We're going to be in the book
of Proverbs, if you would like to turn there. Proverbs chapter three. The last few weeks, two weeks,
I believe we looked at trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
lean not to that own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge
him and he shall direct that path. Now, as all of Proverbs
is written, this is They can be taken, you see that in your
Bible, the little symbol beside the five, verse five in chapter
three, and then the symbol again, some of you may have it, some
of you may not, but right beside verse seven, that indicates a
paragraph, the beginning of a paragraph, it's a complete thought. And
so, The translators, when they wrote this, they gave us those
in order to understand that that was the complete thought. The
translators wouldn't have had chapters, wouldn't have had verses.
The Lord caused them to do that so we can understand it better
or be able to follow along better. But anyways, the complete thought
was verse five and six. But for tonight, I don't want
to take just the complete thought of verses seven through 10. I
want to break it up. I want to do verse seven, eight
only for tonight. And I have titled the message,
Three Things Required. Three Things Required. I was
thinking about traveling, not that I'm wanting to travel, but
something struck me because I had really never entered into this
before. But in order to leave the country, you have to have
three things. You have to have three things.
You have to have a birth certificate, number one, that declares that you're
a citizen. That's the only way you can get
a passport is you have to be, that's the second thing you have
to have is a passport, a right of passage. But the first thing
is a birth certificate. If you don't have a birth certificate,
there is no getting a passport. There is no getting a passport.
You can't leave legally. Second thing is a passport. That is
your right of passage. This says you are permitted by
the governments, the entities, the powers to be, the powers
that are, that you can legally leave the country. You can fly
to a different country. You can drive to a different
country. The last thing you have to have is a clean record. You
can have a passport. You can have a birth certificate.
But if you don't have a clean record, and you're not good with the
governing entities in place, you can't leave the country.
You're not allowed to leave. One of these days, when we take
our last breath, we are going to go to a city. We are going
to go to a city. That's our hope, isn't it? to
awaken his likeness and to see him face to face in the place
called beautiful, a place called heaven that he's created for
his people. There's three things required
for you in order for you to be able to enter into that city.
You have to have a birth certificate. You must be born again. The second
thing you have to have is a right of passage. You have to have
a passport. You have to have a right of passage.
And that right of passage is the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The last thing that you have
to have is a clean record. And thanks be to God by that
precious blood that was shed, his people have a clean record,
a clean record. Those are the three things that
are required. Those are the three things that we must have. And
I've titled the message three things required tonight. The
first thing I want to do is I want to just read our text here. It
says in chapter three, verse seven, be not wise in thine own
eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health
to thine navel and marrow to thy bones. All of false religion. Without exception, the problem
with false religion is that they're wise in their own eyes. It's that simple. They believe
that they have come to a knowledge of God, to an understanding of
the scripture enough in order to do something, in order to
obtain salvation, in order to merit favor with God. That's
what all false religion does. It doesn't matter the name that's
on it. They're wise in their own eyes. The writer here, Solomon,
is telling us, be not wise in your own eyes. Fear God. Depart
evil. What does he mean, depart evil?
Well, that's the very first beginning. Be not wise in your own eyes.
That would be pride, wouldn't it? You can always find the root
of sin is always pride. It always comes down to pride
of some kind. But we see that Solomon wrote this to tell us
be not wise in our own eyes fear the Lord depart from evil. Is
it not true that we are evil we constantly We can't get out
of our own way. Anybody can anybody relate to
that? I can't seem to I Wanted to part evil Paul said it did
that which I would do I do not but that which I would not do
that's exactly what I find myself doing and Rather saying depart
evil, the Lord's people do. We depart evil. We loathe ourself,
don't we? We loathe our sin. We know what
it costs the Lord to save us to some degree and how much agony
he had to endure for us. And so we don't enjoy evil. We don't, we do depart it as
the Lord's people. We're departing it right now.
Where's your mind right now? Is it on, if the Lord's willing,
our minds on heavenly things. That's departing evil. That's
exactly what he's saying. We gather together, not because
we're wise in our own eyes, but because we've seen the King.
You remember the Queen of Sheba, when she came to see Solomon,
she said, mine eyes have seen the King. She said, I heard with
the hearing of the ear, but when I saw the way your servants went
up and down, when I saw all the, everything that you have and
the words of your wisdom that proceeded forth, she said, I,
she stood in awe. She said, I've seen the King.
You and I have seen the King by faith. We have no wisdom to
boast in and of ourself, do we? We don't sit here and say, look
at what I know, what I've come to an understanding of. We're
not wise in our own eyes. No, he is infinitely wise, and
we bow to that, don't we? I want to begin by, we don't
have to reiterate this, but we talked about wisdom a couple
of times. I believe we've talked about
wisdom three times now on Wednesday nights because it's been mentioned
many times in Proverbs. I don't have to lay the foundations
again. I don't feel it necessary to lay the foundations again
that Christ is our wisdom. We know that's true. He is all
that we confess as our wisdom. The point of this message tonight
is to cause us to understand that if there's any bit of confidence
that we have in ourself whatsoever, any bit of Leaning to our own
understanding, as it was just said in the previous verse, may
the Lord strike us of that, strike that from us. And may we not
leave here wise in our own eyes. I would remind us of our Lord,
first and foremost, that God is sovereign. God is sovereign. That's a foundation. That's a
sure foundation. God is sovereign. God is omnipotent. That means he knows everything
all the time. God is omnipresent. Now, if we're going to have these
three things required, we're going to have to deal with God.
He's the only one that can provide them. You and I can't provide
the ability to obtain any of the things I've already mentioned.
Everything required, God's going to have to provide it. By him,
all things consist. By the word of his power, all
things exist. He spoke light into existence,
didn't he? He's the one that created all things for His glory
and for His honor. There's no variableness in Him.
You know, me and you vary a lot, don't we? There'll be days I'll
feel happy, I'll feel glad, and something can happen, blink of
an eye, and it could just change your attitude completely, can't
it? We vary from day to day, from
second to second, from time to time. God, don't do that. Isn't
that glorious? He don't change. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. We can rest in our God being
like that. He doesn't change. And he said,
therefore, the reason you're not consumed is because I am
the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. If he changed every time we did
something, wouldn't that be, we'd be in trouble. Wouldn't
we be in trouble? Thank God he is the everlasting
father, the prince of peace, the king of kings and lord of
lords. He's God. He's God. And besides him, there
is none other. He's the only God. And men will
use terms such as Jehovah or Yahweh or Jesus Christ and they'll
put other labels as that on the figment of their imagination.
But God that we're talking about tonight, He's a holy God and
He demands perfection. He demands perfection. So important
that we're not wise in our own eyes. If we're wise in our own
eyes, we will fool ourself because the heart's deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. But if we want the truth tonight,
if we want the truth tonight, then we will hear that he's God
and we're not, we're not God. And somebody said, well, I know
that, but you know how many people don't know that? They think that
they've got their own God by their own actions. They may not
say it out loud, but they don't know that they're worshiping
themselves, what they've created for themselves, the life that
they have of trying to please God and allowing him to save
them in different things. They're their own God, that's
what that means. They're wise in their own eyes. You and I
would be the same if it hadn't been for the Lord's grace. You
and I would believe the lie if it hadn't been for the Lord's
grace. Thank God, he's a God of absolutes.
He's a God of absolutely everything he does is absolute. What that
means is, is he's Every character, every attribute he has is absolute. If he hates, it's with a perfect
hatred. If he loves, it's with the perfect love. If it's, no
matter what it is, it's perfection, perfection. And he's called just
and the justifier. The only way that he could save
his people justly is for the sin to be punished, to be put
away. You and I were sentenced to die. And by his grace, he took his
people's place on the cross of Calvary. That's the good news
of our God. That's what he's done. He cannot be challenged. He cannot be dictated to. He
cannot be changed. He is seated. He is seated as
God. And I have a point to make about
this. I'm not just going, just speaking about him. In respect
of trying to get us to understand a deeper under everything I've
said, we've said before, you know, it's just reiterating it,
but I want to remind us of his person, his, his isness, who
he is for the simple fact of the three things that are required.
The three things that are required. If I'm going to have to deal
with him, I have to deal with an absolute God. That's who he
is. If I have to deal with God, I
have to deal with the sovereign God, because that's who he is.
If I have to deal with him, I'm gonna have to deal with the creator
and sustainer of all life. That's who he is. If I'm gonna
stand before him with some kind of a self-righteousness, I'm
gonna have to stand before the Holy One, the Holy One that inhabits
eternity. That's who we have to deal with.
Now, you and I hear that, and we know what does that do instantly? It makes us run to Christ. It
makes us flee. It makes us say, Lord, have mercy
on me, the sinner. I can't deal with you. I can't
come before your presence in myself and on my own merits,
and I have no self-righteousness whereby you would save me. We've
seen that, hasn't we? We haven't, we've seen that.
We see that justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne.
We see that sin cannot stand in his presence, it has to be
destroyed. That's why flesh cannot glory in the Lord's presence. Flesh cannot stand before God.
So how can it be that which is born of a woman be as holy as
the Lord is. How can it be that a sinner can
be made right? How can it be that a leper can
be declared clean? Well, for one, he's got to be
a leper from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. Number
two, the high priest is the one that declares it. And what did
the Lord Jesus Christ do for his people? He entered once by
himself into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. All this can be accomplished
by only one way, our absolute sovereign, omnipotent Lord and
Savior doing all that he requires. You know, if he, if he had left
1%, 1% of the work for you and I to
do, we'd be in trouble, wouldn't we? You know that's true, 1%.
What about .1%? What about the smallest decimal,
I don't even know what the smallest decimal place would be, but if
it was left up to you and I, that little bit, we couldn't
have done it. He did it all, didn't he? When he by himself
purged our sin, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Now for the remainder of the
hour, having established our Lord, who he is, his isness,
trying to remind us of him and who we have to do. The scripture
says there is a God with whom we have to do. I want to look
at these three things that I mentioned, three things that are required
of him. These three things, brethren,
will guarantee that the scepter will raise when you stand before
him in mercy, just like it did for Esther. These three things
will allow you to enter in to the very throne room of God and
be declared clean. These three. Now, he says in
our text. Be not wise in thine own eyes.
And everything about this text, I want to try to keep it tied
together as best I can with, because the message came together.
It's just, you understand what I'm saying. It's be not wise. And why would I, why would we
be talking about be not wise in your own eyes? And then the
three things required because everybody that's where they get
it wrong. That's where, that's where it's so easily fumbled.
That's where it's so easily dropped is these three things. You have
to be born again. And you and I cannot be born
again and of ourself. You and I can't choose to be
born again. You and I can't do anything to be born again. What
did we do the first time we were born? What choice did we make
in the first birth? And yet preachers are preaching
that you must be born again, so you need to do this to be
born again, and it's not true. It's not true. Turn with me to
John chapter three. The first thing we have to have
is a birth certificate. We must be born again. John chapter
3, the Lord is speaking to Nicodemus. None of the things that we must
have, not one of them, of these three can we attain ourselves,
in and of ourselves, on our own merits. We can't produce it,
we can't earn it, there's nothing we can do, but we must have them.
We must have the birth certificate, we must have the passport, the
rite of passage, and we must have a clean record. Here in John chapter 3 let's
read verse 1-9. You know the account here. He says, There was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to
Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Do you love
when the Lord He didn't acknowledge what Nicodemus said at all. Did
you notice that? He didn't say, yes, I am a man
of the Lord, or yes, and he didn't acknowledge it. He said, except
you be born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. He got
right to the root of the problem, didn't he? Here's the problem,
you're self-righteous and you must be born again. Now let's
see what Nicodemus says, verse four. Nicodemus saith unto him,
how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, you must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth. So
is everyone that is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and
said unto him, how can these things be? That's the question,
isn't it? That's the question. How can
these things be now up to this point? It's clear that Nicodemus
was wise in his own eyes. He was a ruler. What does it say here? Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews. He would have been an educated
man to be a ruler of the Jews. So up till this point, Nicodemus
was wise in his own eyes. He would have known the Torah.
He would have known, probably had it memorized, I would imagine,
all the laws and things that they had for him. He would have
been a keeper of all those things. He was wise in his own eyes.
So at the end of it all, when the Lord tells him, you must
be born again, he says, how can these things be? I would ask
us the same. How can these things? You're
going to have to do all the work. I can't choose to be born again.
We can't make a spiritual decision in the flesh. This is not what
men are preaching. They say you can make a decision
and it has something to do with your spirit. It's not true that
which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the
Spirit of Spirit. No, can't choose. Matter of fact, we're limited
by our will, aren't we? And our will would not choose
spiritual things, even if it was an option, but it's not.
No, if we are going to see the kingdom of God, if we are going
to enter unto his throne and obtain mercy, we must be born
again. He has to be the one to do it.
We must be born from above, not from here, born by his spirit,
born by his power. Aren't you thankful that at the
appointed time, it comes to pass, at the appointed time. You can
read so many times in the scripture, it came to pass, it came to pass.
We're here tonight, it came to pass, that everyone that's present,
Lord's purpose for you to be here, here you are, it came to
pass. That's the same with the Lord's gospel going forth and
someone hearing it for the first time in the heart, the Lord saying,
live to that soul that was lost and dying, dead, says live, and
they take the first breath of faith. They see Christ, they
believe him. And that's exactly what we keep doing,
isn't it? We just wanna see more and more
of him. He says, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Born of water and the
spirit. Water is the word, we know that.
It's the Lord that does the work. Now when it comes to having a
birth certificate, usually, and you all that's had children know
this to be true, they'll come in and gather the information
from you. What do you want to name the child? What do you want
to, and you get the birth certificate information. That's done in the
first day or two, is it not? At least that's been my accounts
with it. First day or two, they'll ask
you information, but yeah, that's not how our Lord did it. No,
as a matter of fact, he wrote the names of everyone that he
was going to cause to be born again in the Lamb's Book of Life
before the world ever began. That's where the birth certificate
is. It's the Lamb's Book of Life. There's only one that was found
worthy to open that book and to loose the seals thereof. It's
the one that redeemed his people, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if
we're in Christ, we have a birth certificate. He will birth us
at the appointed time. He will say, live. He will say,
live. Don't you love that he wrote
the book, and then he creates all things in order for everything
to come to pass, but the redemption was already there in glory. I
mean, think about how, what a, we can't enter into that, but
that's exactly what he did from the foundation of the world,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The grace of our
Lord was given to his people before time ever began. He created all things for the
purpose of redeeming every name in that book, and then he successfully
saved every single person he died for, didn't he? Then in
time, at his appointed time, not up to me and you, if it was
up to me and you, We would we would mess it up first of all,
but we desire to see our families believe we desire to see our
children say we desire these things together. We pray for
one another in those things. But at his appointed time, they'll
hear. They'll hear at his appointed
time. I like what the scripture says, my times are in thy hand,
oh Lord. Every second that ticks, that's
my time is in thy hand, oh Lord. It's his time, isn't it? It's
his time. And in time, he says, live according
to his purpose. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear God. Depart from evil. There's no other salvation outside
of God doing everything, doing everything. There's no birth
certificate outside of him causing us to be born again, is there?
You can't forge it. I know there's some people that
forge birth certificates. You've heard of stuff like that, I'm
sure. Lie on your birth certificate. You can't lie. It ain't gonna
work. It has to be the genuine article purchased by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has to be. Now the second
thing I want us to look at is the rite of passage. Second thing
required, we have three things needed. Birth certificate, passport,
and a clean record. So second thing is passport.
