Normally speaking, I come somewhat later in a conference
and have the privilege of deriving significant inspiration from
the men who have gone before. And just the other day, Todd
said, you're first. I said, well, I better work on it then. A thought that entered my mind
as I was standing there or sitting there preparing for this is God
deliver me and all the men who will come to preach here from
the desire to preach a great sermon and rather that we preach
a great salvation at the hands of a great Savior. And if the
Lord will enable me and these other men to do that, it will
have been a good meeting. whether anybody else ever hears
a word we spoke here. If you would open your Bibles
to Acts chapter 13 for just a minute. And by the way, I do appreciate
being asked to come here and preach. Actually, I appreciate
being asked to come here and preach because it gives me an
excuse to come here and listen. You know, one of the things about
us preachers, we got to live on our own preaching most of
the time. And I understand, I may have said this last year, but
I understand why women like to go out to eat. Because most of
the time they got to live on their own cooking. And it's nice
to sit down and let someone else. And so I always enjoy hearing
the other men as they preach the gospel and it's a blessing
to me. Now in verse 15 of Acts chapter
13, We read this, and after the reading of the law and the prophets,
the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, that's Paul and his
companions, saying, ye men and brethren, if you have any word
of exhortation for the people, say on. Now if I remember correctly,
the word translated exhortation here is in other places translated
encouragement. Encouragement. The title of my
message tonight, if the title is of any account at all, is
a word of encouragement for all who believe. There is nothing,
nothing in the gospel which is not designed for the encouragement
of them who believe. And in all reality there is nothing
outside of the gospel which can provide them any encouragement.
Now you think on that. Everything in the gospel is designed
for the encouragement of the believer and nothing outside
of it is going to be able to encourage him with anything connected
to Christ and salvation in Him. Now, if you'd open your Bibles
now to Romans chapter 9, there are some things the Bible does
not spend much time arguing. It does not argue the existence
of God. It just says it. And the rest
of the time assumes it. If He doesn't exist, there's
no need for the Bible. He doesn't try to prove that
He exists. Another thing the Bible doesn't
argue for is creation. The Bible opens with an account
of creation and the rest of the Bible just assumes that account
is true. It never tries to prove that in six days God created
the heavens and the earth, it just says He did. And the writer
of Hebrews says, by faith we believe that the worlds were
created by the Word of God. And another thing the Bible rarely,
in fact only one time can I recall that it actually argues the point,
is the sovereignty of God. In particular, the sovereignty
of God in salvation. It simply says it and assumes
it thereafter. In fact, when we speak of God
and creation and sovereignty, we're speaking of three things
that cannot be separated. Our Lord's badge of divinity,
if we would call it that, consists of two things. He made the world
and He rules it. It says all the gods of the nations
are idols, but Jehovah created the heavens and the earth. So it's pretty obvious who's
God. And they said, where's your God?
David, I can show you my God. We've got him over in this house
over here, this building we built. We go there at the appropriate
times and we give him the things we think he wants. And then we
go about our lives. We've got our God in a box. We
know where he is. Where's your God? Our God's in
the heavens. He's done anything he wants to
do and everything he wants to do. Nothing is outside his power. Therefore, nothing is outside
his authority. Nebuchadnezzar discovered through
that experience that God visited on him to bring him low. He discovered this. God does
as he will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. No one can stop him. In fact, no one even has the
right to question him and say, what in the world do you think
you're doing? Here in Romans 9 we find the
only place that I'm aware of, and maybe somebody can correct
me, but the only place I know of, where the sovereignty of
God and the salvation of His people is set forward and argued. That is, Paul lays it out, describes
it, and answers some objections that are brought up against it.
Now in John 6, we find that the doctrine stated boldly. Jesus Christ said, our Lord,
he said some things, I don't know how anybody misunderstands
them. The church I grew up in, after
the founding pastor retired, the assistant pastor, took over
for a while while they looked for another guy to be the head
pastor, as they call it. He was going through the Book
of John, verse by verse. And I remember I told my dad,
I said, I'd like you to tell me what he says when he gets
to John chapter 6. Because the church I was raised
in doesn't believe these things that you and I take for granted.
And sure enough, he got to John chapter 6 and he stumbled all
over himself trying to figure out how to open up what the Lord
Jesus Christ had said and still come out that man's got some
kind of free will. And finally he said, I don't
know what it means. And I told my dad, I said, I think he does
know what it means. He just doesn't like what it
means. John 6 states it boldly. Romans
9 sets forth an argument and answering some objections. And
the rest of the Bible simply assumes it to be true that God
is in absolute control of everything including and we might even say
especially the salvation of sinners. Nothing is outside the scope
of his authority. Nothing is beyond the reach of
his power. He doesn't feel the least bit
bashful about determining the destinies of men before they
ever take a breath. And if someone says, well, that's
not right. Because after all, we're all
then just doing what he said we'd do. How can he find fault?
And Paul's answer was not to get into some kind of special
philosophical argument. He simply said, nay, but old
man, who are you to reply against God? The reason that these truths
or truth, doctrines or doctrine, however you state it, the reason
that they are rejected by men is because men have no concept
of what it is to be a God. Their visions of God or their
imaginations of God consists essentially of Superman, with
or without a cape. He's got powers we don't have.
He can fly, and if we're good, he'll do what we ask. But they have no concept of a
God who exists outside of our realm of existence, and for whom
that which we call reality is nothing but a story that he wrote.
that He rules over this thing we call reality as thoroughly
and completely as Shakespeare ruled over that story, Romeo
and Juliet. We are His creation. What we see is His thoughts. The reason things are like they
are is because God thinks that's the way they are. His thoughts
define reality as we know it. The flesh finds this truth very
discouraging. Unbelieving flesh says things
like, if that's true, why seek the Lord? If God's in absolute
control and He's chosen who'll be saved, why preach? Why I wouldn't
go to the mission field if I thought this thing was already decided?
Why pray? If God's already written the
whole story, why pray? These words, these things in
which you and I rejoice, are a discouragement to them. What they do not realize is that
when they insist on a salvation that's available to everyone,
but conditioned on their willingness to receive it, and they reject
the salvation that's provided for some and absolutely guaranteed
that they shall receive it, when they make that choice in their
mind, they have actually accepted something guaranteed to fail
and rejected that which is guaranteed to succeed. Let me illustrate
it to you, if I can. Imagine a room, large room, a
hundred dead people inside, corpses laid out on gurneys, a little
table in the middle of the room. Someone you love is inside that
room. The body's in there. Two men
walk up and it is announced that there is a stone a stone, powerful
stone, a stone that if it comes in contact with a corpse, it
will make it alive again. One man says, I'll take that
stone in there and I'll lay it on that table in the middle of
the room and walk out. And any one of those corpses
that wants life is free to touch that stone and live. The other man says, I'll take
that stone in there, and I'll choose 25 of those corpses. And
I'll take that stone, and I'll touch them with it. And they
will live. Now, your loved one's in there. You want them to live. Which
man will you choose? Well, the man who's going to
lay it table and walk out, he's absolutely useless. Now if the other guy goes in,
you have no way of knowing whether your loved one will come out
alive, but if he's to come out alive, it's going to be because
that man went in and did something, right? That's, as good as we
can illustrate, God's work of grace. He's sovereign over it,
and that means something's going to happen. Leave it to the will
of man, leave it to the works of man and nothing good is going
to come of it. Any gospel founded upon us, founded
upon our works or upon our will is going to be terribly discouraging
to anyone who understands the nature of man. And I guess that's
somewhat where the problem lies, isn't it? They don't really think
they're dead. They think somehow or another
they can get off that gurney and touch that stone. But they don't even know the
stone is there. They're dead. They didn't see the man come
in the room. They didn't see him leave. They're dead. Oh, thank God. Thank God that he chose to save
some. Because had he not chosen to
save some, the amount saved would have been none. Now, we who believe find great
encouragement in these teachings, these doctrines, these truths.
