Alright, if you'll turn back
there now to Matthew chapter 1, the passage we just read together, those first 17 verses. At this time of the year, when
we think about the birth of Christ, we usually start reading in the
Scriptures, and we start reading in verse 18. It says, now the
birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. But Matthew begins here in verse
1 saying, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. Salvation began long before Christ
was born. This is one of those passages,
these first 17 verses, that we tend to just skip over because
it's a long list of names that are hard to pronounce. We read
them and we think, you know, what's there? How's the Gospel
in that? But every word in this book is
given inspired by God, and it's edifying. Everything in this
book is. And this genealogy of Christ,
this generation of Christ declares that Jesus Christ is the Son
of David. He is the Son of Abraham. That's
what we read here. Verse 1. The book of the generation
of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. And that
tells us, brethren, Christ Jesus is the Savior promised of God
who is the salvation of His people. Now, I want you to see three
things here. I'm not going to read this again to you, but I'm
going to show you three things, Lord willing, here, and we will
look at these together. I want you to see that God is
faithful. When God saves, He saves by His
Word. by His promise, He will make
His Word become alive to you. And He'll make you to know that
His Word is truly a person, that He is God speaking, and He'll
make you to know He's faithful. And trust, you trust His faithfulness
to do as He says He'll do. The second thing, that's the
first thing we see, the faithfulness of God. The second thing we see
is we'll see that salvation is all by grace in Christ. It's all by grace in Christ. Grace means it's given freely
of God. sovereignly of God, and it's
worked by God, who is the second person of the Trinity, or by
Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God,
the man, Christ Jesus. And we're gonna see here, thirdly,
that those who God saves are sinners, absolutely undone in
sin, and we're gonna see it's a great condescension of God
to save as He does. The first thing we'll see is
God is faithful. The second thing we'll see is
salvation is by God's grace in Christ Jesus. The third thing
we'll see is this horrible thing of sin and that when God saves,
He condescends. He comes down to save us. Alright, here's the first thing.
God is faithful. Turn over to Genesis. Well, it
says here, Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham.
And verse 2 begins with Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac. Let's go
back now and let's see how this thing started with Abraham. Genesis
chapter 12, verse 1. Abraham was dwelling in an idolatrous
land. He was dwelling. He wasn't seeking
God at all. He had many gods. His people
had many gods, idolaters, gods of their imagination. That's
the place where All God's children are when God calls them. And
he called Abraham, and he says here, verse 1, Now the Lord had
said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, from your kinfolk, from your family, and from your father's
house. God's going to separate, going
to make us follow him alone. And that's what he's telling
Abraham, follow me alone. unto a land that I will show
thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, a great nation. And I will bless thee, and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing." God said, He
spoke to Abraham. He told him, He commanded him. He told him what to do. And he
said, I will, I will, I will do these things for you, Abraham.
And he says in verse 3, I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse them that curse at thee. And in thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. Now what are you going to do
when you hear that? What are you going to do when God speaks
that word to you? I'll tell you exactly what you'll
do. Look at the next verse. So Abraham departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him. That's exactly what will happen.
Now, God promised here that He was going to bless him. He said,
I'm going to bless you, Abraham. Turn with me to Genesis 22, and
we'll find out how He's going to do this. Genesis 22, verse
18. He says this, in thy seed, that
means in your, in thy seed, in thy child, in
your son, when it's coming through your lineage to your family tree,
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Well, who's that seed he's talking about? Who's that seed he's talking
about? Look at Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians chapter 3. Look at verse 16. This was a promise God made,
a word God gave. That's how God's going to say,
by His word. This was the promise God made.
Now to Abraham and his seed, see that word again, his seed,
were the promises made. All these promises God made to
Abraham, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to bless them that
bless you, and I'm going to curse them that curse you. I'm going
to make of you a nation, and I'm going to do all of it in
your seed, Abraham, in your son. It's coming through your lineage.
He saith not into seeds as of many. He wasn't saying I'm going
to take all your sons and I'm going to make all your sons a
blessing. That's not what He was talking
about. He wasn't talking about many, all the natural sons of
Abraham. Who was He talking about? He
didn't say into seeds as of many, but as of one. and to thy seed,
which is Christ. That's how he's gonna do everything
he promised to do. I'm gonna do it in Christ. Now,
he made the same promise to David, to Jesse. And he said throughout
the scriptures, look at Isaiah 11. Let me show you this, Isaiah
11. Continued to make this promise. This is how he saves. He makes
this promise. He promised to raise up from
David a son, a son of David. David was the son of Jesse. He
said, I'm going to raise a son of David, a son of Jesse, and
he's going to rule my house. He's going to save them from
their sins. Look at chapter 11, verse 1. There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his
roots. Now who is that? It's the same
one. Same person we're talking about.
Christ Jesus the Lord. Look at Matthew chapter 1 again
now. Back there with me. This is what
we have declared to us in everything God promised from Abraham all
the way into every heart of everyone He ever called by His power and
His grace. This is what God declared. I'm
going to save in this one who's coming And this one is Christ. He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of promise. He's God's own Son. And verse
1 declares to us, God is faithful to bring to pass exactly As He
promises, He'll bring it to pass. He saves according to truth. He saves according to His Word. His Word is truth. His Word is
a promise. His promise is His Word. And
His promise is as good as God. It's as sure as God. It's as
never failing as God. And that's what is declared here,
verse 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. Now you think about it. Think
of... It's hard for us to go back as
far as Abraham. Way, way... Think of all the
wars that have come about. Think of all the... evil that
has come about in the world. You see evil all around us right
now. You see things happening right now in strifes with men,
and men against men, and houses against houses, and states against
states, and nations against nations, and kings against kings, and
yet through every bit of that, even when God took down the heads
from around this nation called Israel and allowed them to be
dispersed back out into the world, He He called Abraham from out
there and He brought him to Himself. And then He began to form a nation.
And eventually He opened up the hedge around about them and let
them go back out into the world. Just like where He called Abraham
from. And yet, in it all, God was showing
He's faithful to fulfill and bring to pass that which He promised
He'd bring to pass in the fullness of time. that Savior, that salvation,
the Son of God, the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, the Son of David,
the Son of Abraham came forth exactly like God promised. And
He was the one that Abraham was looking to when God spoke that
word to him back there in Genesis 12. Abraham believed Christ. He saw Christ's day by faith. That's what faith does. And he
trusted God. And Christ was his surety. That means he had to be saved
because he cast all his care into the hand of Christ. And
God made good on his promise. God came in human flesh and He
saved Abraham just like He said He would. God's not a man that
He should lie. You can't depend on Him. A man will lie, but God's not
a man that He should lie. God says, He says of His counsel,
of that which He determines to bring to pass and what He declares
to you and I, He says, I have spoken it. You see who spoke it to Abraham?
God did. He spoke it to him. God said,
I will also bring it to pass. I've purposed it, I'll also do
it. See, God doesn't leave anything
in my hand. He calls us out of idolatry and
he says, I'm going to save you. And what we see here is he does
exactly what he says he'll do. Look over 1 Thessalonians 5 verse
23. This gives us great Great peace for our hearts as
we see God fulfill His promise, overruling everything, nothing
being able to hinder Him from fulfilling His promise to save
His children from our sins in the final glory with Him. If
He was able to do all this and Christ came forth exactly at
the time appointed, and He worked out the salvation of His people,
He's able to save us now until He comes back again. Isn't He? Look at this. 1 Thessalonians
5 verse 23. The very God of peace. This is our peace. This is our
assurance. The very God of peace. Sanctify
you wholly. Separate you. Call you out like
He did Abraham. make you separate in Christ,
being perfect in Christ, separate you wholly, and I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus. Faithful is he that calleth you,
he that said, I'll do it, who also will do it. God's faithful. All right? Here's the second
thing we see in this generation, this genealogy. Salvation's by
grace, and it's all in Christ Jesus. Now, in this second verse
of Matthew 1, it says, Abraham begat Isaac. Abraham had many
other sons, but this one son, Isaac, is mentioned. Why is that? Why is that one son mentioned?
Genesis 21-12, He said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. In
Isaac shall your children be called. And this is a picture
of everything I just told you. Isaac is a picture of the Son
promised. He is a picture of Christ Jesus. So we see here,
Abraham brought forth Isaac, just as God the Father brought
forth His Son of promise, Christ Jesus the Lord, just like He
said He would. And then look at this. He says, And Isaac begat
Jacob. You know what Jacob's name means?
It means supplanter, trickster, sinner. God said, Jacob have
I loved, but he shall have I hated. And just like Jacob was chosen
of God and precious, Christ is chosen of God and precious. And
because He's chosen of God and precious, because He came forth
the Son promised like Isaac did, the only begotten Son of God,
It's through Christ that us Jacobs, me and you, are forgotten of
Christ Jesus the Lord. It's all by grace. All by grace. Look here at this next thing
I want you to see. Some of these sons that are mentioned
here, some of these folks that are mentioned here are natural
sons. That means they're the natural
descendants of Abraham. Some of these mentioned here
are true spiritual sons of Abraham. That means they were children
of God, born of God. Some of the true sons of God,
spiritual sons of God, are not mentioned here. They're not mentioned
here. They're no less the children
of God because they're not mentioned here. Let me give you an example. Isaac is mentioned here. He was
chosen of God. But he had a brother named Ishmael.
He's not mentioned here. He was born of flesh. He was
born of the will of man. Jacob was chosen. He's included
here. His brother Esau, born at the
exact same time of the exact same mother. He's not listed
here because he wasn't a child of God. He wasn't a true son
of God. He wasn't called of God. He wasn't
chosen of God. Then there's some here who are
good followers of God, who trusted God, who saw Christ to come by
faith and they followed Him. You've got Jesse. He begat David. You've got a father and a son
here who were both faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. by
faith, by the Spirit of God. They saw Him. They followed Him
just like believers in our day follow Him. And then you got
folks born of them, children born of them. You come down here
to somebody like verse 9, Ahaz. Ahaz. Ahaz didn't follow the
Lord. He was wicked. He was evil. And
he had a son named Hezekiah, and Hezekiah followed the Lord.
He served the Lord. He worshipped the Lord. Then
you have some here mentioned who were Gentiles. They weren't
of that nation in Israel. Look at verse 5. Rahab. Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. Rahab, she was a Gentile. She was in the land of Canaan.
When Joshua came into the land of Canaan, she was there. She
wasn't brought out of Egypt. She wasn't brought through the
wilderness with the children of Israel. She was living in
the land of Canaan. And then you got here, Boaz begat
Obed of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite woman. She
lived down there in the land of the Moabites when Naomi and her husband left
and went down there, and her son married Ruth, and unlawfully
married Ruth, but through it all, God brought her back to
Israel, and here she is listed in this group. What's the point
of all that? Why is that? Salvation doesn't run in bloodlines. It doesn't mean that because
your father believes on the Lord, that your son's going to believe
on the Lord. Or your daughter's going to believe on the Lord.
It doesn't mean that. Salvation's according to God's grace. We
teach them. We want them to know. We instruct
them in these things. But if you're going to be saved,
it's going to be saved because God's gracious and He's called
you by His grace. We see here, it's not by race. Some Jew, some Gentile. It's
not by race. It's by grace. We see here that
it's not by gender. There's some men listed here.
There's some women listed here too. Aren't they? It's by God's
grace. Some here, who makes thee to
differ? Who makes thee to differ? God
chooses whom He will. God draws them by His grace.
Salvation is by the eternal, sovereign election of God. Salvation
is by the sovereign, eternal redemption of Christ Jesus. And
salvation is by the irresistible call of God's grace. Let's look
at a few scriptures. Look at John chapter one. John chapter one. Somebody might say, that sounds
like to me you're shutting me out. What if I'm not a child
of God? What if I'm not an elect child of God? If it wasn't for
God's sovereign choosing to save a people from before He made
the world, nobody would be saved. This doesn't shut the door, this
opens the door. And when God speaks into the
heart, He's going to make you behold, it's not that I chose
God, it's that God chose me. That's the only way God gets
the glory. He does the choosing. Christ came to His disciples
and He said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Chose them before
He made anything. Before He made anything. Look
here in John chapter 1 verse 13. It's speaking of many didn't
believe Him. Many, He came, the light, and
many didn't believe Him. But those that were born of God
were born, verse 13, not of blood. It wasn't because they were the
natural sons of Abraham. They weren't born of the will
of the flesh. That is, their mothers and fathers couldn't
do anything to save them. They could teach them, but they
couldn't make it effectual in their heart. They weren't born
of the will of man. They couldn't do anything to
make themselves children. But they were born of God. Born
of God. Look over at Romans chapter 9.
Romans chapter 9. You know, I was thinking of this
this week. We saw it tonight in what you
read, Eric, and then I've been going through 1 Peter, studying
through 1 Peter. Grace and peace be multiplied
to you. Grace and peace be multiplied
to you. You know how you're going to have a gracious frame of spirit
in the midst of the heaviest of trials? You know how you're
going to add to this faith the virtues of knowledge and of temperance
and patience and kindness and love and grace. You know how
these things are going to be added. You know how an entrance is going
to be, how you're going to know that you're calling an election
this year. You know how? Due diligence. Desiring the sincere
milk of the word. It's by the knowledge of God
our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by the power and
wisdom of God that as we behold that salvation is all by His
grace, that it's all by His pouring out the abundance of His grace
whereby He called us and whereby He continues to make us to behold
and rejoice in Him, that He continues to edify that gracious frame
of spirit, that peace in your heart. You know what causes us
not to be at peace? Insecurity. being afraid, being
fearful. You know what is the peace that
we have in our hearts? We've got peace with God. And
that peace has been wrought by His grace freely for us. And
that grace continues to be shed in our hearts abundantly. And
it's by that grace that we're grown in the Spirit, the fruits
of the Spirit, so that we continue and grow inwardly. Romans 9 verse 14. So this is
what we're looking at. We're trying to see these things.
Verse 13, As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is He unrighteous? God forbid. For He said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. You want mercy? Do you want God
to do the saving? Or do you want to do the saving?
Do you want God to do the Saving or do you want to do the saving? It's got to be all of God and
none of us or all of us and none of God. It's not a mixture. If it's of grace, it's no more
works. If it's of works, it's no more grace. Look at our 1
Peter, where we've been studying in 1 Peter. I want to go back
here. I want to show you this. I'll show it all in one Scripture.
Can't wait to look at this. See this all in one Scripture. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. That means God the Father did
the choosing. He foreknew, He forearranged
everything, foreordained who He'd call. Look at this next.
Through sanctification of the Spirit, that is, He sends forth
His Spirit, just like He sent forth His Word into Abram's heart
and said, Abraham, follow me. If God speaks right now, He's
going to speak through His Spirit and He's going to say, follow
me! And you know what you're going to do? You're going to
leave everything and follow Him. And look at this. Unto, who we
following? the obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. When He calls you, He's going
to make you see there's only been one that's ever been obedient.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. You've got God the Father
doing the choosing, doing the foreknowing, doing the forearranging
of everything. You've got Him sending forth
the Spirit of God and calling you by His grace. And you've
got it when He does it, He lifts up your eyes and He says, This
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear Him. Look
at Him. Look at this One who is the One
who only in the history of this world has ever been obedient. He's the only One that God's
ever looked upon and said, I'm well pleased with Him. And this sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ means when He entered into God's presence with
His own blood, He made satisfaction. Satisfaction! That means He did... He satisfied God completely. And when the Spirit comes forth,
He sprinkles you. He comes inside you and He purges
the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And
everything that we do, everything that we say, everything is accepted
of God one way. On this altar, Christ Jesus the
Lord, who makes every one of God's children, all of their
works, righteous as God's righteousness is. No righteousness in our works. They're all together mixed with
sin and unbelief and rebellion against God. Anything you and
I say, think or do. Period. But Christ is the obedient
one and all righteous. Everything God requires is Christ. Fulfilled by Him and is Him in
person. Now, here's the third thing I
want you to see. I want you to see sin and condescension. Why did God save this way? If
you were sovereign, that means if you had the power over absolutely
everything in this world, and you're going to declare, you
were going to send forth your son declaring your holy name,
would you record and make it so everybody in your family tree
that you looked at, everybody looked at, would say, now they're
just good, righteous, perfect people. I'd do that. That's our thinking, you know,
to make, to just have a family tree that's just, we do that,
you know, we do that. When we're talking about our
relatives and things and we're really wanting to to brag on
ourselves, we do it and we omit that certain one and that certain
one because, well, they just don't look all that good in the
family tree. But God didn't omit anybody.
He didn't omit here those that were sinners and did unrighteous
things. Let me show you, Matthew 1.3.
Judas begat Phares and Zara of Tamar. Tamar was a woman. She was the daughter-in-law of
Judas. This was an incestuous, sinful
union between Tamar and her father-in-law, Judas. Look down here at verse 5. And
Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. That's Rahab the harlot. That
was her occupation. And she gives birth to Boaz.
And then verse 5. Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. Ruth's that Moabite woman. She
didn't have any business with God's people. But she did. She had all business
by God's grace. Look at verse 6. And Jesse begat
David the king, and David the king begat Solomon, of her that
had been the wife of Uriah, Aspath Sheba. Another man's wife. He called her. And she became pregnant with
a child. And you know what David did?
He sent for her husband out of the battlefield, brought him
to his house. He tried to trick him first,
going home to his wife so maybe his wife could end up saying
she was pregnant from her husband. And that man slept at David's
door because he loved him. He said, how could I? How could
I go home to my wife when my brethren are fighting in battle?
So David sent a letter and he sent him out into the heat of
the battle, to the forefront of the battle, so he could kill. And he got killed. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
record all of these sinners and these sinful, shameful blots
in his family. Why did he come through such
a family of sinners? That's why. Because they couldn't save themselves. They were sinners. His name is
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And by coming the way He did,
this one who's separate from sinners, this one who's higher
than the heavens, coming through this family tree that He came
through, this spotted family of His brethren, declares to
us what condescension, what humility, how He came down to be identified
with those He came to save. We couldn't do it in ourselves.
His children couldn't save themselves because of their flesh. They
were sinners, dead in Adam, trespassers in sin. They had to be purged. They had to be washed. He came
forth and fulfilled all righteousness for them. And look at Hebrews
with me. Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1. He was the
form of God. He's the Son of God. Never was
always with God from the beginning. Equal with God. And yet He took
on Him a form of a servant. He didn't make Himself of a reputation.
He didn't come through... He came through this lineage. Came as a man. And He humbled
Himself. Why did He do all this? Look
at Hebrews Chapter 2, actually, verse 10. For it became Him. It became Him. It was becoming
to what we've been talking about, that salvation is all by grace.
By God coming down to where we are and saving those He determined
to save from the beginning. You see grace here? Condescension
coming down. It became Him for whom are all
things. Everything is for Him. And by
whom are all things? All things are by Him. It became
Him in bringing many sons unto glory to save us from our sin,
bring us with Him into His glorious presence, to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. He's the sanctifier
and those He sanctifies are one. For which cause He's not ashamed
to call them brethren. You see, He came and was made
what His people are that He might make His people what He is. And
in Him, because of what He did, He's not ashamed to call His
brethren His brethren. You know what he sees when he
looks at Tamar? A righteous, righteous sister. You know what he sees when he
looks at Judah? A righteous, righteous brother. You know what
he sees when he looks at David? A righteous, holy brother. You know what he sees when he
looks at Bathsheba? A righteous, holy sister. Why? Because He came, saying,
I'll declare thy name unto my brethren. He's talking about
His Father's name. I'll declare your name that you're
gracious and you're long-suffering, that you will by no means clear
the guilty, that you have provided yourself a lamb in the person
of your Son, and that I've come forth to declare who God is. That's how we know who God is
by Christ Jesus. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee, and again I'll put my trust in him,
behold I and the children which God hath given me. For as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise
took part of the same, that through death, his death, he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. He didn't take on a nature of
angel, he took on the nature of his children. You see how
far down he came? Now you think about this. The
next time that we start trying to exalt ourselves by thinking
about that one in our natural family who's sort of a spot and
a blemish. And that's what we're doing when
we start sort of Whether we say it or we're just thinking it,
we're really exalting ourselves. Well, that one there is just... But when we start thinking about
that, especially the household of faith, let's remember, let
me remember, I'm that spotted black sheep of the family. And he came down down, down,
even obedient unto the death of the cross, bearing the wrath
of God on my behalf, bearing my sin and His own body on a
tree, that He might present me spotless, a pure, spotless virgin
to Himself. satisfying God himself on behalf
of old spotted black sheep like me. Christ as a son over his own
house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence we
have in him. Now let me ask you something.
We'll end with this. You know the Bible begins with
the Creator. In the beginning was God. It
begins with the Word, doesn't it? We see that Old Testament
beginning with the Word. You know how we see the New Testament
beginning? Same way, with the Word, the salvation, the Creator. You know how we see the book
of the generation of Jesus Christ ending? You know how it's going
to end. This book, Beginning to End,
is telling us about Jesus Christ. God, the glory of God in the
face of Christ Jesus. The glory of God seen, known,
beheld in Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Everything from beginning
to end. And everything, all things are
by Him and all things are for Him and He's the end of all things.
You know how the end's going to be? You know what the end's
going to be? Look down at verse 17. So all
the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations.
From David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations.
From the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. And that's where they're going
to end. Unto Christ. In Christ. That's where we're
coming to. To Christ. Now let me ask you
something. What's keeping you from believing
on Christ? What is? What's keeping you from confessing
Him before men? Are you in doubt of His faithfulness? Are you in doubt that this Word
is God's Word and that He has and is and shall do as He said
He will do? You see here this unbroken promise
to Abraham, and you see God faithfully fulfilling His Word. Christ came
and saved him, just like God said He would, way back there
before Christ ever came. You're waiting right now, whether
you know it or not. Believers are waiting for Christ
to return, and right now you have a space between here and
when Christ returns. And He's coming again, just like
He came the first time. And you can be sure God's faithful.
He's coming. He's coming. He's faithful. Is it that you're looking for
something in yourself to make you different, to make you acceptable,
to make you so that you can come to Him? There's only one thing that makes
the generation of Christ, the only one thing that's going to
make His people to differ, that's God's free grace. all wrought and all performed
by the obedience of His Son. So don't wait on something to
find something in yourself. If you wait on something to clean
up your act or something of that nature, to cast all your care
on Christ, you're not casting all your care on Christ. Casting
all your care on Him is trusting Him to do it all. Are you too
proud to come down off your throne? He came down. He came down. He's the one God says, you want
to see what true righteousness is? He made Himself of no reputation. He came down and now He's become
the author of eternal salvation to all them that come down off
their throne. Come down and make themselves
of no reputation and just bow at His feet and obey Him. Trust
Him. The end of everything is at hand. And Christ Jesus is the end of
everything. And He's at hand. He's not way out there somewhere. He said, where I've gathered
two or three in my name, I'm there in the midst of them. He's
at hand. He's at hand. He's not... He said, call on me. our Savior. You ever ask Him to save you? He said, I'm near to them that
call on me. And just this fast, this life,
this vapor we call life will be over and you'll be found standing by yourself with a whole
host of others, trying to give a list of things you did to please
God. Or, Christ will stand, and you'll be one in Him, saying He did everything. And
God will say, well done. Well done. You've done it all. That's faith. It's trusting Christ
the faithful. I pray he'd give you grace to
do it.