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 surety. 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, in Christ completely. I'd rather have the Father ordained
before time, I should die for his elected bride. I'd rather have Jesus who saved
his own. 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, than rest in Christ completely. I'd rather have Jesus who bore
the sin of his own, salvation secure by his blood alone. I'd rather have Jesus who really
redeemed 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, and rest in Christ completely. Thank you, Lacey. You too, Caleb. Caleb actually
rewrote the words to that hymn, I'm sure you noticed, and I like
those words a lot better than the original ones. Thank you
all so much. Let's open our Bibles together
back to Proverbs 22, Proverbs chapter 22. Verse 1, a good name is rather
to be chosen than great riches. And the next two words, loving
favor, that's the word for grace, and grace rather than silver
and gold. I've titled this message, I started
to title it A Good Name and then I changed the title to The Good
Name. Anybody could read this verse
and come to the conclusion that it's not a good thing to sacrifice
your integrity or your reputation for material wealth. That's pretty
simple. Protect your good name. For it's
the one thing you have in this world that men cannot take from
you. Scripture says, or one of the
Proverbs says, the bread of deceit is sweet, but that same man afterwards
will have his mouth full of gravel. It's important for us to protect
the integrity and the reputation of our name. We ought to be faithful
people. We ought to be honest people.
We ought to treat people fairly. And if your name is tarnished,
it takes a long time to recover your reputation back. And so
the Lord is telling us a good name is better than riches of
this world, but you don't have to be a believer to understand
that. Anyone successful in business would know that ill-gain, ill-gotten gain in
the short term will always result in loss of great profits in the
long term. So, you know, you don't have
to be a believer to understand the importance of maintaining
the integrity of your name. Be honest, be faithful, especially
when it costs you. Turn with me to Psalm 15. Psalm 15. You agreed to sell something
to someone and gave him your word, shook your hand. There's
no contract. You've just made a verbal agreement and then someone
else comes along and offer you a better price. What do you do?
What do you do? Well, Proverbs chapter, Psalm
chapter 15 at verse four said, in whose eyes a vile person is
contemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord and he that
sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. We used to live
in a world where your word was your bond and your handshake
was your contract, and it's not that way anymore. People don't
trust one another for good reasons, and the Lord's telling us, don't
let that happen to you. Maintain the integrity of your
name and keep your promises, even if it hurts, even if it
costs you. But I would say from this verse
that the absolute best reputation that a person can possibly achieve
in this world, the most highly esteemed name that you can possibly
have, The most revered character and the highest recommendation
and endorsement that you might have earned from men will not
be sufficient to present you before God. What is highly esteemed among
men is an abomination to the Lord. And man at his very best
state is altogether vanity before God. So yes, we esteem integrity
and reputation and faithfulness man to man as it ought to be. But don't live under the false
impression that somehow that's going to recommend you to God. It will not. I don't care how
highly esteemed your name is among men. It will not recommend
you to God. Period. Preach the gospel to a man this
past weekend. And afterwards he told his son,
he said, I just hope that God's taken into regard the good things
that I've done. Nope, he hasn't. He hasn't. That's why the Lord said to that
rich young ruler, why callest thou me good? There's none good
but God. So it's the good name that recommends
us to God. It's the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ who went before us as our forerunner and sent his good
works before him to recommend not only himself, but all those
for whom he lived and died before God Almighty. That's the good
name. Why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. And then the rich young ruler
said, well, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the
Lord said, well, you want to try to do something, keep the
law. If you can faithfully keep the
law perfectly in heart, in mind, in attitude, in action, in word,
in deed, keep the law perfectly, Thoroughly throughout, from beginning
to end, you can recommend yourself to God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only one that ever did that. That's why Paul said, in
me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Why did he distinguish
the difference between his flesh? Because he had something good
in him. Christ in you is your hope of glory. And Paul had Christ
in him, and Christ was his hope of glory. But he said, in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. He went on to
say, to will is present with me. I want to be good, but how
to perform that which is good, I find not. I cannot perform
anything that would pass the standard with God. See, God's
standard is completely different from our standard, isn't it?
You might say to a five-year-old boy who's able to hit a ball
off a tee with a baseball bat, good job, son. But a man goes
to try out for professional baseball and that's all he can do, what
are they gonna say about him? That ain't good. Nothing good
about that. You see, it's all a matter of
standard, isn't it? God's standard is absolute perfection.
And men want to present themselves as having done something good.
And God says, the good name. That's the only name that's going
to recommend you to God. Job spent most of the book of
Job justifying himself before God until he met the good name. And the Lord spoke, who is this
that darkens my counsel without knowledge? Brace yourself like
a man, Job. I'm going to ask you a few questions.
And after the Lord had spoken, Job said, behold, behold, I see
something now I've never seen about myself before. I am violent. before God. You see, Job was
recommending himself to God based on the life that he lived in
the world, and it was a good life. The scriptures are clear
on that. Job was a good man, but he wasn't
good enough. Daniel was a good man. He was
a prophet of God. He put his life on the line for
the people of Israel. And when he turned his face toward
Jerusalem and saw the goodness of God, he said, oh, my comeliness,
my goodness, my beauty, my strength, my ability is turned into corruption
in the presence of a holy God. Oh, we're not going to be able
to present our name, not before God. Who is this? Let me tell you the only name
that God's gonna be pleased with. God stops you at the gates of
glory and says, what is your name? Christian. I know that name's been robbed
from the church, but it still means what it means. Christian,
that's my name. I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's gone before me. He's my forerunner. He's presented
himself as all my righteousness, and the only hope that I have
is that I'm found in him. That I'm found in him. Scripture
says, as he is, so are we in this world. And he shall be called
the Lord, our righteousness, and she shall be called the Lord,
our righteousness. There we are, there's the good
name. There's no other name given under
heaven among men whereby we must be saved. God has highly exalted
him and given him a name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess
that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The good name. Yes, my brethren, protect your
reputation, be honest with men, but don't be under the impression
for one moment that your best deed, that your best effort,
that your most, that your greatest sacrifice. Well, I, you know,
I'd made this sacrifice because I wanted to protect my integrity.
Good, good, but it's not gonna be good for God. not going to
be good to God. Not? Isaiah was a good man. Again,
he was a prophet of God, and he had declared the message that
God had given him to Israel, woe unto you, woe unto you, woe
unto you, six times in the first five chapters of the book of
Isaiah. And you get to Isaiah chapter
6, I saw the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died. High and
lifted up. His train filled the temple,
the seraphim hovered over his throne, and they cried, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. What came out of Isaiah's
mouth? Oh, woe is me. My eyes have seen
the king. My eyes have seen, I'm a dead
man. I've actually set my eyes on
holiness, and there's nothing about me that's like him. David, the scripture says, was
a man after God's own heart. And yet in Psalm 51, he said,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. What was he saying? I've been
a sinner all my life. And here's the good hope, brethren.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. To save sinners. Those who have no good name before
God. Those who are completely dependent
upon the name and the reputation and the integrity and the works
of another to present them and recommend them to God. That's
who Christ came to save. Christian Lord, that's my name,
the only name I have. Turn to me, we often quote this
passage, but I want you to look at it with me for a moment. Matthew
chapter one, Matthew chapter one. Joseph finds out that Mary is
pregnant and comes to the only conclusion that anyone would
come to, that she's been unfaithful to him in their espousal. And yet he loved her and did
not want to make a public example of her, and so was trying to
figure out a way to put her away respectfully, or at least in
a way that would not cost her for her sin. Well, we know that that child
that was in her was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and the Lord
made that clear to Joseph. And look what? Look at verse
20 of Matthew chapter 1. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son. and thou shalt call his name
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Now there's
the good name. There's the good name. Jehovah
is salvation. That's the literal translation
of the name Jesus. Jehovah is salvation. Two things in this verse that
are very clear. Number one, his work of redemption
will be successful, and number two, his work of redemption will
be particular. And so any Jesus, any Jesus that
suggests in any way that he died for someone that's gonna end
up in hell is another Jesus. And any Jesus that suggests in
any way that he died for anyone other than his elect people chosen
in the covenant of grace is another Jesus. You shall call his name
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He's going to
be successful and he's going to be particular about what he's
going to do. There's the name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus. That's the only good
name there is before God. It's the only good name. The
only name that measures up to his standard of goodness, his
standard of goodness is perfection. Let us always use his name with
the utmost reverence. People throw the name of Jesus
around like they were talking to their next door neighbor over
the fence. We speak of him, we're speaking
of him as our Lord. He is Lord over the living and
over the dead. God's made him so. And he is
the Christ, the anointed one. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the good name that God
regards and no other name will he regard. No other name is given
under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. That is the
name that is above every name because he was successful and
he was particular in what he came to do. Turn with me to Isaiah
chapter nine. Isaiah chapter nine. Verse six, for unto us a child
is born, unto us A son is given. The Word became flesh and he
dwelt among us. We beheld his glory as the glory
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. The Word that was with God and
the Word was God. This is the eternal second person
of the triune Godhead. the Son of God, the fullness
of the Godhead was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And
that's why the scripture says a child will be born, a son will
be given. The Lord Jesus Christ is always
eternally the Son of God. And he became a man. He's the
good name. Look at The way he says about
him, the government shall be upon his shoulder. Oh, he reigns sovereign over
all the affairs of men. You know, a lot of people get
caught up in conspiracy theories and maybe there are some conspiracies
going on, particularly in politics. But let me tell you this, if
there are any conspiracies, God ordained them. It's not like
men are conspiring together against the purpose of God to pull the wool over our eyes or
to bring something about that's not good. God did it. God did it. If there's any conspiracies
happening at any level, At any level, whether they be national
or international or little stuff going on on your job or in your
family, you know, that's all right. God's in control. He's
purposed this. He's ordained this. It's okay.
Men are not doing anything outside of His ordained will and purpose. So we're okay with it. The government
shall be upon His shoulder. And his name, his name shall
be called Wonderful. Oh, the wonder of his name. Let
us never lose the wonder of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some, as I said, speak of him, they rob him of his wonder and
they rob him of his glory by speaking of him as if he's just
a buddy. And then others will rob him
of his wonder by pretending to be able to understand the deep
things of God while using language that no one understands. You
know, they're robbing God of his glory. His name is wonderful. He's unsearchable. He's past finding out. Job said in Job 42, I uttered
things that I understood not, things too wonderful for me. And so when We see the hand of
God, whether it be in redemption or whether it be in Providence.
We stand in wonder. Lord, I don't know what you're
doing. But I know you're doing it. I know you're on your throne. I know you're in control and
whatever you do is going to be right and it's going to be good
for your people and it ultimately will be to your glory. Lord,
I can rest there. I can rest there. What greater
rest is there than the wonder of His name, the glory of His
name, the power of His name? David said in Psalm 139, he said,
he said, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high,
I cannot attain unto it. Instead, if I go up into the
heavens, he's there. If I go down into hell, he's there. He's trying to put all these
things together and connect all the dots. It's impossible for
me. It's too wonderful for me. His name is wonderful. We use
the word wonderful very loosely when we say, well, that was a
wonderful meal, or that was a wonderful thing. But this is to stand in
awe. He's not awesome, he's awful. You know, don't ever use the
word awesome to speak of God. He doesn't have some awe about
him. Everything about him is awe.
His name is wonderful. This is the good name. This is
the name that God's looking for. This is the name that every one
of God's people claim in standing before Him. As hard as they worked
to maintain their reputation among men, they have no hope
of presenting their name before a holy God for the hope of their
salvation. They've got to have another name. People use his name, they're
cavalier about it, they're flippant about it, they're irreverent
about it. God's people use his name with
the highest reverence. His name should be called Jesus.
He is the Christ. He is Lord. He is God Almighty. He is the word that was made
flesh. He is the word that was with God and he is the word that
is God. And we bow before him in worship. We say if he doesn't go before
me and recommend me to God, I've got nothing to recommend myself
with. There are those who, those pseudo-intellectual self-professed
theologians who think that they've plumbed the depths of God's nature
and they can dissect and define everything there is to know about
Him. His name has lost its wonder with them. His name is wonderful. No, Lord, I'm, oh, you talking
about scratching the surface? Lord, what I know of you is just
a, it's so, it's so small. You're infinite. Your name is
too wonderful for me. I cannot attain unto it. Is that not the motivation for
worship? In the book of Judges, there's
a man by the name of Manoah and his wife, who's never named,
and an angel appears to them. And the angel of the Lord, which
really ends up being the Lord, it's a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus himself, and tells them that she's gonna bear
a child, Samson. Samson's mother's name is never
given to us. and that he's going to be a type of Christ, and he's
going to be a Nazarite, and you know all of that story. And Manoah,
after the Lord left, Manoah said, we're dead. We're dead. He's going to kill us. His eyes
have seen God. And his wife says to him, if
he was intended to kill us, he'd have already done so. That was
her hope, that he didn't kill them while he was there. He hadn't
killed us yet, he's not gonna kill us now. What awe, that's
the kind of awe we ought to have. His name, the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We don't use it flippantly. We
don't pretend to understand all that it means. We just, we bow to it. We bow
to it. You cannot physically go outside
right now and look at the sun directly for more than just a
split second without it burning your retina and blinding you.
It'll blind you in just no time at all. What makes you think
you can look into the secret things of God and come out with
full understanding and light about all the things of God?
You see, the truth is we don't understand anything we believe,
but we believe it. We bow to it. His name is called
Wonderful. We are at wonder in His presence. That's the good name. And that's
what worship does. It wonders in awe of how glorious
and how perfect and how successful and how particular he was in
his work of redemption. His name shall be called Wonderful. Don't lose your awe of God. Look at the next thing. Counselor.
If the Lord has shown us anything of his wonder, then we are left
without understanding, and one without understanding needs a
counselor. You know, everybody's going to
therapy now, right? And everybody's trying to figure
out who they are, what's going on, and they don't have any,
because they don't understand. They don't understand. When God
shows you his wonder, immediately you are in need of a counselor.
You're in need of a comforter. You're in need of one to come
along beside you and let you know that even though you cannot
comprehend him, it's all well. It's good. What he does is right. That's what the counselor does.
That's what the Comforter does. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He comes along besides us and
assures us that those things are far beyond our understanding
and far beyond our comprehension. He understands everything. And he does everything right
and perfect. You need a counselor? You see,
if you don't need a counselor, then you've got no awe of God.
The people who don't need a counselor are people who've got it all
figured out. Those are the people who don't
need a counselor. You got it all figured out, you don't need
a counselor. But if you don't have anything figured out, oh,
you're going to flee to him, aren't you? Lord, help me. Lord, save me. Lord, keep me.
Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. Lord, enable
us to rest in Christ even when things are completely outside
of our comprehension. That's his name. Wonderful. Counselor. Oh Rebecca, Lord why am I thus? Why am I thus? Why do I have
this conflict going on within me? Why can I not be what I want
to be? That's what Paul said in Romans
chapter 7, that which I would I do not, and that which I would
not, that I do. Why am I thus? Why do I have
this spirit and this flesh warring against each other? Does the
Lord give you a full comprehensive understanding of those things?
No, but you bow before him and he becomes your comforter and
your counselor. And he says to you, I know why
you're the way you are. I remember that you're made of
dust. I know everything about you. I know every thought you've
ever had. That's what David talked about
in Psalm 139. He knows my thoughts before I
think them. It's too wonderful for me. And God says, it's okay. I got it. I know you. I know your circumstances. What
greater counselor can you have? See, he doesn't answer all your
questions. He comes along and says, I know
the, I understand everything. Everything. We ask when things don't go like
we planned, Lord, how can that be? Why is this happening? Does
the Lord give you a full, comprehensive answer to that question when
you go before him as your counselor? No. But He comforts you and He
counsels you and He assures you that He's doing it and that He
understands every minute circumstance and detail and innuendo and He
knows it all. He's omniscient and that's enough. That's enough. His name is wonderful. I stand in wonder and in awe
of how infinite and glorious He is, and I'm butt-scratching
the surface, and I don't know anything. But then His name is
Counselor, and that's good. That's good. I'm going to send
my Comforter, and He's going to come along beside you, and
He's going to be your Counselor. That's all a believer needs.
Lord, if you're here with me, that's all I need. Amen. Look at the next. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. His name, this is the good name. Jesus Christ, the Lord, the good
name. Yes, protect your name. Be a
person of integrity. Be honest and sincere. It'll
be good for you with men, but it won't recommend you to God.
You're gonna have to have another name for that. His name, it's
wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God. Oh, the mighty God. The Word
was with God and the Word was God. The Lord Jesus Christ is
God. He's the full, I said this recently,
men that have a problem with the gospel, they don't have a
problem with the doctrines of the gospel. They have a problem
with the God of the gospel. They will not have that man reign
over them. And so they make an issue of
election and particular redemption and irresistible grace, and they
wanna make a free will, no. No. The problem is not with those
doctrines. The problem is with God. If God
be God, then He must be eternal and sovereign. He must have elected
a people. He must be successful in doing
what He purposed to do. He must not be dependent upon
anybody at any time for anything. Otherwise, that's not God. He's
the mighty God. That's his name. Can we bow? You know, we hear people say,
well, you know, God, and maybe you've said it. I probably, I'm
sure I've said it. You know, God's trying to tell
me something. God's never trying to do anything. God has a plan. No, God doesn't
have a plan. He's God. He's got a purpose. And his purpose will be fulfilled
perfectly. Amen. What a glorious God we
serve. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all in his hands. This is
what faith is. Faith is coming before him and
saying, Lord, I don't know what's going on. I don't understand
how God could be made flesh. I don't understand what it is
for you to bear my sins on Calvary's cross and for God to satisfy
his justice by putting you to death. I don't understand the
preciousness of your shed blood. Lord, I believe everything you've
said, and I just bow. I just bow. I don't understand
what's going on in my life, but I know that you reign. I know
that you're sovereign. I know you work all things together
for good, for them that love you and those that look all according
to your purpose. Lord, I know that you are life
eternal. You are life eternal. You say, well, Lord, we know
that my brother will raise in the last day. Oh, Martha, I am
the resurrection of the dead. I'm the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he be
made alive. And he that liveth shall never
die. Believest thou this? Martha,
do you believe that I am life eternal? He's the mighty God. He is the mighty God. I tell you what, you know, people
will object to the gospel and say, but does, you know, God
wants us to love Him freely. Why would He violate our will
to save us? What are they doing? They're
denying His ability to change their will. He didn't save us against our
will. You can't change your own heart, and we can't change one
another's hearts, can we? It's because we're not God. God can actually change your
heart and make you willing in the day of his power. He can
make you love him and make you turn to him. He's God. That's what he does. You just
say, you know, somebody wants to object to these things. Just
say, you know what? I just, my Lord is God. He's just God. He's omnipotent. He does whatsoever he wills,
with whomsoever he wills, however he wills. And he always does
it right. That's his name. He's the mighty
God. He's the everlasting father.
I had a young man I preached to last weekend and we had a
good conversation on Sunday afternoon afterwards. And he'd never been
in church before. Didn't have any religious knowledge. And he understood that eternality
and immutability are essential essential natures of a God. If there is a God, he must be
eternal and he must be immutable. He came to that guy, you know,
he said, that makes sense to me. How could there be any other
way? Now look at the next name that
he gives, the everlasting father. Oh, there's a mystery. He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. The one who said, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father, for I and the Father are one. Yet
three distinct persons of the Godhead, never to be confused,
and yet they all have the same character and nature and one
God, three persons. How can we, how can we, these
things are awesome. These things are awful. These
things are beyond my comprehension. These things are full of awe
to me. He's the everlasting Father,
the self-existent, uncreated, eternal God, without father,
as the scripture says, without mother, without descent, without
beginning of days, nor end of life. He's the eternal God. He's not like us. He always is. a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. The first mention of the word
everlasting in the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 9 verse 16
where the Lord is speaking to Noah after the flood and he puts
a bow in the sky and he said, this will be the reminder of
my everlasting covenant, the covenant of grace. You see, Our God's never changed. He's never had a new thought.
No one's ever taught him anything. He's never asked a question.
He's not like us in any way. He's completely self-existent
and glorious and eternal and immutable. I am the same. yesterday, today, and forever.
And I change not. And that's the only reason you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. What a glorious God we have.
This is his name. This is the name that's above
every name. This is the name that causes
the need of Al, isn't it? And that come to confess that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Hebrews chapter 13 speaks of
the blood of the everlasting covenant. God doesn't change his plan to
save someone because of something they do. He's purposed to save
a people before the world began. This is the book. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. And he's called the everlasting
father. You see that in your text, the
everlasting father. Now, all I can say about that
is that the father is the progenitor of his children, and so it is
with the Lord Jesus Christ. All things have been put under
his feet. He gave him to be head over all
things to the church, which is his body. He reigns over his family. He's
the father. And he's the, well, as I said
earlier, Eve was taken from the rib of Adam. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ has birthed us into his family from himself. We are brought out of Christ. Look to the rock from which you
are hewn. Didn't we see that in Psalm 9? He's the provider
of his children. He provides us everything in
salvation and in life. And he's the Prince of Peace.
We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
only one that can satisfy God's justice. He's the only one that
can fulfill God's law. You and I, regardless of how
well we protect the reputation and the integrity of our name
among men, will never be able to recommend ourselves to God
based on our name. There is but one name, one name. The governments are upon his
shoulder. His name is Wonderful. His name
is Counselor. His name is the Mighty God and
the Everlasting Father. His name is the Prince of Peace. If we're going to have peace
with God, it'll only be through the Lord Jesus Christ. What peace we have. We looked up that passage in
Matthew chapter one. I want you to turn back with
me there for just a moment in conclusion. Matthew chapter one,
where the angel tells Joseph to call his name Jesus, for he
shall save his people from their sins. Look at verse 22 of Matthew
chapter one. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet
saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring
forth the son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which
being interpreted is God with us. And here's the glorious thing
about our God. He's here, right now. I believe that. He said where two or three are
gathered together, there I am in the midst of them. You say,
well, isn't he omnipresent? Isn't he everywhere all the time?
Yes, yes he is. This is where he shows forth
his grace and his glory. This is where he calls out his
lost sheep and brings them to himself. This is where he brings
us to a spirit of worship to bow before him as the wonderful
God that he is. Emmanuel, God with us. John saw the Lord Jesus Christ
in the first, second, and third chapter of Revelation in the
seven churches that were the pillars hewned out by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Wisdom hath buildeth her house.
She has hewned out her seven pillars. He saw the Lord Jesus
Christ walking among the candlesticks. You remember that? Scripture
says the inhabits the praise of his people. Where God's people
gather together the Lord gathers there with them. His name is Emmanuel. Now here's my point in closing.
As glorious as he is, as full of awe and wonder as He is, as
powerful and glorious and great as the everlasting Father, the
immutable Savior of sinners. He says, I'm going to be among
you. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. You see, He condescends to where
we are. Otherwise, We can believe all
these glorious truths about him and never attain to where he
is. He must become Emmanuel, God
among us. And that's exactly what he's
done. He delights in showing mercy. He has become, become one of us. He became Emmanuel when he was
born of a virgin. and lived his life in this world,
God among us, and he's Emmanuel now, God among us. What greater privilege, what
greater blessing could a sinner have than to have God among them? Our merciful Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes us to be true Christians,
those who follow after the Christ, the Son of the living God, and
depend on him for all their hope of salvation. We thank you for
the successful work that he accomplished We pray now that you would be
our counselor and our comforter and help us to. To look in faith,
resting our hope in thy dear son. For it's in his name we
pray. Amen. 7 number 10. Let's stand together
number 10 in the spiral hymnal. We're going to sing it.