Like sea billows roll, have I
hidden in Thee? O Thou Rock of my soul, hiding
in Thee. I know many of you can enter
into that. How oft in the conflict when
pressed by the foe I've fled to my refuge. and breathed out
my woe, like the Psalms. Help me, Lord. My enemies are
many and lively. How often with trials, like sea
billows rolled, have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul. Good, good hymn. Luke chapter
8. Let's go over there. Luke chapter
8. A few verses. Let's just read a few verses.
When I'm reading these words, one word of our Lord,
one line, one verse could comprise many sermons. So much there. And I see these things that the
Lord said, and whatever He said is vital. Whatever He said. And I think
there's a whole lot more here than I know. And so my father
used to say, let's camp here a while. Read with me verses
15 through 18, because it goes together. The 15th verse is the
last part of his parable. Luke 8, 15. That that fell the
seed on good ground are they which in an honest and good heart
having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. And then there's that little
paragraph sign, you see that? It means pause, it means maybe
some time went by. Our Lord was a man, really, of
few words. You know that? That's what the
scripture says. Spareth his words, but what he
had to say needed to be heard. And I'm quite certain when he
spoke, he would pause. Not just for effects, but consider
what I just said. So then he says, verse 16, When
he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth
it under a bed, but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which
enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret that shall
not be made manifest, or revealed, neither anything hid that shall
not be known, come abroad, nothing. Take heed, therefore, how ye
hear. For whosoever hath to him shall
be given, and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken,
even that which he seemeth to have." Does that strike you? It did me. The Lord Jesus Christ just spoke
the parable of the soul, which was about the Word of God being
preached and declared. And he made it plain that all
hear, there are different types of ground, but they all hear
it. It all falls on all. But three out of four were false. That's something. Three out of
four hearers were false. They seemed to be this way, but
they weren't. That's striking, isn't it? Striking. You remember in verse 8, after
he preached the parable, and then in private he declared it
or made it known to his disciples. But remember, we said that it didn't seem like
anybody asked him, what does this mean? Except his disciples. They took him, Lord, we don't
understand. How can we unless you show it? Would you tell us? Now that's
a true disciple. But after he declared that, the
Lord cried in verse 8. He cried out. You read with me
Hebrews 12, that he who's voiced like a trumpet, try to imagine
the Lord saying that, he that hath ears to hear. And I wouldn't
dare try to imitate that. It should have shook people to
their core, shouldn't it? Huh? It should have just struck
fear. Well, it did, the disciples.
It did, Simon, Peter, and Matthew, and John, and James. It did.
And they said, Lord, tell us then. Tell us. We want to know. Does it strike you? Are you not
amazed with me as you read? Have we been going through Revelation?
Are you not amazed? I'm just amazed. How all this
goes together? I didn't plan it this way. I
didn't sit down a few months ago and say, I'm going to make
this all come together right at the same time. But the Lord
did. I believe the Lord is digging
our ears. I hope He is. He that hath ears,
the Lord, we've been looking at Revelation 2 and 3 coming
up. He that hath ears, let him hear
what the Spirit saith to who? To who? Churches. That's what Hebrews 12 said.
You're going to hear this here. You're not hearing it out there.
Are you? Oh, so blessed. City of refuge. City of refuge, where Christ
is. He's at the earth. I've been
reading and studying scripture after scripture after scripture
of prophets, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. I read from Jeremiah. I wanted to read Jeremiah. I
wanted to read Deuteronomy 32. I wanted to read Ezekiel 33.
I wanted to read so many. They all say the same thing.
They all say, hear. Tell the people. The Lord says,
tell the people. Hear the Word. Listen. Give ear, O earth, heaven
and earth. My Word is going to drop like
rain. Listen now. Hear the Word. Hebrews. The whole book of Hebrews. It
begins that way, telling us who Jesus Christ is. Not just a man,
it's God. Equal with the Father, God to
come to earth. He said, oh, we ought to give
them more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest at any
time we let these slip. He said in Hebrews 4, those people
in the Old Testament, they heard the Word. They heard the Gospel
just like us. But it didn't profit them not
being mixed with faith. Oh, he says, all the way through
Hebrews, today if you'll hear His voice, harden not your heart
as in the day of provocation. Didn't we just look in 1 John
about being overcome by the world? Who's saying all this? Who's
telling us this? Me? No. Are you not struck with how the
Lord is bringing us all to our remembrance and at the same time,
could He be near? Yes, He is. Yes, He is. That's why this Word is always
urgent. If a preacher doesn't preach
with urgency like it's the last message you'll ever hear, he's
not God's preacher. We ought to give the more earnest
heed. Our Lord said that. He that hath ears. Everybody
in here has ears. Some are bigger than others.
