We'll keep your Bibles open there
to John chapter five. I titled the message this morning. Will you be made whole? Will
you be made whole? Our text begins John five verse
one. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is a Jerusalem
by the sheep market or by the sheep gate. This is the gate
where they brought in all the sheep that would be used as sacrifices
in Jerusalem. by the sheep market a pool, which
is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude
of impotent folk, the blind, halt, withered, waiting for the
moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain
season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first,
after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of
whatsoever disease he had. Now, there's a lot of debate
about whether or not people were really healed when this water
was troubled, and was it ever troubled, were people healed
by it? But I'm sure this really happened, because that's what
the scriptures say. But you know, the issue here
is not, oh, was somebody healed by the troubling of the water?
What the Holy Spirit is teaching us here is salvation from our
sin, dead nature by the sovereign
mercy of grace in God in Christ Jesus. The issue is not the troubling
of the water at the pool, Bethsaida. The issue is Christ. He's the
fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Sinners are healed
of all of our sin when we're washed in his blood, in the blood
and the water that flowed from his wounded side. That's what
all this whole passage is pointing to. You know, it starts out with
a picture a fallen man. This multitude lying around the
pool is a picture of Adam's fallen race. John describes him as impotent. The word means powerless, somebody
without any strength. That's us in Adam. We were made
impotent because when Adam sinned, all of us died in Adam and we
became powerless. We became powerless to do anything
spiritual. We became powerless to do anything
that pleases God. We became powerless to do anything
to save ourselves. We're powerless. The multitude
is also described as blind. That's all of us spiritually.
We're born spiritually blind so that we can't see God. We
can't see any spiritual truth. I don't care how plainly it is
taught to us. We can't see it and believe it
by nature. We don't see our sin. That's
why we don't see our need of God, because we don't see our
sin. And I'll tell you the biggest evidence of spiritual blindness. If I think I can see some reason
why God would save me, I'm blind. That's our spiritual blindness.
I think I can see righteousness in me. I think I can see why
God would prefer me over somebody else. That's spiritual blindness.
Then this multitude is described as halt. And the word means lame,
maimed. You know, they had a hand or
a leg or a foot cut off. Now, in Adam's sin, we didn't
just become maimed or injured. We became dead. But since we're
dead, we lost any ability to walk in God's way, didn't we?
We lost any ability to serve God. Just like a person who's
got his leg cut off can't walk, can't walk anywhere. A person
who's got his hand cut off can't serve others with his hands.
That's us by nature. Then the multitude is described
as withered. And the word means dried up and
wasted away. Now that's us, we've been dead
a long time. So that we're dried up, we're
withered up and wasted away. There's no water of life in us.
Spiritually, we're just dry dead bones. Those bones scattered
around in the valley of dry bones, that's us, withered away. We've
been dead so long, we're just dust. And this multitude of sick
people, They're just lying around, waiting for the water to be troubled.
They're trying to be the first one to jump up and get in the
water when the water's troubled, but they're all powerless. They're
all lame. They're all maimed. None of them
can do anything for themselves, but they're trying to be the
first one somehow to get in that water so that they would be made
whole. They're trying to make themselves whole, aren't they?
By their own power to get into the water first. Well, how's
that going for them? Not too well. Five porches are
still full of impotent, lame, maimed folks, aren't they? Not
doing too well. And the same thing will happen
to us spiritually if we try to save ourselves by something that
we do. We're gonna lie around impotent until we go to hell
if we're trying to save ourselves. Now here's this place, the Lord
comes to it, and can you imagine what it sounded like? It was
full of moans, full of, cries of helpless people who are suffering. They're suffering. I used to,
when I was a boy, had a paper route, and some of the places
I delivered was in a nursing home at the end of our street.
And man, I'd want to get in and out of that place and deliver
my newspapers as fast as I could, because there was always somebody
in there suffering, moaning, crying out, and for pain and
suffering. There are five porches full of
people like that here. And can you imagine what it smelled
like? It had the smell of untreated sickness, untreated wounds. Oh,
what a horrible sounding and smelling place. But that's where our Savior came
to find an object of mercy. Look at verse five in our text.
