Wherefore remember that you in
time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called the uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision. You notice how both of those
are capitalized. Those were titles that the Jews
gave Gentiles, unclean, filthy, uncircumcised, nothing to do
with the covenant. Don't know God. And the circumcision
was, of course, the Jews. That would give us a token of
the covenant that God had made with Abraham. But that circumcision
was in the flesh made by hands. And then he says, remember that
at that time you were without Christ. You were aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. Now that's where
we was. But now, Oh, I love those but
nows. But now, in Christ Jesus, there's
the key. In Christ Jesus, you who sometimes
were far off, far off from the coming, far off from God, far
off from Israel, far off from the covenants of promise, but
now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off or made
nigh, brought nigh, made nigh, by the blood of Christ. For he
is our peace, who hath made both one, circumcision and uncircumcision,
Jew and Gentile, and broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh, in his body on
the tree, even the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of two, Jew and Gentile, one new man, countenance
one person, so making peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
Christ has one body. He don't have two bodies. He
don't have a body of Jews and then a body of Gentiles. He always
has just one body. And He came and preached peace
to you that were far off and to them that were nigh. He preached
peace to Jews and Gentiles both. For through Him, Through Him,
we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. Now listen. Now therefore you
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints in the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ
Himself. being the chief cornerstone,
in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord, in whom also ye are built together
for habitation of God through the Spirit." That's what the
difference is. Now, I want you to look here
in Ephesians 2 with me again. In verse 19, look what it says.
And the title of my message today is, The Saints' Firm Foundation. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
What more can He say to you than He said to you who to Jesus for
refuge had fled? Now therefore, in verse nineteen,
Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for a habitation
of God, a place for God to dwell, live in, His church, His people,
through the Spirit. Our spiritual life our spiritual
life from the new birth when God regenerates us. And we're
passive in that. We're passive in the new birth.
We don't do anything for the new birth. We don't have an act
to commit, a deed to do, anything. We're passive in that. God sends
a spirit and quickens us and gives us life. And the evidence
of that life is faith and repentance and crying out to God when a
baby is born. It gives evidence of its birth
by crying. But it's been alive in that mother's
womb for nine months. And God regenerates us and puts
that seed of the Spirit in our hearts and the seed of the Word,
and we're born again. And when that birth starts, we
begin to start growing in grace. We begin to learn a few things.
We begin to understand some things. We begin to grow in grace. And
living things grow. One way you can know you have
the life of Christ in you, do you grow? Are you growing? Are you growing in understanding?
Are you growing in grace? Are you growing in knowledge?
Are you growing in some understanding of yourself and of the Word of
God and of those around you, of the scriptures? But I know
that the life of a believer, the life of a church, and every
church has a life about it, and if the Spirit of God, if a church
is alive, There's evidence of that life in it. Evidence of
that life. But whether the life of a believer,
the life of a church, in the Scriptures it's always referred
to as a building, a house. Whether we're individuals or
whether we're a church, we're referred to as a building, a
house. And ain't that what he said here? You're built upon
the foundation of the apostles. Apostles in Jesus Christ. All
the building fitly framed together, put together. Everything's got
to be put together. And we're people, we have a building.
Now, let me tell you something about a building. A building
has to have a starting place. It has to start in somebody's
mind, somebody's desire, somebody's will. You don't just... A house don't
appear out of nowhere. Somebody has to think of it.
Somebody has to plan it. Somebody has to desire it. Somebody
has to want it. Well, God, before the world began,
He willed to have a building. He willed to have a house. He
will have a place for him to live in, a place for him to dwell
in, for his son to grow in. And then you've got to have a
place to build it. You've got to have somewhere
to build it. So then you've got to get all this material together. And before you get all that material
together, the first thing you know you do about a house is
you lay a foundation. And then the foundation, and
you fellas that build houses, you know, if I'm not mistaken,
you tell me if I'm wrong, that when you start laying a foundation,
you lay one corner, and then you pull everything from that
one corner. You start a corner, you lay it out, and you put that
corner down there, and you get that corner straight, and then
you pull everything from that corner. Well, Jesus Christ, our
Lord, He's that corner. And everything about the foundation
comes from Him. And then you get all the material
together. And as you get that material together, God begins
to start putting it together. He says it fitly framed together.
