We want to greet little Sailor
Alan to our fellowship. This is her first Sunday in church
and so very thankful for the miracle of life. Today's her daddy's birthday,
so Jake's birthday, so happy birthday Jake. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 22 says,
But by so much was Jesus made a surety. Now a surety is a person
who provides everything necessary to ratify a covenant. That's what a surety does. And
that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He provided everything necessary
to secure the promises of our salvation. And they truly, in the Old Testament,
were many priests, but they were not suffered to continue by reason
of death. But this man, because he continueth
forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. We have a high priest. who's
seated in the heavens, whoever lives to make intercession for
us. He's our surety. Pray the Lord will be pleased
to enable us to worship him in spirit and according to the revealed
truth of his word. Let's stand together. Brother
Tom's gonna come and lead us in the hymn on the back of your
bulletin. Awake, my soul, and rise! Amazed and yonder see! There hangs the mighty Savior
God upon a cursed tree. How perfectly fulfilled is that
most ancient plan, contrived in God's eternal mind before
the world began. Here free salvation reigns and
carries all before. His death shall for a guilty
race be refuge evermore. Now Helen, all her strength,
her rage and mosted sway, can never snatch a wandering sheep
from his great hands away. Please be seated. Good morning. This morning's
call to worship scripture will be in Psalm 116. Psalm 116. I love the Lord because he has
heard my voice and my supplications. because he has inclined his ear
unto me. Therefore I will call upon him
as long as I live. The sorrows of death come past
me and the pains of hell get all upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. This is by grace that we found
that God puts trouble and sorrow in our lives because he does
it for a reason. He does it for us to call upon
him. Then I call upon the name of
the Lord O Lord, beseech Thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord. and righteous ye, our God is
merciful. This is a wonderful, this is
a wonderful blessing that he is gracious and that he is merciful
towards us. The Lord preserves the simple.
I was brought low and he helped me and this is how he helps every
believer. When they come to know the gospel
didn't come to know Christ. They are brought they're all
brought low by him and That's and that's when he helps us Return
unto thy rest all my soul for the Lord have dealt bound bountifully
with thee For thou hath delivered my soul from death, my eyes from
tears, and my feet from falling. All this the Lord does for us.
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. And this,
I think if it's spiritual living, he's talking about here. when
we come to meet, to worship here. I believed, therefore I have
spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said
in my haste, all men are liars. Why should I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take up the cup of
salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows
unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord,
truly I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant and son of Thine
handmaiden. Thou hast loosened my bonds.
I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. I will call
upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord. Now in the presence of all his
people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of
the ordealism, praise thee, O Lord. Father, we come before you in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by his righteousness and by his
blood. We come before you to give you
thanks, Father. Thank you, Father, for your mercy,
for your grace, Father. Thank you for bringing us here
together to listen to the gospel, Father. We have a great need
of your Holy Spirit to fill us at this time, fill the pastor
as he brings the gospel, make it clear to us, make Christ more
clear to us every day. Father, help us see his glory
and his glory alone, Father. It's what we most need. We have
lots of needs, Father. What our greatest needs is to
be able to see the glory of Christ, and we pray for this. We also
ask for all the churches that preach the gospel, Father, we
ask the same, that your gospel may be clear, that the Holy Spirit
may be there to show us the Lord Jesus Christ is our greatest
need, Father. In Jesus' name we pray now, amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number five from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book. Number five, Come Ye Sinners. Anybody watching online, it's
not in the softback hymn book if you have that hymn book. It's
in the Old Baptist hymn book if you have a copy of that. Come
Ye Sinners. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you. Full of pity, joined with power
He is able, He is able He is willing, doubt no more He is
able, He is able He is willing, doubt no more Come ye, D.D.,
come and welcome God's free bounty glorified True belief and true
repentance, every grace that brings us nigh. Without money, without money,
come to Jesus Christ and buy. Without money, without money,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to have a need of him. This he gives you, this he gives
you, Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. This He gives you, this
He gives you. Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised
and broken by the fall, If you tarry till you're better, You
