Good evening. Let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing 318. I need the every
hour 318. Do we have enough handles? Okay. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford. I need thee. Every hour I need
thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to thee. I need thee every hour, stay
thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to thee. I need thee every hour,
enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide, or life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need thee every hour, most
holy one. Oh, make me thine indeed, thou
blessed son. I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour,
I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my savior. I'd like to read Psalm 116. Psalm
116. I love the Lord because He hath
heard my voice and my supplications. because he hath inclined his
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The
sorrows of death compass me, and the pains of hell get hold
upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then
called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee,
deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous,
yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple.
I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou
hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the lane of the living. I believed, therefore have I
spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said
in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord,
truly, I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant and the son of Thine
handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to Thee the
sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the
Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence
of all His people. In the courts of the Lord's house,
in the midst of Thee, O Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord. Our merciful Father, we thank
you for allowing us to once again assemble in this location, Lord,
from week to week, and you have brought us here once again. Father,
will you remember us this evening and pour out your blessed spirit
upon our hearts that our faith may be strengthened and that
we may rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope and our
only expectation. Father, will you pour out your
spirit upon us and also upon Brother Eric as he stands before
us? Father, remember him where he
studies from week to week and he brings these messages. We
thank you, Lord, for him and for Michelle. Will you continue
to give him the health and the strength to go forward? Father,
remember him, especially this evening. Will you give him the
words that you would have us to hear? And Lord, bless it unto
our souls. And remember, Lord, our loved
ones, wherever they are, you know all things perfectly. And
Lord, if it would please you, will you call them out of nature's
darkness? And Lord, will you give them
a hunger and a thirst after you and your righteousness? Remember
those, Lord, that are traveling this week Will you keep them
safe? And remember those also, Lord,
that listen on the internet. Bless them, Lord, where they
are. Also, tonight, will you remember them as they listen
in? Lord, remember us in mercy. For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Our second hymn is gonna be 143.
Rejoice, the Lord is King, 143. Rejoice, the Lord is King. Your Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing
and triumph evermore. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again,
I say rejoice. Jesus the Savior reigns, the
God of truth and love. When he hath purged our stains,
he took his seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again,
I say rejoice. His kingdom cannot fail. He rules over earth and heaven. The keys of death and hell are
to our Jesus given. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again,
I say, rejoice. Rejoicing, glorious hope, our
Lord the Judge shall come and take his servants up to their
eternal home. Lift up your heart, lift up your
voice, rejoice again, I say rejoice. Good evening. All right, our text this evening,
well, it's inspired from John 15, verse 1. Our Lord begins this chapter
in John, John 15, verse 1, saying, I am the true vine. I am the true vine. Now, this
is the last of the seven I am's which our Lord spoke and the
Holy Spirit records for us and gives these to us in the Gospel
of John, where the Lord says, I am. I am. And here he says, I am the true
vine. And I thought it would be good,
before we go further in our study in the Gospel of John, if we
look at each of these seven instances where our Lord makes this declaration,
when he says of himself, I And so I've titled this Seven I Ams,
and this will likely be a part one, because it'll just take
some time. And I like to go through it and
look at these, and we'll finish this up another time when we
come together. And so the use of these words,
I am, they're significant. When you hear I am, your immediate thought, you that
are familiar with your God and how he reveals himself in his
word, you know, wait, the Lord spoke those words. The Lord God
spoke those words declaring himself to be the I Am. He is I Am. And so when we hear these words,
We understand that someone's speaking there with authority.
And these are words that shouldn't be taken up by us. not in the
way that the Lord uses them. We should never take them up
into our lips because these are the words of the Lord. I mean,
we use these things in common language, but you know, when
the Lord says, I am the true vine, we know that he's speaking
here as almighty God. as the one who has the authority
and the power to say such things. And so we don't likely take these
things up in our lips. Our Lord, he used these words
to describe himself, to declare his name to the people. He used these words when he revealed
himself to Moses in the burning bush, when Moses was not among
the Israelites, having fled from Egypt because he took an Egyptian's
life, supposing that his brethren in Israel would understand that
God would deliver them by his hand, but Moses acted very prematurely
and now he was out in the wilderness keeping watch over flocks and
the Lord revealed himself to him. He appeared to him in the
burning bush which didn't consume, it wasn't consumed by the fire. And then the Lord gave him these
words when Moses was sent by the Lord to tell them, the Lord
has come, the time has come when he's going to deliver you. Turn
over to Exodus three, verse six, and we'll look at these. There's
a couple of verses in Exodus three that we'll look at. In verse six, the Lord tells
Moses who it is that is speaking to him. And he says, moreover, he said,
this is the Lord, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face,
for he was afraid to look upon God. And so our Lord speaks these
words as God. He speaks these words as someone
who is not subject to the authority of anyone higher than him or
anyone greater than him. He doesn't answer to you or me.
You know, the folly of man in the gospel of the flesh speaks
about what we do and our will and our decision and our works
that then God responds to. That's a fleshly gospel. That's
man thinking of himself more highly than he ought to think,
thinking that he's the one who has the power and the authority
and the control, and God is subject to his decision making and his
timing, what he wants to do or not do. Because God's hands,
in man's view, God's hands are tied and subject to whether man
will let him save him, whether man will allow God to do something
for him. That's the gospel of the flesh.
That's no gospel at all. That's vain fleshly works, the
doctrine of man and not of God. And so God speaks these words
having authority. He doesn't answer to you or me.
He doesn't subject himself to you or me. He is God, and he
does as he pleases. And we also understand that he
is God, There is not another. There is not another God. You know, for God to be God,
there can only be one God. And we're familiar with the pagan
idolatrous religions that have come and gone in the past. There's still what's considered
a major religion, which does speak of and have many gods,
as they call them. But they amount to nothing more
than perhaps superhuman. a little bit more powerful than
we are, but they're subject to the like passions and the angers
and the frustrations and getting into wars because they cannot
do what they would do because there's other gods. And therefore,
they're not God at all because for God to be God, there can
only be one God because God does whatsoever he pleases. And thankfully,
our God is good. and kind, and merciful, and gracious,
and long-suffering, and loving. Thankfully, He is a good, and
merciful, and just God who is righteous, and holy, and perfect
in all His ways. And so God is God, and there's
not another. Now, look down at verses 13 and
14 in Exodus 3. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. The one who speaks to you now,
Moses, who gives you commandment, and reveals to you his will,
and makes known his purpose to you, is almighty, sovereign God. And there is not another. And
our God is the sovereign God. He is the one true living God. And there's not another. And
he's revealed himself to you. And he says, I am. I am. I exist. I do as I please. I'm the one who speaks to you.
Now, hear my words. I am hath sent me. And so, He
has all power, and what He wills shall stand, and it shall be
brought to pass. Your God is sovereign. What He
promises you, He is able to bring to pass. What He promises you,
He does bring to pass. He does that which pleases Him,
and thankfully He is merciful, kind, and gracious. And so it's
significant when our God says it. And so when a man says it,
he's making a bold declaration. He's saying something that he
needs to back up, otherwise he ought not to say these things.
You know, I won't say who it was that said it, but last year,
I think around November in 2021, there was a man who was called
into Congress to go into a Senate committee hearing. And when they
were asking him questions about the decisions he was making and
what he was saying, he said to them, I am the science. I am the science. And what he's
saying there is he's taking in a very broad and all-encompassing
authority to say what he's saying. So as to say to you, you don't
need to worry about any reports or what this person over there
is saying. You don't need to challenge my authority or what
I'm saying. You don't need to check me. I
am the science. What I say is what's going to
come to pass. And that's how he laid it. And
that's a very bold thing. Whether you agree with him or
not, that's a very bold thing. And so when our Lord says it,
you can believe that it caught the attention of those who heard
him because they knew what he was saying when he said, I am. And he has the authority to say
it. He has the authority to say it. God testified to Christ's
authority. He gave him all authority and
power to speak and to do what he came to do. When the people
heard Christ speak, they said, never any man speak like this
man. Never any man spake like this
man. And when Christ taught the people,
we're told they were astonished at his doctrine. They were astonished
at his doctrine for he taught them as one that had authority
and not as the scribes. And much of preaching today and
much of religion today is weak and poor. And it has no power,
no authority, because they're describing and talking about
a god whom you have to activate, whom you've got to woo and entice
to get him to do something for you, because it's all on your
will. And it's all on what you do or don't do. And so salvation
rests with you, the man. And that's how many people preach.
the so-called Gospel, trying to plead with man, but God declares
His salvation in His Son Jesus Christ. We lift Him up in the
preaching of the Gospel. We declare that in Christ, in
Christ alone, God will be reconciled to His people and all who believe
Him and trust Him and call upon Him. and come to Him seeking
Him for mercy, they shall find grace and peace and reconciliation
with God because God has declared that Christ is the way of salvation. So how can Christ speak such
things? How can he say such things? Well, he tells us, because all
things are delivered unto me of my Father. Matthew 11, 27,
he said that. And therefore, when he said what
follows, if any man labor and is heavy laden, let him come
unto me, and I'll give you rest. And he has the authority to say
that. And you that believe Him know
that because He has given you rest for your souls and peace
in your heart, not because you've done anything great, not because
you're so worthy of salvation, not because you never sinned
or did anything foolish, but because your God is gracious
and merciful and has declared a sufficient full salvation in
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's revealed faith in your
heart to believe him, to trust him, to rest right there and
say, I don't need anything else. Lord, you've done it all. You've
paid it all. You've provided everything for
me. Thank you, Lord. And that's because He's revealed
faith in you, and He's taken up residence in your heart and
given you the hope of the saints of God who trust and believe
God and rested in Him as well. Our Lord said, As I hear, I judge,
and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but
the will of the Father which hath sent me. Christ came and
He is fulfilling the will and purpose of God, that God may
be just in justifying you and I who are sinners, who did nothing
to earn God's favor, who continually came up short of God's glory. Our God doesn't save us because
we've done something, but because Christ came as the servant of
God and willingly, fully, completely fulfilled everything that the
Father gave him to do so that he put away our sins by the death
of himself, that God is justified in forgiving you of your sins.
Our Lord said, Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you
I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he
doeth the works. And so we see that our God is
pleased to dwell with the Son. The Father sent the Son. The Father spared not His own
Son, but sent Him to be the sacrifice, to be the propitiation for our
sins, to turn away God's just holy wrath, which is against
us by our nature and our works, and put it on Christ. And God
now deals with us graciously and mercifully in giving us life,
in giving us salvation, in giving us an eternal inheritance in
Christ. And so what this means for us
who believe You that believe Christ, you're confessing, Lord,
I don't have any works. I don't have anything to boast
of. I have nothing to bring to you, nothing that I'm proud of,
nothing that I'm confident in, nothing I can glory in. I have
nothing, Lord. But you've declared your son,
and you've given me hope. In Him, I believe your word.
I believe that He is the righteousness of your saints, that He is the
salvation of your people. Lord, receive me in your Son. Wash me in His blood. Don't receive
me in my works. I don't want to stand before
you in what I've done. Receive me in the work of your Son. Cover
me in His blood. Lord, bring me into your presence
robed in His righteousness, because I don't have any righteousness.
of my own. And so you're coming to the Father,
believing on the Son, complete in Him, resting fully upon Him,
leaning upon the breast of Christ, leaning upon Him to hold you
up, leaning upon Him to bring you safely home. And so you that
believe Christ and continue in Him, you've committed everything. You've committed everything.
You're not looking, any work you do that you see a brother
or sister was blessed by or comforted by and thankful for, you have
no confidence in that work. You don't look at that and say,
God's gonna bless me for that. No, you don't usually even know
when you've blessed the heart of your brethren. But you do
those things because God has saved you. You are justified
and you're resting still completely on the Lord because you know,
Lord, you know my heart. When you speak like Peter, Lord,
Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know. Lord, I love
you. And you saw me. abandon you. You saw me deny you. You saw
me forsake you with all the others. Lord, you know I love you. I
don't have the power in me to keep myself, to keep my heart. Lord, I trust you. I believe
you, but my salvation isn't resting on me or what I've done or what
I say or my faith. It rests on Christ. It rests
entirely on Christ. And that's what Paul said. Listen
to this description in 2 Timothy 1.12. Paul said, for the witch
cause I also suffer these things. I'm so convinced that Christ
is the salvation of God for his people, I'm willing to suffer.
I'm willing to be shipwrecked, to be stripped down, to go hungry
and cold and naked, to be imprisoned. and to be beaten within inches
of my life. I'm willing to suffer these things.
Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed of these things. My family hates
me. My countrymen hate me. They follow me around and persecute
me from city to city to city. I'm not ashamed. I'm not going
to turn from what God has revealed to me. For I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. And that's a good description
of you that believe on Christ. We've committed all the hope
of our salvation into Christ's hands. Otherwise, we ought to
go out there and be knocking on every door like Jehovah Witnesses
to try and work and earn our righteousness. We'd be doing
good works and we'd be telling people what they need to do and
stop doing and being fruit inspectors in order to obtain a righteousness
for ourselves because that would be our salvation. But we committed
everything to Christ and we rest in Him. And we serve him in thankfulness
and in joy. And we're able to be kind to
one another and not bite and devour one another because it's
not a competition. We're not trying to be more righteous
and outdo one another. We rest in Christ. We've committed
it all into his hands. And so that comfort that you
have in resting in Christ and believing him, that's exactly
the will and the purpose of your father. That's exactly why he
sent him. He sent him because he is the
only hope of salvation. There is no salvation outside
of Christ. There's nothing you and I can
do. Christ is exactly the one whom the Father sent and your
hope and faith in Christ is exactly the will and purpose of God for
you. That's exactly it. So having
laid out just that background of those words, I am. The first time we see that the
spear records this particular use of these words by our Lord
is found in John 6.35. Why don't you go there, John
6.35, and if you have a pencil or a pen, you can put a little
one right at that verse if you remember that there's seven sayings,
you'll see that that's the first one, John 6.35. And Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. The first thing our Lord is announcing
here, when He says this, because the people heard what He was
saying. They heard the power and the
authority with which He was speaking. Our Lord is announcing here that
He is the long-expected Christ. When He was speaking to the woman
at the well in John 4, it's Yeah, verse 25 and 26. The woman
saith unto him, I know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell
us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee, am he. He was saying to her individually,
I am. I am. I am Christ. I am God in
the flesh, manifest in the flesh, come to save my people. And so
he's saying to these people, I am the bread of life. I'm more than just a miracle
worker. These people were enamored with Christ. They were in awe
of Christ because just the day before, he had fed 5,000 men. And in addition to the 5,000
men, there was women and children there as well. And he did that
with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. And he fed over
5,000 men. And so they were looking at him
as an earthly, fleshly Christ, as a miracle worker. But he was
come not to satisfy our fleshly appetites and our fleshly desires,
to conquer and to rule and to do as we would do in the world,
Christ came to satisfy every need for his people. Every spiritual
need. That's what's important. That's
what we need. He does take care of the physical
things as well. But those things are in the background
compared to our spiritual need. because this day in our day our
life passes like a vapor and then it's gone whereas the next
day is an eternal day and that's our inheritance and he's laid
up for us and provided for us life for all eternity with your
God that is your glory brethren that God is your God and he dwells
with you now and forevermore, and you'll never be separated
from the true and living God. And so Christ comes and he satisfies
the hungering and wandering heart of his people, which by nature
are hungering and lusting and wandering after foolish things
and vain things. You know, there's people we've
known that got hungry in seeking for the truth and they began
to explore and look into various religions and they went off searching
for things because they weren't satisfied with the things that
they were hearing and they needed something more. But the grace
and power of your God is that when the soul sees Jesus, and
you see in Him all sufficiency and all satisfaction for you
with your God, and you hear His words, and you hear that by faith,
by the Spirit giving you faith, an ear which hears by faith,
eyes which see by faith, you will be satisfied with Christ.
you won't be hungering and thirsting. If you're still hungering and
thirsting for some greater salvation, for some greater spiritual light
that isn't Christ, we hunger and thirst for Christ. But if
you're looking for something that you think Christ can't give,
then you've not seen or heard Christ yet. Because Christ said,
he that cometh to me shall never hunger. And Christ said he that
cometh to me shall never thirst. Our Lord came down from heaven
so that by him we have life. Look down in John 6, John 6 verse
51 and 52. He says, I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. I
am laying down my life for all my people scattered throughout
the world. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Brethren, let other men strive
and bicker and argue and complain, but we know that Christ is our
life, and we're satisfied with Him. He sacrificed Himself to
give us spiritual life. We have life in Christ, by Christ,
of Christ, and we dwell in Christ, and He dwells in us. He shed
His blood and obtained righteousness for His people and clothes us
with that righteousness. We read in verse 57, as the living
father, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he's not
the God of the dead, but the God of the living. As the living
father hath sent me, and I live by the father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. Our Lord is speaking spiritual
words. What He's saying is spiritual
truth. His flesh is meat indeed, His
blood is drink indeed. That is, you that feed upon Christ,
you that love His gospel, that love His coming, that love His
salvation, that love His light, that love Him and believe Him
and trust Him you hear spiritual words, and you're satisfied that
He is salvation, that you have gained an entrance with the Father,
and that you are reconciled and received by the Father. And so these spiritual words
are understood not by the flesh, the way these men heard them,
These spiritual words are understood and heard by faith, faith which
the Spirit reveals in you. So whatever we need for spiritual
life, it's met entirely by the Lord Jesus Christ. by His death
and His life. Whatever we need has been fully
provided for us in the Son. The Father knew what He was doing
in sending the Son. The Father knew exactly what
He was doing in committing all things to the Son. We're told
that the Father first trusted in Christ, meaning He committed
all your salvation into the hands of Christ. That's how confident
he is. And if the father who knows all
things and is eternal and all wise and all powerful, if he
trusts Christ and he trusted you and me to Christ, then why
shouldn't we trust him? He's everything. He's everything.
So the child of God, when at once we hear Christ, when we
see him and hear him and behold him by faith, we don't keep looking. We don't need to explore other
religions and understand how they work and get a little something
here from this one and I like the way they do that over there.
We don't need that. We have everything. We have the fullness of life
out of the riches, according to the riches of our God in glory. He's given you everything. You
don't need to be looking around for nothing else. Rest right
in Christ. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no missing piece that
cannot be met by the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn it over to Colossians
2. We see this. Colossians 2 verse
9 through 11. Our Lord says, or we're told
by the Spirit, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands, in the putting off the
body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. And so Christ did everything. What we couldn't do in the flesh,
what we couldn't work or obtain for ourselves in this flesh,
Christ did it all. In circumcising the heart, reaching
where no man, no fleshly work can reach, nothing we can do,
Christ went in there and he cut away the worthless flesh. He cut away that which profited
nothing. And he gave us life and hope
and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to stop there tonight
and let you dwell on that. And just thank your God for his
mercy. in sending the Son, Jesus Christ,
and rejoice there. When we come back, the next one
will be in John 8, verse 12, if you want to look at that.
But there's seven of them, and we'll see the blessedness, how
everything we need is in Christ Jesus. So I pray he bless that
word to your hearts. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. Lord, we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for giving us all,
all righteousness, all joy, all hope, all salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's not many places to go.
There's not treks and pilgrimages and works to do. Lord, you've
done everything in your sum. And it's not as though we do
nothing, Lord. But even in life, you give us
life and the works that we do are all wrought in you. We are
the workmanship of the Lord Jesus Christ and we're so thankful
for your glory, your power, your grace. Lord, we pray that you
be with your people this day and through this week, through
the weekend. Lord, provide for us. You know
all things and we can be such fools and so unbelieving But
Lord, we're so thankful that you are God and that you've provided
all that we need in the Lord Jesus Christ and you bring us
to him and keep us in him. Lord, thank you. It's in Christ's
name that we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, brother. Our closing hymn will be 287,
Like a River Glorious, 287. The river glorious is God's perfect
peace, Over all victorious in its pride and crease. Perfect yet it floweth fuller
every day, Perfect yet it groweth deeper all the way. ? Seated upon Jehovah ? ? Hearts
are fully blessed ? ? Finding as He promised ? ? Perfect peace
and rest ? ? Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand ? ? Never
foe can follow, never traitor stand ? Not a surge of worry,
not a shade of care. Not a blast of hurry, touch the
spirit there. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect
peace and rest. Every joy or trial falleth from
above, traced upon our dial by the sun of love. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust him wholly, find
him wholly true. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, binding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Thank you.