Well, I've titled the message
this evening. How can I know? How can I know? The Lord had just promised Abraham
that he would have a son. Actually, what the Lord did is
he confirmed a promise he made to Abraham 10 years earlier that
he would have a son. And scripture says Abraham believed
God and it was imputed, accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham's
faith received the righteousness of Christ to his account. And
he believed God. And look what he says in verse
eight, Genesis chapter 15. He said, Lord God, whereby shall
I know that I shall inherit it? Now some people say this is a
question of unbelief. Some people say this is a question
of faith. I suppose it could be either. Just two verses earlier,
it said he believed him and it counted to him for righteousness.
I tend to think this is a question of faith, but I suppose it's
possible. It's a question of unbelief.
And it would be a question of unbelief to ask God, how do I
know you're going to keep your promise? That's a question of
unbelief to say, how do I know you're going to keep your promise?
Because this is what we know. God always keeps his promise.
He always keeps his word. But a person who believes God
could honestly ask this question, how do I know? How do I know
that the gospel is true? How do I know that God has saved
me? I think that's a question, if
it's in our mind, we ought to have an answer, don't you reckon?
How do I know? Am I just religious? Is this
just my habit? Or has God saved me? How do I
know? You know, you can know the answer to that question.
I hope by the time we leave here this evening, Every one of us
will leave here knowing whether or not God has saved us. So the
first point, and this is the main issue of the whole message,
the answer to the question, how do I know if God has saved me? The answer to the question is
by looking to the sacrifice of Christ. Look here at verse nine. He said unto him, take me an
heifer of three years old and a she goat of three years old
and a ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young
pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in
the midst and laid each piece one against another. But the
birds divided he not. Now the Lord tells Abraham, take
these five animals and prepare them to sacrifice them. And each
one of these animals pictures Christ our sacrifice. First of
all, each of these animals under the law that would be given 400
years later, each of these animals are clean animals. And that's
a picture of the holiness and the righteousness of Christ.
Now, it's very important that the Savior be without sin. He must be holy. He must be righteous. He must be clean. And here's
why. Because He can't put away our
sin if He has any sin of His own. And He came, He is altogether
righteous, perfectly clean, perfectly holy. And here's the way we know
that God has saved us. if we look to Christ to be all
of our righteousness. I know I need holiness and I
look to Christ. By looking, I mean this, I mean
to depend upon Christ. I depend upon him to be my holiness. I depend upon Christ to make
me righteous by his obedience for me, not by my obedience to
the law or not my good works, you know, that I can add to him
to finish up the job. Saving faith, trust Christ, to
be all of my righteousness and all of my holiness. And if God
has saved you, I promise you this is what you believe. Christ
is your righteousness. You look to him to be your righteousness.
Second, each of these animals are three years old. They're
each in the prime and strength of their physical life. And again,
that's a picture of Christ, our sacrifice. He was sacrificed
in the prime of his earthly life. roughly 33 and a half years old.
And here's the picture and why that's important. Christ was
crucified in the prime strength of his life. He didn't die of
old age. He didn't die because he had
some disease in his body that made it so his body wasn't strong
enough, you know, to continue to live. Christ died because
he gave up himself. He gave himself to be made sin.
for his people and he willingly suffered and he willingly died
to put all of that sin away by the sacrifice of himself. He
willingly died. He gave himself to die so that
his people would never die. See, when Christ died, he did
not die in weakness. Christ died in power. It's the
only person who ever lived that can be said of. Christ died in
power. His death had the power to put
the sin of his people away. and to make them righteous, the
power of his death. And if God has saved you, you
trust the sacrifice of the powerful savior to put away your sin. He's your only hope that your
sin has been put away. And you know this, you cannot
die the second death because Christ willingly on purpose died
for you. He gave up the ghost to die so
that you would not, will not die. And then third, each of
these animals, each picture something different that's specific about
the sacrifice of Christ. The heifer, first animal is a
heifer. The heifers, they were used for
purification. That's what the ashes of the
red heifer were all about. Everybody's, the red heifer isn't
mentioned very much in scripture and everybody's all in tears
trying to figure out about this red heifer. The red heifer is
a very simple thing. Its ashes were used for purification.
That's what it was used for. Well, that's the sacrifice of
Christ, isn't it? His sacrifice purified all of his people. He
purified them, made them holy, made them righteous, made them
without sin. And here's how he did it. You
know how he made them without sin? He took their sin away from
them. And he's the one that suffered and died. His blood cleansed
away all that sin. And if God has saved you, your
only hope of standing before God pure, your only hope is you
ever appear pure in God's sight. is the blood of Christ that he
was sacrificed for you. Then there's the goat. The goat
has to do with the sin offering. You remember on the day of atonement,
there are two goats that they used and they were for the sin
offering. The high priest would lay his hand on the head of that
goat. He would confess the sins of Israel upon the head of that
goat and he would symbolically transfer the sin of Israel to
that goat. Then one goat would be killed.
One goat would be sacrificed as the sin offering. There's
got to be death for sin. Sin was symbolically transferred
to that goat. The goat's got to die. Just like
our Lord Jesus Christ. The sin of God's people wasn't
symbolically transferred to him. It wasn't just a pretend thing.
He was made sin. He was made sin. The father did
not put an innocent man to death at Calvary. He put a guilty man
to death. Understand that and I can't explain
that but the father never would have killed his son if he hadn't
made him guilty of sin. The sin of God's people was transferred
to him and he had to die for it, the sin offering. That's
what the goat represents, the sin offering. Now there was another
goat on the Day of Atonement, wasn't there? That goat was a
scapegoat and the fit man would take that goat and lead it out
into the wilderness and he'd leave that goat and And that
goat was never seen from again. Seen or heard from again. The
fit man would come back. That's a picture of what happened
when Christ died for the sin of his people. He put it away. It's gone. It will never be seen
or heard from again. If Christ died for you, you have
no reason to ever fear standing before God in judgment because
your sin is not going to make a sudden appearance there. Christ
took it away. It's gone. And if God has saved
you, you know this. Salvation is not in your morality.
Salvation is not in you sinning less. Salvation is in this. Christ was made sin for you.
And he put your sin away. And when he did that, by the
sacrifice of himself, he made you the very righteousness of
God in him. That's the goal, the sin offering.
Put sin away. Then there's the ram. The ram
has to do with the substitute. Substitute dying in our place
so we live. I don't know how long it'll take
us to get there, but for long we're gonna get there. That famous
story of Abraham and Isaac going up that mountain. Isaac asked
his father, he said, here's the wood, here's the fire, where's the land for the burnt
offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a land for the sacrifice. And they get up
to the top of that mountain. And there had to be a discussion
here between father and the son. Abraham never could have laid
Isaac on that altar against his will. Abraham's an old man. Isaac's a young, strong man.
Never could have done it. Somehow in agreement with what
his father told him, Isaac laid down on that altar. His father
bound him to that altar. He raised the knife, getting
ready to plunge that knife into his son. And Abraham's intention
was to quarter the body of his son, his only son, and burn it
with fire. That was his intention. And he
raised the knife to do it. God said, Abraham, hold everything. And Abraham looked, and behind
him in the thicket, there was a ram caught in the thicket by
its horns. And Abraham took the ram, and
he offered him up in the stead of his son Isaac. Isaac lived
because the substitute died in his place. Now, God said there's
got to be a sacrifice. There's got to be death. Isaac
came down that mountain for one reason. There was a substitute.
And there was death on top of that mountain. The substitute
died so Isaac could come down. And before they went up that
mountain, Abraham told his servants, you boys stay here. I and the
lad are going to go yonder and worship. And we're coming back.
We are coming back. He did, didn't he? because the
substitute died in his place. And if God has saved you, your
only hope of eternal life is that Christ died as your substitute,
that he took your sin away from you and he suffered everything
that you deserve. That's the only way God won't
send you to hell, is if Christ the substitute already suffered
everything that your sin deserves and he died as your substitute
so that you can live. That's your only hope. Then there
are the two birds, the turtle dove and the pigeon. Now the
turtle dove and the pigeon were the birds that poor people would
use to offer sacrifices. They were too poor to buy a lamb
or a goat or a bullock or something, you know, to be sacrificed. And
if you were too poor, you'd bring the turtle dove and a pigeon.
I guess they were real cheap and plentiful. Even the poor
people could afford them. And here's the picture. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for poor and needy sinners. They're
bankrupt, they've got nothing to bring. And Christ is their
sacrifice. And if God has saved you, you
know this, you are spiritually bankrupt. You have nothing to
offer to God. Before or after regeneration,
you've got nothing to offer to God to make God happy with you.
Your only hope is that Christ will be sacrificed for you. And
that's who he sacrificed himself for. Poor, needy sinners who
can't do anything save themselves. Now, if you think you can do
something to help Christ save you, he's not your sacrifice. He's only the sacrifice for poor
people. The only hope we have is that the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Prince of Glory, would humble himself to sacrifice himself
for poor sinners like you and me. That's what the turtle dove
and the pigeon represent. Now, Abraham got these animals
together. Notice what the Lord said. He
said, take me a heifer and a goat and a ram and take me these things. The sacrifice is for the Lord. The sacrifice is offered to the
Lord. The sacrifice is offered to appease
the holy anger of the one that we've sinned against. We've sinned
against God. Something's got to be done with
his anger. Something's got to be, he's offended. Something's
got to be offered to him that will please him, that will appease
his justice, that will enable him to be just and justify his
people from their sin. And that's what happened with
these pictures of Christ's sacrifice. Look at verse 12, after Abraham
had taken these sacrifices, and when the sun was going down,
A deep sleep fell upon Abram. And lo, a horror of great darkness
fell upon him. And look down at verse 17. And
it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark,
behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between
those pieces. Now deep sleep came on Abram
and a horror of darkness came upon him. And part of the vision
that he saw at that time was this. He saw the animal sacrifices
and the smoking furnace and his burning lamp passing through
the sacrifices. And here's the picture. When
Christ was sacrificed for sin, a horror of great darkness came
on all the earth. God turned the sun off. I mean,
it's just like I always view it like the sun is just refusing
to shine on the horror that's taking place on God's creation
that the son of is dying for sin. And in that darkness, that
gross darkness, that's where the awful business of the sacrifice
for sin was being made. It was taking place, this business
between the father and the son. And it happened there in darkness.
Man cannot see what's going on. And that's just fine, because
the sacrifice is not for us. The sacrifice is offered to God. That smoking furnace that Abram
saw, that's the fiery furnace of God's wrath against sin. And
the Lord Jesus had to pass through that furnace alone. And he had
to go into the furnace now. He had to do it, and he had to
do it alone, and he stayed in that smoking hot furnace until
the sin of God's people was gone. He stayed in the furnace until
the Father's justice against sin was satisfied. And God said, Now again, if God
has saved you, that's the only hope you have of salvation. That's the only hope that you
have of not being in hell and being in heaven in God's presence
because Christ suffered for you. He suffered what you deserve
as your sacrifice. And the burning lamp is a picture
of God the Holy Spirit enabling God's people to see in the darkness. We're born in darkness. We're
born blind, spiritually blind, aren't we? And when the Holy
Spirit gives light and he gives us eyes to see, what do we see? What do we see? Well, if the
Holy Spirit's the one giving us the light, we always see Christ. We see that Christ is all. The
Savior said the Holy Spirit will come and take the things of mine
and he'll show them to you. The Spirit comes and He shows
us Christ. He shows us the sacrifice of
Christ. We know what Christ crucified
means. This is the only way I could be saved. If He took my sin and
He suffered and died to put it away. The Spirit makes us see,
oh, now I see why Christ was crucified. It's the only way
God can be just and still justify a sinner like me. God's justice
had to be satisfied and then He can be merciful to me. That's
the only way God could be merciful to me is if he put my sin away
first by the sacrifice of his son. And the Lord told Abraham,
take these sacrifices for me, for me. The sacrifice was for
the Lord. And here's why. Because before
the Lord can ever do something for sinners, he's got to do something
for himself. Before the Lord could be merciful
to sinners, He's first got to satisfy his justice. He's first
got to satisfy his holiness so that it's right for him to show
mercy to sinners. He can't show mercy to sinners
by ignoring their sin, can he? He can only show mercy to sinners
if his justice is satisfied first. See, everything God does must
be right. It must be holy. So he can't ignore sin. If God's
gonna be merciful, he's gotta satisfy his justice first. He's
gotta put away the sin first. Then he can be merciful to sinners.
God can be merciful to sinners like you and me, because Christ
died. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Well, Christ died, and there
is remission. He went through that furnace
alone, and there is remission. Sin is gone. Now God can be merciful. Now God can be gracious to his
people. God has a covenant of grace, a purpose of grace. to
be merciful to his people and spare his people and save them,
make them just like your son. And that entire covenant is based
on the blood of Christ is based on the sacrifice. Look at verse
18 in the same day after Abraham saw this vision of the sacrifice
of the smoking furnace and that same day the Lord made a covenant
with Abram saying under thy seed, have I given this land? from
the river of Egypt into the great river, the river Euphrates. And
you can name all those tribes that live there. They're no problem. God's going to drive them out.
This is the covenant of grace. I'm going to give you this land.
And when did he, when did he tell Abram about this covenant?
After the sacrifice. It's all based upon the blood
of Christ. And if God has saved you, this is what you see Christ.
The only way you can be saved is through the merits of the
Lord Jesus Christ, by Him suffering what you deserve. You see and
you understand the only way God can accept me is in Christ. And you don't just grudgingly
accept it like, you know, that's the only way it can be, so okay,
you know. You love it that way. You love
it that way. Now do you believe that? Do you
believe that Christ is all of your salvation? Do you love it?
That salvation comes to you through the sacrifice of Christ. He put
your sin away. If so, that's your only hope
of salvation. God saved you. He saved you. He's given you that faith. Now
second, God has saved you if God is the one that brought you
to Christ. Look back at verse 7 in our text. And he said unto
him, I am the Lord, Jehovah, that brought thee out of Ur of
the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. Now, you
know, Abraham wasn't always living there in the land of Canaan,
was he? He wouldn't always walk around there in the land of Canaan.
He used to live in the Ur of the Chaldees. He used to be down
there on Idolater. And God brought him out. Abraham
didn't decide one day to go out on his own. He left because God
brought him out, didn't he? He came to the land of Canaan
because that's where God brought him. Well, if God has saved you, You haven't
always been saved. If we're going to be saved, we
first got to get lost. Don't we? God's got to find us. God's got to be the one to save
us or else we would have stayed lost. If God has saved you, you
weren't always a good boy or little girl. You're an idolater. Just like Abram, you're an idolater.
You're worshiping an idol of your imagination or somebody
else's imagination that they are preaching to you. instead
of Christ. More likely what you're doing in some form or fashion
was worshiping yourself. Worshiping what you can do and
just being real proud of what you can do to make God happy
with you. Now your idol may have gone by the name of Jesus, but
that didn't mean you're saved. You're just talking about another
Jesus. That's what Paul called him, another Jesus. Just because
you use the name Jesus didn't mean you're saved. You're still
just lost as a golf ball in a foot of snow. You're lost. If God
has saved you, now you see. See, I was lost, now I'm found.
I was blind, now I see. And again, I ask you, what do
you see? Well, if God has saved you, you see Christ. You see
that He is your all. And you know why you see that?
If you see Christ, you see Him as your all, you believe Him,
and you love Him. You know why that is? Because
God Almighty brought you out of idolatry, in the Ur of the
Chaldees, and He brought you to Christ, so that you see Him
and believe Him. and you weren't saved till you
saw Christ, till you heard Him preach and you believed Him.
Abraham wasn't saved down there in Ur of the Chaldeans. He wasn't
saved when he was bound down worshiping to an idol and you
weren't either. God doesn't save anybody in false religion. God's
never gonna use the preaching of a lie to save anybody. But
if God has saved you, He brought you out of that. He brought you
out of that business. He reached down and plucked you
out on purpose, left everybody else there and plucked you out
and brought you to Christ. And you believe Him and you love
Him because God brought you to Him. Now, is that your experience? You couldn't have ever come to
Christ. You could never known Him. You could never believe
Him any other way except God Almighty picked you up and brought
you to Christ. If so, God saved you. Then here's
the third thing. If God has saved you, you will
contend for the faith. Verse 10 again, and he took unto
him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece
one against another, but the birds divided he not. And when
the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now, just as soon as that sacrifice
was prepared and it was out there in the open, the vultures start
circling and then they came down and started attacking. But now
notice here, they didn't attack Abraham, did they? They attacked
the sacrifice. And Abraham wasn't going to stand
for that. I mean, I don't know what he got, a broom or a rake
or something. Can't you just see Abraham out there, this 90-year-old
man, you know, swatting at these birds and keeping these birds?
I mean, he got tired, but he was keeping those birds away
from that sacrifice. The sacrifice was for the Lord,
and he swatted them away. Now, here's the picture. If God
has saved you, you can bank on this. It's not going to be long
for the vultures start circling and they're going to attack.
Now they're not going to attack you exactly directly. They're
going to attack the sacrifice. They're going to attack the sacrifice
that you're trusting your soul to. They're going to say, Oh,
you know, they're going to try to take away from the sacrifice
of Christ and by taking something away from it, And they'll say,
oh, yes, yes, Christ died. Christ died for sinners. Yes,
he died. But now you've got to do something to make it effectual.
You know, do whatever it is their favorite ceremony is or something.
You've got to do something. And if somebody says that, they're
taken away from the sacrifice of Christ. If Christ alone, alone,
is not enough to save me, I'll be damned. I know that. I believe
that. I'm going to beat those vultures
away with everything I got. They're not going to take away
from this. Christ is all. Christ is enough. Then they'll
say something like this. Well, Christ died for you. Yes.
And he saved you. He gave you life. But now, you
know, you can be saved today and lost tomorrow. You know,
you've got to live a righteous life and you've got to be moral.
You've got to do these certain things. You've got to give enough.
You've got to whatever, you know, do enough of whatever their favorite
religious thing is, you know. You got to do that in order to
keep yourself saved. You know, you could be saved.
Christ could save you. You could mess it up and lose it. Now you
see how that takes away from the sacrifice of Christ, don't
you? If Christ is not all of my righteousness, if he's not
all of my salvation, if he's not the great shepherd, that's
going to bring me all the way home. And he left me one thing
to do in order to be saved. then I won't have any righteousness,
and I'll be damned. I know that. So I'm going to
beat those vultures away with everything I've got. Christ is all I need. Not my
works added to it, just him. And then they'll say, yes, there's
Christ's sacrifice, but now you've got to do some religious ceremonies
in order to be saved. You've got to be baptized. You've
got to give. You've got to attend a certain
number of meetings and stuff. And listen, I am in no way minimizing
the importance of baptism. The believer is commanded to
confess Christ in believer's baptism. But don't you be baptized
in order to be saved. No, don't do it. We're baptized
because God's done something for us. Because I see Christ's
death, burial, and resurrection is my only hope of salvation.
Don't you be baptized in order to be saved. Baptism is done
as a confession of what God's already done. We're not putting
Christ's sacrifice plus something you do, as religious sounding
as it is, in order to be saved. You don't have to know all the
right doctrine. You know, I know people are just worried that
how easily it is somebody out there in false religion can trip
them up on doctrine and confuse them up and they just don't know
all the right way to say it and stuff. They want people to pass
all their tests. live up to their standards, you
know, their religious standards. You see how that takes away from
the sacrifice of Christ? If Christ did everything, but
leave me one step to take into heaven, I'll be damned. Christ did it all. He's everything
I've got. He's all of my hope. And I'm going to beat those vultures
away with everything I got. That's contending for the faith.
And if God has saved you, you just cannot stand hearing the
gospel compromised. You can't stand the compromising
salvation in Christ alone. And you can't stand it because
he's all your hope. And when people start compromising these
things, they take away your hope. They take away from the sacrifice.
Then God has saved you. All right, here's the fourth
thing. If God has saved you, he will try your faith. Look
at verse 12. And when the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And lo and horror of great darkness
fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Abram,
know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that is not theirs. And they shall serve them. And
they shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve, I will judge. And afterward shall they come
out with great abundance. Now God tries the faith of everybody
that he saves. That's what this, this is a picture
of the children of Israel going down there in Egypt. What a trial
that had to be for the children of Jacob, the children of Israel.
They went down there because Joseph was in charge and life
was good when Joseph was in charge. They lived there about 30 years
while Joseph was in charge. And then there arose a pharaoh
that knew not Joseph. And he started afflicting the
people. And that lasted 400 years. They were there about 430 years.
400 of those years, they were slaves in Egypt. And how horrible,
I mean, I just can't imagine how horrible it would be to live
as a slave with no rights. If people just do anything they
want to you, they take your children. Pharaoh did, took all their boy
babies and killed them and threw them in the river Nile I mean,
just having no rights and just the abuse and living that way?
What a trial that was. But you know what? All that was
in God's purpose. And God delivered them right
on time at the exact moment He promised Abraham. He delivered
in 400 years. And the faith of God's elect
has to be tried. Has to be. Has to be tried to
be proven to be genuine faith. And not one of us is looking
forward to the next trial. But when it comes, and then God
delivers us from it, and we may have to have a little space from
it, and we'll look back. You know what we'll say? The
best thing for me. I learned from that. I remember
being a boy and getting a spanking from my dad. I didn't like that. But looking back now, that's
the best thing for me. Best thing. That's what trials
are. Trials make our faith more precious. It's like gold that goes into
the refiner's fire. It burns off that dross. At least
some of it. God's got to burn off the dross
and make us trust Christ to find out how trustworthy He is. How we can cast our soul upon
Him. And I'm telling you, believer,
trials are coming. That's what our Savior promised us. He didn't
try to get followers by saying, oh, you're going to have an easy
life. He said, this is your lot in life, trials and tribulations.
They're coming. But if God has saved you, He's
going to keep you looking to Christ. He's going to keep you
depending upon Christ. And you know why you'll do that?
Why won't you quit? Because God won't let you. He
won't let you quit. His purpose to save you, And
he's gonna do it by his power and by his grace, and in his
time he'll deliver you. He always does. Then here's the
last thing. If God has saved you, you will
trust that God's will for the salvation of his people is always
done. He says in verse 14, also that
nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards
shall they come out with great substance, and I shall go to
thy father's and I shall be buried in a good old age. But in the
fourth generation, they shall come hither again for the iniquity
of the Amorites is not yet full. But God told them Israel is going
to go down there and be slaves in Egypt. And he told them that
long before it happened. And one of the reasons is this.
So when it happened, we know this thing's not an accident.
This is God's will being carried out. And God told them the exact
number of years they'd be afflicted in Egypt. And then they're going
to be delivered. And this is what they found out.
It happened exactly the way God told them it would happen. And
when they left, they knew this. This is God's will being carried
out. Pharaoh hadn't gone crazy and just letting us loose. This
is God's will being carried out. And we've been slaves here for
400 years. We haven't owned a blessed thing
in 400 years. hundred years. And we're leaving
here this night with all the riches of Egypt. Not because
we went in there with big swords and took them away from people
and threatened them and made them give us their life savings.
People are coming throwing it at us and telling us get out. We left, we spoiled Egypt just
because they gave it to us. We left here in abundance. Almighty God has a purpose of
redemption. and the ultimate glorification
of His people. That's God's will. And He's going
to do it. Because He always does His will.
Always. And you know, to the believer,
much, much, much of this life is being in bondage. It feels
like we're just trudging through a life of slavery in Egypt. It just feels like one thing
after another comes up. We're just making bricks without
straw. Just feel utterly helpless and utterly worn out. I was talking
to a dear friend of mine this week and he said, you know, I
trust God. He said, I do, I trust God. He
said, but I'm wore out. I'm wore out with this thing.
I'm worn out. Mentally, physically, I'm wore
out. I believe God. I trust God. I'm worn out. Making
bricks without straw in me. I mean, just trudging through
this veil of tears here below. Oh, I'm telling you. I don't
want to get into tomorrow's message this funeral, but I'm telling
you. This world is not all there is. Yeah, we're wore out with
this world. Of course you are. In God's exact
time, Now, when we get discouraged, it's because we set our sights
too low. We're looking here too low. We're
looking here below. Instead of looking at what's
coming, in His exact time, the Lord's going to come and He's
going to deliver His people. He's going to take them out of
the darkness of this world. He's going to take them out of
this sinful flesh that we got to live in. And He's going to
bring us to glory with great substance. Great substance. What is that great substance?
Is it you're so rich you walk on streets of gold and you don't
want to scrape the gold off the ground? Is it seeing pearly gates? Is the great substance we're
going to come into glory with, is that seeing that white rogue
choir all singing around and singing? Everybody says that
like they're looking at the choir singing to them or something.
If I'm not mistaken from what scripture says, the believer's
in the choir. We're not watching, we're participating in that whole
deal. Is it happening at a big mansion? You can look back at
your buddies that you used to attend Hurricane Row with and
say, they're a mansion than you. Is that your great substance?
No. The great substance of every
believer is being made just like Christ. And how we long to see Him now,
don't we? Always more, never less. We're always wanting more,
aren't we? And we see. The Spirit gives us light to
see, but it's through a glass darkly, isn't it? I see, while
I'm studying it, I see this. And I go out of the study and
go somewhere, and how'd I forget? How'd I forget
so soon? there will see him face to face. And you're not going to care
if there are streets of gold and pearly gates. Because all
you're going to see is him and to be made just like him. Now
that's what you've got to look forward to if God's the one saved
you. That's a blessing, isn't it?
That's a blessing. I hope God will make it so. Let's
bow together. Our Father, Oh, how we thank
you for the fully sufficient sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. How you've given, we thank you
that you've given us so many types and pictures and promises. You've given us an account of
the actual sacrifice. The sacrifice of our blessed
Savior that put away the sin of His people. Father, how we
thank you. And how I pray that you'd give us a heart of faith
that would latch on to Christ our Savior. Such hope and peace
and comfort and trust in Christ that he is all that we need. He's all that is required of
us. Father, I pray that you take your word and apply it to the
hearts of those who are gathered here this evening. Cause us to
believe, cause us to be able to leave here knowing God has
saved me. And the evidence is because I
trust Christ. It's in his blessed name. It's
for his glory. We do ask this great blessing,
Father, for ourselves. We're mercy beggars. We're begging
mercy. But Father, for your great namesake, would you be merciful
to us? In our day, in this day, tonight, would you show us your
glory in revealing yourself and your redemptive power to your
people? It's in the precious name of Christ our Savior. For
his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.