That's funny. so so you you We welcome you to the service
this morning. We invite you to take your hymnal turn to hymn
number 164. 164, look ye saints, and let's stand as we sing. of God. In the seed of Aaron growing,
the whole world together brings. Rowdy, rowdy, rowdy, rowdy, rowdy,
rowdy said the King of kings. The Saviour, the King of Kings. Sinners in religion crowned Him. The King does the Saviour's claim. Saints and angels crowned around
Him. Thank you, may we be seated. as we take the Bulletin Hymn,
Come God of Grace and Glory, sung to the tune of the Duxelles. He'll rise up to your throne
of grace. He said, we'll bear it by our
own, the blood of Jesus Christ alone. We ask him now, truth
will be plain. God and righteousness Send down your word and say it
clear, To give us faith to walk with you, And as your children
pass away, You're welcome each and every
one this morning. I thought about it as I sought
to sing the bulletin hymn with you. They're just So many reminders
these days of my age and failure. Instead of typing in your in
that third standard, I typed in you. I had a wedding Friday
afternoon, and instead of presenting them with the groom's last name,
I presented them with the bribes last night. And it's just one
thing right after another. But they're married and we sang
the song. You knew to put in the words
yourself and I'm glad. We want to pray this morning
for those of our number that are sick, weak, me among them. I hope you'll continue to remember
my daughter, Stephanie. She's in Carolina Rivers Rehab
and Physical Therapy Center here in Jacksonville now, and she's
been improving daily. I hope you'll remember her for
the Lord. And my wife, Sheila, who's down
with her back this morning. Pray for her also. And Brother
Roger and Vicki and Brother Joe Schwartz and others that are
sick, we don't want to forget to thank God for bringing back
those that have been sick and those that have been blessed
to improve. And I thank the Lord for him
and his mercies. I want you to turn this morning
to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. And I want to read again the
command of the living God. I always hear during the week
so many things that preachers ought to preach, so many things
on Facebook that are correcting preachers and such as that, but
I'm sticking right here. This is the command of God. Isaiah 40. Verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And truly the Lord's people God's
elect ones, they are the only ones that will be comforted. Because God's comfort is his
grace to them in Christ. And so the message of scripture
is to his people. Comfort ye, comfort me, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably, to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. and the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. That's why it's gonna
happen. That's why they're gonna be comforted.
It's because the Lord has spoken and appointed it. May we pray. Our Father, this morning we pray
and we approach your throne, which you've made to your people
a throne of grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so helpless
and so sinful, so weak in all ourselves, So unworthy of the
very least of your blessings. So alike, none better than the
other, but all sinners. But we call upon your name. We approach you in the way of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Paul, all the saints of God. We come by way of sacrifice. We come in that mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We come in our great priest,
the Lord Jesus. And we pray and approach you
as those unworthy, but as those who have been promised your blessing
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We pray and lift up Thanksgiving
to you this morning for all you do for us. And even more so for
all that you are as God, the eternal God, the Savior God,
a just God and a Savior. And we thank you for that blessings,
those blessings that pour forth to us in Christ. Yea, all spiritual
blessings. all things that will last of
that eternal inheritance. And we pray, Lord, lifting up
these that we mentioned and others that are upon our hearts that
are sick, that are weak, that are frail. And we pray that your
will might be accomplished in their lives. that you might grant
them healing according to the way that gives to you the glory. We pray, not our will, Lord,
but thy will be done. We ask, Lord, not unto us, but
unto thine own name, get glory for yourself. And we pray for
these of our families and friends that are lost and without hope
because they're without hope that's in Christ. They hope sometimes
in their religions, in their moralities, they follow that
way that seems right, but that is a way of death. And they know
not Him, the Lord Jesus, in truth and lie. Be pleased to teach
them. Be pleased to raise them from
the dead spiritually. Be pleased to bring them from
every false hope unto Christ, the good shepherd, that they
might know that peace and joy and salvation that lies in being
saved by him altogether. fully and freely and eternally. Lord, we pray that you would
help all of your sheep. We pray that you would help all
of your true preachers of the gospel. Give them strength and
encourage their hearts. Lord, encourage my own heart
that we might all together speak right things about Christ. and
declare his finished work and salvation to this generation. Lord, we call upon you, and we
seek to obey you, and we call upon them those things that you
have commanded us to speak. Lord, we ask that you would help
us, forgive us, cause us to know that forgiveness that's in Christ. Strengthen us, we pray. Grant
to us your spirit in accomplishing your purpose here today. For we know that all that will
be said and done, all that will be accomplished will be according
to your perfect will and power. We pray and ask it in Christ
Jesus. Amen. Once again, in your hymnal, 248. Grace greater than our sin. And
then, Brother Tim, if you'll wait on the congregation. our sin and our guilt. Honor of God is found on earth. There where the blood of the
Lamb was spilled. Praise, praise God's praise. Praise evermore and cleanse within. God's grace, God's grace, God's
grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's
grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's grace, God's praise and claims within. Praise, praise God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. What can we say that we cannot
hide? What can our faith do or should There is no king of crimson time
Why is so you may be today? God's grace, grace that will
guard us and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that is greater than all our sin. grace grace grace we'll win. Praise, praise God's
praise, praise that's greater than all our sin. so so Worthy of worship, worthy of
praise, ♪ Worthy of honor and glory ♪ ♪
Worthy of all the glad songs we can sing ♪ ♪ Worthy of all
of the offerings we bring ♪ ♪ You are worthy ♪ Father, Creator, you are worthy. Señor, Sustainer, you are worthy. Worthy and wonderful, worthy
of worship and praise. Worthy of reverence, worthy of
fear, worthy of love and devotion, worthy of bowing and bending
of knees, worthy of all this, and added to these. You are worthy, Father, Creator. You are worthy, Savior, Sustainer. You are worthy, worthy and wonderful. Worthy of worship and praise. Almighty Father, Master and Lord,
King of all kings and Redeemer, Wonderful Counselor, Comforter,
Friend, Savior and Source of our life, without end. You are worthy, Father, Creator. You are worthy, Savior, Sustainer. You are worthy, worthy and wonderful,
worthy of worship and praise. Turn with me this morning to
the book of First Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 5 I'll begin reading
in verse 1. But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have
no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For
when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and
they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in
the darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness, Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us
watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in
the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But
let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love. and for an helmet, the hope of
salvation. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together and edify one another, even as also ye do. In these chapters four and five, the apostle has been speaking
and writing to believers of the glorious, the sure coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he makes it clear that that
coming, that sure coming, will mean different things to different
people. It's like when a liberator comes
to a country where the people are held captive. Those that
held him captive, they are very afraid. Their doom and judgment
is sure. But to those who are being liberated, the sound of that coming is joy. and rejoicing. You see, Paul in these verses
contrasts two groups of people. As a matter of fact, God does
this in all of the scriptures. In verses four through seven,
he speaks of those in the light and those in darkness. He calls them the children of
the day, and there are the children of the night. And he gives this
word of instruction in verse eight. He says, but let us, those
who are believers in Christ, who are God's people, but let
us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of
faith and love, and for in Helmut, the hope of salvation. Just as he's also told us in
those days prior to this coming It is a time of tribulation,
a time when the world in every way seems to be an utter rebellion
against God. And we as God's people are in
the midst of a warfare. If we were not, he would not
tell us to put on this armor. We're in a warfare in our homes,
We're in a warfare in our communities. We're in a warfare in our workplaces. Because this world and the natural
minds of the children of darkness is hatred against God and hatred
against the people of God. So being engaged in this warfare,
he says, be serious, be sober, putting on the breastplate of
faith and love. Whose faith and love is that? It's God's. And he says also,
for a helmet, the hope of salvation. The hope of God's salvation. And as a basis for this, He gives
us these wonderful, magnificent words of grace to us as his people. Look and listen in verse 9. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And always salvation is traced
back to the fountainhead and the father of all salvation,
which is God himself. And it's always traced back to
the thing that gives him all the glory, that assures that
he gets all the glory, And it is always traced back to the
appointing of God, the appointing of God, to his
will, to his sovereign will, and not to man's will, because
it's God's will that gives us comfort and assurance and grace
in being saved. We have a hope of salvation. And the word appointed here in
our text, as other places also, the word appointed means ordained. Ordained. To me, that seems almost a more
forceful word, a more sure word than we have understanding of
this word appointed. We can appoint men to different
offices, but we cannot ordain. When God appoints, it means to
purpose. Who can stop him? Who can defeat
him? Who can thwart this purpose? we are appointed or ordained
of God to this salvation. Likewise, it says to us in Acts
chapter 13, when the apostles were preaching
the gospel in a particular place at a particular time, he says,
for so hath God, so hath the Lord commanded saying, commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, not every Gentile, but when these
Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of
the Lord, And as many as were ordained or appointed to salvation, to eternal life, they believed. So he traces not only their salvation
back to God's appointing or ordaining, their very believing to God's
appointing and ordaining. And he gives us three things
here in order to comfort us and encourage us and to reassure
us. He gives three things to God's
people in this ninth verse that we need to take home with us,
that we need to look to and remember. And the first thing that he has
assured us is this. God has not appointed his people
to wrath. In other words, there never was
a time that God appointed his people in any way to wrath. That's not to say that we don't
deserve wrath from God. We deserve the very wrath of
God. We are the same in Adam as others. and we are the same in nature
as others. When Paul writes in Ephesians
1 verses 1 through 3, he shows us how like everybody else, we
are the same, but we've been shown grace. We're even by nature
the children of wrath as others. He doesn't say we're the children
of wrath. We're the children of God, we're
the children of light, we're the children of grace, but we
are the same by nature as others. We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But salvation is according to
God's grace. It is according to his everlasting
covenant. It is according to His sovereign
will and purpose. It is according to His own appointing. Turn over to Romans 9 for just
a minute. And let me read to you some words
in Romans chapter 9. Romans 9 and verse 20. Paul writes in every resistance
of man, in the face of all natural resistance to the truth of God,
to the work of God, to God's will. He says in verse 20, nay,
but oh man, who are thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? I'm asking you that
question this morning. Has not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and
another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? That's the God of
the Bible. and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called or named,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. It is the sovereign
will of God as the potter is illustrating, to make unto one
vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. These people of God
were never appointed to wrath. They were never the vessels of
wrath. Peter tells us, he says, unto
you therefore which believe, he's precious. But unto them
that be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed. The same is made the head of
the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to
them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. Then he writes in Jude these
words to us, Beloved, when I gave all diligence, to write unto
you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write
unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend
for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For
there are certain men crep in unawares, who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation. ungodly men turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that we were not
appointed to wrath. God's elect have never been under
the wrath of God. And for this to happen, God would
have had to change, and God would have had to lie because he says
that he's loved them with an everlasting love from the foundation
of the world. He's never meant to show wrath
to them, and he says of himself, he's the Lord, he changes not,
and that's the reason we're not consumed. We've been blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Christ Jesus in an everlasting covenant. All
of God's people have been in union with Christ, and he has
been their surety from old eternity. Though they were in Christ when
they came under the wrath of God on the cross, they were in
him as Noah was in his family in the ark. That ark is a type of Christ. And one thing that must be noted,
must be believed if we believe the Bible, that Noah and his
family were safe and sound in that ark before ever a drop of
water fell. Why? Because they'd not been
appointed to the wrath of God. That ark was secure, that ark
which pictured Christ, that ark which was a place of safety and
a refuge, that ark that represented the Lord, our righteousness,
They were in that ark before ever the judgment of God began. So Paul says to us in another
place that God was propitiated toward them for as long as Christ
has been set forth as the propitiatory sacrifice for their sins. And
when God determined not to impute their sins to him. They had to
be imputed to somebody. And so God imputed them to the
surety. God has not appointed his people
to wrath. But that's not the only thing
here. The second thing here is this.
God has appointed us to salvation. It wasn't your will. It wasn't
your decision. It wasn't your righteousness.
It was not because of anything special in you. He says that
God, and we understand this in the language of our text as understood,
he's not appointed us to wrath, but he's appointed us to salvation. Salvation. Actually, this means he's appointed
us to the acquisition of salvation. He's ordained us to eternal life,
which is salvation. He's ordained us to salvation
from all our sins. You say, well, they might live
a good life all their lives and then all of a sudden they do
the big one. Big sins and little sins. You see, there are no such things. Because of who we've sinned against,
the holy God and the just God of heaven. And he, in his wisdom,
And then His justice has not only not appointed us to wrath,
but He's appointed us to salvation. Turn to 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. He says in verse 13, but we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you. And he's saying
this, he introduces this with a but because he's contrasting
it with another group, a group that are deceived, a
group that were filled with unbelief, a group that were not his people
that will come under the judgment of God. He says, but. You, we, are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. He's chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. When did he make this choice?
From the beginning. Who did he choose? These in contrast
with those he speaks of in the first of this chapter. What are
they chosen to? Are they simply chosen to have
a chance of salvation? Or the possibility of salvation? Or the opportunity to be saved? No, it is to obtain salvation. The scriptures say that they
all obtain mercy. and they obtain like precious
faith. They'll actually receive it because
of God's ordination. When you read words like Paul speaks when he
writes to Timothy, from prison. He's not in a big church somewhere
or a temple, synagogue. He's in prison. And he writes this to Timothy.
