Good morning again. Welcome back.
We're going to open this second hour with hymn number 133 from
the hardback hymnal, The Strife is O'er. And let's stand together. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The strife is o'er, the battle
done, The victory of life is won. The song of triumph has
begun. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The powers of death have done
their worst, but Christ their legions hath dispersed. Let shouts of joy outburst. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The sad days have quickly sped. He rises glorious from the dead. All glory to our risen head. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! He closed the yawning gates of
hell. The bars from heaven's high portals
fell. Let hymns of praise his triumphs
tell. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Lord, by the stripes which wounded
thee, from death's dread sting, thy servants free, that we may
live and sing to thee. Alleluia. Good morning. Call to worship
is going to be in Psalm 77, Psalm 77, beginning of verse one. I cried unto God with my voice,
even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. In the
day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My sore ran into night
and seized not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest my eyes waking. I am so troubled that I cannot
speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient
times. I call to remembrance my song
in the night. I commune with mine own heart,
and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever,
and will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his
tender mercies? Selah, the answer is no. God cannot lie. His covenant
of grace is sure. And I said, this is my infirmity. but I will remember the years
of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works
of the Lord, surely. I will remember the wonders of
old. I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy
doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. who is so great a God as our
God. Thou art the God that do us wonders. Thou has declared thy strength
among the people. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we do thank
you for your precious word. Lord, there is no authority,
no power other than your word. And we're thankful that you've
revealed your word to the preaching of your gospel of thy dear son,
in whom we have gathered here this morning and watching across
this state to worship him and to exalt him. But oh, how we
need your spirit once again to remind us enable us to remember
all that he hath done and everything that you are pleased and satisfied
in him. May you be pleased once again
to do that this morning as you did the first hour. Lord, give us saving faith. Oh,
help this dreaded unbelief that plagues us every second. Lord,
we know that if you reveal Christ, enable us to look to him, then
and then only can we rest. Thank you for Greg, Lord. Thank
you for raising him up, Lord. Faith comes by hearing and you've
sent him again to bring the word that you have purpose, the hearts
of your people this morning. Lord, enable us to hear that
message now, to see you lifted high and exalted, give him the
power. Bless our time now, bless your word. Forgive us again,
Lord, of our sins. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's sing that hymn that's on
the back of your bulletin. Whate'er my God ordains is right,
His holy will abideth. I will be still, whate'er He
doth, And follow where He guideth. He is my God, though dark my
road, He holds me that I shall not fall. Wherefore to Him I
leave it all. Whate'er my God ordains is right,
His Son will not deceive me. Christ is my all, my only hope,
He promised not to leave me. His life, His death, His perfect
faith Hath pleased the Father holy. So now I can come boldly. What e'er my God ordains is right,
His loving thought attends me. The sin that kept me far from
Him, Christ bore it all at Calvary. My God is true, each morn anew. He gives me faith, the gift of
grace. Christ is my life unending. Whate'er my God ordains is right. He is my friend and Savior. He suffers not to do me harm,
though many storms may gather. Now I may know both joy and woe. Someday I shall see clearly. that he hath loved me dearly. Whate'er my God's ordains is
right, here shall my stand be taken. Though sorrow, need, or
death be mine, yet I am not forsaken. There he holds me that I shall
not fall. And so to him I leave it all. Please be seated. Caleb's going
to bring special music now. Behold His hands, His feet and
side Behold the blood, the purchased price Behold the Son, the Father
slain Who for His own Behold His soul in agony. Behold His visage marred for
me. His travail of soul made all
things well. My substitute hath took my hell. Behold His cry upon the tree. Forgive them, Father, was His
plea. He had to die to redeem. Crying, why hast thou forsaken
me? Behold His final words, how clear! He hath cast out all doubt and
fear. It is finished was His word, His
promise unto us and God. Behold the veil that rent into
The fire of God he hath consumed God's justice has been satisfied
Now his elect are justified Behold the grave that could not hold
The precious Holy Lamb of God He satisfied all God's demands
Seated now on His right hand Both those hymns were great blessing.
