crown him with many crowns. 234. Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave Awake, my soul, and see of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. Behold his hands and side, Resplendent,
visible above, In beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully
bear that sight, But now forbids his wandering eyes who triumphed o'er the grave,
who rose victorious to the strife for those he came to save. His glories now
we sing, who died and rose on high, who died an eternal life
to bring, and lives that death may die. Oh It is a great honor and a great
privilege to introduce this man who, with all the other reasons
that he might have in the world, have one reason to give him honor. It's the message that he has.
The message that all of God's preachers have. The very message
we just heard from this dear brother sitting right here, Luke.
Christ. and Him crucified. Brother Compton,
God bless you as you feed this sheep. I repeat what Brother Luke said
in thanking you all for everything you've done, all your hospitality,
You treat us like somebody. We're nobody. I like that old
black chorus. I heard them sing years ago,
said, I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody that somebody
doesn't save anybody. We're a bunch of nobodies, aren't
we? Nothing. But you all treat us
like we're somebody. The love of God's people, half
of one another. Thank you very much. Thank you
for all the hard work. Thank you for the food and hospitality. It's just been enjoyable. The message is good. Thank you.
That's a blessing. Harry, thank you. Turn with me
to Acts chapter 14. The book of Acts chapter 14. I was talking with my father
one time, and you know, he traveled to various places, and I get
the opportunity to travel some, sometimes go a long ways, and
we're, I'm 2700 miles from home. It's a long way to go to Luke,
come a long way, Eric, Brady, Brady's pretty. And Paul and
Silas, Paul and Marvis, Timothy, Silas, they traveled long distance. Why? I was talking to my father,
and I said, I'd really rather stay home and preach to our people. That's where I belong, and that's
where I want to be. This is where you want to be every Sunday,
right here, preaching to people. But if you're asked to go somewhere,
you'd like to feel it's of the Lord, don't you? You want to
feel like there's a purpose. Purpose. Well, why are we here? That's the way you began it,
wasn't it? Our purpose is to preach. What's a preacher do?
He preaches the gospel. Look at verse 21, Paul and Barnabas,
and they preach the gospel. That's it. Paul, preaching, teaching,
God, Christ gave prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers
to preach, to teach the gospel. They returned again to Lystra,
Draconium, and Ideal. Here I am again. I'm back here
again by the purpose of God and the invitation of our brother
here. What am I here to do? Same thing. Preach the gospel.
Right on. Confirming the souls of disciples,
exhorting them to continue in the faith. We preach the faith. What is the faith? Well, we've
been hearing it since we've been here. It's not a doctrine, it's
a person, isn't it? Amen. A person. We preach Christ. We really do. That's not a slogan.
You should know that now, shouldn't you? You know it from your pastor,
but these men, that's not a slogan that we throw out there. It's
what we do. We really do. And you're witnesses
of that. You've heard Christ preached, haven't you? Very clearly. That's what God's preachers did.
They really did. They preached Him. Paul said,
God forbid I should go where He said on the cross of Christ.
He said, woe is unto thee if I preach not the gospel. This
is why we're here. And exhorting the people, disciples,
to continue in the faith. And we must through much tribulation
enter the kingdom of God. This faith is going to be tried.
Faith is going to be tried. It's going to be tested. Read
on, verse 23, "...and when they had ordained elders in every
church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord
on whom they believed." So that's why I'm here. That's why we're
here, to preach the Gospel, to confirm, or that is, to re-establish
what we already know, to settle you, settled in your mind that
strengthened you in the faith to exhort you to continue in
the faith, to commend you to Him on whom you believe. That's
why we are here. That's what I want to do tonight. And I'm going to repeat much
of what has been said because we have nothing new to say. You
don't want to hear anything new, do you? Do you, Andre? You don't
want to hear anything new. If I say something new, get up
and leave. This is the Old Gospel. The Old
Panther is a good way in. The Old, Old Gospel. So we're here to exhort. Look
at Hebrews with me. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter
2. This is Hebrews, as you may know,
is the summary of the whole Old Testament Scripture. Where does
it begin and end? With Christ. With Christ. Now chapter 2 of Hebrews, look
at verse 12. Go to Hebrews 10. Speaking of confirming and exhorting
one another, look at verse 23. It says, Let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering. He's faithful to promise. Let's consider one another to
provoke our love. To love who? To love what? To
love Christ. Love the truth. Love one another.
