Let us commence our service this
afternoon by singing together hymn number 513 to the tune Ernan,
331. in mounts of danger and of straits,
my soul for his salvation waits, Jehovah Jireh will appear and
save me from my gloomy fear. Hymn 513. So danger, I must face. My soul forgives, salvation breaks. Jesus, what I longed, will I
obtain. Have you saved me, O my living
King? ? In the first days she died ?
? This nature great, yet so bizarre ? ? In darkness' eyes she died
? ? Face away ? ? And touch the blue
ocean today ? ? Give whom but I want ? ? Is his name ? ? From age to age
? ? He brings us fame ? ? He speaks when I am soundly brief
? ? And with thee, Christ, forever
I will be ? ? I, Lord Jesus, love thee still ? Oh, say does
that star-spangled banner yet wave And in the round it shall be
seen, How kind and brave John's feet hath been. Let us read together from the
holy word of God in the book of Genesis in chapter 22. Genesis chapter 22. And it came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, and he
said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two
of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.' And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, And he said, here am I, my son. And he said,
behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham, And
he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thine,
thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his
eyes and looked. And behold, behind him a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And the angel of the
Lord called unto Abraham, out of heaven the second time, and
said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the
sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.'
So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they arose up
and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba."
We'll leave the reading there. May the Lord bless it to our
souls and teach us how to pray. Gracious, merciful and eternal
God, we do desire grace to bow before thy great majesty, to
call upon thy great and holy name. And we do pray that the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father
and the sacred fellowship of the Holy Spirit may rest and
abide upon us here this afternoon. As we gather round thy word and
as we gather round thy table, may thy presence be known and
felt and experienced. We do humbly beseech thee. Guide
us by thy counsel. and afterward receive us unto
glory. Guide us safely unto thy heavenly
kingdom. Guide us, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrims in a barren land. We are weak, but thou art mighty. Hold us with thy powerful hand. We pray, dear Lord, that thou
wouldst graciously that grant thy delivering grace to be known
in our assembly this afternoon, just as thou didst deliver thy
servant Abraham at the time of great trial, and thou didst graciously
help him and support him and sustain him and deliver him.
For with God nothing shall be impossible. Lord, we thank thee
that it is so. Thou art indeed able to do abundantly
more than we can even ask or think, for Thou art God over
all and blessed for evermore, and all the planets of the universe
are in Thy hand. For it is He that hath made us,
and not we ourselves, and not one of them faileth, for Thou
art God, the Eternal God. So we come to Thee in prayer
this afternoon, And we pray that thou would graciously bless us.
Bless us with the divine unction and power of thy Holy Spirit.
Bless us with a clear view of the glorious person and work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us with light and understanding
in thy word. And bless us, Lord, we pray thee,
with those rich blessings that are in Christ Jesus, that we
may know the truth, and that the eyes of our understanding
may be enlightened, that we might know what the good and perfect
and acceptable will of the Lord is, and that day by day we may
know and feel thy grace, and that thou wouldst grant us thy
divine support and help in all matters. We pray, O Lord, that
thou wouldst graciously look upon us as a church and as a
congregation, We thank thee that thou hast watched between us
in these past weeks, and we prove that what we thought on, that
God had misbewatched between thee and me, and Lord thou hast,
and that we do thank thee for thy tender mercies and thy loving
kindnesses and thy faithfulness in spite of all our wanderings
and all our backsliding. and yet thou hast been gracious.
We thank thee for helping our brother here in the conducting
of any prayer meetings and services and we pray most gracious Lord
that thou wouldst bless the word, the word of thy servants as they
have come among us and that there may yet be signs to follow the
preaching of the word and that we do pray that thou wouldst
bless us in the weeks and months and years to come, that we may
see thy abundant blessing, we may see the bringing forth of
precious souls out of nature's darkness into the glorious light
and liberty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we may see
the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan and the setting up of
the kingdom of the Lord Jesus in the hearts of sinners. Let
thy work appear unto thy servants and thy glory unto their children.
