Thank you, Norm, Nancy, Rick,
every one of y'all, Clay. I'm thankful for you all. I'm
glad to be here. And I pray the Lord will bless
us this weekend. All the brethren of San Diego
send their love to you and their prayers that the Lord bless us
and give us a word this weekend. Bless our hearts. If you will,
please turn to Matthew chapter 11. And if you'll leave a marker
there, I want to read just a few verses. Hopefully I have a message
for you. And at the end of that message,
we'll come back and read a few verses. Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11, beginning
of verse 1. And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of
commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and
to preach in their cities. Now when John had heard in the
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and
said unto him, Art thou He that should come, or do we look for
another? Are you Him? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. Colan. He's going to list some
things. The blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the
deaf hear. The dead are raised up. Those
are all miracles, aren't they? If you're blind and you physically
can see now, that's a miracle. If you can't walk and the Lord
makes you walk, that's a miracle. What's the last one? And the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Did Kevin Packer tell you that?
The Lord God Almighty said it's a miracle when poor people Not
financially poor. Those poor in spirit. Those meek. Those with a contrite heart.
Whenever they have the gospel, preach to them. What's the gospel? That's a miracle. I know that.
Christ said so. He preached the gospel. I want
to preach the gospel. Do you want to hear the gospel? In Romans 15, Paul said, I haven't
failed to preach the full gospel of Christ. The full gospel of
Christ. That's an immense responsibility
for somebody to stand up and preach the full gospel of Christ. And I've had a lot of people
growing up, I'm sure maybe in this part of the world too, in
my neck of the woods, people say, oh you preach, you preach
the full gospel. You preach the full gospel? Every
time they ask that, they're wanting to know if I preach one thing.
Not the thing. Do you preach baptism? Do you
preach speaking in tongues? Do you preach this? Do you preach
that? Something that tickles the flesh. Something that tickles
the ear. Oh, I've got to hear about that. Oh, how do I make
myself whole? That ain't the full gospel. Baptisms, tongues, Holy Spirit
preaching, Sabbath day keeping, morality, that's a big one. Man's
responsibility. Fruit. Have you grown enough
in grace? Grown any? Is that the full gospel?
Do you and I care about the full gospel of Christ? Do we know
what the full gospel is? Do we want to hear it truly?
Do we truly want to hear it or do we want some teaching? So
many want teaching, don't they? They take teachers unto themselves.
Don't take preachers unto themselves, Paul said. Take teachers unto
themselves. What do you think, this is a rhetorical question,
don't answer it out loud. What do you think the full gospel
of Christ is? What do I think the full gospel
of Christ is? What does John Gill or Spurgeon
or somebody that's been dead 200 years think the full gospel
of Christ is? What does a man of God that just went home to
be with the Lord? What do they think it is? It doesn't matter
what I think it is. It doesn't matter what they think
it is, what they say it is. What does God say the full gospel
of Christ is? Now that's a good starting spot,
isn't it? Well, so and so said this. What did God say? That's
what matters, isn't it? Leave a marker there in Matthew
11, if you will, and let's turn to Psalm chapter 40. Psalm 40. This is a messianic psalm, all
of them are. David wrote it. These are David's
words. In every man's sin of God, these are their words. But
David wasn't just a king, was he? He was God's prophet. He
said he was a man after his own heart. And the holy God, He purposed
to save a people a long time ago, before this earth was made.
How He did it, the work of doing that, it's unimaginable to you
and me. We can't wrap our heads around
it, that's what I'm saying. Man can't fully enter into it.
The love in the purpose, the love in the work towards His
elect is immeasurable. It's immeasurable. We may have
a taste of it. His children do. We know our
Father is love and He loved us before time began. We can enter
into that, but we can't fully get a grasp on it in this life.
People say of a preacher, they'll say, well, he ain't that good
of a preacher. He's not thorough enough. He's not easy to follow.
Who can preach the fullness of the Lord's covenant of grace
in one message to his sheep. Can you? I can't. Who's sufficient for these things?
