Let's begin our service opening
our Bibles to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Bring you greetings
from the Brethren in Danville. Had a very good, profitable trip
there. Also have this announcement for
prayer. Brother Rupert Rivenbark, who
was the longtime pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Spring Lake,
North Carolina, where Brother John Chapman is the pastor now.
Rupert is dying. He's had some sort of dementia
for some time, and his organs are all failing. The time is
very short. And I think it would be good
if we just prayed, Lord, make it now, just as soon as he could. It's a very difficult situation. There are so many, so many of
our loved ones who are suffering such great difficulties right
now. It's just too many to be able
to name and announce all their names, any given service. If I didn't believe God's on
the throne, I'd go to cave and hide, wouldn't you? I'm thankful
He is. I'm thankful. We can trust Him
even when we don't understand. All right, Luke chapter 13. We're
going to begin our reading in verse 11. And behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together
and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her,
he called her to him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed
from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And
the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because the
Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day and said unto the people,
there are six days in which men ought to work in them. Therefore,
come and be healed and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then
answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, does not each one of you on the
Sabbath lose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away
to watering? And are not this woman being
a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen
years." How did he know that? It's said up here, she didn't
go around telling everybody this has been going on eighteen years.
How did he know that? This is the Lord. He knows all. This
is God. Satan hath bound her these eighteen
years. Shouldn't she be loosed from
this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things,
all his adversaries were ashamed. And all the people rejoiced.
for all the glorious things that were done by Him. Go into our
reading there. Let's turn to page 209. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's bough how
cold There, where the blood of the Lamb was spilled, Sin and
despair, like the sea, wakes foe. Threaten the soul with infinite
loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, points to the refuge with the mighty cross. God's grace, grace that will
pardon and cleanse within. God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin. Next two verses. Dark is the
stain that we cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is glowing a crimson
tide Wider than snow you may be today Marvelous, infinite,
matchless grace bestowed on all who believe. If that our longing fits His
face, His face, will you this moment His grace receive? God's grace, grace that will
pardon and cleanse within. May the Lord's grace, grace that
is greater than all our sin. Let's turn over to 449, 449. So, To God be the glory, great things
He hath done, So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life and atonement for sin, And opened the life-gate
that all may go in, Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice! O come, let us adore Him! Will Jesus, the Son, then give
him the glory, great things he hath done? O perfect redemption, the purchase
of blood, To every believer the promise of God The vilest offender
who truly believes That moment from Jesus the pardon receives Praise the Lord! Let the earth
hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come, let us adore Him, O come,
let us adore Him, Great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us. Great things He hath done. And great are rejoicing through
Jesus the Son. Higher and higher and greater
will be Our wonder, our transport, in Jesus we see. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, with Jesus
the Son, Let's open our Bibles now to
Psalm 98. Psalm 98. O sing unto the Lord a new song,
for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him the victory. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. His righteousness hath he openly showed in the
sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all the earth, Make a loud noise and rejoice
and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the voice of a song. With trumpets and the
sound of a cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.
Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands.
Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord. For he cometh
to judge the earth with righteousness, So he judged the world and the
people with equity. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, wise,
loving Heavenly Father, we bow in your presence with fear and
trembling at coming before the throne of Almighty God. And Father, how thankful we are
that we can come before your throne as your children, crying,
I have a father. By your grace, making us accepted
in the beloved, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and able to call you
our father, to come before not a throne of justice, but a throne
of mercy. Father, how thankful, how thankful
we are that you are God alone. There's none beside thee. That you do your will and your
purpose in all things, always. And Father, we are thankful.
We're thankful for your purpose of mercy and grace to your people.
