Well, it's good to be back with
you folks. I'm just overwhelmed at God's
providential hand in all things. My being here is according to
His purpose and His grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. His providence should excite
all of us. God's in control of everything,
and everything He's in control of was purposed by Him before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. I was telling our new son-in-law
and our daughter just yesterday that it's God's providence that
brought them together. And we should get excited. It
should just thrill us when we see God's hand in everything.
There's a scripture, and I was mentioning this on the way to
church this morning, that tells us in everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
And I ask these two questions. Does that mean it's God's will
that we give thanks for everything? Or does that mean It's God's
will that everything that happens to us is His will. And the answer to those two questions
is yes. It's God's will that we give
thanks, and it's God's will that everything that happens to us
was purposed by Him. God is sovereign, absolutely
sovereign in all things. And I told our folks just a couple
of weeks ago God's sovereign grace is a little bit like watermelon.
You know it's good when it gets all over you. And we should be
thrilled at the fact that He has revealed to us that He's
sovereign in everything and that Jesus Christ is a sovereign God
who rules over this whole universe and everything in it. Now please,
if you will, turn to Ephesians chapter 3. I'm so thankful to
be here. so thankful for the honor that
God has bestowed upon me to allow me to preach from this pulpit
one more time. And it's interesting that Brother
David sung the song that he did, God's Amazing Love. That's my
subject this morning, rooted and grounded in God's love for
his people. rooted and grounded in God's
love for his people. His love is so amazingly wonderful,
absolutely no one can comprehend it. How can we? How can the finite
mind comprehend that which is infinite? Even natural love that
humans have one for another is a mystery that cannot be explained. Two people meet, they fall in
love, they get married, they have children, and their love
for one another moves them to defend one another, provide one
for another, be so concerned for one another that they would
even lay down their lives if need be for the one they love.
And then to almost die of a broken heart when a loved one is taken
from us through death. That love is just so mysteriously
wonderful that we cannot comprehend it. Now it's not my intent to
expound from these verses I'm about to read from Ephesians
chapter 3, but if our love one for another in our natural being
is so mysterious that we can't comprehend it. How much more
God's love for his chosen people? We should be desirous to be grounded
and rooted in God's love. And that was Paul's prayer, and
I want to read that. So I'm going to start reading
at verse 14 of Ephesians chapter 3. And just read through these
scriptures. The inspired Word of God starting
at verse 14 of Ephesians 3 says, For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's every believer's
Father. We're family. Look at the next
verse. of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
And so our love one for another is a result of God's love for
us that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Read
on, that He would grant you, it says in verse 16, according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by
His Spirit in the inner man. That's where we get our strength.
In dealing with what Brother David brought out in his Sunday
school lesson, when persecution comes our way and tribulation,
we get our strength from Christ our Savior who dwells in us.
That song we just sung, Christ liveth in me, what a song. He sends the spirit of his Son
into our hearts so that we can comprehend at least in some measure
His infinite wisdom, His love, what He accomplished for us,
and we're strengthened by the faith that God gives us through
Christ who dwells in us. Look at verse 17, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness
of God." And so, this should be our prayer as well. It was
Paul's prayer for the saints at Ephesus, and that's a prayer
that reaches out to all of God's saints in any given generation,
that we might by his spirit dwelling in us, know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge." It's just too wonderful to even put
into words. But we can try. That should be
our desire, to try. So let me take you back into
the Old Testament to the book of Jeremiah. Chapter 31, a very
familiar passage of Scripture. I've quoted it many, many times
back home, but I want us to read it. I want us to see not only
because it helps to explain this love of Christ for His own people,
but also that we might see it in God's Word and embrace that
as the living truth. I have eight points, and don't
get excited please. I won't be here forever. I'll
try to be brief on each point. But eight points on this subject
of God's love. First of all, God's love for
His people is a biblical declaration. God's love for His people is
a biblical declaration. God's love for his people was
a manifested illustration. A manifested illustration. God's
love for his people is an instrumental proclamation. God's love for
his people is known by divine revelation. God's love is confessed
by his people by public identification. God's love declared by His people
will bring tribulation. God's love in the hearts of His
people is an ongoing consolation. And number eight, and finally,
God's love gives His people a future anticipation of eternal glorification. And I just pray that these eight
points will help us to be better rooted and grounded in the love
of God, which passeth knowledge. First of all, God's love for
his people is a biblical declaration. I chose my words for this subject
on God's love deliberately. God's love for his people is
a biblical declaration. God does not love everybody. His love is for his chosen people. Now God's love is in Jesus Christ,
and only in Jesus Christ, and He loves His chosen people who
are in Christ, and He loves Christ who is in His chosen people by
His divine power. He sends the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts under the preaching of His gospel. And God sees Christ
in us. That's the love God sees. He does not see any good in any
unregenerate person. There's no good in us. There's
nothing in us that would move God to love us outside of His
Son He puts in us. And I know people don't like
to hear that. But it's a biblical truth, the natural man is enmity
against God, and that's a strong word. We hate God in our natural
being. Now there are other scriptures
I could refer to other than Jeremiah 31.3. For example, we read in
John 13.1, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved
them unto the end. It does not say that Jesus Christ
loved everybody in the whole world. It says, having loved
His own which are in the world, He loved them to the end. Or
we could use Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5 which reads this way,
But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. Well, God has mercy on whom He
will have mercy. We heard that already in Sunday
school. God has compassion on whom he will have compassion.
