I'd like to ask you to turn in
your Bibles to the 40th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40. Now, we've been bringing several
messages over the last few weeks of words and phrases that bring
comfort to God's people. For the sake of our visitors
this morning, I want to express to you who God's people are. God's people are not holier than
thou. Many churches today preach and
teach that you can get better if you will just do this or do
that, turn yourself over to God, make a prayer, get in the waters
of baptism, whatever they may have in their little church of
things to do. If you will just do this, you
can be a better person. Now I'm about to say something
that even these children who are here visiting with us today
can understand. It doesn't get any better than
what you are right now. We will always need a savior. We will always need someone to
intercede for us. Our minds, even our adult minds,
struggle with sin. You are in a church of sinners,
not holy people, not anything but sinners. Now, as we read
a moment ago in the scripture reading, the psalmist wrote,
for I am holy. Now, I declare to you that I
am holy. All of God's people are holy,
but they're not holy in this body that stands before you or
the body that you have right now. We know that we struggle,
even children know that we struggle with telling the truth about
things, with being good kids. That's an effort that we have
to do. Well, it doesn't change when
we're adults. We're the same. We still have to struggle. We
have to put out an effort. And even when we put out an effort,
we're not very good at it, are we? You're in a church full of sinners
who need God. We need a perfect, righteous
God, and Jesus Christ has provided that very thing. So, we've been
studying God's Word. We're growing in grace and in
the knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And we're looking
through the Bible, seeing different words. And right here in Isaiah
40, we began with this very thing in verse 1 of Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Now, it doesn't say speak ye
comfortably to the world. is a speaking comfortably to
Jerusalem, spiritual Jerusalem. All of God's children are adopted
into the family of God, which is Jerusalem, which is Israel. But I'm not Jewish. I have no Jewish blood in me,
but Jerusalem is God's blood, spiritually speaking. has nothing
to do with that country over there in the other, in the Mideast.
It has nothing to do with that at all. We're talking about spiritualness
and carnal-ness. That's not the right thing to
call it, but that's kind of another one of those words I've made
up, like colonialism. So, it says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. Now that was our first word that
we looked at in detail as to a word that would bring comfort
to us. And I don't want to go over the whole message but I
do need to catch our visitors up a little bit. Well, what was
accomplished? Her warfare. Well, what was the
warfare? The warfare is the war that goes
on in every single one of us on how to be good, How to be
perfect. It's called the war between the
spirit and the flesh. I want to be perfect. My spirit
desires to walk according to the way God has told us to walk.
But the flesh doesn't want to agree with that. No, the flesh... Raise up its ugly head in a moment's
notice. You cut me off in traffic. You
wait and see how fast my flesh raises up in ugliness. Don't
cut me off. Who are you? Now, I know you
folks don't have any problems with that stuff, do you? Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. So what is dwarfism? The warfare is the battle that
goes on between our spirit and our flesh. Kids understand this. They understand it perfectly.
I want to obey mom. I want to make mom proud. I want
to make dad proud of me. But I don't always do that. Why? Because this old body, this body,
likes sin. That's all there is to it. It
likes sin. My spirit don't like it. My spirit,
which is life in Christ, hates it. But that's the warfare. How can we comfort somebody who's
battling that battle? What is it? The Lord says here,
your warfare is accomplished. The battle is won. The battle
is won. Another word we looked at, let's
turn over to Romans 11. This is all we have for notes
today. By the way, if you want to write down these words, I'm
going to ask a question at the end of the message today. The
word that we're looking at here that we just looked at was accomplished. A-C-C-O-M-P-L-I-S-H-E-D. Accomplished. I'm going to ask
you a question at the end of today's message. The title, I'll
give you a hint, the title of today's message is this, One
Thing in Common. We're going to look at some different
words and we're going to ask ourselves at the end of the study,
What is the one thing in common about all these words? Remember
that. Okay, so the next one we want to look at now, turn over
to Romans 11, verse 4. Turn over to Romans 11, verse
4. We've understood what accomplished
means. Accomplished means that the battle
is won. Well, how is the battle won?
The battle was won in Christ. It's not a battle that you and
I can fight. We war against our flesh, our spirit wars against
the flesh, but it's not a battle that we can win if we don't have
Christ. Folks, I don't care how good you get. However good you get in this
flesh, it's not good enough. With God, we have to be perfect.
With God, everything has to be perfect. which is why we need
Christ. In Christ, we have the perfection
of everything. In Christ, He's perfect in all
ways. Look over here at Romans chapter
11, verse 4. Here's another word. We looked
at this one last week. But what saith the answer to
God unto him? Now this is speaking of of what
did Elijah say? Elijah cried unto the Lord and
he said in verse 3, they have killed all thy prophets and dig
down thine altars and I am left alone, they seek my life. Nobody else in the world preaches
this free grace. They preach about what you must
do, but some, very few preachers, come out and preach the truth
about it. It's what Christ has done. Not what you can do, but
what Christ has done for us. That's the message. So Isaiah
cries out, he goes, there's nobody else. He was surrounded by people,
by religious people. He had the religious people all
around him. What do you mean there's nobody
else? There's nobody else speaking the truth. But look what it says
in verse 4, but what saith the answer of God unto him? He says,
I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee
to bail. The word we're looking there,
it is reserved. So we have accomplished, and now we have reserved, R-E-S-E-R-V-E-D. What does it mean to be reserved?
We are kept. What does it say in 1 Peter 1
verse 5? We are kept by the power of God. That's the Word of God. Kept
by Him. Not kept by anything we have
done. We're not kept by being good people all of a sudden.
By quitting doing this or quitting doing that. We are kept by God. We are reserved by God. But notice what it says there.
Spell it for me again. R-E-S-E-R-V-E-D. Now I want you to, I'm emphasizing
how this is spelled because we're going to ask that question. James,
could you close that back door for me please? Sure. I'm going
to ask the question, what do these words have in common? Let's look at the next one. Let's
go over to Hebrews. Go to the right in your books
there in the Bible. Go over to Hebrews chapter 1.
Another word of comfort. So we see that if we're reserved,
if we're kept by the power of God, first off, He's the one
who's accomplished our warfare. When He went to the cross and
shed His blood, He saved His people. He didn't possibly, He
didn't make it So, as He has saved His people, He has also reserved His people. And here in Hebrews chapter 1
verse 3, you'll recall we looked at this word in great detail
as well. Hebrews 1 verse 3, who being,
speaking of Christ, the brightness of His glory in the express image
of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power."
Now there we see the full description of who Jesus Christ is. He's the brightness of God's
glory. He's the light that shines the
whole world and all the world's about. He's the express image
of His person, of God's person. in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead, upholding all things by the power, by the word
of His power, meaning He is all-powerful, all power has been put under
His feet, when He by, had by Himself purged. There's our word. So now we have
another word. We have accomplished, reserved,
And purge. What does it mean to be purged?
It means to be wiped clean. We purge gold. When you pull
gold out of the creek behind us, I get 50%. If you ever pull gold out of the creek
behind us. I haven't found any yet, so maybe somebody else will.
But, when you purge gold, you purge it by fire. If you pull
gold out of the ground, Very rarely do you ever find pure
gold. That's just almost an impossibility. It's always got some kind of
something mixed into it. Something contaminating it. To purge it. To purge out, to
wash out the contamination, you have to burn it with fire. Christ
Jesus is our burnt offering. We were purged in Him. That's
what it tells us here. by himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So we have three
words now. We have accomplished, reserved,
and purged. P-U-R-G-E-D. Purged. Let's go look at the
next one, shall we? Same book, Hebrews chapter 10.
Go to the right, over to Hebrews chapter 10. Now some of the words we're going
to look at this morning, we've not studied in detail, but I'll
give a brief statement of what they mean when we get to them.
This word we have looked at, if you'll look with me at verse
14, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, it says, for by one offering. Now that's that offering that
we just read about here. Let me repeat what we just read. Being made so much better to
go. Verse 3, who being the brightness and the glory, upholding all
things by the power of His Word, when He by Himself purged our
sins. This is what this is talking
about. For by one offering, He, the Lord Jesus, hath what? Perfected. That's our next word. That's what being purged is.
Purged of all our iniquities. Purged of all of our sin. Well, wait a minute, John. You
just told me we have this battle going on in us. I still got this
sin going on in me, but yet I am holy in Him. You're right. We have that battle still going
on within us. We fight that battle seven days
a week, 24 hours a day. Even in our dreams, we fight
that battle of being perfect with our Lord. But yet, in our
Lord, we are perfected. That's what it's telling us here.
Look what it says. We are perfected by His one offering
forever! That means tomorrow, too. Not just today, not just yesterday,
but tomorrow as well. Perfected forever, them that
are sanctified. Woo! How do you spell that word,
perfected? P-E-R-F-E-C-T-E-D. Are you getting a picture yet
of what we're going to be asking that question at the end of this? One thing they all have in common. E.D. I thought about using that
as our title, E.D., but that could have been taken somewhere
strange. Somebody could take that and go somewhere strange
with it. So I thought I better just, you know, we'll just stick
with one thing in common. Let's look at the second word,
the next word here. It's in the same verse. It says
them are perfected that are what? Sanctified. Now sanctified is
a word that can be interpreted two different ways. It's a word
that can be interpreted as made holy. See, there's no holiness
in this John Reeves. But there's all the holiness
I need in my Savior, the Lord Jesus. If I'm in Him, I'm as
holy as He is. That's what I just told us here.
We're perfected forever in Him. In those who are sanctified,
made holy, or set apart for holy reasons. In the Old Testament,
the word sanctified was first used when the Lord was telling
them what to do in building the temple, the holy temple where
the Lord would be with His people. Behind the big curtain, behind
the thick veil, whom Jesus Christ is the veil. But now that Christ
has come and laid down his life, that veil is ripped open for
all who see him. He has set apart a certain people
into himself. Sanctified is the word. Again,
we see it S-A-N-C-T-I-F-I-E-D. Sanctified. Let's look at another
one, shall we? Go back to Romans chapter 5 this
time, if you would. Romans chapter 5. I don't want
to spend a whole lot of time on these words, but I do want
to point them out and give you kind of an indication of what
they mean. So, when we get down to that question, what do they
all have in common, you'll understand where we go from there. So, Romans
chapter 5, if you would. Look at verses 6 through 9. For when we were yet without
strength, this is Romans chapter 5, beginning at verse 6, for
when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. Boy, there's John Reeves right
there. One of the things I've told my
son, who has no desire for God, And I continue to pray that maybe
someday the Lord will call him out of darkness, just as He did
me. That someday the Lord will give him an understanding of
the truth of Christ, just as He did me. But the one thing
I told him is, is I would rather be found in a bar with a bunch
of drunkards than be found in a church down the street that
teaches you're holier because you gave yourself to Christ. You know what that teaches? That
means that teaches that you're holier than thou. I grew up in
that kind of religion. You can be so much better if
you'll just do this. What about your hogwash? Bolonialism. I don't want to be a holier than
thou. I don't want to have anything to do with those who are holier
than thou. The only holiness I want to have
anything to do with is the holiness of my Savior. who is perfect
in everything that He's done, including being made sin for
me. Did you know that Christ was
made sin for His people? The One who never sinned? The
One who was so holy that He could not even look upon sin? Became
sin? Can you imagine that? Christ
being made sin? Being made my sin? Being made
the sin of all of His people? In due time, He died for the
ungodly. Verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet preadventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commended His love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now Justified,
and there's our word. Justified. You know what justified
means? It means just as if I'd never
sinned. Just as if I'd never sinned. Is that good news? That's good
news to one who's a sinner. That's good news to a people That's good news. We're justified
by what though? By our good deeds? By committing
ourselves to Christ? No, it says we are justified
by His blood. By the blood of God. We shall
be saved from the wrath through Him. That's what I need. I need
saving from the wrath of God. I have sinned against God and
I deserve His wrath, yet there's one who took His wrath for me. Justify. J-U-S-T-I-F-I-E-D. Another one. Same chapter. Romans 5, look at verse 10. For
if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son. Did you notice again, it has
nothing to do with what you have done, but what His Son has done. See folks, that's what it's all
about. That's what salvation is all about. It's all about
salvation is of God. Isn't that what Jonah had to
learn? He died in the whale's belly. He died in the fish that
was prepared to swallow Him up. And then the Lord spit Him out
on dry ground. What did He go about saying after
that? He's saying salvation is of the Lord. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, that's what we do. We lift up
our Savior. You're hearing the same message
from me today as I preached last week. This is the easiest job
in the world. I just get up here and use a
different part of Scripture and tell you about how my Lord has
saved me from hell. And He saves all of His elect
from hell. He saved them. S-A-V-E-D. Reconciled. That's what it means.
Reconciled means brought them back. Those who left God because
of sin are brought back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ
in His blood. Next one. Galatians chapter 3. Reconciled. R-E-C-O-N-C-I-L-E-D. Galatians 3 verse 13. Go to the right of Romans. Just
before Ephesians. We're only going to look at a
couple more words here. Galatians chapter 3, look at
verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Can you wrap your mind around
that? The very one who cursed men because
of sin became a curse for his people. You talk about grace. You talk about mercy? You talk
about love? For God so loved His people that
He sent His only begotten Son to be a propitiation, a payment
for His people, a curse for His people. Look at another one if
you would with me over in Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter
5. We'll be quick about these last
few words here. We're looking at this word redeemed.
In Revelation chapter 5, beginning at verse 9. Revelation 5, verse
9. And they sung a new song. Who? They. Well, who are the they? All of those whom God sent His
Son to die for. Everyone who was chosen in Christ
Jesus from before the world began. Everyone whose name was written
on the breastplate of God before anything was put in the sky. They sung a new song. Do you remember when the Lord
called you out of darkness and you began to sing the new song?
What was the new song? Jesus Christ is Lord. What's
the new song? Jesus Christ is sovereign God
of all that is. What's the new psalm? Jesus Christ
saved all of his people and will not let them go. What's the new
psalm? Jesus Christ is my all in all. That's the new psalm. Thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast
redeemed There's our word again, twice now, once in Galatians.
He has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. R-E-D-E-E-N-E-D. One last word. This one doesn't end in the same
kind of spelling, but it means the same thing. Turn over to
2 Thessalonians, back towards Galatians again, right after
Hebrews. Go past Hebrews, and you'll come
to Titus, Philemon, Timothy, and then 2 Thessalonians. Look
at chapter 2, verse 13. This has got a different spelling,
but I'll show you something about it. In verse 13 we read this, but
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen, and
that's our word, chosen. If he had used the word choose,
then that would give us the indication that God is still choosing somebody,
wouldn't He? But He's used the word in a past
tense. Chosen. And that's the thing
that every single word that we've talked about today has in common. It's past tense. Turn over to
Ephesians chapter 1. Again, go to the left. Just a
couple of pages. If you go to Galatians, you've
gone too far. We were chosen in Christ from
before the world was. That's what we just read there
in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. What do all of these words? Accomplished. Accomplished was done. It's over. It's finished. That's what our
Lord said from the cross when He laid down His life, when He
shed His blood for His people, He said, It is finished. What was finished? Salvation. Salvation for His elect. You don't hear this from other
churches. What you hear from other churches
is God's done all that He can, and now it's up to you to decide. Our God makes all decisions. The God of Scriptures is not
one who is wanting, not one who is trying, but one who does what
He has purposed to do. That brings peace to this heart. If I had to wait on myself, I
would have no hope. I would have nothing to hope
in. If all I had was, well, God's done all he can, now it's up
to John to help out and accept him. It says the warfare was accomplished. It was accomplished in Christ.
It says we are reserved. We are reserved in Christ. Done. It's over. Sit down and rest. It says we were purged from our
sins. Oh, how much peace that brings
to a man who fights with his sin every day of the week, seven
days a week, 52 weeks a year, every year of my life. It says I am perfected in Him. Folks, I want to help the poor. I want to do good in this world.
I want to walk the way the Lord has chosen for us to walk. But I can't. I can't do it as well as God
demands it to be, and that is perfection, which makes Christ the only salvation for me. My perfection isn't in John Reeves,
it's in my Savior, the Lord Jesus. Your perfection is not in what
you have done, but in your Savior, the Lord Jesus. It says perfection. It was done. It was done in Him. Sanctified. That's done. We are sanctified in Him. We
are sanctified in what He has done. We're sanctified in where
He is at right now, sitting on His throne, working all things
out for our good. Justified. Done. Over. It's not justifying. It's justified. We're justified in Him. Reconciled to God. Done. It is finished. Redeemed unto
Him. It is finished. Chosen in Him. It is done. Look here at Ephesians
chapter 1 and I'll close with these words. Blessed be the God
and Fatherversary of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed,
see the word, blessed, meaning it's done. Oh, but John, I don't
understand. I'm going through this major
trouble in my life. I just can't get my mind off
the sin that bothers me every day. You're looking at the wrong
thing. You need to look to the One who's
already accomplished our warfare. The One who's done it for us,
and He's done it perfectly. You're blessed in Him. Blessed be the Godfather who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
in I was thinking about this as
I was considering today's message. Remember Don Fortner? I remember
he had a chair up here. I don't know if it was one of
these or what, but he took that chair and he plopped it right
down here in front, sat down on it, and rested. He says, that's
what we have to do. Trust Christ. Rest in Him. put our works aside because they're
nothing. They're not even worthy. That
doesn't mean we don't. That doesn't mean we don't do
the things that are good in this world. You know why we do, though? It's not for salvation. It's
because I love the one who first loved me. We don't sit on our hands and
do nothing, but we do it for a whole different reason. Let's finish this. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. In love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted. There we see it
once again. E.D. What do all these things
have in common? They're done. They're done in
our Savior. Amen. I'd like to ask you to
stand with me if you would, please. Turn in your handbooks to one
final song. If everything's done, John, if everything's been taken care
of, if it's all past tense, like you just told us, what do I do when the storm raises
up around me and I can't handle it? when the sin that's within
me builds itself up so much that I'm struggling. Look to our Savior. He's a shelter. When we look
to Him and Him alone, and we see that we can't fight this
battle, but He's already fought it for us, He's our shelter in
the time of storm.