Good evening. Alright, well I
was last few days thinking about a text because today is the first
day of 2020 and I was thinking of things new and the Lord brought
this text in Lamentations 3 to my mind. Lamentations 3 verses
22 and 23. This is Jeremiah, and he writes,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because
his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Now, as I mentioned, Jeremiah
is the one who wrote these words by the Spirit. And Jeremiah had
been used of the Lord as a prophet to preach and declare the word
to the people to let them know what was coming upon them, what
the Lord was doing, that the Lord was going to strip that
nation, that they weren't doing what was right before the Lord
and they wouldn't hear him. And Jeremiah witnessed how the
Lord used the enemies of the people of Judah to strip them
down. We're told that their priests
and their teachers were killed with hunger. They died of hunger. The young men and the young women
were killed with the sword and families starved to death. And the city of God, Jerusalem,
became a tributary to her conquerors. She was paying tribute to those
who conquered her. And Jeremiah witnessed all this
and he was broken. He was a broken man. And I can't
imagine seeing what he saw and how it affected him and it really,
it moved him is an understatement. But he remembered the Lord. He
remembered the Lord and he said, for this I have hope. And then
said these words, it's of the Lord's mercies that were not
consumed. That were not consumed because
his compassions fell not. Now we look around us today and
we have access to a lot of news. We have many sources where we
hear things and get news from. And people are so widely connected
through the internet and things of that nature. And we read stories that cause
us to feel horror and shame by what we read many times. And
we shudder to think, well, if this is how things are today,
what is it going to be like tomorrow in 2020 and beyond? And I was thinking, just those
who don't even know the Lord, they have no comfort. And they have no rest, no peace. But for the people of God, like
Jeremiah, who are taught by the Spirit, who are blessed by the
Spirit, they're made to know that they have hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We hope in God and trust our
Lord because of what He's provided for us in Christ. And I was thinking
about what happened to Joseph. And Joseph said to his brothers
in Genesis 50 verse 20, he said, as for you, ye thought evil. Ye thought evil against me, but
God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to
save much people alive. And based on these scriptures,
based on what the Lord reveals in his scriptures, We have to
ask, is it that the Lord uses trials and afflictions, sufferings
and sorrows to teach us, to strip us of our fleshly, earthly comforts
that we look to and hope in and trust in, that he takes these
things away from us in measure, as it pleases him to teach us
to look alone to Him who is our salvation and to know and to
see that He does all things well for our good. Understand that
the suffering, the suffering we see, the suffering we experience
is the result of sin. It's the result of sin and corruption
of man. But, we are to understand and
to know that God is in complete control. Nothing is out of his
reach. Nothing is out of his control.
And I know from talking to many people through the years that
people struggle with that. They struggle to think that God
is in control because they look about them and they see things
difficult to understand and things difficult to accept based on
their view and understanding of God and what God is doing.
And it's a trial for many people to believe that God is and that
he exists because they say, well, how can God permit the things
that we see going on about us? But the scriptures are clear.
They're clear that our Lord is in complete control of all things.
Paul, when writing by the spirit to the Romans in 828 said, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God to them who are thee called according to his purpose."
According to his purpose. Now I don't know what the Lord
has planned for the inhabitants of the earth in 2020. I don't
know what he's going to bring to pass. We've heard many things,
people have spoken about many things for many years that never
seem to come to pass or come to pass only in measure and then
different things happen. So, I don't know what the Lord's
going to do in 2020, but whatever He's pleased to do, whatever
He's pleased to bring to pass, we know that He does it in faithfulness. He's a faithful God. He's faithful
to His Word. He's faithful to His holiness
and to His purpose. And so, knowing this, knowing
these things, understanding these things, looking at what we see
and knowing the Word of God, it's a spiritual work. This knowledge
that we have in trusting God and believing God, as Jeremiah
did, that's a spiritual work. That's not something that is
natural and of the flesh. To believe God, to trust Him,
even in the face of seeing evil, that's a spiritual work of our
God. And that's how we know, like
Paul, that all things work together for good. to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. And so it is that only by the
Spirit do we read what Jeremiah wrote, knowing what he went through,
knowing what he saw and experienced, that we begin to have an understanding
of what he meant. You know, it actually says in
Lamentations 2 verse 1, He wrote, how hath the Lord covered the
daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from
heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not
his footstool in the day of his anger. So, Jeremiah saw and understood
that the Lord was working this. The Lord was behind these things.
