You guys had it really, really
bad down here. We had four and three quarters
inches and y'all easily doubled that. Maybe. It's rough. But we know where every drop
came from and where it was supposed to go. So that being said, keep
your eyes for the next one because it might be coming. Anything
else to be mentioned this morning? I'll fight through this best.
Yes, thankful we're all safe. I'll fight through this this
morning. I've been fighting up a respiratory stuff, but. It'd
be alright. Anything else? Let's go to the
Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we we do thank
you. For this day. It's blessed day of the week.
We've. Gather here together. As brothers and sisters in Christ.
To hear your word preached. Lord, we ask that that continues
to be so here today this morning. In the words that are said. The
scriptures that are read in the songs that are saying. Help us
in all things that we do Lord to give you. Glory all glory,
honor and praise. Lord, help us. Help me. We don't
love you enough, Lord, for all that you do, for all that you
are. Such sinful creatures we are.
Help us. You're our only help. You've promised, Lord, that if
two or three are met together in your name, that you'd be with
us. And may two or three be met together here this morning. And
we know your promise is true. Amen. The title of this originally was just going
to be called One, but I've changed it to The Importance
of One, Not Many. The Importance of One and Not
Many. So if you would, let's go to
the very beginning. Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created
heaven and earth. And in John 1, it says, in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. And in Colossians 1.16, We see,
for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things, you will find that in every, excuse me, And he is before all things and
all things are by him. I left out a period here. When,
when looking over this word created, when studying that word created,
I looked at all the versions, all the words in the, in the
scriptures that come up, the word created. And in every instance,
it refers to as God being the creator. He is the creator. So some may try to claim that
Christ and God are separate. They're not the same. But both
in John 1 and in Colossians 1, they are clearly declaring and
referring to Christ. So are there two separate Godheads?
Well, what about the Holy Spirit? Are there three separate Godheads? No. There's just one God. Ephesians
1 proclaims that we are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the
Son, and sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. No, there
is but one God in three persons or three parts. The Trinity of
God is certain. 1 John tells us in 1 John 5,
7, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in the earth, the spirit in the earth, the spirit in the
water and the blood. And these three agree in one.
We have only one God. And God said, let us make man
after our likeness and let them have dominion over the sea and
over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all
the earth. and over every creeping thing." I'm in Genesis 1, 26
and 27 here. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God, created
him male and female, created he them. Now we have, in the
scriptures, one God and one man. Genesis 2, verse 5. and every plant of the field
before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before
it grew, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the
earth, and there was no man to till the ground. But there went
up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the
ground, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden, And there he put the man whom he had formed,
and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that
is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life
also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of
good and evil. And the Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord commanded
And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of
the garden thou mayest eat freely, thou mayest freely eat, excuse
me. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat, for in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So now we have one
God, one man, and one command. And it's vitally important to
see that this command was given only to Adam because Eve, because
he was to become our federal head, our federal representative. And Eve had not been created,
verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is
not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help meet
for him. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept. And he took one of his
ribs and closed up the flesh thereof and the rib which the
Lord God had taken from man made he woman and brought her into
man. And Adam said, this is now bone
of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman
because she is taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall
be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed. We never see in the scriptures
where this command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil was ever given to her, but we do know that she knew
it. We know that she knew this command. Look in chapter 3 starting
with verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
had said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it,
lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree desired to make one wise, she took the
fruit thereof and did eat, and gave all certain to her husband
with her, and he did eat. Here we have one sin, have the
one sin, the one events which physically and more importantly
spiritually condemned all descendants of the first man for all time.
