Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
18. Genesis 18. This chapter is probably best
known because this is where the Lord comes and speaks to Abraham
telling him of the coming destruction upon Sodom. And this is where
Abraham intercedes for the righteous that are there, asking the Lord,
would you destroy the city if ten righteous persons be there? That's where they settled. And
the Lord said, no, I won't destroy the city if there be ten righteous
persons. But in this chapter, there's
also a beautiful picture given here regarding our Lord's provision
and salvation for His people. You that are chosen of the Lord,
He has gathered you and provided everything necessary for your
salvation, for your comfort, and for your rest. And He's done
it all in the Lord Jesus Christ. I understand that the wicked
in this world, all they know about the Lord is judgment. That's all they look for. That's
what they've heard and they're looking for the righteous judgment
of God. But to you that are chosen of
God, He has been merciful and gracious to you in putting you
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given you salvation. He
has made you to hear this glorious good news of what He has accomplished
for His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has put you in Him.
He has caused you to hear His word, to receive that word, and
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. because he will not allow the
righteous to be destroyed with the wicked. Now, before our Lord
went on to speak to Abraham about the coming destruction, there's
an outline given to us here in this chapter of how the Lord
saves his people. Before the coming wrath of God,
before the judgment of God breaks forth against this earth, our
God is very faithful. very faithful, he remembers his
people, he remembers his promise, and he causes them to hear this
gospel word, and he manifests his grace by revealing faith
in his people, manifesting that faith, all the gifts of God and
Christ in his people, whereby they look to Christ, they hear
and they believe him, and are delivered from that coming wrath
and destruction of God. And that's spoken of throughout
the scriptures. For example, we're told in Revelation
7, verse 2 and 3, the Lord speaks to the four angels to whom it
was given to hurt the earth and to hurt the sea. And before they
did that, it was told to them, hurt not the earth, hurt not
the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our
God in their foreheads. God is going to make sure that
all his people hear Christ and believe on Christ and rest in
Christ before the coming wrath of God. Just as Peter tells us
in 2 Peter 3 verse 9, God is long-suffering to us-ward,
speaking to the elect of God. He's long-suffering to us-ward. He's letting till all the righteous
be brought in. He's withholding His judgment
till all the righteous be brought in. He's long-suffering to us-ward.
not willing that any of us, you got to carry that us through
the whole verse, not willing that any of us should perish
but that all of us should come to a knowledge of our salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he does that, he does
that for us. So when you read this chapter,
understand there's an outline of these things outlined for
us where the Lord visits his people in grace and mercy, and
then he manifests that new birth in us, spoken of and pictured
in the announcement of Isaac, the promised seed. Sarah's womb,
and how that's a picture of Christ who was to come, and it's a picture
of the new birth formed in us, and then the judgment is spoken
of. That's the outline in this chapter. If you take the 10,000
foot view, that's the whole outline of this chapter, which is the
whole outline of Scripture, and how our God saves us in Christ
before judgment. But what I want to focus on with
you this morning is that beautiful picture that we're given when
the Lord visits Abraham. I want you to see this picture
of grace that our Lord does for his people and bringing them
into the fold, bringing them into the church of God and causing
them to be fed and ministered by the grace of God in Christ.
That's what we're gonna look at this morning, this ministration
of the gospel given to the church where our God tenderly cares
for and provides for the weary pilgrim, the weary traveler in
this world. Let's begin by reading Genesis
18, verses one through four. Let's just read these and then
we'll come back and comment on them. And the Lord appeared unto
Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in
the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and, lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them,
he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself
toward the ground, and said, My Lord, If now I have found
favor in thy sight, pass not away. I pray thee from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you,
be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the
tree. Now Mamre probably gets his name
from that fellow helper of Abraham. There was a couple of men aligned
with Abraham, and one of them was named Mamre. And this is
probably his land in which Abraham now dwells. And that word Mamre
means fatness or strength. Fatness or strength. Apparently
there was a grove of oak trees that was there. And this was
a good land, a good richly land meaning fatness or strength.
And Abraham is a type of the church here. He's a type of the
church of our Lord. And he's well provided for. He's well cared for. He has all the riches that he
needs. He has an abundance of riches
because he's well favored of the Lord. He's not out there
working in the heat of the day to survive. He's able to rest
himself in that heat. and that he there pictures the
hardships and the difficulties of this life. But there's Abraham,
resting, able to rest, able to rest in the body of Christ. He's
not a lazy man. He's not a lazy man. That's not
why he's sitting out. It's because he's in fatness.
He's well provided for. He has an abundance of tents,
an abundance of cattle, an abundance of menservants and maidservants
of gold and silver. And it pictures the riches that
you and I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we rest in that fatness
and that strength of our Lord. And verse 2 says that he lift
up his eyes and looked. I don't know. It doesn't say
in the scriptures whether Abraham was taking a nap, or I like to
think that he was actually praying. His head was bowed, and he was
praying to the Lord and seeking the Lord at that time. But he
lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him. And what that tells us is he
didn't see them coming from a long way off. He wasn't expecting
them. He didn't see them coming. But
there they are suddenly standing near to him. And we're told that
he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward
the ground. And at this point, we still don't
know who these men are. We're told in verse 1 that it's
the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, and capital D,
meaning that's Jehovah. Jehovah God has appeared to Abraham. And he sees them, but it doesn't
tell us where he's headed. It just says they stood. He doesn't
know if they're coming to him. He doesn't know if they're passing
by him or going away. They stood there. But before
they could go anywhere else, Abraham ran out to meet them. And you think about that. Here's
this great man. Abraham is a great man. He's
a mighty man. This is a man who has gone out
and defeated four kings. with his men servants, four kings,
defeating them, delivering their captives, setting free the captives
that those kings had taken, and setting them free. This is a
man to whom Melchizedek came and interposed between him and
Bera the king of Sodom, so that Abraham was strengthened and
answered discreetly and wisely to that king, that wicked king.
Bera means, I believe it means son of evil. son of evil, and
Melchizedek came and interposed himself, just like Christ did,
and he was made to answer discreetly to that king. This is a man who
is very wealthy, as I just outlined to you. He has many riches, and
yet, this great man shows great humility, and bowing himself
down to the ground. That says something to me, that
speaks to me, because in my mind, In my mind, I don't admit this
freely, but I know by my actions and my words, I can be a proud
man. By nature, I am a proud man,
and an arrogant man, and a man who thinks of himself more highly
than he ought to think. And here's this great man, greater
than I am, and he humbles himself. He humbles himself to these,
bowing himself toward the ground. Now, It doesn't say it directly,
but by the way he speaks to them, I think he may recognize him.
I don't know, because he calls him Lord, which means master. It's how you would address someone
who's a prince or a king or someone of greatness. He doesn't refer
to him as Jehovah. He calls him the other word Lord,
meaning master or Lord. But it has respect in it. And
he may recognize him. Perhaps this is Melchizedek again. I know many believe that Melchizedek
was an actual king around Salem, and he may have been. Some people
think that's Shem. Shem, actually, who came off
the ark. He did live long enough. If you do the math of their age,
I believe he outlived Abraham, actually. I'd have to look again,
but very, very close. close to it, so he may have recognized
him. And he said, my Lord, if now
I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away. Pass not away. He begs this Lord
that he sees not to leave him, but to stay. You see, what this
says to me, in my experience of what I've seen, that when
the Lord comes near, when He draws near in sweetness, you
seize those times. When He comes upon you burdening
your heart to pray, or He comes upon you turning your heart to
read His Word, Stop what you're doing and do those things. Because
you think, just one more moment, just another minute, and I'll
do that. I'll get to that. And before
you know it, that moment of sweetness, that moment of tenderness that
you want to draw near to the Lord, it's gone. It's gone. and he's sovereign. This is the
sovereign Lord our God who does as he pleases and we are his
humble servants. I know that Christ came as a
servant and humbled himself as our servant laying down his life
for the children But he is Lord, he's Almighty God, and we're
his humble servants. And so we ought to seize those
moments and cry out to him, Lord, draw near, stay near to me, Lord. We're not to be indifferent to
his presence, but we do well to run out to meet him, to beg
him to turn in with us and to stay. Lord, stay longer, stay
longer. Sing that hymn. Sing that hymn,
praise his name, and pray to him and rejoice in him while
he draws near. And rejoice in what your God
has done for you. You know, I was thinking of the
men on the road to Emmaus after our Lord rose from the dead. And they were wise. to beg their
companion on the road to stay with them a little longer. Their
eyes didn't even recognize him, but he preached so sweetly. He
preached Christ to them. It says that ought not Christ
to have suffered. At the hands of wicked men ought
he not to have been crucified, and lay down his life for the
sins of his people, and to rise again? And it says, beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, he preached unto them the things
concerning himself. He opened to them the scriptures. And so as they drew nigh to the
village where they were going, Christ made as though he were
going to go on a little further. He was going to keep on going.
