I'd like for us to read tonight
from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, John chapter
1. For our scripture reading tonight,
a very familiar passage, but also encouraging and so enlightening
as to who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's done. It's good
to have Don and Mary Williams with us from Lexington. And we'll
greet the rest of our brethren that are online watching from
Lexington. I understand you're all not having
services up there tonight. And I don't know about Fairmont. They may have canceled their
services. I'm not sure. So if you think it's cold here,
it's really cold up there. John chapter 1 in verse 1, In
the beginning, when time began, the Word was. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
of course, is being referred to here as the Word of God. The
very express image of His person. the brightness of His glory.
The same was in the beginning with God, and all things were
made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made. He's the creator and sustainer of all of life, both physical
and spiritual. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. Couldn't understand it. Didn't know that he was the Son
of God. Skip down with me to verse 10.
He was in the world, and though the world was made by him, the
world knew him not. He came into his own Jewish nation. His own received
him not. Didn't fit into their religion
of rules and regulations. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Now, don't think
that they got power to become the sons of God because they
received Him. They received Him because God gave them power to
be the sons of God. You'll see that in the next verse.
Look, even to them that believe on His name which were born.
They had to be born by the power of God, not of blood, nor of
the will of man, the will of flesh, or the will of man, but
born of God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before Thy throne of grace, thanking Thee for the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness, our advocate,
our sin-bearer, our substitute, and all our satisfaction before
Thee. We ask, Lord, that You would
send Your Holy Spirit and power to enlighten the eyes of understanding,
to cause Christ to be lifted up in our hearts, that you would
enable us to worship Him, that He would be preeminent in all
things, in our minds and hearts, even as He is in truth. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. One day, sin with all its follies, all its pleasures, all its pomp
and all its pride, will be rid of. Now we desire Him, and we
pray that He would be pleased to speak to our hearts tonight.
If you have your Bibles, would you open them with me to Hebrews
chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. I've entitled
this message, God Has Spoken. God Has Spoken. We just read
in John chapter 1 that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the Word
of God. God has spoken. Scripture says
God in verse 1 who at sundry times and in divers manner spake
in times past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. I want to hear the voice of God,
don't you? I want God to speak to me. I want him to make himself
known to me. I want to be able to say with
David in Psalm 119 verse 93 I shall never forget thy word for by
it thou hast quickened me. James put it like this he said
of his own will. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth but of God's own will of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. If the Lord speaks he'll
speak life as we just read he is the life in him is light if
he's pleased to make himself known then the light will shine
in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and we
will hear the voice of God and I'm gonna hopefully we'll see
in these verses how it is we know when we've heard It's not
an audible voice, it's not something that we look for in an experience. We saw last Sunday that Thomas'
problem was that he held experience entirely too high, didn't he?
He wanted to thrust his fingers into the nail prints and his
hand into the side of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did the
centurion say? I'm not worthy that thou should
come unto my root, but only speak the word, and my servant shall
be healed." If God would just speak to us and make himself
known to us, God has spoken. He has spoken. Now the word,
the world, I'm sorry, is full of voices. A lot of people speaking
a lot of stuff. The poets are speaking The politicians
are speaking. The philosophers are speaking. There's plenty of preachers speaking.
The educators are speaking. Everybody's speaking what men
hope to be words of truth and words of life. And here in our
text, God says that He has spoken. Oh, how can we overestimate the
glory of this statement? Who is it that speaks none less
than God? God has spoken. Now, there's no way I'm going
to prove that to you. He's going to have to speak to each one
of us to convince us that this is His voice. Every religion
of the world claims to have the Word of God. The radical Muslims
that are causing so much trouble in the world will cry, Allah
akbar, praise to God, praise to Allah. They believe they have
the word of God, don't they? They really do. They're very
sincere about it. I mean, they'll die for it. And the Mormons think that, you
know, God spoke to Joseph Smith, and every religious group has
their text, their scripture that they believe to be the Word of
God. And in that regard, we're no different. Except that this
is the Word of God. There's no doubt in my mind about
it. You say, well, there's no doubt in their mind about it
either, so that doesn't make it true. The Lord makes it true to your
heart, you'll know that God has spoken. The world is full of
advisers, isn't it? The scripture says of the writing
of books, there is no end and much study wearies the soul.
We can read the words of men and try to find some direction
for life. The bookstores are full of self-help
books. But here we hear that God has
spoken. And when God speaks, all those
other voices are what I suffer with, with my tinnitus. One of
the reasons I don't hear too well is because I have a ringing
in my ear all the time. And it's annoying. and it keeps
me from being able to hear other people's voices. And that's the
noise of this world, isn't it? It's just a ringing in the ear.
Oh, that the Lord would quiet that noise and enable us to hear
the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. God has spoken. You see that? Who? God. Who at sundry times, the world
is full of Dr. sounding brasses and Dr. tinkling cymbals. There's one on every corner.
You flip through the channels, there's talking heads on every
channel of the TV. And everybody's got an opinion
and we know what those are worth. Here the Lord says, God hath
spoken. Now I want to know what God has
to say. If this is the Word of God, I want to know what He has
to say. The second question I want to
ask in light of these verses is, how many ways has God spoken? How many ways has God spoken?
God who at sundry times and in divers manners and many different
times and in many different ways has spoken. He's spoken through
creation. The heavens declare His glory.
You can't look at the created order of things and not conclude
that there is a Creator. There's nothing that was made
without Him. We just read that in John chapter 1. And anybody
that denies that is just a fool. The fool has said in his heart,
no God. No God. Anybody with any sense
at all can look and see that that God has declared His glory
through the created order. From the microscopic to the telescopic,
everything in creation, if we could see it, would be a commentary
on the gospel. Everything in creation. God has spoken He spoke audibly
to Adam. He walked with Adam in the cool
of the garden, in the cool of the day, through the garden and
spoke with Adam. He met with Abraham, spoke directly
to Abraham. He spoke audibly to Moses at
the burning bush. He spoke to Jacob and Isaac and
Joseph and recorded the words that he spoke to these, our fathers,
in the scriptures so that we have confidence in knowing that
these words are not by private interpretation but holy men of
God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's the
only hope I have. I've got no place else to go.
The shadows of the ceremonial law God spoke in divers manners
and in sundry ways in all sorts of ways through the sacrificial
system God was speaking through the ceremonies of the Old Testament
through tabernacle worship through signs and wonders in divers manners
and in sundry times in many different ways God spoke and the glory
of this is that there's no contradiction between the many different times
and many different ways in which he spoke Because every time God
spoke, He was making a promise to His people to send the Messiah,
the Savior, the sin-bearer. And though the prophets of the
Old Testament may not have fully understood what they wrote, any
more than we can fully comprehend the things that are going to
happen in the second glorious coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and in our ascension into glory. We just can't comprehend it,
Ken, but we believe it. We know it's to be. We know it's
so. But when we experience it, we're
going to think, I couldn't have imagined that. Couldn't have
imagined that. And so the prophets, even though
God inspired them and they wrote, they knew that there was a Messiah
that God would send to save all of Israel. The particulars as
to how that was going to be fulfilled was a mystery for them. All the methods and all the means
that God employed in the Old Testament was for one purpose,
to say to His people, be of hope, be of good cheer. There is a
Messiah. Not one of my children is going
to be lost. God who at sundry times and in
divers manners, who speaks? God speaks. When did he speak?
Many different ways and many different times. When did he
speak? He spoke in times past. Speaking of the first dispensation
of time, I know that there's people in religious circles that
like to speak of the dispensations of scripture. In fact, there's
just two. There's the old covenant and
the new. There's the first dispensation of time and the second dispensation
of time. And the first one is called time
past and the second one is called latter days. And you and I are
living in those latter days right now. The latter days started
when the Lord Jesus Christ came and brought the Reformation.
