If you would open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 19. Psalm 19. We'll read this whole Psalm,
but the first six verses of it seem to just be a direct commentary
on the fourth day of creation. So I thought it would be good
for us to read before we look at that fourth day here in a
few minutes. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There's no
speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line
has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world. In them he has set a tabernacle
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and
rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is
from the end of the heaven, and his circuit under the ends of
it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the
honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can
understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not
have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and
I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. All right, Sean,
you come lead us in some singing. If you would, turn to song number
58. Jesus, the very thought of thee. Jesus, the very thought of thee
with sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter for thy face to see,
and in thy presence rest. Nor voice can sing, nor heart nor can the memory find a sweeter
sound than thy blessed name, O Savior of mankind. O hope of every contrite Joy of all the meek! To those who fall, how kind thou
art! How good to those who seek! But what to those who find? Ah, this nor tongue nor pen can
show The love of Jesus, what it is None but his loved ones
know. Jesus, our only joy, be thou
as thou our prize wilt be. Jesus, be thou our glory now
and through eternity. Okay, if you would now turn to
song number 466, Christ Liveth in Me. Once far from God and dead in
sin No light my heart could see But in God's Word the light I
found Now Christ liveth in me Christ liveth in me Christ liveth
in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. As rays of light from yonder
sun, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love
came forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation is that
Christ liveth in me! As lives the flower within the
seed, as in the cone the tree. So praise the God of truth and
grace, His Spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. What a salvation is that Christ
liveth in me, With longing all my heart is filled, That like
Him I may be. As on the wondrous thought I
dwell, that Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. All right, now let's turn, if you
would, to the book of Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. We'll begin our reading in verse
14. And the Lord said, let there
be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day
from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and
for days and years. And let them be for lights in
the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And
it was so. And God made two great lights,
the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule
the night. He made the stars also. And God
set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon
the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to
divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. We'll end
our reading there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this evening people who have gathered together with the great
need to hear word from thee. Father, I pray that this evening
that you would give us a message from you, the message that you
would have us to hear. Father, I beg of you that you
would enable me to preach that message in the power of your
spirit, not in the strength of human intellect, the weakness
of of human oratory, but Father, in the power of thy spirit. Father,
I pray you bless your word and bless your people. Father, give
us a hearing ear, a heart that would believe and rejoice in
hearing one more time of Christ our Savior. Father, we freely
confess that without thee we can do nothing. We cannot worship,
we can't preach, we can't hear, we can't sing, we can't pray.
We can't believe, we can't rest, we can't do anything without
Thee. Father, I pray that this evening
you would enable us to worship and to hear and to be able to
take these things that we hear, to be able to take them in our
heart back out into the world, that they would sustain us and
feed us and strengthen us until we can return back together again.
Father, we dare not forget to pray for those who are in in
times of great difficulty. Thank you for the good report
we've had. Father, we pray that you would be with your people,
strengthen and heal them. We continue to pray for Aaron
and for Barb. We pray for Ron and Brady that,
Father, you'd undertake in their behalf. Restore them back to
health and back to where we can meet together again and worship
thee together. And Father, we pray for our country
and for the world. We pray that you would, in thy
power, give us some relief from this pandemic and enable people
to return back to a more normal life without this hanging over
us. Healing, all healing comes from
thee. And Father, we look to thee for
help and guidance and that you would sustain us. All these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ is in his precious name. When I was lost in sin and shame
How Thou let me take the blame Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me When I could look down deep within And see the sinfulness
of sin Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. O how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. A sinner lost, and so hell-bent,
Yet thou say'st I must repent Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
was to me I wonder why should I rebel And with a soul deserving
hell Blessed Lord, how merciful Oh, how merciful, how merciful
Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me Oh, how merciful, how merciful
Blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. I'm not ashamed of all that grace
when you came and took my place. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. and when this world ceases to
be eternal blood to speak for me blessed lord how merciful
thou art to me oh how merciful How merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful If you would, begin opening your
Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 3. Hold your place there
in Genesis 1. We'll come back there in just
a minute, but we're going to begin looking at a few verses in Colossians
chapter 3. I titled the message this evening,
Christ the Ruling Savior. The fourth day of creation is
a picture that I see of Christ ruling over all of God's creation.
Ruling is the reigning mediator between God and men. Everything
that happens in the fourth day of creation happens in the heavens. This is the creation of the sun,
the moon, the stars. It all turns our attention upward
to heaven, and that's exactly what we need. Look here at Colossians
three verse one. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above where Christ said it on the right
hand of God, set your affection on things above, not on things
on the earth for you're dead and your life is hid with Christ
in God. And we need to set our affection.
We need to have our affection turned upward, turned to heaven
in every aspect of our life. In salvation, we need to set
our affection on things above. We need to set our affection
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our only hope. He's the
only one we can trust. He's the only object of faith.
We need to set our affection on him above. In our worship,
we need to set our affection on things above. If we're gonna
worship God, we need to set our affection on the Lord Jesus Christ
because he's the only object of worship. He's the only subject
we have to preach in the worship service. We need to set our affection
on things above. And as we walk through this world,
we need to set our affection, our attention, we need to set
our heart on things above. As we walk through this world,
we need to set our affection on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
our shepherd, he's our captain, he's our guide. And I promise
you, we'd all be a whole lot better off if we'd set our affection
on things above, not on this perishing world. I promise you
we would. Setting our affection on Christ
will keep the things that, you know, you can't just ignore the
world. I'm not saying ignore the world. What I'm saying is
this, if we set our affection on the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll
keep the rest of the things of this life in perspective, in
its proper perspective. And that's what we learn on the
fourth day of creation. Now, if you will turn back to
Genesis chapter one, the fourth day is where we have the creation
of the sun, S U N, which is a picture of Christ, our risen savior is
he's ascended back on high where he sits upon the throne of God. That's what we read in scripture.
He sits upon the throne of God waiting until his enemies be
made his footstool. But now as he sits there on the
throne of God, he waits. That's what scripture says. but
don't take that to mean that he's inactive as he's sitting
upon the throne. He's not inactive at all. He
sits on God's throne, sovereignly reigning over all of God's creation. He sits on that throne as the
mediator. He's active. He's the mediator
of his people. I want us to see three or four
things here about Christ, the ruling savior. Number one is
this. It's Christ who divides his elect
from the world. Verse 14, Genesis one. And God
said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to
divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights
in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
And it was so, it seems like we see this over and over and
over again in creation, a division. There's a division. Remember
on the first day, God said, let there be light and the darkness,
was divided from the light. On the second day, the waters
above the firmament were separated from the waters below the firmament.
On the third day, the dry land appeared. The dry land was separated
from the sea. Now remember on the first day,
God said, let there be light. Now there was a division and
that division between light and darkness is a spiritual division. When God said let there be light,
that wasn't the sun. The sun's not gonna be created
till three days later, the sun in the sky. That light that God
said let appear is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the light of the
world. Now on the fourth day, the sun,
S-U-N, was created. On the fourth day, there's a
division again. Now this is a division, but it's a physical division
between light in darkness. The first day there was that
physical division of light and darkness is a picture. It's a
picture of the division between spiritual light and spiritual
darkness. Now that's a good, you think
about when God said let the sun appear, the moon and the stars.
Suddenly the sun is shining and there's a physical division between
light and darkness. And it's given to us as a spiritual
picture. That globe hanging in space,
suddenly half of it's in light and half of it's in darkness,
is a picture of the believer. The believer has two natures.
The believer has the old man, the old nature. He can do nothing
but sin. That's a nature of darkness.
Every believer's got that nature. If you know Christ, you know
exactly what I'm talking about. There's an old man that's just, he's
darkness. The believer also has a new man
born of God. That new man cannot sin. It's that new man that believes
God, that loves God, that trusts Christ. That nature is light. And both of those natures, light
and darkness, are going to appear in that believer as long as they're
on this earth. That's what's pictured in the
globe. You see that globe hanging in space and you know, they send
astronauts up into space. You see these gorgeous, gorgeous
pictures of earth and you always see it, half of it's in darkness
and half of it is in light. That's a picture of the two natures
of a believer. But also now in the world, in
a believer, there's this division between light and darkness, these
two natures in one body. But in the world, there's also
a division between light and darkness. In the world, there's
always spiritual light and spiritual darkness. There's those who believe,
those who do not believe. There are those who have the
light, the light of faith, the light, the light of life. They
believe Christ. They know Christ. They see him.
And then there are those who are in darkness, then the darkness
of ignorance and the darkness of unbelief. They don't believe
Christ. And I can tell you why they don't
believe. They don't see him. They can't see. How can they?
They're in darkness. They can't see anything. Well,
what made the difference between the two? Some are in light, some
are in darkness, some have life, some are dead. What made the
difference? God did. God did. God divided the day
from the night. He divided the light from the
darkness. And it was the Lord Jesus Christ who made that division. He made that division because
he is the one who has every right to do it. He has every right
to make that division. He has every right to save whom
he will. And he has every right to pass
by whom he will. He has every right to be merciful to whom
he will be merciful because mercy is his to give. He's the king. It's his to give and it's his
to withhold. You and I have sinned against God. That's not up to us whether we're
forgiven, is it? We've sinned against God. It's up to God whether
or not we'll be forgiven. This is, this is his choice and
all that's left for us to do is beg him for mercy, beg him
to forgive us because it's his to give. And the, you know, if
he doesn't make the difference, if he, if the Lord Jesus Christ
does not make the difference in my heart, I'll remain in darkness. He's the one that makes the difference.
He gives his people light. Well, number two, it's the Lord
Jesus Christ who rules. the world. Did you notice how
many times this word rule was used for 16? God made two great
lights, the greater light to rule the day and a lesser light
to rule the night. He made the stars also and God
set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon
the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to
divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. God put these lights in, in,
in the heavens to rule. Now, every form of physical life
is dependent upon the sun. In some ways, we need sun for
the plants to grow, for animals to eat, and you gotta have photosynthesis,
you gotta have light for just every form of life. It's all
dependent upon the sun. Well, the sun that is the center
of our universe is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're
all completely dependent upon him. in every way, both physical
life and spiritual life. We're completely dependent on
him to give us spiritual life. And he's all of the difference.
The difference between spiritual light and darkness is Christ. The difference between spiritual
life and death is Christ. The difference between being
saved and being lost, the difference is Christ. The difference between
faith and unbelief is Christ. The difference between righteousness
and unrighteousness is Christ. The difference between seeing
and being spiritually blind is Christ. It's all dependent upon
Him. Christ is the light of the world.
He's the only spiritual light any human being can ever have. We can only know God in the light
of who Christ is. You can only know who God is
how it is that God saves sinners in the light by seeing the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only manifestation of
God that we'll ever have, but he's the only way that we can
see God is both just and merciful. The only way you can possibly
see God is both just and merciful is in the sacrifice of Christ
as a substitute for his people. That's the only way you can know
God. That's the only way that you can know how God saves sinners.
That's the only way you can see the wisdom of God in the substitute
dying so that his people might have life. We can only know who
God is in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can only know
how God saves a sinner like me and remains just and holy and
right. The only way we can see that
is if we see Christ in the light of who he is and what he did.
The only way we can know how is it possible that a sinner
like me that all I do is sin. How is it possible that God who
sees everything perfectly can see me as sinless? How's that
possible? The only way we can know that
is in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of that comes by
Christ being my representative. The only way I can be sinless
is if my obedience is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. I had
to be in Christ. When he obeyed the law, I did
too. If I was in him, that's the only
way I can have obedience and righteousness before God. If
I was in Christ, when he did it for me, it's the only way.
The only way that I can be sinless is if the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin for me. And when I say that, this is
what the scripture means. He took my sin and he made it
his. He became guilty of it. Everything
associated with sin, with the exception of the commission of
it, was on Christ at Calvary. He made sin for his people. He took it and he made it his.
And in justice, God didn't kill an innocent man. He didn't sacrifice
an innocent man at Calvary. He put to death a guilty man.
