Good evening. It is so good to
be here. Let's open up our service tonight. 442, number 442. Praise him, praise
him. If you could please stand, number
442. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing o'er His wonderful love
proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor, give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms, He carries them
all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him! Hail Him! Jesus the crucified, sound His
praises. Jesus who bore our sorrows, love
unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong. Praise Him, praise Him,
tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heav'nly portals loud would Hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown him, crown him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. You can be seated, please. And the number of them was 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud
voice, worthy is the Lamb. that was slain to receive power
and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory. All praise goes to him. I'm thankful
that we're able to join our voices with that heavenly host offered
praises to our God. I'd like for us to read Psalm
51 for our scripture reading tonight. At least a couple of times a
year, we should revisit this psalm. I visit it often, but
in worship. Salvation in our experience begins
with being made a sinner. Being made a sinner is the result
of seeing Christ for who He is. And David is lamenting his sin
before God. This is every believer's heart.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin Did my mother conceive me? Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me,
thou shalt make me to know wisdom." That's a work of grace in the
heart, isn't it? How does he make us to know wisdom?
Christ is our wisdom. He reveals Christ to us. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold
me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver
me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open
thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou
desirest not sacrifice, else I would give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise. That's because he gives it to
us. He creates that spirit within
us. Do good in thy good pleasure
unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then shall they
offer bullocks upon thine altar. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would create this spirit of contrition, this
spirit of repentance in our hearts, that you would cause us to have
a broken spirit and contrite heart before thee, and then that
you would cleanse us with hyssop. Lord, make us whiter than snow. We pray that the precious and
powerful blood of the Lord Jesus Christ would be the effectual
cause of our cleansing before the Lord that you would create
faith in our hearts, enabling us to rest in his accomplished
finished work of redemption and rejoice in him. We thank you for your church.
We thank you, Lord, for the way that you knit our hearts together
in the love of Christ. We pray that you would grow us
together in your grace. We pray for little Gabriel Kai,
and we ask, Lord, that you even now would have your hand upon
him, that you would heal him, protect him, keep him, and that
you would cause him, Lord, to have ears to hear the gospel.
Eyes to see Christ, for it's in his name we pray. Amen. I think everybody has a blue
handout, correct? Everybody have one? Okay. If
you could all please stand. We're going to sing, fittingly
so, number 10, Deeper Than Distain. So that's what we're going to
sing, number 10. We're going to sing it a cappella. Dark disdain that soiled man's
nature Long the distance that he fell Far removed from hope
and heaven into deep despair and hell. But there was a fountain
open, and the blood of God's own Son purified the soul and
reached it. Deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for His salvation. God still reigns upon His throne. And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Conscious of the deep pollution,
sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear to face the light, this the blessed consolation. that can melt the heart of stone. That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
deeper than disdain has gone. Praise the Lord for his salvation. God still reigns upon his throne. And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. All unworthy we who've wandered
And our eyes are wet with tears As we think of love that sought
us Through the weary wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway
Walking by God's grace alone Knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for His salvation. God still reigns upon Israel. And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. When with holy choirs we're standing,
in the presence of the King. And our souls are lost in wonder
while the white robe choirs sing. Then we'll pray the name of Jesus
With a million around the throne Praise Him for the power that
reaches Deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for His salvation. God still reigns upon His throne. And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone. I'm thankful for that, aren't you? Turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah chapter 8. Savannah and Gabriel will be
going home in the morning. They kept him just for observation. I guess everybody here already
knows that. But maybe there's somebody watching
that doesn't. So Brian, congratulations. Star, congratulations. We're
so happy for y'all. First grandbaby. Man left to himself. will do
everything in his power to try to save himself until the Holy
Spirit convicts him of his sin. And then he knows he's got a
problem he can't solve. Can't buy himself out of it.
Can't will himself out of it. Can't work himself out of it.