That you would determine to save a people by the obedience and
the sacrifice of your only son. Father, we're thankful. Oh, how
thankful we are. for the forgiveness of sin and
righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that
the name of the Savior would be lifted up and extolled and
magnified in our service this evening, in the preaching of
your word. Father, enable me to rightly
divide the word of truth. And I beg of thee that in this
hour that you would not leave me to myself, but you'd uphold
me with your spirit enable me to preach the gospel and the
power of your spirit. For your namesake, for the glory
of your namesake, Father, we ask this great blessing and for
the good of your people who are here gathered, cause your word
to go forth, to reach the hearts of your people, to arrest us. Cause us to stop in the madness
of this world and be able by thy grace to look to thee. And
Father, for your people who are in a time of trouble, we pray
for them. We pray a special blessing for
our brother Rupert that you would see fit to bring him home quickly. Lord, we know that our times
are in your hands. Our days are in your hands. Every
event of our life is in your hands. And Father, we pray that
if it could be your will, that you'd bring our brother home,
that you'd deliver him from this clay prison that's so quickly
falling apart, bring him home. Enable him quickly to awaken
the likeness of your darling son in your presence. Father, we dare not forget to
thank you as much as we have to. To ask that your blessing,
your help, your leadership, your guidance, we dare not forget
to thank you for the countless many blessings you have so freely
bestowed upon us, how blessed we are. And we ask forgiveness for our
much murmuring and complaining and doubting after all you've
done for us, after how you've proven yourself. Be a wise and
a good God and Savior. Father, again in this hour, we
pray your blessing. Don't let us meet alone, but
bless us in worship. Bless the message and bless us
as we meet around your table remembering Christ our Savior.
It's in His blessed name we pray and give thanks. Amen. When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory
died. All earthly gain I count but
loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. It was on the cross He shed His
blood. It was there He was crucified. But He arose again and He lives
in my heart Where all is peace and perfect love Forbid it, Lord,
that I should most Stain in the death of Christ my God All the
vain things That charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. Seep from His head, His hands,
His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled
down. It airs such love and sorrow
me. O'er thorns composed so rich
a crown. Sing it with me. It was on the
cross his blood. It was there he was crucified. But he arose again, and he lives
in my And perfect love Were the whole
realm Of nature mine That were a present Far too small Oh, so amazing and so divine. Shall have my soul, my life,
my all. He shed His blood, it was there
He was crucified. But He arose again, and He lives
in my heart. All right, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 98. I titled the message this evening,
Marvelous Things. Verse one begins, Oh, sing unto
the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. Now, we have looked at singing
this new song in several of the songs we've looked at recently.
The new song God's people sing is not new in that it's newly
made. It's the old, old song of redemption
in Christ Jesus. We don't have any new subjects
to sing about because we don't have any new revelations. The
only subject we have to preach, the only subject we have to sing
is Christ and Him crucified. So that's an old, old story,
isn't it? But it's new in this way. As
a child of God grows in grace and in knowledge, we can sing
this old song with a new, deeper understanding, more understanding
of of salvation in Christ, more the dependence that we have upon
Him, upon His grace. God's people sing this new song
of grace from a new heart that God gives. So this song is sung
in thanksgiving and praise. And the subject is what God has
done for us, not what we've done for Him. This song is new because
the blood of Christ is new. It's always fresh and powerful
to save and to cleanse. So God's people sing about our
Savior with new, fresh thankfulness for salvation, a fresh and new
thankfulness for forgiveness of sin every day. But here there's
a specific reason the psalmist says to sing this new song. He
says, sing this new song for, because, sing this song because
the Lord has done marvelous things. And I began studying for this
message. I just sat there and looked at
that phrase. Marvelous things. And I just sat there and thought
so many marvelous things that God has done came to my mind.
Creation is marvelous. In the study, Cecil read the
story there from Genesis 1 about God speaking. And it was so. He created and He saw it was
good. Every day He saw it was good.
On the last day, He said everything He's made Oh, the creation. It shows God's handiwork. It
shows God's wisdom. It shows something of the majesty
of our God that He could speak this into existence. And then
think about how God rules in all the events of providence.
That's marvelous. Think how often history has turned
on some event that the only explanation for it is divine providence. There's too many examples to
name. You can think of many. It's just marvelous how God has
done that. The formation of this country,
how God did it. It's marvelous, isn't it? Marvelous. But then this, the eternal God
becoming a man, becoming an embryo in the womb of the virgin, being
formed in the lowest parts of the earth. and becoming a man. That's marvelous, isn't it? God
manifest in the flesh? That's a great mystery. The Apostle
Paul, one of the smartest men of his day, he couldn't, the
human mind can't understand this. He said without controversy,
there's no argument about this, great is the mystery of godliness. That God was manifest in the
flesh. How can that be? That's marvelous, isn't it? But
if you think that's something, hang on to your seat. God became
a man so that he could redeem fallen, sinful men. Now that's
marvelous. It's the greatest story that's
ever been told. This is a faithful saying and
it's worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world, came incarnate, came as a man into this world to save
sinners. Not good people. Not people sinners
who sin less than other sinners. Sinners. And just in case we
don't understand what Paul meant there, he says, of whom I'm chief.
He came to save the worst of sinners. That's marvelous. In God. Showing His great love
for His people. He showed His love by sacrificing
His Son. His only Son. for their sin. The Apostle John said, herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us. And He sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. That's marvelous. Marvelous. And then think of this. God sends
His Gospel to lost, dead sinners. He sends His Gospel to dead sinners
who cannot hear, whose nature makes it impossible for them
to believe. Yet God sends His gospel to them.
And then He gives them life and faith to believe on His Son. Oh, that is marvelous. God sending a sinful man to tell
other sinful men and women about Christ is marvelous. That God could somehow bless
that preaching that comes through a cracked clay pot and save His
people and bless His people. That's marvelous. If you and
I were going to pick a way for the gospel to be preached, that's
not how we would have done it. We would have had an angel preach. We would have had visions and
things coming to men. But it's marvelous. It shows
the marvelous power of God that He can send a sinful man to preach
the gospel to other sinners and save them by it. and blessed
them by it. Isn't that marvelous? And God's
wisdom in the gospel of representation is marvelous. Adam represented
his entire race. And by his disobedience, he made
all of those people, everyone who would come from him, he made
them sinners. For the Lord Jesus Christ came
to undo for his people what Adam did to them. By His obedience,
He made His people righteous. And by dying in their place,
He paid for all their sin. Now that's marvelous, that one
man could do that for a number no man can number. Isn't that
marvelous? We can just go on and on and
on, but after I said all that, now I'm going to confine myself
to what the psalmist says here. He gives us four specific, marvelous
works that the Lord has done. And that's what we'll focus on
the rest of our time. Number one, this is a marvelous
thing. The Lord has gotten him the victory. Verse 1, O sing
unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory.
Now God's right hand, that's his power. You know, most of
us are right handed. That's the power to do your will,
to do the work that you want done. Well, God's right hand,
is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When God had a work to do, He
sent His right arm to do it. He sent His Son to accomplish
His purpose of redemption for His people. And God's holy arm,
that arm is attached to His right hand, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's holiness personified who
came to make His people holy. He came to make a sinful people
holy. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
had done everything that the Father sent Him to do, when He,
by His obedience, had made His people righteous, when by His
sacrificial death He put the sin of His people away, when
all that was done, Christ won the victory. This is a victory
He won. And it's a marvelous victory
that's worth celebrating because Christ, by accomplishing everything
the Father sent him to do, he won the victory over every one
of his enemies and every one of our enemies. Christ won the
victory over Satan. Just like God prophesied would
happen, he came and he crushed Satan's head. He took away Satan's
power to deceive and to control his people anymore. He put that
enemy away. Christ won the victory over sin. He put the sin of His people
away and brought in everlasting righteousness, so that the sin
of His people can never damn Him, because He put it away by
His blood. He won the victory. Christ won
the victory over death. He took the sting of death away,
which enables us to do what I did a few minutes ago for our brother
Rupert. Pray the Lord take him, because that won't be death.
