Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. as vast and measured, boundless,
free, holding as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me. leading on, leading forward to
my glorious rest above. of Jesus spread his grace from
shore to shore. How he loved and ever loved and
changed ? Interceded ? ? Watch and mourn
him ? ? From the throne ? ? Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
? ? Love of every ? ? Love the best ? O the deep, deep love of Jesus, Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
206. 206. Wonderful grace of Jesus Greater than all my
sins How shall my tongue describe
it? Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, Jesus reaches me Wonderful the
matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea greater than the strength of
my transgressions, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, ? The grace of Jesus ? ? Reaching
to all the lost ? ? I, I have been pardoned ? ? Saved to the
uttermost ? ? Chains have been torn asunder ? Wonderful grace of Jesus, He
calls me. Wonderful the matchless grace
of Jesus, greater the precious me. Wonderful grace of Jesus,
teaching the most divine. It's transforming power, taking
in God's dear child. Chasing peace and heaven For
all eternity And the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, the matchless grace
of Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling
sea. Higher than the mountain, sparkling
like a fountain, a sufficient grace for me. ? And Christians sing it greater
far ? ? Than all my sin and shame ? ? O magnify the precious name
of Jesus ? ? Grace is near, grace is near ? If you have your Bibles with
you this morning, turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 49. Psalm
49. Psalm 49. Hear this, all ye people. Give
ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich
and poor together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom,
and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I
will incline mine ear to a parable. I will open my dark saying upon
the harp. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the
iniquity of my heels shall compass me about? They that trust in
their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their soul
is precious, and it seetheth forever, that he should still
live forever and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die,
likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their
wealth to others. Their inward thought is that
their houses shall continue forever in their dwelling places to all
generations. They call their lands after their
own names. Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not. He
is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly,
yet their posterity approve their sayings." Selah. Like sheep,
they are laid in the grave. Death shall feed on them, and
the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. And
their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he
shall receive me. Selah. Be not thou afraid when
one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased. For
when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall
not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed
his soul, and men will praise thee when thou doest well to
thyself. He shall go to the generation
of his fathers. They shall never see light. Man
that is in honor and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish. Our most high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty, we come into your Holy and righteous pure
presence through your blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee that we are able
to come into your presence through him, through him alone. Just
as salvation is Christ alone, the only hope we have is Christ
alone, not our wealth or our posterity or the things on this
earth. Christ alone is all we need. Lord, make it to be so in our
hearts. Teach us thy way. Let us not to perish as the beast. Keep your hand on us, Lord, if
it would please you. Cause us to do thy will. We ask
for thy presence here this morning that you would bless this service. Bless our brother as he stands.
Bless his heart and bless his words. Send your spirit to be
among us, Lord, that you would bless our hearts with the nourishment
of the gospel. Let us not meet in vain, for
vain show. Lord, there are many who are
sick, weak, and weary, heavy laden. You know more so than
we do. Lord, we ask that you would be
with them, uphold them, be their strength in their stay. Give
them grace and have mercy on them according to thy will. Lord, there are those among us
today who know you not. If it would please you, Lord,
we ask that you would use this message to give them hearts that can love
the gospel, give them ears to hear it, eyes to see it, Save the lost according to thy
will, Lord. We ask that thy will be done for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Hark how the gospel trumpet sounds
Christ and the grace therein abounds Free grace to such as
sinners be And if free grace, why not for me? by his blood, brought rebel sinners
near to God. He died to set the captives free. And why, my soul, why not for
thee? is righteousness. That road is spotless, full,
and free. And why, my soul, why not for
