Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 296. 296. All the way my Savior
leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort
Here by faith we bid you dwell For I know what e'er befall me
Jesus, to withhold things will For I know For whate'er befall
me, Jesus, do it all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial. Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Cushing from the rock before
me, O a spring of joy! ? Dashing from the rock before
me ? ? O'er a stream of joy I see ? ? All the way my Savior leads
me ? ? O'er the fullness of His love I see ? perfect rest to
me as promised in my father's house above. When my spirit,
clothed immortal, cleans its blood Be seated we'll sing hymn number
475 475 ? Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it ? Redeemed by the blood of the lamb ? Redeemed through his
infinite mercy ? His child and forever I am ? Redeemed ? Redeemed,
redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ? ? Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and forever I am ? ? Redeemed and so happy in Jesus' name ?
No language my rapture can tell I know that the light of His
presence With me doth continually shine Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent,
His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. I know I shall see Him ? Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
? ? And giveth me songs in the night ? ? Redeemed, redeemed
? ? Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ? ? Redeemed, redeemed
? Good evening. Let's all turn
together and read from 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter
2. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit, we
speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom
of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. which
none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it
is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his spirit, For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the
things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we
have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which
is of God. that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But
we have the mind of Christ. Let's pray. Our kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we bow before you tonight, first of all, to
give you thanks. Thank you for your grace and
mercy given us in Christ, our Lord, our Redeemer. Thank you
for the word that we come tonight to hear proclaimed and preached,
the word that is life, it's living, life itself that speaks of Christ
our life. Lord, we come as weary travelers,
awaken our hearts and our minds, shut out the things of this life,
of this world, the things that so easily distract us and weigh
us down. Send your spirit among us, Lord.
Speak to this one you've sent to us, Brother Cody. Speak peace
to our hearts. Speak. Comfort. And give us assurance. Give us
faith to believe your word. Give us faith. To trust Christ
for. For everything. Help us to lay
to hold upon him tonight. Establish us in the grace of
God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Teach us and instruct us, Lord,
we. We don't want to be left for
our own will in our own way. We come and look to you to guide
us, to instruct us. To teach us from your word. And
we pray that your will be done. Give us grace to submit to your
will. Give us grace to bow. And Lord, we, by your grace,
do that very thing. We bow at your feet, acknowledge
our need of Christ, our need of salvation, our need to be
kept, our need to be provided for.
Lord, you must provide everything that we need. We surely can't
provide for ourself. We pray for our loved ones, our
children, and our grandchildren as they live their lives without
you. We ask that you'd intervene in
their lives. Go to them and speak to them. stir their hearts, trouble their
minds and their hearts that would cause them to come and sue for
mercy at the feet of Christ. We pray for our preacher tonight,
Brother Cody. Thank you for him. Thank you,
you've enabled him to come. Bless him as he blesses us, we
pray. And we know that he's looking
to you. You must anoint him. You must
give him grace. to speak freely, and we ask,
Lord, that you'd be with him as he preaches to
us from your blessed word. We pray for those that can't
be here, that are afflicted, ask that you'd visit them and speak peace to their hearts.
Enable them to endure the affliction that you've sent their way. Lord, come and visit with us
in this hour of worship. Exalt your son. Lift him up in
our midst. Give us eyes to see him afresh.
Renew our hearts and our minds. and help us to worship and honor
him who alone is worthy. In his dear name we pray, amen. Number 29 in our course books.
29 in our course books. On a hill far away died the Christ
of the cross. He yielded to suffering and shame. And there in His grace He died
in my place The purpose of good to fulfill So I'll cherish the
Christ of the cross His throne I'll bow down I will
cling to the Christ of the Cross For He is the King I must crown
O the Christ of the Cross, so despised by the world, has a
wondrous attraction to me. Lamb of God, lift His glory above,
to bear all my sin on the tree. So I'll cherish before his throne I'll bow down. I will cling to the Christ of
the cross, for he is In the Christ of the cross, and
His blood so divine, a marvelous beauty I see. For He opened my eyes, that long
have been blind, to behold Him now on His throne. So I'll cherish the Christ And before His throne I'll bow
down I will cling to the Christ of the cross For He is the King
I must love To the Christ of the cross I
must ever be true His shame and reproach gladly bear For in love
he constrains And His glory forever I share
So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross And before His throne
I'll bow down It's our pleasure to have you again
this evening. Brother Cody, you come on and
bring whatever the Lord's put on your heart. Good evening. If you will open
your Bibles with me back to where we were this morning, Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. And I want to make a comment
on that song we just sang. I had never heard that in my
life until coming here years ago. And I have memories of Brother
Gary leading us in that song. That is no doubt one of my favorite
songs. I wish every worship service
I'm a part of, we would sing that song. Love that song. It's all about the Christ of
the cross. Let's sing of him and cling to him. Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Let's start in verse 1 again. Solomon here writes, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven,
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a
time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a
time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a
time to dance, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather
stones together. That's how far we got this morning.
