The church over in Jackson sends
their greetings. We think about you often and
ask the Lord to open up a place, more permanent, and continue
the good fight of faith in Christ. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Kings, Chapter 6. 2 Kings, Chapter 6, and let's
see what the Lord has for us this morning. It's an amazing
passage. Amazing passage. 2 Kings chapter
6 and we'll start in this section in verses 8 and we'll go through
verse 23. 2 Kings 6 verse 8 through 23. And the Lord reads this way,
Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel
with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be
my camp. And the man of God, which is
Elisha, sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou
pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are come down. And
the king of Israel sent to the place where the man of God told
him, and warned him of, and saved himself there not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king
of Syria was sore troubled for this thing, and he called his
servants And said unto them, Which will ye not show me, which
of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said,
None, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel.
Telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy
bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where
he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told the king,
saying, Behold, Elisha is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither
horses and chariots and a great host. They came by the night
and compass the city about. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host compass
the city both with horses and chariots and his servants that
under his master. Alas, my master, how shall we
do? And Elisha answered his servant
and said, Fear not. for they that be with us are
more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord,
I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened
the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And
when they had come down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord and
said, smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he
smote them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha
said unto them, this is not the way, neither is this the city.
Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. But
he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they
were come, that is, the army of the Syrians were coming to
the camp, are coming to Syria that Elisha said, Lord, open
the eyes of these men that they may see. And the Lord opened
their eyes, they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto
Elisha when he saw them, my father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite
them? Elisha said, thou shalt not smite
them. wouldst thou smite those whom
thou had taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow, set bread
and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their
master. And he prepared a great provision
for them that they, when they had eaten and drunk, he sent
them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria
came no more into the land of Israel. Shall I pray? Let us pray. Father, what an
extreme, wonderful, beautiful lesson. We, like those Syrians,
the enemies of your grace, the enemy of your gospel, which the
previous several chapters, the king of Syria sent Nahum to be
recovered of his leprosy, this great general. So he saw what
the great things and heard the great things of God in the gospel,
the man of God. And yet he still warred and hated
the truth. And yet they were blinded. They knew not. They were surely
hopelessly and helplessly in the middle of Samaria about to
die. And, Lord, their eyes were opened. And only your gospel can do that.
And then were shown much compassion. and mercy, and there's great
peace. Father, we pray that you would,
if there's anyone here this morning that is at enmity with you, warring
against you, that we hear this day that our God is compassionate,
gracious, and yet he is just. Father, and pray a simple prayer
that Elisha, the man of God, pray for your servant. Lord,
would you open our eyes open our eyes to see your glory, to
see your grace and to see that you are totally and absolutely
sovereign in every stitch of life. Father, we thank you for
your grace. We thank you for your word, and
we pray that you would be with Eric, that the words you speak
would be the words that we most certainly need to hear. Give
him a tongue to speak these things and give us an ear to hear and
obey and walk away in fellowship with you once more. We ask you,
crash now. I think that's actually a, is
that a cricket? Is that what it is? May the Lord send him and drive
him away. Is he on the roof maybe or something
like that? Oh, he is down there in that
corner? Maybe give Carl a broom so he
can just like swish it around back there when he starts up
again. Thank you, brother. It's good
to have you and Linda here, so we're thankful. All right, our text is going
to be in Romans 10, and we'll be looking at verses 5 through
10. Romans 10, verses 5 through 10. Now, if you remember that last
week, Paul was declaring to us that Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And as we went
through that study, we saw how that he's speaking of what Christ
himself has accomplished for his people. How that Christ finished
the work which the law could never do for us because of the
weakness and the infirmity of our flesh. That is that by our
servitude or putting our necks under the yoke of the law and
doing our best to keep it and follow the Lord and looking to
the law and doing what is prescribed there, we see that we can't keep
the law perfectly. We can't do that which the Lord
commands us to do in his law to make ourselves righteous.
And if we live in our life trying our best to fulfill what is spoken
of in the law, we shall come to the end and not hear those
words that we want to hear, to hear the Lord say, thou art justified
for your righteousness. It'll never happen. No one can
ever do it. No one can ever keep the law
of God perfectly. And yet we're told that the Jews
and religious men everywhere, that they are ignorant of God's
righteousness. That is, that they continue in
the law, and they continue to try and please God by the law,
being ignorant of just how perfectly holy God is. And therefore, being
ignorant of the holiness of God, they are going about to establish
their own righteousness in keeping the law. Or, even today, in keeping
or following or adhering to a system of religion. But the Scriptures
declare that Christ is come. He's come and he's abolished
the law. That is, he's abolished the observance
of the law in us, in his people, so that that's not our rule of
life. We're not looking to the law
to try and please God. We see and we know and understand,
I can't do it. I can't keep that law perfectly. And the reason why we rejoice
in Christ is that he's achieved that end purpose, right? The end purpose of the law, that
if you could keep it perfectly and be rid of the stain of Adam's
sin in you and keep yourselves perfectly in following the law,
you would be declared righteous, but it never could do it. And
so Christ achieved that end purpose of the law, that is making his
people righteous in him. And so we read in verse four,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. That is, He is the perfection
and He has made His people perfect in Himself. John 3.36 says, He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth
hath on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And so the Lord's telling us
no matter how zealous we are, no matter how sincere we are
in our service to the Lord by some system of religion or system
of doctrine or system that we think will make us righteous,
he's telling us that he that does not believe the Son, he
that does not hang all his hope of righteousness upon Christ
shall not see life. But the wrath of God continues
to abide upon him. But of Christ, we are told, by
one offering He had perfected forever, then that are sanctified. So the law couldn't do that,
but Christ has. Christ has, indeed, perfected
His people forever before holy God. I've titled this message,
The Righteousness of Faith. The Righteousness of Faith. Now, Paul has declared to us
that Christ fulfilled the righteousness, which the law could never do.
And now he contrasts the finished, accomplished, completed work
of the Lord Jesus Christ to make his people righteous. And he
contrasts it to that constant labor, which the Jew put themselves
under in following the law and trying to make themselves righteous.
He's contrasting what Christ has done to what the law can
never do in a person, male or female, young or old. So Romans
10.5 says, for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of
the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. And to live by the law means
that we must keep it perfect. There must be no fault in us.
There must be no failing, not even once. To be under the law
is to keep it perfectly in all its points and in every statute
and everything that it says. In fact, we can't even break
one single commandment if we are to hear those words, you're
justified, you're perfect, you're righteous before me. James 2.10
says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend
in one point. He's guilty of all. That's the
word of the Lord. If anyone offends God in one
point trying to keep that law, he's broken the whole law. He even went on to say, you might
not commit adultery, but if you've murdered someone, you've broken
the whole law. You're guilty of the whole thing.
Therefore, to sinful man, perfection by the law is an impossibility. It's not even possible. We're
not going to make ourselves righteous by our system of religion. And
the man laboring under the law will not obtain that for which
he is seeking and so desperately trying so hard to please God. He'll never achieve that end
purpose, not by the law. And he'll never hear God say,
justify. Well done, good servant. You're
righteous. You'll never hear those words.
Paul told the Galatians that by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Not one. And yet, we know legalists
and religionists, they continue seeking righteousness by that
law and by a system of works. And most of us know it intimately
because we tried to do it ourselves. We labor long trying to please
God. And it's only by the mercy and grace of God that he showed
us our folly, and he showed us that we're not able to keep that
which we tried to do under the works of the law. In fact, Romans
10.3 said, were they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. And that righteousness
of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so now, Paul, having contrasted
the righteousness which is of the law, and shown us the contrast
between the righteousness of faith and the law, he now takes
a quote that Moses said. Back in Deuteronomy, which Moses
used to describe the righteousness which is of the law, but Paul
takes it to describe the righteousness which is of faith. Romans 10,
6 and 7, here's what Paul says, but the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ
again from the dead. Now, first it's going to help
us. Turn over to Deuteronomy 30.
First, it's going to help us to understand that this was a
phrasing that the Jews used regularly to describe the impossibility
of a thing. So we see it with Moses, and
I'll show you another scripture as well, to show you that in
the scriptures, when the Jews spoke like this, they were declaring,
this is impossible for your flesh to do. You can't do it. So Deuteronomy
30 verse 11, Moses says, for this commandment,
which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither
is it far off. It is not in heaven that thou
shouldest say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it
unto us that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the
sea that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for
us and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it. But
the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart
that thou mayest do it. And so the Lord, what Moses is
doing here and speaking to the people is he's telling them,
you don't have to wonder what the will of God is. You don't
have to go to a foreign land to go over to the isles of the
Gentiles and ask them, how are we supposed to worship the Lord?
Because the Lord has brought it to you. And you don't even
have to go up to heaven and say, Lord, teach us how we are to
worship you. Because the Lord himself has
brought it to you. We're told that it was ordained
by angels in the hand of a mediator. That being Moses. So the Lord
brought that word to the people. So they didn't have to travel
anywhere, they didn't have to do that, which was impossible,
that they might come to know the law of the Lord. Now the Jews, they would continue
to use that similar phrasing. They would use it to show an
impossibility of a thing. So if you could go to Proverbs
30. Proverbs 30. If anyone's willing to set up
a chair just back there and just hit that spot, I'd appreciate
it. It's hard. Yeah, just take the
chair back there. Thank you. Proverbs 30, verse 4. This is
what What this wise man wrote, he
asks, who hath ascended up into heaven or descended? Who's ascended up to heaven or
descended? And what he's doing there is
he's describing something that's impossible for man to do. And he goes on to describe other
impossibilities for us to do. He asks, who hath gathered the
wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in
a garment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? What is his name and what is
his son's name that thou canst tell? And so he's describing
there for us, he's using that, who's ascended and who's descended,
right? He's describing who's done that
which is impossible for man to do. That which is impossible
for man to do is very possible for the Lord himself to do, and
we know that because He has accomplished what is impossible for us by
His Son, Jesus Christ. Okay, so returning with that
understanding that they were describing an impossibility for
us in the flesh, go back to Romans 10, verse 6. Paul isn't interpreting for us
what Moses was saying, but rather he's using that same construct
of language that Moses used, but he's using it to declare
to us the gospel of faith, which the Lord has given to us to preach
to the people, and how that God himself has brought this message
of his grace and mercy near to us. Near to us. He hasn't left
us to try and discover it or figure it out. He's brought it
near to us in grace and in mercy. And so when Paul now begins to
use these words, he inserts some comments, right? He adds some
comments that weren't there when Moses was speaking. And it helps
if when you're reading this, Because I used to wonder, what
is Paul exactly saying here? And why does he use this comment
in there? What does he mean by it? Well, it does help if you
substitute the words, that is, with the word, namely, or in
other words, namely. So we'll do that now. He begins
there, verse 6, saying, the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven?
Namely, to bring Christ down from above for us. who's gonna
bring Christ near to us? Or who shall descend into the
deep, namely to bring up Christ again from the dead for us? Right,
so in one sense, he's declaring God has brought the gospel, the
word of salvation, his righteousness near to you. Each of you who
are gathered here this morning are gathered by the will and
the power of God to hear of what Christ has accomplished successfully,
fully for his people, for the glory and praise of his name.
So you and I, we don't need to go elsewhere. We don't need to
go up into heaven and say, Lord, what is it? What must I do to
be saved? He's declaring it to you in his
son, Jesus Christ. You don't need to go and explore
other false vain religions of man to figure out, how am I to
please God? He's brought it near to you.
How He is appeased, how He is satisfied, that which pleases
Him well, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose righteousness
He robes His people, perfecting them so that they stand complete
and spotless before God their Father and His Son. And so the
faith that the Spirit reveals, secondly, the faith that the
Spirit reveals in our hearts, it causes our labors for righteousness
to cease. Doesn't the Lord do that? When
you remember the love of God in Christ His Son and what He's
accomplished for you, doesn't that melt the heart and cause
us to put down our labors to try and make amends for our sin. And we see how, wait a minute,
I've done that before and I couldn't do anything to improve myself
or make myself better or to satisfy my screaming conscience. But
when we are brought to remember Christ and to say, Lord, have
mercy upon me, forgive me, Lord, and cleanse me of my sin, that's
when we know the forgiveness and the tenderness and the mercies
of our God for us, which He shows to us freely, abundantly, clearly,
simply in His Son, Jesus Christ. And He brings us to know the
works are finished. There's nothing more that He
needs you or I to add to that work of Christ. He only shows
us our sin to cause us to stop laboring in the flesh and to
see our need of Him. and to see the kindness and the
tenderness of Him toward His people. That's why He brings
us to see and to know Him and to cry out to Him and to see
that in Christ alone is perfect righteousness. Now, we see how
it's impossible for us, right? He's declaring His righteousness
for us to do in ourselves in the flesh is impossible because
we would have to climb up into heaven. we would have to descend
into the grave and raise ourselves up by our power. And it's impossible. It's impossible. The Lord is
showing us that here in his word. And so the gospel that God has
sent declares he's not asking anything further of us to do. He looks to his son, Jesus Christ
alone. So all who are in him, all who
have fled to him, seeking mercy and peace and forgiveness with
God shall find him a kind, warm, welcoming, tender God who receives
sinners who can do nothing for themselves. And so we see that
actually perfectly in Titus 3, 3 and 6. It fits perfectly here. Paul writing to Titus, a servant
of the Lord, ministering to the people, he reminds him saying,
for we ourselves also, Titus 3.3, for we ourselves also were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. That's a description of me. That's me in my flesh. That's
how I am. Just think of how we are just
driving on the road when someone pulls in front of us, and how
easily the heart can justify itself in condemning that person
you don't even know who it is. And we speak foolishly. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior. And so He's declaring again to
us that God has done everything necessary in His Son, and it's
His blood which washes away the stain of sin And it's by His
Spirit that we are given life and light and liberty from the
death and corruption that we are by nature to behold God our
Savior and the Son Jesus Christ who did all this work for us. All right, now look with me at
verse eight back in our text, Romans 10, eight, and we'll see
that this is exactly the sense that Paul has in mind when he
quoted Moses. But what saith it, verse 8, what
saith the righteousness which is of faith? The word is nigh
thee, or near thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that
is the word of faith which we preach. The truth of Christ and
our faith in him is found in us because the Holy Spirit has
brought it near. And the Holy Spirit not only
has this word declared in your midst, but it's the Holy Spirit
that enables you with an ear of faith to hear it, and to receive
it, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to let go of your
hands full of your own works of righteousness that we've done,
and to lay hold by His power and glory, to lay hold of that
righteousness which is freely provided for us in His Son, Jesus
Christ. that we see what a simplicity
of faith the Lord gives to His people and works in them. And
so it's not far off, it's not inaccessible to us, it's not
difficult, it's right there in the Lord Jesus Christ, set before
His people, and He's the one who enables them to lay hold
upon it. Alright, so first He brings it
near through the Gospel, and He shows us the truth of it.
And those who have no hope in their works and have no hope
in themselves, He shows them, He reveals in them faith to lay
hold upon His salvation in Christ. And so the sinner saved will
be brought to see, I have nothing, nothing to boast in, nothing
to hope in, nothing of my works, Lord, let me not be found standing
before you in my own righteousness or what I have done but let me
be found in no other righteousness but the righteousness of your
son who you provided for this very purpose. Now the word of
faith is further explained in the next two verses, verses 9
and 10. In Paul here, he speaks of a
living power, right? That living faith which is revealed
or given to the sinner whereby we begin to express a living
faith in the Son of God. We begin to speak of what Christ
has done for us. When we were in religion, we
spoke of what we had done. And we went back to our experiences
and tokens of grace and things that we thought we had done that
spoke well for us. And we went back to that hour
when we gave our heart to the Lord at the altar and walked
the aisle. Some of us ate 10, 20 times because
our conscience was never clean, ever. Some of us were baptized
multiple times trying to get some feeling and some hope that
maybe this time the Lord will receive. And it brought us no
help because we were always looking to something we had done. So that enabled us to call ourselves
Christians And every sin that was brought to our attention,
every foul thought that we had only reminded us that I can't
do this. I can't do this, Lord. I can't
save myself, and I can't keep myself perfectly. Every time
I stick the knife into the table and say, no more, never again,
it was only a matter of seconds or minutes maybe before my heart
was already conniving figuring out a way that I could go back
to the clear conscience and do it all over again. But through the power and grace
of God, He's the one that gives that hope in Christ, not because
I'm perfect, not because I've done it right, not because I'm
living a life perfect, but our hope is set outside of self upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in looking to Him, He's the
one that heals our heart. He's the one that heals the mind
and delivers us from desiring and being pleased to walk in
the flesh. And He accomplishes that in His
people as he is pleased to reveal it in them, and work that power
in them for his own praise and glory. And so it ceases to be
simply about a head knowledge, and it becomes more than just
theological doctrines and a system of theology for us. And we begin
to see that just that head knowledge isn't enough. that my practices
aren't enough. It'll never be enough. And just what we do here in the
pulpit is enough to send us to hell. And we trust not in these
works, but the Lord is the one who reveals that. It's the Lord
who is the one that teaches us our need of Him continually.
And so by His Spirit, faith is revealed in the heart that the
Son of God the Son of God, all by Himself, apart from anything
I've done. He's the one that has died in
my place. He's the one whose blood was
shed for me. He, as my substitute, has given
His life. And by His blood, I am washed
of every stain of sin. Not because I'm perfect, not
because I deserve it, but in His free grace and mercy, He
did this for poor sinners like me, you who have no other hope
but what is given to us in His Son Jesus Christ. And so beholding
that work, beholding His power, seeing our need of Him, this
is what leads us to a willing confession of Christ, to confess
what He's revealed and done in our hearts. And Paul says in
Romans 10, 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And so faith finds its
end in what Christ has done, and in Christ, not just beholding
the doctrine of what he's done, but beholding him, our Savior. And that's where faith finds
its end, in looking to him, and trusting him, and hanging all
the hope of our salvation upon him and Him alone, so that by
His power we believe that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the very
Son of God sent by God the Father, spared not by God the Father,
to do this very work of salvation, to do the very impossible thing
which we were never able to do, working and laboring under the
law, or laboring in our religion, and laboring in our denominations
and laboring among the people. Christ accomplished in an instant,
in a moment, what we could never do in a lifetime of sacrifice
and will worship. And so we beheld Him, we beheld
Him, our Savior in the flesh, God in the flesh, as the Word
declares in John 1 14, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. We look back in shame and we
remember our walk in the flesh and how we boasted of and kept
going back to those things to find some relief of conscience. But now our boast is made in
Christ. Here's the difference between
the child of God and a dead religionist. The child of God can say with
the apostles, and we beheld his glory. that the Lord is of the
only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we know that the apostles,
they saw, they became eyewitnesses of Jesus of Nazareth and beheld
him as the Son of God in the flesh. And they heard his words,
what he said and spoke among the people and to them in private. And they beheld his works and
how every sinner, every sickness, everyone who came to Him seeking
His mercy, having nothing to offer Him. They gave Him no payment,
nothing. But they asked Him, Lord, have
mercy upon me. Everyone, even the Gentiles who
came to Him seeking Him for mercy, everyone was sent away having
received mercy of the Son. Everyone who asked him received
mercy of the Son. And so the Holy Spirit now does
this as well for each child of His. Just as we read, everyone
which seeth the Son, and that's present today, everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And so by the Spirit working
in us, we too become eyewitnesses of the Savior, beholding Him
in His glory. We too hear the voice of the
Great Shepherd, right? For His people shall hear His
voice. And He knows them. He loves them. And He tells us that they follow
Him because it's His will and His power to cause them, to cause
us to hear and to see and to follow Him and desire to be with
Him as He is so that there's a fruit of the Spirit that's
worked in us. There's a desire worked in us.
There's a heart change worked in His people so that we do desire
Him and we want to know Him and we want to follow Him more and
more. As it says in Philippians 2.8,
we beheld his fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and how he
became obedient on the death, even the death of the cross. So that faith in each of his
people lays whole, looking to him and says, I believe, not
only must he do this for me, but Lord, show me how he has
done this for me. And work that faith in my heart. Leave me not outside. of thy
kingdom. Don't let me remain outside of
thy mercy and thy grace, but in righteousness and mercy show
me, show me what you have done for me and cleanse this guilty
heart and this guilty conscience of the sin that I have done."
And so faith believes that He is the Christ and that God has
raised Him from the dead and that He declares accomplished
salvation to us who are gathered here to hear. And so the Apostle's
testimony to the Jews was that you, you and the Romans, have
killed the Prince of Life whom God hath raised from the dead,
whereof we are witnesses. And the fact that we behold and
we receive this, that God has raised a man from the dead, well
then he's no ordinary man, that God should do this for him. And
that he's the Savior, the one that they declare to be the Savior
of men, all men and women that are to be saved, are saved in
Him, and we behold that and believe, Lord, You really have raised
Him up from the dead. And it declares to us with power
that God is satisfied with Him, and so He makes us satisfied
with Him, even as He is satisfied with Him. So that, like so many
of those invalids and people who are lame and blind and deaf
and dumb and guilty sinners, As so many of them were made
fit and whole before him, so we stand before you whole in
the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now Romans 10 10 says,
for with the heart, not with the head, but with the heart,
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. So I ask you, Does Christ dwell
in your hearts by faith? Is He your confession by day
and by night? Paul in Ephesians 3.17 tells
us that his prayer for the brethren was that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith. And he dwells in our hearts by
faith, not in the head. It's not a head knowledge. But
he makes us to know, if the Lord looks to these works, and these
thoughts, and myself, I'm doomed. I have no hope before. Not even
now. But if the Lord looks to his
son, and sees me in his son, covered with his blood, made
righteous by him, then I stand complete in him. Now, if you believe, if you believe,
if you have no other hope but Christ, you believe that He must
be in your affections, because it's God who changes the heart. It's God who changes the will
and understanding of His people. And you'll find not only a need
for Him, but a strong desire to lean upon the breast of your
Savior and your husband. I like what Song of Solomon says,
Song of Solomon 8, 5, Who is this that cometh up from the
wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Now, many in religion
would tell us that we can't approach unto holy God. There's nothing
we can do to approach unto holy God. And He is holy. And in a
sense, that's right. There's nothing in this flesh,
no works we can do, no words we can say, that would enable
us to enter into the presence of Holy God, but the Gospel has
been brought near to you in the Lord Jesus Christ, that in Him
we are enabled to enter into that veil through the holiest
of holies, which He went before us to separate and depart that
which kept it hid from us, so that now we have gained entrance
by Christ Himself into the holiest of holies, that we may stand
complete and whole and faultless before His throne. And so I pray,
my prayer is that the Lord this very day would carry us in His
arms and that as we go through this day and we begin to talk
about the cares of this life and we begin to recount the things
that we need to do and the troubles that we have or take up those
cares of and those things that this flesh so delights in, in
the world, that He would make our voice and our tongue and
our voice harmonious with His voice, that we would be reminded
by His tenderness and His warmth and His love to us that our voice
would begin to speak as His voice, that we would speak of what our
Savior has done for us. And that as we go out these doors,
and that warmth of the sun begins to hit our skin and our necks,
and we begin to enjoy, what is it, 80-something degrees out
there with no humidity, and we think, This is life. This is so wonderful just to
enjoy this. That we would by His power and
grace be reminded of and feel the warmth of the breast of our
Savior upon whom we lean upon. That He would draw us near to
Himself to know and to desire that warmth continually. That
we might continue to pray for ourselves and our brethren that
our hearts would be filled with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith,
which he gives and works in his people. I pray the Lord bless
that word to your hearts and comfort you in Christ. Amen. All right, let's pray, and then
brother, you close us in our final hymn. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for the love and the mercy that you so
freely show to your people in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we're thankful that your
Son, our Lord, our Savior, our Husband and Friend, has accomplished
for us the righteousness necessary to stand before you, for we could
not do it in this flesh under your law. Father, we thank you
for your grace and mercy to us, which has brought us near to
hear it. And that you have brought your
word near to us, your gospel, that we don't need to go out
and search any further. But now, Lord, help us to hear
it. Lord, reveal it in our hearts by faith, that we would rest
in your Son. and seek no other righteousness
but the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, our Lord and Savior.
We thank you for the brethren here. We thank you for the love
that you put in our hearts for you and for one another. We pray
that you will continue to reveal yourself to us. For it's in the
name of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we pray and ask these things
and give thanks to you. Amen.