It's an encouragement to me to know that salvation is utterly
out of my hands. I've had some things put in my
hands over the years. I'm glad my soul's not there,
because generally speaking, What I have tried to do has never
amounted to much, not even by the world's standards. I don't succeed well in this
world. How do I think I could do anything
of consequence about the next world? Furthermore, how foolish
it would be for us to think that what Adam could not keep in his
state of perfection living in paradise, I can actually obtain
in my sinfulness in a cursed world. If he couldn't keep it, I certainly
can't work it. But for all the grandeur of the various facets of the
doctrine of God's sovereign grace, for all its wonder and glory,
they leave a big question mark. While it tells me that all the
elect will be saved, while it tells me that all redeemed by
Christ will be saved, and while it tells me that all called by
the Spirit shall be saved, they don't really say anything
about me. For sure. How can I know if I'm one of
those elect? It's good to know that the elect shall be saved,
but I don't know if that name belongs to me. After all, the
elect of God look pretty much like everybody else. There's
nothing about me that makes me stand out among the people of
this world. There's not a special glow about
me. I don't have a halo. What about redeemed? Well, that
was carried on entirely outside of me. It's very charming for me to
see my sins laid upon Christ and put away there. And yet,
what authority do I have to say that that actually happened?
I know every sin laid upon Christ is gone. I know that every sinner
represented by Christ is redeemed. But how in the world am I going
to know if I'm one of them? I know that if the Spirit calls
a man, he's going to believe. And he is saved. And that everything
that the blood of Jesus Christ purchased for him shall be given
to him and he will possess them in full. I don't know about you, but I've
had a lot of religious experiences. And pretty much they're like
the religious experiences of people with whom I heartily disagree
in terms of doctrine. People say a warm feeling came
over me. Okay. How do you know that was
the Holy Spirit? I just felt a sense of love.
Okay, that's nice. How do you know that was the
Holy Spirit? Because people who believe a gospel entirely different
from what I think the Scriptures say can make the same confession
as, I was the Spirit of God. I could feel the Spirit. How can I know that I've been
called by the Spirit? You see, for me to receive any
encouragement, I'm going to have to find somewhere in the Scripture
A name that I can identify as mine connected to the blessing. That make sense? I got to find my name in the
Bible connected to the blessing. I said this is a word of encouragement.
It's a wonderful word. We saw there in Acts chapter
13, they asked Paul, do you have a word of encouragement? Oh,
I'm glad for preachers that come with a word of encouragement
instead of a stick to beat down the sheep of God and to discourage
them. I pray that all of us men here
to preach this weekend be an encouragement to every one of
you sheep, build you up. Paul said, this grace given me,
I don't want to use it to tell you a harsh word, so I want to
build you up. We read in the Hebrews, it says,
to use this word of exhortation come. Same word. Encouragement. Remember Barnabas? His name means son of consolation
in the Greek, same word. Remember when our Lord said,
I will send you another comforter? Same word. means one called alongside. And when we read, I write these
things to you that you don't sin. But if any man sin, we have
an advocate. Same word. Somebody called alongside. And when the Gospel is preached,
when the truth of God is set forth from the Scriptures, Under
the power of the Spirit of God, God comes alongside His sheep
and speaks comfortably to them, speaks to their heart. And His
Spirit bears witness with their spirit that they're the children
of God. Now, a lot of you here this evening belong to the congregation
that regularly meets here, and it wasn't that difficult for
you to come. But there are some folks here
from out of town. They put a lot of effort into getting here.
Now why in the world would anybody give up a weekend for more church? Most people are trying to reduce
the amount of church they have to endure. Why would they invest
the money necessary to come and listen to eight preachers, two
every time they meet? Because they're sheep. And they
have learned this. that when two or three of them
are gathered together, the shepherd comes alongside and speaks wonderfully
to them. In a way, let's face it, it doesn't
happen in other situations, at least not regularly. I'm a pastor. I preach every
week, and you might think that all week long I live on this
spiritual high of confidence as though I walk like Enoch did. I don't even know that Enoch
walked like Enoch walked. I mean, like we think he walked.
You know what? I love gathering with the people
there in Rock Valley and preaching to them Because at no other time
through the week is my soul so encouraged by the truth that we believe.
