evening let's begin our service
tonight by standing and singing 175 standing on the promises
175 Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting
in my Saviour as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. Thank you. Good evening. Go to Psalm 2. I'm going to read Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have
I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy, your grace, your kindness in gathering
us together tonight to hear your word. Lord, we thank you for
your promise that you fulfill continually, and not forsaking
us, not leaving us and abandoning us but Lord you care for us and
provide for us and sustain us and keep us and fill us and Lord
we thank you for your grace Lord help us indeed to always remember
our God in all things to not lean upon our own understanding
but to acknowledge you in all our ways because Lord, we have
everything that we have by your hand and we're thankful for your
mercy and your grace. Lord, we confess that in ourselves,
we're unworthy of your mercy. We're unworthy of your compassion
and your kindness toward us. But we rejoice in you and thank
you for opening our eyes for giving us an ear to hear, eyes
that see our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, that you
have given to us Christ to dwell in us and to see him and to behold
him by faith. Lord, we thank you for our brethren,
for one another. Lord, we know that There are
some among us who are sick and not well and don't know why they're
sick. But Lord, you know, help us to
remember them, to pray for one another, especially our brethren
who are sick, and to reach out to them and to be kind and loving
and to be helpers of one another and to remember one another and
be giving of our time and our efforts and abilities, Lord,
to help one another. Because, Lord, you fill your
people with love, and we thank you for that. Lord, help us to
remember one another. Lord, we pray also that you would
bless this work, that you would establish us here, that you would
cause others who are sick and weary and suffering and hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, that you would cause them to
find us and that you would help us to be able to reach them. And Lord, that you would gather
your people in, that you would feed and nourish your people
with the gospel, and that you would settle your sheep, especially
those that are frightened and worried and trembling about many
cares and worries. But Lord, we know that you have
all things in your power and in your control and for your
sovereign and almighty. And Lord, we thank you for this
knowledge and for the spirit of peace that you give to us.
Lord, we pray that you bless this night, that you bless this
message, that you bless our worship and our singing of songs of praise
to your name, that you would receive these This worship, Lord,
though we are but humble and small and few in number, we pray
that your name would be blessed, that you would be honored and
glorified in our hearts and in our minds, and by the things
which you have ordained that we should do. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. The wood turned to 446, satisfied.
446. my life long I had panted for
a drink from some clear spring that I hope would quench the
burning of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah, I have found
Him, whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Eating on the husks around me,
till my strength was almost gone. Longed my soul for something
better, only still to hunger on. Hallelujah, I have found
Him whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. For I wasn't sought for riches,
Something that would satisfy, But the dust I gathered round
me Only mocked my soul-set pride. Alleluia, I have found Him, whom
my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Well of water ever springing,
Bread of life so rich and free, Untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me. Alleluia, I have found Him, Whom
my soul so long has craved, Jesus satisfies my longings, through
his blood I now am saved. Thank you. Good evening. I'm going to be
in John chapter 14 this evening. John 14, and our text is verse
19. When our Lord was speaking of
his departure to his disciples, he said to them in verse 19,
yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more. And he was
speaking of their sight of him in the flesh as he ministered
to them in the flesh. They would see him no more because
they had no spiritual sight. They wouldn't be able to see
him in the flesh anymore. But ye, you his disciples, he
said, ye see me, you see me by faith because I live Ye shall
live also. And so our Lord is telling us
that because He lives, because He lives, you live also. You live also. In other words,
our life is the result of His life, or our life springs out
of His life. Because I live, he says, ye shall
live also. And just before speaking of his
life and our life, he spoke to them of seeing him. And in that, we see him make
a distinction between the sight of this world, the sight of the
inhabitants of this world who are but flesh, and the sight
which his disciples, his church, has of Christ our Savior. And what our Lord is speaking
of here, what He's describing here, is grace. Our God is gracious. He's gracious to you, His disciples. To you who hunger to hear a word
from the Lord, He's gracious to you. To you who are thirsty. To you who are hungry. To you
who are sorrowing and have no righteousness of your own. The
Lord is being gracious to you, and He shows His grace by being
merciful, forgiving to sinners undeserving of His grace. And
He chooses to be gracious and merciful to whom He will. Now,
in contrary to our Lord's Word and what Almighty God teaches
us in His Word, there's a doctrine of man. And it's a doctrine of
the flesh. And it's according to the traditions
and the teaching and the wisdom of man. And what man does is
he instructs men how they get themselves saved, how they come
to possess salvation. Their words are, if you, if you,
if you do something, if you accept Jesus and make him Lord of your
life, as if you had any power to affect your salvation. If
you will do something, then God will do something for you. Then Christ will come. Then Christ
will take up His abode in you, and you will live in Him. But
they threaten, without your cooperation, God can do nothing. God's hands
are tied. He would if he could, but if
you don't let him, there's nothing he can do. That's the doctrine
of man. That's the doctrine of this world.
That's the doctrine which comes out of the pit of hell and is
the doctrine of devils, and it cannot save. It cannot do anything
for a sinner to bring them into the hope of our God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our God teaches us the gospel
of our God, which is revealed to us in Christ. Our Lord says
it this way, because I live, ye shall live also. Because I live, I have the authority,
Christ says, and by my life, you also shall live. It doesn't rest on your cooperation. It doesn't rest on your confession
or what you say or do. It rests entirely upon the God,
man, mediator whom God in wisdom, in love, in grace sent to save
his people from their sins. Our God declares, because I live,
ye shall live also. And this, brethren, is the doctrine
of Christ. And this is the doctrine which
the Spirit of God sent of the Father and the Son to seek out
His people. This is the doctrine which the
Spirit reveals and bears witness to in you, His chosen sheep. In you, whom Christ has redeemed
and purchased with His own blood. His blood isn't waiting to purchase
you. His blood has purchased you that
are His people. He sends the Spirit, and the
Spirit seeks out the children, and the Spirit gives life to
the children, and the Spirit teaches the children, and because
you have the Spirit of God in you, because you have been given
life in Him, you shall abide. Christ. You shall abide in the
doctrine of Christ. You shall abide in the vine. You shall be fixed in him forever. Forever. This is the grace of
your God. He says it this way in 2nd John.
There's only one chapter there and it's verse 9 we'll read from
where he says, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ. He hath, he hath, already hath
both the Father and the Son. You have both the Father and
the Son. Not because you wooed God with
your decision for Him, or your choosing of Him, or by asking
Him into your heart and professing faith in Him. You didn't woo
God. God empowered Almighty grace
and sovereign power and authority came and gave you life so that
you had the Father and the Son. And He revealed the witness of
Christ in you and fixed you in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the testimony of Scripture. You have life and believe Christ
because Christ is life and He has given life to whom He will. It's not a choice that we're
presenting to dead men who want to live. We're given a witness. We're given a witness by the
Spirit of God in us to know that He is salvation, that I'm the
sinner. I cannot save myself. I cannot
work a righteousness. But God has given us salvation. He has provided the refuge and
turned our heart from dead, cold, wicked things that cannot save,
and turned us to behold Christ, to behold the life and salvation
of God, to believe Him. And it's all by the glory and
the power and the grace of our God. And so with this witness
of the Spirit in us, not because we did anything, but because
God did everything, we have the witness of the Spirit in us whereby
we believe. We receive Christ, meaning not
in the sense that we accepted him, but we've received him who
was given to us by the grace of God, our Father. And we believe
him. And those without this witness,
they don't believe. And we know that many many are
called, there's many that have heard the true gospel. There's
many that hear a false gospel and a lie, but there's many that
hear the true gospel and there are people who make choices all
the time. Some choose not to believe and
some choose to believe, but if the Spirit of God is not in it,
they're yet in darkness. They're yet in darkness because
it's just a choice of their flesh. There's no power, there's no
witness of God in them. but to those whom the Spirit
reveals Christ. He's given you a new heart. He's
given you spiritual eyes. He's given you spiritual life
in the living Savior. He's given you life by Christ
and given you a love for Him and a desire for Him and a love
for His people and a seeking of His people. And so the Lord
bears fruits of righteousness in His people. which are the
fruits of faith and hope and love, love for your Savior, love
for one another. And our God works all things
according to His will and purpose. You know, I was thinking about
it even today. Sometimes when we get sick and someone in the
body is sick and that one who's sick can feel really down about
themselves and feel helpless and feel like they're not contributing
to the body. But our God, who is sovereign
over all things, he's the one who brought the sickness. He's
the one that brings one of his people low, not to punish them
or not because he's abandoned them, but that he might show
his love and power in the hearts of his people who care for them,
who look after them, who ask them, is there anything I can
do for you? Anything that we can do to lift their spirits
and to show them the comfort that we've been shown by the
grace of our God. And so sometimes some of us are
brought low because God will stir up the hearts of his people
and bear those fruits of righteousness in his people. And it's all of
the hand of our God. And so we need the power of our
God. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 2.
Paul wrote it this way, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 5 through 7. There he's speaking of preaching
Christ to the church, because that's what we're called to do,
to preach Christ to the sheep of God, to feed the sheep of
God with this glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Paul said in verse five, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How be it we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect, Yet not the wisdom of this world,
nor of the princes of this world that come to nothing, but we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. It's hidden, this glorious gospel
is hidden from the natural man, but it's revealed to those who
are God's children, to those whom he would have to know him. He seeks them out and reveals
this witness in them. So our Lord speaks of our life
springing from him. He is the spring of life. He's the one that gives us life. And so, first, why do we need
life? What's wrong with the life that
we have from our parents? What's wrong with this life and
this flesh? What's wrong with this? Why do
we need life from Christ? Well, first of all, the life
that Christ speaks of is not this life, this life of this
flesh. He's speaking of spiritual life. And we don't know what spiritual
life is until we have spiritual life. We don't understand what
spiritual life is. We may think we have an understanding
of it, but we know nothing about it until we have spiritual life. And to that point, Paul said
it this way in Ephesians 2 verse 1. He said, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. And that word quickened
means he made alive. You hath he made alive who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Weren't they already alive? In
the flesh, yes. In the spirit, no. There was
no spiritual life in them. If you remember Nicodemus, Nicodemus
who recognized there was something different about this Jesus of
Nazareth, the things he said, the way he said them, the power
with which he was able to heal those that were sick and cast
out devils and give sight to the blind. He was different from
any man that he'd ever seen, and he recognized this man must
be from God. This man must be from heaven. The Father must be with him. And he was religious, very religious,
but he was spiritually dead. And Christ said to him, and the
first thing that Christ said to him when he came, after he
says the things he says to Christ and nice things about him, our
Lord answered and said unto him, verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God, because it's spiritual. And if you don't have
the spirit, you don't have spiritual sight with which to see the kingdom
of God, to know the true and living God. And we also see that
just because someone is religious does not mean that they're spiritual. There's a lot of people in religion,
both religions that are not called Christianity and the religion
of Christianity, and there's a lot of people. Everyone outside
of Christianity and then even those many in what's called Christianity
do not have the Spirit of God and have no spiritual life. So that being religious is not
is not being spiritual in any way or being born again. Being
born again, having a new life is given to us by God. God must
give a person spiritual life. And he describes that spiritual
life in John 3, 3 as being born again. He must be born again,
born from above, born of the Spirit. This natural birth is
not enough. It's insufficient to save. It does not produce life or have
any life in it. That life comes from God alone. And He's the one that gives us
spiritual life by His spirit, by the power and glory of Christ. It's the power of God to give
life to His children. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
one. Go to Ephesians chapter one. And in verse 16, we'll pick up
there, Paul was praying for the Ephesian believers. And when
you read that, you realize I need that. I need that mercy and grace
of God. I need those same things, Lord. Do this for me. Give me this
knowledge. Bless me with this understanding.
And Paul, we'll pick up in verse 16, he said, I cease not to give
thanks for you, We thank God for our brethren, making mention
of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation and the knowledge of him. Why does he give us the
spirit? Because that's how we know the
mind of our God. That's how the witness of God
of Christ is born in us. That's how we're given spiritual
life. who reveals Christ to us. Verse
18 The eyes, the spiritual eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Whenever I preach the gospel,
I preach the gospel in hope. that God will bless His people,
that He will bless a sinner whom He loves from all eternity and
committed to Christ, that God would reveal to them the hope
of the redeemed, the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that God bless His people
and feed you every time because many are called but few are chosen. There's many that sit under the
preaching of the gospel. And there's a hope when sinners
are gathered under the preaching of the gospel, when they're gathered
to hear the call of God saying, look to my servant, look to my
son. I've provided everything. His
blood is sufficient to save to the uttermost. And his death
has sanctified my people, setting them apart by my spirit to hear
this word and to believe. to believe, to have the witness
of the Spirit of God testifying in our hearts to know Christ
is salvation, He is all, and God has provided Him and caused
me to hear His word and to believe on His Son. There is a hope in
the preaching of the Gospel because that's where sinners hear the
salvation of God in the face of Jesus Christ. If they believe
Christ, they are brought to know the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints. It begins with that hope of the
saints and it ends in the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And so that's the distinguishing
work of our God's grace. And he goes on in verse 19 and
20, what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe
according to the working of His mighty power. We believe according
to the mighty working power of our God, which worketh effectually
in our hearts, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places. Now it's that same resurrection
power which raised Christ from the dead that works in each one
of his children to reveal Christ in us, to reveal that faith which
looks not to what these hands do, not to what I've done, not
to a decision I've made, but to what Christ has done for me
and how that he sought me and gave his spirit to me and revealed
him in my heart." And that's the distinguishing grace and
power of our God, and it's that which raises us up from spiritual
death to having life in Christ. And that brings us back to Ephesians
2, verse 1, where Paul said, and you hath he quickened. With
that resurrection power, he quickened you who were dead in trespasses
and sins. So God does that in giving life
to his people and we receive Christ and we believe him and
we grow in the grace of God. John wrote it this way. Turn
over to John chapter one. John one verses 12 and 13. He says, but as many as received
him, And we have a habit when we read that, receiving, as though
it was something we accepted, that we had this gift that we
accepted. And what he's speaking of there
is that God gave him. We received it. in the same way
that we receive things that are given to us that there's no option
to refuse or to accept. It's given to us. And what he's
saying is God has given Christ to his people. So to you who
have received Christ by the power of God, giving Christ to you,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. And so by the power of God this
life is wrought in us and he tells us verse 13 which we're
born not of blood It doesn't matter if you're a Jew descended
from Abraham. That's not what saves you. It
doesn't matter if you're a Gentile, not descended from Abraham, because
it's not by blood, nor is it of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man. So that it's not by my will,
or my decision, or my choosing. That's not how I was born. I
was born by God, born of God there at the end of verse 13.
And so we see that it's the power of God that gives us spiritual
life and turns our heart, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians
3, when he says, this heart, which is dead, which has a veil
over it naturally, which is under the administration of condemnation,
trusting the law, trusting our works, trusting what we have
done to save us with God. No, our God teaches us by giving
us His Spirit, and when the Spirit has come, the heart is turned. And when the heart is turned
by God, by Him taking out that hard, adamant stone, that hard
heart that we have by nature, and giving us a soft heart, a
heart that is made from Him, given by Him, that heart is turned
to look to Christ, and the veil is taken away. and there's life
that comes in by the grace of God. And so our God does this,
because I live, Christ said, ye shall live also. Now secondly, Christ spoke this
word to his disciples. When he was speaking in John
14, verse 19, he was speaking to his disciples. He wasn't speaking
to the world. And there's a reason why some
believe and why some don't believe. It's because of the grace of
our God. It's because of the sovereign, free grace of our
God to choose whom he will, to reveal Christ in them. None of
us, none of us would be saved were it not for the grace of
God. We would all be dead in trespasses and sins, and that's
where we'd lay forever. None of us would choose God.
But by the grace of God, We are turned and raised from death. Go back to Ephesians chapter
two. Go to Ephesians two. Paul describes this very fact,
how that we were all in darkness, all under the power and the influence
of the evil one. being deceived, deceiving one
another, being hateful and hating one another. And he says it this
way in Ephesians 2 verses 2 and 3, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world according to the prince
of the power of the air. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." So what changed? What delivered us from being
partakers of the children of wrath and disobedience, from
being under the the charm of the evil one. What turned us
from that? And he tells us verse four, but
God, but God, God made the difference. God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, spiritually
dead in sins, hath quickened, given us life together with Christ,
by grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together. and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And so salvation
is all of the grace of God toward us in Christ by his free sovereign
choice. He chooses whom he will be merciful
to and whom he will, he passes them by. And so it's not a work
of this flesh. It's not a work of the free will
of man. Man's will is bound in darkness. He has no spiritual life to take
himself out of death and out of the grave and out of darkness.
He's dead. D-E-A-D. Dead. It's only God who gives life. And Christ said, because I live,
ye shall live also. Turn over to Romans 9 and we'll
see this. How that God chooses whom he
will. how he saves with the blood of Christ. Romans 9, usually
I read the early part in Romans 9, but I'll read the latter half,
but we'll pick up in verse 15. He says to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. It's not your free will and it's
not your good works, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, that king of Egypt who enslaved the children
of Israel and wanted to keep them there, even for this same
purpose, have I raised thee up that I might show my power in
thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Now he words it differently from what he said to Moses when he
said, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have
compassion on whom I'll have compassion. He says it this way
in verse 18, therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,
and whom he will, he hearteneth. And so we see that the natural
man is hard. The natural man is unbelieving. The natural man is in rebellion
against God. He is enmity against the true
and living God. He's in the flesh and he cannot
please God. And this man thought he could
stand toe-to-toe with God and he challenged them and he would
not hear because God gave him, not the Spirit, He gave him no
mercy or compassion. And so that man continued in
his rebellion and God hardened his heart that God's glory and
power would be revealed in that vessel formed and made unto dishonor,
made for the day of wrath. 19 And thou wilt say unto me,
Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? 20 Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? In other words,
God is God, and I am a man. I am but a creature here on the
earth below. I am to shut my mouth before
God, to know that He is almighty, He is all-powerful, He is sovereign.
If I am to open my mouth, let it be, Lord have mercy on me. Lord help me, be gracious to
me, cover me with the blood of your Son. Deliver me from death,
for who am I? Who am I but a man? a creature
and your almighty God. And so we are to close our mouths
and to be humble before the true and living God. Hath not, verse
21, the power potter over the clay of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
afford prepared unto glory. And so you that believe, you
that are gathered here and hear the hope of the saints revealed
by your God in the face of Jesus Christ, rejoice in him because
you're a vessel of his mercy and he's revealed Christ in you.
and giving you a hope. And this world, as crazy as it
is, and unbelieving as it is, is preparing itself for the day
of wrath, and they'll be taken care of by your God. And there
may be days and nights of difficulties for the people of God, who are
persecuted by the enemies of God and the enemies of the church,
but your God has a purpose, and He's revealing His glory and
His power in you. that your faith should be found
looking in the Lord Jesus Christ because that glorifies your Lord
and your Savior. When the world stands in judgment
and says but you made it impossible for us and God will turn to his
sheep and say you made it impossible for them and yet they continued
in faith trusting me and were not turned away and didn't fall
away. You made it impossible for them and yet They remain
faithful, looking to Christ. And man will be without excuse
in that day, but be glad and rejoice in your God and Savior
because He's revealed Christ and you whom He loves. You've
received Him because God has given Him to you and revealed
faith in your hearts, which trusts the blood of Christ, has done
everything for me. Christ gave His life on the cross
as a sacrifice unto the Father to put away, to make an atonement
for your sins that God may be just and merciful to you who
have no worth or value in our own works and in our own strength
and in our own beauty but all our everything precious about
us. revealed in Christ Jesus our
Lord who has adorned us with his grace and mercy and love
and so Paul said it this way in 2nd Thessalonians chapter
2 verses 13 and 14 we're bound to give thanks always to God
for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification, separating
you apart by the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And so God has wrought life in
you and continues to reveal that life in you of Christ. This is
the promise of God in Christ. Because I live, ye shall live
also. also. We live because Christ. And so He gives us His life.
He's purchased our life, which cost Him His own, and God raised
Him from the dead. And that same power, which raised
Christ from the dead, is the power that raises us up, giving
us spiritual life to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the Father's will. that all which he hath given
to the Son should believe on him, should trust him, and that
Christ would lose none of them, but raise them up at the last
day. And this is the will of him that sent me, Christ said,
that everyone which seeth the Son, having spiritual eyes, and
believeth on him with spiritual faith, may have everlasting life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. when Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him
in glory. And so this message began with
our Lord saying, John 14, 19, yet a little while, and the world
seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall
live also. You that see Christ and believe
Him, it's because you have life and you have life because Christ
is your life. He is your Lord and Savior and
is merciful and compassionate to you and is gracious to you. So rejoice, rejoice and trust
Him. and thank him every day and every
night, and thank him for your brethren who believe like you,
because faith is a precious thing, and all men have not faith, but
to those that God gives it freely. I pray you bless that word to
your hearts, amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank you, Lord, for
your grace. Lord, we thank you for your power
and your glory, Raises us up from spiritual death and gives
us life Because our Savior is life and we spring forth from
him and we're so thankful that it's not of our hands It's not
of our works Because then it should fail and it would come
apart and and become nothing but Lord that what you do is
lasting and eternal and Lord we trust you which hath begun
a good work in us, that you will perform it until the end, until
the day of Christ Jesus our Lord, when He returns again to claim
His own people. Lord, help us, help each one
of us in the struggles that we have, in the difficulties that
we have, and the sufferings that we experience. But Lord, turn
our hearts to not focus on ourselves, but to remember one another and
to seek your face to be gracious and merciful for our brethren
and to set our hearts on how we may love them and be a help
to them because it's really such a help to us when we forget about
ourselves and not worry about us, but think of others. And
Lord, we know that you do this. This is your work of grace empowering
us. We pray that you would be glorified
in your people. It's in Christ's name we give
thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn is going to
be 452, My Savior's Love. 452. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvellous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvellous, how wonderful
is my Saviour's love for me. For me it was in the garden he
prayed, not my will but thine. He had no tears for his own grief,
but sweat drops of blood for mine. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. In pity angels beheld him that
came from the world of light. to comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. How marvellous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be! How marvellous, how wonderful
is my Saviour's love for me! The angels beheld him and came
from the world of light. To comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. How marvelous, how wonderful
in my song shall ever How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's
love for me! He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone. How marvellous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvellous, how wonderful,
is my Saviour's love for me. With the ransomed in glory his
face I at last shall see. T'will be my joy through the
ages to sing those loved for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me.