Let's begin by standing and singing
out of your soft binder the first page, number four,
Hail Sovereign Love. Number four out of your softback,
Hail Sovereign Love. Till sovereign love at first
began the scheme to rescue fallen men. Till matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with an uplifted heart, despised the mention of
His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. And wrapped in thick Egyptian
night, And fond of darkness more than light, Madly I ran the sinful
race, Secured without a hiding place. But thus the Eternal Counsel
read, Almighty Love, Arrest, and End. I felt the arrows of
distress, And found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood impugned
to Sinai's fiery Mount Typhoon. But justice cried with frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. There long a heavenly
voice I heard, and mercy's angel form appeared, who led me on
with gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On Him almighty vengeance fell
that must have sunk the world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race and thus became their hiding place. A few more rolling suns
at most shall land me safe on heaven's coast. There I shall
sing the song of grace to Jesus Christ my hiding place. If you would turn to page 45. Praise God for grace 45. Eternal love electing grace Secured
for me in heaven a place Chosen from all eternity The Son of
God by blood for me. ? The Spirit came in sovereign
power ? ? At the exact appointed hour ? ? Revealing Christ, creating
faith by soul ? ? In quicket from the dead ? It's death. ? Who I rejoice in sovereign grace
? ? My sovereign God shall have my praise ? ? Praise God for
grace, praise God for grace ? ? Sovereign, eternal saint ? Thank you. Morning, everybody. I'm going to be reading out of
Galatians this morning, chapter 5, and I'm going to pick up in
verses 11. It'll be Galatians 5, starting
in verses 11. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased? I would they were even cut off,
which trouble you. For brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even this, that thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, Take ye that ye be not consumed by one another. This
I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the
lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary,
the one to the other, so they are not, yea, they cannot do
the things that they would. But if ye be led by the Spirit,
ye are not under the law, nor the works of the flesh are manifest. which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envies, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and such like. Of
the which I tell you before, as I told you in past time, they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
For they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the
afflictions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Father, we ask for your grace
this morning, Lord. Those of us who know who we are
in the flesh, Lord, do ask for your spirit, Lord, to do what
we can't do, Lord. We look to your son for all things
in this, Lord. We pray for pastors, for all
your messengers everywhere this morning, Lord, and particularly
here that you'd give Eric the words to encourage us and bless
our hearts to look to your son, Lord. We pray that you'd open
our ears, just calm us, of the distractions that are going on
in the world, Lord, and in our personal lives. And we pray for
everyone here, Lord, and those who couldn't make it, that you'd
look after them, Lord, and give them peace and rest in their
lives. In your son's name, we pray.
Amen. Okay, brethren. This morning,
let's go to Romans 16. Romans 16. I'm gonna bring us up to our primary
text, which is verses 25 through 27, but we'll look at some key
verses here leading up to that in Romans 16. Now, the reason
I'm doing that is because much of this chapter is used to provide
some salutations and greetings to the brethren that are there
at Rome. And of note, one of those is
Phoebe, Sister Phoebe. And by tradition, it's believed,
it's understood that Sister Phoebe was entrusted with this letter. Probably one of the greatest
letters that Paul wrote here was entrusted with Sister Phoebe.
And he was writing it there at Corinth with the weight and the
burden of what he was going to face at Jerusalem when he went
there, because he would have loved to have brought the letter
himself. But the Lord so worked it that he had to go to Jerusalem
with a gift for the brethren, the poor saints there, and so
this letter is given to Phoebe, and she's entrusted. She's a
sister at the Church of Sancria, and she brings this letter to
the brethren there at Rome. And what we find is, as you go
through these, when you read this, you know, later, I'm not
going to go through all of it now, but you'll see that a lot
of the brethren that Paul speaks of are sisters in Christ, a lot
of women. And we see the important role
that men and women, what they accomplished here in the church
for us today, how many men and women sacrificed their own lives
for you and I to have this precious gospel, to have this letter that
is so instructive and so helpful to our understanding of the gospel
and what Christ accomplished for us. And so we see the Lord
used not just men to preach the gospel, but women who ministered
and laid down their lives that you and I have this gospel that
we have today and that we rejoice in. And then he speaks of a husband
and a wife named Priscilla and Aquila. And Paul calls them my
helpers in Christ Jesus. And he says in verse four, speaking
of Aquila and Priscilla, he speaks of them of those who have laid,
who have laid, who have for my life laid down their own necks,
right? They put their necks, their lives
on the line for Paul, and we know one of them was it would
seem that it was their business of tent making that they allowed
Paul to work in. And they made room for Paul and
allowed him to work with them so that he could minister the
gospel without having to take from other churches, such as
the wealthy church of Corinth. They did that and probably many
other things, making sacrifices for him. And he says, unto whom
not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
And so we see there, the Lord teaches us, us ministers, right,
to be thankful and appreciative for the brethren, for you who
give so much and do so much for us. Right. And caring for us
and that the Lord's given you a heart to see the gospel go
forth and, and, and to send it forth, right? You provide for
a pastor here and, and, and I'm sure that you're mindful for
other churches and other pastors or, or widows and those who have
needs, right? You think of them as well. And so we show our appreciation.