To good works. This is a good work we're doing
here today. Not for salvation, but because of it. It's a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord. It's a good thing to sing
praise. It's a good thing. God is pleased. This is a sacrifice
of our lives. God is pleased, well pleased
with His sacrifice. Let's offer unto Him a sacrifice
of our praise and our thanksgiving. This is a good thing. Good thing. Let's provoke one another to
do that. Come on, brother. Come on. Not
forsaking, verse 25, the assembling of ourselves together, as some
do, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see
the day approaching. That is Christ coming. It's near. These are the last days. Some
shall depart from the faith. Many shall. This thing is urgent. This message is urgent. We're
not just preaching sermon. We're preaching a message of
life or death. So we exhort one another, don't
we? Exhorting one another. Brother Don Bell came to Rocky
Mountain years ago, 30 years ago, when I first started pastoring
there, 35 years ago. And we had a mountain peak called
Peaks of Honor, two peaks. I hope you can climb that when
you come visit. But I'm going with you. This was long before, me and
I used to run a little bit, but this was long before I did that,
and I didn't have, I wasn't in very good cardio shape. Well, the mountain is pretty
steep, and it's a mile and a quarter to the top of this mountain,
and I'd never been up there, and I heard that, and they told
me the view from the top of that mountain was just unsurpassed. 180 degrees everywhere you could
see, as far as the eye could see the horizon. It's just beautiful. I had to see it. Don Bell was
coming. And we came and I said, let's
go to the Pixar Park. So we did. And we got there. And there's two ways you can
get up there. You can walk or you can take a bus. There was
a mountain road, a bus travel for older people. like me now, but all right, you
can take a bus or you can walk up that mountain. And I said,
let's go, let's walk. And he said, okay. So we started
walking. And as brethren do, like those
two cycles on the road to Emmaus, you know, we were talking about
our Lord and talking about the gospel and going on. I said,
and we were walking and walking. I was getting a little bit tired
and I saw a sign. I said, look, if there's a sign,
it can't be too much further. And the sign got up, and the
sign said, you've come one quarter mile, you have a mile to go. I said, let's take the bus. Don
said, no, we can do it, we can make it this way. But this continued
all the way up that mountain. We'd go a little while, and Don
said, let's take the bus. I said, no brother, come on,
we've come this far. We were exhorting one another the whole
way. Come on, come on. And the way we exhorted one another,
I hear the view is marvelous. And we're talking about the gospel.
And you know when you're talking about the things of Christ, these
trials and these troubles go away. The weariness, it goes
away. It helps you in this walk of
faith. Well, we may. right at the top,
and the view, it was, we were both speechless. The view was
unspeakable, unspeakably beautiful. And we were tired, we were hurt,
but we forgot all about the climb. No aches, no pains, no troubles,
it was worth it all, it was worth it all. So I'm exhorting you
to continue, it won't be much longer, Matt, we're almost there. Now is your salvation nearer
than when you first prayed. This is what it means. And you
do this by coming to hear the gospel, don't you? You keep coming.
You're not hearing a new message. One way you know the gospel is
gospel to you, it means good news, is if you can hear the
same old story like Exodus 12. How many times have you heard
Exodus 12? Is it still a blessing to you?
Is it still good news to you? That's how you know The gospel
is gospel to you. It never gets old. Some of those
children of Israel that God was angry with, not well pleased,
it's when they said, we loathe this black bread. We're tired
of this. We want something else. And God
said, OK. That's when he sent those fiery
serpents and many of them perished. But if you don't loathe, if you
continue to love this wonderful bread, Christ the bread of life,
That's a good sign that you belong to me. It's not much longer now. Not much longer. Now we'll stay. Hebrews 11. Go to Hebrews 11
with me. This is the chapter my dad used
to call the hall of faith. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. I remember my father as a young
believer. He would say that he's going
to preach on faith. And I remember, and I'm being
honest with you, thinking, that's not exciting. I remember thinking that. But
after he got through it. See, when you're talking about
faith, you're talking about the life that's in Christ. You're
talking about Christ. Faith is life in Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
Just another word for Christ. To believe in Christ. To trust
in Christ. The new birth. Faith is a word. It means you believe Christ.
You love Christ. You hope in Christ. You walk
with Christ. You know Christ. You have a union
with Christ. That's faith. It's the life of God and the
soul of man. It's faith. It's the new birth. I want to
know if I have this. He that hath the Son Half-life. He that hath this faith in the
Son believeth on the Son half-life. Not my death. Half-life. Do you
have this faith? Well, let's see. I'm going to
give you three examples. The Lord's going to give us three
examples tonight and one more tomorrow. Now look at verse 1. He tells us what faith is. It's
the substance or the ground and the confidence of things hoped
for. What do we hope for? What do you really hope for?
What are you looking for? David said this, now Lord, what
wait I for? What am I waiting for? Are you
waiting for your ship to come in? Or are you already in it? The ark is cracked. David said,
what wait I for? I'm waiting on you. Waiting on
the Lord. Waiting to be redeemed. Job said,
all my days I'm going to wait till my change comes. With my
eyes, I'm going to see my Redeemer. We hope for eternal life, to
be with our God in glory, with His people, with the saints.
We're going to sing it with the saints in glory, gathered by
the crystal sea. That's not just a song, that's
the truth. Yes, sir. Is that where you want
to be? That's who you want to be with?
That's who you want to see? Isn't it? If you sat down and
watched Him there, like Eric Creek, and you want to see Him
in person, don't you? If you do, you want to be with
Him. What is the ground and confidence
of our hope to be in glory, our hope of eternal? What is our
confidence? What is our ground? What is our hope that we're going
to be with Him? Can you sing this song? My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame of feeling, but wholly lean on His name. On Christ the
solid rock I stand. Do you? Is this your hope of
eternal life? This is what you need to ask
people. People that claim to be saved,
people that claim to believe in God and all that. What is
your hope of eternal life? Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth will speak. Whatever they say, whatever comes
out of their mouth first is what they believe or rather believe.
What is your hope of eternal life? Can you give your hope
of eternal life in one word? Can you? Somebody tell me. Christ. That's it. You're going
to be there. If that's the abundance of your
heart and that comes out of your mouth, that's what you're going
to say and you're going to be there. He's our hope. He's our ground.
He's our compass. Isn't it? Ground. That's the
foundation. Evidence of things not seen.
Evidence. This faith is a supernatural...
Faith is not a choice that we make. It's the choice that God
makes. This is what Brother Luke was
saying. Ephesians 1.19 says, We believe according to the working
of His mighty power. It's a miracle that anybody believes
that. Anybody believes an unseen God. There are these things that
the people of God did in this chapter in Hebrews. With man,
that's impossible. Not with God. Not with this God-given
faith. They endured a seeing Him who
was invisible. What they did is clear that God
was doing it in them. Amen. If you believe this truth
that the world hates, that's a miracle. If anybody believes it's a miracle
of God's grace, a miracle or something, do you? It's the evidence
of things not seen. Verse two, by it the elders obtained
a good report. I like that. It's not that we're
trying to have a good report card so we'll pass. Let me just read it to you. And we're gonna read the report
that God gave of these people that for the faith he gave. But
let me read this to you in Colossians 1. This is good, this is a good
report. Paul said this, we give thanks to God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard
of your faith. In Christ, where is it? In Christ
Jesus. And of the love which you have
to all the saints. Love, by this shall all men know
you are my disciple. Give me a love for the truth,
love for God, love for His people. We heard of your faith, we heard
of your love and your hope that is laid up for you in heaven.
What's that? Not why, who? Right. We heard before, and you
heard it, how you heard it, before you got all this, was the word
of the truth of the gospel, preaching the gospel. This is how every
single person God saved is saved, by the preaching of the gospel.
It's not the preacher, it's not his preaching, but it's the gospel
is our love. They all hear it. They all believe
it. Faith, hope, and love. And Paul said, we heard of this.
I'm going home to give a good report of Rescue Baptist Church. There's some people there that
love the gospel. I did before. I said, they're still loving
the gospel. John's still preaching the gospel. They're continuing
in the faith. They're still believing. That's
how you know. Because what God does, He is
for you. It's a gift. It's a gift of God. And His gift
is without repentance. He doesn't take it back. Aren't
you glad? Verse in our text. Hebrews 11.
Verse 3. Through faith we understand the
world's refrained by the Word of God. It begins with God, our
Creator. If God is Creator of all things,
that means He's absolutely sovereign over everything. Isn't it? And He is. What God are we talking
about? Who created all things? Well,
God. People say that. God did. Well, who without Christ
was not anything made that was made? By Him were all things
created. He is the fullness of God in
a Bible, isn't He? Jesus. We've been talking about
Jesus. He's the one that made everything.
All power, He said, is given unto Me in heaven and earth.
Because He's the one that made it. He can do with His own what
He will. That makes Him sovereign. That
makes Him the owner of all things. He can do with what He will with
His own, and that's exactly what He does. Whatsoever the Lord
please, that did He with heaven and earth. That's the Jesus Christ
of Scripture. That's the real Jesus Christ
of Scripture. He's God our creator. And being
a creator, that means he's the owner, that means he's the judge. Romans 9 clearly speaks of that,
that hath not the power, power over the clay. Our God's the
potter, isn't it? We are clay. One time I got some
clay, a ball of clay, and I set it up on the pulpit, a good object
let me put it set up on the pulpit. And I spoke to that clay and
it didn't do anything. Come on clay! That clay has no
sound, it has no life, it's dead dirt. That's where we came from
and that's what we're going back to. What's the hope of clay? Of that lump? Of it being anything
of any value. The potter is going to have to
make it into something. Mold it into something. Create
it into something. Hopefully. For his glory, his
gift. He can do what he has to do.
And he does. And this is Jesus. This is Jesus
Christ. Can I not do what I want? Yes
you can. And he does. He's the owner.
He's the judge. He's the ruler. Do not debate
over this. People don't debate with blind
men and deaf men. It's useless to try to debate
with a blind man over binaural colors. They're blind. Don't do it. Don't argue with
it. It brings our God down. He has to reveal himself to you. And once he does, once you're
born again by his power, by his gospel, it's all clear to you.
There's no debate then. Then you clearly see. In Romans
1 it says, the things of God are clearly seen. It's the eternal
power of God. But it's not clearly seen to
blind men, is it? How do you clearly see? He gives
you eyes to see. Do you see? And once He gives
you eyes to see, you see everything. It's His creation for His glory,
for His honor. And if He's Creator, if He's
sovereign over creation, He's certainly sovereign over salvation.
Oh yeah, he's the potty. He's the potty with the flooding.
Well look at verse four. Now here's the first example
of saving the faith today. And this is significant. This
is vital. This is very revealing. By faith
Abel offered unto God more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testified of his
giving, and by it he'd been dead, yet speak. Abel's offering, what
did he bring? Blood. Blood. It's no accident that Brother
Luke brought that message. I was gonna have you turn to
Exodus 12. I was gonna read Exodus 12, one through 13, but Luke
did it for me. Abel brought blood, didn't he?
That's the foundation of faith. It's significant that the first
thing God shows us, the foundation of saving faith, is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of the Lamb. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. It is the blood that makes the
tomb of the Son. Every one of God's people know
this. They know this. There are no exceptions, are
there? Abel's the first example. God is showing us clearly that
if you come to God, if you believe God, this is the first thing
you're going to believe about coming to God, this Holy God.
You cannot come without blood. Blood, blood. God said, when
I see the blood, it's not even when I see your face. It's when
I see the blood. You know, I'm glad, so glad you
preached that because out of the mouth of two or three witnesses,
the thing's established. Amen. This is the witness of
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It's the
blood that maketh atonement for the soul. And now here, this
brother preached Christ on the cross. He preached Exodus 12.
I've often thought, Eric, that two of us ought to take the exact
same text and preach it back to back. I've often thought that.
I want to go first. But that's what Luke did. And I started sitting there thinking,
I'm going to quote that. Well, what does it matter? I told our young preachers one
time. We got young. John's 68. But I told them, I
said, if you're preaching, and we all do this. There's times
we fumble and mumble and think we're just failing. You know, you're ready to quit
and you want to get out. You're glad when this is over,
you're good. So when you start feeling that
way, you don't feel like you have any liberty, just every
now and then holler, look! Look! You're on the land. Do that, it's a good message. That's a good message. And I
see the blood. We need to hear the blood. We
need to believe it's the blood of Christ atonement. This is
the difference. This is the difference between
God's people and the world. They know that their only hope
of salvation is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They really
do. That's not a doctrine. That's their heart's hope. It's
a foundation. That's significant, isn't it?
Cain and Abel. The story of Cain and Abel. Where
did Abel learn this? Without preaching. Who preached
this blood to Abel and Cain? Adam. And I'm sure their mother told
them too. What happened? Where'd they hear
it? Where'd Adam and Eve hear it? Well, Adam and Eve, as you
know the story, this is where it all began. This is where all
men struggled. What happened in the garden?
God said, you rebel against me, you're going to die. And they did, and they died.
And they, after they fell, after they sinned against God, they
feared God, lost many things, But the Lord Jesus Christ, I
believe, don't you believe it was Christ walking in the garden
that day, the voice of God? Don't you? Absolutely. I believe
it was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Another appearance,
a bodily appearance of Christ. His delights were with the sons
of men, Father. He rejoiced in the inhabitable
parts of the earth. And some of the most foundation
stories, Abraham and Noah, I believe it was Christ speaking
to each of them. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to
Adam and Eve, the first sinners. Who better to speak to the first
sinners than the Savior of sinners? He came to them. They were afraid.