No amount of money and no amount of time will solve this problem. He's brought under conviction
of sin. And the only solution to that
problem is Christ. The glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is his only hope. It's his only hope. Verse 20 in chapter 8, we saw
Sunday, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them. God uses his word to bring his
people under conviction of their sin. Of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. His Word is a light into our
path. It's a lamp into our feet. It reveals the intents of our
hearts. It wasn't until the Word of God
came with power that Paul said, when the law came, sin revived
and I died. He didn't mean just the Mosaic
law, the Ten Commandments. He meant the Word of God. brought
conviction upon his soul and left him hopeless, helpless,
killed him. Man's got to be put to death
before he can be made alive. The natural man thinks he's already
alive. He's got to be made a sinner before he can be made a savior,
before he can be saved. He's got to be lost before he
can be found. And God will use his word to
accomplish that mean, that end. And so in the next verse, it
says, and they shall pass through it, through what? Through his
word. They're going to hear, they're going to hear the gospel.
They're going to hear something of, of God's holiness, God's
justice. They're going to know that there
is a God with whom they must do from his word. They shall
pass through it. Hardly bested. That means stiff
necked. stiff-necked yet hungry. They're going to know that there's
got to be more to life than what I've got. There's got to be more
hope than what I see in this world. It's amazing to me how
the natural man lives his life for the things of this world. I was listening to a young couple
the other day, and they weren't even 30 years old, and they were
talking about, and they'd just gotten their first dream home,
and they were talking about how long they had waited, and how
hard they had worked, and how many trials and tribulations
they had been through, and now they finally got there. They're
still in their 20s. And I'm thinking, you know, that's
the perspective that people have. It's like, you know, a day is
a thousand years to them. It's like it's never going to
end. When you fall under the conviction
of the Holy Spirit, you become hungry for more than this world
can possibly offer. And it shall come to pass that
when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves What am
I going to do? I'm starving. I'm dying. I'm lost. I'm condemned. I'm hellbound. If God gives me
what I deserve, I'm going to hell. What am I going to do?
This is prevenient grace. This is grace before grace. This
is the work of the Holy Spirit given to God's people a broken
and contrite heart so that they're able to see vanity of vanities
all really is vanity. I cannot put my hope in the things
of this world. I've got to have more. I've tried. eating the dainties,
as the scripture calls them, of this world. And they are husk
that the swine do eat. They don't satisfy. They shall
fret themselves and curse their king. Who's their king? They're their
king. Man has set himself up on the throne of God. He's going
to say, I can't save myself. And the God that I have, the
God of this world is not able to provide for me. And they will
look upward. They will look upward. And they shall look unto the
earth. And behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish,
and they shall be driven to darkness. Have you had this experience? Now, I'm very reluctant to use
the word feeling to talk about the conviction of sin for this
reason. We're all made up differently as far as our emotional makeup
is concerned. Some people feel things more
deeply than other people feel things. Nevertheless, when God
leaves you with your sin, and that's all you've got, there's
a feeling of dread. There's a feeling of conviction. There's a feeling of hopelessness. Lord, what am I going to do?
How am I going to solve this problem? I look to the earth, there's
no answer. I look to my God, there's no answer. I look to
myself, there's no answer. And I'm driven to darkness. That's the contrite heart. That's the broken spirit. That's
what David was saying. My sin is ever before me. I cannot escape it. I can't stop
sinning. Sin is so... I'm a slave to it. I'm a slave to it. Everything
I do, my sin is in it. I can't pray a prayer. I can't
make a decision without my sin being involved in it. What am
I going to do? Nevertheless Aren't you glad
for that? Aren't you glad for the nevertheless?
Here's our hope God's not gonna leave you there He'll let you
walk through the valley of the shadow of death for a moment
But then he's gonna then he's gonna show you the light of the
gospel And so he says nevertheless Now I want you to see what these
next two verses are talking about, and we're not going to go to
the passages in the Chronicles and in the Kings that describe
these events, but just know you can look them up. These are wars
that Israel and Judah had against Syria and against the Assyrians,
and they were bloodbaths. bloodbaths. I mean hundreds of
thousands of people were killed in these battles. Doesn't get
much worse than this. And look what the Lord says,
The dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when
at first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali, and afterwards did more grievously affect her by
the way of the sea, beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations." In
other words, what the Lord is saying is, turn with me to Matthew
chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. The Lord quotes this passage from
Isaiah chapter 9 in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 12, Matthew chapter
4 verse 12. Now when Jesus had heard that
John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. He went to that place where People
were backwards, poor, uneducated. They didn't have anything. They
didn't know much. They couldn't do anything for
themselves. The Lord was in Jerusalem, where all the high and mighty
Pharisees were, and now he forsakes them after the death of John
the Baptist and goes to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came
and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast in the
borders of Zebulon and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulon and
the land of Naphtali Nephilim by the way of the sea beyond
Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sat in darkness
Saw a great light and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death light is sprung up So here we have in Matthew chapter
4 a direct quote of the passage that we're looking at in Isaiah
chapter 9 and in the first verse He says, nevertheless, the anguish
that they're going to experience. It's not gonna be like the anguish
of those battles. The people that, verse two, the
people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They
that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them half
the light shined. Thou hast multitude, I'm sorry,
thou hast multiplied the nation. And if you look in the margin
of your Bible, the word not there really is the word to him. And
so he's saying, thou hast multiplied the nation, and to him increased
the joy, thy joy before thee according to the joy in harvest,
and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Now, he says
this conviction of sin in verse one is not going to be like the
trouble that you experienced when you went to war. It's going
to be different. How often times we have seen
a person become interested in the things of God when they are
in trouble, when they're going through a problem. And generally
speaking, that which is born in the storm will die in the
calm. So that when that trouble is
over, they'd have no more need for God. That's what the Lord
is saying in verse 1. The most profane soldier will
pray when he's in a foxhole, won't he? Men will reach out to God when
they're in trouble. And that's what he's saying here.
That when the conviction of sin comes, it won't be like your
other troubles. Those other troubles, you know,
when you go to war, there's something you can do in war. You can fight. You can hide. You can run. There
are things that you can do in the midst of a war. And so the
Lord's saying the darkness that you're going to experience in
the conviction of your sin is different even from the horrors
of war. You can change your circumstances
when you're in the midst of trouble. There's some contribution you
can make when you're having problems in your life. You can work harder. You can get another job. You
can make up with folks. But when you come under the conviction
of the Holy Spirit for your sin, you'll come to realize, there's
nothing I can do. There's no contribution. I can't
run. I can't hide. I can't fight. I've got a problem
here that money nor time will never solve. It'll never solve
it. That's when you know. This thing
about feeling, that's when you know that you've come by the
Holy Spirit under conviction of sin. That you've got a problem. that no amount of time and no
amount of money and no amount of works and no degree of will
or anything else that you do can fix it. I've got a problem
with God and coming under conviction of
sin is taking sides with God against yourself. Lord, if you give me what I deserve,
I'll go to hell. There's no justification for
my sin and there's no fixing it. I am in need of a Savior. I'm in need of one who's able
to stand in my stead before you and present himself on my behalf.
One who is not a sinner. one who's righteous, one who
is holy. Lord, I've got a stain. I've
got a stain that's gone so deep, nothing will reach it except
for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the people walked in darkness But they've seen a great light.
And the Lord quotes this, as we just read in Matthew chapter
4. So this great light has come to a place where men walked in
darkness. They had no hope. These Galileans,
there was no hope for them to be saved. If the Lord didn't
come to them, they would have no hope of having their sin put
away. But he did come to them. And a great light shined in the
darkness. The darkness comprehended it
not, but to as many as received Him, to them God gave the power
to become the sons of God. And there's great joy. There's
great joy. Lord, my sin's been put away. My sin's been forgiven. My sin's
been separated from me as far as the east is from the west.
Guilt is such a powerful emotion and feeling, isn't it? It's such
a, what am I going to do? See, this guilt that God put
you under is not a permanent thing. It's a temporary thing. It caused you to see your need
for Christ. And then in coming to him, what does he say? Thou
hast multiplied the nation, and to him you have increased his
joy. They joy before thee according
to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide
the spoil. Oh, the harvest has come in.
The first fruits have been harvested and everything necessary for
the feeding of my soul. My hunger has been satisfied.
I'm satisfied with Christ. That's how I know my hunger's
been satisfied. I'm satisfied with what God's satisfied with.
The Lord said, if you drink of the water of this well, you'll
never thirst again. And what'd that woman at the
well say? Give me to drink, Lord. She was still thinking physical
water. She thought, well, I won't have to come back to this well.
And what the Lord was saying there to you and me is that once
you drink of the water of life, you'll never go anywhere else
to quench your thirst. You'll never go to your will.
You'll never go to the world. You'll never go to the works.
You won't go anywhere else to solve your sin problem once you
drink of the fountain of living water. And you'll rejoice like those
who rejoice in the dividing of the spoil. Isaiah chapter 54,
he divided the spoil, didn't he? He got the victory. And he's taken to himself his
people. Verse 4. Thou hast broken the
yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder. The rod of his
oppressor is as in the day of Midian." And Midian was defeated. That was the nation that, you
remember when Gideon went against the Midianites with his 300 men
and routed them and destroyed them? That's what the Lord's
using now as an illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Gideon. And he went up against a great
army and defeated them. And now he's saying you're going
to divide the spoil. You remember they were the ones,
Gideon was, when the Lord spoke to Gideon, remember where he
was? He was down inside a wine press hiding out. Why? Because
Israel was being oppressed by the Midianites. There's a picture
of our sin. The staff of sin has been broken. It's been put away. God's holiness
has been satisfied. There is now Therefore, no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. No guilt. No penalty. For every, verse five, for every
battle of the warrior is with confused noise. Though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. They are mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. So what the Lord is now comparing,
you want to fight sin, don't fight it with the flesh. Don't
fight sin with the flesh. With every battle of the warrior
there is confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but this battle
shall be fought with the fuel of fire. Who is the fuel of fire? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He's that sacrifice that was
put upon the altar. And when he hung on Calvary's
cross, the full fury of God's wrath fell from heaven. And just
like the offer that Elijah made on
Mount Carmel, you remember when he put all that water on the
altar and the fire of God fell from heaven? The God who answereth
by fire, he will be our God. And Elijah's got answered by
fire, and the sacrifice was burnt, and the sacrifice quenched the
fire. There's no more fire. No more
wrath. There's no more judgment. There's
only peace. There's only hope. There's only
joy. This conviction of sin is for
the purpose of causing us to see the need for our Savior
and to reveal Him to our hearts. The warfare is accomplished. You go to battle, it's going
to be a lot of blood and guts. We do it every day, don't we?
Try to fight flesh with flesh. It doesn't work, does it? It
doesn't work. Yet we don't learn our lesson.
We go back to thinking, okay, I can conquer this. No, you can't. But this shall be with burning
and fuel of fire for unto us. Unto us a child is born. It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren. What did those angels say? Fear
not. Fear not. For I have come to bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto
you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord." Oh, a child has been born. Not like any other child. He didn't bring into this world
and into his flesh the sin of his father Adam. He was born,
conceived of the Holy Spirit without sin. in order to bear
the sins of his people and satisfy the demands of God's justice
on Calvary's cross. And so the Lord's saying, here's
your hope. I know I brought you under conviction. I know I left
you without hope. I know you looked to the earth
and you looked to the sky and you looked to your God and you
looked to the scriptures and you couldn't find any hope. And
then I showed you. This battle has been fought with
fire. Fire of God's wrath fell from
heaven, killed the sacrifice, satisfied
all of God's demands, put away your sin once and for all by
the sacrifice of himself. A child has been born. And in
him is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete
in him. Child has been born. A son has
been given. You see, there was a particular
time in which the child was born, but there was no time when the
Lord Jesus Christ wasn't the son of God. He's the eternal
son of God. A son has been given. This is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. I looked up all the references
in the scriptures where the Son of God is mentioned and it was
interesting to find that the first one is in Daniel chapter
four. You remember when the three Hebrew
children were thrown into the fiery furnace and the king came
and he said, he said, I see four men walking and they're not burned
up. They're not hurt. And the fourth,
the fourth, is fashioned unto like the Son of God. It's because
He was a Son of God. He walked through the fire with
them and they weren't burned. And here's what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for us. He's walked through the fire.
Remember they came out of that furnace and the scripture says
not a hair on their head was singed and their clothes weren't
burned and there was not even the smell of smoke on them. What
if the fire of God's wrath can't touch us? It can't touch us. It's touched Him. A son has been given, for God
so loved the world. That's us, us worldlings, that
He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For unto you a child is
born, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulders. Which government? All governments. All governments. And whoever
our next president is, is going to be the best thing that we
could have. It is. I don't care who it is. You pick the worst one, it's
going to be the best. I know the thoughts that I have
for you. thoughts of good and not for evil that I could bring
you to an expected end and you know that all things work together
for good for them who love God and those who are called according
to his purpose. What everything that God does in this world is
good and best for us in the daily microcosm of your
life and in the big events of national history, it's all good. It's all good. Bow to his goodness
and rejoice in his goodness. The government is upon his shoulder. He raises up kings and sets them
down. And whoever is in office, he
will be the decider of that. Not you and me. God will be. I rejoice in that. I take such
hope and comfort in that. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he hath done whatsoever he
wills with the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth, and no man can say unto him, what doest thou? We've got a God that's doing
everything for the salvation of His people. And it's all good. It's all good. That's why the
scripture says, Be thankful in all things, for all things are
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Do you believe
that? If you don't believe that, then
your God is not God. Your God is not reigning sovereign
over His creation. Your God is somehow subject to
the whims and will of man. The God we worship is not. He's controlling every man and
every nation. And the scripture says that the
nations, the nations are a drop in the bucket to him. And that
includes the United States of America. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. His shoulders are broad. He's
the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. He's
the Lord of Hosts and the Most High God. The government is upon
his shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful. I always cringe when I hear someone
speak of God as being awesome. If you're going to use awe to
describe our God, don't say that He's all some. He's all full. He's full of all. He doesn't
just have some all. He's full of it. And He's full of wonder. That's what this word is. He
is full of wonder. David said in Psalm 139, he said,
such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot
attain it. What knowledge? He knows my thoughts
before I think them. He goes before me and he's behind
me. In the words that I speak before
I speak them, he knows what they are. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. Your God is a child that was
born, a son that was given, the government's upon his shoulder,
and his name is full of wonder. Oh, we just stand in wonder. Thy testimonies are wonderful. Psalm 119, speaking of the scriptures. Psalm 111, he hath made his works
wonderful. His works are full of wonder.
The work of redemption, the work of justification, the work of
salvation, the work of election, all his works are filled with
wonder. And so we stand before our God
in awe, in praise, and in wonder of His person as the God-man,
His nature as the Christ, the perfection of His work, His incarnation,
His birth, His life, His labors, His death, His resurrection,
His ascension. Everything about Him is full
of wonder. His name shall be called Wonderful. counselor. Is he your counselor? His love is full of wonder, his
mercy, his salvation, our union with Christ. How can we describe
these things? How can we enter into the understanding
them? We believe them, we rejoice in
them. Is he your counselor? Every once in a while I hear
of a person who's professing to be a believer go to a secular
counselor and I think, what could an unbeliever do to help a believer? We have a counselor and he's able. In him, are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him. He will lead
us into all truth for God has made him to be unto us wisdom. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He's our counselor. So when we're
When we're brought under conviction of sin, we remember a child,
a sinless child was born. A son was given. The government is upon His shoulder. The governments of this world
and the spiritual government of the Kingdom of God is upon
His shoulder. And His name is wonderful. He's the one who counsels us
in all our needs. He is the mighty God. He's the mighty God. He's omnipotent. He possesses all power. He sits
on the highest throne of all the universe. He's not threatened
by anything. He's controlling everything. He's called the everlasting Father. You've seen me, you've seen the
Father, for I and the Father are one. All the nature of God
is bound up in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in
the person of the Holy Spirit, as it is in the person of God
the Father. A mystery too wonderful to be
understood, but one to be believed, and one that is believed by the
people of God. And so he's called an everlasting
father. He's everlasting in all things. Remember now, everlasting doesn't
mean it starts here and lasts forever. That's not what everlasting
means. Everlasting means that it's everlasting. Didn't have a beginning, doesn't
have an end. How are you going to understand
that? And so when the scripture speaks
of everlasting life, he's not talking about a spiritual life
that began at some moment in time in your life and lasts forever.
It's talking about your life in Christ, who is the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, the everlasting Father,
the everlasting God. And most of the time that everlasting
is used in the Old Testament, it's used in reference to the
everlasting covenant. The covenant of grace is an everlasting
covenant. It never had a beginning. There
was never a time that God didn't already have his people chosen
in Christ, in the covenant of grace, in the last book of life.
Never was there a time. God didn't wake up one day and
say, well, I'm going to, I'm going to start something new.
God's never had a new thought. God's never had a plan B. God
is everlasting and so everything he does is everlasting. Isn't
that glorious? So it's not dependent or contingent
on anything that we do. God has established everything
from everlasting to everlasting. Why would we Why do we fight
against Him? Why do we resist His will? He's going to have it His way. Exodus chapter 40, the scripture
speaks of an everlasting priesthood. The Lord Jesus Christ has always
interceded on behalf of his people. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth endureth to all generations. In Psalm 119 verse 142, the scripture
says, thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. And in Ezekiel, Jeremiah says
that he has loved us with an everlasting love. Never a time
when God didn't love his people. You didn't fall into love with
God. He didn't fall in love with you when you fell in love with
him. We love him. because He first loved us. Herein is love, not that we love
God. That's not how you measure love,
but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The Scripture speaks of the Word
of God being everlasting, the Kingdom of God being an everlasting
gospel, and in Revelation chapter 14, The scripture speaks of the
gospel of God's grace being an everlasting gospel. Never a time
when there wasn't the good news that your sin has been put away. Purpose of conviction. Purpose of leaving us without
hope, without any place else to go. Look to the world, look
to the earth, look to the sky, look to man, look everywhere
that we can look to try to find help. And there's no one to help. I've got a problem that my will
won't fix. My works can't make up for them. My wealth can't supply enough. I need a Savior. Unto you. Unto you. A child is born. Unto us a Son
is given. He is the Prince of Peace. Peace with God? See, when you're
convicted for your sin, you don't have peace. You don't want peace. I need the sin to be taken away. Christ is the Prince of Peace. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. His precious blood covers our
sins so that God says, I remember them no more. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're, we're thankful for the ministry of your Holy Spirit.
It causes us to say with our brother Job, behold, behold,
Lord, I see something I've never seen before. I am vile. My sin is ever before me. Oh
Lord, cleanse us with hyssop. Wash us and we shall be made
whiter than snow. Then and only then we'll be able
to make sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to you. Thank
you for your son. For his successful work of redemption. We ask it all in his name. Amen. 17, let's stand together, number
17. Come thou fount of every blessing,
do my heart to sing thy grace. Strings of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Jesus saw me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Thank you.