I just want to bring another
message on Christ and the covenant, and Christ is given to us. Christ
is given to us. You know, when I read this chapter
down through verse 16, when it's talking here, it's talking about
our Lord Jesus Christ, and how God would and how he
would cast himself upon God. God would be his strength. God
would be his God, and his judgment was with the Lord, and his work
was with God. And God said that I'll be glorified
in him. And it says there in verse 8,
Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable time. Now, this is God talking
to Christ now. Have I heard thee? And in the
day of salvation, I have helped thee." The day of salvation was the
day Christ came, the day He died and rose again from the dead.
Not just one day. You know, this is the day of
the Lord. This is the Lord's day, and this is marvelous in
eyes. This is the Lord's doing. And when He talks about that
day, you know, this is the Lord's day that He hath made. We will
be glad and rejoicing. That's not today he's talking
about. He's talking about the day that Christ came. And his
day started when he was born until he ascended back to glory
and accomplished salvation. And so he said, in the day of
salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee, and
watch this now, and give thee for a covenant of the people.
You, I give you for a covenant. He gives Christ to us as a covenant. As a covenant. And watch this. To establish the earth. That's
established to us like we sung it at hymn. You know there's
not a sparrow that goes without God, not a monarch raised to
his throne, not one comes down without it pleases him. This
earth is established and we got confidence in that. Looks like
all hell, as this old martyr said, all hell is popping all
around us. But you know, this earth is established. Everything
here is established. There ain't nothing happening
that wasn't supposed to happen. Ain't nobody going to do anything
that ain't supposed to do it. Ain't nobody supposed to be in
charge, but who's going to be in charge? But we know who's
in charge of the ones that's in charge. And I'm grateful for
that, ain't you? And cause to inherit the desolate
heritages. Oh my. And here's why he does
it, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go, get out of there,
come out, go forth. To them that are in darkness,
come show yourselves, you've got to come to the light. And
they shall feed in the ways, and their pastor shall be in
high places. Look down there in verse 6, I
want you to see verse 6 just a moment. And he said, it is
a light thing, That thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob. He said this is just a little
thing for me to do. No effort on my part. I will
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles. Now what's this?
That thou mayest be my salvation. What did Simeon say? Mine eyes
have seen thy salvation. God says you'll be my salvation.
For how far? To the end of the earth. Alright. Beloved, let me try to say something
about Christ is ours. He's given to us in the covenant,
in the covenant. Our salvation and all the salvation
of God's people for all time was sure and is sure because
of Christ given to us in this covenant. It's sure. There's
no doubt about it. To everybody that has ever...
You know, David said, God hath made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things, it's sure. God said, I will give you the
sure mercies of David. And you know why we believe that?
Because He said here, I'll give thee for a covenant. Our salvation
is as sure as Christ is. God said, I'll give thee. I'll
give thee. And you know there's several
covenants, and I mentioned this last week, but let me mention
it again. The second covenant, this covenant of grace, this
covenant that God has given Christ is so much more glorious than
the first. Hebrews 10 says this, that God takes away the first,
Christ came to take away the first, that He may establish
the second. And the first covenant was like
this, and why it's a better covenant, and a more glorious covenant, Better and more established than
the first is because it's a better covenant established upon better
promises. The other day, you know, the
promise was that if you'll do, you shall live. If you don't,
you shall die. But this is established on the
promises that I will perform all your salvation. That I'll
give Christ as a covenant. You see, the covenant is better
than the covenant of works made with Adam. It's better than the
covenant made with Israel as they came out of Egypt. And it's
better because it's found upon a better principle. You see,
the old covenant was found upon a principle of merit. And that
merit and the dismerit is that you know you serve God and you'll
get a reward. If you do good, God will do good
to you. You act right, God will act right
towards you. You do the works right, and God
will have to reward you. And if you don't, then you're
going to get punished, you know. He's going to kill your child.
He's going to burn down your house. He's going to do something
like that. That's the way they say it. If you don't serve God
and quit your sinning, then God's going to get... That's the principle
of merit. Principle of punishment and reward.
I don't want... Listen, I had all that God I
want. I don't want Him no more. No, no. This covenant is found
on pure grace. God said, I'll give you. And
you'll establish the earth. You'll be my salvation. And you'll say to the prisoners,
go forth. And don't say anything about,
you get up and go do. This covenant is founded on pure.