thee? Be seated. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way. I was wretched and foul as could
be, but my Savior and love gave me peace from above when
he reached down his hand for me. When my Savior reached down
for me, when he reached way down Lost and undone Without God or
His Son When He reached down His hand for me I was near to
despair When He came to me there And he showed me that I could
be free Then he lifted my feet, gave me gladness complete When
he reached down his hand for me When my Savior reached down for
me When He reached way down for me I was lost and undone Without God or His Son When He
reached down His hand toward me Now my heart doth rejoice
When I'd hear His sweet voice In the tempest to Him I'd then
flee There to lean on His arms Safe, secure, from all harm Sing it with me. When my savior reached down for
me. When he reached way down for
me. stand when we reach I was lost and undone without
God or His Son when He reached down His hand for me. I'm pleased to introduce Brother
Cody Henson to you once again. I'd see some new faces out there
that I at least I haven't seen in a long time if I have seen
before. So Brother Cody Henson is a dear friend and brother
of mine and family in more than one way. I love you brother and pray that
the Lord bless your message this morning. You come and come and
preach to us. Hit the red button when you're
ready. Feelings mutual, by the way. Good morning. I send love and
greetings from Kingsport, Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church. Pastor
Gabe Stoniker and the brethren there. If you will turn with
me to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. In Luke chapter 16, we'll start
reading in verse 19. It says, there was a certain
rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared
sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it
came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom The rich man also died and was buried,
and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth
Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art
tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which
would pass from hence to you cannot Neither can they pass
to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for
I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they
also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him,
they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said,
Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent. And he said unto him, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. This might be the most sobering
passage of scripture in the whole Bible. For years, this passage
has really laid hold on me. It's a very, very serious matter
what we're about to look at. Now, spiritually, you and I,
everybody that has ever lived, are represented by one of these
two men. My prayer this morning is that
God might be pleased to reveal that to us, that God might show
us ourselves in this, and that he might show us himself. Spiritually,
we are either rich or poor. We're either well or sick. We're either full or we're hungry. We either have need of nothing,
self-sufficient, or we're needy, helpless beggars. And I can't
help but ask this question, which one am I and which one are you? Like these two men, they lived
very different lives. They had a very different quality
of life, if you will. And yet, notice, earthly speaking,
they had the same end. They both died. It's the end
of all men, and yet we must acknowledge, based on this text and all the
scriptures, that the death of this body is not the end. It's
just not. Many people think it is. It's
not. Let's not deceive ourselves. It's not the end. We're told
right here that the rich man, not even given a name for him,
the rich man, it said that he lift up his eyes being in hell. Lift up his eyes being in hell
in torment. Torment. And we're told that
Lazarus, on the other hand, was peacefully carried away into
a state of comfort and rest. What really catches my attention
more than anything in this text is found in verse 26. We're told
that beside all of this, between us and you, there is a great
gulf fixed. The moment they died, the moment
they left this earth, there was a great gulf fixed between them
so that they would never be in one another's presence again.
You know, it's ironic in a sense that the rich man was most likely
pestered or nuisanced by Lazarus being laid up at his gate. Oh,
someone get him out of here. Now he's dying to be with him.
See that? But he can't. There's a great goal fixed between
them. There's a great goal fixed between heaven and hell, between
the saved and lost, between eternal damnation and eternal peace and
rest. A great goal fixed. The mere
thought of this honestly sends chills through my whole body. It's a sobering truth. Once a
person is in the confines of hell, and that's what is a confine,
they're there forever. Can you think of anything worse? There's nothing worse. And there's
no escape. I looked up the definition of
hell. I've obviously heard of it and
used the word. Here's what it means, several things. A dark
and dismal place. You know, we just read in the
psalm, it said, they're going to the place of their fathers.
