Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Peter chapter 2. I want to read one and a half
verses. Verse 6 and the first part of verse 7. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scriptures Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
And that word means indifferent or apathetic. We'll read the
rest of this verse. The stone which the builders
disallowed the same has become the head of the corner. I've titled this message, Not
Confounded. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Psalm 22, verse five, they cried
unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 17 says,
Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded,
world without end. What a precious promise we have
here that the Lord has given us his answer to all the things
that confound us. Life is full of confusion, perplexities,
things that would confound us. Religion is full of things that
are confounding. And this word that we have in
verse six can also be translated ashamed. And the most important
time that we don't want to be found, confounded or ashamed
is when we stand before God on the day of judgment. I don't,
I don't want there to be any confusion in that day. And here our Lord tells us, he
that believeth on him shall not be confounded. The opposite of
being confounded is to have peace, to have rest, to have comfort,
to have understanding, to have hope. And that happens. the simplicity of the gospel.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he said, I fear, I fear, lest
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtleties, so your minds
might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And And that's
what our Lord's telling us here in this passage, that his answer
to this problem that we have of being perplexed and confounded
and confused, and ultimately would be, before God, ashamed,
is Christ. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. How simple. All the things that
the world offers in order to try to answer the problems of
confusion and the Lord boils it down to one person, one person,
he that believeth on him. Life in this world is full of
confusion. When our father Adam sinned against
God, there was a great fall. that took place and in Adam,
we all sinned and sin has caused all the sorrow and the sickness
and the confusion and the trouble and the strife that we have in
this world. Sin has brought forth death and
is there anything more confounding and more confusing and more difficult
than death. And yet, that's the world in
which we live. And though sin in general has
brought all of these things to mankind, my sin in particular
is what causes me to be confounded when confronted with the circumstances
of life. It's my own unbelief. that brings confusion and perplexity
to my life. And only, only when by God's
grace, He enables me to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, is
there comfort and hope and peace. Only then am I sure that He is
on His throne and that he is working all things together for
good for them that love him and those that are called according
to his purpose. Religion's very confounding. It's very confusing. In religion, men will tell you
that God is all powerful. He's omnipotent. He's God until
he comes up against man's free will. And then he has to abdicate
his throne and relinquish his power to the power of man. That's confounding. That's confusing. That doesn't make sense. Religion
will tell you that God loves everybody, but the majority of
people that he loves, he's going to send to an eternal hell. That doesn't make sense. What
kind of love is that? Man-made religion is confusing. It is contradictory. Religion will tell you that Christ
died and paid for everyone's sins, but the majority of people
that he died for are going to end up paying for their own sins
again for all eternity. That doesn't make sense. I was visiting a brother in the
hospital just recently. And the chaplain, the chaplain
came in and, uh, and we talked for a moment and I asked him,
I said, uh, I think his name was Doug. I said, Doug, I said,
uh, do you believe that God loves everybody? He said, oh yes. He
said, I said, do you believe Christ died for everybody? He
said, oh yes. He died for everybody's sins.
I said, and yet you believe that most of the people that he died
for are going to go to hell. He said, yes, but they're not
going to hell for their sins. They're going to hell because
they rejected Christ. I said, now, Doug, I said, you
know that the vast majority of people in the world have never
heard of Christ. He said, well, they're going
to hell for their sins. And yet Christ died for them. He said,
yes. I said, how do you, how do you make sense of that? So
I asked him, and Doug was about my age, and I said, Doug, where'd
you go to seminary? And he told me it was the same
exact seminary I went to. And I said, when did you go there?
