More about Jesus on his throne,
riches and glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase. More of his coming Prince of
Peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of his saving fullness see. More of his love who died for
me. Please be seated. Now let's turn
to that hymn number 224, number 224, I Know Whom I Have Believed. And we're going to sing the hymn
that's on your bulletin after that, so hopefully you can find
a bulletin nearby or share. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me he hath made known, nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart, nor how believing in his word brought
peace within my heart. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against me. I know not how the Spirit moves
Convincing man of sin Revealing Jesus through the Word creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. ? I know not when my Lord may
come ? At night or noonday fair ? Nor if I'll walk the veil with
Him ? Or meet Him in the air ? But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Him on the back of your bulletin.
? When this passing world is done
? When has sunk yon radiant sun ? When I stand with Christ on
high ? Looking o'er life's history Then, Lord, shall I fully know
Not till then how much I owe When I hear the wicked call ?
On the rocks and hills to fall ? When I see them start and shrink
? On the fiery deluge bring ? Then, Lord, shall I fully know ? Not
till then how much I owe ? When I stand before thy throne ? ?
Dressed in beauty not my own ? ? When I see thee as thou art
? ? Love thee with unsinning heart ? ? Nay, Lord, shall I
folly know ? ? Not till then how much I owe ? Chosen not for
good in me ? Wakened up from wrath to flee ? Hidden in the
Savior's side ? By His Spirit sanctified Teach me, Lord, on
earth to show by thy love how much I owe. Caleb and Adam. Once far from God and dead in
sin, no light my heart could see. But in God's word, the light
I found, now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. As rays of light from yonder
sun, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love
came forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth
in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. As lives the flower within the
seed, As in the cone the tree. So praise the God of truth and
grace, His spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. With longing all my heart is
filled, that like Him I may be. As on the wondrous thought I
dwell, that Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. What a salvation this, that Christ
liveth in me. What an incredible thought that
Christ Jesus the Lord lives in me. I don't know of anything
more remarkable than that. But if you believe the gospel,
Christ lives in you. What a blessed morning this has
been. What a great time it's been. I've enjoyed the song services
so much. I've enjoyed the fellowship.
I thank the Lord for this Church, I'm just thankful. Donnie and I have not collaborated
at all. Last night we both preached on
justification and this morning I'm gonna preach on Christ's
love for his church, his bride. Would you turn with me to Ephesians
chapter five? That message was such a blessing.
And I love thinking about me not having anything to bring
to the marriage and the Lord taking me anyway, making me his
wife, making me his bride. Didn't have to worry about any
prenuptial agreement for me. Verse 25. Husbands. Love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it or her. that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be Holy and
without blemish. Now marriage, this God-ordained,
I don't even like to call it an
institution. I don't know what to call it. It's in the Bible. That's
about the best way I can say it. God invented marriage. And it has as its ultimate end,
picturing the mystical relationship between Christ and his church.
That's the purpose of marriage in the first place. Look in verse
31 of this chapter. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife. And
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, don't
let anyone use this as a catalyst to not fulfill your
responsibilities as husband and wife. Let every one of you in
particular, so love his wife, even as himself and the wife,
see that she reverence her husband. Now, Paul tells us everything
I've said about marriage as this end and this purpose, Christ
and his church. and the love of Christ for his
church. He gave himself. What more could be said? He gave himself. He surrendered all for his church. You know that song, I Surrender
All? It's really stupid. He surrendered all. 2 Corinthians 8, 9 says, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That though he was rich, Yet
for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty
might be rich. The command in verse 22, wives
submit yourselves and your own husbands as under the Lord in
the command in verse 25, husbands love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, which commands more difficult. I don't think it's hard to answer
that, is it? And this is what is commanded
of every believing man. This love far surpasses. infatuation or physical attraction
or chemistry or even romantic love. This is his love for his
church. Those things are nice, but this
is infinitely better. This is infinitely better. And
it's not so much his feeling, but what he does. He gave. He gave himself. Now, I have to bring this out
first. I don't want to spend too much time upon it, but I
want to point out what this passage of scripture is not saying because
of the error that what is called Christianity brings. Now, I don't
even like the term Christianity. It's not in the Bible. And the
gospel, Christianity is a religion, one of the world's seven great
religions. You know, it's a religion. And the gospel is not a religion.
