Well, we come again this evening
to Romans chapter 11. And I began this morning a message
on the subject, there is a remnant. I'll give you the definition
of remnant again, if you wouldn't mind. That which is left over. That which is left behind. those of you who do some sewing,
needlework, who make quilts, etc. You're quite familiar with
remnants, the unused portion of peace goods. The word also means that which
is reserved or that which is set aside and that which is a
surviving group. In the context, the great apostle Paul makes
mention of an Old Testament hero, really, a prophet of God by the
name of Elijah. Elijah was bemoaning the situation
in Israel. He had just faced off against
450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the grove. He has
withstood them to their faces. and he put a challenge before
them. And you've read the scripture
there in 1 Kings, and they had their offering that they presented
to their God, Baal, and their God wouldn't answer. He couldn't
answer because there is no God called Baal. It's just an idol.
It's a dead thing. And they cut themselves and went
through great religious efforts to demonstrate their devotion
to Baal. But notwithstanding all that
they did, of course there was no answer. There was no fire
that fell to devour the sacrifice. And then, God's servant. He took over and he first of
all had them to water down, just absolutely soak everything, that
which would be the sacrifice as well as the altar itself.
And then he offered to God a 63 word prayer. Think of that, 63
words is all. And God answered from heaven
and fire fell and devoured the sacrifice and everything. And then Elijah gave instructions
concerning the prophets of Baal. He gave instructions to his men,
perhaps those in the school of the prophets. But he said, you
take these men down to the brook and you kill them. You kill them
with a sword. We say that's pretty dramatic
there. Why would he do that? Because
they lied on God. That's why, that's an awful crime. to lead men and women and young
people in the worship of a false God. That's a terrible thing.
And he said, let's put them out of business. Let's do it for
good. And so then he went and told
the king of Israel, his name was Ahab. He told Ahab, because
he said, after seven days, a messenger came to him and said, I see a
cloud in the sky. And Elijah went to Ahab and said,
you better get off this mountain because God's going to send rain.
The famine's going to be over. And so they all left. And then
Ahab, he went back, he was a king of Israel. Remember this in your
Old Testament history, that the northern kingdom of Israel never
had a king that worshiped God. Every one of their kings was
rotten. of the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, they did
have some good kings, godly kings, men who worshiped and feared
God, but not the northern kingdom. Never did they have a good king.
Right after the kingdom divided, they never had a good king. Ahab
was a vile man, and he was married to a vile woman called Jezebel. As soon as he got back to the
capital, Samaria, he told his wife what had happened. She hit
the roof. She said, I'm on the war path
now. And she sent a message to Elijah. And she said, in essence, I've
heard what you did. You killed my preachers. You
killed my preachers. And she said, may the God do
to me that and more by this time tomorrow, if you're
not dead. She said, I'll get you by this
time tomorrow. And this man of God who stood
up in front of 850 false preachers, he just buckled. And he ran. He ran. He laid down under the
juniper tree. And basically he said, Lord,
just take my life. He said, it is enough. That's
what he said. It is enough. Meaning I've had
enough. I'm wore out. Jezebel's after
me. Just take my life. Angel of God
visited him and said, get up, Elijah. Here's some bread for
you to eat. Here's some water for you to
drink. And then go, you'll leave then. And he did. He left and
went 40 days and 40 nights. That food did him good. And then he goes out and then
he just sets down and he begins to feel sorry for himself. And
that's what this passage is about, because this is what he says.
Look at, and this is the apostle quoting him. Look at verse, the
second verse. He says, God hath not cast away
his people, which he foreknew. Won't ye not what the scripture
saith of Elias or Elijah? Elijah. how he maketh intercession
to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they killed thy prophets,
they dig down thine altars, and I am left all by myself. I'm left alone, and they seek
my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? What did God say to him? God
said, I have reserved to myself. 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee
to the image of Baal. Cheer up, Elijah. You're not
by yourself. And you know, even if he was
by himself, he's not truly by himself because the Lord was
with him. Do you ever feel like you're
by yourself? You're the only one. Maybe you
feel like I'm the only one in my family. I'm the only one in
my house. It just doesn't seem to be anybody
who's taking a stand for the gospel of grace. Well, you're
never by yourself. The Lord is with you. But moreover,
the Lord said to Elijah, he said, I've got 7,000. You don't even
know about them. You don't even know about them.
And he says this, now we go back to the words of the apostle Paul,
and he says, even so then at this present time, right now,
and he writes to the believers in Rome, and he says to them,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There
is a seed. There's that group who will survive. There's that group God has set
apart for himself. He's reserved these people for
himself at this present time. You see, God's purpose of grace
has never been and will never be in jeopardy. And we may, as we view things,
we may draw this conclusion, well, the remnant is just a few. It's just a few of us, preacher.
Well, at any given time, generally, that's a fact. But when you get
all of the people of God together, well, as John sees them in the
book of Revelation, he says, it's a multitude which no man
can number. when things were at their worst, where there was wickedness abounding
throughout the nation of Israel, and Elijah felt all by himself,
God reminded him, things are not as you perceive them to be
because I have a people out there. And I wanna say to all of us
and to those of you who are watching by way of the internet tonight,
I know according to our eyes, things in this nation are awful. They're bad. Weakness abounds. There's no question about that.
Perversion is readily accepted. Babies are murdered on demand. There's a lot of rottenness out
there. There's a lot of crookedness
out there. There's a lot of corruption out
there, but God has his people still. And they've been brought
to love him and believe him. And his work is never in doubt,
is never in trouble. He has a remnant. Now, of this
remnant, and we know this, there is selected people. He says,
look at it again in verse five, even so at this present time,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Let
me read on because I want to show you something out of verse
7 again. And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained what
it seeketh for, what he seeketh for. And I told you this morning
that word obtain comes from a root word, which means to hit the
mark, to hit the bullseye. They didn't get what they wanted.
They wanted righteousness, they wanted life, they wanted salvation,
but they didn't get what they wanted because they didn't seek
it in the right way and didn't seek it in the right place. If
you want life, if you want righteousness, if you want salvation, you seek
that in Christ Jesus. Now don't seek that in your works.
You're not going to find it there. You're not going to obtain what
you're looking for. You're not going to hit the bullseye. You're going to miss everything.
You'll miss heaven, you'll miss God, you'll miss salvation, you'll
miss Christ, you'll miss everything. You're not going to obtain what
you're looking for. But watch this, the election
hath obtained it. That's what I want to emphasize
now. The election hath obtained it. You see, God in his sovereign
mercy, he has set himself to save a people. He chose a people
unto salvation. And that election of grace will
hit the bullseye. It will be successful. It cannot
be that the purpose of God be nullified or be frustrated. It cannot be that the love of
God should in any way fail. Every object of divine love will
receive that salvation that has been appointed for them. The
election hath obtained it. And I hear people say negative
things about the doctrine of election. Well, if I were you,
I wouldn't ever say anything negative about the doctrine of
election because it says here, election, it has obtained. It has hit the bullseye. It has
hit the mark. You owe everything to God's sovereign
election of you unto salvation. If you're a believer, You would
not believe this evening. You wouldn't have any interest
in the gospel of grace unless God had, before he made this
world, he set you apart, he reserved you unto himself, and he set
you, he set you in Christ Jesus, he put you in the Son of God,
and he ordained you to be one of his children. You owe everything
to sovereign grace if you believe her. Oh, do I love the doctrine
of election? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. All that I am, a believer, a
purchased child of God, an heir of grace, an heir of glory, all
that I am and all that I hope to be someday, election, has
obtained it. Election has obtained it. It
hits the mark. Our Lord is no failure. He doesn't
try to do something, we fail. We try to do something, we stumble
and come up short and we can't do what it is we set out to do,
but He never fails. He never fails. Election has
obtained everlasting life for specific people. Election has
obtained salvation for specific people. Election has obtained
righteousness for specific people. And don't overlook this also,
the last words of verse seven, and the rest were blinded. There is the remnant, and then
there's the rest. All the rest. There's the people
of God chosen unto salvation, and there's the rest. And it
says in the rest, we're blinded. First of all, blind willfully. Naturally blind. blind to the
things of God, blind to the glories of Christ Jesus, blind to salvation
by grace. They're blind themselves, and
they're blinded by Satan. Satan has blinded their minds,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of God should shine unto
them, and blinded by God. That's judicial blindness. The
rest were blinded. Why is it that you're with the
remnant and not with the rest? Let me tell you something now.
