All right, if you would, now
open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus, the 12th
chapter. We'll begin reading in verse
29. And it came to pass that at midnight,
the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne under the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn
of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there
was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there
was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron
by night, and said, rise up and get you forth from among my people,
both ye and the children of Israel, and go. Serve the Lord as ye
have said. Also take your flocks and your
herds as ye have said, and be gone. And bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent
upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in
haste. For they said, we be all dead men. And the people took
their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs, being
bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children
of Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they borrowed
of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment.
And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they lent unto them such things as they required, and
they spoiled the Egyptians. And the children of Israel journeyed
from Ramses to Sukkot, about 600,000 on foot that were men
beside the children, and a mixed multitude, or a great multitude,
went up also with them, and flocks and herds, even very much cattle. And they baked unleavened cakes
of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was
not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could
not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves an evictual. Now
the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt
was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end
of the four hundred and thirty years Even the self same day,
it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from
the land of Egypt. It was a night to be much observed
under the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord
to be observed to all the children of Israel in their generations. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, it is with great
delight that we come into your presence
and call you our Father, knowing that we'll be heard, that we're
accepted in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're
so thankful that this is the evening appointed that we can
gather together in the middle of the week to come out from
from the world, come together with our brothers and our sisters
and to worship you, to hear word from you, to sing your praises,
to bow before you together in prayer. And Father, I pray you'd
bless us tonight. I pray that you'd bless each
one of us with a heart of worship, that you'd send your spirit upon
us and, Father, in this next few minutes, enable us to set
aside all the cares and concerns and responsibilities of this
life. Enable us to set our affection on things above and Father reveal
yourself to us. Reveal yourself and your saving
power, your glorious redemptive power. Cause each of us as we
have just sung to turn our eyes upon Jesus, to turn our hearts
to him, to turn our faith, our hope, our affections, to turn
to him and trust him. Father, reveal Yourself and Your
power, Your grace, Your love for Your people, that our hearts
might be comforted as we continue through this veil of tears here
below. That we might be comforted with
Your presence, that we might be comforted with just the very
thought of Thee, the thought of Your mercy and Your grace,
the thought of how You would send Your Son to redeem a sinful
people such as we are. Comfort our hearts with the thought
as we press our way home, that you will see to it that all of
your people come to you safely and arrive in glory with thee. Father, we thank you. We thank
you for this place that you've given to us to meet together. We thank you for the gospel that
you've given to us to preach and to believe how you continue
to feed and instruct and call out your people. Father, we pray
your continued blessing upon us as we continue to meet here
to worship Thee. Father, we pray for those who
are away from us, who are traveling. We pray that you'd be with them.
We pray that you'd be with those especially, Father, that you
brought in the time of trouble. We are blessed above all people
in this planet, blessed with everything in Christ Jesus, but
in this flesh, we're a poor and a needy people. and you send
these trials to remind us how poor and needy that we are. Father,
I pray that you enable us to learn that you would deliver
as soon as it could be thy will. 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, So Great Salvation. That's what the writer to the
Hebrews called the salvation of God's people. He said it's
so great salvation. And the way that the Lord delivered
Israel from bondage in Egypt on this night that we just read
about is a picture of how God saves his people, spiritual Israel,
and delivers them from bondage to the law and to sin. God has saved spiritual Israel
with so great salvation. Everything that you can think
of about God's salvation of his people is great. And I'm trying
to limit myself to five things that I saw in our text. There's many more than five,
but five things I saw in our text that picture the deliverance
of Israel from Egypt. And that's a picture of our great
salvation that we have in Christ. The number one is this, the salvation
of God's elect You have to start where it started, don't you?
The salvation of God's elect is accomplished through a great
purpose. You know, for Israel, it was God's eternal purpose
that Israel go down to Egypt and be in bondage for 400 years.
