Well, good evening, everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Hebrews, Chapter 6.
Hebrews, the sixth chapter. This coming Sunday, the Lord
willing, I'll be preaching a conference in Ole, Pennsylvania. And Brother
Paul Pendleton from Crow, West Virginia, will be here to preach
for us. I know you look forward to that.
Prayer asks you to remember me in prayer as I travel. Paul and
I both as we preach. Hebrews chapter six, we'll begin
reading in verse four. For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they
shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucified to themselves the son of God afresh and put
him to an open chain. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved,
we're persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. For God's not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which he have showed toward
his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope until the end. That you be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, He swore by himself,
saying, surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. that
by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation, who had fled for refuge, to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made in high praise forever, after the order of Melchizedek. Now, just a few minutes ago,
I found out Sean got sick this afternoon and couldn't be here.
And our brother Riley has very graciously, I volunteered him,
but he said he'd do it, lead the singing for us. So Riley,
you come lead the singing for us. I sure appreciate it. So I do ask that you bear with
me. It's kind of a first-time thing. Good evening. Number 40, if you will, in our
hymn book. OK, number 40. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions
they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever
wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness Lord,
unto me. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above join with manifold witness to thy great
faithfulness, mercy and love. Great is thy faithfulness, great
is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath
provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord
unto me. Pardon for sin and a peace that
endureth. Thine own dear presence to cheer
and to guide. Strength for today and bright
hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand
beside. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thy hand Thank
you, thank you. Please turn over to 208. Are
you washed in the blood? Have you been to Jesus for the
cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His
grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood? In the soul-cleansing blood of
the Lamb? Are your garments flawless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Are you walking daily by the
Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Do you rest each moment in the
Crucified? Are you washed in the blood of
the Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? When the bridegroom cometh, will
your robes be white? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? Will your soul be ready for the
mansion's bright, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of a lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of Lay aside the garments that are
stained with sin, and be washed in the blood of the Lamb. There's a fountain flowing for
the soul unclean, O be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are you washed in the blood,
in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? That was great. He sounded like a veteran, didn't
he? I can tell you this, he sounded ten times better than I did the
first time I ever lit a cigarette. Probably better than I would
have tonight too, so Raleigh, thank you. We really appreciate
that. All right, if you would, open your Bibles with me to Exodus
chapter 23. Exodus chapter 23. We're gonna
begin reading in verse 20. Behold, I send an angel before
thee to keep thee in the way. and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if
thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then
I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto
thine enemies. For mine angel shall go before
thee and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and
the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their
gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works, but thou shalt
utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And
ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread
and thy water, and I will take sickness away from the midst
of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren
in thy land. The number of thy days I will
fulfill. I will send my fear before thee,
and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come. And
I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And
I will send hornets before thee, which will drive out the Hivite
and the Canaanite and the Hittite from before thee. I will not
drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become
desolate, and the beasts of the field multiply against thee.
But little and little, I will drive them out from before thee,
until thou be increased and inherit the land. And I will set thy
bounds from the Red Sea, even under the Sea of the Philistines,
and from the desert unto the river. For I will deliver the
inhabitants of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive
them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land,
lest they make thee sin against me. For if thou serve their gods,
it will surely be a snare unto thee. Thank God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our holy, majestic, sovereign
God, King of kings and Lord of lords, Lord, we bow before your
throne of grace this evening. We bow beseeching thee, Father,
that you would give us a blessing tonight from your storehouses
of mercy and grace. We've gathered here together
in the middle of the week. We've gathered together out of
the world. And Father, we've come to hear a word from thee
and to worship your precious name. And Father, I pray that
you would send your spirit upon us, enable us to truly hear a
word from thee, to hear with the ear of faith, to lay hold
upon it with the heart of faith and belief and trust and confidence
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, that you'd give us
the spirit of true worship, that we not just go through the motions
of religion, But Father, that you might be pleased to tonight
enable us to worship you from the heart. Bless your word, Father,
as it's preached, blessed to your glory. Father, I beg that
you would not allow the stumbling and bumbling of your servant
to detract from your glory. But Father, let your word go
forth in power All of us here gathered together tonight may
with one accord look to Christ, that we see him, that we believe
him, that we love him even more, that we'd see his fullness and
his sufficiency, that we would see his amazing love for sinful
men and women such as we are. That he would agree from all
of eternity to be our redeemer, to be our surety, and that he
come in the fullness of time and accomplish that salvation
by the sacrifice of himself. Oh, Father, let it be an awe
and a wonder to us and a thrill to our hearts, we pray. And what
we pray for ourselves, we pray for your people, wherever they're
meeting together tonight, Father, we pray you'd bless them as we
ask that you'd bless us, that you do it for your great namesake,
that your name might be known and glorified throughout the
land. And Father, we also pray a blessing
for those who are sick and afflicted. They're away from us for various
reasons. Father, we pray you'd be with
them, that you'd heal, that you'd comfort, that you would bring
them back to us, that we might worship together again soon,
as soon as it could be thy will. And all these things we ask,
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior. Amen. Now I've titled the message
this evening, God's Angel. Now in the previous chapters,
you know, we skipped over a lot of the, all the giving of the
law. The Lord has just finished giving
the law to the people and I've read through it. I've looked
at it and I just, I'm not going to try to preach through each
of those commandments. I see Christ there a lot, but
it's just, I just didn't feel led to preach through those things
verse by verse. But let me give you this about, this is what
I saw as I went through all of this law. It's so obvious that
each commandment of God requires absolute perfect obedience. There's no wriggle room there.
It's got to be perfect obedience. And when a commandment is broken,
there is always an exact payment that's equal to the harm caused
by breaking the commandment. No more. No less. It's an exact
payment to make things right from where the commandment is
broken. This is where we get an eye for an eye, a tooth for
a tooth, arm for an arm, hand for hand, life for life. One
of the commandments says, now don't you go afflicting orphans
and widows. Don't you afflict them. If you
do, I'm going to kill you. And then your wife is going to
be a widow and your children are going to be orphans. It's
an exact payment, isn't it? And you see that all the way
through the law. And all of that is given to us as a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We read these commandments and
you just, if you have any sense whatsoever, you see there's no,
I can't keep that. There's no way I can obey this
commandment. But Christ came and he obeyed
each one of these commandments so well, the Father said he honored
the law and magnified it. And then Christ went to Calvary
And he paid the exact price for the sin of his people, no less. He paid the exact price. Justice is satisfied because
Christ exactly paid the debt. And the father said, that's enough. That's just in general terms,
that's what the law is given for so we see our need of Christ
and we look to him who kept it perfectly. But after God gave
the law, You know, it should be obvious to everyone, and Lord
willing, we'll look at this next week. It wasn't obvious to the
Israelites. They said, oh, everything you
say, we'll do. You know, we'll keep your law.
But it should have been obvious to them, we can't obey this law. We can't do this perfectly. Our
sin nature can't obey God's law. That's one problem. Our second
problem is our sin nature won't obey the law. I mean, it just
won't do it. It's a rebel that against God's
law, the carnal mind is enmity against God and it always will. It's not possible that it'd be
subject to the law of God. It's just not possible. So we
should know we can't keep God's law, but by nature we don't,
do we? We don't, but the Lord knows
it. The Lord knows it. The Lord never
did give the law as something that a set of commandments that
we could obey. And then once we obeyed them,
we establish our own righteousness. We'd earn our own righteousness
before God. That's not why God gave this
law. God gave the law to show us our sinfulness. The law is
held up as a mirror to show us how sinful we are. The exceeding
sinfulness of sin. The Apostle Paul used the example,
he said, well, you know, I thought I was perfect once until I really
saw what the law said. Until I saw that the law was
spiritual. And then I read the law said don't covet. And as
soon as I saw God said don't covet, all I did was covet what
didn't belong to me. That's our nature. And that's
why God gave us the law to show us I need somebody to come and
do for me what I cannot do for myself. I need somebody who can
come and keep this law for me. God knew that too, didn't he?
So let's pick up now here in verse 20, Exodus 23. Behold,
I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring
thee into the place which I have prepared. Now this angel is not
one of the glorious created beings that Isaiah saw flying around
the throne of God crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
This is not, like one of the archangels or one of the angels
that comes and the Lord sends out to do his bidding to keep
his people and those kinds of things. This angel is a person. You notice it says capital A.
It's the name of a person. This angel is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the son of God. Now that's not saying that the
Lord Jesus is not the son of God, that he's not deity, that
he's just an angel. The word angel simply means a
messenger. or a representative, and I love
this. I just love the Lord's, his wisdom,
his goodness, his kindness, his graciousness to his people, how
he knows our frame, he remembers that we're dust. The Lord sent
the remedy before we even knew there was a problem. The Lord
didn't even give time after he got done giving the law for the
people to realize there was a problem. Before they knew they were sinners,
The Lord had already sent the Savior. He'd already provided
the Savior. That just thrills my heart. I
mean, I just can't tell you how happy that makes me to think
how good and wise our God is. You know, the Lord had just given
the law. And in that law, there's nothing
but judgment. There's nothing but condemnation.
All throughout that law, there's not a hint of mercy anywhere.
There's not a hint of forgiveness. There's not, well, we're going
to recognize extenuating circumstances and you really didn't mean it.
There's none of that. You break the law, you're guilty.
And there's punishment for it. There's no mercy. But then immediately
after he finished giving the law, the Lord gave us some hope. He gave us a picture of Christ,
hope for sinners. The Lord showed us the burden
of the law, didn't he? and then he gives us a hint.
He gives us a picture of the freedom in Christ that is to
come. This angel, he's the messenger. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
messenger of salvation. Christ is the messenger that
comes and tells us, here's how God saves sinners. And not only
did he give us the message, he told us the words, this is how
God saves sinners. It's by the obedience of Christ.
It's by God's grace. It's by the blood. It's all the
blood of the sacrifice, and then Christ sacrificed himself, and
he showed us the message. If someone would come and give
me a message, they could read it to me, and if they read it
several times, I'd probably get it. But if they tell me the message,
and then they show it, they demonstrate it, I'm gonna get it. That's what Christ the messenger
did. He came and he showed us God's salvation by his perfect
obedience to God's law, by his awful, bloody sacrifice that
put away the sin of his people. He's the messenger and he shows
us, and now I see, I see this is how God saves sinners. It's
all in him. I'm gonna run to him. He's the
messenger. But he's also, this word angel also means a representative. Christ came as a representative
of his people. He came as the second Adam. You
remember what the first Adam did to us? He represented the
whole human race, didn't he? The whole human race was in him,
and we all sinned in Adam. That's what Paul said. We all
sinned in him. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When Adam died, we died. We did what our representative
did. And that's why we're born sinners, because we became sinners
in Adam. Christ came as the second representative
man, the second Adam. He represented all of his people,
all of God's elect, all those that the Father gave to him before
time began to save, Christ came as their representative. And
when he obeyed the law, they did too. Just like we disobeyed
in Adam, God's elect obeyed in Christ. and made righteous by
the obedience of Christ and by his sacrifice, because he's our
representative. And the Lord says he sent his
angel before thee, before thee. I saw, I think it was last week,
I saw about some famous general, I don't even remember who it
was, but that his men loved him because he led from the front.
This is our leader. This is our savior, the captain
of our salvation. He leads from the front. He sent
before us, before us. Christ came before his people. Now we know that the Lord Jesus
came in time before us 2000 years ago, but in time he came after
Moses, didn't he? He came after David. He came
after. This is not speaking of when the Lord came in time. This
is speaking of the eternality. of Christ our Savior. He's before
us because the Father elected Him, ordained Him to be the Savior
of His people from all of eternity. And since Christ was the Savior
from all of eternity, brother, this thing was never in doubt.
It's never in doubt. Christ is the eternal surety
of His people. The Father elected the people
before He created anything. And he put him in his son. And
there they stayed. They're safe. They're secure
in their surety. And the father has always seen
those people in Christ. In Christ, our surety. When God
created Adam and put him in the garden, Adam just had one law. I mean, if you want to go count
how many in these past few chapters, how many commandments God gave
Moses there at Sinai. In Garden of Eden, he just gave
Adam one. Adam couldn't obey it. But Adam willfully took that
fruit and ate it in wide open rebellion against God. Adam knew
exactly what he was doing. Eve was deceived. Adam knew exactly
what he was doing. Why didn't God destroy the whole
human race at that time? Why didn't just a lightning strike
or ball of fire just destroy the whole thing? Because of Christ's
our surety. There is a people in Christ who
hadn't even been born yet, who must be born. They must hear
the gospel. God must give them faith. They
must come to faith in Christ. And God is not going to destroy
the world until every last one of them have been brought to
Christ. That's how sure our surety is, the eternal surety. And Christ is the eternal Savior.
Someone says, now how can that be? How is it that he can be
the eternal savior? It sounds like you're saying
I was saved before I was born. That's exactly what I'm saying.
The father has always seen his people in Christ the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He's always seen them washed
in the blood. Washed in the blood of Christ the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Now then, Christ came in time,
didn't he? At the appointed time set by
the Father, Christ came in time. He came to fulfill the law. He
came to suffer and die as a sacrifice for his people. You know why
he did that? Because he came before us. He came before us. And in the
fullness of time, he came to do what he purposed to do from
all of eternity. He came to do what he promised
his Father he would do, put away the sin of his people. saved
his people from their sins. And I want to tell you, he did
a perfect job of it. He did a perfect job. After he
gave up the ghost and they lay his body in the tomb for three
days, what happened? He was raised from the dead.
And he walked out of the tomb in glorified flesh, a glorified
savior, because the sin that had been laid on him is gone.
He did what he came to do and the father, received him back
into heaven as the forerunner. He went there before us. And
since he's gone there before us, you know what's gonna happen
to all of his people? They're gonna follow him there.
They're gonna follow him there. They have, just as surely as
he has been the surety of his people and kept his people secure
in him, he's gonna bring them all to glory to be with him.
That's what a perfect job of salvation he did. I just love
that. I can't hear that enough. And then the Lord says, this
angel, he's coming and he's going to keep thee in the way. He's
going to keep the law for you. He's going to do for you what
you can't do. He's going to obey the law for
you. He's going to make you righteous and he's going to preserve you.
He's going to keep you, preserve you from this world. He's gonna
preserve you from your own sin, from your own sin nature. He's
gonna preserve you, keep you from yourself. He's gonna keep
you in the way. You know, this way is not a set
of doctrines now. It's Him. It's Him who's gonna
keep us in Him. He's the way. If we ever get
some grasp of this, that this is all about Him, the gospel
will be will just open up to us. It's all about him, about
his glory, about him accomplishing everything that he said he'd
do. And he's going to keep his people, he's going to keep them
like the good shepherd keeps his sheep. Now this is what I
would imagine. The shepherd keeps his sheep
with a rod and a staff, right? And I would imagine sometimes
a sheep starts to starts to kind of stray a little bit and the
shepherd uses his staff and taps him a little bit and they go
into the way and stay the way that the shepherd wants them
to go. I would imagine every once in a while there's a stubborn
sheep or there's a sheep that's not right bright and a little
tap don't do the job and he's got to whack him on the ribs,
you know, and maybe whack him upside the head even, you know.
It hurts, but isn't it best? I want to mean what I'm getting
ready to say. I pray the Lord enable me to mean it. Whatever
it takes for the Lord to keep me in the way. That's what I
want. And he's going to do it. He's
going to keep it. If you belong to him, whatever
it takes, he's going to keep you in the way. He's going to
keep you in Christ until he brings you all the way to glory. He
says here, and here to the children of Israel, he's talking about
the promised land, into the place which I have prepared. That made
me think about our Lord telling his disciples, now I'm going
to go away. And if I go, I'm going to go
and prepare a place for you. And then I'm going to come again
and get you and bring you to the place that I've prepared.
That's exactly what he's going to do. Now this story of the angel that's
gone before us start way back there in what we call eternity
past. Eternity before the creation
of the world. And it ends after this world
is destroyed in glory. That's the story of salvation.
Let me ask you, where is in that story one thing that you do to
save yourself? Where's the thing that you do
to keep yourself? Where's the thing that you do
to make what Christ did for you effectual for you? It's not in
there, is it? That means all of the responsibility
of the salvation of God's elect belongs to Christ. It's not my
responsibility. Now, I don't want to run off
from him. I don't want to go worship idols.
I don't want to do all these things. But you know the frightening
thing is, I will unless God stops me from doing it. Now you know
that's true. This is such good news, all the
responsibility belongs to Christ. Now what's left for us to do?
Far as I can tell one thing, rest. Here's what's left for
us to do, do nothing. And rest in Christ, rest in Christ. Isn't that glorious? I mean,
you hear about this angel and you think, oh my goodness, this
is so wonderful. This is, I just, I mean, what
a loving, gracious savior this must be. And that's true, but
hang on a minute. Look, this is very, very important.
Look what he says in verse 21. Now you beware of him and you
obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he'll not
pardon your transgressions. For my name is in him. Now that's
how I know this angel is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. He says, my name is in him. This is the Son of God. And this is what the Father says
about him. You beware. You beware. You beware that you obey him.
Don't you disobey him. You beware that you obey his
voice, that you obey his commandments. Now what's he talking about there?
He's not talking about the law. He's not saying you gotta obey
God's law and earn a righteousness for yourself. That's not what
he's talking about at all. The obedience that he's talking about
here is to quit working, trying to make yourself righteous before
God. Quit working, trying to make God more happy with you
than he is somebody else, and just trust Christ. That's the
obedience he's talking about. And I'll show you that. Look
at two scriptures, Romans chapter 16. When I very first started preaching, I was very intimidated, and Brother
Henry told me, this is the easiest place in the world to preach.
He said, all you got to do is tell the truth, and you can just
brad it down with one scripture. Well, I'm going to brad it down
with two, but this obedience, being the obedience of faith.
Romans 16, verse 25. Now to him that is of the power
to establish you, according to my gospel, and the preaching
of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery,
which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made
manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith. That's the obedience he's talking
about there, is the obedience to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I can show you that's true.
Look at 1 John 3. 1 John 3, verse 23. And this is his commandment. I love it. The Lord doesn't leave you to
guess and wonder. This is his commandment, that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as he gave us commandment. This is the commandment
of God. The commandment of God is to
believe on his son. And even that is not a work we
have to do, is it? God, the Holy Spirit has to give
us the faith in Christ in the first place. This is not even
a work that we're required to do. We're totally dependent on
the Lord to provide everything for us. Then the Lord starts to give
and he says, now, now you believe on my son. And there's going
to be blessings that come from believing on my son. And there's
condemnation for not trusting in him. The Lord says, He will
not pardon your sins if you do not trust Christ. He won't do
it. The only way sin can be pardoned
is through faith in his son. But the Lord will pardon everyone
who trusts Christ. He'll pardon every one of them.
And you know how he pardons them? You know, in our world today,
the governor or president pardons somebody even though they're
guilty. They get pardoned and they get set free. That's not
the way God pardons sin. When God pardons sin, he takes
sin away from the guilty. Puts it on his son so that his
son puts it away by his precious blood. Now there's no sin left
to charge you with. That's how God pardons his people. But he won't pardon us if we
don't trust his son. Then my prayer is Lord, give
me faith in Christ. I mean, this is my constant prayer. Give me faith in Christ. This
is so urgent. There's no life without him.
There's no acceptance without him. Lord, give me Christ or
else I die. Then he goes on in verse 22 and
he says, but if thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that
I speak, then I'll be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary
unto thine adversaries. If you trust Christ, he will
destroy every enemy you have, every single one of them. Now,
I thought about our enemies. We might have enemies out there
in the world who, for whatever reason, don't like us or, you
know, whatever. They're not the issue. They're
really not. But how about Satan, the accuser
of the brethren? Oh, he's our enemy. And God told
Adam and Eve, I'm going to send the seed of woman. He's going
to crush the serpent's head. He's going to put him out of
business. He's going to take away all of his power. He can
accuse away all he wants, but he has no power to make any of
those accusations stick because Christ took the sin of his people
away. Put it away by his precious blood. He took that enemy out
of the way, didn't he? How about the enemy of my sin?
I mean, my sin is my enemy. It's my fault, it's my doing,
I've done it willfully, and it's my enemy. My sin demands my condemnation. My sin demands that I be separated
from God for eternity. That's what my sin demands. But
Christ came and he took that sin away. He paid for it with
his precious blood so it doesn't even exist anymore. That enemy
doesn't even exist because of the sacrifice of Christ. And
then there's me, my sin nature, the nature that I was born with,
the nature that sat in pews from the time I was ever old enough
to come out of a nursery and sit in pews, hearing the gospel
preached, and refused to believe it. Utterly, absolutely refused
to believe on Christ. That's that nature of Adam. That's
me. Now I believe. But what happened? God took care of that enemy.
Now, he's still alive and well in me, but God put a new man
in me, and that new man reigns. And I know you feel like, it
doesn't feel like my new man reigns. All I do is sin when
I don't want to. Here's how the new man reigns.
You can't not believe Christ anymore. Your new man tries every
day to make you trust in yourself and turn away from Christ. And
you know why you don't do it? Because the new man won't let
you. That's the new man. God took care of that enemy.
And one day he's gonna take care of that enemy so you don't have
to fight him or hear from him anymore. And all that's gonna
be left is the new man who's gonna go straight into the presence
of God. Now, why would you not want to
trust him? Oh, trust him. Look at verse 23. For mine angels
shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and
the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, and I'll cut them off. Thou shalt not bow
down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works,
but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their
images. You know, if I trust Christ,
he's gonna deliver me from idolatry. And you know, idolatry, all it
is is trusting self in one form or another. Nobody here would
ever fall into, unless something happens to your brain and you
get brain damage, you would never fall down and bow down to a stone
statue. I know you wouldn't do that.
But people who would never bow down to a stone statue are still
steeped in idolatry because we're trusting self. We're glorifying
self rather than worshiping God. And God's going to break down
that idolatry in your heart so that you can't trust anyone other
than Christ alone. And you'll have eternal life.
But if you don't believe Christ alone, you know what's going
to happen? You're going to perish trusting in that idol, trusting
in yourself, trusting in an idol that cannot save. Now that's
frightening, isn't it? I mean, it's frightening to think
about. A believer knows I'd do that if God doesn't stop me from
doing it. Well, this is our comfort. This
is what God's saying. I'm gonna be the one to keep
you from trusting those idols and keep you trusting Christ. God said, I'm gonna be the one
to do it. Now trust him to do it. Trust him, obey his voice.
Verse 25, he says, and you shall serve the Lord your God. And
he shall bless thy bread and thy water. And I will take sickness
away from the midst of thee. If you trust Christ, this is
what the Lord says, I'll feed you with the bread of water.
And you'll drink from the bread of life and you'll never thirst
again. The Lord will give us everything that we need to have
spiritual life and to sustain it. He'll give it all to us.
And it's by faith in Christ. Let me show you that in John
chapter six. John chapter six, this thing of eating this bread
is referring to faith in Christ. John chapter six, verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread
of life. So the subject is believing on
Christ. He is that bread of life. That's
the subject. Now look down at verse 53. And
Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except
you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you
have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. Now I hope you know, good and
well, that the Lord's not talking about cannibalism here, that
we would eat the Lord's body, that's just gross. What he's
talking about is faith in Christ. Up there when he said that whosoever
believeth on me, and then down here in verse 53, so eats my
flesh, that's the same thing. It's believing on Christ. Whosoever, whoever it is that
trusts Christ, they have eternal life. because of union with Christ. That's where this thing of eating
comes in. Whenever we eat something, before too long, it has, I mean,
don't be gross, but I mean, you could get sick and throw it up
or something, right? But I mean, as long as everything's
operating the way it's supposed to, you eat something before
long, you have union with it. It becomes part of your cells,
and part of your blood, and part of your organs, so that you can't
separate it out. It becomes part of your flesh. You have union with it. That's
what the Lord's talking about here, eating Christ. When we
believe Him, we have union with Christ, so that we are what He
is, so that we're one with Christ, and we can never be divided from
Him again. I know that when people talk
about, you know, being one with Christ, that I'm in Christ and
the father sees me and then he sees Christ. But, you know, that's
not true. If the father sees Christ and
then he sees me seeing two people, the father just sees one person.
If I'm going to be accepted, the father just sees one person.
When the father looks at me, all he sees is his son. All he
sees is his beloved son who is pleased to him, who has obeyed
him perfectly. and the father accepts me because
I'm in his son, because I'm one with his son. That's what the
Lord's talking about here. He's talking about faith in Christ,
gives us union with Christ, so we have eternal life. But whosoever
does not trust Christ, whosoever is not one with Christ, he doesn't
have union with Christ, he's trying to come to God on his
own. Or maybe he's trying to come to God with Christ plus
what he does. Plus, that's idolatry, right? Because self's involved with
it. He's trying to come to God with Christ. He doesn't have
union with Christ. He'll never be accepted. He must
be condemned. I mean, I hate to think about
that. I hate to say that, to think about someone being condemned
to hell for eternity. I just don't want to think about
it. But I know it's so, I know it's
so, and the Lord's warning us here, we'll have no spiritual
life without union with Christ. But if we believe Him, we have
life, life that can never be lost. And look what else the
Lord promises here, back in our text at the end of verse 25. He said, I'll take sickness away
from the midst of thee. Now again, that's not talking
about physical sickness. We all have physical sicknesses
and ailments and eventually one of them's going to kill us. What
the Lord's talking about is spiritual sicknesses. If you care to look
at Isaiah chapter one, here is a description of our
spiritual sickness. When God looks at us, this is
what he sees. He says in verse five of Isaiah
one, why should you be stricken anymore? You'll revolt more and
more. Here's what God sees. The whole
head is sick. The whole heart is faint. From
the sole of the foot, even under the head. There's no soundness
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Now let me tell you, not only
does that look gross, it smells gross. Can you imagine what those
untreated wounds smell like? Seeping pus and ooze. And the Lord says, I'm going
to take all that spiritual sickness and take it away from you. I'm
going to wash you white as snow in the blood of my son so that
there is no trace of that sickness ever being in you. And here's
the amazing thing. This is so amazing. God's grace
is so amazing, the way God does things is so amazing. You know
how he puts away the sickness, the sin sickness of his people?
By taking the perfect health of his son and giving that to
his people and him taking their sin sicknesses and putting them
away by his blood. That is grace that is so magnificent. How can you not want that? How
can you not want to trust Christ? Obey his voice, believe him,
and he'll cleanse you of all your sin sicknesses. Then verse
26, he says, there shall nothing cast their young nor be barren
in thy land. The number of thy days I will
fulfill. Now I'll tell you what he's talking
about here. He's talking about miscarriages
and stillborn children. And he tells the church, spiritually
speaking, that his church, his son, will not have any miscarriages. He'll have no stillborn children.
Now, we have those in this life, don't we? Many of you have experienced
it. We've experienced it in my family.
It is so heartbreaking. It's such a heartbreaking thing
to happen that you just never get over it. I mean, it's just
the saddest thing. Do you know this is what God's
telling his people? That will never happen to any
of God's children. Not one of God's children will be born stillborn. They're not going to be miscarried.
They're all going to be born again with life that will never
die. Now, they're going to have to
live, unfortunately, in this world below, this trail of tears
below. But eventually, the Lord's going
to bring us all to a place where there's no more of this heartache
and tears and sorrows. Pretty soon, all that's gonna
be left is happiness and joy in the presence of Christ our
Savior. That's what we have if we're given faith in him. Then
look at verse 28. And I'll send hornets before
thee, which will drive out the Hyphite and the Canaanite and
the Hittite from before thee. I'll not drive them out from
before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate and
the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little
I will drive them out from before thee until thou be increased
and inherit the land. This is the wisdom of God in
salvation. And this is what he did for the
children of Israel in the promised land. When they come into the
promised land, they come to an area, the Hivites, the Hittites,
whoever it is that currently occupying the land. It's about
harvest time. Just in a day or two, they're
going to be ready to harvest. And the families come in, and
the mother's been cooking, and she's got a hot meal. She's just ready to dish it out
onto the plates for all the family. And the Lord didn't send an army
to come in there and slaughter them all with swords and spears. He sent hornets. And those hornets
drove those people out. They left. And the children of
Israel walked in and sat down to dinner. It was all ready for
them. And they went to bed in a comfortable bed already made
up and they got up in the morning and they went out to harvest
because it was all ready for them. That's what the Lord did
for the children of Israel in the promised land. And that's
what the Lord does for all of his people. It's such wisdom. It's such wisdom. He drives out
the enemy. That's all that's left for us
is to enjoy is peace in Christ, the abundance of God's grace
in Christ. And don't be fooled into thinking
that some people say, oh, this is the Lord talking about progressive
sanctification. He'll drive the people out, drive
your sin out little by little, and you'll start getting better
and better and better and better. No, you won't. No, you won't.
That's not what the Lord's talking about here. the flesh will never
be holy, will never be righteous, never. And the new man, when
he's born, he's instantly holy, he can't get any better. Look
what the Lord says here in verse 31. And I'll set thy bounds from
the Red Sea, even under the Sea of the Philistines, and from
the desert under the river, and I'll deliver the inhabitants
of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before
thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods,
don't you compromise with them. They should not dwell in thy
land, lest they make thee sin against me. For if thou serve
their gods, there will surely be a snare unto thee. Now this
is what the Lord is saying. In picture, the sin of God's
elect is forgiven. Now you know that. The sin of
God's elect is forgiven. But if God showed you that He's
forgiven your sin by sacrificing and slaughtering His Son in your
place, you'll never say, then my sin's okay. I'll just sin
that grace may abound. Why, the more I sin, the more
glory Christ will get? You'll never say that. You'll
never say, you know, it really doesn't matter how I live. You
know, if I live honestly, or if I'm kind, or it doesn't matter
how much I sin, the Apostle Paul said, God forbid that we'd think
such a way. Yes, we still sin. We can't stop
sinning, can we? I mean, what I want to do, that's
not what I do. What I don't want to do, that's
what I do. But this is what the Lord's saying.
Well, you don't have to make allowances for it either. We
don't have to make allowances for our sin either. We can't
stop sinning, but we sure can seek to grow in grace and the
knowledge of Christ our Savior. And I know it's kind of frustrating.
Not kinda, very frustrating. When over and over and over again,
we're living in a body where we don't want to sin, but we
do, but we do. And here's the comfort from God's
word for when that happens. we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And you know who that is? It's
the angel God sent before us. The angel God sent as the forerunner
to enter into heaven, to ever live, making intercession for
us until he calls us home. That's God's angel. I sure do
want to believe him with all my heart and all my soul. I hope
you do too. Let's bow together. Our Father,
how we thank you for this angel, the angel of the covenant, the
messenger of the covenant, the one who fulfilled the covenant
of your grace and sealed it in his precious blood, that bought
full, free salvation for all of your people, salvation that
cannot fail. Father, we're so thankful. We think we see some of the glory
of it. We think we see awe and wonder
who our Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's accomplished for
us. Father, it's our prayer that you show us more, that you enable
us to see him and his glory more and more and more clearly as
the days and weeks and months roll on. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your mercy and
grace in Christ Jesus. It's in his name for his sake
and his glory we pray. Okay, Riley, you got a closing
hymn for us? I do. I ask that y'all bear with
me for one more. It's one of my favorites, and everybody knows
the words, so help me sing out. Open our hymnal to 236. Amazing
Grace. I just wonder if I stand up,
don't you? Please stand. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. Once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see "'Twas grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. His grace hath brought me safe
thus far and grace will lead me home when we've been there
Ten thousand years bright shining as the sun to sing God's praise than when
we'd first begun.