All right, brethren, if you'll
take your Bibles and turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 20
and 21 will be our text. Peter there is speaking of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and he says in verse 20, who verily was foreordained
for the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, by him to believe in God that raised him up from
the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might
be in God. We're going to see this morning behold and look at this resurrection
of God raising His Son from the dead and we'll see how the Lord
keeps us by faith walking in Christ, believing Him that in
Him truly God has provided all things necessary and needful
that we may stand before Him in that great day of judgment. Our title we'll look at those two words,
for you. And we'll see the glorification
of Christ in the resurrection, and then we'll look at our walk
by faith. So Christ, the provision of God,
our Father. Now many people that we know
and that we work with and talk to in our family, our friends
that we have, our neighbors, and things like that, they speak
of what's going on in this world, as though things were out of
control. And even we ourselves can get caught up in it when
we look at things and we just wonder, how can these things
be? So that even our own confidence
in the Lord, we can betray that to some degree just by how we
join in with them and the things that they say and show that we
understand what they're saying. But the reality is we know exactly
why things are the way that they are, because we know the corruption
that's in our own heart. We see the corruption of man
every day. We see it in our own hearts first,
and we see just how vile and wicked we are. So it's no wonder
that we see the things that are going on in the world the way
that they are. But I want to assure you, brethren,
that our God, our Heavenly Father, is in control of all things.
There's nothing outside of His control, nothing surprising Him.
There's nothing that man is doing that has God back on his heels
wondering, whoa, I didn't know that they would do that. Our
Lord knows exactly what's going on. Listen to the soundness of
these words in Hebrews 1, verses 10 through 12. And thou, Lord,
in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and
the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish,
but thou remainest. They all shall wax old as doth
the garment, and as a vesture, an article of clothing. shalt
thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, and thou art the
same, and thy years shall not fail." So God's not moved by
the things that were moved. He's not put out by the things
that were put out by. He's not scratching his head
wondering what's going on and what have I created. He knows
exactly what's going on. We look around us and we see
wicked men doing to wicked men that which is in their heart
to do and what they want to do. And Paul told Timothy of these
days, these perilous times in which we ourselves live, saying
in 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 5, that in the last days perilous
times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the
power thereof. So we see this to be so, but
we faint not, brethren, because of the hope that we have in Christ
Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, the God we love and serve, is
in complete control of all things, and nothing is out of hand. In
Daniel 4.35 we read, and all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And we see a perfect picture
of this in the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
where we see wicked men doing that which is in their heart
to do against the Lord of Glory when they had opportunity to
take God Himself and do to Him whatsoever was in their heart
to do. Yet we know that it was all according to the will and
purpose of God for His people. Turn over to Acts 4.25. We'll
see that. Acts 4.25. Peter and John had just come
back from the Sadducees and the chief priests and the elders
of the people, right? And they're telling them about
what has happened. And they quote, they begin to
quote David in Psalm 2, Acts 4.25, saying, why did the heathen
rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth
stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ. And then we see him doing what
the Holy Spirit has blessed us to continue to do today. They
interpret the Scripture in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, verse 27, For of a truth
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, and the people
of Israel were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy Peter declared to the people
when he was out there preaching to them in Acts 2, 23 and 24,
you can turn there as well, saying, Christ, being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that
he should be holding of it. And we have to ask, why would
God do this? Why would he allow such a hard,
thing to occur to his beloved son, whom he sent here to save
his people. Well, in Acts 5, 30 through 32,
because the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom the Gentiles
and Jews slew and hanged on a tree, him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are his witnesses of
these things. And so it was also the Holy Ghost
whom God had given to them that obeyed him. And this knowledge, this understanding,
helps us to understand when we read in our textbook, Peter is
saying there in 1 Peter 1.20, that he verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world. So that what we see, we
who have been given the Holy Spirit, and been given ears to
hear by faith, what the Spirit is saying concerning these things
is that God always purposed, from before the foundation of
this world, he always purposed to save his people, to provide
a salvation for them against that coming day of wrath which
is coming against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who hold
or suppress the truth have we ever sinned and disobeyed
God our Father? Before that ever happened, He
provided the salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
is called the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world. So do you hear it? Brethren,
do you hear what's being said to us? That if we are ever to
be saved at all, it's going to be by grace. It's going to be
by God the Father showing us mercy and grace through the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that He's provided. He is the propitiation
for our sins. He is that means of forgiveness
that God has provided for His people. Paul said to Timothy,
in 2 Timothy 1, 8 and 9, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed of these things.
This is our salvation. This is our hope. This is our
joy and our confidence that we'll be able to stand before God.
Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner. When your brethren are being
shamed and called horrible things out in the world, when they speak
against us, don't be ashamed. Don't be afraid to be grouped
with them, because we stand with Christ. That's our hope. The
world is certainly going to mock us and despise us and call us
ignorant and fools and try to move us off of that and try to
shame us or make us look like fools to others in the world.
But don't be ashamed of these things, but be thou a partaker. of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God who hath saved us, and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works." Thank
God it's not according to our works, but according to the works
of Christ. But according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world. Glorious, wonderful thought.
Peter says there in 1 Peter 1.20, who barely was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. For you. And when I thought,
when I read those words and looking at this passage, I couldn't help
but think of one of the greatest sins, maybe the greatest of all, much of ourselves. We think far
too highly of ourselves. Proverbs 21, verse 4 says, in
high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is
sin. So we think very highly of ourselves
by nature and we're quick to defend ourselves and to justify
ourselves before others and to explain away why we did certain
things that we just condemned somebody else for. the other
day. So we're very proud and very
high on ourselves. But Paul said to the Romans in
12.3, that through the grace given unto me, he said to every
man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God
hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. And I remember back
when I was a young manager of people, in my life, and I had to learn
some pretty hard lessons in being a manager of people. Thankfully,
there were some people that felt comfortable enough to give me
feedback about just my mannerisms, or the way that I said things,
or the way I asked them to do things. They didn't appreciate
it. They didn't like the way my style was. And so they said
things that were hard for me to hear, because we don't see
it. We have a perception of ourselves,
we think easy it is to offend others,
right? Like James said, let not many
of you be masters because we receive the greater condemnation.
Because we do. People look at you and they expect
certain things of you and we just don't live up to those things
far and wide. We're fallen and wicked people,
right? So we have nothing to boast in
Brethren. We don't always see what others
see when they're looking When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When he disobeyed God, we disobeyed God. We were there. He's our
seminal head, if you will. He's not just a federal head,
but he's a seminal head in which we came forth from his seed.
We had that corrupt seed in us so that that same seed that was
in him when he sinned against God, that's in us. We're sinners. We've never committed a sin in
our life, so we think, but we have. We're already corrupt. We come forth dead sinners, enemies
of God. not believing God, not wanting
to submit to God, thinking that we're free. Isaiah 64.6 declares
to us, but we are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses,
those good things, those good works that we do, not our bad
works, but all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, which is
just a that it might come home to the
heart what we are, that we should not think of ourselves more highly
than we ought to think. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away. But our God is not like
us. He's holy, just, and perfect
in all His ways. There's no darkness in Him. He
does that which is right, perfect and just all the time. He has
no sin. And we behold His glory, and
Him doing whatsoever pleases Him. No doubt you're familiar
with some of those majestic views of the prophets in the Scriptures,
right? You're familiar with Isaiah who saw the Lord in Isaiah 6,
sitting on the throne, whose glory filled the temple, and
his robe, his train it says, filled the whole temple, and
the seraphim stood there before the Lord, crying out, covering
their own eyes with their wings, crying out, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty. The earth is full of His glory. Or perhaps you might recall Daniel's
vision, what he saw of the Lord in Daniel 7, 9 and 10, where
he beheld till the thrones were cast down. The thrones were cast
down. I'm speaking of all that you
see. You see these These things going
on in the world where men seem to be in power, you have politicians
and you have bankers and you have all these other world governments
and everything going on. Those are all those thrones,
those powers and principalities. Daniel says, I beheld till the
thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days. The Ancient of Days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like
the pure wool. His throne was like a fiery flame,
and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came
forth from before him. Thousand thousands ministered
unto him. You think you have an entourage
or a posse that goes around with you? Thousand thousands ministered
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him.
The judgment was set, and the books were opened. But I want
you to turn to 2 Chronicles 18, because we often forget 2 Chronicles 18, and we'll pick
up in verse 18. And this is Micaiah the prophet. He's alive about the time that
Elijah was prophesying, being used of the Lord there. And King
Ahab is the king of Israel. And Micaiah is brought in to
prophesy, or to speak a word of the Lord, because Ahab, king
of Israel, is there, and he's brought Jehoshaphat, king of
Judah, up there, and he wants to go to war Ramoth-Gilead, the
city of Ramoth-Gilead in Syria. Why Jehoshaphat was there, I
don't know, but he was there, and they're gonna go to war.
Jehoshaphat asks, is there not a prophet of the Lord? Is there
not a prophet of the Lord here? You have all these 400 men, and
if you realize, those 400 men were probably the ones that were
slain later when Elijah called upon the name of the Lord there,
but they're there saying, king, go up to war, go up to war, you're
gonna be successful, everything's gonna go good. Micaiah comes
in there, And he says, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I
saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven
standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said,
who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, that he may go up and
fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spake, saying, after
this manner, and another saying, after that manner. Then there
came out a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I
will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith?
Verse 21, and he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, thou shalt
entice him, and thou shalt also prevail. Go out and do even so. Now therefore, Micaiah says,
behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these
thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee. Now, Ahab wanted to go out to
war. It was in his heart to go out
to war. He wanted to, and he thought he could leverage Jehoshaphat's
army, and that he wouldn't have to expend as much to conquer
Ramoth Gilead. And here's a prophet of the Lord
telling him exactly what the Lord is going to do. If you go
out to war, you're going to die, Ahab. And yet you see the wickedness
in man's own heart. He does it anyway. Goes out and
decides to go to war anyway, even though God told him exactly
what's going to happen. but he disguised himself, and
he goes out there riding around in the battle, and he thinks
he's fooled God, but it says that a certain man drew a bow
at a venture, verse 33. I imagine it's just probably
like, you know, the archers always stood in the back. They weren't
up there with the men with spears and swords. There probably was
just a cook. You know, it's like, you know, can I just try that
thing there, you know, and he grabs him, he launches it back, and
all the men laugh, you know, and they think it's, oh, it's
pretty funny, you know, look at him, and he goes back to cooking. And
there's that arrow. And it hits Ahab right in the
chink of the armor there. It hit him right where it's supposed
to. And it says, it smote the king of Israel between the joints
of the harness. It said that he died that day
before the sun had gone down. So I said all those things, brethren,
that we see that we're not able to do, like we can't even do
the things that we think you want to do, right? You set out,
you make your plans for the day, and how often those things change,
right? We can't affect what we think
should be done that day. Things happen all the time, right? You're going out to work, and
you get a flat tire, or you get into a car accident, or you think
you're going to purchase something, and something breaks down, and
now you've got to spend all that money on that thing over there.
So we can't do that, which is in our heart to do. But we see
the Lord throughout Scripture always able to do that which
pleases Him and what He wills to do. It's according to the
good pleasure of His will. And the reason why I share all
that is because we ought to comprehend what's being said here in our
text, that Christ was verily foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Don't miss the weight of those
words for you that God, our Heavenly Father, would sacrifice His own
dear Son to put away your sin and my sin. You do not deserve
mercy, Grace, who are the enemies of God by nature, that He would
sacrifice His Son for you, for you, who doesn't deserve any
kind of mercy. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son Whosoever, those believing, should
not perish, but have everlasting life. For you, brethren, for
you that he would do this thing. If God has shown you what a sinner
you are, then you know what great grace God has shown to you in
sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ, and providing His Son to die
in our place as a substitute, paying that price that I could
not pay. that for all eternity I can never
pay that debt off, but Christ did. For you, brethren, you who
believe and hope in him, he's made us righteous by the shedding
of his own blood. Romans 5, 8, and 9, but God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. So the
scriptures declare that by his death, by the death of Christ,
it's Christ that died. It's by his death that we are
reconciled to God. Christ has made peace between
God and sinful men. Those that he's called out and
shown that they are sinners in need of his grace and mercy must
be covered by the blood of Christ. Christ has reconciled us to God. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement." God's eternal plan in His covenant
with the Son was always to provide salvation for His people. It
never was a question whether it would be done or not. God
knew exactly what he was doing because he does all things by
purpose, according to his purpose. As it pleases him, God does it
for you. So then, now brethren, we who
have the privilege to be able to stand before the sheep of
God and declare, saying that as ambassadors for Christ, as
though God would be seated by us, Be ye reconciled to God,
as He's provided the reconciliation, He's provided the Son who put
away, successfully put away the sin of His people. For He hath
made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. So, brethren, rejoice
and look to Christ. Look to the stronghold that God
has provided for His people, the Lord Jesus Christ. leading
to Christ. There, in Christ, is salvation. He is the propitiation, the means
of forgiveness for his people. Third, glorification of Christ
in the resurrection. Back in our text, 1 Peter 1.20-21,
This same Jesus of Nazareth, Christ of the living God, verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God.
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. The resurrection of Christ is
a critical point to our hope. It's a critical point to our
faith and that which we believe. The resurrection of Christ is
the beginning of his exaltation. That God exalted his son, Jesus
Christ, and it begins with him raising him up from the dead.
The exaltation of Christ is this, in a nutshell, that God raised
him from the dead, And then Christ ascended up into heaven, and
then Christ there, he's that one where it says that no man
was found worthy to open that book that was in God's hand to
execute his eternal plan. No man was found in heaven, but
then there, suddenly, behold, one as a lamb who had been slain,
the Lord Jesus Christ is there, he takes that book, and now Christ
is seated on the throne of God his Father, with God the Father,
in his throne, he's opening those seals, Executing the plan of
God's eternal plan of salvation and setting up the kingdom of
God here on earth. That's Christ seated there now.
And then the final point of his exaltation is when he returns
again, this time without sin, without means, but in power and
in might to destroy all the enemies of God and to redeem that which
he's purchased with his own blood. So that's the exaltation of Christ.
And the apostles were very consistent in pointing out the fact of Christ's
resurrection to all those that they preached to. In Acts, well,
you see Peter, right? Every time that Peter preached
to the Jews, you see it over and over again, that he declared
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see in Acts 2, Acts 3, Acts
4, Acts 5, everywhere he's preaching, he proclaimed that Christ was
raised from the dead. And then in Acts 10.39, when
he's speaking to Cornelius, the Gentile, he says it again in
Acts 10.39, we are witnesses of all things which he did, both
in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and
hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third
day and showed him over. And it wasn't just Peter who
did it, but Paul himself also preached. And when he preached,
he declared the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was there
in Antioch of Pisidia, and he's talking to the Jews, and there's
a lot of Gentiles around as well, listening to what he's saying.
And in Acts 13.32, we declare unto you glad tidings, how that
the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled
the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus
again, as it is also written in the second psalm, thou art
my son, this day have I begotten thee, so that we see Jesus Christ,
the firstfruits of God. Meaning that Christ is the first
man ever to be raised from the dead, never to die again. You
might think of Lazarus or Jairus' daughter. You say, well, they
were raised again, but they died again. And they went into the
grave and they saw corruption. But Christ is the first man raised
of God, never to see corruption. He's the first one. He went up
to be with God after he was raised. And as concerning that he raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption.
He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of
David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, thou shalt
not suffer, thine holy one, to see corruption. So that he's
declaring that not only was Christ raised, but he ascended up to
God his father, never to die again. For David, right now he's
gonna say, I'm telling you, David's not talking about himself. He
was filled with the Spirit of Christ and is prophesying about
Christ. He's not speaking of himself. For David, after David
had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep
and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom
God raised again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And that's what the resurrection
declares to us. God heard His Son. We are assured by the resurrection
that God heard Christ and that God accepted the sacrifice that
Christ made of Himself. That God received that so that
we are assured, brethren, there's nothing to fear. He's heard the
Son. He's heard Christ our Savior. He's received the sacrifice.
He's put away our sins. He's successful. He accomplished
the will of His Father, which He came to do. to redeem His
people, so that all who come to God through the Son, Jesus
Christ, are accepted of Him, so that Christ is our answer.
Christ is the one by whom we can stand before the throne of
holy God and have no fear and no worry, because Christ is a
successful Savior. He accomplished the work He came
to do. By Him, Paul said, by Jesus Christ,
all that believe are justified So, God has made provision for
us to be delivered from His coming wrath, His just wrath, which
is coming against the disobedience of man who sinned against Him.
He provided that means of salvation in the Son, Jesus Christ. Never
was a doubt. Never was a doubt. He provided
it in Christ. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So brethren, we see
how that God has provided all things necessary There's nothing
left for us to do. There's nothing more that we
can do. We can't perfect that which is already perfect. And
Christ has perfected his people forever through his shed blood
and being their very righteousness and obtaining for us, weaving
for us that fine linen garment of his righteousness, which is
the righteousness of the saints. That garment whereby we can enter
into that wedding where You know, that one man where the king came
in and said, friend, how camest thou in hither, seeing thou hast
no wedding garment? And he had no answer. But we
have the answer, and it's Christ who died. He's accomplished.
He's made this wedding garment, this fine linen garment of his
righteousness, whereby we may stand before God without shame,
without fear, forever and ever. in His presence. So we see that
God has provided salvation for His people through the Son. He
sacrificed His own dear Son for us. Having done that, there ain't
nothing that's going to separate us from the love of God now in
Christ. Alright? And now He calls us
to walk before Him in faith and in hope. In faith and in hope. Paul asks the following question
in Romans 3.27, where is boasting then Nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified without the deeds
of the law. So God calls us to holiness,
trusting in Christ, that in Christ we are righteous. In Christ there's
nothing more for me to do. I don't have to earn anything
before God. There's nothing more that I need
to do to please Him. What we do in looking to Him,
we want to be pleasing to Him, but we know that in Christ we
are pleasing to Him, And what we do, we're ashamed
of it, and we don't rejoice in the fact that we're wicked sinners.
But that's not our hope, neither in the things that we do or haven't
done. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have no boasting. It's not by our words, but it's
in Christ, the faithful work of Christ. So Peter says there
that our faith and our hope might be in God there. 1 Peter 1.21,
by him to believe in God that raised him up from the dead and
gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Now, we know that this flesh
is corrupt, and there's nothing good in this flesh. We see all
the time, just the wicked thoughts that Peter had to say to us,
men and brethren, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims in
this world, abstain from fleshless lusts, which war against the
soul, because this flesh is still the flesh. It's not getting any
better. It's not changed. It's not altered. We believe
Christ by that new man that he has formed in us and given us. So this flesh is corrupt. But
we believe in that new man which he has given to us, as Paul said
in Colossians, and have put on the new man which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him. us the Spirit. So the Lord has
given us the promise that our sins are forgiven, and that as
Christ rose from the dead, so we too shall be raised from the
dead, raised to eternal life, made partakers of that inheritance,
which is the inheritance of the saints and life. And not only
did He forgive us, but He adopted us and made us sons and daughters
through Christ His Son. We are sons and daughters of
our Heavenly Father, so that if We have now these promises,
as you might wonder. I know there's been times where
I thought, well, if we have all these promises of God, God has
done all these things for us, why don't we still die? Why aren't
there people who believe and profess Christ of the truth,
having the spirit of Christ, why don't they live forever?
Why do we still die if Christ has done all these things and
God has done all this for us in the Son, why do we now die?
Why is this flesh still so corrupt? and does all these awful things
for which I'm ashamed now and saddened by these things. Turn over to Romans 8 and we'll
see. Romans 8, verse 22. Romans 8, 22 it says, Paul says,
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which had the firstfruits of the Spirit, the Spirit of
Christ, the firstfruit of God from the dead, which God promised
to give the Holy Spirit to them that believed in Christ. Even
we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, waiting
for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. Christ laid down his life to
redeem it, and the scriptures say that he's given us the earnest
of the spirit as a down payment, that we might know that God,
that Christ shall indeed return to receive that which he's already
put down a down payment for. Right, I'm looking to buy a house
here, and I'm gonna have to put down an earnest, it's called,
an earnest. I have to put down some amount
of money, usually a thousand bucks, to show that yes, I am
committed to this house. away from. So I'm doing this.
So in the same manner Christ redeemed us. He purchased his
people. He's given us the earnest of
the Spirit. It's a down payment that we might
know he's coming to, he's returning to redeem that which he's purchased
already with his own blood. He's coming back, brethren. He's
not forgotten you. It may seem crazy out there.
It may seem like things have gone nuts and that man has just
overrun the will of God, but he hasn't. Christ shall indeed
return to receive that which he's purchased. why did he yet hope for? So we
still see this dying in the flesh, we see this corruption because
we believe, we walk and are saved by hope, hoping that indeed just
as God said he's done this, so he has done it. Just like those
who lived and died before the Messiah came, before the Christ
came, they were looking unto when Christ would come, believing
the word of God, so we too who can look back and now know We're also being saved by hope
and faith, waiting for Him to return again. Verse 25, but if
we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait
for it. So be patient, brethren, your
redemption draweth nigh. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we are, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. So He's given us His Spirit.
And it is discouraging when you look at your own flesh and your
own heart, but He's given us a spirit whereby we roam and
just cry out to the Lord to have mercy and to receive us and to
strengthen us in the Son, Jesus Christ. And then in 1 Corinthians
15, 26, I think it is, it says, the last enemy that shall be
destroyed. You wonder why people are dying?
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. The last
thing Christ is going to do for us is destroy death. It's already condemned. Death
is condemned already. It's done. The works are finished
on the foundation of the earth. Christ did it already. But we're
waiting in hope, believing God, trusting in Him, and the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And that's why the
Scriptures say, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.
So we rejoice, brethren, in the resurrection of Christ our Savior,
because it declares to us that Christ was heard, and it declares
to us that God has indeed forgiven us of our sins in his Son, Jesus
Christ. And I just want to close with
one verse, and our brother read from it earlier. It's John 6,
40, and it says, Christ speaking, this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone would see of the Son and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day. Rejoice, brethren. You can hope
in Christ. There's no doubt He's not a failure. He's a successful Savior, having
accomplished the will of His Father. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, Father, we thank You for the grace and the mercy that
You've shown to us in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord. We who are discouraged, downtrodden,
weak, doubting, Lord, show us that in Christ we have a rich,
wonderful inheritance, and that you've given us your Spirit,
and that you've given us faith and hope in Christ your Son.
Lord, we know that he shall return, even as he said he shall. Lord,
help us to walk by faith and trust in you, rejoicing in what
Christ has done by through his blood and shedding his blood
to put away our sins. We thank you, Lord. Father, we
thank you also for the child that you blessed Carl and Melinda
with, Lincoln Ross. We thank you so much for Lord, as many look for work,
steady work, to be able to provide for their families, to be able
to provide as the brethren have need, Lord, we thank you as you've
prospered us and blessed us in these things. Lord, just pray
that you work out all things and bringing even me down here
with my family and that we could find a house, Lord, you know,
you know. Lord, I don't even know the right
thing to do, but you know, Lord. We just ask that your will would
be done and that we would see it unfold before our eyes and
rejoice in what God our Savior has done. We pray this in Jesus'
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. We have a lunch too, so
we're hoping that after we close with the last hymn that you can
stay and join us for lunch. These ladies here are really
good cooks. We're going to sing a closing
hymn, 287, Like a River Glorious. 287. Over all victorious in His mighty
feat. Perfect credit floweth, fuller
is the reward. Oh of His blessed hand. Never foe can follow, never traitor
stand. Not a spurt of worry, not a strain
of fear, not a blast of fury, Touch the Spirit there. State of God, Jehovah, hearts
are fully blessed, Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and
rest. We may trust Him wholly, all
for us to do. I'm