Good evening. Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 24 in the softback temple, if you have that with
you. And let's all stand together, we're gonna sing Jehovah Sid
Canu. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. We love to call you by that name,
our Savior Christ Jesus. Jehovah Sidkenu, The God-man
live for us, bringing eternal righteousness which God imputes
to us. Jehovah Sidkenu, our substitute
who died. Your blood has put away our sin,
and we are justified. Jehovah Sidkenu, Your love has
won our praise. Trusting your blood and righteousness,
we're saved by your free grace. Jehovah Sidkenu, we stand in
you alone. Our only fitness before God is
in our Lord, His Son. Jehovah Sidkenu, ? The Lord our
righteousness ? ? Christ Jesus you alone we call ? ? The Lord
our righteousness ? Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles
together to Jeremiah chapter 23 for our call to worship Jeremiah
23. This is the inspiration of that
hymn we just sang. We'll begin reading in verse
five. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days, Judah shall be saved. In his days. The Lord Jesus Christ
is being spoken of here, you know, and he actually accomplished
the salvation of Judah in his days. And Israel shall dwell
safely. And this is his name, whereby
he shall be called. Jehovah said, can you, the Lord,
our righteousness, therefore behold the days come say at the
Lord that they shall no more say the Lord liveth, which brought
up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the
Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the
house of Israel out of the North country. And from all the countries,
whether I've driven them, and they shall dwell in their own
land. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, our Lord, which liveth and which
brought us out of the far country and set us down in Zion, revealing
to us the glory of thy dear son as all our righteousness before
thee. Father, we have no ability to
pray. We have no ability to worship.
We have no ability, and in ourselves, to see you as you are Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased
to send a. A sunbeam, if you will, of your
of your mercy and of your grace and show us a sliver of light
tonight as we open your word, Lord, we pray that you would.
Enable us to. To delight in the things that
you delight in and to rejoice in those things in which you
pleasure in. or the accomplished work of thy dear son, who himself
is the Lord our righteousness. We ask it in his name, amen. Number 11 from the same spiral
handbook, number 11. With broken heart and contrite
sigh, A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry, Thy pardoning grace is
rich and free. O God, be merciful to me. ? I smite upon my troubled breast
? ? With deep and conscious guilt oppressed ? ? Christ and his
cross my only plea ? ? O God be merciful to me ? No works nor deeds that I have
done can for a single sin atone. To Christ the Lord alone I flee. O God, be merciful to me. And when redeemed from sin and
hell, with all the ransomed throng I dwell, my raptured song shall
ever be, God has been merciful to me. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 111, Psalm 111. If you love someone, your greatest
pleasure is to see them pleased. Their pleasure truly becomes
your pleasure. The question that I want to try
to answer tonight is, if we love God, what is he pleased with? And are we pleased with the same
thing that he's pleased with? Do we find our pleasure in his
pleasure? Second Thessalonians chapter
two, verse 12, speaking of those who believed not the truth for
they had pleasure in their unrighteousness. Now, certainly that involves
people who are pleasuring themselves and the indulgences of the flesh
and not interested in the things of God because of that. But it
also involves those who are pleasuring themselves in their own good
works and in their own free will for the hope of their righteousness
before God and they believe not the truth and God sent them a
strong delusion because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. Turn to me, hold your finger
there in Psalm 111, and turn to me, if you will, to John 3. John 3. The Lord's speaking to
Nicodemus, and the same thing is true that I just spoke of
in 2 Thessalonians 2 in these words. Look at verse 18. He that believeth on him, that
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, is not condemned. There is now
therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. It's the law that condemns. Those
who have pleasure in Christ and his accomplished work in satisfying
all the demands of God's law have nothing to condemn them. But he that believeth not is
condemned already because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten son of God. He doesn't have to do anything
to be condemned. He's already condemned because
of his unbelief. He's not looking to Christ for
his righteousness. And so the Lord goes on to say,
and this is the condemnation. This is what brings condemnation
to the world. Light has come into the world
and men loved darkness rather than light. They loved the darkness
of their own unbelief. They loved the darkness of their
own unrighteousness because their deeds were evil, again. Surely this involved people who
are engaged in shameful activities and not interested in the things
of God, lest they would have to cease that lifestyle. But there's just as many people,
if not more. whose deeds of self-righteousness
are evil, and for that reason they have no interest in the
things of Christ, because they're resting their hopes in their
own righteousness. Their pleasure is in their own
evil deeds. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth light. He hateth the light. Neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed, revealed,
reproved, corrected for what they are. When we stand in the
light of Christ, we have but one confession to make. Behold,
I am vile. I'm nothing but sin. There's
no righteousness whatsoever in me. The light of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the glory and splendor of his righteousness exposes
us for what we are. But he that doeth truth, that
doing truth is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
it is to do truth. He that doeth truth cometh to
the light. He's been exposed. He rejoices
to know that he has no righteousness in himself. Therefore, all of
his hope is in the righteousness of Christ, in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God. Now, what are the deeds of those
who come to the light? It's faith. Faith is the deed
that of those who come to the light and faith is the work of
grace in the heart. And so when we, when we stand
in the presence of God, resting our hope in that, which the father's
pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're able to. We're able to delight in knowing
that the faith that we have was wrought in us by God. Now in John, in, in, in Psalm
one 11, we read in verse one praise, Ye the Lord, exalt the
Lord, magnify the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Now that's
where my, my title comes from the pleasure of his work that
These works of the Lord Jesus Christ are sought out by all
them that have pleasure in them. So that's why I said, we love
somebody, we're pleased with what they're pleased with. And the question that we have
to ask ourselves is what are we pleased with? Who are we pleased
with? What is the hope of our salvation? Um, the Lord, Jesus said in John
chapter four, and speaking with that, with the disciples after
the woman, you know, in Sychar went back, uh, to her home and,
um, and the, um, the disciples were asking the Lord, if he wanted
to eat, he said, he said, my mate, my meat, my sustenance
is to do the will of him that sent me. And to finish his work,
to finish his work. Now go back with me again to
Psalm 111 verse two, the works of the Lord are great. What are
the works of the Lord? The Lord Jesus himself said,
my meat is to do the will of the father and to finish his
work. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. And in John chapter 17, when
our Lord was offering up that high priestly prayer on behalf
of his church, he said, father, I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. Now the works of the Lord are
great. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
of having done the work that the father sent him to do and
having finished the work that the father sent him to do. And
God's people pleasure themselves in his work. They take great
pleasure in the work that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. You remember in John chapter
six, when those self-righteous Pharisees, the one who were taking
pleasure in their own works said, what work can we work to do the
works of God? We want to do the works of God.
What can we accomplish? What can we do? And what the
Lord Jesus say, this is the work of God that you believe on him
whom he has sent. The work of God in you is to
give you faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest
all your hope in his finished work. His works are great. Turn with me to Romans chapter
nine, Romans chapter nine, verse 27. Isaiah also crieth
concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel
be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. Now that's what
we just read about in Jeremiah chapter 23. No longer will they
say, the Lord has brought us out of Egypt. That's the whole
tribe of, that was national Israel is brought out of Egypt, not
a hoof was left behind. But now they will say, he has
gathered us together from all these foreign lands and set us
down together. And so he's comparing national Israel
to the remnant, the elect of God's people. For verse 28, he,
the Lord Jesus Christ will finish the work and cut it short in
righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon
the earth. A short work. How long is man
been here? I mean thousands of years. All
the corruption and destruction that man has caused. Over all
the billions of people that have lived and millions of the years
that that the thousands of years that that we've been here and
the Lord Jesus Christ turned it all around in 33 years. A
short work. A short work. and he will accomplish
the work of the father. With what are we pleased? How are the works of the Lord
Jesus Christ great? We just read that. Go back with
me to Psalm 111. The works of the Lord are great. They're great. And they're sought
out of all them that have pleasure therein. Our pleasure is in his
work, not in our work. We're not looking to our righteousness. We're not resting in anything
that we've done or any contribution that we've made or any decision
that we've made or any knowledge that we have. Our pleasure is
in his work and his work is finished. And the scripture says that his
work is great. Now in the next three verses,
The Lord tells us what is so great about his work. And the
first thing he tells us is that his work is honorable, honorable. You see that look at, look at
verse, look at verse three, his work is honorable. It is glorious. It is righteous. It is eternal. It is remembered. It is gracious
and it is full of compassion. All those things are in the next
two verses. And this is why, this is why we seek out his work
because of how glorious his works are. The first thing the Lord
tells us is his work is honorable. Will you turn with me to the
book of Numbers? Numbers chapter 27. This is the first mention of the word
honorable in the scriptures. Now his works are honorable and
his works are sought out of all those who have pleasure in them. We can find no pleasure, we can
find no comfort, we can find no hope in our works. And unlike our works, his works
are full of honor. They're full of honor. Look at
Numbers chapter 27, and we'll begin reading in verse 18. And
the Lord said unto Moses, now you know who Moses represents.