The Lord directed and determined for these things to be done for
the good of his people. All right, our title is Great
is God's Faithfulness. Great is God's Faithfulness.
And we'll have three divisions. First, we'll look at God who
is faithful to save. Because if we understand how
that the Lord saves his people, that it is apart from our works,
apart from things that we do or don't do. If the Lord is faithful
to save his people, then we can see and understand Well, if he
did all this, apart from my wisdom and my knowledge and what I'm
doing or not doing, if he did this, then truly he is in control
of all things. He really is. And then we'll
see how that faith comes through the new birth. faith through
the new birth. And I want us to see the necessity
of the new birth because it's by the Spirit, it's by the new
birth that we read and understand these things because many people
have a Bible. Many people go to different churches. Many people call themselves Christians,
and yet how few look at the word of God and understand it with
a spiritual understanding and knowledge, trusting the Lord,
believing that God is in control, doing all things according to
his good pleasure, according to his purpose. And then we'll
close with seeing our need of grace. our need of grace, because
when we understand that we ourselves are sinners, that we ourselves
are not saved because of any goodness in us, but because of
God's good pleasure, then we see, then we're broken and brought
to see and confess, Lord, you do all things well. I don't understand
what's going on. I think it should have been like
this, or I think it should have worked out that way, but Lord,
you did it this way. And we begin to see by the Spirit,
how that the Lord unfolds and is doing all things right and
well before us. Okay, so God faithful to save. Now, we spoke of those who love
the Lord. And those who love the Lord,
they're taught the perfection of God. They're taught to see
that God is perfect. He's holy and right and just
and all that he does. And the Lord's people, The Lord's
people don't speak like the people of this world. In Zephaniah,
Zephaniah 3, 5, we read that they confess that the just Lord,
the just Lord will do no iniquity. He will not do iniquity. God
is not going to sin. We're not going to charge God
with sin. And so, with all the sorrows,
all the afflictions, all the corruption about us, we know
and understand these are the result of man's sin. Man is the
one who's corrupt. Man is the one who's doing those
things which are bringing about sorrows and sufferings upon himself
and upon those about him. So it's all due to our flesh.
And the child of God stops blaming God and sooner takes sides with
God even when it's against himself. Even when we see that God is
just and I'm not. God doesn't owe me anything.
He doesn't have to do anything for me. And if I were to die
and wake up in hell, God would be just to put me there because
I'm a sinner. by nature. I have nothing to
boast in and glory of before God. And so we see, like the
Lord declares that we're sinners, we'll take sides with God, even
if it's against ourselves. Because the Lord teaches us that. He shows us our need of Him. Listen to Nehemiah 9, verse 33. Nehemiah 9.33 says, Howbeit thou
art just in all that is brought upon us, for thou hast done right,
but we have done wickedly. A child of God will confess that,
will say, Lord, you're right. You're just in all that you do.
What can I say to you? Even Eli said that, right? When
he heard what the Lord had purposed to do by Samuel, he said, it's
the Lord. He can do as it pleases Him.
And who am I to speak against Him, even though it's not in
my favor? He's the Lord. He can do as it
pleases Him. And so a child of God will speak
righteous judgment. Righteous judgment. Even our
Lord said that to the Pharisees in the day that He healed a man.
righteous judgment. Judge righteously. Just because
it's the Sabbath day and I've healed a man, I've done that
which is good and right and healed a child of Abraham on this day
and you judge me because of that? Judge righteous judgment. So, what makes a person a child
of God? How does a person become a child
of God? How do they love God and know
Him and trust Him and believe Him like we see in the scriptures,
how the people of God speak and trust and believe the Lord. And
I want to look at this because this is the root of our salvation. Is salvation of man or is salvation
of the Lord? Does man save himself and qualify
himself for salvation or is it the Lord that saves us? And the
Lord who rises for us and provides salvation for us. Is it of man
or the Lord? Well, in Psalm 3.8, the psalmist
tells us that salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. And he says, thy blessing is
upon thy people. The blessing of God is upon his
people. And so the design and the work
of salvation It's all of the Lord, and it's all for His people. And it's this knowledge, it's
this understanding that gives the people of God a comfort.
