Thou therefore ashamed of the
testimony or the gospel, the good news, the word of our Lord,
nor of me, his prisoner. But be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. This God who saved
us, who delivered us, who rescued us, who preserves us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher
and an apostle, and the teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed."
He told Timothy not to be ashamed. And now he says, I am not ashamed
for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded, I have full
confidence that He is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him against that day. May the Lord bless His Word and
may He be pleased to bless as we gather together this morning
for worship. Let's get our bulletins out and
we'll sing our bulletin song, Christ Rescued Me, Christ Rescued
Me. We'll sing it to the tune of
the doxology. Stand together. Before the world was ever made,
Horrors foundations had been laid, Back in the last eternity. Christ's purpose He would rest
to me. Now to this earth one lady came,
To save me from my guilt and shame. And when He died upon
the tree, Christ laid my death and rest
to be, Though I was lost and dead in sin, The Spirit brought a work with
Him. He gave me faith in Christ to
flee. By mighty grace He rescued me. My Lord walks with me every day. And guide me in the wisest way. I need not fear life's stormy
sea. Christ ever lives to rescue me. And when my flesh shall faint
and die, My soul will rise above the sky, and with the Lord eternally,
I'll sing of Him who has Our Father, we bow before you
this morning with our hearts full of thanksgiving for all
of the mercies that you give to us every day, temporal mercies. Our lives are filled with them,
Father. You are merciful and good to
all of your creations. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. Every day you pour out upon each
of us all of these wonderful things that we enjoy, certainly
our families and our possessions and all of the daily mercies,
Lord, that you give us, we're thankful. But we're especially
thankful for the mercies that we have in Christ Jesus. We thank
you for your grace. Grace as we just read, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This
is covenant grace. This is everlasting grace. This
is sovereign grace. And Lord, we bow to express our
appreciation and gratitude to you. for your saving grace, your
justifying grace to us through Christ Jesus. We come confessing
our sinfulness, our faults and our failures, much too numerous
for us to number. But Lord, we're thankful that
for all of your people, we can say they're all under the blood
of Christ Jesus. Our sins have indeed been all
taken away. We come before you in the purity
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior
and Redeemer, that One who is the Lord, our righteousness. We ask, O Father, today that
His name would be magnified and lifted up. Lord, He is such a is such a
worthy Savior. He is such a glorious Redeemer. And we should, with our lips
and with our innermost beings, lift up His praise. Thank you
for that life that we have in Him, a life that will never end.
And for the acceptance we have through Christ. We're always,
we're perpetually accepted in the beloved. We pray today that as we gather
together that your word would be effectual, that you would
speak to each of us by your spirit. We confess that we're a people laden with iniquity. And in ourselves, there's no
good thing. Lord, give us grace. Give to each of us grace to look
to the only Redeemer and the only Savior, Christ Jesus. Oh,
how we need Him. How we ask You, O Father, from
the bottom of our hearts that You would make Him to be our
all in all. May this wonderful Son of God
and Son of Man, may He have all the preeminence in this service. May He have all the preeminence
in this world. He is the sovereign King. He
is the ruler of the nations. And this One who governs all
things to fulfill your will is our very own Savior. He is the friend of sinners,
and Lord, we thank you for him. We ask for those who are sick,
those who are unable to be with us today, that you would bless
them especially. We give thanks for your healing
mercies, and we ask for those that can't be with us that you
would lift up their spirits and encourage them in Christ Jesus. O Spirit of grace, take the things
of Christ and show them unto us. Lord, give yourself glory today,
and we know that you will, and enable us to glorify your name. We thank you for the fathers
that are here, We pray your blessings upon them that you would give
grace that every dad and every granddad would seek to set before
children and grandchildren the greatness of God. And by example, show them the vital importance of worshiping
God. in public, in the public assembly
of the saints. May we, by example, show the
little ones, our children, our grandchildren, perhaps even great-grandchildren,
may we, by example, show them how important the Word of God
is to us. May we be enabled by your Spirit
to bring up these in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
Oh God, help us. Help us to be faithful to the
cause of Christ. And bless your word today as
it goes forth. And as we set forth the gospel,
we're thankful that it shall not return unto you void. It shall accomplish your purpose
and the thing where to you send it. And so with these petitions
and these thanksgivings being offered to you, We now proceed
with the rest of the service asking for your guidance and
your leadership and for the presence of your spirit upon both the
speaker and the hearers. These things we ask in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his sake alone. Amen. Let's sing 126. You'll know this
one. Rock of ages, rock of ages, great
hymn by Brother Augustus, Top Lady 126, Rock of Ages. Rock
of Ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself
in thee. Let the water and the blood From
thy wound is life which flowed. Be of sin a double cure. Take from breath and make me
pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer go? Reached for sin, could not atone,
Thou must save, and Thou alone. In my hand, O Christ, I bring
Simply to thy cross I cling While I draw this clean breath When
my eyes shall close in death When I rise to worlds unknown
and behold thee on thy throne, rock of ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Turn with me over to page 300.
