I'm ready to hear the gospel.
I'm ready to hear, that was just a taste. The hymns kind of give
you a taste of what's coming. And I'm so thankful that we worship
a victorious Savior. A victorious Savior. You know
your salvation's accomplished? We're not adding anything to
it by being here. It's perfect. Perfect. perfect peace, perfect pardon,
perfect rest, all because of him. We want to worship him.
I do pray God will give our hearts to this. Brother Clay's going
to come up. Let's go to God in prayer one more time and ask
for his mercies upon us to open our hearts. Father, I pray that
you would set our hearts and minds even now and fix them upon
Christ. Take the cares and thoughts of
this life, the concerns of this mortal frame, cast them aside,
Father, for this time, that we may truly set our hearts and
minds upon Christ. I pray you'd bless Brother Clay
as you come and preach the gospel to us. And Father, I do ask that
you'd give him such liberty and power of thy spirit, Father,
that you would take this word, make it effectual to every heart.
And Father, those that be dead without Christ, oh, that this
day you might be gracious. that you might give life to the
dead through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ through
thy spirit. I pray that you do this for your
own glory and for Christ's namesake. Amen. Brother Clay Curtis, I
pray you come and preach the gospel to us, brother. It's good to be with you all
and I'm. It's a privilege to be here and
it's a great responsibility. Your pastor. At to ask us to
come preach the Gospel and. That's not something you want
to take lightly and. And it's it is a great privilege. It's a great responsibility.
Brother Fred and I are good friends and I enjoy talking with him
and. We lean on each other and. I
hope I've been as. The kind of help to him he's
been to me and and I hope today the Lord will bless us. I hope
he will. Speak to us today and minister
to us today. That's what we need. We need
Christ to minister to us. And that's what I pray happens
here today. Let's turn in our Bibles to John
chapter 14. Thank you to David and Gabe.
Those messages y'all preached last night were... That was a
blessing, wasn't it? John chapter 14, verse 27. Our Lord Jesus is speaking and
He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.
Neither let it be afraid. Turn with me to John 16. Verse
33. These things I have spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. In the world, you shall
have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. Our Lord Jesus is speaking to
his disciples now. He, in just a little while, will
be in the Garden of Gethsemane suffering soul trouble that you
and I can't even imagine. A little while after that, he's
going to give men permission to arrest him, and he's going
to be hung up on a tree, on a cross, and he knows what will be involved
with that. And yet, facing all of that,
our Lord, having loved his own, he loved them to the end, and
he's comforting his disciples. He's comforting his apostles. He's more concerned with their
comfort and their instruction than what he's about to face
himself. and the disciples were very troubled. They had had the
peace of having Christ bodily presence with him. You imagine
what peace that would give you. And he's telling them I'm departing
and going to the father. They're not going to have his
bodily presence with him anymore. They had peace because they thought
wrong, but they thought he was going to restore peace. He was
going to restore the kingdom like it was in David's day and
he told him That's not what he was going to do. They had the
peace of following him and being with him and and being faithful
to him. They had by his grace had been
faithful to him, but he told them you're going to all deny
me. And you're going to be scattered
and they're not going to have the peace of any strength in
themselves or any ability in themselves. In other words, everything
they had been. Visually and and and their senses
having this peace, that's all about to be gone. And Christ
says to them, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives to you,
not any kind of peace you're going to get from what you see
with these senses and feel and taste and not that kind of peace. In the world, he said, you will
have tribulation. but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. Now I want to look at this peace,
and this is what our Lord is teaching us. Christ alone is
the believers peace. He alone is our peace. Christ
is the peace of our conscience, whereby we know we have peace
with God. He's the peace between brethren. He's the peace in the midst of
all the troubles we face in this life. Christ alone is our peace. He is the Prince of Peace. I
won't have you turn, but let me let me give you Isaiah 9-6. We gave and I'm talking about
this last night. Unto us a child is born unto
us, a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder. There's
peace. The government's on his shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. He right now is upon the
throne of David. He right now is upon his kingdom
ordering it. He has established it and he
is establishing it with judgment and justice now and forever. The seal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. That's what He's assuring them.
That's what He's assuring us. That's why He's our peace. And
this peace is given one way. They talked about it last night.
It pleased God to give us this peace through the preaching of
the gospel. Here is the Prince of Peace.
He is the incarnate Word and He's preaching the gospel of
peace. The Scripture says, the word
which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by
Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. So he's our peace. He's going
to give us this peace through this gospel. Now, what is it?
What is this peace Christ gives? This peace he is and this peace
he gives. What is it? I'm going to give
you. Four or five things, I think
I can't remember how many three or four or five, but they're
going to all start with P just to make it a little easier for
us to remember. First of all, Christ's peace is the peace of
promise. It's the peace of promise. Our
gospel is the gospel of the everlasting covenant of peace. And that's
a promise. That's God's promise. God saves
according to promise. Go with me to Galatians chapter
3. Believing God, if you want to just get right down to it,
believing God is believing God's promise. He is saved by promise. He promises you what Christ has
done and is doing and shall do and we just believe His promise.
This is how we are saved. Abraham is the father of the
faithful. How did God save Abraham? How did He save Abraham? He made
a promise to him. He made a covenant promise to
him that Christ would come and He would save all His people.
Look here in Galatians 3.18. If the inheritance be of the law, it's no more a
promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. You know, the Scripture says,
Hebrews says, when God made this promise to Abraham, because he
could swear by no greater, there was nobody else greater he could
swear by, so he swore by himself. And here's what he said. Surely,
blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply
thee. And so Abraham believed God and
he patiently endured. What does that mean? He went
through a lot of tribulation. But after he patiently endured,
he obtained the promise. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in Christ. God chose his son. He chose a people in his son.
And Christ entered covenant with the Father to fulfill every covenant
obligation for His people. To glorify God and save His people. And Christ came forth and everything
He did was fulfilling all those covenant promises that God made
to Abraham. Look at Galatians 3.19. Wherefore
then serveth the law. People want to go to the law. It was added because of transgression. God gave the law, one, it curved
people a little bit because they were trying to come to God by
the law. We ought to be thankful there
are men in this world trying to come to God by the law because
it makes this world a little better place to live in. But
also he gave the law to reveal transgressions to his people.