It said, they shall never see light. Never gonna see light. They had it in this life. They're
never gonna see light. It's a dark and dismal place,
the realm of the dead, the abode of the wicked, a very uncomfortable
place. The place of departed souls. Honestly, I don't even like talking
about it. I can't imagine. In Mark chapter
9, our Lord called hell the place where the fire shall never be
quenched. Now whether that's a literal fire, I don't know,
but I don't want to know. I don't want to know. He also
said it's the place where the worm dieth not. You see, hell
is not so much a place as it is an eternal state of death. Eternal death. You know, we live
life here one time. We're here for one life. We're
going to die one time, hopefully just one time. Death is a one-time
event here, but it's a continual, never-ending state of being there. It's a never-ending state of
death. Again, I can't even wrap my mind
around it. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 21 and keep a finger
here, we're going to be in Revelation for a minute. Revelation 21. Look here, Revelation 21 verse
7. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers,
now remember, whoso looketh upon his brother and hates him without
a cause is guilty of murder. Remember that. Murderers and
whoremongers, you ever looked upon someone to lust after them?
Remember, it's not so much what we do outwardly, it's what we
do inwardly, it's what we are, okay? The fearful, the unbelieving,
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and look at this, all liars, anybody here lied?
All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone, which is the second death. First of all,
I hope that convicts every single one of us. If it doesn't, we've
got a serious problem. And second, what we just read
right there, I would not wish this on my worst enemy. How many
times have you heard someone say, or perhaps we've said, well,
go to hell, or give them the bird. Let them burn. Do we not say
or hear things like that? I'm telling you, I wouldn't wish
it on my worst enemy. There's some politicians I'm not very fond of. And sometimes
I have some really bad thoughts towards them, actually all the
time. But who made me to differ, honestly? Let's think about it.
1 Corinthians 4, 7. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What do we have that we haven't received? Why are
we any different? If we believe God, why are we any different?
It's nothing you or I did. I can tell you that. Because
what we just read is all we are. Fearful, unbelieving, whoremongers,
idolaters. Consider that rich man. You just
think how fast things changed for him. You know, I think about
this and I say it to some friends every now and then when we talk
about these things, but think of all the people that woke up
today. Maybe they're even in a church
service right now. Maybe it's somebody here who will not lay
their head on their pillow tonight. I guarantee you there's gonna
be many. Happens every day. Lately, we're hearing about a
lot of tragic events, right? I'm telling you, things change
in an instant. We're not going to see it coming.
This man, we're told he was faring sumptuously every day. Oh, he
was just living the life, wasn't he? And yet, in a flash, he went
from that to suffering the wrath of God in hell forever. He lived a luxurious life of
ease for a while, for a brief moment. That's all it is. That's
all this life is. It's a vapor. It's here for a
little while. It's gonna vanish away. Oh, but now all he knows
and all he'll ever know is torment. That's what it said. Torment,
pain, suffering, and agony. That's it. And it tells us there
that Abraham told him, he said, son, remember. Let's think back
to something here. Remember in your lifetime. You
know, a few moments ago, you had your good things. Oh, so
many people have their good things, don't they? You know, we always
think money and happiness and easy street, those are the blessings.
That's what we think. Oh, how often they prove to be
a curse, do they not? Again, that psalm you read for it. It's that way for many. You know,
our Lord gave a parable in Luke chapter 12. It's called the parable
of the rich fool. You remember him? He had his
ground brought forth plentifully. He had a problem. Here was this
man's problem. You know, Lazarus, he had no
food. This man had so much food, so much goods, he didn't know
where to put it all. He said, I guess I'll just have to tear
down my barns and build some bigger ones to hold all my fruits. I tell you what, that man had
no need. That man had no concern for his soul. God said, he called
him a fool, he said, thou fool. Then he said, this night thy
soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things
be? All those things which thou hast
provided. What's gonna come of it? You're
gonna leave it to someone else and they're gonna waste it or
they're gonna do something with it and they're gonna leave it
to someone else and someone else and someone else We brought nothing
into this world, it's certain we carry nothing out. Look here
in Revelation, look at chapter three. There are so many people that
live this life of ease just like this man. They have their riches,
they have, you know, a big happy family, whatever it is. And they
think that when they die, basically their eternity will just be a
continuation of their life here. It certainly wasn't that way
for this rich man, was it? And I fear that it's not that
way for many. But look here in Revelation chapter
3, verse 17. This is God speaking. Because
thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable,
and poor, and blind, and naked. Told you spiritually, we're one
of these two men. Oh, that God might show us our
need. Everything it mentioned here,
look at it again. That God might show us our need,
that he might show us our spiritual wretchedness, miserable state,
our poverty, our blindness, our nakedness before a holy, almighty
God. Oh, Lord, show us that. Show
us what we are. Show us our need. You know, there
are scriptures that talk about God supplying all our need. And
I'll go ahead and tell you, it's in our Lord Jesus Christ. Fulfills
every need. He is our singular need, the
one thing needful. Look back at our text, Luke 16. This rich man is crying. Abraham
tells him he had his good things, Lazarus his evil things. Look
at verse 26. Beside all this between us and
you there is a great gulf fixed. A great gulf fixed. There's no
passing from one to the other. Where we go when we die is where
we must surely spend eternity. And understand this about eternity.