We touched on all that this morning. We acknowledge that we're sinners
in the hands of a holy, sovereign God, and that that same God,
who is just and must punish all sin, is a God of love who delights
to show mercy to all guilty sinners who need it. all that need will
find all their need met in the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw that
our only hope of being saved from our sin is in the Lord Jesus
Christ who bore our suffering. He bore our stoning on the cross
when he poured out his very soul unto death in our place. Verse
five goes on to say that there is a time to embrace. and a time to refrain from embracing. Now there's a lot we can learn
from this, but I'll just say this. There's a time to embrace
God's word and to refrain from embracing this world. There's
a time when, for every one of God's children, we'll find ourselves
doing that. We will find in ourselves something
that was not there before. Naturally, we love the world.
God says, love not the world, neither the things in it. And
when He saves us, yes, this flesh still likes the things of the
world. But the new man, the new spirit, the new heart that the
Lord creates in His people desires His Word, we love His Word, and
we despise ourselves for naturally loving this world. That's the
difference. There's a time to embrace God's Word and refrain
from embracing this world. There's a time to embrace the
Lord Jesus Christ. We didn't. We didn't before. But in God's
appointed time, His people will embrace Him. and stop embracing
self. That's what we naturally embrace
is self, me, me, me. And child of God, embrace this.
Embrace his precious promises to you. You read about it in
Hebrews 11. Oh, the precious promises that our fathers of
old embraced. They saw him far off and they
embraced him. They were trusting in him, holding
fast onto them. We're standing on those very
promises, brethren, the promises of our God. Verse six says, there's
a time to get and a time to lose. The meaning there is a time to
seek to find. That's what it means to get.
And to lose is to cause to stray. There's a time to seek the Lord. Again, we didn't. And on our
own, we won't. Now is the day of salvation.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while
he's near. His people will. The time's been appointed when
he seeks us and causes us to seek him. Seek his face. Is that not what
the psalmist said? When thou said, seek my face,
my heart cried out, thy face, Lord, will I seek? Seek his face,
brethren. Seek his peace. There's peace
in him. Seek his provision. Seek his strength, his mercy,
his grace, his love. Seek him. May we seek him. There's a time to get. Oh, may
we get him. May we win him. May we lose everything
else. That's what Paul said. He lost
everything else, didn't he? He said, I'm counting it all done, throwing
it all out. Oh, that I may cling to Christ
alone. There's a time to stray from
the losing. What do we lose? Stray from trusting
in ourselves. Honestly, I know that it's so
for you because it's so for me. That every single day we wake
up and we start thinking about ourself. Well, I'm gonna do this.
Well, should I eat this? Should I go here? I honestly pray God would cause
us to be more concerned with him. Honestly. Less care about myself. Oh, and may he be the true joy
and delight of my heart. and yours too. May our hope be
in him. Verse six goes on to say that
there's a time to keep and a time to cast away. Spiritually, there
are things we need to keep and there are things we need to throw
away. There's a time, an appointed time for all God's people when
we must cast out, throw away all our idols. And again, I am
my own biggest idol. I just am. And if you're anything
like me, then you are too. And there's a lot of things we
idolize, a lot of things we put our time in and our hope in and
our trust in. Throw it out. May God enable
us to throw it out. May we keep. And again, there's
a time for God's sheep when we will find ourselves keeping this.
Keep his word. Hear his word. Rejoice in his
word. Cling to his word. We don't live
by bread alone. We think we do, don't we? Well,
when I leave here, I'm gonna go grab me a bite to eat. I'm
gonna wake up tomorrow and we'll find something to eat. We don't
live by bread alone. Yes, it's our daily sustenance.
