Turn with me in your Bibles to
1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The gospel has always been the
same exact gospel. It's never changed. It is everlasting. I saw online the other day, they
were talking as I was researching some information. Someone asked
the question, what gospel did Christ preach? There's only one. There's only one gospel. Christ
preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of heaven.
That's the same gospel. There wasn't the kingdom of heaven
and then the gospel of Christ and the gospel of God. It's all
the same thing. It's all the exact same thing.
It's always been the same gospel. It's how he saves his elected
sinners by his blood alone. Christ preached the gospel to
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Eve committed the
sin, had the knowledge of good and evil given to her because
of that, eating of the fruit, they sewed fig leaves together,
didn't they? They tried to cover up their
nakedness. They knew they needed a covering. They knew they needed a covering.
And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the cool of the
garden. That's Christ, the voice of God.
That's the word of God. They heard Jesus Christ walking
and calling for them. And they said, he said, who told
you that you were naked? Who told you? Have you eaten
of the fruit? I love the Lord's patience. He made them confess. That's
what he was doing. He knew they had eaten the fruit. He knew
exactly what had happened. He's God. He knows all things. They
were made to confess. He said, Adam said, yeah, this
woman that you gave me, she made me do it. And the woman said,
but the snake, he made me do it. And everybody pointed the
finger, didn't they? We ain't changed a bit, have we? We're
just like them, aren't we? In so many ways, we're just like
them. We know the curse came because of that. But what did
the Lord do in mercy? What did the Lord do? First of
all, he told them the gospel that he's going to put in between
the woman seed and the serpent seed. and that the serpent would
bruise the heel of the seat of the woman, but the Lord would
bruise the head of the serpent." Now, a bruised heel takes, they
said, about three weeks to heal. About three weeks. Well, the
way my little calculator works, If they're saying it was about
6,000 years from that time until the Lord's time, then it took
about 6,000 years for the Lord to recover the heel that was
bruised by our father Adam. Now we know we've always been
in Christ from the foundation of the world, but the Lord healed
it all, didn't he? He fixed every bit of it and restored us farther
than Adam ever. It was far better than it ever
went, Adam. We've been made the righteousness
of God in Christ. We're just as holy as he is. But a bruised
head, on the other hand, There's people that never recover from
that. Our adversary has been conquered.
Our adversary will one day be thrown into the pit forever.
We have a savior that conquered. Conquered him, he bruised his
head. That's the picture. It's the gospel. That's what
he was telling, the gospel. Then he takes a lamb and he covers
him with the skin of that lamb. You must have a covering, not
of your own hands, not of your works. It has to be a sacrifice
of blood. There's the gospel in that. Do
we see that? It's the same exact gospel. The same exact gospel
from the beginning. God only accepts perfection.
You must have a covering. The gospel has not changed from
the very beginning. It's the same gospel Christ preached
to Abraham according to Galatians 3 and in Genesis 17. Throughout
the entire Old Testament, he declares the same gospel to his
chosen people. He revealed it. The gospel is
all God's doing. It's all his choice in revealing
it. It's the mystery that we talked
about the first hour. It's God's choice. It's God's
doing. It points to him and he gets
all the glory for it. God chose to reveal himself in
all types and manners in pictures in the Old Testament, didn't
he? We get to see the gospel in all of them, don't we? If
he chooses to let us see it, we get to see that we see that
Christ is all in it. But now, brethren, we don't have
to have a type and a picture. We have the fullness, the fullness
of the gospel in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire
sum and the entire substance of the gospel. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's the entire sum and he is
the entire substance of his gospel. It's the free grace of God alone
by the work of Christ for his elected centers, it's his blood
alone. He is the seed of the woman. That was promised unto
Eve. He's the one that came to purchase
his people. And yet he wasn't just a man.
He was the God man. He had the blood of his father.
He was perfect. And with that blood, he redeemed
his people. That's the same gospel that it's always been. It always
has been. He's pictured in many of these
types and pictures. He's Abel's lamb. We're going
to look at Cain and Abel here in a minute. But Abel brought
forth a lamb and God was pleased with it. That's Christ, isn't
it? God's only pleased with the lamb. He was Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark was a type of us being
found in Christ and Christ enduring the wrath of God. That's what
the rain represent. That was the judgment of God
for sin. And what happened to the people in the Ark? They were
perfectly fine. They were safe. They were kept
by that Ark, by God's doing. That's the picture is Christ,
isn't it? We've got to be in the Ark. We've got to be found
in Christ. And Abraham and Isaac were going
to make sacrifice. Isaac said, Father, here's the
wood and the fire, but where's the sacrifice? And he said, God
will provide himself a sacrifice. He's Abraham's sacrifice, isn't
he? He's what Abraham looked to. He's what Noah looked to.
He's what Abel looked to. This is the same gospel. It hasn't changed. He was Jacob's
birthright. That's why Jacob wanted the birthright
so bad. He wanted that promise of the Messiah, the promise of
the Savior. He's Daniel's and Ezekiel's vision. That's who
he is. He's Christ. He's the vision
of these prophets. He's Jonah's salvation. You remember
when Jonah was eaten, swallowed up by the whale and he was in
the belly of hell? He says he cried out. What's the last thing
he says? Salvation is of the Lord. He was Jonah's salvation. All the prophets told of judgment.
Yet they all had something else that they said in common. God
will have a remnant. God will save his people. And Steve, you just read that
from Psalm 85. God put away iniquity. God put
away sin. God put away transgression. How
did he do that? By the sacrifice of himself.
He did it all. Christ is the fulfillment of
all God's prophets. He's the end of the law. righteousness
sake, to everyone that believeth, Christ is revealed now unto us
as the sum and the substance of the gospel." Now, men take
the Old Testament, and do we know the definition of testament?
I looked this up. It's the same thing as saying
the last will and testament. It's the will of a man. It's Christ's will revealed in
the Old Testament. It's the same thing in both.
It's the old and the new, but they're saying the same thing,
pointing to the same person, pointing to the same sacrifice,
the same salvation. It's His will. The wonderful
part about it being His will is that He's not depending on
anybody else to keep it. He died. That's whenever a will
becomes enacted, the will doesn't come into effect prior to death,
does it? Death has to happen. And I'm sure there's exceptions
to all the rules, but you understand for the most part that whenever
somebody dies, that's when their will's given forth. Everything
is done according to the will. But he's been resurrected. He's
gonna see to it that his will is carried out, that it is truly
finished. And you and I get to see that
it is because he's seated. It's going to come to pass, everything
that he's purposed, Everything is for him. Everything is to
him. He is the sum and the substance
of faith. He's been revealed that he's
all our righteousness, all of our wisdom, all of our sanctification
and redemption. Now that is what, that's my introduction. And that's what Paul is revealing
here. That's what Paul is revealing
here to the church of Corinth in chapter 10 of first Corinthians.
Let's read verse one. We're gonna read five verses.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how
that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through
the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in
the sea, and did eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink
the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual
rock that followed them, And that rock was Christ. And with many of them, God was
not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. In these few verses, just these
five verses, we have the gospel. We see Christ revealed as the
covering, the cloud that he's mentioning, that's the covering.
That's the Lord being our covering. We see him as the substitute.
When it says they went through the sea, did the sea touch them
in any way? Did the sea bring any harm to them in any way?
That's a representation of death, isn't it? Representation of Him
taking our place in death and conquering it so that we pass
through. Pass through without any damage
happening to us. In these verses we see that He
is the life of His people by the water. of life as the water
of life. They had the same spiritual water,
it says, in the same bread, the spiritual bread. It's him as
the manna. It's him as the bread of life.
And we see him as the rock of his people where everything was
built upon. Everything was built upon. It
was Christ all then and it's Christ all now to his people. He is the foundation whereby
everything, and you can take that word everything as far as
you want to. He is the foundation whereby
everything God's spiritual life comes from. He is the beginning
and the end of all things. He is the sure foundation. That's
why he's called the rock here. He's the sure foundation we live,
by which we live, move, and have our being. That's what I've titled
this message. It's a question. I like, for
some reason, I like asking questions. I like to answer the question.
It's the whole purpose. What's the reason we're here?