Some of you ought to be able to really hear. You've got big
ears. But you know what our problem
is? We're hard of hearing. I'm hard of hearing. You know
that. Literally. Physically. You are too, Stephen. Mother, you are too. She was
in denial the longest time. But brethren, every one of us, this is our problem. Did you
read the article written by somebody there, the second article by
reading and hearing the word and memorizing? You know how
much trouble we get into and how much fear and worry and doubts
and this and that that we get because we don't hear what he
says. We forget. And then we get, huh? The writer of that article is
a pretty poor fellow, but the article is a good one. The Lord is soon to speak out
loud. He hasn't spoken out loud since
Christ was on this earth. And we just read in Hebrews,
and that will shake us to the core, or at least find out that
we can't be shaken. Once more, That Trump's going
to say, I'm not trying to scare anybody. That won't convince
anybody. But our Lord did say that, didn't
he? The top of his lungs, from the
bottom of his heart, he that hath ears, let him hear. Now, here in verse 15 again, And the Lord spoke many parables.
The first parable, what was the first parable? This one, the
sower. So what he's saying, sister, is that everything is based on
this here in the Word. It's all from the Word. The most
important thing of all is that you hear the preaching of God's
Word. Isn't that true? That's what
he is telling us. The very first parable is repeated
three times. He's telling us you must hear
the word preached. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. How shall they hear it without
a preacher? That's what it says. I don't
like that. You're not born again. Luke 8,
he says in verse 15, A good grant is an honest and a good heart.
And we looked at that. Hearts. Out of the heart. It's
not the head. We're not educated in the Kingdom
of God. You're born into it. Supernatural. Miraculous. Power of God. Paul said, my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing or persuasible high-sounding, convincing words
of man's reason and man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit.
What's that? Christ, men pray. And of power. What's the power? It's not man's
reasoning power, it's God's Word. Live! How does God make somebody live?
Live! Doesn't ask him anything. Live! Let there be light! And there
is light. Power. Demonstration of the Spirit
of God. As Paul said, so we preach Christ. We preach, we preach, we preach.
And our Lord said, and out of the heart of the issues of life,
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made. Romans 6. A broken and a contrite
heart. What breaks the heart? The Word
of God. He said, is not my word a fire
and a hammer? Nothing will break. Nothing can
break the heart but the Word of God. And that by the Spirit
of God. Through the preaching of the
Word. Nothing. We're not convinced into the
kingdom. We're convicted. We're broken. Broken. Broken
and a contrite heart. Look at Hebrews chapter 4. I know we're going over this
again, but repetition is good, especially
if we didn't hear it the first time. Hebrews 4, look at this. Paul told young Timothy, preach
the word, Timothy. Verse 12, the word of God is
quick and powerful. sharper than a two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, the
joints and the marrow. Separate, she said. Discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the Word. Neither
is there any creature that's not manifest in His sight, the
Word. All things are naked, exposed,
opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do that
we will stand before, must we shall. Books will be open. All right, go back to our text.
And I said, quoted Jeremiah 23, 29, my word is a fire and a hammer.
Wake up the heart, hard heart, son of God, called the son of
man, the son of righteousness, consuming fire, word made flesh. He spoke here. He spoke here. And he says, those that hear
the word, verse 15, those that hear it, those that keep it,
lay hold of it, sell everything to buy it, to have it, and bring
forth fruit. Our Lord said, fruit, love, Love
God, love his word, it'll be known. It'll be known. Love Christ, love his worship,
love his kingdom, love his family, more than anybody or anything,
it's gonna be known. It's gonna be known. Joy, those
that really rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, no confidence in
the flesh, it shall be known. Peace, fruit, peace, Christ is
their peace, Blessed peacemakers, today receive the word with patience. You see that? With patience.
