I have a heavy heart this morning,
so I hope the Lord will enable me to speak. Of course, I've had a heavy heart
for quite some time now, but the Lord's been indeed very gracious,
very gracious, and I'm thankful. But my subject is, is Christ yea or nay? Is Christ preaching Christ? What
it means to preach Christ, yea and nay or not yea and nay. You
know, Paul had purposed to come and visit these saints at Corinth.
He says there in verse 15, and in this confidence I was minded
to come unto you before, that you might have a second benefit
or blessing through my coming. And I was going to pass by you
into Macedonia. I was going to come by you and
then go to Macedonia and come again out of Macedonia unto you.
And then for you to provide the means for me to go on towards
Judea. When I was intended to do these
things, when it was in my mind to do these things, when I was
therefore minded, Did I use likeness, or the things that I purposed,
or our purpose according to the flesh, that there should be with
me yea, yea, and nay, nay?" But as he intended to come to these
saints, according, God in His providence kept him from going.
You remember he says, you know, I had the sentence of death in
me, I was pressed out of measure, thought I was even going to die,
and yet God delivered us. But he had enemies. There were
enemies of Christ at Corinth. There was enemies of the gospel.
Enemies of Paul. And they always brought false
charges against him. And here they bring two of them
against him. First of all, there in verse 17, he said, when I
was first minded, did I use lightness? Did I use levity? When I intended
to come to you to preach the gospel, come again to you, to
be a blessing to you, to preach the gospel to you. Did I use
levity? Did I use lightness? Was I not
serious about my intents to come to you?" They said, well, he's
not serious about coming. He's never serious about anything
is what they were saying. So he was just saying that, just
saying that. And then they accused him of
being inconsistent. He said, or the things that I
purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh? They accused him
of being untrustworthy as a man, as a preacher, and as a teacher. And so Paul says, do I purpose
what I do according to the flesh? Do I do what I do because my
flesh wants to do it? Did my flesh just get up and
say, well, I believe I'll come and see you sometime? Or do I
say one thing at one time and another thing at another time?
Do I say I'm going to come to you and then I didn't mean I
was going to come to you? Do you think I was just joking about
it? You was enlightened about it and levity about it. Do I
say yes one time and then no another time? Am I that untrustworthy?
Huh? Am I governed by my corrupt old
nature? Am I guided by it? But now look
what he says. After according to the flesh,
that with me there should be yea, yea and nay, nay. Do I so
act after the fleshes, the flesh that the consequence is yea,
yea and nay, nay? That you don't know whether I'm
telling you the truth or not, whether I'm honest or not, whether
I intend to come or not, is my preaching yea, yea and nay, nay?
Do I grieve with and deny the same thing at the same time?
Do I say yes and no at the same time? In reference to the same
subject, whether it's preaching, whether it's the gospel, whether
it's coming to see you, you'd think I'm really that way. Tell
you a true story. Harry Truman, president when
they dropped the atomic bomb, he wrote a mock memorandum. You
know, presidents write memorandums. Everybody got to pay attention
to them. He wrote a mock one. It wasn't real. And he said this,
he said, I've appointed a secretary of semantics. Oh, the most important
post. He's to furnish me with forty
and fifty dollar words and tell me how to say yes and no in the
same sentence without contradiction. He is to tell me the combinations
of words that'll put me against inflation in San Francisco and
Ford in New York. He's to show me how to keep silent
and say everything. And Paul said, is that what you're
telling me? Is that what you're telling me?
That I'm that way? But look what he said in verse
18. But as God is true, as God is
true, my word, our preaching, my preaching
toward you was not yea and nay. Oh, but as God is true, and God
is true, yea, let God be true, and every man a liar. My doctrine,
my preaching, the things that I preached was not inconsistent
and contradictory. I didn't preach first one thing
and then another. That's why he said, you know,
over in 1 Corinthians 4, he says, as God has allowed us to be put
in trust with the ministry, as we receive mercy, we faint not,
and we ain't going to handle the Word of God deceitfully,
and we're not going to handle it corruptly. We've renounced
those hidden things of dishonesty. There was a time that I was dishonest.
There was a time that I thought I had a right relationship with
God. There was a time that I thought my righteousness and my holiness
and my law-keeping and my works made me acceptable to God. Now,
I'm renouncing that. I'm ashamed of that. And I've
come clean before God and in no good and well I've been telling
you the truth every time I open my mouth. My preaching was not
yea and nay. And when he answered his enemies,
he was much more concerned for the gospel than he was for his
own reputation. They might accuse him of breaking
his word, but when they accused him of denying Christ, denying
the gospel, he couldn't abide that. And I'll tell you something
about God's truth. God's truth is one. It's one
whole. It stands or falls together.
You take any part out of it, and it falls. I mean, this Bible
has one message from beginning to end. The truth of God is whole. You cannot take a part out that
don't suit you. It stands or falls together as
a whole. And that's why Paul said, My
preaching to you was not yea, one time, and then no another
time. It's like that preacher who said that you know if you
pray hard enough, God will change his plans in heaven. That's your
A&A preacher. I'll tell you what your A&A preaching
is. It's that God loves you and yet God can't save you without
you allowing Him to do it. That's your A&A preaching. That
Jesus died for you, but yet that blood and His death will not
have any effect upon you unless you let Him into your heart and
you've got your free will. Allow Him to save you. That's
your A&A preaching. If Christ died to save you, you're
going to be saved. And you're not willing until
He makes you willing. Is that not right? Christ said, I lay down my life
for the sheep and the goats. No, He said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. God can't be sovereign and also
infinite at the same time. God rules and reigns in the heavens
and in the earth, but when it comes down to ruling over man,
he has no power with that. Man's just left to luck, fate,
mother nature, chance. Wouldn't it be awful to live
in this world, knowing that all things were left into chance?
Well, you know, in our situation, what if you said, well, it was
our bad luck to have this happen to us? Instead of understanding
that God And His sovereign mercy and purpose ordered all things
that happens in this world, that everything that happens in this
world is on account of purpose and will of God Almighty. That my life, her life, my brother's
life that was gone this morning, went out into eternity. He went
just exactly where He was supposed to go. And that's why Paul says, our
preaching is not yea and nay, but he says in verse 18, but
as God is true, and our word toward you was not yea and nay.
Now watch what he says now. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you, not only by me, but he was preached
unto you by Silvanus. Silvanus is Silas over from the
book of Acts and Timothy. And when they all three of us
came and preached to you, we did not preach yea and nay, but
in him everything we preached was yea, for all the promises
of God. First of all, he said the Son
of God was preached, Jesus Christ. This is always his starting place. You see, today's preaching starts
with name. Man's the one that's got all
the power. Man's the one that's got all the rights. Man's the
one that's got all the will. God don't have any at all. But
Paul said, we start with Christ. And the Scriptures, everything
about the Bible and everything about the Gospel, it starts with
God first and foremost. In the beginning, God. In the
beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And everything
that was made was made by Him. And without Him, there was nothing
made that was made. So this was His starting place.
You know, when Paul first was apprehended on the Damascus Road,
and when they let him, when he went into Damascus, the first
thing he started preaching after God saved him on the Damascus
Road, he straightway started preaching that this Jesus, that
you crucified is indeed the Christ." That's the first thing he started
preaching. And you see, and Paul said, we're not yea and nay about
him because there's a perfect consistency in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He proved himself to be all that
he said he was. He said he was the Son of God.
He said that he was before the world ever began. He said, I
came down from heaven. He said, you're from beneath,
but I came down from heaven. And, beloved, he was delight,
daily the delight of his Father. Now, you hold this, and look
with me in Revelation chapter 1 just a moment. Just look what
Christ said about himself over here. You know, our Lord Jesus, even in eternity, and even on
this earth, he was daily the delight of his Father. His glory was with the Father
before the world was. Look what he says in verse 8
here of Revelations chapter 1. This is the Lord Jesus talking
to John now. He said, I am Alpha and Omega.
I'm the whole alphabet. The beginning and the ending. Said the Lord, which is, which
was, and which is to come. And then look what he says, the
Almighty. You see, He's infinite, indisputable
deity. He was the brightness of God's
glory, the expressed image of His person. The Godhead dwelt
in Him bodily. He was equal with the Father.
And I want to show you another thing, what He said, and the
Jews hated Him for this in John chapter 5. The Jews hated Him
for this, and they hated Paul for preaching this. People don't care. They're not
even upset with the way you preach Jesus today, as long as you preach
Him as somebody who's trying to do something, wants to do
something, would like to do something. But when you preach Him as God,
eternal God, preexistent, that He was with the Father from all
eternity, and that He assumed human nature and came into time,
And once he came into time, he didn't cease to be God. And once
he became a man, he'll never cease to be man. But he was God
when he was on this earth. He was God before he ever came
into this world. And everything that God did in
time and eternity, he did it through his Son, Jesus Christ.
That's what he said. Everything that was done was
done by him, and nothing was done without him. When God said,
let there be, who do you think the Word was that went and did
it? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. When God said, let us make man,
who do you think reached down into that dust and pulled that
man out of that dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life? That was the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
look what he said here in John chapter 5 and verse 17. Jesus answered them, my Father
worketh here, and I'll work. My father's working here, and
I work, because wherever my father is, I am, and wherever I am,
my father is. We work. Therefore the Jews sought
to more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
that's bad enough, but it said also that God was his father,
making himself equal with God. Oh, we can't have that. We can't
have a man claiming to be God. And oh, beloved, and as He is
God made all things, He upholds them now by the very word of
His power. There's no yea and nay here now, is there? And then
we talked about, oh, listen, the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
was preached. He was preached in His true humanity.
You see, by man, why was our Lord Jesus Christ born of a virgin?
Why did He come into this world? Why would God assume human nature
and come into this world? Because God made the first man
Adam. And that Adam, first man, sinned. And in that sin, we all became
sinners. We all became sinners. And then
when we were shaken in iniquity and conceived in sin, we were
born sinners. When he disobeyed, we disobeyed.
When he died, we died. When he sinned, we sinned. So
God sent Himself in the person of His blessed Son to the womb
of a virgin with no relationship to Adam whatsoever. The Son of
God in the womb of a virgin. And when He came out of that
womb, He was as much God as He ever was. But He became something
He never was before. And He took that flesh upon Himself
so that He could come and He could obey so we could obey in
Him, that He would bear our sins so we wouldn't have to bear them,
that He could satisfy God that we could not satisfy, that He
could produce a righteousness that we could not produce, that
He could give us life that we lost in error. And so we had
to have a man, perfect man, able to satisfy God in every way,
and the only way that can be was for God Himself to satisfy
God. And as a man, he was able to
die. And I'll tell you something,
get two things, get two places. Get Matthew chapter 1 and Genesis
chapter 5. Here's the long and the short
of it. Here's the long and the short of it. You all are going to enjoy this.
You're going to enjoy this. This is Matthew chapter 1 and
Genesis chapter 5. Get them both together, hold
one in your left hand, the other in your right, and look what
happens now. You see, look what it says here
in Genesis 5. This is the book of the generations
of Adam. This is the record of Adam and
his descendants. In the day that God created him
in the likeness of God, made he him. Male and female created
he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the
day they were created. And Adam lived a hundred and
thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness." That's
all the flesh can do, produce sons in their own likeness. Now
listen, "...after his image, and called his name Seth." And
the days of Adam and Eve begotten Seth were eight hundred years,
and he begat sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived
were nine hundred and thirty years, and watch what it says,
and he died. Look down in verse eight. And
all the days of Seth, his firstborn, were nine hundred and twelve
years, and he died. Look down in verse eleven. And
all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he
died. Verse 14, all the days of Cain were not under ten years,
and he died. Now, look over in Matthew 1.
