All right, if you'd like to follow
along, please turn to Isaiah chapter eight. Isaiah chapter
eight. I'm not going to read verse one,
because I don't want to try and pronounce Meher Shalom Hasbos. We're jumping over that to verse
13. I remember the first time I read
that, I said, what? It's okay, it's okay, it's a good name.
But I wanna begin reading in Isaiah chapter eight and verse
13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself
and Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. I'm gonna
leave out the italics words here. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
him your fear, and him your dread. Because it's not something you're
gonna let him be, let's just put it that way. And he shall
be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of
offense to both the houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. That's it, that's where I'm stopping. I wanna start this message with
one of those upfront statements. The world does not know the Jesus
Christ I'm going to attempt to preach this morning. The world
does not know the Christ Jesus that Walter is going to preach
to you this morning. Now, I've got no confidence in
myself or Walter. but I have more confidence in
my God than I actually realize. He can do all things. And this
is his approved manner. This is his approved means. We
are to preach the gospel. But today, what I want to preach
today is of the true sanctuary, Jesus Christ. Because I am against
false sanctuaries. What's that mean? Well, that's
things that are called sanctuaries, but they're not. Now, let's be clear. It's not that we don't need a
sanctuary. We need the true sanctuary. And we have one. Because there is only one. There's
only one true sanctuary. The Lord, Savior, Jesus Christ
the righteous. He is our sanctuary. Now we call
this place the Sovereign Grace Chapel. That's what we call this
place. This place is an assembling place. It's a meeting house. Now by
law, not the book of law, but man's law, we're called a church.
because that's what we are by the definition of a law. And
as such, we enjoy tax advantages, and I'm all for that. But this
place is not a sanctuary. Our sanctuary runs this place.
Our sanctuary is here with us when we assemble in his name. We assemble to honor, to praise,
to sing, and to preach Christ our sanctuary, and that's the
title, Paul, Christ, our sanctuary. Well, this scripture that I read
starts out this way, in verse 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts
himself, himself. Now, you realize in the Old Testament,
especially in Leviticus and stuff, you'll read where they sanctified
a lot of the vessels. The bowls, the candlestick, all
the gold, all the brass, all the stuff, everything, the altars
even, were sanctified, sprinkled blood on them. Aaron and his
sons had oil poured on them. Why? To sanctify them. To signify
that these are what? Clean vessels. And that means
clean as opposed to unclean. Because you had clean animals
you could offer and you had unclean animals that were not a fit sacrifice
for God. Now, let's be very, very clear
here. First of all, foremost of all,
we don't make the Lord clean. It's not that kind of sanctifying.
But that is, this is a verb. This is something that we actually
do. And literally the word does mean be clean. Be holy, be separated. But it's not something we do.
This is something we observe. We see this and we know this
and we acknowledge it. We acknowledge it. What am I
doing here? I'm gonna endeavor to declare
unto you our sanctuary. Because this is something we
observe, we see, and we think, and we speak aloud. See the Lord
as clean, as holy, as righteous, as perfection personified. Because
he is holy, and clean, and perfect. Whether we see him or not. He is clean, holy, and sanctified
whether we know him or not. Because to sanctify the Lord
is to know that he is holy. He is absolutely clean. He is the clean sacrifice to
God. He was absolutely the perfect
substitute and sacrifice and offering to the Father. He is. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. This is our message here at chapel
as best we can. Jesus Christ is all power and
all might and all glory and all holiness unto the Lord. To the world he's not. To us
he is. That's the difference, that's
the main difference between believers and unbelievers. What think ye
of Christ? Whose son is he and who is he? This is who we came to preach.
But then this statement struck me right after this. Sanctify
the Lord of hosts himself and him your fear. What? And him, your dread. Now, I know what man says. I
know what preachers say. And you know, usually when I
say I know what preachers say, I'm fixing to tell you that they're
wrong. And if I use man and preachers in the same sentence, I'm gonna
tell you both of them's wrong. Because what they say is, this
isn't a real fear, it's a reverential awe. Well, don't nod your head,
don't shake your head too much, because there is a reverential
awe of God. But you know what? That's the
second word in this verse. The first word says fear, and
the second word says dread. Well, fear is fear. Look it up. You can do it online
easy enough. It ain't hard, you don't need
a lot of books to do it anymore. All you need is a internet connection. Fear, and the word terror is
derived from this word. Terror and awe. It's both. They wanna cut off
one and keep the other. You can't do that with God. But
that's what men and preachers always want to do. If they can't
add something to them, let's cut a little away. You understand, if you're not
gonna add something to the scriptures, hermeneutical eisegesis, they'll
cut part of it away. And that's also hermeneutical
eisegesis. But around here, we just call
them lies. Because I'm gonna tell you something. I don't understand
why people can't get this. Because listen, as a small child,
I was both in fear of and in awe of my father, a human man. Now granted, I was this big,
but I'm gonna tell you that lasted a while too. Because I was in fear of being
punished by this man when he caught me doing some of the things
I did. But I was also in awe of him because of some of the
things he could do that I couldn't do as a little kid. I mean, my dad was amazing. He
could throw a softball 90 mile an hour. And I'm this little. And it would go by and I couldn't
see it, Walter. And that just amazed me. Of course, I end up throwing
a rock and breaking a glass and then I get beaten. That's where
that fear comes in, you understand? You can have that kind of relationship
with a man, with your parent, But you can't see God that way. You understand, this is how God
starts out dealing with people. You have not received again. Now, by Paul saying you haven't
received it again, meant that at least you had received it
once. The spirit of bondage again, to fear, to fear. one of the most damning, and
I mean this seriously, the most damning comments that Paul the
Apostle ever said. He wrote it down. He said, there
is no fear of God before their eyes. And that's the problem with men
and preachers today saying, oh, it's just a reverential awe.
Yes, God is awesome. I hate that Charles Stanley probably
copyrighted that. But God is awesome. God is awful. You ought to be full of awe when
you think of him. But yes sir, there is some fear
of the Lord. Because the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of what? It's the beginning of knowledge. And, what? It's the beginning
of wisdom. This is where he starts with
us. And if you haven't come or known to fear God, I'm sorry
folks, you don't know him. You don't know this one that
Isaiah is speaking for. Thus saith the Lord, for the
Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand. Why, Isaiah had to write
this down. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself
and Him your fear, and Him your dread. You notice those conjunctions?
And, and, and. Those three things are connected
together. You understand? Why don't people fear the Lord? They've never sanctified the
Lord. Why would they not sanctify the Lord? They don't know Him.
It's that simple. Because if you don't have a fear
and a dread, an awe of God, You don't know God. You might think
you do, you might have professed to. But profession's not gonna
save you. Thinking's not gonna save you.
The only salvation is where? In our sanctuary. He is your fear and awe if you
sanctify the Lord of hosts, himself, himself. Because here, this next
verse starts with another conjunction. And he shall be a sanctuary. He shall be for a sanctuary.
But you notice that and at the beginning. He's not gonna be
a sanctuary for you unless you sanctify the Lord a host and
he's your fear and he's your dread. What's the thing, you gotta fit
in the description before you can claim the promise. You gotta be sure you're talking
about the same God, this God of the Bible. We are still talking
about the Lord of hosts, the same He. Now this word, where it says
he shall be, a sanctuary, for a sanctuary. Now, first of all,
you get into that shall be, you know what that means? There is
absolutely no doubt. It's not he could be a sanctuary.
He could be for a sanctuary, no, he shall be. The only question
is, for who? Or for whom, whichever it is,
I don't know, doesn't matter. Who is he a sanctuary for? We'll get into that in a minute,
but I've already told you. But this word, sanctuary, is
the noun. Sanctify the Lord is the verb,
and sanctuary, the noun, is derived from the word sanctify. You understand
there's no sanctuary, no true sanctuary, unless it's clean
and holy. clean and holy. Now this word
is a noun, not a verb, so what's that mean? Okay, English lesson
101. A noun is a person, a place,
or a thing. Now I'm gonna tell you this.
The world will make a sanctuary out of a place and out of a thing
and leave it up to the person. Every time. because I'm gonna
tell you something, a false Christ is a thing, not a person. There's
lots of people who will confess or profess a Jesus, but the Jesus
they profess tries to be a sanctuary. You understand? He tries to be
a sanctuary. Oh, wait a minute, he's available
to be a sanctuary if, You don't see no ifs in Isaiah. No, no. He shall be for a sanctuary. Y'all know my background, okay? Born and raised Catholic. God
called me out of it. And I've been happy ever since.
Except for when I've been miserable. But his part's the good part. My part's the miserable part.
But here's the thing, they have a place around that altar, and
you know what they call that? They call that a sanctuary. You
know why they call it a sanctuary? Because also, in that little
place, they have a box of some sort. Now the one at the place
I used to go was a little gold box. And you know what they call
that little gold box? The tabernacle. Who says Catholic priests aren't
trying to take over the job of Jewish priests? They're fools. That's what they want. Anyway,
I'm not going into Catholicism that way. But you understand,
they have a place they call the sanctuary. They have a thing
in there called the tabernacle. That's where they keep the host.
I'm not gonna do what Jack Chick said and called it a Jesus cookie.
But that's where they keep the host for doing the Lord's table
every Sunday. You understand? They'll call
anything a sanctuary. Isaiah is telling us here, our
sanctuary is a person. He's a person. He's a person
and we know his name. Sanctify the Lord of hosts. You can read on further in Isaiah
and you know what he'll say? The Lord of hosts is his name.
What? The Holy One of Israel. Jesus
Christ was a Jew, folks. Y'all can deal with that or not.
But also this, the Redeemer. The Redeemer. The sanctuary is
our Redeemer. The Lord of hosts is our sanctuary.
The Lord of hosts is the Holy One of Israel. The Holy One of
Israel is the Redeemer. So what's that mean? The sanctuary
is our Redeemer. You understand what I'm saying?
Jesus Christ, Christ. our sanctuary. And he's not your
sanctuary if he didn't redeem. He's not your sanctuary if he's
not the holy one of Israel. That's who the scriptures call
him. He is God's chief cornerstone. He's our rock, our foundation
stone, and our base. And everything not built on him
is gonna be just like being built on shifting sands. It's gonna
fall. The only question is when. It's
not if it's gonna fall, it's when. Because if you're not on
the cornerstone, if you're not on the foundation stone, you
have no foundation. First Peter two and verse six
says this. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture. Peter quoting the Old Testament.
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone But what about this
chief cornerstone? Elect, precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be, not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the building disallowed, the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner. Now look at that
next part. And a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
what? Disobedient. Whereunto also they were appointed. I don't wanna be appointed to
disobedience. Now Peter was quoting from Isaiah
chapter eight, but he combined it with Isaiah chapter 28, and
a verse there. Because here he talks about him
being a sanctuary and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. But in Isaiah 28, it says this,
therefore saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
of stone, a tried stone. a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste. So Peter, in first Peter chapter
two, is quoting Isaiah eight and Isaiah 28, and he put them
together. You know why? Because Isaiah
was talking about the same person in both verses. He was talking
about Christ, our sanctuary. He's the chief cornerstone, he's
the foundation, and he's our sanctuary. He's our sanctuary. He is our sanctification because
he's our sanctuary. What's that mean? Well it means,
oh glorious grace, believers are saved in him. and believers are safe in him. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. Then this next statement, and
he shall be for a sanctuary. Okay, now that conjunction and
ties verse 14 to verse 13. Irrevitably, they can't be separated. Then he uses this word, but.
Why? Because there's a difference
between verse 13 and the first part of verse 14. But for a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. The one who is our sanctuary,
men stumble over him. They trip over Christ to get
to their heresy. That's about as plain as I can
put it. You understand? They'll trip
over the rock of ages to get to their error, to get to their
blasphemy, and to get to their heresy. You wanna know why they trip
over him? They can't see him. That's it. You know? What is the scripture? Thy word is what? A lamp under
my feet. You understand? We need a light
to see. But you gotta have eyes to see
the light. Where in the world are we gonna
get eyes that see the light? Well, if he don't give them to
you, you're not gonna have them. and you're gonna trip over Christ
to get to the First Baptist Church. You're gonna trip over Christ
to get to the Methodist Church, the Catholic Church. You'll go
anywhere you want. The teacher's having itching
ears, why? Because the people won't have
the truth of God. And they'll trip over him to
get to the lie. Why? He'd give them strong delusion
that they should believe a lot. Now, let's be very clear. Don't
blame the light because you love darkness. Don't blame the light because
you can't comprehend the light. That's where you wanna be. That's
the way I was. I'm not blaming people out there,
because I was in the very same spot. But I am blaming people
out there, because I was in the very same spot. And I was happy
with it, Walter. I was happy with it, Paul. I
was happy being an error, David. Why? Because at one time, I didn't
know any better. because I'm gonna tell you something,
any better is I didn't know him. I didn't. But once he has revealed
himself to me, I don't wanna know any worse, Walter. You know? I didn't know, I, one sentence
uttered in the Catholic church got me to get up and walk out.
