Don't ever forget what it was
to be without Him, lest you should despise the blessedness of being
in Him. Paul said, Wherefore, remember
that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ. being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. Turn with me this evening to
Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. My subject tonight is Stumbling
Blocks Removed. In our text, verse 31 of Acts
16, the way of salvation and eternal life is plainly revealed. They said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And if your house believes,
your house will be saved too. Yet I realize full well, though
the way of salvation is plainly declared, plainly revealed, there
are many hindrances to faith. There are many stumbling blocks
that keep some people from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and
keep others from openly confessing Him. Now it's my desire this
evening by the power of God the Holy Spirit to remove those hindrances
and to set before you as plainly and clearly as I possibly can
the way to life in Christ. Turn back to the book of Joshua,
if you will. Joshua the 20th chapter. You'll
remember that when the children of Israel were settled in the
land of Canaan, God required Joshua to set aside six cities
of refuge. to which the man might leave
for security, who had unintentionally killed another man. Now these
cities of refuge were located strategically throughout the
land of Canaan, so that any one of these cities could be reached
very easily within a day's journey from any part of the land of
Canaan. If the guilty man could get into the gates of the city,
Before the avenger of blood caught him, then he would be safe and
secure. The law forbade the avenger of
blood then touching him. These cities of refuge were pictures,
pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom we have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. Now we're told
by the ancient Jewish rabbis that once every year at least,
the magistrates of the cities were responsible to survey the
roads of their respective cities to make certain that the way
to the city was clear of all debris and easily passable, so
that those fleeing to the city of refuge would have no obstacles
in their way. The magistrates would send out
work crews. They would remove the stones
and fallen trees and other obstacles, taking the greatest possible
care to make certain that every stumbling block was removed from
the road. so that the fugitive might easily run to the place
of refuge. Any low places in the road would
be filled. Any high places would be leveled
and smoothed out. Any miry places would be bridged.
All along the road there would place markers, markers with large
bold letters that read REFUGE and pointed the way. They had
those markers there so that when the fugitive would come to a
crossroad, he wouldn't even have to stop and pause and decide
which way he ought to go. But he would see the word, that
blessed word, refuge, and he would keep on his breathless
pace with relentless determination until he reached the place of
mercy, the place of safety. And once he entered the gates
of the city of refuge, there he was completely safe. Now,
tonight, I want to take you by the hand And I want to lead you
to the way. I want to direct you in the way
to the city of refuge. And I want, by the grace of God,
to see to it that all debris, that every obstacle, that every
stumbling block is taken out of your way. Now, the first thing
to be seen, I want to remind you once again that the only
place of refuge for our souls is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. If the manslayer in Israel had
fled to any other city than the ones that God had appointed for
refuge, he would have found no mercy. It would do him no good
to flee to Jerusalem. Though that's the place where
the temple was, it would do him no good to flee there. Though
that's the place where the mercy seat was, he must flee to the
specific place that God had appointed. The avenger of blood would find
him if he were in any other place, and he would slay him, and justly
slay him. If he would be saved, the man
must flee to the place that God had ordained. Even so, all who
would be saved by God must flee to the refuge that God has appointed,
which is Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle said, neither is
there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Now,
my friends, The refuge is Christ alone. It's Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ, not the
church. Christ, not baptism. Christ,
not the Lord's Supper. Christ, not our obedience. Christ,
not our devotion. Christ, not even the law of God. But the place of refuge is Christ. Only Christ. Look here in Joshua
chapter 20 now, and verse 7. They appointed Kedesh in Galilee,
in Mount Naphtali, and Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and Kirjeth
Arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah, and on the
other side of Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer
in the wilderness upon the plain of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth
in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out
of the tribe of Manasseh. Now, these cities of refuge were
six. But they all represented together
the one true refuge, our Lord Jesus Christ. I think I've given
you these names before, but let me give you the names and just
briefly elaborate upon them. The name Kadish means holy. That speaks of Christ. Christ
is holy. Both as God and as man, He's
holy. And being the holy God-man, He
is in every way abundantly qualified to be our Mediator, our Redeemer,
and our Savior. Christ is the fountain of holiness
to all of His people. He is made of God unto us righteousness
and holiness, justification and sanctification. The word Shechem,
the name Shechem, this city that was ordained of God, means the
shoulder. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
broad-shouldered Redeemer. I see Him carrying the enormous
load of our sin on His shoulders on the cursed tree. I see Him
carrying the enormous load of our sin so that He carries it
away and it is no more. The government of the world in
general and of his church in particular is upon his shoulders,
the prophet Isaiah said. And in conversion, he finds his
lost sheep. And where does it land? He picks
it up and lays it on his shoulder and carries it all the way home.
So Shechem speaks of him. He's holy. He is a redeemer who
is broad-shouldered. The name Hebron also speaks of
Christ, for it means fellowship. John said, truly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ,
we have access to God, communion and fellowship with God while
we live upon this earth. And we shall, according to His
promise, have uninterrupted communion with God throughout heaven's
eternal glory. The name Bezer means a fortified
place. David said in Psalm 91, verse
2, I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress,
my God in him will I trust. God's my refuge. God's my fortress. He's my fortified place. The
name of the Lord, the wise man said, is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. Christ is the fortress and place
of defense for his people. He is the stronghold in which
the prisoners of hope are held secure. Martin Luther's hymn
states it very well. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing. The name of this city, Ramoth,
means exalted. Of course, you know how that
speaks of our Savior. Christ is our exalted Redeemer,
our exalted King. God has highly exalted him. Christ is the one by whom we
have been exalted from our lowest state to sit among princes and
to inherit the throne of glory. And Christ is the one alone whom
we exalt, honor, and magnify because he alone is worthy of
all praise. And this sixth city, Golan, means
revealed or manifested. Christ is God manifest in the
flesh. He is one who is revealed to
us by the power of the Spirit. He is the one to whom we are
called and by whom we are saved. In Christ, Paul tells us, the
glory of God is revealed. And it is this revelation of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ which is our
salvation. It is this revelation of God's
glory in Christ which causes us to believe and causes us to
come to Him. Now, Christ is the only place
of refuge. And my friends, salvation is
obtained only by fleeing into the arms of Christ, our mighty
refuge. There was no safety, no place
of mercy, no peace, no place of rest for the manslayer until
he ran right through the gates of one of those cities of refuge.
It was of no value to him whatsoever, in and of itself, to know where
every city was. It would do him no good to be
able to give you the size and the dimensions of the city. It
would be of no value to him whatever if he could tell you exactly
all the provisions of the city, all the strengths of the city,
and exactly the number of people the city could house. All of
those things did him no good. It even did him no good whatever
simply to know the way to the city. He must be in the city
or he'll be slain. He's got to be in the city. There
are many who seem to be satisfied with knowing about Christ and
knowing the riches of Christ and knowing about the power of
Christ and the greatness of Christ. My friend, you must be in Christ
or you'll perish. I want you to know the blessed
doctrines of the gospel. I want you to understand the
truths of God's Holy Word. I want you to have knowledge
and understanding in the things of the Spirit of God. But such
knowledge is useless! It's damning knowledge! Unless
you're in Christ. Unless you're in Christ. It'll
be hotter for you in hell to know the truth and not believe
it than for those who never knew it. Salvation for the man's lair
was found in the city. Once he entered the city, he'd
lay his head down and rest. Once he entered the city, he
didn't have to worry about the law of avenging justice. Once
he entered the city, it didn't matter to him how angry the kinsman
was whose brother he had slain. Once he entered the city, nothing
more disturbed him. Until he entered the city, there
was no rest. Once the manslayer was in the
city of refuge, four things happened. Look here in Joshua 20 again.
First of all, in verse 4, when he that doth flee unto one of
those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city,
and shall declare his cause. Do you see it? What are you doing
here? Well, I tell you, I was out chopping
wood the other day with my neighbor, and while I was chopping wood,
the axe head fell off and split his skull wide open. And the
avenger of blood is just a few hundred yards behind me. I need
safety. I need refuge. I've killed a
man and I need safety. I need mercy. The safety and
mercy that only this city can provide. And the elders would
say, well, come on in. This is what we do when we come
to Christ. We come to the Lord God. We come and plead our cause. What reason is there why God
should have mercy upon me? Because I'm a guilty sinner.