He says, therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake. I'm here on a purpose. I'm here
for a reason. God has me where I'm at for a
reason. He says that they may also obtain
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. You see, if God had not appointed
his people to salvation, nobody would ever be saved. line up a list of conditions,
and men have been doing it for thousands of years, and they
would never fulfill God's condition. But God appointed his son, who
alone could fulfill this condition of salvation, which was to die. He's appointed us to salvation. And that brings me to the third
thing. He's not only appointed, not
appointed us to wrath, He's not only appointed us to salvation,
but He's appointed that Christ, His life and death, His salvation. Verse 9 of 1 Thessalonians 5
says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Not any other way. That's why
he's called the way. That's why he's called the life.
That's why he's singularly called the truth. but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, not in some mystical way, not in
some fantasy decision, but he said, who died for us, that whether
we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
died for us. And this is what Christ was doing
on the cross, suffering the wrath that was due his people, drinking
the cup of God's wrath down to the last bitter drink. Preachers in our day love to
talk about what Christ did. And then they add a but to it. They add a yet to it. But there is no but after what
Christ did in finishing salvation. There's no nothing to be added
to that work. That work is not dependent on
your faith. is not dependent on your choice,
is not dependent on your will. It is a work that is accomplished
and done. God has appointed. He was bearing the sword of divine
justice in his own bosom for our sins, for the sins that God
had charged him with of our sins for those that have been laid
on him, charged to his account. He's
paying the debt. He's dying the death because
his suffering of this death of the cross was ordained and appointed
the sacrifice necessary for God to be just and yet justify those
he saves. I love the words in Hebrews 1. God who at sundry times and diverse
matters spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
he hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds,
who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power. This is God's Son. This is the
one who was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is the one that's
exalted, the express image of God. Now listen to it. When he
had by himself purged our sins, I love every word of that. By
himself, without our help, without our doing a part, with us doing
everything against it. When he had by himself purged,
that word means cleansed, washed our sins, he sat down. at the right hand of the majesty
on high. Now what did that mean? It meant
that God accepted his sacrifice. It meant that God had raised
him up from the dead, just like that priest when he walked out
of the Holy of Holies and showed himself alive after offering
that sacrifice The fact that he was alive meant God had accepted. And he not only was accepted,
he was crowned for it. He was made to sit down at the
place of high honor, not only as God, but as the mediatorial
redeemer. He sat down because there was
nothing left to do. And that's the safety and the security of our salvation. Can God's appointments
be altered or his purpose frustrated? He saves with an everlasting
salvation. Christ's sacrifice is one sacrifice
for sins forever. His work is a finished work,
whether we wake or whether we sleep. That is, whether we're awake
physically or whether we're asleep physically. Whether we're alive physically
or whether we're dead physically. Whether we're living like we're
alive or whether we're living like we're dead. It's whether we wake or sleep,
doesn't matter. because it's all in Christ. And
he has not appointed us to wrath. He has appointed us to salvation. And he has appointed that Christ
be the Savior and accomplish our salvation. Well, you say, well, preacher, I can't
I can't go along with that. I can't believe it. It's too
good to be true. It's got to be more than that.
Well, you don't believe it? I'm so sorry. But it doesn't
change anything. Because as many as ordained to
eternal life, they're going to believe it. God's going to reveal it to them.
God's going to give them faith. They may even fight against this
truth, this reality, this gospel. But if God hasn't appointed them
to wrath, and God has appointed them to
salvation, And God has appointed Christ to be that Savior, and
he's finished the work. Through the sanctifying work
of the Spirit of God, and this gospel that declares this truth,
God will bring them to believe. There'll be everyone taught of
God. They'll be everyone brought by
the shepherd. They'll everyone be given the
faith of God's elect. There's no need to pressure them.
Just preach to them. There's no need to promise them
this and that. Just declare this message to
them. and God will make it the best
news that they are ever hearing. We're not under the wrath of
God until we believe that would make salvation depend on something
done by us. No, in this, the vessels of wrath
are revealed. They believe not on Christ. And
in this, the vessels of mercy are revealed. This is the evidence
of their life in Christ. They believe on Him. You see, if we know anything
about our true condition, not only that we're born dead
in trespasses and sins, not only that we fell into utter death
in Adam, not only of our inability now to believe of ourselves,
not only of our wretched, sinful state, even after we're believers. If we know anything about God,
in His holiness, in His perfection, and especially in His justice. We'll have to know that this
is the only way. You see, if you think otherwise,
you think God will either lower His standard, or you think that
you're better than you are. No. God being who he is, us being
who we are, he had to do all the saving. And he did it by
eternal decree in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we thank you for such a glorious salvation. We thank you for your
word. Though we're unable to speak
it or write, though we're weak in this flesh, your spirit is
mighty in taking this word and revealing it to your people.
We pray that you do it in Christ and for his sake. Amen. Okay.