Well, good morning. If you would,
turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, Acts chapter
2. Let me apologize to those of
you who normally would watch the video or would prefer to
watch the video. The power lines are down at the
church and it doesn't look like they're going to have the power
back on anytime soon. So we're doing the recording
from our basement today. We can do the recording for the
audio, but not the video here. So Lord willing, the power and
all the recording equipment will be up and running. We'll have
a video available for Wednesday night's message, Lord willing.
But this morning, we just have the audio. And we'll begin with
a reading from Acts chapter 2. This will also serve as part
of our text this morning. Acts chapter 2, beginning in
verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know,
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should beholden of it. For David speaketh
concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For
he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore
did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover also
my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell or in the grave, neither wilt thou suffer thine
Holy One to seek corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me speak
freely unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath
to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he should raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing
this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that
God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both
Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the
rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, and in breaking of
bread, and in prayers." And we'll end our reading there. Thank
God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God and our Heavenly
Father, Oh, how we thank you that sinful men and women such
as we are can come before your throne and call the God of heaven
and earth our Father, our Father and our God. Oh, how we thank
you. And Father, I beg of thee this
morning that you would Give us an hour of worship that You would
enable us to worship You in spirit and in truth. Send Your Word
forth in power, Father. Cause it to go forth and reveal
to the hearts of Your people the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause Your Word to go forth in
power to break the heart of Your people. Break that stony, cold
heart. and give us a heart of flesh
that loves Christ, that believes Christ, that can hear the gospel,
believe it, understand it, and love it. Send your word forth
in power to break the hearts of your people, to bend the knee
of your people. Cause us to bow to our Lord Jesus
Christ. And Father, we pray for our world
at this time. We almost don't even know what
to pray, but God help us. God help us. Help this horrible
plague that sweeps across the land. Send healing, Father. Enable
those who are out of work to be able to go back to work and
earn a living. Enable our students to go back to school to continue
to learn. And Father, above all, we pray that You would Send healing
so that Your people can one more time meet together in person,
face to face, lift up our voices together in praise and thanksgiving
and the worship of our God. Father, do this for Your glory,
for Your namesake. And Father, for those who are
hurting and who are sick and need You especially, Father,
we pray for them. We pray that You'd comfort, that
You'd heal, that You'd meet their need richly according to the
riches of Your mercy and grace. Oh, Father, bless us all how
we beg You. Bless us in this hour and give
us a word from Thee. For it's in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks. Amen. Now the
title of the message this morning is A Word of Exhortation. I'd
like to give everyone, no matter who you are this morning, a word
of exhortation. I believe God's given me a word
of exhortation for those who as of yet have not trusted in
Christ. And I believe God's given me
a word of exhortation for those who have trusted in Christ. No
matter who you are, I've got a word of exhortation for you
this morning. Now the word exhort or exhortation
has a few different meanings in scripture. Number one, it
means to admonish. It means to entreat in comfort. It means to encourage and to
urge forward. And I want us to be exhorted
this morning by looking at six times God exhorts his people
in his word. And I just wondered, what is
it that God's word exhorts us to do? So I looked it up, came
up with these six things to give you. Number one is this. Let
me tell you one more time that the Lord Jesus Christ is THE
Christ. He is God's Savior, and let me
exhort you to trust Him. Peter, here in Acts chapter 2,
verse 40, it says, With many other words did he testify and
exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Now it's not recorded how Peter continued to testify of Christ,
how he continued to exhort the people to trust Christ. But we
do know how Peter testified and how he exhorted people earlier
in his message. And I think it's safe to assume
that Peter continued in the same vein. He continued testifying
of Christ and exhorting people to trust Christ the same way
he had earlier. So let's look, how did Peter
begin to exhort us? Back in verse 22. He said, Ye
men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Now we know that Jesus of Nazareth
is the promised Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. God left no doubt about it. The
Lord Jesus came in the flesh and He fulfilled every Old Testament
prophecy of the Messiah. He is the Lord Jesus, is David's
son. He came in the lineage of David. He was born in the city of Bethlehem
of a mother who was a virgin. John the Baptist, the forerunner
of Christ, came before Christ, came before Him in human time.
He came preaching and preparing the way of Christ as the forerunner
of Christ. Now look back in Matthew, the
book of Matthew chapter 11. I want you to see what did the
Lord say when John the Baptist sent to him and asked him, Are
you the Christ? Matthew chapter 11, verse 2. Now when John had heard in the
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and
said unto him, Art thou he that should come? Are you the promised
Messiah, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended. in me." Now, when John asked
the Savior, are you He? Are you the Messiah, the promised
Savior? He took him back to the Old Testament
pictures and prophecies, the scriptures, that prophesied that
the Lord would perform all these very miracles. When the Lord
performed these miracles, miracles that no other man could do, this
was the proof He was God's promised Messiah. So we know, beyond a
shadow of a doubt, by His life, by what He did in His life, that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. There's no doubt about it. This
is the Savior of sinners. We know it by His life. And we
know it by His death. Christ died according to the
Scriptures, too. Verse 23, Peter went on and said,
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. The death of Christ on the cross
was not God's plan B because the law failed to make men righteous
by their obedience to it, so God had to come up with a new
plan. No, that's not it at all. God's eternal purpose is to save
His people through the death of His Son. That's the only way
God ever did intend to save a sinner. And He gave us the Old Testament,
which is filled with pictures and prophecies of this, that
salvation has always been in Christ. And Christ came. He had an earthly ministry. And men by nature hated Him.
In the fullness of time, at God's appointed hour, they took to
Lord Jesus. And they did to Him everything their wicked hearts
wanted to do. They did to Him everything they've
been plotting to do for three and a half years. But when they
did what they wanted to do, they didn't fulfill their will. they
fulfilled God's will. When they did what their wicked
hearts wanted to do, you know what they did? They did everything
God prophesied that they would do. It's like they read the Old
Testament Scriptures to find the script to see what are we
supposed to do next. When they did what their wicked
hearts wanted to do, they didn't accomplish their will to get
rid of this man, Jesus. All they did was accomplish God's
eternal will to put away the sin of His people by the sacrifice,
the curse and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son. You
see, the Lord Jesus Christ was not crucified because wicked
men did something wicked. No, Christ was crucified because
the Father put Him to death. The Father made Christ sin for
His people. The Father laid all of the sin
of all of His elect upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He made Him
to be sin. He made that sin to be His sin,
made Him to be guilty of it, and then the Father gave Him
what justice demanded. The Father put the Son to death in justice
to pay for the sin that had been charged to Him. What were wicked
men doing there? God was just using them as instruments
to accomplish His eternal will. At Calvary, God's will was accomplished. The sin of God's elect was put
away by the sacrifice of Christ, by His dying blood, shed as a
payment, atonement for sin. And now the sin of God's elect
is gone. It's paid for. It's blotted out.
It's been put away under the blood of Christ. That's what
happened because that was God's will all along and God's will
was done. Christ lived fulfilling the scriptures. He died according to the scriptures
and he was raised again according to the scriptures too. Verse
24 of Acts 2. whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death, because it is not possible that he should beholden of it."
The Father raised Christ from the dead because He did exactly
what He was sent to do. He took away the sin of God's
elect. Christ was raised from the dead
because His sacrifice took away the only reason for death, sin. Once sin was gone, He could not
stay dead, so the Father raised Him from the dead. And not only
is Christ raised from the dead, but now He's highly exalted.
Verse 32, Peter says, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we
are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see
and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both
Lord and Christ. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
who was crucified, who died, who was buried, who rose again,
is now exalted to sit upon the throne of heaven. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the ruling Savior. Not only is He the successful
Savior, He's the ruling Savior. Ruling to guarantee, to ensure
the salvation of His people. He's the ruling Mediator between
God and men. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only way to come to God accepted. And if you come to God through
Him, you'll be accepted. Because He is the ruling Mediator,
sitting upon the throne of glory. Now today, all across the world,
people are celebrating Easter. They're all bent out of shape.
They can't go to their church house, their whatever you want
to call it, you know, and celebrate Easter, celebrate the resurrection
of Christ. They're all bent out of shape. They can't go do that.
Well, you and I, we don't celebrate a day like that. We don't even
know what day it is, what day of the year it is that Christ
arose anyway. But God's people celebrate the
resurrection of Christ every single time the gospel is preached. The resurrection of Christ. Here's
why we celebrate that. The resurrection of Christ is
the seal that our good news is true. Our good news is that Christ
came to put away the sin of his people. The resurrection of Christ
is proof that he did it. Christ has put away the sin of
His people. That's why the Father raised
Him from the dead. Now that's a truth worth celebrating. And
we celebrate it every single time the gospel is preached. Not just one day a year, but
every time the gospel is preached. Now that's who Christ is. He's
the Messiah. He's God's Savior. He is the
Savior of sinners. That's who He is. Now let me
exhort you. You who have not yet believed
Christ, let me exhort you. Let me entreat. Let me encourage
you to trust Christ. Let me encourage you. Trust your
soul to Christ to save. And as I exhort you, entreat
you, encourage you, I pray that God in His grace will do for
us what He did for many who heard Peter preach that day. Look at
verse 41. Then they gladly, they that gladly received his word
were baptized. And that same day there were
added unto them about 3,000 souls. I exhort you to believe on Christ,
just like those did who heard Peter preach all those years
ago. I exhort you, believe Christ, trust your soul to him. Then
let me exhort those of you who have believed on Christ. Let
me urge you forward. Let me impel upon you to continue
believing on Christ, to continue trusting your soul to Him. Don't
turn back now. Don't turn back to the law now.
Don't turn back to your works. Don't turn back to religious
ceremonies now. Let me urge you forward to continue
relying completely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Continue. That's
a good exhortation, isn't it? That's what those people did
who heard Peter and believed Christ. Look at verse 42. And
they continued, steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship
and breaking of bread and in prayers. Let me exhort you, encourage
you, urge you forward to believe on Christ and then to continue
believing on Him, to continue relying on Him. That's an exhortation
from God's Word. 2. Look with me at Acts 11. Let
me exhort you to cling to Christ, to cling to Him for all your
worth. Acts 11, verse 19. Now they which were scattered
abroad, upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled
as far as Phenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians, the Greek, Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. They came to the Gentiles, preaching
the Lord Jesus. Now, you know the story here.
Many in the early church were persecuted. They had to leave
Jerusalem. They just had to leave there.
They escaped for their lives. And as they went, they preached
Christ to many people who never would have heard Christ preached
if the Jews hadn't had to flee out of Jerusalem. They went preaching
to them. And look what happened, verse
21. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number
believed and turned to the Lord." These people heard the gospel
and they believed on Christ. And they never would have heard
the gospel if these early believers had not had to flee Jerusalem
from persecution. And they went all over that area
preaching. Now I think it's a good thing
to note that all throughout history, the more the world tries to stamp
the church out, the more the world tries to stamp the preaching
of the gospel out, the more the church thrives and grows. The
more the world tries to stamp out the preaching of the gospel,
the more the gospel is preached and the more people here believe
it. That's what happened here. Now look on, verse 22. Then tidings
of these things came unto the ears of the church which was
in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as
far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had seen
the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all with purpose
of heart, that they would cleave unto the Lord. Now Barnabas came,
he was glad to see the grace of God. He saw these people had
been saved by grace. Because of God's grace, these
people were trusting Christ. And Barnabas was so glad, And
then Barnabas exhorted them. He entreated them. He urged them
forward to continue in the faith. He exhorted them to hold fast
to Christ, to hold fast to the grace of God. He told them, you
believed on Christ. By God's grace, you believed
on Christ. I see that. Now continue believing on Him.
See, he's exhorting them. Now you got to remember, this
was a time of great persecution and the people needed to be encouraged.
They needed their hearts to be comforted. They needed to be
urged to go forward and to not retreat. They needed to have
their hearts comforted because they're going to face hard times
like you and I have never imagined. They're going to face hatred
over the gospel that's going to cause them to lose their jobs,
to lose their homes and families, some of them to lose their lives.
They're going to need comfort. They're going to need encouragement.
And that's what Barnabas came to give them. He encouraged their
hearts. He comforted their hearts. He
urged them forward by preaching Christ to them. And as Barnabas
exhorted those who believed, look what happened, verse 24,
Acts chapter 11. For he was a good man, and full
of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, and much people was added unto
the Lord." As Barnabas exhorted believers, unbelievers who heard
him preach then believed on Christ. This is one of the best examples
I can think of. The same message that exhorts,
that comforts, that encourages those who have believed Christ
and encourages them to continue believing Christ, the very same
message also calls the lost to come to Christ and to believe
on Him. That's what happened here as Barnabas exhorted the
people to continue in the faith. And Barnabas exhorted them to
do this. It says here in verse 23, with purpose of heart. The
word means with a purpose set out for everybody to see. Now
it is my purpose. It is the purpose of Hurricane
Road Grace Church. It's our purpose to preach Christ
so that the lost will be called to Christ. So they'll come to
believe on Christ. And it is our purpose to preach
Christ so that God's sheep will be fed, they'll be strengthened
and comforted, that they'll be exhorted. Now, we're not suffering
anything like these people suffered. I can't compare what is happening
to us now. It can't be compared to the suffering
of the early church. But we could use some encouragement
about now, couldn't we? We need now, at this time, to
be urged forward to not back down. Don't quit now. Let's not
abandon our purpose and our calling now. Let's cling all the more
to Christ. Let's cling all the more to our
calling to preach the gospel to our families, to our communities.
Let's cling to Christ like a drowning man clings to a life preserver. Let's cling to Christ like our
life depends upon it, because it does. But let's also cling
to Christ, not because we have to or forced to. Let's cling
to Christ out of love. Let's cling to Christ like you
cling to the love of your life. Cling to Christ because you love
Him and you don't want any other hope. Now that's a good exhortation. Cling to Christ because you love
Him and you don't want any other hope. Thirdly, look in Acts chapter
13. Let me exhort you. that forgiveness
for your sin is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you go
to him. Acts 13, verse 15. And after
the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue
sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any
word of exhortation for the people, say on. And after this Paul,
you can tell he preaches the same message that Peter preached.
He gives a message very similar to the message that Peter preached
on the day of Pentecost. He tells how God chose a people.
God chose Israel to be the nation that would be his nation, that
they would be the picture of God's elect, spiritual Israel,
that God would deal with those people, that this is the place,
the only place on earth where the worship of God would be.
God chose a people to be his people. And eventually he gave
them David, a man after his own heart. He gave them David to
be their king, to rule over them, to be a picture of Christ. And
then he brought Christ the Savior through David's seed. Christ
came in the line and lineage of King David. And then he told
them how the wicked men put the Lord Jesus to death. They did
what their wicked hearts wanted to do and put him to death, even
though they found no cause of death in this man Jesus. They
put him to death But God raised him from the dead. Now, this
is the Christ. This is the Savior. That's what
Paul's telling them. This is the Savior. The fact
that God provided a Savior tells me there's a problem. There's
a problem with sin. There's something we need to
be saved from, and we need to be saved from our sin. And we need somebody else to
do the saving. We can't save ourselves. We need
somebody else to come and be the Savior. Someone else has
got to come and save us from our sin. See, our sin demands
that we die, that we suffer eternally in hell because our suffering
will never pay for even one sin. That's what God's justice demands
because of sin. You and I are guilty. Now, we're
guilty. We are just as guilty as the
Jews and the Romans who put the Lord Jesus to death. We're just
as guilty as they were or are of spitting in his face. We're
just guilty of them balling up our fist and beating his face
with our fist. We're guilty of beating his back
with a cat of nine tails. We're guilty of saying, I'll
not have this man to reign over us. And here's the key to our
sin, the key that shows our sin. We're just as guilty as they
were of refusing to believe on Christ and refusing to bow to
him. That's our sin. And we're guilty. We're guilty. There's no denying
it. And we deserve eternal condemnation. That's what we deserve. Do I have your attention now?
Got your attention now? Well, Paul had their attention,
those who are listening to him, because look what he said, verse
38. After he preached there, he comes down to verse 38 of
Acts chapter 13. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, this man that you hated,
this man that you refused to bow to and believe upon, this
man that you put to death, through this man, is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins." God has provided the way for sin
to be forgiven. Now, God can't forgive sin by
saying, well, now it's okay that you sin and I won't punish you
because I'll just pretend like you didn't sin. I'll just choose
to ignore the fact that you've sinned. No, God can't do that
because it wouldn't be holy and it wouldn't be just. And everything
God does is holy and just. God forgives sin by punishing
Christ our substitute, punishing him unto death for the sin of
his people. See, God can only forgive sin
by punishing Christ for your sin. God can only forgive your
sin through the blood of Christ's sacrifice. Now, let me exhort
you. Let me entreat you. Let me urge
you forward. You who have not yet believed
Christ, let me entreat you, exhort you, urge you. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Trust Him. Let
me exhort you. Let me comfort your guilty heart.
Encourage you by telling you there is forgiveness for your
sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you come to Him and trust
Him. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. See, this thing of salvation,
this thing of forgiveness has got to be by Christ, and it's
got to be only, all by Christ. Look what Paul says in verse
39. and by him all that believe are justified from all things
from which it could not be justified by the law of Moses." By him
you're justified, Paul said. Justified means without sin,
to have no sin. Now the only way a sinner can
be justified to have no sin is by believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We can't justify ourselves by
trying to keep the Law of Moses. Everything we do trying to keep
the Law of Moses just adds to our condemnation because everything
we do trying to keep the Law of Moses is a failure. So it's
sin. We can't justify ourselves by
trying to keep the Law. Sinners are justified by believing
Christ who kept the Law for His people. Now let me exhort you,
let me encourage you and urge you forward to trust Christ without
trying to add any of your works to it. If you do that, God will
justify you. And let me exhort you, let me
comfort your heart by reminding you that if you trust Christ,
You are justified. You are. You have no sin. Now,
don't despair because of your sin. Hate your sin. Don't deny
it. Hate your sin. Fight against
your sin, but don't despair of your sin because if you trust
Christ, you're justified. Now, if you believe Christ, that'll
comfort your heart. And also, let me exhort you.
Let me admonish you and warn you. Do not take hearing the
gospel and hearing this exhortation lightly. Don't do it. Look at
what Paul says in verse 40, Acts 13. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold ye
despisers, and wander and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you." You're going to hear it and you're going to despise
it. You're going to mock it and just you're going to despise
it, make fun of it, refuse to believe it. and God's going to
send you to hell for it. If you do not believe the gospel,
you're despising the Son of God. Now, you and I can't believe
the gospel when we hear it, unless God gives us a heart of faith.
The gospel is too good to be true, so the human mind cannot
believe it. Well, then let me exhort you.
Let me entreat you and encourage you. Let me urge you forward
to beg God that He'll give you a new heart that will believe
the gospel and will love Christ and not despise Him. Beg God
that gives you a heart to trust Christ and believe Him. If you
believe Him, your sin will be forgiven. God will justify you
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. All right, fourthly, look in
Acts chapter 14. let me exhort you to endure tribulation." Acts
14, verse 21. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again
to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming the souls
of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith,
and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom
of God. Now the believers in these cities,
they had believed on Christ. We read earlier how the early
church and Barnabas went to these cities preaching and the people
believed. They did. They believed on Christ. But now Paul and Barnabas have
come back and they preach Christ to them again. They preach the
same message to them again, over again that they heard before.
They did that to confirm them in the faith. Now the Word of
God exhorts us, it encourages us, it urges us forward to continue
trusting Christ, to be confirmed in the faith. And you and I need
this word of exhortation, because the way that we tread is often
very hard. Our Lord promised His people
would have trouble and tribulation in this world. We're going to
suffer tribulation from the world around us, maybe even from our
loved ones after the flesh, who cannot understand why we love
this gospel, who can't understand why we can't compromise. They
won't understand. And we'll suffer tribulation
from that. And we will definitely suffer tribulation, persecution
from our own flesh that we carry around with us, that constantly
fights against the Spirit and constantly tries to bring us
back into captivity under the law. Sometimes that way might
be difficult. I mean, you carry that persecution
around with you in the nature of your flesh. So let me exhort
you. Let me encourage you, comfort
you, and urge you forward. Don't let the troubles of this
flesh stop you from believing Christ. In times of trouble and
trial, Lean on Christ even harder. In times of trouble, trial, and
heartache, hug up to Christ even more. and let me exhort you. Let me comfort your heart by
reminding you that troubles and trials don't mean that God doesn't
love you. Troubles and trials don't mean that God's punishing
you. It's like I told you Wednesday night from Psalm 119, part four. These trials that God sends,
they're sent to teach us more of our Savior, to teach us to
trust Him more fully. So in times of trouble, trial,
affliction, don't quit. Keep trusting Christ. Keep trusting.
