Now turn with me back to Genesis
11. Here we see man, and Noah had
said, you know, that the races would be divided and scattered
throughout the earth. And here we have how people began
to be scattered. Over where Iraq's at, and Egypt
and Israel, that was where the That's where humanity started. That's where humanity started.
And here, this particular situation is right where Baghdad, and right
in that area is where this took place at. And from there, the
whole earth was populated and scattered with people. And here we have A man named
Nimrod. Let me show you Nimrod's genealogy. You know, Ham was to be in Genesis
chapter 10. Look with me just a minute in
Genesis chapter 10. Let me show you his genealogy. And you know,
it hadn't been long after the flood that man began to rebel
against God again. But Ham, you remember Ham, there
in verse 6. Ham was the one who was called
to be the servant, the one that was cursed for uncovering his
father's nakedness. Well, he begat Cush. And then
down in verse 7, Cush, he was the son of Ham. And Cush begat,
down in verse 8, Cush begat Nimrod. And he began to be a mighty one
in the earth. And he was a mighty hunter before
the Lord. it is said, even as Nimrod, the
mighty hunter, before the Lord." Now watch this, "...and the beginning
of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Achad, and Chaldea,
and the land of Shinar." Now watch this, "...and out of that
land went forth Asher, and built up Nineveh." So here's these two great cities,
both known in the Scriptures. as being not only famous, but
infamous for their wickedness, their wickedness. And look here
now with me in Genesis 11, and it says, and the whole earth
was of one language and one speech. Everybody talked the same, looked
the same, spoke the same language, had the same culture. And then
it came to pass that they journeyed. And here's Nimrod. He's the one
who started this place. And here's human ambition at
its very best. There in verse 1. And they said they journeyed
from the east, and they found a plain in the land of Shinar.
And that's where Nimrod settled down, and the kingdom began to
come there of the kingdom of Babel. And they said, go to,
let's build us a city, verse 3, a tower whose top may reach
unto heaven. And the beginning of his kingdom,
Nimrod, he's a descendant of Ham, a descendant of Cush. His
great-daddy was Ham, first of God. And here's human ambition. Nimrod, the beginning of his
kingdom was Babylon. And his name means rebel. Nimrod
means rebel. You know, he was a mighty one.
He said he was a mighty one in the earth. And why that means
that he struggled for preeminence. He wanted to be known as mighty.
He wanted to be known as someone who had power. And he struggled
for preeminence. And he was a mighty hunter. And
this was before the Lord, you see. The Lord saw him. The Lord
knows everything about all of us. And he was a mighty hunter. That means he was bloodthirsty.
He was cruel. He pursued his own ambitions,
and he'd done that in open defiance before the Lord. He didn't care
about anybody but himself, his own name, his own power, his
own preeminence. And Babel originally meant the
gate of God. That was the original meaning
of it. And now Babel stands for confusion. And you tell what
it says there in verse 10 of this or excuse me, verse 9 of
chapter 11, therefore is the name of it called babble. Confusion. Confusion. That's why when they
hear somebody babbling, you can't understand what they say. They're
confused. They're confused. And here, because of this man's
ambition, he wanted to have a mighty name. He wanted to have a mighty
position. He wanted to have a mighty kingdom,
and the beginning of his kingdom. That's what it said, his kingdom.
His kingdom. And you see, out of the heart,
this human ambition, out of the heart are the issues of life.
Out of the heart. You know, man by nature is very
ambitious, and there is some ambitions that a person has to
have. He's got to have ambition if
he's going to even work, if he's going to amount to anything.
But it's what that ambition is geared toward. Is it geared to
make yourself somebody, or is it geared to make God glorified?
Is it just to provide a home for your family, or is it to
make a great name for yourself? And so you see Nimrod had human
ambition. He wanted a kingdom, he wanted
a kingdom. And look at the object of his
ambition here in verse 4. And this is the object of all
human ambition, really, if God and grace don't do something.
It said down the end of verse 4, Let us make us a name. Let us make us a name. Oh, my. That's man. Let us make us a name. You know,
name-making is a common and a popular business. You know that? Let
me show you some things. I want you to look with me, first
of all, in the third John, that third little epistle of John.
And I was down at Jack Shank's here a few years ago. And I dealt
with this right here, about man loving to have the preeminence.
You know, he has a breakfast, the men get together on Saturday
morning, they have a big breakfast at the church, and then, you
know, we have a few minutes meeting and talk and deal with some scriptures. And that morning I dealt with
this preeminence, men loving to have the preeminence. And
how this preeminence is evidenced, especially in preachers and religious
people. And a man came up to me afterwards
and he says, and evidently it really got to him, you know,
I've always heard when you throw a rock in a pack of dogs, one
hit, that's one hollers. Well, he hollered and he started
defending these other people. And to be honest with you, that's
exactly what I wanted to happen. I wanted people to see, when
you're seeking the preeminence among the Lord's people, It's
not God in you. It's not God in you. Our Lord
Jesus said, He that's exalted should be amazed. He that humbleth
himself should be picked up. And if you ever have a name,
let God give you that name. Huh? Let God give you that name. Every man will proclaim his own
goodness. Every man will do that, but a
faithful man, who can find? A man that will be faithful to
the glory of God, a man that will be faithful to the honor
of God, a man that will be faithful to his own state and condition,
what I really am. Not what you think about me,
but what I really am. A faithful man, who can find?
Look here in 3 John, in verse 9. I wrote unto the church, but
the atrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them, he
won't receive us. That's the first way you can
find somebody that loves to have the preeminence. They start putting
people off. They want the preeminence, so
what they've got to do is they've got to quit. They've got to start
receiving certain people. We can't receive them. If you
receive them, you can't receive me. If you receive them, and
that's what they do, they don't want to receive the brethren.
They don't want to receive anybody that's going to take the light
off of them, take the attention off of them. They love to have
the prisoners. Let me show you a couple more.
Galatians chapter 6. We really need to see these things.
And I'll tell you, I just despise people who are sold. in love with themselves. I really
do despise them. It's just so contrary to the
grace of God. I don't care if it's in politics,
if it's in economics, I don't care if it's in education, I
don't care what it is. I just abhor it. And look what
he says here in verse 3 of Galatians chapter 6. See, the object of
their ambition was to make us a name. For if a man thinks himself
to be something when he's nothing, he ain't fooling nobody but himself.
Old Henbrod was fooling himself. He really deceived himself. I'm
going to build me, I'm going to make me a name. And he's got
a name. He's got a name, but it's an infamous name. It's a
God dishonoring name. It's a Christ rejecting name.
It's a name that I want my position, my power, my free will, and I
don't want to have nothing to do with it. I want my name above
God's name, Christ's name, or anybody else's name. That's what
he's saying. And let me show you one more
in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Let me show you one more. Oh my, name making, that's a
common and a popular business. But oh my, you know what happens
to people who do this? Look here, 1 Corinthians 8, verse
2. If any man thinks he knows anything, he don't know nothing. He don't
know nothing, as he ought to know. He ought to know something,
but he thinks he knows something, and he really don't know nothing.
What he ought to know, he don't know. And what he shouldn't know,
he acts like he knows. Now, that's a sad condition to
be in, ain't it? Now, let's look back over it
like that. You remember Cora. Here's a fellow that tried to
make a name for himself. Cora Dathan Abram. They decided,
we're going to make a name. They got a bunch of people to
get it. And you know they had to get together and talk it over
before they decided they was going to do that. They got together
and they started saying, you know Moses and Aaron, Moses set
himself above everybody. And they walked up, they got
a whole bunch together, they went up to Moses one day and
said, Moses, he said, it's not right for you to set yourself
above everybody else. You can read about it in Numbers
16, it's not right. Said, you make yourself out to
be holy, you make yourself out to have the name, you make yourself
out to be everything. And he said, it's not right.
Said, you know, we ought to have as much power and as much authority
and ought to be above everybody just like you are. And man, God's
the one that exalted him. God's the one that put Moses
in that position. These fellas decided that they're going to
take the position. And Moses, instead of getting angry, he
fell down before God. He fell down and heard his heart.
He dreamed his spirit. And he fell down before the Lord
and said, Oh God, have mercy on us. Save us. Do for us. And he fell down and worshiped
God. And God, he got up and he says, You know what? God's going
to let everybody know them that are His. He's going to let everybody
know them that are His. And so I'll tell you what to
do. We'll be here tomorrow. And everybody will be here. And
we're going to find out who is the Lord, and who ain't. Who
God put in position, who God exalted, whom God raised up,
whom God's given to make, and we're going to find out who.
And about that time they got together the next morning, the
earth opened up, and 250-something went to hell without God giving
them a chance to pack their suitcase. I can just imagine, of course,
and what did I do? Oh, I might have just kept my
mouth shut. Oh, I might have humbled myself
before the Lord. But you can't do something contrary
to your nature. You can't humble yourself. God's
got to humble you. And once He ever does that, you're
scared to death to get back up. You're like old Scott said, you
put your headquarters in the dust, and that's where you want
to stay. And every time you start getting up, you say, God, keep
me down. That's what you do. Now, look what else they did
now. Look how they try to get this name. Look what they do.
It says in verse 4, they said, Go to, let us build us a city.
and a tower. Where to? To heaven itself. Oh my. This is always man's way
of trying to get to heaven. To build. To work. That's what
he's got to do if he's going to get to heaven. He's got to
build his own tower. He's got to build his own city.
He's got to build a town. We've got our city. Now let's
work our way to heaven. I've got a name. I'm powerful.
I'm mighty. We're going to work our way to
heaven. Build and work. A city where I'll be safe. A
tower of security and hope. But oh, beloved, look in Isaiah
28. I thought of this this morning.
You know, that's why Paul said, Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to Israel for God, for Israel is that they might be
saved. That they might be saved. For
I bear record. that they have a zeal for God.
Boy, you're looking in Isaiah 28. I'll bear record, they have
a zeal for God. I'll hold up to that. Oh, they're
zealous for God. I was zealous for the Lord. He
said, oh, they love to pray. They love to practice. They love
to attend to worship. They love to attend to services.
They love to read their Bibles. They love to talk about God.
They love to give their offerings. They love to do all those things.
But they're going about to establish their own righteousness, to build
their own righteousness, to build a house that they feel they can
be safe in, a righteousness they feel like they can be hid in,
that God, when He looks at them, will say, We've got it. Book
here in Isaiah 28, verse 20. This is what this produces here. For the bed is shorter than a
man can stretch himself on it. And the narrow, and the covering
narrow, then he can wrap himself in it. That's what happens when
you try to make your own rights work out your own. You ever try
to sleep in a bed too short? And you turn over and try to
cover up, and you cover, you know. That's what men are trying
to do. And that's what he said here. Oh my, they're wanting
to... The tower is a place to get us
up, to reach to heaven, a place of stronghold and security and
hope. And look at the means that they
used in verse 3. And they said one to another,
Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. A man trying to save himself
has got an awful lot of work to do. And when he starts building his
building, he's got bricks, but he's got slime to build it with.
Slime is not a problem. But to all mine, they not only
have to build a building, build this tower, but they got to build
every brick that goes into it, make every single brick. Every
single one. And when it's done, after they've
made a brick, you know what all it is? It's just a brick. Just
a brick. Let me show you a brickmaker.
You all want to see a brickmaker? I'm going to show you a brickmaker.
Look in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. I'll show you
a brickmaker. I could show you several, but
here's one that we better do. You know, they'll just make bricks
and burn them through. And all night, you start talking
to people about their bricks, and they'll get very defensive
about their bricks. You start talking to them about
their bricks of works, and how hard they work making their brick,
and say, well, that's just a brick. And here's a fellow who does
it. If we'd have done this. Look
what he says in verse 9. Our Savior's speaking. And he
spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that
they were righteous and despised others, trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Republican. Here's
a brickmaker. And he prayed thus with himself.
That's the first thing a brickmaker does. He prays with himself.
Prays to hear himself. Likes the sound of his own voice.
But he's going to the temple. And he says God. He likes to
use the word God. He can use it very easily. Then he's a thankful person.
What's he thankful for? For grace? For mercy? For salvation? For Christ? For his cross? For
his blood? For his righteousness? For what
Christ did? For what Christ accomplished?
No. He's thankful, though, but he's
thankful that I am. I am not like the other men.
I'm not like the other men are. Here's one of these. He says,
no, he's a brickmaker. And he said, first of all, here's
one of these bricks. I'm not. All the brickmaker,
everything about his religion, I don't, I don't, I don't, I
don't, I don't. And the other side of him is,
I do, I do, I do. Christ is not in his conversation.
What Christ did, though, is not in his conversation. And I'm
not an extortionist. I don't take no more than what's
due me from anybody. I'm not unjust. Not me. I may be a lot of things, but
I'm not unjust. And I'm not an adulterer. And
I'm not even like that publican over there. I'm certainly not
like him. Oh, that's a brick-maker. And
that's the first thing you can find out. I get asked questions
all the time. And by God's grace, I always
try to direct the conversation to Christ, what Christ did. Tell
them that the Scripture is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He accomplished. And most people think that's
boring. They'd rather know about prophecy than to know about Christ,
who is our prophet. They'd rather hear about a King
who's gonna come than Christ who is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords right this moment. They'd rather talk about their
sacrifices that they do for Jesus than to talk about Christ and
His sacrifice for us. They'd rather talk about the
righteousnesses that they've established and the good deeds
they've done instead of the righteousness He established and the good work
He did. There's a man who's saved by
His works. And the only man who was saved
by his works was our blessed Redeemer. He went to glory by
his works, by his obedience. And I'll tell you something,
the only people that's going to glory will be those who are
trusting in Him, because if you trust Him, you'll get His work
to go with Him. We don't talk about His work
apart from talking about who did the work. That's why these
fellows, they're going to get to glory, because it's their
work. They built the tower. They made the bricks. They got
the slime. And they were looking for a name. Oh, my. And, oh, look, why does
God do this? How does God do this? Well, look
in verse 5. And God speaks in language to
help us. He did it in Genesis 18. There
it says, The Lord came down. The Lord came down. Well, if
God does, if God ever sees anything on earth, He's got to come down.
He's got to humble Himself. Ain't that what the Scripture
says? Oh, great is the Lord our God. He humbleth himself to behold
the things in heaven and the things in earth. Why? Because
everything's below him. So if he comes down, he looks
down, it's a humbling of himself that he says that. And the Lord
came down to see the city and the tower with the children of
men built. Oh my, what will all the building
do for us if it doesn't please, if it doesn't satisfy God? If
it don't please God? And He's going to come look at
it. He's going to look at it. He said, Every man's foundation
shall be tried. Ain't that what He said? And oh, if it doesn't please
God, if it doesn't satisfy God, what's the use of it? What's the purpose of it? Huh? It's only wood and stubble, and
it'll perish with the fire. The Lord came down to see. You
see, He sees our building. He sees every brick, every drop
of sweat, every act, every load is under the inspection of God
Almighty. Every single one of them. Everything
that we're going through right this moment in time, our Lord
God looks down and sees every single one of them. And I'll
tell you something, He's never found anything or anyone to please
Him but one person. That's right. That's right. Our
Lord Jesus said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, yet I delight to
do Thy will. Oh, God. Sacrificing burnt offerings,
I have had no pleasure. That was not satisfying. But
He says, I do always those things that please Him. God said, this
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And God was satisfied
with what His blessed Son does, and it's only with Him that God
is satisfied. God is only... Oh, and you know
what's so sad about it? What's so sad about it is that
man who's building all these bricks and building this tower,
he's never ever satisfied with it. He's always got to look back
and see whether it's good enough. And you know why he's got to
look? Because it's never good enough. You'll never ever ever
have a salvation that'll satisfy your own conscience until you
understand that what satisfies God is the only thing that can
satisfy you. And if it satisfies God, if it
pleases God, God can look at it and say, that's perfect. That's
perfect. That's equal to my righteousness.
My eye can inspect that, inside and outside, and I find no fault
in it. If you can have that, then your
conscience will never bother you again in the sight of God. And where do you find that out?
God said, this is my beloved son. He has brought in righteousness. He established protection. And
why in the world would you want to try to bring anything besides
Him? God saw the travail of His soul
and was satisfied. He's a sweet-smelling savior
unto God. With His spotless God, it's all,
I'm as holy as God's own Son. You see, this business of salvation,
it isn't by doing, it's by believing. It isn't working, it's resting. Ain't that right? And that's
what people just don't get. They don't understand. Rest.
Rest. A woman came up to me last week.