And then at this set time, the Lord would deliver them from
bondage in Egypt. That was always God's purpose. And if you look
back at Genesis chapter 15, I mean, since that's what happened, To
Israel, we know that was God's purpose, but God removed all
doubt about that. In Genesis chapter 15, verse 13, this is the Lord talking to Abram
and he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall
be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve
them and they shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation
whom they serve will I judge And afterward, they shall come
out with great substance." Now, long before any of this ever
started to take place, God told Abram exactly what was gonna
happen. And if you look in Exodus 12, verse 40. Now, the sojourning
of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. This is the exact number of years
that the Lord determined that Israel would be in bondage in
Egypt And then suddenly in one night, they were delivered. Just
exactly like God told Abraham that they would. It was the great
purpose of God to deliver his people in such a way that it
made it obvious to the world, Israel had been delivered by
the power and the distinguishing grace of God. And the world heard
about it. Remember when the spies went
to Rahab, she said, we've heard about you. We've heard about
your God. Exactly what God purposed to
happen that the whole world would hear about this and they would
know God has delivered his people by his power In this great deliverance. There was always the purpose
of God But you know those slaves down there in Egypt didn't know
anything about it I reckon that you know, they had heard the
story at some point Abraham probably told Isaac and and maybe he saw
in Jacob. I don't know but After all these
years, they've forgotten. They've forgotten the promise
of God. They didn't know anything at all about God's purpose to
deliver them. And they're crying out to God
in their misery, but they've just given up all hope that they
would ever be heard. And the Lord sent them the Deliverer
right on time. Right on, at the very best time. At the time God purposed before
before time began. You know, all through the Lord's
dealings with Moses and Pharaoh, how often did the Lord tell Moses,
now you go tell Pharaoh, I said, let my people go, but he's not
gonna listen to you. I'm gonna send this plague and
he won't let you go. Moses, you go tell Pharaoh, I
said, let my people go, but Moses, I'm gonna harden his heart that
he won't listen to you. All this was happening because
this is God's purpose. Everything that happened in Egypt
and everything that happens in our lives and all the history
of the world, everything that happens is what God determined
before to be done. In this case, he just told Moses
what was gonna happen before it happened so we'd know it.
And then one time, the Lord told Moses, Moses, I'm gonna send
one more plague on Egypt. And then, not only is Pharaoh
gonna let you go, He's gonna thrust you out. And sure enough,
that's exactly what happened. Everything happened just exactly
the way God said it would happen because that was God's purpose.
And when God delivered his people, he completely destroyed that
cruel bondman. And Egypt could never put Israel
in bondage again. They could never torture them
anymore. Now that was God's eternal purpose, wasn't it? the children
of Israel didn't know any of that was going to happen until
the Lord sent somebody to tell them, this is my purpose, this
is what I'm going to do for my people, and this is how I'm going
to do it. Now I know you see the picture
of the redemption of God's elect. Before God ever created Adam
in the garden, God knew Adam would fall. He knew he would.
God is the one that purposed it. Without purposing sin, God
purposed that Adam would fall. Because before God ever made
Adam, God had a purpose of grace. God had an eternal covenant of
grace. A covenant made between God and
God to save his people from their sin by the obedience and by the
sacrifice of his son. God had an eternal purpose that
his son would get the glory. All of the glory in saving a
people out of Adam's fallen race. That was God's great purpose.
It was a purpose of grace. Purpose of grace. Not a purpose
to destroy the whole human race, but a purpose of grace. That's
a great purpose, isn't it? Aren't you thankful for God's
purpose of grace? God's purpose of redemption for
his people is so great that it can only be born out of the love
of God. Only God could have such a great
love for such a sinful people that he would determine to redeem
them by the sacrifice of his son. God's purpose is to completely
destroy the bondman who's holding his people in his clutches and
oppressing his people. The law of God and the justice
of God will be completely put out of business where God's people
are concerned. God put all of that, he put his
law out of the way, he put his justice out of the way through
the death of his son. So now, not only can God's law
and God's justice can't reach out and grab you if Christ died
for you, it doesn't even want to. It's satisfied, it's been
satisfied in Christ, it doesn't even want to put you in bondage
anymore if Christ died for you. Now that's a great purpose. is
