We praise Thee, O God, for the
Son of Thy love, for Jesus who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Hallelujah, Amen. Hallelujah, Thine the glory. Revive us again. We praise thee, O God, for thy
Spirit of life, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our
night. Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Alleluia, thine the glory. Revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every stain. Alleluia, Thine the glory, Alleluia,
Amen. Alleluia, Thine the glory, revive
us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again. Everybody gonna read a first
Thessalonians 5 First Thessalonians 5 But of the times and the seasons
brethren you have no need that I write unto you for yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh and as a thief
in the night. For when they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye,
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. You are all the children of light and the children
of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, But let
us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night, and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night. But
let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love, and for our helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God hath not appointed us to wrath. but to obscene salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we
wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore,
comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also
ye do. We beseech you, brethren, to
know them that which labor among you. and are over you in the
Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love
for their work's sake, and be ye at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort
the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among
yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without
ceasing. In everything, give thanks for
this is the will of God and Jesus Christ concerning you. Quench
not the spirit. Despise not prophesying. Prove
all things. Hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace
sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who will also do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet
all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord
that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for this scripture in order that we hope to be found
as the ones you speak of in this scripture that will be spared
when the destruction comes because of solely because of what your
father or for what you sent your son to do and what he did for
us. And Father, we're thankful again to have a place to come
to you and Father, as the verse says we should esteem those above
us and lord we should pray for that individual that brings us
the message each week and father we we just ask that you continue
to watch over him as he studies and support him as he brings
the message and open our ears and our eyes and hearts to the
message that you're sending through him and father again we just
Please watch over this church and have it continue to be the
size that it is or grow to 1,000 people, whatever your will be,
Lord. But again, however you decide
to do it, we just ask that you please always give us a place
to come meet and a pastor. And Father, we ask that you just
watch over and care for us in Christ's name. Let's sing 332. My Jesus, I love
thee. 332. ? My Jesus, I love Thee ? ? I know
Thou art mine ? ? For Thee, all the follies of sin I resign ?
? My gracious Redeemer, my Savior, my King ? If ever I love thee, my Jesus,
this now, I love thee because thou hast
first loved me. and purchase my pardon on Calvary
street. I love thee for wearing the thorns
on thy brow. If ever I love thee, my Jesus,
this now. I'll love thee in life, I will
love thee in death, and praise thee as long as thou lendest
me breath. And say when the death do lies
cold on thy brow, If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, tis now. In mansions of glory and endless
delight, I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright. I'll sing with a glittering crown
on my brow. If ever I love thee, my Jesus,
test now. Thank you. Good morning. Turn to Isaiah
chapter 57. We're going to pick up in verse 10. In this passage, our Lord is
addressing those Israelites. in their idolatry. They had become
idolaters and incorporated the worship of many false gods and
made covenants with other kingdoms and worshipped their gods, their
false idol gods, in addition to what they professed of the
Lord. And our Lord says, you have a
stumbling block, you're stumbling. over this falsehood and he tells
them in verse 10 that they found the life of their hand. They found the life of their
hand and so being encouraged by this they continued in idolatry
and they continued walking in every false and wicked way. But our God has a people whom
he's delivered from idolatry and he's delivered them from
trusting in the works of their own hand so that they don't go
on in falsehood and they don't go on in spiritual adultery against
their God. In fact, Paul gives us a definition
of the believer in Philippians chapter three, verse three, where
he says, we, circumcision. We're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Our God faithfully strips his
people of having confidence in the flesh. You wonder why you're
brought low and why you're humbled and why you go through fiery
trials. It's to burn up that dross of
this flesh. It's to burn up the dead works
that cannot save, those things that man naturally trusts in
and gravitates towards because he's defiled and corrupt in this
flesh. Our God teaches His people. He's faithful to teach them and
He's faithful to give us a hearing ear to hear our Lord and to be
humbled by the strokes of our God which are given to us in
measure as a chastening that we die to self and live to our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're thankful for our
God who does this and who teaches us that the praise and the glory
is His and His alone. And we're made thankful to worship
Him in that. I've titled the message, The
Stumbling Block Removed. The Stumbling Block Removed.
Let's pick up in verse 10. Here we see our Lord tracing
out for us the path, the works that the idolater does, that
one who's trusting in the flesh. They may think they're worshiping
God, they may think that they're pleasing to God, but the reality
is we see man's flesh is fully involved in these wicked ways
and these works that cannot save. So verse 10 says, the Lord says
to them, Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way. Yet,
saidst thou not, there is no hope. You didn't come to see
that there's no hope in your way. Thou hast found the life
of thine hand. Therefore, thou wast not grieved. Men and women who don't have
the spirit of Christ meaning they're not trusting in the blood
of Christ to save them. They don't see the blood of Christ
as sufficient for them. They can be very religious. Men and women in this flesh,
we can be very, very religious. And we can go to great lengths
to try and find a comfort and a peace for ourselves to find
a place where we think we've arrived in salvation. God is pleased with us. He's
not angry with me anymore because I'm doing what I need to do in
order to save myself. And the Lord speaks of this people's
great passion in working a salvation for themselves. Look at verse
five. He says, you're inflaming yourselves. You're working yourselves
up into a fiery, fervent heat. You are passionate about what
you're doing. You're inflaming yourselves with
idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys
under the cliffs of the rocks. So we see that in their great
passion, they went so far as to take their own children. and
sacrifice them to their gods. And the true and living God said,
I never asked you to do that. I didn't ask you to sacrifice
your children to me, but you're sacrificing your children to
please your false gods, to try and obtain a blessing from your
false idol gods. And they served so many idols
and performed so many services to those idols, the Lord says,
thou art wearied. He says, Thou art wearied in
the greatness of thy way. And that word greatness means
many. Your abundance of ways. The abundance
of your gods and the abundance of your religious ceremonies
and sacrifices. You're worn out. Now recall back
in verse 8 in Isaiah 57 verse 8 it said that they had enlarged
their bed. They incorporated more and more
gods into their worship. And they made a covenant with
them, meaning other kingdoms and other nations, they made
a covenant with them and said, oh, this is your God? Well, we'll
do service to him. We'll do obeisance to him. We'll
show you that we're one with you. And they made covenants
with them, and they worshiped their God so that they loved
their bed. They loved enlarging their bed. They were trusting in their own
wisdom. They were trusting in their righteousness,
meaning their justification. They were trusting in their sanctifying
works. They were trusting in their own
redemption, the works of their hand to purchase salvation, to
purchase life for them by their own hand. And we see things like
this even in today where you see people wearing crosses and
four leaf clovers and all kinds of charms. They order little
vials of sand from Jerusalem or they get a little chip of
wood supposedly from the cross of Christ which would have sold
out long ago. They get a piece of the shroud
You know that supposedly Christ was buried in and people get
all kinds of little good luck charms because they think this
is aiding me, this is helping me, this, by doing this God is
pleased with these works and these sacrifices that I make
for him. And the Lord says, you've debased
yourselves to hell. You've bowed down to hell. You're
serving the doctrines and the devils of hell. By their aligning
with kings and kingdoms and doing service to their gods, they weren't
pleasing to God. God wasn't impressed by this.
He wasn't pleased with these works at all. And so the other
thing we see is that as they were doing these things, they
endured setbacks and they endured difficulties through it, but
it didn't dissuade them. It didn't turn them. It didn't
make them say, gee, what's going on? Maybe we're off the true
and living way. He says, even though it cost
them dearly by sacrificing their children, he said, yet saidst
thou not, there is no hope. They never questioned their false
way. They never doubted what they
were doing. And if you reflect back on your
days in false religion, when you were striving and laboring
and running and working to please God, You remember that when the
flesh was provoked by the law and provoked by these things,
we sought to doubt God. We strove and tried to doubt
the truth of God with all our might to deny his word, to get
ourselves out from underneath the burden that we were in and
the guilt that we felt. But when men are in false religion
and doing false things, they never seem to question those
things. They seem to have no problem doing that which is falsehood
and lies and things that cannot save or cannot help them. But when it comes to God, man,
this flesh will try to disprove God and try to find an excuse
not to believe His Word and to say, well, maybe the that this
world is right and God isn't real. We'll do that. But we never
question our false ways. We never question those ways.
We think those ways are true. And so it is that the false way,
every false way is full. It's crowded with the dead. It's full. There's many dead
that are on the way, the broad way that leads to destruction.
Our Lord said, enter ye in at the straight gate, at the narrow
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. A lot
of people go the broad way. A lot of people go the way that's
popular and accepted with this world, and they just want to
go along to get along, and they're happy to do those things that
lead to death. And our Lord says the reason
is that straight is the gate, and narrow is the way. Now that
word straight means narrow, and that word narrow, it signifies
it's difficult. You're sacrificing yourself.
You're dying to self. You're trusting the Lord. You're
giving up the things of this world that you may know Him and
hear His voice. You want to hear Him. You're
glad. When the Lord has mercy on you
and saves your soul, you're happy to make sacrifices for the Lord.
You want to hear His word preached. You want to go and fellowship
with the brethren, because the Lord shows us that the things
of this world They're not profitable. They can't save. They're not
lasting. There is no peace and comfort in these things, but
Christ is a comfort to my soul. He's made that way, and so in
Him, we will go through difficult ways, and we will go through
trials, fiery trials. We'll go through difficulties
for Him, and that turns a lot of people off. That turns people
away. I remember there was a young
woman who had started to come to our church in New Jersey and
she had been baptized and had her family come in, but no sooner
was she baptized than she got into a pretty bad car wreck and
was hurt and her friend that was with her was hurt and there
was just this succession of bad, bad things that seemed to happen
to her. And she interpreted it as God's against me. I must have
left the truth and gone the wrong way. And she got off into, she
left, she left the church. And she stopped following the
Lord because it proved difficult. And she didn't see how God could
be doing that to her. And so The reason here, what
the Lord gives us though, is why these people continued in
this way. He says, you found life by your
hand. You found life by the works of
your own hand. And therefore, you weren't grieved. You weren't grieved with all
your laboring and idolatry. They remained in darkness, and
they were blinded because they found something that worked for
them. They found something that gave them a little peace, a little
break from the screaming conscience, and they weren't grieved that
their way was the way of death. But notice here in verse 11,
in Isaiah 57, 11, it says, of whom hast thou been afraid or
feared, that thou hast lied and hast not remembered me? nor laid
it to thy heart? Have not I held my peace even
of old, and thou fearest me not?" So when we were steeped in religion,
when we were walking in darkness and trying to be pleasing to
God, Remember how fearful we were of those things? Remember
how afraid we were that everything we did was not enough? And it's
because when we heard the men preach, they were preaching confusion.
