The brethren in Sarasota are
meeting this morning and watching the services live from the church
over there. So we won't be going to Sarasota
tonight, but I want to welcome them. Micah chapter 7, verse 7, Therefore
I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation,
and my God will hear me. That's a promise. No one's ever
waited on him. No one's ever looked to him as
the God of their salvation that he didn't hear. What a blessed
promise for us this morning. May God give us the faith to
believe it. Let's stand together, Brother Tom, you're gonna come
and lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. The Lord of glory is my light
and my salvation, too. God is my strength, nor will
I fear what all my foes can do. One privilege my heart desires,
O grant me an abode Among the people of thy choice, the temple
of my God. There shall I offer my requests
and see thy beauty still, shall hear the messages of love, and
there inquire thy will. When troubles rise and storms
appear, there may thy children hide. God has a mighty refuge
where he makes our souls abide. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading
this morning is found in Psalms 98. Psalm 98. All sing unto the Lord a new
song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his
holy arm have gotten him the victory. This is referring to
our Lord Jesus Christ. He gotten the father victory,
he's gotten us the victory. The Lord have made known his
salvation, his righteousness have he openly shown in the sight
of the heathen. He has remembered his mercy,
and his truth towards the house of Israel, all the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God." We've been blessed
by the Lord Jesus Christ, us the Gentiles as well. Make a
joyful noise into the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise
and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp
and the voice of a psalm, with trumpets and sound of cornet. Make a joyful noise before the
Lord, the King. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods
clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together
before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness,
shall he judge the world and the people with equity. Father God, we come before you
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come and thank you
and give you praise for what you have done for us, Father.
We thank you for the wonderful blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you for providing a place here where we can meet together
and listen to your word and enjoy communion, Father. We pray, Father,
that thy Holy Spirit be with us this morning, both with Brother
Greg, who speaks the gospel to us, and we who hear, Father,
we need our ears to be open and our hearts to be opened by the
Holy Spirit to be able to look upon the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Father. Draw us near to him, Father. And we pray the same for all
the other churches that are preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 8 from your Spiral Bound Gospel Hymns
hymn book. Let's all stand together. Number
8. O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire to lift up from this earthly mire. O may we think of heavenly
things and know the joy Thy presence brings. Lord, let us see the
Savior's face, and let us taste of Thy sweet grace. May open ears Thy glories hear,
and may we smell Thy fragrance ? Be pleased to open heaven's door
? ? And on our heads thy blessings pour ? ? All wretched, poor,
and needy we ? ? Where can we go if not to thee? ? O may this day be blessed the
most, that Jesus Christ becomes the host, to feed our souls with
living bread, and with our souls in joy to wed. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me, please, to Psalm 76. Psalm 76. I've titled this message
From Evil to Glory. From Evil to Glory. Every time something evil happens
in the world, men are faced with a dilemma. If there is a God who's all-powerful,
why doesn't he stop it? And so ultimately their conclusion
is that he's not really all-powerful. He has relegated omnipotence
to the evil will of man and so therefore he's unable to restrain
man's evil in Psalm verse 76 chapter 76
verse 10 God says the wrath of man shall praise me and the remainder
of thou shalt refrain." Now the child of God has no question
about the first part of this verse. They know that their God
is sovereign. They know that whatever He does
is right. They are unable to trace the
hand of God through all the evils that take place in this world
and see how it is that this does result in the glory of God, but
that doesn't keep them from believing that that's exactly what's happening. We would never entertain the
thought that our God is somehow subservient
to the evil will of man. There's a lot of evil taking
place in this world. I think about the murderous rampage
of the Catholic Church during the Inquisitions, that was evil.
Think about the horrors of the Holocaust, that was evil. Think about all the deranged
gunmen that murder innocent children, and that's evil. And it's heartbreaking. A lot of things that man does.
But don't think for a moment that God has somehow lost control. The wrath of man shall praise
Thee. and the remainder. And I said,
we don't have any problem with the first part of that verse.
