Hope we don't have to make up
for that hour we missed of sleep, the next hour. Ezekiel chapter
16, verse six. If you want to just listen, I'm
going to read one verse. And when I passed by thee and
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when
thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. That one verse tells us what
our problem is. It's our sin. Tells us what solution is. The
Lord passing by and saying unto us, live. That's our hope this
morning, isn't it? that the Lord would pass us by,
pass by here and speak to our hearts and say live. Let's stand
together. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. The head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns the
mighty victor's brow. ? Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the Lord ? ? Blessed
be the name, blessed be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the
Lord ? The highest place that heaven affords is His, is His
by right. The King of kings and Lord of
lords and heaven's eternal light. ? Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the Lord ? ? Blessed
be the name, blessed be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the
Lord ? The joy of all who dwell above, the joy of all below,
to whom he manifests his love and grants his name to know. ? Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the Lord ? ? Blessed
be the name, blessed be the name ? ? Blessed be the name of the
Lord ? The cross he bore is life and
health, though shame and death to him. His people's hope, his people's
wealth, their only hope is him. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Please be seated. Our reading this morning is going
to be out of John chapter 8, starting at verse 12. Now the
verses leading up to these are very well known. When a woman
is brought to Jesus by the Pharisees, guilty of adultery, and to be
stoned according to the law, the Pharisee did hope to accuse
him. And he then said, he that is without sin cast the first
stone, and all of the accusers left, convicted by their own
conscience. Jesus then continues to the Pharisees,
beginning in verse 12, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees
therefore said unto him, thou barest record of thyself. Thy
record is not true. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, though I bear record of myself yet, My record is true,
for I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye cannot tell
whence I came and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge
no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment
is true, for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent
me. And then the Lord's judgment was satisfied only when the Lord
gave himself up willingly on the cross, so that those given
to him by his Father may be found in him. In John 17, 9, the Lord
says, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. It is our hope that the Lord
pray for us so that we may be found in him on the day of judgment. Dear Lord, we thank you for this
day, and we thank you for the words which you have given to
us. We pray, Lord, that you give Greg the words to preach and
give us the ears to hear. In your most holy and perfect
name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number 352 from your hardbacked hymnal.
352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain
art, freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Caleb and Lacey
are going to bring special music. I'd rather have Jesus the substitute
lamb. I'd rather have him the great
I am. I'd rather have Jesus because
he chose me. I'd rather he died as my Then to think I'm the king of
my destiny Or to believe that my will sets me free I'd rather
have Jesus the sovereign king And rest in Christ I'd rather have the Father who
ordained before time, that Christ should die for His elected I'd rather have Jesus who saved
his own I'd rather have his spirit who brought them safely home
Than to think I'm the king of my destiny Or to believe that
my will sets me free I'd rather have Jesus, the sovereign
King, and rest in Christ complete. I'd rather have Jesus who bore
the sin of his own, salvation secure by his blood alone. I'd rather have Jesus ? I'd rather be his by him choosing
me ? ? Than to think I'm the king of my destiny ? ? Or to
believe that my will sets me free ? ? I'd rather have Jesus
the sovereign king ? Happy birthday, Lacey. Don't you wish you had celebrated
your 16th birthday in church? That's grace. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Judges chapter 6? We are at Gideon, the fifth of the twelve
judges that are given to us in this book. Each of them representing
the Lord Jesus Christ in a little different way. We see a different
aspect of the nature and the character and the person and
the work of Christ in these judges. Last week, we looked at Gideon
as a type of us, a man who was afraid and hiding out behind
the wine press. And what a What a clear picture
of the condition that you and I are in. The Lord puts his finger
on the problem in verse nine when he said, I delivered unto
you. I'm sorry, in verse 10, when he said, I said unto you,
I am the Lord your God, fear not the God of the Amorites. But you have not obeyed my voice. Isn't that our problem? I'm so
thankful the Lord loves us enough to tell us the truth. He doesn't
beat around the bush. He doesn't allow us to excuse
our sin or to blame someone else for it. I love the story of Peter
in the boat, seeing the Lord coming and walking on the water.