The gospel is the truth. It's not a religion. But Christianity,
as it were, says that Jesus Christ loved
all men without exception. And that God wills the salvation
of all men without exception. He wants everybody to be his
bride. He wants everybody to be his bride. Christ Jesus died. for all men
without exception. And he gave himself for all men
without exception. Now that view makes these verses
meaningless. What do I mean by that? What
means if he died for all men without exception, then he didn't
accomplish any of this. He made it available if you do
your part. If you can do something to make what he did work for
you, you'll have this. There's no gospel in that. There's
no good news in that. Now, this belief that pervades
what's called Christianity, God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. God wants everybody to be saved.
God, the Holy Spirit is willing. Everybody, this belief just is
not true. It's just not true. It's not
what the Bible teaches. Turn with me for a moment to
John chapter 10. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Look in verse 14,
I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Now I want to ask you a question,
and you can answer this. Is everybody a sheep? Is everybody a sheep? Well, look what the Lord said
in verse 26. To those who did not believe, but you believe
not, because You are not of my sheep. He didn't say you're not
my sheep because you don't believe. He says you believe not because
you are not of my sheep. There are sheep and there are
goats. And a sheep never becomes a goat.
And a goat never becomes a sheep. And the Lord is going to Separate
them one from the other as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.
One's gonna be set on his right hand, the sheep, the goats on
his left. So you cannot possibly support
from the scriptures that Christ died for all men without exception. And you can't say God loves everybody.
I know he didn't love Esau. He said Esau have I hated. He said that, didn't he? He said
it twice. He said, the scripture says,
thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Now that's a pretty big demographic.
Workers of iniquity, he hates every single one of them. See,
God's holy, God's just, God's righteous, and we dare not present
him in such a way. And let me tell you why. that
this is so wrong. Well, first, because it's not
true to say that God loves all men the same, and Christ died
for all men the same, and the Holy Spirit is calling all men
the same, and God wills the salvation of all men the same. It's not
true. But here's what it does. It puts the burden of salvation
upon the sinner. It makes salvation dependent
upon what you do. It makes salvation by works. It's a denial of God's justice.
And we talk about the death of Christ. What if I committed a
crime, and I did the time, five years, whatever it might be,
and I paid my debt to society, and I got out and they said,
you're gonna have to pay it all over again. Would that be just? It'd be wrong,
wouldn't it? What is the difference between
that and Christ dying for my sin and paying for it and making
me pay for it once again? It's a denial of the justice
of God. It's a denial of the immutability
of God. It's saying God can love you and turn around and send
you to hell, get mad at you. It makes the love of God, meaningless
is not a good enough word, criminal. Now, why do I say that? If I
have my child playing in the street, I love him. The car's
coming. I love them. I say, I love you.
I want you to get out of the street, but I'm not going to
violate your free will. And the car comes and run over us and
kills them. What's going to happen to me for that kind of love?
I'm going to be put in jail for that kind of love. That's not
love. That's not love. It's a denial that salvation
is all of grace. There's something you need to
do to add to it. It makes Jesus Christ a failure.
If he intends to save all men and all men are not saved, then
he is a failure. He did not do what he intended
to do. It limits the power of the atonement.
It's limited by the power of the human will. It makes man's will sovereign
over God's will. God can will something and man's
will can trump his will. It says there's no actual satisfaction
in the blood of Christ. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. That's because of the satisfaction
of the blood of Christ. You take that away. There's no
satisfaction. God has to say, when I see what
you've done, that won't do me any good. It robs Christ of giving
all the glory. The difference between the saved
and the lost is not Christ, but what one did that the other did
not do. You no longer have the gospel.