But listen, till the seed should come to whom the promise was
made. Christ is that seed. All these
promises were made to Christ. God's not going to lie to his
son. The son's not going to lie to the father. And Christ came
forth and fulfilled all these promises. Look at verse 22. But
the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
It couldn't be by the law because we couldn't keep the law. But
the promise is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, by His obedience,
fulfilling everything He promised the Father, And the Father's
given Him everything He promised the Son, and the Son now is giving
you and me everything He promises us. And it's to them that believe. To them that believe. You think
about this now. Here's the blessing that this
promise is not by the law. Here's the blessing of it to
you and me. Well, there's a lot of blessings, but here's one
of them. Here's one of them. If this promise, if it had been
by the law, meaning if you had to keep the works of the law
to be saved, Nobody here, I'm going to guess, maybe there's
some Jews here, but I'm guessing that most of us sitting here
are Gentiles. And if it had been by the covenant of works, none
of us would be saved because God didn't give that covenant
of works to Gentiles. Listen to Romans 4.16. It is
a faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might
be sure to all the seed, to all the elect. Not to that only which
is of the law, not to the Jews only, but to that also which
is of the faith of Abraham, who's the father of us all. Abraham
didn't have the law. It wasn't given for 430 years
later. What was his rule of life? Fred
just said it. He walked by faith. He believed
the promise of God. And God moved him and guided
him and instructed him and taught him just like He's doing all
His people now. So believe on Christ. If you
be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed. You're heirs according
to the promise. So believe on the Lord Jesus.
Believe God's Word. It's by promise. This thing is
by promise. That night, the disciples were
troubled because they heard Christ was going to the cross and He
was going to die. But brethren, this peace He leaves us is the
inheritance. He's left His people through
Him dying on that cross. He had to die for us to have
this inheritance and this peace. And this is what He says, I will
make a covenant of peace with them and it shall be an everlasting
covenant with them. I will place them and multiply
them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.
God says the mountains shall depart. These things in this
earth that we think are our peace. He said, the mountains shall
depart, the hills shall be removed. But my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of peace be removed,
saith the Lord that has mercy on you. You're afflicted, you're tossed
with tempests and not comforted. This is what he said in Isaiah
54 11. Oh, thou afflicted, tossed with
tempests and not comforted. You must through much tribulation
enter the kingdom. But he says, behold, I will lay
all these precious stones. God said, I will. That's the
promise. God said, I will and all my children
shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of my
children. He said, in righteousness shall
you be established. He said, no weapon is formed
against you is going to prosper. He said, this is your inheritance.
Their righteousness is of Me, says the Lord. This is the peace
He promises. It's Him working all the works
that He promised to work to save us from ourselves and from this
world. So don't look for peace in the
world. Don't look for peace in any of these things, brethren.
Our peace is Christ. This is the promise. He's promised
us eternal life. and Christ is that life. Now,
secondly, the peace Christ is and the peace that Christ gives
is the peace of propitiation. It's the peace of pardon. It's
the peace of knowing Christ has made atonement for the sins of
His people and He is our mercy seed. He is our propitiation.
Look with me over at 1 John 4.10. 1 John 4.10. Without a doubt, Christ accomplished
propitiating God. That means He expiated our sins. That means He put away all the
sins of His people. He made us at one with God. But He is the propitiation. Look
here, 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, the propitiation
for our sins. His Son is the propitiation.
He is the mercy seat. That word is also translated
mercy seat. That's where God said He'd meet
with His people. And God set Him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare God's righteousness.
How that God is just and God's the justifier of His people.
That's why Christ came into this world. That was the preeminent
purpose. Did He accomplish it? Go to Colossians 1. Colossians
chapter 1. We're talking about This was
the promise right here. Now here's the peace we have
of this promise is Christ has propitiated God. Colossians chapter
1. And look at verse 20. And having
made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself. And when you read all things
there, that's all His people. That's all His people. that are
in earth and those that are in heaven. He reconciled us all.
And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in His sight, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Christ made
peace with God for His people. We were enemies. And by wicked
works, you know what those wicked works were? I've kept the law. I don't have any idols. I've
kept the law. I've loved my neighbor as myself. God has to reward me for this
because I've kept His law. Those are wicked works. Now, when He gives you the love
of God in your heart, you don't want another God but God. And
you want to love your neighbor as yourself. when he puts the
love of God in your heart, but you're not anymore trying to
come to God by that. You're not anymore trying to
gain acceptance with God because of anything you've done. Because
now you hear that law speak to you and say, There is none good,
no, not one. And all our righteousness is
as filthy rags. But that law also points you
to the Lord Jesus Christ and you see Him who is the righteousness
of the law. You see Him who is the righteousness
of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ walked
this earth and fulfilled every commandment God gave and He didn't
have to try to do it. It's just who He is. And then
He went to the cross and took all our sins for not keeping
any of God's law and put them all away by His blood and made
His people the righteousness of God in Him. And so now we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes, we're healed. We're healed. That's peace, brethren. Now, you're only going to have
this peace if you believe it. You're only going to have this
peace if you trust the Lord Jesus alone. Not Christ plus you, anything,
just Him. Listen to what the Scripture
says. He was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our
justification, and therefore being justified. That's done. Therefore being justified by
faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand, fully justified, fully accepted, holy and without blame
before God, complete in Christ. We're standing in this grace
by faith, waiting and rejoicing for the hope of the glory of
God. You know, when he first made you hear this, He convinced
you of sin. He made you see you've not believed
on Christ. You could take all the sins that
men commit and just reduce it down to this. Here's what the
sin is. You haven't trusted Christ. You haven't believed on Christ.
When the Spirit of God comes, He will convince us of sin because
you have not believed on Me, Christ says. And anything outside
of Christ, no matter how pretty it appears to man, is nothing
but sin. It's only in Christ, through
faith, that He says to you. Not only does He convince you
of sin, when He does, you're guilty. There's no peace. But
He convinces you, I've made you righteous. He convinces you,
I've settled judgment at Calvary. And then you have peace. Peace in your conscience. Peace
with God. And it's peace in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Why are we in this body of death?
Why did the Lord choose to leave us in this body of death? It
goes right along with why our Lord said, in this world you
shall have tribulation. Why did He leave us in this world
of tribulation? Why did He leave us in this body
of sin? Now, believers don't want to
sin. Sin's the enemy. You don't want to sin, I don't
want to sin. And we endeavor not to sin. Now, sin's mixed
with everything you do. If there's some sin you're holding
on to, put it away. Because you remember when your
kids were little and you'd tell them to drop something, and if
they didn't drop it, eventually you're taking it out of their
hand. And they're probably going to spank them. Well, just let
it go. Because the Lord says let it
go. And if you don't, He's going to take it out of your hand.
