All right now, if you'll take
your Bibles and turn with me to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 37. Ezekiel chapter 37. We'll begin
our reading in verse 18. The scripture says, And when the
children of thy people shall speak unto thee. I'm sorry, let's
go back to verse 15. I'm sorry. Verse 15, And the
word of the LORD came again to me, saying, Moreover, thou son
of man, take the one stick, and write upon it, for Judah and
for the children of Israel his companions. Then take another
stick, and write upon it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim,
and for all the house of Israel his companions. And join them
one to another, into one stick, and they shall become one in
thine hand." Now, I've entitled this message, The Covenant in
the Hand of Christ. The Covenant in the Hand of Christ. Now, if you were to go back and
read, this covenant promise that God gave Israel was in chapter
36. You go back to 36, And you could
begin that reading there in verse 21 down to the end of that chapter. And God gives His covenant of
grace. He says, I'm going to gather
Israel. I'm going to gather you and I'm
going to do this not for your sake. I'm going to do this for
my own namesake. I'm going to gather you. I will
sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. I'm going
to give you a new heart. I'll take out that heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh. I'll put a new spirit in you
and you shall walk in My statutes and keep My commandments. And He swore, He swore, He said,
I will save you from all your uncleanness. And I will be your
God and you shall be My people. Did this covenant of God fail? God swore a covenant to Israel. Did this covenant fail? No. In no wise did it fail either
literally or spiritually. What God promised to national
Israel, He gave to them physically. But more importantly, what He
promised to spiritual Israel, He did not fail to give. Israel at that time had been
destroyed. You remember the northern tribes
had already been destroyed. Judah was held captive. Yet we
know this, that God did deliver them, He did restore them as
though they were raised from the dead. But we know this, nationally,
not all of those people survived. Not all those people survived.
God swears, I'm going to save Israel. We know literally, nationally,
not all of them survived. Not all of them returned to the
land. So that we know that this covenant
is not just national, but rather spiritual. And that's why it's
important to us. If this was just a covenant to
national Israel, it would be nothing more than a history lesson.
But it's not. This is talking to you and to
me. God is swearing a covenant to
His people. You who are His. This is a covenant
God made with Himself for you. God swears. As Scripture says,
when He could swear by none higher. God looked around and said, who
am I going to swear by? I'm not going to swear by you. You ain't,
you're low. Everybody's lower than me. I'll
swear by my own name. And it's these elect God swears
to gather, who by nature were lost. It is by the blood of Christ
that these are cleansed. When he said, I'll sprinkle clean
water upon you, he's talking about the blood of Christ that
cleanseth us, John said, from all our sin. And He said, I'm going to give
you a new heart. What does that mean? I'm going to give you a new nature.
Something that wasn't there before. You had a dead nature. You had
a rotten heart. You couldn't please God. And
what God promised you is this. I'm going to give you a brand
new heart. One that cannot sin. It's amazing. He gives us a new nature. He
imparts to us the righteousness of Christ and He gives us the
Holy Spirit so that we may believe on Christ. I know the world speaks
lightly of faith. Faith is nothing more than a
decision that a man could make. Faith is much more than that.
It is a gift of God's grace. If a man believes, it is a miracle,
friends. It's not something you can do
naturally. It's something God gives. Therefore Jesus plainly
said this, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now how could he say that? Because
the covenant was established in eternity. God established
this covenant with Christ for us. Therefore Christ knowingly
is our surety. He said this, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Did this covenant fail? No, it did not fail. Christ determined. He showed you that. All of them
will come to me. In other words, I'm going to
fulfill this covenant. It's an amazing thing that God
established a covenant for our salvation and then Himself fulfilled
it. Required nothing from you, He
fulfilled all of this covenant. And because it was fulfilled
by Christ, He could plainly say this, of all that the Father
had given me, I should lose nothing. Because I'm fulfilling this covenant. I fulfill all righteousness.
I fulfill all justification, sanctification, wisdom, redemption,
everything I've done. And I'm not going to lose none.
So then now, you got the covenant in 36. God swears this covenant
to Israel. And in 37, He begins to give
pictures. God loves to give pictures. Because
we are so stupid. We need a picture. You know,
when somebody says something, man, you had to paint him a picture.
He didn't quite get it. Well, yeah, God has to paint
us a picture. Because we just can't understand
it. We can't wrap our minds around this. Scott emailed me, texted
me something this morning. Luther wrote, he said, in understanding,
we're all just as children barely able to get a syllable of a word.
Understanding grace. Understanding the Gospel of God.
What do we really know about this gospel? All I know is, I
know whom I have believed. That's what I know. I know whom
I have believed. And I trust that He is able to
keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. So
we know that this covenant of grace is all of God. And He gives
us these pictures. Now, in chapter 37, the first
picture is a miraculous picture. It's a very miraculous thing.
He takes him... This first picture, he takes
him to a valley of dry bones. He said, at the hand of the Lord
in the Spirit, he took me down to this valley, and as I passed
by, I looked at these bones. God says, go out there and look
at them. Go look at them and examine them. Tell me what you
see. He goes out there and he picks up some bones. These bones
are very dry. In other words, they've been
there a long time. These aren't fresh dead people.
These are long dead people. And these bones, they're not
all together in coffins, they're scattered abroad. He said, these bones are very
dry. And God commanded him, He said, I want you to tell them
what I tell you. I'm going to tell you, I'm going
to give you a word, and you're going to prophesy under these
bones. And so, I think about this, preaching
is an impossible task. I look at people and if they're
dead, what can I do? I imagine Ezekiel looked at his
bones and said, what in the world could I do? The simple answer
is nothing. What can I do for you? I can
do nothing. All I can do is tell you what
God said and the power to give you that is God. He is the only
one that can give you life. And I know this, as Ezekiel knew,
he said, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, Lord, you know. In other words, if you're going
to give them life, they'll live. If you won't, they won't. That's
the same way we look at preaching. Look, if God gives you life,
that's God's business. I can't do anything for you.
But yet I'm going to be like Ezekiel and just declare to you
what God said. And you know, he prophesied to
these bones. He said, tell these bones that
I'm going to give you life. Imagine speaking to bones. You
got a coffin here and that is nothing, no flesh anymore, just
bone. And you start talking to it.
Somebody would look at you and think you're an idiot, wouldn't
they? That's how men look at preachers. Fools. But I know
this, I know the power of God. And God says, I'm going to give
you life. And you know what happened? When God said, I'm going to give
you life, these bones began to shake and rattle. And they all
came together. And I like this. Bone to his
bone. You think about that. There's
a bone over here. There's a bone over there. And
somebody else's bone didn't come in. It was that person's bone.
When God saves a man, it's something personal. He saves that whole
man. He brings it together in His
providence. And so as we preach, we know
this, that what God promises to do, He will do. And what are
we to preach? That's important. I'm simply
to preach this, Thus saith the Lord. Who cares what anybody
else says? I got a lot of books back there,
and I read some of these men. And you know why I read them?
Not because they are an authority. They just might say something
better than I can say it. What they believe and what they
read in this text, If it's the books that I have, they're going
to say the same thing. They believe the same thing that
I believe. They believe the scripture. That's
the only reason I quote them is because they say it maybe
just a little better than I did. But they ain't saying nothing
any different. What are they saying? Thus saith the Lord.
What am I saying? Thus saith the Lord. That's what
we preach. And the result of this is always
the same. God will give life to whom He
will. God will give faith to whom He
will. And whom He will, He hardeneth. You got that? So then, what is
the conclusion? It's not of Him that willeth
or Him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. This is the
picture of the covenant. God swears to give some life.
When He sends them a man, He preaches the gospel to them,
and He gives them life. What He promises to do, He does. What He promises to do, He does.
Now, who then are these bones? God doesn't leave you to guess.
They are the whole house of Israel. They are the whole house of Israel.
Look at that in verse 11. He said unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. I like it when God
doesn't leave you to guess what these are. He says, this is a picture of
that covenant promise that I just made with you, that I just showed
you. I'm going to give them a new heart. I'm going to give them
life. I'm going to cleanse them of their sins. And I'm going
to manifest this by giving them spiritual life. And these bones
are the elect of God. That's who they are. The ones
mentioned in this covenant of grace. And Christ has come as our representative. He has come to satisfy the justice
of God. He has come to fulfill the law
on our behalf. So that while we were dead, He
did this. I like this because it shows
us this, that we had nothing whatsoever to do with it. He
shows us what we were while Christ was performing this covenant.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4 says, But God, who is rich
in mercy, you were dead in trespasses and sin. But God, but God, for
His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in
our sins. Now what was your state? When
Christ came, what was your state? in your sins. But what did God
do according to this covenant? He hath quickened us together
with Christ. He has made us who were dead
alive. Alive. When were you made alive? Now God purposed you to be alive
before the foundation of the world. This covenant is an eternal
covenant. He purposed that you should live even before you lived. But I'll tell you this, we were
quickened in Christ when He accomplished our salvation. You were already
made alive in Christ. But not only does He promise
it, not only did He fulfill, Your salvation while you were
dead, He also in time manifested it, didn't He? How do we know that our names
are in the covenant of God's grace? Now we know this, Christ
did save all His people. He did. The question is, am I
one of them? How may I know of my election
or of my redemption? Simply this, has he quickened
you spiritually? Has he given you life? What's the evidence of that? You go to the doctor and you
say, doctor, I'm really concerned, am I alive? I don't know. I don't know. I
think I'm dead. The doctor puts up a mirror to
your nose and there's breath. There's breath. Well, yeah, you're
alive. Puts his hand on your wrist.
Yeah, you've got a pulse. He'll put that little thing on
your finger and says, man, you've got some oxygen. It's good. 97%,
98% oxygen. By all signs, you're alive. What
is the sign of my life? It is simply this. Do you believe
on the Son of God? Faith is the breath of spiritual
life. And when the Spirit of God gets
you and makes you alive, you believe without question. Now
listen, I don't believe in myself. I don't trust myself. Matter
of fact, in this covenant of grace, you can read this, God
says, when I make you alive, you will loathe yourselves. Do you think highly of yourself?
Any believer, do you think highly of yourself? I loathe myself. But I adore Christ. I have hope only in the blood
and the righteousness of the Son of the living God. I believe
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed art
thou for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but
my Father which is in heaven. That's the sign of life. I'll tell you this, you've heard
His voice. You believe it's because you heard His voice. Jesus said,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. Now I'm preaching this morning
and you hear audibly my voice, but I'll tell you this, if you
hear His voice as I'm preaching to you, you will live. When Christ raised Lazarus from
the dead, was it a question? Lazarus, will you come forth? Does he ever ask of the dead
to do anything? Nothing. He commands the dead
to live. Lazarus, come forth. What could
he do but come forth? And when Christ says to your
heart, on me and you shall be saved. What else could happen? You will believe because you
are saved. You are saved. And that picture,
he takes those and he's got them standing there and they're all
raised up. They all got bones and skin. They don't have any
breath. And he says, prophesy to the wind. I pray that the Holy Spirit would
give life to the dead. Prayer in this matter of salvation
is one of the things that we must do. We must pray that God
would give life. And I know this. I know this.
He will give life to whomsoever He will. And then, in the end, who receives
the glory? Is there any glory in the dead
to give themselves life? Is there any glory in the messenger
who proclaimed the Word of God that gave them life? No. All the glory belongs to God.
He covenanted to do it. He did it and you benefited. All the glory belongs to God.
Now I'm going to come down to our text. I'm going to skip around
now. I've got to get down to our text.
Look at this text. Now then we're going to see something
that's not a miracle. Now that first one, wow, what
a miracle, what a thing that was that Ezekiel witnessed. But this one is a very common
picture. It's something very simple, very
plain spoken. Look, the Lord said, moreover
the word of the Lord came again to me saying, Thou son of man,
take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah. and the children
of Israel for his companions, and take another stick, and write
upon it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim, and all that are
in the house of Israel his companions. Then join them one to another
into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand." Now
God commands a prophet, you take a stick. Is this complicated? Pick up a stick. You'll take
that stick, and on that stick you're going to carve the names
of the tribes of Judah, which are Benjamin and Judah. On the
other stick, you're going to carve the tribes of Israel, the
ten tribes of Israel, and all the names of those tribes. Two
separate sticks. Then you're going to take that
stick, and you're going to put them together in your hand, you're going to
hold them together, and they will become as one stick. Now what in the world is this? This is the same as before. It
is a picture of the fulfillment of the covenant that God made
in chapter 36. It's a very simple picture. And he said this, And when you're
walking around with these two sticks in your hand, people are
going to wonder what in the world you're doing with those sticks.
Curiosity. He said, the people are going
to ask you. And He said, when they ask you, look at verse 19,
He said, saying to them, when they ask you about these sticks,
He said, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will take the stick
of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of
Israel his fellows, And I will put them with him, even with
the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall
be one in whose hand? In My hand. Again, we are faced
with this. We remember that the whole house
of Israel was comprised of two nations. Remember, there was
a division of these two nations. Ten tribes of the north and two
tribes of the south. They were divided people. But here God promises a restoration,
a reconciliation of these nations by His own hand. But we know this again. What
good is that history? That happened. That happened.
By the time Christ came, All the Israelites were reunited. If there were any left from the
tribes of the north, they were there living in Judah. But the
greater is this. This is again the picture of
the whole house of Israel. Both Jew and Gentile are pictured
here. The Gentiles are pictured by
those northern tribes. The northern tribes. Those northern
tribes, they forsook the worship of God. They went after false
gods while the Jews and those of Judah kept the appearance
of the true worship of God. So then the first thing I want
you to notice about these sticks is that a stick is dead. Isn't
that the nature of a stick? The nature of a stick is that
it's been broken off from the tree. It's been broken off from
life. In order for it to be a stick,
that's what it is. What is a stick good for? Burning. I got a bunch of sticks
in my yard. I don't bring any of them in
the house. I don't bring any of them in the house. I don't
have a fireplace. If I had a fireplace, I'd bring them in the house just
to burn them. That's all they're good for. They don't produce
fruit. They don't produce leaves. They
don't produce shade. Nothing. They're dead. And so
we by nature are no different than these sticks. Both the house
of Israel and the house of Judah, both Jew and Gentile, both are
represented here as dead, fruitless, worthless sticks. That's what
we are. I've seen some of these in the
gift shops. You go to travel a little bit, you'll see the
gift shops have these walking sticks. You know? They carve
them out. They carve them out and they
look pretty. You know, they make them look like flowers. They
make them look like animals or whatever. They look pretty! But
I'll tell you what, the nature of that stick is just like the
ugly one laying on the ground. You can fix up this flesh all
you want to. It's still nothing more than a dead stick. That's
what we are by nature. We are dead and there is no difference.
But behold the grace of God in taking these lifeless sticks
and inscribing the names of the children of God upon these sticks. The children of Israel are a
picture of God's elect and God inscribes their names. It was God's sovereign will and
purpose to take these sticks, both Jew and Gentile, and what?
In His hand, reconcile them. Reconcile them to Himself for
His own glory. Isn't that what He did with us
in Christ? Ephesians chapter 2, again. I told you I'm not functioning
on all cylinders. Hold on a second. Ephesians 2 verse 13, But now,
in Christ, you who were sometimes afar off, you are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle
wall of petition between us, having abolished in His flesh
the enmity What's the enmity? The law. Having abolished the
enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of two one new man making peace. And that
he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. You see? Can you not see the
fulfillment of this picture in that text? That's exactly what
Christ came to do. He came to reconcile both Jew
and Gentile to make one body, one church, one fold, one house. That's what He came to do. Of
these dead sticks, these worthless sticks, He had made them His
own. And so the picture, God says,
and write, inscribe into this wood the names of Israel and
Judah. Even so, in God's free grace, has He written our names
in heaven. In sovereign election, He has
particularly written down you who believe. Your name is written. You know, when the Lord gave
those disciples power over demons and sicknesses, you imagine the
astonishment of these guys. that God gave them such power
to heal and they came back and they were so excited. He said,
Lord, the devils are subject to us. Don't rejoice in that. You know
what that is? That's nothing. You know why? Judas did it. What did that prove? You see
a man, if a man comes down here and there's a dead body right
here and that man says, Get up! And the dead man gets up. What
does that prove? Nothing. That doesn't prove anything. Listen to him preach. Then you'll
know what he believes, who he believes. So that is nothing. He said this, Rejoice rather
that your names are written in heaven. You want something to
be happy about? That's something you should be
happy about. I don't know how to get on this
illustration, but it's a really wonderful one. There's a man
who was in the British military. And at that time, they had a
book of all of the service veterans in England. Their names were
written down in that book. And one guy, he heard this about
this soldier, and he came to him and he said, How do you know
your name is written there? Well, they told me it's written
there. But yeah, but how do you know? Well, every month I get
a check. And that check has my name on
it. Listen, how do you know your names are written there? Every
day I got a check. It's called faith. God gives
me faith every day. I know my name is written in
heaven. And you know how I know that? Because this faith is going
to continue. I'm going to get that check every
single minute of every single day. He's going to give me faith,
and love, and peace, and forgiveness, and joy. Big check. Huge check,
isn't it? Forgiveness of our sins constantly. And so then our names, this is
what we should take from this picture, is that our names are
written in heaven from the foundation of the world. In Revelation it
talks about those whose names are not written. It says this,
in Revelation 13 verse 8, And all that dwell upon the face
of the earth shall worship Him, worship the beast, whose names are not written in
the book of life of the Lamb from the foundation of the world,
slain from the foundation of the world. You know how you know
your name is not? Well, you worship Him. You worship
another God. You worship self. You worship
sin. You worship your will. You worship
your religion, your works. Your name is not written in heaven.
But we who worship Christ, our names are from the foundation
of the world. And listen, those won't come
to Christ, ever. But praise God that some will. You know, people
that speak against election, they're truly speaking against
salvation. If there were no election, there would be no salvation. Election is not salvation. Election
is unto it. But I promise you, everyone that's
elected will be saved. Every one of them. And if no
one was elected, guess what? No one would be saved. Because
you'd have to do something. You'd have to earn it. You'd
have to merit it. But that's not the way it is.
Praise God, there are some whose names are written down in heaven. It is all of these elect here
God promises to reconcile. How? Now this is vital. How then shall these whose names
are written in heaven be reconciled? Simply this, they will be reconciled
in the hand of Jesus Christ. Verse 19, they shall be one in
mine hand. In my hand. That hand is Christ. That hand is Christ. How then
are you reconciled to God? In the hand of Jesus Christ. Go to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. and look at verse 8, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 8.
It says, Be thou therefore not ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but be thou partakers of the
affliction of the gospel. Listen, don't be ashamed of this
gospel. Don't be ashamed of God's sovereign election, of Christ's
perfect redemption, of the effectual call of the Spirit. Don't be
ashamed of such things. And don't be ashamed of God's
preachers. Instead, take part in the affliction. When you preach
this gospel, you will be afflicted. You will be hated. And to think
any other than that is just silly. I know we have these thoughts
that, you know, why wouldn't men love this? I mean, I love
it. Why won't men love it? They won't. They'll hate it by nature. But look at this gospel that
he is preaching not to be ashamed of it. He be a partakers of the
affliction of the gospel according to the power of God. Who hath
saved us and called us with an holy calling? Which came first? Did he call you first or did
he save you first? He saved you. Because he saved you, he called
you. How did he call you? With an
holy calling. Perfect, sinless calling. Effectual calling. When he called
you, could you resist? Listen to me, if you can resist,
it's not him. When he calls you, it's effectual.
Powerful. What Paul says is the power of
God. He saved you powerfully. And He called you powerfully. Here's why, not according to
your works, not your merit, but His own purpose. That covenant,
it all refers back to that covenant. His own purpose is why He saved
you. And grace. He purposed it. By grace. By grace. Which was given us
in Christ Jesus. When? When was it given us in
Christ Jesus? Scott, when was yours given you
in Christ Jesus? This grace and purpose of God.
When? When was it? When was it? Before the world
began. That's when this grace and purpose
was given us in Christ Jesus. Before the world began. Salvation then of all the elect
of God is according to grace, power, and will of God. And look
now that God saved us before He called us. He powerfully,
affectionately saved us because He had given this salvation to
us in Christ before the world began. Now look at all of the
elect of God whose names are written, who are dead, yet whose
names are inscribed by the eternal covenant of God. and see into
whose hands we were placed. Who bears the total responsibility
of fulfilling the covenant of God? You or Christ? Is it some cooperative effort
between you and Christ? No. He said, they shall be one
in mine hand. Mine hand. The responsibility
of our salvation and the fulfillment of this covenant was given to
us in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. And when the
prophet took these sticks into his hands, these sticks were
now one. It was His strength that held
these sticks together. And look, if He lost strength,
what would happen to these sticks? If the prophet lost strength
in his hand to hold these together, what would happen to them? They'd
fall apart. They'd fall to the ground. I'm
so thankful that our salvation is not in the hand of a man.
Because man will fail. Our strength will fail. But it's
not in the hand of man. It is in the hand of Christ. He is become by God's eternal
covenant. He has become our surety. He has become our representative,
our high priest, our mediator. He has become our rock, our refuge,
our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He has become
it all. Now who made Christ all to his
elect? You? No, God made him this. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He's our surety. Our surety. You only know the
picture of this when you go to Genesis. Go to Genesis chapter
44. Look at Genesis chapter 44. And look at verse 30. You remember
that Joseph, he said, you ain't going to come get no food unless
you have Benjamin. And Jacob wouldn't send Benjamin. He said,
I'm not going to send him. If he dies, I'll die. He's the
only son I got left of the woman I loved. And Judah said this,
I'll be surety for him. I'll guarantee it. And this is
what he's explaining to Joseph in verse 30. He said, therefore
I come to thy servant, my father. and the lad be not with me."
He said, if you keep him and you don't let him come back,
seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's. If Benjamin
dies, Jacob dies. It shall come to pass, when he
seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die. And thy
servant shall bring down gray hairs of thy servant on our father.
with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety
for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee,
let me bear the blame forever. See what a surety is? A surety
when he swears if he fails. The surety bears the blame. Surety
bears the blame. He takes the full responsibility
of Benjamin. How much more Christ? Our Lord
took full responsibility for all of His elect. And so with Christ, our surety,
the question is, was He successful? If the elect were given into
His hands and by His strength they are held in reconciliation
to God, did He fail? Did He restore the whole house
of Israel as He promised? The only answer in Scripture
is yes and amen. Yes. Given to Christ, He restored
completely, and this was manifested by His resurrection and ascension. Was Christ's righteousness enough?
It was enough to God, wasn't it? God said, Behold, this is
My beloved Son, whom I am well pleased. Was His death enough? Was God's justice satisfied with
the death of Christ as our sins were imputed to Him, as our sins
were made to be His own, and God's justice fell on Him? Was
God's justice satisfied with His death? Yes. But how do you know? He rose from the dead. That's
the manifestation. God's accepted him. There's no
more sin. It was sin that killed him. It was our sin. And justice
killed the Son of God. But he was raised because there
was no more sin. There was no more sin. God raised
him from the dead. did away with all of the sins
of his people and he ascended to the throne of God. Now listen to this. I know this
is true. If Jesus Christ died for all
men, without exception, then I know this to be true, there
is no hell. Why? He was successful. If He
died for all men without exception, there is no hell because He's
successful. He's victorious. He said He's
not going to lose any. But we know this, there is a
hell. We know that many will not come to Christ. Many will
not be saved. And so then we know this, seeing
not all will believe, we know this, that praise God, some will.
because He died for those. Now Jesus plainly testifies to
this in John chapter 10. He says, those Jews, He said,
you don't believe Me. You don't believe Me. Even though
I do all these miracles, you don't believe Me. Now I'm going
to tell you why. You believe not because you are
not of My sheep. Those sticks, He looks on the
names there and He says, nope, your name ain't on here. And that's why you'll continue
in unbelief. Christ didn't represent them.
He said, you're not of my sheep. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. That's a question then, do you
hear his voice? And listen, those that hear his
voice, he said this, I know them. Yep. I know this one. I wrote his name right here.
I know him. And he hears my voice. And I
know this. They follow me. They follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life. And because they are in my hand,
they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck these
sticks out of my hand. None of them. My sheep, none
of them are going to be lost. And so have you heard the voice
of Christ? Do you follow Him? What is it to follow Him? It's
to believe on Him. It's to trust Him. It's to rest
in Him. It's to love Him. It's to love
His people. That's what it is to follow Him.
And He freely gives this eternal life to us. I like that song, we sing it
quite often. What though I cannot break my chain or air throw off
my load, things impossible to men are possible to God. Who,
who shall in thy presence stand or match omnipotence, unfold
the grasp of thy right hand and pluck the sinner thence? Who? Faith to be healed I fain would
have, O might it now be given. I believe, Lord help my unbelief,
that thou canst the sinner save and make me meet for heaven. Into whose hand was this elect
given? They were given to Christ. They
were given to Christ. And my friends, He did not fail
to reconcile us to God. He did not fail. Scripture tells
us that in Isaiah 42, not fail, nor be discouraged." You know,
any Christ that's discouraged is not Christ. Any Christ that's
just saying, oh man, I really wanted to save him, but dead
gummit. Well, that's a tricky thing. I can't save him. I can't do
anything for him. That's not Christ. He shall not
fail and He is not discouraged. We get discouraged. You get discouraged? I do. I'm easily discouraged. Well, that's good that you're
not in my hand, right? Your salvation doesn't rest in
my hand because I'm discouraged and I fail. But Christ doesn't
fail. Christ doesn't fail. He's never
failed. He's never failed. God promised in Isaiah 59, He
said that He saw there was no man and wondered why there was
no intercessor. Therefore His arm brought salvation
to him and His righteousness. It sustained Him. And He put
on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon
His head. And He put on the garments of
vengeance for clothing. And He clad with zeal as a cloak. I'm speaking of Christ who put
on the breastplate of righteousness so that He might merit our righteousness.
He put on that vengeance. In other words, He took on the
vengeance of God to save us. He was made sin so
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And so now then
the third thing is this. You see that we were the dead
sticks that God wrote our names in heaven and gave us to Christ.
You see the strength of Christ, how we were saved in His hand.
And now that He swears this, because He has reconciled His
people by Christ, He swears this in verse 21. Look at this. Go
back to your text, verse 21. He said, verse 27, The sticks
whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And saying to them, Thus saith
the Lord, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among
the heathen, and whither they have gone, and will gather them
on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will
make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel,
and one king shall be king to them all. And they shall be no
more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms
any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves
any more with their idols and with their detestable things,
nor with any of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all
their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse
them. And so shall they be My people,
and I will be their God." You're going to see this. God says,
because I reconciled them, I'm going to do this. Where are you
going to find us? Where did He find you? Among
the heathen. He found you in the places of
sin. That's all we knew was sin. We were among our detestable
gods, the gods of our imagination. And yet God says, I swear, I
will gather them. I will gather them and bring
them into the land. We once served self, We once
served the false God of our imagination, but now, now He has gathered
us. He has put His law into our hearts.
What is that law? Is it the Ten Commandments? Is
that what He put in your heart? No, that was already there. That's
on the heart of every man, isn't it? The law of God's written
on the heart of every man. That's not the law He put on
our hearts. What is the law He put on your heart? It is the
law of faith and love. That's His commandment for you
if you believe. That's His commandment. We are not antinomian. We have
a law. Our law is simply this. Believe
and love. Why do men like to make things
complicated? It's just our nature to try to muddy things up. John
says this in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 21. Listen to this. This
should do away with all thoughts of ever going back to the Ten
Commandments. Of course, the whole book of Galatians. That whole
book will tell you to stay away from the law. But in 1 John 3,
listen to what John says in verse 21. He said, Beloved, if our hearts
condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever
we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments. and do those things that are
pleasing in His sight. And then some reformed guy would
take that commandment and then he'd go, let's go to law. Just read the next verse. Don't
go all the way. You don't have to go anywhere
else. Read the next verse. And this is His commandment. Do you understand that? This
is His commandment. that we should believe on the
name of His Son Jesus Christ. Commandment number one. And number
two, love one another as He gave us commandment. He that keepeth
His commandments dwelleth in Him and He in Him. Got that? Is that complicated? Anybody
misunderstand that? No. Why? Because it's thus saith
the Lord. I don't have to refer to anybody else. There's your
law. And everyone who's in the hand of Christ, listen, that's
what He tells us in our text. He's going to gather us and we're
going to abandon our gods. We're going to abandon all that
we fought, all that we felt, all that we served. And we are
going to serve one King. One King. Who is your King? Who
is your King? Christ is your King. Christ is
your king. He said in verse 24, And David
my servant shall be king over them. David was dead. David was
dead. How in the world is David going
to be king? He's talking about David's son, David's Lord, Christ. He's going to be king over them.
And they shall have one shepherd. Now what Christ said in John
chapter 10, He said there shall be one shepherd and one foal.
Who's a shepherd? The same One that held you in
His hand. The same One that reconciled you. The One that gathered you.
That's the One who is King over you. And you know His people? I don't want it any other way.
Do you? Is there any other King you want? Well, goodness no. How about
this King? this loving King, and they shall
dwell in the land that I have given Jacob my servant, wherein
your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, and
their children, their children's children, forever." Is that talking about national
Israel? No. Those people couldn't trace their
lineage if they tried. This is talking about spiritual
Israel. And my servant David shall be a prince over them forever. This is us. This covenant is
yours. And it's forever because it is
in the hand of Christ. What a picture. What a picture. Very simple picture, isn't it?
Dead sticks. Dead nature. God wrote our names
in heaven, chose us, purposed to reconcile us. Christ came
and in His hand He reconciled us by His righteousness and by
His death, by His resurrection. And in time God fulfilled that
promise, I will gather them and they shall obey me and Christ
shall be their King. This morning is Christ your King.
Have you been gathered? I would to God that everyone
would hear His voice. That you should believe on the
Son of God and follow Him. Follow Him. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.