Alright brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 25. Psalm 25. Our title and our proposition,
our main point of the message are both found in verse 10. Psalm
25, 10. All the paths of the Lord are
mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What man is he that
feareth the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way
that He shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease,
and His seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant."
Now, each year I travel a lot, and when I'm traveling I talk
to a lot of people. and I listen to people, and the
one thing that everybody seems to conclude, and the one thing
that you can conclude from listening to people and talking to people,
is this world has gone crazy. And it shouldn't be a surprise
to us because sin is the cause of it, and sin just gets worse
and worse and worse. We've been going away from God
since we fell in the garden. That's why the scriptures tell
us the paths of man, their way, the paths of their way are turned
aside. They go to nothing and perish. That's the description of man
given in Job 6.18. He tells us in Job 24.13 that
man rebels against the light. They know not the ways thereof
nor abide in the paths thereof. It says of man, we leave the
paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness. And
that's why Isaiah was given the word by the Holy Spirit and he
said, cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for
wherein is he to be accounted of? You cannot trust man, beginning
with the one you see in the mirror. all men, for that matter, especially
when it comes to matters of salvation. Cease ye from man. But there
is one we can trust, and that's God. Our text tells us all God's
paths are mercy and truth toward His people who trust Him. Now
that is certainly so especially so when it comes to salvation.
And that's what he's speaking of here, first of all, in verse
10. All the paths of the Lord are
mercy and truth, unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. Now this is speaking of salvation.
When you read the words mercy and truth in Scripture, you can
be sure he's speaking about salvation. Psalm 98 verse 3 says, He hath
remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel,
toward His elect. All the ends of the earth have
seen the salvation of our God. We saw the salvation of God at
Calvary's cross and all the world knows about it, all the world
has seen it. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
That's where you behold His mercy and His truth. We're talking
about salvation in Christ because all God's mercy and all God's
truth is in Christ. Look at Isaiah 42. This chapter
speaks especially to this subject. I want you to see this in Isaiah
42. I'm going to read a little bit of Scripture here from this
chapter, but I want you to see this. You know here he's speaking
of Christ. And he said, verse 1, Behold
my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. And then at
the end of verse 3, he says, He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
till he have set judgment in the earth, and the owl shall
wake for his law. And then in verse 6, in verse
6, he's speaking of Christ here, and he says, I, the Lord, have
called thee in righteousness. Speaking of Christ, I've called
thee in righteousness, and I will hold thine hand, and will keep
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people. Christ is given
for a covenant of the people, a light of the Gentiles, to open
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison.
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am
the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another,
neither my praise to graven images. Look down at verse 16. I will
bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them
in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them,
and not forsake them. Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind,
that you may see. Look at verse 21. Speaking of
Christ, the Lord, our God, is well pleased for His righteousness'
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. You see, in salvation, all the
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. Mercy is how God forgives
us and saves us. That's His mercy. Truth is how
God forgives us and saves us while upholding and honoring
His justice. God will save, you will be merciful.
but He will not do it at the expense of justice. That's the
whole reason Christ came. Christ didn't come to be an example,
although He is the greatest example you will find in Scripture or
anywhere. But He came to uphold God's truth
and God's mercy, to make mercy and truth meet together in harmony. Look at Romans 3. This is the
whole message of the book. This is the message of Romans.
And right here, especially in Romans 3, he bears it out. I'm just wanting you to see we're
speaking about salvation. All the paths of God are mercy
and truth in salvation. Romans 3, 24. We're justified
freely by His grace. That means we didn't contribute
a thing to it. Justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God has
set forth a propitiation, a mercy seat, a place of mercy through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God." To declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness. That He might be just and the
justifier. That first word where it says
that He might be just, that's what our text is calling truth.
