Yeah, there's a problem. Well, it's good to see you again.
It's been a while but I'm very thankful to be able to be here
and appreciate you having me. Let's turn now to Exodus chapter
6. Melinda sent her greetings to
you all and wishes she could be here. She's
with the kids, you know. Exodus 6. Let's read verse 1. It says, Then the Lord said unto
Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall
he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out
of his land. When God had brought Moses and
the children of Israel absolutely to the end of themselves, to
where they saw they had no power, no ability in themselves, the
scripture says, then, then. That's when the Lord spoke and
said, now you will see what I will do. And that's our need. We need to be brought to the
end of ourselves. And when we're brought to the
end of ourselves, where we have no ability to work it out, we
don't have any ability to do anything to fix it. No matter
whether it's our salvation or the situation or whatever's going
on, we've got to be brought to the end of ourselves. And God
says, then shall you see what I will do. What I will do. Let's just stay right there for
a minute. What I want to show you tonight, the gospel is the
message of God's name and God's covenant and God's works by which
he saves his people. That's the message of the gospel.
Every time we preach, we're declaring God's name, God's covenant, and
God's works. And this is how God saves his
people. And that's my title tonight and
my division, so it'll be easy to remember. God's name, God's
covenant, and God's works. Now first of all, the gospel
is the declaration of God's name. As soon as God began declaring
to Moses what he was going to do and what he was about to do
for his people, the way God starts this is by giving his name. He said there in verse 2, and
God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord. Now that's where he begins with
his name. Now, if you go through scripture
and look up, I am the Lord, you'll find that wherever God speaks
of His covenant works, He always attaches His name to it. Always. Look down at verse 6. Wherefore
say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring
you out. Look at verse 8. I will bring
you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give,
and I will give you an inheritance. I am the Lord. He always attaches
his name. When I was younger, my grandfather
used to tell me that when you speak to somebody and you give
them your word that you're going to do something, fulfill it. Do it. Because your name is attached
to your word. And you want folks to recognize
your name and associate it with somebody who will do what they
say they're going to do. And that's why, believers, we
want to do everything in this world, everything we say and
do, we want to do it to the honor of God because Christ's name
is attached to us. And it's His name that's at stake
when we dishonor that name. But that's why God attaches His
name to His covenant promises. His name is His glory. And God will not allow His name
to be polluted. The whole purpose of the gospel
is to declare to His people His name and have His people glorify
His name and praise His name. That's the whole purpose. And
so throughout the scriptures we find that God is going to
save with his name attached to all his works. Here, right here,
God makes a bunch of promises to Israel. Well, he brings them
out and later on, you know, they rebelled against God in the wilderness.
But he had told Pharaoh and he had told them. Everybody knew
God's promise to Israel. He delivered them out and he
promised he'd deliver them to Canaan. And Ezekiel, he said
this, he said, the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness.
But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted
before the heathen in whose sight I wrought them out. And that's what we find. God's
name is connected with all his works. And the psalmist said,
help us, oh God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name. Deliver
us, purge away our sin, for thy name's sake. Samuel, in Samuel,
is said, the Lord will not forsake his people. Why? For his great
namesake. Because it hath pleased the Lord,
and the translators could have just as well written, because
the Lord hath sworn to make you his people. He's attached his
name to it. Now what's God's name? Look there
in verse 3. He said, I appeared unto Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob by the name of God Almighty. And then he
said, but by my name Jehovah they didn't know me. But most
of the commentaries agree that that's not exactly translated
correctly, that it should be, they didn't know me as fully
as I'm revealing myself to you now. They didn't know God as
fully by that name as what he was revealing himself to Moses
and the children of Israel. Just as we know him more fully
than he revealed himself to Moses and the children of Israel. But
that name El Shaddai, God Almighty, El, God, and Shaddai, Almighty,
that tells you His power and His sufficiency to be able to
fulfill all His covenant promises and save His people and lose
none. That's what the name means. It's more than just sheer power,
it's His sufficiency. He said, my grace is sufficient
for thee. That's his sufficiency. He's
all sufficient to save his people. And that name Jehovah, that means
the existing one. That means he who is and was
and is to come. And that's who Christ is. That
he is he who is and was and is to come. That means he's always
existed as the Son of God. Look at Isaiah 40. I want you
to see this. Isaiah chapter 40. And look at
verse 9. He says there in verse 9, the
old sign that brings good tidings speaking to his church. Oh, my
church that preaches the gospel, the good news of the gospel,
get thee up into the high mountain, oh Jerusalem, that bring us good
tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength.
Lift it up and be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
what's our gospel? Behold your God. Our gospel is
God's name. Now he's going to tell us who
that name is manifest in. Look here. This is verse 10. Behold the Lord God. Now that word, capital G-O-D,
that's Jehovah. The Existing One. The Lord God
will come with strong hand and His arm shall rule for Him. Behold,
His reward is with Him and His work before Him. He shall feed
His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. That's talking about Christ.
Now right there He's talking about Him to come. He hasn't
come yet right there. He's talking about He's going
to come. That's what He's going to do. But then look down at
verse 22. He talks about Him already. existing
right now, Him who is. He said, it's He that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are
as grasshoppers. Then He talks about Him who was.
He says, He stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, spreadeth
them out as a tent to dwell in. That's what He did in creation.
And here He is again speaking about what He does now. He brings
the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth
as vanity. Look at verse 28. Has thou not known, hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, see his name everlasting. That's Christ he's talking about. He's the shepherd that gathers
his lambs and carries them in his bosom and shall lose none.
He's the creator of the earth. He's the one that sits upon the
earth and rules the earth. When God gave it into his hands,
God the Father gave it into his hands to be the mediator between
God and men, he entrusted the whole work to him. And He created,
as Colossians once said, all things He created by Him and
for Him. And He's working all these things
in this earth. It says right here, He's God
everlasting, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, and
He faints not. He doesn't faint. What does He
do, verse 29? He gives power to the faint. He gives power
to the faint. That's the only ones He gives
power to, those who absolutely have no power in themselves. And He says, to them that have
no might, He increases strength. Look at verse 31. He says there, He says, they that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength or they shall be renewed by his
strength. That's what he's saying. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not
be weary. They shall walk and not faint. You know, I had a
man write me recently. Occasionally, I'll get a question
or something and you kind of can tell sometimes, well, you
can really tell sometimes when you know it, somebody just want
to argue. And I don't fool with them, I usually reply with that
passage that says, didn't they saw how they might entangle him
in his word? That's what I usually reply with. But occasionally you get one
and you think, well maybe they're actually asking a question for
information. And so I try to answer it the
best I can and I answered this fella. Turned out he was a wheel
worker. But when I answered him, I spoke
about salvation being of God. And he wrote me back and he said,
I was just astonished that you didn't mention Jesus anywhere
in your reply. Yeah, I did. I said salvation
is of God. And that's who He is. The Lord
Jesus Christ is God. He is the Lord Jehovah. He is
El Shaddai, God Almighty. In Him is manifest the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. That's who He is. And so that's
the First thing about the gospel is we're declaring His name.
We're preaching His name. He sent forth Christ, His Son,
to declare His name. Alright, now let's go to this
second thing. Back in our text in Exodus chapter 6, the gospel
is the declaration of the covenant of God. God only saves by promise. That's what covenant means. And
the Gospel is declaring God's promise to His people. Verse
4. He's speaking here about Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. God says, and I have also established
My covenant with them. You see, first He said, they
knew My name. I made My name known to them.
And He said, and I also established My covenant with them. to give
them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein
they were strangers. God says there, I have established
my covenant. He didn't say Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob did it. He said, I established my covenant. We're talking about the covenant
of grace that he established with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And God established that covenant. He established it. God the Father
purposed it. God the Holy Spirit applies it. But God the Son, he's the one
who came and established it in righteousness for his people
on the cross, what he accomplished at Calvary. I want you to look
over at Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49. How did he establish
the covenant? First of all, he established
his covenant of redemption for his people on the cross. He took
our sin and He went to the cross and He answered to the justice
of God. And by doing so, He fully, completely
justified His people from all our sins and made us the righteousness
of God in Him. He totally fulfilled the law
for His people. And secondly, Christ establishes
His covenant in the hearts of His people. That's His glory
that God gave Him as part of God's covenant promise to Christ,
that Christ would get the glory for speaking into our hearts
through this gospel and establishing that covenant in our hearts when
He creates us anew inwardly. That's Christ's glory to do that.
We're going to look at that first thing tomorrow morning, Lord
willing. But look here at Isaiah 49.8 and we see that. Here he
says, Thus saith the Lord. He's talking to Christ here.
In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation
have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee. You know when
the acceptable time was? That's what is also in Scripture
called the year of Jubilee. Remember what happened in the
year of Jubilee? All the debts of Israel were paid. They were
just wiped clean. All the debts that they owed.