Verse 15, with patience. That word is throughout this
Bible. We read it in 1 Peter. He says, the trial of your faith,
work with patience, patience, patience, submitting to God's
will. Whatever happens to a child of God, whatever happened, no
matter how, evil it may seem, how bad it may seem. You know
what the child of God says? It was God's will. God did it. That's what they say. They receive
it with patience. And I don't understand, they
say. We don't understand. But we will. And we're just going
to rest in God's will. The world says, I don't like
it. God, why would God let us? I don't know, but he did. And
I've got peace right there. With patience. And patience here too is talking
about those that are waiting on him. They're waiting on the
Lord. What do you wait for? That's
what David asked. Now my soul, what waiteth I for? Are you waiting for your ship
to come in, brethren? God's people are in the ship
right now. It came in 2,000 years ago. And we're waiting on our ship,
Christ, to land on that other ship. All right, then there's a pause.
A pause. Let all this sink in, all right?
Let it sink in. May the Lord dig our ears. Now
verse 16. You may have read this with me
and think, what does this have to do with what he just said?
Did you? What does this have to do with
what he just said? The Word of God is a great revealer. The Word of God is Christ, the
person. All things naked and open before
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do Christ right now,
seated on the throne. And the Lord knows them therein.
And He sends His Word, His Truth, and it's a great revealer of
the hearts, the thoughts and intents of the heart. It separates,
divides those that are just physically, naturally joined at birth, etc. Are you understanding? Yeah,
you are. I see it in recognition in your hand. This Word. You
just looked at it in 1st John. It all goes together. This candle,
alright, he says in verse 16. No man when he lighted a candle
covereth it with a vessel, or puteth it under a bed, but setteth
it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. A candle. A candle, he said,
is not lit to be hidden, but seen. Again, how providential,
how prophetic. Listen to me, brethren. What
have we been talking about in Revelation? The seven candlesticks. Are you amazed? The Lord, we've
been talking about the church, who is the seven candlesticks. Alright, the Lord brings us up
again here to our understanding. The candle, what is the candle
here that is lit? It's the Word of God, the truth,
the gospel, the light, Christ the light. Is it not? David said, the entrance of thy
word giveth light. Light shone in this dark world.
What was it? Christ! No man knoweth God but
through Christ. He is the light. Word. Light. This is condemnation. Light is coming to the world,
but men what? Love darkness rather than light. But he that is born
of God loveth the light. John 3, cometh to the light.
He cometh to the light. Candles. He cometh to the light.
Why are you coming to the light? Why are you coming to hear the
word of God this morning? The candle, right? The candle
is the light. In thy light we see light. God
is light. No man knoweth God, Christ said,
except the Son. The Father. He whom the Son revealed. We don't know God except through
Christ. Christ said, here's the light. I am the way, the truth, isn't it? The life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by man. The boy right there will separate
the truth from the falsehood. Christ is made unto his people. There is no wisdom outside of
Jesus Christ. I don't care what anybody in
this world says. Right? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world? What's wisdom? Christ! If a man
doesn't know Christ, believe Christ, follow Christ, Christ
is his life, he's a fool! Wisdom, righteousness. There is no righteousness outside
of Christ. Sanctification. What sets apart? Here it is, Brother Stephen.
What sets apart God's people? Sanctification means sets apart. What separates God's people from
this world? What is it? What they do? How
they look? Huh? What they don't do? It's
Christ! It's the blood on the door. God
said, when I see the blood, Passover. They're in the house
where the blood is. Don't get out of the house. Because
what separates you and the wrath of God is the blood. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and what? Redemption. We have
no redeeming quality. No human beings have any redeeming
quality. Why did God redeem anybody? Not
for your sakes, He said, but for my holy name's sake. And
He sent the Redeemer. What do you think about that?
What do you think about that? Christ is the light, I'm the
way, I'm the truth, I'm the light. Why is it called a candle? He's
the Son of Righteousness, isn't He? The Son! How can you compare Christ to
a candle? Because we see through a glass, namely. I preach in part. I know in part,
prophesy in part, don't we? We just know a little bit, but
we can't look on him as he is. We can't see him as he is. I
can't preach him as he is. Oh, someday we're going to see.
We're going to look straight into the sun. I'll see him as
he is, whose countenance shineth as the sun. But right now we
live by candlelight. But thankful for the light that
I have, aren't you? The candle. All right, who lit
this candle? Who lit this candle? The Holy
Spirit of God. That's it. No man lighteth a
candle and covereth it with a vessel. Put it under a bed, he sets it
on a candlestick. Are you with me now? You need
to listen to this. The man who lighted this candle
is the Spirit of God. Spirit of God, who opens blind
eyes and deaf ears through the preaching of the truth, the gospel
of Christ. There's nothing new. 2 Corinthians
4 says, God who caused the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our heart. Who's that talking about? Spirit
of God. To give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And Paul said in that same chapter,
whom I preach to the Corinthian church, that's where he's preaching.
Who's he writing to? Second Thessalonians two, Paul
said, I'm a minister of the gospel, I preach, and he said, and I
am bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, to save
you through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel, which gospel,
he said, I preach in the church. That what it says? Those of you who know the word.
Alright, he lit this candle and said it where? Where he said
it? The candlestick. Are you with me? What's the candlestick? The church. I have set my king on my holy
hill of Zion. The church. That's where he puts his gospel. He's Christ. Let him hear what
the Spirit saith to the church. Plains and nose on your face.
I set this light, this candle, this gospel of Christ on a candlestick. This is not a thing to be hid.
Christ said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me. All people, all manner of men.
Every nation, kindred, and tongue under heaven. I'll draw them. He sets this light of the glory
of the gospel of Christ. Look at Ephesians 3 with me.
Ephesians 3. Go over there real quickly. Real
quickly. I've got to hurry. Ephesians
3. Here's what it says. And you
notice all these... Where are these epistles written
to? Churches. Is there a book in
here that's not written? It's to the churches. Oh, bless
God for His folding. That one fold and one shepherd
that He speaks of is the Church of God. Bless God. We just read
it in Hebrews 12. We have not come to a mountain. We've come to a church where
Christ is. Where Christ is praying. That's
where He's promised to be. David said, thy way is in the
sanctuary. That's what he said. The candlestick,
the church. Ephesians three, verse six. He says, the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. See, they're gonna hear the gospel.
Where have I was made a minister according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His
power, meaning I didn't choose to do this, didn't go to school
to do it, God called unto me. I'm less than the least of the
same. It's this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles,
the unsearchable riches of Christ, preach Christ, determined not
to know anything among you. Not preach anything, but Christ
did preach. To make all see, verse nine,
here it is, the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, under the principalities
of power, even angels are gonna learn. Angels are gonna see in
heavenly places what might be known by the church. The wisdom of God. Did you read
that? Preacher, you're magnifying the
church. No, I'm not. I'm not holding up the body and
not the head. I'm holding up the head. But
our Lord has sanctified His church by His word. And He holds it
up and cherishes it and nourishes it. He said, this is where the
candles, this is where the light is going to be seen. The candlestick,
not hidden. All right, go back to our text.
Now, our Lord is saying that whoever hides this truth, it's not a candlestick. All right? Whoever keeps this hidden. Paul
said to Timothy, therefore seeing we have such hope, we use great
plainness of speech, hold fast the form of sound words, Whatever
God's Word says, we say it loud and clear for all to hear. Preach the Word, Timothy, in
season, out of season. The time will come, they won't
endure it. Preach it loud and clear so that all may hear it.
Don't hide it. I've heard men say things like
this. Southern Baptists that claim to believe God's Word say
things like this. The doctrine of election, it
says family doctrine. Meaning, we'll keep that hidden. Let's keep that among ourselves.
Don't go out there and preach to everybody. That's a false
religion. That's not the candlestick of
God. That's not the church of God. That's what our Lord said. He
said it on a candlestick. That what? Was to say that they
that enter in, where are they going to come to hear it? that they that enter in may see
the light. What's the purpose of the church?
The pillar and the ground of the truth. What's a pillar do?
Hold something up. That's all the church does. And
if it's a place that you go in and you hear nothing but music
and entertainment, you know, on Mother's Day you hear about
mother, and Father's Day you hear about father, and on whatever,
and this and that and the other, it's not Christ's church. That's
not the campus. That's an abomination to God.
It says there's nothing secret, verse 17, it won't be manifested. Neither anything hid that shall
not be known come or brought. Now this is both a fearful but
wonderful and comforting passage description. And I'll tell you
why. This is for sinners who hear
it and fear. Does that make you a little bit
afraid? Is there anything in your past or present that you
don't want known? There's not a person in here. Would you want your thoughts
just this morning sitting in this room to be on a screen for
everybody to see? What about your past? Any skeletons? Anything hidden? Our Lord said, it's all coming
out. Nothing hidden. He said, whatever
is spoken in darkness is going to be told out loud. Revelation says it's going to
be gathered before Him, all the books open, and a man is going
to give an account for every single word, idle word. Can you imagine? How does that
make you feel? Alright, now here's the difference
between Esau and Jacob. Here's the difference between
a child of God and a profane man. No child of God wants their sin
exposed, but more than anything, they grieve over their sins,
not the punishment of them. More than anything, they grieve
over the reproach that their sin brought about. More than
anything, they want done with their sin, not just being punished
for. Esau didn't want to be punished
for. Esau didn't like being caught. He wanted to continue. But God's
people say, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from thee? I want delivered from this. I
want it out of me. I want cleansed from it. No,
I don't want my sin exposed. I don't want anybody to bring
great reproach upon my God and my family and myself and all
that. And I don't want it exposed. I want it covered. So what do
God's people do? Who hate the sin, who hate the
sin in them, who hate what they did, hate the results of it. What do they do? They run to
Christ to hide them. We just sang those songs. Hide
me. Oh, rock of ages, hide me. You know what the Lord said?
Everyone that flees to me for refuge, I'll hide them, I'll
cover them. While everybody else's sins,
those who just get caught and sorry for getting caught, it's
all gonna be exposed. Christ said, the sins of Israel are covered. They'll never be found. All in Christ, mercifully called,
chosen in Christ are hidden, are covered like those in the
ark, like those in the houses in Egypt, covered under the blood. All right, now look at this. It's their verse 18. Now it's
going to be known who really needs Christ as their covering,
as their sin atonement, as their righteousness, as their all,
and those who are just looking for a fire escape. And those who do, who really
need Christ, and Christ is their all, and that church is a bunch
of sinners covered by the blood, you know what they're preaching?
They're not hiding this, they're shouting it. Salvation of the
Lord. Everywhere they go, to everyone
they see, to everyone they hear, huh? And Christ is their life. And they don't just come in on
Sunday and play the part and then they're leaving. That's
gonna be known, it's gonna be known. Christ really is their life.
And so he says in verse 18, look at how he ends this the way he
began. Take heed therefore, how you
hear, whosoever hath to him shall be
given. Brethren, I believe I've heard.
I believe I've heard his voice. Do you? Huh? I really do? Bless God, I think I have. I
believe I have this faith. I believe I do. It's not much,
but I believe I have it. I believe. Oh, Lord, help my
unbelief. Don't you? I do love this truth. I believe I do. It must be because
he first loved me. I do. I do see my need to cry. I do. We said that's going to grow. I'm
going to give you more. I'm going to keep giving you more. You
want more? You know, I preached a message.
This has happened many times. I preached a message. And I didn't
think I had any liberty if one of the ladies came up and said,
would you preach that next Sunday? That's the same message. Same message. Yeah, the exact
same message. One lady said, preach that at
my funeral. That's no funeral message. Yes,
it is. Same thing. Daddy hath, keep
giving it, keep giving it, keep giving it. Far from the love,
leaving the love, far from growing cold, that it will grow more
and more. He said, I'm gonna keep giving
it to you, keep giving it to you, keep giving it to you, keep
giving it to you. Open your mouth wide, he said,
I'm gonna fill it. Full of what? Christ. That's how you know. And he that
hath not, It's taken away. I've heard enough. I've heard enough. I don't need
that anymore. That which he seemeth to have. Now isn't that exactly what he
just said? That some spring up and for a while appear to be,
but things come and wither away. or the cares of the world choke
it, it's going to be known. It's going to be known who really
loves the Lord, who really knows Christ, who really needs Christ.
And it's all going to be tried by the gospel. Don't need that. All God's people say, Christ
is my life. Words of life. Let's sing in
closing number 163.