If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Genesis 29. Genesis 29. As you're turning,
I was thinking about this while we were singing. Ralph told me
that he and Charlotte are new grandparents again. He said this
is their sixth grandchild. Ralph, when you told me that,
I thought of this verse. David's writing it about children
in Psalm 127, It applies to grandchildren, too. As arrows are in the hand
of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man
that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. As Ralph
was talking about that new grandbaby, I thought, happy is the man.
Got your quiver a little more full now, don't you? Congratulations. I'm thankful. All right, Genesis
29, we'll begin our reading in verse 31, and we'll read down
through verse six of chapter 30. And when the Lord saw that
Leah was hated, he opened her womb, for Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bare a
son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said, surely
the Lord hath looked upon my affliction. Now therefore, my
husband will love me. And she conceived again and bare
a son, And said, because the Lord hath heard that I was hated,
he hath therefore given me this son also. And she called his
name Simeon. And she conceived again and bare
a son. And said, now this time will my husband be joined unto
me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore, she called
his name Levi. And she conceived again and bare
a son. And she said, now will I praise the Lord. Therefore,
she called his name Judah, and left barren. And when Rachel
saw that she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and
said unto Jacob, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger
was kindled against Rachel. And he said, am I in God's stead?
Who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said,
behold, my maid Bilhah, go in unto her and she shall bear upon
my knees that I may also have children by her. And she gave
him, Billa, her handmaid, to wife. And Jacob went in unto
her, and Billa conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Rachel
said, God hath judged me. And Anne hath also heard my voice,
and hath given me a son. Therefore called she his name,
Dan. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we come into your
courts this evening with joy and thanksgiving. Father, how
we thank you for the how richly that you have blessed this congregation. You blessed us so richly in so
many ways and materially and in the flesh in this world. You
blessed us. Father, we're thankful. And oh, how we thank you for
the blessings that you have for your people. and your son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you've made vile, sinful men and women,
such as we are, to be complete in him. Completely holy, completely
righteous, completely forgiven, completely accepted. Father,
how we thank you. And we earnestly beg of you this
evening, Father, that you would give us a word from thee, that
you'd let us hear a word from thee, hear the message that you
would have us hear in this hour. And Father, that you enable us
to believe, that you enable us to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus
Christ and believe him. Leave here tonight with our soul
resting in Christ our Savior. And Father, while we freely confess
that we are blessed above all people, We are still in this
flesh, a poor and a needy people. We still live in a body made
of dirt. And Father, there are many right now who are in times
of great affliction, trial, and heartache. And Father, we pray
you'd be with your people. We pray that you'd be pleased
to deliver, that you'd be pleased to heal. And Father, until then,
we pray that you comfort the hearts of your people with your
presence. We will learn that there are
many things in this life we can do without. But we cannot do
without thee. We cannot do without your presence.
Father, I pray you comfort the hearts of your people with your
presence. Speak peace to their hearts as only you can. All these
things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. Now I've titled the message tonight,
Loved in Christ, part one. I began looking at this passage
and thought, well, I'm gonna preach on all 12 sons of Jacob
in one sitting. I told Jan I got 12 points. And
she did, she just smiled. What was I thinking? I can't
do 12 points in one message. We'll just get as far as we can
with this this evening and finish it up, Lord willing, next week.
But loved in Christ, part one. Now, you remember what had led
up to this situation with the birth of these boys we just read
about. Laban had deceived Jacob, the deceiver. He got the best
of Jacob, got him to marry both of his daughters, Leah and Rachel.
You remember the scripture called Leah fair-eyed. It means she
was not very attractive. Rachel, she is the most beautiful
girl in the whole county. Jacob married both these sisters.
And Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah. And you know,
God calls that hate. Everybody here, I know, can quote
Romans 9.13, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And maybe
you're like me, you've heard many people say, well now, that
means that God, he loves Esau. He just loves him less than he
loves Jacob. Now, is that true? Is that true? Well, if you think about it,
everything God does is perfect, isn't it? Perfect. God can't
do anything less than perfect. So when God loves someone, oh
my, He loves them perfectly. Eternally, He'll never love them
less. Perfectly. But when God does
not love someone, He can't love them less, can He? Because everything
God does is perfect. So if God does not love someone,
he hates them because he can't love them less. Jacob loved Leah
less. And the scripture calls that
hate. Verse 31 of Genesis 29. And when the Lord saw that Leah
was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. I've said
it before, I'm going to say it again because this just gets
my heart. Every time I read these stories
of these two girls, I feel so sorry for Leah in this. She had to live her whole life
being compared to her beautiful sister. She had to live her whole
life being compared to her sister who her husband loved more than
her. I feel so sorry for her in that. It's just awful. And
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate seeing these sisters have this
rivalry with each other, competing with each other instead of loving
each other and helping each other. These two sisters competed for
Jacob's love the rest of their life. Now, love is just not something
y'all have to compete for, is it? They competed for that the
rest of their life. And their main weapon in their
artillery, in this battle they had with each other, was bearing
children. They felt like Jacob would love
the one most who gave him the most children. That's what they
felt like. And they were particularly interested in giving Jacob sons. Now, it's not because boys are
inherently better than girls. We know that's not true. I think
it's been, I don't know why this is, but it's just been kind of
tradition. I can remember this way back when Jan and I were
in Bible school. And you sing that song, Say Sinner,
Will You Meet Me? The girls always sing that first
part. Say sinner, we like, you know, and then look over at the
boys. You're the sinner. But we know that's not true.
Flesh is flesh, whether you're male or female. Flesh is flesh.
Everyone's equally a sinner. But I can tell you why these
women wanted to give their husbands sons. Because they all wanted
to be the one to have the honor to give birth to the Messiah.
When Eve gave birth to her first son Cain, you know what she thought. She thought God had given her
the promised son. This is the son who's gonna come and take
our sin away and undo this mess that we've got ourselves in.
Now she was wrong, but that's what she was hoping for. And
I reckon every Jewish woman who ever came after her hoped for
the very same thing, because they all knew about God's promise.
The Messiah was coming, the seed of woman is coming to crush Satan's
head. And I can understand, they wanted
the honor of being the one to give birth to the Messiah. I'm
sure they just couldn't wait for the Messiah to come. Oh,
when the Messiah comes, he's going to take our sin away. This
is going to be so much better. And that's these girls, these
sisters, they wanted to give birth to the Messiah. I mean,
there was a competition. I don't know which one was more
important to them, to give birth to the Messiah or the competition.
But boy, I'm telling you, this is a serious competition between
these two sisters. And that situation is shameful. I mean, that's all you can call
it. It's shameful. And I know that this, and I'll
show you this in a minute, how this is all is given to us as
a picture of Christ. But I feel sorry for the people
that lived this story. This was really there. I mean,
it's a picture of Christ to us. These people really lived this.
This was really their life, you know? And I know they brought
a lot of this on themselves, but I still feel so sorry for
them. Now this is just shameful, isn't it? But this is just another
picture that shows us how the Lord brings our salvation out
of our shame. He's got to show us our shame
before He'll ever save us in Christ. Only God can bring good
out of evil. And if God's gonna save you and
me, He's gonna bring good out of evil in me. And the Lord here
gives us a beautiful picture of what redemption is in Christ
in the birth of these 12 sons. These 12 sons of Jacob became
the head of the 12 tribes of Israel. Every Jew who would ever
live is in the loins of these 12 boys. These 12 sons, they're
the head of the 12 tribes of Israel. National Israel's in
their loins. And all spiritual Israel is pictured
in these 12 boys, too. So I want to break this up. Tonight,
Lord willing, I'll be able to get through five of these sons.
And next week, we'll look at the other seven. Now remember,
these boys are all a picture of God's people. They're all
a picture of spiritual Israel being in Christ. All national
Israel is in their loins. All spiritual Israel is in Christ. And remember, what are the competition?
What is the competition over between these two sisters? It's
the love of Jacob. They want their husband's love
and they're competing for it. Well, what we have here is a
picture of how God's people are all loved. How is it that Almighty
God can love sinners like you and me? I want Him to love me,
don't you? I want His love. How can God
love a sinner like you and me? It's in Christ. It's only in
Christ. The only reason God would love
us is because we're in Christ, because of who Christ the Savior
is and what He's done for us and in us. So the first son born
to Jacob is Reuben. His name means see, a son, verse
32 and Leah conceived and bear a son and she called his name
Reuben for she said, surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction.
Now therefore my husband will love me. See Leah thought, Jacob,
see a son. I've given you a son. Now Jacob's
going to love me. She said, and Jacob still didn't
love her. Now that's a picture of the law,
isn't it? We say, Lord, see my obedience.
Lord, see everything that I can produce and everything I can
do. Oh, surely you'll love me now because look what I've done.
And it never works, does it? It never works because we can
never do enough to satisfy a holy God. Because all we can produce
is sin. All of our works are sinful.
But all of spiritual is true. They're loved of God in Christ. The gospel cry is, see the Son. Isn't that the gospel cry? John
the Baptist cried it. Behold, everybody stop and look,
stop. Get a hold of this. Behold, the
Lamb of God was taken away, the sin of the world. John had these
disciples following him. Very shortly after John said,
behold, the Lamb of God was taken away, the sin of the world, they
left John and went to Christ. and John wasn't upset, that's
what he wanted all along. Look, behold the Son, go to Him. Seeing the Son, that's eternal
life. The Savior said in John 6 verse
40, this is the will of Him that sent me. This is the Father's
will, that everyone would seeth the Son and believeth on Him.
They have everlasting life. This is why we're constantly
saying, look to Christ. Look to Christ. That's why we're
constantly preaching Christ from the scriptures saying, now look
at Him. Here He is. You see Him? Believe on Him. Oh, if God the
Holy Spirit would let you see Him, you'll believe on Him, and
you'll have everlasting life. See, the way we're going to see
the Son is through the preaching of the gospel. We see Christ
by faith. And you hear the gospel, and
you hear the gospel, and you hear the gospel. And you understand
it, basically. I mean, the gospel's so simple,
a child can understand it. Children do understand it. But
when the Holy Spirit gives you eyes to see, now I see. Now I see what this is about.
Now I see how God can be God. How God can remain holy and just
and still save a sinner like me. Now I see it's in the sacrifice
of Christ. Now I see, righteousness doesn't
come by my obedience to the law, me being a good little boy, a
good little girl. Righteousness comes by the obedience of Christ
for me. Now I see, and when the Holy
Spirit lets us see, we love. You know, the only way we can
love God is by seeing Christ, who's the savior of sinners.
We love God when we see Christ. the Son of God who the Father
sent to put away the sin of His people and bring us to God. When we see Him, we'll love Him.
And this love is a two-way street. When God looks at His people,
He loves them. Loves them perfectly. And here's
why He loves them. Because when the Father looks
at His people, all He sees is His Son. When the Father looks
at His people, He sees the obedience of His Son. He sees the blood
of His Son that satisfies God's justice and cleanses us from
all sin. When God sees that, He loves
us. He loves us in Christ. So our
cry is God, see the Son. See the Son. Look at your Son. Don't look at me. Look at your
Son. See me in your Son. See me in
the obedience of your son. See me washed in the blood of
your son. Hear me, accept me in Christ. You know, the only
way that the father could love us is seeing us in his son. And he says, that's why I see
my people. I see him in my son. If the father sees you in his
son, you're loved. You'll never be loved less. You'll
never not be loved. eternally loved perfectly of
the father. What else you want? Well, the second son Jacob had,
his name's Simeon, which means hearing, verse 33. And she conceived
again and bare a son and said, because the Lord hath heard that
I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also. And she
called his name, Simeon. Hearing. Now, you know, the only
way you and I can love God is if he makes us hear the gospel
of Christ. The only way we can love God is by faith in Christ,
by trusting Christ that he is all it takes to save me. It has
to be by faith. It has to be by hearing the gospel.
The law can't do it. People, you know, there's one
or two ways to try to come to God. Law or faith. That's about
the only two ways I can think of anybody ever tries to come
to God. It's by law. It's by what we
do, what we don't do, or by faith in Christ. And I'm telling you,
the law can never give us faith in Christ. Or love. Love, well,
it can't give us faith in Christ. It can't give us love for God
either. All the law can do is make us resent God. Because God
demands perfect obedience to all of His commandments all of
the time. And there are so many commandments
of God. And you mean to tell me God expects
me to obey all of them perfectly all the time? I can't do that. That makes me resent God. I'll
tell you a story that is famous folklorish story in my family. We had bought some sort of equipment. I don't remember what it was.
And I was trying to put it together. And it was not going well. It
was not going well at all. And Janet said, just calm down
and do what the instructions say. which I had been trying to do
that. And I said, honey, if the instruction
said, stand in the backyard and do a backflip over top of the
house and laying in the front yard, it wouldn't matter if the
instructions say that, I can't do it. The girls tell us, just
laugh, that's so funny, you know. But isn't that the law of God?
I can see what the law says. My problem is not being able
to not read it. I can't do it. You can't do it. And that makes the flesh resent
God. The law can't make us love God.
The only way we can love God is by trusting His Son. By faith
in Christ, we love God. And you know how faith in Christ
comes? You think, well, okay, that's wonderful. How can I have
that faith? How can I have faith in Christ
so I believe Him? So that I love God. There's one
way. It's by doing what we're doing
right now. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Oh, it's so important that we hear, that we hear the gospel,
that we hear from God. And the constant cry of spiritual
Israel is Lord, speak to me or speak to me, speak to me by your
word, speak to me by your gospel. Whoever's preaching tonight,
give Him a message for me. From my heart, let me hear. Lord,
make me hear You. Make me believe Your Word. I tell you, we had maybe the
best Bible conference. I mean, I guess I've said this
before, but this is the best Bible conference we've ever had.
I mean, six messages. They're all classics. I was talking
to somebody this week, said all six messages were my favorite
message of all time. I mean, it's so wonderful. Well,
just a few days ago, how come you're back tonight? I need to
hear. God's people need to hear. Lord,
give me a word from thee. I can't live without the word
of God, hearing the word of God. That's why these services are
so important, because what we're doing here, preaching the gospel,
this is God's gospel. This is God's word for us here
tonight. Oh, I need to hear from God.
It's the only way my soul can live. It's the only way my soul
can be fed. The only way my soul can be comforted
is hearing the gospel. Hearing of Christ one more time.
Just tell me again. Tell me that old, old story one
more time. That's the only thing that will
comfort my heart. But you know, this hearing is a two-way street
too, isn't it? Hearing, I need to hear from
God. But I also need the Lord to hear my cry. The cry of every
saved person is, Lord, hear me. Lord, hear me for Christ's sake. Lord, forgive my sin for Christ's
sake. Lord, accept me for Christ's
sake. Hear me based upon the sacrifice
of Christ for my sin. That's the sacrifice you're pleased
with. Lord, hear me on the basis of that sacrifice. Hear me on
the basis of the blood of Christ. Lord, hear me in Christ my mediator. Hear me. Don't ever hear me because
of what I've done or what I haven't done. Hear me for Christ's sake.
And you know what? We've already covered this. The
father loves the son, doesn't he? He loves the son. And if
we cry to him based upon the merits of his son, he'll always
hear us. Always. Cry out to God. Cry for
Christ's sake. He'll hear you. All right, Jacob's
third son, his name is Levi. His name means joined. Verse
34, and she conceived again and bear a son and said, now this
time will my husband be joined unto me because I have borne
him three sons. Therefore his name was called
Levi. Now Leah thought, now Jacob's going to love me now. He's going
to be joined to me. Now I've given him three sons. Three sons. And it still didn't
work. Isn't that sad? It still didn't work. But remember,
Leah is a picture of the law. And here's one thing the law
can never do. The law can never join us to God. All the law can
do is separate us from God because of our sin. But the picture here,
this is how spiritual Israel is joined. to Christ. This is
how God can love us because we're joined to Christ. Christ and
his people are as inseparable as the head and the body. They
can't be separated. There's no spiritual union or
spiritual life without this union with Christ. Union with Christ
means being joined to Christ means I am what he is. I've done what he has done. I have obeyed the law because
I was in Christ when He obeyed it. Nobody who knows me could
deny I'm a sinner. You know why I'm a sinner? You
know why I'm guilty? I was in Adam doing what Adam did. Just
as truly when Christ obeyed the law, I did too. That's my righteousness. Being joined to Christ means
that the Father accepts me because He accepts His Son. And I'm joined
to His Son. God's people are called the body
of Christ. I tried to think of an illustration. I don't know
if this will make sense to your mind, but believers are not accepted
by the Father like a barnacle on a ship. You know, the ship
comes to dock and they say, well, you know, we want to take the
ship, but it's got these barnacles attached to it. They're ugly,
but, you know, we got to take them because there they are.
They're attached to the ship. The father will never accept me because
I'm a barnacle on Christ, marring his beauty, marring his perfection. The father is not going to say,
well, I'll just choose to kind of ignore you and look at my
son. No, sir. When the father looks at his
people, all he sees is Christ. He sees his son. And that's why
you and I could be accepted to the father because we're one
with Christ. When Christ is accepted of the
Father, you are too, if you believe Him. Accepted. All of spiritual
Israel, every saved person is loved of the Father, accepted
by the Father, because we're joined to Christ. Right, now here's the fourth
son, Judah. His name means praise. Verse
35, and she conceived again and bear a son, And she said, now
I praise the Lord. Therefore, she called his name
Judah and left bearing. Now, Judah's name means praise.
Leah had to think, surely now Jacob's going to praise me. I've
given him four sons, four sons. Rachel, I can get him any. Surely
he's going to praise me now. And it still didn't work. Oh,
I mean, I just feel sorry for Leah, don't you? But you know,
that's the law. I mean, I just feel so sorry
for someone who's under the law trying to earn their way to God
by the law. It will never work. God could
never praise you and me because of our works of law, because
the best of our works. There's an article I'm going
to have in the bulletin on Sunday by Pastor Greg Amquist. Greg
says, you know, the problem is not feeling bad for the awful
things that we've done. Everybody naturally does that.
What we need repentance of is our righteousnesses. Those very
best things that we've done can never earn God's praise. You think of the very best things
you've ever done, even if you could just pick one, the very
best thing you think you've ever done, all that can do, all that
work can do is earn us condemnation from God. Never praise. And the
law can't make us praise God either. No, the law only makes
us hate God. He's given us a standard we cannot
keep. Oh, but there's one. Only one,
but there's one who has earned the praise of God the Father.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what he's called
in scripture? The lion of the tribe of Judah. Christ, the Savior,
came from this tribe, from this man, Judah. The Savior descended
from all this mess. All this dysfunctional family
and not loving one another, competing with one another. The Savior
descended from this mess of a family. You know what that tells me? Christ came to save sinners.
That gives me hope. Christ came to save sinners.
And we start talking about how Christ saved sinners. They don't
deserve it. They're natural born enemies
of God. They're ugly and filthy and vile. Christ came to save people like
that. Sinners. I'll tell you, spiritual
Israel is going to get up on their hind legs and start praising
God. Oh, he saved sinners. Look over at Genesis chapter
49. This is many, many years later. Jacob is dying. He calls his 12 sons together
and blesses them. And look what he says to Judah
in Genesis 49 verse 8. Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren
shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. And that's exactly what's happened,
hadn't it? Every believer, every member of spiritual history,
all the children of God, they bow down before the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise God in
Christ. We praise Him for who He is.
We praise Him for what He's done for us. We praise Him for what
He's done in us. All of God's people have a heart
of praise. The praise God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. There are many reasons for us
to praise the Lord, aren't there? So many reasons. Ralph and Charlotte,
it's only right you praise the Lord, that new grandbaby. It's
only right. He gave life, didn't he? It's only right. We praise
the Lord for so many physical and material blessings, how the
Lord has blessed us. And we thank God for those things.
What we're saying is, Lord, I didn't earn them. You gave them to me
freely. Thank you. You're saying, thank
you, Lord, for what you've given me. There's so many reasons we
can praise the Lord. But I'm telling you the reason,
the reason to praise God is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father
sent Him made of a woman, made flesh just like you and me, born
under the law, born under the same law you and I are. And He
came in the flesh as a representative of His people And he made salvation
sure. He made mercy sure for his people
by satisfying justice for them. His perfect obedience to the
law made his people righteous because they were obeying the
law in him when he did. Now get a hold of this. You know, we often fear, God's gonna get tired of me.
He's gonna get tired of my constant sin. He's gonna get tired of
my constant doubting. He's gonna get tired of my constant
weak faith. I mean, God's just gonna cast
me out. I mean, just gonna get tired of me. Not if you're in Christ, he won't.
Not only will he not cast you out, the Father cannot cast you
out if Christ has made you righteous. He cannot. There's no reason
for Him to cast you out. He's made you perfect by His
obedience. The sacrifice of Christ. That
satisfied God's justice against the sin of His people. The Father
made Him sin for us. Him who knew no sin. That we
might be made what? The righteousness of God in Him. His sacrifice satisfied God's
justice and made his people righteous. Now, brother, you got no worries
for your soul. You might worry about a lot of
other things, but you got no worries for your soul if you're
trusting in Christ, because he's made you perfect. And God the
Father always accepts perfection. He's made you perfect. Now, didn't
that one... Make you want to praise God.
Praise God for what the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, what he's done for us and what he's done in
us. I tell you, God's praised for
his mercy to sinners. Mercy is God not giving us what
we deserve. You know how God can be merciful
to sinners? He gave Christ what they deserve.
He died in our place. God is to be praised for His
grace. The grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. How
can God be gracious to the likes of sinners like you and me? How
is that possible? Because He gave us what Christ
has earned for us. Oh, praise God for His grace.
He gave me something I didn't earn, but it's mine in Christ. God is to be praised for the
way He forgives sin. God forgives sin. not by ignoring
it, but in justice, by punishing his son for the sin of his people. God should be praised for the
way he gives his people life. You know the only way God could
give life, spiritual life, do you and me? He had to kill his
son in our place. Oh, I praise God for that. Every
believer praises God in Christ because of who he is and what
he's accomplished for his people. Now the fifth son, the last son
we'll look at tonight is named Dan. His name means judging,
chapter 30. And when Rachel saw that she
bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said unto
Jacob, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was
kindled against Rachel. And he said, am I in God's stead
who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said,
behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in unto her. and she shall
bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And
she gave him, Billa, her handmaid to wife and Jacob went in under
her and Billa conceived and bear Jacob a son. And Rachel said,
God hath judged me and hath also heard my voice and has given
me a son. Therefore called she his name,
Dan, judging. Now it sounds to me like Rachel,
after all this was said, none realized I've made a mistake.
I made a mistake giving my handmaid to Jacob as a concubine. She
still doesn't have a son, does she? She doesn't have a child.
Billa does. It's the same way Sarah realized she made a mistake
when she sent Hagar into Abraham, remember? She said, oh, this
was a mistake. And she told Abraham. I mean, Sarah had to be a spitfire,
don't you reckon? She told Abraham, now, I shouldn't This was a bad
idea I had, but the fault's on you. You shouldn't let me do
it. This is a mistake. Rachel might have thought the
same thing. I made a mistake here and God's
judged me for it. Of course, it didn't stop her
from doing it some more because this competition with her sister
was just eating them up, you know. Later on, Leah's going
to give birth to a daughter named Dinah. Dinah's name means judgment. Maybe Leah felt judged, you know,
doing this wrong too. We'll see this next week. She
didn't give her maid to Jacob to be a concubine, you know.
This is just a big old mess. A big old mess. And I'm sure
there was at least times they felt like God's judging me for
all this mess. Well, here's a picture that I
hope will comfort your soul. We feel the same way sometimes,
don't we? all this is happening to God must be judging me. All spiritual Israel feels that
way from time to time. We feel because of the guilt
of our sin. I know I shouldn't do this. I
know I shouldn't think this way. I know it should. Oh, the guilt
of my sin before God. We have one hope. A guilty sinner
has one hope of being loved of God. It's that God has judged
my sin. Christ my substitute. That's
my only hope. The only hope I have of salvation
is that God's justice is satisfied. When God judged my sin, he judged
it. In Christ my substitute. When
Christ died for my sin, justice was satisfied. The debt was paid
in full. So if Christ died for me, I'm
loved. If Christ died for you, you are
loved of God. That's right. You're loved of
God. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us. And here's how we know he loves
us. He sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. First John 14. Now, what a blessing
to be loved of God. I started out this message saying
I want to be loved of God, don't you? The death of Christ removed
every reason God would hate us, would hate his people. He took
the sin of his people away, removed every reason that would make
God angry and make God hate us. So what's left? If the blood
of Christ took your sin away, he took away everything that
would make God angry. He washed you white as snow.
No reason for God to be angry. What's left? The love of God. I'm gonna go back to Judah for
a second. Praise the Lord. Praise God for
what he's done for us. Isn't that wonderful? All right,
Lord willing, we'll look at those other sons next week. Let's bow
together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this time that you've given us together. Father, I beg of
you that you take your word as it's been preached, that you
would remove the stumbling and bumbling and weakness of the
preacher, and that you would apply your word to each heart
here tonight, that you might be pleased to grant us faith
in Christ, that we might leave here believing him, trusting
him, resting in him. Cause us, Father, to go home,
praising God, for who the Lord Jesus Christ is and everything
that he's accomplished for his people. Father, thank you for
this time you've given us to be able to worship. Cause us
now to be able to go home safely and think on these things and
have these things be a comfort and a strength to our heart that
we are finding ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, it's
for his sake, his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Shawn, lead
us into closing hymn if you would. Hmm.