We are planning to have services
this coming Wednesday, so You don't have to look this up
in your Bibles most of you I think you're familiar with this passage,
but at the end of the Bible Revelation chapter 22 I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star, and
the spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth
say come. And let him that is a thirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take. The water of life. Freely. Freely. And then the very. Next to the last verse, surely
I come quickly. I come quickly. Amen. Amen. For the time we're going to sing
the bulletin, the hymn on the back of your bulletin, let's
stand together. And if you see the third verse,
the verse that begins with the come unto me in italics, that
verse we'll treat as the chorus. So we'll sing that as a chorus
each time. The Sabbath day, that day of
rest, was sanctified and blessed to point us to our Savior Christ,
in whom alone is rest. Come unto me, the Savior said,
and I will give you rest. O weary sinner, cease from works,
trust Christ, and find sweet rest. That legal Sabbath ended
when Christ died and rose again. Yet there's a Sabbath that remains,
a rest that's found in Him. Come unto me, the Savior said,
and I will give you rest. O weary sinner, cease from works,
trust Christ and find sweet rest. A sweet refreshment for my soul. The rest of faith is rest. Ceasing from works, I trust God's
Son. Christ is my Sabbath rest. Come unto me, the Savior said,
and I will give you rest. Oh, weary sinner, cease from
works. Trust Christ and find sweet rest. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reader
is gonna be found in Colossians chapter one. We're gonna read
verses nine through 23. Colossians chapter one, nine
through 23. For this reason, we also, since the day
we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you. and to ask that
you may be filled with the knowledge and the will of all wisdom and
spiritually understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord,
fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God. strengthened with all might,
according to his glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering
with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Take
notice who is that qualifies us to be partakers. It's the
Father who qualifies us. Because he has delivered us from
the power of darkness, conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son
of his love, in whom we have redemption. Through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, he is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation. For by him, all things were created
that in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones, or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created through him and for him. So all things, all creation,
it's not only created by Christ, but it's for him, for his glory.
And he is before all things. And in Him all things consist. That means that not only were
they created and left alone, but they created and maintained
by Him, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the head of the body. Who is the body? His church is
the body. He's the head of us. The church
who, at the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he may have preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile
all things to himself, to the Lord Jesus Christ. By him, whether
things on earth of things in heaven, having made peace through
the blood of his cross. That's how he accomplished this,
through the cross. And you who was once alienated,
this is you is referring to us, the believers, and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled How did
he reconcile this? In the body of his flesh, through
death, to present us holy. This is his goal and his purpose. He presents us holy and blameless,
and above reproach in his sight. And this is how God sees us in
Christ Jesus. He sees us as holy and blameless. If indeed you continue in the
faith, of course, this is the only true evidence of salvation
throughout the world, is if we continue in the faith, grounded
and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven,
and which I, Paul, became a minister. Father God, we come before you
only through your grace, only through the merits, the life
and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come to thank you, to praise
you, that you have given us blessings, all these blessings, Father,
in Christ. We thank you that we have a place
here to listen to your word, to listen to the gospel, Father.
But we need your Holy Spirit. We need your Holy Spirit desperately
to show us Christ, to learn more about his majesty, more about
that beauty that Psalm 84 spoke about, Father. We ask you to
fill us with the Holy Spirit. We ask the same for Brother Greg,
that you might fill him with the Holy Spirit, that the gospel
might be clear. We also pray for all the other
churches that preach the gospel, Father. ask for your blessing
in them. Once again, we thank you and
we recognize our dependence in you to understand and to see
Christ clearly. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Hymn number two in the spiral
hymn book. Let's all stand together, number
two. Yeah. Lord, we come before Thee now,
At Thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our suit disdain, Shall
we seek Thee, Lord, in vain? Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed way, Now
we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go Till
a blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Caleb Hickman
is going to bring special music now. I don't know why. I can't explain. I can't hold back. I can't refrain. The words won't
stay inside my head. They're flowing out in prose
instead. I need to tell you how I feel. Cause how I feel is oh so real
I'm tired of the same old thing I'm tired of the shame I bring
I want to be a faithful child But
my heart is cold and wild Lord open my eyes that I might see
what God in Christ has done for me. Grant me faith that I may
believe in Christ the Lord and Him received. Turn me from my
foolish pride. Let me only in Christ abide. In that great day may I be found
In Him forgiven and heaven bound In Him may I be found Thank you, Caleb. And thank you,
Irene. Irene wrote that. That song. Yeah. What an encouragement. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Zechariah chapter 9. Zechariah chapter 9. Told the men in the study this
morning, the theme for the preaching and scripture reading this morning
was going to be blessing, blessing, and I've titled this message
Comprehending the Blessing, Comprehending the Blessing. Man in his self-righteous
pride thinks that he can do something to make God bless him. The blessings
are already finished. As we saw in the first hour from
Ephesians chapter one at verse three, all the blessings of God
are in Christ in heavenly places right now. He has secured all
of God's blessings for his people. And for us, it's to comprehend
what he's already done. So if you'll hold your finger
in Ephesians, I mean, Zechariah chapter nine and turn with me
to Ephesians chapter three, there's a passage of scripture I'd like
to read from Ephesians chapter three to introduce this message. Comprehending the blessing. There's only a few places in
the Word of God where someone cried out, God bless me. One of them was Esau. After Jacob had stole the blessing
from his father, and Esau came and found out that the blessing
had already been given away, And that was the blessing of
salvation that was given to Jacob. God had ordained it to be. From
the beginning, the Lord had told Isaac that the younger, the older
would serve the younger. Jacob was chosen of God to be
blessed. The scripture says, Jacob, I
have loved and Esau have I hated. So it was always in God's purpose.
to save Jacob. And the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is referred to as the sons of Jacob. And so that blessing
that Jacob received from his father Isaac was purposed of
God, but Esau shows up afterwards and he cries and ask his father,
bless me, bless me. Now, the only thing Esau was
interested in was the material blessings that his father had
to give him. And so Isaac did give him a blessing of material
possessions and that's the only blessing he got. The second time
that we read of someone calling out for a blessing was Pharaoh. After the death angel came through
Egypt and killed the firstborn of every household of Egypt,
and Pharaoh was grieving over the loss of his son, Pharaoh
calls Moses in. He says, take your people, take
your cattle, get out of here. And on Moses' way out the door,
Pharaoh says, oh, bless me, bless me. He was only interested in material
blessings and we know how Pharaoh's life ends. As he pursued the
children of Israel and Pharaoh and his armies were drowned in
the Red Sea. So here we have the example of
two individuals who are calling out for God to bless them. The point of this message is
that the blessing has already been secured. Faith comprehends what God has
already done. Faith comprehends what God has
already done. We're not going to do anything
to force the hand of God. The Lord has already blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians chapter three, beginning
at verse 14, for this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul is telling the church
at Ephesus why and what he is praying to God for them for. And he says, this is what I'm
praying for. of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches
of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man. Now there's the beginning of
blessing. The beginning of blessing is
when the Spirit of God comes. The Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
accept you be born of the Spirit. Accept you be born again. You
cannot see the kingdom of God. The Spirit's like the wind. You're
completely dependent upon the Spirit of God. To open the eyes
of your understanding to give you faith. And so Paul says,
here's what I'm praying for. That the spirit would come and
strengthen your inner man. That Christ may dwell verse 17
in your hearts by faith. There's the blessing. That Christ
would dwell. In our hearts. By faith. Faith is the only means by which
we. Have the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Scripture says that it without faith it is impossible to believe
God for they that cometh to him must believe that he is and that
he's the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. This gift
of faith is from God and it's the means by which. We know Christ. So he says that Christ, that
after the spirit of God has come, that Christ might dwell in your
hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may
be able to comprehend. You see, we cannot comprehend
the blessing apart from the spirit of God. Apart from Christ dwelling
in our hearts, rooting us and grounding us in the love of Christ,
we cannot comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth
and the length and the depth and the height and to know the
love of Christ, to know the love of Christ, to experience his
love. And His love comes through His
forgiveness. To know the love of Christ, which
passes knowledge. You're not going to come to the
love of Christ. In religion, you're told, well,
you know, you have to learn this and this and this. You've got
to go to seminary. You've got to get this degree.
You've got to have this before you can have the blessing. No,
this love of Christ passes knowledge. We, we, well, we don't understand
anything we believe. We do not understand anything
we believe. God has given us faith to believe
every single word that he has spoken. And our understanding
of it is, is minuscule compared to its depth. To know that the
breadth and the length and the depth and the height is not the
understanding of doctrine of the understanding of the love
of Christ. which passes knowledge that you
might be filled with the fullness of God. Now unto him that is
able to do, unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly
more than we should ask or think. There's the blessing. The blessing
of God is exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end. God's
going to bless us. The blessing will be exceedingly
abundantly above all that we should ask or think. And it will end in His glory. His glory. He'll get all the
glory. There is one exception to this. Bless me. Passages in the Scriptures. I
mentioned Esau asked his father to bless him and and and Pharaoh
asked. Moses to bless him you remember
when Jacob is wrestling with the Lord at the river Jake at
the river Jabbok and And Jacob said Lord. I will not let you
go Lest you bless me Lord. I need a blessing You remember
the blessing that God gave him He gave him two blessings The
first blessing is he caused him to limp the rest of his life.
That was a blessing from God. Jacob was reminded the rest of
his life of his weakness by the limp that the Lord gave him.
And the second blessing was that he changed his name from the
supplanter Jacob to the Prince Israel. Jacob, you want me to
bless you? I'm gonna bless you with a spiritual
blessing. I'm going to change your name to Israel. And that's
exactly the blessing that we seek after. Lord, my God, give
us the grace to say, Lord, we're not going to let go until you
bless me. Lord, and this is the exceedingly
abundant beyond what I could ask or think blessing that I
need more than anything else. I need a spiritual blessing.
I need you to change my name. I need to know that my name is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I need to have a place
where my soul can rest. I need forgiveness of sins. I
need to know that I'm a child of God. I need to know Christ. He's the blessing. He's the blessing. I quoted this in the first hour,
what God said to Abraham when Abraham wanted a blessing from
God, God said to Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ said to Abraham,
Abraham, I am your shield. I'm your protection, and I am
your exceeding great reward. Paul said it like this. He said,
I know what I've believed, and I'm not going to be persuaded
by any other religious opinion. Is that what he said? He said,
I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I'm
trusting Christ for everything. I got all my eggs in one basket.
I've given you all this illustration before. It's been a while. If
you've got some material wealth in this world, it would not be
wise for you to invest everything in one thing. You diversify your
assets, don't you? You put a little bit here, a
little bit there. This one goes down, hopefully this one will
come up. And at the end of the day, when everything's balanced
out, you gain from your investments. And you know that's the way people
are in religion. It's exactly where they are in religion. I'm
gonna invest a little bit in the decision that I made some
years ago. I'm gonna invest a little bit in the works that I've performed. I'm gonna invest a little bit
in my good deeds. I'm gonna invest a little bit
here, a little bit there. Oh, and I'm gonna have Christ too.
And if one fails, perhaps the other will gain and I'll be the
gainer at the end. That's exactly the opinion that
people have of salvation. When Paul said, I am persuaded
that he is able to commit that which is committed
to him, to keep that which is committed to him, what Paul was
saying was, I've got all my eggs in one basket. I've invested
everything in Christ. If he doesn't save me, I'm not
going to be saved because I've got no place else to go. I've
got nobody else to look to. I can't trust a decision that
I made. I can't trust good works that
I've performed. I can't trust anything. I need
Christ to do it all. And here's the message of the
gospel. He's going to do it all and get all the glory or he won't
do it at all. Jacob asked for a blessing and
God gave it to him. Jacob, you're a prince. You're
perfect in my sight. I've put away your sin. I've
put away your sin. I've hid you in Christ. Not having
your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus chapter three, verse five,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy spirit. Here's what Paul's praying for.
When he prayed for the church at Ephesus, I'm praying that
the spirit of God will renew your hearts in Christ Jesus.
which he shed on us abundantly in Jesus Christ our Lord. The
blessings of God are far beyond what we can imagine. When we
think about God's blessings only in terms of material comforts,
oh, we're short-sighted on the abundance of the blessings that
he has provided for us in Christ. now unto him which is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we should ask or think.
That's the blessing we need. We need for the Lord to bless
us with spiritual blessings. And the word that the Lord uses
in his word to describe this blessing is the word double. I ask you to open your Bibles
to Zechariah chapter 9. If you'll turn back with me to
Zechariah chapter 9. Verse 11. For unto thee also
by the blood of thy covenant. And the literal translation is
your covenant by blood. We have a covenant with God that's
been established by blood. I have sent forth thy prisoners
out of the pit wherein there is no water. Turn ye to the stronghold
ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. I will render double unto thee. Now the scripture uses this concept
of double often and it's more than just two times. Do you remember
when the Queen of the South, Queen of Sheba came, she had
heard all the way down there in Sheba in the Sinai Peninsula,
she had heard about the reputation of Solomon and she traveled all
the way up to see him and after she sees him and he speaks to
her and Solomon's a picture of Christ and she's a picture of
the church She's me and you. And she had heard of him by the
hearing of her ear, but now her eyes have seen him. And you remember
what she said to him? She said, I had heard of you,
but I didn't believe it till I came and I saw it for myself.
And now I know that not the half was told me. Now, was she saying
that Solomon was twice as great as she thought he was? No, it's
a figure of speech. When God says, I'm going to give
you double, he's using a figure of speech. When we say in our
vernacular, you don't know the half of it. We're not saying
that a person knows half of the truth. They're saying, you don't
understand, you don't understand what's going on here. You don't
know the half of it. Or when you say, you know, I
paid twice for that than it was worth. You know, it's a figure
of speech. What the Lord is saying when
he says, I'm going to give the prisoners of hope double, I'm
going to give them a blessing that's exceedingly, abundantly
above that which they ask or think. And I'm going to reveal
it to them in the person of my son. And they're going to be
content with him and with what he has done for them. When Elisha, remember right before
Elijah, was caught up into heaven in that chariot, Elisha, who
was his protege, Elisha said, you know, I need you, Elisha
realized he's about to leave, and Elisha said, I need a blessing,
and he said, what do you want? I want twice the spirit Twice
the measure of the spirit of Elijah. He got more than that. He got more than that. But that's
what the Lord meant when he says double in Isaiah chapter 61 verse
7, for your shame you shall receive double. Double. And then in Isaiah chapter 40,
when the Lord told the prophet, he said, I want you to speak
a word of comfort to my people. In verse two, he says, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem and tell them that their warfare
is accomplished and that their iniquity is pardoned. And they
have received of the Lord's hand double for their sins. You see,
the Lord doesn't just take away our sins. He gives us a double
measure of the prophet of Elijah. He gives us a blessing that's
beyond our comprehension. And the blessing of salvation,
even for the child of God, regardless of how much he's grown in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ in this life is still beyond
his comprehension. It's beyond. Eye is not seen,
nor is ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination
of man, the things which he has prepared for us. Our Lord is
so much more glorious than we can ever imagine. Not only do
we grow in grace here, but for all of eternity, we're gonna
be seeing more and more of his glory. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
34. This is the double. This is the double blessing.
This is what this is what Paul was praying for the church in
Ephesus. This is my prayer for you and I hope your prayer for
me and for each other that the Lord would enable us to comprehend
what is the depth and the height and the width of his love and
the exceedingly abundantly beyond what we would ask or think. The
blessing, the double blessing, double blessing. Oh, child of
God, I've blessed you. I've put away your sin. I've
satisfied my law. I've established divine justice
once and for all. My blessings are not dependent
upon you. They're not dependent upon you.
The free will person who's self-righteous says, I'll serve God and he'll
bless me. And the child of God hears the
Lord say, I will bless you and you shall serve me. You shall
serve me. I will forgive you and you will
repent. I will save you and you shall
believe on me. Man's got it just backwards,
doesn't he? We're putting the cart before the horses and it
is a, is a good image, isn't it? You can't, you can't push
a cart with a horse. You got to pull it. And you get
the cause and effects backwards. You just have a backwards gospel.
You got an upside down gospel. That's why they accused the Pharisees
accused the disciples after the Lord ascended into glory. And
they started preaching the gospel in Jerusalem. What'd they say?
These men have turned the world upside down. No, the Pharisees
had turned the world upside down. They had works as the means of
the blessing. And the preaching of the gospel
makes the blessing the means of works. God's already done
it all. You're not going to do anything.
Comprehending the blessing. Not earning the blessing, but
comprehending the blessing. That's the message of the gospel,
to comprehend what God has already done. When the Lord Jesus Christ
bowed his head on Calvary's cross and he said, it is finished,
it's done. It's done. The salvation of God's
people was accomplished. When he ascended back into glory,
he took the names of those for whom he lived and died. And they're
seated in the heavenlies in Christ right now. That's what baptism's
all about. Baptism is a confession of my union with Christ. Christ's
life is my life. His death is my death. His resurrection
is my resurrection. His ascension is my ascension.
His acceptance into the presence of God is my acceptance into
the presence of God. The blessing's already been secured
by him. Lord, enable me to comprehend
the blessing. That's what we need, isn't it?
It's comprehending the blessing. It's not earning the blessing
or forcing the blessing. Now the Lord says, tell them
I'm going to give them double. I'm going to give them double. Beyond what they can imagine.
The blessing is far beyond their expectations. Exodus chapter
34. I ask you to turn there. Moses is on Mount Sinai standing
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's hid in the cleft
of a rock and now the Lord is speaking to him. Listen to what
the Lord says in verse 5 of Exodus chapter 34. And the Lord descended
in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name
of the Lord. So the first blessing is to hear
His name. It's to hear His name and all
that that name means. His name is I am. His name is
Jehovah. His name is it's finished. His
name is salvations of the Lord. I save in the manner in which
I save. I've done it all and I get all the glory. That's my
name. I'll not share my glory with another. That's my name. And so the first thing the Lord
does when he comes down, what did the Lord tell? What did the
angel tell Mary? You shall call his name Jesus. That's his name. For he shall
save his people. He shall save his people. We're not gonna make what Christ
did on Calvary's cross, effectual by something we do. We're going
to comprehend what he did. We're going to believe what he
did. But what he did is already finished. He saved his people. He actually saved them. He wasn't
offering himself on the cross to us. He was offering himself
on the cross to his Father. And his father saw the travail
of his soul. The father was satisfied. The father said, I'm pleased. This is my beloved son. In him,
I'm well pleased. It's finished. We comprehend
the blessing when we know his name. People call him Jesus, but you
might as well write that name out with a small J in the way
most folks mean it. Because he's not a savior. He's trying to get folks saved.
He's making a good effort at it. He's doing all he can. But
bless his heart, his hands are tied because man's free will
is more powerful than him. He's given man free will. He's
abdicated his throne and given man free will and now salvation
is not of the Lord. Salvation is up to man. That's
the message of salvation that you hear in the world. It's a
lie from the pit of hell. It goes all the way back to the
garden. It's man trying to be God. That's all it is. And so here he says, go back
with me to verse 18 in chapter 33. In chapter 33 of Exodus,
look what Moses, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. There's the
blessing, Lord bless me by showing me who you are. Show me what
you've done. And now the Lord speaks and proclaims
his name in verse five and then in verse six, and the Lord passed
before him and proclaimed the Lord. the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. Oh, that we could comprehend
the depth and the height and the width of the love of Christ. that we could comprehend the
blessing that's already secured. The Lord says it's double. It's
double. We get so bound up in the material
things of this world, don't we? And the Lord tells us in Malachi
chapter three, bring ye all the tithes to the storehouse that
there may be meat for my house and prove me now wherewith saith
the Lord of hosts and I will open the windows of heaven and
I will pour out a blessing that shall not be room enough to receive
it. Now all the Lord's saying there
is no man can serve two masters. Either Mammon's going to be your
master or Christ is going to be your master. Mammon's your
master. You're forfeiting the blessing,
not comprehending the blessing. The Lord says, I'm going to pour
out a blessing. You're not going to have room enough to hold it.
It's the blessing of salvation. It's the blessing of Christ. First Kings chapter 17, there's
a drought, a famine in Israel. Elijah has pronounced that drought
some years earlier and has stayed the rain. And Elijah's traveling
through Israel and he comes across a widow woman. And he says to
the widow woman, he says, make for me a cake of bread and bring
me some water. And she says to the prophet,
she says, with God as my witness, I have one little cup of meal
left and a few drops of oil and two sticks. And I was about to
set these two sticks on fire and cook this last small cake
of bread so that my son and I could eat and then we're gonna die. And Elijah said to her, give
to me first. And she believed God. And she
gave to him. And her barrel of meal and her
barrel of oil did not run out for the rest of the famine. She thought she was gonna die.
And the prophet was saying, I've got a blessing from God that's
exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think.
I'm not just going to give you another day of life. I'm going
to sustain you through this famine. Now, brothers and sisters, there's
a famine in this land, and it's not a famine of bread or of a
lack of water. It's a famine of hearing the
word of God. And the reason why men aren't
hearing the Word of God is because the Word of God is not being
preached. The gospel of God's free grace in the finished work,
the blessing that's already finished. Men are saying, God bless you
if you'll do this, if you'll do that, God bless you. Lord, enable me to comprehend
the blessing. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse
21. God made him sin for us who knew
no sin. There's the first blessing. God imputed the shame and the
guilt of all the sin of all God's people on the Lord Jesus Christ
as he suffered and died on Calvary's Cross. God satisfied his divine
justice. And the rest of that verse says,
and they shall be made the righteousness of God in him, in him. There's the double blessing.
I'm going to take away your guilt and impute it to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's going to own it as his
own. And he's going to suffer the shame and the guilt of it.
And he's going to. He's going to satisfy my holy
justice by receiving the full wrath of God. For all the sins
of all of God's people. And then I'm going to take his
righteousness. A righteousness that you know nothing about.
Our righteousness is or is filthy rags to God. We had the best
man at his very best state is altogether vanity. We have no
righteousness before God. God says, I'm going to take the
righteousness of my son and I'm going to impute it to you. I'm
going to charge it to your account. I'm going to credit to you. I'm
going to reckon it to you. And you're going to be perfect
in my sight. And now in the scripture says, look, look, go back with
me to Zachariah chapter chapter nine. Verse 11, and thee also by the
blood of the covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out
of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you again to the stronghold,
ye prisoners of hope, even today do I declare that I will render
double unto thee. I will render double unto thee. In. In Psalm 84 where we were
in the first hour. The Lord says I'm going to go.
I'm going to carry you from strength to strength. From strength to
strength. The blessings are just going
to continue to double and double and double as you grow in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessings began
in eternity past. When the Lamb was slain before
the foundation of the world in the covenant of grace, when God
chose a people according to his own will and purpose, that's
when the blessing began. The blessing was made perfect. David said that although my house be not
so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure. There's the cross, ordered in
all things and sure. The blessing of God established
in the covenant of grace was ordered in all things and made
sure at Calvary's cross. And now the Lord says, I'm gonna
take you from strength to strength. I'm going to lead you, as the
Lord said in John 1, verse 16, and of His fullness, we have
all received from grace to grace, from election to regeneration,
to glorification, to sanctification. It's all going to be of grace.
You're not going to be able to take any credit for any of it
anywhere. 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, we
behold his face from glory to glory. There's the double blessing. It's just the blessing continues
to deepen. The first time this word double
is used in the Word of God is found in Genesis chapter 43 when
Jacob sends his sons back to Egypt to get more, there's a
famine again, it's a different famine but it's nevertheless
a famine, there's a famine in Israel and Jacob and his sons
are dying and the Lord has sent Joseph ahead of them unbeknownst
to them and made him prime minister of Egypt and Joseph's got the
key to the storehouses in Egypt and he's providing bread because
he the Lord had revealed to him that there was going to be a
famine and so he provides for them and and Jacob the the first
time they went down Joseph knew who they were they didn't know
who he was you know that's the way it is with believers the
Lord knows us before we know him And Joseph told them, you go
back, but leave Simeon. And I'm going to hold Simeon
in prison here, and I'm not going to let Simeon go until you bring
Benjamin back. And so they went home with the
bread. By the way, on the way home,
they found out that all the money that they had given the Egyptians
for the grain was still in their bags. The sons of Jacob never
paid a dime for any of that bread. Joseph gave it to them for free.
But when they got home, they said, we're out of bread again
and we can't go back without Benjamin. The man told us don't
come back without Benjamin. And Jacob said, Joseph is no
more. Not knowing that he was the one
that actually provided them the bread. Simeon is gone. And now you want to take Benjamin
from me? He said, all these things are
against me. Now, knowing the whole story
in hindsight, we know that all those things were for him. They
were all working for his good. They were all part of the blessing
that God was providing for their salvation. But he thought everything
was going against him. Isn't that the way we are? Oh, everything's against me. No, it's not. Not if you're in
Christ. If you're in Christ, God's doing
everything for your good. He's not withholding any good
thing from you. I know the thoughts that I have for you, the Lord
said, thoughts of good, not of evil, to bring you to your expected
end. Everything that happens is to
bring you to your expected end. That's the blessing. That's the
blessing. So Jacob tells his sons, he said,
well, he said, I'll tell you what, we're going to starve here. We're all going to die. So I
guess you got to go back. Yeah, I'll take Benjamin with you, but take double
the amount of money this time. And they took double the amount
of money. What were they doing? They were trying to buy Joseph's
favor. And so when they come back, now
Joseph takes his cup and puts it in Benjamin's sack. And this
time when they leave, Joseph arrests all of them. And they
all figure they're gonna die now. And that's when Judah gets
Joseph aside and Judah breaks his heart open before Joseph
and says to Joseph, I've become a surety for him. And if you
kill him, our father's gonna die. I have promised you, keep
me, take me, don't take him. And that's when Joseph's heart
broken and he makes himself known to his brethren. They never paid
for any of that food. They never paid for the land
of Gothen, they never paid for Joseph, provided everything for
them. And Joseph said to them, you
meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God sent me ahead
of you to save you. And God sent his son ahead of
us to save us. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
ascended into glory as our savior. And he ever lives to make intercession
for us. Jacob thought, well, if we could
pay double, maybe that'll be it. God said, no, you're not
going to pay double. I'm going to double your blessing.
I'm going to double your blessing abundantly exceedingly above
what you should ask or think. And you're going to comprehend
it. You're going to comprehend it by my grace, not garner it. You're going to comprehend it
quickly. Who's this blessing for? It's
right here in our text. Look at verse 11. as for thee." The Lord told Pilate, they that
are of the truth, hear my voice. How many times you hear about
the blessings of God and you think, well, that's for somebody
else. That's not for me. As for thee, those humble shepherds
that were watching their flock by night, poor humble shepherds,
they had the night watch. So they were just the, you know,
they weren't the real shepherds, they were the trainees. They
were the ones that were stuck staying up all night. What'd those angels say? Unto
you, is born this day in the city
of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. The Lord's saying to you and
to me, unto you, this is for you. Don't think, well, it's
too good, too good to be true for me. As if, as if if you weren't
so sinful, it might apply to you. This applies to the worst sinners
of all. That's who it's for. It's for
the unworthy. It's for those who have nothing
but sinfulness. Oh, you see the self-righteousness
in this could be for somebody else, but not for me? That's
a self-righteous statement. Sounds humble, but it's not.
If being a sinner is what qualifies me for the blessing of God, then
I'm qualified. For no one's a bigger sinner
than I am. That's what faith says. And if you don't believe that,
then you believe that the blessings of God are determined by something
else other than you being a sinner in Christ's righteousness. As for thee, I stand before you just putting
a sound. What did John the Baptist say?
I'm just the voice of one crying in the wilderness. All I'm doing
is putting an audible sound to the word of God. Might God be
pleased by his spirit to take these audible words and make
them effectual to our hearts and say, this is for you. This
is for you. This is personal. Samuel thought
Eli was talking to him. It was the Lord talking to him. Saul of Tarsus had to be knocked
off his high horse before he could hear the voice of God.
Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Lord, what would you have me
to do? It's personal. Zacchaeus, come
down. Out of all these people, you're
the most hated man here. You, the publican, you're the
one that's been robbing all these folks of their taxes. Zacchaeus,
salvation has come to your house today. This is personal. It's who it's
for. The double blessing as for thee. And it's for prisoners. Americans love touting their
freedoms, don't they? I'm not a prisoner, I'm free.
I've been living in the land of the free. I've got the freedom
to say what I want, do what I want, go where I want, anytime I want.
Well, that may be true physically speaking. When God makes you
a sinner, you realize, I'm a prisoner. I'm sold under sin. That's what
Paul said in Romans chapter 7. We know that the law is holy
and just and good, but I'm a prisoner to sin. I can't do anything but
sin. I'm in a pit. Look at verse 11. I have sent forth thy prisoners
out of the pit wherein there is no water. Back to Joseph,
you remember what Joseph's brothers did? They wanted to kill him. And
Simeon said, no, don't kill him. Let's, you know, let's sell him
off to the caravans going down to Egypt. But before that, they
put him, the scripture says, they put him in a pit where there
was no water. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
taken off of Calvary's cross, he was put in a pit where there
is no water. to deliver those who are stuck
in pits where there is no water. Joseph is a type of Christ. He
was taken out of that pit, wasn't he? The Lord says, I've come
to make the prisoner free. You can't believe unless I enable
you to believe. You can't see unless I enable
you to see. You can't find any freedom from
your sin unless I set you free, unless I give you forgiveness.
You're a prisoner. Bartimaeus was a prisoner to
his blindness, wasn't he? Bartimaeus, what would you have
me to do? Oh, Lord, that I might see. You're going to have to
give me eyes to see. That man over there in the Gadarenes
that was possessed with demons and cutting himself, what is
that a picture of? It's penance. It's a picture of what prisoners
do when they try to earn favor with God. Well, if I can just
suffer enough and punish myself enough and give up enough and
do enough, I can earn favor with God. I'll get the blessing. I'll
get the blessing. And all along he was chained.
In trying to break his chains, he couldn't break loose. And
all along he was out of his mind. And he was naked. There I am. Lord, I'm a prisoner. And the
Lord traveled all the way across the Sea of Galilee to save one
man. He went into that graveyard and
he put him in his right mind and he clothed him and he set
him free. And he told him, go back and
tell them what I've done for you. This is for prisoners. Lord,
if you don't, If you don't enable me to comprehend
the blessing, I won't comprehend the blessing. I'll die in my
sins. There's no water here. Caleb,
you preached about Mephibosheth being in Lodabar, a land where
there's no bread. There's no water here. Scripture
says that outside of Christ, you're trying to find water in
a broken cistern. And whatever water might be left
in the bottom of that broken cistern is polluted. And the Lord said, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. I've got abundantly exceedingly
above that, which you ask or think. The world talks about
blessings as if it was just material things. Oh, come to Christ, come
to Christ. All the blessings of God are
in him. And here he says, look at verse
12 and I finish, turn you to the stronghold. Now you can look
up that word. It's the only time in the whole
Bible it's used. And it's an exaggerated form
of the word that means a defensed city. It's an impenetrable fortress. That's what it is. And Christ
is our stronghold and you get in Christ, you can't get out
and nobody can get to you. And so the Lord says, turn ye
to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. And I'm going to give
you a double blessing. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and know how we pray now that your Holy Spirit
would. Cause us to turn to the stronghold. And to comprehend. Your blessing of grace accomplished
in Christ, for it's in his name we pray. Amen. Number 224, let's stand together,
224. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me He did make known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for His own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word brought
peace within my heart. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing man of sin, Revealing Jesus through the Word, Creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able which I've committed unto Him
against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the vale with Him
or meet Him in the air. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day.