a purpose of redemption and grace for God's people. Then here's
the second thing. The salvation of God's elect
is accomplished by a great sacrifice. In the past weeks, we've read
about those nine horrible plagues that God sent to Egypt. I mean,
I can't imagine enduring those. I mean, just the most miserable
sounding things in this world. Just utter misery. but not one
of them moved Pharaoh to let Israel go free. Now those plagues
are pictures of God's judgment against sin. There are two things
I see about that. Number one is this, man's heart
is so dead and it's so hard and it's so cold that God's wrath
against our sin will never lead us to repentance and faith, never. It's only the goodness of God
that leadeth thee to repentance. And the second thing I see about
that is this. God has a wrath against sin. A holy, right, just wrath against
sin. And that wrath can only be satisfied
by a blood sacrifice. And that blood satisfied God's
justice. It satisfied God's anger. The
very night, I mean the very, not the next day, not two days
later, not the next week, the very night that Passover lamb
was killed and its blood was put on the doorpost and the Lord
passed through in justice, God's people went free. I mean, they
didn't wait till sunrise, that very night and their freedom
came through the blood sacrifice. Now, just like we talked about
on Sunday, That Passover lamb is a picture of Christ. Christ
our Passover who sacrificed for us. Now God's angry with our
sin. His justice against our sin must
be satisfied. And the only way the wrath of
God cannot condemn you and me to hell is the blood of Christ. That's the only way that the
justice of God can be satisfied. It's the blood of Christ. What
can wash away my sin? Nothing. Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. It has to be the blood. The motions
of religion won't do it. All the ceremonies of the law,
all those motions of religion, the ceremonies that they observed
never made any of those Jews righteous. And all of our religious
activity won't do it for us either. Animal sacrifices wouldn't do
it. Hebrews 10 verse four says, it's not possible that the blood
of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Those animal sacrifices
can't make anybody righteous. But the blood of Christ has completely
removed all of the sin of all of his people so that when God
looks at them, he says they're holy. They're without sin because
the blood of Christ washed it all away. Hebrews 10, 14, for
by one offering, just the one sacrifice of Christ He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That one sacrifice of Christ
sanctified everyone that the Father gave him to save. Now
that's a great sacrifice. Here's my effort to make this
seem more great to each of us. I know The sacrifice of Christ
put away all of the sin of a number no man can number. I know that.
But here's what makes the sacrifice of Christ so great to you. Christ died for you. For your sin. And put your sin
away. And he did it on purpose. That's a great sacrifice. This
sacrifice of Christ is so great, the holy God can never condemn
us for our sin. If he killed his son in your
place, he can never condemn you. I don't know about you, but I
look at me, there's a lot of things that are condemnable about
me. And to think that God cannot condemn me, if Christ died for
me, that's a great sacrifice. And he showed us that on the
night of the Passover. God said, when I pass through
the land in judgment, when I see the blood, when I see the blood
of that lamb applied to the doorpost and over the door, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. My wrath will pass over you.
My wrath is not gonna come into your house and kill your firstborn.
My wrath will pass over you. Because when I see the blood,
I see there's already been death in this home. The blood's been
applied by faith. I see there's faith in Christ.
There's no need for my wrath to come in there. I'll pass over
you because of the blood. The blood of Christ, it's so
great, it's so powerful, it's so rich, that the Father, in
all of his exact justice, says if the blood of Christ has been
applied to your heart, I'll pass over you in judgment. I'll never
condemn you. The blood of my son is so great. If he shed his blood for you,
this is what the father said. Your sins and your iniquities
will I remember no more. God who knows everything, God
who sees everything said, if Christ died for you, there's
nothing to remember. Your sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. Now that's a great sacrifice.
that makes the sin of God's elect to not exist. This sacrifice
is so great. The sacrifice of the Passover
lamb set all of Israel free. Now that's a very great number
and all of them went free. And this is what God said would
happen. Look back at Exodus chapter 10. I love thinking about this. I
would have loved to have seen Pharaoh's face when Moses said
this. In verse 26 of Exodus chapter 10, Moses said, our cattle also
shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left
behind. We're not gonna leave a hoof
left behind. We're not gonna leave a hair
left, I mean, nothing. We're leaving nothing behind.
All of us are going free. Well, look over at chapter 12,
verse 37. That's exactly what happened.
And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Sukkot, about
600,000 on foot that were men, beside children, and a mixed
multitude, a great multitude, went up also with them, and flocks
and herds, even very much cattle. This sacrifice of this lamb was
so great, it delivered all of Israel and all of their animals. Now, it's just hard to imagine
the sight of this. In the middle of the night, Pharaoh
gets up and tells Moses and Aaron, y'all get out of here. I mean,
get out of here right now. And three million people, that's
what they say, there's 600,000 men with women and children,
roughly three million people, that's what they say, three million
people, and all of their animals, their sheep and their goats and
their camels and whatever all they had, all of them had to
suddenly marshal together and march out of Egypt. I mean, can
you imagine the sight? And in a little bit, the Egyptians
looked around, and they're all gone. Not one
of them was left behind. They didn't leave a pet dog behind. Not one. That's a great sacrifice. Now,
you think that's great? That's just a picture, a type,
a shadow of the sacrifice of Christ for his specific elect
people, Christ died for those people, and every last one of
them shall be saved. They're made righteous and they
shall appear with Christ in glory. It's not possible that any of
them can perish. Every last one of them is gonna
leave this world and go directly into the presence of the Savior.
Every last one of them, not one of them will be left behind.
And here's the reason for it. Despite all of our sin, the sacrifice
of Christ is greater than all of our sin. The sacrifice of
Christ is greater than all of our fears, all of our doubts,
and all of our weak faith. It's shameful to me how often
I see such weak faith in myself. And I think, I'm thankful God's
not like me. Because if God was like me, he'd
kick me to the curb. The blood of Christ is even greater
than our weak faith. The sacrifice of Christ is greater
than every enemy. Enemies without, yes. But I tell
you where I'm just utterly convinced my greatest enemy is found, in
me, that old man. His sacrifice is greater than
even that old man, who can never, no matter how hard he tries,
make me trust myself and quit trusting Christ. Because the
sacrifice of Christ is greater. This is a number no man can number,
and every last one of them will be with Christ in gold. Now that's
a great sacrifice. Now whoever it is that made that
sacrifice, you trust him. You trust him. You can trust
your soul to him. Then here's the third thing.
The salvation of God's elect is sealed with a great seal. Now the seal or the token that
God gave his people Israel was that all the men be circumcised.
Look over at Exodus 12 verse 47. The Lord here is given the instructions
about the Passover and the lamb, not a bone of us to be broken.
And he says, and all the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And
when a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover
to the Lord, let all of his males be circumcised and then let him
come near and keep it. And he shall be as one that is
born in the land for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. Now,
no uncircumcised person is sweet thereof. Some heathen out there,
you know, from one of these other iths that lived around Israel. But if one of them would come,
and they'd become your friend, and they'd say, what is this
that you're doing, this Passover, this lamb and applying the blood
to the door? You tell them. Oh, we're remembering
the Lord's Passover, where the Lord delivered us from bondage
in Egypt because of the blood of this sacrifice. And we remember
that. We celebrate that. And a man says, I want to celebrate
that. I want to remember that. I don't
care from where he's from. The Lord says if he's circumcised,
let him come near me. Let him come near me as one that
was born in Israel. Now this thing of circumcision
was important. It was just a token. That's all it was, was a token
in the flesh, a picture, but it was important. all the Jewish
boy babies were circumcised on the eighth day and it was a physical
token that they were part of God's covenant with this nation
Israel and you think well I mean you know it's just just a token
just a picture well you may remember that this token of circumcision
is so important God told Moses I'm going to kill you because
you didn't circumcise one of your boys it's important It was
so important that a man could not eat the Passover if he had
not been circumcised. But if he was, he could eat just
like a natural born Jew. Now this circumcision was such
a great seal. Only Israel had it. Only Israel
had this outward token. It was a sign that you're one
of God's people here on earth. And that was so important under
the Mosaic law because of what it pictured. That circumcision
in the flesh is a picture of the new birth. Now let me show
you that. First look at Deuteronomy chapter
10. Circumcision is a picture of
God cutting out that old stony heart and giving us a living
heart, a soft heart of flesh. That's where God has to do business
with us because the problem is in our heart. Deuteronomy 10
verse 16. Circumcised, therefore, the foreskin
of your heart, of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
You've got to be given a new heart as you're not so stubborn
anymore. Look over at chapter 30, Deuteronomy. Verse five. And the Lord thy God will bring
thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt
possess it, and he will do thee good and multiply thee above
thy fathers and the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart
and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. See the problem is our heart
and circumcision is a picture of God giving us a new heart.
I show you that look over Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter
two. Verse 10 And ye are complete in him, which
is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands. This is not
a fleshly thing, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead. you being dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened
together he's caused you to be born again with him having forgiven
you all trespasses if you've been born again by God the Holy
Spirit God has sealed you he sealed you in the new birth just
like a can of a jar of preserves is sealed you can't spoil you
can't be condemned This is the seal that God's given his people.
It's the new birth. And I'm telling you, this circumcision
of the heart, the new birth is absolutely necessary for salvation. Look back at Romans chapter two. I don't know why it is, but somehow
it's true with religious people and people that know and understand
some truth of the gospel. But somehow this thing of the
new birth is not as important. The way they talk about it and
the way they present it is not as important as the election
of the father and the sacrifice of the son. But brother, let
me tell you, the new birth is just as vital to our eternal
life as the election of the father and the sacrifice of the son.
That's exactly right. Romans chapter two verse 28.
For he's not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. That doesn't affect
him by soul, but he's a Jew, a spiritual Jew, part of spiritual
Israel, which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not
of men, but of God. And just like a man who circumcised
could eat the Passover, Celebrate the Passover. Anyone who's been
born again of God, the Holy Spirit, received this seal, this sign,
the circumcision of the heart, they've been born again. You
have every right to come and eat Christ, to believe on Him
by faith. You have every right to come
to Him and enjoy all the blessings that there are to be found in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That brings me to the fourth
thing. The salvation of God's elect is a great spoil. Look back in Exodus 12 verse
31. And he called for Moses and Aaron
by night and said, rise up and get you forth from among my people,
both ye and the children of Israel and go serve the Lord as you
have said. And also take your flocks and
your herds, if ye have said, and be gone. And bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent
upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in
haste, for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took
their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being
bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children
of Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they borrowed
of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment
And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they lent unto them such things as they required, and
they spoiled the Egyptians. These slaves utterly spoiled
Egypt. Now, at that time, when an army
would come in and conquer a nation, I mean, they'd burn the place
to the ground. They'd take everything that was valuable in that land,
they'd take it all back to their place. I mean, they'd leave those
conquered people absolutely utterly desolate. I mean, and they didn't
care. You know, today, we go in and
we defeat an army, you know, we learned this from the Marshall
Plan, you know, we're always rebuilding everybody, you know,
after we defeat them in a war. Not then. I mean, they defeated
somebody and they left them with nothing. They spoiled them, took
everything of any value. Now, the only way that ever happened
is because of fierce battles. I mean, you think about somebody
coming in to take all of your precious possessions, you're
gonna fight them for it. I mean, these things didn't happen
without a fight. The children of Israel spoiled Egypt. They
took all of their riches and took it with them without ever
firing a single shot. The Egyptians were like, here,
just take this, get out of here, take this before something else
bad happens to us. They took all that gold, all
that silver, and all that raiment and fine linen and threads and
all those different things that they took. And you know what
they ended up using them for? The worship of God. Those were
the things that they used, all those riches, to make the tabernacle
in the wilderness. God gave them those things freely
and they used them in the worship of God. That tells us pretty
much what we ought to do with all the blessings God given us.
But you see the picture here, God has given His people all
the spoils that Christ earned in His victory at Calvary and
gave them to us freely. We never had to fire a shot.
If Christ died for you, you can never be condemned of any sin
because Christ took it away. I mean, now this is a spoil.
This is a spoil, this is one of the riches of Christ's victory.
Satan will accuse you of sin. He's the accuser of the brother.
He's gonna accuse you of sin. But not one charge he brings
can ever stick against any of God's elect. Because Christ took
their sin away. I mean, you talk about a valuable,
valuable possession. If Christ died for you, I mean,
I can't even name everything. All the spoils, I mean, there's
too many to name. Suffice it to say that if Christ
died for you, you have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Whatever spiritual blessing you think of, you have it because
of Christ's sacrifice for you. Isaiah chapter 53. Roughly 700
years, 700 AD, this is what the prophet Isaiah wrote about this,
these spoils. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his sin. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul. He'll not have one stillborn
child. And he shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Now that's the successful sacrifice of Christ. Now here's the spoils
of war, verse 12. Therefore, while I divide him
a portion with the great, and he should divide the spoil with
the strong, because he has poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many,
and he made intercession for the transgressors. Because of
Christ's victory at Calvary, he divides the spoil. He gives
his people, and you know, we think about dividing. Okay, you
get this little bit, you get this little bit, you get this
little bit, you get this little bit. Here's heavenly arithmetic
for you. When Christ divides the spoil
with his people, he gives every single one of them everything.
He gives every single one of them 100%. If Christ died for you, this
is the spoils of war. You have all of God's love, all
of it. You have all righteousness. You
have all grace from God. You have all holiness, perfect
holiness. You have all of God's keeping
power, keeping you from falling away. You have all of God's comforting
presence. You have this promise from God
that when you go into the valley, I'll go with you. When you go
into the deep waters, they'll not overflow you because I will
be with you. You have all of His comforting
presence. You have all of His precious
promises. Just go through this book and any promise you see
made to God's people is made to you if Christ died for you. You have all of God's provision. All. He's provided everything
that you need. You have all of God's mercy. I like this one. You have all
of God's pity. He pitieth his children. He remembers
that we're dust. He pities us. You have all of
Christ. You have everything that he is,
and one day, you'll have him face to face. But until then,
look at Revelation chapter 21. This is what the Savior says
to his people. Right now, this is what he says
To his people, this is what he says to everyone who's hearing
the gospel preached. Revelation 21, verse five. And he that sat upon the throne
said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write,
for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me,
it's done. I'm Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that
overcometh shall inherit what? All things. And I will be his
God and he shall be my son. Now this is what Christ says
to everyone who hears the gospel. Are you thirsty? Come drink of
the fountain of the water of life freely. Who are those that
overcome? Those that God gives faith, those
that he keeps by his power. And he says, you'll inherit what?
All things, all things. Well, you sure he's gonna give
them to you? He said, yeah, because I'll be his God and he'll be
my son. You're not gonna withhold anything
from your son, from your children. He's gonna give all things. Everything
is yours because Christ died for you. Now here's the last
thing. The salvation of God's elect
is preached in a great message. Exodus 12 verse 24. And you shall observe this thing
for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. And it shall
come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will
give you according as he hath promised that you keep this service.
And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto
you, what mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, it's the sacrifice
of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children
of Israel in Egypt. We smote the Egyptians, and he
delivered our houses, and the people bowed the head in worship."
Now, when your children or anybody else asks you, what is it about
this gospel? What is it about this salvation?
What makes this so special that this is a place that you'll come?
Tell you what to tell them. Same thing I told you tonight.
Same thing I tried to tell you Sunday. Tell them about God's
electing love. God in His love chose a people
to save. God had a purpose of redemption. Redemption of grace. Not something
His people had to be good enough to earn. A purpose that He would
give this to His people freely by His grace. Tell them about
the redemption through the sacrifice of Christ. He sacrificed Himself
to redeem all of his people from all of their sin, and he got
the job done. He didn't fail to save one of
them. Tell them about redemption and God's love for his people. God loved a sinful people so
much, he slaughtered his son to redeem them. Tell them about
a redemption that's sure and certain. There's no more of us,
everyone talks about this, was it once saved, always saved?
You are, if God saved you. This salvation is sure and it's
certain. It's redemption that can give
a sinner rest and joy while we're in this horrible place, this
world. Knowing Christ gives your heart
rest and joy. Tell them about redemption that
provides everything that we ever will need and everything that
God ever requires of us. Now, that's a great message.
See, a great salvation has to be declared by a great message. What God's given us to believe
and to preach to our generation, to spread the good news to our
generation is a great message, isn't it? Because it declares
a great Savior who has saved all of his people. I was kind of excited about that
tonight. Rightfully so, I believe. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for
this precious word of your gospel. How we thank you that in your
goodness you've been pleased to reveal the glory of Christ
our Savior to the hearts of your people. Father, I ask you that
you would let each one of us leave here tonight with the rest
and joy and peace in trusting Christ our Savior. What a great
Savior. Such a great Savior can save
great sinners like we are. Father, cause us to trust Him.
Give us a faith that will trust Christ and Christ alone. Father,
it's for His glory that we ask such a great blessing. For His
glory and His credit and His fame that we ask this great blessing.
Amen. All right, Sean.