Oh, good evening. If you care
to turn your Bibles with me to Psalm 139. Continue our study
in this great psalm tonight, Psalm 139. We'll begin our reading in verse
7, Psalm 139. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? For whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I send up into heaven, thou art there. If I
make my bed in hell, the grave, behold, thou art there. If I
take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea,
the darkness hieth not from thee, but the night shineth as the
day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee, for thou
hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right
well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in
secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, And in thy
book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them. And we'll end our reading
there. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverend is your matchless name. And Father, we praise,
we worship, we adore your name. We lift up and praise your name,
the name which is above every name. And Father, I pray this
evening that as we hear that matchless name preached, that
you might cause each one of us here to bow, to bow the knee
in worship, to bow before you and beg for mercy, forgiveness
of our sin, to bow before you in praise and thanksgiving for
our Lord Jesus Christ. for such a Savior who fully and
completely saves to the uttermost sinful men and women, boys and
girls, such as we are. And Father, we bow before you
in thanksgiving, thankful that this is another day that you've
given to us to meet together, to open your word, to read it,
to have the gospel preached to us. Father, I pray you'd give
us a special hour of worship Father, I pray that you would
be with me as I stand to preach your word, your son, to your
people. Father, don't let me stand here
alone. Don't let your people just hear the voice and words
of a man. But Father, I pray you'd uphold
me with thy spirit, that you'd speak to my heart and open my
mouth, that I might declare the glorious riches of the Lord Jesus
Christ to this people. And Father, I pray for those
who are gathered here that you'd give a hearing ear, a believing
heart, that you would enable us to set aside the cares and
responsibilities and goings on of this life. Father, cause your
word to penetrate to the heart, pierce to the very heart that
we might hear and believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, I thank you for this place that you've provided, a
place where your Gospels preach, where your people meet together
in unity and love. And Father, I pray you'd cause
each of us to earnestly and carefully protect this ministry that you've
given to us, that you would give us the wisdom not to put ourselves
first, but to look out for each other and to always put first
the preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is
our sole purpose for existing, the preaching of your son. Father,
cause us to be good stewards of this great gospel that you've
given to us to preach. And father, for those that are
in a time of trouble, trial, sickness, we pray for them. Father,
we pray that you'd heal. We pray you'd undertake on their
behalf to deliver as soon as it could be thy will. And father,
until you're pleased to deliver, We pray You comfort their hearts
with Your presence. In all these things we ask, in
that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For His sake and His glory we
pray. Amen. Alright, Psalm 139. I titled
the message this evening, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. I took
my title from verse 14 which we just read. The psalmist says,
I will praise Thee For I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Now this
is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, speaking, telling us
He was fearfully and wonderfully made. And that's so true. Our
Lord Jesus was conceived as the opposite of the sons of Adam
in every way, in every imaginable way. Now the Lord came into this
world in our flesh, didn't He? Yet He was opposite of us in
His nature. In every way He was opposite
of us. He was born of a virgin, so he did not partake in Adam's
sin. Now, Adam's our representative.
We did what Adam did because he was our representative. But
Adam was not the representative of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus
Christ stood on his own, on his own merit, on his own obedience.
He stood in his own righteousness that he worked out under the
law as a man. And Christ stands as a representative
of his people. He came as the second Adam. And
in His nature, He's the opposite of us in every way. And that
makes the Lord Jesus Christ to be everything that we need. It
doesn't stand to reason He's the opposite of us in every way,
so He is everything that sinners like us need. That makes Him
the Savior that we can trust our souls to. And I hope tonight
as you hear Him preach, if you've never trusted Him before, that
the Spirit will make this message so plain, so simple, it'll reach
your heart, that you'll hear of Him and trust Him. And if
you've trusted Him before, I know many of you have, I pray your
heart will be thrilled to one more time hear of Christ the
Savior, to hear He's everything that you need, so you can find
rest and peace and comfort for your soul in Him. Now the Savior
here says He's fearfully and wonderfully made. That word fearfully
means to cause reverence and awe. And the word wonderfully
means distinctly and separately. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who's made this way. Made in such a way that
His very being causes us awe and reverence. He's the only
one made separately from every other human being. He's separate
from sinners. And I have three points for us
I want us to consider to see how the Lord Jesus Christ was
fearfully and wonderfully made, so that we'll trust Him. Number
one is this, the Lord Jesus was fearfully and wonderfully made
in His eternality. Verse 13 says, For thou hast
possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the Son of God. He is God. In every way, He is God. He's
God in power. He's God in holiness. He's God
in love. He's God in knowledge and wisdom.
