this building until right before the week of the conference
or right over the week of the conference, We had somebody we
needed to do everything in this body. Every skilled labor we
needed, we had somebody provided that knew how to do it. And the
last thing we needed, our air conditioner went out and Brother
Kevin had just got through with HVAC school and he replaced the
air conditioner for it. That's what he's talking about
there when he talks about he supplies everything the body
needs by every member he provides. And through this Gospel, He is
working effectually in every part. And when He saves you through
a body of believers that He brought together, that He made the sacrifice
to preach this Gospel, and He saves you this way, that's when
you are going to value the preaching of the Gospel, and that's when
you are going to value your brethren. Because you see what they sacrificed
so that you could hear that Word. And you won't leave that place.
That's how He cements you into that body. Is there one member
of your body that would just be a maverick and say, well,
I don't need the rest of you members? No, because every member
of your body has been united into that body so you know, every
member knows I need every other member. That's how it is in this
church. I've never seen a person who
says they were saved without the preaching of the gospel that
would stay under the preaching of the gospel, ever. Never one. They don't need it. They didn't
need it to begin while they needed it to continue. This is how He
brings His people together and makes you love one another and
continue. And He continues to do it through
this Word. We're Israel traveling through the wilderness, being
led not by Moses, but by that pillar of fire by night and that
pillar of a cloud by day. Christ the Lord leading us through
this wilderness. And sometimes we find some of
us murmuring about something. And then sometimes you find us
murmuring about something else. And there's this and that and
the other thing. And the Lord just keeps us together. And we're
wandering around in this wilderness. And sooner or later, He's going
to deliver us into Canaan. He's going to keep doing it.
And just like when He got to Canaan and they wouldn't go in,
He made them wander around and He purged out the chaff until
He had He made that body complete and it was finished and they
all went into glory. You know what He is doing with
His whole church all over this world right now? We are wandering
through this wilderness and our Lord is calling in His members
of His body and He is edifying the wheat and making it to grow
up and He is fanning that floor and He is purging out the chaff
and eventually He is going to have His whole body complete.
and He's going to bring us into the promised land. It's what
we're here for. It's not about soccer, and basketball,
and music, and a career, and cars, and vehicles, and houses,
and possessions. It's not about that. It's about
the gospel of Christ. That's what this is about. It's
about what we're doing here so we can teach this to our children.
Alright, let me get to the end here now. Lastly, the reason
God says we are to teach our children God's works is this,
Exodus 10-2. That you may know how that I
am the Lord. There is the whole end purpose
right there. Our Savior, our salvation from
all our enemies is the Lord God of heaven. He is our salvation. He is our salvation. You don't
want to get into doctrine and fight about doctrine and all
this. What it all comes down to is this. The God who walked
this earth, the God who hung on the cross, the God who shed
His blood, the God who went back to glory, the God who is working
in His church right now, the God who is saving His people,
He is my salvation. He is our salvation. He is everything. And that's what He's teaching
us here. When you hear our salvation is accomplished by His works
alone, it means God the Father chose us, Christ the Son redeemed
us, the Holy Spirit of God regenerated us, and that's when you know
this, that's when you know what Jonah found out. Salvation is
of the Lord. And not only is it of the Lord,
He is the salvation. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. Thy blessings is upon thy people. Psalm 37, 39 says, ìThe
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength
in time of trouble.î Oh, we get so torn and twisted and pulled
in every direction and so carried and weighted down with all our
responsibilities in this life. And what Iím saying doesnít mean
that you neglect your responsibilities in life. The Lordís people see
what Christ did and how He worked and how He didnít waste a single
minute while He was here. And it makes these people want
to work. I remember the time when the Lord convinced me to
grow up, quit being a baby. And made me want to get a real
job because I wanted to support the work of the gospel. I didn't
want to be a welfare bum anymore. I wanted to support the work
of the gospel. I wanted to be a contributing part of the body. And that's what He makes His
people want to do. But sometimes we get so burdened with all the
things and we forget what the purpose of it is. We've got a
good intention and what we want to do to support the work and
further the gospel, but we get so bogged down in all the things
we've got to do to make the money to do that, we lose sight of
the purpose. And He brings you back and He
sets you back down. This is why He did these sacrifices
and this ordinance to remember Him. Remember Him. Put you in
remembrance. And we go out in the world and
we do all these things. We get caught up in everything we've
got to do. And we forget Him. We just forget Him. And we come
here. And He declares to you the salvation
of the righteousness of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. He hits you right in your heart
with it. He makes you know, I am your strength. I sent this trouble.
I brought you down to where you are right now so I could preach
this Word to you and tell you, I am your strength in all your
trouble. Turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of this
world will go strangely dim. I am your strength. He that is
our God is the God of salvation and unto the God the Lord belong
the issues from death. Oh, brethren, those that... Go to Revelation
7, 9. I want you to see this. Those
that are preaching works right now, telling sinners all this
is about them, you know, working for the kingdom and all that.
You see, I haven't talked about you working for the kingdom.
But you know what will happen? Through the message I'm preaching,
this makes God's people want to work in His kingdom. We want
to serve Him because of what He has done for us. Not because
we have to do it, because the preachers say we have to do it.
But those men that are preaching that message, they are going
to change their message one day. They change it about half a dozen
times in this lifetime. But one day they are going to
change it for good to the truth. Because God is going to make
them declare the truth, confess the truth when they bow their
knees to Christ. Do you know this message we are
preaching? We are never going to change our message. This is
going to be what we are going to declare when we get the glory
of God. Revelation 7 and 9. After this, I beheld, and lo,
a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in
their hand. Here we all are. Now we have made it to the promised
land. And here we stand. And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts,
and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
saying, Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom,
and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto
our God forever and ever. Amen. That's my message now. That's going to be my message
then. That's going to be our song then. See brethren, aren't you glad?
So I pray God now will enable us to bring our children to hear
this gospel. Don't let anything in this world stop it. Number two, I pray He will give
us the wisdom to go home after we've heard it preached and take
every opportunity to sit down with them and show them these
things. Let me help you understand what
you heard today. What don't you know? What are
you confused about that you heard? Alright, let's look at that.
And thirdly, may He make us and them know He is the Lord, our
salvation. He is the Lord, our salvation. Amen.