Gospel—A. Roach
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Shall we sing hymn #37 #37?
The gospel of Thy grace, my stubborn heart has won. For God so loved the world He gave his only Son, that whosoever will believe shall everlasting life receive hymn #37 when someone started, please.
We pray. Shall we turn to the book of Isaiah?
The prophecy of Isaiah chapter.
Chapter 33.
Isaiah 33.
00:05:03
And verse 13.
Hear ye there afar off, what I have done.
And ye that are near acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness, have surprised the hypocrites.
Who among us shall dwell with a devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he not despise at the gain of oppression.
That shake of his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shut up his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be the munitions of the rocks.
Bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure. Thine eye shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off.
Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? Where is the receiver? Where is he that counted the towers?
We learned from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans that there are two things that God is revealing and sending out into this world today.
Both of these things are found in Romans one, and one is called.
The Gospel of God the Other is called.
The wrath of God.
Now the gospel of God is God's good news of salvation.
The wrath of God is for those who refuse the gospel of God. That's how simple the message is now. The wrath of God revealed from heaven in Romans, one that is not part of the gospel. It is a message that goes out concurrently with the gospel. Our brother reminded us last evening that the gospel message itself is brief and simple.
But our hearts need to be stirred. We need to have our consciences made to realize that we stand in the presence of God. Now it says in Romans. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew 1St, and also to the Greek. But then he goes farther and he says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.
Who hold the truth in unrighteousness now, no doubt.
Our ancestors were chiefly guilty of the ungodliness in that verse.
The Jew had the truth, and he held the truth in unrighteousness.
So that verse lets us know that God's wrath is not only for the Gentile but also for the Jew. Just as in the Gospel verse, the gospel is to the Jew 1St and also to the Gentile. If God sends out a message of salvation to the Jew and to the Gentile, then if they refuse it, if they take it not, then God has nothing left but his inexorable wrath, the wrath and judgment of God.
Dear soul, we cannot trifle with this message. We cannot trifle with a message from God. You've got to do with God. I've had people say to me I don't want to have anything to do with God, and I've had to tell them you can't help it. You have got to do with God either. You've got to do with them now when he's a savior God and wants to bring you in and and bless your soul all you'll have to do with him in the day of wrath.
Judgment when there is no escape in Isaiah Chapter 6.
Isaiah is before a throne, the throne of the Lord himself. But there's an altar there. And when Isaiah confesses that he has, he was a Sinner, that he was a man of unclean lips. In the presence of that altar, in the presence of that throne, a seraphim flew to the altar and took a coal, put it upon his lips, and said, Thy sin is purged, that iniquity is forgiven. But I want to tell you this, We may look at the verse later. Our brother read it last evening.
00:10:14
There is another throne, the same throne, and a different character where the unsaved will stand. But I want to say this. There's no altar there. There's no burning altar at the Great White Throne. There are no such thing. There is no such thing as the seraphim flying with a coal and going to those poor wretched sinners, ready to be cast into hell and perching away their sins. But today, tonight, that altar is available.
We stand before the throne of God, as it were. And we've got a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, one who is ready to save. For tonight we want to warn you faithfully. We want to be here tonight as a watchman, faithfully warning you of the judgment of God. Why does the word of God speak of hell? Why does the Word of God speak of wrath and fiery judgment? Why, to scare us, to make us afraid?
To warn us.
Some years ago, I remember when I lived in Woodbridge.
Years ago the railroad train ran on the ground. They sense of elevated it without the grade crossing. They had a watchman and they had gates. And one night there was a fast freight coming in from New York City on its way South and something happened to the gates. They were broken. So the watchman got out with his red Lantern.
And he stopped traffic, and he went down a little ways on what we call Green Street. And at that moment an automobile kept tearing around the corner. The watchman stood there faithfully and waved that red Lantern in the front of that car. But the driver kept coming on, and the watchman had to jump out of the way in order to escape injury. What happened? That car met the train, and as always happens between cars and trains, that car was ground up.
And the two people in it kill. Why? Because they wouldn't heed the Red Lantern. They wouldn't heed the warning. You say they were foolish, and I agree with you. But are you and I any less foolish to be here tonight and to be warned of the wrath and judgment of a sin hating God? And they go out of this place unsaved. How can you come here and be warned of a judgment that sure to come? That man might have beaten the train. I saw a motorcycle rider do that once.
To get away from a policeman, he took a chance and he was able to get across and get past the train.
But dear friend, there's no escape when it comes to the wrath and the judgment of God.
Some years ago in the British Army barracks, a Colonel was passing by, and he was, he noticed some of the soldiers in a corner engaged in very earnest conversation about something, and he was a little curious about it. And in a friendly way he went over to them and he asked them what they were talking about. All they said, Colonel, we have been counting the cost if we confess. Christ.
We are counting the cost if we confess. Christ the Colonel very wisely turned it around another way.
He said, Have you counted the cost if you don't accept Christ? Yes, they might have counted the cost. They would lose this friend. They'd lose that friend. They'd be sneered at. There would be a cost to confess Christ, But to confess Christ would mean eternal salvation, eternal blessing. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
The Colonel put it in his true light. What would the loss be if they didn't confess Christ? Or they'd still have their friends. They'd still go on having a merry time in this world. But when eternity came, when death came, what then? Oh, dear soul, I plead with you tonight. I plead with you tonight. And my voice isn't alone. There are many here who can all stand up and join me in chorus in pleading with your soul tonight.
To count the cost of not receiving Christ as your Savior. Now, let us notice a few things in this chapter we've read.
The first thing we have is God calls and says, Hear ye, hear ye.
00:15:00
That are far off what I have done. God directs attention to what he has done. You know, we like to take up what we have done.
We like to speak of our good works or our good life, or what we intend to do, dear soul, God wants your ear tonight, he says. Hear ye that are far off what I have done. Some years ago, my brother, Walter Potter was walking in a park in Chicago, and he sat down on a bench. There were two men holding a conversation, and as our brother was sitting there, he couldn't help here that one of them was no doubt a Christian.
Speaking to the other man. And the other man was trying to resist and trying to deny the Bible. So our brother father listened for a while and he turned to the young man that was trying to deny the word of God. And he said, young man, he says God wants your mouth stopped so that you can hear what he has to say to you. And so tonight in Romans 3, we're told one of the reasons that the law was given.
That every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. God chose out Israel as a special nation, gave them everything that could cultivate righteousness, that could cultivate blessing in His presence and by God bringing them out and testing them, giving them the law, He stops every mouth because they were not able to keep that law. They were not able to carry out God's holy requirements. They turned to idols. They turned to sin.
What is it that the enemy is turning you to tonight? What is there that stands between you?
And faith in the Lord Jesus, though God says here either far off what I have done or what has he done, I realized as a prophetic connection in the Scripture. But I believe we have liberty from the Holy Spirit to use the Scripture in the gospel message tonight.
God wants you to listen. He says He that are far off. Well, no. You know, as Gentiles, that's where we were. The Gentiles were far off. The Jew was there, and outwardly, but we were far off. But there's another way in which we're far off. Sin, sin has separated between US and our God all we need the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What has God done? God says I want you to notice what I have done.
Let's forget what you and I do. Let's forget all works and let us realize what God has done. What has He done?
Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, what has God done? He sent the Savior into the world. He sent the Savior into the world.
What are you and I doing about that, Savior?
What are we doing about that, Savior? It's a very solemn thing to have to do with God. I want to tell you a very solemn thing that happened. And those who were brought up in a Christian home pay particular attention. It's for all of us. But notice this. On December 31St, 1969, I stood in a Funeral Home in Wilmington, DE. Behind me there was an open casket. A man had passed away.
A man in the 70s, the father of one of the brethren in the meeting.
Back in the room was the grandson of this man, the grandson and his wife. They were back there. The grandson had heard the Gospel. He had heard it in his home. He knew the way, but as far as we know, he never took it well as he sat back there. I had the responsibility of conducting the service, and as I went over the scriptures and thought faithfully.
To bring out the gospel of God's grace, what was this young man and his young wife doing? Why, they couldn't have been less interested. They were fiddling around there and fooling around and poking one another and laughing. And I want to say this, almost three months to the day, March 30th, 1970, I stood in the same place in the same funeral parlor. But now there were two caskets 2 and they were closed.
Who was in them? The same young man and the same young woman.
00:20:02
Who showed such gross indifference to the gospel of God's grace three months before?
They were killed suddenly in an automobile accident, without any possibility of deathbed repentance. They were hurled into eternity and they had no opportunity. As far as we know. The last memory for my own soul that I had of them was their indifferent and mocking attitude to the gospel of the grace of God. Three months later they were gone. Where or what? A funeral service it was How difficult we couldn't say they were with Christ.
We couldn't bring in the comfort of the word of God as to their salvation. Oh dear soul, don't trifle with God. Death can come suddenly. God can stop that breath and where will you be? God wants us to hear what he has done. He's provided A savior now, he says and ye that are near acknowledged by might. Well, there are some people who think they're not such bad sinners.
They say, well, I'm not a far off center. I'm a little better than someone else. Well, God still says you that are near. He wants you to acknowledge his might, his might, all in this case. We like to take you back to Calvary Cross. It was on the cross that the Lord Jesus Christ bore that wrath and judgment of a mighty God when he hung there in those hours of darkness doing that work that you and I could never do.
A work that can save the vilest of sinners. God has saved the vilest of sinners.
God will save you tonight. I remember back in 1920, I believe it was around 1927 in New York City. There was a terrible murder committed and there was a man named H Judd Gray who was involved in it and he was sent to the death house at Sing Sing Prison Ossining, NY. And while he awaited his execution, a Christian, a Christian friend of mine, a Mr. Potts, wrote a letter.
To H Judd Gray and brought the gospel before him. I don't know what exposure Gray had before to the gospel, but at home I've got a copy of the letter that this condemned criminal wrote to my Christian friend. In answer to his letter, he said, yes, I am saved. I do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. But here is a remark he made. He said I'd rather go to heaven.
By the electric chair.
That's a hell.
By the life I was living, God reached into the prison, into the death house, and saved that man. He was executed. He he fell under the government of God, and he was taken and put into an electric chair and into eternity. But his partner in crime, or how different it was with her, or there was no evidence she was resting in a false religion. Dear soul God would have you to face the reality of death.
And the reality of judgment afterward it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.
Notice the 14th verse. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Well, might they be the citizens Zion are afraid. Notice where these sinners are. They're in Zion. Zion was that city that had been God center, God center. These sinners were in a place that would, we would say they were outwardly in a in a good place.
Oh, I appeal to you young folks who have been brought up in a Christian home. Are you despising the law of thy father? Are you going to turn away now, after 15 or 16 or 17 years of being brought up under the sound of the gospel? And you're going to go out of this room unsaved, and you're going to break the heart of your father and mother by turning away from Christ after they've prayed for all these years?
Spoken to you of Christ. They brought you to the meetings where you would hear more of that blessed Savior. Don't trifle with God. Don't trifle with God. You cannot mock God, and God is going to hold you accountable. You may be a Sinner in Zion, but I ask you tonight, are you afraid? Are you afraid of the judgment of God? That would be a good sign if you would come trembling like the Philippian jailer. The Philippian jailer didn't tremble the way Felix did. Felix trembled.
00:25:00
With some mental traveling with him, he say he trembled, but he didn't take Christ as a savior. The Philippian jailer did tremble, and he did take Christ as a savior. He came in trembling, and he said, SARS, what must I do to be saved?
Notice he doesn't say what must I do to inherit eternal life? That's the question asked by a self-righteous person. What can I do that I might inherit or be entitled to eternal life? But the Philippian jailer realized he had no right or claim or title to this wonderful salvation. But he came trembling and he says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? And we know the answer well.
The answer was very simple and to the point. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved. Have you ever believed that message? Have you ever put your faith?
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no other savior. There is no other way. God has only one way for the high center and the low Sinner for the Sinner. That's a far off in the center, that's near. God has one way of salvation for the drunken in the gutter.
As he has for the highest religious person in the land, God has one salvation. All dear soul, we plead with you tonight to take Christ for notice of solemn consequences, not only with the sinners in Zion afraid.
Fearfulness have surprised the hypocrites. What is a hypocrite? Well, he was a Greek actor who had two faces originally. He had his own face and he had a face that he wore when he was on the stage.
Because actors were ashamed to be identified. In those days they weren't so popular. And so a hypocrite comes from a word with which meant these two faces. When the man was acting in the arena, you wouldn't know who he was. And outside he had a different face. He had two faces. He looked one way here and he looked another way there. Now you can be in that position tonight. You may have made a false profession of Christ. You may have said, Oh yes, yes, I believe in order to satisfy someone else.
But remember this. If your confession of Christ isn't real, fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. You will be surprised. And the portion of the hypocrites which is an outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, will be your eternal portion. Or tonight, while God is pleading in love, come to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a precious Savior, he says, And he he says There, come unto me.
All ye that labor and a heavy laden and I will give you rest. He's a giving loving savior. And if you know him or how you'd love him, if you know that blessed savior as your own, what is hindering, what is holding back? Well, let us see what happens.
Now we get a solemn question.
Who among us shall dwell with a devouring fire? Now that's an up to date question.
That question is not obsolete. That question is not out of date. We are dealing with the most up-to-date book in the world. We're dealing with a book that doesn't need loose leaf pages to bring it up to date. This is God's book, and it's always up to date. And this question is just as much up to date tonight as when Isaiah wrote it. The question is, and may this search every heart in this room tonight. Who among us?
Shall dwell with a devouring fire, or is there some soul sitting next to you?
You know yourself as a Christian. You know that if the Lord Jesus came, you'll be caught up. Is it possible that right next to each Christian here tonight, there's someone here sitting here, who's going to dwell with the devouring fire? Notice, it doesn't say who among us shall pass through the devouring fire, Who among us shall dwell with a devouring fire? And the second question makes it even more solemn.
For it says.
Who among us shall dwell?
With everlasting burnings, is there a hell Yes. Who says so?
The Lord Jesus Christ.
There's an everlasting burning ahead. There's a devouring fire. There's an everlasting torment. Again, we say. God tells us of this as a warning. He doesn't want us to fall into the pit of hell.
00:30:14
He doesn't want us to be like the sinners in Zion, to be afraid, or the hypocrites to be suddenly seized here with surprise. All dear soul, come to the Lord Jesus. He's the only Savior and he loves you. Now we'll hold our place in Isaiah and turn to the gospel of Mark. We want to get the words of the Savior himself.
Mark's Gospel chapter.
9.
Mark's Gospel Chapter 9.
And.
Verse 43.
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell. Into the fire that never shall be quenched will stop there a moment we'll look at the hand. Notice here the Lord Jesus speaks of a place called hell. Now the Lord Jesus uses in the original.
The word Gehenna. Apart from the Apostle James, I believe the Lord Jesus is the only one in the New Testament to use that word and the Apostle James only uses it to qualify the viciousness of the tone. But the Lord Jesus lets us know that Hell or Gehenna in this place it is the lake of fire. Gahanna is taken from the valley of the sons of Hinnom.
The valley of the Sons of Hinnom was outside Jerusalem. It was outside the city. The people dwelt in the city, but in that valley it was where the refuse was thrown. It was where there were continual fires burning the rubbish, where vultures swooped down to the prey. And where were the kings of Israel, sad to say, pass their children through the fire to Moloch? It's an app picture of the Lake of Fire. It's outside the city, not inside the city.
And our blessed Lord takes that word. He says here, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. Now we know full well the Lord is not speaking literally of cutting the hand. What he's bringing out is this. Is there something that you do or want to do? Some ambition? You have some energy you're putting forth that you don't want to give up. You, you don't want to come to Christ because you're afraid that salvation will interfere.
With this object before your soul, if there's something that you're doing that you're afraid.
The gospel of the grace of God will take away notice the loss of your soul. Suppose you hold on to that object, hold on to it, and die without Christ. What does it say here? The Lord says it is better to enter into life maim than having two hands to go into hell. All the awfulness of hell, the awfulness of Gehenna. Dr. Walston, who was among the gathered Saints over 100 years ago. He was going into a house.
To minister to some sick person. But he was a faithful man as far as the gospel was concerned. And he met a woman and all woman in the hallway. And as he was going up those steps to the to the patient, he was even wanted to treat this patient, He said to the old woman, he said, are you going to heaven? And she mockingly said, will there be any whiskey there. Doctor Walston turned and looked her in the face. She said no, but there'll be no water in hell either. There'll be no water in hell.
Oh, dear soul, do you ever realize that every desire that you have in your heart, you will carry with you into the lake of fire? You're not going to lose the the desire for for drinking water. You're not going to lose the desire if you're a tobacco smoker. You're not going to lose the desire for dope. You're not going to lose the desire for whiskey. You're not going to lose any of these fleshly desires because you'll be raised in your sinful body and cast into the lake of fire, but there'll be no place in hell.
To get those things. Not only will there be no water in hell, there'll be nothing there to satisfy the lusts and desires that will continue in the heart of unconverted and unregenerate man. The lake of fire doesn't give a sin of a new nature. The lake of fire doesn't convert him. He doesn't convert him. Because in Hell there were three things weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Why weeping? Sorrow.
00:35:25
Why wailing pain? Why gnashing of teeth? Rebellion against God? Rebellion. You live in rebellion all through eternity.
In that awful place where there's no escape, no way to get out, no escape. But tonight there is escape. The Lord Jesus says if you've got something you're doing that you prize highly, that's keeping you from coming to him, drop it aside, come deal, deal sternly with it and turn to him. But now notice further verse 45.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter Halt.
Life, then having 2 feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. Are you walking in the path that you don't do not want to give up? Not that we have to give up things to be saved, but the enemy of your soul will tell you that if you confess Christ. Well, now you can't go to this place if you're a Christian. You won't want to go here and you won't want to go there. Your your feet will not carry you to these places. The Lord says deal unsparingly with it. If there's some path you're walking in, don't let it into you from coming to Christ.
And being saved. Or would you rather go into hell with both feet than to go into life maimed, as the Lord puts it, here? I remember a young man came to me after St. preaching in Brooklyn many years ago. We were preaching out in a section known as East New York in Brooklyn. And this young man came up to me and he said, you know, I've been listening and I've been interested, he says, But I'm afraid that if I confess Christ, that my friends, the young men I pal with, they'll make fun of me.
They'll make fun of Maine, I said to them. They can laugh you out of heaven, but they'll never be able to laugh you out of hell. You'll never be laughed out of hell. Oh, don't let friends or companions or relatives or anyone else keep you from coming to Christ. Well, notice another thing the Lord says.
In the 45th part of the 47th verse.
Anaheim I offend thee, Pluck it out.
It is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Have you an object before your soul? Is there something before your eyes that you'd rather be whole than to behold the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior all tonight? Face the reality of it. Why this We were Speaking of human things. We would say this is plain common sense to turn to the Lord Jesus.
And to be saved tonight may be your last opportunity. And if you leave this place without Christ, your soul can be forever lost. Some years ago, when I was in the insurance business in Honolulu, I was at an Army base, Hickam Air Force Base. It was known as and I was dealing with a Sergeant. I remember him well. Sergeant Garten. And this Sergeant had a warehouse with $10,000 worth of merchandise in it. It was a frame warehouse that could burn up like that.
And I was there as representative of an insurance company who could very well provide him with protection. We told him about the whole thing. This was a Friday night, and I told him all he had to do was say the word and I would write him out to find it. That would cover him for $10,000 and that the Hartford Fire Insurance Company would would stand behind it with all its assets. Well, he toyed with the idea. He wanted to get the captain's permission, I said.
I'll give you this. And if on Monday the captain doesn't want it, we'll just cancel it and forget about it. But if you want protection now, here it is. But he wouldn't take it. He'd be departed the next day. That warehouse burned to the ground and every bit of merchandise, and it was destroyed. And he couldn't collect the sand. He wasn't protected one bit. It was gone. He had his opportunity. All he had to do was say yes. That's all he had to say. And he would have had this.
Warehouse protected against this law.
But all dear soul, what a greater loss it is for you and me to turn down God's offer of eternal salvation, Not a conditional thing, but eternal salvation to turn that down for the eternal loss of your soul.
00:40:17
Well, let's go back to Isaiah 33 again.
We read these questions. Who among us shall dwell with a devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Now in the next verse, God brings in those who have turned to Him in faith. We see that that that they turn to Him in faith by the way they are now living. See, when you take Christ as your Savior, He gives you power to walk and to live and to do good.
So that when the resurrection takes place, you will have part of the resurrection of those that have done good. In the 5th of John we have the resurrection of those who have done good. But the ones who have done good were those who confess Christ as their Savior. God can own nothing good except what He works. And so it is here in this next verse we have a different group. Now we don't have the sinners in Zion so much, but we have this brought down to the individual He that walketh righteously.
And speaketh uprightly or speaketh honestly. Now, dear soul, the most honest statement you can make, the most honest confession you can make tonight is to say, I have sinned. I am lost, but I want Christ as my Savior. God will consider that upright dealing, upright speaking, It's confession with a heart. Man believeth on the righteousness.
But with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I make bold to say this in Romans 10 and 9. When it says that thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved. I do not believe that the prime thought in that verse is confession before man. It's confession to God. Suppose I'm on a desert island all alone, and my salvation depended on my confessing command.
I couldn't be saved.
This is confessing to God. No doubt this often happens with others around.
We can hear a sentence say thank God I'm saved. I take Christ as my savior. Now if you confess Christ to God and you own to God that he is your Lord and you believe that he's raised from the dead, God says you saved. Now if we confess him before men, we don't get saved. If we confess him before men, we get a reward. That's something different Again. Those who confess the Lord Jesus before men, it tells us that they will be confessed.
Now before my Father and the holy angels in heaven. But confession in Romans 10 is owning before God what Christ is the assault. I was in an old folks home recently visiting a dear sister, and I was given the name of another elderly person, a Missus Morgan. I know her son. Many years ago he went to South America as a missionary, and he was actually cruelly killed down there by the enemies of the gospel. I looked up as Mother and I couldn't find her in the place where she was supposed to be.
But I saw two elderly women sitting on a bench, and I walked over to them and I handed them each messages of love. And I said to the woman on my right, I said, what does the Lord Jesus Christ mean to you? Why a face lighted up. And she said, why he's my savior. He saved me. And she pointed to the other woman. She said, she's a Christian too. And it turned out to be Mrs. Morgan, the woman I was looking for. Oh, how precious it was to hear that elderly woman. Here she is toward the end of her days.
And she can say Christ is my savior. Oh, don't wait. Don't wait.
Don't put off The graves are small as well as large. You need Christ, and you need them now.
Now, if we if we listen, if we confess Christ. If we turn to Him.
What is the What does God do? Oh what a place of safety puts us in. Notice the 16th verse. In the 16th verse it says of those that speak uprightly those that confess Christ.
It says of them he shall dwell on high.
All at a precious promise he shall dwell on high. He's lifted up above all the possibility of God's wrath and judgment lifted up high. But notice further, it says His place of defense shall be the munitions of the rocks.
00:45:22
On Christ the solid rock, I stand to him right erode, all on the ground is sinking sand. Christ is a solid rock. And here we find that those who confess him are put in the place of the munitions of the rocks. Let's turn to Exodus 33 for a very precious verse in this connection, Exodus 33.
How safe does God make us? We've been talking about the wrath of God.
We've been talking about Hellfire because the word of God speaks of it. We've been Speaking of the precious blood of Christ, which can cleanse from all sin. Now, when God saves, how complete a job does he do? Does he leave any of it to us? His defense shall be the munitions of the rocks. Now notice the 33rd of Exodus. Oh, I love this scene here. Every believer tonight, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can follow what we're about to say.
And put himself in Moses place.
The Lord says in verse 20 to Moses.
Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place.
By me.
And thou shalt stand upon a rock. The Lord says to Moses, There's a place by me, right by me, And thou shalt stand upon a rock. What a place to be in. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're right near him. You belong to God.
In one of God's children the Lord says to Moses as a place by me, or what a place of safety that is. Nobody can get through that. It is true now that the Angel of the Lord and campus round about them, that love him and delivereth them. The Angel forms a camp roundabout, but here it's the Lord himself. Thou shalt stand by me. Or are you standing by Christ tonight? Is he yours? But not only that.
He thou shalt stand.
Upon a rock not sinking sand here is a solid foundation.
Here is one who is standing on the solid truth of the Word of God, that word which shall endure forever. Here is Moses by the Lord standing on a rock. Is that all? No. Let's follow.
Verse verse 22 And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by then I will put thee in a Cliff of the rock. Now we've got the rock Cliff. Cliff is the the hem rider.
Wrote that ham, Rock of Ages cleft for sin. Here we have a cleft rock. It's cut into the wall. Moses is the stand in there. He's protected on all sides by the rock. He's protected on the bottom by the rock. And the Lord is there. Notice another thing?
And.
Verse 22 I will put thee in a Cliff to the rock, and will cover thee with my hand.
Now I ask you this question. When Moses stood on the rock and in the cliffs of the rock, and the Lord's hand was over him, how safe was he? Who in all the universe could assault him? Who in all the universe could do him harm, all in a place of safety? His place of defense was the munitions of the rocks standing on a rock in a rock, and the hand of the Lord over him.
Oh, I don't think the rock that Augustus cop lady head in was there any as secure as that. But he found shelter, and he wrote that precious hem Rock of Ages cleft for me. Oh, dear soul, if you trust the Savior, this is the place into which he'll bring you, he says of those who trust him. I will. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.
For my father, which gave to me, is greater than all, and none is able to pluck out of my father's hand. I and my father.
00:50:05
Are one. Now if I take this pencil and I put it in my right hand and then cycle it with my left hand and hold it with all my might, the only person who can take that from me is a person stronger than I am, and I might not have to go very far to find such a person.
But what I'm getting at is this. We have the hand of Christ, the hand of the Father.
And there were no stronger hands in the universe. How safe do you want to be from the judgment of God? The hand of the Father, the hand of Christ encircling, And even the devil and all his angels could make no impression. That's the impregnable fortress. That's the place of safety in the hand of the Father and the hand of the Son. So coming back to Isaiah, we see here that he shall be.
In verse 16.
His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given him. Don't think that if you take Christ, you're going to be unhappy. You might have that object we were speaking about before, that you may think you've got to give up. If you take Christ as your Savior, why? What will happen? Bread will be given to you. God will sustain you. He will feed you. He will give you joy that the world can never give. We learned this afternoon very plainly and simply about Solomon.
What did he get out of the world? What did the world give him? He got nothing but vanity. Lighter than air. I understand that word means in some places lighter than air. All the weighty things of earth. And the once Prime Minister of England lawed this. Really. He summed it up like this. He said youth is a mistake, manhood A struggle, old age of regret. And yet he reached the highest pinnacle in the British Empire in the days of its mightiest power.
Queen Victoria. And he reached those that point and he could say that it's all a mistake. It doesn't satisfy. It doesn't save. I'm sure his political opponent found the truth. Mr. Gladstone. I from what I've read that he knew Christ. He found Christ as a savior. Owe this all tonight. Don't be afraid to come to Christ. Because once you commit yourself to him, he's a charges for you. It's all in his hands. Bread shall be given unto him.
Not only that, let's go to the 17th verse. Thine eye shall see the king in his beauty. Oh, I've I've often. One can hardly speak of it as we think about coming day.
When for the first time, these eyes of ours.
Will look upon the Lord Jesus.
Our brother solemnly warned us last evening of how the last look.
Of the Sinner before the great white throne, the last face that he shall see before he's cast into the lake of fire, will be the blessed face of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. For will be Christ and manhood, as well as maintaining deity who will be on that throne of judgment. But all what is the Christian waiting for? All. He's longing to see that face for the first time. He's longing to see that face that will thrill his soul, not only the first time he looks upon it, but through all eternity. I believe that once we see the Lord Jesus Christ.
That, that joy that will fill our souls at seeing him will never, never diminish through all eternity. All. Do you want to look upon the king in his beauty? Do you want to look upon the king in his beauty? All you say is nail prints in his hands? Let me tell you a little story of a mother. Years ago there was a mother. She always wore gloves on her hand and a little girl noticed it one day. She grew older, she said, Mother, why is it you always have gloves on your hand? Why is it you never take them off? Well, finally she told the little girl a story how when she was a little baby.
She was in a crib, and a fire started some way from the stove and got to the curtain and over the crib and there were flames. And the mother had a tear down these flaming curtains, get at the crib and put her hands through and lift her little baby out. And in so doing, her hands were so badly burned that even when it healed, they were very ugly to look at. And so she always wore these gloves. Well, when the little girl first saw the hands, she said, oh, how ugly, mother.
But after she heard the story, after she heard the story from her mother's lips, she said, Mother, what beautiful hands you have all. When we see the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and know what he had done for us, how beautiful will those hands be to us? And to see the king in this beauty, Isn't that better than going into Hellfire, where the fire is never quenched and the worm dieth not? Isn't it better to be with Christ and glory?
00:55:24
Through all eternity, yes, thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. But now there's something else in the present verse 18. Thine heart shall meditate Terror. Why? Because now the terror is over. Every believer can look back now and meditate Terror. He can look back to the time when he was fearful of being cast into hell. He can look back to the time when he realized he was a Sinner. And then he might even think of some of the things he planned to do.
To get rid of his sins, where is the scribe? Who was he? Or he keeps the record. He writes down the record of things in the city under siege. He keeps account. Then it says where is the receiver or the Weir? He weighs the weighs, the the, the food that's left in the city he's weighing. Here we find a man's ways, Man's ways here. Here's one that says where is the scribe? Where is the way of where is he that counted the towers? Why they were counting the towers for human strength.
They were looking for human strength, but now the spirit of God says of them, now that they're delivered, their heart can meditate. Terror no longer does the Christian fear. He meditates and he looks back and says, praise God, he's delivered me from fear, from terror. I belong to him. And to think that this wonderful message, this wonderful salvation of those who are the enemies of Christ. In closing, I want to tell an incident.
Our brother spoke last evening of a pardon. I want to tell him another one.
When George Washington became the 1St President of the United States back there around 1789 or so, he had a friend who he had known for many years, and this friend had been converted. He was he was going about as a Christian minister, preaching the gospel to sinners. But there was a man who hated him and did many evil things against him. Harmful things too.
And it was his real enemy.
The one day this enemy of this Christian man committed a crime and he was sentenced to death. He was sentenced to be hanged. And this Christian man prayed about it before they could only get him freed. I'll go to my friend George Washington and I'll see what I can do. So he went to the president and said, told him about the Spanish. And I'd like if you'll only pardon him. So is President Washington considered the matter? He finally said. Well.
I don't see any ground on which I can pardon your friend all but, said the Christian man. He isn't my friend. He's my enemy. He isn't my friend at all. He's my enemy. And I plead for him. Well, a story is told that President Washington his heart was melted at this thought. He said to be sure enemy I'll pardon him. And so here is a man who got a pardon for his enemy.
When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. This message is for God's enemies, we were told last night. We need to be reconciled to God. Why? Because we are his enemies. He is not our enemy. We are his. Be reconciled to God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
So we sing hymn #20. Hymn #20, Behold, the Savior at the door. He gently knocks, has knocked before, has waited long, is waiting. Still, you use no other friend, so I'll open the door. He'll come in, enter in, and Sup with you and you with him. Hymn #20. Will someone please start it?