Well, good evening, everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 28.
Isaiah 28. I talked to Gary Holbeck this
morning, and Lord willing, he is home from the hospital by
now. And he sounded kind of weak, but very, very upbeat. And the
doctor still thinks he's going to recover much more quickly
than normal. And he wanted me to pass on his
love to you all and thank you for your prayers and things. So hopefully, he said, we'll
be seeing him soon. I think that depends how soon
Janie will let him get in the car. All right, Isaiah 28. Let's begin our reading in verse
14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people, which is in Jerusalem.
Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we in agreement, when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we've made
lies our refuge, and in our falsehood have we hid ourselves. 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 to the line, and righteousness
to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away
the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
We'll end our reading there. Okay, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your
hymnals to song number 110, Alas and Did My Savior Bleed. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity! ? Grace unknown and love beyond
degree ? ? Well might the sun in darkness hide ? ? And shut
his glories in ? ? When Christ the mighty maker died ? For man
the creature's sin, But drops of grief can ne'er repay The
debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. OK. If you would now turn in
your hymnal to song number 489, Glory to His Name. 489. Down at the cross where my say. Well, let's start that one over
again. Down at the cross where my Savior
died. Down where for cleansing from
sin I cried. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from
sin, Jesus so sweetly abides within, there at the cross where
he took me in. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. O precious fountain that saves
from sin, I am so glad I have entered in. There Jesus saves me and keeps
me clean. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet. Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's
feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. ? Glory to his name ? ? There to
my heart was the blood applied ? ? Glory to his name ? If you would now open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 11. Our text is still gonna be from
the book of Exodus this evening, but I thought I'd read this Psalm
11 in preparation for that. In the Lord put I my trust. How
say you to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain. For lo, the
wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow upon
the strain that they may prevalently shoot at the upright in heart.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The
Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold. His eyelids try the children
of men. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. This shall
be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, it is with great
joy that we have gathered together this evening desiring to hear
a word from thee. So thankful that you've given
us another opportunity to hear your gospel preached and to worship
your dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that
this evening that you would send your spirit upon us and enable
us to worship you in spirit and in truth. That for just a few
minutes, you would enable us to forget about the cares and
burdens of this life and let us set our affection on things
above. Open up our ears and our hearts that your word may be
applied to it, that our hearts would be comforted, that they'd
be thrilled at another sight of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
don't let us just meet here alone. We've met here in vain, but Father,
meet with us, I pray, how we need thee. Father, we freely
confess we need Thee every hour, every second. We can't enter
into this worship service without You. We can't worship. We can't
pray. We don't have the faith to believe. Father, without Thee, we can
do nothing. And how we beg that You bless us tonight by one more
time showing us the glory of Your Son and the redemption of
His people. And Father, I thank you for this place. I thank you
for a place that you've provided for us, where we can meet together
and worship, where your gospel's preached, where your people have
one heart, and unity of heart and spirit and goals and desires,
that your gospel be preached, that your name be glorified. Father, I ask you bless each
one, each home, Bless us, Father, with your presence and with your
leadership. And Father, we thank you for
the good report we've had on our brother Gary. And Father,
I pray that you would continue to be with him throughout this
healing process, to be with his family, that you'd be pleased
to heal him and that you would be pleased to give him the wisdom
to not overdo it, do what's right to heal and heal well. Elders
father who are still in deep, deep waters, we pray for them.
We pray you'd comfort their hearts with your presence until such
time as you're pleased to deliver. All these things we ask and we
give thanks. And that name, which is above
every name, the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ is for
his sake and his glory. We pray. Amen. I look back at
Exodus chapter 26. We're going to pick up our study
there in Exodus chapter 26. this evening, and I've titled
the message, The Foundation of Salvation. You may recall that
last week we looked at the walls and the bars of the tabernacle,
that the walls were the incorruptible wood covered with gold, a picture
of the God-man, the two natures of Christ, and those boards stand
up. They don't lay horizontally on
top of each other. They all stand upright, and they
Those boards held the tabernacle up. They held the coverings up
so that the furniture, all the different pieces of furniture
in there could be accessed and be of use. And all of that is
the picture of the believer in Christ. The believer in Christ
is upright. No longer fallen in Adam, but
upright in Christ. And the bars, they held everything
together. They're made of the incorruptible
wood, covered with gold. And those bars, as they placed
them on the boards, kept the boards from just falling every
which way. Kept the boards right where they
should be. Kept everything tight and compact. Well, that's the
believer. We're complete in Christ. We're
compacted together in him. We're held together in him so
that we just don't run off willy-nilly someplace. But he holds his people
together by the power of his love, by his rod and his staff,
his presence with us, holds his people together. And those boards,
they fit into silver sockets that they made. And you can see
them, if you, I don't know if you can see it from your seat,
but if you get close enough, you can see the silver around the,
underneath those bars, or the boards. They had sockets that
they formed. And that was the, the boards
fit down into those sockets. They fit down in there tight.
And that was the foundation of the tabernacle. There were 100,
100 pound sockets that formed the foundation of the tabernacle
that held the boards up. If you look at verse 19 of Exodus
chapter 26, this is where we read of them. And thou shalt
make 40 sockets of silver under the 20 boards, two sockets under
one board for his two tenants and two sockets under another
board for his tenants. And for the second side of the
tabernacle on the north side, there should be 20 boards and
there are 40 sockets of silver. two sockets under one board,
two sockets under another board. And for the sides of the tabernacle
westward thou shalt make six boards, and two boards shalt
thou make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides,
and they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled
together above the head of it into one ring. Thus shall it
be for them both, they shall be for the two corners, And they
shall be eight boards and their sockets of silver, 16 sockets,
two sockets under one board and two sockets under another board. Now these silver sockets, this
foundation of the tabernacle that hold the walls up, first
of all, there's several things I want us to see about that.
First of all, these boards or this, this silver sockets, they're
a picture of redemption. Now, why do I say that? It's
because of where the silver came from. Look over at Exodus chapter
30. Everything that they used in
this tabernacle was donated as a free gift offering, with the
exception of the silver. Exodus chapter 30, verse 11.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, when thou takest the
sum of the children of Israel, after their number, then shall
they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. when
thou numberst them, that there be no plague among them when
thou numberst them. This shall they give, everyone
that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel,
after the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 giras, and half
shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Everyone that passeth
among them that are numbered, from 20 years old and above,
shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give
more, And the poor shall not give less than half a shekel
when they make an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement
for your souls. And thou shall take the atonement
money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the
service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may
be a memorial under the children of Israel before the Lord to
make an atonement for your souls. This silver that the people paid
as they were numbered It's called the atonement money. That's what
the Lord called it. And this atonement money was
paid whenever you numbered the people. If they had a census,
everybody paid this half a shekel. Now, numbering, what is the big
deal about? Why does the Lord make it an
issue of this? Because numbering has to do with
ownership. You only count what belongs to
you. And no man was allowed to count
Israel, because Israel didn't belong to a man. Israel didn't
belong to Moses. Israel didn't belong to the other
prophets. Israel didn't belong to the kings. When the Lord gave
Israel kings, Israel belonged to God. So if a man counts them,
the Lord said, you be sure to take up this atonement money,
half a shekel for each person so that a plague doesn't come
upon the people. Now this was David's whole problem. Remember
when David wanted to number the people? And David was just doing
it out of pride. He wanted to see how many people
he was king over. Remember how Joab kept telling
him, David, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do
it. David did it anyway, didn't he? But the problem was, why
did that plague come upon the people? It's because David didn't
take up the atonement money when he counted the people. See, this
is serious business. Even in this picture, this is
serious business. No man can approach God without
the atonement. And it can't be what we think
is the atonement. No man can approach God without
the atonement that God appointed, the one that God appointed. And
when David numbered the people, without taking up this atonement
money, this half a shekel from every person, it's like he was
saying, I can approach God on my own. I mean, when I was a
poor shepherd boy, maybe I couldn't, but boy, now that I'm king, I'm
somebody, I can approach God on my own. I don't need the atonement. And that's why the plague came
upon the people. That, anytime anybody thinks
that they can approach God in the way that they want, not through
the blood, atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in some way
that they made up, it's gonna bring a plague every single time. God's elect belong to God. And I've been thinking about
this the past couple weeks. You can take this for what it's
worth. How we read in scripture about those saints in heaven
are a number no man can number. And we always think, right, that
it's just because the number's too big for anybody to count.
