Thank you, Joy. Good evening.
Let's open tonight's service with hymn number 223 from the
Hardback Tymnal, 223. Arise, my soul, arise. Let's all stand
together. Arise, my soul, arise, shake
off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written on His hands. My name is written on His hands. He ever lives above for me to
intercede His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead ?
His blood atoned for all my sin ? And sprinkles now the throne
of grace ? And sprinkles now the throne of grace ? Five bleeding
wounds he bears ? Received on Calvary They pour effectual prayers,
they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, nor let that ransom sinner die, nor let that ransom sinner
die. The father hears him pray, his
dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the presence
of his son. His spirit answers to the blood
and tells me I am born of God, and tells me I am born of God. My God is reconciled His pardoning
voice I hear He owns me for His child I can no longer fear With
confidence I now draw nigh Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53. We'll begin reading in verse
one. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant. And as a root out of dry ground,
he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He, the Father, shall see the
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors, And he bear the sin of many and
made intercession for the transgressors. Let's pray. Our gracious, glorious, merciful
heavenly Father, thank you for this portion of
thy word. reveals to us in such graphic
and glorious language the sufferings that thy dear Son went through
on behalf of our sin. We pray, Lord, that you'd be
pleased to cause your Word to be as a double-edged sword, that
it would Divide the thoughts and the intents
of our hearts and Lord, that it would reveal to us the glory
of Christ. Thank you for this blessed opportunity
to come and gather in this place and Lord, enable us to speak,
enable us to hear, enable us to worship. Father, we pray for
Todd and for Chris and for Donnie and Gabe. Ask, Lord, that you
would prepare their hearts with the messages that you would have
us to hear. And, Lord, that you would prepare
our hearts to hear. Oh, we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number two from our Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymnal. Let's stand together again. Number two. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. ? O do not our suit disdain ?
? Shall we seek thee, Lord, in pain ? ? Lord, on thee our souls
depend ? ? In compassion now descend ? ? Fill our hearts with
thy rich grace ? tune our lips to sing thy praise in thine own
appointed way now we seek thee here we ? We know not how to go ? ? Till
a blessing thou bestow ? ? Send the message from thy word ? ?
That may joy and peace afford ? ? Let thy spirit now impart
? Christ's salvation to each heart. Please be seated. We'll begin right there in Isaiah
chapter 53. I'd like to try to bring a message
entitled Satisfied. Satisfied. We just read that
the Father saw the travail of the Lord's soul and the Father
was satisfied. And that's my first point to
the message. God Almighty is completely and fully satisfied
with the work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on behalf
of His people. My second point is that faith
is satisfied. satisfied with Christ, satisfied
with that which God is satisfied with. And my third point is that though
we are satisfied to have the Lord Jesus Christ stand in our
stead before God, we are dissatisfied with how much of him we have
apprehended in this life. And it will not be until we see
him in the fullness of his glory that we'll know what it is to
be fully satisfied. The Proverbs describes our flesh
like this, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, neither is the ear
filled with hearing. Isn't that the way we are? You
know, we see something beautiful and okay, been there, done that,
gotta see something else. We hear something, okay, I gotta
hear something else. The flesh is never satisfied.
never satisfied. But here's our hope. Our hope
is that the Lord Jesus Christ presented to the Father everything
that the Father required in order for you and I to stand as sinners
in the presence of a holy God. We Read three times in the New
Testament where God Almighty spoke from heaven and said, this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. I'm well pleased
with him. Hear ye him, follow him. He's
the one that I'm satisfied with. I looked up the word satisfied.
It means to be made full, full to overflowing. You can't get
any more in it. The glass is full to the brim. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the full wrath of God's holy justice in order to put away
our sin. God requires nothing more and
he will settle for nothing less. Only the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ satisfies the Father. No amount of sorrow, no amount
of faith, no amount of repentance or tears or anything on our part
will satisfy the Father. Look with me again at verse 11. He, the Father, shall see the
travail of his soul, of his soul. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin. And He suffered in that hour,
that time of His death, the full agony and the full sorrow and
the full suffering that God required. And God saw the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied. He bore all the sins of all of
his people. Fourth, no room for not one more. He fully obeyed the law of God. Nothing else that could have
been done to satisfy the demands of God's holy law. in his active
obedience, obeying in his life and in his heart and in his speech
everything that the law of God required, and in his passive
obedience as he bore the sins of his people on Calvary's cross
and passively satisfied the demands of God's law for justice. That's
part of it. He was obedient, yea, even obedient
unto death, yea, even the death of the cross. So the obedience
of Christ is active and it's passive. And that is exactly
what God Almighty required in order for Him to be able to say,
I shall be satisfied. When I see the travail of His
soul, I shall be satisfied. looked at the miracles of John
a few months ago and the very first one was the turning of
water into wine at the wedding feast at Canaan. And if you remember
that the water was in seven or six stone water pots. Six stone water pots. Now the
scripture says that God takes out our heart of stone, our lifeless,
dead, cold heart of stone, he puts in a heart of flesh. So
we know what that stone represents. It represents our spiritual deadness.
And we know what the number six represents. It represents man. Man was made on the sixth day
and 666 is the number for man. And so when the Lord turned water
into wine, the first thing that he had to do was fill those water
pots to the brim. Here's what he did to satisfy
the Father. He became a man. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh. And as the last Adam, he fulfilled
everything that the first Adam and every child of Adam since
has been unable to fulfill. He satisfied what God required. God's perfect man. And at the
same time, he's man's perfect God. Satisfied. God is satisfied. Ephesians chapter one, verse
23 says, the church, which is his body, the fullness of Christ,
which filleth all in all. Remember the word satisfied means
to be full, full to the brim. Can't put another drop in it. Christ filleth all in all. He filled everything that God
required. Psalm 84 verse 6 says that he
passed through the valley of Baca. He passed through the valley
of Baca. Now Baca translated means weeping. And this is a prophetic reference
to what happened when David was fleeing Jerusalem and the scripture
says that he went through the Kidron Valley weeping as he was
fleeing his own son Absalom. And all that was prophetic of
what the Lord Jesus would do. After he began to bear the guilt
of our sin, he left the Garden of Gethsemane. That's where it
began. That's where his passion began.
That's where the weight of sin began. That's why the the sweating
of great drops of blood. And he came weeping through the
Kidron Valley as though that can just see those soldiers dragging
him across that that bloody stinking sewer. that ran out of the temple,
all the blood that was shed in the temple ran right down through
that creek in the middle of the Kidron Valley. And it went to,
it ended up in the city dump. The city dump is called Gehenna.
It was a perpetual fire burning in the city dump where all the
trash of Jerusalem ended up. And Gehenna in the New Testament
is the word that is often translated hell. And so we have right here
in the city of Jerusalem, a picture of what our Lord Jesus is doing
as he's weeping through the valley of Baca, as he's traveling over
this bloody sewer, which ends up in hell in order to satisfy. what God required for the sacrifice
of our sin. What a, what a, what a savior. God shall see. This is, Isaiah
is speaking sixth century BC in the future tense. He's speaking
prophetically. He shall, the father shall see
the travail of his soul and the father shall be satisfied. And
the evidence that the Father is satisfied with what the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished for the salvation of His people is
the resurrection. It's the resurrection. He could
not allow His Holy One to see corruption. Once the Lord Jesus
Christ bowed His mighty head on Calvary's cross and said,
it is finished, there were no more requirements, no more demands,
no more that could be done. And God proved that he was satisfied
by raising his son from the dead. Isaiah chapter 42, if you want
to turn back just a few pages, you're still there in Isaiah
53. Look back with me at Isaiah chapter 42. And look at, You know, this whole chapter
is speaking of Christ. It begins with, behold, my servant
whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. So the Lord is telling us, look
to Christ. He's my chosen one. I'm delighting
in him. And as a result of what he accomplished
on Calvary's cross, look at verse 19. Who is blind but my servant? or death as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind? Is he that is perfect
and blind as the Lord's servant? If the Lord's speaking of the
Lord Jesus God, the Father's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ
as being blind, what's he blind to? He blinded our sin. He separated
our sin from us as far as the East is from the West, he remembers
them no more. Now that's pretty, that's pretty
satisfied. You and I are confronted with
the constancy of our sin every day. But what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished was the putting away of our sin, so that God
says, I remember them no more. I don't see them, they're put
away. See many things, but thou observeth
not, opening the ears, but he heareth not. He's the one who
opens our ears. Oh, aren't you glad? All the
foolish things that have come out of our mouths. You know,
the scripture says that a man be judged by his words. And here
the Lord tells us he hearth them not. Oh, I'm so thankful. Now I'm not going to be judged
by my words. Look at verse 21. The Lord, the
Father, is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He, the Lord
Jesus Christ will magnify the law and make it honorable. He
is the end of the law for righteousness. You and I haven't been able to
keep any part of God's law. This is what God requires. God
saw it. He made the law honorable. I love that. The story of the
transfiguration was given us in three of the four gospel accounts. When the Lord took Peter, James,
and John up on that mountain and the veil of his humanity
was taken away and the radiance, the glory, the radiance of his
glory shined forth like the noonday sun. Brighter than any fuller
could make it is what scripture says. So bright that Peter, James,
and John were forced to the ground. And the scripture says that Elijah
and Moses appeared and they discussed those things which he would accomplish
in his death at Jerusalem. What was it that the Lord was
going to accomplish? Well, Elijah and Moses, the law
and the prophets. He would accomplish the fulfilling
of all that God required in his holy law through Moses. And he would fulfill all the
prophecies. Elijah just stands as the representative
prophet of all the prophets. Everything that God promised,
all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. So this is
where, this is why the father's satisfied. He's satisfied because
the law has been made honorable. He's satisfied because the prophecies
have all been fulfilled. He's pleased with his son and
he's pleased with all those who are found in him. Faith is satisfied with what
God's satisfied with, isn't it? We rest. The labor of salvation,
the scripture says in Hebrews chapter 4, was finished before
the foundation of the world. That's Christ as the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world in the covenant of grace.
It was done then. No more work for us to do. God rested on the seventh day
because his work was finished. Turn with me to that passage,
Hebrews chapter four. We dare not and faith will not
add to the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made in order
to try to improve it. to earn God's favor or satisfy
God. Faith would not rob Christ of
that honor and that glory. I'm thinking that something that
we do, a decision that we make or a work that we perform or
some knowledge that we achieve is somehow going to make His
work effectual. He did it by himself, didn't
he? And we like it that way. We like a salvation that doesn't
depend upon us to make any contribution to it. Anything that we would do that
God required would not be sufficient. We'd just mess it up, wouldn't
we? The Lord Jesus Christ, the only one that could do that.
God saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. Look at Hebrews
chapter four, we begin reading in verse three, for we which
have believed do enter into rest. As he said, as I have sworn in
my wrath that they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world, the Lord Jesus
Christ had to come in time to accomplish what had already been
purposed by God in eternity. And here we have an example of
everything relating to time and eternity. Everything that happens
in time is but the fulfillment of that which God has purposed
in eternity. We looked at the purpose of God's
Sunday and one of the things I had in my notes that I meant
to mention and I forgot was nowhere in the Bible is the word plan
or any tense of that verb. Plan to plan, planning, that
word's not to be found in the Word of God. Nowhere. I like that. Our God is not a God
of plans. A man deviseth his ways, and
what that means is we imagine, we make our plans, although the
Bible doesn't use that word. God orders his steps. Our God's
accomplishing all that he has purposed in eternity. And here
we have it as relating to the work of Christ, although the
work was finished before the foundation of the world. When
the Lord Jesus Christ, and how can we speak of eternity? We're
so bound by time, we have to use words that limit the reality
of eternity. When we say, when in eternity
God the Son became a surety of our salvation in the covenant
of grace, the promise that the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost made between themselves, we use these words but they fall
so far short of describing what eternity is. There was no when. There was no time. There was no event that took
place. It was always been. That's what
eternity means. That's eternal life. That's the
eternal covenant of grace. The Bible just says before the
foundation of the world, before time was. Look at verse four, for he spake
in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise and God did
rest the seventh day from his works. Why did he rest? He rested
because he's finished. He created man on the sixth day
and God saw that it was very good and he was finished with
his work and so he ceased and he rested. And in this place, verse five,
if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore remaineth that
some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached
entered not in because of unbelief. Speaking of those Old Testament
Israelites that were in the wilderness, entire generation of Israelites
died in the wilderness. Why? Because they didn't believe
God. Again, he limited in a certain
day, saying to David, today, after so long a time, as it is
said, today, if you will hear my voice, harden not your hearts. And the reference to Jesus here
is actually a reference to Joshua, which is typically Christ. But if If when Joshua, he's talking
about the children of Israel who died in the wilderness, and
now he's speaking of Joshua bringing them across the Jordan into the
promised land, and he says, for if Joshua had given them rest,
then we would not have spoken of another day. They remained
there for a rest to the people of God, for he that has entered
into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Oh, we are satisfied with what
God's satisfied with. We're satisfied with Christ.
We dare not add anything to his finished work. We enter into
his rest by believing on and trusting in and looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ for all of our acceptance before God. That's
what it is to enter into his rest and everything in the flesh. The eye not being satisfied with
seeing and the ear not being filled with hearing, everything
in the flesh wants to do more. And so the Lord tells us in verse
11, here's the labor of faith. The labor of faith is not to
add something to what Christ has done. The labor of faith
is the labor to enter into his rest. That is our labor, isn't it?
That's why we have to be continually coming to Christ and continually
hearing the Gospel. As I said a moment ago, the constancy
of our sin, that's the real trial of our, that's the real tribulation,
that's the real trouble that we experience. We're like Rebecca
who prayed for a child, and then
when the Lord gave her a child, he gave her two. And these two
babies are struggling in her womb. And she cries out, why
am I thus? Why am I thus? Because you have
two nations in you. Two separate kinds of people. And there's our experience of
the spirit worn against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit.
And what's the answer to that struggle? Looking to Christ,
laboring to enter into His rest. Not thinking that there's something
that we can do in order to balance the scales of our disobedience
and of our unbelief, but it is to look in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We live by faith. We walk by
faith. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. The meek. The humble, those who
don't have any place else to go and no place else to look
and nothing else to offer God. If Christ isn't all my satisfaction
before God, I've got no place else to go. And the meek shall
eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Psalm 36 says, they shall be
abundantly satisfied. with the fatness of his house. That's where God has his people. Galatians chapter three, turn
with me, turn with me to Galatians chapter three. The Galatian heresy. The Galatian
heresy was progressive sanctification. If you ask the people in Galatia,
are you saved by grace? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And Galatians chapter 3 makes
that absolutely clear. But, you know, we have to, we
have to work in order to get progressively better. And the Lord responds to that
heresy like this, oh foolish Galatians. Who hath bewitched
you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus
Christ has been evidently set forth and crucified among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received you the spirit by the works of the Lord, by the hearing
of faith? They would say, oh no, by the hearing of faith,
not by the works of the law. Are you so foolish having begun
in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? By something that you do, you're
going to improve your position before God? Have you suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth
to you the spirit and worketh miracles among you. Doth he it
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as
Abraham believed God and it was accounted for him for righteousness. Know ye therefore. that they
which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So then, they which
be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many
as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is
written, cursed is everyone that commit, that continue with not
to do all the things that are written in the book of the law
or to do them, but that no man is justified by the law on the
side of God. It is evident for the just live
by faith. as you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord. So walk in now. Now, are we advocating lawless
living? Absolutely not. We love God's
law. Love God's law. The law is for the lawless. We use the law to exercise threats
and judgments against those who had no law. In 1808, a lawyer responded to
Robert Hawker's preaching with this statement. He said, his
preaching encourages sin in that it makes a man rely fully on
Christ so that he does not strive to mend his own unrighteousness. Hawker's just preaching Christ
and this guy thought, well that just, that takes away man's motivation
for striving. to mend his own sin and his own
unrighteousness. And I love Hawker's response,
listen to what he said. Only in finding Christ have I
been taught the blessing of denying ungodliness and worldly lust
and living soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. God, Christ is our, The only
way that the flesh can be restrained is not by the law. Not by the law. It's by the love
of Christ. But here's the miracle of miracles
that the unbeliever has no understanding of, and that is that even when
the flesh is restrained, and we hope it is, We pray that it
will be, but even when it is, we can't glory in that. We see that the sin nature remains
just as much and just as evil and wicked as it
was if it had not been restrained. Our sin didn't get better. because
our flesh was restrained. In Leviticus chapter 26, the
Lord describes unbelief in works religion. And he says it like
this, 10 women will bake bread in one oven and you shall eat
and not be satisfied. 10 women are going to bake bread
in one oven, and men are going to eat that bread, and they're
not going to be satisfied. Trying to eat the bread of life
by the works of the law. Isn't that what the number 10
is? Men trying to achieve some level of holiness by their works,
rather than looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Exodus chapter 15 verse 9, the
Lord describes the words of those who have added to the work of
Christ and he says, here's what they say, I will pursue, I will
seek after God. God says no man seek God at any
time. If he doesn't seek us, we won't
seek him. I will overtake. I will decide
and God will be obligated to respond to my decision and to
my will. I will divide the spoil. You
hear men preaching a works gospel say, well, you know, you need
to apply the blood of Christ. That's what he's saying. I will
apply. I will divide the spoil. I'll make what Christ did work
for me. by pursuing God and by making
a decision. And my lust shall be satisfied
upon them." Men glory in the accomplishments of their flesh
and religious men in particularly. glory and competing with one
another is to see who's more righteous and more holy and who's
climbed the ladder of sanctification higher than the other and they
love titles and they love being esteemed as a holy man, a religious
man. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw the sword and my hand shall destroy them.
And there's the, there's a man who's looking to something that
he's done. Faith is satisfied with Christ
in every part of salvation. I need my, I need my flesh restrained,
Christ. I need my sin forgiven, Christ.
I need, Hope of salvation, Christ. I need peace with God, Christ. He's filled up everything. And
he fills up everything in salvation. And we dare not add to him or
take away from him. And I mentioned at the beginning
of this message that I would get to our text or the verse
that inspired these thoughts from the book of Ruth. If you'd
like to turn with me to Ruth chapter two, we looked at this
verse Sunday. Though we are satisfied, we are. Faith is satisfied. Faith dares not try to add anything
to Christ. Faith is satisfied with Him for
our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption,
our all in all. God's satisfied with Him, we're
satisfied with Him. And though we are satisfied with
Him for all of our acceptance before God, we are not satisfied
with how much of Him we have apprehended. Oh, we truly look
through a glass, as the scripture says in 1 Corinthians chapter
13, we look through a glass darkly. And that word darkly translated
means mystery. It's a riddle. You know, we just
get a little glimpse of Him and about the time we think we're
getting a glimpse of Him, He fades away and we keep coming
back to that Law of liberty, as James calls it, to discover
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We keep coming back to
God's word to see more and more of him. And though we look through a
glass darkly or in a riddle right now, then face to face, face
to face, we are not satisfied with how much of him we've apprehended.
David put it like this in Psalm 17 verse 15. He said, I will
behold thy face in righteousness and I shall be satisfied when
I awake with thy likeness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. And our whole life from now until
that day, is a pursuit of Him. Paul said in Philippians chapter
3, I want to know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship
of His suffering. I've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended me, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind. I'm not living off of some past
experience. Forgetting those things which
are behind, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling in Christ Jesus." And then he goes on in Philippians
chapter 3 to say, that I might be found in him. not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul
said that I might be found in him, what was he talking about?
He's talking about when he draws his last breath, that he might
be found in him. Someone asked Charles Spurgeon
one time after baptizing someone, they said, well, you know, do
you, Do you really think that he's a believer? You baptized
him? And Charles Spurgeon said, how can I judge in five minutes
what it takes an entire lifetime to prove? And that's true. How can we judge? How can you judge yourself? How
can you judge anyone else? What takes a lifetime to prove? And that's what Paul's saying
in Philippians chapter 3. Oh, that I might be found in
Him. Continuing to look to Christ
so that when that day comes, the Lord to usher me into glory,
that I will be found in Him. Be found in Him. In Ruth chapter 2, we saw Sunday that Ruth was gleaning
handfuls of purpose in verse 16. Because Boaz had
instructed his reapers to leave for her handfuls of purpose.
And at the end of the day, and that's what we're talking about
now, at the end of the day, when the sun sets and we awaken his
likeness and we're fully satisfied because we see him as he is and
we'll be made like him, that's when full satisfaction will be.
At the end of the day, she had an ephah of barley. Now there's two measures, there's
two units of dry measure given to us in the scripture, primarily.
One is the omer, O-M-E-R, and the other is the ephah. And the
scripture tells us in Exodus chapter 17, I think it is, when
the children of Israel were gathering the manna, that they were to
gather enough manna to fill an omer, O-M-E-R, for each man. That was their daily bread. And
then it goes on in the last verse of that chapter to say, and an
omer was the 10th part of an ephah, the 10th part of an ephah. So our daily bread, that we're
gathering each day through the purposed hand of God, who lets
the barley fall for us to pick up, is a 10th part of that which
we will take home with us at the end of the day. Now, the number 10, as you know,
is a perfection. It's a perfection. It's the filling
up. It says satisfied, the word satisfied
means to be full so that you can put no more in it. And so
it is with the number 10. Absalom was pierced through with
10 spears when he was hanging there from that limb on his,
from his hair. The picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ being pierced through with the judgment of God's law
to satisfy the demands of the father. We have a baby born,
oftentimes we'll hear someone say, you know, are they healthy?
Well, they got 10 fingers and 10 toes. You know, God didn't
give us those 10 fingers and 10 toes just by happenstance. All these things point to the
perfection. What are we saying about that?
The child is whole, he's full. He's got all of his digits. The ephah that Ruth took home
at the end of the day was 10 times on Omer, which was the
daily bread for the children of Israel. The number 10 is the
number of completeness. It's the number of perfection.
It's the number of fullness. It's the number of law, 10, the 10 commandments. the number of plagues that were
in Egypt before the death angel came and delivered the children
of Israel out of the bondage of slavery, 10, 10. That death
angel could not come until the first nine plagues had been fulfilled,
the 10th plague. Revelation chapter two, verse
10 says, You shall have tribulation 10 days. God's speaking to you
and me. You're gonna have tribulation
10 days. Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give to you the crown of life. I will give to you the crown
of life. That's what the apostle Paul was saying when he said,
run the race, I've finished the course, there is now laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, and not for me only, but that
the righteous judge shall give me, and not for me only, but
all those that love his appearing. God the Father is fully satisfied
with what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for the salvation
of his people. Faith is fully satisfied with
Christ for all of our acceptance before God. The tribulation that we're going
to experience or that we do experience in this world, I'm thankful that
we live in an era of time and a generation where we don't have
to worry about someone breaking in and arresting us for having
public worship. I'm thankful for that. Some believers
have had to suffer that in generations past and maybe places in the
world even today. But that tribulation does not
compare to the tribulation that you and I experience every day
with our unbelief, our flesh and our sin. And so we keep coming,
don't we? We keep gathering that Omer of
manna every day, knowing that one day, We'll have 10 times
that and we'll see him. We'll see him and we'll be satisfied
when we awake in his likeness. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Lord bless it to the hearts of
your people. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 15 in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand. It is finished, Jesus cried. Then he bowed his head and died. Died for sins but not his own. And redemption's work was done. Justice then was satisfied, God's
elect are justified. ? Righteousness our Lord brought
in ? ? And removed his people's sin ? ? Sin and death and hell
subdued ? ? By the power of Christ's blood ? ? Grace to sinners now
is given ? ? Pardon holiness and heaven ? ? It is finished,
can it be ? ? That Christ's blood was shed for me ? ? Yes, I know
He died for me ? ? For by grace I now believe ? Pleading Christ's
atoning blood, Kneeling at the throne of God. Gone my guilt, my sin is gone,
It is finished, all is done.