turn with me to Genesis chapter
22. Genesis chapter 22. We'll start
where he just five verses starting in verse 15. And the angel of the Lord called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, by myself
have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou has done this
thing and has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in
blessing, I will bless thee. And in multiplying, I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand, which
is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of
his enemies. And in thy seed, shall all nations of the earth
be blessed, because thou has obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned
unto his young men and they rose up and went together to Beersheba.
And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. End our reading there. Let's
pray together. Our holy heavenly father, what
a privilege this is that we can come to your throne of both mercy
and justice in Christ and be heard for Christ's sake, that
we can meet together and worship, that you'd see fit to send any
attention at all, let alone your love through Christ, let alone
your son, that you'd see fit to give us any attention at all
as worthless, needy sinners. We're thankful that you do through
Christ. We're thankful for him. We're thankful for Christ's work,
completely removed sin from, from your people. We're thankful
for his death and his sacrifice. And we're thankful that he sits
on your right hand, even now making intercession for us. And
we're thankful that you don't leave us alone. We pray. We ask that you not leave us
alone during this hour, but rather give us an hour of worship that
we don't. go through the motions that we
don't take your name in vain, but rather that we worship through
Christ as you've laid out for us together as a family, that
we pray that you grant us this time of worship. We ask, we beg
that you be with our pastor and strengthen him, give him words
from you, open our hearts that we can hear. I pray that you give us faith. Father, we believe your word
that we're to make our prayers and admonitions known. But Father,
we pray above all, we pray that you teach us to pray. We pray
above all that your will be done and that you give us faith to
believe and trust and be comforted by your goodness. As you've always
seen fit to be good to us in the past and as your word promises
it, that we trust in your goodness. that you give us faith that father,
that we don't need to understand. We don't need to understand what
we need is faith in your goodness. And we pray that you grant us
that faith then and comfort, comfort those that are, that
are grieving, going through whatever the trial may be, heaviness of
heart and soul, heaviness of body and sickness, We don't have a high priest that
can't be touched by the feelings of our infirmities. Father, we're
comforted by that. I pray that you comfort and bless
as you see fit. We pray this thankfully in Christ's
name for his sake alone. Amen. Hopefully you still have your
Bibles. They're still open to Genesis
chapter 21 or 22, excuse me. I've titled the message this
evening, The Blessing of Faith. Now if you didn't know anything
else at all about the Bible, you've never heard the Gospel
before, you've never heard anything about the Bible whatsoever, what
would you think the Lord meant in this passage Jonathan just
read for us? What would you think the Lord meant when he said,
by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast
done this thing and not withheld thy son, thy only son, that in
blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon
the seashore. Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.
Now if we didn't know anything else at all about the Bible,
I'm sure what we would think is that the Lord blessed Abraham
because of what Abraham did. That's what we think, isn't it?
Abraham obeyed God, he offered his son, he was willing to offer
his son as a burnt offering to God and because of his willingness,
because he was gonna act on that, God blessed him because of what
Abraham did. But, be careful when you read a passage of scripture
and think, well, this is what that means. If you wanna know
what any passage of scripture means, you have to compare it
to the rest of scripture. See, every scripture has to agree
with all the rest of the scripture. And based on everything else
that we read in the Bible, This passage that we're looking at
this evening cannot mean Abraham was blessed because of his works,
can it? Can't, because it doesn't match the rest of scripture.
Let me give you a few examples. Titus three verse five, not by
works of righteousness, which we've done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us. Salvation is by mercy, by God's
mercy, not our works. It's given to us in spite of
our works. Romans four verse 16, therefore it is a faith that
it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all to see. The only way God's promise of
redemption can be sure to his people is if salvation is by
God's grace through faith that he gives us it. Second Timothy
one nine, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works. but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now based on those scriptures,
and you know there are many others, our text cannot mean that Abraham
was blessed because of what he did. That's contrary to the rest
of scripture. Here's what's happened in our
text. The Lord told Abraham, get up, go to a place that I'll
show you, go to a mountain I'll show you, and there you offer
your son as a burnt offering to me. And Abraham walked for
three days. You remember the story. Right
as he was ready to slay his son, God said, stop. And Abraham looked
behind him. Behold, there is a ram caught
in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham offered up that ram
instead of his son Isaac. Now here's what happened. The
Lord gave Abraham faith to believe God. The Lord gave Abraham faith
to act on and believe and act on what God told him to do, to
obey God. And then God blessed Abraham for having the faith
that God gave him. That's what happened. It's all
of the Lord. Now there's no doubt about this. There's no doubt at all about
this. Abraham would not have been blessed if he didn't take
his son to Mount Moriah and ready to offer him there as a burnt
offering. God wouldn't have blessed him if Abraham stayed home. God
would not have blessed Abraham if Abraham went to that mountain
and told Isaac what the Lord told him to do. He said, but
now son, I can't do it. Let's go back home. If Abraham had
done that, God would not have blessed him. He would not have
blessed Abraham unless Abraham obeyed God. That's so. But now
listen, understand how this thing works. Abraham would not have
been willing to obey God unless God first gave him faith to trust
God. Abraham would never have believed
God unless the Lord, or obeyed God, unless the Lord made him
willing to obey in the day of his power. Abraham never would
have acted on the faith that he had, that he believed God,
he trusted God. He believed if he killed his
son, God raised him from the dead. Abraham figured he had
to, because God promised the seeds come through this son.
And even though he believed the Lord raised him from the dead,
it's still a hard thing to slit your son's throat, burn his body,
isn't it? Abraham would not have had the
strength to act on his faith unless the Lord gave him the
strength to do it. See, none of this is of Abraham. It's all
of the Lord, isn't it? All of it is. Now, the same thing
is true of you and me. Remember, this is a picture of
redemption. This is a picture of redemption through substitution,
through the sacrifice being offered as our substitute. The same thing
is true of you and me. God has commanded us to believe
on his son. That's the whole of scripture.
That's the message of scripture. That's the commandment. God,
God didn't command us to keep the law in order to earn a righteousness
and make God happy with us so he blesses us. God gave us a
law to show us we can't keep it, that we need Christ. And his commandment is don't
obey the law. Trust Christ. That is God's commandment. And
you and I will be damned unless we believe on Christ. That's
an absolute truth. God will never bless us. He will
not save us apart from faith in Christ. But here's the rub. We can't make ourselves believe
on Christ. We can't make ourselves trust Christ. We cannot generate
faith in ourselves. So we won't be blessed with God.
God's not going to save our sinful souls unless God gives us faith. He's got to be the one, God the
Holy Spirit has got to give us faith. Faith to obey God and
believe on his son. quit our works and trust in Christ.
And in the end, this is going to be every believer's story.
In some form or fashion, this is going to be our story. God
gave me faith in Christ and then he blessed me for having that
faith. That's going to be the story of every believer. Now,
what the Lord here says in our text is a picture. It's a picture
of the blessings that every believer has in Christ and how we obtained
those blessings. See, all of God's elect, all
of his people are blessed because God did not withhold his only
begotten son. Abraham wasn't blessed because
he didn't withhold his son. Abraham's blessed because God
did not withhold his only son. And Abraham saw that when the
Lord said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. That's exactly
what he meant. Abraham saw, this is how God's
going to save his people by the sacrifice of his That's why Abraham's
blessed. And if you and I are blessed
of God, that's why we're blessed too. Because God did not withhold
his only begotten son, but gave him as a sacrifice for our sins. It's all, we're always blessed
because of who God is and what God's done. Never because of
who we are or what we've done or haven't done. Never. Now,
if you look over Hebrews chapter six, here's a New Testament commentary
on our text of Genesis, so we don't have to guess what it means.
This promise is a promise to God's elect through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hebrews 6 verse 9. The writer says, but beloved,
we're persuaded better things of you and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. Now the writer's telling us here,
there's some works. that accompany salvation, accompany. We're not saved because of our
works. These works accompany salvation. They're an evidence
that God has done something for us, that God has saved us. When
Abraham took his son and was willing to offer him as a burnt
offering, that was a work that accompanied salvation. The only
way Abraham could do that is if he believed God. Read on verse
10. For God's unrighteous to forget
your work and labor of love, which you've showed toward his
name and that you minister to the saints and do minister. And
we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to
the full assurance of hope and to the end that you be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Now God's made these promises
to his people and we're going to inherit them. God's going
to give them to us. So don't be weary while doing.
Don't quit. Even if you don't see the results
that you want to see, don't quit. Even if things look bad right
now, don't quit. You keep trusting the Lord. You
keep following him. You keep serving the Lord because
the Lord's faithful. He's going to give these promises.
We're going to inherit these promises in the end because God
promised them. Now four, four. Here's why the
writer says don't quit. Four, verse 13. When God made
promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he
swore by himself, saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you. And
multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
The immutability, the unchangeableness, that's immutability, just means
God can't change. The immutability of his counsel
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, God's
character, his word, his promise, by two immutable things, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,
who fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the
forerunner is entered for us, even Jesus, made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now these verses are talking
about what Christ has done, and God made this promise, this is
what Christ has done, how he has accomplished the salvation
of his people, and the rest, the hope, the security, the peace
that we have in trusting Christ. See, the blessing that Abraham
received in our text, it's not the blessing of works, is it?
It's the blessing of grace. It's the blessing of faith. And
that is the same blessing every believer possesses. It's the
blessing of faith. The blessing of God's grace. All these years later, here we
sit. And I would imagine everybody
here esteems Abraham somewhere in the stratosphere above us. Do you know you have the very
same blessing as Abraham did if God's given you faith in Christ
and believe Christ. God's given you the very same
promises, the very same blessing based upon the very same Savior,
His work for His people. That's the reward of faith that
God gives all of His people. It's the reward of His grace.
And the reward that we have is Christ Himself. What God told
Abraham is true of every believer. It's true of you if you believe
Christ. Christ is our exceeding great reward. He's everything. He's it. The blessing is having
the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing Him. Trusting Him.
Being united to Him. and be united to Him, we have
everything that's in Him. Now turn back to our text, let
me show you that in a picture. Verse 16, Genesis chapter 22. Or verse 15, the angel of the Lord
called unto Abraham out of heaven a second time and said by myself,
I've sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing
and not withheld thy son, Thine only Son. Now again, I mentioned
this a minute ago. Here's the blessing. Here is
the basis of every blessing God's people have. It's that God the
Father did not withhold His only begotten Son. But instead, He
gave Him. He gave Him a ransom for many. The Father loved His people so
much with an eternal, immeasurable love. Now here's the proof of
that love. He gave His only begotten Son
to be the sacrifice for their sin. He sent His Son into the
world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And since the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He came in the flesh, the Son of God, He obeyed His Father. He obeyed the law perfectly.
He obeyed His Father in everything that the Father sent Him to do.
Because He did that. Because His sacrifice put away
the sin of his people because his sacrifice glorified and honored
the father's justice. The father has given him everything,
given everything into the hand of his son. Philippians two says
that the father has exalted his son because of what he accomplished
as a substitute for his people. He's exalted his son and given
him a name, which is above everything. He exalted Him higher than anyone.
You can't be exalted as high as Christ the Savior. That is
the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. The Father exalted Him so highly
because He did exactly what He promised His Father He'd do.
In our text is a picture of the promise that God made to His
Son. See, this promise is a promise
the Father made to His Son. That He'd be blessed, that He'd
be exalted, that He would be the mighty conqueror. And that
promise belongs to everybody who's in Christ. See, the Father
made it to His Son. But if you're in Christ, it belongs
to you too. And I see four blessings here in our text. I want to give
four of them. The Father promised His Son,
but they're ours. if we trust Christ. And the first
one is this, the father has promised to bless his son. Now he's gonna
bless his son. Verse 17, then in blessing, I
will bless thee. Now in the covenant of grace,
the father promised that he would bless his son. Because he knew
this, the son would accomplish all the father's purpose in glorifying
himself by saving sinners, by the sacrifice of the son. And
every blessing that the son receives, he receives because of the blood
of his sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only person, the only man to ever live that can say he's blessed
because of his works. He's the only one. His work is
perfect. And the father promised all these
blessings to his son And they belong to God's people in Christ. In Christ. Not because of what
we've done. Not because of what we haven't done. But because
of what Christ has accomplished. And every blessing the son receives
now, he bought it. He bought it. And he gives it
to his people freely. Let me give you a few examples.
This is how blessed God's people are. The blessings that we have
in Christ. Psalm 2 verse 12. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. Do you trust Christ? Do you trust
that all it takes to save your sinful soul is Him? The only
righteousness you have is His obedience. The only hope you
have of forgiveness is His blood has cleansed you from all of
your sins. Is He your only hope? My friend, you're blessed. You're
blessed of God. Blessed of God Almighty. God
gave you that faith in his son. He gave it to you to trust his
son. Psalm 32 verse one, blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Now what a blessing to have our
sin forgiven. That almighty God would forgive
our sin that's been against him. that He cover our sins so it
cannot be seen anymore. Now, how is that possible? Well,
I'm telling you, the only way our sin can be covered is in
the blood of Christ. The blood of His sacrifice. The
Lord Jesus Christ earned the forgiveness of sin for His people.
He willingly sacrificed Himself for them. If your sin is forgiven,
your iniquity is covered, you're blessed. The Son of God suffered and died
and shed his blood to do that for you. Oh, you're blessed. Psalm 32, verse two. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's
a blessing. The Lord does not impute iniquity
to his people, even though we committed it. Now, sin has got to be charged
somebody. Sin must be charged and it must be paid for. God's
justice demands that. God's truth demands that. God
can't save anybody and ignore their sin. It's got to be imputed
to somebody. Somebody's got to pay for it.
Here's how blessed you are if Almighty God does not impute
your sin to you. The only way God could not impute your sin
to you is if he imputed it to his son at Calvary. And then
he slaughtered him for it. to pay the debt for your sin. Now that's a blessing. For the
father not to impute sin to you, that you committed. The only
way he'd do that, he imputed your sin to his son. And the
son paid for it for you. Now you're blessed. You're blessed. As you go through these scriptures,
I'm starting to see the blessing is not a bunch of stuff in this
world, is it? the blessing of having your sin
not being imputed to you, charged to you. Psalm 65 verse four,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. Now a sinner is blessed of God
to be chosen, to be elected unto salvation. And that election
is in Christ. You know that. Christ is God's
first elect and he elected all of his people in Him. And those
people that God chose to save, He sent His Son to die for them.
He sent His Son to put away their sin with His blood. And in the
fullness of time, you know what God does? He calls those people
to His Son. He causes them. He makes them
approach unto Him. They come running because He
calls them. He draws them by the cords of
His love. He draws them. You know what
draws God's people to Christ? You don't have to beg people
to walk in the aisle and do something and dedicate their life. You
don't have to beg them to be baptized. You don't have to beg
them to do something. I'm telling you, for God's people, all you've
got to do is preach Christ. Just hold Him up and preach Him
as clearly and loudly and plainly as you can. God's sheep will
come running. That's what draws God's people
to Him. If the Spirit is ever pleased
to take the Gospel of Christ and show you Christ in it, it's
not a bunch of doctors The gospel is not to do this, do this, and
do this, and then this is how it's going to turn out. A plus
B plus C equals D. That's not it. The gospel is
person. And if the Holy Spirit ever shows
you that, shows you Him, you'll come running to Christ. Nobody's
going to have to beg you to come. Can you imagine a greater blessing
than being drawn to Christ? Then Psalm 66 verse 20, blessed
be God, which had not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy
for me. I spend time in prayer. I wish
I could say that I spent more, I spend time in prayer. And I'll just be real honest
with you. A lot of times, my heart feels cold and dead. And oh, how I pray, Lord, give
me, soften my heart. Apply this to my heart. How in
this world am I going to preach Christ to Your people with this?
This cold dead of heart. I mean, I want to get away from
it. How could God hear me? Why on earth would God still
hear our prayer? For Christ's sake. We sin again
and again and again and again. I'm talking about after the Lord
shows us Christ. After He shows us what our sin
cost the Son of God and we still just Why would God not turn His
mercy away from us? For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. The Lord Jesus Christ took away
the sin of His people. There's no reason the Father
wouldn't hear you. There's no reason the Father
would turn His mercy away from you if Christ died for you. Oh,
that's a blessing. In Psalm 68 verse 19, blessed
be the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God
of our salvation. God loathes his people with benefits
every day. The blessing, the benefit of
the forgiveness of our sin. He loathes us with the righteousness
of his son. He just keeps loading it upon
us, the blessing of being accepted with God that He hears. He supplies
our need. Whatever it is we need physically,
God supplies it. We're loaded with these blessings
every second of every day. You know why? Christ, our mediator,
lives. Ever reigning, making intercession
for us, our Savior lives to ensure The blessings he purchased for
his people are all theirs. Isn't that a blessing? God's
people are blessed for Christ's sake. That's all through the
Bible. In Genesis chapter 30, Jacob
is getting ready to take his wives. He was leaving Laban.
He's done with his bad situation. And Laban says, wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Don't leave. This is what Laban
knew. God's blessing me. for your sake. Don't leave just yet. God's blessing
me for your sake. In Genesis 39, Potiphar may not
have realized it. When he bought that slave, Joseph,
Potiphar ended up becoming very wealthy. Everything Potiphar
did, all his business dealings, every one of them were blessed
for Joseph's sake. For Joseph's sake. And all of
God's people are blessed with every spiritual blessing for
the very same reason. It's for Christ's sake. That's
God's promise to his son. He's gonna keep it. All right,
here's the second thing. The father promises to multiply
his son. He says, in blessing I will bless
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of the heaven and as a sand which is upon the seashore. Now when
the father elected a people, he was abundant in mercy. The eternal God doesn't do anything
in a small way. He was abundant in mercy. He
chose to save so many sinners, you and I can't count them all.
And the son came and redeemed that innumerable host. You can't
count them. But by one sacrifice, here's
how special the Lord Jesus Christ is. By his one sacrifice, he
redeemed every last one of them. Everyone the father chose to
save has been redeemed by the blood of his son. And here's
the father's promise to his son. Your sacrifice will not fail.
It won't be in vain. I'll multiply your people. Now
I like the way he said that. He didn't say, I'm gonna add
to your people. He said, I'll multiply them. I'll multiply
them. I'll increase them into a great
number. And here's something very encouraging
for sinners. God Almighty is rich in grace. He's rich in mercy. God's word never talks about
His grace or His mercy in small terms. He's great in mercy. God's not gonna run out of grace
to save you as long as you're a sinner that has to be saved
by pure grace. Now your works can't enter into
it because you don't have any. You need pure grace to save you.
If that's you, God's never gonna run out of grace to save somebody
like you. He has plenty for a sinner like
you. He's multiplied it. He multiplied
it. Now you come begging for it.
You come begging for it. Here's the third thing. The father
promised his son, you go. You go to battle. You sacrifice
yourself. You fight all the blackness and
the sin and iniquity and justice and Satan and hell. You fight
them. You'll have the victory. At the end of verse 17, thy seed
shall possess the gate. of his enemies. And you talk
about your possessing the gate of your enemies, that means you
came in one. You won the battle. You won the
victory. And now the gate's mine. I go in and out as I please.
If you're going to go in and out, you're going to do it at
my permission. I own the gate. I possess it. Our Savior won
the victory because no enemy can prevail against him. He came
to tear down every wall and tear down every gate that would stop
his people from coming to Him. He tore down the gate of the
law. God's law kept us away from God, didn't it? It said do and
live, disobey and die. We've disobeyed. We've died.
We can't come. The law has kept us away from
God. The law says don't enter in. Christ came, He tore that
gate down by obeying the law for His people. Christ came,
He tore down the gate of sin for His people. Our sin separated
us from our God. Kept us from coming to God. A
sinner cannot come to the holy God in our sin. It's kept us
from coming into God's presence. He'd never allow it. Our Savior
came. He tore that gate down, didn't
He? By putting away the sin of His people with His own precious
blood. All the ceremonies of the law.
The ceremonies of that Jewish religion. Those things kept us
from coming to God. We could not see Christ in those
ceremonies. All we could see in those ceremonies
is, oh, here's a way I can be self-righteous by observing all
these ceremonies. Look at me. We just turned what
was a picture of Christ into a way to be self-righteous. I
mean, that's how dead in sin that you and I are. And Christ
came, he tore that gate down. He tore the gate of the ceremonies
down by being the fulfillment of all of those ceremonies. And
the chief one that I can think of is the Day of Atonement. The
Holy of Holies. That veil separated the holy
place from the Holy of Holies. And that veil said, don't you
enter. Don't enter. Don't you come in
here, except the high priest just one day a year, and not
without blood. When Christ died, those ceremonies
were over, weren't they? As Christ gave up the ghost,
what happened? With no visible hands. that veil
was torn in two from top to bottom. Christ tore the gate to those
ceremonies down and the way to God is wide open as long as you
come in Christ alone. As long as you come naked without
anything, any merit of your own, if you come to God in Christ,
the way is wide open and you'll always be accepted. And then people talk about the
door. to our heart. They talk about that door like
men can keep that door shut if they want to. That's a gate to
my heart. I can keep it shut if I want to. I'm in control
of this. And Christ just can't come in and save me unless I
let Him. He'll stand out there knocking and begging me to open
it or not. It's up to me. It's a hogwash. Hogwash. When the Savior comes
to His people, He doesn't knock and beg them to let Him in. God
the King is never a beggar. Brother Fortner used to say,
when God comes to his people, he rips the door off the hinges,
bolt and bar, and he comes in to reign. He comes in to reign. And when he does, God's people
are right glad. Oh, they're glad. I said all
that to say this, to encourage you. If God has purposed to save
you, There's nothing in heaven, earth, or hell that'll stop him
from saving you. Not one thing. And that includes
your own sin and your own rebellion and your own deadness. The Lord
Jesus Christ will have every soul that he came to save. If
he comes to save you, you'll be willing in the day of his
power. You know why? He's the mighty conqueror. He's
the mighty conqueror. And then here's the last thing.
The father promised his son that he would save his elect from
over the whole world. Verse 18, and in the IC shall
all nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Christ the savior didn't come just to save the people who would
naturally descend from Abraham. And I never really thought about
that really before I was studying this this week. If Christ came
to save just the people who descended physically from Abraham, that would make salvation somehow
by works, wouldn't it? That would make salvation somehow
by this flesh. And that can't be. Christ didn't
come just to save some Jews. And aren't you glad? All of us
would be excluded. We'd have no good news, would
we? If Christ just came to save spiritually or natural Israel,
Christ came to save sinners. Period. Christ came to save sinners. He came to save sinners from
every kindred, every tongue, every people, and every nation
under heaven. Now Eric, I can fit in there
somewhere, can't you? I can fit in. Can you? Can you fit in somewhere
in there? Christ came to save sinners.
And brother, He did it. You see, His obedience is perfect. His sacrifice is perfect. So He saved everybody He intended
to save, no matter where they're found, no matter what language
they are, no matter what skin color they have, no matter...
No, it doesn't matter. There's no hiding from Him. There's
no escaping His saving power. There's no sheep that's so lost,
that's so far out there, the shepherd can't find them. and
get them and bring them home. His obedience, His blood is so
powerful, it reaches His people wherever they're at. Oh, the
stain of sin is deep, isn't it? His blood reaches deeper than
the stains gone. It washes His people white as
snow. You know, people talk about not being able to hide from the
long arm of the law. And that's true. Well, you can't hide from
the long arm of the law. Justice must be satisfied someday. The law is going to be satisfied
someday. That's true. You cannot escape the long arm
of the law. But you know what's just as equally true? You can't escape the long arm
of God's mercy either. His arm of mercy is going to
find his people wherever they're at. And he's going to reach down. He's going to lay hold on him
and he's going to bring him to him. See, here's why the salvation
of God's elect is sure. This is why I want to leave you
with. This is what I want you to take home. The salvation of
God's elect is sure. It's because of who the Savior
is. It's because of his work, his work of redemption, his work
of righteousness. And our works don't enter into
the equation anyway. anywhere. Salvation in Christ
is so perfect. It's so sure. It's so certain
that even the filthy rags of our righteousness can't ruin
it. Isn't that a blessing? I'm telling you, I love this
gospel. We don't have to earn this salvation
by our works and we don't have to keep it by our works. All
we're required to do is believe Christ and rest in Him. Depend on Him to do it all. That's
a blessing of faith, isn't it? Oh, I pray that God will give
it to each of us this evening. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your promise of redemption in Christ our Savior. How we
thank you in your purpose, your wisdom, your mercy, your grace,
that you have sent your son to fulfill every requirement of
righteousness and redemption for your people, eternal life
for your people. Father, how we thank you that
it all depends upon Christ our Savior, on who he is and what
he has accomplished for his people. Father, we thank you for the
blessing of faith. that enables us to lay hold upon Christ and
rest in Him. And Father, I pray, I beg of
you, that you give much glory to yourself by giving that blessing
of faith to each heart here this evening. And let us leave here
rejoicing in Christ our Savior. It's in His blessed name, for
His glory and His sake we pray. All right, Sean.