If you would open your Bibles
with me to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. Let me make
this announcement that Lord willing, Elder Eric Floyd will be preaching
here Sunday. Janet's mother turns 80 years
old on Saturday. We're having a birthday party
for her and I'll be there for that. So remember Eric as he
prepares to preach and us as we travel. And also, I don't
know how many of you know Lindsey Campbell. Lindsey is the song
leader and assistant pastor at the church at Danville. He has
been a leader there since 1970, 1971 when it formed. And he is
very, very ill with COVID. The news yesterday looked very
serious. Now, this morning we got good
news. There's a very positive improvement. So we're thankful for that. But
I talked to his wife, Diane, yesterday, and I said, ask her,
what can we do for you? And she said, just pray for us.
So if you know Lindsey, he will be on your mind. And if you don't,
as the Lord brings him to your mind, remember them in prayer. He's very instrumental in holding
that work together at this time. So we want to remember them.
All right, 1 Timothy chapter two, we'll read the first eight
verses. I exhort, therefore, that first
of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in
authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto a knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due
time, where into I am ordained a preacher and an apostle. I
speak the truth in Christ and lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles
in faith and verity. I will, therefore, that men pray
everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting."
We'll end our reading there. All right, Isaac, you can come
lead us in our singing. Turn to number one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. Tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. His chariots of wrath the deep
thunderclouds form, And dark is his path on the wings of the
storm. By bountiful care, what tone
can reside? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. Let's open our Bibles now to
the book of Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one. We'll begin in verse one. In
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and the
earth was or became without form and void. And darkness was upon
the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light.
And there was light. And God saw the light, that it
was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And
God called the light day and the darkness he called night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said,
let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it
divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and
divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called
the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning
were the second day. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our father, oh, how we thank
you. Then your goodness to your people,
allowed us yet another opportunity to meet together and to worship
your matchless name, to sing your praises, to open your word,
to read and to study it, to have your darling son preach to us
from thy word. Father, we're a thankful and
grateful people. How abundantly, richly you have
blessed this congregation. We freely admit that We have
deserved nothing, but that everything that we have has come freely
from thy hand, and we do thank you. We especially thank you
for the spiritual blessings that you have given us in our Lord
Jesus Christ. How we thank you for a mediator who has a sacrifice to plead
that is always accepted by you, that washes your people white
as snow and makes us not acceptable, but accepted. Father, how we
thank you. And Father, I pray that this
evening that you would enable the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
to be exalted. Father, I pray that you would
be with me in this hour, that you would enable me to rightly
divide the word of truth, and in the power of thy spirit, preach
our Lord Jesus Christ to your people. and that you'd give us
a hearing ear and a believing heart that we would leave here
this evening rejoicing in Christ our Savior. And what we pray
for ourselves, we pray for your people who tonight are meeting
all around this country to do the same thing that we're doing,
to attempt to worship thee. Father, bless your word where
it's preached. Get glory to your name in our day. Father, in our
day, we beg of you that you'd show us your glory. that you
would, in the midst of this dark and perverse generation, that
you would reach down and display your mercy, your eternal sovereign
mercy to your people, call out your people, continue to feed
and edify, comfort and instruct your sheep. Father, we pray for
our country, for our world, this pandemic that seems to be raging
and causing so many people to be sick. Father, we pray you'd
give us deliverance, that you'd heal the land. Father, for those
who have it and in other, so many other difficult circumstances
and trials your people are suffering, we pray for them. We pray that
you'd be pleased to touch our brother Lindsey, heal him and
raise him back up to health. Ralph and Charlotte, Aaron, we
pray for Novi and Barb Father, there's so many. We're thankful
that there are no hard cases with Thee. And Father again,
bless us in this hour. Give us a word from Thee and
enable us to see and believe and worship our Lord Jesus Christ.
