Let's begin our evening service
by singing A Shelter in the Time of Storm, 263. A Shelter in the
Time of Storm. The Lord's our rock, in Him we
hide, A shelter in the time of storm. Secure whatever will be
tied, A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in
a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in
a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. A shade by day,
defense by night, a shelter in the time of storm. No fear's
alarm, no foe's affright, A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, A shelter in the time of storm. The raging storms may
round us beat, A shelter in the time of storm. We'll never leave
our safe retreat, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a shelter in the time of storm. O rock divine, O refuge dear,
A shelter in the time of storm. Be thou our helper ever near,
a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in the weary
land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in the weary
land, a shelter in the time of storm. I'd like to read Psalm 25. Psalm 25. A Psalm of David. Unto Thee,
O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in Thee. Let
me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph
over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee
be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress
without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach
me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach
me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait
all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions according
to thy mercy. Remember thou me for thy goodness'
sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord,
therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he
guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. All the
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, unto such as keep his
covenant and his testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What man is he that
feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way
that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease,
and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant.
Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet
out of the net. Turn thee unto me. and have mercy
upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my
heart are enlarged, O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look
upon mine affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider
mine enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred. O keep my soul, deliver me. Let
me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity
and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on thee. Redeem Israel,
O God, out of all his troubles. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for allowing us again this evening to assemble together
to hear your word declared unto us. Father, remember us in mercy
as we have assembled here this evening. For Lord, without your
presence and without your blessing and the unction of your spirit,
it will be in vain. But Lord, you have promised in
your word, where two or three are gathered together in your
name, there you will be in the midst. And Father, remember us
as we sit here this evening, pour out your grace and mercy
upon us. And that once again, our eyes
may be looking towards the Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope and
salvation. Remember Brother Eric this evening,
Lord. Give him all that he needs as
he declares this message to us. Father, will you remember him
each day as he prepares these messages. Continue, Lord, to
be with him. Give him strength and health
and all that he needs for his body and for his soul. Father,
remember us as a local assembly. We thank you, Lord, for restoring
health where it was needed. again. And Father, continue to
watch over and protect us. And Lord, will you establish
us as this local assembly and pour out your mercy on this community.
Call out sinners out of darkness into your marvelous light for
Jesus' sake alone. Amen. Let's turn to 259. the rock that
is higher than I, 259. Sometimes the shadows are deep,
And rough seems the path to the goal, And sorrows sometimes how
they sweep. Like tempests down over the soul
Oh, then to the rock let me fly To the rock that is higher than
I Oh, then to the rock let me fly To the rock that is higher
than I Oh, sometimes how long seems
to day, And sometimes how weary my feet, But toiling in much
dusty way, The rock's blessed shadow how sweet, O then to the
rock let me fly, to the rock that is higher than I. O then to the rock let me fly,
to the rock that is higher than I. O near to the rock let me
keep, If blessings or sorrows prevail, For climbing the mountain
way steep, Or walking the shadowy veil, Oh, then to the rock let
me fly, To the rock that is higher than high, Oh, then to the rock
let me fly, To the rock that is higher than I. Good evening, brethren. Let's
be turning to John. Let's turn to John 18. Tonight, in our text, we see
our Lord in the trial with Pilate. Pilate has put him on trial as
the Roman governor. While he puts Christ on trial,
we see how that the Lord searches this man's heart, and he reveals
the heart of the natural man. Pilate had asked Christ, art
thou the king of the Jews in verse 33? And we see our Lord's
response in verse 34. Sayest thou this, this thing
of thyself, or did others tell it of me, tell it thee of me? He's asking, who has revealed
this to you? Is this the flesh that has revealed
this to you? Or is this the work of the Spirit
of God? Who's revealed this to you? What
counts is a new creature, a new creature, not what we have done
in the flesh, not what we've done for ourselves, but has our
Lord made us new creatures by the grace of God, by the Spirit
of Christ, by the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ and His precious
blood. Who's revealed this to you? And
we see that when he asked Pilate this, he exposed, he touched
the wicked heart in him. He touched that nerve so that
that man responded in verse 35, saying, am I a Jew? Thine own
nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me.
What hast thou done? Seems like a reasonable question
for a judge to ask the accused, what hast thou done? But we know that in speaking
to Christ, as Pilate was speaking with him and questioning him,
he recognized that Christ was innocent. He knew that this man
was innocent of the crimes that these Jews were charging him
with. And he began to marvel. He marveled
at the things that Christ said, and he marveled at the things
that Christ didn't say. to defend himself, to deliver
himself out of the hands of this judge, Pilate. Matthew tells
us that when Pilate was set down on the judgment seat, when the
time came and he had made his verdict, his wife said unto him,
saying, Hath thou nothing to do with that just man? For I
have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. though he was told by the Jews
that this man made claim to be the Christ, the Christ, the Christ
of God. And Pilate understood something
of the Jews. He understood something of their
law and something of their religion. He was their governor. He knew
something about them. Others that were rulers over
that time knew something about them. King Herod knew something
about Christ. They had heard of the works of
Christ. They heard of his deeds. They
heard some things of what he had said. But even when he found
Christ innocent, he disregarded it, and he crucified him anyway.
He crucified him anyway. What hast thou done? That's the question. That's the
question. How do you ask this question
of our Lord? How do you speak to the Lord?
How do you ask Him, Lord, what have you done? What have you
done? Do you ask it as one who judges
Christ, as one who stands in judgment of the Lord from a superior
moral high ground, as though we, the creature, can judge God,
the creator? as though we have something to
say to God, as though we have any right to speak to Him in
a manner with such disrespect? Or do we come as a sinner, seeking
grace and mercy and help in time of our need, when the Lord shows
us what we are, what sinners we are in our need of Him, how
holy, righteous, perfect, good in all His ways He is, and what
rebel sinners we have been toward God. in rejecting him, in refusing
him, in turning away from the true and living God, as sheep
going astray and doing our own thing. The wicked justify themselves
in asking, well, why does he yet find fault? If he's sovereign
and he knows all things and does all things, why does he yet find
fault with me? Seeing no man can resist his
will. Paul said, do you think it's a light thing to reply against
God, to speak like that to holy God? And yet we see here with
Pilate and the way that the Jews spoke to him, they disregarded
him. They had the air in their sights
and they sought to kill him and take his life. The wicked find fault with holy
God and sit in judgment of the Son of God. And when you do,
when man does that, they sit in judgment condemning the Son
of God. Condemning holy God. Either because
they willingly hate him as the Jews, or, as we see with Pilate,
man's just indifferent. He thinks he can just sit on
the fence and be indifferent to the things of God, like Pilate. Either way, Both parties gave
their consent to Christ being crucified. Both. Those who actively
persecuted and hated him and those who saw it and had the
power to do something about it but did nothing to prevent it.
These were indifferent. Well, that's just how people
are going to be. That's how they're going to be.
I've titled this message, What Hast Thou Done? What Hast Thou
Done? And we begin In John chapter
1, I just want to read a verse there, verse 11, that reminds
us, that tells us that when Christ came, he came unto his own. He
came to the Jews and his own received him not. And that fact
is being highlighted here in this passage in John 18 with
the mock trial of the Jews and then taking him away to Pilate. And what we see here With Christ
on trial by man, by the creature, we see how that the Lord is revealing
the wretched, wicked heart of the natural man. We see what
we are by nature. We see what vile, wretched sinners
we are in this. Now, let's look at John 18 and
verse 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas. unto the hall of judgment, and
it was early. And they themselves went not
into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that
they might eat the Passover." They didn't want to go in there
because they might be defiled and they wanted to partake of
the Passover that was that coming day there. And this really puts
an honest face on man's religion, doesn't it? We see the ugly face
of how this flesh worships God and what we value and what we
think God is pleased with. This shows the ugliness of man's
fleshly religion. And the Lord shows us in the
scriptures, and we see this example here, that without the Spirit
of God, all religion is but hypocrisy. It's just a fair show in the
flesh and it mocks God, seeks to mock God. God is not mocked.
Whatsoever man sows, that shall he reap. That shall he reap. And so all religion without the
Spirit of God is just a reflection of what this natural heart is.