There's no end. Again, something we can't comprehend.
In three weeks, my school, my program, is coming to an end.
Very happy about it. One day, my current job will
come to an end. One day, my life here is going
to come to an end. Beginnings and ends are all we
understand. There's no end to eternity. Where
we go when we leave here is where we're gonna be forever. Even
though you notice here this man is begging, he's begging, but
it's too late. You see it, don't you? Notice
all his requests are denied. We already read it. He asked
for mercy, denied. Just a tiny bit of water, denied. Asked for Lazarus, had no concern
for Lazarus in this life. Now he's dying for Lazarus to
go testify to his brothers because he doesn't want them to also
wind up in his state. Denied. They have Moses in the
prophets. Same thing we have. They have
the gospel message. They have Christ in the word. May we seek the Lord while he
may be found. And understand this, if we seek
him, he puts it in us to seek him. When he says, seek my face,
we seek his face. Oh, may we seek him. May we call
upon him while he's near. And again, where is he? He's
right here. Right here in his word. He said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'm right
there. Right there in the midst of them. Now, I'm gonna get to my message now.
This gulf is the gulf in our text, but there's another gulf.
There's another great gulf fixed that I'd like to talk to you
about. Turn to Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59, look at verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it
cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and
your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he
will not hear." The great gulf, the truly great gulf is this.
It's the great gulf between man and God. There's a great gulf
between man and God. Our sins, our iniquities have
separated us from God. Now we know God created Adam,
right? Created Adam and Eve, placed
him in his garden, the garden of God, the garden of Eden. When Adam sinned against God,
man fell. What did man fall into? Death? Condemnation? Bound for hell? What did he fall out of? He fell
out of communion, fellowship, oneness with God. And we're told in Romans that
in Adam all died. It captures all of us. We're
all included, and we've all sinned. It comes short of the glory of
God. And because of our sin, because of our sin, we're outcast. You remember when Adam and Eve
were cast out, they had to leave the garden. Because of our sin,
we're cast out. We cannot stand in the sight
of God Almighty. We cannot. And there's nothing
we can do to get ourselves, you know, people say, get right with
God. We can't. We're going to see that very
clearly. We can't. Make your peace with God. Make
your decision. Follow God. Live for God. We
can't. We can't. You notice, I want to read verse
one right here because it said, the Lord's hand is not shortened
that it cannot save. What about mine and yours? Oh,
that's a different story altogether. We can't do anything to save
ourselves. And God doesn't need our help. The only hands God
has are ours. Oh, no, no. He has his own sovereign
hands, our hands that we're nothing. Is it without us he can do nothing
or without him we can do nothing? It's sad what's being told in
most churches. Without Him, we can do nothing, we're nothing.