And it was the exact same year that I went there. And when he
walked away, I thought, but for the grace of God, there go I. I'd be doing the same thing he's
doing. In my older years, I'd be looking for a cush job, walking
around the hospital. giving false hope to people and
telling them lies in a religion that makes no sense whatsoever. Who make it be to differ? The
Lord had not showed me Christ and revealed to me the truth
of what he has told us here. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. As I've already said, this word
confounded is often translated ashamed. And, uh, the scripture
says it is appointed on demand once to die. And after that,
the judgment and most that stand before God in the day of judgment
will have to hear him say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity,
for I never knew you and there'll be a shame before God. I don't
want to, I don't want to be there. I don't want to have to stand
before God on the day of judgment and be confounded and be ashamed. I want the Lord to say, come
ye blessed to my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. That it's my hope. No shame in that. No confusion
in that. So the Lord tells us the answer
to being confounded. And he tells us that it's believing
on Christ. All doubts and fears concerning
this life, concerning religion, and concerning eternal judgment
are answered and put to rest in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ and only in Him, only in Him. The simplicity and the singularity
of God's answer to this question is so glorious. Truly, Christ
is all. He's all. And He is in all. I'm reminded of what our Lord
said when he was there in Bethany and Martha, remember, came to
him and said she was trying to do everything necessary to entertain
the, you know, to provide for her guests. And she wanted the
Lord to rebuke Mary for not helping her. And Mary was seated at the
Lord's feet. And our Lord said to Martha,
he said, Martha, thou art troubled and careful over many things,
but there is one thing needful, one thing. Oh, the simplicity
of the gospel. This is what Paul was talking
about when he said that our minds be You know, in that verse we
quoted a moment ago about the simplicity of Christ, Satan has
so many things that he would distract us away from Christ
with. And so Paul said, I fear lest
by any means the serpent who beguiled Eve, and we can be beguiled,
might corrupt your minds, cause you to look somewhere else and
find your peace and your hope somewhere else other than the
simplicity of Christ. Our Lord's telling us here in
his word that there is only one answer to all of this confusion,
and it is Christ. When our Lord said, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life. He shut us up to himself. He closed the door to all other
options and all other, that's what I want. I need the Lord
to shut me up to himself. I need for him to not give me
a choice about what to do with this problem of confusion that
I experience every day. There is but one faith. There's one Lord. There's one
baptism. The gospel is so simple. No one can claim to not understand
it. It's too simple. They must admit
that they don't believe. They don't believe the gospel.
They don't believe on Christ. Man in his pride wants, he wants
to, he wants options. He wants the power of choice.
He wants the, you know, the privilege and the opportunity to decide
for himself. And God's closing all of those
doors. He says, he that believeth on
him shall not be confounded. I used to hate multiple choice
questions in college. There was always two answers
that were so close you couldn't figure out which they were. And
maybe 50% of the time I'd get the right one. Don't give me
a multiple choice when it comes to my salvation. Shut me up to
one answer. That's what God's doing. He's
shutting us up to one answer, one person. There's a famous barbecue place
in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. right close to the University
of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. It's called Dreamland, and it's
in a building that ought to be condemned, but they got the best
barbecue in Northern Alabama. And they sell barbecued ribs
and light bread. In Alabama, they call white bread
light bread. And they don't have a menu. And
we went there years ago, and I said, is there any way to get
a sandwich? And the guy said, sure. So when he brought my plate,
it had a piece of light bread with a rack of ribs on top of
it and another piece of light bread on top. No choice. Salvation is not a
choice. Where we live in Orlando, the
highway just outside our neighborhood goes north for a mile and a half
and then it dead ends. into a major highway that goes
all the way through the city and dead ends, literally dead
ends at the airport. And when people are at our house
and they want to get to the airport, I tell them, I say, you know,
my road right there, go to the dead ends, north dead ends. And
in a mile and a half, you're going to turn right when it dead
ends and you stay on that road and don't get off of it. You're
going to have a lot of A lot of lights, a lot of turns, a
lot of traffic between here and the airport. But about 12 miles
down that road, you're going to run smack dab into the airport.
You can't miss it. You know, with people giving
me directions, I hate getting, you know, after about two turns,
I got to start writing things down. But that's so simple. Just go right there. Get on that
road. When it dead ends, when you come to the end of yourself,
you take a right on that highway. There's going to be a lot of,
a lot of lights, a lot of traffic, a lot of things you're going
to have to go through for the next 12 miles to get down to the, to the airport,
but don't get off that road. Just one road, one turn, one
road. That's what our Lord's telling
us. It's the simplicity of the gospel. And we get to that place
finally at our destination where we're not going to get on an
airplane. The angels from heaven are going to come and usher us
on to glory. What a day that'll be. One road,
one way. Christ is all. He's all in election. We were chosen in him before
the foundation of the world. When the Lord Jesus Christ entered
into that covenant relationship with his heavenly father and
agreed to be the surety of his people, he became all. in our salvation. He is all in
redemption. Everything that God requires
for the putting away of our sin, the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
on Calvary's cross when he bowed his head and said, it is finished.
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Everything that God
required for righteousness and justification, the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished. And so he says, he that believeth
on him shall not be confounded. There's just one way, there's
one. He's everything in regeneration. When the spirit of God is pleased
to bring the gospel to our hearts and the hearing ear and the seeing
eye are of the Lord, and when the Lord gives us the ability
to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God, he gets all the glory. He gets all
the praise. We don't add our faith to what
he did in redeeming us. The work of regeneration is a
sovereign work of grace, and he does it all, and he gets all
the glory. In sanctification, he's all.
He's the one who keeps us from falling, and he's the one who
presents us faultless before the throne of God. fault, without shame, without
sin. Glorification is all of him. He that believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. And we're not talking about trying
to figure out whether you're saved or whether you, whether
you're, whether you go into heaven or whether you're one of God's
elect. You start looking to those things, you're gonna find yourself
taking your eyes off of Christ and looking to yourself to look
for evidences of your salvation. And for the believer, for the
child of God, for God's elect, that's gonna bring nothing but
confusion. It's gonna bring doubts and fears,
and you're gonna see nothing but your sin. Saul. We're talking about who do I
believe? Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him.
I've put all my trust and all my hope in the glorious person
and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all I
have. I'm determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. If anybody was capable of carrying
on conversation about other subjects, it would have been the Apostle
Paul. And he said, no, that'd be a waste of time. It wastes
the time. Christ is all he that believeth
on him shall not be confounded. He shall not be confused. Now I want to talk to you just
a moment about this thing of faith, believing on Christ. Faith is not our gift to God,
whereby he rewards us with salvation. Well, by grace are you saved
through faith, and that faith is not of yourself, it's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. He that cometh to him must believe
that he is, and reward of them that diligently seek him, but
he has to do a work of grace in us for us to have. Christ
has faith, doesn't he? This is God's gift. To those for whom Christ earned
the reward of salvation by his obedience and by his faithfulness,
he gives faith to his people. So what is this thing called
faith? What is it? You know, the religious world
would tell you if You believe, God will save you. The gospel
says, I have saved you and you shall believe. What a difference. The false religion will tell
you, if you repent, God will forgive you. And the gospel of
God's free grace in Christ declares, I have forgiven you and you will
repent. The false gospel says, if you
serve God, he'll bless you. And God says, I have blessed
you and you shall serve me. You see, it's just the opposite,
isn't it? It's just the reverse of what
we hear in the confusion of works religion. When Paul asked the Lord to remove
the thorn in his flesh, the Lord said to him, no, my strength
is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in your weakness. Here's what I want to say, that
faith is not some sort of character trait that we have that God is
obligated to reward, faith is the evidence of our weakness. Faith is the evidence of our
inability. The Lord said, except you become
as a little child, you should not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Suffer the little children to come unto me." What does a child
have to boast in when in fear it buries its face in the neck
of its father? Or when a small child hides behind
the skirt of its mother, what does that child have to... That
child's having faith in a parent. There's nothing for that child
to boast in. It's their fear and their weakness
and their dependence that drove them to that one that they're
trusting for their faith, for their safety, for their peace
and for their comfort. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is the very opposite of doing. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is the very opposite of doing. It is the one thing that a person
who has no works is shut up to. When you have nothing, and you
know nothing, and you can do nothing, and you have nothing
to offer God, the only thing you have is to cast your care
upon Him, is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this
matter of faith is not something we come up with to which God
is obligated to reward us. It's a work of grace in the heart
that strips us of all of our ability and all of our works
and all of our righteousness and brings us to that place where
we are completely dependent upon Christ alone. He that believeth
on him shall not be confounded. It is looking outside of oneself. It is resting oneself in the
work of another. It is trusting in the work of
another. It is relying upon Christ to
do all the work for us. Let me ask you a question. This
is a simple illustration. Are you doing anything right
now? to help that pew that you're sitting on to hold you up? Or
is the pew doing all the work? That pew's doing all the work,
isn't it, Joe? You're not doing, you're resting in it. Is that
not, when you sat in that pew, did you not trust that pew to
hold you up? We're not talking about the power of positive thinking
here. We're not talking about, well, if I can just somehow drum
up the ability to believe that God will then reward me for that. No, he that believeth is he that
has no place else to go. God has shut him up to Christ.