He puts it together. And then it starts growing. And
it grows up into a temple. Paul called Peter and said it
was a spiritual house. a living temple. In this case,
you know, God had a temple, Solomon's temple. He had Herod's temple.
And then there was a tabernacle and all that had to be put together.
So he gets all this material together and he starts building
this house. And then he says in verse, it
grows up to a holy temple. And that's what he calls it.
It's a holy temple. That's what the believers are. That's what
the church is. And whom also all are building together for
a habitation, a place to God to dwell. He said, I'll dwell
in that tabernacle. I'll dwell above the mercy seat.
I'll put my name there. Listen here, God said, I'm going
to put my name in this building. I'm going to live in this building.
I'm going to call it together. And then they put it all together. And that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ said, and I want you to hold Ephesians and look with
me in Luke chapter 14, just a moment. Talking about the Saint's Firm
Foundation. Look in Luke 14, verse 28. You
know, our Lord Jesus Christ said, This I likened that man who heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them, as he that buildeth his
house on a rock. Buildeth his house on a rock.
The thorns came, the winds blew. The floods came, but that house
stood, that house stood. And look what he said here at
verse 28, Luke 14. 14 For which of you, intending
to build a tower, sent it not down at first, and counteth the
cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it, lest haply, after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it, begin to mock him, saying, This man began
to build and was not able to finish. Now let me ask you two
questions. Would God start something he
couldn't finish? Does he have sufficient to finish
it? And Paul called himself a wise
master builder. In 1 Corinthians 3.10 he says,
By the grace of God that given unto me, I am a wise master builder. Christ made me a wise master
builder. But now I want you to notice something. He says there,
for no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. The foundation was already laid.
He said He was just a builder on that foundation. And He says
in John, He said, let a man take heed how he builds on that foundation.
If he puts wood, if he lays precious stones, jewels, gold and silver,
For wood has stubble, now precious stones will last, wood has stubble
won't. So let a man take heed of how he builds on that foundation.
And when the foundation is laid, then how do we build? I believe
I'm on the foundation. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sink and sink. But look over here in our
text again. Look what it says now. It says you're built. You are
built. upon the foundation of the apostles."
Now, what does that mean? That means that the apostles,
they preached the Lord to you. The foundation had been laid.
God laid the foundation. The foundation, the foundation
of the apostles, what the apostles preached, what the apostles taught.
What did Peter preach on the day of Pentecost? "'Be it known
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that this man whom
you by wicked hands have crucified and slain, Him being delivered
by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you slave,
but God raised him from the dead and made him both Lord and Christ.
And I'll tell you something, by no other name, no other name,
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. That
was the apostles' foundation. And I'll tell you, and then the
prophets. We're built on the foundation of their prophets.
What does that mean? That means to Him, all the prophets
give witnesses. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
said He preached Himself from the Psalms, from the prophets,
from the law. And I tell you, we can go to
the Old Testament and find our Lord Jesus Christ. Our foundation's
built on what the prophets taught. Our foundation's built upon,
we're built upon what the apostles taught. And look what else it
is said here. And look what they build on, Jesus Christ Himself
being Himself. Whenever I find that word, Himself,
that means everything that the Lord Jesus Christ is, He gave
Himself, Jesus Christ Himself. Not another, no other help, nobody
involved in it, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Now, beloved, Have we got a firm
foundation? Let me give you three or four
reasons why it's firm. First of all, the foundation
is firm, and we've got to have a foundation. It's because of
Christ Himself. Now look in Isaiah 28. Look over here with me just a
moment. We've looked at this so many times over the years
that all this is worth looking at again. He Himself is our foundation. We're looking for no other foundation.
That's why Peter says, you know, be ready always to give an answer
to him of asking you a reason for the hope that you have. What's
your reason? What's your foundation? If God
calls you out of this world today, if you get bad news from the
doctor today, what are you going to stand on? What are you going
to stand on? What's going to be your foundation?
What's going to hold you up? What's going to see you through
when the storms come, when the judgment comes, when God comes,
when the light's turned out, and the comfort's taken away,
and the strength fails? And that's what he says here.
First of all, he said here in verse 15, Isaiah 28, Because
you have said, We have made a covenant with death, And with hell we
are in agreement. What they're saying here is,
is that, you know, we made a profession. We joined the church. We've read
our Bibles and we've prayed. So we've made a company with
death. Death ain't gonna bother us. I'm not afraid of hell. And
then hell, we're in agreement. Me and hell already agreed. I've
signed my insurance policy. Jesus signed my insurance policy
and I'm not going to hell. I saved when I was 14 years old,
and I believe once saved, always saved. You may go out into the
world. I've been out in the world for
15, 25 years, but I still saved back yonder. I got saved when
I was 16. I've been in the world for the
last 20 years, but I got saved back there. And they made an
agreement with Him. And when the overflowing scores
shall pass through, and He said, this don't come when the judgment
comes. It'll not come unto us. Now listen to what He said. This
is what we know. We have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Now look what God
says now. Therefore, I was right there
one time. Then he says, Therefore, thus
saith the Lord, behold, I lay in Zion, I lay in the church,
I lay in the place for where I dwell, for a foundation of
stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste." Now listen to me. What does it say here? God laid
this foundation. You fellows got in disagreement,
said, I've got a foundation. This is where you're going to
have to lay. This is where you're going to have to stand. This
is where you're going to have to bleed. And he says, what does it say
here? I lay in Zion. God did this. What did man have to do with
this? God said, I lay for a foundation, a stone, not just any stone,
A tried stone. How is it tried? You know, if
you're going to lay a foundation, you find a stone that's capable,
that's been cut out, that's just perfect to start the corner with.
And here's a stone that's been tried. Look this thing over. Who tried it? God Himself tried
it. Do always please Him. This is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Man tried it. Man tried,
he said. Oh, they tried. He said, which
of you convinces me of sin? Pilate stood up and said, I find
no fault in this man. Let him go. Tried by the law. The law took him. Took him to
task. Love God. Love your neighbor.
Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't covet. And
the law comes back and says, I'll find no fault in this man.
He's kept every jot and every tittle. He's magnified the law
and he's made it honorable. Tried by Satan. Satan took him
on the mountain and now I'll affectionate you. He was hungry,
been hungry half-eaten for 40 days. If you be the son of God,
tell this rock here to be made to bread. He said, It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but every word which is written by
God. And so he's tried by Satan, and then he's tried by death.
And that's what Peter said. It is not possible that he should
be holding of death. Not possible that he should be
holding of death. And he conquered death, hell,
and the grave. And then don't let us say he's
a trite stone, but it says he's a precious cornerstone. If God
says he's precious, who's he precious to? Well, he's precious
to me. Peter said he's precious to us
who believe. That means he has some value
to us. That means he has some worth.
And then look what it says. He takes this and nails it down. And he said, it's a sure foundation.
How can it be sure? First of all, God made it. Secondly,
it was tried. That's what makes it sure. And
then look what he says, he that believeth, he that believeth shall not make
case. What does that mean? He that
believeth, if you look at the same verse over in Romans 10,
it said, He that believeth shall not be confounded. He that believeth
shall not make haste. That means, beloved, that he
shall not be ashamed at the judgment. He'll not be ashamed before God
now. He'll not be ashamed before God at the judgment. He will
not be somebody that jumps up and shouts, Hallelujah, I've
accepted Jesus. He'll just believe and he'll
wait and he'll trust because he knows the foundation's been
laid. He's on that foundation. Huh? And let me show you over
here in Acts chapter 4. Now look in Acts 4 with me just
a moment. You'd think everybody would want
this stone. You'd think everybody'd want this stone, but no, everybody
don't want it. Look in Acts chapter 4 and verse
10. Here's some folks that took this
stone, and they rejected it. Why would anybody reject the
foundation that God laid? Why would anybody not be on the
foundation that's sure and steadfast? Why wouldn't anybody want that?
But Acts 4.10 says, and Simon Peter's preaching here, "'Bid
none unto all you and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised
from the dead, even by him doeth this man stand here before you
hold." Now listen, this Jesus Christ of Nazareth, this is the
stone which was said of naught of you builders. God put Him
there and said, we don't want Him. Christ said He was a stumbling
stone and a rock of all things. God said, this is the foundation.
We say, we don't want Him. He's just a carpenter's son.
We know his mother, we know his daddy, we know his brothers,
and we know his sisters. He claims to be God manifest
in the flesh. He claims to be the Son of God.
And obviously he lives all in miracles, but he does that by
the devil himself. They said not only that, but
he's sitting over there drinking wine with some sinners. That
means he's a winebender. He's sitting in Simon's house
and he's eating supper. He's a righteous man. Oh, we
don't want him. But look what he says. You set
him at naught. You say he's absolutely nothing.
He's a zero, zip, nothing. But God said he's become the
head of the corner, and neither is that salvation than any other. For there is none other name
given under heaven among men, and listen to this, whereby we
must. Not we shall be, we hope to be,
we might be, we'd like to be, but we must. be saved. That means somebody's going to
be saved. And all believe, and some believe.
You know who it is that believe? As many as were ordained to eternal
life, they believed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He was
with His disciples. And He said to them, He said,
Who do the men say that I, the Son of Man am? They said, Well,
some say you're Elijah. Some say you're Jeremiah, one
of the other prophets. And he said, who do you say that
I am? He says, thou art the Christ. Simon Peter said, thou art the
Christ. You're the Son of the living God. And he says, oh Simon,
you're so blessed. He said, flesh and blood didn't
make you understand it, but my Father which is in heaven. He
made you understand this. And he said, and upon this rock,
he wasn't talking about Simon Peter, talking about himself,
upon this rock, on me, On this foundation, I will build my church. And he said, you know what? And
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It's going to come,
it's going to work, it's going to try, but it will not prevail
against the church of God, the church which he bought. And I
tell you something, beloved, God ordained in him as the only
giver of life. Nobody else can give life. Have
you ever seen a rock give life? Well, I'll tell you it did. That
rock, which was Christ, was suspended in the wilderness. He gave out
water, which was life. And beloved I, Lord Jesus Christ,
He is that stone upon which men are believed, and men are saved.
He says, As the Father hath life in himself, so hath He given
the Son to have life in Himself. He says, Thou hast given Him
power over all flesh. What are you going to do with
that power? To give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given
Him. The only person that can give
you life, the only person that can strengthen you, and save
you, and worship you, and make you to know God, and God to know
you, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Them I know my sheep,
and my sheep know me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Oh my, He's the only one that
can give you life. That's why I said, He's not believing
on Him. He ain't going to make peace. He's going to rest right
here. And let me tell you something
else about Him. He's the only one. The Lord Jesus Christ, this
foundation that we're going to talk about, our firm foundation,
the saints' firm foundation, I'm trying to tell you what it
is. He's the only one God will accept anything from. Bring what you will, God won't
accept it. He only accepts what? Christ
gives. Huh? That's what He said. He's
the chief demonstration. It's Him that we're built firmly,
built together. God will only accept anything
from Him. Do you want to try to bring God
a righteousness? He'll only accept Christ's righteousness.
You want to bring your merit to your worth? He'll only accept
Christ's merit. You want to bring your faith?
It's the faith of Christ that God looks at. He says, no man, no man, no man,
no man comes unto the Father except by Me. You want to go
to God? Come to Me. You want to speak
to God? Speak to Me. You won't be accepted
of God, you're only accepted in the beloved. You will offer
prayer, your prayers are accepted through me. You want faith, I gotta be the
one to give it to you. And then when I give you that
faith, God will only accept it because it's in me. Isn't that
right? You know, I'm telling you, that's
why I said, we offer spiritual sacrifices made acceptable unto
God, how? Through Jesus Christ. We have
one, we say that in our text, back over in our text, in verse
18, for through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. How do you get to the Father?
Through Christ. You're going to pray, you've
got to ask in His name. You don't bring a sacrifice,
you bring it in His name. He's the only sacrifice God will
accept. You don't bring worth. He's the
only one who's got any worth. I don't have time to tell you,
but under this one foundation we have, if we've got Christ,
God hears us, accepts us, receives us. We have the righteousness
of Christ. We have complete in Him, perfect
in Him. And I tell you, let me tell you
something else about him, why we got such a glorious foundation,
firm foundation. He's the only one, the Lord Jesus
is, that the Holy Spirit will speak of and bring sinners to.
The only one. He's the only one. Now, I'm telling you, the only
way you can tell if the Holy Spirit's in a place is not because
people speak in tongues. Not because they dance in awe.
Not because they clap their hands. Unless they give Jesus a big
praise offering. No. When the Holy Spirit's presence,
He has one message. He does not wish for something
new. He always brings Christ. Huh? That's what our Lord Himself
said when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come. He shall not speak
of Himself. He'll not speak of Himself. But He'll take the things of
mine. Take my person, take my word, take my pictures, take
my tithes, make my prophecies, and He'll take the things concerning
me and show them unto you. And let me tell you something,
beloved. If the Holy Spirit comes and He's in your presence, in
our presence, He's speaking of Christ. He'll bring us the things
of Christ. He teaches the things of Christ. And believe me, they
only got one place to bring you, and that's to the blessed Son
of God. Now, there's one altar in all the universe. Everybody
likes altars. Everybody likes altars. Oh, I
love to get on them old-fashioned altars. I remember that old-fashioned
altar. And I remember when we had one. And folks would just
wear it out. And we'd say, boy, I wish they'd
go ahead and get this thing prayed through so we'd get out of here. I never will forget, but years
and years and years ago, Floyd was the one that said, I'm going
to carry that thing out of here. We found out that that thing
is false, it's awful. And he said, I'll carry it in,
I'll carry it out. You know why we found out we're the only all
Koreans? You know where God said we can get on the altar at? He
says it's the right hand of God. Christ, our altar, is sacrificed
for us. You want to get on the altar?
Get to Christ. He said, no man cometh unto the
Father but by me. But as it is written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God, and everyone that hath heard
and learned of the Father, what does he do? He comes to me." It's like Abraham's servant.
Abraham sent his servant Eliezer. Isaac was of age, and he wanted
to bribe Isaac. Isaac's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Abraham's seed. He said, now
you go over to my country. Everything is God's country.
And he says, go over to my country and go only to my people. And when you get over there,
you find a bride and you bring her back for my son Isaac. Now,
let me tell you some things he didn't do. He didn't get over
there in Laban's country, over in And get over there and start
saying, going down the street, hey listen everybody, Abraham,
my master's got a son, his name's Isaac, and he needs somebody
to marry. He needs somebody. Anybody here
want to marry him? Oh, we don't know nothing about
him. No, no. He never said any such
like, but he found one woman. Her name was Rebecca. And you
know what he did with Rebecca? He started taking all the things,
started telling her, he said, you know, my master's son gets
everything blown to my master. And my master has wealth that
you can't measure. And then he started showing her
all these garments. That's a pretty famous dress. Oh, see, is that for me? Yes! Oh, do you mean that righteousness
is for me? Yeah. Here's some silver. Here's some gold. You mean he
had gold? Oh, he's the gold of Ophir. And
that's some silver. Oh, you mean he's got the silver
of redemption? Will you know? Oh, yes. That's what happens when the
gospel comes to you. It starts showing you the things
of Christ, and you've got to come. You can't help but come.
And then let me hurry on, move on here. I've took too long on
that point. But all you see what a firm foundation we've got.
Let me give you a second point. Why our foundation is firm is
because of the covenant of grace. Covenant of grace. Hebrews 13.20
says this, Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead,
that great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. We've not come unto
Mount Zion or Mount Sinai that might not be touched, but we've
come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God, into Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
this. He said, this is the New Testament
in my blood. My blood. New Testament, new
covenant. Look at Hebrews 10. We can go
right over to your right. Hebrews 10. I want you to see
this here about this covenant. Hebrews 10.5. talking about this covenant.
Our foundation is firm because of the covenant of grace. He
said here in verse 5, wherefore when he, when Christ comes into
the world, he said, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
that was never your will, but you prepared me a body, a body,
and burn offerings and sacrifices for sins thou hast no pleasure.
And in this body that you gave me to do, When I came into this
world, I said, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, in God's
blessed book. It's written of me to do thy
will, O God. So above, before, when he said,
Sacrifice and offerings, and burnt offerings, and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not, neither ever hath satisfaction therein,
which are offered by the Lord. Then he said, Lo, I come to do
thy will. Now listen to it. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. Why does he take
away first? He takes away Adam. And the fall
of Adam establishes the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes away the sin of Adam
and gives us the righteousness of Christ. He takes away the
death of Adam and gives us the life of Christ. He takes away
the Old Testament, the New Covenant, the Old Law, the Covenant of
ordinances and sacrifices, and Christ established the New Testament,
the New Law, the New Grace, and grace by salvation by grace.
And our beloved in the fall, we receive the image of the earthly.
In Christ, we receive the image of the heavenly. And you can
go on and on. In Christ, He's put away death. And in Christ, He brought life.
Everything. He put away the first, and He
brought in the second. The everlasting covenant of grace.
And that's what He says, now look at verse 10. By the which
will, this will, when He put away the first and established
the second. By the which will, we are sanctified. made holy
by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. Once for all. And listen to me, beloved. Here's
the covenant of grace, if I can say it this way, and I can give
you scripture for this. God gave you a son of people.
All whom the Father giveth me, of all that he giveth me, I've
lost none of them, except the son of perdition. The Father
give me a people, and all that come to me I'll know wise cast
them out. John 17 talks about seven different gifts. Seven
thousands, it says, about Gabriel. And then our Lord Jesus Christ
keep coming to represent those people. He said, I came to give my life
a ransom for many. Many are called, but few are
chosen. And beloved, he came to represent those people. And
Beloved, He represented those people, because just as Adam
represented us in the Garden of Eden and we fell in Him, Christ
came to represent us in the Covenant of Grace. And in this representing
His people in this Covenant of Grace, He represented them in
His life. It takes a sinless, how good do you have to be to
get to Heaven to be accepted of God? Good as God! How perfect
you gotta be to be in the presence of God! Perfect! How holy you
gotta be! Holy as God! What so our Lord
Jesus Christ in His life, He represented us! Sinless, holy,
perfect, God-honored, law-magnifying, man! And then, beloved, He not
only represented us in His life, but He represented us in His
death! Christ was made a curse for us! Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the Lord our God."
Well, Christ was made a curse for us. Took our sin upon Himself,
bruised for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions. And then
not only did He represent us in His death, He didn't die for
Himself, He died for somebody else. And, oh, beloved, He represented
us in His resurrection. When He raised from the dead,
do you know what that tells us? We're going to be resurrected,
too. We have a spiritual resurrection, and we will one day have a physical
resurrection. If Christ was raised from the
dead, we'll be raised from the dead. And now, again, beloved,
He represented His people in His ascension. If He went to
glory, guess who else gets to go up? And I'll get to that in
a minute. And then He represents us in
His intercession. He didn't forgive us after He
got up. No, He still represents us. Good children are right unto
you. You sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate,
we have a lawyer. With the Father, even who is
He? Jesus Christ the righteous. And, oh beloved, let me tell
you this, He took full responsibility for His people, for them, and
He done it willingly. And if He's responsible for me,
will He see that I get the glory? Will He save me? Is He responsible for me? That's
why I can leave people alone with what they know and what
they do. You know why? Because Christ's responsible
for His sheep. He'll take care of them. He'll
get them. He knows where they are. He knows what to do. He knows what to do. He knows
everything there is to know about. And, beloved, He'll take care
of them. He'll take care of them. Oh, God said, I'll give him as
a covenant to the people. Now, let me show you in Romans.
And this, you see, this is the purpose of three destinations
in Romans chapter 8. People talk about predestination.
What is predestination? I'm going to show you just exactly
what it means. We're talking about this covenant
of praise. And this is the purpose of predestination, is the salvation
of His people, Christ responsible for them. Christ bearing their
sins in His own body. Christ living their life, dying
their death. And that's why Paul says, you
know, that we were crucified with Christ. We were buried with
Him. We're raised with him and we're
seated together with him in heavenly places right now. But this is the purpose of predestination.
Look in Romans 8, verse 29. This is going to be the end of
it. This is it. For whom he did foreknow. How
did he foreknow? They were given to him. He had
an intimate knowledge and acquaintance with them. He walked by and saw
Peter and James, and they'd never seen Christ before in his life.
And he said, follow me. Call them by name. Matthew, come
on. Zacchaeus, get out of that tree. Zacchaeus didn't know who
Christ was. He didn't know who Christ was.
He just knew that there was Jesus. He'd done a lot of works, and
he said, I want to see Him. I may never get to see a fellow
like this again. Called him by his name. How did he know his
name? For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate. What did he predestinate us to?
To be conformed to the image of his Son. That Christ might
be the firstborn among many brethren. Now listen to what he's done
here. Moreover, whom he did predestinate. What did he do about those people
that he foreknew, and going to conform to the image of Christ?
He called on them. You reckon they heard? I know my sheep, and they what? Hear my voice. And whom he called,
listen to this now, them he justified. A little bit of this is in the
past, can't you see? And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Oh, that's going to be the end
of this thing, glorified. What shall we say at the end
of these things if God be for us? Who shall be against us?
Let me show you something, and I'll be done. I've got two more
points, but I'm going to let them go. I've got two more points. I took too long on these. But
look with me real quick. In Jeremiah 33. I want you to
see this. About this covenant. Jeremiah
33. About this covenant. Jeremiah
33. You know, this covenant of grace
that we're in. This covenant of grace that makes
our foundation so sure. There's no way to listen to what
God said here in Jeremiah 33 and verse 20. Thus saith the Lord, if you can
break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night,
that there should not be day and night in their season. Then may also my covenant be
broken with David my servant, that's Christ, that he should
not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites
the priest. Now look down in verse 25. Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant
be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed ordinances
of heaven and earth, then Well, I cast away the seed of Jacob
and David, my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed
to be rulers over the seed of Abraham. You know, if God quits
day and night, then that's when you'll cast away his people.
Until that happens. Until day and night go. He said, I will not. I won't
cast away my people. One more, Isaiah 54, then I'm
done. Talk about the covenant. For the mountains shall depart,
the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from
thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith
the Lord, that hath mercy on thee. That's a lot to talk about, ain't
it? Paul, while firm of foundation,
you're saints of the Lord. Firm because of Christ Himself. Sperm because of the covenant
of grace. Let's take 268 and you'll be
at liberty to go. All of you. Preach those other
two points next Sunday morning. What do you think about that?
Have you written that work?