Hebrews chapter three. Our topic and our title this
morning is God's way, God's way. It's found here in our text,
Hebrews chapter three, let's read verse seven through 11.
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the
day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore, I was grieved
with that generation, and said, they do always err in their heart,
and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath they shall
not enter into my rest. Title is God's way at the end
of verse 10. He says they have not known my
ways. That word ways could be singular or it could be plural.
They chose translators chose to make it plural, but the word
could be singular and I believe it is. God's only got one way
and his name is Jesus Christ, isn't it? If a man or a woman
is going to be saved, no matter their creed, no matter their
beliefs, no matter their race, no matter their IQ. And I'm thankful
for that, for all of this, because some of us, if it was up to our
IQ, we would have no hope, would we? But if it's going to be salvation,
to be given to a sinner, a man or a woman, regardless of the
individual, it's going to be God's way. It's got to be God's
way. When Christ said he is the way,
that wasn't a metaphor, and it wasn't that men say, okay, I
have to go by Christ, I have to go through him, I have to
do something through him to be saved. No, Christ said I am the
way, I am salvation. He has to do, he has to cause,
he has to make. You and I can't choose. He's
God by him. That's how we're saved. God's
way is by him, by his power, by his choice, by his doing alone. So many hear Christ, so many
hear of Christ and hear of the Lord and they refuse to bow. They create a falseness about
God. They create a false entity is
what they do. I mentioned Wednesday night about
how men will go and there's an article in your bulletin regarding
this. They'll chop down a tree to make their own idol and they'll
hew out that tree the way they want their idol to be. throw
away the parts that they don't want of the idol, and now they
have their idol, they've painted it the color that they want.
That's a metaphor for what men do in the heart. Men don't have
literal statues that they bow down to, they'll have crucifixes
and things, and I realize that, all of it's graven images, but
I'm saying that Really, it's in the heart. That's where men
have these graven images and they have an image of God. They
have an image of Christ. They have a form of godliness,
but they deny the power thereof. Men lie, women lie to themselves
that he's like we are and he's not. This is what the Lord says
in Psalm 50. Thou thoughtest I was altogether
such in one as thyself, but I will reprove thee. and set them in
order before thine eyes. If God doesn't reprove us, that
word reprove means to rebuke, it means to correct, it means
to chasten. If he doesn't reprove us, we're
gonna just continue doing the same thing we've always done,
believing the same lie. It may take different shapes
and different forms, but we won't come to Christ that we might
have life. He must cause us to do that. We would deceive ourself. We will liken God into a creature. That's what he said in Romans
chapter one, they've worshiped and served the creature more
than the creator. Why is that? Because it's what is seen. That's
what is seen with the natural eye. We try to liken God into
what we see by nature, but he's nothing like what we have ever
seen with our eye. Sure, we have glimpses of his
glory in nature and how there's a beauty. We saw the eclipse
this week. I saw a rainbow yesterday. All the things in nature's bursting
forth right now with new life and the flowers are coming up.
All the birds are singing and what a glorious time spring is,
but none of those reveal the true glory of the Lord found
only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can't be found
just by searching in nature or just by reading the Bible. No,
if we're gonna be saved, it's gonna have to be God's way. He's
gonna have to reveal himself. He's gonna have to do it. He's
gonna have to tell us and teach us and reprove us as he just
said here. We teach our children at a young age, we were
taught probably use your imagination. You ever heard that before? Imagination
is. I'm not preaching against telling your children to use
their imagination. I'm just telling you that's what we do as parents. Use your imagination, and kids
will play, and my daughters, they had stuffed animals, Barbie
dolls, whatever else, and they'll sit there and have full-blown
conversations with these characters, giving them different personalities,
giving them different scenarios, and they'll play all day long. But using your imagination when
it comes to the things of God is not a good thing. You know
why? Because the imagination of the
heart of man is only on evil and that continually. We can't
imagine him. We can't pretend to come up with
an idea of God and it be right. But the good news of the gospel,
he says, they all shall be taught of me. This is how he saves his
people his way. He teaches them. He shows them.
He gives understanding. He is God. He is other than what
we believe he is in our mind, naturally. He shows us that he
is seated on the throne, that he is sovereign, that everything
he does, he's successful. He's never failed. He can't fail.
Everything comes to pass because he's ordered it. He's purposed
it. He's different than we are in every single way. He's not
like us. Thank God because of this, he
does all the saving for his elected people. He does all the saving.
If he did 99% of the saving and it was up to us to figure out
the 1%, we'd be in trouble, wouldn't we? We'd be lost. We'd be lost. There would be no salvation for
anyone. But God saves his people his way 100% without our input. without our contribution, without
our opinion, without our consent. We don't even consent
to it, do we? He gives us a new nature that
desires him, but he saved us before time ever began. Who has
he counseled with? Did he counsel with you and I?
Would you mind if I created the universe? and all the splendor
therein and make a form called the earth and put you upon it
and then save you by sending my own son. He didn't converse
with us. No, God counseled with God and
determined before time that he would save his people from their
sin through and by the finished work of Christ on the cross. Now here in our text, this is
a direct quote from Psalm 95 verses 8 through 11. I'm not
going to have us turn there because it's verbatim. It's the exact
same word. David said this, and that's why
the writer of Hebrew says, as the Holy Spirit says, as the
Holy Spirit hath said, as the Holy ghost said. He's speaking
of Israel. Israel who in time past had been
brought out of Egyptian bondage and that has been the theme throughout
this. He's saying unto them, harden
not your hearts as in the day of provocation and temptation
of the wilderness. He's talking about the Hebrews
as they come out of Egypt. Now think about what they physically
saw. We're talking about how we can't use our imagination
to imagine who God is and come to a true understanding. And
we're talking about only being able to liken Him unto things
we see and being wrong in doing so. We can't see anything that's
gonna make us believe God. Salvation's a work in the heart
by grace alone. The children of Israel are a
great example of this. Coming out of Egypt, they saw
the 10 plagues of Egypt. They literally saw darkness that
overshadowed that they said felt. They saw the frogs come forth.
They saw the lice. They saw the locusts eat up everything.
They saw all these things happen, the boils that were on the Egyptians. And yet, Israel was spared of
all this. It didn't come upon them like
it did the Egyptians. Why? They were under the mercy
of God. They were God's chosen people.
And that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of
Calvary and us being in him, just like the ark during Noah's
time. And when the wrath fell, we're saved from the wrath because
we're in Christ. We're his chosen people, saved
in Christ. Well, what else did the children
of Israel see? They saw that the death angel did not kill
their firstborn. Whenever he came looking, he
saw the blood upon the, how did they know to put blood upon their
door? God said, do it. He said, whenever I see the blood,
I will pass by you. And they believed enough to put
the blood on the doorpost and the lintel and the death angel
passed by. But unto the Egyptians, all their
firstborn died. Then a great deliverance was
given. It says some 3 million or so was brought out of Egypt. They took the spoils of Egypt.
They took everything they want. Pharaoh said, just get out of
here. And they're going across the wilderness at that point,
the desert, and they come upon the Red Sea and they see Pharaoh's
army coming up behind them. And they thought, the Lord's
just delivered us in order to kill us out here in the wilderness,
in the desert. And what does God do? He protects
them behind with the pillar of fire and he opens up the water
in front of them, the Red Sea. And so they walk across on dry
land, on the Red Sea, they walk across the water that God's parted.
The most amazing part of that is they had to, they couldn't
have seen the other side. They couldn't, from the time
that it was parted, they had every step that they took had
to be believing God was gonna keep that water up, and that's
us. We can't see the other side, physically speaking. Every step
we take is by faith, the faith of Christ. It's in him we live
and move and have our being, and all that we count on is his
word alone. Every step we take, we're walking
across dry ground, And the water just keeps parting back and parting
back, doesn't it? And we believe Him. We believe
Him. They made it to the other side, didn't they? And what happened?
Pharaoh's army was drowned in the deep. God destroyed their
enemies. And they sung a new song. Moses
sung a new song, and the children of Israel rejoiced at all of
this. And then they get to Mount Sinai. God gives them a tablet.
They come down, and they had made a golden calf and said,
this is your God. Worship Him. This is the one
that brought you up out of Egypt. Why? They wanted something they
could see. Everything about what they believed
in was off of sight. And that is what men and women
today are caught up in. They want to see something miraculous. People ask, what do you have
at your church for the children? And I said, the gospel. That's
it. The gospel. And it's enough.
