Well, good evening everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Psalm 62. I'd like
to open our service reading Psalm 62. Truly my soul waiteth upon God. From him cometh my salvation.
He only. is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.
How long we imagine mischief against a man. You should be
slain, all of you, as a bowing wall shall you be and as a tottering
fence. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. They delight in lies. They bless
with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. My soul, wait thou
only upon God. For my expectation is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you
people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. And I am not in the habit of
reading that word Selah, as I understand it, it's a musical term, and
I'm told it also means stop and think about this. If it means
stop and think about this, let's stop and think about this. Trust
in him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. Surely, men of low degree are
vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the
balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not
in oppression, and become not vain in robbery. If riches increase,
set not your heart upon them. God has spoken once, twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord,
belongeth mercy. For thou renderest to every man
according to his work. Thank God for his word. So I'll
come lead us in our singing, if you would. Okay, if you would turn in your
hymnal to song number 452, we'll sing My Savior's Love. 452. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. For me it was in the garden he
prayed, not my will but thine. He had no tears for his own,
griefs but sweat drops of blood for mine. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. In pity angels beheld him and
came from the world of light to comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. How marvelous How wonderful and
my song shall ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me! He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see, T'will be my joy through the
ages To sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. Okay, if you would now turn to
song number 334, Be Thou My Vision. Be thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Not be all else to me, save that
thou art. Thou my best thought by day or
by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom, own Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart. High King of Heaven, my treasure
Thou art. High King of heaven, my victory
won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of mine, O heart, whatever
befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. All right, now if you would open
your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 17. My text this evening
is going to be found in Exodus 18. It's rather lengthy, so I
thought I would just read through it as we go. And by the time
I finish, I hope you'll, might realize why I selected these
two passages to read earlier in our service. Matthew chapter
17, we'll read the first eight verses. And after six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart. And was transfigured before them,
and his face as shine as the sun, and his raiment was as white
as the light. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter
and said unto Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If thou
will, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and
one for Moses, and one for Elias. 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. Hear ye him. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And
Jesus came and touched them, and said, arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And they didn't have the
first clue about what was going on in that mountain until they
saw Jesus only. And that's what I want us to
see tonight. All right, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father,
Lord, our hearts burst with thanksgiving joy and awe and wonder that sinful
men and women such as we are can come before your throne of
grace and call you our father. Oh, how we thank you. How we
thank you for your sovereign electing love. How we thank you
for your adopting love that would make us your children. How we
thank you for the new birth that you'd cause your people to be
born of the seed of the word of God and be born into your
family, whereby we can cry unto you, have a father. And father,
we come before you as your little children. We come humbly, we
come needy, we come hungry. And father, I pray that you would
open your hand of mercy and grace to us tonight. And by the power
of your spirit, you may enable us as the disciples of old to,
by faith, see the Lord Jesus Christ only. That he be our only
hope, our only salvation, our only righteousness, our only
refuge, our only way to God, our only object of faith. Father,
let us see and believe the Lord Jesus Christ only. Let his name
be glorified and magnified in this place tonight. And Father, I thank you for this
place and I thank you for this Family of believers that you've
called together to meet here and worship you, to preach your
gospel in this place to our generation. And Father, I pray you continue
to bless it. I pray that you would continue to be with each
home, each family. Father, that you would be our
guide, our leader, and let us have our homes centered around
thee. And we dare not, Father, forget
to pray for the sick and afflicted, those of our number and those
in other places that you've seen fit to bring into the valley
of trouble, trial. You've seen fit as the wise master
refiner to put them into the furnace and to try them and burn
off some of our draws. Father, we pray you'd be with
them, that you give them your presence to comfort their hearts. and still such time as you're
pleased to deliver. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For his sake and his glory we pray, amen. Now turn back with
me to Exodus 18. I titled the message this evening,
Christ Alone, Christ Alone. We'll begin reading here in Exodus
18, verse one. When Jethro, the priest of Midian,
Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses
and for Israel, his people, and that Lord had brought Israel
out of Egypt. Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah,
Moses' wife, after he'd sent her back, and her two sons, of
which the name of the one was Gershon, for he said, I've been
an alien in a strange land. And the name of the other was
Eleazar, for the God of my father, said he, was my help, and delivered
me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law,
came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness
where he encamped at the Mount of God. And he said unto him,
Moses, I am thy father-in-law, I thy father-in-law Jethro, and
come unto thee, and thy wife and her two sons with her." Now
remember what made this happen is as Moses was on his way to
Egypt, he's taking his wife and his sons with him. Remember he
didn't circumcise his second son. He circumcised the first
boy, but not the second one. And he didn't circumcise the
second one because Zipporah saw that first son circumcised, and
she wasn't about to have that done to her next baby boy. And
Moses listened to her and didn't do it. And on the way to Egypt,
God's gonna kill Moses right there for his disobedience and
not circumcising that boy. And somehow Moses was incapacitated
or something. So Zipporah circumcised the boy
to save Moses' life. But Zipporah was so mad about
that, about having to do that. Remember, she cast it down at
Moses and said, you're a bloody man. She was so mad about that,
she left Moses. She said, I'm not going with
you. She went back to mom and daddy. Moses went on to Egypt. Now this is over a year later,
and he hadn't seen his wife and sons again. And now Jethro has
heard that the Lord has delivered Israel from Egypt. And now he's
bringing Moses' wife and sons back to him. That's what's going
on here, what precipitated this visit. Now verse seven, and Moses
went out to meet his father-in-law and did obeisance and kissed
him. And they asked each other their welfare and they came into
the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law
all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians
for Israel's sake and all the travail that had come upon them
by the way and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced
for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom
he delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro
said, blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who had
delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now
I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, all the other
idols. For in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above
them. In Jethro, Moses' father-in-law
took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. And Aaron came and all
the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before
God. And it came to pass on the morrow
that Moses sat to judge the people. And the people stood by Moses
from the morning into the evening. And when Moses' father-in-law
saw all that he did to the people, he said, what is this thing that
thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone?
and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even. And Moses
said unto his father-in-law, because the people come unto
me to inquire of God, and when they have a matter, they come
unto me, and I judge between one and the other, and I do make
them know the statutes of God and his laws. And Moses' father-in-law
said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good. Thou
wilt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with
thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee, Thou art not able to
perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, and
I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Be thou
for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes
unto God. And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and
shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work
that they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide
out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth,
hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of
thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers
of tens. And let them judge the people at all seasons, and it
shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but
every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier
for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou
shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt
be able to endure, and all the people shall also go to their
place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice
of his father-in-law and did all that he said. And Moses chose
able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people,
rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties,
and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at
all seasons. The hard causes they brought unto Moses, but
every small matter they judged themselves. And Moses let his
father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.
Now, here's the thing I want us to look at tonight. Did Moses
do the right thing when he followed his father-in-law Jethro's advice?
Did he do the right thing? Now, the simple answer is no.
No, he did not. And Moses was wrong to follow
Jethro's advice for several reasons. First, it's because the Lord
gave this responsibility to Moses. He gave all this responsibility
to Moses. When Moses sat by himself with
the people from morning till evening, and the people came
to him to inquire of God, and Moses would make them know the
statutes of God and the laws of God, that was the responsibility
that God gave Moses to do for Israel, to teach the people what
God said. That was the responsibility of
Moses alone. Now you can read in Numbers chapter
11 later on what happened, because Moses followed Jethro's advice.
You know, the Lord asked Moses if he could do this, to take
this burden off of him. And you know the Lord said, all
right. He said, all right, Moses, I'll let you do that. You pick
out 70 men. I'm not going to pick them. Moses,
you pick them. Now, I picked you. I gave this
responsibility to you, but you choose out these 70 men who are
supposed to help you. And you know what the Lord did?