And a certain man was there which had an infirmity 30 and eight
years. And Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now
a long time in that case. He saith unto him, wilt thou
be made whole? The impotent man answered him,
sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the
pool. But while I am coming, another stepeth down before me. And the Lord asked this man,
this impotent man, a very important question, wilt thou be made? Now that had to sound like a
strange question to this man, don't you think? He had to think,
what do you think I'm doing lying around in this miserable place?
My whole life has been spent trying to be made whole. I mean,
everything that I do, all that I do is wait for this water to
be troubled and try to scheme and connive and find a way to
get myself in there first so I'll be healed of this awful
disease. But that's not what the Lord
asked him. He didn't ask him, do you want to find a way to
get into the water first? The Lord already knew that impotent
man could not be healed by his own power. He couldn't get into
the water when it was troubled. He couldn't do it. So the Lord
didn't ask him, can you do something to make yourself whole when this
water's troubled? He said, will you be made whole? Are you willing
to be made whole? And that's the question I want
each of us to answer in our hearts and minds this morning. Will
you be made whole? Are you willing to be saved on
God's terms? Are you willing to be saved without
any contribution from you? Are you willing to have Christ
make you whole, make you saved, do all the saving for you so
that he gets all of the glory? Are you willing to be a debtor?
Are you willing to be a debtor to God's grace? If you're gonna
be made whole, you're gonna be a debtor to his grace. Are you
willing to admit that you're in God's hands to do with as
he pleases? He can make you whole or he can
reject you and damn you. Are you willing? I know that you're willing to
do anything to be saved. I know you are. I know you're
willing to do anything, but will you do nothing? Will you do nothing
and be made whole? Are you willing to be made something
that you're not by somebody else? The word made that the Lord uses
here means to come into existence. Something that didn't exist before
now comes into existence. It means to receive being. It
means to be made finished. Not like you give yourself being
or you finish up your own self, but be made finished. What the
Lord is asking here, are you willing to be made something
brand new by somebody else? Now this word made, it's at the
very heart of the gospel. It means that everything that's
required for the salvation of our soul, yours and mine, is
gonna have to come from outside of the center. If we would be
saved, Almighty God is gonna have to make us saved. He's gonna
have to make us be something new, something that we're not
by nature. If we would have any blessing
from God, we have to be made something new. and the Lord Jesus
Christ is gonna have to do it. He's gonna have to do it for
us. Christ will make you what God will accept. Now, are you
willing to have salvation on those terms? Let me give you
several examples. Look first at 2 Corinthians 5.21.
I bet you every person here could quote this, but turn to it at
any rate. Number one is this, if you and
I are unrighteous, We are completely unrighteous by nature. There's
nothing righteous in us whatsoever. Well, if we would be saved, we
must be made righteous. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For he hath made him sin. Now
you'll notice those two words, to be, are in italics and they've
been added by the translators and that's fine. But I think
it gives a more stark understanding of what happened here at Calvary
if you leave those two words out. For he hath made him sin. For us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now the two words
in this verse translated made are two different words. The
first word made means caused to be. The father caused his
son to be sin. Now that's an act only God could
do. How can the Holy Son of God be made sin yet remain the sinless
sacrifice. I can't explain. I believe it
with all my heart, but I can't explain that to you. It's so
mysterious, but it's something God did, and he put it in his
word, so you and I better believe it. He made him sin. But the
second word made, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him, that's the same word that the Lord used when he asked
this infinite man, would you be made whole? Would you be generated
whole? Would you come into being as
whole, as righteous? Now, if man's gonna be made whole,
sinful man is going to be made whole, our Savior is gonna have
to make us something that we're not. If a sinner would be made
spiritually whole, the Holy Spirit has got to make us be born. He's
got to give us being as something that we're not. If we would come
into God's presence, we must be made righteous. Made, we can't
make ourselves righteous. Somebody else has to do it for
us. And that someone else is the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's
how he made his people righteous. The precious, holy son of God
in human flesh was made sin for his people. You and I cannot
imagine the horror of that. for the Holy Son of God. Made
sin. Now he was never a sinner. He
wasn't made a sinner. John Gill says he was made something
worse than a sinner. He was made sin itself. Made
sin. He was made all of the sin of
all of his people at one horrible time on Calvary's tree. All the filth of that sin. The
Savior felt it. He felt the guilt of it. That's
why he said, I can't look up. He felt the shame of that sin. But by his sacrifice, the sacrifice
of himself, the sacrifice of everything that he is, he put
away all of that sin that was made to be put upon him when
he died as a substitute for his people. When Christ gave up the
ghost and died, Sin was gone. All of the sin that was laid
on him was gone so that it doesn't exist anymore. That's another
thing. I can't fully explain that. I
mean, I can't explain that so that the human mind can understand
it. But with all my heart and soul, I believe that to be so.
