My knee started shaking. I wanted to jump up and shout,
man, because we've got a great savior, don't we not?
And then to think about it's going to be worth it all when we
see Jesus, the tempter will be banished.
How about that Amen, boy, I tell you what, what a great thought
when we when the when these robes of flesh drop, we, we drop
them, Amen. And we're changed into his
image. And then what a beautiful song
about the holiness and the the work of Jesus Christ in our
hearts. Lord, you're the Potter.
We're the clay. We want to be molded and shaped
and to your image and the image of your son.
And so I'm thankful. I want to, I want to say thank
you to Mount Victory Baptist Church.
I want to say thank you to Pastor Mrs. Boots.
Your hospitality from our family to yours.
You guys mean so much to us. I mean that from the bottom of
my heart. We've got so many memories.
We've done so many things together and we've prayed
together. We've just worked.
And many of you, many of you, you know, as pastors, we don't
we do not talk, we don't gossip, but I mean that.
But I tell you what, there's so many times I remember when
Pastor Boots would call me and say, yeah, this family showed up
today, you know, and they visited for the first time And
and then, you know, all they've they're coming, they're coming.
Pray for him, pray for this. And now I meet you and you've
been here 345 years and I remember.
And likewise, vice versa, he remembers me saying, Hey, man,
we reached this family, this person got saved and, and
they're growing in the Lord. And, and just a, it's just a
real blessing to see how God has worked in your church and, and
has blessed and you guys have been faithful and you're doing
the work of Christ here in this area.
And so I, I commend you and I want you to know that it means a
lot to our family. It means a lot to our church.
And so let's turn the divine library this evening to Isaiah
chapter #14 Isaiah chapter #14 while you turn in there.
It was just a few months before the launch of Mount Victory
Baptist Church. We were getting ready for those
get acquainted meetings and a bunch of us came down here.
Remember Mother Boots took us over to the hotel where you guys
were meeting and he showed us where the church was going to
start and all of that. And, and you know, we were
having a good conversation. We're just talking about
everything. And somewhere in the
conversation, I believe it was Pastor Boots.
I don't know if I got all the details right, but the comment
was made that any bum can get 50 people.
I think we were talking about some woman pastor that just like
randomly started this crazy church or whatever and, and 50
people showed up, you know, and, and so we got to laughing about
that and then, and then we put our hand to the plow and we all
started working. And I think all of us young
church planners and replanters at that time, you know, we had
no idea what we were getting ourselves into and we had no
idea how difficult it was going to be to try to get the 50
people. And so as we would pray and we
would talk the, the term bum status, we would, we would ask
each other, have you reached bum status yet?
And, and it was, it was, it was a while.
It was a while. And so I'm, I reference that my
sermon on Monday night and Pastor Boots said, you know,
we've got a lot of people since then that have come to the
church and, and praise the Lord, it's been a while since we've
hit bum status. He said, when you said that, I
don't know how many people in our church even know what that
means. And so I just thought I'd bring
you up to date. Maybe maybe you missed it, maybe
you didn't. But you know, we, we, we were
like less than a bum for a long time.
And what a glorious day it was when we reached bum status.
But God is good, is he not? And doesn't matter how many
people come to your church, if Jesus Christ is being lifted up,
then he's glorified. And then the early days at
Gospel Light Baptist Church, I remember rallying the truth.
We were just a handful of people meeting week in and week out.
And sometimes you wonder, man, is this thing ever going to take
off? But I remember saying all the
time to them so that they would stay encouraged, but also to
myself, you know, that God doesn't measure success by
numbers, doesn't measure success by numbers.
He measures success by obedience, by faith.
That's what God's looking for. And oftentimes all throughout
history, you look, it's always a remnant of people that God used.
And we took our, our theme out of First Samuel 14 where the
Bible says there's no restraint to the Lord to save by many or
by few. And we left that up on our
Facebook page for many, many years.
It might still be up there as far as I know, because that was
our rallying crying to thank the Lord for that.
So I'd like to bring a message to you out of one verse in the
book of Isaiah chapter #14 this evening, verse #32 Isaiah 14,
and verse #32 this evening. What shall one then answer the
messengers of the nation, that the Lord hath founded Zion and
the poor of His people shall trust in it?
We're bringing a message to you this evening entitled What shall
we answer the nation? Let's pray as we begin.
Father, we do love you and I thank you, Lord, for what a
privilege it's been to be here, Lord, in your presence with your
people. Lord, you've been glorified
already tonight through the preaching and the and the what?
Through the singing, Lord, and the prayers and the fellowship
of your people. And now I pray, Lord, that you
would be glorified by the preaching, that you would fill
me and every person in this building with your Holy Spirit.
Lord, give us ears to hear, give us a heart of faith.
Want to pray that you would bind Satan now and put a hedge of
protection around this building and may your work be done.
And I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Like to begin by telling you a little bit of the context of
what's going on here, a little bit of the history.
A theme of the book of Isaiah is trust faith.
Who are you trusting in? Who's your faith in and what's
going on here? You can look a few verses before
this verse #28 the Bible says in the year that King A has died
was this burden that is taking place.
Now King A has was the 12th king of Judah.
Now at this time in Israel's history, the Kingdom has been
divided. And the 10 tribes of the north,
commonly known as Israel or Ephraim.
And there were two tribes in the South, Judah and Benjamin.
And King Ahaz was one of the kings of Judah, the southern
tribe, and Jerusalem was the capital there.
And Ahaz was a wicked man. He reigned for 16 years.
He sacrificed his children to idols.
He brought all kinds of idolatry into the, the, the land of Judah
there and he failed to trust in God.
Now, as you go through the history there, there, there,
there was a lot of turmoil. There was a lot of war and
rumors of war that were happening.
And what took place is Assyria became the dominant nation, if
you would, But over in the Middle East, the kingdoms of
Syria and the northern Kingdom of Israel, they formed an
alliance. And they said, we're going to
rebel against Assyria. And we want a has, we want you
to join us. Now God sends Isaiah to King
Ahas with a message, with the word of the Lord.
Amen. And so now Ahas has a choice.
Who am I going to trust him? I'm going to trust in the
promises of God where I'm going to lean on my own understanding.
Am I going to try to trust in diplomacy or whatever it might
be? And so the message that Isaiah
has is that, hey, look, God is going to take care of you.
You do not have to join this alliance.
You don't. You can trust that the Lord will
keep you safe and he'll protect you.
And by this time next year, these nations, Ephraim and
Syria, they're going to be wiped out.
Now, when in the Bible, God always told the Jews, when he
sends a prophet with a message, he's also going to give a sign
to confirm it. And Isaiah asks Ahaz, what sign
do you want from God? All right, now, this is the way
that God ordained it. But Ahaz tells Isaiah, I don't,
I don't want a sign. Now, he didn't want to.
He says this not because he's going to trust in God.
This is actually disobedience to God's way and God's plan A has
already made-up his mind that he was not going to trust.
He said I don't want to sign. Isaiah is filled with with
wrath. He's very upset about this lack
of faith and this lack of obedience demonstrated by King A
has. And so he says, hey, God's going
to give you a sign anyways. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. Thou shalt call his name
Emmanuel, which means interpret. Amen.
Is God with us? And what a wonderful sign that
God gave. And, and there was an immediate
fulfillment of that. God was telling him, hey, look,
before this child even grows up, God is going to bring these
things to pass so you can trust my word.
But Ahaz didn't want any of it. And instead he decided he was
going to take matters into his own hands.
He was going to bribe the king of Assyria.
He goes to the only place really at that time, the only wealth
that Israel had, which was Solomon's temple.
He strips the the riches and the treasures out of the temple,
offers it as a bribe to Assyria because he failed to trust God.
That's what's going on leading up to this.
God is not happy with King A has.
He wants him to trust in the promises of God.
He wants him to trust in the Word of God, and he wants him to
trust in the Savior that he's going to send.
Amen. A has never got around to that
and A has dies and these messengers come.
That was common back in those days for the nations that were
all around to send ambassadors during these times of
transition. And can I tell you tonight that
times of transition in nations can be very volatile.
They can be very unstable. That's when the enemy is is
starting to try to move in and try to encroach and try to
intimidate and so forth. But many of the nations would
send ambassadors and, and to send condolences upon the the
the loss of King Ahaz upon his death, but they would also
congratulate the new king. But most of the time while they
were doing this, they we're really trying to spy out the
land. They were trying to see what is
going to be the diplomacy and the policies of the new king and
the new administration. What is his strength?
What's going to happen to Judah? Is there a way we can get our
foot into the door and take advantage of these things and so
on and so forth. Everybody following me so far,
that's what's going on. These messengers are gathering.
They want to, they're checking to see how stable is the nation,
how secure are things going to be?
Who's going to be the new king? What is his policies going to be
in Judah moving forward from this time forward?
And so the question is, what shall we answer the messengers
of the nation? What are we going to tell them?
Who's the next king? By the way, the next king was
going to be a has his son, a man by the name of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah was going to be a good king, praise the Lord and he's
going to get rid of the idolatry that his father had brought in
and he's going to trust the Lord.
He had moments himself. And in fact, most of the end of
the book of Isaiah, the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah,
are written in response to the fact that Hezekiah makes the
same mistakes that his father made.
Babylon comes in, and Hezekiah, rather than trusting God in the
promises of God for his security and stability of the nation,
Hezekiah brings in the ambassadors of Babylon and he
shows them all of his wealth and his treasures, and he tries to
secure peace, if you would, for Israel by making diplomatic ties
with Babylon. And God said, no, there is no
peace to the wicked. Well, it hadn't been a thing
kind of running in this thing. Many people compromise thinking
I'm going to keep peace in my family or I'm going to keep
peace with my coworkers. If I just if I just lower the
truth or if I just not be so vocal in my witness for Jesus,
maybe I'll, I'll keep everybody happy.
I'll I'll keep peace. Listen, listen my friend, there
is no peace and disobeying God, so Hezekiah is going to have to
make some of the same choices and decisions.
Now, when it comes to Assyria, Hezekiah makes the right choice.
And if you know the story, the Assyrians come down, They wipe
out Syria just like God said they would.
They wipe out Israel just like God said they would.
And they get to Jerusalem and they surround Jerusalem and
they're starving the people out. And Hezekiah takes the message
from Sennacherib, the Assyrian general, and he pours it out
before the Lord. And one night God sent an Angel
down and 185,000 Syrian Syrian soldiers were killed.
God delivered Israel, God is able.
Amen. We're on the winning side.
I'll give you a little bit of the context, give you a little
bit of the history about what's going on here and why this
question is being asked. The ambassadors of, of, of the
Philistines are there, Assyria is there, Babylon's there.
The nations have all gathered around and they're looking for
an opportunity to take advantage of Judah.
They're looking to see if if there's some instability there,
if there's some insecurity there, what are the policies
going to be moving forward? Are they going to, are they, are
they going to accept our religious practices and so on
and so forth? What shall we answer the
nations? And Isaiah, the prophet says,
you tell them this, the Lord hath founded Zion and Israel is
just as secure today as shall ever be, because we've got God
on our side and we've got God who has put the foundations
here. And the poor, those who have
nothing to offer, can put their faith and they can put their
trust in Jehovah God. That's what's going on.
I want to draw application tonight to our nation.
I want you to know that our nation is seeking for answers.
There are people out there that are want to know is education
the answer? And I want you to know it
doesn't matter how many millions of dollars we pour into
education. The answer is not in education.
And there are more people who are spending hours debating in
political forums. But all the time spent in
politics is not going to give you the answer that America
needs tonight. The answers not to be found in
politicians or in in businessmen or in educators or philosophers
or in college campuses is the answer is the Lord hath founded
Zion. The answer is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'm here to remind you
tonight that God has entrusted that answer to his people, the
church. And so we come to this text and
I see two things that I want to show you from this verse.
First of all, I want you to notice the attention that God's
people attract, the attention that God's people attract.
Why did anybody in this day and age, and why does anybody in our
day and age even care about the people of God?
I mean, think about in the Old Testament, Israel was just a
little tiny nation. I think it's about the size of
New Jersey, maybe a little bit bigger.
And yet if you look at the history of humanity, all of the
eyes of the gentile world have been on that.
People now tell me that is an accident.
It's not an accident, friend. That's right.
I'm here to remind you that there is a truth that God put in
motion, going all the way back to the time when he called her
Abraham out of the earth. The Cowbees, when God said, hey,
look in you, all the families of the earth are going to be
blessed. And when God made that promised
friend, he brought an attention to that family.
He brought an attention to that nation unlike any other nation
in the world, and God set that truth in motion, and there's
nothing anybody can do about it, in fact, after God.
And God never forgot his people, did He, When they went to Egypt
and they became slaves, God didn't forget them then.
And he sent Moses and and that nation was formed there and on
Mount Sinai. God gave them their law as they
prepared to move into the land that God had promised them.
And God said, keep therefore, and do them talk about the law,
for this is your wisdom and your understanding.
Now get this in the sight of the nations see it was always God's
plan for the world to look at his people and to be drawn to
God by observing the people of God.
It is always the plan of God for the nations of the world to look
at Israel and to see the the law that God had given them and the
blessings that God had given them, and even the the temple
and the Tabernacle that they had and, and the fellowship that
they enjoyed with the creator God and to be drawn to God that
way. It was God's plan and design for
Israel to be a light to the nation's Amen.
And I want you to know something tonight, friend, that that is
exactly what God's plan is for the church.
The church is not Israel. But over and over in the New
Testament, God tells us ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill, Amen, cannot be hid.
The Bible says you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood
and holy nation, a peculiar people.
Why, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
In Philippians. The Bible says ye should be
blameless in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the
word of life. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, the Bible says, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever. I've commanded you, and lo, I am
with you all way, even unto the end of the world.
I'm here tonight to remind the church that we as the people of
God have the attention of the world and we have the answer.
We have the life giving answer that they so desperately need
and they're seeking. For.
What shall we answer? The nation, oh how people should
find the answer with the people of God.
I'm reminded of Steve Jobs. There's a 13 year old boy went
to a a Lutheran pastor with questions about the existence of
God, about the Bible and whether or not was the word of God.
And he came away from that meeting with that pastor
convinced that that that the church had no answers.
And he gave up on God and he lived a wicked life and, and
unless we don't know if he ever trusted Jesus Christ, but if he
didn't friend he, he's burning in hell today.
When we came to Gospel Light Baptist Church, we started and
man, I tell you what, it was hard getting people to come to
church and, and, and those that came and visited didn't come
back. And we'd knock on the door, they
would peek out and they wouldn't even answer the door.
And I remember when when we finally got a family coming and
it was a a mom and two kids and she came and then she came back.
And I think that was even more exciting.
When she came back the second week, it was like, wow.
I remember she told us at that time, my husband will never
come. He's an agnostic.
He had been a philosophy major at Millersville University.
And she told me this. She said he has visited every
church in Millersville and he's talked to every pastor and he's
convinced that the church has no answers.
The questions of life, my friend, that ought not to be.
That's right in Glen Allen, VA God forbid that that be true in
Millersville anymore. Amen.
We have the answers. Can I tell you tonight, the
church attracts the attention of the world because of the hope of
our message. The hope of our message.
Hey, I'm here to remind you tonight there's no buddy that
has the message that we have for God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Hey, it was just March 16th, a few days ago, 3/16.
And every time I hear John 316, I say praise the Lord because
we've got John 316, friend. Islam doesn't have that.
Roman Catholicism doesn't have that.
Mormonism doesn't have that, atheist doesn't have that, but
we can open up our Bible when somebody comes to us and we can
say, hey, that word, whosoever you can put your name in there.
It doesn't matter what sin you've committed.
It doesn't matter what your backgrounds been.
And you can say for God so loved Andy Almanza that he gave his
only begotten son. Boy, I tell you what the hope of
the glorious message of Jesus Christ.
God has designed the the world to pay attention to what's going
on here because of the hope of our message and by it was
somebody believes in the in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What a difference it makes how it changes their lives.
Man, I'm telling you what it gives people hope.
The church attracts the attention of the world not only
because of the hope of our message, but also I'm here to
tell you that we attract the attention of the world because
of the happiness of our countenance.
The Bible says the joy of the Lord is our strength.
The Bible says we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory. Are you with me tonight?
It's a great day to be saved, is it not?
Hey, we go through trials, we go through tribulations, but we
know that no matter what happens, we're going to be with
Him for all of eternity. We're not going to hell because
of our sin. We know we got a home in heaven.
We've got a Savior who loved us. We got a Holy Spirit who seals
us. We got the to God to lead in and
be a lamp and to our feet, and a light, and to our path.
Boy, Christians ought to be the happiest people on the face of
the planet, man, when Moses spent some time with God, it
changed his countenance, did it not?
The Bible says his face shone and they had to put a veil in
front of it. And I tell you, when a Christian
spends time with God, when we soak our minds in the promises
of what Jesus has done for us and about how wonderful it is to
be a citizen of a heavenly Kingdom, when we do that, we go
to work, friend. It comes across in our
countenance. Remember when I first got a job
working at Pool Rama? It was a warehouse in South
Chicago and I remember I'm here telling you tonight, it was not
a mountaintop peak in my Christian life.
I was struggling with my faith. I was struggling, surrendering
to the will of God and I was not.
I was not concerned about the souls of my Co workers.
I went to work every day and I was just battling with God over
some things and there was turmoil in my brain and my mind
at that time. And yet, and yet somehow my
light shone. I remember one day the guy
pulled me aside and said, man, what's going on with you?
There's something different about you.
And I said, what do you mean? He said, you're always happy.
I was like, happy. I've been arguing with the Lord
all the way up here to Chicago this morning, happy and 1 by 1.
And hey, it wasn't all good. I mean, there were times when
they surrounded me and they were like, man, you Christian, how
come you don't drink and how come you don't do this?
And, and I was like, why are you all paying attention to me?
I'm just a college student. I'm a single guy.
I'm here for a summer and then I'm leaving.
You guys have been here forever. Just let me do my job.
Let me do my business. You keep to yourself.
I'll keep to myself. But it didn't work that way for
him. There was something that shown
through and over that summer God worked on my heart and I got
with the Lord and I got a burden for them.
And that's when God called me to priest because I began to pray
that God would send somebody to America to help people see the
glorious hope in Jesus Christ. And God said, why don't you go,
man? I went back to work with the,
with the joy of serving Jesus and, and those guys that would
go across to the bar every every day at lunch and they'd come
back and they would say, oh, you know, why don't you come with
us? We're having fun.
And I remember telling them, I any day I want to, I can be like
you, but I don't want to. God has taken that away.
By the end of that summer, I came in, we used to drive these
little pallet jacks around and we all had our pilot Jack and I
came in and there they had put a sticker on my pilot Jack.
It was a it was a sun smiling and over the top they wrote Mr.
Sunshine and I took a marker and that U in sun.
I put an O Mr. Sunshine, you know what I'm saying?
I'm saying God, God has designed the world to pay attention to
what's going on with his people because of the hope of our
message, but also because of the happiness of our countenance.
Can I tell you? Thirdly, God has designed it
that way because of the humility of our attitude.
You know, this world is filled with pride and arrogance.
This world is so divided between the haves and the have nots and
those who have they, they just oppress those who do not.
I mean, if you're if you're strong and if you're athletic,
they praise you. And if you're not, they'll
squash you. If you're young and you're
beautiful, they'll lift you up. But if you don't have any of
those attributes that the world celebrates, they'll make sure
that you know that you're nothing.
We live in a world that is so full of the pride of life and
the arrogance, see, that is surrounding us in our
workplaces. Everybody.
It's a dog eat dog type of world that we all work in and we all
live in. And then you put a humble
Christian right in the midst of it.
Somebody who knows it's not I, but Christ.
Somebody who knows, hey, I'm a Sinner, but thank the Lord God
saved a Sinner just like me. I tell you what, that attracts
the attention of the world. Can I tell you God has designed
it this way, not only because of the hope of our message and the
happiness and our countenance and the humility in our
attitude, but also because of the holiness of our conduct.
Man, when it when you get saved, you get changed.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away. We don't have to be the servants
of sin anymore, and praise the Lord, we can be servants on the
righteousness. We can put off the old man and
the lust, and we can now serve in the new man that is patterned
after Christ. We can be holy, for he is holy.
My friend, I'm telling you what there's a difference in the life
of a saved person and it's attractive to the world.
This world that is, is enslaved to sin, enslaved to the lust
there by nature, the children of wrath, the Bible says, and we
were all there at one time. And they can't break the habits
of alcohol and drunkenness or pornography or anger.
And we can go on and on as the sin of this world is dragging
them down and they have no answer for it.
And then you drop in a blood box, born again, righteous,
loving Christian in the world. Tell me that doesn't attract the
world. God has designed the world to
pay attention to what's going on in the church house because of
the honor of our privileges, man, we're part of the
fellowship of the unashamed. We have access to God.
We can come boldly into the throne and find grace to help in
time of need. What a privilege, What a
privilege to be able to come to church and fellowship with the
believers. What a privilege to be able to
praise God. What a privilege it is to be
able to trust in the promises of God.
Man, all these privileges that have been stowed upon us as the
sons of God. No wonder John said, behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. I'm here today to remind you,
Church, that God has designed it so that the world will pay
attention. And I want you to notice.
Secondly, and I'll try to hurry in our text back in Isaiah, not
only the attention that God's people attract, but I want you
to notice the answer that God's people give.
What is the answer that we're supposed to give this lost and
dying world? And I tell you tonight, the
answer is this, that Jesus Christ is All in all, that Jesus
Christ is our All in all. In our text, the Bible says the
Lord have founded Zion. You know that means that means
the answer is not me. The answer is not you.
The answer is not Mount Victory Baptist Church.
Amen. The answer is not becoming
American. The answer is God did it.
God's done something, God has done a work that only God can
do, and he sent his Son Jesus into the world to become the
foundation of what is going on. And when the stability and the
security that the world is seeking for can only be found in
Jesus Christ. You see, all along with, with,
with with Ahaz and Hezekiah and Israel, what they forgot was
this. When it came to their
protection, when it came to the security, they were safe because
of the promises of God. He said, what do you mean,
preacher? I'll tell you what I mean.
Because when Adam and Eve sinned in that garden, God made a
promise. And he said, I am going to send
the seed of the woman and she is and, and it is going to crush
the head of the serpent. Are you with me?
God promised a savior would come and he chose the vessel to bring
that savior into this world as the nation of Israel.
He said it's going to be a descendant, a seed of Abraham.
Are you following with me? And and so Israel's promises was
that there was going to be a savior that would come from
them. Israel wasn't going anywhere
because God was going to send Jesus.
Amen, Amen. That's what they forgot.
They forgot that they didn't need diplomacy, they need
bribes. They didn't need to try to go
and make deals with the heathen and bring in a has even brought
the altars of false gods and put them in the temple.
They didn't need any of that because the future was as sure
as the promises of God for him. And I want you to know tonight
that all the promises in Christ Jesus are gay and Amen in him.
And I can tell you tonight that there is forgiveness for sins
because of Jesus Christ. I'm here to tell you that there
is reconciliation with God and it's all because of Jesus.
There is redemption. There is peace that passeth all
understanding. There is joy unspeakable and
full of glory. There's a mansion for every
child of God and then promise that he's going to return.
And it's all because of Jesus. I'm here tonight to tell you
that there's a promise of reunion with the loved ones that
have gone on before us because the dead in Christ one day are
going to rise and we're going to be reunited with Him.
And it's all because of Jesus. I get excited about it.
I'm coming out inside my suit, man.
That's time to wrap it up. Almost.
But I'm telling you, what is the answer?
Jesus. It's all Jesus.
He died. He shed his blood.
He paid the ransom. He rose again from the dead.
He gave us the promise. He's coming back again.
This whole book is about him from beginning to end.
Well look, we're looking for Jesus, friend.
This idea of the foundation is found all through the book of
Isaiah. Turn with me real quick.
Isaiah 28. What is the answer?
That Christ is all I need. Amen.
Christ is all I need all all I need salvation of the Lord.
He performed everything that is necessary.
The foundation is the first thing that must be built.
Nothing else can go up until the foundation is laid.
Religion wants to teach people that they have to clean up their
life first before God will accept them.
But it's like trying to build a house before you have a
foundation. It don't work.
It all tumble. Just like this speaker here
cannot stand if you remove the foundation.
And I'm here tonight to remind you that Jesus Christ must be
the foundation of your life. You can't do anything else until
you're saved. You can't do anything else until
you've found Jesus. Bible says for other foundation,
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ?
Isaiah 28 If you would verse #16 well, look at verse #15 because
you have said we have made a covenant with death and with
hell. Are we at agreement?
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not
come unto us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under
falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God. Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a
sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. And I tell you what's going on
here real quick. There they were.
They were saying, hey, Isaiah's telling a man, God's going to
judge your sin. Judgement is coming, Babylon's
coming and and you better get right with God.
And they said, hey, we don't have to worry about Babylon.
We've made an agreement. We have a treaty with Egypt.
We've got a treaty with this nation.
We've got a treaty with that nation.
We don't need to get right with God.
We don't need to trust God. We're going to be safe from the
from the danger that is approaching because we have an
agreement and God says your agreement is with death.
You've made a treaty friend with hell.
That's pretty powerful. I'm telling you, there are many
people out here in the world today.
They're not worried about the judgment that is to come because
they got sprinkled as a baby. They're not worried about the
judgment that's come because they think they're good works
outweigh their bad works. They're not worried about the
judgment that is about to come because some Church confirmed
them after they kept so many sacraments.
Listen, their treaty is with death.
Their agreement is with hell. Isaiah says you need to look to
what God has done. He set a cornerstone.
He set a foundation. He set a sure foundation has
been laid and you need to place your faith and trust in Him.
He that believeth in Him shall not make haste.
You know what that means? He says when the judgment comes,
you're not going to be running, you're not going to be fleeing,
scared outside your mind as you watch everything go to the pits.
You put your faith and trust in me.
You won't be ashamed. Amen.
Peter quotes this passage and
says he was talking about Jesus. First Peter chapter #2 he's
talking about Jesus. And I close with this.
You know what our answer is? Jesus is all and all.
So trust him. Trust Jesus.
Turn from whatever you're trusting in, turn from your
sins, turn from your good works, turn from your church, or
whatever it is that you think, hey, I'll be OK because I got
this in my back pocket as my get out of hell free card and trust
Jesus, friend. And that's the answer that God
has given to the church. He has entrusted it to us and he
has poured into his church hope in that message.
He has poured happiness into our countenance, He has poured
humility in our attitude, He has put holiness in our conduct and
honor in our privileges, so that you can just place a born again
child of God in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation and
we'll stand down. I want to say as I close, why
would you put a bushel over that?
Why would you? Why would you forsake that and
think that somehow we need beautiful light shows and fog
machines and, and, and, and worship bands in order to
impress the world? We already have the attention of
the world. We already have so much that God
says I'll make a difference. Can you imagine how ridiculous
it would be if the mayor of Paris were to announce that
they're tearing down the Eiffel Tower?
The icon that you can identify the entire city by just seeing
that one structure. Could you imagine the questions
at the press conference as they try to explain?
Well, we just felt like it was time to rebrand as a city.
This, this structure has been around for a long time and it's
done us well, but we just think it's time for a new look.
We're going to go in a different direction.
How ridiculous. It's nowhere near ridiculous for
the Church of Jesus Christ to forsake all that God has done
for us in order to draw the attention of the lost and dying
world, to give up on the message, the answer that we have
that nobody else has. May God bless Mount Victory
Baptist Church as you shine for him.
Lord, we love you and we thank you, God, for an opportunity to
preach your word. Make it a blessing to the hearts
of your people. Lord, I, I've done my best.
It's nowhere close, Lord, to being perfect, but you deserve
perfection. You deserve, Lord, to be lifted
up. You're the answer, God, I pray
tonight that you would be with Mount Victory Baptist Church.
What shall they answer? The nation?
Help us to look to you and to trust in you with heads bowed
and eyes closed. Pastor, I'll turn the service
over to you.