And in the same manner, you show your appreciation for me. And
I know some churches where they think, you know, don't ever say
thank you to the pastor. And I'm not looking for that.
But it's nice to show your appreciation, one, for another, right? If my wife makes me a nice meal
and I know the Lord's the one who's provided the means by which
we have the food and things like that, but I still thank her for
the meal and for her labor of love in that, right? It would
be kind of cold and selfish not to thank her for that sacrifice
and what she does. And so we show our appreciation
to one another, right? And many times I'm blessed by
The things that you brethren, you know, you share. I'm thankful
to the men who lead the singing. I'm thankful to you that read
the word and pray. It touches me. It means a lot
to me. And I'm thankful for all those
things, right? The labors in the back, the watching
the kids, the doing the Bible classes. That's a blessing to
me. And it's a blessing to your brethren,
right? Whether we say it enough or not, it is a blessing. And
so we show, we see here, it's good to show appreciation. Paul
showed, the apostles showed appreciation to people who sacrificed for
the gospel's sake. All right, then in verse 16,
Paul encourages the brethren to salute one another with an
holy kiss. And especially in European societies,
or probably even Middle Eastern societies, they show their affection
with a kiss. One kiss on the cheek, or two
kisses, one on each cheek. And sometimes even go one, two,
three, back and forth. And we don't necessarily do that
too much here in America. And I'm not saying that we need
to do that. But again, it's just cultivating
that warmth and affection, right? Whatever it is that's accepted
in your culture, you do those things which cultivate that warmth
and affection because I know for myself, it's real easy to
get cold and distant and to separate yourself and cut yourself off
from one another. And Paul says, don't do that.
When you come together, be warm. and hospitable and encouraging
to one another, and you care for one another. And then he
gives us a warning about those who would separate and divide
us, and this is primarily with doctrine, right? People that
love to slice and divide the word to such a manner that it
just cuts everybody out of their lives. Right? I think the saying
is, you know, everybody's lost except for you and me. And I
ain't so sure about you either. Right? Cause that's how we can
get. Cause you never find anybody that sees everything the way
you see it and, and agrees with everything. Or maybe we're just
going through different things. And sometimes I read the word
and I, it touches me in a certain way. It's always Christ, but
sometimes I see it in a certain light, depending on what I'm
going through. in life there, and I see it in a new light,
glorifying Christ my Savior and what he's done for me, right?
And then he encourages us in that obedience that's worked
in our hearts by the gospel, right? And he then assures us
of the defeat of all our enemies, verse 20, declaring the God of
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly, And then he
says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. And then he repeats it again
in verse 24, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
all, amen. And actually, if you go back
to chapter 15, verse 33, he says, now the God of peace be with
you all, amen. And the old writers, they call
that a valediction, meaning the act of bidding farewell. And
he bids farewell three times. And I can't help but think that
he's burdened. He's really thinking about what
he's going to face there in Jerusalem for the sake of the gospel. He gets it. He knows. I mean, they say to him a couple
of times as he's traveling down to Jerusalem, warning him that
he shouldn't go to Jerusalem. And they said that in the spirit.
But he feels it, he knows that it's going to be trouble and
he would love to be the one to deliver this letter directly
to the Romans himself and just go and visit them and spend that
time knowing that he's going to be received by the Brethren
at Rome, but he's not so sure what he's going to face there.
among the Jews and among those even that profess to believe
on Christ in the Jewish church there at Jerusalem. And so he
bids them three times. It's like when you're leaving
a family member or someone you're close to, you ever do that where
you say goodbye multiple times, right? You say your goodbyes,
you get out to the car and then something draws you in and you're
still saying goodbye and you say goodbye a few times. That's
what it's like. He's saying goodbye a lot of times here. Well, that
brings us up here to our primary text, and it's a doxology, right? It's an expression of praise
of God. And these words, they belong
to Christ, our Savior, as God, right? This is our Lord and Savior
as the everlasting God who's working and implementing his
will in the earth for you, brethren, for your salvation, his glory,
and your salvation. And so he's sovereignly commanded
his gospel. What we see in this doxology,
this praise of him is that he as sovereign, everlasting, almighty
God has determined to send his gospel forth that it might go
and reach you, wheresoever you are scattered throughout the
world and gather you sheep together into one fold that you might
know him. and rest in him, and love him,
and know that you are loved of the Lord himself, all right?
So I titled this, The Doxology of Romans. And I'll have three
divisions. And the first one is declaring
the gospel, all right? Declaring the gospel. And then
we'll see this mystery revealed, and then why this gospel is sent,
right? Why the Lord has determined and
commanded this gospel to go forth. All right, now, we're commended
to the grace of Christ, all right? The grace of Jesus Christ be
with you all, amen. We're commended to this grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ because it's the Lord Jesus Christ that
keeps you, all right? He's the one providing for you,
whether you feel the warmth of that, all the time or whether
you distance yourself from it, it's the grace of Jesus Christ
that is keeping you and providing all things for you. In verse
25, Paul starts out saying, now to him that is of power to establish
or establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of
Jesus Christ. And that word establish, it's
because it's our Lord The gospel is our foundation. It's what
we stand upon before the true and living God. It's the reason
why we don't wither and are destroyed before him. It's because it's
a gospel of grace that goes forth, ministering to our hearts and
makes us able to stand before our God, to behold him and to
love him and to rejoice in him. And Paul says it's my gospel. my gospel, and what he means
by that is this is the gospel that I preach. This is what the
Lord has given me to minister to you brethren, and this is
what I believe, he says. This is what the Lord's revealed
to me and given to me to give to you. It's what he's determined should
be our food, our comfort, and our hope. He preaches it by the
authority and the power of Jesus Christ for the obedience among
the nations, the obedience of faith among the nations, right?
And the reason why Paul preached this and the reason why we continue
to preach this gospel to this day is because this was the commission
of our Lord to his apostles, which is what they told the church,
this is what you preach. This is what we are to continue
to declare. All right, Mark 16, 15, and 16
says that Christ said unto his apostles, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. And he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall
be damned. And we're told in another scripture,
Luke 24, 45, that he then opened their understanding that they
might understand the scriptures. Many go forth in their own power
and in their own wisdom and their own learning and teachings and
they go and they speak of the things of God, they think. They
teach the Bible, they study the Bible, they study the word, but
unless we have the understanding that Christ alone gives to his
people, I can't direct you to look to Christ. I can speak of
moral stories, I can speak of what the Lord has put here in
the word and I can maybe, you know, bring it forth to you in
a way that's agreeable to your flesh or what you like to hear,
but without the understanding of Christ, I can't bring this
word to you with understanding. And we see that the Lord gives
his ministers understanding that they might help you to understand
the word and to behold that it's pointing to and looking to Christ. And the Spirit gives you guys
understanding so that you see, oh, this is pointing to my Savior. This is declaring His obedience. And He's the one that works that
faith in me to behold Him and to rest in His salvation, to
believe Him. Against what I see in my own
flesh, that I have no righteousness of my own. He enables me to look
outside of myself and to behold the righteousness whom he's provided
in his son Jesus Christ. And when it says there in 1625
and the preaching of Jesus Christ, it is speaking of who we speak
of, of Christ, but it's also what Christ himself preached,
right? He exposed the sham of man's
religion, the vanity of man's religion, the emptiness and the
deadness and the coldness of man's religion. He exposed that
to the Jews and that's why they hated him because it showed the
emptiness, the deadness of what they hoped in because they didn't
see Christ in all the pictures and the types and the shadows.
They saw their own righteousness and didn't behold the righteousness
of God whom he sent in his son. All right, and so we see that
our Lord began with the apostles, he commissioned them, and this
is what we've been commissioned to do, to preach Christ. All
right, now turn over to Revelation 14. Hold your place there at
the end of Romans 16, and then let's, I wanna look at two, a
couple verses with you, but at different times. So Revelation
14, meaning we'll come back to that, and then in 2 Timothy 1.
but we'll get there. We need to put a little placeholder
there then. All right, so Roman, sorry, Revelation 14, six. It says, and I saw another angel
fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people. Now this angel typifies what
we've just been speaking of. The angel typifies any minister
that God has sent to preach this gospel. The angel flying in the
midst of heaven, declaring unto the inhabitants of the world
the everlasting gospel. That's what we preach and declare
to the people. And what our Lord is showing
us is that he has set before the people, his people that he's
gathering, he's set before them an open door of salvation in
the preaching of Jesus Christ. Not an offer, but he's showing
the salvation he's provided in his son, Jesus Christ. And all
who hear and believe him They shall be saved. They shall receive
eternal life by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our Lord has commanded
us to preach this everlasting gospel here in the churches to
the people, because this is where the Lord gathers his people to
hear these promises and our sure salvation. And all the people
must hear. All people of all nations must
hear. This word, Galatians 3.8, and
the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying
in thee shall all nations be blessed. All right, so what the
Lord is showing us in the scriptures is we've got to hear this, and
he's determined that his people shall hear this gospel message. It's going to go forth. It's
going to reach the ears of his people, and his people, it shall
reach them with the ear of faith. They're gonna hear what he's
accomplished. and they're gonna hear the purpose of his salvation
there in the gospel. All right, let's look at the
next point here, this revelation of the mystery. At the end of
Romans 16, 25, it says that it's according to this preaching of
Paul, his gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, is according
to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the
world began. Now, When we speak of this mystery,
which is kept secret since the world began, it's referring,
in one sense, it's referring to the importance, this need
that we have to hear the gospel, and that our Lord is declaring
His will and purpose through this gospel, all right? Now,
why is it called a mystery? Why does Paul refer to this as
a mystery? Well, what he's saying there
is to the carnal reason of man, they don't hear what the Lord
is saying. It's not clear. It's not apparent. The spiritual life that God alone
gives to his people is not clear in the preaching of the gospel.
It's a mystery. It's unknown. When they look
at the law, they don't see that God is pointing to Christ. All
they hear is morality, good works, do this, don't do that. Do more
of this, do less of that. All they hear is work salvation. And they don't hear that the
Lord is saying we cannot save ourselves. They don't hear that
the Lord is pointing us to his son whom he sent to save his
people. And so these are spiritual things.
And the gospel is sent to us to reveal, to make known to the
people of God the hope of their salvation. It's interesting,
we know that there are clean animals that Israel in the law
was told that they could eat. And one of those, besides the
clove and hoof, was that they chewed the cud. We see a picture
there, a gospel picture, of what our Lord accomplishes in the
church. All right, he speaks to the angel
of the church of Ephesus or Philadelphia or Sardis or Thyatira, right? He speaks to them and we chew
the food that the Lord has given us as the ministers of his gospel.
And then that food is brought to you, right? To then further
break that down, right? So we chew what the Lord is showing
us here in his word that we might bring it forth. We attempt to
bring it forth more simply, more clearly. Moses spoke of the law,
and they spoke of the slaughter of the sheep, and cattle, and
doves, and all kinds of washings, and 600 plus different laws were
given to the people. But what the priesthood was supposed
to do was break that down, chew that down, and distill it to
be whole The blood of bulls and goats don't save you, brethren,
but the blood, this is pointing to the blood of Jesus Christ
who makes atonement and a propitiation for the sins of the people that
you go free from your condemnation and your deserved death because
of your sin, right? And so that's what we do through
the gospel is it's broken down to its simplest part, most digestible
part that you might hear and be fed and nourished with Christ. and be comforted in him and rest
in him. We're not to whip and beat the
people of God with the law, but to show the law is pointing to
Christ. And then he sent the prophets
who made it a little more clear. They took that and distilled
it further and made it more clear to the people. And then Christ
came and made it more clear through his preaching and through the
apostles, right? And we're just to simplify it
and show you Christ and these things. Paul said to the Ephesians
three and four, he said, how that by revelation, right? It's
a spiritual revelation. God made known unto me the mystery
as I wrote before in few words, whereby when you read, you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, right? That's our hope. Look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about, you know, we
have different customs and how we conduct services and what
we do or don't do. That's not our salvation, right? Our salvation isn't in these
things. Our salvation is in the person
of Jesus Christ. And so we look to him and what
he's accomplished. Look over in 2 Timothy 1.9 and
then put a marker there. 2 Timothy 1.9. or just stay with me there for
a couple minutes. Second Timothy 1.9, he speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ, describing him as him who hath saved us
and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. All right, so, so, Our
Lord is declaring Him in whom we are saved, and He's showing
us the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this mystery, right, as
I said, it was witnessed by the law, and the people not seeing
it, the Lord sent His prophets who declared it more plainly,
and then He sends us His apostles to make it even more clear to
us. All right, and so Ephesians 3,
5, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men
as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by
the spirit. All right, and so the Lord is
revealing to us Christ is your salvation. Christ is your all.
Look to him, seek him. Behold your salvation, brethren. Behold the servant of God, the
one whom he's entrusted your very lives to and believe him,
rest in him. Second Timothy 110, speaking
of that mystery which was hidden for so long, we see in Christ
but is now made manifest by the appearing of our savior, Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. You know, when we look around,
when we consider our own upbringing in religion, and we look at all
the many churches that are there, we see, we know what's in her
own heart. And we see the folly that's in
the churches. They, you know, they pick up
new practices when they go to a place. A man can hear the doctrine. He can learn the key verses about
those doctrines. He can learn the practices of
that body there. And then he puts it into practice,
and he thinks, this is my salvation. This is my hope. I'm one of them
now. I've been baptized. I got my
name on the membership roll. I attend the services, and they
think this is salvation. But carnal man can never see,
apart from the spiritual revelation of God, they can never see their
need of Christ's salvation. All right, we can never, natural
carnal man will never bow before God confessing, Lord, you're
all my hope. I have nothing, I have no righteousness
of my own. I'm desperate, Lord, for the
blood of Christ, for you to forgive me and receive me 100% in Christ
and Christ alone. Not my works of righteousness,
which I have done, but that which Christ has accomplished freely
for me by himself. And so many people in religion,
they wave off Christ. They say, I've heard it, I got
it, I got it from here. Don't expend any more labor on
me. I got it from here. I know what you want me to do
now. You want me to do this, not do that, and to practice
these things, and I'll stop practicing those things. And they think
that's their salvation. That's what Christ has to save
us from. That's why He went toe-to-toe
with religion when he walked the earth and the flesh, right?
He went to the leaders of Judaism. He went to the Pharisees and
the Sadducees and the most learned, and they're the ones who had
him put to death, right? Because our Lord is showing us
that religion, not just Judaism, but Christianity, right? Not
just Islam, but Christianity, as it's called, right? That we
always take that which is precious and we make it vile. We ruin
everything. So without Christ, we have no
salvation. We have no life apart from him.
So our Lord is showing to us that he's provided everything
necessary for our hope and our life and our salvation. Now,
our Lord, he overcomes our darkness. He's the one that's shining in
our hearts. He's the one that's making known
to us our salvation is accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so this doxology, it says back in Romans 16, 26, you can let
go of second Timothy now. Romans 16, 26, but now is made
manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God has made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith, right? So it had been a mystery, but
our Lord has opened it up. He's broken it down for you to
hear, right? And if it seems simple, that's
because it is simple. The Lord is showing you, look
to my son, confess him, believe on him, seek him, and you shall
find rest for your souls. You shall never be ashamed in
looking to Christ. And so it goes forth, this gospel
goes forth to all nations for the obedience of faith." Meaning
that our obedience is simply looking to Christ and He works
that obedience in us. He's the one that reveals that
faith in you, whereby you have a hope in Christ and look to
Him alone and aren't trusting your own works. Where you're
seeing Him, that's His work in you. If it seems awfully simple,
it's because He's made it simple to you. Whereas, carnal man,
it's still a mystery because he doesn't get it, he doesn't
understand, he's still looking to what he thinks he has to do
or don't do, all right? And so, our God, it says, in
these last days hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the world, all right? And so, he's showing us that
this is his gift to you. kindness to you. If it was left
to you and me, we would sink ourselves down into hell and
where we would remain everlastingly because we cannot work a righteousness
and we can't work off this debt of sin which we've accumulated
for ourselves. All right now, let's close with
why this gospel is sent to us. Well back, if you still have
your placeholder in Revelation 14, there's one other verse I
wanted to show you that this this angel flying through the
heavens with the everlasting gospel to preach to all people
under heaven, right, among all the nations. It says there in
Revelation 14, seven, that we do this, it's saying with a loud
voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment
has come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the
sea and the fountains of waters. So our God has promised that
this world has an endpoint. He's going to bring this world
into judgment. All the inhabitants of the earth
shall be brought into judgment and man shall stand before his
creator to give an account of what he has or has not done and
all those trusting in their own works As righteous as they seem,
as religious as they seem, they shall be ashamed for those works. When we stand before God, this
reminds me of when I was a child and convinced myself to do a
thing that I knew I shouldn't do, I came up with the excuse,
I was ready to tell my parents should I get caught. And as I
was standing there caught, before my parents, and the words are
coming out of my mouth, I would see then how hollow my excuse
was. And I could hear it myself, and
I knew I was going to be getting a beating for it because I knew
this wasn't as solid as I thought it was of an excuse. Well, imagine standing before
God with our excuse and thinking that I know what I'm going to
say to him, and this will speak well for me. No, it's going to
sound awfully hollow in that day. And those who trust in their
goodness, they shall be ashamed, he says. But concerning his son,
we're told that whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You that know in your flesh that
you're sinners, that you've offended holy God, He says, look to Me. And you that are looking to Him,
by the obedience of faith which He has worked in you, you keep
looking to Him. You keep confessing Him. You
keep breathing, Lord, have mercy. For the sake of your Son, have
mercy on me, Lord. Keep me. Don't let me go. Lord, have mercy upon me. He
says, you'll never be ashamed. You stand before God and Christ.
You will not be ashamed in that day. This world will come to
its end, but you have a glorious inheritance in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Though we ourselves are unworthy
sinners, he's given us all things in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
his promise to you. And that's, he gives you those
words that they be your comfort, right? Not to use as a cloak
of unrighteousness, but so that we keep hearing, Lord, this is
I need your salvation. I need your grace every hour.
Keep me, Lord, until that day when you come again and raise
me from the dead or you appear in the sky to take me home, Lord,
keep me." And the Lord says, that's your hope. That's your
salvation. That's the everlasting gospel we've been given to preach
and proclaim to every creature under heaven. And so I pray the
Lord bless you and he's gathered you here to hear that. He's blessed
you to hear that very word because he loves his people and shall
never let them go. So you rejoice in him brethren
and speak of these things and bless one another with these
things and I pray the Lord settle your hearts in Christ. Let's
close our prayer. Our gracious Lord we thank you
Lord, we thank you that you have revealed to us this mystery,
which so many do not hear or understand, but that you've made
known to us your son and shown us that he is all our salvation
and all our hope. And we have nothing to boast
in of ourselves, Lord, but you alone are our boasting and our
joy, for you have made unto us Christ, all things necessary. Our wisdom, our righteousness,
our redemption, and our sanctification, everything, Lord, is revealed
in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, keep us in the
simplicity of Christ. Keep us standing in this gospel,
this hope which you've given to your church. Lord, bless us
to Indeed, go through that open door of salvation, which you've
provided in your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray that you would call out
your sheep, which are yet in darkness, that we would indeed
look to Christ and live, and that you would keep your sheep
ever looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, help us. You know
the folly of our minds and the weakness of ourselves, and Lord,
you know. And so, We cry out, have mercy
upon us. And Lord, we pray for our brethren. We pray for those that are sick
and those that are wounded, those that are troubled, those who
are hard upon themselves, but are not looking to you. Lord,
we pray that you would cause us to ever look to the Lord and
that we would be an encouragement to one another and a help to
one another. and a comfort, Lord, even as
you are a comfort to us. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray these things, amen. Okay. What a stand and sing a closing
hymn out of your softback, 137. What a day that will be, 137. Oh. 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
by 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