or eat up with it. All of us
are. And if you don't know that, then
there's a problem. God's gonna deal with our pride
in mercy or in holy justice. That's the only two ways he's
gonna deal with it. He tells David, David's talking about
building his house, building the Lord's house. And he tells
David, he said, David, Solomon, I'm going to raise up your seed
and He's going to build my house. And if He transgresses against
me, I'm going to chasten Him. And that's what God does to His
people. He chastens them. He afflicts them until they cry
out like Israel did. And He delivers them. That pride
builds right back up to us. We're afflicted again and we
cry out. That's why He gave Paul that affliction so he wouldn't
be built up in pride. But it runs through our veins
so bad. So bad. The title of my message
tonight is, In the Beginning, God. God. That's the very first sentence
in God's Word. In the beginning, God. God rules
this world and everything and everyone in it. He created everything. God said, let there be light.
There was light. God spoke this world into existence. God divided the light from the
darkness just by speaking. And man thinks he's something.
We all do. God divided light from the darkness
just by speaking. He called the light day and the
darkness night. And what do men love? John 3.
And this is the condemnation that light has come into the
world And man loved darkness more than light. In John 8, 12,
Jesus spoke and said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees, do you remember the
Pharisees and all the questions they would ask Christ? The very
God that spoke this world into existence and made man. Lord,
if the woman dies and she had seven husbands, Who's going to
be her husband? They're going to trick God. That's
man's pride. Everything that we do in our
will is pride. Self-righteousness is pride.
I'm not going to have God reign over me. I'm not going to have
God tell me how to worship. I'm going to do it just how I
want to. And if you do, you're going to meet God in holy justice. The Lord Jesus Christ told the
Pharisees that He was from above, that He was God, and they would
seek Him and die in their sins. Now He told them they were going
to die in their sins. He said, I'm from above. You're
from this world. I'm not from this world. God
made the heavens. He divided the firmament from
the heavens. God made the earth and the seas.
He divided the waters. He brought forth the grass and
the animals and the herbs for us to feed on. and the animals
to feed us. God made the lights in the firmament.
He divided the day from the night and He said, let them be for
signs and for seasons and for years. God made two lights, the
greater light to rule the day and the lesser light, the stars,
to rule the night. God created every living creature
on this earth and in the oceans and all the birds and He blessed
them and He said, multiply, fill them. Then God said, let us make
man in our own image, after our own likeness. Let him have dominion
over the fish and the sea and over everything of the cattle.
God made man out of dust. He formed him out of dust. I
mean, I just think about that. He formed you out of dust and
He breathed life into him, breathed it. All the heart, the lungs,
and everything came together. God did that. And we're going
to challenge God on salvation and say, I'll do it like I want
to. No you won't. No you won't. God spoke this world into existence. God made man. Look at man and
his pride and his arrogance and everything he does. Men are proud
of everything, their education, their looks, their homes, their
money, their cars, their land, everything. And the most thing
they're proud of is their self-righteousness and their pride. It's a world
warred about climate change. They don't read the Word of God.
In Genesis 8, God said, Our God is a consuming fire outside of
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is a consuming
fire. You remember the story of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. They wouldn't bow down to that
golden image made out of gold by Nebuchadnezzar. It was 90
feet tall and 9 feet wide. That's pride, ain't it? Look
at me. When the music played, he commanded
them to fall down and worship that image. And whoever didn't,
they would be cast into a fiery furnace. They wouldn't bow down. Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and
his fury and pride ordered the men be brought before him, and
he asked, Do not you serve my gods, nor worship the golden
image that I have set up? He said, Who is that God that
shall deliver you out of my hands? See the pride? They refused to
bow and said to Nebuchadnezzar, If it be so, our God whom we
serve, He is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, and
He will deliver us out of your hand. And what they're saying
is, God is able to deliver us out of this furnace, but if He
doesn't, He's going to deliver us out of your hand. All is well.