No, he took the sting of death away. Christ died for his people
and he gave them everlasting life. So they'll never die. Now their bodies are going to
have to die or they're going to have to be changed one or
the other because we can't go into God's presence in these
bodies. The body will die, but the believer won't. No, you'll
never die. And Christ won the victory over
any prison. that would hold his people captive. Whether it's the law, Christ
fulfilled it and set his people free. Whether it's unbelief,
he gives them faith. Whether it's false religion and
blindness, he gives them sight. Christ made his people free. He set them free from being captives. And now they're free to serve
him, not as hired servants, but as loving sons and daughters. They're free. And if the sun
shall make you free, our Lord said, you should be free indeed. He made his people free. No more
going back into captivity ever again. Christ won the victory
over every idol. He set his people free to worship
him, him, the true and living God, him and him alone. Christ
won the victory over the darkness of unbelief. because he is the
light of his people. Isaiah has promised that God
will give him as a light of the Gentiles. He can be a light of
the Gentiles to give spiritual light to the heathen in their
darkness. He gives light to see. Christ
won the victory over the ignorance of his people. He is the wisdom
of God and he defeats the ignorance of his people by revealing himself. He gives his people the knowledge
of Christ. If you know Christ, you have
whole wisdom. Isn't that a marvelous gift? To know Christ. Now, you don't
know everything there is to know. I grant you. But you know exactly
how God saves sinners. You know the truth when you hear
it because you know Christ. To know Christ, our Lord said,
is life eternal. What a gift He gives His people.
And the salvation in Christ that He gives His people is marvelous. This is a marvelous salvation. It's marvelous because this innumerable
host of enemies that we have, Christ defeated them all by Himself. He needed no help from anyone. And this salvation is marvelous
because of who he saved. He saved sinners, the worst of
sinners. And this salvation is marvelous
because it satisfies every attribute of God. Salvation in Christ is
the only salvation proclaimed in this world that satisfies
God's holiness, God's justice, and his grace. It's all in Christ. Salvation in Christ is what allows
righteousness and peace to kiss each other. It's the only salvation
that satisfies every attribute of God. It's marvelous, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ, the captain
of our salvation, he came, he saw, and he conquered every enemy. And he made a show of them openly.
He won the victory. by his marvelous birth, becoming
a man, by his marvelous life in which he obeyed God's law
perfectly, by his marvelous death, which paid for all the sin of
his people, and his marvelous resurrection, which is the evidence
that his sacrifice justified his people. And he ascended back
on high to sit on the throne of glory as king. King over all,
mediator of His people to ensure His victory for them. Now this
victory is sure. This victory in Christ is sure.
Well, how sure is it? How sure is it? I don't know
if David who wrote this psalm, most people think David did.
Whoever wrote this psalm wrote it thousands of years before
Christ ever came incarnate, didn't he? And he's talking about this
victory in the past tense. Before Christ ever came, before
He was born in Bethlehem's manger, the psalmist said He hath gotten
Him the victory. The victory, sure, because it's
already won. It's already won. And that's marvelous, isn't it?
Alright, number two. This is a marvelous thing. The
Lord has made His salvation known. Verse two, the Lord hath made
known His salvation. His righteousness hath He openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. Have you ever noticed how often
in Scripture, we've seen it in the past couple of Psalms, Scripture
calls salvation His salvation. I looked it up yesterday, in
case you're wondering. It's eight times. Eight times, Scripture
calls salvation His salvation. This is the salvation, this is
God's salvation. He purposed it. He planned it
before time began. And before he sent his son, he
told prophets, he and his spirit inspired the prophets to write
all these Old Testament scriptures, showing us, telling us what God's
getting ready to do. How salvation is coming in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But all through these Old Testament
scriptures, it's only shown in shadow, isn't it? Sometimes dark
shadows that are hard to be understood. But then, At God's appointed
time, God showed His salvation openly in the sight of the heathen
when Christ appeared. This is God's salvation. Isn't
that what Simeon said? Let me depart in peace. He's
looking at this baby, eight days old. He says, mine eyes have
seen your salvation. This is God's salvation. I'm
getting ready to circumcise him to fulfill the law. This is God's
salvation. showed him openly and salvation
walked the earth in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is God's salvation. All salvation is in him. Salvation is in his obedience
to the law that makes his people righteous. Salvation is in his
death as a substitute for his people, as a sacrifice for their
sins. It has to be Christ. Only the
Lord Jesus had a perfect life that could be sacrificed. A life
that had any sin in it. Couldn't purchase anything, could
it? Couldn't bring anything. It had to be a perfect life.
To bring in everlasting life. Only Christ had perfect blood
that He could bring before the Father as payment for the sin
of His people. And God showed salvation openly
in this man. The God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is all him and it can't none
of it can be from us. None of it because we mar it.
We mar his righteousness. It all has to be him. And we
never would have known that salvation. We never would have known it
unless God showed Christ to us openly. That's the only way we
know it. Look at Romans chapter one. God openly shows his salvation. You know, in the, in our Lord's
day, as he walked this earth as a man, many people saw him,
but they didn't see God's salvation, did they? And here he is openly
declared to the heathen in his word. All you got to do is read
it, but people by nature can't see it. So God openly shows his
salvation to people through the preaching of the gospel. The
only way we would ever know that righteousness is in Christ, not
in our obedience to the law, the only way we could ever know
that is by hearing the gospel. Romans 1 verse 16. For I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein, and this gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith, as it's
written, the just shall live by faith. Not by their obedience
to the law, they'll live by faith in Christ, who kept the law for
us. It has to be in Christ, because
we can't earn a righteousness like that. Look at chapter 3,
verse 10. Here's why we can't earn a righteousness
like that. As it's written, there's none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There's none that do with good. No, not one. So righteousness
can't be earned by us. Can it? It can only be in Christ. Verse 20 Romans three, therefore
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the
righteousness of God without the law, Without your obedience
to the law as manifested, be witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there
is no difference. See, God showed that openly,
didn't he? And when we preach the gospel,
you know what we're declaring? We're declaring Christ's righteousness. I suppose a better way to say
it is when we preach the gospel, we're declaring Christ our righteousness. Look at verse 26 of Romans 3.
To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. This is the gospel. It's to declare
Christ's righteousness. That's how God openly shows Christ
the Savior to His people. But I alluded to this a minute
ago. We're so dead. We're so blinded by our sin.
We cannot see Christ shining in the darkness. The Apostle
John said, Christ the light came into the world. Light shined
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. The light
was shining, but we're blind. We needed somebody else to tell
us the light is shining. Well, how can I ever see Him?
Here's how God shows salvation openly to His people. It's by
pouring out His Holy Spirit upon them and giving them eyes to
see, giving them a heart that believes and loves Christ. He
gives His elect eyes to see Christ, a heart to believe Him and love
Him. That's how God shows His Son's
salvation openly to His people. It's a work of God. God the Father,
He planned it, He purposed it. God the Son purchased it. But
you can't stop there, can you? The Holy Spirit, God the Holy
Spirit applies it to the hearts of His people. That's how God
saves His people. Well, you want me to tell you
where that leaves you and me? That leaves us totally dependent on
God, doesn't it? That leaves us totally dependent
on God the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us. Because I promise
you, we would never have figured out salvation is in Christ's
obedience, not ours, unless the Holy Spirit showed us Christ.
Now, once we see Christ, that's obvious. But before we see Him,
we can't figure that out. We never would have figured out
that salvation is in Christ's sacrifice, not ours, unless the
Holy Spirit openly showed Him to us. We never would have figured
out that salvation is by grace through God given faith and not
our works unless the Holy Spirit openly revealed and showed the
Lord Jesus Christ to us. You who believe you can answer
this question in your heart, you won't know the exact number,
but you'll get my point. How many times did you hear the
gospel? before you believed it. How many
times did you hear the gospel and it's just, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. How many more points has he got?
I'm going to get out of here, you know. How many times? More
than likely many. What a marvelous thing. God wouldn't
give up on us. What a marvelous thing that he
sent a man to keep preaching Christ to us. so that in God's
time, He would make His salvation known in our hearts and cause
us to believe it and love it. That's a marvelous thing, isn't
it? Oh, that's marvelous. What a victory that Christ has
won over our dead hearts. All right, here's the third marvelous
thing. The Lord remembers His covenant of grace. Verse 3. He hath remembered His mercy
and His truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. Now, before time
began, God made a covenant of grace, and that covenant was
a promise. It was God's promise that he
would save his people by the obedience and by the death of
his son. The father purposed all this
covenant of grace. He purposed how it would be accomplished.
He purposed who it would be accomplished for. God the Son agreed to be
the surety of that covenant. He agreed to come as a man and
work all this covenant out and ratify it by His blood. And I
want to tell you, that was a long time ago. A long time ago. Because this covenant is an eternal
covenant of grace. It doesn't even have a beginning.
So it was a long time ago, wasn't it? Isn't it a marvelous thing
that in all that time God never one time changed his mind. I
changed my mind several times a day. God never changed his
mind once in all this time from eternity. And it's a marvelous
thing, too, that in all that time, God has never forgotten
his promise of mercy and grace to his people. And aren't you
glad? Aren't you glad? We have to be
reminded about things all the time, don't we? Because we forget
so many things. Me and Janet got a calendar. And I got two. I got one on my
computer at my desk. But something's going on. That's
on that calendar. That's immaterial, Janet. It's
got to be on the one on the refrigerator, too. And you know why it's got
to be in both? We can't keep our head screwed on right. I
mean, we're hopeless. It's got to be on that calendar.
And sometimes it's on that calendar we might forget. We forget so
many things. But that's especially true about
spiritual things, spiritual things. You think about the stupid things
that you remember. I remember the batting order
for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. I remember the batting order.
But spiritual things, I've got to read them over and over and
over again. A believer. I'm talking about
believers here now, God's people, who've been saved by God's grace. God the Holy Spirit has come
and showed Christ openly to them, revealed Christ to them. They
see His salvation. They know it. They love it. They wouldn't have it any other
way. They hang their whole soul upon
it. Yet they have to be reminded
often. Isn't that true? And I tell you
how God reminds us. It's by the preaching of the
gospel. Paul, when he wrote to the church at Philippi, told
them to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, it's not
grievous. It's not a grievous, irritating
thing for me to keep preaching the same things over and over
and over again. He says, because for you it's
safe. Because we forget so easily. The Lord told us this dude, in
remembrance of me. That has to be one of the most
shameful things that could ever be said about our nature. He's
saying this to believers now. Do this to remember me. How could I ever forget? Do this
in remembrance of me. how easily we forget. But God
is not like us. Aren't you glad God's not like
us? He never forgets. He never forgets His promise
to save His people through the obedience and through the death
of His Son. And He won't change His mind. God's people are born
in this world sinful. I mean, and they're good at sinning.
I mean, they got real good at it. They're good at rebelling
against God. Yet, in spite of all their sin,
God's covenant is unbroken because he will not break his promise
of mercy. He never forgets mercy. Now,
you know, God will forget some things. He'll forget the sin
of his people. He said, I've forgotten it. It's
cast behind my back. He's forgotten it because of
the sacrifice of Christ. The blood of Christ cleansed
it away. God will forget his anger toward his people. He will. For Christ's sake. because he's
already poured out all of his anger upon Christ, our substitute,
so that God said, there's no more fury left in me. I've forgotten
it. But he'll never forget his mercy.
Never. He'll never forget his promise
to save his people. God will keep his word. And this covenant, this eternal
covenant of mercy and grace is marvelous because it concerns
the salvation of the worst of sinners. This covenant wasn't
just Israel, now God did show it to Israel, but this covenant
wasn't just Israel. This covenant of grace concerns
the salvation of people from every nation. The psalmist said,
all the ends of the earth has seen the salvation of our God.
Not just the Jews, but the heathen. That's you and me, the heathen.
That's marvelous, isn't it? It is marvelous that God is both
willing and able to save the worst of sinners. And he put
his reputation on the line to do it. He promised he'd do it.