A comfort. A comfort knowing that though
I'm not in control, though I can't make things happen the way I
would make them happen, the way I think they should happen, yet
my God is in control of all things. And that's a comfort to the child
of God. It's a comfort because it's peaceful, because we don't
know all things. We would do this, and the Lord
does that. And when the Lord does that,
it's for the good of his people. And we would have missed that
entirely. And so, we understand that we're
saved in the covenant of grace. It's by the grace and the mercy
of God that we're saved. And this covenant was established
by God, with God, the Father and the Son, communed with themselves,
determined to save a people. To save a people by grace, apart
from any works that they do, and he saves them in Christ.
I'd like you to turn over to Ephesians 1, and we'll look at
a few of these verses. Ephesians 1, and let's look at verse 3, because
this is a good foundation to understanding the salvation of
the Lord for his people. Ephesians 1 verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so the first thing
we understand is that all the blessings that we have, these
blessings are founded in Christ. They're not founded in us. They're
not rooted in us. They're not rooted in our behaviors,
our actions, what we do or don't do. They're founded in Christ. The Lord blesses his people with
spiritual blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. so that our blessing
in God is not something that we've earned or that we maintain. It always continues in Christ. It began in Christ and it continues
in Christ. And so, by reading that we should
understand, stop looking at what you're doing. Because we get
so moved so easily in turn by our feelings when we do this,
when we should have done that, and what we think we should have
done with the expectations we put on ourselves. We're looking
at that to find comfort and peace, and there's no comfort and peace.
If you happen to do what you think is right, you might feel
a little peace for a while, but the next thing you know, you're
back doing something that you now say, ah, I did it again. Here I am back again, and we're
troubled, and there's no peace. And when we're looking at ourselves,
we're like a troubled sea, and just sloshing around, kicking
up the mire and the dirt. But when we look to the Lord,
and we hear his word and he promises, all that look to my son shall
have peace. You'll have nothing to fear and
worry in that day. All your sins are put away for
those who look to the son because he's the one who accomplished
salvation for his people. Now, well, let's look at verse
four. Next we see that it's according
as God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Now there's a lot just in that
statement alone. God chose his people before the
foundation of the world, which means that it's before we did
anything good or evil that God chose a people. It was before
the foundation of the world. That we should be holy, and without
blame before him in love." Now as I was thinking about this,
I was reminded of what our Savior said to his disciples. Before
he went to the cross, the Lord in John 15 verse 16 said, Ye
have not chosen me, I have chosen you. But I have chosen you and
ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit. That's
what Christ said to his disciples before he went to the cross.
And so the Lord's people, who are disciples, those that follow
the Lord Jesus Christ, they follow him according to his choosing. We didn't choose him first, he
chose us first. And we follow him because he
chose us. And that as the fruit of the
spirit as the fruit that we bring forth it's the fruit of the spirit
because it's according to his ordination he ordains the fruits
that we shall bear in his kingdom in the body of Christ now let's
continue in Ephesians 1 5 we'll see this having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of His will." It's His will. It's according
to His will, not according to my choosing Him, not according
to what I've done, neither good or evil, but according to His
good pleasure, as it pleased Him apart from me. And that assures
us that salvation, the beauty in that is that it assures us
that salvation isn't in anything that we do or don't do. It's of the Lord that we hear
his word and are put into the body of Christ. It's as the Lord
told his disciples before his death. He has ordained us that
we should go and bring forth fruit. He's purposed it and we're
going to do it. We're going to bring forth fruit
in the Lord. Now look at verse Ephesians 1,
6. It will be to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace. And that's why the scriptures
are so abundant in their speaking of grace. It's of grace. Apart from works, it's grace. Because it really isn't based
on what you or I have done. But the fruits that we must bring
forth in his kingdom, we shall. Because it's ordained of him,
he's purposed it by his spirit, he shall bring these things forth
from us so that we are fruitful in his kingdom. When people hear
this for the first time, they often think, well, am I one of
the elect? Am I one of the elect? I mean,
am I chosen of God? How do I know if I'm chosen of
God? And they get worried, and that's where their focus is.