We're going to be free from you if we die or if He takes us up. The furnace was heated seven
times hotter. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
were bound in their coats and their clothes, and they were
cast in that furnace. Now the men that cast them into
the furnace, they were consumed by the fire." God's a consuming
fire outside of Christ. They died right there. Died. Nebuchadnezzar said, Did we not
put three men in the furnace? I see four men, loose and walking
in the fire, and they have no heart. The fourth is like the
Son of God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
walked out of that fiery furnace. Upon their bodies the fire had
no power, not a hair of their heads were singed, and the smell
of fire was not on them. They were in Christ. They were
in Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar spoke and
said, isn't this the great Babylon that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by my might and my power for the honor of my
majesty, my, my, my, me, me, me, I, I, I. While the word was
in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven and said, Your
kingdom is departed from you, O king. The king was driven from
men. He lived like a beast eating
grass. His hair grew like eagle feathers
and his fingernails like cobs. Seven years shall pass over you
until you know the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of
men, and He giveth it to whosoever He will." Whosoever. This is what Nebuchadnezzar said
at the end of the days. I, Nebuchadnezzar, lift up mine
eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me. And I blessed
the Most High, and praised him, and honored him that liveth forever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is
from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will in the armies of heaven and among the habitants of this
earth, and none can stay His hand or say, What are you doing? The Lord gave Nebuchadnezzar
back his kingdom. He gave him back his mind. He
dealt with him in mercy. This is what the king says. Now
I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heavens,
all whose works are truth and His ways judgment. And those
that walk in pride He's able to abase." Now He's going to
abase your pride here or in death, but the pride's going to be abased. This is what he says, 2 Peter,
But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word,
are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly man, prideful man. Malachi 4, he says,
For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all
the proud, yea, all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And that day
that cometh shall burn thee up, saith the Lord of hosts, that
it shall neither leave you root nor branch. No life, no way to
get life, nothing, just dead. God created this world and everything
in it that lives and breathes. In the great waters and in the
dry land, it was made for His glory and for His people. Everything
we have, temporal blessings, our homes, our family, everything
man has is because of the mercies of God Almighty. Every breath we take, that's
God's. God blesses us, He gives us the
strength and the ability to do our jobs and the intelligence
to do it. He gives men intelligence to
build things, gives them the mind, the intellect to do their
jobs that He created for them. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called. According
to what? His purpose. God's people that
know all things come from God. Men deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
They trust in themselves, their strength, their intelligence.
And we have seen over and over again throughout time how stupid
and weak man is. If I can do anything, it is God's
mercy. He gives everything. He makes
the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Men are so proud and so arrogant
in their strength and their intelligence and in their self-righteousness.
Nebuchadnezzar said, look at great Babylon that I have built.
And the Lord took his mind, put hay in the field for him to eat,
and he ate grass. They lived like an animal. God
changed his nature. He fed on grass. He changed his
whole structure inside his body, just like he did the animals
in the ark. There was no death in the ark. Death was outside
the ark. It's outside. These animals ate
hay. They didn't feed on the flesh.
They didn't kill one another. Samson's strength, we're told
as little children, that his hair gave him his strength. But
every time Samson had great strength, it's because the Spirit of the
Lord moved upon him. Jesus, lover of my soul, page
352, all my help from thee I bring. If I can do anything, God gave
it to me. The Pharaohs believed that they
were gods. King Herod Agrippa, in Acts 12,
sat upon his throne, arrayed in his royal apparel, and made
an oration. And the people gave a great shout,
saying, it's the voice of a god. He gave God not the glory, and
he was eaten of worms right then, and he gave up the ghost. John
12 says, For they love the praise of men more than the praise of
God. Men love to be praised. We love
our titles. We love it. We love men to pray
on us, tell us how good we are, how smart we are. Christ accomplished salvation.
Man thinks He does. That's how a proud man is. Christ
finished the work the Father gave Him to do. Christ fulfilled
the law. He was tempted in all things.
In a man's pride, he thinks he can keep the law. He thinks he can keep the law. Christ was tempted in all things.
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities, but in all points tempted as
like we are, yet without sin. The Lord Jesus Christ's name
is above every name. He says, And He shall bring forth
a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save
His people from their sins. The Lord Jesus' name is above
every name. Where God has exalted Him and
given Him a name which is above every name, that the name of
Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and of things
in earth, and things under the earth. And men slander His name,
they use it in every vain way they can. They put it on their
bumper cars. Thank you, Jesus. They put it
on Christmas cars. When you use the Lord Jesus Christ's
name, if it's not in reverence and fear, run from it. Don't
do it. Don't say it. Do not do it. I can tell you a good example.