To know this question. Who is our rock? Who is our rock? If we have the answer to that,
if Christ is revealed in that to be our rock, that's salvation.
That's salvation. If we see Christ as our rock.
Now, what does it mean, who is our rock? Well, Paul called Christ
the rock of offense and the stone of stumbling. He was repeating
what Isaiah said. He was quoting him. It's because
men see Christ and his gospel as foolishness. Do you remember
last was it Wednesday night we saw that I believe where it says
that unto the Greeks Christ is foolishness and unto the Jews
they stumble at him. They seek after a sign. They seek after a sign. They
can't see him. He's not good enough. They didn't
believe on him for that reason. According to the flesh he is
the rock of offense to this flesh and he is the stone of stumbling.
But to God's people, Christ is the rock whereby we stand, we
live, we move, and we have our being. He is the foundation by
which all things consist of. He's made precious unto his people
by his doing. The glorious news of the gospel
is his people are made precious unto him. He's precious to his
people. but his people are precious unto
him. He's called us precious. I, I
can't enter into that us being precious. That's what he said.
You're his, you're precious. He says, I'm jealous of you.
I'm jealous. You I'm fiercely protective of
you. You're mine. I bought you by
my own blood. Christ Jesus. The rock is the
foundation whereby our salvation is the beginning and our salvation
is finished. I want to show us that. Hold
your place and turn. First Peter Chapter 2. First Peter Chapter 2. Look at verse 7. Unto you, therefore,
which believe he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient.
The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which were stumbling, which stumble at the word being
disobedient. Why are they disobedient? He
tells us, whereunto also they were appointed. Now understand
what this cornerstone is. I brought a message about the
chief cornerstone before. If you haven't heard it, I would
encourage you to listen to it. It would clarify it a little better than
what I'm going to do now. But when they used to build buildings
back in this time, back in Bible times, they didn't have levels
like we have levels. They didn't have I know that
we have a surveyor here today. You have the machines that you
can go out and check the rise and fall and look at locations,
different things like that, market. They didn't have all those tools.
They would start with a cornerstone on a building and everything
would be plumbed and leveled to that cornerstone. Everything
would consist by that cornerstone. Everything after that would happen
because of the cornerstone. What he's saying here is that
Christ Jesus, being the cornerstone of our faith, being the cornerstone
of our righteousness, being the rock that everything was built
upon, no, they disallowed it. They didn't want that one. That
one wasn't good enough for them. They wanted their own cornerstone,
one that they could control, that they got to choose. To you
and I, he's made precious. He's made precious and we see
that it's finished, the entire building. There's nothing left
for you and I to do. We just, you've heard me mention about
building a house. I think I put an article in the bulletin today
for that. Everything is exactly the way he purposed it to be,
isn't it? He's everything. He's everything pertaining to
righteousness and holiness. And he's where everything pertaining
to righteousness and holiness is built. All by his hand, all
by his doing. It's all His faithfulness. It's
all His blood. It's all His death. It's all His burial. It's all
His resurrection. It's His life. It's His keeping
of God's law. It's all His doing. He did it
all. He did it all. He alone is who
we must be found in to please God. Now, I should have told
us to hold our place in our text, and I hope you did, but turn
back with me to 1 Corinthians 10. These that were appointed unto
this stone being a stone of assembling and a rock of offense are mentioned
here. These are the same non-believers
in our text. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and
look at verse five. But with many of them God was
not well pleased. God was not well pleased. What
did he do then? They were overthrown in the wilderness. Do you know what that word overthrown
means? It means killed. put to death. They were overthrown
in the wilderness. Peter just said, where we just
looked, that they are the children of disobedience. They were offended
at him. He was not a good enough cornerstone
for them. You know why that is? They were
appointed to. They were not given faith. See,
the only difference between a believer and a non-believer is a believer
believes because God has made that believer believe. It's that
simple. You're not gonna see some immaculate lifestyle change. God doesn't save the flesh. He
gives us a new nature, doesn't he? One that looks to Christ.
