All right, I want to make a couple
of announcements before we begin our service. First of all, the
building is coming along great. All the ducts are in for the
air conditioning. The electrical's all finished.
Roof is supposed to go on tomorrow, the metal roof. And hopefully,
the siding and the drywall will start this week. So we're very,
very thankful for that. The contractor is doing a really
good job. So I don't know. Maybe six weeks from now, we'll
be looking at something pretty close to being finished. Still
got the dirt to move, the driveway and all that kind of stuff. We've had a tradition here for
the last 20 years or so in recognizing high school graduates. And we just happen to have a
high school graduate with us today. Joshua Murray, come up
here, buddy. He won't be hugging or shaking
hands. We're trying to be smart, and
hopefully we are. But Joshua, we're proud of you,
buddy. That's a Bible that's got your name engraved on the
front of it. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Good
job. And I'll tell you the same thing
I've told every graduate, every high school graduate in the last
few years anyway. The best advice I can give you
for success in this world? Be under the gospel. Believe
on the gospel. Believe on Christ. But as far as success in the
world is concerned, on time, every time, with a good attitude.
It's really that simple. Isn't that true? Bert, would
you hire a guy? Brian, would you hire a guy who's
on time every time with a good attitude? You'd hire him in a
heartbeat, wouldn't you? He'd never be out of work, would
he? You'll never be out of work if you're just on time every
time with a good attitude. OK? I know you'll do that, Josh. We love you. Proud of you. All
right. OK. And I'm especially proud this
morning of my granddaughter. She wasn't able to have a graduation
ceremony at UCF and we talked about her wearing a robe and
coming by, coming over here and doing, but we're not going to
do you that. But she knows she's loved and she knows that we are
extremely proud of her. As of yesterday, she officially
graduated from from the school that they say you can't finish.
She proved them wrong. UCF. She's a college graduate. We're very proud of you, little
Grace. We're happy for you. Six weeks ago or so, Noah, we
recognized that Noah finished firefighter school
a few weeks ago. And we're very proud of you,
Noah. And I know the Lord's going to
provide. And Noah learned that lesson, didn't you? On time,
every time, with a good attitude. It'll never fail you. It will
never fail you. in this world. And if you can't
have a good attitude, get a different job. Get a job that you can have
a good attitude about, be on time every time, have a good
attitude, and you'll do well. All right, Tom's going to come
lead us in the hymn on the back of your bolson. Great God, thy glory and thy
love our humble songs employ. In mercy from thy throne above,
look down and aid our joy. Thy presence and Thy glory, Lord,
fill all the realms of space. O let Thy presence, by Thy word,
divinely fill this place. This hymn begins the solemn sound
of holy worship here. May every saint with joy abound
and reverential fear. Eternal Spirit, heavenly dove,
descend and fill this place. Reveal the Savior's matchless
love, the wonders of His grace. Please be seated. Good morning. It would take more than a positive
attitude to get me to run into a burning building, so Noah. I'm glad that Noah finished his
school and lower grace. It's good to be back. The reading
this morning is in Lamentations Chapter 3. That's right after
Jeremiah. Lamentations 3. Verse 1 says,
I am the man. that hath seen the affliction
and the rod of God's wrath." Greg just got through telling
me who the man is. And this verifies that because
none of us can bear the rod of affliction of God's wrath. There's
a lot of times in a scripture that speak of God's anger. But I think there's only two
places, in my own opinion, there's only two places where the wrath
of God is unmistakably shown. One was when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was under
the rod of affliction of God's wrath. The other time, I think,
was when scripture says, all those whose names were not written
in a book of life were cast into the lake of fire. We've never
been under God's wrath. God's wrath is anger on steroids. But nevertheless, this whole
third chapter is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Greg said,
the whole book is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's about
affliction. The first 20 verses detail the
affliction of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a lesson,
a message for us here because we're under the coronavirus right
now. And it's in verse 21. Verse 21. On the worst day of your life,
when you think that you're far, far from God, when the heavens
are brass and the earth is iron, and you have no hope left. Verse
21 is what the children of God do. This I recall to my mind,
therefore have I hope in him. If you want to have hope in times
of adversity, you want to have hope in times of affliction,
think about this. Verse 22. It is by the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good to those
that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh after him. It is
good. You want to know what's good? It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. That's
what we do. We have hope in Christ. We wait
for the salvation of the Lord. That's why we're here this morning. Father, we come before you this
morning with a very limited knowledge, Father, of what we're even talking
about. Our minds are not big enough,
Father, but you've given us the grace, Father, to understand
the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice He made for us, and given us
the faith to believe in Him. We are thankful, Father, that
You lead us through this life by hope in Christ, that You have
left instructions that we might know where to place our hope,
that we might know and understand, Father, that we have no sin because
He came to sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Father, we thank you that you've
done all things well. You've done everything for the
benefit of your children, Father, and we ask that you'd give us
the grace to understand this. We ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. Number 352 from the hardbacked
hymnal. Let's all stand together. 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is nigh, 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 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 heart,
freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Acts chapter 3? Acts chapter 3. I've titled this message, Faith
in His Name. Faith in His Name. Peter and John in the first part
of Acts chapter 3 were going to the temple and they found
a man who was lame from birth at the gate called beautiful
begging for alms and Peter looked at him and said silver and gold
have we none but such as we have we give unto thee in the name
of Jesus of Nazareth stand and walk and God took this man who had no muscle
in his ankles and legs. They were completely atrophied
and gave him such strength that he was able to leap and walk
and enter in through the gate called Beautiful. Now we saw
last Sunday that gate is Christ. The temple is the presence of
God, ultimately heaven. The crippled man from birth is
us. We cannot stand in the presence
of God. What we don't need in order to
heal our sin sick souls is silver and gold or all the things that
this world has to offer. What we need is a miracle of
grace. And it's a picture of salvation.
So now this man has been healed miraculously. And I will say
again what I said last Sunday. The greatest miracle of all is
the miracle of salvation. And the testimony of man's depravity
is, can you, I mean, people flock by the tens of thousands to charlatans
who pretend to have the power of God who really don't. It's
just smoke and mirrors. Can you imagine how many people
would flock to someone who was legitimately performing a miracle
like this? I mean, they would come from all
over the world to see such a thing. And yet, a greater miracle is
being performed by God every time the gospel is being preached.
And men have no interest in it. A wicked and perverse generation
seeketh after a sign. Men of the flesh are impressed
with things of the flesh. But it takes the spirit of God
to cause a person to see that those fleshly miracles are but
temporal demonstrations of the real miracle, the greater miracle
that we're all in need of. And that is the miracle of salvation. And so might God be pleased to
put into our hearts a desire for that miracle, to seek those
things which are above, not the things of the earth, the things
which are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. That's our hope. That's our prayer.
I'm not interested in those. Those physical things I've been,
now I'm thankful if the Lord does something for me, but we've
got to have the miracle of grace, don't we? And you can't see that
with your eyes. Look at, so the crowd, now the
man is in the temple, he's been going to the gate called beautiful
every day. So everybody that's in the temple
knows this guy. I don't know how many of them
actually knew his name, probably few, but they knew who he was. They'd seen him every day. I'm
sure most of them had thrown him a few coins as they went
in. And now they see him praising
God, leaping and rejoicing. And they see Peter and John there
and they come over and they think that Peter and John somehow performed
this miracle. And so Peter stops them immediately. And look what he says in verse
16. And this is the subject for our message this morning, verse
16. And his name through faith in
his name hath made this man strong whom you see and know. You see
this guy, you know who he is. You've seen him every day. And
His name, through faith in His name, not us, is what gave Him
the healing. The faith which is by Him hath
given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Brethren, nothing's changed.
