okay well uh... turn back then
please to Acts chapter nineteen and I want to consider this passage
from verse twenty one down to the end in which there's a lot
of narrative but in outline uh... there's a riot there's a civil
riot and what's the cause of it? Paul's been preaching the
gospel and as he's been preaching the gospel people have been believing
that gospel because the Holy Spirit comes and opens eyes and
when the gospel comes to those whom Christ has ordained from
before the beginning of time. They believe, they see, they
believe the truth and they've been believing and people have
been getting upset about this. You know the society of the Ephesians
for one was upset about this. There arose no small stir about
the way. You're disturbing things, you're
saying things which we don't traditionally believe, we don't
go along with those things. Ring familiar? I think it does
doesn't it? The days in which you're saying
things that don't ring true with our society and our religion
and the things that we believe as a society and the way we order
ourselves. The Christian gospel comes and
cuts right across it. And the end result, well, it
went through and there was a riot. There really was. There was great
turmoil. And it finishes up where they're
advised by the town clerk who clearly has some wisdom and he's
given some wisdom to say look don't riot settle these things
in a court of law in a lawful assembly because it had got completely
out of hand now what I want to bring to your attention is the
contrast between the darkness that is displayed here the darkness
of idolatry the darkness of false religion the darkness of those
things which are against the truth of God and the light which
is the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
it is so Stark is the difference. Absolutely, incredibly different. The darkest, darkest blackness
of night and the blinding daylight of the morning sun is the contrast
between these two things. And you know, people all around
us constantly try to work compromise. They do. They constantly try
to work compromise in our society. Let's get on. Let's try and find
a way of getting on. Let's not upset one another.
You can be anything you want in this society so long as you
are completely tolerant of every idea and you say it's a credible
idea and it's worthy of respect and we've got things to learn
from it. But the one thing that you can't be is exclusive and
say as the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth
and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me. What?
You mean not even a little bit of coming via the Prophet Muhammad?
No, not even the tiniest little grain. Not even the tiniest,
because it's only in the Lord Jesus Christ that there is salvation.
If you would know God and you would know justice with Him and
you would know acceptance by Him, it is only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not Jesus Christ plus a bit of
your works. Not Jesus Christ plus a bit of
this religion and a bit of that wisdom and a bit of the... I
mean, I really like the wisdom of Shakespeare, it's great, but
the wisdom of Shakespeare will never save you. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ that will save you. I like all sorts of things in
culture. I really do. I love literature and music,
but none of them will ever save you. It's the gospel of grace
that will save you. Keep all of these things in perspective.
We can never compromise the gospel with anything else. You see,
compromise is absolutely at the root of a functioning society.
In business, in projects, you constantly have to compromise,
because there are different opinions. So it's all the time about finding
an even way where, well you think this and so you find a middle
ground where you can all agree on. And that's fine. Politics.
How on earth would society work if politics didn't compromise?
International politics. Compromise is the key to peaceful
international relations. That's absolutely right. But
when it comes to the gospel, not one bit. Not one grain. Not one tiny thing. You cannot. You know what it says? A little
leaven. leavens the whole lump. You've got this lump of dough,
flour and water dough. How much leaven does it take?
A tiniest little pinch, but once it's in there, it's infected,
and it spreads, and eventually the whole thing is leavened with
it. And so it is with the gospel.
The glass of water, and you know, I've got some water, and I'm
quite happy to drink it, because I know where it's come from.
And somebody puts the teeniest drop of poison in it, the teeniest
drop, of cyanide in it. Am I going to drink it? Because
it's only a tiny little bit of a mixing of poison, isn't it?
No way. I'm not drinking that. Because
it's compromised with poison. And anything which poisons the
gospel, we must avoid. You see, people are all the time
trying to find compromise between the gospel and false religion. Let's find an easy way. Let's
not be too exclusive. Don't go too far with this thing.