I get it. But we live, brethren. If we
have life, I mean if we have life, true life, spiritual, eternal
life, that life lives off of Christ and every word that proceeds
out of his holy mouth. He's our life, isn't he? All
of it. We live, move, and have our being
in Him. Now there's a time when that'll mean something to us
if it doesn't yet. I'm telling you. Pray it might be now. Verse seven says, there's a time
to rend and a time to sew. There is a filthy garment that
needs to be rent. And there's a glorious garment
that has already been sewn. The fig leaf garment of our own
making needs to be torn apart. It was not sufficient for Adam
and Eve. You remember, right? When Adam ate, they knew they
were naked. They didn't know before. And
then they went and found some fig leaves, sewed them together,
and they tried hiding from God. How foolish. You can't hide from
God. It did them no good. None at
all. God made Adam confess his nakedness,
confess what he'd done. Do we know what we've done? Are
we aware of our nakedness? Are we aware that everything
is naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do? Are we aware of that? This morning, that woman caught
in the act. Those Pharisees and scribes did not have to bring
her physically before the Lord for Him to know who and what
she was. He already knew. He appointed
for it to happen so he could show his glory and his goodness
and his mercy. Now, like Adam and Eve, we would
be foolish to try to hide behind a cloak of our own making. What
that means is hide behind our own works, trusting in ourselves,
not Christ. But there's a glorious garment
that God has sown. You recall, God covered Adam
and Eve. He covered them. with coats of
skins. He killed a lamb, picturing Christ,
and he covered them. He didn't say, here, put this
on. He covered them. Just like the prodigal son, his father,
he said, you get that robe and you put it on him. God's people
have been clothed. There's a time, a time appointed
by God when God's people shall be clothed with the very righteousness
of Christ. That's the garment. That's the
garment we need, and I pray that's the garment we have, all right?
Now for our message, I'd like to consider the last part of
verse seven right here. It says there is a time to keep
silence and a time to speak, a time to keep silence. Now,
here's what that word means. It means to hush, be quiet, stop
talking, hold your peace, all right? We live in a world full
of very noisy religion. It's a loud, loud world. They
make a lot of noise. And living in such a world, I
pray God would honestly reveal to us what this means about a
time to be silent. Religion loves pointing men and
women to the law. And in doing so, what they're
doing is pointing people to themselves. It's not about us. Nothing is
about us. When we point people to the law, I don't want to say we. When
false religion is pointing people to the law, they're not knowing
the purpose of the law is that every mouth may be stopped. that
we might become silent, all the world become guilty before God,
that we might know that the law just shows us we're guilty. The
law just shows us we're sinful, we're sinners. We can't be justified
by doing or not doing and keeping and not keeping. It's not it. God forbid I stand here and point
you to yourself. If you or I walk out these doors
tonight looking within, instead of looking to Christ, What a
shame it would be, honestly, God forbid. Turn over just a
page to chapter 5 here, Ecclesiastes 5. This is just wonderful. Ecclesiastes 5, verse 1. It says, keep thy foot when thou
goest to the house of God. and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. First, we would do well to go
to the house of God. You who are here tonight, I am
tickled to see you. I'm so glad to be here with you, worshiping
our God together. It's such a blessing, it's such a privilege to ever
come in God's house. But, we must acknowledge something. What we're doing It's not about
us. What we're doing is a fearful
thing. Seriously. Sometimes I would hear my pastor
years ago, Don Fortner, say, what I'm about to say, I deliberately
wrote down to say it this way on purpose. What I'm about to
say, I deliberately wrote down to say it this way on purpose.
There are many who forsake not the assembling of themselves
together, who go to church regularly, don't miss a service or rarely
miss a service, but just make a mockery of God in doing so. There are many church, many avid,
faithful, if you will, churchgoers, who their church service, their
religion is vain. It's in vain and it is vain. Vain glory. Glorying in self
rather than giving God all the praise. I mentioned religion
is very noisy. When I think about what goes
on in other churches, it saddens me. I assume that
in many of them, there's nothing but just a religious show going
on. And it saddens me to think about
that. I hope I'm wrong. But based on God's Word, I don't
believe I am there. Our Lord came in and purged the
temple. They had made His house a house of merchandise, a den
of thieves, made it all about themselves and their gain and
their desires. We have come into His house. I know there's a sign, or there
will be a sign, Lantana Grace Church. This is God's house. We're in
his house. We've come here gathered in his
name, his holy, hallowed, reverend name. We've opened his word. I'm trying to speak to you from
God's holy, infallible word. Speaking of Him, we just sang
songs of praise to Him. This is all about Him. May we take it seriously. May
we do so fearfully and reverentially. May we worship. May we fall down
on our face spiritually before Him. We're not here to make a
show. You notice what verse 1 right
here said? It said, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice
of fools. I don't want to come here. I
don't want to stand here and give the sacrifice of fools.
And right here clearly talking about false religion said they
consider not that they do evil. They think they're working the
works of God, think they're serving God, praising God, when all they're
doing is what the scribes and Pharisees did, and that's justify
themselves before God. They're before men. Everything
they did was to be pleased of men. And they thought they were doing
stuff for God. They thought they did. Oh, I don't want to be guilty
of that. I honestly just want to be here
to worship our God together. I just want to come here, say
a few words from His word, give Him all the praise, point you
and me to Christ, and walk out those doors rejoicing, looking
away from self and to our Lord alone. Look at verse 2 right
here. It says, Be not rash with thy
mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before
God, for God is in heaven and thou upon earth, therefore let
thy words be few." That right there makes me so nervous to
stand here and talk, to stand here and try to preach to you,
because I feel like a total fool standing here. And I read things
like, be more ready to hear, be not rash with thy mouth, and
right there where it says, let not thine heart be hasty to utter
anything, it means any word, Not one word before God. Oh, let my words be few. There's
a time to be silent, brethren. And I'll tell you this, if it
weren't for God being pleased by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe, giving us faith, increasing our faith,
edifying us through the preaching of Christ, if it wasn't for that,
I would not dare stand here and utter one word. I would shut
my mouth and sit down as fast as I can. Verse three says, for a dream
coming through the multitude of business and a fool's voice
is known by multitude of words. May our words be few and may
your heart and mind be ready to hear from our God. I'm standing
here talking, praying, and begging God to speak to me and through
me. Turn over to Zechariah chapter
two. If your Bible's like mine, page
1170, Zechariah 2. Often when we talk, the less
we say, the better. I know it's certainly true for
myself. Casual conversation. But I really pray that the Lord
might teach me and you what this means about a time to be silent
and a time to speak. Look here, Zechariah 2 verse
13, the last verse. God's word says, be silent, O
all flesh, before the Lord. For He is raised up out of His
holy habitation. We must be silent before the
Lord. I know we pray to Him. We call
out to Him. That's not what it's talking
about. When I read these verses, I keep coming back to how we
approach God. We're going to stand before Him
and tell Him what we did? Let's not be hasty to utter any
such foolish thing before him. Oh, may we be silent. I looked
up in the concordance what the word silent right here means
in this verse. It said, hush! Exclamation point. Hush! Oh, all flesh, before the Lord. It also means keep silence. We must be completely silent.
in our salvation. Completely silent. God alone
does the speaking. He does it all. And I couldn't
help but think of the Mount of Transfiguration. You recall when
the Lord took Peter, James, and John up on the mount and there
appeared Moses and Elijah talking with the Lord. Peter started talking too, didn't
he? His time to be silent came, didn't it? The Lord shut his
mouth, and the Lord spoke. And here's what he said, this
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. What does that tell us? Hush,
be silent, and hear him. The one thing needful. Do you
remember what it was in the context? Mary was sitting at our Lord's
feet hearing his word. She was silent. Martha, though
serving is necessary, it's important, but the one thing needful wasn't
to go make a bunch of noise serving. It was to be quiet and to sit
at his feet and hear his word. Brethren, that's what we need
is to hear him. Oh, may we hear him. The dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall
live. Oh, may we hear him. I would love to just sit down
and hear him, but this is the means he's given by which we
hear him. Turn over with me to Job chapter 40. I'd like to quickly consider
God's providence in our lives. Knowing that everything happens
in God's time and according to His purpose, we would be wise
to trust our God and not question Him. Nay, oh man, who art thou
that replies against God? Do we not do that every day?
Seriously. I'm telling you, tonight I'm
going to, Lord willing, get in my car and drive home. As soon
as I get stuck behind a slow car in the left lane, I know
it's going to happen. I'm smiling because I know it's
true. And I'm going to sit there, and I'm going to clench my fist
and my teeth. And then hopefully I'll think,
well, Give me patience. I'm sorry. Honestly, that right
there, it seems laughable, right? But what am I doing? I'm replying
against God, thinking, well, it would be better if that car
was over there. Well, they'll be there when they're
supposed to be. I'm serious, there's no thing
too small or too great to acknowledge God's hand in things, all right?