He's going to strip you. And it's going to be painful.
But here's the thing about why did He leave us in this body
so that we see our sin and we fall and we stumble? Why did
He cause us or leave us to go through this tribulation? He
doesn't cause it. We cause it. But why does He
leave us here to go through this? It's one of the ways our Lord
keeps drawing us to Him to make us know that our righteousness
is not in us. Our righteousness is not in what
we do. These things I write unto you, little children, that you
sin not. But when you do, we have an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for
our sin. And not for yours here alone,
but for His elect people all over this world. That's why you're
going to have tribulation. This body of death is going to
cause you to have trouble. You're going to see your sin.
There's going to be times you're going to think you don't have
peace whatsoever, but He's going to keep bringing you to Him and
showing you over and over and over and over. You don't have
any peace in you because you don't have righteousness in your
deeds. Christ Jesus is your righteous. He's your advocate. That's the
purpose. And this miraculously is how
He makes you hate sin more. This is how He makes you not
want to sin and makes you turn from it and be a little more
on guard against it by constantly showing you Him. So he's the
peace. Peace of promise, peace of pardon,
propitiation. Here's the third thing. Peace
between persons. Now I said that because I couldn't
think of another P. But what I mean by that is peace
between brethren. Peace between brethren. Go to
Ephesians chapter 2. Peace of persons. Ephesians 2
verse 14. He's speaking here about how
we're one with Jew and Gentile. And you can say male and female,
rich and poor, educated and uneducated, whatever the divisions that we
use to exalt ourselves over others. That's what you see going on
in the world today. Listen, Republicans are not better
than Democrats. Democrats are not better than
Republicans. Whether you got a lot of money or no money, whether
you got a lot of education or no education, whether you're
black, white, brown, whatever, none of that makes anybody better
than anybody. Those are all the things we use
to try to exalt ourselves over one another. and we use the law. When somebody sins, we run to
the law and the legalist will start going to the letter of
the law and condemning you and condemning you because the law
says this. You don't want God to judge you in the letter of
the law. We're worshiping the Spirit of the law. Let me give
you an example. Our Lord said, any man denies
Me, I'll deny him before My Father. So if a man denies Him and somebody
runs to the letter and says, well, that's what it says, so
you've got to be condemned. Well, Peter denied him three
times. And the Lord said, he's mine. He's mine. You don't want to be judged in
the letter. Paul said, the letter says, don't muzzle out the mouth
of the ox that treads out the corn. And he said to the Corinthians,
I use none of those things with you. He said, I provide it for
myself and made the burden easier on you so I wouldn't be a distraction
from the gospel so you could hear the gospel. That's the spirit
as opposed to the letter. You can go to this book. I can
go to this book and find something to condemn everybody here about.
You could do the same thing with me. And it's right there cut
and dry in the letter. You're guilty of that. I could
find anything in here to do that. But we're not going to the letter.
We worship God in the Spirit, knowing Christ is all our righteousness.
He's our peace. Why? Because He's taken away
everything we use to exalt ourselves over one another and made us
to know all of us together are worms in the dust, sinners with
no hope but Christ, and Christ alone is our righteousness. And
when you know that and He makes each one of us know that in our
hearts so that we're so low in the dust, we can't exalt ourselves
over each other, and Christ is our only peace, you'll have peace
with your brethren. Look here, Ephesians 2.14. For
he is our peace who hath made both." Jew, Gentile, whatever
your difference. He's made us both one. and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having
abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of two one
new man, so making peace. And that He might reconcile both
to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and He came and He preached peace to you which were far off and
to them that were nigh, for through Him we both have access by one
Spirit unto the Father. That's the only way that this
Jew named Peter and these Gentiles, this half-Gentile named Timothy,
that's the only way them two could have any fellowship with
one another. Now brethren, in this world you're
going to have tribulation. That means you're going to have
tribulation with your brethren. That's on purpose. We are believing
sinners. God's saints are sinners who
have been saved by the grace of God. And God put us together
so that we're going to have tribulation with one another. We're going
to offend one another. You're going to be offended and
your brethren are going to offend you. That's just how it's going
to be. In many things we offend all, James says. That's on purpose. Because when believers offend
one another, What makes us endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace is Christ coming to you and showing you
all over again you're no different from that brother that you're
offended by. He holds up a mirror for you
by showing you your brother who's offended you to show you there
you are. Next time you're offended at
some brother and he's just done something so, and you just can't
let it go, Just look at Him and know, there I am. But He also makes you know, Christ
is your peace and He's that brother's peace. He's your righteousness
and He's that brother's righteousness. When you look at a brother or
sister who's offended you, that's not your brother. That's the
old man of flesh. Maybe they did something that's
very wrong, but that's their old man of flesh. Your brother's
in there. He's that new man in there. You know what he needs?
He don't need the whip of the law. That's not going to make
that new man stronger and that old man weaker. He needs to hear
the message that Christ is our only peace. And the Lord put him there in
front of you for that purpose. He's offended you for that purpose.
For you to be reminded yourself that Christ is the only one who
made you to differ. He's the only one who made your
brother to differ. so that both of you come back down to the
dust and look to Christ and stop looking at each other. That's
the purpose. That's the purpose. Love as brethren. Forgive one another as God, for
Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And seek peace. Seek peace. All right, fourthly, And here's
where this will help us right here. The fourth thing. Christ
is the peace of providence. He's the peace of providence.
The peace of knowing that He rules all things in this earth.
He's ruling just for you and just for you brethren who are
His people. Everything is coming to pass.
He said, in this world you shall have tribulation. Now this world
And if you go read, he's going to say in John 15, he says, the
world's going to hate you. And he says, but here's why they're
going to do it. It's written in their law. They
hated me without a cause. He's talking about the religious
world. He's talking about the Pharisees, the Jews who were
the strictest in the world. This religious world hates the
God who chooses whom He will and passes by whom He will. This
religious world hates the God who came in human flesh and laid
down His life for His particular people and saved us from our
sin. This world hates the God who
comes and sovereignly, irresistibly quickens His people and draws
them to Christ and gives them faith and makes them willing
in the day of His power. This world hates the God who's
God. So you're not going to find peace
for this world. Our Lord said, don't think I came to send peace.
I came to send a sword. The enemies will be there of
your own household. Nevertheless, and then there's a multitude
of trials we're going to face besides that as well. But here's
the thing. Why the tribulation? Why do we
find trouble in this world? Well, when it comes, we usually
start trying to find peace in this world. We try to figure
out some way against peace and getting out from under it. But
God won't let you find it. God will not let you find peace
in this world. Not if you're His. You might
find something temporarily. Somebody said money can't buy
you happiness, but it can buy you a big boat and you anchor
down mighty close to it. No, God is not going to let you
find peace in this world. When that hurricane was battering
that ship, and Paul's there, and he's a prisoner, and nobody,
you know, they look at him. They weren't looking at him.
Paul was nobody to them. He's a prisoner. They're taking
him before Caesar. And Paul stands up in their midst
and says, Be of good cheer! Hurricanes blowing. There's waves
coming over the boat. And he stands up and says, be
of good cheer because Christ stood by me this night whom I
serve and told me no man's life is going to be lost here. And
I believe it's going to be like my Lord told me. It's God's purpose to use tribulation
to teach us this world cannot give us peace. It can't. And it's not our peace. Peace
is not in things you can see and touch and feel in this world.
The world can't give us true peace. Our loved ones are going
to die. Cardinal Cain is going to perish.
We came into this world naked and we're going out of this world
naked. Your peace is not in this world. The Lord sends the trial
to take away our false peace. And here's the peace in all tribulation. Christ is ruling the trouble. We know that all things work
together for good to them that are the call to them to them
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
So if need be, if we're looking to our finances too much, the
Lord will send 2022 and He'll just let the stock market crash.
To teach us our unsearchable riches of Christ. If things start
getting tight and we start pining for bread and for clothing, He's
doing it to make you remember Christ is your bread of life.
You've been robed with the robe of righteousness. You need Him
more than anything else. And He'll provide the lesser.
Whatever our trouble, you believe Christ and you'll find that Christ
answers that need exactly. And more. And more. Are you alone? You've been left alone? And you're
just utterly alone? Nobody understands? He's there. Nobody can comfort. No matter
how they try, you're just alone. Our Lord told His apostles, He
said, you're going to leave Me tonight and you're going to forsake
Me. And He said, but I'm not alone.
The Father's with Me. And our Lord Jesus tells you
and me, I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee. And you're
not going to find that out until He puts you absolutely, totally
alone. And then you'll find it out.
Are you persecuted? Christ is your refuge. Are you
fallen in sin? Are you troubled that your brother's
fallen? It's to remind you and teach you we have one Master
who is able to make us stand. Just one. Trust your brother
to Christ. Child of God, you might feel
like God's against you when the trial comes. He sent it, but
He sent it on purpose. And this is what He says, I know
the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. It's to teach us Christ is the
antidote to every fear we have. He is the peace. He said, in
me is thy peace found. Now, here's what it is. All the
trouble comes and the whole world's turned on its ear and it's upside
down and nothing turned out like you expected it was going to
turn out. You were living the American dream and now it's the
American tragedy. Why? Because to be carnally minded
is death. And if God left you there, you'd
die. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. So if you be risen with Christ,
this is what He's teaching you. Before this, He said this, why
as though your life is in this world are you subject to ordinances? Why are you looking at touch
not, taste not, handle not? You get what He's saying? Your
life's not in this world. And then he says, if then you
are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where
Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection, singular,
on things above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead. Way back there when Christ said
it's finished, you died. Your judgment settled. And your
life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Now here's what we all say. Oh,
I just wish these troubles would get over so we could get on with
the ministry. These troubles are the ministry.
It is needful to teach us the sufficiency of God's grace as
this Gospel we pray. You've got to have it. We've
got to help. These things I have spoken unto
you. Christ said that in me you might
have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And as Paul said, I say to you,
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. specials and music, they're just
very, very good, very comforting. Brother David Edmondson, my friend,
please come preach Christ to me. Feed my soul with the gospel
of Christ. Praise the spirit, give you power
to do it. I'm reminded of a story where
Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry were playing a concert together
and Chuck Berry had the most hits out on the radio so he was
the headliner and Jerry Lee Lewis went first and while he was out
there he sung Great Balls of Fire and he set his piano on
fire. and played the piano and everybody
went nuts. And as he walked off stage, he
looked at Chuck Berry and he said, follow that. That's kind
of how I feel. That was just outstanding, Clay. Just a beautiful gospel message. Thank you for it. Recently at
home, I started a study in the book of Joshua, and I suppose
that's why this weekend both of my texts come out of that
book. So my text this morning will be in Joshua chapter 3,
but I want you, if you would, to turn to Joshua chapter 1 first. Joshua chapter 1. Here we read in verse one, now
after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came
to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses'
minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore rise and
go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, and to the land
which I do give to them, even to the children. of Israel. Now, I alluded to this last night,
but as you know, the name Joshua is translated in the Hebrew language
as Jesus. Same name. Joshua is the Hebrew
interpretation of the Greek name Jesus. But the comparison between
the two is much more than just a name. Joshua is a beautiful
picture, as I said last night, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the book of Joshua here begins as it must. And what I mean by
that is it begins after the death of Moses. Moses is no doubt a
picture of the law of God. Moses the law has served the
Lord. Moses the law has finished his
course. Moses the law has fulfilled his
purpose. And Moses the law is buried outside
of the land of promise. Now is the time of Joshua. Joshua is no doubt a type of
the Lord Jesus. And I'm reminded of what Paul
wrote in Galatians 3 that Clay referenced to, took us to, and
read there. I won't turn you back there.
But there in verse 22, Paul wrote, but the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin. Not a bit of difference in any
of it. We're all in the same boat, as they say. all under
sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ, not faith in
Jesus Christ, but the faith of Jesus Christ. Our faith is in
His faithfulness. Isn't that right? We put our
faith in His faithfulness and in what He's done for us. That
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe But before faith came, we were kept under the
law, shut up unto the faith, speaking of our faith and the
faith of Christ, which should afterwards be revealed. We were
kept under the law to shut us up to Christ. That's the whole
purpose of the law, to shut us up to Christ, to show us that
we cannot keep the law. If it's to be accepted of God,
it's got to be perfect to be accepted. We've never done anything
perfect. Not you, not me, not anybody.
Can't do anything perfect. If we offend in one point of
the law, we're guilty of the whole law. You that desire to
be under the law, do you not hear what the law says? The law
says you've got to be perfect to be accepted. And we can't
do that. So there's no hope in keeping
the law and being safe. No hope of keeping the law to
be safe. Then Paul wrote this. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. That's what the law was. It was
our instructor. It was our teacher. Our tutor,
so to speak. To bring us to Christ. That's
what the law does for believers. It brings them to Christ. It
shows me I have no hope other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The
law taught us that keeping it couldn't save us. The law taught
us that it had to be kept perfectly. The law taught us that only Christ
could do that for us. And what does that do? That shuts
us up to Him and that brings us to Him. No place else to go.
Where are we going to go? But to the Lord. So then the
law was our schoolmaster, and it taught us that we have to
be brought to Christ. I mean, after all, Christ is
our wisdom, He's our righteousness, He's our sanctification, He's
our redemption, and we must be brought to Him that we might
be justified by faith. And then Paul, in verse 25 of
Galatians 3, goes on to say, but after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. Why is the law no longer our
schoolmaster? But Paul tells us that it might
be revealed to us that we are the children of God by faith
in Jesus Christ. Now, it's not our faith that
saves us. Yes, we're saved by grace through faith. And then
Paul immediately says that's not of ourselves. I mean, we
didn't muster up faith, did we? No, it was the same gift of faith. It was a gift of grace. They
both are God's gift to us. We believe because God enabled
us to believe. God gave us life. When did old
Lazarus, when did he get life? After he came forth from the
dead? No. God gave him life and then
he came forth. You can't get the cart before
the horse, as they say. They don't ride too well. But
the Lord is no longer our schoolmaster. Dear friends, this is the time
of Joshua. The Lord Jesus Christ. No other
way for a sinner to be saved. This is the day of salvation.
Now comes that faith that should afterwards be revealed. Now comes
the entrance into the land of promise. That's what we have
here in Joshua. You know the story well. And
you cannot enter into the land of promise by your obedience
to Moses. Moses is dead. You can't enter
by keeping the law. The law requires perfection.
And being alive under Christ our Joshua, we're dead to the
law. The only condition for possessing the land of promise is follow
Joshua and the land is yours. Why, it says that the Lord had
already given this land to them. He'd already defeated their enemies
before they fought the first battle. Follow Joshua in the
land you're in. It's not hard, yet it's impossible
to believe apart from God's mercy and grace to us. It just is.
Follow Joshua. You see the picture? The law
pictured by Moses was only our teacher. Joshua, our Lord Jesus,
must finish the work. He's the only one that can. The
government is now on his shoulders. God now speaks to Joshua and
Joshua speaks to the people. That's how this works. Joshua
is now Israel's one mediator. Friends, there's only one mediator
between God and men, and that's the man Christ Jesus. If we're
going to have communion with God, it's going to be through
Him. Only one. Just one. Now, I'm not a smart
man, and I never was good at math, but I do understand one.
One mediator. That's all we have. May God enable
us to trust Him. Now we fast forward to Joshua
chapter 3. To that day that the children
of Israel are to pass over the Jordan River into the land of
promise. Oh, what a day that must have
been. Can you imagine the excitement there must have been in the camp
of Israel? Forty years of wandering in the wilderness. One trial
and struggle after another. And now we're finally going to
cross over Jordan into this land of promise. What a day this was. And in verse 7 we read, And the
Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee. Gabe made that so clear last
night. The greatness of our Lord. Magnified. Glorified. There's none greater
than Him. He said, today I'm going to begin
to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel that they may know
that as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. And the
Holy Spirit here defines for us something of what it means
to be magnified in the sight of all the people. God showed
Israel that He was with Joshua the same as He was with Moses.
And the Lord was with Moses in the dividing of the Red Sea and
His people crossing across on dry ground. And now they're going
to see that God is with Joshua in the crossing of the River
Jordan. But what we have here is much more than just the declaration
of Joshua's leadership. Oh, this is a clear picture of
the magnification and glory of our heavenly Joshua before true
Israel. And that's who you are, believer.
You're true Israel. With the parting of the waters
of Jordan, the people of Israel are going to know for certain.
If you're going to trust in Christ, you're going to know for certain
that He's the only way. God's going to reveal that to
you. And they're going to know for certain that the role and
the burden of leadership has now been given by God to Joshua. And you know that, don't you?
You know that there's no other way to be saved. Salvation's
of the Lord. This has kind of become a little
thing of mine. No big revelation, but I love
to say it. You know what follows that in
the Scriptures, Jonah 2.9, salvation's of the Lord? A period. Nothing more to be said about
that. Period. Salvation's of the Lord. Period. Verse 7 says that they may know.
What would they know? They'd know that as God was with
Moses, He's now with Joshua. Moses could not bring them into
the land of promise, but Joshua could. And Joshua did. And this is something that all
God's people will know. God was with His holy law. There's no doubt about that.
Keeping His law is what satisfied God's justice. But we can't satisfy
God's justice because we can't keep the law. The law could never
save a sinner. The law could not bring a sinner
into the land of promise. That's only something that Christ
or Joshua can do. And I mean to be redundant on
this. Salvations of the Lord. Christ's exaltation is something
that must be revealed and made known unto us by God Himself. It's a divine revelation. And
it's a divine intervention. God interrupted. I'm so thankful
that God interrupted in this sinner's life. I'd be no doubt
in hell even now. My, Christ's exaltation is something
that must be revealed to us. Eternal life is knowing Christ.
That's what the Lord Himself said in John 17.3. This is eternal
life that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Eternal life is knowing and trusting
Christ alone. Do you know Christ? Are you trusting
in Christ alone? Oh, may God be pleased to make
it so. Again, we must remind ourselves while studying the
Old Testament Scriptures that these things were written aforetime
for our learning. Learning of what? Of Christ! He's our comfort of the Scriptures. He's the Word of God in which
we have hope. Romans 15.4. And this has become
a bit cliche. I know in gospel preaching, but
it's nonetheless true. This is a hymn book. This book
you hold in your lap right now is a hymn book. H-I-M. It's all
about hymn. He's the believer's hope. It's
Christ in you. The hope of glory, right? Our
Lord said, Moses wrote to me. And He did. You study the book
of those first five books of the Bible that Moses wrote? Christ
is on every page if God would enable us to see. Moses wrote
to me. Preaching to those two disciples
on the road to Emmaus, beginning at Moses. And all the prophets,
the Lord Jesus expounded. You know what that means? Preached. Christ was a preacher. The greatest
preacher that ever lived. Some people give that to Charles
Spurgeon. No, I'm sorry. He was a good
preacher, no doubt. But the greatest preacher that
ever lived was the Lord Jesus Christ. And He preached Himself. beginning at Moses and all the
prophets and through the Psalms are concerning Him. He expanded
unto them and all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. It's a hymn book. It's a hymn
book. And that's what these verses
are about. They're about the magnification and the exaltation
and the glory, the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
in verse 7, the Lord says to Joshua, this day, God places
an emphasis on this particular day. What happens on this day
that's like no other day? Well, we're going to see. Yes,
Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,
but in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, for what purpose? You know. to
redeem them that were under the law. His people that were under
the law that they might receive the adoption of sons. Oh, I love that word adoption.
I don't know if you know or not, but I was adopted. I have two
lovely granddaughters now that were adopted. That's a beautiful,
beautiful thing. We've been adopted into the kingdom
of God Almighty. And I can tell you this, my parents
loved me just as much as if I had come from my mother's womb and
we love our granddaughters. It doesn't matter. There's nothing
more precious than an adopted son or daughter. And this is
not something new, not at all. This is something purposed of
old before the foundation of the world, before time ever was.
God purposed to save a people. And people talk about election.
Well, you preach that, brother, and you're going to shut people
out. No. No, I'm sorry. You're wrong.
You're not going to shut anybody out. It's going to prove for
certain that God saved some. Isn't that right? This day mentioned in Joshua
3 gives us a beautiful picture really of the Lord's earthly
ministry. It's the beginning of Christ's
manifestation. Magnification before the people.
Christ came into the world to save sinners and He shall save
His people from their sin. And God magnifies Him in doing
so. He gets all the glory. Christ's
glory will reach its pinnacle on Calvary's cross followed by
His death and His burial and His resurrection and ascension. Those things prove that God accepted
the perfect and finished work of Christ. Moses, the law, couldn't
save a single sinner in that it was weak through the flesh. And that's our flesh that's talking
about. We couldn't provide the perfect
keeping of the law that God required. And that's what the gospel is.
God providing for us what we cannot provide Him ourselves.
Isn't that wonderful? You need perfection. And here
it is. I'll take it. I'll sure enough
take it. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh. I find the wording of the Holy
Spirit here in verse 7 very interesting. Joshua was magnified. It says, "...in the sight of
all Israel." Not the whole world. The Canaanites and the Jesuits
and all those sites, they didn't see this. They had no sight. But it was seen in the sight
of all Israel, all God's people. Christ is not revealed to all
men and women in the world, just to those whom God is pleased
to reveal Him, and they are true Israel. The world in general
doesn't see Christ. But He's revealed and seen in
all His magnificence and glory to His people. Do you see? Like Peter, God's people are
blessed. Flesh and blood haven't revealed that to you. my Father
in heaven has," Christ said. Our Lord Jesus said, no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save
or except the Son. And He to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
If you want to argue about election, then argue with God about it.
Because that's what He said. He's manifested and magnified
to those whom the Father has given Him. As the Lord was with
Moses, the Lord is going to be with Joshua. The story of Joshua
very well illustrates that our Lord's earthly ministry was the
end and the fulfillment of the law of Moses. As a matter of
fact, in Acts 13, it says, Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus Christ, and I
love that, He's a man, He's the God-man. But He's a man. He had
to be in order to redeem this sinful man. But through this
man, Jesus Christ has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by Him, all that believe
are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Moses couldn't do it. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Paul
wrote in Romans 10.4. Hebrews 10.9, then said, He,
Christ, lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the
first. Moses. He did. Takes away the
first that He may establish the second. The work of righteousness
by the law, the works of doing, dead. Put away. The covenant
of grace. is now the only means to be saved. In verse 8, we see that in Joshua,
Christ is the head of the church and the leader of His people.
Speaking to Joshua here, God says, And thou shalt command
the priests that bear the ark of the covenant. Now what a picture
of Christ in the Gospel this is. Pay close attention to these
words. Saying, when you are come to the brink of the water of
Jordan, here's the Gospel. you shall stand still in Jordan." The priest served, I believe,
is a very reasonable picture here of God's preachers and servants
who hold up Christ and His finished work for the people. That's what
preachers do. Don't put a preacher on a pedestal.
You'll get disappointed. The preacher's nothing but a
sinner just like you. And God has called us to hold
up Christ Hold him up. Look to Him. That's our message.
Look to Him. That's what you did. You had
me looking to Christ. I love how Fred puts the pressure
on you and says, come preach Christ to me. That's what I want
when I'm listening to preaching. Tell me again about Christ. Tell
me again about the One who loved me and gave Himself for me. That's
all I want to hear. I don't want to hear what I've
got to do. My, my. What must a sinner do
to be saved? How does any sinner enter into
God's kingdom? The command is very clear, very
plain, very instructive. Verse 8, the priest came to the
brink of the water of the River Jordan, symbolic of the death
of our Lord and Savior. And what are the people to do?
Ye shall stand still in Jordan. Last night we talked about it.
You stay in the house. Stay in the ark. Get to that
city of refuge and stay there. Stand still in Jordan. How are
we to present ourselves? We're to present ourselves standing
still. What does a sinner do in order
to be saved? They do nothing. They are to stand still. Salvation
is given with no moving. No working. I find it ironic
that religion today says get up from your seat and come to
the front. No, stand still. Come to Christ without moving
a muscle. Stand still. I remember as a
young boy going deer hunting with my dad and being in that
deer stand. You know how young boys are.
Daddy would go see a deer. You think he would see a deer?
Stand still and be quiet, he said. You're never going to see
a deer if you don't stand still and be quiet. How true that was,
we didn't see one. We live in a day where men tell
sinners to take a stand and do something for Jesus. Be a mover
and a shaker for Jesus, they say. Onward, Christian soldiers
marching into war. Listen, there's no war for us
to fight. No more for us to fight. The
war is over. There is no more. It's finished. The conflict is
over. It's finished. Jesus Christ is
Lord. Aren't you glad it's finished?
Nothing for you to do. Christ has finished the work
of our redemption. Our Lord doesn't need anything
from us. Men stand today and they take half of their allotted
time when they could be preaching the Gospel and they tell folks
what their church is doing for God. I could care less. I could
care less because you can't do anything for God. It's all His. What are we going
to do for Him? The only need there is that we
feel our need of Him. And we have need to stand still.