And Peter's eyes were fixed on Christ. And seeing the Lord walking
on that turbulent sea, he said, Lord, bid me to come unto thee. And the Lord bid him. He got
out of the safety of the boat, walked on the water, and then
he took his eyes off of Christ. And he looked at the turbulence
of the sea and the wind and the waves and the darkness, and he
began to sink and he cried out, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Isn't this our life? We fix our
eyes on Christ. We say, Lord, bid me to come
unto thee. I pray that that'll be our heart's desire this morning.
Lord, bid me to come unto thee. And then we'll get out of the
safety of whatever it is we're trusting and that we'll trust
Christ alone. But I know this, that we will
look at our circumstances in time and we'll begin to sink. And in sinking, we'll cry again,
Lord, save me. And the Lord will immediately
reach down his hand. He's never failed to reach out
his hand to any of his children who have cried, Lord, save me.
And he'll pull us back to himself. And we just keep repeating this,
don't we? Over and over and over again. Our unbelief. That's what the
Lord says here. He said, I said to you, Not to
listen to the gods of the Amorites. Don't take the advice and the
counsel of this world. Listen to me. But you wouldn't.
It is the sin that doth so easily beset us, isn't it? The sin of
unbelief. Taking our eyes off of Christ.
Looking at our circumstances. You know what I love best about
that story with Peter? is that the Lord didn't say, Peter, I
understand. You know, it's night, there's
no light. The water is deep and it's cold and the wind's blowing
and these waves are too much for you. Peter, I understand. I'm compassionate towards your
fears, Peter. That's not what the Lord said. The Lord rather said, O ye of little faith, why didst
thou doubt?" He didn't give him an excuse,
did he? He didn't say, well, you know, you've got a right
to be afraid because of your difficult circumstances. No,
he said, ye of little faith, Why did you doubt me? And the believer says, oh Lord,
that is my problem. That is my problem. It's my unbelief. It is the cause of all my fears. And the Lord brings us out of
that. And I'm so thankful. You know, when we hear the truth
and we're afraid, what do they say about people when they're
threatened? Fight or flight? Isn't that our
two options? And you see that truth spiritually
as well. Men will fight the truth. Unbelievers
will fight God. And they will resist his word.
And they will say, Lord, that's not my, my unbelief is not my
problem. It's that person or this person
or this circumstance. It's the waves, it's the water,
it's the darkness. There's my problem. And they'll
fight God when God speaks so simply and so clearly. And there's
others that will flee to Christ. Fight or flight, what are you
gonna do? I know you're afraid. man says
I saw a man one time he had one of these no fear t-shirts on
and and he was a bodybuilder you know the boy is showing off
you know and I wanted to go up to him and say are you sure you're
not afraid but I was afraid of him so I didn't But you know,
a man that's got to wear a sign that says, no fear. He's probably
been a man that's got to do that to his body is probably more
afraid than anybody else. He's compensating for his fear.
We have reason to be afraid. We have our sin. We have our
circumstances. We have things that we don't
understand and, and, and, and we seek to understand them. But
the more we try to understand them, the more we sink. And the
believer fixes his eyes back on Christ. And he says, Lord,
save me. You're right. You're right. I
am my own worst enemy, and that is my problem, my unbelief. Lord,
I am of little faith. Help thou mine unbelief. The
Lord's never failed to respond to that prayer. Those that will
fight him, that's another story. I have trodden the winepress
of the fury of the wrath of God all by myself, Isaiah 63. Our Lord trod the winepress of
God's wrath all by himself, and he put away the sins of his people
all by himself. I want us to see this morning not Gideon as a picture of us
hiding out, but rather, as we've seen over and over again, these
judges, first and foremost, represent the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember
Othniel, the first of the 12 judges? His name translated means
the Lion of God. And what a picture of the Lion
of the tribe of Judah he was. When John tells us in the book
of Revelation, fear not, the line of the tribe of Judah, he
hath prevailed, and he is able to open the books and unlock
its seals." And that's our judge of judges. That's our first judge.
He's able to open the Lamb's book of life and to save those
whom God has chosen from the foundation of the world. And
then after Othniel, we saw Ehud who made a dagger and the scripture
is clear. It was a double edged dagger
and he and he killed the enemies of God with that dagger. And
what a picture of Christ taking the sword of the spirit, which
is the word of God, which is double edged. And that double
edged sword does two things. It kills and it makes a life. It wounds and it heals. And the
only way that we can be healed, the way we can be made alive
is for the spirit of the word of God to slay us first. God has to make us to confess,
Lord, you're right. It's me. It's my unbelief. Why did you doubt? Oh, ye of
little faith. There's my problem. And then
we saw Shamgar, you remember Shamgar? He was the one who took
the ox goad and he slew 600 Philistines with the ox goad. And six being
the number of man and that ox goad being a picture of the spirit
of God. The spirit of God slays a man
before he can make him alive. The Lord asked Saul of Tarsus,
he said, it's hard to kick against the pricks, isn't it? When the
spirit of God is convicting you of your sin and you're fighting
rather than flighting to Christ, it's hard to kick against the
pricks. And Saul of Tarsus said, truth
Lord, I give up, I give up. And then Deborah and Barak and
Sisera who was nailed to the ground as a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ taking our sin in his body upon the cross and putting
them away once and for all. All of these judges we're gonna
see as we move through the book of Judges, picture Christ. If the Lord gives us eyes to
see, these true historical events that took place 3,000 years ago.
This is 1,000 years before the coming of Christ, the history
of the judges was. We will see ourselves, we'll
see our sin, we'll see the problem. Most importantly, we'll see our
savior, who he is and what he did. We'll see the Lord Jesus
Christ as the sovereign, successful, substitute and surety of his
people. We won't be wondering, well,
you know, I wonder if he really, if he really accomplished what
he set out to do. And most people think that the
Lord Jesus went to the cross in order to make an offering
of salvation to the world. And that most of the folks that
he wanted to save, he wasn't able to save because they wouldn't
let him. And so they put man on the throne of God and make
man out to be the final arbiter of their salvation. That's not
what the Lord Jesus went to the cross for. He went to Calvary's
cross to make himself an offering to his father, to save his elect
people chosen by God in Christ before the foundation of the
world. That's so clear. You see, God stays on the throne,
doesn't he? It's not, you know, God votes
for you and the devil votes against you and you get to break the
tie. No, we make, not of him that willeth nor of him that
runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. We're completely dependent
upon him. Truly a man can receive nothing
except to be given to him from heaven. Lord, that's where I
am. So, If you have your Bibles open
to Judges chapter six, look with me at verse 16. And the Lord said unto him, surely,
surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites
as a man. Now, I want you to hear those
words coming from our heavenly Father, speaking to our judge,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely, I will be with thee,
and thou shalt smite the Midianites. The Lord said unto him. When
did God the Father speak these words to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Was it 3,000 years ago? It was in eternity past, before
time ever was, before the stars and the planets were created.
Before the angels came into being, God the Father and God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit came together in the eternal covenant
of grace. And God the Father chose, promised
to give to his Son a chosen people. Chosen by God in the covenant
of grace before Adam was made. And he said to his Son, surely
I will be with thee. I will be with thee, and thou
shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Bible's clear on that,
that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came into this world,
came in the full power of the Spirit of God as the Christ,
receiving everything that the Father gave him to do and all
the power to do it. the power to do it. He believed his father. He trusted his father. His dying
words were, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. You
promised to be with me. You promised that this work that
I'm doing would be successful in smiting the Midianites as
a man. And Father, I'm trusting you. I'm trusting you to reward me
for the success of my faithfulness to you. And that's exactly what
the Father did. It was the father that moved
that stone away. It was God almighty that rose,
raised him from the dead and received him back into glory.
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended back into glory, he took with
him those for whom he lived and died. And the scripture says
that we're seated in the heavenlies in Christ right now. Surely I will be with thee. And that promise is made to us
as well. When the Lord ascended back into glory, he told the
disciples, he said, all power has been given unto me in heaven
and in earth. Now, if he has all power, that
means that you and I don't have any power. He didn't say the
majority of power is given unto me. No, he said, all power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Therefore, you go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I
am with you always, even until the end of the earth." There's
our hope right now, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ would be
here right now, that he would be with us, that he would enable
me to speak, that he would enable you to hear, that we would be
able to enter into a spirit of worship, worshiping him in the
truth of the gospel. He promised to faith is not believing
that God's going to do something. We want him to do in the future.
And if I just believe it strong enough, God is obligated to do
it. No faith is believing the promises of God. It's Billy and
all the promises of God. The scripture says are yay. And
amen. They are yes. And they are sure
in Christ, in Christ. So we look to him to whom the
father gave all power. And he said, surely. Notice in
our text, the Lord said, this wasn't just any man's word, this
was God's word. This was the father's promise
to his son, our God who cannot lie. His promises are true and
faithful. And how much, if we can put a
quantitative amount on it, how much more true and faithful they
were when he spoke them in the covenant of grace to his son.
Oh, and you understand what I mean by that. They're just as true
and faithful to us. But is it possible that the Lord
would have made a promise to his son? Surely I'll be with
thee and you will smite the Midianites as one man. This word surely is found many
times in the word of God. And it means with a certainty,
with a certainty. You know, God doesn't speak like
other men speak. Men speak, when we speak, we
say, well, you know, it seems to me, or it might be this way
or it might be that way. Or someone asked us for advice
and we said, well, you know, I'm not really exactly sure what
to tell you, but you know, maybe this, a doctor prescribes medication. Let's try this, see if it works.
If it doesn't work, we'll do something else. No, God never
speaks that way. God just says, thus saith the
Lord. And his word is faithful and true and always comes to
pass, always. So the Lord said, the Lord said
unto him, surely, The very first time this word surely is found
in the Bible is in Genesis chapter three, when God told Adam, in
the day in which you eat the fruit of the knowledge of good
and evil, you shall surely die. And the second place that word
is found in the Bible is in Genesis chapter three, when Satan said
to Eve, you shall not surely die. There's a question about this.
You know, maybe it's not going to work out that way. When God
says, surely it's, you know, it's just, it's just God put
in more emphasis. He doesn't have to say surely
in order for it to be true. Everything he says is true. But
when he says, surely it's kind of like when the disciples, you
know, the Lord would get the disciples together away from the crowds. And he would say to them, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Truly, truly listen up now, because
this next statement is going to summarize a lot of the things
that I just told the crowd, that I just told the masses. Now I'm
going to summarize them for you. So when the Lord says, surely
what he's doing is he's summarizing a main, a main point, a main
idea and telling us now pay attention. And what our father said to the
Lord Jesus Christ was, The Lord said unto me, surely, surely. John chapter 17, verse eight.
When our Lord is praying to his father for his church, he said,
I have given unto them the words which thou hast given unto me.
And they have received them and have known surely that they came
from you. That's what faith does. You know,
faith doesn't look at the word of God and say, well, you know,
it could be this way. It could be that way. No. Someone,
you know, people ask, well, how much of the Bible do you have
to believe to be a believer? God makes you a believer. You're
going to be a believer. It's that simple. God makes you a
believer. You're going to be a believer. You're going to believe
every word of it. You're not going to pick and
choose what you think, you know, might be appropriate for you.
Believers believe. They have known surely that I
came out from thee and that the words that I have spoken unto
them are nothing less than the very word of God. You believe
that? Now, first one to say, we believe
a lot more than we do. I'm sad to say that. But we do believe, we do believe,
Lord, I believe. Turn with me to Luke chapter
one, Luke chapter one. There's been a lot of speculation
about who exactly was Theophilus. I'm not concerned about that. The word theos is the word for
God, and the word philo is the word for friend. Those are the
Greek words that made up Theophilus' name, a friend of God. Now, we don't know who this noble
was, this nobleman. He obviously was of some rank
in the Roman government. And Luke is writing to him to
say to them, the lies that are being told about the Christians
are not true. We are not a threat to the government,
but that being put aside, this is written to friends of God
who are made of God to be nobles. So don't worry about who Theophilus
was in history. He's every believer. He's every
child of God. Now let's read it together. Verse
one of Luke chapter one, for as much as many have taken in
hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things, which are most
surely believed among us. They are most surely believed
among us. Can you say that? Oh Lord, I
do believe. even as they delivered them unto
us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers
of the word." We are hanging the hopes of our immortal soul
on words that were written 2000 years ago about events that we
had no eyewitness experience of. That's faith. That's faith. And when God gives
you faith, you just do that. You do exactly that. You hang
all the hopes of your salvation and your life on the word of
God. We most surely believe these
things. Yeah, there were eyewitnesses that saw it and they wrote, and
we're trusting those witnesses to be faithful. We're trusting
that God called them out and that they were holy men of God
who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, that these
things are not a private interpretation, This is where, this is all our
hope. We most surely believe this.
It's what the Lord said in John 17. They most surely believe
that the words that I've given unto them came from you. And
the Lord Jesus Christ, when the father spoke to him in the covenant
of grace and said, surely I will be with thee. He believed God. He believed God. Look at verse
three. It seemed good to me also having
had perfect understanding of all things from the very first
to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. And
I can say to you and to me, most excellent Theophilus, noblemen
who have been made kings and priests in the family of God,
friends of God, These things are most surely believed. Surely I will be with thee. To do what? To smite the Midianites. Now the Midian was the son of
Keturah, who Abraham married after the death of Sarah. And
all of his children, other than Isaac, turned out to be the enemies
of God and the enemies of Isaac. And Midian was one of those sons.
I think he was the third born of Keturah. And here's the two
points I want to make. Number one, Midian came from
the loins of Abraham. Secondly, Midian's name translated
means strife or contention. Now, where does your strife come
from? Where does your contention come from? Is it the waves? The cold water? The darkness? The blistering wind? Is that
wave? Or is it Oh, ye of little faith, why did
you doubt? Is not the contention and the
strife that you and I deal with born of our own loins? Is it
not our own sin that causes us to be so? Now, are we gonna fight
that or are we gonna fly to Christ? Oh, here's what our Lord says,
surely, I will be with you and you're going to slay sin as it
is one man. That's what we see a picture
of with David, don't we? I think I brought this out recently,
but young David, when he went to battle against Goliath, there's
a picture of Christ. You know, in religion, you use
the story of David and Goliath to try to inspire young boys,
especially in all men to be more brave and more courageous. That's
not what that picture, what that's a picture of. It's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The
man after God's own heart, that's what David's called, who doesn't
trust in the armor of flesh, but takes with him five smooth
stones and he slays the giant. And as a result, all of the Philistines
become subject to the Israelites. He slew him as one man. One man. This is what this is. This is
what this is a promise of. It's the father promising his
son in the covenant of grace, before time ever began, I chose
a people. You're going to redeem them,
but you're not going to do it by you. I'm going to go, I'm
going to be with you. I'm not going to leave you and
forsake you until you become the sin bearer. When you go to
Calvary's cross, you're gonna bear in your body the sins of
my people, and my eyes are too pure to look upon sin? And that's
why the Lord Jesus cried from the cross, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? That's the cup that he didn't
wanna drink from, the bitter dregs of God's wrath that would
sever his relationship with his father. so that the father had
no choice but to forsake his son. You're going to slay, as one
man, all the strife and all the contention
of my people, of the world. The world sees
their strife as an outside influence. But as I said last Sunday, I
think it was, prisons would palaces prove if Jesus were there with
me. Yeah. Notice again, the word shout. I will be with thee and thou
shout, smite the Israelites. Don't you love it when the Lord
told Joseph, he said, you gonna call his name Jesus. Jehovah
saves, not Jehovah tries to save or Jehovah wants to save, but
Jehovah saves for he shall save his people from their sins. When
God says shall, oh, my brethren and my friends, hang all the
hopes of your life on that. It is God speaking. It is God
speaking. You shall slay sin as if it was
one man, and you're going to conquer sin by the sacrifice
of yourself and put it away once and for all. You're not gonna try to do it.
You're not gonna do your part so that they can do their part,
make it effectual. You're gonna do it. You're gonna
do it. Was there anything else for Saul
or his army to do after David slew Goliath? No, Goliath's head
had been taken off. The enemy was dead. Isaiah chapter 42, speaking of
mine elect whom I have chosen, here's what verse three says. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth. And when the Lord Jesus
Christ bowed his mighty head and said, it is finished, judgment
was set in the earth. God accepted the offering that
Christ made for sin. And by his death, Midian has
been slayed. Midian has been slayed. It's finished. He finished the work that the
Father sent him to do. Thou shalt smite the Midianites. as if it was one man. Hebrews
chapter 7 verse 26 says, for such a high priest, referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest, our intercessor. And unlike the Old Testament
priest who made sacrifices for their own sins and then for the
sins of the people, he offered himself up to his father, not
for his own sins, but for the sins of his people. And that's
what Hebrews 7.26 says. For such a high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and higher
than the heavens, who needed not, like those Old Testament
priests, to make sacrifice, first for their own sins, and then
for the sins of his people. For this he did once, when he
offered up himself for our sins. And the Lord said unto him, surely
I will be with thee. And thou shalt smite the Midianites
as one man. You believe that? Do you? If you're a believer, you
do. You believe God, don't you? You're trusting this promise
of God that he made to his son to be fulfilled. Lord, if I'm
going to be saved, that's the only hope I have. We might, we may falter in our faith when
it comes to believing that he did it for us. And let me tell you the reason
why we do that. Because we're looking for evidence in our lives
for our own salvation. It's that simple. As soon as
you look to yourself to see if you're saved, you're gonna wonder,
I wonder if he did it for me. If he did it for me, why am I
thus? What have you done? Taken your eyes off of Christ. Isn't that the way it works?
The only time I have assurance is when I'm just looking to his
successful work of redemption. and believing that the promises
of God are yea and amen in Christ. And that if I have any hope of
being saved, he's gonna have to do it all. He's gonna have
to elect me. I'm not gonna choose him. The
Lord said to the disciples, you did not choose me. I chose you. Lord, I can't do anything to
atone for my sins. If the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross doesn't cover all my sins, then I won't
be saved. If the blood leaves one sin left
uncovered, that sin will condemn me to hell. And I'm doing enough
of that right now to go to hell for it. Don't think of sin as
being just some shameful activity that men want to keep secret.
Yeah, it is, but sins, our unbelief is what we are. Listen to Hebrews 9, 12. He,
the Lord Jesus Christ, entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption. And the last two words in that
verse is for us. And if you look in your Bible,
you'll see that those are in italics. He obtained eternal redemption,
period. Who'd he do it for? He did it
for all that the father chose in the covenant of grace. You
see, believing, having faith is not believing that you're
saved. That kind of comes and goes, doesn't it? It's believing
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the successful savior of sinners. He's the son of God. He cannot
fail nor be discouraged. He offered himself up to his
father and his father accepted, and he obtained, past tense,
eternal, eternal. How long is eternity? We can't
comprehend it, can we? Eternity never had a beginning,
never has an end. The Lord Jesus Christ obtained,
he secured eternal redemption for those chosen in the covenant
of grace. Faith is not believing you're
saved. You know, that's the threat of
the gospel to your religious friends and family members, isn't
it? What is the first thing they say when you tell them about
the gospel? When you tell them about God's
sovereign grace and the Lord Jesus Christ's successful redemption,
what's the first thing they say? Well, I know I'm saved. Isn't
that what they say? As if that's the assurance of
my salvation, that I've made a covenant with death, and with
hell, I'm in agreement, and God says, I'm gonna disannul your
covenant. And when the overflowing scourge comes, it's gonna destroy
you. You see, the unbeliever hangs
the hope of their salvation on a false assurance of salvation. A decision they made or some
performance that they're doing or some evidences of salvation
in their lives. Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in thy name. So you can be sure you're saved
and be not saved. And you can not be sure and be
saved. Feelings come and feelings go.
Feelings are deceiving. My only warrant is the word of
God. None else is worth believing.
I am hanging all the hopes of my mortal soul on the promises
of God. And God promised his son, Gideon,
before time ever began, before anybody had anything to do with
anything, he promised his son, the Lord said unto him, Surely
I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as
one man. Now, did he do that? Did he do
that? Amen, he did it. Amen. And if what he did doesn't save
me, I won't be saved. I love those sweet times of assurance. And you know when they happen
most? Right here, right now. When the gospel is being preached,
the child of God said, that's my hope. That's my hope. Hebrews 9.26, now once at the
end of the world. A lot of talk right now about
the end of the world. Maybe this will be it, I don't
know. But when the Bible speaks to
the end of the world, it's speaking that period of time between the
first and second coming of Christ. We've been in the end of the
world for the last 2,000 years. Now this may be the end of the
end. And the scoffer will say, well,
where is the end of the world? You've been saying that for generations.
The church has been declaring for 2,000 years that Christ is
coming. And no generation of believers
has had more reason to believe that than ours. No generation of believers had
been closer to the end than we are. And we do believe and we watch
and we wait. We're like John's dog laying
on the couch, staring at the door, waiting for the master
to come home. Now, once at the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He put it away. Does he put it away when you
repent and when you believe? No, he put it away at Calvary's
cross. He buried them in the depths
of that sea of doubt, that turbulent sea that Peter was so afraid
of, sinned and buried in the bottom of it, never to be found
again. Separated from us as far as the
East is from the West, covered by the precious blood of Christ.
And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee and thou
shalt. Slay the Midianites as one man. You see, we're trusting the promises
of God. We're trusting a God who cannot
lie. We're believing the very word
of God. We struggle because of our unbelief,
and that's the only reason. And we cry, Lord, help them on
unbelief. There's my problem. My problem is the same problem
Peter had. The reason why I drowned in the black, cold, dark sea
of my doubts is because of my unbelief. Lord, help me, save
me. Our God has never failed to reach
his hand out to any sinner that was drowning and cried to him,
Lord, you've got to save me. And because this is our everyday
experience that repeats itself over and over and over again,
it's our everyday prayer. You know, the religious are looking
at some experience they had back when they say, well, I got saved
back here or back there. Lord, save me. Save me right
now. Save me from myself. Save me
from the Midianites. Save me from Satan. Save me from
my doubts. Lord, I'm the problem. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
thank you for your precious promises. Thank you for the faith that
you give to your people to believe all that you have said. Lord,
cause us to find our rest and our comfort, all our salvation
in thy dear son and forgive us for our doubts. But we ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Number 37. 37 in the Spiral Hymnal, number
37. Let's stand together.