The thing that amazes the child of God is that God is restraining
evil. that we don't have murderous
rampages going on every day, that we don't have 9-11s to have
to deal with every day. That's the thing that amazes
us, that knowing the true nature of man, why don't these things
happen more often? And the reason is because God
is restraining the evil of man. Now the other encouraging thing
about this passage of scripture for the believer personally is
to know that though God is not responsible for his sin, we would
never say that God caused me to sin. We sin when we're drawn
away of our own lust. God cannot tempt man to sin,
neither does he cause sin. We sin when we're drawn away
of our own lust. And when lust hath consumed and
bringeth forth sin, and sin bringeth forth, we're personally responsible
for our own sin. And at the same time, we serve
a sovereign God who takes our sin, and uses it to cause us
to acknowledge our dependence upon Him and to plead for His
mercy and for His grace. The old man really does serve
the new man, doesn't he? He drives us to Christ. What
hope! The wrath of man shall praise
Thee. And the remainder, the remainder,
Thou shalt restrain." The Lord restrains a lot of evil in your
life, doesn't He? Restrains a lot of evil in my
life. Keeps us from doing the things that we would. Thank God. Now, though we are unable to
comprehend how it is that the evils that
men do bring praise to God in this life. We believe it. We
know it's true. There is one unconscionable evil
that man perpetrated that in its one act, is worse than all
the other evil that man has ever done, put together. When man exercises his evil,
and God allows it, it's a sinner against a sinner. But there was
one time in the history of the human race that God allowed man
to exercise the full fury of his wrath not against another
sinner, but against the holy, harmless, sinless Son of God. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the clearest and most blatant example of the wrath of man to
be seen in the history of the world. And the glory of it is
that we're not left wondering how that wrath led to God's glory. The Lord
has told us in His Word. If we're able to listen to the
voices that were around that event, we can see how the Lord
used the wrath of man praise Himself. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the wrath of man. Now lest someone, I know the
religious world is always asking, well who killed Jesus Christ? And someone say, well it was
the Jews, another would say it was the Romans. When the spirit
of grace and supplication is poured out by God on the house
of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they shall mourn
after him whom they pierced, as one mourneth for his only
son." So, it was the sins of God's
people that put the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It was my wrath against God. It was my rebellion against God,
which cannot be compared to however horrible the evils have been
in this world when men abuse other men. Now that makes me and you, if
you're a child of God, the chief of all sinners. We can't point
our finger at Adolf Hitler. He was just doing what was natural
to him. We killed the Son of God. And what the evil men of this
world have done do not compare to what I've done. what you've
done, taking the sinless Son of God and crucifying Him to
a Roman cross. Now the only thing worse than
that, you say well that's pretty bad, the only thing worse than
that is being indifferent to the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which describes most of the world.
Most of the world is completely indifferent to the crucifixion
of the Son of God. And those who are not indifferent
have tried to add to what He accomplished by their free will
and by their good works. So the only thing worse than
actually putting the Son of God on the cross is being indifferent
to what He did or trying to change adding to or take away from what
He did. And you're going to fit in one
of those three categories. Every person in this world is going
to fit in one of those three categories. Either you're going
to be indifferent, or you're going to try to make up for what
was lacking in what He accomplished, or you're going to bow before
Him and say, Oh Lord, it was my sin that put the Son of God
on a cross. It was my sin that caused Him
to shed His precious blood. It was my wrath. It was my wrath. Thank God that the wrath of man
shall praise Him. Now, if God enables us to hear the voices recorded by the Spirit
of God in His Word. The voices of those men who were
exercising their wrath against the Son of God. If the Lord gives
us ears to hear, we got good ears to hear right now, don't
we? Just a child. She's lying. She wants everybody to believe
she's dying. She ain't dying. She'll be alright. Came from
the womb speaking lies, didn't we? The Lord said in Isaiah chapter
48, I have not spoken in secret. God has not kept us from being
able to see how it is the most heinous act of the wrath of man
leads to His glory. And if we're able to hear these
voices... Oh, turn with me to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. Now you know
that the bulk of John chapter 11 is about Mary and Martha and
Lazarus. who the Lord brought forth from
the grave, to die again. We can't call what happened to
Lazarus a resurrection. It's a resuscitation. The Lord
Jesus Christ was resurrected, never to die again. The hope
of our eternal life is in the resurrection. But nevertheless,
Lazarus is brought forth from the grave, and the word is sent
back to Jerusalem. to the Pharisees, to the Sanhedrin,
to the publicans, to the Sadducees, not the publicans, that this
Jesus of Nazareth has just performed a miracle that is going to turn
the whole world to him. And in verse 47, then gathered
the chief priest and the Pharisees, a council and said, what do we
for this man do with many miracles? What are we going to do? So they
all got together. They had a meeting, a closed
door meeting, trying to figure out how are we going to stop
this man? If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away
both our place and our nation. We're gonna lose our position.
We're gonna lose our power if we don't do something about him. The wrath of man. to protect themselves, to keep
their position of power, they were willing to put to death
the Son of God. And in verse 49, and one of them
named Caiaphas. Now Caiaphas was a political
appointee. Caiaphas was sympathetic to Rome. Caiaphas was put as a high priest
because he was protecting the interest of Rome. And Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, said unto them, You know
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that
one man should die for the people. and that the whole nation perish
not. And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but that also
he should gather together in one the children of God. To as many as received him to
them God gave the power to become the children of God to be the
children of God were already determined before that before
anybody believed The Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross
for the children of God one Caiaphas speaking by by the Holy Ghost. I'm not going
to say by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, but it's clear
from Scripture that the Spirit of God was speaking through him
as the high priest. He didn't know what he was saying.
He didn't know what he was saying. Do you not know that one should
die for the nation, for the people? And not for these people only,
but for all that are the children of God. One should die for him. God requires a spotless Lamb,
a sinless Lamb to shed His precious blood in order to satisfy the
demands of God's holy justice for His people. For His people. Who did Christ die for? He died
for Israel. Turn with me to Romans chapter
2. Caiaphas was speaking the truth. Though he had wrath in his heart,
toward the Lord Jesus Christ, though his only interest was
to protect his position and his power, God was taking the wrath
of Caiaphas and using it for his glory by forcing Caiaphas
to speak the truth. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ
is being crucified. One man must die for the nation. You have your Bibles open to
Romans chapter 2, look at verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly. And let me say this, he is not
a Christian who goes around with outward appearances. Lots of
folks in the world like that. Yeah, they learn to speak the
language, they learn to dress the dress, they learn to walk
the walk. They, they, well the Lord called them whitewashed
tombs. full of dead men's bones. He called them a vessel clean
on the outside, but filled on the inside with corruption. And
so the Lord says, for he is not a Jew. Who did Christ die for?
He died for Israel. He died for the nation, for the
people of God. But now the Lord says, he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. Don't look at something that
you're doing in the flesh as evidence that you're a child
of God. Yeah, it's a false hope. God makes you to be a sinner,
you'll know that there's, I have no confidence that, we are the
true circumcision. which worship God in the Spirit,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly,
or one who is circumcised in the flesh, but he is a Jew which
is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. You want to get the praise of
men? Just parade your good works before men. They'll praise you
for it. They'll praise you for it. Our praise is not of men. It's
of God. And the circumcision is a work
of grace by the Spirit of God in the heart. causing us to turn
to God from our idols to serve the one and only living and true
God. It's a work of grace. This matter
of faith is not something we can just demonstrate. It's a work of grace. The Spirit of God has to do it.
He's got to cut away all my hope in the flesh and cause me to
put my trust in Christ alone for all my salvation. That's
the circumcision of the heart and God said that's the new birth.
That's the new birth. The Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
you've got to be born again. How can I go back in my mother's
womb? No, Nicodemus, you've got to be born of the Spirit. That
which is of the flesh is flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing. Nothing. It is the Spirit that
quickeneth. It's the Spirit of God that giveth
life. Lord, do a spiritual work of grace in my heart. circumcised
my heart so that I don't trust in my flesh for the hope of my
salvation." Caiaphas said one man must die
for the nation. His wrath towards the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you have ears to hear, tells us Why God allowed the
wrath of man? The worst thing man's ever done
is the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and God tells us
why it happened. See, most people think that they're
Christians because they believe that it did happen. God showed the children of Israel
his acts, the scripture says, but Moses knew his ways. They saw the water come forth
from the rock. They saw the dividing of the
Red Sea. They saw the manna come from heaven every day. But they
could not make the connection between the acts of God and the
ways of God. The gospel is not about what
happened, it's about why it happened. And God's telling us, through
the voice of Caiaphas, why he allowed the wrath of man. That one man might die for the
nation. That all Israel might be saved. A true Jew is not he who's circumcised
in the flesh, or has outward appearances. A true Jew is one
who's received the circumcision of the heart. by the grace of
God giving him faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And one man, you
remember when David went up to battle against Goliath? The children
of Israel were on one side of the valley and the Philistines
were on the other side of the valley and Goliath kept coming
out every day. Send one representative from
your army to fight against me and whoever wins They will conquer
and we won't all have to die. And the children of Israel were
scared to death. Nobody would go out. Every day he would blaspheme
God. Every day he would threaten the
people of God. And finally, a man after God's own heart, little
David. A David, a man that believed
God. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Who speaks blasphemy
against our God? And David went out with a sling
and slew Goliath, killed him, cut his head off with his own
sword. And the children of Israel got
the victory from the work that was accomplished by one boy,
one young man, David. That's the gospel. Nobody else
fought in the battle. Nobody else had anything. All
they were doing was just hunkering down behind the rocks, you know,
hoping that, you know, they weren't going to get killed. One man
got the victory for all Israel. One man, one man should die for
the people. Now in the book of John, chapter
18 and chapter 19, you have the story of the Jews insisting on
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ before Pilate. And Pilate was like Caiaphas.
Pilate just wanted to settle down the rebellion. He just wanted
to quiet the city. He was a lesser... Judea in the
Roman system was a very small province. And Pilate was a little
fish in a big pond. And he just wanted to keep his
position. And he knew that if these Jews got out of control,
Rome would come in and take his position away and appoint somebody
else. But Pilate had already been warned by his wife, don't
have anything to do with this man. She had a dream given to
her of God, didn't she? Pilate ignored it. Three times,
three times in John chapter 18 and chapter 19, Pilate keeps
bringing the Lord Jesus Christ back out and saying to the people,
I find no fault in them. Now all Pilate did was put the
Lord Jesus Christ under the inspection of the Roman law. And he could
find no fault in him. But oh, no greater truthful words
have ever been spoken. The wrath of man. Pilate still
trying to wash the blood of Christ off his hands, isn't he? but no greater words have been
spoken than were spoken by that man. I find no fault in him."
The child of God knows that the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't just
inspected by the Roman law. He wasn't just tested by another
man. He was put under the law. He came There's two covenants
in the scriptures. There's the covenant of works
and the covenant of grace. Adam was put under the covenant
of works and he failed. And you and I failed in our father
Adam. And we're now dependent upon
the covenant of grace for our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ
did not come into this world as the last Adam under the covenant
of grace. He came like the first Adam under
the covenant of works. He was put under the law. And God Almighty inspected, if
you will, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and was satisfied. Never in thought, never in deed,
never in word. Worshipped God from the heart
all the time. Believed God. Was obedient to
the Father. You and I have never been able
to keep one of God's laws. He kept them all. And the child
of God joins their voice with Pilate. I understand the wrath
of man shall praise him because Pilate said what I believe. I
find no fault in this man. And in one of those verses, he
said, at all, at all, I find no fault in him. God finds no
fault in him. And if you're in Christ, If you're
in Christ, God finds no fault in you. As he is, so are we. If we're in Christ, we're without
sin. Without sin, perfect before God. God says, I find no fault
in him. The wrath of man shall praise
me. Pilate sat down in the judgment
seat. In the judgment seat. I'm so thankful that God, the
judge of all men, judged the Lord Jesus Christ righteous. And all that he came to live
and die for are accounted by God as being righteous. And then Pilate made a plaque and determined
that that plaque would be on the top of the cross. It was
common to put the offense of the criminal on the cross. The whole purpose of the cross
was a deterrent of crime. We'll publicly put this person
to death and it'll make everybody else fear the law. And so Pilate
puts Jesus, king of the Jews. And he writes it in Greek, which
was the language of the common man. He writes it in Hebrew,
which was the language of the religious. And he writes it in
Latin, which was the language of the Romans. So that everyone
could see what this man was being crucified for. And the Pharisees
said, say that he said he's the king of the Jews. Not that he
is the king of the Jews, say that he said he's the king of
the Jews. And Pilate said, what I have written, I have written. Oh, the wrath of man shall praise
me. Yes, he is king. He is Lord. At one point, the Roman soldiers
bowed a knee to Him and mocked their worship of Him. And the
truth is that the wrath of man shall praise God, shall praise
Christ. Why? Because we really do bow
the knee to Him. Not in mock worship. Religion
is mock worship. A God that depends on you for
anything is not a God to be worshiped. You will only worship a God who
doesn't need you. That's the only God you're going
to worship. God who's not looking to you for anything. A God who
holds your life and your soul in His hand. A God that will
do with you whatsoever He wills. That's the only God you're going
to worship. You see, what those Roman soldiers were doing is
what everybody else in the world is doing. They're mocking the
Lord Jesus Christ, pretending to worship Him. But they're worshiping
a God of their own imagination. A God that depends upon them.
to bring their offering to the table so that he can get done
what he wants to do. That's not the God of glory. This is the King of the Jews. And what Pilate wrote, like with
Caiaphas, God gave him those words to write them, didn't He?
Why? So that His people would see
the wrath of man praising Him. The wrath of man shall praise
Me. Judas speaks words of wrath,
What hypocrisy! What betrayal! When Judas went
and sold the Lord Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver and
said to the Sanhedrin, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He. Take him away. And then Judas
goes to the Garden of Gethsemane And Judas speaks these words,
Master, Master. And he kissed him. He kissed
him on the cheek. Now Psalm chapter 2 verse 12
says, Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and his wrath be kindled
but a little. A little bit of God's wrath is
something you don't want to have to deal with. We've got to kiss
the Son. But here's the difference. Judas
kissed Him in hypocrisy, in denial, in betrayal of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, go with me for just a moment
to Simon the Pharisee's house when the Lord Jesus Christ went
into his house. And there was a woman there who
was a notorious sinner. Everybody in town knew that she
was, that her whole life was a life of sin. And the Lord goes
into Simon the Pharisee's house and this woman takes an expensive
bottle of ointment and she breaks the alabaster jar. And she begins
to wash the Lord's feet with her tears and dry them with her
hair and she kisses his feet. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. Lest He be angry with you. And
His wrath be kindled but just a little. Kiss Him where? Don't kiss Him like Judas. That's
religion. Everybody's going around planting
a kiss on the cheek of Jesus. Oh no. We're like that woman
with the alabaster jar, aren't we? Pleading Him for mercy. shedding our tears at his feet,
kissing him at his feet, sitting at his feet. Lord, teach me.
Lord, reveal yourself to me. Save me. Have mercy upon me. I'm a sinner. And the Lord had
to confront Simon over this, didn't he? Because Simon said,
you know, if he really was God, he'd know that woman was a sinner.
And the Lord, knowing Simon's heart, said to him, Simon, let
me ask you a question. Two men were in debt to their
master. One owed him five pence, the
other owed him 500. And he forgave them both. He forgave them both. Which is
going to love the master more? And Simon said, I suppose the
one who was forgiven the most. And the Lord said, yep. You got
that one right, Simon. I came into your house, you didn't
wash my feet, you didn't anoint me. This woman has not ceased
to kiss my feet. They that have been forgiven
much, love much. They that have been forgiven
little, love little. How much has the Lord forgiven
you? The wrath of man. The wrath of
man shall praise him. Matthew chapter 27, Pilate, after
washing his hands, said this, I am innocent of the blood of
this just man. And the Pharisees pronounced
their own judgment when they said, let his blood be upon our
heads and upon the heads of our children. The wrath of man shall... Do
you hear that? Is that not your cry? Not out
of wrath, not out of mockery like the Pharisees, but out of
a cry for mercy. Oh Lord, let his blood be upon
my head and upon the head of my children. Apart from the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no hope for my salvation.
God didn't say, when I see your free will, when I see your good
works, when I see the evidence of how you live your life, when
I see your good intentions. No, He didn't say any of that,
did He? When I see the blood, I will
pass by you. Oh God, apply the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ to my account. The blood is the only covering. It's called an atonement. An
atonement. The word atonement is a covering.
It's the same word translated pitch. You remember Noah's Ark?
Noah pitched the Ark from within and from without. And contrary
to however Hollywood might present Noah's Ark, That thing didn't
leak a drop, I'm just certain of it. Why? Because that rain
was a picture of the wrath of God. And that ark was pitched. Some guy up in Kentucky has built
a life-size replica of Noah's ark. All out of wood. But you know one thing I noticed
about it? It's not pitched. It doesn't have a covering. It's
not atoned for. The only reason that the ark
of Noah survived the flood was because of that pitch. And the
only reason, the only way you and I are going to survive the
wrath that is to come is if we have the covering of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, let His blood be upon my
head. And oh God, have mercy upon my
children, my grandchildren, Let His blood be sufficient for them. Matthew chapter 27, they cried
from the foot of the cross, He trusted in God, let Him save
Him now. He trusted in God. Yes, He did. Yes, He did. And the only hope
that you and I are going to be saved. Man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Paul said, I am crucified with
Him. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
died for me. He trusted God. He trusted God. They spoke the truth. The only
hope that you and I are going to be saved before God is that
we're trusting the one who trusted God. Father into thy hands I
commend my spirit. That was his dying words. That
was his final breath. He trusted God. He believed God. What do we say? What do we say? Here's what we say. Lord, I believe
you. Help thou mine unbelief. I've got so much unbelief. God's
not satisfied with your faith. Your faith is too fickled. It's too mixed with unbelief,
isn't it? God's satisfied with His faith. And our trust is in Him. He believed
God. Let Him save him now. Well, God
did save him. Not now, but in three days. God was obligated to raise him
from the dead. Why? Because he believed God.
And then they said, He saved others? Himself He cannot save. Now these words were spoken in
derision. They were mocking Christ on the
cross. But if you have ears to hear
the voices that God allowed to speak and recorded in His Word,
you will hear the wrath of man praising Him. Yes! Yes, he saved
others. And the only way that he was
able to save others is by not saving himself. Father, if there
be any way this cup can pass from me, if there be any other
way for my bride to be saved, if there be any other way, let
it be. No, son, there's no other way.
This is the only way. The only way. is through your
death, one man must die for the nation. Himself he could not
save." Matthew chapter 27. Something very interesting takes
place. The disciples, you remember the disciples in Luke 24 on the
road to Emmaus and they were walking along with the Lord Jesus
Christ and they didn't know it was him. He had not revealed
himself to them. He had not opened their eyes. This tells us that
we can be in his presence. You can be right here listening
to the gospel and not see him unless he opens your eyes. And
in the breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened and they
beheld him as a son of God. But they didn't know. Jesus of
Nazareth, who we thought was the Messiah, has been crucified.
Have you not heard? He's gone. Our hopes are dashed.
The Lord had told them that He was going to raise from the dead,
and they didn't believe it. You know who did believe it?
The Pharisees. After they put Christ into the
tomb, the Pharisees went straight to Pilate. And here's what they
said. That deceiver, that deceiver
said that in three days he was going to rise from the dead unless
they come and steal his body and profess that he did rise
from the dead let us stationed Roman soldiers over the grave.
You know what Pilate said? Pilate said make it as sure as
you can. And so they stationed the Roman
soldiers, and they rolled a stone in front of the tomb, and on
resurrection morning, God blinded the soldiers, rolled the stone
away, and Christ came forth out of that tomb victorious over
death. They had to bribe the soldiers,
lest the soldiers tell the truth about what happened. Well, what
did they call the Lord Jesus Christ? They called Him the deceiver. And they weren't able to make
his grave secure. Pilate said, make it as secure
as you can. You know why they couldn't make
it secure? Because the Lord Jesus Christ deceived them. And he's still deceiving men
today. Because they have no love for the truth, because they glory
in their own righteousness, Therefore, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, therefore
God, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, has sent them a strong delusion
that they might believe the lie. And the world is full of religious
folks calling themselves Christians who are being deceived by God. You know what that causes me
to say? Lord, don't deceive me and don't let me deceive myself.
My heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.
Lord, if you don't speak to me, if you don't save me, I won't
be saved. Lord, show me how the wrath of man has praised Thee,
and give me grace to glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has
finished the salvation of my soul. Our Heavenly Father, we are so
very thankful for the Gospel. O how we do pray that you would
send your Holy Spirit in power, that you would give us the grace
to believe on Christ, keep us, Lord, from being deceived. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. We have a special occasion that
comes around once a year, this time of the year. We get to recognize
our graduating seniors and just let them know how much we love
them and how proud we are of them. This is a real milestone. You remember? Some of you can
remember. I don't hardly remember it. when you graduated from high
school. But Jacob Torres and Maria Pena
and Rebecca Salzberg was not able to be here today, but the
three of them are graduating from high school and moving on
to the next stage in their life. And I want to give them one word
of counsel. Because the world will be full
of opportunities and change for both of you. And for Rebecca,
I trust she's watching this morning. Don't move away from the gospel. Whatever the world offers you,
if it means moving away from the gospel, reject it. Reject
it. That's my word of encouragement
to you, and I hope the Lord will give you grace to do that. Jacob
and Maria, come up here. I texted them yesterday. I told
them they had to give a speech this morning. Jacob, that's for you. Maria,
that's for you. We love you guys, and we want
to pray for you, okay? Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, how thankful we are for. For these two young
people and for Rebecca. The fact that you have had them
all their lives sitting under the gospel. I know how Lord we
pray that you would speak affectionately to their hearts and that you
would give them assurance of their salvation. Or that you
would keep them under the sound of the gospel. All their lives
we pray that you provide for them and that you Just give them,
Lord, the opportunities that you've ordained for them to be
able to rejoice in you in this world in which we live. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. All God's people said,
amen. Y'all encourage these two young
people. I think we've got the most special young people in
the world in this church. I mean, we really do. We've got
some exceptional young people. And these are two of them. And
we love you guys. We're very proud of you. OK?
All right. You're dismissed. Okay.