They were trying to cover themselves. Just afraid, fearing God. He spoke to them. He spoke to
them. What did He speak to them? What
did he say to them? What had convicted them of their
sin? What have he done to them? Where
are you? Look at you. Eve, did you do
it? Yes, he knew. He knew what he was going to
do. He knew what they were going to do. Our Lord purposed the
following, didn't He? It wouldn't happen. But what
he told them was that a woman's seed, a woman's seed is going
to come, a woman is going to have a child, and that child
is going to be the Christ child. He's going to be the Messiah,
he's going to be the substitute, he's going to be the redeemer,
the savior of sinners. He's going to have to come and
give his life. You're going to die, but to keep
from dying eternally, he's going to have to give his make His
soul an offering for sin, that you might have this eternal life
in Him. He's going to have to die, and
the life of the flesh is in the blood. At that point, they didn't
know what blood was. They had never seen blood. They
didn't know what death was. They'd never seen anything die.
You understand? And He's telling them this, but
He's got to illustrate it to them. The woman's seed's going
to come. He's going to do this all for my people. And then he
took, he took a lamb right before their eye. A lamb, a beautiful
black spotted blemished lamb. Perhaps it was a pet of Eve's. She loved it. Innocent lamb. And right before their horror
stricken eyes, he took a knife and cut that lamb's throat, slit,
and this red A crimson flood came flowing out of that lamb's
throat and they watched this beautiful, lovely, innocent lamb
fall down and not move and they said, what's happened? It's dead
because of you. And this is what I've got to
do. This is what I've got to do in order to keep you from
dying like this eternally. And it's this precious blood,
the life of the flesh is in the blood with the life of the soul
The people is in the blood of this Lamb that's to come, the
woman's seed. The virgin born son of the Most
High God is going to come and shed His precious blood for the
redemption of His people. They learned that lesson. They
saw it. They heard Brother Eric did it. They heard him say that and then
they saw this Lamb slain for the remission of their sin. And
He took that old lamb. Can't leave this out. He stripped
that covering. He stripped that lamb of its
covering and put it on those two naked sinners. They were
shivering. They were cold. They were scared.
And instantly they got some comfort. They got some warmth. They got
some hope that maybe God's not going to kill us after all. Cast them out, and he said, now
don't come to me ever again with that blood. And he told that, they told that,
Adam preached that, preached that, preached that, preached
that to Cain. You know what they did? And Luke's
got, I miss the children you got. Three sons, two sons and
two daughters. You preach it to them. They hear
their father preach it. I heard my father preach it.
I've got a brother that doesn't believe it, but I can. And we heard it. Why do I believe it? We both
heard the same message. Do you have any siblings? Do
you have any brothers or sisters that you've tried to talk to
them and they've heard this gospel and they don't believe it? Nearly
all of us do, though. Who makes a difference? Who made
you do that? Why do you believe? You see how
precious this gift of faith is? It's so precious. To those, Peter
said, who have obtained, not attained, obtained, been given,
it's been bestowed upon you. This precious faith is precious
because it's in the precious blood of the Lamb. It's precious
means it's rare, it's hard to find, it's valuable, it's life-giving,
it's vital. The nurse takes your vital signs,
your blood pressure, that's good. Your blood pressure, see if you're
alive, well this is vital. If you have signs of life, first
thing is you're gonna know, it's the blood of lamb, it's the blood
of grass. This is the first example. It's all built on this. This
is the first example, this is the foundation in a brotherhood.
This is what it's all built on, right there. You don't leave
that, you don't enroll in this. This is the foundation, this
is where it started. It's the start and it's the finish. Alright, look at the next one. And it says he obtained witness,
he was righteous. He was accepted. He was righteous? How? Anything he did? No. It
was the sacrifice. Where did he get this lamb? God created lambs before he created
man. Verse 5, this is the walk of
faith. Verse 5 says, by faith Enoch was translated that he
should not see death. He was not found because God
translated him, took him out of this earth into his heaven,
the glory. Before his translation, he had
this testimony, he pleased God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please him. He's a covenant to God, must
believe. But He is the Word, and diligently seek Him, as Luke
quoted Him. I'll quote it again. In Enoch,
this is the walk of faith. In Genesis 5, and I'll not have
you turn there. It speaks of Enoch walking with
God. I do want you to turn to Amos.
The book of Amos. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. I said that for my sake. Amos
chapter 3, this is one of those verses you need to know where
it is and remember it. But it says in Genesis 5, the
story of Enoch, that Enoch walked with God. Enoch lived right before
the flood, and so did we. Our Lord said in the last day,
He said, as in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son
of Man. We're in the very last of the last day. Don't you believe
that? Very clear. As in the days of
Noah. Well, Enoch lived right before
the flood. And it says that Enoch walked
with God. It also says in the next chapter,
6, Noah. We're gonna go to him in a minute. That Noah walked with God. Well,
look at Amos 3, verse 3. Can two walk together except
they be of greed. To walk with God is to agree
with God, is to believe God. Paul said this about all of God's
people, let God be true and every man what? A liar. You cannot walk with God and
walk with his world. You cannot believe God and believe
man. Man's a liar. The God of this
world is a liar. He's the father of lies. Our
God cannot lie. And we agree with Him in everything
that He says. When we walk with God, we agree
with God. What God says about Himself.
Why does God keep saying all through Isaiah, I am the Lord,
there is none else. I am God, beside me there is
no other. Why does He keep saying that? Because man has some different
conception of God there. Amen. Amen. Romans 1 talks about they're
imagining, or make all sorts of imagination. And the first
image they make of God is like a man. They make God like man. They've got God being like a
man, and wanting to, and trying, and God trying, your preacher's
lying. That's true. Nowhere in this
book does it say God's trying, or let go and let God. That's
not the God of the Bible. God's people don't believe in
that God. They believe God is God. Where'd they get this faith?
He taught them. He revealed Himself to them.
You're not going to know God until you're born of God. And
then you'll know Him. And you'll fear Him. You'll believe
God is God. You don't let God be God. You find out that He let you
know He is God. That's right. Faith's not yourself,
it's the gift of who? Of God. He chooses whom He gives
us to. That's why it's so precious.
If you have it, don't sell it for anything. But to walk with
God, to agree with what God says about Himself. You're God, there's
no doubt. You're my sovereign. You're my creator. You're my
king. You're my lord. You're my everything. It's to agree with what God says
about us. Who was reading from Isaiah 43?
Fear not thou worm, Jacob. I heard it. What does God say about man?
Nothing good. He doesn't have anything good
to say about man. There was a woman who came to
our Lord crying unto our Lord. Her daughter was vexed with the
devil. And first the Lord ignored her. God doesn't have to answer
to people, does He? Why should He? People go all
their lives without acknowledging God, without thanking God, asking
His forgiveness, without asking His permission to use their trespassers
on His earth, and their squatters and so forth, demanding and commanding. Why should God answer anybody?
It's mercy that God would answer any rebel sinner. But he didn't
answer her. He didn't answer her. Well, she
didn't get offended. And then he said, It's not fit
to give the children's bread to dogs. It's not fit to give
this bread of life to dogs. He called her a dog. You're a
dog. Well, that didn't offend her either. He said, I've not
come for you heathens. She was all the way from Tyre
and Sidon, the uttermost part, a heathen, a Canaanite, a heathen. They were enemies of God, the
Canaanite. Sending some ham under the curb. See, I'm not here to
say heathen like that, I'm here to say the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. I'm a shepherd, I've got sheep,
I didn't come for goats. The house of Israel, salvation
of the Jews, like he told that woman at the wedding. What was her answer to everything
he said? One word! Everything you say about yourself,
everything you say about me, everything you say about man,
everything you say, period, is truth! And I believe it. Do you? Pop Church strived with
the Lord, but we don't. We agree with Him. We agree with
Him. What He says about Himself, what
He says about us, what He says about salvation. One way. Truth. One hope of eternal life. And that's my son. Do you believe
that? If you agree, you walk with God.
If you don't walk with God, you don't agree with God. And you
can't walk with the world. You're going to go outside the
camp bearing his reproach. And this is my next and last
illustration. Look at Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. See, Enoch believed God is God. He believed that he was a sinner.
Christ is God, and God is His Savior. Look at verse 7. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God, and things not seen. See, he had this evidence of
things not seen. Hope. Moved with fear, What is
the beginning of saving wisdom? How do you know God's saving
someone? How do you know He's going to
save Adam and Eve? I'm just certain He saved Adam
and Eve. They wouldn't have feared Him.
He wouldn't have told them the Gospel with it. Like Manoah's
wife. He wouldn't have showed them
these things. He wouldn't have told them these things. He wouldn't have
made a sacrifice. He wouldn't have covered them
if He wasn't going to save them. Right? He moved with fear. He was warned
of God. What preachers today, in modern
religion, who do you hear warning this world? Do you? They've told this world so long
now that God loves everybody, without exception, that Jesus
died for everybody, without exception, and the world believes them.
They've got nothing to worry about. And nobody is. And the prevailing thought or
belief is there's no fear. We have nothing to fear. That was a slogan what people
were wearing for years. No fear. Young people, no fear.