And I need mercy. And that's a strong argument
with God. That's a strong argument with God. My iniquity is great. Therefore, pardon me for the
honor of thy name. He will do that. If we confess
our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Secondly,
when this man came to the city of refuge, he came under the
protection of the city. Look at verse five. Or verse
four, rather, I'm sorry. He'll declare his cause in the
ears of the elders of that city, and they shall take him into
the city unto them, and give him a place that he may dwell
among them. And if the avenger of blood pursue
after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his
hands, because he smote his neighbor unwittingly, and hated him not
before time. And we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ confessing our sins, Once we come to Him, we fall under
His protection and His provision. He'll give us a place, a place
by Him, a place of protection and safety, a place of ample
provision. And nobody can pluck us out of
His hands. This man comes into the city
of refuge. He declares his cause and he
finds a place of protection in the city. And thirdly, he receives
a complete acquittal. Look at verse 6. when he shall
dwell in the city, and he shall dwell in the city until he stand
before the congregation for judgment." He's got to stand before the
congregation, and what he's got to do is tell them of his crime,
and while it was a crime, it was not exactly the same thing
as murder. It was manslaughter. It was an
accidental death. It was not something worthy of
punishment, so long as he was in the city of refuge. But he
would come and he would tell them exactly what the circumstances
were, and the jury would then decide, the elders of the city
would then decide, they would say, well, we recognize that
you're not worthy of death. You're not worthy of being put
to death because of this thing that's happened." And they would
have quit it. They would say, you're not guilty. You're not
guilty. Now that's just exactly what happens when we come to
Christ. I come to Christ with all my guilt and though I was
justified by Christ when He died at Calvary, I come to Him with
a heavy load of guilt and I hear God speak from heaven. You're
not guilty. You're absolved from all guilt.
You're freely acquitted, justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And there's something else that
happens. When he enters the city of refuge, he declares his cause
and he comes under the protection of the city and he receives an
absolute acquittal. And then he was cleansed from
all guilt by the death of the high priest. Look in verse six
again. He'll stand before the congregation
for judgment, and until the death of the high priest, that shall
be in those days. Now turn back to Numbers, chapter
35. Numbers 35 and verse 33. Moses is speaking of the same
subject. And he says in verse 33, you shall not pollute the
land wherein ye are. For blood defileth the land. You mean the blood of a man who
was killed unwittingly? Yes. You mean the blood of a
man who was killed, as they say, by accident? Yes, that defiles
the land as well. And the land cannot be cleansed
of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that
shed it. Well now, how then can this man
ever go free? How can he ever go free? Only
by ceremonial representation. When the high priest, who is
his representative, dies, he goes free. That man stays in
the city until the high priest is dead, and then he goes free.
Now we come to Christ our refuge. He is our high priest, our representative,
who has died in our stead, and he has cleansed us of all guilt. He has even cleansed us of all
sin, so that now, in our representative, We are made to be free. This
is the blessedness of being in the refuge. This is the blessedness
of being in that city. But none of these blessings come
to any who are standing out beside the city gates and admiring the
beauty of the gates. These things don't come to any
who are standing out where they're measuring rods, measuring the
dimensions of the city. These blessings do not come to
any who know all about them and who have a deep, profound sense
of defending the blessings that are set forth. These blessings,
Merle, come to the man who goes through the door. And all the
blessings of God's grace Do not come to men who appreciate and
defend the truth, men who try to grasp every tiny point of
divine truth and get everything arranged just right. That's not
how you get the blessing. You get the blessing by entering
the refuge. That's the only way, by entering
the refuge. And then we're told here in Numbers
35, that the man who fled to the
city must abide in the city until the death of the high priest.
If he left the city for any reason at any time until the high priest
died, then the avenger of blood would grab him and slay him,
and that justly. Now someone says, well, no manslayer
would ever leave the city. You're right. He wouldn't. He
never would. But what if he did? Well, he'd
be killed. But he's not going to. He's not a fool. He's not
a fool. He's going to stay in that city.
Now, that manslayer, the man who's guilty, the man who knows
that his neighbor's brother is standing outside there and ready
to slay him, he's not going to leave that city. But suppose
there's a fellow who's kind of lazy. And he doesn't want to
provide for his own shelter, and he doesn't want to provide
for his own food, and he wants an easy way of life, so he decides
that he will go into the city of refuge and invent a story.
And he'll tell them, now I'll tell you I'm a manslayer. I was
out working, and I was working with my neighbor, and the axe
head flew off and split his skull. And the Avenger of Blood, he's
been pursuing me. I don't know, I may have lost
him on the path somewhere, but he's been chasing me. Let me
come into the city. And so he comes into the city,
and he finds a place of shelter, and he finds a place of provision.
But then after a while, after a while, things get rough in
the city. After a while, there's not quite
so much delight in being in that city as he thought. After a while,
things are a little bit uneasy for him, so he decides to leave
the city. Well, why not? He's not guilty. Why not leave the city? He's
got no fear. He's got no dread. For he was
only a pretended manslayer. Now, the point's this. There
are many who come by profession into the city of refuge, Christ
Jesus, who are just pretended sinners. They say, I'm a sinner. And they join up with the people
of God. But after a while, because they
have no fear, they leave the refuge. Because they have no
grace in their hearts, they forsake Christ because they have no guilt. Oh, they're guilty, but they
don't know it. They're sinners but they don't know it. They're
just pretended sinners. Therefore they see no need of
Him and they leave Him when they get tired of Him. Those pretended
sinners will indeed leave Christ. But those who are really sinners,
those who know their sinfulness, those who have grace in their
hearts and gratitude to Christ for the mercy and refuge that
He provides, Those who know they justly deserve eternal damnation,
they'll never leave Him. They will not, they cannot leave
Him. They'll abide in Him forever.
And the Lord Himself turns and says to them, you going to leave
too? They respond, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of life. Thou art the Savior. We have no hope but in Thee.
No, we'll not leave you. Now I can't stress this second
point enough. The only road to eternal salvation is faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn back to the text in Acts
16. I had an interesting call this
morning after the broadcast. A Campbellite in town called
me, told me his name, and he was a little upset. as I would
be too if I had been a Campbellite listening to what I had to say.
But he was talking to me about his church and he was trying
to persuade me that baptism does indeed have something to do with
the pardon of sin and a believer standing in acceptance before
God. I won't get into all that I said, it was short and to the
point. But the essence of it is this. on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved." Now that's it. That's it. The road to heaven
is faith highway. There is no other. It is not
faith and baptism. It is not faith and obedience. It is not faith and feeling.
It is not even faith and faithfulness. Salvation is by faith in Christ
alone. Now it's true. Faith is obedient. Faith is confessed in baptism. Faith causes us to feel something. And faith is faithful. But faith
alone is the way to obtain mercy. Faith alone is the way to Christ. Mix anything with it, and you
miss Christ. Mix anything with faith, you're
on the wrong road. You're just on the wrong road.
And if you're on the wrong road, you're not getting to the place
you're headed. You leave here from Danville and decide that
you want to go to Knoxville, Tennessee, and you drive over
to Lexington and get on I-75 going north, you're not going
to get to Knoxville. Doesn't matter how sincere you are. It
doesn't matter how genuine you are. It doesn't matter how earnest
you are. As long as you're on I-75 headed
north, bro, you're not going to Knoxville. You're headed north
and Knoxville's due south. Now, my friend, if you get on
any road but the road of faith, faith, faith, You'll never reach
Christ. You'll never reach Him. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. What is this faith? The Amplified Version, let me
give you this slowly, try to grasp it all. The Amplified Version
translates verse 31 like this. Believe in and own the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is, give yourself up to
him. Take yourself out of your own
keeping and entrust yourself to his keeping and you will be
saved. Now that's what faith is. Take
yourself out of your keeping and entrust yourself to his keeping
and you will be saved. John Gill said, this is not a
bare historical faith. as only to believe that Jesus
Christ was the Son of God and the Messiah, and that he was
come in the flesh, and that he suffered and died and rose again,
and was now in heaven at the right hand of God, and would
come again to judge the quick and the dead. For there may be
such a faith as this, and no salvation." You can believe all
these things and never have salvation. Paul's commandment to this jailer,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, required the jailer to look to
Christ alone for salvation, to look to Christ alone for life,
to rely upon Christ, trust in Christ, committing the care of
his immortal soul to Christ, and to expect peace, pardon,
righteousness, and eternal life in Christ. To believe on Christ
is to trust Him. There is really no word in our
English language, no single word that will adequately translate
the Greek word believe. But the root of it, the essence
of it is to trust. To trust Him. Trust Him. Lay your soul on Him. Lean upon
Him. Fall flat down on Him. Hold to
Him. Nothing else but Him. To believe
on Christ is to venture everything upon Him. You have probably seen pictures
in movies. I doubt you've ever seen anything
like it in person. Maybe some of you have. Some child or woman
or man in a high building that's engulfed in flames and the firemen
are down there and they've been 25 people to jump out the same
window, one after the other. Firemen have caught every one
of them. They've caught every one of them in that net. They just jump
one after the other, but there's one standing back there who's
scared to death, just scared to death. And that little child
or that woman, that man, just because certain destruction is
here, just shuts his eyes and dies out the window. That's what
they did. That's what it is. It's absolutely in utter helplessness
venturing everything on the merits of Christ. Now that's where it
is. That's where it is. To believe on Christ is to commit
myself, my soul, my eternal welfare to the hands of Christ. Faith
is leaving my soul in His hands. Leaving thy soul in his hands.
Can you? Will you leave your soul in the
hands of Christ? To believe Christ is to receive
him. As Spurgeon said, faith is receiving
Christ with the understanding and with will. Submitting everything
to him. Taking him to be my all in all.
And agreeing henceforth to be nothing at all. Faith is taking your little empty,
dry pitcher to the fountain and filling it up at the fountain.
I lived in West Virginia just down from the church where I
pastored. There was a community spring. Water was always flowing
out of the spring, always. If nobody was there to catch
it, the water just run off the hill, down the side of the road,
evaporate back into the air. But water was constantly running
out of that spring. And where we lived, most people
had what they called iron water. Red water. It'd come out of the
spigots, just rust colored. Stained everything. Couldn't
wash in it. Couldn't cook in it. All you
could do is flush a commode in it. And then it'd ruin the commode's
looks. It was just good for nothing. So they would go down and get
some water. But now they only got water. when they would carry
their bucket or their jars or their pitcher or whatever they
had and put it down where the water was running. Now that's
where faith is. Faith is your empty soul being
here filled with Christ the fountain who is the water of life. Now,
sometimes you might not be real careful, might not have a steady
hand to hold the Pale as a picture and it's shaking some water to
slosh around and fall out and think, man, I'm making a mess
of this. That doesn't matter, you've got water in the picture.
Doesn't matter how much of a mess you make of it, you've got water
in the picture. That's what you came for, isn't it? Don't be
worried and fretting about what kind of mess you're going to
make of things. Get water in this picture! Life from Christ! That's it. Life from here. The
sure result of this faith in Christ. is eternal salvation. I'll be your hostage. Take my soul with it and soar.
Believe and you'll live. Believe and you'll live. Believe
and you'll live. If you believe, you shall be
saved. If you believe not, you're sure
to perish under the wrath of God. No, faith is not the cause
of salvation. Christ alone is Savior. But faith,
looking to Christ, spies salvation in Him and takes it. Faith comes to Christ and receives
life from Him. I see no reason whatsoever
in myself why I should be allowed to believe. I don't see any reason
whatsoever in myself why I should be allowed as God to trust Christ
and be saved by Him. But God commands me to believe. Buddy, I believe. Obeying God's
command, I cannot perish. I cannot perish. I've told you and shown you from
the Word that the only place of refuge for our souls is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that the only road to eternal
salvation is faith in Christ. And yet some of you still do
not trust Christ. You will not come to Him. You
will not publicly commit yourself to Him. And it's either one of
two reasons. One of two reasons. It's either
because you have no interest in Him. no real sense of your
need of Christ, and no desire for Christ. Or else it's because
there's some stumbling block in your way, something keeping
you from Christ, something keeping you from confessing Him. And
so this is my third and final point. The stumbling blocks must
be removed. I cannot awaken your soul. I
cannot cause you to seek the Lord. I cannot convict you of
sin and cause you to seek pardon. That's the work of the Spirit
of God alone. But it may be that some of you here are right now
under the conviction of sin by the power of God, and you earnestly
desire the knowledge of pardon, and you're seeking Christ, seeking
to find your way to the refuge. Perhaps, just maybe, the Spirit
of God will allow me to remove some obstacles from your way.
I know this. When I was made to see, made
to experience the fact that I was a lost sinner with a terrifying
sense of divine justice, that so overwhelmed me that I felt
like I was sinking swiftly into hell, and that hell was coming
up swiftly to me. Though I knew Christ is an almighty,
all-sufficient Savior, though I knew that He had saved many,
and though I knew He commanded me to come to Him, I still could
not close with Him, because there was some stumbling block. which
Satan had put in my way, some that I had put in my way, and
some that religion had put in my way. The remembrance of my
past life made me think that I was too sinful to be saved.
Now you just can't imagine what a tormenting thought that is.
You just can't imagine how tormenting that is. To want Christ more than anything
in the world, and be convinced that you can have the most tormenting
thing I've ever experienced in my life until I was made to see
that this is a faithful Savior and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. Why, that's how he gets his favor.
That's how he gets his glory, by saving sinners like me. So
that stumbling block is taken out of the way. But then the
hardness of my heart and my lack of anything like real repentance
kept me from coming to Christ. I really wanted to have Him. I wanted to be able to say to
my soul, He is my salvation. I wanted that. I wanted that.
But I found no repentance in my heart, not real repentance.
I found my heart to be hard, hard as flint, hard. But then I was made to see that I can't gain repentance
without Him. You can't repent until you have Him. You can't
repent until you see Him. They shall look on me whom they
have pierced. And when they look, they'll mourn. Oh, if you look to Him, if you
look to Christ, you'll find repentance there. You'll find repentance
at the cross. All of you men and women know
what it is to be looking for something, and you don't really
know what it is. You just don't know what it is.
But you know when you see it, you'll know it. You know what
I'm talking about? A few ladies passed by dress shop, or you're
thumbing through dresses on the rack, whatever, and you see that
dress, that's the one. How do you know that's the one?
Well, that's just the one. How do you, I can see it, that's
the one. Once you see it, you know it. You fellas go shopping
for a car, and if you're patient, we're usually not, but if you're
patient, and you have the money to get what you really want,
and we usually don't, But if you do, you shop until you find
what you want. Now, when you start out, you
don't really know what you want. Most of the time, you don't really
have a real understanding of exactly what you want, but you
want a car. And when you see it, that's the one. That's the
one. If ever you see Christ, if ever
He passes by your way and makes you to see Him, you'll know that's
what you want. That's what you've got to have.
He is the one whom I must have. When you see him, your heart
will melt in repentance before him. But then, how could I dare confess
faith in Christ? Because my faith is so small,
so uncertain, so full of weakness, And so I was kept from confessing
him. But the scripture says that a
smoking flax, he will not quench. Some of you know what a smoking
flax is. Some of you have to look it up
in the dictionary. But that's that wick on a candle, when it
just about out, not on a candle, but on a lantern, when it just
about out of fuel, and there's not any fire in it. It's just
smoking, and it stinks, and it creates a black smoke, and it's
good for nothing, but he'll not quench it. He'll not quench it. A bruised reed, he'll not hurt
you. What's a good bruised reed good
for? It's not good for a thing. You can't lean on it. You can't
even build a reed house out of it, sit on your coffee table
and say, look what I built. You can't make a whistle out of it
and blow through it. It's bruised and it'll collapse together.
You can't breathe through it. But that bruised wreath, he can
blow through it. Life everlasts. He'll not break
the bruised wreath. That woman had an issue of blood
for 12 years. And she had spent everything
she had on positions of no value and she was none the better off.
And she said to herself, when she saw Christ approach, if I
can but touch the hem of His garment, He'll make me whole. She didn't have any confidence. She wasn't in strength at all. She was bent over, stooped over,
just a bare form of a woman. But as the Savior passed by,
She stuck out a trembling hand and touched the ragged edge of
his garment, and immediately she had made him. If you just
touch him, you'll leave him. You'll leave him. I had so many
doubts and fears. I thought whatever faith I might
have can't possibly be genuine. But there were those in the scriptures
who also had doubts and fears. His disciples were in a ship
tossed to and fro in the storm. And they said, Lord, save us
or we perish. There's a lot of doubt in that.
They ought to have known better than that. But they had faith.
It wasn't much faith, but they had faith. Didn't have any real
confidence. Folks say, you got to know that
you know that you know you're saved. Well, I didn't know that
I knew that I knew that I was saved. I knew that God had some people
whom he had chosen. I didn't know whether I was one of those
or not. And I was terrified of death. Utterly terrified. And you look to those things
and you think, well, this can't be real faith. It's not looking
to me! That's what faith is. I wish we should understand that.
Faith is not in me. It's in him. The strength and
the power, the comfort, the assurance, the blessedness of faith is not
looking to me. It's looking to him. That's still
in me. My little vessel was tossed to
and fro on the sea of life. I meet with many storms, but
my vessel is anchored fast. Not when I keep the anchor here,
but when I cast it. He anchors my soul both sure
and steadfast. And then those hideous, horrible,
ungodly thoughts of my heart. I thought to myself, how can
a man even think that there's a possibility he might be saved,
have faith in Christ, when he has such a And again, I was made to see
that this is the very kind of man whom the Son of Man has come
to seek and to save. I think probably more than anything
else, it was a legal hope that kept me from closing with Christ
sooner than I did. I kept thinking that I could
change my life I kept thinking that I could take care of this.
I'd clean up my act, and I'd come to Christ. I'd at least
kindly put away some of these bad habits, and then I'd come
present myself to Christ. I thought there was something
surely I had to do, just like Miss Jailer. What must I do? Not a thing! Do anything you've
never done before. You've got to cease from your
doing. You've got to cease from your doing. And when every other
stumbling block was removed, there was one other huge barrier
that kept me from out and out commitment to Christ. You see,
I had made professions of faith before. I had been in and out of religion,
mostly out, most of my life. When I was a boy, you probably
don't know this, when I was a boy eight years old, I'd been in
religion for a couple of years, made a profession of faith. Folks
took me down the streets in Winston-Salem and I'd go preach on Sunday afternoon.
I'd go to Colored Church and we'd have a mission down on Sunday
afternoons. I'd preach every Sunday afternoon. But it didn't
last long. It didn't last long. There was
nothing to it. Not a thing to it. And I thought to myself, It'll all pass. The fear of failure,
it's going to cost you too much. And after a while, you're not
going to be willing to give up what it requires. The conflict
is going to be too severe. There have been many others who
have begun and turned back. And you'll be a hypocrite. You'll
only mock religion. You'll dishonor Christ and the
gospel. and you'll bring yourself to even greater shame. You'll
at last have the hottest place in hell for your hypocrisy. And then I realized again, blessed
be God, my lasting, my preservation,
Absolutely in no way depended on me, but on you. And I believe. I believe. I began back there 19 years ago
believing. And I continue to believe. And
my hope is today exactly what it was 19 years ago. It hasn't
changed one bit, but it's exactly what it was 19 years ago. I'm
a guilty sinner. In need of mercy, I trust Him. I trust Him. Now my friend, that's
where life is. That's where life is. Somehow, you've got to You've got to get
to Him. You've got to get in Him. In
Him. You've got to believe. Believe. Believe. So, Don, why
on earth are you preaching this sermon to us? Well, I really
don't know. I really don't know. Except somehow
it's been on my heart for a week. And God's got it here for some
reason, I believe. Will you hear me? Let's go together, sinners, hand
in hand, back to the cross of Christ. Who is He? That's God in human
flesh hanging in that tree. What's He doing there? Why is
He hanging there? What's He done? That God, man, has been made
sin. And he's suffering the just for
doing good. He's suffering the righteous,
just, legal reward for sin. But not his own sin. He's suffering
for sin. Who's he suffering for? He's
suffering for full satisfaction of divine justice. For every guilty, doomed, damned
sinner to be lived. Well, I'm one of those. A guilty,
helpless, lost, doomed, damned sinner. He died for me. He died for me. I trust Him. How about you? Huh? That's the
way in the refuge and life everlasting. Amen. Let's stand together. Lindsay, come
lead us in 474, will you? Only a center.