I am grateful to be here again
tonight. I've had such a pleasant day. I told someone this morning,
all the fellows in 13th Street sure do like to get an invitation
to come to Rocky Mount. You all are a blessing to preach
the gospel to your eager hearers, and it's a great privilege to
preach the gospel to you. Turn this evening to Psalm 18
with me. Psalm 18. I know that there are those here
in Rocky Mountain, just as there are in Ashland, who accuse us. They say that the gospel we preach
is too hard. Oh, that election is hard. That
predestination stuff, that's hard. They say our gospel is
too hard. They accuse us of believing in
a God that's too hard. They view us and our God as being
intolerant and unbending, and they want no part of us because
they just see us as too hard. I've heard that a lot. Well,
I would confess quickly that our God, we believe, our God
is love. Our God is compassion. Our God is wisdom. Our God is kind. Our God is long-suffering. Our God is quick to show mercy.
And yet, I tell you, our God is just. He's just. And some folks think that's hard.
They think that's hard. But the truth of the matter is,
in the best illustration there is in the In this regard is right
here in Psalm 18. Now, you look at verse 2 at what
it says. Do we worship a God that's hard? It says in verse
2 of Psalm 18, The Lord is my rock. He is my rock. Yeah, that's pretty hard, isn't
it? But I tell you what, would you rather be standing on quicksand?
No, you want to be standing on the rock of Christ Jesus. The
Lord is my rock and he's my fortress. When the attacks come, you want
to be in a straw hut? No, you want to be in a fortress
of rock, don't you? And he's my deliverer, my God,
my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my
salvation, and my high tower. The Lord is my rock. Look over
at verse 31 of Psalm 18. For who is God, save the Lord,
and who is a rock, save our God. And turn the page to verse 46. The Lord liveth, and blessed
be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. Now,
this is clearly, all through the Old Testament, you understand
that there's a lot of talk about the rock. About the rock. Well,
who is the rock? Well, turn to 1 Corinthians,
and we'll see just as plain as the nose on our face, Who that
rock is, 1 Corinthians 10. This is so clear, 1 Corinthians
10. Who is that rock? Did you notice
in the Old Testament when I was reading that, rock was a capital
R? That means it's somebody's name. I know there was a fellow
named Rock Hudson. And it's almost blasphemous to
mention his name in the context of what we're talking about.
But when it was spelled, it was capital R because it was a proper
name. And the reason it's capital R in the Old Testament is that
this is not a granite rock or like one that we see today, Hannah,
some quartz rock. It's not quartz rock, capital
R. It's capital R because it's a
person. And here's the proof of that in 1 Corinthians 10.
Look at verse 4. And he got it, 1 Corinthians
10, verse 4. And did all drink the same spiritual drink, for
they drank from that spiritual rock. There it is again, capital
R. What he's talking about here was back when Moses was instructed
by God to bring the children of Israel up out of Egypt, and
they got out there and said, We're thirsty. We're thirsty.
You brought us out here in the desert to die first, Moses. What
did God tell Moses to do? He said, Moses, you go over to
the rock. And he said, take your staff.
and stand and smite the rock. And when you smite it, life-giving
water is going to come out. And that's what they're talking
about here, right here. And that rock was capital R, which means
it was a person. You see that? Look here. Finish
the verse now. Verse 4, it says, And they did
all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank from that
spiritual rock that followed them. And who was that rock?
That rock was Christ. Isn't that clear? That rock was
Christ. You say, wait a minute, this
is confusing me. This rock was a person? Yeah, that's exactly
right. This rock was a person. Turn
to Exodus 17. You say, that's hard to believe. A rock is a person? Well, it's
a picture. It's a picture. Turn to Exodus
chapter 17. And I just want to make three
points in this message about this rock, this rock Christ Jesus. And remember, it's a person now.
We're using a picture here to make a point, and this is a person.
And the first point is, number one, we must stand on the rock. We've got to stand on the rock,
Christ Jesus, stand on the rock. Now, you all know the difference
between standing next to a rock and standing behind a rock and
standing on a rock, don't you? OK, I'm telling you, you're going
to stand on the rock. OK, look here in Exodus 17. Read
verse 5 with me, it says, And the Lord said to Moses, Go on
before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel,
and thy rod, that's his staff, therefore thou smotest the river,
and taken in thy hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee,"
now this is the Lord speaking to Moses, He said, I'm going
to stand before thee there upon the rock. You see where Christ
stood? The Lord said, I'm going to stand
on the rock. OK? I'm going to stand on the rock
in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come
water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in
the sight of the elders of Israel. And I'm telling you, we've got
to stand on the rock. OK? Christ stood on that rock,
and somehow, listen, somehow he He didn't become the rock,
and he didn't turn into stone or anything, but this is a picture.
His being on the rock, when Moses smoked the rock, it's like he
smoked Christ. And it was a picture of what
was going to happen. You see, these people were out
there in a dry, thirsty desert, a terrible land. They were dying
out there, just like we are in this world. We are born in this
world, and then we start dying. Now I know we get bigger and
we get stronger before we get weaker and grayer and older,
but then we die. We're born and we start dying.
These people came out in the desert and started dying. And
the only way they lived was if the rock was smoking for them
and the water came out. This is a picture of what happened
to Christ at Calvary. We don't have to die because
Christ was smitten for us. God smoked Christ at Calvary
so we don't have to be smitten. Understand? And it's a picture. As Moses smote the rock, our
Lord would be smitten at Calvary, once for all the sin of all his
people. All who were in him were smitten
in him. And the point is this. If you want to be in Christ,
you've got to stand on the rock where Christ is. Be where he
is. Stand on the rock, Christ Jesus. That phrase is over and over
in the scriptures. You say, well, why wouldn't everybody
want to stand on the rock, Christ Jesus? Why wouldn't people want
to stand on the rock? Well, by nature, you know what
the problem is? Now listen to me. We're too stupid
to stand on the rock. Or we're too stubborn. We're
just too dumb. We just don't see the point in
standing on the rock. Most folks don't. You know why? Folks would
rather die than admit they're thirsty. Come to the water, you
know. Are y'all hiding this message
here in Rocky Mount? Are you sneaking around town
going, Is that how you all handle this? No! You tell everybody
you know, right? Come hear the gospel at 6 o'clock.
Well, why aren't this place just for folks who want to hear the
gospel? They're not thirsty. Don't know they're dying. You
understand? But folks who have seen themselves
as sinners, as we do, understand the need to be in Christ Jesus,
to be standing on the rock. You know, in Matthew 7, our Lord
had gone up on the mountain to teach. And what was the message
he gave there? He gave a parable. And the parable
he taught was that the foolish man built his house, what, on
the sand, didn't he? And boy, when the storm came,
that fool, it says, great was the fall of that fool's house
when trial and tribulation came. But where did the wise man build
his house? Did he build it under the rock? Did he build it behind
the rock? Did he build it next to the rock?
He built it on the rock. You see, that's where the wise
man puts his trust, is on the rock Christ Jesus. On the rock
Christ Jesus. His house fell not, it says.
So why doesn't everybody, why doesn't anybody by nature stand
on the rock Christ Jesus? Because by nature, we're born
fools. You know what Adam did when Adam
ate? You know what Adam, when Adam walked in the garden? He
was walking in the cool of the day with the Lord. When Adam
ate, he was put out of the garden. You see, he was on the rock,
but he chose to get off the rock. He got put out of the garden.
He was with Christ and chose to be away from Christ, and he
was put out of the garden. And by nature, we don't understand
when we're not—we're standing around on quicksand thinking
it's just fine. And until the storm comes one day, and we wake
up and go, oh my, what have I done? And for most folks, it's the
day they go to meet God. By now they've been standing,
they've built their house on the quicksand, and the storm's
washed it away. What do I need? He brought me
up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set
my feet upon the rock. That's the only difference between
anybody else and us. If we're on the rock, it's because
God put us on the rock. He put us there. Look at Psalm 27 real quick.
Stan read this this morning, and I made a little mark to go
back and mention this tonight, because it was so appropriate. We must confess that we don't
get on the rock by ourselves. He's the one that has to put
us on the rock, and this proves it here in Psalm 27. You see
verse 4, "...one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I
seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to
inquire in his temple." For in a time of trouble he shall hide
me." Where? In his pavilion. In the secret
of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon the
rock. You see, we don't set ourselves
on the rock, do we? No, we're not smart enough to
come in out of the rain, much less get on a rock. But He will,
His own, that's the reason it's so important to understand. He
chooses, He calls, He draws, He picks, He puts us on the rock,
Christ Jesus. It's all His doing. By nature,
if He leaves us alone, we won't come there. But now here's, let
me make this interesting point about being on the rock. You
say, Bob, you and all these fellows who preach to us, they just tell
us what sinners we are, how ugly we are by nature, how mean and
unruly we are and everything. Why would we want to be way up,
you know, when you stand on top of a rock, you're real visible,
aren't you? Everybody sees you. You say, why do you want to get
up on a rock where everybody sees us that way? Well, let me
see if I can make this point to you. Have you ever, have you
ever seen an animal, seen an animal? I love the—there's a—I've
seen this two or three times on a nature channel or one of
those things. There's a fish called a scorpionfish. And you
know what he's like? This is a good picture of us,
by the way—a scorpionfish. This scorpionfish gets on top
of a rock, and he's got a tail that hangs over his head, and
it dangles in front of his mouth, OK? And what he does is dangle
that little tail in front of his mouth, and when some fish
comes by like this and gets interested in that, he grabs that fish and
eats it, okay? But you know where the scorpionfish
stays? He stays on top of a rock. You know why? He looks so much
like the rock, you can't tell him from the rock. Now listen,
you wonder why the Scripture says, be still, be still. As long as you and I are still
on the rock, They can't tell us from the rock. It's only when
we do something on our own that we get to not looking like the
rock. If the scorpion fish moves around very much, he's not fooling
anybody. He's a wicked, evil, little hungry monster, leech
up. We're the same way. But if we
get on the rock and be still, we look just like Christ. And
that's the reason, as wicked as we are, if that's where we'll
go. And it'll be well with us. The
other thing, the other illustration about this is that the problem
is not being, our visibility on the rock. The problem with
most folks' God is, you know what their rock is like? It's
a little bitty rock. If I had a rock this big around
and put it here, and I stood on it, what would you see? I'm
not the only thing you'd see, right? Now, even if I got a rock
maybe as big as this podium and stood on it, you'd still see
me, wouldn't you? But I tell you what, do you ever
see a picture on TV of one of these fellows who's climbing
a mountain? And it starts out, shows all you see on the screen
is some fellow standing there like this. And all of a sudden,
it starts backing away. And it's got such a telephoto
lens that by the time it gets back, you see that this fellow
is standing on a mountain. you can't even see him when you
get far back. Let me tell you something. You stand on this
rock, listen, this rock, he's so magnificent, he's so big,
he's so marvelous and powerful and almighty and all-present
and omniscient. You stand on this rock, nobody
even notices you're there. They don't see you for seeing
the rock. You understand? And that's how God Almighty sees
us in Christ. If we're on the rock, He doesn't
see us. He sees the rock. He sees His
Son. He sees the righteousness of
Christ. He doesn't see our unrighteousness. I tell you, you know where it
was? That rock got smoked for us. That's the reason. You think if you took a stick,
how big a stick doesn't matter, Stan. You took it and beat Mount
Everest to the day you died. Would you hurt it at all? No.
Listen, Jesus Christ took our punishment and he put it away.
He could take it. He could take it. And he took
care of it. It's gone. Okay? And we don't
have to worry about it if we're in the rock. Okay? Now listen,
if we go to take that punishment ourselves, eternity won't be
long enough to take it. But if Christ took it for us,
if we're on the rock, all is well. All is well. All right,
turn now to Exodus 33, and let me give you the second point.
The first thing is that we must be upon the rock. The second
thing is we must be in the rock. In the rock. Exodus 33, Moses
asked God to see his glory. And do you know what God did
with Moses before he showed him his glory? Look what he did in
Exodus 33. You see verse 22? God said, And shall come to pass,
while my glory passes by, that I'll put you, Moses, in," you
see, I am, he didn't put him on, he put him in, in the cleft
of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by.
And you also notice it's not, he didn't put him in the cleft
of some rock, he put him in the cleft of the rock, the rock Christ
Jesus, and not any rock, it's a peculiar particular rock. And
he said, And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see
my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." Now, turn to Isaiah
2. Why do I need to be? Yea, why
must I be in the rock? In the rock. Well, if standing
on the rock, I not only appear to have, but actually do have
Christ's righteousness, which I need to go into God's presence. Also, by being in the rock, I'll
show you that I not only have the righteousness of Christ,
but my own righteousness is hidden. You understand? It'll be hidden
if I'm in the rock. I tell you, anybody here see
through a rock? No. Put you in a brick house, can
we see it? No, we can't see. You can't see through rock. OK? It's gone forever. Look at Isaiah
2 and verse 10. Enter into, not on, but into
the rock, and have thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and
for the glory of his majesty." The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. When a man seeks refuge in the
cleft of the rock, you know what he finds there? He finds a cool
flowing stream. You know, when that rock was
smoked, water came out. You get in the cleft of the rock
now, and the heat's off. You're bathed in that cool, clear
water. But listen, you know where Christ
was crucified? He was crucified on Calvary.
You know what Calvary means? Place of the skull. You know
why they called it that? It was the dome of the rock. You understand?
It was a rock. I don't know how they put that
cross in the ground, but Christ was crucified on a rock. And
when His blood was shed, when His blood ran out of His body,
it ran down into that ground. And I tell you, it says here,
read this verse, it says, "...Enter into the rock, and hide thee
in the dust, for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory of
his majesty." Listen, the reason Christ was crucified at Calvary
is His life's blood flowed out from that tree into that rock.
What this is saying is, you and I need to get in the dust at
Calvary. You understand? We need to seek
Our God at Calvary, get on our faces in the dust, get right
down in there. Get your nose down in the rock,
you understand? Get in the dust, in the cleansing
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if I'm to be cleansed
of all my sin, it's going to be in the cleft of the rock,
Christ Jesus. Christ is that rock. When I'm on the rock, God
sees me as someday I will be in Christ. But when I'm in the
rock, God doesn't see what I used to be. You see the difference
there? When I'm on the rock, he sees me like he's seeing Christ.
is if I'm just perfectly righteous. When I'm in the rock, He's not
seeing me like I really am, a sinner, because Christ has covered it
with His blood. You know, the reason when He
came to Egypt He didn't kill all the children of the Israelites
is because He didn't see their sin. He saw the blood. When I
see the blood, I'll pass over you. If we're in the rock, God
passes over us. All right, and the third thing.
The third thing. is we must not only be on the
rock and in the rock, the third thing is, the rock's got to be
in us. The rock's got to be in us. Turn to Deuteronomy 32. You
know, a fellow who studies rocks—I hope I got this right—I think
he's called a paleontologist. Does that sound right? Huh? I bet you know what that is.
Is it a paleontologist that studies rocks? I don't know. Anyway,
a rock studier. Do you know, to him, to a person
who studies rocks, a paleontologist, that's what he is. You know,
to them, rocks are everything. They live for rocks. You understand
that? But do you know, to some folks,
all rocks are is something you trip over when you go for a walk. Oh, I tell you, God would make
us, make us, make our life wanting to be on the rock, in the rock,
and the rock in us, as opposed to making the rock Christ Jesus
a stumbling stone of offense. You see here in Deuteronomy 32,
don't let the rock Christ Jesus be a rock of offense. You know,
there was a giant named Goliath. He laughed at a young boy, David,
who came out to fight him. You know why I laughed at him?
What did David have? Did he have a spear? No. Did
he have a sword? No. He said, Here, King, you
keep all that junk. He said, It doesn't fit me anyway.
And he walked out there to face that giant. What did he have?
He had a rock. He had, what, five smooth stones
in his pocket, didn't he? He went out to fight a giant
with a rock. And listen, they laughed at what
that boy had. They laughed at the rock. You
understand that? Goliath laughed at the rock, and yet it was the
means of his destruction, wasn't it? Yeah, they didn't laugh long. When David, that which men held
in great esteem, was slain by that which men held in no esteem,
by the rock. And you understand, it wasn't
David that killed the giant. What was it? It was the rock.
The rock killed him. Yeah. We must be in the rock
Christ Jesus. Look here at Deuteronomy 32,
and let me show you something in verse 15 of Deuteronomy 32. But Jezuran waxed fat and kicked,
thou art waxed and fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered
with fatness. Then he forsook God, which made
him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation." That's
capital R. We know who that is, don't we?
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to this, "...they
provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, and with abominations
provoked they him to anger." They sacrificed unto devils,
not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came
newly up, whom your fathers feared. Now listen. Of thee, rock, that
begot thee, thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed
me." Now look at verse 28. Verse 28. "'For they are a nation
void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. that
they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider
their latter end. How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight, except their lock had sold them,
and the Lord had shut them up? For their lock," and by the way,
is that little r in your Bible? The other gods, those other Jesuses
they talk about on TV, let me tell you, they're rocks little
r. Little r. The Lord Jesus Christ is big
r rock. That's the reason we don't stand
on a pebble over here and obscure our Christ, our Jesus. No, we
stand on a mountain. You understand the difference?
He's big r. OK, go back here. It says, verse 31, For their
rock is not clear? There's two! There's other
Jesuses, and then there's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Rock Christ
Jesus. For their rock is not our rock,
even our enemies themselves being judges. Go down to verse 36.
For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself of
his servants. When he seeth that their power
is gone, then there is none shut up or left. And he shall say,
Where are their gods, their rock, in whom they trusted? which did
eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings,
let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. See now
that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and
I make alive, I wound, and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven,
and say, I live forever." And look at verse 43. Rejoice, O
ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood
of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries,
and he will be merciful to his land and to his people." You
know what the word land there means? He'll be merciful to his
rock and to his people. God's, listen, You know that,
in a sense, God's not merciful to us. He's merciful to Christ,
and if we're in Christ, we've got mercy. You see the difference
there? And that's what this is all about. You get one of those
little rocks, and there's no protection. You get in the rock
Christ Jesus, you'll be merciful. You'll be merciful there. We
got to be in the rock Christ Jesus. Rest on the rock Christ
Jesus. And that happens when the rock's
in you. You say, well, now, I'm not sure
I understand this, Bob. You say that how can the rock
be in you, and how could Christ be in the rock? This is all pretty
mysterious. Well, turn to Psalm 61, and let
me give you this illustration. Years ago, I think I was about
20 when this happened, because I was in college, and I was the
headmaster of a camp up in New York. way upstate New York near
the Canadian border, and as the headmaster, I had really pretty
much to run the camp. We had 104 boys there, and I
don't know how many counselors, but at any rate, one week, these
boys were there for eight weeks. Well, about halfway through the
camp one summer, it rained for three days in a row. Now, you
take a hundred and four boys and shut them up in a cabin for
three days, and they can't swim, and they can't canoe, and they
can't do this and can't do that, and you've got you a tribe of
wild Indians. And you'd better find some way to get some of
that dew wild out of them, or they're going to just be a mess.
So I came up with this idea. I was walking out from the mess
hall to this big softball field we had. And some boy came running
up to tell me something, and he ran up, he slipped, and he
went splat in the mud. And I thought, oh, what a mess.
And he laughed, he laughed, he just thought that was a great
thing. Well, he just wallowed in it. And I blew my whistle
and said, Go get them all in swimsuits and bring them out
here. And they all came out there, and I lined up. I said, This
half's on that. I numbered fifty of them over
here and put fifty of them over here. And you could only have
twenty inside the base lines, and everybody else had to play
outfield. You set the ball in home base, and you lined up all
fifty guys. Everybody came up once, and they
kicked the ball. And the rule was you had to run all the bases.
And if you could make it all the way around before somebody
threw the ball and hit you, then you were—you scored a run. This
fifty did it and the other fifty didn't. Buddy, I'm telling you,
it was a mess. And the rule was you had to slide
them to every base. And they had a ball. They ran
in that mud and they'd slide headfirst in the mud and just
fly everywhere. They didn't care whether they got out or not.
They just ran all the bases. And the guys trying to get the
ball, they'd run after the ball and slip and fall in the air
and fly in the mud. And they just, they had a ball. Well, we let them do it all afternoon.
They just had a time. And it came time to, it raining,
you know, and we had a hose running, just, you don't want to get real
bad, we just hose him down, let him get back in it, you know.
And this went on all day long, mud ball. And it was winding
down, and I'm the only one standing there, clean as a whistle. Wet,
but clean as a whistle. And they said, Bob, you didn't
take a turn. So I thought, fair's fair. So I set the ball down,
I kicked it way out there, and I took off running, slid in the
first in the mud, and they just hooted and yelled and ran the
second, and they were all running after me and tackling me and
everything else. I think I come running in the
home, and I slide in the home, and by this time we got a puddle. You can't imagine the size of
this mess we got at home base. And I slid into there, and anyway,
it all wound up. And as we were walking away,
somebody pointed at my leg. And I looked down, and I was
bleeding right below my knee. And I thought, well, that's kind
of, anyway, it's pretty rough. And the nurse looked at it and
she said, I'm sorry, you've got to have some stitches. And she said,
let's just run down to town. There's a little, nearest hospital
was 30 miles. She said, let's just go downtown
here and let old Doc, what's his name, stitch that up. I said,
okay. So we did, and old Doc came out and stitched me up and
whatever. And I was fine that night and
the next day. And that second night, I wasn't
feeling very good when I went to bed. And my leg was throbbing,
and I woke up about four in the morning and looked down, and
my leg, my knee, looked like it had a cantaloupe growing on
it. And I got over to the nurse, and anyway, they got me to the
hospital, and the doctor, the second doctor came in. And he
looked at this and said, I got to take these stitches out. And
he cut that first stitch, and boy, that knee burst, and the
pus went everywhere, and it was just, it was a mess. And it felt
good when he cut it. Oh, it felt good when he opened
it up. And he took a probe and went down in there. And in a
minute, he came out of there, and you know what he had? He
had a rock. Had a rock. It was a rock stuck
in my knee. It hadn't gotten out, so the
doctor hadn't. Now listen, here's the application of this. I was running through this life
like a mad dog, like a mad dog, just a wallowing in sin, and
playing, having a big time, no idea, just heading home when
I hit the rock. But I went to the physician.
You've got to go to the great physician, and the great physician
operates on you, doesn't he? And as painful as it is, it feels
good, doesn't it? It's better than the other way.
And I'll tell you what, even though, in a sense, it's hard
to come to understand, but the rock in you is the cure. You understand? It's the cure. If it ever gets in you, you understand?
If it ever gets in you, you're not ever going to be the same.
Not ever going to be the same. And you see here in Psalm 61,
look at verse 1. Hear my cry, O God, attending
to my prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the
rock that is higher than I. Oh, you'll want the rock in you.
You'll want him in you. Turn over a few pages to Isaiah
32. How can I know if I'm in the
rock and the rock's in me? Isaiah 32, verse 1. Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert
from the tempest, as the rivers of water in a dry place. and
as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land." In a weary land. How many of you know what a fossil
is? Y'all know what a fossil is? A fossil, now listen to me
a minute. A fossil, let's help you understand
about Christ being in you. A fossil is when something that
used to be alive, okay, somehow becomes a rock. Somehow the rock
gets in it, doesn't it? And it, it's, it's, it's part
of the rock now. You understand? Well listen,
preaching is a little like watching people become fossils. You understand? Y'all don't see it because it's
happening so slow. You don't. You sometimes think,
I'm just not getting any better. And I understand what you mean.
But you know, I just come back now and again. And when I come
back, it's like standing up here watching some fossils being made. Christ just keeps getting in
you. Just keeps getting in you. And the longer, you see, the
longer you're around Christ, the longer you're standing on
Him, and the longer you're getting your nose in the dust in Him,
the more He's getting in you. You understand? The more like
him, you start to live. The more like him, you start to act. That's
those who love Christ. That's what happens. You start
to fossilize. You start to get to be the rock,
like the rock. Someday, someday we're going to be just like him.
You know, you look at a fossil and you can't tell where the
rock stops and that thing ends, can you? No. Someday, you won't
even be able to tell where we stop and Christ start, because
we're going to be just like him, just like him. Won't that be
marvelous? Oh, that would be marvelous. Well, let me close with this. I want to be in the rock. I want
my sins put away, and I want to be on the rock. I want to
have Christ's perfect righteousness, but I also want the rock in us,
in me. Rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. He knew what he was writing about,
didn't he? He'd read this, I think. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure. That's what being on the rock,
being in the rock, and the rock in us. I'm glad I'm glad we got
us a real rock, aren't you? Yeah, I'm glad Christ is our
rock. Terry, have you got a closing,
you know, pick? Let's turn to 126, Lot of Ages.
126, Lot of Ages. Rock of Ages, pledge for me. Let me hide myself in Thee. Let
the water and the blood from Thy wounded side be true. Heal's
tender dove will do. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my fears forever flow? Could my sins always be known? Need for sin did not atone, Thou
the slave and Thou alone in my hand. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold thee all night long, Dark of ages cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee, Our Father, we are so thankful
for your gospel. I pray, Lord, that you would
take it and apply it to our hearts and never let us forget the things
that we've heard this evening. Never let us forget of our gracious Master and our God,
our high tower, our rock, our Lord, surely he is the rock we
need to be standing on the rock we need to be in. Lord, put us
in Christ. Keep us there. He said, If any
men come to me, I'll never cast them out. Lord, go with us. We part and go our separate ways.
I pray you'd be with us. In our hearts, Lord, in our minds,
keep us together. Keep us in Christ. Ask and pray. Give thanks in His name. Amen.