That's when we see the salvation of the Lord, isn't it? We stand
still bearing the Ark of the Covenant. We stand still holding
up Christ as our offering for sin. People say, offer Jesus
your heart. He doesn't want it. Our heart's
deceitful, desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things.
Only God can know it, and He does, and He doesn't want it.
He doesn't want it. He's got to give us a new heart
that enables us to believe and trust in Him. We stand still. We don't bear the burdens of
this world. We're in this world, but we're not of it. We don't
bear the dead weight of religion. We don't bear the burden of the
works of the law. No, sir. We bear the ark of the
covenant. We bear the Lord Jesus Christ
up, and we tell all men, look to Him and be saved. Look to
Him. Look to Him. We bear and preach
the Lord Jesus Christ. We bear up the Word of God. We
stand still in Christ our Lord. And here's another beautiful
picture we have here. The beginning of Joshua's magnification
in the sight of the people. It takes place at Jordan. This
is beautifully realized when our heavenly Joshua, the Lord
Jesus Christ, entered into Jordan's waters to fulfill all righteousness,
he said. John said, I don't need to be
baptizing you. You need to be baptizing me.
And the Lord Jesus said, suffer it to be so that we might fulfill
all righteousness. And in fulfilling all righteousness
was humbly conforming to the will of His Father. The nature
of Christ's ministry here is clearly revealed. It's the ministry
of substitution. There'd be no doubt about it.
That's what baptism is symbolic of, isn't it? Sure it is. It's
that Christ would die and the death of Him, that all His people
would die in Him, by substitution in Him. We're buried with Christ.
That's what baptism symbolizes. We rose with Christ. That's what
baptism pictures. And friends, the more that I
study the Scriptures, and the more that I hear preaching, the
more I see that it comes down to one thing and one thing only. What? Think ye of Christ. That's the issue. What do you
think of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we live in a day where
religion is trying to win the battle against evil and obtain
a righteousness by their own doing. And folks don't have any
understanding whatsoever that the war against sin and death
has already been won. He, the Lord Jesus, will swallow
up death in victory. The battle has already been won.
And the Lord will wipe all tears from all faces. No more death. And the rebuke of His people
shall He take away from off all the earth. For the Lord hath
spoken it. Isaiah 25a. The burden's been
lifted. The work's been finished. And
we stand still and we rest in Christ. Stand still. Death is swallowed
up in what? Every believing child of God
need not fear death and can rightly ask with confidence, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is your victory? We recently had a dear brother
pass, and boy, I've rejoiced so much because he left the Lord. Not long ago, There was another
lady, someone that we all knew that passed, and she was in her
90s, and he came to the funeral. He was in bad shape at this point.
He was in a wheelchair, and as his brother pushed him around,
another fellow in our church pushed him around in the wheelchair.
It was obvious to all that saw him that he was sick and that
he was dying. They, how you doing, brother? He said, pretty soon
I'm going to see my Lord. And the next person would say, oh,
Danny, how you doing? He said, pretty soon, I'm going
to see my Lord. Over and over, everybody would ask him. Pretty
soon, I'm going to see my Lord. You know, what a man talks about
the most is what he loves the most. What a man loves the most
is what he talks about the most. And that's all he talked about.
I'm going to see my Lord. See my Lord. Be with my Lord.
And you know what? He is. And I just rejoiced in that.
I don't know what made me think of that, I know this much. He was standing
still. He was standing still. When we're baptized as believers,
we're declaring that Christ fulfilled all righteousness for us by dying
in our place and us dying in Him. Our righteousness is filthy
rags. It ain't worth mentioning. No righteousness. we stand still
in Him. And that's why we stand still
and rest. We can rest because there's no work for us to do.
When can a man truly rest? When his work's finished. Have
you ever seen a fellow say, you know, I'd like to sit down and
watch the ballgame, but I've got to mow the grass, and I've got to weed eat,
or whatever it is. You can't rest until your work's
finished. Well, guess what? Let me let
you in on something. The work's finished. So stand
still and rest. Rest in what Christ has done
for you. And the second that our Lord
Jesus came out of the waters of Jordan, symbolizing His resurrection
and our justification by it, the magnifying of His name began. And that's why the Spirit of
God descended upon Him. And that's why God said, this
is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. We
better hear Him. We sure better hear Him. In Luke
chapter 4, when our Lord came to Nazareth, you remember that
story? Why His reputation and His fame had gotten back to His
hometown. And it says He came to Nazareth
where He'd been brought up. and his custom was to go into
the synagogue on the Sabbath. And on this particular day, he
stood up and he took that scroll of Isaiah. And our Bible is found
in Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2. And he read these words. The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to
preach the Gospel to the poor. And He has sent me to heal the
brokenhearted. and to preach deliverance to
the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it again to the minister, and he sat down, and all the
eyes of them that were in that synagogue were on him. They were
all looking at him. And he began to say unto them,
this day, this day. Is the Scripture fulfilled in
your ears? Now that's talking about God's
people, what Isaiah wrote, or what God said and Isaiah recorded. God's people are poor. We don't
have anything to offer God. We're broken hearted. Broken
hearted over our sin. We're captive. Paul said we're
sold under sin. We're captive to sin. We're blind. We must be given sight. Sin's
not only bruised us, friends, but it's slain us. We're dead
in trespasses and sin. and all the pictures and all
the types in the Old Testament that pointed to the Messiah,
the Savior of sinners had come to pass. This day is this Scripture
fulfilled in your ears. I am Him that was to come. I'm here. That's what He's saying. Stand still and rest. Stand still
and rest. Jesus Christ is the mystery of
godliness. Jesus Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. God is pleased with His Son.
And listen, He's pleased with nothing else. Nothing else. That's why we preach Him. And
that's why sinners must be found in Him. And until God reveals
to us that we must stand still, we'll never have any peace or
rest. None. The phrase, stand still, it's
used seven times, I believe, in the Scriptures, and in most
instances, the term is used in conjunction with salvation, and
redemption, and deliverance. Let me just give you a couple,
three examples. In Exodus chapter 14, you know
the passage well. God's delivered Israel out of
Egyptian bondage, and here they come to the Red Sea, and they
hear the thundering of Pharaoh's chariots behind them. Have you
ever heard a train come by or something? And not only do you
hear the train, but you feel that thunder, that ground moving.
