Anyway, it was lovely to see
you all here. I was thinking as everyone came in this morning,
they were rejoicing at the providence and the provision of God. And
my thoughts immediately, when all the saints gather in heaven
and when each of us take, as the Lord's children, our place
amongst the saints up there, it will be exactly the same story,
won't it? Isn't God amazing? Isn't His protection of His people
amazing? And ultimately, and most importantly,
we'll be saying, isn't the Lord Jesus Christ a wonderful Lord? Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ a
wonderful Saviour? Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ a
wonderful Redeemer? We're here because He's gathered
us here. We are here in all ways and one because He's gathered
us here and protected us and that's why I thought I'd open
our service this morning as we think of Him and read those words
that are so well known in Romans 8 and from 28 on. We know, and we know, this is
something God's children know, that all things work together
for the good To them that love God, and we know that those that
love God are loved of him, it's the only people in the world
that ever loved God are those that he first loved. To them
who are thee called according to his purpose. according to His purpose. And
this is His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we say, this is the
response, what shall we say then to these things? If God before
us, who can be against us? And he that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? He's given us the son. He's given
the son to his people. The son delighted in being given
to his people. Who shall lay any charge? Anything
to the charge of God's elect, it's God that justifieth. Our
great God has given us his Son, and he's worked all things for
the good of his people that we might be here today to rejoice.
in the sovereign provision and the glory of our Saviour. That's
what all these events are about, aren't they, for the glory of
God. Let's pray. Now, Heavenly Father, we do thank
you that you've gathered us together. We thank you especially, Heavenly
Father, that you have chosen to open the eyes of your people
here in this place to show us something of the wonder of the
glory of your dear and precious Son, and you've called us out
of darkness, Heavenly Father, and you've given us a Gospel
that really saves, and saves wretches like us, and saves us
from eternity of hell and its fire that burns forever. We do
praise you, Heavenly Father, for your protection of your people
yesterday and We stand here in awe, Heavenly Father, at your
provision, and we pray that that might be something that motivates
us to worship you, who rules all things. We thank you, Heavenly
Father, for gathering us. We pray for those who aren't
with us today and can't be with us because of the fires, and
we do pray, Heavenly Father, for our brethren around the world
who have been anxiously awaiting news of us here. We thank you
for the fellowship of your people. Make us to love your Son, our
Father, and make us to love our brethren and to be thankful for
the great things that you have done in your dear and precious
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to sing and to praise
him, our Father, this morning and to rejoice in who he is and
what he does and the awesomeness of our great God. We pray in
Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing number
8. It is well, it is well, it is
well with my soul. It is well, it is well, it is
well with my soul. It is well, it is well, it is
well with my soul. Though Satan should laugh and
though drought should come, With this let's assurance control
That Christ has begun in my helpless estate And has shed his own blood
for my soul It is well, it is well with my
soul. I've seen all the beasts of this
glorious world. I've seen it not in part, His nails and the cross have
I bared no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well, it is well in my
soul, in my soul. It is well, it is well in my
soul, The day when my face shall be
sired, when laws be rolled back as a scroll. The trials shall resolve, and
the Lord shall be saved, even so it is well with my soul. There are too many people from
around the world that have been praying for us and expressing
their concerns to be fair and relate to all of them. I just
want you to know that you have been very much in the thoughts
of our brothers and sisters throughout this world and they send their
messages and they are thankful and of course to rejoice with
us that thus far we have been spared and in the midst of what
is an extraordinarily difficult time in this land of ours and
we do pray the Lord would give wisdom to those in charge and
would grant us the simplicity of simply trusting our Lord who's
given us so many reasons to trust Him. So I'm thankful for you
being here. I can't help but think as we
stood on that lookout yesterday, looking out west and And it was
just remarkable that in yesterday afternoon at what was supposed
to be the hottest time of the day, the smoke was just rising
gently vertically and it didn't move in this direction at all. And we have seen what happened
when that wind did push that fire and pushed it all the way
from John Newell's house to Exeter and Bundanoon and places on the
mountains in a matter of hours in the cool of the evening. We have many reasons to rejoice,
but most of all we have the greatest reason to rejoice, isn't it?
The pictures of fire that we see on this earth and pictures
of fire that have fallen from heaven are pictures of the fire
that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus was the one
that spoke most of hell of all people in the scriptures because
he was the one person who has ever walked this earth. who understands
what hell is like. He's the one person that consumed
the fire of the wrath of God. And the scriptures declare that
these extraordinary events are but the hiding of the power of
God. And he says he has his way in
the whirlwind. And so we have an extraordinary
God to praise, an extraordinary God to worship. The Lord Jesus Christ consumed
the fire of the wrath of God. It really fell upon him, the
eternal, infinite fire of God's wrath against the sin of all
of his people fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he consumed
that fire. He consumed that fire in his
own body. I'd like us to turn to a couple
of scriptures to think about that. It's very hard to think
about all the things that are going through our minds at the
moment we sit here in such peace. and safety and security as it
seems and yet there are so many in so many places around that
are suffering enormously. But the other thing of course
is that in the midst of all of this there will be amongst the
churches of this region of ours a whole bunch of rejoicing because
they'll be saying similar things to us this morning. They'll be
thinking about a God But I would pray that the Lord
would cause us to be extraordinarily thankful that we actually can
think about a God in the light of what the scriptures say about
Him and speak truthfully about Him. The worst possible thing
that can befall people in this world is to have religion and
peace in religion without the Saviour. I pray that the Lord
would stir people up. But there is a fire that fell
on the Lord Jesus Christ and it's typified in Leviticus chapter
9 and First Chronicles chapter 7. You can turn to those scriptures. These are two pictures. One is
setting up the tabernacle in the wilderness in the Galta.
in the wilderness, and the other one is the building of the temple
and the setting up of the temple, and the preparation of the sacrifice
upon the altar in that temple in 1 Chronicles 7 in the days
of Solomon. But in Leviticus 9, there's just
a remarkable passage of scripture, and I want us to think about
this in light of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he bore
in his body. It says in Leviticus 9 verse
23, and Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation
and came out and blessed the people. And you can read about
that blessing in Numbers chapter 6. Blessed people, and the glory
of the Lord appeared unto all the people, and there came a
fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the
burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw, they
shouted and fell on their faces. In 1 Chronicles 7 we have a similar
incident. The second chronicle is chapter
7. You might recall Solomon prayed that remarkable prayer to God
at the dedication of the temple. And it says in verse 7, Now when
Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory
of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter
into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled
the Lord's house. And when all the children of
Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord
upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground
upon the pavement and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying,
for He is good and His mercy endureth forever. That sacrifice and that altar
is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ, typified before those
people. And that fire that fell from
heaven is the fire of the wrath of God. And that fire, as we
see in Isaiah chapter 6, and Isaiah met the Lord Jesus Christ.
Please remember, he met the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord tells
us that in John chapter 12. The fire comes from the altar
of God. God's people worship. God's people
fall down. God's people are in awe of the
glory of a great and sovereign God when He brings these things
upon us. Let's read these first verses
of Isaiah 6. They are familiar but they are
extraordinary. In the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.
And his train filled the temple, above it stood the seraphims,
each had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with
twain he covered his feet, and with twain did he fly. And one
cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the
seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand. from which
he had taken with tongs from off the altar, and he laid it
upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged." The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
yet again as he was on Mount Carmel when Elijah offered that
sacrifice. He's pictured again and again
as that sacrifice and that altar. And the wonder of our salvation,
the wonder of us gathering here together, is that when the fire
of the infinite, eternal wrath of the holy God fell upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, He, in his body, consumed that fire. He consumed hell's fire, brothers
and sisters. And he did it with a purpose,
and he did it for a people, and he did it with success. And the
rejoicing of God's people is not that he tried to save, and
not that he tried to redeem, and not that he loves without
any effect of love, but he saved his people. And if that wrath
has fallen upon him, and those sins have been dealt with by
our God, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ proves
that he had consumed that fire, I promise you, brothers and sisters,
it cannot fall on us again. It cannot ever fall on God's
people. We have been saved, not just
from the fires of yesterday, brothers and sisters. We've been
saved from eternal fire. If you want to read what that
fire's like, go to Luke chapter 16 and read about that man, and
I don't believe that it's for anything other than a factual
account, that man who's in hell, and he's crying out for a drop
of water to be put on his tongue. The Lord Jesus Christ consumed
all of that, And now he reigns and he rules and sovereignly
directs all things. But may we be made to be like
those people who saw that fire fall from heaven upon that altar. What did they do? In both accounts,
they fell on their faces and they worshipped a sovereign God. And that's what the writer to
the Hebrews is saying, isn't he, in Hebrews chapter 13. He
speaks of the great shepherd of our sheep. But he says to
his people, he says to his people, in verse 10 of Hebrews 13, we
have an altar. We have an altar, and on that
altar, the fire of God's wrath has come from heaven. We have
an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. You serve, you try and serve
God by any works or any legalism or anything that you have done.
You have no right to eat our tabernacle. You have no right
to eat of our altar. See, we feast upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, brothers and sisters. It says in verse 12 of that same
chapter, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate, outside the
gate of Jerusalem. And he did it to sanctify his
people. He didn't say he was going to try and sanctify them.
He didn't say that he was going to sanctify them if they had
their sanctification and their works of holy. He said he sanctified
them. He is the sanctification. It says in verse 13, let us go. Don't stand around. Let us go
therefore unto him, outside the camp, without the camp, bearing
his reproach. For here we have no continuing
city. This is not our home, brothers
and sisters. It can be taken away in a heartbeat. We have no continuing city, but
we seek one to come. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to his name. Thanks to his name. Thanks to the name of him, which
is all the character of our God. I'm so thankful that you are
here. I'm so thankful that the Lord has spared John's house,
but I'm more and more thankful. I'm more and more thankful for
you and for the gathering of us together. We're going to sing. What are we singing, Norman?
44. so ? Don't show away my sins ? ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? ? What can make me whole again ? ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is the flow ? ? That
makes me white as snow ? I'll think of the love of Jesus. Oh, my plaintive, this my plea,
I'll think of the love of Jesus. Oh, precious is that love that
makes me light and strong. Now we welcome the blood of Jesus
Now we welcome the blood of Jesus Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow
that makes me wild and strong. No other doubt I know, I'll be
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other doubt I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus.