Caleb, you need this over here. Okay. No, we don't take time for these
services. The girls are going to save money. We've got to give time for people
to go back there and change nurseries and go fix the food. Yeah, we'll
take it. We'll take it. Separately. I'll give you time. You'll be
able to pick up. What was I going to say? Oh, shit. We'll sing that. Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing in our hymnals hymn number 460. Hymn number
460. What a fellowship, what a joy
divine Leaning on the everlasting arms What a blessedness! What a peace it's mine! Leaning on the everlasting arch,
Leaning, leaning, Safe and secure from all alarms, Leaning, leaning,
leaning on the everlasting arm Oh, how sweet to walk in this
pilgrim way, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path,
grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarm. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near Leaning on the everlasting
safe and secure from all alarm. Leading, leading, leading on
the everlasting arm. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians,
chapter 2. I am so thankful for the last
night's service and look so forward to this morning and this evening
and tomorrow. I'm so grateful God meets me
where I'm at. and uses these dear, dear preachers. My dear brethren, my dear brethren,
2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Start reading at verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, were unto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
Hold to traditions which you've been taught, whether by word
or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts, establish you in every good word and work. Our one true and living God, we come into your holy presence,
come with such joy, such assurance, such comfort in our hearts for what you've given us in Christ
and the gospel that we've been so privileged to hear, so blessed
to hear. The greatest blessing is, Lord
Jesus, that we believe it, we rejoice in it, and by your
grace, we understand it. And I thank you for my brethren.
Oh, how I thank you for them. Thank you for my brothers and
sisters in Christ, but I thank you for my preacher brethren,
these men that you called, set apart to preach the gospel. the glory of our God in Jesus
Christ, our Lord. And, Lord, as they come this
morning, would you please bless them, give them grace, enable
them to speak with some power and some liberty? And, Lord Jesus,
bring glory to yourself through this service. And, Lord, we thank
you for the food and the people that prepared it. God bless these
dear preachers. Meet the needs of our heart again
today. If there's someone who's never yet believed, don't know
what it is to embrace Christ, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
oh God, may today be the day that you open the heart, turn
on the light in their brain, in their mind, and bring them
to our blessed Savior at his feet, where we all belong and
desire to be. We thank you in our Lord Jesus
Christ's name. Amen. We're gonna do something
a little different about singing this morning. Get your chorus
book, turn to number nine. Tell you how we're gonna do it.
Down at the bottom it says, say, sinner will you meet me? Page
nine, bottom of it. You ain't got one, we'll get
you one. But you see down there where
it says, sinner will you meet me? This side over here is gonna
say, Sing, say, sinner, will you meet me? You sing that three
times. This side over here, we're gonna sing, by the grace of God,
I'll meet you. Then when we get to, when we
do a shout and sing, when we get to glory, we'll all join
in on that. All right. Say, sinner, will you meet me? Say, sinner, will you meet me? Say, sinner, will you meet me
on Canaan's happy shore? By the grace of God, I'll meet
you. By the grace of God, I'll meet
you. By the grace of God, I'll meet
you. Oh, Cadence, have peace. Now, everybody. There we'll shout
and give Him glory. There we'll shout and give Him
glory. There we'll shout and give Him
glory. Your glory is His name. We haven't done that in a long
time. I don't know what I'm going to
do till I do it. Boy, I tell you, I hope you preachers
don't do that. But Caleb Hickman, oh, a dear,
dear friend, brother, and I'm so grateful he brought his wife,
Bobbie, with her. You know, that's his claim to
fame is his wife. But Caleb is a pastor of Holy
Grace Church up in Oley, Pennsylvania. And I love him and I appreciate
him. And you come, Caleb, and bring
the Lord's message. She used to ask me, did I want
this podium removed? reminded me I'm the shortest
one of all the preachers, Connie asked. I think it'll be all right. There's never a time that a man
is more desperate for the Lord to send his spirit, the Lord
to honor his word, for the Lord to give much grace than when
he stands behind a pulpit. And that's my prayer this morning
is that he would do that. I would first like to say thank
you for the hospitality of the church and Pam and Brad for being
so hospitable, even so loving and kind, very thankful for them,
thankful for each of you. Your Yankee friends, brethren
in Christ, say hello. They always get angry at me for
saying it like that, but that's okay, they'll get over it. We
are north of the Mason-Dixon line, that is true. But I moved
to Pentucky, actually. They hunt and fish, they just
don't have the same accents as we do down here. Being born in
Tennessee and raised, I've lost a little bit of my accent up
there just to be clear, but you might hear some of it come out
because I'm staying with Brad and Pam, so. Last thing I'll say before I
start the message here is that Donnie called and I told him,
you got the wrong guy. There's plenty of other people
you could be asking. And he said, yeah, but you're coming, right?