That He might be truth and the justifier. That's what our text
is referring to as mercy. That He might be just and show
mercy. That He might be a just God and
a Savior. That He might be just and the
justifier of him which believes in Jesus. And so, when our text
says all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, it means
that the paths in which God Himself walked, To accomplish the eternal
salvation of all His people, He did it in mercy and He did
it in truth, in Christ. All the paths, the path of God's
eternal counsel. Before God made this world, God,
the triune God, counseled with God. And He purposed with Himself
what He would do. Why He was going to create this
world and what He would do. And when He counseled with Himself,
He counseled in mercy and in truth in Christ. The path of
God choosing whom He would and passing by whom He would. He
did that in mercy. He didn't have to save us. He
didn't have to choose us. He did that in mercy. And He
did that in truth. He could do with His own what
He will and He chose us in Christ that it might be done in mercy
and in truth. The path of sending His Son to
die for His people. He did that to be merciful and
He did that to uphold truth. See, the law is satisfied because
Christ bore the sin of His people in answer to divine justice and
so the law is upheld, it's honored, it's magnified. The soul that
sinneth shall die. It must die. And everybody God
saves have died. Under the just judgment of God,
we died in Christ. We died in Christ. So when He
sent His Son to die, He did that in mercy and in truth. When He
calls His people and regenerates us and brings us to faith in
Christ, He does that in mercy and He does that in truth. God
uses the truth to call His people. He calls His people, teaching
us what we are in ourselves, sinners, unable to do one thing
for ourselves, and He teaches us what He's done in Christ.
This very message I'm preaching to you now, He calls and regenerates
His people in mercy and in truth. When He preserves us all our
days, He does it in mercy and in truth. He teaches us And He
does it in mercy and truth. He chastens us in mercy and truth. One day we're going to die. We're
going to lay aside this body of death. And one day He's going
to resurrect these bodies. He's going to raise our spirit
the moment we die. But He's going to resurrect these
bodies. And He's going to glorify us together with Christ. He's
going to do that in mercy and in truth. And it's all in Christ. All the paths of God are mercy
and truth in Christ. Now, when he speaks here about
those that keep his covenant and his testimonies, he's talking
about those who believe on Christ. That's another way of saying
all his paths are mercy and truth to those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We keep his covenant and we keep
his testimonies. We keep all God's covenant promises
by believing Oh no, Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that everything
God has promised us, we just saw there, He said, I'm going
to give Christ as a covenant for the people. The covenant
is Christ. And we believe that everything
God has coveted and promised us is all yes and it's all amen
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing to be added to it. Christ
is, it's yes and it's amen. There's no maybes in it. It's
true and it's mercy in Christ. And we believe that all His testimonies,
we keep His testimonies. His testimonies are His law,
His statute. We keep all His laws through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'd have read on out in Romans
3, it says this, do we make void the law through faith? The only
way you establish the law and the only way I establish the
law is through faith in Christ. You see, if we could have just
attempted to establish it and that was enough, God wouldn't
have had to send Christ. He wouldn't have had to send
His Son. That wasn't enough. He sent His Son so that His Son
established the law. He dotted every I and He crossed
every T so that nothing else could be added to the law. He fulfilled the law. He filled it full. Christ did. Now He calls us and gives us
faith to believe on Christ. And through faith in Christ,
because Christ established that law for us, we have established
it through faith in Him. He goes on to say, that's exactly
what Abraham, that's what he discovered. Because it's written,
he believed God. 430 years before the law was
given, he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and it was counted
to him for righteousness. He established the law when as
yet the law hadn't even been given at Mount Sinai yet. He
did it through faith in Christ the same way we do. Now, when
we know this, we know all God's paths in our salvation are mercy
and truth in Christ. Now knowing that's the case,
that the greatest of all is salvation, and knowing that all His paths
are mercy and truth and salvation, then we can rest assured that
all God's paths towards us in providence, in His daily dealings
with us, in everything that comes to pass in this world, we can
know this, it's all done in mercy and in truth. If the greater
was done in mercy and truth, you can rest assured the lesser
is going to be done in mercy and truth for His people. Now,
you take some troubling providence that comes along, and we become
grieved by it, and it's difficult sometimes for us to see how is
the Lord working mercy and truth in this? How is He being a faithful
Father in this? Because it grieves us. And sometimes
we have much sorrow over something like that. What are we to do
when that's the case? Look to Christ. The solution
to everything we face in this world is look to Christ and remember
this. Remember, everything God did
to save me, to eternally save me and make me righteous and
holy and accepted of God was performed by God in mercy and
in truth. If I know that, then I can know.
Whatever this is, I might not understand it, but God's doing
it in mercy and in truth. He's doing it in mercy and in
truth. Christ said, I am the light of the world, and he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but he shall have the
light of life. Everything is made clear in Christ. That's where the darkness is
dispelled. You might not understand the
providence still, but you have that peace of heart of knowing.
I see what He did for me in Christ. I know what He's doing for me
here is in mercy and in truth. I just know it is. But you know,
when that happens, when that trouble comes, what do we usually
do first? You that know Him, what do we
do first usually? We look to the waves, we look to the trouble.
And we sanctify the trouble. We give it the glory of being
greater than God by thinking there is no way we are going
to get out of this and whatever, all the crazy thoughts that go
through our head about whatever the providence is. The Lord said
sanctify me. That may be your fear and your
dread, and I'll be forsanctuary to you. But when that trouble
first comes, we're like the apostles in the ship, you know. We start,
oh Lord, don't you even care? We're going to perish. We start
sanctifying the waves. And acting like they're more
powerful than our God who sent the waves. You know, that's why
I think the psalmist, he's right in the middle of preaching a
message. And if you take out verse 11, It just goes right
on with the same thing he's talking about. But right after he says
that first thought, he brings this in, verse 11. For thy name's
sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. Why does he
break in with that prayer all of a sudden, when he just got
through speaking what he spoke? Because when I see what he's
done for me in Christ, and how that all his paths in Christ,
in my salvation, are mercy and truth, And then I see how I begin
to doubt Him in some little act of providence He sent my way.
I realize, Lord, I need You to pardon my iniquity. I am such
a sinner. I doubt You and I have no reason
to doubt Him. No reason. Now, I know we're
conceived in iniquity and I know that everything we do is iniquity.
But what's our greatest iniquity? doubting God. That's the greatest
iniquity you and I are guilty of is doubting our God. I thought of this, you think
of the three, for a believer, three things, three times in
providence that were the darkest days of providence. Number one
was the garden when Adam fell. Was God in control of that? Was
He working mercy and truth in that? Overruling everything in
that garden? He sure was. He sure was. He could send the Apostle Paul
with this good news, just as all died in Adam. Everybody he
represented died in him, so everybody Christ represented is going to
live in him. He was ruling that, and he overruled
it. Then you look to the cross. That
was a dark day in Providence. It looked like Satan and wicked
men were having their way with Christ, rejecting Him. Scripture says that we took Him
with wicked hands and crucified Him, but men were just doing
exactly what God before ordained to be done, what He determined
before to be done. That's what men were doing. And
through that, Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets, and
He put away our sin. God was working mercy and truth
in that providence, just like He was in the garden. And then
the third darkest day for a believer is this, when God makes you and
me to see our sin and our death. When He first came and made you
see your sin and death, that was a dark day to you. Because
you thought, I deserve wrath. That's all I
deserve. I can't merit salvation. I can't
earn salvation. But did that stop God from translating
us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His dear
Son? No, He did it. So you look at those three darkest
days and we see God working mercy and truth. So you know this,
whatever comes our way, just rest assured, God's working mercy
and truth in it, just like He did in salvation. And so we can
just say this, Lord, for Your name's sake, for the sake of
Your darling Son, who is the namesake of God. For your namesake,
Lord, pardon my iniquity, because it's great. It's great. We don't come to God lessening
our sin. We come to God saying, it's great. Our sin might be great, but we
got a Savior that's greater. And He says, I, even I, am He
that blocks out your transgression for mine own sake, and will not
remember your sin. So now we pick back up with the
message. And he began and he said, everything God did for