It's more than enough. It's what they need. More than
anything else. More than recreation. More than playtime. They need
to hear the gospel. What do you have for the adults?
The young married couples? The gospel. That's it. It's the
same gospel. That's what the Lord uses to
save his people, to call them out of darkness into his marvelous
light. That's all we have. We don't have don't have plays,
do we? Depicting of crucifixion. We don't have cantatas. We don't have we have the gospel
and the gospel is enough. And if we're going to be saved
God's way. It's going to come through and by the gospel. That's
how he saved sinners. The preaching of the gospel. Not in what we see, not in what
we experience. Now, salvation is an experience.
Don't misunderstand that. You will. Whereas I was blind,
now I see. But we don't look to an experience
and a time and a place that something happened and say, well, I know
I got saved because of this. That's not what we do. Nowhere
like the blind man. Whereas I was blind, now I see.
I just, I've got to have Christ. Children of Israel arrive all
the way to the border of the promised land. God brought them
there. Did you know that that was only an 11-day journey from
Mount Sinai to Canaan? 11 days. They're right there
on the border of the promised land. They could have just marched
right in, been done with it. They sent out spies, they sent
12 spies to be exact, and two of them were Caleb and Joshua.
Caleb and Joshua came back and said, we can take it. Lord's
on our side, we can take it. They didn't care what they saw
because they believed God. That's evident because they were
the only two that actually got to go into the promised land
that originally came out of Egypt. They believed God, the only two.
The rest of them died off in the wilderness. For 40 years
they had to wander around because everybody else said there's no
way. There's giants there. There are great beasts there.
The grasshoppers are too big. We can't even fight the grass.
Everything that they were afraid of in their mind was more than
they didn't have faith. We're gonna hear about that the
second hour. They didn't have faith to believe God. That was
the problem, wasn't it? God let them die in the wilderness
in unbelief. And then after the last one had
passed, they were able to enter in into the promised land. Joshua
led them into the promised land. The problem wasn't that they
feared the giants. And the reason that you and I
are not saved is not because We're really afraid of this or
we're afraid of that. It comes down to this. We don't
believe God. If we're not saved, we don't
believe God. It's that simple. It's that simple. No one is saved by physical sight. That's not God's way. If you
are waiting. If you are waiting to come to
Christ. For an experience or for something
that you see or for something that you feel, you'll never come.
Coming to Christ is coming as a beggar. Not seeing something
physical, but seeing a spiritual need. Seeing your depravity,
your sin that you can't do anything about. Having the need of the
Savior. Having put away that sin. That's
what coming to Christ is. That's how we come to be saved
God's way. That's why He says here in verse
7, Today, if you will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts. Now, the hardening of the heart
is not just simply raising our fist at God. And that is what
our flesh loves to do that in pride. But the hardening of the
heart that he's talking about here is turning away the deaf
ear, not heeding, not coming to Christ. That's hardening of
the heart. He's saying, if you hear, come to Christ today. Today, right now, this is always
the day of salvation. The scripture says today is the
day of salvation. Now is the appointed time. That's
the call that goes forth. It's never tomorrow is the day
of salvation. It's always a right now. This
is God's gospels are right now. Gospel right now. Salvation.
Because it's life and death, brethren. How many times in the
Old Testament do we see the prophets say, judgment's coming, repent
and believe. Judgment's coming, repent and
believe. And did they? No, not usually.
Think about Noah preaching for a hundred years. Did you know
it took him a hundred years to build that ark? It's a long time. Every day, he's out there building
an ark. It's gonna rain, it's gonna rain. Yeah, okay. Yeah,
you've been on that thing for 85 years now. It's not gonna
rain. You've lost your mind. You've been going to that little church
in Ole for however long now, nothing's changed. You know,
you've lost your mind. We have this and we have that.