And I said, well, yeah, I'll be there. But as it goes, Greg was my pastor
for years. And so as Paul told Timothy,
he called him his son in the gospel. That would be my father
in the gospel. And then he heard the gospel from Todd. And so
this would be my dad and my granddad in the gospel. And then Donnie's
older than them. That makes him great granddad.
And Bruce is my uncle. So it's a little bit intimidating,
but I pray that the Lord will bless his word this morning.
Turn with me, if you will, to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah
chapter 23. Here in our text. Our Lord is clearly rebuking
false prophets who have come in to sow discord among the Lord's
sheep. They are spreading the lie and
It doesn't take much to change the truth into the lie. Do we
know that? Go back to the garden whenever Satan was beguiling
Eve. The temptation wasn't a big,
long speech. It was very simple. He used one
simple word to change the truth of God. He said, in the day that
you eat thereof, you shall not surely die. That changed the
entire meaning of the word. That changed God's word entirely.
And it changed the truth of God. into the lie. The lie is, the
lie was, is that you can be God yourself, Eve, if you partake
of this. Man by nature, they want to be God and want God's
approval for what they do. They want to merit, they want
to earn recognition based upon what they do rather than the
merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what Jeremiah is
saying, the Lord saying through Jeremiah, is that woe unto these
preachers who are sowing this lie. The lie is that we can please
God. The scripture is clear on this.
They that are in the flesh cannot please God. That's very clear,
isn't it? That's Romans chapter 8, verse 8. Well, let's read
this together. I want to read a few verses here. Jeremiah 23, 23 says, Am I a
God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God far off? Can any
hide himself in the secret places that I shall not see him, saith
the Lord? Do not I feel heaven and earth,
saith the Lord? I have heard what the prophets
said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed,
I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets
of the deceit of their own heart. which think to cause my people
to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to
his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. These false prophets, these antichrists
were mixing. They were bringing in law with
grace as it always has been. They're saying this is what you
need to do. You don't need to do what God said. You need to do
what God said and this. That's mixing law and grace.
It's very simple. And yet it changed the truth
of God into the lie. And I love our Lord's rhetorical
question here in verse 24. He says, can any hide himself
in secret places that I shall not see him? That's a rhetorical
question. That's a rhetoric. Lord, no, you cannot hide from
the Lord. He's omnipresent. He's omnipotent. He knows everything
all the time. He's everywhere all the time.
You cannot hide from the Lord. And yet that's what men try to
do by going about establishing their own righteousness. Well,
how far back does that go? Well, if you remember in the
garden, as soon as Eve partook of the fruit and gave to Adam
and they took, they knew that they were naked. And what did
they do? They sowed fig leaves together. It's a picture of man's
self. self-righteousness. They said, we can cover ourself
so that God won't see us. And the Lord came in the cool
of the evening and called for Adam and Adam answered. And the
Lord said unto Adam, who told you that you were naked? He said,
well, I was afraid I hid, Lord. Who told you you were naked?
Did you take any of the fruit thereof? Well, that's another
rhetorical question. He knew the answer. And so we see, well,
I love Adam's response. And boy, this is us by nature,
isn't it? Well, it's the woman that you gave me. It was her
fault. It wasn't me. It was her fault. And that's
us. We don't take the ownership of our unbelief or our sin. The
flesh will never do that. The amazing part about God's
salvation is it's the new man that takes ownership of the sin.
But the new man created in righteousness has no sin at all. Ain't that
glorious? No, the lie is this, that you
can do something to hide yourself from God. I've titled this Can
Can any hide himself? Can any hide himself? And we already know the answer
to that. The answer is no. No. But the first question I
would ask is, how would you try? Well, you'd have to try by doing
works, wouldn't you? You'd have to try by keeping the law. You'd
have to try by moral change, by what you can see on the outward,
not what you see on the inward. And I would remind us what the
Lord told the Pharisees. He said on the outside, you're
you're whited sepulchers, you bleached the tombs. But on the
inward, you're still full of dead men's bones. The Lord tells
us he looks at the heart, doesn't look at the outward. He looks
at the heart. And we can do nothing to change this heart that we
have, this heart of stone, this heart that's attached to this
flesh, that's enmity against God. I would remind us that the
word enmity means hostile. Our flesh right now hates God. Our flesh will always hate God. The good news of the gospel is,
is he gives a new nature. He gives a new man created in
righteousness that loves the things of the Lord, that delights
in the Lord, that, oh, it calls him my beloved and he calls us
his beloved as we heard last night. Understand this, all false
religion hinges upon doing something either as part of your salvation
or as evidence. of your salvation. All false
religion hinges upon those two things. Men want to see physical
evidence of their own righteousness in false religion. What does
the Lord say? I'll look upon the heart. I don't
look upon the outward. I don't look upon what you see,
but the things which are spiritual, the things not seen. We look
on the carnal, look on the temporal. But the Lord, oh, that that new
man looks upon the eternal, the eternal things of the Lord. The
moment you give, a sheep, an elect child of God, a work to
do. You have stripped them of their
righteousness. You have put them back underneath
the law. You've taken all their hope away and you've made them
unable to rest. Why? Because now they're looking
at this body of sin, this corruption that we are. And we can never
find righteousness in that. We know the Lord's taught us.
He said, all shall be taught of me. We know better. The Lord's
taught us that you cannot have righteousness based upon what
you do or I do. It doesn't work that way. Our
righteousness must be freely bestowed by grace or it's not
a righteousness at all. It's not a righteousness at all.
Oh, Paul was dealing with this in Galatians. He was, uh, we're
going through Galatians right now with the, at the church and,
uh, They were dealing with mixing the law and grace. And as we
started this, these prophets were changing the truth into
a lie. And all they did was add a little bit of this or a little
bit of that. Well, that's what Galatians were doing. They said,
well, yeah, you're saved by grace, but you have to be circumcised. One thing breaks the entire meaning
of the message of the gospel. And that's what we do by nature.
We want to latch on to one thing. As our righteousness, aren't
you glad that we're kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time? It's the Lord
that keeps his people. We don't keep ourself. Oh, the
scripture tells us in Romans 3, 19. Now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped. all the world may
become guilty before God. That's the purpose of the law,
not to earn or merit righteousness, but to show us we cannot earn
or merit righteousness, not by what we do, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy. His mercy is what
caused us to be saved, not what we do. Well, this Work's religion didn't
just stop with fig leaves with mom and dad, it passed on down
to Cain as well, didn't it? It sure did. Why? Because we're all born in sin
and shaped into iniquity by nature. We desire to have a righteousness
in and of ourselves. Look at me. Nebuchadnezzar, perfect
example. He built a 60 foot statue. Whose
face do you think was on that statue? Beacon Ezra space everybody's
gonna bow down and worship me. Look at this great Babylon that
I've created. That's our flesh by nature We all see ourself
as being something that we're not and until the Lord reveals
what we really are How he sees things and by the way how God
sees it's how it really is Till he reveals that we're nothing
but sin born in sin shape it into iniquity. Oh, we'll desire
that 60-foot statue of ourself Aren't you glad? That the Lord
He keeps us, keeps us from ourself. Cain offered up the works of
his hands, Abel offered up the fruit, or Cain offered up the
fruit of the ground, Abel offered up what the Lord demanded, the
blood sacrifice, the lamb, the lamb that the Lord was pleased
with. Who taught him that? Who taught him that? Adam. Adam would have taught him that,
wouldn't he? Cain knew better. But here's the thing Obadiah
says about that. How are the things of Esau searched out?
How are his hidden things sought up? See, these are they. that
try to establish a righteousness outside of Christ. And either
we have a righteousness that is in Christ alone, or we have
no righteousness. They go about fooling themselves,
fooling themselves, dreaming dreams, as it says in our text,
false dreams. Turn with me to Isaiah 28. Our question is, can any hide
himself this morning? We're going to see right here
a clear answer to that. Isaiah 28 verse 15 tells us,
because you have said we have made a covenant with death and
with hell are we at agreement when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come into us for we have
made lies our refuge and under falsehood we have hid ourself.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay in the line or to the line and
righteousness to the plummet and the hell shall sweep away
the refuge of lies and the water shall overflow the hiding place
in your covenant. Your covenant with death shall
be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. And
when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you
shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth,
it shall take you. For morning by morning shall
it pass over by day and by night, and it shall be a vexation only
to understand the report. For the bed is shorter than that
a man can stretch himself on, and the covering and the covering
narrower than that he can wrap himself in. Can anyone cover
themselves? Can we hide ourselves? No. No,
the covering is too narrow. We can't obtain it. When the
overwhelming scourge comes, the Lord said, I'm going to disannul
your covenant, the covenant that you've made with death, the covenant
that you say that's going to stand before the Lord. The Lord
won't have it. The Lord will not have it. He'll
disannul it. See, God demands perfection. God demands righteousness. God demands holiness. And these
are things that we don't understand in the flesh. These have to be
received by faith. These have to be received by
the Lord's grace alone. There's no way. How are you going
to explain what holy is? How can we explain that? We can
only declare what the Lord said it is. We're other than him in
every way. But yet that's what he demands.
So if he demands that, how can I make a hiding place? I can't. I can't make a hiding place.
I was born in sin, shapen in iniquity. Psalm 24 tells us this,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand
in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn
deceitfully. Does that describe you? Does
that describe me? Oh, no. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, the Lord said the stars are not pure in his sight.
The stars are not pure in his sight. So does that describe
me? No. So how can any hide himself? We can't. We cannot hide ourselves. We're completely depraved. We are utterly sinful, utterly
depraved. Isaiah 55 says, For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. You know,
we in religion, and this is all false religion, men believe that
they can restrain and constrain God. They can prevent him from
doing something or they can obligate him to do something. That's not
true. That's not true. See, he's God.
He is the eternal sovereign. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. He created the earth and all
things that are therein. He is the sustainer of life.
He's holy and just and true. None, we heard this last night,
none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He
can't be threatened. He can't be dictated to. So how
is it? I'm going to have a covering.
It can't come through and by me. Can't come through and by
me. So what's our hope? Psalm 27 verse five is where
our hope is. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. What is my hope? That he will
hide me. Not that I'll hide myself. Not that I'll find a way to hide
myself from him because we've already heard that when the overwhelming
scourge comes, there'll be no covering. Not if it's a covenant
I've made with death, but he shall cover me." Well, who's
me? All the Lord's people. All the
elect of God given to Christ before the foundation of the
world. He will hide us in his pavilion. In his pavilion. He must, or we will not be hid.
Moses asked the Lord one time, he said, Lord, show me your glory.
If I found grace in your sight, show me your glory. The Lord
said, no man can look upon my face and live. No man could look
upon my face and live, but there is a place nigh unto me, nigh
unto me. And I will put you upon the rock
and I will place you in the cleft of the rock. And when I pass
by you, you shall see my hundred parts. What's the hundred parts
of God? Why was that his glory? Why did David say, surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life? Because
it's what the Lord's already done. It's what the goodness and mercy
of God, it's the it's the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's already happened, happened in eternity past, and it happened
in time where it said, that's my glory, that's my glory, how
I saved my people from their sin. That's my glory. Which brings us to our third
question, if I. Can do nothing to merit favor
if we are utterly full of sin, why would he hide me? Why would he hide me? Turn with
me to Isaiah 43. I'm gonna read the first four verses. Isaiah
43 says, But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O
Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have
redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God. The Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior, I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba
for thee, since thou was precious in my sight. There it is. That's
the why. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou has been honorable and I have loved thee. Therefore,
will I give men for that for thee and people for thy life. Precious means highly valued. You know how much it costs the
Lord. To redeem his people, the precious.
What's the what's the price of the precious blood of the lamb?
There's no it's invaluable. There's no there's no way to
put a value on that, is there? But that's what it costs. The
death of the Lord's son for you and I to be redeemed. You are
precious in my sight. You are highly valued. This is
all by the Lord's free and sovereign grace. which is what Noah hoped
in. I want to remind us, Noah, he,
I just saw this recently, but the scripture says that every
imagination on the heart of man was on evil and that continued.
That was every imagination. Don't miss that. Genesis chapter
six, every imagination. Noah had an imagination, didn't
he? Every imagination of man was on evil, then that continually. Does that mean Noah's imagination
was evil continually? Yes, it does. So what's the hope
in that? But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. There's the gospel. There's the
gospel. That's the difference. Noah didn't
know a flood was coming. Noah didn't know that the rain
was going to fall and that everything was going to die. He had no idea.
But God showed mercy. It's what he told. It's what
he said. I'll show mercy on whom I will show mercy and whom I
will harden. Well, what happened? The Lord
told Noah, build an ark. It's going to rain. My wrath
is going to pour down. Otherwise, Noah would have had
no idea he needed a covering. He would have had no idea that
he needed a shelter from the wrath of God. See, it's the Lord
that has to reveal his truth. He can't be sought out. He can't
be found out. He can't be figured out. Oh,
he's higher than the heavens. His ways are not our ways. Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Was he looking for it?
Is he looking for grace when he found it? Grace was bestowed freely by
grace. That's the only way you can say it. The Lord bestowed
it freely by his own determinate counsel. He wasn't looking for
it. God gave him a hiding place,
an ark, a place of refuge from the wrath of God, freely by his
grace. And the Lord, we know the story,
the winds or the waves came down and the Lord flooded the whole
earth. But all those that were in the ark were saved. They were
saved. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Which brings us to the last point I have this morning.
How did he hide me? That's how. He hid me in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Numbers 21, you remember the
story of the fiery serpents, whenever the children of Israel
were murmuring, and boy, we can relate to them. We murmur and
we complain over the silliest things, don't we? And the Lord
sometimes, he just leaves us alone, but sometimes he convicts
us too. Paul said it this way, Oh, wretched man, that I am not
that I was not that I was. Oh, wretched man, that I am.
Also, thankfully, said this is a faithful saying worthy of all
exceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Aren't you glad the Lord
saves us in spite of ourself and despite of ourself completely
by his grace? Well, they were murmuring, and
these serpents were given because it was judgment, the same as
similar judgment that we just heard about with Noah. And the
snakes were biting, and the people, boy, they changed their tune
really quick whenever the Lord started sending the judgment. They said,
Moses, intercede for us. Help us. We're going to perish.
We're going to die. Moses did just that, and the
Lord said, make a brazen serpent, set upon a pole. Now, why a serpent?
Because that was the only cursed animal the Lord ever cursed.
that represented the Lord Jesus Christ. So as the serpent was
lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, our Lord said. And he said, whoever looks at that serpent
shall be made whole. Now, who do you think looked
to the serpent? Who do you think looked? The
whale? Everybody that was just fine?