He took of the spirit that he gave to Moses and took it away
from Moses and gave to these 70 men. Now Moses has less of
the spirit of God than he used to have because he laid down
the responsibility that God gave to him. And you know, all of
us would be wise to consider this. We need to do whatever
it is that God has given us to do, and do it diligently. I mean,
thankfully, the Lord's not laid on us the responsibility of Egypt,
or Israel, this stiff-necked people, but whatever it is that
God's given us to do, we ought to do it diligently. And instead
of saying, I can't do this, I mean, I simply cannot do this, Instead
of saying, I can't do what the Lord has given me to do, maybe
we'd be wise to pray, Lord, enable me to do what you've given me
to do. What man is sufficient for these
things? What woman is sufficient for whatever the things is that
God's given you to do in the church? What man is sufficient
for these things? Lord, enable me to do it, because
I can't do it on my own. Instead of laying it down, maybe
we pray that and ask the Lord to help us. Second, Moses was
wrong to take Jethro's advice because of who Jethro is. Jethro
is the priest of Midian. He's the priest of a false religion.
And the Midianites, they're known for worshiping many different
gods. They primarily worship Baal and
Ashtaroth. Baal and Ashtaroth are basically
the same thing. They're male and female counterparts. of the same thing. And what they
do is they stand in opposition to the true and living God, the
prophets of Baal. That's who we read about. That's
who they are. But they would worship Baal and
Ashtaroth, but they bring in some worship of Jehovah too. They just worship all these different
gods. And Jethro, now this man's not
a believer. He doesn't believe in God. Notice
what he says here in verse 11. Now I know that the Lord is greater
than all gods for the thing where with they dealt proudly. He was
above them. Jethro doesn't deny their existence.
These idols, he just says the Lord Jehovah's above them. They're all gods, but Jehovah
is above them. He's not, he's not saying that
Jehovah is the only true and living God. Jethro was part of a nation,
a religion of idolaters and compromisers. They worshiped idols, but they
might throw in the worship of the true and living God too.
And that's who Moses took advice from, from a false prophet, who's
using carnal reasoning. And this is another thing we
ought to remember. We cannot follow God by carnal
reasoning. We follow God by faith. by faith,
by what he teaches, it's not by carnal reasoning, because
our carnal minds might think that we know the right way, the
way to go, this seems obvious to us, but let's remember this,
the carnal mind's enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So using carnal reasoning
as a way to follow God will never work. Third, when Moses put these
other men into positions of authority, he opened up a can of worms. And these men later on are going
to abuse the authority that Moses gave them. Two of these 70 men
that Moses picked out are named Korah and Dathan. Two men who led a rebellion against
Moses after they got a little bit of a taste of authority.
Being captains over tens or hundreds or thousands wasn't good enough
for them. They wanted to be captains of the whole shooting match and
they led this rebellion against Moses and they never would have
done it. if Moses hadn't followed Jethro's
advice and just kept doing what God gave him to do. All right,
that's Jethro. And here's the fourth thing,
and this is the most important, and this is why I want us to
spend our time tonight. Moses was wrong to take Jethro's
advice for this reason. Moses is a type of Christ. And
Christ never needs help. He doesn't need help saving his
people. He doesn't need help teaching his people. He doesn't
need help ruling over his people. He doesn't need help leading
and guiding his people. He does those things alone. Alone. Now I'm going to give
you six things, I promise to be brief, that Christ has done
alone. He's done these things by himself
without any help from us or anybody else, and that ought to make
us glad. That ought to make us glad. And
these are things that should, if we really hear them and believe
them, will make us trust our souls to Christ. Number one,
Christ created the worlds alone. Now we know God created the heavens
and the earth and he did it all by himself. He had to do it all
by himself because when he created everything, God was the only
one who existed. There wasn't anybody there to help him at
all, was there? God just spoke. creation appeared. The God we
worship is the creator. You know, that's how the Old
Testament prophets and even some of the, sometimes you see this,
the apostles did this. This is how they identify our
God as the creator. He's the creator. He's the one
that created all of this. So he's over all of this. And
the creator, who is the one who spoke everything into existence,
is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. He's the Word of God. John 1 verse 3 says, without
Him was not anything made that was made. The Lord Jesus Christ
created everything by Himself. by himself, he did it by himself
because he didn't need any help. He didn't need any help from
us or the angels or anything else. He just spoke the worlds
into existence. That's how powerful he is. Reckon
he's got the power to save you and keep you, if he's got the
power to do that. And if I can say it this way,
here's something that's even more amazing than God creating
the heavens and the earth just by speaking. It's why he created
the universe. Look with me at Colossians chapter
one. Colossians chapter one. Verse 16. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones or principalities,
or whether they be thrones, dominions, or principalities, or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. Not only was creation
created by our Lord Jesus Christ, it was all created for him, for
him. God created the heavens and the
earth, and he put man in it for this reason. for the Lord Jesus
Christ, for his glory, so that he could get glory out of saving
sinful fallen men out of it. And I'll get to this in more
detail in just a second. But when our Savior saved his
fallen people out of this earth, he did that by himself. So he
gets all the glory. That's why God created all, that's
why God's doing everything he's doing in his creation is for
this purpose, so that his son, will get glory by saving sinful
people out of it. Then my prayer for me and for
you is this. Lord, would you get glory to
yourself by saving a sinful wretch like me? Lord, would you get
glory by saving us? Lord, save your people. so that
you get all of the glory. Lord, would you let us see your
glory, your redemptive glory in saving your people from their
sins. If the Lord let us see the redemptive glory of Christ,
we'll trust him, sure will. All right, number two, Christ
stood alone as the surety of his people. Now, before God created
anything, the Father elected a people to save. He took those
people and he gave them to his son. Put them in his son. And at that time, Christ stood
as the surety for his people. He made a pledge. He pledged,
Father, I'll save these people from their sin. And after creation,
as time rolled on a little bit, we got a real good picture of
Christ our surety in Judah. Remember Judah, Jacob's son? Jacob had sent his son during
the time of famine down to Egypt to buy corn. Remember that? And
they bought corn, but while they were down there, that man who
was in charge, now they didn't know it was their brother Joseph,
but it was. And he asked them, you got another
brother? And they said, yeah, we have
one. He's the youngest. He's back there with his father.
And that grouchy man in charge said, I'll sell you corn this
time, but the next time you come, you better bring him. I'm going
to lay my eyes on that other brother of yours, or you'll see
my face no more. You'll get no more corn. Well,
they came home and told their father Jacob about that. And
Jacob said, nuh-uh. That's not happening. Bad things
happen when I send my favorite sons with you boys. I'm not going
to do that. But pretty soon, all their corn
was gone. They're getting ready to starve to death. They need
to go back to Egypt and buy more corn. And Jacob said, you're
not taking Benjamin with you. I'm just not doing that. And
Judah, in Genesis 43 verse 9, he said, Father, I'll be surety
for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. And if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee,
let me bear the blame forever. I'll be surety for him. That's
what Judah was saying. And that's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what he said
to his father. Father, give him to me. I'll
save him. I'll keep him. I'll glorify them,
and Father, if I miss saving one of them, if I miss bringing
one of them to glory with me, if when I stand before you and
I say, Father, here are mine, the children which you've given
me, if one of those children is missing, just one, this is
a number no man can number, you'd think out of untold millions
you wouldn't miss one, but the Father would. They're that important
to him. He says, Father, if I'm missing
one of them, let me bear the blame forever. And the Father
said, all right, your surety for your people. And the Savior
never one time said, Father, this is too many people. Their
burden, the burden of their sin is too great. He never said, Father, instead
of me doing it all for them, why don't you give them at least
a little bit? of the responsibility to save
themselves. Let them do what they can to
save themselves and let me do the rest. That way I won't get
worn down to a nub. Because otherwise, Father, the
work's too much for me. The burden of their sin is too
much. It'll just wear me down trying
to save this mess of sinful people. You know why the Savior never
one time said that? Because he's able to save all
by himself. He knew he would have no problem. He knew he had the power and
the right and the righteousness and the holiness to save his
people from their sin. And he said, Father, I'm going
to do it all for them. And aren't you glad? Oh, my soul. We'd be damned if the Lord gave
us one thing to do in order to be saved. If we just had to do
one thing that Christ did for us, we'd be damned forever. But
Christ loved his people so much, he said, Father, I'll stand as
surety for these people all by myself. I don't need any help. And he got the job done too.
