Now, two weeks ago, we were looking
at Psalm 16, and the title was Peace Forevermore, which is the
promise made to the people of God. God himself promises them.
And then last week, we were looking at how that is assured from 1
Corinthians 1 and verse 30, those words, of him are ye in. Of him are ye in. What is it
that assures us of peace forevermore in heaven? It's not of us. It's
of God, of Him, of God, by the sovereign decree of God are you
in union. If you're in union with Christ
Jesus, then everything is accomplished that is necessary for you to
spend eternity experiencing peace forevermore. joy forevermore,
bliss of the intimate fellowship of God forevermore. Why? Because
God decreed from beginning of time, from before the beginning
of time, that you are in Him. Having united you with Christ,
everything that His law and His justice requires of you is satisfied
by what the great surety of his people, the great substitute
of his people, the great saviour of his people has accomplished
for them. And all of this is apprehended
by faith. How do we know it? We apprehend
it by faith. If you believe, you know that
you're among them. Oh, lots of people say, well
I believe, but they don't believe this gospel. They say, I believe
in Jesus. They don't believe the Jesus
of the Bible. The Jesus they believe is a Jesus
of their own imagination, but not the Jesus of the Bible. They
say, oh yes, we do believe Jesus. They don't believe Jesus as he
spoke in John chapter 6. If you want to know what I mean,
go and read John chapter 6 after this, and see, is that your Jesus? Is that your Jesus, the one who
spoke like that? Is it? Because if it isn't, you
don't believe the Jesus of the Bible, you don't believe the
God of Scripture. This is what he says in his word,
and to believe him is to apprehend by faith the gift of faith that
his Spirit gives to all of his people. You, like everybody else
that was born into this world, everybody born of woman, is born,
as David said, in sin did my mother conceive me. We're just
all the offspring of Adam, in terms of being sinners. And yet,
cometh the time, though your children of wrath even as others,
God the Holy Spirit comes in time, and those for whom Christ
died, for whom Christ paid the law's penalty with his own precious
blood, he comes and quickens, he comes and makes alive. You
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And you
apprehend it by faith, and it's the only way we know that you
are of the people of God, is that you believe this gospel. But People would say, well it's
still confusing to know who is actually united with Christ and
destined for eternity, because that's a good thing to question,
because be sure, as Jesus himself said in Matthew's Gospel 7 and
verse 25, he said, many will say to me in that day, in that
day of judgment, Lord, Lord, haven't we done great things
in your name? We've preached in your name,
we've gone and tried to make the world a better place in your
name, we've done all sorts of service, we've given our money
and our goods, we've done all sorts of things for you. And
he will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. What a
day that will be. Many will say that. No, out of
all that professes the Christian faith, the question we need to
ask is what marks out God's true elect? What marks them out? It's
what God's Word continues, constantly, to tell us in different places
in the history, in the prophecies, in the poetry, in the epistles,
in the gospel. This is what it's telling us,
is what marks out the people that God, in sovereign grace,
has chosen to save. what marks out His true people
out of all humanity, the people that He has redeemed, He has
purchased, He has paid the price of their salvation from sin and
from the law's curse. He has done all that is necessary
to qualify this people, though they be sinners in the flesh,
to qualify them for eternity, for eternal life, for eternal
bliss. The question we must ask is,
am I among them? Am I among them? Do I believe?
Am I among them? Is this faith of mine looking
to Christ? Is this the faith that genuinely applies to me? Repeatedly, the scripture speaks
of judgment, of God's wrath, of God's condemnation, of that
which thinks it is the truth, that which thinks they are the
people of God, but they're actually false. And then against that,
He constantly pronounces great blessing on the true. We saw
it in the chapter of Zephaniah chapter 3 that we read. Did you
not read, did you not hear the condemnation in the early part
of the chapter against the city of Jerusalem? And then what blessing
on the city of Jerusalem, the daughter of Jerusalem, in the
last few verses. It's always God setting His wrath
against the false against his blessing on the true. Think with
me for a few minutes about Jerusalem, the false and the true. Jerusalem,
of course, there is still a city in the Middle East, in the place
where David, the king, the sweet psalmist of Israel, set up the
worship of God there in Jerusalem when he took the Ark of God there. Jerusalem, that place in the
Middle East, was the centre of worship of the true God from
the time that David brought the Ark there. right until Christ
pronounced his condemnation upon it for its unbelief. It maybe
even goes back further than that. Perhaps even from Abraham, the
time of Abraham, you know when Abraham met Melchizedek in Genesis
chapter 14, Melchizedek, what was he? He was king of Salem,
Jerusalem, Salem, Jerusalem. king of peace, king of peace,
king of Salem, God's peace. And later, he took, at the command
of God, he took his only Isaac. Not his only son, the translators
put that in in italics, it's his only Isaac. He took his only
Isaac, ready to sacrifice him at the command of God. Where?
