That was a wonderful blessing. I'm always grateful for people
who present special music, whether it's vocals or just the musicians
who present for us, the offertories. And I tell you, when they're
They give forth the music. It's for us to pay attention,
listen, especially to the words of the songs that are sung. And
on the Lord's Day morning, when Marty or David is playing the
operatory, that's not time to talk. It's a time to reflect
on the message things of God, read the bulletin. Sometimes
I see people, as soon as the offering, the men begin to take
up the offering, I guess they've just got to say something to
somebody, but we shouldn't do that, because these folks have
made preparation, they've worked hard, to be a blessing to us. And I wouldn't want you to do
that to me. I wouldn't want you to not pay
attention to what I have to say. And I want to pay attention to
the music that they present. And I thank you. I thank Marty
for her faithfulness through the years in playing the organ,
and Carolee through the years of playing the piano, and David
playing the piano for us and these ladies singing for us. I'd ask Brother James if he would
sing for us this evening and he's hurting himself. He's got hip troubles and maybe
it's contagious over there at the Thompson house. But we're
thankful Ann is doing pretty well, and I hope that James gets
better. I'm sorry that he's having difficulties. I told him this morning, what
is he, 92? Is that right? And I told him
this morning, I said, you know, if you could hold off on that
surgery, maybe eight years or something. And he said, well,
won't any of you be around then? I said, well, I hope we will
be. Unless the Lord comes back, surely
there'll be a few of us left in eight years. But I hate that
he's not feeling good. And we have others of our congregation
who are also under the weather, as we say, and I hope that they'll
get better very soon. And if it's the Lord's will,
they shall. Well, I want to go back this
evening to Hebrews chapter 13, and I'll read again, Hebrews 13 verse nine, where
we get these instructions. Be not cared about with diverse
and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that our heart
be established with grace. And not with meets or duties
that we might presume to do, because that's not going to profit
you any. I tell you, any work that you
do, mark this down, it's not going to profit you anything. by the grace of God and by God's
determination to produce good works. But make no mistake about
it, good works, God has ordained them before the world began. The scripture says, for by grace
he is saved through faith, that not of his selves, it's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them." Good works are ordained of God.
And we ask God to enable us to perform good works. But if we
do, we understand this, it isn't us even then. It's Christ working
in us. That's what the Scripture says.
Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ, which liveth within me, and I
live by the faithfulness of the Son of God. who loved me and
gave himself for me. And if we love the things of
God, if we do endeavor to glorify God, it's only because of his
work of grace, it's because of the presence of Christ Jesus
within us by his Spirit. And so what he does here in verse
nine, he draws a contrast between these various, and what he calls
strange doctrines, And people are moved about by them. And
here's the contrast he draws. Don't be moved about, don't let
anybody carry you away with their very unusual, foreign, strange
doctrines, but rather be established. Don't be blown around. Be steadfast
in the gospel of God's grace. Now this was a needful, needful
warning back in the days when this book was written. I don't
know who wrote it. It doesn't matter. It's the Spirit
of God who gave it. But this was a very needful warning
to the Hebrew to the Hebrews, that is, those who profess faith
in the Lord Jesus, because there were some notions within the
group, within the Jewish community, who profess faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There was these notions that,
yeah, the gospel is good, grace is good, but there are some things
we ought to be doing to be really saved. To be really saved. And the writer of the book of
Hebrews, the spirit of God, he is stressing this. He gives a
word of, a great word of caution. Don't be carried away by these
diverse doctrines. Don't be. You see, the old enemy
of mankind, the devil, he has no more, what would the word be,
selective or device, more manipulative device to use than that of spreading
false doctrines. That's what he uses. And I know
Satan. Satan, he's active out in the
world, the wickedness of the world, and it's awful. It's awful. No question about that. But I
think a lot of the things that we pack off on the devil is just
man's natural his natural inclination to do those things. It's man's
own willful rebellion against God. But where he works especially
is in the religious realm. And he has a multitude of very,
very strange doctrines. Doctrines that are contrary to
the Word of God. Remember, he's a murderer, the
scripture says, he is a murderer and a liar from the beginning. And he never ceases to go about
the earth seeking whom he may devour. Now, outside the church, I say
again, he's got a lot of traps out there for people. And mankind,
we're gullible. We're open to error. We're open
to wickedness. We're open to vileness. But we're
not only open to outward vileness and wickedness and corruption,
we're open to it in the religious realm. And that's where the great
damage is done. He would have us adopt a different
message than the doctrine of Christ. I said this morning,
and it bears repeating, every time the word doctrines is used,
doctrine with plural, with an S on the end of it, it's always
bad. It's in a bad context. Because error, you see, there
are many different errors. All different kinds of religious
propaganda. All kind of false gospels. But
the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and I want to stress this again,
is one. There's a unity to this message. It's all of God. It's all in
Christ Jesus. It's all of grace. It isn't a
bunch of different things that have no unity, that are disassociated
from one another. The doctrine of our Lord Jesus,
the doctrine of God our Savior, is singular. We don't have many messages.
We have one message. The one message is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's the doctrine of our church. What does your church believe?
What is your doctrine over there? We believe in salvation by grace
through the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our doctrine. That's our belief. That's our
teaching. That's the instruction that comes
forth from the Word of God and comes forth from the pulpit.
Not doctrines. Not all kinds of different things. We have one message. One message. And the goal of Satan himself is to adulterate
the message. You see, if he can't stop the
fountain of water from flowing, he'll pollute it. That's what he wants to do. You
see, he despises Christ Jesus. He hates the Son of God. And
all who follow the Son of God, all who believe Him, all who
rest in Him, all who look to Jesus Christ and His blood and
His righteousness alone for salvation, Satan hates them too. He started off in the Garden
of Eden to mar the glory of God. What was the glory of God's creation? It wasn't the heavens and the
earth, although those are magnificent. It was man. It was Adam. After every day, what God made,
God saw as good. God made the man the last day,
so it's very good. What he made was very good. And
Satan in his own heart, Lucifer, who had tried to overthrow God
to take the place of the Son of God. He envied that position. He wanted that position. He was
arrogant. He thought he could be God. He
could be the Son of God. He could be the sovereign. And
after God said He's very good, Satan set his, he set his heart
on destroying the, that which was the very rose of God's creation,
man. But he didn't know, he was just
playing, if I could put it this way, into the hand of God. Because
you see, man's fall Man's sinfulness. That's what paved the way for
God's greatest glory. A glory greater than the creation
of man is the salvation of man. That's where God's greatest glory
is manifested. It's against the black backdrop
of our wickedness, of our depravity, that the magnificence of this
salvation is seen. Salvation by grace through a
substitute of all things. How's God going to be just and
justify folks like us who drink iniquity like water? Through
a suitable substitute. That's how. One likened to ourself
because man got us in the mess. Man's got to get us out of it.
But it can't be a mere man. It's got to be a special man.
It's gotta be a man equal with God, because he's got to know
what God demands, and he's got to produce what God demands. Therefore, the Savior is both
the Son of God and the Son of Man. And Satan despises Christ,
and he despises this gospel. No wonder he is most appropriately
called Apollyon, the destroyer. He is the destroyer. You know, I read a couple of
weeks ago, would you go back to Acts 20, I read from this
passage, and I was looking at it the last two or three days,
I've been looking at this again, if you'd permit me to make just
a few observations from this passage. in Acts chapter 20,
Paul's final words to the Ephesian brethren. And this is what we're
working on this subject, strange doctrines. Don't be carried away
by them. That's a caution. It was good
for that day, it's good for our day. We need to be warned. And this is what the apostle
said to the elders of the church of Ephesus. He says in 20, 28. He said, take heed therefore
unto yourselves and all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers or guardians to feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood. Watch this, take heed
therefore Number one, unto yourselves. He's talking to preachers. He's
talking to elders, isn't he? That's who he's talking to. Number
one, take heed to yourselves. Make sure we have the doctrine
of Christ only. Make sure our doctrine's the
same as the apostles. make sure our messages, our Bible
class lessons are free, pure from error, unmixed with works,
make sure ours is a one message, the doctrine of Christ, making
sure that our message is not infected with errors and heresies. And I'll tell you something,
infection is easy to slip in. just like it is with you and
me physically. You get an infection. And I tell you, we don't want to be infected
in here by false doctrines, what the writer calls strange doctrines,
doctrines that are foreign, that are alien to the word of God.
I don't want that kind of infection. There are a lot of things we
have to be cautious about within the assembly of God. We don't
want to disrupt the unity. We want to be forgiving of one
another. How can many people of different
backgrounds, how can we get along and not divide? Well, the Lord's
going to have to keep us, and He's going to have to keep us
focused on the gospel. As long as we're focused on the
one message, the one person of Christ Jesus and His great work
of redemption, we'll be okay. But we have to be on guard. He
says, take heed to yourselves, preachers. I evaluate my messages. I'm not
talking about the way I bring them, because I always get a
failing grade on that. I'm talking about the substance
of what I preach. I want to make sure I've got
the right message. I was telling the grandchildren
this afternoon, and Ethan was asking me about, he said, do
you get nervous preaching? You know, that sort of thing.
And I said, well, not this kind of nervous because I'm talking
in front of people. But I realized that which we're
doing here, this has got This has got a value to it that's
everlasting. We're dealing with serious things
here. We're talking about the glory
of God. We're talking about the magnificence
of the Lord Jesus. We're talking about you, your
soul. And that sobers me up really
fast. I know it does you, it does you.
Anybody who gets up here knows the gospel, knows the value of
a soul. There are people who believe
in what we're saying. There are people who, they're
hanging on to every word. This is a vital thing we're doing. It's a necessary thing. It's
absolutely serious. No wonder he says, Paul says
to these men, you take heed to yourselves. And then he says, and all the
flock. All the flock. Look after the
flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Feed
them, that's what he says, feed them. Feed them sheep food. Feed the church of God, that
church he purchased with his own blood. That church that doesn't
belong to you preachers, it belongs to him, the one who paid for
it. And here's what he says, look
in verse 29. For I know this. And here's a warning he gives.
Trouble from without, and then trouble from within. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you. They were
out there, and then they're coming in. And he said, they're not
gonna spare the flock. In other words, nobody's immune
from them as far as their desire to devour them. It's like the
Pharisees, the Lord said they'd devour widows' houses. They're
not picky. They'll destroy anybody. And
that's what he says, they're like grievous wolves, wolves
that are hungry. Wolves that eat lambs. They're out there, and when I
leave, Paul says, they're coming in here. But I'll tell you what's really
scary, is verse 30. Also of your own selves. Now that's even more scary. From
within the body, shall men arise speaking perverse
things. You know, what does the word
perverse mean? Corrupt, corrupt things. And this is the goal, to draw
disciples after them. Draw them away from the truth,
and draw disciples unto themselves. Therefore, verse 31, watch, watch
out! Watch out! Watch out for these very strange
doctrines and those who deliver them. Watch and remember. Remember what I preach to you.
It's what he's saying, that by the space of three years, I cease
not to warn every one of you night and day with tears. Watch
out. Be on guard. Don't be gullible. I know that whoever stands up here,
you have to have, to a degree, you got to have some confidence
in them. To a degree. You got to believe he's a man
who's speaking for God. He's telling the truth of God.
Now we must be like the Bereans. who search the Scriptures to
make sure these things are so. But as you listen to me, you
sit there and you're taking in the words that I'm speaking.
And you have got to kind of trust me that I'm being honest with
you. And you've got to have a degree
of confidence. But never ever blindly follow
any man. You just can't do that. That's
too dangerous. It's too dangerous to say, well,
I don't understand what he's saying, and maybe it's different
from what I've heard, but you know, I've got a lot of confidence
in him. So it must be right. Don't ever
take that approach. Because no man is infallible. No man has a grasp on all the
doctrine of God. We understand to a degree the
doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of God our Savior, but we're
by no means, I'm by no means an expert on the Scriptures.