That's what they felt. I guarantee you. They heard the
thundering of Pharaoh's army's chariots. Nothing but water in
front of them. What are they going to do? Then they hear a voice that cries,
Fear not! Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. which He will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have
seen today, you shall see them again no more." Moses said, the
Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. What
does it mean to hold your peace? Well, my mother used to not say
it quite so nicely. She'd say, stand still and shut
up. That's what it means. Hold your
peace. Stand still and shut up. What
are you going to say? What are you going to do? The
Egyptians representing the sin that plagued us all the days
of our life will plague you no more. No more. What must you
do to be saved? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Look to Him and Him alone. Look
to Jesus Christ and live. We've seen that. Do we do it? God help us to. Secondly, we
must stand still to be reasoned with by the preaching of the
Gospel. In 2 Samuel, I believe, chapter
12, verse 6, Samuel the prophet said to the people, it is the
Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron. The success that Moses
and Aaron had in Egypt, well, that was the Lord's success.
The Lord was behind those plays. The Lord was behind that deliverance. He said it's the Lord that advanced
Moses and Aaron, that brought your fathers up out of the land
of Egypt. Salvations of the Lord. Samuel
went on to say, now therefore, stand still that I may reason
with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord
which He did. to you and to your fathers. This is God's work. Deliverance. Salvation. That's the Lord's
work. His righteousness is imputed.
It's charged to us. His righteousness is now my righteousness. That's why I have a perfect righteousness,
because it's His righteousness. When we preach the Gospel, that's
what we're doing. We're reasoning with Him. Though
it's God that must cause a sinner to see, though it's God that
must give the increase, yet we reason with men and women to
see that they have no righteousness of their own. They have nothing
to offer God. We reason that their righteousness
is just what I said a moment ago, filthy rags. We reason that
the only righteousness that God accepts is that perfect righteousness
of Christ, and God through Isaiah said, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool." That's what we're reasoning with man.
We're accepted only in Christ's perfect righteousness. And then
thirdly, we must stand still and consider some things concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Job 37.14 says, stand still and
consider the wondrous works of God. Paul told Timothy, he said,
consider what I say and the Lord give thee understanding in all
things. That's my prayer for myself and for you. Stand still. Consider these things that we're
talking about and may the Lord give you understanding. That's
the only way we'll get them. Our Lord said, consider the lilies.
Shall not God clothe you? Consider the ravens. Shall God
not feed them? We need to stand still and consider
some things concerning Christ our Savior. The day before we
came, my wife said, are you preaching that message on standing still? And I said, yes. And she said,
do you have this passage? And she read it to me, and I
said, Dawg, but I should. So I'm going to read it to you.
Psalm 46, verse 10. Be still. and know that I am
God, I will be exalted." That's what we're talking about. Joshua
being magnified. He said, I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. And He has been, hasn't He? The
Lord told Joshua, He said, when you come to the brink of the
water of Jordan, you stand still. Now, here's an oxymoron. I had
somebody say that to me one time. I thought they called me a bad
name. He said, you're not an oxymoron,
you're just a moron. But an oxymoron, here's one for
you. We must stand still in order
to come. You've got to stand still in
order to come. A sinner must not move to come.
Works religion says work, move, do, don't do, work some more,
don't do some more. And don't do this and don't do
that and then do this and do that. And morons do it. But not God's people. Well, they
do. They stand still. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Come without moving a muscle. Come while standing still. This
is the declaration of Christ's propitiation. That's exactly
what the Gospel is. It's the declaration of Christ's
satisfaction of all that God requires of you and from you. There's nothing for you to do.
Christ has done it all. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He hath put Him to grieve. when
thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin." That being the sin
of God's elect. That is the bruising we should
have took. That's the grief that we should
have experienced. God the Father shall see the
travail of Christ's soul and He shall be satisfied. And shout
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is satisfied with you. When
the Lord Jesus said, this is My beloved Son, you were on His
mind too. if you're in Christ. That's right. He's talking about you too. Because
you're satisfied in Him. He's satisfied with you in the
Lord Jesus Christ, is what I mean to say. God shall see the travail
of Christ's soul and shall be satisfied, and in Christ God
is satisfied with me. And by His knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Now in closing, I want you to
look over Joshua chapter 4 with me. Verse 14. Joshua 4, verse 14. On that day, and oh what a day
it was, the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel. And they feared. Now that word
means revered and respected and honored. Him. As they feared, revered and respected
Moses all the days of his life. And this, dear friends, is the
lesson and this is the Gospel. God has magnified the Lord Jesus
Christ and made Him great and made Him honorable and magnified
Him in the sight of all His elect people. And if you don't believe
me, just ask for Him. Not unto us. Not unto us, O Lord,
but unto Thy name be glory and majesty and honor. Why? Because You've done for me what
I couldn't do for myself. And You've done for me what no
one else could do for me. He deserves all the honor and
the glory, does He not? Because of Christ's finished
work, God's now satisfied with all those for whom Christ died.
And if what I'm saying is true, and it is, if there's nothing
that I can do for myself, and I can't, if I am saved because
of Christ's finished work, and I am, there's nothing I can do
to lose my salvation. Oh, brother, you can't preach
that. You give people a license to sin, but you don't need one.
You do that pretty good on your own. We don't need a license
to sin. There's nothing I can do, though,
to lose my salvation. Isn't that glorious? Now, do
we live like hell? No. No, out of love for our Savior
who loved us and gave Himself for us. Like you said, we don't
rejoice in our sin. Shall we sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. Out of love for our Savior, we
hate our sin, as you say. We do. We hate it. Job said,
I abhor myself. Paul said, O wretched man that
I am. but because of my acceptance
and because it's in Him and not in me, that's the best news that
any sinner ever heard. And that's why it's called the
Gospel. Good news for sinners. Amen. Listen, I want to just take a
moment if I can to thank this church for having me and playing,
It's just and we say this all the time is an honor and privilege.
You know why we say that? Because it is. It is. It's a real honor and a privilege
to be here. Teresa and I are heading back
today after lunch. And I appreciate Fred being so
accommodating to enable us to do that. And but my heart be
with you tomorrow. I'll be praying for these two
men as they Bring the wonderful riches, unsearchable riches,
that's what they are, in the unsearchable riches of Christ
to you again. And may God continue to bless
this church and you, brother Fred, as you labor and love to
serve Him and His gospel. And I love you and I appreciate
you. And I don't know what else to
say other than that. The Lord be with you. Thank you
so much for having me. It's good to see all of you.
Amen. What a wonderful gospel message.
Stand still. If Christ ever revealed himself
to you, you'll do nothing but stand still.