Good evening. Let's all stand
and sing as an opening hymn. 255, Blessed Assurance, 255. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending ring from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Saviour all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long. Pick submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above. Filled with His goodness, lost
in His love. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Thank you. Is it too loud? I would like to read Genesis
22, part of Genesis 22, the sacrifice of Isaac. And it came to pass, after these
things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And
he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two
of his young men with him. And Isaac, his son, enclaved
the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide here with the ass, and I and the lad
will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire
and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together, and they came to the place which God had
told him of. And Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, Here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called, the name
of that place, Jehovah Jireh, as it is said to this day in
the Mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. Oh, Lord, our God, we thank you,
Lord, for providing us a place again this evening where we can
have shelter and we can come together and assemble to hear
the glorious gospel declared to us once again, that good news,
that all has been taken care of for your poor sheep. Father,
what a great blessing it is that from week to week, you allow
us to gather together. And Lord, you have also promised
where two or three are gathered together in your name, there
you will be in the midst. And Father, will you remember
us this evening? And will you pour out your grace
and your spirit upon us that we may have hearts to receive
this gospel message. And also remember Brother Eric,
where he stands again before us. Lord, pour out your grace
and mercy and spirit upon him. And, oh Lord, loose his tongue
and give him what he stands in need of, Lord, as he declares
the unsearchable riches of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope. Father, remember us from week
to week. where we continue to be provided for, Lord. Give us
all that we stand in need of financially, and Lord, you know
all things, that we may rest and seek comfort in you. And
Father, remember our loved ones. You know all things perfectly,
Lord, and with you all things are possible. And if it would
please you, Lord, will you call them out of nature's darkness
and give them, Lord, a hunger and a thirst after your righteousness. Father, will you be a wonder
doing God and call them out. And also from this local community,
you know exactly where all your sheep are and you have all your
preachers in the exact location all the time. And Father, will
you do marvelous things for us and build up this church if it
would please you. Remember those, Lord, that gathered
together with us and that are suffering from sicknesses and
various difficulties. Father, will you comfort them
and heal them. And remember us, Lord, as we
also prepare for our conference. Lord, give us wisdom and all
that we need to do what we need to do with planning. And also,
we think of the maintenance man for this building, Tom, who is
struggling with his health, and he has asked us to remember him
also. Lord, give him strength and courage
that he may continue to operate with this building. For Jesus'
sake alone, amen. Our next hymn will be 475, Redeemed. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed through His
infinite mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus,
no language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of His
presence with me does continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child
and forever I am. ? I think of my blessed Redeemer
? ? I think of Him all the day long ? ? I sing for I cannot
be silent ? ? His love is the theme of my song ? ? Redeemed,
redeemed ? ? Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ? ? Redeemed,
redeemed ? His child and forever I am. I know I shall see in His beauty
the King in whose law I delight, whose lovingly guardeth my footsteps
and giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb, Redeem, redeem, His child and forever
I am. Thank you. Good evening, brethren. Let's
go to Isaiah chapter 63. We'll be looking at verses 5
through 9. Now, let me just say that the
last time we were here, we saw our Lord's intent in going into
the winepress of the wrath of God And this he did to save his
people. That winepress is reserved for
sinners, for the unjust, for the wicked. And yet, the Lord,
our husband, who loves his church, his beloved bride, He went into
that winepress of wrath, which was our due, what we had earned
for ourselves because of our sin and iniquity against God. He went into the winepress and
delivered us from the wrath of God by bearing that wrath that
we deserved and dying the death that we deserved. and delivering
us from it and giving us life, eternal life in himself. And
at the same time, he sealed the destruction of our enemies. I
like how Peter says it in 2 Peter 2, 9, when he says, the Lord
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations. He knows exactly how to deliver
us out of idolatry, works religion, that bondage of that yoke of
a bondage wherein we tried to save ourselves. He delivered
us from that and gave us life in himself and at the same time
to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Now tonight, the emphasis is
on the love of our Savior for his people, which results in
their salvation. So we'll call this message, Love
That Saves. Love That Saves. Now, we need
to understand the immensity of our salvation. We need to understand
that the Lord has done a wonderful and a glorious work for us who
are sinners. We deserve His wrath. We deserve
that punishment. We earned that punishment. And we need to hear what He's
saying in verse 5, Isaiah 63 verse 5. And I looked, this is
the Lord speaking, I looked and there was none to help. And I
wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore, My own
arm brought salvation unto me, unto my body, the people of my
body, the people of my church. I brought it unto me, and my
fury, it upheld me." So it's the Lord, our Lord, who's speaking. This is our Savior. This is our
warrior who is the victor. This is the one who is described
in Isaiah 9-6 as the mighty God. the mighty God. If man only knew
what he is in this flesh, it would drain us of our self-confidence
and the arrogance that we have in this flesh, thinking that
by the things we do, the things we say, what we are, that we
can approach unto God, that we can just figure it out and approach
unto God. It's self-righteousness, it's
arrogance, it's self-conceit. And man needs to hear that God,
God's testimony here is that I looked, I looked, and I can
tell you there's none righteous. The scriptures throughout the
Old Testament and the New Testament are declaring to us that there
is no man who earns his salvation. There's no man who merits God's
favor. Creature merit does not exist
with God. There's no merit that we could
gain with him. No man can cleanse himself of
his filthy condemning sins. The scripture tells it to us
like this, there is none righteous, no not one. The scriptures say
that there's none good, no not one. By the deeds of the law,
that is by its practice, your diligent, faithful, hard practice
to the law, by that there shall no flesh be justified, in his
sight. The scriptures tell us that all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God, so that those
who trust in their righteousness before the law, those who trust
in their religious beliefs, thinking that I'm in the right denomination,
I'm on the right track, I'm in the right religion, this is the
religion of God, and those who trust in their good works The
Lord is telling us you are just as wicked as those self-righteous
Jews who heard the Lord Jesus Christ speak and with wicked
hands took him and crucified the Lord of glory. The scriptures
declare like them, they declare of us like them who trust our
own works that we are ignorant of God's righteousness. We're
not seeing the perfection and holiness of God. We're not understanding
why God the Father sent his darling son. These are going about to
establish their own righteousness. They've got their own brand of
righteousness. They've got their own religion,
God is saying. It's not what I've told them.
This isn't according to my word, this is according to their own
vain imaginations, it's idolatry. It's idolatry. They've not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. So that God has a righteousness,
and man has a righteousness, but they're not the same thing. They're not the same thing, and
man needs to hear that. And God is faithfully declaring
it throughout His Word. You know the scriptures say that,
well it says the scripture hath concluded all under sin. The scriptures, if you read the
scriptures, the conclusion is that every one of us, every son
and daughter of Adam is under sin. We're all sinners. The Old Testament declares it,
the New Testament confirms it, but God has a good and gracious
purpose in telling us that all are sinners. God has a good purpose. God has a gracious purpose in
telling us that we're all sinners. It's for one thing to stop our
mouths, to close our mouths from flapping our gums and boasting
of what we have done for God and trying to tell others what
they can do to obtain God's favor. It's to shut our mouths from
talking that nonsense because it's idolatry, it's foolishness. It's to make us know our guilt
before God. It's to make us know I'm the
sinner. I've sinned against holy God
and offended Him. It's to make me see how foolish
I am to think that I was anything in myself. And when I look back
and reflect on the things I thought in my religion, religion, not
my wicked works, my righteousnesses, to look back on those things,
I see what filthy rags they are. And it makes me feel shame to
think that I could think such a thing, but that's exactly what
I am by nature. And the scriptures tell me that.
They actually tell me exactly what I am. But the Lord has a
gracious purpose. It's that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to them, that belief. It's the
free gift of God. To whom? To those in whom that
faith is revealed. whereby they don't look, they
stop looking to their own works and they look to God, who graciously,
mercifully, compassionately sent His darling Son to save His people. That's why the scripture hath
concluded, all under sin, that God may be gracious to all whom
He has given to the Son. he may be gracious to all. So the Lord tells us in our text
I looked and there was none to help none could help themselves
let alone help their fellow man. God says I searched it out I
looked I looked high and low I looked all around I scoured
the earth for you and I can tell you There's none righteous. There's none that can help themselves. I looked at man's works. I looked
at man's teachings. I looked at man's righteousnesses.
I looked at his traditions, his religious practices. I heard
all his philosophies. And I'm telling you, he says,
it's all vain deceit. It's all lies. It's all darkness. It's all filth. It's all a dead
end. It just leads to hell and death. It cannot save you. The Lord
tells us it's done. He tells us it's filthy rags. Turn over to Psalm 53. Psalm
53, and we're just gonna look at verses two and three. And
if you have an extra marker, you could leave it there, because
we're gonna come to another Psalm in a bit. Psalm 53, verse two and three. God looked down from heaven,
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand,
that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." You know, the natural man, if you tell a sinner this,
if you tell someone in their flesh that they're sinners, they're
gonna get angry. They don't like hearing what
they are. It reminds me, when I was about
19 years old, and I worked in a gourmet deli, and there was
a diversity of age groups there. I was one of the younger ones,
and then there was some older people there. And I don't remember
precisely what the argument was about, but I remember the fella,
Pat, this Irish guy, saying to me, are you calling me a liar?
Are you calling me a liar? And being the little punk that
I was, I said, yeah, I guess I am calling you a liar. And
he came back there, and he had to break us up before we got
into a fight. It does man no good for another
man who is a liar himself and a filthy man to call another
man a liar and a filthy man. But if he hears God say it to
him, That'll get his attention. And that's what we need to hear.
We need to hear the Lord telling us what we are. And he's saying
to every one of us, all are sinners. None of us are righteous. None
of you are righteous, if God's saying it. None of you are righteous.
You're all filthy. You're all condemned in sin.
You cannot save yourselves. I pray that the Lord help us
to hear that word by grace, by his grace. When we see Christ
in the scriptures, there was a time when he came early in
the ministry and he read from Luke. And he sat down and it
says, all the people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. They were fine hearing the good
things. They were fine hearing the things
that sounded like grace to their natural ear. But at a certain
point they wondered, wait a minute, isn't this Joseph's son? Don't
we know his mother and his brothers and sisters? Isn't this the carpenter's
boy? Isn't this Joseph's son? And
so once he preached sovereign grace to them, declaring how
that God had saved and fed a widow, and how God had cleansed the
leprosy of a leper, and that both of them were Gentiles, when
there was plenty of needy Jews at the time, they turned on him
and they would kill him. because it shows that God is
sovereign, and God is able to save whom he will, and to be
gracious to whom he will be gracious, and to be merciful to whom he
will be merciful. And so the wicked, left to their
own strength and their own goodness, will never see God's gracious
purpose in telling us, you're all sinners. It's to stop our
striving and laboring and fighting with one another and to bring
us to our knees to say, Lord, how can a man be just with God
then? What do I need to hear, Lord?
If I can't save myself, Lord, what do I need to know? And the
Lord says, not what, it's who you need to know. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ, my son, whom I have sent. And so, What the Lord works
in his child is he's going to humble us. He's going to make
us to hear. We're going to be humbled to
see what we are in this flesh. We're going to be ashamed at
our own unbelief and our slowness to hear and believe all that
the Lord has said. We'll see our works as folly,
but the Lord does it for our good. Now let's go to Psalm 102. Psalm 102, and we're going to
pick up in verse 19. It says, therefore, for God hath
looked down from the height of the sanctuary from heaven did
the Lord behold the earth. Now there's a difference here
from what we read in Psalm 53. This is the Lord looking down
upon the earth again, but notice the difference here. Verse 20,
to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed
to death. Why are they groaning? Why do
they see death so near? It's because God has shown them
his holiness and he's made them to see their sin. Left to themselves,
Psalm 53, there's none righteous. And God being gracious to the
sinner, we see in Psalm 102 that they're going to groan, and they're
going to cry unto the Lord, and they're going to see death is
near. Why did God show them this? That
he may be gracious to them. He has a gracious purpose in
showing his people their sin. Verse 21, to declare the name
of the Lord in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem. Not the praise
of man, but the praise of God when the people are gathered
together and the kingdoms to serve the Lord. When he does
this, it's to bring his people together who are humbled and
brought low in their selves, who find their strength and their
awe in the provision which God has made for his people in his
darling son. He's the one then who takes away
our fleshly strength and our confidence. Look at verse 23.
The psalmist says, he weakened my strength in the way. He shortened
my days. I got weaker and weaker in self,
and I could see the valley of the shadow of death right before
my eyes. I became dried up and shriveled
in myself, and all my strength was withered, and I was brought
low myself. And so God makes us to see his
infinite glory, and we tremble before him. We tremble before
him in faith. It's like what God says to us
concerning his servant Job, who was a righteous man, a religious
man, a faithful man in his practice and in his works. And it says
of him, well, he confessed, he said, I've heard of thee with
the hearing of the ear. When he's got a sight of God,
he realized, I've heard of you with the hearing of the ear,
but now mine eye seeeth thee and I abhor myself. And I repent
in dust and ashes." And what the Lord is saying is that the
greater view we have of the Lord, the more we see of His perfections,
His holiness, His righteousness, the greater He becomes. The more
I tremble in self, the more small I see what I am. He must increase,
I must decrease. God knows exactly how to bring
that to pass in his child. To make us to see, Lord, I'm
nothing. And the more I see of you, the
more glorious you are to me, and I'm happy to be nothing. I'm happy to be licking the dust
up at your feet because you, Lord, are the Lord. You alone are holy God. And what am I that you should
even take thought of a sinner, a dead dog like me? The Lord
does that. Verse 24 and 25, I said, oh my
God, take me not away in the midst of my days. Thy years are
throughout all generations. Of old has thou laid the foundation
of the earth and the heavens are the works of your hands.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall
wax old like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change
them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end. You see how big the Lord becomes
to the sight of His people when He shows us what sinners we are
in our need of His grace. when we are humbled and brought
low through adversity and trials and difficulties and hard times,
not for our destruction, destruction in the flesh, yes, but to show
us his grace and mercy and the fullness of that grace and love
and mercy in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now by grace, we're
gonna know and confess that God has done this. Verse 28, the
children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall
be established before thee. Because God's purposed it all
in grace. He's the one who brings this salvation to pass and establishes
us in the seed of Christ which is eternal and lasting and has
life eternal in the Son who is life and the light of men. Now, let's go back to Isaiah
now. You can let go of Psalms. Isaiah
63. Let's just read verse 7 and 8. We see this confession now. So the Lord had been speaking
and now the people, the prophet begins to speak and he's the
voice of the church. Verse 7, I will mention the loving
kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord according
to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. and the great goodness
toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according
to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving
kindnesses. For he said, surely they are
my people, children that will not lie. So in that truth, he
was their savior. That's a curious thing to call
us children that will not lie. How is a sinner like me, who
is standing before you in this corrupt flesh, going to cease
from lying? We'll cease from lying when we
are made to confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is righteous,
and He's all my righteousness, and I have no righteousness or
confidence in this flesh. But that's okay, because God
has provided everything for me in His darling Son. And that's because God makes
us to cease from lying. When we're there, when I stand
here before you and tell you what I've done and what you can
do for the Lord, that's lying. That's darkness. That's deceit.
That's filthy. That's vain deceit. That's tradition
of men. It's damning. It's heresy. It's
wickedness. But when we stand before one
another and declare what God has done for us, not because
I earned it, not because I deserve it, but because He's gracious
and merciful and kind in His Son Jesus Christ, now we're speaking
truth. When we declare what He's done,
now we're speaking truth. And that's what the Lord is saying
is, I'm going to teach them the truth and they're going to confess
my name and that's going to be their lasting confession to boast
in and rejoice in what I have done for my people. Now, this leads us, in hearing
this, this leads us to a right understanding of what the Lord
is saying to us of what he's accomplished for us. Look at
verse 9. Again, this is the confession of the Church. In all their affliction
He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them. In
His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and He bared them and carried
them all the days of old. Now the angel of his presence
is Christ. This is the only begotten Son,
which is in the bosom of the Father. It says of him in Hebrews
1.3, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high. And we see the Lord
here, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the substitute of his
people being sent of the Father as their sacrifice, as their
propitiation, as their surety, the one who said, I've come to
pay the debt which my people owe, to deliver them from the
punishment of their sins, and to give them an inheritance in
me, because I've purchased them. to make them my people, because
I love them and I pity them, and I will that they have life
eternal in me, that they not go to that winepress, that they
not be destroyed and crushed with the wicked, for I have delivered
them with my own blood, paying that price with my own blood.
In all their affliction, he was afflicted. So that all the sin
which God has made us to hear about and to see in ourselves
and to know to be true about ourselves, we see that He loved
us and that He entered into that eternal covenant of grace with
the Father on behalf of His people for love's sake. Because He loved
you, His beloved bride, whom the Father chose and gave to
him before the foundation of the world, he speaks of his love. It makes us to know his love,
putting away our sin, clothing us with his righteousness. Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for God hath made Christ to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Not in our own works, Not to
figure out afterwards how to get it together and do better
now under the law. No, from beginning to end, Christ
paid it all and provides everything for you, his beloved child. There is nothing left to chance,
nothing left for you or I to ruin. Christ finished the work. And his power brings this to
pass in our hearts. He makes us to know we see what
he's accomplished for us when he went to the cross. Look at
the end of verse 9, the last phrase, and he bared them and
carried them all the days of old. We see this declared in
type repeatedly in the Old Testament scriptures, and then he accomplished
it literally when he came in the flesh and went to the cross
bearing his people. It says our old man was crucified
with Christ. It was crucified with Christ,
Romans 6, 6. And so our Lord makes us to know what he's done
for us by his sovereign power. He reveals that to us. He takes
us out of darkness and makes us to know what he has done,
driving away the enmity, driving away the darkness, driving away
the hatred, and giving us life in the new man through the regeneration
of the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. We read in 1 Corinthians
1 30 and 31 that of God are we in Christ Jesus who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption
that according as it's written he that glories let him glory
in the Lord. The lying is going to cease in
the people of God. They're not going to be boasting
and looking to their works to gain some confidence, to gain
some upper hand with God. Their eye is fixed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when our eye goes astray,
God in grace turns it back to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see that power displayed. If you listen to, if you read
a scripture like 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14, you see the power
and glory of God, which is revealed in his people, which says that
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord. Why? Because God hath from the
beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see the glorious power
of God, which brings salvation to you. But there's something
more. There's one phrase we didn't
cover yet. It's what he shows us. are undeserving sinners who
rebelled and sinned against God, there's one thing he says which
I didn't read when it says, in his love and in his pity he redeemed
them. So that let us never think it's
only by the power of God that we are saved. There's a price
that was paid. there's a price that was paid
and that price was paid by the Lord Jesus Christ so that all
our sufferings became his sufferings. All our sins became his sins. All that debt we owed, he took
it upon himself to pay that debt off in full by giving his own
life, shedding his own blood to pay that price in full and
to make you his own. that he might give you life by
his power and glory and bring you and me into fellowship with
our God, reconciling us unto him that we may know him and
rejoice in him and have an understanding of what He's done for us and
glory in Him. And so we see Paul glorying in
Christ when he said in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me. and gave himself for me." Paul
here is glorying in the love and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
for him. Because Paul understands that
this love, which Christ has for his church, is a special love. It's a peculiar love. It's a
particular love for a particular people. A love that is not shown
and seen and understood by all men. It's just not. And Paul
glories in what the Lord has done for him. Paul is praising
the Lord for his eternal covenant love, which he possesses for
his beloved church. His church. His church whom he
loves, which was given to him before the world began. Now I
want to be clear and I want to be as scripturally sound as I
possibly can and precise because it's that important. What the
scriptures teach is that God does not love all men. The scriptures teach that God
does not love all men the same. It says actually as it's written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I In other words, God did
something for Jacob that He did not do for Esau. And that love for Jacob resulted
in Jacob's blessing and in Jacob's salvation. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. There's a difference that the
love of God made for Jacob that He did not do for Esau. To say that God loves all men
the same makes God's love and God's sacrifice to have none
effect in man's salvation. None effect. If God loves everybody
the same, then the one who makes the difference, the only difference
between one sinner who is saved and another sinner who is not
saved would be something that that man did for himself. It's not God's love that makes
a difference then. If God loves everybody the same,
it isn't God's love that made the difference. It's what that
one sinner did that the other sinner didn't do. And that, in
scripture, is called salvation by works. Salvation by works. It's the teaching of and the
glorying in creature merit. Saying that I am saved by something
that I did. That the difference in why I'm
saved is because of what I did. a decision I made, an aisle I
walked, I was baptized, I joined the church, I confessed Christ,
and you didn't. And it's glorying in what we've
done, in attributing that power to the flesh, rather than ascribing
it to the glory of God, who bears that fruit of righteousness in
His child by the Holy Spirit, which He gave to them. and separating
them out. In fact, the scriptures address
all of man's opposition to this truth because we know plenty
of people that have heard this and have bristled at it and hated
it and said as much. But the scripture addresses it
in Romans 9, 14 through 16. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. That's not fair. God can't do that. He can't choose
one sinner and not give another person all the same things. Oh,
so now we're judges of God. But Paul says it's perfectly
righteous for God to do this. In fact, he said to Moses, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So we see there, it's not by
man's will, that's will-worship, that's glorying in our will.
Man boasting that he has a free will, because he doesn't hear
what a sinner he is, how corrupt and ruined his nature is. Man
doesn't have a free will, he has a will that loves sin and
hates God. and accept God, have love and
mercy and compassion on that sinner, they're going to hear
all the same things, they're going to be exposed to all the
same things, but they're going to hate and refuse it, and they
will not come to Christ that they might have life, because
the natural man hates the true and living God. And so, it's
not hidden, the scriptures tell us plainly that man is a sinner
and is unable to save himself, but God has a gracious purpose
for His people in telling us our sin and showing us what we
are and in showing us the beauty of His salvation in His glorious
Son. We're to understand, therefore,
that His love and His pity is the cause of Him redeeming His
beloved Church. Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. Ephesians 5, 25. But for his
love's sake, he was afflicted in all their affliction. He left
his glory with the Father and saved them. In his love and in
his pity, he redeemed them, paying that price, making them his beloved
bride, redeemed by him. He bear them and carry them all
the days of old, and it's why He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the earth. Now, if He did all that for you,
then you that have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you that trust
Him for all your righteousness, that He has saved you, that He
has accomplished your redemption, that He's put away your sin and
He's your salvation, that faith, which is wrought in you, is wrought
in you by the gift of the Holy Spirit regenerating you. You
believe because God has given you that faith. And your hope
is in the Lord Jesus Christ because God has given you that hope through
the gift of His Holy Spirit. And so that is a testimony of
God's love and care and provision for you. Of His peculiar love
for you as opposed to another sinner who will not hear and
will not believe the true and living God. He's telling you
you're not going to come short of His glory. Our Lord said in
John 15 9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And He's the one that makes that
word effectual unto you. So pray to Him, seek Him, don't
ever leave Him. Those that leave him are apostates. They are castaways. Don't ever
leave him. No matter what happens, don't ever leave him. Cry to
him to keep you. Cry to him to never let you go.
And that, brethren, is love that saves. The love of God for you.
Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father. We thank you for your love, your love that is effectual,
your love that does save, your love that does not fail. Lord,
none for whom you've shed your blood will ever be in hell. If that were so, it would make
your love and your sacrifice for them meaningless. And Lord,
that's just not so. That's not the testimony of your
scriptures. It's not the testimony of your
spirit. We see, Lord, that your love and your sacrifice saves
all for whom you love and sacrificed yourself for. We thank you, Lord,
for this grace, for this mercy. Lord, it's so undeserving by
us, but we give you all the thanks, the praise, the honor, the glory.
We thank you for the power which you revealed in us, which looks
to Christ and believes him. Lord, thank you. Help us, Lord. Help us to see you more and more. To never think more highly of
ourselves than we ought to think. But, Lord, we could never think
high enough of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's so perfect, so wonderful,
so sufficient. Thank you, Lord. Keep us, deliver
us from death. Keep our wandering hearts ever
looking to you. For you alone are all our hope. We see in your scriptures that
there's nothing we can do. Thank you, Lord. We praise you.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 125.
Jesus paid it all. 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to
Him I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
in thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin hath left the crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him my own. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. Thank you.