Look for the lesson that the Lord's teaching. We just might
learn something good. God just might teach us something
good. Let me exhort you to endure. Endure tribulation. For through
much tribulation, we must enter the kingdom of our God. And fifthly,
look at the book of First Timothy. First Timothy. Chapter two. Let me exhort you
to pray, to pray for all men, and to especially pray for the
salvation of God's people. 1 Timothy 2, verse 1. 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." Now, we should always pray for
our leaders. We should pray that the Lord
would give them wisdom that they do not have. And we should pray
that our Lord would lead our rulers and enable them to do
what's best for the general welfare, that we might live a quiet, peaceable
life. Let me exhort you, urge you forward,
especially now at this time, to pray for our rulers, pray
for our leaders. And let me urge you, exhort you,
to especially pray for the salvation of God's elect. 1 Timothy 2,
verse 4, 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. Now, we know that God will, He is going to,
save His people from their sins through the sacrifice of His
Son. There's no doubt about it. Scripture leaves no room for
doubt. No ifs, ors, maybes. God will save His people. Not
one drop of Christ's blood will be wasted, shed in vain. Christ
gave Himself a ransom for His people. After paying such a high
price, they will be saved. The sacrifice of Christ will
not be wasted. No one for whom He died will perish. We know
that. Then why pray that God's going to save His elect? We already
know that's what He's going to do. Because God told us to pray for
them. That's why. So let me exhort
you. Let me encourage you. I entreat
you and urge you forward. Pray for the lost. Don't ever
quit praying for the lost. Pray that God would save our
loved ones. Pray and beg God to save and never quit begging.
Pray that the Lord would save the lost in our community. Pray
that the Lord bless His word to the people of this tri-state
area, that God might save the lost and call them out of this
world. Pray that the Lord make us faithful to preach Christ
to them so they could hear and be saved. The Lord just might,
in this time, give us a glimpse of His glory in saving His people. Oh, I exhort you to pray. Pray
that God save His people. We might see something of His
glory. Then lastly, look at the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter
5. Let me exhort you to trust your
soul to God's grace. 1 Peter 5, verse 12, By Silvanus,
a faithful brethren to you, as I suppose, I have written briefly,
exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God
wherein ye stand. Salvation is by God's grace.
It is not because we can do something to earn any favor from God. It
is all undeserved, all of God's grace. If sinners are going to
be saved, it's got to be by grace. Sinners can't be saved any other
way. All they do is sin, so they can't be saved by what they do.
They can only be saved by God's grace. It's the only way the
salvation of a sinner is possible. God's grace. Grace. God's grace through the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the true grace. God's
true grace that saves sinners. Now, let me exhort you. Let me
entreat you and encourage you. Let me urge you forward to trust
in God's grace and to never trust in anything that you have done
or that you haven't done. But trust God's grace. He is
the God of all grace. Now, trusting. Let me exhort
you to trusting. What a blessed exhortation from
our God to trust in His grace. His amazing, electing, saving,
calling, keeping, all-sufficient grace. Trust in His grace. Let me exhort you, trust in His
grace. Oh, may God be pleased to give
us a heart that both needs and loves His grace. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for the exhortation of Your Word. This exhortation that reveals
the Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, that reveals Him
and His glory and His sufficiency, that reveals Him to be everything
we need. And Father, how we thank You
for the exhortation to trust Him, to believe on Him and to
continue trusting Him. It would seem like presumption
for a sinner, a low down, no good, rotten, dead, stinking
sinner, to trust the Son of God, If God's Word didn't command
us, trust Him. Cast your soul upon Him. Father,
we pray for the grace that you would enable us to do that, to
trust our Lord Jesus Christ, to find in Him all that we need. Father, we beg that you do this
for your glory, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
bless us, we pray. Bless your word to our hearts
to exhort us, to encourage us and urge us forward along the path of this life upon
which you've caused us to tread. Now, Father, all these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. Hope that's been
a blessing to your heart. Till next time, may the Lord
bless you and keep you.