This shows us what we are by nature. What we are in this flesh,
and regardless of how high we think of ourselves, the Lord's
shown us that we think too highly of ourselves. And that's why
we dare to speak to the Christ, the Son of God, in the manner
that these parties here speak to the Lord. These men had no problem sending
a just and an innocent man to be sentenced and put to death.
but they took great care not to stain the outward form, to
keep up the appearance of the thing so that they could practice
what? A vain, empty, dead letter religion. And what the Lord is showing
us is don't do that. We don't come to the living God
in a dead form, in a dead religion, and we put so much weight on
the outward form and the practice of things, and care so very little
for how we persecute Christ, how we harm the body, the harm
that we do in looking at the form of things, and looking at
things that are not salvation. and neglect the weightier matters. Like Christ said of the Jews,
he said, they strain at a net only to swallow a camel. They
have no problem with the camel swallowing that big gulp down,
but they're worried about the little nets falling in there.
And they strain those things out. And so, really in these
trials, the Lord's revealing the wicked heart of man, the
hypocrisy of man. And he does this that he may
be gracious to his child. He shows us our folly. He shows
us our weakness, not to be cruel to you, his child, but that he
may be gracious to you. that He may give you that precious
knowledge and spiritual understanding of what all the world cannot
see, but He's given you eyes to see the preciousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's given your heart that need
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's opened your ear that you
should hear the voice of the Son of God in the heart that
receives Him and believes the Word of your God. That's a precious
gift, an unspeakable gift that He's given to you, you precious
sheep of the Lord. You precious sheep of the Lord.
He's given that to you, and so He shows us. He says, this is
what we are by nature, right here. Look to me. Now look to
me. Believe me. Verse 29, Pilate
then went out unto them and said, what accusation bring ye against
this man? So this is now before some of
the things we've already talked about, before he came to Christ.
What accusation bring ye against this man? Now, you'll notice
that by their response, they seem pretty annoyed that he was
questioning them about why they were bringing Christ to them.
Because they need to keep Pilate in the dark about their true
motives. in this betrayal of Christ, this
rejection of their Christ, their King. They answered and said
unto him, if ye were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him
up unto thee. That's the classic thing, right? You get defensive
when someone has just pointed out a chink in the armor of your
story, right? That one's just kind of called
you out on it and you get defensive. Whoa, whoa, where are you going
with this? They said unto him, Pilate says to them, take ye
him and judge him according to your law. He senses that they're
up to no good. He says, you guys deal with this
thing. And the Jews therefore said unto him, it's not lawful
for us to put any man to death. And I don't know. Some say that
that power, that right, had been taken from them by the Romans.
I don't know. Maybe they were saying something.
They wouldn't be able to put him to death, apparently, according
to their law. But more than that, it's because
the Spirit of the Lord is in this, the determinate will of
God is in this, that the Son of God should die according to
the scriptures. And that the word of Christ,
who told his disciples how he would die, that it should come
to pass exactly as he spoke it. Because the word of our God always
comes to pass. It always comes to pass. What
he says is so. When he says, you shall, you
will. You will, brethren. By his grace
and mercy. And it said that in verse 32,
that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spake signifying
what death he should die. So what's going on here is the
Jews had to be very careful what they told Pilate. They had to
be sure to not make it a religious matter. They had to accuse him
of civil disobedience. so that he would be judged as
a criminal under Roman law. And they're being very crafty
in what they do. Now Luke tells us a little more
detail. In Luke 23 verse 2 it says, They
began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting
the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying
that he himself is Christ a king. Notice they didn't get into their
law, they didn't get into their religion, they kept it as a very
civil disobedience so that it would come under the jurisdiction
without question of the Roman government. And that's when Pilate
returns to Christ. Back in John 18.33, then Pilate
entered into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said
unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him,
sayest thou this thing of thyself or did others tell it thee of
me? So man putting Christ on trial
is revealing the wicked heart that's in man, the wicked heart
that is in us by nature. It shows that It shows how spiritually
dead we are, that we are spiritually dead and have no life, that men
can stand before their Creator and not even know Him. He could
speak blessed words, perform miracles that no man can perform,
and they don't even recognize Him. They don't see Him as God. They don't see Jesus in Jesus. They don't see Him. And so, man
is ignorant, and the Jews here, we know, were filled with jealousy
and covetousness, and so they had to hide that from Pilate,
and Pilate asked them, and they become defensive, because they
wanted to put Christ to death as a criminal. And in their craft,
they thought they were being crafty, because then, if anyone
got upset who was a Jew, and said, what have you done? They
could say, well, we didn't do it. He was a civil criminal. He was taken by the Romans, and
the Romans put him to death according to their law, because they needed
to avoid an uprising, an insurrection, because there would be trouble,
and who's going to get involved but the Romans are going to get
involved. And then there might be a change of the high priest
if the Romans get involved and things like that. So it reveals
their heart. That the heart of man is not
in love with God. The heart of man doesn't love
the truth. The heart of man has no desire
to do the will of God. The heart of man does what the
heart of man wants to do. That natural man. He's going
to do what he wants to do and what he does is for this world
and for the praise of this world and for the pleasures of this
world. Let's turn over to 1st John and see this. 1st John chapter
2. And look at verse 15 through
17 there. The apostle writes, love not
the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the
will of God abideth forever." And so these Jews, they were
focused on their worldly goals and aspirations. their positions
of power, their praise of men. And they had no problem, therefore,
condemning the Christ to die. They had no problem ignoring
the things He said and the things He did and putting Him to death. But where are they now? Where
are they sitting? In what lasting habitation are
they now sitting in for their momentary passing pleasures of
this world? The Lord delivers His people
from that. The Lord shows us the vain emptiness
of this world now that it cannot save. It is not lasting. It does not give us that satisfaction
that the flesh seeks. We'll never be satisfied. Our
satisfaction our thirst is quenched, our hunger satisfied by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And for you, for whom that has
been given, that is a precious gift, a precious gift of the
Spirit because that is not of the flesh and it's not given
to the flesh. It's given to the Lord's people
whom He loves and to whom He will be gracious to. It's given
in the new man. The new man of his doing. Pilate's heart was also exposed,
so he can't be excused in this. Matthew tells us that he knew
that for envy they had delivered him. He even tried to symbolically
wash his hands in front of them to say, I'm innocent, I'm innocent
of this, even though it was his word that condemned him to die.
The Romans wouldn't have put him to death if Pilate said let
him go. Let him go. He called him a just person.
He said of him, I find in him no fault at all. And yet, he
didn't set him free. He would not set him free. He
tried. He tried releasing him under the custom that they had
to release a prisoner at that time of Passover, a prisoner
of their choosing, regardless of what crimes he did. And he
said, I can release you to Jesus, the king of the Jews. Will you
have him? And they said, no. Give us Barabbas. Give us Barabbas,
a thief, a real insurrectionist, a real troublemaker, a real criminal. And so he should never have left
it to the people. It shows that he was just looking
to please the people. He just wanted to do what the
people wanted him to do and curry favor with the Jews that he had
the rule over. The way a boss might do something
that they know will be meaningful to his or her employees. They
try to do something to get on their good side. I don't know
what his motive was beyond that, but he loved the praise of men
more than the praise of God. He was more interested in what
they thought rather than what the true and living God thought.
But our Lord tells you, his people, in Proverbs 3, verses 5 through
7, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto
thine own understanding. in all thy ways acknowledge him. Think of him. What does the Lord
say about this matter? What does the Lord say to me
in his word about this matter? And he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Brethren, we desperately
need the grace of God. We desperately need the grace
of God. We need our Lord because we see what we are in the flesh.
We see our heart. This natural man loves this world. This natural man loves pleasures.
This natural man loves the praise of men. This natural man loves
the things of the flesh, but those things of the flesh are
not the things of God. And the fellowship of God is
contrary to this flesh. Anything short of the grace,
of grace, anything short of that grace comes short of God. It comes short of the glory of
God. We need that grace. We need the grace of our God
and Savior. The coming of Christ and salvation
by His blood, it exposes what man's heart is. It shows what
we are in this flesh. This flesh teaches us to have
confidence in our works. This flesh says, you be confident. You're good at what you do. You're
good at what you do. And that's not what the Spirit
teaches, The Spirit says, have no confidence in the flesh. You
be looking to the Lord always, praying to him with understanding. Lord, without you, I can do nothing. I can do nothing, Lord. Save
me. This flesh teaches us that the
friendship of this world and its pleasures, perfectly normal
for believers. It's fine. Not a big deal. Perfectly fine. But the Spirit
says, as we saw with John, love not the world. Don't love the
world. Love the Lord. Seek Him. That
doesn't mean that we're jerks or unkind to people in the world.
No, we are kind. We show them kindness. We are
considerate and mindful of the needs of others, and we want
to be kind and nice, good neighbors and good friends and kind people. but understand, have an understanding
that this world, this flesh loves pleasures that just take our
eyes and thoughts off of Christ a lot, a lot. And then through
subtlety we justify ourselves and excuse our indifference,
like Pilate, when we would do evil or just be indifferent to
the things of Christ. In John chapter 1, Christ was
called the light of men, or he is called the light of men, and
he's said to be the true light of God. And that's very telling
for what our Lord tells us about this flesh. In John 3, 19 and
20, this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
to the world. And men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved." And when we look at man's hand
in the death of Christ, we see everyone's sinners, right? You
know, living long enough, you hear how certain people hate
other people, and they accuse the other one of being evil or
doing some crime. What we see here is Jew and Gentile
all alike are sinners. Every one of us is a sinner. We have nothing above another. at all, at all. Even many Gentiles
who claim to be Christians are doing nothing but have a dead
letter faith. It's a fake, phony, hypocritical,
dead religion. Just like they say of the Jews,
and they're no different, no better. No better. That's when
it's of the flesh. It's dead. And so, none of us
can claim impartiality in his death, whether we actively hate
him or we're just indifferent. Ah, you know, let other people
have Christ. It doesn't, it's a big deal,
right? Whether it's indifference or
act of hatred, both parties here who were like that were equally
guilty of shedding Christ's precious blood. Our God sees the heart
of man. He knows our hearts. He knows
our thoughts. He knows our words, our actions.
He knows what we are. It's a wonder that He loves us
and is so kind and gracious to us for Christ's sake and given
us a hunger and a thirst for Christ. That He should bless
us with His word to teach us and bless us and turn us to Christ. Our Lord said this in Matthew
10 26, there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed and
hid that shall not be known. But he said this specifically
in relation to how men hate and persecute Christ and his disciples
for preaching the gospel. That's what he was saying. The
Lord reveals the hearts of men in the preaching of the gospel.
We see him revealing the heart of man as they put Christ on
trial, and when the word of God is preached, he reveals what's
in our heart. He reveals what's in our heart.
Pilate couldn't get away, even though he was indifferent, and
the Jews were guilty, even though, and for their active hatred of
him. the scriptures tell us, Acts
4 27, that of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou
hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together. All were counted
as persecutors of Christ and just like them the world persecutes
the preaching of the gospel. whether it's an active disdain
or hatred for it, or it's just indifference to it. I don't need
that. I don't need that. It's a form
of persecution. It's a form of persecution, just
like with Pilate. The grace of God in Christ, proclaimed
in the preaching of the gospel, makes known what's in the heart
of man. Whether you hate him or are indifferent to him, it's
all persecution of Christ. Hebrews 4.12-13 says, The word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." And that's
why when you see the preaching of Christ and the preaching of
the apostles, who were very direct to those that they were speaking,
they were angry. And they often gnashed with their
teeth upon them, and they martyred Stephen, and they went after
the apostles and got them when they could, and they went after
Christ because Man, it's the word of God. It cuts right down
to the core of the matter and it goes deep in that way. I remember
This is over 20 years, maybe 25 years, maybe more. I was working
in New Jersey in business and I shared an office with some
other office mates. And there was a girl who would
come down and she would talk to the people. And one day she
was just talking to me and it was just her and I in there.
And I don't know what she said, but I remember saying, well,
I'm a Christian. I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's my Lord and Savior. And her face changed. Just something, just deformed
her face right before my eyes and she was angry and she began
to attack. And I didn't even know why. I
didn't know why she was doing this but she attacked him. And
she never spoke to me again after that. Now it turned out, I don't
know why, but within three days, I think it was, three to five
days, she had become ill and took a leave of absence and never
came back to the job after that. But you see how there are people
who just despise the true and living God. all that are of the
flesh are going to bear fruits of the flesh. And just like we
see of the Jews here in Pilate, we read of these things where
it speaks of the flesh bearing fruits of idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. of
the witch I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." And that's what the Lord was manifesting, bringing
out in the Jews and Pilate and various Israelites and even in
the Gentiles when they turned and would drag Paul out and stone
him and beat him and persecute him. So this is the natural heart
of man that's exposed by Christ, and of which he testifies, of
our heart, who then can be saved. Who then can be saved? Is any
man ever going to be found righteous before the true and living God? Well, we see in God's wisdom,
he's showing us this, that he may be gracious to us. to deliver
us from death, to deliver us from trusting things that cannot
save, from having confidence in the flesh and believing Him. Just as the coming of Christ
revealed the darkness of man's heart, the coming of Christ also
reveals the righteousness of God, revealed in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What hast thou done, Lord? that
this world hates thee. What hast thou done, Lord, that
sinners saved love thee? What hast thou done, Lord, that
you can say to sinners, Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest? Our Lord is saying
to us that are sinners, He's saying, what have I done? I answered
the call of my Father to redeem them that He gave to me to be
my people, to be my bride. I answered that call and I came
willingly in the flesh, the weakness of the flesh, to be your fit
sacrifice as the Lamb of God to put away your sin, to reconcile
you to holy God. In 2 Timothy 1, 9, and 10, we
read of Christ who hath saved us and called us within holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. What hast thou done, Lord? He
says, I have established the everlasting covenant of my grace,
that my Father may be gracious to you, that he may forgive you
of your sins and find you righteous in me. I gave my life. I established this covenant with
my own precious blood, my life for your life, to deliver you
and to give you a good hope and an expected end, to have fellowship
with your God, to be reconciled to holy God. That's what I've
done, your Savior says. What has thou done, Lord? I've
secured for my beloved children an everlasting kingdom. which
shall never be taken away, and it shall never be shaken, and
it shall never be removed from you, and you shall never be removed
from it, for it's an eternal kingdom." He told his disciples
before he went to the cross, I go to prepare a place for you,
and he did it. He did it. It's a spiritual kingdom.
He told us by the prophet Isaiah, thou shall call thy walls salvation
and thy gates praise. You're in the kingdom of your
God and Savior right now, brethren, behind the walls of salvation,
behind the gates from which you praise the true and living God
in spirit and in truth as living creatures by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our King, and He's not only
the King of a spiritual kingdom, but He's the sovereign ruler
over heaven and earth. And all that is under the earth
and in the seas and on the earth, Christ is the sovereign God and
Savior. As our Lord tells us in Psalm
2 6, I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. And we know the kingdoms of the
world, they hate him. They fight against him. They
refuse him. They persecute him. They persecute
him by persecuting his people. But the victory is the Lord.
He said, I have overcome this world. And He's done it. We know He's done it because
He overcomes the world in our own hearts by turning us from
dead things to believe, to look to and trust the true and living
God in Christ. Revelation 17, 14, These shall
make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. For He is Lord of lords and King
of kings, and they that are with Him are called and chosen and
faithful. all thanks to the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ who hath done this for you, for you
his precious, beloved sheep, whom he gave his life for. What
has he done? Not only has he obtained forgiveness
for us and reconciled us to God, but he's given you his Holy Spirit
to wash you in the blood of Christ, to make you new in Christ, giving
you a new heart, a new man, a man of faith in you that looks to
Christ and believes Him and has no confidence in this flesh,
a new heart that doesn't hate God and isn't indifferent to
God, but loves Him and rejoices in Him and is thankful for the
fellowship of the saints and for the preaching of the Word.
He's done that for you that are His people. What hast thou done,
O blessed Savior? We see what the hosts of heaven
sing, who speak of him saying, thou hast redeemed us. What have
you done? Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast
made us unto our God kings and priests, us weak little nothings. But Christ has made us kings
and priests unto our God. and we shall reign on the earth. What hast thou done? Everything
we needed, Lord, freely, in grace, in mercy, in love. Lord, thank you, thank you. I
pray that he bless your hearts and comfort you in Christ. It's in his name I pray, amen. All right, brother, come close
us in him. Closing him will be 460 leaning
on the everlasting arms, 460. What a fellowship, what a joy
divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what
a peace divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this
pilgrim way, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path
grows from day to day, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed peace with my
Lord so near. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms.