If you would you like to follow
along please turn to Matthew chapter 12 Matthew chapter 12 let's go ahead
and begin in verse 14 Then the Pharisees went out and
held a council against him how they might destroy him Speaking
of Jesus Christ but when Jesus knew it he withdrew himself from
thence and great multitudes followed him and he healed them all and
Charged them that they should not make him known That it might
be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah's. That's Isaiah the
prophet saying Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved,
in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him,
and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive
nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flax shall he not
quench till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name
shall the Gentiles trust. There's a saying, and because
of Moose's bulletin this past week, there's an addition on
it that I didn't see. You can't preach Christ too high.
You can't preach man too low. Well, Moose had another one down
on the bottom. You can't preach grace too free.
I like that. I like that. preacher's message must be the
truth of God in Jesus Christ and There's no way to preach
the truth of God in Jesus Christ without the word grace Because
nothing we get of Any value of any eternal good is because of
our works It's of grace and it's free to us to his people But a preacher's message must
be the truth of God in Christ, but the truth about man must
be spoken. And the truth about man, even
the believer, can be considered by some harsh. But that's only
because it is harsh, and necessary, and true. I remember Earl standing up here
saying it. I was depraved. I am depraved. I shall be depraved
until I awaken his likeness. That's true. In my flesh, right
now, being a believer for 35 years now, still dwells no good
thing. That's what the apostle Paul
said long after he was saved. In my flesh dwells no good thing. I cannot control my body, my
mind, or my soul. My thoughts betray me constantly. I was getting to that. Your thoughts
will betray you constantly. I don't have to know them, but
you're the same as I am. We're the same. And this mind
we have, this brain we have, is flesh. My heart, the old heart, the
old man, is what? Still desperately wicked. And not only that, not only is
it desperately wicked, it's deceitful above all things. My heart, my
brain can convince me I'm doing something for God when it's nothing
but flesh. And thank God sometimes he shows me. You get to the point where you
can't trust yourself, but you kind of trust God See that's
the whole thing. I don't trust me, but he has
all my trust We preach the innate sin that
is in man That's all introduction Because now we're gonna get to
the good stuff. I'm only gonna preach on one word. Walter, I'm
gonna try not to keep us too late, I know you gotta go. And
I'm just gonna be as quick as I can here. But I'm gonna preach
on one word, what I read today. It says, behold my servant whom
I have chosen, my beloved. And that's the word today, that's
the title, Paul. Beloved, beloved. Because, you know, we preach
the truth about man, which is not pretty. And we have to preach
the truth about man. We have to preach that we are
sinners, because Jesus Christ came to save sinners. And if
you don't know you're a sinner, which is a person who sins, you don't know Christ. Because
he only came to save sinners. And he's gonna show you you are
a sinner before he saves you. That's what it says in his word.
And that's what it means. But we are also told, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. And that's what this word is
that Isaiah preached that Matthew quoted here. These are words
of comfort. Why? Because they're words of
what our Lord Jesus Christ did and who our Lord Jesus Christ
is. He's the prophesied one from
the Old Testament. He's the Messiah that was to
come and right here showing he is come, fulfilling the prophecy
of Isaiah. And Isaiah, quoting the Lord,
thus saith the Lord, Jesus Christ is my beloved. That's the word for today. Now,
I looked it up, of course. What the word beloved means is
this. It means beloved. That's what
it means. That was tough, you know. It
means esteemed. It means loved. It means dear,
dear to my heart. Beloved, that's what the word
is. That's what the son is to the father. He's the beloved
one. In his name, at the end it says
this, and I love this part. He's the beloved of God, and
in the beloved's name, in his name, shall the Gentiles trust. You know why we're here, folks?
Because in His name, we trust. That's why I'm here. And I believe
that's why you're here. In the name of the beloved, Jesus
Christ, we trust. We believe. Now, it's by His
power, but we'll get into that a little bit later. But this
is not the only time that Jesus Christ was called the beloved.
I'm going to bounce around here. You don't have to follow along.
