We're going to begin our second
service by standing and singing 129 at the cross. 129. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes
that I have done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace
unknown And love beyond degree At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well, might the
sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in, when Christ,
the mighty Maker, died for man the creature's sin? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. But drops of grief
can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself
away, tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and a burning of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. You may be seated. I would like to read from 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience
of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. knowing brother and beloved your
election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among
you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
the joy of the Holy Ghost. so that ye were in samples to
all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God where it is spread
abroad, so that we'd need not to speak anything. For they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you. and how ye
turn to God from your idols to serve the living and true God,
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you, Lord, for allowing us to assemble together as a
little flock here, Lord. From week to week, you provide
for us and give us a shelter and a place to come to worship
your great and holy name. What a great, great blessing
it is. Where for so many years, Lord, we were caught up in religion. But Lord, we thank you for opening
our blind eyes just as that thief on the cross. You have given
us that great gift of faith whereby we can behold our savior. And Father, we thank you for
your great grace that you have poured out upon us. And Lord,
remember us this morning. And will you bless us and give
us rest for our souls. We thank you, Lord, for that
first message. And remember, Lord, Brother Eric, where he
hopes to stand before us again. We thank you for him, Lord. Continue
to be with him, give him strength. And Lord, remember him this morning.
Pour out your spirit upon him. And remember us, Lord, as we
listen. Open our hearts, Lord, that we may receive strength
and increase our faith. Lord, remember our loved ones.
You know perfectly where they are. And Lord, will you have
mercy upon them and call them out of nature's darkness? And
Lord, will you have mercy upon them, that they may also receive
a hunger and thirst after you and your righteousness. Father,
we thank you for all your great blessings. For Jesus' sake alone,
amen. As you remain sitting, let's
sing, when I survey the wondrous cross, 118, 118. I had these hymns picked out
this morning. I didn't know what you were preaching on, Scott,
but it's very fitting. Yeah. When I surveyed the wondrous cross,
? On which the Prince of glory
died ? My richest gain I count but loss ? And poor contempt
on all my pride ? Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast Save
in the death of Christ my God, All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from his head,
his hands, his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Where the whole realm
of nature mine, That were a present far too small, Love so amazing,
so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all. Thank you. Good morning. Our text is found in Galatians
chapter three. I was just thinking as I was coming
up here to stand before you and preach the gospel, I was just
thinking, well, as you know, we came from Branson this morning,
Michelle and I, she was celebrating a birthday and we were with family. And I was just thinking of how
easily we get put out of sorts and put into situations that
seem inconvenient to us and try us. The difficulties of being
in another place, not in my own surroundings, able to do my routine
that I would normally do in preparation for this morning. having a hard
time finding a quiet place, and then driving here, and getting
stuck behind a truck, pulling a boat that takes longer than
what you thought was gonna take, and then just the various things
that try our flesh and our minds. Then we read a text like Galatians
chapter three, verse 13, and it puts into perspective the great depths that our Savior
went to in order to redeem us who are sinners, us who are rebellious
sons and daughters, and did nothing to obtain the favor of our God
or to gain His favor or merit any attention or help or mercy
from Him. And we see just how great our
Savior is, the depths of His love, the kindness that He shows us,
the patience that He has for us, and the love that He would
show to you and me. And it just boggles the mind
and makes us stand in awe of the grace of our God to go to
such depths for us. And I'm just so thankful for
him. And I'm thankful for you. I'm
thankful for brethren who are willing to come and preach to
us and to serve one another. And it's such a joy. It just
shows the glory of our God and how merciful He is to us. So our text is Galatians 3.13
and I'm going to read it. There we read that Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And those are sober words. They're very sober words because
it speaks to what our Savior did for us. It speaks to what
we are by nature. And that salvation, while it
is free to us, it is free grace to us, it cost our Savior his
life. and it cost Him being made something
that He is not and knew nothing of. He is pure, holy, just, perfect,
spotless, blameless, righteous in all His ways and He is the
Son of God who dwelled in the bosom of the Father for all eternity
and dwelled in holy fellowship, one with the Father, one with
the Spirit, in mind, in heart, in soul, in strength, in spirit,
in strength. And we see that our Savior did
this for his people, for his bride, whom he loved from eternity,
who sold themselves into sin and sold ourselves into bondage. and that gladly. And we went
astray, doing our own thing, going our own way, and thanks
be to God for his mercy and kindness for us undeserving sinners to
save us. So the Spirit declares to the
children that salvation is full, it's free, it's of the sovereign
grace of our God, and it's wrought for us through the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ through His faithful work for us in coming
in the flesh and fulfilling the will of His Father perfectly
according to what the Father willed and determined that must
be done for the price to be paid in full with an acceptable payment
that we who are sinners, we who are guilty of breaking our God's
law, Insulting him and turning from him and rebelling from our
God To pay that price that we should go free and that we should
have fellowship with our God And be made partakers with the
Saints in light Enjoying that inheritance, which is Christ
our Savior thy God thy glory That he's our glory. He's our
inheritance and so Even this faith whereby we believe that
too is the fruit of the Spirit, that too is the work of our God,
that too is given unto us, whereby we are made partakers, whereby
we behold our Savior, whereby we have an understanding of what
our God has done for us and how wonderful He is. Look at Galatians
2.16. In Galatians 2.16, there we see
that it's not our works, it's not our worth, it's not what
we have done to obtain God's favor, but it's all by the faithfulness,
the work of our Savior Jesus Christ. Paul writes, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith, or the faithfulness. of Jesus Christ. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the
faith, the faithfulness of Christ, and not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So Paul is making clear to his
hearers The only way that a sinner can
be justified, the only way that sinners are justified, declared
righteous by God, is by the faith of Christ, by the faithfulness
of Christ. No sinner ever has nor ever shall
be justified by their works of the law. No sinner is saved because
they themselves have worked a righteousness and earned favor with God. No sinner has come to God because
they've found a religion, they've made a way, they've done works
to put away their sin and to satisfy the holiness of our God. In fact, any attempt by man to
obtain a righteousness for himself, to do good works, to put himself
in the path of God's favor. Any works that we try to do to
come to God and think that we have earned his favor, that actually
puts us under the curse of the law because now We must fulfill
all the law perfectly. We can't just do the parts that
we like or the parts that come easy to us or the parts that
we think that God should be satisfied with and to let us go on these
other parts over here. It's not what we will and what
we would do, but what our God justly requires of us. And if you will come to God,
putting aside his Son, putting aside what he declares to his
people here in his word, and that if you will come in your
righteousness, in your works, by the law or some other religious
way that you think is sufficient, you bring yourself under the
curse of the law. Because none of us is righteous. None of us is perfect. None of
us even keeps our own word. and does what we think should
be done. And what is it to be under the
curse of the law? But it's to come under the penalty
that the law requires for those who do not fulfill the law perfectly. The curse of the law is to die
under the penalty of the law. It's to die a sinner. It's to
die eternally. It's to be forever separated
from your God. In Galatians, 3 verses 10 through
12, Paul makes this clear to us, saying, for as many as are
of the works of the law are under the curse. They're going to pay
the penalty of death because we've all come short of the glory
of God. We've all fallen short of what
the law requires, which is absolute perfection. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. were called to walk by faith.
And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. And our God calls his people
to faith, gives them faith, reveals in them faith, gives them the
spirit whereby We rest in our Savior. We look to the Savior.
We walk by faith in the Savior, leaning upon Him, because we
have not a righteousness of this flesh. We have no strength or
ability to come to the Father perfectly. But we trust and we
believe that Christ is all, that He is sufficient, and that in
Him is all our salvation and all our hope. so that if you
would be justified before God, if you would know the true and
living God, then come to Him believing His word, trusting
the Son, looking to Him alone, having no confidence in this
flesh, no confidence in self, but trusting the one whom He
sent and declares, He is your righteousness. Behold, my servant,
look to Him, for I have provided Him for you, to put away your
sins, to make you righteous, and to give you fellowship with
me, to give you light and understanding in the Savior. And so we come
to the Father through Jesus Christ, the Lord, whom the Father has
sent to save us in putting away our sins and delivering us from
the curse, the penalty of the law, which would justly, which
does justly condemn us according to our own works. I've titled
this message Redeemed from the Curse, Redeemed from the Curse. So when we speak of the faith
of Jesus Christ, when we speak of His faith, what are we speaking
of? Is that our faith? Is that something
that we bring to the table? What is the faith of Christ?
When we speak of Christ's faith, or when we speak of the faith
of Christ, we're speaking of Christ's faith, of His faithfulness,
of His willingness to come and submit Himself to the will of
the Father, to do what the Father had sent Him to do perfectly,
and that is to provide everything necessary for the salvation of
His chosen elect people. whom he gave to Christ before
the foundation of the world, before we had done any good or
evil. Christ came to redeem his people,
to purchase his people, to pay the price that we owed, that
penalty to the law, which is death, eternal death and separation
from our God. The faith of Christ then is his
work. It's his work, it's what he did.
in redeeming us. It's what he did to pay the price
to set us free. Just as Paul writes in verse
13 when he says, Christ hath redeemed us. This is his faithfulness. He redeemed us. He purchased
us from the curse of the law. And what's the matter? Being
made a curse for us. Being made a curse for us. How
is a sinner released from the curse of the law? By redemption. And as Paul explains it, that
we are justified by the faith of Christ, by His faithfulness. That's how we are redeemed, by
Him coming and faithfully doing the will of the Father. Christ hath redeemed us. He's
paid the price, He's paid the debt. He's redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. Now, under the law, according
to the law, Can another pay the debt that someone else owes? If someone sells themselves into
bondage, if someone cannot pay their debts and sells themselves
into bondage, does the law allow for another to come and to pay
their debt? And then that sinner, that one
who went into bondage, go free? Does the law allow for that?
It actually does. Go to Leviticus 25. Leviticus
25 verse 25. And when you get there, just
hold your finger. Don't move off of Leviticus too quickly,
because I'll take you to another scripture in a moment. But Leviticus
25 verse 25. If thy brother be waxen poor,
if he becomes poor and hath sold away some of his possession,
We know that there were cases where they sold themselves into
slavery, into bondage to their brethren to have enough to pay
for their debts. And here it words it, they've
sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin his near
kin, those of his family, come to redeem it, then shall that
kin redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none
to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it, or if his
family who sold themselves into bondage Have nothing to redeem
what they have sold away, but the near kinsman be able to redeem
it, then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore
the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it, that he may
return unto his possession. But if the kinsman is not able
to restore to him, then that which is sold shall remain in
the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of Jubilee. so that it speaks there of a
kinsman. And we know that Christ is the
near kinsman redeemer. He came in this flesh, like unto
us, yet without sin, in order to pay the price of his people
who were sold into sin, sold into slavery, sold into bondage,
sold into eternal spiritual death. sold into darkness, and have
nothing to pay. But Christ is the near kinsman,
he is able to pay the price, and he has sufficient wherewith
to pay the price. So that this law was given to
us to show us a picture of Christ who should come and pay our sin
debt, and put away that which we vowed that we should go free. Now Paul had been speaking from
another Old Testament scripture found in Deuteronomy 21. When
Paul said in Galatians 3.13, For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on the tree. He was speaking from Deuteronomy
21 verse 22 and 23. Let's go there. He says, and if a man hath committed
a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou and
thou hang him on a tree, His body shall not remain all night
upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is hanged is accursed
of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God
giveth thee for an inheritance. Now, in the context here, which
begins in verse 18, it speaks of a son, a rebellious son. a disobedient son who would not
do the will of his father or the will of his mother. And then
it speaks of stoning such a sinner to death, putting them to death
and then hanging them on a tree. And it was to show to all of
Israel that this one, what this one has done, they're worthy
of death. They're worthy of the death that
they received. And they're hung up on a tree.
declaring that they have been cursed of God and that they had
to pay that penalty. And you think about how these
laws were given to us to declare to us the Son. Now a type is
not perfect in all its ways, but this word here does speak
to Christ and it shows us the great sacrifice of our Lord and
Savior because He is not the rebellious disobedient Son. He is the faithful Son. He is the obedient Son who came
to do the will of His Father. And the Father is well pleased
with the Son because the Son doeth all things well. And He does the will of His Father
perfectly. And the will of God was to send
His Son to be the sacrifice, to come as the substitute of
His people, who could not pay the debt, who must die an eternal
death under the penalty of the law. But Christ came faithfully. fulfilling all righteousness
for His people, doing nothing amiss, having no guile found
in His mouth. Even the thief on the cross said,
this man doeth nothing amiss. He committed no sin. He did no
sin. He did nothing worthy of death. And it shows us how faithful
He is. It shows us our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. who would not be turned, who
would not be spared, who would not deliver himself, but willingly,
faithfully went to the cross to be made sin for us. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians
5.21 when he said, God hath made him to be sin for us who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ committed no sin, but
he was made sin for his people. And he did nothing worthy of
being cursed, but he was made a curse. That is, he was put
to death, the death that we deserve, the death that we earned to deliver
us from the death that was ours by wage, ours by death. And so Christ died under the
curse that was ours to bear as our substitute, bearing our penalty
And by Him, we go free because the debt has been paid, the wage
has been satisfied, God's righteousness, His holy wrath is satisfied on
the Son for His people, those whom He would save. And so brethren,
when we look to Christ, when we speak of Christ and we see
Him there on the cross, faithfully doing the will of God our Father,
We behold the one in whom the saints' faith, the children of
God's faith, in whom all our hope rests. We trust Him. We believe Him. We have nothing
to compare with Christ. We have no righteousness. We
have no works that are worthy of our God's perfection and holiness
and righteousness. We have nothing to boast of. We come as sinners, as beggars,
having no righteousness, pleading, Lord, remember me. Lord, help
me. Lord, save me. I need a Savior. I'm the sinner. I've done nothing
worthy of God's favor. I've only done that which is
worthy of His wrath, of His anger. Lord, save me. So that Christ,
we rejoice in Him because He is the God-man mediator. who is fully God and fully man,
so that his death is an eternal death that satisfies an eternal
wage which we owed, and not just for one, but for all his people,
all his sheep. So Christ hanged on a tree, not
for any crimes which he had committed, but as our substitute He was
made what we are to bear the penalty that we earned, that
we owed unto God in order to forgive our sins, in order to
obtain forgiveness for our sins and to make us righteous, to
stand before holy God and be received and accepted of Him. And so the saints believe Christ
did that for me. He did that to put away my debt,
which I owe. He did that because I cannot
do it, but he loved me. And he did that for me. And so
we come as one thankful and rejoicing at what our Savior did. We couldn't
do it, but Christ accomplished it. And it tells us there in
Galatians 3, verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. So in order to bless the
people, in order to give us the spirit and to give us a new heart
and to make us new creatures in him, Christ came and accomplished
our salvation doing all the work to put away the sin and to give
us life in himself, to give us his spirit whereby we believe
him, and walk in him by faith, even as Abraham, that the blessing
of Abraham should come upon us, who by nature have no part, nothing
worthy, nothing that God should be merciful and gracious to us.
And so we also see here when Paul writes there in verse 13,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. He was
made a curse for us. in order that the blessing of
Abraham might come upon us who now by the spirit of grace do
believe. We see the certainty of these
words. We see that everything that needed
to be done has been done. The purchase has been made. The required price has been paid
and his people are even now delivered from the curse of the law. And
that's a comfort for us. There's nothing, there's no loose
ends. There's nothing untied. There's
nothing that yet remains. Christ didn't fail. He didn't
pay most of it. And there's just a little bit
more to be done. There's nothing left for you and I to do. There's
nothing hinging upon the works of man, the competence of man,
the ability of man, the willingness of man. There's none of that.
Because if it came down to you and I, even just a tiny little
piece, we would fail. We would come short because we
don't have it in us by nature. This nature born of Adam is dead. It's corrupted. It's defiled.
It's unable to do that which pleases our God. We destroy and
defile that which we touch. But in Christ, that law which
is perfect has been satisfied, and we are Christ's, as Paul
says, to be testified in due time. Meaning that there is coming
a day for each of God's chosen saints when the Spirit will preach
the gospel to your heart, when he will reveal the gospel of
the saints to the heart of his child. Though they sit in darkness
by nature, he'll shine the light of Christ. Though they're deaf
to the things of God, He'll open their ear. Though their heart
is hard against the things of God, He softens that heart, and
He removes the veil, and allows the light of Christ to shine
in, and the power, the glory, the resurrection power of Christ
to shine in their hearts, and to give them life, to give them
faith, and to give them a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, which
shall not fail. but shall receive that which
the Father has sent to it and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so this brings us then to the question, well, whose sin
debt was paid? How do I know if I'm a child
of God? How do I know if Christ did this for me? Because we're
told that Christ was made a curse for us, for us. He's always speaking of a particular
people, an us, a we. It's for us. And so Christ was
made a curse for us, and that tells us there is a people for
whom Christ did this. It's not just some unknown blob
of people that's to be worked out in the end. It's revealed
on purpose. It's revealed with purpose. It's
revealed in the appointed time of our God for his people. And
so, these are sheep. The us are the sheep of Christ. There's a specific people who
must be saved. They have been saved by Christ
and they shall come to a knowledge of what Christ has done. Now,
we emphasize that there are sheep, because there's also goats spoken
of in the scriptures. There's sheep spoken of, and
there's goats spoken of, and those two animals are not the
same thing. They're not the same thing. There's
sheep, and then there's goats. And the sheep are covered with
the blood of Christ, and the goats have no part in Christ. Our Lord speaks of this in John
chapter 10. John 10 verse 11. He says, I
am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And he says in verse, that was
John 10, 11. And in verse 15, he says, I lay
down my life for the sheep. And then in verse 16, he speaks
of other sheep that he has. Those that are scattered throughout
time and place, which are not of this fold, but they are sheep. And them also I must bring, and
they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one
shepherd. Our Savior didn't give his life
for the goats. He gives his life for the sheep. And so he says in Matthew 25,
verse 32 and 33, before him shall be gathered all nations, and
he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided
his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand and the goats on the left. So there the us
are the sheep of Christ. There is a people and they are
the sheep of Christ and God the Holy Spirit seeks them out and
he reveals Christ to them, preaching the gospel to them, that is causing
them to hear the word of Christ, causing us to hear the voice
of Christ through the preaching of the gospel, where God is pleased
to make known what he has accomplished for his people, and revealing
to them what he does for his people, in preserving them, in
keeping them, in teaching them, in leading them and bringing
them safely home to himself so that he will have us to believe
by faith and account that faith which he reveals in us as righteousness. As he says in Galatians 3, 6,
even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for
righteousness. Our Savior didn't become a curse
for all men. He became a curse for us. For those whom He loves. For
those whom He chose. And He makes His people to rejoice
in what God has done for them through the Son. And He makes
His people to worship the God of their redemption. We see them
spoken of in Revelation 5 verse 9 when it says, sung a new song,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God. by thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. And so God, the Holy Spirit,
being sent to the Father and the Son, comes to reveal the
hope of the saints, comes to reveal this faith in his sheep
who were lost, to gather them together unto Christ, to gather
them together with the people of God, to worship their God
and to rejoice in him. And we read this in Galatians
3, back in Galatians 3 verses 7 through 9. Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the gospel unto Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. And so we see the eternal glorious
love of our God who has a people and chose them and remain faithful
to that will and purpose to send the son who came in the weakness
of this flesh, laying aside the glory which he had with the father,
that he should come and be the perfect sacrifice, a fit sacrifice
for his people and to reconcile the sheep of God unto himself
by the death of himself. And it pleased the father to
deliver up his son, that the son should be taken by wicked
hands, by those who care not for the truth and those from
every nation and people who would not hear and did not believe
on the Son. As we read in Acts 4, 27 through
28, for 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 for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined to be done. And so it was the
will of our God to purchase his people, to make his son a ransom
for his chosen seed. And so this curse that we speak
of, it's a price. It's a definite price. And we
don't have that ability. We don't have the ability to
pay that price. It was an eternal death, an eternal
separation from our God. And for us to pay it, we'd be
eternally separated from God. But Christ came, and He took
upon Him the likeness of our flesh. And being the God-man
mediator, He paid that price sufficiently, fully, to accomplish
our redemption. to deliver us from the curse,
being made a curse for us, that is, bearing that penalty that
we owed, becoming a death, the death that we owed unto God,
that we who had nothing to pay, and can scrape together nothing
to pay, Christ came and he paid it in full, so that we who are
guilty, We who justly were condemned and in darkness now go free by
our Savior. And thanks and glory be to God
that he doesn't leave us in darkness, he doesn't leave us unaware of
what he's done, but according to his will and purpose in the
day of grace he sends a spirit to deliver us from that darkness,
from nature's darkness, to release us from that bondage, to release
us from that slavery that we were in, and declare to our hearts,
you're free. You're free. And that's what
Paul is writing to us here in Galatians. He's declaring the
liberty that we have, that the saints have, not to go and do
their own will, not to simply be delivered to just do what
we would do, but to be delivered by Christ and being made righteous
to know what our Savior has done, and he gives us a new heart and
a new nature, being made new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who desire him, who hunger him and thirst for his righteousness,
so that his blood not only put away our sin, but gives us life
and a hope and a joy in the Savior, and a love for our God and a
love for one another, whereby we walk by faith in him and experience
that faith. And behold, my Savior did this
for me. I'm the unworthy sinner, but
he did this for me. And he gives us a love for him
and a peace and a joy in Christ our Savior. And we see how that
we have now the blessing of Abraham, who have no confidence in the
flesh and aren't looking to pay back God or do anything to earn
a righteousness, but were made thankful and were humbled by
His grace and power. And we look to him, and we're
thankful for one another, and rejoice in what he's done for
us, and continue to stand in awe how that our Savior, who's
perfect and holy and just, became a curse for us who believe. And that's by the grace of your
God. And I pray that the Lord bless
your heart this day, and as we remember what he's done for us,
and that we would indeed be a thankful people because that's what our
God has done for us and what he's saved us to be a thankful
people and to rejoice in him and to have him for all our glory
and all our hope and all our confidence. We're not gonna,
we didn't save ourselves. We're not gonna take ourselves
out of that salvation. Christ's blood is sufficient
to save to the uttermost. And so I'm thankful for that.
And I pray that he make you thankful as well. All right, brethren,
we'll close in prayer, and then, brother, you'll close us in a
hymn. Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace.
Lord, we confess that our words and our ability to
even explain what transpired there on the cross were so weak
and so insufficient unable to rightly describe what happened
but this I know I was worthy of death and I was justly condemned
and have no righteousness of my own of this flesh but Lord
you are faithful and you came willingly laying down your life
to put away the sins of your people and to turn us from wicked
ways and dead lead of religion and the ways of darkness and
to give us life in the sun, to put us in the way of Christ,
to feed and provide for us all things necessary. And Lord, we
thank you for that. And Lord, we thank you for your
grace. We thank you for your mercy.
We thank you for one another that you give to us. We pray,
Lord, that you would bless your people, that you would be with
those who are sick and weak and unable to be with us, though
they would, Lord. We ask that you would heal them
and comfort their hearts. And Lord, that you would turn
the hearts of those who are yet in darkness, but whose sin Christ's
blood has put away, that you would cause the gospel to reach
them. that you would open their eyes and deliver them from bondage,
and that you would help us, Lord, to be faithful in declaring the
truth and declaring the gospel, and that we would love them whom
you love and faithfully minister to those whom you would bring
among us. Lord, we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. All right,
brother. Let's all stand and sing 288. Wonderful peace. That wonderful peace we have
in Christ. 288. And then we don't sing the last
verse, number five, but the first four are very nice. ? Far away in the depths of my spirit
tonight ? ? Grows a melody sweeter than song In celestial-like strains it
unceasingly falls, O'er my soul like an infinite calm. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. What a treasure I have
in this wonderful piece, buried deep in the heart of my soul. So secure that no power can mine
it away, while the years of eternity roll. Peace, wonderful peace, coming
down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. I am resting tonight
in this wonderful peace, resting sweetly in Jesus' control. For I'm kept from all danger
by night and by day. and His glory is flooding my
soul. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, In fathomless billows of love. ? And be thanks when
I rise to that city of peace ? ? Where the author of peace
I shall see ? ? That one strain of the song which the ransom
will sing ? ? In that heavenly kingdom shall be ? Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. Thank you.