You're reading, right? You're reading? Do you want to
sit here? Oh, yes. We're going to start our second
service singing out of the hardback hymnal
number two, Love Divine, number two. Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art. Visit us with thy salvation. Enter every trembling heart. Breathe, oh breathe, thy loving
spirit into every troubled breast. Let us all in thee inherit. Let us find that second rest. Take away our bent to sinning,
Alpha and Omega be. End of faith as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty. Come almighty to deliver, let
us all thy life receive. Suddenly return and never, nevermore
thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above. Pray and praise thee without
ceasing, glory in thy perfect love. Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be. Let us see thy great salvation,
perfectly restored in thee. Change from glory into glory,
till in heaven Our second hymn will be number 204. 204, Turn
Your Eyes Upon Jesus. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. There's light for a look at the
Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting,
He passed and we follow Him there. Over us in no more hath dominion,
For more than conquerors we are. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying
His perfect salvation to tell Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look
full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Thank you. You may be seated.
Good morning, everybody. Good to see everyone. I'm going
to be reading this morning Second John, in chapters one. I was just thinking anywhere we
see the word truth, Christ said he's the way, the truth, and
the light. Truth means Christ. Second John, chapter one, starting
verse one. The elder unto the elect lady
and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I,
but also they that have known the truth. For the truth's sake,
which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us forever. Grace be
with you, mercy and peace from God the Father, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly that I found
of thy children walking in the truth, as we have received a
commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, Lady,
not as though I write a new commandment unto thee, but that which we
had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this
is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment
that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk
in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess
not that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh. This is a deceiver
and an antichrist. Look to yourself that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ has not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. for
he that bideth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. Having
many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper
and ink, but I trust to come unto you and speak face to face
that our joy may be full. The children of the elect sister
greet thee. Amen. Lord, we pray this morning, Lord,
you would direct our hearts to the truth, Lord. And just quiet
our distractions, Lord, that easily come up in us, Lord. And
we pray that here and everywhere your people meet, Lord, that
you'd give your servants the words to say, Lord, that you'd
fill their mouths with the words of the truth, Lord. And give
us hearts to love one another, Lord, and to walk faithfully
in love, Lord, and hope and joy and the fruits of your spirit.
In the name we pray. Amen. Okay, brethren, our text this
morning is John chapter 1. John 1, and we'll be looking
at verses 29 through 34. John 1, 29 through 34. Now, we're coming to, or we're
closing in on the fulfillment of John the Baptist's purpose. And that purpose was that he
was sent to prepare the hearts of the people as the harbinger
of Christ, the one whose very presence indicated that Christ
is now among us. And so having their attention,
he then fulfills his next purpose. having gotten their attention,
to point him out and say, this is he of whom I'm sent to reveal. This is the one I'm sent to speak
of, he says. So that was his purpose. And after he fulfilled that purpose,
it was then to decrease more and more as Christ increased
more and more because everything became about Christ. The one
who it is always about is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so John
then slipped away into that great cloud of witnesses by which we
are even now surrounded and before whom we now run with patience
the race that is set before us. So John's purpose was to manifest
Christ. There's just one problem. John
said, I knew him not. I knew him not. I didn't know
who he was there in verse 31. And so Christ had to be revealed
to John by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had to identify
who Christ is. And just as that's true of John,
that's true of us as well. If John, as significant as he
is, important and as mighty and great of a prophet as he is,
if he needed the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to him, then
how much more are you and I? We need the Holy Spirit to reveal
him to us, otherwise we remain ignorant of who Christ is. We'll remain ignorant and in
darkness to him. I've titled this message, John's
Record. John's Record. And the first
thing we'll do is we'll look at what he says concerning Christ,
the eternal son of God, that he's the eternal son of God,
and then we'll look at our knowledge of Christ by regeneration, all
right? So following the questioning
that John received by those who were sent of the Pharisees, we're
told, we'll pick up where we left off last week in verse 29,
were told that the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world." Now, today, there's many that have a knowledge of
this Jesus, or of Christ, right? And many recognize or acknowledge
that he's no ordinary man, he seems a bit different from you
and I. And to varying degrees, they
have a knowledge or an understanding of who he is. We know him as
the Word of God, the Eternal Word of God, who made the heavens
and the earth. And we know that he is the Son
of God come in the flesh. He's the incarnate Son of God. Now, around this time, we know
that many speak of Christ's coming, of His birth. And they'll say
things either carelessly or willfully false by saying that the Son
of God was born. That the Son of God was born.
Well, He wasn't made the Son of God. He wasn't born. The Son
of God wasn't born. the man was born, right? He's
the son of God come in the flesh, all right? He was made flesh.
He was never made God. He was with God and is God, right? But he was never made God. But
the word says that he was made flesh, all right? He wasn't always
a man. He was made flesh, all right?
And it's important that we take some time to reveal these details,
which many of us do know. And the reason why is because
these things are important. They're not just semantics, but
these are relevant to our understanding of who Christ is. We don't want
to be ignorant of God, nor ignorant of His Christ. And so when John
called Him the Lamb of God, it implies meaning. It gives meaning
to that statement. When He's called the Lamb of
God, that's just not a nice title or just some fancy thing to say. It has great meaning and what
it implies to us is that He's our necessary sacrifice. That apart from Him, we gain
no acceptance with God. Apart from our Lord's work and
what He's accomplished for us, we have no place before God. We are yet in our sins, we're
yet in darkness, we're yet ignorant of the truth of God and how to
worship Him, except we are covered with His blood and made alive
by His Spirit. So Him being the Lamb of God
is how we are made sinless. He is our covering. He is our
righteousness and the one by whom we are accepted, received
into the presence of God. Turn over to Romans 5. and put
a marker because we'll come back to Romans 5 all the way at the
end. But Romans 5, I just want to
look at two verses here concerning this Lamb of God and what He
accomplished for us. I want you to see it in the scriptures
so that we understand, if we forget, where we can go and look
it up and be encouraged. Romans 5, 1, therefore being
justified. Now the scriptures teach, actually
in verse 9, that we're justified by Christ's shed blood. His blood,
when He sacrificed Himself and shed His blood, it justified
us, meaning God declares us righteous, fully righteous, sufficient to
stand before Him forever, from that very moment, because of
Christ. And we're told that His death,
in verse 10, is what reconciled us to God. We're reconciled to
Him. And so because of this, well
now by faith, faith which is given to us by the Holy Spirit,
that faith which is given to us whereby we receive the things
of Christ, and faith by which we believe that He is my salvation. By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access. access by faith he's our entrance
unto the Father and so by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God and so John does his appointed
work right he does what he was sent to do to point out and say
that's him right there we may know that what has been revealed
to him that this Jesus of Nazareth is the long expected promised
Christ of God sent to save his people from their sins. And so John 1 verse 30 back in
our text there he says this is he of whom I said after me cometh
a man which is preferred before me for he was before me. Now Many people are willing to
speak relatively well of this one we call Jesus Christ. They're
willing to speak relatively well of him because they do that thinking
that, well, he's a good man. He's a good man. Some think he's
a prophet, a prophet among many other prophets, a religious figure
to be followed if that suits your fancy. To some, he's a signpost
that gives us direction, to know the general direction and vicinity
of where God is, that we can find him by our own works and
our own knowledge. And some say, well, he's our
example. He's just a good example for
us to follow. And if we do his example, we'll
be righteous. Some say, largely Catholics,
would say that, well, he died to clean the slate, to wipe away
original sin, so that now we all have a clean slate, we're
all on equal footing here, and have free will by which we can
choose to do good or evil now, and determine our destiny, whether
we're going to go to hell or to heaven by our good works.
Well, that's a lie. All those things are lies. They
all come short of the truth. Christ is much more than an example. He is our very salvation. He is the very hope of the believer. He is our confidence. He is our
faith, the one in whom we believe and trust Him. And that's because
so few recognize Him that He is the Son of God incarnate.
That He is the Son of God who came in the flesh and He is the
Lamb of God who sacrificed himself that we be saved and have a knowledge
and fellowship with our God. All right, so John's been telling
us that eternal God has come in the flesh. Go back to verse
15 there. John 1, 15. And he says, John bear witness
of him and cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that
cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me."
All right, look at verse 27, John 1, 27. He it is who coming
after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I am
not worthy to unloose. And then verse 30, this is he
of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before
me, for he was before me. All right, so He's repeated this
three times. Well, John made sure that he
recorded it three times for us to understand that Christ is
eternal. He's before me. He's not just
come on the scene. Now he's made of God the Savior. He is the Savior. He is our hope. He is the one in whom we've always
been saved. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And so, This is the one, right? He's that man, or you can interpret
that word there in verse 30. After me cometh a man, after
me cometh one. One in whom we hope, the one
in whom we've waited for since Adam's fall, right? And when
he fell and condemnation and death came upon every one of
us, being yet in Adam's loins, we died spiritually. We are in
spiritual darkness. and spiritual death. And so Romans
3.23 tells us, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And that's now, present, even now. Christ didn't just
clean away original sin, and now it's on us to make good on
what he's provided for us. No, we need all his salvation. We're never, by our own good
works, going to make a righteousness for ourselves. Jews couldn't
do it under the law, and we're not going to do it under the
law now. We're yet in our sins. We're yet in darkness, and we
need His salvation to deliver us. Right? Whatsoever is not
of faith is sin. Right? We need faith. We need
to be made alive and be given that faith by the Holy Spirit
to believe Him. So our salvation is through,
we understand and know this faith and have peace by this faith
because through that faith we see what Christ has accomplished
and we believe Him. We believe that He has done it
and brought it to fruition and that I only believe and hear
His word now because of what He's accomplished for me. All
these things in our salvation are the result of His grace,
of His riches, of His works. Now, He's holy and eternal God. The
purpose of Him being holy and eternal God is that we should
understand that His blood is not just the blood of a good
man or even a righteous man in himself, but it's He's eternal
God. And so when he shed his blood,
it's of infinite worth and value, so that it's sufficient to save
every one of his people. And we shall be saved. We shall
hear it and come to a knowledge of him. All right? Now, John
then says what's a seemingly peculiar thing in verse 31. And this brings us to our second
point, that we know Christ only by regeneration. All right, so
verse 31 says, and I knew him not. John's saying this, John
the Baptist says, I knew him not, but that he should be made
manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And so what we see there is none
of us knows the truth. I understand he's saying I didn't
recognize him until the spirit revealed him to me, but there's
a picture in that that's true, and very true of us just as it
is of John. Look there back at verse 9. Look at John chapter 1 verses
9 through 11. Because what we see, what the
Lord's revealing to us is that we're all naturally blind, naturally
ignorant of Christ, our salvation. So John 1, 9 through 11 says,
that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his
own, and his own received him not. So his own people, the Jews,
who had the scriptures, who had the law, and should have known
what the scriptures were saying, and speaking of Christ, so that
they would see him and recognize him when he came, they didn't.
They had everything, every possible help, and yet they didn't recognize
him, and they didn't know him. And the religious scholars, the
best of the best of the best, the cream of the crop there,
didn't know him either. Alright, look at verse 26, John
1 26. John said, look at the end of the verse, there standeth
one among you whom ye know not. Alright, so the Jews didn't know
him, the religious scholars didn't know him, and now John says,
I knew him not. I realize that we touched on
these same truths last week, but that's how critical and fundamental
it is to our salvation and our hope that Christ is our salvation
and that unless the Spirit of God reveal Him, give us life
and regeneration, we shall never know Him. We shall be as ignorant
as the most scholarly Jew. We'll know nothing. We'll yet
be in darkness not pleasing God in our works and in our understanding. And so it's important that we
hear this because so few in religion know. So few in religion know
Christ or believe Him or trust Him. That knowledge of Christ
and knowing Him, believing that He is my salvation, that He is
the Lamb of God, and what that means for me is of utmost importance. And it's by spiritual revelation,
which is given by God to the sinner. in grace apart from our
works, apart from our study and our diligence and all the things
that man does to try to whip up a righteousness for himself,
a good feeling, a good vibe, all the things that man thinks
he's accomplishing in religion or by his works all fall and
come to nothing before Christ. So we must hear Him. The best
thing that man can do in religion is circumcise our flesh. He can
cut the flesh, he can cut away things, he can add some things
to his flesh, but he can never, ever touch the heart. That's
the spirit of God's work. Only God can circumcise our heart. Only God can take a filthy sinner
and give him a hope and a rest and a peace with God. And that's
exactly what the Spirit does because of what Christ has accomplished
us. So religion teaches us that justification and sanctification
are tied to the things that we do or the things that we don't
do. It's all about religion and about
being good little boys and girls and doing this and not doing
that and the things that religion tells us. Grace teaches us that
salvation is of the Lord. Turn over to Titus 3. Titus 3. And let's go to verse 5 and work
our way down to verse 7 together. This is what grace teaches us,
contrary to what man and religion teaches us. This is what grace
reveals. Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness
which we have done. but according to His mercy, He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
that being justified by His grace." All right, that grace encapsulating
the shedding of Christ's blood and His death, which reconciles
us. That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life. And so what the Lord's
teaching us about grace is that we're born again. We that believe
Christ, that hope in Him and trust Him, it's because He's
given us a new birth. We're born again of His Spirit,
according to His grace. according as it pleased Him,
He chose out of people for Himself and reveals Christ to them."
All right, and so that's how we believe Him. That's how we
hear and receive Christ, is by faith. All right, and it says
actually, you know, or you might ask, but what about, you know,
doesn't the Scriptures talk about man's responsibility and what
man has to do? Doesn't John 1 verse 12, what
does that say? It says, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. Doesn't that mean that regeneration
follows our faith? Doesn't that show God responding
to something that man has done in their flesh first to get this
ball rolling? But does faith come from this
flesh? No. It doesn't. It's not a work
of the flesh. It's a spiritual work. And some
would say, well, God gives faith to everyone so that all have
an opportunity to make use of that faith. That still requires
the flesh to make good with that faith, right? And it's not according
to our flesh. It's a spiritual work given sovereignly
by the spirit, irresistibly to whom he will, and reveals that
faith in us whereby we believe and receive Christ. And that's
what he says in verse 13, that we're born of God, which we're
born, which we're born again, spiritually born, not of blood.
It's not through our parental lineage. It doesn't matter if
you're Jew or Gentile, none are born of blood, not by that. It's not of the will of the flesh. It's not by our free will. Our
free will is corrupt, it's dead. It loves sin, and darkness, and
lies, and believes any deception that comes upon us. Alright?
Nor of the will of man, meaning that your pastor can't believe
for you, I can't make you believe, and I can't believe for you.
Your brother or sister, your spouse, your mom, your dad, can't
believe for you. Your best friend can't believe
for you. you must believe, you must be born again. And that's
a work that our God does through the preaching of the gospel,
giving you light and life to behold that Christ is our hope
and our salvation. So it's not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but are born
of God. That's how we believe and hear
these things and receive Christ and trust him. All right, so
even so John didn't know him, until God revealed him to him. Now, we know that John was regenerated
from his youth. He was already born again by
the Spirit of God. He was selected by God for this
very work from his mother's womb. It says in Luke 1.15, this is
when the angel is speaking to Zechariah, John the Baptist's
daddy, Zechariah, Verse 15, the angel tells him, for he, speaking
of John the Baptist, shall be great in the sight of the Lord,
and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall
be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. So he was born again. even he
still needed the Spirit to reveal Christ to him. And that's what
the Spirit does. He gives us life and reveals
Christ to his people. And so, this picture that we
have of John here, it's to reveal Christ to us that it's all first
of his life giving, it's his regeneration, it's the Spirit's
work in us and then the Spirit reveals Christ to us. So look
at this in our text, John 1 verse 32 through 34. And John bare
record, this is John's record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending
from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew
him not. But he that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see
the spirit ascending and remaining on him, the same is he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." In other words, he gives the
spirit to whom he will. And I saw on bare record that
this is the Son of God. Now, if you wanna read that account
more, you can turn over, we're not gonna do that now, but you
can look in Matthew 3. Matthew 3, 13 through 17. All
right, if you want to see that later, he speaks more about when
Christ came to be baptized of John the Baptist, and the spirit
descended like a dove and rested upon Christ. All right, but what
I want you to see is that like John, we first must be born again. We must be regenerated by the
spirit. And what the Lord does is the
spirit rests, even to this day. upon Christ whom we preach, and
you that see the Spirit resting upon Him, declare and reveal
unto you, yes, indeed, this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ sent
of God. You that see where the Spirit
rests, you behold and say, yes, I bear witness, He is the Christ. That's why you believe, because
the Spirit rests upon Him and has revealed to you who the Christ
is, revealing faith in you, whereby you receive Christ and believe
Him and trust He alone is all my Salvation. Alright? So, that's, in that sense, yeah,
we, just like John, we had to be born again, and the Spirit
must reveal Christ to us. And He's revealed because we
look and see, yeah, what the Scriptures say, and what John
has said about Him, and what the Apostles declare, and what
I hear preached in the Gospel is true. He is my salvation. And there is no other salvation
but Christ. And that's revealed to you, but
not revealed to others. They don't see the spirit. John
was the only one at that time who saw the spirit rest upon
him and heard the voice say, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. He saw it and bear it record.
And then the others witnessed it and realized, yeah, the spirit
is with him. He is of God. He is the Christ.
I see his works and I hear his words. And I believe not because
of John's testimony, but I see he is, and I declare to you that
he is the Christ." So, what would I have you take away from this
morning's study? Well, John the Baptist is given
to you as a witness of Jesus Christ. We've been looking at
his testimony that he's given to us concerning Christ. And
then, as we go through John, we'll see the witness that the
Apostles have given. We're going to look at what John's
recorded what the Spirit gave to John to record and to bring
out to our eyes and to what we're hearing declared to us concerning
this Christ. And so we have these men, we
have all the prophets, right? And David and the Psalms and
we have Samuel and Moses and Joshua and all these things that
were recorded and written by these men that we would know
who Christ is. But the problem for us which
is the problem for all men, is that naturally we're spiritually
blind. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We can't work up a knowledge
of these things by ourselves. And so the only way that we will
see and hear and believe this is Christ, and not just a good
man, not just an example, but we'll know He's my salvation. He's my hope. I have no hope
outside of Him. He accomplished everything necessary,
even bringing me to hear the Gospel and giving me faith under
the preaching of the Gospel to hear it and believe and see the
Spirit resting upon Him. That's all His work which He
accomplished when He laid down His life for His people. That means that He's regenerated
us. If we hear Him, it's because
He's made us alive and made us to know our need of Him and of
His sufficiency for us. And so, it's through that cross
that our Savior went and died laying down His life that we
should have life in Him and know Him and not remain in darkness
and in the bondage of sin. And so He gives us His Spirit
and that Spirit applies the blood of Christ and causes us to hear
what he's done. So John knew him, being born
again, because he saw the Holy Spirit descending and resting
upon him. He saw that with Christ and knew
that's the one right there. And then he pointed him out to
us. And the apostles pointed him out to us. And all the scriptures
pointed him out to us. And when the Spirit comes upon
you, as he's done for many of you, you witness and saw Christ
descend upon Christ, upon Him. The Spirit descend upon Him and
rest upon Him. and He gave you faith whereby
you, your own testimony is He is Christ and I have no other
salvation but Him. Alright, so this is important
that you hear and know His salvation and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ because as we continue, you're promised and assured various
trials, persecutions, hardships, things that will prove and try
your faith. and the hope that you now have
in Christ. When we sit here in relative
peace and calm, it's easy to believe. But what happened to
the seed that fell upon rocks? As soon as it was persecuted
and the heat of the sun came out, it burned it up and scorched
it because it had no root in Christ. And then that seed which
fell among the weeds was choked out by the cares and the concerns
of this world. So we're assured of various trials
and persecutions that come against those who love the truth. And
those that have not the Spirit and don't see the Spirit resting
on Christ and don't believe, they're the ones that persecute
those who trust Christ. But turn back to Romans 5. I
said we'd come back there. Romans 5 And we see that, right? We know through the Scriptures
what He's accomplished, our justification and sanctification, right? Which is through His blood and
death on the cross. And by Him we have access and
fellowship with the Father. Now Romans 5.3 says, and not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience and experience hope,
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
And so we're assured, I'm just showing you that scripture so
that you realize that you that have been justified and sanctified
by Christ, we're assured of tribulations and trials and sorrows and sufferings
that will prove what God has done in His people. And so that means that this world
and the day in which we live, as we heard in the first message,
this world waxes worse and worse and the love of many grows colder
and colder and he tells us that the deception that's upon the
world is great and shall be great and they'll face strong delusion
which is given to them which will only cement them in their
blindness and darkness and they're never going to see the spirit
resting upon Christ and so I'm just pointing that out because
I want you to behold the Lamb of God, upon whom the Spirit
rests, that you believe the things which have been delivered to
you, and hold those things fast, knowing that He is your salvation,
and that apart from Him we have no entrance into the Father,
we have no hope of God apart from Christ." And so the world
will increasingly hate the truth, to the point where they become
hostile to the truth, as they were in other ages and times
past. All right, Matthew 10, 22. And
ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but he that
endureth to the end shall be saved. In other words, the Lord's
gonna keep his people believing him. We're not gonna abandon
our hope in Christ and still have a hope of salvation. He's
gonna keep you that believe, all right? He's gonna keep you.
And so, it's not enough for them, though, that don't believe to
just let us be peaceful. He says they'll hate you, right?
They'll hate the very presence of the light that you bear in
your hope of Christ, which is the testimony of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So I'm just reminding you. I'm taking the time, the
painstaking time, to remind us of what John the Baptist, the
witness he bore. And he says, I saw the Spirit
rest on him. That's the Christ right there.
And the apostles witnessed and saw the Spirit of God resting
upon him, and they testified to you and I, this is the Christ,
this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ promised of God. Look
to Him, believe Him. And the Gospel which you and
I have heard for many years now, this is the Christ. Believe on
Him. Don't listen to the deception
of the world. And as the deception increases,
and more and more the love of many grows cold, they depart
from the truth and there's a great falling away because they're
greatly deceived you know and you behold the one and whom you've
heard this faith which has been delivered to you you hold fast
the word of Christ which has been given to you right and so
James 1 12 says blessed is the man that endorth temptation for
when he has tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him Our Lord said, many are going
to come and say, I am Christ. Now some will say, yeah, I'm
Christ, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone's coming and saying,
I'm Jesus Christ. What they're saying is, I'm your
salvation. Many will come, claiming to be
your hope, and your salvation, and your confidence, and say,
listen to me. I've got the truth here. Listen to me. And Christ
says, don't go after them. There's one Christ, there's one
Savior, and one salvation. You stay upon Him. You that see
the Spirit resting upon Him, trust in Him and continue in
that hope. So, I pray the Lord bless that word and comfort your
hearts that He's given you that and showed you what many millions
and billions have never seen or believed. So, rest in that
testimony of the Scriptures, these men and the Spirit revealed
in you. All right? I pray the Lord bless
that word to your hearts. All right, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for the testimony which you've given to us in your Son,
Jesus Christ, that being alive by your Spirit, we too see the
Spirit descending and resting upon Christ, even to this day,
2,000 years later, that we know that this Jesus of Nazareth is
the Christ which you've promised from the foundation of the world
Lord, that he and he alone is our hope and our righteousness
and our salvation. And Lord, we ask that you seal
this word to our hearts because we know that in our flesh that
dwells no good thing, but that our hope is Jesus Christ in us,
the hope of glory, that he is our righteousness and our all.
Lord, we ask that you bless this word to each and everyone here,
that you help us even in the day of adversity, that tries
men's souls. But Lord, we we ask that you
would be with your people, bless them, that you would help those
of us who are sick, those of us that are struggling, those
of us that have various trials and and suffering, the things
which do come upon us in the flesh. Lord, we ask that you
would help us and that you would stir up the hearts of our brethren,
that we would indeed fellowship and serve one another in love
and joy and peace in our Savior. We ask that our love, which is
born of Christ in us, does not grow cold or that we not become
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, but that you keep us,
Lord. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray these things. Amen. Our closing hymn will be number
37, How Great Thou Art, number 37. O Lord my God, grant I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great
Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. And sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art And sings
my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art! Then sings my
soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great
Thou art, how great Thou art Yeah. I'm the creature. It's on the other side of the
aisle.