Turn with me to Colossians 1. Colossians 1, we're gonna read
verses 12 through 20. What is our right of passage?
What right do I have to be in the Lord's heaven and glory?
Let's read Colossians 1 12, giving thanks unto the father, which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. in whom
we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all the fullness
dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven. What is your rite
of passage? It's the blood of the lamb. He,
by himself, hath reconciled his people back to him. He, by himself,
hath shed his blood and thereby redeeming his people. When we
get there, the Lord's not going to be looking for my merits.
He's not going to be looking for my self-righteousness. Whenever
the death angel came in Egypt, what was he looking for? The
blood. That's it, nothing else, not a decision made, not a prayer
prayed, not the money that you've given to the church, the time
that, how many times we've worshiped it, none of that matters. Not
when it comes to salvation. He's looking for the blood. And if he sees the blood, you've
been accepted in the beloved. You've been deemed perfect. You've been washed. You've been
sanctified. You've been justified. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished on the cross of Calvary for his people. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood, his people, we have the
right of passage. That blood is our right. He's
given it to his people. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It's not a right that we have
merited or earned or I have the right to do this. The Lord's
the one that said it. The Lord's the one that said
you're justified freely by grace. We believe that, don't we? It's
the blood alone, that's it. Peter said, you weren't redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The precious blood. We have redemption through that
blood. The remission of sins. We, by the grace of God, hear
our master, our father's voice saying, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden. Come to the throne of grace to
find grace and mercy in the time of need. He says that to his
people. What gives us the right to do that? The blood of Christ. The blood of Christ freely given
to his people. He made peace through that blood,
the blood of his cross. That's, that's the rite of passage. It's the passport, if you will.
I don't know how else to say it. The last thing I want to
look at is a clear record. A clear record. Now I can have
a birth certificate and I can have a passport. But if they
run the numbers, if they run the databases, and all the computers
start syncing up, and they found out that I was doing something
I wasn't supposed to do in Texas, and I'm trying to leave the country,
they're not going to let me leave, are they? They're going to hold me.
They're going to detain me. If they find out I have a warrant
for my arrest, I can't leave the country. I can't go somewhere
else. If I'm going to a country, and they find out I'm coming,
and I've done something previous in that country, they won't allow
me to enter in. Well, then they'll start turning me away or punish you.
You gotta have a clean record. Now when it comes to eternal
things, I'm not just talking about, you know, anything less
than a misdemeanor and you're okay. That's not what I'm talking
about. No, as a matter of fact, it's never sinning one time. That's the qualification. Never
sinning one time. Being as holy as God is right
now. That's what's required. If we,
that's, This is who God is. This is what he requires. Absolute
perfection. And you and I can't produce that.
You and I can't merit that. You and I can't obtain to that.
We can't obtain it by what we do. So what is our hope? Turn with me to Romans five. I wanna read just a couple verses
here, Romans five. Romans five, verse eight through
11 says, so then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God,
I'm in chapter eight. I'm so sorry. I apologize. Chapter five, verse eight, chapter
five, verse eight. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. You know what that word justified
means? You go to a court of law, and you're guilty of something.
The judge can declare you innocent, but you still may be guilty of
it. Perhaps it's a minor offense.
It's a speeding ticket. You go before him and say, well,
I was having a bad day, or I was this and that. Can you just have
mercy? And the judge says, sure, let's just throw this one out.