And you know, that's a lie. Because it was God that made
me get up and walk out. But he used that sentence to
show me that I was in the wrong place. Even if I didn't know
what the right place was for sure at the time, I knew that
was the wrong place. And I got thee up and got thee
out. And by his grace he kept me out.
And he gave me somewhere else to go. to where I could hear
a little bit of the truth. The same one who is our sanctuary,
that very same one is the stumbling stone. That very same one is
what? A rock of a fence. Ah, what about this? Well see,
not only will some of them, they'll trip over Christ to get to their
error, There are those that actually hear a little bit of the truth,
and it offends them. It offends them. They'll hear
a true gospel message, and they'll be offended at you, but they're
not offended at you, they're offended about the Christ that
you told them about. Been there, done that. Because the Lord, our sanctuary,
is offensive to man. And man does his part. He's offended. Oh, they'll get
mad. They'll get mad. I'll tell you
something. You look at first Corinthians
one, you'll see this. The crucifixion is offensive to the Jews and
Gentiles alike. Well, actually different. Because
under one, Under one, he's a stumbling block,
and under the other, he's foolishness. And you're still talking about
the same Christ who was crucified, buried, died, was resurrected. To some, he's a stumbling block,
and to some, he's foolishness. And guess what? Both are offended. Both are offended. You understand,
every time they tried to stone our Lord in the gospels, It was
after he spoke the truth of God to them. He said, what was it
you talked about the other day? I and my father are one. And
what? They took up stones to stone
him. Oh, for a good work we stone thee not. Yeah, they would. Give
him a chance. But thou makest thyself equal
with God. They were absolutely right and
absolutely wrong at the same time. Because that is exactly
what Jesus was saying and he was right. And his works, his miracles,
his signs, his wonders, that showed forth that he and his
father were one. That he came and was doing the
exact perfect will of the father. And he offended them. He offended them so much they
took up stones and stoned him. And once he passed out in their
midst, another time he just disappeared. Because man cries this one thing
out, and it doesn't matter religious or secular. Either way, whether
they think it's a stumbling block or whether they think it's a
foolishness. The crucified Christ. They cry out, both of them, we
will not have this man to reign over us. I'm gonna tell you something,
he's not your sanctuary unless you want him to reign over you.
Because you're gonna have to submit yourself to Christ, our
sanctuary. What's he say then? He shall
be a djinn. He shall be a snare. Well a djinn
is a trap like one used to catch birds. Excuse me. And a snare is a noose like to
catch animals. And he says he's gonna be a djinn
and a snare, a trap and a noose for the houses of Israel and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You understand, you cannot escape
God. You might think you can. And
some of the world thinks they can. You can't reason, I know
somebody wrote, come and let us reason together, but I'm gonna
tell you this, you can't reason with God, he'll reason with you
maybe, if you're lucky. But you can't reason with God.
You can't pray him away, you can't run him away, because the
Lord, he is God, and he's gonna be a sanctuary, and he's going
to be a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, a djinn, and a snare. Next verse says this, and many
among them shall stumble, no, shall, stumble, and fall, and
be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Now I like the way
Isaiah wrote this. And many, what, among them. I
know it's a subtle thing, but here, I do like this, because
he doesn't say, and many of them. He doesn't say that. You understand,
there's a difference between those he's a sanctuary for, and
those he's a rock of offense for. I like that, I do, it just
hit me all of a sudden. We are all in the world, but
we are not of the world. And that's true, so is this.
They are among the people of God. But here's the other part,
they are not the people of God. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. That's why they went out from
us, so it would be made known, be made manifest. It didn't make
them not us, it was just showing that they were not us. But here's
the thing, they were among us. You understand, you can't go
out from us unless you was among us. But he said those among the people
shall, they will stumble, and fall and be broken and be snared
and be taken. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. This is the God of the Bible. Because those who do not sanctify
God himself are those who do not know him and declare him
because they do not know him. They have no fear. of God before
their eyes. They don't know it, and they
don't believe it, but here's the thing, God said it. Because this world, this is something
that hit me pretty good, too. This world, religious and secular
both, in slightly different ways, they have this really funny idea.
And I understand it because I am still a man. They have this funny
idea that silence is consent. And it's not so. It's not so. You understand? They think they
are okay because God's not talking to them. It never enters into their mind
that God wouldn't want to talk to them. I'm gonna tell you this right
now. God doesn't talk to anyone outside of his son. God doesn't
talk to anyone outside the sanctuary. Listen, they think silence is
consent. Well, I got some words for them.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. But also this,
because I was looking for this yesterday anyway, but it works
out really well for me. This is Psalms 50. Verses 17 through 23. Seeing thou hatest, hatest instruction,
and cast my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then
thou consenteth with him, and hast been partakers with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil,
and thy tongue to deceit, Thou sittest and speakest against
thy brother, thou slanderest thine own mother's son. Verse
21. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silence. Again, this is the word of God.
I kept silence. And here's what it is. Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such a one as thyself. But. I will reprove thee and set them
in order before thine eyes. Silence, even from God, is not
consent. You understand? There's right
and there's wrong. And I mean that from God's perspective.
There's good and there's evil. And yes, using this little tongue
to bad mouth your brother is evil. in God's sight. Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth
me, and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will
I show the salvation of God. You understand, the problems
with us, it always has been. Here's a great and an open secret
to the world. Jesus Christ, the one who is
our sanctuary, is their stumbling stone and rock of offense. The
one who is our sanctuary is their trap and snare. You understand? You got both these extremes.
but he's in one person. There is only one man with whom
we all have to do. And that name of that man is
Jesus. Jesus Christ, who is our sanctuary,
and there's sunbeam stone. Jesus Christ, who is our sanctuary,
and he's there offending rock. The one that we know, we believe,
and love is unknown, unbelieved, and hated by the world. He's a sanctuary. He's the sanctuary. But here's the point right here
in Isaiah. He's not a sanctuary for everyone. That's the conclusion. You understand? It's right there, two verses,
three verses. and many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. You know
who those are? Those to whom Jesus Christ is
not their sanctuary. They cannot and they will not
believe him. Problem's not that you don't
believe me, or you don't believe Walter, or you don't believe
any man. You better believe God. And if you believe God, you will
believe Walter, and you will believe me. Because you will
believe the words that are spoken about him. You understand, when
Christ is lifted up, I rejoice, it doesn't matter who does it. But when man's lifted up, I know
somebody lying. You'll stumble, but you won't
fall. You'll fall, but you won't fall
away. What did he tell him? Christ
said, if you fall on the rock, you'll be broken. You will be. But woe unto those that the rock
falls on. Because they're gonna be ground
to powder. He'll bring you down when he
needs to. That's not, that's part of him being your sanctuary. You understand? That old deacon
thing is, Lord you keep him holy, we'll keep him humble. No, God
will humble his people. And he does. But they will never,
he says I will never Never leave them nor forsake them. Because
I'm gonna tell you something, when you fall, you fell in the
sanctuary. You're in the sanctuary. Because
you're either in the sanctuary or you're out. And if you're in the sanctuary,
I'm not gonna tell you it's pleasant to fall, but it's okay. He will hold you up with his
hand. He will. He'll bring you down, but he'll
bring you back up. and just so you'll know that
you need to be rejoicing in your sanctuary, Jesus Christ, and
not rejoicing in your flesh. He is the Lord of hosts, the
redeemer of his people, and he is Christ, our sanctuary. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time and this place. Most of all, thankful
for your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who rules and reigns
over all and rules and reigns in love over his people. Thank you, Lord. Be with Walter
as he comes to try and preach your gospel. Give him the words
we need to hear and give us ears and hearts to understand. In
Christ's name we pray, amen.