The remnant were just as evil and just as wicked and just as
unworthy as the rest. There's no difference in us by
nature. The only difference is the difference
grace made. It's like when Moses was talking
to Pharaoh. He said, the Lord has put a difference
between Israel and Egypt. Well, you say, well, Israel was
a much better people than the Egyptians. I beg your pardon.
They're just as rotten as the Egyptians. They're just as godless
as the Egyptians. Abraham is an heir of the Chaldees. He was an idolater. He was an
idolater. All of his offspring were naturally
idolater, just like the Egyptians. Well, why is it that Abraham
is called the father of the faithful? Why is it that out of Abraham's
seed there came forth a believing people? Who made the difference? The Lord made the difference.
He made the difference. Here's the remnant and here's
the rest. Which group are you in? And if you're in the remnant,
Who put you in the remnant? The Lord did. Did he do it by
accident? Or did he do it on purpose? Did
he put you among the elect because he determined to do that? Or
did you just kind of accidentally wind up in that group? Well,
I finally wound up in that group. If you're a believer, you've
always been in that group. And these other ones have always
been in that group. Go back to Isaiah chapter one.
Let me show you something here. Look at Isaiah chapter one. Now
this is a selected people. There is a remnant, there is
a remnant of people who will survive. We're survivors, aren't we? We
survive forever. through Christ Jesus, who is
our life. Isaiah chapter 1, here in Isaiah
chapter 1, the Lord sets forth the sinfulness of all people.
But he has Isaiah make this astounding statement in verse 9. Isaiah 1, 9, except the Lord
of hosts, Jehovah, the great I am, God our Savior, He's the
Lord of the hosts, He's Lord of the angels, except He had
left unto us a very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom,
and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. He uses some interesting words
here. And he paints a picture for us
in verses seven and eight. He says, and of course he's talking
to natural Israel, which they're a typical people. He says, your
country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land,
strangers devoured in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown
by strangers. And the daughter of Zion, who's
the daughter of Zion? That's the remnant. That's the
remnant. The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard and
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers as a besieged city. Here's what
the Lord says. Let me tell you what you're like,
the remnant. Let me tell you what you're like.
You're like, that lone cottage or shanty. You see, when they
had a vineyard, the overseer of the vineyard, he built a little
rough house for him to stay in at night. And if you had a cucumber
farm, the same sort of idea there. A lodge where a guard, a night
watchman, if you will, would stay there. And here comes the
enemy through, and they just destroy everything, and everything
is gone except that little shanty, and it don't look like much to
anybody. and that little cottage. Say,
well, that's not worth much. The Lord says, now wait a minute.
You're that little shanty that's left. And you're that little
cottage that's still standing. While everything else has been
destroyed, you're still standing. And the reason for that is this. There is a remnant. The Lord
chose you. He selected you. And I know the
world doesn't think much about the true church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's just a shanty. It's just
a shack. There's nothing impressive about
those people. Well, that's true. As you look
at us, there's nothing impressive about us. But I'll tell you,
He who loved us and gave Himself for us, He's impressive. and
He's the one who has spared us. And one of these days, He's gonna
come through like an enemy, and He's gonna destroy everything.
And guess what? The shack's still gonna be standing,
and the cottage is still gonna be there. We'll dwell with Him
forever and ever, and everybody who perishes will wish, man,
I wish I'd been in that shanty. I wish I'd been in that cottage. And so he says, he uses those
two illustrations. And so he says in verse nine,
except the Lord had left unto us a very small remnant. We'd
have been wiped out. Let me ask you something. Why
is it that you're not in hell? You're born a sinner, weren't
you? You drank iniquity like water,
didn't you? Yeah. In Adam, you lifted up
your fist against the holy God, didn't you? Yeah. You committed
treason against the Lord. You hadn't been thankful. You
hadn't believed Him. You haven't loved Him. You haven't
worshipped Him. How come you're not in hell?
I'll tell you why. You're a member of the remnant. and the election has obtained
everything you need for your salvation. The second thing about these
people, they're not only a selected people, but here's the second
thing. Not only are we chosen unto salvation,
and by the way, let me quote a couple of references to you,
and I jotted them down here and I don't want to forget to read
them to you. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14, but
we're bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory, of our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose you. He chose you. Romans chapter
9, for the children being not yet born, either having done
any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works. But of him that called it that
was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose,
if I raise thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth, therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. That's the God of the Bible.
And I wish I could shout this from a mountaintop because people
don't know who God is. He is the God who can soften
or harden. He is the God who saves and he's
the God who damns. And it's all up to His will. He showed mercy to whom He would
show mercy. Who did He show mercy to there
in Romans chapter 9? To Moses and the Israelites.
Well, who did He harden? He hardened Pharaoh. And you
look in the Word of God, the first one who hardened Pharaoh's
heart was God Himself. God hardened His heart. Well,
why would God do that? In order for him to bring his
purpose of redemption to pass through the presentation of Moses
of the Passover lamb and redemption by the Passover lamb, the safety
of the firstborn. Then here's the second thing,
and I'll go quickly. These are a sinful people. And that's set forth in the first
part of Romans chapter one. Oh, excuse me, Isaiah chapter
one. Behold the goodness of God to
all men. And I'm just, I'm gonna read
through this. Ron read these verses this morning. Look at
verse two of Isaiah one. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth. God, as a prosecutor, makes his
case. He presents the indictments against
Israel. And He calls upon the heavens
and the earth as witnesses. Hear, O heavens! Give ear, O
earth! These people won't listen, but
the heavens and the earth will listen to their Creator. He says, For the Lord hath spoken,
I have nourished and brought up children, They've rebelled
against me. The ox knows his owner. The ass
his master's crib. Here's rebellion. Here's treason.
Here's unthankfulness. And he says, but Israel doth
not know my people doth not consider. And he says, ah, ah, alas, woe, sinful nation. That's all of us. A people laden,
laden with iniquitous seed of evildoers, children that are
corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They provoke the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They've gone
away backward. They've left God. We left God
in Adam. You do understand that, don't
you? We've gone away backwards. We forsook God. He didn't forsake
us. We forsook Him. We were the ones
in Adam who tried to hide from God. And so the Lord says in verse
5, why should you be stricken anymore? All those physical afflictions
and calamities that He brought upon Israel. He said, why should
I send them anymore? You'll just revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick, all of your thoughts, all of your reasoning,
all of your meditations, it's vile. And the whole heart fainteth. You love what you ought to hate
and you hate what you ought to love. You're just terribly in
trouble. And he says, from the sole of
the foot even to the head, there's no soundness. There's no wholesomeness. This is our natural problem. All of us, there's no spiritual
wholesomeness about us. We're diseased. We're sick. You
understand that? We're sick. We're so sick that
we're spiritually dead. We have no ability to do anything
for ourselves toward God or toward salvation. And you see, the evidence that
God has chosen us unto salvation is that he intervenes. He doesn't
leave us like this. He doesn't leave us the way he
finds us. I tell you what, he didn't leave Adam and Eve the
way he found them. Did he? No, they're dressed in
fig leaf aprons. He said, that's not gonna do.
I'll kill a couple of animals. I'll skin them. I'll shed the
blood. I'll clothe you. He did for them. They didn't
do anything for him. Oh, how distorted and how messed
up religion is today. Won't you do something for God?
You can't do anything for God. God's got to do something for
us. That's what we've got to realize.
This is what people don't understand. Salvation's a work of God in
us and for us. Oh, and Adam, we've committed
treason, we're ignorant, we're ungrateful. I heard a preacher the other day.
He said, surely COVID-19 will cause people to look to the Lord. No, it won't. No, it won't. Why should you be stricken anymore? That's what God said. It's almost
as if if we were saying it, we'd probably say, I'm not gonna waste
the effort on you. I send judgments to you, you
don't listen. I send mercies to you, you're
not thankful, you don't pay any attention. What's use in fooling
with you anymore? That's what God's saying. You
see, physical judgments like COVID-19 or whatever, hurricanes,
tornadoes, in themselves, they have no ability to draw anybody
to Christ Jesus. And so will God ever use those
things? Now, he may be pleased to use
them to kind of stir people up. but that which God always uses
is His Word. His Word, the Word of the gospel,
that's what God uses. While there is an abundance of
evidence in all of the scriptures of that, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, preaching
the Word of God. That's why we continue to preach.
We continue to preach. So these are a selected people.
These are a sinful people. And then look at Isaiah chapter
11. This remnant there is secured
people. And I want you to look at this
one, Isaiah chapter 11. And in that day, Isaiah 11 verse
10, and in that day, in that gospel day, that's what it's
talking about. There shall be a root of Jesse."
Who's that? Christ Jesus. Which shall stand
for an ensign, for a banner of the people. To it shall the Gentiles
seek and his rest shall be glorious. After he rendered obedience to
the father in his substitutionary death, he rested. He rested in
the tomb. and he's gone back to glory,
his rest is glorious. And he gives us glorious rest,
coming to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give
you glorious rest. Watch verse 11, it shall come
to pass in that day, in that gospel day, that the Lord shall
set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant. Now, that word recover, here's
what it means, to buy, to purchase, to acquire, to cause, to possess. He's going, God himself said,
this is my word. I will set my hand to recover
the remnant of his people. I'm gonna purchase the people,
that's what God said. Well, you know where that happened.
That happened at the cross of Calvary. You're bought with a
price. What is the price? The precious
blood of the Lord Jesus. We're redeemed. Redeemed by what? Redeemed by the blood of the
lamb. Bought. It's what redemption
means to buy. Well, who were we bought from? Divine justice, which held us
for ransom. But you love that passage in
the book of Job where the Lord says, deliver him from going
down to the pit. I found a ransom. I found a ransom. I found a payment. Hey, something's
gotta be done about your sins. There's just no question about
that. The wages of sin is death. God must get death for your sins. And he's gonna get your death,
which that'll be forever, the death of a suitable substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a secured people. This is a bought people. We're
a selected people, but we're still a sinful people. But we're
a bought people. We've been purchased. Do you
remember in the book of Acts chapter 20, Paul met with the
Ephesian elders to give some final instructions to them. And
he knew, and after he told them, they knew it'd be the last time
they'd meet together. He said, now feed the church
of God, which he had purchased with his own blood. He bought
us. Not with silver or gold. That's
how they purchased slaves back in those days. And that's all
right for physical slavery, but the kind of slavery we had, that
which held us in slavery, took the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Biblical redemption. We're delivered. Here's the fourth
thing. We're not only a selected people and a sinful people and
a secured people, but look at Isaiah 11 again. And verse 16,
we're a special people. We're unique people. Because
it says here, there shall be a highway for the remnant. This
is a special people because God has constructed a highway. How far does it reach? From here
to glory. That's how far it reaches. It's
a highway. It's a narrow way. It's a straight way. It's a living
way. It's a safe way. It's a free way. Won't cost you
anything. No, there should be a highway
for the remnant of His people. For His people who are special
to Him. Special to Him. the people who belong to him.
The Lord says in Deuteronomy 7 in verse 6, for thou art a
holy people unto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself. He chose you to be special. You're different, because you're
God's property. Yes, you are. And then look at
chapter 10, back up a little bit. These people, this remnant,
they're a stayed people. Chapter 10, verse 20. It shall
come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such
as are escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more stay or lean upon him that smote them. but
they shall stay, they shall lean on the Lord, the Holy One of
Israel, and they'll do it in truth, according to truth. I tell you what, election has
obtained this for us. It sees to it that all who are
the Lord's, all of his special people, all of his redeemed people,
We're gonna come to rest in, trust in, stay on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're a stayed people. And
we're brought to the king's highway. And I'll go quickly and wind
this up. Go to Isaiah 37. They are a safe
people. Look at Isaiah 37. Isaiah chapter 37, look at verse
31 and 32. And the remnant that is escaped
of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit
upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go
forth a remnant and they that escape out of Mount Zion. Well, how do you know this is
going to happen? The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. They are a safe people because
they are people who escape. Escape. They escape the judgment
of God because somebody else was judged in their stead. They
escape the dominion of sin. They escaped condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. The reason that we shall escape
is because somebody else took the weapon for us. And it says they shall take root
downward, rooted and grounded in Christ. And you know, the
longer we're where we believe the grace of God in Christ Jesus,
the deeper our roots are. And you know, for those of you
who've been here a good many years, the message from this
pulpit hasn't changed through the years. The things that Brother
Mahan preached many years ago, same thing being preached now,
and our roots just go down deeper. And as the roots go down deeper,
the fruit rises upward to the Lord. The fruit of thanksgiving,
the fruit of worship, the fruit of hearts that are
broken over sin, but absolutely elated in the grace of God. And then finally, Isaiah 46. We're a selected people. These
are a selected people. They're a sinful people. They're
a secured people, a special people, a stayed people, a safe people,
and a saved people. Isaiah 46, look at verse three. This is good. And I'll wind it
up. I hope this will be a blessing
to you, especially those of you who've got a little bit of age
on you. A little bit of age on you. Hearken
unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant." Hey, you in
the remnant? Say, I'm in the remnant. Well,
the Lord says, hearken unto me, I got something to say to you.
Let's be like Samuel. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.
Which are born by me from the belly. He'd been carrying you
all along. Which are carried from the womb,
even to your old age. I am He. Even the whore hairs
will I carry you. I made you, I made you new in
Christ Jesus. I'll bear you. Even I will carry you and I will
deliver you. And the word is, I will save
you ultimately. Isn't that marvelous? He hath made us. I've carried
you. Carried us like the shepherd
who found the lost sheep and picked that sheep up and put
it on his shoulders. Carried it all the way home.
I know there's a sense in which we walk, certainly walk in paths
of righteousness for his name's sake, But there's another sense
in which we're not walking at all, we're carried. I'm so thankful to be carried.
Who's carrying me? The Lord of glory. The all-powerful
one. The mighty God. I believe that
means I'm safe. He says, I'll carry you. I'm
not going to leave you. I won't forsake you. And even
in your old age, old age, I'm he. When your hair turns white or
turns loose, I'll carry you. I'll carry you. Because I made you. I made you. I made you what you
are. You're a redeemed sinner. You're
a child of God. I made you. And I'll bear you. Lord, I'm
so weak, I don't feel like I can keep on going. I'll bear you. I'll bear you. Lord, I'm on my deathbed. Lord, I'm sick to death. What's
going to happen to me? I'll carry you. I'll carry you
all the way home to be with me. And I'll deliver you. Ah, you're
going to trade in that wore out body and you're going to get
a new one. It's going to be the same body
but remade. Oh, in the perfection of Christ
Jesus. There is a remnant. And I'm so
thankful I'm in the group. And I'm not with the rest. I deserve to be with the rest.
You do too. Ah, but for the praise of the
glory of His grace. We're His. We're His. He said, I'm carrying you. All the way to glory. Well, let's
pray. Lord, bless the word that's gone
forth. We thank You for the privilege
to meet together and to once again rehearse the grace of God. to be reminded of our standing
in Christ Jesus, and how safe we are in Him who loved us and
gave Himself for us. And one of these days, you who
purposed our salvation, you will bring our salvation to a perfect
end, which will really be a perfect beginning, when body and soul
will be glorified. and spend all of eternity with
our Savior. Lord, convince lost sinners of
the truth, that there's no hope to be found anywhere except in
Christ, the only Savior of sinners. Bless these who have gathered
tonight, those who have been watching by way of the internet,
we're so thankful for them and we pray your blessings on them
and on us. And as we, by your grace, continue
to hold forth the truth of the gospel of sovereign grace, we
ask that you would give us the enablement, the power, the ability,
and the steadfastness to continue faithful until you see fit to
call us home to glory. Dismiss us now, Father, the loving
grace of the Lord Jesus filling our hearts. In his name we pray,
amen.