Good morning. With the call to
worship, we're going to be reading from Romans chapter 5. Romans
chapter 5. As I was thinking about this,
preparing for this, I asked myself the question, what causes God's
people to worship him in spirit and in truth? And I'd like to
take a look at a couple of things that I see in this passage in
Romans chapter 5. that I think shows us, gives
us a glimpse into that. The first is that what causes
God's people to worship him in spirit and truth is that they
know that there was a time when they were not able. They were
ungodly. That means that they were not
able to worship God. They were yet without strength.
There was a time when God showed them all powers in Christ through
the gospel. And that rejoiced their heart.
And then secondly, we see in this passage where there was a time when God
revealed himself, and as Greg has said, exposed our sin. We saw that we were nothing but
sin. And this is the very one God's people are the very ones
whom Christ came for, for he only came for sinners. And then,
lastly, in this passage, we see that it is the love of God that
is the greatest cause of God's people, worshiping
him in spirit and in truth. The Lord says, much more being
justified, for God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Let's read the whole passage
beginning in verse six through verse 11. 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 peradventure
for a good man Some would even dare to die. But God, but God,
commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Much more than being justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
And not only so, but we also joy, we glory in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we now have received the atonement.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
you for the Lord Jesus Christ's work on behalf of your people
and how you have shown your great love toward us and that you sent
your only son And Father, we thank you that
because of that work, we find ourselves rejoicing in him. We find nothing in ourselves,
nothing that we can bring, but we see that you provided everything
in Christ. We come rejoicing in him. And so we pray, Lord, even this
day, that as we seek to worship you in spirit and in truth, we
might see that you are the first cause and that as the first cause,
you will preserve us in looking to Christ alone for our salvation.
And we pray today now even for your people who are particularly
battling illnesses, sickness of all sorts, Lord, we pray for
your, we pray for saving health, Lord, that you would preserve
them in spite of their afflictions Lord, that they might find Christ
the more dear through their afflictions, and that even now, as the word
goes forth, we pray that it might go forth with power, mixed with
faith, that we might again receive Christ as our only hope. I pray
that you'll bless our pastor to that end, and we'll give you
all the glory. It's in Christ's name we pray,
amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of today's bulletin.
The hymn on the back of the bulletin. O thou who in Jordan And dwelt in our sorrow, did
sink to the dead, And rose from the darkness to glory above,
And claimed for thy chosen the kingdom of love. my footsteps we follow to bow
in the tide and are carried with thee in the death thou hast died
? No last day ? O Jesus, our Savior ? O Jesus, our Lord ?
By the life of my passion ? The grace of thy word ? Accept us,
redeem us ? Well ever with him To keep by thy Spirit our spirits
from sin. ? Still crowned with thy glory
and waving the palm ? ? Our garments all white from the blood of the
lamb ? ? We'll join the bright millions of saints gone before
? Bless thee and honor and praise evermore. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Samuel chapter 6. 1 Samuel chapter 6. Now, if you'll look two more
chapters to your right, we're actually going to be in chapter
8. I had my, I'm a little, flustered this morning getting up here.
I had some notes that were out of order. So bear with me. First Samuel chapter eight. I'd like to read this chapter
and then draw some gospel truths from it. So let's read it together. And it came to pass when Samuel
was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of the firstborn
was Joel, and the name of the second was Abiah, and they were
judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after Luker, and took bribes and perverted
judgment." If we could pause for just a
moment and speak a word of encouragement to Those of us who have all struggled
with not having our house as it ought to be. When David spoke
his last words, he said, although my house be not so with God,
yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant. ordered in all things
ensure. David looked at his home life,
he looked at the tabernacle of his flesh and he could find no
hope that he was a blessing to anybody
or that God had ever blessed him based on the evidences that
he saw in his family and in his life. You would think at this
point we've been looking at the life of Samuel If there was a
man who might be able to raise a
couple of boys that would serve the Lord, it would have been
Samuel. Not so. Samuel knew these boys didn't
know God. He knew that they were using
the priesthood and the position that he had given to them for
their own profit, and yet he did it anyway. We find this repeated over and
over and over again in the Word of God. And I hope that it will
be a comfort to us because we've all made a mess of our lives.
We've all made a mess of our homes. We've all done things
and raised things and ruined things that, oh, But he has made
with us an everlasting covenant in spite of, that's a good definition
of grace, in spite of the mess that we've made of things. Yet
he has pleased to save a people by the sacrifice that Christ
made. You know, I thought about those last words of David in
2 Samuel 23, and we can see them as we always do see the words
of David as the words of Christ going before his heavenly father
and saying to his father, Father, although my house be not so with
God, yet you have made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation, all my desire.
The family of God, the house of the Lord Jesus Christ is made
up of sinners. And we look at it and it's a
mess. It's not as it ought to be. But the hope of our salvation
is determined by something that he has done, not anything we've
done. So Samuel's got the same mess
in his house that every one of us have in our own houses and
in our own flesh, in our own lives. Then, verse four, all the elders
gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not
in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel,
when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed
unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
hearken unto the voice of the people, to all that they say
unto thee. For they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Samuel took this very personal. When they wanted a king, like
all the other nations, Samuel thought, you know what, have
I not pointed you to God? Have I not been a good judge
and prophet of God? And the Lord said, they're not
rejecting you, Samuel. They're rejecting me. Give them
what they want. According to all the works which
they have done since the day that I brought them up out of
Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me and served
other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now, therefore, hearken
unto their voice. Howbeit, yet protest solemnly
unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign
over them. Warn them they're rejecting God. They're choosing
to be like everyone else in the world. Let them know what they're
in for. And Samuel told all the words of
the Lord unto the people, and that ask of him a king. And he said, This will be the
manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take
your sons and appoint them for himself. for his chariots, and
to his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots. And
he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains
over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground, and will reap
his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments
of his chariots. And he will take your daughters
to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And
he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive
yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants,
And he will take the 10th of your seed and of your vineyards
and give to his officers and his servants. And he will take
your men servants and your maid servants and your goodliest young
men and your asses and put them to his work. And he will take
the 10th of your sheep and you shall be as his servants. And you shall cry out in that
day because of your king which you have chosen you and the Lord
will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless, in spite of the
fact that Samuel clearly warned them as to what they were asking
for and what was surely going to happen. Nevertheless, the
people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay,
but we will have a king over us. that we also may be like
all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out
before us and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words
of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto their voice and
make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men
of Israel, go ye every man unto his city. All men, save one, all the sons
of Adam, that is, have come into this world spiritually dead. You were born a sinner. You were
conceived in sin. As I was, we were born separated
from God without any knowledge of God. We are by nature of that birth
unwilling and unable to bow to and to submit to God. All God
has to do for us to leave this world in the same lost state
in which we entered it is to give us what we want. It's all
he has to do. leave us to our selves. To live our lives independent
to and in rebellion against him. We do not deny that man has a
will. Man's will is not free. Man's will is a slave to his nature. It cannot act contrary to his
desires. It always does what it wants. That is the definition of will. You have a will and I have a
will and we cannot choose against our will. Our will is the very thing that
causes us to choose the things that we choose. If God, by his
grace, does not give us a new nature with a desire for him,
an ability to worship him, to believe on him, to bow to him,
then we will live and die as slaves to our own wills, our
own desires, our own thoughts. All men, all men are prisoners. They come into this world prisoners
to themselves. And the more they think themselves
to be free, to do what they want, and the more liberty they have
to exercise their darkened will, the more of a slave to that will
they become. We studied the book of Judges
recently, and there is a phrase that is repeated oftentimes in
the book of Judges, and this is it. and every man did what
was right in his own eyes." And as every man did what was
right in his own eyes, the consequences of that became hardship, troubles,
bondage, wars, and death. And then the men would cry out
to God and he would send them a deliverer, a judge. The worst
thing that you and I can ever do is what the children of Israel
just did in 1 Samuel 8. Insist against God that he give
us what we want. And the only thing that God has
to do in order for us to be judged and have no hope is give us what
we want. Leave us to ourselves. There is, in fact, no tyrant. There is, in fact, no oppressor. There is no despot more cruel
and more powerful than your will. None. Our wills will make our life
in this world a life of intolerable misery if God gives us what we
want. We will drag our own very soul
by our will into a fire of hell. The will is very strong, very
evil, very wicked. What am I doing? I'm trying to
do exactly what God told Samuel to do, warn them. Tell them, look back,
look back, wouldn't they, to what the Lord said in verse nine. How be it yet, protest solemnly
unto them, protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner
of the king that will reign over them. Every man wants to be the captain
of his own ship. If you steer your own ship, you
will steer it directly into a hurricane and it will end up on the bottom
of the ocean. Every man wants to be the master of his own destiny
and if God gives us the freedom to be the master of our own destiny,
our destiny will be eternal separation from God. That'll be our destiny. That'll be where you will take
yourself and that will be where I will take myself if God leaves
us to ourselves. That's give them what they want
but protest to them solemnly and make sure they understand
that what they're asking for The more freedom from God we
pursue, the more enslaved to our own sin we become. That's just the truth. Paul called himself a prisoner
of Jesus Christ. There is no liberty, my friend,
in being a prisoner to yourself. You and I will destroy ourselves. Oh, but what liberty there is
in being a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. What freedom, what
grace, what hope, what deliverance. We need to be safe from ourselves. That's what we need to be safe
from. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to do. He came to bring deliverance
to the captives. He came to set the prisoner free
and to set at liberty them that are bruised by their own sinful
nature and their own wills. We are slaves to our nature, our desires and our wills. And if but by God's grace, we
will continue to raise our fists to the heavens and say, we will
not have that man reign over us. Every single one of us will
do it. That's the nature that we're
born with. We're born rebels against God. We're born thinking
that we can have it our way. You know, I thought about that.
That's Burger King slogan, isn't it? You either have Burger King
as your king or God as your king. In choosing our own way, we sacrifice the one very freedom. and liberty that God has given. I thought about those Jews when
the Lord told them that God would raise up children to Abraham
from the rocks and that they were enslaved to their sin. And
those self-righteous Pharisees stuck out their chest and they
said, we've never been enslaved to anybody. We're free. You know, in the entire 2,000
years of the B.C. history of the nation of Israel,
there's only a very brief period of time when they weren't in
slavery. During David and Solomon's reign is the only time they weren't
enslaved. They were enslaved to the Assyrians. They were enslaved
to the Egyptians. They were enslaved to the Babylonians.
They were enslaved to the Greeks. And at the very time that they
said, we've never been in bondage to anyone, they were enslaved
to the Romans. But more importantly, they were
enslaved to their sin. They were enslaved to themselves.
They were enslaved to their own will. They were saying, we'll
not have that man reign over us. They were in bondage under
the law. In Christ, in Christ, we are
judged by the perfect law of liberty. In Christ, we have freedom
from our sin. In Christ, we're delivered from
the wrath that is to come. In Christ, we have the only One
who is true to be our way, be our life and
to be our light. That's why the Lord tells us
stand fast, stand fast and the liberty will with Christ has
made you free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Don't go back to the law. Don't think that somehow you're
going to be able to satisfy the requirements of God's law in
order to find acceptance with Him. Where the Spirit of God
is, there is liberty. And if Christ has made you free,
you're free indeed. You're free indeed. All men are
slaves. All men are prisoners. All men
are in bondage. Yes, you are and I am. Either
to yourself the most cruel despot that exists, your will, my will,
or to Christ, the most loving deliverer, freedom that man could
ever know. We want a king. The false prophets, the scripture
says in 2nd Peter chapter 2 says, they promise you liberty, but
they themselves are servants of corruption. They preach a
message of freedom, but they're not free. They're still under
the law. I had someone last weekend in Clearwater after I preached
on Saturday and Sunday and they had that meeting on Wednesday
night. fired their pastor. One of the men that was there
was a friend of mine. And they asked him, they said,
who are you? And he said, well, I'm a friend of the man that
was here last weekend and preached the gospel to you. And I believe
that gospel. And they asked him to leave.
And as he was leaving, he said, they said, we will pray that
God will deliver you from bondage. Now, who's in bondage? Who's
in bondage? The veil is over their hearts
so that they cannot see. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
3. 2 Corinthians 3. Verse 14, 2 Corinthians 3, 14,
but their minds were blinded for until this day or up until
this very day. remaineth the same veil untaken
away, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil
is done away in Christ. He's talking about the bondage
of the law among these Jews. And when the Bible is read, a
veil is over their face so that they cannot see Christ in the
scriptures. They think that their liberty
comes from their will. They don't know that they're
in bondage to their will. They think they have free will. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart, nevertheless, When
it, that is the heart, shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall
be taken away. Now where the Spirit of the Lord
is, now the Lord is that Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. There's freedom where Christ
is. Tell me you that desire to be
under the law, Galatians chapter four, do you not hear what the
law says? For Abraham had two sons, one by the bond woman and
one by the free. Ishmael, picturing our old man,
our flesh, our bondage to sin and to unbelief. And the child of the promise,
Isaac, being a picture of Christ who delivers us from that bondage. I was in a taxicab in Amsterdam
one time, and Amsterdam prides itself on being the free city
of the world. And I was trying to talk to the
taxicab driver about the things of God, and he said, our parents
raised us to be free from all of that. Don't you know that
you're in Amsterdam? This is the free city. We do
what we want. Is Amsterdam a free city? I mean,
you can go there and use drugs in the open market and nobody's
going to say anything to you. Prostitutions everywhere. Is
it a free city? No one, I don't know any place
in the world I've ever been, people are more bondage to their
selves and to their sin, but they pride themselves. We're
a free city. Who's free? Who's free? Acts chapter 16, when Paul and
Silas have been beaten to the edge of their life, change a
Roman dungeon and they're in that Roman dungeon singing praises
to God for being allowed to suffer for the gospel and the jailer
who's guarding them, who's about to fall on his sword
after God sends an earthquake. Who was free? The jailer or Paul
and Silas? Who was free? Who was free when the apostles
were threatened by the very men who had just crucified their
Lord and said to them, you quit preaching this gospel in our
city or we'll do to you what we did to him. And they stood
up before those men and said, you decide for yourself what
you want to do. As for us, we must obey God. Who was free? The Sanhedrin,
those men of power and authority or the apostles? who boldly declared
the truth at the very threat of their life. Who's free? You see, men have got it upside
down. When Paul in Acts chapter 17 was in Thessalonica and the
riot broke out after three Sabbath days, They gathered together
themselves lewd men and they made false accusations and I
can tell you by experience that that is exactly what men do.
Religious men do when they're threatened by the gospel. They
make false accusations against the messenger. And the scripture says that they
went before the magistrate and they said, these men are insurrectionists
against the Roman government and they have turned our city
upside down. That's what they said. The gospel
is the only thing that turns the city right side up. The gospel
is the only thing that's going to turn your life right side
up and my life right side up. The gospel of God's free grace
in Christ is the only hope of freedom that we have. Otherwise,
we're upside down and we're in bondage. Oh, to be free. What are we free from in Christ? These people wanted to be free.
They wanted to be like everybody else. They didn't want to have
to answer to God. They wanted to king. Something
they could see. And by the way, who did they
appoint as their king? Saul. And Saul's name translated
means one to be desired. One to be desired. And the scripture
says that Saul was head and shoulders taller than everybody else in
Israel. I mean, he walked down the street
and everybody looked at him and they thought, now he's one to
be desired, let's make him our king. And you hold that in contrast
to the next king, David, when Samuel went to Jesse's house,
because God had directed him there, and Jesse brings all of
his boys out. And they were all kingly. One
at a time, they paraded him before Samuel, the prophet. And Jesse
started with the oldest and the most impressive and said, there
he is, he could be the next king. And he was just like Saul, wanted
to be desired. He said, no, not him. No, not
him. No, not him. And finally, God
said to Samuel, man looks at the outward appearance, but God
is looking at the heart. And Samuel said to Jesse, do
you have any more boys? Do you have any more sons? He
said, well, the youngest, he just a boy. He's out in the yard
taking care of the sheep, didn't figure you'd want to see him.
Bring him in. It was David. It's a man after God's own heart. He's the one God chose. Oh, we look at the outward appearance,
don't we? Freedom is in the heart. Freedom is in the heart. Freedom
is what happens in the heart when there is now therefore no
condemnation to them that are in Christ. Freedom is to know
that if God be for me, who can be against me? Freedom is to
know that God has put away my sin. He separated them from me
as far as the east is from the west. The Lord Jesus Christ has
suffered the violence of hell for me. And He has atoned for
my sins and He had put them away once and for all. And I need
never fear. I need never fear the wrath of
God. He has given to me. He has obtained,
past tense, eternal redemption for us. The penalty of sin has
been fully satisfied. Fully satisfied when it pleased
God to thrust the sword of His justice into the very heart of
His own Son. What God required for the putting
away of our sin was done. He has borne our shame. He's
carried our guilt. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there's no freedom like that.
There's no freedom like that. And God's not just he didn't
just put away our past sins, he put away the sins that you're
committing right now, the sins I'm committing right now in our
hearts. He put away every sin that we ever shall commit. When
God gives us faith to look to and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's liberty. If Christ has made you free,
you are free indeed, free indeed. No fear, no hell, no wrath. The fire has been put out. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8, Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 31. What then shall we say to these
things? What things? God foreknew a people
before the time, before time ever began. He elected a chosen
people. Christ redeemed those people.
All that he foreknew, he did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. Christ, as the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, actually accomplished the redemption
of those whom God chose. And those whom he redeemed, he
called. And those that he called, he
justified. And those that he justified,
he glorified. All this salvation is of the
Lord. That's what the previous verses
are saying. Salvation is of God from election to glorification.
He's done it all. He's done it all. What shall
we say to these things? Verse 31. Well, here's what we
say. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Anytime there's an us, there's
also a them. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus? Nothing, nothing, peril, sword,
principality, sin, unbelief, nothing, nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. They have not rejected you, Samuel. They have rejected me. They have
chosen to do what's right in their own eyes. They have trusted
in their own will. They have desired to set up their
own king. You make sure that you tell them
clearly what sort of bondage that king is gonna put them in. warn them of that bondage and
tell them that there's liberty, the liberty that they're looking
for, the freedom that they're looking for, the love they're
looking for, the joy they're looking for. It's only in Christ. Only in Christ. Turn with me
to Jonah. Jonah. Chapter 2. Jonah's been cast off the ship.
He's been swallowed by a whale. You say, well, that's not possible. God says it happened. Somebody's going to say, that
man's a fool. Listen, if God said that Jonah
swallowed the whale, I'd believe it. That's just how much God has
convinced me that his word is true. Then Jonah prayed, verse 1, chapter
2, unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said,
I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me
out of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heard my voice. Now,
we know that Jonah's a type of Christ. Well the Lord himself
said that no sign to be given to this generation except for
the sign of Jonah but this is also a picture of us and our
sin in the belly of the whale afflicted by death all about
us in bondage to our own will and to our own ways. And God
brings us, after we thought that we would do what was right in
our own eyes, God brings us to the end of ourselves and causes
us to cry out, and he heard me. Look at verse three, for thou
hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the
floods can pass me about. All thy billows and thy waves
passed over me. Then I said, I'm cast out of
thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters
can pass me about, even to the soul, and the depth closed me
round about. The weeds were wrapped around
my head. I went down to the bottoms of
the mountains, and the earth with her bars was with me. was
about me forever. Yet hast thou brought my life
from corruption, O Lord my God." What's Jonah saying? There's no hope for me to be
saved if God doesn't save me. When my soul, verse 7, fainted
in me, I remembered the Lord. And my prayer came into thee,
into thy holy temple. Look at verse eight. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy. They that choose their own will
against God forsake the only freedom that they can possibly
have. Isn't that what we do? If God leaves us to ourselves,
that's what every one of us will do. We came into this world speaking
lies from the womb, drinking iniquity like water. All God
has to do is what he did for the children of Israel, give
us what we want. And we will observe, we will
give heed to, we will believe the lie to the forsaken of our
only hope, our only mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I have vowed
Here's his salvations of the Lord. And the Lord spake into
the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon dry ground, dry land. Oh, to be delivered from the
penalty of sin. To be delivered from the power
of sin. You say, well, sin seems awfully
powerful to me. You got it right, Scott, when
you read the word ungodly. The word ungodly in the Bible
is the same word for worship with the Greek letter alpha in
front of it. And just like in the English
language, when you put an A before a word, it reverses the meaning
of that word. So the word for ungodly in the
Bible is those unable to worship God. They will not bow, they will
not come, they cannot, they have no desire to. You will not come
unto me that you might have life. Now that is the power of sin.
The power of sin is the inability, the inability to worship God. destitute of any reverential
fear of God, no desire to worship Him. All religious people have
a feigned form of worship, no question about that. But to worship
Him from the heart, only one who has been delivered from the
power of sin can worship God. Sin has blinded us, sin has kept
us from God. Your sin has separated you from
your God. And only those who have been
delivered, set free from the power of sin can enter in boldly
to the throne of grace and find help in their time of need. They're
the only ones that can worship God. We don't say to our friends
and family members, come worship with us. There's a religious
meeting house not far from our house that has a big sign that
says, come worship with us. No. Come meet a man who told
me everything I ever did. Come hear the gospel. But if
they're not believers, they're unable to worship. Why? Because sin is that powerful. So in Christ, we have freedom
from the penalty of sin and we have freedom from the power of
sin. There was a time when you were under the power of sin that
you could not believe. You couldn't believe. You didn't
have eyes to see. You didn't have ears to hear.
You didn't have a heart to believe. You didn't believe. You couldn't
believe. You had no interest in believing.
And then God, by His grace, delivered you from the power of sin and
now you can't not believe. Isn't that glorious? You can't
not believe. Now that's freedom. There was a time when you couldn't
love God, you could not love him. We come into this world
at enmity with God. Now herein is love, not that
we love God, we don't measure love by our love for God. but
rather He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. And yet, because He first loved us, we do love Him.
We do love Him. And we long to be made like Him,
to be rid of sin once and for all, to see Him in the fullness
of His glory. What a glorious day that'll be. That's being delivered from the
power of sin. We love a gospel of free grace. We love a gospel. We love a message
of salvation that says to us, it is finished. It's all done. Every single thing that God requires,
he has provided in his son. We love that. We love that. We didn't used to love it. We
didn't care. We weren't interested. Now we
love it because the Lord has made us to be sinners. We know
that if he's dependent upon us to make any contribution to our
salvation, we're in trouble. We have no hope. We have no peace. We love a gospel of free grace. We love a God who is sovereign. We love a Christ who has provided
everything for our salvation. There was a time we couldn't
love. Why? Because sin kept us from loving. So in the gospel, when the Lord
Jesus said, if I have set you free, you are free indeed. He sets us free from the penalty
of sin and he sets us free from the power of sin. So that now
we can worship God. Now we can believe the gospel.
Now we can love God. Now we can serve him from the
heart. Now we can rejoice. It was a
time we couldn't rejoice, the gospel fell on deaf ears, now
we rejoice. The power of sin's been broken.
If you're able to believe, if you're able to worship, if you're
able to rejoice, if you're able to love, it's because you've
been delivered. from the power of sin. And one day, one day, child of
God, we will be delivered completely from the very presence of sin.
The very presence of sin. Nothing in heaven but righteousness.
Glory, absolute sinless perfection. No memory of sin, no thought
of sin, no desire for sin. And everyone who's been set free
is waiting and watching for that day. Men call themselves free. Americans
love to call themselves free. I was talking to our brother
from India, and they have a lot more restrictions put on them
from their government than we would ever tolerate in this country.
And Gilbert, you remember Gilbert? He preached for us a couple months
ago. He said, because I was talking
about, you know, don't you like the free state of Florida we
live in? And we, you know, we're thankful for the political freedoms
that we have in this country and in this state. But he was
very wise in saying, there's only one freedom. We may not
enjoy the freedoms that you enjoy in your country, but pastor,
you know, there is only one freedom, right? And I said, oh yeah, of
course, of course. There's only one freedom. That
freedom's in Christ. And you can live in Russia, North
Korea, India, America, wherever you live, you're in Christ, you're
free. You're free. And you can, opposite of that,
live with the liberty to do anything you want. And if God allows us to do that,
We're in the greatest bondage of all. Our will, our will is the strongest
slave master that there ever was. And God deliver us and not
do for us what he did to Israel. Give them a king, give them what
they want, but warn them. Not gonna be what they think.
They're not gonna be free. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Teach us for Christ's sake and
save us from ourselves. Amen. 290 in the hardback, 290. ? Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side ? ? Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain ?
? Leave to thy God to order and provide ? ? Be still, my soul ? ? Thy best,
thy every friend ? ? Through glory ways leads to a joyful
end ? ? Be still, my soul, thy God doth
love thee ? I hope thy confidence let nothing
shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know. His voice to rule them while
He dwelt below. Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening
on, when we and disappointment, grief and
fear are gone. Sorrow forgot, love's purest
joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last.