That means the same. His mercy and his compassion
is freely bestowed upon his chosen people. Therefore, according
to Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 4 and 5, God's great love wherewith
he loved us is limited to those he bestows his mercy upon. To
those he quickens. That's a word that means gives
life. And so his love is limited to a particular people. And I'm
thankful I was included in that number before this world was
ever created. That God wrote my name in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Aren't
you? Doesn't that bless you? It should bless us. in a way
that will move us to give Him all the glory for our salvation,
because God is the only one who deserves any glory, and He will
not share His glory with another. Look at Jeremiah 31 and verse
3, we read these words, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Now if God loved everybody
with an everlasting love, He would draw everybody unto Himself,
but that's not what it says. Those He loves, He draws unto
Himself with an irresistible drawing power under the preaching
of the gospel at His appointed time of love for us. We wouldn't have any love for
God if He had not done that. That's when The love of God is
put in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit to move us to love
Him who first loved us. So this first point, God's love
for His people, His chosen people, is a biblical declaration. The
Word of God declares this to be true. It declares this to
be true. And I know people go into an
uncontrollable rage when you tell them that God doesn't love
everybody. But it's true. The Word of God
says that. Now turn to 1 John chapter 4,
if you would please. Our second point is God's love
for His people was a manifested illustration. God's love for
His people was a manifested illustration, and there could be no greater
proof of God's love for His people than that which was displayed
at Calvary 2,000 years ago. Our Lord Jesus said, greater
love had no man than this, and a man laid down his life for
his friends. And this love for God was a proven,
wonderful truth manifested when he sent his son to die for the
sins of his people on Mount Calvary, when Jesus Christ hung there
on that cruel cross. God didn't send his son to die
for our sins so that he could love us. Oh no. We just read
in Jeremiah 31 3 that God loves us with an everlasting love.
He sent his son to die for our sins because he loves us. Look at 1 John chapter 4 and
verse 10. We read here in his love Not
that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation, that is, a sin-atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Substitution is a word that Brother
David Edmondson just mentioned just a moment ago. You're a pastor,
and Judy's sitting in for our daughter Shelly. She was a substitute. Well, our Lord Jesus, when He
hung there on a cross, was a substitute for His people. Someone said
that the gospel could be summed up in that one word, substitution. And really, when we understand
substitution, that's true. My Lord Jesus, as my substitute,
took care of my sin debt. Absolutely nothing can be laid
to the charge of God's elect. because Jesus paid it all. All
to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. When
He offered Himself as the supreme sacrifice for the sins of His
people, He made that offering to His Father. And our Heavenly
Father accepted that sacrifice. And all of His chosen people
were made acceptable in Him. God's holy justice was perfectly
satisfied when our Lord Jesus endured the unmitigated wrath
of God as our substitute. We have good news for sinners.