334, please. 334. Let's stand and sing, Be
Thou My Vision. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Love me all else to be, save
that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee, and Thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. Riches I need not, nor man's
empty praise. Thou my inheritance, now and
always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart. My King of heaven, my treasure
Thou art. ? My King of Heaven, my victory
won ? May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's sun ? Heart
of my own heart, whatever may be Turn to Ephesians chapter 5, verse
2. We'll start with verse 22, Ephesians
5, verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh. but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Our Father, holy and reverent
is your name, and there seated in heaven itself on your throne
of glory, we approach you through the only way that it can be done,
and that's through your son. Your son who has cleansed his
people from their sins by his own precious blood. And they
can come to you through him, their great high priest. And
Lord, we do so this morning. We give you all the praise and
glory for gathering us into this room to hear once again your
son lifted up and proclaimed. Lord, clear our thoughts from
all the foolishness of this world. From any other thing that gets
in the way, blot it out that we may concentrate upon your
son. For in him we live and we move
and we have our being. Our past sins, even our present
sins in this place this morning and our future sins have been
washed away and cleansed by his blood. He gave all he had to
give to present us to you without spot or blemish as he was without
spot or blemish and as he is without spot or blemish. He one
day was forsaken by you because you saw the sins of his people
that he had laid on himself. But when he came out of that
grave, he ascended back to glory and there he sits now interceding
for us and we need his intercession constantly. And Lord, in this
room this morning, there may be some that are not familiar
with your son. We pray this be the day you break
their hearts, open their understanding, bring them to a knowledge of
your son. And what we pray for the people in here, we pray for
those who are assembled in like manner in other places where
your gospel is proclaimed. We do not forget them. Lord,
teach us to love one another as Christ loved us. Not to love
one another in Christ is a sin. And Lord, we do love your son. We don't love him perfectly,
for this flesh continues to get in our way. But Lord, you know
we do love him. As Peter said, Lord, you know
I love you. And Lord, we do give you all
the praise, all the glory, and all the thanks for everything
that has come about in our lives. Whether it be on the mountaintop
or in the valley, you've been there with us. You've never forsaken
us. You will never leave us alone.
From old eternity, you've been watching over us, taking care
of us, and will do so throughout the ages. And we give you all
the praise, all the glory, and all the honor in Christ's name
and for his sake. Amen. When it's time for you to stand
before God's judgment throne, Will you stand in Christ complete,
or will you stand alone? Will you stand in Christ complete,
or will you stand alone? Can you, by works impure at best,
wash the sin stains from your hands? Can you establish righteousness
to equal God's demands? Can you establish righteousness
to equal God's demands? Has your life upon this earth
been perfect and complete? If not, you stand condemned by
God, yea, worthy of hell's heat. If not, you stand condemned by
God, yea, worthy of hell's heat. If you can your own soul pardon
and also justify, Why did God require that Jesus come to earth
and die? Why did God require that Jesus
come to this earth and die? Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
was my substitute. He gives me perfect standing,
no one can dispute. He gives me perfect standing,
nobody can dispute. Can you see the godly wisdom
in such salvation, full and free? Trust in Christ alone forever,
praise Him evermore with me. Trust in Christ alone forever,
praise Him eternally. When it's time for you in judgment,
will you be full of fear? Or will Christ stand when your
name is called, for you say, I'm here? Will Christ stand when
your name is called, and for you say, I'm here? When it's time for me, in judgment
I'll not be full of fear. Christ will stand when my name
is called, and for me say, I'm here. Christ will stand when
my name is called, and for me say, I'm here. Thank you. Let's go to Revelation
chapter 7. Revelation chapter I asked Susanna if she would sing
that for us this morning because I feel like it goes with the
message that I think God has given to me. I believe God has
given to me this message. I pray that He will make the
Word effectual to each of us. Effectual means it gets the job
done. I pray that God will send the
Gospel right home to each of our hearts as we consider our
subject today, standing before the throne. Standing before the
throne. Revelation chapter 7 verse 9,
And after this I beheld and low, a great multitude which
no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues. And this is what they were doing.
They stood or were standing, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb. And then John says they were
clothed with white robes and they had something in their hands.
They had palm, that is branches, palm branches in their hands. We bless the name of God for
the gracious revelation that he gave to John. In seeing this
great multitude which no man can number, they're gathered
around the throne of God, gathered around in the midst of the Lamb
of God. They're standing there. The word,
when it says stand, it literally means they're made to stand.
They stood there made to stood, made to be able to stand. Understand
this, nobody is able or worthy in themselves to stand before
God's throne. I know we're all going to have
to make an appearance before God's throne, but we're not worthy,
fit, to stand there, to abide there. But these do. These do. That which John saw
by way of special vision, by way of a special revelation,
You know, one of these days it's going to be a reality. He just
sees this off in the future as God gives him a vision. As God
deals with him in a special way to show him things, as he says
back in chapter 1, things that must come to pass. This must
come to pass. As John sees it, he sees the
end, at this particular time when John saw it, it wasn't like
this because John, he is exiled on the Isle of Patmos. This has
been almost 2,000 years ago, certainly more than 1,900 years
ago. And so he sees this by special
revelation. But that which he sees by special
revelation, that which he sees in a vision one of these days
is going to be a reality. A reality. John just sees this
ahead of time. He sees the way it's all going
to wind up. All of God's people gather together
with the Lamb of God and there we will stand before God forever. Here we see the Lord's everlasting
salvation of his people. He who saved us in old eternity. He who saved us when Christ Jesus
died for us. He who saved us when the Spirit
of God dealt with us. in regenerating grace and gave
us faith to believe on the Son of God. One of these days he's
going to bring this salvation to a culmination. We will be
fully saved and rescued from every effect of our sinfulness. John sees therefore the successfulness
of God's great salvation purpose. We know that before the world
began, God purposed everlasting salvation. God, before He made
anything, He designed salvation for this multitude which no man
can number. This has all been decreed by
God. It's all been purposed by God,
ordained by God. And that before He ever made
anything, And now John sees the absolute fulfillment and accomplishment
out into eternity of that which God had purposed before the foundation
of the world. And what's that? The salvation
of this multitude. And we need to understand everything
God has been doing is always with an eye toward the salvation
of this multitude which no man can number. the reason He made
the world. Did God make the world? Well,
absolutely. Exodus chapter 20 verse 11, in
six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that in
them is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
And the reason that God made everything, the reason God created
everything, the reason God breathed breath into Adam and he became
a living soul, and then God gave to Adam, Eve, and then they,
through procreation, children and then grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
so forth and so on, and we live today. The reason all of this
has come about is because God has destined the everlasting
salvation of a multitude which no man can number. That's what
God is doing. You see, God has purposed to
exalt His Son. He has ordained that the Lord
Jesus have all the preeminence And in this purpose of God to
exalt His Son, God has given to the Lord Jesus all of this
vast multitude. And these are predestinated to
be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. And now John
sees the full accomplishment of God's everlasting purpose
of redemption. He sees all of the elect. He
sees them all gathered together. And there they stood. They stood,
this vast multitude, which no man can number. They stand before
the very throne of God and the Lamb. They stand there in the
robes. They're absolutely white. Well,
that's the purity, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. We're justified
by His righteousness. And they all have palm branches,
which they wave. That's all of us, by the way,
and we'll talk about that tonight. Now remember, this is symbolic
languages. I don't know what kind of dress,
what kind of actual garb that we'll have in heaven. I don't
know about those things, but here in figurative language,
he says we'll have white robes. And we'll be waving these branches
of palm trees. This vast multitude. Look with
me back in John chapter 6. Here's what I want to, if the
Spirit of God would enable me, here's what I want to show you
that this is indeed the full accomplishment of the Lord's
purpose of redemption. Look at John chapter 6. And I
know that you're very well acquainted with this passage of Scripture.
But let's look at it again in John 6 and 37. As we remember these people standing
before the throne of God, this great multitude. Look at John
6 and verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. All that the Father giveth me.
This is an act of God which preceded our Lord's coming. into the world. In fact, the reason the Son of
God came into the world, the reason the Son of God took on
flesh and blood was because the Father gave Him to do the work
of redemption. All that the Father giveth me.
The Father gave Him a people before the world began and then
gave Him a work to do on the behalf of these people All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. All that He gave Him in
covenant love. All that He gave Him in grace.
All that He gave Him in mercy. All that He gave Him to rescue.
All that He gave Him to save. All that He gave Him to heal
them of their spiritual diseases. All that He gave Him to rescue
them from every effect of sin. All that the Father giveth me,
He says, they shall come to me. They shall. This is the effectual
cause of the Gospel. Through the preaching of the
Word of God, just like I'm doing right now, the Lord Jesus, by
His Spirit, He brings His chosen ones unto Himself. by faith. He gives us faith to believe,
and then He draws us to Himself. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Almighty grace will bring us,
and almighty grace will keep us. It will preserve us. He says, I will in no wise cast
out. I will not, literally, here's
the way it would read to us out of the original, I will not,
not, never, never cast out. You're not supposed to use double
negatives. This is used for emphasis. I
will not, not, never, never cast out. Cast out of what? I'll never cast them out of my
love. I'll never cast them out of my
Family. I'll never cast them out of my
arms. I'll never cast them out of my
body. I'll never cast them out of my
church. I will not, not, never, never
cast them out. Boy, that's security right there.
There is our preservation by the mighty Savior. Now, notice
in verse 38, For I came down from heaven, and this shows that
this act of God, of giving to Christ Jesus of people, it preceded
His coming into the world, it necessitated His coming into
the world. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, that is, not to do something independent
of or different from the Father's will. The will of the Son is the same
as the will of the Father. I came to do the will of Him
that sent me. He is Jehovah's faithful servant.
Now look at verse 39. Here's where I'm going. And this
is the Father's will which hath sent me. And of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. Of all that He has given me,
I should lose nothing. Not a one of them will be lost.
But I'll raise it up at the last day. The word it signifies an
entire group. Or if I could say it this way,
the word it indicates this numberless multitude that John sees in Revelation
chapter 7. The Savior says, I'll lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. And over here in our
text, in Revelation chapter 7, John is seeing the fulfillment
of that which our Savior spoke about there in John chapter 7.
Of all which Thou hast given Me, I should lose nothing. I'll
lose not a one of them. I'll raise it up at the last
day. I'll raise the whole group up. I'll raise up the entire
multitude. All that the Father gave me in
covenant grace. All that He entrusted to me.
This vast number of people. I know at any particular time
it's a little group of people. In relation to the many large
goat pastures around us, we're considered a little group. A
little group here, a little group there, and little groups all
over the world. At any given time, it's just
a little number. Our Lord Jesus said over in the
Gospel of Luke, fear not little flock. A little flock. Boy, when you get us all together,
and God's going to get us all together someday, He's going
to gather us all together in Heaven's everlasting glory. All
of this vast multitude that He gave to Jesus Christ in covenant
mercy before the world began, all of these He gave to the Son
and said, be their surety, be their shepherd, be their Savior,
be their substitute, be their sin offering, and our Lord Jesus
accepted full responsibility for us. All of those He gave
Him in covenant grace, they're all in Heaven's glory as John
sees them in the end standing in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. John sees then the fulfillment
The absolute atonement of the Father's will. The bringing to
pass of the Father's purpose of salvation. Of all of the group
that He gave to Jesus Christ. And the Savior hasn't lost to
one of them. Not one of them. He said, I'm
the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep. And John sees the full flock. He sees all of the flock. All
of the sheep. Oh, chosen in grace? Absolutely. Redeemed as a vast multitude. Our Lord Jesus laid down His
life. He paid our sin debt. The justice
of God demanded death for sin. And our Lord Jesus said, take
me instead. And the law of God dealt with
Him as though He were a sinner. Though in Himself He had no sin. But He bore the sins of all of
His people. All of our indebtedness was charged
to Him. And the justice of God dealt
with Him in severity and didn't show Him any mercy at all. The
justice of God poured out all of its wrath upon the Son of
God, that blessed sin offering. And he endured the wrath of God,
drinking all of the wrath right down to its last bitter dredge. Till not a drop of wrath remained
for all of his people. And our Lord Jesus said, it is
finished. He bowed his head and he gave
up the ghost. That blessed substitute then
having paid our sin debt, later arose again. ascended back to
heaven. He sends forth his spirit who
takes the word of the gospel. He finds the lost sheep. One
by one, he finds the sheep of the flock. I know every once in a while,
like on the day of Pentecost, thousands of sheep are brought
in to the fold of salvation. But usually it's one by one He
calls. He goes and He seeks another
lost sheep. Another lost sheep. At His appointed
time, He takes them to glory. There's another one. There goes
another one. There goes another one. I'm going to start off the
message this evening talking about Abel. His very first one. His very first one. Can you imagine
that? I even sat and thought about
this fact that Abel When He went to glory, He's the only one there. He's the only sinner saved by
grace that was there. Nobody else had died yet. In
the navel, He sees one by one others join Him. robed in the
same righteousness, washed in the same blood, saved by the
same grace, and He's been there now some 6,000 years, and heaven
is being populated with all those that the Father gave to the Son
in covenant grace. The ones the Son redeemed and
these sheep are being brought in to the fold one by one by
one by one. Over here's another, there's
another, there's another. And every day God is bringing
them in until at last they're all there. They're all in the fold of salvation. That's when the end is going
to come. And John sees the end. He sees
the end. He is taken up in this vision
and the Lord shows him all of God's elect. And there they are,
a vast group of people. There they stand. No, not there
they stand. There all of us stand. Because
we are there too. We are there. John sees us there
too. He sees us robed in white robes. He sees us waving palm branches
of victory and triumph due to our great conqueror. And there
we are. The finished work of what God
purposed way back young. in eternity. These people He
refers to as the bride of the Lord Jesus. Go over a little
further into the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 19. This multitude
is said to be the bride of Christ Jesus. The bride of Christ Jesus Look at Revelation chapter 19.
And, you know, as you read through
the book of Revelation, we're already picking up on this, I'm
sure. There are some things that John
hears and some things that he sees. In the beginning of chapter
19, after these things I heard, I heard a great voice, his ears,
I heard a great voice and much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah,
salvation and honor and glory and power unto the Lord our God. What are these people singing
about? What are they singing hallelujah for? Praise the Lord. That's what
hallelujah means. Well, it's because true and righteous
are his judgments. He's judged the great whore.
He's judged Babylon. He's judged all the false religion
which did corrupt the earth with her spiritual fornication and
hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hands. This is
what the servants of God prayed for back in chapter 6. Remember? Back in chapter 6. Lord, how
long? How long will You not avenge
our blood? And now, the blood of the martyrs
have been That's been avenged. Their deaths have been avenged.
They said, Alleluia. Their smoke rose up forever and
ever, and the four and twenty elders, the four beasts fell
down and worshipped God that sat on the throne saying, Amen,
Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne
of God, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that
fear Him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude." He's still hearing, and now he
hears the voice of a great multitude. Undoubtedly, the same multitude
he sees back in chapter 7. as the voice of many waters,
as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth, the Lord God Almighty governs. Let's be glad and rejoice, give
honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His
wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, fine linen, clean and white. The fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. All of those that the Father
gave to Christ Jesus, this great multitude is the bride of the
Lord Jesus. Look over into chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21, look at
verse 1. I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away
and there was no more sea. I, John, saw the holy city."
This is not a literal city. This is a spiritual city. The
New Jerusalem. This is a group of people. This
is that numberless multitude coming down from God out of heaven. And look, she's prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
And He will dwell with them and they will be His people. God
Himself shall be with them and be their God. Go a little bit
further over. Look at verse 9. Revelation 21. 9. There came
unto me one of the seven angels who had the seven vows. They talked with me, saying,
Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain.
He showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." Who is the
glory of God? That's Christ Jesus. They've
got Christ with them. That's Christ with us. Who is
this great multitude? It's the same group of people
set forth back in chapter 7 and verse 9, a great multitude which
no man can number. And this number is said, this
group is said to be the bride of Christ Jesus. I had our brother
read to us from Ephesians chapter 5, husbands and wives. And it's obvious from reading
that passage that when the great apostle writes, this is a great
mystery, but he said, I speak concerning Christ and the church,
Christ and his bride. I know we take away from that
certainly very practical thoughts about being in submission Wives
being in submission to husbands. Husband love your wife as Christ
loved the church. And I'll tell you this, you husbands,
if you'll love your wife as Christ loved the church, I think you'll
find a submissive wife. A submissive wife. A husband
who loves his wife as our Lord Jesus loved the church is not
a demanding master. He's a loving husband who loves
her as he loves himself. He loves his wife as our Lord
Jesus loved the church. Loving husbands will generally
find submissive wives. Husbands, you're not to walk
all over your wives. Walk six steps behind me. I'm
the boss, and don't you ever forget it. Oh, yes, you are the
head of the family. There's no question about that.
But you're the head of the family in love. You're to love as Christ
Jesus loved the church. Because you see, the marital
relationship, the husband and the wife, sets forth a greater
relationship, a greater union. And it's the union of the Son
of God with the multitude of sinners which no man can number.
It sets forth the union of Christ Jesus, who's the bridegroom,
and His people, the chosen people, who constitute His bride. His
bride. This is that great multitude.
Now, in a Jewish marriage, you know, they had espousals. They
were espoused to one another, like Mary and Joseph were espoused
to one another. before they ever came together
and there was a legal union, really, could only be broken
off by divorce. I'll tell you something about
Jewish people and their spouses and in their marriages, when
the bride is getting ready to be married and you're a spouse,
okay, I accept the engagement ring. And of course, their engagement
is much stronger than our engagements today because, as I've already
said, a spousal can only be broken off by divorce. So I give you
this ring. I want you to be my bride." There
was a legality to that. And immediately, immediately,
something happened. All of the property, all of the
wealth, all of the houses, all of the monies of the bride, if
she had any of those things, immediately became the property
of the bridegroom. Immediate, just like that. As
soon as this espousal was legal, changed hands. And also, all
of the debt, all of the liabilities, all of her bills, if she owed
anybody anything, all of those responsibilities, that went to
the bride and groom. marriage relationship with Christ
Jesus. We brought no assets to this
union. We didn't have any wealth. We
didn't have any property. We didn't have anything worthwhile.
Oh, the church is indeed the bride, and he is the bridegroom. He espoused us to himself in
old eternity. But we had nothing good to bring
to the relationship. All that we brought into it was
debt, liabilities, bills, bills. And the indebtedness was to God. But the moment we were espoused
to Jesus Christ, and I say the moment, this is an eternity past. in a legal sense, all of our
liability, all of our indebtedness, which we hadn't run up any bills
as yet. But we would. We would fall into
sin. We would sin. We do sin numerous
times every day. And all of our indebtedness back
in old eternity immediately, when God gave us to Christ Jesus
and He accepted full responsibility for us, immediately all of our
debt became His debt. And just like with the bride
and the bridegroom. Those to whom she owed any funds
could never again look to her to pay the bills. They looked to the bridegroom. So I'm sure the bridegrooms were
very Careful. Hey, you got any bills? You got any bills I don't know
about? You owe any debts that I don't know anything about?
Now's the time before I put this ring on your finger. I want to
know, are you in debt for anything? Yeah, honey, I'm afraid I am.
I owe such and such a person this amount of money. Okay. I'll accept responsibility for
your debts." Our Lord Jesus, He didn't have
to ask if we owed anything. He knew what we owed. He knew
we owed a debt we could never pay. We could never pay it. And yet, He said to the Father,
Father, charge that to me! Charge it to me! And ever since,
the law of God, the justice of God, has never ever looked to
the elect of God to pay their debts. The justice of God has
always looked to Jesus Christ, our sure debt and our substitute. And He came into the world and
He paid our debt. Jesus paid our debt. He paid
it all. All the debt I owe. It's His
responsibility. John sees the bride of Christ
now. Back in chapter 7, he sees, here's
the bride gathered together. Here's the wife, the wife of
the Lamb of God. This is a blood-bought people
out of every notice it says, out of all nations and kindreds
and people in tongues. And they stood. They stood before
the throne. They stood before the Lamb. They
stood in the presence of God. God standing in His presence. If you were to have an audience
with the President of the United States, it would be an awesome
thing. Standing in the presence of some
great ruler of this world. Serious thing. We're not talking about standing
before an earthly ruler, president, or prime minister, leader. We're
talking about standing before the Lord, standing before God.
Stand before God. God. God Almighty. There are some people who are
going to stand in His presence. And they're going to stand there
forever. They're never going to leave. They're going to stand
there with His blessing. They're going to stand there
with His approval. They're going to stand there seeing the very
smile of the face of God. They're going to stand there
forever. All of this multitude that was given to Christ Jesus,
all of those the Father gave Him before the world began, All
of those the Son of God redeemed by His blood at the cross of
Calvary. All of those who have been drawn
by the Spirit of God to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. All of
those who therefore have been taken to glory based upon the
righteousness of the Son of God. All of these are there in heaven.
All of us will be there and we shall stand in God's presence
forever. Oh, glorious day. standing before the throne. And
I'll tell you, to me, the fact that these can stand there, that
we can stand there, it indicates to me two things. Safety and
joy. Safety. Safety. He's kept us
safe. Do you believe in your heart
now the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He all of your hope of glory?
I'm not asking you to raise your hand or answer me, because you
don't answer to me and I don't answer to you. But I tell you
what, you better examine yourself to see if you're being the vape.
You better ask yourself the serious question, am I in Christ Jesus?
Is He all of my hope? Do I really believe salvation
by grace alone? Do I really believe salvation
by Jesus Christ alone, by His substitutionary death alone?
Do I have some awareness of, some comprehension of, some knowledge
of fact that God is just and righteous and holy and I'm anything
but those things? And I need a Savior, I need a
mediator, I need a righteousness God approves of. Is Jesus Christ
all of your righteousness? Is He all of your hope of heaven?
And you answer, I hope, from your heart, from your innermost
being. You say, yes. Yes, I do believe
Him. Well, then I say to you, you
will be standing before the throne of God. And even now you stand
accepted in the beloved. And you need not fear, because
He who chose you, He who redeemed you, He's going to keep you safe
all the way to the end. He said, I'll let no wise cast
out. I'm not going to cast you out.
He said, I give to my sheep eternal life. They shall never perish. There is a blessed assurance
that God's people have, isn't there? A blessed assurance that
Jesus is mine. He's all of my hope. He's all
of my righteousness. He's all of my salvation. He
is my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Oh, here's our security and here's
our joy. Here's our joy. Look with me in Psalm 16. Psalm 16. It says, Great security being Saved
by the grace of God? Standing in the righteousness,
the beauties of the Lord Jesus? Standing in the very presence
of God. Why don't you think about that? You standing in the presence
of God. Can you roll that over in your
mind and in your heart? God. God. The Bible says He charges
His angels with folly. God. It says the heavens aren't
even pure in His sight. That's the reason the heavens
and the earth are going to have to be renovated one day by fire. That's why John said, I saw a
new heaven and a new earth. And this God who can't look on
sin, This God who is a consuming fire, this God that you can't
approach unto apart from the Mediator, who is the Lord Jesus
Christ, in Christ Jesus, you will stand before God Himself
and the Lamb of God. You will stand there in His presence. A dead dog sinner? Me? A breaker
of God's law? Me? Who's blasphemed God's name? Me? Who's had vile thoughts and
imaginations? Not to speak about the things
that I've done, just about my dreams and my imaginations, my
fantasies? Me? You? Inwardly polluted, outwardly
sometimes we give vent to our depravity? You mean we are going
to Stand in the presence of God forever? Absolutely. In His presence. Look at Psalm 16. And let me
give you this illustration first. This sets forth our everlasting
joy, being in the presence of God. Adam and Eve, when they
sinned and they heard the voice of God calling to them in the
cool of the day, did they want God's presence? Did they run to God saying, Oh
Lord, we want to be with You? No. They ran away from God. Made
themselves fig leaf aprons. They didn't want to be in the
presence of God. And I'll tell you, due to their
sinfulness, they could not be in His presence apart from His
grace. But look at this verse of Scripture.
Psalm 1611, Thou wilt show me the path of life. Psalm 1611. Psalm 16, the last
verse of the psalm. Thou would show me, show, manifest,
make known to me, make me wise. The way or the very path of life. Spiritual life? Yes. Everlasting
life? Yes. In Thy presence, in Thy
presence is the fullness of joy. And at thy right hand there are
pleasures forevermore. Where is the fullness of joy
to be found? In His presence. And yet, and
yet the presence of God is what we have no natural desire for. But that's the only place joy
is to be found. There's no joy anywhere else. The joy is to stand before the
Lord in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And even now, even
now in this sinful world, there is a sense in which we do stand
in the presence of the Lord. We can have a boldness because
we know, Lord, You see me in Christ Jesus. You see me in His
beauty. You see me in His righteousness.
And all of my sins, which are so many, I can never, ever, ever
begin to count them all. But all of my sins, He has taken
upon Himself and removed them from me as far as the east is
from the west. They are buried in the depths
of the deepest sea. He doesn't bear them anymore
and I certainly don't bear them anymore. And I stand accepted
before God even right now. Even right now, I stand in His
presence. That's why we come to the Lord
over and over again as the people of God seeking His face, praying
to Him, asking Him for blessings and just rejoicing in the Lord. Because in His presence, in His
presence is the fullness of joy. And I'll tell you, Those of us
who are the people of God, I'll tell you when we lose our joy.
I'm not talking about the joy of the world, because the joy
of the world is just temporary. That's all that is. The joy that
the world gives you, the pleasures of the world, the things of the
world, that's not a real joy. I'm talking about a joy in the
soul. I'm talking about a joy in the heart. The only place
in this world that you can have any real joy is in the presence
of God through Jesus Christ the Lord. And the reason we lose
our joy is because we live below our privileges, which is to come
into His presence. We live below our privileges.
We lose sight of Him. We lose our joy. No wonder David
said, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. The joy of
thy salvation. Oh, what joy there is. Like this
morning. This morning. We're talking about
the things of God. This is a joyful time to me. This brings joy to my heart because
I know I'm a failure, and I know I'm a blunderer, and I know I'm
a dead dog sinner. I know all those things by nature.
I don't know how full and how extensive my depravity is. I
only know I'm a sinner, but I know this also. I'm a sinner saved
by grace. And I have access to God through
the Lord Jesus. He's my Savior, my Mediator,
my Great High Priest. And in Him I'm righteous. I'm
made the very righteousness of God in Him due to His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross. And I have a joy in
my soul. It's when I forget the Gospel.
That's when I lose my joy. That's when I get to worry. That's
when my heart gets troubled over things. But one of these days, we're
going to have a joy that won't ever be interrupted. It won't
ever know any interruption. There won't be an intermission.
I tell you, my joy has a lot of intermissions, doesn't your
joy? A lot of intermissions, a lot
of interruptions. And that's my fault. That's my
fault. But there's going to come a day
when I stand before God, in the very presence of God, I'll have
the fullness of joy. The fullness of joy. I rejoice
in Christ Jesus more than I ever have on this earth. Even now
I rejoice in Christ Jesus. I tell you, three characteristics
of the people of God. Worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Have no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians chapter 3. I rejoice in Christ Jesus. But
in this day, this day that's coming, is day when this great
multitude stand before the throne of God. When I'm standing there
with all of my brothers and sisters in Christ, we will then know
the fullness, the fullness of real joy in our souls. And it's a joy that will last
forever. Because it's a joy that the Lord gives us in Himself. In Himself. Well, I hope you
know something about that joy now. Now, let's sing a song here. 452, My Savior's Love. Number
452. My Savior's Love. 452. Let's stand together. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus Christ, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned,
unclean, and a marvelous Savior. my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. For me, it was in the garden
He laid not my will, but mine. He had no dish for his ovaries,
but split drops of blood for mine. Wow. I'm How wonderful and my song shall
ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own He bore the burden to Calvary and
suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see, Will be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me.