If the world does it, run from it. It's all over. The things that are in them are
all over the bulletin boards across this country, out in front
of the churches, and it's a lie and it's straight out of hell.
And to put it on your cards, it's just an abomination. It
is. But that's the pride of man.
They'll use God's name any way they want to. Before destruction
the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility.
There is nothing in which the heart of man falls so easily
as pride, and there is nothing more frequently, more emphatically,
and more eloquently condemned in the Scriptures. Nothing. God has condemned pride in the
Scriptures. In Proverbs 6, you don't have to turn to it.
The six things that the Lord God hate, yea, seven are abomination
unto Him. A proud look, a lying tongue, a hand that sheds
innocent blood, A heart that divides wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift to run to mischief, a false witness that
speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren, which
is he that is a liar." He sheds discord. He just lies. He can't help it. God said concerning the king
of Babylon. This is what God says concerning
him. Hell from beneath is moved for
you to meet you at your coming. It stirreth up the dead for you,
even all the chief ones of the earth, all the ones that are
dead. It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of
the nation, all they that shall speak and say unto you, Are you
also become as weak as we are? You have become like us. You're
nothing. And you found it out in death.
You're nothing. Christ is all. This is the very
first sin that ever occurred. Isaiah 14, How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How are you cast
down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation. In the sides of the north will
I ascend. Above the heights of the clouds
I will be like the Most High." And that's exactly what men are
today. If they could, they'd pull God
out of heaven and kill Him right now. They're pride. They're not, no,
this man didn't go rule over us. And by wicked hands they
killed Christ. But we know God put Him to death. God did it, pleased the Father
to breed the Son. This is what it said, Yet thou
shalt be brought down to hell, Lucifer, to the sides of the
pit. that see thee shall narrowly
look upon you and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that
the earth did tremble over, that did shake the kingdoms? Look
how God addresses him. He tells them that his might,
his greatness, are nothing compared to God Almighty, and He would
pull him down to hell. He would pull him down to hell.
There is nothing more condemned in the Word of God than pride,
and there is nothing that our poor silly souls won't flee to. We run to our talents, we run
to our knowledge, intelligence, everything. Everything we do
here is to worship God Almighty in song and preparing our hearts
to worship the King, the Lord of Lords, the Most High, our
Savior, our Redeemer, not to showcase, not to do anything. We're to come into the congregation
that is most holy to worship God Almighty. That's why we're
here, to sing praises unto the King. Do you remember in the Old Testament
the men that built the Ark of the Covenant? In Exodus, it speaks
of the building of the tabernacle, how it's to be built, all the
measurements, what is to be covered with, the poles, the rings in
which it's to be moved, who may move it. Each tribe had its own
job that they were to perform concerning the tabernacle, and
who assigned it, who gave all the measurements, who gave everything?
God did. God did it. And at the end of
chapter 30, the Lord tells Moses the perfume, the sweet smell
that was to be put in before the testimony in the tabernacle
of the congregation where I will meet you. God decides where He'll
meet His people at. And it's in Spring Lake at Bethel.
What are there? Fifteen people here? Fifteen
people. Life is right here and people
ain't coming. They ain't going to worship God.
They're going to worship a God of their imagination. But God tells him exactly how
to make the perfume. He tells them everything that's
to be in it. And it's called apothecary. And
no, I didn't know what that meant until I looked it up. And it's
modern day pharmacy. So we're not as intelligent as
we are. Pharmacy was back then. It was
right back then. Just like the blood clot in Asia
to be circumcised the 8th day. God tells us that. Man didn't
figure it out. Anything man figures out in this
world, God gives him the mind to do it at that time. He didn't
create it. He didn't invent it. God gave
it to him. And he's so ignorant and stupid
of this right here. The Word of God that He gave
us. He'd rather die and go to hell than believe what's in this
book. The Lord has told Moses everything
to do and what and how the tabernacle should be boiled. The Lord provided
the men and the ability and the talent. The Lord says, see, I
have called Basilii, the son of Uri, the son of Hur from the
tribe of Judah. Guess what he put in him? I have put wisdom, God did, to make all that I commanded
them. The tabernacle of the congregation, the ark of the testimony, the
mercy seat that is thereupon, all the furniture of the tabernacle,
the table, the furniture, the candlestick with all its furniture,
the altar, the incense, the burnt offering with all its furniture,
and even the laver, the brass basin where He told them how
to wash. To go into the Holy of Holies,
to go into God and offer that sacrifice. And the clothes of
the service and the holy garments for Aaron and the priestly garments
of his son to minister in the priest's office. And the anointing
oil and the sweet incense according to all that I have commanded
thee to do. When Moses came down from Mount
Sinai, what were they doing? Making a golden calf, worshiping.
worshipping nothing. After all they have been brought
through, they're worshipping nothing. Nothing. You know what
they're worshipping? A God that they can control.
And that's what men do today. They're worshipping a God that
they control and put in their pocket and they can pray to,
just like they're doing all over this country right now. They're
praying to a God that they can control. What was the Red Sea for Israel?
It was salvation. It was freedom. Freedom from
bondage. They walked across it on dry land. What was the Red
Sea for Egyptians? It was death. We are unto God
a sweet saver of Christ, and them that are saved, and in them
that perish. To the one we are a saver of
death unto death, and to the other a saver of life unto life. The cloud which followed them,
Christ was that cloud for Israel. It was light for that, for Israel. It was pitch darkness for the
Egyptians. Do you remember that plague of
the darkness? He said it was so thick, they just laid in the
bed for days, for two or three days, I can't remember. Do you
know? How many days? Three days? They
laid in the bed. So they sat right there and just
couldn't do nothing. That's what they could do when
they were chasing God's people. Nothing. Nothing. One core and a barrel. And the
250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, gathered
themselves against Moses and Aaron and said, You take too
much on yourself, seeing all the congregation is holy. No,
they weren't. This is why you don't touch God's
anointing. They were going to mess with
the man that God had chose to deliver Israel. Touch not my
anointing. Moses said to Cor, and to all
his company, saying, Even tomorrow the Lord will show you who are
His, and who is holy, and who He will cause to come near unto
Him. Even Him who He hath chosen will He cause to come near."
If God's chosen you, He's going to draw you, He's going to call
you, He's going to bring you to Himself. He's going to cause them to come
near unto Him. Moses called for Dathan and Abiram, and they refused
to come up. He said, we're not coming. They
said to Moses, speaking about Egypt, that Moses had taken them
up out of a land flowing with milk and honey. Now they were
in bondage. They were beaten. Their children
were killed. They were servants and slaves
to Pharaoh. They killed him and they called it a land flowing
with milk and honey. He said, you brought us up here
to kill us in the wilderness and make yourself a prince over
us. Korah gathered all the congregations,
Moses and at the door. There was 250 of them at the
door of the tabernacle. The Lord speaks unto Moses. He
don't speak unto Korah. He speaks to His man, Moses,
His anointing, Moses. The Lord spake unto him and said,
Separate yourself from the congregation that I may consume them. Moses
and Aaron fell on their faces and interceded with the Lord
not to destroy the congregation over the sin of Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram. They interceded like Christ does
with us. He's our great intercessor. Notice that the Lord spake unto
Moses, knocked the core. So they got up from the tabernacle
of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all sides. Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram come out and stood in the door of the congregation,
or they stood in their tents, and their wives, and their children,
and their little ones. What arrogance and what pride
these men had! They had spoken evil against
God's chosen priest, against the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They murmured about the sovereign
providence, rule, and reigning majesty of Christ when they challenged
Moses. Moses said, Hereby shall you
know that the Lord has sent me to do all the works, for I have
not done them of myself. If the men die the common death
of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men,
then the Lord hath not sent me. When Moses finished speaking
all these words, the Lord told him to speak, the ground claveth
under it, The earth opened her mouth, they swallowed them up
and their houses and all the things that appertained unto
Korah, all their goods, their children, their family, their
little ones, everything. They went down alive into the
pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among
the congregation. And there came out a fire and
consumed the 250 men that offered incense. The fire came out and
consumed them. God's a consuming fire. They dab in a by-hue and they
did the same thing. They were the sons of Aaron,
the high priests. They took both their censers
and they put fire upon their incense and they offered strange
fire before the Lord which He had commanded them not. They were saying, I'll worship
God the way I want to. God killed them. And these men
went out from the Lord And the Lord devoured them with the fire,
and they died before the Lord. Adam took of the tree of good
and evil. God told Adam not to eat of it.
He knew Adam would eat of it because he told him, in the day
you do, you're going to die spiritually. But Adam said the same thing. I'm going to be like God. God
dealt with him in mercy. He slew the lamb, shed the blood,
and he put it on Adam. Kyle Kane spoke to God, who am
I, my brother's keeper? John had just been through this,
but God taught, those children were taught in that home how
to worship God, how is to be approached. Kane said, I'm not
doing it that way. I'm going to give you what I
want to give you. Remember the two men, one rich,
one poor. The rich man had many flocks
and herds, but the poor man had but one little ewe lamb. He loved
it. He bought it. He kept it. He
stayed in his house, ate his food, slept in his bosom. He
loved it like a daughter. He loved that lamb. The rich
man had bunches of herds and flocks, but when the traveler
came, what did this prideful rich man do? He took that man's
little ewe lamb, slaughtered it, killed it, and gave it to
the traveler to eat. Nathan had told David this thing,
and David was angry against the rich man and said that that man
shall surely die and shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he
had no pity. Had David had any pity with Uriah
and Bathsheba? No, none. Nathan said to David,
you're the man. Self-righteousness, arrogance,
and pride. Isn't it amazing how we can see
everybody else's sin but our own? And that's the pride of
man. That's how he is. God sent Nathan, a prophet, a
preacher, to tell David and to preach to David. And the Lord
revealed to David in his heart what he had done. David sinned
against God, and he knew it. He said, Against D&D only have
I sinned. You cannot know anything about
sin, about deceitfulness of your heart, until the Lord Jesus Christ
reveals to you what you are, who you are, and that He is holy,
just, and merciful. We are dead dog sinners. Nothing else. That's it. Men can see everybody else's
sin but their own. That's the pride and self-righteousness.
We look down on people. We look at the rich man and say,
he must be saved. The poor man must be not because
he ain't got nothing. That's how men are. They look at everybody's status.
How high they are up on the totem pole makes no difference. None. Christ must call a man, draw
him to himself, reveal himself to him, And man hates, he has
nothing to do with salvation. It tells us a man is found laying
with another man's wife. The law says this, both of them
shall be killed. Both of them stoned to death.
David, by the law, should have been killed. But God dealt with
him in mercy. Nathan said, your sin has been
put away. God's put away your sin. He dealt
with him in mercy. He was going to hide his sin,
but David wasn't under the law. He was redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. David was bringing the ark of
God home, and David moved the ark of God on a new cart pulled
by oxen. And when they came to Nathan's
stressing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to steady the ark, He
was going to help God. It was going to fall. And the
anger of the Lord was kindled against him, and he smote him
right there for his error, and he died by the ark of God. You
remember, David got angry at God over that. David got angry
at God over what he did. David sinned. God had given them
in the prophets how to move that cart. The Levites were to carry
it in rings on their shoulder. David had a better way. Ezra
died for that. God said, don't you touch that
ark. No matter what, he was going to help God. He died. Adam's pride, when he ate, that
fruit from the tree the Lord God had forbidden him to do.
Adam was saying, I will be like God, and he died spiritually,
and he plunged mankind into sin. But Adam was under the blood
of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did Pilate say to the Lord
Jesus Christ? Don't you know I have the power
to crucify you and I have the power to release you? The Lord
Jesus Christ said to him, you could have no power against me
except that were given from the above. Pilate's pride, don't
you know who I am? The two thieves on the cross,
one said, if you be the Christ, save yourself and us, but the
other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, seeing you're
in the same condemnation? And we indeed just justly, for
we received the due reward of our deeds, but this man had done
nothing amiss. God dealt with that thief in
mercy. He dealt with the other in holy
justice. Jesus said to that thief, today
you shall be with me in paradise. Pharaoh said, who's the Lord
that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I know not
the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. I know not the Lord,
neither will I let them go. He didn't, and he died not knowing
him, but he knows him now. Who and what is the difference
between all these men? It's what Christ did at Calvary.
He put away our sin by the shedding of His blood, His precious blood. God the Father punished His Son
at Calvary for His people's sin. God took away our sins. All that
the Father giveth me, I shall lose nothing. Nothing. And Ezekiel,
he said, but I had pity. Johnny read this the other night
in the service. He said, but I had pity for my holy name's
sake. which Israel hath profaned among
the heathen, whether they went. And he tells him, I don't do
this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's
sake, which you have profaned among the heathen where you went.
And I will sanctify my great name which you have profaned
among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of
them. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the
Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. Well, I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of all countries, and I will
bring you into a good land, into your own land. Then I will sprinkle
you with clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. from
all your filthiness and from all your idols, I will cleanse
you. A new heart will I give you,
a new spirit will I put within you and I will take that stony
heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and
I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and my judgments and do them. And this is a warning. Daniel 8, When you have eaten
and are full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the
good land which He hath given you to possess. Beware that you
forget not the Lord your God, and not keeping His commandments,
His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you this day,
lest when you have eaten, and are full, and have built goodly
houses to dwell in, and when you have herds, and flocks, and
silver, and gold, and all is multiplied, then your heart be
lifted up, lifted up in pride. Look what I've got. And you forget
the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of
Egypt from the house of bondage, the bondage of sin. And you say
in your heart, My power, My might, the might of My hand hath begotten
Me all this wealth. The Lord says, Understand this,
in Daniel, it says, Understand this, that the Lord thy God giveth
not this good land to possess for the righteous, for thou art
a stiff-necked people. Me and Doug was talking about
this the other day when Doug had read it. He gives that good
land to possess, not for your righteousness, because you're
a stiff-necked people. Job 38, he says, where were you
when I laid the foundations of the earth? If you have understanding. God formed this world. He spoke
it into existence. He owns man. He turns his heart
wherever he will. And man's pride in his heart
says, I will be my own God. I will worship God the way I
want to. God the Father made the everlasting
covenant with God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to purchase
His people, pay the penalty for sin. He made Christ's sin for
us. Salvation is of the Lord. God
looks on the heart, the new heart He gives us. He writes His law
upon our heart. The Holy Spirit convicts us of
sin and we cry out and say, Lord, against Thee and Thee only have
I sinned. That's all we sing. God sees
my Savior and then He sees me. He sees Christ before He sees
me. Peter said, Lord, You know all
things. You know I love You. The Lord
Jesus is going to deal with man's pride in Christ. when we're here
on this earth or in death. Paul said in Philippians, but
what things were gained to me, those I count for loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made
conformable to His death." When Christ revealed Himself to Paul
on the road to Damascus, what did Paul do? He fell on the earth
and said, Lord, what will you have me to do? Paul was a chosen
vessel. What was Paul way before that?
A Pharisee. Proud. Hated God. He was a chosen
vessel unto God. God dealt with his pride. Christ
asked Peter, Who do men say that I am? Who do people say that
I, the Son of Man, am? They answered and said, Some
say you are John the Baptist, some say Elias, others say Jeremiah,
and some say you are one of the prophets. Christ said, But who
do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, and she
said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but my Father which
is in heaven. Now you remember, I think it's
in Matthew 26, the Lord tells them that they're
going to deny Him. And Peter says, I'll die before I deny
Him. That's Peter's pride. That's his human pride. He said,
I'll never deny you. And God said, you will. Before
the cock crows, you'll go three times. And then when the Lord
looked at Peter, I know it wasn't an ugly look. It wasn't a piercing,
see, I told you so. It was a mercy look. Because
when Christ was resurrected, what did he say? Call the disciples
and Peter. Call Peter. Tell that Peter,
no, I love him. Call him. In closing, 1 Samuel, Hannah's
prayer, she says, talk no more exceedingly proudly. Let not
arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by Him actions are weighed. This was in the bulletin by Scott
Richardson in Lantana Grace Church. This is a sinner's resume. I
am a sinner saved by the grace of God, trusting only in the
Lord Jesus Christ. My standing is in Christ, my
objective that I may know Him, my hope to be like Him, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of His grace. Oh, that we may know Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ." That article that John put in the
bulletin, Are we pretending to worship Christ? Are we pretenders? God looks on your heart. He knows.
He knows. He knows. Is Christ precious
to you? Is the Word of God precious to
you? Is the Word of God more precious than the food you eat
and everything else? I love my brother, but the Lord
has given me a greater love for Christ. Paul says, Yea, doubtless, I
count all things but loss. For the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ my Lord, for I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found
in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. Oh, that I may know him. What
do you think of Christ? What do you think of Christ?
Carl Jr., will you lead us in prayer?