and hope you're having a very
good week. Every day is a good day. It's a day of God's blessings
and a day in which we enjoy the goodness of our Lord and a day
in which He blesses us with continued knowledge of the Lord Jesus And
so we honor God every day and thank Him for the mercies that
He gives us. Let me read here about the faith
of Abraham. Abraham, as you know, is called
the father of the faithful. And so we pick up our reading
in Hebrews 11 verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
foreign inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing whither
he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith
also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered
of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful
who had promised. Therefore, sprang there even
of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky
in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, having
not received or having not participated in these promises, but having
seen them by faith afar off, they were persuaded of them,
and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country, and truly If they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country, that is, and heavenly, wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
a city. By faith Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said that
in Isaac shall thy seed be caught." And then we read that he was
accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead, from whence also he received him, in a figure. May the Lord bless His Word and
may He bless our faith. Give us faith to believe Him
more fully and may He curb our doubts and our
fears and enable us to believe Him. Well, let's ask God to bless
this evening. Lord, it is with God-given faith that we turn
our hearts to Thee. Indeed, we don't believe as we
should, and that's to our regret. And we don't believe You like
we're going to. But, Lord, we do believe You.
because you have given us faith. Faith is not natural to us. No man regards the things of
God. No man looks to Christ Jesus
on his own. Lord, you have gifted us with
this wonderful, wonderful gift of faith. We're so grateful. We believe
You, we believe the promises of our God, and we ask that You
would indeed strengthen that which You've created within us. Faith in our God, who is faithful
to all of Your promises. Lord, we ask for these that have
been mentioned, that You would undergird them by Your grace
and by Your strength. Lord, we don't know Your will
for Your people, those that are sick, those that are feeble.
We don't know what You intend to bring to pass. But we do know
that all things are working together for good to them who love You
to those whom you've called according to your purpose. We thank you
for that glorious, glorious promise. And we ask, O God, as we walk
daily through this world, knowing that we're pilgrims and strangers,
just as Abraham was. Here we have no continuing city. But we look for one. We look
for one in glory. And by your grace, someday we
shall enter in to that fair and happy land where the saints of
God who leave this world are fully assembled. and worship
Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who's seated upon His throne. Lord, we ask that You would more
and more wean us from the things of this world. It's so easy,
Lord, for us to become entangled with all the things that are
around us and things that are going on and we can become discouraged
and we look at circumstances and fears arise. Lord, help us to remember that
our God's in sovereign control of all things. Our great Shepherd,
our Savior, is indeed the Governor of all the nations. because of
His faithfulness unto death, having redeemed your people,
He has gone back to heaven, and there the God-man is seated upon
the throne of absolute sovereignty, and He rules, and He reigns over
all things. Nothing can happen to any of
your children apart from the will of the Savior. And nothing can happen in this
entire world except it be of the Lord. We're so thankful for
that. Now give us grace and faith to
remember that. To truly believe that our sovereign
Savior, our Redeemer, that One who is
the Friend of sinners, that He rules all things. He is the King
of kings, and He is the Lord of lords. Bless these who have
gathered this evening. We're so thankful for them. We're
thankful that you have enabled us to send the Word out through
the internet, and we ask for those who are watching this evening,
who are joining us for worship, that you would bless them, and
Lord, undoubtedly there are folks who are joining us who also have
burdens, and everybody has trials of one sort or another. And we
ask for grace sufficient for our needs, and You have promised
just that. Your grace is sufficient for
all things. And let all of us be mindful,
Lord, of the continuing mercies of God to us through Christ Jesus. That we never walk alone. That we're never by ourselves.
And though all men should forsake us, our God won't. The Savior
was forsaken, and therefore we will always enjoy the presence
of our Lord. And even when we cannot sense
that you're nearby, yet we know that you are. For you have said,
I'll never leave you, and I'll never forsake you. We ask especially
for those who sorrow, Lord, be a comforter to them through the
Word of the Lord. Now, as we go into our subject
this evening, I pray that you'll fill our hearts with gratitude
for one who is greater than Isaac, whose life was laid down in the
stead of his people. Blessed Lord, as Your Word goes
forth this evening, we ask for Jesus' sake, Amen. Let's go back to Genesis, the
22nd chapter. This evening, Genesis the 22nd
chapter, and I'm just going to take as my text and my subject
right out of the second verse where we read, God said, offer
Isaac as a burnt offering. Genesis the 22nd chapter. I'll read the first two verses
to you to kind of refresh your memory. And it came to pass after
these things that God did tempt, that is, He put to the test,
He proved Abraham. And He said unto him, Abraham.
And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, the Lord said, take
now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. Now Abraham
stands before us in this portion of Scripture as a picture. He stands as a type, he stands
as a figure, first of all, of God the Father, of God the Father,
who offered His only begotten Son in the stead of His people.
You'll notice, and I read this trying to go rather slowly, emphasizing
each word, God said to Abraham, take now thy son. And does that not put us in mind
that the Lord Jesus is indeed the Son of God? When Gabriel
spoke to Mary, and said to her that she was going to have a
child. And Gabriel said to her, He will
be called the Son of the Highest. And then later he said, He will
be called the Son of God. Think of that. The Son of God.
She would bear in her womb Her own Son indeed, because the Lord
Jesus is the seed of the woman going all the way back to Genesis
3 and verse 15. But that One that she bore into
this world is the Son of God. He's the Son of the Highest.
And then the Lord said to Abraham, Thine only Son. Thine only Son. The only Son between you and
Sarah. Thine only Son. And that puts
us in mind of the fact that for God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. He's the unique, unique one. The unique Son of God. There's
not another one like Him. Now, we're the sons of God. We're
the children of God adopted by everlasting predestination. All
of those who are the recipients of the grace of God and the salvation
that is in the Lord Jesus, we're called the sons of God. We're
the firstborn of God. But He only had one who's called
His only begotten Son. This is one who is ever with
Him. This is God's everlasting Son. Who never had a beginning
and who will never have an end. So He says, take now thy son. God took the son of His love,
the son of His bosom, the Lord Jesus. Thine only Son, God's
only begotten Son. And then He said, Whom thou lovest. You know, every word that God
spoke to Abraham in this severe trial was intended to press on
the heart of this man the greatness of this sacrifice that he was
not asked to make, but rather God commanded him to make this
sacrifice. Whom thou lovest, And have you
ever thought about the love of God the Father for God the Son? I know we talk about God's love
to us, and it's an everlasting love indeed. The Lord said to
Jeremiah, and so He says to all of His sons and daughters, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving kindness
have I drawn thee. We know He loves us, but oh,
how He loved His only begotten Son. The idea of only begotten
means His favorite. His favorite. This is one who
is one with the Father. One in will. One in power. One in authority. One in mind. One in purpose. As God is holy,
He is holy. As God is pure, He is pure. And He loved Him. God the Father
loved Him. Now, we cannot, we must not compare
our love to God's love or vice versa. When we speak about God's
loving kindness. We're really in waters way over
our heads. We cannot begin to comprehend
the love of God. And certainly we cannot begin
to understand or fathom the love of God for His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's loved Him forever. When
our Lord Jesus was to begin His public ministry, and He told
John the Baptist, I want you to baptize Me. And John took
Him into the waters and John baptized Him. The Scripture says,
And lo, a voice from heaven was heard that said, This is My beloved
Son. My beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased." When our Lord took Peter, James, and John up
on the Mount of Transfiguration, and our Lord was transfigured
before them when He made known His glory to them, and they saw
the brightness of God. as our Lord revealed to those
three disciples. His inner magnificence, His deity,
His divinity, His eternality. This is the one who is the light
of the world. It was on that occasion that
Moses and Elijah visited with our Lord. And you'll remember
that Simon Peter, who was quick to say things, he was quick to
speak. And he said, Lord, if Thou wilt,
if Thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles. One for Thee, one
for Moses, and one for Elijah. And as those words were coming
out of his mouth, as though to interrupt him, which
the voice did, God the Father spoke and said, this is my beloved
son. Now he's not saying that he didn't
love Peter, he didn't love John, he didn't love James, and he
didn't love Moses, and that he didn't love Elijah. Certainly
he did. but there's something very, very
special about His everlasting love and attachment to His Son. One with Him from all eternity. This is my beloved Son. Don't
you even think about building three tabernacles. One for my
Son and then one for Moses and one for Elijah. Don't put them
on the same level. Don't you dare do that. They're
not equal. One is My beloved Son. Beloved Son. He said, in whom
I'm well pleased, hear ye Him. This is God the Father. Who loved
His Son with, as we say, all of His heart. And again, we're
lost in the midst of this everlasting
devotion and love that the Father had for the Son and has for the
Son. No wonder when our Lord went
to the cross of Calvary and the Father forsook Him, no wonder
He was, as it were, brokenhearted Himself. He'd never been separated
from the Father. He had never been forsaken of
that One who loved Him from all eternity. But our Lord Jesus,
He bore the sins of His own people in His body on the tree. All
of our sins have been charged to Him. As Isaiah says, our iniquities
were made to meet upon the head of that servant of Jehovah. And God forsook him. And oh,
how that must have broken the heart of the Savior. These are
things that we rarely think about. But oh, the greatness, the greatness,
the eternal love of the Father for the Son. And it was never
interrupted. But the presence of God with
His Son was interrupted. And God, God didn't spare him. Romans chapter 8 and verse 32
says this, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? When I read in the book of 2
Peter chapter 2 that God spared not the angels that had sinned,
I can understand that. They defied Him, rebelled against
Him. They rose up in treason against
God and against the Son of God. When I read there in 2 Peter
that He didn't spare that bunch of wicked folks in the days of
Noah, And He sent a worldwide flood and washed them all away? That doesn't surprise me that
God spared them not. He spared not the angels that
sinned. He spared not those that He washed
into an everlasting grave. But be amazed, He spared not
His own son. He didn't cut him any slack. He didn't go easy on him. And this is all typified in God's
Word to Abraham. Take your son. Your only son. That son whom you love with all
your heart. And you take him up to a place
that I'll show you and offer him for a burnt offering. And
what Abraham was ordered to do, but didn't have to do, God did
Himself, and He had to do it if He's going to do anything
for us. If He's going to save us, God's got to go through with
it. And indeed He did. In fact, He killed His Son in
the mind and purpose of God before the foundation of the world.
And a lamb already died in God's purpose. There's no backing down
from that, didn't cut him any slack, didn't make it less on
him. You read about like the rich
man in hell who lifted up his eyes begging torment. And I know
our Lord Jesus, He did not go to a burning hell. You've got
to understand that. I know a lot of people think
when He died, He went to the burning hell and suffered. No,
He did not. He went to paradise. But as He
was hanging on the cross, He bore the equivalent of all the
fires of hell into which we would have been cast had Christ not
died in our stead. And all of the wrath that we
deserved on account of our sins, it was all poured out on Him. And God did not let up on Him. God didn't say, well, you're
the son of my bosom, you're the son of my love. You're the Son who's always been
with me. So I won't make it quite so hard
on you. No! God is just and God is holy. The wages of sin is death. A violent death. A horrible death. A death of excruciating pain
and agony. That's the kind of death He's
got to die. And the Scripture says it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. To bruise Him. What does it mean
it pleased the Lord? It satisfied God to do it. God
took out all of His anger, all of His vengeance against our
sins. He took it all out on one. His Son. His only begotten Son. his beloved son. And I mean,
if I could express it this way, he let him have it. There's no way to know, there's
no way for any of us to know how extensive that was. In fact, what happened upon the
cross of Calvary in this glorious transaction between the Father
and the Son? It was so great that God blotted
out the Son. Nobody's going to look on that.
Nobody's going to enter into the darkness. When we have said
everything we can say about His death, when the Word of God has
said all it says to us about His death, we're still very much
in the dark. And we just have to say, God, God made Him to suffer. God bruised Him. Oh, how hard he had to hit his
son to bruise him. And I know men talk about the
physical sufferings of our Lord and that was terrible. Certainly,
there's no issue there. No question about how much he
suffered physically. But as old Martin Luther said,
here's the very soul of his sufferings was his soul's suffering. Take your son. Take now thy son,
thy only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering." A burnt
offering unto God. Who delivered the Lord Jesus
up to die? Well, you could say, well, the
Sanhedrin did. They delivered him up to the
Romans, the Sanhedrin, the highest religious court in all of Israel. They, with assistance from a
trader, Judas, they delivered him up to the Romans to die.
And then the Romans, with that assistance from the Jews, they
delivered Jesus of Nazareth up to die upon the cross. But ultimately, it was God. It was God. Why did Christ have to die that
sacrificial death? to save those chosen in the covenant
of grace. In order to do something about
our sins, God had to send His only begotten Son, the Son of
His love, into this world. And He received from the Son of God the Son of God, rather, received
from the Father everything our sins deserved to receive. And then the transaction was
finished. And our Lord Jesus bowed His
head and said, well, it is finished. It's over. It's over. And He gave up the ghost. The
very character of God demanded that his son die if we're going
to be saved. That's the reason I get so aggravated. One of the words,
angry is another word. When I read of people who say
that universal redemption is the truth, that Jesus died for
everybody, and now it's up to you. That's a horrible lie. God poured out His wrath on His
Son for some specific reason and for some specific people. The sheep that He gave His Son
in covenant grace. He dealt with our sins by putting
them on His Son. who bore them away. You say, yeah, but Abraham didn't
have to offer Isaac. No, he didn't. He didn't. God found a substitute. Drop
down here and look at verse 10. Everything's ready now. There's an altar, some rocks,
piled on top of one another. The woods laid up there. Isaac
is bound on the altar. And Abraham raises the knife.
Look at verse 10. He stretched forth his hand.
He took the knife. What are you going to do with
that knife, Abraham? I'm going to kill my son. If anybody had
been watching, They'd say, this man's lost his mind. In fact,
if those two servants had gone with him, no doubt about it,
they'd say, Abraham, you can't do that! That's murder! Why is he doing this? Because
God told him to do it. But it doesn't make sense. This
is contrary to human reasoning. He can't take the life of His
Son, the Son He loves, what God told Him to. And as we read in
Hebrews chapter 11, in His own mind and heart, He just went
through with it because He believed God was able to raise Him from
the dead. That's a man who believes God right there. And verse 11,
And the angel of the Lord called unto Him out of heaven. Can you
picture the scene? He's got the knife raised and
there's Isaac on the altar. And the voice said, Abraham,
Abraham. Abraham said, here am I. The voice said, don't lay your
hand on the lad. Don't do him any harm. Don't
do anything to him. For now I know you fear God. seeing that you have not withheld
thy Son, thine only Son, from Me." And Abraham lifted up his
eyes and looked, and behold, a substitute. God provided a
substitute for Isaac. He looked and behold. It's amazing. There's a ram. He got tangled
up in the briars and the thistles and so forth, the thicket, and
he couldn't get out, and Abraham went and he took the ram. And
he killed that animal and offered him for a burnt offering, and
here's the words, in the stead of. Now that is substitution. That's real substitution. You
see this idea that the Lord Jesus died and yet you might die and
go to hell and suffer for your sins as Christ suffered for your
sins? That's just contrary to Scripture.
The Lord Jesus, He died in the stead of His people. Just like God said to Abraham,
don't kill Isaac, kill the ram in his stead. Now what kind of
justice would it have been if Abraham had killed the ram and
then killed Isaac as well? Well, you'd say, boy, that guy,
he cares nothing about justice. Isaac must go free because the
ram died in his stead. Behold the saving grace of God. Deliver Isaac from death. And
the passage that comes to my mind is that one from the book
of Job 33. Then he's gracious to him. He's gracious to him and he says,
deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom. And it's like Abraham, he looks
and he says, I found a ransom. I found a substitute. God has
directed my attention to one that's going to die in the stead
of my son. Yes, Abraham is a picture of
God the Father. There's no question but what
we ought to have died. Susanna sang, I don't know, a
couple of Sundays ago, I should have been crucified. I should
have suffered and died. We know that's true. We know
that's true. But God killed His only begotten
Son in our stead. This, my friends, is the Gospel. This is the good news. Christ
died for our sins according to the Scripture. Here's a picture. God the Father found a substitute
to die in our stead. And unlike that ram caught in
the thicket, well, I bet you when Abraham grabbed him by the
horns, he was going every which way trying to get away. That's
not the way it was with the Lord Jesus. He's led as a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers, so He opened
not His mouth. And we read in the Scriptures,
He went willingly to the cross of Calvary. Because as the Father
loved the Son of God, That's how the Son of God loves
us. If you can get a hold of that,
that'll help you a lot. As God the Father loves His only
begotten Son, His only begotten Son loves us that way. That's
a love that saves. That's a love that rescues. That's a love that goes after
the one who's going to perish. and takes care of the wrath of
God and the justice of God, and then he robes us in his own righteousness,
takes us on home to glory. So Abraham is indeed a picture
of God the Father. Here's the second thing I want
to show you, briefly. Abraham also stands before us
as a type or a picture or a figure of every child of God. God tested him. God, the Scripture
says, tempted him. He put him to the test. I said last week that temptations
are of three sorts. They have three sources. Diabolical,
that's temptations from Satan. Worldly, including temptations
from others and temptations from our own nature. And then temptations
or trials that are divine. The Scripture says here very,
very clearly that it came to pass after these things that
God did, He tempted Abraham. Now, I want you to turn to James
1 because I certainly don't want any confusion on this. James 1. We know the temptations
which come forth from Satan and from the world. Those temptations,
they have as their goal our fall, even our destruction, You know,
when Satan tempted the Savior, his goal was for the Savior to
fall and worship Him and then He would be ruined as the only
Savior of sinners. Our Lord Jesus didn't fall for
it, of course. But these temptations which do
arise, having been sent of God, they're never sent with an evil
design. Never. But as a test. God will try His people. He will
test us. James chapter 1, verse 13. Well, verse 12, blessed is the
man. James 1.12. Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive
the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love
him. Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God,
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any
man. But every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. The meaning is God cannot tempt
any man to do evil. That is never his purpose. That
is never his design. Now, also remember this. The Lord can indeed make use
of Satanic temptations, diabolical temptations, and worldly temptations
to accomplish His purpose. And indeed, He does that. You need go no further than the
book of Job chapter 1. It's Satan who assembled with
the other angels, and God pointed out to him His faithful servant,
Job, and Satan is going to tempt him, try him, get him to lose
confidence in the Lord. But when Job, when he had that
temptation, the trial, Job didn't fall, but he worshipped. God used Satan to accomplish
his purpose. And we've always got to keep
in our view that God uses everything that ever happens to bring to
pass His purpose. Now, that's a mouthful, and it's
much more than we can possibly comprehend, but it is the absolute
truth that God makes use of all things. Let me point out three things
that God is doing with the test of Abraham as you go back to
Genesis chapter 22. And I can set these before you
pretty quickly. What's God doing in this great
test? This is a test of three things with regard to Abraham.
Number one, it is a test of his fear of the Lord. Does he fear
the Lord? That is, does he reverence the
Lord? Does he worship the Lord? And you see, look again at verse
12. And he said, "...Lay not thine
hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now
I know that thou fearest God." Number one, this is a test. Does
this man fear God? Now the Lord already knows. He
already knows about the fear of the Lord. He already knows
about His faith. And He already knows about His
love. This is for Abraham's sake. It's for Isaac to witness. And
it's for millions of people to read about just like we're reading
about it right now. This is a test of Abraham's fear
of the Lord. Of the natural man it is written,
there is no fear of the Lord in their sight. And the fear
of the Lord's the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord's
the beginning of knowledge. Not a slavish dread of the Lord
as those will have who will be dragged down to hell according
to the purpose of God. This is a respect for God. Here's
what we can learn about Abraham. He feared the Lord. He really worshipped. He really
was a worshipper of the Lord. Not a worshipper in word only,
but in word and deed. He readily obeyed God because
he respected God. He reverenced the Lord. And secondly,
this is indeed a test of Abraham's faith. Now remember, all the
promises of God to Abraham were in Isaac. And Isaac is a picture
of our Lord Jesus because all of the promises of God are yea
and amen in His Son Christ. So all of these promises that
God made to Abraham are in Isaac. If Isaac dies, there's no fulfillment
of the promises of God. But Abraham is ready to offer
his son as a burnt offering unto the Lord because he believed
God. This is a test of his fear. Does
this man fear the Lord? Yeah, he does. He reverences
the Lord. And it's a test of his faith. Romans chapter 4 says of Abraham,
he staggered not at the promise of God. This is concerning the
birth of Isaac. He staggered not. Now many a
man has fallen as a result of a test. And many a man has been staggered.
To fall, you just fall to the ground. To stagger means that
you almost fall. But Abraham didn't almost fall. He wasn't close to falling. He
didn't stagger at all. God give me that kind of faith where I can just take a stand
and give God the glory and believe Him no matter what outward circumstances
are. I'll tell you what this is. It's
a triumph of God-given faith. Not faith that was natural to
Abraham, but faith that God gave him. He believed God. Can you just believe God? Even
when there are all kinds of obstacles in the way and you can't see
the way clear, can you just believe God? Abraham did. And I'll tell you something else.
It was a test of his fear, it was a test of his faith, and
it was a test of his love. Abraham's love of Isaac was indeed
tested. More specifically, his love of
the Lord was tested. Who does he love more? The Lord? Or Isaac? The dearest thing we love on
this earth, we have to be very careful that it doesn't become
an idol. Isaac could have easily become
Abraham's idol. He longed for that son. Oh, he
wanted him so bad. I finally even had to put Ishmael
out of his house. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. And the Lord emphasized Abraham's
love of Isaac at the very beginning of this test. Take now thy son, thine only
son Isaac, whom thou lovest. It's like the Lord put His finger
in the chest of Abraham, that boy you love. Do you love him
more than you love me though? That's the question. It's easy for even those of us
who are the people of God to become idolatrous. God forgive
us and God help us. Don't set your heart too fully
upon anybody or anything. Don't set anything or anybody
above the Lord. And the best illustration I could
go to in the Scriptures is there in John chapter 21. When the
Lord said to Peter, of course, the rest of the disciples were
there. And he fed them. And then he said to Simon, Simon
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Who or what do you love the most? That's the question I'm asking
of me. And you as well. Who do you love
the most? And Peter said, Lord, thou knowest all things. You know I love you. What does it mean when lovest
thou me more than these? Somebody said, well, maybe he
was saying, do you really love me more than these other men
do? After all, you did say, though
all men forsake you, I'll never will. You really love me more
than they do? Or he may have been saying, do
you love me more than all this fishing equipment and you're
going back into the fishing business? Do you love me more than your
family? Do you love me more than the
things of this world? And you know what's interesting
in that passage of Scripture? Simon Peter didn't say, I love
you the most. Ever thought about that? He just
said, Lord, you know all things. I do love you. Our love is pretty fickle. Pretty
weak. And I'll tell you, I ask God
to give me a greater fear of Him, greater reverence. I ask
Him for greater faith. I ask Him for greater love. And I want to love Him more than
anything else. Don't you? Sure you do. I'm not prepared to say that
I do, though. Is that too honest for you? I want to and I think sometimes
maybe I do. Sometimes, like John Newton,
he said, I wonder if I love Him at all. That's an interesting song that
John Newton wrote. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? If I love him, then why all these
fears and why all this stuff that comes into my mind? And
he finally winds up the song. And by the way, Spurgeon wouldn't
even put that song in his hymn book. A little too honest, I
think. I think that's the reason. It's
a long song. It'd take more than a whole bulletin,
I think, to put it in there. I do like the way Brother Newton
finished it up. He said, Lord, if I've not loved
you before, help me to start loving you today. That's good. If I hadn't feared Him before,
if I hadn't believed Him before, if I hadn't loved Him before,
let me start fearing now. and let me start believing now,
and let me start loving now. And I know this, in this world,
I won't fear Him as I should, I won't believe Him as I should,
and I won't love Him like I should, but I will in glory someday. Ah, that's a certainty there.
Then I'll fear as I ought to fear the Lord, and I'll believe
Him because faith's going to be exchanged for sight. And I
love Him. I love Him. Let's pray. Lord, Your people are a sinful people. We confess that. There's really
nothing to us except that which You give us by grace. And that which you have given
us, a fear of the Lord, we ask that you'd strengthen it. May
it grow. Greater reverence. Greater respect. Greater worship. And that faith
that you have given us, we know it's a gift of God. Not all men
have faith. But you've given us faith to
believe Christ Jesus. We ask that you'd give us a stronger
faith. Not that we'd boast about it,
although we probably, knowing how we are, we'd even boast about
that. But we need a greater faith just
to believe you more. Some of your dear people wouldn't
be so miserable and so sad and so dejected and depressed if
we had more faith. And Lord, give us more love.
In fact, there's a song, Lord, that's in our song of more love
to Thee. More love to Thee. Oh, grant
it that it might be so. Thank You for showing mercy on
folks like us. Just sinners who are stumbling
our way through this pilgrimage. Weak and helpless. Lord, we need You. Every hour
we need You. Be Thou close by. Bless us as we go home and prepare
our hearts to worship this coming Lord's Day. To God be the glory
for all the great things You've done. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen. you