I'd like to turn again, as I
did two or three weeks ago, to the epistle of Jude, the general
epistle of Jude, or Judas, and last time I spoke on verse 20,
and I'd like to speak, focus your attention on verse 21, because
I do believe it's very profitable, and as you read in the context,
it's quite right that we should take both of these verses together
to get the weight of what the apostle is saying. but ye beloved,
building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. I said somewhat about Jude last
time, and this epistle, Jude the Apostle, the brother of James,
there's another pair of brothers who were amongst the Apostles,
there are various theories, other theories about who Jude may be,
but I believe he is the Apostle, all the epistles I believe are
written by the Apostles, and he writes of course with this
authority. I was thinking in the week, that's all we know,
he only wrote 25 verses, and I thought we have to take
notice of that. Paul wrote many and great things
and they're wonderful to read but this man was moved to write
just these 25 verses and it's a small book but we shouldn't
say oh it's a small book But to me, that has a significance. All the things that Jude may
have ever said and done, but we kept this very powerful, important
little epistle. And I think it might just be
helpful quickly to remind ourself of this book, how it can be neglected. It's a book for today. It can be written today. It addresses
our walk in a world of evil, and he sets forth some of those
evils. And I love that it's a book all
about free grace, because right up at the front in the first
verse, he talks about those who have been called by God, those
who have been sanctified by God the Father, and they've been
preserved, they've been kept. These are some of these great
points of Calvinism, the doctrines of grace that we love. It's so
clear on it. Those who are the children of
God are those who are called. therefore he says mercy unto
you and peace and love be multiplied and he then tells you i've he's
written this one one epistle but he's given all diligence
we noticed that all diligence somebody says you know i've brought
this to you and i've taken a lot of care over this i really This
is important. Your ears, I trust, will prick
up. That's what the Apostle is saying
to you. He calls them beloved, and we'll
come on to that word later. It was very needful, he says.
This is the point. One could argue that word's not
used in every epistle, but I would contend that every epistle could
say the same. It is needful to write. When you think of what Paul had
to deal with at times in the early church and Peter, And John,
it was needful for them to write of the common salvation of the
gospel unto you and to earnestly contend for the faith. And this
is what this epistle is about. And I would say this is what
the Christian life is about. If you're not contending for
the faith, have you got faith? Do you know anything about the
Christian life? Or are you just living a lie? This is the challenge. And we get it, certainly in John,
and you get the same challenge in Jude as well. The Word of
God is powerful. People don't like these things.
They don't like us being challenging. But the Bible is the most challenging
book. I could take you to many places
and if you spoke those words rather than read them in Scripture,
you would offend many people. The Bible is among the most offensive
books in this world. But let me tell you, it's the
best book. Isn't it? It's the book of life. Do you
know a best book? I don't. This is the book, is
the book of life. This is where we read the words
of Jesus Christ. I think I've said to you, when
I preach on Christ, which I love to do, you've got to try and
put yourself as though you were there. Place yourself on the
mount when you read the sermon on the mount, as though you were
there listening to him, and then you hear him. You're not just
reading a book. You hear Christ. When we come
to this book, we want to hear what God has to say. We can hear
what Oral and Sundry have got to say. Well, I've got to say
something that's probably not worth listening to. We want to
hear what God has got to say. There's an imperative, you see,
in this. There's an imperative in the Christian life. It's not
a sloppy thing. People think we, you know, we've
abandoned the world. We've copped out of things. We're unrealistic, you know,
and they hate us and they say all and everything and they say
we don't believe the truth Let me tell you, we believe the truth.
They say we don't understand science, we don't understand
geology, and let me tell you, we do. We know and believe. They believe a lie and it confounds
them. God has confounded them. I watch
sometimes science programs and it's quite clear they haven't
got one half of a clue what they're talking about. that by the grace
of God we know the origin of all things don't we we know the
fulfillment of all things the centerpiece Christ and we know
there's a definite ending and how that's it's not going to
be by some asteroid coming into play you watch BBC 4 they tell
you every week about asteroids going to come and bang the earth
they're not this world will end when God ends it and there will
be opponents now the thing we're warned here and by John is that
they creep in We've known in the past, haven't we, we've had
people creep in amongst us and they've opposed us, sometimes
quite publicly, and so we keep our eyes open. But he says, but ye beloved.
