Turn with me, if you would, back
to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. For a believer, for a believer, for one who has
been made to know that he is an absolute sinner in the flesh, and one who has been made to
know that the only hope of forgiveness that he could ever have before
God is if God the Father chose to have mercy on him, and if
God the Son died to redeem him. And if God, the spirit has called
him and brought him back to the heavenly fellowship, that's what
a believer believes. When we say a believer, that's what a believer believes.
He or she believes that it was God's will and God's work and
God's way. That's what a believer believes.
For a believer, and I'll just go ahead and say that's who this
message is to. This particular one is for believers. That's who I'm speaking to. For
a believer who believes the words that have proceeded out of the
mouth of God, there is no greater comfort than hearing and trusting
these words of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater comfort
than knowing by faith that He is speaking these words to me. No greater comfort. The end of
verse 20. He said, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. I pray the Lord will speak that
to our hearts. I pray he truly will. What comfort that brings, what
peace that brings to the heart. And here's the reason why. It's
because God's people know that in their flesh, we are all right
now in the flesh. And God's people know that in
their flesh, according to the desire of their own flesh and
the will of their own flesh, they know that they said to Him,
I am not with you. They know they did. All of us by nature said, I reject
you. That's hard to hear, isn't it? I want to be far away from you. I despise you. I am at enmity with you. That means I'm an enemy of you. I hide my face from you. I choose darkness over you. I choose sin over you. I choose damnation over you. I choose torment. I choose utter
destruction over you. Every single one of God's children,
I'm talking about God's children, every soul on earth, but I'm
talking about God's children. This message is to believers. Every single one of God's children
in the wickedness of their sinful flesh have cried, leave me alone. But God, who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in
sin." He quickened us together with
Christ and he said, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do
it. It's not your will be done. That's
what he said in return. It's not your will be done. It's
my will be done. I will receive you to myself. This is my will. You cannot have
your way. He said in love and in mercy
and grace. He said no. You cannot have your
way. I'm going to receive you to myself.
And I will be near to you. I will love you and I will be
your friend. I will shine the glorious countenance
of my face on you. I will bring the light of the
truth to you. I will save you from all of your
damnation and from all of your destruction and I will deliver
you from the torment and the wrath to come. To every single one of God's
people, he cries, I am with you always, even until the end of
the world. I can't help it. I just love
that. I love that. I cannot imagine
a more comforting thought than that. That is a child of God's greatest
desire. That's a child of God's greatest
desire to be with Christ. A child of God who has been given
faith and given the spirit of God and a new heart created in
that child. That child wants to be with Christ
when God, the father draws a center to Christ. He draws that sinner
by causing that sinner to fall in love with Christ. That's what
he does. That's what he does. That's the
draw. We say no man can come except the Father draws him.
That's the draw. He causes that sinner to fall
in love with Christ. God's people fall in love with
a person. They fall in love with a person. Or do you remember what it feels
like to fall in love? You remember that? Can't get anything done because
you can't stop thinking about the person, love. You remember
that? Just totally consumed. Can't get anything done because
you're too tired because you stayed up too late last night.
Didn't come home on time, love. Stomach hurts, heart aches, love,
you remember that? You just, stomach hurts. I wonder
if she feels the same way about me that I feel about her. Love. That's the draw of the heavenly
bride to her heavenly husband. It truly is. She says to him,
and she means it, you have ravished my heart. And he says to her, all that
I am, I give to you. All that I have, I give to you. I'll love you forever. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. Now, if we are sinners, saved
by the grace of God, with no hope in ourselves, and all hope
in the blood that He shed to redeem us. All hope in everything
that He gave and everything that He did to redeem us. If that's
us, then I want us to read a few verses of Scripture together.
And I want us to take some comfort in seeing and knowing that He
is with us always. Always. He always has been. He always will be. He is right
now, right now, even until the end of the world. Turn with me
first over to Psalm 23. Psalm 23, verse one says, the
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Our brother Donnie
read this at the graveside service yesterday and it blessed my heart
so much. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. That is so comforting to my heart. The Lord is my shepherd. The
Lord is with me. Verse two says, he maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters, the green pastures and the still waters of his word. Verse three says, he restoreth
my soul in him. He continually reminds me that
He's with me by restoring my soul again in Him, back to Him. Verse three says, He leadeth
me in paths of righteousness, His own righteousness for His
namesake. Now David said in verse four,
yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil for thou art with me. You are with me. He said, even though death is
all around me, and even though I'll have to walk through that
dark valley myself, if the Lord doesn't return, He said, I will fear no evil
for thou art with me. He said, that's my comfort in
it. That's my comfort in it. You're
with me. For true believers on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those who have been caused to
just cast their all on Christ and God's people know what that
means because they do. They are at an empty place. The
Lord will bring them to an empty place in themselves, by themselves
and alone and empty place where they have nothing left but to
cry, I need you. I cast my all on you. As we watch our dear brethren
pass through this valley of death, and when that very moment comes
to us, we can take comfort in knowing that our Lord has said,
I will be with you. I will be with you. The Lord
Jesus Christ is with us. We passed through spiritual death,
With him on the cross of Calvary. And because of that, he will
pass through temporal physical death. When that time comes,
he'll pass through it with us. We pass through that eternal
death with him. So he'll pass through that physical
death with us. Sometimes we call it the river
of death. Well, Isaiah 43 says, our Lord
there said, when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you. They're not going to, I'll be
with you. That brings so much comfort to know that He's gonna
be with us. In that very moment, He will
be with us. As long as He's there, there
will be nothing to fear. Nothing to fear. There will be
no sting. There will be no pain. There will be no sorrow. There
will only be joy. There will only be peace. There
will only be comfort knowing he's with me. He's with me. He's with us in that moment. Look with me if you would at
Psalm 139. Psalm 139 verse 13, it says, for thou has possessed my reigns,
thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for
I'm fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are thy works
and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid
from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance
yet being unperfect and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of
them. Now look at verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with
you. I am still with you. He is with
us in this life, the life that we live on this earth. Every
morning, every morning when we wake up, He is with us. Every morning we wake up to Him.
We wake up to His goodness. We wake up to His mercy. Every
morning when we wake up, we're still with Him. Turn with me over to Lamentations
chapter 3. Lamentations 3 verse 21. It says, This I recall to my
mind, therefore have I hope. 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. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. Our Lord is with us, not only
in death, But in this life, we live on earth every single morning. We wake up every morning to His
brand new mercy. Every single morning, brand new. Turn with me to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41 verse 10. Boy, I love
this portion. He said, fear thou not for I
am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Could
anybody use a little strengthening? He said, I will. That means he
will. If He says, I will, He will. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing. And they that strive with thee
shall perish. Thou shalt seek them and shalt
not find them. Even them that contended with
thee, they that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a
thing of not. Verse 13, he said, for I, the
Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee, fear not,
I will help thee. That is so precious. That's so precious. Verse 14,
he said, fear not thou worm, Jacob, and you men of Israel.
I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel. Our Lord is with us in all of
our afflictions, and we have so many, so many. He is with us in every one of
them. We will have to endure them. We will have to endure. But he
said, while you do, I'll sit right beside you and I'll hold
your right hand saying unto you, fear not, this is me. I'll sit beside you the whole
time saying, fear not, I'm doing this. Fear not, this is for your
good. I know you don't understand it.
But this is for your good. Fear not. This is for the furtherance
of my gospel. You keep praying that I will
call my sheep to myself. Lord, have mercy. Lord, save
your people. I'm doing it. Fear not. This is for the good of the church. And I'm going to help you through
this, and I'm going to make you glad in the end. Fear not. Fear
not. In every affliction, in every
trial that we go through, He's with us. He's with us. Even in those moments when we
don't know He's there. We usually don't. Even in those
moments when we feel like He's so far from us. Oh, He's so far
from us. He said, at all times, in all
moments, I'm with you. I am with you always, always. And He says, if you want to know
that it's so, You can hear my voice and my word. I'll keep
telling you over and over, just open my word. I'll tell you again,
I'm with you. I'm with you. To every sinner
who is in need of his savior, Christ says, because you're mine,
I'm with you always. Now look with me at Luke 23. Luke 23 verse 33 says, And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots. And the people
stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying,
He saved others, let him save himself, if he be Christ the
chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew, This is the King of the Jews. And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done
nothing amiss, without any cause of his own, only because of his
love, and because of his grace, and his heart of mercy that he
had for us. He made Himself to be with us
on the cross of Calvary. Everybody said, pull yourself
down. Save yourself. Everybody said,
save yourself. Everybody, save yourself, save
yourself. He said, no, I'm going to save
them. I'm hanging here with them. He made Himself to be with us
on the cross of Calvary. He united Himself with us in
all the feeling of our infirmities, all of our griefs, all of our
sorrows, all of our sin. He was with us bearing all that
judgment. Just like when Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego were thrown into that fiery furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar
said, I thought we threw three men in there. He said, I see
four. And he said, one of them looks
just like the Son of God. Our Lord was with His people
when they endured the fiery judgment of God. And because He was, they
have no hurt. Their garments are spotless.
They don't even have the smell of that judgment on them. Because
he burned in the furnace for them, God's furnace with them,
they all have walked out of the judgment. in perfect righteousness,
perfect victory, bearing that sweet-smelling savor of Christ,
every one of them. Our Lord Jesus Christ is with
His people in death, leaving this world. He is with His people
in life. He is with His people in affliction
and trial. And He was with His people in
their judgment. Therefore, This thief on the
cross right here said in Luke 24 verse 42, he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto
him, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. He said, because I was with you.
In all of these things, you're gonna be with me. All because
I chose to be with you. You're gonna be with me in paradise.
He said in John 17, Father, I was with them. Because of that, my desire is
that they might be with me. I was with them where they were. so that they could be with me
where I am. I honestly can't think of any
greater comfort than knowing that our Lord is
with us always. With us always, even unto the
end of the world. And when the end of the world
comes, he said, I'm with you until the end of the world. And
when the end of the world comes, That's just the beginning of
us being with Him. I'll be with you to that point, and then at
that point, you'll be with me. Pray the Lord might comfort our
hearts with those words. All right, let's all stand together.