Again this morning, I'd like
to read another email concerning David Bird. It said that David had the wire
removed from his jaw and after a couple of days of adjusting,
he can try some soft foods. He will remain eating breakfast,
lunch and dinner through the feeding tube. And so it says,
I guess only snacks will actually be eaten by mouth. And he's able
to enjoy hot tea and water, which he said was great. And so no
other changes at this time. But I think Jim and his wife
will be leaving for Japan tomorrow. It says Monday. I'm assuming
that tomorrow, not the following Monday. And so anyway, whenever
you think about it, continue to pray for the bird family and
especially for David as he recuperates there in Japan. All right, let's
take our Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 18. Revelation 18. And I'd like to. Look at one verse,
the 20th verse. Before we do, let's have a word
of prayer. Our Father, we thank You this
morning for another day, a day that You've made and that You've
made it for our good and Your glory. Lord, we pray that You
would bless this word to our hearts Give us by Your Holy Spirit
understanding and teach us. Cause that Word to be in our
hearts as life and food and drink. And Lord, we ask these things
for Christ's sake. Amen. We've been looking over the last
few weeks over the false religious sales pitch,
I guess you'd say. False religion, false salvation
for sale. God Almighty has set forth in
His Word that He judges now and shall judge in that great day. False religion. False religion
is summed up in this one thing. How do you know? How do you know
what false religion is? Well, here it is right here.
Any religion that sets forth that man's salvation is secured
or established or made by Anything that a man has to do in order
to be saved is false religion. That's how I sum them all up.
There's only two messages either salvation totally by the grace
of God, by God's determination, by God's choice, by God's will,
by God's purpose. And God Almighty secures salvation
and then tells the recipient of that salvation what He's done
for them. And by faith given them, they
understand it and they believe it. Not that the faith was any
part of the establishment of that salvation. Faith is a gift
of God. For by grace are you saved. And when it says through faith,
It means you understand it. Not that your faith was what
established. We're not saved by faith. We're
not saved because of faith. We're saved by grace through faith. Understand it
by faith. And that's not of yourself. Grace,
I mean, faith is not of yourself. Why? Because you'd boast in it.
You'd say, well, I'm saved because I. Believe. No, no, no, no, no. You believed because God saved
you, regenerated you, taught you. Now, verse 20, now is the attitude, it's the reaction of
God's elect, regenerated, taught people. Here is the reaction.
of God's judgment on false religion. Verse 20, Rejoice over her, thou
heaven and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged
you on her. I want you to turn over to Philippians
4.4. Turn back to Philippians 4.4. Paul the apostle writes to the
church at Philippi, Philippians 4.4, Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say, rejoice. Now you've read that. You've
heard that. I have too. Rejoice in the Lord
always. Paul reiterates that. Again I
say, Rejoice. This is what it means to rejoice
in this passage of Scripture. Be glad. Be happy. Because only in Christ
can a man or a woman rejoice always. Because everything else
fades. You don't find eternal happiness,
eternal gladness in anything else that this world offers. Everything else gets old. Everything
else fades. Everything else tarnishes. Everything
else doesn't smell new anymore. That car you bought, it had a
Wonderful smell. Boy, just... I like that. But do you know
what? By the time you finally get it
paid for, it doesn't smell as good as it used to. And I'm telling
you, you're so glad to get rid of those payments, you just don't
know what to think. How about that house? You get
a new house. Man, I'm telling you, you're
so glad to have this. This is our house. But boy, do
you know what? That payment comes due every
month. That credit card, everything,
whatever you bought on there. Nothing else is rejoiced in except
Christ. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Rejoice! Paul said in Philippians 4, 4,
ìIn the Lord.î Rejoice. When it says ìin the Lord,î it
means because of your relationship to. Now, you want to have something
to rejoice in. Rejoice because God Almighty
has established the relationship that you have with Him. He did. You didnít. He did. Rejoice in
that God Almighty chose you in Christ. Now you think about that.
Before the foundation of the earth, the world. Ephesians 1-4
says chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. You were only known by God. How many years? I don't know.
I've heard people talk about how long this world's been. Scripture
doesn't reveal that. What difference does it make?
What difference if it was 5,000 years ago? I mean, there's a
little over 4,000 years of recorded history. What difference does
it make? I mean, what if it was five? What if it was a billion? Who
cares? The only thing that matters for
the believer was that he was chosen in Christ. His relationship
was established that he should be holy. God-purpose, God-will,
God-chose, God Almighty decided, I will choose you. And He set His affection on you.
before the foundation of the Lord everlastingly that you should
be holy, pure, blameless. Almighty God chose to justify
you in His Son. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice
in your relationship to God Almighty. You stop and think for one moment
Had God not set His affection on you, where would you be? Where would I be? What do I have
to glory in to save Christ? What do I have to glory in? That
I believed? He gave me faith to believe.
Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in your relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ because He was made flesh. for you, you
that are His, you that believe His elect. Rejoice in the Lord,
because He came into this world and tabernacled among us. And as a man, the man, Christ
Jesus, God-man, He obeyed God's law, every jot, every tittle. Rejoice in the Lord. Because
not only did He choose you in Christ, He was made flesh for
you. God is a just God. God's a merciful
God. He's a just God. But His mercy
is never shown at the expense of justice. I'm a just God. He's fair. The Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world and by his obedience before the law of God,
obtained, earned a righteousness before God's law by obedience. He obeyed his own law, and he
did it for his own. Establish their righteousness.
Rejoice in the Lord. Because by His power, He was the substitute for His
sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He was made flesh, made sin. He was made sin. The true substitute. He was made what I am. Sin. And thereby, God Almighty
forsook him, turned his back in an indescribable justice. He spewed out what I in myself
deserved. But he being made sin for me
upon that cross, he was made sin. and Almighty God gave him and
me in him what I deserved and he was made. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in your relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ because Christ alone put away the guilt
that was due me. Rejoice Because Almighty God,
the Lord Jesus Himself, was raised from the dead. When He died and
was buried, men thought, we got Him. But three days later, He
came out of that grave. Now let me tell you what His
resurrection set forth. You know the Scripture says He
was raised for our justification. The word for there means because
of. Because of. Almighty God declared
before the foundation of the world eternally He has justified
us freely by His grace. And as we've said so many times,
nothing ever changes with God. I change not. I've said before,
if God Almighty has declared His people to be justified right
now, there's never been a time that He didn't declare them to
be justified because He never changes. But Almighty God justified
us, declared us holy, blameless. Why? Because the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, Almighty God declared it. It was done. You say, but He
didn't actually come into the world until time was instituted
and, you know, He is the I Am. All things with Him are eternal. It's now. It's right now. Therefore, Christ eternally being
slain paid our debt. Our debt was His debt. Mine iniquities, He said, have
taken hold of me. Almighty God declared us just
because Christ was eternally slain. Therefore, our guilt,
Mitch, gone because God Almighty saw His Son slain, put away our
guilt. He died. God Almighty had eternally
seen it. He was buried because He was
dead. The wages of sin is death. He died. And three days later,
he came out of that grave and openly declared and showed that
God Almighty had justified us freely. And there's the result
of it right now. He actually died, came out of
that grave, and God Almighty accepted what he did. He had
eternally accepted it, and we saw it. Justified us freely. By His grace, the Lord fifthly
ascended into heaven. And right now, He ever liveth
to make intercession, rightly has it been said, there is a
man, the man, Christ Jesus, on the throne of God, the God-man,
Totally God, totally man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And there is a man in heaven,
our representative, our great high priest, interceding. His blood ever pleads. Almighty God represents us before
Himself rightly. Rejoice in your relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ, because He answers for you by His blood. Rejoice in the Lord, in your
relationship to Almighty God, because I'm telling you, He's
going to call out His own. Is the Lord going to save His
people? Absolutely. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. How many is coming? All that
the Father gave Him. Is He going to accept them? He
has always accepted them. We are accepted in the Beloved.
Rejoice in your relationship to Him. in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoicing in Him, we shall eternally
be with Him. J.C. Philpott wrote this. I thought it was good. He said,
Rejoicing in the Lord is the only true joy. I think we've set that forth. He said, ìIt is conceived not
by the creature, but by the Creator. All other joys are but mornings,
all other delights are but sorrows, and all other beauty is but filth. All other joys may wet the mouth
for a while, but will never warm the heart.î John on the Isle
of Patmos said in that twentieth verse, Rejoice over her. Thou heaven, you that are the
Lord's, ye holy apostles and prophets, that Almighty God was
pleased to speak to His people by. Why? has avenged you on her. It's going to be so that God
Almighty in one final exhibition of His justice is going to execute
absolute wrath on every one not found in Christ. Rejoice in the
Lord. Be thankful because God Almighty
has shown mercy to you. Let's just stop for just a few
minutes and we'll come back.