There is no gospel in that message. If that's the message I preach,
I don't preach the gospel. If that's the message I believe,
I do not believe. The gospel, you know, I've even
heard people try to dance around this and talk about Christ dying
for everybody. His death was sufficient for
all men, but it was efficient only for the elect. I don't want to, this is not
an intellectual thing, and I don't want to be sarcastic, but that's
really stupid too. I mean, it really is. I mean,
it doesn't even make sense. Say he died for everybody, but
his death only saved the elect. What kind of... But here's my
biggest problem with that kind of thinking. The only hope that I have of
being saved is that Jesus Christ died for me. And if you tell
me that he can die for somebody and they wind up in hell anyway,
I know where I'll be. I will be in hell if that's the
case. You see, my hope of salvation, it's not found in my faith or
my repentance or my holy living or what. If that's where my salvation
is found for, I've got no hope. My hope is that when Jesus Christ
said it is finished, my salvation, my standing before God, my perfection
was finished. Now that we've seen what it's
not, let's see what it is. Back to our text in Ephesians
chapter five. Now, God the Holy Spirit authored
these words as he did every other word in the scripture. And somebody
may think, well, how can you expect me to believe that the
Bible is the inspired word of God? I mean, how can you prove
that? How do you expect me to believe
something like that? Well, do you believe that God created
the universe without any help and it wasn't hard for him? You
believe that? Sure you do. Somebody says, I
don't believe that. I don't believe you. You know
it's so. God created the universe. And if he can create the universe
as an act of his own will, bringing the universe into existence,
he can inspire men to write a book and keep it preserved. And if
we don't have this, we've got my opinion and your opinion,
and we're in big trouble. That's all we got. I'm so thankful
for the inspired word of God. And he says things exactly as
they are to be said. And this is such a precious,
precious passage of scripture. Look what it says in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ also loved the church. Christ. The son of God. the eternal, uncreated creator. The one who controls everyone
and everything and every event. He's even controlling the thoughts
that are passing through your mind right now. He really is
God. By him, all things consist. He's got the son. I love the way he's called in
verse 23, the savior of the body. God the Son Christ. I love his
name as Christ. That represents his offices.
Christ, God's prophet. Christ, God's priest. Christ,
God's king. And he is utterly unique. Every
other prophet said, thus saith the Lord. He never said that.
I say unto you. Other priests brought the blood
of an animal sacrifice, not him. He brought his own precious blood
that actually puts away sin. He's like no other priest. He's like no other king in that
he has power inherent in himself. Any other king, whatever they
have is borrowed. They don't have power in themselves.
Not too long ago, I heard on the radio the world's most powerful
man and I just wanted to choke. Powerful man? Power belongs to
the Lord. There's no such thing as a powerful
man. I love it when Pilate said to the Lord, don't
you know that I have power to crucify you and I have power
to release you? He said, you got no power at all over me.
None at all. Christ loved The church, his
bride, his elect, all included in the name Jacob. Jacob have
I loved. He loved those whose names are
inscribed eternally in the Lamb's Book of Life. The Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, whose names are written in the heaven. That's
the church role I want to be on. He didn't love the church unconditionally.
You know, I was talking about me not being able to bring anything
to the table. That's so. That's so. But he doesn't love me unconditionally.
He makes me beautiful. He makes it to where he loves
me. He makes it to where I'm beautiful to him. And he wants
me as his bride. Christ loved the church. And how did he do this? He gave himself. Now the word is the same word
as Romans 8, 32, he that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all. He gave himself, he delivered
himself up. And this emphasizes his willingness
to do this. He was utterly voluntary in all
he did. He took voluntarily full responsibility
for my salvation before the foundation of the world. He became my surety. I think of that story in Genesis
chapter 43 where Jacob didn't want to send Benjamin,
his favorite son, to Egypt. I always think what those other
boys must have thought. He didn't care anything about them, but
he cared about Benjamin. You don't want him going to Egypt.
And is it Reuben that says, I'll take him? He said, I wouldn't
send him with you. No way. He knew Reuben. I wouldn't dare
send him with you. And then Judah, Christ came out
of that tribe. Judah said, send the lad with
me. I will be surety for him of my
hand, shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. Before time began, Christ took
full responsibility for saving me. And he's incapable of failure. He knew what he was going to
do. He voluntarily gave himself to
become flesh and take upon himself all the limitations of being
a man. The son of God went into a womb
and lived there for nine months and came out. The Son of God
subjected Himself to the law that He had made and kept God's
law perfectly. And He did this voluntarily.
The Lord voluntarily gave Himself up to the cross. I love it when
they come to arrest Him. And He says, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And what happened? They fell
backwards. He's letting them know, I'm not
a victim. I'm in control of this. You're
doing my will. That's what he's saying. Now
he's doing all this voluntarily. I mean, I think of when he died,
he gave death permission to come and take him. Everything he did,
he did voluntarily. Somebody says, how could he die?
I don't know, but he did. The God man died and he voluntarily
raised himself up from the dead because he completely put away
the sins of all of his bride. He voluntarily sits at the right
hand of the fathers, the great intercessor for his people. He
is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make an intercession for them. Now, understand. He gave himself. Let's go on
reading verse 26. This is talking about his accomplishments
and his achievements. This is why he gave himself.
Verses 26 and 27 tells us that he might sanctify and cleanse
it. with the washing of water by
the word, that he might present it to himself. What a presentation. You know, in the weddings, you
know, I present unto you, I ain't presenting to anybody, anybody,
he's making this presentation. To present to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without Now, this is what he achieved in the
giving of himself. First, that he might sanctify
it. Now, that's a word that's not
used much in our everyday lives. People talk about redemption,
you know, a sports team lost and redeems itself, you know,
made up from the errors it made and it's come back. And we talk
about faith, you got to keep the faith. There's all kinds
of terms in the scriptures that are used all the time, but here's
one that's not used much. Sanctify. Sanctify. What's it mean? Well, the first
time the word used is with regard to the seventh day. In Genesis chapter two, God sanctified
the seventh day. He made it other. He separated
it. It wasn't like the other days.
Well, what's the difference? God made it other. God separated
it. That's sanctification. Holiness,
other. I think that might be the best
definition I know of how to give. I try. Other. Holy means he's not like
you. At all. It means there's no way,
there's nothing you can compare him to. He's other. He's separate. That's what sanctify means. at
seventh day was sanctified. God said it's other, it's separate. To sanctify means to separate
to holiness. To sanctify means to declare
to be holy. We're sanctified once for all
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. His death said,
Todd's holy. It's to make holy in regeneration
by the spirit of God. And here's what Christ did by
his death. He sanctified the church. He sanctified it. And look what it says next. And
cleanse it. Sanctify it and Cleanse it. Now I'm plumb sanctified. If
you're sanctified, you're plumb sanctified. You can't get more
sanctified. You can't get less sanctified. They're not degrees
of holiness. Somebody says, I'm getting holier.
Well, you don't even know what the word means or you wouldn't say
something like that. I'm sanctified. Sanctified once
for all through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
My feet get dirty every day. And I need to be cleansed. every
single day. And that's what the washing of
feet is. I clean every wit and all I got to do is blink and
I see him and I defile myself and I see him and I see him and
I commit sins that I know I shouldn't commit and I commit sins that
I say I'm not going to commit him anymore and I commit him
again and I pray about him and I pray Lord forgive me and I
know the whole time I'm praying I'm going to commit that sin.
How evil. I get dirty. I get filthy every
day. Now I know someone is thinking,
what's wrong with you? You're a really bad person. Well,
I won't deny that, but I've got a sinful nature that I always
carry about. It's always there. It doesn't
get better. It doesn't improve. I'm just as bad in that sense
as I ever was before the Lord ever saved me. I got a new nature
now. And this isn't looking for some kind of excuse for sin.
I'm not doing that in any way, but I'm just talking about reality.
I need my walk feet cleansed every day. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's son, cleanseth right now, present, active, cleanseth
us from all sin. And I need that, don't you? And
look what he says next. With the washing of water by
the word, do you know hearing the word is bath time for the
believer? There's nothing more cleansing
than hearing the gospel. Look in verse 27. That he might. presented to himself. I love the language of that.
