I saw one rainy fall of tree
in agony and love. He fixed his wing when I saw
me. ? It was sure him upon a tree ?
? He died in heaven o'er me ? ? And now I live my life to him ? ?
For him who died for me ? ? Sure him to my name is true ? Lord. It seemed to charge me
with this death. O God, O Lord, be still. It was
for evil upon a tree. He died in it for me. And now I live my life to live. ? For him who died for me ? ? My conscience well went over
hill ? ? And put me in despair ? ? I saw myself in hardship
? ? And with demand him bear ? ? Was for me a fallen tree ? ?
Divided and lonely ? ? And now I give my life to thee ? ? For
him who died for me ? ? A second life he gave me ? It was for me, upon a tree, they
died in agony. And now I'm in my life again. Turn in your Bibles this morning
to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 37. I'll begin
reading in verse 5. This is in the account that we
have of Joseph. Genesis 37, 5. And Joseph dreamed
a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I
pray you this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were
binding sheaves in the field, that is, sheaves of grain or
corn. And lo, my sheaf arose and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaf stood
round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said unto him,
Shall thou indeed reign over us? Or shall thou indeed have
dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream,
and he told it to his brethren. and said, behold, I have dreamed
a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his
father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the same. I've been thinking about it a
lot lately. Something that we would say when
we were children. Maybe when another child or another
sibling would say to us, tell us to do something. And we would respond by saying,
You're not the boss of me. You ever said that? You're not the boss of me. That's
what we would say. And I'm afraid that this is the
natural attitude of men toward God. This man, Joseph, is a type of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a type of the sovereign
Christ, and he's met with the same rebellion
from his family. When he tells them this dream, both his father and his brethren,
they all say, Are you saying that you'll reign over us? Well, he was a type of the Messiah,
the Christ, and that would surely be the case. But we respond in this way to
those things that God has appointed. To anyone who he's appointed
to have authority over us, we respond to them in the same way. You're not the boss of me. And we're born as natural rebels,
and we rebel as Satan did. against the throne of God, Almighty
God. As a matter of fact, that's why
we are in the shape that we're in. That's why we are natural
rebels. It's because our father Adam
did just exactly that. Adam and Eve rebelled against
God and took of the tree in the midst of the garden. And in doing
so, they said to God, you're not the boss of us. That tree in the midst of the
garden, I don't believe was a special tree in any way except one. It stood as God's right to be
God, as God's right to command and to reign over His creatures
and say to them, do not do this, but do that. And this is evident, this natural
rebellion is evident in all that God commanded in the law. Israel never did gain anything
from God by their obedience. It was always disobedience, rebellion
against his law, against his prophets. And it's the same with all that
he commands in the New Testament, all that he says in his word. It comes to us as we are natural
rebels. And that's what men say today
with regard to everything that God commands, whether it be how
the world was created, our roles in society, how we came about
our being, all these things God says in his word telling us just
exactly how it is and how we are to respond and we say, you're
not the boss of me. And when you read in Luke chapter
19, in that parable that Christ gave there, when he sent his
son, he sent one to rule over the vineyard, rule over the farm
as it was. And when he came, their response
was this, we will not have this man to reign over us. When you read in the Gospel of
John, it says, He came unto His own, and His own received Him
not. The perfect Son of God, God manifest
in the flesh, God come to bless and to save, and they received
Him not, it says. And this is what so-called free
will is really all about. Because there is no willingness
in man to obey God. Free will is simply, I won't. I won't. free moral agency. The idea and notion is foreign
to the scriptures. Man is not an agent. He's a rebel against God. I won't. I won't. And the natural man will not,
as a matter of fact, the Bible says, cannot receive the things
of God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And just like Christ said to
those Pharisees, you will not come to me that you might have
life. You will not come to me. But the truth is. As Joseph proved
to be over his family, God is the boss of us. God is the boss
over all. We use words like sovereignty,
or that we say God is sovereign, and maybe in our day some people
don't quite understand all of that, what it means, but it simply
means, literally, that God is the boss over all things, over
all people. Hold your place and turn, if
you would, to I Timothy. I Timothy 6. And look at what it says concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 15. He will appear one day. And at the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, in verse 15 it says, which in his times he shall
show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings
and Lord of lords. What does that word potentate
mean? It means sovereign. It means
the one who is the boss. And it says he will show at his
coming, in his time, when he chooses to, he will show who
is the blessed and only potentate. There can't be but one free will
in the universe. One totally free will in the
whole world. And when Christ comes, if somebody
does not see it in his grace and salvation before, they'll
find out at that hour who is the one and only potentate. They'll find out that he is absolutely
the boss over all things. And the fact is that we naturally,
we by nature, fight against the one thing that is our only hope. That's what we do in our blindness. That's what we do in our ignorance. In our natural response to the
idea of God being God and doing what he will with all things,
that is our only hope. That God is in charge. That he's sovereign over all
things. that he can and has done all
he pleased. Did you see that when we read
it in Psalm 115? Our God is in the heavens and
he hath done all that he pleased. I hear people talking all the
time. about what God wants to do, what
God would like to do, what God will do if you will let Him. And that is nothing but the natural
rebellion of our fallen hearts and minds that refuses to believe
what God says about Himself, that He does all His pleasure. He says, all my counsel shall
stand. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1, if you would. Ephesians chapter 1, and see
what Paul, in writing about salvation, in writing this letter to believers,
in writing and telling about salvation being all of grace, who has not heard Ephesians 2-8
quoted over and over again, for by grace are you saved. For by grace are you saved. But that grace is not of us. It's not determined by us. It's
not the way we naturally think about it. It's how God says it
in his word. And before he says that in chapter
two, look at what he says in verse one, verse chapter one
in verse 11. Ephesians one in verse 11. He says, in whom, or Christ,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own
will. Do you believe that? If you don't believe that, you
don't know the truth. If you don't believe in a God
who does that, you do not believe in the God of the Bible. He works
all things after the counsel of His own will. He does not ask you. He did not
confer with the prophets. nor the devil, nor anybody else. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. And this book, the Bible, the
Bible sets forth the only hope for a sinner being the sovereign
saving will of Almighty God. God is God and He acts like God. God is God and He saves like
God. God is God over all creation. It says that He spoke and it
was. Let there be light and light
was. Everything in creation As it
was created by God in Christ, it says, by Him are all things,
and for Him were all things. Whatever He
is, God's the boss of this creation. And He is also the boss of providence. I mean, everything that goes
on in this earth Things that we wonder about and are confused
about and such things that, he's not. Because he predestinated
all things and all things work after the counsel of his will,
not randomly. You'll never have any peace believing
that. Or chance or fate or luck or
something like that, which are foreign to the scriptures, all
things are created and ruled, upheld by his hand. He has a
hand over every being in this world, and he sometimes releases
men and women to show us just exactly what we all are by nature. We're walking around in this
world, seeing and hearing about all these awful atrocities and
saying, oh, I would never do that. But if the boss of all creation
lifts his hand of mercy and grace, lifts his hand of restraining
grace upon you, you and I will be the most wicked people that
the world has ever known. You look back at the first men,
the first brothers. Before there was an awful environment
to live in. Before there was all these things
that people call sin, like dope and drink and all these porn
and all these awful things. Before any of them ever came
to pass, one man rose up and he killed his brother. Why? Because it was in his heart
to do so. in his heart to do so, and that's
the only thing that restrains us. The only thing that keeps
us from being what we would be when we fly into a rage or someone
angers us or lust presents itself upon us in one way or another,
that's the only reason we don't fall is because of God's sovereignty. There was a man who was a king, and he had a fancy for Abraham's
wife, Sarah, when he first came to see her, and they came into
that place, and he determined in his mind, because he was a
king, to have the power over her, to have her for his own
wife, his own self, And Abraham had lied about her, said she
was his sister. And this king set on to have
her for himself. But he didn't. Why? Because God stopped him. Because
the boss stopped him and said, do not do this. Don't take unto
yourself such a damnation and do it unto yourself. He didn't
do that with David. Why? Because he for his own purpose,
for his own reason, for his own glory, he does what he will among
the inhabitants of men and they none can stay his hand. As the boss, he is most of all
the boss of salvation. Which means that he will do his
will. He will act as such. He will save who he will. Because none deserve it. None
can save themselves. All are the same by nature. We
all fell in Adam. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We're all sinners by nature.
There is none of us that can in any way influence Him by what
we are or by what we do. So if He shows mercy to us, It
will be just because of his grace. Now, we always have a saying. I know you've heard this. We
say the boss isn't always right, but the boss is always the boss. Not so with this boss. The boss
is always the boss, but this boss is always right. And to show our rebellion as
to this very fact, we sit back and we say, God can do this,
or God can do that, or God will do this, or God won't do that. For God to do this would be wrong
when the truth is the only way that we know right is if God
does it. You and I never do right. But
God does right. As a matter of fact, that's what
it means when it says God is righteous. He is just. He always does what's right. And when Abraham was contemplating
the fate of his nephew Lot over there in Sodom, which God was
about to destroy, he interceded for him on that
basis. He said, look, we should be so frank with God.
He said, Lord, we know that the God of all the earth will do
right. Would you destroy the city if
there was 50 righteous people in it? God said, no. 40 righteous? No. 30? 20? No. And it was left at that. But
God went in, sent his angels, and they delivered Lot out of
there. Why? Because Lot was righteous. With all his failures, he trusted
in the one that God had pictured in all those sacrifices. He trusted
in the Messiah that would come and save him from all his sin.
He trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God destroyed all
the rest. Why did he have mercy on Lot? Because he would. That's all there is to it because
he absolutely would. 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. Paul says, so then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
shows mercy. Not all about us, not about our
worth, not about our deeds, not what we've done and what we've
not done in our life and all that kind of stuff. He says it's
of God who has mercy. And the good news of the scriptures
set forth God in his sovereign free grace. The good news of
the gospel is that God's will is free so that he exercises
his will and he does all his will and he has will and purpose
to save a people by his grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And men say, well, I'll say myself
the way I want to. No, you won't. They say, well,
I'll tell you, I believe it's the way it is. Your believing
something doesn't make it true. I want to tell this generation
who has such notes of independency and opinion and all, just you
believing it does not make it true. You may not believe in electricity,
but I'm telling you, if you stick a knife in that wall socket,
you're going to get shocked whether you believe in electricity or
not. And our ignorance of God, our
ignorance of how He really is, our ignorance of His Word, which
plainly tells us how He is, will not change the fact that He is
the way He is. And He saves whom He wills. And the gospel, because it is
good news, is God making known his saving will in Christ. Look back in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 and verse 9, that
same, same chapter. He says, having made known unto
us, who was that? The believers at Ephesus, Paul? and all of God's people who will
read that until the last one is saved, having made known unto
us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself." God's will to save is always and all
dependent on himself. And yet preachers stand up and
say, if you do this, God will bless you. If you do this, God
will save you. I can't save you. You can't save
yourself. Only God can. And you might shake my hands.
I could offer a high-powered invitation and get you to come
down here and do something, but salvation is not at the front
of this building. Or you could go in our baptismal
pool and get dipped in the water. That's not salvation. Salvation
is a work of God. The work of God. And this work
of God, he establishes for us in this first chapter of Ephesians. Look at verse 1. Paul, in this greeting, identifies
himself as an apostle. Now, why are you an apostle?
Paul, why are you an apostle? Are you smarter? Are you no more? No. Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God. That's the only reason. He was
a man just like we are, sinner just like we are, in need of
mercy just like we are, and God just sovereignly said, Paul,
you're going to be my apostle. An apostle is one sent forth. to the saints, or separated ones,
which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful, or believing in
Christ Jesus, grace be to you, and peace from God our Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at this. Blessed be
the God and Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he is about
to thank God and praise God and bless God for something that
men curse God for. When they hear it, they curse
God for this. Who hath blessed us? Oh, that's
in the past tense, isn't it? Too late to do anything about
it. who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Salvation always begins with
God. It always begins with God. He's
the originator, He's the initiator, He's the cause. According as He hath chosen us, Who's he chose? Those that ultimately
believe. Those he calls in other places
his elect, his people, his children. Christ shall come and he shall
save his people from their sins. That's what it says in Matthew
121. That's what the first thing that they heard concerning him,
Mary and Joseph and all them. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for what? For he shall save his people
from their sins. According as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him. And that's really where
that ends, that verse in the Greek. in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. You mean I don't have anything
to do with my salvation, preacher? Only this, you did the sinning. Grace goes back to before the
foundation of the world and is found in the everlasting love
of God. He said to Jeremiah, he said,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. Before you were born, before
you existed in my purpose, in my determining purpose and predestination,
I loved you with an everlasting love. Preachers are telling people
God loves them. I don't know that. But I know
this, if he does love you, he's loved you a long time. Before you had any conscious
existence, before you did right or wrong, so to speak, before
you fell in at him, before any of the world was created, he
says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with cords of love, I've drawn you. He blessed us, oh my gracious,
can that be? With all spiritual blessings? You mean there's nothing for
me to earn or merit or deserve if He gives all spiritual blessings? That's exactly right. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings when He chose us in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world. before the foundation of the
world. Now look at verse 6 and 7. To
the praise of the glory of His grace. I'm afraid that rules out all
boasting. What have we got to toot our
horn over? If it's all of God, if it's all of grace, if it's
all in Christ, If he gives it to us as a gift, we have nothing
we're in to boast or brag, and yet religion always provides
a lot of things for us to boast and brag in. When I was raised up in religion, just for going to Sunday school
regularly, They gave me enough medals to
where I look like a third world general. It depends on the third
year and the fourth year and the fifth year and the sixth
year and all. Religion will give you something you can boast in
and brag about. You can say, well, I've never
committed adultery. Or you can say, I've never smoked,
or I don't drink, or I give all my tithes, or I do this, that,
and the other, and everybody will brag on you. There's no bragging in real salvation. He can't be of grace and give
a reason to boast. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That's what we sing. They say you need to accept Jesus
as your personal savior. That's like saying, you need
to buy this comb over here to be your personal comb or toothbrush. No. We don't accept him. He has accepted us in the beloved,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's done this according to verse seven. He
has made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we can have if we accept him. or we can have it if we live
right, or if we continue to live right, or if we just... in whom
we have redemption. Redemption, which is to redeem
us from the curse of the law, redeem us from our sin, redeem
us from everything that as sinners we have to be redeemed of. He
buys us back the forgiveness of sins. We have it. We don't go to a
priest and do something to get it. We don't pray to a statue
to get it. We don't shake a preacher's hand
to get it. I can't give you forgiveness. Because forgiveness, and the
two words are interchangeable, oftentimes the same word in the
Greek, forgiveness is remission of sin. And he says where there
is no shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. But we have the forgiveness of
sin. Where at? In Christ. We have redemption. Where at? In Christ. According
to the riches of His grace. Wherein He hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence. God in mercy, in sovereign mercy,
has dealt with His people in wisdom and prudence. which means
he has not given us what we want. He's given us what we need, what
we must have. He's dealt with us in the one
who is himself called wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
wisdom of God. He's the one in whom God has
put all wisdom. And He's done it through and
by His sacrifice and His death on that cross, putting away our
sins by the paying of that sin debt. Turn over to Acts chapter
4. Because in Acts chapter 4, Peter tells us, and he tells
us this as the beginning messages after the crucifixion of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that what happened
on the cross, what happened on the cross was not man taking over. Look at verse 25. This is all
a part of the Pentecost and the days afterwards. He says, God, which made heaven
and earth and the sea and all that in them is, verse 25, who
by the mouth of our servant David has said, why did the heathen
rage and the people imagine vain things? That's just what we read
in Psalm 115. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles, and all the people of Israel, were gathered
together. Now you make sure you look at
that next verse. For to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determine before to be done. You say, but they
nailed Jesus to a cross. They crucified him. That's exactly right. all according
to the wisdom of God, because that sacrifice that he offered
on the cross was the one way, the one means, the one thing
necessary. His death on that cross in the
place of his people, it was the one thing necessary to save them.
And just like he said, Father, I came to do your will. I came to do your will. You see,
salvation is God saving a people in Christ according to his will
and purpose, not according to their own works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which will be to them irresistible. Since the Lord taught me the
gospel, I've never given an invitation for people to come to the front
or accept Jesus or anything like that. Something like 38 years ago. Well, how are we existing then? We're existing because God saves
His people. His grace to them because He
loves them. His grace to them because He
chose them in Christ before the world began. His grace to them
because Christ came into this world and died in their place.
You see, it's righteous grace. Now, Christ having done that
for them, having paid that debt, they must be saved. They must
be called. And His grace comes to them as
irresistible grace. And by that I mean, not that
they don't resist it naturally. but that its grace is like him. It's irresistible. Now, when I was about 18 years
old, I was the confirmed lifetime
bachelor. Like the girls, like this, I've
just, they don't even talk to me about marriage. Then one night, I went to a birthday
party, and at that birthday party, I saw this dark-haired girl,
and something happened. And I married her. She was so pretty. She was so sweet, so kind. I was just overwhelmed by her. And when God reveals Christ to
us, the true Christ, the one who does all the saving and gets
all the glory, we're just overwhelmed by that grace. We're overwhelmed
by that irresistible person. We see the king in his beauty. Look at what it says in John
6. These Pharisees, they said, we
don't believe on you. We'll never come to you. Did that worry Christ? No, he
told them later they were not of his sheep. But in verse 37,
he says, all that the Father giveth me, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." His father's will and his will
was the same, but he's speaking here as Jehovah's servant. Come to do the will of God. And
this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. There's that people that be given
to him. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son, the true Son, not Antichrist, but the true
son, the son who has actually accomplished the salvation of
his people. Everyone that seeeth the son
and believes on him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise
him up at the last day." Wasn't that the case with Joseph
and his family? Turn back to Genesis 37. Didn't He save them in spite
of them, in spite of how they were to Him, in spite of what
they did to Him, all according to the purpose of God and the
dream that God gave? This has got to be the Lord Jesus
Christ, one of the sweetest types of Christ. Verse three of Genesis
37, now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. This is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Because he was a son
of age, of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors,
And when his brethren saw that the father loved him more than
all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably
unto him. This father, in his love to his
son, He made him a coat of many colors. Now that's more than a Dolly
Parton song, in case you're interested. He made him a coat of many colors. And I do believe that that coat
of many colors that he made for his son, that he gave him, is
representative of the covenant and all the glories of the Lord
Jesus Christ. many faceted glories of Christ,
especially his redemptive glory, his glory as the Messiah, his
glory as God in flesh, his sinlessness, all these things. The Bride and
Morning Star, just all the descriptions of Christ that make up this coat
of many colors that He alone can wear. They were jealous of
Him because of the Father's love. They were jealous of Him because
they didn't have a coat like that, couldn't wear a coat like
that. It's just like the scripture
says about the Christ, on His head are many crowns. But what did they do with the
Christ? The same thing they did with
Joseph in the picture. They cast Joseph down into a
pit. Sure to die. Starved to death. They didn't care. They cast him
down into a well. And they took that coat of many
colors. And they shed a kid's blood,
a baby goat's blood. And they poured it all over that
coat, took it back to his daddy. We don't know whose coat this
is. We don't know if this is the coat of your son or not.
They were his sons, in one sense of speaking. But they referred
to this man, Joseph. We don't know if it's the coat
of your son or not. Could be. But his father recognized it.
He knew that it was the coat of his son. Says he mourned for
his son. But that blood, that blood on that coat symbolized
the one way that Christ is most glorious and accomplished all
that was entrusted into his hand. It's by the blood of his cross.
He made peace by the blood of his cross. By his own blood,
he washed us from our sins. I've got to hush. But God brought Joseph out of
that pit. And later on out of prison. And where did he go after that?
He went right to the throne of Egypt. He went right to the throne of
Egypt. Just like God had purposed. And God used him to save the
people from a great famine. And he saved him to be a special
blessing to his family. The Bible says that Joseph was
the sovereign over all the storehouses of grain and food in Egypt, and
that Joseph opened the storehouses, just like only Christ can open
the storehouse of grace. And what happened? Look at Genesis 42. Genesis 42 and verse 6. And Joseph was the governor over
the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the
land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. Look in 43, chapter 43, verse 26. And when Joseph came
home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into
the house and bowed themselves to him to the earth. They had to be humbled. They
had to be made for what they really were. If you look in chapter
44 and verse 14, it says, And Judah and his brethren came to
Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell down before
him on the ground. They're humble now. They're broken. They're afraid. But He humbled them that He might
bless them. So in Genesis chapter 45, and at appointed time, in Joseph's
case, It was a time that he couldn't
stand it any longer. Can you imagine loving these
characters that had been so wicked to you? Hated you, talked about
you, left you for dead, sold you into slavery? Verse 1 of chapter 45, then Joseph
could not reframe himself before all them that stood by him, and
he cried. Cause every man to go out from
me, and there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself
known to his brethren." That's the way God is. Don't matter
who's around, don't matter what's the connection, He deals with
His people. And what does He do? He makes
Himself known through His Word. By his spirit,
he reveals himself. The natural man receive us not
the things of God because they're spiritually discerned. But Paul said, God hath revealed
him to us that we might know the things that are freely given
of God to us. Not that we might know what to
do, but that we might know the things
that are free to give. And he wept aloud. And the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. They said, we've got it coming
to us. We deserve this. Surely he's going to take us
and have us killed, or he's got the right to do it, he can do
it. They were troubled at his presence. And that's what happens
when the true gospel is preached. It's first troubling. I remember thinking when I first
heard the gospel, uh-oh, God is not the way I thought he was. That really, that baptism or
that old profession or all that self-righteousness and good work,
it doesn't save. My decision didn't save me. Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. That reminded them. Christ is who we crucify. Now, therefore, be not grieved.
nor angry with yourselves that you sow me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath been
a famine in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your
lives by great deliverance. That's what salvation is. It's a great deliverance, great
deliverance of sinners, saving them by the only way they can
be saved, by God himself. by the work of Christ, by his
shed blood, by the power of his spirit, giving them life and
revealing to them the truth of how this absolutely is, by bringing
them to acknowledge that he is the boss of salvation. And I'm so glad he is. I'm so glad He is. Is this your
Savior? If it isn't, this is the one
we trust, that Jesus has saved His people from their sins. And we acknowledge His sovereignty, especially over us. God, I'm
a sinner. I'm your creation. All souls
are yours. You can do with me what you please,
but I beg for this mercy. I beg for this saving mercy in
Christ. You'll get it. As a matter of
fact, if you're found begging for mercy, you already have it. Our Father, we thank you in our
Savior's lovely name for that salvation that not only saves
all your people, saves us this sinner, but gives all to glory,
all the glory to you. We thank you for Christ and your
purpose in him. And we pray in his name. Amen.