143 in the hardback temple, number
143, rejoice the Lord is King. Let's all stand together. 143. rejoice the lord is king your
lord and king adore rejoice give thanks and sing and triumph evermore
lift up your heart lift up your voice rejoice again I say rejoice
Jesus the Savior reigns, the God of truth and love. When he had purged our stains,
he took his seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice, rejoice! Again I say, rejoice! His kingdom cannot fail. He rules over earth and heaven. The keys of death and hell are
to our Jesus' gift. Lift up your hearts. Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice! Rejoice in glorious hope, our
Lord the Judge shall come, and take his servants up to their
eternal home. Lift up your heart, Lift up your
voice, rejoice again, I say rejoice. Please be seated. I'd like to
read from Isaiah chapter 40 for our scripture call to worship. We have a glorious God in whom
we are able to rejoice, rejoice in the Spirit, worship Him in
truth. And I'm so thankful for that. Very familiar passage of scripture
to us here. Isaiah chapter 40, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem and tell them, tell them, cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. We serve a God who has accomplished
our salvation. It's not, he's not a God that's
waiting for us to do something to make what he did work. he
finished the work. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, everything
necessary for the salvation of God's elect was accomplished
in Christ. Oh, what comfort, what hope,
what peace. Nothing left for us to do. Tell
her that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. She's received grace, mercy,
justification. God has imputed to her the righteousness
of Christ and made us perfect in the beloved in his sight.
And that's our comfort. And the prophet said in verse
six, Lord, where do I start? What do I say? What shall I cry?
Tell them that all flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field. We're reminded of that, aren't
we? Flesh is just grass. It's vapor. It doesn't last.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of
the Lord bloweth upon it. It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after that the judgment. God has an appointed day for
each and every one of us. When he's ready to take us from
this world, He will do it. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but, but, here's our hope, the word of the Lord endureth
forever. We know the truth. He said, if
you know the truth, truth sets you free. Where the spirit of
God is, there's liberty. And the spirit of God uses the
word of God to speak comfort to the hearts of God's people.
I'm glad to be here with you all tonight. And Denny and Julia
and Nancy, we're so happy to have you all here. These are
my cousins that were here from my mother's funeral today. So
let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
what great hope and comfort we take in knowing that the Lord
Jesus Christ has accomplished the salvation of thy people.
Oh, Lord, how we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit in
power and enable us to hear thy voice from thy word. Give us
faith to believe you, to trust you, to rest our immortal souls
in the glorious person and accomplished work of thy dear son. For it's
in his name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand together
again. We'll sing hymn number 44 from
the Hymns of Grace, the little spiral hymnal number 44. Precious Savior, friend of sinners,
we as such to Thee draw near. Let Thy Spirit dwell within us
with that love that casts out fear. Matchless Savior, Lord,
let us know Thee as the Lord, our righteousness. Cause our hearts to cleave unto
Thee, come and with Thy presence bless. Open now thy precious
treasure, let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Please be seated. It's amazing to me how the Lord
orders our services here. At hymn we just sang, Precious
Savior, Friend of Sinners. And then the third stanza, Open
now thy precious treasure. My question tonight in the message
is, what does God consider to be precious? What's He consider
to be precious? And he's told us in his word
what is precious to him. I want to thank you all for the
many expressions of your love and concern for us and the cards
and text and food and thank you. I love you and Tricia and I appreciate
it very much. We're very encouraged. I heard someone say just the
other day, everyone's got their own reality. You ever heard someone
say that? Everyone's got their own reality.
And I thought, no. Reality is what God says reality
is. Now everybody may have their
own opinion. That's no question about that. And the Lord said,
it is necessary that heresies be among you in order that those
which are approved may be made manifest. And that word heresy
means opinion. It means your own thoughts. God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
Man has his opinion about what's right and what's wrong and what's
true and what's not true. And everybody's got their own
opinion. But your opinion, my opinion, is cannot be called
reality. Reality is what God calls reality. And I want us to take some time
tonight and look in his word to see what it is that God calls
precious. Now, that word precious in the
scriptures means so much more than what we use it. It doesn't
mean cute. It doesn't mean adorable. It
means priceless. Priceless you've heard someone
say to you. Well, you know that that's priceless
that item that piece of that that that piece of history or
that That that is priceless. It's not priceless Everything's
got a price in this world You could buy it at some price But
when God says something is precious What that means is that there's
nothing that you can do to force God's hand to get it and You
can't pay for it. You can't earn it. You don't
deserve it. God says it's priceless. It's precious in his sight. Now, I want my, I wanna value
that which God values, don't you? I mean, I want to consider
what God says is priceless, and I want that to be priceless in
my heart. We value a lot of things in this
world. But what does the Lord consider to be priceless? Six things he tells us in the
scriptures. The redemption of the soul is
priceless, precious. The blood of Christ is precious. Faith is precious. The promises
of God are precious. Christ himself is precious. And the death of his saints is
precious in his sight. Six things. That's what God calls
precious. Are those things precious to
you? Are they precious to me? Are they priceless? Are we completely
dependent upon God to give them to us? Not meriting them by our
works or by our will, but receiving them as a free gift of grace. It's the only way we're gonna
have them. Job chapter 28 verse 10 says, he cutteth out rivers
among the rocks, and his eyes see every precious thing. So the eyes of the Lord are set
on those things that he considers to be precious. And if the Lord's
pleased to give us the mind of Christ, if He's pleased to give
us His Spirit, then our affections, our eyes, our hearts will be
set on those things that God says are precious, priceless
in His sight. And that's my hope. My hope tonight
is that the Holy Spirit will comfort our hearts by setting
our affections on the things that God calls precious. The first one is found in Psalm
49 verse 7 and 8. None of them can by any means
redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for his soul, for
it is precious. What God says there's nothing
you can do. There's no prayer. You can pray.
There's no work you can perform There's no there's no manipulation. There's no ceremony. There's
nothing you can do to redeem the soul of your brother Nothing you can do to redeem
your own soul Redemption is of the Lord He's got to do it. The scripture says in Titus chapter
3 that our salvation is not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to his mercy he hath saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost. What did the Lord say to Nicodemus?
Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. You've got to be born
of God. You've got to have the Holy Spirit
come and open the eyes of your understanding, and the Spirit
of God's like the wind. You can't control the wind. It
listeth whithersoever it wills. It blows in whatever direction
God wants it to blow in, and so it is with the Spirit of God.
Spirit of God has to come and breathe life into our dead souls. There's nothing that we can do
to redeem our brother or to redeem ourselves. Men go about trying
to redeem themselves. You know, it's amazing how prone
we are to try to atone for our own sins. Making the work of
Christ of none effect. Robbing him of his glory thinking
that there's something that we can bring to God that will That
will obligate him to redeem us There's no price that we can
pay There's no work we can perform Comfort ye comfort ye my people
didn't we just read that in Isaiah chapter 40 speaking comfortably
to Jerusalem, cry unto her and tell her what? Her warfare is
accomplished. It's done. I was telling somebody
yesterday, I said, you know, every religion of the world,
it's all the same. It doesn't matter. The only difference
between one religion and the next religion is the list of
do's and don'ts that that religion subscribes to for you to earn
favor with God. That's the only difference. So
this church over here says, we've got to do this and can't do that.
And this church over here says, and then the Muslims say, oh
no, you've got to do this, and the Buddhists say this, and the
Hindus say the other, and they're all the same. Why? Because it's
based on what you do. The gospel of God's free grace
is all about what's been done. What's been done? What's been
done? The Son of God has laid down
His life for His sheep. He has satisfied the demands
of God's law. He has put away the wrath of
God for all of God's elect. It's done. There's nothing left
to do. That's my comfort. If I've got
to do something in order to earn favor with God, I can't be comfortable.
Because I never know if I've done enough. I never know if
I've done it right. But if my salvation is based
on something that Christ did, I can rest there. What's God
say? None of them can by any means
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom. For his brother
or for himself, you're not gonna redeem your soul from God. You're
not gonna pay the price for your sins. For the redemption of the
soul is precious in his sight. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags before God. If God should mark iniquity,
who should stand? If God judges you and me based
on the very best thing that we've ever done, you pick out the one
moment of your life when you think, I got it right. If God
judges you for that, you're going to hell. You cannot redeem your own soul. We're sinners. We need a savior. That's what Christ came to do.
He came to ransom His people, and we are justified freely by
His grace. Grace. And we don't mix works
and grace, do we? We don't say, well, you know,
salvation's of grace, and then talk about works. You know, well,
you gotta do this, you gotta do that. No, if it's of grace,
it can no longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
You can't mix grace and works, can you? It's either pure grace
or it's a works gospel. And all works gospels are false
gospels. What is the means that the Lord
used to redeem? He said, the redemption of your
soul is precious in my sight. That's the first thing that God
says is priceless. Why is it so priceless? Turn
with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Verse 18, for as much as you
know, don't you like knowing something that you, I mean, you,
you, you're hanging the hope of your soul on what you know
and who you know. If you know, if you know the
truth, You know God this is life eternal that they might know
thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou has sent Paul
said Oh Lord that I might know thee I Just want to I want to
know Christ. I want to know the truth I don't
want to base my hope on an opinion or on a religion or on a work
I want to know the truth And here's what the Lord says. Look
what he says in verse 18, for as much as you know that you
are not redeemed with corruptible things, you're not redeemed. Now you're not going to be purchased
from, from hell. That's what, that's what redemption
is. Some of you, old like me, can remember those green stamp
redemption centers where you collected green stamps and then
you went down to the redemption center and you put them in and
they, you know, you could get a toaster or an iron or something,
you know. That's what redemption is. You
got to be redeemed. And you're not going to be redeemed
with green stamps. You're not going to, you might as well try
green stamps if you're going to try your works. You know you're not redeemed
with corruptible things. The flesh is corruptible. Scripture
says the flesh profiteth nothing. It is the spirit that giveth
life. So the Lord says for as much as you know that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things, that's silver and gold,
from your vain conversation. Now you know what that means?
Your empty life. Your empty life, that's what
we are outside of Christ. People try to manufacture a life,
they have no life. It's vain, it's empty. Solomon
said vanity of vanity, all is vanity, everything in this world
is vanity. If I'm building my life around something that's
empty, then I'm empty. You were not redeemed with silver
and gold from your vain conversation, your empty life, received by
traditions from your fathers. Oh, the tradition of religion.
Tradition, tradition. Now what Papa sang in Fiddler
on the Roof, Papa, why do we do these things? He said, I can
answer that question, tradition. That's what religion is. I don't
want to get bound up in tradition, do you? I want to know what God
says. I want to know the truth. And
here's what he says. You are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. God calls the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ precious. Your tradition's not precious.
Your works are not precious. The redemption of God's people
is precious because it was accomplished by the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And contrary to what most folks
believe, not a single drop of his blood was wasted. He did
not go to Calvary's cross to make an offer of redemption to
all men, to be made effectual by something you do. He shed
his precious blood on Calvary's cross to save his people. He told the Father in John chapter
17, he said, Father, I pray not for the world. I pray for them
which thou hast given me out of the world. God has elect people
that he chose in the covenant of grace. Those are the ones
Christ came to save and he saved them. He saved every one of them. How? By his precious blood. And
God said, when I see the blood, I will pass by you. Without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. When Adam,
God told Adam, in the day in which you eat of the fruit, you're
going to die. You will surely die. And he did. He didn't die
physically right then, but he died spiritually. He lost fellowship
with God. What'd God have to do? Had to
come into that garden, take an innocent lamb, slay that lamb
right there before Adam. Adam was trying to cover up,
well he was trying to redeem his soul with his own works,
wasn't he? He was trying to cover up his nakedness with fig leaves.
And what'd God do? He slew a lamb in the garden
and he took that fleece from off the lamb. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the lamb without spot, without blemish. He died. Order to redeem his people and
God says that's precious to me. That's priceless to me You can't
earn it. You can't pay for it. But with
the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish
and without spot now, that's what God requires What God requires
from you and me is that we be without blemish and without spot
How are we gonna do that? How are we gonna do that? Nothing
we do, everything we do is nothing but sin. How are we gonna be
without blemish, without spot? Only through the redemption purchased
by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says, in
Christ, you are perfect. In Christ, you have no sin. Precious in God's sight, The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
His life for the sheep. You have your Bibles open to
1 Peter chapter 1. Look with me at verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was telling somebody last night,
or this morning I guess it was, we were talking about titles. And I said, you know, the best
way to ruin a good man is to give him a title. I asked him,
you know, do you all have elders? priest or preachers or whatever,
pastors, and I said, no. The apostle is never used as
a title. Pastor is never used as a title.
It designates his responsibility, his calling, but we don't use
titles, do we? Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered abroad. That's who we are in this world.
We're just strangers. We're strangers. We're foreigners. We're pilgrims. We're sojourners. This world is not our home. If
we're like our father Abraham, we're looking for a city whose
builder and foundation is God. We're looking for that new Jerusalem. And so the Lord is addressing
this letter to the church and he calls them strangers throughout
Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia. Elect. Don't you love it when somebody
says, well, y'all believe in election? Of course we do. It's right there.
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. God before created Adam. He wrote the names of his people
in the Lamb's Book of Life. He has the sovereign right to
have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he will he
hardens. He's the potter, we're the clay.
He's got the right to make from the same lump of clay some vessels
of honor and some of dishonor. And we love it that way. I don't
want to have anything to do with my salvation. I don't want to
put my hand to it. I want God to elect me. I want
Christ to redeem me. I want the Holy Spirit to regenerate
me. I want the Spirit of God to keep
me and to deliver me faultless before the throne of God. I don't
want to put my hand to it. Well, I know if I put my hand
to it, I'm going to defile it. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit. That's the Spirit
of God has to set us apart. Unto obedience and the sprinkling
the blood of Jesus Christ graced unto you and peace be multiplied. Now we saw Sunday that you if
you want to use the preposition unto the obedience is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ because 1st Peter chapter 1st 1st John
chapter 3 makes that clear this commandment I give unto you that
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Oh God, we're gonna we're
gonna see that in just a moment but but that preposition also
is for or to and It's it's really speaking about the obedience
of Christ It's his obedience He's the only one that ever obeyed
God. He's the only one that ever kept the requirements of the
law. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for
a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. Life is full of manifold temptations.
Life is full of sorrow. Life is full of disappointments.
Life is full of death. Death is as much a part of life
as birth. And everything dies. Dreams die,
hopes die, marriages die. Pets die. People die. Everything is dying. You're dying
and I'm dying. And it won't be long before our
loved ones will be gathering together and having service for
us. manifold temptations now If your Purpose and hope in life
is bound up in something that's gonna die when it dies You're
gonna be without hope That's why that's why people
get that's why they they get so depressed and get so upset
when when things die and You know, all their hopes were in that.
Now it's gone. But if our hope is in Christ,
He's conquered death. He's ascended into glory. Christ
who is our life, Colossians chapter 3 verse 4. He never dies. these manifold temptations are
necessary. Why? Look what it says. That
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold
that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Now God calls faith precious. Now what that means is, you can't
just decide you're gonna have faith. Faith is not your contribution
to God. Get that straight. You're not
going to redeem yourself by making a decision to believe. Faith
is a gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. We're completely dependent upon
God for faith. Lord, make me to believe. Open
the eyes of my understanding. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye are from the Lord. You're not going to see the gospel.
You're not going to hear the voice of God. You're not going
to believe the truth unless God gives you saving faith. And everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for, God gives them faith. Aren't you thankful for that?
And God says that faith, because you can't buy it, because you
can't deserve it, because you can't decide on it, it's precious. It's priceless. Are the things
that God says are priceless, the redemption of the soul, the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith, are those things Precious
to you are they precious to me? You know we invest so much time
and energy in so many things that are dying These things never
die You'll never lose this if God's given you faith you'll
always have faith You cannot not believe Once the Lord makes
you to be a believer No, what what man talks you into another
man can talk you out of what God talks you into. Nobody can
talk you out of what God convinces you of. You know, it's true. The Lord keeps us from falling,
doesn't he? He presents us faultless. Once
you become a believer, you can never, ever be an unbeliever
ever. It's a work of grace in the heart. It's called the new birth. And God says, it's precious. It's precious. You say, well,
what is faith? It's believing God. Did y'all
watch the Macy's Day Parade Sunday? Last Thursday? Was that last
Thursday? Yeah. The Thanksgiving Day Parade. We usually have that on in our
home on Thanksgiving Day. And I noticed behind the grandstands
where all the floats came through, they had on the side of Macy's
in large letters, I mean like two story size letters, the word
believe. Believe. And I thought, believe
what? Believe what? You know people
think, well if I just believe, No, it's not. It's the object
of your faith. It's the substance of what you
believe. What do we believe? We believe
that our God is sovereign. We believe that he has the sovereign
right to elect his people according to his own will and purpose.
And he can have mercy upon whom he has mercy, and whom he will,
he hardens. Oh, we believe that. We believe
that we're sinners. We believe that we are spiritually
dead in our trespasses and sins, completely dependent upon God
to give us new life, that we cannot do anything to redeem
ourselves or atone for our own sins. We believe that what the
Lord Jesus Christ did was successful. We don't believe that he loves
everybody and is trying to get everybody saved and he's in the
heavens just begging men to let him have his way. We don't believe
that for a second. We believe that his shed blood,
which was precious, paid the redemption price for our sins.
We believe that grace is irresistible. We believe that God will make
us willing in the day of his power. And that when he does,
there's no, we don't believe that coming to Christ is a decision
or a choice. We believe that the only time
we come to Christ is when God shuts us up to Christ and takes
away every other choice. Got no choice. We believe that
we're just as dependent now on his grace to keep us and present
us faultless before his throne as we ever were before. And,
and, and we're dependent upon him. Oh Lord, be merciful upon
me. We, as you received Christ Jesus,
the Lord, so walk in him. How'd you receive him? You received
him as a mercy beggar and that's how we walk, isn't it? That's
how we walk. Faith is to believe God. Look at verse 8 in 1 Peter chapter
1. Whom having not seen you love
in whom though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now if our rejoicing
has something to do with something we do, It won't be unspeakable,
full of glory, rejoicing. It'll just be, it'll be feigned
rejoicing. It'll be pretended rejoicing.
It'll be religious, therapy, nothing. It won't be, won't be
based on the truth. But a gospel that's done, a gospel
that's accomplished. What does he say? Look at verse
nine. Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls. Now that's what it's all about.
The salvation of our souls is the end of our faith. God says
faith is precious. You can't buy it. You can't decide
on it. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter
1, quickly. 2 Peter chapter 1. What else does God say is precious
in His sight? The redemption of our souls,
the blood of Christ, faith, God says is precious. And the fourth
thing He tells us is precious is His word. His word. Look at verse four in 2 Peter
chapter one. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. For God to take his, James put
it like this, he says, of his own will, of God's own will,
begat he us, birthed us into his kingdom by the word of truth. Peter says this is the word which
by the gospel is preached unto you We're not talking about just
you know, taking the Bible and quoting it and memorizing scripture
we're talking about this this word this is the written word
and the purpose of the written word is to reveal the living
word and the living word is the Lord Jesus Christ himself and And so, God's Word is precious
to us. These are precious promises.
We didn't come to study the Word of God and discipline ourselves
to some sort of religious rites in order to be able to figure
it out. Truth comes by divine revelation. If God doesn't open
the eyes of our understanding, we spend our whole lives reading,
studying, memorizing this book and not understand a word of
it. Remember those disciples that were walking back to Emmaus
after the resurrection? And the Lord walks up alongside
of them and He says, you know, why are you so downcast? And
what did they say? Haven't you heard the one that
we thought was the prophet? The one that we thought was the
son of God, they've crucified him and killed him. All of our
hopes are dashed. And what the Lord say to them?
All fools and slow of heart to believe. Did not the scriptures
say that these things must be accomplished? And beginning with
Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, He expounded unto them
those things concerning Himself. And when they got to Emmaus,
they begged Him to come in. And He sat down at meat, and
they broke bread. And in the breaking of bread,
He gave thanks. And then He opened their eyes,
and they saw Him. And as soon as they saw Him,
He disappeared. We're not going to see Christ
unless He reveals Himself. And He reveals Himself in the
breaking of bread. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're saying, what does God say is precious? What's His
Word say? These are precious promises.
This is the Word of God given to us in order to reveal His
only begotten Son. What do we say? To every doctrine,
every truth, What is the question that we
ask? What saith the scriptures? What does God say about it? We're
not interested in tradition. We're not interested in ceremony.
We do not believe that God is still giving more revelation
to the church. We believe that everything we
need to know about Christ is confined to this book. And so
we just ask ourselves, what's God say? What's the scripture
say? And the scripture says, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine and for reproof and
for correction and for instruction in righteousness that the man
of God might be thoroughly furnished, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. We're furnished by the word of God to look to Christ. No scriptures given by private
interpretation. The promises of God are precious. When the Lord called Samuel in
1 Samuel chapter 3, the Bible says the word of the Lord was
precious in those days for there was no vision. It was rare. Amos, many years
later in Amos chapter 8, said that there was a famine in the
land, not a famine of food, nor of thirst for water, but a famine
of hearing the word of God. You know that's where we live
right now. Isn't this word of God precious to you? Why? Because you can't hear it anywhere
else. It's not in the world. It's not in religion. It's, this
is God's precious word revealing to us Christ. And just like Samuel,
we live in a day when the word of God is precious. There's no
open vision. There is a famine. 1 Peter chapter
2. Peter loves this word precious.
He used it many times. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2. Verse 4, to whom coming, that's
Christ, we're coming in faith to Christ, to whom coming as
unto a living stone. We're not hanging our hopes on
something that's going to die and losing our bearings because
it died. We're hanging our hopes on Christ. disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up to God
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is precious. He's precious to us. Now I hear
people say, well, you know, Christ is the most important thing in
my life. Turn to me to Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter
three. Verse one, if you then be risen
with Christ. Now what does that mean? That
means that when the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, those
for whom he lived and died rose with him. The hope of my salvation
is bound up in the precious one of, the precious one we just
read about, the Son of God, who satisfied the demands of the
law, shed his precious blood, to redeem our precious souls,
to give us faith, and rose from the dead. And if you be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth, for you are dead, and your life
is hid with God in Christ. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. He doesn't say Christ is the
most important thing in my life. Christ is my life. I've got no
life outside of Christ. He's precious to me. There's
a lot of things in my life that are precious to me. You know,
my family members, my children, grandchildren, those are precious
things to me. But, you know, they're all dying. And they're
not my life. Another person cannot be your
life. That person's dying. But Christ, who is my life, when
he shall appear, We shall appear with Him in glory. Psalm 116, verse 15. The redemption
of our souls is precious in the sight of God. Is that precious
to you? Is it precious to you because it's redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ? Is it precious to you because
you were dependent upon God to give you the gift of faith? Is
it precious to you because it was revealed by the Holy Spirit
through His precious promises? Showing to you the glory of Christ
and what it is He accomplished? Is Christ Himself your life?
If He is, then God says, precious. In the eyes of the Lord is the
death of his saints. The death of his saints. Precious
in his eyes. It's precious in our eyes, isn't
it? Now I hear people say all the time, well, you know, I'm
not afraid to die. People don't believe the gospel. People who
are worshipping a false god and have a false gospel and trusting
in their own works. Isaiah put it like this in Isaiah
chapter 28. We have made a covenant with
God and with hell we are in agreement. We're not going to hell because
we've made promises to God. That's what Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 28. When the overflowing scourge shall come, what is the
overflowing scourge? That's death. When death shall
come, it shall not come unto us. Why? Because we made a covenant with
God. We're trusting in the promises that we have made with God for
the hope of our salvation. You read it, Isaiah chapter 28.
And God says, I will disannul the covenant that you have made. and your agreement with hell
shall not stand. And when the overflowing scourge
shall come, it will overcome you. Now, what's the difference? Why is the death of one of God's
saints precious in his sight? Because the hope of their salvation
is not based on a covenant that they made with God. It's based
on a covenant that God made with them. You see, the Bible says
all men are liars. You've never kept any of your
promises to God. You haven't. And God's kept every
one of his. If the hope of our salvation
is hanging on a promise that we made to God, God says, I'll
disannul that covenant. But if the hope of our salvation,
David said, Although my house be not so with God, yet he has
made with me an everlasting covenant. That covenant was ordered in
all things and sure. Sure. God the Father promised
to give to the son a bride. and He chose and elect people
according to His own will and purpose before time ever began. The Lord Jesus Christ entered
into that covenant with the Father before time ever started, before
Adam was ever created, before the worlds came into existence.
God the Son promised to the Father to redeem them. I'll be their
surety. I'll redeem them. I'll shed my
precious blood in order to satisfy the demands of your justice.
And I'll go and fulfill the requirements of the law." The Holy Spirit
entered into that covenant. Listen, this is before the angels
were made. This is before the world was
created. This is before Adam ever came into the world. The
Holy Spirit entered into that covenant promise with God the
Father and God the Son and said, I'll go and I'll open the eyes
of their understanding and I'll make them willing. I'll give
them faith. And I'll use the word of God
to reveal Christ to them. Now, that's a covenant that I
can hang my soul on. Because God never tells a lie.
The Lord said, I am the Lord and I change not. We worship
an immutable God. He doesn't have a plan B. He's
not coming up with another idea. He settled everything before
time ever started. It's impossible for our God to
lie. Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of one of his Saints. Why? Because he made them Saints
We don't we don't make men Saints God makes them so God sets them
apart and Every one of his children everyone that he chose everyone
that Christ died for God calls them Saints. I And they're precious
in His sight. I want to value the things that
God values, don't you? I want to consider. And that's
what He said. There it is, right there. Right there. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word and we ask that You would give to Your children
faith to believe You. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 272. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but holy lean on Jesus name. Let's stand together. Brother
Tom, please. Number 272. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely
face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood
supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. Thank you very much.