This is the point. We'll come on to that, building
up your faith. The tone changes and we'll see that. Now last
week, last time I mentioned that there's also this praying and
the Holy Ghost. I mentioned them again very quickly. Ten things, practical things,
you know, there are examples. I'm very grateful for Brother
Cliff. He puts some lovely books on the back. I think I mentioned
last time that little booklet about William Gadsby. Oh, it's
such a good book to read. And there are many people. I've
just come to the end of a book by Martin Luther. I mean, the
man's a giant. And you don't necessarily agree
with everything he says as a man, but these men are examples of
what God did with them. We have around us a cloud of
witnesses. We must not neglect them. and
in the word. We've got to strive. You know,
Paul said you strive. This is Christian faith. It's
not an armchair faith. Are you striving? That's what
it is. And I said, you've got to sit
under faithful ministry. And I can say again before God,
I'm very faithful for the day I came in first through that
door to hear the ministry here. Where can we go to hear this
ministry? There are some very good and faithful brothers, but
what ministry are we here? And as Mr. Mascherano says in
that little book, you've got to be a theologian. It doesn't
mean we've got to study Greek and the rest of it. We've got
to know what we believe. And I had that on the board there,
isn't it? A wonderful statement. And it's not only for ministers
and men. It's for all of us. And I know in this chapel some
of the sisters amongst us are some of the best readers. and
some of the best customers go to the bookstore and that's wonderful
that's how it should be it's not just the men we must all
build ourselves up it's not the men build up yourselves in your
holy faith build ye he says your holy faith it's a word for those
in ignorance and unbelief are you here in unbelief this morning
you've got to listen to this because God might speak to you
this might be the word of life for you you might have a false
hope But if you feel it within you, there's a battle, then there
is hope. People have said to me in the
past, oh, I feel I'm such a sinner. I said, well, that's good. I
said, you should go on. Seek God. It's the people who
don't know they're sinners. They're the ones who are in trouble.
They're lost. And we take no joy. I take no pleasure in that.
Take no pleasure in people who are lost. We must pray for them.
You know, there are people we sometimes see in public life
who are very vociferous. They're like the Apostle Paul,
rounding up and hounding Christians to their death. Pray for these
people. God will save them. Oh, we must
pray for them. And if we are aware of this battle,
you know, that's good. But there's a building up in
the faith. I said last time, Christianity is not, I've become
a Christian, I've made a decision for Christ, I've filled out my
decision card, I'm now a member of the church, that's it, I come
every week to the services, and then I carry on with my life
as normal. If you think that's Christianity, that's a gross
deception, that's an evil. No, you've got to go on. That's
what I love. You've got to go on, he says,
in the faith. It's so valuable a message. Jude doesn't say much, but he
says a lot. It's a very powerful epistle.
Let's take note of what he says. And I said last time, I'm guilty. I put my hand up. There are many
distractions and diversions are all in life we're talking about
pilgrim's progress there are bypass meadows everywhere let
me tell you and you can get caught up in and all these things but
we have to be determined and disciplined in our life because
you know we have an exercise of faith but we have the help
of the spirit don't we where would we be without that one
who is in us, as Christ says in John 14, in us and with us,
we would be utterly lost, would we not? Do you not feel it? Sometimes
you can't speak, there is one with us. I've said, one on earth
with us. Christ said, I shall not leave
you comfortless. And there are those signs and groans that cannot
be uttered. And we have one in heaven, whoever
lives and intercedes for us. Are we privileged if we be in
Christ? Oh, we come to these verses. Oh, they're wonderful. as I said
last time, he has strong things to say, you know, God is going
to execute judgment, there are these murmurers, there are these
complainers there's all this trouble in the church, we read
of the contention with Michael the archangel contending with
the devil, we read of filthy dreamers and so on, woe unto
them he says, there's spots in your face and very very, the
bible, if I went out and said some of these things to people
they'd be ever so offended But the apostle sets it all forth.