Thank you, man. I was just thinking how. How much clearer? The Gospel
is in some of the hymns that you guys are writing these days
than some of the old classic. Christian hymns that are vague
sometimes on the Gospel. Thank you all for that. I want
to ask you if you received your bulletin by email, you may want
to take a look at the outline that I put in your bulletin on
saving faith. Because this book is all about
the Lord Jesus Christ, I was hoping to finish up this message
on saving faith the first hour and two of the most important
points I didn't get to. But I believe that we'll be able
to touch on these and still deal with the passages on one ten
because they're all about the same person and it's all the
same message and uh... you see in your outline we're
we're looking at this subject of saving faith what it is to
have saving faith and uh... without it no man can please
god Saving faith is the gift of God. It comes by hearing the
gospel. Believers walk by faith, not
by sight. Saving faith is the opposite
of works. And the sixth point is that saving
faith is to believe on the person. And this is where we're going
to be able to transition to Psalm 110. Because when the Lord was
talking with the Pharisees, he asked them, what think ye of
Christ? Whose son is he? And they said,
well, he's the son of David. And the Lord Jesus of all the
passages of scripture chose Psalm 110 verse one to say, if he be
the son of David, then why? What did David say? The Lord,
God the Father, said unto my Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If he be David's son, how come
David called him Lord? And the scripture says no man
had an answer and they never asked him another question. Now,
what was the Lord Jesus Christ declaring to those Pharisees? I am the Christ, the son of the
living God, the sovereign, successful savior of sinners. I may be the son of David according
to the flesh, but I'm God. David bowed to me. David trusted
me. David knew that I would be a
successful conqueror of my enemies. And in order for you to have
saving faith, you've got to believe the same thing that David believed.
So saving faith, it's not believing in faith. It's not believing
in a doctrine. It's not believing in a work,
it's not believing, it's believing on the Lord Jesus as the Christ,
the anointed one, the one sent of the Father in the full power
of the Spirit of God to accomplish the salvation of his people.
And that's exactly what he did. When he bowed his mighty head
on Calvary's cross, he said, it is finished. So we rest our
hope in the person of Christ and what it is that he accomplished
for us. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1 verse
12, I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded. You know,
we're hearing a lot of religious persuasions these days, aren't
we? Mentioned in the first hour, it seems like Christmas and Easter
is when all the false prophets and blasphemers come out and
they take the name of our God and they strip him of his glory.
And they make man to be God. Paul said, I'm persuaded. And
everybody's got their persuasion. Everybody's got their political
persuasion and their religious persuasion and they're all just
opinions of men. Paul said, I'm persuaded that
he, he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day. There's my hope. My hope is in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the seventh point
here because we dealt with assurance of salvation and we saw that
saving faith is, I mentioned during the break, it seems slippery,
doesn't it? As soon as we get a hold of it,
it slips through our fingers. And we're forced again to come
again and again and again and look back to the Lord Jesus Christ
for the hope of our salvation. And our faith is often weak. That father of the possessed
child said, Lord, I do believe. Oh, help thou mine unbelief.
And I love the passage in Matthew chapter 17, where the disciples
asked the Lord, why could not we cast him out? And the Lord said, because of
your unbelief. Because of your unbelief. That's why. Saving faith. And then the Lord
went on to say, for if you had faith, you say, well, well, the
disciples just, they didn't have strong enough faith. They didn't
have big enough faith. No, the Lord said, because of
your unbelief, you didn't believe on me. For if you had faith,
true saving faith, though it be the size of a mustard seed,
which I understand is pretty much microscopic, if you had
faith though it be the size of a mustard seed, you could say
unto this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea. Now
you know what that's a picture of, don't you? Mountain is the
barrier that stands between us and God. It's our sin. It's the
mountain of our sin. And what'd the Lord Jesus say?
That because of his accomplished work on Calvary's cross, he has
cast our sins into the depths of the sea. Now here's my point. It's not the size of our faith.
It's not the strength of our faith. It's the object of our
faith. the object of our faith. We are
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that what he accomplished at
Calvary's tree was the putting away of our sin, casting them
into the sea. Separating them from us as far
as the east is from the west. Satisfying all the demands of
God's holy justice and holy law and establishing a righteousness
for his people that could not be moved. Christ is the object
of our faith. Our faith is often weak. Our
faith has to, we got to get a microscope out to see it, don't we? The
problem with the disciples is that they did not believe what
the Lord Jesus was going to accomplish. Matter of fact, it wasn't until
after Pentecost that they really fully understood what he had
done. And you remember when he was
in the boat, and the scripture says he was in the back of the
boat, and he was asleep on a pillow? And a great storm came up, and
the disciples woke him and said, Lord, care it's not that we perish?
And what did the Lord say? Did he say, oh, you of little
faith? No. He said, why do you fear? It's because you have no faith.
You see, it wasn't a matter of their faith, not being strong
enough. They didn't believe who he was and what it was that he
had come to do. and nearly spoke to the wind
and the waves, and they said, what manner of man is this? What kind of man is this? That
even the winds and the sea obey his voice. You see, they're just
learning who he is. But they have not yet believed
on him. Not with saving faith. The Lord said, you've got no
faith. So here it is, brethren. Don't
judge your faith by its strength. Don't judge your faith by its
size. God's judging it by the object
on which it rest. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we read passages of scripture.
Where the Lord says to someone, your faith has made you whole. Now, he said that to the woman
with the issue of blood. You remember, she was, she came
crawling to him in the crowd and he said, who touched me?
Lord, everybody's touching you. What do you mean? No virtue has
gone out from me. Somebody touched me with faith. Oh, if I could
just get to him, if I could just touch him, even if it's just
the hem of his garment, if I could just make one small touch with
him. And that's saying, you see, she
didn't have a great amount. She wasn't able to stand up and
shut everybody up and tell everybody what her problem is and call
upon the name of the Lord to save her. She crawled on her
hands and knees through the crowd. I just want to touch the hem
of his garment. Virtue went out from him. And when he identified her, he
knew who it was. He didn't ask who touched me
because he was trying to figure out who it was. He knew who it
was. He was exposing her. And when she was exposed, she
told him all the truth. And she knew in her body that
her issue of blood had been dried up. She knew she'd been healed.
She'd spent all of her life, or I bet the last years of her
life, investing all that she had in doctors trying to get
healed. And she was worse off now. You
see, that's a picture of religion. People invest their time and
their energy in works religion, and they're worse off after they've
done that than they would have been had they not done anything. And she knew that in touching
him, the person of Christ, her issue of blood had been dried
up. You and I have got an issue of blood, don't we? We inherited our bloodline from
our father Adam. We're sinners. We're leprous,
issues of blood, and we've got to touch Christ. He's got to
have virtue go out from him. Grace and power goes out from
him. And then he said to her, he said,
your faith has made you whole. Now we've already seen where
she got that faith from. The Lord gave her that faith.
But here's my point. Here's my point. God honors true
faith because true faith honors Christ. True faith honors the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
9. Matthew chapter 9. This is so important. Let me
ask you a question. If I give you something that
you didn't earn or work for, I may as well just give it to
you. Whose is it? It's yours, isn't it? You didn't
earn it. But it's yours now. And that's
what the Lord's saying. He gave us this saving faith.
He's the one that enables us to hope in Christ. But there's
places in the scripture where he calls it our faith. And it's
because it's now ours. And he honors it because that
faith that he gave us honors Christ. It looks to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all its hope. Matthew 9, look at verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David,
have mercy on us. There we are. We're blind, can't
see the truth, can't believe on Christ. And when he was coming
to the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said unto them,
believe ye that I am able to do this. And they said unto him,
yay, Lord. Yay, Lord, I believe that you're
able. What we're hearing from the false prophets today is that
God is willing to save you, but he's not able to save you unless
you let him. And the truth of the gospel is
just the opposite. God is able to save. And he's
willing to save. And he's not waiting on us to
make any contribution to our salvation. He said, do you believe
that I am able? I am able. And what'd they say? Yay, Lord. Yay, Lord, we know
you're able. We know you're able to save.
Lord, would you save us? Would you be willing? We know
you're able. Nothing lacking in your ability to save. And
look what the Lord said to these men. Then touched he their eyes,
saying, according to your faith, let it be unto you. and their
eyes were opened according to your faith. Why? Because true saving faith honors
the Lord Jesus Christ. It looks back to the same place
from whence it comes and it rests all its hope in that one that
it received that faith from. So don't think because the Lord
refers to our faith as the cause of our salvation.
You understand how that. Turn with
me to Psalm 110. Psalm 110. No man was able to ask him another
question. They had their mouth shut. The
Lord asked them, who is Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? If he be the son of David, then why did David call
him Lord? When in Psalm 110, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. For the Lord shall send the rod
of his strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of thine enemies,
thy people. shall be willing in the day of
thy power, in the beauty of holiness, from the womb of the morning
thou hast the due of thy youth. Now every verse, every word in
this wonderful, glorious psalm is about the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hear people who want to defend
their view of free will say, God wants us to love him freely. Listen to this statement. Election and irresistible grace. That's the work of God choosing,
according to his own will and purpose, a particular people
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
That's election. And irresistible grace is when
the Spirit of God opens the eyes of our understanding, stops us
in our tracks, knocks us off our high horse, and reveals Christ
in us. Okay? Paul said, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal Christ
in me, call me by his grace. That's irresistible grace. You
can't say no to it. Election and irresistible grace
do not violate man's will. It changes it. Our will is not free. Our will
is bound by our nature. And in that sense, God's will
is not free. It is bound by his nature. And until God gives us a new
nature, we cannot believe. But when he does, we don't believe reluctantly. You see, the irresistible grace
of God doesn't violate man's will. It changes man's will. For he shall make his people
willing in the day of his power. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ
who invades our hearts with his grace, causes us to come willingly, left to himself, Man will never
be willing. God must visit him with power.
But when he does, when he does, he comes willingly. The new birth
is a sovereign act of God. And yet, it results in the willingness
of his people. The picture of Psalm 110 is that
of a host of volunteer warriors rallying to their commander and
captain with great enthusiasm and confidence that there is
no way that he could do anything but be victorious in the holy
war that he is waging. That's the picture here. The
Lord Jesus Christ as the captain and commander of his army reveals
himself to a certain number of his enemies. Are we at all by
nature at enmity with God? And when he does, they come willingly
into his service. I was in the military. during
the Vietnam War. I wasn't in Vietnam, but I was
in the military during that time. And as you know, our young men
were drafted into the military during that time. And as one
that was in the service during the time of drafting, I can tell
you by personal experience that most of the guys that were there
didn't want to be there. They didn't want to be there.
They were forced by the government to submit to service. And anybody in the military will
tell you now that a volunteer service is much better than a
drafted service. And that's so true. And here we have a volunteer
army gathering around their commander. willingly knowing that it's impossible
for him to fail. Enthusiastically serving him. Judges chapter five verse two
says this, praise the Lord for the avenging of Israel when the
people willingly offered themselves. Praise the Lord for avenging
Israel when the people willingly offered themselves. Now that's
what the Lord is telling us. This one whom God has spoken
to, whom God has said, sit down here at my right hand, you have
finished your work. You've accomplished the work
that I gave you to do. You went to accomplish the salvation
of your people and you did it. And you are now their high priest.
And as their high priest, you are going to sit down here at
my right hand. I'm going to make you a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. And you're going to live and
make intercession for them. But you're going to do it seated.
Why? Because you finished your work.
And then I'm going to send out the rod of thy strength out of
Zion. And that's the gospel. It went
out. The Lord told the disciples on
the Mount of Olives. He said, he said, when you go
back into Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost will come upon you. And
you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, most parts
of the world. And that's what happened. The gospel, the gospel
went out. It went out of Jerusalem, which was Zion. Now it's going
out of Jerusalem. No longer is it going out of
that city over there in the Middle East, it's going out of the spiritual
Jerusalem, spiritual Zion. And as the gospel goes out, those
who are at enmity with God, they see through the preaching of
the gospel, the glory of their commander and captain of this
army, and they flee to volunteer in service to him. You see, the truth is that all
men are at enmity with God. Some of them will become willing
servants of his victorious army and others will be squashed by
his army. This this matter of. Of irresistible
grace, God's sovereignty and salvation. doesn't violate the
will of man, it changes the will of man. It makes him willing. That's why after Paul finished
in the first 11 chapters of Romans describing the gospel as clearly
and as comprehensively as we have anywhere in the scriptures
in the first 11 chapters of Romans, what did he say in Romans chapter
12? I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you
present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
in Christ Jesus." In light of what God has done, here's the
commander, here's our chief, come. Come and bow to his presence. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. This is why I'm able to say,
as a spokesman for God, if you don't want to give, don't
give. If you don't want to come, don't
come. If you don't want Christ, don't
pretend you've got him. You don't want to come to church,
don't come to church. Because I know that when God
gets a hold of a person's heart, he makes them willing. When they set their eyes on that
commander and that chief, they don't have to be drafted into
the army. They become willing volunteers. They flee to him. You remember when David defeated
Goliath and then took the very sword of Goliath and cut off
David and cut off Goliath's head? And Saul, King Saul and all of Saul's
army were shaking in their boots back behind the rocks waiting
to see what was going to happen to little young David. But the
dilemma had already been decided. Whoever won this one-on-one battle
was going to win for the whole nation. And when they saw David
cut the head off of Goliath, the scripture says all of Saul's
army jumped up, shouted, and chased the whole Philistine army
and defeated them. Where did they get their courage
from? They saw what David had done.
David's a picture of Christ. He's gotten the victory for us.
And when we see what he's done for us, we, we stand and shout
and we follow him and rejoice. That's the picture here. The high people. Not everybody's
going to be willing, but thy people shall be willing in the
day of thy power. When they see the power of your
victory, when they see what you have accomplished, they're going
to become willing servants, willing servants. I ask you to turn to
2 Corinthians 8. Look with me at verse 1. Moreover,
brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed upon
the churches of Macedonia. We want you to understand, that's
what the word wit means, we want you to understand what the grace
of God has done for the churches of Macedonia, how that in great
trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded into the riches of their liberality. Yeah, I know we're
going through some difficult times, some uncertain times,
particularly financially. And yet, that's exactly what
these believers were experiencing. Did that hinder their giving?
No. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their
power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty
that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship
of the ministering of the saints. And this they did not as we hoped,
but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by. the will of God. In the midst of their trials
and troubles, they just wanted to give. They were willing. Now
I know he's talking about financial giving here, but it's every part
of our lives. That's what, when we see Christ
as God's Christ, having gotten the victory, and we hear the
rod of his strength that goes out of Zion, and God gives us
some understanding of the gospel, then we just are brought thy
people. Not everybody, but thy people. I had people say, well, isn't
God everybody's father? I suppose you could say he is
by creation, although I don't know of a scripture that supports
that idea of God being the father. The Lord told the Pharisees,
the devil's your father. By creation, he is the creator
of all men, but by redemption and by adoption, he is the father
only of his elect. Only of his elect. And that's
who he calls thy people. Thy people. How do I know if
I'm one of God's? Because God's put a willing spirit
in my heart. I'm not having to be drafted.
I'm not having to be drugged. I'm not having to be shamed.
I'm not having to do something in order to earn favor with God.
He's given me a willing spirit. Like the army of Saul, I just
want to follow David. I know that he cannot fail. Look
at, go back with me to our text. Look at, uh, thy people, verse
three, thy people shall be willing. When in the day of thy power,
when the spirit of God comes with power, he mucks it makes
us willing. He just causes us where we're
not. We're not doing this reluctantly anymore than the Macedonian churches
gave reluctantly. They begged Paul. Paul said,
no, you all don't give because I know you're dealing with these
financial problems and you're poor. And they begged him. Lord,
let, Paul, let us, we want to give. We want to do what we can. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness. Now the word beauty
here is the word glory, it is the word splendor, it is the
word majesty, it is the word ornament, and the picture here
is that these volunteer members of his army They see him decked
out. They see the crown. They see
the sword. They see the shield. They see
the white stallion that he's riding on. They see the breastplate. They see the glory of God resting
upon him. And they say, there's no way
he can fail. I'm getting behind him. In the beauties of holiness,
their eyes were fixed There's no other army commander like
this one. Isaiah chapter 55 verse 4 says,
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader
and commander to the people. Who is a god like unto our God? There is none who is a God like
unto our God that pardoneth iniquity. He puts our sin away and passes
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. You see,
when God gives you grace, when he gives you eyes to see Christ
for who he is, for the pardoning of our iniquity, the putting
away of our sin, the delight of mercy that he has for his
people. We just run in service. Lord, thy people shall be willing
in the days of thy power in the beauty of your holiness. When
they see your holiness, when they see your glory, when they
see the ornaments of your grace and power placed upon you, They're going to come. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Now what the Lord asked Sarah,
she laughed. Ninety years old, I'm going to
have a baby? Yeah. And what's that a picture of?
Isaac is a picture of Christ, miraculously born. And is anything
too hard? No, God has been made flesh and
he's dwelt among us. And God has bore in his body
the sins of his people. And God has put them away by
the sacrifice of himself. And God is seated at the right
hand of God. And he is our righteousness before
God. He's able to save to the uttermost. Child of God. You've not sinned
to the uttermost. You've not sinned to the uttermost.
He's able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. He's full of love and full of
mercy. You remember in the Song of Solomon, when the bride of
Christ goes out looking for her husband, and the unbelieving
religious world, and we hear them say this today, what makes
you so special? What makes your God so special?
You think we're not saved? You think you're the only one
saved? That's exactly what they said. What is thy beloved more
than another beloved? O thou fairest among women. They
were speaking sarcastically. You think you're better than
us? You think your husband's better than us? And then she
describes him. And when she describes him in
the beauty of his holiness, what do they say? What do they say? Oh, my beloved is the fairest of
10,000. He's altogether lovely. And they said, where is he gone
that we might follow after him? We want to be a part of that.
Oh, he's gone down to the garden. That's what they said. That's
what she said. He's gone down to the garden. He's he's in the
church. He's through the preaching of
the gospel. That's where he is. Worthy is the lamb when we see
the beauty of his holiness. were made willing. You cannot
look upon Christ in the splendor of his glory and holiness and
not be broken at his feet. People don't come to Christ because
they've not seen him. They've not seen him. Those that
have eyes to see those whom the Spirit has given ears to hear
the truth of who Christ is. All they come willingly. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of thy power and in the beauty of thy holiness. Worthy
is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and every
creature which is in the heaven and on the earth and under the
earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them.
Heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him
that sit at the upon the throne. unto the Lord forever and ever. You see, here we are. People
of God, we're looking upon our commander. We're seeing the sword
of his spirit, which is the word of God. And we say with David,
when he went to Ahithophel, and he asked Ahithophel, do you have
a sword? And David said, well, I've got
Goliath's sword. And David said, there's none
like that. You know what the sword is. The
sword of the Spirit is the word of God. And we say, there's none
like that. And when we see his sword and
the flaming sword that comes out of his mouth, we say, there's
a conqueror. He's gone forth conquering and
to conquer. And there's no way he can fail
in what he's set out to do. You see the God, the Jesus that's
being preached today is a miserable failure. He's a miserable failure. He wants to save, he's trying
to save, he's doing everything he can to save, but unless you
let him, he can't get it done. That's not the God. That's not
the one we believe in. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. who God the Father has spoken
to, who is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high,
whose gospel goes out of Zion, whose people are made willing
in the day of his power and in the beauty of his holiness. We
see his crown, and we see how he changed a crown of thorns
for a diadem of glory. And here he is, seated on his
stallion. When John saw the Lord Jesus
riding upon that white horse in Revelation chapter six, he
went to conquer and conquering. And we know that that's all he
can do. He cannot fail nor be discouraged. And he's got a shield,
a shield of faith because he was perfectly faithful to the
father. And so God's people are made
willing. They don't have to be drafted. They run in service. They're looking to their commander. They're seeing him sitting there. Oh, and he's dressed in fine
linen, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. He's got that
breastplate of righteousness with the 12 names of the 12 tribes
of Israel encrusted in them with the 12 stones. And we look at
him and we say, he's the one I have to follow. He's the one
I must look to. He cannot fail in what he set
out to do. The Lord God has said unto my
Lord, sit down here at my right hand until I make thine enemies,
thy footstool, thy rod of thy strength shall go out of Zion
and you will rule in the midst of your enemies and thy people
shall be made willing in the day of thy power. and in the
beauties of thy holiness they're going to be willing servants.
And look at the last phrase of verse 3, from the womb of the
morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. His power His beauty, His grace, His honor,
His majesty, His holiness, His mercy, His glory cannot be diminished. From the womb of thy youth, From
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. The older we get, physically
the weaker we become. Those of you that are still young
and strong, even you get weak after working all day long. Your
strength diminishes as the day progresses and you have to rest
to recharge your ability. Our God never sleeps nor slumbers. The womb of the dew of the morning
is his strength as the youth all the time. Just as the cycle of water physically
on the earth, what do we have? We have evaporation. We have
condensation. We have precipitation. And all
that water's moving, and the ocean's exactly where it's always
been. Can't be diminished, can it?
Water can't leave the earth. Falls into the rivers and the
mountains, ends up back in the ocean. Just keeps making... The
ocean's never been diminished by the thousands of years of
precipitation and evaporation and condensation. Oh, the ocean
of His grace, child of God. Come, just like you are. The
Lord Jesus Christ is a successful Savior. He's the commander of
his people. He's beautiful in his holiness
and his strength cannot be diminished. You can't wear his grace out. Every good gift and every perfect
gift comes down from our Father above with whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Now somebody comes to me and
ask me for a favor as often at times as I have to go to the
Lord for His favor. There's going to come a point
where I'm going to turn my shadow towards them. There's going to
come a point where I'm going to roll my eyes and say to them,
not you again. The Lord's never done that to
any of His children. The strength of His youth from
the womb of the morning consist all the time. All the time. It's never diminished. Not by
a drop. Come, drink of the river of life. It's inexhaustible. Drink from
the ocean of his grace and you will not diminish it by one drop. He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to
make intercession for us. There's the one we believe on
areas. What a glorious savior he is.
Might he be pleased to make us all willing this day of his power. Let's stand together. Tom, you
come please and lead us in a closing hymn. Number 31. Let's stand together. ? Hear the voice of grace and glory
? ? In our dying Savior's cry ? ? Rending rocks and hills asunder
? ? And the veil to bring us nigh ? ? It is finished, it is
finished ? Our victorious Savior cried. Repeat. It is finished. It is finished. Our victorious
Savior cried. It is finished. See God's pleasure
prosper in our risen Lord. Covenant blessings without measure
flow to us by Jesus' blood. It is finished! It is finished! Oh, how sweet the Savior's word! It is finished! It is finished! Oh, how sweet the Savior's word! Finished all justice demanded,
finished all remand. It is finished, all portrayed
and promised in the shadows of the law. It is finished, it is
finished. Thou believe, rejoice with all. It is finished, it is finished. Bow, believe, rejoice with awe. Jesus finished our salvation
when he died upon the tree. Righteousness and full redemption
for His loved and chosen seed. It is finished! Hallelujah! Praise the Lamb of
Calvary! It is finished! Hallelujah! Praise the Lamb of Calvary!