The only difference between a believer and a non-believer is a believer
believes God. He's resting and trusting in
Christ the solid rock for all, for all his righteousness, her
righteousness before God. We know exactly who God is well
pleased with according to Matthew. You remember whenever John the
Baptist saw Christ coming from afar off and he said, behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. The
scripture says the spirit like a dove fell a lot upon his shoulder. An audible voice came from heaven.
And what did God say? This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He's the only one. This rock
that I'm speaking of, he is the only one that God is well pleased
with. We must be found in Him. Philippians
3, 9 says, and being found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. He must be our rock. He must
be what we are standing upon. He must be what we're standing
in. We must be found in Him. If we're going to have a righteousness
before God, It's gotta be his righteousness, otherwise it is
not a righteousness. He must be our everything pertaining
to life, everything pertaining to time, everything pertaining
to eternity, everything pertaining to salvation. We must be hidden
in Christ, our rock. Why? Why must we be hidden? Why can't we allow, allow, that
was a wrong word to use. Why do we hope that we are hidden
in Christ? Why do we hope we are hidden
in Christ? Because we are not well pleasing
to him. It's that simple. None of us
are. None of us. That's the offense,
is none of us are good enough. The whole message that God loves
everybody, that's not built upon the rock. No, that's not a firm
foundation. If God loves everybody and some people die and go to
hell, what does the love of God have to do with salvation? If
he shed his blood for everybody and some perish and go to hell,
what did the blood of Christ accomplish at Calvary's cross?
No, those whom he loved, he redeemed. Those who he shed his blood for
have been sanctified, have been glorified, have been made the
righteousness of God in him already, already. First Samuel 2.2 says,
There is none holy as the Lord, and there is none beside thee.
Neither is there any rock like our God. There's none holy like
him, and there's no rock like our rock. He is holy. He is truth. He is just. He demands perfection. And we are molded in sin, shapen
in iniquity. We must have his faith. We must
have. God must give us Christ as our
foundation or we have no hope of eternal life. He must be our
rock. Deuteronomy 32 tells us he is
the rock. His work is perfect for all his
ways. All his ways are judgment. A
God of truth and without iniquity, just and right. Is He? Are you and I just and right?
Only if Christ has justified us. Only if Christ has given
us His righteousness. If that's the case, He's made
us just and right in His sight. But if not, we're not just and
right, but He is. He is. We cannot approach God
on any other ground and live. You remember whenever Moses was
approaching the Lord, the burning bush, the Lord said, take off
your shoes. Put off your shoes from off your
feet, Moses. The place where you stand is holy ground. Christ
is that holy ground, the only holy ground whereby we can come
to God. And we can't bring any man-made
anything with us. Not man-made works, not man-made
trust, not man-made hope. I remember hearing recently somebody
using the term, just have faith. How do we have faith? Just have
faith. Well, you have to have faith
to have faith. I've said that before, but that
makes sense. Doesn't it? How do you get faith is the question.
He's got to give it. He's got to give me faith. If
he don't, I don't, how are you going to have faith? No, no, it's not
the faith of sitting on a chair and the belief that it'll hold
you up based upon the construct of it. That it's, that's firm
enough that it's sturdy enough that I choose to trust this chair
to hold me up. It's not blind faith where on
you sit on this pew and we don't think anything about sitting
down on these pews, at least I don't. They're bolted to the
floor, they don't move. We've sat on them before. Don't
even think about it. We don't think about getting in our car. We're not
gonna fall through the floorboard in our car. We don't think about
things like that. That's not what faith is though. No, faith
looks to Christ. Faith looks and says, I got to
be standing in him and have his righteousness or I have no hope
of eternal life. Faith says Christ is all. In salvation, Christ
is all. We can't approach God on any
other ground than live. Christ must be our holy ground.
That's why God killed these Israelites. They didn't believe God. They
didn't believe God. They were not elected. And they
show exactly how every single human approaches God. They do,
don't they? By the murmuring and the complaining,
wanting to do it their way. As soon as they got, they had
saw the Red Sea part, and I still can't get over that in my mind.
And yet, I know that we're exactly the same, so I'm not saying we're
any better. How many things have you saw
in your life that God has done, and yet, have you ever had an
experience And the Lord does that. He lets things happen in
our life where he makes you stop and say, the Lord had to do that.