Because He's one with the Father, He is God. And since He's God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son born to Mary, is also God in
His eternality. That's the mystery of godliness,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ is eternal
and He came to earth. John said in 1 John 4 verse 1,
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh is of God. Now that doesn't mean that every
preacher that says that Jesus Christ was born a man in Bethlehem
is preaching the gospel. What John means is this. Every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is of God. Everyone who preaches that the
Lord Jesus Christ was somewhere before he came here. I was born. I didn't exist before. I was
just born one day. I never existed, and suddenly,
I was born. But Christ came in the flesh. He was somewhere before He came
here. Where was He? He was in glory. He was in glory
as the Son of God because He is God. And that's what Isaiah
meant in Isaiah 9, verse 6, when he said, for unto us a child
is born. A real child. A real baby boy was born that
day. And unto us the Son is given. The child was born, son wasn't
born. The son was given. He couldn't be born because he's
eternal. Christ in the flesh, Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh,
had a beginning. The son of God doesn't have a
beginning. He doesn't have a beginning or an ending because he is eternal.
And the Lord Jesus, even though he is the eternal God, he is
the father. That's what Isaiah said. His
name should be called the father. He was a real embryo in the womb
of one of his creatures. Verse 15 says, My substance was
not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. That phrase, the lowest
parts of the earth in Hebrew means the womb. He was made in
the womb. And that word unperfect means
an embryo or a fetus. So the Lord Jesus, the son of
God, was a real fetus in the womb of a virgin. And as a fetus,
just conceived as a fetus, he was subject to the same dangers
of miscarriage that every fetus ever faces. You know, the more
I know about babies being born, the more amazing it is. It's just utterly amazing. I
know it happens every single day. I know that. But it's really
a miracle that a child ends up being conceived and born. What
a miracle that is. Every single time it happens,
that's God giving life, causing life to come into this world.
And do you know why of all the babies that are miscarried or
all the babies in the history of the world that are stillborn,
do you know why that did not happen to the Lord Jesus? because
the Father protected him. Verse 13 says, he covered me. And the word means he fenced
me about. The Father fenced the Lord Jesus about while he was
in Mary's womb so that he would live, so that he would come into
this world because he was sent on a mission. The Father sent
him on a mission to do something, to redeem his people from their
sins. And the Father protected him
so that he could do it. The word possessed here, verse
13, thou hast possessed my reins. The word, I looked this up and
it was just, I mean, it just laughed out loud there in my
study. The word means purchased or redeemed. And if you ever
look at the meanings of these words, it gives several meanings.
You read on down through there, you know what that word possessed
also means? It has to do with Eve acquiring. You just can't
make this up. I love the exactness of scripture,
the exactness of the wording. This has to do with Eve acquiring,
has to do with redemption. The word tells us this is why
Christ came as a seed of woman. The son of God was born as a
seed of woman and the father gave him life and protected that
life so that he could do what the father sent him to do. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 4, for it's not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldst not. But a body hast thou prepared
me. There's that body he prepared for him in the womb of the Virgin
Mary. A body hast thou prepared me. And here's why. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me. I come to do thy will,
O God. Above, when he said, sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not, neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will
were sanctified. through the offering of the body.
That body that the Father prepared for Him were sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now that's
why Christ came. He came to sanctify and redeem
His people. And the Father protected Him
so that He could do it. Now that is being fearfully and wonderfully
made. And nobody can possibly understand
the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ with the human mind. The
human mind cannot comprehend this, that a man was born. A man who had a beginning was
born and yet he is eternal without beginning of days or end of days.