The only time Reformation is spoken of is when the Lord Jesus
Christ came and reformed that old time past to the new covenant
time in the latter days. The revelation in times past
was progressive. It was rare. Men went generations
without God speaking. When the Lord Jesus Christ broke
onto the scene of humanity through his incarnation, Israel had gone
400 years without God speaking. 400 years the Lord hadn't spoken. and generation after generation
they were like the man at the pool of Bethesda waiting for
the angel to come and stir the waters waiting for God to speak
and now the Lord's telling us God has spoken he spoke in times
past in many different ways and in many different times through
many different means all for the purpose of making the promise
of the Messiah a message of hope for his people And now in these
last days, look what he says. Let me ask a couple more questions.
Who did he speak to? Who did God speak to? He spoke
to our fathers. He didn't speak to everybody.
He didn't speak to the Romans. The Romans had their emperor,
king, and gods. They had their Caesar gods. The
Greeks had their mythological gods. The Egyptians had their
sun god and river god. And the barbarians danced around
trees and fires and worshipped nature. Why did they do that? Why did they do that? Because
God didn't speak to them. He left them to themselves. And
they worshipped the God that they imagined to exist. Why? Because God did not speak to
them and nothing has changed today. If God doesn't speak to
you and if he doesn't speak to me, we will dance around fires,
worship the sun and the rivers. We'll worship Zeus. Oh, we may
change his name. We may change the name of Zeus
to Jesus, but in fact he's just as impotent as the mythological
gods of Greece were. God spoke to our fathers. Oh,
I want to be a child of that father, don't you? I want to
be a child of Abraham. The Jews said, well, we're children
of Abraham. Well, the Lord said, if you were
children of Abraham, you'd believe me. Abraham heard my voice, Abraham
believed me. I tell you that God's able to
raise up from these stones children to Abraham, and that's exactly
what he does. When he calls out his children
today, he takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart
of flesh, and he calls up from the very stones of the earth
children unto Abraham. gives them life. God. Who spoke? God spoke. When? How? At sundry times and in divers
manners. When? In times past. In the old dispensation. In many different means and methods
God used. Who did He speak to? He spoke
to our fathers. He spoke to our father. Our father
versus their father. the Jews that the Lord spoke
to thought that they were the children of Abraham and they
said we're children of Abraham what the Lord say to them not
only did he say God can raise up children of Abraham from these
stones but what did he say you your father is the devil you
just changed his name and we saw Sunday from 2nd Thessalonians
chapter 2 that that that the The great whore of Babylon and
all of her children, they speak the name of Jesus, but they're
children of the devil. There's no question about it.
Nothing's changed. It's the same today as it was
then. So what do we say? Lord, let me be a child of this
father. I want Abraham. I want Isaac. I want Jacob. I want Joseph. I want Moses.
I want those men to be my father. I want to be children of faith.
I want to be like them. I want to hear thy voice. How did he speak? How did he
speak? Well look, who spoke? God spoke.
When? In what ways? Many different
ways. Many different times. When? In the past. To who? To the fathers. How did he speak? By the prophets. The messengers
of God. Those holy men that were led
by the Spirit of God to write, not their opinion, It wasn't
one man that went off into the woods and found some golden tablets
that some mysteriously way got lost. No, these were many different
men that were raised up over many different generations. And
all their messages compliment one another. Why? Because they're
telling the same story. They're telling us about the
same Savior. They're telling us about this
one who in the last days has spoken unto us by His Son, who
is the express image of His glory, the brightness of His glory,
and the express image of His person. Look at verse 2. When does God speak again? He spoke in times past. He spoke
through the prophets. He spoke through all these sundry
ways and divers manners, all these types and shadows and pictures
of Christ given to us in the Old Testament. But now what has
he done? Now he's removed the shadows.