But nobody ever observed that law in the scriptures. God established
the year of Jubilee. Nobody ever observed it. Christ is the only one that did. It spoke of Christ and Christ
came and it was the acceptable time whenever Christ justified
his people, that was the acceptable time. That was the year of Jubilee.
That's when Christ wiped all the debts clean of his people,
making his people the righteousness of God in him. And when he did
that, look at what God said. This was God's covenant promise
to Christ when he accomplished that work. He said, I'll preserve
thee. He raised him from the dead.
And he said, and I'll give thee for a covenant of the people. Men will argue about the doctrine
of covenant, you know, covenant theology. It's more than a doctrine. Christ is the covenant. He said
there, I'm giving thee for a covenant of the people. The covenant is
a person. Look here, what's he do? To establish
the earth. He's talking about his people
in the earth. to cause to inherit the desolate inheritance, the
desolated heritage. What's he talking about? Christ
came to make it so that God could inherit his people who had been
desolated, his inheritance, who had been desolated by sin. Christ
came to make that make it so God could inherit them and receive
them, being made righteous and holy. And He also makes it so
you and I, who've been desolated in sin, can receive our inheritance,
Christ the Lord. That's His work. That's how He
establishes this covenant in our hearts. Look at this. Here's
His glory now. I said He worked that for us
at the cross, and He has the glory of doing this in our heart.
And this is His glory. Watch, verse 9. that thou mayest
say to the prisoners, go forth, that you might say to them that
are in darkness, show yourselves. I want you to remember that word.
We're going to see it in our text. He's the one, Christ is
the one that comes to his people and says, go forth. He's the
one that frees his people. He freed us from the bondage
of the curse of the law on the cross and he comes and frees
us from the bondage of our sin nature when he creates a new
inward man and calls us out of the prison and gives us the faith
to believe on him and rest entirely in him. Now let's go back here
and let's see, what was the covenant, what was the covenant that, the
promise that God made in that covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob? Verse 4, he says, to give them
the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein
they were strangers. Canaan is a picture of heavenly Canaan. It's a picture of glory with
the Lord. That's what Canaan typified.
God, just like He promised to give them that physical land,
He's promised to give His people eternal life with Him. John said,
this is the promise. This is the covenant that He
hath promised us eternal life. Eternal life. That's the promise.
He said, I will give you Canaan. That's the promise. Heavenly
Canaan. I want you to look at it. Y'all
don't mind turning to some scripture tonight. It keeps you awake on
a Wednesday night. That's what I figured out. So
let's go, let's look at Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6, 13. Hebrews 6,
13. We're talking about God's promise
to Abraham. You know, some of that promise
God made to Abraham was just towards earthly things, toward
what he was going to do with the natural children of Israel.
But what he spoke to him savingly, the covenant he made to him that
saved Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the covenant of grace. And
here he's talking about that right here, Hebrews 6.13. When
God made promise to Abraham, Hebrews 6.13, when God made promise
to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore
by himself. What does that mean? He swore
by his name. He swore by his name, like we
saw at the beginning. And this is what he said, Surely
blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after Abraham had patiently
endured, How did Abraham walk? By faith. He didn't have the
law. He walked by faith. After he
had endured by faith, he obtained the promise. God gave him the
promise. God brought him into heavenly
Canaan. Go with me now to Galatians 3.15. Galatians 3.15. What about the law? What about
the law? Does it affect this covenant
at all? This promise God's made to us? Go to Galatians 3.15. He says, brethren, I speak after
the manner of men. I'm giving you an earthly illustration
here, Paul said. Though it be but a man's covenant,
yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. You make an agreement with somebody
and you get a covenant with them and you confirm it with them,
nobody's going to add to that, nobody's going to take from it.
Nobody's going to disannull it. It's made. Watch this, verse
16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. God made
a covenant to Abraham and to Christ. He made a covenant to
Abraham in Christ. But watch this now, and this
I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, that covenant that He made to Abraham, He confirmed
it in Christ. And He says, the law which came
430 years after that. And you get there, it was 430
years later that God gave the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
And he says here, it came 400 years after and it cannot disannul
that it should make that promise of none effect. It can't touch
that covenant whatsoever. Look down at verse 19. Wherefore
then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions. till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made." Who did we just see the promise was
made to? Made to Christ. The law was given until Christ
came to whom the promise was made, and He came and fulfilled
the law. Look at verse 21. Is the law
then against the promises of God? Is it against God's covenant?
God forbid. For if there had been a law given
which could have given life, Verily, righteousness should
have been by the law." Isn't that interesting? He says, if
there'd have been a covenant that could have given life, then
why didn't he say, then life would have been by the law? He
said, if there'd have been a law that could have given life, then
righteousness would have been by the law. Why'd he say that?
Because life, spiritual life, is righteousness. If you have
spiritual life, if you've got a new man in you, that man's
righteous. Created in righteousness. When
did Adam die? When he sinned. He died spiritually. He became unrighteous and he
died. Righteousness is life. He said
if there had been a law that could have given you life, then
righteousness would have come by law. But it can't come that
way. But the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. That means the promise, the covenant,
is not a conditional covenant. That means that God didn't leave
anything in my hand or your hand to fulfill in this covenant. That means the faith of Christ
means God trusted the faithfulness of Christ to fulfill the whole
thing for His people. And the law didn't disannul it,
the law just verified it because Christ came and fulfilled that
law. That law bears witness this is the righteous one. When you
hear the law, You and I don't hear the law like the world hears
the law. You and I hear the law and see
that law declare us unholy and unrighteous and not good. But we see it also declare Christ
holy and righteous and good. And that's why we delight in
it. That's why we delight in it. And it verifies, too, as
he said in Romans 3, we're saved without the law, but it's borne
witness to by the law. that the faith of Christ has
redeemed us. So He did everything in this covenant. Now, where
do I get in this covenant? He's been talking about Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob now. You know, when we hear a salesperson
talking, the first thing we want to know is what's in it for me?
Well, what's in it for us? Where do we get in on this thing?
Well, since God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, to save all His spiritual seed, all His elect, He's going
to bring, Christ is going to bring the gospel to all His elect
and Christ is, to all those He's redeemed and Christ is going
to work this work in their hearts too through the gospel. Look
here to verse 5, the natural children typifies that, Exodus
6, 5. Look here, and I've also heard
the groaning of the children of Israel. This is almost 430
years later, this is 400 years later, and he said, I've heard
the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians
keep in bondage, and I've remembered my covenant. I said to you that
some of that covenant was natural, and God used natural Israel to
show us a picture of spiritual Israel, so he promised Abraham,
I'm going to save natural Israel, I'm going to deliver them into
the land of Canaan. And God said, and I'll remember my covenant.
That's showing you and me, God won't forget His covenant for
the sake of Christ. He's going to fulfill that spiritual
covenant in our hearts just like He promised He would do. And
so He said, verse 6, this is what He said to Moses, Wherefore
say unto the children of Israel, Get the picture now. God says
to our Lord Jesus Christ, I hear that child groaning. I hear that
child groaning in his burden, in his sin, in his rebellion.
I hear his groans. He can't free himself. And I've
remembered my covenant. God the Father says to Christ
our Lord, he says, wherefore go and say unto him. Go and teach
him the gospel. Go and declare the gospel to
him in power and make it effectual in his heart. That's the picture.
That's the picture. Remember I said, remember that
word there where he promised Christ that when you've established
my covenant on the cross, you have the glory of saying to the
prisoners, go forth. God the Father gave that as part
of his covenant promise. He gave that promise to Christ
that he would have the glory of releasing his people from
the bondage, not only of the law, but of our sin nature. And
that's what you have pictured here. Moses is going to the children
of Israel in bondage. And Moses is fixing to say, this
is what God says, go free. Go free. And that's what Christ
does through this word right here. Wouldn't it be good if
he did that in somebody's heart tonight? Came to us and said,
go forth. You're free. You're free. And
we need Him to do that often, even as believers, because we
fall in unbelief and we need Him to keep coming forth saying,
go forth, go forth, go forth. Now that's His glory, that's
His glory to do that work. So first of all, the gospel is
the declaration of His name, and that's revealed in Christ.
Secondly, the gospel is the declaration of His covenant. He's saved by
covenant promise only. Believe in Christ is doing nothing
to save yourself. That's what faith in Christ is.
Faith in Christ is confessing, I am so worthless and helpless,
I can't even put my finger to it. Christ does it all, A to
Z. And anything less than that is
not faith. You can call it faith, but it's not faith. Faith is
trusting the promise of God. trust in Christ, His covenant. And then thirdly, the gospel
declares God's works in fulfilling all those promises of that covenant. That's what we're preaching,
the works of Christ fulfilling all the covenant promises that
God made in eternity and that He's going to reveal to His people
through preaching His works. Now, I'm going to show you these
works here, and we've been talking about them, so I'm just going
to read them and try to just briefly comment on them. But
as you read these works, I want you to picture Moses going forth
to the children of Israel in bondage. And we're going to look
at the last half of this chapter, Lord willing, in the second message
tomorrow. But he's going to the children
of Israel with this word. It's like the gospel coming here
tonight. But Moses is a picture of Christ
there. And actually Aaron is a picture
of Christ, because Aaron is the one who actually did the talking.