I don't know how many people I've married, but at the end
of the marriage, I always say, now I presented to you. And I thought,
in light of that, I don't present to anybody. He presents the church
to himself. Isn't that glorious? This is who he is. He presents
the church to himself. that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church. Now you look at any local assembly
and you've got sinners saved by grace who are still sinners. And in every church. You have
sinners. Saved by grace who are still
sinners. There's too much sin in that
church, I would agree. I would agree. Too much any is
too much, Amen. Any is too much. But. If that would keep you from coming
there, I'd say, you ought to feel real comfortable there.
I mean, you'd fit in right well. But a glorious church. The Lord said in John chapter
17, verse 22, the glory which thou has given me, I have given
thee. Now that is a glorious church. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate that they might be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. That's not talking about something
that's going to happen in the future. That's about something that is right
now. I'll enter into it when I die
and I know it by faith now and I know it by sight then. That's
when the righteous are going to shine as the sun, the scripture
says. But a glorious church. Not. Having spot. You young people, one of these
days you're gonna see spots come up on your skin. You're gonna see your skin wrinkle. You're gonna, it's part of the
experience of being a sinner. You're gonna age, you're gonna
die. And you have spots. You got a
lot of spots, don't you? Spots. Blemishes. I'm not talking about physical
right now. You got those too. You got the other kind. That's
what he's talking about. And in his work of redemption,
he's going to make it to where the church has no spots, where
Christ says to his church, thou art all fair, my love, there's
no spot in thee. Now that's how he sees you right
now. No spot. And then next he says. or wrinkle nor any such thing. Listen to
these scriptures. Um, first John four 17 says that
as he is, so are we in the world. Is he holy that it should be
holy and without blemish? Is he holy? Are you any less holy? No. As he is, so are we in the world.
Without spot, wrinkle, any such thing that it should be. I like
that, should be. It should be holy and without
blemish. Colossians 1.22 says this presentation
is going to make us holy and unblameable and unreprovable. Do you know the rest of the verse?
in his sight. Now, let me remind you, his sight
is how things really are. The way you see things, the way
I see things, we don't see right. We can't see right. He does. And because of what Christ accomplished
on Calvary's tree, every believer is wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Jude 24 says, now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before his presence with exceeding joy. Revelation 14 5 says they are
without fault. Before the throne of God. Now
this describes every single believer right now. Without fault. Christ looks at you and he sees
someone who is altogether lovely, altogether beautiful. His precious,
perfect bride, perfect inside and out. Now there's somebody
or a lot of somebodies thinking, how can I know that this is for
me? I believe everything you've said. I believe that Christ actually
achieved this. I believe what you're saying.
I believe this. But how can I know if this is
for me? How can I know if he died for
me? How can I know if I'm holy and
unblameable and unapprovable? Because I sure enough don't feel
it. So how can I know? If this is for me, I've got four
words for you. Four words. These four words
are very important. They all go together. Sinner. Need. Whosoever. Believes. Here's my first question. This
is how you can know if this is for you. Are you a sinner? How do you answer that? And before
you answer, let me tell you what that means. If you're a sinner,
that means all you do is sin. If you do it, it's sin. If you're
a sinner, all you do is sin. If you're a sinner, you cannot
not sin. Well, I'm not going to sin for
at least this five second period. Can't be done. If you're a sinner, you're not
a victim. It's all your fault. You can't
blame somebody else. You can't blame Adam. You can't
blame the sovereignty of God. You can't blame your environment.
You can't blame your mom and dad. You can't blame your circumstances.
Your sin is all your fault. And because of your sinfulness,
you can't look in judgment on anybody for any thing. Not a thing. and you have no
claims on a sovereign holy God. If he passed you by, just and
holy is his name. Are you a sinner? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Second word is need. The whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. He healed them that had need
of healing. Now, not only am I a sinner,
I need Him to do something for me. You know, I'll begin here. I need the Bible to be the Word
of God. I need that. If it's not, what am I supposed
to believe? Who am I supposed to believe? Where's my, I need
the Bible to be the world. I need God to be absolutely sovereign,
controlling everything. Absolutely. I need that. I need
God to elect me. I need Christ to die for me.