Now he himself has come upon the scene of humanity. And he's been born in the likeness
of human flesh. He's been made incarnate. He's been given a body. And the volume of the book is
written about him. Look what he says, half, half
in these last days. Present tense, isn't it? He did
in the past tense, but now he hath. He speaks right now. Cornelius told Peter, he said,
we know that you're a man sent from God. And we're all here. H-E-R-E, to hear, H-E-A-R. Whatever God's told you, we want
to hear the Word of God. And what did Peter do? He preached
to him Jesus. When that Ethiopian eunuch was
confused about Isaiah 53, and the Lord sent a prophet, he sent
a preacher, he sent a messenger, didn't he? And Philip said, understandeth
what thou readest? How can I, lest a man should
guide me? And he got up in the chariot,
and the eunuch said, does the prophet speak of himself? Or
is he speaking of another? And beginning right there in
Isaiah 53, Philip preached unto him Jesus. He preached the Lord
Jesus Christ to him. The whole message of salvation,
because we know the unicorn. What did he say? What doth enter
me to be baptized? If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. I believe that Jesus, the one
you just preached to me, is the Son of God. I believe he's the
Word of God. I believe what you just told
me. God's given me faith to believe. He hath in these last days Every time we come together,
the prayer of our heart is what Samuel said when Eli told him
to go back. Remember, Samuel heard the voice,
Samuel, and he ran to Eli thinking it was Eli. Three times, the
third time Eli said, it's the Lord, you tell him that. that
you're listening. And what Samuel says, speak Lord
for thy servant, listeneth. God speaks to those that are
listening. He gives them ears to hear and
then He speaks. He causes them to have the spirit
of Samuel, speak Lord Every time we go to the Word
of God, every time we enter into our prayer closet, every time
we meditate upon the Scriptures, our hope is that God would speak. He hath, right now, present tense,
in these last days. That's where we live. Hebrews
chapter 1 was written 2,000 years ago, and that was the beginning
of the last days, and we're still in the last days. There's only
two dispensations of time. There's the past time and the
last days. We're in them. And God is still
speaking. Who does He speak to? Who does
He speak to? Well, look! Here it is. He hath
in these last days spoken unto us. Now, us implies that there
is a them. Does it not? He didn't say He spoke to everybody.
He said He spoke to us. So I want to be a part of that
as us. I don't want to be a part of that them. I want God to speak
to me. He has spoken unto us. He gives the deaf ears to hear. Tell John the deaf here. Tell
him the blind see. Tell him the dead are raised.
That's what he does. How do I know I'm part of the
us and not the them? I've heard the gospel. How do
I know? Because I believe it. I can say
with the Ethiopian eunuch, I believe that Jesus Christ revealed in
this book is the Son of God. And all the hope of my salvation
is on Him. I've got no place else to go.
He is the end of the law for righteousness to me, because
I believe in Him. He's my sin-bearer. He's all
my satisfaction. I can say with the Apostle Paul
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. I can say with Peter, Lord, we've
got no place else to go. You've shut me up to yourself. Thou alone, what? Hast the words
of eternal life. How do I know He's spoken unto
me? Well, I know and I'm sure that He's the Christ, the Son
of the living God. How do I know? Two things are clear when God
speaks. Number one is forsaking all the
voices you heard before. That's one thing that's clear.
When you hear the gospel, when God speaks, God who at sundry
times in time of respect to our fathers died, passed by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us, how do I know I'm an
us? By his Son? Because when I heard the truth,
I knew that everything I believed before that was a lie. And I
forsook it as a lie, and I'm willing to call it a lie right
now. I'm always concerned about people
who hear the gospel and say, well, I believe that. And that's
what I believed back in religion, too. Two things. happen when God speaks. Number one, you forsake the lie. And the second thing that happens
is you're not looking for anything else. You're not running to and fro,
trying to find answers to your problems. You're not investigating
new doctrines and new ideas and new perspectives and new people. You're not saying, well, you
know, I wonder if there's something better out there. You know there's
nothing better because you have found the truth. Or the truth
has found you. Has those two things happened
to you? Has God brought you to the place where you're able to
identify and forsake the lies of your self-righteous religion?
And you're able to say, I can rest right here for all eternity. I don't need to go anywhere else.
I don't need to go look for anything else. I'm not like it. You know, I don't need to run
to this preacher and that theological perspective and that doctrinal
distinctive. No, I don't need any of that.
Just tell me about Christ. Just tell me once again the old,
old story. Don't tell me how to live. Tell
me in whom I have life. You don't need to be told how
to live, do you? You know unbelievers don't even need to be told how
to live. They really do know. In their heart of hearts, they
know the difference between right and wrong. And I know believers
do. I told this story Sunday night
over in Sarasota. I think I know I've told it to
you all before, but I'll tell it to you again. This really
happened at Norm Wells' church out in Oregon several years ago.
I was preaching. And a lady came up to me afterwards
and she said, well, that was a good message. She said, I enjoyed
it. She said, but I need somebody to tell me how to live. And I
noticed she had her six kids all in flower sacks, you know,
and they were walking behind her. And I said, well, what do
you mean you need to be told how to live? and she said well
you know I need a Christian worldview I said well tell me give me an
example tell me something you don't know you should be doing
tell me something you think you are you know you tell me give
me one example one simple example she got flustered and she said
this I promise what she said I need to know what color socks
to put on my children in the mornings I promise you that's what she
said She couldn't come up with anything
better than that. Why? Because she knew what she was
supposed to be doing and what she wasn't supposed to be doing. Men want to be put under the
law, don't they? They want to be given a set of
rules and regulations on how they should live in every area
of their life. The truth of the gospel exposes
all errors and it sets us free from that, doesn't it? It sets us free from the law.
You're not under the law. You're under grace. God speaks. How? Look. He's spoken unto us by His Son. You want to get on my bad side,
you dishonor my son. And if that's true among us men,
how much more that's true about God. This is my son. The son of God. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's God who was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, born of a woman, born under the law
to redeem those who were cursed by the law. The Lord told a parable about
a man who had a vineyard and he sent his servants to take
from the vinedressers the profits of that vineyard and they beat
the servants, didn't they? And finally the man said, I'll
send my son. Surely they'll respect him. And
when they saw the son coming, what did they say? This is the
heir. Let us kill him and we can take
the inheritance for ourselves. And that's exactly what they
did. Exactly what they did. This is the Son of God. The only begotten Son of God.
What makes him the only begotten Son of God? Well, he was appointed
heir of all things. All authority has been given
unto me in heaven and in earth. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said, that God the Father gave to me all authority. He's made
me to be Lord over the living and the dead. You don't make
Jesus Lord, He is Lord. Whether you believe or not believe,
He's your Lord. He's your Lord. Whether you acknowledge Him as
Lord, He's your Lord, I promise you. God's given Him the preeminence.
Like Joseph. You remember when Joseph was
falsely accused and put into prison? And God gave him favor
with the prison keeper, and the prison keeper made him... Well,
here's what Scripture says. Whatsoever they did in the prison,
He, Joseph, was the doer of it. He gave him full authority over
the prison. He was a prisoner, and everything
that was done in the prison, Joseph was the doer of it. He
had full authority. And that's true now, isn't it?
Whatsoever they do, He's the doer of it. And then Pharaoh gave him the
authority over all of Egypt, didn't he? He had the keys to
the storehouse, and men came to Pharaoh for food, and what'd
Pharaoh say? Go to Joseph! Don't talk to me, go talk to
Joseph! And whatever he says is the way
it's gonna be. He's got the keys to the storehouse.