There are people who want to ban this book again. They don't
like this. But it's the truth. But what
I love is he then comes to them. He says, but ye beloved. The whole, just got to read,
the whole tone of this epistle changes. He's interested in them. You're beloved. Those who are
in Christ, beloved. That's what the world is like,
but beloved, this is the burden of the gospel, the burden of
God for you, that you build up your holy faith. yourselves in
your holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. We looked at this
last time and then we see this. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. We've been pointed in the right
direction. How do we keep ourselves in the
love of God? Now sometimes I'll preach on
this sort of topic and then it gets fed back to me that I'm
preaching works religion. But I tell you, the sovereign
grace, that is free grace, we've just sung it, I think we sang
the same hymn last time actually, but isn't it wonderful, it mentions
Salem. That's where I stand, all of
this is free grace, there's nothing of free will in this. God forbid
that we ever preach free will. People misunderstand us because
they don't know the truth. They know the truth, they will
be set free. How is it we keep ourselves,
you see, because there is the work of faith, there is that
going on in the Lord. Christian life is not passive.
If you think it's passive, you don't know what it is. We've
got to go on in the Christian faith. And when we read in Ephesians
2, 9 and 10, there are the works of faith. You're saved by grace,
by faith. It's not of yourself, it's the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. He goes
on to say that there are works prepared for you. and therefore
there are works, there are works of righteousness. How is it we
should live? What is it we should do? What
is our service in the church? Each and every one of us has
a part to play in the church. We may not have an office, but
there are all things we can do. And it is noted, people are very
good in this church. They're all very willing to help
and do in all sorts of ways. And that's great. We should all
see that we all contribute, it's a community, it's not just pastor
and deacons that do everything, or if you go to some churches,
but I've been to the past, it's the pastor that does everything.
I think it's Mr. Mazzarone that used to say, they have a dog
collar around them to keep it all in and keep everybody else
out, and we don't have that, we don't want to wear such things.
We're all in this. This is what we're thinking of,
the life of the church. And we come to this quite difficult
thing, keep. Of course, the word keep is really
preserve. And I like that. If you get deep
down into the grave, it's preserve. What are we preserving? Is it
keeping fit? Is it we should go for a walk
every day, we take vitamin pills, we go on therapy, we make sure
we go for our regular checkups at the doctor and the dentist?
No, it's not. I'm not actually speaking, I'm just looking after
ourselves. But keeping, preserving ourselves, why? Why? Now, I'm
sure the ladies will be with me on this, and perhaps the children
can follow this. You make jam sometimes, don't
you? Or you make pickles and nice
things like that, and you want to preserve them, you want to
keep them, don't you? What do you do? You get a nice jam pot and
you clean, don't you clean? The men are hopeless at this,
but you, although Mr North is very good at making jam, isn't
he? You clean the jam pot thoroughly, and then you you fill it up as
far as you can to keep all the air out and then you put a really
tight lid on it don't you to preserve it don't you to keep
it why because you don't want anything in there that's going
to corrupt it now if we be in Christ you and i be in Christ
we have the spirit we have newness of life we don't want corruption
in there We have the old man. When I read that, I don't go
along with Dr Lloyd-Jones on this. He talks about Romans 7
being Paul's pre-gospel experience, pre-salvation experience. I don't
know how he gets there. I don't respect Dr Lloyd-Jones.
I used to hear him in the past. I used to love hearing him. It's
the battle. Paul talks about the godless
man. He wouldn't have any interest
in Romans 7. He wouldn't feel any spiritual
battle at all, I can assure you. But when you're in Christ, there's
a battle. There's the old man and the new man. We shall never
be free, because we're sinners. We should always need a saviour
to our dying day. That's why I don't believe people believe
in perfectionism. That's a wicked lie, because
if you say we can become perfect, we don't need Christ. It's a
blasphemy. There is a battle within us.
And we all know this. Every single one of us knows
in our heart that at times there come those things that are ungodly
or wrong. They should not be there. We
all know this. And so the apostle rightly challenges us. Preserve
yourself, you see. It's not just avoid sin. find
it hard to put it across, it's bigger, it's deeper, it's to
do with you've got the spirit in you, Christ says he's in you,
you've got to keep corruption out haven't you, you've got to
preserve yourself, it's all to do with the quality and nature
of the Christian life, we could easily just read over that, that
we need to stop at that point. And that's almost the most important
thing I could say this morning. It's right at the heart of our
ministry and what we see here. Keep ourselves in the love of
God. And of course that word love
again is that precious word, that word based on Agape, it's
that New Testament Greek. It's only used in the Bible.
That special word is the love of God, the love of Christ. It's
not just affection like people have for each other, and there's
nothing wrong in having love and affection for people and
care in the world. And if we are in Christ and we have love
for the church, that's a wonderful thing. God grants us. But this
is the love of God. And it's an active thing. It's
not a notion. It's not kind of emotional feelings.
The love of God is, as it were, an active principle that comes
from God. When you have the love of God, as we read in 2 Corinthians,
it's shed abroad in our hearts. God is a powerful thing. We've
got to keep ourselves in that love. We've got to be close to
God. We need to feel the love that comes only from Him and
the Lord Jesus Christ in the Spirit, this Trinitarian love.
Keep yourselves in those things. by the grace of God when we come
to a chapel like this. That's part of it, isn't it?
When we come to, you could go to all and every other place.
You can go on the internet and you can look at what they're
doing in places in Portsmouth. You'd be shocked. So I wouldn't
recommend it. You'd be shocked what they do.
But we come here, this is keeping, isn't it keeping ourselves in
the love of God? Isn't this a preservation? When our pastor faithfully brings
the word of God to us, and there's some things in the word of God
that are very hard, and we don't like them, we wonder how we're
ever gonna do them. That's that preservation, it's
keeping the evil out. And we want it so that when you
open the pot, you bought a pot of jam from wherever you buy
it and you open it, you don't want to see fluffy things on
the top, do you? No, you expect it to be good. Well, we want to be like that.
I trust that example is not too trite. It does help us. Looking
for. Now, this doesn't mean wandering
around looking for something, looking for the meaning of life
or whatever. No, it doesn't. The word is looking
for, it does mean awaiting. Looking for is to do with hope,
isn't it, in the gospel. It's to do with expectation.
It's to do with waiting. Every true Christian, and I've
been taught this, God has taught me it, especially in the last
few years, we've got to learn to wait on him. Sometimes we
can't do anything else. God has set us aside. We sit,
we wait, we look to God. And this is what the Apostle
is saying. You see, you've got to preserve yourself, keep yourself
in that love of God, that precious love, looking for, awaiting. This is hope for the mercy. of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
isn't something that may not come to you, might come to you.
You know this, the world's view of hope, I've preached on hope.
Hope, you know, is to do with faith, isn't it? Christian hope
is to do with assurance. And therefore, the Apostle Jude
here is saying, you know, we're looking for, we're waiting. Have
you got that expectancy? Preserve yourself. This is, these
are the, this is how we live the Christian life. And we wait
on God. for mercy and how do we do that
best we do it on our knees don't we and we pray and if you pray
and you're not waiting on god let me let me tell you you're
not praying i don't know what else you're doing we gotta wait
on god we you know we don't go there just to talk to god you
know we go there to wait on god don't we when we pray we it's
we want we want to come in we want god to come to us we want
god to speak to us I'm sure Andy would agree with me. When we're
seeking, what can we bring? Oh, it's very hard, you know,
sometimes. What shall I preach on? It's not a question of just
opening the Bible and picking a good verse, because you've
got to have feeling. It's got to touch you. I'm personally,
as you can see, I'm so moved by what I'm preaching on. And
we need that, you see. I can't just pick the Bible up
and go to John 3, 16 every Sunday night, which you'll get in some
place. I can't do that. But if God leads you to a verse
like this, I'm sure Annie would say the same, and I'm sure Ken
used to say the same, and speaking to him about ministry, that It
grips you. You can't put it aside. I remember
talking to Mr. Sands about a sermon. And I found
he said, God gives you this word. You've been praying and Sunday
you think, perhaps it's in your ordinary reading and it becomes
so alive to you. You can't get it out of your
head. He says, you live with that sermon. It's with you until
you give it. And often on Sunday, he's got
to give three. And Andy and Cliff preach three times. It's tremendously
demanding. for the preacher. It's not just
the physical aspect of getting in a pulpit and speaking. That's
not the demanding. The younger you are, the better.
It's the power of the Word of God. And we have to try and communicate
that. And it's very, very difficult.
But this is what we're talking of. It's real life. It's what Our pastor would call experimental
religion. We talk about that. It's a true
living, a true experience. That's why he loves the preachers
and the books that he loves. He feels these people walking
close to God. They have a feeling religion. That's what we're talking
about. Have you got a feeling religion? Or that God would give
us a feeling of religion? That God would melt our hearts?
And are you in that love of God? Or are you walking every day
in it? Do you know what I'm talking
about? Does it mean anything to you? We're looking unto the
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Where is it? Where is life
eternal? Where is heaven? Where is hell?
It's not in blowing up people, is it? Not in going to beaches
and shooting people. And if I speak outside in the
street and say Islam is a creed of misery and darkness, they'll
lock me up. I'd probably get a prison term. But it's the truth. You're not allowed to say it,
is it? Who can see anything good in Islam? And yet we're not allowed
to say it. But what I'm telling you is perfection. It's the complete and utter opposite. That is darkness. If you want
to see darkness, there it is. And men run to it. Young ladies
leave this country, leave safe homes to go and live there. This
will not corrupt you. This is the best thing, the best
thing one could look at and talk about in life, in the world.
It's better than anything in the world. is the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That is salvation. Have
you got salvation? All that God granted to us. This is what we truly need. It's essentially, it's loving
not the world. I referred to John. In a sense, his epistles are
not easy to read, but we need to know them. He says in his
first epistle, chapter 2, verse 15, love not the world. neither
the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Now people would rest and
argue with that verse, say, well that's a silly verse, I mean,
I love my wife, you know, and I love my home, and he's not
talking about that. He's talking about worldliness.
He's talking about everything that is not God, things that
are godless. if any man you that's your priority
if you love god the things of the world first that is and god
comes second you know i can't i can't come sorry i can't go
in service on sunday because i've got i've got something else
on if then where's your priority what what do you think of god
i can't i've got time to worship god i've got whatever it is it
may be totally legitimate maybe maybe you've got a problem with
the house or something maybe perfectly legitimate but what
where are you We come to worship. We don't come here to make sure
we tick 52 weeks a year. We come to chapel and make sure
we look good with people. We come because we love God.
Because that's the problem. We don't just come here because
it's nice and we love meeting the people and so on. Or if we
do that, we don't know Christ, do we? We've come in to worship
God. God says that we should do this
every Lord's Day. That's what we're talking about.
Oh, and it's a hopeful thing, isn't it? We have eyes of faith
as well. How can one not talk about that?
This time of the year, isn't it wonderful? Jill and I are
very privileged. We have the time now. We've been
to some lovely, we love gardens and plants, and we know others
do, and we've been to some lovely places to walk, and we've seen
some beautiful things. But I tell you what, we see them
as so beautiful because we love the Lord. These aren't just things
that, how did that happen? How did that get a colour? We
see the glory of God in creation. We were talking to Bill and the
flowers in our garden, and we, and John's got a lovely bed outside
our back door, it's beautiful, and there's all sorts of different
colours. But you know, all the colours of God's creation of
plants, you put them together, they don't clash, do they? And
yet you could go, you and I could pick up a paintbrush and put
different colours up on them, on something, it would look terrible.
When God does something, it's perfect. Why are plants so beautiful? They're there for us. They haven't
just happened. God has put all, and it's his
handiwork. When you look at a complex plant,
like a full dahlia with all that geometry in it, isn't that wonderful? And people believe it just happens.
Well, we have a hope. Have you got a hope? When we
have my lovely birthday, tea, a hegen last year, which I think
just about everybody came to. We sang this hymn, and I'm going
to read this wonderful verse. It's this time of the year. Can
you say amen to these words? Because if God is in our hearts,
we will. We look out at all that God has
done. This is what we read. Heaven above is softer blue.
Earth beneath is sweeter green. Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen. Heaven and earth may fade and
flee. Firstborn light in gloom decline. But while God and I shall be,
I am His and He is mine. Can you say amen to that? Because
this is what Jude wants us to have. We want to know the mercy
of Christ. We want to be in Christ. We want
to have the Spirit in us. We want to have those eyes of
faith. and we know that the world will throw every kind and condition
of problem and difficulty at us, they'll throw rocks in our
path, they will be vicious to us and the rest, they will do
it and the Lord will try us, everything is in his hands sir
the Lord will try faith, you think of the great saints, Abraham,
David and so on Jeremiah put in the pit, he tried faith and
he found it he will try your faith, let me tell you that,
he will try it and he will prove it, he will find it, all of us
will know, in our lives we all know trials of faith, but let
me tell you that this life is not aimless, it's not rudderless,
things don't happen by chance, we were talking about the word
luck yesterday, they don't happen by luck, that's bad luck, no, God orders everything works together
for good the word of god is not a lie that is the word of god
it works together for good so them that love the lord them
that are called and how are we how do we measure up to this
you see do we have that love for christ are you looking for
mercy and the word mercy is a lovely word again you go into the greek
of it it's lovely to look up these words it's the greek word
elios and it's it relates to need and it relates to a pity
and what we read here is that God and all his love glory and
greatness looks upon men and he has a burning desire to save
and he sees a need he sees you and I he sees us and did see
us in our lost condition and the eyes of eternity had pity. That's what's in this word as
well, pity. I don't mean pity in a foolish and trite way. I mean genuine pity. Our language,
I've said many times before, has been devalued. It's very
hard to use some words because they become meaningless to find
superlatives. But God had a loving pity. People hate the doctrine of salvation.
Let me tell you, God has a love who can explain that burning
desire that love that sent Christ from eternity not just to make
it possible for people to be saved this is what people say
they do this is what most people believe and worse no he didn't
Christ didn't come to make it possible because arminianism
falls to the ground because therefore it's possible that as from now
nobody will be saved what sort of gospel is that on the contrary
we have a perfect gospel God has saved a people in all perfection.
He saved them in Christ. Not one will be lost. Not one
drop of Christ's blood is shed in vain. God has that eternal
mercy, that eternal love and pity. He has that care. When
we talk about being preserved, you see, we believe in the five
points of Calvinism and we believe in the P of the tulip, the preservation. We believe in doctrines. Doctrines
aren't dry and dusty. They're not to me. They are life. I find nothing dry and dusty
in the doctrines of grace. I find the complete opposite.
They sustain me every day. But that pea, isn't it lovely?
It's to be preserved. And how are we preserved? How
are we kept by God in Christ? You don't keep yourself. God
will keep you. But you've got to be in God.
You've got to look to Him. What's your walk? That's what Paul says. All the apostles are concerned
about our walk. Are we in Christ? Are we praying
in the Holy Ghost? Are we looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life? That's really what's
your life about, isn't it, these verses? That's the Christian
life. and if you think it's something
else, I would have grave doubts with you, I would have to question
what your understanding of the truth is because that's what
it was, that is the love of Christ as we now draw to a close, it's
salvation you see, it's an act of mercy and people don't understand
that, they want to put all and everything in the way of the
mercy, saving mercy of God, it's sovereign grace it's not of right
It's not I'm going to be saved because I was baptized or sprinkled
as a child in the Church of England or the Church of Rome, therefore
my original sin is forgiven. I'm going to get to heaven. I
might have to go to purgatory and all the rest. What a wicked
lie. Millions, billions believe such
things. No, it's not right at all. Or
it's by merit. That's what most of the church
thinks. Church of Rome thinks. Who's a saint? Not someone like
Jude, picked by Christ. A saint is somebody who they
think was a good man. Francis of Assisi or whoever.
Pope John Paul II and all his evils. He's a saint now. And
you can pray to him. But as Clifford says, it's a
doctrine of demons. Because you can pray to God. Anytime. Because
in Him we live and move and have our being. He's omniscient. He
knows all things. He's omnipresent. He's all-aware.
And if you're not those two things, how can we pray to you? How can
we pray to Mary? She's a God, isn't she? men will put all and everything
but it's a salvation you know is an act of mercy the love of
the real mercy but mercy I'm talking about the love of God
God loves us how can we explain it's not a wrath because that's
what each and every one of us deserves we are all sinners and
we shall remain sinners till we die we all justly deserve
the wrath of God but God has interposed and he's paid that
price for us, he's given us a propitiation, that wrath has been averted,
turned away all the law has been fulfilled, all righteousness
is fulfilled Christ has done it all for us, outside of Christ
we have nothing this is all and everything and it's the covenant,
often we talk of covenant but it's that covenant of grace and
as you know the covenant, there's two persons in the covenant but
this covenant is unlike any other covenant, you will read covenants
in the Bible and you'll read that certain patriarchs made
a covenant but this is a covenant from God to us it's totally of
sovereign grace, God makes it all over to us this is what it
says so clearly in Hebrews in Christ, that's why it's a new
testament, it's like a will, that's why Paul said that it
requires the death of a testator When Christ died, everything
and all and everything that Christ lived for was made over to us. It's our inheritance. Everything
that Christ did and gave himself for in life, it says you are
joint heirs with the Son. We received an inheritance last
year. That's nothing. This is the only inheritance
that means anything. It's what we have in Christ.
And we have yet, haven't we, yet to receive all of it. If
we're looking up, we're waiting for that day when we shall be
changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall
be changed. We're not caught up and lost
in all the nonsense of millennialism and all that. We believe exactly
what we saw in the New Testament. We are in the last days. We wait
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's also a great hope
of ours. That's something else we look
for. And then we shall be changed. We shall not be as we are. We
shall be free. If you're a true believer, you
want to be free of this sinful body. And you want to be as unto
his body. He showed himself in the resurrection.
We want to be like Christ. We want to know him. We want
to see him as he is. That's the Christian's great
hope. Not of right or of merit. It's
in covenant. And finally, two things. We are
weak. We're weaker than we know, and
I know that. I'm a lot weaker than I thought
I was. The Lord has taught that to me.
I think he's taught others amongst us. We've learned by the hand
of God how weak we are. Let me tell you that we have
also learned by the grace of God to be so much more dependent
on him. the world would think that we've known affliction,
we've known difficulty, we've known illness, and we can say,
by faith, that was good for me. And it wasn't bad luck, it was
of God, it was good for me, but that's why it brought me closer
to Him. Anything that brings me closer
to God, that's got to be good, that's got to be the hand of
God, and you begin to see the world very differently, and we
become much more faithful, and we become much more patient.
We are weak. But finally, and this is it, this is the sum and
summary of everything I want to say this morning. It's in
this verse, it's the burden, I do believe, of the apostles.
He says, but ye, beloved. And that's the gospel. God looks
through Christ at us, and he says, beloved. That is all and
everything. And to know that, By faith is
life eternal, and to not know it is to not have hope. Oh God,
speak to us. God, bring his lovely gospel
to us by his grace. Amen. 11. In number 11, the tune is St. Luke 834. Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song, the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue. Thy
free grace alone from the first to the last, has won my affections
and bound my soul fast. Him nobody left. ? As long my affections have bound
my soul fast ? ? A unity in Jesus is
empty from hell ? ? Its glories I'll sing and its wonders I'll
tell ? was Jesus my friend when he hung on the tree, who opened
the channel of mercy for me. But through Thy free goodness
my spirits may hide, And in the cross may faith still keep me
alive. Thy mercy is more than a match
for my heart, Which wondrous to fail its own harmless depart,
Dissolved by thy goodness, I fall to the ground, And reach to the praise of the mercy I found. ? He stands on the low day ? ?
To the poor and the needy ? ? Who cannot find a way ? ? No sinner shall ever be empty-stepped by ? ?
Who comes seeking mercy from Jesus Christ ? O praise to the Spirit, whose
gifts more divine, My mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song, the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue. My
mercy in Jesus. exempts me from hell, its glories
I'll sing and its wonders I'll tell. Oh, that we might know,
truly know, our gracious God, that mercy, that mercy in Jesus,
that we might be able to tell of its glories, that we might
know that mercy in our heart. It might be the theme of our
song. It might be the joy of our hearts. Oh, we might know
Him who is life. eternal. We do worship Thee.
We thank Thee for this, Thy day again. Bless it to us. We pray
Thy presence here this evening. Lord, I undertake for our brother
Paul Tyler and his labours in the word this day. Help him,
we pray. the service this afternoon at
Hedge End, as we do remember our friends there, and thy good
hand upon them, thy blessing, the gospel there, Heavenly Father,
that we have that we can share between our chapels. We do remember
John and Marian at this time, with that which has come upon
them, and we pray they might be much helped in the funeral
next week, and all the things that need to be arranged. Grace
us, Eternal God. And so we ask now, we might be
parted. Lord, with Thy blessing and to
enjoy this day that blessing that comes from on high, from
Father, from Son, from Holy Ghost, in Jesus' name, Amen.