Alright, if you wouldn't open
your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 22. I'm going to re-read our text from last
Wednesday. Just so you know, I haven't gotten
Alzheimer's and forgotten I preached that message last Wednesday.
We're going to look at a little bit more of this this week. Genesis
22 beginning in verse 1. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham. He tried Abraham. And said unto
him, Abraham. And he said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young
men with him. and Isaac his son, and claimed
the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son,
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, And they went both
of them together. Then Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son.
And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the
lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there.
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. We'll end our reading
there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow in your awesome
presence this evening, a thankful people. Oh, how thankful we are
that we can come into the presence of Almighty God and be accepted
because of our Lord Jesus Christ, be accepted in the beloved. Father,
how we thank you for your electing, adopting, regenerating grace
that enables sinful men and women, such as we are, to come into
your presence, crying, Abba, Father. What a soul-thrilling thought
that Almighty God has made himself our Father, made us his children. Father, we're so thankful. And
we're thankful for this opportunity that you've given us to meet
together and worship your matchless name. And Father, I pray that
you'd send your spirit upon us, enable us to do that. Enable
us tonight to worship thee in spirit and in truth. Don't let
us just go through the motions of religion, but Father, give
us a special hour of worship where you would speak to our
hearts through your word and apply it to your word to our
hearts, to each heart here. And Father, I pray you'd enable
us to leave here this evening, resting in Christ our Savior,
knowing that he'll take care of everything that's required
of us. Father, we thank you for the many blessings of this life
that you've blessed us so abundantly. Father, I pray you give us the
wisdom and the generous heart to not use all the many things
you've given us selfishly, but we might use it to help others,
to help our brothers and sisters, to be a help one to another.
Father, cause us to be able to show our love one to another.
Give us the wisdom to preserve and protect the unity and the
worship that we have here. And Father, we dare not forget
to pray for those that you brought in the time of trouble and trial.
There's so many right now here and in other places. Father,
we pray you'd be with your people. We pray that you'd heal. We pray
that you'd deliver. And above all, Father, we pray
you'd comfort the hearts of your people with your presence. In
all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. I've titled our message this
evening, The Lord Will Provide. I know we looked at this passage
last week, but I really didn't get to spend much time in verse
14 on the name of the Lord that's revealed in our text, and that's
what I want to do this evening. Look at this name, Jehovah Jireh. Now there are at least seven
names of Jehovah that are given to us in the Old Testament scriptures.
And remember the name of the Lord describes who he is. It
describes his character. It describes what he has done
for his people. Each of these names describe
not only what the Lord has done for his people, but they describe
who he is to his people. First, there's Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord will provide. The Lord will provide everything
that he requires of us. And he will require, he will
provide everything that we need, he will. Then there's Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord our healer. The Lord who heals all of our
spiritual diseases, who heals our wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. He heals all of our spiritual
diseases and gives us spiritual eternal life. And any time we're
healed physically, he did that too, didn't he? He used it means
doctors and nurses and medicines and so forth, but it's the Lord
that heals it. Then there's Jehovah Nissi, the
Lord, our banner. Oh, you just lift up Christ,
our banner, just like those old armies, you know, the old, they
lift up the flag and soldiers would rally to the flag. That's
Christ, our banner. You just lift him up in preaching.
You just lift him up and glorify him. You watch his people gather
to him. He's our banner. And then there's
Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, our peace, the Lord who made peace
for us by the blood of his cross. There's Jehovah Rea, the Lord,
our shepherd. God's people have a are called
sheep, and we have a shepherd who leads the sheep, who feeds
his sheep, who guides his sheep and protects his sheep. There's
Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. He's the only
righteousness we have. Not only does he provide a righteousness,
he is our righteousness. He's the only righteousness that
we have. And then there's Jehovah Shema. The Lord is present. You can't go anywhere, God's
not. I know a lot of times we feel alone, but the Lord's present. He's always with his people.
He'll never leave his people. See the Lord himself, he's everything
that we need. What else do we need beside that?
He's everything that we need. And here in our text at Mount
Moriah, which later on, just in case you don't know this,
is gonna become to be known as Mount Calvary. This happened
on the very mountain where the Lord will be crucified thousands
of years later. Here on Mount Calvary, Mount
Moriah, is the place where the name Jehovah Jireh is revealed. The Lord will provide. Here's
how the Lord is going to provide. It's the sacrifice that's offered
on this mountain. Now there are three meanings of this name,
Jehovah Jireh. And I want to look at those tonight.
The three means of this name is the Lord will see the Lord
will be seen and the Lord will provide this name. Jehovah Jireh
means all three of those. And I pray the spirit will Let
us leave here tonight not just understanding the meaning of
these three names, but resting in our Lord because of them,
because of this revelation of who He is. Now first, Jehovah-Jireh
means the Lord will see. And when the Lord will see, I'll
tell you what that means. He's going to take care of it.
That's what it means. The Lord sees everything. that nothing's hid from him.
So for God to see is for the Lord to provide for the Lord
to take care of the problem. This name means the Lord will
see to it for his children. You and our girls were growing
up and still even today. They come, they tell me about
their problems. And I tell him I see. I see. And now my girls
know this by experience. When daddy says, I see, what
I mean is, I'm going to do everything in my power to help take care
of this. Maybe I'm going to try to fix
the problem. Maybe I'll give him advice on how to handle it.
But daddy's going to do whatever he can do when he says, I see. He's going to do whatever he
can do to help fix this problem. They know their daddy. They know
it's impossible for me to see those I love have a problem and
not try to do something about it. I'm not the kind of guy that
can sit on my hands. I'm going to try. I'm going to
try. Now, when they were little, when they were real little, they
didn't know this. When they were real little and Daddy said, I
see. When they were real little and Daddy said, I'll see to it,
boy, they didn't have no other worry in this world. Now they've
gotten older and they realize Daddy's powers to fix things
are very, very limited. But listen to me. Our Heavenly
Father, is not limited in any way. There's no limits to his
power. There's no limits to his love.
There's no limits to his wisdom on how to solve a problem, how
to take care of his children. When our heavenly father sees
a problem, he'll see to it. He'll see to it. He takes care
of the problems for his children, and he always has the power and
the wisdom to do it right. You know, before the world began,
Our father saw the need of his people. Before anything was created,
he saw the need of his people. And he saw to it. He saw to it,
for we even knew there was a problem. He already saw to it. Let me
give you a few examples. God, our father, before creation
now, saw his children fall in at him. And he saw to it. He sent his son to restore his
children, to raise us up together with Christ. Our father saw his
children lost in Adam. He saw the problem, and he saw
to it. You know what he did? He sent
his son to seek and to save that which was lost. Our father saw
his children lose their innocence. They fell into sin and unrighteousness
in Adam. He saw it. He saw it, and he
saw to it. You know what he did to fix that
problem? He sent his son to be the righteousness of his people.
There's Jehovah said Kenneth. The Lord provided, Jehovah-Jireh
provided, Jehovah said, Kenneth, the Lord, our righteousness.
Our father saw his children would have a sin debt that they could
not pay. And he saw to it. He provided
the sacrifice. He sent his son into the world
to be the sin bearer, to be the sacrifice for the sin of his
people. He sent his son into this world
to suffer and die and shed his blood. to pay the debt his children
could not pay. And that debt is paid in full
by the blood of God's son. Our father saw his children dead
in sin. He saw the problem, he saw to
it. You know how he sent to give them life? He sent his only begotten
son to take their place, to die for them so they would live.
That's what was just been pictured right before this name of the
Lord Jehovah Jireh was revealed That's what Abraham and Isaac
just saw happen. And Isaac lived because the ram
died in his place. And they saw when the Lord said,
Abraham saw my day and was glad. This is the day he was talking
about this very day. Abraham saw. This is how God's
going to save his people through the death of his son. The lamb
of God is going to die in my place so that I could live. And
he was glad. He was glad. You know our Father, you know
how He's always seen His people? He's always seen His children
in Christ. He's always seen them in Christ.