He became guilty of that sin. And in justice, he paid for all
of that sin with his precious blood, the blood of his sacrifice. That's the only way I can be
made sinless. The only way. That's the only
way God could see me as sinless is if he made me sinless by the,
by the obedience and the sacrifice of Christ. And the only way that
I can know that the only way I can, that I can believe that
is this. God made the difference and he
gave faith though to those people that he has given this gift of
faith. They're going to hear that and believe it. They're
going to amen that. They see Christ. And the only
way that we can see Christ is through the preaching of the
gospel. Somebody's got to come tell us who Christ is, that we
would believe him. Everything that God has for a
sinner, you can only see it, understand it, and believe it
in the light of who Christ is. And it's Christ who makes the
difference by his will, by his will. He makes the difference
between the saved and the lost. He makes all of the difference
by himself because he's got the crown rights to do it. He got
the crown rights to make the difference. He rules and his
rule is good. God saw this and he said, it's
good. It's good. And that's true of
the sun and the moon and the stars, but oh, how true that
is of Christ our savior. His rule, his reign is good. Everything he does is good. Everything. It's good because
he did it. And here it is on this Wednesday
night. Everybody's pretty comfortable. I know we've got a lot of sickness
and heartache and sorrow, but for the most part, we're pretty
comfortable. It's kind of easy to say standing
here, oh, everything God does is good. What about when it hurts? Huh? What about when it happens and
you can't understand? I mean, and you'll never understand. What do you do then? Hang on
to this. God saw it was good. It's good. It's good because Christ did
it. It's good that he rules. It's
good that he rules over everything. He's the only one worthy to rule.
The only one worthy to rule. He's the only one with the wisdom
to rule well. His name is wisdom. He got the
wisdom to rule well. And listen, he's the only one
who has the compassion to rule well. He's a high priest who
can be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. because he
was made flesh and dwelt among us. He has the compassion to
rule well. He's the only one that has the
mercy and the grace to rule well, because he's the only one that
has a nature of mercy and grace. His rule is good, and the best
thing for us to do is to bow to him, because he rules, and
we're thankful. All right, number three, Christ
rules the world as the mediator of his people. Now we talk about
salvation being accomplished by the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. How many times have we said that, thought about it
in that way? Salvation is accomplished by the death, the burial, and
the resurrection of Christ. But do you know in truth, there's
one more thing that Christ must do in order for him to accomplish
the salvation of his people, to bring in this salvation that
is sure and certain for his people. He must die. He must be buried.
He must rise again, but he also must ascend back on high. The
savior must go back to glory. He must ascend back there. Having
led captivity captive, he must appear as the successful victorious
savior. He must ascend back to glory
where the father tells him, sit here on my right hand. I'd make
your enemies your footstool. He must, he must sit there. He
must sit on that throne. He must ascend back to glory.
where he will ever live as the mediator of his people. And that's
exactly what he did. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is at this very moment sitting on
the throne as the mediator. You think of that. Sitting on
the throne as the mediator of his people. Father, forgive them. Father, accept them. That's the
only way our salvation can be complete. In order for the salvation
of God's elect to be complete, Christ the Savior had to enter
into the place, not made with hands, by his own merit, by his
own merit. You and I, if we appear in glory
someday, it's not gonna be on our merit, it's gonna be on the
merits of another, isn't it? Christ the Savior had to enter there
on his own merit. He had to enter there on the
merit of his obedience. It had to be perfect. It had
to be in thought, word and deed. It had to be perfect. There's
no veneer that you can fool people with. It had to be perfect before
God. He had to enter there on the
merit of his blood. His blood had to be pure, precious, sinless,
so that it could wash away the sin of his people. He has to
have the merit of his obedience, his own personal righteousness
that he earned, that he worked out as a man. made under the
law. He has the merit of his own blood, precious, sinless
blood that cleanses us from all sin. He's got to have that in
order to make intercession as the mediator for his people.
It's the only way they'll be accepted. Let me show you that
in Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. Verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, the only way sinners like
us can come before God's throne, I mean, I get a hold of what
we're talking about here. We're talking about the throne
of God. The only way sinners like you
and me can appear before that throne boldly, confidently, confident
that we'll be accepted. The only way we can do that is
if the one who sits on that throne is the Savior, our Savior. The
one who sits there on that throne is also the mediator, the one
who suffered and died for his people. He will always give mercy. He'll always give grace to help
in time of need. Always. See, we can come boldly,
confidently because we know we're accepted in him, in his merits,
in the merit of his righteousness and the merit of his blood. That's
what gives us confidence to come to him. Look over a page of Hebrews
chapter seven. Verse 19, for the law made nothing perfect.
Nothing we did under the law could ever make anybody perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw
nigh unto God. Who is this that brought in a
better hope, that made things perfect? The Lord Jesus Christ.
It's by him that we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not
without an oath he was made priest, for those priests were made without
an oath, but this with an oath. By him that said unto him, The
Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever, after
the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost, to come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now God's elect are
saved to the uttermost, fully and completely by the same Savior
who saved us. The same Savior who saved us
also sits upon the throne as the mediator. He's there to plead
his blood before the Father for the forgiveness of the sin of
his people. And as our mediator, Christ pleads, He makes intercession
for His people. Scripture talks about how He
pleads, but He doesn't plead like we use the term plead. Don't
ever think that Christ our mediator is begging and asking His Father,
do me a favor and forgive this sin. Do me a favor and ignore
this sin. That is not what's going on on that throne between
the Father and the Son, between the Father and our mediator.
Christ our mediator, Never ask his father to ignore justice.
Ever. Ever. And we wouldn't want him
to. I mean, you couldn't have much
confidence if the holy God is going to accept you on this basis
that he's ignoring your sin. There can't be much confidence
there, could there? When our mediator pleads for his people,
he pleads justice. He pleads holy justice. Father,
forgive them. I paid for that sin. Father,
forgive them my sin. My blood has blotted that sin
out. Blotted it out. And the Father
always smiles and said, yes. He always forgives. He always
gives mercy. Because the blood of Christ took
away the sin that made God angry. There's no reason for Him to
withhold mercy and grace. If Christ died for you, His blood
took away the sin that made God angry. Christ the Savior sits
on the throne as our mediator, ruling. Ruling. And that's what the sun is a
picture of. God gave the sun to rule by day. There in Psalm
19 that we read to open the service, David said, you can't escape
it. There's no escaping it. The sun rules the day. Well,
that's what the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of righteousness does.
He rules. He rules every event in human
history to accomplish one purpose. One purpose. His glory and the
redemption of His people. That's His purpose. See, He's
ruling. God does not react to what men
do in time. You know, God doesn't see men
doing something and say, oh, well, I better change my plan
in order to make this happen. I gotta change this, this, this,
you know. That's God's react, that is God reacting to accomplish
His purpose. That's not what He's doing. Before
creation, before God created Adam in the garden, He already
had ordained everything that would ever happen in his creation.
Everything that human beings would do, everything that would
happen in the weather, everything an animal would do, everything.
He'd already ordained all of that to happen. And then he created
man upon the earth to make it all happen, to accomplish his
will and his purpose. God works every evil thing that
men do to accomplish his purpose and the redemption of his people.
Now, I don't understand that. God didn't ordain evil. He didn't
create evil. But somehow he willed for that
to happen in order to bring about his purpose for the redemption
of his people. See, they're not doing something.
God's got to react to it. Evil men are doing what they're
doing because God ordained it to happen before time began so
he could accomplish his purpose. Now, that is how complete his
rule over everything is. That's how complete it is. It's
just absolutely there. People are just doing what God's
willed for them to do. Well, now that puts today's news
in a whole different light, doesn't it? We got to worry about, huh? We got to worry about. It's the
sovereign rule of Christ, our mediator, that guarantees the
salvation of his people and lets his people rest while they trust
Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Christ rules the world through the preaching of the
gospel. Back in Genesis 1, verse 16, God made two great
lights. We've been talking about the
sun as a picture of Christ, the sun, but God made two great lights,
the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule
the night. He made the stars also. God made
two great lights. The sun to rule the day, but
he made a lesser light. God made the moon. And the moon
rules the night. It rules the night as a picture
of God's church on earth. God's church on earth, that's
his people. They're like the moon in this way. We can't produce
any light of our own. We don't have any light of our
own. The moon can only reflect the light of the sun. The moon
is not, you know, Oh, it just, you know, has a produces its
own light and just shines less brightly than the sun. The moon
has no light of its own whatsoever. All the moon is doing is reflecting
the light of the sun and that's the church. We can't, we can't
produce the light of our own. The only thing we can do The
absolute best thing that we can do while we're on this earth
is reflect the light of Christ our Savior. That's what we're
to do. Believers are like the moon in
that we give light to the dark world by reflecting the light
of Christ our Savior. Now, can you tell me how we do
that? How is it that we frail creatures
of the dust, like us, how can we reflect the light of the glory
of Christ our Savior? Well, let me give you four ways.
Number one, we reflect the light of Christ by our preaching, by
preaching Christ. The Lord uses the gospel to call
out his elect. He uses the preaching of the
gospel to give his elect faith in Christ. to bring them, to
draw them to Christ. And the Lord rules in this thing
of preaching the gospel. He rules it. When we preach the
gospel, we're not begging people to do something. We're not begging
people to do anything because God's not a beggar. God's the
king. We're the beggars. When we preach the gospel on
the authority of God's word, we're commanding sinners to believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's commandment
to you. I try to tell you in every message
I preach, you come to Christ. Now that's not just a good idea.
That's not a suggestion from God that your life will be better
if you do that. This is a commandment from God.
You come to Christ. It's the only way you'll have
life. You come to Christ. You believe on him. And the Lord
rules this whole earth by the preaching of the gospel in this
way. There's no power on earth or
in hell that can stop this gospel from giving life and faith to
God's elect. Satan himself, the evil men of
the world, the enemies of the gospel, nothing, the demons,
nothing can stop this gospel from being priests and giving
faith to God's elect and bringing them to the feet of Christ the
Savior. Nothing. On earth, nothing in
heaven, nothing can stop this gospel from being preached and
feeding the hearts of God's children, comforting their hearts and strengthening
them and continuing to draw them to Christ because the Lord makes
it effectual. See, that's how he rules the
world in this matter of preaching. By the preaching of the gospel,
he's ordained. It's pleased him to use that
to save his people. Well, since that's true, we can
never fail. when we preach the gospel? Never. Never. Because God will always
accomplish the purpose whereunto he sent it. It will never return
unto him void. Never. Now we may not accomplish
our purpose when we preach the gospel, but we'll always accomplish
God's will in it. Always. Maybe it's his will,
and I pray it is. I pray it every single day. Could
be God's will that he'll use this message tonight to preach
to you Christ, to give life in faith. Find one of his lost sheep
and bring them. Could be. It could be it's his
will to harden the heart of one and drive them away. I don't
know. I don't know. Could be it's his
will to comfort the hearts, to settle the hearts of his troubled
people. Could be. Could be he uses it
to strengthen us. I don't know, but whatever his
purpose is, in this message, tonight, in this hour, I can
promise you this, it's gonna happen. It will be done. I promise
you it will. I promise you. That's how God
rules, to call out his people through the preaching of the
gospel. All right, number two, and we reflect that, the light,
the glory of Christ by preaching him. All right, number two, we
reflect the light of Christ when we refuse to preach any other
subject other than Christ. Just refuse to do it. That message,
the message of Christ, I've been looking at the word doctrine
this week in preparation for Sunday. The gospel and scripture
is called the doctrine of Christ. That's it, the doctrine of Christ,
the teaching of him, who he is. It's the doctrine. Our message
is Christ, and Him crucified, what it is that He accomplished
in His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension back
on high. That message of Christ is the
only message God will use to give His people light and to
make them see. It's not us trying to get results,
trying to get the results that we would like to see. That's
not it. I believe this is true. I believe this is true. I think
this is true. I think that I could talk people into doing a lot
of things. Wearing a coat and tie, having
a Bible, standing up behind this thing, having the name pastor
attached to you, you can get people to do stuff. Our children,
oh, before Christmas, I'm confident. If I wanted to, I'd have every
single one of them baptized. I just think I could. Maybe I'm
full of myself, but I think I could. I think I could. I think I could.
I think I've been around long enough. I could entice them.
I could guilt them. I could, you know. Boy, we'd
have big old hootenanny, wouldn't we? Big old service. Would that
be the glory of Christ? Would it? Would it? We reflect
the light of Christ when we just stick to doing what God told
us to do. Preach Christ. and leave the results to Him.
We reflect the light of Christ when we say, look to Christ and
don't look to me. Trust Christ. Don't trust what
you're doing. Don't trust your morality, your
religion, your knowledge. Don't trust that. Trust Christ.
We reflect the light of Christ when we point men away from themselves
and away from us to Christ. That's how we reflect the light
of Christ. Number three, we reflect the light of Christ by living
in dependence upon Christ. It's by living in dependence
on His love for me, not my love for Him. It's by living in dependence,
complete and utter dependence on His obedience to the law,
not mine. And I promise you, people listen
to you talk and they can tell the difference. I think of all
the years I worked in warehouses and different places, you know.
They're in the lunchroom and people invariably talk about
religion, often. You just listen. You know what
they're depending on. Just listen, you know what they're
depending on. We reflect the light of Christ by living in
dependence on his light. his obedience, not mine. I promise
you people know the difference. I promise you they notice. Number
four, we reflect the light of Christ by being careful to maintain
good works. Up to this very moment, I've
preached grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, Christ,
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. I promise you I didn't ruin it.
I just mentioned being careful to maintain good works. Believers
are commanded to be careful to maintain good works. And I tell
you what a good work is. A good work is a work that's
done in faith, in faith, faith in Christ. It's for the good
of God's people, to help them. That is a good work. A good work
is done in faith, not for my own recognition. See, the very
moment that I try to gain some recognition for how helpful I'm
being and what I've done, you know, at that very moment, it
stops being a good work. where I'm trying to gain something
for myself. And I tell us here, Hurricane
Road Grace Church, let's seek, let's be careful to maintain
good works and seek ways to help one another. And you all do that. I'm so thankful you do that.
But I don't stop. Be careful to maintain that.
Keep it up. Seek ways to help one another. Wash one another's feet by encouraging
one another. Be an encouragement and help
each other. That's reflecting the light of Christ. That's the
way we beautify the dark, dark world in which we live. One of
the writers I read this week talked about this, said God made
the stars also. He talked about God just scattering
those stars just to beautify the earth. Just to, how many
times in your life have you gone out there and said, wow, look
at those stars? That's the way God's people beautify
this dark world in which we live just by reflecting his light.
God created the sun and the moon to rule the day and to rule the
night. And the sun and the moon have
a great effect on this earth. The sun and the moon causes days
and years and months and years to happen. The moon causes the
ocean tide to come and go. The sun and the moon, I don't
understand how all that works, but the sun and moon, they get
in their different positions. You know, they cause the seasons
to change. We were down in Mexico one time, and Cody Groover took
us to these ruins. We came around this corner. He
said, what does that look like? I said, it looks like an observatory. And it was built like, you know,
1000 AD or BC or something. You know, it was ridiculous how
old this thing is. It looked exactly like an observatory.
that people build today, exactly like it. The old man just slid
in and they're looking up in the planets and the stars and
stuff. And you know what those priests
would do? Those Mayan priests or Aztec priests, whoever they
were, they'd watch the planets. They'd watch the sun and they'd
watch the moon and they knew when they got to be in a certain
place in the sky, the season was about to change. And people
were praying for rain. They needed rain for that corn
to grow. And they'd watch where the moon
was, and they'd say, getting ready to be spring. We're getting
ready to have spring rains. And they'd go out and tell the people,
give me a bunch of money, and I'll make it rain. Offer a sacrifice,
and I'll make it. Sacrifice, kill one of your children,
I'll make it rain. Well, they were sure enough it'd
rain. The seasons were just changing. They knew it from watching the
moon, the stars. That causes the seasons to change.
It just affects the whole world. In the very same way, the Lord
Jesus Christ works through his church, through the preaching
of the gospel, to move the world. Just to move the world. To move
people till they come under the sound of the gospel. And God
uses that to give them faith in Christ and a knowledge of
Christ. And all of that happens because
Christ our Savior, the mediator, rules. And aren't you thankful? I'm thankful, I'm thankful for
God's sovereignty, aren't you? All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior and our mediator. And we dare
only come before your holy presence in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, pleading his obedience as our only righteousness Pleading
His blood is our only hope of forgiveness, our only hope of
cleansing. And Father, I pray you take this message, the message
from your word, and cause it to bring glory to Christ our
Savior. Cause your people to be able
to see more of the glory of Christ our Savior and to rest in Him. Father, use this message to glorify
our Savior, comfort and strengthen the hearts of your people. Bless
us as we go back our homes and prepare to go back out in the
world tomorrow. Father, cause us to take this message with
us, not forget it, and strengthen us as we continue on this journey
here below that you've called us to try. It's in the precious
name of Christ our Savior, for his sake and his glory, we pray. If you will please stand and
turn to song number 393, Take My Life and Let It Be. Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing,
always, only for my King. Always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages for thee. Take my silver and my gold, not
a mite would I withhold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my love, my God, I pour
at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever
only all for Thee, ever only all for Thee. you