His hand is not shortened and it cannot save neither His ear
that it cannot hear. The reason for this great gulf
that's fixed between fallen man and sovereign almighty God is
this, God's holiness. God's holiness. That's the reason
there's a great gulf fixed. If we learn anything, may it
be this. God is holy. I love Psalm number 70. Holy,
holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. What are we? Sinful. Sinful. Habakkuk 113
says, Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil. and can't not
look on iniquity. And people think God's gonna
be pleased with them. People think there's something
we can do to be accepted before God. God can't so much as behold
evil. He can't look on iniquity and
we think God's gonna be pleased with something I did or while
I quit doing this, started doing that. Thou fool, if that's what we
think, we're fools. God's holy, we're sinful. God
is just, we're unjust. God is righteous, we're unrighteous. God is good, we're evil. God's ways and his thoughts,
we're told in Isaiah 55, are not like ours. His are right,
his are good. Ours are evil and wrong all the
time. Told this in Isaiah 46, I am
God and there is none else. I'm God, there's none like me.
There's none like me. Not only are we not like God,
that's, a lot of people think they're like God. We're not.
There's none like him, we can believe that, can't we? Or we
can refuse to believe it. There's none like him and everything
about us in this wicked sinful flesh is completely contrary
to him, completely opposed to him. Everything he is, we're
not. Everything we are, he's not. And yet we must stand before
such a God. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such in one as thyself? He's not. He's not. Now what
does this mean for you and me? We've sinned? And we must die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. God's very clear about the matter.
We're told that God is just and he's a just judge who judges
righteously. He's going to judge righteously.
That means if we've sinned, we're going to die. We have to die.
Our sin must be dealt with. It must be punished. We sweep things under the rug.
God does not. He does not. When our child misbehaves,
we may spank them. We may not. We ought. But how often? Well, I'll give
you another chance. There's no second chances with
God. One sin's all it takes to put
us into hell, that great gulf, separated from God forever. Nothing we can do. to fix our
sin problem. Well, I quit sinning. We've already
sinned. You understand that? We've already sinned. It's too
late. Can't make up. We can atone for our sin. We
can't do it. Can't do it. Here's the conclusion,
all right? Barring some divine intervention,
we're all bound for the same place as that rich man, all of
us, barring some divine intervention. Well, who then can be saved? How then was Lazarus carried
away into glory? How did he wind up in heaven?
Did his poverty save him? Did his sores, his disease save
him? Did his begging save him? I'm
telling you, there's a spiritual picture in those things, but
no, those things did not save him. Try all we may, and people are
trying and trying and working hard to get to heaven. They're
trying. There's nothing we can do to cross this great gulf that
God has fixed. You know, they built the Tower
of Babel. They're just trying to climb on up to heaven. It
can't happen. It's not going to happen. We
can't do it. There's only one who can. And
praise God, he did. The Lord Jesus Christ. The God-man. You know that he's the God-man.
100% God, 100% man. He's our mediator. You ever needed
a mediator? Well, if there's a great gulf
fixed between us and the one we need to be with, we desperately
need to be with, the one we're dying to be accepted before,
to be welcomed by, we need a mediator, don't we? And we have one. We have one
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Great high priest. We need a
great high priest, don't we? There's only one great high priest
of our profession, brethren. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Him
alone. The savior of sinners. How did he cross this gulf? How
did he do it? Well, first, God became a man. The God-man came here to this
wicked, sinful world. And what did he do? He lived
a perfect life. You know how much temptation
he faced? You know how many accusations
were raised against him? How many times people, religious
people, people that claim to be better than everybody else,
claim to be safe, claim to know God, you know how many times
they came to him and tried to trip him up, trap him in his
words, and gotcha. Never could. Our Lord came here,
he lived a perfect life. He died the perfect death. willingly. It was purposed by God. The one
time God let wicked men do what they wanted to do more than anything,
he let them nail him to a cross. And yet he said, I lay down my
life for myself. No one takes it from me. Read
it yourself, John 10. No one took it from him. He was
delivered according to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Died the perfect death, and yet
he arose. You know, if this doesn't show you man's sin, I don't know
what does. Even when he arose, I think it was the soldiers or
whoever it was, they came by and, oh, well, we'll just give
us some money, you know, and we'll just say, oh, they took
his body. You see man's sin during his
death when they crucified him. And then after that, well, we'll
just pay you off here to push another lie. Listen, man's lies
and man's sin can't stop God. Can't do it. He arose victorious. He had no help in doing it. He
didn't need help. You remember he had the stone
rolled away. He commanded, roll away the stone
at Lazarus. Well, who rolled away his stone?