will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Please be seated. I love that hymn. The well need not a physician. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to make everybody's life better, make you happy, save sinners. That's true happiness, isn't
it? That's true happiness. Let's open our Bibles again to
Mark Chapter 1, Mark Chapter 2. I said that first hour, didn't I? Mark Chapter
2. And if the Lord enables me, I
want to tie this passage to Isaiah Chapter 59 because the theme
in both passages is the same. and that is the forgiveness of
sin, the forgiveness of sin. The greatest need that you and
I have is to have our sins put away. That roof that separates us from
God, we need it removed. We need our sins to be put away
for God to be satisfied with the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus
Christ made on our behalf if we're to be right with God. And
that's what this story about the man with palsy is about. He was paralyzed. He couldn't
move on his own. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't
feel anything. And that's where we are spiritually,
left to ourselves. We cannot access the presence
of God, and we cannot feel the conviction of sin. This is something
that the Lord has to do. We saw in Mark Chapter 5 that
there were two groups of people. There was the larger group that
served as a hindrance of this man being able to get into the
presence of the Lord. And most of the people in your
life and in my life don't want you to have something they don't
have. They will stand as a hindrance between you and God. The only
people that will support you in gaining access into the presence
of God are those who already have access into his presence
and they're going to want you to be there with them. Those
are your true friends. This man had four friends and
they removed the barrier that kept him from Christ and lowered
him down into his presence and the Lord looked at him and notice
what he says in Mark chapter Two, in verse five, and when
Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, son,
thy sins be forgiven thee. Oh, for the Lord to say that
to me, for him to say that to you, for you to hear his voice
to say, all of your sins have been forgiven. That's our need. Notice in verse
five, when Jesus saw their faith, when Jesus saw their faith, now
where does faith come from? For by grace are you saved through
faith. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. They that cometh to him must
believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. For by grace are you saved through
faith. What is faith? It's believing
God. It's believing God. Believing
everything God says. And that, not of yourself, it's
a gift of God. Lord, give me the ability to
just believe you. Everything you say, to believe
you. Now, the unbeliever prides himself
in being able to weigh all the different options and then conclude
for himself what he's going to believe. That's not faith. That's pride. And it's blind
pride. It's self-righteous pride. It's
a man saying, I'm going to consider all the lies and pick the lie
that fits my, suits me the best. Faith is what God gives his people
when they are able to just believe everything he says, everything
he says. And the Lord had obviously given
these men that kind of faith. Now, obviously, there were a
lot of things that they didn't know. It didn't seem like this
man even knew that his greatest need was to have his sins forgiven.
He was coming to the Lord to be healed of his palsy. But he
believed everything that had been revealed to him. That's what faith is. Faith is
not believing everything there is to be believed about God.
Faith is not questioning anything that God has already revealed
to you. To whom much is given. Those
who've been given, they'll receive more. They'll receive more. So faith doesn't question what
God's revealed. These men believed that the Lord
Jesus Christ was able to heal this man. And nothing was gonna
stand in their way to get to where the Lord was. And now the
Lord is revealing to them a greater need. Your real need is not your
palsy. Your real need is your sin. And I forgive you. Forgive you. Well, there's no greater blessing,
is there? Faith, casting all your care upon Him, knowing that
He careth for you. Cain, Hebrews chapter 11, brought
an offering of his own labors, didn't he? And the Lord had no
regard for his offering, but the Lord received the sacrifice
that Abel made. Why? Because it was a blood sacrifice. And Abel believed God and offered
a more excellent sacrifice than his brother Cain. Believing that
my only hope of having my sin put away is through a blood sacrifice. And not just any blood sacrifice,
but that blood sacrifice that comes from the Lamb that is without
spot and without blemish, the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sins of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't make blood
sacrifices physically. That blood, that final blood
sacrifice was made on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago when the
Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood. And what did God say?
When I see his blood, then I will pass by your sins. Not when I
see what you bring. Don't be like Cain. Don't bring
an offering of your hand. Abel brought a more excellent
sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb The Lamb who is our surety, the Lamb that was slain in the
covenant of grace before the world ever began. Faith looks
to Christ. These men were looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ for what they knew He was able to do. And what
they didn't know is that He was able to save to the uttermost.
He was able to do for them a lot more than they thought. And they
came to discover that. Noah moved with fear, Hebrews
chapter 11. Noah moved with fear and built
an ark for he and his family. What a glorious picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ that ark is. That ark was pitched within and
without. It was watertight. It was able
to sustain the deluge that God would send in judgment against
the world. There is the judgment of God
coming against this world. And only those who are in Christ
are going to be safe from destruction. Noah believed God and moved with
fear. He built an ark, and he got in
the ark, didn't he? Abraham. Abraham was a pagan. He was in the Ur of the Chaldees
and didn't have any interest in the things of God. But God
sought him out. And God called him. And Abraham,
when called, obeyed and went to a land that he knew not. You
see, faith is just believing whatever God says. Whatever God
says to you, faith believes it. There's a whole lot more to know
about God than what you and I know. God's not requiring us to have
all that knowledge that he's not yet revealed. He's requiring
us to believe what he has said. Believe what he said. That's what they did and the Lord had mercy on him. Now, notice in our text what the scribes and the Pharisees
said. These were the self-righteous
religionists. But there were certain of the scribes sitting
there and reasoning in their hearts. Now here's a great comfort
to the child of God. It may be a source of great discomfort
and conviction to the unbeliever. But to the child of God, it's
a great comfort to know that our God knows our thoughts. He knows our thoughts before
we think them. He knows every word we've ever
spoken. David said, the knowledge of
this is too wonderful for me. I cannot attain unto it. Lord,
our God is omniscient. He knows everything there is
to be known about us. What did the Pharisees say? Why
does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? Now they speak the truth. God's
the only one capable of forgiving sins. They just didn't believe
the Lord Jesus Christ was God. The Lord knew their hearts and
immediately when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they so reasoned
within themselves, this wasn't a verbal conversation they were
having, this was what they were thinking. Why reason ye these
things in your hearts? Whether it is easier to say to
the sick of palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise,
take up thy bed and walk. Which would be easier to say?
Well, they would say, well, it's a whole lot easier to say to
a man than it is to be forgiven him. Surely you're not going
to be able to tell him to rise up and walk. But that you may
know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,
he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take
up thy bed and go thy way into thine house. And immediately
he arose and took up his bed and went forth before them all
in so much that they were all amazed and glorified God saying
we never saw it on this fashion before. Never seen anything like
this before. You know that's always the response when believers are where the Lord is saving
sinners they glorify God and they say I never saw it like
that before. I never saw that I was a sinner
before. I never saw that the only hope
of righteousness that I have before God is in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, my substitute, my surety, my sin-bearer, my
Savior. He's my only hope of salvation. I never saw it before. I thought
there was something I could do to win the favor of God. Now that I hear the gospel, I
see something I never saw before. I never saw that God was sovereign
in electing a people according to His own will and purpose before
time ever began. I never saw it. I thought God
wanted everybody to be saved. I never saw it on this fashion
before. I never saw that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's cross was actually a successful work of redemption
for a particular people. I always thought that it was
an offer of salvation that God was making to everybody. I never
saw it on this fashion before. I never saw that when the Lord
Jesus Christ cried from the cross, it is finished. That everything
for the salvation of God's people was accomplished. Never saw it
on that fashion before. I thought there was something
I had to do in order to make what he did work for me. I never saw it on this fashion
before. I never saw that the calling
of God was absolutely irresistible. I thought I had to make Jesus
Lord of my life. I thought I had to do something
to agree with God in order for this call to be effectual for
me. I never saw that it was absolutely
irresistible. that when God calls out his people
that they don't have any choice to make. They don't have a choice. They don't have a decision to
make. They are irresistibly drawn. You don't come to Christ because
you decided to come to Christ. You come to Christ because you
had no place else to go. No place else to go. You don't
have any options. The Lord gave his disciples an
option to leave when everybody else left. Aren't you going to
go with them? And what did Peter say? Lord,
we've got no place to go. We believe that thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. We know and are sure of
it. You have shut us up to yourself. We're not here because we decided
to follow you. We're here because you made us.
You made us willing in the day of your power. Never saw it like
that before. I always thought it was a decision.
I always thought it was a choice. I always thought it was something
I had to do. I never saw that my need for grace today was greater
than my need for grace yesterday. I thought I was getting better.
Well, you know, I don't do some of the things I used to do and
so I must be getting a little bit better. I never saw my sin
more clearly today than I saw it yesterday and I never believed
myself to be worse and in need of grace more today than I was
yesterday. Never saw it on this fashion
before. You see, this message is contrary to everything religion
would have us to believe, isn't it? It's a different message. It's a different God. I never
saw the vanity of this world the way I see it now. Oh, Solomon
was right. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Or the world is empty. It's not
going anywhere. There's no hope. There's no light.