He's the prophet and he's the elder brother. That's who Christ
is. But the picture here is of Moses
going forth to preach like I'm here preaching and then Aaron
going forth like Christ goes forth through the gospel and
speaking the word in power in the heart and setting his people
free. And these are the covenant promises
he makes us to hear. And so when you hear these, you
picture Christ coming in power and speaking through the gospel,
this in our hearts. This is what He did the first
hour we believed. This is how you found yourself believing.
You began to realize all these things were true. That Christ
really does all these works and not us. And it became good news
to you because Christ spoke it affectionately in your heart.
Here it is right here. He fulfills His promise to work
redemption and deliver us. It's all about Christ working.
Look at verse 6. Wherefore say unto the children
of Israel, I am the Lord. Notice he started with his name
again. I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their
bondage. I'll snatch you out of their
bondage, and I'll rid you of it for good. And I'll redeem
you. I will redeem you with a stretched
out armor with great judgment. Where is man's will in that?
Where is man's will in that? You want to see man's will? Look
at the children of Israel. Could they do anything to get
out from under Pharaoh's power? Could they do anything by their
will to deliver themselves out of that bondage? Nothing. Not at all. How will they deliver? God said, I will. I will. The message of the gospel is
not the message of man's will. That's what most 99% of people
in religion are preaching. And you know the fact of the
matter is, it don't matter if it goes by the name of Christianity
or whatever other religion it goes by. They don't differ at
all. They all are telling you what
you need to do to be saved. Every one of them. That's not
the gospel. The gospel is God's declaring
His works. I will. I will. I will redeem
you. I will rid you. I will bring
you out of your burdens. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it's written,
Curses everyone hangeth on a tree. That's what He did for us on
the cross. But listen to this in Titus. He does something in
us too. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Christ has the glory in the covenant
of coming and sending the Spirit forth in our hearts and washing
us and making us new and sending us forth. Just like He has the
glory of doing that work for us on the cross. We can't diminish
one work, trying to exalt the other work, or we diminish both
the works. Because both the works of Christ.
It's one work. Until both works are done, the
work's not finished. All the reason we're here right
now is Christ still has some elect and He's already paid justice
for them. And they're righteous and that
same justice that demanded He die when He was made sin for
us now demands that they be given life. Spiritual life. And He's not going to destroy
this world until He's given them spiritual life. Because that's
His covenant promise to the Father. He's going to do it. That's why
He said, I will not lose one. And both those works are His
glory. Now go, look here, here's the next one. God performs His
promised work of taking us to Himself. He said in verse 7,
I will take you to me for a people. I will be to you a God and you
shall know that I am the Lord your God which bringeth you out
from under the burdens of the Egyptians. The only way God could
take us to himself. He can't take a sinner to himself.
God's too holy to take a sinner to himself. The only way he could
take us to himself was for Christ to come forth and make us righteous
and holy. You know it's in the new spirit
that you worship God. It's not the flesh, it's the
new spirit. And you have to be made righteous
and holy in Christ, by Christ, with Christ in you, to be able
to approach God. And that's how we can approach
God and worship God. There's nothing about that new
spirit, the scripture says, nothing has to be done to it when we
die. We'll go to be with the Lord immediately. How can that
be? How come it doesn't need to be
fixed? Because God made it, that's why. God created it. Has He ever
created anything that wasn't good? He made the new man. And that old man, something's
got to be done to that flesh. That flesh's got to go back to
the dust. And Christ's got to raise us
with a new body. A glorified body. Now something's got to
be done to it. But not to the Spirit. Not to
the Spirit. And he said, I'm going to perform
that. And he said, I'll be a God to you. Isn't God a God to us?
You know how He's a God to us? He provides everything we need.
Temporarily speaking and spiritually speaking God provides us everything
we need some of you sitting here been in the faith longer than
I have I've been Lord about over 30 years something like that
But y'all some of you been here in the faith longer than I have
you can prove that can't you? You've never you've never wanted
for anything. Have you God provided what you
need? I didn't say he provided what
you wanted. I said he provided what you need And never never
wanted for anything And he says there, the reason that you know,
the reason you know when you're hearing lies and you know it's
not the truth is because God has made you know Him. He said,
when I brought you out from under the burdens, then you're going
to know I am the Lord your God. And because He's done that work,
that's how you know Him. And that's why we can't stand
to hear anything but the truth. He's brought us out in spirit
and in truth. He's the God of truth. He's the
Spirit of truth. He said, I'm going to give you
pastors that are going to feed you with the truth. And that's what He
does because He's Son. He sits on the circle of the
earth and the heaven is there over His grasshoppers. He can
do it. And He sends His people the truth. And He makes His people
delight in it. And that's why we can't stand
to hear nothing but the truth because we know Him. He's made us know Him. And look
at this. This is a covenant work He promised. He promised to give us our promised
inheritance. He said, there I will bring you
in unto the land concerning which I did swear to give it to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a heritage.
I am the Lord. Paul said, you've not received
the spirit of bondage again to make you fear. You've received
the Spirit of adoption. You're in the family of God now.
We cry, Abba, Father. He said that the Holy Spirit
bears witness with that new Spirit He's put in us that we're children
of God. And if we're children, then we're
heirs of God. That means we're going to receive
an inheritance. And we're joint heirs with Christ. What do you
reckon God's going to give His Son? He's given Him everything.
That's what He's going to give His people. Everything. In Christ. And really, all we want is Christ. Isn't that right? And that's
our inheritance. We're going to be glorified together
with Him by His grace, keeping us. He said, you have it right
now. If He's called you, you got it.
He said, in whom we have obtained an inheritance. It's ours. Don't
think of it as something yet to come, way down the line. God
says, it's yours right now. If He has effectually called
you by His grace, this inheritance is yours, and you've obtained
it being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. You know, men
want to argue about frustrating God's will and all that. God gives us the power to either
accept him or reject him and all that junk. Lightning struck a tree by our
house a couple of weeks ago, about a week ago. And I'm stone
deaf and when I got my hearing aids out I couldn't hear a thing.
I didn't hear it but Melinda and Emma about rattled them out
of the bed. And I went up there and looked at that tree. It's
about 75 yards from my house. I went up there and looked at
it. Big, big oak tree. And it looks like somebody took
that oak tree and just, I mean the big part of it, and just
twisted that thing like this and just bent it over. And there's
splinters, I mean, splinters all out in the street, all in
the neighbor's yard, and there's a splinter of wood about that
long almost to my driveway, 75 yards away. Can you imagine a little grasshopper
saying, that mighty oak might not have been able to resist
you, but I can resist you by my will. Christ is Jehovah who sits on
the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. Can you imagine? He's going to
do everything He said He's going to do. He's God. So that's the difference, brethren,
between the true gospel and the false gospel. See, we're glorying
in Christ's work. We're glorying in His work on
the cross. We're glorying in His work in
our hearts. And we don't diminish either one of them. We've got
to preach both of them fully because we're declaring God's
name. We're declaring God's covenant.
We're declaring God's words. And this is all, this is part
of it. And because he did this work, he makes you know, I'm
going to keep you. I'm going to preserve you. I'm not going
to let you go. And we're going to see that in
the next message at the rest of the chapter. I hope you'll
be here tomorrow. Because it's not by our faith
that he does this. It's not by our works that he
does this. It's by his faithfulness that
he does this. Alright brethren, thank you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
real quick, Johnny, before we begin this prayer. Father, we
thank you for this Word. We thank you that you've given
us these pictures and types in the Scripture to help us to see
what you've done spiritually, everlastingly, eternally for
your people. Lord, help us to hear it. Make
us to hear it. Make us bow and understand. that everything that you've done,
you've done it for your glory, glory of your name, you've done
it by the sureness of your covenant so that your people can say,
He's made with me an everlasting covenant order and all things
in sureness is all my salvation. This is it, Lord. You are all
my salvation. Lord, make us to ever know this. Make us to rejoice in it. And
we thank you for these people. We thank you that you brought
us here together, the brethren, and that you made us truly worship
you. And we pray, Lord, you be with
them, that you, as you've proven in the past, that you provide
all things needful, you will continue to do so. We trust you
for that. We look to your name for that. We say with David, save us by
your name. And Lord, we trust you and we
wait on you to do it. Forgive us, Father, of our sin.
Forgive us of our unbelief. Subdue that old man and make
us truly bow and wait on you. Give us strength, Lord. We need
it. We don't have any without you. We thank you, Lord. In Christ
Jesus, the Lord's name, amen.