O Lord, we do beseech thee, fulfil those precious promises. And
as the dear apostle says, exceed in great and precious promises.
I will bring thy sons from far and thy daughters from the ends
of the earth. And when the enemy shall come
in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard
against him. Gracious God, grant that it may
be so. Give us humility and love. Help
us to be humbled under thy mighty hand, that we may wait upon thee. For they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. Lord, we do thank thee that that
is the case. and we pray that it may ever
be the case. We pray for a closer walk with
Thee, a calmer heavenly frame, a light to shine upon the road
that leads me to the Lamb. May we constantly have recourse
unto Thee, Lord Jesus. Thou art our great High Priest,
Thou art the great King and Head of the Church, and we do desire
to worship Thee. a glorious person, the Son of
God manifest in the flesh, that profound mystery of godliness.
We thank Thee for it. We thank Thee for the love of
our eternal Father in sending His only begotten Son to redeem
His people. We thank Thee for Jesus Christ,
for His holy life, for the law fulfilled, magnified and honoured
in His holy name. and for everlasting righteousness
brought in. We thank thee for the wonderful
glories of Gethsemane, of the judgment hall of Calvary, where
the Lamb was slain, where sin was put away, and we thank thee
that he died for our sins, he paid the utmost price to deliver
us from sin and Satan's power, and he rose again for our justification
he has swallowed up death in victory and he has said because
i live ye shall live also oh that it may be so and that thy
grace may rule and reign in our hearts we do humbly beseech of
thee and we pray that we may continually be enabled to come
unto thee our great high priest sitting at the right hand of
our Eternal Father, and that we pray that thou wouldst grant
us, O Lord, continually thy Spirit, the heavenly power of the Holy
Ghost in our hearts and in our assemblies as we gather together.
Lord, we thank thee for all thy tender mercies and thy loving
kindnesses that have passed before us each in the way. Great is
thy faithfulness. and we desire to record thy mercies
and thy loving kindnesses and thy great goodness. We pray for
the little ones and the children that gather with us, we thank
thee for them and pray that thou wouldst bless them indeed. We
pray for our dear young friends as they stand on the threshold
of life's journey, that thou wouldst graciously bring them
each to living faith in Jesus Christ, for out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength, and thou hast
said, Lord Jesus, suffer little children to come unto me, and
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. May
we see a generation raised up to call thee the Redeemer blessed,
to be gathered into the church, testify of the wonders of redeeming
love. Lord, do grant that it may be
so. We pray for each one of our brethren
and sisters in Christ, that thou wouldst richly bless us each,
that thou wouldst unite us, that make us one in the fear of the
Lord, we do humbly beseech thee. Even as thou hast said, Lord
Jesus, that they may be one, even as we are one, may we know
that oneness of spirit, that oneness of mind. And may that
mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. Oh, grant us
the mind of Christ, to be more spiritually minded, to have our
affections set upon things above, to let go of all things here
below, to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, Lord, we pray for our dear aged
sister, dear Ina, that thou wouldst bless her indeed at home and
undertake for her, we do humbly beseech thee, in her weakness,
in her old age, we pray that she may be enabled to cast all
her cares upon thee and that thou, in thy precious mercy,
wouldst put the arms of thine everlasting love around her and
grant her thy divine support We pray for any and any trouble,
or trial, or perplexity, or sorrow, or sadness, or bereavement, that
they may be supported and sustained and strengthened by thee. Even
as thou hast said, I will not leave you comfortless, I will
come to you. We pray especially, O Lord, for
the prodigals that they may return. Thy wonderful work may be seen
in this, we pray, for this village that the glory and light of the
gospel may shine forth, and the scriptures and the calendars
that have been distributed may redound to the great glory of
thy name and the increase of thy kingdom here upon earth.