Now look here, Job said some wonderful things when the Lord
first afflicted him. You remember when he said, the Lord gave and
he hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. It told
us there at the end of chapter one, he sinned not with his lips. But it did not take long for
the foolishness of his sinful nature to kick in, and it doesn't,
does it? How often have you gotten in a dispute, maybe with your
spouse, and then you apologize, and then next thing you know,
you're right back where you were? It doesn't take long. How long
does it take for us to be in here praising God, and like I
just confessed, we walk out the doors, and then we're complaining
to him? It doesn't take long. We see
a whole lot of that in the book of Job. A whole lot of that.
Alright? But God in mercy rebuked him.
Job was his child. Child of God. God rebuked him
in mercy. And this right here we're about
to read is so encouraging to me. Look here in Job 40 verse
1. This is towards the end of the book. And then Job answered
the Lord. Here's what he said. Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer yea twice, but I will proceed no further. Who are we
to doubt God's gracious dealings with us? You say, well, God dealt harshly
with Job. The Lord had a hedge about Job. Satan only did to him what God
let him do to him. He was never in a dangerous place.
He was never not safely in his Savior's hands and in the Father's
hands, not once. Not even before he knew the Lord,
never, never. Oh, may we like Job just put
our hand over our mouth and our heart. before God. See, the Lord hath not dealt
with us after our sins, brethren. He hath dealt bountifully with
us, graciously, mercifully, lovingly. I was going to turn and read
it, but in Job 42, It's the next and last time we read of Job
speaking. I do want to read it. Job 42 verse 1. Now look at this. Here I beseech thee, and I will
speak, I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes. And then right after that, the
Lord deals graciously with Job's three friends that were miserable
comforters. I don't know if the Lord saved
them or not, but when I read this today, I honestly thought the
Lord just might have saved those men. And they were some pretty
terrible friends. Let's not doubt our God's providence
for us and for others, for that matter. Let's trust him. Oh,
may we, the moment we start to murmur against him, may God shut
our mouths and turn our hearts to rejoice in his goodness. There's
a time to be silent, time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
I'll try to be brief. There's a time to speak, not
foolishly, but wisely. There are some who we read about
who ignorantly boast before God of their works. There in Matthew
7, everyone that says, Lord, Lord, they're not all going to
enter in. Because many are going to say to him, Lord, we've done
this, we've done that, or we didn't do this. That Pharisee
in the temple, I give tithes of all I possess. I fast twice
every week. A person saying such things needs to shut their mouth. God forbid we be hasty to utter
anything before him. I mean anything. That's why I
said any word, anything. Turn over with me to Psalm 145.
Psalm 145. I was going to make a comment
after this, but I'm just going to read these verses and move
on. All right? Speaks for itself. Psalm 145, verse 1. This is David
speaking. He says, I will extol thee, my
God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every
day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness
is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy
works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous
works. And men shall speak of the might
of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall
sing of thy righteousness." Now, there's a time to speak. Let's
speak in such a way. Let's speak those things, alright?
Now turn back to Psalm 71. Psalm 71. And really all throughout the
Psalms we see a lot of wonderful things to speak. We see the wonderful
message worth declaring. Psalm 71, look at verse 8. Psalm 71, 8. Let my mouth be
filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day. We go down to verse 15. My mouth
shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day.
For I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness. even of
thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works." Let us speak
his praise. Let us declare his salvation
and his righteousness. There's no other salvation. There
is no other righteousness. I'll make mention of thine and
thine only. Now, when our Lord walked this earth, he also did
some speaking. Again, just this morning when
we looked at the beginning of John 8, the multitude had come
to hear him early in the morning. Wouldn't you have loved to have
been right there? Sometimes I get jealous when I read things like
that. Oh, if I could have just been there. Or like when the
Lord went to call Peter and Andrew, James and John, it says the Lord
was speaking to people in a boat. Wouldn't you have loved to have
been there? Well, our Lord spake much while
he was on this earth, and I tell you this concerning his speaking.