And they compelled him. It being evening, they compelled
him, come and stay with us a little longer. And it says that they
broke bread. And he's the one that broke bread.
And he blessed it. And he gave to them. And it's
such a sweet picture there of what we do in the preaching of
the gospel. We preach Christ crucified. We preach the body of Christ
which was broken for us. And when you hear it, just like
their eyes, it says, their eyes were opened, and they knew Him,
and He vanished out of their sight. And we have this little
time, this little precious moment here where the Lord draws near
to us, and He breaks the bread. He declares Christ crucified.
He declares whether we're in Moses, in the prophets, in the
Psalms, He declares the things concerning Himself to us. And
when we hear him, our eyes are open, and we see him. And then
no sooner do we stand up after services, and we begin to talk,
and we walk out those doors, and we forget about him. But
there is that moment in which he tenderly blesses his people. And so, and when he was gone,
they said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us
while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us
the scriptures? And that's what we pray. Lord,
let your people not hear a man speak. But you, Lord, open the
scriptures. And when we preach Christ from
the scriptures, that's opening them. As he said to his disciples,
or as Luke recorded, then opened he their understanding that they
might understand the scriptures. When you see your Lord Jesus
Christ and what he's done for you, you understand the scriptures. You understand that passage.
when you see Christ. That's understanding the scriptures. So this is why Abraham was so
earnest in running to these men and humbling himself before them
and saying to them, turn in. Paul said in Hebrews 13 to be
sure to entertain strangers. For in doing so, some have entertained
angels unaware. And so like Abraham, we pray
like the hymn writer who wrote, pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Don't pass me by,
Lord. Now another thing that Abraham
says here is, let a little water, I pray you, be fetched and wash
your feet. Now, this was a common courtesy
in that part of the world at that time. They wore sandals.
They were open-toed. It was hot and dusty and dirty,
and their feet got hot and dirty. And so you would offer your guests
water to wash their feet. And there was a time when Christ
came, and he was ministering here in the flesh. And he was
going to places with publicans and sinners and the offscouring
of the earth. And the Pharisees said, well,
I'm going to have him over. And so he invited Christ over. And Christ went. And he had his
friends around there. He didn't want the riffraff and
the losers coming by. But he invited other Pharisees
and scribes and lawyers and men of renown. And they all came. And while they were there eating,
a woman came in, a sinful woman, a filthy woman, probably a whore. And she came in and she's touching
Christ. She's touching Him. And Christ
didn't stop her. He didn't prevent her. He didn't
shoo her away. It reminds me, I saw a video
about a year or two ago, and it was the Pope, that wicked
man, And the Pope was there with all these people, and he got
distracted, and someone reached out and touched his hand, and
he smacked it away. And he was angry. He was angry.
Christ didn't do that to her. Christ didn't push her away and
tell her, don't touch me. And the Pharisees looked at that
and said, if this man knew who she was, he wouldn't let her
touch him. He would push her away, and this is where Christ
brought that to pass, to instruct Simon the Pharisee, who invited
him, saying, If two men were forgiven of their sins, one had
a lot of sins and one had very little sins, which one do you
suppose would love their Lord more, who forgave them? And Simon
answered rightly. He said, I suppose the one that
was forgiven much. Christ said, that's right, that's
right. And then he pointed out to him, saying, Simon, and he
looked at this woman, and he said, you see this woman here?