Everybody that didn't have a problem? No, the people that were bit.
It's a picture of sin. And brethren, every person that's
ever been born is born in sin. Sin is not what we do. And this
is something that's taught in false religion that's not true.
Sin is not just what we do. It's what we are. It's what we
are. And it's a condition that we
cannot undo nor fix. And as a matter of fact, if we
try to fix it by going to the law or by doing anything whereby
to earn merit or favor with God, it's called iniquity. And what
does God say in Psalm 5 verse 5? He hateth all workers. of
iniquity. So no matter what we do, we can't
make our own hiding place. We need a serpent on a pole.
We need to arc. We need a cleft of the rock. Otherwise we have
no hope. So who looked the needy, the
needy, David said it this way, when thou said unto me, seek
you my face, then my heart said, thy face will I seek, O God,
that he were they were made needy, needy. We came here this morning
because we have a need. We have a need. The Lord has
given us hope. in a city of refuge. He's given
us hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Ark. He's given us hope in
the cleft of the rock, knowing that he is our covering. Can anyone hide themselves? No. The Lord said, I'm going to hide
you. How did he do that? Well, before time began, a covenant
was made. It's called the covenant of grace.
He called it the everlasting covenant, didn't he? To Abraham.
Everlasting means it never had a beginning and it'll never have
an end. Never have an end. The everlasting covenant of grace,
not the covenant of due, not the covenant of works, not the
covenant of earn your way or merit something, but the covenant
of it is finished freely by grace. That's the covenant whereby God
chose to elect the people. The son agreed to redeem those
people. The spirit agreed to regenerate
the people that the father elected and the son Redeemed how did
he do that by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's cross? We
already know why he said because you're precious in my sight.
I've bought you I chose you I've saved you you're mine Imagine
being you talked about my beloved last imagine being the possession
and understand the Lord possesses all things but Over in Proverbs. We're going through Proverbs.
Well, it literally says I possessed you from the beginning from beginning
before time. You're my possession. Oh, to
be the possession of God, to have favor with God. I mean,
that's no wonder the scripture says, oh, the unspeakable riches
of his grace. It's too high, isn't it? Too
wonderful. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ, it was all purposed. Lord Jesus Christ purposed. to
live perfectly as our substitute surety upon this earth. He chose
to die perfectly as our substitute surety on the cross. The scripture
tells us in Corinthians that he, God, hath made him to be
sin. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him." That's exactly what
happened on the cross of Calvary. He bore our sin in his own body
on the tree. And what does Hebrews chapter
1 tell us? When he had by himself purged
our sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. What was the last
words he said before he died? It is finished. Can anyone hide themselves? No,
but the Lord said, I'm going to hide you. Well, how did why?
Why would he do that? Because you're precious in my
sight. How did you do that? By the sacrifice of his darling
son on the cross of Calvary, freely by his grace. Scripture tells us that whenever
he gave up the ghost, that the veil in the temple was written
twain top to bottom. See, the Lord says, now, come
now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. I love that,
reason. The word reason doesn't mean we're going to have a conversation.
It means the Lord will set it right. I'm going to set you right.
I'm going to tell you the truth about this situation. Come now,
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sin be
as scarlet, it shall be as snow. Though it be red like crimson,
it shall be as wool. Scripture says, come, spirit
in the ride. That's what they say, come. Whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. Oh, and that's
the only way that this can be received is freely by grace.
I say this to our people often. You want to come to Christ? Come
to Christ right now. Don't move a muscle. Don't move
a muscle. The only way that you can come
to Christ is freely by his grace, through his faith bestowed. His
faith bestowed. How do we know he was successful?
Because he was raised because of our justification. God has
declared his people justified from before time ever began. Scripture tells us in 2 John
1 verse 9, God saved us first, and I love that. Saves us first,
then calls us, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, given to us before the world ever began,
but is now made manifest by the glorious gospel, the glorious
gospel. Can any hide himself? No, but
God said, I'll hide you. I have chose you. I've redeemed
you. Now in closing, go back to our
text, Jeremiah chapter 23. Let's read this again, Jeremiah 23, 23. Am I a God at hand, saith the
Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I feel
heaven and earth, saith the Lord? I have heard what the prophets
say, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed,
I have dreamed. How long shall this be? In the
heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, yea, they are prophets
of the deceit of their own heart, which they think to cause my
people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every
man to his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name
for Bell. And you can just take Bell right
there and put in any false religion you want to. That's what that
represents. What does the scripture tell us? So they changed the
truth of God into lie, the lie, not a lie, the lie and worshiped
and served the creature more than the creator. Ask yourself
what the creature is. What's the creature? This is
the creature. This is the creature left to ourself. We will serve
ourself. We will serve ourself. But for
the grace of God, there go I. Think you can hide, he says.
No, you're just living in a dream world. That's what he's talking
about here. They're just dreaming dreams. They don't exist. It's a fairy
tale. No, you can't hide yourself from the Lord. But I have found
a ransom. I have found a place. There is
a place near to the Lord where a sinner can be made the very
righteousness of God in him freely by his grace. It's the cleft
of the rock. It's the ark. It's the serpent
on the pole. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy, all by his blood. False prophets say you need to
hide yourself. The Lord says come into the ark. The world may say you need to
return to the law to establish righteousness. The Lord says
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Somebody say you need to do something to fix
your sin problem. You need to clean up your life. Scripture
says when he had by himself purged our sin, he sat down. Oh, we
have a hiding place in our Lord. We rest in the cleft of the rock,
rest on his Sabbath. Look to the serpent on the pole.
Do not attempt to hide yourself. What was Moses' hope? Was it
the law? Think about the Lord giving Moses the law. Was Moses
hoping in the law? No, he was hoping in the Lord
Jesus. The one that got the law was hoping in Christ. Isn't that
glorious? Noah's hope, was it in good works?
No, it was in the ark. It was in the ark, the atonement
on the ark. The Lord would keep him on the
ark safely. In Israel's salvation, not do, look. Look to the serpent,
Paul. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can any hide himself? No. So what is our hope? God
said, I'm going to hide you. Why? Because you're precious
in my sight. You're precious in my sight.
What is our hope? He did all the work. He did all
the work. He completed the work given to
him by the father and the Lord's people are redeemed. We have
been hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ for the sacrifice of his
precious son by his own blood. There's a hymn we sing, he hideth
my soul in the cleft of the rock. that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love and covers me there
with his hand and covers me there with his hand. Can any hide himself? No. But by God's grace, we have
a hiding place in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. break, but you girls come on.
These are the best singers in the state of Tennessee. I say
that all the time. I watched all these girls grow
up. Teenagers, when I started preaching
to them, now they got grandbabies. If I got some change to pay, Hailed by God's unchanging hand. With His mighty hand He opened
me. I'm hailed by God's unchanging
hand. Can you see our Lord and Savior? Can you hear His blessings Has
he caused you to believe him? He is your pride, I need thee,
Lord. Hailed by God's unchanging hand. Held by God's unchanging hand. With his mighty hand he offered
me a land By God's unchanging hand. Sovereign Lord, the King of Glory. Lamb of God, how great I am! He will never ever leave me,
and none can pluck me from His hand. Hailed by God's unchanging hand. Hailed by God's unchanging hand. With His mighty hand beholdeth
me. I'm held by God's unchanging
hand. As he calls you to believe in
him, it's your cry, I need thee, Lord. Hold you. Held by God's unchanging hand. You know, that song says, you
know, hold to God's unchanging hand. That won't work. He's got to hold us. And I'm
so grateful for that. Listen, we're going to have to
take a few minutes break. We've got a bunch of folks got
to go back and do some work on the meal. If you need to go to the bathroom
or anything, you do that. There's some back there and some
back here. We're going to take a few minutes break so people
can go do what they need to do.