And you're believing, we don't have faith in faith. Our believing
is not what saves us. Believing is the result of being
saved. one day, Lord willing, somebody's
going to take us back to Allentown and we'll be getting on an airplane
flying back to Florida. And, uh, I, you know, some people
get really anxious about flying. Um, I don't have a problem with
it cause it's those, it's one of the very few things in my
life that I have absolutely no control over. I can't, I, you
know, if, if that plane's going down, what am I going to do?
Okay. So I just, I just said, I'm relaxed
and you know, there's nothing I can do about it. But is my faith in that plane
going to get that plane safely to Orlando? No. No. If I think about it, when
I get on an airplane, I'm trusting God, obviously, but I'm trusting
the designer of that airplane. I'm trusting the manufacturer
of that airplane. I'm trusting the mechanic of
that airplane. I'm trusting the pilot of that
airplane. My faith in getting on that airplane
has absolutely nothing to do with that airplane getting safely
to Florida. I'm getting on the plane. Your faith in Christ has absolutely
nothing to do with any contribution toward your salvation. It is
resting in another who himself is doing all the work. And that's what the Lord's talking
about when he says, he that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall
not be confounded. Turn with me to Romans chapter
4. Romans chapter 4. Saving faith, believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ is antithetical. It is not just the opposite. It is contradictory. in conflict with works. That's what it is. And the Lord's
clear on that. Look at me at Romans chapter
four, verse three, for what sayeth
the scriptures? And that's the only question that we have to
answer, isn't it? What sayeth the scriptures? That
answers everything for that. The simplicity of that is glorious. Nothing, no other way to say
it. Abraham believed God and it was
counted, it was counted unto him for righteousness. And people say, well, no, don't
forget what this thing called faith is. Look at the next verse. Now to him that worketh is a
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. That word ungodly is a very amazing word in the original language
to me. It is the word worship. with the alpha in front of it. And just like in English, when
you put an A in front of a word, it reverses the meaning of that
word. So when God says that he justified the ungodly, he is
justifying those who by nature have no ability to worship God. They have no way to come before
God. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
or imputed or charged for righteousness. And faith is not, it's the object
of our faith. It's the object of our faith
that's counted for righteousness. As the illustration of the pew
in the airplane, it's not the faith that saves, it's the object
of the faith. And so it is with Christ. So
Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And because by God's
grace, I have been shut up to no other choice, no other option. I have no works to offer God. looking to Christ alone for all
the hope of my salvation. And God imputes Christ as our
righteousness. Faith is that thing that is reduced
to believing God because it has no place else to go. It has nothing
else. It has no works. Well, let's look at our text
again. If you go back with me to 1 Peter 2, wherefore also
it is contained in the scriptures And how simple and glorious that
is. Where do we, where do we find
the revelation of this savior? No place other than the word
of God. In the volume of the book, it is written of me and
beginning with Psalms and the prophets. And Moses said, Moses,
the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. Men search the scriptures because
they think that they can find eternal life. These are they
which testify of Christ. They testify of Him. So the Lord's
telling us here, it is contained in the scriptures. Believers
are shut up to Christ and believers are shut up to God's word. I had a text from my brother who is not
a believer He sent me this thing that he had found where they've
discovered some lost books of the Bible. And he thought that
was so wonderful, I'd be interested in it. And I just sent him back
Revelation 22, what is the third verse from the end of the Bible? If any man add to the words of
this prophecy, the curses of this prophecy be added unto him,
There's no added, there's no lost books to the Bible. We have
the full revelation of God. All scripture, as you quoted
last night, is given by inspiration of God and all scriptures profitable
for doctrine and for reproof and for correction and instruction
in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. Um, These things are not by private
interpretation. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. And for the child of God, all
he needs to know is what sayeth the scriptures. Just tell me
what the Lord says. Everything else is just an opinion. You see the simplicity of this?