Christ died for sinners and if we can see ourselves has nothing
but a hell-deserving, ill-deserving, undeserving sinner with nothing
to offer God in exchange for our soul, then we have been prepared
to receive the wonderful truths of the gospel that Jesus Christ
by Himself purged our sins. Every one of them. Now turn,
if you will, back to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, God's love for his people is an instrumental proclamation. And what I mean by that is this,
God is pleased to use instruments to proclaim the good news gospel. It can be by pastors, Sunday
school teachers, godly parents, faithful witnesses of God's love
for us through Christ our Savior, but he uses instruments. He's
pleased to do that. Men who only are ordained to
preach the gospel, but women as well who are faithful witnesses
of the gospel of God's grace. God will use instruments to let
others know what he accomplished for his people that he loves. And what an honor, what an honor
to be a voice to declare the truths of the gospel. John the
Baptist was a voice, just a voice. But what a voice he was. the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world, the sins of His people who are scattered
throughout the world. So being a voice, an instrument,
in the hands of the true and living God is a greater honor
than any of us can ever even be able to put into words. to
be a servant of the Most High God. Now let me couple this third
verse or this third point with the fourth point that God's love
for his people is known by divine revelation. God's love for his
people is an instrumental proclamation but God's love for his people
can only be known by divine revelation so if you're with me in second
Thessalonians chapter two and in the first part of this chapter
those who are not God's people are illustrated in words that
cannot be denied God sends them a strong delusion that they should
believe a lie but here In verses 13 and 14 of this Holy Inspired
Epistle, we read this, But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now why would the Holy Spirit
move Paul to write, we are bound to give thanks to God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God is the
one who has, by His grace, made known this wonderful truth concerning
God's love for His people. Paul had the honor He had the
honor of preaching the gospel, which he says in verse 14, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He had the honor of being the
instrument that God had chosen to proclaim the Gospel. But He
knew, and all of God's preachers know, and you know as well if
God has enlightened you, that even though we have the honor
of proclaiming the glorious Gospel truths of God's love for His
chosen people, God is the only One who can enlighten the mind
to those truths. That's God's doings. It's God
who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Revelation of Jesus Christ and
His love for His people is made known. Please don't miss this. It's not made known just by the
words that go into these ears. They have to go into these ears.
We have to hear the gospel. But if we just hear with these
ears, it's in vain. We must hear with the ears of
the heart. And the only way we can hear with the ears of the
heart is to have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. Paul said,
will it please God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me? In me. Oh, what a salvation this is. Christ liveth in me. And so,
divine revelation is a result of the Spirit of God who dwells
in the hearts of His people. That's His ministry, to take
the things of Christ and reveal them to His chosen blood-bought
children. What an honor to proclaim these
wonderful truths, but what a blessing it is to see God revealing these
blessed truths under His instruments that He has chosen to take the
truth to those who don't know Him. This is the compassion,
Brother David, that you were talking about. Blessed are those
who are merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. This is our compassion,
our desire that others would come to know Jesus Christ. I
have many members of my family here. I'm so thankful. We need
to hear this. We cannot browbeat people into
heaven. We can't grab them by the lapels
and shake them into heaven. No, it takes God's Word, His
Gospel, made known to His chosen people by the enlightening power
of God the Holy Spirit. That's what happened to me. That's
what happened to me. I know that. I had no love for
God in my unregenerate state. I was running from Him, shaking
my fist in His face and didn't even know it. I thought, well,
I'm not such a bad guy. I looked in the mirror and said,
not bad. It's not bad. I had no idea that
I was abomination to God in my natural
being. I had no idea that my good would
not outweigh my bad. It took the power of God to convict
me of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, to know that from
here down to there and everywhere in between I was nothing but
sin. I know people find that hard
to believe. But that's what the Word of God
declares. But when He makes this known
to us, when He makes it known to us that we deserve nothing
but His wrath, Then we'll hunger and thirst after righteousness,
and that righteousness is found only in Jesus Christ, who is
every believer's one and only righteousness. And being dressed
in His righteousness makes us in God's sight as holy as God
Himself. Isn't that good news? That's
so wonderful. Now if you will, turn back to
Acts chapter 2, the second chapter of Acts. Our fifth point is this,
God's love is confessed by his people by public identification. God's enlightened saints are
not ashamed of Jesus Christ or his gospel truths. To be ashamed
of the true gospel of God's sovereign grace is to be ashamed of Jesus
Christ, who is the gospel of God's sovereign grace. And we're
not ashamed of Him. We make a public identification
of God's love when we confess Jesus Christ in Believer's Baptism. When we confess Jesus Christ
by being publicly identified in the assembly of God's saints
on the appointed times of God's worship, of His people's worship
to God. We come together to worship Him
in spirit and in truth. And when we do that, we're confessing
We're confessing Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior before
all of those who are like believers. Those in goat barns aren't being
identified with God's people. They're being identified with
goats. They don't know it, but it's the truth. And we're identified
with God's people when we're telling others. about Jesus Christ,
our Sovereign Lord, and what He accomplished for us at Calvary
2,000 years ago. And we have this illustrated
here right in Acts chapter 2, if you're with me, starting at
verse 36. And this is Peter's famous sermon
on the day of Pentecost, and we read, therefore, Peter preaching,
therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God
hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord
and Christ. Now when they had heard this,
they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? I'm
so excited when somebody will ask me that question. When I'm
the instrument God has chosen to be speaking to someone on
a one-on-one basis or if after the worship services somebody
comes to me and asks me, what shall I do? That excites me. We read the answer in verse 38.
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call, and with many
other words that he testifies and exhorts, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation, then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day They were added unto
them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and
in prayers." Now, folks, listen. Peter was a bold preacher, and
a brave preacher. And he knew, not long before
he preached this, self-righteous religious Jews were so filled
with hatred toward His Savior because of the truth that He
preached, they crucified Him. They crucified the Lord of Glory.
It was by wicked hands. We know it was by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, but still those wicked hands
killed the Prince of Peace. And yet, He's standing before
thousands of self-righteous religious Jews preaching the same message
that his Savior preached. Knowing full well that the truth
would just cause them to go into an uncontrollable rage. But our
Lord Jesus puts his restraining hand on the wicked as it pleases
him. And in the midst of all of those
unbelieving self-righteous Jews He pricked the heart of 3,000
of them. Only God can do that. And caused
them to cry out, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter told
them what to do. Repent. Get baptized. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins. Only God can grant repentance
unto life, but it's still a command from Him to all men to repent
and believe. And 3,000 of those that God had
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world cried out from a
new heart, from Christ dwelling in them, for mercy. What shall we do? And those 3,000,
or whatever the number really was, is about 3,000, they publicly
identified themselves with Jesus Christ, not only by going into
the waters of baptism, but by continuing steadfastly in the
Apostles doctrine, in breaking of bread, and in prayer. And
this is a result of God's grace and His mercy working in us. So this fifth point, God's love
is confessed by his people by public identification, applies
to all believers. I can't imagine, can you? A true
believer, one who has Christ dwelling in him, having any lasting
problems with the gospel of God's grace. not wanting to be identified
with Christ, not wanting to get baptized, having no desire to
assemble with God's people on the appointed days of worship.
I can't imagine a child of God just going out and continuing
the way they lived with no evidence of God's grace and His mercy
before others. I can't imagine that. I know
I know we still have the old Adamic nature. I know that. I'm
well aware of that. And I'm grieved by it. My mind
is filled with wrong thoughts. I do things I shouldn't do. I
don't do things that I should do. But in me, By God-given faith,
I still look to Jesus Christ as the author and the finisher
of my faith, and I want to be where his people meet. I want
to be where the gospel is preached. I want to be where those who
love God identify themselves with the true and living God,
Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Now, if you will, turn
back to the Gospel of John, chapter 15. The sixth point that I want
to bring before you on this subject of God's love, declared by His
people, that will bring tribulation. Now folks, the same evil spirit
that was in the hearts of those unbelieving Jews who hated and
crucified our Lord Jesus is still in the hearts of self-righteous
religionists, still in the hearts of worldly people who've never
darkened the door of a church. And those who live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. We just heard that read from
one of the Beatitudes. Blessed are you when men shall
revive you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely
for my namesake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they, the prophets
which were before you. We're going to suffer if we live
godly, testifying of God's sovereign
grace and his sovereign mercy in our lives through the perfect
redeeming work of Christ Jesus our Lord and renounce all works
of the flesh. We will be hated by self-righteous
religionists. If we declare the total depravity
of man, the unconditional electing grace of God, the limited atonement of Christ
Jesus our Lord for a particular people, and the irresistible
drawing power of God the Holy Spirit, and the final perseverance
of the saints, self-righteous religionists They might be kind
enough not to say too much. They won't agree with you, but
they might not say too much. Or they might. I've experienced
it both ways. But when you declare that man
has absolutely nothing to do in the salvation of God's elect,
And quote the scripture in Romans chapter 9, which says, It is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. And tell folks that their will
had nothing to do with their salvation. I'll guarantee you,