In 1st Timothy 2.14 it says, And Adam was not deceived, but
the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Adam sinned,
with his eyes wide open, and the whole relationship between
a holy God and a now sinful man was destroyed. So we have one
God, one man, one commandment, and one sin. And this act did
not catch God by surprise, and it did not usurp his authority
and glory to be God. Before the first sin had ever
been committed, the plan for a savior of those sinful wretches
had already been planned, promised, and performed. Christ is the
lamb slain from eternity, and he has chosen us, one people,
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Genesis 3.15. He gives us the first promise
of a coming Savior, a man who is the child of God and made
of a woman. He says, I will put enmity between
thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head and you shall bruise his heel. So now the scriptures
have given us one man, excuse me, one God, one man, one command,
one sin, and one savior. The scriptures are plain regarding
man and sin. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, you shall surely die. And in Romans 5, 12, it says,
so as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all have sin. This death is the condemnation
for all sinners, not just physical death, but spiritual death. We are born sinners, we're sinners
by practice, and we're sinners by choice. We are false and full
of sin. And we also know from the scriptures
that God is just, and he will punish sin. In the beginning,
God saw everything that he created, and he said, it's what? It is
good. It is good. In Genesis chapter
6, God looked over creation and pronounced it evil. The thought
of man, every man was evil continually, it says. God and justice plan
to destroy all mankind, but the scripture says that Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. There's nothing in Noah that
caused God to show him grace. It was all of God. Noah was a
sinful man just like the rest. The judgment of the world, the
flood, and there's only been one flood. God promised never
to send another. What we had the other night was several hours
of rain. Can you imagine 40 days and 40
nights? But God promised there'd only
be one flood. This was an act of God's wrath while the salvation
of Noah and his family was an act. of God's mercy. So looking
briefly at the Ark, we see several pictures of God's appointed way
to deliver sinners from God's justice. The Ark was the only way of deliverance. There's one way. And Christ is
the only Savior. The only way. He is the way.
He is the only and all-sufficient Redeemer. Acts 4.10 says, Be
it known unto you and to all the people of Israel that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by him that this man stand here
before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
is there salvation in any other? For there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. The ark was big enough for all
who came in. Christ said, all that the Father
hath given me, giveth me, shall come to me, and to him, and him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And this is
the Father's will which he hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again on the last day. And that ark was a safe refuge. Christ is the only sure foundation,
the sure refuge, and our sure hiding place. The ark had only
one door. Back to that reference of one.
And it was sufficient for the tallest giraffe down to the smallest
ant. Christ is the only door. By me,
if any man enter, he shall be saved. This includes the richest
man and the poorest widow, the oldest man down to the youngest
child, or the Gentile Greek or the Jew. Matters not. There's
only one door, and we all must enter in through Christ. And
the ark only had one window for light to enter. and Christ is
the one light of the world, the only light of the world. We are
dead and blind and there's no light in us. We cannot produce
any light. John 3, 19 says, and this is
the condemnation that light cometh into the world and men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. We must be given
eyes to see and the light must be revealed unto us. The scriptures
plainly tell us that there's no remission of sins without
the shedding of blood. After the fall, God covered the
sinful naked bodies of Adam and Eve with the coats of skins,
the first sacrifice. Abel's sacrifice of the firstlings
of his flocks were accepted, while Cain's, the work of his
hands, were not accepted. Abraham went to Mount Moriah
to sacrifice his only son, but God provided a substitute, a
ram caught in a thicket. Here's a picture of Christ, our
substitute, God's only begotten son, who came He became our substitute as he
suffered and bled and died for his people on the cross. The
Jewish religion pertaining to the remission and forgiveness
of sins was established on animal sacrifices. The law required
particular sacrifices for different ceremonies and sin offerings.
And here it is a vast importance where we can see a major difference
between the thought of one versus many. Have you ever considered
how many lambs and bullocks and goats and dove and other animals
were sacrificed? Can you fathom the number? Why so many? Did they not take away sin? No. Each of these sacrifices were
established to picture the one and true sacrifice the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary. Turn to Hebrews 10, so you stay
awake for me here for a minute. Hebrews chapter 10. I know I like to read a lot of
scriptures when I'm saying things, but I feel like if I back them
up with scriptures, and if it's not in my own private interpretation,
they're true. In this chapter, down to verse
18, it says exactly what I'm trying to say here. For the law,
having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which were
offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they have not ceased to be offered, because
that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience
of sins, But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance, again,
made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared for me. This
is Christ speaking. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, I come to do thy will,
O God. Above, when he said, sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offerings, and an offering for sin, thou
wouldest not, neither hadst thou hadst pleasure therein, which
are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he might establish the second. By the witch will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstools. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. For after that, he said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
said the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. The many couldn't
do it, but the one did. Yes, it is the one death of the
only begotten Son of God, which is that sufficient sacrifice.
During the night of the Passover, the blood of a spotless and pure
lamb or goat was to be put upon the doorpost and lintel. This
was a night of judgment that was to become upon the Pharaoh
and the Egyptians. For at midnight, the Lord brought
death to the firstborn of every man and creature where their
blood was not seen. There's no man, woman, or child
who will escape God's righteousness, righteous, all-consuming judgment,
and wrath if their sins are not covered by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by his blood. Regarding the thought of many,
verses one, think of the false pagan idol worshipers, the gods
of idols. Um, I was looking this up and
some guy listed like 35 different ones that were mentioned throughout
the scriptures. Uh, not counting the ones that
acts and I'll talk about those in a moment. Um, but I just wanted
to look at a couple. There were gods for almost any
and everything that you could think about. Um, Beelzebub is
a God, the Lord of the flies. That's what his name, if you
look down what it breaks down to, he was a god, lord of the
flies. And this same man that I was
reading this morning said that even though it doesn't mention
so, that the nine, I got a hole in my head because
I didn't ever write it down, in Egypt, where the plagues,
the nine plagues, each one of those was probably putting down
one of those gods, because we know from the ancient writings
and stuff that they did worship the frogs and so forth and so
on. So I thought that might be a way to look at what those nine
plagues were. And then there's the tenth one, which we saw was
the Passover. But there's so many of those
different gods. There's little g-gods, there's idol gods. And
they couldn't do anything. They couldn't do anything. especially
save somebody, a sinner. They couldn't do it. None could even stand in the
presence of God. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 5. And the Philistines took the
Ark of God, that's where God's presence is in the Ark of God,
and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. And while the Philistines
took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, this
is a little fish god, and set it up by Dagon. And when they
of Ashod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his
face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. And they took
their god, And think about this, they took their God, picked him
up, and set him back on the shelf. And when they arose early on
the morning, on the morrow morning, behold,
Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark
of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his
hands were cut off upon the threshold, and only the stump of Dagon was
left to him. Therefore, neither the priest
of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold
of Dagon in Ashdod until this day. But the hand of the Lord
was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote
them with emeralds, and even Ashdod and the coast thereof. God of Israel shall not abide
with us, for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our God."
Remember the story of Elijah? and the 450 prophets of Baal,
the one and the many. A major question was put to Ahab,
the prophets that morning, and to the people. Elijah said, how long halt ye
between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. If you would, turn to chapter
1 Kings, it's not too far away, chapter 18, verse 36. We're not going to read the whole
chapter, we're going to read a little bit of it. So Elijah tells these prophets,
take your sacrifices and put them on the altar, And all 450
of you, go ahead and start praying the bell. And the challenge was
whichever God would consume that sacrifice, that was the true
God. And these 450 prophets of Bell,
they started early in the morning and they started praying and
wailing. And Elijah says, wake him up, perhaps your God's asleep.
And they continued even to the point where they started cutting
themselves. And nothing happened. Nothing happened. Now remember,
we're in the midst of a three-year drought and water was scarce. Verse 36. And it came and passed. Oh, excuse
me. Let me before I get to verse
36. So Elijah set up the altar. He placed the slain land upon
it. He saturated with an abundance of water to where even the moat
was overflowing. And water was some kind of scarce
at that point. 1st Kings 18 verse 36. Do I have the wrong reference
written out again this morning? I may have it. Maybe it's 2nd
Kings 18. Let me see. Hmm? Was I right? Okay. Verse 36, and it came to pass
at that time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that
Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God
in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these
things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and thou hast
turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell,
and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,
and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. When I read that this morning,
It not only got the sacrifice and the wood, I can understand
the land burning up. And I can understand the wood.
And I can understand that water would be heated to the point
it's gone. But folks, it consumed the stones. It's got to be hot
to consume a stone. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their face And they said, the Lord, he is the God,
the Lord, he is God. And it's not just the Old Testament
people who are idolaters. We can look to ourselves and
we can look to the New Testament. Acts chapter 17. You talking about some People
who were in idolatry, they had an idol for everything. Everything. And just to make sure they didn't
miss one, they had a special one named. Starting in verse 16. Now while Paul waited for them
in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the whole
city given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the
synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the
market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers
of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him and some
said, what will this babbler say? Others some, He seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
to him and to Areopagus, saying, may we know what this new doctrine
wherefore of thou speakest is. For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears, we would therefore know what these things
mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were where they spent their time and nothing else but either
to tell or to hear something new. Then Paul stood in the midst
of them at Mars Hill and said of them, you men of Athens, I
perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. For as
I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,
to the unknown God. They were trying to make sure
they had everything covered in case they missed one. So they
put one to the unknown God Listen what Paul said Whom therefore
ye ignorantly worship Him the I declare I unto you there's
but one God and there is but one message which must be preached
and Believed and that's Christ and him crucified and I can promise
you that's what Paul preached to those people There is one
more many that I want to see, and that is the law of God. Yes,
it is singular when viewed in its entirety, but there are many
parts to it. There's the ceremonial part,
the sacrificial part, and the written part. There's nothing
wrong with God's law. It's holy. It's perfect. But
it was never given in order that we could be saved by it. We can't
keep it. We cannot keep it. Romans 3,
19 says, Now we know that what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world may be guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But yet we still see people.
We know people. We were people. And if God hasn't
brought you out, you'll still be that person who tries to keep
those 10 commandments. But there's three parts of that
law. There's the ceremony and the sacrifice. We don't keep
that. The law can't save. but there's
one who kept every point of it, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's not only the high priest, he's the altar, and he's the
sacrifice. He did for us what we can't do.
He came into this earth without the aid of a human father, for
if he'd had a human father, he'd have been like us, like sinful
Adam. But he's the promised seed of that woman, and his father
is God. He is the perfect God-man. And
he stayed on this earth some 33 and a half years, and not
one time did he ever falter, did he ever break the law. He
fulfilled what we cannot do. Many people in all times, especially
in today, practice a do religion. Do this, don't do that, and all
will be well. Do is an active verb, which means
there are many things to be done. True religion in salvation is
a done religion. One, John 19, 28 says, Jesus,
knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scriptures
might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now there was a vessel set, there
was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with
vinegar and put it upon Hyssop and put it into his mouth. When
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he
gave up the ghost. And what did his death accomplish?
A perfect Christ, the son of God, could not die. So he became flesh and lived
a perfect righteous life. As our representative and in
our stead and on that cross, He bore our sins, and Almighty
God saw him as a sinner and slew him in our stead. He was bruised
for our iniquities. He paid the sin debt for all
of his people. His soul was made an offering for our sins. He
became and is the surety of a better covenant, and he is able to save
his people to the uttermost. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. He who
entered into heaven with his own blood, having obtained eternal
redemption for his people, will see to it that his people all
have the eternal redemption he obtained for them. Every sinner
bought by blood shall at last be brought to God. Truth and
justice make it plain. Jesus did not die in vain. None for whom the Savior bled
can be severed from their head. Called by grace yet forever,
Jesus is the mighty Savior. Not one soul for whom Christ
shed his blood at Calvary shall ever perish. All of his elect
shall be saved. All of his redeemed ones are
secure. Justice demands it. he shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Our sins are gone. The law has
no claim on us and Christ can not fail. Isaiah 45, 23 to 25
says, I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth
in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee
shall bow, and every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say,
in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory. So in closing, what are some
of the wondrous more ones that we have in Christ? Salvation
is of the Lord singular. It's not of Christ in my works. It's not of Christ in my deeds
or Christ in my decision. No, salvation is of the Lord
and the Lord alone. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. He is the Alpha and Omega. He
alone is the great good and chief shepherd of his sheep, and we
only have one master to follow. He alone is our wisdom, our righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He has one bride, the church,
and she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Turn, if you
will, to Ephesians chapter 4. Starting in verse four. There is one body, one body in
Christ. And one spirit, even as you are
called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and father of all, who is above all and through all,
and in you all. Our gospel is one of the good
news that Christ alone came to seek and to save sinners. And
may it be our prayer forever that we only look to him for
our salvation. Amen.