On Mount Moriah. Where is it thought that that
is? It's the hills of Jerusalem. Maybe it's even the hill, there
is a green hill far away outside a city wall where the dear Lord
was crucified, who died to save all his people. Maybe it was
there, maybe it's from that time, this place, Jerusalem, this physical
place. And that place was the center
of the worship of the true God from those times, the times of
the patriarchs, especially when David brought the ark there until
Jerusalem rejected the Lord of life and glory. As our Lord Jesus
Christ said towards the end of his ministry, before his crucifixion,
Matthew 23 verse 38, he talked about would have gathered Jerusalem's children to him,
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them. But
you would not, he says, because of your stubborn unbelief. He
says, behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And so it
was. It was overthrown by the Romans.
Because of a rebellion, it was overthrown in A.D. 70. You can
go to Rome and you can even see the symbol that's nearly 2,000
years old on a monument in Rome showing when they destroyed Jerusalem
and they destroyed the temple and it has never, to this day,
been put back together. That's when, as Daniel prophesied,
when Messiah had accomplished all of his purposes, there was
an end made of sacrifice. Why was there an end made of
sacrifice? Because the one sacrifice for
all had occurred. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ had occurred and had accomplished everything. So Jerusalem has
always symbolised two things. Two things it symbolised. Firstly,
it has symbolised the true Church. It has symbolised God's elect
family, the New Jerusalem, Zion which is above, the one intended
in these scriptures, Psalm 122 verse 6, pray for the peace of
Jerusalem. We're not praying for that heap
of stones in the Middle East today. That's not what the Scripture's
telling us. It's the people of God, the church
of God, the body of Christ, the Zion of God. Isaiah 52 verse
1, Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. He's
not speaking of that pile of stones in the Middle East, he's
speaking of his church. redeemed, made clean in the blood
of the Lamb. Isaiah 40 verse 2, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Verse 1 of Zephaniah chapter
3 doesn't sound like comfortable speech to Jerusalem, it sounds
like a curse, but this is speak comfortably to the Jerusalem
which is symbolical of the true church and the true people of
God. Behold I saw, says John, coming down out of heaven, a
new Jerusalem, a new Jerusalem. So it represents, in scripture,
the true Church of God, the true people of God. And secondly,
it represents what we might call Christendom, or even more, false
religion. It symbolises that which takes
the name of Christian, as so much does, but it's only outward. It's only physical. It's not
spiritual. There is no heart conversion
there. There is no true work of the Spirit of God there. There
might be all sorts of reformation of moral character, but there
is no work, deep work in the heart of the Spirit of God. And
God speaks to that Jerusalem, that old city of the time, this
is probably about five or six, I can't remember exactly, probably
about 500 years BC, just before the Babylonian captivity. Maybe
I've not got that quite right. Never mind, there or thereabouts.
He speaks here to that city which claimed to be the city of God,
claimed to contain the people of God, but look what he says.
God says to her, woe, this is verse one of chapter three, woe
to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city which
obeyed not the voice of God. She received not correction.
She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God.
Her prophets are treacherous persons. Her priests have polluted
the sanctuary. the Jerusalem of false religion.
It's what we might call today Christendom, the wider Christendom,
that which takes the name of Christian, but it's only outward,
and there's nothing of the heart there. And God speaks to that
Jerusalem as he speaks in Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 1. Woe to
her that is filthy, that Jerusalem, that false religion, that which
takes the name but was actually polluted, an oppressing city,
as verse 4 says, with false teachers, with false preachers, with prophets,
with priests that have polluted the sanctuary, with priests that
have twisted the gospel, I might say, if I were speaking in the
language we would use of the church today. Preachers who have
twisted the gospel away from that which God has revealed.
They have done violence to the law. The law? The gospel. The revelation of God. It's not
talking about the Ten Commandments. It's only in the sense that they
were the blueprint towards the salvation of God's people. They've
done violence to the law. The law. How I love thy law is
the gospel. How I love thy gospel. They've
done violence to the gospel that makes peace with God. That Jerusalem
God pronounces a curse on. Did you see what it was called
in Revelation chapter 11? When the witnesses are killed.
You know, the two witnesses, which I believe is the church
and its ministers. I think that's as good an explanation
of anything. The olive trees, the Spirit of
God, the oil is the picture of the Spirit of God. And the beast
arises from the bottomless pit and kills them. And they lie
dead in the streets. Verse 8, their dead bodies shall
lie in the street of the great city. Do you know which great
city it is talking about? It is talking about Jerusalem,
symbolically. How do I know that? It's spiritually
called Sodom. What? Jerusalem called Sodom? And Egypt? Surely you don't mean
Jerusalem. Oh yes I do. Where also our Lord
was crucified. Where our Lord was crucified.
where Christ was crucified, that city, obviously its symbolical
language of this world and its false religion in which we live.
So then, that's the curse upon that which is purely physical,
which is purely of the flesh, which is not inward, not of the
heart. Now look at our text. God is
speaking by the prophet, he's speaking to that city, that Jerusalem,
that symbolical place, this world, if you like, in which we live.
I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and a poor
people. And this people they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. In thee, in the visible city,
in that city, I will leave a poor and afflicted people. The society
which claimed to be God's people, the visible outward society,
was one in which God said, I will leave in thee, there will be
in you, although your majority false and you're going to have
the judgment of God fall upon you, I will leave within you
the true church. He said, didn't he? I will also
leave. I will also leave. Just as he
left the church in the world when Christ finished his work
of salvation and ascended back to glory, you know, Jesus said
in his prayer in John 17 verse 15, I pray not that thou should
take them out of the world. Praying to his father, I pray
not that you should take the believers, his people, his church,
out of the world. Leave them in the world for these
days, for this time, because there, in this wilderness separation
from this fallen world, God will feed his people, God will keep
his people. And so it was in the days of
the Babylonian captivity that came Not all of them were corrupt,
not all. There was a remnant, look there
in verse 13, the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity. There
was a remnant, Daniel and his companions were taken to Babylon.
They were swept up in the captivity, but they remained true to God.
I will leave in thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall
trust in the name of the Lord. Daniel and his companions remained
true to God. Go on 400 or 500 years when the
Jews rejected Christ. When the Jews rejected Christ,
when He was ministering, and they wouldn't have this man to
rule over them, and they wouldn't hear His voice, despite the works
that He did, they wouldn't listen to Him. They rejected Him. But
at that time, With all the rejection all around, and with all the
people crying, crucify, crucify, God had his church there, even
in that city of Jerusalem. He had his church there. I will
leave in thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. When Rome was sacked, When Rome sacked Jerusalem, sorry,
in A.D. 70, God had his New Testament
church there, his true New Testament church. They were in it, but
they were not of it. They were a remnant. It speaks
of a small flock, a small gathering. As Jesus said to his disciples,
fear not, little flock. It's the inner temple. Turn to
Revelation chapter 11. Revelation chapter 11 verse 1,
there was given me a reed like unto a rod and the angel stood
in this vision, remember this is vision, symbolical, not literal,
visual, it's a vision, rise and measure the temple of God and
the altar and them that worship therein. What's he saying? He's
saying Mark out those that are the true people of God. Mark
out that which is the true core Jerusalem, Zion of God. But the
court, which is without the temple, leave it out. Don't bother measuring
that. And measure it not. It's given to the Gentiles. It's
given to the unbelieving world, is what the Gentiles symbolizes
in this vision. It's given to the unbelieving
world, the world of religion roundabout, the world that doesn't
know anything of the truth of God. And even the wider Jerusalem,
not just the temple court, but the wider holy city, they, the
Gentiles, the unbelieving world, shall tread underfoot forty and
two months. Why forty and two? Six sevens,
forty-two. Seven, the number of God, of
perfection. Six, the number of man, falling
short. Forty and two months, man trying
to achieve divinity, if you like, or the justice of God as they
see it, but it isn't the justice of God as God sees it. There
is a true people of God within the wider world, and within that
which claims to be Christianity, and that which thinks it is the
truth but it is not. It's just as the true church
in the world today, and we truly are living in very strange days,
but days which we mustn't be alarmed at because God has told
us that these days are coming. So how does God describe the
true church, his true people, his Zion, that is often confused
in the eyes of the world with wider Christendom? Because we
need to know whether we are among that remnant. Two ways, in verse
12, he describes them. They are afflicted and poor,
and they trust in the name of the Lord. First of all, they
are afflicted and poor. Now, you might say, well, the
troubles and problems of this life are common to all. They
come upon people without distinction of their status, or their wealth,
or their poverty, or whatever else it might be. And that's
true. Troubles and problems of life are common to all. But the
result, that which it produces, the afflictions and the poverty,
varies according to whether the people it afflicts are God's
true children or not. Think about some of the things
that can come upon us in terms of afflictions. We live in a
day when suddenly an infectious disease comes upon us and the
whole world panics. I mean, it was, until the days
of antibiotics, this was just, wander around a graveyard when
you're out and about, when we're allowed to be out and about on
our travels, wander around a graveyard. And look at the ages of the people
that died a hundred to two hundred to three hundred years. Look
at the ages of them. Do you know they died of infectious
diseases? That's what they died of. It
was so often the case, bodily afflictions took people so young
from this life. And these days we've almost got
used to there not being any infectious diseases anymore. People die
of cancer, people die of accidents, people die of other really bad,
serious diseases, but not of infectious diseases anymore.