He put his glory on the line to save everyone he purposed
to save. And you can rest assured he's going to do it because God
always keeps his promise. And then here's the fourth marvelous
thing. The Lord's coming again. Verse nine says, for he cometh
to judge the earth. with righteousness, so He judged
the world and the people with equity. Now here's a marvelous
thing. The Lord is coming again. And
when He comes, He's going to judge the earth with righteousness,
equity. That means it's going to be a
right judgment. Every judgment He pronounces
will be right. He'll give everyone exactly what
they deserve, no more, no less. The Lord will not let the guilty
go unpunished because they bribed him, or you know, they got friends
in high places. That might work down here with human judges.
That won't work with a judge of all the earth. And he will
never allow the innocent to be punished. Now that happens on
earth. I think that must be the worst
thing to know you're innocent of a crime and be in prison.
That's got to be the worst. But Christ our judge will never
do that. See, for the believer, there's no fear of death. You
know, after death comes judgment. Well, for the believer, there's
no fear of death because there's no fear of judgment. Even though
all we see about ourselves, when we look at ourselves as sin,
there's no fear of death. There's no fear of judgment because
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, is the one who's the judge. The
Father has given all judgment in his hand and nobody knows
better than he does that his people are innocent because he's
the one who made them innocent. Nobody knows better than him.
that their sin has been paid for because He's the one who
washed them in His own precious blood. I can tell you this, He
won't forget that sacrifice. We have to be told this too in
remembrance of me. But He'll never forget it. He'll
never forget how He suffered and died to put away the sin
of His people. So He knows better than anybody
His people are not guilty. And He'll never allow them to
be punished with the guilty. No one knows better than the
Savior that his people face no condemnation because he was the
very one condemned for them, who suffered and died for them
as their substitute. So he will never allow them to
be condemned. Now that's a marvelous subject
of this new song that believers can sing. As we're trudging through
this world of sin and pain and sorrow. You hang on to this promise
that the Lord has given His people. I'm coming again. I'm coming
again. The Lord is going to come and
take me out of this place. He's going to take me out of
this sinful world. He's going to take me out of
this body of sin and take me to be with Him. Make me just
like Him and enable me to worship Him forever, face to face. That's a marvelous thing. Isn't
that a good thing, a promise to hang on to? We can sing about
that, can't we? And the return of Christ is so
marvelous that creation rejoices in it too. Look back at verse
4. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth. Make a loud
noise and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with a harp,
with a harp and the voice of a psalm, with trumpets and sound
of a cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let
the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands.
Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh. See, this is creation rejoicing,
for he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness. He judged
the world and the people with equity. You know, creation is
anxiously, excitedly awaiting for Christ to return. And while
creation waits, it sings like a coronation celebration, it's
singing the praises of the coming king. The sea roars. It just I just love how the sea
is constant noise, constant movement, constant noise, roaring the praises
of our creator. Last year we were at the beach.
Last day we were there. Buddy, there was a big storm
coming in. I mean, oh, it was brewing out there. You could
see it was coming. Everybody run for cover, you know. It was
our last day. I just, I just, oh, I didn't
want to leave that beach. And there I sat, all by my lonesome. I see those clouds out there,
those dark clouds. I hear those waves and I think,
the sea's roaring. The sea's roaring. the praises
of our Creator. It's saying, come again. Oh, He's coming. He's coming.
The floods and the waves, they clap their hands just thinking
that the Lord's returning. The hills are joyful together.
The hills are alive with the sound of music, singing the praises
of our coming King, who's coming to set creation, to set the seas
and the floods and the hills, to set them free. from the corruption
of man's sin. That's what they're singing about.
Romans 8 tells us about that. Creation is groaning and travailing
because creation wants to be set free from sin that Adam thrust
upon it. And when Christ returns, He's
going to set that creation free. He's going to make a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Oh, how beautiful
that creation is going to be. Creation is anxiously waiting
for it. Creation is celebrating the imminent
return of our Creator. Let me ask you this. How much
more should we, who have already been redeemed, do the same thing? We ought to do with all we've
got, shouldn't we? And when He comes, the glory
that awaits His people It's more marvelous than we can imagine
right now. Well, I know just enough to know
to pray. Even so, come quickly. We're going to observe the Lord's
table now. So Eric, you would, if you men
would distribute the bread.