Since the time she came in, You offered me no water to wash my
feet, but she has not ceased to wet my feet with her tears
and wipe them with the hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss,
Simon, but she's kissed my feet. You didn't anoint my head with
oil, and yet she's anointed my feet with precious oil, and you
didn't do it. Therefore, her sins, which are
many, her sins are forgiven. And how do I know that? Because
she loveth much. We know that because we see the
effects of the Lord's grace and mercy to her. She loveth much,
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And the
reality is, he's talking about our perspective. When we think
we're something, the reality is we're nothing. And we think
we've been forgiven little because we did all these things and we
cleaned up ourselves to get ourselves up here and the rest of you underlings
are down here. And so that's why I'm righteous
before the Lord in my own mind. But the reality is it shows the
fruit. I love little because I don't
think that I've been forgiven much, but he forgave her of her
sins. And so the point is, Sinners,
we brethren, need a complete Savior. We need a Savior that
saves us from head to toe and puts away all our sins because
we're not righteous in and of ourselves. We need the salvation
of the Son of God who was sent to the Father to lay down His
life for our sins. That's what we need, a complete
Savior. We don't need a dead letter form
of religion. We need a living faith. a living
faith whereby we hear the voice of the Son of God. We hear and
we live and we follow Him, not walking in darkness, but in His
light. And Christ is that willing Savior
to all who need Him. He reveals that need in our hearts.
He shows us what our need is, that we are sinners. We're just
like that woman, full of sins, full of filth, and need a complete
salvation by the gracious, almighty Savior whom the Father hath sent.
And so he heals, and he cleanses the broken heart, the broken
soul, our polluted nature. And he said to Peter one day,
he said, Peter said, you wash me all, Lord. If I need to be
washed, wash everything, my head, my hands, my feet. And he said,
he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is
clean every wit. And ye are clean, but not all. And what he's speaking of there
is that We've been washed in the blood of Christ, but he's
given us this body here where we come in and are refreshed
and renewed and hearing Christ again and being refreshed and
bathed in his blood, reminded of his grace and mercy and kindness
to sinners like us. And we need that because we go
out there and we forget so easily and our minds get taken up in
carnal fleshly things, but he's gracious. He's gracious and brings
us in. And so Abraham said to these
three men after that, he said, rest yourselves under the tree. Now we'll speak about that in
a moment, but there's a few things in all of this that we've seen
here that catches my eye. First of all, we see three men. And when we see three men, we
know that one is the Son of God. And most likely, this is not
only Christ incarnate, but the other two are angels. But it
says three men, and I can't help but think of the Godhead, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And what our Lord is teaching
us here is not only What you're seeing here is not only Abraham
ministering to them, but the picture here is how that our
God brings his people into the church, weary travelers, weary
pilgrims, to be ministered to by the church for their good,
for their comfort. And you might say, well, wait
a minute. How can this be Christ and two angels? How can this
be a picture of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?
How can this be weary travelers being brought into the church
and being comforted and fed the gospel? Well, didn't our Lord
say in Matthew 25, 40, and as much as ye have done it unto
the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. And so
when you see brethren, When you see the Lord bring in His people,
you're seeing the work of the Lord, the Godhead. Does not the
Godhead have a part in the salvation of one soul? Is it not the whole
Godhead that has wrought this salvation in us? It is. How so? Well, the Father, He
chose a people. He chose whom He would before
the foundation of the world, and He gave them to Christ. He committed us to the care of
His Son to obtain, to work the salvation for His people. And the Son, He loved them whom
the Father gave to Him as His bride, and He willingly came,
laying down His life, sacrificing Himself to redeem His people
with His own precious blood. And the Holy Spirit, Being sent
to the Father and the Son comes and seeks out we that are lost. His people are lost. We've gone
astray. We've been corrupted and defiled
and ruined in the fall in Adam. And the Holy Spirit comes and
delivers us from darkness, who are lost and dead and trespasses
and sins. And he makes us to hear this
gospel and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, giving us
a new birth after the seed of Christ. And so that's what the
Lord's showing us. Don't we pray, Lord, please draw
your people, gather your people in to hear this blessed word,
to feed us with Christ and to gather them and call them out
of darkness, call them off their couches, call them out of dead
churches and bring in your people, sinners who need to hear the
grace and mercy of God. And we don't know when he's going
to bring them. But one day we lift up our eyes and there they
come. in the door. And he's saying,
be ready. I'm bringing in my people in
an hour that you don't know. Be ready to minister to them.
Preach to them the Lord Jesus Christ. minister to those whom
I've brought to you and tend to them and care for them. Provide
for them as I've provided for you in the abundance and the
riches that I've given to you in Christ. Give those same abundance
and riches to others. Be mindful of it. That's why
we gather here and we're here that we might be ready to minister
to those whom the Lord brings in because he's done it for a
purpose. Pray for it and be ready to serve.
When the Lord does that, where do we sit them? Where are they
placed? Well, Abraham said, rest yourselves
under the tree. Rest yourselves under the tree. What's so peaceful and restful
about this tree to the weary traveler? Why would we set them
under the tree? Well, what comforts you, sinner?
the preaching and the declaration of Christ on that cursed tree,
of what Christ did on the cross for his people. This tree speaks
to the cross of Christ. This tree speaks to Christ. Christ was the one who hung on
that tree. That tree bore my Savior who
came to put away my sins. He came and was given for me,
gave himself for me to give me life, to give me forgiveness,
to provide an atonement for my sins. Christ came in the flesh. The Son of God took upon him
this flesh, the weakness and the humility of this flesh, yet
without sin. and came as my substitute, taking
my place on that tree, taking my place under the wrath of God,
who died as a sacrifice, the sacrifice to put away my sins,
to take my place under the wrath of God, to deliver me from the
hands of justice and the punishment of God, which is coming upon
the wicked in the earth. He came and went to that tree,
to that cross for His people. So this tree was a tree of horrors
for Him to bear, being forsaken of the Father, bearing the wrath
of God, that I would know nothing of that, that I might go free. And not free to do as I please,
but He also purposed to give me life and light in Him to know
what my God has done for me and to give me love, to put away
the enmity in my heart and to bring me near to God and God
near to me to reconcile me as a mediator between God and His
people. He did this so that me, being
weary in sins and unrighteousness and trespasses and transgressions,
might find rest under the tree, in the shadow of His cross, of
what He did for me. Without that wrath breaking on
my head, and having fellowship with God. So this is where we
bring our visitors. We're to set them under the tree,
under the tree of the cross of Christ. And so that they may
hear Christ speak to them. Who says to the prisoner that
sits there behind shut doors, Christ comes and opens them and
says, go forth. Go forth. You're free. That he
may say to those who sit in darkness, who are filthy and sinful and
wretched and vile, show yourselves. Come into the light. I've washed
you in my blood. I've put away your filth. And
here's a robe of righteousness for you. And here's shoes for
your feet. And here's a ring on your finger.
You're my child now. You're my child now. He does
that for his people. So this cross is the tree of
rest for the weary traveler. Next, Abraham says to the visitors
in verse 5, And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort
ye your hearts. After that ye shall pass on. For therefore are ye come to
your servant, and they said, So do as thou hast said. So as sinners are resting under
the tree, washed in the blood of Christ, shed for his redeemed,
we bring a morsel of bread. What is this morsel of bread?
It's the heavenly bread. It's that heavenly bread of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ. We declare Christ to sinners.
He's that morsel of bread given to comfort the hearts of his
people. Just like we read in verse 5,
to comfort their hearts. And then being made whole in
Christ, being fed and nourished in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how sinners are made ready to pass on. Would you be made ready
to stand before Holy God, to pass on and to meet your Creator,
your Maker, your God? It's only in Christ. Being fed
and nourished in Him, being provided for by Him, being delivered from
death and damnation, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes us ready
to pass on and to stand before the throne of God, as it says
in Revelation 14, 5, that they are faultless. His people are
faultless before the throne of holy God. Faultless. Faultless, having no fear of
condemnation, no stain of sin, but are cleansed and whole in
the Lord. And Abraham the minister says,
for therefore are ye come to your servant. You see, God is
sovereign. God has a gracious will and purpose
for his people. And he brings them in to hear
this gospel word before they pass on that they might be delivered
from their sins, that they might know what Christ who hung on
the cross for his people to redeem them, what he did for them in
putting away their sin. And it's made effectual by the
Lord, as the Godhead said here, so do as thou hast said. It's
effectual. It shall be brought to pass just
as God has promised and purposed for his people. And so, as we
go on in verses six and seven, we see the whole church is engaged
to minister to those whom the Lord brings to the people of
God, to this body. He says, Abraham hastened into
the tent unto Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures
of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham
ran unto the herd and fetched a calf, tender and good, and
gave it unto a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And so
our Lord delivers his people from their death and ruin. He never leaves them in the wilderness. He brings them into the congregation
where his word is preached that they might be ministered to,
that they might rest themselves under the tree, that they might
feed upon that morsel of heavenly bread and be comforted and made
ready to pass on because it was purposed of the Lord. It reminds
me again of what our Lord said, that parable of the Samaritan
as he was going to Jericho and he came upon that ruined man,
beaten and molested and just bloodied up and just left for
dead. That's what sin did to us in
this nature. And along comes this Samaritan,
this man who's hated by the Jews, a picture of Christ, who stops. doesn't pass by on the other
side, but stops and ministers to the needs of this man, bound
up his wounds, pouring him oil and wine. Christ put away. He heals our wounds. He gives
us his Holy Spirit. And he set him on his own beast.
Christ, as the servant of God, delivered us and carries us forth
and brought him to where? To an inn and took care of him. That inn is a picture of us,
brethren, in the Church of God, who are called to minister in
this great commission which He's given to us. And it's little
things. It's not just big things. It's
not just preaching the gospel. It's little things. It's in leading
the hymns. It's in singing the hymns. It's
in taking care of the children and helping out. In any way,
setting out the hymns, cleaning up, setting up, all those things,
it's all providing for sinners, weary travelers, that they might
come and hear the gospel and rest and be fed and nourished
in Christ. And it says on the morrow when
he departed, he took out two pence, likely a picture of the
spirit and the word, and he gave them to the host and said unto
him, take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come,
I'll repay you. We can't out give what the Lord
gives to his people. Whatever sacrifices you make,
whatever you give up, you can trust that the Lord is going
to more than compensate you in the blessedness of Christ. He
provides all you need. That calf that's tender and good,
it's Christ. That's what we're given. That's
what he gives to the new man, to preach to the people, to give
to the people, and to take care of those things of the people
that he brings to you. Genesis 18 now, and he took butter
and milk and the calf which he had dressed and set it before
them and he stood by them under the tree and they did eat. And here again we see Christ. He's the butter and the fatness.
He's the goodness, the heavenly gift of our Father. The milk
is the simplicity and the sincerity of the word whereby babes in
Christ drink and are nourished and fed and we drink it. we still
rejoice in that sweet milk, and the calf, that's the meat of
the word, all given in Christ. And Abraham said it before those
weary travelers, and they did eat. We don't force, we don't
have to force people to eat. You that are hungering and thirsting
for righteousness, you shall eat, and you shall be fed, and
you shall be comforted and nourished. Just as it says, they did eat. And then Abraham, he did what?
He stood by them. He also stood under that tree
because we need the same salvation, the same blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ for those that minister. We need
it. But he stood because he's ready to serve. He's ready to
lay down his life for the needs of those whom the Lord brings
in. He doesn't flee. He doesn't abandon.
He stays with the people. He stays with the people that
the Lord has brought to him. So would you serve our Lord in
His great commission which is given to the church and the earth?
This is how it's accomplished. It's in the ministry of preaching
Christ crucified to the people. It's why He brings them in. It's
for their nourishment. It's for them that when it comes
time for them to pass on, they're ready. They're ready to stand
faultless before the throne of God, not in their own works,
but in the righteousness obtained for them by the Lord Jesus Christ
and the death and resurrection of Himself. I pray the Lord delight
your hearts, comfort your hearts, and give you that blessed word
to feed upon him, to savor that morsel of heavenly bread that
he's given to you this morning in these messages. I pray the
Lord bless it to your hearts, brethren. Amen.