So good. All right, if you would
open your Bibles again with me to Numbers chapter 12. I've titled the message this morning.
Has the Lord spoken only by Moses? Numbers chapter 12 verse one.
Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman whom he had married. for he had married an Ethiopian
woman. And they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?
Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the
Ethiopian woman who Moses married is Zipporah. He's not married
a second wife. It's his first wife, Zipporah. She's the daughter of Jethro,
the priest of Midian. And this is what I read this
week. Zipporah was not Ethiopian, but they called her, Ethiopian
because of her black skin. And Miriam and Aaron spoke against
Moses because he had married a black woman. Now we just read
what happened to Miriam because of this, you know, how the Lord
struck her with leprosy. And two things that tells me
right off the bat, number one is this, racial prejudice has
been around a long, long time, long time. And it also shows
us what God thinks about this matter. You know, the last people
on earth who should be racial bigots are believers. It goes
against the heart of what we believe. Sin is in the heart
and salvation's in the heart. Spiritual truths, God's blessings,
spiritual truth to a man or woman has absolutely nothing to do
with our outward appearance. Now that's what we believe, isn't
it? But you know, truth be told, Miriam and Aaron really weren't
speaking against Moses because of the color of his wife's skin.
Zipporah didn't have anything to do with any of this. Miriam
and Aaron are mad about something else. John Gill thinks that they
were mad at Moses because Moses in the last chapter had chosen
those 70 elders. Remember the Lord told him, you
choose out these 70 elders and they'll help you govern the people.
And Moses did that. Well, Miriam and Aaron are mad
because Moses didn't consult them. They had people they wanted
to promote up on this thing and he didn't consult them. He made
this decision by himself. They were mad at Moses because
Moses is the real leader of Israel. who's been appointed by God.
Moses was considered to be the prophet. Now, no question, the
Lord had blessed Miriam and Aaron with the spirit of prophecy,
but the prophet was Moses. The leader was Moses, and they're
jealous of that. That's why they phrased the question
this way. Has the Lord spoken only by Moses? Well, he's spoken by us, too.
They wanted some of the esteem that Moses had. and Zipporah's
skin color didn't have anything to do with all this. But some
people in Israel had a problem with it, had a problem with Moses
marrying this woman. And Miriam and Aaron chose now. Moses has married this woman
already when he came back to Egypt. They chose now to make
it an issue so they could get those people that didn't like
Moses marrying an Ethiopian woman on their side against Moses. They wanted the esteem of the
people, and the only way they saw to get it was, I got to take
it away from Moses. We can't both be esteemed. I
got to take it away from Moses. And you see what's going on.
They're just using Zipporah here. All it is is a smoke screen.
Her skin color, it's just a smoke screen for the real problem.
Now, I point this out for this reason, so we can learn something
here. When people get mad at the pastor,
it's almost never over the gospel. Almost never. Now, sometimes
it is. Over the course of my lifetime, I lost count of how
many men preaching the gospel and then quit preaching the gospel.
Sometimes that happens, but just generally speaking, when somebody
gets mad at the pastor, it's almost never over the gospel. They get mad at the pastor because
he asked someone to do something and they wanted to do it. You
know, they think, well, this is my chance to shine. This is
my chance to get, you know, some glory. Somebody else is getting
it. They get mad at the pastor over something just, I mean,
couldn't be further away from, you know, how fast he walks or
the color of his tie or something dumb, you know. They get mad
at the pastor because the pastor just doesn't confide, you know,
secrets to them. And the list just goes on and
on and on and on. Now they can't say what the real
problem is, or everybody's gonna see how small and petty they
are. So what they say is, this is the only accusation you can
really throw to a pastor that means anything to God's people,
they say the pastor ain't preaching the gospel. Now that's not true,
but that's the only accusation against a pastor that really
means anything, and they tell everybody that they know, hoping
if they tell the lie often enough, it'll become the truth, it'll
stick. Now, when you hear that, when you hear that, check it
out. Don't just believe it and say,
oh, you know, the pastor's gone. This pastor or other pastors
that we know, don't just say, well, he's gone off the reservation,
he's quit preaching the gospel. Check it out. This very story has played out
more times than you might realize. It's happened to nearly every
pastor that I know. Recently, I was talking with
a dear friend of mine, and I heard he's having some trouble. I called
him just to offer my support, you know, tell him I'm sorry.
And people left his congregation saying he didn't preach the gospel.
Now, I'm telling you, he's one of the best gospel preachers
alive today. You know why they're mad at him?
The way he was doing fellowship dinners. Now, they can't say that, so
they're going around telling everybody the man doesn't preach
the gospel. This is just as much as racial
prejudice. This is human nature. So be watchful
for it. Be watchful for it. Because I'm
telling you, what this is, it's nothing less than Satan trying
to get a foothold in the church, to get our eyes off Christ. That's
what it is. All right. Like Sandy says, you
get that for free. What I really want to focus on
this morning, though, is this question. that Miriam and Aaron
ask, because the question that they ask, is the Lord spoken
only by Moses? That's the gospel of Christ in the text. Look back
at Deuteronomy chapter 18. You know, we normally think of
Moses as a type of the law, don't we? And it's certainly true,
he is a type of the law. But Moses the prophet is also
a picture of Christ. He's a type of Christ, the prophet.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18. I will raise them up a prophet,
notice capital P there, this is his name, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. I will raise them up a prophet,
for among their brethren, like unto thee, I'll put my words
in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. In another place, the Lord promises
Moses, him my people will hear. I know Israel's not always hearing
you, Moses, but I'll raise up this prophet. He'll speak everything
that I command, and him, my people will hear. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the prophet. That's who Israel was looking
for, that prophet. Surely this is that prophet which
is to come. And when he comes, he's gonna
speak everything that the Father commands him. He'll hold nothing
back. Christ, the prophet, is coming to be the preacher. to
tell sinners, to tell sons of Adam, here's how God saves sinners. He came preaching everything
that God commands concerning salvation. I want to know what
he says, don't you? I want to know what he says.
Well, very quickly, let me give you eight things that Christ,
the prophet speaks concerning salvation. Look over at Psalm
chapter 40. You might want to mark this We'll
be referring to it off and on throughout the message. Psalm
40. Psalm 40, Christ the prophet
has spoken of God's righteousness. In verse five, Psalm 40, many,
O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Thy
thoughts which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in
order. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering, thou
didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, now this is not David speaking, is it? This is the Lord Jesus
Christ. 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. I've preached righteousness in
the great congregation. Lo, I've not refrained my lips.
O Lord, thou knowest I have not hid thy righteousness within
my heart. Christ, the prophet, the preacher,
is coming preaching God's righteousness. He's not coming to tell men how
to be holy. He's not coming to give us a
pep talk. You've got to try harder to be holy. If you try harder,
you know, you can establish your own righteousness. Christ is
not coming like an infomercial selling a commercial or a detergent
that will make our rags of righteousness less offensive. He's not telling
us how we can clean up our act a little bit here, you know.
What does he say he's declaring? What is it he's preaching? He
says, I'm preaching Thy righteousness. Thy righteousness. He's preaching
the righteousness of God. The righteousness that our Lord
Jesus Christ produced when he came in the flesh and obeyed
God's law fully. The Lord Jesus Christ is righteousness
personified. All you got to do is look at
it. He reveals what true righteousness
really is. Just look at it. He's the righteousness
of God. Like I say, mark your place there
in Psalm 40. Look over at Romans chapter three. The righteousness
of God is the righteousness that God will accept. It's the righteousness
that God imputes to everyone who believes. Not who does, who
believes. Romans chapter three, verse 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law say, to say it to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there should no flesh be justified in his sight. For by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Try to keep the law and study
the law all you want. All it can do is give you a knowledge
of your sin. That's what Paul's saying. But
now, the righteousness of God without the law, without your
obedience to the law, is manifested. be witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. It's by his faithfulness to obey
God's law perfectly, unto all and upon all them that believe,
for there's no difference, for all have sinned to come short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. This righteousness is imputed
to God's people through faith. He's the one that accomplished
it. He's the one that did it all, and it's ours through faith
in Christ by believing God. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. But how should they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how should they hear without
a preacher? So you know what God did to let
men know what righteousness really is, where righteousness is really
found. God sent his son to be the preacher, to declare his
righteousness. He, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the righteous one. Now look back at Psalm 71. That's
what Christ, the preacher, came to preach. And every one of God's
servants, I don't care where you find them, I don't care what
age you find them in, what country you find them in, every one of
God's servants preaches the same message. They all preach Christ
our righteousness. Psalm 71, verse 15. My mouth shall show forth thy
righteousness and thy salvation all the day. For I know not the
numbers thereof. I'm never going to run out of
things to say talking about God's righteousness and God's salvation.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine only. I'm only going to
talk about God's righteousness, Christ our righteousness, because
he's the only righteousness that there is. Right? The second thing, look back to
Psalm 40. Christ the prophet has spoken of God's faithfulness. Verse 10, he says, I've not hid
thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness. Thy faithfulness. Now again,
the Lord's not giving us a pep talk so people will be more faithful.
We ought to be more faithful, but that's not what he's doing.
Scripture says great is thy faithfulness. Christ is coming declaring the
faithfulness of God. The comfort of God's people is
this, when I'm not as faithful as I ought to be, our God's faithful. He's always faithful. See, the
salvation of God's people and security of our salvation never
depends upon the strength of our faith. And aren't you glad?
I mean, our strength wavers with the wind, wavers with the weather,
you know, salvation. The security of God's people
depends upon God's faithfulness, upon the character of God. I
preached a whole message on that, the faithfulness of Christ. Salvation has been accomplished
by the faithfulness of Christ. It's His faithfulness, not ours. Christ saves sinners. He saves
sinners. And if God has saved you, I can
tell you this, He will be faithful to bring you to glory. He promised
to save you in eternity past. Was he faithful to do it? Was
he faithful to send his son to be the propitiation for your
sin? Was he faithful to send his son to be the sacrifice for
your sin? Was he faithful to call you by
the preaching of the gospel? Was he? Was he gonna stop now? Of course not. He'll remain faithful. He'll see you safe through, and
he'll bring you to glory. He'll be faithful to do it. Look
at 1 Corinthians. chapter seven or first Corinthians
chapter one, excuse me. He'll be faithful to do it. You
can't do something so bad that's going to make God change his
mind and pull his blood and pull his righteousness away from you.
The gifts and calling of God is without repentance. First
Corinthians one verse seven. so that ye come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom
you're called under the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. How is it that we're gonna be
confirmed to the end, blameless until the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ? Because God is faithful. That's what Christ,
he came to declare God's faithfulness. And I know this, God will be
faithful to himself. He's gonna be faithful to all
of his character. God is holy, God is just, God
is merciful, God is gracious. He will be faithful to all those
attributes of his character. He'll be faithful. God will be
faithful to his word. You take what you read in these
pages and you hang your soul upon it. God's faithful, he'll
not let one word, not one jot, not one tittle, not one semicolon,
not one period, he won't let one bit of it fall to the ground.
He's gonna be faithful to his word. If God said it, he'll accomplish
it, he'll do it. God's gonna be faithful to his
covenant, his covenant, his promise to save his people by his grace. God's gonna be faithful to his
son. There's not one person for whom
Christ died will ever perish. Because God's faithful. And he'll
be faithful to his people. That's the Christ we believe
in. Saved by his faith. By his faith. That's the Christ
we believe. Do you believe him? Huh? Do you
believe him? Now hold fast your profession
of faith. Hold it fast. Why? Because he's
faithful that promised. Hold him fast because he's faithful. He'll never let you down. All
right, now back at Psalm 40. Here's the third thing. Christ
the prophet has spoken of God's salvation. Verse 10. Maybe I should have marked it
too. Verse 10, he says, I've not hid thy righteousness within
my heart. I've declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. Christ has come not to tell people
how we can save ourselves. He hasn't come to tell us how
we can make ourselves more savable. He came to declare thy salvation,
God's salvation. Christ came and he declared,
here's how God has always purposed to save his people from their
sin. It's never been through the law. It's never been through
the ceremony. It's by me. All the law and all
the ceremonies pointed to me, the Father always intended to
save His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by His obedience
to the law. Not ours because we don't have
any. It's always been in Christ's obedience. It's always been in
His sacrifice. The blood of bulls and goats
and turtle doves and sheep and rams and goats could never put
away sin. That's animal blood. Animal blood
can't put away human sin. Oh, but God's Son can. He came
in human flesh with a human body, a human soul, human blood made
under the law. And He obeyed God's law perfectly.
And by His precious, sinless blood, He sacrificed Himself
and paid the entire sin debt of all of God's elect. It's accomplished
in Him. It's in Him. God just gave the
law and the ceremonies to show us how desperately we need Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of the Lord and it's
all in Christ. It's all in Christ. You've heard
the famous outline. Salvation is of the Lord in its
origination. And it's in Christ. Christ is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Salvation is of
the Lord in its execution. Christ is the one that performed
it. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. By his stripes were healed. He's the one that executed it.
Salvation is of the Lord in its application. When were you saved? When did God let you in on what
he's done for you? Same way the Apostle Paul. When
it pleased God, he separated me from my mother's womb to reveal
his son. That's winning. Salvation is
of the Lord and it's sustaining power. God's people are going
to be kept and they're going to be kept by faith in Christ. Peter said we're kept by the
power of God through faith, through faith in Christ. Salvation is
of the Lord and it's ultimate glory. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who's going to present all of his people before the
Father of all of us. Blameless. God saves his people the way
that he does so that his son will be glorified. So his son
will be praised. That's what heaven's going to
be all about. Singing his praises, his praises. He's the one that
did it all. Salvation is all in Christ. It's all been accomplished by
Christ. And it's mine by believing. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Christ the prophet has spoken
of God's loving kindness. He says there in verse 10, I
have not concealed thy loving kindness. Now again, Christ the prophet,
he's not coming to preach and tell us about our cold and fickle
love for God. He tells of God's loving kindness. He came to tell us of God's love
for his people. Now there's no question, If God
has saved you, you love the Lord. I love the Lord. I know you do. I love the Lord. If you know
Him, you believe Him, of course you love Him. We love Him. Why
does scripture say we love Him? Because He first loved us. He
loved us from all of eternity. Christ died for you. There has
never been a moment in all of eternity that the Father did
not love you. Now get a hold of that. If God
the Father loves you, what do you got to worry about? He says, I've loved you with
an everlasting, eternal love. It doesn't have a beginning and
it doesn't have an ending. Therefore, see my love, God says,
my love for you means something. Therefore, since I've loved you
with an everlasting love, with loving kindness have I drawn
you. God's gonna draw all of his people to Christ on the cords
of His love for thee. Just like we only speak of Christ's
righteousness, His only righteousness that there is. When we talk about
love, we can only talk about God's love, because it's the
only pure, true love that there is. The emotion of love that
we feel towards others is always a selfish love. You know, I love
you all. Why wouldn't I? You're all so
nice to me. Of course. God loves sinners. His is the
only real love that there is. And the proof that Almighty God
loves his people is he sent his son into this world to be the
propitiation for their sins. He sent his son into this world
to slaughter him, to humiliate him, to make him suffer body
and soul like no man has ever suffered so that he could redeem
the people that he loves. How much does God love his people?
Enough to slaughter his only begotten son, the son of his
love. I tell you, if you want to see
the love of God, go to Calvary. Go to Calvary. There you see
the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, willingly laid down his
life for his friends. He willingly sacrificed himself
He willingly suffered and died so that his people would be saved.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. Now, I know this goes against
human nature, and it goes against what false prophets tell you.
But Christ did not die for every son of Adam. And here's what
they say. They say, no, no, no, God is
love. So God loves everyone. He just
wants to save everyone. He just wants to save everyone.
It's so sappy, isn't it? It's just a sappy emotion. But
it's not true. It's not true. And we ought to
be thankful that it's not true. Christ died for God's elect and
only God's elect, those people that he loved. And here's why
I say we should be thankful Christ didn't die for everybody. Here's
why we should be thankful to say God does not love everybody.
If Christ died for everybody, he died for every son of Adam,
to give every son of Adam a chance to be saved. He died for every
son of Adam because he loves them, but in the end, he's gonna
say, depart from me, I never knew you. Depart from me into
outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
If God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody because he
loves them, but he's gonna send them to hell anyway. He's gonna
send some people to hell anyway. then the love of Christ means
nothing. The love of God means nothing. Don't talk to me about
the love of God in a way that is supposed to comfort my heart.
If God loves everybody, but he sent somebody to hell anyway.
Christ died for the people that he loves. God's elect. And those people shall be saved. They shall be. They shall be
brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. They shall be given
faith in Christ. They shall be glorified together
with Christ. Since that's true, the love of
God means something. If he says, with loving kindness
have I drawn you, and everybody for whom Christ died is all going
to be drawn to Christ, the love of God means something. And you
know what it means? It means their eternal redemption.
Because God loves them. Oh, I'm telling you, sinners
love to hear about that love. That God loved me when I didn't
love him. that God loves me even though my faith is weak. God
loves me even though my love is so fickle. God loves sinners. That's the only hope that a sinner
could have, a salvation in it. And that's the love that Christ
declares. He declares it to his people.
Then fifthly, Christ the prophet has spoken of God's truth. In
verse 10, there's Psalm 40, he said, I have not concealed thy
lovingkindness and thy truth, And thy truth, don't separate
God's truth from all of this, from the great congregation.
Now look over at John chapter 18. The great congregation that
he's talking about there is God's elect, his believers, a great
congregation, a number that no man can number. They are the
only ones who know the truth, the only ones. And the only reason
they know the truth is God's been pleased to reveal it to
them. Look here at John 18 verse 37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice, heareth me
and believes me. Pilate saith unto him, What is
truth? Now a better question Pilate
would have asked is, Who is truth? But he says, What is truth? You
know why Pilate asked, What is truth? He didn't know it. It hadn't been revealed to him.
And what Pilate's really asking here is, is this truth, is it
worth dying for? Yes, it is. It's worth dying
for. Because the only way God can
show mercy to sinners in truth and justice is if he sacrifices
his son, who is the truth Christ must be sacrificed for the sin
of His people. Christ must pay the sin debt
of His people with His precious blood, with His suffering, with
His death, so that God can show mercy to His people in justice
and truth. See, everything God does must
be true. It must be right. When God loves
sinners, it must be right for Him to love them. When God saves
sinners, it must be right, it must be true for Him to save
them. The only way that's possible is in the death of Christ, who
is the truth of God. The one and only way God can
be right, to show mercy to you and me, to save us, to keep us,
to reveal his son to us and in us. The only way God can do that
in truth is to give Christ the punishment that we deserve. He
must be made sin and he's got to suffer and die and put it
away. by the sacrifice of himself. And Christ says, I'm going to
come. I'm going to tell your people, the great congregation
of thy truth. God's truth is not a series of
doctrines that we write down a piece of paper and put up on
a wall and say, this is what we believe. God's truth is the
Lord Jesus Christ. The truth of God can only be
revealed in the person of Christ. See, the only way God can be
true to His character is by the obedience of Christ, by the sacrifice
of Christ. The only way God can truly put
away sin is by the sacrifice of Christ. Every other man-made
religion sweeps in under the rug. That's not true. I mean,
it might be under the rug. You might not be able to see
through the rug, but God can. It's still there. God sees it.
The only way God can truly put away sin is by sacrificing his
son for that sin. The only way God could demonstrate
his love to sinners is in the truth of God, by sacrificing
Christ. So you can see true things about
God in other places other than Christ, but you can't see the
truth of God anywhere but in Christ. You can see the power
of God and the majesty of God in creation. I mean, you see
the mountains and the valleys and go out there to Yellowstone,
see the geysers and the, I mean, the wonders that God has made. Oh, you can tell God's got to
be powerful. He's got to be majestic to make
this. He makes those mountains weighing
right there. Job said God just topples them
over with his hand. How majestic is he? You can see
that in creation, can't you? But you can't see the truth of
God. You can see God's wisdom in creation and his wisdom in
providence, how he works things together so intricately to accomplish
his will. You can see that God's wisdom.
He has to be wise to keep all this thing running, doesn't he?
But you can't see the truth of God's character there. The only
place you can see the truth of God's character, his goodness,
his mercy, his love, his pity for sinners, and his justice
and his truth, the whole character of God, the only place you can
see that is in Christ. So I tell you one more time,
look to Christ. If you would know God, if you'd
be saved from your sin, look to Christ. He's the truth of
God. All right, here's the sixth thing. Look in John chapter 19. Christ
the prophet has spoken of the imputation of sin. John 19 verse
28. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now the Savior is not saying
he's thirsty for water, although I would imagine somebody being
crucified is thirsty for water, how he's suffering. That's not
what he's saying. What he's saying is he's thirsty
for righteousness. Now how can the Holy Son of God
say such a thing, that He's thirsty for righteousness? Here's why. He truly had been made sin for
His people. He truly took the sin of His
people and He made it His. And He thirsted for righteousness
as He was putting the sin of His people away by His sacrifice.
You might want to hold your place there in John 19. Look over at
Matthew chapter 27. When our Savior said he thirsted,
what he's telling us is, he says this for our comfort, for our
learning. He's truly suffering for the sin of his people. God's
not playing like nothing. He's truly suffering to put away
the sin of his people. Matthew 27, verse 46. In about
the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthanai. That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? You know our Savior did not ask
this question for his information. He asked this question so that
you and I would know he is truly suffering for the sin of his
people. The Holy Father cannot look on him, can't look on him
in mercy, can't look on him in love. No, he turned his back
on him. The only way he's, the only thing
he's giving to his son It's his justice. It's his wrath. He's pouring it out upon his
son. And Christ cried this from the
cross. Our substitute cried it so we'd know. He's suffering
the judgment I deserve. He's suffering the condemnation
that I deserve. And if he's suffering it for
me, I never will. See, he's telling us the truth,
how God puts away sin. In those two statements, I thirst. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We see Christ declaring how sinners
are made righteous. For he, God the Father, hath
made him, God the Son, sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made, what? The righteousness of God in him,
in him. All right, now back in John 19,
here's the seventh thing. Christ the prophet, has spoken
of salvation that's complete. In verse 30, when Jesus, therefore,
had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. And here's a cry that's heard in heaven and earth
and hell, a cry that rings through the ages. It is finished. Brethren, salvation is finished.
The transaction is done. There's nothing left to do. God requires nothing of you.
Christ finished it all. Salvation is complete. There's
nothing left to pay. Now come rest in Christ. And
the one and only place you'll hear that sweet message, come
rest in Christ, is Christ the prophet. Every other false prophet
puts you under bondage to do and do and do and do more. Christ
says it's finished. It's finished. All right, here's
the last thing. Look at John chapter seven. Christ
the prophet has spoken of spiritual rest. John chapter seven, verse 37. In that last day, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. Now, are you thirsty? That's
my question for you this morning. Are you thirsty? Thirsty for
righteousness. You know, we thirst when our
body recognizes I don't have enough water in me. Well, are
you thirsty for righteousness? Because God has showed you, you
don't have any. It's not just you don't have enough righteousness,
you don't have any. Are you thirsty for righteousness because you
don't have any? Tell you what to do. Come to Christ. The Savior
himself said, come to me. In a short while, he's going
to cry, I thirst. So his people never will. Come unto me, he
said, and drink. And drink means believe. Come,
believe me. And you'll never thirst again. If you've got rivers
of living water flowing out from you, you'll never be thirsty,
will you? Trust Christ. Believe him. You have everything
you need. He's all you need. One more scripture,
Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11, verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, are you tired? Are you tired of trying to keep
God's law and failing to do it? Are you tired? Are you tired
of trying and not being good enough? The Savior Himself says,
come to Him. Come to Him and rest. He's already
obeyed the law for his people. In a short while, he's going
to cry, it's finished. It's finished. Then quit your
working and come rest in Christ. He's finished it. Now this is
a command. Make no mistake about it. This
is a command. Come unto me. If I don't come
to Christ, it's my fault. But it sure sounds like a sweet
invitation to a weary sinner. If you're thirsty, it sure sounds
like a sweet invitation. Come and drink. The words of
Christ the prophet, oh, they're true words. They're the truth
of God. This is the truth of how God
saves sinners. It's the truth of our depraved, wicked nature. But His words drip sweet honey,
don't they? The sweetness of forgiveness
in Him. The sweetness of rest in Him.
The sweetness of righteousness in Him. Oh, that's the message
of Christ our Savior. It's true and it's sweet. That's the message he came to
preach. That's the message I pray God makes us believe. Let's bow
together. Our Father, how can we begin
to thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ? How can we begin to thank
you for his perfect righteousness? his perfect sin-cleansing blood.
How can we begin to thank you that he'd condescend to sacrifice
himself for such vile sinners as we are? How can we begin to
thank you that he would condescend to preach this glorious gospel,
the good news of salvation in him, to rebels such as we are? Oh, but Father, we thank you.
We thank you. Father, I pray that you would
speak to our hearts this morning, that you would speak to each
heart here and cause us to leave here believing in and resting
in Christ our Savior. It's in his precious name, for
his glory and his sake we pray, amen. All right, Isaac Cunleason
in closing hymn, if you will.