They spoke a little of Christ and a little bit about what the
Lord accomplished for his people, but then they immediately turned
us to our works. to what we had to do, to what
we had to do to make up for what we did wrong, the things that
we had to do to show that we were really sorry and sad for
what we had done and felt guilty for what we had done. And we
were afraid because we were motivated by threatenings and works and
punishment and fear. And so we were afraid of those
things. And so it is with these people here, They were afraid
of the gods, the idol gods that they were serving and worshipping,
who were driving them to make these sacrifices of their own
kids and to do all these other works. And so they were made
afraid by those things. But they didn't fear the Lord,
is what he's saying. And so false religion, it may
speak a little of Christ, but it spends a lot of time whipping
and beating and driving the people of God into darkness. It spends a lot of time driving
them off into darkness, where they fear and worry and have
guilt. And so man will easily fear his
superstitions. He'll easily worry, well, I forgot
to do what I was supposed to do this morning, and now I know
it's going to be a bad day. And the natural man will easily
fear those things. rather than trust the Lord, who's
provided salvation in his son. So the Lord, he says he even
gave them space to repent. He said, have not I held my peace,
even of old? I was patient, and you didn't
repent of your evil ways. Turn over to Romans 3. Turn over
to Romans 3. We see that man's heart, what
the Lord's showing us is that the heart of man, it's corrupt. It's corrupt. and he cannot save
himself. Romans 3, verse 10. As it's written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. Right? Laboring in religion, that doesn't
equal salvation with God. Just because you labor in religion,
that doesn't mean that you are a child of God. In verse 12,
they're all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps
is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. And the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. But the Lord, through the preaching
of the gospel, He reveals to us that our ways and our works
and what we think with salvation and beating ourselves with fear
and worry and making all these sacrifices, we thought that was
salvation. We thought that was pleasing
to God. But through the preaching of the gospel, The Lord shows
us that that's not seeking the Lord, and that's not fearing
the Lord. That's doing our own works and
finding life by our hands. And so the Lord says, verse 12,
of our works, of man's works, he says, I'll declare thy righteousness
and thy works, for they shall not profit thee. The works and
the worship of man, their hard labor, their sacrifices that
they trusted in, the Lord says, I'll bring them up in the day
of judgment, and they'll fail thee. They're not going to produce
salvation. So all that you see men doing,
all that you see of the religion in the world and the various
religions, even those that are called Christian, They're not
able to save us. They're not able to save and
deliver man from his sin. And so they'll all fail man in
that day. The Lord says they shall not
profit thee. In Matthew 7, verse 22 through
23, He says, many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. And so the Lord replies to these
idolatrous Jews here in verse 13. He says, when thou cryest,
let thy companies deliver thee. But the wind shall carry them
all away, vanity shall take them." In other words, all those things
that man trusts in, his works and his religion and his superstitious
ways and his lucky charms that he puts on and all the different
things that he does, the Lord says they're not going to profit
you. That's not pleasing to me. make up for your works. You don't
put a little extra in the pot on Sunday and then God will forgive
you for those things. There aren't special prayers
and the counting of beads that will deliver you from the wrath
of God. The question is, what think ye
of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Some
think that Christ is a good man, that he's a prophet, that God
sent him to be an example for us to follow so that we do what
we're supposed to do and that's how we're saved. Some even see
Christ as the Son of God. They understand that he is the
Son of God. But man left in his flesh does not see that Christ
is the Savior. He is the very salvation of his
people. When man testifies and trusts
in his works and his sacrifices and what he's doing for the Lord,
he's testifying that he's of this world. He's of this world. Our Lord said in John 8, 23 and
24, he said unto the Jews, ye are from beneath, I am from above. year of this world. I'm not of
this world. I said therefore unto you that
ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe not that I
am, if you don't believe that I'm the Christ, if you don't
trust me for salvation, if you're not looking to me as your Savior,
ye shall die in your sins. And so we've got to be delivered
from trusting those false ways. We've got to be delivered from
idolatry. We can be very religious. We can do a lot of things and
think that God is pleased with those. And that's the very stumbling
block that men stumble over. That's what the Pharisees stumbled
over. They trusted in their righteousness in the law. And so when Christ
came declaring that he is the righteousness of God, that he
is the savior of his people, they wouldn't hear him. And they
stumbled because they said, well, wait a minute. What about all
my works? What about everything I've done in religion? What about
my keeping of the law? What about all the sacrifices
that I made in the law? You're saying they're worthless.
If Christ is righteousness, if Christ is the salvation of God,
then all my works are dumb. And that's exactly right. All
our works are dumb. They're vanity. They shall not
profit us with God when God When a man stands before God in his
works, in his righteousness, it shall prove to be falsehood
and lies, and like a leaf blown in the wind, will be picked up
and carried away into hell by our own sins, by our works, because
they're works of darkness and cannot save. what the Lord reveals in all
this by showing us man's idolatry as he's showing us. This is what
you're stumbling over. When you're fearful and afraid
and worried and that you're not doing enough and there's gotta
be more, it's because you're trusting in your works. You're
trusting in what you are doing or not doing for the Lord rather
than resting in Christ. Rather than trusting the blood
of Christ is sufficient to save you to the uttermost. You have
been sanctified by the blood of Christ. You know, man is always
looking to add to what he's got. Just like these Jews, they were
adding more gods, more services, more sacrifices, because they
thought, well, this is building out the buffer around me so that
if I sin, I've got many gods and many things to speak for
me and to appear before to appear in my defense before God. But the Lord says, it's all worthless. You will not be able to save
yourselves. You know, in Genesis chapter
three, in verse 22, we see that man rebelled against God by taking
of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And
in 322, the Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of
us. to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his
hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever,
lest he do that God drove him out of the garden. And in verse
24 it says that he drove man out and he placed at the east
of the garden of Eden cherubims. and a flaming sword which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life. And that flaming
sword is the justice of God which tries every way when man reaches
out to obtain life by his own hand, that sword parries it away. It judges the work of man, and
it finds man wanting. It finds that, no, you've not
earned life. You've not obtained life by your
hand. Your way is falsehood. And so
that sword of justice parries it away, drives it away, so that
man is found guilty, guilty before God. That sword was plunged into
the heart of Christ. That sword of justice was plunged
into Christ shedding his blood for the salvation of his people.
That's how we're saved. That's how we're delivered from
our death and our heaps of falsehood and sins and wickedness. So God
alone is the one who provides life. He's the one that provides
salvation for his people. It's found in Christ, whom the
Father sent for the very salvation, for the deliverance, for the
comfort of his people. And our God reveals this to his
people through the preaching of the gospel. He's determined
that you should hear the good news of what God has done for
you in Christ, by the blood of Christ, and purging you from
your sins. And so to that end, that you
might hear the gospel, he sends pastors, he sends you preachers
who come declaring the gospel. It says in verse 14, He sends
them and shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way. In other words, exalt the way,
exalt him who is the salvation of my people, lift him up, prepare
the highway that my people may come to me, that they may come
out of death and darkness and be delivered into my kingdom,
and take up the stumbling block, remove the false way out of the
way of my people. And so your God, in grace, sends
you pastors to preach His word, to preach the Christ of His Word
to preach salvation through the Lord so that it's not, that you
understand it's not by your works of righteousness. There's no
sorrow, no depths of sorrow, no tears you can shed that will
ever be enough to put away your sin. There's no depths of guilt
that you could plunge yourselves into that will deliver you from
your guilt and shame before God. There's nothing we can do. The
Lord says, look to my son. Trust the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how we're saved. You cannot
do it by the keeping of the law. You cannot do it by keeping little
superstitious things. You can't do it in religion.
It's by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we're
saved. He went to the cross. He offered
up himself to the Father as the sacrifice of his people, as the
perfect sacrifice, spotless, blameless, holy, righteous. to
make his people righteous and accepted with God. He bore our
sin and he put it away. And so all that was written of
him was fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our stripes and
our punishment was laid upon him. to put away our sin, to
make it an atonement. He died, was buried, but God
raised him from the dead. And so we're sent by God, therefore,
to preach this word, this good word, this comforting word that
through this man is preached unto you, the forgiveness of
sins. God's satisfied with Christ,
are you? God is satisfied with His Son.
Are you satisfied with His Son? Do you believe the Word of God
that in Christ is fullness of forgiveness, fullness of redemption? The acceptance of God, the reconciliation
with God that you seek is in the Lord Jesus Christ. By Him,
all that believe are justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the Law of Moses. There is not another
way of salvation. There is not an additional way
of salvation. There is one way of salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can add other gods, other
ceremonies, other works, other superstitions, and it will prove
vanity. In fact, it's despising the word
of God. And you're despising the blood
of Christ. You're turning away from the truth that God has revealed
through his gospel because it's fleshly works. And it says to
God, what you've done, Lord, is not enough. I'm adding to
it. I'm trying to make my bed wider,
fill it up with more gods and more works and more ceremonies
just to make sure that I'll be safe. No, that's saying I don't
trust the blood of Christ. That's actually undoing your
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to any who reject Christ,
Paul said to those Jews who trusted their works, he said in Acts
13, 40 and 41, beware therefore, lest that come upon you which
is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers in wonder
and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. And so many heard the word. Many heard the word in the day
of Christ. They heard the word in the day
of the apostles. They heard the word in the early church. They've
heard the word throughout history. And Peter said, unto you therefore
which believe, Christ is precious. He is precious. Why should you
or I have such hope and faith in Christ? Who makes us to differ
one from another? It's the grace of God that you
should find Christ's blood precious and sufficient to save you to
the uttermost. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. But our God tells us there is
a people, there is a peculiar people, there is a particular
people whom he separated out to himself to give them life,
to bring them to hear that gospel and gives them faith to believe
his word. He says in the middle of Isaiah
57 verse 13, he encourages us saying, he that putteth his trust
in me. who putteth his trust in me shall
possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. He gives his
people life by giving them his Spirit, who takes of the seed
of Christ and gives us a new birth by Christ, making us a
new creature, born again, having spiritual life, being able to
see and to believe, hear the word of our Savior, to believe
And he brings his people into his church. And he puts them
together with other believers, where the gospel is preached,
and they hear that word, and are fed and nourished by the
body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it pleases God to
send his people this word. Paul was writing of this in Ephesians
3. Turn there. Ephesians 3. And look at verse 8. Paul says, Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ. to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. That access that we have with
confidence is not resting on us. It's not resting because
I've been good this week and now I can have confidence with
God. That's not confidence. That's shaky ground. That is
sandy ground which slips away and takes us away with it. We
approach God by the faith of Him. by the faithful work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, who obtained
eternal redemption for us by his one sacrifice. And that faith of Christ, which
looks to him, is revealed in his people by the gift of grace,
given to you by the Spirit of God, through the preaching of
the gospel, hearing it and feeding upon him. And brethren, that's
how the Lord. removes the stumbling stone from
before his people. Not turning you back to the law,
not saying you better, you need to start, you need to stop, that
puts the stumbling stone before you. But lifting that out, out
of the way by the preaching and the exaltation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, your God removes that stumbling stone to give you comfort,
to give you peace, to lead you into green pastures. where you're
comforted by the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, to drink
in those cool waters of refreshing of what your God has done for
you, to comfort your hearts and to give you assurance that you
are the Lord's people because you believe His Son, you trust
His blood. Other people don't do that. They
trust their works, they trust their religion, they trust their
church, they trust other things but they don't and they trust
themselves but they don't trust Christ. You trust Christ. Believe Him. Stay right there.
That's the salvation your God has provided for you. Amen. All right, brother. Come and
lead us in a hymn and I'll come back and close this. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 262, Trusting Jesus, 262. Simply trusting every day, trusting
through a stormy way. Even when my faith is small,
trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moments fly,
trusting as the days go by, trusting Him whate'er befall, trusting
Jesus, that is all. Brightly doth his spirit shine
Into this poor heart of mine. While he leads, I cannot fall,
Trusting Jesus, that is all. ? Trusting as the moments fly
? ? Trusting as the days go by ? ? Trusting Him whate'er befall
? ? Trusting Jesus, that is all ? Singing if my way is clear,
Praying if the path be drear, If in danger for him call, Trusting
Jesus, that is all. ? Trusting as the moments fly
? ? Trusting as the days go by ? ? Trusting Him whate'er befall
? ? Trusting Jesus, that is all ? Trusting Him while life shall
last, trusting Him till earth be past, till within the jasper
wall, trusting Jesus, that is all. Trusting as the moments
fly, trusting as the days go by, trusting Him whate'er befall,
trusting Jesus, that is all. So.