Nothing's changed. You and I are born crippled,
we're born sinful, and only by his name and faith in his name,
through the faith which he gives us. For without faith, it is
impossible to please God. They that cometh to him must,
must, must believe that he is. and that he's the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. And faith is the gift of God. Faith in his name. I want you
to notice in the things that Peter says in these few verses
how many times he refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so encouraged
by that as a preacher. Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you save Christ and Him crucified. We preach
Christ. You can't talk about Christ too
much. And we ought to pattern our preaching
after the preaching of these apostles. And six times in that
many or fewer verses. Peter uses a different name or
title to reference the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he's saying
to the crowd and what God is saying to me and you in his name,
faith in his name. The faith which he gives according
to his nature and his person and his work. That's what will
make you whole, nothing less, nothing else. Now, I want to say as clearly
and simply as I can, that faith is not believing that you're
elect. You've not seen the Lamb's book
of life. If the Lord was to provide it
for you, I know what you'd be doing. You'd go right to the section
where your name would be, wouldn't you? If it's in alphabetical
order, you'd be looking for your name in the Lamb's Book of Life,
wouldn't you? Why? Because you've not seen the Lamb's Book of Life.
Faith is not believing that your name is in the Lamb's Book of
Life. It's not believing that you're elect. It is believing
that the Lord Jesus Christ himself The Prince of Life, as Peter
calls him here, the Savior of sinners, successfully accomplished
everything that God required for the saving of God's elect. It is believing that you have
any hope, any hope, of being saved, it's going to
be bound up completely in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't try to figure out whether
you're elect. Believe on Christ. Matter of fact, saving faith
is not believing that you're saved. I told somebody recently, I had
more assurance of my salvation before I was called. I mean,
I didn't doubt, I was trusting in the things that I was doing
and believing that God was obligated to save me for that. And now,
assurance of salvation, it comes and goes, doesn't it? Faith is not believing that you're
saved. It's believing that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only successful Savior for your soul. It is to rest all the hope of
your salvation on the immutable, omnipotent person and the sovereign
accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is his name and faith in his
name, which he gives you that has made this man whole. You know, that hymn we sing,
Tom, my faith has found a resting place. The chorus to that hymn. I'd
like to change it. The course of that hymn goes
like this, you're familiar with it, I have no other argument. I have no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died. And how's the last line go? And
that he died for me. And as soon as you say that,
then the question mark comes up, doesn't it? I'd rather we sing, I have no
other argument, I have no other plea, it is enough that Jesus
died and rose again indeed. If you're honest, as soon as
you sing that last phrase, and that he died for me, wait, wait,
wait, am I sure he did that for me? You see, that's not faith. Believing that he died for you
is not faith. Believing that you're saved is not faith. Believing
that you're elect is not faith. Faith is believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ and all that his name represents. And if there's
going to be any hope of assurance, And any rejoicing, I love when
the Lord, when the disciples came back after preaching and
they were rejoicing that the demons were subject unto them.
And the Lord said, rejoice not that the demons are subject unto
you, but rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.
If there's any rejoicing over our names written in heaven,
if there's any assurance of salvation, it won't come from believing
that you're elect or believing that you're saved. It will come
from believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 12. This is Peter's
response now to this crowd of people who come to him, believing
that somehow he had power in himself to perform this miracle. Verse 14. But Peter, standing
up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye
men of Judea and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known
unto you and hearken unto my words. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's in the same place in my
Bible and it starts out the same way. I mean, it's almost identical. It's in the exact same place.
Chapter 3, verse 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered
unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this, and why
look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our power or our holiness
we had made this man to walk? Now, what's Peter saying? Peter saying that which is of
the flesh is flesh. It's the spirit that quickeneth.
It's the spirit that give us life. The flesh profiteth nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ said, the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
truth. Salvation doesn't come by anything
in the flesh. It doesn't come by the determination
of the flesh. It doesn't come by the will of
the flesh. It doesn't come by the works of the flesh. That's
what Peter's saying. He said, don't look at us as
if we had something to do with this. Well, this wasn't done
by man. This was done by God. Here's my application of that
for us. There's no plan. There's no program. And there is no prayer. You know,
I hear the preachers now on TV saying, pray this prayer and
you can be sure. No, you can't. They're lying to you. You pray
that prayer. If you're a liar, you can be
sure. But if you're an honest person, you've got to wonder,
did I really mean it? They say that, don't they? They
say, pray this prayer and mean it. Mean it with all your heart. What have you ever done with
all of your heart? You ever done anything with all
of your heart? No. No. Don't, don't, don't judge
your motives too closely because if you're honest, you're going
to find out your motives are never pure. Okay. They're just as sinful as you
are. And I am, you know, we just, No, there's no plan. There's
no prayer. There's no program. You know,
we, we used to tell people that so that they could join us in
playing church and pretending to be right with God when we
weren't. That's what Peter's saying. Don't look on us. We
didn't have anything to do with this. Look at verse 13. The God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers have glorified
his son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence
of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. So this is the
same crowd now. I mean, it's just a few days
after Pentecost. Already 3,000 have been called
of God. And now, I don't know when the
scripture references the 5,000, if it's 5,000 more or if there's
2,000 more, but in chapter four, there's 5,000 that are converted.
So Peter's preaching to the same crowd. He's saying, God, the
God of your fathers, he's the one that did this. We didn't
do it. And not just any God, the covenant-keeping
God, the same God who made the promise of salvation to Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. He hasn't changed. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He changes not. He's immutable.
And his covenant promises are sure. This is who did this. And
what are we to say to all this? Lord, if I'm going to experience
this miracle, It's not going to be by the works of the flesh.
It's not going to be because somebody persuaded me or because
I got committed or because I got sincere or because I felt in
the depths of my soul, sincere sorrow for my sin. It's going
to because God gave me faith. That's what our verse look at.
Go back with me again to our verse verse verse 16. His name. Through faith in his name. And the last part of that verse
says the faith, which is by him. Now this is God's word. The, the penman of acts is not
stumbling over words here. He's saying his name through
faith in his name, the faith that he gives to believe on him
is what made this man. And nothing's changed. It's not
believing that you're saved. It's not believing that you're
elect. It's not the works of the flesh. It's not it's faith
in his name. The faith that he gives. That
made this man whole. God has glorified his son. You see that? God has glorified
his son. Has God glorified the Lord Jesus
Christ to you? Is he so due that God has set
him down at his right hand? That the Lord Jesus Christ has
been made by the Father, both Lord and Christ? That he occupies
the highest throne in all of eternity? That he rules and reigns
uncontested as the glorified savior. He's been given a name,
which is above every name. He's been given the preeminence
of God. He has power over all principalities
and all powers. All thrones and all dominions.
As he said to you, I'll not share my glory with another. I'm going
to get all the glory, all the glory. That's what faith in his
name is. He gets all the glory. I can't take any credit for my
salvation for the fact that God has, has lifted me up out of
the dunghill that he's given me. He's given my crippled legs
that I was born with strength to walk and to stand and to leap
in the presence of God. was all of God. It was the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac. It wasn't the preacher that did
it. It wasn't the program that did it. It wasn't the prayer
that I prayed that did it. It wasn't the work that I performed
that did it. It was God who glorified His
Son to me. He lifted up His Son. As the
serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up. And I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men to me." That's what God has done. That's what Peter's
saying. That's what God's saying to you
and me. The wholeness of salvation is because God has glorified
His Son. He has set His Son up. And He set Him down, finishing
His work. So to believe on Christ is to
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. When Philip was talking to that
Ethiopian eunuch, and the Ethiopian eunuch asked him, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? Can I profess Christ? And what
did Philip say? If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. And what I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. I believe that I may doubt and
question a lot about when I was talking about. Questioning your
motives earlier, you know the things that we do and the things
that we, but God gives you faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no question in your mind that he is the son of God. You and
and if though You just know that that's who he is. He is the immutable, omnipotent,
omnipresent, sovereign God of creation. He's the second person
of the triune Godhead, and the fullness of the Godhead resides
in him bodily. You know that's the only hope
you have. Jesus is God. He's God. That's why, that's
why the scripture says that when the word became flesh, we beheld
his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the son of God. That's who he is. It pleased
the father that in him should all fullness dwell. Believing
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is believing that he is
God. Believing he's God. Now everybody who calls themselves
a Christian will confess, and they have it in their creeds
and in their confessions, the deity of Christ. And yet they
strip the meaning of that when they limit his power. when they limit his immutability,
his omnipotence, his omniscience, the very essence of deity they
deny. That's why the Lord said, you
honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.
You say I'm God, but you don't mean it. You've set yourself
up on the throne of God and you've made me dependent upon you. Now
that's just the opposite of what faith is. Faith means that you completely
depend upon him. You've got no power. You've got
no ability. You can't do anything for yourself.
He's God. He's got to do it all. That's
what Peter's saying. Peter's saying, we didn't do
this. You see this man? It was his name. It was faith
in his name, the faith that he gives that made this man whole.
And faith is believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Unto you a child is born, unto
you a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders,
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. How can
he be called the Everlasting Father? Because he said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father, for I and the Father are one.
He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And that's what Peter's
saying. This one that you offered up to Pilate, Pilate was willing
to let him go. But you denied him. He was the
Son of God. He is the Son of God. For what good works do you want
to kill me, the Lord asked the Pharisees? Oh, not for the good
works, but because you, being a man, make yourself out to be
God. When the Lord Jesus Christ called
himself the Son of God, they knew what that meant. So here's my question. Do you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? That's what saving
faith is and that he as God makes you completely dependent upon
him for everything. No, we didn't do this. His name,
faith in his name, faith, which he gives made this man whole.
And if we're going to be made whole, it will be the same way,
won't it? The same exact way. What else does Peter tell us
about, about Christ? Look, verse 13, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers
have glorified his son, Jesus. Now, you know what that name
means. Joshua or Yeshua in the old Testament,
Hebrew is the same as the name Jesus. Matter of fact, in Hebrews
chapter four, we have in our King James Bible, the name Jesus
when Joshua was being referred to. Turn with me there, Hebrews
chapter four. It's the same name. And the name
translated means Jehovah does all the saving. Jehovah saves. If we're going to be saved, He's
going to have to save us. That's what faith is. Faith is not believing
you're saved. Faith is believing that if I'm
going to be saved, He's going to have to do it all. You shall
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
That's what His name means. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that your only hope of being saved is that He does all the
saving for you? That's what Joshua means. Moses
couldn't bring the children of Israel into the promised land.
Joshua brought them in. Moses is a picture of the law.
He had to die on the east side of the Jordan. The Jordan River
is a picture of death or salvation. And it means to descend and promised
land. But those were all pictures,
weren't they? When the children of Israel did
not believe God, they did not mix what God was doing with faith. They didn't believe God. God
killed everyone in the wilderness except for two. Now, everyone
over 20 years old. Everyone under 20 that were now
60 when they came into the Promised Land. So the old men who were
coming into the Promised Land were the young men When the spies
came back and said, you know, there's giants in the land, we
can't, and they spent the next 40 years, the old generation
dying off. And two men, Joshua, that's Christ,
and who's the other? Caleb. Caleb's name means a faithful
dog. That's what his name means. That's
Christ and his church. See, that's what we just, that's
what worship, the word worship means to kiss the hand or lick
the hand. What does your dog do? Your dog
worships you, doesn't it? He worships you. As far as that
dog knows, you're God to him. You provide everything there
is for him. That's how we bow. That's how we lick the hand of
the one who provides us for everything. With a faithful dog, Caleb. So
Joshua, look at Hebrews chapter four. Verse 8, for if Jesus, that's
Joshua, that's not the Lord Jesus, it's the type of Jesus, it's
the Old Testament Joshua, for if Joshua had given them rest,
then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that
is entered into his rest That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua
didn't give them rest. When they got into the promised
land, they had to march around Jericho and then Ai and then
they had all the other nations and they spent the rest of the
Old Testament battling the enemies in the promised land, didn't
they? No. He that entereth into his
rest, he has ceased from his own works as God did from his.
God rested on the seventh day of creation because he was finished.
And what the Lord saying is, Joshua didn't give them spiritual
rest. That was all just pictures. But
the Lord Jesus Christ ceased from his labors because he was
finished. It is finished. Everything that
God requires has been accomplished. Rest and then the next verse
says, therefore you labor to enter into his rest. That's the
labor of faith, isn't it? Faith is a labor. We're constantly
falling in and out of it, aren't we? As soon as we think we believe,
as soon as we think we've got a handle on something, it begins
to slip away, doesn't it? We've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended us. And so we're laboring to enter
into his rest for he has ceased from his works. And we are to
cease from our works, his name. What's his name? The son of God.
What's his name? Joshua, Jesus, Jehovah saves. Go back with me to our text. Look at verse 14. But, I mentioned
this at the beginning, how many times Peter uses a name or title
of the Lord Jesus Christ just in a few verses. May God give
us the grace to preach like that. To just keep talking about Christ,
just keep pointing to Christ, just keep showing different facets
of that diamond. and different pictures of him,
and different glorious attributes of him. What's he call him next?
Look, but you denied, why didn't he just say Jesus again? You
denied the Holy One. The Holy One. I have no idea what that means. Except that it means that he's
not anything like I am. Holy means separate. It means other. It means that
he's not like us in any way. When those seraphim hovered over
the throne of God and John chapter 12 makes it clear that it was
the Lord Jesus Christ that was sitting upon that throne in Isaiah
chapter 6 and the seraphim had six wings and with two they covered
their eyes and with two they covered their feet and with two
they did fly and they cried what? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. What are you going to say about
God when something difficult happens? He's holy. What are
you going to say about Him when something good happens? He's
holy. He's just holy. He's not like me. He's worthy
of all worship and all praise. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. He's holy, and I'm unholy. Left to myself, there's nothing
holy about me, but found in Him. The scripture refers to the Lord
Jesus. Holiness is more than perfect
righteousness. It's more than just His obedience. It's the essence of His nature.
And nothing else of the nature, nowhere else in scripture does
the, you know, when, when the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
and he says to us, verily, verily, I say unto thee, or we'll read
the Psalms and one verse repeats exactly what the previous verse
said, just in a few different words. What is God doing? He's
using repetition as the first law of learning. Every teacher
knows that. And so. The Lord oftentimes repeats himself
in order to make an emphasis of something. The only time that
I know of in all of scripture where emphasis is brought to
the third level of repetition is in Isaiah chapter six. God
doesn't say love, love, love. He doesn't say power, power,
power. He doesn't say great. He says
holy, holy, holy. What is God saying? This is the
pinnacle of the essence of my nature, my holiness. And if the Lord gives us any
faith in him being the holy one. You see, faith is not understanding
holiness. Faith is believing that he's
holy. That's what it is. It's believing that He's not
anything like you. It's believing that He's the
Son of God. It's believing what His name means. His name, faith
in His name, the faith that He gives you has made this man whole.
What are we believing? We're believing that He's the
Son of God. We're believing that He's Jesus,
the Savior of sinners. We're believing that He is the
Holy One. The Holy One. I love it what
the angel said of the Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary, that holy
thing. You know what? How do we? How do we describe holiness?
We just have to say it's it's something beyond our comprehension.
But he's holy. Scripture says that the stars
are not pure in his sight. The amoral, inanimate stars are
not pure in his sight. It says the angels are charged
with folly and they don't have any sin, but they're charged
by God with folly. Why? Because they're not holy. Now turn with me to Ephesians
chapter five. Here's the good You know, we often talk about
the Lord imputing to us His righteousness and being without sin before
God. But I want you to see something
here in Ephesians chapter 5. Look at verse, look at verse
25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify. That's holy. set it apart and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might
present it to himself, a glorious church, having not spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now, the little I understand
about the holiness of God, I understand a whole lot less about the holiness
of the church. But God says that when we're
in Christ, we're holy. Holiness is better than righteousness.
It's better than innocence. It's the pinnacle of His character. You see, to be found in Christ
means that as He is, so are we. I don't understand that. But
He's the Holy One. And we are holy in Him. God wouldn't have anything to
do with us if we weren't. Scripture says that we are a kingdom of
priests, a holy nation. He doesn't just take away our
sin and put to us His righteousness. He puts us in Himself so that
we, as He is, are holy in the presence of God. his name, by faith in his name,
the faith that he gives you to believe that he's the son of
God, that his name is Jesus, that he's the covenant keeping
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he is the holy one. Look at verse 14
quickly. I told you how many times the
Lord gives so many different names of Christ in these few
verses. What is he saying to me and you
believe on his name? Believe who he has revealed himself
to be. This is who he is. And just you
see that capital J. That means he's right. And righteous. And he's upheld
all of God's justice. And whatever he does is right.
And you know that all things he works together for good for
them that love him and those that are called according to
his purpose. He's just just he's he's we and our justification
is because of him because of his justice. He's faultless before
the law. in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. How am I going to be holy, unblameable
and unreprovable in the sight of God? To believe on him. That's how he makes his people
whole. His name, faith in His name, the faith that He gives
to believe who He is has made this man whole. And look at, here's another one.
Look at verse 15. You killed the Prince of life. Now that word Prince means author. He's the author of life. In him
is life, and the life was the light of men. What did the Lord say to Martha? Martha, you believe? In the resurrection,
Lord, I know that in the resurrection my brother will be raised. Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. Yet shall he live. I'm the author of life. I've
conquered death. Death has no more power. The
grave has no more victory. The law has been fulfilled. The
sting of death is sin, and sin has been put away. You killed
the prince of life. He's the author of life. You and I are dependent upon
him as God to draw our next breath. And when he decides that's our
last breath, that's going to be our last breath. And in the
same way, we're dependent upon him for spiritual life. Lord,
you're going to have to raise me from the dead. I'm a man, I'm a dying man. But
oh, what hope we have in knowing. Grave, where is thy victory?
Oh, death, where's thy sting? Thanks be to God through Christ
Jesus, who is the Prince of Life. Now, how could the Prince of
Life be killed? I don't understand that. He's the author and the
finisher of all things. He's the creator and sustainer
of all life. And yet he drew his last breath
on Calvary's cross. He died. He's put into a tomb, but God would not allow his Holy
one to see corruption. Yeah. You know, our bodies begin
to decay as soon as we draw our last breath. I mean, they turn
an awful color and they start breaking down just like that.
That's why Martha said, Lord, he's dead three days. They didn't
have embalming back then and the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't
embalmed. And yet, he never saw corruption. His body didn't even begin the
process of corruption. He was dead. He was dead, but
the Lord said, I will not allow my Holy One to see corruption.
And three days later, God raised him from the dead. He conquered
the grave. He conquered death. Nothing else
for you and I to fear. Believe, believe on his name. He's the Son of God. He's the
Christ, the anointed one. He's the prince of life. He's
the holy one. He's the just one. These are
all his names. He's the resurrected one. Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. The prince of life is raised
from the dead. And we'll read verse 16 one more
time and his name, Not believing you're saved. You
go. You'll be honest with yourself.
You're going to kind of be. That's going to be up and down,
isn't it? You've not looked into the lands
book of life. You're not seeing your name there. The fact that
you if you had a chance to look into that book right now, that's
first thing you'd go for, wouldn't it? See if your names there. You know what? Here's a good
thing. I've never met another Greg Elmquist, but I'm sure there's
probably some out there. So if I saw my name in there,
I'd wonder, you know, is that my name? Is that me or is that
another Greg Elmquist? It's not a good thing for us
to look into the Lamb's Book of Life. Here's what God says, whosoever,
whosoever. That's pretty broad. I can fit
into that name. I'm a whosoever, are you a whosoever?
Whosoever believeth on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be saved. Whosoever. You see, being made
whole is his name. Faith in his name, that faith
which he gives, makes us whole. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
bless your word to the salvation of our souls. We ask in Christ's
name. Amen. Number 53. Let's stand together
53. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It calms his sorrows, heals his
wounds, and drives away Dear name the rock on which I
build my shield and hiding place. Mine ever failing treasury filled
with boundless stores of grace. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king, my Lord, my life, my way,
my end, accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought, But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. Till then I would thy love proclaim
with every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death.