The simplicity of revelation, the simplicity of faith, the
simplicity of Christ. And those who've been, how do
I know if I have faith? Because I love the simplicity
of the gospel. I don't want to have to choose. I don't want to have to decide.
I want God to tell me how it is. And I want God to do it all
for me. I want a salvation that doesn't
depend upon anything that I do. I want a salvation that's done,
one that's finished. I need a righteousness completely
outside of myself. And Todd dealt with this so well
last night, justified. We just read in Romans chapter
four that Abraham was justified. and it was imputed to him. That
word means to be without sin, completely without sin. Our sins
have been separated us from us. As far as the East, it's from
the West. God says, I remember your sins no more. I buried them
in the depths of the sea. They've been covered. People
say, well, you need to apply the blood of Jesus to your sins
so that you can cover them before God. No, that's what he did.
When he shed his blood, he covered all the sins for all those for
whom he died. And he put them away once and
for all by the sacrifice of himself. And those for whom Christ died
stand before God justified in the one who himself is holy and
harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners. The one that God
made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He's put our sin away, justified. What hope, what peace, what comfort. What hope there is in knowing
that God has revealed. You know, I was talking to another
man recently and I quoted some very simple verses from the Bible. And he looked at me and he said,
well, he said, you know, you can make the Bible say anything
you want it to. I said, well, Yeah, you can. And you will rest the scriptures
to your own destruction. But I've just quoted you some
very simple, clear, clear word from God and you, and you won't
hear it. You're not believing on Christ.
My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Oh, what simplicity. Oh, I'm sorry. I wanted you to
look at Exodus chapter 19. The Lord tells us in our passage,
I lay in Zion. I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone,
the foundation stone. We used to be part of a religious
organization that had a beautiful building. And out by the front
door of the building was built almost as old as this one. And
there was a great big cornerstone in the foundation of the building
with the date and the names of the people who built the building.
I thought, well, that's looking back now, that's the cornerstone
of that, of that religion. Our cornerstone is Christ. And
the whole building is fitly joined together. We are the lively stones
built on that living stone, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a,
it's a confusion to the natural man, but to the child of God,
he doesn't want to go anywhere else. Look at, uh, Exodus, Exodus chapter
15. This is a, This is what we will say by nature. In verse 9, the enemy of God,
and we are all by nature at enmity with God. And the father said
to the son, sit down here at my right hand until I make all
thine enemies thy footstool. So those who are by nature at
enmity with God, the spirit of God is going to bring them to
do what Mary did. and choose that one thing that
was needful, sitting at the feet, at the footstool of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But the enemy, apart from the
grace of God, apart from God opening the eyes of our understanding,
causing us to see Christ, and in seeing Him, we see ourselves
for what we are. When Isaiah saw the Lord high
and lifted up, what was the first thing out of his mouth? Woe is
me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. When Job finally
heard the truth unvarnished by Elihu, and then God spoke, Job
said, behold, I see something I never saw before. I am vile.
I'm vile. I'm a sinner. What am I gonna
do to offer God? What am I gonna? I lay in Zion,
but here's what the enemies of God say, and this is what you
and I will say, apart from the grace of God. I will pursue,
I'll pursue God. I'll decide when I want God in
my life. No, you won't. That's what the
enemy says. I will divide the spoil. I'll
take what Jesus did on Calvary's cross and make it work for me
by something that I do. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I'll get the glory. If salvation
is because of a decision or because of faith that we exercise, then
we've got something to be proud of. But if it's all of God, then
he gets all the glory. I will draw my sword. Now the
sword in the Bible is a picture often pictured as the tongue.
I'll pray the prayer. I'll command God to come into
my life. I'll accept Jesus. No, you won't. You see, this
is what the enemies of God do. They always start with, I will.