not only on the authority of God's Word, but from experience,
they're going to let you know right off. how they do not agree
with that. We have a brother in our church
by the name of John Reeves who preaches for me once in a while
and his own aunt pointed her finger in his chest and said,
don't you dare tell me I did not have a free will to come
to Christ. It throws him into a rage. Yet he lovingly backed
away. That's all we can do. We can
declare the truth, but we can't reveal the truth. Here in John
chapter 15, starting at verse 16, our Lord Jesus Himself speaking
said, Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained
you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit
should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in
My name, He may give it you, These things I command you, that
ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love His own. But because you are not of the
world, would I have chosen you out of the world? Therefore,
the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept My saying, they will keep yours also. So, we are God's
chosen people. And our Lord Jesus declared that
to be true. And He told His disciples, and
this applies to all of us. I know He was speaking to His
chosen apostles, but it applies to all of us. If they hated Jesus
Christ, they'll hate us. They love their own. The world
loves their own. But they don't love those who
love Jesus Christ and give Him all the glory. And we will suffer
persecution. So there's tribulation that comes
to God's people when we make a stand for the truth. Our Lord
Jesus said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And
we have true saving faith in Him. And by His grace and His
Spirit working in us, we will overcome all of these difficult and trying times. Now, turn to 1 John chapter 4,
my seventh point on this subject of God's love for His chosen
people, is God's love in the hearts of His people is an ongoing
consolation. So even when our own loved ones,
even when they turn a deaf ear to us, even when they manifest
hatred in their hearts toward us because of our love for Christ,
the Holy Spirit working in us will console us in these trying,
difficult times. These trials are ordained by
God. and they're given to us for a reason, to try our faith,
and God has a right to do that, and to prove His love for His
own by the way He gives us the grace to overcome these difficulties. So it's an ongoing consolation. We're walking through this world
This world's not our home. We're on a pilgrimage journey.
And there's coming a day when it's all going to be over. We
just heard that read in the Scripture in the men's meeting this morning. When our Lord returns, everything's
going to be on fire. Heavens are going to melt with
the fervor. Judgment day is coming. All of us must stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation,
no judgment to them which are in Christ Jesus. We don't fear
coming judgment. We don't fear death. And I realize
we're human and there's some apprehension about those two
events. But the Spirit of Christ dwelling
in us gives us this consolation that it's always well with the
righteous. And who are the righteous? Those
who are in Christ Jesus. Those who were chosen in Him.
Those who were in Him when He walked on this earth establishing
a righteousness for us. Those who were in Him when He
suffered and bled and died. those who were in him when he
came out of the grave and those who were in him when he ascended
to glory and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high. He's our heavenly representative. He in The person of the God-man
is the great High Priest for all of His people. He's making
intercession for us. And He loves His people with
a perfect love. And that brings us consolation.
Here in 1 John chapter 4, starting at verse 15, we read, Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love
made perfect. Now, please don't miss this.
That we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because
as He is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love. Perfect
love casteth out fear. Folks, this is that consolation
I'm talking about. Our Lord has promised never to
leave us nor forsake us. He loves us with a perfect love. And that perfect love is Christ
in us. We have this assurance that God Himself has promised that when we stand
before Him on Judgment Day, we will be dressed in the perfect
righteousness of Jesus Christ. God not only will not lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, our sins have been so far removed
from God's sight that He doesn't even remember them against us
anymore. So we'll stand before Him just as Christ is, loved
of God, blessed of God. Folks, it doesn't say as Christ
is, so will we be when we get to glory. It says as He is, so
are we in this world. Is Jesus Christ the Son of God?
Yes! And we're His children by the
spirit of adoption. Does God love His darling Son
with a perfect love? Absolutely! And He loves us with
that same love. And He doesn't love your pastor
any more than He loves anyone seated in His congregation who
have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He loves
every one of us with the same perfect love He has for His darling
Son. And that's an ongoing consolation
to every child of God, to know that we're loved with a perfect
love. And God's love for His own is
like Himself. It's immutable. It cannot change. It cannot change. God loves us
with a perfect, eternal love. that keeps us in every trying
situation consoled by Him as we consider, God loves me. Me? A hell deserving sinner? Yes, He does. He loves me with
the same love that He has for His darling son. One more point,
and I'll bring this to a close. Turn to 1 Peter 1. Our closing
point is this. God's love for His people gives
us a future anticipation of eternal glorification. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And absence from the body is present with the Lord. And Jesus
Christ died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with Him. Now we walk by God-given faith. This is the faith that God gives
His chosen people. We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. But this is by faith. And that's
not talking about the physical appearance of Jesus Christ. This picture of a long-haired
hippie that people have of Jesus, that's not what that's talking
about and we don't know what Jesus Christ looks like anyway.
God didn't leave us a picture of Him, but He did leave us with
those attributes that declare who Jesus Christ is. Every glorious
attribute of God Himself is found in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ
is the glory of God. He is the true and living God.
Our Heavenly Father has given to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
all power in Heaven and Earth. And He has given Him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, things in earth, things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. Now I know every saint in heaven
is worshiping Jesus Christ. as the sovereign Lord over all
of His creation. And I know God's saints, who
are enlightened by Him, worship Him as the God-man, the true
and living God, who's on His throne in glory. But have you
ever given some thought to that other statement, things under
the earth? He's Lord over those little worms
that are crawling under there. The path of a worm was determined
by my Lord Jesus before this world was ever created. I'm telling
you the truth. And worms up on this earth who
walk on two legs, which we were, and in our old nature we still
are, the paths of everyone are ordained by my Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you thankful that He ordained
our path to cross the path, excuse me, of one of his preachers where
we could hear the gospel. As Pastor Don Fortner would say,
we should stand on the tiptoe of faith anticipating the day
when we will see him in all of his glory. Psalm Judy was playing
as a prelude. What a day that will be. What
a glorious day that will be. Here in 1 Peter chapter 1 starting
at verse 3, we read, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively, that is a living hope, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's our hope. Christ in us,
the hope of glory. But our hope is in the resurrected
Christ of God, who is seated on His throne in glory, to an
inheritance, it says in verse 4, incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. So God has
reserved a spot for all of His saints who were redeemed by the
blood of Christ. A full inheritance is reserved
for every one of us. And we're kept, it says in verse
5, by the power of God Through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time. Through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. Now what's going to happen
when this is all over? When faith gives way to sight?
What's going to happen? Well, we don't need faith when
this is all over. when salvation comes in the fullness
of all of what God has predetermined for us, we're going to see Jesus
Christ in all of His glory. Read on. Wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold testings, temptations, that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not
seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." So
when it's all over, when it's all over, receiving the end of
your salvation, receiving the end of your faith through salvation.
Faith is going to give way to sight. We're going to see Him
in all of His glory. More than that, we're going to
enter into His glory. We're going to be glorified with
Him for all eternity. We're going to admire one another.
Not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus
Christ has done. We're going to see God's righteousness
dressed on all of His saints. That robe of righteousness placed
upon all of His saints. And we're going to see ornaments
of His grace dripping from every child of God. What a day to look
forward to! Anticipate that day with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. It's by faith, yes. God gives
us that faith. But one bright, glorious, endless
day, faith will give way to sight, and we'll enter into the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing Him in all of His glory. Can you
imagine that? There's no need for the sun in
heaven. He's the brightness of that celestial
city, and we'll enter into that brightness and bask in His eternal
love for His chosen people for all eternity, giving Him all
the praise and all the glory for this unspeakable gift, eternal
life through Christ our Savior. God bless you, us, as we have
the opportunity in this life to meditate and ponder upon God's
love for his own chosen people with thankful hearts that his
love was set upon us from everlasting and that love will carry us all
the way to glory and for all eternity. Amen. Thank you. God bless you.