Alright brethren, let's turn
to 1 Corinthians 11. I had hoped and worked to have
a message for you from the first 16 verses again after Thursday
night where we looked at that text, but I do believe the Lord's
got something And he started causing to brew, but he's not
ready yet. I had to wait on him to straighten
it all out, so we'll come back to that. But I want to move on
to the next three verses. Verse 17, he says, Now in this
that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together
not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when
you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions
among you, schisms, divisions, and I partly believe it. He didn't
partly believe it because he suspected something about any
of them or anything like that. Here's why he partly believed
it. Verse 19, For there must be Also, not only schism, not
only division, there must be heresies among you. There must be false preachers
arising and preaching false doctrine and leading men away. There must
be that. Why? That they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. Christ declared that offenses
must come." He declared that. He said, woe unto the world because
of offenses. It's the worldly that's going
to cause them. Woe unto those that cause the offenses. For
it must needs be, he said, that the offense, that offenses come.
It must needs be. Woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh. Another place, he said to his
disciples, it's impossible, but that offenses will come. Paul
told the Ephesian church, you remember, when he was leaving.
In Acts 20, 29, he said, I know this. He knew it because Christ
declared it. He said, I know this, that after
my departing, grievous wolves shall come in here, not sparing
the flock. Also, let us say there, also
of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things
to draw away disciples after them. That's the meaning of heresies. That's a great definition of
heresies. Men arising, speaking perverse things to draw away
disciples after them. And yet, here's the amazing thing.
You see that happen and it's so sad and your heart breaks
when those you thought were God's children and faithful and steadfast
in the gospel, you see them led away by men and go off and form
their own party and depart from the others and break fellowship. That breaks your heart to see
that happen. But God is sovereign even over those false preachers
who preach a false gospel. And He's sovereign even over
those who are going away, just like He's sovereign over His
people. And here's the fact, as hurtful as it is and as heartbreaking
as it is, it's for the good of His people. That gives you a little bit of
comfort. When you see all the falsehoods and the things that
are happening and these things going, God's working that for
the good of His people. How so? He says that they which
are approved may be made manifest among you. Now to be approved
is to be tried, tested, and proven genuine. To be approved. It means you've been tried, and
you've been proven to be genuine, and so you're approved. You take
an assayer, he has a piece of gold, and this piece of gold
is supposed to be 18 carats. He's going to test that gold.
And when he's proven that gold to be 18 carats, then he's going
to stamp it. It's 18 carats. You look in most
rings, if you got a 14 carat or an 18 or whatever it is, it's
gonna have a stamp in it, it's approved. That's what it is.
Well, God is the one who proves His people. He tries His people
and He proves His people. And God's the one that approves
His people. And He'll use false preachers
and false gospels to do it. persecutions and all those things.
He'll use those things to do it. Go to Deuteronomy 13. We're
going to look at some scripture today. I want you to see these.
Deuteronomy 13. I want you to catch this now. He
says here, if there arise, verse 1, if there arise among you a
prophet, preacher, or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a
sign or a wonder, And that sign or that wonder come to pass. Don't be fooled if a sign or
a wonder actually does come to pass. If men do some miraculous
looking thing. Don't be surprised about that.
That's what he said right here. But that's not what proves whether
they are genuine or not. That's not how his people are
proved. You know, Brother Henry used to say, if the Holy Spirit
works some gifts in a person, and they glory in those gifts
and show out with those gifts, you can be assured that it's
not the Holy Spirit of God doing it. Because Christ said, when
He comes, He's going to speak of me. He's going to give Christ
all the glory. You can be assured if men are
glorying in some gifts or some signs or some wonders, Christ
is nowhere around that place. You can be certain of that. Now
listen to this. He says, And if they spake unto
thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not
known, and let us serve them. There's how you test it. What
are they speaking? What are they preaching? Are
they preaching Christ? Are you hearing Christ's voice?
Are you seeing Christ be glorified? That is where the test is. If you don't hear Him, He says,
Thou shalt not hearken to the words of that prophet or that
dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you. He is testing
you. to know whether you love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul you shall
walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments
and obey His voice and you shall serve Him and cleave unto Him
and that dreamer of dreams put him to death. We're not killing
false prophets but we're treating them like they're dead. Treating
them like they're dead because it's false. It's false. Now you see there, God, He says
there, proves you to know whether you love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul. Now don't misunderstand
what that means. God knows. God already knows. God's not doing it so you can
show Him whether or not you're true or not. No, He knows. God chose His people, God redeemed
His people, God regenerated His people, and God's preserving
His people, and God's trying His people. He already knows,
God, the Lord knows them that are His. He's doing it to prove
to you and to other brethren that you are genuine, that you
are approved. And He's doing it to prove to
you that you didn't approve yourself, He did it. You take that gold
that assayer's got there and he tests it and he's proven it
where there's genuine gold. Does the gold approve itself?
No. It's just in the hand of the
assayer. It's just being tried and proven. And he's the one
that approves it. And that's why the Lord said,
or Paul said, it's not he that commendeth himself that's approved,
but whom the Lord commendeth. So the Lord knows, He's proving,
He's making it manifest to you and to others that you're His
and that the only way you're approved is because God's preserving
you. Now a believer understands that,
a believer knows that and a believer confesses that. I wouldn't stand,
Paul said, it's His grace that's sufficient. That's the only reason
I've borne this thorn, it's His grace that's sufficient. He's
upheld me. When I'm weak, I'm strong because
He's my strength. I'm not trusting me, I'm trusting
Him. Now, gold is tried and it's approved three different ways.
There's three methods to approve gold. Three methods. Number one
is the touchstone method. Number two is the light method. And number three is the fire
method. That's how gold's tried. And
that illustrates exactly, according to scripture, how God approves
His people. Now first of all, God tries and
approves His child using the touchstone method. Now when this
is done with gold, what they do is you've got a piece of gold
that's supposed to be 18 carats. They take a piece of gold that
is 18 carats and they rub it against that. And if that gold
is pure and genuine, it'll be the same color as that touchstone.
If it's not, it'll turn an off color. It won't be the color
of the touchstone. Well, Christ is the touchstone. He's the stone. He's the touchstone
against whom all who hear the gospel are rubbed and proven. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 28. The Lord said this. We just saw
there in that text where He said, you listen to who's being preached.
You listen to see if you hear the touchstone. That's the test.
That's where you're going to be rubbed against, right there.
It's Christ. Now look at this. Isaiah 28 verse 14. I'm sorry,
verse 13. Verse 14. Hear the word of the
Lord, you scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Because you've said, we've made a covenant with death and with
hell are we in agreement? And when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we've made
lies our refuge and under falsehood if we hid ourselves. Now that's
not what the men said themselves in religion. You know they didn't
say that. They're saying, we're saved because we got the refuge. But the Lord's describing it
as what it really is. You're trusting in the refuge
of lies. He says this, therefore, this saith the Lord God, how
is He going to prove them? Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation,
a stone. And it's a tried stone. And it's
a precious cornerstone. That means it's genuine. It's
like precious metal. It's precious. And therefore,
it's a sure foundation. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. He that believeth won't be confounded,
he'll be proven genuine. Judgment I'll lay to the line,
and righteousness to the plummet, and the hell shall sweep away
the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place,
and your covenant with death shall be disannoyed, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand when he comes. Now that's
turn to 1 Peter 2. We'll see the commentary from
the New Testament on that passage. 1 Corinthians 2.4. Peter says, when the Lord calls
us, 1 Corinthians 2.4, we come to Christ, to whom coming, as
unto a living stone. This is a living touchstone.
Christ our living stone. Disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. Genuine. True. Ye also are living
stones, he said. You're living stones. Now look
down at verse 7. Because he's a living stone, and by him you're
a living stone. Verse 7, Unto you therefore which
believe, he's precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, that stone they rejected,
is the head of the corner. And now he's a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed." You
saw this morning that first thing Naomi told Ruth was, obey this
man. See, these ones, that's the first
thing. He makes you obedient to hear Christ and listen to
Christ. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. But the disobedient, they heard
his voice and hear his voice and stumble on this stone. Christ
is God's chosen. He's God's elect. Men don't like
the doctrine of election and they ought to because Christ
is God's first elect. God chose Him. God chose Christ
to be all preeminent over all. To be first, foremost, preeminent
over all. He chose Him to honor and magnify
His law. He chose Him to be the express
image of God in the fullness of the Godhead. And He chose
him to declare God's righteousness, to declare to His people how
that God is just because He poured out the penalty of the law on
Christ in the room instead of His people so that He's just
now. Everybody He saves, He's doing
it justly. He's not just looking over their
sin. No, He punished their sin fully. Their hell was suffered on Calvary's
cross by Christ in their place. And at the same time, He's the
one that justified them. He's their justifier. That's
Romans 3. He's just and the justifier. That's the righteousness of God.
Of all those that believe on Christ. So that's what God chose
Him to do. And then, so He came forth and
you know what God did? He tried this stone. He tried
this stone. Just like He tries His people,
He tried this stone. He tried Christ. He overruled
everything to make sure he was tempted by Satan. God did that. God did that. God overruled everything
as Christ walked this earth serving God. He ruled everything to make
sure he was persecuted by men and rejected by men. God did
that. They took Him by wicked hands
and crucified and slew Him, but they were doing just what God
before determined to be done. God did that. And then He suffered
the greatest testing of all. He went to Calvary's cross and
He suffered being forsaken of God on Calvary's cross because
He was bearing the sin of His people and He was made guilty
before God so that God was justly pouring out the wrath of God
on Him in place of His people. He's that spotless Lamb who knew
no sin, who could not sin, who would not sin, but yet presented
Himself to the Father who laid all the iniquity of His people
on Him. And because He made Him sin in our room instead, God
poured out the judgment of God upon Him. And He suffered that
separation from God, separation from His brethren on that cross.
And He was proven through every single trial to be holy, to be
righteous, to be faithful, to be true, to be precious. Genuine. Genuine. And God said,
approved. What was the stamp of approval?
What shows us He's approved? He raised Him from the dead and
sat down at His right hand. So therefore, Christ is the sure
stone. He's the stone that His people
can depend on. He's the touchstone. He is the
righteousness of God that God has provided for His people. Romans 10, 1-3. He's the righteousness
of God, Christ is, that God's provided for His people. He's
the holiness God's provided for His people. Holiness is not in
your deeds. It's not in your obedience to
the law. That's not what holiness is. Holiness is Christ. He is the sanctifier and He is
the sanctification. When He is in you, you are holy. Just like when you were born,
you became a human being. Now you are going to grow in
that state and become more of a human being. But you are not
going to be... I mean grow in that state, but
you are not going to become more of a human being. And when you're
born of God, of Christ, you're holy. And you're going to grow
in grace and knowledge of Christ, but you're not going to become
more holy. You can't get more holy than
Christ. So it's not, we can't glory in
this thing men call, these days call progressive sanctification.
We can't glory that we made ourselves more and more and more holy and
put sin away and put sin away and one day we're just so good
we're just going to walk into glory. No. That would be of us. That's Christ's work. That's
who Christ is. He's the life, the way, the truth,
and the life that God's provided for His people. He's the power
and wisdom of God. He's the only one God will have
glorified and praised. He is God. He's everything about
God. where God's showing in a person
that we can see who He is in all His glory. That's who Christ
is. In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're
complete in Him. That's what the Scripture says.
Isn't that good news? It is to you that know He's the sure stone
to you. You see, this is what God does. He takes this stone now And He's
going to preach. This is the word we preach. We
preach the touchstone. And so what God's doing, everybody
that hears it, God's trying them by this word. He's trying everybody
that hears the message by this touchstone. He's rubbing them
against this touchstone. That's what's happening right
here, right now. And one of two effects happens on every person
that hears it. One of two effects. To one, we're
the saver of death unto death. To the other, we're the saver
of life unto life. That's always the effect. Always. There's no neutrality when you
hear the gospel. You're either for Christ or against Him. That's
just so. Either fool's gold or the genuine
gold of God's grace. Now the believer is totally created
anew by Christ. He is the creation of Christ. Just like God in the first creation
created Adam out of the dust and breathed into his nostrils
and he became a living soul, well the last Adam is a quickening
spirit and He created us by what He did for us at the cross and
what He does in us in regeneration. He totally creates His child
anew. All that's happening with us, brethren, as we get older
and older and more decrepit, more decrepit, to one day we
die, we're just, the dross is just falling away. What's going
to be left is what He's created. That's all. What He's created. You see, the reason a wedge of
gold is approved when it's rubbed up against another genuine wedge
of gold, the reason it's approved is, it's just like that other
wedge of gold. It's exactly the same thing.
And see, when Christ is created in you anew, you're exactly one
with Christ. Remember there, listen, Isaiah,
you can jot this down and look at it, Isaiah 13, 12 says, I
will make a man, Christ the man, I'll make a man more precious
Precious metal, precious. More precious than fine gold,
than pure, the purest gold. I'll make you more precious than
fine gold. I'll make a man more precious
than the golden wedge of Ophir. Apparently, Ophir was the place
where you could find pure gold. I'll make him more pure, more
precious to my people than the golden wedge of Ophir. Do you
remember Psalm 45 when we saw Christ and his bride, and his
bride standing there as the queen next to him? Do you remember
what she looked like? Psalm 45, 9 says, upon thy right hand did
stand the queen in gold of Ophir. She's just like him. She's made
by Him. She's one with Him. And so Christ
makes His living stones living stones. He makes us one with
Him. And so when we hear the gospel, we hear our life. We hear our righteousness. We
hear our holiness. We hear our wisdom. We hear our
redemption. We hear our acceptance with God.
We hear our completion. We hear our all when we hear
the gospel preached. And therefore, 1 Peter 2, verse
6 says, He that believeth shall not be confounded." You won't
be ashamed because unto you therefore which believe, He's precious. You see, God looked at him and
said, Oh, He's precious. I've tried Him. I've proved Him.
He's sure. He's precious. And then He makes
His people say the same thing. Because in Him, God and His people
are made one. And we say, Oh, He's precious.
He's precious. We want Him to have all the glory. We like it when we hear Him say,
we're saying, not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name
be the glory. You've done the work. It's for
Your mercy and Your truth's sake. But those that are trying to
come to God by something they've done, they'll listen and maybe
everything goes alright as they listen, but then sooner or later
you come to that refuge of lies and it sweeps it away. And they
start rubbing on that stone, and when they start being rubbed
on that stone, they turn another color. They turn green with envy
that Christ is getting all the glory and they're not getting
any. They don't like it. It's a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense. Why? Romans 9.31. Look at Romans
9.31. Here's why. The Gentiles weren't even seeking
after righteousness. They didn't even have the righteousness
of the law. They weren't even seeking righteousness. And yet
they found it. God came to them and used Gentiles
to show, I manifest to them that sought me not. I'm the one that
does all the work. But look here now, Romans 9.31.
But Israel, natural Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
had not attained to the law of righteousness. Why not? Why aren't
they righteous? Look at all the works they were
doing. because they sought it not by faith. They didn't seek
it in Christ only, but as it were by the works of the law,
for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They were rubbed against
that touchstone and proven to be fake. Fools go. Fools go. So when they hear lies preached
and they hear man's works preached, they say, oh yes, that fills
them with zeal and they get out and get to work. God says, fools
go. It's fake. Fake as it can be.
God's people hear that message of man's works and man's doing,
and they say, that's not God. That's a dreamer of dreams. I
can't follow that. And God says, they cling to Christ,
and God says, approved. Approved, because God worked
that. God worked that. Alright, now then, here's the
next way they're approved. The light method. The light method. You know, if With this method,
they take this high power x-ray fluorescent light and it shines
into the gold and it tests the inner purity of the gold. That's how this method works.
Light is shined into it and it manifests the purity, the inward
purity of the gold. It's kind of like our money.
We got this new money now. You know, you ever seen them
hold it up to a light? Put it under a light? It's got a band
in it, inside it, so that when they shine it to that light,
that band shows through. You know, it's not counterfeit.
It's the real thing. It's the real thing. Well, who do you
think that light is? It's Christ. Christ is the light. He's the discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. That's what Hebrews 4.12 says.
Simon, they brought Christ to the temple to be circumcised
because he's fulfilling the whole law of God. And even as an infant,
God directs him to there so he can fulfill the circumcision.
He's being circumcised, brought under the law. And as he comes
into that temple, the Lord had told him, He told Simon, you
won't die until you see my salvation. Simeon picked him up, held him
in his arms, and he said, I can depart in peace now. I've seen
his salvation. But he said something else. He
said, Behold, this child right here is set for the fall and
the rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be
spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Christ is that light. He reveals
what a man really thinks about himself and what a man really
thinks about God. Christ is that light. He penetrates
to the thoughts and intents of the heart. I said to you when
you hear this gospel, there's no neutrality in it. Unless God's just hardened a
man so that he just goes in one ear and out the other. But if
he makes a man to hear this, and he hasn't done a work of
grace in his heart, that man hates the message. He hates it. The very fact God sent His only
begotten Son into this world declares that there's none righteous,
no not one. And that man hears that, and
he don't like that. All by nature are unable and
unwilling God-haters. I don't mean just... I mean God
haters. That's what it means when it
says the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not like it's
at enmity against God. The carnal mind, the nature that
we're born with is itself hatred against God. That's hard, ain't
it? That's true. That's God's Word.
Listen to this, His light shines and He says we're all as an unclean
thing. And all our righteousnesses,
all our very best religious works are as filthy rags. And we all
do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away. There's
none that calls upon the name of the Lord. There's none that
stirs himself to take hold of the Lord. Hadn't you heard that
before? Oh, there's a spark in you. You just got to fan it.
He said there's not anybody that stirs himself up to take hold
of Him. He says, Thou has hid Thy face from us and therefore
You've consumed us because of our iniquities. The scribes and
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were trusting in their works
and their deeds. And outwardly, I'm telling you, outwardly, if
you saw those folks, you would have said, that's the genuine
article right there. These folks were holy folks,
outwardly. To look at them, you'd have thought,
man, those folks right there are the genuine, they're the
genuine gold right there. That's the gold of Ophir right
there. Christ the light came into their midst. And here's
what he said, standing there in the middle of these religious
leaders now, the brightest of the bright, the holiest of the
holy, and he says this, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you're like unto whited sepulchres. Indeed, you appear beautiful
outward, but within, you're full of dead men's bones. and all
uncleanness. Now, when they heard that message,
here's what we are by nature. When they heard that message,
did they say, let me get away from these works I'm doing, let
me cease to trust in my deeds, let me acknowledge my very best
righteousnesses are filthy. You know, preachers think that
if I just preach this word better, people will believe it. Well,
you can't preach it better than Christ. the Word. Did that Word
He spoke to them, just the bare Word that He spoke to them, did
it make them repent and say, we want you to save us and be
all our salvation? Did it? He said, this is the
condemnation. Light is coming to the world
and men love darkness rather than light because all their
very best church deeds are evil. That's why. He said, the pimps
and the harlots will go in before you do. I didn't come to call
men that think they've made themselves righteous. I came to call sinners
to repentance. Men loved darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does
evil hates the light. Neither comes to the light. Do
you hear what he's saying? He's saying to look to the law. In fact, you come to God by the
law and by your works. He says that's to hate light. That's to do evil and to hate
light. Christ the light. He's talking about himself. That's why he don't come. Lest
his very best self-righteousness will be made to be reproved by
Christ. Christ tell him just what he
told them. That's why he won't come. But he that doeth truth,
he that has the light dwelling in him, he that's been born of
the light and has the light of the gospel in him and that's
his life in him, what does he do? He comes to the light. Why? That his deeds, may be manifest
that they're all wrought by God. And that's what it means. They're
all wrought in Christ. He's worked them all in Him. That's right. That's why we come.
There must be heresies among you that they which are approved
may be made manifest. And Christ said they come to
the light that the deeds might be made manifest. That they're
of us? Nope. That they're of Him. We
want to confess that. That's our message. That's what
self-righteous folks hate. Because we're saying all the
righteousness of Him. And we were the self-righteous
people? We weren't the self-righteous. How did it happen? He had to
work this inwardly in you. He had to shine the light and
say, come to the light and draw you out of the darkness into
the light and show you what He is. Because without the light
you can't see Him. He did this. What goes on inwardly
with you when you hear the Gospel? What goes on inwardly when you
hear this Gospel? Believers rejoice. Believers
rejoice. Believers delight in it. Remember
I told you about that lady one time? Who used to tell me, you
know, how when she heard the gospel preached, she said, it
just makes me so angry. But she just kept coming. Buddy,
it just makes me so angry. And I thought, there's something
wrong. The gospel makes you comfortable.
The gospel rejoices your heart because you got close. You're
one with that light. It doesn't make you angry. But
those that it does make angry, they go out. And John said they
went out from us because they were not of us, for no doubt
they would have continued with us. But they went out that they
might be made manifest. They were not of us. They were
not approved. God wasn't working in them. God
didn't do that. You see, we're no better than anybody in this
world. We're children of wrath, children
of disobedience, just like everybody in this world. What's the difference? Who made the difference? Who
makes you to differ from another? What do you have that was not
given to you freely by grace? God made the difference. Christ
made the difference. We can't brag, we can't boast,
you can't... Christ made the difference. And
when He shines that light, There's just His light reflecting back. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. You're
right. I love this message. That's the
second method. Now, here's the last method.
God tries and approves His child using the fire method. Malachi
3. Turn there with me. Malachi 3.
Malachi 3, verse 1. Malachi 3, the last book before
the fire came. Malachi 3, verse 1. Behold, I
will send my messenger. I will send John the Baptist,
but not only John the Baptist. Now listen to me. Christ does
this every time He saves somebody. He sends His messenger before
Him. You know what the messenger is? In the old days, he was a
crier. He went before the king saying,
Make way! The king's coming! Make way! The king's coming! And everybody
bowed as the king went by. That's what preachers of the
gospel are. That's what John the Baptist was, and that's what
preachers of the gospel are. When Christ is coming to a man's
heart, when the king's coming into a man's heart, he sends
his crier to tell you, Get ready, the king's coming. And you'll
get ready. You bow. Now look at this. Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before
me, and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple.
Just like he suddenly came to that temple in Jerusalem, he
suddenly comes into that childhood. It's his, into his temple. Even
the messenger of the covenant, and whom you delight in. Behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts, but who may abide the
day of his coming? You see, he's the fire. Watch
this. Who shall stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire. You see, in the refining method,
in this fire method, the gold is put in a furnace, a fire. And if there's not, if whatever's
dross, whatever's not pure gold, it melts away. And just the gold
remains. And if there's nothing but dross,
it all melts away. He said here, He's like a refiner's
fire. Like fuller's soap, same purges
His people. And He shall sit as a refiner.
He's the refiner and He's the fire. And He shall as a purifier
of silver or gold. And He shall purify the sons
of Levi. The sons of Levi were the priests.
He's going to purify those that are His priests. You know how
Scripture says He makes us kings and priests unto God by His blood.
He's going to purify His priests. Why? He's going to purge them
as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness. What's that mean? Here we are,
we got all this dross. We start out with all this dross
of thinking that it's partly Christ, partly us. It's a co-effort,
you know. And then He brings you this refiner
of fire and He brings you and He makes you behold Christ on
the cross. And you look at Christ on the cross, and that's where
you behold how awful and vile a sinner you are. How so? Because you behold what it took
to purge you of your sin, to purify you and make you clean.
And so, He purges away that dross of you thinking there's some
goodness in you. That dross is gone now. It's just Christ. Well,
you got this dross of thinking that we could fulfill the law
and we could get more holy and all this. And He shows you Christ
hanging on that cross, fulfilling the righteousness and the love
of the law. Loving God as Himself and loving
His people as Himself by willingly being made that shameful thing
He hated and suffering divine justice, being forsaken of God
and His Father. That is the fulfillment of the
law. When He said the love, all the
laws fulfilled in one word, love your neighbor, love God and love
your neighbor as yourself. Who fulfilled that? Who's the
only one that fulfilled that? You see Him there on that cross.
There's where He's doing it. He's loving God and he's loving
his neighbor as himself, willingly being forsaken by both unto death
to glorify God and save these people. And he did it. He accomplished it. That's why
he's our righteousness, brethren. That's why he's love. That's
why. And he's the refiner. When you
see that, all those thoughts that you can fulfill the law,
He's burned up. He's burned up in that furnace.
That furnace is a cross. You're looking at the cross.
And He's the refiner who allows the heresies to come and the
persecutions to come. He said those that are all draws. Remember in that parable of the
sower of the seed? He said those that are all draws.
He said when tribulation and persecution arises because of
the Word, Oh, this is the best word, I love it, I believe it,
you know, and all this going along. And then one day, daddy
says, I don't like that message. If you keep worshipping that
God, I'm not going to have anything to do with you. If I stop, I'm
going to lose my inheritance. Which one do you want? The one
from your earthly father or the one from your heavenly father?
And he says, tribulation comes, persecution arises because of
the word, by and by that man is offended. It costs too much. I can't stand with Christ on
this. It costs too much. Who's going to burn up that dross
in His people and burn it up? Christ is. He burns it up. So that all you come to God offering
is a pure offering and pure righteousness. And that offering is Christ.
That's how I'm bringing nothing to God of my own making. All
I'm coming to God with is the Son He's provided. That's it.
That's how He makes His priests offer a pure offering in righteousness,
by burning up everything else. But those in whom He abides,
the reason we're not burned up in all this persecution and heresies
and all that, you know why? What happened to those three
Jewish children when they were thrown in that furnace? What
happened to them? That man looked in there and
he said, didn't you throw three people in there? I see another
man in there with them, walking in that fire with them. And they
came out of that fire and they didn't even smell like things.
They didn't have not a hair singed, they didn't even smell like smoke.
This is what he said, Now thus saith the Lord that created thee,
O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God. I
am the Holy One of Israel. I am thy Savior. I gave Egypt
for your ransom, and Ethiopia and Seba for thee, and I'll keep
giving people for you. You're not going to perish. That's
why you don't fall away, because you're one with the fire. You're
one with Him. You're one with the Refiner.
So you don't. And He reminds us of the reason
He does this. Go to Isaiah 48.10. Here's why
He does it. Here's why He does it. Why does
He do this? Why doesn't He just leave us to see if we can get
through the fire on our own? Here's why. Isaiah 48.10. Behold,
I have refined thee, but not with silver. I've chosen
thee in the furnace of affliction for mine own sake. That's why
he does it, for my own sake. Even for my own sake will I do
it, for how should my name be polluted? I will not give my
glory to another. You see, if He left you alone
to get through the fire, and you somehow could survive persecution
and somehow come out without being singed, you know the first
thing you'd do? You'd pollute God's name. You
know how? Look what I did. Look what I
did. I came through the fire. And
he said, so for my sake, I'm not going to let my name be polluted.
I'm going to be the one who has to walk you through that fire
and protect you in that fire and deliver you through that
fire so that you'll praise me alone and nobody else. That's
why. That's what Peter meant when
he said, the trial of your faith being much more precious than
of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. And it
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. How's your faith going to be
found to be approved and be the genuine thing and be gloried
in by God? How's it going to be found that
way? When He comes and you're trusting nobody but Christ. That's
how. And He says, that's why I do
it this way. So you're glorying Me alone. And when He's finished
the trial, oh, it's hard to go through a trial, isn't it? I
don't like them. I really don't. That's the old
man in me. I know when the new man is the
best thing for me. But the old fleshly man in me
don't want anything that cuts against the grain. Don't want
anything that flies in my will and my way. Don't want it. And
so I don't like trials. But you know what he brings you
to say in your inward man when it's finished? It's good for
me that I've been afflicted. That I might learn your statutes.
And I might learn your truth and your gospel and look to you
and cling to you and nobody else. It's good. Anything that makes
you cling to Christ alone and burns up anything that would
take you from Him, that's good. That's good. That's all I can
be said about it. That's good. So believer, remember this when
a trial comes, when the heresies come, when dear friends depart
and the others remain steadfast. Remember this. If you be reproached,
for the name of Christ, happy are you. He's saying if you be
reproached and you endure it, you be reproached and you've
proven to be approved of God. He said you rejoice because the
spirit of glory and of God rests on you. That's how you were approved. That's how you pass the test.
The Spirit of God and of glory rests on you. On their part,
what happens? He's evil spoken of. I would
worship a God like that. You're saying God saves some,
passes by others. I wouldn't worship a God like
that. He's evil spoken of by them. But on your part, He's
glorified. You say, if He didn't choose
some, I wouldn't be saved. None of us would. It's all to
the honor and glory and praise of His grace. He's glorified.
And then, your brethren can say of you, just like Paul said of
one old tried saint, Salute a palace approved in Christ. Don't you want to be found that
way? Approved! How? In Christ. In Christ. That's what we're going to be
one day. You know, this thing is going to go on right up to
Judgment Day, this testing. That day Christ is going to come
forth and there He is going to stand. And He is going to stand
there and in that day men are going to say, didn't we do many
wonderful works? Didn't we cast out devils? Even
then they are going to be bragging on themselves. And He is going
to say, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you are not approved.
But there is going to be some standing there and they are going
to say, They are going to say, I was hungry and you fed me.
I was sick and you tended to me. I was thirsty and you gave
me water. I was in prison and you came to me. They are going
to say, Lord, when did we ever do anything like that? See, there's a total different
spirit in the two. You look at religion in this
world, they're doing their alms before men and putting it on
their websites and showing how many missionaries they serve
and how much they do in the world and everything. Christ said,
don't do that! Don't attract people with that!
Preach Christ. I'll attract them. They're bragging. God's people are saying, we glory
in Him. And even in that day, Lord, when
did we do anything? As much as you did it to one
of these, the least of my brethren, you did it to me. Come, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you of my Father from the foundation
of the world. Approved. Approved. Let's stand together. Father, we pray that you would
Do everything necessary. Keep us. Make us manifest that we're proved. Do it by making us one with the
touchstone and one with the light and one with the fire. Keep us
in Christ, Lord. Approve us in Christ. Bless us
now with Your Word. We ask it for His sake and His
glory. Amen.