He did. He did. Rolled away his own stone. Died
his own death. Where's he at now? He's ascended
forevermore. Ascended on high, the right hand
of God, the throne of God. That's his seat and that's where
he'll always be. It's fixed. Not going anywhere.
And what's he doing up there? He's expecting. He's expecting
something. He's expecting till his enemies
be made his fistle and he's expecting his people to be with him where
he is forever and ever. It's gonna happen. God doesn't
expect something that doesn't come to pass. Gabe brought a
message last week. God's not frustrated. People think God's
frustrated. He's not frustrated. He's doing
his will. In the armies of heaven, among
the inhabitants of the earth, no one can stay his hand or say,
what are you doing? He's doing what he wants to do.
He's God. He's God. Now quickly consider
these two men, Lazarus and this rich man. What was the difference
between them? What was the difference? One thing, sovereign mercy. That's it. That's it. Sovereign mercy. That's always
the difference between any two men, between the saved and the
lost. Sovereign mercy. I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
You know what that makes me want to cry? Lord, have mercy on me.
Well, that's not fair. Shall the thing formed say to
the one that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? God have mercy. If you're a God
who delights to show mercy, Lord have mercy on me. Have mercy
on my children. Have mercy on us. He's got mercy for thousands. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. The Lord came into this world
on behalf of Lazarus. He lived for Lazarus. He died
for Lazarus. He arose for Lazarus. On the cross of Calvary, our
Lord crossed the great gulf that was fixed between man and God.
I want to show you a couple of verses and I'll be done. Turn
to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We read concerning Lazarus' wealth
that he had none. He was poor, he was a beggar,
but look here, 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, For ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. You
know the real rich man in our text was not the rich man, it's
Lazarus. You see that? Rich toward God. The rich man had no lasting riches.
True riches are riches that will never perish. That poor man Lazarus is as rich
as anybody's ever been. He has the unsearchable riches
of Christ. God made it so. You know, it
doesn't matter if we have much in this life or not. If we have
Christ, we have everything. Christ is all. Christ is all. Turn back a page or two to 2
Corinthians 5. Verse 21 says, For he, God, hath
made him, Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. He who was rich
made himself poor to make us rich. He who is the very righteousness
of God, the Lord our righteousness, that's his name, made himself
to be the sin of His people to make us righteous in Him, the
righteousness of God in Him. And now our name, we're told,
is also the Lord our righteousness. This is the name wherewith she
shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. Both of those
verses we just read, that's what happened at the cross. That's
the substitution that Christ endured for his people. He took
our poverty upon himself and gave us his wealth, his riches.
He took our sin upon himself and gave us the spotless garment
with wherewith we must be accepted. You know that robe that the prodigal
son's father put on him. picture of our Lord's righteousness
that we must have if we're going to be accepted in God's sight.
And that's what happened at the cross of Calvary. And understand
this, there's no other way we're going to be accepted. There's
no other sin covering. There's only one. That's Christ,
the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. That's what we must
have. It's the one thing we must have. How are we going to have it?
With men, it's impossible. Absolutely impossible. How's a camel going
to fit through the eye of a needle, as our Lord said? That's how
impossible salvation is with us. It's impossible. The great
goal fixed, we're not gonna cross it. Not only are we not gonna
cross it on our own, we have to be carried like Lazarus. We gotta be carried. Someone
had to carry him and lay him at that man's gate. And then
the angels came and carried him into the bosom of Christ. Christ took us from death to
life. You know, we think this is life, this is death. If we're
going to have life, we must have Christ, and God must put us there.
God must give us life, put us in Christ. If we're going to
have a place reserved in heaven for us, it must be because of
Christ and Him alone. We're not going to earn it. The
only seat greater than the rest is Christ's seat. And He even
said, My glory I've given them. Same love, God loves Him. He's
loved us. Same everlasting love. And I
tell you this. Christ has saved his people,
his chosen people, chosen in Christ from before the foundation
of the world. He saved them completely and entirely by himself, and
it's fixed. You know, in this life, often
we'll have a problem. Well, maybe we get it fixed,
and then next thing you know, we find ourselves having the
same problem again. Our sin problem has been taken
care of by the Lord Jesus Christ and it's done. Before he bowed
his head and gave up the ghost, he cried these blessed words,
it is finished. What that means for you and me
is there's nothing we can do to unfinish it. I don't even
know if that's a word. There's nothing we can do to
mess it up, to lose what we have in him. Nothing we can do. It's
fixed. The great gulf fixed? It sounds
like a terrible thing at first, doesn't it? Oh, I rejoice in
it. You think Lazarus was happy that great gulf is fixed? You
think he's enjoying the fact that he can't leave there? You
know, when it says, they that would come from here to there,
they can't. Why would we? If it was up to us, then we would.
If we could lose it, we would. But we can't. Because we didn't
save ourselves. We didn't save ourselves. And
God didn't have our help either. When people say, oh, well, God's
done his part. The rest is up to you. If the
rest was up to us, I know where we'd all be. Wrong side of the gulf. And we'd
be there forever. Praise God, Christ did it all
by himself. I'm his and he is mine. I wrote
the word hallelujah. I just couldn't think of anything
better to say. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. A song that
we sometimes sing says, Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan.
And with God, no, it's not just a plan. It's done. When he purposed
it, it was finished. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty
gulf that God did span. At Calvary, mercy there was great
and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There and only there, my burdened soul found liberty.
At Calvary, in the Christ of the cross. I'd love to hear him,
Brother Gary, lead that song. God has put all of his people
in the cleft of the unmovable rock. The Lord Jesus Christ is
fixed. I pray we might be able to rejoice
in this. I pray that we might be able
to be thankful for the good news God has given us about this great
gold fix where he reached way down for his people, as our brother
just sang. Thank God for spanning that goal for sinners like you
and me. Amen. Let us pray. Our great God and Heavenly Father,
we thank you so much for what you've done for us. Dear Lord,
we're so undeserving of the least of your mercies, and yet you've
withheld not a single one from us. Thank you for this account
of our brother Lazarus and all who are typified in him. All
your people, all your people you've caused to be spiritual
beggars before your throne of grace. Lord, we know if you put
it in our heart to cry out for mercy and grace, we'll find it
every time. Would you enable us to cry, cause everyone here
to know our need? And Lord, would you, through
the Lord Jesus Christ, meet that need? Please be with us. Please forgive us of all our
sin. Please have mercy on us. For Christ's sake, be with us,
bless us, and keep us. It's in his most precious name
we pray. Amen. Thank you brother, that's a blessing.
Let's all stand together and we'll sing hymn number 127. 127. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah. ? What a Savior ? Bearing shame
and scoffing rude ? In my place condemned He stood ? Sealed my
pardon with His blood, hallelujah What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God, were He. Full atonement can it be, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! Lifted up was he to die. It is finished was his cry. Now in heaven exalted lie. Hallelujah. What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, This song we'll sing, Hallelujah,
what a Savior. Cody, if you would, go to the
foyer so those who want to can hug your neck and shake your
hand. Thank you for that message. You're dismissed. We'll meet
again at 6 o'clock this evening, Lord willing.