And he'll be the one to disperse the food as he sees fit. He's my only begotten son. I've
given Him all authority. Look what else it says about
Him. Unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all
things, He's heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. We just read that in John chapter
1, didn't we? He's the Creator and the Sustainer
of all of life. In Genesis chapter 1, when God
said, Let there be light, That was the Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't
it? You know, it wasn't until the fourth day of creation that
the stars and the planets and everything that we know of the
solar system was made. Where was the light the first
three days of creation? It was the Lord Jesus Christ
was that light. He's the creator and sustainer
of physical life, and He's the creator and sustainer of spiritual
life. If we're to have life before
God, we come into this world without it. We come into this
world dead in our trespasses and sins. If we're going to be
made alive, He's going to have to be the doer of it, isn't He?
He's going to have to be the one to open the eyes of our understanding. He's going to have to be the
one to give us faith to believe. He made the worlds and everything
in them. Look at verse 3. How does the Father describe
the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the brightness of His glory. Notice the word being. He wasn't made the brightness
of the glory of God, who being the brightness of the glory of
God. The fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Lord Jesus Christ's life
did not begin at His birth. He is the eternal King. He's the second person of the
triune Godhead, and he's the brightness of the Father. He told Philip, he said, Philip,
when he asked him, Lord, show us the Father, and sufficeth
us. Philip, have I been with you so long that you don't know
if you've seen me, you've seen the Father? I am the Father. Everything you're ever going
to know about God, you're going to find it in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the brightness of the Godhead. All the omnipotence of God, all
the power of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All the omniscience of God, all
the knowledge of God, He's the wisdom of God. God has made him
to be for us wisdom, righteousness, and redemption. All of our salvation
is in Christ. When Isaiah saw the Lord high
and lifted up, Just look in John chapter 12. The scripture makes
it clear, we won't go there right now, but John makes it clear
that the one that Isaiah saw was the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what were the seraphim doing? This was 750 years before the
incarnation. What were the seraphim doing?
They were hovering over the throne of God, crying, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
his glory. He's the holiness of God. He's
the power of God. He's the knowledge of God. He's
the presence of God. All the attributes of God are
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ in
John chapter 17, when He prayed to the Father. Let's look there
just a moment. John chapter 17. Look at verse 24. Father, I will. Didn't you love the I wills of
Jeremiah 23? I will, or Jeremiah 32, I will,
I will, I will. When God says I will, you can
be sure it's done. I mean, it's just done. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
said to the Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast
given me, be with me where I am that they may behold my glory."
What do we read in John chapter 1? We beheld his glory as the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. The glory of God is seen in the
grace of God. It's seen in the truth of the
gospel. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth, grace and truth, came by the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold
my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world." The brightness of His glory in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of God is seen
in the accomplished work of Christ on Calvary's cross. Go back with me to our text.
We'll see that in the rest of this. How does the Father describe
Him? He's the express image of His
person. You see that? He's the God-man. He's the one
that the world hates. He came unto His own. His own
received Him not. as many as received Him, God
gave them the power to become the children of God. Oh Lord,
would You give me that power? Would You open my eyes? Would
You unstop my ears? Would You enable me to hear Thy
voice? And to believe what You've declared about Yourself? The
express image of His person, He upholds all things by the
word of His power. Everything is upheld. Let the
let the scientist and the astrophysicist try to figure out why there's
no gravity in a black hole Why you know why why the universe
doesn't explode let them let them talk about dark matter and
all that sort of stuff It's just foolishness He holds all things
together And all he has to do is remove his little finger and
that black hole in the middle of our solar system will suck
every one of us into it. The whole thing will get sucked
into it. He's the only thing that keeps that from happening. He created the laws of physics.
He can suspend them at any time. And He certainly did on many
occasions, didn't He? Reversing the rotation of the
earth and causing the sundial to go back. All the miracles
of God were just a suspension of the laws of physics as He
made them. The ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The raising
of the dead. The giving sight to the blind. Just go on and
on. There's nothing to Him. Why?
Because He upholds all these things. And the greatest miracle
of all, the greatest miracle of all is when he takes a dead
sinner who has no interest in the things of God. Not the God
who is. They may be a sincere worshipper
of some idol, but the God who is, they by nature hate him until
he gives them a new nature. And that's the greatest miracle
of all. to see a teenager who's just
just a teenager you know just caught up in the world you know
that's all they know it's the foolishness of the world sitting
on their own listening to a message about Christ being preached that's
a miracle that's a miracle God gives life He upholds all things by the
strength of His power. He said to the seas, stop right
there and go no further. He separated the land from the
seas, didn't He? And He says to the turbulence
in your life and in my life, stop right there, you can go
no further. He controls all things. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. That's what we just read. He's
holding all things by the word of His power. Whatever Satan
did to Job, he had to go to God on every occasion. The devil
is God's devil. He had to get permission from
the Lord. The Lord had to say, OK, you can do that, but not
this. You can do that, but not this. He upholds all things by
the word of His power. How can we miss the last part
of this verse? When He had by Himself purged
our sins. All by Himself. I mean all by
Himself. Separated from the Father, bearing
the sins of all of His people upon His body on that cross,
suffering the full wrath of God, drinking the dregs of God's bitter
wrath. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be." And
he didn't let it pass, did he? The sky was darkened and the
earth shook and the Son of God gave up the ghost. And he died
purging the sins of his people. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. How are we going to have a good
conscience before God? How are you going to have a good
conscience? All the evil that goes on in you? Me? How are we
going to have a good conscience before God? Only by looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ and having hope in knowing that all of my
sin, all of my past sins, every sin I'm committing right now
and every sin I shall ever commit was placed on Him and purged,
put away, put away by the sacrifice of Himself. I have no sin. So what God says, I've separated
it from you as far as the east is from the west, I remember
it no more. And He did it all by Himself.
He didn't do it with your help. He didn't do it with my help.
He didn't do it with any angels. The angels, don't you know that
all those glorious, sword-bearing angels in heaven were leaning
over the precipice of glory, waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ
to say, enough, come. And they would have come to this
earth and slayed every one of us to deliver the Lord Jesus
Christ. He never opened his mouth. He
went as a lamb. to the slaughter. He never opened
His mouth. Why? He laid down His life for
the sheep. He came to put away our sin and
He succeeded in doing that. God has spoken. Have you heard
His voice? Do you believe what He said? Have you been able to renounce
all the lies of your of your imagination? Have you been able
to find rest right here in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ? You don't need to go anywhere
else. You're not looking for anything else. I'm not looking
for anything else. I want to see Christ more clearly. But
I know that what He has said to me is the message by which
He reveals Himself. We don't have to go listen to
another. We don't have to go try to find a better, a more
improved message. I like what Charles Spurgeon's
father said to him one day. He said, or said about him, he
said, my son can preach better, but he can't preach a better
gospel. Spurgeon's father, I think, was
a preacher too. And he said, my son may be a better preacher.
but he can't preach a better gospel. Isn't that true? Isn't that true? Purged our sins
and he sat down. The one piece of furniture that's
conspicuously missing in the tabernacle of the Old Testament
when God spoke in sundry times and in divers manners to our
fathers through the prophets, the one piece of furniture that
wasn't in the tabernacle was a chair. Why? Because the priest work was never
finished. It was never done. They just were slaying animals.
I mean, you talk about a bloody religion. Old Testament Israel
was a bloody religion and they just kept killing them and killing
them and killing them. And then when the Lamb of God
came, who takes away the sins of the world, he purged our sins
and he what? Sat down. Why did he sit down? He was finished. It's finished. Nothing for you to add to it.
Nothing can be taken away from it. It is finished. I can sit there. Can you sit
there? Can you just rest right there? Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that You would be pleased by Your Spirit to speak to us. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. How firm a foundation