That's the only way sin could be put away. Which really shows
us something about ourselves. You know, Christ sacrificed for
his people. That shows a whole lot about him, doesn't it? It
shows a whole lot of his love. how he could love somebody like
us. It shows a whole lot of his righteousness, that by one man's
obedience, many, a number no man can number would be made
righteous. It shows his power, the power of his blood, that
by the blood of one man's sacrifice, he could put away the sin of
untold millions of people. That sacrifice tells us a whole
lot about Christ, but it also tells us a whole lot about you
and me. You and me are so vile that the
only way our sin could be put away is if the father takes our
sin away from us, puts it on his son. That's the
only way our sin could be taken away. We can't get out from under
the burden of it. We can't get away from it. The father must
take it away from us, but he can't just take it away from
us. It's got to be put somewhere. It's got to be put somewhere
it can be paid for. So he put it on his son. He made his son
sin. The Savior took the sin of his
people into his own body on the tree. It wasn't just a legal
transaction. He was legally charged with it. He took it into his
own body on the tree. And by his blood, by the blood
of God, he paid for that sin. Now ponder on that for a little
bit. Then it took the blood of God to save Lysa and me. that'll
give you some idea how vile and wretched we are in our sin. And
when Christ was made sin for His people, He made a trade,
a great transaction. When He was made sin for His
people, He made His people righteous. He made them to be something
that they're not. He made them righteous. Now again,
this tells us a whole lot about you and me. We're so vile in
our sin, we're so wretched in our sin, that the only way we
can be made righteous is if Almighty God makes us righteous, makes
us something that we're not. In this great exchange, by taking
our sin and making it belong to His Son, taking His Son's
righteousness and making it belong to us. Isn't that amazing? Now here's the question. Are
you willing to be made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ in this
way? Are you? Are you willing not to contribute
to this with any of your works of righteousness? Are you? The question is not something,
not will you do something for God so he'll make you righteous.
The question is, will you do nothing and depend on God to
make you what you're not, to make you righteous? Are you willing
to believe? that this horribly humiliating
and bloody sacrifice of Christ is the only way that you could
be made righteous. If you could be made righteous
another way, God wouldn't have done this to his son. He wouldn't
have done it. Are you willing to believe that through this
humiliation and this bloody sacrifice that you would be made righteous,
are you? Here's why I ask you that question, because I know
for a fact there's folks that aren't. Someone actually told
me this one time. I could never say that my precious
Lord was made seen. I love him too much to say that. I just didn't answer, because
I thought, I'm gonna start a fist fight here, if I do. But this is what I thought, and
this is true. Then you can't be made righteous.
You can't be. The only way God makes his people
truly righteous, God can't accept you pretending that you're righteous,
acting like you're righteous. You gotta be truly made righteous.
The only way you can come into God's presence and be made truly
righteous is if his son was made truly guilty for you. That your
sin was taken away from you and charged to him so that he's guilty
of it. See, the son can't pay the penalty
of the law if he's not guilty. That wouldn't be just. There'd
be no shame in that, would it? If he suffered for something
he didn't do. Back when I worked at the warehouse,
I had a employee that did something wrong. It wasn't ugly, it wasn't,
you know, they just made a mistake. And oh, My boss was so hopping
mad about it. And I told him, well, I did it. It's my fault. And he dressed
me down. That was the end of it. You know,
that person that worked for me loved me more than anybody you
can imagine. I mean, I was the best boss, you know, that ever
existed because I took the bullets, you know. And I'm kind of something,
ain't I? It's not how our Savior suffered. He was made guilty. And the guilty paid the price
to satisfy God's justice. The guilty paid the price to
make the unrighteous righteous. That's not what some preacher
says. That's what God says. And if we quit thinking about,
oh, how could Christ be made sin, but not, you know, be a
sinner and how could, quit thinking about that. God said it happened,
just, we believe it like God said it. Here's what we can think
on. You think of the grace and the love of God in this great
transaction. Christ was willing to be made
sin so that his people would be made righteous in this awful,
horrible, humiliating way. Now that makes me stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. And I wonder, I wonder,
how could he love me a sinner condemned unclean? Am I willing
for Christ to make me righteous? You bet your boots I am. I thank
God for it, don't you? All right, here's the second
thing. If we would be saved, we must
be made free from death. Now the curse of sin is death.
