Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 25. Proverbs 25. I'd like to look at one verse
of scripture, verse 13. As the cold of snow in the time
of harvest So is a faithful messenger to them that send him, for he
refresheth the soul of his masters." The Spirit of God moved upon
Solomon to pin something that happens at times, humanly speaking,
that's so needful, it's so timely, it's so appreciated, That when
it happens, it just produces sheer refreshment to the one
that received it. Now, have you ever been sleeping? Now, I can especially remember
this, living in Louisiana. It'd just be a hot night. You got the window open. Just
sometimes it doesn't get much, you know, lower than 85 and man,
just wake up during the night and all of a sudden you turn
your pillow over and you lay down on a cool side of the pillow
and it just feels so refreshing. It just feels so wonderful. Or you're out and you're just
hot and you dip a cold rag in a bucket of water, just wipe
your face, and it just refreshes you. Well, Solomon gave an example
concerning something to that effect. He said, as the cold
of snow in the time of harvest. Now, not that it was snowing
in the time of harvest, but the cold of snow, that cooling refreshment,
that cool air, again, there's been a time, you have too, you
just, it's hot, and all of a sudden you just feel a cool breeze,
you think, now where'd that come from? It's just a moment, it
just, the breeze was there and it It just felt so good and it
felt so wonderful and it was so needful and refreshing. Even the sweat on your brow seemed
to aid in the cooling effect of that air. That's what he said. As the cold
of snow in the time of harvest. He said, so is a faithful messenger
to them that send him, for he refresheth the soul of his mastery."
It was just an amazing thing to me that Solomon was moved
by God's Spirit to state something that we could relate to. I mean,
I can understand that. I can turn a pillow over and
it does feel good. It's cool. I get a little breath
of fresh air, cool air, and it just kind of cools down. But
here, spiritually speaking, and that's where I'm going to go.
I'm not even going to go into any kind of human messenger. I want to talk about the faithful
messenger himself. I've got three points. Three
brief points and I want us to consider concerning this and
I want to look totally at that faithful messenger from heaven
that was sent and what he did is he refreshed the soul of his
masters. Now, first of all, there is one
that has a message from heaven to be sent to needy sinners. That's one. And it's God Almighty. It's the message of the declaration
of His good pleasure to save a people from their sins. It's the message of God's everlasting
purpose to deliver His people, according to His eternal love
and affection from the bondage of sin, it's the gospel. This
is the message. There's one that's got a message,
and it's Jehovah Himself. Moses asked the Lord. Exodus 33, 18. He said this,
I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Show me your splendor. Show me
your honor, show me the brightness of your countenance." And the
Lord was pleased to reveal His glory to Moses and to us, His
good pleasure concerning men, and this was it. Now, this is
the message. Now, we wouldn't even know it
if He wouldn't have told us. Somebody said God spoke from
heaven. Well, what did He say? Here's what he said, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of
the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And
I thought, what a blessing. What a message. But how can such
a message from heaven be justly delivered? How can it be justly
established and mercifully applied to helpless sinners? God got
a message, but how am I gonna get it? How can I hear? God is spirit. Well, here's my
second point. There's one messenger. that Jehovah
trusts for that faithful delivery of that message. God's got a
message. We got one messenger, one messenger
that can deliver the message. Isaiah 42, one says, behold,
my servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. That is, he shall bring forth
the gospel. When it says judgment, it doesn't
mean wrath. It means as a judge that rules
in favor. He makes a judgment call based
on his knowledge and his satisfaction, his will, his purpose. He said,
I've got my servant, you behold my servant. He's gonna bring
the gospel concerning the truth of how God can be just and justify
a sinner. Now, what a miracle of God's
grace that the spirit would bid us to behold, to look to the
servant of Jehovah. He's the only one that's worthy
of our gaze of faith. He's the one perfect man upheld
by the Holy God for the redemption of God's sheep because obviously,
according to the revelation of Jehovah, there was a need to
sustain Him. The weight of suffering the divine
wrath for our atonement, our need, before God needed God's
hand to uphold and sustain His servant. Now, this is a weighty
message. And there's a worthy messenger.
And God Almighty sent Him. He was made flesh. He was the
chosen servant of Jehovah according to the eternal covenant of grace. The one to whom the Spirit was
given without measure. This is the one who humbled himself. Made himself of no reputation.
Listen to Ephesians 1, 9 to 11. Having made known unto us. Now just listen to these precious
words. Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will. According to His good pleasure.
which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to
the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ." Now
that is a promise that is based on God's Word. And God who cannot
lie has related to us through the faithful messenger that He's
going to have mercy on a people It was from the Lord Jesus Christ,
the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, the prince
of the kings of the earth, unto him who loved us and washed us
from our sins, in his own blood, he faithfully stood as the eternal
surety of the sheep, and faithfully came with the message of His
Father. Let me read what the Lord said
concerning Him coming into this world and faithfully delivering
the message. There was a message, there's
a messenger, Luke chapter 4 verse 18-19 says this. The Lord's reading
from the Old Testament, He says, He's reading this, He says, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He hath He appointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
to the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He's anointed me. He sent me,
the faithful messenger. When he says he anointed me,
I looked that up just to find out what exactly was the Lord
anointed to, here's what it said, consecrated to the messianic
office and furnished with all power necessary for its administration. I thought about that scripture.
He said, all power is given unto me, heaven and earth, that I
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given to me.
So he faithfully finished the work, brought the message of
redemption, salvation, and finished the work, establishing the righteousness
that is imputed to everyone that believeth, and laid down his
life for the sheep, paid their debt, and gave them of his righteousness. And then thirdly, lastly, the
faithful messenger, by his obedience, was said to refresh the soul
of them that sent him. Now, that's an amazing passage right
there, to refresh. Now, I know when I think of refresh,
I know what I think of, it just kind of, you know, invigorates,
you know. But he said, the faithful messenger
by his obedience. That's what our passage says.
So is a faithful messenger to them that send him, for he refresheth
the soul of his masters. Now, well, first of all, when
he says the soul, what did he mean? It means the seat of affection,
the inmost feelings, the will and purpose of the heart. So
I know he refreshed the affection the inmost feelings, the will
and purpose of Almighty God. And when we speak of them that
sent Him, again we consider the person of the Lord Jesus in His
office of God-man mediator. He was made flesh, truly God,
truly man. As God, nothing is done to Him. He's God. He rules in the army
of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. But again, humbling
Himself and being made of no reputation, willingly submitting
Himself to the Father concerning the work given Him, He was sent. John 6.44 says, No man can come
unto Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him. I will
raise him up at the last day. And according to the oneness
of Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, The three that bear witness,
you know, these three agree in one. They're one God. What the
Father does, the Son does, the Spirit does. And here is the
Spirit of God according to the everlasting covenant of God's
grace. The Spirit of God did something.
The one that sent Him. Matthew 4.1, it says, Jesus was
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. The one that sent Him anointed Him, drove Him, that's
what Luke said, He driveth Him in to the wilderness. So here's
the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty and Man, the One who was everlastingly
set up before His Assumption of Flesh, from everlasting, from
the beginning or ever the earth was, the One who was by Him before
Jehovah, himself as one brought up with him daily, his father's
delight rejoicing always before him, the one taking flesh, whose
meat it was to do the will of sin him, the word himself, Job
33 says, who is the messenger with him, an interpreter, one
among a thousands, to show unto man his uprightness, the one
spoken of by Jehovah, when he said concerning his elect, deliver
him from going down to the pit, I found a ransom, I found an
atonement. The one who sent, has the message,
sent the faithful messenger, and the faithful messenger finished
the work, And the scripture says, and refreshed the soul of them
that sent him. Refreshed his soul. Now here,
in closing, is the blessing of that word refreshed. If you want
to look this up, it's in Blue Letter Bible. That's where, you
know, somebody says sometimes I'll get a call from people and
they'll say, where did you find that? I'd like to, you know,
I like to see it. Somebody tells me something mean,
you know, this is a meaning, I want to see it too. Show me
where you got that. Here's what refreshed means.
Now listen to this. It refreshed the soul of them
that sent Him. Listen to this. Here's what refreshed
means. It means to return, to bring or turn back, to restore,
to repair, to give in payment, or to answer. Now let me ask
you this concerning the word, what that word refreshed means.
Has the faithful messenger not done all these very things in
the redemption and the restoration of God's sheep? Did he not bring
back into fellowship those that were alienated from God because
of sin? Has he not given payment? and
answered God's demand for justice and righteousness by shedding
His own blood for sins? Concerning the refreshing, the
accomplishing of God's will and purpose. When you say refresh,
He refreshed the soul, He satisfied God on the behalf of His people. That's what it means. And Scripture
says, Matthew 3, 16 and 17 in Jesus, when he was baptized, went up
straightway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened
unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. I pray that
God bless this word to our heart. There is a message from heaven.
There's a faithful messenger that delivered the message and
fulfilled all the demands for the redemption and salvation
of God's elect. And it pleased God and refreshed
his soul. May the Lord bless this to his
glory and our good. Amen. All right.