Let's turn again to Isaiah chapter
44. The title of the message is Christ's
work in his people. Now God's salvation of sinners
is a complete, utter salvation from sin. When God saves a sinner,
God performs complete salvation both for his people and in his
people. The debt of sin is paid and a
new holy nature is given in the new birth, a nature that will
never sin again. True salvation requires both
a payment for sin and requires a new holy nature be given. Now
this work of salvation is a work of all three persons of the Holy
Trinity. The Father, he elected a people
into salvation. An eternity passed before the
world was created He gave those people to His Son to save. The
Son came as a man and He brought, He worked out as a man, a perfect
righteousness for His people. And He died to pay their sin
debt with His blood. He purchased them with the blood
of His sacrifice. And the Holy Spirit comes and
He applies that salvation by applying the blood, the blood
of Christ to the heart and giving a new heart and a new nature
and a new birth. Now you take away any one of
those three and salvation falls down. It's useless. It requires
the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be a complete
salvation from sin. Chapter 43 of Isaiah ended with
God's condemnation of sin, showing us our need of a Savior. Look
at verse 27 of Isaiah 43. Thy first father has sinned,
and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Now our first father,
Adam, sinned against God. You know Adam, he was the first
man, the only man God ever created, and he was the representative
man. Adam represented the entire human race. All of us came from
Adam, from his loin, so all of us were in Adam. He was our representative. And whatever it is Adam did,
you and I did in him because he was our representative. Adam
sinned against God. And when he sinned against God,
you and I did too. We became guilty. We became sinners,
all of us here, when Adam sinned against God. Now, men have been
religious ever since. They've been teaching us things,
but they've been teaching us to sin. That's what they've been
teaching. They teach us to sin and to go away from God because
they don't know God. They've lost the way to God in
Adam. And that sin, that rebellion
brings God's judgment on us. Look at verse 28. Therefore,
I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, these religious
people. And I've given Jacob to the curse
and Israel to reproaches. God punishes sin, all sin, in
all men from the least of men to the greatest of men. There
are no exceptions. Well, that's not very good news,
is it? But chapter 44 begins, yet, yet,
but despite of what we are by nature, there is hope for sinners. There's hope for sinners in God's
salvation. Yes, we've sinned, and that's
all we've ever done. Yet, despite our sin, there's
hope for God's people in the work of Christ for them and the
work of Christ in them. Now, here's my first point. Chapter
44, verse 1. Here's the work of the Father
in salvation. Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant,
and Israel, whom I've chosen. Now, the Father chose a people
into salvation. And God's message of good news
is not to everybody in the whole wide world, is it? It's to the
people, he said, whom I have chosen. Now, you know this to
be true. We didn't choose God. We have
a nature that's fallen in Adam that hates God. Just like Adam,
we're off hiding in the bushes from God. We didn't choose God.
God chose us. Scripture could not be more plain
on this. God chose us. In John 15 verse
16, our Lord told his disciples, you have not chosen me. Now can
that put an end forever to the question, can we beg somebody
to choose God? No, you have not chosen me, he
told the twelve. But why are they there? I've
chosen you. He chose the people. God came
to Ananias one day and he said, go down to this certain street,
this certain address, Saul of Tarsus is there praying. And
Ananias said, I don't want to go. I don't know about that fella.
I don't want to go. My rule is I steer clear of that
fella. God said, you go. He's a chosen vessel unto me.
I've chosen him. You go. God has a chosen people. Illustrations like that go on
and on and on through the scripture. God has a chosen people. Well,
who are they? Now that interests me. Who are
these people that God chose? Well, God chose sinners. He says
here He chose Jacob. God chose a people who are no
good. You all know who Jacob is. He's
a cheat. He's a mama's boy. He's a supplanter. He's a crook. He's just constantly
scheming, constantly trying to get an angle, you know. If God
chose Jacob, It had to be in spite of who Jacob is, didn't
it? Had to be. God chose, of all
people, Jacob to be his servant. God chose, of all people, Saul
of Tarsus. He never was in the drawing of
straws when the other 11 had a drawing for the 12th apostle,
or no. The last person any of us would
have chosen is Saul of Tarsus, but that's the very fellow that
God chose. God chose those men in spite
of who they are, in spite of everything that they've done.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7. And if God chose any of us, He
had to choose us the same way. In spite of who we are, in spite
of what we've done, not because of who we are and not because
of what we've done. Deuteronomy 7 verse 6. For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord hath chosen thee to
be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon
the face of the earth. Now the Lord did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you, because you are more in number
than the other people, or because anything else about you is impressive.
For you are the fewest of all people. But because the Lord
loved you, and because he would keep the oath that he had sworn
unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty
hand, and redeemed you out of the house of Bondman and the
house of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Why did God choose Israel? Just
because he would. There was no reason in them.
Just because he would. Because he decided to set his
love on them. Why did God choose any of us?
Not because there's anything good about us, is there? It's
just because God chose. Just because he would set his
love upon us. Now God chose a people unto salvation. Before the world was created,
God chose to save a people out of the lump of Adam's fallen
race. But now, those people must be
saved in time. After the world is created, they
must be saved. They must be redeemed. The price
must be paid. They must be born again, all
in time. God's not going to accept those
people like they are in Adam. You know, when they are finally
born in this world, He's not going to accept them like that.
They've got to be changed. They've got to be born again.
They've got to be given a new nature. They've got to be given
a new name. All of them are born Jacob. All
of them are born just useless people. But now, God calls them
Israel. They're not Jacob. They're not
a cheat anymore. Now they're called Israel. Now
they're called a prince with God. Well, now how did that happen? Well, that brings me to my second
point. This is not in the order of our experience, but this is
the order in which it's presented in our text. The second thing
that's pictured in our text is the work of the Holy Spirit in
God's elect. Look at verse two. Thus saith
the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which
will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
and now Jessarun, whom I have chosen, for I will pour water
upon him that's thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I
will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine
offspring. And they shall spring up as among
the grass, as willows by the water course. Now God forms all
physical life. Each baby that's formed in the
womb, God forms that child. He forms every one of them. That's what he says here, isn't
it? Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from
the womb. Every child that's born, God himself forms in the
womb. Some of those babies God forms
to glorify His justice and His power, just like He did with
Pharaoh. But some of those babies God forms in the womb as a special
object of His grace. And He forms them for His glory
and salvation. And it seems like the Lord's
saying He takes special notice when He forms this child, when
He forms this baby in the womb. that's one of his elect. He forms
that baby. He says, this one's mine. This
is mine. This one's formed for my glory.
I'm going to help this one. Isn't that what he says here?
The Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb, which will
help thee. This one, I'm going to help.
That word help, it has several meanings. It means to aid. It
means to surround and it means to comfort. And not just one
time, this is a continual process. God helps his people by giving
them aid, by giving them what they cannot get themselves, what
they can't earn themselves, what they can't deserve themselves.
He gives them a righteousness they cannot earn. He gives them
healing from all their sin sicknesses that they cannot find a cure
for. He aids them in giving that to them. God helps His people
by surrounding them, by surrounding them with His presence. He's
a wall of fire about them. He helps them by surrounding
them with His grace, just bathing them in His grace. And God helps
His people by comforting them. He comforts them with the forgiveness
of sin. I'm afraid too often we think
of comfort as a relief of pain or relief of stress or something,
you know, physical. What can be more comforting than
the forgiveness of your sin? My soul. When I think of that,
I hesitate to ask God for anything else. What comfort to know my
sin is forgiven? He comforts his people with his
presence. He may not always comfort the
pain of his body, but he said, I'll never leave you to forsake
you. He always comforts with his presence. He comforts us
with his word. We'll be able to read his word
and have it preached to us. What a comfort. So God says,
fear not. Now, if God's our helper, we
don't have anything to fear. Why would we fear if God's our
helper? God formed the physical life of His people. Now you can
rest assured of this. He's going to provide for it.
He's going to take care of it. So there's no reason to fear.
There's no reason for us to fear men. God formed all them too,
didn't He? He's in control of them. There's
no reason for us to fear men. There's no reason for us to fear
Satan. Now he's on God's leash. I'm not gonna go poke him in
the eye or anything, but I'm not gonna try to take him on,
but there's no reason to fear him. Christ is victorious over
him. Christ crushed his head at Calvary. There's no reason to fear Satan.
There's no reason to fear our sin. Christ was made sin for
his people and put that sin away. There's no reason to fear what's
not there, is there? Maybe adults too. They're always
afraid of a monster under the bed. When? When it's dark. What are you afraid of? It's
not there. Isn't it silly to be afraid of
something that's not there? That's our sin. It's not there.
Christ put it away. Don't fear it. There's no reason
to fear the curse of the law. Christ was made a curse for us
and bore that curse away. There's no reason to fear the
law. Absolutely, I can't keep it. I can't keep it for one second.
But Christ kept the law for his people and made them righteous
in him. And there's no reason to fear
death. No reason at all. Christ died
for us so we can never die. He died and took the sting of
death away. God's elect have no reason to
fear. He tells us that twice, once
at the end of verse one, whom I have chosen. Again, at the
end of verse two, whom I have chosen. There's no reason to
fear in God's election. Now, election is not a doctrine
to be hated or to be debated. If somebody wants to debate with
you the doctrine of election, I wouldn't do it. It's not a
doctrine to be debated. Election is a glorious doctrine
of God's love that we rejoice in that removes all of our fear.
And God the Holy Spirit gives every one of those elect, He
gives them new life in Christ. He gives them spiritual life.
And because He does that, every believer has two natures in one
body. Every believer has two men in
one body. The one is flesh, the other is
spirit. The one is sinful, the other
is righteous. Those two natures in our text are called Jacob
and Israel. Jacob is the flesh, Israel is
the spirit. And they're also called Jacob, the flesh, and
Jessarin, the spirit. Now Jacob is the flesh. Jacob,
you know his name means cheat and supplanter. He's just a man
of bad character. You just don't want to do business
with a man like Jacob. And if you do, you're not doing
it on a handshake. You just don't do that kind of deal with a man
like Jacob. That's our fleshly nature. It's bad seed from the
beginning. But Israel means prince with
God. This is one who's gonna rule
with God. Well, who's that? That's the
new man born of God. Now, Jacob is not turned into
Israel. Jacob is still Jacob. Israel,
he never becomes Jacob. Israel is always Israel. Israel
is a new man and a new nature. Jacob will always be Jacob. Flesh
will always be flesh and Israel will always be Israel. The spirit
will always be spirit. Let me show you that in John
chapter three. This is what our Lord told Nicodemus
when he spoke to Nicodemus about the new birth. John chapter three,
verse five. Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
unless he's born again. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God. Well, why can't he? Verse six,
because that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. The flesh can only, always
only be flesh. It can always only be something
that's sinful and rebellious against God. But the spirit can
only ever be spirit. It can only ever be righteous
and holy. Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15 verse 5, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. It's an impossibility. So this
sinful nature of our flesh, it can't enter the kingdom of God,
can it? Then it's got to go. It's got to be put down. So God
creates. He gives birth to a new man who
does inherit the kingdom of God. This new man is born fit to inherit
the kingdom of God. He's meet, he's qualified to
enter into the kingdom of God. And that's what happens when
a believer dies. The flesh is finally put in the
ground and the spirit is finally set free to go be with the Lord.
It's that new man that's been born of God who departs to go
be with the Lord. Now that's pictured in this other
name our text gives the new man. Jesserine. It calls him Jesserine
here. He says at the end of verse two,
my servant and thou Jesserine whom I have chosen. Now the name
Jesserine means upright. It's a new man who's born in
the new birth. He's upright. He's righteous
and holy. Now the flesh can only ever be
sinful. Why? Because of the seed that
it came from. The flesh can only ever be sinful
because the flesh is born from the sinful seed of our Father,
came directly from Adam. But the new man, he can only
ever be righteous. He can never sin. Why? For the exact same reason the
flesh can only ever be sinful, because the new man is born from
incorruptible seed, sinless seed. Look at 1 Peter 1, I'll show
you that. 1 Peter 1, verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is his grass and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Now look over at 2 Peter chapter
1. 2 Peter 1 verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's
in the world through lust. Now how is that possible that
we, people like us, can become partakers of the divine nature?
Well, because of that new man, he's born from the seed of the
word of God. That new man has the nature of
our heavenly father, just like this flesh has the nature of
our earthly father. That's how we're partakers of
the divine nature. Now, this new birth is a work
of the Holy Spirit in salvation. And in chapter or verse three
of our text, Isaiah 44, That's what this water represents, where
God says, I will pour water upon him that's thirsty, floods upon
the dry ground. That water is the spirit. We looked at this Sunday morning
in John chapter seven, when our Lord cried in that last day of
the feast, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And John didn't
leave any doubt. John, under writing, under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, didn't leave us any doubt what the Lord was
speaking of. He was speaking of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes
in power, He poured out on us in power in the new birth, there's
life, there's spiritual life, life that thrives. Verse 4 says,
they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the
watercourses. They're going to be so lush and
green because they have all the water they can have. This summer,
Janet had some flowers, and they don't look like much now, but
in the summer, they look pretty good. She went off to see the
girls for a few days, and as far as I can recall, about the
only thing she told me is, water my flowers. And I did, you know,
a day or two, and then it kind of slipped my mind, and after
a couple days, I thought, I had watered those flowers. And I
ran out there, you know, and they were looking pretty peaked,
but I hurried and watered them and thought, The one job she
gave me, I failed. I went back out about a half
hour later, and I was amazed at those flowers. They were straighter. They were more colorful. In such
a short span of time, that's the effect water has on plant
life. That's what Isaiah in verse 4
is talking about spiritually. That's the effect of the Holy
Spirit on spiritual life. When He poured out on us, we
thrived. It says here that He'll pour
out water on him that's thirsty. Well, now who's thirsty? That's
the question. Who's thirsty? Well, you know,
it's even the Spirit that makes us realize we're thirsty. He's
the one who makes us thirst after righteousness. And He makes us
thirst by giving us life. You know dead people don't realize
they're thirsty? They're dehydrated, aren't they?
They pump all the fluid out. Why aren't they thirsty? Because
they're dead. The only people who are thirsty
are people who have life. And before the Holy Spirit comes,
we're dead in sin. We look just like I see those
pictures out there in California, that dry, cracked land. And then they show what it used
to look like. It used to be under feet of water. Now it's just
dry and cracked. It looks so awful. because of
years of drought. That's what the ground looks
like without water. Dry and cracked and there's no
life. There's no hope of life there.
It looks like it. That's us by nature. There is
no hope of life there without water just like there's no hope
of life in us without the Spirit. I've seen these on the Discovery
Channel about the desert. They show the desert and I mean
it looks like it's just all sand. It's the most hot, miserable
looking place you can imagine. It looks like nothing has ever
grown there. And it looks like it's impossible
for anything to grow there. But then a very rare rain comes. And almost instantly in that
desert, things are lush and green and beautiful. But the rain goes
away and it dries up and goes right back to just looking like
sand. Do you think it's been that way for hundreds of years?
It can only stay green and lush as long as there's water. Well,
when the Holy Spirit comes to you and me, we look like a lost
cause. We're so dead in sin, people
think there's not a chance anything spiritual can live there. But
when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us, when God pours out
His Spirit on His people, There's life and it's vibrant, rich life. Everything is lush and green.
There's no life in the ground without water. And there's no
spiritual life in us without the spirit dwelling in us. Look
at Romans chapter eight. You know that desert, it gets
a rain and it gets pretty for just a short time and then it
goes right back to what it used to be because the water's gone.
Well, is that what the spirit does with God's people? Just
come and then leave and just leave them dry and dead? No,
no, it's the spirit dwelling in us that gives life. Romans
8 verse 6. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it's not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are
in the flesh cannot please God, but you're not in the flesh,
but in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ,
he's none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body's dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of
righteousness. The spirit dwells in us. If you have not the spirit of
Christ, you're none of his because God gives his spirit to do this
work in his people, in all of his elect. The Holy Spirit comes
and gives life. So fear not. As I said earlier,
there's no reason to fear death. Christ has died. The Spirit's
given you life. You could never die. Now here's
my third point. The work of the Spirit in God's
elect is the result of Christ's work for us. The Spirit's work
in us is the result of Christ's work for us. Read verse three
again. For I will pour water upon him
that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My
Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring,
and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the
watercourses. Now this is really the Father
speaking to the Son. This is a promise of the Father
to the Son. It's the promise of life to His
seed because of Christ's work for us. The Lord Jesus Christ
purchased the salvation of his people with his own blood, the
blood of his sacrifice. The sins of God's elect are gone,
washed away, blotted out under the blood of Christ. But now
God's elect are born with the sin nature and they've got to
be given a new nature and they must be given a new nature because
Christ died to put their sin away. They've got to be given
a new nature. So the spirit comes and he gives that sinless nature
in the new birth. God's elect are born dead in
sin, but Christ died for their sin as their substitute. So they
can't stay dead in their sin. They must be given life because
Christ died for them. So the spirit comes and gives
them this abundant spiritual life. God's elect are born with
a sin nature. They've broken God's law because
that's their nature. But the Lord Jesus Christ came
and he kept the law for his people. He established righteousness
for his people. Well, now then they must be given
a new righteous nature. And that's the nature the Spirit
gives in the new birth. Now listen, when the Holy Spirit
comes, he gives a new nature in the new birth. Don't be mistaken. That old man, he is unchanged. So the believer is left with
two opposite natures, warring in us at all times. Jacob is
who I am in Adam. Jesserim in Israel, that's who
I am in Christ. Now, because of the work of Christ
for us and because of the Spirit's work in us, here's the believer's
confession, verse five. One shall say, I'm the Lord's,
and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. and another
shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself
by the name of Israel. Now this is the confession of
all God's people. I didn't do anything to deserve
salvation. I didn't contribute anything
to my salvation. All I am is Jacob. That's my
name. And that's my name because that's
who I am. I'm flesh, I'm Jacob. But at
the same time, I'm the Lord. I'll subscribe to this. I'll
write this down with my hand. I am the Lord's. I belong to
the Lord. Now, I'm Jacob. I'm flesh. But my claim to eternal life
is this. I belong to the Lord. He made
me His. He chose me. He bought me. He
made me willing to follow Him and to serve Him. And it says
here, another will surname himself by the name Israel. That word
surname, I just thought it meant your last name, but I looked
it up. It means an additional name, a flattering title. Well, Jacob, that's my name,
but I have an additional name. My additional name is Jesser.
My additional name is upright and righteous because that's
the name God gave me when I was born again. When I was born again,
I got a new name. I was married to another. Now
I bear the name of my husband, Jehovah Sidkenu. This is the
name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. What
more flattering name can you have than the name of God's own
son? So this is who I am. I'm Jacob. And that's not pretend. That's
who I really am. I'm Jacob. And I'm Jesserim. That's not pretend either. That's
who I really am. Upright and righteous. I'm guilty
in Adam. I'm guilty because of an act
I had personally nothing to do with. But I'm guilty because
I did what my representative did. In my representative, I
am made guilty. Well, I'm also Israel. I'm also Jesuit. I'm righteous
because of an act I had nothing to do with personally. It was
the act of my representative that made me righteous, just
like it was the act of my representative that made me guilty. I have a
sinful nature. I'm both Jacob and Jesse. I have
a sinful nature that I received from my first father, Adam. But
I have a righteous nature too, a nature that I received from
the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the confession
of every believer. I'm two men, two natures in one
body. Now, fifthly, look here at verse
six. This is the believer's confidence.
The believer's confidence is not, I go around saying, you
know, I'm a partaker of the divine nature. That makes me a little
God. So now that I can save myself
and keep myself saved? Absolutely not. That couldn't
be anything more blasphemous than that. The believer's confidence
never has anything to do with us. The believer's confidence
is our God. our Savior. Look at verse 6.
Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer,
the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and beside
me there is no God. And who as I shall call and shall
declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the
ancient people? And the things that are coming
and shall come, let them show unto them. Fear ye not, neither
be afraid, have not I told thee from that time, and have declared
You are my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea,
there is no God. I know not any. Now, this is
the believer's confidence. The confidence of our salvation
depends completely on who saved us. And if the God who describes
himself in verses 6, 7, and 8, if that God is our Savior, then
we have no fear. Completely confident. Christ our Savior says, I'm the
first and the last. I'm alpha and omega. I'm the
beginning of the alphabet and the end of the alphabet, and
I'm everything in between. Christ is all. That's what that first and the
last, what He's telling us here is Christ is all. Well, if we
have Christ, then we have all, don't we? If He's all, we have
Him, then we have all. We have everything we need if
we're in the Lord Jesus Christ, because He's all. Christ is our
Savior and He's the only Savior. He's the only God. There is no
other. There's no chance that we're in the wrong way if we're
in Christ because He's the only one. And Christ provides for
His people an eternal salvation. Salvation that begins in what
we call eternity past and will stretch clear through eternity
future. What we call eternity future. It's an eternal salvation. It was a salvation that was provided
for sinners before there were any sinners. That's how eternal
our salvation is. God determined to do this in
eternity. He's not going to change His mind. He never changes. And
God told us He was going to do it before He did it. That's what
He did here with Israel. He told them what He was going
to do before He did it. And then He did it to show them He's God.
He told Israel, you're going to go to bondage in Babylon.
But you're coming back. You're going to be delivered.
You're going to be delivered by this fellow Cyrus who won't even
be born for 200 years. And then God did it to show them
He's God. That God told us. Before He did
it, He told us, I'm going to save my people. He did it. God did not look down. He doesn't
tell us what's going to happen in the future because He looked
down through the telescope of time. He saw what was going to
happen. And then He turned and told us, you know, this is what
I'm going to do. God told us what was going to happen before
it happened because everything that happens, happens because
that's God's will. Everything that happened today,
just go home tonight and turn on the news. And when they tell
you what's happening in the world today, you know what you think?
That's God's will unfolding right in front of my eyes. This is
what God determined to do from before the foundation of the
world. So nothing can happen that's outside of God's will.
Is that right? If everything that happens is
God's will, nothing can happen that's outside of His will, that's
against His will, that's opposed to His will, then fear not. Just fear not. It's God's will to save a people. Then those people cannot be lost. They cannot perish. And there's
no God, there's no idol who can rival God and ever change His
will. Just get this picture out of
your mind. You know, God pulling this way and Satan pulling this
way. That's foolish. There's no God, there's no idol
that can rival God and change His will. His will shall be accomplished. What's His will? Save His people. Ultimately, to glorify them together
with Him. Fear not because of who our God
is, what He's done for His people, and what He's done in His people.
That work is perfect. Now when I look inside me, I
don't see it. I don't see anything righteous
or perfect at all about me. All I see is sin when I look
inside me. Then how do you know there's
a new nature there? How do you know God created something
in you that's perfect? Faith. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. Faith is the evidence of the
new man. You can't see him, but the evidence he's there is you
believe God. Do you believe God? Then fear
not. His work for you and in you is
perfect. All right, I hope that'll bless everyone. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for the wisdom and the mercy and the
love and the grace that purpose the salvation for your people.
That accomplished that salvation through the blood of your own
dear son on Calvary's tree. And it applies that salvation
in time through the working of your Holy Spirit, through the
preaching of the gospel. Father, I pray you'd bless your
word as it's been preached tonight, that you'd cause your spirit
to pour your word out, to pour out the spirit upon your people. Give life and refreshing in this
dry and barren land in which we live. Cause us to see the
glory of God in our salvation. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ we give thanks and we beg your blessing.