That's the generation of Adam. They all died. Now listen to this. The book
of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham. I, Abraham, begat Isaac, and you go down through there,
and there's not one death mentioned. You know why they? Because we're
alive in Christ. No death in that family. No death
in that. His whole life as a man was lived
for someone else, our representative. And he obeyed God. And then look
back over in our text. Let's go back over in our text.
Oh, I told you you all would enjoy that. In Adam, we all die,
but in Christ, we are made alive. We all shall be made alive. And
all back over in our text, he said, the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you. And oh, not only was he preached
among them, but he was preached as the Son of God crucified. Now, here's the hardest thing
for us now. This is the thing that preachers
They loved to preach that Jesus died because He loved the world
so much, and that He died for your sins, and everybody's sins
so much. But when you start looking at
Christ crucified, and you go to the Old Testament and start
finding out the first promise in the Scriptures says that His
heel would be bruised, that there would be suffering in His life,
and the Scriptures tells us that He was wounded, For our transgressions,
not everybody's. Our transgressions, whose? David's? Abraham's? Isaac's? Jacob's?
Mine? Yours, that you're believers?
And he goes on here to say, Beloved, that he was wounded for our transgression,
bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was
laid upon him. God made his soul an offering
for sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he was crucified on that cross, you know what he was? He was
a sin offering. You have to have them under the
law to have sin offerings. And they come every year and
offered them over and over and over, but it never put away sin.
But this man, Hebrews 9, 26, but this man, he offered one
sacrifice for sins forever. sat down on the right hand of
the Son of God, and the scripture said that God said their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Not only was I a sin
offering, but He was our substitute. He was our substitute when He
was born. He was our substitute before
God's holy law. He was our substitute before
God's justice. He was our substitute before
God's truth. He was our substitute before
God's justice. And everything that was against
us, our Lord Jesus Christ stood as our substitute. John said,
Behold, the Lamb of God. And you know the first blend
you find offered in the Scriptures? The Passover. And what did that
Passover do? When they put that blood over
the doorpost and the lintel? The age God passed over them
when He saw the blood, but His justice and His truth and His
righteousness slew all the firstborn in Egypt. And they all, you know where
all them other folks died at? They died in that land. That's
why God saw that blood, the life of the flesh in the blood. And
when Christ died on that cross, He was dying for His people.
He was dying for His elect. He was dying for those given
to Him in the blessed covenant of grace. Our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
him that cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast him out. For I came
down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him that
sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me. All that
he hath given me, I should lose not one of them. Not one of them. So He was our substitute, He
was our Lamb put in our place. And what God required, now listen
to me. If Christ suffered for my sins
in my place and obeyed the law in my place and He died in my
place, then how in the world can God come and get me and charge
me for my sin and punish me for my sin? How
can His law come and condemn me and how can I He come and
kill me and punish me and bring death on me if Christ's already
done it. How can He do it? He couldn't possibly. If Christ
was my substitute and bore the wrath of God, then God can't
come and punish me. If Christ bore my sin, then He
can't come and charge my sin to me. If Christ satisfied God's
justice, then justice can't ever come after me. Now that's the
gospel. That's the best news you'll ever
hear in your life if God blesses that to your heart to understand
it. And that's why this scripture
says there is therefore now no condemnation to them within Christ.
And every time you read that, it'll say now. No wonder Paul said, what shall
we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect
if Christ has died? God himself cannot come and charge
us for anything that Christ has already been punished for. Christ
did not make an effort to put away sin. Christ did not make
an effort to save somebody on that cross. Christ did not make
an effort to open a door for everybody who wants to to be
saved. He died on that cross to offer the sacrifice for his
people's sin, to be their substitute and die in their place. He himself
made his soul an offering for sin. It please the Lord to bruise
him. God made him to be sin, communal
sin. And, oh, beloved, let me tell
you something. God was satisfied with him. God was, He said, in this very
same chapter, He calls him a sweet-smelling savior. And, beloved, I'll tell you something.