That's not justified. There was no justice at all served
in that. Justified doesn't mean just as
if I didn't ever sin. Justified means you've never
sinned one time. Not one time. That's what the
blood of Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. He took
every sin of every one of his elect, every one that he was
dying for, he took every one of them and owned them and put
every one of them away. They're gone. We read in the
first, in Psalm, as our call to worship, he said, as far as
the East is from the West, that's how far he separated us from
our transgression. That's how far he's separated
us from our sin. They're gone. You can go east
all you want. You'll never hit west. You can
go west all you want. You'll never hit east. They're
gone. They're gone. We have a clean
record. When he by himself purged, You
know what that word purged means? One of the definitions of it
is disappeared. Disappeared. I love that. When
he had by himself disappeared our sin, made it gone, he sat
down. That's Hebrews chapter one. He
tells us in Revelation one, he loved us. and washed us with
his own blood. Every sin gone, he poured out
his soul into the Father, till the Father's justice was satisfied
for his people, till the sword was satisfied with the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Isaiah tells us, chapter
one, verse 18, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool. How can that be? We started by
asking, how can a sinner be made right? How can a leper be made
clean? How can that which is born of a woman, that which is
born in sin, to be justified? Is it my washing? Is it my doing? Is it my praying, my reading? No, it's His washing, isn't it?
It's His washing. It's what He did on the cross
for His people. Him offering Himself up to the
Father, and the Father being well pleased with His Son. It's his sacrifice. He, by himself,
made his people the very righteousness of God in him. No wonder Paul
said in Romans 11, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God. We're still talking about wisdom
a little bit, aren't we? Be not wise in your own eyes.
If we take away from these three at any point, we're wise in our
own eyes. But the wisdom, we see the wisdom of God the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Can you explain
how his people have a clear record? Well, I have been explaining
it to some degree, but we can't understand it. We still see the
sin that we are, don't we? Not him. Not him, they're gone. Every time the accuser stands
up there and says, well, so-and-so's doing this or so-and-so's doing
that, that's what the accuser does. Lord said, sin's gone,
been put away. There's the blood. Perfectly righteous. Think about
this, brethren. On judgment day, I wrote down
the word background check. Lord don't have to do a background
check, does he? He already knows. He knows your thoughts. Far off. Before you even think of him,
he knows them. But metaphorically, on Judgment Day, we now down
here have background checks. And that's what the airport would
be if you're trying to leave the country. They're going to pull
your information. They're going to find in a database. Well, when Judgment
Day comes, the background check happens. The Lord is gonna declare
each and every one of his people as perfectly righteous on that
day. Enter in, thou good and faithful
servant. You have a birth certificate,
you have a passport, and you have a clean record. You have
a clean record. Back to our text in closing. All false religion messes up
one of these some way, shape, or form. Either in them obtaining
a birth certificate by what they do, they're accepting or rejecting,
that would be one way. Adding to or taking away the
finished work of Christ, that's tampering with the blood is what
that is, or attempting to. That's messing with the rite
of passage then, isn't it? There's only one way to have
the clean record, and that's God's gotta do it. He's gotta
do it all. So brethren, be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear
the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel.
You know what that word means? Medicine. How's a leper gonna
be clean? The medicine, the blood of the
lamb. That's how. The balm of Gilead. It'll be health to thy navel
and marrow to thy bones. That marrow means watering. It's
the water. That's the Lord's word, isn't
it? This is all about him. This is
all about his finished work. Be not wise in thinking there
is an escape if we don't have these three things. Scripture
says how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which
at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto
us by them that heard him? How can we escape? There is no
escape. We must have these three given of God only to his people
all by grace. I love our I love grace, don't
you? Seeing it, believing it, praising
the Lord for it. It's it's. That's what's the
Lord by grace, are you saved through faith? That's what gives
us hope, isn't it? It's grace. We other places talk
about grace and then they add one to one or two things to it's
not grace anymore. We preach the Lord's free and
sovereign grace here and we can rest. We can rest because the
Lord has given us the birth certificate and the passport. He's given
us a clean record. In Christ, we have all three
of these by his blood, by his choosing, by his power, by his
spirit, the sovereign God that we talked about the very beginning,
the one we've been preaching about this entire time. He is
still seated on his throne, calling his people at the appointed time,
showing them the blood, revealing Christ to them, telling them
you have a clean record. You have a clean record. I'm
giving you a rite of passage in the blood. And I have burst
you into the family of God. You have a birth certificate.
We have the three things required. Let's pray. Father calls us not
to be wise in our own eyes, but bow unto you. And thank you for
providing these three things. In Christ's name, amen.