back into him. Amos is a interesting
man. I guess if you could put it that
way, he's a herdman of cattle and of sheep. He's a farmer.
And you can imagine a man in our time being a farmer would
have coveralls on out there, muddy and dirty working and whatever
all they would be doing. And then all of a sudden the
Lord says, I have a message I want you to declare. And the Lord
calls him his prophet. He says, I'm going to send you
to declare the truth. Here is the message that you
must declare. And just as all preachers that preach the truth,
Amos was hated. Amos was devalued. Amos was not
looked unto kindly. He was lied upon. Men lied to
the king about Amos and said, he's lying on you. He's saying
that we're going to go into captivity and your kingdom is going to
end. And it was all true. but they didn't like the truth. And
it's the same in today's time. Men do not want the truth. The
truth is what crushes the flesh. It crushes the flesh as pride.
It gives no glory to the flesh. The truth of the Lord points
to Christ, not us. It leaves us empty. It leaves
us naked. And men hate the truth for that reason. I'm thankful
that the Lord gives his people repentance in that regard. We
no longer look to ourself and our righteousness, but we look
to Christ and his. Repentance no longer says, I
think this way, or I thought, it says truth, Lord, whatever
you say, that's what's true. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Now we have churches in Ole, all over Ole, all over
the country, all over the world that are looking for the second
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're not looking for the
Lord Jesus Christ. They're looking for the second
coming of baby Jesus, meek and mild. Not the God-man, not the
sovereign creator of the universe, not God. They're looking for
a figment of their imagination, the second coming of a figment.
And this is what Amos is dealing with here in this chapter. He's
explaining to them, woe unto you. You're desiring the day
of the Lord. That's what I've titled this
message, the day of the Lord. He said, you're desiring the day of the Lord,
but it's gonna be darkness for you, not light. It's gonna be
terror for you, not good things. The Lord's not gonna have good
things on the day of judgment for anyone that's outside of
Christ. Men believe by nature, and you
all can relate to this. How do we teach our, I remember
being a boy and mom and dad said, now Santa Claus is watching you.
He knows when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. And
men liken God into Santa Claus, that he's omnipotent. He's everywhere
all the time. He's omnipresent. He knows everything
all the time. And that's how men talk about Santa Claus as
well. And what do they say? Well, if you behave, if you do
good, if you do good, you will be rewarded with the present.
If you do bad, you'll be rewarded with coal. Isn't that the God
of this world, how men look at the Lord and say, well, if I
do good, he's going to reward me for my faithfulness. He's
going to reward me for my good. But if I do bad, then he'll disprove
and he'll have to do good. This is the natural response
when you hear of the Lord's law. When men hear the Lord's law,
they think that it says do, but only the truth of the Lord is
what sets us free, that says done. Only the truth of the Lord
is what said it is finished. And this is what we rest in.
God is other than that, that of men's thoughts, that of men's
design, and God is other, he is holy. God only rewarded one
for his obedience, for his service, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He rewarded his son. He rewarded his son for his work.
He doesn't reward us according to our service. Thank God for
that. He doesn't reward us according
to what we do, and thank God for that. He rewarded Christ
for what he done. And our reward, our hope is Christ,
isn't it? Lord, that's what I want, is
Christ to be my reward, Christ to be what I hope in. Every believer
knows that Christ is the reward. Now Amos is dealing with this
ideology and he tells them their error and he says, here's what's
going to happen. Look with me in Amos 5 verse
18. Woe unto you that desire the
day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? The
day of the Lord is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee
from a lion and a bear met him or went into the house and leaned
his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of
the Lord be darkness, and not light, even very dark, and no
brightness in it? I understand he's speaking to
a particular people here. He says, woe unto you, the ones
that desire that you're going to be rewarded based upon your
performance. This is why they looked for the
day of the Lord. They thought when the Lord returned
that they had done everything necessary Everything required
to make him happy and they would be rewarded for it. Men in today's
different religious sects, I remember they were preaching where I came
from, that there were seven crowns that you could obtain by your
service under the Lord. When you got to heaven, you would
get up to seven crowns. You would work and you could
get all seven of them. Christ is our crown, our crown of righteousness. He's our covering. He's our robe
of righteousness. This is the believer's hope.
It's not a reward that we're seeking for. It's not that we
say, well, if you don't do what you're supposed to do, then you're
not gonna have anything to lay at the feet of Jesus. You won't
have anything to lay at his feet. You won't, except what he gives
you, because that's all he'll accept. And that's what the believer
wants. We look for the day of the Lord,
not a day for us to be rewarded. Not as these men did. We know
better than that. The Lord's taught us better than that. All
men are spiritually dead and the Lord requires spiritual things. So he must do the work. After
we're made alive, he gives repentance and faith. And we are made to
see that it's all based upon his performance and not mine.
It's not based on your performance. in any way, in any shape, in
any form. It's based upon Christ's performance. And how did he perform? Perfectly. Perfectly for his people. His
blood, His righteousness was all perfect. It's His salvation.
He's what we long for. He's what we hope in. He's who
I hope my reward is. That's the reward I want, not
for what I've done, but that's what we want to obtain. He's the finish line. He's the
mark of the high calling that Paul talked about that we press
toward. It's all Christ. Whether we are in Christ or we're not, and He's done the
choosing. He's done the drawing. He's done
the saving and he does the calling. And to the believer, he is all
the reward that we want because we see ourself as utterly sinful. We see that the day of the Lord
is a day of darkness and judgment. It's not a day where we are able
to rejoice in ourselves or look to ourselves and think that we've
done enough to please him. It's a day of darkness. It's
a day of wrath. It's a day of judgment. So to
the believer, we cry out, Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner.
Don't look at my righteousness. Don't look at what I've done
in keeping your law. I can't keep your law. Lord, look to
Christ who did for your people. Now hold your place there and
turn to Isaiah chapter two. You think of the pride that these
people would have had in thinking that they've kept the Lord's
law and They've lied to themselves for years. They've been lying
to themselves thinking that they were good enough for him. How
prideful would they be in that? They would think, and you've
been around religious Pharisees, some men of piety or false piety,
whatever you want to call it, how they're pompous. Look at
the Catholic church, how the clergy worship that they have
and the arrogance about them. And look at me and the pride
that they have. This is what these men, women would have had
as well. The Lord gives his people a humble spirit. We know that
if it hadn't been for what he'd done, we would be dead in trespasses
and in sin. He abases the Lord, the Lord
abases his people's pride. We're made to confess that he
is all, he humbles his people. And this is what Isaiah is talking
about here. Isaiah chapter two and verse
10. Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of
the Lord and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks
of man shall be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed
down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the
day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud
and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall
be brought low. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon
that are high and lifted up, and upon the oaks of Bashan,
and upon the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are
lifted up, and upon every high tower, upon every fenced wall,
upon the ships of Tarshish, and upon the pleasant pictures, and
the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness
of man shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day." Now understand that the Lord is going to get
all the glory in all of this. And what he's telling us here,
and the reason we read all of this is it's everything that
was elevated. The cedars of Lebanon were known
for being good trees to build upon because they were true and
straight and tall and sturdy. And that's why he used the cedars
of Lebanon. The oak tree is a strong tree. And all these things that
men were trusting in, their fenced walls and everything. He says,
I'm gonna chop every bit of it down. I'm gonna level it. I will
have all the glory for myself. This is the picture here in the
day of the Lord. In his day, he will be exalted. He will be
lifted up. He will be seen as King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. And we know that the scripture
tells us this. Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. And there's only two places that
a man can bow, either here or in eternity. And bowing in eternity
won't be unto salvation. It'll be because of judgment.
It'll be because of wrath. Lord, if calls me to bow, calls
me to not be prideful in what I believe, calls me to look to
Christ, calls me to bow. The Lord's the one that's gonna
have to break our heart, isn't he? He's the one that's gonna
have to give us a new heart. He's the one that's gonna have to
cause us to cry out, Lord, Lord, abase my pride. He's the one
that shows us that everything is made low in his presence,
all by his power, all by his, he has all power. We don't have
any power, do we? He has all power, both in heaven and in
earth, and we have zero power. And the Lord's people love it
that way. Because if I could do something to get into Christ,
I could do something to get out of Christ. If I could do something
to please God, Christ was not necessary. But he was necessary
because there's nothing I can do. I have no power, no spiritual
power whatsoever, do we? And this is a warning to those
who look to their power. that they think they have. Woe
unto you who are looking to yourself. This is what Amos is saying.
Woe unto you, you think something's good about you? No, the day of
the Lord is darkness, it's wrath, it's judgment. It's when the
Lord brings forth your sin and executes his wrath upon you for
your sin. This doesn't give us hope, does
it? If we see ourself as sinners, that we have to flee to Christ,
not looking to ourself, we run to Christ. We say, Lord, have
mercy upon me, give me Christ lest I die. He's the one that
endured the day of the Lord for his people. He endured the day
of the Lord on the cross of Calvary for his people. This is our hope.
Now back to Amos chapter five. He asked a question, Amos 5.18.
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. To what end
is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness
and not light. What end is it for you? It's
darkness and not light. Do we know why? Because only
the Lord's people have light in them. And it's because the
Lord put it there. But everyone else has no light
in them whatsoever. Men love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. So when the Lord calls
forth a man's work and they're burnt with a fervent heat and
all that's left is just wood hay and stubble that's completely
dissolved by his wrath, then his darkness falls. His darkness
falls upon that individual in judgment, eternity, eternal hell. There's no mercy to be had in
judgment. There's no grace to be had in that day. If we're
found without Christ in that day, there is no hope for us
whatsoever. And my intention this morning
is to declare unto you that there's literally nothing that we can
do to please God and that Christ did in every way please God. And the declaration that's going
forth is flee to Christ, but don't move a muscle. Come to
him with the new heart that he's given you. Look to him, but don't
you use your eyes. No, use the eyes of faith that
he's given you. Run to him with everything that he's given you
to run to him with by faith alone. Don't move. Do it through the
eyes of faith that he's given you. That's the call that goes
forth. This day of judgment is a day
of justice, a day of wrath. Isaiah says, therefore I will
shake the heavens and the earth shall be removed out of her place
in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce
anger. See, men are looking for a reward for what they've done,
but all that they're going to receive is wrath. It's judgment, it's fierceness
of his anger. Men love themselves and think
themselves too highly. We can't think of ourself too
low. Did you know that? And there we use analogies and
descriptions sometimes calling ourself a worm, a maggot, things
like that. But that doesn't even really
say sufficiently how wretched and vile we really are compared
to God. So anything that we produce is
wretched and vile. Our righteousness is filthy rags.
We need a substitute. We need one that had perfect
righteousness that was not that was not vile in and of himself,
that was perfectly righteous, that redeemed his people successfully. Understand that no amount of
wrath can create repentance. No amount of lawmongering can
change the heart. Men preach that you should do
this and you should do that according to the law. It creeps in, it
creeps into churches very subtly. Our adversary is very clever
and the Lord leaving people to themselves, it'll creep in their
heart and they'll think, I can do something to please God. Look
at me. I can do something that pleases God. They don't literally
think that, but by their actions and by their confession, that's
exactly what they're doing. Lord, don't leave us thinking
that we can keep your law. calls us to look to Christ who
was the fulfillment of your law. No amount of law can change the
heart. The Lord's going to have to do it. No amount of judgment
can open up blinded eyes. No amount of judgment can open
blinded eyes. No amount of captivity can set someone free. No amount
of captivity can set someone free. Men are preaching the law,
putting men in bondage. This is the lie that you can
do something to fix what you are. It's impossible. That's
the lie. But that's what men are preaching. They're preaching
bondage to set men free. Well, that's impossible, isn't
it? But oh, there's freedom in Christ. There's true freedom.
Why? Because he fulfilled that law. He was the fulfillment of
God's law. And he did, he fulfilled it perfectly. Men left to themselves believe
that if I do this or I do that, I have done enough to please
God. But I would remind us that hell
itself, hell itself is not enough to cause one to be sorrowful
and repent. It's not. Think about the rich
man that died. There was two men, the scripture
says, the Lord speaks in a parable. And he says, one was a rich man.
He fared sumptuously. He had a purple robe. He had
all the pleasures that life could give him. And there was another
one, a beggar named Lazarus. Moreover, Lazarus had sores and
the dogs came and licked the sores. He was a beggar, he was
poor, and he had sores all over him. Boy, that's us, isn't it? That's us, we're covered with
sores from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. And
we sit there just begging, Lord, can I have a crumb from your
table? Can I have a crumb? That's the picture there. Both
of them died at the appointed time. And the scripture says
the rich man in hell lifted up his eyes and seeing Lazarus afar
off being comforted in Abraham's bosom, cried out, he said, Father
Abraham, send Lazarus that he may dip his finger in water and
cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. See, hell itself
was not enough for him to beg for the fountain of living water.
He wanted one more drop of pleasure. He wanted one more thing for
himself to ease the burden that he was feeling, not knowing that
Christ, Christ would have, if he would have been caused to
look to Christ, he would have had a fountain in him, springing
up into everlasting life. That's what Christ told the woman
at the well. Hell itself will not cause you to be sorry. Not,
and we can't be sorry enough to please God anyways, but hell
itself can't give repentance. It can't cause to have faith.
That's all the Lord's doing. It's all the Lord's doing. So
what's the message? Forsake yourself. side with God
against yourself. That sounds kind of odd, doesn't
it? I'm going to side with God against
myself, but that's exactly what the Lord's people do. We side
with God. And as if we could step out of
our shell for a moment and look at ourself, we say, no, I reject
him. I don't want him. He's, he's no good. He's rotten. That's what we do in our minds,
our heart, the heart that the Lord has given us. And the new
man says, no, Lord, I believe you. Not this dead corpse upon
my back that I'm carrying around. Give me Christ lest I die. It
would cause us to cease our good intentions for righteousness.
It would cause us to look to yours for all our righteousness.
Understand something good people die every day and go to hell.
As far as men are concerned, good people God says there's
none good, no not one, and only the believer, only the elect
of God that are called and shown this know that there is none
good. And there's nothing we can produce
that's good. But he did, and he was, and he is, he is goodness
and mercy unto his people. This is what Amos is warning
them of. Don't look to yourself because in the day of the Lord,
there is nothing but judgment. There is no mercy in the day
of the Lord. Now he gives us an allegory here in verse 19.
And we're going to look at this for a moment, 19 and 20. And
he says, as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him
or went into the house and leaned his head on the wall and a serpent
bit him, should not the day of the Lord be darkness and not
light, even very dark and no brightness in it at all. Now
this allegory is similar to the allegory that we see in David
and Goliath. Whenever David faced Goliath,
Saul told him, he said, you're just a lad. There's no way you
can go against Goliath. And he told him, he said, well,
once a lion came and tried to devour a sheep. And he said,
I slayed the lion. He had to go and take the sheep
out of the lion's mouth. And he said, and then I slayed
the lion. He said, and then a bear came
another time and I had to deliver the lamb from the bear's mouth. And he said, How be it the Lord
may be pleased to deliver this uncircumcised Philistine into
my hand. The battle's the Lord's. David
knew this. And so he goes into battle against the giant with
five smooth stones. That's the number of grace, isn't
it? And that's all he had was the rock of ages and grace that
was on his side. And because of this, he conquered
that giant. He threw a stone and the giant fell and he chopped
off the giant's head. We have the picture of the lion,
the bear, and the giant. is Satan, there can be no doubt,
trying to devour the Lord's people at every turn. But yet the Lord
delivered us out of the mouth of the lion. And you have the
bear, which is the law of God that demands perfection. And
yet Christ Jesus was able to redeem us by his own blood, having
fulfilled the law that we could not, conquering the bear for
us. And then you have the giant.