You don't understand, the rain's coming. The rain's coming. You
don't understand, the wrath of God's coming. We've been made
to know who God is, and if we're gonna be saved, we have to be
saved God's way. We have to be in the ark. Yeah,
I mean, I hear what you're saying, but I think you're crazy. That's
what people will say. They don't want to be saved God's
way. Why didn't they believe? Because
they refuse God's way. It's the same as all men. They
said about the Lord, well, isn't this Joseph and Mary's son? Isn't
this the carpenter's son? We know who this is. He's not
God. He's not the Messiah. There's
nothing special about him. And yet there was those that
came to him, crying out unto him, Lord, save me. Lord, I believe that thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. Not just because He healed
the blind men. That affirmed who He was, not
just because He healed the leper and He gave sight to the blind
men and He healed the lame. That affirmed who He was in signs
and wonders. But those that believed, believed
His word. Not just what they saw, they
believed His word. Whenever the Lord said, take
up your bed and walk, they took up their bed and walked. Do we
see that? They believed His word. The woman at the well said, well,
tell me who the Messiah is, that I may have this water, that I
may know him. He said, I am, and she believed. She left her water pot. She didn't
need to know that he had healed lame men. She didn't need to
know that he had given sight to blind men. She knew one thing,
whenever he said, I am, she was made to believe. That's how God
saves sinners. He says, I am. And we find ourself
saying, truth, Lord, you are, and I'm not, I'm not God. Turn with me to John chapter
12. This is an interesting portion
of scripture where the Lord is speaking to the unbelieving Jews. He tells us a few reasons as
to why they're not believing. Verse 35 of John chapter 12 says,
Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with
you. Walk while you have the light,
lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whether he goeth. While you have light, believe
in the light, that you may be the children of light. Now look
at what he says here. These things spake Jesus and
departed and did hide himself from them. Now salvation, what
we're preaching today is God's way. God's way is to reveal Christ
to whomsoever he will. And it says right here that Christ
hid himself from them. Does that mean he physically
hid himself? It's possible. But because they didn't believe,
which we find out just in a moment, we'll read the next verse, but
though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. They didn't believe him. They
saw the miracles physically. They saw all the things that
he had done, and yet he hid himself from them. He did not reveal
himself to them. Someone says that that's not
fair, that he should have revealed himself to them and given them
a chance. But understand something about God. No one can blame God
for not giving them something they do not want. What did they
say about Christ? Away with this man. We do not
want him. And God didn't give them Christ.
You and I are the same by nature. We would say away with this man.
No one can blame God for not giving them what they do not
want. They did not want Christ. God did not give them Christ.
God cannot be blamed for that. It's on you and me. If we don't
want Christ, we won't have him. But the Lord creates a need in
his people by grace alone, showing us what we are, that we have
to have him. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. I have a need. Have mercy on
me, the sinner. I have a heart problem. Lord,
save me. I'm dying. I'm lost. I'm going
to perish. Save me. Lord, I'm a leper. I'm unclean. If you don't cleanse
me, I'm going to die in this condition. See, only those that
had a need came to Christ for the Lord to meet that need. And
those that need Christ are always given Christ. This is how God
saves his people, his way. He gives the need, and then he
meets the need with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read 37 through
41. Though he had done so many miracles
before them, yet they believed not on him. that the saying of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report? And whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Now that is a quote from Isaiah
53. But think about the wording here,
what he's saying. Who hath believed our report
and whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Those are
hand in hand. The only ones that believe the report are the ones
whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. No one will believe the report
without the arm of the Lord revealing it. That's what he's saying here.
Verse 39, therefore they could not believe that Isaiah said
again, he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart
that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with
their heart and be converted and I should heal them. These
things Isaiah, said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of
him. Now here's the light of the world.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, in human flesh right
before them. They could not see him. They
would not bow to him. They hated him. They tried to
kill him so many times for telling them the truth. They would not
be saved God's way. It says in verse 36 that he hid
himself. He hid himself from them. He
hardened their heart. He blinded their eyes. How did
he do that? How does God harden someone's heart? How does he
blind their eyes? Are we not born with a heart
of stone? Are we not born dead and trespasses
and in sin and unable to see the things of God, spiritually
speaking? That means to us, we know the truth. All that God
has to do is leave someone to themselves. Leave some, not speak
to them, not come to them, not say live. And he's hardened them
and he's blinded them. That's the simplicity of it.