Eternal death. Well, then how can a sinner who
can only ever sin ever be made free from dying the eternal death
for our sin that God's justice demands? Well, it's not by anything
we do. It's by what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done for his people. Galatians 3 verse 13 says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How'd he do that?
Being made a curse for us. where it's written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth upon a tree. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ
truly bore the curse of sin for his people. He was made sin and
he suffered the curse of that sin. He suffered and died. When the father made his son
sin for his people, the Lord Jesus Christ got the justice
that he deserved. He died because that's the curse
of sin. He bore the curse of sin for
his people so that they never would, so that they'd never die,
so that they'd have eternal life. Now again, don't try to figure
out how could the Holy Son of God be made curse? The human
mind can never comprehend that, but it's by God's grace we believe
it. But here's something we can think on. We can't understand
the depths of it, we can't think on the depths of it, but spend
some time swimming in the deep end of this. Think of the love
and the grace of God that would move the son of God to be made
a curse for his people. To die for them, to die the death
that they deserved so that they would never die. Never die. So that they'd be with him for
eternity. Are you willing to be made free
from death in that way? If Christ has saved you, y'all,
you sure are. You don't want to try to do it
yourself. Then here's the third thing. If we would be saved,
we must be made a brand new creation. Christ suffered and he died to
put away the sin of his people. The price is paid. Redemption
has been accomplished. It is finished, is what our Lord
cried. He meant exactly what he said.
The transaction's done, it's finished. Salvation is accomplished.
The father demands nothing more of his people because Christ
is everything that the father required. Now again, that's not just a
legal thing that we're talking about here. This is so amazing.
I hope I never, ever, ever, hope God never allows me to get over
the amazement of this. This is how God makes his people
to be saved. It's through the death of his
son. Now the price is paid, but the father's holy. He still cannot
accept his people as they are, and their sin, and their sinful
flesh, and their sinful nature. And we can't change that sinful
nature. We can't make it sinless, we can't change it, it will always
be as depraved and defiled as it ever has been. We can't make
ourselves into a new creature, any more than the Ethiopian can
change his skin, or the leopard can change his spots. That old
nature of sin cannot be changed. So God must make us new. Look
at 2 Corinthians, if you're still there in 2 Corinthians, 5 verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. And that word is creation. He's
a new creation, something under creation that never existed before.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now that word become is the same
word translated made in our text. All things are made new. In regeneration, God the Holy
Spirit births a brand new creation in the hearts of his people that
was not there before. He causes that nature to be born
by the seed of the word of God in the hearts of his people.
And that nature is just like the seed that birthed him. He's
holy and righteous and can never sin. And that's the nature that
God will accept. Look at 1 John chapter three.
A preacher, how can all I ever do is sin? Everything I look
at about myself or everything I do is sin. How can I say that
I'm holy and righteous? It's the new nature God put in
you, that's what it is. 1 John 3, verse nine. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin, because he's born of God. Now it doesn't
get any plainer than that. If you deny there's two natures
in a believer, if you deny that there's a nature in a believer
that cannot sin, you just flat don't believe the word of God
and that's all there is to it. There are two natures in every believer.
The nature that we're born with the first time, a nature that
can only sin. All it ever does is sin. That's
why even after we're born again, we look at what we do, we see
it full of sin because it's that first nature. All it can do is
sin. But there is a second nature in every believer that's holy
and righteous and cannot sin. Now only God can make something
to exist inside his people that's so obvious, yet so utterly mysterious
at the same time, but it's true. I want to show you something
really good here. Look at first Peter chapter one. At least I
think it's good. I've got more light and understanding
of this verse than I have in all the rest of my 59 years combined. 1 Peter 1 verse 15. But as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because
it's written, be ye holy, for I am holy. That verse has always
made me feel a little bit bad, because try as I might, I can't
be holy. You can't either. I mean, you
want to be. You wake up this morning thinking, well, I can't
wait till I start sinning this morning. I mean, you want to
be holy, but you can't, because all we can do is sin. It almost
feels like this verse is telling us to do something that we cannot
do. Strive to be holy, but you can't be holy. But that's not
what it's saying. The word be there, when it says
be ye holy, for I am holy, you know what that word be is? It's
the same word translated made back in our text. Same word. Here's what the Lord's saying.
Be made holy. Be made holy. Would you be holy?
Be made holy by the Holy Ghost in the new birth. Be made holy,
not by something you do, not by your conduct, but be made
holy. Have a nature that's made holy
in the new birth. Now certainly that does not give
the believer permission to sin, not in any way whatsoever. Every
believer absolutely strives to live right and to do holy things,
but none of us has ever done that before, and we never will
again. We never will, because everything we do is mixed with
sin. I can't conduct myself holy without sin, but I can be made
holy. I can be made holy by the Holy
Ghost in the new birth. And listen, don't take any credit
for that. Don't take any credit for that.
There is nothing holy that comes from me. You either. There's
nothing holy that comes from us. But if you're a believer,
there sure is something holy in you. God the Holy Spirit put
it in you. In the new birth, that's how
you're made holy. Now would you be made holy by
God the Holy Spirit without any help from you? Would you be made
holy? Tell you what, if God has saved you, you're willing. I
mean, it just thrills your heart to think that God's made me something
that I'm not. He's made me holy. All right,
here's the fourth thing. If we would be saved, we must
be made near to God. Now you and I are separated from
God. There's a gulf fixed between us and God, and we can't cross
it. Tell you when that happened, over 6,000 years ago, in our
father Adam. When Adam sinned, God thrust
him out of his presence. And when Adam was thrust out
of God's presence, We were too. We're thrust out of God's presence
so that we cannot have fellowship with God because God's holy and
we're sinful. So if we would be saved, somebody
has got to bring us back to God. And we can't do it. We can't
cross that gulf. So if we're going to come back
to God, somebody's got to do that for us, don't they? That's
what Christ has done for his people. Ephesians 2 verse 13,
but now, In Christ Jesus, you sometimes
were far off. You're made nigh. You're brought
back into God's presence. You're made nigh. How? By the blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ removed everything that would separate you from
God. And he brings his people back to God so that we have fellowship with
God. What do you say about that? How
do you explain that? The best thing I can think of
is what Brother Donny Bell, I heard him say this once years ago.
He said, it's heart language. It's heart language. If you've
ever sat alone with the scriptures and had fellowship with God,
you know what I'm talking about. You know why you can enjoy that?
The blood of Christ. brought you back to God. And
someday, you're gonna be brought back to Him so that you're with
Him face to face. Now, are you willing to be made
nigh by Christ alone without your morality, without your religion,
without your knowledge of Scripture? Are you willing to be made nigh
simply and only by the blood of Christ? Well, Christ has made
you nigh to God, y'all. I only want that fellowship with
God. to depend on the Savior. Never
on anything that I've done. Never. Now here's the last thing. Boy,
I wish like anything I could take credit for this, but I can't. I got this from Brother Henry.
If you would be saved, are you willing to be made whole? Are
you willing to be made righteous? Are you willing to be made holy?
Are you willing to be made nigh to God? Are you willing to be
made by someone else? Well, if you would be made whole,
you're going to have to become a servant of God. If you're willing
to be made whole, now there's some things going to be required
of you. Now there's not going to be anything required of you
in order to make yourself whole, in order to keep your salvation.
That's not what I'm saying. But if you're willing to be made
whole, there's going to be some things required of you. There
sure is. It's the believer's walk. That's what we typically
call it. See right now, here you are.
You're laying here and you can't do anything for yourself. That's
all you can do. You can't do anything. All you
can do is just lie there like a slug. It's your only defense. Somebody
else is bringing your meals to you, aren't they? Somebody else
is bringing things for you. Maybe bringing you a change of
clothes. Maybe bringing you whatever,
you know. Somebody else gotta do all this stuff. They're serving
you while you lay here doing nothing, hoping you can somehow
stumble into the water when it's troubled. Well, if you would
be made whole, you're gonna have to quit being served and you're
gonna have to start serving. You're gonna have to start serving
God's people. See, right now, everybody's got
to forgive your inability. You can't do anything for yourself.