He spake as one having authority. It says people were astonished
at his speakings, at his teachings, his doctrine. He didn't speak
like the scribes and Pharisees. He didn't sound anything like
them. You know, a stranger's voice, they're gonna flee. They're
not gonna hear the stranger. They're gonna hear the shepherd's voice,
and they heard him. They heard him, and they believed
him. They followed him. That's why they kept coming back
to hear from him. We're told that gracious words constantly
proceeded forth out of his mouth. I'll name you a few. Neither
do I condemn thee. Glorious words, huh? I will be
thou clean. Be of good cheer, thy sins be
forgiven thee. Can you imagine the Lord telling
you that face to face? I pray we might hear that from
him. through the preaching of his
word. Now I want to show you one more thing here, something
glorious, and I'll leave you with this. Turn to Isaiah chapter
53. Again, a familiar passage. I
just want to read two verses here. Isaiah 53, verse 6. It says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him, that's Christ, the iniquity
of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. Our Lord, who has all authority,
whose word is all powerful, it's effectual, it's saving. He who
alone deserves to speak and be heard, we're told right here,
that he humbled himself to the point of being oppressed, afflicted,
brought as a lamb before her shares to the slaughter, and
he opened not his mouth. He was mocked. There were a lot of people making
a lot of noise at the cross. Not him. He was mocked, stripped,
spit upon, smitten, beaten. He was reviled. But you know
what the scriptures tell us about him? Peter told us this. But
he reviled not again. He opened not his mouth. He was brutally crucified between
two convicted criminals, and he was in the middle. You know
what that means? Signifying the worst there. That's what it signified, being
in the middle. And yet he opened not his mouth.
Why? Here's my conclusion. Here's,
I believe, God's conclusion. It was our Lord's appointed time
to keep silence. You just consider that. It was his appointed time to hold his peace. Why? Because he was made sin
for us. He was made a curse for us. Made to be guilty in our place. That's why he did not open his
mouth. When they said, when Pilate was
contemplating letting him go, but then he caved and delivered
him to the will of the people. Did our Lord start fighting and
resisting? No. For this hour, he came into
the world. That's why he came, was to die
for his people. He came to hang between those
two thieves and to save one of them. That's why he came. Nothing to say because he knew,
as our substitute, he was guilty. I don't want to elaborate on
that. It feels almost blasphemous to say. But the scriptures tell
us these things, that he was made sin, that he was made a
curse. Clearly declared him to be our substitute, died in our
place. But our Lord did cry some blessed words from the cross.
I'll just mention the last ones. Right as he was bowing his head,
giving up the ghost, do you remember what he said? It is finished. Oh, praise God, the time to speak.
Oh, what glorious words he spoke as he was departing this earth. And yet we know three days later
he was coming back. And I'll leave you with this.
I'll just quote a couple things here. After his resurrection, when
he was on the road to Emmaus, he just joined himself to some
disciples there. And they were so sad, and we
thought it was him that was going to redeem Israel, and just devastated. And he comes up to them, they
didn't even know who it was. They thought it was a stranger
in Jerusalem. Here's what he said. He said,
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory? And then after he asked that
question, it says that he expounded unto them, beginning at Moses
and the prophets, in the psalm in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. There's a time to keep silence,
brethren. Oh, and praise God, there's a time to speak. May
God silence us, and not just one time, but continually. And
may he be pleased to speak to us for the first time and As
long as we're meant to be here, may he be pleased to speak to
us the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Praise
God. Let's have a word of prayer. Oh, our gracious God and King,
we bow before you again in humility. Lord, would you allow us to truly
be silenced Would you silence us? Would you just cause us to hear
from you? So much noise in this world and
in our lives, and we create so much of it. Lord, would you just
stop us and speak to us? Speak life to us. Speak the word and power to us.
Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. Oh, Lord, would you be pleased
to continue to bring us before you to hear from you, from your
word, comfort us with it, speak life and faith to us. Oh, how
desperately we need to hear from you continually, daily, every
word that you have to say. Lord, we have so many loved ones
that don't know you. Please speak to them as you've
spoken to us. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? Lord, who are we? Oh, Christ is all and in all.
May we be found in him. Lord, save us for his sake. Bless
these dear saints. Thank you for this opportunity
to come worship you today. May you bless your word as you
see fit. Direct our steps and forgive us and continue to bring
us back to Christ. It's in his glorious name we
pray. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul Jesus,
my Jesus He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, he's
the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Thank you brother. As far as I know, Lord will and
our pastor will be back with us next Sunday morning. So we'll
meet again then. You're dismissed. Have a good
week.