God, the only person God's ever been satisfied with in this whole
universe is Christ. I was watching a show the other
day and they was talking about, I guess it was Christmas, it
was at Christmas time, and they all bring this Jesus, can we
find the real Jesus and all that. And I heard a professor in some
seminary telling the person who was going through this, he said,
this is how God did it. She said, first of all, God made
Adam. God put him up, trusted him, and he failed. Then God
trusted Noah, and he failed. And He said, then He trusted
Abraham, and Abraham failed. Then He trusted Jacob, and Jacob
failed. You know, He ran right down the
line. And this said Jesus came, and Jesus didn't fail. He said
He tried all of them. That's JNA preaching. That's
the most God-dishonoring thing that anybody could ever say about
God, about Christ. I mean, a man that would make
a statement like that don't even believe the Bible. He doesn't
know God from a goat. I mean, a man that would make
a statement... God never looked to anybody for anything except
His blessed Son. Let me tell you something. In
Jude chapter, verse 1, it says this, sanctified in God the Father,
preserved in Christ Jesus. You know when we were preserved
in Christ Jesus? Before the world ever began.
He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and
God in His sovereign purpose and mercy had a people given
to Him in that covenant of grace, and we were given to Him, and
we were joined to Him. God never ever, one time, looked
to me or you or anybody else to do anything to save ourselves. And we were joined to Christ
in that covenant of grace. And then our Lord Jesus came
into town. Even before we were born, we
had this eternal union with Christ. We were joined to Him in this
blessed covenant. Joined to Him in His body. A
head of a body's got to have a body. A bride's got to have
a bridegroom. And so when we were preserved
in Christ, and then when He kind of brought us into this world,
just when we were supposed to be here, chose our parents, chose
our place of birth, and He chose the path that we would take when
we went through this world, and He preserved us all the way through
our lives because of this union we have with Christ. How many
times could He save us? And I mean, He was never going
to take no for an answer. And what he did was, he done
us like he done Paul. He called, when he separated
us from our mother's womb, when the time came, he called us by
his grace. And in the day of his power,
he made us willing. He sent the Holy Spirit to regenerate
us, crossed our path with the gospel, and then in time, we
were joined to Christ, actually. When we became joint, because
we was always joint, always preserved in. And you know what, if it's
preserved in in them, we'll be preserved in through the whole
eternity. Listen, if you prove me wrong in that, you'd be welcome
to do it. I've had a lot of fellas try, but it can't be done. Huh? You know what the scripture says,
except our names are written in the book of life. From the
foundation of the world. He said, well, you can take it
out. Who's got a big enough eraser to go into God's book and erase
that out of there? You know, oh, may He bless His
holy name. And I tell you, beloved, He came
not only to live and work out a perfect righteousness for us,
He came to die so God could righteously justify us. Now, when we believe
on His blessed Son, God says, there's righteous as my Son,
there's just as my Son, there's sinless as my Son, there's accepted
in the Beloved. God views us just like He views
His own Son. And if He didn't do that, we
wouldn't stand a chance of a snowball and a brass furnace. And that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ said, Father, there be any other way. Any other way. to satisfy you and save your
people any other way, let this cup pass from me. But nevertheless,
not my will, but thine, be done." And when Paul preached him, he
preached him as an effectual atonement. I mean, our Lord Jesus
Christ saved his people. And then he preached him not
only that way, but he preached him risen, innocent. You remember
when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, he looked at those
folks and said, you, with your wicked hands, have crucified
the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, and that God has taken that same
Jesus whom you crucified and made him both Lord and Christ.
And boy, when they understood that this one they killed was
the Lord, Jehovah, that He was the Christ, the one sin of God,
they said, men and brethren, what must we do? What must we
do? You see, beloved, God raised
Him from the dead. This is the message. Christ crucified,
Christ risen, Christ ascended. And why did God raise Him from
the dead? Because he accomplished what God sent him to do. He satisfied
God. He has risen and exalted to the
highest position in the universe. Where's that at? God's right
hand. You want to speak to God? You're going to have to come
through Jesus Christ. You want anything from God? You're
going to get it through Christ. Everything that God has for a
sinner on topside of God's earth is in His blessings, son. Don't bring anything you've got.
Don't bring the best you've got. Don't bring your good deeds.
Don't bring your works. Don't bring your good intentions.
Don't bring your prayers. Don't bring your tears. Don't
bring nothing. God says that you come to me,
and our Lord Jesus says no man comes to the Father but by me.
You don't even know who God is, our Lord Jesus Christ said, except
I reveal Him to you. And then the father says that
nobody will know who my son is unless I teach him. And if I
teach him, you know what he'll do? He'll come to me. Oh, I tell
you, I'd love to preach this to the whole world. The world
desperately needs this message. They've got to share in their
preaching. They've got to share in their preaching. They say,
well, you shut the door on sinners if you preach it like that. The
door's already shut. If God don't tear the door down
and come in, it'll stay shut. Ain't that right? You're dead. You can't do anything.
You're dead and trespassed. If God don't give you life, you'll
stay dead. That's what I'm saying about
Christ. Open up your gate, you everlasting door. And the King
of Glory shall go in." Who is this King of Glory? The Lord,
Almighty, Victorious, coming in. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and He's not waiting
to come back and set up some kind of kingdom. He's got a kingdom
right now on this earth, and I'm one of His subjects in that
kingdom. He's got a kingdom, and He's
got subjects all over this world, and He's had them from the first
soul He ever saved. He's had a kingdom on this world. And we own Him as King, we own
Him as Lord, we own Him as Sovereign. He rules over me right now. He's the Sovereign Christ. He's
got all powers given unto me, over all flesh. That I, I, I
should give, not all. That I should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. Oh, listen, beloved. He's a sovereign Christ. Look
in Revelations 5 with me just a moment. And oh, this is what's
so wonderful. Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again. It's like Mary said on the way
home last Sunday morning with this dog on her. The Lord just
turned the light on. She said, you know, the Lord's
going to come and take me home. I don't know how to get there
from here. I can't go by myself. And that's what our Lord said.
He said, you know, He said, I'll come again and take you, take
you to be with me where I am. You can't get there. You know,
if you're going to get there, He's got to come and get you,
take you. Oh, what a blessed thing, you're just waiting. Waiting
for Him to come and take you. Where are you going to take me,
Lord? People say all the time, who's going to come and get me?
God says that all the time. Who's going to pick me up at
church? You say, who's going to come and get me? Daddy's going
to come and get me? Well, who's going to come and get me? Where
are you going to take me? I'm going to take it to be with
me where I am. And oh my, that the Lord Jesus
will come and take you. I made you a promise that I was
going to come and get you. Made you a promise that I was
going to take you to be with me where I am. And oh, what a
blessed thing. And boy, the next time you sit
with somebody that speaks and believe this world, if they know
Christ, whenever that last breath goes, you can say, the Lord just
come and took them. The Lord just come and took them. Oh, bless His holy name. Oh,
Lord. Wouldn't it be wonderful if He
just reached down and took us all? Oh, my. But look what I said
here in Revelation 5, verse 12. That's what they say about the
Lord Jesus Christ. The folks in glory do. A bunch,
there's ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands.
They say with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that setteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." And we all
said, Amen. Amen. Oh, listen, it don't sound
like no yea and nay preaching to me. Those of you? Oh, Paul said everything in him
was yea. And oh, beloved, he's the same
today, yesterday, and forever. He's all he claimed to be. He's everything that we've heard
of him. And he's done everything we expected him to do. There's
nothing unsatisfying or uncertain about him. And God made him unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. You can't beat
that, can you? And then let me quickly hurry
and say a couple other things here. Back in the text, it says
in verse 20, for all the promises of God. See, God's promises,
where are they at? They're in Christ. All the promises
of God in him, they're yes. And in him, amen. It's even so. And the reason being, under the
glory of God. Every promise in this blessed
book has been fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ, except his
coming again to get us. That's it. All of them are yea
and amen. And we say amen. He was the seed
of the woman. He was sin of the Father. He
was the Messiah. He was the Lamb. He's the High
Priest. He's the Prophet. He's the King. He fulfilled every
offer. He fulfilled every sacrifice.
He fulfilled the tabernacle. Everything that there was, every
offering that was offered, He fulfilled all of it. That's why
John said, Behold the Lamb of God, with the Lamb promised.
He told Abraham, Abraham, God will provide himself a Lamb.
That's what he told Isaac. And God did. And Abraham believed
God. And all the covenant promises,
he said he'd be a savior, said he'd be our shepherd, he'd be
a priest. And you know what he said? He
said, this is the long and short of the covenant. If you understand
this, you'll understand the covenant. God said, I'll be their God and
they'll be my people. And guess what? He said that
in his blessed son. All that the Father giveth me,
what happens, will come. I lay down my life for the sheep.
I know them and they know me. And you go through the I wills
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the I wills of God. Oh my, just
get them out and look at them. Look at purpose, and all the
promises, our temple promises, everything that we need for this
life. God said, if you want bread, I'll give you bread. He said,
no good thing which I will hold from them. Nothing. Promises to all sorts of people
under all kinds of conditions and circumstances. If you're
a sinner without God and without Christ, God says, I'll receive
you for Christ's sake. I'll forgive you for Christ's
sake. I'll pardon you for Christ's sake. I'll sanctify you and give
you righteousness for Christ's sake. to people who doubt. And they wonder whether I know
Christ or not, whether you're old or young, weak or strong.
He promised to give us life, give us guidance, give us preservation,
promised to teach us. God promised us peace and joy,
promised us hope. And when you come to death and
the judgment, you know what He said? He said, I give you life and
glory. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
you also appear with Him in judgment. There is no condemnation, no
judgment to them that are in Christ. And then I tell you what
His promises reach from that eternity to that eternity. And
all of them are yea and amen. It's even so. And I tell you,
beloved, next time you hear a preacher
Or anybody talk about Christ or God in any way, wants
to, trying to, would like to, and can't? I told you a lie. That's the AMA preacher. That's
the AMA preacher. Was Christ's death on the cross
effectual? Did it actually save into it, intended to? Did his
death on that cross intend to satisfy God? When he cried out, ìIt is finished.î
What do you reckon was finished? When he said, ìDo not call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.î
Donít even call him Savior if you donít save his people. Thatís
a misnomer. Donít even call him Savior if
heís not actually a Savior. If he canít save you, why call
him Savior? If He's the Savior, He saves.
Well, who does He save? All that the Father gave to Him.
There ain't no yea and nay in this. Oh, Lord. Oh, gracious, gracious, gracious
Father, how blessed and glorious is Your holy name. What comfort,
what assurance, what peace, what joy, what a firm foundation your
saints have in your word. We don't have to look to feelings.
We don't have to look to ourselves for anything. We don't have to
trust in this flesh. We've written death on it. We
have no confidence in this flesh. no confidence in anything we
do. But Lord, we believe You. We believe this salvation that
You accomplished for us in Your Son. We believe He satisfied
us. We believe He bore all our sins
away. We believe You justified us from all our sins and guilt.
We believe we are holy and accepted in the Beloved. We believe we
have been saved by the grace of God and that we will someday
by your blessed, blessed grace, be called home to be with you
in that perfect, eternal rest. Though we have a great, blessed,
and glorious rest here, it's nothing compared to the rest
we'll have when we're done with this body, done with this flesh,
done with this weakness, done with this frail, miserable rest
that we are. But Lord Jesus, we believe you.
We look to You. We embrace You. Our souls go
out to You. Our heart goes out to You. Our
need goes out to You. And Lord, we thank You that You've never
failed us. And all Your promises are yea
and amen. Amen. Amen.