You're paralyzed, you're impotent. You can't do anything for yourself
You can't do anything to help others. This is your weakness
and we just have to overlook it. Don't. We overlook it because
you're paralyzed. We understand. We overlook your
weakness. But if you would be made whole,
brother, you're going to have to start forgiving others. You
sure are. You're going to have to start
overlooking the weaknesses of others and you're going to have
to endeavor you're gonna have to work hard to keep the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. You're gonna have to,
you're just, I mean, telling you, you're gonna have to overlook
the weaknesses of others, because we're all full of them. Right now, here you lay. Helpless,
you've got no hope in this world. I mean, yeah, you're saying you're
trying to get into the water when it's troubled first, I understand,
but you've got nobody to help you. You're never gonna make
it in there first. You know, and I do too. And so, you know
what that makes you? The object of prayers. Everybody
that knows you and loves you prays for you. The pastor gets
up on a Sunday and says, oh, so-and-so here, they need our
prayers. Oh, we think of our loved ones
that don't know the Lord. And they're helpless to come
to Christ. They cannot and they will not do it. They will not
hear the gospel, but oh, how we pray for them. I mean, do
you have lost loved ones? You ever quit praying for them? Right now, you're the object
of a lot of prayers. But if you're made whole, you're
going to have to start caring for others and praying for others.
Their needs are going to have to now be on your heart and you're
going to have to carry them and carry them to God in prayer.
It feels good to be the object of prayer, doesn't it? Whole
nother matter to have the burden of somebody else put on your
heart so that you pray for them. Are you willing? Right now, you
just lay there. That's all you can do. You're
paralyzed, you're impotent, whatever, there you lay, and you cannot
move. You can't get up and do anything,
can you? But if you would be made whole, you're gonna have
to get up and follow the Lord. That's right. I tell you every
single time I preach, come to Christ. And if you're gonna be
saved, if you're gonna be made whole, you're gonna have to get
up and follow Christ. You're gonna have to get up and
come to Him. Now God's gonna have to make you do it, but you're
gonna have to do it. You're gonna have to walk the believer's walk
of faith. You're gonna have to walk by
faith, following Christ and serving Him by serving His people, even
when they're the most aggravating, hurtful people that you can possibly
imagine, you're gonna have to follow Christ. You're going to
have to serve them. I'm telling you now that you're
going to have to do it. Now, are you willing? If God has saved
you, you are. I wish I could do it better,
don't you? But if we're going to be willing, you know what?
God's going to have to make us willing. Ephesians 4 verse 32
gives us some good instruction for the everyday life of the
believer Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye
kind. You know what that word be is?
The same word translated made in our text. Would you serve
God's people? Would you overlook their faults?
Would you strive to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit?
Would you forgive the sins and faults of your brethren? You're
gonna have to be made to do it. God's gonna have to make you
do it. Make you be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
Ask God to make you forgiving. Ask God to make you loving. Ask
God to make you tenderhearted. Ask God to make you kind. That's
the only way it can happen. So I give you this in conclusion.
All of this salvation that we're talking about, be made saved.
under all the different things that go with that. Being made
righteous, being made holy, being made nigh to God, being made
so that we walk the believer's walk. That's all of Christ doing
for us and in us, isn't it? It's something He has to, only
God can make us what He requires. And it's all in Christ. It's
all in Christ. Everything that I'm talking about
here this morning, that we would be made, it's all in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made. He has made his son unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. See, it's all found in Christ.
The Father has made him to be everything for us. If you would
have this, you go to one place. Go to Christ. Look to him. Call on him for mercy. Look to
him and live. Look to him and live. I hope
that'll be a blessing to you. As I studied that this week,
I felt like I had a little bit of fellowship with the Lord.
I was alone in my study thinking, I hope it's caused us to here
this morning. Let's bow together. Our Father,
we humbly bow in your presence. As Jonathan said earlier, being
honest before you. Who and what we are, Father,
we don't pretend to be anything but a dead lost sinner, vile
and filthy. And Father, how we cry out to
you, that in your mercy and your grace and your power, that you
would make us whole. That you'd make us what you would,
what you will accept. And that you would make us a
help and encouragement and a servant. one to another, that you would
enable us to serve our generation faithfully by continuing to look
to Christ, continuing to trust him and preach him and him alone.
Father, it's in his precious name, for his sake and his glory,
we pray, amen. All right, Sean.