There's no truth. There's no salvation. There's
no God. It's an empty world. Never saw
it on this fashion before. I never saw my family and friends
and co-workers and other people that I'm around, I never saw
them in such dire straits as I see them now. The proud man
that's boasting in his success and in his accomplishments and
in his possessions. I never felt so sad for him that
I do now. He's lost. He's without God. And all of his stuff is nothing
but a distraction to him. I never saw it on this fashion
before. I never saw the church the way
I see it now. This is my eternal family. These are my true friends that
are engaged with me in helping one another get to Christ. I never saw the scriptures like
I see them now. When the Lord was pleased to
open the eyes of my understanding, He rewrote my Bible. He did. He caused me to see that these
are they which testify of me and that it's all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all about His glory and
His saving work. I never saw it on this fashion
before. You see, when the Lord speaks and he says to your heart,
thy sins, son, are forgiven thee, you're going to see things different
than you ever saw them before. Everything's going to change.
Everything. Isn't that true? Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
59, please. Isaiah chapter 59. You remember those tiles in the
roof that had to be removed in order for this paralyzed man
to get to Christ? There is a barrier between you
and God. There is a barrier between me
and God. And if God doesn't move it, we'll
have no access to Him. Look what the Lord says in Isaiah
chapter 59. He begins with this word, behold. I love that word. It means stand
amazed. Give this your undivided attention. Stand in awe. Stop everything. Behold, God's about to say something. that will change everything in
your life. It's the same word that Job said
when he was made a sinner. That's what Job's problem was.
Job said, well I had seen God with the seeing, I'd heard about
God with the hearing of my ear but now mine eyes have seen thee
and I repent in dust and ashes But before that, when Elihu got
finished speaking, you know what Job said? Behold, I am vile. I'm a sinner. Job was justifying
himself before God, but no more, no more. In 1 Kings 10, after
the Queen of Sheba had traveled all the way to Jerusalem to meet
with Solomon, She said this, behold, the half was not told
me. Thy wisdom and thy prosperity
exceedeth everything that was told to me. And that's true about
our Solomon. The half has not yet been told
us. His wisdom and his prosperity
exceedeth everything that there is that we know about him. In the Song of Solomon, chapter
4, the Lord is speaking about His bride, His church, and He
says, Behold, thou art fair, My love. And then He repeats
Himself, Behold, thou art fair. God's speaking of me that way?
Yeah. Yeah. You've become comely, beautiful
with My comeliness. You see, when we're found in
Christ, the same beauty and glory that the Lord Jesus Christ has
by His essential nature becomes ours by imputation. And we become
His bride and everything He owns becomes ours. And John in Revelation
chapter 1 said, he cometh in the clouds. And
when he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his glory,
he concludes the book by saying, behold, here's the Lord speaking,
behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me. Oh, might the Lord get our attention
when he says behold. Might we be enabled by His Spirit
to put aside all those things that would otherwise distract
us and give our undivided attention to this glorious truth? Because
here it is. Here it is. Behold, the Lord's
hand is not short that it cannot save. It's not short. He's able to
save to the uttermost. Say, well, you don't know what
I've done. You haven't done the uttermost. You haven't done the
uttermost. He's able to save to the uttermost.
Them that cometh to God by Him. Mark chapter 5, we just looked
at that man with a palsy, and before the Lord came back to
Capernaum, he went across the Sea of Galilee to Gennesaret
and found a man in the graveyard that was possessed with demons.
His hand was not short. He was able to save him, wasn't
he? That woman at the well, he was able to save her. In spite
of all of her problems, he was able to save her. The filthiest
of lepers, the most self-righteous Pharisee, the Lord is able to
save. The most wayward child, runaway
slave Onesimus went to Rome thinking he was going to get his freedom
and God sent a gospel preacher after him, didn't he? Paul preached
the gospel That wayward slave went back to his owner and David sent his servant to Lodabar,
a land without bread. What did he do? He was fetching
Mephibosheth, wasn't he? My hand is not short that I cannot
save. There's no limits. no limits
in your life or in my life as to what God can't say. God says, behold, my hand is
not short that I cannot save. Yes, I can even save you. And if God is pleased to make
you a sinner, you will see your need greater than anyone else's. You will believe yourself to
be the chief of all sinners. Isn't it refreshing to be around
people who believe themselves to be the greatest of all sinners?
unlike religion where everybody thinks that they're better than
everybody else and they're pretentiously trying to prove themselves to
be more holy than somebody else. Not where the gospel is. Behold, my hand is not short
that I cannot save. The Lord sent a Jewish maid all
the way up to Assyria to tell Naaman about the prophet in Israel
that was able to save him. And Naaman thought that his problem
was leprosy. Naaman didn't know that his problem
was he didn't know God. But he left Israel knowing God,
didn't he? My hand is not short that I cannot
save. He knows every one of his sheep
by name. And when he speaks to them, He
hears their voice. They hear his voice. September the 1st, 1954, Gregory
Neil Elmquist was born into this world. There's nobody else in my family
named Gregory. Why did my parents choose to
call me Gregory? They had no explanation for it.
But I know. I know. You see, Gregory Neal
Elmquist had already been written in the Lamb's Book of Life before
Adam was ever created. My parents were just obeying
God when they named me what they named me. And that's true of every child
of God. That's why you've got the name you've got, because
that name was already written in the Lamb's Book of Life. My hand is not short that I cannot
save, neither is my ear deaf that I cannot hear. I hear the cries of my children. The Lord heard Nathanael, didn't
He? You remember when Philip brought Nathanael to the Lord,
the Lord said to Nathanael, an Israelite indeed, in whom I am
well pleased. And Nathanael said, how do you
know me? How do you know me? And what
did the Lord say? When you were under the fig tree,
I saw you. And Nathanael said, oh, thou art the son of God. What do you suppose Nathanael
was doing under the fig tree? Praying, wasn't he? He was asking
the Lord for grace and for mercy. The Lord told Moses, I have heard
the cry of my people. His ear is not heavy so that
he cannot hear. He heard, blind Bartimaeus, son
of David, have mercy upon me. He hears the cries of his children.
Jonah, from the belly of the whale, out of the belly of hell,
cried I, and thou heardest my cry. You see, it doesn't matter
how dire our straits are. God's ear is not heavy so that
he cannot hear. Neither is his hand short so
that he cannot save. Nothing in His ability limiting
Him from being able to save anyone. But, but, your iniquities have separated
between you and your God and your sins have hid His face from
you that He will not hear. Now the self-righteous religious
Pharisee will say, well I'll just quit sinning and that will
obligate God to save me. Now we don't have time this morning
to read the rest of this chapter but the majority of this chapter
is God describing our sinful state and man's attempt to try
to deliver himself from his sin and the vanity of that attempt. that's what the Lord... you see
God says the problem is not with me the problem is with you my
eyes are too pure to look upon sin there is a barrier between
you and your God and it's sin and you can't fix it so I'm gonna fix it for you I'm gonna fix it for you look
what he says In verse 9, therefore judgment is far from us, neither
does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold
obscurity for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope
for the wall like a blind man. We grope as if we had no eyes.
We stumble at noonday as in the night. We are in desolate places
as dead men. We can't help ourselves. We can't
remove the tiles. We can't break through the barrier. My sin separates me from my God. What am I going to do? 16, and he saw that there was no
man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his
arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness it sustained
him. God says you can't fix the problem.
You don't have an intercessor. You can't approach the presence
of God left to yourself. Why? Because he's holy and you're
sinful. And so God has to be your intercessor. He has to put away our sin. He has to remove the barrier.
And so he said, my arm, your arm can't do it but my arm can
do it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
strong right arm of God. He came into this world in order
to establish justice between God's people and their God. He came in order to provide a
righteousness on behalf of His people, and He did that. He ascended back into glory,
taking with Him the names of those for whom He lived and died,
and He ever lives to make intercession on behalf of His people. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. God looked at us. He said,
nothing wrong with my arm, nothing wrong with my ears, but your
sins have separated you from me. And all of your attempts
to remove your sin, the sin problem is still there. So I'm going to put it away.