I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. My lust should be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword and my hand. And the hand is a picture
of works. What I do will obligate God to
save me. And God says, thou didst blow. Oh, the wind of the spirit. And it is the spirit of God,
as we heard last night, that opens the eyes of our understanding
and gives us ears to hear, gives us faith to believe. My wind
will blow every time the Gospel is preached. Our hope and prayer
is the spirit of God will attend the preaching of the gospel so
that the prophet is not just preaching to dry bones or bones
that are coming together. No, that they will have life,
that God will bring life, breathe life into them. And so we prophesy
unto the wind and we ask for the spirit of God to come and
empower his word and make it effectual to the hearts of God's
people. Thou didst blow thy wind and
the sea covered them and they sank as lead in the mighty waters. As the sea covered you, taken
away, stripped you naked, left you with nothing but Christ.
Put your sins in the depths of the sea. Thou is like, who is
like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wondrous? Thou stretcheth
out thy right hand, and the earth swallowed them. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the right hand of God. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Thou in thy mercy has led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou has guided them in thy strength
unto thy holy habitation. You see the contrast that the
Lord has given us here in his word. And if you count up those
I wills, there's six of them. And six is the number of man.
If you count up the thous, there's seven of them. And seven is the
number of perfection. And man is left short of perfection. which is what sin is. All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God. That's where we fall. Thou hast
done it. Oh, such confusion. Such confounding. Such, they that believeth on him, shall
not be confounded. In closing, look with me at our
text one more time. Where for us it is also contained
in the scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion. This is Zion, brethren. What you said, Caleb, is true.
This is the closest thing to heaven there is on this earth.
This is the place where God has promised to meet with his people
and demonstrate His grace and His glory in Christ to reveal
His gospel through the preaching of His word. How precious, how
special, how necessary this place is. I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone
elect. Isaiah chapter 42, behold, Mine
elect, my servant, the one whom I'm uphold, the one, turn with
me to that passage real quick. I can't quote it. Isaiah 42. Here's what the Lord's telling
us. Behold, look, look outside of yourself. Look to your works. Don't try to figure out if you're
saved. Don't try to figure out if you're one of God's elect.
Look to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And oh, by the word, in our text in 1 Peter 2, verse six, the
word is believeth. You see that in the King James?
And most of the time when the word, when a verb has E-T-H at
the end of it, you can just supplement E-T-H with I-N-G. So this is
not a one-time event. A couple of verses before that,
it says, to whom coming. We're continuing to believe,
we're continuing to come. We're always in need of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the more we grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ, the more we see our need, the
older we get. I think about what John Newton said. He said, when
I was a young man, I knew a lot of things. He said, my memory
is failing me in my latter years. And right towards the end of
his life, he said, there's only two things now I know for sure.
I'm a great savior. I'm a great sinner. And Christ
is a great savior. That's the simplicity of the
gospel. That's the simplicity of it. Behold, my servant, whom
I uphold, mine elect. This is the chief cornerstone.
This is God's elect. This is God's chosen one. This is Christ. This is the Messiah. The only one that can put to
rest all the confusion of life, religion, sin, and eternal judgment. Behold Him. I have put my spirit upon Him. He's
the anointed one. He's the one who came in the
full power of the spirit of God to accomplish the salvation of
his people. And he shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He's gonna do it. He shall not cry nor lift up.
Our God's not going around begging men to let him into their lives
and into their hearts. Won't you invite Jesus? And you
know, no, he doesn't have, no. He's not looking for a following,
as I heard you said one time, Todd, not looking for a following.
He has a people. He has a people. And everyone
for whom Christ died will hear this message and they will behold
Christ and they will believe on him. And in believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ, all their confusion will be silenced, will
be quieted. will be answered. And when confusion
creeps back in, it's because they've taken their eyes off
of Christ. And so believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall
not be confounded and they shall not be found ashamed on the day
of judgment. Why? What's simplicity? Oh, I love it. I love it. I love
you all in spite of what I said earlier. Thank you. Thank you,
Caleb.