As promised, O Lord, that my word shall not return unto me
void, but it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it.
O grant that it may be so, and that we may watch unto prayer,
and that we may pray in faith, nothing wavering, we do humbly
beseech of thee. We pray, most gracious Lord,
that thou wouldst be with us as we gather round thy table
and that thou wouldst bless that sacred service, O Lord, to the
good of our immortal souls and that we may find our hearts knit
together in love. Lord, we We ask all these favours
and blessings in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray that thou
wouldst come and touch our lips with the live coal from of the
heavenly altar. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Let us now Sing together hymn
number 771. The tune is Rimmington 395. To
know my Jesus crucified, By far excels all things beside,
All earthly good I count but loss, And triumph in my Saviour's
cross. Hymn 771. O my Jesus, have mercy upon me. I am a wretch, and so faithless
am I. All earthly good I have not lost,
and triumph in my Saviour's Lord in all the world's celestial
beings, Hail to my soul through many generations. ? Thou who meet'st us here ? ?
The Son of God ? ? Nurture us ? ? Through His coming ? ? Well
? O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave? Where would I go if not in this
scene? I'm found here, lone and far. Lord, may I bear up every cross
Be patient under every cross ? By shame and blame the righteous
have won ? ? Christ make me with thee, Lord,
and stand ? ? Tis of thee, Lord, that I stand ? ? And was delivered by Jesus Christ
? ? And Christ in heaven above ? Greatly feeling to need the Lord's
gracious help, I would direct your attention to Genesis chapter
22, and we'll read verses 13 and 14 for our text. Genesis chapter 22, verses 13
and 14. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket,
his horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him
up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son and Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh as it is said to
this day in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. I believe that this narrative
of Abraham, this experience that he had of the wonderful grace
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, Abraham saw my day. And I believe this is where he
saw the day of the Lord, when he took his only son Isaac, but
when the Lord tried him, you know, Apostle Peter, he says,
the trial of your faith be a much more precious than of gold or
silver that perishes. It says in the first verse of
this chapter, and God did tempt Abraham. I always feel that it's
rather an unfortunate word, tempt, because God tempted no man of
evil. It's very clear in the word of
God. It would have, I feel, better if they would have tried Abraham.
It was the trial of his faith. This son, this only son that
he had, this son of his bosom. And he waited so long for this
son of whom the Lord had said unto him many times that he said
to Abraham right at the beginning that in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. And this was the promised seed
through Sarah, his wife. And what a trial it was, wasn't
it? Take now thy son, thine only
son, Isaac. Of course, the Lord knew right
from the outset that he wasn't going to slay his son. And I
believe Abraham knew by faith that he wasn't going to slay
his son. You might say, how do you know that? and because he
said to those lads that he took with him that they would return. He left them where they were and
he said that we will return. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Even though he had said that You see, if you look at verse
five, abide here with the ass and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again to you. That's the spirit of faith. He had the knife, he had the
fire, he had the wood. As Isaac questioned him, he says,
In verse 7, and he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? What must have gone on in his
mind? In verse 4, and on the third day, Abraham lifted up
his eyes and saw the place afar off. What must have gone through
his heart? The exercises of his soul, take
thy son, thine only son. What a trial of his faith. And
yet here in this son, this only son, was all the prospect of
the promises that God had given him. In thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. What must have gone through his
mind? But you know, We are told very clearly by the Apostle Paul
in the Epistle to the Hebrews that he went there by faith,
that he actually believed that God was able to raise him from
the dead, even if he did slay him and burn him as a sacrifice.
The Apostle says he believed God, and he believed that he
was able to raise him from the dead. But perhaps more significantly,
It was in this great trial that the Lord would show to Abraham
in a very clear way how he was going to redeem his people. Isaac
here is a type of the church. Abraham bound him and laid him
on the altar. And all of the Lord's people
there They're in, by nature, the bondage of sin and corruption. They're under the curse of the
law. We all have sinned and have shorted
the glory of God. That's our condition by nature. That's how we are. That's our
condition. And unless the Lord comes and
quickens our soul into life, it's only when our souls are
quickened into life So look at Isaac here as he put him on the altar to sacrifice. And then the Lord called to him
from heaven. Do the lad no harm. The angel
of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham,
Abraham. He said, here am I. Lay not thine
hand. upon the lad, neither do anything
unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from thee. How beautiful that must have
been as Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind
him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went
and took the ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son. You know, what a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ram caught in a thicket. He was bound by those covenant
oaths in the eternal covenant. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
He was bound, Jesus the son of God was bound by those covenant
oaths and promises to the church. He loved not his life unto death,
he willingly gave his life a ransom for all. But the point that is being made
here It was in the stead of his son. And the Lord Jesus, he suffered
in the stead of his people. This is where Abraham saw this
salvation that is to be wrought out by Christ. He saw my day. Clearly, through this profound
trial that the Lord caused him to pass through. In it, he had
such a clear light given to him concerning Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. concerning the substitutionary
work of what Christ would do on the behalf of his bride, his
church, his people, that he would redeem them. And this ram caught
in a thicket, Abraham saw it. He saw the Son of God in those
eternal decrees of salvation and redemption unto the church.
And he saw that He was bound to redeem his church and his
people and to deliver them from sin and Satan's power. He saw
my day. See, Isaac was set free. The ram was bound and sacrificed
in Isaac's day. What a beautiful type of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and who suffered and bled and died for the sins
of his people. And Isaac was set free, and the
church is set free. If the Son shall make you free,
then shall you be free indeed, free from all law charges, free
and delivered completely and absolutely, in and through the
precious blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Freedom,
liberty, light, life, salvation, redemption, through our Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, and Abraham, he said
God will provide. When Isaac asked him the question,
and when he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God,
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went,
both of them, together, and they came to the place which God had
told him of. The other thing we should Notice
the Lord has commanded Abraham to take his son, his only son.
And in verse three, and Abraham rose up early in the morning
and saddled the ass. Immediately he followed the Lord's
divine command and saddled his ass and took two of his young
men And Isaac his son enclaved the wood for a burnt offing and
rose and went unto the place of which God had told him. There's another way that we can
look at this narrative in those councils of eternity. We can
liken Abraham as the father and Isaac as the son. in those eternal
councils of the everlasting covenant. And they come to the place which
is called Mount Moriah. And you know, friends, it's exactly
the same place where Jesus Christ was crucified, Mount Moriah. In the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. It is also the same place which
David bought from Aurora the Jebusite How he brought his threshing
floor, it's exactly the same place. And that is where the
temple of the Lord was to be built. And the Lord showed David
that that is where the temple of the Lord was to be built.
You see, all these things point us to one place, to Christ, to
his redeeming love, to his glorious sacrifice on Calvary. He died for our sins. He rose again for our justification. And the church was set free and
delivered from all law charges and delivered from the bondage
of sin and corruption in and through the glorious person and
work of Jesus Christ. You think of those lovely words,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanseth us from all sin,
from all sin. You think of the Paschal Lamb
on the day of the Passover in the land of Egypt and how the
Lord commanded them through Moses to take a lamb out of their flock
and to offer that lamb as a sacrifice unto God. And they took the blood
of the lamb and they pasted it onto the side post of the lintel
of their doors in that awful night in the land of Egypt. And
the Lord said to them, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the blood of this ram beautifully
represents the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son. That precious
blood that redeems the church. In Leviticus, we read the blood
is the life thereof. There's something very precious
in blood in the holy scriptures. And whoso shedeth man's blood,
by man shall his blood be shed. And there was a command under
the Levitical law that nothing should be eaten with the blood
in it. And that they shouldn't drink blood. And, you know, there's
something very special in the whole of scripture. That is,
you might say, well, that's Old Testament. You look into the
New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles, and that was one
thing that they laid on the Christian church. They should eat nothing
that has been strangled, and nothing with the blood that is
in it. And, you see, all these things point to the preciousness
of blood. that when the children of Israel,
there's a beautiful piece by Octavius Winslow on the preciousness
of the blood of Christ. And he speaks in there of the
Israelite when he came to the door of the tabernacle. And there
tied to the horns of the altar was the sacrifice. All around was blood. There was
blood all over the hands of the priests, there was blood all
over the altar, there was blood in the basins on the altar. But
it spoke to them one thing, without the shedding of blood, there
can be no remission of sins. And as Isaac Watts so beautifully
brings it out in his hymn, not all the blood of beasts on Jewish
altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace. or take away
the stain, but Christ the heavenly Lamb bears all our sins away,
a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they." All
that rich, sinatoning blood. We see it in the blood of Sprinklin. Once a year, when the high priest
went into the sanctuary And he went into the holy place and
it says in the Hebrews, not without blood. He sprinkled that blood
seven times, seven is the number of perfection. And then the Lord
said to Moses, there will I meet with thee, there will I commune
with thee, through the blood. To remind them the cost of salvation
and the way of salvation is to be through the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's son, that cleanses from all sin. Everything points
to Christ. For the Apostle Peter in his
first epistle, he says, for as much as you are not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of the lamb, as of a lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. The precious blood of the lamb.
How precious is the blood of Christ? precious blood of the
Lamb, slain from before the foundation of the world. Holy blood. What Bunyan calls the acceptable
sacrifice. Christ was the acceptable sacrifice. It was the sacrifice that atoned
for the sins of his people. It's a beautiful precious hymn,
the last hymn in the book. 1056 and How lovely does Joseph
Hines speak of that blood, what sacred fountain yonder springs,
up from the throne of God, and all new covenant blessings brings,
tis Jesus, precious blood. What mighty sum paid all my debt
when I a bondman stood, and has my soul at freedom set, tis Jesus,
precious blood. What scream is that which sweeps
away my sins just like a flood, nor lets one guilty blemish stay? Tis Jesus, precious blood. What voice is that which speaks
for me in heaven's high court for good, and from the curse
has set me free? Tis Jesus, precious blood. What theme my soul shall best
employ, thy heart before thy God, and make all heaven to ring
with joy, to his Jesus, precious blood, all the preciousness of
the blood of Christ. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him, a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. and Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide as it is said
to this day in the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And of course that was a saying
that was in the Old Testament and the Jews concerning the Mount
of the Lord and no doubt by faith looking to that Mount Calvary
where the Lamb was slain. where sin was put away, where
divine justice was satisfied, where God and sinners are reconciled,
where peace is made between God and man. How? Through the precious
blood of this glorious sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God. I always
feel at great pains to try and emphasize to you that the fullness
and the preciousness of the sacrifice and of the blood of Christ lies
in this, He is the son of God. And he was holy. He was the only holy righteous
man that lived on this earth. He did no sin. Neither was guile
found in his mouth. So the sacrifice of Christ was
a holy sacrifice. No other sacrifice could be like
this one. Everything else in the world
is defiled by sin, but this man, this glorious holy God man, in
him sin is put away, divine justice is satisfied. Just as with Noah when he came
out of the ark and the Lord smelled a sweet savour when he offered
those clean beasts as an offering unto the Lord, He offered them
by faith, by faith in Jesus Christ. And therefore, the Lord smelled
a sweet savor. He was accepted with God, in
and through the glorious sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. Now the children of Israel, on
that night in Egypt, they'd been under the severe bondage of Pharaoh,
King of Egypt. And that night, the Lord was
going to deliver them completely from that bondage. And so typically
the Passover lamb, the blood of the lamb, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you, I will deliver you. And the Church of
God, it's Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. He's provided
a sacrifice in His Son. And in those awful sufferings
of Christ in the garden, On the cross, God has provided himself
a perfect sacrifice. I often point out to you that
beautiful word in Psalm 37 and verse 37, mark the perfect man
and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace. It's
Christ, it's Christ. The end of that man is peace.
And the end of every man in Christ is peace. Peace by his cross,
as Jesus made the church's ever-living head. And Abraham called the
name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord, Jehovah well-provided. All that glorious everlasting
robe of the righteousness of Christ. Where does that come
from, that glorious everlasting robe of the righteousness of
Christ? It comes from the purity and the holiness of the life
of Jesus, that he lived here as a man on earth for 33 years
when he did no sin. He fulfilled and honored and
magnified God's holy righteous law in his holy life, in his
sinless life, in his perfection. You see, my beloved friends,
this is where redemption is. When we come to sit around the
table of the Lord, we come to partake of the bread and of the
wine. And what does the bread and wine represent? Oh, the bread
represents, this is my body broken for you, a suffering crucified
saviour. It is what is represented in
that broken bread. And then we drink the cup. What
is represented in that cup? This is the New Testament in
my blood. This do ye in remembrance of
me. You see, what we have here at
the Lord's Supper is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. The Lord has provided. Just as
he provided a ram to be slain, by Abraham in the place instead
of his son Isaac, so God has provided for his people. This
is a feast of wine. This is that feast of fat things,
a wine on the leaves, well refined. Oh, my beloved friends, there's
something here that is so sacred and so precious. And it is the
longing desire of the living child of God to know it, to experience
it. We've just sung in the hymn to
know my Jesus crucified by far excels all things beside And
this is what the truly exercised child of God desires Jesus crucified
for me You hear about the blood of Christ you hear about the
sacrifice of Christ But you you want to taste and handle and
feel of it You want to know that Jesus suffered for you in your
room in your place and in your stead And that that precious
provision that has been made by our eternal father Was for
me Was it for crimes that I had done he hung and suffered there.
That's the question, isn't it? Did he suffer bleed and die for
me that were my sins laid upon him? You see, as we often quote
from Isaiah 53, he laid upon him, that is the eternal father
laid upon his only begotten son manifest in the flesh, he laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. Now, that is the desire of the
living child of God. Were my sins laid on Christ?
Did he suffer, bleed, and die for me? The thing is, Is he made precious
to you? Is Christ made precious to you?
Unto you that believe therefore he is precious. Oh the preciousness
of Christ. There's a preciousness of Christ
in the sweet enjoyment of this truth that when you have that
sacred sense and feeling in your heart that he suffered and bled
and died for you. But there's another preciousness
There's a preciousness in the desire after him. And maybe that's where you are.
It's your desire that you might lay hold of him, that you might
be able to say, in the sweet assurance of faith, that Jesus
loved me and gave himself for me. Just as Paul, he says in
the Galatians, isn't he? for as much he says there in
Galatians chapter 2 and the latter part of it how the Lord Jesus
Christ gave himself for his people. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless
I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. What a precious truth that is,
isn't it? The life which I now live. Mercy, you know, friends,
if we change. We do not live to Christ otherwise.
It's only when the Holy Spirit leads us to see our lost condition
and leads us to see the wonderful glories that there are in Christ
the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It was love that caused him to
come to this sinker's world. It was love that constrained
him to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. It was
love that constrained him to be made of a woman, made under
the law, that he might redeem them that are under the law.
It was love that constrained him to pass through those intolerable
sorrows on the behalf of his people, to offer that glorious,
perfect and spotless sacrifice unto the Father. And there we
are accepted in the Beloved. Accepted in Christ. accepted
in his precious blood and righteousness, received by God, because redeemed
by God, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide, the Lord
has provided, and the Lord does provide. And Abraham lifted up
his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by its thorns. And Abraham went and took the
ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day in
the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. May the Lord add his
blessing to these few remarks that we have made.