Good morning, let's begin our
second service by standing and singing out of your softback,
number eight. Number eight. Let's see what
that title is. Oh Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire. It's been a long time since we sang
this. you our hearts and souls aspire to
lift up from this earthly mar. Oh, may we think of heavenly
things and know the joy thy presence brings. Lord, let us see the Savior's
face, and let us taste of Thy sweet grace. May open, dears,
Thy glories here, and may we smell Thy fragrance. ? Be pleased to open heaven's door
? ? And on our heads thy blessings pour ? ? O wretched, poor, and
needy we ? ? Where can we go if not to thee? ? to thee. ? Who may this day be blessed the
most ? ? That Jesus Christ becomes the host ? ? To feed our souls
with living bread ? ? And with our souls in joy ? Thank you. Throwing me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 this is my dad's
favorite passage and for good reason Ephesians 2, And you hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespassings and sins, wherein time passed,
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 had all 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. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath he quickened us together with Christ,
by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together It made
us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us, towards Christ Jesus. For
by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. not of works lest any man should
boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them wherefore remember that you that you being in times in
time past Gentiles in the flesh Who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands that
at the time you were with without Christ being aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel and Strangers from the covenants of promise
having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ
Jesus he who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ and For he is our peace, who hath made both one and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances For to make himself To make himself
of twain one new man. So making peace and That he might
reconcile And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by
the cross having slain the enmity thereby I and came and preached
peace to you which were far off and to them that were nigh. For
through him we both have access by one spirit unto the father.
Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for a habitation
of God through the Spirit. Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for this very clear passage of scripture, that the
faith we have is what is necessary, and that faith is not made up
in our own hearts. We can't create it. And Father,
we're thankful this morning that for those that you have chosen
to save or that you have put that faith in us, And father
we're so thankful again for a place to come to meet and father. We're thankful for our pastor
and Lord we just as always ask that you watch over him as he
prepares the messages and we ask that you open our hearts
this morning to to hear the message and Father we dissess it as always
you watch over and care for us in Christ's name Amen If you would, turn to verse 39. Sovereign grace, I will proclaim
it. Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying, Guilty, I deserve God's wrath. Long I fought against
my master, Hell-bent, I was courting death. But the blood of Christ
had bought me He refused to let me die This poor sinner loved
by Jesus Must be conquered by and by At the time which was predestined
? In the covenant of grace ? ? God in mercy sent his spirit ? ?
Blessed time of love and grace ? ? To reveal his son's great
merit ? ? As the sinner's substitute ? I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement,
justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished,
and I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening,
grace that broke my stubborn will. Grace that would not let
me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell. Sovereign grace, I will proclaim
it. Irresistible and free. Grace that chose me and redeemed
me. Granted by grace alone saved
me. Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by His blood. Thank you. Good morning. Take your Bibles and let's turn
to John chapter 12. John 12. We're going to be picking
up in verse 10 and looking through verses 26. the miracle that our Lord had
recently performed in raising Lazarus from the dead. After
that, he had been dead for four days. He laid in the grave. After that, it was so incredible,
people were spreading this word, and it was so incredible that
the people here were assured this is the long-expected Messiah
of whom the prophets have written. Now, our Lord had raised others
from the dead. There's two other times when
the Lord raised others. We know of Jairus' 12-year-old
daughter. She had just recently died when
he came into the house. Jairus was the ruler of the synagogue
there. He was a prominent Jew. He mitigated, Christ mitigated
what he did in saying that she sleepeth. The maiden's not dead,
she sleepeth. And we're told that they laughed
in the scorn knowing that she was dead. This is Luke who records
