Alright, we're going to be in
Isaiah 8. Isaiah 8 verses 14 through 18
is going to be our text, but you can go ahead and put a marker
in Romans 8 and in 1 Peter 2 as well, but we're also going to
be jumping to a few other scriptures, but we'll kind of be back and
forth with them. This text that we're going to
look at tonight, it speaks of the stumbling stone, which is
Christ. And we saw how Christ is the
sanctuary. He's the refuge for sinners. He's the refuge that God the
Father provided for his people as a refuge for them to flee
to, to be delivered from the coming condemnation. We also
see that by this same One, this One who is the refuge for sinners,
He will be a stumbling block over which many will stumble
and many will fall because of Him. And so that we see through
this, that sinners left to themselves will always stumble over Christ. They will always fall over Christ
and it's the power of God. It's the mercy and the grace
and the power of God that delivers us from that stumbling because
that's where we ourselves would be because we see in the scriptures
how no man left to himself desires to seek the Lord, that repents
and looks to the Lord by faith. No one does that of their own
will and of their own power and of their own strength. It's the
grace of God that delivers a sinner out of darkness and gives them
faith to lay hold of Christ and what he did for the sinner. So we'll see how Christ is the
chosen Savior of sinners, chosen by God, that he is the propitiation
that God has chosen and provided as the means of forgiveness for
his people. And we'll also see tonight how
that the Lord, that we're saved by the choice election, the choice,
selection of God. By His mercy, He delivers us
from what we see others doing, where others are stumbling and
falling over Christ and not believing on Him. We see how the grace
and mercy of God delivers us from that, all right? So that's
what we'll be looking at tonight. And our title is Chosen Unto
Salvation. Chosen Unto Salvation, and the
text is Isaiah 8, 14 through 18. All right, now, if you turn
over to Romans 8, actually, let's start in Romans 8. And Romans 8 should be very familiar
to us. It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are be called according to his purpose. And this is what
we see here in Romans 8. Everywhere this scripture of
them stumbling over Christ, it's always spoken in the context
of God's election, of his choosing a people for salvation. Everywhere
the apostles quote that scripture, they speak of election, and it's
of God's choice. We see here that the Lord sets
this glorious salvation that we have in Christ. Christ is
the salvation. That's what he's revealed as.
He's revealed to be the salvation, the refuge for his people, and
everywhere where we see this glorious salvation is against
the backdrop of man's rebellion. It's put against the backdrop
of of man's rebellion, and so this rebellion enables us to
see, by faith, the utter darkness that we've been saved from. That
if it wasn't for God, if God didn't deliver us from that,
we would all fall just like all the rest of sinners without the
grace of God revealed in them. the scriptures reveal to us what
great things God has done for us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
and he said thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift and
he acknowledged and realized this is an unspeakable gift that
we can barely describe what God has done for us in his son. The mercies and the blessings
that he's shown to us in his son because that gift, that unspeakable
gift, it's it's the sacrifice of his son. He sacrificed his
own darling son that we might be delivered from our sins. As
we just sang, he paid the ransom price that we might go free,
that we would be delivered from our just condemnation. The payment for sin that we've
earned, which is death, he delivered us from that by dying in our
place. Now drop down to Romans 8, 31.
Romans 8, 31 and 32, Paul asks, what shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him freely, also freely give us all things? Therefore, we see how God is
He's holding up His Son, He's lifting Him up before our eyes,
that we would see Jesus, that we would understand that this
is our hope, that Christ is our hope, that we must know Him,
He must be our Savior, His blood must must be upon us and washing
us clean of our sin and our iniquity and the punishment that we deserve,
we desperately need Christ. And so he holds him up as the
only hope for sinners, as the only hope of salvation for sinners,
because the Scriptures, again, they're abundantly clear that
we've sinned against God, we've rebelled against Him, and our
death and condemnation is our just due for what we've done.
Turn over to Romans 3. Romans 3, he's revealing throughout
the scriptures that he will not accept our works. He doesn't
look to us for our works of righteousness. He doesn't look to us to put
together a package of good religious deeds that we are consistent
in and doing well. He's not looking to the sinner
to work out their own salvation. He doesn't accept their works.
He doesn't receive their works. He's not pleased with our religious
works. That's not how we're going to
be justified, and that's not how we are sanctified. We're
justified and sanctified by Christ. It says there in Romans 3.19,
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. I've, you
know, used to hear in religion, I would be told that God wouldn't
give a law if we couldn't keep it. He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't
give you a law that you couldn't keep. But that's exactly what
he did. He gave us a law, and that law
shows us the depravity of our nature. It's given to shut our
mouths so that we wouldn't boast before God and that we're not
boasting before one another and talking about what we've done
for the Lord. When we see the law, when we
understand what the law is saying, it shuts our mouths. It stops
us from boasting. It should, when we understand
it rightly, it should cause us to see that We're an offense
to God by nature by our works, especially when we think we've
done something to please God Because we're belittling Christ.
We're saying Christ isn't needed. He's not he's not enough We need
to do something more now. And so God's not pleased by our
keeping of the law We are to keep the law we should do that
because that's we're created by him and we should do we should
keep the law but it We can't keep it. And that's what the
law shows us. It shuts our mouths and it shows
us how desperate our situation is. In Isaiah 64, he lays it
out quite clear for us how it really is. In Isaiah 64, verses
6 and 7, He says, but we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. And there is none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee,
for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because
of our iniquities. But we see how the Lord, He's
very honest with us. He sends prophets to show us
and to declare the truth to us, even though it hurts in the flesh. It hurts to hear that, especially
when you don't have the Spirit of Christ. When you're in your
flesh, it hurts. But He declares these truths to show us our need
of Him and that we're not measuring up to the perfection holy God
but he promises he doesn't leave us without hope he promises that
he has provided the salvation in his son as we saw in in Isaiah
8 14 he shall be for a sanctuary he shall be for a sanctuary God
has provided him with as the refuge for the sinner. That's
where we're to go for justification. That's where we're to go to have
peace with God and to be reconciled to God who created us. It's in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not, God didn't set forth
Christ as to be just some religious symbol, some aspiration, some
goal of ours to look to Him and then try and work out a salvation
for ourselves, to do X, Y, and Z and put together this holy
life, if you will, just looking to Jesus as a symbol. He's not
an empty dead letter symbol. He is the very life and the very
salvation of his people. We live and breathe and move
and have our being in Christ himself. So Christ is the very
life of the believer and Peter says in 1st Peter 2.4, I'll just
read it, he says, to whom come as unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious." So Christ
is chosen of God. He was the one who was selected
and chosen of God for the people, for the salvation of his people.
Now turn over to Deuteronomy 32. I just want to look at this
one passage and it's a in Deuteronomy 32, and we'll pick up in verse
9, and we'll come back, I should have told you, yeah, hold your
place in 1 Peter 2, because we'll be coming back there, but in
Deuteronomy 32, verse 9, for the Lord's portion is His people.
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him, God found him in
a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness, and he led
him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his
eye, as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on
her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no
strange God with him. And he made him, he made Jacob,
his people, ride on the high places of the earth, that he
might eat the increase of the fields. And he made him to suck
honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. And brethren,
that rock is Christ. He's that flimsy rock. He's the
rock through which Jacob sucked that oil from and that honey
from because Christ is the very provision of his people. We live
on Christ. That's how we live. That's our
only entrance to God. And he continues to be our only
standing before God. We only can approach the throne
of God in Christ, and we can only remain there before God's
throne in Christ, clothed in His righteousness, washed in
His blood, alive by His Spirit, all through the precious blessings,
the spiritual blessings and gifts of God our Father because of
the Son, Jesus Christ. He's precious, brethren. He's precious to God and he's
made precious to us because we see more and more as he grows
us, Lord, everything I have is because of you. All my inheritance
is because of you, because of your grace and your mercy and
kindness. Now, Peter says back in 1 Peter
2.2, because Christ is precious. He says, as newborn babes desire
the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. So
this word is Christ, who is the very promise of God to his people.
And look, and Isaiah says in verse 16, in Isaiah 8, 16, He tells, the Lord tells the
prophet Isaiah, he says, bind up the testimony, seal the law
among my disciples. Now he's telling, what he's saying
to him is, he's not saying bind it up, he's not saying hide it,
he's not saying hide it from The people, he's saying, it's
precious, it's valuable. Commit it to the people. Commit
this word to faithful, to my faithful disciples. Commit this
word to those, my people, who know and understand that they're
sinners and that they can't save themselves. Bind this word to
them. Let them have this word. Give
this word to them that they might know the preciousness of my salvation. So he says, bind up the testimony,
seal the law among my disciples. And so that his disciples are
watching. They're watching and waiting
for the revelation. of the Lord. In verse 17, Isaiah
then responds, he faithfully responds, and he says the word
that's in every mouth of every believer. He's speaking for us
all here. He says, and I will wait upon
the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and
I will look for him. Not that God has hidden his face
in anger, but as it is that he is the hidden God. The scriptures
speak of him as the hidden God. In Isaiah 45, 15, what it says
there is, Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of
Israel. the Savior. He's the hidden God. And what we understand there,
this is the prophet Isaiah writing this, and it's that Christ hadn't
been manifested yet in the flesh. In that sense, He's the hidden
God. So then when He appeared, when He was manifested in the
flesh, then we saw Him. Then the fullness of the Godhead
bodily was there in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He appeared
to all His people, as Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.10,
but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. what God was doing, that the
salvation that God had provided, it's all revealed in Christ. And seeing Christ, we understand
this is what we're saved from. We work, and then there was no
working out our salvation. And the Lord delivered us from
that. And if you spend any time in religion and know how you
didn't know these things, you didn't know the truth, you thought
it was by the things you did and didn't do, and the Lord saved
you from that and showed you Christ. and he gave you faith
so that your hope rests in the Lord Jesus Christ and that you're
not looking anymore to your works. Yeah, you're disappointed when
you see how this flesh is corrupt and how it weighs you down and
it's still lust for the things that the flesh lusts for, but
he turns us from that and he gives us his, because he's given
us his spirit so that we walk by his spirit, not looking to
the law of Moses to say, don't do that, don't do that, do this
over here, don't do that, no, no, no. We see that we're sinners,
we're not pleased with what we see, but we're not looking to
the law for our strength and our comfort and our guide and
our sanctification. We keep looking to Christ, knowing
that God has put away my sin. There's nothing more I can do
to save myself. There isn't anything more that
needs to be done. And He leads us, and He's the
one who then turns us from those things that weigh us down, that
have been tripping us up and causing us grief and harm. He
leads us through, and it's sometimes a long walk and a patient walk,
but the Lord, He's the one that does it. It's all by His Spirit. So it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's been revealed to show us
these things, that He is the very salvation of God. And so at Christ's birth, we
see this. We see how the disciples were
watching for Him. Go over to Luke 2, Luke 2. And
we see here two examples of of disciples that were born and
raised under the old covenant. And yet we see that they were
watching. They were watching and waiting
for the Lord. They understood they had the
Spirit so that they weren't looking to the law for salvation. They
were watching and waiting for the revelation when Christ should
be manifested to them. So in Luke 2, 36, Luke 2.36,
we see one here, it says, there was one Anna, a prophetess. Now drop down to verse 37. And
she was a widow of about 84 years, which departed not from the temple,
but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And
she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord
and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in
Jerusalem. So the Lord knows how to save
his people. Even under that old covenant,
they weren't looking to the law for salvation. God never saved
anybody by the works of the law. They were all saved by Christ. They were all saved looking to
Christ. And God, the Father was patient
with them in their sin because He knew that this is Christ.
I've already determined how I'm going to save my people. It's
in Christ. And He's coming, and He came right in the perfect
time when God sent Him to put away the sins of the people,
past and present and future and always. So the Lord did all that
work. But this Anna, she came in on
the heels of Simeon. And if you go to verse 25, back
up, in Luke 2.25, And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was just in
devout waiting. He was waiting, waiting and watching
for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came
by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took he up Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed
God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light
to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken
of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother,
Behold, this child is set for the fall, and rising again of
many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against.
Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts
of many hearts may be revealed. It wasn't that they had received
some new revelation of God, but rather God opened their understanding
to understand, to see that this is the Christ and that this one
is the one whom all the prophets wrote of, that he would come
and that he would be the sanctuary, the refuge for the people. Now, back in our text, in Isaiah
8, 14 and 15, in Isaiah 8, we see this. Just as Simeon was saying, and
he shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone, verse 14, but
for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of a fence to both
the houses of Israel, for a gin, which is a trap, and for a snare
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. So that's
exactly what happened, right? That's exactly what happened
to what we saw in the religious, the Jewish leaders, right? They
were there, they heard Christ, they saw him, they saw the miracles,
but they were offended in Christ. They were offended by his appearance,
they were offended by his parentage, they were offended by his education,
they were offended by the place that he came from, they were
offended by his occupation that he was taught. They're offended
by these things, right? We saw that in Mark 6 3 when
they said, is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother
of James and Joseph and of Judah and Simon are not his sisters
here with us? And they were offended at him. They were offended at Christ.
They didn't want to hear this man speak. They couldn't refute
what he was saying. They couldn't deny what they
saw, that they were offended at his person so that they would
not hear him. And they justified their own
unbelief because they found something that they could dislike about
him. And what was that? That was them
stumbling over Christ. They were offended and they stumbled
over Christ. And so Peter says back in 1 Peter
2, verses 6-8, We see here that Christ is rejected
of men, they're stumbling over him, but what does he reveal? 1 Peter 2, he reveals that this
is the one whom God chose. He is chosen of God. So 1 Peter
2, verse 6, Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,
Behold, I, Laanzion, a chief cornerstone, elect precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto
you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. 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. They were appointed to this,
and this brings us to our second point here, how we see His people
were chosen unto salvation. So just as Christ was chosen
by God to be the Savior for His people, so we see that it's God's
same electing love. It was his love that sent his
son Jesus Christ to do this. It's his love that delivers us
from the just condemnation that all the rest of this world is
going to come under. They're all under that condemnation
because they've earned that because of their sin and God has left
them to themselves. So he delivers us out of that
darkness, out of that death, out of that blindness and that
deafness and that That inability to speak of the things of God,
He delivers us out of that and translates us and puts us into
the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of His dear Son. Now,
turn back to Romans 8. Let's go back to Romans 8, verse
28. And we'll start in that verse
again, that we know so well. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called. according to His purpose. It's by election. It's by God's
purpose that He has a people whom He will save. And it says
there in verse 29, For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. then verse 35 who shall separate
us from the love of Christ nothing nothing's going to separate us
from the love of Christ nothing shall be able to separate us
from the verse 39 from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord now Peter says those who stumbled over Christ they
were appointed to that they were appointed to That's stumbling
because God left them to themselves. But all those in like manner,
all of us who believe Christ have been called and have heard
the gospel and see the sufficiency of Christ and see that he is
the way, he is the means that God's provided for salvation.
The scriptures reveal to us too that we're appointed to that,
that we were ordained to hear these things and to believe these
things and understand this salvation provided in Christ. As it says
in Acts 13.48, as many as were ordained unto eternal life, be
leaved. Acts 13.48, as many as were ordained
to eternal life, be leaved. They believe. They heard and
they believed. So God loves his people. And
we find that abundantly clear in the scriptures is that man
being left to himself is enmity against God. He hates God. He
despises the way of God. He wants to have the control
of salvation in his own hands. He wants to decide whether or
not he's gonna let God be sufficient for him, whether he'll let the
blood of Christ be sufficient to save him. That's man. That's
the corrupt, fallen nature of man that wants the control over
their own salvation. And so the Lord, he shows us
that that's where we'd all be. That's what we all hold hard
by nature. That's what we think. We think salvation is in something
we do, or in something that we've stopped doing. but it's only
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to this, we see how,
I'll just go through a number of scriptures. I'm just gonna
read them through and we'll see how it's always man refusing God. This is the natural state of
man. He's always refusing to hear the Lord. It says in Acts
13, 46, then Paul and Barnabas whacked bold and said, it was
necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken
to you. So it wasn't that they didn't hear, but it's seeing
ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting
life Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And then in John 5.40, our Lord
said to the Jews, and ye will not come to me that ye might
have life. Ye will not come to me. That's
what he said. Romans 8, 7 and 8, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God." And Stephen, boldly declaring
the gospel to the Jews, he's standing there, he's revealing
to them the very truth for which they would turn on him and stone
him, putting him to sleep in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
in Acts 7.51, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hard in
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did,
so do ye. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have
been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by
the disposition of angels? Have not kept it you had all
these all these things all these these oracles and prophets and
you had the law and you saw all the the miracles and You despised
it you stumbled over Christ. You didn't hear that. He is Salvation
so that's our test when the scriptures are showing to us that left to
himself man is corrupt He's bankrupt. He's destitute There's no good
in him. He doesn't seek after God. He
doesn't desire him. He doesn't want the salvation
of God. He wants to save himself. And he gets angry when you say,
no, no, no, it's by faith. So unless he could turn that
faith into a work, he doesn't want to hear it. He just wants
to do what he wants to do. And that's why our Lord said
in John 3.19, and I quote it a lot, but it's important to
hear and understand it, that this is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world, And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. And that's why we
read in Isaiah 8, 15, many among them shall stumble and fall and
be broken and be snared and be taken. But we wouldn't have known
it except Christ came. We wouldn't have even known the
depths of our darkness. We would have been left there
just like all the others. working out a salvation of our
own, trying to do that which we think pleases a holy and heavenly
God. That's where we would have been,
left, but Christ came, and by His very coming, being the very
light of God, shining in the dark place, we see, oh, wow,
that's what we've been saved from, that death and that destruction,
that's right where I'd be. And that's why we see his election
not as some cool thing, because we all deserve death, but we
see it as his love and his mercy, because he didn't have to save
any of us. And yet he had mercy and grace
to call out some of his people, not leaving them to themselves,
where they rest. would perish so that we see the
Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said, But if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. So we see how our salvation is
all according to his purpose, it's according to his divine
election, it's according to his choosing, his ordaining, and
it's according to purpose. And so he sent the Lord Jesus
Christ to deliver us and to make sure that we see it and that
we understand and know that Christ is the one who puts a difference
between his people and all the rest who are left untouched,
and they just show what they are by nature, unbelievers and
corrupt, all in Adam, because that's what we did. We sinned
in Adam and corrupted ourselves so that we don't even see the
salvation of God when it's standing right there before our eyes. And Isaiah said, and he shall
be for a sanctuary to the one, but for a stone of stumbling
and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for
a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now,
look over in Romans 9, Romans 9, verse 13, and here we see, because this
is the chapter where Paul quotes this stumbling over Christ, and
it says there in Romans 9, 13, as it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. He just passed him by, left him
to himself, and didn't show him any compassion, any mercy. What
shall he say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that's exactly what our God
did for us in His Son Jesus Christ, sending Him in the likeness of
our flesh, that He would shed His blood, that He would take
our place and be the sacrifice for our sins, and that His blood
would be shed rather than our blood be shed for our sin. And
so He paid the price that we would go free. But He didn't
just leave us there in darkness to these things, but He regenerated
us. He sent His Spirit to give us
life so that we would know these things, that we understand what
He has done for us, that we might rejoice in Him and be glad and
see the preciousness of Christ and know that just as He's precious
to the Father, He's made precious to me. And so that we rejoice
Now, in our text, in Isaiah 8.17, Isaiah had said for us all, I
will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house
of Jacob, and I will look for him. And then suddenly, the next
verse, Christ appears. Isaiah 8.18, it says, Behold,
I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and
for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth
in Mount Zion. And the Lord has always told
us, it'll come suddenly. The Lord will be revealed suddenly.
He comes when you expect Him not. And what happened? He came
right at a time when they did not expect Him. They thought
they had it all together, that they were so religious and doing
everything so well. And then Christ comes, and they're
offended in Him, and they stumbled over Him. So that as religious
as they were, they completely missed the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, turn over to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. And in Hebrews 2 verse 7, It says of our Lord, thou madest
him a little lower than the angels. Thou crowned him with glory and
honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou has
put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he
put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we see not yet all things
put under him. So the house of Israel was offended
in Christ. He has everything put under him.
The Lord gave him everything to work out for the salvation
of his people. He orchestrates and does all
things as it pleases him, and he does all things well. And
so they're offended in him, and the Gentiles were offended in
him as well. Paul wrote to us, stay there
in Hebrews, but Paul wrote to us in 1 Corinthians 1.22, he
said, the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. to the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
that is called according to his purpose, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So that by his
spirit now, in Hebrews 2 verse 9, we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. For it became him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again,
behold, here's from our text, I and the children which God
hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. This is how he was made the sanctuary
for his people, a refuge. that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of bondage were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. So he delivered us in doing what
he did, he delivered us from that fear of death, from that
condemnation that all the rest of the world is stumbling and
falling into, he delivered us from that and what he did in
taking upon him flesh and being the Lamb of God, perfectly righteous
in everything He did. And Him was no sin so that He
was and is that perfect Lamb that God accepted and received
so that we who believe in Him and trust in Him we're delivered
from that condemnation and that death because Christ has put
away our sin once and for all and sanctified us to God as Father. All right, now let's turn to
Romans 9 and we'll close with this passage. Romans 9 30. I'll wrap it up. Romans 9 30. Paul says, what
shall we say then? that the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even
the righteousness which is of faith? But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness? Wherefore, because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for
they stumbled at that stumbling stone, as it's written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." So we see that, brethren,
we're saved. It's not because we're something
special in and of ourselves, but we see Jesus Christ. We see Him, and the Lord's given
us faith to lay hold of Him, that He is the refuge. He's our
hope, and He's our standing before God. And that's how we stand.
It's not because we're Good special people. We weren't born with
halos over our heads We're we're made the righteousness of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So rejoice in him. He's precious
He's the Savior and I pray the Lord would drive that home to
our hearts. And if we don't know him and
we don't know who he is or still looking to our own works, I pray
the Lord will break us and deliver us from that stumbling and lift
us out of that pit because there's no hope for those who look to
their own work. So let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your mercy and your grace. Lord, we
thank you for not only providing a refuge,
Lord, but not leaving it to us to figure it out, not leaving
it to us to seek out this truth of our own flesh and of our own
will, Lord, because we see how all sinners left to themselves
will always refuse God and they won't seek after the true and
living God. No man stirreth up himself to
seek after you. But Lord, we thank you by that
in Your grace and power and mercy You sent Your Spirit, You gave
us life, and You caused us to hear the gospel and to see that
Christ is the Savior and the sanctuary and the refuge for
Your people. Lord, keep us looking to Him,
keep us coming to Him, drive us to Him, Lord, if we don't
know You, Drive us to Christ. Let us not be content in our
own dead works, but to see the preciousness of Christ. And Lord,
we pray for your people. Lord, we pray that your mercies
would be upon us as we all, the families are traveling and our
loved ones are Being split apart from us in some cases Lord comfort
those who are alone Lord be their comfort and their peace give
them joy and Lord we pray for Don Who had a stroke Lord that
you would? Heal his body and his mind Lord. We thank you that he has family
that loves him and Want to be there to help them in any way
they can Lord comfort Johnny and Scott in this time or we
pray this in Jesus name our Lord and Savior. Amen