And that's probably true. But it's also true in this way.
No man can number them, because no man's allowed to number them.
because we don't have the atonement. God numbers them. God knows them
because he's the one that paid the atonement for them. He knows
every last one of them. God paid the redemption price
for them by the blood of his son. And that's what's going
on in picture here in our text. God told Moses to number the
people, but when you do, you make sure they pay the atonement
money. This half of a shekel, so that
the plague doesn't come upon the people. And then the Lord
told Moses how to use that silver in service of the tabernacle.
It was to form the foundation of the walls. So this thing is
all held up in place where it should be. And I love what God
says here. What a glorious picture, what
a comforting picture of redemption this is. The rich shall not give
more. and the poor shall not give less. Every one of God's redeemed are
redeemed by the exact same price, the blood of Christ. It didn't
take more for one and less for another. They're all redeemed
with the exact same price. All of us are equally lost in
Adam. Our sin debt's the same. It's
infinite. And every one of God's elect
are equally redeemed in price And in Christ, they're equally
redeemed because Christ paid the price. It's the price of
his blood. And our works can never enter
into that. Before conversion, if somebody
lives a more moral life, a more upright life, they kind of pay
attention to the law and they try to keep the law, that doesn't
mean that they've sinned less. That doesn't mean that the price
of their redemption is less. like they've got some righteousness,
you know, to contribute to this. So the price of their redemption
is less. And the same thing's true of
an outwardly wicked person, just as wicked as can be. But before
God converted them, before he revealed himself to them, they
were so wicked. I mean, the stuff that they did,
that doesn't mean they have more sin. So that the price of their
redemption is higher and harder for Christ to pay. The rich shall
not give more, and the poor shall not give less. Every one of God's
elect is redeemed with the exact same price. I thought of a couple
examples. Rahab the harlot. I mean, she's
a harlot. And Hannah, the sweet girl, always
praying, praying the Lord send her a baby, and God sends her
a baby, and she's praying and thanking God She just seems,
you know, like what we call as pure as the driven snow. Rahab
and Hannah are redeemed with the exact same price. One didn't
pay more than the other. How about Joseph? You know, Joseph
is one of the people in scripture that the Holy Spirit was not
pleased to give us an account of some horrible sin that Joseph
fell into. We don't read of anything like
that about Joseph. And then there's our brother
Lot, who in the Old Testament, I don't
read that Lot ever did anything right the first time. Not ever.
Everything he did was wrong. But I know he's one of God's
elect because in the New Testament, he's called Righteous Lot. Joseph
and Lot, they're redeemed with the exact same price. How about
the apostles? Oh my goodness. I mean, they
were all martyred. They all went all over the known
world at that time preaching the gospel. God gave them special
skills and abilities and abilities to perform miracles. Under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, they actually penned the Word of God. I mean, you think how God used
them, how the Spirit was upon them. And then think of yourself. We haven't done nothing. The apostles are not richer than
us poor. The rich shall not give more.
The poor shall not give less. We're redeemed with the exact
same price. It's the blood of Christ. Those
people who think that they're rich, they're rich in their own
works, they're rich in their own morality, they're rich in
their own knowledge of scriptures, whatever it is we want to get
puffed up about that we think we're rich in, we're not going
to get more glory. That's not going to help us be
saved. That's not going to help us be
redeemed. All of the stuff that we've, that we're so proud of.
Matter of fact, it probably makes it harder, doesn't it? Cause
it's stuff we got to get rid of for God will save us and the
poor. And this is what I want us to
focus on. Cause I hope we all know we're poor, the poor who
don't have anything to offer God. We've got no good works.