You're shutting out too many people. You know, they've got
a good tradition and they really are Christians Sorry, if they
really are Christians, they'd be wanting to hear about the
Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that's in Him and in Him alone. That's a true Christian. A true
Christian has a thirst to hear the truth of the gospel of grace.
And the one that's getting me, and I'm sure everybody else at
the moment, in this 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin,
and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his Origin
of Species, and the media's absolutely full of the religion of Darwinism,
absolutely full of it. the religion of it. Even the
Church of England last year. The Church of England apologised
to Charles Darwin last year for making him out to be against
the truth of Christian religion. Now I'm not sure what Charles
Darwin thought of that because I don't know if anybody's noticed
but Charles Darwin's been dead quite a long time. So he probably
was completely unmoved by the fact. You could go to his grave
and see if you can detect any you know, appreciation for that
apology. But how stupid, isn't it? How fickle, how silly, that
they're so much trying to find a compromise. You see, you children
are going through schools where you're going to be taught, as
the whole of our society teaches, where did you come from? Well,
you gradually came from a pool of slime and gradually evolved
and everything happened and all the wonderful things that are
you came by this wonderful process of evolution. And you watch even
interesting programs on the television. even interesting programs with
fascinating photography about real things in the world. And
everything is, oh, isn't evolution wonderful? It's a bowing down
at the shrine of evolution and worshipping it and saying, oh,
praise be. Somebody once, a few years ago,
wrote a hymn that was to some well-known hymn tune of praise,
but it was praise to evolution because it is a religion and
any objective assessment of it shows that that is the case.
It's completely incompatible with the gospel of grace. It's
completely incompatible with the God of truth. We don't make
compromises with this worldly philosophy of Darwinism and evolution
and false religion. Absolutely not. We cannot. Because
the moment we do, we destroy the true gospel of grace. How
on earth, how on earth can the gospel be true? The gospel which
talks of the fall of man in the garden. The gospel which talks
about the promise of a saviour to come. if all of that was just
fairy stories, if all of that was just utter fiction, if in
actual fact God didn't make man in his own image, if in actual
fact man is the product of utter and complete mindless random
chance changes, you know, that gradually some form evolved into
such and such another thing and then into apes and then gradually
we lost our hair, I mean the most bonkers ideas I've heard
recently about why we are not very hairy. In actual fact you'll
find that some people are more hairy than others but the truth
of the matter is the idiotic lengths that people are going
to in their ignorance to find a compromise between the true
religion of Christ and all of this false philosophy. No. Utterly
incompatible. As incompatible as the Gospel
of Paul was with the worship of Diana in Ephesus. that's the
truth what we're trying to see what we see people trying to
do today in creating a compromise between Darwinism and false religion
and the true gospel it's just as incompatible as that which
was between what Paul preached and the worship of Diana in Ephesus
and I want us to look at the darkness of idolatry and the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God You see, here was
Ephesus, this great place, and it was filled with idolatry.
It was filled with superstition. But clearly it was a place of
great wealth. It was a great trading port.
You can go there today. You went there a couple of years
ago, didn't you? Have you been there before? Yes, you went there
last year. That's right. You can actually go and visit
some of these places, and it was clearly a place of great,
great wealth and commerce and trade and society and sophistication
and it was a law-abiding society because they had a riot but he
said this isn't the way we do things here. These things should
be determined in a lawful assembly. It was clearly a civilized place
and had a great reputation. Do you know that the Temple of
Diana in Ephesus, the Temple of Diana was one of the seven
ancient wonders of the world? You know with the hanging gardens
of Babylon and the great Pyramid of Giza, that's the only one
that still stands is the Great Pyramid. All the others have
subsequently been destroyed or decayed away. But this temple
of Diana was an amazing thing. I mean it was built with great
ingenuity. Do you know they built it on
marshy ground with all sorts of foundations that it would
stand on marshy ground. And why they put it there? Because
it's prone to earthquakes in the area and it never suffered
an earthquake. Somebody burned it to the ground and they rebuilt
it but it never suffered an earthquake. great skill, great ingenuity,
great intelligence, but completely false religion. In terms of,
how is a person right with God? How does a person get right with
God? Completely false. Completely false. No answer there.
None whatsoever. And there were people who made
their living out of it, as there are today. You go around the
world and you go to places like Lourdes, you know, all of the
Catholic shrines around the world where apparently the Virgin Mary's
appeared to some shepherd or some little girl or something
like that and then all of a sudden there's a great big industry
builds up around it and the tourism and oh everybody's there like
the money changers in the temple where Jesus went into the temple
and turned over the tables and drove them out because they just
make their trade out of it and here in Ephesus was this man
we see in verse 24, Demetrius he was a silversmith and he made
little shrines, little silver shrines to Diana so you could
take one home yourself and bow down and worship at the Temple
of Diana. And other cultures do it even
to these days. Cultures that are represented
in this country, they'll have shrines in their houses with
little models of their gods that they bow down and worship. And,
you know, it's nothing new, it was there in Ephesus nearly 2,000
years ago. And this Demetrius got the craftsmen
that were with him together into a sort of a union and they were
getting worried about the success of Paul's preaching. because
it had got around that he'd been preaching and what do we keep
reading in the Acts of the Apostles and many believed and many believed
and there were many that had believed in Asia all around these
areas many had been believed and we know there was a church
in Ephesus because Paul wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus
in fact the risen Lord Jesus Christ wrote a letter to the
church in Ephesus it's in the Revelation chapter 2 to the church
that is at Ephesus write this There was a church there. People
had been called out of darkness into light. And they were worried
about this because they said this. Look in verse 26. Moreover
ye see and hear, this is Demetrius, that not alone at Ephesus, but
almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned
away much people. Turned away from what? From our
trade. From the worship of Diana. From
spending all their money on little trinkets and little shrines and
all sorts of things. saying that they be no gods which
are made with hands. This is what Paul had been saying.
These things that we're making, they're not gods, they can't
do you any good, you're wasting your money buying them. That
was effectively what he'd been saying. So that not only this
our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that
the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and
her magnificence should be destroyed. whom all Asia and the world worships
and when they heard the crowd that is and the fellow silversmiths
when they heard these things they were full of wrath and cried
out saying greatest Diana of the Ephesians and the whole city
was filled with confusion they feared the loss of their income
and a riot was stirred up and it's the same today you see what
Demetrius was saying is if what Paul is saying is true our living's
in danger. Diana is false. If what he's
saying is true, Diana is... he didn't try and find a compromise
because it was obvious you couldn't compromise what Paul was preaching
with what they were making their living from, the worship of Diana,
because they're completely incompatible. Just as incompatible as I say
the gospel of sovereign grace in Christ is from the worldly,
materialistic, Darwinistic philosophy of our society today. Because
that's what it is. This country especially, different
in many ways to the United States of America, in that the vast
majority do not believe in a true God. They have completely bowed
at the temple of this godless philosophy of life. And it's
completely incompatible. Completely incompatible. You
see, they were frightened about their vested interests and their
loss of the trade that they were doing
and the living that they were making out of these things. It
was a threat to their livelihood. Now where does all this darkness
come from? Because you see how it was very, very quickly whipped
up into a riot. And you know, look what it says
in verse 32. Don't we see it in our society
today? Do you remember when there have been riots in London? You
know, in Paris, you get the crowds get going and you start to suspect,
don't you? I wonder how many of the people
there really know what they're rioting for. They're just going
along with the crowd. Look in verse 32, second half
of it. And the mall part knew not wherefore
they were come together, but there was just a good riot going
on, so they joined in. And so it is. Where does this
darkness come from? Where does this ignorant sheep
following mentality come from? It's all in the fall. It's in
the fall. It's in Adam and Eve in the Garden
of Eden. It's in the question that Satan
posed to Eve. Has God really said? It's in
unbelief. Look at some scriptures. We're
going to turn to some other scriptures now. Romans chapter 1 Romans
chapter 1 and verse 22 Paul is writing to the Romans
and he's talking about this sort of thing, what is it that's caused
this darkness? What is it that's caused this
false religion, this false thinking, this godless thinking? And he
says, professing themselves to be wise, oh don't they, oh don't
they, the ones that stand up in our society, you know, the
Richard Dawkins and company, professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image. Who made us? an image made to
corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and
to creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Is that not what
happens? Worshipping the creature more
than the Creator? for this cause God gave them
up to vile affections and even their women did change the natural
use to that which is against nature and likewise also the
men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust
toward one another men with men working that which is unseemly
and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which
was meat I don't think I need to elaborate on that it's so
obvious what that's talking about and it's such an indictment of
our godless society in which we live it's absolutely clear
And you know people scream and shout when they read this and
they want to get their scissors and cut it out of the scripture.
But this is what God says about the practices that are in our
godless society and the things that are positively encouraged.
Positively encouraged. Absolutely encouraged. I'm not
going to say any more about it. And look, this is the key to
it. Verse 28. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. They did
not like to retain God in their knowledge. I've told you this
before, it's worth telling you again. A very dear colleague
of mine, biology teacher, when I was debating with her about
whether we should teach the children about evolution or whether we
should just teach them, look it isn't fact, it's a theory,
you can do this to pass the exam if you want, but do not believe
it is a theory. And she said to me, we had lots
of debates, and she wrote in a note to me, because we were
busy and we used to exchange notes through the pigeon holes
in the staff room, and she wrote to me, I hope evolution is true,
because if it isn't, it means that I am accountable to a God
who made me, and the thought of that is appalling. Literally,
I wish I'd kept that piece of paper, I could have framed it.
Honestly, that's what she said. I hope it's true, because if
it isn't, I am accountable to a God who made me. And the thought
of that is appalling. They did not like to retain God
in their knowledge. However nice, however respectable,
however upright in society, they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge. And so, it's the carnal mind,
the carnal mind which is enmity with God, as Romans 8 says. The
carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the godless mind is at the root
of this philosophy. And Jeremiah says this, chapter
16 verse 12, you have done worse than your fathers for behold
you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart that they may
not hearken unto me. Isn't that true? Isn't that what
this society does? They've done worse than their
fathers because everyone walks after the imagination of his
evil heart. It's like the nations in Psalm
2. Why do the nations rage? Why do the nations rage? Let's
cast off the yoke of God from us. Let's do away with all of
these things. As Jesus said in the parable,
the parable that was obviously referring to himself, we will
not have this man to rule over us. Because the God of this world,
who is the God of this world? God with a little g, it's Satan.
The God of this world, 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4, has blinded
the minds of those who believe not. He's blinded their minds.
And the people, as Isaiah said, however long ago, nearly 3,000
years ago, the people that walked in darkness. The people all around
us are a people who in terms of spiritual knowledge and the
knowledge of the truth of the God who made them and to whom
they are accountable, are walking in darkness. they're lost in
superstition look at Isaiah chapter 45 Isaiah chapter 45 the passage
which is the most gracious of commands to believe in God to
believe and be saved Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 20 assemble yourselves
and come and draw near together ye that are escaped to the nations
They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
and pray to a God that cannot save. Cannot save. And there
he goes on and talks about him being a just God and a savior
and look unto me and be safe for I am God and there is no
other. But they pray. They set up a
wood of their graven image. They set up an idol of the imagination
of their own hearts and pray to a God that cannot save. Cannot save. These false gods,
these false philosophies, where do they leave you? Where do they
leave a person? You know, those who follow the
modern philosophy of godless evolutionary theory, where does
it leave them? Without hope. It leaves them in a mortal body,
because all around them they see their fellow men and women
going to the grave every day. The news this morning of that
one that's been in the media so much recently, such a high
profile case, and she died in the night, last night. She's
passed into eternity, and so they do. We know about her because
of the thousands and thousands of others in her position. She's
the one that's been in the media, passing into eternity. Mortality
remains. And yet in every one of us, as
I forget where it is, is it Proverbs or Ecclesiastes, God has put
a sense of eternity. He's put eternity in the heart
of every single one of us. We know that there's something
about us. You know, a loved one close to you, passes into eternity
and yes their body is dead and their body is either cremated
or buried but you have this incredible sense that that person hasn't
stopped existing the one that is them has carried on this sense
of immortality and yet these godless religions and these philosophies
they cannot save because we know that there's a great and almighty
God to whom we must give an account but how shall a man be just with
God? how shall we be right with God? The false philosophy gives
us no answer. It gives us no assurance. It
doesn't matter whether we're baptized or what we do. It gives
us no promise. It gives us no hope. There's
only one thing that gives hope to a sinner facing eternity. And that is that the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sins. It is that the
righteousness of Christ is my clothing from head to foot. That
he covers me with his righteousness. It is that he has blotted out
my sins as far as the east is from the west. It is that as
Colossians 1 says, He has qualified us to be partakers of His eternal
glory. Qualified us. This is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is the Gospel that saves.
And all of these false ones, they don't save. Because what
do they say? What do the false religions say?
Oh, keep doing this and you'll get better and better. Keep trying
hard. Keep being good to your neighbor.
Keep doing all of these things, your own works. And what does
the Scripture say? In Deuteronomy, and it's quoted
in Galatians 3, Cursed. Cursed. That means damned. That
means without hope before the judgment of God. Cursed is everyone
who does not continue in all things that are written in the
book of the law to do them. Cursed is everyone. That's what
the scripture says. It does, you know. There are
these preachers who'll stand up and say, God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life. Do you know what the scripture
really says? God is angry with the wicked
every day. we must all die and give an account to God that's
what the scriptures say it is a dreadful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God but if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ
you don't fall into the hands of the living God as an object
of wrath and of judgment because he's taken your sins away he's
cleansed you from your sins this is why he's the hope of the believer
this is why he's the precious rejoicing of the believer this
is why These things are false, they cannot save, there's no
hope in them. Now in the midst of all of this,
back in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 19, in the midst of all
of this, Paul had preached, Paul had preached to people who were
blind idolaters. Do you know, I mean, people would
say, look at the patriarchs, I mean, who are the great pillars
of the truth and of tradition? Abraham, Abraham. Do you know
the scripture tells us in the New Testament what Abraham and
his family were? before God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
Do you know what they were? Idolaters. Idolaters. That's what they were.
They were idolaters. Idol worshippers. Worshippers
of false gods. And these people were the same.
But Paul had come with the Gospel. But Paul hadn't come on his own.
He'd come with the power of the Holy Spirit. Not with persuasive
words of human speech. Not with persuasive words of
human eloquence. But with the power and unction
of the Holy Spirit he'd come. And he'd preach the Gospel of
grace. And as with the Thessalonians, the door of their hearts had
been opened. What an entering we had unto you. How you turned
to God from idols to worship the living and the true God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He brought them out of darkness.
The Holy Spirit brought the people to whom Paul preached out of
darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. He brought them out
of darkness and the shadow of death we read in Psalm 107. He
shined that light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ into their hearts where they had been dead in trespasses
and sins now the light of the gospel had shined in and it's
the riches of Christ that are revealed this is the light that
is such a contrast to this darkness the light which Paul preached
was the light that is in the riches of the Lord Jesus Christ
look again let's turn to Romans 3 you know these scriptures well
but They illustrate better than anything else I can say. Look
at verse 19. There's a litany from verse 10
of how dreadful is the state of man in his natural condition,
as a sinner before God. It's written there, verses 10
to 18, and we know the conclusion of it is verse 19. We know that
what things soever the law says, it says to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped. You know, we're all
guilty in the dock of the court of the justice of God. And the
charges are read out. And is there a... But I object... No, no, no. Every
mouth stopped. Not a word to say because we're
absolutely plum guilty. In the day of judgment, every
one of us will know that we're absolutely plum guilty as we
are before the law of God. Every mouth stopped. That all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, the things we are, and the things we do, and the
traditions we follow, and the religion we're in, and the philosophy
we're in, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, because
these are idolatrous gods who cannot save. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin." And here are two of the most glorious,
precious words in scripture. But now, but now, in the face
of that, in contrast to that, But now the righteousness of
God without the law, without the things that we do to earn
it is manifest, is made known. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, it's in the scriptures. Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. There's a righteousness which
comes on the basis of the faithful acts of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a righteousness which is credited to a people on the
basis of the righteous acts that Christ has performed. of the
things that He has done unto all and upon all them that believe. This is what marks out. Those
who are the objects of that grace are those who believe and there's
no difference. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. The glorious blessings of being
in Christ. You see, can you see how a light
goes on? You who have believed, you know
the truth of these things. I was once in darkness, now my
eyes can see." We used to sing a chorus, didn't we? I was once
in darkness, now my eyes can see. I can't remember the words
of it, but you know, it's a light going on. It's a light of truth. I know, Marguerite, you tell
me so often, you wandered around in darkness and you came and
you heard a preacher preach this gospel and that light went on
just like a switch going on when he shined that light into your
heart. Ephesians 1, the first few verses
of Ephesians 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus, grace be to you, and peace from God." We
read those words. Sinner. Sinner. Sinner. Facing
a holy God. Peace from God, our Father, and
from the Lord Jesus. Peace from God. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us poured
out his goodness upon his people with every spiritual blessing
in heavenly places in Christ according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love having predestined
us to the adoption of children by Jesus and so it goes it just
overflows overflows light light in contrast to darkness 2nd Timothy
chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 I've got it written down here so don't
no need to turn to it God has saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, who we are, what we
do, our traditions, but according to His own purpose and grace.
For what did He say to Moses? Exodus 33, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. It's according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. When? Before
the world began. before the beginning of time,
outside of time, but is now made manifest, is now made obvious,
is shown by the appearing of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. For
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem
those who are under the law, that He might buy us back from
that condemnation. In our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death, people who through all their
lifetime go in fear of death this is what Hebrews chapter
2 says and yet in Christ death is abolished and life and immortality
is brought to light in the gospel not the darkness of superstitious
idolatry but the light of the gospel brings immortality and
saved in that situation we know that we're as brands plucked
from the fire the burning stick, the flames just catching it,
and it's pulled from the fire, and it's the flames are put out,
it's snatched from that judgment, and it still has the smell of
the fire upon it. You know, sometime later you
can still smell the fire upon it, but it's plucked, it's a
brand pluck from the fire. That's Zechariah chapter 3 and
verse 2. Because Jesus says these gracious
words, then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light
of the world. He that follows me shall not
walk in darkness, not in the darkness of superstition and
of false religion and of false philosophy, but shall have the
light of life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believes on me has everlasting life. Is this not the rock of
eternity? Is this not the sum of all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is it not true that for the believer coming out of the darkness of
idolatry into the light of the gospel that Christ is indeed
made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness? You need to
be righteous to meet God. Christ is made unto us righteousness.
You need to be sanctified. You need to be set apart. You
need to be set apart for the use of God. Is it not true that
in Christ He sanctifies His people? He makes them holy? He hides
them in Him? and righteousness. He is the
Lord, our righteousness. Read Revelation. Read Jeremiah. This is the name that is on Him.
The Lord, our righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness. In Him we have righteousness
and redemption. The price has been paid to blot
out the sins from the books. So my sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed
to His cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise
the Lord, O my soul. Truly, that's the rock of eternity
and the light of life and the contrast, the complete contrast
to the darkness and the blindness of this world. And don't go with
the crowd. The crowds may be going, but
broad is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the
way that leads to life. And few there be that find it,
but there are those who find it. They find it in Christ. Blessed,
says Psalm 89, verses 15 and 16. Blessed is the people that
know the joyful sound. We have heard a joyful sound.
They shall walk, these people, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. Walking in the Spirit, in the
light of the countenance of God. In Thy name shall they rejoice
all the day. Whose name? The name of God.
Yes, but lots of people say they rejoice in the name of God. What's
the name of God that's being spoken of here? It's the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the psalmist meant.
In thy name, in the name of the Messiah, in the name of the Anointed
One shall they rejoice all the day and in thy righteousness
shall they be exalted. I sought the Lord. I know I'm
just reading out scriptures. That's not a bad sermon, is it?
Just to read out some scriptures. Psalm 34 verse 4. I sought the
Lord and He heard me. I sought the Lord and He heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. You know the fears
that worry you. The fears that if you knew you
had a terminal illness, if you knew you had weeks to live, oh,
the fears that would trouble your heart. I have a very good
friend and colleague who is not a believer and his wife died
18 months ago from a form of cancer and it was a very traumatic
experience for him. The whole thing had gone on for
about five years. And he always used to say to me, you're very
welcome to your religion, but as much as I like you, it's not
for me. And so it's fine. We come across people like that
all of the time, and we get very, very sad and anguished about
it. But do you know, in the last day, I was in email contact with
him regularly. And in the last day, I said,
please, please tell us. And I said, I know it's probably
the case that we can do nothing to help you, but my heart goes
out to you. Tell us if there's anything we can do for you. Do
you know what he said? You could pray for us. This is
somebody who absolutely does not believe in the God of Scriptures
and he said in that moment of anguish you could pray for us. You could pray for us and of
course we did. But he delivers us out of all our fears. I will
both lay me down. Do you ever have trouble sleeping?
Yes we do, just due to worldly things. But how about because
of eternity and facing God and knowing peace in your soul And
the Psalmist says this in Psalm 4 verse 8, I will both lay me
down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to
dwell in safety. What a contrast, eh? With the
darkness of idolatry and false religion and the light and the
knowledge and the glory and the blessings and the peace that
come from the truth. What a contrast. What liberty. the truth shall make you free
if the truth shall make you free you shall be free indeed and
we are free we're free from all our fears what comfort what comfort
the gospel comes with the Lord Jesus Christ comes it's as if
he puts his arm around you don't worry I'm not into mixing spiritual
feelings with physical feelings but you can almost feel the arm
of reassurance around your shoulders what comfort to those who believe
and rest Why is it like this? Why is it like this? You might
wonder, why is there such a contrast? Why are there so many in darkness,
and so many without knowledge, and so many lost, and I have
to say, destined for hell and a lost eternity? And why are
there so few walking in the light of the Gospel? This is the answer.
This is the only answer I can find in Scripture. God has decreed
it this way. It's God's sovereign grace. that
he will be merciful to whom he will be merciful and at certain
times there's more than others and we might say but isn't it
unfair our flesh says that but Psalm 145 says this verses 17
to 19 the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all
his works be at peace my soul don't question these things the
Lord is righteous in all his ways I don't understand it now
but the day will come when he will show me the Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him all that call upon him in
truth. Where does that close the door
to anybody? Where does it? It doesn't. It
says the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him. Seek
the Lord while you may find him. Today is the day of salvation.
Call upon him while he is near. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. Serve him with fear. rejoice
with trembling today is still the day of salvation and it's
not too late to seek the Lord while he may be found