All right, now if you would open
your Bibles to Genesis chapter 39. Genesis chapter 39. We'll begin reading in verse
seven. And it came to pass after these
things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. And
she said, lie with me. But he refused and said unto
his master's wife, behold, my master, what if not what is with
me in the house? And he hath committed all that
he hath to my hand. There's none greater in this
house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything
from me, but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I
do this great wickedness and sin against God? And it came
to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearken not
unto her, to lie by her or to be with her, And it came to pass
about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business
and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment
saying, lie with me. And he left his garment in her
hand and fled and got him out. And it came to pass when she
saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled forth
that she called under the men of her house and spake unto them
saying, see, he has brought in Hebrew unto us to mock us. He
came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice and
cried, that he left his garment with me and fled and got him
out. And she laid his garment by her
until his Lord came home. And she spake unto him according
to these words, saying, the Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought
unto us, came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass as I
lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with
me and fled out. And it came to pass when his master heard
the words of his wife, which he spake unto him saying, after
this manner did thy servant to me, that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him
and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners
were bound. And he was there in the prison, but the Lord was
with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight
of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the
prison and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
And the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was
under his hand because the Lord was with him and that which he
did, the Lord made it to prosper. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together, seek our Lord's blessing. Our father, bow before your throne
this evening. Father, we bow seeking a message
from you. Father, how we beg of you that
you would be pleased to speak to our hearts this evening by
your word. Father, if you would speak, we'd hear. If you would
take your word and apply it to our hearts, we'd be blessed. We'd see the Lord Jesus Christ
and trust our souls to him. rest in Him who's done all things
well. Father, I pray that you'd cause
everything that is said and done here tonight to bring praise
and glory to the name of Christ our Savior. Father, cause His
name to be extolled so that He fills our sight, He fills our
senses, so that all we see is Christ. Put out of our minds,
our hearts, our thoughts, our anything about ourselves that
we might trust in and cause us to see Christ. Father, show us
your glory, we pray. Your redemptive glory for your
people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray a blessing for
this woman that we mentioned earlier. Father, I pray that
there'll be others who seek you. Father, in this wicked, wicked
day, in which we live, how we beg of you that you'd reach your
mighty hand down, stir the hearts of people, and turn their hearts
to thee, cause them to seek thee. Father, cause us to seek you.
This is not just a one-time thing. Cause us to continually seek
thee. And Lord, that you might be pleased
to find us. Father, continue to pray for the sick and the
afflicted, the heartbroken of our number. Father, we pray that
you'd be with them, that you'd heal, that you'd especially comfort
their hearts with your presence. And Father, all these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, for his sake
and his glory we pray, amen. All right, now I've titled the
message this evening, Christ the Profitable Prisoner. I want
us to see Joseph as a type, a picture of Christ, the prisoner and how
he was so prosperous as a profitable as a prisoner. And I have three
points to draw this picture. I thought today about remember
those, um, you follow the, you draw a picture by following the
dots, you know, you got three dots. That's a simple picture.
It's Christ. Three points. So we'll draw this
picture of Christ for us. And the first one is this, the
Lord Jesus Christ, was accused and became a prisoner even though
he never sinned. Joseph is a picture of that.
Look at verse seven, Genesis 39. And it came to pass after
these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph
and she said, lie with me. But he refused and said unto
his master's wife, behold, my master, what if not what is with
me in the house and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There's
none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back
anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can
I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Now, I like
how Joseph said this. If he commits adultery with Potiphar's
wife, he's going to hurt his master, isn't he? But he's going
to sin against God. We need to remember that our
sin harms other people. It does. But our sin is against
God. David harmed lots of people with
his sin. But in Psalm 51, when he was
confessing it to the Lord, David said, against thee, thee only
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. How many people
were hurt by David's sin? But he said, Lord, I've sinned
against you, sinned against you. And here's why I point that out.
Our sin is against God. So we get some idea how wicked
and how shameful our sin is. We've sinned against God. God
who has never done anything but good. That's who we've sinned
against. Everything God does is good and
right and holy, yet we've sinned against him. I also point, I
mean that's shameful, isn't it? I also point this out, our sin
is against God. So we will be amazed at God's
salvation. Now our sin is against God. Our
sin is racked up in debt. We have a debt that we cannot
pay, and that debt is owed to God. Now the debt's owed to Him,
but He paid it. He's the one that paid it for
His people. God's the offended party, yet
God is the one who made peace for His people, and He did it
by the blood of His cross. We have a penalty of sin that
we cannot pay. Our penalty for sin is eternal
damnation. Eternity in hell by our suffering
wouldn't put away one sin, not one. So you know what God did? He paid the penalty for his people. And he did it by condemning his
son in our place. That's something, isn't it? Our
sin has offended God. Our sin offends God's holy character. So you know what God did? He
took the sin of his people and made it his, made it to be his
sons, and he made his people what he loves. He made them holy
and righteous so they'd be accepted in his holy presence. God did
that for the people who sinned against him. Now that's amazing,
isn't it? That is amazing. And as a man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, you know this, he never sinned. He refused
to sin because his sin would be against his father. He loved
his father. He was determined to honor his
father. His father trusted him with all
of God's glory. The father trusted him to redeem
his people from their sin. And if the Lord Jesus sinned
even once, that purpose would fail and God would lose all of
his glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ refused
to sin against his father because he was determined to glorify
and honor his father. And this thing went on, look
at verse 10. It came to pass that she spake to Joseph day
by day, that he hearken not unto her, to lie by her or to be with
her. You know, this thing with Joseph
going on, it wasn't a one-time thing. He didn't refuse her once
and she said, oh, you know. Potiphar's wife tempted Joseph
every day, day after day after day, this went on. Yet Joseph
still refused to sin against God. He refused to hurt his master
and committed adultery with this woman. Now what a good picture
of our sinless savior that is. Our Lord was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. As a man in the flesh, he went
through everything that we go through without sin. You and I fail every single time
we're tempted. Every single time. And the temptation
doesn't have to be hard, does it? I mean, just the slightest
temptation. And we sin because that's what
we are. But our Savior was tempted. He
was tested every day of His earthly ministry. And He never sinned
one time. In thought, word, or deed. He's
this perfect, sinless man. The God man. He's the sinless,
holy Savior. of sinners. But here's the second
point. The sinless savior still became
a prisoner of God's justice. Look at verse 11. And it came
to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to
do his business. And there was none of the men
of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment
saying, lie with me. He left his garment in her hand
and fled and got him out. And it came to pass when she
saw that he left his garment in her hand and was fled forth,
that she called unto the men of her house and spake unto them,
saying, see, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us.
He came in unto me to lie with me and I cried with a loud voice.
And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice and
cried, they left his garment with me and fled and got him
out. And she laid up his garment by her until his Lord came home.
And she spake unto him according to these words saying, the Hebrew
servant, which thou has brought unto us came in unto me to mock
me. And it came to pass as I lifted
up my voice and cried, they left his garment with me and fled
out. And it came to pass when his master heard the words of
his wife, which she spake unto him saying, after this manner
did thy servant to me that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's
master took him and put him into the prison a place where the
king's prisoners were bound and he was there in the prison. Now
Joseph became a prisoner even though he didn't do anything
wrong. And Moses points out here specifically he was put in the
place in the prison where the king's prisoners were bound.
Now I'm just assuming that is the worst conditions of the prison. I think that had to be the worst.
The prisoners in that section, They didn't just commit some
common ordinary crime. They committed a crime against
the king, a serious business treason or something like that.
And their punishment was worse. Their conditions were worse.
And that's where Joseph was put. Now that is such a good picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless savior who was falsely
accused. He did no sin. He knew no sin. Neither was any guile found in
his mouth. Yet he was condemned, he was condemned to die for sin,
and every accusation against him is false. Let's look at a
couple examples. First, Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse 59. Now, the chief priests and elders
and all the council sought false witness against Jesus. They knew
they couldn't make any accurate true charge stick to him, so
they sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but
found none. Yea, though many false witnesses
came, yet they found none. At the last came two false witnesses. And they said, this fellow said,
I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three
days. Now, when Matthew says here they found none, what he
means is they didn't find anybody telling the same lie. They had
lots of people willing to lie on the Lord, but no two lies
agreed. And if you're going to condemn
a man to death, you got to be by the mouth of two or three
witnesses. Somebody's lies got to match up here. And look how
easy it was for them to find people who were willing to come
make false accusations against the only holy, righteous man
who ever lived. They found plenty of people willing
to come lie on him. Now that just shows you our nature. That shows you how depraved and
wicked and how far gone our nature is. And our Savior endured that,
those false accusations. and he still went ahead and suffered
and died for his people. Now that's the difference between
his character and ours, between his nature and ours. Now read
on verse 63, but Jesus held his peace and all these false accusations
against he held his peace and high priest answered and said
unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us
whether thou be the Christ, the son of God. Jesus saith unto
him, thou has said, Nevertheless, I say unto you hereafter, shall
you see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and
coming in the clouds of heaven? Then the high priest ran his
clothes saying, he has spoken blasphemy, blasphemy. What further
need have we witnesses? Behold, now you've heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? And they answered
and said, he's guilty of death. Now the accusation that stuck
against the savior was this. He said, he's gone. all those
false accusations. And then there's this one. This
accusation was not false one. It's true. He is God. The man,
Jesus of Nazareth is God. He is God. He's not God decaffeinated. He's not God watered down. He
is God. Jesus of Nazareth is as fully
God as God. The father is fully God. He is
God. And I love that. I love the truth
of that. I love to think about that. I
love to think that the savior that I trust is God. Now, since he's God, he can't
fail to say. That's why I love thinking about
this. Our savior in the flesh is God. Now this is another,
and that's why they condemned him to death, because he told
the truth, he is God. He didn't open his mouth about
any false accusation, but when they pointed out the true one,
he told them, didn't he? You're right. And this is just
another window into how sin and sinful and dead and far gone
our nature is. They hated the Lord Jesus as
God. They didn't care for him to be
a healer. They didn't care for him to work miracles. They hated
him as God. Man hates the Jesus who's sovereign
over them, who can do with them as he pleases. Now he just told
them he's king. He can do with them as he pleases. They are in his hand to do with
as he will. And rather than begging for mercy,
They said, let's put him to death in the harshest, most humiliating,
most painful way we can think of. Now that's our nature that
is on full display at the cross. Yet Christ died for his people
anyway. That's amazing. You just keep
drawing these contrasts between the nature of Christ and you
and me. It's astounding that he'd suffer
and die for the likes of us, isn't it? Luke says that they accused the
Lord of trying to overthrow the Roman government. Now that's
such a lie. Our Lord flat said about that.
Here's how he said you handle Caesar. You render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's. Pay your taxes, you do these
things. He'd always taught his people to be good citizens. The
Lord didn't come to overthrow a government. He didn't come
to deal with political governments of the world. He came to overthrow
self-righteous, legalistic religion. That's what he came to overthrow. And while he's overthrown that,
he said, you'd be a good citizen. Yet they accused him. I mean,
he was probably the best citizen in the whole Roman empire. Had
to be, didn't he? Yet they accused him of sedition
against the king. Now hold your place there, Matthew.
Look over at John chapter 18. We'll come back there to Matthew
in just a second, but look at this, John 18 verse 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas
under the hall of judgment, and it was early, and they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, yet this, lest they should be
defiled, that they might not eat to Passover. So Pilate went
out unto them. I always wonder, Pilate, why
don't you just tell them to go home? But he went out to them
and said, what accusation bring you against this man? And listen
to their answer. They answered and said unto him,
if he were not a malfactor, we would have delivered him up unto
thee. My soul. Pilate comes out and
says, you boys want me to put this fellow to death? What's
the charge? And they said, now what? Let's not get into specifics
here. We don't want you to examine
our false witnesses too closely. You distrust us. He's a male
factor or else we wouldn't have brought him to you. We don't
need to bother with coming up with official charges and stuff.
Just put him to death. They put the Lord of glory to
death. They violated their own law,
they violated their own judicial system, they violated Rome's
judicial system, and they did it wrapping themselves in religion. My constant prayer is that the
Lord would deliver us from that. I know one sin's not worse than
another sin, but to my way of thinking, that has to be the
worst sin. that they're the most heinous
sin that there is. Religious hypocrisy. Just doing
something so cruel and wrapping yourself in religion. But you
know what? That's our nature. I mean, I
pray the Lord deliver us from that because this is our nature.
The Lord saw this going on. It happened in his presence.
And he didn't call 12 legions of angels. He went to the cross
anyway. to suffer and die for his people. And here's another way Joseph
is such a good picture of Christ our Savior. It's never recorded
in scripture that Joseph ever opened his mouth to defend himself
to Paul. Not recorded. Now, it wouldn't
surprise me that Joseph said, Master, I didn't do that. I mean,
he probably said that, I don't know. But this is what I do know,
it's not recorded in scripture I have a pretty good idea why
it's not recorded in scripture. It's to be a picture of Christ
our Savior, who never one time opened his mouth to defend himself
against all that slew of false charges. And he told the scribes
and Pharisees, he told Pilate, it's true, I'm king. He told
them that, didn't he? But he never opened his mouth
to defend himself against these false charges. And when he did
that, he fulfilled the scripture. He fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before
her shears his tongue. So he opened not his mouth. That's
why he didn't open his mouth is to fulfill the scripture and
look back at Matthew chapter 26 again. Verse 62, And the high priest arose and
said unto him, answerst thou nothing? What is it which these
witness against thee? He couldn't believe the Lord
wasn't trying to answer against these charges. Look over at chapter
27. This is when they brought him
to Pilate. Verse 12, and he was accused of the chief priests
and elders. He answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, hearst
thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he
answered him to never a word. It's so much that the governor
marveled greatly." Now that is amazing. I know why Pilate marveled
greatly. The Lord did not defend himself
against any of these charges. This I can guarantee you, you
and I would. Boy, you bring a false charge against me, buddy, I'm
on a war path. There's enough things about me
you say that are true, but you bring a false charge against
me, now we got trouble. Our Lord, did not defend himself
against one of those charges. Which brings me to the third
point. And I hope this will be a very,
very rich blessing to us. In all of salvation, Christ is
the doer of it. Look back in our text in Genesis
39, verse 21. but the Lord was with Joseph
and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the
keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand, all the prisoners that were in the
prison and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. And the keeper of the prison
looked not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord
was with him and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. I don't know how you could say
that about any other prisoner. He's a prisoner, but everything
he did still prospered. That happened as a picture of
Christ our Savior. You know, Joseph, I mean, this
man is something else. He keeps making life easier for
all of his bosses. I mean, even back to his father,
he made life easier for his father. He made life easier and better,
more profitable for Potiphar. And now for the keeper of the
prison. I mean, Potiphar just turned everything over to Joseph.
I mean, so much so, he didn't know what he had. I mean, he
just, he didn't care. He didn't even worry about it.
Joseph's in charge. I don't have to worry about it.
That's how much Potiphar trusted Joseph. And now the jailer's
doing the same thing. He just committed everything
to Joseph. He committed the prisoners to another prisoner. Gary, I bet in your entire career,
after paying attention, you didn't do that once. I mean, you didn't
hand the keys to that place to a prisoner one time ever. This
man who kept the king's prisoners, I mean, serious business, did
that to Joseph. Just gave the keys to the place
to Joseph. As long as Joseph was around, the jailer's job
was easy. Joseph was taking care of everything.
I mean, I'm sure Joseph made sure the prisoners didn't escape.
If they, when it came time to feed them and all those things,
Joseph supervised all that. I bet they didn't have any exercise
time, but if they did, Joseph supervised that. Joseph made
sure all the prisoners kept themselves in check. You didn't have to
do all the things you got to do to keep prisoners in check.
Joseph did it. But you didn't have a prisoner
like that, did you, Gary? The keeper of this prison did
because he had in his prison a picture of Christ. Now it wouldn't
surprise me at all to find out that's what Joseph was doing
in prison. He was taking care of all the details and running
of the prison. I'm sure that that went on, but
you know, that's not actually what scripture says, is it? What scripture says is whatever
they did there, Joseph was the doer of it. Whatever happened
there, Joseph did it. Now get a hold of your seat.
This is a blessing. This is a glorious picture of
Christ our Savior. In all of salvation, Christ is
the doer of it. He's the Christ by himself has
done all the work of salvation. That's why he could say it's
finished. Because in all of salvation, Christ is the doer of it. And
he told us it's finished. It's done. Now let's go back
for just a moment. And think about Christ not defending
himself against all these false charges. Do you know why he didn't defend
himself against those false charges? Because they were true. because
they were true. God, the father made his son
sin for his people. Those charges became true. Everything I did was charged
to you so that Christ became the doer of them. Now I want
you to listen to me, listen to me very, very carefully on this.
I want this to be crystal clear in our minds. When the Lord Jesus
Christ was made sin, He was not made a sinner, not in any stretch
of the imagination. Our savior never committed any
sin. Never. Scripture says he was
made sin. He was made sin itself. Not that
he was made a sinner. That's what scripture says. So
our Savior, even though he was made sin, he didn't have any
sinful thoughts and sinful desires and hateful things going through
his mind about his father. He never sinned. He's the sinless
sacrifice who was made sin for his people. Now, can I explain
that so our carnal minds can understand it? Absolutely not.
And you beware of anybody that says they can't. This is just
what God said he did. And whether I understand it or
not, That's what happened because that's what God said he did.
When Christ was made sin, the sin of his people became his
sin. Now open the service, tell you
how important the word of God is. Let's see if we find that
in God's word. Look at Psalm 40. Psalm 40 verse six. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O God. Yea, thy
law is within my heart. Now there's no questioning by
his mind here is that this is the Savior speaking. In Hebrews
chapter 10 it said this is what the Savior said. So this is the
Savior speaking. Okay, we got that. Look what
else he says. Verse 12 for innumerable evils
have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Now the savior didn't say the
iniquity of my people has taken hold upon me. He said mine iniquities,
have taken hold upon me, and I'm not able to look up. I'm
not able to look my father in the face because I'm ashamed. I've been made sin. I'm ashamed
to look at my father in the face. Now, if he had said, Frank's
sin has taken hold upon me, we wouldn't really feel any shame
for that, would he? No, he could still look his father in the
face because he's doing an honorable thing. You know, I've taken Frank's
sin. I'm paying for it for Frank.
But that's not what he said. He said, they're my iniquities.
Mine and the sin of God's elect became Christ's. That's the only
way he could put them away. They had to be his first. Look
at Psalm 69. Here it says it again. Psalm
69. Verse four. Well, verse three. I'm weary
of my crying. My throat is dry. He would cry,
I thirst. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. Now, no question he buys mind
here is that that's a savior speaking as Christ speaking there
from the cross. Look what else he said, verse
five. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not
hid from thee. The Savior didn't say, Father,
you know the foolishness of my people. He didn't say the sins
of my people are not hid from thee. He said, you know my foolishness
and my sins are not hid from thee. The sin of God's elect
truly became Christ's. so that he became guilty of the,
not legally, not just in a, in a paperwork, you know, kind of
fact fashion, but actually he was numbered with the transgressors. The father hit this, the salvation
that we have in Christ is going to be just, it's going to be
legal, is going to be holy. It's going to be merciful and
gracious and loving to it, but it's going to be just. is going
to be holy. So at the cross, the father did
not put an innocent man to death because that would be unjust.
If the father put an innocent man to death, then all of salvation
is based upon an unjust transaction. The father put a guilty man to
death. Christ became the doer of the
sins of his people. And when he took those sins and
his own body on the tree, now he can shed his blood to put
them The Lord Jesus Christ put those sins away, the sin of his
people, by the blood of his sacrifice. And when he did that, he earned
a salvation for his people that's just. And if it's just, if it's
holy, if it's right, if you can never poke a hole in it, it can
never be lost. That's a prosperous prisoner,
isn't it? See, in all of salvation, Christ is the doer of it. He
became the doer of the sin of his people so he could give them
his righteousness. He, the father, made him who
knew no sin to be sin. He made him sin for us who knew
no sin, that what? We might be made righteous. Not
just declared righteous, made righteous. Made the righteousness
of God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
what he was not. so he can make his people what
they're not. He can make them righteous. Christ made his people
righteous by his obedience to the law. When Christ obeyed the
law, every one of his people obeyed it too. Because they were
in him, obeying the law in him, just as surely as we are disobeying
the law in Adam, God's elect, we're obeying the law in Christ. He's the doer of our righteousness. I told the folks at Danville
a couple weeks ago, I used to work with a fella, Mark was his
first name. And he said this about me, he
said, Frank has a keen grasp of the obvious. I guess that's
true. Well here is the obvious. If
Christ is the doer of our righteousness, we can never be condemned. Because
our righteousness is perfect. if Christ is the doer of it.
Christ is the doer of our holiness. He has become our holiness. He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, holiness, and redemption. Everybody who believes
on Christ is holy. He's holy, because He's holy. He's our holiness. You can't
do anything to make yourself holy, but if Christ is the doer
of your holiness, you're holy and can never be condemned. Christ
is the doer of our forgiveness. If your sin is forgiven, there's
one reason for it. Christ shed his blood to put
your sin away. It's the only way God could forgive
your sin is if he justly punished Christ in your place. Sin is
forgiven because Christ shed his blood to put it away. David
said this, Psalm 32 verse one, Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. See, the only way your sin can
be forgiven is if it's covered. Covered in what? The blood of
Christ. See, he's the doer of the forgiveness.
Paul wrote in Colossians 1 verse 14, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin is
always tied to the blood. So Christ is the doer of our
forgiveness. Christ is the doer of the cleansing,
cleansing us from the filth of our sin. 1 John 1 verse 7, but
if we walk in the light as he's in the light, if we walk looking
to Christ and trusting Christ, looking to him, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth
us from all sin. His blood pays the debt and it
cleanses us with the double cure. Christ is the doer of our preserving. Peter wrote 1 Peter 1, verse
5, speaking of believers who are kept. Kept by the power of
God through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. Now that's not the Baptist faith or the Catholic faith or
the Christian faith or the Buddhist faith. It's faith in Christ. It's trust in Christ. If we're
kept, if we're kept to the end, it's because Christ is the doer
of it. Now look at John 17, we'll look at this in closing. One day, real soon, we will be
shocked how quickly this day comes. Our Savior's gonna come
and He's gonna take us out of these bodies of sin and take
us to be with Him and glorify us so that we will be with Him
where He is. And when that happens, describe
all the various sicknesses that you want. Cancer, the mumps,
the measles, the pneumonia, the COVID, whatever it is you can
think of. That's not what did it. That's not what took this
life. Christ is the doer of it. I can
show you that in John 17 verse 24. Father, I will. that they also whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. Every single time a believer
leaves this life and goes to the next one, it's because Christ
is the doer of it. Because it's his will, his people,
be with him where he is. Now that won't take away the
pain of loss. It won't take away the sorrow
of missing a loved one. But it could still make us right
glad, can't it? To think this is the will of the Savior. He
did this. This didn't happen by accident.
This didn't happen because some random germ come and cause some problem.
Christ is the doer of it. So that his beloved child can
be with him. Christ is the doer of that. I
can rest in that, can't you? If Lord Jesus Christ became a
prisoner for you, for your sin, then he's the doer of your salvation. And if Christ, here's the obvious
again, if Christ is the doer of your salvation, you're completely
saved because everything he does is perfect. And I'll tell you
one more time, in case the Lord calls me home for Sunday, come
to Christ. Now come to Him. He's the doer
of a perfect salvation. Now come to Him and rest. All
right, I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, human words are completely
insufficient to be able to thank you for Christ our Savior. We can't begin to describe his
glory, his love, the sufficiency of his sacrifice and his obedience. Oh, what he is to his people. But Father, we do thank you and
we do praise you with all the being that you've given us, how
we thank you. And Father, I beg of you that
you take Your word, as it's been preached this evening, that you'd
enable your people to ignore the stumbling and bumbling of
this crackpot, and Father, that you'd apply your word to each
heart here this evening and cause us to see Christ as everything
we need. Give us rest and hope and peace
in trusting in him and him alone. For his precious name, for his
sake we pray. All right, Jonathan, come lead
us in a closing in, if you would.