us in our salvation, all the paths of God are mercy and truth. Mercy and truth. Now, how did
we learn the greatness of our sin? How did we learn to flee
to Christ and ask forgiveness in Christ? How does it continue? How are we continually made to
look to Christ and come to Christ? How does that continue? It's
by God putting a fear of God in our hearts. Look here in verse
12. What man is he that feareth the
Lord? Him shall he teach in the way
that he shall choose. To fear the Lord. Have you ever
tried to tell somebody, define to somebody what the fear of
the Lord is? That's a hard thing. It's difficult to tell somebody
what is the fear of the Lord. I can just sort of hit around it maybe, but only
God can give it to you. And only God can really, you'll
know it when you got it. But I'll tell you some things
that it includes. It includes a reverence of God. It gives
you a reverence for God. And it includes beholding something
of God's greatness and something of our nothingness. And it includes
a certain degree of fear, just real fear. Paul said, knowing
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. It's healthy to have a fear
of God. And it includes a desire for
God to be honored. And it includes a desire to please
God and a desire to obey God. You know, these days it's pretty... pretty common for parents, they
want to be friends with their children and their children to
consider them to be their friend. And that's okay to a degree,
but it's good for your child to fear you, to be afraid of
you. That's healthy. And that's so
with God. It's good to fear God. It's good
to have a fear of God, not to get too chummy. Now, only God
can put that in your heart and He does it when He creates us
anew in regeneration and He begins to teach us who He is. And He
begins to teach us what great sinners we are. Listen to Proverbs
16 verse 6. He says this, By mercy and truth
iniquity is purged. Now that's the first thing we
saw. Mercy and truth at the cross, that's where God redeemed His
people. Mercy and truth, our iniquity
was purged. And it says, by the fear of the
Lord, men depart from evil. That's something He does in regeneration.
And both of these works are necessary. We're such sinners. We died,
became legally unjust before the law. That's got to be taken
care of at Calvary. But we're conceived in sin and
we're sinners in our hearts, unholy, so we got to be made
new. Christ got to be formed in us
and we got to be made holy in heart. So, mercy and truth, by
mercy and truth, iniquities purge. That's Christ at the cross. And
by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. That's when
it begins to work in your heart. That's why he tells us this,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You know, a person
could come and hear the gospel preached. And until God puts
the fear of God in your heart, you take it or leave it. You
can hear these things and you have a flippant attitude toward
God. You know, and it affects everything
about you. Your whole attitude toward worship and the time of
worship and everything is just, is a flippant, careless, I don't
care attitude. But when God begins to work in
your heart, puts His fear in your heart, then you start wanting
to pay attention. You start wanting to know what
does God say, because now you know, I'm going to have to deal
with this God. I'm going to face Him. He knows
everything there is to know about me. He knows what I am. I can't hide that from Him. I
need Him. And I got to hear how He says
I have to be saved. And so you begin to pay attention.
And He says here now, when God puts His fear in our hearts,
God then makes us to start hearing and heeding His Word. Read that
again. What man is he that fears the Lord? Him, that man, shall
God teach in the way that God shall choose. God creates this
fear in us, and He begins to teach you that God's holy. I
can't tell you what that means either, really. It's something
I've never... I just know it by glimpses, that's
all. But God's holy. That means to
come into God's presence, you have to be holy. You have to
be holy. There can be no impurity in your
thoughts, in your heart, at all. You've got to be righteous to
come into God's presence. You've got to be as holy and
righteous as God is holy and righteous or He can't receive
us or can't have anything to do with us. And when He begins
to teach you that and He begins to teach you at the same time
that you and I are unholy and unrighteous in ourselves, that's
when you'll start having some fear in your heart and you'll
start thinking, I need to hear what He's going to teach me.
And the Scripture says, When He gives this fear and He gives
you this understanding, He starts to teach you that the only way
you're going to be able to be righteous is in the righteousness
God's provided. And that righteousness God's
provided is His Son. And the only way you can be made
holy in heart is in the holiness God has provided. And that holiness
is Christ. Christ has got to be formed in
us. He's the life of the new man. He's the holiness of the
new man. That's what we mean when we say
Christ is our sanctification. When He's made sanctification
and when you realize He is my life. He is my heart. I don't
know how to say it. He is that holiness I have to
have to approach God. And He's my righteousness. And
when He gives you that fear, He starts teaching you then,
Christ is the way God's chosen. He says He will teach a man His
way. And Christ is that way God has
chosen. And when He begins to teach you
this, He will get the job done. I can sit here and try to teach
you this, and I can't. I would like to affectually,
irresistibly make you hear what I'm saying, but I can't. He can
do that though. Let's turn over to Psalm 32 and
verse 8. I want you to read this. And
this is not a subtle suggestion God makes. Our text says, God will teach
him the way he shall choose. And here's what God will teach
you in your heart. You'll begin to experience this
in your heart. You might not know what's going
on, and you won't hear an audible voice, but you'll begin to hear
God in the heart. And listen to verse 8. God says,
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go. And when he does this, you shall
go in this way. I will guide thee with mine eye,
God said. Now watch this. Be ye not as the horse or as
the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
bit and rattle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows
shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy
shall compass him about. When God teaches you, He'll tell
you, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou
shalt go. And I'll guide thee with mine
eye, and you will go in the way God teaches you to go. And then
when He teaches you this fear, He begins to teach you to cast
all your care on Christ the way. Doing it as you do what Brother
Scott just read, confessing all your sins to Him. Who is among you that fears the
Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walketh in
darkness and hath no light? He said, let him trust in the
name of the Lord and stay upon his God. See, right now as I'm saying
this, to some here that means nothing. It just means nothing. But when God makes you to be
the sinner, And He says, now, do you walk
in darkness? Do you have no light? God will
make you say, yes, Lord, I don't have any light. I don't have
anything in me that can save me. And God will say, trust in
the name of the Lord. Trust Christ. Stay upon God. And Jesus Christ says, I am the
way. What way is this, Lord? I am
the way. What is the truth? I am the truth.
Where can I find this life? I am the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. I said you wouldn't hear that
voice audibly. You will hear that voice audibly. You'll hear
it through God's preacher. If God makes you to hear what
I just said in your heart, It's not me that said it in there.
It's God that says it in the heart. He'll say, I'm the way,
I'm the truth, I'm the life. There's no coming of God but
by me. You can't work to come to God.
You can't straighten up and turn over a new leaf and come to God.
You can't get a little morality about you and expect God to receive
you. There's one way to come to God and that's Christ. He's
the only way. Jesus said, I'm the door. Who
would be so foolish as to attempt to come into a room some other
way than the door? That's the way. That's the only
way to get in, is the door. He's the door. He said, if a
man comes by Me, he shall be saved. He shall enter in and
he shall be saved. And shall go in and out and find
pasture. You'll find rest in Christ. You'll find safety in Christ.
You'll find everything in Christ. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is no other name under
heaven whereby we must be saved. Buddha can't save you. Muhammad
can't save you. Allah can't save you. No idol
of man's imagination can save you. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is the only true and living God. We must be saved
by Him. There is no other way. We must
be saved by Him. And then when He's brought you
to cast your care on Christ, that's when God gives you peace
in your innermost being. He won't give this peace to you
until He brings you to cast your care on Christ. You know what
I'm talking about. When God first began dealing
with you, and every time He's brought you to see your sin again,
really brought you to see your sin again, you can't get any
peace anywhere. I don't care what you do. You
can try to think good thoughts all you want to. You can't get
this peace. You can try to persuade yourself
that everything's alright. Me and God got a good thing going.
Not until He brought you to cast your care on Christ. Then He
gives you this peace. Look here, back in our text now,
Psalm 25, verse 13. He says, let me read what went
before it. I want you to see it together
here. Psalm 25, verse 12. What man is he that fears the
Lord? Him shall God teach in the way that God shall choose,
and his soul shall dwell at ease. Now my marginal reference, Sometimes
the translators, when they would be translating, in this case
the Hebrew, the Old Testament is the Hebrew, when they would
be translating the Hebrew and they thought there might be an
alternative translation that would be good, they put that
in the margin. And it's a good alternative too. Both of them
are good, but listen to this. His soul shall lodge in goodness. Either one's good. His soul shall
dwell at ease. His soul shall lodge in goodness. That's who Christ is. He's goodness. And when He brings you there,
you just... I don't know how to say this. Do you think you're a sinner?
Do you know you're a sinner? Is there anybody here that you
just know, If I took my last breath right now, I'd stand before
God without any hope whatsoever and God would say to me, depart
from me, you're a worker of iniquity and I never knew you. So anybody
here that God's began to deal with that you know that right
now, as you stand right now, that's your case, that's where
you are. If you don't have Christ, that's
where you are. He takes you from that place
right there and He brings you to see Christ is all salvation. He's everything. He's the Alpha
and Omega. He's A to Z of salvation. He's everything a sinner needs
to be accepted of God, to be complete and have all fullness. He's all that you need. He brings
you to see and know and cast your care on Him. He says, in
the innermost depth of your soul, you will dwell in ease. You will lodge in goodness. All that burden of sin and all
that struggle and all that fear of condemnation and that fear
of coming into God's holy presence, now you'll see I'm welcome. I'm dwelling. I have a dwelling
place. I have a lodging place. And it's
in ease and it's in goodness. And I know this in my heart of
hearts. I know this in my soul now. That's
what he says. Never to be forsaken by God.
God will never forsake me. I mentioned to you not too long
ago about seeing this documentary on this Mormon religion. And
those folks that had come out of that were talking about it,
and they said, they said, the way it works, and it's just what
all free will works religion is like. They said you never
have peace that you've done enough. You've got to constantly be doing
a little more and a little more and a little more. And they'll
give you just a little bit to make you have just a little bit
of comfort and then that's it right away and you've got to
get back to working to do more. And you never can just rest and
as our text says, dwell there. Lodge there. That's not how God
saves. God brings you to Christ and
makes you to know, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake
you. You have no fear of condemnation. You have no fear of one sin ever
being brought up against you. You've got no fear of any curse. You've got no fear of death.
You have eternal life in My Son. You're abiding in My Son. I'm
going to keep you in My Son. And I'm going to bring you to
Myself because I covenanted with Myself to do it. And I'm doing
it in mercy and in truth. My justice, My justice bears
witness that you're Mine and I'm going to keep you. When you
have that confidence in the Lord, you can rest. Now you've got
rest for your soul. This is what Christ said when
He said, Are you heavy laden? Are you burdened down with your
sins? Are you burdened down with all this bondage men have put
on you and trying to make you do and do and do and do? And
He said, You come to Me, you that are heavy laden. And He
said, I will give you rest. And you'll find rest for what?
You'll find rest for your soul. Rest for your souls. If you've
got rest for your soul, your body can be tired and broke down
and hurting and the storm can be going on around you. But if
your soul is lodging in goodness and dwelling in peace, you've
got something. You've got something that will
never be taken from you. The fear of the Lord tends to
life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall not
be visited with evil. Proverbs 19, 23. And he says
again in Proverbs 29, 25, The fear of man bringeth a snare,
but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. And then
look at this, verse 13, there's something else he says, And his
seed, that's God's seed, that's Christ's seed, that's you who's
been born again by him, his seed shall inherit the earth. Not
only does He make you to know now that your sins put away and
you're made righteous and holy by Christ, He makes you to know
now you're a joint heir with Christ. The Spirit bears witness
in our heart that if we're children of God, then we're heirs, heirs
of God. You know what we're reading right
here? We're reading God's will and testament. You know when
a man writes out his will and testament, and after he's dead,
men read his will and testament. Well, Hebrews 9 says, Christ
is the testator, and he's the one who went to the cross and
died. And what he accomplished now, he's written it. This is
the New Testament written in his blood. And he said, now you
read them my will and my testament. And you tell them this, they're
heirs of God, they're joint heirs with me, and everything that
belongs to me belongs to them. I don't know what all that includes,
but it's a lot. I can guarantee you that. Everything
that belongs to Christ belongs to His people. We're joint heirs
with Him. Let no man glory in men, for
all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas,
or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things
to come, all are yours. And you're Christ, and Christ
is God's. Isn't that so much better than
trusting a man? Trusting the God-man. Alright? And from then
on, you know something that this world doesn't know. Look here,
verse 14. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. What's the secret? The secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him. This is the secret
of God that has to be revealed by God, and He only reveals it
to those whom He wills. All who are born of God and taught
of God have the secret. They have the hidden mystery,
which God has kept secret since this world began, which this
world knows nothing of. And we have it by divine revelation. We have the secret. We know the
secret of the gospel. Let me tell you what the secret
of the gospel is. Christ is all. Three of the shortest, sweetest,
most fullest words you'll ever hear. Christ is all. We know the secret. We know the
key to the Scriptures. Christ is all. We know the secret
of the Lord's purpose and election. To give Christ all the glory.
We know the secret why He redeemed His elect by His Son. To give
Christ all the glory. We know why He calls us and regenerates
us and it's not of us to quote how to be born again. It's of
God. Why? That Christ might get all
the glory. The secret of His providence,
the secret of His judgments, the secret of His love, the secret
of His grace is to give all the glory to Christ. We know the
secret of communion and fellowship with God. Christ is all. We know the secret of life. The
secret of contentment. You know how many books have
been written on that? The libraries are full of them. I can tell
you what it is. Christ is all. Christ is all. Now, I've given the secret away. I've told you the secret. But
I haven't put the secret in anybody's heart. When you have the secret,
you've got it in your heart. Christ is all. Divine revelation. Christ is all. That's why He
does. Everything He's doing is to give
Christ all the glory, and it's for the good of those He loves
in Christ. Everything. But the secret's
not just knowledge. The secret is Christ Himself.
It's having Christ. I'm not talking about being a
professor of Christ. I'm talking about being a possessor
of Christ. And then look at this. God shows us His covenant. He
says that secret we have, He is going to keep showing us something
else. He will show them His covenant. How can you show somebody your
covenant? How can you show somebody your covenant? Remember what we saw? I am going
to give them Christ. I am going to give them you for
a covenant. Our covenant is a person. The
resurrection is a person. Last week, a lot of people I'm
glad they do it because one time of the year, two times of the
year, at Christmas and at Easter, people at least all over the
world recognize Christ for once. Preachers will get up and they'll
preach a message about Christ at least two times a year. And
I'm glad at least they give our Savior lip service. But they
were celebrating an event. You know what we celebrate every
time we come here? A person. Christ is the resurrection. Just like Christ is the covenant.
He is the covenant. He is the covenant. He says there, just one last
thing. No, He says we have the secret. But He says He'll continue
to show us the covenant. He's just going to keep showing
you over and over and over that every promise He's made to you
It's all in mercy and in truth. And it's all yes and amen. And
it's all Christ. Everything is Christ. You know,
when I first came here, you remember that illustration I gave you
about how everything's getting more narrow and more narrow and
more narrow. It's like a funnel, you know. And it's just, the
things that were so important before, you know, it gets more
narrow and those things can't stay on the shelf. They just
fall off. Well, that wasn't as important as I thought it was.
And it just keeps getting more narrow and more narrow. Well,
that wasn't as important. It falls off and that falls off.
When it's all done, you know where we're going to be? Standing
face to face with one person. Christ. We're going to find out.
He was the only thing needful the whole time. He's going to
show us that more and more and more and more. All right.