Please open in your Bibles to
Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. I'm so thankful there in Numbers
21, that picture of the brazen serpent. You know, Israel asked,
remove these serpents from us. The Lord didn't take serpents
from them. He gave one that was made like unto the serpent, and
that was our cure. But that sin stays with us while
we're here. I wish it'd go away. It won't. I wish it would. I'm
preaching tonight to myself. I'm exhorting myself tonight. I'm encouraging myself. Remember
that. We've seen in our study through
Romans and Galatians that we're not justified in the eyes of
God through the works of the law. If a man or woman is going
to be justified before the holy God, it'll be through faith of
Christ. That's the only way. Faith that
believing women have, men and women have, it's Christ's faith.
Our faith is of Christ. He's the source of faith. He's
the giver of faith. He's the one that sustains it.
He sustains our faith. And it's a saving faith. Look
here in Romans 3 verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. We've looked at this many times
lately. Throughout Romans, we are dead
to that law. But is it dead to us? Is it void
to us? Do we throw it away? Look there
in verse 31. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. What shall we say, then, that
Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? For
if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory,
but not before God. In men's eyes he can glory. Say,
look what I did, but in the Lord's eyes he can't glory. For what
saith the Scriptures, Abraham believed God, and it was counted
unto him for righteousness? Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." If we do something,
that reward is just the payment. It's a wage. Wages of sin is
death. If we do something for the Lord,
grace is not a wage. Grace is by itself, it's a gift.
Verse 5, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Keep your place there in Romans and let's turn over to James
chapter 2. We'll be looking back and forth
between Romans and James tonight. Mark both of them if you can. James chapter 2. Now here's another
apostle. Paul and James were both apostles
of Christ. They were both writing about
the same man, Abraham. However, they seem to be completely
opposite in what they're saying about Abraham. Look here in James
2. Paul just told us that Abraham was made justified. He was counted
to him for righteousness by his faith because he believed God. James 2 and verse 20. But wilt
thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not
Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered
Isaac his son up to the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was faith made perfect." Now
what's going on here? Is there a conflicting message
in these scriptures? On a quick read it looks like
it, but we've seen so clearly And if we want wisdom and knowledge,
we should ask that question, what sayeth the scriptures? But
what happens when we look to these scriptures and we see that
there's what we think is a contradiction? Those two things seem opposite,
don't they? Paul says that Abraham was justified
by faith alone, without any consideration of the law at all. None. And James says Abraham's justified
by works when he offered up Isaac. I pray tonight that the Lord
will be our teacher. I pray these scriptures aren't changed so
we can understand them. I pray that the Spirit changes
us so we understand the scriptures. I hope he gives us ears to hear. My first point is justified before
God. Paul's teaching in Romans 4,
his teaching is concerning our justification before God. The
justification of our souls before God is by faith, and it's without
works. That holy law of God being satisfied
is not our doing, it's Christ's doing. Not our suffering, His
suffering. Not our obedience, His obedience.
He's our substitute. And putting away our sin, it's
Christ's death and Christ's blood, not our sacrifices, but Christ's
alone. Turn there to Romans chapter
3, verse 25. Speaking of Christ here, Romans
3.25, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, a mercy
seat, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say, at this time
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Now where do we boast? Where
is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Christ's
blood is what accomplished our justification before the Father.
And be turning to Romans 4, Paul taught us the same thing as David
taught. David was the chosen king. In
Scripture, he was a man after God's own heart. What does David
have to say about this, about this justification before the
Father, before God? Romans 4 verse 6, Even as David
also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. He will not account
sin. I will quickly touch on that
imputation. We'll look at this more, but
it's an accounting term. If there's putting groceries
on the shelf, I don't impute a can of green beans up on the
shelf and then there's a can of green beans. I walk by, there's
a can of green beans, and I say, there is one there. I can account
it. That's imputing. But David had
said the same message as Paul. Our salvation is completely and
utterly by Christ alone, by His doing, not our own doing. The
Savior preached unmerited grace. Matthew 11 says, come unto me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
How do we rest? How do we rest in this world?
We stop laboring, don't we? If I cut grass, I'm tired. How
do I rest? I stop cutting grass. I don't keep digging ditches.
I stop working. John 7 says, In the last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. We try to dig our own well, don't
we? Looking for our own drink. Christ
is that well of living water. The well of life. Matthew 9 says,
When the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard
that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. But go ye, and learn what that
meaneth. I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I am come not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mercy and not sacrifice. Christ
is merciful to unable sinners. He's the physician to the sick,
not the physician to the whole. He will not have our works. He
will not have our sacrifices. Why? The Lord provided a sacrifice
in Christ. We can't bring our own. That
sacrifice has already been made. He provided Himself. Titus 3,
5 says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us. We don't have a dog in this fight. The message of Paul, the message
of the other apostles, the message of Christ, they all proclaim
the same thing. Salvation is from Christ, it's
in Christ, it's through Christ, and it's because of Christ. The
message hasn't changed. Nothing I did before the Lord
called me, nothing I did when the Lord called me, and nothing
I'll ever do in the future, it does not contribute to the Lord
accepting me. He looks for righteousness only. I don't have any. Christ is my
righteousness. Nothing I do will satisfy me,
won't increase my reward in heaven. We're saved through grace by
faith. That gives all the glory and
all the reverence to the one doing the saving, doesn't it?
All glory is the Lord's. Ephesians 2 says, For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If
I could do something to contribute, I'd brag. If I chose Him, if
I accepted Him, I'd be telling everybody, Well, I mean, He saved
me, but I accepted Him. And I'd pat myself on the back
as hard as I could, wouldn't I? This gift of grace and faith
came to us at the price of Christ's death on the cross. That's what
it costs for us to receive this grace. Grace comes from the Savior,
not from the law. Galatians 2, 21, we looked at
the night. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. That can't be more clear or more
strong, more powerful. Turn over Romans chapter 5. Romans 5 and verse 18. Here's the sum of it. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men and condemnation
to that offense of Adam. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men and justification. We
all fell on Adam and those that Christ died for, their righteousness
comes only from Christ. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. How do men and women respond
to that great and wonderful message that we're justified freely through
grace by the faith of Christ. He's done everything. How does
a natural unregenerated person respond to that? When we say
that we're made dead to the law because Christ fulfilled it,
we're preserved for eternity because of who the surety is. First, people respond, they'll
justify live in a life of sin, live in a worldly life, a careless
life, they'll justify it through grace, through the grace of God. They'll say, well, I've been
saved by grace, so it doesn't matter how I live. It doesn't matter
how I walk, how I talk. It doesn't matter. I don't have
to be honest anymore. I don't have to pay my taxes
anymore. I don't have to be nice to strangers. Turn over to Romans 6. Paul addresses
this. Excusing sin by grace or using
grace as a reason to sin is not something that's new. They say
it's something that's come about since the 70's. This is happening then. Look
at Romans 6 verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Look down at verse 15. What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?
God forbid. Just because we're freed from
that law doesn't give us that license to do anything that we
want. don't go out and live like heathens. So first, people react to the
gospel as an excuse to sin. The second way they'll react
to that gospel is they'll try to justify a life that has no
spiritual fruit. There are people I know and people
you probably know that profess to believe what we believe, profess
to believe what these scriptures declare. They believe what the
Lord says in His Word concerning man's depravity. They say that
the Holy Spirit's invincible. There's unconditional election
that comes in to that limited people. There's irresistible
grace. He calls His children effectually.
And the Lord's responsible only to keep those people for eternity. He's the only one responsible.
It's in His hands. They profess these things, but
they don't show evidence that they believe it. They don't support
others. They don't support a gospel ministry.
They don't keep themselves in a local assembly. They don't
serve the Lord in any capacity. They don't witness to anyone.
There's no sacrifice on their part for the family of God or
the kingdom of God. No furtherance of the gospel.
If they say that we are saved without works, then they ain't
gonna do anything else either. And that bleeds over in the rest
of life. Some said, if I want the Lord, I've heard groups say,
and you all have experienced this because I'm standing here.
People say, well, we want a pastor. And if the Lord wants us to have
a pastor, he'll send us one. But then they won't invite anyone
to come preach for them. The Lord will send His preachers
out, but they're not going to randomly fall out of airplanes.
He told Israel, He said, I'm going to do all these things
for you, but you're going to inquire of Me. You're going to
ask Me for it. He uses means, doesn't He? Men
and means to accomplish His work. These are all the things that
James is dealing with. Many people read these scriptures,
any of them, especially James, and they take things out of context.
They use texts in the Holy Scriptures without wisdom to do so, and
that is very dangerous. Very dangerous. And if the Lord's
not given us the light to understand a portion of Scripture, leave
it alone. Trust that it's true. Trust that
we don't yet have the wisdom to understand it. Pray the Lord
gives us the wisdom in the future. Bow to it and leave it alone.
Somebody says, well, what about this? I don't know about that
yet. Go ask my pastor." Point them in the right direction.
But if we're set underneath the preaching of the gospel consistently,
we're set underneath someone for a period of time, all of
our questions will be answered. Now, it may take six months,
it may take six years. It may be a long time. I'm a
lot less patient than I should be. I want it done right and
I want it done right now. Sometimes the Lord makes us wait
a while to teach us something. But if we sit underneath the
same man that the Lord's provided in the same pulpit, all of our
questions and our concerns will be addressed over time. I promise
you. I've experienced that. But Paul
made it clear that we're saved by grace and not works. That
Christ redeems His people, we don't redeem ourselves. I hope
I've made that clear. I hope I'm clear on that. But Paul also shows that many
people profess the truth of the Scriptures, but they don't live
like they've experienced it. They say they're saved by grace,
but their lives, the way they conduct their lives is questionable.
They don't act like children of God. Their honesty and integrity
are lacking. And Paul responds to those things
and says, God forbid. That's not what he's teaching. When we proclaim the salvations
of Christ, we're not telling people to go do what they want.
James comes along and he says that that faith that saves us,
that faith comes in, it saves us, but if it doesn't show any
fruit, That's equally as wrong. And Bob was talking earlier,
Henry used to say, a doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel
and just as empty. So I'm telling you, I'm preaching
to myself. Turn over to James chapter two. We've seen that
we're justified before God. The faith of Christ is what justifies
us before God. Here in James, this shows how
we're justified before men. I've thought of a lot of different
ways to word that, but not just people in general, I thought
we justify ourselves. How we conduct ourselves and
the providence that we live through, that the Lord puts us through,
it's a declaration to those around us, it's a declaration to our
brethren, and it's a declaration to us. We don't see it as well,
but it is. That's what he puts us through. In James chapter 2 and verse
12 it says, So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged
by the law of liberty. What's that mean? How we live
does not affect our salvation, but our salvation will influence
the way we live. We know that natural man will
be judged by the law of God, but we're freed from that. So
we saw in Galatians 5, we have liberty in Christ, don't we?
Freed from that law. James is saying here, talk like
someone that has been freed from that law by Christ. Walk like
someone that's been freed from that law by Christ. And that's
proof for us, and that's proof for others. The way we conduct
ourselves. I often don't feel this way,
but it's so. Do you serve the Lord? Do I serve
the Lord? That's what the ministry is. It's the service. I understand
more what these faithful men of old, Brother Barnard and Henry
and Don and so many of them, they say, I hope someday I can
enter the ministry. And I think they're crazy. The Lord's used
them magnificently. I'm starting to understand that.
I hope someday the Lord will use me. I hope I can serve. But we don't see it in ourselves.
We say, Lord, when do we see you hungry? When do we see you
thirsty and give you water? I don't remember that happening.
Our brethren notice that, don't they? Our brothers and sisters,
they'll see it in us before we see it in ourselves. But this
work, this fruit that James is speaking of, it justifies us
before men. Not makes us right before men
or makes us holy before men, but it defends what we believe. It declares through our actions
what we believe and who we believe. Our actions are not the means
to be saved, but it's the fruit of salvation. It's evidence of
salvation that already took place. It's already been completed.
We saw that in Galatians 5, that liberty. Stand fast, therefore,
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again in the yoke of bondage. James has said that
in chapter 1. James 1, verse 22. But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be
a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man
beholding his natural face in a glass, looking in a mirror.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he is." If this gospel of Christ
is something we see briefly, we see it twice a week, 30 minutes
at a time. And we forget it as soon as we
leave here. We're just going through the motions, aren't we?
When I hear what Christ has accomplished for me and in me, I don't want
to build my worship around my life. I don't want to squeeze
it in somewhere. I want to build my life around
the worship of God. range my life in that way, around
these precious words. Verse 25 there says, but whoso
looketh into the perfect law of liberty, Christ's liberty
in his work, and continueth therein, Christ is put in our thoughts,
and we dwell in these things, and we set our affections on
things above. He being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
James is saying if we look at this perfect law of liberty,
if we're made to look to Christ throughout our lives, what He's
done, we see that He's been merciful to us, and then we'll be merciful
to others, won't we? We see how Christ has loved us,
and we'll love others. We see how He's been long-suffering
with me. What a light and easy yoke it would be for me to be
long-suffering to somebody else. He's been kind to me. I can show
kindness to others now. This law of liberty, it is knowing
these things and then going out and doing them. It's a reaction
to the Lord's action in us. It's our response to His ability. Brother Gabe Stoniker had a message
a few years ago that says, cast out works, then go to work. I couldn't have worded it any
better. I couldn't explain it. I've lived it. Stop working and
get to work. That sounds like foolishness,
doesn't it? Turn there to James chapter 2 verse 12. James writes, So speak ye, and
so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he
shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy, and
mercy rejoices against judgment. The man that does not show mercy
will be judged without mercy. But the man that's been shown
mercy, he rejoices in it. He loves mercy. When I was reading
through this and studying, I thought of the story of, there's an evangelist,
I'll tell you who he was later, I don't necessarily agree with
everything that comes out of his mouth, but he was traveling from England
with the governor of Georgia years and years ago. And he was
the first governor of Georgia. And that man had his own state
room on the boat. And he had servants with him.
And he had a wine cabinet. And one of his servants got in
his wine cabinet and took a bottle of wine. And that governor found
out. And he went to the captain and
he said, I want this man strung up on the mast and I want him
whipped. And this preacher came up to him and said, sir, he said,
will you please show mercy to this man? You know, he didn't
hurt, he took one bottle of wine. I don't think the punishment
fits the crime. Can you be merciful to him? And he said, I never
show mercy. That's what the governor said.
That preacher looked at him and said, I hope you never need mercy
from the Lord. I hope you never offend the Lord.
He won't show mercy to you. We look at this parable Christ
gave us in Matthew 18 the other day. When you go home, read that
again, Matthew 18. But that servant was forgiven
so much debt. Thousands and thousands of dollars.
And his master forgave him. And he went out and somebody
just owed him pennies. And he took him by the throat. He didn't
show any mercy. He'd learned about mercy, but
hadn't experienced it. Hadn't been made effectual in him at
it. Our hearts were brought into remembrance of this mercy that's
been granted towards us. It must be merciful to others. If the Lord's truly been merciful
to us and truly showed us what mercy is, showed us what we are,
what we deserve, If we're made to know that, brought into remembrance
of it, it's just natural. We have to be merciful to others,
wouldn't we? He breaks our heart and gives us a new one. We can have some assurance in
this, but that encouragement through that comes from our brethren
and not ourselves. We don't see our own fruit. That's
why the Lord put us together on this earth. We see that in
one another. We're encouraged by one another.
Like I told you last week, there's always I'm always looking up
to somebody in any different area. There's a brother or sister
I'm looking to, and there's always a brother or sister that's looking
at me. It's how we walk that matters, doesn't it? But He fits
us together. That way, one's stronger when
one's weak, and that one will be stronger in another area when
this one's weak. And we're fit perfectly together. We're judged
by law of liberty, judged by law of Christ. We're judged to
be found either recipients of His mercy or judged to not be
found recipients of His mercy. But that law of liberty, it's
a litmus test to ourselves and those around us. We're finally
free to serve, to serve one another in love, serve one another in
mercy and long-suffering. But it's proof to us. I have
a physical heart inside of me. Prove it. Well, it beats. I have blood pressure. It pumps
blood, doesn't it? It does something. It works.
That snoob heart that's put in us, that spiritual heart, it's
alive too. And it does some work. There
in verse 14, James 2.14, What doth it profit, my brethren,
Though a man say, if he just says he has faith and have not
works, can faith save him? Does lip service count for salvation? If a brother or sister be naked
and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, you're naked and
hungry, and you just say to them, I hope you're warm and I hope
your belly's full, Notwithstanding you give them not those things
which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" Love is
not just an emotional idea, it's an action. My children watch videos sometimes
of people wrecking on bicycles and falling down. And a lot of
times they'll be little babies and they'll be running and they'll
fall down and hit their head or do a flip. And that camera
doesn't move. Whoever's holding that camera,
they don't... I'd have threw that camera away and went and
grabbed that baby. If I don't see that camera move, I get a
little worried about that relationship, don't you? That concerns me. That fruit of the Spirit's not
just in word only. It's a natural reaction. That
new nature, it has a reaction. There's a response. Then verse
17 says, Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone. Brother Henry used to say, Faith
alone saves, but that saving faith is not alone. Faith alone
saves us, but that faith that comes that saves us, it doesn't
come alone, does it? Works without faith are dead. But equally so, faith without
fruit Faith without works. The Lord doesn't put it in your
heart to do something with it. That's equally as dead. Verse
18 says, Yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my
faith by my works. He's saying show me your faith
and I'll show you my works which are the evidence of my faith. It's the proof of it. How can
we show faith without works? It can't be seen. You can't prove
it, can you? But by consistently actioning
through love, that'll be proof to others. If we forgive our
brother 70 times 7, I was way off on the numbers the other
day. That's 490, not 144. That's the evidence of hard work.
I can't do that of myself. I'm not long-suffering. I'm not
patient. I'm not really that kind, and
I sure ain't meek. If I have those things in me, the Lord
put it there. That new heart's there. And that's what I want
to do. I want to be like Christ. I want to be like my Redeemer.
How would we word this, what James is saying, in our modern
day, in our language nowadays, how would we word that? Put your
money where your mouth is. If that's what you believe, show
me. Galatians 5.22 says, but the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. It could also be read, against
such there is no limit. We're not capped out. A man asked
Brother Don that one time when he wrote a book. He said, well,
should we have something in there for him to do? Some kind of rule.
He said, what if they give too much? And Don said, if somebody
ever gives too much, then I'll make a rule for them. They're
spending themselves out of house and home, he said, then we'll
correct it. There's no limits on those things, is there? We
give out the abundance of our heart with our time and whatever
we have. With that, showing what we have,
a leader told me one time, he said, a real man never has to
tell anyone he's a real man. He just does manly things. I don't have to tell anyone how
blessed I am. I don't have to get a bumper
sticker that tells everybody that I like fishing or how blessed
my car is. I am blessed and then there will
be evidence of that. People say, why did you react
that way? Why aren't you scared? How did you do this? My Lord
is on the throne. Remember when you first fell
in love, did you have to tell your parents? that you were in
love. You ever tell anybody that? They
knew before you did, didn't they? Start washing that car and getting
cleaned up just to watch TV, don't you? You didn't just believe in love,
you did love. It wasn't just a word, but it
was an action. That's what James is saying there in verse 18.
Someone have faith in word only, but it's not operative. There's
no function to it. It's just a word to them. Let's
look here at Abraham again. James 2, verse 19. Abraham didn't
just believe in God. He believed God. James 2, verse
19. Thou believest that there is
one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
But their faith's just words, isn't it? They just believe in.
Satan believes that God's sovereign. He believes that he's the God
of election. He knows he chose people. That's the people he's
after. He believes these things, but he doesn't believe God, does
he? Verse 20, But thou wilt know,
O vain man, that faith without works is dead. Was not Abraham
our father justified? Wasn't his faith proven? Wasn't
his faith put on display by works when he offered up his son Isaac
to the altar? When was Abraham justified? when he believed God. When did Abraham do, or what
did Abraham do when he believed God? He followed Him. He walked with the Lord, didn't
he? He left his homeland, didn't know where he was going. He was
kind, meek to Lot. He said, if you want that side
or this side, you pick whichever one you want. I'll take the other.
That's fine. He trusted God. He worshipped
God. He obeyed God. And he took his son up on that
mountain to sacrifice him because he believed God. He didn't believe
in God. Did Abraham have faith? Of course
he did, didn't he? But how do we know? How do I
know that Abraham believed God? Through what he did. There in verse 22, James 2.22,
See thou how faith wrought with his works? Do you see now? Do
you understand how his faith was worked through and shown
and proved through His works. And by works was faith made perfect. It was revealed. His faith was
manifested through what the Lord gave Him to do. And the Scripture
was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness. And he was called the friend
of God. Now let's look back to Romans
chapter 4, verse 6. Let's read what David had to
say again. Romans 4, 6, Even as David also
describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sin are covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Christ has saved
us if we are blessed to know that our sin is not counted to
us because it's not there. That the Father will not account
sin to us because it's gone. As far as the East is from the
West, it's removed from us. Do we only agree with that? Or
do we love Him as He loved us? Do we have a heart that desires
to serve Him? Are we longsuffering because
Christ is longsuffering towards us? Are we meek because Christ
was meek? How hard would it be for me to
get off my high horse and be brought down a peg or two? God
Almighty came from His throne in heaven to this earth. And
He wasn't a king that had a wealthy life either, was He? He's a carpenter,
born in a manger, made like unto sinners. If He
can go do that, You'd think I could tone it down a little bit, wouldn't
you? I have a desire to. Do we truly trust Christ as we
say that we do? Do we live like people that believe
this gospel? I'm asking me, do I live like somebody that believes
this? Half believes it. Do I trust the God of providence?
Do I live my life that way? I pray that he makes me that
way. I pray he makes you that way. Be an example for others,
for our brothers and sisters to look at when they're looking
to us, and say, boy, the Lord's done a work in that person. I
hope we can serve him. Worship him the way he deserves
to be worshipped. What will happen here, just like that serpent,
those serpents are still in that desert with him, still biting
him, but if we keep looking to him, we keep looking at that
one lifted up on the cross, Someday, I'll be conformed to His image.
My body will be. My sin will be gone. I'll be
perfect. I don't fully understand that, but I know I want it. That's
where I want to be. I pray He makes that our desire
always and to live a life that serves Him. Let's pray together. Father, we're so weak and unable
and so helpless. Thank You for Your Son. Lord,
give us a desire to honor the Lord, honor our Savior. Give us a heart that wants to
serve Him and be conformed to Him. Give us a mouth that proclaims
this Gospel to our neighbors and our friends through our actions
and our words, Lord. Let us witness to people Simply
telling them what Christ has done in us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
this time. Thank you for your word of comfort.
Thank you for your exhortation to look to Him. Be with our brethren
everywhere, Lord. Be with those that are suffering
and sick and as this illness comes to them and they're away
from their families, comfort them. Heal them as you see fit,
Lord, but your will be done. Give us the grace to bow to that.
It's in Christ's name that we ask it. Amen.