Alright brethren, Psalm 78. This
is a very long psalm, so we're just going to take a little bit
of it. It begins, it tells us in the
heading, this is a mascal of Asaph, and it says, Give ear,
O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words
of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of
old. which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us." Masculine means instruction,
it means admonition. The prophet Asaph penned this,
but Christ gave him the words to write. You see there he says,
I'll open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of
old. Turn over to Matthew, and look
at Matthew 13. Our Lord was speaking and He
was declaring some parables and He said in verse 34, All these
things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables. And without a parable
spake He not unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world. That's referring
to our psalm. This is Christ fulfilling our
psalm. Look back up at verse 10. The
disciples came and said to him, why speakest thou unto them in
parables? He answered and said unto them,
because it's given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. But to them it's not given. Christ
coming in the flesh and Christ fulfilling all the Law and the
Prophets and the Psalms. This is the Gospel. This is the
mystery. Mysteries that have been kept
secret since the foundation of the world. You and I, because
He's come and revealed the Gospel, we see and hear things more clearly
than even the fathers did back then. Look at verse 16. Matthew
13, 16. He says, or your eyes, for they see, and
your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that
many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things
which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things
which you hear and have not heard them. What things are these?
Look over at Colossians 1. He's talking about the mystery
of the gospel. The mystery of the gospel. Colossians
1 verse 25, Paul says, I made a minister according to the dispensation
of God, the stewardship of God given to me for you to fulfill
the word of God, even the mystery. which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints,
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles. And here it is, is Christ in
you, the hope of glory, whom we preach. The mystery is in
Christ. Everything God has is in Christ. So back in this Psalm now, go
back to Psalm 78, This whole psalm is a parable. Later you
can read it at your leisure, but this whole psalm is a parable. Now you know what a parable is.
A parable uses earthly things to illustrate spiritual truth. You think about it, everything
God created in this world is created to glorify Him. Christ
created all things and they're all created by him and for him,
to glorify him. We see a lot of things that illustrate
him, that he's created, but if we could see everything he's
created glorifies him in some way or another. Well, the same
is true with Israel. The nation Israel was created,
and this psalm gives the history of Israel from the time that
He called them out of Egypt, carried them through the wilderness,
and it goes all the way to the time when He raised up David
to be the king. And that whole natural Israel
and everything God did with them is a parable. It's a carnal nation
made up of carnal men and women to teach God's people, the mystery
of the gospel. The gospel concerning His elect,
His true Israel, saved by Christ. Everything about that nation
was a parable. Now there was true spiritual
elect in that nation, but overall it was a picture, a parable to
teach us these spiritual things. Look down at Psalm 78, look at
verse 70. It ends with him talking about
how he He rejected the natural children of Israel and he ends
up here and it says, and he chose David also his servant. Took
him from the sheepfold. David's a picture of Christ our
King. Christ our prophet, priest, and king. He took him from following
the ewes great with young. He brought him to feed Jacob
his people and Israel his inheritance. That's what Christ did. All through
from Adam all the way to the end of time. Christ is feeding
His elect Jacob, His elect Israel, who is His inheritance. That's
what He's doing. He fed them according to the integrity of
His heart and guided them by the skillfulness of His hand.
That's what Christ's been doing from the beginning. That's what
He's going to do to the end for His people, His true Israel,
His spiritual Israel. Look back up at verse 52. He made His own people to go
forth like sheep. He guided them in the wilderness
like a flock. He led them on safely so that
they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. That's
what our Lord has been doing for His chosen people. He is
redeemed from the beginning of time. That's what He'll do to
the end. He's leading His own and guiding us through this wilderness
like a flock. Like a shepherd does his sheep.
He's the great shepherd of His sheep. That's what this whole
parable is teaching us. This whole history of Israel
is showing us the success of Christ leading His people as
a shepherd. Now tonight I want to focus on
the success of the Gospel. The success of the Gospel. The
reason we believe on Christ. is because God ordained that
our spiritual fathers, His elect from the beginning, who are our
spiritual fathers, He ordained that He would save them, He'd
quicken them, give them the gospel. And that they would preach the
gospel to their children, who in truth were His elect, not
all of their children, but His elect, who He quickened, and
then they taught their children, all the way to us. That's how
He's been doing it. So that you and I have heard
the gospel, been regenerated for one purpose, and we're in
this earth for one purpose, to preach this gospel. And we're
preaching it to our children. And God's going to see to it
that every one of our children are called to salvation. We hope
it'll be our earthly children. Some it will be, some it has
proven to be. But all who He calls, those are
our true spiritual children. That's who He's saying He will
call, the elect, His people. So our Lord begins now. Let's
go back up to Psalm 78.1. Let's hear what He says. He says, Now give ear, O my people,
to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Give
ear, incline your ears. Oh my people, this is to His
elect, this is Christ speaking to His elect people. Give ear,
oh my people, and He says give ear to my law, to the words of
my mouth. The words of Christ's mouth is
His gospel. That's what He's talking about,
His gospel, the doctrine of Christ, the gospel of Christ. He's the
prophet. He's the prophet, He's our priest,
He's our king, and He's the prophet who gets the glory from the beginning
of teaching all those He says. And so He says to us here, incline
your ear, get on the tiptoe, lean forward and hear my gospel
that He teaches. That's what He said, hear my
gospel. There's a lot of things in this world not worth hearing
and a lot of things we can ignore. But the gospel of Christ, the
doctrine of Christ is not one of those things. We have to hear
the gospel. We have to have it. Listen to
what John said. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. And when Christ commands in power,
when He makes the Word go forth in power by the Spirit, you know
what we're going to do? We're going to incline our ear,
the ear of our heart, the ear of faith. We're going to hear
His Gospel and we're going to follow Him. We're going to believe
Him and we're going to follow Him. That's what He always accomplishes.
The success of His Gospel. Now, the Gospel began in eternity. It began in eternity by God the
Father declaring His purpose to His Son. Look here in verse
2. He says, I will open my mouth
in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old. He said in Matthew,
those are things kept secret from the foundation of the world,
from eternity. Things that have been kept secret,
which we've heard and known and our fathers have told us. Now
look what he said. Now hear Christ saying this.
We have heard and know and our fathers have told us these things. Christ has made himself so one
with his people. He is saying our father. He came
through the lineage of the tribe of Judah and David all the way
down. But he is God now from the beginning.
But because he is flesh he says our fathers have told us these
things. Well it began with God his father
in eternity making his purpose known to him. That's where the
gospel began. Listen to this. When he, after
he had laid down his life, he said, he said to one of the women
that had come to him, he said, touch me not, I'm not yet ascended
to my father. And he said, but go to my brethren
and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father. to
my God and your God. And he's saying here, our fathers
have told us. He's saying my father told me
in eternity. He's your father. He's our father. He told me in eternity. That's
where the gospel began. God the Father made His purpose
known, that He's going to save a people, and He entrusted the
people to His Son, and His Son entered covenant to come forth
and save His people. And this all began in eternity
before the world ever was made. And so from Adam and Eve, our
Lord taught them the gospel in the garden. He taught them the
gospel. When He called them after they
fell, He called them and He stripped them of their fig leaves and
He slew an animal in their place and He clothed them. He was teaching
them the gospel. And he told them, there's a seed
coming, the woman's seed, Christ, and he's going to bruise Satan's
head. He's going to save his people. And he taught Abraham. He declared to Abraham, he said,
Abraham, in thy seed, who's he talking about? He's talking about
Christ. In thy seed, all the nations of the world's going
to be blessed. He's going to save his elect throughout the world.
He preached it to Isaac. Abraham, he called Abraham, Abraham,
Adam preached it to Abel, Abel preached it to his sons, and
on down the line, God saved his elect, and he taught it to Abraham. Abraham taught the gospel to
Isaac, Isaac taught it to Jacob, and Christ is making that word
effectual. And then 400 years later, over
400 years later, he established his gospel in Israel, in Jacob,
in Israel. Verse 5, he established a testimony,
a witness in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. Now we know
he gave the law, the law that we know of as the law at Sinai,
but all the commentaries agree he's talking here about the gospel.
And this is what he's talking about. The Son of God established
his witness. That's what a testimony is. Testimony
is bearing witness. What do the law and the prophets
do? They bear witness to Christ. Everything that Moses wrote bears
witness to him. And he established it. Christ
established a testimony, a witness in Jacob. That is in Israel. He has pointed his gospel in
Israel. Everything that he revealed to
his elect in Israel, when it's known in newness of spirit. Now
the world just sees it in the letter. And you hear some moral
lessons taught, but you don't hear the gospel taught. But when
you see in newness of spirit everything he did in Israel,
you see the gospel. You see Christ. You hear what
Christ has done. In all the shadows and types. Take for instance the Passover
lamb. This is how he brought him out of Egypt. He said, I'm
going to pass through Egypt tonight and I'm going to smite all the
firstborn. All the firstborn in Egypt are going to die. But
he provided Israel a lamb. And he said, you slay this lamb.
He told the elders of the house, slay this lamb and put the blood
on the doorpost and get in the house. And when I pass through
and I see the blood, I'm going to pass over you. And that's
how he brought him out of Egypt. And he said, now, when you go,
He gave them that ceremony, the Passover. And when He said, when
your children ask you, what's this for? Teach them the Gospel. Teach them the Gospel. And our
fathers, our spiritual fathers, they knew the Gospel. They understood
this Lamb typifies the Lamb of God to come who will take away
the sin of His people scattered throughout this world. They knew
something of that. They knew something about the Lamb. And
it was so they could teach their children because God Every generation,
He is raising up His elect children and He is teaching them the gospel.
Verse 5 says, He says after He gave it to them, He commanded
our fathers that they should make them known to their children. All these testimonies, all these
pictures and types of crime. Make them known to their children
that the generation to come might know. Even the children which
should, and the word there shall. The children which shall be born
who shall arise and declare them to their children. This generation
to come is God's elect. Go over to Psalm 22. This is
God's elect He's talking about. They shall be born. Look at Psalm
22 and verse 30. A seed shall serve Him. it shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
His righteousness unto a people that shall be born that He hath
done this." We know from Romans 9 that not all the children of
Israel are children of God. They are not all the elect. But
the elect or the seed, they are the generation, the chosen generation. that God chose that would hear
this gospel, and He makes you hear the gospel. He makes them
hear it. He regenerated them, He revealed
the gospel in them, He taught them Christ. Everybody that's
ever been saved has been saved by one gospel. It's not... Sinners saved some way in the
Old Testament, sinners saved a different way in the New Testament.
Every sinner God has ever saved has been saved one way. One gospel,
one savior, one spirit, one faith, one Lord, one righteousness,
Christ Jesus, all saved the same way by Christ. From Abraham,
to Isaac, to Jacob, to all the elect in Israel, to David, on
through the ages, God's always had his witness. He's always
had his gospel going forth in truth, and he's always been calling
out his people. And so, he quickened us this
way. He provided spiritual fathers
to preach the gospel to us, and he quickened us this way. Verse
three. It says, which we've heard and known and our fathers have
told us, and we'll not hide the gospel from their children, from
our fathers, we'll not hide it from their children, showing
to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength
and His wonderful works that He's done. Now catch this right
here. We're talking about how that our fathers taught us the
gospel. And we're not going to hide the
gospel from their children. You see that? He says, we've
heard and known, our fathers have taught this gospel to us.
We'll not hide the gospel from their children. What does that mean? As we preach
the gospel and God quickens His elect, calls you to faith, those
believers are our ancient father's children. You sitting here today
who believe the gospel, You're Abraham's children. Because the
children God quickened through him, preached the gospel, and
God quickened more, and it came on down to you, and He quickens
you. You're Abraham's children. We're
going to declare this gospel that our fathers have taught
us, and we're not going to hide it from their children. This
is what Paul said, if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's
seed. You're his child. Heirs according
to God's promise. That's pretty amazing to think
about. We're the children, you that believe God, trust Christ,
we're the children of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. And you think
of the success of the gospel and how sovereign our God is
to say that he's able to keep that gospel going from generation
to generation to generation and keep calling out his people and
not lose one? And bring it down to you and
me? Every so often, I'll get a letter or an email or somebody
and they're sorrowing over their child who doesn't believe the
gospel or a loved one or a family member that doesn't believe the
gospel. And we know that sorrow. You know it. I know it. But this
is the consolation we have. God has a people and they're
going to hear the gospel. He's going to make certain they
hear the Gospel. And He will not fail to bring
them the Gospel, and He will not fail to cause them to hear
it. And whoever He calls out, His Word never returns to him
in void. And whoever He calls out through
the preaching of the Gospel, you and I here, or this is a
ministry that the Lord's given to us, and we're preaching the
Gospel. We're preaching this gospel together.
We're sending it forth together. And whoever God calls out through
it, they're your children. They're your spiritual children.
They're the children of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David,
and Jesse, and all the fathers of old. Christ said he won't
lose one. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life,
and they'll never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand. He will not lose one. Now that's consolation,
brethren. That's consolation. Even if we have physical children
who do not end up believing the gospel, we bow to God and this
is consolation. He doesn't make a mistake. He
calls his people out. And that's also our comfort for
as long as our children live or our loved ones live. As long
as they're alive, it's never too late. They might be one,
and he's going to call them. I think I told some of you this
story, but I don't remember if I said anything about it from
the pulpit. But I was thinking about this. My grandmother, two
or three years ago, she started just telling stories about her
childhood and about meeting my grandfather. And I just set the
phone down beside her and hit record, and she talked for two
and a half hours. And that's now one of my greatest treasures,
to have that. But she tells this point about
how that my grandfather didn't believe the gospel. He was preaching
a false gospel. He was in Will Works religion. And just one day, he stops to
get a Coke at a little country store not far from where the
church building is that y'all been to, some of y'all been to.
And he goes into this little store to get a Coke. And there
was a man there that owned that store. They just started preaching
the gospel to him. Brother McGugan was his name.
And he came home and he told my grandmother, this man told
me God has a chosen people. Christ only died for them. He's
going to call every one of them out and regenerate them. And
he was just mad as he could be. He said, I'm not going back.
I will not go back in that store. My grandmother said, but every
chance he got, he went back to that store. Well, The Lord saved
him. The Lord called him. The Lord
used that to teach him the gospel. And they ended up and they established
that church down there. And God taught me the gospel
years later. Taught me the gospel. And I was
thinking about coming here and how we had 20 something children
I think at the time that were, y'all were all little children.
And that was so encouraging to me. I've seen the Lord do this
before. I saw him do this at Franklin. And just over time,
he's called out many of you. The Lord did that. And I was
thinking about going over there to Pennsylvania. I had no idea
what the Lord was doing 10 years ago or so. Ben was, I can't even
remember Ben going over there. He was like 10 years old. Sarah's
over here, she's like 10 years old, something like that, 10
or however. Maybe he's 12, she's 10, something like that. And
left there and didn't think anything come of that. Didn't think, just
preached over there a year and a half and thought, I don't know
what the Lord did. And look what the Lord did with it. And now
the Lord's called out some of you and you've grown and you've
got spouses that believe the gospel, that He's quickened.
Now you're having babies. This is what he's talking about,
how the gospel just keeps going by Christ calling out His people
and not losing Him. And when I thought all that,
I thought back to that little country store, you know, and
here's a man just stumbles in there to get a Coke, and another
man preaches the gospel to him. And the Lord just, He's not going
to let His Word fail. He's going to bring His people
under the gospel and keep sending that gospel throughout the ages
to His people and saving His people. And He never gives up. So that's our purpose in this
earth is to preach the gospel. Preach it and He's going to bless
it. Now what are we preaching? Let's briefly look at it. What
are we preaching? Verse 4, showing to the generation
to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful
works that He hath done. That's what we're preaching.
Right there. Anything in there about us? No. We're preaching the praises of
the Lord. That means the glory of the Lord. That's what we're preaching.
His predestination, His election, His predestination, His redemption,
His regeneration of His people, His keeping His people, preserving
His people, it's all to the praise of the glory of His grace. Every
bit of it. Look at Ephesians 1. This is
just a good place to see it all. Ephesians 1. Blessed, verse 3,
blessed be the God and Father, there's the Father, He gets the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, there's the Son, He gets the
glory. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace,
wherein He made us accepted in the Beloved. That is what we
are preaching. We are preaching His glory. everything, the election,
choosing whom He would, the predestinating of us, all of it is to the praise
of the glory of His grace. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. Wherein He bounded toward us
in all wisdom and prudence. There is the Spirit of God making
us know this. Making known to us the mystery
of His will. It is hidden from natural men.
To you, you know who it is revealed to? To those He makes a babe. To those He makes a little child,
teachable to bow and receive His word by His grace. He's making
known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure
which He has purposed in Himself. That in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both of which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him. When you read things in Christ,
He's talking about His people. He's going to gather His people,
those in heaven, those in earth, all in Christ in one, in whom
also we've obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory
who first trusted Christ. The Father first trusted Christ.
And all this work He worked, trusting Him to do all this work,
is to the praise of the glory of His grace. We're preaching
His praises. Read on. In whom also you trusted
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
and whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
unto the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of
His glory. All of this is true. This is
why He says, He that glories, let him glory in who? In the
Lord. Everything is to the praise of
His glory. And then look, our text says we preach to the generation
to come His strength. His strength. His omnipotent
sovereign power to work everything just like He said, according
to the purpose of His will. Nothing from the first tick of
time to the last tick of time. Nothing is out of out of order. It's all coming to pass because
He's bringing it to pass exactly according to His purpose. This
is what David said. David said, he said, I know the Lord is great. I know
He's above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He in heaven and earth and the seas and all deep places.
But we not only preach His sovereign hand in providence, we preach
His sovereign strength in salvation. That's what men hate. Men will
somewhat let you tell them God's sovereign in providence. They
don't like that either. But when you tell them He's sovereign
in salvation, Everything is coming to pass exactly according to
His sovereign hand. And He is doing it all by the
right hand of His power, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
has been accomplished by Him. That is how He can be just, His
law honored, how He can show mercy to His people, because
in Christ He satisfied His own law for His people. And we are
preaching His wonderful works that He has done. When we go
through this psalm, all these works are typified. In verses
12 through 13, in Psalm 78, it's going to talk about Marvelous things did He in the
sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of
Zion. That is, bringing them out of bondage. He divided the
sea, He caused them to pass through, He made the waters to stand as
a heap. That's all a picture of Him redeeming
His people from our sins, from this world, from all iniquity
and bringing us out of bondage. That's all pictured in them,
bringing them out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. Then His
provision throughout the whole wilderness. He is going to talk
about that. He says here, in the daytime
He led them with the cloud, all the night with the light of fire,
the Spirit of Christ leading His people. He claimed the rocks
in the wilderness, He gave them drink out of the great depths,
Christ the smitten rock from whom the water of life comes. the manna from heaven. He made
manna come down from heaven and fed them with manna. And that's
all a picture of Him bringing us through this wilderness, delivering
us, keeping us, providing for us, never letting His people
be lost. And then He brought them to Canaan
and delivered them right into Canaan. You know, He kept that
whole group together, those He brought out of Egypt. Now this
is what we're going to be taught in admonition in this psalm.
Not to lust after, not to turn back from believing Him. The
sin here is they believed not God, they didn't trust His salvation.
But you get this, this is how sovereign God is. Of all the
people He brought out of Egypt, 20 years old and above, He saved
two of them. He brought two of them into Canaan.
What was the rest of them for? To support those two. to support those two. Isn't that
amazing? And you know who those two were?
Joshua and Caleb. What is that picture? Joshua
the Savior and Caleb the faithful dog. That's who's going to be
saved Christ is going to do the saving and He's going to save
those He makes faithful dogs to trust Him and never turn from
Him, to look to Him and His praise and His glory and His strength
and His works and never turn from Him. That's who He's going
to deliver in and He's going to keep us trusting Him. That's
why he says here, verse 7, that they might set their hope in
God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. His commandment is to believe
on Christ. Set your hope in God. Don't forget
the works He's done. Believe on Christ. All the righteousness
of the Lord is fulfilled in Him. Trust Him. Don't look from Him. Trust Him alone. Never turn from
Him. And love one another. Continue
in love. Obeying Him. Trusting Him. That's
what happened with the fathers. They didn't set their hope in
God. Our hope is sure and steadfast. Entered into the veil where Christ
is entered. Our forerunner. He's entered.
He's our high priest. He's sat down. We have a sure
hope. It's made sure by God's covenant promise. His oath. Two
immutable things in which God cannot lie. And we through the
Spirit are waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith. By
faith. Verse 22, you think about this
now. All these things God showed them
in the wilderness. I mean all these great physical
things they saw with their eyes. Do you think seeing those things
with your eyes would make you believe God? It won't. That's
not faith. Faith is something God gives
in the heart that keeps us believing it. After all they saw God do,
verse 22 says, this is why they turned back. Because they believed
not in God and trusted not in His salvation. He gave them bread
from heaven, it says, and water out of the rock. And you know
what they said? Can He also give us meat? Can He furnish a table
in the wilderness? He did. Angels food came down. They ate angels food, he said. And water followed, that rock
followed everywhere they went. And they drank that water in
that wilderness and that desert continually. And still didn't
believe God. Said, well we saw this, but can
he give us bread? Meat, can he give us meat? Can
he give us quails? He gave it to them. But he's
killed them doing it. The choicest of them. This is
an admonition. Don't ever turn from Christ.
Trust Christ. And here's the thing. He's going
to keep His people trusting Him. He's going to keep us. We're
not of them who draw back unto perdition, but to them that believe
to the saving of the soul because we got some super strength that
they didn't have. No. By His strength. By His strength. To the praise
of the glory of His grace, by these wonderful works He is doing,
He says, you are kept by the power of God unto salvation. Kept in faith, trust in Him.
And in the end, because He has reconciled every one of His people,
He is going to keep you. And in the end, Paul said, He
is going to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in
His sight. If you can enter into this, brethren,
in Christ right now, before God, the righteous judge. God says
of every one of His people, you are holy and unblameable and
unreprovable before God's holy law. Now in ourselves, in our
flesh, we're full of sin and need to be reproved. But before
God, before His law in Christ right now, believer, when it
says you are complete in Him, you can't get more than that.
That means right now in Christ you're holy, unblameable, and
unreprovable. So you know what this love involves? This love involves continually
trying to bring each other to Christ whenever we have a need. Just like our fathers did us
when they first preached the gospel to us. If you sin, if
you stumble, if you fall, if you start trying to turn away,
it's not to go and slay you. It's not to start pulling out
the precepts and whipping you with them. That won't bring you
to Christ. What brought you to Christ? What
made you hear that there was nothing you could do to save
yourself but your salvation was Christ? The gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation. That means saving us from our
sin beginning to end. The gospel is the power of God
to salvation. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed in our heart. From Christ the faithful to you
who He's given faith in your heart. He's revealing He's your
righteousness. And those that are for the just
shall live by faith. Those that are justified by Him.
He is going to keep you living, walking, persevering one way. By faith in Him. How? Through
this gospel. Through this gospel. And He says,
He will present you holy, unblameable, unrepentant in His sight. If
you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, Be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel. I got one hope. One hope. I need
Him to keep me, preserve me, carry me to the end. And I believe
He will. He says He will. Isn't that your
hope? I trust Him. I believe He will.
He says He will. He's done it. It's the success
of the gospel. The success of the gospel. Father,
pray Lord that you'd bless this word to our hearts and make us
hear in power, make us hear in your spirit, by your spirit.
Don't let us be scaffolding just to support your church. Lord,
make us truly be those you feed the bread from heaven. Make us
truly be those that persevere in faith. Make us have one hope. Make us use this one gospel.
Make us trust you to keep your people in faith. This is the
love that you put in our hearts, Lord. Make us look only to Christ
and use only this gospel. What a successful, triumphant
savior you are, using this one glorious weapon. Lord, bless it to our heart.
Bless it to the hearts of the elect that you've yet to call
out. We pray, Lord, it'll be some of our children, some of
our loved ones. Lord, we trust your will to bless
it. Make it effectual. Thank you, Lord, for blessing
it to our hearts. Forgive us our unbelief. Forgive us our
sin. Forgive us for turning away from the gospel, Lord. Don't
let us turn from this mighty Savior. Keep us trusting Him
alone. In Christ we ask it. Amen.