But if you and I are to be saved, he must come to where we are
and say live. He must come to where we are
and say, receive thy sight. Otherwise we'll be like these
in verse 37. They believe not on him, even
though they saw all these things, they said, well, we, we have
some understanding of the Messiah. We see all the miracles. They
did not believe him. They did not believe him. And
he tells us why in verse 43, look at verse 43, for they loved
the praise of men more than the praise of God. All that the Lord
has to do because we love ourself. We love the praise of men. We
worship ourself by nature. Every one of us are our own idols.
And you know it's true. Everybody has their own favorite
everything. We don't think of others like
we think of ourself. We won't, I've said this before,
we like the temperature a certain way in our house. I have my chair
that I sit in and my favorite food, my favorite color. It's
all about, it's all from birth. We're just about ourself, aren't
we? We are, for all the Lord has to do for us not to believe
is nothing. Nothing. He doesn't have to do anything
for us not to believe. That's exactly what will happen. We'll
continue not believing. He doesn't have to do anything.
By nature, what we are by nature, being born in sin, shaping in
iniquity. We hate God in our natural state,
our flesh. We love darkness. In the gospel of John chapter
one, he says that men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds are evil. We love darkness. We love darkness. Darkness is what we are, what
we like to hide in. We will always choose ourself. We will always choose our way.
Proverbs 21, two says there is, or it says every man, every way
of a man is right in his own eyes. Every way of man is right
in his own eyes. Whenever you hear this gospel
message, if the Lord in mercy does not reveal it to be the
truth and give repentance and faith, everyone that hears this,
they will justify themselves. They will say, no, I'm right.
I believe this. I believe this to be true. Because
every man in his own eyes is right. But the Lord pondereth
the hearts. Can you imagine living your entire
life believing that you've been working towards something. And
i'm not talking about a physical thing i'm talking spiritually
speaking you've been working you've been doing you've been
trying to. be prosperous in the Church and
help out in the Community and and go knocking on doors and
really trying to be what men call soul winners and really
giving. Efforts in what looks to be very good things to do
humanitarian Lee and the church has grown and so many people
are coming and yet. At the very end of it all, you
stand before God and he says, depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. I never knew you. This is what's
on the line right now is the truth, the truth and the lie. If we are working to try to obtain
salvation, that's exactly what's going to be said. These that
I'm mentioning are not ones that come to Christ needing salvation.
They are doing in order to earn salvation, earn favor. Cain did
exactly the same thing. Cain was not frivolous in his
efforts. He was not. Was he bad? I mean, yes, but Abel was bad,
too. It was all because of the blood of Christ that Abel, and
because of election, that Abel believed God by faith. If it
hadn't been for that, Abel would have done the same thing Cain
did. But Cain started working for the Lord. He was really working
for God. He was doing his very, very best. He didn't bring the worst vegetables.
You know, I remember last year having a garden, and I would
take vegetables out and I would eat some of the vegetables, but
as the vegetables started getting to time where they were going
to start rotting, I thought, well, I better give these away. I didn't take
the vegetables and immediately start handing out the best ones.
You know, I mean, that's, it's our nature. That's what we are
by nature. It's what we do. Cain brought his very, very,
very best. The best fruit he'd ever grew.
The best vegetables. He put Miracle Grill on that
every day. He made sure the sun hit it just right. He watered
that. He nurtured it. He tended to it. He made sure
it was perfect in his eyes. And by our standard, it would
have been perfect. Best tomatoes you've ever seen. Prize winning
pumpkin at the fair. It would have been everything that we
could have dreamed it would be. We'd have said, man, Cain, you
have done a really good job for God. You've done a really good
job for God. There's one problem. Cain brought
the works of his hands. The works of his hands. He didn't
want to be saved God's way. What is God's way? Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. No matter
how much fruit and vegetables we bring, no matter how much
money we give, how much time we devote, no matter what we
do, we cannot win favor with God. Christ Jesus is the only
one that is well-pleasing to the Father. Cain's sacrifice
was rejected, completely rejected, and Cain became wroth. And God
told him, if you would do good, would you not be received? But
because you've done this, Lord says he had no respect to Cain
or to Cain's sacrifice. And just as all men that the
Lord does not show mercy to, Cain in pride lifted up himself
and saying, I'm going to take matters into my own hands. If
you're pleased with him and not pleased with me, I'm going to
kill him. Now you'll be pleased with me.
