John Chapter 6, and I want you
to listen as I read from Ezekiel Chapter 37 while you're turning to John
Chapter 6. I've entitled today's message, The Spirit Gives Life. The Spirit Gives Life. In Ezekiel,
the first 14 verses of Ezekiel, It reads this way, the hand of
the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel said, the prophet, the hand of
the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord
and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full
of bones and caused me to pass by them round about and behold,
they were very many in the open valley and lo, they were very
dry. And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. And he said to me, prophesy upon
these bones and say unto them, O you dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and
you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin,
and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know
that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded,
and as I prophesied, there was a noise. And behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and
the skin covered them above, But there was no breath in them.
And he said to me, prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four
winds, oh, breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may
live. So I prophesied as he commanded.
And the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon
their feet, an exceeding great army. And he said to me, son
of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say, our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut
off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say to
them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and
bring you into the land of Israel and you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you up out of your graves and shall put my spirit in you and
you shall live. And I shall place you in your
own land, then shall you know that I am the Lord, that I the
Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. Now this
is clearly a reference to what the Lord said he would do through
the prophecy that he gave to Ezekiel to raise up the bones,
these dead dry bones of the house of Israel. And that command of
God through the prophet came to the bones, and in the command
was the Lord's word to the wind to come into the bones and give
them breath, to give them life. And they stood up an exceeding
great army. And God says, he explains it, and I will put my
spirit in you. Now that's the Old Testament.
And that is what is meant when in the New Testament it says
in verse 63 of John, John 6, verse 63, it is the spirit that
quickens. Quickens means to give life.
It is the spirit that quickens. Now, I want you to look at this
verse with me beginning at verse 61, where we covered last week. But I want us to read from 61
through 64. He says in verse 61, when Jesus
knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, murmured at eating
his flesh and drinking his blood. He said, and also that had to
be given to them by God. He said to them, does this offend
you? They were offended because all
of their work counted for nothing. Everything they had done to gain
bread was chasing after something that didn't give life and their
labors were wasted. And they also were offended because
they had to come to Christ to give them that very life that
they didn't have but needed. They had to come to Him. He's
the Son of Man that would give it. He's the one God the Father
sealed in order to tell and to perform it in order that He might
give it. And then they were also offended
because he came in such humiliation. And as his disciples, they would
be humbled in receiving this life and humbled in following
him in this life. And they were mostly offended,
I think, because he told them that this is not a work you can
perform. This is a work God must do. It's a work the Father must
do to draw you. a work the Father must do to
give you to me, a work that I must do to give you this life and
raise you up at the last day, and a work that I must do to
give you this by the Spirit of God so that you might live. They
were offended by that. Men are offended when their work
counts for nothing and when the whole matter of their life and
acceptance before God is not in their hands. They can't control
it. That offends men. It offends us. And we're most
offended when we see the Lord who stooped so low in order to
give us this life because His reproaches were because of our
sins. That we would be such sinners
to bring such death and sufferings upon Him is an offense to us.
But this is the glory of God. And so He says in verse 62, does
this offend you? What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before? Clearly, the Lord
is talking about dying in this chapter, but here he's talking
about rising and ascending and going to glory where he was before
and taking the throne there at his father's right hand. And
from there, what we read in the next verse, he says, it is the
spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profits nothing. The
words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from
the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him. And therefore he said, I said unto you that no man can come
to me except it were given unto him of my father. All right,
that's what we want to understand today. It is the spirit that
gives life. Jesus began with that statement,
and he quickly followed it up with these words, that the flesh
profits nothing. The flesh profits nothing. Now,
what we are by birth, the conception of our life in our mother's womb,
All of that we are, naturally, is entirely lacking in anything
spiritual. We are naturally natural men. We are not spiritual people. Naturally, we are called flesh. And flesh means that it's what
we receive from our parents by a natural birth. We can be no
more than our parents. no more than what we receive
from them. Jesus told Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It doesn't get any better than
flesh. When God saves us, he doesn't make our flesh something
other than it is. It's still flesh. And the flesh
profits nothing. The apostle Paul said in Philippians
3, we have no confidence in the flesh. And that's the first part
of the work of God in us is to show us there's nothing in our
flesh that profits in this thing. We don't have life. We need life. We haven't come to Christ. We're
like those Jesus said here. He said he knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not. We're like that group. We're
those Jesus told in John 6 verse 26, you seek me not because you
saw the miracles, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Don't labor for that meat. We were laboring. We were not
believing Christ. We didn't have life. And yet
when the Lord's words come to us and we take those words to
ourselves and we assume that we are going to obtain what He
speaks of, we're going to put ourselves into it by something
that we can do and make happen, He tells us, no, the flesh profits
nothing. The flesh profits nothing. He
says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 50, flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit
in corruption. We can't have the kingdom of
God. We can't enter into it. We can't
even see it. in what we are naturally. That's
just flesh and blood. We have to have something else.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, he says in verse 14, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They're
foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because they are
spiritually discerned. And we don't have a spiritual
person. We're not a spiritual person.
We're flesh. And so the only What he's saying here is that
only if a person is born of the Spirit, if they're created by
God as spiritual, if they're raised from spiritual death to
spiritual life, only then can they be spiritual people. Ephesians
chapter 2. parallels Ezekiel 37, where we
read a moment ago. It describes our condition before
the Lord raised us up from spiritual death to spiritual life. And
in verse 10 of Ephesians 2, it says that we are his workmanship. We're the work. when we've been
saved, that he performs. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that
we should walk in them. So God created us in Christ. That's the way we become spiritual.
And he does this by his spirit. He says in 1 Corinthians 2, again
in verse 12, we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God. Listen to this, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. So we don't
receive the things of God because we're not spiritual, and we don't
know the things of God because we're not spiritual, we're only
flesh, and we can only know them if God the Spirit gives them
to us freely. He gives us His Spirit in order
that we might know them, and know what? The things that are
freely given to us of God. So when the Spirit of God is
given to us, it is that we might know the things freely given
to us of God, and then also with that Spirit of God comes our
ability to receive the things that are freely given to us of
God. To know and to receive. We have received the Spirit of
God that we might know and receive the things which are of God.
And so again, the flesh profits nothing. We have to be born,
we have to be created, we have to be raised to spiritual life. We have to be given the spirit
of God. And in that gift of God, of his
spirit to us, it's in order that we might know and receive the
things that are freely given to us of God, okay? So the flesh profits nothing.
Listen to these words in Romans chapter 8 and verse 6. If you
want to turn there, in Romans chapter 8 and verse 6, he says
it this way. He says, to be carnally minded,
that's the flesh. Our flesh, a carnal mind, it
means the same thing. We're just naturally what we
are by nature, by our birth, without the Spirit of God, without
spiritual life, can't know and cannot receive the things of
the Spirit of God. Until what? The Spirit of God
is given to us. So he says in Romans 8, 6, to
be carnally minded is death. So unless the Spirit of God is
given to us, we're going to remain in death. But to be spiritually
minded is life. And that spiritual mind comes
to us when the Spirit of God is given. It's life and peace
because we know then the things that are of God that are freely
given to us, and that gives us peace. Because, he says in verse
seven, because the carnal mind is enmity, hostility against
God. It's the very epitome of God's
enemy, our mind, our natural mind. For it is not subject to
the law of God. It's like an incapable, a part
of us that is incapable of being subject to God, neither indeed
can be. That part of us that is carnally
minded, is our flesh and it can't be subject to God, it's not able
to be. So then, they that are in the
flesh, that's a synonym here, we're tying this together, the
carnal mind and being in the flesh, we cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. Okay, so this life, this ability
to know the things of God and receive the things of God is
only possible if the spirit of God is given to us and dwells
in us. And the spirit of God dwelling
in us is Christ himself dwelling in us, the spirit of Christ. Christ therefore lives in us
by his spirit, all right. Now, this raises several questions
in our mind here. Several questions will come to
our mind as we think about this. Jesus is telling us in John chapter
six, that except we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son
of man, we have no life. In other words, unless we are
continuously believing on Christ as our sin bearing substitute,
and relying on him and his righteousness as our righteousness for acceptance
with God in order that we might live to God, unless this is our
continuous frame of mind. Foul am I, and to thy fountain
fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. If
that's our continuous state of mind, then that is the spirit
of God in us. And unless that is working in
us, then we don't have life. So this naturally raises our
questions. Can I make this happen? No, the
flesh profits nothing. Can I produce this faith? No,
because you can't know the things of God and you can't receive
them except by the Spirit of God and you have no life. Your
carnal mind is hostility towards God. You cannot be subject to
God's law or any of his requirements. So then if I can't make it happen,
if I can't do what I've been told I must do to have what I
must have and don't have, why then does the Lord tell me this?
Why does he say it's the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits
nothing, to me who can't make anything happen? I'm dead in
my trespasses and sins. I have no spiritual life. I can't
create this spiritual man. I can't raise myself from the
dead. I can't even cooperate in it. I can't birth myself as
a child of God. Why then does the Lord tell me
this? Does that ever come to your mind? Does it raise your
voice in prayer to God and say, Lord, if our flesh profits nothing,
if until you give spiritual life to us, we cannot receive the
things of the Spirit of God, then why do you tell us that
our flesh profits nothing? Since we can't make ourselves
spiritual, we can't make ourselves spiritually alive, we can't create
ourselves in Christ as spiritual people, we can't birth ourselves,
And it can only occur by your will, not ours. And it's not
a process that any of our parents could help in. They can't produce
this life in us. They can't make us children of
God. In fact, it's your sovereign mercy alone. You've said that
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that shows mercy. Why? Why, Lord, do you tell us
these things in so many places that our will and our works can
do nothing and that our natural selves don't profit in anything
that has to do with our salvation and acceptance? Why do you tell
us these things? Why do you tell us we must have
life if we can't produce that life and we can't make it happen? Does that thought ever occur
to you? Now, there's a lot of people in the world, in fact,
the greatest proportion of religious talkers and teachers and preachers
and those who claim to understand scripture will tell you, well,
here's the way to understand this. There's the divine side
and there's the human side. There's God's action and then
there's man's responsibility. Man's responsibility is to believe,
to respond to what God has said. If you respond, then you have
what God said you don't have and can't have, except by something
we can't define yet. But we know that it's your responsibility. You've got to somehow come up
with this. And that's the explanation given. Is that why the Lord tells
us this? You don't have life. OK. How does that help me? You can't
produce it. Well, now I'm feeling even less
capable, more helpless. And in order for you to have
life, you have to believe me. And yet I can't believe you because
faith is not of ourselves. It's given to us. It's the work
of God and only given to those God ordained to have eternal
life. And how can we do this if in our natural condition we
don't have faith? And if only the Spirit does this,
if the Spirit of God does this, then how can I have it? Why does
God tell me this? Does that ring a bell with you?
Does that help us to set the expectation now that God has
said something, and now we're looking to Him. I don't know
what to do, and I have no power, but my eyes are upon You, Lord,
you see. This grace has to be given to
us. This truth has to be declared. Why? Why does it do us any good
if no man believes? It says in Romans 11, 32, God
has concluded them. He has shut them all up in the
prison of their own unbelief. Why? Lazarus was dead. He couldn't get out of the grave.
He didn't know anything. He couldn't hear. He was dead. All of his surroundings, life
and people and birds and dirt and everything, he was completely
oblivious to it because he was dead. Why does the Lord tell
us these things then if we can't help in any way? Well, first
and foremost is because this is the truth. This is the way
things are. I was thinking about this and
talking to Terry about this yesterday. You see, God keeps an accurate
accounting of things. You know what an accounting is.
It's where you keep a record of things that you've spent and
things that you had to pay and income and you take all those
things together and you make sure that everything is right
to the penny and you account for all of the income and all
of the expenses and you tally it up and you find out what the
balance is that you have. That's an accounting. And if
someone asks you, what are you doing with that money? You say,
well, here's the accounting for it. And it's accurate. You say, it's accurate. Well,
God keeps an accurate accounting. He doesn't lie. He cannot lie. He will only do the truth. And this statement of Christ,
it is the spirit that gives life. Flesh profits nothing. That's
part of God's accounting. This is the truth of the way
things are. And we will not be saved except it is according
to the truth. Except it's according to God's
accounting. And we won't be saved unless
God explains and tells us the truth and we're on board. We've
aligned to it. God has given us His Spirit to
know these things and to receive them. This is the way things
are. And when we don't believe, then
we're in disagreement with God's accounting. We're calling Him
a liar and His accounting is false. But when God gives us
his spirit to know and receive these things, we say, this is
the way it is. This is the way it is. I might not be able to
explain it. I might not be able to contribute
to it. But this is the way it is. And
now we're in agreement with God. So that's the first thing. It's
because this is the truth. It's the only accurate accounting. And to have anything else is
false. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
accountant. He's the one who sets the books
straight. He's the one who answers to God.
On God's account, there's a deficit in our column. We have a debt,
a debt of our sin crimes and sin calls for God's justice,
death. And so in order for God to give
us life, He first has to set the books right. If the Lord
gives us life by His Spirit, if the Spirit of God gives us
life, then that life itself has to be given to those who are
only holy. Because the Spirit of God doesn't
cook the books. He doesn't fudge the account.
He only gives life because of holiness and righteousness, because
the sins have been taken away. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who gave himself a ransom in order to redeem us from our
sin and the curse of God's law and from death. He paid the debt
our sins owed God for our crimes in order that he might deliver
us from the death that our debt brought from God in order to
balance his books. Christ balanced the books. He
balanced the scales of justice. He put himself and his obedience
and his blood on the one side and God's justice on the other.
And he did it for us. And this is how we're delivered
from our sins. This is the focus of what Christ's
words were in John chapter six. This is his flesh and blood given. Look at Galatians chapter three.
In Galatians chapter three, he tells us this. This is what Christ
did. He's the great accountant, the
one who paid the debt for our redemption. Galatians 3, he says
in verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Being made a curse for us. This is amazing grace, isn't
it? Amen. This is amazing. This is the
truth. This is God's account. If you
looked in the books and say, Give a true and accurate account
of how you can save sinners. God will say, Christ has redeemed
us. A payment was made, a payment
was accepted, and the books were balanced. The curse was lifted
because the sins were put on him, and he bore them, and he
endured the punishment for them, the curse of God's law. He has
redeemed us, he paid the price. God demanded for our release. And we're delivered from the
curse. That's what redemption is, being delivered because of
a payment, a ransom payment for a debt we owed and couldn't pay.
So Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law as it is
written, curse it is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He hung
on the cross, the tree. And then he says in the next
verse, notice this carefully, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. You see, the blessing
of Abraham was, look at verse 8 of Galatians 3. The scripture foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen, that's the Gentiles, through
faith, looking to Christ only. He did it all, preached. before
the gospel to Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be
blessed. In Christ, his seed, all nations
would be blessed. How? because the Lord Jesus Christ
would offer himself to God for the sins of his people, and in
that offering of himself would bear their sins, taking them
from them and bearing them before God, and God pouring out his
wrath, the curse of his law upon him, and therefore receiving
full payment of satisfaction to his justice. Now that was
done, Christ did that in order that the blessing of Abraham
might come on us Gentiles. And therefore it's not by the
law, because we didn't have the law like Israel did, and we were
not keeping it. And that's all through Jesus
Christ. because he laid his life down in full payment, God's blessing
to justify his people. God's own righteousness has been
established in his death, and he gives it to them and justifies
them for that, and that's why God raised him from the dead.
He was delivered for our offenses, raised again because of our justification. But notice in verse 14, Galatians
3, 14, it continues. Not only are we justified, that
we might receive, he says, the promise of the Spirit through
faith. Christ having established the righteousness of God in His
own death on the cross, His blood justifying us, God looking at
His blood and passing over us and giving us His righteousness
and accounting what He did as ours. Receiving from him the
payment in his own ransom life laid down as our redemption and
setting us free. And how was that deliverance
given to us? Because redemption is deliverance.
How was that debt removed by his blood? What was the consequence
of removing that debt? Freedom, liberty, deliverance
from captivity, from bondage, from the curse. from sin and
from death, and that's why he says that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith. The Spirit of God gives
life. The Spirit of God is given to
us because Christ died for us. And we receive it through faith.
How do we receive the Spirit of God through faith? We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of the Spirit of God
is to show us Christ, to make us know the things of the Spirit
of God, and to receive those things freely given to us because
of the death of Christ. So we are, by the Spirit of God,
directed to Christ, to look to Christ, to trust Him, and to
find our sin paid in the offering of Himself to God for our sins.
And to find our righteousness established in His obedience
unto death. And to find our life in the reward
of God to Him for His own righteousness given to us. And that life is
given to us when He gives us His Spirit. And in that life
we're looking to Christ only. And that is the life of the Spirit
of God, to give us a sight of Christ. And believing Christ,
we have everlasting life. And so he says, through the Spirit,
we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Because
in looking to Christ, what happens? Well, we look because we hear.
Faith comes by hearing. Hearing what God has done in
Christ. By Christ's own words, He gives us His Spirit. And His
Spirit gives us faith. And faith in Christ, we realize
God has given us life. And the reward of Christ's righteousness
has been fulfilled in us. Because now we believe Christ
and that is because we know and have received the things of God
freely given to us by the life and the power of His Holy Spirit
because of the redeeming work of Christ. You see? That's why. That's why He tells
us this. So the accounting will be straight.
So God will act according to his own truth and he will be
magnified in his glorious achievements in Christ's work and the gift
of his spirit in order that we might know and receive these
things and have everlasting life. What a great salvation. All of
it's of God. He tells us this, we can't produce
it. We can't contribute to it. He
tells us this, that we might know the way things are. And
being in agreement with him, we find that we now have the
mind of Christ. This is what God sees. This is
what Christ says. This is what Christ did. This
is his glory. And now we're on board because
he gave us his spirit to know it and receive it. And the other
thing, of course, the other reason why he tells us this, that we
can't produce the life we must have, we can't believe what we
must believe in order that, unless he gives it to us, unless it's
given of the Father and given us by the Spirit, and unless
Christ died for us, he tells us that in order to humble us. In order to humble us. How many
times in a day, and throughout the week, and throughout the
month, and the year, and your life, have you found yourself
humbled because of your sin? And it's most humbling to realize
that your sin is so great, and you're that which you are by
nature, and you can't do anything about it. And that's humbling,
isn't it? And then you realize that salvation
that you must have must be given to you by God. from Christ and
by His Spirit through His Word, and it humbles you. And what
does it do then when you hear these things? Well, your mind
is taken up with them. If God is working in you, the
operation of his spirit of life is working in you, your mind
is taken up with these things. You're continuously looking upon
what Christ has done as this is the only payment of my sin.
This is the only way my sins could be taken from me is if
he took them, if he bore them, if he balanced the books, if
he established righteousness, if God looks at what he did as
all that he requires of me. and gives me life in his spirit
because of that. And you begin to think about
these things. And it's by the word of God. And suddenly you
find yourself persuaded. This is the way things are. And
you're resting on it. And you're taking peace from
that. And joy. And you find out that this is
also by the power of the Holy Spirit. You don't feel the Holy
Spirit. You can't see him. You can't
control him. And you can't impede Him. You
can't keep Him from doing His work. You can't do anything to
control Him. You're at His will, at what pleases
Him, but He has directed you to Christ. And in this God-given
faith, He tells us this is eternal life. It's in His Son. Looking
to Christ, we have it. It humbles us and it keeps us
humble because we have only one thing as a sinner. Lord, be my
life. Answer for me. and give what
you alone can give. And so it shuts us up in this
prison of our own helplessness, and it directs our attention
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work of the Spirit
of God. That's the work. The Lord Jesus
Christ purchased us by His blood, purchased
our freedom from sin and death, in order that He might give us
His Spirit of life, to be our life, and in the Spirit of God,
in that life, to know and receive the things that He freely gives
to us because of His death. He purchased us by His blood. He made us holy by His righteousness
in His own blood. And then he, because of that,
gives us his spirit. He earned that in the covenant
of God's grace to give us this life by his spirit. And with
his spirit, he directs us by faith to how he purchased us
and gave us this life. And this is all done to the delight
of the Lord Jesus Christ and to our own peace and joy. What
a great salvation, isn't it? This is why he tells us it's
all of God. It's a strict accounting of the
truth and it humbles us and it directs us to Christ alone for
everything. And this is the way God produces
faith. Look at John chapter six in verse 63. He says, it is the
spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing, the words that
I speak to you, they are spirit, they are life. Remember Ezekiel,
speak to these dead bones, prophesied. He spoke. What was He speaking?
The Word of the Lord. What is the Word of the Lord?
What Jesus said in John chapter 6 about His own flesh and blood
being our life, God-given, and He gives it to us. And when He
spoke that word in Ezekiel 37, what happened? God sent his spirit,
his breath, into those bones and raised them up. What happens
when we hear? By the power of Christ, we hear
the gospel preached to us by his will and by his grace giving
us that life. What happens? We believe. That's
life. He says, the words that I speak
to you, they are spirit. They are life. Now, I need life. and I need it because I don't
have it. I don't have spiritual life unless
God gives it, and it has to be given to me by the Spirit of
God, and I can only be given this life and the Spirit of God
if I'm holy, and I can only be holy if Christ died for me and
made me holy in His own blood. I don't have it by nature. My
flesh doesn't contribute to it. I can't produce it. I can't fetch
it. I can't make it happen. But the
son of God must give it to me, and he gives it to me because
God sent him to do that, sealed him to do that, and he did that
in shedding his blood. And no amount of labor on my
part can create this life. I can't earn this life by what
I do. It's all by his work. And so
the Lord Jesus Christ tells me is by his spirit. Now, what does
he say this? What happens when I hear these
words and I realize my helplessness and his sovereignty in this,
what happens? Well, I might have a reaction that being out of
control, I feel like a leaf on the river and I have no control. And I might feel less confident
because of that. But it shows me that my confidence
was therefore based on something I could do. And that was a false
confidence. So he removes that. He knocks
that out from under me. And then he says, it's the spirit
that quicken it. And the words that I speak to
you, they are spirit and they are life. And what happens? Well,
suddenly the truth of God's accounting in Christ's work comes pouring
in that the Spirit of God can do whatever He wants and does
do whatever He wants. He gives life to the dead. He
creates life out of the void and darkness of my own spiritual
non-existence. and he births me as God's child
through the blood of Christ, and he gives me this faith, and
suddenly we realize that because this life is by the Spirit of
God, and the Spirit of God is given to us because of the blood
of Christ, therefore it's most certain, therefore it cannot
fail. It doesn't depend on my weakness,
but is given to me in spite of my sin and my weakness. And what
does that do? It encourages me. Christ is all. Christ is enough. Yes, I'm nothing. Yes, by myself I can do nothing. But that's the good news. It takes it out of my hand, it
puts it in Christ's hands. And what else would give me comfort
than to know the one who sits on heaven's throne at God's own
right hand, making intercession for us, having risen from the
dead, is the one who gave himself for our sins. If when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Saved
by his life. So we take heart, don't we? And
we begin to realize, as we read in Romans 15, I'll read this
to you again. I love that verse. When Brad
was reading to us this scripture in Romans 15, he says this. Now the God of hope, this is
powerful, now the God of hope, The one who gave us this hope,
whose word speaks and gives this expectation to us that we will
be saved because of Christ, to the uttermost. Now the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace. You see how we depend
on him for everything, even the joy and peace. Fill you with
all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope,
notice, through the power of the Holy Ghost. If God Himself
must exert His power to do something, then you contribute nothing. It's not within your power. It's
only within His almighty power. This is impossible for you. And
so what does it do? It causes us to look to Him and
come to Him and say, Lord, I need this life. It's spiritual life,
I can't produce it. It's given to me freely. It comes
to me because of your blood and righteousness. You bore the curse
in my place in order that I might receive this justification by
your righteousness and receive your Holy Spirit. And by faith,
looking to you, I know I have your Holy Spirit. You've applied
this salvation to me because you've caused me to know my helplessness
and sin and find it all in Christ. And now I have this great joy
and peace in believing. And that obviously is only possible
by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we're thankful, and we
ask the Spirit of God, Lord, show us Christ. And we ask the
Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, give us your Spirit. And we find ourselves
praying according to God's revelation, according to God's own accounting.
And the books are all tidy. Everything's perfect. God is
glorified. We are saved. And God's work
is the only thing left standing when all the dust of the ruin
of this world and our own life is gone. Let's pray. Lord, thank
you for your grace that you would so set your love on us from eternity
in the Lord Jesus Christ and bind us to him by that everlasting
love and give us by providing all in the Lord Jesus Christ
the remission of our sins, a clothing of your own righteousness, making
us holy by the sprinkling of His blood upon us. and even in
our conscience by your Holy Spirit causing us to know these things
and receive them as so and to stand upon them and everything
else in life crumbles in our estimation and in our experience
one day it will crumble and yet we see Lord you're stable, you're
the rock, you're the refuge, you're our strength, You're our
deliverer. You are our all, our redeemer,
our ransom. The precious blood of our Savior
has done all for us. What amazing grace. Lord, you
are very great and your honor and your majesty appears to us
in the work of your son. when we were sinners and without
strength, and you've put us among your children, you've given us
your grace, made us accepted in Christ and done it all by
yourself to your glory, and we're glad to have it that way. Thank
you, Lord, for your word that gives us this truth. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.