We'll turn with me now, if you
would, to John 11. I want to read the verse. Again,
we're in kind of one of these little side bars in our exposition
as we often find ourselves. As we go through the Word of
God, we come to places where there is a theological doctrine
that's found, or at least talked about partially, as we see here. And I always like to take that
opportunity to expound on that doctrine. I mean, the doctrine
of substitution is found here in our verses, but yet it isn't
expounded in our verses. And so I like to always, whenever
we come upon these places where doctrine is presented, And I
say doctrine, I mean pointed subject matter doctrine, you
know, all the teaching of the Word of God is doctrine. This
is all doctrine. But whenever we come across these
major subjects of doctrine, like substitution, I like to pause
in those and expound a little bit and see what the Bible teaches
about that substitution. And maybe that kind of will help
us to have a little bit better understanding as far as where
we're at here and what's being talked about. And so I kind of
call these our little sidebars. that we kind of pull over to
occasionally in our exposition where we're not actually going
verse by verse, but we're talking about what's in our verses where
we're at at the moment. And where we're at at the moment
is this place where Caiaphas in verse 49 says, and one of
them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said
unto them, ye know nothing at all. nor consider that it is
expedient for us. I mean, this thought God had
put in Caiaphas' mind, we know. And Caiaphas is telling these
folks, you know, you guys don't even have a clue about what you're
saying, about anything that's going on. And he said, it's expedient
for us. It's important. It's a most urgent
matter at this point in time. Now, I just want to stop there
before we get into the substitution and kind of lean back into the
exposition of this verse. Remember where we're at. Remember
what has happened. Jesus has displayed his godhood
in raising Lazarus from the dead. Many believed on him because
of that. And on the tails of that, many
who did not believe went back, reported to these religious elders,
and told them what was happened. And now at this point, they think,
okay, well, we've seen blind people, we've seen deaf people,
we've seen dumb people, we've seen crippled people. All being
healed by this man, we've seen him take fish and loaves and
divide it among the people. We've heard accounts of him walking
on the water. We've heard accounts of all these
things where he has controlled nature, that he has done all
these things. But now he's raised somebody
from the dead. And so the rallying cry became
urgent to them. We've got to do something about
this guy. We've got to do something about this guy. And that's why
they said, we need to come in and do something now. And he
says, listen, this is expedient for us that one man should die
for the people. Something's going to happen here.
And inevitably, it's going to be taken out on all of us. And
so it's better to get rid of this one man now than for all
of us to have to suffer for what he is Raising up this rebellion
this this discord this this, you know, he has no He has no
thought to any man matter of fact Turn over with me back to
John chapter 5 if you'll remember Back in John chapter 5 In John chapter five, Jesus told
these men, and let's see, I think it was down around 43, says,
I am come in my father's name and ye receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you
believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor
that cometh from God only? Now, if you remember back in
our exposition of this, we talked a little bit about this, about
Jesus not receiving honor from men, but yet it had been witnessed
already several times. The Bible says in the mouth of
two or three witnesses, the thing is established, and he presented
to them five Witnesses that he was God and that he was the Messiah
and they had not listened to that and here he says, you know,
I don't need honor from I don't receive honor from men and He
says you guys receive honor from men and you you you do all these
things and he says in verse 44 How can you believe? which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only Now, I didn't hit on this whenever we went through
this exposition. It's just recently that I've kind of looked at this
a little bit more as I was thinking about the scriptures that are
at hand. But this right here is basically saying, you say
you believe, but if all you do is you're out there honoring
other men, then how is it that you believe anything? You're
not believing in God, you're believing in the wisdoms of men.
And I think about that as I see across the internet, whenever
you visit with most people that believe the doctrines of grace,
most of them come from a reformed position, and you see that there
is a vast, vast, vast honoring of men. I mean, you can't have
a conversation with a lot of these guys without them saying,
well, you're wrong because this guy said this, or you're wrong
because this guy says this. And they'll quote over and over
and over and over again, creeds and confessions and all this
kind of stuff. And here Jesus is saying, you
take honor from men. You receive honor from men. He
says, but you don't seek the honor that cometh from God only.
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, there is one
that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye
believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of
me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe
my words? Thank you. Now, back to John
11. What these men is beginning to
see is there is no persuading him either way. He isn't joining
our ranks. He isn't joining our little club.
He's not going to take honor. If we give him honor, he's not
going to receive it. And he's not going to give us
honor, and he's not going to come among us. He's just this
guy that, you know, what are we going to do with this guy?
He's kind of his own person, following his own thought of
things. And so to them, it became a detriment.
And so that's why Caiaphas is saying the things he's saying.
It's better that one man should die for the people. and that
the whole nation perisheth not. And this spake he not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation and not for that nation only, but that he
should gather, but also he should gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad. We've been talking about substitution
and so far we've learned in in our study of substitution that
the whole entire word of God is centered upon this subject
of substitution. God has chosen to glorify himself
in many things, but the apex of that glorification is the
work of substitution of Jesus Christ for his elect children. And we see that that is the center
point of all the scripture. We also see that substitution
had to be by one who was perfect. It had to be a perfect substitute.
And so we looked a little bit about who our substitute was,
the God-man substitute. And we seen that it had to be
Jesus, the God-man. He had to be both God and he
had to be man and then we see what his purpose of being a substitute
was about. Why did that substitute come? What was the purpose of being
the substitute? What was entailed in substitution? Who did he substitute for? And
so we've seen that and then we looked at the last week we looked
at the accomplishment of that substitution. What did it bring
in? What did it bring? And we looked at that and we
seen that he had accomplished everything that he was sent for.
He was sent in this world to save sinners. He was sent to
save his people from his sin. He was sent to do all the will
of God. And he on that cross said, it
is finished. He prayed before that night.
He prayed, Lord, everything is being done exactly as you have
lined it out. And so we see that and we read
as we closed out yesterday or excuse me, yesterday, last week,
as we closed out, we we read that great passage in Hebrews
chapter 10 about where Christ had come the volume of the book
and had done all that the volume of the book had wrote that he
would do as the substitute and will do and continue to do as
the substitute and so today I'd kind of like to begin to kind
of close this talk about substitution out and it may finish today it
may finish next week just to see how the Lord leads in that
and how far we go, but turn with me, if you would, over to the
book of Hebrews again. Hebrews is such a rich book dealing
with the work of Jesus Christ as our great high priest, as
our substitute, the work of atonement. It's just rich. Like I said a
few weeks ago, besides Romans, Hebrew, some of the other epistles
are instructions kind of more along those lines, but Romans
and Hebrews is very theologically deep and strong in doctrine and
it's just very rich, very rich. Not that the other ones aren't
rich all the other epistles are rich even the small ones But they are these two books
I guess they really impacted me a lot so They seem very rich
to me, but in Hebrews chapter 1. I want us to look and see
because We're up to this point now. We've seen Christ as he
has been sent. His purpose, his coming, what
he accomplished. And now let's look at the work
of Christ, our substitute now. Okay, is the work of substitution
done? Did he substitute? And then he's
done. Or is the work of substitution
still working for us right now? And so, let's look at Hebrews
chapter one, and starting in verse one, it says, God, who
at sundry times, meaning at various times, and in divers manners,
or in different ways, spake in time past under the fathers by
the prophets, hath, So it's talking about God,
see that, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
times past under the fathers by the prophets, that's kind
of a, just a little side note in parentheses there. The actual
sentence says this, God hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds. Who hath in these last days,
what are the last days? I see Sister Louetta lifting
them off right there, the days after Christ was crucified. It's
not it now if you follow Tim LaHaye and the newspaper Eschatologist
they're going to say the last days is whenever after the man
of sin is revealed and the Rapture comes and tribulation begins
and all that's when the last days begin but according to scripture
the last days began with Jesus and and his ascent back into
heaven, the last days were there. But it says, have in these last
days, and we're still there in the last days, spoken unto us
by his son. So the writer of Hebrews here
is telling us that in the Old Testament, God spoke through
his prophets and told the things through his prophets and give
that direct were to his prophets. And we see that to be true. If
you look in the Old Testament, you see, you know, Moses heard
God and told people what God said. Jeremiah, all these prophets
that we read about, they spoke with God. God spoke to them and
they turned around and herald what God had told them to herald. Now, I just want to make this,
now remember, the Old Testament is, full of types and foreshadows,
right? All of those are pointing to
Christ. And I've already made the claim
at the beginning of this substitution study that substitution is at
the heart of all this. Every one of those prophets that
spoke to the people for God was a type of Christ. God does not
have any dealings with sinners except through a substitute.
And those people were the substitute between God and man in delivering
the message of God. God would not deal with them
direct, but only through one that he had appointed to speak
through. Every time he spoke to those
people, he spoke through those prophets. But look what it's
saying here now, it's saying, God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in times past under the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, Jesus Christ is
the brightness of the glory of God It's not angels it's not
Mary It's not the church Now the church is important. I'm
not trying to you know, talk bad about the church But brethren
if you want to see the glory of God It's going to be in the
face of always of Jesus Christ. He is the image of the God. Matter of fact, it says right
there in our verse, who being the brightness of his glory and
the express image of his person. Now again, we'll make a little
side note. I told you there might be a lot of rabbits here today.
Again, the God man, Jesus Christ is the brightness of the glory
of God, Yahweh, and he is also the express image of his person. Now, modern Trinitarianism would
disagree with that notion, although it's blatantly clear here in
Hebrew. Jesus Christ as the God-man is the express image of the person
of the Godhead. Whenever you have seen Him, you
have seen God. Jesus is God manifested in the
flesh. He is that eternal God, the everlasting
Father. the Prince of Peace, Mighty God,
King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus is Jehovah, Yahweh, I am
that I am. And sometimes we put too much
distinctions where distinctions aren't made in the Word of God,
okay? And so let's be biblical about
our view of the Godhead. and not follow after man's traditions. Who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his persons and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself, I love
that phrase, when by himself, it wasn't with the help of the
Romans, it wasn't with the help of the Jews, It wasn't with the
help of the free willers. It wasn't with the help of the
Unitarians. It wasn't with the help of anybody
else. It was. By himself. When he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. So where is our substitute now? He is the powerful arm of God
seated in the heavenlies. He is the right hand. All this
is symbolic language we know. He's at the right hand of God,
meaning that he is the power of God. He is the one carrying
out the things of God. He is the power of God. The Christ,
the God-man is the power of God. No wonder that the Bible says
that he is all powerful, that he has
been given power over all flesh. Our substitute brethren is God,
a very God, and he is seated now in the heavenly realms on
high. with all power. Whenever Jesus finished his work
of redemption. The Bible says that he was exalted. He was given a name that is above
every name. That at that name, every knee
shall bow. Every tongue shall confess. And so it seems so odd to me,
and I guess it isn't so odd, I guess it should be expected
as you read the Bible, but it seems so odd to me that churches
all over the world spend much time talking about
everything else but Christ. It seems that quote-unquote Christendom,
the very word, has Christ in it, that Christianity, again,
the very word Christ is in it, has lost the exaltation of Christ. We've lost our awe of the God-man,
Christ. We've lost our love for Christ. We've lost our eye for Christ. It used to be in preaching that
men centered on the Word of Christ. I'm so blessed whenever I go
back and read the old school Baptist writing how centered
they were on Jesus Christ. How in everything they drew from
Genesis to Revelation verses all over the Scripture and in
every one of them it was able to point to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But whenever you turn on the TV today, you turn on the radio
today, or if you're going to your average, you know, so-called
Christian establishment around the place. You don't hardly hear
that. You hear about how great we are,
how wonderful we are, how blessed we are, how we have been given
power over Satan, how we've been given a place to call on God
and to demand from Him whatever we ask, that we have been given
comfort and ease and wealth and health and whatever. It's just
us, us, us. Or if not that, it's about do,
do, do. But yet the exaltation of Jesus
Christ has left. I think one of the reasons, and
this is my opinion, this is speculation, do with it whatever you want.
Check it out the door if you don't like it, whatever. My opinion of why we see this
massive downgrade. And listen, the downgrade that
we see now puts that in the 1800s that Charles Spurgeon wrote about
and the contest that William Smoot wrote about. Listen, it
puts it to shame what we see going on today. They would not
believe the downgrade that we see in modern religion today
that has far moved from the Christianity of Scripture. from the doctrine
of Scripture, from the Christ of Scripture. And I think the
reason why we see this so much is the rejection of the biblical
teaching of substitution. Whenever you take the biblical
teaching of substitution, Christ only, for salvation, and you reduce
it down to conditionalism, you lose the awe, you lose the reverence,
you lose the worship to the one who atones, for the one who substitutes,
for the one who brings in everlasting salvation. We lose that awe,
why? We don't want to say it. We don't
want to talk about it. Armenians don't want to fess
up to the fact, but whether they are cognitively knowing it or
ignorant of the fact of what they're doing, whenever you put
a condition on your substitution, you have a split savior. You have a savior and you have
a savior. Whenever you lower substitution
to something that requires something besides the substitute, you now
are divided in your look. You look to Christ, but then
you look away to yourself. You look to Christ, you look
away to yourself. What happens when you look away
from Christ? Well, Peter learned that. He
went down under, didn't he? I believe the problem that we
have today in so-called Christianity and churches today is because
of the loss of the sovereign grace of God, the loss of the
doctrine of sovereignty, the doctrine of election, the doctrine
of particular redemption, the doctrine of irresistible, overcoming,
effectual grace. The rejection of that whether
it's an outright rejection or these quasi Calvinists that say
they believe it, but they don't preach it. That, I believe, is
the reason why we see the watering down of so many today. And it's because of substitution
being watered down. We no longer have a substitute
who by himself purged our sins. We have a substitute who died
on the cross to make substitution possible, and then the church
saves you. The Pope saves you. A priest
saves you. A grandpa saves you. A grandma
saves you. An aunt or uncle saves you. A
confession of faith saves you. Water baptism saves you. Membership
in a local church saves you. The Lord's Supper saves you.
Everything in the world saves you except the Savior. And so we find here in Hebrews,
God makes it perfectly clear. There was a man who came who
was God in the flesh, and he alone purged our sins. And whenever he did so, it was
so complete and finished and considered as final and done
that he sat down with all power. He didn't say he sat down after
giving some power away. He said he sat down and he has
all the power. He wasn't diminished in what
he did. taking on our sins didn't cause Him to be diminished in
any way. Matter of fact, because He took
on our sins successfully, because He atoned for us successfully,
because He substituted for us successfully, because He redeemed
us successfully, because He reconciled us successfully, because He regenerated
us successfully, Using the term correctly, guess what? God says, well done, my good
and faithful servant. Enter into the joy set before
you. He has made him heir of all things,
given him power over all flesh, and said, here, sit down with
all power. Now, brother, that ain't the
Jesus I hear preach. That is not the Jesus I hear
in all the places out there that are sounding out the noise. Like tinkling brass. Gongs. How many of y'all ever
watch the gong show? Remember whenever they got up?
I think of that whenever I hear
some of these guys out there just It's either that or Charlie
Brown's take a lot. You know, it just is nothing. They are saying nothing. We have a great high priest. Who has purged? Our sins. His substitution was accepted
and God has set him down in the heavenlies with all power. He's
the sovereign ruler of the universe. Turn with me if you would. Probably
the greatest passage of Scripture that deals with this very thing
is found in Isaiah 53. You got Romans and Hebrews in
the New Testament. You got Isaiah in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53 I'm going to start reading verse 10. So come
down to verse 10 with me, if you would. It says, Yet it pleased
the Lord, and if you'll notice, the word Lord there is all in
capitals. That's speaking of Jehovah. Yahweh. I am that I
am. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. Speaking of Jesus Christ. He
hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. He shall see his seed. Who's his seed? Says what? He shall see his seed. There's particular redemption
right there. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days
and the pleasure of the Lord. Here it is. You want to know
why I'm a hard shell? Right here, the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. Did Jesus accomplish all that
the father required? Absolutely. It says here that. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper his hand now again I've mentioned this in times past
a lot of times many times if anyone for whom Christ died is
not saved from sin from wrath then the pleasure of the Lord
did not prosper in his hand I hear the gainsayers say that, and
they'll quote the scriptures, that the Lord finds no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. So there you go, God wants all
men to be saved. And in 2 Peter, they'll say that
he's not willing, or he doesn't have any pleasure He's not willing
that any should perish but all come to repent. So there's two
mighty verses that the Arminian pulls out of Scripture for us
to hush our mouths about God and
his purpose and substitution and Christ's work of atonement. He came to die for everybody. Well, whenever we look at the
scripture that he says he has no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, that's right square dab in the middle of a whole bunch
of talk to the prophet at that time, who, by the way, he told
the prophet if the prophet failed to continue in those things that
he too would die. But in the middle of all that
conversation, the thing was do and live. It's talking about
temporal things. It was talking about temporal
life. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked cavalier. He's just not a cavalier God.
He's a God with purpose. And he says, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. And if you do this, you will
die. And that's the purpose that I have. It wasn't talking about
eternal salvation. If it was, then salvation is
by works because he said, if you do, you will live. So if
they kept up the good works, they will live. But he also says
that if the righteous forsake those ways, he shall die. So the righteous can lose their
salvation now. See, Brethren, that's why context
is so important in these verses, and these people are plucking
these things out. This is one of the great things about going
verse by verse through the Scriptures, is you get an overall context
of everything. But in Peter, we also find out
there's context there too. It is to the usward, to the brethren,
to the elect of God. So, but let's just take their
thing and see if it'd be true. See if there's any contradiction
in that. Let's just say they got the context right and they
didn't, but let's just say, let's play the game. The pleasure of
the Lord is the salvation of all men. Well, right here in
Isaiah says that whenever Christ was bruised and was the substitute,
that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So if that's the case, if the
pleasure of the Lord is the salvation of everyone, then according to
Isaiah 53, that shall be done. Now the Unitarian's right. That's
what I was saying last week, brother. I have more respect
for the Unitarian than I do for the Arminian. The Unitarian is
consistent. They see that the scripture says
that Christ is a successful Savior. That all those for whom he died,
he saved. They just miss it on who they
were. And that it wasn't everybody.
However, the Arminian, they say that Jesus died for everybody,
but can't save anybody unless you let him. They say that he
is a savior that doesn't save. And Isaiah here says that he
shall prosper. Verse 11, it says. He shall see
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge,
shall my righteous servant justify many. For he shall bear their
iniquities. Everyone for whom the Lord bore
their iniquities was justified. So if that's the case, if the
pleasure of the Lord is the salvation of all, then the substitute substituted
for all. And in the death of the substitute,
what did he accomplish? He accomplished all the will
of the Father. We talked about that last week. The pleasure of the Lord is successful
in his hands. And he sat down at the right
hand of God with all power because all had been completed. Well,
if that's the case, if the pleasure of the Lord is these such things,
then brethren, everybody has been justified and nobody is
under the wrath of God. See, we need to trust the scriptures. Trust the word of God. And not
the philosophies of man. Does it sound good to me in the
natural ear to hear that Christ died for everybody and that everybody's
gonna be saved or that God loves everybody and wants everybody
to be saved and that I can actually make my decision for my destiny?
Yeah, that appeals to the natural man. That appeals to the natural
man. Now with that being said, don't
that tell you something about Arminianism? Arminianism is the gospel of
the natural man. and we should reject Arminianism
or whatever name you want to put on it. Any gospel other than
He alone purged our sins, any gospel that is apart from imputation
of righteousness, imputation of sin, is not the gospel. And we should reject it. And
those who hold to it We cannot call them brothers and sisters
in Christ. That doesn't mean that they're
not maybe the elect. We don't know those things. But
as far as the evidential thing, we can't say that because the
Bible says the only ones who are brothers and sisters in Christ
are those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of
God. That's the gospel that is Given
to the child of grace to believe. And if nobody is showing that
then we don't have. We can't say that by the dictates
of Scripture. Look with me if you would at
John chapter 17 in verse 2. I've already quoted this already,
but let's read it with our own eyes here. The Lord's Prayer I believe every
time I say it, someone usually says, what do you mean? That's
not the Lord's Prayer. Lord's Prayer is our Father,
Lord in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's not the Lord's Prayer. He was telling them to pray that.
This is the Lord's Prayer, chapter 17. Look if you would, verse
two. It says, and thou hast given him, Jesus praying again, and
thou hast given him, Jesus, power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to everyone in the world. Maybe John didn't write it down
right. Maybe the translators didn't
translate it right. Maybe they got from the corrupted
Greek. What does it say? that he should
give eternal life to as many as. I wrote a little article
last year, it's on our Facebook page at the church, but it speaks
about this. We have in our English grammar,
we have what's called a quantifier, okay? And this is a quantifier. This is telling the quantity
for whom Christ died. As many as. As many as. As many as doesn't mean everyone.
It only means a certain group. If I would say, as many as attended
the service today, ate the fellowship dinner afterwards, does that
mean everyone in our church ate the fellowship dinner? Well,
not only the ones who was here, that ate the fellowship dinner.
As many as ate the fellowship dinner. That's as many as. That is a particular number. It's a specific group. And so
here, thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should
give eternal life to as many as. As many as. So does he quantify that? He absolutely does quantify that. Does he reveal who that group
is? He absolutely does. To as many
as thou hast given him. No more. No less. Now. Is that what the Bible says? Oh, are Christians supposed to
Trust and believe what the scriptures say. Then why don't some people,
when they see this, say? Well, that's true. Why don't some professing Christians,
when they read the simplicity that's here? All that the father
giveth me shall come to me. Whenever Jesus says that my sheep hear my voice and
follow me, when Jesus says that you believe not because you're
not my sheep, whenever there's the distinction between sheep
and goats and there's never a transition from one to the other, and Jesus
makes that perfectly clear when we read in Isaiah that the work
of Christ completed all the pleasure of the Lord, When we read in
Hebrews where it says that he himself has purged that and for
everyone who has been purged, they're justified. Everyone who
has had their sins removed is clean before God. Not guilty. Whenever the scriptures are so
clear in that, why then do some believe and some don't when it's
so clear? the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God and he cannot for they are spiritually
discerned they've not been given the mind of Christ because in
the mind of Christ we can know God we can know his son we can
know his gospel So where is God now? Where is Christ now? He
is at the right hand of God with power over all flesh, giving,
again, as the substitute, giving eternal life to all that has
been given to him. And I would say that he was doing
that before he hung on the cross, giving eternal life to all those
Old Testament saints. So he has given him power over
all flesh. Now, there's a few things that
we're gonna look at and we're probably not gonna get to many
of them today, but I want us to kind of recap some things
and kind of maybe get a more compact view of what we've looked
at now over the course of a few weeks. But we see here that our
substitute is still standing in our place. And he's always
been standing in our place because his substitution is an everlasting
substitution. His substitution began in eternity
and it continues into eternity. There is always going to be the
substitution. The Bible speaks in revelation.
Whenever we are gathered around the throne, we are gathering
around the throne and we are worshiping the one on that throne
who when John seen it said one who looked as a lamb slain. We're going to know him as our
substitute, our sacrificial lamb through all eternity. We're going to know him as the
glorious God. Because what is one of the things
that is being sung right now, that back in Isaiah, he talked
about it, and then John in Revelation, he's seeing the exact same vision
that Isaiah's seeing, and that is all of those angelic throngs
worshiping God day and night and not ceasing to give praise,
saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is filled with his glory. There's going to be the worship
of the God man who sits upon the throne. Who has completed everything
and have been given power. That's my Jesus. That's the Jesus that's worth
worshiping. Not a failed Jesus. A Jesus that
cannot save is not a savior. Thus, we have no need to worship
him because salvation is found in only one man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And because of his work of substitution,
God has highly exalted him and that at his name we should bow. And at his name, our tongue should
confess. So if it isn't that Jesus, then
we have no obligation to bow to any of them. And there are a lot of Jesus's
out there. That's not this Jesus. And there are a lot of people
whose knees are bowing at those Jesus's. But brother, I can guarantee
you there is coming a day. When those needs will bow to
this Jesus. And declare. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
was right. No, I'm just kidding. That the Word of God was correct. The Word of God was correct.
He is the Savior of the world. Because all those people from
all over the world will see the throne from every tribe, language,
nation and tongue before the throne of God giving praise and
glory who was From the same lump. But brought out of the same lump
and made vessels of honor. They get because of their depravity
because of their sinfulness. They didn't see God. They didn't
love God. because of their depravity, they
never was used of God. Well, I say used of God, God
uses them despite who they are. I'm talking about in his works
of righteousness. We never see there being a transition after Christ comes. There's never
a transition. It's set in stone, those who
will be redeemed and those who will be reprobated. And at that
day, they will see the full glory of God in what God said. I want my memorial to be to all
generations. I am that I am. I will be compassionate
on whom I will be compassionate. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will harden whom I will harden.
I am the Lord and I do these things and no man can stay my
hand. I am the sovereign of creation. I am the sovereign of mankind.
I am the sovereign of every decision, of every action, of everything
that ever will take place. I done it all. And none can say
he did not do it. And I'm thankful and I'm humbled. That I'm able to see that. To
believe that. To preach that. Because had it
not been for the substitute. Substituting for me. I would
be on the other side. The Gospel. The doctrines of
grace. Predestination election should
never be a point to puff us up or boast in. If anything, we
should be humbled that we are included in that. Now, right
before we end here, I want you to turn back one more time to
Hebrews where we were. There in Hebrews where we was
at first chapter. It says there. I think these last days spoken
unto us by his son, whom he had appointed. Air. Of all things. As the substitute,
because he is the substitute. For us. God has given him everything. The Bible says there he is the
heir of all things. We know what an heir is. An heir
is someone who inherits, has an inheritance, right? And the
Bible says that he is the heir of all things. But because we are united to
Christ, we too become the heir of all things. Well, that kind
of sounds like blasphemy. You kind of better watch where
you're going there. The Bible says that we are joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Now, if that don't smash you
down a little bit further, if already what we've heard about
what Christ has done for us doesn't lower us down into the dirt In
humility. The fact that. Jesus Christ saved
sinners. We should be on our face before
him. But for the him to then tell us I have been given all
things. And all things are yours. That
we have been given all things that we are joint heirs with
Jesus. And that the Scriptures in Hebrews
also says that he calls us. Brother. He's not ashamed to
call us brother. You know, it's one thing for
somebody to give you a gift, you know. That's kind of a humiliating
type thing, so to speak. And I say humiliating in a good
way, you know, not in a bad way. It's humbling for somebody to
think of you and out of nowhere give you a gift. And you receive
that gift, you kind of feel, you know, a little humbled about
that. Maybe sometimes, maybe even a little embarrassed. I
don't feel that I deserve that. Out of nowhere, somebody give
me a gift. But for the God of all things. Who is holy and righteous and
just to not only save a sinner, but then to turn around and say
all things are yours. Come here brother. It just grinds it on down to
grind you on down to nothing, doesn't it? That he would call
me friend. That he would call me brother.
that it would be a joy. Set before him. As the Scriptures
in Isaiah said, and as Hebrew says to go and be my substitute. Friend, I don't know about you,
but I tell you what I want that Jesus. I don't want any other
Jesus. I want to listen about any other
Jesus. I've consigned myself to my goal to any place that
preaches another Jesus. I'm not going to listen to another
Jesus. It's dishonoring to my Jesus. for me to go and listen
about the accolades being built up of another Jesus. Matter of
fact, the Bible calls that spiritual adultery. I'm his bride. He's my groom. We have been betrothed together. And one of these days, this marriage
will be consummated. and there will be a marriage
supper of that lamb, and there will be a glorious feast honoring
that groom. I've told you here before, we've
got it backwards in our society. All the emphasis is put on the
bride. When you get into some Baptist churches, all the emphasis
is put on the bride. We put all the emphasis on the
bride here, but brethren, when we get there, it's all about
the groom. And for me to play spiritual
adulterous. With another Jesus. Dishonoring to our Lord. Sinful. We should abstain from
that. So I pray I pray that these things
have been edifying to you. Let's stand and have word of
prayer and we'll go back again. As many as are here is welcome
to the fellowship dinner. Does anybody have anything they'd
like to add or any comment or request or anything like that? Brother, don't feel bad about
ever speaking up. I always wanted, if you had something
that the Lord placed upon your heart, to have that freedom to
do that. This preacher likes to talk a
lot and go straight through, and sometimes I don't open that
up for much discussion, but you're always welcome to do that. I
want you to know that. All right, well, let's bow and
have a word of prayer, and we'll be dismissed. Gracious Heavenly
Father, again, what a joy it is to be in the house of the
Lord with the brethren. of the Lord and to hear the Word
of God. To be able to proclaim the Word
of God, we are so thankful for our substitute Jesus Christ.
What a glorious gospel it truly is. Father, one that we had never
come up with on our own. And we definitely never could
believe on our own. And so father, we're so thankful.
I'm thankful for people that you've given here today that
love this gospel. That love this Jesus. Father, as Brother Tom has made
mention in Thessalonians, the word coming in power and being
received and lives being touched and changed is that evidence
that one could very possibly be the elect of God. And what
a joy it is to see whenever that word of God is received. that
that life is turned around and shares that same truth with those
that are around them. And so we pray for all the sheep
of God that are out there that have yet to be brought in. Father,
we pray that you would continue to bring your people in. We pray,
Lord, that if you see fit to allow us to scatter the seed
and to water what might be there, for the child of God to give
them sustenance, to give them food. Father, we pray, Lord,
that you just might use us. But we know that you're teaching
your children, you're drawing your children, you're building
your church as you see fit. And our confidence is in your
missionary endeavors and not so much in ours. We are so grateful
that you have planned all things and you are procuring all things
for yourself. And Lord, we just honor you and
glorify you and praise you for that. I thank you for the salvation
of all your people. We pray, Lord, that you'd be
with us as we go to fellowship now for the food that you prepared
for us to eat. May it nourish our bodies, Lord.
We thank you for all the ladies. that have prepared these things,
and we just thank you for their service to you among the people,
and it's definitely not without notice and without appreciation
for what they do and what you've done in and through them, and
enabled them to be such great servants to the brethren. And
so, Father, I just pray that you continue to be glorified
in everything that we do and sing, for it's in Christ's name
that we pray.