And if you look over 2 Samuel chapter 9, I'll show you an example of this.
Since God has always seen His children in Christ, He's always
blessed them. He's always seen to it, for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. Here in 2
Samuel chapter 9, this is after the long, drawn out affair between
David and Saul. David's been anointed king, but
Saul is still the king. Now Saul is finally dead. Jonathan,
his son, is dead. Now rightfully, normally what
would happen is that David's become king. David's taken the
throne. What normally would happen is the new king would kill every
son and every grandson of the old king so there'd be no threats
to his throne. Now David's on the throne. Look
what he says. And David said, is there yet
any that's left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Now David loved Jonathan. They were best friends. and they made a promise to each
other. David promised Jonathan, when I become king, I'll not
hurt your children. I'll take care of them. And for
Jonathan's sake, David is determined to show mercy on somebody related
to Saul. Well, you know the story. They
find old Mephibosheth laying him on both his legs, dirty.
Oh, what a sight he was. In verse 8, they bring Mephibosheth
to David. And Mephibosheth, he bows himself
and said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon
such a dead dog as I am? Mephibosheth couldn't even believe
David would even look at him. I mean, how can you even look?
He just couldn't believe it. I'm an enemy. I deserve for you
to put me to death. But David looked upon him, didn't
he? David saw Mephibosheth in his lameness, in his filth, in
his helplessness, and for Jonathan's sake, David sought to it. Look
at verse nine. The king called to Ziba, Saul's
servant, and said unto him, I've given unto thy master's son all
that pertain to Saul and to all his house. Thou therefore and
thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him, and thou
shalt bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have food
to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread
all the way at my table, Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants.
All those 35 men are gonna get to work here to provide for Mephibosheth. See, David saw to it, didn't
he? In verse 11, then said Ziba unto the king, according to all
that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant
do. And as for Mephibosheth, said
the king, David's driving this point home, isn't he? As for
Mephibosheth, he shall eat at my table. as one of the king's
sons. There's Olayne, Dirty, Helpless,
Mephibosheth. David said, I see you, and I'm
going to see to it. He provided everything he needed,
and he made him one of my sons. When our father sees his children,
in our lameness, in our weakness, in our filth, in our sin, in
our deadness, in our rebellion. He said, I'll see to it. And
he arranges heaven and earth to provide for that child. He
said, but more than that, I'm going to make my son, my daughter,
and they're going to eat at my table, my table. They're going
to eat at my son. They're going to be redeemed
by my son. The Lord will see to it. The Lord will see to it. I'm telling you, you take that
to bed with you tonight and sleep easy. The Lord will
see to it. All right, here's the second
thing, and this is a great lesson. Jehovah Jireh means the Lord
will be seen. Not only will he see, he'll see
to it, he'll be seen. The Lord will see his people,
but you know what? His people are gonna see him
too. They're going to see him by faith. They're going to see
the Lord. And they're going to believe
on him. They're going to rest their all of their soul to his
care. And someone here may be wondering,
well, I've never seen the Lord. How do I see the Lord? This sounds
like a blessing to me to see the Lord. Can you tell me how
I can see the Lord? Well, I can tell you this. We're
not going to see him physically, are we? We see the Lord by faith. By faith. You know, quite honestly,
it wouldn't do us any good to see the Lord in a bodily figure.
How many people saw the body of the Lord Jesus? This man went
about doing good in earthly ministry three and a half years. Maybe
they saw him in those 30 years before that. They didn't believe
on him. His brothers and sisters grew
up with him. They saw him. Didn't believe him. Didn't believe
him. Nobody believed on him, even if they saw his body, unless
the spirit was pleased to give them faith in Christ. So we see
Christ, we see the Lord by faith, by faith. And here's how we see
him, by faith. First of all, we see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, not like I'm looking into
your faces right now. The glory of God is this. God
himself told Moses, here's my glory, Moses. I'll show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. It's sovereign mercy to sinners.
And we talk about sovereign mercy, sovereign grace. Pretty much
all of us here say, I'm a sovereign gracer. You know what you'd say?
I'm a sovereign gracer. Here's what sovereign mercy,
sovereign grace means. The Lord shows mercy to every
will. He gives it to every will, and
he withholds it from whoever he will. It's his to give. And
every single time, He gives mercy and grace to some poor sinner. They don't deserve it. And he
gives it to them anyway. That's sovereign mercy. It's
God deciding. That's sovereign mercy. Here's
what mercy is. Mercy is God not giving a sinner what they do
deserve. But what is it that we deserve for our sin? Every
last one of us deserve eternal death for our sin. Because of
our sin, we deserve for God to say unto us, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. That's what we deserve. Oh, I
never want God to give me what I deserve. So in order for God
to have mercy on His people, now He still must be just. Everything
God does must be just and holy if He's going to be God, right?
So in order for God to be merciful to His people and not give them
what they do deserve, you know what God did? He gave his son
everything that the sin of his people deserves so that they
could go free. He made his son to be sin for
his people, for his elect. And he crucified him for it.
He slaughtered him for it so that justice is now satisfied
in the death of Christ. Now God can be merciful to his
people because he poured out his judgment, his wrath upon
his son. I wish I could say this as much
as I feel it in my heart. If we ever find out, if I ever
find out I'm a sinner, that's gonna be the most glorious thing
I've ever seen. The most glorious thing I've ever heard. The only
way I can see the true glory of God is to see Christ crucified
as my substitute. Second, here's how we see the
Lord by faith. You see him at Calvary. See,
I don't think it's any accident that this, that between Abraham
and Isaac took place on what later would become the mountain
come to be known as Mount Calvary. We see the Lord, who He is. We see His glory at Calvary. Now I know we see some of God's
power, some of His glory, some of His wisdom when we look at
creation, don't we? I mean, my soul, how God made
this and just this creation. You see pictures of places from
around the world. You see pictures of outer space.
You see all the pictures of these things God's created. I mean,
it's just stunning, isn't it? And that's marred with sin. Think
what it would be if it hadn't been touched by sin. We see some
of the power of God in providence, how God arranges the events that
take place in his creation. It's just amazing how he does
this. But when you look at creation,
when you look at the events of providence, you don't see anything
of God's love, God's mercy, God's grace, God's pity, or God's justice,
do you? Don't see anything of that. If
you want to see the full glory of God on display, you've got
to go to Calvary. That, at Calvary, that's where
every attribute of God is glorified to its fullest. and set on display
for all of us to see. At Calvary, that's where we see
the mercy of God, at Calvary. You think, well, I don't see
much mercy there. Calvary, oh, it's a bloody slaughter. I mean,
our Savior did not even look like a man hanging on that cross. I mean, the slaughter, the blood,
the brutality. There's mercy there? Yes, sir,
there's mercy there. Look what God did to his son
at Calvary, so he could have mercy on them. See, that's where
we see it, at Calvary. At Calvary, we see the justice
of God. God is just. How do I know that? At Calvary, he spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all. See, at Calvary,
we see this so plainly. The father did not hold back
any of his wrath, any of his justice, anything that sin deserved,
even when that sin was found upon his son, his only begotten
son, the son who he spoke from heaven, said, I'm well pleased
with him. You hear him. When the father made him sin
for his people, the father poured out his full fury, his pure wrath
against sin without any hint of mercy, without any hint of
love. I know God's just. He slaughtered
his son for sin. I know he is. That makes me want to substitute,
doesn't you? That makes me want to substitute. I need a substitute
to bear that justice because I can't. I need a substitute
to die for me. But yet this also thrills my
soul. God is just. I mean, nothing will cause him
to do anything that's unjust. If Christ died for my sin, God
is never going to punish me. He's going to accept me because
his justice is satisfied. Oh, that's a load off, isn't
it? One less thing to worry about. At Calvary, we see how is it
that God can justify a sinner? Here's how he did it. You only
find this out at Calvary. This is not an academic exercise. This is not a legal shuffling
of papers here. Here's how God justified his
people. It's a personal matter. This
thing of sin and righteousness is a personal matter. The father
took the sin of his people away from them and made it his sons. Not only did he put it upon his
son, he made that sin to belong to his son. That's why he punished
him for it. And in turn, he took the righteousness
of Christ and put it on his people. And he didn't just put that people
on them or that righteousness on his people. He made them righteous. He made them righteous. He had
made him sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be what? Made the righteousness of God
in him. See, you want to find out how
God makes a sinner righteous, you've got to go to Calvary,
don't you? At Calvary, we see the wisdom of God. How is it
that a sinner can be saved? How is that possible? How is it possible that a sinful
man can be just with God? That's Job's age old question.
And men have been making up crackpot religions The time Adam left
the garden, and they never answered the question, how can a sinner
be made just? Not one of them ever did. Not
one. You want the answer? Go to Calvary. At Calvary, we say, we find out
this is what God meant when he said, deliver them from going
down to the pit. I found a ransom. Jehovah Jireh,
I provided the ransom and the sacrifice of my son. Christ suffered
in the pit so his people could go free in justice. Then at Calvary we see the love
of God. Oh my. The father says to his people,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. Well at Calvary, I see that love
is the real McCoy. The father must really love the
people that he chose to save. He must love them. Look what
he did to his only begotten son in order to redeem the people
that he loves. Oh, there's the love of God. What love that the
father would sacrifice his only begotten son so that sinners
the likes of you and me could be saved. Oh my. See, the Lord's gonna reveal
himself to everybody that He saves. And here's how He's going
to reveal Himself to them. He's going to reveal Himself
to them as Christ crucified on Calvary's cross. This is what
our Lord meant. He said, if I'd be lifted up
from the earth, I'll draw all unto me. When Christ is lifted
up, we see Him lifted up, crucified. That's what draws us to Him.
That's what makes us run to Him, isn't it? That's what makes us
cast our soul upon Him. If I ever see Christ at the cross,
crucified for me, brother, you ain't gonna have to sing 52 verses
of Just As I Am. You ain't gonna have to beg me
to do something. I'm coming to Christ if God ever shows him
to me, crucified as my substitute. I'll believe him. I mean, you
ain't gonna be able to stop me from believing. I'll believe
him, and I'll have eternal life. And thirdly, that brings me to
the third thing. We see the Lord in the Gospel
of Christ. I tell you, our generation, I
wish I had a nickel for every time I heard Brother Henry start
to complain about his generation. I'd tell him, Henry, boy, take
a back seat. You ain't seen nothing yet. I'm
telling you, we don't need psychologists. Let me rephrase that. We don't
need them in the pulpit. We don't need them in the pulpit.
We don't need a social worker in the pulpit. We don't need
a mamby-pamby wet rag just oohing
it on over everybody, trying to make everybody feel good in
the pulpit. We need preachers. We need preachers, somebody that's
going to preach Christ. That's what we need. because
the only way we'll ever see Christ at the cross, the only way we'll
ever see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, is
if somebody preaches the gospel to us. Somebody's got to preach
it because we can't figure it out on our own. Let me show you
that. Look at Romans chapter 10. See,
if I don't believe on Christ, I've got to know Him. I've got
to know who He really is. Romans chapter 10. Verse 13. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But now wait
a minute. How then shall they call on him
in whom they not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As
it's written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
but they've not all obeyed the gospel. We're going to preach
to a lot of people that aren't going to believe it. For Isaiah said,
Lord, who has believed our report. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. If anybody here this evening
does not have faith in Christ, you know it, you know, you don't
have saving faith in Christ. You know, you don't believe him.
You know, you don't trust him. You know, you know, you're in
darkness. Tell you what to do. tell you what to do. And I feel
qualified to tell you what to do because I was in your shoes.
You make it a point to be here or be somewhere where God's preacher
is standing to preach. And you make it a point to be
here every single time the doors open. Faith cometh by hearing. By hearing, by hearing of who
Christ is. See, somebody's got to preach
Christ to us. Christ. Somebody's got to preach
that Christ is our righteousness. I don't need somebody preaching
telling me to do good works. I don't need somebody preaching
telling me to be moral. I need somebody to tell me who
righteousness is and where it's found. Christ is our righteousness.
Somebody's got to preach that. Do you know righteousness doesn't
have anything to do with what we do or we don't do? Not one
blessed thing. Righteousness doesn't have anything
to do with us. Righteousness is all in Christ.
He is our righteousness. And the only way we can know
that is if somebody dares to preach Christ to us. Now, he's
going to have to offend the flesh, isn't he? He's going to have
to offend the flesh and say, we don't have any righteousness.
You don't have anything you can bring to God. He's going to have
to be bold enough to offend the flesh. But boy, if he preaches
Christ, that's the only way we're going to find out he is our righteousness.
Somebody's got to preach that Christ is the only way to God.
We can't come to God by our name. We can't come to God by our good
works. We can't come to God by our orthodoxy. We can only come
before God and be accepted in Christ, in the beloved, in who
Christ is and what Christ has done for his people. And the
only way to know that he's the door, the only way to know he's
the way to God is if somebody tells us who he is. Somebody's
got to preach it. Somebody has to preach that the forgiveness
of sin is only found in the blood of Christ. You know, I heard
flipping through the channels, you know how you do, you stop,
it's a train wreck, you stop watching for a few minutes. Man
actually said this, if you'll start sinning less, God will
forgive you. Well, where to begin? Number
one, God is holy. So he can't ignore the sins of
our past. If I could not just sin less,
but quit sinning right this second for the rest of my life, it's
too late. I'm already guilty. God can't
ignore the sin of my past and I can't start sinning less anyway.
So forgiveness of sin is only found in the blood of Christ.
His blood is so precious because he is, Such a unique person. He's the only sinless man to
ever live. His blood is so precious. His blood made the sin of his
people to not exist anymore. Now we're never going to know
that. We're never going to figure that out on our own. Somebody's
got to preach Christ to us. Somebody's got to preach to us
that salvation's all in Christ. Salvation is not our decision
to accept Jesus as our personal Savior. Salvation is not in our
Decision to I've decided to accept his his sacrifice. I've decided
to let him into my heart, you know Salvation is in God's election
of the people and God's Son coming and purchasing that salvation
with his own blood and the Holy Spirit Drawing us to Christ Drawing
us to Christ now. There's no question about God
saves you You're going to identify with him. But you're also going
to realize this. It's not my decision. No, I came
because God drew me. I came because God the Father
chose me. I come to Christ because He sacrificed
Himself for me. I come to Christ because the
Spirit showed me Him and His beauty and His glory and made
me desire Him and come to Him and fall at His feet and beg
Him for mercy. I came because God saved me. See, I didn't get
saved because I came to Christ. I came to Christ because God
saved me. That's a good way to put it, isn't it? But we're never
going to know that. Unless somebody preaches Christ
to us. Now I'm telling you, you come and you beg that Lord to
have mercy on your soul. That Lord. You beg God to give
you faith in that Christ. Not just any Jesus now. Not just
any Christ. You know, salvation's not just
saying the name of Jesus. Somebody says, well, I believe
in Jesus. Well, I mean, you know, you very well could be believing
in the wrong Jesus. There is another Jesus, as Paul
said. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, this book. As he describes himself, not
that we made him up to be, but as he describes himself in this
book. And we need somebody to preach him to us, to tell us
who he is. to tell us what he's like, because
we can't figure him out by nature. And that's the only way we're
going to see God by faith. The Lord's going to give faith
to his people through the preaching of his word. By the preaching
of his word, the Lord shall be seen. He'll be seen of his people. Then lastly, Jehovah Jireh means
this, the Lord will provide. Now, what is it that the Lord
will provide for his people? Once you look first at second
Peter chapter three, The Lord, or 2 Peter chapter
one, excuse me, 2 Peter one. The Lord is gonna provide everything
for his people. Everything that they need for
spiritual life. 2 Peter one verse three. According as his divine
power hath given unto us all things, everything that pertain
unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue. The Lord's gonna provide Everything
that his people need for spiritual life. Everything, everything.
But you know, sometimes people say, well, I'll provide this
service. I'll provide this good to the
general public. But now you gotta go buy it,
don't you? You gotta go buy it. That's not
the way God does it. Look at Romans chapter eight. The Lord is gonna provide everything
for his people freely. freely. Romans chapter eight, verse 32. He despaired not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? The Lord gives everything to
his people freely. Not because it's cheap, but because
Christ bought it. with his precious blood, and
he gives it to his people freely. See, in order for God's elect
to be redeemed, there's got to be a perfect land. There's got
to be a perfect sacrifice. There's got to be a perfect righteousness.
There's got to be a perfect holiness. There's got to be a perfect life.
There's got to be perfect faith. We can't provide any of that,
can we? The only thing we can do perfectly is sin. So God provided
what's necessary for the redemption of his people. God provided everything
that he requires. He provided it all. Now that's
grace. He provided it all in the person
of his son. God didn't just get out his wallet
and give it to him. He didn't just open up the gold
mines and the silver mines and the diamond mines of this world.
It cost a whole lot more than that. He gave his son. He gave his son. And you know the Lord also, he
provides spiritual life for his people. But the Lord also provides
things in this life that we need too. You know the Lord, didn't
he teach us to pray, give us this day our daily bread? He
taught us to pray that way, and that he's gonna turn around and
provide it. Whatever it is, not just bread that you need to have
food and clothes and shelter, the Lord's gonna provide what's
sufficient. Now it may not be fancy, but
it'll be sufficient. It'll be sufficient. The Lord
always gives his people enough of this world's goods that they
can return an offering back to the Lord. You know, Paul says
we're to give out of our abundance. Well, oh my. God's provided for
us abundantly, hadn't he? Abundantly. Every single person
here can say this. The Lord's provided abundantly.
so that I can give, so I can be helpful. You know, this world's
a difficult place. It's difficult, it's confusing
to know what way to go, what y'all to do, how y'all to go.
The Lord's gonna provide leadership. He's our shepherd. He'll provide
leadership through this world below. We don't know the way
to go, but our shepherd sure does. And he's gonna lead us. He's not gonna leave you to the
wolves. He'll lead us. You hear the Lord also provides
afflictions, trials, corrections in this life. He provides those
things for the good of his people. But you know, he also, in every
instance, provides grace that's sufficient for the trial that
he sins. The Lord's filled his book with
promises, promises of grace and mercy and protection that allows
us to rest in Christ. Y'all wonder why I lay in bed
at night Why do I sit in my study and just start stewing over all
the things that are wrong, or what am I going to do about this,
and what's going to happen about this, and what's going to happen
about this, and what's going to happen about this? Why don't
I spend more time thinking, oh, God promised mercy. God's promised
grace. Now, I know these things look
bad, but God's promised, this thing's under my hand. My father's
taking care of me. Why can't I be like little two
and three year old Holly and Savannah? And my father says,
I see. Why can't I say, okay. And quit
worrying. One day we will, won't we? One
day we will. And that brings me to this. When
it's time, when it's time, the Lord's going to provide dying
grace. And He's going to come and get us. And He's going to
take us to be with Him where he is, and when we get there
and we open our eyes in glory, you know what we're going to
find out? He was true to his word. He's provided a place for
me. And I'm going to be there with
him forever. Oh, aren't you thankful? The
Lord will provide. He'll see. He'll see to it. He'll
let us see him, and he'll provide. He'll provide everything that
we need. Well, after we close in prayer, I'd like for us to
close our service, sing John Newton's very, very, very good
song, The Lord Will Provide. It's a handout. If you didn't
get one, share with somebody. We'll sing that here after we
close in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious name of yours that you revealed to your people,
the Lord will provide. And Father, I pray that you'd
cause us, as Abraham of old, to see, to see, to see you, to
see your purpose, to see your accomplished redemption for your
people, and be glad to leave here tonight rejoicing in Christ
our Savior. It's in his precious name, for
his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.