For it's in His blessed name we pray and give thanks. Thou my vision, O Lord of my
heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou
my best thought, by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy
presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee, and Thou with
me, Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
Thou art, High King of heaven, my victory won May I reach heaven's
joys, O bright heaven's sun Heart of my own heart, whatever befall Let's open our Bibles again now
to Genesis chapter one. Titled the message this evening,
Christ, the firmament. Now this is true of the second
day of creation and in each of the days Lord willing, we'll
look at. I don't want to just tell the story of the second
day of creation here, how the firmament was created, but to
preach Christ from it. And I believe the Lord is giving
me some insight in that, to preach Christ affirmament. Now you remember
that the first day of creation, we saw Christ, the light of the
world, appear. And we saw that was a picture
of what happens when God saves a sinner. God, the Holy Spirit,
comes and says, let there be light in a dark, dead sinner. And suddenly, Christ the light
appears, and there's spiritual light and life. Now the second
day of creation, we're going to see what Christ does when
he appears to his people. You know, let there be light
means let Christ appear. And when God creates the firmament,
he shows us what Christ will do when he appears to his people.
Now our text begins verse six. And God said, let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the
waters from the waters. Now this word firmament, it means
a solid expanse. or it means a vault vault of
heaven. It's kind of like a, seems to
me like a vaulted ceiling that's holding up heaven above the earth. The firmament is the, is all
of the space from the earth all the way up to the third heaven
that separates earth from the third heaven where the throne
of God is. It seems like a, it's, it's described as a curtain.
that God has stretched out between heaven and earth that separates
the place where men dwell from the place where God dwells. The
firmament is the sky above us and it's what we call the outer
space that's above that. The firmament is where we see
blue sky. We see those clouds floating by. The firmament is
where we see the beauty and the mystery of the planets and the
stars and the galaxies and things that you see. And the firmament
is such a beautiful, beautiful part of God's creation. It's
so mysterious to us and we send rocket ships that go for years
and years and years and years and they don't get any distance
into how vast this firmament is. Such a beautiful part of
God's creation. But more importantly, this is
also a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse eight says that
God called the firmament heaven. Now there is a real place called
heaven. It's real, it's God created that,
and God dwells. This is the place where God dwells.
Scripture says this is where the throne of God is, in this
place called heaven. And God tells us that he is going
to one day gather together all of his people together in one
place to be with him forever in this place called heaven. The Apostle Paul saw it. He called it the third heaven.
You know, the first heaven is the atmosphere above us. The
second heaven is outer space. The third heaven is where God
dwells. And the Apostle Paul says, he said, I was caught up
there. I saw that. I saw that place, the third heaven.
He said, it's so glorious. There aren't human words to describe
it. When he says it's not lawful that a man could utter, he means
it's not possible. Human language cannot describe the glory of
that place. It's a real place. And there's
a real place called earth where we dwell. We know about it far
too well. And there's a real place called
heaven. Now there's a question that comes to my mind when I
hear about those two places. And this is the question. How
can a center go from earth to heaven? Is it possible that I
could go from here to there? That's what I want to know. I
want to know that for myself. I want you to know that for yourself.
Is there, is there a way? And the answer is yes, there's
a way. There is a way to go from here to there. There is. And
that way is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what is pictured
in the firmament. And I'm going to show you three
ways the firmament pictures our Lord Jesus Christ and salvation
in him and give you some good news from each one of these ways.
Number one is Christ who divides the sheep from the goats. Now
everyone will not go to heaven because everyone is not redeemed.
Everyone has been not made holy and righteous. The only people
who are going to be in God's heaven are people who've been
made righteous. They must be perfect in order
to be there. If we're going to be in the presence
of the holy God, we can't have any sin. We must be perfect.
Well, it's the Lord Jesus Christ who makes his people perfect,
makes them righteous. It's Christ that makes the difference
between the righteous and the unrighteous. All of us are born
unrighteous. All of us are born in sin. It's
Christ that makes the difference from the holy and the unholy,
the righteous and the unrighteous. Christ makes the difference.
He described it as separating, dividing the sheep from the goats. That's what he'll do when he
comes back. He'll put the sheep on his right hand and the goats
on his left. Who's going to be in the middle?
Christ. He's the one that he's the dividing
line and that's the purpose of the firmament. The purpose of
the firmament, God said, was divide to divide the waters from
the waters. The firmament divides the waters
which are above the firmament from the waters which are below
it. I look in revelation chapter 17 there are many times that
scripture, refers to the waters as meaning people, people from
all over the whole planet, just like water covers the, you know,
the planet all over the planet. A lot of times when scripture
refers to waters, it's talking about people, people from all
over the planet. And here's a very good example
of that. Revelation chapter 17 verse one. And there came one
of the seven angels, which had the seven vials and talked with
me saying unto me, come hither. I will show unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. Great whore is false religion,
sitting upon many waters, covering the waters of the earth. Now
look at verse 15, we get an explanation of this. And he sayeth unto me,
the waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples
and multitudes and nations and language. So the waters represent
people. And I know that there was the,
the, in creation, there was actually water covering the whole earth.
I know that. And those, those waters were
separated. That literally happened. Absolutely. But what's being
pictured here is people being divided. The waters were divided.
The firmament divided the waters, the waters above the waters beneath. And that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
He came to divide. He came to divide. Some people,
Above the firmament, some below it, but the dividing line is
our Lord Jesus Christ. Before time began, before anything
was created, the father divided all of the sons of Adam. The
father knew what he was going to do. This was his purpose.
He was going to create the world. He was going to create man on
it. Man was going to fall so that the father would send his
son as the redeemer. He knew what he would do before
he created anything. the earth would be populated
with people, the sons of Adam. And before he created any of
them, God divided all of the sons of Adam into two groups,
two groups. That's divine election. One group
he chose to save. The other group he left alone.
He let them go their way and give them exactly what they deserve.
One group is going to be an object of God's mercy. The other group,
God will left alone. We'll leave alone. One group,
God put in his son. He's the surety. He put them
in his son. The others are outside of Christ. There are those who stand in
Christ, and there are those who stand in their own merit. There
are the righteous and the unrighteous. No matter what different names
you want to call them, there are only two groups of people. Only two. Just like on the second
day of creation, there were only two groups of waters. The water's
above the firmament and the water's below the firmament, just two.
God Almighty divided all of the human race into two groups. And
Christ came to divide. He came to divide the saved from
the lost. Look at Matthew chapter 10. Matthew
chapter 10. Christ himself is the dividing
line between the saved and the lost. Christ came to separate
out his people from the fallen lump of Adam's fallen race. He
chose, he came to save those people, to cleanse those people.
Now they're all one fallen lump in Adam, but Christ came to separate
them, to make of the same fallen lump one vessel and honor and
another vessel under dishonor. And what made the difference
between the two? The Potter, the Potter, Christ did. He came
to make the difference between the two. Look what he says here,
Matthew 10 verse 34. Think not that I'm come to send
peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword for I came, for I came to set a man at variance against
his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of
his own household. Christ came to make a division. And it's not, it's not by human
blood, not by human merit because out of one family, the Lord is
going to save one and not the other. He's going to make the
division between them. The one and only difference between
the saved and the lost is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's all of
the difference. Christ died between two thieves. There's a thief on his right
hand, a thief on his left hand. At the end of the day, One of
those thieves went to paradise, went to be with the Lord in paradise.
The other perished in his sin. What made the difference? Both
those men are guilty of insurrection and murder. They're both guilty
of mocking the Lord, making fun of the Lord, throwing the same
that they heard from the scribes and the Pharisees, throwing it
in his teeth. Yet, the Lord had mercy on one of those thieves.
Now what made the difference? I'll tell you what made the difference.
It's the one on that center cross, who's making an atonement, making
a sacrifice for sin. Christ made the difference between
those two things. And it showed in graphic fashion,
there he is in the middle of them, in the middle of dividing
them. Christ made the difference between
Peter and Judas. Judas betrayed the Lord, sold
the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. and went and hung himself. Peter
denied the Lord, went away weeping. Remember he denied the Lord the
third time and he looked and he saw the Lord coming, whatever
judgment hall, whatever he'd been going through and all the
Lord did is look at Peter. He broke his heart and he ran
out and wept bitterly. Why didn't Peter's emotions get
the best of him and he hang himself? Why didn't he? Christ made the
difference. Our Lord said something to Peter.
He did not say to Judas. Peter, I pray for you, that your
faith fail not. Why has your faith failed? Why is it you believe somebody
else does? The Lord said the same thing to us. He said to
Peter, I pray for you, that your faith fail not. That's why Christ
made the difference. Now, whenever we talk about God's
distinguishing, electing grace, We have to see this. This is
vitally important to understanding the truth of God's election.
Yes, God elected a people. He made a division. He chose
a people to save. He left others alone. But this
is more than just a choosing and a separating. God's election
of a people is a display of his divine, infinite love for his
people. God made the difference in love
in love. God made the difference between
Jacob and Esau, didn't he? God made the difference. Why? He said, Jacob have I loved.
He made that difference in love. God loved Jacob and God loves
all of his Jacobs, all of his people in a love that human beings
just cannot fully understand. God loves his people and he chose
to save the people that he loves. He set his affection on those
people. He determined that he would save those people and that's
why he said, let there be light. That's why Christ came into the
world. Christ came to die for those
people because they're sinful people. He came to die for them.
Now that's the proof of God's love for his people. God loved
his people. That's why he chose them and
God proved his love. He gave the demonstration of
his love when he sent his son to be the propitiation for their
sin, to pay for their sin, to wipe it out, to wash them white
as snow. So God's election of a people
is good news. I know the flesh looks at that
as bad news, but I'm telling you God's election of a people
is good news. The difference between eternal
life and eternal death is not left up to the choice of fallen
dead flesh. And aren't you glad? Fallen dead
flesh can only choose one thing, sin and death. That's all it
can choose. But eternal life, eternal death,
the difference between the two is not left up to the choice
of man. The difference between spiritual life and eternal death
is the electing love of God. It's the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank God that Christ made the
difference. Thank God that Christ is the difference. If you and
I had to make the difference, if we had to make the difference
between us and Esau, everybody would choose Esau, wouldn't they?
Human beings would. Esau, he's a good guy. Jacob's
a cheat. He's a mama's boy. This guy here.
We can't make the difference by our morality, by our education,
by our religious activity. If we had to make the difference,
so that God would accept us, none of us would be saved. But
if Christ makes the difference for his people, there is absolutely
no doubt that they will be saved. They're going to be saved from
their sin. Who maketh thee to differ? I
want to come right down to where the rubber meets the road. I
want you to answer that question in your heart. Who makes you
to differ? I hope your answer is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He makes the difference for his
people so that they have eternal life. All right, number two,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the way to heaven. Now the firmament
separates earth from heaven. And that gulf is so great, no
son of Adam can ever cross it. Physically, we can't cross it,
can we? We send, like I mentioned ago,
these rockets. We send up into space and they
go for years and years and years and years and years. I mean,
they just, They're just not even a fraction of how deep space
is. Physically, it's obvious to us.
We cannot cross that gulf. But we can't cross that gulf
by our religious works either. We can't bring ourselves to God
and be accepted. That's what the Tower of Babel
represents. The Tower of Babel represents
works religion. Now, I don't know. It's hard
for me to believe that those fellows really thought that they
could build a tower that would go up to the throne of God. Maybe
they did, I don't know, but certainly it is a picture. It's a picture
of works religion. And you know what the Tower of
Babel tells us? Here they were building this tower and they
were gonna build it all the way up to the throne of heaven. At
that time, everybody on earth all spoke the same language.
And these people were not a threat to God. All God did is just Say,
everybody's speaking a different language and they couldn't understand
each other so that they couldn't work together and they couldn't
finish their project. That's what is produced by our
works. We cannot work our way to God
and God will never accept our works. Instead of our works bringing
us to God, you know what our works produce? Confusion. They produce babbling. They produce
words to no profit A project that cannot be completed. By
our works we cannot cross this gulf between us and God. That was the result of the Tower
of Babel. And that's the result of all of our religious works.
Now you and I are sinners. Sinners here on earth. We're
separated from God. And like I said a little while
ago, there's a place called heaven. God dwells there. His throne
is there. God says he's going to gather all of his people together
in this place. And here again is my question.
Is there a way you and I go from here to there? Is there a way
that this gulf can be crossed that we can go from earth into
God's presence accepted? Is there a way? Well, there is
a way and that way is pictured in the firmament. The firmament
touches the earth and the firmament also touches heaven. Nothing
else touches both. The firmament does. So the way
to heaven from the earth is through the firmament. Now we can't cross
that by our abilities. The gulf's too great, but the
Lord Jesus Christ did. He did. Not only did he make
a way to the father, not only did he make a way, like remember
Jacob's ladder went from, from the earth to heaven. That ladder's
Christ. He crossed the gulf. He's the
only one that can touch here and there. He's the only way
we can go from here to there. Not only did Christ provide a
way, make a way, He is the way to the Father. Christ is the
way to heaven. More than that, Christ is heaven. He is wherever He is. That's
heaven. I love that song. Desi Mayer
used to sing, oh, he will be heaven for me. He's heaven. The way to righteousness is through
Christ. It's through his obedience to
the law as the representative of his people. The way to holiness
is not our morality. It's through Christ, through
Christ our holiness. The way to life, the way to eternal
spiritual life is through Christ, through his death as a substitute
for his people. See, only Christ can touch both
God in heaven and men on earth. Only he can do it. And he did. And that's why I read that passage
in 1 Timothy 2 to open the scripture or open the service. That makes
Christ the only mediator between God and men. He's the only one
who can touch both. He's the only one who can satisfy
both. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is God. He's the son of God.
So he can touch God. He can satisfy God's holy requirements. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
also man. He calls himself often the son
of man. He's a man so that he can touch
men. He's a man so he can take the
place of men and be their representative. He's a man in flesh just like
ours, with a human nature just like ours, so he can be our substitute. He's a man so he can have compassion
on us in the flesh. He can have compassion on our
weakness. And he's willing, despite the
depravity, despite how defiled our flesh is, he's willing to
come down and touch us, to heal us, to save us. And oh, what
a touch it is. What a touch. The songwriter
said, oh, he touched me. There had been a change. He touched
me. Remember that leper that came to our Lord and said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole. And the Lord said, I will. The scripture tells us that man
was full of leprosy. What his flesh must have looked
like, just all of it was white and cracked. hair just had to
be just stubble all over his whole body. His extremities were
falling off. They say that there's such a
high fever and someone at this advanced stage of leprosy is
hot. Nobody touched that fella in
a long time. He was so awful that other lepers
wouldn't even touch him. And our savior said, I will.
And He touched him. And he was immediately whole. Now that's the touch. When our
Savior comes and touches His people, He touches them. And
He brings them to God. He brings them to God. See, He
doesn't just say, now here's the way to God. Follow A, B,
C, and D. Follow these rules, you know.
Here's the way to God. Now you follow and you'll end
up getting there. No, He doesn't just show us the way and leave
it to us to follow it and get there. He is the way to God. And He puts us in Him and He
brings His people to God. And He's the only one who can
do it. He's the only one who can touch both God and men and
bring men to God and be accepted. Now here's some good news. Here's
good news for those who are under the burden of the law, under
the burden that false religion puts on folks. I got something
that's gonna ease your burden. I hope that you can just leave
here feeling like you can fly. If the Lord will show you this,
make you believe it, see it, that's what you'll feel like.
The difference between heaven and hell does not depend on us
building a bridge to God. If you're in the matter, if you're
in the business of bridge building, trying to build a bridge to God,
you're failing So quit. You get to quit. Just relax.
You get to quit it. Because the difference between
heaven and hell is not dependent on us building a bridge to God.
The difference between heaven and hell does not depend on us
making ourselves good enough so that God will accept us. The
difference between heaven and hell is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the difference. It's His
sacrifice for His people. And it's His intercession. This
firmament, this one who can touch both men on earth God on his
throne, the difference between heaven and hell is the Lord Jesus
Christ making intercession for his people. It's no surprise
Peter, faith, failed not and he didn't run off and hang himself.
The Savior made intercession for him, didn't he? That's why.
And in all of our sin, in all of our failures, the Savior is
making intercession with the Father for his people and he's
pleading his blood. his sacrifice for the forgiveness
of their sins. And the father always accepts
them always because he's well pleased with his son. It just
takes all the pressure off, doesn't it? Just rest in Christ. Just
rest in. All right, here's the third thing.
Salvation is all the work of the Trinity back in our texture. Genesis one verse six, And God said, let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the
waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and
divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament. And it was so we're going to
see here. I hope I can show you this, the
work of the Trinity, the work of the Trinity is all through
all six days of the creation. And it's certainly here on the
second day. And we see that in three words. Said, made, and
called. God said, God made, and God called. Here's the work of the father.
God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. Divide
the waters from the waters, God said. Now the purpose of God
in creation was to make a firmament that was in the midst of the
waters. You know how I know that? I mean, how do you know the mind
and will of God, the purpose of God? How do I know that this
was the purpose of God to make a firmament between the waters,
to divide the waters. You know how I know that? He
said, he said so. That was his purpose. And that's
a picture of the covenant of grace. The father, before he
created anything, purposed the salvation of his people. He elected
a people to save and he gave them to his son to redeem. He
said, this son, this is your bride. This is the people that
I've chosen for you and you redeem them. The father said, son, Let
this people be redeemed by your blood, the blood of your sacrifice.
Let this people be made righteous by your obedience to the law.
The father said that that was his purpose in the covenant of
grace. It was his purpose to save a
people by the obedience and by the sacrifice of his son. He
said, this is what we're going to do. This covenant of grace. All right, here's the work of
the son and God made the firmament that divided the waters from
the water. He said he was going to do it
and then he made it. And that's a picture of redemption.
The father willed the salvation of his people in the covenant
of grace and the son came and he made them redeemed. He came
and he made that covenant be fulfilled. He came as a man and
he did everything that it took to save his people from their
sin. It was the father's will that those people be made righteous.
And the son came and made them righteous. He made them righteous.
He made them righteous by being made flesh just like they are,
by being born of a woman made under the law just like they
are. But the difference between him and us is this, he obeyed
that law in every jot, in every tittle, he obeyed that law perfectly. In order to make himself righteous,
he's already righteous. He did that to establish righteousness,
to establish an obedience that he could give to his people.
See the first Adam, he made his race unrighteous by his disobedience. Christ came as a second Adam,
and he made his race righteous by his obedience for them. See,
that's he made them righteous, just like the father willed for
them to be. And here's how he made them righteous. The father's
will was that his people be sinless. But now the problem we always
have to face is this, we're sinners. That's all we can do is sin.
We can't make ourselves righteous. So Christ came and he was made
sin for them. See, he took their sin away from
them and he traded them his perfect righteousness. He was made sin
for them and he made them the righteousness of God in him.
That's how they were made righteous. The father made his son to be
what his people were and he made his people to be what his son
is. And Christ was made sin. He took all of the sin of all
of his people and his body on the tree and by his one sacrifice,
by the shedding of his precious blood, his blood was so precious
that he shed that blood once as a sacrifice for sin and saved
a number no man can number. He put their sin away. It's gone. It's blotted out. It's so gone,
so completely gone, the father said, I won't remember it. I
don't remember it. Now if God, who knows everything,
Doesn't remember your sin. There's a reason for that. It's
gone. It's gone under the blood of Christ. Christ made his people
sinless. The father willed it and the
son made it to be so. Here's the work of God, the Holy
Spirit, the word called first aid and God called the firmament
heaven and the evening in the morning or the second day that
God called the firmament heaven. because that's what it is. Whatever
it is, God calls something. He calls it that because that's
what it is. God calls his people righteous. He doesn't call them
righteous even though they're unrighteous. God calls his people
righteous because that's what they are. They are righteous. He calls them what he made them
to be. God, the Holy Spirit, When he
moves in power, it's like we looked at last week, how he moved
upon the face of the waters. He fluttered upon the face of
the waters. He moved over his people. He
comes and gives them a new birth. He makes them be born again.
And that new man, that new nature that's born of God is holy and
it's righteous. It's sinless and it can never
sin. That's why God calls his people
holy. That's why he calls them righteous, because that's what
he made them. See, that's what he made them.
You know, we talk about imputed righteousness. I don't ever want
anybody to think that we talk about imputed righteousness.
Here's a sinner. They're completely sinful. They're completely defiled
by sin. All they are is guilty. But God imputes righteousness
to them, and so now, you know, they have righteousness. That's
not really the meaning of the term. The word impute is an accounting
term. You can only impute something
to the books that's actually there. If you own a business,
you can impute cash. to the business. You can impute
to the ledger inventory, to the business. But now it better be
there. The cash has to be there. The inventory has to be there
if you're going to impute it to the books. Well, you know why
God imputes righteousness to his people? You know why he imputes
righteousness to them? Because Christ made them righteous.
The Holy Spirit made them righteous in the new birth when he gave
them a brand new, righteous, holy nature. That's the work
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe God can
get the job done, don't you? Well, they did. Now, here's the
good news again. It takes the burden, the law
and the burden of religion off of you. The difference between
being righteous and unrighteous does not depend upon your ability
to keep the law. That's a good thing, because
we can't keep the law. The difference between righteous
and being unrighteous does not depend on our works any way,
any way whatsoever. The difference between being
righteous and unrighteous is the work of the Godhead, the
work of God alone. God said, God made, God called. All right, now verse eight. And
I have to tell you, this is something I had never really noticed before. Look at this verse eight. And
God called the firmament heaven and evening in the morning or
the second day. Now this is interesting. Six
days in creation, this is the only day God does not say he
looked at what he made and it was good. The only day that he
doesn't say that. Wonder why? Well I can't say
for sure why. I read a lot of things, most
of which felt like were not worth repeating. But I'll tell you
what John Gill had to say about this. And then I believe I got something
better, what John Gill had to say. Let me tell you what John
Gill had to say. He said, God didn't say, look at this and
say it was good, because the work of the waters wasn't finished
yet. The work of dividing the waters wasn't finished on the
second day, not finished till the third day. And God said,
let the dry land appear. And maybe he's right about that.
But whatever the reason, this is what I know for sure, for
sure. Don't get hung up on why God
didn't say on the second day he saw that it was good. Don't
get hung up on it because I know this for sure. Brother Henry
said, let's always start with what we know. Here's what I know.
When God finished his work of creation, you know what God said?
He said it was very good. He saw it and it wasn't just
good. It was very good. In all of this story of creation,
these six days of creation, They're given to us as a picture of God's
work of redemption. And that is how the work of God's
redemption is going to end up. If you can say that God will
smile, one day God's going to smile. He's going to look at
his people. The son's going to say, Father,
here I am, the people that you've given me. And he's going to look
at that. He's going to look at a people
made just like his son. Oh, the father loves the son.
He determined to have a people made just like him. Oh, he loves
the son. And he's going to look at a people
made exactly like his son. And the father's going to look
and say, it's very good. It's very good. And you and I,
if we're there in that number, we're going to amen that. We're
going to say it's very good. Now right now, remember we're
still on earth. Right now, at times it don't
look so good, does it? At times. But you can bank on
this. Here's how it's gonna end up.
It's gonna end up very good. Very good. And you know why it's
gonna end up very good? Because Christ made the difference.
And what he does is perfect. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for your word. how we thank you
for our Lord Jesus Christ, how we thank you that the difference
between life and death, righteousness and unrighteousness, being saved
and lost is not being left up to our ability, but it's all
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I beg of you
that you take your word as it's being preached tonight, that
you'd apply it to the hearts of your people so that we leave
here, we spend tonight and tomorrow the coming days, thinking on
Christ, being taken up with him, believing in him, resting in
him, how we thank you for a Savior who completely saves his people
from their sin. Father, bless us as we go back
to our homes and prepare to go back out to work and our activities
tomorrow. Father, bless your people and
keep your word planted in our hearts, we pray. For us in the
precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory and his
sake we pray, amen. All right, Isaac, come lead us
in song, if you would. 460, stand as we sing. What a fellowship, what a joy
divine Leaning on the everlasting arms What a blessedness, what
a peace is mine Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning, leaning
Safe and secure from all alarms Leaning, leaning Leaning on the
everlasting arms Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way on
the everlasting arms oh how bright the path grows from day to day
leaning on the everlasting arms leaning Leaning, safe and secure from
all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms,
I have blessed the peace with my Lord so near. Leaning on the
everlasting arms, Leaning, safe and secure from
all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms.