I am with you, self of other ? Through the floods I come and
keep ? ? Though the swelling waves surround you ? ? I surround
the waters deep ? ? Fear not, loved one, in my presence ? ?
You will never be alone ? I am with you, says the Savior. even to the ages end. Never leaving, nor forsaking,
I'm your ever-present friend. Hear not, love one, hear my comfort. None can fork you from my hand. Trust me, loved one, I am constant. None can change what I have planned. I am with you, says the Spirit. There is nowhere you can flee. Neither height nor depth can
hide you. Every place is home to me. Will not loved one be my witness? You are God's own child that
e'er. Trust me, loved one, hear my
whisper. Deep within you I am new. Come be with me, says the Master,
reading hope for the poor. Say, guys, I was with you, In your journey, be with me in
paradise. Fear not, loved one, for my promise,
I will surely quickly come. Trust me, loved one, know my
purpose, I will bring you safely home. Years ago churches were putting signs up. Signs, as you came in the door,
they would say, the church where everybody is
somebody. And a friend of mine, he decided
he'd put him up a sign. And it read, the church where
everybody is nobody and Jesus Christ is everything. I hope that's the kind of church
we are, that Jesus Christ is everything. And we're blessed
this morning to have with us a guest speaker. He's been here before, years
ago. Pastor Norm Wells and his wife
Nancy are visiting with Rupert and Betty. And we're glad to
have Brother Norm to come and preach the gospel to us. They're
from the Dales, Oregon. That's a long way from here.
And it's near Portland. Thank you, brother. Thank you,
brother. Good morning. What a delight
it has been to be here in North Carolina and to visit with dear
friends and to get reacquainted with your pastor, Brother Gary.
Brother Rupert and Sister Betty and Nancy and I have been good
friends for about 20 years now, and it's just a blessing to be
with them. Along that same line that Brother Gary was talking
about, I heard Brother Scott Richardson say, I'm a nobody. trying to tell everybody about
somebody who can save anybody. We're nobodies. I have to confess
this morning that for a long time, I had great difficulty in reading
the book of Leviticus. I'd skim through it when it came
to my Bible reading. There was a couple of chapters
in there of great interest, and that was the chapter of the scapegoat,
and a couple other chapters, but most of it I just kind of
skimmed through. And somehow, a book fell into
my hands, and the author of that book said, the book of Leviticus
is for sinners. And I said, that's me. And I
want to find out more about what that book says about sinners. So over a year ago, we began
studying the book of Leviticus in our church on Sunday morning,
and we're up at chapter 8. So would you turn with me in
your Bibles this morning to Leviticus chapter 8. I'd like to read a
few verses there, and then we're going to go back to the book
of Exodus. In the book of Leviticus chapter 8, after there are five
different offerings mentioned earlier than this, in this book,
chapters 1 through 7, different offerings that all share with
us wonderful information about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As I went to the book of Leviticus,
I was reminded that as Moses was called on to have all of
these things set in order, he was shared when he was in the
mount. God shared with him That you
build all these things according to the pattern you saw in the
mount. And for a long time in religion,
I thought that was some sort of building in heaven. And when
the Lord saved me, it's a person. that was in heaven, that he was
to build all of these things, everything with regard to the
tabernacle. And later the temple is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his wonderful mercy to us and
how he intended from before the foundation of the world to save
his people by his free and sovereign grace. They're pictures. And Christ reminds us of this
when he shared with the two on the road to Emmaus that he declared
unto them all the things in the Old Testament, and he delineates
there all the things in the Psalms and the Prophets and in the Law
of Moses, the things concerning himself. So when we go to the
Old Testament, we're reading that message that the Lord shared
with the two on the road to Emmaus. Here in the book of Leviticus
chapter 8, I'd like to read verses 1 through 3 and also verses 7-9. In verses 1-3, the scriptures
share with us, as the Holy Spirit gave these words to Moses so
long ago, and they were put down, holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit, Here in the book of Leviticus
chapter 8 we have some words mentioned that caught my eye
and we spent a great deal of time on them. It says in chapter
8 verse 1, the Lord spake unto Moses saying, take Aaron and
his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil, and a
bullock for a sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened
bread, and gather thou all the congregation together unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation." There were some
words in that second verse that caught my eye that has led us
to a study that I would like to bring part of this morning,
and that is the three words, and the garments. Now Aaron is
being set aside as the high priest and there's some wonderful things
about Aaron and one of them that particularly catches my eye is
that everybody he represented as a high priest he was related
to. They were cousins, there were nieces and nephews, there
were moms and dads, aunts and uncles, but everyone that was
in Israel was related to this man Aaron the high priest and
to the sons who were going to be sub-priests. He's representing
His family, and that takes us right over to our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that when He was doing all that He did
in the redemptive work of saving His people from their sins, He
is related to every one of them. He is our elder brother and he
suffered and bled and died for his family so that he could gather
them together at that day and we could worship him and say,
worthy is the lamb that was slain. And really we're saying we're
worshiping our elder brother because he saved us from all
the calamities that took place in the Garden of Eden as our
father Adam fell. Disobeyed God in such a way that
has taken us all down. We are sinners by practice and
we're sinners by nature and we're sinners by choice and God and
His great purpose with His Son intended to deliver His people
from all that mess. And He does so successfully and
so victoriously that He sits at the right hand of the Father
making intercession for all of us. And I think sometimes it's
just simply showing His Father His wounds and He says, I've
made intercession for them. Well, here in the book of Leviticus,
chapter 8, down in verses 7, 8, and 9, it shares with us the
garments that the high priest wore. In verse 7, it says, And
he put upon him the coat, and girded him with a girdle, and
clothed him with a robe. and put on the ephod upon him,
and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound
it upon him therewith, and he put the breastplate upon him.
Also he put in the breastplate the urim and the thumen, and
he put the miter upon his head, Also upon the miter, even upon
his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown,
as the Lord commanded Moses. Now that's the garments that
the high priest was to wear, and they're delineated here,
but there's no information in this passage of scripture that
shares with us how they were made or what was within the material
that they were made. So let's go back, if you would
join me, in the book of Exodus, chapter 28, And I'd like to spend
a little time this morning on the miter. It was a bonnet. It's been translated in many of the
translations, a turban. It was a miter, and in one place
in our Bible it was translated diadem, and that's found in the
book of Ezekiel. It was translated a diadem. The miter we find was made of
fine linen, and let's look here in Exodus chapter 28, and all
of these things picture some aspect, glorious aspect, of our
Savior in His redemptive work on the behalf of His family.
He's representing his family in all that he does. We cannot
ever, in ourself, ever make one dent towards our redemption.
It is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that is our Redeemer. One old hymn writer put, if we
have one thread in our robe of redemption that belong to us,
we don't have redemption. It has to all be Him as our robe
of redemption. So in Exodus chapter 28, and
there we find in verse 4, it says, And these are the garments
which they shall make, a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and
a broidered coat, and a miter and a girdle, and they shall
make holy garments for Aaron thy brother and his sons, that
he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And then in
verse 37 of that chapter, these words are recorded. It says,
and thou shall put it on a blue lace. This is called that crown. And in verse 36 it mentions,
Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, engrave upon it like the
engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. All capital letters
underline it, emphasize it, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. and thou shalt put
it on a blue lace that it may be upon the miter upon the forefront
of the miter it shall be and in verse thirty nine it says
and thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen and thou shalt
make the miter of fine linen and thou shalt make the girdle
of needlework so this is all the information that we have
about this turban about this miter that was placed upon the
head of Aaron. Now, it's interesting that when
you get online, you can even buy all this stuff. Nobody knows
from the scriptures what it was like, but you can still buy it.
People have made a mockery out of the garments of Aaron, and
they try to present it today and say, this is a learning experience.
This is a learning experience. The Word of God. That's all we
need. But it was made of linen. And
it was the very word itself carries the meaning of to coil or wrap
around. Now among the early writers there
was a discussion on how long this piece of linen cloth was.
I found it interesting that some of them said it was 18 cubits
long or 24 feet and some said it was 48 feet long. That's not
the issue. The issue is it went on the head. Now, all of the other garments
that we find listed here in the book of Exodus and Leviticus,
all the other garments went on the body. That robe, that coat,
that breastplate, all of those things went on the body. And
there's only two things that go on the head, this turban and
a gold plate in the very forefront that said, holiness to the Lord. Now, I believe that the Lord
is sharing with us some information. The body needs all the work of
redemption. The body needs all the work of
sanctification. The body needs all the work of
God. We are in desperate need of work.
We fell in Adam. We're dead in trespasses and
sin, and we're the ones that need to be worked on by God Almighty. The head does not. The head is
holy and harmless and undefiled. Our head, the Lord Jesus Christ,
needs none of that. He does not need redemption. That's brought out in the book
of Hebrews. He needs us not as these priests
to have all these things because He is perfect and holy. He's our righteousness altogether. So the only things that go on
the head of Aaron, typifying being put on the head our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is this miner and this gold plate. Now
I stumbled around for a while and I like to ruminate. I was
raised on a farm and my dad had cattle and they'd go out there
and eat that grass and then they'd find a shade tree and they'd
lay down and they'd chew their cud. I like to ruminate. That's to my cud. I just can't
go into my study and spend eight hours reading. I got to go out
and sit and think about it. Now, I might be doing other things,
but I want to think about what I read. And as I was thinking
about what this was, the Lord shared with me some things from
the scriptures about this turban. This turban was wrapped around
the head of Aaron. It fit him and fit him only. When Aaron died, They had to
wrap it around his son who became the high priest. It fit him only. Have you ever bought one of these
hats that says fits most people? I despise them. I asked for a
hat of the Seattle Seahawks and my daughter bought me a size
eight and it fits. I didn't want one of those that's
got the strap in the back because they never fit me. Well, this
turban was made for Aaron. Whoever, Moses, wrapped it around
his head and it fit perfectly. Now, we find the Lord Jesus Christ
when he is depicted in Aaron as our high priest. He's a picture
of our high priest. The Lord Jesus Christ was fitted
with a turban too, symbolically, pictorially, and spiritually.
And this turban that was around him wrapped him up and delivers
to us a picture that he was bound to do some things in order to
redeem us. He is bound. Aaron's head was
bound. Christ Jesus was bound by the
sovereign, gracious purpose of grace before the foundation of
the world to do some things for his people, for his family. He's
related to everyone that he's going to redeem. Everyone. related. He infuses His blood on our behalf. He purges our sin on our behalf. He does it all. He is the only
one that can absolutely be a Redeemer, only one that absolutely can
be a Savior. He's the only one that can absolutely
give us sanctification and redemption. So he is bound in such a way
that as we read through the scriptures, he shares with us this binding. And I'd like to talk a little
bit about that. I believe there's a great truth here. And in the
book of Colossians, as I mentioned, Christ is our head. He's the
head. We're the body. The church is the body. We're
thankful for God's purpose of grace that from time to time,
it can be said about you and I, just like it was said about
the woman at the well, he must, needs, go to Samaria. I was captured by religion on
my own consent until I heard the gospel, a man came to my
Samaria. preached the gospel of his free
and sovereign grace, and the next day in my kitchen, I told
my wife, I hate that man. He messed up my religion. I was
mad at God and didn't realize it at the time. I was mad at
that man, but I was compelled to go back every time he preached
because I'd helped get him there. What would it look like? Pride. Boy, I read that this morning
and I almost said, brother, you better preach. You better take
the service because pride is our, oh, I wrestle with it every
day. The truth be known, we're all
recovering Pharisees. Every day we're recovering. Got
a brother that's been an alcoholic all his life, just about, and
every day he fights it. Every day, God's people fight
this. Well, Christ was bound by the
covenant of grace. We read about it, we try to explain
it, but there was a covenant of grace made before the foundation
of the world between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We weren't involved in it to
participate because we'd have messed it up. Just look at the
covenant of works that he gave Israel in the Old Testament.
They messed it up the day he gave it. But we couldn't mess
this up because we're not participants in it. We're recipients of it,
but we're not participants. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, they're their participants. And the Father had a people in
mind, and he gave those people to his Son, and his Son willfully
and joyfully said, I take upon myself the purpose of grace to
redeem them. And he knew exactly what he must
do in order to do that. He faced the cross from that
time on. And the Holy Spirit said, I will
go out and I will find them and I will give them a new heart
and I will regenerate them and I'll bring them in faithfully.
And this covenant of grace has been in effect ever since. And
the Lord Jesus Christ was bound by that. He was bound by the
covenant of grace. He was not going to go to the
right hand or to the left hand. He is almighty God. He is God,
very God. He came to this sin cursed earth. And you know, every step he took,
he was in a graveyard. He met dead and trespasses in
sin people on every hand. Every one of his disciples were
graveyard dead people when he met them and called them out
of that sin and gave them salvation. He was bound by the scriptures.
All the Old Testament scriptures declared him and he's bound.
He fulfilled them. He quoted the scriptures from
the cross. He quoted the scriptures in his ministry. He quoted the
scriptures in his preaching. He quoted the scriptures to this
person and that person. He quoted them to the Pharisees.
He quoted them to his apostles. He was bound by the scriptures
to fulfill every jot and every tittle of them. He was bound
by his incarnation. Before the world began in that
covenant of grace, he promised to come just like you and I are,
bound by the flesh, yet without sin. Bound by the flesh. I can't imagine. There's a songwriter
that wrote that the heavenly God Almighty laying in a manger,
bound by the incarnation, came as you and I are born, yet without
sin. Joseph was not a participant
in this. Mary, yes. The Heavenly Father,
yes. Joseph was excluded and he knew
why. He had passed on, just like he
did to the rest of his family, his sinful nature. Adam sinned
willfully. He knew exactly what he was doing
when he disobeyed God and ate that fruit. He knew what he'd
do to his family. He knew what he'd do to all generations,
and yet he willfully did that. One old preacher said, oh, glorious
fall, for we learn about grace, Brother Gary. We learn about
grace, God's unmerited favor toward sinners. He's bound by
the cross. He's bound by grave clothes in
the grave. Christ was bound by an oath delivered
in the covenant of grace. He promised before time, I will
redeem all that the Father giveth me. I shall lose none of them. The work became flesh, he was
bound by flesh. I was interested to find, as
I was going through here, that a sign to some shepherds out
on the hills watching their sheep by night, and it was announced
by the angels, a heavenly host came and says, you go and you'll
find What does it say there? Today is born unto you a Savior
which is Christ the Lord. You will find him bound in swaddling
clothes. They found him and identified
him as bound in swaddling clothes. Those swaddling clothes were
wrapped around the babe Jesus very tightly as he's laid in
a manger. We have two new granddaughters
and they found out that little babies like to be wrapped up.
And the new bindings, how they got their arms like this instead
of like this. Well, our Savior was bound from
head to foot, bound in swaddling clothes, and he was identified
by some shepherds, and they went home rejoicing. This is the Savior. He's been identified as coming
in the flesh. He appeared many times in the
Old Testament. But he never took upon himself
permanent flesh when he appeared unto Adam in the Garden of Eden,
when he appeared unto Noah, when he appeared unto Abraham, when
he appeared unto Moses, when he appeared unto Joshua. He didn't
appear like he did. He didn't come to them in the
form of a baby as he had promised. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bring forth a child. He didn't come that way to them,
but in time, in due time, at the right time, he came born
of a woman under the law that he might redeem
them. So he was bound by this all his
life. He was bound by the mission of
fulfilling all scriptures and being about his father's business. Turn with me if you would over
to the book of Luke chapter 2 verse 49. In the book of Luke chapter
2 verse 49 we find prior to this passage of scripture Mary and Joseph And Jesus and
some other half-brothers and sisters and family had ventured
down to Jerusalem for a very holy day. Luke chapter 2. And as the family is headed back
to Nazareth, someone's missing. Someone's not with the family.
And they go checking out with all the other relatives. Where
is our son Jesus? Where is our son Jesus? And finally,
they said, well, we better go back to where we saw him last. And they went back to Jerusalem,
and here in chapter 2 and verse 49, the scriptures share this.
And he said to them, when they found him, Verse 48, and when
they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him,
son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and
I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, how is
it that you sought me? Wished you not that I must be
about my father's business? As that mitre was wrapped around
Aaron by Moses, as it came to fit him perfectly. It was the
right size for Aaron. It was wrapped around how many
times it was necessary. The length of that isn't important.
As it was wrapped around him, depicting to us that our Savior
was bound The head was bound, and he was bound to do some things
on the behalf of the church. He was bound to come as a baby. He was bound to be incarnated.
He was bound to be likened to his brethren. He was bound to
take upon himself flesh and blood. He was bound, as it says, he
tabernacled among us. The word became flesh. He was
bound to do this. He promised to do this, and he
was going to fulfill his promise. I'm so thankful that in the scriptures
we find a God that can keep every one of His promises. He's powerful
enough to keep every one of His promises. We may sometimes wish
we could, but it was taken out of our hands to fulfill it. But
the Lord Jesus Christ had power to fulfill every promise He'd
ever made in eternity, and He has and does, and will continue
to do so because He has the power to do that. He's not the Lord
God Almost, He's the Lord God Almighty. He has all power and
authority has been granted unto Him. And He shares with His mother
and His stepfather. He said, I must be about my father's
business. He's bound to do that. And His
father's business was to redeem the people that His father had
given to Him before the foundation of the world. Now, if you're
proud, oh man, if you're proud that you were chosen, We have
a problem. If you're thankful. You know, there's no other way.
You know, once the Lord showed me total depravity, I had no
problem at all with anything else. When I was saved and saw
that I was dead beyond repair. There's only one place we ever
discuss dead, and that's in religion. We discuss how dead. Some folks,
religious folks, say, well, there's enough good that if we fan it,
we can get it going. They discuss how dead dead is. The mortuary doesn't discuss
that. The guys that deal with animals that die, they don't
discuss that. But in religion, we have to discuss
that. And there's no room for discussion
because the scriptures teach us that we're, as one old preacher,
we're graveyard dead. dead in trespasses and sin, beyond
repair. We're like that man that was
put in a tomb and been there four days and stinks. That's
how dead. We just can't imagine. That little
girl that Jesus Christ raised up was 12 years old was no less
or no better than that guy Lazarus that was put in a tomb. They're
all dead. And it took his almighty power to raise the little girl
and raise that young man and to raise Lazarus who'd been dead
for four days. Same power. And that's the power
that it takes to raise us from the spiritual dead. And when
God does it, he gives us a new heart and we call it, thanks
to God's word, born again. It's born from above. It's born
out of the realm that we live in today. It can't be anything
to do with this realm. It has to be born from Almighty
God. I must be about my father's business,
as we see in another beautiful place over in the book of Genesis.
Remember that? Turn with me to Genesis chapter
22. Abraham is instructed to take
his only son. I believe it's so important to
recognize that though he had a son by a handmaid, God said, take thy only son and
I want you to take him up on a hill, upon a mount. Genesis chapter 22 and verse
3. Genesis chapter 22 and verse
3. We're going to see here the son is bound by a load of wood. He's going to be bound by some
thongs in sacrifice. And a ram is bound by his horns
in a thicket and is made the sacrifice. Genesis chapter 22
verse 3, the scriptures say, and Abraham said unto his young
man, abide ye here with the donkey, 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. As a picture of Christ, there's
some things that were laid upon Christ before the world began.
It was bound to Him. He has been laid upon by the
Father. Laid upon Him the wood. 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 I don't find one
word here that Isaac scrapped against his father about doing
this. The Lord Jesus Christ did not scrap against His Father
when He was bound to go to the cross. He was doing it who for
the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the Father.
who for the joy that was set before him. I'm in obedience
to the Father, I'm in obedience to the covenant of grace, I'm
in obedience to the redemptive work that I promised to do, and
he was bound to do it. So, the son said, he's bound,
he's laid down on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Now when it
came to the cross, the father didn't back up here. Abraham stopped here, but on
the cross, the father, the father did his work. He poured out his
wrath upon his son. He poured out, it was he that
poured out his wrath. Our sins were on him. But father
poured out his wrath upon his son. He saw the travail of his
soul and was satisfied. So now, we're gonna see there's
a substitute. There's a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. The amazing thing to me, and
I've been around a lot of stock in my life, we've had cattle
and pigs And dogs and cats get snared up and you know what?
They throw a wall-eyed fit. They beller and they oink and
they bark and they meow until hopefully someone comes and secures
them and gets them out. What stopped the mouth of this
ram until the right moment? Oh my God. The Lord was silent
before his accusers. So they grabbed that ram and
that became the sacrifice. And Abraham and his son Isaac
came off of that mountain. Over in the book of Hebrews it
said Abraham believed he'd come down even though he had to offer
his son. He believed that he'd be raised. So he was going to
come down one way or the other. But he came down and there was
a substitute offered in his place. He bound his son. The ram was
bound. When the ministry of our Lord
was at its end, not because of men. The end of the life of the
Lord Jesus wasn't because of men. It was the right time. That's why they could take him.
You know when they came, I find that so blessed. He just opened
his mouth and everybody's on their face. Whom do you seek? They said, he said, Jesus of
Nazareth, I am, and everybody is in the dust. And they said, I ask you, who
did you come for? He said, Jesus of Nazareth. And
they bound him and led him off. to the cross. He submitted himself. No man takes my life from me,
but I lay it down of myself that I might take it up again. No
man's going to do this. I submit myself. This is what
I'm bound to do. I am bound to be arrested. I
am bound to be tried. I am bound, just like over there
in the book of Exodus, when it came time to offering up that
Passover lamb, They took that lamb, they picked out the best
they could, a lamb of the first year, brought it in, set it aside
on the 10th day of the month, and on the 14th day of the month
after they had inspected it to see if there's any problem with
it, what did they do with it? They killed it. They came in
and examined the Lord, and people looked at Him and said, I find
no fault in Him. I find no fault in Him. The Father
from heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well
pleased. I find no fault in Him. The prophets said, I find no
fault in Him. The law said, I find no fault
in Him. Even Pilate said, I find no fault in Him. What's the next
thing they do with Him? It was according to divine purpose
he is taken out to Golgotha and nailed to a cross, and there
suspended between heaven and earth, Almighty God turned the
fire on. Just like those sacrifices of
old fire from heaven fell. They didn't see it, but Jesus
Christ felt it. He is consumed as a sacrifice
on the cross. And when it was over, he said,
it is finished. The father's work was done, the
son's work is done. Well, here come a man by the
name of Joseph of Arimathea. And he went to Pilate and he
said, I beg his body. And Pilate said, is he already
dead? If you've ever read about this, you find out three hours
is not very long for a man to be on a cross. They had to break
the legs of the other two so that they could get him off before
this holy day came along. Yes, the Lord Jesus. I lay down
my life. No man takes it from me. He gave
up the ghost. They came and took it and what
did they do? They bound him in linen cloth for his burial. Great piece of linen cloth. Now
they wrapped some spices in there. There was a whole bunch of people
who didn't understand what's going on here. Just like us,
we're ignorant unless the Holy Spirit opens our eyes. Just like
us, there's not a verse of scripture that we could understand if it
wasn't for God's sharing with us the revelation. Blessed art
thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this
unto you, but my Father which is in heaven." There's not a
verse of scripture that we could understand with any clarity if
it wasn't for the revelation that God gives us. If you have
a wit of understanding about the Word of God, it's because
of God and not because of our study, not because of our intensive
reading. People have studied the Bible
for 50 years and are ignorant of one thing, Jesus Christ. They got all the other stuff,
but they're ignorant of Jesus Christ. Well, they came and bound
him. They put those spices around
him and wrapped him up in this cocoon of linen cloth. He's bound
one more time. Bound by the grave. Bound by
the grave. And that very early the first
day of the week, when those ladies came, they did not think that
this is going to happen because they came with some more spices
because they didn't have enough to begin with. They're bound
down by a bunch of spices to come to rap some more about the
Lord. Well, when they got there, they
found out he's no longer bound by the grave. Now I have not,
I don't understand all that transpired from the time he's put in the
grave to the time he comes out of the grave. I don't understand
all the transactions that took place, but this I know, the church
from that time forward has been rejoicing in a risen Savior. He was so successful in all that
he had to do. He's so successful in his redemptive
work. He's so successful in his person
and greatness and might and power. He's so successful in what he
promised to do before the foundation of the world that three days
and three nights later he came out of that tomb victorious and
was able to be presented back to the Father with great glory
and could be said about Him, welcome. Welcome. You've finished the work. You've
completed the work. You've done what you promised
to do and redemption is given way back. It was given, but it's
now the check can be cashed. I don't know how long there was
one man in heaven all by himself singing the same song that the
whole chorus is going to sing in the end. That one person was
Abel. I don't know how long between
Abel and the next person that was saved got there. But for
a long time he's the only one singing, worthy is the lamb that
was slain. Same song everybody else is going
to sing. We're going to have the true meaning of that then.
We'll sing it with clarity then. Right now, we sing it. We ask
God to help us to sing it with clarity. Help us to understand
what we're singing when we sing, worthy is the Lamb. But He is
the risen Savior. They came, and there's an empty
tomb. And there's a linen cloth laid
by, and the napkin that covered His face laid by. Now, my Bible
class teacher has been teaching for about 12 years where I am.
And one day he taught from the book of John and that passage
of scripture. And he brought out, he said, it used to be in
the Eastern countries that if the man of the house was eating
his meal and he needed to go take care of some business, he
just dropped his napkin down like that. And that was a symbol,
I'll be back, don't touch my plate. Not like some of the restaurants
we go in anymore. They're there to get it before we're done.
But if the head of the house folded the napkin up and left
the table, he said, I'm finished. And you look at that napkin in
that tomb, it's folded up. I'm finished with this work. And he spent A short period of
time on this earth, sharing with his disciples, being among the
brethren, saying, it's me. It's me. Thomas, put your fingers
in my hands. Put your hand in my side. And
you know what Thomas said without having to do that? My Lord and
my God. Now he's seated at the right
hand of the Father. And there's an old hymn writer that put it
this way. We are now bound to Him. Bound to Him by a love-strong
cord. The binding goes on. We're bound
to Him. We're grafted into Him. We are
His. And He is ours. And we rejoice. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being
bound for me. Without it, I'd have no hope. No hope at all. If you hadn't
promised before the foundation of the world to enter into that
everlasting covenant, that everlasting covenant of sovereign grace,
I'd just been lost. And you know what? Deserved it.
Absolutely deserved it. The only people I've ever been
around in my life, when I was in religion, nobody deserved
hell. They all deserved heaven. They
were so glad that they helped God out to get to heaven. They
deserved it. The only people I've ever been
around in my life that know they deserved hell are people who
know grace. They know what they are. They
know where they came from. They know their righteousness
is as filthy rags, and they know they deserved hell, but we're
thankful. by God's grace that he placed
us in a kingdom of light, took us from the kingdom of darkness
and placed us in the kingdom of his dear son. We're thankful
for that. We're not proud about it. We're
thankful. And so we are bound to him. He took care of his father's
business and now he offered to the father. He never offers to
us. It's not an offer. It's a declaration. I declare unto you the gospel.
It's a declaration. As we heard read this morning
there in the book of Acts, there's none other name under heaven
whereby you must be saved. There's nowhere else. Thank God
He turns us in. at the appointed time, at the
appointed place, to hear the appointed gospel so that God
can save us by his free and sovereign grace. So Aaron was bound by
a turban, and on the very front of it, there's a gold plate that
said, holiness to the Lord. Thank you, thank you. Sweet to
hear the free grace gospel of God. It's all the glory. A lady asked me one time, she
said, do you mean to tell me that I don't have anything to
do with my salvation? I said, you did the sinning,
and he did all the saving. There is any. Thank you, Norm. Our Father, we bow before you
and we rejoice in the sweetness, the freeness, the fullness of
that salvation that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. If what we have does not bring
us to praise Him and Him alone, if any part is our part, then
we have not your salvation. Bless, we pray. Our own hearts enable us to believe
what you say in your word concerning how you save sinners. And we'll
thank you and we'll praise you and rejoice in Christ Jesus alone. In whose name we pray, Amen.