Well, that's this old flesh, isn't it? That's this flesh that
is a Nine foot tall. We talked just a couple weeks
ago about Nebuchadnezzar building a 60 foot statue. Well, that's
exactly what that giant represents is us and our image that we see
in ourself. But Christ Jesus conquered the giant, our flesh,
by his own life, by his own body and blood. And he put away our
sin in the process, doing all that which we could not do. And
that's the picture here. The lion is Satan, and men believe
that they can run away from Satan by running to the law. And I
can keep the law, but they don't realize that Satan's the lion
that they're running from, and yet the bear is what they're
running into. The bear has no hope for them. The bear's not
going to make them alive or save them. The bear's going to kill
them just like the lion would. So what do they do? Well, they
run to their house that they've built, the works of their own
flesh, the wall that they built, and they put their hand up on
it thinking, I have done enough to please God now. And that is
the lie that's bitten them. Satan himself has lied to them
saying, you can do something to please God. And that's the
venom coming from Satan and to these people that the Lord's
left for themselves. And he says, I'll disannul your covenant.
No, in this day, the day of the Lord, there will be nothing for
you to lean upon. You can't flee from the lion by running to the
bear. We must flee to Christ. We can't
lean upon the wall that we've built by our own self-righteousness.
We need His righteousness. We need Him, the cornerstone
of our faith, the cornerstone of our salvation, the Mount Zion
that He built for His people. That's what we lean upon, His
finished work. Men believe that their law keeping
will make them escape Satan, but it's not possible, is it? I heard a preacher say recently,
sometimes I click on, well, I always often click on sermon audio because
I upload the messages and things like that. But when you pop up
on it at first, you'll just have somebody most sometimes just
randomly speaking. And as soon as I clicked on it,
he said, is God pleased with your life? I clicked off of it.
But what he was going to say, what he was meaning by that,
are you living the life that is pleasing unto God? Are you
running from the lion? Well, if you are, if you're running
from the line, you better be fleeing to Christ, not the law.
Because what that man was describing was, is everything he was doing
is a wall that he has built that God's gonna be pleased with.
Think about the Tower of Babel. Those men said, we were to build
a tower all the way to God, all the way to heaven. And they started
doing it. But yet during the entire process,
the bricks that they were building and putting on there, they put
with slime in the middle of the desert. What does slime do when
it gets hot? It melts. So everything that they were
attempting, to do was just going to be in vain. It was just going
to fall. And the Lord confused their language, didn't he? The
Lord made them think that they couldn't communicate with each
other anymore. And that's the world that we live in. That's all false
religion. They can't communicate with each other. And yet they're
saying the same thing in so many different ways, aren't they?
Do, and God will be pleased with you. do and God will be pleased
with you. That's the tower of Babel and
the Lord's gonna disannul it. It's gonna melt in this day of
the Lord. It's not, nothing will be, no one will be able to stand
in this day except those who are found in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what do we, when we see that
this is a, well, Jeremiah talked about the day of the Lord and
when we see this, he says, for this is the day of the Lord, the Lord
God of hosts, a day of vengeance. that he may avenge him of his
adversaries and the sword shall devour and it shall be satiated,
which means satisfied. The sword will be satisfied and
made drunk with the blood of every one of those people that
believe that they're good enough, that look to their own wall,
their own tower of Babel, their own righteousness, their own
statue. And the Lord said, I'm not going to have it. He said,
I'm going to destroy everything. I'm going to make it level, completely
destroyed. And all that's going to remain
is Christ and his glory. Men will say in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not cast
out devils in thy name? Have we not done all these wonderful
works in thy name? And what is he going to say to
those people? Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never
knew you. Understand that only the Lord's
people are the ones that do not work iniquity. Why? Because iniquity
is what we do to try to get to God, to get God to be pleased
with us. Only the believer knows that
there is nothing I can do. Nothing you can do that pleases
God, we have to have the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ was the one
that took the place of his people. He's the one that lived the life
we could not live. He's the one that built what God was pleased
with, his kingdom. He's the one that was completely
focused on the Lord all the time and satisfied the Father. Everything
Everything that men have ever touched or done will burn with
a fervent heat, but everything he did will stand through the
ceaseless ages in eternity. Nothing that he done will be
in vain. It was accomplished. He accomplished salvation. His
work will stand forever. This is our hope on the day of
the Lord, the day of judgment. This is our hope is his finished
work. Because of what Christ accomplished.
Well, turn with me to Lamentations chapter one. Because of what
Christ accomplished. We have this. Blessed hope. But I want us to see what he
did. In the cross of Calvary for us. Lamentations one verse
11. There verse 12, is it nothing
to you? All ye that pass by, we have
to read verse 11, I apologize. All her people sigh, they seek
bread, they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve
the soul. See, O Lord, and consider, for
I am become vile. I am become vile. Is it nothing
to you that passed by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow." Now understand something, Jeremiah
is speaking prophetically of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. He says, is there any sorrow, be it like my sorrow,
which is done unto me? Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones and it prevailed against them. He hath spread
a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. See, here's our hope.
Here's our hope that the day of the Lord was enacted upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord, his day, the day that
the Lord Jesus Christ died is the same picture of what's gonna
take place in the day of judgment when all men are judged. But
yet the Lord stood in the stead of His people on that day. Christ
was made sin for His people that day. Christ was made vile, the
unclean thing for His people that day, wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquity, Isaiah 53 tells us. His body was broken
for those for whom He loves. And in the day of His fierce
anger, the Father sent fire to the bones of Christ. He was made
empty. He was emptied. He was made desolate.
and he was emptied that we might be made full. He endured the
eternal wrath of God upon the cross, and the Lord was satisfied."
Listen to Isaiah chapter 30. He said, moreover, the light
of the moon, and it seems like we've been talking about the
moon and the sun quite a bit lately. This should resonate
with us. Moreover, the light of the moon
shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun
shall be sevenfold, and the light of seven days. In the day that
the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the
stroke of their wounds, he saying in that day, In the day of darkness,
the moon will shine as bright as the sun, and the sun will
shine seven times brighter than before. What is that picture
of? Well, it's the number seven's perfectionism, that the Lord
Jesus Christ will be the light to his people, and all his people
on that day will shine brightly in the darkness. We won't have
to endure the wrath of God because the sun was darkened for his
people, and the moon was covered with his blood. Therefore, we're
gonna shine forth in that day. That's why David said this, this
is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad
in it. Was David talking about April the 16th, 2023? Well, sure. This is the day the Lord hath
made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. He was talking about the
day that all the days were created for, wasn't he? The day of the
Lord. On the cross of Calvary, whenever he bore the sin of his
people and was satisfied, he satisfied his father. This is
the day the Lord hath made. This is what our rejoicing is.
It's not what we're doing today, it's what he done and what he's
doing and what he's going to do. And thanks be to God, it
is all finished, isn't it? This is our hope. This is why
we're not looking for reward, we're looking for Christ. We're
looking for Christ. We have nothing to offer God.
Christ offered everything necessary for our salvation. Because of
this, 2 Timothy chapter four tells us, henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge shall give me at that day, not to me only, but unto all
them that love his appearing. We're not looking for his appearing
for a reward of what we have done. We are looking for his
appearing because of what he has done. That's our hope. Lord,
I believe you help my unbelief. Lord calls it to be so, when
you shall appear, I'll be made like you for I will see you as
you are. That's what first John tells
us. We're looking for his appearing. We love his appearing because
we know he was successful in redeeming his people. We love
his appearing and don't have to fear the wrath of God because
Christ endured the wrath of God and put away the sin of his people.
The cry no longer is woe unto you. It's not depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, it's come. Come, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. That means I'm gonna show you
something you didn't know. Though your sins be as scarlet, they
shall be white as snow. Though they'll be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. It's no longer woe, but it's
come. It's no longer depart, but enter
in, thou good and faithful servant. Thou've been faithful over a
few things, I'll make you ruler over many. This is our hope.
We hang every bit of our hope on the Lord Jesus Christ, because
he is salvation. This is only for those. This
is only for those. At the beginning, I mentioned
to you that he said, woe unto you. So he's speaking to a people.
He's speaking into a people. But when the Lord says, enter
in, he's speaking to a people also. When the Lord says, come,
he's speaking to a people also. And this is the only, the ones
that he's speaking to, it's only for those who do not try to escape
the lion by fleeing to the bear. They don't, we must flee to Christ,
the line of the tribe of Judah. We're not leaning on the wall
that we have built. We're resting on Christ completely. We're not
trusting in the lie, the venom of the snake. The snake lied
and said, you'll be God. You can fix your sin. You can
be like God. We don't believe that, do we?
We know it's a lie. We can't do anything to fix what
we are. He says, woe unto them, but to those who believe the
truth, those that believe the truth. We know that there is
not one thing we can do to please God, and Christ did please God. So we look to him as all. He
was sufficient. His life, his death, his burial,
his resurrection, according to the scriptures, has purchased
salvation, has purchased his people. The Lord is pleased with
his darling son. This is why he's been made into
us all our wisdom. We know nothing but Christ. Isn't
that true? Is that what we confess? Not
only before the Lord, but to each other. I'm just a, I'm a
sinner saved by grace. Christ is my wisdom. I have no
wisdom. I know nothing save Christ and
him crucified. That's what Paul, Paul said.
It's all his righteousness. We have no righteousness. And
by his blood, he has sanctified his people, made them holy. Now
in closing, I want to turn to first Corinthians chapter one.
1 Corinthians 1 and verse 4. I thank my God always on your
behalf for the grace of God, which is given you by Jesus Christ,
that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in
all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. who shall also confirm you unto
the end that ye may be found or that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom
you were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our
Lord. He's saying that the Lord is
gonna keep you to the end and the Lord is gonna make you blameless
in the day of the Lord. You will be blameless in the
day of the Lord because of what he done. And then he goes on
to say, God is faithful. We're not faithful. God's the
one that's going to do it. God's the one that's going to
keep his remnant. God's the one that's going to present them
blameless. He already has. It's already finished. But one
day we're going to experience it. Isn't that glorious? We'll
get to experience what's already done. That might not make much
sense. And it doesn't to the natural
man, but the, but the new man says truth, Lord, I don't have
to understand it. I just believe you. He's going to present us
blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the sweetest
thought to the Lord's people. Christ has made us blameless,
blameless before his holy father, before the law. We are now blameless. When we arrive on the day of
the Lord, we won't have to fear anything. We'll have a godly
fear, but we don't have to stand there thinking that the Lord's
going to judge us in condemnation. He's gonna say enter in, why?
Because by Christ's blood, he's made his people blameless. We'll
be trusting in his work that we might be found standing in
his righteousness, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of faith. When we stand in his presence,
we'll be looking unto him, full assurance being made like him
that the father will be satisfied with what his son did. He was,
wasn't he? Father was satisfied. the day of the Lord will be blameless.
Amen. Father, we ask that you would
bless your word to your people. Thank you for your gospel. In
Christ's name, amen.