Turn with me to Deuteronomy 27. I want to read the first six verses. And then a verse in Joshua. He's saying about his garments being dyed. Holy, holy garment. That life blood dripping out there on Calvary. If you're a child of God, it was for you. And I think we owe him everything. Life, family, everything you got that's good in your life. He that spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all. How shall he not with him freely give you all things? You'll never go lacking as a child of God. You may think that He's very slow at times, and it seems that way to all of us. But he'll always be there and sustain you. He gave the greatest that he had. How shall he not take care of our little needs here in life? I want to speak to you in verse 5, where Moses is speaking to the children of Israel and telling them what the Lord said. We'll read one through six shortly, but let us approach the throne of grace, our mind find mercy and help in this time of need, in preaching, in this time in hearing. And that most of all, that our Lord might in our midst. And I keep looking for that day when there is such a solemnness because He has overcome us in His house. Would you pray with me? Our Father, everything that you command us to do, it is for our good. It is that we might honor Thee in whatever we do. And I pray that you might continue to weed around that precious plant in our hearts. And that you might continue to give us better sight And they're looking, peering into glory. And we see the Lamb of God, He who died for us, paid my debt, and these that are yours, May we know what a single eye is, keeping life going, doing what is necessary, but always with an eye to Thee and Thy glory. Father, as these sit here, There's a possibility that there are as many needs as there are people, each having their own particular need. And those are friends scattered about. Father, give us of thy spirit that he might In his kindness, open the scriptures and open our eyes and our ears and give us an understanding heart. And may everyone walk out of here today with a clearer sight, a purer heart, and a desire within to always walk pleasing unto the one that died for us. Be honored, Lord Jesus. Be glorified. May our God be exalted this day. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now in verse five, when God laid out the order for how they were to do at the altar, he said, you shall not lift up any iron tool upon them. So we're talking about you using only that which God has provided there at that altar. Verse one, and Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people saying, keep all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee that thou shalt set thee up great stone and plaster them with plaster. You all know that you cannot write on a stone. You might with a great deal of effort carve out a word or two with the right tool. God had to take out the stony heart in us, and he had to give us a heart of flesh. And there on, he wrote all these commandments. And we're told, do this, keep these, and live. And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, the land that floweth with milk and honey, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day in Mount Ebel, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones. Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones. and I shall offer burnt offerings their own unto the Lord of glory. And now the next book over Joshua. After Israel is humiliated and they lose, I think it was 32, 32 men and they finally get it straight. And verse 31, well, verse 30 and 31, after the victory there at Ai, Joshua 8, 30. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man hath lift up any iron. And they offered their own burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. I hope that I am not misunderstood here. Trust that I shall not be. As John said last week, I did speak to you about the necessity of the new birth. That's an absolute The birth of any person is in the hands of Almighty God as much as was creation. As a matter of fact, Paul said using creation, if any man be in Christ Jesus or in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new creation. Only the trying God, the great three-in-one Father, Son, and Spirit have always been. And before God uttered those first words that we know of in Genesis 1.1, There was nothing desiring to be created. There were no angels, therefore they could not, not having a being, could not want to become an angel or a cherubim or a seraphim. The heavens above, though they have a voice now, They did not have a voice then, they did not exist. And the earth below us, and the great bodies of water, nothing desired to be. The beast of the field, the landscapes, mountains or deserts, Plains or seas and oceans. God just made it as it was pleasing unto him. Then God comes to that final work day in that first week to his greatest creation and he made man. Man in the very image of the coming Son of God. He's going to be an image of my Son. But before God made, created, formed Adam, or Eve. There was the Son of God in Proverbs 8, who said, before he gave the sea its or his decree, I was by him rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth. Where were they? And my delights were with the sons of God. Or were they? There was nothing there when Christ said that. But then before God formed the world, ending with man, there was in eternity a book, not a literal book. God doesn't need to keep records. He knows all things. There was a book, and in that book contained the names of the children that God would save through his son. That book, before the foundation of the world ever was, that book existed. Then in John 17, 9, Jesus said, I pray not for the world, I pray for them that thou has given me. Now for the son of God to be raised to the highest pinnacle of glory, there in your heart as you get to know him throughout your Christian walk. exalted. But for that to be, his bride had to be dead in trespasses and sin. Now, since God cannot tempt man or God cannot be tempted, then it was not God that tempted Eve. All God had to do was just step back, leave her alone, and let the right condition and situation arise, and she's gonna sin. She's gonna see something that she desires more than being an obedient child to me. And then she called her husband when he came back and gave him the fruit. Don't know how long he looked at it, but this I do know, before he took that first bite, Adam was not deceived. Eve was. Adam knew exactly what would happen. I'm going to die this day as my wife now is not living as far as the life of God in her soul. Desiring to be with her, created in the image of God, the very son of God. Adam desiring to be where she was. He ate the fruit. Now, since God cannot tempt man to sin, and yet he wanted to make an example of Job and show you what he could do. I can reduce my child to absolutely nothing. and yet he'll still serve me. So the Lord said to Satan that kept going to and fro throughout the earth, appeared before God with the sons of men. God said, have you considered my servant Job? Well, I have, but I can't get to him. You've got a hedge built about him. God said, okay, I'll remove the hedge. And before Satan can ever aggravate you, can ever tempt you, can ever create a desire within you contrary to the commands of God, God had to let the hedge down a bit for you. But Adam did not sin against his God until the love of his heart overcame him. Now he being the federal head of all natural men and women, they all are his offspring. And every one of us came forth into this old world speaking lies. That's just how it was. And then comes the last Adam. And herein is the federal head of all God's children, of everyone that God gave him back in eternity. Of everyone whose name was written in the Lamb's book of life. Lamb slain from the very foundation of the world. And in time, he would die. In his life and in his death, the Lord Jesus became the author He began the good work in you and the finisher, he who has begun a good work in you will finish it. That's for all children. And it is to him we come and it is to him that we shall continually be looking, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And for the joy that was set before him, the example that God used about that is a mother going into labor to birth a child. Much sorrow, much pain, but when a child is born, joy overcomes the pain that she had. Now, Lord Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endeared the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God, there forever managing, controlling, directing all things. For when he rose that third day, all power was placed into the hands of the Son of Man. Now from the most minute particle that might be out there, a little grain of sand flying around, not knowing where it would land, God's in control, Christ is. From the little grain of sand to the little wave on the ocean to the great thrones of kings and dominions and powers and principalities. before the first grain of sand God ever created, He already had determined that'll be a part of the bound of the water that I'll hedge the oceans in, or that'll be a part that belongs out there in that dry, hot desert. That's how much God controls. and you to see that you, having been given to him in eternity, he having died for you, determined your time to be on earth, determined the place that you would be born, determined the very circle in which you would move. God determined it all, your bounds and your times. And then there came that day when the Spirit of God wrought conviction in your heart. And for the first time ever, there was that depth in soul of, I am a sinner. I hope you know something of what I said there. And our Lord quickened you that day. He gave life, and He brought repentance. For the first time, you being guilty became sorrowful for how you'd lived, how you'd treated the Lord, how you ignored Him, and how you'd spent your life, ever how it was pleasing to you. And when he gave repentance, he implanted within your soul that great God-given gift that we call faith. And he will lose none that he works salvation in their lives. This is the Father's will that sent me, John 6. Of all that He has given me, I should lose none. I'll lose nothing. And since the Christian, the great shepherd, has been your guide, he's determined the path on which he would have you walk. He has given you hearing ears. He says, follow me. and you follow. Now when the path becomes long and wearisome, and the body is wracked with pain, and the energy of youth is gone, now that which meant nothing to you now, it's a heavy, heavy weight upon you. but he gave you this, keep your eye on the shepherd, looking unto Jesus. And so dear child, I hope that it is with that view that you labor daily, casting away all things that might cloud out your view of him. And through the day work demands of you has its particular calling. Sometimes people distract. Sometimes circumstances become unfavorable. Like last Thursday evening to me became so aggravated that it took me good long period of time before I could calm down enough within my own heart and my mind to begin addressing God. But I knew I had to get to Him. And whatever it took, I intended by his help to get there. Then issues crowd your mind for a while and blur the vision that you had of the Lord Jesus Christ. But through it all, we refocus and set our face again towards the shepherd. Uncertainties arise within, Am I, am I not a true Christian? How can I be a child of God with all this baggage called self that I carry around with me? Surely I must not be a Christian for a Christian cannot have such thoughts as enter my mind. I have one question there about the thought that gave you the trouble and its origin. Did you like the thought? Did you allow the thought to linger? Then it was your thought. But when that arose, was it immediately an offense to you to think that your mind could have such a thought? And if you despise that, then it was Satan and his trying you. Doubts, fears. Does a child of God really go through all this? and I still feel greatly such a plague of my own heart. Then Satan's convinced you, well, if you are a child, God's forsaken you and you'll never hear from him again. And instead of that smile, you think, you've had in the past, you see a frown. Or you think even the anger of God is toward you. Yesterday you could boldly say, behold the Lamb of God that took away my sins and gave me hearing ears and speaks to me and gave me a heart desiring to be with him and follow him. But today, It's almost as if you're locked behind bars of uncertainty with a sinful awareness of this is actually who I am. Locked in that cell, all you can do is call two of your disciples, two of your servants, and send them. You go over there and you find that man Jesus. Wherever he's working, find him. And when you find him, ask him this, aren't thou the one that should come or look we for another? But John, you were the forerunner. You identified Jesus when that dove descending from above landed on him. John, you told us he was the Christ. Well, that's how low you can get. Religion says it's wrong for you to doubt. And religion will give you these things. Remember when you walked the aisle? Remember when you prayed that prayer? That folk told you to do? Remember when folk told you to accept Jesus? Now folks, do you remember the title? Thou shalt not lift up thy tool on this altar. Do you know what you've just done? When you've gone back in mind to remember your decision to remember your conversion. When you accepted Jesus, you have just polluted the altar of God. You've lifted up your own tools. And instead of taking the stones that God built, that God fashioned through the wind, rain, sun, weathering them. And he shaped them all perfectly and designed them for his altar. You've gone and taken an iron tool and you've chipped the corner off this, and you've smoothed over the surface a little with that. and you've ruined the altar of God. Children, outside Jerusalem, there was an old rock formed in the shape of a skull. Oh, God had formed it, but it was on that rock after 33 years of ministry, from the time that he left the shop and began his ministry. Hungry, thirsty throughout the day, weary with the travel and the long nights and prayer. Jesus Christ is not only the altar of God, He's also the high priest. And he on that cross offered as a sacrifice his body. And he became the only acceptable sacrifice to God. Now you start putting your words with what Jesus did And the very altar on which the blood dropped from the cross, you have stained it. Don't even go there weeping. If you got to weep, weep at the bottom of it. And you look up. That's my salvation. It's not a matter of you going back and looking at a date you wrote in your Bible. Are you going back in mind to the time when you were born again? Jesus Christ is your salvation. Find out that. And he offered himself. No man takes my life from me. I'll lay it down. And religion with our own religious nature has beguiled us. And now, here, repeat this prayer after me. Believe this verse. And when doubts arise, run back to that point in time when you asked Jesus into your heart. You said a prayer, you were baptized. Oh no, you've polluted the altar of God. And you've added to the sacrifice who alone Not anything you did. He alone is your salvation. Now, before you begin adding words right there, just hold on. Well, it was Jesus that saved me, but he saved me because I repented and because I believed. I will acknowledge He is my Savior along with what I did. And right there, you are brazen enough to add to God's only sacrifice. And by your feeble efforts, you would dare add to the only source of forgiveness. And God accepted you completely based upon Jesus' finished works. Well, you gotta add my effort in that. Now I know right here, I'm going to be accused of saying a Christian does not need to repent or believe. I didn't say that. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Sirs, what must I do to be say believe? But if your salvation is based on God's sacrifice, plus your deeds, it's half the work of Christ and half your works. Sure, you repent, but that's not my salvation. Sure, you believe, but again, that's not my salvation. Though I did these things, Jesus Christ, Looking unto Jesus. Leave here with that. And not you and Jesus got this thing figured out. There on Calvary, Jesus paid the entire debt of every soul that will be in heaven, full and complete. And when guilt becomes so weighty and sin becomes so acute, painful, do not start crawling upstairs on bare knees and knuckles and take a whip and lash a back without clothing so that you can punish yourself enough to become a Christian. Do not run to a confessional booth and there you, somebody your sins. Confess your faults, but you tell God about your sins, but you don't run to some booth. You don't even, you don't even walk down to the front of a church building. You might, You don't discuss with a preacher when hope has disappeared and you frantically begin hunting some good deed to perform so that God will once again smile on you, you've ruined the altar of God. Stop it. Just go back and look what God built. That's sufficient. Look at what was offered on God's altar. That is your salvation. Instead of erecting your own with silver and gold, or you become like the king that was traveling with his army into a distant land. And he saw there an altar that the heathens were using, and he sent back the details of it. Be a one like this for me. And folk religion has had such a great sway upon all of us. that we've even gone about to erect our own little altars or lift up a tool on God's altar. Folk, I may be in this awful state within, but though you may be there, do not go back looking at your repentance. Well, maybe it wasn't good enough. Maybe it wasn't in detail enough. Or maybe I'm in this awful inward condition because my faith is not what it ought to be. Do you see what you've just done? You've taken repentance and you've taken faith and you've added that to the altar of God. in whatever circumstance, distress or misery within or God seeming to be a hundred miles away. Don't go back looking at your deeds or what you need to do right now to get God to smile again upon you. Just look at the altar and look at the sacrifice. The completed redemption of every child of God, when Jesus cried out, it is finished, leaves you nothing to do but flee to God's altar and don't take any tools with you. Again, I will emphasize, for the sake of not being understood and taken away from you, repentance and faith. But in so saying that, I will add that both are the gifts of God. Now, faith was granted to the Gentiles, we see. They repented. are the faith of the Son of God within you. For he worked it out, even there hanging on the cross and in that eclipse where the face of his father was turned away. And he Feeling the very wrath of God, he had but one thing that he could cling to. And that was that God had said a long time before that his faith would bring him out of this. Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell. That's all Jesus had. Nobody beneath or around understood what was taking place. The angels probably looked in dismay if they could even look at all. And his father Nowhere. All he had was the Word of God. And your faith, if it is genuine, came from him who wrought faith in his own heart based upon what God's Word had said. And it's by the sinless, priceless, eternal blood of God's lamb. Falling on all the way from Pilate's judgment hall to Golgotha. There beneath that old cross until the last drop that could sustain physical life was gone. But he wasn't going to die because somebody took it from him. I laid down my life. At the base of that altar, we seek forgiveness. And our tears might wet and soak the ground beneath us, but they don't come nigh to the Lamb of God on the altar. There we seek forgiveness. There it is as though a peace never known before. Folk pity the poor creature that depends on somebody having told them they were saved. No, the peace of God floods in. Now, when you think, I'm talking to you Christians, when you think that God might be showing his wrath towards you, look again at Calvary, God's altar. God's wrath was set against his only begotten son. And the wrath of God can never be towards a child of God. I don't care if you've had the worst day in your life or the worst week in your life. Nothing came based upon the wrath of God towards you. Now he might take a rod and strike you, but it's in love. And so if you begin to think that the wrath of God is toward you, you're looking in the wrong direction from that old cross that's waiting you down. and bringing your life here to an end that you might live in Christ fully. Quit looking at what you're weighted down with and look afresh to Calvary. There every cry that our Lord Jesus uttered, every drop of blood that fell, all the water that continued to drip from that body, And every pain that he suffered and felt that day and sigh he uttered, it revealed the heart of God to his church. And God having turned away from his son. Like we're looking at circumstances, and quit or seek to stop viewing God as angry. No, are viewing God, well, because of my sins. Now you go out and sin by thinking that's what I'm saying here, And you may go home with stripes all over you or broken limbs because of the rod of God. But God didn't do it in wrath. He did it because he loved you. If his face turned away from his son, it was turned towards his church. And because of my sins, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now and forever children, always looking unto Jesus. He alone is your salvation. And when the old Israelites or Israelites in the old economy, when they would bring in an animal to the temple there, tabernacle to be offered, they'd lay their hands on the head of that animal. One that they'd been taking care of, looking after, And when they put their filthy hands on it, they were saying, you that have never sinned against your creator. You have always gone about fulfilling the purpose for which he created you. You are now guilty. because my sins are on you. And on Jesus, my sins were laid. Shall I repent? A hundred times a hundred throughout life. but my repentance can never become a part of my salvation. Do I believe afresh and anew time and again, but I can never look to my faith as salvation. Jesus Christ alone bore my sins. and died on God's altar, now quit polluting it with you shaping stones God shaped for the altar to be built.