But really, the question is, do I love the Lord? Do I love
the Lord? Even though I hear this, even
though the Lord is in control of all things, and I'm not in
control of all things, but he is. Do I yet love the Lord? Do I take sides with the Lord,
even though it might be against myself, or do I say, no, Lord,
I won't hear what you say in your word, and side with ourselves
and those that love not the Lord? And so the question is, do we
love the Lord? Are we gonna charge God with
sin and folly, or are we gonna believe what the Lord is showing
us in his word that the just Lord will not do iniquity. He does what is right. Let's
see this. Turn over to Romans, Romans 9. Romans 9, and we'll pick up in
verse 11. All right, verse, Romans 9, 11. Here
Paul is speaking about or looking at the time of Rebecca and Isaac,
and she was pregnant with Jacob and Esau, and it says in Romans
9, 11, for the children, being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. So that salvation is a calling
of God, and it's a calling according to his good pleasure, according
to his purpose. It was said unto her, to Rebekah,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. And what he's saying there is
that I preferred Jacob above Esau. I determined, you know,
according to man, the elder is the one who is served by the
younger, but according to God, he said, No, I've preferred Jacob
above Esau, and I'm pouring out my blessings upon Jacob, and
Esau will not receive my blessing. And so that's what God said.
And what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is there a charge that we can bring against God and say,
that's not fair, Lord, you can't do that? You can't do with your
own, what you created, what you've purposed to do, you're not allowed
to do that? Can we do that? Well, Paul answers it and he
says, God forbid. No, we can't, we can't charge
God with sin. We can't say, Lord, you're not
right for doing that. Four, verse 15, he sayeth to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, verse
16, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy." It's not of us, it's not of our free
will, because no man, by his free will, bows before God. No man is willing to confess,
by nature, is willing to confess, Lord, you're just, you're right,
and I'm wrong. And whatever you say goes. That's
not our nature. And it's not of our works that
we do. It's not of him that runneth.
It's not dependent, as the Jews had done, looking to the law,
trying to work a righteousness. It's not going to be sufficient.
It's not a righteousness which the Lord will accept because
it's full of corruption and sin and darkness. And we come short. We come short of the glory of
the Lord. And the issue with man's free
will, the issue with man's free will is that He doesn't have
a free will. He doesn't have a free will.
None of us has a free will. Our will is bound in sin and
darkness. When Adam sinned, we sinned in
Adam. And Adam died, in that very day,
he died spiritually. So that there is no spiritual
light in him. There is no goodness. And we
come forth of his corrupt seed, which is in darkness, in bondage,
in sin, in prison, in unable, to free ourselves and to work
a righteousness whereby God will receive us. Look over at Ephesians
2. Ephesians 2, going back there, and this is why I say that man
doesn't have a free will. I'm speaking about his spiritual
nature. There's no spiritual nature in
man. There's just a carnal nature
And man, in Ephesians 2 verse 1, Paul, writing to believers,
writing to the church at Ephesus, says, and you hath God quickened,
made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And we know
that when a person is dead, they can't do anything. They can't
do anything, right? When the Lord went to Lazarus'
tomb, the Lord called Lazarus and gave him power, and then
Lazarus rose up and came forth by the voice of God. By the voice
of the Lord, that's how he was quickened and made alive. He
didn't come out of his own will. Wherein, and this is what he
means by dead and trespasses and sins, verse two. wherein
in time past he walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That's
all of us. We're of that lump of children
of wrath. We came from a lineage of disobedience,
a corrupt seed in Adam. That's where we all were when
the Lord purposed, when the Lord called us out of that darkness.
So who makes the difference? Is it man or is it God? Is salvation
of man or is salvation of the Lord? Look at verse four. It
tells us, but God. but God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us. And don't minimize those little
pronouns like us and we and our and theirs. It's very specific to who the
Lord is speaking to. Verse 5, even when we were dead
in sins, just like all the others in Adam, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are
saved. Look at verse 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that, that faith, not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. Look at verse 10, for we
are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. And it's just like the Lord when
he was speaking to his apostles in John 15, 16 when he said,
I've ordained you that you should go forth and bear fruit. Same
thing here in Ephesians 2, 10 where his workmanship created
in him, ordained unto these good works to bear this spiritual
fruit of faith and trust and love to the Lord. It's all His
work in us to bring forth these spiritual fruits, though we didn't
deserve it. It's of His grace and mercy.