All of God's people feared God. Noah was warned of God. And he
moved with fear. Feared God. It's just old fashioned, I know,
but it's what God teaches His people. Fear of the Lord. Amen. Fear of the Lord. Nobody feared Jesus. Fear of
the Lord Jesus. All the earth is going to fear
Him someday. They're going to see Him as He is. And they're
going to say, that's not the Jesus I believe in. He's Lord. And we didn't make
Him so. He moved with fear. Well, what
did He do? What did He do? What did Noah
do at moving with fear, being warned of God? What did he do?
Verse 7 says, He prepared an ark. You know the story. She had another eye. John had
another eye. Paul preached one time all night
long. The young man fell out the window and broke his neck. This story of Noah's Ark, do
you know what that Ark represents? Sure you do. You know how blessed
you are if you know that that Ark of Noah represents the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know that, don't you? You've
heard it. You're a pastor and a priest. You've heard it. Do
you get tired of hearing it? No. Oh my. Noah moved with fear and God
told him there's one place of refuge. There's one hope of your
salvation. One. And God was the architect
of it. God purposed it. God planned it, if you will.
God made the blueprints, the pattern of it. God told him everything. What's the word? Specification of the ark. The
rooms in it. How many rooms? How many were
going to be on it? He chose how many were going
to be on it. That's a picture of Christ, isn't it? Christ is
the salvation of God's people. And He told that to Noah. And
He tells that to every one of God's people. There's one refuge.
There's one hope. There's one place of salvation. And it's in Christ, the ark of
salvation. God says, my wrath is going to
come down. God's not in love with this world, everybody in
it. He's angry with the wicked in it. We were born wicked, but
God, rich in mercy, with great love, with He loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, quickened us together with Christ, and
put us in Christ's heart. Those animals that went in that
ark, no one brought them in. They were called. They were brought.
Can you make a lion go into an ark? Can you call a lion? Noah
did. They came. Noah's Christ. His
very name represents Christ. But God taught that to Noah at
one point. And so Noah moved with fear and
prepared that ark to the saving of his house. Noah feared God
for himself and he feared God for his children. This is the
life of faith. This is the profession of faith.
This is the persecution of faith. This is the perseverance of faith. 100 years. 100 years he worked on that ark. Day in and day out. What was
his life? The ark. What was he interested
in? The ark. What was his hope for
his children? The ark. He didn't care if his children
were doctors or lawyers or dishwashers or garbage collectors or whatever,
as long as they were in that ark. Right? 100 years. That's
perseverance, isn't it? Did he grow weary? What did God
do? He just ordered him to continue. He didn't know when the rain
was going to fall. And the hardest, the most difficult
days were those last seven days when the harvest was finished. And they went in there. Anyway, this is perseverance.
This is persecution. The world, maybe people were
interested at first when he was building that up. Maybe. You
know they were. If all the people that had come to hear the gospel
since I've been in Rocky Mountain, were still there, we'd have to
rent out the Roanoke Civic Center. It's a fact, isn't it? In a minute.
Well, people were interested. What is this art? And it come,
and maybe some people worked on it. I don't know. But they
quickly lost interest. Five years, 10 years, 100 years. Noah kept working that hammer.
And it says he was a preacher of righteousness. 100 years,
every day, with every pound of that hammer, That's just kind of schooling.
The world, we don't believe that. Rain's going to fall. Judgment.
God's going to pour water on the sky. It never rained yet.
It hasn't rained fire yet either has it? Well it has. It's been
a long time ago. It's going to do it again. Men
don't believe that. This is foolishness. Noah, it's
never rained. Why? You're foolish. Nobody believes
what you believe, Noah. You going to continue preaching
that? That God's angry, and God's just, and holy, and holy, and
righteous, and just. God's angry with the wicked,
gonna kill people, and just. No, nobody believes that. It's
just you and your family believe that. Well, Noah said, well,
that's fine. But that's what we believe. And that's what God
taught us. And I'm gonna keep preaching
it. If there's only seven people in my congregation. What about you? Noah went in that ark. God brought
him in and said, come down, Noah. See, God was in Christ reconciling
us. God called him, came to that
ark. Seven days, we're in the last day. The door was open. Anybody could come if they wanted
to. Couldn't they? We tell people, come, Noah. Don't
we, John? We tell people, come. Come to Christ. Those are problems. Thank God. You're so glad. Here we sit. Sunny day. We preach the same
God. God is the defender. God of holiness
and righteousness and justice. And we want hope and salvation.
We found Him in Christ. Paul said, I want to win Christ
and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
but His. Like Adam and Eve. Is that your
hope? You know how precious What a
precious gift you can give. What happened? One day, the door shut. How about
thinking about this? That ark was pitched within without
weather. Well, somebody closed that door. I remember that door was big
enough for elephants to go in. It was strong enough for The
largest animal on earth to walk in that door. And somebody shut
that door on the outside. Who was that? I believe it was
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Shutting that door. That ark
was the ark of mercy. Nobody wanted in. The only ones
that were in there were the ones that God had chosen in mercy
and grace to bring them into that ark. Give them that precious
day. They were in there and they're
not leaving. Why? He's shutting them in. And then
somebody had to pitch that door, Brady. Somebody, there's a crack
on the outside of the door. It's got to be pitch. I believe
there was a man standing outside that door with a bucket of pitch,
which is atonement. Pitch, black tar. And he's covering
that. And people say, who is that man?
Who is that? Perfect. They're shut in. That's
not going to leak. This is not some holy imagination. Somebody had shut that door and
pitched that door. Who shut you in? Who pitched you? Who applied
that love to you? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you
in art? Are you? So I exhort you to continue
in prayer. Continually, though the whole
world projects it. Though your family and your friends.
Let me end with this illustration. I love it, love it, love it.
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Promise. The book begins with a man that
says, I saw in my dream a man with a book in his hand and a
burden on his back. And he'd been warned to flee
the city of destruction to go to the celestial city. They told
him, look at Yon Wicked Gate and go through that gate. When
you go through that gate, you'll find a cross. When you get to
that cross, your burden will fall. He had a book in his hand
and a burden on his back that he had to get off. And his wife
is pleading with him. His children are pleading with
him. Don't go. Don't go, Daddy. Don't go. Stay
here with us. His neighbors and his friends
are scoffing at him and mocking him and saying, you're a fool.
What are you doing? You're leaving your home and your family. Don't
you love them? And you know what he did? He put
his fingers in his ears and he ran to that gate crying, life,
life, eternal life. And he went through yon wicked
gate. And he came to a cross, and a man was hanging there,
and he was burned to death. And he made it all the way. After
seeing him, Eric, he made it all the way to sin. Put your fingers in your ears.
By faith, put your fingers in your ears. Don't listen to anybody
but God. Continue to think. Folks here at Rescue, they've
heard this before, but I've got to share this with those who
haven't, speaking about that arc. Think about this for just
a moment. Earth is filled with water. Water
is self-leveling. There's only one thing that's
higher than the water. And that's that arc. If you picture
a circle in your mind of the earth and the water filled all
the way around it, there's one thing It's higher than everything
else on the earth. It's that ark. Picture of Christ. Raised up just like the brazen
serpent for all of us to see. That's what you just did, brother.
You raised up Christ for us. Thank you. Stand with me if you
would. Turn your handbooks to page 486.
Speaking about faith tonight. It's not our faith, but the one
who our faith is in. Faith is the Victory, 486. Let all our strength be heard. Faith is a victory we know. And overcomes the world. Faith
is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh, glorious victory. our sword, the Word of God. We tread the road, the saints
of love, with shouts of triumph draw. By faith they light a world
whose breath's left on or overfilled. By the faith by which they conquer
death, they still our shining shield. Faith is a victory. Faith is a victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes
the world. On every hand the foe we fight,
drawn up in dread array. Then kiss the bees he left behind,
and onward to the fray. Salvation's held in our nation,
with truth all heard about. The earth shall tremble beneath
our tread, and you come in. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes
the world! To Him that overcomes the foe,
a brand new day shall begin! Before the angels we shall know
His name, confessed in heaven! is a victory I'd like to ask Brother Paul
and Brother Luke if you would make your way to the back of
the church. Bow with me if you would, folks. Our Heavenly Father,
thank You so much for the Word. I just... Lord, we... Words just cannot describe the love that You have put in
our hearts through the preaching of this word, this word of truth.
Truth about our Creator, our God, our King. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
not leaving us to ourselves and shining the light of your Son
in our hearts. Bless us as we gather together
tonight in fellowship afterwards. May all that we say and do be
glorifying and honoring to our Savior, for He deserves all honor. Let us converse about Him. We've come here tonight to hear
about Him, and Lord, You have used these men to bring out Your
Word to our hearts. Let us converse and have We'll praise You and thank You.
Would You bless the food, Lord? Bless the food. Thank You for
the hands that have prepared it. Would You bless it to our
bodies? We ask these things in the name
of our Savior, for we know that all blessings flow through Him
because of Him. In Christ's name we pray. you