It'll be on the recording. Luke 3 and verse 22. This is
at the baptism of Jesus by John. And the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from
heaven which said, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well
pleased. The voice of God spoke from heaven,
the spirit of God came down like a dove. What did he say here?
Quoting Isaiah, I will put my spirit upon him. Now you understand,
Jesus Christ was God when he was baptized. But the Lord sent
the Holy Spirit like a dove to light upon him. Why? In fulfillment of all the scriptures. The spirit of God was upon this
man. This man was God walking in the
flesh. And he is what? My beloved son. That's what God said from heaven.
In thee I am well pleased. Then at the Mount of Transfiguration,
this is from Mark 9 and verse 7, and there was a cloud that
overshadowed him, overshadowed them, and a voice came out of
the cloud saying, This is my beloved son. Hear him. Hear him. Hear him. You don't have to worry about
hearing anyone else if you hear him. Peter got it. Peter got it wrong
at the time. He said, let's build three tabernacles
here. One for Moses, one for thee. No, no. The only person
who needs a tabernacle is Jesus Christ, and he was wearing it. He tabernacled among us. There's no need for a tabernacle
anymore. Matter of fact, when Jesus Christ died on that cross,
guess what happened in the tabernacle? That veil was written twain forever. getting rid of that barrier between
the priest and the mercy seat. Before that, only the high priest
could go in. That veil's written clean. You
understand? We have a high priest that can't
be touched. Guess who he is? He is the father's
beloved son. The father loves the son. Matthew 17 and 5, and while he
yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold,
a voice out of the cloud which said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. And he said, hear ye him. Hear
him. Hear him. What did Jesus Christ
say? He said, no man can come unto
me except the Father which has sent me draw him. No man can
come unto me except to be given him of my Father." He said, this
is the Father's will, that of all He gave me, I'm going to
lose absolutely nothing. Do you believe Him? Do you believe
the beloved Son? What? In His name shall the Gentiles
trust. In his name shall the Gentiles
trust. He's the beloved one of the Father. He's the child that was born
and he's the son that was given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders. And we're gonna call him what?
Emmanuel. What's that mean? God with us. You understand what a blessing
that is? Every believer knows Immanuel because God is with
them. God is with me. If you believe,
his spirit is within you. Or we talk about righteousness imparted
and righteousness imputed. It's the same righteousness. But righteousness imparted is
imparted. No, you not your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
Walter I still don't get that I Don't I can't comprehend it,
but bless God. I believe it Because I believe
him He is the beloved one And I Won't throw this in The
believer is beloved The believer is beloved. Christ is the beloved
and believers are beloved. Now let's be clear before I get
too far with this. There's some negatives to say. There always
are. Whenever you're dealing with
man, you gotta deal with the negative. Because that's where we are. We, believers, are not beloved
in ourselves. We are not beloved because of
our parents. We are not beloved because of
our works. And we're not beloved because
of our good works. We're not beloved in our own
righteousness because they're filthy rags. We are not beloved
in our humble attitude because we really don't have one. okay so i'm speaking from personal
experience okay that's alright but you know what i mean we are
not beloved because of rituals there's some people teach that
we are not beloved because of sacraments we're not beloved
because of religion and we're not beloved because of denomination
what does it say? Ephesians 1 and 6 here's the
positive starting to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved. We're not beloved because of
anything we've done, did, or will do. Understand, I know people
will say, yes, I believe in that election stuff from predestination,
but I believe that God chose everyone that would choose him.
Well, Jesus Christ said, you didn't choose me. I chose you. You didn't choose him. If there
was a choice made, he made it. And if he made it, it was made.
The father has made us accepted in the beloved. The Father chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world. Where were we?