He represents the law. Take the Joshua son of none. You know, Joshua represents his
name is Jesus. His name is Jehovah saves. Moses
had to die on the East side of the Jordan and be put away by
God himself. Joshua was the only one that
could lead the children of Israel across the river of death into
the promised land. Take the Joshua, the son of none,
a man in whom is the spirit and lay thy hand upon him and set
him before Eliezer, the priest and before all the congregation
and give him a charge in their sight. And thou shall put, now
you see the next word. Some notice that it's an italics. How oftentimes we've seen this.
How the translators thought they were clarifying the scriptures
by adding words. I'm thankful that these words
that are added are in italics. This is one where, like most
of them, you just scratch it out. It doesn't belong there.
It takes away the meaning of the whole passage. It takes away
the meaning of the whole passage. Just take out the word some and
read it this way. And thou shalt put thine honor
upon him. that all the congregation of
the children of Israel may be obedient." The scripture says in Isaiah
chapter 42 verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness
sake, for he will magnify the law and make it honorable. Now what is God saying? Moses,
you represent the law. You get Eleazar and these other
leaders together, and you do this in front of them so that
you'll be witnesses. And you put your hand on Joshua.
and you will transfer your honor to him. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
making the law honorable. And in doing so, notice the last
part of verse 20. And in doing so, in putting your
honor, not some of your honor, all of your honor, The Lord Jesus
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. So Moses, you put your hand on
Joshua and it'll be symbolic of you transferring all the honor
of the law to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in doing so, in doing
so the congregation of the children of Israel will be obedient. Where is our obedience? Where
is it? It's in the perfect obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where's our law keeping? It's
in the transfer that the law made to giving its honor to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He will magnify the law and he
will make it honorable. He will be faithful to the charge
that he's been given. He will be, if you will, discharged
honorably. He will have finished the work
that I have sent him to do. Now that's why, that's why, go
back with me to our text in Psalm 111. That's why we seek out Those
things that we have pleasure in because his work, our work's
not honorable. We've never been able to keep
any of God's law. If the law puts a hand on us,
it will slay us. It will destroy us. It will require
full retribution for our disobedience to the law. But the law, like
Moses, put his hand on Joshua. and made him honorable. And all
Israel, as a result of that, was considered to be obedient.
See, our obedience is in the obedience of Christ, isn't it?
We don't want to stand before God and confess any of our obedience
for the hope of our salvation. If the obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not sufficient for us, then the law is going
to step in. Why are the Lord's works great
and why do we take pleasure in them? Why are our works not great
and why do we not take pleasure in them? Well, his are honorable
and ours are dishonorable. Look at the next word in verse
three, his work This is the work that the father is named to do.
This is the work that he finished, the work of salvation. Father,
I have finished the work which thou has given me to do. He finished
it. He made the law honorable and
glorious. Glorious. He didn't just fulfill
the requirements of the law. He adorned the law with beauty
and with glory. He took that which was threatening,
that which was fearful, that which was terrifying, and he
caused it to be beautiful in the light of the gospel. We can
say with David, Lord, I love thy law. I love thy law. Now, until the Lord Jesus Christ
both made the law honorable by fulfilling all of its requirements
and making it glorious, we in our self-righteousness thought
that we could satisfy the law or we were threatened by the
law. We don't have to be threatened by the law anymore. The law is
beautiful. The law is glorious. We love
God's law. We, we, we, we, we look at the
law and we see how it's fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. It,
it, it, it, it displays his glory. We don't have to look at the
law anymore as a, as a threat to us. We look at it as it, as
it, as a glorious picture and, and fulfillment of everything
that's true about the person in work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why we, that's why we seek after his work. That's why we, that's why we
take pleasure in his work. The law to us is a threat, but
the law in light of the gospel, in light of the gospel, the law
is glorious. It's holy. It's just, and it's
true. It's lovely, but only only. if we see it being made honorable
and being fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from him,
it's nothing but a threat. Why do we seek after that which
the Lord is pleased with? Because his work is honorable. His work is glorious. Notice the third thing that the
Lord tells us about his work. It is righteous. It is righteous. Now that's glorious for those
who have no righteousness of their own. That's the only people
it's glorious for. Those who have heard that universal
decree from God that says, I look down from heaven. And I peered
into the recesses of men's hearts and I saw that every imagination
of the thought of man was only evil and that continually. Now
there's no exceptions, there's no objections, there's no appeal
to this judgment. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that do with good,
all have sin and come short of the glory of God. And when the
Lord strips you of your righteousness, then you take pleasure in his
work, knowing that. If you don't have his righteousness,
you don't have any righteousness at all. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only one that's righteous. If I don't, if I don't have his
righteousness before God, I've got no righteousness. I'm going
to glory and pleasure in his work and in his
righteousness. The truth is that all the world
is guilty before God. And by the deeds of the law,
by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified before God. There's no mixing his righteousness
with our righteousness. We just read that in Jeremiah
chapter 22, 23, and he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. David said, I'll speak of no
righteousness except for thine only, thine only. He's the only
righteousness. We can't add to his righteousness,
but in him, we have full righteousness before God. We try to, Try to
mix his righteousness with ours, a little leaven leavens the whole
lump, doesn't it? And if it be of, if it be of
works, it can no longer be of grace. Otherwise grace is not
grace. The Lord, the father has made
him to be unto us all our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our
sanctification and all our redemption. So that he that gloryeth, he
that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. Here's why we take
pleasure in his work because we're unrighteous and he's righteous. We're dishonorable and he's honorable. We're inglorious and he's glorious. Why would we take pleasure in
anything that we do before God? But what the Lord say, you will
not come to me. This is the condemnation. Light
is coming to the world, but men loved darkness rather than light. They had no love for the truth
and they took pleasure in their unrighteousness. You know what
I said earlier about, about the people who are indulging in the
things of this world. And, uh, have no interest in
the things of God, lest they would have to give up something
in their life. Even those people, even those
people are self-righteous. And the real thing, the real
thing that's keeping them from Christ is not whatever they may
be in involved in, in the flesh. The real thing that keeps them
from Christ is their self-righteousness. Notice the fourth thing, and
we're looking at why do we take pleasure in the things of Christ? Are we pleased with the things
that God's pleased? The Lord is telling us the father's
telling us why he is so pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is my beloved son in him. I am well pleased here. Ye him. And so the Lord tells us that
his work, this is his work. This is the work that he finished.
His work is honorable. Moses has laid his hand on Joshua. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
the law of God completely honorable and he's made it glorious. He's
adorned it with beauty so that we're not fear. We have no fear
of God's law anymore. We rejoice in God's law, knowing
that Christ has fulfilled God's law. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is all our righteousness before God. We have no righteousness
outside of him. Oh, and the way we cry with the
apostle Paul that I may be found in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is the law, but that righteousness, which is by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the faithful one. He's the
one who stands before God as all our righteousness. We have
no righteousness outside of Christ. Notice the last part of verse
three, his work is honorable. His work is glorious. His work
is righteousness and his work is eternal. It endureth forever. Now this speaks of the immutability
of our God. What did the Lord say? I am the
Lord and I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The immutability, when the scripture
speaks of that which is forever. It's speaking of that which is
eternal. Our God's never had a new thought.
He's never changed his mind. He's never learned anything.
Everything about him is eternal. He's never changed. What a glorious
thought. There's our hope. Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. What our God established in the
covenant of grace and eternity past, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. And nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. The Lord said, not one of my
sheep will be lost. Our God has an elect people.
And He's not only chosen them, but He's redeemed them. He's
accomplished their redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
make an offer to us to be accepted or rejected by us. He offered
himself as a sacrifice for the sins of his elect to his father. And the father saw the travail
of his soul and said, I'm pleased. I'm pleased. I'm satisfied. This is the work that I sent
him to do. And he has accomplished the work.