There's no, I mean, us moving up here, everything, the doors
just swung open. We got kicked through it. Here
we are. I mean, we just, y'all don't remember. We just met two
years ago. Actually, I think next Sunday
or the Sunday after will be exactly a year from our first meeting
in the community center. And here, it was September 11th
was our first meeting in this building, but you know what I'm
saying? The church became available, the house became available, and
the Lord did all that. I mean there's, that's not why we look
to him though, is it? We look to him for, not because
he's proven himself, he has proven himself. I wanna be very clear,
he's proven himself to his people. But he don't have to prove himself,
does he? Faith just looks to Christ. Faith just believes God. These Israelites were walking
across the Red Sea and it was parted. It was parted and they
went across on dry land and they saw the I mean, they had to see
the whales and everything pass by. I mean, we've never seen
anything like that. We've seen waterfalls. They take
our breath away, but even the mist was not coming upon them.
Nothing could touch them. God's hand was upon them. They
saw the pillar of fire fall to block the Pharaoh's army from
getting to them. And yet, first chance they got,
what did they do? They made a golden calf and they
said, we're going to name him Jehovah. Everybody take off your clothes
and let's worship him. And that's exactly what happened. That's what we
do by nature, isn't it? That's what all men do. And that's
a picture of them saying, here's our righteousness. They're taking
off their garments. Here's what we're going to worship,
the works of our hands. No, that's not the rock. That's
not Christ. That's the work of man's hands,
fashioned by their own design, something they can see. We don't
look to God because we can see him naturally. We don't look
to God because we see what he's done naturally to us. We look to see what he done in
his flesh naturally because he was the God man. He naturally
believed God. And now he gives us eyes of faith
and we believe God with those eyes of faith. These thought they were good
enough, thought they were good enough for God. You imagine seeing
that and just thinking, yeah. That's it's amazing. Look at
look at what my God did look what I I'm gonna let him in my
heart that kind of attitude. That's what they had. They thought
they were good enough It's evident by their murmuring and they're
complaining the Lord would do something for him They'd turn around and
murmur and complain again in order to do something for me
turn on a murmur complain Lord said, okay He won at one point
He was speaking to Moses and and he was telling Moses that
he was going to destroy the nation Israel said I'm gonna make you
Make you a nation And Moses interceded. It was a picture of the Lord's
justice being demanded, his judgment being demanded. And yet our Christ,
our rock, interceding for us and said, I'll put away their
sin. And the Lord, Lord pours out his wrath upon his son in
our stead. And now he sees us as perfectly
righteous. That's the picture there. And
the Lord didn't destroy them, did he? And look at verse one. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 1. I want to read this again. Moreover,
brethren, I would that you should not be ignorant how that all
our fathers were under the cloud and passing through the sea.
We just talked about that. And we're all baptized unto Moses
in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual
meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank
of that spiritual rock. that followed them. Now that
word followed is better translated, went with them. Now he was certainly
behind them, but he was in front of them and beside of them too.
That's the rock. And that rock was Christ. That rock was Christ. Every single one drank the spiritual
drink and ate the spiritual meat. but some did not eat it and drink
it unto eternal life. My greatest fear is that I have
a head knowledge of God, but he has not made it effectual
in my heart, that I've got everything down pat when it comes to his
sovereignty. As far as what, you understand what I'm saying.
I have the knowledge. I have the knowledge of what
the gospel is, but he hasn't given the faith to believe it.
We have an example of that. First example actually is Cain
and Abel. I want to look at that passage in Genesis chapter four. Now Adam and Eve were just cursed
in the garden, and God drove them out of Eden because of it,
and put a flaming sword that turned every way to keep them
out. I want to read some of these verses.
We're going to read eight verses. Genesis four, verse one says,
And Adam knew his wife, Eve, And she conceived and bare Cain,
and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again
bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of the
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. In the process
of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel also, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof,
and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But
unto Cain and his offering he had no respect. And Cain was
very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto
Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? If thou doest
not well, sin lieth at the door. and unto thee shall be his desire,
and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with his brother
Abel. Cain talked with Abel his brother,
and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose
up against Abel his brother, and he slew them. He slew him. Why did God not have respect
unto Cain? or his offering. Notice it's
both. Not just Cain, but his offering as well. Why? Well, we don't have to speculate,
we know. Proverbs 21 tells us, every way of man is right in
his own eyes. Every way of man is right in
his own eyes. But the Lord pondereth the heart. It's not some of the ways of
man. It's every way of man is right
in his own eyes. Every way. This is referred to
as the way of Cain in the book of Jude. In Proverbs 14 and 16,
it tells us twice, there is a way that seemeth right unto man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death. There is a way that
seems right. In every way of man, he thinks is right. He thinks
is right. But there's a way that seems
right. But the end thereof is the ways of death. Cain approached
God by his works. Now don't misunderstand what
I mean by that. First of all, Cain was not given faith to look
to the lamb, the blood. And that's exactly why God looked
to the sacrifice and had respect unto Abel. God gave him faith
to look to Jesus Christ. It's the same faith. Cain brought
the works of his hands. He brought what he had done.
He had knowledge. Now, we're still talking about
tasting, eating and drinking the same spiritual gifts. Adam
would have told both of his sons exactly how to approach God,
wouldn't he? Do you not have, how everyone of us here are trying
to rear our children in the way that we think that's right, the
way that we think that's right. And when it comes to pertaining,
when the believer comes to the knowledge of the truth, those
that have children, we're trying to raise our children in the
knowledge of the truth and reveal that truth, at least physically
to them, that's all we can do is tell them the truth, right?
We're not gonna tell our children the lie anymore, we're gonna
tell them the truth. Is that not what Adam would have done? Cain knew how to approach God,
and yet he did not approach God, God's way. He had tasted and
he had drank the same spiritual information, but not into eternal
life. Not believing, not mixed with
faith. Paul talks about that, doesn't
he? He said our gospel came to them also, but it was not mixed
with faith, so they did not believe. Cain brought the works of his
hands. Now, I want to be very clear
on this. I don't want us to misunderstand
this because it's so important. Cain brought his very, very,
very best. His very best. It was not something,
he didn't keep the good for himself. He brought his very best. Oftentimes,
if we're going to give tomatoes away, we're getting more and
more tomatoes now. I forgot how much one tomato
plant produces. Squash and zucchini are coming out my ears, if you
know what I mean. And so you're going to have some sitting out
there. And I hope I bring you the best. I hope I don't bring
you the ones that are rotten or starting to rot a little bit
and say, hey, y'all could just cut this off. But that's what we
think. I'm going to keep the best for myself. I'm not going to
bring the best. You guys can have that. Well, I hope I don't
do that, but you get what I'm saying. That's what's in our
heart. Cain didn't, no, he didn't do that. He came to God with
his very, very, very best, the very best, the very works of
his hands. He was proud of it. We got to understand that whenever
we go to a fair and I've used this analogy, the Lord gave to
me some time ago, and it's one of the best analogies that, uh,
in my opinion, of this situation, what Cain would have brought.
Last year, they don't really have, I don't think they even
have pumpkins at fairs in Florida, but maybe I dismissed it if they
did. But agriculturally, there's a place right down the road here
that got first prize last year, and they had that thing on their
porch afterwards, the big pumpkin, man, it was on their porch with
their big blue ribbon, and they had first place posts, Stuck
in the ground and it had a big plaque on it said we won first
place and they were proud of that pumpkin Well, I got curious
and I looked up what the biggest pumpkin ever was and it was 2,560
pounds. That's the world record and I
Got to thinking about Cain here what he would have brought to
the Lord. I bet his pumpkin was 2,561 what do you think? I bet his pumpkin was a little
bit bigger. His pumpkin was the best, the absolute most gorgeous
pumpkin. You see the picture here, what
he's bringing unto the Lord. It's not filth in the eyes of
man. This is what's so important.
But yet it was not founded upon the rock. It wasn't founded upon
faith. That's the most important thing that we can't miss. We
can't be bringing anything. Anything that our hands have
produced, anything that we have grown, anything that we have
done, it's got to be the blood alone. It's got to be the lamb
alone. This is why God rejected his
sacrifice. This is why God had no respect
unto him. He brought a 2,560 pound pumpkin. It wasn't good enough for God.
It was his own doing. It was his own doing. You know,
he had to think surely God will be pleased with this. God will
be, look at this, look what I have done. I've let Jesus into my
heart. I've made him Lord of my life. You ever heard those things before?
I'm sure. No, that's bringing a pumpkin before him. He's not
gonna accept that. He's not gonna, what fruit are we gonna bring
before him that he's pleased with? The fruit of faith, the fruit
of the spirit. Well, where do we get that? He
has to produce it by his faith in his people by his spirit.
It's called the fruit of the spirit. He's got to do that.
What does that faith say? It's the blood alone. It's the
blood of Christ alone. No, no flesh shall glory in his
presence. He had no respect to Cain or
his offering. There are those that would come in. There are
those that would come in and hear the gospel. and yet try
to bring one thing with them of self-righteousness. And I
use one thing because that's the most minute number that you
can do, even if it's a fraction of one thing that men try to
do. It's literally bringing the works
of the hands. A keeping of the law is bringing the works of
the hands, bringing the prettiest fruit that we produce. And God
says, I have no respect for you or your sacrifice. Like Cain, some are indifferent
to the blood of the lamb. He was indifferent. He wasn't
interested in the sacrifice of the lamb. He was indifferent
to it. He had no need. He had no desire. He tasted and drank the same
spiritual meat, but he had no need for that blood. These are they that have a righteousness,
or desire to have a righteousness, I should say. It's a self-righteousness,
and God says it's filthy rags, but it's by the works of the
law. the keeping of the law. It's not founded upon the rock,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's founded upon what we do
and what we don't do. Cain knew the truth, but he wanted
God his way. He wanted God his way, his doing. That is the definition. That
is the definition of not having Christ as our rock. That's the
definition of it. Wanting to have Christ our way,
No, it's his way or it's no way he is the way. He gives us but
one resolve that we don't have a way anymore if we don't have
him. I've got to have him. Lord, I thought before I had
a way, but I realize now I was a thief and robber trying to
climb up and rob you of your glory dethrone you. Oh, have
mercy on me. The center. That's what we cry
out by faith, isn't it? That's why we must continue to
declare the truth and keep begging. Begging for what? Begging for
Christ. Begging to be kept. Romans 10
3 says, For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, are going
about to establish their own righteousness, and they have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe. Okay, so all I have to do is
believe. Yes. How do I do that? He has to make you. He has to
give you faith. Cry out to Him. Lord, give me
your faith. If I don't have it, give it to
me right now. Lord, cause me to see Christ. If I don't have
Him, give me Christ right now. This is the first time. There's
no pride when it comes to salvation. There's no pride. No, I'm bringing
in my hand nothing. Lord, give me Christ lest I die. As soon as we add one thing to
it, we're not standing complete in him. We're not standing on
our rock. We're not standing on the rock
of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're trying to establish our
own righteousness. We imply whether intentionally or not that we
can build our righteousness on another foundation. That's what
Cain thought. That's what Cain thought. Christ
gave a parable of another foundation. You've heard it before, I'm sure,
but he said there was a wise man that built his house upon
the rocks. Actually, I think he says the rock. The wise man
built his house upon the rock. And the floods came up because
the rains came down and the house stood firm. The foolish man built
his house upon the sand. And when the floods came, because
of the rains, the house fell. It didn't have a foundation. The foundation was shifting.
Is that not all religion? I mean, they're bringing up their
rules and decorum, their constitutions, and it's always changing, isn't
it? Maybe not very often, but it changes, doesn't it? Started
out with three laws, now we have to have seven, you know, whatever.
You know what I'm talking, if you've ever been in false religion,
that's exactly how it is, isn't it? Shifting sand, what's our
righteousness before God? Well, I've done this and I've
done that, was that good enough? Well, I've also done this, so
it's shifting, it's not firm. No, Christ is all, that's our
righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our righteousness. Do you know why the one fell?
It was not founded upon the rock, but the one upon the rock stood
firm. You and I are not the builder of this house, Christ is. We didn't pick the rock, God
did. Christ Jesus is that rock. So why do men, what do they do
when they hear this? What do men do? Exactly the same
thing that Cain did in verse eight. Look at verse eight. Cain
talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they
were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother,
and slew him. What do you think they were talking about? You
ever thought of that before? What do you think they were talking
about? Do you think Abel was bragging on how good he was because
of his sacrifice? Well, look at me, Cain. God's
had respect unto me because of my sacrifice and not to you.
Is that what we do in salvation? No, we don't brag about this.
Not like that. We brag on Christ. We say Christ
is all, but we don't brag on ourself, do we? No, Cain would
have been angry and said, I don't understand why he didn't accept
this. This is good. And Abel said, it's not the blood. You
didn't bring the blood. That's why he didn't accept it,
brother. And what did Cain say? Away with this man. Kill him. Kill him. And he slew him. And
he slew him. And that's what all men will
do when they hear God's gospel, if the Lord does not give them
faith. Aren't you thankful for the Lord being our rock and giving
faith to his people, causing us to believe? Cain was like
a toddler, I wrote this down, he was like a, you've seen him
before, like a toddler at a supermarket jumping up and down saying, my
pumpkin's good enough, my pumpkin's good enough. That's what he was
doing. My pumpkin's enough. Abel says, no it's not. It's
not the blood. He's demanding blood and he said,
I'll kill you instead. You're not telling me the truth,
I don't wanna hear you. No, it's not the rock, I'm on sand, I
like my sand. I chose Jesus and I made a good
choice. No, no, the Lord won't have that. I want us to look
at his punishment here in closing. Verse nine, the Lord said unto
Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not, am I
my brother's keeper? Now, I want us to understand
something. Adam and Eve didn't lie. They confessed, they were
blaming others, but ultimately, every believer in scripture confesses
the truth. Do we know that? Cain didn't
have the truth in him. He lied to God. Am I my brother's
keeper? I don't know where he's at. He
knew exactly where he was, didn't he? He didn't have the truth,
so he couldn't confess the truth. Do we see that? See, the truth
demands that we confess the truth when the Lord gives faith. He
didn't have it. Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know
not, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what hast thou done?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And thou now art thou cursed
from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's
blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground,
it shall not henceforth yield unto thee your strength. A fugitive
and a vagabond shall thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto
the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear. understand his words there. He
just said, that's not fair. That's not fair. That's more
than I deserve. I don't deserve that much. No,
we deserve eternal hell based on our merits, based on our doing. God doesn't have to do anything
to send us to hell. We'll do it ourself. We'll believe
the lie all the way into the pit, bringing our pumpkins before
him, thinking it's not worth something in his sight. No, Men
hear that God doesn't love everyone, He didn't die everyone, He didn't
make a way for everyone, and they say, kill Him. And then
when they hear that, they say, that's not fair. That's not fair. If that's God, that's not fair.
How could He not love everybody? The question is, why did He choose
to love some? It's not amazing that He hated
Esau, but if you've been made to see His goodness and His grace
by the eyes of faith, we look in the mirror and say, Lord,
How could you love something like this? He says, because you
are on the rock, because you are in the rock, in the cleft
of the rock, because you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how. That's how. It's all his doing. It's all
his doing. Most would rather build on sand
rather than look to the finished work of Christ built on the rock.
But thanks be to God, he chose to elect some. He chose to redeem
some. He chose to die, be resurrected
for some. He chose to call some and he
chooses to keep some. When David saw this, he said
in Psalm 95, Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make
a joyful noise to the rock. of our salvation. He's the rock
of our salvation, isn't he? Who is our rock was the question
I asked to begin with. I think I've answered it pretty
well, but Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the rock. Why?
Because of his successful redemption. Second Samuel 22 says, the Lord
is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, the God of my rock. In him will
I trust. He is my shield, the horn of
my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my savior, Thou savest
me from violence. If we find ourself having no
confidence in this flesh, if we find ourself having no confidence
in this flesh before the Lord, having all our hope in Christ
alone, Christ is our salvation. Christ is our fortress from the
wrath of God. Christ is our deliverer. Christ
is all our hope. He is our shield. He is our savior,
and he is our rock.