All right, now this is a good time to talk about the fruit
of faith, right? That the fruit of faith, it's
an ordained fruit by the Lord. And this is our second point,
faith through the new birth. So faith, what I'm saying here
is that faith is not a product of man's flesh. It's not a product
of our dead, corrupt flesh that we have to bring forth, otherwise
we cannot be saved. Because if it's of our flesh,
then man is the one who's saving himself, right? He's getting
himself saved. So, if that's man's contribution,
because that's what a lot of religion teaches us, is that
faith is your contribution to jumpstart the engine of salvation,
right? You gotta pull that cord with
your faith to get the engine going so that you can now be
saved. And so, what we're saying, if
that's how we, if that's what we believe and what we say, we're
saying that God's hands are tied. unless we let him save us. And
do you hear how backwards that is, how upside down that is? That makes man God, and man the
one who determines whether or not he's going to be saved according
to his good pleasure, rather than what the Lord reveals in
the Word, that it's his good pleasure that saves. It's his
choosing whom he will to save. And there's, you know, out of
that, out of taking that and teaching that faith is of man,
that that's man's part in salvation, that's saying that Christ's blood
was shed for millions that are now in hell. And some have gone
so far as to say that hell is a testament to the failure of
Christ to save his people. And that's, we don't talk like
that. The scriptures don't speak like that. Hell is not a testament
to Christ's failure. That's all those who have no
part in the Lord. Because the Lord is successful. He's a successful Savior. He
was raised from the dead because He successfully put away the
sins of His people. Their sins are all put away in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we rejoice in
Him and give Him all the praise and the glory. But if faith is
your work, if faith is my work, and I'm saying, no, no, no, no,
no, faith is my word, then I'm calling God a liar. I'm saying
the Lord is a liar and I'm taking sides with the serpent in the
garden, right? Because the serpent said to Eve,
you shall not surely die. You shall not surely die. Even
though the Lord said in the day you eat of that fruit, Adam,
you shall surely die. And Satan said, he shall not
surely die, but he's a liar, because we died spiritually in
Adam in that day, so that we can't bring forth any spiritual
fruit. We have no spiritual light. There's
nothing good in us whereby we are recommended to God. It's
all of His mercy, His grace, His love for His people, that
he sent his son to lay down his life to put away their sins.
So, faith in God is a spiritual work. Paul told us, we're dead
in trespasses and sins. We're not going to do anything
spiritual that pleases God. And that's why Christ said to
Nicodemus, ye must be born again. To be born of Adam's seed alone,
that corrupt seed, doesn't have anything there whereby you're
going to be saved. There's nothing in it where you
can save yourself. You must be born again, because
we're natural born sons of Adam, of his corrupt seed. We have
to be born of the incorruptible seed, which is Christ's seed.
We must be born of the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit." That's John 3, 6. So, what comes from Adam
is of the flesh. And we know in Romans 8, 8 that
they that are of the flesh cannot please God. We can't please God
in this flesh. But, he says in John 3, 3, Verily,
verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
He cannot see the Kingdom of God. So, you that see the Kingdom
of God, you that see what Christ has done, because, and you see,
I'm the sinner, I can't save myself, there's nothing I can
do to work a righteousness. That's why He sent His Son, and
His Son is perfect, holy, righteous, has successfully accomplished
salvation for His people. The Lord declares this to us.
You that hear that, and believe God. It's of the Lord. It's His work. You're saying,
God, You are true. You are just. You are right.
I'm the liar. I'm the weak one. I'm the sinner.
I'm the one who can't save myself. But You've provided everything
necessary for salvation in Your Son. Lord, I believe. You see the Kingdom of God. That
is a testament to the work of God in you that brings that forth,
that shows you your need of Him, that you can't save yourself,
that you believe the Lord. If you want, you can turn over
to 2 Thessalonians. I'm going to read two verses
in 2 Thessalonians that bear this out, that show that faith,
it isn't our faith that makes us born again. but we believe,
we have faith, because we're born again. Faith is the product
of the Spirit. Faith is the product of being
born again, so that by grace, we're born of His Spirit, then
we bear those spiritual fruits such as faith. All right, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13 to 14, and notice the words that Paul uses here
when he's speaking to the church in Thessalonica. He says, we
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because, this is how we know those who are beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through, how do we know that he's chosen anyone
to salvation? Through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. They've been set apart. In spite
of what we do, in spite of what we think we should have done,
the spirit separates us apart. The spirit causes us to hear
that gospel and to believe it. Look at verse 14. Whereunto he
called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Because many heard it and didn't
believe. But there were some that heard
it and believed in spite of all seeming likelihood they believed. and they followed the Lord and
they clung to the apostles and followed them even against their
own livelihood and their own lives. So we give God the glory
and our mouths confess, Lord, this is of your work. It's not
of me. This is something that you do
for your people as it pleases you. Like Jeremiah, we take sides
with the Lord, and we confess, Lord, it's a mercy that I'm not
consumed and blown away, but you in mercy have brought me
low on myself to look to you and confess, Lord, you're just
and right, even though I suffer in the flesh. All right, so let's
close with our last point, which is our need of grace. If you
recall, the text was Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. which said, it's
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his
compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great
is thy faithfulness. So, when we look at our works,
we look at our words and our actions and our deeds, we see
what sinners we are. We know the foolishness of our
thoughts and the foolish ideas that we have of God how quick
we are to glory in self rather than glory in the Lord. And it
was the Lord, God, who sent Judah into captivity. He's the one
that sent them into captivity. And the Lord slew many with hunger
and the sword. And Jeremiah recognized that
the grace of God was yet seen in all that toward his remnant,
toward the remnant of the people of God. And just as Jeremiah
saw it in his day, and all the prophets saw it, so Paul saw
it in his day, and it's so in our day. And Paul said in Romans
11 5, even so then, at this present time, there, time also, there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. all throughout
all ages there's a remnant according to the election of grace. That's
those who are the Lord's and they will be stripped. They'll
be stripped of their vain confidences. The Lord will take from our hand,
because we come from that body of disobedient children
and children of wrath, the Lord will strip from our hands those
vain idols whereby we trust in and have confidence in the things
that we've created for ourselves The Lord will take them from
our hands and bring us low in self, make us base, make us the
unwise, make us the offscouring of the world, if that's what
he's pleased to do, but he'll bring us low so that we hear
his word and that we are made ready to hear his word. He's
gonna teach us. He's gonna make us to know the
things of God and how the Lord saves his people. You know, when
Paul was writing to the Galatians, I'm sorry, to the Philippians.
It's a Gentile church, not the Jews, but to the Gentile church.
He said, we, we that believe Christ, we are the circumcision.
We're the circumcision. They were never circumcised in
the flesh, but they were circumcised in heart. And he said, we are
the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit. and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The Lord brings
us to that. He's the one that teaches us
to have no confidence in our flesh. And that's not an easy
thing. If you're like me, you know that.
it's very easy to have confidence in the flesh, very easy to have
confidence in our own wisdom and our thoughts and to think
that we do what we want to do, but faith, we're brought to see
that faith is the gift of the Lord, it's His gift, whereby
we believe the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and
believe it's for me. He did that for me. I need it. I can't, I'm never going to be
able to stand before God righteous and holy and accepted in Him
except Christ's blood covers my sin. Except He washed me clean
of all my guilt and shame. And this He accomplished when
He of His own will bore my sin and went to the cross willingly
and laid down His life as my substitute and the substitute
of all His people. put away their sin once and for
all successfully by himself. And so the Lord's going to bring
us to see just how small we are. When you hear these doctrines,
when you hear the Lord, what He's done to save us, God becomes
God. He's great. And we become nothing
and small and minuscule in our own sight. And so the question
then isn't whether or not I'm one of the elect, right? Usually
some people, when they hear it and they don't like this, they
always take sides with those that are not of the elect. They always assume that they're
not elect. They don't hear it. saying well maybe the Lord is
being merciful and has stripped me down to nothing so that I
had no confidence in myself that I might find my all in him and
stop trusting in me and my works because even in dead religion
I knew all the right things to say but it was a mercy of the
Lord to strip me because I really was trusting in my righteousness.
I really was trusting that I could seek the Lord because I was trying
now. I put away this, and I put away that, and now it was okay
for me to seek the Lord and call myself a Christian. That's where
my hope was, until he smashed that and still showed me, in
spite of all that works of righteousness that I thought I was doing, I
was still trusting in myself, still believing in me and just
slapping the name of Jesus Christ on it and saying it was his work
even though it was my work. And so the Lord took that away.
He has to take that away and he takes that away from his people
according to his good pleasure in his time. So the question
isn't whether or not we're one of the elect, but am I? Are you a helpless sinner? Is
there a sinner in the house? Is there a sinner here who cannot
save themselves, that needs the righteousness of God, which He
has freely and abundantly provided in His Son, Jesus Christ? Are
we able, do we just need a little help to push us over the top?
Thanks, Jesus, I got it from here, and I got this now. Or,
do we need a complete salvation, a complete Savior, from beginning
to end, first and the last, the Alpha, the Omega, the author
and the finisher of our faith, that we need a complete Savior. Because this is why the Lord
came. He wouldn't have come if we could have saved ourselves,
He would not have come and did what He did. But because He came,
we know we cannot save ourselves. And so, those who are brought
to see their need, that's who the Lord is calling, that's who
the Lord has gathered together to hear His gospel, to hear what
His Son has done, that they might rejoice in God. and stop rejoicing
in themselves. If he leaves you to your religious
confidences, then I've got no comforting word for you. But
if he strips you, if he's broken you and destroyed your religion,
your religion of the flesh, if you need his grace, then I have
all the words of comfort for you, because that's what the
Lord does for his people. He breaks them of all their self-confidences
and all their confidence in the flesh and their righteousness
and brings them to nothing that we might find our all and all
in the Lord Jesus Christ." And then we understand, then we understand
what Paul was saying to the Romans when he said, and we know that
all things though I've been broken and troubled and gone through
many afflictions and sorrows and tribulations and things never
worked out the way I thought they should have worked out.
But I know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. And so we understand then that
it's God's faithfulness that took all these things away and
revealed his grace of the grace that he gives to his people in
Christ. And I'll close with this one
verse in Acts 13, 48. It says, and when the Gentiles,
right? Paul was preaching to the Jews
and the Jews got to the point where they didn't want to hear
this anymore. And it says, when the Gentiles heard this, they
were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were
ordained to eternal life, be lead. They were ordained to that
fruit of faith, and they believe they bore that fruit of faith
by the Spirit. So I pray the Lord will bless
that word to your hearts and to know that whatever comes upon
us in 2020, the Lord's good. The Lord is good, and He's gathered
His people together and blesses them with the gospel in the Lord
Jesus Christ to feed them and to keep them, though the rest
of the world doesn't want to hear it, We freely preach it,
we'll freely preach it to any that will hear it, but how few
are brought and made to want to hear it and to need to hear
what the Lord has done for his people in Christ. So I pray the
Lord will bless that word to your hearts. All right, let's
pray and then we'll close with a hymn. Our gracious Lord, we
thank you, Father. We thank you for your mercy and
your grace in your Son, Jesus Christ. Yet Lord, we see what
sinners we are, how helpless we are, and unable to work a
righteousness. But Lord, you have been pleased
to bless us with your gospel, to call us with the gospel of
your Son, Jesus Christ, though we do not deserve it, though
we've done nothing to earn your favor. Yet Lord, in your mercy,
in your kindness, you broke us and brought us here to need your
salvation, to need what you have provided freely and abundantly
in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
indeed bring this word home to our hearts. We pray that you
would bless us and give us life, spiritual life, by the seed of
your Son. And Lord, that you would cover
us in his righteousness, wash us in his blood, and make us
to stand alone in him. and having no confidence in the
flesh. And Lord, we pray that you would bless us with your
spirit, that we might know these things and understand these things
more and more, as you are pleased to reveal them to us in your
Son, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we
pray and give thanks. And Lord, we also pray for our
brethren who are sick and suffering those with colds and flus and
pneumonia and other ailments and diseases. Lord, we pray that
you would keep your people, strengthen us in the Lord, help us to serve
one another and to love one another and to be a help where we can. And it's in Christ's name that
we pray these things, amen.