Let's open our Bibles for our
scripture reading to Genesis 21. Genesis chapter 21, we'll read
the first seven verses. And the Lord visited Sarah as
he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare
Abraham a son in his old age at the set time. of which God
has spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of
his son that was born unto him, which Sarah bared to him, Isaac.
And Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, being eight days old,
as God had commanded him. And Abraham was 100 years old
when his son, Isaac, was born unto him. And Sarah said, God
hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with
me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah
should have given children suck? For I born him a son in his old
age. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together. Our Father, we've gathered here
together this evening out of the dry and barren world in which
we live, seeking a word from thee. Father, we've come seeking
a refreshment from thy storehouses of grace. And Father, how I pray
that you'd send your spirit upon us and enable us to truly worship. Enable us, Father, to read into
your word and study your word and to see Christ our Savior,
to see him by faith and to rest in him, rejoice in him, to have
our souls thrilled and strengthened and comforted who our Lord Jesus
Christ is and what he's accomplished for his people. Father, I pray
that you might use this message to strengthen us as we go back
out into the world and continue through this week, continue through
our journey below, that you'd feed us with your word and strengthen
us, enable us to continue on, Father, for your glory, resting
in Christ our Savior. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people, wherever they meet tonight, wherever your
gospel is preached. Father, I pray you bless your
word. Bless your word to your glory, to the good and edification
of thy people. Father, use it to show us your
glory in this dark and difficult day in which we live. Father,
how we pray you reveal your redemptive glory to your people. Father,
I thank you for this place. I thank you for this group of
people that you've gathered together. And pray for each home, each
person, Father, that you'd bless our homes with your presence,
with your grace, with your love. Enable us, Father, to walk a
right in this world, to walk after thee, to walk by faith
and not by sight. And Father, we dare not forget
to pray for those of your people that you brought into the time
trouble and trial. They're in deep waters with many
different afflictions. Father, we pray for them. Father,
we're thankful to be able to bring these cares and concerns
and desires to the feet of the King of Kings, who does all things
well, does all things after the counsel of his own will. Father,
we pray to be your will to comfort and to heal and be with your
people. Now, Father, again, I pray you'd bless us as we look into
your word. Give us a refreshment from the
storehouses of your grace. First, in Christ's name, for
his sake we pray, amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, The Savior and Salvation. There are several
real good pictures in our text this evening of spiritual life. We have a picture of where spiritual
life comes from, And we have a picture of the effect that
that spiritual life has in the natural life of a believer. Now,
if we're gonna understand anything about salvation, we're gonna
have to know the Savior, aren't we? If we're gonna understand
anything about salvation, people make up all kinds of things about
salvation, but if we're gonna understand anything about salvation,
we've got to understand the God who saves His people, how and
why that He does it. How is it that God saves his
people from their sins and brings them that salvation? Not only
does he, this Christ save his people from their sin, but then
the savior brings that salvation to his people. And there are
several different points in Isaac's life here. His life on earth
begins, but there are several different points in his life
where he's a picture of Christ, the savior and his birth is a
very good picture of Christ. First of all, the birth of Isaac
is a picture of the birth of Christ. Look at verse one, and
the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken. Now God promised the birth of
Isaac long before he was born, just like God promised that Christ
would be born in the flesh, that he would be born as a man. God
promised that. 6,000 or 4,000 years before Christ
was born in Bethlehem. When right before Adam and Eve
were thrust out of the garden, God promised them the seed of
woman is coming and he's going to undo for his race what Adam
did to his race. God made that promise and God
always keeps his promise. Sure enough, he came. Second,
God promised that he would bless his people through Isaac. Remember when When Abraham prayed,
he said, oh, the Ishmael might be before you, that you might
deal this way with Ishmael. And the Lord said, no, I'm going
to make of Ishmael a great nation. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. The Messiah is coming through
Isaac and all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed
in him. What God has promised, he will bless his people through
the whole world, through his seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has an elect people from every nation all across this
world. God has elect people and he's
called them out. He's blessed them with salvation.
He's blessed them with eternal life in Christ the Savior. Just exactly like he promised
he would. And thirdly, the birth of Isaac was a miracle, wasn't
it? Just like the birth of Christ
is a miracle. We're entering into that season. People will
be saying songs about it and thinking about it and having
little manger scenes of it. The birth of Isaac and our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now they're both miracles. Isaac
was born to a mother who had gone through menopause many years
ago. It was physically impossible
for Sarah to give birth to a child, but she did by a miracle of God
because nothing's too hard for God. The Lord Jesus was born
to a mother who was a virgin. When the angel came and told
her she'd be with child, she said, that's impossible. It's
physically impossible for Mary to bear a child she knows not
a man. Yet she gave birth as a virgin
by a supernatural conception. Mary of Nazareth, this poor Jewish
girl, gave birth to the Son of God in the flesh. Not just any
boy baby, the Son of God in the flesh, even though she knew not
a man. Now, that's a miracle if I've
ever heard one. But you want to hear a greater
miracle than that? It's why Christ came in the flesh. Why was Christ
born in Bethlehem's manger? Why was he conceived as an embryo
in the womb of Mary and born as a baby boy, just like every
other baby ever born on this earth? is for this reason. Christ came in the flesh to save
a sinful people who were not just only sinful, but natural
born enemies of God. Christ came in the flesh to represent
those people. He had to take on their nature
in order to represent them. And those people were his natural
born enemies. These were the very ones crying,
crucifying, give us Brabus. And yet he still died for those
sinful, dead, vile people that he might give them life and bring
them to God. Now that's a miracle. That's
a miracle. And to bring it right down to
where the rubber meets the road, this is the greatest miracle
I've ever heard of. The son of God became flesh. He obeyed God's law. He went
to the cross. He suffered and died and was
made sin. to save me. That's a miracle. And then fourth, the birth of
Isaac brought great joy. So did the birth of our Lord,
didn't it? Look at verse seven, or six, I'm sorry, six. And Sarah
said, God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh
with me. And she said, who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah
should have given children suck? For I have borne him a son in
his old age." I think we all get at least some understanding
of Sarah's joy at giving birth to this baby boy. We get some
understanding of that. Well, just think of the joy that
we have because Christ came to save sinners. If Christ was not
born as a baby, a real man in Bethlehem, If he did not grow
to the strength of life and sacrifice himself for the sin of his people,
we'd have no good news to tell sinners unless Christ came in
the flesh. We'd have no reason for joy.
We'd have no reason to have any hope of eternal life if Christ
had not been born in the flesh. That's the very reason the angels
sang joy to the world when Christ came. Peace is now on earth. We would have none of that good
news. We'd have no reason for that joy unless Christ was born. And Christ the Savior, he came
and he accomplished the eternal redemption of his people. Now
this salvation is not just a legal state before God, like a legal
state that we have but we will not participate in, we will not
enjoy until we get to heaven. Salvation in Christ involves
a whole lot more than checking boxes on a piece of paper. Checking
boxes on a legal document. All those legal requirements,
they had to be fulfilled, didn't they? But salvation is much more
than that. Salvation involves God giving
his people spiritual life. We're dead and he gives life. He causes there to be a birth
and he gives spiritual life to his people. Now we still have
a nature of flesh, we still live a life in the world, but that
spiritual life that's in a believer, it affects our natural life. Not as much as we wish it would,
but it affects it, doesn't it? It directs it. And I wanna spend
the rest of my time this evening looking at this spiritual life,
this salvation that Christ the Savior brings his people. Number
one, the spiritual life God gives his people, is the result of
God's promise. In verse one, look at it again.
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken. In verse seven, Sarah said, who
would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given
children suck? Want me to tell you who would have said that?
God did. God did. He promised that. Salvation is
life. It's a new spiritual life that's
given to the believer in the new birth. And you see that pictured
in the birth of Isaac. The very reason that Isaac was
born at this time was because of a promise God made to Abraham. He made that promise 25 years
ago. After 25 years, do we start to
doubt God's going to keep his promise? No, he made that promise
25 years ago prior to the birth of Isaac. And when the time came,
when the appointed time came, that child was born. If you think
about it, the only way that Isaac could have been born to a mother
who's 90 years old and a father who's a hundred years old is
if God promised that child would be born. God promised he'd be
born and then God had to be the one to make it happen. because
the flesh couldn't do it. A 90-year-old mother, a 100-year-old
father, they can't produce life. They can't produce a child. So
God had to promise it, and then he had to make it happen. But
do you know God's people have spiritual life for the exact
same reason? Because God promised it. You
and I cannot produce spiritual life in ourselves. When we try
to produce life, all we can produce is more sinful flesh. If we try
to produce some sort of spiritual life, some sort of righteousness,
we think we can have before God by our works, they're not getting
the job done. All our works of the law, all
our works of religion, all our works of morality can produce
are filthy rags that cannot please God. That as a matter of fact,
offend God. I mean, you think, oh, we're
gonna offer these works, I'm gonna live so good and offer these
works to God. Nothing could be more offensive to God Almighty
than that. The best we can produce is offensive
to God. Spiritual life is the result
of God's covenant of grace. Before God created anything,
God promised, that's what a covenant is, it's a promise. God promised
he would give spiritual life to his people. And here's why
he's gonna give spiritual life to his people. Because his son,
in this covenant of grace, agreed he's gonna die the death that
they deserve. Christ dies the death his people deserve so God's
elect can live. See, this promise of God, that's
the only way eternal life can be sure. If there was a way God
gave for us to earn life by our works, It wouldn't be sure. Well, I guess it wouldn't be
sure. It'd be sure to fail. It'd be sure to fail. The only
way we can receive eternal life is if God promised to give it
to us in his covenant of grace. And again, God always keeps his
promise. Always. You know, a promise of
God is just as sure as a past act of God. It's just as sure,
because God always keeps his promise. God promised the birth
of Isaac. Sure enough, Isaac was born.
God promised the birth of Christ. And seemingly when all hope was
lost, Christ was born in Bethlehem. The only people that saw it were
a few, I guess, farmhands and a few shepherds. That's about
it. But he was born. God promises to give his people
eternal life. And that promise is based on
a foundation of something. God promises to give his people
eternal life because Christ put their sin away. I'm telling you,
sure enough, they're all going to be born again. They're going
to be born again through the preaching of the gospel. And
when it's time, every last one of them is going to appear in
glory. Someone asked me recently about
preaching and getting discouraged. I mean, I guess we could all
get discouraged, but my honest answer was this. No, I'm not discouraged in the
least. Not discouraged in the least.
The preaching of Christ is going to accomplish God's purpose.
It's going to call out every one of God's sheep. I don't have
to see to it. God will see to it. I don't have
to drag him in here. God will do it. I mean, you know,
we invite people to, you know, try to give them links to sermon
audio. Well, we used to give cassettes,
you know, now we give, now we give them a link to a message
or something, but God's going to make sure his people hear
it. And I don't have to convince them. I don't have to be a salesperson. God will do that. God and the
Holy Spirit will do that. All of God's people are going to
be born again. They're going to be brought to Christ by the
preaching of Christ. God's sheep are going to be fed.
They're going to be comforted. That life is going to be fed
by the preaching of Christ. Well, that makes it pretty simple
then, doesn't it? Just preach Christ. Just preach Christ. God's going to give his people
eternal life. I know that as much as I know
anything at all. We know that God's going to give
his people eternal life. No matter what happens, they're
going to have life. They're going to know Christ.
We know that. But do you know that doesn't make a believer
fatalistic in the least? Knowing that God's offering,
knowing that God always does his will, knowing that God's
promised to save a people and he will save them by the preaching
of the gospel. That makes a believer that drives a believer to prayer.
I can't think of a better reason to pray and ask God to save me
that he promised he's going to save sinners. I can't think of
a better reason to pray for our family, our friends, our loved
ones that don't know the Lord. I can't think of a better reason
to pray for them than this. God promised He's going to save
sinners. Oh, pray. And I've said this so many times,
when we pray, every time we can find the way to do it, plead
with God by pleading His Word, by pleading His promises, because
He'll always keep them. He'll always keep them. They
see how this spiritual life, it directs our life here below,
doesn't it? All right, number two, and I
kind of touched on this a minute ago. Spiritual life is a miracle.
Verse two, for Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his
old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. You know,
there it is again. This is happening because of God's promise at the
set time by God. Now at this time, Abraham and
Sarah, are 90 and 100 years old. I have known very few people
that live to be 100 years old. But their bodies had gotten pretty
frail at that time. 90 and 100. Sarah had gone through menopause
many years ago. It's physically impossible for
her to have a son. So if Sarah's gonna give birth
to a son, God's gonna have to perform a miracle. God's going
to have to perform a miracle and give life where there is
none. He's going to give life where
it's impossible for the flesh to produce life. And that's just
what God did. I thought about this today. Not
only does this dead womb of a 90 year old woman have to conceive,
God's got to make that dead womb conceive. Then the womb of this
90 year old woman has got to support that baby. for nine months. It's got to form everything it
forms in there and feed the baby and all these things, you know.
And then after that, after nine months of lugging this baby around
in her 90 year old body, Sarah somehow has to come up with the
energy to give birth to this baby. It's a miracle. God did that
to give the life that he promised. You think about this promise.
God first made this promise to Abraham one night. Abraham was
alone with God 25 years ago. Well, okay. God made this promise.
Sarah's going to have a son. I mean, maybe a woman, 65 and
a man, 75, maybe they could, they could have a child. Maybe,
maybe, um, it would be very unusual, but it's not completely unheard
of. So you know what God did? He waited 25 years until all
hope in the flesh was gone. And then God performed this miracle
so that everybody would know. Sarah got pregnant and Sarah
gave birth by the power and will of God. It couldn't have come
by the power of the flesh. It had to come by the power of
God. It couldn't come from the will of the flesh. If this thing
was going to happen by the will of the flesh, Sarah would have
had 12 sons by now, wouldn't she? It didn't come by the will
of the flesh. It came by the will of God. It happened supernaturally. This is something everybody had
to say. This is something only God could do. Well, you know,
spiritual life comes the very same way. It's supernatural. It's mysterious. Spiritual life
can't come from the flesh. One of the things that grates
on my very last nerve is people saying, well, you make this decision
and you walk this aisle, you get dunked in the water or you
do this or you do that or you straighten up and you promise
to act better, you'll have spiritual life. Well, there's no mystery to that.
There's just no mystery to that. Spiritual life is mysterious.
It cannot come from the flesh, from the will of the flesh or
the doing of the flesh. you're going back to the birth
of just a human baby for a minute. It's utterly amazing any time
a human baby is ever born. I mean, what it takes to conceive
that baby and that baby to grow in that mother's womb and have
a live birth, I mean, it's just utterly amazing. It's a miracle
of life that just because it happens so often I mean, here
we all are and we were all born one day. I mean, you know, it
happens so often we lose sight of the fact this thing's a miracle.
But spiritual life, that's a miracle that no sinner who's been born
again ever takes for granted. God gave me life when I couldn't
produce it, when I was dead. This thing is a supernatural
thing. God, the Holy Spirit, birthed life in me when it was
absolutely impossible. And he's not going to do it until
all hope in the flesh is gone. I'll use Saul of Tarsus as an
example. Saul, he said, I thought I was alive without the law once.
Boy, I thought I was something. As touching the righteousness
which is in the law outwardly, Paul said, blameless. He said,
but when I saw what the law said, I died. See, we got to die. We've got
to see there's no hope in me. And when all hope is gone, that's
when God moves in this miraculous way and gives life. And God doing it that way, not
only do we see this is a miracle of God, it really makes it sweeter.
It makes the grace of it. It makes the love of it. It makes
the condescension of it so much sweeter. I mean, you think about what happens
when a sinner is born again. I've seen this happen countless
times. Here's an uninterested person. Here they are, though, in the
congregation, for whatever reason. They're a child and they don't
have a choice. Their parents make the rules,
they come to service. Maybe it's a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
Bro. Henry said one time, he said,
our young ladies are our best missionaries. For whatever reason,
the person's here. And maybe they're going to have
a church dinner. And they think, well, it's a
free meal. They come. For whatever reason, they're uninterested.
But there they sit, listening to the gospel preached. And they
may sit there a good while. This is probably a pretty intelligent
person. They can understand what the
preacher's saying. I mean, the gospel is so simple,
our children understand it. If what I'm preaching to you
don't understand, that's on me. The gospel's simple to understand,
but what we can't produce is a love for it. We can't produce
in ourselves a need for Christ. So we don't believe it. I mean,
the reason people don't believe the gospel is they don't think
they need it. The question is a question of need. But there
they sit, and maybe they sit there for a while. And at some
point, and they more than likely don't even realize exactly when
it first happened, something changes. Now not only do they
understand what the preacher's saying, I understand salvation
is by substitution and satisfaction. Christ suffered and died in my
place so I can live. That's as simple as ABC. But
suddenly they start loving it. And not just loving it, They
find themselves believing Christ. If I can say it this way, there's
a difference in saying, oh, you know, I believe the gospel. And
I do. I mean, there's nothing wrong
with saying it that way. But Sean, I believe Christ. There's
a difference there. I don't just believe the gospel's
true. I believe on Christ. I'm right happy to cast my soul
on him and leave all the responsibility to him. Now they hear the gospel,
not just as it makes sense, not just as does the outline flow
smoothly. Now they hear the gospel as good
news. You know why it's good news?
Because now they need it. Now they need Christ. Now they
need mercy. Now they need forgiveness. So
the gospel becomes good news to them. Now they don't say,
yeah, I've heard that before. I mean, this preacher keeps saying
the same thing over and over and over again from different
texts every week. Now they need to hear it again and again and
again and again. I need to hear again. How is
it Christ saved his people from their sins? I'm out there in
the salt mine slugging through this world best way I know how.
I'm so ashamed of myself. I'm ashamed of my faith. I'm
ashamed of my failures. I'm ashamed of my weakness. I'm
ashamed of my sin. Oh, tell me again. Christ loves
his people. and he'll never let them go.
He chose them when they were sinners. He died for them while
they're yet sinners. He's not going to let go of them
because they're sinners. Cause you know why? They're precious
to him. How precious are they to him? He shed his precious
blood to redeem them. Tell me again, he's not going
to let me go. Tell me again about the glory
of his person. Tell me again about his, His
beauty, His sufficiency. Tell me again how He's so gracious
and tender to sinners. Tell me again. I need to hear
this again, over and over again, so my heart's assured, so my
heart's comforted. Some of y'all right now, either
right now or in the very recent past, have gone through deep,
deep, deep, dark, difficult trials. And your heart needs comfort,
it does. And the only way it can be comforted is hearing Christ.
But you know, Just going to work and having a normal Wednesday
at work, that's enough. I need my heart comforted. I
mean, just going, I used to say this about myself, I try the
best I can never to set foot in Walmart. I mean, ordering
online is the best thing I ever heard of. But if I had to go
to Walmart, my heart needs comfort. I mean, this is just, getting
through this world is just, what will comfort your heart? Tell
me of Christ one more time. Point me to him, let me see him.
What happened? How did this uninterested person
suddenly start loving this and needing it and believing it?
God performed a miracle and gave life before eternity, before
creation, back in eternity when there was only God. God promised
at this set time, I'm gonna reveal myself to this sinner. And he
kept his promise. That's exactly what happened.
The Holy Spirit blew where He listed and came through and blessed
the preaching of God's Word and gave life. Now that's a miracle. That's a miracle. I mean, you
can't exactly explain how all that happened exactly. But I'm
telling you what, if the Holy Spirit did it, you sure do know
it. Now, you know, if your mama did it, your daddy did it, your
girlfriend did it. But if the Holy Spirit did it,
you know it. You know it. It's a miracle. It's a miracle that God, the
Holy Spirit, performs for his people. All right, number three,
spiritual life has to come through obedience to the law. Verse four,
and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old,
as God had commanded him. Now here's why this point's important.
God cannot give spiritual life to somebody that doesn't deserve
it. If God gives us what we deserve by our works, by our nature,
he'll damn every last one of us. Because what is the wages
of sin? What do you earn by sin? Death. As scripture says, God can't
give life to somebody if he violate his justice to do it. So the
salvation of God's people, now it has to come through the obedience
to the law, but it can't be our obedience to the law. Because
we can't obey God's law for a split second. So salvation, this spiritual
life comes to God's people through the obedience of Christ, through
Christ our federal head. See, Adam, he made his race to
be sinners. He made his race to be unrighteous
by his disobedience to the law. Christ makes his people, his
race, righteous, pure, holy, perfect by his obedience to the
law. And that's what's pictured by
the circumcision of Isaac. Isaac had to be circumcised to
obey the law. This was God's commandment. Now
here's the thing. Isaac didn't circumcise himself
to obey the law. He's only eight days old. He
can't do anything. Can he? Somebody else has got
to do it for him. And that's just what the Lord
Jesus Christ did for his people. Look at Romans chapter five. Romans the fifth chapter. Christ
saved his people when they could not do anything for themselves. Romans chapter five, verse six.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure, for a good man, some would even
dare to die, but God, commended his love toward us, and that
while we were yet sinners, dead, filthy, vile sinners, Christ
died for us. God's elect didn't have the ability
to do anything for themselves spiritually. They couldn't do
something for themselves spiritually any more than that eight day
old baby could do anything for himself physically. So the Lord
Jesus Christ came and did it for them. While they were yet
sinners, Christ died for us and gave his people life and faith
to do one thing. Nothing. To look to Christ by
faith and depend on him. Depending on Christ means we
do nothing. God gave us the faith to do one thing, which is nothing.
Just rest in Christ. See, the reason God's elect have
life that you can't say this often enough that the miracle
of the graciousness of it The reason God's elect have life
is because Christ died the death that they deserve and his obedience
made his people righteous and the bloody sacrifice of Christ
washed away the sin of God's people. Because of his blood,
God's elect, every last one of them are white as snow. There's not a speck of sin on
them anywhere. Now the only reason for death
is sin, right? There is death everywhere that
there's sin. But where there is no sin, there
can't be death. It's impossible. Well, Christ
made his people without sin. So the life he gives them is
eternal life that they can never lose. And I love this about the
way God saves his people. The very same law, the very same
justice of God that demands our death that demands our damnation
for our sin in Adam also demands our life in Christ because of
Christ, his sacrifice, satisfied justice for his people. So God's
elect must have life. It came through the law. God's
justice demands. And here's the last thing. Spiritual
life brings great joy. In verse six, Sarah said, God
hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with
me. I promise you this, Abraham and Sarah did not look at the
birth of Isaac like this is a textbook kind of thing. Well, God made
this promise and he fulfilled it, and that's just a doctrinal
truth. They didn't consider the birth of Isaac to be a doctrinal
idea that they could use to argue with the Malakites and the Egyptians
and the people around them about the sovereignty of God. On the
day Isaac was born, I promise you this, there's some things
recorded here that Sarah said. We don't know what else she said,
but I promise you she didn't say this. She said, whatever
will be will be, because you know, God's will be done. She
didn't say that. On the day Isaac was born, his
parents celebrated in joy. And brother, they should have.
This precious child is God's gift to them. It's the fulfillment
of God's promise. Not only is this son born to
a mother that's 90 years old, this child, the Messiah is going
to come through him. That's joy. And I hope that's the way we
always react to hearing the gospel. Now, if we're going to preach
the gospel, you know, I don't, I don't want anybody to be, uh,
get down on a doctrine, you know, like doctrine's a bad word. If
we're going to preach the gospel, there must be sound doctrine.
There's got to be true doc, true scriptural teaching, but that
doctrine, should produce joy. That doctrine shouldn't produce
somebody that wants to argue and fuss and fight and, you know,
looking for these little fine points and secret points of doctrine.
Where there is true, good, sound doctrine, good, solid doctrinal
preaching, there has to be joy. Has to be. It's good doctrine
to preach salvation comes from God's covenant of grace. Now,
if you don't have joy in God's covenant of grace, His promise
to save people without their words, but by His grace, you
don't have a need. It's good doctrine to preach
salvation comes from the will of God, not the will of man. Salvation is not a decision that
man makes. That's why nobody here is trying to talk you into
a decision. I mean, all you're doing is just
like flipping over, but it's like a, You know, you cook it
on one side, you just flip it over, you still got a pancake.
Just making a decision. Salvation is a decision God made
before time began. He chose a people to save, and
those people are going to be saved. That's good doctrine.
It's good doctrine to preach Christ died for his elect, and
only his elect. It's good doctrine to stress
that, to, I mean, drive that point home. And here's why, it's
for the joy of God's people. If Christ died for his elect,
and only his elect, he's the successful savior, and he'll
not lose one that the father gave him. Now that's joy, that's
joy and comfort to the hearts of God's people. It's good doctrine
to preach that when God's people are born again, they now live
in a body with two separate, distinct natures. They have the
same nature of flesh and sin that they always did have, and
now they got a new nature. A nature that's righteous and
holy and can never sin. And both of those natures are
me. And I'm not schizophrenic, I'm one person. That's good doctrine. But the gospel of Christ, this
good doctrine, who Christ is, what Christ has accomplished,
that's reason for God's people to rejoice and to celebrate.
If we only see the gospel, as a reason to pick apart the doctrinal
beliefs of others. If we only see the gospel as
a reason to be proud, I mean, the error of that statement is
just inherent in it, isn't it? If I see the gospel as a reason
to be proud, whatever you put after that is wrong. But if I
see the gospel as a reason to be proud, I know something somebody
else doesn't. Look at them. I can't believe
they don't know I do. What do you have? God didn't
give you. What do you know God didn't teach
you? If that's the way we think, you see, we've missed the gospel
altogether, haven't we? The gospel is the good news of
what Christ has accomplished for his people. And I pray that
always make us rejoice, that we rejoice in the Lord, that
we rejoice in God's salvation. You know, at this very moment,
that's what the saints in glory are doing. Now I can't do it. as perfectly as they are, because
I'm a body of flesh and a body of sin. But I sure do want to
start now. I want to start rejoicing in
Christ. I want to start celebrating him
now. I want to start finding my joy and happiness in him now
because of who he is and what he's done for his people. All
right. Well, I pray the Lord bless that
to you. Let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for
this wonderful picture of Christ our Savior, the salvation, the
life that he brings to his people and puts in us. Father, we're
so thankful. Oh, I pray, Father, that you'd
cause our hearts to rejoice in Christ our Savior, that we'd
have reason for happiness and true heart joy, even if we're
crying in sorrow and pain and heartache. that she'd still yet
give us a heart that would be able to rejoice in Christ our
Savior. Oh, what a Savior we have, Father.
Cause us to rest in Him more fully, to depend on Him more
completely, to find a true joy in Him more often. It's in His
precious name, for His sake we pray, amen. All right, Sean.