Now that as being wonderfully made is distinct. There's not
another like him. And that should cause us to reverence
him in awe and worship, awe and wonder to worship him. And since
He is so fearfully and wonderfully made, so distinctly that He's
the only one like Him, there's nobody else like Him, it should
make us trust the whole of our eternal soul to Him. Now, verse
15, back in our text, let's read it again. Psalm 139. My substance
was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. That phrase, curiously
wrought, means a needlework. A needlework. A mix of colors
in a needlework. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
skillful needlework of His Father. The God-man. Two natures in one
man. It's just like the needlework
in the tapestries, the coverings that hung in the tabernacle.
The mixture. Remember we studied that tabernacle.
The mixture of the white and the purple and the red and the
blue. All picture the two natures of Christ. Deity and humanity. in one man, and that's what enabled
him to save his people from their sin. He's white, the color of
holiness. He came to be the holiness of
his people. He came to sanctify them, to
make them holy. He's purple, the color of royalties. This Savior is the King of Kings,
and he has the sovereign right to save his people from their
sin. He's blue, the color of the sky. Just like John said,
he came He was somewhere before he came. Where was he? He was
in heaven. He came from heaven to earth
to save his people. He read the color of clay. Adam was made from the red clay.
He read. He came as a real man so that
he could be the representative of his people who were in the
flesh. He's read the color of blood. He had perfect blood to
do what he came to do, to redeem his people. to atone for their
sins with His perfect blood. Now that's being curiously wrought,
isn't it? A needlework, a mixture of colors. That's being fearfully and wonderfully
made. He's distinct. There's not another
like Him. There's not another God-man whose
deity and humanity. He's distinct. There's no other
Savior There's no other name that we can trust whereby we
must be saved. Just one. Now you trust Him. There's nobody else to trust,
is there? Now you trust Him. Trust Him.
Trust your soul to Him. And do it now. Right now where
you sit. You trust Him. Don't delay. Just quit. You're working. Quit
your work. Quit trying to do some works
that you think will please God. Quit trying to, before God, be
a good little boy and girl. Now, I say to our young ones
here, be a good little boy and girl. You understand that. I'm not telling you to be bad. But not before God. Don't think
how, you know, you're minding your mom and dad and you're not
getting... You know, a lot of times, you know what a good boy
is? A lot of times? It's one that
don't get caught. You weren't, I know, but I'm
talking about myself. You just don't get that. Don't
do that before God and think it's going to make you better.
Think it's going to make you more savable. Quit trying to figure everything
out, because you're not going to figure God out. Just trust
Him. Just trust Him. Trust Him and
rest in Him. He's fearfully and wonderfully
made. That makes Him everything you
need. Alright, number two. The works. of the Lord Jesus
Christ are fearfully and wonderfully made. Verse 14 says, I will praise
thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are
thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. All the works of
Christ go together to accomplish one work, the redemption of his
people. You know, the way that the Lord
Jesus was conceived, that the Son of God could be conceived
in the womb of one of His creatures. That's fearfully, wonderfully
made, isn't it? But the works that He did, His
works, that causes awe and reverence. Nicodemus knew this is special. This is special. He told the
Lord, no man can do these miracles that Thou doest except God be
with him. This is special. And yes, His works, His miracles
cause awe and wonder. But you know what causes more
awe? and more reference, not just that he did the works. No,
that causes awe and reference. But who he did those works for,
mm-mm-mm, that causes awe and reference. He did everything
that he did that he might save sinners. Oh, that causes awe
and reference. And we think about the works
of the Lord, there's too many of the works of the Lord to list.
John said if we could name them all, if we name everything he
did, John said the world itself could not contain the books that
should be written. But let me give you just a few to show you
how the works of the Lord are fearfully and wonderfully made.
I'll give you five of them. Number one, Christ's work of
righteousness is fearfully and wonderfully made. The Lord Jesus
Christ was made under the law. He had to obey the law. And in
the end, after he lived a perfect life, he knew no sin, he did
no sin, neither was any guile found in his mouth. You know
why that's true? Because he didn't have a sin
nature. You want to be theologians, argue, over whether or not Christ
could have sinned. Have you heard people argue about
that? Could Christ have sinned or not? And boy, they just get
in a knock-down, drag-out fight over this issue. Could Christ
have sinned or not? You know, this one says he could,
this one says he couldn't. They about come to blows. Well, of
course he couldn't sin. Can you be righteous? Of course
you can't be righteous. You know why? You've got a sin
nature. You know why Christ couldn't
sin? He had a holy nature. He didn't have a sin nature.
He couldn't sin. And here's the other thing I
want to ask these wannabe theologians who are fighting about this.
Could Christ have sinned or not? It doesn't matter. He didn't. The work is finished. He didn't
sin. I know that for sure. He worked
out a perfect righteousness. And if we'd stop and think about
that and get any realization about what the Lord Jesus Christ
did, that He obeyed God's law perfectly every second, thought,
word, and deed, that would cause us awe and wonder. Nobody has
ever done that before. And nobody will ever do it again.
All in wonder. He is distinct in that He is
the only man who ever lived that pleased the Father. Now that
is awe-inspiring. And that ought to be so awe-inspiring
to us that it would cause us to trust Him. To trust Christ
to be our righteousness. He worked out that righteousness Not for himself. He was already
holy. He was already accepted of the
Father. He did that for his people. So he'd have a righteousness
to give them, to make them perfect, to make them righteous. He worked
out a perfect righteousness and he traded it with his people.
He traded his perfect obedience for the sin of his people. And
he put it away by his perfect sacrifice. He, God the Father,
hath made him God the Son. sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we, sinners, might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ is so fearfully and wonderfully made that He's
everything we need. He is our righteousness. I tell you this all the time.
Righteousness is not a thing. Righteousness is a person. He
is our righteousness. Now quit trying to obey the law
to make yourself righteous or make yourself more righteous
than somebody else, and just believe. Just believe Christ
and find rest for your soul. Alright, number two, Christ's
work of sanctification is fearfully and wonderfully made. The Lord
Jesus Christ is holiness personified. Now that's wonder enough, isn't
it? That a man could be holy. But Christ is also the sanctification. He's the holiness of His people.
He's made unto us what? Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He's made unto us holiness. Now
God's sinful people are made holy in Christ. Holy. Christ made those people righteous
by taking their sin away from them and paying for it. And then
he made them holy. He makes them holy in the new
birth by giving them a new, holy nature. A new nature that has
been born that is the nature of Christ. Made partakers of
the divine nature. So that new man who is born of
God is holy. Not only is he righteous, he's
guiltless, he's holy. So he can never sin. He can never
become guilty, make himself guilty again, because he cannot sin. Now that, my friend, is fearfully
and wonderfully made. Now quit trying to make out your
own holiness. Quit trying to do it yourself
and just trust Christ to be your holiness and rest in Him. Alright,
number three, Christ's work of redemption is fearfully and wonderfully
made. Now the work of redemption is
a great, great work. And in order to redeem sinners,
The full price for sin must be paid. It must be. And you know
what that price is? Death. The soul that sinneth
shall surely die. But listen, it's got to be the
death of a sinless one. It's got to be the death of someone
perfect in order to put sin away. In order for redemption to happen,
in order for this buying back to happen, God's holy justice
must be fully satisfied. Redemption can't be bought at
the clearance table. Can't be. I try not to go shopping
with Janet too much. I'll sit out in the car and wait
on her or something, but I can't be in a store as long as she
can, looking at everything. But on the occasion that I go
in the store with her, you know what she always does first? Where's
the clearance table? If they don't have a clearance
table, she's looking for a sale tag. Redemption can't be bought that
way. Can't be. Not at the clearance table, not
on sale. The full price must be paid for sin. And that's a
great work. It's such a great work, you and
I can't even begin to make a down payment. Can't do it. Only the
Son of God can do it. So the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, came in the flesh. And He lived a perfect life.
And when His hour was come, He had a perfect body to be sacrificed. He had perfect blood to shed
to pay for sin. His sacrifice was made to the
Father. His blood was offered to the
Father. His blood wasn't offered to you
and me to see if we'd feel sorry for Him, that He was crucified
and we didn't believe on Him. His blood was offered to the
Father. The Father is the offended party
here. You and I aren't the offended party. We're the offenders. The
Father is the offended party and the blood was offered to
the Father. And when that perfect body was
crushed and died, when that perfect blood was shed and offered before
the Father, you know what the Father said? He smiled and said,
it's enough. I'm satisfied. In all of the
sin of all of God's people, was paid in full, and they were eternally
redeemed. Now that is fearfully and wonderfully
made. I ask you, how can one man pay
the debt for so many people that you and I couldn't count them
all? It's because of who he is. Because he's the God man who's
fearfully and wonderfully made to be the redeemer of our people.
Now I tell you, you trust him. You trust Him, and all will be
well with your soul. All has to be well with your
soul if Christ died for you, if He's your Redeemer. Isn't
that right? All right, number four, Christ's work to please
His Father was fearfully and wonderfully made. Now man lived
on earth about 4,000 years before Christ came. And during that
4,000 years, There was a whole lot of religion. Man by nature
is religious. Now, he's sinful, but he's religious. He's religious, not worshiping
God. He's not going towards God, but he's religious. In that 4,000
years, there was a lot of religion. There is even a religion, during
those 4,000 years, according to the law that God gave Moses,
God said, this is how I'm going to be worshipped. This is what
you do. He gave him the ceremonies and all the things, the sacrifices,
the priesthood. There is even a religion that
God gave. And man following it didn't please
God one time. None of that religion pleased
God. The blood of bulls and goats didn't please Him. If it did,
then it quit offering them, wouldn't it? The blood of bulls and ghosts
didn't even please the conscience of man, did it? No, they kept
offering because they knew their sin wasn't purged. All that religious
ceremony men did, they were so pious. They dotted every I, they
crossed every T, they had every comma just in the exact right
place. That religious ceremony didn't
please God one bit. In Isaiah 1, verse 13, he said, away with
it. It is iniquity. God said about
it. You and I have been impressed
by that piety. God said it's iniquity. Man's personal holiness
didn't please God. Those who said, I'm holier now,
stay far away from me. In Isaiah 65 verse 5, God said,
that's a smoke in my nose. Do you think you have your own
personal holiness? It's offensive to God. It's a
smoke in his nose. So not only is man's religion
and man's righteousness not good enough, God said sin. I mean,
it's not like, well, there's some good in it. It'll help you
out along the way. No, sir. God said sin. It's iniquity
that will damn your soul. The very best things you and
I have ever done, the very most religious things we've ever done,
God said it's offensive. It's iniquity. And if we stand
on it, we'll be condemned. So Christ came in the flesh.
And you know what he did? He fulfilled, He pleased all
of God's requirements to a T. He said, I come to do Thy will,
O God. He didn't come to give it a shot.
He didn't come to make an effort. He came to do Thy will, O God,
and He did it. So that the father said, I'm
well pleased. This is my son. You listen to
him. You believe him. I'm well pleased in him. God
never said that about anybody else. That's another way that
the Lord Jesus Christ is distinct and separate from you and me.
He's the only one ever pleased the Father. Now, if the Father
trusts Christ, and He does, Ephesians 1 says that the Father was the
first one to trust Christ. He trusted His Son to fulfill
His covenant of grace and save His people from their sins. The
Father trusted Him. The Father says Christ is enough. Now, if the Father trusts Christ,
don't you reckon I should? You should. If the Father says
Christ is enough, don't you believe you and I should say He's enough
for me? I believe we should. Christ is
enough. If the Spirit will ever reveal
Christ to me, to you, I tell you what we'll do. We'll quit
our religious works and we'll trust Christ. We'll quit working
and we'll rest in Him. And while we'll quit working,
we're going to work harder in His service than ever before. But we won't trust it a bit.
We won't trust that work, we won't trust that service a bit,
because we'll be resting in Christ to be all of our redemption.
It's fearfully and wonderfully made. Alright, fifthly, Christ's
work in bringing His people to God is fearfully and wonderfully
made. This is a work that must happen. Because Adam made all of his
race far from God. All of us were kicked out of
God's presence in Adam. And the only way we could come
back is in Christ. We couldn't come back our own
selves. There's that sword turning every which way, stopping us
from coming back. So Christ came to bring His people
back to God. He came to reconcile them to
God. Now God's elect are called His
sheep. God's sheep, they're His sheep.
They belong to Him. They're His elect. He chose them.
He made them His. Christ bought them. They're His
sheep. But those sheep are lost in sin. And they've wandered
away from the shepherd. And they're wandering further
and further away. They couldn't find their way
back if they want to, but they don't even want to. They're just
finding anywhere they are. Wandering far away from God.
So Christ the shepherd comes. Those are His sheep. He's not
going to leave them lost out there in the wilderness. You
know what he does? He comes to seek and to save
that which is lost. He goes and he finds that lost
sheep. He picks that sheep up, puts it on his mighty shoulder,
and brings it home. He does that for every last one
of them. And not one of those sheep will
ever be lost. Not one of them will ever perish
out there in the wilderness. You know why? Not because of
them. Because of who their shepherd
is. Because of who their Savior is. Now, you know, we say that
the shepherd comes and puts those sheep on his shoulder and brings
them home. But don't be mistaken. Those
sheep don't come to Christ against their will. No, they're saved.
They're saved against their will with their full consent. And
if God saved you, you know exactly what I mean. Saved against our
will with our full consent. Those sheep are lost. and the
Holy Spirit irresistibly draws them to Christ. And you know
how He does it? By showing them Christ lifted
up as a sacrifice for their sin. Our Savior said, if I be lifted
up from the earth, I'll draw all unto Me. You know who those
all are? They're all of God's elect. They're
all the sheep that the Father gave Him to save. And they are
all drawn to Christ, went through the preaching of the Gospel,
They see Christ lifted up as a sacrifice for their sin. And
when they see Christ, the holy, perfect Son of God, who's fearfully
and wonderfully made, when they see that He willingly gave Himself
as a sacrifice for their sin, He suffered and died in untold
anguish for their sin. If anybody ever sees that, any
sinner ever sees that, You're not going to have a preacher
standing down here singing 52 verses of Just As I Am and making
an altar plea, begging and pleading with them to come to Christ.
If the Spirit ever shows them Christ, you better get out of
the way. You can't stop them from getting to Him. Can't do
it. Can't do it. Because they love
Him. He's everything that they need. And that brings me to the
third thing. God's elect are fearfully and
wonderfully made new creatures in Christ. All of God's people
They're fearfully and wonderfully. They're made righteous. They're
made holy. They're made new in the new birth.
They're given the nature of Christ. Believers on earth are like Christ
in this way. They've got two natures and one
person too. And that's too fearfully and wonderfully made to be explained
to somebody that hasn't been born again. You can't explain
two natures in one person to somebody that doesn't have two
natures. But when you talk about that to a believer, they know
exactly what you're talking about. in one person. Now, we say that
when a sinner is born again, when they're converted, when
they come to believe Christ, they're being given faith in
Christ, we say at that time that person is saved. Now, they have
been. They've been born again. They've
been saved. They've been given spiritual life that wasn't there
before. But here's something else that's fearfully and wonderfully
made. Do you know the Father has always
seen them as righteous? You know, that person has been
converted. They've been given faith in Christ. At this moment,
they're dead. They only have one nature. And
at this moment, they've got two. They're born again. There's life
there that wasn't there before. But the Father doesn't see them
as dead and then as living. He's always seen them as alive,
spiritually alive in Christ. He's always seen them as righteous.
He's always seen them as holy because He's always seen them
in Christ. Verse 16. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect. And in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them." Now even when the Lord Jesus was an embryo
in Mary's womb, the Father saw His substance. He saw His life. He saw everything that He would
accomplish. But even then in the womb, you
know what the Father saw? He saw all of His elect in Christ. The father, when the Lord Jesus
was an embryo in Mary's womb, the father saw all of his members. He saw his whole body, his mystical
body. He saw all of his people in the
womb, in Christ. And he saw them all just like
he saw his son. Perfect in Christ. Even then,
their names were already written in God's book, in the Lamb's
book of life. Their names were written in God's
book. In Revelation, John talks about
the book that was opened. Well, that book isn't the Lamb's
book of life. That book is all of the purpose,
all of the counsel of God that would be accomplished during
time. The Father saw all of that before many of His people were
ever born. He saw it in His Son before His Son was born. He saw
His people as righteous. He saw them as redeemed. He saw
them as holy before the sacrifice actually took place in time.
He saw them as redeemed before they ever came to believe on
Christ. This word continuance, you saw all of my members were
written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there
was none of them. Now there's a word I don't... I don't pretend
to be a Hebrew scholar at all. I don't pretend to understand
much about Hebrew except for what I read in the lexicon. But
this is the definition of this word continuance, and I don't
think there is possibly a word like it in the English language.
The word means a day. It means a fixed time. Now that's
the time of redemption, isn't it? That's the time of the new
birth. That's the time when God gives his people Faith in Christ. It's not left up to chance. It's
a fixed time, isn't it? When that time comes, just like
our Lord, He said, My hour has not yet come. They couldn't lay
a hand on Him. When His hour was come, He willingly went to
the cross. He was crucified because His hour was come. We might shake
our fist in the face of God Almighty and say, I'll not believe you
until that continuance, that fixed day has come. when God
breaks us, when God reveals his son to us and in us. It's a fixed
time. But the word also means this.
It means today, yesterday, and tomorrow. It means all the time. It means no set time. It just
means always. Today, yesterday, and tomorrow. And that's how God sees his people.
Yesterday, today, just eternity. He's always seen His people as
righteous. He's always seen them as justified
and redeemed and forgiven. He's always seen them as cleansed
in the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Always. You see, salvation is eternal. God's always seen it that way.
God can't change, so it has to be eternal, doesn't it? And anything
that is eternal can never be changed. And that's what Christ
came to accomplish in time. And He did it. He fearfully and
wonderfully made and accomplished salvation for His people. Now
this is eternal. So nothing that happens in time
can undo what the Father already purposed. Nothing that happens
in time can undo what the Son purchased. Nothing that happens
in time can undo what the Spirit has applied in birth. It's eternal. Nothing can change it. Nothing. Our sin, our failure, our weak
faith, nothing can change it. It doesn't excuse sin. It doesn't
excuse our failure. It doesn't excuse our weak faith.
But nothing can change it. Because salvation does not depend
on you and me. It's eternal. It depends on our
eternal God. On our eternal Savior. Now I
tell you one more time, you trust Him. You come to Him. You find
rest and peace for your soul by trusting Christ. and continually
trusting him. How fearfully and wonderfully
he's made his people so that we trust him, so that we believe
him, so that we need him, so that the gospel feeds our soul,
strengthens and comforts our heart. He's fearfully and wonderfully
made his people so that they trust him. And I'm thankful,
aren't you? Thankful. All right, let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank You
for the Lord Jesus Christ. He's fearfully and wonderfully
made. All we can do is bow before Him
and thank Him and praise His precious name. How we thank You for a Savior
who fully and completely saves dead, sinful wretches such as
we are. Father, how we thank You. And
Father, I pray you bless your word. Bless your word in spite
of the stumblings and bumblings of the preacher, not saying it
just right, not giving you the glory that you deserve, not making
this glorious gospel of our Savior more clear. Father, how thankful
we are we depend on the power of your spirit. not on the power
of the preacher to preach and not on the power of the hearer
to hear. Father, I pray you bless your word. Bless your word to
the hearts of your people by showing us the glory of Christ
our Savior. For it's in his precious name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.