She said, I was born and raised in Southern Baptist, and it was
work, work, work, work, work, work, work. She said, they worked
me to death. I was a member of a church that had a thousand
members in it. They just kept something going
all the time. She said, I'll never forget when
God crossed my path with the gospel. She said, I, for once
in my life, I went to rest. That's what she told me. This is an older woman. She said,
I finally found out what it is to rest. I don't want to do more
rest than Him. Oh, repose my soul in Him. When it comes time to leave this
world, beloved, if you're snuggled up to Christ, He'll, his bosom
will be the head of, your head will rest on his bosom when you
get ready to leave this world, and you'll go out of this world
with some comfort, with some assurance, and some peace, because
you don't have to look back to see if I have done this, or did
I leave that undone. I mean, if you leave anything
undone, then Christ left it undone. If you try to do anything, then
Christ didn't do it all. So if we trust Him, trust Him,
Dear beloved, when we get ready to leave this world, our head
will rest on His bosom, and we don't have to look back about
anything, good or bad, because God doesn't look at good or bad
now. He looks only at His Son and those that are in His Son. And oh, look at this sudden confusion
now. Look down at verse 7. God said,
Let's go down. Let's go down. And they confound
their language. And look down at verse 9, therefore
the name is called Babel, because the Lord there did confound the
language of all there, scattered them abroad. And oh my, and it
says, and they left off to build. And they left off, the Lord scattered
them in verse 8, scattered them abroad from thence upon the face
of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. You know
what happens? Wherever God comes, He always,
always, God's presence always confounds the self-righteous
and the self-wicked. Always confounds them. They just
can't take it. They'll leave off their vain,
presumptuous works, or else turn against God. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Let me show
you something in 1 Peter 2. You know, our Lord Jesus, this
is what He said about them. He said, do that that's well-pleasing
in the sight of men, that God knows your heart. God knows your
heart. And that that's well-pleasing
in the sight of men is an abomination, abomination in the sight of God. Look there in verse six. Verse
Peter, Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. Now watch it.
And he that believeth on him shall not be what? Confounded. This is a bunch of weird confounders. Oh, if what you're saying is
true, preacher, what about me? What about my wife? What about
my mother? Huh? What about the folks that went
on? Well, what about them? What about them? The question
is, what about me right now? What about my relationship with
God right now, my relationship with Christ right now? At this minute, I was talking
to Greg Amquist yesterday evening, and he said, Today is their tenth
anniversary that they started meeting together as a congregation. Tenth anniversary. And he says,
there's a woman there, and he told me her name, her husband.
He said, they came to the very first service and been there
for these ten years. These whole ten years. They had
a little baby that was just born. Now the baby's ten years old.
He's going to baptize her. She came to him last week and
says, you know, I've sat here and listened to you, and God's
opened my heart, and I want you to baptize me. Her mother and daddy despised Haiti. Haiti's message. They want nothing to do with
you. And the daughter says, it's either Christ or them. I want
Christ. I'm going to have Christ. But
what about your relationship with your mother and father?
Those that are of your own house shall be with you. Now, we want
to get along with our families, love our families, worship but
not at the expense of my relationship with Christ. No, no. And that's what, you see, that's
what compounds the self-righteous. That's what compounds them. They
think everybody ought to be the same, but that's not the way
God works. And then, look, you've got a
judgment on them. It says there in verse 9, And
the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
God scattered them. Scattered them. And the very
thing they were laboring to prevent was brought on them. Look back
up there in verse 4. The very thing that they were
laboring to prevent is the very thing. You know, men are laboring
to be accepted of God, to not be cast off, to not be scattered.
And look what happens. And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city and a tower, which may reach unto heaven,
whose top may reach unto heaven. Let us make us a name, watch
this, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
So the very thing they was laboring to accomplish is the judgment
God brought on them. A man's laboring, they say, Lord,
have we not prophesied in your name? preached in your name,
cast out devils in your name, done many wonderful works in
your name, and our Lord will say, I never knew you. Everything
you've done, he said, is a work of iniquity. So I said, oh Lord,
I'm building you a house. I'm building a house that looks
like everybody else's where I live. We all live in the same neighborhood.
We all have the same houses. We all have the same streets.
We all have the same names. And all of our houses look just
exactly the same. What do you mean God's using
this storm to turn our houses down? A lot of houses won't be
torn down until the storm of God's judgment comes on them.
And it'll be too late then. We see them floods, and we see
people's houses go floating down the river, and we see the cars
go down through there. And we see whole neighborhoods
just worse plumbed away. You think that's something, and
we fit it in. Imagine what it would be like
when the flood of God genuinely comes in. Ooh, that is frightening. And then look what happens in
verse 6. God left them to their sins.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one. And they have all one language.
And this they began to do, now watch this, and now nothing will
be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. God gave them up. God said, I'm going to let you
go. You don't want me? You don't want my presence? You
don't want my power? You want to do it your way? You
want your bricks? You want your slime? You want
your mortar? You want your name? Is that what you want? Say, that's
what you want. Say, that's what I'm going to
give you. I'm going to give you up. I'll give you up. You want to be a preacher? You
want to lie on me? Go ahead. You want your house built on
the sand? Go ahead and build it. You want your profession
that you got when you was a kid and you don't want to let it
go? Go ahead. You want to look back to your
works and your deeds that you've done and to find acceptance with
God? Go ahead. Just go ahead. Whatever you can
imagine to do to be accepted of me, just go ahead. Just go
ahead. You want to justify yourselves
in your deeds that you do, knowing that the Scriptures can do it?
Go ahead. Just go ahead. You know, I can
do a lot of things. I can do a lot of things and
justify myself. But you know what? And God'll
say, go ahead. Go ahead. That's why we say,
it's the end. What's the end gonna be? If we
don't start right, and if we're not right right now, we won't
be right when we get to the end. If we don't know Christ now,
and come to know Christ now, what's going to be? Oh my. Men labor, men work to save themselves. Now turn with me over here in
Hebrews chapter 4. Men work, men labor, and then
I'm through. Hebrews chapter 4. labor, and
they work to save themselves from being cast out by God. Oh,
my. If anybody's going to be saved,
I know she will. If anybody's going to be accepted,
you've got to know they will. If anybody's in heaven, my mama
is. I'll tell you, she's the finest
woman I ever knew. Oh, I'll tell you what, that—if
anybody's going to heaven, I know she is, I know he is. They labor and they work to save
themselves from being cast out by God. The Jews, that's what
our Lord said, said, you'll be cast out and the publicans and
harlots will be brought in before you. They labor and work to save themselves
from being cast out by God in the very thing they do. The very thing they do is why
they'll be cast out into outer darkness. Because they work and
they labor to save themselves instead of resting in Christ.
Look here in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 10. For he that is entered into his
rest, whose rest? Christ's rest. He also hath ceased
from his own works, as God did his. God got the end of the six
days, and he rested. Nothing else to do. And that's
what he's saying here. Rest. God entered into rest. Will you enter into his rest?
There's nothing left to do. What can I do, preacher? Nothing.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The
name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous run
into it in His sight. And let me tell you something
about Abraham while you look in Hebrews 11.10. Now Abraham,
those fellows over there wanted to build him a city, build him
a tower, build him a name. They wanted to get to heaven.
Well, Abraham was looking for a city, too. He wanted a city,
too. He wanted a place to rest, too.
He wanted a place to dwell in, too. By faith, in verse 9, by faith
he soldiered in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling
in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise. For he looked for a city which
hath foundations." Now, who built this city? Whose builder and
maker is God? That's the city I'm looking for.
I don't want a men-blocked city. Do you? That's the city we're
looking for. And I'll tell you something. Everybody over there is trying
to declaim Israel. Say, this is Canaan. This is Canaan. Abraham,
Abraham was looking for another city. He did not look for a city.
He did not look for that land right there. He was looking for
an eternal city, an eternal land, an eternal place. And he never,
ever owned a spot of ground on the face of this earth except
the place to bury himself. And, oh, beloved, listen. I'm
looking, that's what I'm looking for right now. And you know what?
And I found it. There's a foundation laid. Huh? And I still don't know where
that city is. And I don't know where the light
of that city is. You know what the light of that city is? The
Lamb's the light of that city. The walls are made of jasper.
Streets are made of gold. And there's a river that goes
right down through the middle of it. And you know what it says? It says, the stream makes glad
the city of God. Uh-huh. Oh yeah, I know where
that city's at. And it won't be long, I'll be
like Abraham, I'm gonna live in it. Abraham's already there. Amen. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
thank You for allowing us this time to hear, to listen, to learn.
Bless the Word to our hearts, our understandings, our minds.
And Father, enable somebody today, by Your blessed grace, to cease,
to cease from their own works and to enter into the rest, the
rest of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rest that He gives. And in
finding Him, they'll find their rest. May they do it today. Father, bring glory and honor
to Yourself in saving Your people. Bring them to Yourself. Bring
them to that glorious rest. Repose, and our souls find it.
And our blessed Savior, it's in His holy name we pray. Amen.