Never at any other time do I believe them so strongly, so confidently
as I do when I hear the gospel preached. I think about the gospel
a lot during the week. I open the Bible and read it
somewhat and study and look at some other books. But it's when
I hear it being preached, even when I'm hearing it from right
here, somehow or another there's just something about that. Let me see if I can give you
now a word of encouragement. Verse 33 of Romans chapter 9. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
or everyone that believes on him shall not be ashamed. Now, sometimes we have to update
the language because the meaning of words changes, culture changes,
and the way we perceive the meaning of words changes. In our day
and age, which is so occupied with how you feel, so occupied
with subjective experience, they think that ashamed means feeling
embarrassed. I suppose it's okay to think
in those terms, but that isn't what the Apostle is talking about.
What he's saying here is that everyone that believes in him
will not be put to shame. They're not going to find out
at the end of time that their trust was misplaced. A lot of
people, that's exactly what's going to happen to them. They
trusted in this. Lord, Lord, didn't we do this
and that and the other thing and then avoid all these things?
And they are going to be put to shame because they rested
the blessedness of their soul upon the things they did or did
not do. They built their house on a foundation
of sand and it fell. To be put to shame is to make
a boast and then have that boast crumble in the sight of all. Nearly 30 years ago when I was
in Owensboro, Kentucky, It's hard for me to believe that
I can go back 30 years and still be remembering things that happened
in my adult life. It just doesn't seem right, but
I was an adult 30 years ago. After church one evening, I went
to the store. I had some money in my pocket,
and I wanted to buy. I loved to snack, you know. So
I started through the store, and I saw something I liked,
and I put it in the buggy. And I'm heading to the cash register.
I saw something else I liked. I put that in the buggy. And
by the time I got up to cash register, I had a good amount
of stuff in the shopping cart. And I'm in line, I wait my turn,
I get up there, I put it all on that little belt and it goes
through and the lady adds it up. That's back in the day when
she actually had to punch the numbers in. And it comes up with an amount
and I reach in my wallet. I haven't got enough money. And there's this line behind
me, everybody waiting to get out. and I just had them add
up what I can't pay. Oh, I felt so stupid. Really. In fact, I felt so bad to this
day. Well, thankfully, we do things with plastic, and that
will always work, you know, and you can slink out and pay later.
That saved me from a lot. But back before then, I would
go through the grocery store. I got scared about this. And
I'd be going, I'd look, okay, I got $10 in there, you know.
Do I really have $10 in there? And I would look in my wallet
two or three times before I went up to cash register. That's so
embarrassing. Put to shame. Because when I
laid all that stuff out there, I said, I can pay for that. I've
got what it takes to pay for all this stuff, and I didn't.
And everybody's in line watching the whole scene. Someday, our Lord Jesus shall stand in
judgment upon all flesh and all the things that men have
trusted to make that a blessed day for them and all the great
shame that shall be visited on them. But no one whose trust
is in Christ will be put to shame that day. They will put you to shame now.
They will mock you now. They won't be mocking you then. Whoever believeth on him What does it mean to believe
in the way it's used in this scripture? In most cases, the
Greek language in which the New Testament was originally written
was a more precise language than our English language, but this
is one case where it isn't. Now this word that we, this word
behind believeth there, in Latin they did have a precision about
it, because they had two words to cover what we normally use
the word believe, a single word to cover. And I don't know Latin
well, so forgive me if I get this wrong, but this is close
to them. One is fide. We get words like fidelity, fiduciary,
simplify, the Marines. And this word means trustworthy
or to trust. And then they have the word credo
or something like that. We get our word creed from it.
It concerns the things you believe. Here, in the Greek language and
in English, we usually use one word trying to cover both concepts.
But I believe from the context and with other scriptures, it
would be better if we used the word trust. Trust, and here's
why. When we think of believe, we're
thinking about what we believe. When we use the word trust, we're
normally thinking about who we trust. A man can believe a lot
of things and trust nothing. Let me give you an idea of the
difference between believe and trust. Come up on a chasm. You got to get across. There's
a bridge. Now a man approaches that bridge,
he's a mechanical engineer. And he looks at that bridge and
with all the understanding he has of the strength of steel
and stone and all that it's made out of and the way it was put
together, he says, I believe that bridge can hold me. And he stands there at the mouth
of that bridge and he tells everybody about it. He even encourages
others to use that bridge to get to the other side. But he
himself never gets on the bridge. He believed much and trusted
nothing. Another man who is not so well
trained in engineering, he sees the chasm. He knows his need
to get to the other side and realizes if there's any way to
get across, it's that bridge. And he gets on it and walks to
the other side. He trusted. He put his weight upon it. And brethren, he who puts his
weight on Christ will never fall in the chasm. He won't. I don't care if he
does it with great understanding as to why Christ is a sufficient
Savior. or if he has a very dim and foggy
view of it. Let's face it, compared to the
reality, the full-blown understanding of how it is Christ saved us,
all of us are seeing it somewhat foggy. And I suppose we shall be learning
about it forever. It is not the strength of our
faith that saves us. It is the strength of him who
we trust. Whether I walk across a bridge
with strong legs or shaking legs has nothing to do with whether
the bridge will hold me up. whether I walk across it just
on my feet or in fear, go over to the side and I'm hanging on
to the girders and what not, thinking if I put a little weight
on them, I'm not putting so much weight on the platform. The issue,
are you trusting it? Are you trusting Him? He that trusts Him. will never
be put to shame. Now you say, how can I know that
it's him I'm trusting? It's a good question. Several
things are revealed about him in this verse. First of all,
as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone. First
thing about this one who is trustworthy is this, God's the one that laid
him. God's the one that set him forth.
I set before you no Baptist Savior. Do you understand what I mean? I set before you no reformed
Savior. I set before you a divine Savior. Now if my problem is with God,
it's not with the devil. You know that, don't you? The
devil's not our problem. God's our problem when it comes
to salvation. Do not fear him who can kill
the body and that's as far as he can go with it. Fear Him who
can kill the body and throw body and soul into hell. That's one
to be afraid of. Who's that? That's God. The issue
is with Him. Now if my issue is Him and He
sets forth a remedy, I can trust that remedy. If He said this
will work, I suppose He knows what will work. God has set Him forth. God set
Him forth. In eternity, we call it eternity
past, there's no such thing. There's eternity and there's
time, but we got to do it in a way that fits our way of thinking.
Before the foundation of the world, God laid this stone, put
him in place. Think of that now. Before there
was a sinner in need of saving, there was a savior put in place. Before the fall, there was a
recovery. Before death, there was life. That's the only reason that this
universe continued one second past Adam's sin. It's because
the Redeemer was already in place. God set him forth in the law. I know we like to argue about
not being under the law and all that, and we aren't, and I'm
glad. Because everyone's other law is under a curse, and I'm
not particularly interested in being under a curse. But that law had something to
say. That entire covenant, do you know it was setting forth
the Lord Jesus Christ? Yes, in a shadowy type and picture
and all that, but it was there. A couple thousand years ago, God
laid that stone in the little city of Bethlehem. I realize folks don't really
know what goes on at Christmas when they celebrate it. And I
don't fully understand how in the world can God be made flesh?
How can a word be made flesh? I don't know, but I believe it's
so. God laid him as he went throughout
their preaching, proving by his words and his work that he was
the one that the law and the prophets had been talking about
all along. By the powers that God gave him,
God testified that this is indeed the Christ, the Messiah, the
Savior, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
The only people who couldn't see that were those that didn't
want to. He laid that stone in Zion when
our Lord bore within himself our sins in His body on the tree. We cannot go into that holy place. We cannot really understand all
that went on there. Any Jewish man could read the
Torah, the law, and read about what went on behind the veil.
But in reality, there's only one who actually knew what that
was like to go behind the veil. That was the high priest. Because
he's the only one that did it. And our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
enter a temple made with hands, but a temple that's not a part
of this creation. And he offered himself without
spot to God. And neither you nor I have any
idea what that was like. But thank God he did. Whatever
it was, thank God he did it. For in bearing our sins, he bore
all the consequences of them. And in bearing our sins, he bore
them away. Did you hear that? Bore them
away. They're gone. If you are in Christ, there is
no condemnation. You hear that? Why is there no
condemnation? Because there's nothing to be
condemned for. They shall make a search for that sin of Israel
and for the iniquity of Jacob. And what does it say there? It
will not be found. Why? It's gone. It doesn't exist. Such was the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ that the sin... Oh, how powerful sin is. Isn't
it? If you think it's not powerful,
try to stop doing it. Really. If you think it's not
powerful, try to resist the consequences of it. Death. If sin's not powerful,
how come all of us die? Because none of us want to. But our Lord Jesus overcame it. Not merely as a work of power.
but as a satisfaction of divine justice. He did not pin our sins
up in a jail and hope that they never escape. They're gone. And that which is gone can bring
no trouble. What's more, he has set him forth.
He had laid that stone in Zion by raising our Lord Jesus Christ
from the dead and saying, you sit here at my right hand until
I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet. The psalmist put
it this way. Gives us a picture of a king
approaching his royal city. And he says, lift up your heads,
O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and let
the King of glory in. And the picture is that he's
personifying these doors like they're living. And all the imposters
that have come to those gates and sought entry. And every time
they're disappointed, no, we can't open the doors to you.
You have no right here. And after all these generations,
how frustrated and discouraged they must be. And then our Lord
Jesus approaches those gates and He says, lift up, put your chin up, take courage, be encouraged,
and open those doors. I'm here. I'm the King of Glory. I'm the Lord God Almighty. Let
me in. And they swung open and in He
came. And we see a symbolic vision of that in the book of Revelation.
For God symbolized in Him that sits on the throne with a scroll
in His hand. And we read that none was worthy
to open that scroll. And John wept. Why? Here was a heaven with no Christ
in it. See, the blessedness of heaven
is not the place. It's who's there. And then he walked in. And the
elder said, don't weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah,
he's prevailed. He didn't fail. He hadn't tried
anything. He won. He did something. He has prevailed. And he is worthy. And John said, I saw him. And
what did he look like to John? Obviously a symbolic thing. He
looked like a lamb that had been slain. His throat cut. Seven horns. Complete, perfect
power. Seven eyes. He sees all and is
perfect in watching over his people. He sits upon the throne
of the universe with all power to do whatever He wants to do
and perfect perception of all things and perfect watch care
over all His people. No wonder that all who trust
in Him will not be put to shame because until you can drag Him
off that throne, and cut off his horns and poke out his eyes,
you can't have one for whom he died. Let me wrap this up as
quickly as I can. Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling
stone. Is that the one you're trusting?
That one God laid there? A stumbling stone. Are you trusting the one the
world stumbles over? That one the world's offended
with? If you've got a Jesus that everybody likes, you've got the
wrong one. I'm not saying that to pat us on the back, it's just
so. The world doesn't like the real
Jesus. And the proof is, when He showed
up, they crucified Him. And they'd do it again, if they
could get their hands on Him. You can preach any Jesus you
want, but the one you and I believe. and the world will tolerate you. You preach the Jesus who sits
upon the throne and in perfect peace and confidence rules all
things, who's not breaking a sweat, who's not worried, who is saving
everybody he wants to save. Yeah, he has saved them and is
now just collecting them. And you say, I don't worship
that Jesus. Yep, that's true. That's not
the Jesus you worship. Now, if that's the Jesus you
worship, the one the rest of the world doesn't like, your trust is not going to fall
out from under your feet. Whosoever, I like that word. I don't have
a problem with it. We shouldn't. Whosoever, without regard to
where you came from, without regard to what race or gender
you are, without regard to what kind of sins you have committed
or even now are committing. You'll notice there's nothing
said in here to identify these people other than this. They
trust Him. Now, here is something you can
know about yourself. People say, I'm not sure whether
I trust Christ or not. Yes, you know. You know. And if you do, everything's going
to be okay. If you don't, nothing's okay. If you trust Him, when that day
comes, your trust shall prove trustworthy. If you trust in
anything else, It's going to be pulled out from under you,
and you're going to fall, and you'll be put to shame. Here's
a word of encouragement to all you who fear, even as you believe. Fear not. Fear not. You will not be put to shame.