Look what he says, for verse 17, he's speaking of our intercessor
now. He's speaking of Christ. For he put on righteousness as
a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head. And
he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with
zeal as a cloak. The vengeance of God, the wrath
of God, which you and I sinned deserved was poured out on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Lord said, My
God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? The sword of God's wrath
pierced the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to establish
God's justice and put away our sin. Verse 18, According to their
deeds, According, He will repay fury to His adversaries, recompense
to His enemies. To the islands, He will repay
recompense. And that's exactly what God did
at Calvary's cross. He satisfied His holy justice. He paid recompense for the sins
of His people. He removed the barrier that keeps
us from having access to God. So shall they fear the name of
the Lord. From the west and his glory from
the rising of the sun, when the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
When the accuser says, you can't come to God, you can't come to
God, look at you, look at your sin, the spirit of God comes
along and says, No, that's what Christ did. He put them away. You come to the throne of grace
with confidence, with boldness, that you might find help and
mercy in your time of need. The veil has been rent, blood
has been spilt, God satisfied. The law's been fulfilled. Christ
said it is finished. It's finished. Verse 20, and the Redeemer, that's
Christ, shall come to Zion. You see, this message is not
being preached anywhere else. You're not going to get it on
Fox News. You're not going to get it on CNN. You're not going
to hear it from the guys on the radio, the talk show host on
the radio. You're not going to hear it.
And you're not going to hear it in most churches. The Redeemer, He is a Redeemer
because He actually redeemed His people. What you're going
to hear in most churches is He wants to redeem you. He provided
an opportunity for you to be redeemed, but He didn't actually
accomplish redemption. He didn't pay the price. You
got to put your two cents worth in. No, the Redeemer comes to Zion
and He says, I've redeemed you. I'm your kinsman Redeemer. I
bought you with a price. The blood My precious blood has
been shed and you've been purchased and you're not your own. And
the Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from
transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. Those who turn from
trying to save themselves, those who realize that my problem is
my sin, Lord, I've got to have you save me. as for me this is my covenant
with them now most listen very carefully I'm gonna close most
messages of salvation are based upon a promise that you make
to God and if you keep that promise then you can keep yourself saved
but if you break that promise then It's all based on a promise
that you make to God. That's what a covenant is. I'm
going to make a covenant with God. I'll accept Jesus. I'll do my part. I'll do this
and I'll stop doing that. And God will have mercy upon
me and the barrier that separates me from God will be removed because
of my promises. As for me, God speaking, The
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. The Redeemer is speaking. This
is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. Oh, to know that the
hope of my salvation is based on a promise that God made. And
the scripture says that it is impossible for him to lie. He
can't lie. You go, I think you read it earlier
in the Psalms. All men are liars. God alone tells the truth. This is My covenant that I will
make with them, saith the Lord, My Spirit is upon thee, and My
words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of
thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth
of thy seed-seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever. That's why the Lord said, I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand." He's the only one that
can do it. Every single one of us have a
barrier between us and God. Man by nature thinks he can fix
it if he'll just get a little better. get a little more religious. God said, I'm going to have to
do it. And that's exactly what he did. His strong right arm
brought salvation. And his people, they hear his
voice and they follow him. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. No one has ever come to Him and
been cast away. I will in no wise cast thee out. Trust Him for the forgiveness
of your sin. No man can forgive sin but God
alone. Are we told that? Our merciful Heavenly Father, What hope, what comfort we have
in knowing that our Savior is successful. We pray that you would. Bear
with us. And comfort us. With the truth
of the gospel. Enabling us. To rest our hope. In Christ ports in his name we
pray. Amen. Let's stand together, Brother
Tom. Number 34 in the Spiral Hymnal,
number 34. It is finished, sinners, hear
it! Hear the dying Saviour's cry! Hear the Lord Himself declare
it! Justice has been satisfied! It is finished, O proclaim it,
To poor sinners far and wide. Holy Spirit, make them hear it,
Jesus Christ, for sinners died. It is finished, O proclaim it, What a Savior, what a Savior! See Him now, exalted high. It is finished, look, behold
Him, Seated at His Father's side. Yonder on the throne, behold
Him, Christ our Substitute who died. It is finished, hear him pleading
As our advocate on high His own blood's great merit pleading
Pleading justice satisfied It is finished, hear him, all the work is fully
done. Now believing, looking to him,
we are saved by God's own Son. Okay.