And that's exactly the opposite, isn't it? It's not gonna make
it better, it made it worse. Now he's guilty of murder on
top of, and he's cursed to be a vagabond. He never found a
place of repentance, though he sought it with tears. Was never
given a place of repentance. Why? Repentance is from the Lord.
When the Lord says, repent, the believer knows, Lord, give me
repentance. Give me repentance. Don't give me the option to repent.
Cause me to repent. Because if you say repent, I
don't know how. How am I gonna change my mind
from thinking of myself all the time in my flesh? No, Lord, I
wanna be saved your way. Save me 100%. Save me completely. Give me true repentance. Give
me true faith that looks to Christ. Otherwise, I'm gonna be like
Cain and offer myself up in my works. Job 9.4 said, Who hath hardened
himself against him and hath prospered? The answer is no one. No one has. There is a way that
seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The way of man is not the way
of God. Let's finish reading this here in verse 44. Jesus
cried and said, he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but
on him that sent me. And he that seeth me, seeth him
that sent me. I am come a light into the world,
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him
not. For I am come not, for I came
not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth
me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him. The
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day. For I have not spoken of myself,
but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment that
I should say and what I should speak. What I should say and
what I should speak. And I know that his commandment
is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak, therefore,
even as the father saith unto me, so I speak. If we are to
be saved, it's going to have to be God's way. He says here
that God's commandment is life. Life everlasting. I know his
commandment is life everlasting. The only way that you and I can
be saved is if he commands us to be saved. He had to do the
entire work. He had to every single point,
every single nothing could be left undone or will not be saved.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation God's way means we
are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Understand
to not trust Christ is to not trust God. To not believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ is to not believe on God at all. How is
it that Israel saw all the plagues, saw the Red Sea, saw the manna,
saw that their shoes never, can you imagine 40 years of flip
flops never wearing out? 40 years, their clothes never
gave out. They didn't have washing machines. I mean, think about it. Their
clothes never wore out, neither did their shoes. They had water
that came out of a rock. They made the Lord angry. The
serpents came and bit them, and the Lord gave them a remedy.
Look to the pole, look to the serpent on the pole. That was
the Lord Jesus Christ. The snake being the only cursed
animal, the Lord had to be made a curse for his people. If we're
gonna be saved, we have to look to the serpent on the pole, the
one that became cursed for his people. They saw all of this
and did not believe why. They did not want to be saved
God's way. Salvation's by grace through
faith. in that not of yourself, it is
a gift of God. You and I can't contribute to
it. You and I can't detract from it. That means we can't add to
it. We can't take away from it. We can't constrain God. We can't
restrain God. Everything that he does, he does
according to his determinant counsel, because of his foreknowledge,
according to his sovereign choice and purpose given to his people
in Christ Jesus before the world ever began. Jude chapter one tells us why.
Or he tells us to remember, he said, I will put you in remembrance.
Though you once knew this, how the Lord having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed them that believe not.
Though came all of them came out of Egypt, but the ones that
didn't believe the Lord destroyed them. Only those who are called
out of darkness are saved God's way. It's It's He that teaches
His people. It's He that hath made us and
not we ourself. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture, Psalm 100 tells us. We must be taught of God,
by God, according to His will. Otherwise we will look around
and think that we've seen something, think that we have it figured
out. We won't know who God is. Ever learning and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth. The reason is, is the
natural man receiveth not the things of God. They're contrary
to him. They're foolishness to him. Our
natural man, everything pertaining to God, our natural man says
that's foolishness. That's foolishness. Right now.
Right now, our flesh says that's foolishness. You ever been thinking
about after, and answer this in your heart, honestly. You
ever been processing election, processing God's sovereignty,
processing the gospel. And you begin to think for just
a moment how frustrating it is, because you don't have any control
or power. But you have a new man on the
opposite side of that says, no, that's how it has to be. That
rejoices all. Your flesh hates the gospel is
what I'm trying to say. It does. It makes the flesh angry. It takes all the power away that
we have. And truly, we had none to begin with. But our new man
rejoices in the Lord and drinks from the fountain of living water,
eats the manna, rejoices and believes. That's what all those
pictures were, is showing us Christ is there through it all.
And that's who we must have. Why do our shoes not give out?