I need God, the Holy Spirit to give me life. I need to be preserved. I need him to do everything for
me. Do you? Third word, and I love this word,
whosoever. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever is a great word. Now I know no one in this room
is vain enough to ever Google their name to find out what all
the world knows about them and so on, but I did. And I found out there are many
Todd Nyberts. There are a lot of them, a lot
of them. And so this is better, this word whosoever is better
than if it said Todd and Albert, because it might have been somebody
else. But I am a whosoever. Are you a whosoever? Can you
answer yes to that? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. So we've got sinner, we've got
need, we've got whosoever, and here's the last word, believes. You know what believers do? They
believe. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. Now, I'm not asking if you believe
that you're saved. That doesn't have anything to
do with faith. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, God's king, the only
savior of sinners? Faith is not what you believe
about yourself or what you believe about the person sitting beside
you. I don't think he's saved, but that doesn't mean he's not.
I think they're saved, but that doesn't mean they are. Faith has to do with what you
think concerning him. Well, if you're a sinner, if
you have a need, if you're a whosoever, and you believe, you know what?
Christ died for you. You're sanctified. You're washed. You're cleansed. You're holy. You don't have any spot. You
don't have any wrinkle. You're without blemish in God's
sight, and that's how you really are. Amen. We opened this service two hours
ago and I read from Isaiah chapter 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people. Sayeth the Lord, speak ye comfortably
unto Jerusalem and tell them their warfare is accomplished
and their iniquity has been taken away. I've been comforted this
morning. Both you men have been a great
encouragement to us. Don and Shirley, Todd and Lynn,
thank you all for coming. And Chris and Vicki, thank you
all. I was thinking as you were both
preaching, and I made this statement a few minutes ago, This world
exists for one reason, and that's the salvation of God's people,
the glory of Christ. And when the last of God's lost
sheep is brought to himself, it's coming to an end. It's over. This world exists for no other
reason. And I thought, you know, maybe
we won't have to build that building. Maybe God's last lost sheep is
here. We heard this morning about the
Lord bringing his bride to himself. And second Thessalonians chapter
two, those who believe that God loves everybody and Christ died
for everybody and God wants everybody to be saved. And it's ultimately
up to them. The scripture says they sit themselves
on the throne of God, showing himself that he is God. He just points to himself and
says that he's God. And because they had no love
for the truth, God sent them a strong delusion that they might
believe the lie. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Wherefore, he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast. Hold the traditions which have
been taught, whether by word or by epistle. Now our Lord Jesus
Christ himself and God, even our father, which hath loved
us and hath given us everlasting consolation and a good hope. through grace, comfort your hearts,
and establish you in every good word and work. Tom, you come lead us in a closing
hymn, and then I'm gonna lead in prayer, and I have an announcement
to make at the very end. Number 509, let's stand together,
number 509. Thank you. The sands of time are sinking,
the dawn of heaven breaks. The summer morn I've sighed for,
the sweet, sweet morn awakes. Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
but day spring is at hand, and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. O Christ, He is the fountain,
the deep, sweet well of love. The streams on earth I've tasted,
more deep I'll drink above. There to an ocean fullness His
mercy doth expand. and glory, glory dwelleth in
Emmanuel's land. Oh, I am my Beloved's, and my
Beloved's mine. He brings the poor, vile sinner
into his house of wine. I stand upon his merit, I know
no other stand, not in where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. The bride eyes not her garment,
but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but
on my King of Grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but
on his pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of
Emmanuel's land. We have a lot of beloved brethren
from other churches that are here and we love you and we're
thankful for you. We're glad you came. But I want
to say as the pastor of this church, there's no one more special
to my heart than the folks that are here. And I want them to
know I love them and I'm so thankful for all the labor of love that's
gone into. providing this meeting for us.
A lot of folks did a lot of things, and I'm very thankful. I want to try something, and
in order for it to be successful, it's going to require the cooperation
of everybody in this room immediately. And that's the only way it's
going to work. We're going to break ground this week, Lord
willing, on our new building. And I would like to add we've
got one, two, three, four, five exit doors, six exit doors. I'd like to get everybody here.