this in Luke 8, 53. And so when Christ raised her
from the dead, they were amazed. They were convinced that she
was dead. And they were amazed. But she had just died. And so
as news of this spread, they could easily say, well, she really
didn't die. She didn't die. It just seemed
like it. And she got better while Jesus
of Nazareth was there. And then before that, in Luke
7, 14 and 15, we know that there was a son, the only son of a
widow, who had died. And she being grieved by it,
the Lord went to where they were carrying the son, out in the
coffin to the grave. And it says that Christ came
and touched the bier, or the coffin, where he laid. And they
that bear him stood still. And he said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and
began to speak, and he delivered him to his mother. But Lazarus
had been dead for four days, and Lazarus laid in the tomb
for four days, meaning that his flesh was now corrupting, was
rotting and decaying, and he began to stink when the Lord
gave him life. And there was no denying that
this was a great miracle. And yet, in spite of this, we
see the enmity in the heart of man, which is revealed to us
first here in the Jews, in the ruling Jews. And we see that
nothing was stirring in their heart, no life, but murder, death. In John 12, verses 10 and 11,
it says that the chief priests consulted that they might put
Lazarus also to death. because that by reason of him,
many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. They thought
that if they could murder him, it would be easy to say that's
just a wives' tale. That's just a story. There's
his grave right over there. None of that ever happened. Now,
the Jews were doing this because they were concerned about earthly
and fleshly things. They didn't believe that Jesus
was the Christ. They didn't believe that, likely
because he didn't honor them. He didn't come to them. He didn't
find agreement with them. And so they thought, well, he
can't possibly be the Christ if he doesn't like us. If he
doesn't agree with us, this can't be the Christ. And so they were
worried because the people were going after Christ. They were
believing on him. Recall back in John 11. Look
at John 11. In the middle of verse 47, it
says, what do we? Guys, what are we doing here?
What do we think we're doing here? This man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, if
we don't do anything about it, all men will believe on him and
the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. Now, knowing that this is on
their mind, weighing heavy on their mind. They're fearful because
they think this can't be the Christ, and so if this continues
on in this way, and we don't do anything about it, Rome's
going to come in and destroy us. Alright, so this is weighing
on their hearts. Now, look at what we read in
our text. Verses 12 through 19, let's just
read this. On the next day, much people
that were come to the feast, those that were there at Simon
the leper's house and were there at the feast, when they heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees
and went forth to meet him. I'm sorry, this is actually leading
up to Passover, that feast, they were come for the Passover feast.
These took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and
cried, Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in
the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found
a young ass, a young donkey, sat there on, as it is written,
fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, thy king cometh, sitting on an
ass's colt. These things understood not his
disciples at the first. But when Jesus was glorified,
then remembered they these things which were written of him, and
that they had done these things unto him. The people, therefore,
that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and
raised him up from the dead, bare record. For this cause the
people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this
miracle. And so the word of what Christ
had done was spreading very fast. And there was much people come
to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. So many people of the
nations were there. Those scattered because they
were called to come to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. And
so this was very concerning to the Jews at which they fear that
they could see this is coming to pass we're gonna have trouble
and so it says verse 19 the Pharisees therefore said among themselves
perceive ye how ye prevail nothing do you see how you're doing nothing
is is just letting this happen it's getting away from us here
behold the world is gone after him And so we see that there's the
population and there's this great fervor and excitement over Christ
and the time that this meant it was. This is the long expected
Jesus, the long expected Christ. And then you have the Jews, the
ruling Jews who have their place and they don't see this Jesus
of Nazareth as the Christ and they're worried about what this
is gonna translate to. Throughout history, there's always
times when there's movements like this and this type of movement
in the minds of the people or anything, even in business. If
the rulers don't do anything about it, They usually get overthrown. Just look at business, right?
If you're the top of your business and you get complacent with your
products, some upstart after 20 years or so comes in and knocks
you out. They do something better and
knocks you out. Same thing with governments and influencers of
that sort. noticed that the thing that none
of them understood, whether they were the people, all excited,
thinking that this is the Christ, or it's the rulers of the Jews,
and even the disciples, none of them understood what Christ
was come to accomplish. They all had their thoughts,
they all had their ideas, but none of them understood what
Christ came to accomplish. What did Christ come to do? What did he come to accomplish? For the Jews, the people of the
Jews, they thought that Christ's coming was to be an earthly Jewish
king, ruling in the nation of Israel, ruling over the Gentile
nations. Now we know, you that believe
on Christ, we know Christ did not come to set up an earthly
Jewish kingdom where he would rule as an earthly Jewish monarch,
a king over the nations. If that was Christ's purpose
when he came, that's exactly what would have come to pass.
He would have done that. In Psalm 1 it speaks of the blessed
man and Christ is the blessed man of whom that Psalm speaks. Christ is the blessed man and
we're told in verse 3 that whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. He shall be successful in it. That's not hyperbole. That's
not an exaggeration. Whatever Christ wills to do,
it comes to pass because he does the will of God. He is God and
he's implementing and executing the very will of God. And so the will of God is revealed
to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you notice, today as it has
happened in many times throughout history, people think, you know,
they observe the times and the seasons. They observe headlines
and things going on and they think they have a good understanding
of what's happening. And, you know, even in In the
school, right, where Michelle teaches, she hears children say
things like, oh, it's the end of the world. Sometimes you can
read headlines and say that sounds like a verse right out of the
Bible that's coming to pass. And so people get to looking
at those things, things that are stirring and things that
are going on, but they never look to Christ. They're not trusting
in and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's will to the
people, to His people, is that He will be gracious to His people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. God will be gracious to you in
Christ through the blood sacrifice of His Son. Our God sent His
Son and spared Him not that whosoever calleth upon the name of the
Lord should be saved." Christ came and opened that door by
the sacrifice of himself to establish that covenant of grace that whosoever
calleth upon the name of the Lord should be saved. That's
wonderful. That is glorious. Christ came to accomplish the
salvation of his people through faith, which is given to them
by the gift of God. This is the will and purpose
of God for you in Christ, that he would be gracious, that you
who have no righteousness of your own, who have no works of
righteousness for yourselves, nothing to recommend you to God,
but a heaping pile of filthy works and sin, He says, whosoever,
because of Christ, for Christ's sake, whosoever calleth on the
name of the Lord, Lord save me, for Christ's sake, you that call
upon him, have everlasting life. That is the glorious good news
for the people of God. He, for Christ to do this, to
open that door, he had to fulfill all that was written of him in
the scriptures concerning Christ. He had to come. and die as the
sacrifice, as a substitute for the sins of His people to put
them away that God might be just in justifying us, in forgiving
us of our sins. And our Lord did that, trusting
the Father would raise Him from the dead just as He said for
our justification. All this, these glorious things,
this is Christ's glorification. And he said, we'll come to it
in verse 23, he said, the hours come that the son of man should
be glorified. So what I wanna speak to you
today about is what did Christ accomplish? What did our Lord
accomplish for you, his people? Because we see here, they all
missed it. The people that were all excited
about this Jesus being the Messiah, they missed it. They didn't know
why he came. His own disciples really didn't
see very clearly what the Lord was doing. They knew he was the
Christ, but they didn't understand things fully. And the ruling
Jews, they certainly didn't see him as Christ. They didn't know
what he was doing when he came there. So first, let's look at
this. Seeing that Christ did fulfill
this, Jesus of Nazareth has fulfilled the scriptures, and then we'll
see what he came to do. in terms of the Father's will.
First, Jesus of Nazareth, he wouldn't be Christ if he didn't
fulfill all that was written of him. He would just be another
man. If he had not done the things
which are written of Christ in the scriptures, he wouldn't be
the Messiah. But he did fulfill them. He did
fulfill all that was written of Christ. That's why we know
he is the Christ. By the scriptures and the revelation
of God testifying, him to our hearts. So to name a few of the
things he fulfilled, he was born of a virgin. He was born in the
town of Bethlehem. He was called up out of Egypt,
just like the Lord said of his servant. He fulfilled all the
will of the Father perfectly. We're told that he healed our
infirmities and we see many examples where he healed the infirmities
of the people. He set the captives free. He
opened the prison gates and released those who were bound in their
sin and bound in darkness. We see where he drove out the
money changers from the temple, declaring that, my house, the
father said, my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations,
all nations. He did those things spoken of
him. Many other things he did that
I'm not even saying here, many things. And now he comes fulfilling
that which was written of him by the prophet Zechariah in Zechariah
9 verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of
an ass. And so our Lord comes into Jerusalem,
the people are shouting hosannas and rejoicing in his entrance
there, and he's sitting on a young ass. But our Lord did this. He came into Jerusalem not to
be taken by the will of the people and forced to be their king and
to overthrow the rule of Rome and to establish Israel as the
great kingdom conquering and ruling over the Gentile nations. The people didn't understand
what Christ came to accomplish. Not even his disciples. Look
at verse 16, John 12, 16. These things understood not his
disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified. When Christ
was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written
of him, and that they had done these things unto him. Christ
must be glorified. as the Christ. He must come to
do, to fulfill the will of His Father in order for us to have
a saving view of Christ. To see Him who is the Savior
and that salvation which is spoken of that He has, that He alone
has. To know that He is the just one
and He has salvation. In Him is salvation. In Him is
life and forgiveness with God. He is the Savior. He must be
glorified for us to see Him. And so, even though the people
didn't know what was going on or understand it, our Lord was
faithfully fulfilling all things that were written of Him, concerning
Him. And they couldn't see that the
purpose of Christ's coming was to open the fountain of blood. It was to open that fountain
of blood to fill it with His own blood for our washing and
cleansing of our sins. This is written in Zechariah
13 verse 1. Zechariah 13 verse 1 which says,
in that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And then it was through man's
ignorance blindness and darkness to the things of God, not believing
or understanding what the Lord was doing, man went and did what
he desired to do. And we're told in Acts 13 28
through 30, And though they found no cause of death in Christ,
yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when
they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him
down from the tree and laid him in the sepulcher, but God raised
him from the dead. All things that were written
concerning Christ were accomplished, were fulfilled in this Jesus
of Nazareth, the Son of God, who is the promised Christ of
God. He fulfilled all that was written.
He had to fulfill all that was written, and I tell you this
day, that's exactly what he did. He fulfilled all that was written
concerning him in the Scriptures. Next, we'll see that the will
of God is for our salvation. It's not just to be excited and
carried away with things that we see with the carnal fleshly
eyes, things that I cannot say. That's not salvation. So let's
speak to these things. The fame of Christ had grown
now. And so there were proselytes
that also heard of the fame of Christ. Proselytes are Gentiles
who are converted to the Jewish religion. They believed. And
so they had heard of Christ and they hoped to see him. Look at
verses in John 12, verse 20 and 21. And there were certain Greeks
among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore
to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him,
saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Now this desire to see Jesus,
this clamoring to see him, was the same way in which people
today clamor and vie their position to see somebody who's famous,
a movie star or somebody that they admire or follow their works. They wanted to see him as though
he were a celebrity. Look back at verse 9, we see
that they did the same thing with Lazarus. Verse 9, Much people
of the Jews therefore knew that he was there, and they came not
for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also,
whom he had raised from the dead. So this was not spiritual faith. They weren't coming with a spiritual
desire and faith to see him. They were coming because they
wanted to see the conquering king. They wanted to see him
who was going to rule over the nations and to establish the
kingdom of Israel. They wanted to see that one who
was ascending to his throne, see him in the early days when
he's just coming up to his throne, that they could go and tell others,
I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him when I was in Jerusalem.