Because we're clothed, our clothes not give out. We're robed in
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We've been saved His way,
the only way. Understand, men say that they have a right to a choice. Hearing the gospel is not a right,
it's a privilege. It's a privilege that was purchased
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. For you
and I to hear, it's a privilege. It's a privilege given freely
by his grace to his people. This gift of life eternal mentioned
in our text, it was purchased by the Lord when he poured out
his own blood, when he poured out his soul unto death for his
people. We must be washed in that same
blood, made as holy as he is. Holiness isn't just what he is,
holiness is who he is. It's the essence of his character
and person. We don't understand that because all we are is sin.
That's what we are is sin. And in closing, I want to bring
this to our attention. There's a lot of people that
profess to know God. A lot of people that profess
to believe God, but they refuse to obey him. The commandment
to obey the Lord is not a complicated one. It's a very simple command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's not complicated, is it?
But it's impossible to do without faith. He must give that faith. Isaiah 29 tells us, Wherefore,
the Lord saith for as much as this people draw near to me with
their mouth and with their lips, they honor me. They have removed
their heart far from me and their fear towards me is taught by
the precepts of men. And today nothing's changed.
This was written how many thousands of years ago that was that verse
written, and it's exactly the same today, isn't it? Man don't
change. We may, men say, we're evolving. We're not, what is
the word, digressing? We're going backwards. We're
thinking more and more highly of ourself. That's not getting
better, that's getting worse. That's how we remove our heart
from the Lord is refusing to believe the truth, thinking about
ourself more, looking at self, relying on self, because we seek
the praise of men and others. We even seek the praise of ourself.
Look at me, my great Babylon that I have built, Nebuchadnezzar
said. How close can you be to the truth? Well, Judas kissed
his face, followed him around, saw all the miracles of the Lord.
He even cast out demons in the name of the Lord. That's how
close you can be. Kissed his face and he went to hell. Why? He did not want to be saved God's
way. Anyone Anyone that comes to Christ
wanting to be saved, God's way has never been turned away. Not
one. You find it in scripture and
show me, you won't find it. It's not there. Everyone coming
to Christ wanting to be saved, his way. What is his way? Christ
is the way. Everyone coming to Christ, believing
on him, relying on him 100% completely, as all their hope was never turned
away for mercy and grace. Pharaoh saw all the power, saw
all the plagues, saw the Red Sea. Can you imagine the gall
of Pharaoh seeing the Red Sea open? They had just been held
back by the pillar of fire, and now the pillar of fire is gone,
so they can pursue after Israel through the exact same way that
Israel went. I mean, that took a lot of something to go through
the Red Sea that was open, and then, of course, it swallowed
him up. It was pride. It was pride. He didn't believe
that God was any different than his gods. What about the men
that came to Jesus Christ in the garden after he had gotten
done praying? His disciples were there and they said, he said,
whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And he knocked them all back
on the ground. They're laying there for at least
a half a second. What do you think went through
their mind? They just got knocked over by the King of glory. And
they couldn't see him. And they stand back up, and he
says, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I've already told you I am, let these go. And they
let him go. Think about the pride and the
arrogance that's within us, brethren, that would keep us from God if
the Lord had not restrained us, had not taught us, had not revealed
himself as God and abased us completely, showing us that we're
just sinners, needing grace, needing mercy, that we're nothing
without him. Think about the mercy in causing
us to relinquish our power. Pride will keep us from God unless
he says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which
thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. I have saved you,
I have called you, I have redeemed you, you are mine. That's the
gospel, isn't it? That's the good news of the gospel.
Now I wanna close with our text, Hebrews 3. Hebrews chapter three. I'm gonna read this again. These
are just first two verses. Verse seven. Wherefore as the
Holy Ghost saith, today, if you will hear his voice, harden not
your heart. Today. Today, if you will hear
his voice, harden not your heart. My sheep, hear my voice. My sheep
hear my voice, and they love the shepherd because he first
loved them. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Today,
if you hear my voice, harden not your heart. If you hear his
voice today, the salvation the truth that salvation is God's
way by grace alone, by grace alone. If you hear his voice
today, harden not your heart. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Let's pray. Father, cause us
to believe. Cause us to have a need to believe. Cause us to want to believe.
And then cause us to believe, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.