In the Beloved. Chosen in the Beloved. Then we
get brought in, in time. Paul the Apostle called us the
Beloved. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain.
the Lord in the Lord I Don't want my labor to be in vain But
it is except for when it's in the Lord But he calls us my beloved brethren
the Apostle Paul First Thessalonians 1 and 4 he
said this knowing brethren brethren Beloved your election of God Why? Because our gospel came
not to you in word only. It came to you in power, in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Now you understand, he preached
that gospel to everyone in Thessalonica within earshot. But he was writing
this thing about knowing your election, brethren, because you
heard. And guess what? They stayed. And they heard some more. They
got the letter from Paul. Hebrews 6 and verse 9 says this,
but beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things
that accompany salvation, though thus we speak. Beloved, we are
persuaded better things of you. Not because of you, but because
of thee, beloved. You understand? This is the one,
the beloved, is the one who works in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. Mm, I like that. then of course
you can't talk about beloved talking about believers without
looking at john first john three and two beloved now are we the
sons of god and it does not appear what we shall be but we know
that he shall be the beloved shall appear we shall be like
him for we shall see him as he is that's where the beloved are
headed the beloved are heading to the beloved Isn't that great? We, beloved believers, brethren,
Jesus Christ said, I'm not ashamed to call them brethren. We are going to thee, beloved. Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then we have confidence toward God. Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God, for many false prophets are gone out in the world. Beloved,
Let us love one another For love is of God and everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God hmm Believers are beloved But more importantly than all
of that because I didn't I didn't copy them all I But you can read
it in the apostles. Apostle Paul says, beloved, calls
us beloved. Peter does. John does, multiple
times. Jude does. Calls the brethren,
believers in Christ, beloved. But here's one that I like best
of all in Romans 1 and 7. Romans 1 and 7 says, to all that
be in Rome, And here's the statement, beloved of God. You understand? Beloved of God, called to be
saints. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers are beloved,
dear, esteemed, loved by God, by God himself. We don't deserve to be loved.
We don't deserve to be beloved. And we are. And we are. You can read the rest of it.
I'm not going into it. But yes, we are sinners. Still,
we are sinners as believers and we are beloved. Yes, we are still
flesh. And in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing and I'm beloved. We are beloved. Yes, we stumble and we're beloved. Yes, we fall and we're beloved. And yes, we are not cast down
because we are beloved. We'll stumble, we'll fall, but
we will not be utterly cast down because of the beloved. Comfort
ye comfort ye my people because there is a comfort for those
that are beloved of God Believers are beloved of the brethren believers
are beloved of the Apostles and believers are to be beloved among
each other But believers are believers are
beloved by God himself In the beloved in Jesus Christ,
let's be clear We are beloved because of Jesus Christ. We are
beloved because of his work. We are beloved because of his
love. And we are beloved because God
is love. And he loveth his own. And we
are beloved because of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But we are beloved because believers
are accepted in the beloved, Jesus Christ, the Lord. We are totally accepted in God's
sight. That's beloved. You understand? God looks at you and doesn't
want to kill you. doesn't want to kill me sometimes
i can look at myself that way stand i know what goes on in
the but in christ in christ i am accepted by the father himself
by the one who says he can't even look upon cn by the one
who said he's angry with the wicked everyday and i'm wicked
but not in his sight. No, no, not in his sight. Because
you understand, when God looks at believers, when God looks
at his children, when God looks at his people, whom he's called
by their names, he sees his beloved son. He sees the beloved. I'm going to tell you something.
That's a comfort to me. And I believe it's a comfort
to you, if you know him. If you know him be comforted
and give God all the glory what in the beloved's name Walter I had to pull this up
Song of Solomon 6 and verse 3 I Am my beloved and my beloved is
mine We sing that song he brings the poor vile sinner into his
house of wine and what happens? glory glory dwelleth where in
my beloved's land my Emanuel's land I Am I beloved in my beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies And
you know what? He feeds us every day Why because
we're beloved every day I You understand, God's not like us.
His love don't turn on and off. You understand? I know that's
what a lot of people preach. God'll love you one day and hate
you the next. He don't work like that. I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
aren't consumed. You sons of Jacob, and I'm gonna
tell you this, you bunch of Gentiles deserve to be consumed. But the
reason you're not gonna be consumed is that God is for you. He's
not against you. You are beloved of God in the
beloved Jesus Christ. Be comforted in Him, in Him. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time and this place. Lord, thank you so much
for all you've given to us. In your son, you have given us
all things, all spiritual blessings. Lord, thank you. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach. Be with him as he travels. And Lord, always teach us to
praise your name. In Christ's name, amen.