He stood alone as our surety. Then number three, Christ stands
alone as the righteousness of his people. In the fullness of
time, the time finally came that the Son of God came to earth
as a man. born of a virgin, made under
the law, and as a man, he kept that law perfectly. He obeyed
the law perfectly. He didn't do it for himself.
He's already righteous. He's already holy. Christ obeyed
the law perfectly to bring in everlasting righteousness for
his people. See, the righteousness of Christ is the righteousness
of his people. When Christ obeyed the law, All
of God's elect obeyed the law, too, because where were they?
They were in Christ, because that's where the Father put them.
So when Christ obeyed the law, all of God's elect did, too.
They did everything that He did. Christ alone is the righteousness
of His people. Christ alone. By that, I mean
He's our righteousness without one single act of obedience on
our part. Not one. Let me show you that. Isaiah chapter 46. Christ did
it all. I hope this thrills you like
it has me as I've studied it and like I'm trying to say it
to you. Christ did it all. There's nothing left for us to
do. He's established righteousness for his people. Isaiah 46 verse
12. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. That's us by nature. This ought
to get our attention, make us listen. Hearken, ye stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness. It should not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. The Savior says, my righteousness
to you, and I'm gonna give it to you. And it's not just I'm
gonna offer salvation to you, I'm gonna put it in you. I'm
not even asking you if I can, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna put
it in you. I'm gonna put salvation in you.
I'm gonna put my righteousness in you. Not my righteousness
plus yours. My righteousness, my righteousness
alone. I love trusting something that's
perfect. What a perfect, I love trusting
him. You know, we ought to behave
ourselves, and we all ought to act better than we do, but we're
never gonna make ourselves righteous by our obedience to the law or
our abundance of religious activity. Not gonna do it. A believer is
made righteous without any of our works, any. Any, and I mean
zero. I mean before you know the Lord
or after you know the Lord. Any, ever. The only way we can
be righteous is by trusting Christ alone. Let me show you that,
Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine. Verse 30. What shall we say then? that the Gentiles, the heathen,
which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. Wherefore, why? Because they
sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law,
for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. And here's what Paul's
saying. The Gentiles, they're heathen.
They never had the law. God only gave the law to Israel.
They didn't have the law as a way to try to earn a righteousness
before God. But those heathen, Paul says,
have obtained righteousness. The righteousness of faith. Because
they sought it by faith, not their own works. But the Jews,
the religious people, they had the law of God. They had the
ceremonies. They had all those things. Paul says they haven't
attained to righteousness. Why not? Because they sought
it by their own obedience and their own works of the laws and
the ceremonies instead of faith in Christ. Now, aren't you thankful? The sinners are made righteous
by faith in Christ. And that's got to be a gift of
God, doesn't it? God gives it to us. God has given me faith. And I have to tell you this,
I can't not believe Christ. I simply cannot not believe him. It's just not possible. Somebody
asked Don Fortner one time, well, don't you ever not believe God?
He said, I try to every day, but the spirit won't let me.
He just, he won't let me. Salvation is by faith in Christ
without our works. And if you know anything about
your works, I mean, you would do back flips if you could, Because
if we put our hand to one speck of our righteousness, we'd ruin
the whole thing. But in Christ, we're perfectly
righteous and can never be condemned. Now that's a blessing, to be
enabled by God to trust Christ alone for our righteousness.
Really to trust him alone for everything, but the point I'm
making here is about righteousness, that we trust him alone for our
righteousness. That's a blessing. Then fourth,
Christ alone is the sacrifice who saves his people. After a
life of perfect righteousness where he's working out the salvation
or the righteousness of his people, a life where he never sinned
in thought, word, or deed, his hour finally came. So many times
he said, my hour's not yet come. My hour's not yet come. Then
one day the hour came. And our Lord Jesus knew how awful
that hour would be. He knew the depths of suffering
that it would take to put away the sin of his people. He knew
the agony that he would have to suffer and endure in order
to satisfy his father's holy justice. That's something you
and I will never fully understand. Even in glory, I don't believe
that we'll ever fully understand the depths of the suffering that
our Savior endured to put away our sin. But he knew, he knew
beforehand exactly what it was gonna take. And he went willingly anyway.
Because that's the only way his people could be saved. It's something
that he did alone and he never even thought about asking anybody
to help him. He accomplished the salvation
of his people by himself. Remember that mob, Judas was
leading, came to take him away and he said, let these go. Take me, let these go. And you
know they did, they let him go. And the Lord went with him alone.
At his mock trial, not only did he stand before his accusers
All alone. I mean, there was nobody there
with him trying to give evidence on his behalf. Nobody was there,
you know, pleading that they might let him go. He stood alone. And he did it silently. He stood
before those accusers alone and never answered a word against
any of their accusations. There was nobody there to help
him. Nobody there to encourage him. While he was beaten, He
couldn't see a friend in the background with a sympathetic
face and know, you know, when they're done beating me, my friend's
gonna help me and rub some salve on my wounds. No, there was nobody
there. He suffered alone in the midst of his enemies that hated
him. He did it alone. At Calvary, even his father,
even his father, Solomon wrote about Christ, before creation
being daily the delight of his father. He said, I was ever with
him. I was always with him. But at Calvary, the father turned
his back on him and made him suffer the father's wrath, God's
wrath alone, alone. That's why he cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? To let us know the father
turned his back on him and he was suffering alone. He was accomplishing
the salvation of his people alone. There's no one ever been as alone
as our Savior, Calvary. And you know what? It's okay
that there was nobody there to help him, because he didn't need
any help. Look at Hebrews chapter one.
He needed no help. By himself, he accomplished the
eternal salvation of his people. Hebrews 1 verse 3. Who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself, without
any help from anybody, by himself purged our sins, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. Look over at chapter
10. Chapter 10, verse 10. By the witch will, we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. All it took was the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once, him alone. Verse 12, but this
man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, all it took
to put away sin forever is the sacrifice of this one man by
himself. He sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering. He, he alone, hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Christ redeemed his people, he
justified his people, he sanctified his people, he saved his people
alone. Alone. There's a cry from Calvary
that rings down through the ages that means something important.
is finished. It's all accomplished. Christ
accomplished it all alone. Now let me tell you what that
means to you and me. God does not need you or me to do anything
to make God's salvation effectual to us. Christ already accomplished
it. He already accomplished it. He
got the job done, lock, stock, and barrel, all on his own. Then fifth, Christ alone gives
eternal life to his people. Christ earned salvation for his
people. He earned it, he purchased it,
he accomplished it, and he applies it to the hearts of his people,
and he does it alone. He does it by himself. The Holy
Spirit, the Lord told Nicodemus, moves where he listeth, where
he will, and he gives life and faith in Christ, and you never
knew where he came from or where he went. All you see is the effect
that he swept through. I don't know where the Holy Spirit
came from and where he went, but all I know is this, I was
dead and now I'm living. I was blind and now I see. I
was deaf and now I hear. I used to believe nothing and
now I have faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit did that alone. Look at Ephesians chapter two.
Ephesians chapter two. Well, if I get the right book,
Ephesians 2, there it is. Verse four, but God, who's rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you're saved. He has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Where is anything that we did
in there that made any of this effectual dust? Nowhere. And
in case you missed that, he says in verse nine, not of works.
Not of works. Lest any man should boast. Christ
alone gives his people eternal life, as a free gift. And like
I said earlier, he just comes and puts it in the hearts of
his people without asking permission to do it. And aren't we glad? Aren't we glad? Then sixth and
last, Christ alone keeps his people to the end. I wish I could somehow express how gracious Almighty God has
been to his people. At this particular moment, I'm
not thinking about his people down through the ages, or his
people in other parts of the world and other parts of the
country who may be worshiping together right now. I'm thinking
about us. I think about myself. God has
been so gracious. David says, we can't reckon it
up in order. There's more than the hairs in my head. I can't
count them. It's beyond our ability to comprehend. And we're thankful. I mean, I
don't understand the depths of God's grace to me, but I'm thankful. I'm thankful that God has saved
an undeserving wretch like me. It thrills my heart. It gives
me such joy in worshiping him. But you know, joy, joy. I believe
it was last Wednesday I told you, and I told someone this
last week at Dingus. Jonathan and I have joked for
years, we're in training to be grouchy old men. And I might do that kind of as
a joke, you know, with my family. You know, my girls say they don't
like it, I think they do. I think they like my grouchy
old man routine. But I'm determined. I'm not going
to be a grouchy old man. I mean the joy that we have in
this gospel. Oh my goodness, it just makes
my heart burst. But this is also true. Trials
and pain and heartache are a big part of the believer's life.
And those trials, and those pains, and those heartaches, you know,
Scripture talks about trials a lot of times, it means being
just pressed in a small space. You just feel like you're being
squashed. And they'll lay you so low, or at least they do me,
that I think it's impossible for me to go on. I may as well,
I'm not even thinking about getting from here to glory. I'm talking
about making it here from right now to the next second. I mean,
I cannot do it. I cannot do it. There's no way
I can make it. And our old nature is so vile
and so dead that our old nature is set on making us quit trusting
Christ and start trusting ourselves. And you know what the believer's
afraid of? One day I'll do it. One day I'll do it. The old man's
going to quit trusting Christ and I'm going to fall away. I've
been a reprobate all along. And you know that's what we do.
but our Savior keeps his people by himself. Two scriptures in
closing, John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. How do you know they're gonna
keep following you? How do you know they're not gonna wander off?
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. That's how I know I'll be kept,
because I'm kept in the Savior's hand. One more scripture, Jude
verse 24. Jude verse 24. Now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior
be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and ever.
Amen. Unto him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory alone. He's going to do it without any
help from me, and without any help from you. Now aren't you
glad? I don't have to take the next
step. My Savior's got me in His hand,
and He's carrying me. And that's enough for me. All
right, let's bow together. Our Father, we're so thankful
for this portion of Your Word. We're so thankful to be pointed
to Christ alone. And Father, I pray that you give
us faith that looks to him alone, that trusts in him alone, that
rests in him alone, Christ alone. Father, bless your word. Bless
your word, I pray, to the hearts of your people, that it may be
a blessing and an encouragement. And Father, that you might cause
it to go forth to reveal your glory. Father, it's in Christ's
name, for your sake we pray, amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 385, and we'll sing, Take the World, But
Give Me Jesus. Stand as we sing. Take the world, but give me Jesus,
all its joys are but a name. But His love abideth ever, through
eternal years the same. O the height and depth of mercy,
O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
pledge of endless life above. Take the world, but give me Jesus,
sweetest comfort of my soul. With my Savior watching o'er
me, I can sing though billows roll. O the height and depth
of mercy, O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
pledge of endless life above. Take the world, but give me Jesus. Let me view his constant smile. Then throughout my pilgrim journey,
light will cheer me all the while. O the height and depth of mercy,
O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
Pledge of endless life above. Take the world, but give me Jesus,
in His cross my trust shall be. Till with clearer, brighter vision,
face to face my Lord I see. O the height and depth of mercy,
O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
pledge of endless life above.