But when afflictions come along, sometimes they come in the form
of bodily afflictions. And look at the effect that it
produces. In unbelievers, or those who
are mere professors of a form of faith, it produces a bitterness
towards God. You know, A man has his wife
taken from him by cancer before what you would think was her
due time of a decent life, and he's left embittered towards
God. He's left with bitterness welling
up in his soul towards God for taking that one. Oh, when believers
lose people close to them in death, it's a tremendous grief
and a tremendous heartache, and it's a tremendous pain, so painful,
we know this, we know this is true, but the true sense of God
they know it's all in the hands of a loving Heavenly Father.
They know that the one, if that one was a child of God, has gone
into the very presence of God and is enjoying that which we
look forward to as the children of God. And the comfort of God
becomes that missing wife or that missing husband. It produces
a completely different effect to the effect it produces on
those that either don't believe at all or only have a nominal
faith. No, it sweeps away. All falsehood
of profession does this sort of thing when a bodily affliction
comes. And when it comes to those who are truly the children of
God, they see God in it all, and rest more strongly in Him.
They're more conscious of the fact that they're saved from
sin, and they want to be kept free from sin, and they're embittered
towards sin. And then other afflictions come
along. Afflictions of providence affect
all. I mean, who knows how deep are
the afflictions that are going to surface when the consequences
of this lockdown comes to light and its true depth of economic
damage starts to be not only theorized about, but actually
felt with lost jobs, lost houses, mistreatments for other conditions. All of these things, in providence,
let's see what happens. But We mustn't forget that providence
is all in the hands of God. Believers, we often, you know,
we look so much at the God of grace who has saved us from our
sins, and we forget that he's also a God of providence. God
doesn't only secure our arrival in eternity, but he walks with
us on the journey. He keeps us here in this world
because there's a journey, and he walks with us in providence.
This is why we read that of those who are the called according
to his purpose, God causes all things in providence to work
together for their good. And the afflictions of providence
that come upon all without distinction of whether they're believers
or not, they tend to drive the true child of God more closely
to their Heavenly Father. Like the prodigal son, I will
go back to my father, I will seek my father, I will go back
there. Whereas the world becomes embittered
because of their loss, becomes sorrowful, becomes heartbroken
because of their loss, the child of God seeks God more closely. There are things crop up in families.
Families are so dear to us. If you have a family, it's so
dear to you as your family. And yet strife arises in families. It's a feature. But family strife
teaches us, what does it teach the child of God? Family strife
teaches the child of God that God must be preeminent in our
affections. You know what Jesus said? He
said, if a man hate not mother or father or husband or wife,
he didn't mean physically detest them. What he meant was, in terms
of the scale of affections, they must come behind him. He must be preeminent in all. Our God, our Saviour, must be
preeminent in our affections. Because you know, only then,
when God is preeminent, are the other relationships blessed and
sweetened. But, you know, these are physical
things that happen to us that is common with all men. But the
thing that marks out the people of God, the true people of God,
is that they have spiritual afflictions. They're afflicted with an awareness
of sin. They're afflicted with a sense
of their own poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Spiritual poverty. Knowing that
we have nothing, unlike the Laodiceans, who claimed to be the people
of God, in that letter in Revelation chapter 3, right to the church
of the Laodiceans, what did they say? They said, we are rich,
we're full, we have need of nothing, we're so self-satisfied. And the risen Lord Jesus Christ
said to them, you don't realize that you are poor and blind and
naked, you're poverty stricken, you have nothing whatsoever.
Come to me and buy that which will soothe your eyes. Come without
money and without price. Come and buy from me because
my grace is free. Come to me and buy those things. Buy the soothing balm of the
gospel of grace. You have no righteousness that
you can lean on. And he shows us by these afflictions
what we truly are before him. It's God's discipline and it's
God's chastening to wean his people from the worldly pleasure
that we might find in the flesh to trust Christ. That's what
it's for. The scripture speaks a lot of
the chastening of God, of the discipline of God. Hebrews chapter
12 is a chapter of the discipline of God and how we're to treat
it. And he says in verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 12, they verily,
our physical parents, our natural parents, for a few days, while
we were children, chastened us, disciplined us, punished us.
straightened us out after their own pleasure because you know
as parents you can get to kind of screaming pitch with your
kids and you discipline them because their behavior is annoying
you. They for a few days chastened
us after their own pleasure but he God, he God for the profit
of his children. Why? That we might be partakers
of his holiness. He disciplines his people to
teach his saints that their debts are seen and felt to be paid,
as they become increasingly aware of their own spiritual bankruptcy. He shows them that they're spiritually
bankrupt. I mention him often. Happy Jack.
You remember the testimony of Happy Jack? This is the testimony
of the true people of God, this afflicted and poor people. I'm
a poor sinner and nothing at all. Well what credentials have
you got that you might join our church? I'm a poor sinner and
nothing at all. Well what have you studied? I'm
a poor sinner and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my all
in all. That's the testimony. To show
that not even Their ability to trust and have faith and have
hope and have love and have spirituality is their own. We have nothing.
Without me, said our Lord Jesus Christ, without me you can do
nothing. You can't even believe, you can't
even hope, never mind live and love the things of God. and have
a spirit of prayer. Without him we can do nothing.
And resist temptation. Without him we can do nothing.
In our flesh there dwells no good thing, said the Apostle
Paul. We're bankrupt. We're an afflicted and poor people,
spiritually. The religious world isn't like
that. The true people of God know the meaning of these things.
The true people of God understand when they read Pilgrim's Progress
and they read about Christian and the burden on his back, yes,
I know what that means. To have a burden before God that
I know will drag me down to hell unless someone remove it. And
then I find at the cross, by faith, with the eyes of faith,
I see there that that burden is taken away for Christ himself
has borne it and taken it away. They learn to lean on Christ
and Him alone. We can't find any spiritual good
outside of Him. We can't do anything of any spiritual
good outside of Him. And that's why it says, secondly,
they're afflicted and a poor people, and they shall trust
in the name of the Lord. They shall trust in the name
of the Lord. God drives His true people increasingly
to lean wholly on him, on the Lord, as he chastens them to
see worldly, natural things as being empty and poverty-stricken,
as we saw a week or two ago, as broken cisterns that can hold
no water compared with him, the fountain of living water. And
just as our inability is shown in the flesh as we find that
we're unable to keep the law of God, to make ourselves right
with God, the law is a schoolmaster to Christ. I know it says in
the original, in the translation, to bring us to Christ, but bring
us is in italics. It's our schoolmaster to Christ,
drives us to Christ, our inability in the flesh. So what is it that
these people do when it says, they trust in the name of the
Lord, they shall trust in the name of the Lord. What is it?
What is the name of the Lord that we're talking about here?
It's God's revealed perfections. They, physical beings, human
beings, as believers, trust In that which is invisible to the
natural eye, they trust in the revealed perfections of God. Now, where do we see the revealed
perfections of God most clearly? Answer, in Christ, the Eternal
Son. That's where we see them. No
man has seen God at any time, says John's Gospel, chapter 1
and verse 18. No man has seen God. The only
begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed
Him. He has made Him known. Again,
I'll quote John 14. I think it's about verse 9, isn't
it? Philip says to Jesus, show us the Father, and that will
suffice us. Philip, Have I been so long with
you, and yet you have not known Me? He who has seen Me has seen
the Father. To look on Christ is to look
on the fullness of the Godhead bodily, as it says in Colossians
2 verse 9. In Him, in Christ, dwells the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. Hebrews chapter 1, God At sundry
times, and in diverse manners, spake unto the fathers by the
prophets, as in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom
He has made heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. He is the express image of His
person. How do I know anything about
the person of the invisible God? I look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the express image of his person. He is the name of the
Lord. Where do we see the glory of
God? 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, God, who in the beginning said,
let there be light, has shined into our hearts to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the face
of Jesus Christ. as it was revealed to Moses.
Turn to Exodus chapter 23. Just come over to Exodus chapter
23. Exodus chapter 23 and verse 20. God says this to Moses, Behold, I send an Angel before
thee, an Angel with a capital A, to keep thee in the way, a
messenger in other words, and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. Beware of him, obey his voice,
provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions.
In other words, if you don't hear his voice, which is to believe
the gospel, if you don't believe the gospel, that's the unforgivable
sin. That's the sin against the Holy
Ghost. He will not pardon your transgressions of not believing
his gospel. He says, listen to him, obey
his voice. Why? For my name is in him. My name is in him. This is Christ. This is God speaking to Moses
of Christ. Christ who will come, a prophet
like unto this man Moses, but one who will speak the words
of eternal life. Listen to him, for my name is
in him. These people of God, trust in
the name of the Lord. That's what they do. As the patriarchs
began to call, it says in Genesis 4 verse 26, you know after Cain
and Abel and then there's Seth and it says in the last verse
of Genesis chapter 4, men began to call upon the name of the
Lord. What did they do? Adam and Eve
were redeemed from the curse of the law, from the fall. They
were redeemed by Christ, pictured by the death of an animal whose
skin clothed them, whose blood was shed. And God taught them
that that was the doing and dying of His Son who would come, the
promised seed of the woman, and they taught it to their children.
And Cain brought the works of his own hands, and Abel brought
that which complied with what God had revealed. He came in
an acceptable way. And those that called on the
name of the Lord, they looked to Christ alone for acceptance
with God. From a state of worldly affliction,
from a deep sense of spiritual poverty, taught by the Spirit
of God, God's elect call on Christ to see him for what he is. What
does it say in Romans 9 verse 5? Christ, who is over all, God
blessed forever. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
the Lord in whom we trust. He is Emmanuel, what does His
name mean? God with us. He is the mediator,
for there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He is our great High Priest,
our great interceding High Priest, the one who makes the way for
us into the holy presence of God. He is our priest after the
order of Melchizedek, who went into the Holy of Holies not with
the blood of animals, which were only symbolical, which were only
patterns, but he went in there with his own blood, for by the
shedding of his own blood he has cleansed his people from
all sins. He is the surety, the guarantor
of the salvation of his people. He is the one who indeed is God
our Saviour, God who saves His people from their just condemnation
under the law of God according to the character and holiness
of God, and He has borne the curse of the law by being made
that curse for us. He is our stability in a storm-tossed
world. He is our anchor. We have an
anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure as the billows roll. He is our solid hope. Christ
is our hope. We're saved in Him, our solid
hope. Naturally, in the flesh, we always
tend to trust the physical. We were thinking the other night
about 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18, is it? The things which are
seen, the things that are solid around us, are temporal, temporary.
The things which are unseen, these are the things which are
permanent. We trust those things until afflictions,
bodily and spiritual afflictions, and poverty of righteousness
and standing with God, these drive us like the law, they drive
us to Christ. And in Him we see, how do we
see? We see by faith, we see complete
provision for everything that we need to stand qualified for
heaven. His blood has been shed. The
price of our sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. The life is in the blood. His blood has paid our sin-debt
to the full. His righteousness has justified
us. Nominal Christianity always shows
its true colours concerning Christ. What think ye of Christ? This
is the thing. Don't think, oh well they do
lots of other good things, that's absolutely fine, but they're
a bit weak on Christ. No, if they are, what does the
scripture tell us to do? Come out of her, my people, come
out from among them, be ye separate, saith the Lord. Revelation 18,
where so much of religion and Christian religion looks like
the church, but it isn't, shown up for what it is, a harlot,
falsehood. The Word of God to us in Revelation
18 verse 4 is, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. What should
I do? What should I do? Separate from
those things. Don't continue with them. You
will never, ever, you will never, ever reform or transform them. No, you won't. What should you
do? Separate. Seek a preacher. Even if it's
only on the internet, You know, these days, the internet's made
for these days, isn't it? God promised he would separate
his people from the world and from falsehood, and he would
feed her in wilderness separation. And if you're there, and if you're
on your own, and that's all you can do, what can I do? You might
say, well, you can do as that Samaritan woman did. when she
went back to her town having met the Lord Jesus Christ, she
said, come and hear a man who told me all things that ever
I did. You can say, come and hear a
preacher that tells me the truth of God. Amen.