He's finished the work. And our salvation is eternal. That's what David was saying
when he said, although my house be not so with God yet, here's
my hope. Here's my hope. He has made with
me an everlasting covenant. The covenant of grace is everlasting. Never had a beginning, never
going to have an end. And David said, this is all my
salvation. And this is all my desire. And that's why he, that's why
we take pleasure in him and in his work. We're pleased with
that, which God's pleased with. His work is honorable. His work
is glorious. His work is righteousness. His
work is eternal. It's eternal. It's never changed. Look at verse four. He hath made his wonderful works
to be remembered. He hath made his wonderful works
to be remembered. Now I'm not suggesting that God
has a body like we do, but the scripture says that we were made
in his image and in his likeness. And the Lord did something very
special when he fashioned our bodies to be like unto his spiritual
nature with our senses, our five senses. We can see, we can hear, we can
taste, we can touch, and we can smell. And which one of those
five senses do you suppose, um, has the longest memory and the
most emotions attached to it. You might think, you're right,
Jennifer, you're right. It's your smell. Your olfactory
nerve physically has the most direct path to your memory part
of your brain and to your emotional part of your brain. And so when
you smell something that you haven't smelled since you were
a child, the memory and the emotions of that smell all come back to
you. Your eyes may fuel you. Your ears may fool you, your
tongue, your taste and your touch may fool, but your nose is not
going to fool you. You're going to, you're going to remember
those things. What, what is the point that
I'm making? Well, in Genesis chapter eight, verse 20, after
The Ark had come to rest on Mount Ararat. The scripture says that
Noah, Noah took of every clean beast and he built an altar and
he made a sacrifice unto the Lord and the Lord smelt a sweet
savor and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again. cause
the ground to be destroyed by a flood. The Lord smelt that
sweet savor and the Lord remembered just like our, just like our
smell causes us to remember things that we wouldn't have ever thought
about unless we smelt it again. The sweet savor of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ has ascended into glory and the father
has smelt And the father has remembered the covenant promises
that he has made. Exodus chapter 29, when Moses
and Aaron were instructed on making the burnt offering for
sin, the Lord said, it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire
unto the Lord. unto the Lord. Now we're dealing
with this, this idea of God, remembering you ever smelt something
that you hadn't smelt in years. And all of a sudden, all the
memories of that came, the scripture said, look, the Lord is, is taking
in what term with me to Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter
five. I'm not saying I, you know, I'm
not even beginning to suggest that the Lord's ever forgotten
anything. or that he had to be reminded of anything, but here's
the language that the Lord uses to assure us that he hasn't forgotten
and that he does remember. And it's the sweet savor of the
sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made that causes him to
remember his covenant promises. Ephesians chapter five, look
at verse one. Be therefore followers of God
as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. And the Lord smelt the the flesh,
the burning flesh, and it was a sweet savor to him. And when
the fire of God's wrath fell from heaven on the sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, God smelt the sacrifice
that he made and God was pleased. And God said, I'll never forget.
I'll never forget. I'll remember. And we take pleasure
in remembering what the Lord remembers, don't we? Turn to
me to 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2. Look at verse 14. Now thanks be unto
God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ and maketh
manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. As the
gospels preached, this sweet savor, this remembering smell
that pleases the Lord comes to the people of God. For we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one, we are the savor
of death unto death. The gospel's preached, the alabaster
box is broken, the sweet savor of Christ goes out. And to some,
it is a stench to their nostrils, they don't want to hear it, they
don't want to smell it, they don't want to be a part of it.
And to the one, we are a savor of death unto death, and to the
other, a savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? Who can discern the difference? Who can make themselves delight
in these things? Who can describe these things
in the fullness of their glory? Well, the Lord's given us in
his word. He's given us, go back and look
at the entire text and we'll try to bring this. The works of the Lord are great.
That's the message. His work, not our work. His work
is great and his works are sought out. They are sought out in the
heart, seeking the Lord by those who have pleasure in them. We
don't pleasure in our works. We have no pleasure in our righteousness.
We have no hope of salvation in our law keeping, in our being
honorable. We have no, we have no pleasure
in our glory. We glory the glory of glory in
the Lord. We have no pleasure in the things
that everything we do is temporal. Our lives in this world are temporal.
Only the things of God are eternal. Verse four, he hath made his
wonderful works to be remembered, remembered by him and remembered
by his people. And they are a sweet saver. And
the Lord is gracious. gracious. Now, some people say
grace is unmerited favor. It's so much more than that.
Yes, it's unmerited favor, but it's, it's demerited favor. The grace of God just simply
means that we didn't have anything to do with it. It was all up
to God. It was God's grace that chose
his people. by His grace and His mercy and
His sovereign purpose. It was His grace that redeemed
us through the sacrifice of Christ. It is His grace that calls us
out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is His grace that keeps
us from falling. It is His grace that receives
us into glory. Salvation's all of grace. And
that's why the works of the Lord are sought out by them who have
pleasure in them because it's all of grace. God's not looking
to me for anything. He's looking to Christ for everything. If God looks to me for any hope
of my acceptance before Him, I will not be saved. But we take great pleasure in
knowing That our God is a God of grace and compassion and mercy. Look at, look at, um, the Lord
is gracious. He's gracious and, uh, full of
compassion. Oh, as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. We do faith. You can't separate faith and
fear. The not not the fear of God,
which is the beginning of wisdom. What is the fear of God? Well, first and foremost, it's
the fear of standing in the presence of a holy God without the Lord
Jesus Christ for all your righteousness, all your honor, all of your glory,
all of your acceptance before God. The thought of God looking
to me for any part of my salvation. causes me to to fear. And it's the fear of God that's
the beginning of wisdom. So we we believe God and we fear
God. And so. Our God is full of compassion. Towards them that fear him. There's
no lack of compassion in his heart. There's no lack of of
providing for us everything that we need. There's no, there's
no limits to his, his perfect love. Here in his love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Here's the, here, here, the greater
love has no man than this. They lay down his life for his
friends. We see the love of God. We see the compassion of God
in the work of Christ. All the attributes of God are
most gloriously demonstrated in the work and person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, aren't they? Verse 5, he hath given meat, and he has to give meat. My body
is meat indeed. My blood is meat indeed. If you
eat not my body and drink not my blood, you have no life in
you. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is our meat. That's
the meat that came down from heaven. That's the bread of life.
We eat. of his body when we believe on
his life for all our righteousness. We drink of his blood when we
look to his sacrificial death on Calvary's cross as all of
our justification before God. And he says, I'll give you meat.
You won't have any meat unless I give it to you. The children
of Israel were dying in the wilderness and have the Lord not sent that
manna, they would have been, they would have been consumed
by starvation. The Lord sent meat. He hath given
meat unto them that fear him. Those that come into his presence,
Lord, I've got to have Christ. I've got to have his honor. I've
got to have his righteousness. I've got to have that with that
eternal covenant of grace. I've got to have his glory. Lord, I need you to remember
what he did for me. I need his sacrifice to be that
sweet smelling savor to thee. He had given meat unto them that
fear him. He will ever be mindful of his
covenant. That's the eternal covenant of
grace. That's where God, the father
promised to give to God, the son of bride and God, the son
promised to the father. to do everything necessary to
redeem that bride to himself and God the Holy Spirit promised
to God the Father and God the Son to come in the day of his
power and make everyone that God chose and everyone for whom
Christ died willing. Now that all happened in eternity
past. And we use that term, eternity
past. How do you describe eternity
past? As soon as you use the word past on it, you put a time
factor on it, haven't you? It's eternity. That all happened
in eternity. What'd you have to do with that?
That's the covenant. Lord, be mindful of your covenant. And might the Lord give us the
spirit of David to say, My hope is in his covenant, his
promises. Man-made, self-righteous, works
religion, the religion that men pleasure themselves in is based
on a promise that they made to God. And the hope of their salvation
is contingent on their commitments and their decisions. And God's
people take pleasure in the covenant of grace, knowing that they've
never been faithful to their promises. And if the hope of
their salvation is based on their faithfulness, they've got no
hope. But with the Lord, Jesus Christ,
making the law honorable that Moses put in his hand on Joshua
with the Lord, Jesus Christ, making the law glorious with
the Lord, Jesus Christ, making the law honorable. with him remembering
his covenant, with him being full of mercy. Oh, those who
take pleasure in his work, they seek after him, don't they? Let's pray. Our heavenly father, send your spirit in power to
speak truth to our hearts and to reveal to us, thy dear son,
For it's in his name we pray, amen. Number 296, let's stand together,
number 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial,
feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, Lo, a spring of joy I see! Gushing from the rock before
me, Lo, a spring of joy I see! All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way.