We've got nothing we've ever done. We're so ashamed of ourselves. I don't want to be talking about
me. My worst, I'm so ashamed of it. We're in such spiritual
poverty. We will not be shut out of redemption
for our poverty because the rich shall not pay more and the poor
shall not pay less. It's the blood of Christ that
redeems us. All of God's elect are redeemed
by the exact same price. Because what did God say? It's
the blood. It's the blood. I wish we'd get
this through our head. It's the blood. It's the blood,
it's the blood, it's the blood. It's the blood that maketh an
atonement for the soul. The blood is the foundation.
This silver sockets, this foundation is a picture, it's the atonement
money. It's what God called it. This blood is the foundation
of nearly everything that we believe. It's the blood that
is the foundation that we have for the forgiveness of our sins. What foundation can you stand
on to say that God's forgiven your sin? Only the blood of Christ. Colossians 1 verse 14 says, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. What about justification? What
is the foundation of your claim to be justified before God? Justified,
it means you have no sin. Now, when I look at me and you
look at me, the only thing you can see about me is sin and weakness
and decay. What's the foundation I have
to stand on to say I believe I'm justified for God? It's the
blood of Christ. Romans 5 verse 9 says, much more
than, be now justified by his blood. We should be saved from
wrath through him. What about peace with God? You
and I are natural born enemies of God. The carnal mind's not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. We are just
exactly like our father Adam, rebels against God. We've declared
war on God, and it's a war we can't win. Now what's our foundation
to say I have peace with God? I'm not worried about meeting
God in judgment. I have peace with God. I'm not worried about
God getting me right now, because I have peace with God. What's
your foundation to say such a thing? Because Christ made peace by
the blood of his cross. That's why. Look at 1 Peter 1. What is the foundation that we
can stand on to actually make the statement that I am redeemed
from all of my sin. I mean, I'm such a great sinner,
but what's the foundation I have to stand on to say I'm redeemed
from that sin? It's the blood. 1 Peter 1, verse
18. For as much as you know that
you're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God. The only foundation we have to
stand on to say I'm redeemed, I don't owe a single debt to
God for any of my sins. It's the blood of Christ, because
his blood is so precious, he paid the sin debt of all of his
people with just one sacrifice. It's the only foundation we have
to say that we've been redeemed. What about holiness? Now, holiness
doesn't just mean that you don't have any sin. It means you have
a nature that can't sin, that you're holy. What is the foundation
that you have to stand on to say that you're holy, unblameable
before God? What's the foundation? It's the
blood. Look over 1 John 7. I'm sorry, 1 John 1. There's
not seven chapters in 1 John. 1 John 1. Verse seven. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, We have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all
sin. If the blood of Christ has cleansed
you from all sin, you're holy. It's the only foundation that
we have to stand on to say we're holy. It's the blood of Christ. Now what about this thing of
a believer claiming, I don't have to do any work. in order
to be saved. Salvation is by grace without
my works. And I am not obligated to do
any works of the law in order for God to save me. Now what's
your foundation in making that statement? It's the blood of
Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. Verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? The blood of Christ, when it
is applied to the hearts of God's people, it purges your conscience. Your conscience is not telling
you, oh, you better do some work in order to make God happy with
you. You better do some work in order to pay for this sin.
You better do some work in order to kind of clean your act up
a little bit, you know, or God's going to get you. If you want
God to bless you now and accept you, you better do this work.
And, you know, in different denominations all have their favorite work,
right? Well, you know, whatever it is, the believer's conscience
is not bothering them. Our conscience bothers us in
that we hate our sin. But what the writer of the Hebrews
is talking about here is our conscience is not constantly
ringing in our ears, telling us, you better do something to
make up for that sin, because the blood of Christ already paid
it. The blood of Christ already put it away. So even though I
feel horrible about my sin, I ask God to forgive me of my sin.
So many times a day, I'm so ashamed of it. I feel so bad about it,
but my conscience doesn't bother me about it, because Christ already
paid for it. And that's not to say that a
believer doesn't work. Believers, God's, I mean, true
believer, God's children are the workinest people that you
know. They go to work to help one another.
They watch out for one another. They pray for one another. They
care about doing good works because our fathers commanded us to do
them. But it's not because I feel like I have to or God will get
me. It's out of love. I serve you. Happily and willingly
a because I love God and be because I love you Not because I feel
like I have to or God's gonna punish me It's the blood of Christ
gives the believer a clean conscience That doesn't we're not trying
to do anything to try to earn anything from God All right now
look at Acts chapter 20 Every believer will claim, make
this claim, I belong to God. I belong to Christ. I am his
and he is mine. I belong to him and he's not
gonna cast me out. Now what is your foundation for
making such a statement? I mean, this is the thing that
always bothers a believer. It always crosses our mind, doesn't
it? God's gonna cast me out. I mean, this is just one sin
too many. This is just one fault too many. And we think that because
even though we know better, what's in the mind of our flesh is,
I think God's like me. Thank God God's not like me.
If God was like me, I wouldn't have saved me in the first place.
And if I did, I sure would have cast me out long before now.
What is the foundation of saying, I belong to Christ so that he
will never lose me? It's the blood of Christ. Acts
20 verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. God purchased his people with
his own blood. The blood of Christ is the blood
of God. And that blood is so precious,
he purchased all of his people and he'll never let them go.
The price has already been paid. This silver is a picture of the
blood of Christ, the redemption that we have in his blood. But
second, this silver that's used for the foundation of the tabernacle
also gives us a picture of the preciousness of the blood of
Christ. This atonement money, when it's
all put together, shows us just how expensive salvation is. Salvation is so expensive. It costs the blood of God, what
we just read about. It costs the suffering and the
death of God's own son. This silver in today's money
would be worth $5.5 million. That's a lot of money. And that's
a picture of Christ our Savior. Unto you, therefore, Peter said,
unto you that believe. He is precious. No one who knows God, no one
who knows and believes Christ would take anything for the presence
of Christ. Nothing. Because he is precious. It's not just that he saved me
from wrath. He's not going to send me to
hell. It's, you know, Believe me, I'm very thankful for that,
but it's not the blessings that he gives. He is precious. I wish I could think of an example,
but if you know him, you know exactly what I'm talking about,
don't you? He is precious. I just wouldn't trade anything
for him. When Peter said earlier that
we're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ. Well, of course his blood is
precious because he's precious. Yes, his blood is precious because
it's sinless blood. It's the only sinless blood that
ever existed. It's the only blood that could
pay our redemption price. But I'll tell you the thing that
makes it the most precious is it's his blood. He's precious. He is precious. And with that
precious blood, he bought all of God's elect. so that he owns
them. The father, in eternity past,
in the great covenant of grace, elected a people and put them
in his son to be our surety, that they belong to Christ. In
one place, we're called his inheritance. What an inheritance we are, right?
The father gave those people to his son, and his son came
as a man and bought those people. with his blood so that they belong
to him. It's his right to give unto them
eternal life because he bought them. Now that he's bought them,
what's he going to do with them? Now just think of yourself. There's
something that you would really like to have and it's expensive. You've got to save up your money
a long time. You're going dead or whatever to get it and you
finally get it. You put the money down and you
get it. It's yours. You can do whatever
you want with it. It's yours. You bought it. What
are you going to do with it? Well, you're not going to throw
it away anytime soon, are you? No, this is important to you.
It's precious to you. You work too hard to get it.
You pay too high of a price to get it. You're not going to throw
it away anytime soon. When Christ died and he bought
his people with his precious blood, he promised them I'll
never throw you away. I'll never cast you out. I will
never leave you nor forsake you because I loved you. I loved
you so much. You were so precious to me. I
did everything it took to redeem you. Suffered and died in your
place to pay the price. And the only price that could
redeem us is the blood of God. Now that's precious. That blood
is so precious to the father. It's the blood of his son. It's
the only thing that would make the father say, that's enough. His suffering is enough. The
blood that he offered on the altar is enough. I'll accept
all my people in his sacrifice. He's precious to the father.
And the blood of Christ is precious to his people. We make so much
of the blood because his blood is precious. And that brings
me to my third point. It's the importance of this foundation. If you took those silver sockets
away, I mean, as wonderful as the boards and the bars are,
the incorruptible wood covered with gold, if you took the sockets
away, they're going to fall down. You've got to have that foundation
in order for the tabernacle to be of use. This foundation of
the blood of Christ, these foundational things that we believe, they
are so important that if you allow them to be deteriorated,
pretty soon you'll have no message of salvation at all because you
won't have Christ. If you allow these foundational
truths to be deteriorated, Pretty soon, you're gonna end up with
nothing. Without the blood of Christ, everything that a believer
claims to have would fall to the ground. There'd be no forgiveness
of sins. There'd be no peace with God.
There'd be no cleansing. There'd be no hope of eternal
life. There'd be no atonement. Look
at Ephesians chapter two. This foundation, The foundation
of the gospel, the foundation of what we have in Christ is
vital to the salvation of God's people. Verse 19, Ephesians chapter
two. Now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. He's the foundation, the chief
cornerstone In him all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together
for a habitation of God through the Spirit, built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. And that foundation of the apostles
and prophets is their message. It's Jesus Christ himself. And I thought about several of
these foundational truths. And someone might wonder, you
know, why are you so insistent on never compromising an inch
on the gospel? It's because if you start allowing
the foundation to be eroded, pretty soon the whole building
will fall down. There won't be any gospel for us to preach. I just thought of a few of them.
God's sovereignty. I mean, that's a foundational
truth of everything we believe in. God's sovereignty. We cannot
ever allow that truth to be eroded. God is sovereign in salvation. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. He has grace on whom he'll be gracious to whom he
will be gracious. And if you start eroding that
and making salvation up to man, it's gonna fall every single
time. Man can't hold it up. But if it's up to God, if it's
up to his sovereignty, that salvation Cannot fail if we take away We
just quit preaching the sovereignty of God in salvation that he saves
whom he will when he will just so we don't offend people If
we take away God's sovereignty and salvation, you're gonna put
a burden on men and women. They're not able to handle We're
not able to carry and it just puts such a burden on them and
leaves them with no hope whatsoever but if you tell a sinner A sinner
who can't do one blessed thing for himself, God's going to have
mercy on him. He will have mercy. That gives me hope. That gives
me hope. If we start allowing that to
be eroded, pretty soon we'll have no gospel whatsoever. What
about God's election of a people? I don't know that there's anything
the flesh hates and false religion hates more than God's election
of a people. But now don't ever let it be
eroded. Don't ever compromise that in order to get along with
folks. Because without God's electing
love, there would be no salvation. None whatsoever. All of God's
salvation began with his electing love. Christ came to save a people
because the father chose them and gave them his son to save.
That's why. Without God's electing love,
no sinner would ever be saved. Because after we fell in Adam,
no sinner would ever choose to be saved on God's terms. None. Our Lord in one place said, you
will not come unto me that you might have life. In another place
he said, you cannot. You will not and you cannot choose
me. But if God elected sinners unto
salvation, I've got a hope. Now there's hope for me there.
If I gotta do something, if I've got to choose God, I got no hope. If you quit preaching and you
compromise God's electing love, you take away a sinner's hope
of salvation by taking away the glory of God. Here's another foundational truth
that still seems to get people riled up pretty good. Christ
made sin. Now scripture says it, Christ
was made sin. Don't compromise that. Don't
start shying away from it. If you start compromising that,
the foundation's gonna be eroded. If Christ was not made sin, you
know what that means? Salvation's not just. If Christ
was not made sin, God put an innocent man to death. He just
pretended like he was dealing with sin if Christ was not made
sin. And if he just pretended to make
Christ sin, he just pretended to make his people righteous
and we can be cast off at any time because we're not righteous. Christ was made sin for his people
so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
If Christ made you righteous by his sacrifice, you have a
good hope, a foundation that cannot be shaken, but you're
going to take away the sinner's hope of salvation If you start
denying that Christ was made sin for his people, if God did
not take my sin off of me and put it onto his son, my sin's
still on me and I'll perish for sure. But if Christ took my sin
away from me and made it his at Calvary's tree, it's gone. It's gone under his precious
blood. What about the new birth? by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is another one, boy, I'm telling you, it gets people riled
up. In the new birth, there's a new man born, a new nature
born in the heart of a believer that never existed before. That
new nature is holy, it's righteous, and it can never sin. And when this flesh dies, that's
the nature that's gonna go straight to God, enter into God's presence. That nature is holy and righteous
because of the seed that conceived it. The Holy Ghost used the sinless
seed of the word of God to conceive that nature in the heart of every
believer. The nature is just like the seed that conceived
it. Now don't let that be eroded. Don't let that foundational truth
be eroded because if you do, all salvation is going to fall
apart. If the new birth is not true, that we need to have a
new nature born in us by the very power of God, then the whole
Bible's a lie. If we didn't die in Adam, and
the flesh can still get some light, the flesh can still do
something in order to believe God, then we didn't die in Adam,
like the book of Genesis tells us, and the whole rest of the
Bible is a lie. Don't take away a sinner's hope of salvation.
by telling them the new birth is just the flesh getting light. If you do that, you take away
their hope, because our flesh can't get any light. But if God
causes a new man to be born in me, I can believe God. I can understand the things of
scripture. That's my hope, because this
flesh can't go into God's presence, but that new man can. And then what about the law?
You know, there's a lot of people that say, well, you know, we
believe grace, but you got to keep the law. That's exactly
what the Judaizers did to the churches at Galatia. Let's use
the law now to be our rule of life. And, you know, you just
follow these 10 commandments. Tell you how serious that, don't
allow that to be compromised. Now, salvation is a grace. It's a grace. It's a grace. all
of grace from beginning to ending. It's all of grace. We'll never
be able to take any credit for any part of God's salvation.
We can't take credit for any blessing that God's ever given
to us because it's all given to us in spite of us. It's by
grace, not by works. And if you say, well, now, you
know, we, we got to keep these laws and you might as well start
demanding people be circumcised. Just exactly what they were doing
in, in, in Galatia. If this is so serious, this is
how quickly this foundation will erode and take salvation, take
the good news of the gospel away from people. Paul said, if you're
keeping any part of the law in order to make yourself righteous,
Christ will profit you nothing. You take away that foundation,
you don't have Christ anymore. He'll profit you nothing. Salvation is either all of grace,
or it's all of our law keeping. I hate wasting my time more than
anything. I've always, from the time I've
been a little fella, I've been so impatient. I could not stand up here in
good conscience, quote unquote preach to you and lay the burden
of the law on you. It's a waste of time. But if
salvation's by grace, through the blood of Christ, oh, I got
good news. And I'll tell it just as often
as we want to gather here and hear it. This is the good news
of the gospel. This is our hope. And I tell
you, hold fast now to this foundation. I remember thinking that, oh,
I know he's right, but Henry sounded like an old man. when
he was saying, now hold fast to these old ways. Hold fast,
don't start getting off on all these modern, hold fast to the
old paths. And now I'm telling you, hold
fast to these old paths. Hold fast to the old ways. Hold
fast to this foundation. If God will enable us to hold
fast to this foundation, we're gonna have a gospel to preach.
A gospel that will glorify our God a gospel that will save sinners,
a gospel that will comfort the hearts of God's people. And it
comforts us for a concrete reason. Because
you look to Christ and you see you've got no worries. If salvation's
all in His hand, it's up to His doing, His sacrifice, I've got
no worries. I wouldn't imagine you came out
here on a Wednesday night To have somebody lay a burden on
you, that go home, make you toss and turn because this burden's
on you so much and it troubles you so much, I don't think you
came out here for that. I think you came out to have
your hearts comforted. One more time, hearing that salvation
is all built on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in Him. And if it's all in Him, it'll
never fail. God help us to hold fast to that
foundation. All right, hope that'll be a
blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for the precious blood of Christ. How we thank you for his precious
person. He's the foundation of everything
that we believe and everything that we hope for. Father, how
we thank you that you would give such a savior to such sinners
as we are. Oh, we're so thankful. Father,
cause us, each one of us here tonight, to be built upon Christ,
the chief cornerstone. Put us into the body of Christ,
the living stones, and keep us, keep us, Father, looking to Christ
and depending on Christ until such days you come to get us
and bring us home where we can see him face to face. Father,
it's in his name, for his sake and his glory we pray, amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnal to song number 127. And stand as we sing Hallelujah,
What a Savior. 127. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die. It is finished was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior!