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Fred Evans

The Prosperous Ride of Christ

Psalm 45:4
Fred Evans August, 1 2023 Video & Audio
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Fred Evans
Fred Evans August, 1 2023

In his sermon "The Prosperous Ride of Christ," Fred Evans articulates the central doctrine of Christ's victorious and successful redemptive work as prophesied in Psalm 45:4. He emphasizes that this psalm is a declaration of God's purpose, intended to point to Christ as the ultimate King who rides prosperously in achieving salvation for His people. Evans supports his arguments with Scripture, notably referencing Hebrews 10:10 and Romans 8:30, to illustrate that Christ's mission was to sanctify and justify those the Father gave Him, affirming the Reformed doctrine of particular atonement. The practical significance of this teaching reassures believers of the complete and accomplished nature of Christ’s work, clarifying that their salvation is not contingent on human merit but entirely upon the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice, thereby prompting a response of awe and gratitude among the faithful.

Key Quotes

“The good matter of God's heart is always and forever Christ.”

“Prosperity is to succeed, to achieve, and to make successful enterprise... Christ came into the world to do battle, and what will be the result? He shall ride prosperously.”

“If Christ intended to save all men without exception, I know without a doubt he would have saved all men without exception.”

“You and I often feel as though we're not accepted... In Revelation 19, it says, 'the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.' That righteousness was made by Jesus Christ.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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these frail men that come and
present, but Christ to feed you. I long for Him to feed you tonight.
I do pray that God would give me the liberty and unction of
His Spirit that I need, but I pray He would open your heart and
fill it with Christ, because that's all my message is Christ. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Psalm 45. Psalm chapter 45. Our text will be found in verse
4. I'll read up to that portion. As we read this psalm, I want
you to understand this is God speaking. He's speaking through His prophet,
but truly this is God speaking. And listen to this as it is the
voice of the Father. He says in verse 1, is indicting,
overflowing, gushing. My heart is indicting a good
matter. I speak of the things that I
have made touching the King. We know immediately this psalm
is, as every psalm, about Christ. Everything God says in his word
is intended to point us to Christ. The good matter of God's heart
is always and forever Christ. When someone asks you, what is
the Word of God? If you were to have it, sum it
up. It is simply this, Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It is the whole message of the
whole book. This is God's intent. And if
the Bible is used in any other way, it is misused. God has a
matter. It's a good matter. It's the
matter of his heart. And he said, my tongue is the
pen of a ready writer. And immediately he begins talking
about the Son of God. He said, thou art fairer than
the children of men. There we may see the deity and
humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is truly God manifest in the
flesh. Therefore, he is fairer than
all men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee
forever. He is the prophet of God, sent
of God, blessed of God. And we know now in verse three,
his mission. His mission is given to us. Gird
thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty. with thy glory and with
thy majesty. God here describes his king as
coming ready for battle. Ready for battle. When our Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world, he came as a conqueror. They did not see him as such.
He was meek and lowly in heart, but I assure you he did conquer. Our Lord came in to establish
righteousness. Our Lord came in to destroy the
works of the devil, sin, the curse of the law. And we are
going to read in our text, how did all that go? He came into
the world. to do battle and what will be
the result? Verse four, our text. In thy
majesty, ride what? Prosperously. Simply, it is this. What is it to prosper? It is
to succeed. That's what it means. To prosper is to succeed, to
achieve, and make successful enterprise. When Christ came into the world,
God decreed he should ride successfully, prosperously, victoriously. This victory, this battle that
Christ came to win, this is my first point, he did succeed. He rode prosperously in the salvation
of his people. He said, lo, I come, in the volume
of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. By the witch's will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. Therefore, Paul concluded that
this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down. Why? Because he rode prosperously. It is always my desire to lift
up the successful Savior, the victorious Savior. I know this
thrills the heart of God's people. Am I saved? And that's always,
oh, I fear, I'm in trouble. Well, let me ask you this, did
your Savior ride prosperously? Was he successful in his enterprise
to do the will of God? The will of God was what? To sanctify you, to make you
holy, presentable, acceptable unto God. This was his mission. This was his ride. And the scripture
says he shall ride prosperously. Our Lord Jesus Christ as our
King with his mighty sword has ridden prosperously. Psalm 47
says this, oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God
with the voice of despair. No, the voice of triumph. Shout with the voice of triumph.
Why? For the Lord Most High is terrible,
awesome, awesome. He is the great king over all
the earth. Who's running the show? I'm not talking about just the
big show, I'm talking about the little shows, all of it. The
scripture says this triumph king rules over all the earth. And
listen, he shall subdue the people under us. You got that? These people who's supposed to
be above us, who oppress us, he shall subdue them under us. Is it not true that all things
are working together for your good? Is it not true? I know I often don't feel it.
I often don't even see it. But who cares what I see and
who cares what I feel? He shall subdue the people under
us and nations under our feet. He did this as our representative
man. He did this already. He shall
choose our inheritance for us. Isn't that wonderful? What is
our inheritance? You that are in Christ, what
is your inheritance? Is it not God Himself? He said, I, even
I, am thy exceeding great reward. Believer in Christ, this should
always be the shout of our heart that our King, our Christ, has
ridden victoriously over all our enemies, subdued them under
our feet, and by his mighty hand, he has cut off the head of the
serpent, our enemy, and accomplished our salvation. He has done this
by removing our sins from us. Your sin, Christ has removed
your sin from you and has suffered the justice and wrath of God
for every sin. Isn't that amazing? I often feel guilty about my
sins and rightly so, I despise them. But you know what? I'm not guilty. Christ bore my guilt. It's gone. You can read that in Jeremiah
chapter 50 in verse 20. In that day and at that time
shall the iniquity of Israel be sought for and there shall
be none. The sins of Judah and they shall
not be found for I pardon whom I reserve. God pardons through
Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christ said to his
disciples, in John chapter 14, he said, let not your heart be
troubled. Your heart troubled? Why? Christ is written prosperously. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many magistrates, if it were not so, I would have told you
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am you may be also. Our Lord Jesus Christ has ridden
prosperously. When the law of God said this,
I know this by nature. When the law of God said to us,
thou shalt not, what did our hearts say? I shall. When the law of God said, you
shall, my heart said, I shall not. Yet consider the grace and mercy
of God towards such rebels to set his love on us and send his
son to accomplish our salvation, to fight for us. Could you fight for yourself? We were fighting against God.
Madly I ran the sinful race, secure without a hiding place. But God, in his determination,
sent Christ to ride prosperously. Even so, Christ has come as our
prosperous king, and he is no failure. I mean,
if you want to know the difference between true and false religion,
it rests in this, the success of Christ. You'll find that false
religion agrees with you on many things. But the thing that disagrees
with you on is this, the success of Christ. When Christ said it
is finished, was it really finished? Was it really accomplished or
is there something left for you to do? Because if there's something
left for you to do, it's not finished. I know Gabe gave this illustration. It was a very good one because
we just finished the building too. He gave the illustration about
his building and they got done with their building and they
were so happy. They said, it's done. It's done. But you know what? Next week
came in and they knew they had to have several things to do. They still had things to do.
It was not really done. False religion comes in and says,
it's done. It's finished. Hallelujah. But there's still
something left to be done. Well, then it's not done, is
it? Christ, when he accomplished
salvation, salvation was accomplished. Isaiah 42 in verse four says,
he shall not fail. He won't even be discouraged.
He's not even gonna be discouraged. Christ said this when he came
into the world. He said, of all that the Father
hath given me, I should lose nothing. Was that success? That's success. And now that Christ has been
victorious, what is the result of that? God hath raised him
from the dead. That's how I know he was successful.
God raised Christ from the dead. How do I know my sin is gone?
Because God raised him from the dead. If any of our sins were
left, if he took our sins in his own body on the tree, if
any of them were left, God could not raise him from the dead.
But because there is no sin, God raised him from the dead.
Victorious. and has given him a name. Now,
God has given Christ a name. And that name is above every
name. He was so victorious that at
that name every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
He is successful. Is your Savior successful? Why do we fear? Why do we doubt? Why do we fret? If he's successful,
it's done. It's done. Is your savior successful? Is your king ridden prosperously,
victoriously? Do you see him as he is king
of kings and Lord of lords? Now you that believe on Christ, how is it that you see him as
such while others do not? while others see Him as a weak,
effeminate Savior. How is it that you see Christ
as having accomplished salvation when others see He just made
it possible? This is only because Christ has
ridden prosperously for His people. And not everyone. Listen, if Christ intended to
save all men without exception, I know without a doubt he would
have saved all men without exception. If that was his intent. If that
was his purpose. I rather just read that a minute
ago in the study. My sheep hear my voice. And I
know them. And they follow me. The father
which gave them me is greater than all. I lay down my life
for the sheep. And he told those Pharisees,
he said, you are not of my sheep. You believe not because you're
not my sheep. Christ is ridden prosperously.
That's my first point, it says that Christ has been prosperously,
he's already accomplished salvation. For everyone he intended to accomplish
salvation for, it is finished. It is done. No more work. But I want you to see this, that
Christ not only has ridden prosperously, he is even now prosperous. Another word for, another definition
for prosperity is not just accomplishing a work, but flourishing in a
work. When a seed is put into the ground
and it dies, How do you know it's successful? Except it flourish. Christ came into the world and
as the seed of corn, he fell into the ground and died and
rose again from the dead. And out of that resurrection
comes this tree, his church. He said, I am the vine and you
are the branches and in me you bear much fruit. We know this that Christ is and
shall continuously prosper, flourish. Now the standard of the word
of God is clearly seen if we look at Jesus Christ. You want
to know what it takes for a man to be accepted with God, then
look at Jesus Christ. If you do not match up to Him,
you are not accepted. God's standard is plain. If any
man be accepted of God, he must be as holy as God. His righteousness must be the
same as the righteousness of Christ. But we know this, this is an
impossible thing for us to do. I was talking to a man just yesterday
about this, and I told him that statement. He was talking about
some guy obeying the law of this, obeying the law of that, what
do you think about that? I said, except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Except you be as holy as God,
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. This standard is not
flexible. Men like it to be, it's not. This is impossible for us because
we know this, we are all born under sin. This is a misnomer
that sin is what you do. Now, sin is who you are. By nature, when you are conceived,
you are a sinner. And immediately when you are
able to do something, what do you do? Sin. David said, I came
forth from the womb. Before that, he couldn't do anything.
Couldn't outwardly sin because he couldn't have a mouth. The ears weren't developed. He
couldn't hear. He couldn't really think yet.
But once he could, what did he do? I came forth from the womb,
speaking lies. I love Paul's book. If you just let the Scripture
speak as it is, it's very understandable. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all together unprofitable. And just in case you missed it,
there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Now that's a simple thing, isn't
it? And yet men want some wiggle room, they wanna, they wanna,
so, but what, no buts? It's very plain, you understood
what it said, you may not like it, but you understood it. Therefore,
he concludes, by the deeds of the law shall nobody meet the
standard of God. Nobody shall be justified in
sight. By the laws and knowledge of
sin, that's all the law can do, is expose sin, it cannot save. Pastor, didn't you say Christ
rode successfully? Wasn't his work prosperously
and salvation accomplished? Yes, it was accomplished for
all that he gave to him, all that the Father gave him. Paul says in Romans eight, we
know that all things work together for good to them. Not everyone. To them who love
God. Everybody claims to love God,
but who is that? Well, he specifies, to them that
are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom he called,
he also justified. And whom he justified, he also
glorified. And so then all them that love
God do so because they were called according to his purpose. You
who love God. You do so not because you naturally
love God, but because God in mercy purposed that you should
love him. Predestinated you to be holy. Predestinated you to be conformed
to the image of his son, which you weren't by nature. And everyone he predestinated,
he also called, justified and glorified. You see those are
past tense. In the purpose of God, these things are already
done. But yet we know in the dispensation of time, they must
be fulfilled. Everyone he predestinated, he
will call. And whom he called, guess what?
They're justified. And soon, they'll be glorified. We by nature did not bear the
image of Christ, nor did we love God. But all who Christ came
to redeem, he did redeem, and he shall ride prosperously in
their calling. He shall ride prosperously in
their justification, and he shall ride prosperously in their glorification. This is the grace of God. to
call every chosen, redeemed sinner to be conformed to the image
of his son. This is the decree of God that
Christ should ride prosperously in saving his people. Now, he did save you. But everyone
he saved, he must save. Everyone he saved, they must
and will experience what he has bought for them, every one of
them. And so we may be sure that God
has and will answer this prayer when we ask him, Lord, ride prosperously
and save your people. One, isn't this the reason? I
know you're here to be fed and to be nourished, you believers.
You want to be comforted. But you also desire that others
should come. How do you know others will come?
Because I know He will ride prosperously to get them. I was just telling
them this in the back a minute ago. Do you realize the church
of God is always full? Who's missing? As of right now,
who's missing? Is anybody not yet saved that
should be saved at this moment? No. There's some yet that are
going to be saved. But I know this, at this point,
it's as full as it possibly can be. And when he calls that next
one, it'll be as full as it possibly can be. And when he calls the
next one, it'll be as full as it possibly can be. Nobody's
missing. Why do we weep so? Nothing's
missing. He's not losing anybody. He's
going to call them. And so as we see that Christ
will ride prosperously as our substitute and savior, he will
ride prosperously in the heart of his people and conquer them. Look back at your text. He shall
ride prosperously because of truth, meekness, and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. This is speaking of his work
of redemption, the terrible thing of our redemption. what he had
to accomplish at Calvary. And because of this, look, thine
arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby
the people fall under thee. Everyone he aimed at, he missed. I tell you, I was running, and
he hit me. I was an enemy. And the arrow
of his gospel pierced my heart, and I fell under his feet." Is
there any other place you'd rather be? You either at his feet, or
any place you want to be? Oh, his feet. Why? And so as Christ comes to conquer
there, I want us to see the picture of this. He's riding as a successful
king. Now, every king at this time
would ride not just on a horse, on one horse, he would ride in
a chariot, and he would have been pulled by horses. And I
want you to picture this evening as Christ riding upon the chariot,
and the chariot in this scenario is the spirit. The spirit of
God is a chariot upon which Christ rides to save his people. The day Christ ascended victoriously
into heaven, he sent forth his spirit into the world. That's
what Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost. He was preaching
to the prophet Joel when he said that you'll come to pass in the
last days, saying to God that I will pour out my spirit upon
all flesh. We know this. That means all
Jews. Jews and Gentiles doesn't mean
everyone. means Jews and Gentiles, your sons and daughters shall
prophesy, your young men shall see visions, old men shall dream
dreams. And on my servants and my handmaids
will I pour out in those days my spirit and they shall prophesy. Christ here told his disciples,
I must go away. And if I go away, I will send
the spirit. unto you. Who's the spirit for? He said my servants and my handmaids. I will pour out my spirit on
my elect. Everyone I died for I'm going
to send my spirit and save them. The spirit God's salvation upon
his elect, he pours out his Spirit, and they shall be his witnesses,
his prophets. Friends, there is no salvation
unless it comes by the Spirit of God. No salvation without
the Spirit of God. For that by the Spirit, the king
shall ride victoriously to conquer his people. In 2 Thessalonians
2.13, it says, we're bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren. Beloved of the Lord, because of the Father that
brought on the beginning, chosen you to what? Salvation, which Christ accomplished. But here's the means by which
the elect receive it. Through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. These two always come together. You cannot divorce them. They
are always going to come together. The sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth will always come to the elect of God. And I like this. Sanctification
of who? The Spirit. Who sanctifies you?
Who sanctifies you? When you are quickened and born
again by the Spirit of God, you are sanctified. You are then
made holy by the Spirit of God. What the Spirit of God is doing
is taking what Christ has already accomplished and actually just
applying it to you. That's what He's doing. The Spirit
of God is not making your salvation. That was already made. It was
already accomplished. The Spirit of God is the chariot
upon which he rides and gives you this holiness that he made. He gives it to you. How? In the
new birth. In the new birth, he told Nicodemus,
he said, I, the very man that I see in you, except the man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What do you
mean by that? He's not talking about heaven,
he's talking about himself. He says, this is the kingdom of God right
here. I'm the king and you ain't gonna see me except you be born
again. Except you be born again, you
cannot see. I am the king of this kingdom. He said, except a man be born
of water, even of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God. But that which is born of flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not,
I said unto you, you must be born again. Now everybody, religion
is spending a lot of time trying to tell you how to be born again. Christ didn't tell you how you
need to be born again. He said this to his elect, you
must be born again. Was any chance you're going to
miss that? That new birth? No. God would move heaven, earth,
hell, and everyone else. You must be born again. Why?
I purchased it. I purchased it. Not one of them
is going to miss this new birth. Not one of you. it's sure you must be born again. A person can know all about the
doctrines of grace. Now, I've thought of this much,
you know, people ask you a silly question like this, when did
you come to the doctrines of grace? Well, I came to Christ. And by
Christ, surely I understand the doctrines of grace. But I came
to Christ. Christ. You can know all about
the doctrines of grace, but if you've not come to Christ, you've
not been born again. You see, that's the evidence
of the birth, isn't it? You come to Christ. You come
to Christ. Paul says in Romans 8, of the
believers, that you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
If so, be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead. You got any hope for this old
nature? You got any hope of fixing it up? Making it better. No, you got to kill it, don't
you? Because ain't nothing going to get better. It's dead because
of sin. But Spirit, the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. The righteousness Christ earned,
the Spirit of God now in the new birth gives you. It is your
righteousness. Amazing. When you look in the mirror in
the morning, don't you just look and say, man, look how righteous that
is? Oh, man. No, no. So I see it by faith
in it. We we know it because he said
it. And the spirit of God has taught
us this, and we believe it. I don't need to see it. I believe
it. And this Holy Spirit, as I said,
the only evidence a man has the Holy Spirit is belief of the
truth. Faith. Faith. Men have faith
in a lot of things, but unless he's born of the Spirit of God,
he'll never believe on Christ alone. You know, when Jesus was saying
he was the bread of life, they began to murmur among themselves.
Religion's always in a constant debate. God's people, we don't need debate. It's finished. God's word is
true. Let God be true in every man
a liar. Men have faith in a lot of things,
but unless he's born of the Spirit of God, it's impossible for him
to come to faith in Christ alone. Jesus said, remember not among
yourselves in John 6, no man can come to me, except the Father
which has sent me brought him. Those that the Father gave to
Christ, He has lost none of them, and when He sends His Spirit
to ride prosperously, they will have a new nature, and by that nature, they
will come to Christ, period. Psalm 110, verse 3. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall
be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people
shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people
shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people
shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people
shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people
shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing.
Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing.
Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing.
Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing.
Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing.
Thy people shall be in the day of thy power. What does it take to make a man
willing to come to Christ? It takes the power of God. It takes the power of God. We
that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have received life, and
we are taught of the Spirit of God, and we are drawn to Christ. Now, how did he draw you? By
what means, then, does he draw us Look back at your text. In thy majesty ride prosperously. We see Christ has risen prosperously,
accomplished salvation. He is now riding prosperously
to save his people from their sins. And listen, this is how,
these are the three horses by which the chariot now is pulled.
Truth, because of truth, meekness and
righteousness. The horse of truth leads the
chariot of the Holy Spirit, and this has reference to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. This is always the means of the
Holy Spirit to prosperously save his people through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, the work of the Spirit is
supernatural. It's supernatural. It's something
that It is the power of God. But God uses a very simple means
by which this is accomplished. The preaching of the gospel. Go to 1 Corinthians. Look at
this. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 17. They're bickering back
and forth about who's the best preacher and so forth. And look,
Paul narrows it down for them, said, look, I'm sent for one
purpose. He said, for I'm not sent to baptize. And baptism's
important. Preachers do baptize. If you
believe on Christ, you should be baptized. You should follow
him in baptism. That's not what we're here for.
But to preach the gospel. How are we to preach? Not with
words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made none
effective. In other words, if I preach by philosophy and human
wisdom, the cross of Christ is null and void. It's useless.
What I'm preaching is useless. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish, what? Foolishness. What we're doing
here, if anyone else If anyone sets anything above this, they're
foolish. But they think this is foolish,
don't they? They consider what we're doing dumb. I said, dumb? Y'all just keep hearing the same
thing over and over again. Not to us, Paul said. But what Paul
said, but to us, to them. It's foolish, but not to us,
to us who are saved, who've experienced this. We know that preaching
is the power of God. It is the power of God. He said,
I will destroy the written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where's the wise,
where's the scribe, where's the disputer of the world? Hath God
not made foolish the wisdom of this world? Here's how he did it. For after
that the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. You can't
know God by worldly wisdom. He makes it foolish. Go ahead,
study all you want to. Go ahead. You bunch of philosophers
sit around and talk and you know what, that ain't gonna get you
anywhere. You're not gonna know God by those things. Listen. But it pleased God. by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Why preaching? It please God.
I don't know. It pleased God. This is the means.
This is the means. Preaching the gospel. This is
how he rides prosperously and saves his people. By the truth,
by the gospel of Jesus Christ. So in faith in Romans 10, so
in faith cometh by what? Hearing and hearing by not just
anything. but the word of God. And what
is the sum of this book? What's the whole theme of this
book? What is the subject of this book? Is Jesus Christ and him crucified? That's the truth. This is what
the spirit leads with when he saves us, the preaching of the
gospel. Secondly, I want you to see the
second verse of this is meekness. The horse of meekness always
accompanies the spirit of God. How does the Father draw us? When he rides prosperous, he
came for you, he's coming for you. You that are a sinner, you
that are a rebel, you've already been chosen, you've been redeemed,
and he's coming for you. How does he come? Does he come
with the thunder of the law? Is that how he draws you? By the law, you learn something.
You learn your sin. You learn your guilt. The law
can't help you. That's what you learn. I learned
that. The law can't help me. It can only condemn me. But when the Spirit of God came
to save me, He came in meekness. Hosea 11 verse 4 says, I drew
them with cords of a man. with bands of love. And I was
to them as one that take off the yoke. You got that? What does religion want to do
with you? Religion, it has an appearance of meekness, it has
an appearance, you Calvinists are just so hard. False religion has an appearance
of meekness, but in actuality, as soon as they got you, they
put a bridle on you. They start trying to steer you and put a
yoke on you and say, now you got to stop doing this. You got
to start doing this. What do they do? They don't take
a yoke off of you, they put a yoke on you. What does Christ do?
He comes and takes the yoke off of you. Why? He said this, it's
done. Salvation's done. It's accomplished. It's finished. Let me move that
off of you. Come here. Take that off. And
he says this, and I lay meat for him. Put out some food for
you. What's the food? Is it not Christ? Is this not done in meekness? When you heard of Christ, when
you heard of Christ, how did you come to Christ? Were you dragged? By the hair
of your head? Did He beat you until you came
to Christ? When I found out what I was and
what I needed, I ran to Him. I ran to Him because His arms
were open. He was ready to receive me. We
have fled to Him for refuge. He said, I have loved you with
an everlasting love, therefore with what loving kindness have
I drawn thee? And when Christ comes in meekness,
I'll tell you this, he produces meekness in the one he comes
to. I can't even look down at you. Can you look down at me? No,
because that's where he got us. We were at the bottom. He raised
us up out of the dunghill and set us on. The most unnatural thing in the
world is for a believer to be condescending to another. And the last thing is this, the
Spirit of God, when he comes, he rides on the horse of righteousness. The word righteousness sums up
the gospel. It is a gospel of righteousness.
Why? Told you that's what you had
to be. You had to be righteous. Well, when the Holy Spirit comes,
he gives you what you need. All right, how much of this righteousness
do you contribute to? How much? What righteousness of yours do
you add to this righteousness? You're being here to add anything
to your righteousness? You're being able to receive
this as adding anything? What about your faith? Is your
faith adding anything to this righteousness? No. No. It is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. And by the grace of God, it is
your righteousness. Hereby, in that day, she, the
church, shall be called, what? The Lord our Christ. You guys say amen to that. That's
his name. Well, God says it's my name. I know this, you and I often
feel as though we're not accepted. I often wonder how in the world
God could receive me in any measure You know why I doubt? Because
I'm looking to me. In Revelation 19, it says, "...let
us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him. For the marriage
of the Lamb has come, and His wife hath made herself pretty,
and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white." For the fine linen is the righteousness of
the saints. That righteousness was made by
Jesus Christ. Every stitch. Matter of fact,
you get to the end of this chapter in our text, you get to the end
of this, and he's gonna talk about a queen dressed in gold-threaded
robes. Who put the thread and the needle
together to make that robe? It was the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. That's why we say, to him be
glory. He has made me a robe of righteousness,
and by this I am accepted. And therefore we see Christ who
has ridden prosperously, accomplishing our salvation, rides prosperously
to apply it. And I want you to know this,
he will even ride prosperously until we are in that glorified
state. He will keep you. He will keep
you. You get the sense that all this
is done by him? I hope you're getting that sense
that everything is done by Him writing prosperously, not you. I know this. I don't sanctify
myself, I don't justify myself, I don't give myself righteousness,
and I'm definitely not wise by myself. Because Christ wrote
prosperously, He has made me all of these things. God made
Christ unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, all
of it. Why fear? I don't know. I don't, man, I even, but we
do. This is why this is important
for us to remember. I haven't told you anything you
don't know already. You know these things. I pray God will
comfort you with these things. Christ rise, prosper.
Fred Evans
About Fred Evans
Fred Evans is Pastor of Redeemer's Grace Church. Redeemer's Grace Church meets for worship at 6:30PM ET on Wednesdays and 11 AM ET on Sundays at 4702 Greenleaf Road in Sellersburg, IN. USA. To learn more or to connect with us, please visit our website at https://RedeemersGrace.com, or our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/redeemersgracechurch. Pastor Evans may be contacted through our website and also by mail at: Redeemer's Grace Church, PO Box 57, Sellersburg, IN 47172-0057
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