Three, sovereign grace, no works or merit is called on in this
covenant at all. Nothing in this covenant that
Christ has given to us is done by us. Nothing is done by us. The human side of this covenant
has already been fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. God required
perfection, Christ gave perfection. Christ, God demanded obedience,
perfect from the cradle to the grave, Christ rendered perfection
in obedience. You see, beloved, it's a covenant
that God gives, not a covenant that requires. The covenant of
the law required you to do something. This covenant of grace required
God to do something. And this is what's so wonderful
about this salvation that we preach, this gospel we preach.
What God requires, He provides. I love that, don't you? He requires perfection, He gave
me perfection. He requires righteousness, He
gives us righteousness. And oh beloved, it's more glorious,
this covenant that God gave us Christ to us in, it's more glorious
because of the stability of it. It's stable. If fallen man had
anything to do with it, how stable would it be? How many people
have you known that's made a profession and quit? How many preachers
you know that backslip? How many people you know... Oh my, man had anything to do with
it? It's as unstable as water. You know how many different shapes
water can take? Whatever you put it in, that's
the shape it takes. It can be hot, it can be cold,
it can be frozen, it can be slushy. It can be a thousand, it can
be a dozen. But whatever, and that's the
way man is. Whatever container you put him
in, that's the form you take. Whatever religion you preach
to him, you pour him in that, that's what he's going to take.
So we, beloved, that's what I'm saying. God said, I am the Lord
and I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
you're not consumed. And all this covenant that God
gave Christ to us in, it's glorious because Christ is the mediator
of this blessed covenant. Now listen to what I'm going
to tell you right here. God can never, ever, as we were and as
a man, He has never approached God. God dwells in a life that
no man can approach unto. Now God does not need a mediator. You and I need a mediator. Everybody
knows what a mediator is. If you've ever been in any, ever
went through a divorce or ever went through a union contract,
you have mediators. You've got these two opposing
sides. Somebody's got to bring them together. Well, there's
God. He's holy and we're not. There's
God. He's righteous and we're not.
How in the world are we going to come to Him? We can't. We've
got to have a mediator. We've got to have somebody that
mediates between us and God of days, man. One that can bring
us together. And Christ in the covenant is
the only one that can bring us together. He can bring a holy
God and a sinful man together and make them one. Make them
in natural agreement. Make them holy. Make them righteous.
I mean, I'm in agreement with God. Now ain't you? I say He's right in everything.
I didn't have no demands from God. He just gave me everything
that I needed. Oh my! And we bless His glorious
name because He came into this sinful world to tell sinful men
a great promise in the eternal will and covenant of God. And
oh beloved, this is something we cannot never say enough about.
As He is also the surety of this covenant. It was surety. Oh,
the surety of a covenant. He gives us his surety. A surety,
and I've said this so many times, is not somebody that just cosigns
for you, signs a note for you, and guarantees that if you can't
make up, he'll make up the difference. That's not what he's talking
about. Our government right now is trying to make up the difference
in all the messes that other people have got it into. But
like, we get in an awful mess, but Christ don't make up the
difference. He makes up it all! We was born with a debt, born
in sin, shaped in iniquity, born a sinner, we was born in debt,
and from the day we left it, come into this world, we just
piled up debt, debt, debt, debt, and more debt. They're two little
twins, as sweet as they are. This morning they got mad and
started crying. You know why? Because they took something away
from them. Bill felt one of them's head and said, I feel some little
horns right there. And that's right. She said, well,
they don't know no better. Grown men don't know no better. They got to do what's in their
nature to do if God don't change their nature. And you owe that
debt. And the surety's got to pay that
debt. And He pays it all of it, right
down to the least farthing. And not only does He do that,
but He guarantees for all time and eternity that you'll be accepted
of God without spot and without blemish before Him in love. Huh? That's what a surety does. Huh? Now if God fills our heads, He
don't fill no horns. And oh, this is why we rejoice
in Him. The sum and substance of the covenant is Christ Himself. He is all and are in all. All
our spiritual blessings are in Him. And to sum up all of our
spiritual blessings, to sum up this blessed covenant, is found
in two words. Jesus Christ. Huh? Yes. And it says here, I've given
thee for a covenant. Now Christ has given to us in
this covenant of grace, given to us by God. What a gift that
God gave us. And every believer has a personal
interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. As the psalmist said, my beloved
is mine and I'm his. You say, He's mine. Every believer
in here today can say, He is mine and mine alone. And every believer can honestly
say, He's mine and mine alone. How can one person be yours and
yours alone? And be that to so many a multitude
that no man can number. But that's what He is in this
covenant of grace. And oh, what a possession we
have in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, beloved, what God's
telling us here is that the Lord Jesus Christ has been given to
us in covenant, and when He's given to us in this covenant
of grace, everything that He is, is given to us. All that
He is, is given to us. Now what is He? Who is He? Well,
He's God, and He's man. And as God and man, He's given
to us. You see, there's two natures in our Lord Jesus Christ. And
the very first, you know, He's always been God. He was God when
He was in His mother's womb. He was God when He came forth
from His mother's belly. He was God when he was held in
his mother's arms. He was God when he was being
taught how to walk. He was God when he was learning
how to talk. He was God when he was going to school. He was
God when he was working in the carpenter shop. He was God when
he walked on the water. He was God. He said, He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father. But He was God in all of His
attributes. God is ours. His love that's
infinite, it's ours. His grace that's as vast as the
universe is ours. His faithfulness as established
as the earth is ours. His omniscience, all of His wisdom
is ours. His omnipotence, all of His power
is ours. His omnipresence is ours. Nowhere
we can go where He won't be. The power to keep us. The power
to defeat all of our enemies, everything that He is as God
is ours, given to us in this covenant of grace. The One who
created the world and upholds it by His power, God will give
Him to us. And then there's man, perfect
man. When he became a man, he didn't
cease to be God, but he became something he never had been before,
and now he'll never cease to be. Just as he was always God
and never ceased to be God, once he became a man, he'll never
cease to be a man. It's the man Christ Jesus in
glory. You see, all that he is, now
he's a perfect man. And the only way you and I can
know anything about perfection is as we know it in Christ. All
that he has as a perfect man, and all that he is as a perfect
man, God give him to us. You see, his perfection wasn't
just for himself, though he is perfect. God made Adam upright,
but what did he do? He sought out many inventions.
God made Christ of a woman, and what did he do? He only lived
holy and righteous and obedient before God. As a perfect man,
he stood before his Father, full of grace and full of truth, accepted
of God as a perfect man. Peter stood and preached it this
way, a man approved of God, as you yourselves know. He is accepted of the Father,
we are accepted in the Beloved. He is righteous, by one man's
disobedience we became sinners, by one man's obedience we became
righteous. He is righteous, we are righteous.
God made him to be sinned that we might be made the very righteousness
of God in Christ. It's more than if you know it's
an imputed righteousness. It's the only righteousness we
have before God Almighty. But it also has something to
do, when you have Christ, you have Him and all that He is,
righteous in His nature, righteous in His character, righteous in
His deeds, righteous in His doing, righteous in His death, righteous
in His resurrection. Everything about Him is righteous,
and that's ours. His obedience is ours. God cannot
charge me with any disobedience at all, though how I disobeyed,
how I groaned over my sin, how I groaned over my uncleanness,
how I groaned over the wickedness of my own mind. And yet, beloved,
God Almighty can do nothing but bless me from the top of my head
to the sole of my feet, because Christ is blessed from the top
of His head to the sole of His feet. And I'm in Him. Huh? All He is is God. All He is is
man. It's ours. He is ours. Have my pure, free grace. And guess what? Never be taken
back. And oh my, He's given to us in
all of His offices. All of His offices. You know,
all most people know about Jesus is that That He loves everybody
and He died for everybody, and He loves me and He's going to
save me. But what about His persons, God
and man? What about His offices, His prophet,
priest and king, redeemer, mediator, advocate, surety, redeemer? What about all the things that
He did because of who He is that makes what He did acceptable,
makes us acceptable? You know, he's God's prophet
who came to tell us the will of God, the purpose of God, the
power of God. He is our priest to offer sacrifice
to God. He is our king to fight all of
our battles and keep us sure as a cave inside the walls of
the castle. He's our Redeemer. Job said,
I know my Redeemer living. He's our advocate. We've got
a lawyer before God Almighty who takes up our case and calls.
He's our forerunner in and to heaven for us. I said there's
one coming after me. And He sealed the covenant with His own blood.
Ain't that what it says? That every name He bears and
every crown He wears, He is ours. Look what it says there in verse
15. This is what I'm talking about. Can a woman forget her
second child that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yes, she can. Yes, she has. And yes, she will. Yeah, they may. That's why I
wrote that. But we forget so many things.
Yeah, they may. But I won't. We forget. But he always remembers. You
know why? I'm craving you. I'm craving
you. See them holes in my hand? I'm craving you in the palms
of my hands. And your walls, and then walls,
and he talks about the walls that he established around us.
Like he put that hedge around Job and the devil said, take
that hedge down and I'll destroy him. God said, your walls, all
the walls that I build around you, they'll continue before
me. And oh beloved, look at him in his offices as priest. Oh
my, is that high priest in the Old Testament in the covenant
of works and the covenant of law, is that high priest stood
there in all of his glorious garments? He had on the names
of the children of Israel on his breastplate. Well, our Lord
Jesus Christ, see our great high priest, our names are written
on his breast, our names are written on his heart. And as
he went in there to intercede for Israel, our Lord Jesus Christ
is interceding before us and he'll be heard. He is ours and
bless his glorious name. See now on the earth, see that
priest offering up the blood of somebody else, not the blood
of bulls and goats, but his own blood. Huh? See Him offering
His own blood? See Him being the sacrifice,
not offering one, but He Himself being that sacrifice? See? Nailed as a bloody sacrifice,
nailed hands and feet to the tree. See our King? Crowned with thorns, not a golden
crown. That sacrifice of all sacrifices,
it's ours, given to us. That blood that He shed, pleads
for us with God. His side is a refuge for us to
get inside. His groves were our groves. His cries were our cries. His
peace that He established is ours. See? Oh, He's given to us in all His
works. Everything He did, given to us,
and they're ours. Whether it's works of duty between
God and man, it's ours. It's works of suffering, they're
ours. We'll never have to suffer. God made Him suffer for us. He
is circumcised, we're circumcised in Him. He is buried, we're buried
with Him. He dies, we died with Him. Paul
said, I'm crucified with Christ. But He lives, I live too. He was raised, we was raised
up together with Him. He has sins, we arose with Him. He sits down on His throne, we
seated with Him together in heavenly places. Huh? He said, I give
Him to you. So we can say, He's mine. He's
ours. And by God's decree, by God's
glorious decree, and that's what that hymn was this morning, God's
glorious decree, God's decree, and we don't say decree because
God's decree is one. Everything's done by one. God's
decree, by God's decree, there's such a union between Christ and
His people. So joined together in this covenant
that all that He did, so did we. My body cannot do anything. Without
my head, and my head can't do anything without my body. And
Christ is the head and we're the body. He said they that are sanctified,
and he we sanctified. What did he say about it? They
warned. They warned. They warned. Eddie come down and built me
a fence this last winter, this last spring. The first bunch
of posts we set, I got down at the end of the corner, and there
was a whole bunch of them down there. And I got behind one, and that's
all I could see was one post. You know, there was a whole bunch
of them, but I couldn't see one. Because it was that straight.
You looked there, and you couldn't see the rest of them. You just
see the rest straight down through there. And that's the way it is in Christ.
You know what else he wants? God's looking, he sees one. Where's
he sees that, in Christ? You know, there's a whole bunch
of us, but when God sees us as one, Hasn't there a wayward out here,
isn't there a wayward out there? They're all crooked and all this
way and that way. God looks at us and they're just,
we're all wound up behind one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, He's the vine, we're the
branches. And let me tell you this, just
like my son was in my loins, I was in my father's loins, my
father was in his father's loins, his father was in his father's
loins, We were in Christ's loins. He said, He shall see His seed
and be satisfied. In His humiliation or in His
exaltation, all believers have Christ. He is theirs in
this covenant of grace. And everything He is is ours.
Everything He did is ours. Everything he accomplished is
ours. Ours. He's accepted, we're accepted.
He's righteous, we're righteous. God loves him, God loves us for
Christ's sake. Why did Greg Elmquist say, we
often think that God just puts up with us for Christ's sake?
Just endures us for Christ's sake? And I honestly feel that
sometimes. I really do. I say, God, how
can you put up with me? I ask him that often. How do
you put up with me? How do you endure me? How do
you stand me? But you know what he said? Remember
what he said? He said he loves you, and rejoices
over you, and has always loved you, and never ceased loving
you, and he don't just put up with you for Christ's sake, he
rejoices over you! That's not quite the way it is.
And you see, beloved, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All of it. All that God is dwelt in the
body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you could comprehend
how full God is. I heard somebody talking the other
day about, you know, all that's in the universe. And I said,
well, you know, in the universe, God's not in the universe. The
universe is in God. And all the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him. And you know what the Scripture
says? We are complete in Him. In whom? All fullness dwelleth. Oh my, of His fullness have we
received. Grace for grace. All His fullness. All of His fullness. How full
is Christ. How full is He of grace. How
full is He of love. How full is He of righteousness.
How full is He of obedience. How full is He of power. How
full is He? Well, however full He is of everything
that He is, that's ours. It's ours. And multitudes, since
Adam until the last Satan, they've been taken out of Christ. We've
been receiving from Christ of His fullness, and they have been
for all time and eternity, and He's as full today as He was
from the first one who ever took anything out of it. And the very life of Christ Himself
is ours. Ain't that right? Look over here
with me in Colossians, just a minute. You know, the very life of Christ
is ours. The very life of Christ. What
do I mean by that? I mean He lives because He lives. Our Lord said, because I live,
you shall live also. He had abolished death and brought
immortality and light to life through the gospel. When we're
talking about eternal life and we're talking about life, we
have the very life of Christ in us. How do you think we understand
the Scriptures? How do you think we commune with
God? How do you think we rejoice over grace? How do you think
we rejoice over righteousness? How do you think we rejoice over
another's obedience? It's because Christ is in us.
That's how we commune with God. That's how we have fellowship
with God. That's how we understand the Scripture. The very life
of Christ is in us, and that life is ours. Look here in Colossians
3, in verse 3. For you are dead. Dead to sin. Dead to the world. Where do we
die at? We die with Christ. Dead to the
flesh, dead to false religion, dead
to any hope we have in ourselves, for you are dead and your life
is hid where? With Christ in God. That's why the world don't understand.
That's why the world can't see us. Now what? What's this? When Christ, our
life. shall appear. Didn't say Christ,
we hope He's our life, we think He's our life. If I obey Him
right, He'll be my life. If I live right, He'll be my
life when He appears. If I make the right decisions
in my life, He'll be my life when He appears. When Christ
our life shall appear, guess what? You're going to appear
right with Him. Where at? In glory itself. The very life of Christ is ours.
And best of all, best of all, not only is His life ours, His
person ours, His works, His obedience and acceptance and righteousness,
everything He is, is God and man is ours. His works are ours,
His offices, all that He did in His office is ours. He's ours,
He's given to us. And best of all, the person,
now listen to me, the very person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is ours. You know, we don't know him abstractly.
I know of a lot of people that I don't know. What I mean is that there's people
that I know of that I really don't know. There's one fellow
that I'm wanting to meet real bad, and I'm making arrangements
to meet him, but I know him to some degree through some conversations
we've had. And there's lots of people, that's
all they know about Christ. There's some things about him.
But we know Him personally. His very person itself is ours.
Just like your wife is yours, personally. Not another person's
wife. Yours. The person of the Lord
Jesus Christ is ours. Now what do I mean by that? We
talked about all the gifts we receive. Righteousness, justification,
forgiveness, grace, mercy, obedience, sacrifice. Sinlessness, perfection,
completeness. We don't just receive the gifts,
but we get Him who does the giving. It's one thing to have the gifts,
but to have the One who does the giving is an all another
thing. Solomon said, and you can look
this up yourself in the Song of Solomon, chapter 6 and verse
3. I am my Beloved's. I am my Beloved's. That's what
he says to us. You're my Beloved and I'm yours. I am my Beloved's. Beloved of
God called to be saints. Loved with an everlasting love.
And then she turned around and said, I'm His! I'm His! I'm His! I'm His! Oh, that's what we say,
ain't it? Oh, my. We love Him and thank
Him for what He gives us. We bless Him for that. But we
really, really love Him because of who He is. That's what makes
what He gives us so precious, because of who He is. And that's why he says that in
verse 8 again, back over in our text. I'll preserve thee and
give thee for a covenant for the people. I'll give you. Let
me ask you some questions now in closing. Why did God give Christ in the
covenant to us? Why did he do that? Well, to
comfort ever coming sinners. He said, I'll give thee for a
light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation unto the
ends of the earth. To every coming sinner, come
to Christ. Are you coming to Christ? Let
me ask you, in your heart, in your heart of hearts, in your
very soul, are you coming to Christ? Coming. I know this is if you ever come,
you're always coming. You're continually coming. And
that's why He gave Christ in the covenant to comfort every
coming sinner. Our Lord Jesus says, no man knows
the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. So therefore, He says, come unto Me. You want
to be accepted of the Father? You want to know the Father?
Come to Me. And what did He say? I'll give
you rest. Not only will I give you rest,
but guess what? You'll find some rest. I'll give it to you and
you'll find it. And, O beloved, all the rock
of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. All the
blessings of the covenant are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
if you don't hear another thing I've said today, you hear what
I'm telling you right now. All the blessings of the covenant
are in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in His finished work. Multitudes
are going to go to hell who are trusting in the finished work.
And never, ever trust Him who finished the work. The work is
absolutely useless unless you trust Him who done it. Now, ain't that right? I hear people say, I'm trusting
the finished work of Christ. Well, I'm trusting in Christ
who finished the work. Big, big difference. Did you
get that? You understand that? Oh, he finished the work. He
cried out, it is finished. But it's who said it was finished. It's who accomplished the work
that makes the word effectual. Huh? Oh, and that's what he says
in verse 9, that you may go and say to the prisoners, go forth.
Oh, that's why he said it. He finished the work. It's who
finished the work that can say to the prisoner, go forth, you
and your daughters, come out here. Come out here, stand in
front of me! And he gave Christ in
the covenant to give assurance to the doubting saint. Give assurance
to the doubting saint. And oh my, I know sometimes people
doubt. You see, there's no reason to
doubt because we can't have any more than Christ. What more can
you have than Christ? Oh, I'm a sinner preacher, I
know that. You don't have to tell me that. But Christ said,
I've come to save sinners of whom I'm cheap. He said, I've
come to call the righteous, not the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. And I am the great physician and I heal them that
are sick. Oh, my. Christ is all, beloved. Christ is all. Christ is all. Another reason He gave Christ
in the covenant, not only to comfort His people, but comfort
to come in sinners. The Doubting Saint. That He's
given to us in the covenant that we might use Him. That we might
trust Him. That we might come to Him when
He's in trouble. You know, that's what our Lord Jesus Christ is
there for. We tell people all the time, if you need me, call
on me. If you want me, all you've got
to do is ask. You need any help doing that? Well, that's why
God gave Christ in the covenant. So we go to Him. When we're in
trouble, go to Christ. You're weak, go to Christ. You
need somebody to talk to? Call on Christ. You say, I've
sinned. Come to Him. You say, oh, I feel
so naked. Come to Him. I'm unclean. Come
to Him. Sick? He's the great physician. Burdened? Test all your cares
on Him. He's done everything for you,
labored long and hard to give you rest. So come to Him, because
He sure loves to take care of His own. He loves to do it. And
that's why God put Christ in the covenant and gave Him to
us. Because we need Him. We need Him. We need Him. And
since Christ is ours, let's be His. Since Christ is ours, let's just
be His. Let's do like Paul said, you
know, Christ is God and everything, Christ's life
and death is in Him and we are His. We are His. And may we let
the world know that who we belong to. It's like that woman, you
know, and Russians came into a German town
and started trying to take a German town. This old woman come out
with her crutches. They asked, what in the world
are you coming out here with your crutches? You can't do anything. She said,
I can let them know whose side I'm on. You know, we come out with our
crutches. I can tell you whose side I'm on. And that's the way
it is with Christ. We say whose side we're on. And
we've been bought with His blood. May He be our glory and our only
glory. May He be our chief reason for
living in this world. To Him who loved us so. When
tempted, Remember, we're His. When tired of your labor, and
don't we all get that? When tired of your labor, remember,
you're Christ. When something needs to be done
in the church, I'm one of His. I'll do that. And I ask you,
sinner, will you come to Him? Will you come to Him? And if you do, you'll find that
He's yours. you'll say, that's my beloved. And you'll say, I'm
his, I'm his, I'm his. Our Father, in the precious,
holy, glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the
privilege of gathering here today with the Blessed Saints of God,
thank you for the Gospel. Bless the Word to our hearts'
understanding. Comfort us with it. Strengthen
us with it. Instruct us with it. Teach us with it. Strengthen
us with it. Feed us with it. Clothe us with
it. Cover our heads with it. Shield us with it. Oh, may this
Gospel, may this Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself Oh, may he be
our all and in all. May we rejoice in him, find great
comfort in him. And God bless those who are coming,
who are coming. And we know, dear Lord, that
if they're coming, they'll continue to come. God enable those who
have come to you to confess that they've come to you, that they
are coming to you, and own you in this world. Only in this world
we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.