That's a good way of putting it. Who's sufficient for these
things? Look here in Psalm 40 verse 5. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would
declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Lord, I can't even tell you how you've blessed me. People say,
count your blessings. If the Lord's given you a new
heart, you're going to be busy, ain't you? It's innumerable. You can't number it. And we don't
even know what tomb number. We don't know what tomb number.
All that was done for His chosen people, all of that love towards
us in His power. All of that was not because of
something in the person. It wasn't because of something
in the sinner. It wasn't out of our doing. The
Holy Ghost moved on us and gave us life, gave us ears to hear. And when that happens, for the
first time we hear, salvation's of the Lord. You can say it,
you can walk up and down, you can get tattoos on you, you can
make mantras of it, rock back and forth, salvation's of the
Lord, salvation's of the Lord. But when He gives you ears to
hear it, Now it means something, don't it? Salvation is of the
Lord. Look here in verse 6. Sacrificing offerings thou didst
not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin
offering hast thou not required. What will the holy God that we
offended, what will he accept? We're told throughout the whole
Old Testament, all of it points to the sacrifice that is acceptable. The lamb God was satisfied with. The blood that truly covered
sin. Not in type, not in picture,
not in ceremony. Truly did it. All those spotless
lambs that happened. You think how many there was?
That's more than ten throughout time. That's a lot of spotless
lambs. In type, in picture. It all pointed to the spotless
Lamb, Christ. The Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. Do you have ears open to hear that? Or somebody's
got an abacus and they're trying to figure out how many, well
if you've got 12 a year times 20 and carry the 2, and oh, the
spotless land. That's all the signs pointed,
that city of refuge. And verse 7, we know this is
the Lord speaking here from Hebrews 10. He says in verse 7, then
said I. He doesn't have a desire for
those, our burnt offerings. He doesn't have a desire for
our sacrifices, does he? Then said I, lo I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me." What book's that? This
book? One in your lap. Every bit of it. He came to honor
the Father, to uphold His glory and His holiness. Finished. It's done. He came to save His
people from their sins. Finished. It's done. He came
to fulfill all the law and the prophets. Finished. Done. He came to finish the will of
the Father. That's done. Complete in Him. He came to ratify
His Lordship. The Crown Rights of the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And that's finished. It's proven
to us. How is it proven to us? Where
is He at now? Who is He? What did He accomplish? Where
is He at now? He's seated at the right hand of the Father.
He's risen. That tomb's empty. No bones in
it. All the Old Testament, this acceptable,
bloody sacrifice, this propitiation, this mercy seat, the spotless
Lamb, this Messiah, He's coming. He's coming. The Gospels. Here's the God-man
with us. Emmanuel. Here's what He did. Here's what He said. Here's what
He preached. And then the epistles. He's coming
again. That's what we have. Full field
right in our laps. First in the heart of all those
put in Him before time. He's going to come to His people.
Those that call on Him, that were drawn to Him, and then when
that last saint's called, the Lord's going to come to this
earth again. He came, He lived, He died, He was buried, and He
rose again for His sheep, willingly. Well, we can't get our heads
wrapped around that either, can we? Willingly. Our kinsman redeemer.
He was related to us. That means he was a man just
like we were. He's qualified to redeem us. He's able. His
blood's of value. And he was willing. He was related,
he was able, and he was willing. Look here in verse 8. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. The law is written within his
heart. He was a servant of the law for
his people. The profitable servant, the good
and faithful servant. Now, you and I are dead to that
law. God will fulfill you. It's been fulfilled. You get
the first five books of the Bible. That's Moses' old-fashioned Torah
they held on to. If you would just read the first
two verses, that's what I'm going to tell them. Oh, my kindred
after the flesh, like a brother just read in Romans 10. Oh, they
got a zeal for God. And Paul prayed for them. Think
about that. A lot of things Paul said, you sit and think on. They
hated him. That was a traitor in the middle of a holy war.
And he prayed for them. What a good example. And he said,
just go to Joshua and read the first two verses. What does that
say? Now after the death of Moses,
the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto
Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister. Christ ministered to
the law. Joshua ministered to Moses. Moses,
my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over
this Jordan, thou and all thy people. He conquered death for
his people. Conquered the grave for his people.
I'm going to physically die one day. I'm going to shed this body
of death and sin. My soul is going to live forever. Why? He
did it. My Joshua did it. My Savior did it. Willingly.
Willingly. He delights. Delights to do that. He delights to show mercy. What
a God. What happened before you and
I were ever born? Before we ever came on the scene?
A purpose and a covenant was made, wasn't it? This here is
Christ speaking to His Father. Many, O Lord my God, are Thy
wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which
are to us, for they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can
be numbered. Sacrifice and offering Thou didst
not require. Mine ears hast Thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering Thou not required." The Father required
Christ, didn't He? So in verse 7, He said, Then
said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me, I delight to do thy will. O my God, yea, thy
law is written within my heart. That was done before we ever
showed up. Done. Salvation accomplished. Now I
started off talking about preaching. What about this preaching? That's
where we come on the scene. We're born into this world, and
our father Adam, we're blind, we're dead, we have the hindrance
of breathing air in and out so we think we're alive, and then
somebody comes to preach to us. The gospel is preached. That's
what God uses to save His people and nothing else. Sorry, he said, through the foolishness
of preaching. The preaching of the full gospel
of Christ. Here's the full gospel of Christ
preaching Himself. Six things and then the result
of the full gospel of Christ. Paul wrote to us in 2 Corinthians.
He said, But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, your minds should also be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. Simple. Simple. What's the full gospel of Christ?
It's going to be simple. In verse 9 and 10, Christ is
speaking to His Father and telling Him what He preached on this
earth into the hearts of His children through the Holy Ghost. Here's the Word of the full Gospel
of Christ from Christ. You want to hear that? You want
to know what it is? First and foremost, verse 9, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. God is holy. What's the first
thing He preached? God is holy. All of his righteous
acts are because of his holy nature. That's where it comes
from. What he does is right. He doesn't do what's right, what
he does is right. And an unclean thing, that's
you and I, that's me, cannot be in his presence. It's got
to be his sheep. You can't take a dog and put
a coat of sheep hair on it and pretend and say, here's your
sheep. That's a holy God. Perfection
is the only thing that can be in His presence. Everything about
Him is holy. What's angels called? His holy
angels. His holy temple. His holy tabernacle. His holy
kingdom. These are the holy scriptures.
His holy throne above. God is holy. That's what verse
10 says about not hiding thy righteousness. But up in verse
9, it says, I have preached righteousness. He preached righteousness and
then He didn't hide thy righteousness. That's two separate things, isn't
it? God has His own holiness. His own righteousness. That's
who He is. His nature. But for His people.
But for His people. Through Christ being made sin
for us, we are made the righteousness of God. Made the righteousness
of God. That is unmeasurable and innumerable,
isn't it? Wrap your head around that. Can
you reckon that to God? Well, let me explain to you how
you did something for me. Can you tally that up? Can you
count it? An unclean thing was made clean. And this was not
hid. This is the first thing the Lord
mentions. It's not hid. It's not under
a napkin like those talons. It is shed abroad, outwardly
and inwardly. That's the fruit of the Spirit,
isn't it? If God made you His righteousness, You were blind
and now you see. You were unclean and now you're
clean. You will follow Him and it's going to come out of you.
You're going to tell people about it. About His righteousness. You're not going to say, I did
something for Jesus, or I did something good and I got better.
No. Him. Not me. Him. His righteousness. His holiness. God's holy. If we're going to preach the
full gospel of Christ, we're going to tell about Thy righteousness
and how sinners are made righteous to be made like Him, conformed
to the image of His Son. That's going to take a lot of
preaching to cover that, isn't it? You're going to need more
than a long weekend. Man can't enter any of these
things unless God allows him to. God gives him a mind to see
it here. What's the second thing Christ preached? Verse 10. I
have not hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared
thy faithfulness. God's faithful. People find out,
they cut my hair and find out that I'm a preacher and they
start telling me about their faith. I say, I didn't ask about your faith.
That's telling me how faithful. But I'm not faithful. My God
is. He's faithful. God is faithful
to His people. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. I'm always with you. I'm with
you always. He's faithful to comfort us,
isn't He? Why is He faithful to comfort us in the trial? He
sent the trial. That's the reason for it. And you get the trial
to be comforted by Him, to be turned from yourself to Him,
and that's a great comfort. To be reminded once more He's
holy, He's righteous. And He's faithful to me. He's
faithful to correct us too, isn't He? I need that. I need correction. And that ain't going to change.
In the Old Testament, Malachi said, or he told Malachi, For
I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, because of that, because
of His faithfulness, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Is
that your God? Is that the God of the Bible?
He doesn't change. What does it say in the New Testament?
Hebrews 13, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Faithful. There's not an Old Testament
God and a New Testament God. He's the same. He's the same.
Paul told us, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. When the faithful God, the righteous,
holy God, the one who is faithful, not me and you, when He gives
His faith, the faith of Christ to a sinner, it ain't returned. This ain't a Walmart salvation.
You can't be unsatisfied with it and take it back. You ain't
going to be unsatisfied with it if He gives it to you. You're
going to spend eternity praising Him for it and being thankful
for it. Christ was made faithful to the Father for His namesake. And that's what He gives us.
How are we made that way? The triune God makes people holy
by giving us Christ's faith. What a blessing that is. He honored
His own holiness for His namesake. How? By being our substitute.
By Christ dying on the cross. God was just, holy, righteous,
and he justified his people. He was faithful to that eternal
covenant of grace in Christ. Where did that happen? It happened
on the cross. That's where it happened. Christ died on the cross. God
was just, the same one that justifies, and he remained holy and merciful.
One of my children was going to take a trip. And I said, you've
got to have your grades here or you can't go on a trip. And
they weren't here. And I'll tell you what, buddy,
in a couple of weeks, they worked as hard as they could work. And
I got all them grades up to where I said they had to be except
for one grade. And I saw the labor that took. I saw the work
that took. And I wanted to be merciful.
I wanted to say, you can go on that trip. Now, I'm bad. If I say something, I've got
to stick to it or my words don't mean nothing. I wanted to be
merciful. And I wanted to be just. I can't
do both. Can you? Can't do both. God can't. What's impossible with man is
possible with God. All things are possible with Him. Psalm
85 says, Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. Where'd that happen? Calvary.
That's where it happened. It says in verse 10, I have not
hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared thy
faithfulness. Christ preached. The apostles
preached. God's preachers in this day.
They preached God is faithful. He's holy. Not man's doing, not
our strong faith, God who is faithful. He's the object of
our faith. What's the third thing? Verse
10, I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. Salvation is the workmanship
of God in His people and for His people and for His glory.
Jonah learned that, didn't he? He'd be putting a great big old
fish, several days, come out of there three days later spit
out on dry ground. He declared it. I like to read
things real slow sometimes. I'm kind of slow, I like to read
things slow. And I like to savor them. In Romans 8, we quote these
things so often, I do, and you don't just stop and savor it
and walk around like a hard piece of candy. He said, for whom He
did foreknow. It's done. He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
then He also called, and whom He called, Then he also justified,
and whom he justified, then he also glorified." Done. Done. And what part of that do
I have to play in it? Christ is all. He did it all
for His people. From the conception of the thought
of salvation when the Father purposed it, that covenant made,
to the ordering of all things, to the saving, to the preserving,
and to the culmination. Salvation of the Lord's people.
I have been saved, I'm being saved, and I shall be saved in
Him. It's by salvation. It's His. This world has things
backwards. They all say you've got to do
something for God and then He'll save you. No, wrong. God's got
to do something for you, and then you are saved. That's how
that works. Fourthly, remember verse 10,
Christ preached, Thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation, I have not concealed thy lovingkindness. If the Holy Spirit has given
you life, you'll be moved by this. The lovingkindness of the
Father's purpose. Did you deserve to be chosen
before time? I didn't. Because He loved you
with an everlasting love. It pleased Him. The love in the
Son's person and work. To be made like me. To come to
this sin-filled earth and have an attitude of love for His Father. He accomplished laying down His
life for His friends. What love? while we were enemies. God hating rebels, that's when
He came. The loving kindness of the Holy
Ghost to come to us. Showing us what we are, convicting
us of sin, convincing us of Christ's righteousness. Making us declare,
making us convince, making us trust and rest in judgment satisfied.
There is no condemnation. Christ sought it. All of this, His faithfulness,
His salvation, His righteousness brought in us because of love.
And the love we now have from that new birth for God and for
our brethren. Believe on Christ and love the
brethren. John had a whole epistle on that. I'm declaring to you
what the full gospel is. The full good news. Everybody,
that's good news. What does that climax in? It's
all summed up in something, isn't it? Look here at verse 9 again.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo,
I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, Thou knowest. I have
not hid Thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared Thy
faithfulness and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness.
and thy truth from the great congregation." What does that
scripture say? I am the way and what? I am the
truth. The truth. Christ, he preached
Christ. To whom? The great congregation. His body. It ain't going to change
from this finger to this finger, is it? It ain't going to change
from a liver to a kidney, from an eyeball to a mouth. Preaches
the same thing to them. Preaches Himself to them. It's
simple. God wanted to make a whole lot
of people just like His Son. In His perfect holiness, He was
faithful to save them to the uttermost, remaining holy and
just that whole time. And that great act of love and
every bit of that was contained in Christ. The fullness of the
Godhead in the body. That's who it was. That's how
we are preserved. Back to Matthew 11, if you're
still marked there. Matthew 11. We'll read again what our Lord
told His disciples of John, Matthew 11, verse 4. Jesus answered and
said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do
here and see. The blind received their sight,
I was blind, now I see. The lame walk. I'm not able to
come to Christ. He brought me. The lepers are
cleansed. I am sin. Head to toe. The noun. That's all I am. He
cleansed me. The dead are raised up. I'm given
life in Christ. And the poor have the gospel
preached to them. The poor have the good news of Christ preached
to them. And, verse 6, and, Blessed is He whosoever shall not be
offended in me." He's the full gospel of Him. You offended by
that? You want your own righteousness?
You want your own love? Your own faith? Your own salvation?
Your own truth? That's being offended in Christ.
He's all of it. He's all of it. Now sixthly,
back in our text there in Psalm 40 verse 11, were preserved through Him. That
needs preached, doesn't it? We need to be comforted in those
things, have some assurance, not in us, but in Him. Psalm
40 verse 11, withhold thou, not thou, thy tender mercies from
me, O Lord, and let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve
me. The love of God in Christ is
what eternally preserves sinners saved by grace. Not us, Him. The love of God in Christ towards
us. His loving kindness and His truth. And we beg. We beg for those
things. It isn't something you just,
that's right! I'll listen to that next year. We come begging
mercy, don't we? We come into that gate of that
city of refuge and we declare while we're there. We present
ourselves. Look at verse 12. For innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am unable to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth. Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. What's that? Lord, if Thou wilt,
You can make me whole. This full Gospel of Christ, Lord,
if it pleases You, This ain't on my plate. This ain't my decision
to make. Lord, if it pleases You, I'm
the one in need of mercy. You can make me whole. Preserve
me forever. Do we bow to the person of Christ?
At full gospel? All of Him? Him preaching Christ
in our hearts? Or do we cling to something or
someone else? It's one side of the fence or
another, isn't it? It's either all that, all him, or all nothing. All of us. I hope that was a
blessing.