The People Astonished at His Doctrine

Now then, let's open our Bibles
again to Matthew 7, verse 28. Matthew 7, 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his
doctrine. I'm not a teacher of preachers. I've often thought that the best
way for preachers to learn to minister the gospel is to go
away to school and get a secular education and then sit under an experienced
true servant of God and listen to him preach and assist him
and learn to preach in that way. But I'm not a teacher of preachers.
I have some ideas about how preachers ought to study for the ministry,
but I do offer this suggestion to preachers There are two errors
to be avoided when we preach the Word of God. The first error
to be avoided is this. We must not try, we must not
attempt to avoid being offensive and startling and astonishing
our heroes. We must not try to avoid that.
One day our Lord was preaching to a large crowd of people. He
had fed them. He had taken care of their physical
needs. He had healed some of them. And
then He preached to them. And they were offended. They
didn't like what they heard. And the Scripture says they all
left Him. They departed from Him. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, instead of being disturbed because the people
departed, turned to his own disciples, the twelve, and asked them this
question, Will you also go away? After five thousand had listened
to him preach and turned and walked away from him, instead
of begging them to return, he turned to his own disciples and
said to them, This is true what I've said. I speak not of myself. The words that I speak are the
words of the Father. Do they offend you also? Will
you go away? Now Paul wrote in Galatians 1.10,
Do I seek to please men? Is that what I'm up here for?
If I please men, I am not the servant of Christ. And our Lord
said, Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. It hated
me before it hated you. And then Paul wrote in Galatians
5.11 about the offense of the cross. It is offensive. It's
offensive to the natural mind. It's offensive to the natural
heart. I heard a man say one time, I like Reverend so-and-so. He called the creature's name.
He said, I like him. And a man said, why do you like
him? He said, because he doesn't offend anybody. He doesn't offend
anybody. Well, our Lord said, Woe unto
you if all men speak well of you. The gospel is offensive,
and we must not try to avoid being offensive. We must not
make an effort to do away with the offense of
the cross. We must preach the word of God,
and if men are astonished, and if they're startled, if they're
offended, if they leave, if they refuse to hear it, we grieve
over it, we're sorry. But we must not try to avoid
being offensive. Now the second error to be avoided
is this, the other side of the coin. We must not try to be offensive. We must not try to be startling
and astonishing. I've heard preachers who tried
to offend people. They really went out of their
way to stir up trouble. They tried to preach controversial
material. And they tried to preach that
controversial material in such a way as to make people angry. The Word of God will be offensive
enough to the natural heart without our being offensive. Turn with
me and I want you to read this, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now
this is the same apostle writing, the apostle Paul who wrote in
Galatians, I quoted it a minute ago, he said, If I please men,
I am not the servant of Christ. But here he is writing this,
now listen to it, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31. Whether,
therefore, you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all
to the glory of God. Give none offense, neither to
the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God, even
as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, my
own gain, my own welfare, my own way, but the profit of many
that they may be saved. Paul said, I seek not to be offensive
myself in my conversation, in my conduct, in my character. I don't want to offend people
in this way. Now, if the gospel offends them,
that's all right. If we stand in the pulpit and
preach the Bible as the inerrant, infallible, verbally inspired
word, and a man's offended, let him be offended. When we stand
and preach that God created all things by the word of his power,
that all things came into being by his wisdom, by his will, and
men are offended, let them be offended. When we preach that
Christ Jesus is the only Savior, that there's no salvation in
the law, there's no salvation, there's no redemption, there's
no forgiveness of sin in human merit, That we are all as an
unclean thing, from the sole of our feet to the top of our
heads. We are nothing but open running sores that have not been
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. And men are offended,
let them be offended. When we preach that Christ came
as the gift of God, as the redeemer of sinners, that he came to this
earth and was made in the likeness of human flesh, bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh, and walked this earth as a man, and met
the law and obeyed it, and went to the cross and died, and was
buried and rose again, and is now the only mediator between
God and men, and men are offended, let them be offended. When we
preach that God is a triumphant, almighty, sovereign God who rules
and reigns among the kingdoms of heaven and the inhabitants
of this earth, and men are offended, let them be offended. But let's
not offend them by our attitude. Let's have an attitude of love
for all men and compassion for all men. Let us conduct ourselves
in our conversation and our behavior and in our attitude and our dealings
with others in such a way that we don't give offense. Now those
are the two errors to be avoided in preaching and witnessing.
In the church we are not to try to avoid being offensive by taking
the edge off the gospel. We're not trying to please men,
we're trying to preach the gospel. We're not trying to get along
with the world, we're trying to preach the gospel. We're not
trying to build a great denomination or a great church or a great
following, we're trying just to preach the gospel, to be honest,
to be to be true to men's souls. And if that's offensive, let
it be offensive. But we must not try to be offensive. We must not raise issues that
don't have to be raised. We must not preach with an attitude
that gives offense. We must not conduct ourselves
in such a way that men are offended. But here in Matthew 7, now let's
turn back to the text. Our Lord preached a sermon that
was offensive. It was startling. And the Bible
says it was astonishing. They hadn't heard anything like
this before. It was astonishing. It said he wasn't preaching like
the scribes and the Pharisees. Those people were the religious
leaders of that day. They were the local theological
professors. They were the local religious
representatives. They were the ecclesiastical
powers. And Christ came along, he didn't
preach like them. He didn't say what they were
saying. And he didn't say it in the way they said it. The
people were astonished at his doctrine. who were astonished
at what he was teaching because he taught them as one having
authority and not as described in the Pharisees. He wasn't like
the rest of them, and they recognized that. Our Lord preached a sermon
that astonished them, and I want us to look at what he had to
say. Now from verse 13, where I began reading a moment ago,
our Lord talked about—I won't have time to cover all of this—but
he talked about two ways, the broad and the narrow. He talked
about two prophets, two kinds of preachers, the false and the
true. He talked about two trees, one
bringing forth good fruit, one bringing forth evil fruit. He
talked about two professions, those who said, Lord, Lord, with
their lips and those who knew the Lord in their heart. And
he talked about two foundations, a foundation of sand and a foundation
of rock. Now let's look at some of these
tonight. All of them have to do with religion. All of them
have to do with a relationship with God. Now the first one,
let's look at verse 13. Our Lord said in verse 13 and
14, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And there's a
big crowd on that road. Many there be. which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate
and narrower is the way which leadeth to life. And few there
be that find it. Now here we have a narrower road
that leads to life. We have a broad road that leads
to destruction. Now many believe, and I want
you to listen to this just a moment. Many people believe that both
of these ways are ways of religion. In other words, we're not talking
here about the atheist. We're not talking here about
the non-professor. We're not talking here about
the people who have no religion and no zeal for God and no interest
in God and no knowledge of God. The broad and narrow way, the
broad way and the narrow way are both religious ways. Now,
our text certainly bears this out, because this fits in with
the rest of the message. The rest of the message deals
with what? True and false preachers, both religious. Trees that bring
forth good fruit and evil fruit, but both trees. Some kind of
plant. Every plant which my heavenly
Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Two professions,
both religious professions, one true and one false. Two foundations,
both foundations, both refuges, one true and one false. So this,
if these are both religious ways, it certainly fits in with the
rest of the text, and I believe they are. Now first of all, the
narrow road. He calls it a narrower way, verse
14, because straight is the gate and narrower is the way. What
does that mean? It means this, the narrow road
is narrower because it recognizes but one righteousness, and that
of Christ. The narrow road that leads to
life is narrower because it recognizes but one righteousness. Because of the sin of one, we
became guilty. Because of the obedience of another,
we were made righteous. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be the righteousness, not a righteousness, the righteousness
of God in him. Christ is our righteousness. The only one with which God will
be pleased, the only one which God will accept. One righteousness. It's a narrow way. And secondly,
it's a narrow way because it recognizes but one atonement. For as much as you know, you
were not redeemed with these other things, but with the precious
blood of Christ." There is but one atonement. There is but one
sacrifice. There is but one shedding of
blood with which the Father will be pleased. It's narrow because
it recognizes but one Mediator. The Scripture says there's one
God and one Mediator between God and me and the man Christ
Jesus. It's narrow because it recognizes
but one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Isn't that what the
scripture says? It's a narrow road. Now the broad road is anything
but that one righteousness. Anything goes. It's broad because
it takes in many things. The way of life is narrow because
it has one righteousness. The way that leads to destruction
is broad because it includes many righteousnesses. The way
that is narrow, that leads to life, is narrow because it recognizes
only one sacrifice. The broad road accepts any sacrifice,
even the sacrifice of your time, or the sacrifice of your tithe,
or the sacrifice of your talents. But the sacrifice with which
God is pleased is the blood. The narrow road has one mediator. The broad road says any way you
can get to God is all right, just come. God accepts any way,
just so you're sincere. The narrow road has one Lord,
one faith, and one baptism. And then notice the next word
that is used here. It says, narrow is the way, and
then it says in verse 14, S-T-R-A-I-T. Now I did a little work on that
word, the straight gate. It uses it twice here. It says
verse 13, enter ye in at the straight gate. And then verse
14, because straight is the gate. Now we're not talking about straight
in direction as a straight line. That's not what this word means
at all. But we're talking about straight as a position of confinement,
as a straitjacket. S-T-R-A-I-T, a straitjacket. When a person is in a straitjacket,
he is confined. And the Apostle Paul says, I
am confined to one subject. I am confined to one faith. I
am confined to one gospel. I am confined to one Redeemer.
I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. I am confined. This is a straight
gate. Now that was offensive to these
people. They were trying to work their way to heaven. They were
trying to gain God's acceptance and God's recognition by what
they did, by their own righteousness. And Christ said this road is
narrow. This gate is straight, confined. Here's another way in which this
word is used. The straight gate. A position
of confinement and a position of positiveness. That person,
they say, is straight-laced. S-T-R-A-I-T-L-A-C-E-D. He's straight-laced. What do
they mean by that? That means he has positive principles. He has moral convictions that
will not be shaken. And the Apostle Paul said this.
Listen to him. If any man preach any other gospel,
let him be accursed. That's pretty straight-laced,
isn't it? That's what we're talking about here. Straight is the gate.
Narrow is the way that leads to life. Now this was offensive,
and I know it's offensive today. But as I said, I don't want to
be offensive, do you? Paul said, for the glory of God,
I want to please men so that they might be saved. But this
is a narrow way. It's a narrow way. It's one atonement. It's one righteousness. It's
one mediator. It's one Lord. One Lord. And this is a straight way. That
is a position of confinement. I am determined. And this is a position of positiveness. Straight laced. If any man preach
any other gospel, let him be accursed. And then thirdly, this
word also is used this way, a position of difficulty. As a man, listen,
straightened in circumstances. He is straightened in the circumstances. That is, he is held in by difficult
things. difficult circumstances, and
the Apostle Paul knew something about that. He tells us that
he who would live godly in Christ Jesus must and shall suffer persecution. Peter wrote, think it not strange
when you are called upon to endure fiery trials. These are to trial
your faith. So we will be straightened. We're
going to get some trials and some Sometimes of testing and sometimes
of difficulty, but these are all for our good and for God's
glory. Now look, something else about
this way. It says in verse 14, straight is the gate and narrower
is the way that leadeth to life. To life. This way, this narrower
way, this way of Christ. Christ didn't say, I am a door.
He said, I'm the door. Christ didn't say, I am a way.
He said, I'm the way. This way, this way of Christ,
this narrow way, this straight way, it leads to life. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. He that believeth not the Son
of God hath not life. This broad road, the broad road,
is anything else besides Christ. There's no difficulty in finding
it. To find it, all I have to do is be left to myself and to
my nature. Out of my bondage, listen to
this, my sorrow and night, into his freedom, gladness and light. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, into the glorious gain of his cross. Out of my unrest
and arrogant pride, into his blessed will to abide. out of
the depths of ruin untold into the peace of his sheltering fold,
out of my sickness into his help, out of my want into his wealth,
out of myself to dwell in his love, out of my despair into
raptures above." That's it. That's Christ. Two ways. The narrow way, which is Christ,
and the broad way, which is anything else. Now then, down in verse
21, our Lord talked about two professions. We'll skip over
the prophets and the trees and get on to these two professions
because our time is slipping away. In verse 21, He says, Not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, that's a profession
of religion, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, One day Christ
was asked this question, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God, that we might do the will of God? And Christ
said, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
God has sent. That's the work of God. Now look
at verse 22. Many will say to me, and here
is the key, this is the three words that I want us to look
at here in this verse. Many will say to me, in that
day, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? And in your name cast out devils, and in your
name done many wonderful works. Mr. Spurgeon said one time, one
of the best tests of everything that we profess. One of the best
tests of everything that we claim religiously, one of the best
tests is how it will appear in the moment of death, in the morning of resurrection,
at the day of judgment. One of the best tests of how
my profession will appear when I lie down to die, or in that
day when the trump of God sounds and the dead in Christ rise. Will I rise? And in that day, the day of judgment,
Our Lord gives us a picture of some people who will appear before
him in that day. He said they will say, Lord,
have we not preached in your name and cast out demons in your
name and done many wonderful works? These people went a long
ways in religion. They made an open profession.
They called him Lord. They did many religious works.
Christ said that they claimed that they did many wonderful
works. They were successful, too. They
enjoyed a measure of success, for they saw some demons cast
out. They were orthodox. He said,
they did it in your name. Well, we did this in your name.
We were orthodox. And they kept the masquerade
up a long time. The Lord on earth didn't disown
them, and people didn't detect them. They even came to the judgment
with these claims and fully expected to enter into heaven. But in
that day they found out their error in a terrible way. They
received the words of condemnation from the mouth of him whom they
called Lord, Lord. Oh, the solemnity of what he
said, I never knew you. Oh, the terror of what he said,
depart from me. Oh, the finality of what he said, you're workers of iniquity. Depart from me, who made myself
man for sinners like you. Depart from me, who shed my blood
to redeem sinners like you. Depart from me, who invited you
to mercy. Depart from me, who warned you
of a false righteousness. Depart from me, who called and
you refused. Depart from me, from my presence,
from my kingdom, from my paradise, from my people, from my heaven.
Nothing more terrible could possibly be uttered or heard by human
ears. Depart from me. I never knew you." If you'll notice throughout this
whole testimony, these people who stood before Christ and made
these claims, not one time. Now watch it carefully. Look
at it. They said, Lord, we preached
in your name. Lord, we cast out devils in your
name. Lord, we have done many wonderful
works in your name." What's missing? The entire claim, the entire
testimony is what they did for him. Isn't that what it is? Serving the Lord. Isn't that
what religion is based on today? Come out and serve the Lord.
Do this and serve the Lord. Witness and serve the Lord. Serve
the Lord and enter the kingdom of God. Serve the Lord and go
to heaven when you die. That's exactly what these people
did. They served the Lord. And yet they heard him say, I
never knew you. My friends, salvation, redemption, forgiveness, is not
what you do for God, it's what God does for you. That's the
difference. Your claim to heaven is not what
you did for God. Your claim to heaven is that
God in mercy gave his Son to save your soul. These people
didn't stand and say at the judgment, Lord, we trusted you. We believed in you. We rested
in you. We identified with your death,
burial, and resurrection. We sincerely believe in our hearts
that you died on the cross for our sins. Nothing in our hands
we bring, simply to the cross of Christ we cling." That's not
what they said. My friend, how do you know that
you're saved? Well, I was brought up in a Christian home, and when
I was 13 or 14 years of age, I joined the church, and I've
been serving the Lord all my life. That's exactly what these
people said. My friend, how do you know you're
saved? Well, we had a revival meeting at our church, and the
preacher preached, and he asked everybody that wanted to go to
heaven to raise their hand, and I raised my hand, and he said,
come down front, and I went down front, He said, you believe these
things? And I said, yes, and I joined
the church and they gave me a Sunday school class and I taught Sunday
school and I gave my tithe and I became a deacon and I served
the Lord and here I am 60 years of age and I've been serving
the Lord all my life. That's what these people said
too. Now let's face it. Let's face it. Christ Jesus, the Lord said,
I didn't come to be ministered unto, I came to minister and
to give my life a ransom for many. And my only hope, my only
plea, is that when Christ died on the cross, he died for me.
When I've done everything that God calls on me to do, I'm still
an unprofitable, unworthy servant. If I could keep every commandment
that God ever wrote, I'd still be just doing what I'm supposed
to do. I still haven't contributed anything personally to God's
glory. Now this is serious. These are
two professions here. These people who professed the
right to enter the kingdom of God, laid claim to that right
by what they did for God. By what they did for God. And
the only ones who are going to enter the kingdom of God are
those for whom God has done something in Christ. Now last of all, verse
24, our Lord talks about two foundations. Verse 24, Therefore
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, the floods
came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell
not. Why? Because the house was built
on a rock. It had a right foundation. Now everyone that heareth what
I have had to say, Christ said, and doeth these things not, does
not believe them, does not walk in them, shall be likened unto
a foolish man which built his house on the sand. The rain descended,
the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and
it fell, and great was the fall of it." Now let me give you some
points on this. Now listen. First of all, let's
look at the two builders. These are religious people. They're
two builders. Both of them felt a need for
a house. What's a house? It's a hiding
place. What's a house? It's a refuge. What's a house? It's a place to get in, to stay
out of the cold and the wind and the rain and out of trouble.
Both of them set about to build a refuge. Both of them persevered
and finished their refuge. They built it. They finished
it. Both of them. Now this is a picture
of religious people. Everybody in Iceland who is religious
has some kind of refuge. They felt a need for some kind
of religious refuge. It may be in baptism, it may
be in decisionism, it may be in praying through, it may be
in church membership, it may be in morality, it may be in
just about anything, but everybody has a religious refuge. They
need something. to protect them from death, judgment,
and hell. So they got them a refuge. Now
let's look at the two houses, or the two refuges. One of them
was built a whole lot faster than the other one. Turn with
me to Luke 6. Now this is important right here.
Our Lord, this same parable is taught in Luke 6, verse 48. And he says in verse 48, he is
like a man which built a house. and he digged deep, and he laid
the foundation on a rock. This man went through the process
of digging down to the foundation. Now I'm not saying a man has
to go through months of conviction and months of trouble and months
of Holy Spirit trouble in order to come to knowledge of Christ.
But I'm saying this. Now listen to me. Christ taught
this. If you're going to build a house, you sit down and count
the cost. If you're going to make war with another kingdom,
you better find out how much he's got, and how much you've
got, and how much it'll take to whip him. And our Lord is
teaching this. And I'm not afraid for my gospel
to be weighed. I want it to be. I know preachers
that stand before a congregation and they get an outline and then
they tell an illustration to get everybody under some kind
of hypnotic religious spell and then they quickly draw the net
and catch people while they're ready. Catch them while they're
impressed. Catch them while they're motivated.
In other words, they'll come to the end of a message and then
they'll give a sad illustration and they get people weeping and
under some kind of psychological evangelistic religious spell
and they say, now don't you want to meet Mother in Heaven? How
many of you want to go to Heaven? Don't you want to go to Heaven?
Christ is the way to Heaven. Won't you receive Him tonight?
While the choir is softly singing, the choir starts singing softly.
Now come on, now come on. Mind the Lord. And that fellow
will make a profession, and everybody will weep and cry and pat him
on the back. And after it's over, he goes out there in that old
cold, cruel world. And he thinks, What in the world
did I do? Now, they got me down in the church. I'll have to start
paying money. But if I said, But you're saved, am I? Yeah,
honey, you're saved. Well, good. That's good. You mean, if I die right now,
I go to heaven? Yes, if you die right now, you go to heaven.
Can I ever be lost? No, you can't ever be lost. Now, this man digged deep. And
here's what I want you to do. I'm preaching to you the truth
about God. But the Word says, I'm preaching
to you the truth about man. He's lost. I'm preaching to you
the truth about Christ and the gospel. And the only way a sinner
is saved is you buy your Bible and you go home and sit down
by yourself and you see what I'm saying is true. And if you
come to see this, If you come to see what the Word of God says
about you is so, and you come to see what the Word of God says
about Christ is so, and you count the cost and you're willing to
pay the price, and you can honestly, intelligently, and willingly,
and lovingly, personally, everlastingly say, This is not a spur-of-the-moment
decision, and I'm not acting under the impulse of some powerful
psychological sway by some preacher. And I'm not standing over Mother's
grave hoping that you'll take me to Heaven when I die. I want
to be saved. I want to be saved. That's what
this man did. He dug down deep. So this other fellow built his
house overnight. He just made a decision, whooping,
walked the hallelujah road, joined the church, and got that old
house all fixed up in about 30 seconds. He got the house built.
This other man digged deep, and he found some place to put his
foot. He found a place to put the other
one. He found some truth. And you know what that foundation
was? That foundation was Christ. That foundation was Christ. Now
we can't keep this atmosphere, Eddie, out there at the golf
course. Take it with you. We can't take this atmosphere
out of that arm, Colerone. This is a holy spiritual atmosphere,
but I'll tell you, honey, it's rough. Oh, I'll tell you. Out of that arm, Colerone, they
don't say gosh, do they? It's tough out there. You can't
take this atmosphere. So, buddy, you have to take Christ
with you. If you don't have that foundation,
if you don't have Christ, You're going to get shook up, and that's
what I want you to do. That's what I'm preaching, the
gospel of Christ, so that when you go out there, your house
is not sitting on some flimsy foundation of some kind of atmosphere
or experience or feeling. It's down there, Christ died
for my sins. You see what I'm saying? I know whom I have believed,
and I'm trusting him. Now I want you to look at the
trial of these two houses. This is important here. These
two houses went through some trial. It says here in verse
25, the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew. What is
that? Well, where does rain come from? Heaven. And this house went through
some trials from heaven. From heaven. We're going to have
some trials from heaven. That's right, God's going to
send some trials. They're going to be divinely
purposed. They're going to be divinely
ordained. They're going to be divinely sent. God's going to
send some trials. There's some heavy trials coming,
and they'll be divinely ordained. God gave Paul a thorn in the
flesh. God gave it to him. And I could go on giving you
other trials that God put upon his people to test and to try
them. And that profession of yours, that house of yours, that
refuge of yours, is going to get some trials from heaven,
divinely ordained trouble. Well, what's the next thing?
The flood came. Where does that come from? It comes from the
earth. It comes from the earth. And we're going to have some
trials from the earth. There's some people that you
really thought were your friends, and they're going to turn out
to be your bitterest enemy. And they're going to make life
hard, awful hard. They're going to ridicule you
and persecute you and put a lot of pressure on you. You're going
to be persecuted. And then the wind. Where's wind
come from? Well, scripture says nobody knows.
You hear the wind, you feel it, but can't stop tell from whence
it comes. And you're going to have some
trials that they're in here. And you don't, you say, why did
I do that? I don't have the faintest idea.
Why in the world did I say that? I don't have the faintest idea.
Why am I like I am? Why does this come? Why do I go through these trials,
these times of depression and despair and despondency? Why do I go through these times
of agony and doubt? That's the way in. Spiritual
trials. You don't know where they come
from. Now that little old decision you walk down the aisle and made
is not going to hold up under those trials. It just won't do
it. And that little easy believism
and that little experience that you had down there behind the
barn, it's not going to hold up when that rain from heaven
falls and those friends begin to desert and forsake and you
have troubles and you've got bills and can't pay them and
debts and you're out of work and hospitals and all these things,
you can't face it. And when these mysterious trials
on the inside begin to tear you apart, one house fell, one house
fell. It was that little old decision
that fellow made that Sunday night when that evangelist was
in town talking him into coming forward and professing Jesus.
And that old boy went out and got in the rain, the flood, the
wind, it blew his house away. But that old boy sat down and
listened to that gospel minister. who took the time to tell him
what to believe, and in whom to believe, and why to believe,
and what God did, and why he did it. And he dug down deep,
and he found a rock, and that rock was Christ. And he took
the time to establish his foundation and build his refuge on that
rock. Nothing could shake him. Whatever
God sent, like old Job, he said, though he slay me, I'll trust
him. Huh? That's what he said. Though
he slay me, I'll trust him. He can kill my son, and my daughter,
and my wife, and then take my everything I got, and I'll still
trust him. Though that host should encamp against me, David said,
in this will I be confident. The Lord is my refuge. Let him
come. Ten thousand on the right hand,
a thousand on the left. Though my mother and father forsake
me, I'll be taken up by the Lord." And the winds come, and David
said this, "'My sins are ever before me, but O Lord, Thou art
my refuge.'" Where was the difference in these two houses? You know
where the difference was? It's out of sight. Now here's two buildings, they
look a whole lot alike. But the trial came and one of
them just flipped away. What was the difference? The
difference was on the ground. And here are religious people
sitting out here tonight, and some of you could take the hail
from heaven and the floods from the earth and the winds from
within and stand, while others, they slip away. They all looked
alike to me. Yeah, but the difference was
where you couldn't see. He's on the ground. He's in the
heart. He's in the heart. You see what
I'm saying? In you. I know whom I have believed. Our Father bless the Word. Thy
Word is so beautiful. Thy word meets our every need.
Thy word clearly reveals to us Thy way. Grant, O Lord, that
we might have not a profession of faith only, but a possession
of Christ. that we may not have our refuges
built on shifting treacherous sand but by thy grace we have
digged deep and found the rock and laid that foundation for
eternity where neither rains nor flood nor winds can sweep
it away for Christ is the Savior.

The People Astonished at His Doctrine

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The People Astonished at His Doctrine

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About Henry Mahan

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