And so knowing this, that's why our Lord actually came into Jerusalem
not riding as a man of war on a battle stallion, he came into
Jerusalem lowly, riding on an ass. Nope, a young ass, a foal,
the colt of an ass. a young one. How humble is that? How un-warlike is that? He came as one peaceful, because
when Christ came in the weakness of the flesh, when He came, He
came as the Prince of Peace to establish, to establish, to reconcile
Holy God to sinful men. to establish peace between you
who have no righteousness, nothing to recommend you, nothing to
give to God for your sins. He came to establish peace between
you and God and to reconcile you to Him. He is the Prince
of Peace. And we see that so many miss
that. So many see things and get excited
or carried away or afraid of the things going on and the headlines
and what's happening in our day. Don't miss Christ. Don't look
to those things. Those things cannot save you.
Those things don't have anything to do with your hope of salvation
in the Lord. And yet so many focus on on those
details. Just like these people, all excited,
oh, the long-expected Messiah is here. Christ is coming. He
is coming. He will return one day to redeem,
to pick up that which he's purchased with his own blood. But that's
not our joy. Our joy is Maranatha. Come, Lord
Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. We see him,
we look to him even now with the eye of faith. And so it seems
that this request from the Greeks, it troubled Philip. Philip was
like, what am I gonna do with this? He thought if the Greeks
gain an audience with Christ, the Jewish Messiah, the one who's
come to conquer the nations, how's that going to appear? That's
just going to be another thing that the ruling Jews hate about
him and find accusation against him. And so we read in verse
22, Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. What do you think about
this, Andrew? Should we bring them to Christ?
And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And at this, the
Lord responds. that the curiosity of man, he
reveals that the curiosity of man and the passing interest
and fancy of man, that's not salvation. Seeing these things,
recognizing, trying times and difficulties that make us think
of the Bible or Revelation or Daniel or Matthew 24, thinking
of those things, that's not salvation. Don't miss Christ. We must see
Christ. They wanted to see Him in the
flesh. We must see Him by faith. And I believe if they were children
of God, there came a day when they may not have seen Him in
the flesh, but they saw Him by faith, who is the Savior of His
people. We must be born again. We must
be born again. And so don't be troubled. by
the things that you see or don't think that that's salvation.
There's a lot of people that think they recognize a lot of
things, but you trust the Lord. When he says in Isaiah 45, 22,
look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. None else, that's a look of faith. We're beholding him who is our
savior. believing Him, trusting Him,
that He's all my salvation. And that faith, brethren, is
what helps us, is what is given to us to enable us to stand in
the evil day, to stand in the day of adversity, to stand against
the wiles of the devil, to stand in Christ, trusting Him, believing
Him. You know, He says in Isaiah 26, at the end there,
verse 20, he says, Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself, as it were, for
a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the
Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of
the earth for their iniquity. Not you. You're not to be punished. The earth also shall disclose
her blood and shall no more cover her sin." You trust Christ. You look to Him and rest in Him. Don't miss Him. This is the Savior,
the Messiah whom God has sent who provides all things for you. Right? Many people get troubled. I think it's in Isaiah 24. Yeah,
it says, yeah. Verse 18, and it shall come to
pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear, people
hear noise, they get afraid of what they hear is coming, and
they get afraid, and they take off doing. They take off running,
they just start doing something, and it says they shall fall into
the pit, and he that manages to survive falling into the pit,
cometh up out of the midst of the pit, and shall be taken in
the snare. All these things must come to pass in the time that
God appoints these things to come to pass. Throughout history,
there's times of trouble and difficulty. Trust the Lord. Don't miss Him. Don't look away
from Christ. He is our Savior, our provider,
our sustainer. He's everything to us. We must
be born again. And we that are born again, that's
how we behold our Savior. We behold Him by faith. We see
Him with the eye of faith. And so that faith is the gift
of our God, which is given unto us in the new birth, whereby
we look and say, yes, I'm satisfied with Him. He's everything I need
to stand before God. Let me be found in Him and Him
alone. And that, brethren, that life
that you have, that spirit by which we are born again of the
seed of Christ, that's the gift of God for you, which comes as
a result of Christ's glorification. We see how he's always done things. When man is just blinded and
shut up to what God is doing, he's always working that which
is good for his people. And in his glorification, he
obtained life for you. He obtained your very life. And
so that's what our Lord declares here in the text, verse 23. Jesus
answered them saying, when they came and said, there's some Greeks
here that want to meet you. He said, the hour is come that
the Son of Man must be glorified. The curiosity of man has been
piqued. His interest of his carnal mind
has come. But for that mystery, which was
made known to the apostles, for that to be revealed to them and
to be made known to us, Christ had to be taken and slain. Seeing him in the flesh was not
salvation. It was not going to get it done.
Christ had to die. He had to be taken and slain.
So it says in Acts 2.23, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, he hath taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. And so our Lord is speaking of
His glorification. He must die. He must lay down
His life. And in doing that, He would accomplish
the purpose for which He came, to obtain eternal life for you,
that you that call upon the name of the Lord should be saved and
have everlasting life. And so He describes this glorification
a planting of the seed. Verse 24, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. So for men to see Christ with
that spiritual saving faith, Christ had to die. he had to
die. would never know the Lord's salvation
to the ends of the earth except he go and fulfill the will of
God. He came and did all things perfectly
according to the scriptures. And now it came to that point
to do what he said in John 10 verse 4 when he said that the
good shepherd put forth his own sheep When he does that, he goeth
before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And so to that end, to go before
his sheep, he went before them and laid down his life. And he
went into the grave for his people. And he rose again, that we who
die in Christ will also have life and shall also be raised
again in him. He's done everything. for us
brethren he's gone before us and done all things for us now
verse 25 and 26 speaking in that context he says he that loveth
his life shall lose it and he that hated his life in this world
shall keep it unto life eternal if any man serve me let him follow
me and where I am there shall also my servant be if any man
serve me him will my father honor And so this is what our Savior
came to do. He didn't try to spare his life. He laid it down willingly. And
in doing that, he obtained our life. And He's gone before us
and done all things. He's not called us to do anything
that He Himself has not done perfectly, fully in Himself. And He gives us grace to trust
Him, grace to follow Him, grace to believe Him, grace to stand
in the faith of our Lord and Savior. He obtained for us life. He obtained for us salvation
in our Lord so that we now, by His grace, live and love and
sacrifice to our God and our Savior being born of His Spirit,
having His life to know Him. And I tell you and just remind
you, they didn't see it, but you see it. You see Christ. Don't
lose sight of Him. Don't lose sight of Him who gave
His life for you. You're His. You're His precious
possession, His precious people, His peculiar people in whom He
is revealed. and in whom you now glory and
rejoice in Him." So Christ not only fulfilled the scriptures
in His coming, but He did fulfill all the will of God. God's will
for you is that He would be gracious to you. Don't fear the things
that go on and the troubles that are there. They come. They have
their purpose. They serve their purpose. You
are blessed in them in that they cause, they drive you to Christ
and cause you to lean upon your Savior and to breathe out, Lord,
help me. Save me, Lord. Remember me. He keeps us ever looking to him. Even through great trials and
difficulties, Faith is revealed in those things in you that are
the Lord's, because He keeps you looking to Him. The will
of the Father is that God will be gracious to you. He says in
John 5.30, I can of my own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just because
I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which sent
me. John 639, this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. Well, that required his
sacrificial death as our substitute. So that when the time came in
Luke 22, Christ kneeled down and he prayed, saying, Father,
if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thine, be done. He came fulfilling the will of
God His Father for you. And we know that that will of
the Father included that it pleased Him to bruise Christ for your
sake. It pleased Him to sacrifice His
Son that you should have life. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. So that we read in Galatians
1.4 Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us
from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father. It is the will of God that Christ
was sacrificed for your sins, that you might know him and be
blessed of God to call upon him and be heard in that day of temptation,
that day of trouble, that day when we're all brought to see
that we are but mortal flesh and don't have life of ourselves,
of our own hand, but that we need him and we're dependent
on his grace. And all we have is nothing in
us but the faith which he gives us to look to Christ alone. That's his gift to you. That's
the will of God that Christ has accomplished for you. And so
we see that our Savior ratified for us that covenant of grace.
Turn over to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. And we'll look at verses 31 through
34. This is what our God has accomplished
for us in Christ. He says, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant, that covenant of law and works that I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them
out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although
I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know
the Lord. For they shall all know me, from the least of them
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." So what did
Christ accomplish? Christ accomplished the salvation
of His people by being made a sin sacrifice for them. To put away
their sin so that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. It's all of grace. accomplished
and established in the blood of Christ. I pray that the Lord
bless your hearts and keep you delighting in seeing by faith
the Lord Jesus Christ and that what he accomplished, he accomplished
for you. He gives that to his people by
faith. So look to him, trust him, believe
him. Amen. All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. your tenderness, your love. You're
doing all things well, even when we are in darkness, even when
we don't see or understand or misunderstand and get things
wrong. Lord, we're thankful that you
are God and you do all things well. Thank you for your son
and for providing him that even through our enmity and through
our darkness and in the midst of our foolishness and folly,
you've established the covenant of grace, that you may be gracious
to us. And in the appointed hour, Lord,
you're so kind to open our eyes and to give us faith, to behold,
to see with the eye of faith that Jesus Christ is all our
salvation. while so many perish in their
sins and die in unbelief, thinking that they're on God's side because
they see certain things. But Lord, if we have not Christ,
we have nothing. And so Lord, we ask that you
would indeed bless your people. Keep us, Lord, preserve us in
the blood of Christ. Keep us ever looking to Christ
for our salvation. ever hearing Him and being fed
of Him and taught of Him. Because Lord, without you we
have nothing. And Lord, we pray for your people.
We ask that you would heal those that are sick and unwell. We
ask that you would continue to strengthen your people that we
may gather together rejoicing in the gospel of our Savior.
And Lord, we pray also, we continue to pray for For Drew, we give
you thanks for his healing and the strength that you're giving
to him and his heart and helping him, Lord, to improve so rapidly. Father, thank you for your mercies
and blessing your people there in Jackson, Missouri and restoring
to them their pastor. We pray that you would continue
to heal and that he would be restored quickly to be able to
stand and deliver the gospel, to preach it, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Lord, we pray also for Bruce,
our brother Bruce Crabtree, and for Jo. Lord, we've heard the
news, and she is not well, and they're just trying to make her
comfortable, Lord, it's the last I heard it. Father, we pray that
you would bless that people, that you would draw near to them,
and comfort them, comfort Jo, Comfort Bruce, comfort the congregation
there, and help your people to do what we can to help them as
well. And Lord, we ask your blessings
upon them and all those, Lord, who are struggling and with difficulties
and trials and temptations and do not know what to do. Lord,
we pray that you would appear to your people and that you would
reveal to your people your grace and mercy and the glory of Christ
which has delivered us from condemnation and death. It's in his name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 137. What a day that will be, 137. you There is coming a day when no
heartache shall come. No more clouds in the sky, no
more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that
happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that
will be. What a day that will be, when
my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon his face, the one who saved
me by his grace, and he takes me by the hand and leads me through
the promised land. What a day, glorious day, that
will be, There'll be no sorrow there,
no more burdens to bear, no more sickness, no pain, no more parting
over there. And forever I will be with the
one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that
will be. What a day that will be when
my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon His face, the one who saved
me by His grace, when He takes me by the hand and leads me through
the promised land. What a day, glorious day, that
will be Thank you.