And just because I say something, that doesn't mean it's gospel. And these are the warnings. That's
why we've got to take the Word of God. That's why we've got
to go to the Scriptures. That's the reason we want people,
we ask people, we say, bring your Bibles. Get in the Word
of God, read the Scriptures, study the Scriptures, ask God
for understanding of the Scriptures. I don't set before you the old
catechisms, the writings of the Church Fathers, the ancient Church
Fathers. Oh, there might be some benefit
to reading those, but there's no benefit equal to reading the
word of God. Because this is the only book,
the only book inspired of God. That's why he says, remember. Paul says, remember. I was there
three years preaching. Watch and remember. Watch and
remember. Watch and remember. You can remember
those words, can't you? Watch. Watch out. Watch out for
anything new. Watch out for anything different.
Be on the alert. Be sensitive to anything that
is Not thus saith the Lord, because infection can slip right
in from that old lion who goes about
seeking whom he may devour. Watch out these strange doctrines. Now, how can we know How can we identify strange doctrines? Well, I've given you the first
one already, but I'll enlarge upon it. Number one, these strange
doctrines are contrary to the statements of the word of God. This is the standard by which
to judge all religious teaching All doctrine. The standard is
not what does the church say, what does the church believe.
You know, if you're a Catholic, it's all the time, this is what
the church says, this is what the Pope says, this is what our
priest says. It doesn't matter what those
men say. It's if they, what matters is, are they saying the message
that's consistent to the word of God or against the word of
God? And as far as those men are concerned, they speak against
the word of God. This is the measure of truth. This is the yardstick by which
to determine the accuracy or the inaccuracy of all religious
teaching. What does the Bible say? that
is taking it in its context, in its setting. There is a standard by which
we go by. Isaiah chapter 8, Isaiah says
if they speak not according to this book, it's because there's no light
in them. And every preacher, whoever will
preach for me, I don't know what the future holds. I hope God
will keep the truth here a long time. But every preacher that
will preach for me will preach according to this book or he
won't be preaching. That's the way you feel about
your pulpit too, I'm sure. We guard this pulpit. It's a
special, special place. what you choose to do with the
building. I can pretty much go along with anything on that,
as long as you don't want to paint the walls purple or something. Anything you want to do to the
facilities, that's OK. I can go along with that. Compromise,
well, we'll do this color or that color. But there's one thing
that there is no compromise on. And that's what goes forth from
this pulpit. It's got to be consistent to
the word of God. See, here's the thing. In this
world of confusion, world of chaos, a world of multiplied
religious errors, only one doctrine remains the same, untouched by
the years of time, unchanged though the voices it speaks the
message have changed. It's still the same message. And that's the grace of God to
sinners through Christ the Lord. You see, brethren, sisters, our
house of faith is not built upon the shifting sands of the opinions
of men. It's built upon the immutable
word of God. Immutable, you know what that
means, unchangeable. It's unchangeable and unchanging. The doctrine of Christ Jesus
is absolutely vital. And we can detect strange doctrines
by this. They're inconsistent to the word
of God, as we take it in its context now. Second thing is,
the strange doctrines are contrary of the person and attributes
of God. I tell you, I listen to what men say about God. They'll tell you what they believe.
And they'll tell you if they serve an almighty God, or if
their God is pitiful, and someone that doesn't deserve any kind
of devotion or reverence. The Lord said to Israel, thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as yourself. You
thought I was just like you with your limitations. That's what
you thought. And that's what this religious
generation today thinks. They think that God is pretty
much like them. He has limitations. He can only
do so much if we let him. if we let them. Thoughts of God are too low.
And as I think of people, and especially preachers in religion,
and I listen to what they have to say about God, it seems to
me like there are three specific areas where these strange doctrines
really manifest themselves with reference to God. I'll tell you
where they show up. When men speak about, number
one, the love of God. That's where you'll hear strange
doctrines set forth. Because, I'll tell you what strange
doctrines do, they represent the love of God as being mere
sentiment. It's all in sentiment. And a
kind of kindness. Nice intentions. They make the
love of God to be anemic. feeble, weak. Strange doctrines say things
like this. I see the love of God in the
things that he's made. Really? Or I heard a preacher say this
just the other day. When you do a good deed, people
are seeing the love of God. Huh, wonder where they got that
from? Now the creation shows His wisdom
and His power, but I'll tell you where His love is seen. His
love is seen in the salvation of sinners. That's where the
love of God is seen. And this was manifested, the
love of God, in that He sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. That's where the love of God
is seen. It's not seen through me doing a good deed to you.
It's not seen in the beautiful things out here in God's creation.
It's seen in the Lord Jesus dying on the cross. It's seen in his
substitutionary death. There's the love of God. Look
at his son hanging there naked, suffering the agonies of men
and the wrath of God. Why is he doing that? Because
of the love of God, I'll tell you. That's the reason. And they've so watered down these
strange doctrines. They watered down the love of
God. It's just a divine want to. God
just wants to do something. How does God love? I can tell
you this, he loves sovereignly. He don't love everybody. Brother Joe read for us this
evening back in the office, Psalm 5 verse 5, thou hatest all workers
of iniquity. Jacob have I loved, God said,
Esau have I hated. If you want to be a fool and
say God doesn't hate anybody, you have at it. But you have
already expressed that you have no regard for the Word of God. God loves who He wants to, He
hates who He wants to, and He's always been that way. This is
nothing new. And know this, the love of God
has never changed into His hatred. And his hatred has never changed
into his love. Those he loves, he's always loved. Those he hates, he's always hated.
He said, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful, and whom
I will, I'll harden them. You got trouble with that? You
got difficulty with that? I don't, because he's the potter,
we're the clay. He can do what he wants to with
you and me. God loves sovereignly, God loves
savingly. He saves the objects of his love. Number three, God loves sacrificially. That's why he gave his son. For
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. I'll tell you something else
about the love of God. He loves successfully. Successfully, every
object of his love will be brought by irresistible grace to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Someday they'll be with the Lord
forever in heaven. The Lord said to Jeremiah, I've
loved you with an everlasting love, therefore in loving kindness
I've drawn you, I've called you. God loves sovereignly, God loves
savingly, God loves sacrificially, God loves successfully. So usually
these strange doctrines, they'll be manifest in what a man has
to say about the love of God, and I'll tell you something else
would be manifest in what he has to say about the sovereignty
of God. I heard a preacher the other
day say, God treats all men alike. That's another stupid statement. Even some of our forefathers
said all men are created equal. That's not true. That's not true. Were you created? Did God make
you and put you in a family? where you have a silver spoon
in your mouth and you're financially set for the rest of your life,
you got gazillions of dollars? No. Probably like me, grew up
on beans and cornbread, if we had that, thankful to get it,
a few potatoes along the way, and whoopee, every once in a
while we got a little meat. That was really great. But there
were people in our town, Bassett, Virginia, the Bassetts, the Bassetts
who owned the furniture domain, they ate a high on the hog. No, we weren't created equal. Well, how come I was born into
a family that we, I was thankful for what we had, we got by, but
we weren't wealthy. How come I was born in that kind
of family and here's Another guy born in a family, he's got,
well, that's sovereignty of God there. There's no equality there. And there are people who are
born in this world, they have unusual genius about them. I tell you, some of these medical
people, man, what they're able to do, the genius behind it,
It's fascinating. These surgeons, people who have
invented medical equipment, could you do that? Well, maybe you
could, but I couldn't. I mean, I'm still one of those
that when a jet takes off, I go, wow, look at that. I was talking
to a pilot about that, and I said, I'm always amazed when they get
off the ground. He said, I'd be amazed if they
didn't. He said, if you understood aerodynamics, you'd be amazed
that they didn't get off the ground. Because they're designed
to do that. But see, I don't have that kind
of intellect. And I'll tell you, the reason
you believe the gospel And others don't. That's due to the sovereignty
of God. You know, there in Romans chapter
9, and I quoted, the Lord said, I'll be merciful to whom I'll
be merciful, whom I will harden. You know who He is merciful to?
The Israelites. You know who He hardened? Pharaoh.
So yeah, but he is a whole lot worse than the Israelites. You
need to read again. You need to read the Scriptures
again. Those Israelites is a bunch of rebels against God. And they gave evidence of that
through their wilderness journeys and their unbelief. Well, why did God show mercy
to one and He hardened another? Because He's God, that's why.
Because that's His right. God sends his gospel to one area,
not to another area. Why is that? Because he's sovereign. God doesn't, he doesn't have
to deal equally with all people. Who maketh he to differ from
another is what the scripture said. To one he gives a long life,
to another he gives but a few hours. That's his right though. And then, strange doctrines are
set forth with reference to the way God saves sinners. See, the natural man looks at,
he looks at a man like Cain, who brought to God the best that
he could produce. Don't you expect he shined them
apples up, you know, and what other vegetables, what vegetables
he brought, whatever it was. He just, I bet it was impressive. I bet it was impressive. I bet
people said, boy, look there at Cain's offering. Isn't that
something? Special man that Cain is. Brought
the best he could produce. Everybody was impressed, except
for God. You know what was beautiful to
God? That lamb that Abel brought. And the blood that was shed.
That was beautiful to God. Because that pointed to Christ. But you see, man to Him, that's
just, surely if a person is Sincere. That's gotta be good enough.
No, that's not good enough. I'll tell you what's good enough.
Perfection. That's what's good enough. I'll
tell you what's good enough. Righteousness. That's good enough. I'll tell you what's good enough.
As good as God. Ah, now you're okay. If you're
as good as God, You're okay. And in Christ Jesus, we are,
see? We are. And God's way of saving sinners,
this is one of the strange doctrines. Strange to men, but it's the
doctrine of Christ. And very quickly, strange doctrines
are manifested in teachings contrary to the person and work of Christ. A lot of people who've come in
these doors and gone back out and said, that's not the message
for me. Because our message here has
been consistent. The person and work of Christ. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God and man. You see Him dying
on the cross. You see His substitutionary work. And we lift Him up, we exalt
Him, and admittedly, not as well as we should. We do it
with feeble lips and stammering tongue. But God knows my heart
just like He knows your heart. I sure do want to honor His Son,
don't you? I know you do. You do. I know all of you do. I want
to honor Christ Jesus. And I know this, God will honor
those who honor His Son. I know that. I got the Bible
for that. But strange doctrines, they belittle
His person or His work. One or the other, one or the
other, they'll always take it down. And fourthly, and I, because
I've got to go quick, that strange doctrines or any teachings that
are contrary to the person and work of the Holy Spirit, don't ever minimize how necessary
it is for the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, I know the Holy
Spirit did not redeem us. Christ did. The Holy Spirit does
not justify us. God justifies the ungodly. The
Holy Spirit doesn't make us righteous. We're righteous in the Lord,
our righteousness, who is Christ Jesus. But I know this. We wouldn't be alive to God and
the things of God were it not for the work of the Spirit of
God within us. Not one of us would believe this
message without the Holy Spirit. We would never have laid hold
of him in faith. You see, I'll tell you what strange
doctrines, I'll show you how they're contrary to the person
and work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, His place has
been filled by the altar call. And by decisional regeneration. By such foolish talk as God's
done all He can do, and now it's up to you. Spirit of God and
His work been taken away. He's not even necessary anymore.
But the Lord Jesus said, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit.
He's not going to speak of himself. He's going to speak of me. He's
going to show you things of mine. And he's going to convict of
sin, righteousness, and judgment. That's what he's going to do.
Don't ever minimize the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit,
because verily, verily, the Savior said, I say unto you, except
a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. It's
the wind of God, the Spirit of God, who blows where He wants
to. Oh, send the wind to us. And then let me give you this.
about strange doctrines or any teachings contrary to that of
salvation by grace alone. You know, organized religion
has all kinds of duties for men to obey for salvation. But that's
salvation by works. And that won't do. Because God's
not going to share His glory with a puny old man or a young
man, or a puny old woman, or a young woman. He's just not
going to share His glory. He said, I'm the Lord. I'm the
Lord. My glory will I not give to another. I'm not going to give my glory,
my majesty to a creature that I've made. He gets all the glory. Let me show you one reference
here. Go with me to the book of Zechariah
chapter 4. I've been sitting on this passage
of Scripture for the last three weeks and I'm probably going
overtime because I forgot to set my stopwatch as soon as I
started. but I'm gonna give this to you,
and you can deduct it from the next one if you want to, the
time, but I'm gonna give this to you. I've gotta say, I'm like
Eliphaz in the book of Job. He said, I'm full of the matter,
and if I don't say it, I'm gonna bust wide open, and that's the
way I feel about this passage in Zechariah chapter four. So
if you would, go there. Now, after you get there, you
find Zechariah. Malachi's the last book of the
Old Testament. Before that is Zechariah. Once
you get there, let me just give you a little bit of background.
Here's the purpose of this chapter. It is to encourage the Jews who
were coming back from Babylonian captivity to give them some comfort
and encouragement in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple,
okay? In fact, there's a reference,
you can jot this down if you want to, Ezra 3.12 says, many
of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers who were
ancient men that had seen the first house, the first temple,
when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, this
temple that was in just shatters. It was just a mess. They wept
with a loud voice. broke their hearts, had been
in captivity, come out of Babylon, they go to Jerusalem, they go
to the place of worship, and it's just, it's torn to pieces.
And they wept. They wept. Because that temple
lacked the grandeur and the beauty of Solomon's temple. And so two
prophets, one of them Haggai, the other one Zechariah, They
were sent to encourage the workers as they went about rebuilding
the city and rebuilding the walls. And here's what we have a picture
of here. Is our Lord Jesus building His church? You're the temple
of God. So I go to Zechariah 4 verse
6. Now the man that is kind of heading
this up The man who's building it is Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel. Verse six, Zechariah four. Then
he answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the
Lord unto Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, But by my
spirit, saith the Lord." In other words, not by the combined force
of men laboring together, nor by the power of mere men,
but by my spirit, I'll see the jobs done. And then he says in
verse seven, "'Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel?'
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." In other words,
there'll be no obstacle that will stand successfully in the
way of Zerubbabel building the temple. That's the Lord's, that's
His Word. He gets His promise. It's not
going to be by your ingenuity. It's not going to be by your
might. It's not going to be by all of y'all coming together
and working as a unit. It's by my Spirit, saith the
Lord. I'm going to build this house.
It will be built. Zerubbabel will build it. Zerubbabel
is a picture of Christ Jesus. And it doesn't matter how great
the mountain is, who are you, O great mountain? Before Christ
Jesus. No obstacle can stand in His
way in building His church. He said, I will build My church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Neither the
devil nor any of his false prophets nor any lies that anybody tells
will ever stand in the way of our Lord Jesus doing the work
that God ordained for Him to do, build His church. God gave
Him a people, Christ redeemed those people, the Spirit of God's
drawing those people unto Himself, and one of these days we're all
gonna be with Him in glory. I don't care how big the mountain
is. Ain't no mountain gonna stand before Christ Jesus. And watch this last statement.
And he shall bring forth the headstone. You know what the
headstone is? That's the top stone. He shall bring forth the
headstone. He's gonna rebuild it all the
way to the tip top. And put that headstone up there. And people are gonna say the
temple is complete. He shall bring forth the headstone
thereof with shoutings. And what's he crying? Grace,
grace unto it. And I'm telling you, Christ Jesus
is building His church. He's building His church. And
one of these days, He's gonna lay the topstone. She'll be complete. A multitude of living stones
Fit it into the building. And this is what we'll be shouting
this forever. Grace! Grace! What has brought all this to
pass? The grace of God to us in Christ Jesus. That's what's
gonna bring it to pass. Grace puts the headstones. So
there are some strange doctrines out here. And anything contrary
to grace, Just mark it off. Don't listen to it. Don't even bother with it. Pure
grace. That's the message of the Scriptures.
It's the message of the Reformation. Here's what those men stood for
and here's what they believed. Salvation by Christ alone. Salvation revealed in the Word
of God alone. In Christ alone. by grace alone,
received by God-given faith alone. It's the message of the Reformation.
Wouldn't God answer the message of more preachers today? Maybe
God will raise up some more. Hope He will. Pray He will. But
I always know this. He has just as many as He's ordained
to have. He's got enough to tell His people.
That's for sure.