It was good just to be able to
sit up in the front. Just look out, see everybody. I thank the Lord. Turn with me
to Matthew 1, that passage for the Bryant Red. I was thinking this morning, again, what a marvel it is of
God's grace that we're able to be here together. God helped me to not take that
for granted. This is a marvelous, marvelous
privilege to meet with a group of people
that God Almighty is pleased to show mercy and to bless, to
be able to come together as brethren. Brethren. That's a sweet word,
brethren. I pray that God be pleased to
meet with us today. The miraculous birth of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the hearing of that message again, is that which gives hell-deserving
sinners some hope. God keep us from ever letting
this become a ritual. I thought of all the years that
the Lord has allowed us to meet. We're just flesh. We're flesh
and blood. And we're tempted on every side. And how easily, easily, because
of a weakness of our flesh, it is. to forget the privilege,
the privilege, the privilege of being able to meet. How many
times have we considered, talked about, heard the birth of Christ? But the birth of the Lord Jesus
Christ through the God-ordained way of a virgin being found with
child, This is what the Spirit of God spoke and said through
the writer Matthew, Matthew 1.20. It said, Joseph, thou son of
David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, that which
is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ
was prophesied. It was set forth that it would
happen. It was set forth years before
it happened. Isaiah 7, 14, Therefore the Lord
himself shall give you a sign. What sign is that, Lord? Scripture
says, Behold a virgin. shall conceive, and bear a son,
and call his name Immanuel, God with us. Oh, even right now,
Lord help me to remember right now. And I'm talking about remembering
my heart. God, where two or three are gathered
together, I think about how the Lord who
orders all these things, brings all these things about, worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, God Almighty
has brought us together. And that's a joy, that's a joy
to our heart. He has brought us together that
a message might be proclaimed because of Adam's fall in the
garden, Almighty God had eternally ordained that mankind would not
perish. Now before God ever spoke this
world into existence, the Lord knew what was going to happen. He knew that man was going to
fall. and knowing that man would fall before he ever created man,
before the foundation of the world. God chose a people. He chose a people out of every
nation, tribe, and tongue that would be brought into this world. Before people were ever brought
into this world, God had of people. And they were referred to as
the remnant. The remnant. A few. I told you about my mama, you
know. The remnants. She'd sew with
just a few little old pieces of junk. Looked like to me all
but those pieces of junk that were Just, you know, to me, nothing
but pictures and types of the precious remnant of the Lord
Jesus Christ, a people that he would save according to the election
of grace. This is what is going to happen. To these remnant, to this little
few pieces of of fallen nature, fallen man. The scripture says
in Matthew 121, and he shall save. Now I had to look that word up
again, Pat. I had to know, I want to know
exactly what he shall save. I've heard that. Everybody talks
about being saved. Are you saved? Yeah, I've got saved. I got saved,
you know, I was at a revival meeting. I got saved. And they
talk about it like It was something that, you know, they had an idea,
like a light came on and just, you know, I think I'll get saved
tonight. Look that word up. Rescued. To keep safe and sound, to preserve. He shall save, who? His people. Now, if God never
changes, then if they're His people now, then they've always
been His people. He's always known them. He's
always loved them. Oh, the blessing found in the
truth of the Lord saving His people. He shall save His people. He came into this world, this
purpose, Matthew 18.11 says, For the Son of Man is come to
save that which is lost. He didn't come to try to save
them. He didn't come to make it possible. We've heard that
so many times, but I need to hear it again. I need to hear
it again. I need to hear it again. He didn't try to do anything.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. They were lost, lost sheep, fallen
sheep, depraved sheep. But his sheep, his sheep, if
there's something that belongs to you, it's yours. This was precious to him. It's
precious to us to know what the Lord's been pleased to do. They
were laden with sin, laden. In John 1.29, the next day John
seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Almighty God has
come into this world to save a people, a people of His love,
a people of His choosing, a people of His electing grace, people
of His love to save them from their sins. I just heard yesterday about
the passing of a dear and precious friend that I've known for years
and years and years. And the Lord was pleased to take
her. Bobby Buckner, I don't know if
any of you know him. Y'all know Bobby? I've known
Bobby for years and years and years. Brother Larry Criss wrote
a beautiful little paragraph or two concerning Bobby's passing
and the words that she, you know, spoke to him. And as I was reading
those words, I was thinking to myself, how precious. to have recorded
the last few thoughts. Larry wrote down what Bobby had
said, and I thought to myself, I know this, that's gonna be
the way of all men. Except the Lord come back and
receive all of his sheep unto himself, all of his people, and
take some that won't go by way of death, Unless the Lord comes back, then
we're all gonna die. We're gonna die. And it's so easy while we're
now here, we're at the house, sun's shining outside, looks
good outside, getting warm and cool this morning. But you know
it's so easy just to kind of have these things just pass by. We don't think of them. And we
let all of this, How many times have you ever heard me say things,
mess, and stuff? It just kind of all clouds our
vision. And I think to myself, Lord,
help me. I'm just a frail creature of
dust. And these things that just become
so in the way. Lord, please forgive
me. I'm so sorry to come this morning
to be able to hear about the Lord of glory that will save
his people. And I, I read that little caption,
that little paragraph that Larry put in there about Bobby's words
and how she told him. She said, you know, I'm no, I'm
not long for this world, but I'll, I'll be, you know, soon
in the presence of my savior. And I thought, Oh, If there's
anything that needs to be talked about, let's talk about Him.
Let's talk about Him. And I thought, what a sweet.
He would save, call His name Jesus, save His people from their
sins. He's gonna take, for the sin
of His elect, He's gonna take the sting of death away. Death worships Him. Death wears
your victory. There is redemption and salvation
in none other, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Acts 4.12
says, for there is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. I want you to turn with me to
Isaiah 42 for a minute. Isaiah 42. Isaiah chapter 42. Let's just read the first four
verses. Isaiah 42, verse one to four. Behold. Can I just stop there for just
a second? God keep us from doing as I did
this morning when I was first looking at this passage. I was
looking at this, I was just gonna read over these four verses.
I'm gonna look at the first four verses there. Isaiah 42, behold. And I stopped for a minute. and
was made to realize, to hold. Behold. Behold. I looked the word up just to
see what it means. And you're thinking to yourself
right now, you say, well, I know what it means. Let me tell you
what it means. L-O. Lo. Lo. I thought, behold. It means look,
cast your eye upon. That's what I thought. Lo. Lo. My servant, my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth, I've put
my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Oh, and then I
read this next verse and it just blessed my heart. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench. And I thought upon, I thought
about me. I thought about me. You think,
knowing you that know him. Think about you. Do you see yourself
truly as a bruised reed? Kind of bent over, you know. be walking through, you know,
some tall grass or something, you step on something, you break
over a, you know, big old tall piece of grass. You ever try
to pick it up again? Let it, it just falls back over. Well,
it's bruised now. A bruised reed shall he not break. Oh, and the smoking flax. Thank God that there's a little
smoke there. That means it's got something
in it. There's some heat there. There's some warmth there. The
smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment,
truth. He shall not fail or be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth. And the isle shall
wait for his law. I thought, Lord, thank you that
you don't put out the smoking flax. You don't cast
away the broken reed that you've everlastingly loved. Oh, behold,
lo, my servant, oh, I pray God help me to muse upon these things. He'll keep his people. He'll
keep them, keep them. This is the Father's will of
all that the Father has given the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's
a good word of comfort right here, that he would lose nothing. If I could be law, if I could
lose myself, I'd lose me. I'd let me go, I'd quit. I'm
just, I'm so pitiful. I think about the attitude of
my heart. I think, Marvin, but for the
grace of God, You wouldn't even be here. Oh,
the glorious mystery of salvation. He shall save, rescue His people
from their sins. Oh, we're able to enter in by
the grace of God. In time, we're able to enter
in. There was a time when all of
you that know Him, you didn't know Him. But for those that he's everlastingly
known and loved, he's always known you. I thank the Lord that
he wouldn't leave this frail creature of dust to myself. 2 Timothy 1, 8 and 9. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ. Here's another comforting
word. Before the world began. This wasn't something that just
came up. One day, this has ever been on his heart, the salvation
of his people. He shall save his people, rescue
his people. I want to keep emphasizing that
for me. I hope that the Lord gives you
a heart to enter into it too. You know, if you've ever heard
or seen or talked about somebody that was drowning, this is what
I kind of relate in my mind. If someone is drowning, they
don't know how to swim, or something's happened, they're injured or
something like that, you know, it'd be wonderful if they could
have the strength to get themselves out of it, get out of that mess,
you know, but I'm telling you, if somebody is injured, or how about this, dead, What
are they going to do? What if they're dead? How are
they going to be saved? Something's going to have to
happen for them that they can't do themselves. He shall save
His people. And the scripture says His people,
like all that was ever born in this world, were born dead. Dead. And you just try to think
about the impossibility, if you had any common sense, but of
course, being blind and spiritually blind, it doesn't ever enter
into somebody's mind, but you can tell somebody you're dead
in trespasses and sins, and in the same breath, that person,
unless the Lord gives them light, will say, yeah, but all I have
to do is exercise my free will. Well, where'd you get strength
to do that? If you were dead, I need to be
saved. I need to be rescued. I need
to be delivered. I need the Lord to do something
for me that I cannot do for myself. He shall save His people. Their sin has got to be dealt
with. How are you going to deal justly? Does your sin deserve Justice,
judgment. Does it do it? Yeah. Okay. How can my sin be dealt with
in absolute justice? And I receive the just recompense
of my reward. How? Unless the Almighty God
does something for me that I can't do for myself. Unless He does
for me and bears my guilt. and puts away my sin, and then
gives me life. How can I be saved? I can't save myself. The Lord
told us that. Without me, you can do nothing,
nothing, nothing. Here's the miracle, this one
that we listen to, hear all the time, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. sin for us who knew no sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Our surety, the surety of the
sheep. God Almighty, he answered his
own demand for justice. God's just. God must be just. I'm a just God. But I'm a savior. And justice and salvation can
only come together and meet in one person, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Isaiah 61 10 says, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
did. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. Who robed me? He did. As a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. In closing, the Lord alone saves
his people from their sins. The Lord saves his people. It's
not a joint effort. The Lord saves his people. He
saves his people from the dominion of sin, the dominance of sin. Romans 6, 14, for sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but you're
under grace. The Lord saves His people from
the guilt of their sin because He's borne their sin in His own
body. By faith, God's people believe. They know. He has borne my guilt. What assurance do I have? What
assurance do I have? Based on this word right here.
What assurance do I have? that he has borne my guilt and
put away the guilt of my sin in his own body. What assurance
do I have? He said it. That's all you got. That's all
God's people need. Lord, as you've said, that's
the way it is. He saves his people from the
dominion of sin. It doesn't dominate, it doesn't
dominate them. saves his people from the guilt
of it. And very soon he's going to save his people from the very
presence of sin. You that believe, don't you hate
what you see in yourself? Now I'm serious now. I'm going
to be serious now. Don't you hate what you see? Let me tell you about me. Oh,
I can talk a good talk. I can talk a good talk, but when
I see what I am, when I see the way I am, the thoughts that I
have that you don't know anything about, and I think to myself,
what a pitiful creature. This is what the Apostle Paul
was moved to write, Romans 724, oh, wretched man that I You've heard this said many times.
He didn't say that I was. He's a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, but I'm telling you the presence of sin is still there,
and he hated it. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Oh, bless the Lord, he will.
He will. The Lord of glory. He saves His
people by grace. He saves His people by grace.
He saves His people according to His eternal purpose. And He saves them to the uttermost. He saves them evermore. Who are
they? Those that come unto God. by him, seeing that he ever liveth
to make intercession for him. How thankful I am to know that
right now, by the grace of God, that he prays for his people.
Satan has desired to have you, what the Lord told Peter, that
he might sift you as wheat. But I love these words. But I
prayed for you. I prayed for you. Let your faith
fail not.